the Passeover when in a manner all Judea was inclosed in Jerusalem all private synagogues doing then their duties to the mother-temple so that the citie then had more guests then inhabitants Thus the Passeover first instituted by God in mercie to save the Israelites from death was now used by him in justice to hasten their destruction and to gather the nation into a bundle to be cast into the fire of his anger Besides those who were slain ninetie seven thousand were taken captives and they who had bought our Saviour for thirty pence were themselves sold thirty for a penie The Generall of the Romanes in this action was Titus sonne to Vespasian the Emperour A prince so good that he was styled the Darling of mankind for his sweet and loving nature and pitie it was so good a stock had not been better grafted so vertuously disposed that he may justly be counted the glory of all Pagans and shame of most Christians He laboured what lay in his power to have saved the temple and many therein but the Jews by their obstinacie and desperatenesse made themselves uncapable of any mercy Then was the temple it self made a sacrifice and burnt to ashes and of that stately structure which drew the Apostles admiration not a stone left upon a stone The walls of the citie more shaken with the sinnes of the Jews defending them then with the battering rammes of the Romanes assaulting them were levelled to the ground onely three towres left standing to witnesse the great strength of the place and greater valour of the Romanes who conquered it But whilest this storm fell on the unbeleeving Jews it was calm amongst the Christians who warned by Christs predictions and many other prodigies fled betimes out of the citie to Pella a private place beyond Jordan which served them in stead of a little Zoar to save them from the imminent destruction Chap. 2. How Iudea was dispeopled of Iews by Adrian the Emperour THreescore yeares after Adrian the Emperour rebuilt the citie of Jerusalem changing the situation somewhat westward and the name thereof to Aelia To despite the Christians he built a temple over our Saviours grave with the images of Jupiter and Venus another at Bethlehem to Adonis her minion and to enrage the Jews did engrave swine over the gates of the citie Who storming at the profanation of their land brake into open rebellion but were subdued by Julius Severus the Emperours lieutenant an experienced captain and many thousands slain with Bencochab their counterfeit Messias for so he termed himself that is the fonne of a starre usurping that prophesie Out of Iacob shall a starre arise though he proved but a fading comet whose blazing portended the ruine of that nation The captives by order from Adrian were transported into Spain the countrey laid waste which parted with her people and fruitfulnesse both together Indeed pilgrimes to this day here and there light on parcels of rich ground in Palestine which God may seem to have left that men may tast the former sweetnesse of the land before it was sowred for the peoples sinnes and that they may guesse the goodnesse of the cloth by the finenesse of the shreds But it is barren for the generality the streams of milk and hony wherewith once it flowed are now drained dry and the whole face of the land looketh sad not so much for want of dressing as because God hath frowned on it Yet great was the oversight of Adrian thus totally to unpeople a province and to bequeath it to foxes and leopards Though his memory was excellent yet here he forgot the old Romanes rule who to prevent desolations where they rooted out the natives planted in colonies of their own people And surely the countrey recovered not a competencie of inhabitants for some hundred yeares after For though many pilgrimes came thither in after-ages yet they came rather to visit then to dwell and such as remained there most embracing single lives were no breeders for posterity If any say that Adrian did wilfully neglect this land and prostitute it to ruine for the rebellion of the people yet all account it small policie in him in punishing the Jews to hurt his own empire and by this vastation to leave fair and clear footing for forrein enemies to fasten on this countrey and from thence to invade the neighbouring dominions as after the Persians and Saracens easily overran and dispeopled Palestine and no wonder if a thin medow were quickly mown But to return to the Jews Such stragglers of them not considerable in number as escaped this banishment into Spain for few hands reap so clean as to leave no gleanings were forbidden to enter into Jerusalem or so much as to behold it from any rise or advantage of ground Yet they obtained of the after-Emperours once a yeare namely on the tenth of August whereon their citie was taken to go in and bewail the destruction of their temple and people bargaining with the souldiers who waited on them to give so much for so long abiding there and if they exceeded the time they conditioned for they must stretch their purses to a higher rate So that as S. Hierome noteth they who bought Christs bloud were then glad to buy their own tears Chap. 3. Of the present wofull condition of the Iews and of the small hope and great hindrances of their conversion THus the main bodie of the Jews was brought into Spain and yet they stretched their out-limbes into every countrey so that it was as hard to find a populous citie without a common sink as without a company of Jews They grew fat on the barest pasture by usurie and brokage though often squeezed by those Christians amongst whom they lived counting them dogs and therefore easily finding a stick to beat them And alwayes in any tumult when the fense of order was broken the Jews lay next harms as at the coronation of Richard the first when the English made great feasts but the pillaged Jews paid the shot At last for their many villanies as falsifying of coin poysoning of springs crucifying of Christian children they were slain in some places and finally banished out of others Out of England anno 1291 by Edward the first France 1307 by Philip the Fair Spain 1492 by Ferdinand Portugall 1497 by Emmanuel But had these two latter kings banished all Jewish bloud out of their countreys they must have emptied the veins of their best subjects as descended from them Still they are found in great numbers in Turkie chiefly in Salonichi where they enjoy the freest slavery and they who in our Saviours time so scorned Publicanes are now most imployed in that office to be the Turks toll-gatherers Likewise in the Popish parts of Germanie in Poland the Pantheon of all religions and Amsterdam may be forfeited to the king of Spain when she cannot shew a pattern of this as of all other
this day confesse not to the beholders that any such cost was ever bestowed there He also caused the corpses of the Christians killed at the late battel at Gaza and hitherto unburied decently to be interred and appointed an annuall salarie to a Priest to pray for their souls Hereby he had the happinesse with little cost to purchase much credit and the living being much taken with kindnesse to the dead this burying of those Christians with pious persons wonne him as much repute as if he killed so many Turks At last the truce for ten yeares was concluded with the Sultan all Christian captives were discharged and set free many forts of them restored and matters for the main reduced to the same estate they were at the first peace with Frederick the Emperour and Richard returning through Sicily and by Rome where he visited his Holinesse safely came home to England Where he was welcomed with bad news that a discontented Cornish man banished for his misdemeanours had found out tinne-mines in Bohemia which afterwards more asswaged the swelling of this Earls bags then all his voyage to Palestine For till that time that metall was onely fetched from England which afforded meat to some forrein countreys and dishes to all His voyage was variously censured The Templars which consented not to the peace flouted thereat as if all this while he had laboured about a difficult nothing and as good never a whit as never the better for the agreement would never hold long Others thought he had abundantly satisfied any rationall expectation For he compelled saith one the Saracens to truce a strange compulsion without violence except the shewing of a scabbard he restored many to the life of their life their liberty which alone was worth all his pains the peace he