By this diuision of Romulus the three hundred yong men of his garde called Celeres did not onely accomplish his commands in matters concerning the ciuill estate and gouernement of the Citty but they had also the managing of military affaires so as when the King intended to rayse an army it was needelesse for him to create Tribunes oner the Tribes decurions ouer the wards or gouernors and praefects of his horse men but it was inough for him to commande the Tribunes and they the centurions and then the Decurious by their instructions were to bring forth such souldiors as they thought fittest for that purpose by which meanes they would be altogether in redinesse at an instant He elected also a thousand fighting-men which as some write he called Milites because they were a thousand in number And then the more to shew his Maiesty and to bee thought more honorable in the eyes of his people hee ascribed and tooke vnto him-selfe tytles markes and ornaments of Empire and honour as to goe in sumpteous attyre and to haue euer going before him twelue Sergeants or Ministers of execution which hee called Lictores carying euery one a bunch of rods in their hand In ordering these Sergeants or executioners to march before him it may seeme his intent was by them being in number twelue to represent the twelue Augures or south sayers which told him by diuination and coniectures of things to come which manner of diuiners he called Vultures though some bee of opinion that in that ceremony he immitated the Hetrussi or Tuscans who being Twelue sorts of people in number when by generall consent they elected a cheefe Magistrate that should haue the soueraigntie ouer them euery one of those twelue Trybes or sorts of people would present vnto their gouernor such a Sergant Bedell ot apparytor to make way before him and to bee euer in redinesse for execution of any project from whence likewise were vndoubtedly deryued the little Chariots with chaires of estate in them wherein the Romaine Kings vsed to ride their kirtles or robes which they wore vnder their mantles of estate and all their other ensignes and ornaments of honour Now Romulus the better to settle secure and strengthen the state of this Citty invented and deuised this honest pretence and stratagem following intending it wholy to the honour of his Gods for he erected and builded vp a Temple or Church in a darke and shadowed place into which if any stranger did fly and take sanctuary hee would vndertake and secure them in argument of the awe and reuerence he bore vnvnto his Gods that their enemies should not wronge molest or disturbe them promising further that if they would stay with him hee would make them partakers of the priuileges of his Citty and giue them a portion of the ground which hee had gotten by the warrs to liue vpon Then did hee make an institution that no citty gotten by the sword should bee vtterly ruinated and destroyed or brought into bondage and slavery but that there should bee colonies and competent companies of people sent thither from Rome answerable to the quantity of ground so gotten there to inhabite and dwell and that those conquered Citties should bee accounted as vnder Citties vnto Rome and within the compasse of the common-weale But after the death of Titus Tatius which whome Romulus raigned fiue yeares both ouer the Sabinians and the Romaines who were then vnited together into one people hee began to bee more religious and instituted diuers new statutes and decrees as well priuat as publike first hee made a law concerning Matrimony that the wife should haue equall power with her husband ouer all their mony and goods and as much authority in their sacrifices and that shee should liue in as good sort as her husband and be called Mistris ouer the house as well as he Maister and that if hee dyed without Issue his wife should succeed him and inherite all his goods and possessions and if hee left children behinde him yet shee should haue an equall share with them That if shee were conuicted of adultery it should bee lawfull for her husband or his kinsfolke to kill her and that if she drinke any wine at her owne house shee should bee punished as an adultresse by meanes of which institution arose this custome amongst the Romaines that the husbands when they had beene a broade and came home to their houses should imbrace and kisse their wiues and daughters of purpose as Fortius Cato interpreteth it to smell whether they had drunke any wine thereby approuing that as corruption is the beginning of madnesse and frenzie so is drunkennesse the forerunner of rottennesse and corruption Then hee ordayned that parents should haue full power ouer their children to dispose of them as they pleased to restrayne and keepe them vnder to beate them and bynde them and set them to all drudgery yea it was lawfull for them to slay them or sell them for slaues and if any were sold by his father and of him selfe regained his liberty his father might sell him againe and againe after that if hee were so disposed The contents of this law was three hundred yeares after the institution thereof written in twelue tables but yet the rigor and authority was first mitigated and abridged by Numa Pompilius next King to Romulus for he ordained that if the sonne did marry by his fathers consent all the authority his father had ouer him before was then extinct from this seuere law Romulus proceeded to other ordinances establishing that no free-man should exercise any arte or occupation wherein his worke was done sitting as Taylers Shoomakers Scriueners c. and that the Cittizens should practise themselues in husbandry as well as in martiall discipline whereby in after-times it was a great commendation for one to be accounted both a good souldier and a good husbandman for the King thought it a point of great imperfection in any man to be ignorant in either of these exercises but that to be skilfull in manuring and tilling the ground and expert in feats of armes should inseperably go together according to the law of the Lacedemonians and in time of peace his will was that they should wholy giue themselues to husbandry permitting them notwithstanding to buy and make prouision of such things they wanted when necessity constrained them therevnto And in argument that hee was not vnmindfull of matters of religion hee ordained and made Temples Altars and Images of the gods adding there-vnto festiuall dayes and times of solemnity oblations sacrifices holydayes fayres and martes wherein as well to buy any thing they wanted as also to vnderstand their lawes and many other things pertaining to the honor of their gods excluding notwithstanding out of the cittie all forraine and out-landish sacrifices and especially those which were solemnized after the ceremonies of the Greekes those onely excepted which were dedicated and celebrated
Synai where the Lord spake vnto Moyses saying Moyses Moyses put off thy shooes from thy feet because the ground wherevpon thou standest is holy ground and this Mount Synai is the mother of our Churches from whom they tooke their beginning as the Apostles did from the prophets and the New Testament from the Old Furthermore it is not lawfull for Lay-men or Clergy or for any other person of what condition soeuer hee bee after hee hath receiued the blessed Sacrament of the Altar to spit or cast from the morning till the sunne setting and if any doe spit hee is seuerely punished Also in memory of Christs Baptisme wee be all euery yeere baptised vpon the feast day of the Epiphanie of our Lord and this we doe not that we beleeue that it pertaineth to our saluation but for the laude praise and glory of our Sauiour neither doe wee celebrate any other feast more solemly or bountifully with shewes plaies and ceremonies then wee doe this because vpon this day the holy Trinity did first manifestly appeare when our Lord Iesus Christ was baptised in the riuer of Iordan when the holy Ghost descended vpon his head in forme of a Doue and a voice proclayming from Heauen This is my beloued Sonne in whom I am well pleased which holy Ghost appearing in forme of a white Doue appeared in shew and figure of the Father and Sonne in one Diuinity In like manner Christ was seene of the holy Prophets in many similitudes formes and likenesses first in forme of a white Ram for the preseruation of Isaack the Sonne of Abraham And in like manner hee named Iacob Israel and Iacob Iudas the Lions whelpe to whom hee gaue power ouer his other brethren saying thou didest rise vp my sonne to the prey and when thou didest rest thou didest lie still like a Lion and Lionesse who shall raise him vp Hee also manifested himselfe to Moyses in Mount Synai in forme of a flame of fire hee shewed himselfe to the holy Prophet Daniel in similitude of a Rocke hee appeared also to Ezechiell the Sonne of Man and to Isaias in likenesse of an infant he declared himselfe to King Dauid and to Gedeon like a frost vpon a fleese of wool and besides these similitudes recited hee was seene of his holy Prophets in many other formes and notwithstanding hee was seene in so many sundrie formes yet hee alwaies represented the similitude of the Father and of the holy Ghost And when GOD created the world hee said Let vs make man according to our similitude and likenesse and hee made Adam after his owne similitude and likenesse wherfore wee say that the Father Sonne and holy Ghost are three countenances in one similitude and diuinity Wee haue receiued circumcision euer from the time of Queene Saba which wee obserue vntill this day The proper name of this Queene Saba was Maqueda who was a worshipper of Idoles after the manner of her auncestors into whose eares when the fame of the wisdome of Solomon was entred shee sent a certaine wise man vnto Ierusalem to finde out the truth and to certifie her of the wisdome of that King who beeing returned and shewing the truth vnto her shee sodainely prouided her selfe to take her iourney towardes Ierusalem and when shee was thither come besides many other things which King Solomon taught her shee learned the law and the prophets and returning into her country hauing obtained libertie to depart in her iourney shee brought forth a sonne which was gotten by a King whom she called Meilech and him the Queene brought vp with her selfe in Aethiopia vntill hee was 20. yeers of age and then sent him back vnto Solomon his father that of him he might learne vnderstanding and wisdom desiting by her letters that he would consecrate and make his Sonne Meilech King of Aethiopi a before the Arke of the couenant of the will or testament of the Lord and that from thence-forth women should gouerne no more in Aethiopia as then the custome was but that the male children should lineally succeed in the Kingdome When Meilech came to Ierusalem he easily obtained of his father his mothers requests for Meilech was called Dauid whom when he was sufficiently instructed in the law in other disciplines his father Solomon determined to send him back to his mother decked in gallāt attire and furniture fit for a King and the more to shew his bounty he gaue vnto him noble followers companions and the sonnes of great men who should serue him as their King Moreouer he decreed to send with him Azarias the high priest the sonne of Zadoch the high priest likewise which when Azarias vnderstood he exhorted Dauid that he would intreat liberty of his father for him to sacrifice for good successe in their iourney before the Arke of the couenant of the Lord which beeing obtained of Solomon Azarias as sodainely and as secretly as he could caused tables to be hewen and squared like vnto the tables of the Testament of the Lord and when they were perfected he went to sacrifice and in the time of sacrifice hee priuily and very cunningly stole the true tables of the couenant of the Lord from the Arke and set in there places the counterfeit tables which hee brought with him without the priuity of any man butonly God and himself This declaration wee Aethiopians receiue as most holy and most approued as by the History of the same King Dauid which is most pleasant to read doth appeare the volume of which History is full as thicke as all Saint Paules Epistles When Dauid was come into the borders of Aethiopia Azarias entred into his tent disclosed and reuealed vnto him that which thetherto hee had kept secret to himself that is to say that he had the Tables of the couenāt of the Lord which whē Dauid vnderstood he ran hastily to the tent where Azarias had the tables of the couenāt of the Lord and there in imitation of King Dauid his grand-father he began to daunce for exceeding ioy before the Arke wherein the tables were which when the people saw and vnderstanding the matter they all of them in like manner exulted with mirth and great ioy And then Dauid passing through much part of Aethiopia came lastly to his mother who forth-with yeelded vp into his hands the gouernment of all the prouinces laying vpon his shoulders the whole care of the Kingdome And from that time euen vntill this day being almost the space of two thousand and sixe hundred yeeres the Kingdome of Aethiopia hath lineally descended from male heire to male heire and since that time wee obserue the law of the Lord and circumcision as before is said and likewise since that time hitherto the offices which Solomon ordained for his sonne Dauid for the guiding of his Court are kept and obserued in the same order and families as they were at that time neither hath the Emperor himselfe power to assigne others of other kinreds to
