have with force what thou requestest now The event did give credit to the Oracle for the Gardi being taken by Cyrus when a certain Souldier rushed upon the King his dumb son cryed out with a loud voice when before he never spoke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O thou man kill not Croesus so that Croesus by his own fault lost his Kingdom who by the words of his son saved his life Herodotus lib. 1. THe Minyae relate or tell the story about Hesiod's bones after this manner The Plague raging upon Man and Beast they sent some to consult with the Oracle who received this answer That to cease the Plague there was onely this one remedy for if they did but carry Hesiod's bones out of the Naupactian field into Orchomenium otherwise their malady could not be cured And again they asked of the Oracle In what part of the Naupactian field that should find them Pythia gave answer That a Crow would shew them the place And when they returned back into their Country and those that were sent enquiring for it not far from the way side saw a Crow sitting on a stone and there they digg'd and found Hesiod's bones in the concave of the Monument with this inscription Pausanias in Boeticis ATheniensis the son of Catatreus the Cretian's King when he asked counsel of the Oracle had this answer given That the fates had decreed that his Father should be slain by him and desiring to shun that fate of his own accord together with many other Volunteers went away into the mouth of Rhodes which is called Camiros Catatreus by the instigation of his onely son took his journey into Rhodes desirous of bringing his son into Creet It was night time ere he came into the Island and there was a fight and a contention rise between his Companions and the Inhabitants of the Iland Althemenes coming with his help unwiâ—tingly he slew his father with a Dart for which cause Althemenes being struck with great sorrow and not being able to bear the Atlantean burden of that grief he did forsake the company of men and wandred alone thorow desarts and uncouth paths and he being spent with grief dyed Diodorus lib. 5. cap. 13. AMphioâ—'s house being wholly consumed with the Plague Laius succeeded in the Thebane Kingdom he taking to Wife Jocasta Creon's daughter and when he wanted children a long while consulting the Oracle Whether or no he were to have any children received this answer It was not good for him to have children because if he had there would proceed from him a son that should kill his father and by such an unlucky fortune should contaminate his house therefore Laius commanded the Infant that was born that he should be thrown away his feet being manacled in iron chains from whence he was sirnamed Oedipus from the swelling of the wound The houshold servants when they did not cast forth the Child which they had given to them they did delivered it to a certain woman servant whose name was Polybia and when he came to man's estate Laius appointed and gave order that they should consult the Oracle about the Infant that was exposed and sent abroad Also Oedipus being certified by whom he was so exposed and going to Pythia to get intelligence who were his Parents so when he met with his Father at Phocidis though they did not know one another Laius did very imperiously command Oedipus to give him the way Oedipus moved with anger slew Laius not knowing he was his Father Diodorus lib. 4. cap. 6. PArysadas the King of the Bosphorean Cymmerians had three sons Eumelus Satyrus and Prytamis who when their father was decâ—ased strove and contended for the Kingdom Eumelus by the help of Ariapharnis the King of the Thracians slew Prytamis Satyrus oppugning the Palace received a wound in one of the muscles of his arm and so perished by it therefore Eumelus being possessed of and invested in the Kingdom for five years space by a strange accident was slain for when he returned home to his house out of Scythia he hastened to a certain sacrifice where there was a Chariot running to the Court and it was carried upon four wheels in which there was a Tent or a Pavilion the horses were affrighted and so carried him away When the Chariot-driver could not hold the reins the King fearing lest he should be cast into ditches endeavoured to leap out of the Chariot and his sword being involved and sticking in one of the wheels he was cut with it falling cross upon it and so was slain instantly It is also reported that Satyâ—us was warned of the Oracle that he should have a care of a Mouse therefore he suffered none of his Subjects to take that name and â—â—d much in fear of houshold-mice and field-mice and gave warning that the boyes should kill the Mice and stop the holes that they might not enter into the Rooms At last he ended his life being wounded in a muscle of his arm Eumelus asking counsel of the Oracle received answer That he should have a care of those things that he had carried to his house therefore he would not rashly enter into his house unless first his young men had viewed the top and bottom of it but when he was slain by reason of the Chariot wheel because of the Tent that was carried in the Chariot they all thought that the Oracle was fulfilled Diodorus Siculus lib. viges CTrus the King of the Persians marching to Istrum against the Massagetes and Essedonas he consulted Orpheus's head in Lesbo and asking the Oracle of the event of the Wars had this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Similem exitum ut ego habebis Thou shalt dye the same death that I dyed of the event gave credit to the Oracle for Cyrus was slain by Tomyris the Queen who cut off his head as Orpheus's was by the Thracian Menadians Philostratus testis POlycrates the Samian Tyrant after he had taken the Rhene Iland and consecrated it to Apollo there was set up gallant Playes at Delphos and also sent to consult Apollo's Oracle Whether he should call those Playes Delion or Pythian The Oracle answered They shall be both Pythion and Delian Playes to thee intimating That he should soon dye and therefore it was made a Proverb THere was a great slaughter revealed unto Julius Caesar by many evident and wonderful Prodigies for a few moneths before that time when the Husbandman by the Julian were brought into the Capuan Colony to cast down the old Monuments to build new Villages and they did it more accurately in that some Antiquarians that searched found some brazen Tables in a Monument which did give notice to them that Capys the builder of Capua was buried there and there was found there that brazen plate in which was written in Greek this sentence When the bones of Capys shall be discovered then shall it come to passe that one of Julian blood shall be slain by
immortal God Changius obeyed and all his people being led out he compelled them to continue all night in prayers The morning being come he saw the Sea to have went back from the Mountain nine feet and on that side he led his whole Army on dry ground thorow the waste wildernesses into Asia Haithon the Armenian in his book of the Tartars HAnnibal Captain of the Carthaginians had decreed to carry away a golden pillar being found in the Temple of Juno Lucina But being not sure whether it was of sound gold or whether it was gilded with gold nigh the superficies by solemnizing an assembly he tryed it and being made sure that it was all of gold he was confirmed in his purpose of snatching it away unto whom the shape of Juno seemed to be present while he dreamed she admonished him that he should abstain from covetous and sacrilegious enterprizes threatening if he proceeded that she would deprive him of one eye wherewith he should see the ground or the Sun with which sleep the Captain otherwise cruell and who feared no god there was no Religion as was written of him yet it is delivered being moved he daring to move nothing out of the place of that very gold which had fallen out of a hole while he tryed it he took care to have a warlike Engine made and to be placed on the top of the pillar Petrarcha VAlens Emperour in his sleep saw a certain man saying these words unto him Be gone with haste unto great Mimas thee the grievous force Of destiny dreading thy self shall from thy life divorce He being awakened out of sleep asked the standers by What place was called Mimas And when at length a certain one of the Grammarians or Oratours who follow the Kings Court had said Mimas was a Mountain of Asia of which Homer had made mention in his Ulysses And to aiery Mimas The Emperour laughing answered What necessity enforceth me of seeing this place and seeking a lot But when fighting against the Alanians the Emperour was burnt in a little cottage about Adranopolis of Thracia the Barbarians departing from thence some Souldiers of Valens diligently searched out his dead carcass In that cottage where he perished was found an old grave of a certain ancient man with this Inscription Mimas a Governour of the Macedonians was here laid Therefore that dream of Valens was fulfilled Cuspinian THat which was once set before Julius Caesar in his sleep before that he had moved into neather France and brought offensive weapons on the City when at his rest it seemed to him he ravished his mother By which dream the expounders stirred him up unto a most large hope having interpreted That the rule of the world should be given him The same dream they mention was offered to Hippias son of Pisistratus with no unlike issue who being his succeeder in tyranny used his Countrey more cruelly For a night resemblance of his Mother with whom he seemed to copulate is said to be set before him at the time of sleep for which thing the Interpreters answered That rule was largely betokened unto him And he being put in mind by his dream and full of hope not long after he enjoyed the dominion of Athens For this is that Hippias who having attempted a tyrannical power not without cruel wickednesse was more outragious and unbridled than his father when as being a banished man he had changed his soyl he moved wicked arms