THE THEATRE OF GOD'S JUDGEMENTS: Wherein is represented the admirable Justice of GOD against all notorious sinners, great and small, specially against the most eminent Persons in the World whose exorbitant power had broke through the bars of Divine and Humane Law. Collected out of Sacred, Ecclesiastical, and Pagan History by two most reverend Doctors in Divinity, THOMAS BEARD of Huntingdon, and THO. TAYLOR, the famous late Preacher of Mary Aldermanburic in LONDON. The incomparable use of this Book for Ministers and others is largely expressed in the Preface. The fourth Edition, With Additions. God hath Woollen feet, but Iron hands. Aug. LONDON, Printed by S. I &: M. Hand are to be sold by Thomas Whitaker at the sign of the KING'S ARMS in Saint Paul's Churchyard, MDCXLVIII. To His Highness JAMES Duke of YORK. SIR, IN the lowliest posture of Humility these Historical Examples, extracted out of the choicest Authors both Ancient and Modern by two learned Doctors, are presented to Your Highness; Neither would they presume to put themselves under so high a Patronage, did I not humbly conceive, that being Historical Pieces, they might be fit for Your Highness' perusal, History being the proper'st and most advantageous Study that Princes can apply themselves unto, because it contains examples of all sorts; In History Brave men stand as Marble Statues erected in the Temple of Immortality, and Bad men as Malefactors upon Gibbets, exposed to the public view of the world to all Posterity. Although Your Highness hath a Royal Father for an incomparable living Pattern of all the Cardinal Virtues with their Attendants, (which breaking through these late Clouds of Civil Confusions) shined with an advantage of lustre to the wonderment of the world) as also against any thing that may have the least vicinity with Vice, to imitate, yet, humbly under favour, variety of Examples, as of Witnesses in Law, cannot do amiss, the one for confirmation of Truth, the other for direction of Life; In which opinion I rest, Your Highness' most Humble, and most obedient Servant, M. HERON. THE PREFACE. IF to avoid and eschew vice (according to the saying of the Poet) be a chief virtue, and as it were the first degree of wisdom; than it is a necessary point, to know what vice and virtue is, and to discern the evil and good which either of them bring forth, to the end to beware lest we dash ourselves unawares against vice in stead of virtue, and be caught with the deceitful baits thereof. For this cause the great and famous Philosopher, about to lay open the nature of Moral virtues (according to that knowledge and light which nature afforded him) contented not himself with a simple narration of the properties, essence, and object of them, but opposed to every virtue on each side the contrary and repugnant vice; to the end that the sight of them, being so out of square, so hurtful and pernicious, virtue itself might be more admirable, and in greater esteem. And for this cause also God himself, our sovereign and perfect Lawgiver, that he might fashion and fit us to the mould of true and solid virtue, useth ostner negative prohibitons then affirmative commandments in his Law; to the end above all things to distract and turn us from cvill; whereunto we are of ourselves too too much inclined. And as by this, mean sin is discovered and made known unto us, so is the pnnishment also of sin set before our eyes, by those threatenings and curses which are there denounced: to the end that whom the promises of life and salvation could not allure and persuade to do well, them the fear of punishment (which followeth sin as a shadow doth the body) might bridle and restrain from giving them over to impiety. Now than if the very threatenings ought to serve for such good use, shall not the execution and performance of them serve much more? to wit, when the tempest of God's wrath is not only denounced, but also thrown down effectually upon the heads of the mighty ones of the world, when they are disobedient and rebellious against God. And hereupon the Prophet saith, That when God's judgements are upon earth, than the Inhabitants learn justice. And doubtless it is most true, that every one ought to reap profit to himself by such examples, as well them which are presented daily to their view by experience, as them which have been done in times past, and are by benefit of History preserved from oblivion. And in this regard History is accounted a very necessary and profitable thing, for that in recalling to mind the truth of things past, which otherwise would be buried in silence, it setteth before us such effects (as warnings and admonitions touching good and evil) and layeth virtue and vice so naked before our eyes, with the punishments or rewards inflicted or bestowed upon the followers of each of them, that it may justly be called an easy and profitable Apprenticeship or School for every man to learn to get wisdom at another man's cost. Hence it is that History is termed of the ancient Philosophers, The record and register of Time, the light of Truth, and the mistress and lookingglass of man's life: insomuch as under the person of another man it teacheth and instructeth all those that apply their minds unto it, to govern and carry themselves virtuously and honestly in this life. Wherefore they deserve great praise and commendation, that have taken pains to enrol and put in writing the memorable acts and occurrents of their times, to communicate the same to their posterity: for there the high and wonderful works of God do most clearly, and as it were to the view, present themselves, as his justice and providence: whereby albeit he guideth and directeth especially his own, to wit, those that in a special and singular manner worship and trust in him (as by the sacred Histories, touching the state and government of the ancient and Primitive Church, it may appear) yet he ceaseth not for all that to stretch the arm of his power over all, and to handle and rule the profane and unbelieving ones at his pleasure; for he hath a sovereign Empire and predominance over all the World; And unto him belongeth the direction and principal conduct of humane matters, in such sort that nothing in the world cometh to pass by chance or adventure, but only and always by the prescription of his will; according to the which he ordereth and disposeth by a straight and direct motion, as well the general as the particular, and that after a strange and admirable order. And this a man may perceive, if he would but mark and consider the whole body, but especially the end and issue of things: wherein the great and marvelous virtues of God, as his bounty, justice, and power, do most clearly shine; when he exalteth and favoureth some, and debaseth and frowneth upon others, blesseth and prospereth whom he please; and on the contrary, curseth and destroyeth whom he please, and that deserve it It is he also which erecteth principalities, and which maintaineth Commonwealths, Kingdoms, and Empires, until by the sum and weight of their iniquities they sink themselves into ruin and destruction. And herein is he glorified by the execution of his most just and righteous judgements, when the wicked after the long abuse of his lenity, benignity, and patience, do receive the wages and reward of their iniquities. In this (I say once again) shineth out the wonderful and incomprehensible wisdom of God, when by the due ordering of things so different and so many, he cometh still to one and the same mark which he once prescribed, to wit, the punishment of the world according to their demerits. And this same is most manifest and apparent even in the Histories of profane Writers, albeit in their purpose it was never intended nor thought upon, nor yet regarded almost of any that read the same; men contenting themselves for the most part with the simple recital of the story, therein to take pleasure and pass away time, without respecting any further matter: Notwithstanding, the true and principal use of their writings ought to be, diligently to mark the effects of God's Providence, and of his justice, whereby to learn to contain ourselves within the bounds of modesty and the fear of God; seeing that they which have carried themselves any thing uprightly in equity, temperance, and other natural virtues, have been in some sort spared: and the rest (bearing the punishment of their iniquities) have fall'n into destruction. This consideration ought to persuade every man to turn from evil, and to follow that which is good, seeing that the Lord showeth himself so incensed against all them which lead a wicked, damnable, and perverse life. And this is the cause why I, having noted the great and horrible punishments wherewith the Lord in most righteous judgement hath scourged the world for sin, according to that which is contained as well in sacred as profane Histories; having gathered them together, and sorted them one after another in their several rooms, according to the diversity of the offences, and order and course of time, which as near as I could I endeavoured to sollow, to the end to lay down, as it were in one Table, and under one Aspect, the great and fearful judgements of God upon them that have rebelled or repugned his holy will. And this I do not with purpose to comprehend them all (for that were not only difficult but impossible) but to lay open the most notable & remarkable ones that came to my knowledge; to the end that the most wicked, dissolute, and disordered sinners, that with loose reins run fiercely after their lust, if the manifest tokens of God's severity presented before their eyes do not touch them, yet the cloud and multitude of examples, through the sight of the inevitable anger and vengeance of God upon evil livers, might terrify and somewhat curb them: Perjurers, Idolaters, Blasphemers, and other such wicked and profane wretches, with murderers, whoremongers, adulterers, ravishers, & tyrants, shall here see by the mischief that hath fall'n upon their likes, that which hangeth before their eyes, and is ready to lay hold of them also. For albeit for a time they sleep in their sins and blindness, delighting in their pleasures, and taking sport in cruelties and evil deeds, yet they draw after them the line wherewith (being more ensnared than they were aware) they are taken and drawn to their final destruction. And this may teach and advertise both those that are not yet obstinate in their sins, to bring themselves to some amendment; and those that fear God already, to strengthen and encourage them in the pursuit and continuance in their good course. For if God show himself so severe a revenger of their sins that take pleasure in displeasing him, there is no doubt but on the contrary he will show himself bountiful, gracious, and liberal in rewarding all them according to his promise which seek to please him, and conform their lives unto his will. Great and small, young and old, men and women, and all other, of what degree and condition soever, may here learn at other men's charges, how to govern themselves in duty towards God, and betwixt themselves, by a holy and unblameable life in mutual peace and unity; and by shunning and eschewing sin, against the which God (a most just Judge) poureth forth his vengeance, even upon the heads of them that are guilty thereof. Beside, here is ample matter and argument to stop the mouths of all Epicures and Atheists of our age, and to leave them confounded in their errors, seeing that such and so many occurrents and punishments are manifest proofs, that there is a God above that guideth the stern of the world, and that taketh care of humane matters, & that is just in punishing the unjust and malicious. Again, whereas so much evil, and so many sins have reigned and swayed so long time, and do yet reign and sway upon the earth, we may behold the huge corruption and perversity of mankind, and the rotten fruits of that worm-eaten root, Original sin: when we are not directed nor guided by the holy Spirit of God, but lest unto our own nature. And hereby true faithful Christians may take occasion so much the more to acknowledge the great mercy and singular favour of God toward them, in that they being received to mercy, are renewed to a better conversation of life than others. In brief, a man may here learn (if he be not altogether void of judgement and understanding) to have sin in hatred and detestation, considering the wages and reward thereof; and how the justice of God pursueth it continually, even to the extremest execution, which is both sharp and rigorous. Touching the word judgement, I have imitated the language of Holy Scripture: wherein as the Ordinances and Commandments of God are called Judgements, because in them is contained nothing but that which is just, right, and equal: so likewise the punishments inflicted by God upon the despisers of his Commandments are called by the same name, as in Exod. 6. 6. 2 Chron. 20. 12. & 22. 8. Ezech. 5. 8. & 11. 9 and elsewhere, because they also are as just as the former, proceeding from none other fountain save the most righteous judgement of God; whereof none can complain but unjustly. The Names of the Authors from whom the most part of the Examples contained in this book are collected. Moses and other sacred Writers. Tertullian. Cyprian. Eusebius. Socrates. Theodoret. Sozomenes. Nicephor. Ruffinus. Suidas chrysostom. Luther. Illyricus. Herodotus. Thucydides. Dion. Halycarnasseus. Diodorus Siculus. Polybeus. Plutarch. Herodian. Dyon. Procopius. jornandes. Agathius. Aelianus. Tit. Livius. Salustius. Suetonius. Corn. Tacitus. Amm. Marcellinus. justinus. Eutropius. Lampridius. Spartianus. Flavius Vopiscus. Cuspinianus. Orosius. Aimoinus. Gregor. Turonensis. Anton Volscus. Paulus Diaconus. Luitprandus. Olaus magnus Gothus. Sabellicus. Anton. Panormitanus. Aeneus Silvius. Ravisius. Hieronymus Marius. Alexander ab Alexandro. Petrus Pramonstratensis. Mich. Ritius Neapolitanus. Fulgosius. Fran. Picus Mirandula Bembus. Antonius Bonfinus. Munsterus. johan. Wierus. Platina. Nauclerus. Vincentius. Hugo Cluniacensis. Benno Baleus. Gagninus. Paulus Aemilius. Discipulus de Tempore. Acts and Monuments. Carion. Chronicon. Beza. josephus. Manlii Collectanea. Stow Chronica. Froyssard. Enguerran de Monstrel. Philip de Comines. Nicholas giles. Guicciardine. Paulus jovius. Benzoin Milanois. job. Fincelius. Centuriae Magdeburg. Abbas Vrispurgensis. Philippus. Melancthon. Sleidanus. Lanquet. Chronica. The first Book, OF THE WORTHY AND MEMORABLE HISTORIES of the great and marvellous judgements of God sent upon the World for their misdeeds against the Commandments of the first and second Table. CHAP. 1. Touching the Corruption and Perversity of this World, how great it is. EVen as one that taketh pleasure to behold a pleasant and delightsome place, a piece of ground covered and painted with all manner of fine flowers, a garden decked, and as it were clothed with exquisite plants and fruitful trees, is much grieved so soon as he perceiveth all this beauty and pleasure suddenly to be withered and scorched by the violence of some outrageous tempest: or if he be constrained to cast his eyes from them, upon some other place by, all cragged and parched, full of briers and brambles. In like sort, a man cannot choose but be sore grieved and discontent, when he beholdeth on the one side the wholesome light of the Sun, whereby the heavens do many ways distil their favours upon this World, gloriously to advance itself: on the other side he perceiveth such an army of thick clouds and palpable darkness, from whence such a number of disorders and hurliburlies do arise, that most strangely disfigure the face of the whole World: when that he which ought to be gentle and peaceable, is become mischievous and quarrelous: in stead of being true and single hearted, disloyal and deceirfull: in stead of being modest, well governed, and courteous, is proud, cruel, and dissolute: in stead of serving God, serveth his own humours and affections: Which kind of behaviour is too common and usual; for there is not any kind of wickedness which is not found in this rank. Ungodliness vomiteth up his fury together with injustice, in those men of whom it is said, There is none Psal. 14. that understandeth or seeketh after God: their throat is an open sepulchre, they use deceit in their tongues, the poison of Asps is under their lips, they have nothing in their mouths but cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery is in their ways, and they have not known the way of peace: In sum, the fear of God is not before their eyes. From whence it cometh, that being not restrained by any bridle, like untamed colts broke loose, they give the full swinge to their bold and violent affections, running fiercely to all filthiness and mischief: and being thus enraged, some of them with horrible blasphemies (most villainously) speak and do in despite of God, and deny him that created them, and sent them into the World: Others are not ashamed to be open forswearers of themselves, violating and breaking every promise, without regard of faith or honesty: Others, as they are of cruel and bloody natures, so they do not cease to exercise these their natures by outrageous practices: to some of them whoredoms and adulteries are no more esteemed, than as sports and pastimes, whereof they boast themselves: to another sort, cozenings, extortions, and robberies, are ordinary exercises, whereof they make their best occupations. All which evils are so common and so usual at this time amongst men, that the World seemeth truly to be nothing else but an ocean full of hideous monsters, or a thick forest full of thiefs and robbers, or some horrible wilderness wherein the inhabitants of the earth, being savage and unnatural, void of sense and reason, are transformed into bruit beasts, some like Tigers or Lions, others like Wolves or Foxes, others like Dogs and Swine: Oh sinful nation (would the man of God say if he lived at this hour) a people laden with iniquity, a seed of the wicked, corrupt children, they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Isay. 14. Israel to anger. The noble and high minded are proud to disdain the lower, and ready always to smite them, making their countenance pale with vices and oaths: the Magistrate partial and full of brides, overthroweth equity: the Merchant covetous and desirous of gain remembreth not his integrity: nor the labourer his simplicity. And so virtue in most men lieth buried, piety banished, justice oppressed, and honesty trodden under foot: in such sort, that all things being as it were overthrown and turned upside down, men speak evil of good, and good of evil, accounting darkness light, and light darkness, sour sweet, and sweet sour. And by such disorder it cometh to pass, that the most virtuous are despised, whilst naughty-packs and vicious fellows are esteemed and made much of. CHAP. II. What is the cause of the great overflow of Vice in this age. IF we would consider from whence it is that this great disorder and corruption of manners doth arise, we should find especially that it is because the world every day groweth worse and worse, according to the saying of our Saviour and Redeemer (Christ jesus the Son of God) That in the latter days (which are these wherein we live) Iniquity shall be increased. And herein we shall perceive even the just vengeance of God to light upon the malice and unthankfulness of men, to whom when he would draw near, to do good unto by offering them the clear light of his favour, the more they strive to alienate and keep themselves aloof from him, and are so far from being bettered thereby, that they show themselves a great deal more malicious and obstinate than ever they did before: not unlike to those who by nature being blear eyed, and tender sighted, are rather dazzled and dimmed by the Sun beams, than any ways enlightened: so men in stead of growing better, grow worse, and every add some increase to their wickedness: to whom also many great men give elbowroom and permission to sin, whilst justice slumbreth, and the not punishing of misdeeds giveth them liberty and boldness to commit their wickedness: so that some of these mighty ones show themselves but little better than the other. A mischief to be lamented above the rest, drawing after it an horrible overflow of all evils, and like a violent stream spoiling every where as it goeth: when as they that ought to govern the stern of the Commonwealth, let all go at random, suffering themselves to be rocked asleep with the false and deceitful lullaby of effeminate pleasures and delights of the flesh; or at least letting themselves be carried headlong by the tempest of their own strong and furious passions, into imminent danger and shipwracks: when as their careful watch fullness and modesty, accompanied with the train of other good and commendable virtues, aught to serve them for saliscables, anchors, masts, and skuttles, whereby to govern and direct the Vessel whose steersman they are appointed, and those that are their charge, to whom they ought to give a good example of life, and to be unto them as it were a glass of virtue: for they are set aloft, as it were upon a stage, to be gazed at of every comer. Their faults and vices are like foul spots and scars in the face, which cannot by any means be hid. And therefore they ought to be careful to lead an honest and virtuous life, that thereby they might persuade and move the meaner sort of people to do the like: For it is a true saying of the Philosopher, Like Prince, like People; insomuch that every one desireth to frame himself according to the humour of his superior, whose will and manners serve simply for a law to do evil: to the which men use by taking any occasion too hastily to give themselves over with too much liberty: whereupon followeth an unrecoverable ruin, no less than the fall of a great house, which for want of pillars and supporters that should uphold it, suddenly falleth to the ground; so this ship being deprived of her governor, is set loose and laid open to the mercy of the waves, violence of winds, and rage of tempests, without any direction and government: and so the body of man, not having any more the light of his own eyes, abideth in darkness all blinded, not able to do any thing that is right and good, but ready every minute to fall into some pit. And this is the perversity and corruption of this world. CHAP. III. That Great men which will not abide to be admonished of their faults, cannot escape punishment by the hand of God. IN this poor and miserable estate every man rocketh himself asleep, and flattereth his own humour, every man pursueth his accustomed course of life, with an obstinate mind to do evil: yea many of those that have power and authority over others, according as they are endued and persuaded with a foolish conceit of themselves, make themselves believe, that for them every thing is lawful, and that they may do whatsoever they please; never imagining, that they shall give up an account of their actions, to receive any chastisement or correction for them; even as though there were no God at all that did behold them. And being thus abused by this vain and fickle security, they swim in their sins, and plunge themselves over head and ears in all kind of security; giving hearty welcome and entertainment to all that approve and applaud their manners, and that study to feed and please their humour. As chose none less welcome unto them, than they that tell them of their faults, and contradict them never so little: for they cannot abide in any case to be reproved, whatsoever they do. And now adays every base companion will forsooth storm and fume as soon, if he be reproved of a fault, as if he had received the greatest wrong in the world: so much is every man pleased with himself, and puffed up with his own vice and foolish vanities. And what should a man do in this case? It is as hard to redress those great mischiefs, as if we should go about to stop and hinder the course of a mighty stream there where the bank or causey is broken down: if it be not by applying extreme and desperate medicines, as to desperate diseases, which are as it were given over by the Physician, and to the which a light purgation will do no good. For as for admonitions and warnings, they are not a whit regarded: but they that give them, are derided or laughed to scorn, or reviled for their labours. What must we therefore do? it is necessary that we assay by all means to bring these men (if it be possible) to some modesty and fear of God; which if it cannot be done by willing and gentle means, force and violence must be used to pluck them out of the fire of God's wrath, to the end they be not consumed: if not all, yet at least those that are not grown to that height of stubbornness, and of whom there is yet left some hope of amendment. For even as when a Captain hath not prevailed by summoning a city to yield up itself, he by and by placeth his cannon against their walls, to put them in sear; in like sort must we bring forth against the proud and high minded men of this world, an army of God's terrible judgements thrown down by mighty and puissant hand on the wicked, more terrible and searefull than all the roaring or double canons in the World, whereby the most proud are destroyed and consumed even in this life, all their pride and power, how great soever it be, being not able to turn back the vengeance of God from lighting upon their heads, to their utter destruction and confusion. And it is manifest by infinite examples. Now because that the nature of man is fleshly, and given to be touched with things that are presented before their faces, or hath been done before time; it is a more forcible motive to stir them up, than that which as yet cannot be made manifest, but is to come. Therefore I purpose here to set down the great and fearful judgements, wherewith God hath already plagued many in this world, especially them of high degree, whose example will serve for a glass both for these that live now, or shall live hereafter. And to the end that the justice of God may more clearly appear and show itself in such strange events; before we go any further, we will run over certain necessary points concerning this matter. CHAP. FOUR How the justice of God is more evidently declared upon the mighty ones of this world, than upon any other, and the cause why. SEeing then that these men are more guilty and culpable of sin than any other, they deserve so much a more grievous punishment, by how much their misdeeds are more grievous: for doubtless, There is a God that judgeth the earth (as the Psalmist saith) who as he is benign and merciful towards those that fear and obey him, so he will not suffer iniquity to go unpunished: This is he (saith the Prophet) that executeth justice, mercy, and judgement upon the earth: for if it be the duty of an earthly Prince, to exercise not only clemency & gentleness, but also sharpness and severity, thereby punishing & chastising malefactors, to suppress all disorders in the common wealth; than it is very necessary, that the justice of our great God, to whom all sovereign rule & authority belongs, and who is the judge over all the world, should either manifest itself in this world, or in the world to come: & chiefly towards them which are in the highest places of acount, who being more hardened and bold to sin, do as boldly exempt themselves from all corrections and punishments due unto them, being altogether unwilling to be subject to any order of justice or law whatsoever: and therefore by how much the more they cannot be punished by man, and that humane laws can lay no hold upon them; so much the rather God himself becometh executioner of his own justice upon their pates: and in such sort, that every man may perceive his hand to be on them. Let any adversity or affliction light upon a man of low degree, or which is poor and desolate, no man considereth of it rightly; but talking thereof, m●n cease not to impute the cause of this poor soul's misery, either to poverty, or want of succour, or some other such like cause. Therefore if any such be in grief, or by chance fallen into some pit and drowned, or robbed and killed in the way by thiefs: straightway this is the saying of the world, That it cometh thus to pass, either because he was alone without company, or destitute of help, or not well looked to and regarded: and thus they pass over the matter. But as concerning great men, when they are any way afflicted, no such pretences or excuses can be alleged; seeing they want neither servants to attend upon them, nor any other means of help to succour them: therefore when these men are overtaken and surprised with any great evil, which by no means they can eschew, and when their bold and wicked enterprises are pursued and concluded with strange and lamentable events, in this we must acknowledge an especial hand of God, who can entangle and pull down the proudest and arrogantest He that lives, and those whom the world feareth to meddle withal. These proud gallants are they against whom God displaieth his banner of power more openly, than against meaner and base persons: because these poor souls find oftentimes to their pains, that they are punished without cause, and tormented and vexed by those tyrants, not having committed any offence at all, to deserve it: whereas (as Philip Comine saith) who dare be so bold as to control or reprehend a King and his favourites, or to make enquiry of his misdeeds: or having made inquisition of them, who dare presume to inform the judge thereof? who dare stand up to accuse them? who dare sit down to judge them? Nay who dare take knowledge of them? and lastly, who dare assay to punish them? Seeing then in this case, that our worldly justice hath her hands bound behind her from executing that which is right; it must needs be that the sovereign Monarch of heaven and earth should mount up into his Throne of judgement, and from thence give his definitive unchangeable sentence, to deliver up the most guilty and heinous sinners to those pains and torments which they have deserved; and that after a strange and extraordinary manner, which may serve for an example to all others. CHAP. V. How all men, both by the Law of God and Nature, are inexcusable in their sins. NOw to the end that no man should pretend ignorance for an excuse, God hath bestowed upon every one a certain knowledge and judgement of good and evil, which being naturally engraven in the tables of man's heart, is commonly called the Law of Nature, whereby every man's own conscience giveth sufficient testimony unto itself, when in his most secret thoughts, it either accuseth or excuseth him: for there is not a man living, which doth not know in his heart, that he doth an evil deed, when he wrongeth another, although he had never been instructed elsewhere in that point. So, although that in Tarqvinius Superbus time (Cicero saith) there was no written Law established in Rome, forbidding the ravishing and deflowering of wives and virgins, yet the wicked son of this Tarquin was not therefore less guilty of an heinous crime, when contrary to the Law of Nature he violently robbed Lucrece of her chastity: for no man can be ignorant, that it is a most grievous crime to lay siege to the chastity of a married woman, with such outrage: and so the whole people of Rome did esteem of it, as a crime most wicked, strange, and intolerable, and worthy of grievous punishment. Every man knoweth thus much, that he ought not to do that to another, which he would not another should do to him: which sentence the Emperor Severus made always to be spoken aloud, and declared by the sound of the trumpet, in the way of advertisement, as often as punishment was taken upon any offendor, as if it were a general Law pertaining to all men. This is that equity and justice which ought to be ingraffed in our hearts, & whereof nature herself is the schoolmistresse: from this fountain all humane and civil Laws are derived: if we had not rather say that they are derived from that true spring of equity, which is in the Law of God, which Law he hath given for a plain and familiar manifestation of his will, concerning just, holy, and reasonable things, touching the service, honour, and glory, which is due unto himself, and the mutual duty, friendship, and good will, which men owe one to another: whereunto he exhorteth and enticeth every one by fair and gracious promises, and forbiddeth the contrary by great and terrible threatenings (so gentle and merciful is he towards us, and desirous of our good.) This is that Law which was published before the face of more than six hundred thousand persons, with the mighty and resounding noise of Trumpet, with earthquake, fire, and smoke, and with thunders and lightnings, to make men more attentive to hear; and more prepared to receive it with all humility, fear, and reverence; and also to put them in mind, that if they were disobedient and rebellious, he wanted no power and ability to punish them; for he hath lightning, thunder, and fire, prepared instruments to execute his just vengeance, which no creature under heaven is able to avoid, when by the obstinate transgression of wicked men he is provoked to anger and indignation against them. This is that holy law which hath been set forth by the Prophets; by the rule whereof, all their warnings, exhortings, and reproovings have been squared. To this Law, the only begotten Son of God, our Saviour and Redeemer jesus Christ, conformed his most holy doctrine, bringing men to the true use and observation thereof, from which they had declined, and whereof he is the end, the scope, and perfect accomplishment: so that so far it is that a Christian man may be ignorant of it, and have it in contempt, that none can be counted and reputed a true Christian, if he frame not his life by the rule thereof; if not fully, yet at least as far forth as he is able: otherwise, what a shame and reproach is it for men to call themselves by the name of God's children, Christians, and Catholics, and yet to do every thing clean contrary to the will of God, to make no reckoning of his Law, to lead a dissolute and disordered life, and to be as evil, if not worse than the vilest miscreants and Infidels in the world? God willeth and requireth that he alone should be worshipped and prayed unto; and yet the greater part of the world are Idolaters, and full of superstition, worship Images, stocks, and stones, and pray to creatures, in stead of the Creator. God forbiddeth us to swear by his name in vain: and yet what is more rise than that? so that a man can hear nothing else but oaths and blasphemies. Many for the least trifle in the world stick not to swear and forswear themselves. God forbiddeth theft, murder, adultery, and false witness bearing, and yet nothing so common as backbitings, slanders, forgeries, false reports, whoredoms, cozenings, robberies, extortions, and all manner of envies & enmities. God hath commanded, that we love our neighbours as ourselves; but we, in stead of love, hate, despise, and seek to procure the hurt and damage of one another, not regarding any thing but our own peculiar profit and advantage. Is not this a manifest and professed disobedience, and intolerable rebellion against our Maker? What child is there that is not bound to honour and reverence his father? What servant, that is not bound to obey his master, and to do all that he shall will him? What subject, that is not tied in subjection to his Prince and Sovereign? Yet there is not one which will not confess, yea and swear 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 do nothing else but displease and offend his Majesty? Is not this the way to provoke his wrath, and stir up his indignation against them? Is it any marvel if he be incensed with anger, if he be armed with revenge, and send abroad his cruel scourges upon the earth, to strike and whip it withal? Is it any wonder, if he pile up the wicked ones on heaps, and shoot out his revengeful arrows against them, and make them drunken with their own blood, and make his sword of justice as sharp as a razor, 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 own 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 he guilty thereof, and worthy to be accursed; for so much as his own conscience ought to serve for a law unto himself, by the which he is condemned in those evil actions which he committeth: even as Paul saith, All that have sinned without the Law, shall likewise perish without the Law. Rom. 2. 12. CHAP. VI How the greatest Monarches in the World ought to be subject to the Law of God, and consequently the Laws 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 he hath made as it were his Lieutenants in the world: for he hath extolled and placed them above others, and bedecked them with honour, giving them power and authority to rule and reign, by putting people in subjection to them; and therefore so much the more are they bound to reacknowledge him again, to the end to do him all honour and homage which is required at their hands. Therefore David exhorteth them, to serve the Lord even with reverence. Psal. 2. 11. This than their high and superintendent estate is no privilege to exempt them from the subjection and obedience which they owe unto God, whom they ought to reverence above all things. Ye Princes and high Lords (saith the Prophet) give you unto the Lord eternal glory and strength: Psal. 29. 1. give unto him glory due unto his name, and cast yourselves before him to do him reverence. If they owe so much honour unto God as to their Sovereign, then surely it must follow, that they ought to obey his voice, and fear to offend him; and so much the rather, because he is a great deal 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 Deut. 17. 15. 