the Gauls in which battell was slayne fiue thousand knights called noble souldiers and Amylkar the Duke of Penoyes and with him three noble Emperors of the Gaulles were put to the sword with a thirtie and fiue thousand poore Souldiers Ye shall reade in the 4. chapter of the second decaed that as Titus Quincius was going to leauie an armie of noble Souldiers that had beene in Spaine and Affricke one brought him newes that by a thunder or miraculous working of the elements the high way where he should goe was broken and torne in peices and both the temple of Ioue and Hercules were set on fire and at Aretto the ground for the length of a great distance was opened and therein was made a deepe caue to the wonder of a great number of people And at Assnesse there was a calfe séene with two heades and a pigge with foure tayles after which sights prayer and supplications was made to their gods a whole day long without ceasing and yet great warres and troubels began to be set abroch in many kingdoms these wonders going before al these hurly burlies the fourth decaed the 12. chapter in the Consull of Domycius time there was an Oxe that spake and sayd in latine Roma caue tibi after which wordes pronounced the Oxe was diligently kept and so the riuer of Tyber arose and did passe the bound so sarre that it ouerthrewe many houses and edifyses and did very great harme diuers wayes and through the aboundance of rayne that fell or other causes that pleased God a great rocke fell and ouerwhelmed a number of poore people and the flouds were so high by the meane of an outragious tempest that they drowned many viilages about Rome vpon the which strang sight or in a small space after thrée of the greatest Emperors of the world dyed most vnhappily and as some authors makes mention those Princes tooke their leaue all in one yéer Philopomenes Scypion and Hanniball was these thrée great personages Now to write what warres troubels seditions and other calamities hapned in many kingdomes after these terrible tokens and prodigious signes it would weary you with the reading thereof and make you but maruell at the mightie workes of God which assuredly comes to passe in euery place by his appointment to shew his power and happens not by the course of the heauens causes of the earth or naturall operations as many of Aristotels disciples affirme and wilfull schoolemen by reasons would prooue for as God is without beginning so his power is without ending and his diuine workes and iudgements are as matters that wee should not breake our witts about and are so farre beyond our reach that we rather stand amazed at veiwe of them then any way satisfyed in the searching or ceasoning of the cause of their beginnings and though at the first God gaue the Elements a nature past all the compasse of mans base knowledge we neither must trust Aristotle nor leane too much to our weakenes and imaginations for the beginning of his Deitie is as easily knowne as the nature of strange visions and signes in the ayre that onely are directed by his omnipotent power Now come we to Earthquakes In the yéere of the Consulship of Lucius Marcius and Sextus Iulius there befell a case so strange at Modenna that the like yet was neuer heard off as Plinie reports he hath found written in the bookes of Hertusques A maruell that mountains meet and among the Toscane Philosophers Then happened so terrible an earthquake that two mountaines met together and shooke so vehemently the one the other separating themselues as a combate were fought and méeting with such furie and noyse that all the countrey adioyning stoode astonied at the matter and when these two mountaines had done their shaking and at the instant of their first remooue there arose such a fume of flaming fire from the earth that it reached to the heauens the which monstrous battayle of mountaynes and wonderfull earthquake in those parts was séene of many Romaine Knights and Souldiers and an infinite number of trauellers of the world than being in the way called Emylius or via emilia who considering that pittifull tragidie of time and other matters that fell out marueiled much and were sore afrayd for indéede all the granges tenements farmes and houses that were one any of these mountaynes fell in small pieces and little morsels so that both beastes in the fielde and people in their dwellings were all vtterly destroyed and cleane ouerthrowne this marueilous chance fell a yéere before the warres of Sociale that was made against the Marses the which warres brought not much lesse domage to Italie than the warres ciuell by which dissention millions of men were slaine or put to shame and miserie and in the chronicle of Neroes rayne is to be found a very prodigious thing for the last yéere of Neroes raâ—â—ing a great ground of Alyue pertayning to Vertius Marcellus procuror generall to the Emperor Nero was transported from his owne proper place with all his trees and set in the common way betwéene the soyle it stoode on and another mans heritage after which matter the tyrant Nero dyed and a great