Treasurer of England and Sir Thomas Gray were beheaded for treason No lesse was the perfidious and ungratefull treachery of Humphry Banister an Englishman towards the Duke of Buckingham his Lord and master whom the said Duke had tenderly brought up and exalted to great promotion For when as the Duke being driven into extremity by reason of the separation of his army which he had mustered together against King Richard the usurper fled to the same Banister as his trustiest friend to be kept in secret untill he could find opportunity to escape this false traitor upon hope of a thousand pounds which was promised to him that could bring forth the Duke betraied him into the hands of Iohn Mitton Shirife of Shropshire who conveied him to the city of Salisbury where King Richard kept his houshold where he was soone after put to death But as for ungratefull Banister the vengeance of God pursued him to his utter ignominy for presently after his eldest sonne became mad and died in a bores stiâ— his eldest daughter was suddenly stricken with a foule lepry his second sonne marvellously deformed of his lims and lame his youngest sonne drowned in a puddle and he himselfe in his old age arraigned and found guilty of a murther and by his Clergy saved And as for his thousand pounds King Richard gave him not a farthing saying That he which would be nutrue to so good a master must needs be false to all other To passe over the time of the residue of the Kings where in many examples of treasons and punishments upon them are extant and to come neerer unto our owne age let us consider the wonderfull providence of God in discovering the notorious treasons which have been so oftenpretended and so many against our late Soveraigne Queene Elizabeth and protecting her so fatherly from the dint of them all First therefore to begin with the chiefest the Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland in the eleventh yeare of her raigne began a rebellion in the North pretending their purpose to be sometimes to defend the Queenes person and government from the invasion of strangers and sometimes for conscience sake to seeke reformation of Religion under colour whereof they got together an army of men to the number of six thousand souldiers against whom marched the Earle of Suffex Lieutenant of the North and the Earle of Warwicke sent by the Queene to his ayde Whose approch strucke such a terrour into their hearts that the two Earles with divers of the arch Rebels fled by night into Scotland leaving the rest of their company a prey unto their enemies whereof threescore and six or thereabout were hanged at Durham As for the Earles one of them to wit of Northumberland was after taken in Scotland and beheaded at York Westmerland fled into another Countrey and left his house and family destroyed and undone by his folly A while after this what befell to Iohn Throgmorton Thomas Brooke George Redman and divers other Gentlemen at Norwich who pretended a rebellion under the color of suppressing strangers were they not discovered by one of their owne conspiracy Thomas Ket and executed at Norwich for their paines The same end came Francis Throgmorton to whose trecheries as they were abhominable and touching the Queens owne person so they were disclosed not without the especiall providence of God But above all that vile and ungratefull traitor William Parry upon whom the Queene had powred plentifully her liberality deserveth to be had in everlasting remembrance to his shame whose treasons being discovered he payed the tribute of his life in recompence thereof What shall I say of the Earle of Arundell and a second Earle of Northumberland Did not the justice of God appeare in both their ends when being attainted for treason the one slew himselfe in prison and the other died by course of nature in prison also Notorious was the conspiracy of those arch traitours Ballard Babington Savadge and Tylney c. yet the Lord brought them downe and made them spectacles to the World of his justice Even so that notorious villaine Doctor Lopez the Queenes Physitian who a long time had not onely beene an intelligencer to the Pope and King of Spaine of our English Counsells but also had poisoned many Noblemen and went about also to poyson the Queene her selfe was he not surprised in his treachery and brought to sudden destruction In summe the Lord preserved her Majesty not only from these but many other secret and privy foes and that most miraculously and contrary to all reason and spread his wings over her evermore to defend her from all her enemies and in despight of them all brought her being full of yeares in peace to her grave All these treasons had their breeding and beginning from that filthy sinke of Romish superstition from whence the poison was conveied into the hearts of these traiterous wretches by the means of those common firebrands of the Christian World the wicked Iesuites whose chiefest art is Treason and whose profession is equivocation and practise to stir up rebellion and therefore as long as they breath in the world let us looke for no better fruits from such trees And hath the reigne of our now Soveraigne King Iames beene free from these Sinons He hath as yet swayed the Scepter of this Kingdome not fully nine yeres and how many treasons have beene complotted and practised against his Majesty and the State and how miraculously hath the Lord preserved him evermore even as the apple of his eye and the signet on his right hand To omit the treason of Raleigh and Cobham and that also of Watson and Clerke that late and last divellish and damnable practise of blowing up the Parliament house with gunpowder together with the King Prince and all the Nobles and chiefe Pillars of the Land is never to be omitted nor forgotten but to be remembred as long as the Sunne and Moone endureth to the shame of their religion and the professours thereof