concluded was honourable and a cheap Olive-branch is better then deare Bayes Two of our English Richards were at Palestine one famous for drawing his sword the other his purse He was also remarkable herein that he brought all his men and ships safe home next of kin to a miracle and none will deny but that in such dangerous adventures a saver is a gainer One good he got hereby This journey brought him into play amongst forrein Princes henceforward the beyond-sea-world took notice of him and he of it Never would he have had the face to have courted the Crown Imperiall if these his travels had not put boldnesse and audacity into him which made him afterwards a stiff rivall to bid for the Empire of Germany Chap. 9. The Corasines cruelly sack the city of Ierusalem and kill the Christians therein ABout this time though we find not the punctuall date thereof happened the death of Reinoldus Fredericks Lieutenant in Syria who by his moderation had been a good benefactour to the Holy warre But the Templars counted him to want metall because he would not be mad and causelesly break the truce with the Sultan In his grave was buried the happinesse of the Christians in Palestine for now the lawlesse Templars observe no other rule but their own will And now the inundation of the Tartarians in spite of all dammes and banks overranne the North of Asia and many nations fled from their own countreys for fear of them Amongst other the Corasines called by some Choermines and Groissoms a fierce and warlike people were notwithstanding by the Tartarians forced to forsake their land Being thus unkennelled they had their recourse to the Sultan of Babylon and petitioned him to bestow some habitation upon them Their suit he could neither safely grant nor deny A deniall would egge their discontents into desperatenesse and such sturdy dangerous vagabonds might do much harm to admit them to be joynt-tenants in the same countrey with the Turks was a present inconvenience and would be a future mischief In stead therefore of giving them a house he sent them to a work-house yet so that they apprehended it a great courtesie done unto them For he bestowed on them all the lands which the Christians held in Palestine liberall to give away what was none of his and what the others must purchase before they could enjoy The Sultan encouraged them to invade that countrey whose people he pretended were weak and few the land wealthy and fruitfull so that the conquest would be easie especially they having his assistance in the present service and perpetuall patronage hereafter Animated herewith in come the Corasines with their wives and children bringing their housholds with them to win houses and lands for them into Syria and march directly to Jerusalem which being a weak and unfortified place was taken without resistance Weak and unfortified Strange It is confessed on all sides that Frederick the Emperour and Reinoldus his Lieutenant spared no expense in strengthening this city since which time we find no solemn taking it by the Turks Who then can expect lesse then an impregnable place where so much cost was sown Which driveth us to conceive one of these three things Either that the weaknesse of this citie was chiefly in the defenders hearts Or else that formerly there happened some blind and silent dispoiling of this place not mentioned by Authours Or lastly that Jerusalem was a Jericho I mean a place cursed in building like Pharaohs lean kine never a whit the fatter for devouring much meat and which still went in rags though her friends bestowed change of raiment upon her Thus this city after that it had been possessed fifteen yeares by the Christians was wonne by this barbarous people never since regained to our religion Sleep Jerusalem sleep in thy ruines at this day of little beauty and lesse strength famous onely for what thou hast been The Christians flying out of Jerusalem with their families took their course towards Joppa but looking back beheld their own ensignes advanced on the citie-walls so done in policie by their enemies Whereupon their credulity thus commented That their fellows had beaten the Corasines in Jerusalem and by these banners invited them to return But going back they found but cold or rather too hot entertainment being slain every mothers child of them Dull nostrils not to sent so stale and rank a stratageme of their foes so often used so easily defeated not to send some spies to tast the bait before all swallowed it But men marked out for destruction will runne their own heads into the halter Chap. 10. Robert Patriarch of Ierusalem with the whole strength of the Christians conquered by the Corasines THe desperatenesse of the disease priviledgeth the taking of any Physick The Christians being now in deep distresse resolved on a dangerous course but as their case stood thought necessary For they made peace with the Sultan of Damascus and Seisser and with the Sultan of Cracci These were Dynastes in Syria of some good strength and were at discord with the Sultan of Babylon and swearing them to be faithfull borrowed an armie of their forces
to excuse himself shewing he was chosen against his will and though preferment may not be snatched it needs not be thrust away But all would not do It was enough to put him out because the King put him in Wherefore he was commanded to return home and to wait the definitive sentence which Gibellinus Archbishop of Arles and the Popes Legate should pronounce in the matter Gibellinus coming to Jerusalem concluded the election of Ebremarus to be illegall and void and was himself chosen Patriarch in his place and the other in reverence of his piety made Archbishop of Cesarea And though Arnulphus the firebrand of this Church desired the Patriarchs place for himself yet was he better content with Gibellinus his election because he was a through-old man and hoped that candle would quickly go out that was in the socket To this Gibellinus King Baldwine granted that all places which he or his successours should winne should be subject to his jurisdiction and this also was confirmed by Pope Paschall the 2. But Bernard Patriarch of Antioch found himself much aggrieved hereat because many of these cities by the ancient canon of the Councel of Nice were subject to his Church At last the Pope took the matter into his hand and stroked the angry Patriarch of Antioch into gentlenesse with good language He shewed how since the Councel of Nice the countrey had got a new face ancient mountains were buried rivers drowned in oblivion and they new-christened with other names Yea the deluge of the Saracens tyranny had washed away the bounds of the Churches jurisdictions that now they knew not their own severals where Mahometanisme so long had made all common and waste He desired him therefore to be contented with this new division of their jurisdictions especially because it was reasonable that the King of Jerusalem and his successours should dispose of those places which they should winne with their own swords Bernard perceiving hereby how his Holinesse stood affected in the businesse contented his conscience that he had set his title on foot and then quietly let it fall to the ground as counting it no policie to shew his teeth where he durst not bite Gibellinus never laid claim to the citie of Jerusalem whether it was because in thankfulnesse for this large ecclesiasticall power which King Baldwine had bestowed upon him or that his old age was too weak to strive with so strong an adversarie He sat foure yeares in his chair and Arnulphus thinking he went too slow to the grave is suspected to have given him something to have mended his pace and was himself substituted in his room by the especiall favour of King Baldwine This Arnulphus was called mala corona as if all vices met in him to dance a round And no wonder if the King being himself wantonly disposed advanced such a man for generally loose Patrones cannot abide to be pinched and pent with over-strict Chaplains Besides it was policie in him to choose such a Patriarch as was liable to exceptions for his vitious life that so if he began to bark against the King his mouth might be quickly stopped Arnulphus was as quiet as a lambe and durst never challenge his interest in Jerusalem from Godfreys donation as fearing to wrestle with the King who had him on the hip and could out him at pleasure for his bad manners Amongst other vices he was a great church-robber who to make Emmelor his niece a Princesse and