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 own lusts, and to do every thing that seemeth good in their own eyes: but he enjoineth them expressly, to have always with them the book of his Law, delighteth to read and meditate therein, and thereby to learn to fear and reverence his name, by observing all the precepts that are contained in that book. As for civil and natural Laws, insomuch as they are founded upon equity and right (for otherwise they were no Laws) therein they are agreeable to, and as it were dependants on the Law of God; as is well declared by Cicero in the first and second book of his Laws; for even they also condemn thiefs, adulterers, murderers, parricides, and such like. If then Princes be subject to the Law of God, (as I am about to show) there is no doubt but that they are likewise subject to those civil Laws, by reason of the equity and justice which therein is commended unto us. And if (as Plato saith) the Laws ought to be Dial. 4. de Legib. above the Prince, not the Prince above the Laws, it is then most manifest, that the Prince is tied unto the Laws, even in such sort, that without the same, the government which he swayeth can never be lawful and commendable. And if it be true, that the Magistrate is or aught to be a speaking Law (as it is said) and ought to maintain the authority and credit thereof, by the due and upright administration of justice (for if he did not this, he were a dumb Law, and without life) how is it possible that he should make it of authority and force with others, if he despiseth and transgresseth it himself? David did never assume so much to himself, as to desire to have liberty to do what he listed in his Kingdom, but willingly submitted himself 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: 2. Sam. 5. and we know, that in every covenant and bargain both parties are bound to each other, by a mutual bond to perform the conditions which they are agreed upon. The like is used at the coronation of Christian Kings, whereas the people is bound and sworn to do their allegiance to their Kings; so the Kings are also solemnly sworn to maintain and defend true Religion, the estate of justice, the peace and tranquillity of their subjects, and the right and privileges (which are nothing but the Laws) of the Realm: whereas David was by the Prophet Nathan reproved for the adultery and murder which he had committed, he neither used any excuse, nor alleged any privilege whereby he was exempted from the rigour of the law to justify his fact, but freely confessed without any cloak, that he had sinned. Whereby it appeareth of how small strength and authority their opinion and words be, which think or affirm that a Prince may dispense with the laws at his pleasure: by this opinion was the mother in law of Antonius Caracalla seduced; who having by her lascivious and filthy allurements enticed her son in law to lust, and love her, and to desire her for his wife, persuaded him that he might bring his purpose to pass, and that it was lawful enough for him, if he would, though for other it was unlawful, seeing that he was Emperor, and that it belongeth not to him to receive, but to give laws: by which persuasion, that brave marriage was concluded and made up, contrary to the law of nature and nations, and to all honesty and virtue. So it was reported how Cambyses Herod. li● 3. took his own sister to wife, whom notwithstanding a little after he put to death: which thing being not usual then among the Persians, not daring to enterprise it (although he was a most wicked man) without the advice of the Magistrates and Counsellors of his Realm; he called them together, and demanded whether it was lawful for him to make such a marriage or no? to whom they answered freely, That there was no prescript law which did allow of it: yet (that they might soothe him up, fearing to incur his displeasure) they said further, that though there was no law to command it, yet such a mighty King as he, might do what he pleased. In like manner the trencher Philosopher Anaxarchus, after that he had told Alexander the Great with a loud voice, that he ought not to Plutarch. fear the penalty of any law, nor the reproach nor blame of any man, because it belonged only to his office to create laws for all other to live by, and to prescribe the limits of lawful and lawless things; and that it became him, being a conqueror, to rule like a lord and a master, and not to obey any vain conceit of law whatsoever; and that what thing soever the King did, the same was sacred, just and lawful, without exception. And by this means made his proceedings far more dissolute and outrageous in many things than ever they were before. Dion in the Epitome of Xiphiline reporteth, how the Emperors were wont to usurp this privilege, to be exempted from all law, that they might not be tied to any necessity of doing or leaving undone any thing, and how in no case they would endure to be subject to any written ordinances: the which thing is manifest even in the behaviour of the chiefest of them, as well in regard of their life and manners, as of the government that they used in their Commonwealths. For first of all, Augustus Caesar having kept in his own hand the office of the Triumvir ten years (as Suetonius testifieth) he also usurped the Tribunes office and authority, and that till his dying day: and likewise took upon him the Censorship; namely, the office of correcting and governing manners and laws, if need required: whose successors (a man may truly say for the most part) trampled under their feet all sincere and sacred laws, by their notorious intemperance, dissoluteness, and cruelties. And yet for all this there wanted not a parasitical Lawyer, who to please the Emperor his lord and master the better, and to underprop, and as it were seele over with a fair show that tyrannical government used by other Emperors; foisted in this as a law amongst the rest, Princeps legibus solutus est, That the Prince was exempted from all law. As for that which they allege out of Aristotle's Politics, it maketh nothing to set a colour upon this counterfeit: (for saith Aristotle) If there be any man that excelleth so in virtue above all others, that none is able to compare with him, that man is to be accounted as a God amongst men, to whom no law may be prescribed, because he is a law unto himself: all which I grant to be true, if that which was presupposed could take place: for where no transgression is found, there no law is necessary; according as Saint Paul said, The law was not given for the just, but for the unjust and offenders: but where is it possible to find such a Prince so excellent and so virtuous, that standeth not in need of some law to be ruled by? Of the like force and strength is that which is written in the first book of Institutions, tit. 2. the words are these: The Prince's pleasure serveth for a law, because the whole body of the people hath translated all their authority, power, and jurisdiction unto him. This is spoken of the Roman Emperors, but upon the ground of so slender and silly reason, that upon so weak a foundation it can never stand: for if it be demanded, whether this action of the people, of giving over their right and prerogative to their Prince, be willing or constrained, what answer will they make? If it be by constraint and fear (as it is indeed) who will not judge this usurping of their liberty utterly unjust and tyrannical, when one man shall arrogate that to himself which pertaineth to many, yea to the whole body of the people? And admit that this reason was effectual, yet the gloss upon the place saith very notably, That the Prince's pleasure may be held for a law, so far forth as that which pleaseth him be just and honest: giving us to know thus much thereby, That every will and pleasure of a Prince may not indifferently be allowed for a law, if it be an unjust and dishonest action, and contrary to the rule of good manners. Moreover, it appeareth by the Customs of many ancient people and Realms, That Princes had never this licence given them, to do what they listed: for let them be never so mighty, yea as mighty as Darius, under whose reign the Persian Monarchy was abolished; yet he must be content (according to the law of the Medes and Persians) not to be able to infringe that law which was by the advice of his Peers and Privy Council enacted, and by his own consent and authority established: no, though for daniel's deliverance sake, Dan. ●. 8. whom he loved, he greatly desired and took pains either to disannul, or at least to give a favourable interpretation of it. Such in old time was the custom of the Kings of Egypt, not to follow Di●d. lib. 2 c▪ 2. their own affections in any actions they went about, but to be directed by the advice of their laws: for they had not so much authority as to judge betwixt man and man, or to levy subsidies and such like by their own powers; neither to punish any man through choler, or any overweening conceit, but were always tied to observe justice and equity in all causes: neither did it grieve them so to do, being persuaded that whilst they obeyed their laws, nothing could betid them but good. The Lacedaemonian Kings were in such bondage to the laws of their Th▪ ucyd. lib. 1. country, that the Ephori, which were set up to none other end but to be a bridle to hold them back from doing what they listed, had absolute authority to correct them when they had committed any fault; which subjection nothing displeased King Theopompus, as it is apparent by the answer he made his wise, that reproved him once in anger, saying, By his cowardice he would leave a less kingdom to his children, than he had received of his Ancestors. Nay (saith he) a greater, forsomuch as more durable and permanent. Plutarch praising the uprightness of King Alcamenes, who, for fear to break the law, refused divers presents that were sent him, bursteth into this speech: O heart worthy of a King, that hath preferred the authority of the law before his own profit! Where are those fellows now that cry, King's pleasures ought to be observed for Laws, and that a Prince may make a law, but is not subject to it himself? And this is that which Plutarch saith as concerning that matter, who lived under Trajan the Emperor. Cornelius Tacitus discovering the beginning and original of the Roman Civil Law, saith, That Servius the third King of Rome after Romulus and Lib. 3. Annal. Numa, was the only man that most established those laws, whereunto Kings themselves ought to yield and be obedient. And admit that the Emperors swayed with great power and authority almost all the world; yet for all their fierceness and haughtiness of mind, Pliny durst tell Trajan, In Panegyr. That an Emperor ought to use to carry himself with such good government in his Empire, as if he were sure to give up an account of all his actions: Thou must not (saith he) desire more liberty to follow thine own lust, than any one of us do: a Prince is not set over the law, but the law placed in authority above the Prince. This was the admonition of that heathen man. Likewise Antonius and Severus, two mighty Emperors, although by reason of an opinion of their own greatness and haughtiness, wherewith they flattered themselves, bragged that they were not subject to any law; yet they added this clause withal, That notwithstanding they would live according to the direction of the law. This (saith Theodosius and Valentinion, two no less mighty Emperors) is a voice becoming the Royal Majesty and greatness of a King, To confess himself Lib. 4. ti●. 17. to live under a law; and in truth it is a thing of greater importance than the imperial dignity itself, to put sovereignty under the authority of law. Amongst many other good lessons and exhortations which Lewis that good King gave unto his son on his deathbed, this was Lib. 1. cod. Nicol. Gil. vol. ●. Chronic. Franc. one worthy the remembering, how he commanded him to love and fear God with all his strength, and to take heed of doing any thing that should be contrary to his law, whatsoever should befall him; and to provide that the good laws and statutes of his kingdom might be observed, and the privileges of his subjects maintained: to forbid judges to favour him more than any others, when any cause of his own came in trial. Thereby giving us thus much to understand, That every good King ought to submit himself in obedience under the hand of God, and under the rule of justice and equity. Wherefore there is neither King nor Keisar that can or aught to exempt himself from the observance of sacred and upright laws; which if they resist or disannul, doubtless they are culpable of a most heinous crime, and especially of Rebellion against the King of Kings. CHAP. VII. Of the punishment that seized upon Pharaoh King of Egypt, for resisting God, and transgressing the first commandment of the Law. We have sufficiently declared in the premises, that the mightiest potentates of this world are bound to range themselves under the obedience of God's law: it remaineth now that we produce examples of those punishments that have fallen upon the heads of the transgressors of the same, according to the manner of their transgression, of what sort soever: which that we may the better describe, it behooveth us to follow the order of the Commandments, as the examples we bring may be fitly referred to any of them. And first we are to understand, that when God said, Thou shalt have none other Gods before me, he condemneth under these words the vanity of men that have forged to themselves a multitude of gods: he forbiddeth all false Religion, and declareth, That he would be acknowledged to be the sole and true God; and that we should serve, worship, love, fear, and obey him in and above all things; and whosoever it be that doth otherwise, either by hindering his worship, or afflicting those that worship him, the same man provoketh his heavy wrath to be thrown upon him, to his utter ruin and destruction. This is the indignation that lighted upon Pharaoh King of Egypt, as we read in the book of God: who being one of the most puissant Kings of the earth in his age, God chose him for an object to show his wonderful power, by the means of horrible plagues and scourges which he cast upon him, and by destroying him with all his armies at the length, as his rebellion well deserved: For he like a cruel Tyrant continuing to oppress the children of Israel, without giving them any release or breathing time from their misery, or liberty to serve God, although by Moses in the name and authority of God (who made himself well enough known unto him, without the help of any written law) he was many times instantly urged and requested thereunto: so many judgements and punishments assailed him one in the neck of another, in such sort, that at length he was overtaken and ensnared therewith. First of all, the very waters of Egypt being converted into blood, proclaimed war against him: then the frogs which covered the face of the earth, climbed up even to his chamber and bed, and filling every corner of his land, sounded him an alarm: next a muster of louse and gnats, and such other troublesome and stinking creatures, summoned him to combat: an handful of embers scattered in the air by Moses, were unto him as the strokes of a stone or a shaft, which did wonderfully disfigure their bodies with boils and most noisome scabs: afterward the grasshoppers were put in battle array against him, together with the hailstones, horrible thunders and lightnings, wasting and spoiling, and running up and down grievously through his whole land. After all these bitter blows, the Tyrant being cut short, and being so besieged on every side with hideous and palpable darkness, that he could not tell which ways to turn himself, yet would he not be brought to any reason, but continued obstinate and hardened against God, though all the elements, with heaven and earth, had taken armour together, and conspired his destruction. Therefore while he remained in this wretched state, God's Angel punished him in the person of his eldest son, which died suddenly in one night, together with all the first borne of Egypt; wherewithal both he and all his people being greatly moved and grieved, at length gave the Israelites not only leave, but also hasted them to depart: but anon, as he saw them going, like a man distraught he ran after them again, and pursued them with a mighty army, until God in the mean while opening a passage for his children overthwart the deep Red sea, attended him in the mid way, where he surprised and ensnared him, overthrew and violently overturned the wheels of his chariots, and put his whole army to a burly burly; and that he might utterly destroy him, caused the sea from each side to return to his channel, which drowned and devoured him and all his army. And this is one of the noblest and fearfullest judgements of God that can be mentioned, and therefore is very often recounted in many places of the Scripture, as a thing most memorable above others. Neither ought we to marvel, if so notable a History as this is not set down among the writings of profane authors: for that besides their Histories do not ordinarily stretch so far, as to record such ancient acts, there is also no doubt but the successors of that Tyrant, and all the Egyptians, sought all means possible to cancel and blot out the memory of their so great and horrible ruin. And if by chance any Historiographer make mention of the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, it is done in such sort, that the truth is not only disguised, but wholly perverted by them, and in place thereof nothing but lies and falsehood foisted in. Like as Pharaoh by his unjust and outrageous persecuting of the children of God, made himself so guilty of God's wrath, that he deserved to be utterly destroyed, with the greatest part of his people: so also after their miraculous deliverance, whosoever laboured either to hurt, hinder, or resist them, did no less incur God's displeasure and fierce wrath against them, wherewith they were consumed: whereof the overthrow and discomfiture of Amalech is a plain example; who, admit all the great wonders which God had done for the Israelites in Exod. 17. Egypt and in the red sea (whereof the brute being blown into all corners of the earth, he could not be ignorant;) yet was he so malicious and foolish hardy, as to take up armour against them, and to meet them to bid them battle; but he and his wicked complices were by joshuah and his poor people (though unwarliking and unacquainted with such actions, lately crept out of bondage, wherein they had been only exercised to make mortar and brick, and not to handle weapons) discomfited and overthrown: for the Lord of Hosts (who is the divider of victories to whom he pleaseth) at the servant prayers of his servant Moses, fought for them, to the confusion of Amalech and all his train; and therefore he commanded Moses to put this deed of his in writing, as a thing worthy to be remembered; who also erected an Altar in the same place, for a perpetual monument of so noble a victory. As Amalech, and for the like sin, were Arad a King of the Num 2. 1. Canaanites, Sehon King of Amorites, and Og King of Basan, with their people and cities, destroyed and razed down; so the Madianites enterprising to withstand the foresaid Israelites, by the wicked and pernicious counsel of Balaam, were subdued and put to the Num. 31. sword, even five Kings of them together, not one escaping save the young Virgins which had never committed fornication with man. After that the Children of Israel had continued a season peaceably in the Land of Canaan which the Lord had bestowed upon them, than did Eglon King of Moab rise up, and subdued them by war, and tyrannised over them eighteen years. And although it was God's judg. 3. will that they should be thus chastised, because of their corruption, and iniquity, nevertheless this Moabite (his Rod) he caused (in regard of his love to his people) to be slain by Ahud an Israelite, as he was taking his case in his chamber. In like manner was his wrath stirred up against jabin King of Asor, who had oppressed Israel twenty years: whose army, though it was great and well appointed, was notwithstanding by Baraks' handful of men, under the conduct and rule of Deborah the Prophetess, wondrously discomfited; in such sort, that of all the multitude there remained not one that felt not the edge of the sword, except Sisera their Captain; who escaping from the battle by betaking him to his heels, turned in by chance into the house of a woman called jahel; who hating him, as he slept, with a hammer fastened a nail into his temples; and thus escaping from those whom he feared, he was murdered by her whom he trusted. And so this valiant warrior, as he was overcome in battle by the conduct of a woman, so was he put to death by the hand of a woman. That which happened to the Madianites in the time of Gideon, is admirable and very strange; who being furnished with a mighty army of soldiers, with the Amalekites and other their Allies, to destroy Israel, were so judg. 7. scared and scattered at the sound of the trumpets, and brightness of torches of three hundred men at the most that were with Gideon, that through the marvellous astonishment they were in, they turned their blades into their own bosoms, and murdered one another, till the greatest part of them were destroyed; and the residue being put to flight, and pursued by the men of Ephraim, two of their Kings, Oreb and Zeb, were taken and slain. A while after it came to pass, that the Princes of the Philistims, who judge 16. had oppressed the people of God by the space of forty years, being assembled together with all their people in the Temple of Dagon their god even then when after their sacrifices, they thought to make themselves most sport and pastime with poor Samson, whose eyes in mockery & contempt they had put out, were altogether massacred by the fall of the house which Samson by his strength pulled upon their heads: which was the greatest overthrow that before times by his means they had received. In the reign of Saul King of Israel, Agag King of Amalech, the posterity 1 Sam 15. of those that laid wait for Israel in the desert, as they came out of Egypt, were by Saul (following the commandment of the Lord) set upon; who running upon him and his people, made a great slaughter and butchery of them, not sparing man, woman, nor child, but the King only, whom he took to mercy, and led captive, which he ought not to have done. This Captain being thus spared by one that was but little better than himself, could not so escape; for the Prophet, Samuel became the executioner of God's vengeance upon him, since Saul refused it, and with his own hand flew him, even then when he thought he should live. A little while after, Goliath a giant of the Philistims, who as well through 1 Sam. 17. the hugeness of his stature, and strength of body, as through the horrible cruelty which appeared in him, seemed in man's eyes invincible, proudly and presumptuously defied the army of the living God, offering and daring any one man of Israel to enter combat with him: This proud fellow was, notwithstanding all his brags, by young and unarmed David, save a little stick and a few stones which he had in his hands; vanquished and trod under foot; for he gave this great beast such a knock with one of his stones on the forehead, that at the first blow he tumbled him grovelling on the earth, and quickly leaping upon him, caught hold of his huge sword, and therewithal cut off his monstrous head: which the Philistims perceiving, turned their backs and fled, and were pursued and slain by the Israelites. CHAP. VIII. More Examples like unto the former. IN the time of Achab, Benhadad King of Syria accompanied 1. King. 20. with two and thirty Kings, came very proudly against Israel, as it were in despite of God to bid him battle, but it turned to his own shame and confusion, being first dishonourably put to flight by 230 servants of the Princes of Israel (a small handful to encounter so mighty an army:) and secondly, returning to seek revenge, found the loss of 100000 footmen at one clap, besides 27000 which escaping by flight, were crushed in pieces by the ruin of a wall in the city Aphec. And so this brave gallant, that erst bragged, that the gold and silver of Israel, yea their wives and children were his, was now glad to fly for his life amongst the rest, and in his return to hide himself, all dismayed in a little chamber; and from thence (being advised thereto by his servants) to send to entreat Achab for his own life, which a little before thought him sure of the lives of all Israel. Yet for all this, ere long he enterprised a new practice against the Prophet Elizeus, and besieged also the city of Samaria so long, that certain 2 King. 6. 2. King 7. women (constrained by extreme famine) devoured their children: but in the end he was compelled (through fearful terror which God sent into his army by the noise of infinite Chariots and Horses which sounded in their ears, as if some puissant host of men of war had been marching towards them) to forsake the siege, and flee with all his forces, leaving behind them their tents, horses, carriages, victuals, and munitions, to be a prey for them that pursued them not. And lastly, falling ficke, Hazael one 2. King. 8. of his own servants, that succeeded him in the kingdom, to the end he might dispatch him quickly, and without tumult, early in the morning took a thick cloth dipped in water, and spreading it over his face, stifled him to death. When the Moabites and Ammonites rose up in arms against jehosaphat 2. Chron. 20. King of juda, as soon as this good King humbled himself together with all his people before the face of God by fasting and prayer, forthwith God sent such a giddiness of spirit amongst his enemies, that they killed one another: and the men of juda without being troubled with fight, gathered the spoil which they had scattered, and enriched themselves with their relics. Aman, promoted in honour and credit above all the Princes of the Est▪ 17, & 9 Court of King Assuerus, conceived so beastly an hatred against the poor dispersed jews (being at that time the only Church of God) that maliciously he conspired, in one day to destroy and put to death the whole nation, to the very women and infants: and in accomplishing this his purpose, he mightily abused the authority of the King, whom he falsely informed. That this nation would not be subject to his ordinances and laws which his other people were subject unto; and that therefore he ought not to permit and suffer them any longer. But God that carrieth always a watchful eye over his Church, and knoweth how to break and dash all the enterprises of his enemies, brought all this wretches purposes to nought, by preserving miraculously those whom he would have destroyed, and making him do reverence to Mordecheus, whom he specially sought to bring to infamy, and for whom he had of purpose provided a gibbet to hang him on, but was hanged thereon himself, with ten of his sons: beside, all those which had conspired with him against the jews, were upon the same day which they had set down for their massacre, by the king's commandment slain by the hands of them whom they had appointed to the slaughter. Balthasar King of Babylon, as he was feasting among his Princes, commanded Dan. 5. amidst his cups, the golden and silver Vessels which Nabuchadnezzar had taken out of the Temple of jerusalem, to be brought, that both he, and his princes, and his wives and concubines might drink therein; exalting himself thus against the Lord of Heaven, and boasting in his idols of earth; therefore God being stirred up to wrath against him, appointed his destruction even whilst he thus drank and made merry in the midst of his jollity, and caused a strange and fearful sign to appear before his eyes, a bodiless hand writing upon the wall over against the candlestick; the words of which writing portended the destruction of his kingdom, which presently ensued; for the very same night he was murdered, and the Sceptre seized upon by Darius' King of the Medes. Antiochus, by surname Epiphanes, or Excellent (though by truer report of ●. Macch. 2 & 6. people, contemptuously entitled the Furious) King of Asia, being venomously Epima●es. enraged against the jews, began at the first marvellously to oppress them, to rob and spoil their Temple, and to slaughter the people. About ten years after, deceiving the poor people with fair and smooth words, covers of most vile and wretched treason, whilst they imagined no mischief, he set upon them in such cruel sort, that the loss and desolation which they endured at that time was inestimable; for besides the destruction of jerusalem their City, the slaughter of infinite multitudes of their people, and the captivity of women and infants; as if all these were not enough, there was yet another misery to make up the full sum, worse than all the rest: which was this; The cursed tyrant seeing his purpose not to take the full effect, commanded every where, That all his subjects (I mean the jews) should forsake and abjure the Law of God, and be united into one Religion with the Infidels. By means of which Edict the Religion of God was defaced, the books of his Law rend and burned, and those with whom any such books were found, rigorously put to death: Which fearful cruelty when the jews perceived, it caused many of them to wax faint hearted, and to give themselves over to wallow in the dirty fashions of the uncircumcised Idolaters, and in their madness to subscribe to the unjust laws of the vile monster. Now after he had committed all these outrages, he was repulsed with dishonour from the city of Elymais in Persia, which he went about to spoil and rob, and forced to fly to Babylon; where after tidings of the overthrow of his two armies in judea, with grief and despite he ended his days. Antiochus the son of this wretched father succeeding him as in his ●. Macch. 6. kingdom, so in wickedness, perjury and disloyalty; when, to the end to consult about his own affairs, he concluded a peace with the jews, and by solemn oath as well of himself as his princes, confirmed the free exercise of their Religion: behold, suddenly he falsied his plighted and sworn faith, and undid all that ever he had done; but it was not long ere he also was overtaken by the army of Demetrius, and together with Lysias his Governor, put to death. A while after reigned Alexander his brother, who whilst he was encumbered 1. Macch. 11. with the troubles of Cilicla, that revolted from him, the King of Egypt his father in law came traitorously to forestall him of his kingdom, took his wife, and gave her to hi● deadliest enemy, and afterward gave him battle, discomfited his forces, and drove him to fly into Arabia for safety; where in stead of help, he found an hatchet to chop off his head, which was sent for a Present to gratify the King of Egypt withal. Not long after, Antiochus his son recovered the Sceptre of his Father; 1. Macch. 13. but alas his reign endured but a small space; for being yet but a young child, he was slain by Tryphon in the way as he led him to war against the jews. And thus perished the cursed race of Antiochus, which felt God's wrath upon it even in the third generation. Antiochus the son of Demetrius (of whom mention was made but a 2. Macch. 5. little before) after he had chased Tryphon from the kingdom of Asia, which he usurped, and broken the league which he had made with the jews, gave himself wholly to work them mischief. Therefore coming against jerusalem, he took it by force, commanding his soldiers to put all to death that were within the same▪ so that within three days there was such a massacre of young and old men, women, and children, that the number of the slain arose to four score thousand carcases. After this, having executed many more villainies against this people, in so much as to make them renounce the law of God, putting them cruelly to death that did not obey his commandment, it came to pass, that this cruel tyrant was first of all put to flight by the inhabitants of Persepolis a city of Persia, for going above to rob their temple of their treasures: next endamaged by an overthrow of his army in judaea: which he no sooner understood, but he took counsel in his fury how to be revenged of jerusalem, and belched forth bitter threats against it. But in the mean time the Lord struck him with a sudden and incurable plague, and surprised him with a horrible torment of his entrails. Howbeit, for all this he ceased not his malicious enterprise, but hasted forward his journey towards the jews with such cagernesse, that in the way he fell out of his chariot, and bruised so his body, that it became putrified and so full of corruption, that very vermin scrawled out thereof, and the rotten flesh dropping piecemeal away, no man, no not himself being able to endure the stinch thereof. Then was he constrained in the midst of his torments to confess, that it was meet that he should submit himself unto God, that he which is mortal, ought not to exalt himself so high, as to compare with the immortal God: and in this estate this reprobate ended his wicked days by a strange and most miserable kind of death. CHAP. IX. Of those that persecuted the Son of God and his Church. IF they who in the law injured and persecuted the Church of God, were punished according to their deserts, as we have already heard; is it any marvel then if the enemies and persecuters of our Lord and Saviour Christ jesus, which labour by all means to discountenance and frustrate his Religion, and to oppress his Church, do feel the heavy and fearful vengeance of God upon them for their very wickedness and unbelie●e? No verily, for he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which sent him, and is guilty therefore before God, of impiety and profaneness. From this heinous crime King Herod in Mat. 2. no wise can be exempted, that caused all the Infants of Bethlehem of two years old and under, to be cruelly murdered, in hope thereby to put the true Messias and Saviour of the world to death. For which deed, accompanied This example belongeth also (in regard of cruelty) to the sixth commandment. Lib. 2. Cap. 11. 17. Book of the jewish antiquity, cap. 8. with many other strange cruelties, as by killing the ordinary judges of the house of David, and his own wife and children, this Caitise was tormented with sundry intolerable griefs, and at last devoured by an horrible and most fearful death. For (as josephus reporteth) his body was boiled, and his bowels gnawn in two by a soft and slow fire, fretting inwardly, without any outward appearance of heat: besides the ravenous and insatiable desire of eating, which so possessed him, that without chewing, his meat in whole lumps descended into his body, devouring it so fast as it could be thrown into his mouth, and never ceasing to farce his greedy throat with continual sustenance: moreover, his feet were so swollen and puft up with such a phlegm, that a man might see through them; his privy parts so rotten and full of vermin, and his breath so stinking, that few or none durst approach near unto him; yea his own servants for sooke him. Now lying in this wretched plight, when this wicked man saw no remedy could be found to assuage his grief, he went about to kill himself, and being not able to perform it, he was constrained to endure all the pangs of a most horrible, lingering, and languishing death, and at last mad and miserable distraught of sense and reason, to end his days. As for Herod the Tetrarch, surnamed Antipas (who to please Herodias, Luke 9 7. had caused john Baptist to be beheaded) when he had likewise prepared snares for our Saviour's feet, and being sent to him by Pilate, to quit himself, and gratify him withal, had jested and mocked at him his belly full, This example in regard of divorce, be longeth to the seventh Commandment. Lib 2. cap. 29. joseph. of the jewish Antiquity, l. 8. c. 6. Euseb. behold, his reproaches and mocks (was he never so subtle) turned into his own bosom: for first, after that his army had been discomfited by the soldiers of King Aretas, whose daughter (in regard of Herodias his brother Philip's wife) he had repudiated; a further shame and dishonour befell him, even to be deprived of his Royal dignity; and not only to be brought into a low and base estate, but also being robbed of his goods, to be banished into a far country, and there to make an end of the rest of his life. As touching Pilate the governor of judea, he did so excel in wickedness and injustice, that notwithstanding the restraint of his own conscience, the law of civil equity, and the advertisement of his own wise, Euseb. yet he condemned Christ jesus, the just and innocent, to the death of the cross: albeit he could not but know the power of his miracles, the renown whereof was spread into all places. But ere long having been constrained to erect the image of the Emperor Caligula in the Temple of jerusalem to be worshipped, he was sent for to make personal appearance at Rome, to answer to certain accusations of cruelty which were by the jews objected against him: And in this journey being afflicted in conscience, Euseb. Eutrop. lib. 7. with the number and weight of his misdeeds, like a desperate man, to prevent the punishment which he feared, willingly offered violence to his own life, and killed himself. The first Emperor that took in hand to persecute the Christians, was Nero the Tyrant; picking a quarrel against them for setting the City on Tertul, Niceph. 8 Commandment. Calumniation Lib. 2. cap. 44. fire; which being himself guilty of, he charged them withal, as desirous to find out any occasion to do them hurt: wherefore under pretence of the same crime, discharging his own guilt upon their backs, he exposed them to the fury of the people, that tormented them very sore, as if they had been common burners and destroyers of Cities and the deadliest enemies of mankind. Hereupon the poor Innocents' were apprehended, Tacit. Ann. l. 5. and some of them clad with skins of wild beasts, were torn in pieces by dogs; others crucified, or made bonfires of on such heaps, that the flame arising from their bodies, served in stead of torches for the night. To conclude, such horrible cruelty was used towards them, that many of their very enemies did pity their miseries. But at last this wretch, the causer of all, seeing himself in danger to be murdered by one appointed for that purpose (a just reward for his horrible and unjust dealing) hastened his death by killing himself, as it shall be showed more at large in the second book. The author of the second persecution against the Christians, was Domitian, Suet. Refer this also to the ●4. ch. of this book. Suet. Eutrop. who was so puffed up and swollen with pride, that he would needs ascribe unto himself the name of God. Against this man rose up his household servants, who by his wife's consent slew him with daggers in his privy chamber: his body was buried without honour, his memory cursed to posterity, and his ensigns and trophies thrown down and defaced. Trajan, who albeit in all things, and in the government of the Empire also, showed himself a good and sage Prince, yet did he dash and bruise himself against this stone with the rest, and was reckoned the third persecuter of the Church of Christ: for which cause he underwent also the cruel Dion. vengeance of God, and felt his heavy hand upon him: for first he fell into a palsy, and when he had lost the use of his senses (persuading himself that he was poisoned) got a dropsy also, and so died in great anguish. Hadrian in the ninth year of his Empire caused ten thousand Christians to be crucified in Armenia at one time; and after that ceased not to stir up a very hot persecution against them in all places. But God persecuted him, and that to his destruction; first with an issue of blood, wherewith he was so weakened and disquieted, that oftentimes he would fain Mandate. 7. l. ●. c. 12. Sparta. have made away himself: next with a consumption of the lungs & lights, which he spate out of his mouth continually; and thirdly with an unsatiable dropsy: so that seeing himself in this horrible torment, he desired poison to hasten his death, or a knife to make quick riddance; but when all those means were kept back, he was enforced to endure still, and at last to die in great misery. Whilst Marcus Antonius, surnamed Verus, swayed the empire, there were exceeding cruelties set abroach against the poor Christians every Euseb. Sparta. where, but especially at Lions and Vienna in Dauphin (as Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History recordeth;) wherefore he wanted not his punishment, for he died of an Apoplexy, after he had lain speechless three days. After that Severus had proclaimed himself a professed enemy to God's Church, his affairs began to decline, and he found himself pestered with divers extremities, and set upon with many wars; and at length assaulted with such an extreme pain throughout his whole body, that languishing and consuming, he desired oft to poison himself, and at last died in great distress. Vitellius Saturninus one of his Lieutenants in those exploits Tert. ●d Scap. became blind: another called Clandius Herminianus Governor of Capadocia, who in hatred of his own wife that was a Christian, had extremely afflicted many of the faithful, was afterwards himself afflicted with the pestilence, persecuted wi●h vermin bred in his own bowels, and devoured of them alive in most miserable sort. Now lying in this misery, he desired not to be known or spoken of by any, lest the Christians that were lest unmurthered, should rejoice at his destruction, confessing also that those plagues did justly betid him for his cruelties sake. Dicius, in hatred of Philip his predecessor, that had made some profession Oros. l. 7. c. 14. of Christianity, wrought tooth and nail to destroy the Church of Christ, using all the cruelties and torments which his wit could devise, against all those which before time had offered themselves to be persecuted for that cause. But his devilish practices were cut short by means of the war which he waged against the Scythians; wherein, when he had reigned not full two Euseb. l. 7. c. 1. Ecclesiast. Hist. years, his army was discomfited, and he with his son cruelly killed, Others Pomponim. say, that to escape the hands of his enemies, he ran into a whirlpit, and that his body was never found after. Neither did the just hand of God plague the Emperor only, but also as well the heathen Gentiles throughout all Provinces and dominions of the Roman Empire. For immediately after the death of this Tyrant, God Euseb. l. 7. c. 21. sent such a plague and pestilence amongst them, lasting for the space of ten years together, that horrible it is to hear, and almost incredible to believe. Dionysius writing to Hierax a Bishop of Egypt, declareth the mortality of this plague to have been so great at Alexandria, where he was Bishop, that there was no house in the whole city free. And although the greatness of the plague touched also the Christians somewhat, yet it scourged the heathen Idolaters much more: beside that, the behaviour of the one and the other was most divers: for as the foresaid Dionysius doth record, the Christians through brotherly love and piety did not refuse one to visit and comfort another, and to minister to him what need required: notwithstanding it was to them great danger; for divers there were, who in closing up their eyes, in washing their bodies, and interring them in the ground, were next themselves which followed them to their graves. Yet all this s●ayed not them from doing their duty, and showing mercy one to another. Whereas the Gentiles contrarily being extremely visited by the hand of God, felt the plague, but considered not the striker; neither yet considered they their neighbour, but every man shifting for himself, cared not for one another. Such as were infected, some they would cast out of the doors half dead, to be devoured of dogs and beasts; some they let die within their houses, without all succour; some they suffered to lie unburied, for that no man durst come near them: and yet notwithstanding, for all their voiding and shifting, the postilence followed them whithersoever they went, and miserably consumed them. Insomuch that Dionysius reporteth of his own city Alexandria, That there was not left in the city, of old and young, so many as there was wont to be old men from threescore years upwards. This plague, though it spread itself over the whole world, yet especially it raged where the Edicts of the Emperor had been against the Christians, whereby many places became utterly desolate. Valerian, albeit in the beginning of his Empire he showed himself somewhat mild and gentle towards the professors of religion, yet afterwards he became their deadly enemy; but when he had terribly persecuted them in his dominions, it was not long ere he was taken prisoner in the Persian wars, being seventy years old, and made a slave to his conqueror all the rest of his life: And whose condition was so miserable, that Sapor King of In the Sermon of the congregation of saints Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. 