never Nation so barbarous that ever practised the like never any religion so odious that maintained the like but such are the fruits of their so much advanced religion such the clusters of their grapes How be it the Lord prevented their malice and turned it upon their owne pates not only by a Divine and miraculous discovery of their treason the very night before it should have beene effected but also by bringing the chiefe plotters thereof unto confusion some by the ordinary proceeding of justice and some by slaughter in resistance and that which is not to bee overpast some of the principall of them being together in a chamber were so scorched by their owne powder which was in drying that they were driven to confesse the heavy judgement of God to be upon them I pray God such may ever bee the end of all traitours and that the religion which bringeth forth such horrible fruits may not onely be suspected but abhorred of all Moreover there is yet another
him of his gard from that he arose to be a Tribune and at last to bee Emperor which place he was no sooner in possession of but immoderate cruelty all this while buried began to shew it selfe for he made havocke of all the Nobilitie and put to death those that he suspected to be acquainted with his estate insomuch as some called him Cyclops some Bâ—siris others Aâ—teus for his cruelty Wherefore the Senate of Rome seeing his indignity proclaimed him an enemy to their commonwealth and made it lawfull for any man to procure his death Which being knowne his souldiers lying at the siege of Aquileia moved with hatred entred his tent at noone day and flew him and his sonne together Iustinian the yonger no lesse hatefull to his subjects for his cruelty than Maximinus was deposed from the empire by conspiracy and having his nosthrils slit exiled to Chersona Leontius succeeding in his place Howbeit ere long he recovered his Crowne and Scepter and returned to Constantinople exercising more cruelty at his returne than ever he had done before for he had not only put to death Leontius and Tiberius but also all that any way favored their parts It is said of him that he never blew his mangled nose but he caused one of them to be executed to death At last he was slaine by Philippicus to verifie the word of the Lord That he which striketh with the sword shall perish with the sword Albonius king of Lunbardy drinking upon a time to his wife Rosimund in a cup made of her fathers skull whom he in battell had slaine so displeased her therewith that attributing more to naturall affection than unity of marriage decreed with her selfe to hazard life and kingdome to be revenged upon this grievous injurie wherefore she thus practised A knight called Hemichild was enamoured with one of her maids him shee brought into a secret darke place by policie in shew to injoy his love but indeed to be at her command for she supplyed his loves place and then discovering her selfe put it to his choise either to kill her husband or to be accused by her of this villanie Hemichild chose the former and indeed murdered his Lord in his bed and after the deed done fled with her to Ravenna But marke how the Lord required this murder even most strangely for they both which were linkt together in the fact were linkt together also in the punishment and as they had beene joynt instruments of anothers destruction so he made them mutuall instruments of their owne for Rosimund thinking to poyson him too made him drinke halfe her medicine but hee feeling the poyson in his veines staied in the mid way and made her sup up the other halfe for her part so they died both together The Electors of the Empire disagreeing in suffrages Adolphus Duke of Nassavia and Albertus Duke of Austria tooke upon them the regiment and managing of the State whereupon grew grievous wars in all Germanie and dissention between the two State-men so that Adolphus was slaine by the Duke of Austria in battell by the citie of Spire whose death was thus notably revenged All that tooke part against him or that were accessary to the murder perished most strangely Albert Earle of Hagerloch was slaine Otto of Ochsensteme was hanged the Bishop of Mentz died suddenly of an apoplexie in his cellar the Bishop of Strasbrough was butchered by a Butcher the Earle of Leimingen died of a frensie the Duke of Austria himselfe was slaine by his nephew Iohn from whom hee had taken the government of Suevia because of his unthriftinesse generally they all came to destruction so grievous is the crie of innocent bloud against those that are guilty thereof After the death of Woldimirus King of Rhythenia his sonne Berisus succeeded in the kingdome who though hee was a vertuous and religious Prince yet could not his vertue or religion priviledge him from the malice of his brother Suadopolcus who gaping and itching for the Crowne slew his brother this good Prince as hee was sleeping in his Chamber together with his Esquire that attended upon him and not content herewith but adding murder to murder hee assaulted another of his brethren by the same impietie and brought him to the same end Whereupon the last brother Iorislaus to bee revenged on this villanie set upon him with an armie of men and killing his complices drove him to fly to Crachus king of Polonia for succour who furnishing him with a new armie sent him backe against his brother in which battell his successe being equall to the former hee lost his men and himselfe escaping the sword dyed in his flight to Polonia and was buried in a base and ignoble sepulchre fit enough for so base and ignoble a wretch And that we may see how hatefull and ungodly a thing it is to be either a protector or a saver of any murderer marke the judgement of God that fell upon this king of Polonia though not in his own person yet in his posterity for hee being dead his eldest sonne and heire Crachus was murdered by his younger