to marry Eustace Prince of Sidon gave her the citie of Jericho for her dowrie and lands belonging to his See worth five thousand crowns yearly And though Papists may pretend that marriage causeth covetousnesse in the Clergie yet we shall find when the Prelacie were constrained to a single life that their nephews ate more church-bread then now the children of married Ministers Yea some Popes not onely fed their bastards with church-milk but even cut off the churches breasts for their pompous and magnificent maintenance And thus having dispatched the story of the Church in this Kings reigne we come now to handle the businesse of the Common-wealth entirely by it self Chap. 9. A mountain-like army of new adventurers after long and hard travail delivered of a mouse Alexius his treachery THe fame of the good successe in Palestine summoned a new supply of other Pilgrimes out of Christendome Germany and other places which were sparing at the first voyage made now amends with double liberality The chief adventurers were Guelpho Duke of Bavaria who formerly had been a great champion of the Popes against Henry the Emperour and from him they of the Papall faction were denominated Guelphes in distinction from the Imperiall party which were called Gibellines Hugh brother to the King of France and Stephen Earl of Bloys both which had much suffered in their reputation for deserting their fellows in the former expedition and therefore they sought to unstain their credits by going again Stephen Earl of Burgundy William Duke of Aquitain Frederick Count of Bogen Hugh brother to the Earl of Tholose besides many great Prelates Diemo Archbishop of Saltzburg the Bishops of Millain and Pavie which led 50000 out of Lombardy the totall summe amounting to 250000. All stood on the tiptoes of expectation to see what so great an army would atchieve men commonly measuring victories by the multitudes of the souldiers But they did nothing memorable save onely that so many went so farre to do nothing Their sufferings are more famous then their deeds being so consumed with plague famine and the sword that Conrade Abbot of Urspurg who went and wrote this voyage beleeveth that not a thousand of all these came into Palestine and those so poore that their bones would scarce hold together so that they were fitter to be sent into an hospitall then to march into the field having nothing about them wherewith to affright their enemies except it were the ghost-like ghastlinesse of their famished faces The army that came out of Lombardy were so eaten up by the swords of the Turks that no fragments of them were left nor news to be heard what was become of them And no wonder being led by Prelates unexperienced in martiall affairs which though perchance great Clerks were now to turn over a new leaf which they had no skill to reade Luther was wont to say that he would be unwilling to be a souldier in that army where Priests were Captains because the Church and not the Camp was their proper place whereas going to warre they willingly outed themselves of Gods protection being out of their vocation But the main matter which made this whole voyage miscarry in her travail was the treachery of the midwife through whose hands it was to passe For Alexius the Grecian Emperour feared lest betwixt the Latines in the East in Palestine and West in Europe as betwixt two milstones his Empire lying in the midst should be ground to powder Whereupon
so that their luxury differed from Elias his austerity as much as velvet from sackcloth Wherefore that the Carmelites came from mount Carmel cannot be denied But on that mountain I find that both Elias and Baals priests gathered together and let the indifferent reader judge which of them their lives do most resemble Afterwards Pope Honorius 3. counting the party-coloured coats these Carmelites did wear to be too gaudy caused them to wear onely white the colour which nature doth die simple and therefore fittest for religion But Melexala King of Egypt who formerly was very bountifull to the Carmelites knew not his Alms-men in their new coats but changed his love as they their livery and persecuted them out of all Egypt It seemeth afterwards by the complaint of Mantuan that they wore some black again over their white For he playeth on them as if their bad manners had blacked and altered their clothes Now though Palestine was their mother England was their best nurse Ralph Fresburg about the yeare 1240 first brought them hither and they were first seated at Newenden in Kent An hundred and fourty English writers have been of this order And here they flourished in great pomp till at last King Henry the 8. as they came out of the wildernesse so turned their houses into a wildernesse not onely breaking the necks of all Abbeys in England but also scattering abroad their very bones past possibility of recouniting them Chap. 27. Edessa lost The hopefull voyage of Conrade the Emperour and Lewis King of France to the Holy land blasted by the perfidiousnesse of Emmanuel the Grecian Emperour EMpires have their set bounds whither when they come they stand still go back fall down This we may see in the kingdome of Jerusalem which under Godfrey and the two first Baldwines was a gainer under Fulk a saver under the succeeding Kings a constant loser till all was gone For now Sanguin Prince of the Turks as bloudy as his name wrested from the Christians the countrey and city of Edessa one of the foure Tetrarchies of the kingdome of Jerusalem And though Sanguin shortly after was stabbed at a feast yet Noradine his sonne succeeded and exceeded him in cruelty against the Christians The losse of Edessa wherein our religion had flourished ever since the Apostles time moved Conrade Emperour of the West and Lewis the 7. surnamed the Young King of France to undertake a voyage to the Holy land Pope Eugenius the 3. bestirred himself in the matter and made S. Bernard his soliciter to advance the designe For never could so much steel have been drawn into the east had not this good mans perswasion been the loadstone The Emperours army contained two hundred thousand foot besides fifty thousand horse Nor was the army of King Lewis much inferiour in number In France they sent a distaff and a spindle to all those able men that went not with them as upbraiding their effeminatenesse And no wonder when women themselves went in armour having a brave lasse like another Penthesilea for their leader so befringed with gold that they called her Golden-foot riding astride like men which I should count more strange but that I find all women in England in the same posture on their horses till Anna wife to King Richard the second some 200 yeares since taught them a more modest behaviour The Turks did quake hearing of these preparations which to them were reported farre greater then they were fame contrary to all other painters making those things the greatest which are presented the farthest off Conrade with his army took his way through Grecia where Emmanuel the Emperour possessed with an hereditary fear of the Latines fortified his cities in the way as knowing there needed strong banks where such a stream of people was to passe And suspecting that if these Pilgrimes often made his Empire their high-way into Palestine little grasse would grow in so troden a path and his countrey thereby be much endamaged he used them most treacherously giving them bad welcome that he might no more have such guests To increase their miseries as the Dutch encamped by the river Melas if that may be called a river which is all mud in summer all sea in winter deserving his name from this black and dismall accident it drowned many with its sudden overflowings as if it had conspired with the Grecians and learned treachery from them They that survived this sudden mishap were reserved for lingring misery For the Grecian Emperour did them all possible mischief by mingling lime with their meal by killing of stragglers by holding intelligence with the Turks their enemies by corrupting his coyn making his silver as base as himself so that the Dutch sold good wares for bad money and bought bad wares with good money by giving them false Conductours which trained them into danger so that there was more fear of the guides then of the way All which his unfaithfull dealings are recorded by that faithfull historian Nicetas Choniates who though a Grecian born affirmeth these things the truth of his love to his countrey-men no whit prejudicing his love to