axe But the Bishop of Rome which had more Kings and Kingdomes vnder his obeysance vseth much more tyrannie than Tamberlane of Scythia or Sapor of Persia Yea greater tyrannie than Adonibezek who had 70 Kings feeding like dogs vnder his table without either toes to their feet or fingers to their hands but he had legem Talionis This man of Rome commaundeth his Embassadors as Nabuchadnezar commaunded Holofernes Ne parâ—at oculus tuus vlli regno to make Acheldama of England and great Britane This is that Ashuerus that willed proude Haman De populo age quod placet Doe what thou wilt with the Iewes The like condition is betweene the Pope and his people who sends his Heraulds abroade tanquam cursores with his Buls and Agnus Dei pardoning and absoluing all murtherers that will destroy all Kinges and Kingdomes that are not of his Catholike Religion This hath beene practised in Fraunce vppon their cheefe Peeres by the Massacres in Paris and by a Friar in auricular consession of a King In England vpon the best learned men of England and vpon our late gracious and renowned Queene if their often practises by many pretended had not fayled them And now of late vpon our Soueraigne Lord and King vpon our Queene vpon our Prince and vpon their children the sacred and stayed anchor of three Kingdomes and vpon these three Kingdoms it selfe At illos Deus è Coelo subsannauit Is this the Catholike fruit of their Catholike Religion Is Treason and Murther the profession of Papists We thanke God with Paul that hath deliuered vs from the snares of Sathan and from the practise of his fierie Souldiers and from these Dreamers Caligula that Monster wished but one necke vnto Rome one Citie that hee might cut it off with one stroke That proud Haman sought of king Ashuerus but to destroy the remnaÌ„t of one nation that vpon one day within a hundred and seuen and twentie Prouinces in Persia. But these Serpents in one houre with one flame of fier fully decreed to destroy England Scotland and Ireland three flourishing Kingdomes Quis non meminisse horret Who laments not to thinke much more to haue seene the terror of that day The inuenter thereof could not be but a Diuell and not one Diuell vnlesse it bee that Diuell which Christ commaunded exi hominem whose names was Legio a legion of Diuels Such a Diuell might draw many Diuels after him Such a treacherous Catelin had more with him to destroy Rome rather thaÌ„ 300 faithfull Fabians to defend it Who seeth not the monstrous intentions of these Traytors after long lurking in many secret Labyrinths of Britane where so longe they were hidden vntill they had decreed to bring their last Pageant of ostentation not only with their great Colossus from Rome to England and there to rest but also with their huge Pyramides from Egipt to bee buried in England and to make a Chaos of Great Britane sometime called Insula fortiuÌ„ and to christen it againe after their own name Insula Serpentum the Isle of Serpents which is an Isle in Arabia where such Serpents breed that are of 120 cubites long And yet now in Britane my heart bleedeth to speake of them wee finde longer Serpents that their bodies bee in Britane and their heads at Rome I will not say their heart and hands at Spaine These are worse than the Athenians that had certaine Priests named Mantes which caried Firebrands in their handes and went before the Magistrates of Athens and threw about their Firebrands in signe of battell between the cities of Greece These are worse then the Priests of Rome called Faeciales that went before the Consulls with bloudy darts in their hands which they threwe towardes the Confines of their neighbours to pronounce warre And these our late Iesuits and Seminaries as Embassadors came from Rome with Firebrands and bloodie darts not in their hands but in their harts to destroy their Countrey and Countrey-men and glad when they finde meanes by any policie to practise mischiefe But these hellish Harpeis these cruell Crocodiles worse than Pharoh that sayd Quis est Dominus and worse than the Athiests that say in their hearts there is no God Such double faced Ianus children such two-fronted Cecrops broode say with the foole Non est Deus who can onely deliuer vs from these that are double-hearted double tongues double faced Such the law of God punished so that fire from heauen deuoured them the earth gaped and