brother Lechus as they were hunting so disguised and torn that every man imputed his death not to Lechus whose eyes dropt crocodiles teares but to some savage and cruell beast howbeit ere long his trechery being discovered and disseised of his kingdome hee died with extreame griefe and horrour of conscience And thus we see that Crachus his kingdome came to desolation for maintaining a murderer Iohn the high Priest of Jerusalem sonne and successor to Iudas had a brother termed Iesus to whom Bagoses the lieutenant of Artaxerxes army promised the Priesthood meaning indeed to depose Iohn and install him in his roome upon which occasion this Iesus growing insolent spared not to revile his brother and that in the temple with immodest and opprobrious speeches so that his anger being provoked he slew him in his rage a most impious part for the high Priest to pollute the holy temple with bloud and that of his owne brother and so impious that the Lord in justice could not chuse but punish the whole nation for it most severely For this cause Bagoses imposed a tribute upon them even a most grievous tribute that for every lambe they offered upon the altar they should pay fiftie groats to the king of Persia besides the prophanation of their temple with the uncircumcised Persians who entred into it at their pleasures and so polluted the Sanctuary and holy things of God this punishment continued upon them seven yeares and all for this one murder Gerhardus Earle of Holsatia after he had conquered the Danes in many and sundry battells was traiterously slaine in the citie Kanderhusen by one Nicolaus Iacobus a rich Baron so that whom the open enemy feared in the field him the privie subtile foe murdered in his chamber But the traitor and murderer albeit hee fled to the castle Schaldenburg and
the world are Idolaters and full of superstition worship Images stockes and stones and pray to creatures in stead of the Creator God forbiddeth us to sweare by his name in vaine and yet what is more rise than that so that a man can heare nothing else but oaths and blasphemies Many for the least trifle in the world sticke not to sweare and forsweare themselves God forbiddeth theft murther adultery and false witnesse bearing and yet nothing so common as backbitings slanders forgeries false reports whoredomes cousenings robberies extortions and all manner of envies enmities God hath commanded that we love our neighbours as our selves but we in stead of love hate despise and seeke to procure the hurt and damage of one another not regarding any thing but our owne peculiar profit and advantage Is not this a manifest and profest disobedience and intolerable rebellion against our Maker What childe is there that is not bound to honour and reverence his father What servant that is not bound to obey his master and to doe all that he shall will him What subject that is not tied in subjection to his Prince and Soveraigne Yet there is not one which will not confesse yea and sweare too with his mouth That God is his Lord and Father Which if it be true what is then the cause that in stead of serving and pleasing him they doe nothing else but displease and offend his Majesty Is not this the way to provoke his wrath and stirre up his indignation against them Is it any marvell if he be incensed with anger if hee be armed with revenge and send abroad his cruell scourges upon the earth to strike and whip it withall Is it any wonder if hee pile up the wicked ones on heaps and shoot out his revengefull arrowes against them and make them drunken with their owne bloud and make his sword of justice as sharp as a rasor to punish those Rebels that have rebelled against him For vengeance is mine saith he and belongeth only unto me Whosoever therefore he be that followeth the desires and concupiscence of his owne flesh and this wicked world and shall lead a life contrary to the instruction and ordinance of the law of God yea although he never heard thereof yet is hee guilty thereof and worthy to be accursed for so much as his owne conscience ought to serve for a law unto himselfe by the which he is condemned in those evill actions which hee committeth even as Paul saith All that have sinned without the Law shall likewise perish without the Law CHAP. VI. How the greatest Monarchs in the World ought to be subject to the Law of God and consequently the Lawes of Man and Nature EVery man confesseth this to be true That by how much the more benefits and dignity he hath received from another by so much he is the more bounden and beholden to him now it is so that Kings and Princes are those upon whom God hath bestowed more plentifully his gifts and graces than upon any other whom hee hath made as it were his Lievtenants in the world for hee hath extolled and placed them above others and bedecked them with honour giving them power and authority to rule and raigne by putting people in subjection to them and therefore so much the more are they bound to re-acknowledge him againe to the end to doe him all honour and homage which is required at their hands Therefore David exhorteth them to serve the Lord even with reverence This then their high and superintendent estate is no priviledge to exempt them from the subjection and obedience which they owe unto God whom they ought to reverence above all things Yee Princes and high Lords saith the Prophet give you unto the Lord eternall glory and strength give unto him glory due unto his name and cast your selves before him to do him reverence If they owe so much honour unto God as to their Soveraigne then surely it must follow that they ought to obey his voice and feare to offend him and so much the rather because hee is a great deale more strong and terrible than they able to cause his horrible thunderbolts to tumble upon their heads they being not able once to withstand his puissance but constrained very often to tremble