alteration fell in the Empyre by the trembling of the earth as Homer affirmeth waters did flowe where firme land remayned and the Seas did retyre from their wonted course in another place by which meanes a great countrey was discouered before ouer flowed with water as men might sée towardes the mount Siscelo in the fields and néere the hauen of Larta or Ambracia a plot of ground ten long myles from the borders of the Sea that in times past stood drowned and vndiscouered and at Athens likewise the sea is retyred from the hauen that they call Piree about fiue myles of length and at Epheson the Sea did anciently beate against the temple of Diana but now the Sea is a great way reculed from that temple and if the historie of Herodote be true aunciently the waues of the Sea went ouer the citie of Memphys in Egypt running to the mountaynes of Ethiopie and the plaines of Arabie in like sorte the Sea did beate against Illion called Troy and couered all the whole countrey of Tentertanie and all the other fields wher passeth the riuer Meander these proofes and passages sufficiently sheweth that the tremblings of the earth are as much and more to be feared then the cracking of a rotten house or the fall of a mightie castell that stands on féeble proppes and totters at euery blast of winde Further it is sayde in the Isles of Pithecuses by the vehemencie of an earthquake a great towne did sincke and by another earthquake againe a great lake was made in the same Ilands as yet remayning a wonder to the world read the foure and ninth of Plinie and ye shall sée a number of other matters as myraculous as any yet rehearsed The diuine Plato reports that aunciently there was a mightie and a
great countrey where now is the Sea Atlantique and in the Sea Mediterranie a marueilous deale of land is sunke and couered with water yea to the very gulfe of Ambracia which is in Acarnanie which commeth out of Corinth the same hauing one member or legge vpon Gréece and how many countries in Europe Azia and other partes are destroyed by the Sea and originall cause of earthquakes I hope now néedeth not to make particular report off albeit some notorious thinges may be by the sufferance of learned men that readeth touched and somewhat treated off vnder fauour as farre as serueth to my purpose There was an earthquake in the Emperour Tiberius time so wonderfull that it ouerthrewe twelue townes in Asia all in one night and during the warres of Carthage it was reported to the Senate of Rome that within one yéere was seauen and thirtie earthquakes but now behold what followed the very selfe same season Hanniball discomfited the Romans néere the lake of Perouse and yet neither of both the armies which was a most maruell hard nor felt no péece of the earthquakes albeit the earth trembled so often as it was to bee supposed that the whole world would haue sodainly béene ouerwhelmed Thus you see the earth which is the mother of mankind though she séemes sencelesse is mooued by the almightie to tremble and shake when man is toward destruction and commonly no bloudy battayls haue happened but an earthquake or commet went before the one to make man looke vpward to the heauens where he desires to dwell and the other to warne him and plainely shew him he must fall to the earth and ashes from whence all flesh did rise and tooke his originall and surely it is a manifest signe of Gods fauour when that both heauen and earth and all other thinges wee can beholde are occupyed and working away by some misterie to call vs to repentance and make the pilgrime prepare himselfe to be gon from the vaile of miserie and miserable dungeon of disquietnes but now I pray you regard what Plinie sayeth he being but an infidell in respect of a Christian nowe truely sayth he The trembling of the earth neuer is the cause of one euil alone nor all the danger is not onely in the trembling for it alwayes presageth some mishappe and Des aster to come and likewise saith he there was neuer séene earthquake in the citie of Rome but some great mischance fell out suddenly after if an infidell beleeued so and hath set downe his opinion in print for an infallible rule and ground to builde vpon me thinke Christians should confesse without any difficultie that the naturall cause of earthquakes is a supernaturall matter which neither agitations nor exalations can command by their force to mooue so great a masse of earth as an earthquake shaketh though Aristotle and sundry others makes a great argument on the like purpose If all earthquakes commetts in the ayre signes and wonders in the skyes and many other notorious maruells rise on a naturall cause it may be asked who sent the starre to be séene at Christs birth and who caused the whole world to shake at his death if nature by the course of her operation worketh such wonders then belike that fearefull earthquake had happened though Christ had not dyed and at the same houre and instant though Christ had not suffered for man the earthquake would not haue fayled the ordinarie season and working that springs on exalations