against his Countrey At last conspiring with Darius being slain in the Marathonian fight he yielded punishments to his Countrey and housholdâ—gods But another son of the same Pisistratus Hipparch who exceeded the cruelty of many Tyrants when as he oppressed his Country and Citizens with a cruel Lordlinesse a conspiracy being made against the life of the Tyrant he was by Armodius and Aristogiton most valiant young men not without the safety of all slain whose names being devoted to freedom lest at any time it should be lawfull to institute servants the Athenians established with an open abhorrency Alexander book 3. chap. 26. SAbacus King of Aethiopians possessed the Kingdom of Aegypt fifty years which being finished the god which is worshipped at Thebes was seen to say unto him His reign over the Egyptians should not be happy nor of long continuance unless the Priests of Egypt being all slain he should passe thorow the midst of their dead carcasses with his This dream being often set before him he called together all the Priests on every side and what things he had received through the dream being told them He would not he saith build a remaining destruction for any one in Egypt but had rather abstain from the Kingdom of Egypt being pure and free of all wickedness Diodore the Sicilian Herodotus book 3. SEthon King of Aegypt Priest of Vulcan when as he despised the Egyptians he made use of a forreign Souldier and stripped the Egyptians of their fields For this wrong it came to pass that after Sennacherib King of Arabians and Assyrians had invaded Egypt with a great Army the Egyptians would not help him Then the chief Priest void of counsel betook himself into the Garret or Chamber of his House and there bewailed before the Image how much he was in danger Therefore while he was lamenting sleep crept on him and while he slept the god seemed to stand by exhorting him that he was to suffer no hurtfull thing if he went to meet the Army of the Arabians for he would send him helpers The Priest trusting to these dreams those that were willing of the Aegyptians being taken Merchants or Factors and handycrafts-men or labourers he pitched his Tents in Pelusium for in this is the Aegyptian invaded When he had come thither in the night a great multitude of field-Mice suddenly arising gnawed asunder both the quivers bowes and also the rains of the bucklers in the Camps of their enemies so that the next day the enemies being naked of weapons made flight many being lost And now in that Temple of Vulcan the King stands in stone holding a mouse in his hand and by letters saying these words Who so looketh on me let him be godly Herodotus book 2. Of Miracles of Devils or of divers deceits and mocks of evil Daemons to strengthen the Idolatry of the Gentiles THe power of Vesta warranted the fire being gone out a woman Schollar of the Virgin Aemilia to be safe from all blame who worshipping when she had laid a Cyprus garment the which she had a very good one on the hearth the fire suddenly shone out Valerius book 1. chap. 1. THey say Aeneas to have placed houshold-gods brought from Troy at Lavinium thence being brought over to Alba by his son Ascanius the which he had built to have returned again to the ancient Chappel and because that might be thought to be done by man's hand being brought back again to Alba to have signified his will by another passage Valer. Max. book 1.
without some reluctancy ask't him What Man or God art thou or what is thy businesse here The Vision answered O Brutus I am thy evil Angel and thou shalt see me again at Philippi At which Brutus nothing daunted said again I shall then But when it was vanished he called together his Servants who averred to him they neither saw nor heard either Vision or voyce after which Brutus took his rest again When it was light he went to Cassius and told him of this Phantasm When after Cassius was slain at Philippi whilest he prepared for a second fight wherein he was conquered after he had been Victor in the first In the night as the story sayes the same Vision appeared again to Brutus in the same shape not speaking a syllable but so vanisht Plutarchus in Bruto WHen Marcus Antonius became bankrupt at Actium Cassius of Parma his Partner fled to Athens where in the dead of the night as he lay in his bed ingulph't with cares and perplexities he phancied a man of a monstrous magnitude a black and ugly hue his beard incompt and squalid and his hair disorderly hanging down came to him And being askt who he was answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. thy evil Angel or Genius Being at last affrighted with so horrid a presence and so evill a name he called in his servants and questioned them whether they saw one of such a dresse and visage either come in or go out of his Chamber and when they had assured him they saw none such he again composed himself to his rest but presently the same Phantasm haunted him Wherefore he cast off all thought of rest and commanded a Candle up to his chamber and enjoyned his servants not to depart from him Between this night and his execution inflicted by Caesar was but a very short interval as you may read in Valerius Max. l. 1. c. 7. and Sueton. in Aug. and Plutarch in vita Antonii DIon of Syracusa after the Syracusans were made free and a little before he was slain by Calippus as he sate by chance in his Porch in the evening full of carefull thoughts heard a sudden noise and looking about him it being yet day-light he saw a huge woman in face and habit nothing differing from a Tragick fury sweeping the house with a Broom He very much terrified called his friends and acquainted them with the sight and intreated them to stay and lodge with him that night for he should sink under his terrour if they should leave him and the Ghost haunt him again The Ghost indeed troubled him no more but his Son being almost arrived to Manhood by reason of some slight and puerile crosse became so sorrowfull and enraged that he precipitated himself from the house top and so perished Plutarchus in Dione ALexander the third King of Scots took to Wife Joan Sister to Henry the third King of England which Joan dyed without issue after which he married Margaret daughter of the same King Henry who bare to him Alexander David and Margaret All these dyed yet the King not altogether dispairing of an Heir and Successor of his body married the third time one Iola daughter of a Knight of Draconum whilest by night they were celebrating the Wedding Feast he saw the likenesse of a dead Man follow the Dance The same year the King was knockt off his horse and slain Hence arose all that sedition and destruction which blasted that formerly flourishing Kingdome This fell out in the year of our Redemption MCCL. Cardanus de rerum varietate l. 16. c. 93. THere is a noble Family and among the chiefest of Parma called by the name of the Tortells which have a Castle wherein there is a Hall In it about the chimney an old woman for this hundred years uses to appear when any of the Family dyeth or is like to dye On a time a gallant Matron by name Paula of Barbia which was one of the same family when we were at Supper together at Belzois told me that one of the Maids of the house was very ill and that the old woman appeared all were of opinion that she would dye But it fell out otherwise for she recovered but another of the family which was well dyed suddenly They report that this old woman whose Ghost is now seen was formerly very rich and was by her own Nephews murthered for her moneys sake and hackt in pieces and thrown into the Privy Cardanus ibidem ANtonius Urceus Codrus a Grammarian of Brixia the very same night he dyed thought he saw one of a huge magnitude a bald pate his beard hanging down to the ground fiery eyes carrying Torches in both hands and terrible all over and he spake to him thus Who art thou which walkest up and down alone thus like a Fury in that time of the night when men are fastest asleep Speak out what dost thou look for or whither goest thou When he had thus said he skipt out of his bed to avoid him rushing in violently upon him Bartholomaeus Bononiensis in ejus vitâ JAcobus Donatus Patricius of Venice and also rich when on a night sleeping with his Wife he had a taper light and two Nurses also were asleep in a truckle-bed with a young child not a year old he saw the chamber door open by little and little and a man I know not who put in his head the Nurses also saw him but no body knew him The young man being affrighted as well he might be snatcht his Sword and Buckler each of the Nurses great Tapers into the Hall they come which was near adjoyning to the Chamber where all things were close The young man comes back with great admiration the small Infant which was well in health dyed the next day Cardanus de Rerum varietate lib. 16. cap. 93. VVHen Cursius Ruffus in his family notable for nothing of worth did act as Quaestor at Adrumetum a City of Africa walking up and down at noon in the porch he saw the shape of a woman of a more comely hue far beyond any mortal creature which spake unto him Thou art Ruffus which shalt shortly come Vice-Consull into this Province He being hopefully advanc'd with this prodigie not long after enjoyed the Proconsulship of Africa by Tiberius Caesar whereby the event of the Vision was fulfilled Fulgosus lib. 1. cap. 6. EDwinus being banished by Ethelfred King of the Northumbrians fled to Redovaldus King of the East-Angles Not long after when Ethelfred by some in authority sought to kill him he began to take great care to secure himself In the night when all was still one of an unknown face and habit having met with him ask't him what he would give him if he told him that which would free his mind from all manner of sadnesse Edwinus made him this answer whatsoever was his that he might lawfully request and was in his power that he will freely give him Then he prognosticated to him that so