the truth Chap. 28. The Turks conquered at Meander The Dutch and French arrive in Palestine SCarce had the Dutch escaped the treachery of the Greeks when they were encountred with the hostility of the Turks who waited for them on the other side of Meander The river was not foordable ship or bridge the Christians had none when behold Conrade the Emperour adventured on an action which because it was successefull shall be accounted valiant otherwise we should term it desperate After an exhortation to his army he commanded them all at once to flownce into the river Meander was plunged by their plunging into it his water stood amazed as unresolved whether to retreat to the fountain or proceed to the sea and in this extasie afforded them a dry passage over the stream An act which like that of Horatius Cocles his leaping into Tiber plus famae ad posteros habiturum quà m fidei will find more admirers then beleevers with posterity The affrighted Turks on the other side thinking there was no contending with them that did teach nature it self obedience offered their throats to the Christians swords and were killed in such number that whole piles of dead bones remain there for a monument like those heaps of the Cimbrians slain by Marius neare Marseils where afterwards the inhabitants walled their vineyards with sculls and guarded their grapes with dead men Hence Conrade made forward to Iconium now called Cogni which he besieged in vain to the great losse of his army The King of France followed after with great multitudes and drank of the same cup at the Grecians hands though not so deeply till at last finding that those who marched through the continent met with an ocean of miserie he thought better to trust the wind and sea then
the Greeks and taking shipping safely arrived in Palestine where he was highly welcomed by Reimund Prince of Antioch Some weeks were spent in complying entertainments and visiting holy places till at last Elianor wife to the King of France who accompanied her husband made religion her pander and played bankrupt of her honour under pretense of pilgrimage keeping company with a base Saracen jester whom she preferred before a King Thus love may blindfold the eyes but lust boreth them out Yea now she pleaded that she might be no longer wife to the King because she was too neare unto him within the degrees forbidden This new-started scruple never troubled her before but some have sluces in their consciences and can keep them open or shut them as occasion requireth Chap. 29. Damascus besieged in vain The return of the Emperour and King with the censure on this voyage THe late-come Pilgrimes having sufficiently recreated themselves the Emperour and the King of France concluded to besiege Damascus for a small town was conceived too narrow an object of their valour whilest so eminent an action was adequate to the undertakers Damascus is so pleasant a citie that Mahomet durst never enter into it lest this deceiver should be deceived himself and be so ravished with the pleasures of the place that he should forget to go on in that great work he had in hand Some make Eliezer Abrahams steward builder of this citie because he is called Eliezer of Damascus though that phrase speaketh him rather to have had his birth or dwelling there then the citie her building from him To passe this by because as the foundations are hidden in the ground so the founders of most ancient places are forgotten It was for many yeares after the Metropolis of Syria and was now straitly besieged by the Christians with great hope of successe had they not afterwards fallen out amongst themselves who should eat the chickens before they were hatched Conrade and King Lewis destined the city to Theodorick Earl of Flanders lately arrived in those parts whilest other Princes which had been long resident in Palestine and born the heat of the warre grudged hereat and their stomachs could not digest the cruditie of a raw upstart to be preferred before them Yea some of the Christians corrupted with Turkish money though when they received it it proved but gilded brasse may all traitours be payed in such coin perswaded the King of France to remove his camp to a stronger part of the walls which they long besieged in vain and returned home at last leaving the city and their honours behind them The French proverb was verified of this voyage Much bruit and little fruit They not onely did no good in the Holy land save that some think their coming advantaged King Baldwine for the taking of the citie of Askelon but also did much harm For now the Turks seeing one citie both bear the brunt and batter the strength of both armies began to conceive that their own fear was their greatest enemy and those swords of these new Pilgrimes which they dreaded in the sheath they sleighted when they saw them drawn and shook off that aw which had formerly possessed them of the strength of the Western Emperour Many thousand Christians perished in this adventure whose souls are pronounced by all the writers of this age to be carried up into heaven on the wings of the holy cause they died for Whose blessed estate I will not disprove nor will I listen to the unhappy Dutch proverb He that bringeth himself into needlesse dangers dieth the devils martyr We must not forget how the French King coming homeward was taken prisoner by the fleet of the Grecian Emperour and rescued again by Gregory Admirall to Roger King of Sicilie When he was safely arrived in France in open Parliament his wife was divorced from him Her nearnesse in bloud was the onely cause specified and the King took no notice of her inconstancy accounting those but foolish husbands who needlessely proclaim their wives dishonesty He gave her back again all the lands in France which he had received with her in portion scorning her wealth which neglected his love Herein he did nobly but not politickly to part with the Dukedomes of Poictou and Aquitain which he enjoyed in her right for he brake his own garland by giving her her flowers back again mangled and dismembred his own kingdome and gave a torch into Henry King of England his hands who afterwards married her to set France on fire Chap. 30. An apologie for S. Bernard whom the vulgar sort condemned for the murderer of those that went this voyage SLander quicker then Martiall law arraigneth condemneth and executeth all in an instant This we may see in poore S. Bernard who was the mark for every mans tongue to shoot arrows against and when this voyage had miscarried many condemned him because his perswasion set this project not onely on foot but on wings as if he had thrust so many men as one morsel into the jaws of death But much may be alledged truly to excuse this good man First he was but an instrument imployed by Pope Eugenius and a Provinciall Councel of French Bishops to forward the designe Rather then should they have blamed his Holinesse who set him on work But the saddle oftentimes is not set on the right horse because his back is too high to be reached and we see commonly that the instruments are made skreens to save the face of the principall from scorching Secondly the true cause of the ill successe was the vitiousnesse of the undertakers For Germany at this time surfeted of lewd people and those grew the fattest which lived on the high-wayes But this voyage robbed the whole countrey of her theeves and then no wonder if they found their death in Asia who deserved it in Europe Heare what Otho Frisingensis who went this voyage speaketh impartially in the matter If we should say that Bernard that holy Abbot was inspired by Gods Spirit to incite us to this warre but we through our pride and wantonnesse not observing his holy commands deservedly brought on our selves the losse of our goods and lives we should say nothing but what is agreeable to reason and to ancient examples However it was an heavy affliction to S. Bernards aged back to bear the reproch of many people it being a great grief for one to be generally condemned as guilty for want of proof of his innocency And though God set his hand to S. Bernards testimoniall by the many miracles which that Father wrought yet still some challenged him for a counterfeit And surely this humiliation was both wholesome and necessary for him For the people who cannot love without doting nor approve without admiring were too much transported with an high opinion of this man and his directions as if that arrow could not misse the mark which came out of S.