time liued very moderately and sparingly their children frequented those meetings and assemblies which they called Greges And their young men when they came to mans estate haunted and celebrated publike feastes practising feates of armes for the good and generall commoditie of the Common-wealth and exercising and inuring their bodies in their youth to all kind of labour and extremitie whatsoeuer as heate and cold stormes and tempests both by sea and by land to runne through thicke woods and vn-euen pathes to prouoke and stirre vppe brawles and contentions in places appoynted for their exercises To bee skilfull and experienced in shooting and darting and vsually to practise and frequent a certaine forme of dancing in armour and weapons inuented by Pyrrhus and therefore called the Pyrrichan dancing or vaulting in which dancing they vsed to bow and bend their bodies the better to shunne and auoide weapons and wounds Their garments were short Clokes or Cassockes and soldiers shooes and they esteemed of weapons and armour as most rare and pretious gifts Moreouer they were so skilfull and expert in sea-faring matters as that it was an vsuall Prouerbe if one dissembled that hee knew not that which hee knew right well to say No more is a man of Creete acquainted with the Sea All Marriages were made and solemnized betwixt equals and it was lawfull and tolerable for Virgins to chuse and elect them husbands out of that troupe of young men But the custome was that their husbands should not take them from their fathers houses before they were fit to gouerne an house and play the good hous-wiues at home And their dower was if they had any brother the one halfe of the patrimonie Children by their law were instructed in learning singing and musicke and brought to the Feastes called Syssitia where men were assembled and there made to sitte downe vppon the ground apparelled in base attire and to fall out and brawle amongst themselues and the boy of the best courage was made captaine ouer the whole companie And euery one as hee was of power got the most companions vppon his side Then would they go a hunting and practise running And vppon certaine dayes the whole companie of children were put together and taught to sing to the pipe and harpe as is vsed in warres Some report that the custome of this countrey-people was to note their luckie and fortunate dayes with a white stone and their dismall and vnhappie dayes with a blacke though other-some ascribe this custome to the Thracians Of Thrace and of the barbarous manners of the people of Thrace CAP. 5. THRACIA which is now called Romania is a Region of Europe and accounted as part of Scythia It lyeth next vnto Macedonia on the one side hauing vppon the North the riuer Ister the seas called Pontus and Propontis vpon the East and the sea Aegaeum on the South It was once called Scython and after that Thracia of Thrax the sonne of Mars or else of the peoples rudenesse and barbarous manners for the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth rudenesse and inciuilitie This Countrey as Pomponius writeth hath neither fruitfull soyle nor temperate ayre vnlesse in some places nearest vnto the sea side for it is maruellous cold and hardly bringeth foorth any fruite that is planted or sowed for there be few trees which yeeld any increase at all and though they haue many vines yet the grapes neuer ripen and come to perfection vnlesse they be couered with leaues to keepe the ayre and cold from them The Citties of Thrace which heretofore were of greatest fame and renowne were Apollonia Aenos Nicopolis and Bizantium which was afterwards called Constantinopole of the Emperour Constantine who reedified and inlarged it making it the chiefest seate of his most glorious Empire and the head Cittie of all the East Perinthos also Lysimachia and Calliopolis The chiefest riuers are Hebrus Nessus and Strymon and the greatest and highest hilles Haemus Rhodope and Orbelus The countrey is very populous and the people very fierce and barbarous in such manner as if they were all subiect vnto the gouernement of one man or that they were all of one mind they were then as Herodotus the father of Histories is of opinion a people inuincible and the most valiant of al Nations but because this is too hard a matter to bee hoped for and too vnpossible to be expected therefore be they weake and of little force In Thrace be many and diuers Regions distinguished by seuerall names but all of them indued with like manners and opinions the Getae and Transi onely excepted and the people that dwell aboue Crestonae of which three sorts of people the Getae are of opinion that they shall neuer die but that after their departure out of this lyfe they goe instantly vnto Zamolxis their god This Zamolxis was once the Disciple of Pythagoras who vppon his returne into Thrace perceiuing how rudely vnciuilly and sottishly the Thracians liued hee himselfe beeing formerly instructed of the manner of gouernement in Ionia taught and furnished them with manners lawes and ciuill institutions and after perswaded them that those which kept and obserued his lawes and ordinances iustly and as they ought should after their deaths come vnto him into a place where he would stay for them and that there they should euer liue and enioy his presence all other things that good were by which meanes hauing setled in them a conceit of his god-head he withdrew himselfe from their sight and vanishing away they knew not whether left thē in a great desire and longing after him And vnto this Zamolxis their god do the people as yet send messengers the manner of which superstition is thus first they elect by lot one to vndergoe that businesse and putting him into a ship furnished with fiue watermen or owers they instruct him in those things which they cheefly want and which he shall desire of their God so send him away Then doe they giue charge vnto the mariners that some of them shal hold three darts or iauelins vpright and the rest to take the messenger that is sent to Zamolxis by the legges and armes and to hoise and tosse him vp vpon their pikes or iauelin points then if he die sodenly they imagine that their god is appeased and well pleased with them but if he die not instantly but languish and linger long then they accuse the messenger as a wicked and lewde fellow Whom after they haue accused and blamed they forthwith send an other giuing vnto him the like charge vnto the first These Thracian Getae when it lightens and thunders shoot arrowes and fling dartes vp towards heauen menacing and threatning as it were reuenging themselues of God and for that they beleeue that there is no other God in deed but theirs The Trausi agree with the Thracians in all other things sauing onelie concerning their birthes and deathes wherein this is their order As soone as a child is borne into
and thereof conuicted he dyeth for it yet not with such a death as any one should lay violent hands vpon him but by common consent hee is shut vp in some close place from the sight and company of all men and there famished to death This people bee generally addicted to husbandry and hunting of Tygers and Elephants for other common beasts they little regarde and some delight in fishing for shell fishes the shells weereof bee so bigge as one shell will make a house sufficient to containe a whole family The greater part of this Iland is burned with the heate of the Sunne and is therefore desert vppon the side of the Iland beateth a sea that is very greene They esteeme much of gold whereof and of all sorts of precious stones they garnish and beautifie their pots They haue great store of Marbles and Margarites and very bigge ones And these bee the people countries and nations whose manners customes and institutions are commended vnto vs by Historiographers and which by any meanes I could collect out of them yet I confesse there be many other which I haue eyther wholy omitted or lightly passed ouer because I could not write more of them than I found in other Authors hauing neuer by trauelling into those parts beene eye witnesse of them my selfe nor could otherwise attaine to the perfect knowledge thereof neyther doe I thinke it possible for mee or any man else to know and declare the manners of all nations but God onely to whom nothing is hidden nor nothing vnpossible for hee onely it is that first laide the foundation of the earth it was hee that first founded the depth and bottome of the sea and pointed vnto vs the passages through the deepe hee onely it is that so bountifully hath bestowed vpon vs wealth dignities honor and riches and all other commodities necessary for our beeing and hee it is that hath allotted vnto euery one his profession and course of life wherein to imploy himselfe for some hee hath ordained to bee husbandmen permitting then to growe wealthy by vnripping the bowels of the earth to some others hee hath giuen the sea wishing them to prouide their liuings some by fishing and some by merchandize some others he hath addicted to the study of Sciences and Philosophie that thereby they may attaine to honor and estimation and some others he hath put in places of authority to gouerne and praecede the rest And therefore it is no maruell that all men are not of one condition nor of one nature nor yet indued with like manners seeing wee perceiue such difference and variety in kingdomes and countries as that one country produceth white people an other swaithy an other tawny and some cleane black or like vnto flowers which grow in Assyria and euen so hath God appointed that people should be of variable mindes and dispositions as other things are and that euery one should rest contented with that course of life that God hath appointed for him FINIS The manners of diuerse nations collected out of the workes of NICHOLAS DAMASCEN THE Thyni which bee a people of Thrace receiue such as haue suffered shipwracke or fallen into pouerty by their owne defaults very courteously and friendly and all strangers likewise which come willingly vnto them are highly honored but those which come perforce whether they will or no are as seuerely punished The Aritoni kill no kinde of beast they haue their Oracles written in lots which they keepe in golden couers The Dardani a people of Illyrium bee washed onely three times in all their liues that is to say when they bee borne when they be marryed and when they lye a dying The Galactophagi a people of Scythia liue not in houses as most of the other Scythians doe their sustenance consisteth for the most part of Mares milke which serueth them both for meat and drinke They bee seldome ouer-come in battaile for that their prouision of victuals is in euery place and at all turnes in readinesse This people forced Darius to returne home without conquest they bee maruellous iust one towards an other as hauing both wiues and wealth in common to all they salute old men by calling them their fathers the yong men their children and their equals brethren of this people was Anacharsis one of the seuen wise men who came into Greece to learne the laws ordinances of other nations Homer remembreth this people where he saith the Mysi fight nigh at hand the Agaui milke Mares and the Galactophagi and Abij be most iust men And the reason why he calleth them Abij is either because they would not till the earth or for that they liued without houses or else because they onely vsed bowes in the warres for a bow of the Poets is often called Bios there is not one amongst them all as is reported that is either stirred with enuy swelled with hatred or striken with feare by reason of their exceeding great Iustice and communitie of all things The women there be as warlike as the men and go with them to the warres when need requireth and therefore it may well be true that the Amazons be women of such valerous and generous spirits as that they went forth with an army vnto Athens and Scicily at such time as their abode was about the poole of Maeotis The women of Iberia do once euery yeare being their whole yeares worke into an open and publicke place in presence of all the people where certaine men be elected by voyces as Iudges to censure of their labours and those which by them are adiudged most laborious are most honored and in highest estimation they haue also a girdle of a certaine measure within the compasse wherof if the belly of any will not bee comprehended they be thereby much disgraced The Vmbrici in their battels against their enimies hold it vnfitting for the vanquished to suruiue and that it is necessary eyther to ouer-come the enemy or to bee slaine themselues This people when any controuersie happeneth amongst themselues fight armed as if they made warre against their open enimies and hee which killeth his aduersary in fight is supposed to haue the iustest cause The Celtae a people inhabiting neere the Ocean account it a disgrace for any one to withdraw himselfe or leane his body to a wall or house when any inundation commeth towards them from the sea they arme themselues to meete the floud and make resistance vntill they be drowned neuer retiring back nor shewing the least feare of death any manner of way They weare their swords aswell when they bee occupied in the affaires of their common-wealth as in the warres and a greater punishment is infllicted vpon those which kill strangers then Cittizens for the first is punished with death the other with banishment And those aboue all others bee most honoured which atchiuing any victory haue thereby purchased any ground for their publicke vse the
