Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A35229
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Extraordinary adventures and discoveries of several famous men with the strange events and signal mutations and changes in the fortunes of many illustrious places and persons in all ages : being an account of a multitude of stupendious revolutions, accidents, and observable matters in many kingdomes, states and provinces throughout the whole world : with divers remarkable particulars lively described in picture for their better illustration / by R.B., author of the of the History of the wars of England ...
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R. B., 1632?-1725?
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1683
(1683)
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Wing C7323; ESTC R19108
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163,299
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242
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that the good of his Subjects was his only care called an Assembly of the 3 Estates of the Kingdom who being convened and the King seated in his Royal Throne the Bishop of Elvas made a Speech to them to the following purpose That one of the first Laws of Nature was the uniting men together from whence Cities and Kingdoms had their Original and by which they after defended themselves in War and maintained themselves in Peace That for this cause His Majesty had called this Assembly to consult for the better service of God defence in War and Government in Peace That there could be no service of God without Vnion in Religion no defence without Vnion amongst men no regular Government without Vnion of Councils That His Majesty did expect to be informed by his Loyal Subjects what was for the good of the State That they were to render thanks to the Almighty who had given them a King that would govern them by known Laws That His Majesty did not esteem those Tributes lawful which were paid with Tears and therefore did from that present take off from his Subjects all Taxes that had been imposed by the Kings of Spain because His Majesty was not willing to Reign over their goods nor over their heads nor over their Priviledges but over their hearts hoping that they would find out a sweet expedient to defend their Country against their Potent Enemy who threatned to make them all slaves and to destroy and annihilate their Nation That they would therefore considering his Majesties goodness and their own Honour manifest at once to the world that as never Subjects had such a gracious King so never King had such Loyal Subjects The Bishop having ended his Speech the most ancient Officer of the Chamber of Lisbon stood up and in the name of all the 3 Estates who stood up likewise returned humble thanks to His Majesty for this gracious bounty heartily professing That they did not only offer up their Goods but their Lives to His Majesties service earnestly intreating him to dispose of both as he pleased And to manifest that their Hearts and Mouths agreed in this free offer of themselves to His Majesty they presently voted that two Millions should be immediately raised by this Kingdom But the King wisely and politickly declined the imposing a Tax on his Subjects choosing rather to accept of their Benevolence which made every one strive who should offer most so that instead of the Two Millions there was in short time brought into the Treasury Four Millions of Gold Nor was this Money intended by them nor imployed to any other use then to maintain the Grandeza and Splendor of the K. and Kingdom there being no need of Money for the payment of Souldiers every one offering to serve freely and at their own charge against their vowed enemies the Spaniards Thus was this Kingdom utterly lost to the Spanish Monarchy King Alphonso the 6th lately removed from the Government and his Brother Don Pedro now Reigning and likewise Her Majesty of England Q. Katherine being the Sons and Daughter of this K. John in which Family the Government is like still to continue and never to revert back to the Spaniard who lost at this time not only Portugal but with it all they enjoyed by that Kingdom in the East-Indies the Terceâ—a Islands and other Islands in the Atlantick Sea the Kingdom of Algarve Brazile with all they had in Africa except the Town of Ceuta which was the whole that remained to the Spanish Nation of all those great Dominions Hist Portugal Pag. 61. 104. The remarkable revolutions in the Empire of China and the entire Conquest thereof by the Tartars happened in the same year 1640 As if some fatal influence had inclined most Nations to changes and distractions at that time It cannot therefore be unpleasant to give a brief account thereof The Inhabitants of China enjoyed all the pleasures of peace under the Government of their last Emperour who was the most absolute Monarch that ever ruled those vast Territories when in the year 1640 a year fatal to several States those Clouds began to gather which shortly after produced such a storm as ruined the whole Empire The name of the present Emperour was Zunchin a deceitful and unfortunate name for in the Chinese Language it signifies successful omen or Soveraign Dominion but how false a prognostick this was appeared quickly This Emperor was of a most courteous and good disposition and certainly his Subjects who enjoy'd great Plenty and all the advantages of Peace lived truly happy under so Excellent a Prince But it is not sufficient for a Prince to be Good and to govern mildly and peaceably unless he likewise takes care not to have ill Officers who make use of their Credit under him to gratifie their Private Passions and to extend their Ambition beyond all Bounds and Limits yet some Authors have branded him for Covetousness and that after a great Famine which happened in the Northern Provinces occasioned by an unheard of number of Locusts he imposed upon his Subjects as high Taxes as they paid formerly in fruitful flourishing times the former Money being all mispent and the Souldiers not paid Whereupon the number of the Mutineers daily increased who enriched themselves by Plunder and Rapine For as Semedo in his History of China intimates Rebellion is the usual Effect of Extortion and Tyranny especially where the Prince would have more from the People than they are able to give And therefore Theopompus saith he King of the Lacedemonians when his wife told him that because he had eased the People of many Taxes he would leave his Son a poorer Kingdom than he received from his Father answered Relinquo sed Diuturnius that is I shall leave him a more lasting Kingdom Happy had it been for Zunchin Emperor of China had he been of Theopompus his Mind But saith my Author though I find him charged with Covetousness yet I am not very apt to suspect him so guilty of that Vice as of another usually more fatal to Princes which is a facile Nature easie to be wrought upon by others and too inclinable to favour and indulge themselves and not willing to undergo the weight of Affairs From whence it was that though under the Reign of his Brother Thienking who preceded him in the Imperial Throne Zunchin so opposed his Darling Favourite the Eunuch Guei and all the Eunuchs his Partisans that at last he prevailed with his brother to banish them all his Court to the great Satisfaction of the whole Empire and when his Brother dying without Issue the Imperial Crown fell to him at his first taking possession thereof he so persecuted the Eunuchs who by abuse of their Authority under his Brother had made themselves abhorred by the whole Nation that Guei in despair poysoned himself yet at last this very Emperor suffered himself by the crafty insinuation of some about him contrary to his own Judgment to be