7. c 30. Persia used his back as a block or stirrup to mount upon his horse. Yea he dealt so cruelly with the poor old man (as Eusobius testifieth) that to make up the full number of his miseries, he caused him to be fleine alive, and powdered with salt. The like severity of God's terrible judgement is also to be noted in Glaudius Henric. de Erford. his Precedent, and minister of his persecutions: For God gave him up to be possessed and vexed of the Devil, in such sort, that biting off his own tongue in many small pieces, he so ended his days. Neither did Galienus the son of Valerian, after the captivity of his father, utterly escape the righteous hand of God: for beside the miserable captivity of his father, whom he could not restore, such strange portents, and such earthquakes did happen, also such tumults, commotions, and rebellions did follow, that Trebellio doth reckon up to the number of thirty together, which at sundry places, all at one time, took upon them to be Emperors of the Roman Monarchy: by the means whereof he was not able to succour his father, though he would: notwithstanding the said Galienus, being, as is thought, terrified by the example of his father, did remove, Euseb. l. 7. c. 13 or at leastwise moderate the persecution stirred up against the Christians, as it may appear by his Edict set forth in Eusebius. Aurelian being upon point to trouble the quiet of the church, which it a while enjoyed under the Emperor Galen; even whilst he was devising new practices against it, a thunderbolt fell from heaven at his feet, which so amazed him, that his malicious and bloodthirsty mind was somewhat rebated and repressed from doing that which he pretended; until that reourning Vopis. Eutrop. Niceph. to his old bent, and persevering to pursue his purpose, when God's thunder could not terrify him, he stirred up his own servants to cut his throat. Dioclesian went another way to work, for he did not set abroach all his practices at one push, but first assayed by subtle means to make those that were in his army to renounce their faith; then by open proclamation commanded, that their churches should be razed and beaten down, their Bible's burned and torn in pieces: that they that were Magistrates, or bore Ruffin. any public office in the commonwealth, if they were Christians, should be deposed: and that all bondmen that would forsake their profession, should be enfranchised. When he had thus left no devise unpractised that might further to abolish and destroy the religion of Christ, and perceiving that, notwithstanding all his malice and cruel rage, it every day (through the wonderful constancy of Martyrs) increased and grew even against the hair; with very spite and anger he gave up the Empire. And lastly, when he had been tormented with divers and strange diseases, and that his house had been set on fire with lightning, and burned with fire from heaven, and he himself so scared with thunder, that he knew not where to hide him, he fell mad and killed himself. There was joined to this man in the government of the Empire, one Maximilian, whose cruelty and tyranny against the Christians was so outrageous also, that upon a solemn festival day, when infinite numbers of them were assembled together at Mandate. 7. lib. 2. cap. 12. Nicomedia, in a Temple, to serve God, he sent a band of Atheists to enclose them, and burn the Temple and them together, as they indeed did: for there were consumed at that bonfire (as Nicephorus writeth) twenty Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 7, & 8. c. 16 Niceph. l. 7. c. 6. thousand persons. In like sort dealt he with a whole city in Phrygia, which after he had long besieged, he caused to be burnt to cinders, with all the inhabitants therein. But the end of this wretch was like his life, even miserable: for lying a while sick of a grievous disease, the very vermin and such horrible stink came forth of his body, that for shame and grief he hung himself. Maximinus that reigned Emperor in the East, was constrained to interrupt Niceph. 7. 12. and make cease his persecution which he had begun, by means of a dangerfull and grievous sickness, and to confirm a general peace to all Christians in his dominions, by public Edicts. His sickness was thus: In the privy members of his body, there grew a sudden putrefaction, and after in the bottom of the same a botchy corrupt bile, with a fistula, consuming and eating up his entrails, out of the which came swarming an innumerable multitude of louse, with such a pestiferous stink, that no man could abide him; and so much the more, for that all the grossness of his body, by abundance of meat before he fell sick, was turned into fat; which fat now putrified and stinking, was so ugsome and horrible, that none that came to him could abide the sight thereof, by reason whereof the Physicians which had him in cure, some of them not able to abide the intolerable stink, were commanded to be slain; other some, because they could not heal him, being past hope, were also cruelly put to death. At length, being put in remembrance, that his disease was sent of God, he began to repent of the cruelty which he had showed the Christians, and forthwith commanded all persecution to cease. But (alas) this peace was so brittle, that it lasted but six months; for even then he sought by all means possible again to trouble and disquiet their rest, and sent forth a new Edict quite contrary to the former, importing their utter destruction. And thus being nothing amended, but rather made worse by his sickness, it affailed him afresh, in such sort, that every day growing in extremity, as he grew in cruelty, it at last brought him to his death, his carcase being all rotten and full of corruption and worms. Saint chrysostom writeth of him, That the apple of his eye fell out before he died. Against the Gentiles. Maxentius and Licinius, the one Emperor of Italy, the other of the East, perceiving how the Emperor Constantine that reigned in the West, was had in great reputation, for maintaining the cause of the Christians, began also to do the like: but by and by their malice and hypocrisy discovered itself, when they undertook to trouble and afflict those whom before they seemed to favour. For which cause Constantine taking arms against them, destroyed them both one after another; for Maxentius thinking to save himself upon a Bridge on Tiber, was deceived by the breaking of the Bridge, and so drenched and drowned in the water. Licinius was taken and put to death. And thus two Tyrants ended their days, for persecuting the Church of Christ. In the tenth year of the persecution of Dioclesian, Galerius his chief Lanquet. Chro. minister and instrument in that practice, fell into a grievous sickness, having a sore risen in the neither part of his belly, which consumed his privy members, from whence swarmed great plenty of worms engendered by the putrefaction. This disease could not be holpen by any Chirurgery or Physic: wherefore he confessed that it justly happened unto him for his monstrous cruelty towards the Christians, and called in his proclamations which he had published against them. Howbeit notwithstanding he died miserably, and as some write slew himself. CHAP. X. More examples of Persecutors. SAint Bartholomew one of the twelve Apostles, after he had preached Christ Jesus unto the Indians, and delivered them the Gospel written by Saint Matthew, and had converted many unto the Faith, albeit the miracles which he wrought were strange and supernatural (for he restored many diseased persons to their health, and cleansed King Polemius his daughter from an unclean spirit wherewith she was possessed) yet in Hieron. in Ca●. regard that he destroyed their Idol Astaroth, and bewrayed the subtleties of Satan, he was by Astyages, Polemius younger brother, at the instigation of the Idolatrous Priests, first cruel beaten with clubs, after flayed, and last of all beheaded. But within thirty days after, both the wicked King, and the sacrilegious Priests, were poffessed with devils, and brought to a wretched and miserable death. Aphraats that heavenly Philosopher, going out of his Cloister towards Theod. l. 4. c. 26. the Temple, to feed the flock of Christ with some wholesome food of sound Doctrine; and being perceived by the Emperor Valeus, and demanded Tripartit. Hist. lib. 8. cap. 4. Nicl. 11. c. 25. whither he went; he answered, To pray for him and his kingdom. Yea, but said the Emperor, it were more convenient for thee that professest thyself a Monk, to remain at home in contemplation, than to stray abroad: True answered this holy man, if Christ's sheep enjoyed peace; but as it becometh an honest Matron to sit still within doors; nevertheless if her house were on fire, and the flame environed her, should she not stir to help to quench it? And should I lie still, and see my Country set on fire by the persecution? Whereat the Emperor being nettled, threatened him with death; and one of his chamberlains taunting him for his boldness, used him most currishly. But presently as he went to the Baths, to make them ready for the Emperor, the hand of God struck him with an Apoplexy, that he fell down dead into the waters. Under the Empire of julian the Apostate, all they that either conspired T●eod. l. 3. c. 7. or practised the death of Cyrillus a Deacon of Heliopolis, situate near to Libanus, came to a miserable end: for after that Constantine was deceased, by whose authority the holy Martyr had broken down many of their Images and Idoils, the abominable Idolaters did not only murder him, but also devoured his liver with bread, as if it had been the sweetest morsel of meat in the world. But the allseeing eye of God saw their villainy, and his revengeful rod bruised them in pieces: for their teeth wherewith they chewed that unnatural food, fell all out of their heads; and their tongues wherewith they tasted it, rotten and consumed to nothing; and lastly, their eyes which beheld it, failed them, and they became blind. And thus were they all served, not one excepted, bearing justly the marks of God's wrath for so inhuman and unnatural a deed. At Tyre a City of Phoenicia, under the reign of Dioclesian, many Christians Euseb. l. 8. c. 7. that stoutly professed and maintained the Faith and Religion of Christ Jesus, were after many tortures and destructions, exposed to wild beasts to be devoured, as Bears, Libards, wild Boars, and Bulls: the savage bast, though made fierce and furious by fires and swords, yet (I know not by what secret instinct.) resused once to touch them, or to come near them, but turned their teeth upon the Infidels that were without, and came to set them on upon the Saints, and tore many of them in pieces in their steads. Howbeit, although they escaped the jaws of wild beasts, yet they escaped not the swords of them that were more savage than any beasts: and though the bowels of Bears refused to entomb them, yet were they entombed in the floods, and crowned with the Crown of sacred martyrdom. Processus and Martianus, Keeper of the Prison wherein the Apostles Peter and Paul were enclosed at Rome, seeing the miracles which were wrought by their hands, believed in Christ, and together with seven and forty other prisoners were baptised. Which when Paulinus the Judge perceived, he enjoined them to lay aside their conscience, and offer sacrifice to Idols. But they, readier to obey God than man, could neither by threats nor violence be brought to it; but chose rather to be beaten with clubs Vincentius, l. 10. c. 56. Petru● de Natalibus. or consumed with fire, or scourged with Scorpions, as they were, than to yield to deny their Maker, by doing worship to devilish and monstrous Idols. But that Judge the procurer of their martyrdoms, shortly after became himself an object of God's wrath; when his eyesight failed him, and an evil spirit so possessed and tormented him, that in the extremity of terrors and grief, he breathed out ere long his last and miserable breath. Nicephorus reporteth, How the Emperor Trajan having caused five Lib. 3. c. 21. holy Virgins to be burned, for standing in the profession of the Truth, commanded certain Vessels to be made of their ashes mingled with brass, and dedicated them to the service of a public Bath; but the Bath that before time instilled a wholesome and healthful vapour into men's bodies, now became pernicious and fatal unto them: for all that washed themselves therein, felt presently such a giddiness in their brains, and such a dimness of sight, that they fell down dead forthwith: The cause of which mischief being perceived by Trajan, he melted again the Virgin-moulded Vessels, and erected five statues to the honour of them; so choking as it were one superstition with another, to his own eternal infamy and disgrace. Agapitus, a youngman of fifteen years of age, being apprehended by Bergom. lib. ●. the inhabitants of Preneste, and grievously tormented, for refusing to offer sacrifice to their Idols; and when all would not serve to shake the foundation of his Faith (which was builded upon a Rock) he was condemned and executed to death: For, being first scourged with whips, then hanged up by the feet; after having hot scalding water poured upon him, at last he was cast unto wild beasts. With all which torments being not terrified, nor yet dispatched, finally had his head cut off. But behold, the Judge called Antiochus, that pronounced the sentence, fell down from his Throne before the face of the world, even whilst the young man was in the midst of his torments; and by his example made known to all men, how odious such cruel persecutors are in the sight of Him that judgeth the Earth, and controlleth the mighty Princes and Potentates of the same. In the Empire of julian the Apostate the Lord seen such horrible earthquakes upon the world, that what for the fall of houses, and raptures of fields, neither city nor country was safe to abide in: besides, such an extreme drought dried up the moisture of the earth, that victuals were very geason and dear. These plagues Theodoret avoucheth to have fallen upon Lib. 4. cap. 4. the world for the impiety of julian, and the miserable persecution of Christians. The Emperor Gallus had good success in his affairs whilst he abstained Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 21. & 2●. from shedding the blood of the Christians; but as soon as he gave himself over unto that villainy, his prosperity, Kingdom, and life diminished and decreased at once: for within two years he and his son V●lusianus, in the war against Aemylian, were both slain, through the defection of his soldiers, who in the point of necessity forsook him. Beside, the Lord in his time sent upon the Provinces of Rome a general and contagious pestilence, which lasted whole ten years without intermission, to make satisfaction for the much innocens blood which was spilt amongst them. Arnolphus the fourescor▪ th' Emperor, raged like a Tyrant against all men, but especially against those that professed the Religion and name of Philip Melan. Chron. lib. 4. ●ebast. Franc. Chron. Pelon. Christ Jesus: for which cause the Lord stirred up a woman the wife of Guid●, to minister unto him the dregs of his wrath in a poisoned cup, by means whereof such a rottenness possessed all his members, that louse and worms issuing out continually, he died most miserably in Or●nge, a city of Bavary, the twelfth year of his reign. Bajazet the Turk, to what a miserable and ludibrious end came he, for Philip Mela. Chron. lib. 5. his outrageous hatred against all Christendom, but especially against Constantinople, which he had brought to so low an ebb, that they could scarce have resisted him any longer, had not Tamburlaine the Tartarian revoked him from the siege, and bidden him leave to assail others, and look unto his own? And indeed he welcomed him so kindly, that he soon took him prisoner, and binding him with chains of gold, carried him up Composulus, lib. 9 cap. 5. and down in a cage for a spectacle, using his back for a footstool to get upon his horse. And thus God plagueth one Tyrant by another, and all for the comfort of his chosen. Gensericus King of the Vandals exercised cruel tyranny against the Philip Mela. Chron. lib. 3. professors of the truth. So did Honoricus the second also: but both of them reaped their just deserts: for Gensericus died, being possessed with a Spirit; and Honoricus being so rotten and putrified, that one member dropped Greg. Taren. lib. 2. cap. 3. off after another. Some say, that he gnawned off his own flesh with his teeth. Authar is the twelfth King of Lombardy forbade children to be baptised Paulus Diaconus, l. 3. c. 18. de Gestis Long●●ard. or instructed in the Christian Faith: seeking by that means to abolish and pluck down the Kingdom of Christ; but he reigned not long, for ere six years were complete, he died with poison at Pavia: And so he that thought to undermine Christ Jesus, was undermined himself most deservedly, in the year of our Lord 593. When Arcadius the Emperonr, through the persuasion of certain envious fellows, and his wife Eudoxia, had banished john chrysostom Bishop Evagrius, l. 5. c. 34. of Constantinople into Bosphorus; the next night there arose such a terrible earthquake, that the Empress and the whole city was sore affrighted therewith; so that the next morrow messengers after messengers were sent Mandate. 9 Calumniation lib. 2. c. 44. without ceasing, till they had brought him back again out of exile, and his accusers were all punished for their wrongful accusation. Thus it pleased God to testify the innocency of his servant, by terrifying his enemies. Smaragdus an Exarch of Italy was transported by a Devil, for tyrannising over Christians in the first year of the Empire of Mauritius. Ma●●u●ha a Sarasen, being equal to Pharaoh in persecuting the Church of God, God made him equal to him also in the manner of his destruction: Paul. Diacon. lib. 3. c. 22. de Gostis Long●●. cent. 6. cap. 3. Anton. l. 15. c. 15. for as he returned from the spoil of the Monastery of Ca●●ime and Mossana, and the Daughter of many Christians, the Lord caused the sea to swallow up his whole army, even an hundred ships, so that few or none escaped. Another time, even the year 719, they were miraculously consumed with famine, sword, pestilence, water, and captivity, and all for Paul. Diac. l. 21. their infestuous rancour and tyranny towards Christians: for whom the famine spared, the sword devonred; whom both these touched not; the pestilence ate up; and they that escaped all three, yet perished in the waters; and ten ships that escaped the waters, were taken by the Romans and the Syrians: surely an egregious sign of God's heavy wrath and displeasure. To conclude, there was never any that set themselves against the Church of God, but God set himself against them by some notable judgement: so that some were murdered by their subjects, as Bluso King of the Vandals; others by their enemies, as Vdo Prince of Sclavonia; others by their wives, as Cruco another Sclavonian Prince; others discomfited in war, as Abbas the King of Hungaria: some destroyed by their own horses, as Lucius the Emperor, who first cast his own daughter, because she was a Christian, amongst the same horses. And generally few persecutors escaped Helm. c. 24. Sclavon. & cap. 34. Bonfi●us. without some evident and markable destruction. CHAP. XI. Of the jews that persecuted Christ. BY how much the offence of the jews was more heinous, not only in despising and rejecting the Lord of glory, whom God had sent amongst them for their salvation, but also in being so wicked as to put him to death; by so much the more hath God bestowed his fearful indignation upon them: as at many other times, so especially by that great calamity and desolation which they abide at their last destruction, begun by Vespasian, and perfected by Titus; which was so great and lamentable, as the like was never heard of until this day: for if the sacking and overthrow of jerusalem, then when jeremy the Prophet made his book of Lamentations over it, was reputed more grievous than the subversion of Sodom, which perished suddenly, how much more than is this last destruction without all comparison, by reason of those horrible and strange miseries, which were there both suddenly & in continuance of time committed? Neither truly is there any History which containeth a description of so many miseries as this doth: as it may appear by josephus' record of it. For after that they had been afflicted in divers countries, and tossed up and down by the Deputies a long while, there were slain at Caesarea in one day twenty thousand: At Alexandria another time fifty thousand: at Zabulon and Joppe eight thousand and four hundred, besides the burning of the two Towns: at Damascus ten thousand that had their throats cut. As for Jerusalem, when it had a long time endured the brunt of the war both within and without, it was pinched with so sore a famine, that joseph of the wars of the jews, l. 2. c. 19 21. 22, 23 Lib. 6. cap. 16. Lib. 7. c. 7, 8. Lib. 6. cap. 16. the dung of Oxen served some for meat: others fed upon the leather of old shoes and buckles; and divers women were driven to the extiemity to boil and eat their own children: Many thinking to save their lives by flying to the Enemy, were taken and slit in pieces, in hope to find gold and silver in their guts; in one night two thousand were thus piteously dealt withal; and at the last the whole City was by force taken, and the holy Temple conslumed by fire. And this in general was the miserable issue of that lamentable war: during which, fourscore and seventeen thousand jews were taken Prisoners, and eleven hundred thousand slain; for within the city were enclosed from the beginning to the ending, all those that were assembled together from all quarters of the earth, to keep the Passeover, as their custom was. As touching the prisovers, some were carried to Rome in triumph; others were here and there massacred at their conquerors wills; sums lot it was to be torn in pieces and devoured of wild-beasts; others were constrained to march in troops against their fellows, and kill one another as if they had been enemies. All which evils came upon them for the despite and fury which they used towards the Son of God and our Saviour; and that was the cause why he, foreseeing this desolation, wept over Jerusalem, and said, That it should be besieged on every side, and razed to the ground, and that not one stone should be left upon another, because it knew not the time of her visitation. Likewise said he to the woman that bewailed him as he was led to the Cross, That they should not weep for him, but for themselves and their children, because of the days of sorrow which were to come, wherein the barren and those that had no children, and the dugs that never suckled should be counted happy. So horrible and pitiful was the destruction of this people, that God would not suffer any of his own children to be wrapped in their miseries, nor to perish with this perverse and unbelieving Nation: for (as Eusebius reporteth) they were a little before the arrival of these mischiefs, advertised from heaven by the special providence of God, to forsake the City, and retire into some far Country where none of these evils might come near them. The relics of this This example belongs also to the contempt of the Word. lib. 1. cap. 34. wretched people that remained after this mighty tempest of God's wrath, were dispersed and scattered throughout all nations under heaven, being subject to them with whom they sojourned, without King, Prince, Judge, or Magistrate to lead and guide them, or to redress their wrongs, but were altogether at the discretion and commandment of the Lords of those Countries wherein they made their abode; so that their condition and kind of life is at this day so vile and contemptible (as experience showeth) that no nation in the world is half so miserable, which is a manifest badge of God's vengeance yet abiding upon them. And yet for all this, these dispersed relics ceased not to vomit out the foam of their malice against Christ, it being so deep rooted an evil, and so inveterate, that time nor reason could revoke them from it. And no marvel, seeing that God useth to punish the greatest sins with other sins, as with the greatest punishment: so they having shut their eyes to the light when it shined among them, are now given over to a reprobate and hardened sense; otherwise it were not possible they should remain so obstinate. And albeit (God be thanked) we have many converts of them, yet I dare say for the most part, they remain in malicious blindness, barking against, and despighting both our Saviour himself, and all that profess his name, although their punishments have been still according to their deserts: as by these examples following shall appear. The Jews of Inmester, a Town lying betwixt Calchis and Antioch, being upon a time celebrating their accustomed plays and feasts, in the midst of their jollity, as their use is, they contumeliously reviled not only Christians, but even Christ himself: for they got a Christian child, and hung him upon a Cross, and after many mocks and taunts, making themselves merry at him, they whipped him to death. What greater villainy could there be than this? Or wherein could these Devils incarnate show forth their malice more apparently than thus? not content once to have crucified Christ the Saviour of the World, but by imitation to perform it again; and as it were to make known, that if it were undone, they would do it: So also handled they a boy called Simeon, of two years and an half old, in the year of our Lord 1476. and an another in Fretulium five years after that. But above all, they massacred a poor Carpenter's son in Hungary joh. Fincel. l. 3 in hatred of Christ, whom they falsely supposed to be a Carpenter's son: for they cut in two all his veins, and sucked out his blóud with quills. And being apprehended and tortured, they confessed that they had done the like at Thirna four years before, and that they could not be without Christiàn blood, for therewithal they anointed their Priests. But at all these times they suffered just punishment; for being still taken, they were either hanged, burned, murdered, or put to some other cruel death, at the discretion of ●he Magistrates. Moreover, they would at divers times buy the Host of some Popish Priest, and thrust it through with their knives, and use it most despitefully. This did one Bleazarus in the year of our Lord 1492, the 22 of October, but was burnt for his labour: and eight and thirty at another time for the same villainy, by the marquis joachinus: for the caitiffs would suffer themselves to be baptised for none other end, but more securely to exercise their villainies. Another Jew is recorded in the year of our Lord 147 to have stolen the picture of Christ out of a Church, & to have thrust it through many times Casp Hedi●●, lib. 3. cap. 6. with his sword, whereout, when blood miraculously issued, he amazed, would have burned it, but being taken in the manner, the Christians stoned him to death. The truth of which story, though I will not stand to avow, yet I doubt not but it might be true, considering that either the Devil might by his cunning so foster and confirm their superstition, or rather that seeing Christ is the subject of their religion as well as of ours, though after a corrupt and sacrilegious form, and that the Jew did not so much aim at their religion, as at Christ the subject of it, the Lord might show a miracle, not to establish their error, but to confound the Jews impiety, especially in those young years of the Church. In our English Chronicles are recorded many histories of the malicious practices of the Jews against Christians, in hatred of Christ Jesus our Saviour, whom they in contempt call our crucified God; and especially this devilish practice was most frequent amongst them here in England, as in Germany, France, and other places where they were suffered to inhabit; namely every year to steal some Christian man● child from the parents, Nic. Trivis. and on good Friday to crucify him in despite of Christ and Christian religion. Thus they served a child at Lincoln named Hugo, of nine years of age, in the year 1255, in the reign of Henry the third, and another at Norwich about the same time; having first circumcised him and detained Cestrens. Flores histor. him a whole year in custody. In which two facts they were apprehended; and at Lincoln thirty two of them put to death, and at Norwich twenty, But this was not all the punishment that they endured: as they proceeded and increased in their malice against Christ and his religion, so he proceeded in vengeance and indignation against them: First therefore at the coronation of Richard the first, whereas some of them presumed to enter into the Courtgate contrary to the King's express commandment, a great tumult arising thereupon, a number of them were slain, and their houses fired in the City of London, by the raging multitude and from thence the example spread into all other countries of the Land: for they following the example of the Londoners, havocked, spoilt, killed, and fired as many Jews as they could come by; until by the King's Writs unto the Sheriff of every County the tumult was appeased, and some few of the principal authors and stirrers of this outrage punished. And it is to be noted, that this year the jews held for their jubilee, but it turned to them a year of confusion. Neither were they thus massacred only by the Christians, but they became butchers of themselves also: For in the City of York, when as they had obtained the occupying of a certain Castle for their preservation, and afterward were not willing to restore it to the Christians again, and being ready to be vanquished, and offering much money for their lives, when as that would not be accepted, by the counsel of an old Jew among them, every one with a sharp razor cut another's throat, whereby a thousand and five hundred of them were at that present destroyed. At North-Hampton a number of them were burnt, for enterprizing to fire the City with wildfire, which they had prepared for that purposes besides many grievous impositions and taxes which were laid upon them. At last by King Edward the first they were utterly banished this Realm of England, in the year 1291: For which deed the Commons gave unto the King a Fifteen. And about the same time also they were banished out of France for the like practices; and still the wrath of God ceaseth not to punish them in all places wheresoever they inhabit. But that their Impiety may be yet more discovered, I will here set down the confession of one of their own Nation, a Jew of Ratisbone converted 10. Fineel. l. 3. de Miracul. to the Faith, one very skilful in the Hebrew tongue. This man being asked many questions about their superstition and ceremonies, answered very fitly: and being demanded, why they thirsted so after Christian men's blood? He said it was a mystery only known to the Rabbins and highest persons; but that this was their custom he knew, when any of them was ready to die, a rabbin anointed him with this blood, using these or such like words: If he that was promised in the Law and Prophets hath truly appeared, and if this jesus crucified be the very Messias, then let the blood of this innocent man that diedin his Faith, cleanse thee from thy sins, and help thee to eternal life. Nay Epiphanius affirmeth, That the Jews of Tyberias did more confidently affirm it than thus: for they would whisper into a dying man's ear, Believe in jesus of Nazareth whom our princes crucified, for he shall come to judge thee in the latter day: All which declareth how impious they are to go against their own conscience, and upon how fickle ground all their Religion standeth. CHAP. XII. Of those that in our age have persecuted the Gospel in the person of the Faithful. AS the Religion of Christ hath been hitherto cruelly crossed and besieged by the mightiest captains of this world (as hath been partly declared) so it hath not been any better entertained by the Potentates of this age, that ceased not to disturb the quiet, and pursue to death the lives of God's children for their professions sake and to bring them utterly to ruin: to address all the engines and subtleties of their malicious and wicked counsels, without leaving any one device unthought of that their wit could imagine, or their power afford; they joined craft with force, and vile treason with horrible cruelty, thereby to suppress the truth, and quench that fair and clear light, which God after long time of blindness and ignorance, had caused of his infinite mercy to shine upon us. There fires were kindled every where with the bones of Martyrs; whilst for the space of forty years or thereabouts they never ceased to burn those that were followers of that way. Now when they saw that all their butcheries and burnings were not able to consume this holy seed, but that the more they went about to choke it, the more it grew up and increased, they took another course, and raised up troubles and seditions in all quarters, as if by that means they should attain the end of their purpose. Hell vomited up all her Furies of war, the whole earth was in a tumult, young and old with tooth and nail were employed to root out the Church of Christ, but God stretching forth his arm against all their practices, showed himself not only a Conqueror, but also a most sharp revenger of all his adversaries. This is most apparent in that which happened to Thomas Arondel an English man, Archbishop of Canterbury, an enemy and persecutor of the Truth of Christ: who having put to death divers holy and upright men, thinking that all he did was History of Martyrs, ●. 