thereat In all that prescription and ordinance ordained and set down by God concerning the office of Kings there is no mention made of any liberty he giveth them to live after their owne lusts and to doe every thing that seemeth good in their own eyes but hee enjoyneth them expresly to have alwaies with them the booke of his Law delighteth to reade and meditate therein and thereby to learne to feare and reverence his name by observing all the precepts that are contained in that booke As for civill and naturall Lawes insomuch as they are founded upon equity and right for otherwise they were no Lawes therein they are agreeable to and as it were dependents on the Law of God as is well declared by Cicero in the first and second booke of his Lawes for even they also condemne theeves adulterers murtherers parricides and such like If then Princes be subject to the Law of God as I am about to shew there is no doubt but that they are likewise subject to those civill Lawes by reason of the equity and justice which therein is commended unto us And if as Plato saith the Lawes ought to be above the Prince not the Prince above the Lawes it is then most manifest that the Prince is tyed unto the Lawes even in such sort that without the same the government which hee swayeth can never be lawfull and commendable And if it be true that the Magistrate is or ought to be a speaking Law as it is said and ought to maintaine the authority and credit thereof by the due and upright administration of Iustice for if hee did not this he were a dumbe Law and without life how is it possible that he should make it of authority and force with others if hee despiseth and transgresseth it himselfe David did never assume so much to himselfe as to desire to have liberty to doe what hee listed in his Kingdome but willingly submitted himselfe to that which his office and duty required making even then when he was installed and established King over the whole Land a Covenant of peace with the Princes and Deputies of the people and we know that in every covenant and bargaine both parties are bound to each other by a mutuall bond to performe the conditions which they are agreed upon The like is used at the coronation of Christian Kings whereas the people is bound and sworne to doe their alleagance to their Kings so the Kings are also solemnely sworne to maintaine and defend true Religion the estate of Iustice the peace and tranquillity of their subjects and the right and priviledges which are nothing but the Lawes of the Realme
and sufficiently he was confuted and that he was reputed an accursed and confounded wretch for his labour in terrible despaire and anguish of soule he died Iulian the Emperour sirnamed the Apostate cast himselfe headlong into the same gulfe for having been brought up and instructed from his childehood in the Christian faith and afterward a while a profest reader thereof to others in the Church as soone as he had obtained the Empire malitiously revolted from his profession and resisted with all his power the Faith and Church of Christ endeavouring by all means possible either by force to ruinate and destroy it or by fine sleights and subtilties to undermine it And because his purpose was to doe what hurt hee could to Christians therefore he studied by all he could to please content and uphold the contrary party I meane the Painims he caused their temples first to be opened which Constantine his predecessor had caused to be shut up he tooke from the Christian Churches and their Ministers those priviledges liberties and commodities which the said Constantine had bestowed upon them and not content with this he confiscated the Church revenues and imposed great taxes and tributes upon all that professed the name of Christians and forbad them to have any schooles of learning for their children And yet more to vexe and grieve them he translated many orders of the Church discipline and policy into Paganisme After he had thus by all means striven to beat down the Scepter of Christs kingdome it turned quite contrary to his expectation for in stead thereof the scepter of his owne kingdome was broken and brought to nought at that time when making warre upon the Persians he was wounded with an arrow which pierced his armour and dived so deep into his side that he died thereof When he undertooke this voyage he was furnished with such bravery both of apparell and all things else as it might seeme it appertained to him and none else to overwhelme and oversway the world still belching out threats against poore Christians whom he hed determined at his returne from Persia utterly to destroy and leave none alive as was afterwards reported by one of his Councell The number of his souldiers was so innumerable and his strength so impregnable that he made no other reckoning but to be lord of Persia in a very short space But loe how the Lord overturneth the attempts of his enemies This great army as S. Chrysostome reporteth against the Heathen in which he put so much confidence seemed ere long to be rather a vaste and weak multitude of women and infants than an host of Warriours for by evill and foolish conduct and government there rose so great a famine amongst them that their horses which were provided for the battell served for their bellies yea and for want of that too many hundreds died for hunger and thirst Even when he skirmished his owne side came to the worse doing more scath to themselves than to their enemies and lastly leading them so undiscreetly they could not by any means escape out were constrained after he was slaine to intreat the Persians to suffer them to retyre and so as many as could escaped and fled away to save their lives And thus this brave army was thus miserably dismembred and discomfited to the everlasting shame of that wicked Apostate One of the Treasurers of this wicked Emperour who to please his Master