swallowed them vp aliue Such the lawes of men amonge all Nations haue punished as in Athens by Solon in Sparta by Lycurgus and in Rome by so many lawes that tortures and torments were inuented to punish these tanquam sacrilegos in patrios lares focos deos penates The Egiptians with long sharpe needles per singula patricidae membra torment such Offenders the Grecians threwe such headlong downe from high rockes the Macedonians stoned them to death The Romanes drewe them in peeces either between fower horses or 4 boughes of a tree and yet sayd Cicero Quae nex tanta tanto sceleri inueniri potuit And should not these false and forsworne Gibeonites be punished with seruitude and bondage and be reiected from the house of Iudah as Ioshua vsed them And should not these dissembling Giliadites which could not pronounce Scibboleth bee vsed as Ieptha vsed the Ephramites at the riuer Iordan The Tyrant Antiochus gaue them time by tormenting the seuen brethren either to eate Swines-flesh or to die The tyrant Phaleris in like manner torturing them with his frying-panne and with Perillus his brazen Bull were not in such a rage insuch a furie and that against the rule of reason so long I neuer remember of the like that in a whole yere and a halfe they could not call vpon God and repent of this their determined tyrannie worse than Esau who would haue repented and sought it with teares but yet could not worse than Pharoh for hee desired Moses to pray to his God for him But these refuse all mens praiers but such as be Catholikes like themselues Cain felt his conscience so to afflict him that hee thought that euerie man that mette him would haue killed him and faine would die but could not But these without feeling of any conscience are worse than Cain neither fearing God nor man worse than Esau for they seeke not to repent with teares and worse than Pharoh as I sayd before who sought Moses to pray for him These I say stood to their first longe pretended tyrannie to the very day most vnhappy for them and most happie for vs. Dies quem fecit Dominus Dies solus supra Gabaon the day of Ioshua when the Sunne stood ouer Gabaon And Dies Lunae when the Moone stood ouer Atalon And Dies Martis not onely in Scotland
Gallis nec calliditate poenis nec artibus Graecis par fuit Roma ita Graecia cum ciuibus vnita quae gens par potuit esse Graecis at diuisa quanto facilius noÌ„ à Persis nec à Macedonibus sed Graecia à Graecis victa QuaÌ„ta virtus victoria Iudaeorum dum vna vniti lege religione Quanta vtriusque regni clades diuisa dici non potest Quid multa nihil aliud maius fuisse fertur exitio Graecis quam iura ciuitatis externis interdicere leges quas Solon Athenis quas Lycurgus Spartae sanxerunt nam vti omnis virtus vnita praestantior ita omnis vis vnita fortior vt Anglia sine Scotia minus vigeret ita Scotia sine Anglia magis langueret ita regnum omne ita orbis totus langueret diuisus Quid opus est itaque cuÌ„ctari de vnitate Britaniae de perpetua vtriusque regni pace de fortitudine imperij de magnitudine regis saepe tamen non nocet cum fabio cunctari qui cunctando vicit Hanibalem ita saepe non nocet cum popilio imperare qui imperando vicit Antiochum At penes te est inuictissime Princeps cunctari imperare quiad sacram Henrici 7. tui Attani sedem cuÌ„ lauro oliua venis cum regina foecundissima cuÌ„ Principe prudentissimo cum caeteris regijs liberis quasi fidissimis Britaniae Scipionibus de quibus ac de sacris regnorum anchoris omnis plaudit Anglia gestunt parietes Scotiae Hibernia cuncta laetatur Cambria tota triumphat The Tragicomedie of Serpents I Haue promised to adde something to my last little Treatise The practise of pollicie I thought I should write but of the pollicie of men yet I haue cause to speake of diuers kinds of Serpents of Diuels Serpents of Idols Serpents of Image Serpents of beasts serpents and of men serpents which are the most perilous serpents of all according to the old saying Homo homini Lupus not only a Wolfe but a Lyon a Tygre a Diuell to a man Hanniball a sworne enemy to the Romans not only himselfe but soliciting the great Antiochus with Camels and Pirrhus before him with his Elephants and he himselfe with serpents and vipers to throwe in the faces of the Roman army to amaze their souldiers and to put them in fright in their fight Stratagems allowed in warre but not among peaceable christians