country fertill and fruitfull Egypt of many is accounted amongst the number of Ilands The riuer Nylus so deuiding it that it proportioneth the whole country into a triangular forme insomuch that of many it is called Delta for the resemblance it hath vnto that Greeke letter The Egiptians were the first that fained the names of twelue gods they erected Altars Idols and Temples and figured liuing creatures in stones all which things doe plainely argue that they had their originall from the Aethiopians who were the first Authors of all these things as Diodorus Siculus is of opinion Their women were wonte in times past to doe businesse abroad to keepe tauernes and victualling houses and to take charge of buying and selling and the men to knit within the walles of the citty they bearing burthens vpon their heads and the women vppon their shoulders the women to pisse standing and the men sitting all of them for the most part ryoting and banquetting abroad in open wayes and exonerating and disburdening their bellyes at home No woman there taketh vppon her the order of Priest-hood of any god or goddesse They enter not into religion to any of their gods one by one but in companies of whom one is their Bishoppe or head and hee beeing dead his sonne is elected in his steede The male children ayde and succour theyr parents by the custome of their country freely and willingly and daughters are forced to doe it if they bee vnwilling The fashion of most men in funerall exequies is to rend the hayres off theyr heads and to suffer their beards to growe vncutte but the Aegyptians did let their lockes growe long and shaue their beards short they kneaded theyr Dowe with theyr feete and made morter with their hands Theyr custome was as the Greekes were of opinion to circumcise them-selues and their children they write theyr letters from the right hand to the left and men wore two garments the women but one they had two sorts of letters the one prophane the other holy but both of them deriued from the Aethiopians The Priests shaued their bodyes euery third day least they should hap to bee polluted with any filthe when they did sacrifice they wore paper shooes and linnen vestiments euer new washed and alleagded that they were circumcised for no other cause but for cleanlinesse sake for that it is better to bee cleane then comely The Aegyptians sowed no Beanes nor would eate any that grew in other countries and their Priests were precisely prohibited the sight of them as beeing an vncleane kinde of graine The Priests washed them-selues in colde water thrise in the day time and twise in the night The heads of their oblations they eate not but cursing them with bitter execrations eyther sould them to strange Marchants factors or if none would buy them they would throw them into the riuer of Nylus their sacrifices were with oxen and calues that were very cleane It was not lawfull for the women to doe sacrifice no though they were consecrated to their God Isis They liued of meate made of a certaine corne which they call Wheate and drinke wine made of Barley for grapes there are none growing in that country They eate raw fish dried at the Sunne and some powdred in brine and birds also but altogether rawe but the richer sort feed vpon Quailes and Duckes When many are assembled together at meat and that they be arose from dinner or supper one of them caryeth about vpon a little Beere or Chest the picture of a dead body eyther made of wood or else much resembling a dead corpes in painting and workmanship of a cubite or two cubits long and shewing it vnto euery one of the guests saith vnto them In your drinkings and meriments behold this spectacle for such shall you bee when you are dead Yong people bow and giue place to their elders when they meete them in the way and arise from their seates to such as come to them wherein they agree with the Lacedemonians Those which incounter in the wayes salute one another with congee below the knee They are clothed as I haue said with linnen garments fringed about the legges which they call Cassilirae ouer which they we are a little short white garment like a cloake as it were cast ouer the other for wollen garments are so contemned as they are neither worne in temples nor serue for winding sheetes Now because all those famous men which haue heeretofore excelled in any one kinde of learning or mystery and which haue constituted and left behinde them lawes and ordinances for other nations to liue by went first vnto the Aegyptians to learne their manners lawes and wisdome in which they excelled all nations of the earth as Orpheus and after him Homer Musaeus Melampodes Dedalus Licurgus the Spartane Solon the Athenian Plato the Philosopher Pythagoras of Samos and Zamolzis his disciple Eudoxus also the Mathematitian Democritus of the cittie of Abdera Inopides of Chios Moses the Hebrew and many others as the Aegiptian Priests make bragges are contained in their sacred bookes I thinke it very conuenient to spend some little time further in describing the manner of liuing of the Aegiptians that it may bee knowne what one or more things euery one of those worthy men haue taken from the Aegyptians and transported into other countries for as Phillippus Beroaldus writeth vpon Apuleus Asse there be many things translated from the religion of the Aegiptians into the Christian religion as the linnen vestments the shauing of Priests crownes the turning about in the Altar the sacrificiall pompe the pleasant tuning notes of musick adorations prayers and many other more like ceremonies The Egiptian Kings as Diodorus Siculus writeth in his second booke were not so licencious as other Kings whose will standeth for a law but followed the institutions and lawes of the country both in gathering money and in their life and conuersations There was none of any seruile condition whether hee were bought with money or borne in that country that was admitted to waite and attend vpon the King nor any other but onely the sonnes of the worthiest Priests and those aboue the age of twenty yeares and excelling others in learning to the end that the King beeing mooued at the sight of his seruants both day and night attending vpon his person should commit nothing vnfit to be done by a King for seldome doe the rich and mighty men become euill if they want ministers to foster them in their euill desires There were certaine howers appointed euery day and night wherein by the permission of their lawe the King might confer with others The King at his rising receaueth all the letters and supplications that bee sent or brought vnto him and then pausing and considering a while what is to be don he giueth answer to euery suter in order as they came so as all things bee done in their due
long obseruation the course of the stars by whose speculatiō they prophesied of mens future fortunes They imagined the planets to be of great power and especially Saturne supposing the sunne to be of most beauty and of greatest vertue and that Mars Venus Mercury and Iupiter were to be obserued more then the rest for that they hauing each one his proper and peculiar motion foreshewed things to come and were the true interpreters of the gods And of this they were so fully perswaded as they called these foure stars al by the name of Mercury They foretold many things to come both hole-some and hurtful by winds shewers heate comets eclipse of Sunne Moone earthquakes and by sundry other signes and prodigies besides And they imagined that there were other stars subiect inferior to these planets of which some wandred in our Hemisphere and some in that which is vnder vs besides this they held the like error that the Aegiptians did and fained to themselues twelue gods attributing vnto each of them a month a signe in the Zodiake They prophesied of many things that should happen to their Kings as foreshewing to Alexander the victory he should haue in the fight with Darius to Hircanor Seleucus and to other successors of Alexander and many things after that to the Romaine successors whose euents proued true They write also of foure and twenty other stars whereof twelue be beyond the Zodiake towards the North and the other twelue towards the South of which those which appeare to our view they suppose to haue dominion ouer the liuing and the other to pertaine to those which be dead These things other circumstances haue those Chaldeans set forth to mens sight as they haue noted by long obseruation alleaging that this their doctrine hath continued for the space of three and forty thousand yeers from the first inuentiō therof to the reigne of Alexander which allegation of theirs were a very grosse impudent fable vnlesse we should interprete that the time of each yeere were but a month as was amongst the Aegiptians Of Iudaea and of the customs lawes and institutions of the Iewes CAP. 4. PAlestine which is also called Iudaea is a perticular Prouince of Syria sytuated betwixt Caelosiria and Arabia Petrea vpon the West it is washed with the Aegiptian sea and vpon the East with the riuer of Iordan This land the bookes of holy Bible and Iosephus their imitator called Canaan a land abounding with many riches as hauing plenty of fruites famous waters and being well furnished with balme It is scituated in the very middle of the world and is therefore very temperate neither to hot nor to cold which for the temperature of the elements the Israelites or Hebreues being a very ancient people and with whom alone from the first Creation of mankinde the knowledge and worship of the Heauenly and true God and the first forme of speech remained esteemed to be that which was promised by God to their fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob a land flowing with milke and hony And therefore in the fortith yeere after the children of Israells departure out of Aegipt vnder the conduct of their valiant captaine Iosua they obtained the dominion thereof by force of their armes vanquishing and expelling one and thirty Kings which raigned in that Contry The Israelites retaine and liue vnder those laws which they receiued frō Moses their first captain althogh for many ages before Moses daies they liued without written law with great deuotion sanctity obtayning the truth by diuine Oracles and by the acutenesse magnanimity of their mindes and vnderstandings yet that great diuine Moses thought that no City could long continue in safety without the practise of law and equity And therefore when by rewarding the good punishing the wicked he had sufficiently exhorted his people to imbrace vertue and eschew vice he proposed vnto them other lawes and ciuel ordinances founded vpon those ten chiefe heads and grounds of lawes pronounced by God himselfe in mount Sina written in two Tables of which lawes being so many as they alone wold be sufficiēt matter to fill a whole volume I will onely touch those which be most worthy of remēbrance they that desire to know the rest let them read Iosephus the bookes of the Bible First Moses ordained that young children as soone as they were able to conceiue should bee instructed in the lawes seeing they contained in them the best kind of discipline That whosoeuer blasphemed the name of God should hang all a whole day be cast out at night without burial That no sacrifice should be solemnized vvith money gotten by whoredome That there should be 7. chiefe gouernors in euery city which were most noted for Iustice vvisdom that two of the leuitical Priests shold sit in iudgment with them if in discerning cōtrouersies the Iudges would not condiscēd to that which vvas right the vvhole matter should be decided by the discretion of the Priest Elder That the testimony of one man should not be currant to conuince an other of any crime nor yet of tvvo vnlesse their honesties vvere approued but the testimonie of three should stand and yet neither slaue nor woman should be sufficient witnesse because in one the basenesse of his fortune in the other the weaknesse and lightnesse of her sexe might rightly bee suspected that the fruite of trees new set or planted should not bee medled withall before the fourth yeere and that then they should pay for tithes the tenth part of the increase That neighbours and strangers should haue some part also and that the residue should remaine to him that planted them That they should sow cleane seed vpon their grounds and not mingled because the land would not like with seed of two sorts That trauellers should not bee restrained and interdicted from fruites but that they might gather as much as they pleased and their present necessity required and that if they were ashamed to take it the owners should offer it vnto them That the woman that gained vnlawfully or married her selfe to an other besides her lawfull husband should not bee regarded as a wife That shee that was supposed to bee a Virgine and was found defiled in her bodie with any man and conuicted of the crime should either bee stoned to death or burned aliue If one deflowred a Virgin espoused to an other man though she consented yet both parties should suffer extreame punishment and if he rauished her forcibly that then onely the author of the iniury should bee punished That if a man die and leaue no children behinde him his widdow should marry the brother of her deceased husband and by that matrimony bring forth issue to succeed them in their stocke but if the brother refused to marry her hee should shew the cause of his refusall before the elders and if his cause were approued good hee should haue liberty