forsooke also the Religion of Christ being on a time mocking and deriding the ministry of the holy Word died miserably on a sudden vomiting his owne bloud out of his mouth and as Chrysostome saith his privy parts being rotten and purrified and consumed with lice for all that ever he could doe to remedy the same It is recorded of Trebellius the first King of the Bulgarians that being converted with his people to the faith of Christ to the end to give himselfe more quiet to the meditation and exercise of Religion resigned over his kingdome to his eldest sonne whom when hee perceived to renounce the Faith and to follow strange gods he not only deprived of all his Royall dignity but also caused his eyes to be put out for a punishment of his Apostacie and bestowed the kingdome upon his other sonne shewing thereby that he that abandoneth the true light of salvation is not worthy to enjoy the comfortable light of the world During the heptarchy of the Saxons here in England there raigned in Northumberland two Kings one called Ostrich who was King of the Deirians and the other Eaufride King of the Bernirians for into those two Provinces was that countrey antiently divided These two Kings before they came to their Crownes were by the preaching of Paulinus converted to the Faith of Christ and baptised into the same Faith but as soone as God advanced them to their Kingly dignities presently they expelled the King of Glory out of their hearts and renouncing Christ betooke themselves againe to their filthy Idols But they joyed not long in this their Apostacie for within one yeare they were both slaine by Cedwalla King of the Britaines the one in battell the other comming to sue for peace And so they forsaking Christ in their prosperity were forsaken by him in their adversity and given over to be a prey into the hands of their enemies This yeare wherein these two Kings thus revolted and were slaine hath upon it the marke of vengeance to this day for by the common consent of all Chronicles that the memory of these Apostates might be utterly defaced and blotted out it was reckoned in the account of the next Kings raigne to wit Oswold a holy and religious man and so both the name of the Kings and the time of their raigne is in detestation of the Apostacie utterly left out of our English stories as if they were unworthy to have a place among men much more among Kings that forsooke Christ of their owne accord without any constraint or compulsion thereunto A Divine at Louvaine one Iames Laâ—onus who was well instructed at the first in the knowledge of the Truth afterwards renouncing the same endeavoured with all his power to oppugne and oppresse it This man being on a time mounted into a pulpit to preach before the Emperour Charles the fifth was at the very instant so amased and astonished that no man could perceive what he said and so made himselfe a laughing stocke to all that audience Seeing himselfe thus disgraced he returned from Brussels to Louvaine where he fell into such griefe and sorrow of minde for the dishonour which he had gotten that it turned at length into despaire and in his dayly Lectures these or like words oftentimes escaped after that goodly Sermon That he had impugned the truth of God which when divers of his owne Coat heard they caused him to be shut up fast in a house where in desperation he died telling every man he was damned and that he could
kind of treason and another ranke of traitors as pernitious as any of the former and as odious before God and man Such are they which either upon private quarrels or received injuries or hope of gaine or any other silly respect forsake their countries and take part with the enemies to fight against it or they that in time of necessity refuse to fight or dare not fight in defence of it the former sort are called fugitives the latter cowards As touching the first they havebeen alwayes in detestation in well governed Policies and also evermore severely punished The Aeginates punished them with the losse of their right hand thumbs to the end they might no more handle a speare or a sword but an oare the Mitylenians with losse of their lives the inhabitants of Samos marked them in the face with the picture of an Owle and the Romans punished them after divers fashions Fabius Maximus caused all those that had fled from the Roman succours to the enemy to lose their hands Africanus the former though gentle and mild by nature yet in this respect he borrowed from forreine cruelty for having conquered Carthage and got into his power all those Romane Rebels that tooke part against his countrey he hung the Romans as traitors to their countrey and mitigated the punishment of the Latines as but perfidious confederates Africanus the later when hee had subdued the Punicke Nation he threw all fugitives amongst wilde beasts to be devoured Lucius Paulus aftor the conquest of the King of Persia committed these fellowes to the mercy of Elephants Generally there is no Nation under the Sunne which holdeth them not in execration and therefore our English fugitives who under cloke of Religion not onely abandon their countrey their kindred and their Prince but also conspire the undoing and sweare the destruction of them are they not worthy to be handled like traitours and to have their quarters spectacles of perfidy The bridge and gates of London beare witnesse of the wofull ends that these runnagates come unto As touching cowards I meane such as preferring their lives or liberty or any other by-respects before their countries welfare and either dare not or will not stand stoutly in defence of it in time of warre and danger they deserve no lesse punishment than the former seeing that as they are open oppugners so these are close underminers of the good thereof And therefore the Romanes did sharpely chasten them in their government as may appeare by diverse examples of the same as