1. gain, was rooted out at last himself, by a most strange and horrible death; for he that sought to stop the mouth of God in his Ministers; and to hinder the passage of the Gospel, had his own tongue so swollen, that it stopped his own mouth, that before his death he could neither swallow nor speak, and so through famine died in great despair. Foelix Farl of Wartemberg, one of the Captains of the Emperor Charles the fifth, being at supper at Ausburg with many of his companions, Illirle●●. where threats were blown out on every side against the Faithful, swore before them all, That before he died he would ●ide up to his spurs in the blood of the Lutherans. But it happened in the same night, that the hand of God so struck him, that he was strangled and choked with his own blood: and so he road not, but bathed himself, not up to the spurs, but up to the throat, not in the blood of Lutherans, but in his own blood, before he died. In the reign of Francis de Valois of late memory, the first King of France of that name, those men that showed themselves frowardest, sharpest, and History of France. most cruel in burning and murdering the holy Martyrs, were also forwardest examples of the vengeance of God prepared for all such as they are. For proof whereof, the miserable end of john Roma a Monk of the Order of the White Friars, may serve; who although in regard of his hood and habit ought not to be placed in the number of men of note, yet by reason of the notable example of God's vengeance upon him, we may rightly place him in this rank. This man therefore, at that time when the Christians of Cabrier and Merindol began to suffer persecution, having obtained a Commission from the Bishop of Provence and the Ambassador Avignion, to make inquisition after and seize upon the bodies of all them that were called Lutherans; ceased not to afflict them with the cruelest torments he could devise: Amongst many of his tortures this was one, To cause their boots to be filled with boiling grease, and then fastening them overthwartwise over a bench, their legs hanging over a gentle fire, to seethe them to death. The French King advertised of this cruelty, sent out his Letters Patents from the Parliament of Provence, charging, That the said john de Roma should be apprehended, imprisoned, and by process of law condemned. Which news when the Caitiff heard, he fled back as fast as he could troth to Avignion, there purposing to recreate and delight himself with the excrements of his oppression and robbery which he had wrung out of the purses of poor people: but see how contrary to his hope it fell out; for first he was robbed of his evil gotten goods by his own servants; and presently upon the same he fell sick of so horrible and strange a disease, that no salve or medicine could be found to assuage his pain; and beside it was withal so loathsome, that a man could not endure his company for the stink and corruption which issued from him. For which cause the white Friars (his cloisterers) conveyed him out of their Covent into the hospital; where increasing in ulcers and vermin, and being become now odious, not only to others, but to himself also, he would often cry, either to be delivered from his noisomeness, or to be slain, being desirous, but not able to perform the deed upon himself. And thus in horrible torments and most fearful despair he most miserably died. Now being dead, there was none found that would give Sepulture to his rotten carcase, had not a Monk of the same Order dragged the carrion into a ditch, which he provided for the purpose. The Lord of Revest, who a while supplied the place of the chief Precedent in the Parliament of Provence, by whose means many of the Faithful Ibid. were put to death, after he was put beside his office, and returned home unto his own house, was attached with so grievous a sickness, and such furious and mad fits withal, that his wise and nearest alliance not daring to come near him, he like a frantic bedlam, enraged and solitarily ended his life. A Counsellor of the same Court called Bellemont, was so hot and zealous in proceeding against the poor prisoners for the Word of God's sake, that to the end to pack them soon to the fire, he usually departed not from the Judgement Hall from morning to evening, but caused his meat and drink to be brought for his meals, returning not home but only at night to take his rest. But whilst he thus strongly and endeavourously employed himself about these affairs, there began a little sore to rise upon his foot, which at the first being no bigger, than if a wasp had stung the place, grew quickly so red and full of pain, and so increased the first day by rankling over all his foot, and inflaming the same, that by the judgement of Physicians and Surgeons, through the contagious fire that spread itself over his whole body, it seemed incurable, except by cutting off his foot, the other members of the body might be preserved: which he in no case willing to yield unto, for all the medicines that were applied unto it, sound the second day his whole leg infected, and the third his whole thigh, and the fourth day his whole body, insomuch that he died the sameday, his deadbody being all parched as if it had been roasted by a fire. And thus he that was so hot in burning poor Christians, was himself by a secret flame of God's wrath, as by slow and soft fire, burned and consumed to death. Lewes du Vain, brother in law to Meni●r the Precedent of the said Parliament History of Martyrs, lib. 2. of Provence, with the brother and son of Peter ●urand, chief butcher of the city Ajax, the evening before the horrible cruelty was executed at Merindoll, fell at debate amongst themselves, and the morrow, as instruments of God's judgements, slew one another. The Judge of the City Aix (one of that wretched crew) drowned himself in his return, as he passed over the river Durance. As for the chief Judge that was principal in that murderous action, Ibid. touching the condemnation of those poor souls of Merindoll and Cabrieres, he likewise suddenly died before he saw the execution of that decree which himself had set down. john Mesnier Lord of Oppede, another chief Officer of the aforesaid Ibid. Parliament, that got the leading of the murdering Army against the poor Christians aforesaid, committing such excess of cruelty, that the most barbarous heathen in the world would have yearned to do. For which cause he was also summoned to appear personally at the Parliament of Paris, there to answer those extortions, robberies, and oppressions, which were laid to his charge; and being convinced and found guilty theieof, was nevertheless released and set at liberty; and that which is more, restored to his former estate. Howbeit, though he escaped the hands of men, yet was he overtaken by the hand of God, who knew well enough the way how to entrap and abate his proud intents: for even then when he was in the height of worldly prosperity, and busier than ever, in persecuting Christians, even than was he pulled down by a flux of blood, which provoking his privy parts, engendered such a carnosity and thickness of flesh therein, and withal a restraint of urine, that with horrible outcries and raving speeches he died; feeling a burning fire broiling his entrails from his navel upwards, and an extreme infection putrifying his lower parts, and beginning to feel in this life, both in body and soul, the rigour of eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. john Martin Trombant of Briqueras in Piedmont, vaunting himself 2. Book of Martyrs. every foot in the hindrance of the Gospel, cut off a Minister's nose of Angrogne in his bravery; but immediately after was himself assailed by a mad Woolse, that gnawed off his nose as he had done the Ministers, and caused him like a mad man to end his life: Which strange judgement was notoriously known to all the country thereabout; and beside, it was never heard that this Wolf had ever harmed any man before. Caspard of Renialme, one of the Magistrates of the City of Anvers, that adjudged to death certain poor faithful souls, received in the same place, ere he removed, a terrible sentence of God's judgement against himself; for he fell desperate immediately, and was fain to be led into his house half beside himself, where crying that he had condemned the innocent blood, he forthwith died. CHAP. XIII. Other examples of the same subject. ABout the same time there happened a very strange judgement upon an ancient Lawyer of Bourges, one john Cranequin, a man of ripe wit natural, and a great practitioner in his profession, but very ignorant in the law of God, and all good literature, and so enviously bend against all those that knew more than himself, and that abstained from the filthy pollutions of Popery, that he served instead of a Promotor, to inform Ory the Inquisitor for them; but for his labour, the arm of God struck him with a marvellous strange frenzy, that whatsoever his eyes beheld, seemed in his judgement to be crawling serpents: in such sort, that after he had in vain experienced all kind of medicines, yea and used the help of wicked sorcery & conjuration, yet at length his senses were quite benumbed, and deprived him, and in that wretched and miserable estate he ended his life. john Morin, a mighty enemy to the professors of God's truth, one that laboured continually at Paris in the apprehending and accusing the faithful, insomuch that he sent daily multitudes that appealed from him to the high Court of the Palace; died himself in most grievous and horrible torment. The Chancellor of Prat, he that in the Parliaments of France put up the first bill against the faithful, and gave out the first commissions to put them to death, died swearing and blaspheming the name of God, his stomach being most strangely gnawn in pieces, and consumed with worms. The Chancellor Oliver being restored to his former estate, having first Refer this among Apostates, l. ●. c. 18. (against his conscience) renounced his religion; so also now (the same conscience of his, checking and reclaiming) he spared not to shed much innocent blood, by condemning them to death. But such a fearful judgement was denounced against him (by the very mouths of the guiltless condemned souls) that struck him into such a fear and terror, that presently he fell sick, surprised with so extreme a melancholy, that sobbing forth sighs without intermission, and murmurings against God, he so afflicted his half-dead body, like a man robbed and dispossessed of reason, that with his vehement fits he would so shake the bed, as if a young man in the prime of his years with all his strength had assayed to do it. And when a certain Cardinal came to visit him in this extremity, he could not abide his sight, his pains increasing thereby, but cried out as soon as he perceived him departed, That it was the Cardinal that brought them all to damnation. When he had been thus a long time tormented, at last in extreme angish and fear he died. S●●iden. l. 9 Sir Thomas more L. Chancellor of England, a sworn enemy to the Gospel, and a professed persecutor by fire and sword, of all the faithful, as if thereby he would grow famous and get renown, caused to be erected a sumptuous Sepulchre, and thereby (to eternize the memory of his profane cruelty) to be engraven the commendation of his worthy deeds: amongst which the principal was, that he had persecuted with all his might the Lutherans; that is, the faithful: but it fell out contrary to his hope; for being accused, convicted, and condemned of high Treason; his head was taken from him, and his body found no other sepulchre to lie in but the gibbet. Cardinal Cr●s●entius, the Pope's Ambassador to the Council of Trent, in the year of our Lord 1552, being very busy in writing to his Master the Pope, and having laboured all one night about his letters; behold as he raised himself in his chair, to stir up his wit and memory, over-dulled with watching; a huge black dog with great flaming eyes, and long ears dangling to the ground, appeared unto him: which coming into his chamber, and making right towards him, even under the table where he sat, vanished out of his sight: whereat he amazed, and a while senseless, recovering himself, called for a candle, and when he saw the dog could not be found, he fell presently sick with a strong conceit, which never left him till his death; ever crying, that they would drive away the black dog which seemed to climb up on his bed: and in that humour he died. Albertus' Pightus, a great enemy of the Truth also (insomuch that Paulus jovius calleth him the Lutherans scourge) being at Boulogne at the coronation 27. Book of his history. of the Emperor upon a scaffold, to behold the pomp and glory of the solemnisation, the scaffold bursting with the weight of the multitude, he tumbled headlong amongst the guard that stood below, upon the points of their Halberds, piercing his body clean through, the rest of his company escaping without any great hurt: for though the number of them which fell with the scaffold was great, yet very few found themselves hurt thereby, save only this honourable Pighius, that found his death's wound, and lost his heart's blood, as hath been showed. Poncher, Archbishop of Tours, pursuing the execution of the burning chamber, was himself surprised with a fire from God, which beginning at 2. Book of Martyrs. The burning chamber was a Court in France, which adjudged the Christians to be burned. his heel, could never be quenched, till member after member being cut off, he died miserably. An Augustine Friar named Lambert, Doctor and Prior in the City of Liege, one of the troop of cruel inquisitors for Religion, whilst he was preaching one day with an open mouth against the Faithful, was cut short of a sudden in the midst of his sermon, being bereft of sense and speech, insomuch that he was fain to be carried out of the pulpit to his cloister in a chair, and a few days after was drowned in a ditch. In the year of our Lord 1527, there was one George Hala a Saxon, Minister of the Word and Sacraments, and a stout professor of the reformed Luther. Religion, who being for that cause sent for to appear before the Archbishop of Mentz at Aschaffenburge, was handled on this fashion: they took away his own horse, and set him upon the Archbishop's fool's horse, and so sent them back homewards, conducted by one appointed for the purpose: who not suffering him to ride the common and beaten way, but leading him a new course through uncoth paths, brought him into an ambush of thiefs placed there by the Bishop's appointment, who set upon him and murdered him at once: but it is notoriously known, that not one of that wicked rabble came to a good end, but were consumed one after another. In a City of Scotland called Fanum janius, the chief mart Town of that country, sour of the chiefest citizens were accused by a Monk before the Cardinal, for interrupting him in a Sermon, and by him condemned to be hanged like heretics, when no other crime could be laid to their charge, save that they desired the Monk to tie himself to his text, History of Martyrs, part. 7. and not to rove up and down as he did, without any certain scope or application of matter. Now as they went to execution, their wives fell down at the Cardinal's feet, beseeching and entreating pardon for their husband's lives: which he was so far from granting, that he accused them also of heresy; and especially one of them (whose name was Helen) for he caused her young infant to be pulled out of her arms, and her to be put to death with her husband, for speaking certain words against the Virgin Mary, which by no testimonies could be proved against her. Which doom the godly woman taking cheerfully, and desiring to hang by her husband's side, they would not do him the least favour, but drowned her in a River running by, that it might be truly said, that no jot of mercy or compassion remained in them. But ere long the cruel Cardinal found as little favour at another Butcher's hands, that slew him in his Chamber, when he dreamt of nothing less, and in his Cardinal's robes hanged him over the wall to the view of men. And thus God revenged the death of those innocents', whose bloods never ceased crying for vengeance against their murderer, until he had justly punished him in the same kind, and after the same fashion which he had dealt with them. Of this Cardinal, called David Beton, Buchananus reporteth many strange acts of Cruelty, both in the Commonwealth of Scotland, in matters of State, as also in the Church, in questions of Religion▪ how he suborned a false testament in the dead King's name, whereby he would have created himself chief Governor of the whole kingdom, had not his knavery been soon detected: and how he set many together by the ears of the chiefest sort, not caring which of them soon perished, so that they perished; glutting himself thus with blood: But amongst all his cruelties, the least was not extended towards the professors of the Gospel, whom he endeavoured by all means possible, not to suppress only, but even utterly to extinguish: Many he put to death with fire, divers he forced to revolt with extreme torments, and many he punished with banishment: among whom was George Buchanan, the reporter of this history; who being taken and imprisoned, escaped through a window, whilst his keepers slept, out of this Lion's jaws. Amongst the rest there was one George Sephocard, a most learned and sincere Preacher of the word of God, in whom his savage cruelty was most eminent, This man abiding at one john Cockburns house, a man of no small reckoning & account, about 7 miles from Edinburgh, was first sent for by the Cardinal, & after being not delivered, he together with the Vicegerent, beset all the passages that he might not escape; so that Cockburn was constrained to deliver him into their hands, upon the assurance of Earl Bothuel, who promised to protect him from all injuries: How be it notwithstanding the Earl's promise, and the countermand of the Vicegerent, refused to meddle with that innocent man, yea and gave command, That no proceedings should be made against him; yet the bloody tyrant condemned him tobe put to death, & also caused the condemnation to be executed: and that which doth more aggravate his cruelty, he caused a place to be prepared for him and his company, hung with tapestry and silk, very sumptuously, that he might be a joyful spectator and eyewitness of his torments. But mark how the just vengeancee of God showed itself even in that place: for, as it is in the former story, not long after, this vile butcher was murdered in his own house, by the conspiracy of Normanus Leslius, son to the Earl of Rothusia, who early in a morning surprised his porters, and all his servants, in their sleep, and murdered him in his bed that had murdered so many Christians: and to stop the rage and fury of his friends, hung out his body for a spectacle unto them in the same place where a little before he had with such triumph beheld the tortures of that guiltless Martyr: Insomuch that almost all did not only acknowledge the just view of God's judgement herein, but also remembered the last words of that constant Saint, who being ready to give up the ghost, urtered this speech in effect: He that sitteth and beholdeth us so proudly in that high place, shall within few days as reproachfully lie, as now arrogantly he sitteth. A story not much unlike in manner of punishment, happened in the reign of King Henry the eighth, to one Sir Ralph Ellerker, Knight marshal in the town of Calais, when as Adam Damlip, otherwise called George Bucker, a sincere Preacher of the word of God, was condemned to be executed as a traitor in pretence, though indeed for nothing but defending the truth against the dregs of Popery, would not suffer the innocent and godly man to declare either his faith, or the cause he died for: but said to Acts & Monuments. p. 1223. the Executioner, Dispatch the knave, have done, not permitting him to speak a word in his own defence to clear himself from the treason that was objected, not proved against him; but this cruel Tyrant swore he would not away before he saw the traitorous heart out. Now this said Sir Ralph in a skirmish or road between the French and us at Bulloine, was amongst others slain, whose only death sufficed not the enemies, but after that they had stripped him stark naked, they cut off his privy members, and pulled the heart out of his body, & so lefthim a terrible example to all bloody and merciless men: for no cause was known why they should use him so rather than the rest; but that it is written, Faciens justitias Dominus & judicia omnibus injuria pressis. Thomas B●aver, one of the Privy Councillors of the King of Scots, was a sore persecutor of the faithful in that land: for which cause, lying on his Theatrum historicum. death bead, he fell into despair, and said, he was damned, and a castaway; and when the Monks came about him to comfort him, he cried out upon them, saying, That their Masses and other trash would do him no good, for he never believed them; but all that he did was for love of lucre, and not of Religion, not respecting or believing there was either a God or a Devil, or a hell, or a Heaven, and therefore he was damned, there was no remedy. And in this miserable case, without any sign of repentance, Refer this also to hypocrisy, lib. 1. cap. 22. he died. But let us come to our homebred English stories, and consider the judgements of God upon the persecutors of Christ's Gospel in our own country. And first to begin with one Doctor Whittington, under the reign of King Henry the seventh, who by virtue of his office, being Chancellor to the Bishop, had condemned most cruelly to death a certain godly woman in a town called Chipping sadberry for the profession of the truth, which the Papists then called Heresy. This woman being adjudged to death by the wretched Chancellor, and the time come when she should be brought to the place of her martyrdom, a great concourse of people both out of town and country was gathered to behold her end: Amongst whom was also the foresaid Doctor there present, to see the execution performed. The godly woman and manly Martyr with great constancy gave over her life to the fire, and refused no pains or torments to keep her conscience clear and unreprovable against the day of the Lord. Now the Sacrifice being ended: as the people began to return homeward, they were encountered by a mighty furious Bull, which had escaped from a Butcher that was about to kill him (for at the same time as they were slaying this silly Lamb at the town's end, a Butcher was as busy within the town in slaying of this Bull.) But belike not so skilful in his art of killing of beasts, as the Papists be in murdering Christians, the Bull broke loose, as I said, and ran violently through the throng of the people, without hurting either man or child, till he came to the place where the Chancellor was, against whom, as pricked forward with some supernatural instinct, he ran full butt, thrusting him at the first blow through the paunch, and after goring him through and through, and so killed him immediately, trailing his guts with his horns all the street over, to the great admiration and wonder of all that saw it. Behold here a plain demonstration of God's mighty power and judgement against a wretched persecutor of one of his poor flock: wherein (albeit the carnal sense of man doth often impute to blind chance that which properly pertaineth to the only power and providence of God) yet none can be so dull and ignorant, but must needs confess a plain miracle of God's almighty power, and a work of his own finger. Stephen Gardiner also, was one of the grand butchers in this land, what a miserable end came he unto? Even the same day that Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer were burned at Oxford, he hearing news thereof, rejoiced greatly, and being at dinner ate his meat merrily; but ere he had eaten many bits, the sudden stroke of God's terrible hand fell upon him, Acts and Monuments, pag. 1788. in such sort, that immediately he was taken from the board, and brought to his bed, where he continued 15 days in intolerable anguish, by reason he could not expel his urine; so that his body being miserably inflamed within (who had inflamed so many Godly Martyrs) was brought to a wretched end, with his tongue all black and swollen, hanging out of his mouth most horribly: a spectacle worthy to be beholden of all such bloody burning persecutors. Bonner's Bishop of London, another arch butcher, though he lived long after this man, and died also in his bed; yet was it so provided of God, that as Pag. 2114. he had been a persecutor of the light, and a child of darkness, so his carcase was tumbled into the earth in obscure darkness at midnight, contrary to the order of all other Christians: and as he had been a most cruel murderer, so was he buried amongst thiefs and murderers; a place by God's judgement rightly appointed for him. Morgan Bishop of S. David's sitting upon the condemnation of the blessed Martyr Bishop Farrar, whose room he unjustly usurped, was not long 2099. after stricken by God's hand after such a strange sort, that his meat would not go down, but rise and pick up again, sometime at his mouth, sometime blown out of his nose, most horrible to behold, and so continued unto his death. Where note moreover, that when Master Leyson (being then Sheriff at Bishop Farrars burning) had fetched away the cattle of the said Bishop, from his servant's house into his own custody, divers of them would never eat meat, but lay bellowing and roaring, and so died. Add unto this Bishop Morgan, justice Morgan a Judge that sat upon the death of the Lady jane: this justice, not long after the execution of the said Lady, fell mad, and being thus bereft of his wits, died, having ever in his mouth, Lady jane, Lady jane. Bishop Thornton Suffragan of Dover, another grand persecutor, coming upon a Saturday from the Chapterhouse at Canterbury, and there upon the Sunday following looking upon his men playing at bowls, fell suddenly into a palsy, and died shortly after. And being exhorted to remember God in his extremity of sickness: So I do (saith he) and my Lord Cardinal too, etc. After him succeeded another Suffragan, ordained by the foresaid Cardinal, and equal to his Predecessor in cruel persecuting of the Church; who enjoying his place but a short time, fell down a pair of stairs in the Cardinal's chamber at Greenwich, and broke his neck, and that presently (let it be noted) after he received the Cardinal's blessing. The like sudden death happened to Doctor Dunning the bloody and wretched Chancellor of Norwich, who after he had most rigorously condemned and murdered a number of simple and faithful servants of God, was suddenly stricken with death even as he was sitting in his chair. The like also fell upon Berry, Commissary of Norfolk, another bloody persecutor; who four days after Queen Mary's death having made a great Feast, whereat was present one of his concubines; as he was coming home from the Church, where he had ministered the Sacrament of Baptism, fell down suddenly to the ground with a heavy groan, and never stirred after, thus ending his miserable life without any show of repentance. So Doctor Geffrey Chancellor of Salisbury, another of the same stamp, was suddenly stricken with the mighty hand of God in the midst of his buildings, where he was constrained to yield up his life, which had so little pity of other men's lives before: and it is to be noted, that the day before he was thus stricken, he had appointed to call before him ninety poor Christians, to examine them by inquisition, but the goodness of God and his tender providence prevented him. Doctor Foxford, Chancellor to Bishop Stockesley, died also suddenly. So did justice Lelond the persecutor of one jeffery Hurst. Alexander the Keeper of Newgate, a cruel enemy to those that lay in that prison for Religion, died very miserably, being so swollen, that he was more like a monster than a man, and so rotten within that no man could abide the smell of him. His son called james, after he had spent all his father's substance riotously, fell down suddenly in Newgate market, and there wretchedly died. john Peter son in law to the said Alexander, and no less cruel to the poor Christians, rotten away, and so died. Cox an earnest Protestant in King Edward's days, and in Queen Mary's time a Papist, and a Promoter, going well and in health to bed (as it seems was dead before the morning. All these almost, with many more which I could recite, died suddenly, being most cruel and horrible persecutors of the flock of Christ. Many there were, which though they escaped sudden death, yet did not avoid a most miserable and wretched end. In the number whereof I may place first Alexander the Keeper of Newgate, together with his son in law john Peter, of whom mention was made before: Also Master Woodroofe the Sheriff of London, who used to rejoice at the death of the poor Saints of Christ, and would not suffer Master Rogers, going to his Martyrdom, to speak with his children: this man lay seven or eight years bedrid, having one half of his body all benumbed, and so continued till his dying day. Also one Burton the Bailiff of Crowland in Lincolnshire, who having been a Protestant in outward show in King Edward's days, as soon as Queen Mary was quietly seated in the kingdom, became very earnest in setting up the Mass again, and constrained the Curate by threats to leave the English Service, and say Mass. This blind Bailiff not long after, as he was riding with one of his neighbours, a Crow flying over his head, let her excrements fall upon his face, the poisoned stink and savour whereof so annoyed his stomach, that he never lest vomiting until he came home, and there after certain days, with extreme pain of vomiting, crying and cursing the Crow, desperately he died without any token of repentance. Also one Robert Baldwine, who being stricken with lightning, at the taking of William Seaman, pined away and died. Robert Blomfield also, Bailiff to Sir john jerningham, after he had prosecuted one Master Browne, pined away both in his goods and body, by a consumption of both. William Swallow the cruel tormentor of George Eagles, was shortly after plagued of God, that all the hair of his head, and nails of his fingers and toes went off; his eyes were well near closed up, that he could scant see; his wife was also stricken with the falling sickness, with the which malady she was never infected before. Lastly (to omit many others) one Twiford is not to be forgotten; who in King Henry's days was a busy doer in setting up stakes for the burning of poor Martyrs: and seeing the stakes consume so fast, provided a big tree, cutting off the top, and set it up in Smithfield, saying, I will have a stake that shall hold. But behold God's hand; before ever that tree was consumed, the state of Religion turned, and he fell into an horrible disease, rotting alive above the ground before he died. Besides these, many there were that hanged themselves. As for example, one Clerk an open enemy to the Gospel in King Edward's days, hanged himself in the Tower. So did Pavier the Town Clarke of London, another bitter enemy to the Gospel. So did the son of one Levar a husbandman, that mocked and scorned at the holy Martyr Master Latimer, being dead; and that at the same hour, as near as could be gathered, whilst his father was railing upon the dead Martyr. So did Henry Smith a Lawyer, who having been a Protestant, became a Papist. Others drowned themselves; as namely Richard Long at Calais, in King Henry the eights days. john Plankney a Fellow of New College in Oxford, in the year of our Lord 1566. And one Lanington a Fellow of the same College, in a Well at Milan, or as some think, at Rome. Others were stricken with madness: in which rank place first Justice Morgan, of whom we made mention a little before: Then, a Sheriff's servant that railed upon james Abbes a godly Martyr, as he was going to be burned; saying, That he was an Heretic and a mad man; but as soon as the fire was put to the Martyr (such was the fearful stroke of God's justice upon him) he was there presently in the sight of all the people stricken with a frenzy, crying out aloud, that james Abbes was saved, but he was damned; and so continued till his dying day. So likewise one William a Student in the inner Temple, in the midst of his railing against the Gospel of Christ and the Professors thereof, fell stark mad. Many other examples of the like kind I could here add, but he that desireth to know and read more thereof, let him have recourse unto the latter end of the Acts and Monuments of the English Church, where he shall find a whole Catalogue of such like examples. The overthrow of many mighty ones in our Age, serve for a looking glass to represent the high exploits of the wonderful judgements which the King of Kings hath sent upon those that have in any place or country whatsoever, resisted and strove against the Truth. whereof some after great victories, which by their singular dexterity and worldly wisdom in the managing of their affairs, have achieved, by a perverse and overthwart end, contrary to their former prosperity, have darkened and obscured the renown and glory of all their brave deeds, their good report dying with their bodies, and their credit impaired and buried with them in their graves. Others in like manner having addressed all their forces, and laid their battery, and placed all their Pieces and Canons against the walls of Zion, and thinking to blow it up and consume it to ashes, have made many breaches into the sides thereof, yea they have so bend all their strength against it, and afflicted it with such outrageous cruelty, and unmerciful effusion of blood, that it is pitiful and lamentable to remember: howbeit after all their policies and practices, their courage hath been at length abated, and themselves raked one after another out of this world, with manifest marks of the just vengeance of God upon them. For though it may seem for a time that God slepeth and regardeth not the wrongs and oppressions of his servants, yet he never faileth to carry a watchful eye upon them, and in his fittest time to revenge himself upon their enemies. CHAP. XIV. A Hymn of the persecution of God's Church, and the deliverance of the same. ALong the verdant fields all richly died. With Nature's paintments, and with Flora's pride: Whose goodly bounds are lively Chryst all streams Begirt with bowers to keep back Phoebus' beams; Even when the quenchless torch, the World's great eye, Advanc'● his rays orethwartly from the sky, And by his power of heavenly influence Revived the seeds of Springs decayed essence: Then many flocks unite in peace and love, Not seeking ought but natural behoof, Past quietly uncharg'a with other care, Save of their feed within that pasture fair. These Flocks a Shepherd had (of power and skill) To fold and feed, and save them from all ill: By whose advice they lived; whose wholesome voice They heard and feared with love, and did rejoice Therein with melody of song and praise, And dance, to magnify his Name always. He is their Guide, they are his Flock and Fold, Nor will they be by any else controlled. Well knowing, that whom he takes care to feed, He will preserve and save in time of need; Thus lived this holy Flock at hearts content, Till cruel Beasts all set on ravishment, Broke off their peace, and ran upon with rage, Themselves, their Young, and all their heritage; Slitting their throats, devoured Lambs and all, And dissipating them that seaped their thrall. Then did the jolly feast to fast transform, (So asked the fury of that rageful storm) Their joyful song was turned to mournful cries, And all their gladness changed to well adyes. Whereat Heaven grieving, clad itself in black; But earth in uproar triumphed at their wrack. What profits then the sheephook of their Guide? Or that he lies upon a Beacon's side, With watchful eye to circumscribe their train, And hath no more regard unto their pain? To save them from such dangers imminent (Some say) as are so often incident. 'Tis not for that his arm wants strength to break All proud at tempts that men of might do make: Or that he will abandon unto death His Own, dear bought with exchange of his breath. For must we think, that though they die they perish; Death dies in them, and they in death reflourish: And this life's loss, a better life renews, Which after death eternally ensues. Though then their passions never seem so great, Yet never comfort serves to suage their heat: Though strength of torments be extreme in durance, Yet are they guencht by Hopes and Faith's assurance. For thankful Hope, if God be grounded in it. Assures the heart, and pacifies the spirit. To them that love and reverence his Name, Prosperity betides, and want of shame. Thus can no Tyrant pull them from the hands Of mighty God, that for their safety stands: Who ever sees, and ever can defend; Them whom he loves, he loves unto the end: So that the more their fury overfloweth, The more each one his own destruction soweth. And as they strive with God in policy, So are they sooner brought to misery. Like as the savage Boar dislodged from den, And hotly chased by pursuit of men, Runs furiously on them that come him near, And gores himself upon the hunter's spear: The gentle puissant Lamb, their Champion bold, So help's to conquer all that heart's his fold, That quickly they and all their Progeny Confounded is, and brought to misery. This is of judah the courageous Lion, The conquering Captain, and the Rock of Zion; Whose favour is as great to Jacob's Line, As is his fearful frown to Philistine. CHAP XV. Of Apostatas and Backsliders, that through infirmity and fear have fallen away. IT is a kind of Apostasy and Backsliding condemned by the first commandment of the Law, when as he that hath been once enlightened by the word of God in the knowledge of salvation, and nourished and instructed therein from the cradle, doth afterward cast behind his back the grace of God's spirit, or disallow thereof, and exempt himself from the service of God, to serve Idols, or make any outward show to do it: which kind of sin may be committed after two sorts; either through infirmity and fear, or willingly and with deliberation: when not being pressed or constrained thereto by any outward means, a man doth clearly and of himself abandon and forsake the true Religion, to march under the baoner of Satan and Antichrist. And this is also of two sorts; either when a man doth simply forsake the profession of the Truth, to follow superstition and Idolatry, without attempting any thing beside the mere denial of his Faith; or when after his revolt he professeth not only the contrary Religion, but also endeavoureth himself by all means possible to advance it, and to oppress and lay siege to the doctrine of God's Truth in those that maintain the same. By this it appeareth that there are three kinds of Apostasy; one as it were enforced and compelled, the second voluntary, the last both voluntary and malicious: which though they be all very heinous and offensive in the sight of God, yet the second and third sort are most dangerous, and of them also one more hurtful and pernicious than the other, as we shall perceive by that which followeth. Now as all these kinds are different one from another, so I will refer the examples of each sort to his several place, that the efficacy thereof may be the better perceived. And first of those which have fallen away through fear and infirmity, and afterward in order of the rest. Athough that they who by the conceit and fear of tortures presented before their eyes, or of speedy and cruel death threatened against them, do decline and slide back from the profession of the Gospel, may pretend for excuse the weakness and feebleness of the flesh, yet doubtless they are found guilty before the throne of God, for preferring the love of this transitory and temporary life before the zeal of his glory, and the honour which is due to his only begotten Son, especially at that time when they are called out of purpose by their Martyrdom to witness his sacred truth before men, and he desireth most to be glorified by their free and constant perseverance therein: to the which perseverance they are exhorted by many fair promises of eternal life and happiness: and from the contrary terrified by threats of death and confusion, and upon pain to be discharged from the presence of Christ before God, because they have denied him before men: which is the misery of all miseries, and the greatest that can happen to any man; for what shall become of that man whom the Son of God doth not acknowledge? Now to prove that God is indeed highly offended at this faint hearted cowardliness, he himself hath made known unto us, by the punishments which divers times he hath sent upon the heads of such offenders. As in the time of the Emperor Valerian the eighth persecutor of the Church, under whose persecution albeit that many Champions bestirred themselves most valiantly in that combat of Faith; yet there wanted not some, whose hearts failing them, and who in stead of maintaining and standing for their cause to the death, as they ought to have done, retired and gave up themselves to the enemy at the first assault. Amongst the number of which doughty soldiers, there was one that went up into the Capitol at Rome, in that place where jupiters' Temple in old time stood, to abjure Cyprian in his Sermons, de Lapsu multerum. and recant Christ and his profession: which he had no sooner done, but he was presently struck dumb, and so was justly punished in that very member wherewith he had offended. A woman likewise having renounced her profession, and feeling in herself Cyprian. no remorse of conscience for her fall, went as she was wont to do in the time of her rest and prosperity, to the Baths and Hothouses to refresh herself, as if all had had gone well with her; but she was so seized upon and possessed by an evil Spirit, that in stead of pleasure, which she fought for, she fell to lamenting, and tormenting her own flesh, and chopped in pieces with her dainty teeth her rebellious tongue, wherewith she had spoken wicked words, and dishonoured God, and tasted meats offered to Idols: and so this poor wretch, whereas she should have wasted herself in tears of true repentance, and in the true bath of grace and mercy, because she had more care of cleansing her body from filth, than her soul from sin, became corrupt and filthy both body and soul, by the means of that unclean spirit which God had given power to afflict her: and armed her own mouth, which had tasted, chewed, and swallowed that cursed food, furiously to rise against herself to destroy her: so that she became her own murderer, for she survived not long, by reason that her bowels and entrails were choked up to the throat with pain. Another woman well stricken in years, that in like manner had revolted from the Truth, thrust herself notwithstanding into the assembly of Cyprian. the Faithful, as they were receiving the holy Sacrament. But that holy Contempt of Word and Sacrament. lib. 1. c. 24. food which nourished the souls of them that believed, turned to her bane; for she found there in stead of peace, a sword; in stead of nourishment, deadly and mortal poison, in such sort, that immediately after the receipt of that holy Supper, she began to be marvellously troubled and vexed in soul, and felt the hand of God so heavy upon her for her offence committed in denying her Saviour, to shun her persecution, that trembling and stamping she fell down dead. There was also in like manner a certain man, that having renounced his Cyprian. saith, did notwithstanding present himself at the celebration of the holy Supper, presuming to come and eat at his Table, whom he had a little before denied; but receiving into his hand part of the Sacrament as well as the rest, and thinking to put it into his mouth, it was turned into ashes: Contempt of Sacrament. lib. 1. c. 34. whereupon he stood amazed and confounded in himself, God manifesting in him, that he that revoked his faith, and recoiled from Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus would recoil from him, & give him over to death, by depriving him of his grace, and spoiling him of the power of his quickening and saving Spirit. These are the fearful examples of God's Judgements, which Saint Cyprian reporteth to have light upon back sliders in his time; adding moreover, that besides these, many were possessed of devils, robbed of their wits, and enraged with fury and madness, and all for this offence of Apostasy. Amongst all the examples of our age, of God's severe justice upon Apostates, Sleiden. l. 21. ●. the example of Francis Spi●ra an Italian Lawyer, a man of credit and authority in his country, is most pitiful and lamentable; who having embraced the true Religion with marvellous zeal, and made open profession of the same, feared not freely to declare his opinion of every point of Doctrine that came in question, and grew in knowledge every day more and more. But it was not long ere he was complained of to the Pope's Ambassador: which when he understood, and saw the danger wherein he was like to fall, after he had long debated and disputed the matter in his own conscience, the counsel of the flesh and worldly wisdom prevailing, he resolved at last to go to the Ambassador, to the intent to appease his wrath, and do whatsoever he should command. Thus coming to Venice, and overruled with immoderate fear, he confessed that he had done amiss, & craved pardon for the same, promising ever after to be an obedient subject to the Pope's Laws: and that which is more, when it was enjoined him, that at his return home he should in his own country openly recant his former profession, he refused not, but performed his recantation in due sort. But it chanced very soon after, that this miserable man fell sick of body and soul, and began to despair of God's mercy towards him. His Physician perceiving his disposition, judged, that the cause of his body's disease was a vehement conceit and thought of mind; and therefore gave advice to minister counsel to his troubled mind very carefully, that the cause being taken away, the effect also might surcease. To this end many learned men frequented him every day, recalling into his mind, and laying open before him many express places of Scripture, touching the greatness of God's mercy. Which things he avouched to be true, but said that those promises pertained not to him, because he had renounced Christ Jesus, and forsworn the known truth, and that for this cause nothing was