the warres and Gouernors in time of peace They haue a mixt language borrowed of the Medes and Scythians and compounded of them both at the first their habites were answerable to their abilitie and after their owne country fashion but waxing richer they were as curiouslie clothed as the Medes their weapons were after the custome of theyr owne countrey and like vnto the Scythians Their armies consist not of free-men as in other nations but for the most part of slaues which sort of base people doe dayly increase for they bee all bondmen borne and no power of manumission permitted them yet bee they brought vp with as great care and industry as if they were free-men and taught both to ride and shoote and euery one as hee is in riches traineth vp and setteth forth with the King when hee goeth into the warres a great company of horse men according to his abilitie in so much as when Antonius made warres vpon the Parthians and the Parthians incountring him with fifty thousand horsemen there were not found in all that whole troupe aboue eight hundred free-men They cannot indure the single combate nor to remooue the assault from Citties besieged but their chiefest fight is with their horses running forward or turning backward and some-times also they faine them-selues to flye that thereby they may wound those which vnwarily pursue them The signe of battell is not giuen them with a trumpet but with a Timbrill or Drumme neither can they indure long fight for surely they were not to bee resisted if their courage and continuance were answerable to the assault and first brunt of the battell and often-times they will leaue the battaile in the very heate of the conflict and shortly after returne againe and begin a fresh so as when the enemy thinketh himselfe most secure he is oftentimes in greatest danger The munition for their horse-men are Brigandines or coates of maile imbrodered and with such bee their horses harnessed likewise In times past they had no other vse of siluer nor golde then in their weapons All of them haue many wiues being mooued therevnto with the pleasure of the variety of women nor is there a more greeuous punishment for any offence then for adultery and therefore they forbid their wiues not onely to banquet with other men but euen the very sight of them also There bee some of opinion whereof Strabo is one that if the Parthians cannot beget children of their wiues them-selues they will giue them in mariage to their friends thereby to raise them issue to succeed them They eate no other flesh but what they get by hunting and they be euer carryed on horse-back for they ride to their banquets they buy and sell conferre together and execute all publicke and priuate offices on hors-back And this difference in the dignities and degrees of the people is very singuler and worthy to bee noted that those which bee of a seruile and base condition goe euer on foote but the better sort of people and free-men ride continually The flesh of their dead bodyes insteed of buriall is commonly rent in peeces and deuoured eyther of byrds or dogges and they couer the bones when they be bare with earth They haue their gods in great reuerence and regarde they bee of a haughty and proud disposition sedicious deceitfull and malepart and very violent in all their actions but yet women bee somewhat more courteous then men they bee alwayes busied eyther in externall or ciuill broyles They bee naturally slowe of speach and farre more apt for action then vtterance They will neither bragge of their prosperity nor dispaire in aduersity they obey their Princes for feare not for shame they bee much giuen to lust and of a sparing dyet and there is no trust nor confidence to bee reposed in their words nor promises but so farre as is expedient and behouefull for themselues The manners and customes Of Persia and of the manners lawes and ordinances of the Persians CHAP. 7. PERSIA a country in the East is so called of Persis the sonne of Iupiter and Danaé of whom also Persepolis the Metrapolitan and chiefe Citty of that nation taketh his name and the people thereof be called Persians This country as Ptolomeus writeth in his fift booke is bounded on the North with Media on the West with Susiana on the East with the two Carmanias and on the South with the Persian sea Their chiefe townes were Aximia Persepolis and Diospolis The Persians beleeue in Heauen and in Iupiter they haue the Sunne also in great veneration whom they call Mitra and worship the Moone Venus the Fire Earth Water and windes as gods and goddesses They haue neither Temples Sanctuaries nor Idols but doe their sacrifices without doores in some high place with great reuerence and deuotion hauing the hoast for sacrifice brought to the Altar with a crowne or garland on his head they sacrifice to their gods nothing else but the heart of the oblation neither do the gods as they suppose require more at their hands and yet the custome of some in that countrie is to put the Intralls of the sacrifice into the fire also when they sacrifice they make a fyre of drye wood the barke or rinde being first pulled of and then casting vpon the wood some sweet tallow or suet and infusing a little oyle thereon set it on fire not blowing with their mouths but with bellowes for if any presume to blow the fire with his mouth or throw therin any dead carcasse or any other filthy thing hee dyeth for it The Persians neither wash themselues in water nor pisse nor spitte into it nor throw any dead carcasse into it nor prophane it any other kinde of way but worship it most religiously and that in this manner When they come to a lake riuer or brooke they make a little ditch or pond seuered from the other water and there they kill the sacrifice hauing speciall regarde that none of the other water bee touched with the bloud least all should be polluted this done and the flesh layde vpon a mirtell or lawrell tree the Priests or Magi make a fire with little twiggs and therewith burne the sacrifice till it be consumed and then sprinkling and infusing it with oyle mingled with milke and hony they pray for a long space together not to the fire nor water but to the earth holding in their hands all the while a bundle of Mirtle rods They create their Kings out of one family and hee which is not obedient vnto the King hath his head and armes cut off and is cast out without buriall Polycritus reporteth that al the Persian Kings haue their houses builded vpon hills and that there they hide all the treasure and tribute which they exact of their subiects for a monument of a well gouerned state And that of the people that dwell vpon the sea coast they exact siluer and from the inhabitants of the middle part of the
the Cnidian Phisitian of certaine women that bring foorth children but once in their life time and that their childrens heads become hoarie or gray as soone as they be borne and that there is a kind of people whose haires be hoarie or gray in their youth and waxe blacke in their age and yet they liue longer then we do It is sayd also that there is another sort of women which bring forth children when they be fiue yeares of age and liue not aboue the age of eight yeares There be some people that haue no neckes and haue their eyes in their shoulders and besides those which I haue alreadie spoken of there be certaine wild people liuing in woods with heads like dogges and their bodies couered with rough haire like bristles and make a very hideous and terrible noyse but these things and others of like kind which are spoken and written of India and of the sundrie sorts of people therein because he that should giue credit vnto them behooued to be of a very strong beleefe are to be reported more sparingly lest those which reade forraine writings should be more nice vnlesse they be mooued thereunto with great earnestnes to giue credit to those things which are in a manner apparent before our eyes The Cathaeians do now inhabit that part of India which lyeth betwixt Gedrosia and the riuer Indus which by them is now called Cathaia The people be of the Scythians race in whom may be perceiued great alteration of manners from that the Scythians were in the beginning if all be true which Armenius Aitonus reported of them in his Historie For saith he they be very wise and report of themselues that of all men they onely see and discerne with two eyes and that all other people bee altogether blind or of one eye at the least The quicknesse of their wittes is great indeede but their boasting and ostentation is greater They be generally perswaded that they excell all men in the subtiltie and knowledge of arts they be naturally white and pale of complexion with little eyes and no beards they vse letters in forme like vnto the Romain letters some of them be blinded in the folly of one superstition and some in another but all be voide of the true religion for some adore the Sunne some the Moone some Idols made of mettall and many of them an oxe through which diuersitie of false worshipping monstrous superstition is dispersed throughout the whole nation They haue no written lawes nor know not what faith is and though they shew great wit in their works yet haue they no knowledge thereby of diuine matters They be a timerous kinde of people and feare death greatly yet they make warres but it is with more policie then fortitude They vse darts in their warres and other sorts of weapons which to people of many other nations be vnknowne They haue paper money foure-square and stamped with the Kings Image which when it waxeth old they change with the king for coine that is new stamped their houshold stuffe is of gold siluer and other mettal They haue very litle oyle and with that the kings do onely vse to annoynt themselues And thus much of the Indians now will we speake of the Scythians which be next vnto the Indians Of Scythia and of the barbarous manners of the Scythians CAP. 9. SCythia a countrie in the North was so called of Scytha the son of Hercules as Herodotus reports but according to Berosus it was so called of another that was begotten of Scythia of old Araxis who was the wife of Noa These people at their first originall possessed but a small portion of ground but afterwards by their vertue and valor increasing by litle and litle and subduing many nations they obtained in the end great glory and gouernment for first they beeing few in number and contemned for their basenes contained themselues about the riuer Araxis but after they had gotten them a valiant Prince to be their king they amplified their possessions so as now they enioy all the vplandish and hilly Countries vnto Caucasus and all the champion ground vnto the Ocean and Maeotis poole and other places euen to the riuer of Tanais from whence Scythia stretcheth out in length towards the East the hill Imaus lying in the middle and diuiding it into two parts maketh thereof as it were two Scythias whereof one is called Scythia within the hill Imaus the other Scythia without Imaus The Scythians were neuer inuaded or at the least neuer vanquished by any forraine gouernement for they forced Darius king of Persia most shamefully to retire and flie from Scythia they killed Cyrus with all his hoast they ouerthrew the Captaine of Alexander the Great with all his Companie and as for the Romanes they might well heare of them but they neuer felt their forces The people be of great strength of bodie and very rude both in their wars and workes The Scythians at the first were not distinguished into Companies nor seuered one from another for that they neither possessed any grounds nor had any seates or houses to dwell in but wandered through wildernesse and desart places driuing their flockes and heards of beasts before them and carrying their wiues and children with them in carts They were subiect to no lawe but liued iustly one with another of their owne accords and no offence throughout their whole nation was accounted more haynous then theft because their cattell lay abroad in all mens sight not inclosed with walles or hedges They vsed neither gold nor siluer milke and honie was their vsuall meate they defended their bodies against the extremitie of cold with the skinnes of myce or rattes and other wilde beastes And the vse of wooll and woollen garments was vnknowne vnto them This was the manner of liuing of most of the Scythians but not of all for many of them as they bee farre distant from others in dwellings so be they as different in their manner of liuing as maintaining customes peculiar to themselues of which hereafter wee will relate in particular for as yet we shall speake of such customes as be generall to them all Most of the Scythians delight in humane slaughter for the first man a Scythian taketh in the warres his bloud he drinketh and of all those which he slayeth in battell hee presenteth the heades to the King for the heades beeing cut off how euer he tooke them he shall be partaker of the prey but not otherwise And he cutteth off the head round like a circle about the eares and then shaketh out al which is within the skull after this he pulleth off the skinne from the bodie and mollifying it with his hands like the hyde of a beast vseth it as a mantle and hangeth it at his bridle raines triumphing and glorying of such a prey And hee which hath the most of those mantles is adiudged the worthiest man There be many also which sow mens skins