first they were noted with this ignominy never to eat their meat but standing and hereunto they were sworne Nay they were in such hatefull account amongst them that when Annibal offered the Senate 8000 captives to be redeemed they refused his offer saying That they were not worthy to be redeemed that had rather be taken basely than die honestly and valiantly The same Senate dealt more favourably with the captives which King Pyrrhus tooke for they redeemed them but with this disgrace degrading them from their honours and places untill by a double spoile they had woon their reputation againe L. Calpurnius Piso handled Titius the captaine of his horsemen in Sicilia one who being overcharged with enemies delivered his weapons unto them on this manner he caused him to goe bare footed before the army wearing a garment without seames he forbad him society with any save such as were noted with the same fault and from a Generall over horsemen he debased him to a common souldier How did the same Senate correct the cowardise of Caius Vatienus who to the end to priviledge himselfe from the Italicke warre cut off all the fingers of his left hand even they proscribed his goods and cast him into perpetuall prison that that life which hee refused to hazard in defence of his countrey he might consume in bondage and fetters Fulgosius saith That among the Germanes it was so unhonourable a part to lose but a shield in the warre that whosover had happened to doe so was suspended both from the place of common councell and from the temples of Religion insomuch that many as he reporteth killed themselves to avoid the shame The people called Daci punished cowards on this sort they suffered them not to sleepe but with their heads to the beds feet-ward and besides by the law they made them slaves and subjects to their owne wives What viler disgrace could there be than this And yet the Lacedemonians plagued them more shamefully for with them it was a discredit to marry in the stocke of a coward any man might strike them lawfully and in their attire they went with their clothes rent and their beards halfe shaven Thus are all kind of traitors continually punished of the Lord by one meanes or other and therefore let us learne to shun treason as one of the vilest and detestablest things in the world CHAP. IIII. Of such as have murthered their Rulers or Princes ZImri Captaine of halfe the chariots of Elah King of Israel conspired against his Lord as he was in Tirza drinking till he was drunke in the house of Arze his Steward and came upon him suddenly and smote him till hee died and possessed the Kingdome in his roome Howbeit herein he was the Lords rod to punish the house of Baasha yet when the punishment was past the Lord threw the rod into the fire for he enjoyed the Crowne but seven dayes for all Israel detesting his fact made Omri King over them who besieged him in Tirza and drove him into that extremity that hee went into the palace of the Kings house and burnt himselfe and the house with fire Iozachar the sonne of Shimeah and Ieozabed the sonne of Shomer came to no better end for murthering Iehoash King of Iuda for Amaziah his sonne after the kingdome was confirmed unto him caused them both to be put to death but their children he slew not according to that which is written in the Booke of the law The fathers shall not be put to death for the children nor the children for the fathers but every man shall beare this owne sin Neither did Shallum that slew Zacharia King of Israel prosper any better for he reigned but one month in Samaria when Menahim the sonne of Gadi rebelled against him and slew him as he had done his master Amon the sonne of Manasseh was slaine by his owne servants but the Lord stirred up the people of the Land to revenge his death and to kill all them that had conspired against their King But to let passe the holy histories of the sacred Scripture wherein ever after any treason the Holy Ghost presently setteth downe the punishment of traitours as it were of purpose to signifie how the Lord hateth all such Rebels that rose up against his owne ordinance let us consider a little the consequents of these in prophane yet credible authors and apply them unto our purpose Archelaus
was this onely denounced but executed also as we may reade 1 Kin. 22. 38. 2 Kin. 9. 36 37 c. 2 Kin. 10. 7 c. Amaziah the Priest of Bethel under Ieroboam the wicked King of Israel perceiving how the Prophet Amos prophesied against the Idolatry of that place and of the King he falsly accused him to Ieroboam to have conspired against him also he exhorted him to flie from Bethel because it was the Kings Chappell and flie into Judah and prophesie there but what said the Lord unto him by the Prophet Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword and thy land shall be divided by line and thou shalt die in a polluted land Loe there was the punishment of his false accusation How notable was the judgement that the Lord manifested upon Hamon the Syrian for his false accusing of the Jewes to be disturbers of the Common-wealth and breakers of the lawes of King Ahasuerosh Did not the Lord turne his mischief upon his own head The same day that was appointed for their destruction the Lord turned it to the destruction of their enemies and the same gallowes which he prepared for Mordecai was he himselfe hanged upon The men that falsly accused Daniel to King Darius for breaking the Kings edict which was that none should make any request unto any for thirty dayes space save onely to the King himselfe fared no better for when as they found Daniel praying unto God they presently accused him unto the King urging him with the stability which ought to be in the Decrees of the Kings of Media and Persia that ought not to be altered in such sort that King Darius though against his will commanded Daniel to be throwne amongst the Lions to be devoured