soon as he could make an escape out of his Enemies hands he should then recover the Kingdome of his Ancestors and when he had conquer'd his Enemies he should enlarge it both far and wide immediately laying his hand upon the top of his head he saith When any one Edwinus shall come to you after you enjoy your own and shall in this manner lay his hand upon your head be you then mindfull to keep thy promise When he had done speaking thus he on a sudden vanished The young man being in a wonderfully manner transported with this Oracle a long time ruminating within himself of this matter durst not open it to any But when Ethelfred was slain he being brought home into his own kingdome by Redovaldus being advised by Ethelberg his Wife the sister of Edbaldus King of Kent to embrace the Christian Religion when he on purpose delayed the businesse and could by no perswasion be made pliable Paulinus a devout man which by long intreating could do no good in the interim being taught by an Oracle from Heaven as we must believe came to him who made stay at York and putting his most sacred hand on his head requested him that he would call to mind what that meant Eduinus being amazed at the Oracles sudden issue instantly fell down at the Prelates feet and was with his fellow Christians washed in that holy Fountain Anno 627. Polydor. Lib. 4. Hist Angl. MAcchabaeus Cosen German to Ducanus King of Scotland and Banquho Stuart a valiant man travailing through a forrest towards the Court met three Women of an unwonted and strange habit and appearance One of them said Hail Macchabaeus Thanus Glammis which was a Title of Honour he had lately received The second said to him Hail Caldarius Thanus another and higher title of honour and the third Hail Macchabaeus Thou shalt hereafter become King Then said Banquho Me-thinks you are something unkind whosoever you are to prefer this man not onely above all the noble Men of the Land but even unto the Throne and give me no promotion at all To this the first answered Yea we declare unto thee far greater things than these for this man indeed shall reign but his dominion shall have an unhappy end with him for none of his posterity shall ever enjoy his Kingship after him whereas although thou shalt not become King thy self thy posterity for a very long succession shall obtain and hold the Throne When these words were ended they all vanished out of their sight At first these things passed as a vain phansie but when Macchabaeus first ascended to the dignity of Caldarius and afterwards beyond all expectation was made King King Ducanus being slain and having two Sons he began to call to mind the Vision and inviting â—â—â—quhones and his onely Son Fleanches to a Supper by that means projected both their deaths but when they had slain the Father the Son by the darknesse of the night made an escape At length Macchabaeus was slain by Malcalmus the third Son of Ducanus and after many Generations the Kingdome fell into the hands of the Successours and Gran-children of Banquhones Stuart and remains to this day in the possession of a daughter and heir of his Family Cardan l. 16. c. 93. ex Hectore Bâ—ëtho HOtherus King of the Swedes and Danes as he was a hunting having lost his company as he wandred alone espied a company of Nymphs in a certain Den or covert who promised him all good fortune but withall advised him that he should by no means wage war against Balderus King of the Danes who was a superlatively wise man and one generated by a secret seed and production of the Gods Having spoken these things they suddenly vanished and left Hotherus who thought he had been in a Cave in the open field Some years after having commenced a war against Balderus but hitherto with very ill successe he chanced to light upon the same Vision when he sadly bewailed to them his adverse fortune and the sadnesse of his condition nor would he cease his complaints untill they had made him a promise of better successe The Nymphs told him though he should seldome come off victor yet that he should lose no more men then his enemy and that he should obtain the victory if he could but find by what means to intercept certain food prepared for the Enemy to augment his force and courage So he departed and rallied his forces And whilst he diligently watched the Camp of the Enemy he saw three Virgins go out who secretly used to carry them provision whom he followed as fast as he could run till at last they came to a house which they frequented where by the help of his Harp on which he plaid most sweetly he got from them a most glorious Belt and the powerfull girdle of Victory and having returned the same way he went met the Enemy and overthrew him so that the day after he was wafted over to Proserpina who was seen to stand by him as he slept Olaus Magnus lib. 3. c. 10. C. Julius Caesar in his civill war when he had gone as far as the Bank of Rubicon is said to have stood at a pause and considering with himself what a destruction the passing of that River would be to Mankind whilst he stayed upon the bank he had an apparition A man of an extraordinary bulk sitting upon the opposite bank playing upon a Pipe made of Reeds And when besides shepheards many Souldiers and amongst them some Trumpeters flock't to the Bankside to hear him one of their trumpets leap't from him into the River and with a very shrill voice began to sound an alarum and so passed to the other side Then Caesar said Let us go since the wonderfull signs of the Gods and the wickednesse of our Enemies thus invite us The lot is now past Sabellicus l. 7. Enead 6. PElopidas General of the Theban Army whilest he encamped about the Leuctrian field where the daughters of Scedassus were entombed saw Scedassus and his daughters they lamenting about their Tombs and cursing the Lacedemonians and their father who long before for that he had not revenged so horrid a crime cursing the Lacedemonians killed himself upon the tombs of his daughters told him If he would conquer the Lacedemonians he must sacrifice a red Virgin to his daughters But when this seemed something too barbarous a sacrifice to appease the gods with a humane offering not satisfied in his mind about it at last a young Mare which had never taken horse came from the herd and stood in that very place where he had consulted with the Ghost And when Theocritus the Prophet saw the Mare was of a yellow shining colour and proudly reining-in her neck she pranced and neigh'd he called Pelopidas with a loud voice and said that this was his offering and that he could expect no other Virgin Then they brought the Mare adorned with garlands to the
that there was a voice like the voice of a man behind him rebuking him and wondring at him why he did not stir up his Citizens to celebrate that solemnity he turned himself about and finding no man that spoke to him then he was perswaded it was a divine voice and gathered Iphitus and his companions to himself and made a great feast by which the solemnity became much more remarkable Plutarchus in Lycurgo CAssius Chaerea captain of the Guard with some others made a conspiracy against Caligula And when he was going into the Court he heard a voice from among the multitude commanding him to perfect their designes the Gods being their assistants At first he suspected that their plot was betrayed by some of the Conspirators but afterwards he perceived that he was incited thereunto either by some that knew it or by an Oracle from God On the 3d day therefore they slew Caius Circensis Josephus lib. 19. cap. 1. PErtharis King Arithpertus his Son who being banished by Grimoaldus and in his banishment sailing into Britain was warn'd by an unknown voice that Grimoaldus being dead by Phlebotomy he should seek for his fathers Kingdome Whereat being moved though he knew not the Authour yet returning into Italy within three Moneths after the death of Grimoaldus he was made King of the Lombards Platina in Dono. C. Hostilius Mancinus the Consull going into Spain as he was taking Ship at Hercules his Haven whither he went on foot this sounded in his ears Mancinus stay He being affrighted herewith turn'd his journy and went unto Genoa and when he had there shipped himself a huge great Snake appeared to him and presently vanisht out of sight He being conquer'd by the Numantes yielded basely Valerius Max. lib. 1. cap. 6. HEnry the third being Emperour kept the Feast of Pentecost at the City Ments in Almaine Where arose a dissention between the servants of the Archbishop of Mogun and the servants of Abbas Fuld about their hire They went from words to blows and fighting with Swords they polluted the Temple with mans bloud The Bishops running to them brake off this bloudy battle and again purged the Temple The tumult being afterwards pacified when they sang Thou hast made this day glorious The Devill was heard to cry aloud through the Temple I have made this day quarrelsome The Emperour amazed at this strange noise endeavoured to force away the Devill by giving many Alms and he himself with his Nobles distributed to the poor those dainties which were provided for his own Court Nauclerus Volumine 2. Generatione 36. WHen Rome being pillaged and undone by a home bred conspiracy Constans the Emperour had remained six years in Sicily he died at Sarogasa a City thereof in a Bath called Daphne For one Andreas went with him into the Bath and killed the Emperour by throwing down a Vessel on his head as he was wiping him Constans his death was known in the City the same day he died by a voice coming forth out of the Ayre Zonaras Cedrenus BOdin saith of Constantinus who is accounted amongst the skillfullest workmen of the Mettal-Art in France and is the most famous in all the Kingdome I have heard his comrades when blowing a long time no hope or likelihood of any good appeared ask advice from the Devill if they did right and might accomplish what they desired But he replyed in one word Travaillez take the pains the blowers being animated with this blew so strongly that they brought all to nothing and they would still have blowen if Constantine had