prepared for him but hell fire, which already in soul he saw and felt: I would (said he) willingly, if it were possible, love God, but it is altogether impossible. I only fear him without love. These and such speeches used he with a steadfast countenance; neither did his tongue at any time run at random, nor his answers savour of indiscretion or want of memory; but advisedly warned all that stood by to take heed by his example, how to listen too much to worldly wisdom, especially when they should be called before men to profess the Religion of Christ. And lying in this extremity, he refused all manner of sustenance, rebuking and being angry with his sons that opened his mouth to make him swallow some food to sustain him; saying, Since he had forsaken his Lord and Master, all his creatures ought to forsake him; I am afraid of every thing, there is not a creature that hath not conspired to work my destruction: let me die, let me die, that I may go and feel that unquenchable fire, which already consumeth me, and which I can by no means escape. And thus he died indeed, pined to death in despair and horrible torment of conscience. Nichomachus a man that stoutly professed Christ Jesus in prosperity, being Cen●ur. 3. c. 12. brought to his trial at Troas, and put into torments he denied him; and being delivered by that means, consented to offer sacrifice unto Idols. But as soon as he had finished his sacrifice, he was hoist up by the spirit of darkness, whose darling now he was, & dashed against the earth: so that his teeth biting his profane tongue (wherewith he had denied his Saviour) in two, he died continently. Tamerus a professor of the true Religion, was feduced by his brother to cleave unto Popery, and to forsake his first love: but for his defection from Theatrum historicum. the truth, the Lord gave him up into a ceprobate sense, so that falling into despair he hung himself. Richard Denton a Blacksmith dwelling at Wells in Cambridge-shire, having been a professor of the Gospel a foretime; when William Woolsey Martyr (whom the said Denton had first converted from the Truth) sent him certain money out of prison at Ely, with his commendations, That he marvelled he tarried so long behind him, seeing he was the first that delivered him the book of Scripture into his hand, and told him that it was the truth: his answer was this, I confess it is true, but alas I cannot burn. But he that could not burn in the cause of Christ, was afterward burned Acts and Monuments, pag. 1717. against his will; for in the year 1564 his house was set on fire, and whilst he went to save his goods, he lost his life. There was also one Burton Bailiff of Crowland in Lincolnshire, who pretending an earnest friendship to the Gospel in King Edward's time; after the King's death began lustily to set up the Popish Mass again, and would have beaten the poor Curate, if he had not settled himself thereto: but see how the Lords judgement overtook, him; as he came riding Acts and Monuments, pag. 2101. from Fennebanke one day, a Crow flying over his head, let fall her excrements upon his face, so that it ran from the top of his nose down to his beard, the poisoned scent and savour whereof so annoyed his stomach, that he never ceased vomiting until he came home: and after falling deadly sick, would never receive any meat, but vomited still, and complaining of that stink, cursing the Crow that had poisoned him: to be short, within few days he died desperately, without any token of repentance of his former life. Hither may we add the examples of one Henry Smith a Lawyer of the Acts and Menuments. middle Temple, and Arnoldus Bomelius a Student of Louvain; both which having professed the Truth a while, and after being seduced by evil company, the one of Gilford, the other of Master Tileman, Smith afterward hanged himself in his chamber in the Temple, in the year of our Lord 1569. Bomelius murdered himself with his own dagger. And thus these two Apostatas felt the heavy scourge of God's wrath, for revolting from the Truth which they once professed. CHAP. XVI. Of those that have willingly fallen away. THese kind of Apostatas which we are now to speak of, are such as without any outward compulsion, threats, or likelihood of danger, forsake freely God's true Religion, and give themselves over to all Idolatry: Against whom there is a Decree ordained in the thirteenth of Deutronomy, by the Lawgiver of Heaven: which is this; If the inhabitants of any city have turned from the Lord, to follow after strange gods, let them be destroyed with the edge of their sword, and their city consumed with fire, that they may be utterly razed out and brought to nothing. This was the sin of Solomon King of Israel (a brave and mighty 1 King. 110 kingdom in his time) a man subject to none for power, nor fearing any for authority: yet for all this, so filthily recoiling from the Truth which he knew and had professed, that in stead of serving the true God, he became a setter up of false Idols, and that of his own freo will and pleasure: he that had been so well brought up and instructed from his childhood in true Religion by his School master the Prophet Nathan, into whose charge he was committed; and so often and earnestly admonished by his father David, to observe diligently the law of God, to direct his ways thereby: and whom God vouchsafed this honour, to appear twice unto, and to enrich and adorn with such excellent wisdom, that the Queen of Saba hearing his report, came to jerusalem to be his auditor: even this Solomon in his old age, when he should have been most steadfast and constant, suffered himself to be seduced by the enticements of his strange wives and concubines, to offer service unto strange gods, and to forsake the God of Heaven, to worship the Idols of the Gentiles. And as his renown was great and famous before for building that sumptuous and beautiful Temple at jerusalem; so was his obloquy and reproach the greater, for erecting Altars and Chapels for the Idols of his wives and concubines, even for every one of their Idols, to the intent to flatter and please their humours: it was therefore just and equal, that the Lord (his wrath being provoked against him) raised up two strong enemies that wrought him and his people much scathe. Yea moreover jeroboam, one of his own servants (whilst he yet lived) was by the ordinance of God designed King over ten Tribes: and so God punished him for his Idolatry and Backsliding, leaving him but a small portion of the kingdom to continue to his successors: which, had it not been for his father David's sake, had been also taken away. It is true, That we read not that he ever hindered the service of the Temple, or compelled or persuaded any man to worship an Idol; yet he did enough to make him culpable before God of a grievous sin, in that he being the head and Sovereign Magistrate of the people, committed such wickedness and such Apostasy in Israel: beside, it is a marvellous strengthening, that in all his History there is not so much as any token mentioned, or to be gathered of his true repentance alter this notable fall. And he that well weigheth the nature and quality of this sin, shall perceive that it somewhat resembleth that which is spoken of, Heb. 6. ver, 4, 5, 6: for Solomon was not so ignorant and destitute of the knowledge of God, but rather had the treasure of wisdom in fullness and abundance, and was endowed with the gifts and graces of God's Spirit, that he was able to instruct others, and to discharge a Doctor's place in the Church, as he also did both by word and writing. And although that the Son of God was nos as then yet manifested in the flesh; yet the power and efficacy of his death being everlasting, and from the beginning, whereof the Law with the ceremonies and sacrifices thereof, was as it were a Schoolmaster, could not be hidden from him: Therefore so soon as he addicted himself to his Idolatry, he It is manifest that Solomon did repent: first because it is said, that God loved him. Secondlv, because he was a pen man of some part of the Scr●ptu●e and th●●dly, because he was a ●ype of Christ. 2 Chron. 12. forthwith abandoned the holy ordinances and sacrifices of God's Law, and quitted himself of the promise of salvation therein contained; disannulling and making of none effect, as concerning himself, the grace of the Mediator, ordained from the beginning: so that his downfall was terrible and perilous. Yet there be that think that after all this he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, as a declaration of his repentance; whose opinion I purpose not to contradict. Roboam his son succeeded him, as well in the likeness of his sin, as of his kingdom: for after that the Priests and Levites forsaking the part of jeroboam because of his Idols, and leaving their houses and possessions to strangers, had made repair to him, for fear of God, and love of his holy service, and that he had disposed and put in order his public affairs, for the ratifying and confirming of his kingdom; presently he and all his people forsook the law of God, and gave themselves over to Idolatry and other grievous sins: wherefore the Lord also forsook and gave them over to the hands of Caesac King of Egypt, that raised up a mighty power of men, even a thousand and two hundred chariots, threescore thousand horsemen, with an infinite multitude of footmen to make war against him: so that all the strong cities and fortresses of judah, no nor jerusalem itself, was strong enough to repulse him from sacking and taking them, and robbing the Temple of their treasures and despoiling the King's palaces of his riches, and carrying back into Egypt a rich prey of the best and beautifullest things that were therein. And this was the first shake that ever this kingdom received since it was a kingdom, whereby it began to wain and decline. Notwithstanding all this, yet the Lord had compassion and pity of him and all his people, and would not suffer his dignity to be trodden under foot and quite suppressed, but restored him once again into an honourable estate, because when he was reproved by Semeia the Prophet, he humbled himself before the Lord, and his Princes also: which is a mafest sign, that his sin was not an universal Apostasy, whereby he was wholly turned aside from God and all hope of grace, but it was a particular revolt, such as was that of his forefathers, the children of Israel, when they imagined that God would be present with them in the idolatrous golden Calf, and in that figure to worship him, so gross and senseless were they: although yet Roboams sin seemeth to exceed theirs in greatness and guiltiness. The jews that in the time of Ptolomey Philopater abode in Egypt, and willingly renounced the law and service of God, in hope thereby better to provide for their worldly commodities, enjoyed not long their ease and prosperity: for the other jews which had courageously stuck to their profession, and had been miraculously delivered from their enemies, being grieved and chased at their recoil, made their supplications to the King (whose heart God inclined to favour their suit) that he would permit them to revenge God's quarrel upon those Apostates as they had deserved: alleging, that it was hard for them to be true subjects to the King, who for Machab. 7. their bellies sake had rebelled against the commandment of God. The King seeing their request reasonable, and their reasons which they alleged likely, not only commended them, but gave authority to destroy all those that could be found in any place of his dominion, without any further enquiry of the cause, or intelligence of the King's authority; insomuch that they put to death all those that they knew to have defiled themselves with filthy Idols, doing them before, all the shame they could devise. So that at that time there were dispatched above three hundred persons: which when they had accomplished they rejoiced greatly. CHAP XVII. Of the third and worst sort of Apostates, those that through malice forsake the Truth. IF so be that they of whom we have spoken in the two former Chapters, are in their revoltings inexcusable (as indeed they are) then much more worthy condemnation are they, who not only in a villainous contempt cast away the grace of God's Spirit, and his holy worship; but also of a purposed malice set themselves against the same, yea and endeavour with all their power, utterly to race and root it out, and in stead thereof to plant the lies, errors, and illusions of Satan by all means possible. Against this kind of Monster's sentence is pronounced in the thirteenth of Deutronomy, to wit, That justice should be executed upon them with all extremity, and no mercy and compassion showed upon him, be he Prophet or what else, that goeth about to seduce others from the service of the Almighty, to follow false gods. This is the pitfall wherein jeroboam the first King of Israel slipped by the perverseness of his own conscience; who as he had by his rebellion against Rehoboam and the house of David, upreared a new kingdom; so by rebellion against God and his House (in hope by that means to retain his usurped state and people in subjection) upreared also a new Religion: for distrusting the promises of God which were made him by the Prophet Ahias as touching the Realm of Israel, which he was already in possession of, and despising the good counsel of God, in respect of his own inventions, he was so besotted and bleared with them, that just after the pattern of his idolatrous forefathers, who by their Egyptian tricks had provoked the wrath of God against themselves, he set up golden calves, and caused the people to worship them, keeping them so from going to jerusalem to worship God: nor yet content with this, he also erected high places to set his Idols in; and having restrained the Priests and Levites from the exercise of their charge, he ordained a new order of Priests to sacrifice and minister unto his gods, and proclaimed a newer feast than that was in juda; even the seventh day of the eighth month: wherein he not only exiled the pure service of God, but also perverted and turned upside down the Ecclesiastical discipline and policy of God's Church, which by the Law had been instituted. And that which is yet more, as he was offering incense on the Altar at Bethel, when the Prophet cried out 1 King. 13. against the Altar, and exclaimed against that filthy Idolatry, by denouncing the vengeance of God against it, and the maintainers thereof, he was Contempt of God's Word, lib. 1. cap. 34. so desperate and senseless, as to offer violence to him, and to command that he should be attached; but the power of God's displeasure was upon him by and by: for that hand which he had stretched out against the Prophet, dried up, so that he could not draw it back again; and at the very instant, for a manifest declaration of the wrath of God, the Altar rend in pieces, and the ashes that were within were dispersed abroad. And although at the prayer of that holy man, his hand was restored to his former strength and soundness, yet returned not he from his unjust and disloyal dealing, but obstinately continued therein till his dying day. Wherefore also the 1 King. 14. fierce wrath of God hunted and pursued him continually: for first of all, he was robbed of his son Abia, dying through sickness: then he was set upon by Abia King of juda, with an army of four hundred thousand 2 Chron. 3. men of war: and though his power was double in strength and number, arising to eight hundred thousand persons, yet was he and his vast army quite discomfited: for he lost at that field five hundred thousand of his men, beside certain cities which were yielded to Abia in the pursuit of his victory: his courage was so abated and impoverished ever after this, that he could vever recover strength to resist the King of judah any more: And so God revenged at once the Apostasy both of the King and people of Israel, and last of all so struck him after, that he died. joram King of juda, although his father josaphat had instructed him from 2 Chron. 21. his childhood with holy and wholesome precepts, and set before his face the example of his own zeal, in purging the Church of God from all Idolatry and superstition, and maintaining the true and pure service of God; yet did he so foully run astray from his father's steps, that allying himself by the marriage of Athalia, to the house of Achab, he became not only himself like unto the Kings of Israel in their filthy idolatry, but also drew his people after him, causing the inhabitants of jerusalem, and men of juda, to run a whoring after his strange gods: for which cause Elias the Prophet most sharply reproved him by letters; the contents whereof in sum was this: That because he rebelled against the Lord God of his Fathers; therefore the people that were in his subjection should rebel against him. Presently the Arabians and Philistims rose up against him, wasted his country, rob him of his treasures, took away his wives, and put all his children to the sword, except little Ochozias his youngest son that was preserved: And after all these miseries, the Lord smote him with so outrageous and uncurable disease in his bowels, that after two years' torment he died thereof, his guts being fallen out of his belly with anguish. joas also King of the same country, was one to whom God had been many 2. Chron. 22. ways beneficial from his infancy: for he was even then miraculously preserved from the bloody hand of Athalia, and after brought up in the house of God, under the tuition of that good Priest jehoiada; yet he was no sooner lifted up into his royal dignity, but by and by he and his people started aside, to the worship of stocks and stones, at that time when he had taken upon him the repair of the House of God. But all this came to pass after the decease of that good Priest his Tutor, whose good deeds towards him in saving his life, and giving him the Crown, he most unthankfully recompensed, by putting to death his son Zacharias; whom he 2 Chlon. 24. caused (for reproving and threatening his Idolatry in a public assembly, incited thereto by the Spirit of God) to be stoned to death in the porch of the Temple. But seeing he did so rebelliously set himself against the holy Spirit, as if he would have quite oppressed and extinguished the power thereof, by the death of this holy Prophet, by whom it spoke; God hissed for an army of Syrians, that gave him battle, and conquered his soldiers, who in outward show seemed much too strong for them. His Princes also that had seduced him, were destroyed, and himself vexed with grievous diseases; till at length his own servants conspired against him for the death of Zacharias, and slew him on his bed; yea and his memory was so odious, that they could not afford him a burying place among the sepulchers of their Kings. Amazias the son of this wicked father, carried himself also at the 2 Chron. 25. first uprightly towards God in his service; but it lasted not long: for a while after, he was corrupted and turned aside from that good way which he had begun, to tread in the by-paths of his father joas: for after he had conquered the Idumaeans, and slain twenty thousand men of war, and spoiled divers of their cities; in stead of rendering due thanks to God, who (without the aid of the Israelites) had given him that victory, he set up the gods of the Edomites, which he had robbed them of, to be his gods, and worshipped and burned incense to them, so void of sense and reason was he. And being rebuked by the Prophet of his adverse dealing, he was so far from humbling and repenting himself thereof, that quite contrary, he proudly withstood and rejected the Prophet's threatenings, menacing him with death if he ceased not. Thus by this means having aggravated his sin, and growing more and more obstinate, God made him an instrument to hasten his own destruction; for being proud, and puffed up with the overthrow which he gave the Edomites, he defied the King of Israel, and provoked him to battle also; but full evil to his ease: for he lost the day, and was carried prisoner to jerusalem, where before his face (for more reproach) four hundred cubits of the wall was broken down, the Temple and Palace ransacked of his Treasures, and his children carried for hostages to Samaria. And not long after, treason was devised against him in jerusalem, so that he fled to Lachish, and being pursued thither also, was there taken and put to death. Likewise King Ahaz for making molten Images for Baalim, and walking 2. Chron. 28. in the idolatrous ways of the Kings of Israel, and burning his sons with fire, after the abomination of the heathen, in the valley of Ben-Hinnon, was forsaken of the Lord, and delivered into the hands of the King of Syria, who carried him prisoner to Damascus; and not only so but was also subdued by Pekah King of Israel, in that great battle, wherein his own son, with fourscore thousand men at arms, were slain; yea and two hundred thousand of all sorts, men, women, and children, were taken prisoners: for all these chastisements did he not once reform his life, but rather grew worse and worse. To make up the number of his sins, he would needs sacrifice to the gods of Damascus also, thinking to find succour at their hands: so that he utterly defaced the true service of God at jerusalem, broke in pieces the holy Vessels, locked up the Temple doors, and placed in their steads his abominable Idols, for the people to worship, and erected Altars in every corner of the city to do sacrifice on. But as he rebelled on every side against his God, so God raised up enemies on every side to disturb him: the Edomites and Philistims assaulted him on every side, beat his people, took and ransacked his cities: on the other side, the Assyrians whom he had hired with a great sum for his help, turned to his undoing and utter overthrow and confusion. Wat shall we think of Manasses? who re-edified the high places and 2 Chron. 22. Altars, which the zeal of Ezech● as his father had defaced and thrown down, and adored and worshipped the planets of Heaven, the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, profaned the porch of God's Temple with Altars dedicated to strange gods, committing thereon all the abominations of the Gentiles; yea, and caused his sons to pass through the valley of Lib. 1. cap. 26. Idolatry. Ben-Hinnon, and was an observer of times and seasons, and gave himself over to witchcraft, charming, and sorceries, and used the help of familiar spirits and Soothsayers; and that which is more, placed a carved Image in the house of God, flat against the second commandment of the Law: So that he did not only go astray and err himself, in giving over his mind to most wicked and damnable heresies, but also seduced the people by his pernicious example and authority to do the like mischief. And that which is yet more, and worst of all, he made no account nor reckoning of the admonitions of the Prophets; but the rather and the more hardened his heart, to run out into all manner of cruelty and wickedness, that his sins might have their full measure. For the very stones of the streets of jerusalem were stained from one corner to another with the guiltless and innocent blood of those that either for dissuading him from, or not yielding unto his abominable and detestable Idolatry, were cruelly murdered: Amongst the number of which slain innocents', many suppose that the Prophet Esayas (although he was of the blood-royal) was with a 2 King. 12. strange manner of torment put to death. Wherefore the flame of God's ire was kindled against him and his people: so that he stirred up the Assyrians against them; whose power and force they being not able to resist, were subdued, and the King himself taken and put in fetters, and bound in chains, carried captive to Babylon: but being there in tribulation, he humbled his soul, and prayed unto the Lord his God; who for all his wicked, cruel, and abominable Apostasy was entreated of him, and received him to mercy; yea and brought him again to jerusalem into his unhoped for kingdom. Then was he no more unthankful to the Lord for his wonderful deliverance, but being touched with true repentance for his former life, abolished the strange gods, broke down their Altars, and restored again the true Religion of God, and gave straight commandment to his people to do the like. Wherein it was the pleasure of the Highest, to leave a notable memorial unto all posterity, of his great and infinite mercy towards poor and miserable sinners, to the end that no man (be his sins never so heinous) should at any time despair: for, Where sin aboundeth, Rom. 5. there grace aboundeth much more Admit that this revolt of Manasses was far greater and more outrageous than was solomon's, yet his true repentance found the grace to be raised up from that 〈◊〉 ●ull downfall: for, God Rom. 9 15. hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and compassion on whom he will have compassion. O the profound riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God How unspeakable Rom. 11. 33. are his judgements? and his ways p●st finding out. Amon the wicked son of this repentant ●ather committed also the like 2 Chron. 33. offence in serving strange gods, but recanted not by like repentance; and therefore God gave his own servants both will to conspire, and power Idolatry. Lib. 1. cap. 26. to execute his destruction, after he had swayed the kingdom but two years. CHAP. XVIII. Of the third and worst sort of Apostatas. BY how much the more God hath in these latter days poured forth more plentifully his graces upon the sons of men, by the manifestations of his Son Christ jesus in the flesh, and sent forth a more clear light by the preaching of his Gospel into the world than was before times; by so much the more culpable before God, and guilty of eternal damnation are they, who being once enlightened and made partakers of those excellent graces, come afterwards either to despise or make light account of them, or go about to suppress the truth, and quench the spirit which instructed them therein. This is the Sin against the Holy Ghost, which is mentioned in the sixth and tenth chapter to the Hebrews and in the twelfth of Luke; and in another place, it is called a Sin unto death, because it is impardonable, by reason that no excuse of ignorance can be pleaded, nor any plaster of true repentance applied unto it. The Apostatas of the old Testament under the Law were not guilty of this sin: for although there were many that willingly and maliciously revolted and set themselves against the Prophets of God, making war as it were with the Holy Ghost; yet seeing they had no such clear testimonies of Christ jesus, and declaration of God's Spirit as we have, their sin cannot be properly said directly to be against the Holy Ghost, and so never to be remitted: according to the description of this sin in those passages of Scripture which were before recited, as it may manifestly appear by the former example of King Manasses. The Apostle himself likewise doth aver the truth hereof, when he saith, If we sin willingly after that we have Heb. 10. 26, 27, 28, 29. received the knowledge of the Truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a fearful looking for of judgement, and violent fire, which shall devour the adversaries. If any man despised Moses Law, he died without mercy, under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be worthy, which treadeth under foot the Son of God, and counteth the blood of the new Testament as a profane thing, whereby he was sanctified, and doth despite to the Spirit of Grace. Here we may see that this sin is proper to those only that lived under the Gospel, and have tasted of the comfort and knowledge of Christ. judas Iscariot (that wicked and accursed Varlet) committed the deed, and feels the scourge of this great sin: for he (being a Disciple, nay an Apostle of Christ jesus) moved with covetousness, after he had devised and concluded of the manner and complot of his treason with the enemy, sold his Lord and Master, the Saviour of the World, for thirty pieces of silver, and betrayed him into the bands of thiefs and murderers, who sought nothing but his destruction. After this vile traitor had performed this execrable purpose (by reason whereof he is called the son of perdition) he could find no rest nor repose in his guilty conscience, but was horribly troubled and tormented with remorse of his wickedness, judging himself worthy of a thousand deaths, for betraying that innocent and guiltless blood. If he looked up, he saw the vengeance of God ready to fall upon him and ensnare him: if he looked down, he saw nothing but hell gaping to swallow him up: the light of this world was odious to him, and his own life displeased him, so that being plunged into the bottomless pit of despair, he at last strangled himself, and burst in twain in the midst, and all Math. 27 Acts 1. his bowels gushed out. There is a notable example of Lucian, who having professed Christianity Suid. for a season under the Emperor Trajan, fell away afterwards, and became so profane and impious, as to make a mock at Religion and Divinity; whereupon his surname was called Atheist. This wretch, as he barked out (like a foul mouthed dog) bitter taunts against the religion of Christ, seeking to rend and abolish it, so he was himself, in God's vengeance, torn in pieces and devoured of dogs. Porphyry also (a whelp of the same litter) after he had received the knowledge of the truth, for despite and anger that he was reproved of his faults by the Christians, set himself against them, and published books full of horrible blasphemies, to discredit and overthrow the Christian Faith. But when he perceived how fully and sufficiently he was confuted, and that he was reputed an accursed and confounded wretch for his labour, in terrible despair and anguish of soul he died. julian the Emperor, surnamed the Apostate, cast himself headlong into the same gulf: for having been brought up and instructed from his childhood in the Christian faith, and afterward a while a professed reader thereof to others in the Church, as soon as he had obtained the Empire, maliciously revolted from his profession, and resisted with all his power, the Faith and Church of Christ, endeavouring by all means possible, either Socrat. Theod. Sozom. by force to ruinate and destroy it, or by fine sleights and subtleties to undermine it. And because his purpose was to do what hurt he could to Christians, therefore he studied by all he could, to please, content, and uphold the contrary party, I mean the Painims: he caused their temples first to be opened, which Constantine his predecessor had caused to be shut up: he took from the Christian Churches and their Ministers those privileges, liberties, and commodities which the said Constantine had bestowed A theisme, lib. 1. cap. 25. 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 forbade them to have any schools of learning for their children. And yet more to vex and grieve them, he translated many orders of the Church discipline and policy into Paganism. After he had thus by all means striven to beat down the Sceptre of Christ's kingdom, it turned quite contrary to his expectation; for in stead thereof, the sceptre of his own kingdom was broken and brought to nought: at that time when making war upon the Persians, he was wounded with an arrow, which Socrat. l. 3. hist. Eccles. c. 〈◊〉. pierced his armour, and dived so deep into his side, that he died thereof. When he undertook this voyage, he was furnished with such bravery both of apparel and all things else, as it might seem it appertained to him and none else to overwhelm and oversway the world; still belching out threats against poor Christians, whom he head determined at his return from Persia utterly to destroy, and leave none alive, as was afterwards reported by one of his Council. The number of his soldiers 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 lo how the Lord overturneth the attempts of his enemies: This great army (as S. chrysostom reporteth against the Heathen) in which he put so much confidence, seemed ere long to be rather a vast and weak multitude of women and infants, than an host of Warriors: for by evil and foolish conduct and government, there rose so great a famine amongst them, that their horses which were provided for the battle, served for their bellies, yea and for want of that too, many hundreds died for hunger and thirst. Even when he skirmished, his own side came to the worse, doing more scathe 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 slain, to entreat the Persians to suffer them to retire; and so as many as could, escaped and fled away to save their lives. And thus this brave army was thus miserably dismembered and discomfited, to the everlasting shame of that wicked Apostate. One of the Treasurers of this wicked Emperor (who to please his Master, Theod. l. ●. c. 13. Sozom. l. 5. c. 8. Contempt of the Word, lib. 1. cap. 34. forsook 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 own blood out of his mouth, and (as chrysostom saith) his privy parts being rotten and purrified, and consumed with louse, for all that ever he could do 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 himself more quiet to the meditation and exercise of Religion, resigned over his kingdom to his eldest son: whom when he perceived to renounce the Faith, and to follow strange gods, he not only deprived of all his Royal dignity, but also caused his eyes to be put out, for a punishment of his Apostasy, and bestowed the kingdom upon his other son; showing 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 reigned in ●eda Eccl. hist. lib. 3. cap. 1. 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 country anciently divided.) These two Kings before they came to their Crowns, were by the preaching of Paulinus converted to the Faith of Christ, and baptised into the same Faith; but as soon as God advanced them to their Kingly dignities, presently they expelled the King of Glory out of their hearts, and renouncing Christ, betook themselves again to their filthy Idols. But they joyed not long in this their Apostasy; for within one year they were both slain by Cedwalla King of the Britain's, the one in battle, the other coming 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 year wherein these two Kings thus revolted and were slain, hath upon it the mark 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 King's reign, to wit Oswold, a holy and religious man; and so both the name of the Kings, and the time of their reign, is, in detestation of the Apostasy, utterly left out of our English stories, as if they were unworthy to have a place among men, much more among Kings, that forsook Christ of their own accord, without any constraint or compulsion thereunto. A Divine at Louvaine, one james La●onus, who was well instructed at the first in the knowledge of the Truth, afterwards renouncing the same, endeavoured with all his power to oppugn and oppress it. This man being on a time mounted into a pulpit, to preach before the Emperor Charles the fifth, was at the very instant so amazed and astonished, that no man could perceive what he said, and so made himself a laughing stock to all that audience. Seeing himself thus disgraced, he returned from Brussels to Louvaine, where he fell into such grief and sorrow of mind, for the dishonour which he had gotten, that it turned at length into despair: and in his daily Lectures, these or like words oftentimes escaped after that goodly Sermon, That he had impugned the truth of God: which when divers of his own 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 not hope for salvation or remission of his sins, because that of mere malice he had resisted and made war with God. Cardinal Poole an Englishman, had also sometimes professed himself to be well seen in the sincerity of the Gospel, yet contrary to his conscience he sent into his country the Trophies and Ensigns of Antichrist the Pope, which before had been razed out and abolished the realm; but he died two or three days after Queen Mary, in horrible griefs, terrors, and fearfulness, without any show of repentance. Stephen Gaediner Bishop of Winchester, and after Chancellor of England, showed in his young years some forwardness to withstand the Popish abuses and superstitions; but as soon as he was exalted to honour, he turned over a new lease, and began freshly and furiously to afflict and to rend the poor & faithful servants of Christ, putting them to the cruelest deaths he could devise. And yet more to discover his profaneness and rebellion, he wrote many books against the pure Religion of God: and being thus swollen with venomous spite against the Son of God, beside the extreme covetousness, whoredoms, and extortions which reigned in him, behold the Lord laid his hand of wrath upon him, and struck him with so strange a malady, that before his death such horrible stink issued from him, that none of his friends and servants, no not himself, could endure the savour thereof: his belly was swollen like a taber, his eyes distracted and sunk into his head, his cheeks thin, and the appearance of his whole face very terrible: his breath savoured of a filthy and intolerable stink, and all his members were rotten with continual griefs and swoon; yet this vile wretch in the midst of all these torments ceased not to yell out continual blasphemies, and infamous speeches, and so despighting and maugring God, died. Peter Castellon Bishop of Maston, having attained to great riches and renown, by the means of the Gospel, turned notwithstanding his back to Christ, and mightily inveyed in his sermons at Orleans against the profession of his Religion; seeking to make it known, that he had not only abjured and denied it, but also that he was a professed adversary unto it. This man sitting at a time in his chaite, fell into a strange disease, which no Physician had ever seen, or could search out the cause of; for one half of his body was extreme hot, and burned like fire, the other extreme cold, and frozen like Ice; and in this torment with horrible cries and groan he ended his life. A grey Friar called Picard, who once was not ashamed of the Gospel, afterwards set himself to preach against that which he had professed, and being in the pulpit at Orleans, after infinite blasphemies which he had disgorged against the Truth, at last said, That he protested before God and the holy assembly, that he would never preach more after that day, because he was an Apostate: which saying he by and by impudently and constantly denied, to the peril and damnation of his own soul; thinking by his horrible cursings and forswearing, to abuse the poor ignorant and superstitions people; but he no sooner came into the field, but the puissant hand of God overreached him, and struck him speechless, so that he was carried thence half dead, and within short space died, altogether without any appearance of repentance. Among other judges which showed themselves hot and rigorous in persecuting and proceeding against the faithful prisoners of Valence in Dauphin, and other Romans, at that season when two Ministers of the same city suffered Martyrdom, one Lanbespin a Counsellor, and Ponsenas the King's Attorney at the Parliament of Grenoble, both two having been professors in times past, were not the backwardest in that action; but God made them both strange examples of his wrath: for Lanbespin falling in love with a young maid, was so extremely passionate therein, that he forwent his own estate, and all bounds of civil honesty, to follow her up and down whithersoever she went: and seeing his love and labour despised and set at nought, he so pined away with very thought, that making no reckoning of himself, such a multitude of louse so fed upon him, and took so good liking of their pasture, that by no means he could be cleansed of them; for they increased and issued out of every part of his body in such number, as maggots are wont to engender in a dead and rotten carrion. At length a little before his death seeing his own misery, and ceiling Gods heavy vengeance upon him, he began to despair of all mercy; and to the end to abridge his miserable days, he resolved to hungerstarve himself to death. Which purpose the louse furthered; for they stuck so thick in his throat, as if they would have choked him every moment: neither could he suffer any sustenance to pass down by reason of them. They that were eye witnesses of this pitiful spectacle, were wondrously moved with compassion, and constrained him to eat whither he would or not. And that they might make him take cullises and other stewed broths, because he refused and strove against them, they bound his arms, and put gagges into his mouth, to keep it open whilst others poured in the food. And in this wise being gagged, he died like a mad beast, with abundance of louse that went down his throat; insomuch that the very Papists themselves stuck not to say, That as he caused the Ministers of Valence to have gagges thrust into their Persecution, lib. 1. cap. 15. mouths, and so put to death, so likewise he himself died with a gag in his mouth. As touching Ponsenas, commonly called Bourrel (a very Butcher indeed of poor Christians) after he had sold his own patrimony, and his wives and friends also, to the end to buy out his office, and had spent that which remained in house▪ keeping, hoping in short space to take up twice as much as he had scattered, fell down into a strange and unknown disease, and shortly grew in despair of God's succour and favour towards him, by a strong remembrance of those of Valence, and the other Romans which Persecution, lib. 1. cap. 15. he had put to death, which would never depart out of his mind, but still presented themselves before him: so that as one distraught of reason and sense, he denied his Maker, and called upon his destroyer the Devil, with most horrible and bitter ensuing: which when his Clerk perceived, he laid out before him the mercies of God, out of all places of the Scripture, to comfort and restore his decayed sense. But in stead of returning to God by repentance and prayer, he continued obstinate, and answered his Clerk (whose name was Stephen) in this wise; Stephen, Stephen, thou art black: So I am and it please you (quoth he) but I am neither Turk nor Moor, nor Bohemian, but a Gascoigne of red hair. No no (answered he) not so, but thou art black; but it is with sin. That is true (quoth he) but I hope in the bountiful mercy of God; that for the love of Christ who died for me, my black sins shall not be imputed to me. Then he redoubling his choler, cried mainly after his Clerk, calling him Lutheran, Huguenot, Villain. At which noise his friends without rushed in to know what the matter was. But he commanded, that Stephen his Clerk should presently have a pair of bolts clapped on his heels, and to be burned for an Heretic. In brief, his choler and rage boiled so furiously in him, that in short space he died a fearful death, with horrible howling and outcries. His creditors scarce gave him respite to draw his carcase out of his bed, before they seized upon all his goods, not leaving his poor wife and children so much as a bed of straw to lie in: so grievous was the curse of God upon his house. Another great Prince having in former time used his authority and power to the advancing of God's kingdom, afterwards being seduced by the allurements of the world, renounced God, and took part with the enemies of his Church, to make war against it; in which war he was wounded to death, and is one notable example of God's just vengeance, to all that shall in like manner fall away. CHAP. XIX. Of Heretics. AS it is a matter necessarily appertaining to the first Commandment, That the purity and sincerity of the doctrine of God's Word be maintained, by the rule whereof he would have us both know him, and understand the holy mysteries which are revealed to us therein: so also by the contrary, whatsoever tendeth to the corrupting or falsifying of the same Word, rising from foolish and strange opinions of humane reason, the same transgresseth the limits of this Commandment: of which sort is Heresy, an evil of its own nature very pernicious and contagious, and no less to be feared and shunned than the heat of persecution: and by means whereof the whole nation of Christendom hath been heretofore tossed with many troubles, and the Church of God grievously vexed. But as Truth got ever the upper hand, and prevailed against falsehood: so the brokers and upholders of falsehood came ever to the worse, and were confounded as well by the strength of Truth, as by the special judgements of God sent down upon the most part of them. Theudas & judas Galileus were two that seduced the Jews before Christ: Acts 5. 