of Damascus profering them if they would depart to restore them the true Crosse the citie of Jerusalem and all the land of Palestine The English French and Italians would have embraced the conditions pleading That honourable peace was the centre of warre where it should rest That they could not satisfie their conscience to rob these Egyptians of their lands without a speciall command from God That it was good wisdome to take so desperate a debt whensoever the payment was tendred otherwise if they would not be content with their arms full they might perchance return with their hands emptie But the Legate would no wayes consent alledging this voyage was undertaken not onely for the recovery of Palestine but for the exstirpation of the Mahometane superstition And herein no doubt he followed the instructions of his master whose end in this warre was That this warre should have no end but be alwayes in doing though never done He knew it was dangerous to stop an issue which had been long open and would in no case close up this vent of people by concluding a finall peace Besides an old prophesie That a Spaniard should win Jerusalem and work wonders in those parts made Pelagius that countrey-man more zealous herein Coradine angry his profer was refused beat down the walls of Jerusalem and all the beautifull buildings therein save the towre of David and the temple of the Sepulchre Not long after Damiata having been basieged one yeare and seven moneths was taken without resistance plague and famine had made such a vastation therein The Christians entred with an intent to kill all but their anger soon melted into pity beholding the citie all bestrawed with corpses The sight was bad and the sent was worse for the dead killed the living Yea Gods sword had left their sword no work Of threescore and ten thousand but three thousand remained who had their lives pardoned on condition to cleanse the citie which imployed them a quarter of a yeare Hence the Christians marched and took the citie of Tanis and soon after the Pope substituted John de Columna a Cardinall Legate in the place of Pelagius Chap. 26. New discords betwixt the King and the Legate They march up to besiege Cairo GReat was the spoil they found in Damiata wherein as in strong barred chests the merchants of Egypt and India had locked up their treasure A full yeare the Christians stayed here contented to make this inne their home Here arose new discords betwixt the King and the new Legate who by vertue of his Legation challenged Damiata for his Holinesse which by publick agreement was formerly assigned to the King Bren in anger returned to Ptolemais both to puff out his discontents in private to teach the Christians his worth by wanting him For presently they found themselves at a losse neither could they stand still without disgrace nor go on without danger The Legate commanded them to march up but they had too much spirit to be ruled by a Spirituall man and swore not to stirre a step except the King was with them Messengers therefore were sent to Ptolemais to fetch him They found him of a steelie nature once through-hot long in cooling yet by promising him he should have his own desires they over-perswaded him not to starve an armie by feeding his own humours Scarce after eight moneths absence was he returned to Damiata but new divisions were betwixt them The Legate perswaded the armie to march up and besiege Cairo he promised if they would obey him they should quickly command all Egypt by present invading it Let defendants lie at a close guard and offer no play Delayes are a safe shield to save but celerity the best sword to winne a countrey Thus Alexander conquered the world before it could bethink it self to make resistance And thus God now opened them a doore of victorie except they would barre it up by their own idlenesse But the King advised to return into Syria That Cairo was difficult to take and impossible to keep That the ground whereon they went was as treacherous as the people against whom they fought That better now to retire with honour then hereafter flie with shame That none but an empirick in warre will denie but that more true valour is in an orderly well grounded retreat then in a furious rash invasion But the Legate used an inartificiall argument drawn from the authority of his place thundering excommunication against those that would not march forward And now needs must they go when he driveth them The crafty Egyptians of whom it is true what is said of the Parthians Their flight is more to be feared then their fight ran away counterfeiting cowardlinesse The Christians triumphed hereat as if the silly fish should rejoyce that he had caught the fisherman when he had swallowed his bait The Legate hugged himself in his own happinesse that he had given so successefull advice And now see how the garland of their victory proved the halter to strangle them Chap. 27. The miserable case of the drowned Christians in Egypt Damiata surrendred in ransome of their lives EGypt is a low level countrey except some few advantages which the Egyptians had fortified for themselves Through the midst of the land ran the river Nilus whose stream they had so bridled with banks and sluces that they could keep it to be their own servant and make it their enemies master at pleasure The Christians confidently marched on and the Turks perceiving the game was come within the toil pierced their banks and unmuzzling the river let it runne open mouth upon them yet so that at first they drowned them up but to the middle reserving their lives for a further purpose thereby in exchange to recover Damiata and their countreys liberty See here the land of Egypt turned in an instant into the Egyptian sea See an army of sixty thousand as the neck of one man stretched on the block and waiting the fatall stroke Many cursed the Legate and their own rashnesse that they should follow the counsel of a gowned man all whose experience was clasped in a book rather then the advice of experienced captains But too late repentance because it soweth not in season reapeth nothing but unavoidable miserie Meladine King of Egypt seeing the constancy and patience of the Christians was moved with compassion towards them He had of himself strong inclinations to Christianity wearie of Mahometanisme and willing to break that prison but for watchfull jaylers about him He profered the Christians their lives on condition they would quit the countrey and restore Damiata They accepted the conditions and sent messengers to Damiata to prepare them for the surrendring of it But they within the citie being themselves safe on shore tyrannized on their poore brethren in shipwrack pretending That this armie of Pilgrimes deserved no pity who had invited this misfortune on themselves by their own rashnesse That if they
sinnes which are glued unto them by their profit Thus the avarice of the Romish officers as of late the shamefull shamelesse covetousnesse of their Indulgence-mongers occasioned Luthers falling from them caused the Grecians wholly to renounce their subjection to that See and Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople now grew absolute of himself without any dependencie on the Pope His Holinesse despairing to reduce them by fair means proclaimed warre against them And as formerly against the Albingenses so now against the Grecians resolved to send an army of Croised souldiers It being his custome to make the secular power little better then an hangman to execute those he shall please to condemn Yea he hath turned the back of the sword towards Infidels and the edge against Christians dissenting from him in small matters But few voluntaries were found for this service because of a pious horrour and religious reluctancie against so odious an imployment Onely in Cyprus I beleeve in a private persecution rather then open warre some Grecians were put to death the Pope using the same severity against wolves and wandring sheep foes and prodigall children Chap. 5. Wherein the Greeks dissent from the Latines What must charitably be conceived of them BEsides their rejecting of the Popes both Ecclesiasticall and Temporall tyranny the Greeks differ from the Latines in other matters of moment For they maintain the procession of the holy Spirit from the Father alone As for their other tenents they stand in some middle terms of opinion betwixt Papists and Protestants yet so that they approch nearer the Papists in more to us in more weighty