But these stratagems were of Affrica and Asia against the Romans who had but Camels ElephaÌ„ts for their chiefe pollicy with the which the Romans became well acquainted and exceeded them in their owne stratagems and ouerthrew their Hanniball But now in Rome their is another kind of Hanniball whose stratagems are furnished with Wolues Beares Dragons and Tygres and those in the habit of men that farre passe Tarquine the proud with his furious priests with Snakes in one hand and firebrands in the other and their Affrican Hanniball with his Serpents in one vessell and vipers in the other but these would haue Lyons in one hand and Vnicornes in the other But we feare not the Camels of Asia nor the Elephants of India nor the Serpents of Affrick neither do we feare the Basilisks of Rome and the Romish broode in great Brittane which would faine ride on Lyons and Vnicornes For it was a long custome among the Romans to fight with Lyons on the Theators and with wilde cruell beasts that the Romans became more cruell then Serpents and such Serpents that Rome and Asia are full of them In Asia they carie Serpents in their armes to clense their aire to purifie their temples and to driue diuels away from their Townes and Cities In Rome they sent for Serpents in any plague time to Epidaurus to the jmage of Esculap whome they worshipped in the forme of a Serpent to heale them We ouercame the old Dragon the great Serpent in Paradise by the seede of the woman The children of Israell ouercame the serpents of Cadis-barne by looking vpon the brasen Serpent in that wildernes and Moses with his Hebrew army escaped the serpents in the deserts of Ethiopia by their continuall enemies the birdes Ibides of Egipt But we haue armed serpents engendred of the serpents teeth which Medea not of Colchos but of Babilon where they carry such serpents in their armes I meane their golden and siluer Gods to bee worshipped of men in the streetes these be the dangerous serpents After such serpents ran Laban after Iacob of more complaining for his jdols and images the Gods of Mesopotamia thaÌ„ for his two daughters Iacobs wiues saying cur fuâ—atus es Deos meos why hast thou stolne my Gods away from me Micah ran for such serpents after the Tribe of Dan exclaiming more for his idols then for all the wealth and goods that they took from him saying Cur Deos quos mihi feci tulistis why haue you taken my Gods which I made to my selfe from me Many ran from great Brittane after such Gods and such images to Rome to Spaine and many yet lurkes like Hydra in Laerna in their secret labyrinths more greedy for the spoyle like moabites than true catholikes for religion these be the Roman wolues in sheeps clothing like Camelions in al kind of colors scattered ouer all England these be the domesticall serpents tanquam lemures nocturni lares domestici in Cities in townes yea in our houses vnknowne and not vnseene enemies I meane those rebels and Trators which vnder colour of religion attempted sundry times our late queene and now our soueragine Lord and King That neither Hanniball with his fiery oxen was so furious against Fab. Max and his Roman armie Neither was Darius with his barking dogs and braying Asses left in his tents to deceiue the Scythians so crafty Neither desperate Tarquine so cruell to vnbridle all the horses of his army and so to rush vnto the middest of the Sabins his enemies as these late fierie oxen these barking Dogs and braying Asses left too long to barke and braye in great Brittaine these desperate horses too long suffered to bee vnbridled in England The subiect of this booke is to write of Serpents because we are troubled with serpents Plinis writes of some kind of Serpents that dare not approach the wild ash-tree nor the shadow of this tree that if they bee walled round about with great fire they will rather run through the fire then abide nigh the Ash tree or his shaddow I wish there were more such trees in great Brittaine for trees are aptly compared to men so are Kings Princes and Potentates of the earth compared to the hygh great Caedar trees in Libanon the palme trees to the constant martyres the Oliue trees to the iust and godly men and Christ himselfe to the vine tree too many like the Plantan tree with fayre and florishing showe without substance called in