36. 39 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. l. 2. c. 10. jos. Antiq. lib: 18. c. 1. & lib. 20. cap. 2. for the first of them said he was a Prophet sent from God, and that he could divide the waters of Jordan by his word, as joshuah the servant of the Lord did. The other promised to deliver them from the servitude and the yoke of the Romans. And both of them by that means drew much people after them: so prone is the common multitude to follow novelties, and to believe every new sangle that is but yesterday set on broach. But they came both to a deserved destruction: for Fatus the Governor of Jury overtook Theudas, and sending his trunk to the grave, carried his head as a monument to Jerusalem. As for judas, he perished also, and all his followers were dispersed, manifesting by their ends, that their works were not of God, but of men, and therefore must needs come to naught. After Christ, in the Apostles time there was one Elymas a Sorcerer, that mightily withstood the doctrine of Paul and Barnabas, before Sergius Paulus Act. 12. the deputy, and sowed a contrary heresy in his mind: but Paul full of the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said, O full of all subtlety and mischief, the child of the Devil, and enemy of righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the straight ways of the Lord? Now therefore behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and then shalt be blind for season. And immediately there fell upon him a mist and darkness, and he went about to seek some to lead him by the hand. And this recompense gained he for his erroneous and heretical practice. A while after him, under the Empire of Adrian, arose there another called Euseb. l. 4. c. 6. Phi. M. chron. Benchochab, that professed himself to be the Messias, and to have descended from Heaven in the likeness of a Star, for the safety and redemption of the people: by which fallacy he drew after him a world of seditious disciples; but at length he and many of his credulous rout were slain, and was called by the jews Bencozba (that is) the son of a lie. And this was the goodly redemption which this Heretic brought upon his own head and many of his fellows. It is reported of Cerinthus an Heretic, that he denying and going Euseb. about to darken the doctrine of Christ's everlasting kingdom, was overwhelmed by the sudden fall of an hot house which fell upon him and his associates, as soon as S. john was departed from it: for Ireneus saith, That he heard Polycarpus often report, how S. john being about to enter into the baths at Ephesus, when he perceived Cerinthus already within, departed very hastily; saying to those that bore him company, that he feared that the house would fall upon their heads, because of Cerinthus the heretic, that was therein at that instnat. Manes, of whom the Manichees took their name and first original, forged in his foolish brain a fiction of two gods, and two beginners, and rejecting Euseb. Socrat. the old Testament, and the true God which is revealed in the same, published a fifth Gospel of his own forgery, yea and was so besotted with folly (as Suidas testifieth of him) that he reported himself to be the Holy Ghost: when he had thus with his devilish heresies and blasphemies infected the world, and was pursued by God's just judgement, at last for other wicked practices he had his skin plucked over his ears alive, and so died in misery. Montanus that blasphemous Caitise, of whom came the Montanists, or Pepuzian heretics, of a town in Phrygia called Pepuza, denied Christ our Saviour to be God, and said he was but a man only like other men, without any participation of divine Essence: he called himself the Comforter and holy Spirit which was forepromised to come into the world; and his two wives Priscilla and Maximilla, he named his prophetesses, and their writings prophecies: howbeit all their cunning could not foretell nor prevent a wretched and desperate end which befell him; for he hung himself, after he had deluded the world a long season, and proved by his end, his life to have been vile and damnable, according to the proverb, Qualis vita, finis ita, Nicep. l. 4. c. 23. Cent. 3. cap. 8. A cursed life, and a cursed death. Of all Heretics that ever troubled and afflicted God's Church, the Arrians were the chief: the author and ringleader of which crew, as by his vainglorious pride and ambition he sought to extol himself above the clouds, boasting and vaunting in his damnable error; so by the just vengeance of God he was abased lower than hell, and put in everlasting shame Socrat. Theod. Sozom. and opprobry: for he had long time as it were entered the list, and combated with Christ, and was condemned for an Heretic by the Nicene Council, and his books burned: and then afterwards making show before Constantine the Emperor, with a solemn oath to recant his old errors, and approve the profession of Faith, which the Council of Nice had set forth concernning Christ's divinity, whereunto also he subscribed his name: but all that he did was in hypocrisy, to the end to renew and republish the more boldly his false and pernicious doctrine. But when he thought himself nearest to the attainment of his purpose, and braved it most with his supporters and companions, even than the Lord struck him with a sudden fear in the open street, and with such horrible pangs in his guts, and vehement desire of disburthening nature, that he was fain to come unto the public houses appointed for that purpose, taking them which were next at hand for a shift: but he never shifted from them again; for his breath went out of his mouth, and his guts ran out of his fundament, and there lay he dead upon his own excrements. As the Emperor Constantius was a great favourer and supporter of this sect, and maintained it against, and in despite of true Christians, and by Socr. l. 2. c. 17. that means stirred up schisms and dissensions throughout all Christendom: so the Lord to requite him, stirred up julian; whom he himself had promoted to honour, to rebel against him: whose practices as he went about to suppress, and was even ready to encounter, a grievous Apoplexy suddenly surcharged him so sore, that he died of it; before he could bring his purpose to pass. The Emperor Valens was infected also with this poison, wherewith Ruff. l. 2. c. 13. jornand. likewise he infected the Goths, who by his means were become the greater part Arrians, and not Christians: but neither went he unpunished▪ for when he marched forth to repress the rage of the furious Goths, who were spread over all Thracia, and had given them battle, he lost the day, and being shamefully put to flight, was pursued so fiercely, that he was fain to hide himself in a little house, which being set on fire by the Goths, he was burnt therein. As for Nestorius, which would maintain by his foolish and dangerous Niceph. l. 14. cap. 36. opinions, that the divinity of Christ was divided from his humanity, making as it were two Christ's of one, and two persons of one, and so turned upside down that whole groundwork of our salvation, escaped no more the just vengeance of God than all other Heretics did: for first he was banished into a far country, and their tormented with a strange disease; the very worms did gnaw in pieces his blasphemous tongue, and at length the Earth opened her mouth, and swallowed him up. Concerning the Anabaptists, which rose up about five hundred years since, it is evidently known how divers ways God scourged and plagued many of them: some of them were destroyed by troops and by thousands; others miserably executed and put to death in divers places, as well for their monstrous and damnable heresies, as for many mischiefs and outrages which they committed. By all which things God doth exhibit and set before our eyes, how dear and precious in his sight the pureness of his holy Word, and the unity of his Church is; and how careful and zealous every one of us ought to be in maintaining and upholding the ●ame: when as he revengeth himself so sharply upon all those that go about to pervert and corrupt the sincerity thereof, or which be breeders of new sects and divisions Paul. Diac. in Anast. Hist. Sabel. l. 5. c. 4. 〈…〉, lib. 1. c. 31. 〈…〉 lib. 1. c. 25. among his people. Olympus (by office Bishop of Carthage, but by profession a ●avourer and maintainer of the Arriah heresy) being upon a time in the Bath 〈◊〉 himself, he uttered with an impious mouth, blasphemous words against the holy Trinity, but a threefold thunderbolt came from above, and struck him dead in the same place; teaching him by his pain, and all other by experience, what it is to blaspheme the Lord of Heaven, or with polluted lips to mention his sacred Majesty. This happened in the year of our Lord God five hundred and ten. Cyril hath recorded unto us of his own knowledge, a more wonderful and admirable wonder of God upon an Heretic than all the rest, and such an one indeed, as the like (I dare say) was never heard of: The history is this; After the decease of Saint Hierome, there stood up one Sabinianus a perverse and blasphemous fellow, that denied the distinction of persons in the Trinity, and affirmed the Father, the Son, and the Holy-Ghost, to be but one distinct person: and to give credit to his heresy, he wrote a book of such blasphemies, tending to the confirmation of the same, and fathered it upon Saint Hierome, as being the Author of it. But Silvanus the Bishop of Nazaren mightily withstood and reproved him, for depraving so worthy a man now dead; and offering his life for the truth, made this bargain with Sabinianus, That if Saint Hierome the next day did not by some miracle testify the falseness of his cause, he would offer his throat to the hangman, and abide death; but if he did, that then he should die. This was agreed upon by each party, and the day following, both of them accompanied with great expectation of the people, resorted unto the Temple of Jerusalem to decide the controversy. Now the day was past, and no miracle appeared, so that Silvanus was commanded to yield his neck to that punishment which himself was Author of: which as he most willingly and confidently did, behold, an Image like to Saint Hierome in show, appeared and stayed the hangman's hand, which was now ready to strike: and vanishing forthwith, another miracle succeeded; Sabinianus head fell from his shoulders, no man striking at it, and his carcase remained upon the ground dead and senseless. Whereat the people amazed, praising God, clavae unto Silvanus, and abjured Sabinianus heresy. Whence we may observe the wonderful wisdom of God, both in punishing his enemies, and trying his children whither they will stand to his Truth or no; and learn thereby, neither rashly to measure and limit the purposes of God, nor yet timorously to despair of help in a good cause, though we see no means nor likelihood thereof. Grimoald King of Lombardy was infected with the Arrian heresy, for which cause the Lord punished him with untimely death; for having been let blood, the eleventh day after as he strove to draw a bow, he opened the vein anew, and so bled to death. ●abades King of Persia, when he saw his son Phorsuasa addicted to the Gasp. ●ed. l. 3. cap. 10. & 11. Manichees, he assembled as many as he could of that sect into one place, and there setting his Soldiers on them, slew them till there was not one left. Photinu● a Gallograecian, for renewing the heresy of Hebion, and affirming Christ to be but an excellent man borne naturally by Mary, after the manner Platin● sub. Siri●i●, 7. of other men, excelling in justice and moral virtues, was by the Emperor Valentinianus justly banished. The Emperor justinian favouring the heresy of the Apthardocites, when as he gave out one Edict whereby Anastasius the Bishop, and all other that 〈◊〉. ●●. maintained the truth, should be banished; suddenly he was strooken with 〈…〉. ●. an inward and invisible plague, which took away his life, and forestalled his wicked and cruel determination from coming to the desired effect. In all which examples we may see how God doth not only punish heretics themselves, but also their favourers and supporters, yea the very places and cities wherein they lived and broached their blasphemies: as by the destruction of Antioch is seen, which being a very sink of heretics, was Paul. Diac. l. 5. partly consumed with fire from Heaven above, in the seventh year of justinus the Emperor, and partly overthrown with earthquakes below, wherein Euphrasius the Bishop, and many other were destroyed. Moreover, besides those, there were under Pope Innocent the third, certain heretics called Albigenses, or Albiani, which being possessed with the same spirit of fury that the Manichees were, affirmed that there were two Gods; the one good, and another evil: they denied the Resurrection, despised the Sacraments, and said that the souls of men after their separation, Contempt of the Word, l. 1. c. 34. passed either into hogs, oxen, serpents, or men, according to their merits they would not spare to pollute the Temples appointed for the service of God, with their excrements, and other filthy actions, and to defile the holy Bibles with ruin, in despite and contumely. This heresy like an evil weed, so grew and increased, that the branches thereof spread over almost all Europe; a thousand cities were polluted therewith; so that it was high time to cut it short by violence and the sword, as it was; for they were oppressed with so huge a slaughter, that an hundred thousand of them were slain, partly by war, partly by fire, at one time. Gregory of Tours hath recorded the life and death of an heretical Monk of Bourdeaux; that by the help of Magic wrought miracles, and took upon him the name and title of Christ, saying he could cure diseases, and restore those that were past help by physic, unto their healths: he went attired with garments made of goat's hair, and an hood, professing an austerity of life abroad, whereas he played the glutton at home; but at length his cozenage was discovered, and he was banished the city, as a man unfit for civil society. In the year of our Lord God 1204, in the Empire of Otto the fourth, there was one Almaricus also that denied the presence of Christ in the Sacrament, and said, that God spoke as well in profane Ovid, as holy Augustine: he scoffed at the doctrine of the Resurrection, and esteemed heaven Athoisme, l. 1. c. 25. and hell but as an old wife's fable. He being dead, his disciples were brought forth into a large field near Paris, and there in the presence of the French King, degraded and burnt: the dead carcase of Almaricus being taken out of the Sepulchre and burnt amongst them, it fell out that whilst they were in burning, there arose so huge a tempest, that heaven and earth seemed to move out of their places; wherein doubtless the souls of these wicked men felt by experience, that hell was no fable; but a thing, and such a thing as waited for all such Rebels against God, as they were. Anastasius, Emperor of Constantinople, being corrupted with the heresy of Eutiches, published an Edict, wherein all men were commanded to worship God not under three persons as a Trinity, but as a Quaternity, containing it in four persons: and could not by any counsel be brought from that devilish error, but repelled from him divers Bishops with great reproach, which came to persuade him to the contrary: for which cause not long after, a flash of lightning from Heaven suddenly seized upon him, and so he perished when he had reigned twenty eight years. justinus the second also, who after the death of justinian obtained the Imperial Crown, was a man of exceeding pride and cruelty, contemning poverty, and murdering the Nobility for the most part. In avarice his desire was so insatiate, that he caused iron chests to be prepared, wherein he might lock up that treasure which by unjust exactions he had extorted from the people. Notwithstanding all this, he prospered well enough until he fell into the heresy of Pelagius, soon after which, the Lord bereft him of his wits, and shortly aster of his life also, when he had reigned eleven years. Mahomet, by birth an Arabian, and by profession one of the most monstrous heretics that ever lived, began his heresy in the year 625. His offspring was out of a base stock; for being fatherless, one Abdemonoples a man of the house of Ishmael, bought him for his slave, and loved him greatly for his favour and wit: for which cause he made him ruler over his merchandise and other business. Now in the mean while one Sergius a Monk (flying for heresy into Arabia) instructed him in the heresy of Nestorius: a while after, his Master died without children, and left behind him much riches, and his wife a widow of fifty years of age, whom Mahomet married, and when she died, was made heir of all her riches. So that now (what for his wealth and cunning in Magic) he was had in high honour among the people. Wherefore (by the counsel of Sergius) he called himself the great Prophet of God. And shortly after (when his fame was published) he devised a Law and kind of Religion called Koran, wherein he borrowed something almost of all the heresies that were before his time, with the Sabellians he denied the Trinity: with the Manichees he said there was but two persons in the Deity: he denied the equality of the Father with the Son, with Eunomius: and said with Macedon that the Holy Ghost was a creature; and approved the community of women with the Nicholaits: he borrowed of the Jews circumcision; and of the Gentiles much superstition; and somewhat he took of the Christian verity, besides many devilish fantasies invented of his own brain: those that obeyed his Law, he called Saracens. Now after he had lived in these monstrous abuses forty years, the Lord cut him off by the falling sickness, which he had dissembled a long time, saying when he was taken therewith, that the Angel Gabriel appeared unto him, whose brightness he could not behold: but the Lord made that his destruction, which be imagined would be for his honour, and setting forth his Sect. Infinite be the examples of the destruction and judgement of private Stow Chron. Heretics in all ages, and therefore we will content ourselves with them that be most famous. In the year of our Lord 1561, and the third year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there was in London one William Geoffrey, that constantly avouched a companion of his called john Moor to be Christ our Saviour, and could not be reclaimed from this mad persuasion, until he was whipped from Southwark to Bedlam, where the said Moor meeting him, was whipped also, until they both confessed Christ to be in Heaven, and themselves to be sinful and wicked men. But most strange it is, how divers sensible and wise men were deluded and carried beside themselves by the subtlety of Satan, in the year 1591., Ibid. and of the reign of Queen Elizabeth 3 3, the memory whereof is yet fresh in every man's head and mouth, and therefore I will but briefly touch the same. Edmund Coppinger and Henry Arthington, two gentlemen, being associated with one William Hacket, sometimes a profane & very lewd person, but now converted in outward show, though not in inward affection, were so seduced by his hypocritical behaviour, and the devils extraordinary devices, that from one point to another they came at last to think, that this Hacket was anointed to be the Judge of the world; and therefore coming one day to Hackets lodging in London, he told them they had been anointed Hypocrisy in regard of Hacket, l. 1. c. 22. of the Holy Ghost: then Coppinger asked him what his pleasure was to be done? Go your way (saith he) and proclaim in the city, that Christ Jesus is come with his fan in his hand to judge the earth: and if they will not believe it, let them come and kill me, if they can. Then Coppinger answered, it should be done forthwith; and thereupon (like madmen) he and Arthington ran into the streets, and proclaimed their message aforesaid: and when by reason of the concourse of people they could not proceed any further, they got up into two empty carts in Cheap, crying, Repent, repent, for Christ jesus is come to judge the world: and then pulling a paper out of his bosom, he read out of it many things touching the office and calling of Hacket, how he represented Christ by taking part of his glorified body, etc. Besides, they called themselves his Prophets, one of Justice, another of Mercy. And thus these simple men were strangely deceived by a miraculous illusion of Satan, who no doubt by strange apparitions had brought them into this vain conceit. But let us observe the end of it; it was thus: the whole city being in amaze, took Hacket, the breeder of this device, and arraigning him before the Mayor and other Justices, found him guilty as well of this seditious practice, as of speaking traitorous words against the Queen: wherefore he was shortly after hanged on a gibbet in Cheapside, counterfeiting to his last his old devices, and at length uttering horrible blasphemies against the Majesty of God. As for his Prophets, Coppinger died the next day in Bride well, and Arthington was kept in prison, upon hope of repentance. CHAP. XX. Of Hypocrites. AS God is a Spirit and Truth, so he will be worshipped in truth of spirit and affection, and not in hypocrisy and dissimulation: for which cause he commandeth us by the mouth of Moses, in the sixth and tenth chapters of Deuteronomy, To love and honour him with all our heart, with all our soul, and all our strength: which hypocrites are so far from doing, that they have nothing in them but a vain show of coined religion, and so by that means break the first commandment; thinking to blear God's eyes with their outward shows and ceremonies, as if he were like men, to see nothing but that which is without, and offereth itself to the view; but it is quite contrary: for it is he that descryeth the heart, and searcheth out all the cornors thereof, to see what truth and sincerity is therein, and therefore hateth and detesteth all hypocrisy, and abhorreth all such service as is performed only 1 Sam. 16: for fashion sake, or in regard of men: as appeareth by there proofs and checks which the Prophet Esay denounceth against the hypocrites of his time: who made show of honouring God, but it was but with their lips and vain and frivolous ceremonies, not in truth of heart and affection: so our Saviour Christ thundered out his curses against the Scribes and Pharisees Math. 23. with the judgements and vengeance of God for their hypocrisy. With this sin was Balaam that wicked Prophet, upon whom God bestowed Numb. 22. a certain gift of prophecy, infected: for when King Balac sent for him to curse the Israelites, he made as though he would not enterprise any thing contrary to the will of God as if he had him in great reverence and estimation: nevertheless being alured and enticed by the golden presents which were sent him, he despised God's commandment, and discovered his own secret impiety, and became an hired slave and enemy to the people of God: but as he was in journey towards him, there happened a strange and prodigious thing; an Angel met him by the way with a naked sword in his hand ready to hew him in pieces: whom when he himself being blinded with covetousness as with a veil, could not perceive, ●is ass saw and was afraid; and that which was more strange, the poor bruit and dumb beast speaking in a new language like a man, reproved his master's ● Pet. 2. 16. madness. Whereat he being sore amazed, and notwithstanding all the asses humbling before the Angel, yet pursued his unhappy journey, to his eternal shame and confusion, as one of an obstinate and heardened heart; for he was forced by the Spirit of God to bless those whom he had purposed to curse; and yet further discovering his hypocrisy and envious disposition, he was the cause why the Israelites provoked the wrath of God against themselves, through the pernicious and deceivable counsel which he gave to the Madianites; for which cause he himself was in the end slain. Numb. 25. Numb. 3. In this range may we place Geesie, Elizeus servant, who being as is it were the Disciple and professed follower both of his Master's life and doctrine, the true Prophet of God, by whom for the further assurance and confirmation 2 King. 5. of the grace and blessing of God, he had seen many notable and excellent miracles wrought; yet notwithstanding was not true of heart, but drawn aside by desire of lucre, that caused him secretly (unwitting to his master) to ruane after Naaman the Syrian in his master's name, for the money and Avarice, l. 2. 6. 35. apparel which his master had before refused: and supposing his knavery to be so hidden that it could not come to light, God discovered and pulled off his vizard, and punished as well the deed, as the manner of doing hereof, upon him and his posterity, with a perpetual leprosy. Saint Luke in the first chapter of the Acts, doth at large describe the hypocrisy of Ananias and Saphira, who that they might seem zealous to Godward, and charitable toward the Saints, having sold a certain possession, under pretence of giving the price thereof among the poor, retained covertly a certain portion of it to their own use, being so impudent as to lie unto the Holy Ghost the Precedent of the Church, and founder of all secrets: but being attached by the mouth of Peter, a just and fearful judgement of God fell on them both, even their sudden death at the Apostles feet, one after another. Nicephorus telleth of one Philip, the first Emperor that undertook the name and profession of Christ; but by the report of other writers, it proceeded not from any zeal of Religion, or fear of God, but only to the intent to counterfeit a kind of honesty, and cover his foul vices and cruelties under the cloak of Religion. But God quickly espied and punished his deep hypocrisy; for before he had reigned full five years, both he and his son were slain at Verona by his men of war. Let us learn then this lesson, by these examples to carry ourselves in all pureness, sincerity, and good conscience before God; that our thoughts, words, and deeds, being estranged from all hypocrisy, and dissimulation, may be agreeable and acceptable in his sight. Moreover, even as hypocrisy can wind and insinuate herself into the pure and sincere service of God, as hath been declared; so doth she play her part with no less bravery and ostentation in superstition and idolatry: for the truth whereof (before I proceed further) I will set down a history not altogether unworthy the reading and remembering. Two hundred years Enguerran de Monstr. & Vol. 2. are not yet past, since there was in the reign of Charles the seventh, King of France, a certain preaching Friar of Britain, called Friar Thomas, who by his dissembling customs and brags, under pretence of a certain reformation of manners, so mightily deceived the whole world, that every where he was reputed for an holy man. This Friar puffed up with a greedy desire of vainglory, used to go from town to town, and from country to country, finding exceeding honourable entertainment in every place; which he took very willingly; and that he might ride at the more case, he got him a little young Mule, that would go very softly; and in this sort appointed, he was accompanied with divers of his own Order, and many other Disciples that went for the most part on foot by him: the people flocked from all quarters to see him; yea, and many were so besotted, as to forsake their fathers, mothers, wives, and children, to attend upon this holy man. Always when he came near to any city, the Burgesses, and Gentlemen, and Clergy, with one consent came forth to meet him, doing him as much reverence (saith mine Author) as they would have done to one of Christ's Apostles if he were alive. He was very well content, that honourable personages, as Knights and such others, being on foot, should hold his Mule by the bridle, to be in stead of pages and lackeys to lead him into the towns. His entrance into every city was with great pomp and magnificence, and his lodging provided at the richest and stateliest Burgesses house. Now that he might the better play his part, they prepared him in the best and convenientest places in the city, a scaffold richly hung and garnished, upon the which his custom was first to say Mass, then to begin his Sermon; wherein he ripped up the vices of every estate, but reproved especially the Clergies enormities, because of their concubines and whores which they maintained: wherein he did say nothing but that which was good and lawful; but in the same he used no discretion, but joined madness and sacrilege with his Monkish nature, in stirring up little children to exclaim upon women for their attire, promising certain days of pardon to them, as if he had been a god: so that Ladies and Gentlewomen were enforced to lay aside for a season their accustomed trinkets. Moreover also, towards the end of his Sermons he commanded to be brought unto him their Chesse-boords, Cards, Dice, Ninepins, and such other trash, which he openly threw into the fire, to be burned before them all. And that he might give more strength and credit to this his paltry rifraff, he caused the men and women to be divided on each side, with a line drawn betwixt them, as in a Tennis-court; and by this means he drew together sometimes twenty thousand persons: so ready and zealous is and ever hath been the world to follow after such hypocritical deceivers, rather than the true preachers of God's Word. But let us hear the issue of this holy hypocrite; it was thus: When he had in the forenamed sort traversed as well France as Flanders; it took him in the head to pass the mountains, and visit Rome; imagining that it was no hard matter to obtain the Popeship, seeing that in all places where he went, there was equal honour given unto him: or if he should fail of that hope, yet at least the Pope and his Cardinals would entertain him honourably; but it happened far short of his expectation: for Popes are not so prodigal of their honours, to do any such reverence to a poor silly Monk, but are very niggards and sparing thereof even towards Kings; so far are they from leaving their Thrones of Majesty to any other: neither must we think that the Pope cared greatly for all those tricks and quiddities of Friar Thomas, seeing he himself is the only merchant of such trash. When he was arrived at Rome, Pope Eugenius seeing that he came not according to custom, to kiss his holiness' feet, sent for him twice, and understanding that he refused to come, and that he feigned himself to be evil at ease, sent his Treasurer, but not to impart to him any treasure, but to apprehend and attatch him. The Friar now perceiving that enquiry was made for him, and that they were at his chamber-dore, leapt out at a window, thinking by that means to escape; but he was quickly taken prisoner by the Treasurer's servants, waiting before the door, and brought before the Consistory of Cardinals: Law proceeded against him, by doom whereof, though no erroneous opinious could be proved against him, he was adjudged to the stake to be burned for an Heretic: but it was sufficient to make him guilty, because he defamed the Priests in his Sermons, and had spoken so broadly of their Gossips, and had been so bold to usurp the authority of giving pardons, which the Pope's claim for a privilege of their own See; and besides, had made no more account of him that is a petty god on earth, but had done all these things without his leave and licence: it was a hard matter to be endured of the Bishops of Rome, that a silly Monk should so intermeddle with their affairs, and should derogate any whit from their supremacy, seeing that they quit themselves so well with Kings and Emperors, and can at every sleight occasion make them stoop: neither is it to be doubted, but that Pope Eugenius was very jealous of the honour which Friar Thomas attained unto in every place, and fearful lest his presence might disturb his present estate. By this means God, who useth all instruments for his own purpose, and can direct every particular to the performing of his will, did punish and correct the hypocrisy of this Monk, that seemed to be holy and wise, being indeed nothing but foolish, stubborn, and ambitious. Moreover, most notable was the hypocrisy of two sergeant holy Maids; one of Kent in England, called Elizabeth Barton; the other of France, Stow Chron. called joan la Pucelle: the former of which, by the procurement and information of one Richard Master, Parson of Aldington, and Edward Bocking Doctor of Divinity, a Monk of Canterbury, and divers others, counterfeited such manner of trances and distortions in her body, with the uttering of divers counterfeit virtues and holy words, tending to the rebuke of sin, and reproving such new opinions as there began to spread, that she won great credit amongst the people, and drew after her a multitude of favourites; besides, she would prophesy of things to come, as that she should be helped of her disease by none but the Image of our Lady in Aldington; whither being brought, she appeared to the people to be suddenly relieved from her sickness; by means of which hypocritical dissimulation she was brought into marvellous estimation, not only with the common people, but with divers great men also, insomuch that a book was put in print, touching her feigned miracles and revelations. Howbeit, not content to delude the people, she began also to meddle with the King himself, Henry the eight; saying, That if he proceeded to be divorced from his wife Queen Katherine, he should not remain King one month after, and in the reputation of God not one day: for which and many other tricks practised by her, she with her complices was arraigned of high treason, and after confession of all her knavery, drawn from the Tower to Tyburn, and there hanged; the holy maiden's head being set upon London bridge, and the other on certain gates of the City. The other named lafoy Pucella de Dieu, marvellously deluded with her counterfeit hypocrisy, Charles the seventh, King of France, and all the whole Stow Chron. French Nation; in such sort, that so much credit was attributed unto her, that she was honoured as a Saint, and thought to be sent of God to the aid of the French King. By her means Orleans was won from the English, and many other exploits achieved, which (to be short) I will refer the Reader unto the French Chronicles, where they shall find her admirable knavery at large discovered. But touching her end, it was on this sort: as she marched on horsebake to the town of Champagne, to remove the siege, wherewith it was girt by the Duke of Burgoine and other of the English Captains, Sir john Leupembrough, a Burgonian Knight, took her alive, and conveyed her to the City of Rouen, where she feigning herself with child, when the contrary was known, was condemned and burnt. And thus these two holy women, that in a divers kind mocked the people of England and France by their hypocrisy, by the justice of God came to deserved destructions. CHAP. XXI. Of Conjurers, and Enchanters. IF God by his first Commandment hath enjoined every one of us to love, serve, and to cleave unto him alone in the conjunction and unity of a true faith and hope unremovable, there is no doubt but he forbiddeth on the other side that which is contrary to this foresaid duty, and herein especially that accursed familiarity which divers miserable wretches have with that lying Spirit, the Father of error, by whose delusions and subtlety they busy themselves in the study of sorceries and enchantments, whereupon it is forbidden the Israelites in the nineteenth of Leviticus, to turn after familiar spirits, or to seek to Soothsayers to be defiled by them: and the more to withdraw them from this damnable Leu. 19 31. crime, in the Chapter following there is a threat set down against it in ●0. ●7. manner of a Commandment, That if either man or woman have a spirit of divination or soothsaying in them, they should die the death, they should stone them to death, their blood should be upon them: so in the two and twentieth of Exodus, Exod. 22. 18. the Law of God saith, Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live: and Moses following the same steps, giveth an express charge in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy, against this sin, saying, Let nonebe found among thee that useth witchcraft, nor that regardeth the Clouds or times, nor a Sorcerer, or a Charmer, or Deut. 19 10, 11. that counselleth with a Spirit, or a teller of Fortunes, or that asketh counsel of the dead, for all that do such things are abomination unto the Lord. And therefore this sin, 1 Sam. ver. 15. is reputed amongst the most heinous and enormous 1 Sam. 15. Isa. 8. 