nostrils with earth moystened with his spittle thirdly giuing him his name after which he shall be called he marketh him with the signe of the crosse vpon his breast and backe with hallowed oyle fourthly inuocating the name of the blessed Trinitie the Father Sonne and holy Ghost in whose name all other Sacraments are ministred three times he dippeth or ducketh him into the water or else powreth water vpon him three times in forme of a crosse fiftly dipping his thomb into the holy Chrysme he signeth his fore-head with the signe of the crosse sixtly hee couereth him with a white garment and seuenthly and lastly putteth into his hands a burning candle It was ordained by the Agathon Councell that Iewes before they were baptized shold be instructed in the Christian faith nine moneths and fast forty daies and that they should refuse all their substance make free their bond-seruants and put from them their children if they had any such as were circumcized after the lawe of Moses and fo◠those causes it is no maruell that the Iewes bee so hardly induced to receiue the Sacrament of Baptisme 2. The second Sacrament is Confirmation which is giuen onely by the Bishop in the Church before the altar to children of fourteene yeares of age or vpwards and if it may be while they be fasting in this manner All the children which come to be confirmed beeing there present with their god-fathers the bishop hauing said a prayer ouer each of them dips his thombe into moist Chrisme signing euery one of their foreheads with the signe of the crosse In the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost and for their better remembrance and to the end they should not require this Sacrament againe he giueth euery one a blow vpon his right cheeke and then the Godfathers for feare least the moist vnction should runne off or be wiped away through negligence or carelessenesse bind their foreheads with a linnen cloth which they bring with them for that purpose and that cloth they may not put off vntill the seuenth day after And such force haue the holy fathers attributed to this Sacrament as if a man dislike of his name he tooke in his Baptisme in taking of this Sacramēt he may haue it changed into an other name by the Bishop 3. The third Sacrament is the Sacrament of holy orders which in the primitiue Church was likewise ministred by the Eishop and that only in the month of December but now it is ministred at six times in the yeer appointed for that purpose that is to say vpon the Saterdaies of al those 4. feasts called Ember weekes which were ordained for that end vpon the Saterday called Sitientes which is the Saterday before passion Sunday vpon the eue of the blessed Passouer and then to men only and to such whose condition of life bability of body quality of minde is sufficiently knowne and approued There be seuen orders of Priests or according to some nine all of which as the holy fathers haue euer bin of opinion haue imprinted in their hearts by their holy orders such special caracters of grace as they be euer after held holy sanctified which be singing men or organists doorekeepers readers Exorcists Priests Ministers or Acolits Subdecōs Deacons Priests Bishops yet it is held to be but one Sacrament not many by reason of the finall office which is to consecrate the Lords body Euery one of these nine orders of Priests hath his peculiar office in the Church ornaments allowed him by the Toletan councel to distinguish him from the rest for the doore keepers or sextons are to defend and keepe the Churches and to open shut them and therefore a key is giuen vnto them when they be ordained to the readers that haue power to read the old Testament and holy histories is giuen a booke the office of Exorcists is to dispossesse such as bee possessed with euil spirits and haue a booke giuen vnto them wherein be contained those exorcismes for a marke to signifie that office The office of the Acolites is to set the candlesticks vpon the Altar and to light the tapers as also to set in redinesse the vyoles or pots of water to carry them away when masse is done and therefore be they manifested by carrying a candlesticke with a taper in it and an empty vial or cruet The Subdeacons are to take the oblations to handle the chalice and patin and make them ready for the sacrifice and to administer wine and water to the Deacons in the vials and therefore the Bishop giueth them a chalice and a patin and the Archdeacon cruets ful of wine water and a towel The Deacons proper function is to preach the word of God to the people and to be assistant to the priests in the holy misteries of the Church and to them is giuen the booke of the New-Testament a stole cast crosse ouer one shoulder like a yoake The power of the priests is to consecrate the Lords body to pray for sinners and by enioyning them penance to reconcile them againe vnto God and therefore is he honored with a chalice ful of wine a patin with the hoast vpō it a stole hanging on both shoulders and the linnen garment called Castula What is giuen to Bishops at their consecrations you haue heard before and they be euer ordained consecrated about three of the clocke on the Lords day at the celebration of the office of the masse before the reading of the Gospel by three other Bishops whereof the Metrapolitan to be one who doe it by laying there hands and a booke vpon his head In the primitiue Church there was little difference betwixt Bishops and other priests for al of them by common consent did ioyne together in the gouernment of the Church til such dissentions grew among them as euery one would call himselfe not of Christ but rather of him by whom he was baptised as one of Paule an other of Apollo a third of Cephas And therefore for the auoiding of schismes maintayning an vniformity in the Church the holy fathers though it necessary to establish a decree that al which should euer after be baptised shold he called by one general appellation Christians of Christ and that euery Prouince should bee gouerned by one Priest or more according to the quantity bignesse who for their grauity and reuerence should be called Bishops and they should gouerne and instruct both lay people clergy that were vnder their charge not after their owne wils and pleasures as was vsed before but according to the prescript rules canons and ordinances of the Church of Rome and holy Councels and then by the permission furtherance of good and holy Princes all Kingdomes throughout the Christian world were deuided into Diocesses the Diocesse into Shires and Counties and they againe into seueral parrishes which good and godly ordinance both for clergy and laytie is
receiued his griefe must be so hearty effectual as he must thereby assuredly hope to bee reconciled againe vnto God then must he humbly acknowledge and make verball recitall vnto some reuerent priest his confessor as vnto the vicar and minister of God of al thse sins offences as were causers of the losse of that innocency stirred vp the wrath of God against him then let him firmly beleeue that such power and authority is giuen by Christ vnto his priests ministers on earth that they can cleerely absolue him from al such sins as he confesseth is heartily sory for Lastly for a satisfaction amends for al his sins let him with alacrity cheerefulnes vndergo do whatsoeuer his confessor shall enioyne him beleeuing most stedfastly that he is absolued from al his sins as soone as the priest hath pronounced the words of absolution 7 The seuenth and last Sacrament is the Sacrament of extreame vnction which is ministred with oyle which for that purpose is yeerely consecrated and hallowed in euery Diocesse by the bishop himselfe vpon the thursday before Easterday as the holy Chrisine is cōsecrated by the priest This Sacrament according to the councel of the holy Apostle Saint Iames the institutiō of Pope Felix the 4. is ministred only to such as are at the point of death of ful age and not then neither vnlesse they desire it and by the prescript form repeating of the words of the Sacramēt often inuocation of the Saints those parts of the body being annointed which are the seats of the fiue sences seeing hearing tasting smelling and touching and are the chiefest instrumēts in offending as the mouth eyes eares nose hands and feet the holy fathers haue bin euer of this opinion and firme beleefe that he which is so anointed receiueth it worthily is not only thereby remitted purged frō al his light and venial sins but is either sodenly restored to his former health or else yeeldeth vp his spirit in more tranquility and peace of conscience The festiual daies which were cōmanded to be obserued in The festiuall dayes which were commanded to be obserued in the Church throughout the yeare begin with the Aduent of our Lord Iesus Christ In which by the institution of Saint Peter in the month of December the continuall exercise of fasting and prayer was commanded for full three weekes and a halfe together before the feast of the Natiuity of our Lord with vs called Christmas which with all ioy and solemnity is celebrated all the last eight dayes of December The yeare is deuided into 52. weekes the weekes into twelue months and euery month for the most part into thirty dayes vpon the first day of Ianuary the Church celebrateth the circumcision of our Lord according to the law of Moses Vpon the third day after is represented vnto vs how our Sauiour Christ by the adoration of the three Kings and his beeing Baptised of Iohn in the riuer Iordane laid the foundation of the new law vpon the second of February is shewed how his imaculate mother shewing her selfe obedient to the ceremonies of the Iewes presented her sonne Iesus in the Temple and was purified in memory whereof there is on that day a solemne procession vsed by the Church and all the tapers and wax lights bee then hallowed Vpon the 25. day of March is represented vnto vs the Annuntiation of the birth of Christ to the Virgin Mary by the Angel and how he was conceiued in her wombe by the inspiration of the holy ghost at which time is commended vnto vs also the remembrance of the forty daies which our Sauiour when he liued here on earth amongst vs vouchsafed to fast willing vs likewise to fast that time after his example then to celebrate his passion and death which willingly he offered himselfe to suffer to enfranchise and redeeme vs from the thraldome and slauery of the diuell Vpon the last day of which feast which often falleth out in Aprill is solemnised the greatest of all feasts how Christ hauing conquered death descended into hell where after hee had ouercome the Diuell he returned aliue againe to his Disciples and in a glorified body appeared vnto them In May is solemnized his Ascension into Heauen by his owne vertue in the sight of al his Disciples at which time by the ordinance of Saint Mamertine Bishoppe of Vienna it was instituted that throughout the whole Christian world Pilgrimages and processions should bee vsed vpon that day from one Church to an other In Iune and sometimes in May is the feast of the comming of the Holy Ghost who being before promised was on that day infused vpon all the Disciples of our Sauiour Christ appearing vnto them in the forme of fiery tongs by vertue whereof they spake and vnderstood the languages of all nations The eight day after is the feast of the blessed Trinity and then out of the first decretal of Pope Vrban the sixt the feast of Corpus Christi was instituted and with great solemnity generally celebrated the fifth day after Trinity Sunday as a perpetual memoriall of the most wholesome Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ by him bequeathed vnto vs in his last supper vnder the formes of bread and wine and continually of vs to be seene and eaten after his departure vpon the fifteenth day of Iuly wee are put in minde by a new festiuity of the departure of the blessed Apostles according to their seueral alotment the twelfth yeare after the assention of our Lord into heauen to preach the Gospell vnto all nations of the world The death of the Mother of Christ is celebrated the fifteenth day of August and her natiuity the eight of September How being presented in the Temple she continued in the dayly seruice of God from three yeares of age till shee was maryageable is shewed the one and twentih day of nouember vpon the eight day of December the Church reuerenceth her immaculate conception of her long barren parents And the second of Iuly how passing ouer the Mountaines shee visited her Cosin Elizabeth There are likewise holy-daies dedicated to the memory of the twelue Apostles of whom some were martirs some confessors and some Virgins as namely the twenty foure of February to Saint Mathias the twenty fiue of Aprill to Saint Marke the Euangelist on which day Saint Gregory ordained the litanies called the greater litanies to be said To Saint Philip and Iacob the elder the first of May to Saint Peter and Paul the twenty nine of Iune the twenty foure day of which moneth is dedicated to the natiuity of Saint Iohn Baptist the twenty fiue of Iuly to Saint Iames the younger to Saint Bartholemew the twenty foure of August to S. Mathew the twenty one of September the twenty eight of October to S. Simon and Iude the last of Nouember to Saint Andrew the twenty one of December to Saint Thomas and the twenty seauen