too long this in Rome to curse the house of Iacob So Ioshua cursed those that would rebuild Iericho And Moses cursed those that transgressed the commaundements of God These kinde of curses are most perilous The curse of Noah fell vpon his sonne Cham so that all his posteritie which was the third part of the world became accursed and Heathens Elizeus the Prophet being scoffed at by vngracious children at Bethel that called him Bald pate hee cursed them in the name of the Lord and 2 Beares came out of the wood and destroyed 42 of those children but these Serpents feare no cursing these traytors dread no punishment but Tryphon These are like Tryphon that killed his maister yong King Antiochus like Hazael that strangled his maister King Benhadad and such like Tyrants which stories are full of These slaughters and murtherings were euer common amonge the Turkes Romans and Syrians I wrote a Booke of the stratagems of Hierusalem and therein collected all kinde of Romane stratagems as also of the Graecians which farre exceeded the Romans But of this late practise and stratagem neuer man read or heard the like Hanibal a captaine full of fraude and subtiltie deuising euerie way to winne Italy to his hand he saw in his dreame in Italy a great monstrous Image appearing before him and being at the sight thereof astonished asked what he was The Image answered Vastitas Italiae This Image deceiued Hanibal for he was forced to flye from Italy to Carthage when he thought to be Lord of Italy The like dreame did Chaeremon a fabulous Writer in Egipt that the Goddesse Isis warned King Amenophis in his sleep to purge Egipt of that leaprous and scabbie Nation the Hebrewes for so Appion termes them and it seemed that these Traytors were often troubled with Hanibals Image Vastitatem patriae And with Chaeremons dreame to purge Great Britane of Hereticks and heresie as they terme it This is as it seemeth the law of their Religion and the full resolution of their dreames God send these Serpents no better successe hereafter than the Egiptians had against the Hebrewes in the time of Moses or the Spaniards had against England in the time of Queene Elizabeth or this Romish crew now of late in King Iames time in Britane But the Lord be praised we escaped better than the Massacres in Paris at the murthering of the chiefe Peeres of Fraunce or the Murther at Blois Such Serpents and Dreamers are fedd with vaine ambitious hopes that seeke to ouerthrow Kings and Kingdomes but such as destroyed these Tyrants the Greekes did yeeld to them diuine honour For to kill a Tyrant saith Seneca is Spolia opima Ioui a rich spoyle vnto God Cato wondered to see so many heads of Romane Magistrates and Officers set vp by Sylla and Marius in the market place on the Capitoll and vpon euerie gate in Rome and that no Romane for Romes sake had not killed Sylla and Marius which had been the next and the best way of reformation in Rome to end the furie and rage of the two fire brands of Italy namely Sylla and Marius and their adherents When Goliahs head was cut off and caried by Dauid to Saul the Philistian armie fled for all their brag of Monamachis When Hanibal saw his brother Hadrubals head sent in token by the Romanes Hanibal made hast to depart out of Italy for al his great Image which appeared vnto him Truly Images appeare in dreames to such as worship and honour Images but we leaue them to such as walke in the way of Ieroboam and seeke to watch with the house of Achab I mean in mariage or otherwise of whom more regard with looking vnto must bee had least that the wrath of God should fall on Britanes as it fell on Israell We must remember Lots wife that looked backe toward Sodome Wee must not put our hand to the plough to till Gods ground and become worldlings in Symonie and Vsurie Moses the milde seruant of God for a little incredulity at the water of strife might not goe into Chaman but see it only and die at Mount Nebo Dauid a man found of God secundum cor suum yet for Vrias wife hee was plagued with the rauishing of his owne wiues the losse of his children and well nigh the losse of himselfe and of his kingdome Ieremie a Prophet blessed in his mothers bellie though he escaped the malice of the Noble-men of Iudah yet for that he went with the rest into Egipt he was in Egipt by the Egiptians stoned to death at Taphnes Therefore we must walke in the light whiles we haue light Sampson slept vpon