19, 20. sins that can be: When they shall say unto you (saith the Prophet) Inquire at them that have a Spirit of Divination, and at the Soothsayer, which whispers and murmurs: answer, Should not a people inquire at their God? from the living to the dead? To the Law, and to the Testimony? Wherefore it was a commendable thing, and worthy imitation, when they that had received the Faith by Paul's preaching, having used curious Arts, as Magic and such like, being touched with the fear of God, brought their books, and Acts 19 19 burned them before all men, although the price thereof amounted to fifty thousand pieces of silver, which by Budeus his supputation ariseth to five thousand French Crowns. The Counsels, as that of Carthage, and that other of Constantinople, kept the second time in the suburbs, utterly condemned the practices of all Conjurers and Enchanters. The twelve Tables in Rome adjudged to punishments those that bewitched the standing corn. And for the Civil Law, this kind is condemned both by the Law julia and Cornelia. In like manner the wisest Emperors (those I mean that attained to the honour of Christianity) ordained divers Edicts and Prohibitions, under very sharp and grievous punishments, against all such villainy: as Constantine in the ninth book of the Cod. tit. 18. enacted, That whosoever should attempt any action by Art Magic, against the safety of any person, or should bring in or stir up any man, to make him fall into any mischief or riotous demeanour, should suffer a grievous punishment: in the fifth Law he forbiddeth every man to ask counsel at Witches, or to use the help of Charmers and Sorcerers, under the pain of death. Let them (saith he in the sixth Law) be thrown to wild beasts to be devoured, that by conjuring or the help of familiar spirits go about to kill either their enemies, or any other. Moreover in the seventh Law he willeth, that not so much as his own courtiers and servants, if they were found faulty in this crime, should be spared, but severely punished; yet nevertheless, many of this age gave themselves over to this filthy sin, without either fear of God, or respect of Law: some through a foolish and dangerous curiosity, others through the overruling of their own vile and wicked affections, and a third sort, troubled with the terrors of an evil conscience, desire to know what shall besal and happen unto them in the end. Thus Saul the first King of Israel being troubled in himself, and terrified with the army of the Philistims that came against him, would needs foreknow his own fortune, and the issue of this doubtful war. Now whereas before whilst he performed the duty of a good King, and obeyed the commandment of God, he had cleansed his Realm of Witches and Enchanters; yet is he now so mad as to make them serve his own turn, and to use their counsels in his extremity; adding this wickedness to the number of his other great sins, that the measure thereof might be full: he went therefore to a Witch to seek counsel, who caused a Devil to appear and speak unto him in the shape of Samuel, and foretell him of (Gods just judgement upon his wickedness) his utter and final ruin and destruction. An example not much unlike unto this in the event, but most like in Buchan. rerum. Scot lib. 4. practice, we find recorded of Natholicus, the one and thirtieth King of the Scots: who, after he had unjustly usurped the Crown and Seepter, and installed himself by much bloodshed into the Throne of the Kingdom, by open intrusion, and no apparent show of right, sought by the same means to confirm and establish the Kingdom unto him: And therefore (as wickedness is always accompanied with suspicion and fear) he sent one of his trustiest f●iends to a Witch, to inquire of things to come, both what success he should have in his Kingdom, and also how long he should live: the Witch answered, That he should not live long, but should shortly be murdered, not by his enemy, but by his familiar friend: when the Messenger urged instantly of whom; she answered, of him: he detesting her at first, and abhorring the thought of any such villainy, yet at length considering that it was not safe to disclose the Witches answer, and on the other side, that it could not be concealed, resolved for his most security, rather to kill the Tyrant, with the favour of many, than to save him alive with the hazard of his own head. Therefore as soon as he was returned home, being in secret alone with the King, to declare unto him the Witches answer, he slew him suddenly, and gave him his just desert, both for his horrible cruelty, and wicked sorcery. Let all them that make no conscience of running to Witches, either for their lost goods, or for recovery of their own or friends health, remember this example either for their instruction to amend, or for their terror, if they continue that devilish practice. Plutarch in the life of Romulus reporteth of one Cleomedes, a man in proportion Plut. Rom. of body, and cruel practices, huge and giantlike: who for that he was the cause of the death of many little children, and was pursued by the parents of those dead infants, who sought to be revenged on him for that cruel part, he hid himself in a coffer, closing the lid fast to him: but when the Coffin was broken up, the Conjurer was not therein, neither alive nor dead, but was transported by the malicious spirit the Devil, to a place of greater torment. Ancient Histories make mention of one Piso, a man of credit and authority Tacit. among the Romans, whom the Emperor Tiberius gave unto his son Germanicus for an help and counsellor in the managing of his affairs in Asia; so well was he persuaded both of his sufficiency, courage, and loyalty towards him. It chanced a while after, that he was suspected to have bewitched to death the said Germanicus: the signs and marks of which suspicion were, certain dead men's bones digged out of the earth with divers charms and curses, and Germanicus name engraven in tables of lead, and such like trash which Witches use to murder men withal, were found with him. Whereupon Tiberius himself accused him of that crime; but would not have the ordinary judges to sit upon it, but by special privilege committed the enquiry thereof unto the Senate. Piso, when every man thought he was preparing himself for his defence against the morrow (like a wise man to prevent all mischiefs) was found dead the day before, having his throat cut, and, as most likelihood was, finding himself guilty of the fact, and too weak to overweigh the other side, forestalled the infamy of a most shameful death, by killing himself; although there be that say, that the Emperor sent one of purpose to dispatch him in this manner. Olaus Magnus telleth of one Methotin, a noble Magician in old time, that Lib. 3. cap. 4. Of the Northern people. by his delusions did so deceive and blind the poor ignorant people, that they accounted him not only for some mighty man, but rather for some demi god; and in token of the honour and reverence they bore him, they Refer this also 10 l. 1. c. 24. offered up sacrifices unto him, which he refused not; but at last his knaveries and cousenages being laid open, they killed him whom before they so much esteemed: and because his dead carcase with filthy stink infected the approachers, they digged it up, and broached it upon the end of a stake, to be devoured of wild beasts. Another called Hollere (as the same Author witnesseth) played the like chap. 18. of the foresaid book. tricks in abusing the people's minds as strongly as the other did, insomuch that he was reputed also for a god: for he joined with his craft, strength and power to make himself of greater authority in the world. When he listed to pass over the sea, he used no other ship but a bone figured with certain charms, whereby he was transported, as if both sails and wind had helped and driven him forwards; yet his enchanted bone was not of power to save him from being murdered of his enemies. The same Author writeth, That in Denmark there was one Otto a great Rover and Pirate by sea, who used likewise to pass the seas without the Olaus Magnus. help of ship or any other vessel, and sunk and drowned all his enemies with the waves, which by his cunning he stirred up: but at last his cunning practice was overreached by one more expert in his art than himself, and as he had served others, so was he himself served, even swallowed up of the waves. There was a Conjurer at Saltzburg, that vaunted that he could gather together all the serpants within half a mile round about into a ditch, and feed them and bring them up there: and being about the experiment, behold, the old and grand serpent came in the while, which whilst he thought by the force of his charms to make to enter into the ditch among the rest, he set upon and enclosed him round about like a girdle so strongly, that he drew him perforce into the ditch with him, where he miserably died. Mark here the wages of such wicked miscreants, that as they make it their occupation to abuse simple folk, they are themselves abused and cozened of the Devil, who is a finer juggler than them all. It was a very lamentable spectacle that chanced to the Governor of Mascon a Magician, whom the Devil snatched up in dinner while, and hoist aloft, carrying him three times about the town of Mascon in the presence of many beholders, to whom he cried on this manner, Help, help, Hugo de Cluni. my friends; so that the whole town stood amazed thereat, yea and the remembrance of this strange accident sticketh at this day fast in the minds of all the inhabitants of this country; and they say, that this wretch having given himself to the Devil, provided store of holy bread (as they call it) which he always carried about with him, thinking thereby to keep himself from his claws; but it served him to small stead, as his end declared. About the year 1437, Charles the seventh being King of France, Sir Glyes of Britain, Lord of Raise, and high Constable of France, was accused (by the report of Enguerran de Monstrelet) for having murdered many infants and women with child, to the number of eightscore or more, with Vol. 2. whose blood he either writ or caused to be written books full of conjurations, hoping by that abominable means to attain to high matters: but it happened clean cross and contrary to his expectation and practice; for being convinced of those horrible crimes (it being Gods will, that such gross and palpable sins should not go unpunished) he was adjudged to be hanged and burned to death, which was also accordingly executed at Nantes, by the authority of the Duke of Britain. john Francis Picus of Mirand saith, That he conferred divers times with many, who being enticed with a vain hope of knowing things to come, were afterwards so grievously tormented by the Devil (with whom they had made some bargain) that they thought themselves thrice happy if they escaped with their lives. He saith moreover. That there was in his time a certain Conjurer that promised a too curious and no great wise Prince, to present unto him upon a stage the siege of Troy, and Achilles, and Hector fight together as they did when they were alive; but he could not perform his promise for another sport and spectacle more hideous and ugly to his person; for he was taken away alive by a Devil, in such sort, that he was never afterward heard of. In our own memory the Earl of Aspremont and his brother Lord of Orne, were made famous, and in every man's mouth, for their strange and prodigious seats, wherein they were so unreasonably dissolute and vainglorious, that sometime they made it their sport and pastime to break down all the windows about the castle Aspremont, where they kept (which lieth in Lorraine two miles from Saint Michael) and threw them piecemeal into a deep Well to hear them cry plump: but this vain excess presaged a ruin and destruction to come, as well upon their house, which at this present lieth desolate and ruinous in many respects, as upon themselves, that finished their days in misery one after another; as we shall now understand of the one the Lord of Orne: as for the Earl, how he died, shall more at large be declared elsewhere. Now it chanced, that as the Lord of Orne was of most wicked and cruel conditions, so he had an evil favoured look, answerable to his inclination and name, to be a Conjurer: the report that went of his cruelty was this, That upon a time he put the Baker (one of his servants, whose wi●e he used secretly to entertain) into a ●un, which he caused to be rolled from the top of a hill, into the bottom, sometimes as high as a pike, as the place gave occasion; but by the great mercy of God, notwithstanding all this, this poor man saved his life. Furthermore, it was a common report, that when any Gentlemen or Lords came to see him, they were entertained (as they thought) very honourably, being served with all sort of most dainty fair and exquisite dishes, as if he had not spared to make them the best cheer that might be: but at their departure, they that thought themselves well refreshed, found their stomach empty and almost pined for want of food, having neither eaten nor drunk any thing save in imagination only; and it is to be thought, that their horses found no better fare than their masters. It happened one day that a certain Lord being departed from his house, one of his men having left something behind, returned to the Castle, and entering suddenly into the hall where they dined but a little before, he espied a Munky beating the master of the house that had feasted them of late, very sore. And there be others that say, that he hath been seen through the chink of a door lying on a table upon his belly all at length, and a Monkey scourging him very strangely; to whom he should say, Let me alone, let me alone, wilt thou always torment me thus? And thus he continued a long time: but at length after he had made away all his substance, he was brought to such extremity, that being destitute of maintenance, and forsaken of all men, he was fain (for want of a better refuge) to betake himself to the Hospital of Paris, which was his last Mansion house, wherein he died. See here to how pitiful and miserable an end this man fell; that having been esteemed amongst the Mighties of this world, for making no more account of God, and for following the illusions of Satan (the common enemy of mannkdi) became so poor and wretched as to die in an Hospital among Cripples and Beggars. It is not long since there was in Lorraine a certain man called Coulen, that was over much given to this cursed Art: amongst whose tricks this was one to be wondered at; that he would suffer harquebuses or pistols to be shot at him, and catch their bullets in his hand without receiving any hurt: but upon a certain time one of his servants being angry with him, hot him such a knock with a pistol (notwithstanding all his great cunning) that he killed him therewith. Moreover, it is worthy to be observed, That within these two hundred years hitherto, more Monks and Priests have been found given over to these abominations and devillishnesses, than of all other degrees of people whatsoever, as it is declared in the second volume of Enguerran de Monstralet more at large: where he maketh mention of a Monk that used to practise his sorceries in the top of a tower of an Abbey, lying near to Longin upon Marne, where the Devils presented themselves to be at his commandment: and this was in the reign of Charles the sixth. In the same book it is recorded, That in the reign of Charles the seventh, one Master William Ediline Doctor in Divinity, and Prior of Saint German in Lay, having been an Augustine Friar, gave himself to the Devil for his pleasure, even to have his will of a certain woman: he was upon a time in a place where a Synagogue of people were gathered together; where to the end that he might quickly be (as he himself confessed) he took a broom and road upon it. He confessed also that he had done homage to that enemy of God, the Devil▪ who appeared unto him in the shape of a sheep, and A sweet kiss doubtless. made him kiss his hinder parts, as he reported. For which causes he was placed upon a scaffold, and openly made to wear a paper containing his own faults, and afterwards plotted to live prisoner all the rest of his life laden with irons, in the Bishop of Eureux his house, which was accordingly executed. This happened in the year 1453. In the reign of the same King, 1457, there was a certain Curate of a village near to Soissons, who to revenge himself of a Farmer that retained from him the tenths which were appointed to the Knights of the Rhodes, went to a Witch, of whom he received in gift a fat toad in an earthen pot, which she had a long while fed and brought up, which she commanded him to baptise; as he also did, and called it by the name of john: albeit I tremble to recite so monstrous and vile a fact; yet that every man Contempt of Sacraments, lib. 1. cap. 34. might see how deadly besotted those sort of people are that give themselves over to Satan, and with what power of error he overwhelmeth them, and beside, how full of malice this unclean spirit is, that as it were in despite of God, would profane the holy Sacrament of Baptism. This good holy Curate, after he had consecrated the holy host, gave it also to the toad to eat, and afterward restored it to the Witch again, who killing the toad, and cutting it in pieces, with other such like sorceries, caused a young wench to carry it secretly into the Farmer's house, and to put it under the table as they were at dinner; whereupon immediately the Farmer and his children that were at the table fell suddenly sick, and three days after died: the Witch herself being detected, was burned, but the Curate suffered only a little imprisonment in the Bishop of Paris house, and that not long for what with friendship and money he was soon delivered. Froissard, who was Treasurer and Canon of Chymay, reporteth of another Curate in the country of Bear (under Charles the seventh) that had a familiar spirit which he called Orthon: whose help he used to the disturbance of the Lord of Corosse, by causing a terrible noise to be heard every night by him and his servants in his castle, because the said Lord withheld his tithes from him, and converted them to his own use. In the yiare 1530, at Nuremburg a certain Priest studied Art Magic, Wierus. and being very covetous of gold and silver, the Devil (whom he served) shed him through a Crystal certain treasures hidden in the city: he by and by (greedy of this rich prey) went to that part of the city where he supposed it to have lain buried: and being arrived at the place, with a companion whom he brought to this pretty pastime, fell a searching and digging up a hollow pit, until he perceived a coffer that lay in the bottom of the hole, with a great black dog lying by it: whither he was no sooner entered, but the earth fell down and filled up the hole, and smothered and crushed him to death. So this poor Priest was entrapped and rewarded by his master no otherwise than he deserved; but otherwise than he expected or looked for. Howbeit they are not only simple Priests and Friars that deal with Naucler. vinc. etc. these cursed Arts, but even Popes themselves. Silvester the second (as Platina and others report) was first a conjuring Friar, and gave himself to the Devil upon condition he might be Pope, as he was indeed; and having obtained his purpose, as it seemed he began earnestly to desire to know the day wherein he should die: which also his Schoolmaster the Devil revealed unto him, but under such doubtful terms, that he dreamt in his foolish conceit, of immortality, and that he should never die. It chanced on a time as he was singing Mass at Rome in a Temple called jerusalem (which was the place assigned him to die in) and not jerusalem in Palestina (as he made himself falsely to believe, he heard a great noise of Devils that came to fetch him away (note that this was done in Mass while) whereat A not worth the nothing. he being terrified and tormented, and seeing himself not able any way to escape, he desired his people to rend his body in pieces after his death, and lay it upon a chariot, and let horses draw it whither they would; which was accordingly performed: for as soon as he was dead, the pieces of his carcase were carried out of the Church of Lateran by the wicked spirit, who as he ruled him in life, so he was the chief in his death and funerals. By like means came Benedict the ninth to the Popedom, for he was a detestable B●nno Balleus. Magician; and in the ten years wherein he was Pope having committed infinite villainies and mischiefs, was at last by his familiar friend the Devil strangled to death in a forest, whither he went to apply himself the more quieter to his conjure. Gregory the sixth, scholar to Silvester, as great a conjurer as his master, Bal. wrought much misery in his time, but was at last banished Rome, and ended his life in misery in Germany. john the two and twentieth, being of no better disposition than these we have spoken of, but following judicial astrology, said himself with a vain hope of long life, whereof he vaunted himself among his familiars, one day above the rest at Viterbum, in a chamber which he had lately builded, saying, that he should live a great while, he was assured of it: presently the floor broke suddenly in pieces, and he was found seven days after crushed to pieces under the ruins thereof. All this notwithstanding, yet other Popes ceased not to suffer themselves to be infected with this execrable poison: as Hildebrand, who was called Gregory the seventh, and Alexander the sixth, of which kind we shall see a whole legend in the next book. Do but mark these holy Fathers how abominable they were, to be in such sort given over to Satan. Cornelius Agrippa, a great Student in this cursed Art, and a man famous jovius in ellgiis virorumillustrium. both by his own works and others report, for his Necromancy, went always accompanied with an evil spirit in the similitude of a black dog: but when his time of death drew near, and he was urged to repentance, he took off the enchanted collar from the dog's neck, and sent him away with these terms; Get thee hence thou cursed beast, which hast utterly destroyed me Neither was the dog ever after seen: some say he leapt into Araxis, and never came out again. Agrippa himself died at Lions in a base and beggarly Inn. Zeroastres King of Bactria is notified to have been the inventor of Astrology Theat, hist. and Magic. But the Devil (whose ministry he used) when he was too importunate with him, burned him to death. Charles the seventh of France, put Egedius de Raxa● Marshal of his Kingdom, to a cruel and filthy death, because he practised this Art, and in the Fulgos. l. 9 c. 1. same had murdered an hundred and twenty teeming women and young infants: he caused him to be hanged upon a fork by a hot fire, and roasted to death. Bladud the son of Lud King of Britain, now called England, in the year of the World 3100, (he that builded the city of Bath, as our late Histories witness, and also made therein the Baths) addicted himself so much to the Devilish art of Necromancy, that he wrought wonders thereby, insomuch that he made himself wings, and attempted to flee like Dedalus: but the Devil (as ever like a false knave) forsook him in his journey, so that he fell down and broke his neck. In the year of our Lord 1578, one ●●mon Pembroke dwelling in Saint George's parish in London, being a figure setter, ●nd vehemently suspected to be a Conjurer, by the commandment of the judge appeared in the parish Church of Saint Saviour at Court holden there: where whilst he was busy in eutertaining a Proctor, and leaned his head upon a pew a good space, the Proctor began to lift up his head to see what he ailed, and found him departing out of this life, and straightways he fell down rattling in the throat, without speaking any one word. This strange judgement happened before many witnesses, who searching him, found about him five devilish books of conjuration and most abominable practices, with a picture in tin of a man having three dice in his hand, with this writing, Chance dice fortunately; and much other trash: so that every one confessed it to be a just judgement against Sorcery, and a great example to cause others to fear the just judgement of God. Now let every one learn by these examples to fear God, and to stand firm and steadfast to his holy Word, without turning from it on any side, so shall he be safe from such like miserable ends as these wicked varlets come unto. CHAP XXII. Of those that through pride and vainglory strove to usurp the honour due unto God. AForgetfull and unthankful mind for the benefits which God bestoweth upon us, is a branch of this first Commandment, as well as those which went before: And this is when we ascribe not unto God the glory of his benefits, to give him thanks for them, but through a foolish pride extol ourselves higher than we ought, presuming above measure and reason in our own power, desire to place ourselves in a higher degree than is meet. With this fond and foolish affection (I know not how) our first fathers Gen. 1. were tickled and tainted from the beginning, to think to impair the glory of God: and they also were puffed up with the blast of ambition, that I know not with what fond, foolish, rash, and proud conceit, went about after the flood to build a city and tower of exceeding height, by that means to win same and reputation amongst men: In stead whereof they ought rather Gen. 11. to have praised God by remembering his gracious goodness in their miraculous deliverance in their father's persons, from that general deluge and shipwreck of the world: but forasmuch as with a proud and high stomach they lifted up themselves against God, to whom all glory only appertaineth, therefore God also set himself against them and against their over bold practices, interrupting all their determined presumptuous purposes, by such a confusion and alteration of tongues which he sent among them, that one could not understand another: so that with shame they were constrained to leave their begun work. And besides, in stead of that strong and sure habitation which they dreamt on, to maintain and defend themselves by, against all enemies, and 〈◊〉 fortress and castle whereby they went about to keep other in subje●●●on to them, they were forced to forsake the place by the just judgement of God, who scattered and dispersed them hither and thither that he might bring them to that estate and condition which they most of all feared, and strove to shun. And thus God resisteth the proud, and favoureth the humble: lo here the punishment wherewith God punished their sin, remaining still upon them this day, for a chastisement of their proud spirits. With the stain of this sin, most commonly, the mightiest Potentates of this world are defiled, who although both by word and writing avouch and confess their power to be by the grace of God, yet for the most part they are very unthankful for the same, and so proud and high minded, that they show themselves most obstinate and ungrateful of all men: for oftentimes they rob him of the honour and glory which is peculiar unto himself, and attribute it to themselves, in setting forth their brave and sumptuous shows and triumphs: this is the sin whereof Nabuchadnezzar King of Babel was reproved; for God having bestowed upon him a kingdom with such pomp and renown, that he made whole nations to tremble before his face, and putting many people in subjection under him, he (in stead of giving thanks for these great benefits) exalted himself, suffering his heart to swell, and his understanding to wax hard with pride, not regarding the Lord who extolled him so high: and yet notwithstanding he was constrained to confess and acknowledge him for the true God, to have an everlasting Kingdom, and an infinite power, as well by the forewarning of dreams which Daniel interpreted, as by the miraculous deliverance of three young men out of the burning furnace; therefore as he walked one day in his royal palace at Babylon, and vaunted of his greatness, and magnificence, saying to himself, Is not this great Babel, which I have built for the house of the Kingdom, by the might of my power, and Dan. 4. for the honour of my Majesty? Now whilst the word was yet in his mouth, a voice was heard from heaven, saying, O King, to thee it is spoken, Thy Kingdom shall depart from thee: and according to the tenor of the voice he was immediately deposed from his royal seat, spoiled of all his glory, driven from the society of men, deprived of sense, and made a companion for the bruit beasts, and wild asses, eating grass like oxen, even so long, until his hair was grown stiff like Eagles feathers, and his nails like the claws of birds. In which estate he continued the space of seven years; even he that a little before was so proud and arrogant, and he that had conquered so many kingdoms and nations, that triumphed over jerusalem, with the Kings thereof. This is a most excellent looking glass for Kings to behold the fickleness and instability of all their power and pomp, when it pleaseth God to humble and bring them under: there is neither Sceptre, Crown, stay, or strength of man, that is able to hinder and turn aside the hand of the Almighty, the King of Kings, from abasing and weakening the most high and strong of this world, let them be never so brave and jolly, and bringing them into a low, contemptible, and brutish estate. Besides this which we have already touched, there is another kind of pride and presumption most damnable and detestable of all; and it is when a man doth so much forget himself, as to seize and take upon him that honour which only appertaineth to God, ascribing to himself a certain deity. One would hardly think that there were any such in the world, so proud as to commit this sin, did not experience by certain examples teach us the contrary: As first of all the King of Tyre, whose heart was so exalted with the multitude of riches, and the renown and greatness of his house, that he doubted not to esteem himself a god, and to desire majesty and power correspondent thereunto. For which presumption God by Chap. 28. 1, 2, 3, etc. the Prophet Ezechiel reproved him, and threatened his destruction, which afterward came upon him, when by the power of a strange and terrible nation, his goodly godhead was overcome and murdered, feeling indeed that he was no god, as he supposed, but a man subject to death and misery. King Herod, surnamed Agrippa, which put james the brother of john to Acts 12. death, and imprisoned Peter, with purpose to make him taste of the same cup, was puffed up with no less sacrilegious pride; for being upon a time seated in his throne of judgement, and arrayed in his royal robes, showing forth his greatness and magnificence in the presence of the Ambassadors of Tyre and Sidon, that desired to continue in peace with him, as he spoke unto them, the people shouted and cried, That it was the voice of God, and not of man: which titles of honour he disclaimed not, and therefore the Angel of the Lord smote him suddenly, because he gave not the glory to God: so that he was eaten with worms, and gave up the ghost. josephus reporteth the same story more at large on this manner: Upon the second jewish Antiquities, l. 19 c. 7. day of the solemnisation of the plays which Herod caused to be celebrated for the Emperor's health, there being a great number of Gentlemen and Lords present, that came from all quarters to his feast, he came betime in the morning to the Theatre, clad in a garment all woven with silver of a marvellous workmanship; upon which, as the Sun rising cast his beams, there glittered out such an excellent brightness, that thereby his pernicious flatterers took occasion to call him with a loud voice by the name of God: for the which sacrilegious speech, he not reproving nor forbidding them, was presently taken with most grievous and horrible dolours and gripes in his bowels, so that looking upon the people he uttered these words: Behold here your goodly god, whom you but now so highly honoured, ready to die with extreme pain. And so he died indeed most miserably, even when he was in the top of his honour and jollity, and as it were in the midst of his earthly Paradise, being beaten down and swallowed up with confusion and ignominy, not stricken with the edge of sword or spear (for that had been far more honourable) but gnawn in pieces with louse and vermin. Simon Magus, otherwise called Simon the Samaritan, borne in a village Euseb. l. 2. c. 12. Phil. in Chron. Cen●. 1. l. 3. c. 11. called Gitton, after he was cursed of Peter the Apostle, for offering to buy the gifts of the Spirit of God with money, went to Rome, and there putting in practise his magical arts, and working miracles by the Devil, was reputed a god, and had an image erected in his honour, with this inscription, To Simon the holy god: Besides, all the Samaritans, and divers also of other nations accounted him no less, as appeared by the reverence and honour which they did unto him: insomuch, as they called his companion, or rather his whore Helena (for that was her profession in Tyre a city of Phenicia) the first mover that distilled out of Simons bosom. Now he, to foster this foolish and ridiculous opinion of theirs, and to eternize his name, boasted that he would at a certain time fly up into heaven, which, as he attempted to do by the help of the Devil, Peter the Apostle commanded the unclean spirit to cast him down again, so that he fell upon the earth and was bruised to death, and proved himself thereby to be no more than a mortal, wicked, and detestable wretch. Moreover elsewhere we read of Alexander the Great, whose courage Oros. lib. 3. and magnanimity was so exceeding great, that he enterprised to go out of Greece and set upon all Asia, only with an army of two and thirty thousand footmen, five hundred horse, and an hundred and four score ships: and in this appointment passing the seas, he conquered in short space the greatest part of the world: for which cause he was represented to the Prophet Daniel in a vision, by the figure of a Leopard with wings on his back, to notify the great diligence and speedy expedition which he used in compassing so many sudden and great victories; with pride he was so soon infected, that he would brook no equal nor companion in his Empire; but as heaven had but one Sun, so he thought the earth ought to have but one Monarch, which was himself: which mind of his he made known by his answer to King Darius demanding peace, and offering him the one Just. lib. 11. half of his Kingdom to be quiet; when he refused to accord thereunto; saying, He scorned to be a partner in the half, and hoped to be full possessor of the whole. After his first victory had of Darius, and his entrance into Egypt (which he took without blows, as also he did Rhodes and Cilicia) he practised and suborned the Priests that ministered at the Oracle of Hammon, to make him be pronounced and entitled by the Oracle, The son of jupiter (which kind of juggling and deceit was common at that time.) Having obtained this honour, forthwith he caused himself to be worshipped as a god, according to the custom of the Kings of Persia: neither wanted he flatterers about him that egged him forward, and soothed Iust. lib. 12. Curt. lib. 8. him up in this proud humour: albeit that many of the better sort endeavoured tooth and nail to turn him from it. It happened as he warred in India, he received so sore a wound, that with pain thereof he was constrained to say, Though he was the renowned son of jupiter, yet he ceased not to feel the infirmities of a weak and diseased body: finally, being returned to Babylon, where many Ambassadors of divers far countries, as of Carthage, and other cities in Africa, Spain, France, Sicily, Sardinia, and certain cities of Italy, were arrived to congratulate his good success, for the great renown which by his worthy deeds he had gotten; as he lay there taking his rest many days, and bathing himself in all kind of pleasure, one day after a great feast, that lasted a whole day and a night, in a banquet after supper, being ready to return home, he was poisoned; when before he had drunk his whole draught, he gave a deep sigh suddenly, as if he had been thrust through with a dart, and was carried away in a swoone, vexed with such horrible torment, that had he not been restrained, he would have killed himself. And on this manner he that could not content himself with the condition of a man, but would needs climb above the clouds, to go in equipage with God, drunk up his own death, leaving as suddenly all his worldly pomp, as he had suddenly gotten it: which vanished like smoke, none of his children being any whit the better for it. There was in Syracuse a city of Sicilia (which is now called Saragosse) a Physician called Menecrates, whose folly and presumption was so great, that he accounted himself a god, and desired to be so reputed by others; insomuch that he required no other wages and recompense of the patients which he took in hand (as Aelianus witnesseth) but that they should only acknowledge him to be jupiter, and call him so, and avow themselves to his service. Upon a time Denis the tyrant, desirous to make some pastime with him, made a feast, and invited him amongst others to be his guest; but because he was a god, to do him honour answerable to his name, he placed him at a table all alone, and set before him no dishes, but only a censer with frankincense, which was a proper and convenient service for the gods. This honourable duty pleased the Physician very well at the first, so that he shoved up the perfume most willingly: but when this poor god saw the other guests eating and drinking indeed, and himself not being able to be fed with smoke, ready to starve with hunger, arose up and went away all enraged in himself, and derided of others; having more need to purge his own brains of their superfluous humour, than others from their sicknesses. Caligula the first, Emperor, being become an ordinary despiser and open mocker of all Religion, it came presently in his brain to believe (so drunken was he with a draught of his own foolish conceit) that there was no other God but himself; therefore he caused men to worship him, and to kiss his hands or his feet in token of reverence (which honour afterwards the Popes took upon them) yea and was so besotted, that he went about by certain engines of art to counterfeit thunder and lightnings: albeit in all this pride and arrogancy, or rather folly, there was none so timorous and fearful as he, or that could sooner upon lighter occasion be dismayed. One day as he was by mount Aetna in Sicily, hearing by chance the violent cracking of the flames which all that season ascended out of the top of the hill, it struck so sudden and horrible a fear into him, that he never ceased flying all night till he came to Phar. in Messina. Every little thunderclap put him in fear of death, for he would leap up and down like a mad man when he heard it thunder; finding himself not able by his god head to defend himself from the power thereof: but if there chanced greater cracks than ordinary, then would not his hot bed hold him, but needs must he run into the cold floor underneath the bed, to hide himself. Thus was he compelled against his will to fear him whom willingly he would not deign to acknowledge. And thus it falleth out with all wicked miserable Atheists, whose hearts imagine there is no God; and therefore have so little assurance in themselves, that there need no thunder and lightning to amaze them; for the shaking of every leaf is sufficient to make them tremble: To conclude, this Atheist, void of all Religion and fear of God, and full of all profaneness, was according to his due desert, murdered by one of his servants: of the which will follow more at large in the next book. Domitian likewise was so blinded with pride, that he would be called Gros. l. 7. c. 7. a god, and worshipped: of whom also we will speak in the second book. To these we may add them also, that to the end to make themselves Dion. Mal. l. 1. Antiq. Roman. feared and reverenced as gods, have counterfeited the lightnings and thunders of heaven, as we read of one Alladius a Latin King that reigned before Romulus: who being a most wicked Tyrant, and a contemner of God, invented a trick whereby to present to the ear and eye, the rattling and swift shine of both thunder and lightning; that by that means astonishing his subjects, he might be esteemed of them for a god: but it chanced that his house being set on fire by true lightning, and overthrown with the violent strength of tempestuous rain, together with the overflowing of a pond that stood near, he perished by fire and water, burnt and drowned, and all at once. Did not the King of Elide the like, and to the same end also, by the devise of a char●t drawn about with four horses, wherein were certain yron-works, Diod. lib. 4. which with wrinching about gave an horrible sound resembling thunder, and torches and squibs which he caused to be thrown about like lightnings, in such sort, that he oftentimes burned the beholders: and in this manner he went up and down braving it, especially over an iron bridge which he had of purpose built to pass and repass over at his pleasure; until God's long suffering could not endure any longer such outrageous and presumptuous madness, but sent a thunderbolt from heaven upon his head, that all the world might see by his destruction, the exceeding folly and vain pride which bewitched him in his life time: which history the Poet in the person of Sibylla, setteth down to this effect: I saw Salmon in cruel torments lie, For counterfeiting thunder of the sky, Aenead. 