pearles and precious stones which in men is not so commendable but onelie while they bee children and then it is decent inough a woman that hath had two husbands may bee thought chaste but shee that hath beene thrice married is condemned as lewde and lasciuious and yet it is no impeachment to mens credits though they haue had three wiues Maides before mariage suffer there haire to hange down behinde them but when they bee married they couer it carefully and men cut theirs short rounde about their eares esteeming all trimming of there haires to be a reproach vnto them This Nation is generally addicted to venery and drunkennesse for to bee drunke they hold a glory vnto them and esteeme of lust and lasciuiousnesse as of a thing lawfull and commendable so as the marriage bed be not defiled Vsury also is there very common and vsuall and not held to bee deceite in any one not so much as in the Clergie A great part of the Russians be bond-men and seruile and that willingly for many of them and those sometimes of the better sort set to sale themselues their wiues and children other for because they may thereby liue more idlely or enioy greater pleasure The inferior priests weare blacke copes after the manner of the Gretians and the better sort of them weare white hauing hanging at their breasts tablets or bullions wherein bee written the decalogue or precepts of the law diuine The holy Virgins or Nunnes whereof there is but one family or order which is the order of Saint Anthonie the Abbot by the ordinance of the same Saint Anthonie their author and first founder bee apparelled in blacke stoles The Russians haue a speech peculiar to themselues but whether it bee the Scythian tongue or no I am not able for to Iudge their letters are not much vnlike the Greeke caracters they doe for the most part learne musicke and gammer after the Greeke manner and haue all other arts in contempt Touching matters of faith they beleeue as the Greekes doe vse like ceremonies in their seruice and like honour to the Saints There bee twelue men chosen and elected for to doe Iustice and determine controuersies whereof one first searcheth out the quality of the crime and then maketh report thereof to his fellowes and sometimes to the Duke himselfe And if the matter bee of greater weight or difficulty then can well bee discerned and decided by that councell or that it rests doubtfull so as the accused cannot bee conuicted then the defendant is inforced to try the matter with the plaintife by combat and hee which is vanquisher shall haue double the value in money of the vanquished as the wronge supposed to be done was valued at They bee very much giuen to husbandry they plow with horses and their soile is very fruitfull of all things but wine there drinke is a kinde of beere or ale made of millet and barley boyled together which kinde of liquor is most commonly drunke in all the Northerne partes They make oyle of hempe-seed poppie and nuts oliue trees they haue none nor is the iuse or liquor thereof brought thither from other countries Russia breedeth many sorts of wilde beasts whereof diuers bee of rich furres and highly commended of ancient writers there is great store of fish amongst which is a most excellent one called Seldis which is taken in a lake called Pareslacus and is very like the fishes that bee caught in the lake Benacus which is a lake neere Betrona in Italie In Ruthenia be seuen famous lakes and nine great riuers one of which is by some coniectured to bee the riuer Borysthenes by reason of the wonderfull things they report of the bignesse and nature thereof Of Lithuania and of the manner of liuing of those people CAP. 7. LITHVANIA ioyneth vpon the East vnto Poland it is nine hundreth miles about and the greatest part thereof is either moores fennes or woods which is the cause that it is very hard and difficult to come vnto and in a manner inaccessible all the whole country being ouerflowed with moorish waters There is no other fit or conuenient time for merchants strangers to trade and trafficke in this Country but in winter onely then the fennes beeing all congealed and frozen together and the ice of an exceeding thicknesse and couered with snow euery place is passable and all the whole country beeing of a sea they can finde no more certaine way to any place but as they be guided by the starres In Lithuania bee very few townes citties or villages the inhabitantes chiefest wealth is cattaile and skinnes of diuers kindes of wilde beasts as of the Harmoline and Zobelline whereof there bee great plentie in that country Of waxe and honey there is great aboundance but they haue no vse of money The women haue their chamber-mates friends by their husbands permission those they cal helpers or furtherers of matrimony but for a husband to commit adultery is held disgracefull and abhominable Marriages there bee very easily dissolued by consent of both parties and they marry as oft as they please This people is so different from all other nations in their manner of liuing as they hold with the absurde opinion of Aristippus which is that honestie consisteth not by nature but by custome Wine is very scarce and geason amongst them the want whereof is supplied with milke by reason of the great aboundance of beasts and there bread is browne beeing neither sifted nor boulted they speake the Slauonian language as the Polonians doe which language is common to many other nations besides whereof some follow the rites and ceremonies of the Romaine Church as the Polonians the Dalmatians the Croatij and the Carni some others the Greeke Church as the Bulgarians Ruthenians and most of the Lituanians and some againe hold certaine opinions differring from both Churches as the Bohemians Morauians and Bosnienses of which some follow the opinion of Iohn Husse and many others the sect of the Manachies and there bee some which as yet continue still in their paganisme and superstitious blindnesse by worshiping of Idols and such bee many of the Lithuanians Ierom of Prage who in the time of Pope Eugenius the forth of that name preached the gospel in the country was the first that acquainted vs with the manners and ceremonies of that people before that time vtterly vnknowne vnto vs reported that diuers of the Lithuanians amongst whom hee first arriued had certaine serpents euery house-hold one to whom they sacrificed as to their house-hold-gods and that hee wrought so farre with the worshippers of them that they destroyed and killed them all one onely excepted which could not bee burned some others worshipped the fire and from it receiued their diuinations and many others the Sunne in the forme of a huge iron mallet accounting that to bee there guide and giuing it to name Magnus These people bee oftentimes subiect to the King of Poland the chiefe
in honour of Heroules and were long since instituted in the dayes of Euander Dionysius Halicarnasseus following the opinion of Varro herein saith that Romulus ordained three score priests to make publike sacrifices through euery tribe and euery ward annexing vnto them as their assistants the diuiners and southsaiers euery ward likewise had his proper Genius or spirit which they supposed did defend them and their proper ministers to doe sacrifice vnto them but the goddesse Vesta was generally worshipped of all And lastly hee deuided and digested the yeere into tenne monthes by all which ordinances and decrees it may easily bee gathered and plainely perceiued that Romulus was most skilfull and expert in all matters both diuine and humaine and that they detract much from his glory and wisdome which report that the people of Rome liued without morality amongst themselues or religion towards their gods vntill the raigne of Numa Pompilius And these were the ciuil institutions ordained by Romulus But Numa Pompilius that afterwards succeeded him in the Kingdome in some part altered and in some part added vnto his Statutes and first in following the course of the Moone hee disposed the yeere into twelue monthes whereas before Romulus made it to consist but of tenne and altering the order of the monethes hee set Ianuary and February before March whereas till that time March was the first month and the beginning of the yeere and so hee made March for to bee the third in order and ranke Next hee appointed some daies to bee festiuall and holy and some other as dismal ominous and vnluckie wherein he would not any way meddle with the people or beginne any businesse After this hee created one chiefe Flamin or Priest to doe sacrifice to Iupiter whom he called Dialis and honored him with a roabe of dignity and chaire of state hee then created two other priests one to sacrifice to Mars and the other to Romulus and these were also called Flamines for the caps of honour which they wore vpon their heads moreouer he elected the Virgine Vestals which for the first ten yeeres did nothing but learne the rites and manner of sacrifising the next ten yeeres they spent in doing sacrifice themselues and the third ten yeeres they taught and instructed nouisses and fresh commers into that profession and then at the thirtith yeeres end it was in their choise whether they would mary or continue still in that course of life And those Virgin Vestals were maintained at the common cost of the City and reuerenced with titles of perpetual virginity and other ceremonies but if any of them were conuicted of incest her sentence was sorrowfully pronounced by the Cittizens that shee should bee set quicke in the ground at the gate called Collina which is in the hill Quirinalis and there couered with earth till shee were dead Hee dedicated also vnto Mars twelue other priests which hee called Salij whose office was vpon certaine daies in the month of March which tooke his name of the god Mars to lead a solemne dance in some of the principall places of the City they were cloathed with coates of diuers collours and their vppermost garments were red and changeable they had swords by their sides hanging in brazen belts in their right hand they caried launces and rods and brazen bucklers in their left and vpon their heads they wore high hats waxing sharpe towards the crowne These priests which for their solemne dancing the Romaines called Sallij according to the opinion of Dionysius did little differ from the Coribantes or Sibilles priests which the Greekes called Curetes finally he created a Bishop or high priest to whom he gaue supreme authority ouer all infreior priests and in him it lay to appoint what oblations should bee offred vpon what daies and in what Temples Besides all these holy orders of priests and religious persons hee ordained the Feciales or herraulds to denounce warre or peace and they were to haue a speciall regard that the Romanes should not make warres against any vniustly and if the Romaines were iniured or robbed by any others these Feciales were to require restitution of the goods wrongfully taken and detained but if they denied to make restitution then were they to denounce open war against them Their power was likewise to deliuer offenders to bee punished to those whose goods they had iniuriously taken if wronge were offered to Legats or Ambassadors they were to correct it and if the causes were honest and iust they might conclude a peace and breake it againe if it appeared that the League was vnlawfully established And if either the captaine or chiefe conductor of the army or the whole army in generall had done any thing contrary to their oths and alleagance in them it rested wholy to punish the offence This done he limitted their times of mourning commanding that the death of infants vnder three yeeres old should not bee lamented at all and that for elder children they should bewaile them as many monthes as they were yeeres old so as it exceeded not ten monthes which was the vttermost time prescribed for mourning for any ones death When Numa Pompilius had established these lawes for the gouernment of the common-wealth he then seuered and distributed the people into sundry companies and societies according to their arts and profession as minstrels crafts-men head-carpenters dyers shoomakers tanners masons potters c. making of diuers of those arts one fraternitie or bodie politicke Seruius Tullius deuided the whole multitude of citizens into sundry orders ranckes or armies which he called Classes and into centuries or bands consisting of a hundred men the manner of his disposition of them was thus In the first order or degree he inroled those who were taxed in their subsidie bookes at a hundred thousand Asses and of this order there was fourescore centuries consisting indifferently of young men and old so as the old men should euer remaine at home to saue and defend the city and the youth were to try the fortune of warres abroad he then commanded them both to weare armor and weapons both of defence of offence as helmets shields priuie-coates and bootes to defend themselues and speares and swords to offend the enemy to this first ranke or degree hee added two centuries of workemen or pioners which were to cast trenches build rampiers and to make all their engines and instruments of warre and they euer went vnarmed to bee alwaies in redinesse for any labor The second order or degree consisted of twentie centuries and were such as were taxed betwixt seuentie fiue and a hundred thousand Asses they were deuided into young and old as the former order and tollerated to weare the same armor and weapons the other did saue onely the coate of fence which they might not weare The third order was of such as were taxed at fifty thousand Asses they consisted of as many centuries as the other and did nothing