not told them this was the Devills usual custome to answer doubtfully But that word Take the pains imployed that Alchymy should be laid aside and he should fall to some labour and honest Art or science commodious to get a living he is a mad man that thinks Gold can so quickly be made in making whereof nature spends more then a thousand years A Souldier gave a Horse to his kinsman that when he died he should sell him and give the Money to the poor He sold the Horse and kept the Money to himself Thirty dayes after his Soul returning It was the Devill saith Thirty dayes have I bin tormented in Hell but thou who gavest not to the poor what I had thee shalt go thither to day and I shall be translated from thence into Paradise The very same day the Devils snatcht him away and 12. dayes after his carcase was found in an exceeding high Mountain Vincentius lib. 24. cap. 8. HEctor Boethius in his 8th Book of the Histories of Scot. relates that in a small Village of Scotland scarce 14. Miles distant from Aberdene there was a very beautifull young man made open complaint before the Governour of Aberdene that he was many Months molested and troubled with a she Devill as they call it the handsomest that ever he saw and finally when the dores were shut she came to him by night and by her fair speeches forc't him to embrace her when 't was almost day she went away making no noise and trying many wayes he could by no means be freed from that so great and base vexation A prudent and devout Bishop commands the young man immediately to go to some other place and according to the Christian Religion to conform himself to prayer and fasting more zealouslly then he used to do hereby he thought the Devill would be put to flight from him when he saw him so intent upon all good works Upon this wholesome counsell followed good successe Which when the youth had religiously performed within few dayes after he was clearly delivered from these Hobgoblins So the He-Devill did no longer trouble the Woman of Navete after her confession and holy Communion which accompany prayer and fasting Legitur in vitâ Divi Bernhardi Vierus lib. 4. cap. 27. A Certain Maid in Burgus possest with Melancholly acknowledged that she was haunted with Vergilius his Ghost having for a long while conjured against it which we may the more easily believe because she was a plain girl very sincere and one who never went abroad Conjuration not at all prevailing a Physitian gave her at first some artificiall Medicines then some others to strengthen her and so she was restored Vierus lib. 4. c. 23. de praestigiis Daemonum PHilippus Wesselich Coloniensis A Monk of the Abbey called Knechtenstein an upright and pure person about the year 1550 was miserably and sundry wayes tortured by a Ghost which brought back again the lean Abbot dead many years before Sometimes he was carried under the roof of the house sometimes he was thrust between the rafters over the Bell oftentimes he was on a sudden conveyed through the wall On a time he was found his body being laid over a pond and his head lying upon the land At the last out comes the Ghost relating the cause of his long and manifold trouble to wit that this was that Abbot Mathias Durensis so many years buried who tortured him
deplored her fortune leaning with her head upon her hand neither was she satisfied or contented with this but did mangle and break in pieces divers other Statues and Images and knocked them on the head with hammers some certain Pedlars diligently taught birds to imitate humane words so that in the streets and porches they would sing with their ordinary voice Justitia Politica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nicetas IN the time of Galerius Maximinius a persecutor of the Christians there was one Theotecnus at Athens who was an enchanter and a cruel enemy to the Christians and did as much as in him lay to cause the Christians to be accused and brought before the Emperour and by this deceit he did it by his conjurations and Sorceries he caused Jupiter's image to utter these words Speak to Jupiter that these Christians may be expelled out of the City and fields and banished as being enemies to him The subtilty of this wicked Magitian easily took effect under such a wicked Prince Eusebius lib. 8. JAson the son of Aeson Nephew to Pelias the Thessalonian King wishing to do something worthy of memory and to imitate some heroick deeds of Persius and others Pelias did consent to his desire not that he might encrease the glory of his youth nor adde splendour to it but hoping that he would quickly be slain in some warlike Expedition or other for he feared his brother Aeson lest by the help of his son he should get the Kingdom from him In the mean while he promised him ayd for his Warr if he would prepare for a Voyage to Cholcos to get the Golden Fleece Then was Pontus inhabited by the Barbarians and wild Nations and they were so cruel to strangers that they slew all them that sailed thereabouts Wherefore Jason makes a Ship near the Pelian Mountain of a greater bigness and bulk and which had greater furniture then in those dayes they usually had for there was onely then used some little Ships or Frigots The rumour of this thing was spread all through Greece so that he invited many gallant young men of their own accord to come to his Warr Jason chose the chief of them that desired to go with him which number was four and fifty Of these who were famous was Castor and Pollux Hercules Telamon Orpheus Atalanta Schenei besides Thespius's sons and the author of the Voyage Jason The Ship we will not say when dipped in the water was called Argo from Argos its builder who also took care of repairing her when she was sailing on her Voyage or else named Argos for her admirable swiftnesse because the Ancients called any thing that was swift Argon they preferred Hercules to be their Captain the chiefest for Vertue and Fortitude The wings of fame flying all abroad the Countrey did bring news that all those that sailed with Jason to Pontus perished by a mortality In the first place Pelias made Jason's father to drink Bull 's blood he slew his brother Pomachus being but as yet a boy Alchimede his Mother was designed for death for all she was a Woman yet she did one very memorable thing with a manly courage when she fled into the inmost recesses of the Palace and there begging of the gods that they would reward and revenge such impiety she ran her self thorough with a sword Jason returned back into Thessaly and the Argonautes promised him to do what they could to revenge such an hainous wickednesse if he would fight against the City Medea promised that by her craft she would kill Pelias and would deliver the Kingdom unto them without any danger and that she would do her task too for she was to instruct them in every thing and she from the Palace was to give signs of the whole Affair smoke by day fire by night to the Keepers of the Watch-Tower on the Sea-coast therefore preparing Diana's Image which was convex and hollow in which she hid divers kinds of venomous things Afterwards by her medicines making her hairs gray and her face to be so rugged and wrinckled that she seemed to all that lookt on her to be an old woman then taking Diana's image went forth into the City and stirred all up to superstition as though she came from the Northern Countries for the King and Citie 's good and welfare divers worshipped her religiously as a Goddess all the whole people was so besotted and they brought Medea into the King's Palace These things much increased Pelia's superstition yea and his daughters were so bewitched by Medea's Inchantments that they were perswaded that she was a goddess that was come for the prosperity and felicity of the Kingdom for she did affirm that Diana was carried through the Ayr by Dragons and that she had gone about the greatest part of the World and that she might be perpetually worshipped they ought to choose the most Religious King they could get and moreover that the Goddesse had commanded her that with some Medicines she should take away the old age from Pelias and turn him young again At which words the King admiring commanded Medea to try the experiment upon her self that they might believe what she said She required that some pure water might be brought her by one of his daughters and when she had shut her self up in her bed she anointed her body and by the strength of herbs she was reduced to her former age It is reported that she by her enchantments caused a Goddesse in the likenesse of Dragons to fly through the air and supported by the Hyberboreans which seemed to turn towards Pelias Pelias esteemed very much of Medea and diligently commanded his daughters to do what she commanded and be observant of her and whatsoever she gave in charge to be done about her body that they should do it In the following night it 's reported that Medea should say that it was necessary that the body of Pelias should be boyled in Copper which when the Virgins were about to do it they required one experiment that they might give trust to her words then there was a Ram that was kept in the house for many years to whom she promised to the Virgins if she should first boyl that she would afterwards restore it into its former condition again When the Virgins did consent they relate she did boyl the body of the Ram which was divided into little pieces and by her medicines brought forth the figure of a Lamb out of the kettle which being done and believing Medea all the virgin-daughters except Alcestis who for her eminent Piety abstained from doing violence to her father they slew their father by beating of him Then it 's said That Medea lest that they should boyl the body of Pelias made as though she would first perform her Vow to the Moon and commanded the Virgins with their lamps to ascend to the top of the Palace and there in the Cholchians tongue made a long speech to drive away the time and gave