agitations and such like matter Aristotle for all his superexcellent learning knew no more then pertayned to the iudgement of a man and though all the déepe wise men of the world and the world it selfe were possest with his bookes and arguments it passeth all reason to beleeue that the earth can shake and the whole world trembling without his will and pleasure that made the day and night and knoweth all thinges before they come to passe and is both the mouer and maker of heauen and earth And surely I beléeue that neither all the Diuels in hell nor all the Angels in heauen nor all the coniurers and sorcerers in the world haue no power of themselues to turne vp side downe a little mountaine much lesse haue they power to turne mightie kingdomes into the Seas and make the maine Sea dry land no doubt but the winds waters ayre fire and earth working together haue an excellent force and nature to woorke their effects and bring to passe thinges both marueilous and past mans cunning to compasse but to shewe armies and battayls in the skies commetts in the cloudes force the heauens to rayne bloud compell the heauie molde to remooue and shake the vniuersall world is a diuiner matter to speake off and deserueth in a most high manner to bee handled and more reuerenced regarded and feared when it happeneth For such strange sights are the very messengers that the great iudge sendeth before his comming and the only warnings the world in the latter dayes shall haue before this olde earth shall be consumed and new Ierusalem shall be made nature can not of her selfe make sweete apels sowre sowre apels sweete change and exchange the naturall kind of trées or other fruite as in Lyche was seene a towne of Surrie at the ariuing of king Xerxes in those partes read Aristander and the commentaries of Caius Epidius and they will shew you thinges to be wondred at of trées if it be true that they affirme they say trees did speake which nature denies and reason can not conceiue but trées stones and all other sencelesse thinges God may make speake aswell as he made Balams Asse reprooue his owne maister and the Oxe in Rame cry Roma caue tibi Plinie in his naturals sayth that it was reported of the Romains that in the territorie of Cuma a cittie of Ionie a great and a high tree did sincke so lowe into the earth that nothing but a fewe small sprayes on the very toppe thereof was to be seene but what thinke you followed after marry many mischiefes terrible bloudshedde wicked conspiracies and open dissentions for the ciuill war betweene Pompeie and Iulius Caesar began at that present and ended not God knowes a long while after the Romaines to knowe what the sincking of that tree did signifie did looke in their bookes of deuinations and their they found that this wonder presaged a matter of greate consequence threatned the slaughter of multitudes of men What néedes nowe to search or rehearse prophane histories for the weight and worthinesse of a true argument touching earthquakes wonders in the ayre and warnings of the world that manifestly setteth foorth the myraculous doings and maiestie of the almighty for you néede not to goe any further for a ready resolution of these poyntes but to the holy scripture which plainely declares that in the latter dayes you should see signes in the ayre wonders in the world the starres fall from heauen the Sunne and Moone loose their light and to be
And though I seeme but slenderly learned hauing a good deuotion to doe well bestowe some small talent to Gods great glory I trust those labours shall purchase as good acceptation as the large volumes that are stuffed with darke sentences and pollished with racked reasons but woe is mee that am destitute of knowledge voyde of cunning and vtterly vnfurnished of eloquence that nowe haue thrust my selfe into alaborinth and heere am taking in hand to run a further course then my wonted custome heretofore hath familiarly bin acquainted withall notwithstanding the best is to be hoped if I happe to stumble that the path is plaine I walke in and I presume not to goe farre in mine owne opinion but will be ledde by the grauest authours of truth and most venerable diuines and Philosophers whose words and learning I will alleadge and with whom the Readers must striue and wrastle if they meane to struggle with any peece of the auncient Fathers reports and philosophie And for that in many an infinite number of causes both depending on natures reason and earthly operations Wonders are to be talked off and Earthquakes to be seene I will expresse as well as I may diuers thinges as they were done many hundred yeares agoe and so set foorth such wonderfull matters that happened in those dayes that the people at this present shall make a maruell off and yet therein behold no other thing but the mightie worke of the Lord and maiestie of our maker that is séene shining in his workemanship and gloryed in his creatures First and formost is meant by this discourse to begin at the Wonders of the ayre and alterations of the heauens which waxeth old as a garment and