of them but when he saw how miraculously the Lord preserved him from the teeth of the Lions and thereby perceived his innocency he caused his envious accusers to be thrown into the Lions den with their wives and children who were devoured by the Lions ere they could fall to the ground Notorious is the example of the two Judges that accused Susanna both how she was delivered and they punished But let us come to prophane â—istories Apelles that famous Painter of Ephesus felt the sting and â—â—tternesse oâ— this venomous viâ—er for he was falsly accused by Antiphilus another Painter an envier of his art and excellent workemanship to have conspired with Theodota against King Ptolomie and to have been the cause of the defection of Pelusium from him which accusation he laid against him to the end that seeing he could not attain to that excellency of art which he had he might by this false pretence worke his disgrace and overthrow as indeed he had effected had not great persuasions been used and manifest proofes alledged of Apelles innocency and integrity wherefore Ptolomie having made triall of the cause and found out the false and wrongfull practise he most justly rewarded Apelles with an hundred talents and Antiphilus the accuser with perpetuall servitude upon which occasion Apelles in remembrance of that danger painted out Calumniation on this manner a Woman gayly attired and dressed with an angry and furious countenance holding in her left hand a torch and with her right a young man by the hair of the head before whom marched an evill favoured sluttish usher quicke-sighted and pale-faced called Envy at her right hand sat a fellow with long eares like King Midas to receive tales and behinde her two waiting maids Ignorance and Suspition And thus the witty Painter to delude his own evill hap expressed the lively Image and nature of that detracting sin This tricke used Maximinus the Tyran to deface the Doctrine and Religion of Christ in his time for when he saw that violence and torments prevailed not but that like the Palme the more it was trodden and oppressed the more it grew he used this subtilty and craft to undermine it he published divers bookes full of Blasphemy of a conference betwixt Christ and Pilate and caused them to be taught to children in stead of their first elements that they might no sooner speak than hate and blaspheme Christ Moreover he constrained certain wicked lewd women to avouch that they were Christians and that vile filthinesse was dayly committed by them in their assemblies which also he published far and near in writing howbeit for all this the Lords truth quailed not but swum as it were against the stream and encreased in despight of Envy and for these false accusers they were punished one after another with notable judgements for one that was a chiefe doer therein became his owne murderer and Maximinus himselfe was consumed with wormes and rottennesse as hath beene shewed in the former Booke It was a law among the Romans that if any man had enforced an accusation against another either wrongfully unlawfully or without probability both his legs should be broken in recompence of his malice which custome as it was laudable and necessary so was it put in execution at divers times as namely under the Emperour Commodus when a prophane wretch accused Apollonius a godly and profest Christian and afterward a constant martyr of Christ Jesus before the Judges of certaine grievous crimes which when he could by no colour or likelyhood of truth convince and prove they adjudged him to that ignominious punishment to have his legs broken because he had accused and defamed a man without cause Eustathius Bishop of Antioch a man famous for eloquence in speech and uprightnesse of life when as hee impugned the heresie of the Arrians was circumvented by them and deposed from his Bishopricke by this meanes they suborned a naughty strumpet to come in with a childe in her armes and in an open Synod of two hundred and fifty Bishops to accuse him of adultery and to sweare that hee had got that childe of her body which though he denied constantly and no just proofe could be brought against him yet the impudent strumpets oath tooke such place that by the Emperours censure hee was banished from his Bishopricke howbeit ere long his innocency was knowne for the said strumpet being deservedly touched with the finger of Gods justice in extreame sicknesse confessed the whole practise how she was suborned by certaine Bishops to slander this holy man and that yet she was not altogether a lyar for one Eustathius a handy-crafts man got the childe as shee had sworne and not Eustathius the Bishop The like slander the same hereticks devised against Athanasius in a Synod convocated by Constantine the Emperour at Tyrus for they suborned a certaine lewd woman to exclaime upon the holy man in the open assembly for ravishing of her that last night against her will which slander he shifted off by this devise he sent Timotheus the Presbyter of Alexandria into the Synod in his place who comming to