in unlocking his door which Coponus had before prevented by putting a little wire into the lock that he might have the better opportunity for his design beat out his brains with an Ax and being questioned for it alledged no other thing for the fact but that he was incited thereto by Cocles his own self telling him that he must be a murtherer and nothing else Jovius in Elogiis A Certain Astrologer in the Court of Frederick the second Emperour much reverenced Rodolphus the Haspurgensian Earl with exceeding observance though he had but a mean estate and valued not at all men far more potent and being demanded a reason thereof by the Emperour he answered I know that Rodolphus shall be Emperour and when thy Issue shall decline his renown shall be spread abroad far and near though he be esteemed by few at this time Neither did his presage want a true event for in the year of our Lord 1273. in the Calends of October he was chosen King of the Romans by the Princes of Germany at Franckford when he besieged the Pallace Cuspianus in Caesaribus WHen the Mathematicians looked into the Geniture of the Great Sfortia and observed the excellent positure of the Stars and their admirable sites and aspects they predicted to him High Empire immortal glory and a happy off-spring but at length they added That he should not attain old age but should perish by an untimely death Jovius in ejus vita BRaccius the excellent Montenensian Duke seeing the body of his Enemy Sfortia the Great drowned in the River of Piscaria fell a praising the dead man with most exquisite Encomiums which of right belonged to him but he not being freed from so great danger of a present battle shewed to his Souldiers a more cheerful countenance because he being conscious of a fatal secret had learned from Astrologers that Sfortias indeed was to go before as taken with a violent death but a little after himself also as it were with the like lot should undergo the same fortune of departure He scarce lived over the fifth moneth when as for thirteen moneths space making assault at Aquila and it being in vain besieged at length in a memorable battel being overcome and slain by the sword of the Sfortian Souldier he fullfilled both the truth of the Stars and many prophets Jovius in the life of Sfortias UNto Uladislaus Jagellon King of the Polanders Sophia his wife brought forth sons Uladislaus and Andrew Casimir There was at Cracovia Henry a Bohemian a famous Astrologer and studious of Magick this man foretold That an Infant new born should be long-lived but unfortunate and that he reigning Poland should be afflicted with great evils and calamities but his brother Uladislaus was to be most famous and most victorious and unlesse Nature's destinies should envy a longer life to him he should command many Nations Both which things the issue afterwards proved For Uladislaus who was chosen King of Poland and King of Hungary being slain at Varna by the Turks in the 20th year of his age gave not satisfaction to this famous hope But Casimir who succeeded his brother in the Kingdom of Poland reigned 45 years lived 64 was bent rather on the Lituanian huntings than on the Common-wealth Cromér book 19. 29. BAsil a Mathematician but most certain soothsayer a certain Greek foretold the murder of Alexander of Medicis Duke of the Florentines to be committed by Laurence Medices his near kinsman he not onely shewed him the murder but also the certain smiter who should be intimate with him of a slender form of a boxy-coloured countenance and of a doubtfull silence almost not keeping company at all with others in the Court Also unto Cosmus of Medices they promised for certain forasmuch as in the very marking the hour of his birth he had a happy Star of Capricorn as once Augustus enlightned with a wonderfull aspect of Stars agreeing together it should come to passe that he should increase in a wealthy inheritance Alexander indeed hearing it and Cosmus smiling when as a great number of his kindred was to be consumed by death before any even a small inheritance could come unto him Jovius JOhn Liechtenberg in the yearly predictions of his Ephemeris as I may so say admonished the Prince of Bavaria in a serious manner both by writing and painting that a Lyon should seek hiding places for fear of an Eagle He despised it but not long after he was assaulted with a grievous Warr by Maximilian the Emperour Agricola in Germane Proverbs PAul Farnese the 3d chief Bishop seeing he was most skillfull in Astrology and Magick writeth to his son Peter Aloyse who had by force entred on the tyrannical Government of Placentia and Parma that he should beware of the tenth day of September of the year 1547 as unlucky to him The father indeed could warn but the son could not avoid the danger but by Conspirators Augustine Landus and James Scott Earls of Placentia in his own Castle under pretence of talk he was slain and being a long time hung up by the privy parts he was exposed to be cruelly torn in pieces by the people Sleidan 19 book of Commentaries THere was a Town of the Xanthians that had a bridge laid over the small River Lycus in which were said to have been brazen Tables wherein letters were ingraven The Empire of the Persians was sometime to be overthrown by the Graecians The tables with the bridge being shaken down a little before that it was fought at Granicum by Alexander the Great they had fallen into the channel of the River Alexander being much moved at the report of the tables when as for some time he had stood doubtful into which part he might chiefly bend the course of victory turning to the right hand he subdued with wonderfull speed all the Sea-coast from Lydia even into Phaenicia Sabellicus book 4. Ennead 4. out of Plutarchs Alexander IN the second Carthagenian war besides many things seen and heard which were accounted instead of wonders a verse or song of Martius being curious and sounded at the same time brought the greatest care to the City That being by a most true event proved gave no doubtfull credit of the things that were to be He had written who ever that Martius was O thou Trojan born flee thou Cannae the River of Romana neither let strangers constrain thee to joyn in battell in the field of Diomedes but neither shalt thou believe me untill thou shalt fill up the field with bloud and the River shall bring down many thousands of thine slain out of a fruitfull land into the great Sea for fishes and birds and wild beasts which inhabit the Earth unto these let thy flesh be for meat Because these things were in great part represented before the eyes of men for the common sort were acquainted both with the fields of Diomedes and when they had fought at Canna there was the greater care of procureing
him Neither yet could he avoid even this by his brother-killing Murther whereby Smerdes the Magitian who feigned himself to be the true Smerdes Son of Cyrus should the lesse invade the Kingdome Cambyses going up to horse being wounded in the Thigh with a Sword died Herodotus Book 3. DArius had moved out of Susa against Alexander being supported with a multitude of Armies for he had six hundred thousand Souldiers under his Ensigns trusting to a certain dream the which the Magitians flattering him had interpreted more than according to the likenesse of truth The troop of the Macedonians seemed to shine together with a great brightnesse of fire But Alexander to wait on him in the habit wherewith he had been cloathed when he was Ascandes that is a Messenger or Ascantes that is Chamberlain to the King And when he had entred into the Temple of Belus to have been withdrawn from before his eyes By these things in my opinion God foreshewed that the Macedonians were to carry on honourable and famous matters and Alexander to obtain Asia as Darius had enjoyed it being of a Messenger or Chamberlain made King but in a short time to lay down his life with his glory Plutarch in Alexander Curtius hath delivered that the King imagined the Camps to shine with a great brightnesse Sabellicus Book 4. Ennead 4. THey report Domitian to have dreamed that a bunch sprang out from him behind a Golden neck and to have had it for certain that a more blessed and joyfull condition of the Common-wealth was foreshewn to be after him As indeed it so fell out in a short time through the abstinence and moderation of following Princes Sueton. EZeline surnamed Monk a bloudy and most cruel Tyrant at his rest saw the fortune of his sons that night in which he first came together with his wife who was by name Adela a Tuscian of the stock of the ancient Earls of Montaion For he seemed to himself to see a little hill in which a Roman Town was in the Patavine field placed the which he commanded and was thence called Romanus or a Roman so to be carried up and exalted that it touched heaven with its top and the same a little after to be melted as Snow and so to be let down that it could no more stand up The chances of his sons brought this effect For the elder Son and he Ezeline by name possessed the rule of Verona Patavium Vincentia Feltrium and Cividal and Marchia But the younger Alberick entred on the Kingdom of Tarvisium and other places But afterwards fortune changing in the two hundred fifty and sixth year above the thousandth of salvation when as the Pope and the Guelphians together had moved war against Ezeline his son he lost Patavium with the whole land But when he trusted that he should possesse the City of Mediolum by craft and for that thing had passed over the River Abdua being besieged by his enemies overcome in battell a wound being received being taken nigh to Soncinum in that very same place he died and was buried His brother Alberick being strucken with fear by this chance when as he distrusted that he could keep Tarvisium he betook himself into the Castle of Saint Zeno. Where in the year of Salvation 1200. being betrayed by his own Souldiers he came into the power of his enemies There having beheld six sons to be killed before him and his wife Margaret with two young maids to be burnt he himself being cut through