with great honor and religion it would seeme to be done directly against the will and commandement of him who had rather that heauen and earth should perish then his word especially seeing Christ himselfe came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it wherfore we obserue that day not in imitation of the Iewes but at the bidding of our Lord Iesus Christ his holy Apostles the grace of which Iewes is translated vnto vs Christians And vpon this sabbath day Lent excepted wee euer eate flesh which vse is not obserued in the kingdome of Bernagues and Tygri Mahon the naturall people of which two kingdomes by an ancient custome eat flesh vpon the sabbath daies and Sundaies in Lent now wee celebrate the Lords day as other Christians do in memory of Christs resurrection but we know that the Sabbath day is to be obserued and kept holy by the books of the law and not by the Gospell and yet notwithstanding we be not ignorant that the Gospel is the end of the Law and of the Prophets And vpon these two daies we beleeue that the soules of the godly departed which remaine in Purgatorie bee not there tormented which rest God hath granted vnto those soules vpon these most holy daies vntill the end of their punishments due for their offences in this world being determined they be deliuered thence for the diminishing of which paines and to extenuate shorten the time of their punishments we beleeue that almes deedes done for the dead be very profitable vnto those souls which liue in purgatory To the remission of which soules the Patriarke giueth no Indulgence for that we beleeue doth belong vnto God only and to the constitution of the time of their punishment neither doth the Patriark allow any daies for Indulgēces By the reading of the Gospel we be only bound to keep 6. precepts which Christ explaned with his owne mouth I was an hungred saith he and you gaue me to eate I was thirstie and you gaue me to drink I was a stranger you tooke me in naked and you clothed me sicke and you visited me I was in prison and you came vnto me Which words Christ will onely pronounce in the day of Iudgement because the law as Paul witnesseth sheweth vnto vs our sins which law Christ Iesus excepted no one can keepe And Paul also saith that we be all borne in sinne for the transgression of our mother Eua and for her curse and malediction and the same Paul further saith that wee die through Adam and liue through Christ which Christ of his aboundant mercy hath giuē vnto vs these six precepts to the end that we might be saued when hee shall come in his Maiesty to Iudge both the quick the dead by which words and commandements in that fearefull and terrible day of Iudgment hee will pronounce and shew vnto the good euerlasting glory and to the wicked fire and eternall damnation And wee reckon but only fiue deadly sinnes as they terme them which wee gather out of the last Chapter of the Reuelation where it is sayd For without shal be dogs and inchanters and whoremongers and murtherers and idolaters and whosoeuer loueth or maketh lies It is ordained by the holy Apostles in their bookes of councels that it is lawful for the Clergy to mary after they haue attained to some knowledge in diuinity and being once maried they be receiued into the order of priests into the which order none is admitted before hee accomplish the age of 30. yeeres neithey bee any bastards by any meanes allowed to enter into that most holy order these orders be giuen by no other but by the Patriarch onely where the first wife of a Bishop or Clercke or Deacon is dead it is not lawful for them to mary an other vnlesse the Patriarch dispence therewith which sometimes for a publike good is granted to great men nor is it lawful for them to keepe a concubine vnlesse they wil refuse and put themselues frō saying seruice which if they once do they may neuer after meddle in ministring diuine matters and this is obserued so strictly that those priests which haue beene twise married dare neuer take in their hands so much as a candle that is consecrated to the Church and if any Bishop or Deacon be found to haue any bastard child hee is depriued from all his benefices and from his holy orders his gods if he decease without lawful heires come vnto Prestor Iohn and not to the Patriarch and the warrant that we haue that our priests may marry is taken out of Saint Paul who had rather that both Clergy and Laity should marry then burne And he also saith that a bishop ought to be the husband of one wife and that he should be sober and irreprehensible and in like manner would he haue Deacons and further that Ecclesiasticall persons should haue their proper wiues by lawfull marriage euen as secular people haue but Munckes mary not at all and both Lay men and Clergy haue but one wife a peece and matrimony is not contracted before the gates of the holy Church but in the priuate houses of those that beare most sway at the bridall wee haue haue also receiued from the ordinance of the Apostles that if a priest bee found in addultery or committing manslaughter or theft or bearing false witnesse he shal be depriued and put from his holy orders and punished like other malefactors againe by the institution of those Apostles if any person either Ecclesiastical or Lay doe lie with his wife or bee polluted in sleepe hee commeth not into the Church for the space of foure and twenty houres after nor is it lawfull for menstruous women to come into the Church vnlesse vpon the seuenth day after their sicknesse and then to haue all their garments throughly washed which they wore during the time of their monthly disease and they themselues purged from all filth A woman also that bringeth forth a man child must not come into the Church till after the fortith day and if she brought forth a woman child then shee must not come into the Church till after the eighteeth day This is our custome founded vpon the ancient law and also vpon the Apostolicke law which lawes ordinances and precepts wee obserue as diligently in al points as possible may bee Moreouer we bee prohibited that neither swine nor dogs nor other such beasts shall enter into our Churches Also wee may not goe to the Church but bare footed neither is it lawfull for vs to laugh walke or talke of prophane matters in the Church nor once there to spit hawke or him because the Churches of Aethiopia bee not like vnto that land where the people of Israell did eate the Paschall lambe departing from Egipt in which place God commanded them to eate it with their shooes on and girded with their girdles by reason of the pollution of the earth but they bee like vnto Mount
after that if an Infidell call you to supper and that you will goe eate of all things which be set before you making no question for conscience sake and againe if any one shall say this is sacrificed to Idols eate not of it because of him that shewed you and for conscience sake c. All these things Paul speaketh to please those which were not yet confirmed in the faith because there arose many disputations and contentions betwixt those and the Iewes for the appeasing whereof he did more easily yeeld vnto them and conforme himselfe vnto their will which were not throughly confirmed in the faith And this hee did not that he would breake the law but that by gratifying others in releasing them from ceremonies hee might thereby winne them to the faith The same Apostle saith Let not him that eateth despice him that eateth not let not him that eateth not condemne him that eateth because hee which eateth eateth to the Lord and hee which eateth not eateth not to the Lord wherefore it is very vnworthily done to reprehend strangers that bee Christians so sharply and bitterly as I haue beene oftentimes reprehended my selfe both for this matter and for other things which belonged not to the true faith but it shal be better and more standing with wisdome to sustaine such Christians whether they bee Greekes Americans or Aethiopians or of any other of the seuen Christian Churches in charity and imbracings of Christ and to suffer them to liue and be conuersant amongst other Christian brothers without contumelies or reproches for we bee al the sons of baptisme and ioyne together in opinion concerning the true faith and there is no cause why wee should contend so bitterly touching ceremonies but that each one should obserue his owne ceremonies without the hatred rayling or inueighing of other neither is he that hath trauelled into other nations and obserueth his owne country ceremonies therefore to be excluded from the society of the Church Moreouer that which we haue in the Acts of the Apostles to wit how Peter saw Heauen opened a certaine vessel descending like vnto a great sheet bound or closed vp at the foure corners wherein were all kind of foure footed beasts and serpents of the earth and foules of the aire and a voice said vnto Peter arise Peter kil and eate to whom Peter said God forbid Lord for I did neuer eate of any thing commune or vncleane and the voice replied vnto him againe saying that which God hath made cleane doe not thou cal commune or vncleane which words being repeated three times the vessel was againe taken vp into Heauen which done the spirit sent him into Caesaria vnto Cornelius a deu out man and one that feared God with whom when Peter spake the holy Ghost fell vpon all those which heard the word of God and when they had receiued the holy Ghost Peter commanded that all Cornelius houshold should be baptised But when the other Apostles and brethren which were in Iudea heard that Cornelius was baptised they were displeased at Peter that hee had giuen Baptisme and the word of God to the Gentiles saying why wentest thou to men that be not circumcised and didst eate with them but when Peter had declared vnto them the whole vision they were pacified and gaue thankes vnto God saying And therefore hath hee giuen repentance vnto the Gentiles for their saluation And they remembred the word of the Lord which hee spake when he ascended vp into heauen Go throughout all the world and preach the Gospell vnto all creatures he that beleeueth and is baptized shall be saued but hee which beleeueth not shall be damned Then the Apostles began to preach the Gospel through out all the world vnto euery creature in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost and the sound of them went throughout all the world And this vision wherein both cleane and vncleane things did appeare we in Aethiopia expound thus That by the cleane beasts was meant the people of Israel and by the vncleane beasts the people of the Gentiles And for this cause be the Gentiles called vncleane for that they bee worshippers of Idols and willingly do the workes of the diuel which be vncleane and whereas the voyce sayd vnto Peter Kill that we interpret in this manner Peter baptize and when it is said Peter eate that is interpreted as if he had sayd Teach and preach the lawe of our Lord Iesus Christ to the people of Israell and to the Gentiles Moreouer it is most certaine that it cannot bee found in any place of the Scriptures that either Peter or the other Apostles did kill or eate any vncleane beast after this vision And also we must vnderstand when the Scripture speaketh of bread he meaneth not meate or corporal nourishment therby but the explication and exposition of Christ his doctrine and of the Scriptures And surely it were well done for all teachers and preachers of this sheet which was shewed vnto Peter to teach high and great matters and not pettie or light things and such as do seeme little to appertaine vnto saluation nor thereby cunningly to hunt after this document as though it should be conuenient or lawfull for vs to eate vncleane things seeing no such thing can bee gathered out of the Scriptures for what is the cause that the Apostles in their bookes of Councels haue taught vs not to eate beasts that be strangled suffocated or killed ' of other beasts or bloud because the Lord loueth cleannes and sobriety and hateth gluttony and vncleannesse And our Lord also greatly loueth those that abstaine from flesh but much more those that fast with bread and water and herbes as Iohn Baptist the Eremite did beyond Iordane who did euer eat herbes and S. Paul the Eremite who remained in the wildernesse foure score yeares euer fasting and S. Anthonie and Saint Macarius and many other their spirituall children which did neuer tast flesh Therefore my brethren we ought not to despise and inueigh against our neighbors because Iames saith Hee which detracteth his brother or condemneth his brother detracteth the law and condemneth the law Paul also teacheth That it were better for euery one to liue contented with their owne traditions then to dispute with his Christian brother of the law and againe Not to know more than is behoofull but to be wise vnto sobrietie and vnto euery one as God hath diuided the measure of faith wherfore it is vndecent to dispute with our brethren of the law or of the difference of meates because the meate doth not commend vs to God especially seeing Paul the Apostle saith We shall neither abound if we do eate nor want if we do not eat And therfore let vs seek those things which be aboue and the celestiall food and leaue off these vaine disputations Al these things which I haue written concerning Traditions I haue not done to breed disputation but that as