Dalidahs lappe vntill the Philistines came and tooke him Zedechias fedde himselfe with the flatterie of his Courtiers vntill the Assyrians took him and his kingdome so we see that Security and Flattery are the onely chiefe enemies in Court and Countrey So the Persians flattered Alexander saying That he was the Sonne of Iupiter so that hee wrote and made meanes to all the Cities of Greece that the Greekes by a decree should make Alexander a God in Greece Some were contented as the Lacedemonians saying If Alexander will bee a God let him be a God The Athenians and others answered they might not allowe new and strange Gods in Greece So the Romanes might not endure any strange Gods in Rome so they denied our Sauiour Christ. And therefore the Prophet checketh the Iewes that they will not make so much of one God as the Gentiles made of many So that Varro a Roman Register of their Gods being asked howe many Gods were in all I haue registred sayd he 30 Thousand Ex antiquis monumentis But since they are growen infinite among the Iewes and the Assyrians hauing as many Gods as there bee Cities in Assiria so many Gods in Egipt as there be beasts in Egipt so many Gods in Persia as there be starres in the skie so many in Greece as the Poets can faine or Painters can make them And in Rome Tot nomina Deorum quot hominum For their Images and their Idols are so many that they semed to be Populus lapideus like people made of stones and yet none of these nations will suffer any strange Gods to bee worshipped in their Countrey besides their Gods And why then should Christians being sharpely chidden by the Prophet accept of their strange Gods being crucified with Christ as Ignatius sayth Many also like the Iewes here in England specially Grammarians and Schoole-maisters haue sought meanes to bee instructed in the Rabbins cabala of the Iewes which made great matters de apiculis literarum and that secret Science was secretly read to many Schollers by Schoolemasters in their Fathers houses and by Tutors in the Vniuersities that they would faine as the later superstitious Iewes would seeke out of Bereschith the first word of
recedet gladius de domo tua to Salomon his Sonne neying on Pharoes daughter to the losse of ten Tribes of Israel to the Beniamites such a fall for the Leuites wife to the losse of 25000 Beniamites and to the Sichemites such a fall for Dina Iacobs daughter to the ouerthrow of themselues and of their Citie Sichem But for prophane Histories Paris had such a fall for Helene Menelaus wife to the losse of the greatest number of all the Kings of Asia and of Greece Marcus Antonius for Cleopatra of Egipt had such a a fall that hee lost both the Empire of Rome and the Kingdome of Egipt I know that matching in mariage to be not one of the least causes of good and euil religion in any Common-wealth As the mariage of Esau with forraine and strange Nations The mariage of Ioram King of Iudah with King Achabs daughter an Idolater was the cause of much wickednesse in Israel The Law of Moses was that the Hebrews should match with their owne Tribe And therefore Esdras commaunded the Children of Israell to forsake their strange women Nehemias rebuked and punished the Israelites for not putting away such strange idolatrous Nations The blasphemer which was stoned in the wildernesse was the Sonne of an Egiptian gotten by an Hebrew woman Abraham was so carefull of a wife for his Sonne Isaac that hee sware his seruant to bring him one of his owne Tribe With the like care did Isaac send to Mesopotamia to his brother Laban to choose him a wife So did old Tobias send his young Sonne Tobias to Medea So God appointed such godly womeÌ„ to these godly men that willingly they forsooke their friends their kinred their brethren and sisters their Parents and country to come with their husbands to Iudah Ruth forsooke her idolatrous Nation the Moabites and would not though she was sought earnestly to returne vnto Moab A blessed woman in the Lord sayd Bâ—oâ— for she became the Mother of many blessed kings in Israell and of one most blessed King euen the King of Kings So Loah and Rachell the wiues of Iacob became the Mothers of the 12 Tribes of Israell These were godly marriages for they forsooke parents and friends to come out of such idolatrous countreys to come into Iudah to serue God with a strange Nation I could wish that