all his limbs by piece-meal he saw as his father had in his dreams his Roman stock or nation to be ended Fulgosus book 1. chap. 5. THe Mother of Phalaris saw Mercury whose Image holding a goblet in his hand she worshipped at her own house among the shapes of gods in her dreams to sprinkle bloud on the ground out of that goblet and being dashed on the pavement to bubble back untill by little and little it overflowed all the house up to the top That which was seen in one the bloudy cruelty of her son made true in many houses Ponticus Heraclidus is the Author of this Vision a learned man as saith Tully and Scholler of Plato Petrarcha AMilcar Captain of the Carthaginians besieging Syracusa seemed to hear in his sleep that the next day after he should sup within the walls of the besieged City By that thing being turned to a hope of Conquest he being chearfull set the Army in order in the morning to besiege the City Unto him considering and attempting such enterprises as often comes to passe a great uproar arose in the Camps the Carthagenians and Sicilians disagreeing among themselves The Townes-men laying hold of the occasion come suddenly forth of the Gates and their enemies being scattered the Conquerours take their Captain desiring to succour their ranks being disturbed and therefore neglecting himself And so being brought into the City supping in fetters he understood what a false expounder of the dream he had been Valer. Max. Book 1. chap. 7. and Cicero Book 1. Of Divination Artemidore writeth a shew was presented to a certain one in his sleep as that he should sup with Saturn and it so happened that the day following he was cast into Prison Caelius Book 13. chap. 21. Of Book of Antiq. JUpiter commanded T. Latinus a man of the common people in his sleep that he should tell the Consulls that he was not pleased with the neighbouring Circean playes of the leaders of the dance which thing unlesse being heeded it were satisfied by the renewing of sports no small danger of the City was to follow He fearing least with some disprofit unto his Religion he should extoll the highest command kept silence And straightway his Son being taken with the sudden force of a disease died He also at the time of sleep being asked by the same whether he had sufficiently weighed the great punishment of his royall command neglected continuing in his purpose was recompenced with a weaknesse of his body And then at length by the counsell of his friends being brought in a horse-litter unto the Consuls Judgment-seat and from thence to the Senate the order of his whole chance being explained with the great admiration of all the strength of his members being recovered he returned home on his feet Valerius in book 1. chap. 7. Cicero in book 1. Of Divination And Livy book 2. Decad. 1. THe Tartars inhabit beyond the Mountain Belgia the Sea lying between Changius or their fiâ—st Emperour saw again a white horseman who had foretold unto him the Empire in his sleep that it was the will of the immortal god That in the Mountain Belgia being passed over they should go forward into the West and subdue all Kingdoms But as soon as they had come to the Mountain Belgia in that part which the Sea floweth on the Mountain that they should go down and their faces being turned toward the East they with nine bowings of the knee worship the
of the rumour was sought out but none appeared but the news was put off from one to another every one clearing themselves of it and being as it were labrynthed and plunged in a vast Ocean they could not make it appear from what original or Fountain it proceeded the fame of which quickly overspread the City But a Messenger and letters meeting Domitian in his journey leading out the Legions to war intimating victory so that one day was the day of Trophyes and of Fame too in places distant more then two thousand five hundred Miles Plutarchus in Aemilio SOsipatra a woman of Alexandrina at a certain time being amongst her acquaintance and a disputation arising about the Soul she was wrapt by a certain fury suddenly she seemed as though her voice was taken away and was for a while dumb by and by she began to cry out My Cozen Philometor being transported in a Charriot is now ore-turn'd in a thorny place and hath hurt his ellow and his hands are wounded and a certain man complaining the thing was a while after known which confirmed the truth Eunapius in Aedesio THamus an Egyptian Pilot sayling to Rome late at night near the Echinad Islands night being far spent heard the voice of an unknown Author which cal'd him by his own name they that were in the ship were all amazed and when it called the third time he answered then saith the voice When thou comest into the next Island the voice being heard as if it were on the foredeck Thamus being astonished and religiously given obeyed its commands and immediately after it had given its precepts such howling mourning and lamentations was heard in the Ayre that all thereabouts was almost dead with fear The news quickly arrived at Rome and Tiberius Caesar commanded Thamus to be brought before him and examined that he might know the truth of it the Augures and High Priests consulting about it they answered Pana perhaps was born of Mercury and Penelope Plutarch relates this in his book of Oracles which Oracles then were made dumb in which place although we may acknowledge the subtily of Satan and the Devill being busied about bringing the death of Christ into question and to mock it by such a fiction except he would by Pans death infer that mens Souls after death should be destroyed or annihilated MOnobazus the King of the Adiabenians his sirname was Barles being in love with Helens sister married her and of her had Monobazus and other children of other wives At the last lying with his wife big with child and laying his hand upon his wives belly he thought he heard a certain voice bidding him to take off his hand from her belly lest he should oppresse her young which as it was begun with divine providence so it was likely to have a prosperous end He was affrighted with this voice and shewed the thing instantly to his wife and he called the Son Izatch that was born at that birth And by reason of this prediction he made him Heyre to the Kingdome But he together with his mother embracing the Jewish Religion restored Artabanus the King again to the Parthian Kingdome and fortunately fought against the Arabians and Parthians in the 55. year of his age and 24. of his reign he died and left the Kingdome to his Brother Monobazus Ex Joseph Book 20. chap. 2. NIcephorus Phaeus the Emperour did fortify the Palace of the Constantinopolitan Tower in which it was foretold him that he should dye At what time the walls of the Palace was builded in the night season a certain man sailing on the Sea cryed out after this manner O Emperour thou makest up thy walls and although thou raisest them up to Heaven whilst that which is within is evill the City may be easily taken He that spoke those things was a long time and very much sought after but never could be found out the wall was finished he perished that same day that he had the keyes delivered by him that had the businesse committed to him Cedrenus WHen Opicinus Cacia Novaria being very thoughtfull or Melancholly walked alone in his house at noon-tide he heard something call him by his name but saw no Man and afterwards said Wouldst thou be willing that thy Son should dye To whom he answered having no time to consider of it he would but afterwards coming to himself quickly denyed that which he had assented to and was very sorry for the cruelty of the prodigy therefore within three dayes his son John Baptist having no more fell sick and two dayes after dyed Fulgosus Book 1. chap. 4. BEfore Neroes death there was a confused murmure mixed with laughter and a tumult in the Theater with great mourning was heard when no man was there In Albania it rained bloud and both the dores of Mauseolus in which were the Tombs of the Caesars he being the last of that stock and the dores of his bed of their own accord flew open out of which there was heard a voice calling Nero to him Xiphilinus ex Dione M. Antonius Majoragius reported that in the Moneth of Aprill there was heard in Eupilus Lake a sound or voice crying after this sort Oh oh oh oh oh The first part of which had a Musicians song the latter part of the voice had their brief and in those years nor in any other were there ever a more plentifull encrease of Wine Wheat and other things Cardane Book 15. chap. 85. de rerum Varietate THere appeared to Hircanus the Captain of the Jews and being also High Priest a certain sight which enquired about his successour being carefull of Aristobulus and Antigonus his eldest which he loved above all their other brethren But when God had shewed the picture of Alexander the youngest sorrowfull that he should be successefull and prosperous in all his proceedings commanded that he should be brought out of Galilee lest he should be in any capacity of having the Kingdome after him but the event made the Oracle be believed for he was possessed of the Kingdome after Aristobulus who before had slain Antigonus and killed the other brother that withstood him but the other that was contented with a private life he honoured Josephus Book 13. chap. 20. BEfore Camillus's banishment M. Cedicitius a vulgar person declared or gave it out that in the night before he was called out of his way which they call the new way by a loud voice and looking back and seeing no man he heard a voice greater then a mans which spoke thus to him Go to M. Cedicitius and tell the Tribunitian Souldiers betimes in the morning they may expect the French within a few dayes The Tribunes despised and laughed at those relations A little after this came Camillus's distresse and the Invasion of the French Plutarch in Camillo et Sabellicus book 9. Ennead 3. LYcurgus hapned to come to Olympia and was a spectator of the games there it is reported that this befell him viz.