and dominative points With Rome they concurre in Transubstantiation in the whole sacrifice of the Masse in praying to Saints and for the dead in Auricular Confession in worshipping of Pictures onely of Christ and our Lady but all Images they detest a kind of Purgatory they hold but not in hell or the skirts thereof nor by any outward torment With us they consent in the Sufficiency of the Scriptures to salvation in denying the Infallibility of the Church much more of the Pope the overplus of Merits Service ununderstood Indulgences Liberaties out of Purgatorie and the like Hereupon the Romanists condemn them all for hereticks and castawayes killing more then a third of all Christians as Cain did a quarter of mankind with a blow with this their uncharitable censure But heaven-gate was not so easily shut against multitudes when S. Peter himself wore the keyes at his girdle And let us not with rash judging thrust all into the pit of hell whom we see walking neare the brink thereof We shall think better of them if we consider That First their tenets wherein they dissent from the Romanists are sound enough save that of the holy Ghost Concerning which it is an usefull quaere Whether granting the first authours and ringleaders of that errour in a bad condition there be not some favour to be allowed to those who in simplicity succeed to hereditary errours received from their ancestours if they do not wilfully barre nor bolt their eyes against the beams of the truth but be willing as we charitably conceive of the Greeks to receive and embrace better instruction Secondly the Master of the Sentences waited on herein with other learned men is of opinion That in the sense of the Greek Church A Filio and Per Filium is no reall difference but a question in modo loquendi Sure it would have grated the foundation if they had so denied the procession of the holy Ghost from the Sonne as thereby to make an inequality betwixt the two Persons But since their form of speech is That the holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father by the Sonne and is the Spirit of the Sonne without making any difference in the consubstantiality of the Persons their doctrine may passe with a favourable interpretation Thirdly our quickest sight in the matters of the Trinity is but one degree above blindnesse Wherefore as concerning it let our piety lodge there where in other disputes the deceit of sophisters used to nestle it self namely in universalibus in large and generall expressions and not descend to curious particulars To search into the manner of the Spirits procession is neither manners nor religion and rather falleth under an awfull adoration and belief then an exact and curious enquirie Lastly this their tenet doth not infect any other point in Divinity with its poysonous inferences Some errours are worse in their train then in themselves which as the Dragon in the Revelation drew down a third part of the starres with his tail by their bad consequences pervert other points of religion But this Grecian opinion as learned men propound it concerning the holy Ghost hath this happinesse that it is barren and begetteth no other bad tenets from it being entire in it self More may be alledged for the lessening of this errour But grant it in its full extent yet surely the moderate judgement of that learned Divine whose memory smelleth like a Field the Lord hath blessed will abide triall who in effect thus concludeth Their schismes are sinfull wicked and inexcusable their doctrine dangerous but not so damnable as excluding from all possibilitie of salvation As for the observation of a Schoolman That afterwards the Turks wonne Constantinople on Whitsunday the day dedicated to the memoriall of the holy Spirit as if God herein pointed at the sinne of the Grecians in dishonouring the holy Ghost we leave it to the readers discretion desiring rather to be scepticall then definitive in the causes of Gods judgements Chap. 6. A comparative estimate of the extent of the Greek and Latine Church What hope of reconcilement betwixt them The influence this breach had on the Holy warre IF that religion were surely the best which is of the greatest latitude and extent Surveyers of land were fitter then Divines to judge of the best religion Neither is it any matter of great moment to measure the greatnesse of either Church But because Rome maketh her Universality such a masterpiece to boast of let us see if the Greek Church may not outshoot her in her own bow If we begin with the Grecian Church in Africa under the Patriarch of Alexandria thence proceeding into Asia and fetch a compasse about Syria Armenia Asia the lesse with Cyprus Candie and other Islands in the mid-land-sea and so come into Grecia if hence we go into Russia and Muscovia who though differing in ceremonies dissent not in doctrine as a sundry dialect maketh not a severall language to take onely entire Kingdomes and omit parcels it is a larger quantity of ground then that the Romish religion doth stretch to since Luther cut so large a collop out of it and withdrew North-Europe from obedience to his Holinesse Perchance the Romanists may plead they have lately improved the patrimony of their religion by new purchases in both Indies But who knoweth not that those people
shaved as bare as their crowns and a poore Priest who had but twenty shillings annuall pension was forced to pay two yearly to the King And this by my Authour is made the cause of his following ill successe there being much extortion used by his under-officers No wonder then if the wings of that armie did quickly flag having so heavy a weight of curses hanging upon them And though money be the sinews of warre yet ill-gotten money like gouty sinews rather paineth then strengtheneth True it is that this pious King was no way guilty thereof but such as were under him and oftentimes the head doth ach for the ill vapours of the stomach He himself most princely caused to be proclaimed through his realm If any merchant or other had been at any time injured by the Kings exactours either by oppression or borrowing of money let him bring forth his bill shewing how and wherein and he should be recompensed How this was performed we find not but it was a good lenitive plaister to asswage the peoples pain for the present Having at Lyons took his leave of the Pope and a blessing from him he marched towards Avignon Where some of the city wronged his souldiers especially with foul language Wherefore his Nobles desired him that he would besiege the citie the rather because it was suspected that therein his father was poysoned To whom Lewis most Christianly I come not out of France to revenge my own quarrels or those of my father or mother but injuries offered to Jesus Christ. Hence he went without delay to his navie and committed himself to the sea Chap. 12. Lewis arriveth in Cyprus The conversion of the Tartarians hindred The treachery of the Templars SAiling forward with a prosperous wind he safely arrived in Cyprus where Alexius Lusignan King of the Island entertained him according to the stateliest hospitality Here the pestilence one of the ready attendants on great armies began to rage And though a French writer saith it was minax magis quà m funesta yet we find in others that two hundred and fourty Gentlemen of note died by force of the infection Hither came the Embassadours from a great Tartarian Prince but surely not from Cham himself invited by the fame of King Lewis his piety professing to him That he had renounced his Paganisme and embraced Christianity and that he intended to send messengers to Pope Innocent to be further instructed in his religion But some Christians which were in Tartary disswaded him from so doing left the Tartarians coming to Rome should behold the dissolutenesse of mens lives there and so refuse to suck the milk of sweet doctrine from so sowre and bitter nipples besmeared about with bad and scandalous conversation Yea never could the Christian religion be shewed to Pagans at any time on more disadvantages Grecians and Latines were at deadly feud amongst the Latines Guelfes and Gibellines sought to ruine each other Humility was every-where preached and pride practised They perswaded others to labour for heaven and fell out about earth themselves Their lives were contrary to their doctrines and their doctrines one to another But as for these Embassadours King Lewis received them very courteously dismissing them with bounteous gifts And by