where to prevent discovery its white colour was changed in an instant into that of the Bush which alteration gave us much trouble and we had never found it again if one of the Company had not discharged a Musket at the noise whereof it rose affrighted and run for its life we did not think it the same yet some ventured after it and others stay'd in the place seeking the white beast The Persuers shot off one of its Legs and then cried to us to forbear seeking and that the Counterfeit Lamb was caught It was the same shaped Beast but the colour was no more white as before but changed into a blackish Gray Its Coat was a Fine Wool the head like a Wolf but not quite so long with very sharp Teeth and a fierce look the hinder parts like a sheep we wondred at this change of colour and imagined it to be that Beast mentioned by by the Learned and is a good Emblem of a Hypocrite Having in three days got over these Mountains and lying down to refresh our selves in the Morning an Alarum was sounded at which we all ran to our Arms and put our selves in Order expecting the coming of the Arabs but no Enemy appeared only a Company of Apes persued by a few Jackalls who made such a noise in running about the branches of the Wood near us yet those upon the skirts of the Army thought them to be the Enemy who had taken the advantage of the place to fall upon us their needless fear did as soon appear as the nimble Creatures recovered the tops of the highest Trees to whose protection they durst commit themselves yet the Alarum continued and ran as nimbly as the Apes all over the Army which could not be stopt till every one was informed of the true cause of the Fright The Cruelties upon the Slaves at Argiers their manner of selling Christians c Page 33 After we had taken all the Country which was revolted we returned to the Maritime City of Argiers My Master was grown very rich and powerful and had got great honour and great wealth for his Services And I having likewise served him faithfully all this time and helped him out of many streights and difficulties by my Advice and Council with whom he constantly consulted in any Exigency according to his promise often made me he gave me my Liberty and a sum of Money to carry me home so that after so many strange Adventures and Discoveries which I had made in this my long time of Slavery I met with a French Vessel of Marseilles in the Harbour wherein I embarqued for my Native Countrey Adventures T. S. 1670. VIII The Adventures Dangers and Troubles of Katherine Dutchess Dowager of Suffolk are very remarkable as we find them recorded in the Book of Martyrs This Dutchess was the Widow of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk and after his death was married to Richard Berty Esq In the first year of Queen Mary Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester knowing this Dutchess to be a zealous Protestant and no good Friend of his resolved to be revenged of her husband first and subpoena'd him before him alledging That it was the Queens pleasure he should presently pay 4000 pound due to her Father from D. Charles late husband to his Dutchess whose Executrix she was Mr. Berty replyed That Debt was already truly satisfied The Bishop answered The Queen would not be put off with payments in the time of Kets Government so he in scorn called King Edward the sixth's Reign Mr. Berty said It was acknowledged to be paid by K. Henry the Eighth If that be true said the Bishop I will shew you favour but Mr. Berty says he I must tell you another thing because I intend you well I hear ill of your Religion and pray is your Lady now as forward to set up Mass as she was to pull it down when she caused a Dog in a Rochet to be carried with her which she called by my name or doth she now think her Lambs as safe as when she saw me vail my Bonnet to her out of the Tower window at which time she said That it was merry with the Lambs when the Wolves were shut up And at another time when my Lord her husband invited me amongst other Lords to Dinner desiring every Lady to chuse him whom she liked best and so place themselves together your Lady taking me by the hand said That since she might not sit by her husband whom she loved best she had chosen me whom she loved worst To which Mr. Berty replyed My Lord Of the device of the Dog she was neither the Author nor Allower As for her words she can answer her self and for the Mass she hath been taught by learned men to abhorre it and therefore if she should outwardly pretend to it she would be a false Christian to Christ and a masquing Subject to her Prince you know my Lord one Judgment reformed is better than a Thousand Transformed Time-servers Yea marry says the Bishop deliberation is good if she were to come from an old Religion to a New but she is to return from a new one to an old one when I was her Ghostly Father she was as earnest a Papist as any My Lord said Mr. Berty she told a Friend lately That Religion went not by Age but by Truth and therefore she was to be converted by Argument and not by Compulsion Pray do you think it possible says the Bishop to perswade her I hope said Mr. Berty you will find no fruits of Infidelity in her The Bishop then perswaded Mr. Berty to take pains in her Conversion promising him large Favours to effect it and so dismist him When Mr. Berty came home he had frequent intimations from his Friends That the Bishop intended to call his Dutchess to an Account for her Faith and therefore they designed to go beyond Sea In pursuance whereof Mr. Berty made such Friends to the Queen as to obtain her License to pass and repass at pleasure to receive several summes of money due to Duke Charles from the Emperor of Germany Mr. Berty went beyond Sea accordingly but without his Dutchess who yet by agreement was to follow and made her escape from this desperate danger in the manner following She dwelt at that time in Barbiean and acquainted none of her Servants with her design but only one old Gentleman neither did she take any but the meanest of her Servants with her fearing the others would not run so dangerous an adventure she took also her young Daughter of a year old with her Upon New-years-day about four a Clock in the Morning she went from her own house and an Herald of the Queens who lay in her house to guard her hearing the noise rose up and came down with a lighted Torch in his hand so that for fear of discovery she was forc't to leave most of her Childs necessaries behind and ordered her Servants to make hast to