powred into it with which it was not full he therefore commands again more Oyl to be bestowed upon it and found that the Urne was nothing fuller than before yet he continues seeking to fill it till he found that all his labour was in vain and then the Monument being shut he departs in great grief and sorrow he had fifty myriads of men in an army designed against the Greeks but returning he miserably ended his life being kill'd by night in the streets by the hands of his own son Aelianus ex Herodoti lib. 3. SYlvester the second formerly called Gilbertus a French-man as â—hey say by evill arts obtained the Popedome When he was a young man he was a Monk in a Monastery of Florence scituated in the Aurelian Diocesse but leaving the Monastery the Devill followed him to whom he wholly surrendred himself he came to Hispalis a City of Spain to study being very desirous of learning in which he was so great a proficient that in a short time of a Scholler he became chief Master Martinius testifies that Robert King of France and Lotharius a man famous by Nobility and learning who was afterwards created Arch-Bishop of Senosenses were his Schollers Gilbertus therefore provoked by ambition and diabolicall desire of governing first by largenesse and gifts he obtained the Arch-Bishoprick of Rhemes then of Ravenna and lastly the Popedome it self the Devill helping his endeavours herein but upon this condition That after his death he should be wholly his by whose assistance he had got so great dignity he moved the Devill to tell him how long he should continue Pope the Enemy of mankind answering as he is wont ambiguously If thou shalt not come near Jerusalem thou shalt live long When therefore in the fourth year and first Moneth of his Popedome the tenth day he had sacrificed in the great Church of the Holy Crosse at Rome he knew that by his fate he was to dye forthwith he therefore repented and acknowledged his wickednesse before the people and renouncing all ambition and diabolicall fraud he exhorted all to a good and pious life WHen the Boetians wasted the Sea-coasts of Attica and the Athenians were about their expedition against Aegrina there comes an Oracle from Delphos that the Aeginetians could not be hurt for thirty years in the thirtieth year when the Aeginetians had dedicated a Temple to Aeacus that things might succeed with them they began their war with them but as they made violent war against them so they received many losses and brought great detriment to themselves and at the last were in great extremity when the Athenians heard of this Oracle they likewise dedicated a Temple to Aeacus which is now to be seen in their Market-place but they thought they were not to forbear war for thirty years which time they heard to be fatall but that if they forbore war they should receive many wrongs from the Aeginetians Herodotus lib. 5. THe Wisedome of the Persian Magies and their skill in divination is kept in memory by many Monuments who as they fore old many things so they predicted by many secret signes the cruelty that Artâ—xerxes Ochus afterwards exercised against those he subâ—ued and the miserable slaughter that ensued for when Ochus subdued the Government of the Persians one of them advised a certain Magitian one of the Eunuchs to observe the Table being covered uâ—on what meaâ— amongst all that the Table was furnished with the King should first lay his hands who intentively marking Ochus with both his hands stretched out with his right hand he hastily took to him a knife and with the other the biggest loaf upon the Table which with flesh upon the board he carved and ate heartily and chearfully these two Prophets hereupon concluded that there would ensue during his reign fruits of the Earth in great plenty and a seasonable time to gather them but frequent slaughters Elianus lib. 2. et Diodor. lib. 17. Bibliothecae AMongst the Pedasensians which live above Halicarnassus it is reported that as often as any adverse fortune is ready to seize upon the Amphiensians who live near that City a huge beard suddenly groweth upon the chin of their chief Priest of Minerva the Goddesse which happened twice amongst them Herodotus lib. 8. BEleses a Chaldean exhorted Arbares General of the Medes to invade the Kingdome of the Babilonians promising to him certain victory which after two years and much losse by slaughter given and received on both sides undermining the City of Ninus King of Sardinapalus he desperately burned the Kings Pallace and obtained it Diodorus lib. 2. cap. 7. THales the Milesian perceiving that the next year would be a very plentiful season for oyl by the rising of the seven Stars bargained afore-hand with his customers for all that years oyls at a greater rate than otherwise by reason of the great plenty he could have sold them for And likewise foreseeing the next year there would be a great scarcity he aforehand bought up many mens oyls at a cheap rate and the year following sold them very dear and thereby became rich Fulgos lib. 8. cap. 11. and others Pliny ascribes this piece of Policy to Democritus and sayes That Sextius a Roman used the very same cunning at Athens This man commanded his body when he was dead should be buried in a very obscure place of the Milesian fields foreseeing that there should be a forum or common Mart erected there by the Romans Plutarchus in Solone AT Mnesarchis the common Cryer Boetus was told by the Chaldaeans that his son should be victor in Contentions Wherefore he would have had his son become a Fencer But afterwards he set to write Tragedies and therein was indeed the victor of all others Gellius lib. 15. cap. 20. who relates it out of Theopompus THe Birth-day of the Emperour Augustus fortuned to fall on that very time that Cataline's Cause of his Conjuration was a pleading in Court And his Father Octavius staying a little longer than ordinary excused himself for that his Wife was newly brought to bed P. Nigidius then present looking his birth-hour is said to affirm That then was born the Lord of the whole World He being at Apollonia went with Agrippa to Theogenes his Chamber But when Theogenes had predicted most high things as he thought of Agrippa's birth-day betwixt fear and shame lest his destiny should prove inferiour could hardly be perswaded to tell his Nativity And when he declared it Theogenes is said to have danced about with joy and to have worshipped him which somewhat animated Augustus so that he afterwards published his destiny and stamped a Coyn with the sign of Capricorn in which he was born Sabellicus lib. 8. Ennead 6. ex Suetonio WHen Livia bore Tiberius Scribonius the Mathematitian promised great matters yea and that he should reign one time or other but without a regal diadem For then you must understand the power of Caesars was altogether unknown and unheard of amongst
Lastly despairing he killed himself willfully leaving a great fear to the Citizens of violating Religion Diodorus lib. 14. WHen Delos was heretofore the chief Emporium of all Greece and that onely fenced with Religion it defended all the inhabitants from the injuries of all others But Menophantes a certain Commander of the Armies of Mithridates who being driven by the command of the King or his own insolence arose against the Island and invaded it with his Navy having neither the defence of Walls nor Arms. Where all things being beaten down taken away and pillaged at length he laid the very City eeven with the ground In that destruction he cast the Image of Apollo proudly being taken from its seat into the Sea That being brought by the raging of the Sea to the bounds of the Boeotians at Laconia named the place Epidelium But neither Menophantes nor Mithridates himself did escape the wrath of the god For not long after the calamity of Delos when he was carried into the Sea the Merchants which had escaped his hand slew Menophantes But the god compelled Mithridates to lose his courage having lost his Kingdome already and being driven to and fro by the Romans he could rest no where There are some which say that he begged as a great favour from one of the Mercenary Barbarians to be killed Pausanias in Laconicis WHen the Graecians had dragged out by force and killed those who came to pray in the Temple of Neptune in the City of Helires a great and sudden Earthquake did not onely overturn the very walls but also defaced the very foundation of the City that there was not so much as any tokens left whereby it might be known to future ages And they record that another such destruction happened Helires was incompassed with a deluge of the Sea in the winter season and the very Grove of Neptune was so overwhelmed with that inundation that the tops of the highest Trees could hardly be discovered which comming to passe the whole City with its inhabitants was suddenly destroyed as well by the most violent motion of the Earth as the most abundant over-running rage of the Sea In the fourth year of the Olympiad 191. Pausanias in Achaicis WHen the Lacedemonians were inraged against the Inhabitants of Ilota which worshipped at the Temple of Neptune Asphalius that is the safe as Suidas saith which is at Teneros Sparta was shaken as well with vehement as frequent impulsions of the Earth that not one house escaped ruine except four houses amongst all the rest which escaped unruined Pausanias in Achaicis et Aelianus Libro 6. variae Historiae WHen Cytharoedes did dispute in contending for the honour of Juno at Sybarum for that was the cause that provoked the Sybaritans to that contentious disputation and when they had mutually gone to arms Cytharoedes fled with his Stole to the Altar of Juno but they forbore not to lay violent hands upon him in that place but a little after they saw bloud sprinkled about the Temple as if it had issued out of a continually-flowing Fountain But when the Sabaritans had sent to ask counsell at the Oracle of Delphos they received this answer Stand off my Sacred Tables come not near Whose hands are drench't in bloud should Justice fear Which fresh distilling thee forbids to venter Into the threshold of my Temple t' enter Good fates to them can never be foretold Who to stain Junoes