them he sent to their master a Tent wherein the history of the Bible was as richly as curiously depicted in needle-work hoping thus to catch his soul in his eyes and both in that glorious present Pictures being then accounted lay-mens books though since of many condemned as full of errata's and never set forth by authority from the King of heaven to be means or workers of faith Whilest Lewis stayed in Cyprus the Templars in the Holy land began to have his greatnesse in suspicion This Order as both the other of Hospitallers and Teutonicks though mown down to the bare roots at the last unfortunate battel yet now in three yeares space sprung up as populous as ever before their other brethren which lived in their severall Covents and Commandries over all Europe having now refurnished the houses in Palestine Now these Templars were loth King Lewis should come to Ptolemais though they counterfeited he should be very welcome there They formerly there had commanded in chief without controll and were unwilling having long sat in the saddle now to dismount and hold the stirrup to another Besides they would not have so neat and cleanly a guest see their sluttish houses fearing Lewis his piety would shame their dissolutenesse being one so godly in his conversation that by the preaching in his life he had converted many Saracens yea perchance he being a strict Disciplinarian would punish their vitious manners Wherefore they wrote to him out of Syria to accept of a peace with the Sultan of Egypt now offered and to proceed no further in warre against him The French King whose heart was ever open to any fair agreement and shut against any dishonourable suspicions had entertained the motion had not the King of Cyprus being more studied in the Templars treacheries better instructed him For he told him this was but a trick of their great Master who under-hand had sent to the Sultan and procured him to profer this peace onely for their own private ends for to divert the King from coming amongst them Lewis though the mildest and most patient of Princes yet not a drone which wanted the sting of anger commanded the Master of the Templars upon the price of his head thenceforward to receive no Embassage nor keep any intelligence with their enemy and resolved with himself to invade Egypt Chap. 13. The wise preparations of the Egyptians The valour of the French at their landing Damiata wonne BUt he stood so long in aiming that the bird saw him and had leisure to flie away and Meladine the Egyptian King to provide himself to make resistance Last time some thirty yeares before whē the Christians under John Bren invaded Egypt they were not impeached in their arrivall but suffered to land without any opposition But Meladine now was sensible of the discommodity in permitting his foes safely to come on shore For first they wasted spoiled the countrey the provision about them Secondly opportunity was given to male-contents and ill-disposed persons to flie to the enemie Lastly he found it most policie to keep the enemy off at arms end and to close at the last and not to adventure his Kingdome on the single die of a battel but rather to set it on a chance that so he might have the more play for it Wherefore he resolved to strengthen his maritime places and not suffer them to land though also herein he met with many difficulties For as nothing was more certain then that Lewis would set on Egypt so nothing more uncertain and because it was unknown at what time or place he would come all times and places were provided for This exhausted a masse of
a Lady of great perfection and of a Mahometane become a Christian at the request of his wife he besieged the citie Jerusalem and took it without resistance The Temple of our Saviour he gave to the Armenians Georgians and other Christians which flocked thick out of Cyprus there to inhabit But soon after his departure it fell back again to the Mammalukes of Egypt who enjoyed it till Selimus the great Turk anno 1517 overthrew the Empire of Mammalukes and seised Jerusalem into his hand whose successours keep it at this day Jerusalem better acquitteth it self to the eare then to the eye being no whit beautifull at all The situation thereoâ— is very uneven rising into hills and sinking into dales the lively embleme of the fortunes of the place sometimes advanced with prosperitie sometimes depressed in misery Once it was well compacted and built as a citie that is at unitie in it self but now distracted from it self the suspicious houses as if afraid to be infected with more miserie then they have alreadie by contiguousnesse to others keep off at distance having many waste places betwixt them not one fair street in the whole citie It hath a castle built as it is thought by the Pisans tolerably fortified Good guard is kept about the citie and no Christians with weapons suffered to enter But the deepest ditch to defend Jerusalem from the Western Christians is the remotenesse of it and the strongest wall to fense it is the Turkish Empire compassing it round about Poore it must needs be having no considerable commoditie to vent except a few beads of Holy earth which they pay too deare for that have them for the fetching There is in the citie a covent of Franciscans to whom Christians repair for protection during their remaining in the citie The Padre Guardian appointeth these Pilgrimes a Friar who sheweth them all the monuments about the citie Scarce a great stone which beareth the brow of reverend antiquitie that passeth without a peculiar legend upon it But every vault under ground hath in it a deep mysterie indeed Pilgrimes must follow the Friar with their bodies and belief and take heed how they give tradition the lie though she tell one never so boldly The survey finished they must pay the Guardian both for their victuals and their welcome and gratifie his good words and looks otherwise if they forget it he will be so bold as to remember them The Guardian farmeth the Sepulchre of the Turk at a yearly rent and the Turks which reap no benefit by Christs death receive much profit by his buriall and not content with their yearly rent squeeze the Friars here on all occasions making them pay large summes for little offenses The other subsistence which the Friars here have is from the benevolence of the Pope and other bountifull benefactours in Europe Nor getteth the Padre Guardian a little by his fees of making Knights of the Sepulchre of which Order I find some hundred yeares since Sr John Chamond of Lancels in Cornwall to have been dubbed Knight But I beleeve no good English subject at this day will take that honour if offered him both because at their creation they are to swear loyaltie to the Pope and King of Spain and because honours conferred by forrein Potentates are not here in England acknowledged neither in their style nor precedencie except given by courtesie Witnesse that famous case of the Count Arundel of Wardour and Queen Elisabeths peremptorie resolve That her sheep should be branded with no strangers mark but her own The land about it as Authours generally agree is barren Yet Brochard a Monk who lived here some two hundred yeares since commendeth it to be very fruitfull Sure he had better eyes to see more then other men could or else by a Syâ—eâ—doche he imputeth the fertilitie of parcels to the whole countrey But it is as false a consequence as on the other side to conclude from the basenesse of Bagshot-heath the barrennesse of all the Kingdome of England We may rather beleeve that since the fall of the Jews from Gods favour the once-supernaturall fertilitie of the land is taken away and the naturall strength thereof much abated and impaired Chap. 28. Whether it be probable that this Holy warre will ever hereafter be set on foot again THus we state the question Whether this Holy warre I mean for the winning of the citie of Jerusalem and recovering of Palestine will probably ever hereafter be projected and acted again We may beleeve this tragedie came off so ill the last acting that it will not be brought on the stage the second time 1. The Pope will never offer to give motion to it as knowing it unlikely to succeed Policies of this nature are like sleights of hand to be shewed but once lest what is admired at first be derided afterwards 2. Princes are grown more cunning and will not bite at a bait so stale so often breathed on The Popes ends in this warre are now plainly smelt out which though prettie and pleasing at first yet