escape unpunished for his perfidie and impietie For first his warre-like affaires in the East prospered not then a little before the end of his life he grievously complained that he had innovated the faith in his kingdome At last in those sighings and complaints he parted this life with a grievous and violent disease The Unkle of Iulian the Apostata called also Iulianus at Antioch in the temple prophaned the holy table with pissing upon it And when Eusoius the Bishop rebuked him for it he stroke him with his fist Not long after he was taken with a grievous disease of his bowels putrifying and miserably died his excrements comming from him not by their ordinary passages but by his wicked mouth Under the Emperour Valence a wonderfull haile the stones being as big as a man could hold in his hand was sent upon Constantinople and slew many both men and beasts for that the Emperour had banished many famous men that would not communicate with Eudoxius the Arrian and for the same reason a great part of Germa a Citie of Hellespont was throwne downe by an earthquake and in Phrygia such a famine succeeded that the Inhabitants were faine to change their habitation and to â—lee to other places After the martyrdome of Gregory the Bishop of Spoleta Flacchus the Governour who was author thereof was strucke with an Angel and vomited out his entrailes at his mouth and died Under the Empire of Alexander Mammea Agrippitus fifteene yeares old because he would not sacrifice to their Idols was apprehended at Praeneste whipt with scourges and hanged up by the heeles and at last slaine with the sword in the middest of whose torments the Governour of the Citie fell from the Tribunall seat dead Bajazet a most cruell enemy of the Christians was taken by Tamerlane the Tartarian King and bound in golden chaines and carried about by him in an iron cage latised and shewne unto all being used for a stirrop unto Tamerlane when he got upon his horse Gensericus the King of the Vandales exercising grievous cruelty against the Orthodox Christians he himselfe being an Arrian was possessed of the Devill and died a miserable death in the yeare 477. Honoricus the second King of the Vandales having used inexplicable cruelty against the Orthodox Christians hanging up honest matrons and virgins naked burning their bodies with torches cutting off their dugges and armes because they would not subscribe to the Arrian heresie was surprised himselfe with the vengeance of God for his land was turned into barrennesse through an exceeding drought so that numbers of men women and beasts died with famine the pestilence also seised upon them and he himselfe was stricken with such a disease of his body that his members rotted off one after another Anastatius Dicorus a grievous persecutor of the Church of Christ being admonished in a dreame that he should perish with thunder built him an house wherein he might defend himselfe from that judgement but in vaine for in a great thunder he fled from chamber to chamber and at last was found dead blasted with lightning to the great horror of the beholders Chasroes the King of Persia a grievous enemy to Christ and Christians committed horrible outrages against them for first he slew at Jerusalem ninety thousand men with Zachariâ— the Patriarch of Jerusalem and also raged in like manner in Aegypt Lybia Aethiopia and would grant them no condition of peace unlesse they would forsake Christ and worship the Sunne he also put to death with most cruell torments Anastatius a godly Monke because he constantly confessed the faith of Christ. But God met with him to the full for his eldest sonne Syroes tooke him prisoner and handled him in most vile manner he hanged an iron weight upon his neck and imprisoned him in an high tower which he had built to keepe his treasure denying him food and bidding him eat the gold which he had gathered together then he slew all his children before his face and exposed him to the scoffes and railings of the people and lastly caused him to be shot to death and so that great terror of the world and shedder of Christian bloud breathed out his soule after a miserable manner Regnerus the King of Denmarke abrogating Christian Religion and setting up Idolatrie in his Kingdome anew the divine vengeance overtooke him for Helles whom he had cast out of the Kingdome returned upon him with an army of the Gaules and overcomming him in battell tooke him prisoner and shut him up in a filthie prison full of serpents which setting upon him with their venomous bitings and stings brought him to a most horrible end Lysius the Emperour gave Heriâ—a his daughter a virgin because she was a Christian to be trampled under foot of horses but he himselfe was sâ—ain by the byting of one of the same horses A Popish Magistrate having condemned a poore Protestant to death before his execution caused his tongue to be cut out because he should not confesse the truth in requitall whereof the next childe that was borne unto him was borne without a tongue CHAP. II. Of Perjurie Pâ—ilip King of Macedon who was a great contemner of all oathes and held the Religion thereof as a vain thing for this cause as all Writers affirme the vengeance of God followed him and his posteritie for when he had lived scarce forty and sixe yeares he himselfe was slain and all his whole house in short time in short time after utterly extinguished 〈◊〉 one of his sonnes was slaine by Olympias his wife Also another sonne which he had by Cleopatra the 〈◊〉 of Aâ—â—alus â—he tormented to death in a brazen vessell compassed about with fire The â—est of his sonnes periffied in like manner and at last the famous Alexander his sonne after great conquest atchieved by him in the middle course of his victories periffied miserably some thinke by poyson In the Countrey of Arbernum there was a certaine wicked man that used ordinarily to for sweare himselfe but at one time after he had thus sinned his tongue was tyed up that he could not speake but began to low like an oâ—e yet repenting and grieving for his sinne he found the bond of his tongue loosed and a readinesse of speech given unto him againe whereby we see both the Iustice of God in punishing them that sinne in this kinde and his mercy in pardoning when they truly repent At this day we have an example fresh and famous of a certaine maid that had stolne and pilfered many things away out of her mistresses house of which being examined she forswore them and wisht that she might rot if she ever touched them or knew of them but notwithstanding she was carried to prison and there presently began so to rot stink that they were forced to thrust her out of prison and to convey her to the Hospitall where she lies in lamentable miserie