there were not in great Britane those that would forsake their natiue soyle to be married in Rome or in Spaine to serue Images Caleb a zealous and earnest Hebrew promised his daughter Aâ—â—san in marriage to him that ouercame that wicked and peruerse Towne Zepheri Dissembling Saul promised his daughter Micholl to him that could bring him 200 Philistims skinnes And two godly and zealous men performed and effected the same namely Dauid and Othoniel So did Clysthenes for his daughter Agarista who made search throughout all the Cities of Greece for a vertuous youth learned and wise fit for his daughter And Themistocles was wont to say Mallem virum sine pecunia quà m pecuniaÌ„ viro iâ—digere that was his choise Yet some philosophers were of opinion like the Papists that men might haue as many women as they would for multiplication So Cato did by his wife Martia and Socrates by his wife Zantippa change them for others for that they were barrein It was not onely the opinion of Chrysippus whose writings were full of Oracles but also of Socrates and Plato and other which maintaine Poligamia but the papists will not allow their Priests Monogamia but as many Concubines and as many bastards as they list Phigius and Eccius two famous Papists left written in their bookes behinde them that Minus peccat Sacerdos sâ—ortando quam vxorem ducendo But when Pope Gregorie had found in one of his Fishing-ponds 6000 heads of Infants by his seruants he was forced with shame to say with Paul That it was better to marrie than to burne And when one of the Popes seruants sayd That it was not so rich a draught as the poore Milessian Fishers found at Miletum where they tooke Mensem aurâ—am which was not fit for any of the Sages of Greece but onely for Apollo Yea saith his fellow softly to him this draught is as fit for the Pope as the other draught was for Apollo How many such draughts were drawne in the time of Papissa a woman of Miguntia Gilberta and not Ioanna an English womaÌ„ as Heidfield saith which bare at one birth more than the Countesse of Flanders who had 365 at one birth and more than Herotimus King of Arabia who had 600 bastards by coÌ„cubines but Gilberta and her Successors so exceeded that all the world is much trobled with her bastards In Rome God Anubis fel in loue with Saturninus wife the onely faire woman of Rome her husband her parents her kinsmen and friends brought her to the temple of Anubis where the Feast Lectesternium was prepared where after the Feast they left Saturninus wife with God Anubis all night where De Mundus a young Romane Knight was Deputie by means of the priests for 2000 Drachmeis Marcus Antonius comming from Rome to Athens in all kinde of habites and ceremonies with Thyrsus in his hand like Dionisius hee was so reuerenced of the Athenians that they offered him their Goddesse Minerua in mariage with 1000 talents for her dowry which was well accepted of the Romane so that the God Anubis must haue a woman and the Goddesse Minerua must haue a man The brood of these great marriages were greatly multiplied in all Countreys by mariages of these two great houses Saturninus wife with God Anubis and Minerua with M. Antonius for before that in Rome meane Families were matched with the Patricians in marriage the Senators and Consuls had the whole gouernment ouer the Romanes but being strengthened by mariage with the patricians not only the election of the Tribunes themselues but of all the Magistrates of Rome and the whole gouernment of the Romanes was Per plebem Tribunum plebis It was euer seene in all common wealths that the vulgar people by being Magistrates or being in commission by great countenance by marriage by bearing and backing them in their Religion be that Immanis bellua the verie Monster among Nations A Thistle in Libanon sent to a Cedar tree in Libanon saying Giue thy daughter to my Sonne in marriage and there came a wild beast from Libanon and troad downe vnder foote the Thistle with a watch-word giuen by the Prophet to Amasias King of Iuda for the worshipping of the Gods of Edom Deos albatos filiorum Seir. Vnequall marriage specially in Religion is like an Oxe and an Asse to drawe vnder one Yoake This was the first cause of sedition at Rome in monte Ianiculo betweene the Patricians and the Commons Ob dignitatem natalium Hence grewe many seditions and so many that it was