Princes are not now like the native Indians to be cozened with glasse and gaudie toyes The load-stone to draw their affection now out of non-age must present it self necessary profitable and probable to be effected 3. There is a more needfull work nearer hand to resist the Turks invasion in Europe Heark how the Grecians call unto us as once the man in the vision did to S. Paul Come over into Macedonia and help us Yea look on the Popes projects of the last Edition and we shall find the businesse of the Sepulchre buried in silence and the Holy warre running in another chanel against the Turks in Christendome 4. Lastly who is not sensible with sorrow of the dissensions better suiting with my prayers then my penne wherewith Christian Princes at this day are rent in sunder wounds so wide that onely Heavens chirurgerie can heal them Till which time no hope of a Holy warre against the generall and common foe of our Religion We may safely conclude that the regaining of Jerusalem and the Holy land from the Turks may better be placed amongst our desires then our hopes as improbable ever to come to passe except the Platonick yeare turning the wheel of all actions round about bring the spoke of this Holy warre back again Chap. 29. Of the many Pretenders of titles to the Kingdome of Ierusalem NO Kingdome in the world is challenged at this day by such an armie of Kings as this of Jerusalem It is sooner told what Princes of Europe do not then what do lay claim to it they be so many Take their names as I find them in the Catalogue of Stephen a Cypriot 1 The Emperour of the East 2 The Patriarch of Ierusalem 3 The Lusignans Kings of Cyprus 4 Emfred Prince of Thorone 5 Conrade de la-Rame Marquesse of Montferrat 6 The Kings of England 7 His Holinesse 8 The
senselesse ignorant profession it is not able to go to the cost of a controversie And all colours may well agree in the dark Next the strength followeth the wealth yea it is part thereof For all rich Kingdomes may be strong and purchase artificiall fortification The certain and constant revenues of the great Turk are not great if withall we consider the spatiousnesse of his Dominions Some have mounted his ordinarie yearly in-come to eight millions of gold But men guesse by uncertain aim at Princes revenues especially if they be so remote We may beleeve that in their conjecture herein though they misse the mark they hit the butt Farre greater might his intrado be if husbandrie and chiefly merchandise were plied in his countrey merchants being the Vena porta of a Kingdome without which it may have good limbes but emptie veins and nourish little Now although this Empire be of a vast extent having many safe harbours to receive strangers there and Staple commodities chiefly if industrie were used to allure them thither yet hath it in effect but foure prime places of trading Constantinople Cairo Aleppo and Tauris As for the extraordinarie revenues of the Grand Signor by his escheats and other courses if he pleaseth to take them they are a Nemo scit For in effect he is worth as much as all his subjects or slaves rather throughout his whole Empire are worth his spunges to squeeze at pleasure But the Lion is not so fierce as he is painted nor this Empire so formidable as fame giveth it out The Turks head is lesse then his turbant and his turbant lesse then it seemeth swelling without hollow within If more seriously it be considered this State cannot be strong which is a pure and absolute tyrannie His subjects under him have nothing certain but this That they have nothing certain and may thank the Grand Signor for giving them whatsoever he taketh not away from them Their goods they hold by permission not proprietie not sure that either they or theirs shall reap what they sow or eat what they reap and hereupon husbandrie is wholly neglected For the plowman as well as the ground he ploweth will be soon out of heart if not maintained and as I may say composted with hopes to receive benefit by his labours Here great officers if they love themselves must labour not to be beloved for popularitie is high treason and generally wealth is a sinne to be expiated by death In a word it is a cruel tyrannie bathed in the bloud of their Emperours upon every succession a heap of vassals and slaves no Nobles except for time being by office no Gentlemen no Free-men no inheritance of land no Stirp or ancient families a nation without any moralitie arts and sciences that can scarce measure an acre of land or houre of a day And needeth not that Kingdome constant and continued pointing which is cemented with fear not love May we not justly think that there be many in this Empire which rather wait a time then want desire to overthrow it For though some think the Grecians in Turkie bear such inveterate hate to the Latine Christians that they would rather refuse deliverance then accept them for their deliverers yet surely both they and perchance some native Turks out of that principle of desiring libertie the second rule next preserving life in the charter of Nature would be made if this Empire were seriously invaded so that the foundation thereof did totter sooner to find two hands to pluck it down then one finger to hold it up And we have just cause to hope that the fall of this unweldie Empire doth approch It was high noon with it fiftie yeares ago we hope now it draweth neare night the rather because luxurie though late yet at last hath found the Turks out or they it When first they came out of Turcomania and were in their pure naturals they were wonderfully abstemious neglecting all voluptuousnesse not so much out of a dislike as ignorance of it But now having tasted the sweetnesse of the cup they can drink as great a draught as any others That Paradise of corporall pleasure which Mahomet promised them in the world to come they begin to anticipate here at leastwise to take an earnest of it and have well soked themselves in luxurie Yea now they begin to grow covetous both Prince and people rather seeking to enjoy their means with quiet then enlarge them with danger Heaven can as easily blast an oak as trample a mushrome And we may expect the ruine of this great Empire will come for of late it hath little increased its stock and now beginneth to spend of the principall It were arrant presumption for Flesh to prescribe God his way or to teach him when he meaneth to shoot which arrow in his quiver to choose Perchance the Western Christians or the Grecians under him though these be better for seconds then firsts fitter to foment then raise a faction or his own Janizaries or the Persian or the Tartarian or some other obscure Prince not as yet come into play in the World shall have the lustre from God to maul this great Empire It is more then enough for any man to set down the fate of a single soul much more to resolve the doom of a whole nation when it shall be These things we leave to Providence to work and posteritie to behold As for our generation let us sooner expect the dissolutions of our own Microcosmes then the confusion of this Empire For neither are own sinnes yet truly repented of to have this punishment removed from us nor the Turks wickednesse yet come to the full ripenesse to have this great judgement laid upon them Soli Deo gloria The Preface to the Chronologie HErein I present the Reader with a generall view and synopsis of the whole story of the age of the Holy Warre that he may see the coherence betwixt the East and the West and in what equipage and correspondency of time the Asian affairs go on with those of Europe for they will reflect a mutuall lustre and plainnesse on one another The Chronologie is marshalled into Ranks Files The Ranks or transverse spaces contain twentie yeares on a side the Files or columnes directly downward are appropriated to those severall States whose name they bear In the six first columnes I have followed Helvicus with an implicite faith without any remarkable alteration both in ingraffing of yeares and making them concurre as also leaving sometimes emptie spaces In the other columnes I have followed severall authours and left the yeares unnoted where the time was uncertain counting it better to bring in an Ignoramus then to find a verdict where the evidence was doubtfull and obscure Such long notes as would not be imprisoned within the grates of this Chronology we have referred by asterisks to the foot of the page Know that every note belongeth to that yeare wherein it beginneth except signed with