chap. 19 Of Tuscia and of the ancient maners of the Tuscans ch 20 Of Galalia in Europe and of the old customes of that country chap. 21 Of Gallia and of the ancient customes and later â—â—nners of the Frenchmen chap. 22 Of Spaine and of the manners of the Spaniards chap. 28 Of Lusitania and of the manners of the Portugals chap. 24 Of England Scotland and Ireland and of many other Ilands and of the maners customes of the Inhabitants chap. 25 Of the I le of Taprohane and the customes of that people cha 26 FINIS Lib. 3. NIcholas Damascen of the manners and customes of sundry nations fol 472 Certaine things of America or Brasill gathered out of the writings of Iohannes Lerius fol. 483 The faith religion and manners of the Aethiopians and the deploration of the people of Lappia compiled by Damianus a Goes a Knight of Portugall wherein is contained A letter of Damianus a Goes a Knight of Portugall to Pope Paul the third fol. 503 A letter of Helena the grandmother of Prestor Iohn Emperor of Aethiopia to Emanuell King of Portugall written in the yeare 1509. fol. 512 The letters of the most renowned Dauid Emperor of Aethiopia to Emanuell King of Portugall written in the yeare 1521. Paulus Iouius beeing Interpretor fol. 517 The letters of the same Dauid Emperor of Aethiopia to Iohn the third of that name King of Portugall in the yeare 1524. fol. 526 The letters of the same Emperor to the Pope of Rome in the same yeare 1524. the same Paulus Iouius beeing Interpretor fol. 533 Other letters from the said Emperor to the Pope the same yeare fol. 540 The faith and religion that the Aethiopians hold and obserue fol. 546 The deplâ—ration of Lappia f. 581 The siâ—uation of Lapp a. fol. 585 A short discourse of the Aethiopians taken out of Scaligers seuenth booke De emendatione temporum fol. 588 FINIS The cause why he writ this booke The cause why people inhabited neere together The earth recouered from hir first rudenes and barren nesse and made fertile The earth compared to Paradise The true God forgotten Plurality of gods which god was worshipped in each seueral country Jesus Christ reduced the world from error The large Countries of the Mahometans The diuersitie of worshipinge is the seminarie of distention The Greeke Philosophers first glory The law-giuers first authority The Caldeanes the wisest men in the world VVhy the world is so called The originall and appellation of Adam Paradice The fertilnesse of the earth why iâ— was restrained Cain the first begotten of Adam The generall deluge and how long it continued Noah sent his children and kindred to inhabite other countries The cause of the variety of toungs and manners The exile of Cham. Men liued like beasts The Sunne and Moone worshipped The Moone called Isis the Sunne Osyris the Ayre Iupiter the Fyre Vulcan the Sky Pallas and the Earth Ceres Arabia the mother of many Colonies The issue of Sem and Japhet VVhy the worship of the true God remained with so few The two-fold opinion of the Philosophers concerning the world Light things tend vpwards and heauie things downewards The naturall creation of liuing creatures The barbarous manner of liuing of the first people The diuersitie of toungs how it came Men made wiser by danger Necessitie the the mistresse of labours The first men were the Aethiopians The earth deuided into three parts Affrick deuided from Asia Europ deuided from Affricke Asia deuided from Europe The scituation and qualitie of Affricke The incommodities of Affrick Affrick inhabited by home-bred people and strangers The people of Affrick made more ciuill by Hercules The qualitie of the soyle of Affrick The fruitfulnesse of the ground The wonders of Affrick VVhat kind of beasts are bred in Affrick Two Aethiopias One Aethiopia is now called India The qualitie of Aethiopia The Aethiopians were the first people The gods first worshipped in in Aethiopia VVhat letters the Aethiopians vsed The election of their Kings The obedience of the Ethiopians The apparell of the Ethiopians Their exercise Meroê was once the Kings seate Gold accounted baser then brasse The Aethiopian armor The religion of the Ethiopians The authority of the Priests Their gods The new customes of the Aethiopians or Indians Prestor Iohn King of that Aethiopia which is in Asia Their Priests marry once and no more Saint Thomas held in great reuerence The power of the Ethiopian Kings VVhat weapons be vsed in their wars The punishment for adultery Husbands assigne dowers for their wiues Mahomet worshipped in Libia The denomination and description of Aegipt The Aegiptians had their beginning from the Aethiopians The Aegiptian women do the offices of men and men the offices of women Their manner of funerals Circumcision vsed by the Egiptians The cleannesse of the Priests Beanes an vncleane graine with the Egiptians The Aegiptians wine The Aegiptians salutations VVollen garments contemned Many ceremonies vsed in Christian religion borrowed from the Egiptians VVhat seruants attended vpon their Kings The Priests prasied the good Kings dispraised the bad The Egyptians simple diet The Kings safety much regarded How the Egyptians be wayle their dead Kings that were good How their Kings be buried The auncient gouernment of the Egiptians Their common-wealth consisteth of three sorts of people husbandmen shepheards and labourers How their iudgments were giuen The chiefe Iudge weareth the signe of Truth about his neck The lawes of the Egiptians against periurd persons Against salse accusers A law against parents that murdered their children A law against Pariacides Offenders in the warres punished with shame A law against adultery and fornication Bocchoris their law maker Mens bodiesnot liable to their debts The law against theeues Their marriaages The small cost bestowed in bringing vpchildren Musick disalowd of the Egiptians How the Egiptians cure the diseased The Aegiptians worship diuers sorts of creatures The strange kind of burials amongst the Egiptians The bodies of dead parents giuen to their creditors The Adrimachidae The Nasamons The Masagetae The Nasomans and their marriages How the prophesy The Garamantes The Macae The Gnidanes The Machlyes and Auses The Atlantes The Pastoritij The Maxes The zabices The zigantes All these people of Libia be Sauadge people The Trogloditae The Rhisophagi The Ilophagi and Sparmatophagi The Cyneci The Acridophagi The Cinnamini The Ichthiophagi Men free from all passions of the minde Patient people The Amazons most warlike women Asia why so called Arabia deuided into three parts The Arabians lye with their owne mothers and daughters No horses in Arabia The Garraei The Nabathaei Panchaia aboundeth with Frankinsence Iupiter was banished into Panchaia The great Temple in Panchaia Hony wine made of dates The Assyrians botes Their apparell Virgins that be mariageable be sold to their husbands A law excluding Phisitions and how they cured the sick The officers amongst the Assyrians The limmits of Palestine Iudaea or Palestine called also Canaan Canaan promised to
Abraham and his seed The Israclites lawes ordained by Moses Moses lawes The manner of the Iewes oblations The opinion of Heathen writers concerning the Iewes Three sectes of the Iewes The Pharises The Saduces The Esseians Media why so called The confines of Parthia Foureteene kingdomes vnder the Parthians The Confines of Persia and why so called The Persian gods The Persians create their Kings all of one family The discription and bignesse of India Fiue thousand Cities and 〈◊〉 walled townes in India The long liues of the Jndians The Jndians haue neither written lawes nor learning Their Kings are committed to the keeping of women The people of India once deuided into seauen orders The first was the order of Philosophers The second order of husbandmen The third order is of sheepheards Artificers the fourth order The fifth of of soudiers Tribunes in the sixth order The common Councell the seuenth order No slaues amongst the Jndians The Padae kill their friends when they be sicke The Cymnosophists The people called Cathiae Monstrous and prodigious people The Cathaeians Scythia why so called The Scythians delight in humane slaughter The Scythian gods How the Scythians bury their kings The Massagetae The Seres in Scythia The Tauro-Scythians The Agathirsi The Neuri The Anthropophagi The Melanchlaeni The Budini The Lyrcae The Argyphaei The Issedones The scituation of Tartaria Tartaria why it is so called Tartaria aboundeth with cattaile Foure sorts of Tartarians Canguista first King of Tartaria How the Tartarians are apparrelled Some Tartarians are Christians but very bad ones How the Tartarlans elect their Kings The Georgians a kinde of Christians The Armenians were Christians likewise till they were vanquished by the Tartarians The limits of Turkie Turkie inhabited by people of sundry nations Mahomet his parentage Sergius the Munck a helper of Mahomet Mahomets lawes compounded of diuerse sects The manner of the Turkes warfare Three sorts of footmen Friday a solemne holy day with the Turkes VVhereof the Clergie be so called The Creed The 10. Commandements The seuen Sacraments The festiuall dayes throughout the yeare Europe why so called The limits of Europe The commendations of Evrope The discription of Greece Thermopilae The Region of Greece Athens and why so called Dracoes lawes to the Atheninians The citty of Athens diuided into societies by Solon The councellin Areopagus A strange law for women Mony dowries forbidden Against slaunderers The punishment for adultery A law for the maintenance of souldiers children A law for the benefit of Orphanes and VVards The original of the Athenians Their inuentions The three lawes made by Cecrops against women How the Athenians bury those which are slaine in the warres Marathron is a city not far from Athens Lycurgus law giuen to the Lacedemonians Eight and twenty Elders elected Democratia Olygarchia or gouernment of the Tribunes The diuision of their land by the Olygarthy The vse of money prohibited and iron money made Men called their wiues their mistresses Maides exercises Old men that had young wiues permitted young men to lye with theÌ„ The manner of electing officers Lycurgus exild himself voluntarily The discipline of Creete No venimous creatures in Creete No King admitted that hath children because their Kingdome shal not be hereditary The King that offendeth is famished to death The diuision and bounds of Russia One seed time yeeldeth three haruests Russia aboundeth with Bees VVood turned â—nto stone The Russians cannot indure to call their Gouernor a King but a Duke as a name more popular Many Russians make themselues bondmen Lithuania is full of moores and fennes Samogithia The limits of Hungaria The limits of Boemia The ancient limits of Germany Germany deuided into superior and inferior Germany why so called The punishmeÌ„t for murder Drunkennesse a commendation amongst the Germaines The Germains were great dicers The later manners of the Germanes The Germains diuided into foure sorts of people whereof the first is the Clergie The second order is of the Nobilitie The third order is of cittizens Citizens deuided into two sects The fourth order is of husbandmen The limits of Spaine Saxony why so called The Saxons deuided into noble-men free-men libertines and slaues Merccury obserued as a god by the Saxons A Temple in Alberstade de dicated to our Lady The Saxons immoderate drinkers The bounds of VVestphalia Secrete Judges ordained by Charles the Great ouer the VVestphalians Franconia why so called The bounds of Franconia The fertility of Franconia The Princes of Franconia The Bishop of Herbipolis one of the Princes of Franconia The limits of Sueuia Sueuia why so called There may no wines bee brought into Suevia Much cloth made in Sueuia Bauaria why so called The bounds of Bauaria Bauaria heretofore gouerned by Kings but now by Dukes The lawes vsed in Bauaria which they receiued when they receiued Christianity The manner how the Carinthians elect their Duke A seuere punishment against theeues The discription of Stiria Italy first called Hesperià and then Ocnotria Italy why so called The length of Jtaly Jtaly deuided into many Prouinces The hill Apenine deuideth Italy into two parts The praise of Jealy Italy the nurse of all nations The commendations of Rome The stature and complexion of the Italians and how they differ Three sorts of Cittizens Three orders of Free-men The Dictator their chiefest officer Three sorts of Citties How Romulus disposed the cittizens of Rome into sundry orders and degrees The ground deuided into thirty equall parts The office of the Patritij How the Patritians and Plebeians behaued themselues one towards another The Centumviri elected which were after called Senators of Rome The election of three hundred yong men called Celeres The office of the King The office of Senators The priuileges of the Plebeians The office of Celeres The Milites elected The lictores ordayned â—â—wes made by Romulus VViues made equall to their husbands Jt was Death for a woman to drincke wine VVhat power parents had ouer their children Numa Pompilius and his lawes The Feciales ordained The people deuided into sunday bands called Classes and centuries The first Classis The second Classis The third order or Classis The fourth Classis The fift and last degree The Kings put downe and Senators ordained The Dictator elected Tribunes of the people ordained The Decemviri created and Consuls put downe The two Censors created A Praetor ordained The manner of celebration of the games called Ludi Circenses Jnterludes how they began How the Romanes deified their Emperors The apparel of the Italians Galatia why so called The bounds of Gallia Gallia why so called The diuision of France The seuerall prouinces of Gallia Belgica The French men a factions people The office of the Druides The Equites an other sort of people Husbands had power to kil their wiues The latter customes of the French Capricorne ruleth in France The Parlament of France The 12. Peeres of France The commendations and riches of Spain and her bounds Spaine why so called The bounds of Portugall England also called great Brittaine England once called Albion The Saxons once Lords of England Anglia why so called The compasse of England England the first Christian Island London the chiefe city The auncient manners of the Britans Scotland denided from England Of Scotland Stowes Annal Anno Eliz. primo Syllura The Jsles called Eubudes The Island called Thyle now called Jsland The Gymnesiae or Baleares Of the Jsland found out by Iambolus They haue a time prefixed how long to liue An admirable herbe A rare beast Seuen other Jslands Of Taprobane The conclusion of the booke Of the Thyni Of the Aritonâ— Of the Dardani Of the Gelactophagi Of the Iberi Of the Vmbrici Of the Celtae Of the Pedalij Of the Telchines Of the Tartessij Of the Lucani Of the Samnites Of the Limyrnij Of the Sauromatae Of the Cercetae Of the Mosyni Of the Phryges Of the Lycij Of the Pisidae Of the Ethiopians Of the Buaei Of the Basuliei Of the Dapsolybies Of the Ialchleueians Of the Sardolibies Of the Alitemij Of the Nomades Of the Apharantes Of the Baeoti Of the Assirij Of the Persae Of the Indi Of the Lacedemonij Of the Cretenses Of the Autariatae Of the Triballi Of the Cusiani Of the Cij Of the Tauri Of the Sindi Of the Colchi Of the Panebi The stature and disposition of the Barbarians The age of the Barbarians The Barbarians neglect all worldâ—y things All Barbarians go naked