Temple dare be bold The Muses harmlesse servant thou hast slain The god's revenge for which thou must sustain Who perpetrates base willfull facts may know He 's sure to suffer heavy Judgments blow Inexorable toth' unjust immortalls prove Descended though by birth from mighty Jove Who on their necks and childrens childrens dear Justly will heaped vengeance send to bear Neither was revenge delayed For when they waged Warre with the inhabitants of Crotonia they were overcome by them and their City was overthrown Aelianus libro 1. de var. Histor IN the Mountain Halesius near Mantinea was the Temple of Warlike Neptune built by Trophonias and Agamedes with Oaken boards forbidding entrance not by the opposition of any bolt but onely with a small Wollen rope drawn before it which had a secret force to drive men away Never any one entered into this Temple besides Aepytus King of Arcadia who having lost his Son as soon as he entered into the Temple he was smitten blind by the sudden force of the Sea-water boyling out of holy fountains and not long after died When the Emperour Adrianus did build it up again he did set overseers amongst the workmen lest any one should look into the antient Altar or suffer any rubbel to be carried from it to any other place Pausanias in Arcadicis IN the Mountain Lycaeus of Arcadia was the Altar of Jupiter Lycaeus whither no man could come If any one entred despising the Religion of the place it was certainly requisite that he must dye within the space of that year It is a wonderfull thing also that as they say as well men as beasts which by chance come into the circuit of this place have no shadow of their bodies And truly a Hunter cannot follow wild beasts that fly thither but standing at the entrance he cannot perceive any shadow that they have It is certain that the men of Syena a City of Aethiopia do shew no shadows from their bodies at that time of the year when Cancer is in Conjunction with the Sun But in this Lycaeus it doth happen in any part of the year Pausanias in Arcadicis THey report that in Cerynaea a City of Achaia was the Temple of the Eumenides dedicated by Orestes They believed that if any one entred in hither to see it polluted either with slaughter or any incest or kind of impiety he being troubled in mind would presently be cruelly terrified Wherefore the entrance of the Temple was forbidden to all that strived otherwise Pausanias in Arcadicis WHen Erisichthon a certain Thessalonian had cut down the Grove of Ceres she sent to him perpetuall hunger and caused that he should never be satisfied with meat He had a daughter named Mestra very well skilled in Witch-craft whom he often sold being turned into divers forms of living Creatures which running away a little after would return to her father having taken her former shape and so she helped her fathers hunger according to her ability Lastly he was driven to so great hunger that he eat his own flesh Natales Comes Mythol libro 5. cap. 14. WHen Cambyses King of the Persians came to the Theban Aegyptians he sent fifty thousand to destroy the Ammonians and commanded that they should burn the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon Therefore when they had gone seven dayes on their journey along the sands and dined between the City Oasis and the Ammonians a strong South-wind overwhelmed the whole Army with heaps of Sand carried along He being gone against the Macrobian Aethiopians with the rest of the Army
their fighting Ut Zonoras Tomo 3. indicat ARiulphus Duke of Spoleto fighting against the Romans at Camertes and obtaining Victory inquires of his Souldiers who it was that behaved himself so stoutly and gallantly in the battle they answered 't was a Prince Whereupon he replies he was more powerfull then any mortall man for when ever I was assaulted fiercely by the enemy he with a Buckler defended me from their fury then going with all possible speed to Spoleto seeing the Temple wherein the body of Saint Sabinus is intombed he asked what Church it was when they answered It was the Temple of Sabinus he hastily leaps from his horse calling his Souldiers who as they say alwayes waited diligently upon him walks into the Church and seeing his Image he presently with an Oath affirmed 't was he that protected him from the violent assaults of his numerous enemies whereupon 't was presently believed that Sabinus was the most pious Patron of Souldiers Ariulphus would not for any thing have wanted the experience of this Protection of Saints which is so frequent amongst Christians Bonfinius lib. 8. Decad. 1. THe great Sfortia for the honour he bore St. Leonard Christned his Son which he had by Catella Alopa sister to Pandulphus Alopus after his name for that he dreamed he saw Leonard in the same shape he is usually pictur'd in Churches coming to him being a Prisoner with relief breaking the Iron bars of the window of the Prison and with his power loosing his shackles The event proved this Vision to be very true for the day following this blessed dream Jacobus Gallus King by sedition was driven out of the Neopolitan Kingdome and lost both Rule and Liberty and Sfortia was delivered out of Prison and to the great content of all was restored to be Master of the Horse Jovius in vita ejus IN the time of Ferdinand first King of Aragon the City Neopolitane in a most flourishing condition and the Kingdome free from all calamity it is manifest that Cataldus about a thousand years before that time an holy man had been Bishop at Tarentinum and that the Citizens thereof did worship him as their Patron in the middest of the night he again and again appeared to a Minister of holy things who had lately taken the order of Priest-hood having been educated amongst those who vow chastity that he should without delay take out of the ground a little book which he in his life time had writ and hid in a private place wherein some divine writings were and bring it to the King giving little credit to this dream although he saw him in his sleep very oft and alwayes of the same shape and fashion being all alone early in the morning in the Temple he plainly appeared to the Priest with a Mitre in such Bishops weeds as he used in his life time to be aparrelled in advised him as he desired to avoid great punishment that the next day without further delay he should dig for the Book which he had written and which was hidden as he had formerly shewed him by Visions and bring it to the King the Priest and people went the next day to the place wherein for many ages this little book had been hid and found it bound with a leaden cover and locked wherein it appeared that the destruction of the Kingdome miserable calamities and sad times were at hand whereof the King was warned we have learned by experience that this Prophecy was fully executed and shewed it self to be so divine that not long after Ferdinand himself either by the justly incensed wrath of Almighty God or other inscrutable causes of his divine will could avoid what he was so fully admonished of but in the very first appearance of War departed this life and Charls the eight King of France with a strong hand having an huge Army of Neopolitans invaded the Kingdom and Alfonsus the eldest son of Ferdinand after his fathers death having but newly undertaken the government of the Kingdome was thereof deprived basely running away and dying in flight as a banished man shortly the second son of Ferdinand the hopefullnesse of whose youth had endeared him to all men to whom upon the death of his brother the Kingdome fell was intangled with a miserable and fatall War died of an immature death in the very flower of his age afterwards the French and Spaniards obtaining the Kingdome divided it chasing away Frederick another Son of Ferdinand the elder with a larger Army wherewith they invaded the Kingdome took to themselves all whether holy or prophane plundered Towns and Cities laying all waste committing most vile and filthy immanities Alexander ab Alexand. cap. 15. JAmes the son of Zebedee appeared to Charls the Great three seveâ—all nights and did exhort him to drive out of the Countrey of Spain in which his body rested the Saracens and assured him for his labour and travail therein he should obtain an everlasting crown Henricus Erphordiensis ex Turpino Romensi Episcopo refert cap. 68. THe Monks of the Abbey of Florence assured of the expedition of the Normans into France carry the body of Saint Benedict to Aurelia conceiving it a more safe receptacle from the Enemy at the comming of the Normans they burnt the Abbey of Florence and laid it wast the night following Saint Benedict appeared to Count Sigillosus to whom the care and defence of that Monastery was cammitted and in a Vision heavily chideth him because he had not resisted the Normans when they fell upon the Monastery The Earl awakening presently fell to his arms and with a handfull of men pursues the enemies loaden with plunder following them with a swift course fiercely falls upon them and by the help of Saint Benedict kills them every man and redeems all the Prisoners and booty Robertus Ganquinus lib. 5. CHildebert being King of France the Arch-Angell Michael again and again admonished Anbertus the Abrencatensian Bishop that wholly in the Sea which by reason of his eminency is called his Tomb he should build a Church in memory of him requiring such veneration to be given him in the Sea as was exhibited to him in Gorganum in the mean time a Bull which was taken by a Lyon was found bound in that place Whereupon the Bishop was commanded the third time that he should lay the foundation of the Temple where he should find the Bull and as he should observe the ground beaten with the feet of the Bull he should draw the compasse of the Temple which he built in honour of Saint Michael and from that time as in the Mountain Gorganum formerly in that place also now in danger of the Sea the worship of the Angell was begun Sigebert Anno Dom. 799. AGnes Wife to Leopold Marquesse of Austria desired her Husband to design some place wherein to build a Monastery that the prayses of Christ and his Mother might therein be said From a Castle seated in the Mountain Cecium