so to come downe orderly to the Trembling of the earth and shaking of the world declared onely in this little treatise to make the ignorant beleeue and acknowledge that there is no other worker of wonders neither heere nor aboue though many thinges are talked off but the power of God and blessed hand of the Lord who was neuer idle but from the beginning of the world hath alwayes bin occupyed either in one place or another by a wonderfull maner both in the heauens and earth to call his children to repentance and to shew himselfe a mercifull Father but there are some stubborne boyes and I feare too great a number of the kind and complexion of king Pharaoh whose heart was indurate and who forgat correction as soone as the rod was taken from his shoulders and plagues from his people now if such complexions and corrupt natures for want of good looking too haue or would infect the sound body and soule of those that are easily tempted and drawne to beléeue little that is true and trust much that is false and full of fayre semblances To these and to none other for the preseruation of their good beliefe and purging of peruerse incredulitie these present paynes are presented partly to shew in what partes these manifold wonders did fall and plainely to explaine what followed immediatly after among those nations where such wonders happened It is found in the Annales that in the yeare when Marcus Acilius and Caius Porcius were Consuls of Rome there was openly to bee seene that from the inferiour region of the ayre did fall in manner of rayne both bloud and milke which as some affirme albeit it was a strange thing to behold befell many times before some great alteration of the people and republicke likewise in the yeere when Lucius Volumnius and Seruius Sulpicius were Consuls of the same city it did rayne perfit flesh the most part whereof was consumed and eaten by the birdes of the ayre and yet the rest that did fall and remayne on the earth did not corrupt of a long season The very yéere before that Marcus Crassus or Rasilicata with his whole armie which were Italian souldiers of the countrey Lucania was ouerthrowne by the Parthes a strong nation that the Romans made warre vpon It rayned iron in the maner of a spunge in the selfe same land where the Souldiers were leuied whereupon their wise men and greate clarkes by their Deuinations declared that the wounds and sores of the heauens were to be feared and that some sort of people were in danger to receiue great hurt from the skies and angry Planets In the yéere that Lucius Paulus and Marcellus were Consuls it did raine wol like spunges about the towne of Carissan or Carino and the next yéere following Titus Annius Milo a great personage was slaine in battell néere the aforesayd towne of Carissan you shall finde in the register of Senats that the same yéere that Milo was slayne in it rayned bricke stones as Milo was pleading a matter in the senate house all which wonders spoken off wayed together perswades no little argument of the warnings and myraculous maner of the elements that foresheweth great matters to come and presageth many things worthy memorie It is sayd and truely to be prooued that before and after the wars that the Zelanders had with the Danes of Denmarke There was to be hard in the ayre oftentimes a certaine sound and clickening of harnesse and the sounde of many trumpets at that present instant was hard in the skyes In the yéere of the third Consulship of Marius the people of Ameria or Amelia and Todi or Tuderdani in the townes of the Dutchie of Spoleto did behold two great armies of men in the skies the one power comming from the leuant and the other from the occident and those that came from the occidentall were put to flight and chased by the other partie after both the armies had a long while béene in combate and there fell out great thinges in the necke of this wonder yea the selfe sam like matter happened in the ayre at Ramberg the yeere 1534. and at Wisenburg the yeere of our Lord 1530. On which strange veiw fell out bloudy wars in Iermanie and other partes both fearefull in proofe and pittifull to beholde The Greeke authors as Plinie sayeth doe affirme that the second yeere of the 78. Olympiade Anaxagoras Calzomenien presaged by his great knowledge and told the proper day and houre when a mightie and monstrous great stone should fall from the heauens which came to passe in the open and playne day in the countrey of Thrace which is along the floud Aegos and in the time of this stone as bigge as a tumbrell fell from the skyes a great commett was seene in the cloudes and this commett endured blazing a long season as did of late a blazing starre when the Queenes Maiestie lay at Windsore not long before the king of Portugall and all his armie a sorrowfull tayle to tel was ouerthrowne in Barbarie by the hard aduenture of fortune and force of the king of Fesse Then was another little stone that Anagoras spoke off long before it fell from the heauens that nowe remaines in the village of Abydo which superstitious people holde in