6. And Ioves clear lightning: whilst with torches bright, Drawn with four steeds, and brandished his light, He road triumphantly through Elis streets, And made all Grecia wonder at his feats. Thinking to win the honour of a god, (Mad as he was) by scattering fire abroad. With brazen engines, and with courses feigning, A noise like that which in the clouds is reigning, And no where else: but God from thickest sky, No torch, but such a thunderbolt let fly At him, that headlong whirled him from his Cell, And tumbled down into the deepest Hell. Thus this arrogant King was punished according to the quality of his offence, even in the same kind wherein he offended: which thing though it be found written in a Poet, yet ought not be rejected for an old wife's tale, seeing it is not incredible, that a King might make such pastimes and yron-crashing noises, nor that he might be justly punished for the same: and the rather, because Caligula did the like, as we have heard before. And we read also, that one Arthemesius, in the time of the Emperor justinian, counterfeited Agath. lib. 5. ●el. Gothu. by certain engines and devises, in his own house in Constantinople, such earthquakes, lightnings, and thunders, that would astonish a wise brain to hear or behold them on a sudden. But above all others that by darkening the glory of God, to increase their own power, have proudly exalted themselves against him, the Popes are the ringleaders, whose unbridled boldness hath been so much the more impudent and pernicious; for that in terming themselves the servants of the servants of God, in word, in deed, take unto them the authority and power of God himself: as of pardoning and absolving sins, creating laws and ordinances at their pleasure, in binding or unbinding men's consciences; which things appertain to God only. Nay they have been so brazenfaced, as to command angels and devils, as Clement the fifth did in one of his bulls: so impudent as to be carried like Idols upon their vassals shoulders, and wear three crowns upon their heads; so proud and arrogant, as to constrain Kings and Emperors to kiss their feet, to make them their vassals, to usurp lordship and dominion over them, and all their lands and possessions, and to dispossess whom they like not, of Kingdoms, and install in their room whom they please; and all this by the thunder of excommunication, whereby they make themselves feared and stood in awe of. By which dealing of theirs, they verify in themselves that which the Scripture speaketh of Antichrist, which is the man of sin, the son of perdition, an adversary, 2 Thess. 2. 3. and one that exalteth himself against all which is called God, or which is worshipped, till he be set as a God in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Wherefore also the heavy vengeance of God is manifest upon them, by the great and horrible punishments they have been tormented with: for some of them have had their eyes pulled out; others have died in prisons; a third sort have been smothered to death; a fourth hath been killed with the sword; a fifth hath died with hunger; a sixth hath been stoned; a seventh poisoned; and yet there hath not wanted an eighth sort, whom the Devil himself hath stifled. This it is to overreach the clouds, and not content with earthly power, Sabel. Aenead. 9 lib. 7. John le Maire de Besges. Nich. Gyles, of the Chronicles of France. to usurp a supremacy and pre-eminence over Kings: such was the pride of Pope Boniface the eighth, when he sent an embassage to Philip the Fair, King of France, to command him to take upon him an expedition against the Saracens beyond the sea, upon pain of forfeiting of his Kingdom into his hands; and when having his sword by his side he shamed not to say, that he alone, and none else, was Emperor and Lord of all the world: in demonstration whereof, he bestowed the Empire upon Duke Albert, together with the Crown of France; and not content herewith, his insolency was so importunate, that he charged Philip the Fair to acknowledge himself to be his subject in all causes, as well spiritual as temporal, and to levy a subfidy for his holiness out of his clergy, disabling his authority in bestowing Church livings, which prerogative he challenged to his See: the conclusion of this bull was in these words: Aliud credentes fatuos reputamus; as much to say, as, whosoever is of another mind than this, we esteem him a fool. Whereunto the King answered in this wise, Philippus Dei, gratia Francorum Rex, Bonifacio se gerenti pro summo pontifice salutem modicam sive nullam. Sciat tua maxima fatuitas, in temporalibus nos alicui non subesse, Ecclesiarum & Prebendarum vacantium collationem ad nos jure regio pertinere: secus autem credentes fatuos reputamus deviantes. In English thus: Philip by the grace of God King of France, to Boniface bearing himself for Pope, little or no health. Be it known to thy exceeding great foolishness, that we in temporal affairs are subject to none, that the bestowing of Benefices belongs to us by our royal right: and if there be any that think otherwise, we hold them for erroneous fools. A memorable answer, well beseeming a true royal and French heart. Immediately he assembled together a national Council of all the Barons and Prelates within his dominion, at Paris, wherein Boniface being pronounced an Heretic, a Symonist, and a Manslayer, it was agreed upon by a joint consent, that the King should do no more obeisance, but reject as nothing worth, whatsoever he should impose. Wherefore the King to tame his proud and malicious nature, dispatched secretly two hundred men at arms under the conduct of one Captain Noguard, towards Avian in Naples (whither his Holiness was fled for fear of divers whose houses and castles he had caused to be razed down) there to surprise him on a sudden: which stratagem they speedily performed, and carried him prisoner to Rome, where he died most miserably. Peter Mesie a Spanish Gentleman of Sevill, saith in many of his Lectures, that he died in prison enraged with famine. Nicholas giles in his first volume of French Chronicles reporteth, that he died in the castle Saint Angelo, through a flux of his belly, which cast him into a frenzy, that he gnew off his own hands, and that at the hour of his death there were heard horrible thunders, and tempests, and lightnings round about: this is he in whose honour this fine Epitaph was made: Intravit ut Vulpes, regnavit ut Leo, mortuus est ut Canis, He entered like Sabel. Aenead. 9 lib. 7. a Fox, reigned like a Lion, and died like a Dog. And this was he that on the first day of Lent giving ashes to the Bishop of Genes, in stead of using the ordinary form of speech, which is, Memento homo quòd cinis es, & in cinerem converter is, Remember man that thou art ashes, and into ashes thou shalt return said in despite and mockery, Memento homo quia Gibellinus es, & cum Gibellinis in cinerem converter is: Rember that thou art a Gibelline, and together with the Gibellines thou shalt be turned into ashes: and in stead of laying the ashes upon his forehead, threw them into his eyes, and forthwith deprived him of his Bishopric, and would have done worse, if it had been in his power: mark what little account this holy father himself made of these ceremonies; and therefore it is no marvel if others mock at them, seeing the Popes themselves make them but matters of pastime. If it be so therefore, that no man ought to arrogate to himself any title of deity, then consequently it is no less unlawful to give that divine honour to any other mortal creature; and therefore the people of Caesarea faulted greatly, when blasphemously they called King Herod a god, as hath been declared before. Likewise it was high and proud presumption in the Senate of Rome, not to receive any god to their Commonwealth, without their own fore-approbation and consent. As if that God could not maintain his dignity, nor stand without the good liking and assent of men; or as if that man could defy whom he li●ted, which is a most ridiculous and absurd thing. And thus the Romans in time of Tiberius consecrating Tertullian Apolog. to themselves a whole legion, even thousands of false gods, would not admit of the true God, and his Son Christ, but rejected him above all others. Among all the vanities of the Athenians, this was one worthy noting, how they ordained, that Demetrius, Alexander's successor (for re-establishing their popular and ancient liberty) with his father Antigonus, should be called Kings, and honoured with the title of Saving gods, and to have a Priest that should offer sacrifice unto them: and moreover caused their pictures to be drawn in the same banner where the pictures of jupiter and Minerva (the protectors of their city) were drawn in broidered work: but this goodly banner as it was carried about in procession, was rend in pieces by a tempestuous storm that arose suddenly. God thereby manifesting how odious and displeasant both this new and old superstition was in his sight: besides that, do but consider the laudable virtues that so commended this new god Demetrius, to make them honour him in such sort; they were violence and cruelties, intemperance, with all inordinate lasciviousness, villainies, and whoredoms: so that it was no marvel if they had made him a god, being unworthy altogether of humane society. This new found god having gotten a great victory by sea, as he triumphed and braved it with ships after the same, was so shattered with a sudden tempest, that the greatest part of his navy went to wreck, and afterwards was vanquished by Seleuchus in a battle, wherein his father Antigonus was slain: and when he thought to return to Athens, they shut their gates upon him, whom a little before they had canonised for a god: for which cause he raised war against them, and so wearied them with onsets on each side, and so enclosed them both by sea and land, that being brought to extreme famine and necessity, they were compelled to entertain him again, and to behold the horrible outrages of their own made god, to their grief and confusion. But not long after, Seleuchus once again damped his courage, insomuch that having lived three years in a country of Syria, like a banished outlaw; for fear to be delivered into his hands, and weary of his own life, he stuffed himself so with food, that he burst in pieces. Therefore let every man learn by these examples, not to translate the honour and majesty of God to any creature, but to leave it to him alone, who is jealous thereof, and will not (as the Prophet saith) give his glory unto another. CHAP. XXIII. Of Epicures, and Atheists. AS touching voluptuous Epicures and cursed Atheists, that deny the providence of God, believe not the immortality of the soul, think there is no such thing as life to come, and consequently impugn all divinity, living in this world like bruit beasts and like dogs and swine, wallowing in all sensuality; they do also strike themselves against this commandment, by going about to wipe out and deface the knowledge of God; and if it were possible, to extinguish his very Essence; wherein they show themselves more than mad and brutish, whereas notwithstanding all the evident testimonies of the virtue, bounty, wisdom, and eternal power of God, which they daily see with their eyes, and feel in themselves, do nevertheless strive to quench his light of nature, which enlighteneth and persuadeth them and all Nations of this, There is a God, by whom we live, move, and have our being; who although in his Essence is invisible, Acts 17. 22. yet maketh he himself known, and as it were seen by his works and creatures, and mighty government of the world, that he that would seek after him, may (as one might say) handle and feel him. Therefore they that would persuade themselves that this glorious heaven and massy earth wanted a guider and a governor, have their understanding blinded from fight of things manifest, and their hearts perverted from all show of reason: for is there any substance in this world that bath no cause of his subsisting? Is there a day without a Sun? Are there fruit and no trees? Plants and no seeds? Can it rain without a cloud? Be a tempest without wind? Can a ship sail without a Pilot? Or a house be built without a Carpenter or builder? If then every part of this world hath his particular cause of being and dependence, is it likely that the whole is without cause to be to it a furnishing and government? Say, you hogs and dogs, do you not believe that which you see? or if your eyes be bored out that you cannot see, must you think there is no Sun nor light, because your eyes are in darkness and blindness? Can you behold all the secrets of nature? Is there nothing but a voice, a singing of birds, or an harmonious consort of musical instruments in the world? And yet who perceiveth these small things? Can you behold the wind? Can you see the sweet smell of fragrant flowers along the fields? Can you see the secrets of your own bodies, your entrails, your heart and your brain? And yet you cease not to believe that there are such things, except you be heartless and brainless indeed: Why then do you measure God by your own sight, and do not believe there is a God, because he is invisible, since that he manifesteth himself more apparently both to understanding and sense, than either voice, smell or wind? Do not your own oaths, blasphemies, and horrible cursings bear witness against you, when you swear by, despite and maugre him whom you deny to be? Doth not every thunderclap constrain you to tremble at the blast of his voice? If any calamity approach near unto or light upon you, or if death be threatened or set before your eyes, do not you then feel, in spite of all your reason, that the severe judgement of God doth waken up your dull and sleepy conscience to come to his trial? There was never yet any nation or people so barbarous, which by the persuasion and instinct of nature hath not always believed a certain deity, and to think otherwise is not only a derestable thing, but also most absurd, and so contrary to humane reason, that the very Paynims have very little tolerated such horrible blasphemy. The Athenians are witnesses hereof, who banished Protagoras their city and country, because in the Cic. of the nature of the gods, lib. 1. beginning of one of his books he called in question the deity, and caused his books to be burned openly. Neither showed they any less severity towards Diagoras, surnamed the Atheist: when being (as some say) injuriously Diodor. 13. and falsely accused of this crime, and for fear of punishment, fled away, they proclaimed, that whosoever did kill him should have a talon of silver in recompense, which in value is as much as six hundred crowns, after the rate of five and thirty shillings French to the crown. How much more than is the state of Christendom at this day to be lamented, which we see in many places infected with such a contagious pestilence, that divers men invenomed with this deadly poison, are so mischievous and wretched, as to make room for Atheism, by forbidding and hindering by all means possible, the course of the Gospel: wherein they make known what they are, and what zeal they bear to the religion and service of God, and with what affection they are led towards the good and safety of the commonwealth, and what hereafter is to be hoped of him: for where there is no knowledge nor fear of God, there also is no bridle nor bond to restrain and hold men back from doing evil: whereupon they grow to that pass to be most insolent and profane. This is the Divinity and goodly instruction that cometh beyond the mountains, from that scientifical University and College of the right reverend Masters, and from the excellent holiness of some of their Popes: whose manner of life is so dissolute, lascivious, dishonest, and Sardanapal like, that thereby their Vide li. 1. c. 20. Lucian, Porp●yry, ●ulian, etc. Bale. Atheism is evidently and notoriously known and talked of by every one. Hereof Pope Leo the tenth, a Florentine by birth, may serve for an example: who as he was a very effeminate person, given to all manner of delights and pleasure, having no other care but of himself, and his own filthy carcases ease; so had he no more taste at all, nor feeling of God and his holy Word, than a dog: he made the promises and threats contained in holy Scripture, and all else that we believe, matter to laugh at, and things frivolous and of no weight; mocking at the simplicity, the faith, and belief of Christians: for one day when Cardinal Bembus (who also showed himself to be none of the best Christians in the world, by his Venetian history, where as oft as he speaketh of God be useth the plural number, after the manner of heathen writers) alleged a place out of the Gospel, his damnable impudence was so great as to reply, That this fable of Christ had brought to him and such as he, no little profit. Oh stinking and cursed throat to belch out such monstrous blasphemy! do not these speeches bewray a villainous and abominable Atheist, if ever any were? Is not this to declare himself openly to be Antichrist? For he is Antichrist which denieth jesus to be Christ, and which denieth the Father and the Son, according as Saint john saith. Albeit in the mean while this cursed 1 john 2▪ 22. caitiff, that had as much religion as a dog, made show to be the protector and defender of the Catholic Faith, making war with all his power against Christ jesus in the person of his servant Luther. Now after he had by his pardons and indulgences drawn out a world of money, and heaped up great treasures by the maintenance of courtesans and whores, and had enriched his bastards, one day being at meat, he received news of the overthrow of the French in Lombardy, whereat he rejoiced out of measure, and for that good tidings doubled his good cheer; suddenly he was constrained to turn his copy from joy into sadness, from pleasure into grief and gnashing of teeth, by a most bitter and unlooked for death, which deprived him at once of all his pleasures, to make him drink the cup of God's fierce wrath, and to throw him down headlong into everlasting pains and torments which were provided for him. Pope Leo (saith Saint Martin of Belay in his second book of memorable things) hearing of the great loss which the Frenchmen sustained at Milan, took so great joy thereat, that a catarrh and an ague ensuing, killed him within three days after; a happy man indeed to die with joy. Pope julius the third was one of the same stamp, nothing inferior to the former in all manner of dissolute and infamous living, and vile and cursed talk, making known by his impiety, that he had none other god but Vide lib. 1. cap. 21. Heresy. his belly, and that he was none of Christ's fold, but one of Epicures crew; he was such a glutton, and so passionate in his lusts, and so profane a despiser of God and his Word, that once at supper being enraged, and blaspheming because they had not served in a cold Peacock which he commanded to be kept whole at dinner, though there were other hot on the table; a Cardinal that was present, desired him not to be so moved for so small a trifle: What (quoth he) if it pleased God to be so angry for eating of an apple, as to thrust Adam and Eve out of paradise, should not I which am his Vicar be angry for a Peacock, which is far more worth than any apple? See how this wicked wretch profaned the holy Scripture, and like an Epicure and Atheist mocked God: but he died of the gout, after he had been long plagued with it, together with other diseases, leaving none other good name behind him, save the report of a most wicked and abominable man. Philip Strozze, whom Paulus jovius reporteth to have been commonly bruited T●m. 2. lib. 36. to be an Atheist, was an Exile of Florence, and afterwards prisoner there in the time of Cosimus Medius, the Prince of that Commonwealth, (against whom this Philip had enterprised to make war) and being in prison, he killed himself with the sword of a Spaniard his keeper, which by oversight he had left behind, setting the point against his throat, and falling down upon it: so may all Atheists perish and come to naught. Francis Rabelais having sucked up also this poison, used like a profane villain, to make all Religion a matter to laugh and mock at; but God deprived him of his senses, that as he had led a brutish life, so he might die a brutish death; for he died mocking all those that talked of God, or made mention of mercy in his ears. How miserable was the end of Periers the author of that detestable book entitled Symbolum mundi, wherein he openly mocked at God and his Religion, even finally he fell into despair, and notwithstanding all that guarded him, killed himself. jodelle also a French tragical Poet, being an Epicure and Atheist, made a very tragical and most pitiful end; for he died in great misery and distress, even pined to death, after he had rioted out all his substance, and consumed his patrimony. Ligneroles the Courtier, to make himself seem a man of service, made open profession of Atheism; but his end and destruction came from thence whence he looked for credit and advancement. To bring the matter to an end, I will here set down a notable and strange thing that chanced in the reign of Lewis the ninth (as Enguerran de Monstrelet in his second volume of Histories recordeth it) upon the fifteenth day of june in the year of our Lord God 1464, there happened a strange thing in the Palace at Paris: So it was, that there was a matter in law to be tried betwixt the Bishop of Angiers, and a rich citicen, whom the Bishop charged to have spoken before many witnesses, that he believed not that there was either God or Devil, Heaven or Hell. Now whilst the Bishop's Lawyer laid to his charge these things, the place began to tremble very much wherein they were, and a stone fell down from the roof amongst them all, without hurting any; yet every man was sore afraid, and departed out of the house until the morrow; then the matter was begun again to be pleaded, which was no sooner in hand, but the chamber began afresh to shake, and one of the summers came forth of his mortisehole, falling downwards two foot, and there stayed: so that all that were within the hall looking to have been slain outright, ran out so violently, that some left behind them their caps, others their hoods, others their slippers: summarily, glad was he that could get out first; neither durst they plead any more causes in that place until it were mended. Thus much reporteth Enguerran, without mention of any decision of that matter. Now forasmuch as nothing happeneth by chance, it is most likely that God by that accident would give us to understand, both how monstrous and detestable all such speeches are, as also how men ought to fear and abhor them, seeing that the dumb and senseless creatures, and wood, beams, planks, and stones, and the earth itself (by nature steadfast and fixed) are so far from enduring them, that they are moved withal. There was a certain blasphemous wretch, that on a time being with his companions in a common lnne, carousing and making merry, asked them, Discipulus de temp. s●rm. 132. if they thought a man was possessed with a soul or no? Whereunto when some replied, That the souls of men were immortal, and that some of them after release from the body lived in heaven, others in Hell (for so the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles instructed them) he answered and swore, that he thought it nothing so; but rather that there was no soul in man to survive the body, but that heaven and hell were mere fables, and inventions of Priests to get gain by; and for himself, he was ready to sell his soul to any that would buy it: than one of his companions took up a cup of wine and said, Sell me thy soul for this cup of wine: Which he receiving, bade him take his soul; and drank up the wine. Now Satan himself was there in a man's shape (as commonly he is never far from such meetings) and bought it again of the other at the same price, and by and by bade him give him his soul; the whole company affirming it was meet he should have it, since he had bought it, not perceiving the Devil: but presently he laying hold of this souleseller, carried him into the air before them all, toward his own habitation, to the great astonishment and amazement of the beholders; and from that day to this he was never heard of, but tried to his pain that men had souls, and that hell was no fable, according to his godless and profane opinion. Pherecides (by birth a Syrian, a tragical Poet and a Philosopher by profession) Aelianus de Var. bist. l. 4. boasted impudently against his scholars of his prosperity, learning and wisdom; saying, that although he offered no sacrifices unto the gods, yet he led a more quiet and prosperous life, than those that were addicted to Religion, and therefore he passed not for any such vanity. But ere long his impiety was justly revenged; for the Lord struck him with such a strange disease, that out of his body issued such a slimy and filthy sweat, and engendered such a number of louse and worms, that his bowels being consumed by them, he died most miserably. At Hambourgh not long since there lived an impious wretch, that despised Theatr. histor. the preaching of the Gospel, and the Ministers thereof, accounting it as a vain thing not worthy the believing of any man: neither did he thus himself only; but also seduced many others, bringing them all to Atheism and ungodliness. Wherefore the Lord justly recompensed him for his impiety: for he that before had no sense nor feeling of God in his conscience, being touched with the finger of the Almighty, grew to the contrary, even to too much feeling and knowledge of God, that he fell into extreme despair, affirming now his sins to be past forgiveness, because he had withdrawn others from the truth, as well as himself, whereas before he thought himself guilty of no sin; and that God was so just, that he would not forgive him, whereas before he thought there was no God (so mighty is the operation of the Lord when he pleaseth to touch the conscience of man) finally, continuing in this desperate case, he threw himself from the roof of a house into a well, and not finding water enough to drown him, he thrust his head into the bottom thereof, till he had made an end of his life. In the year of our Lord 1502 there lived one Hermannus Biswicke, a Theatr. histor. grand Atheist, and a notable instrument of Satan, who affirmed, that the world never had beginning, as foolish Moses dreamt: and that there was neither Angels, nor devils, nor hell, nor future life, but that the souls of men perished with their bodies: besides, that Christ jesus was nothing else but a seducer of the people; and that the faith of Christians, and whatsoever else is contained in holy writs, was mere vanity. These articles full of impiety and blasphemy, he constantly avouched to the death; and for the same cause was together with his books burnt in Holland. A certain rich man at Holberstadium abounding with all manner of earthly commodities, gave himself so much to his pleasure, that he became Theatr. histor. besotted therewith; in such sort, that he made no reckoning of Religion, nor any good thing, but dared to say, that if he might lead such a life continually upon earth, he would not envy heaven, nor desire any exchange. Notwithstanding ere long (contrary to his expectation) the Lord cut him off by death, and so his desired pleasure came to an end: but after his death there appeared such diabolical apparitions in his house, that no man daring to inhabit it, it became desolate: for every day there appeared the Image of this Epicure sitting at a board, with a number of his guests, drinking, carousing, and making good cheer; and his table furnished with delicates, and attended on by many that ministered necessaries unto them, beside with minstrels, trumpeters, and such like. In sum, whatsoever he delighted in, in his life time, was there to be seen every day. The Lord permitting Satan to blear men's eyes with such strange shows, to the end that others might be terrified from such Epicurism and impiety. Not inferior to any of the former in Atheism and impiety, and equal to all in manner of punishment, was one of our own nation, of fresh and late memory, called Marlin, by profession a scholar, brought up from his Marl●w. youth in the University of Cambridge, but by practise a Playmaker, and a Poet of scurrility, who by giving too large a swing to his own wit, and suffering his lust to have the full reins, fell (not without just desert) to that great outrage and extremity, that he denied God, and his son Christ, and not only in word blasphemed the Trinity, but also (as it is credibly reported) wrote books against it, affirming our Saviour to be but a deceiver, and Moses to be but a seducer of the people, and the holy Bible to be but vain and idle stories, and all Religion but a device of policy. But see what a hook the Lord put in the nostrils of this barking dog: so it fell out, that as he purposed to stab one whom he ought a grudge unto, with his dagger, the other party perceiving, so avoided the stroke, that withal catching hold of his wrist, he stabbed his own dagger into his own head; in such sort, that notwithstanding all the means of surgery that could be wrought, he shortly after died thereof: the manner of his death being so terrible (for he even cursed and blasphemed to his last gasp, and together with his breath an oath flew out of his mouth) that it was not only a manifest sign of God's judgement, but also an horrible and fearful terror to all that beheld him. But herein did the justice of God most notably appear, in that he compelled his own hand which had written those blasphemies, to be the instrument to punish him, and that in his brain, which had devised the same. Another also of our own nation is not to be overpassed, who for an Atheist and an Epicure might compare with any of the former, and for the judgement of God upon him doth give place to none. It was a gentleman of Berkshire, whose name I forbear to express, a man of great possessions. This man was an open contemner of God and all Religion, a professed Atheist, and a scorner of the Word of God and Sacraments; insomuch, as I have heard reported of very credible persons, being a witness at the baptising of a child, he would needs have it called Beelzebub. Besides this, he was given over to all sensuality of the flesh, keeping in his house continually notorious strumpets, and that openly without shame: his mouth was so accustomed to swearing, that he could scarce speak without an oath. This miserable man, or rather beast, having continued long in this damnable course of life, at last Gods heavy vengeance found him out: for upon a certain day riding abroad a hunting with another companion, as they were discoursing of many vain matters, it pleased Almighty God of a sudden to strike him with sudden death: for falling suddenly to the crupper of his horse backward, he was taken down stark dead, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth after a fearful manner, and became a terrible example to all wicked Atheists, of God's justice. Hither I might add the examples of others, who having been in high places of favour in former times, are fallen like Lucifer from their heaven, that is, their worldly felicity, and live like him in chains of imprisonments. These had wont (being in their bravery) to mock at all Religion, and to make themselves merry with scoffing at the holy Scripture, but the Lord hath brought them down, and plucked the feathers of their pride, to teach them to know there is a God, and that Religion is no matter of policy, but Gods own ordinance, to bring men to blessedness; and let them be assured, if they repent not, the Lord will yet further execute his vengeance upon them, and make them more manifest spectacles of his justice. Many more modern and homebred examples I could add; of some that were hanged, some that died desperate, some that were deprived of their senses, having been notorious Atheists and Epicures in their lives; but I hope these already named are sufficient to prove, that the Lord of heaven observeth the ways of men, and rewardeth every man according to his works, especially such as strive to deny his Essence-or his son Christ. I would to God (and I pray it from my heart) that all Atheists in this Realm, and in the world beside, would by the remembrance and consideration of these examples either forsake their horrible impiety, or that they might in like manner come to destruction; and so that abominable sin which so flourisheth amongst men of greatest name, might either be quite extinguished and rooted out, or at least smothered and kept under, that i● durst not show it head any more in the world's eye. CHAP XXII. Touching the transgressors of the second Commandment, by Idolatry. WE have hitherto seen how and in what sort they, that either by malice, or impiety, or Apostasy, or heresy, or otherwise have transgressed the first Commandment have been punished: Let us now consider the judgements that have befallen Idolaters, the breakers of the second Commandment. But before we proceed, we must know, that as it is required of us by the first Commandment, to hold God for our true and only God, to repose all our whole trust and confidence in him, and call upon him, serve and worship him alone; so in the second to this the contrary to this is forbidden; which is, to do any manner of service, honour, and reverence by devotion to Idols, forasmuch he is a Spirit (that is to say, of a spiritual nature and Essence, which is infinite and incomprehensible) so loveth he a spiritual john 4. worship and service, which is answerable to his nature, and not by Images and pictures, and such other outward and corruptible means, which he hath in no wise commanded: wherefore Isaiah the Prophet reproving the folly and vanity of Idolaters, saith, To whom will you liken God, or what similitude will you set up unto him: Therefore if it be not Gods will, that under pretence and colour of his own name, any Image or picture should be adored (being a thing not only inconvenient, but also absurd and unseemly) much less can he abide to have them worshipped under the name and title of any creature whatsoever. And for this cause gave he the second Commandment, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image etc. which prohibition Chap. 40. 18. the Israelites broke in the desert, when they set up a golden calf, and bowed themselves before it after the manner of the Paynims, giving it the honour which was only due to God: whereby they incurred the indignation of Almighty God, who is strong and jealous of suffering any such slander to be done unto his name: wherefore he caused th●●e thousand of them to be strooken and wounded to death by the hand of the Levites, at the commandment of Moses, to make his anger against Idolatry more Exod. 32. manifest, by causing them to be executioners of his revenge, who were ordained for the ministry of his Church, and the service of the Altar and Tabernacle. Howbeit for all this, the same people not long after, fell back into the same sin, and bowed themselves before strange gods, and through the allurements of the daughters of Moab, joined themselves to Belphegor: Numb. 27. for which cause the Lord being insenced, struck them with so grievous a plague, that there died of them in one day about twenty and four thousand persons. And albeit that after all this, being brought by him into the land of promise, he had forbidden and threatened them, for cleaving to the Idols of the nations, whose land they possessed, yet were they so prone to Idolatry, that notwithstanding all this, they fell to serve Baal and Astaroth: wherefore the fire of God's wrath was inflamed against them, and he gave them over to be a spoil and prey unto their enemies on every side, so that for many years, sometimes the Moabites oppressed them, otherwhiles the Madianites, and ever after the death of any of their judges and Rulers which God raised up for their deliverance, some grievous punishment befell them: for then (being without law or government) every man did that which seemed good in his own eyes, and so turned aside from the right way. Now albeit these examples may seem to have some affinity with Apostasy, yet because the ignorance and rudeness of the people was rather the cause of their falling away from God, than any wilful affection that reigned in them, therefore we place them in this rank, as well as they have been always brought up and nuzzled in Idolatry. One of this c●●w was Ochosias' King of juda, son of joram, who having 2 Chron 22. before him an evil precedent of his wicked father, and a worse instruction and bringing up of his mother Athaliah, who together with the house of Achab pricked him forward to evil, joined himself to them and to their Idols, and for that cause was wrapped in the same punishment and destruction with joram the King of Israel, whom jehu slew together with the Princes of juda, and many of his near kinsmen. And to be short, Idolatry hath been the decay and ruin of the kingdom of juda, as at all other times, so especially under joachas son of josias, 2 Kings 23. that reigned not above three months in jerusalem, before he was taken and led captive into Egypt by the King thereof, and there died: from which time the whole land became tributary to the King of Egypt. And not long after, it was utterly destroyed by the forces of Nabuchadnezzar King of Babel, that came against jerusalem and took it, and carried 2 Kings 24. 25 King joachim with his mother, his Princes, his servants, and the treasurers of the Temple, and his own house, into Babylon; and finally took Zedechias that fled away, and before his eyes caused his sons to be slain: which as soon as he had beheld, commanded them also to be pulled out, and so binding him in chains of iron, carried him prisoner to Babylon; putting all the Princes of judah to the sword, consuming with fire the Temple, with the King's Palace, and all the goodly buildings of jerusalem. And thus the whole kingdom (though by an especial prerogative, consecrated and ordained of God himself) ceased to be a kingdom, and came to such an end, that it was never reestablished by God: it is no marvel then if the like happened to the kingdom of Israel, which was after a sort begun and confirmed by the filthy idolatry of jeroboams calves, which as his successors maintained or favoured more or less, so were they exposed U idle. 1. c. 19 to more or less plagues and encumbrances. Nadab, jeroboam son, being nuzzled and nurtured up in Idol worship, 1 Kings 15. 27 after the example of his father, received a condign punishment for his iniquity: for Baasa the son of Ahijah put both him and all the off spring of jeroboams house to the sword, and reigned in his stead: who also being no whit better than those whom he had slain, was punished in the person of Ela his son, whom Zambri also his servant slew. And this again usurping the crown, enjoyed it but seven days, at the end whereof (seeing himself in danger in the city of Tirza, taken by Amri, whom the people had chosen for their King) went into the palace of the King's house, and burned himself. As for Achab, he multiplied Idolatry in Israel, and committed more wickedness than all his predecessors, wherefore the wrath of God was stretched out against him and his; for he himself was wounded to death in battle by the Syrians, his son joram slain by jehu, and threescore and ten of his children put to death in Samaria by their governors and chief of the city, sending their heads in baskets to jehu. Above all, a most notable and manifest example of God's judgement was seen in the death of jezabel his wife, that had been his spur and provoker to all mischief, when by her Eunuches and most trusty servants, at the commandment of jehu, she was thrown down out of a window, and trampled under the horse feet, and last of all devoured of dogs. Moreover, the greatest number of the kings of Israel that succeeded him, were murdered one after another: so that the kingdom fell to such a low decline, that it became first tributary to the King of Assyria, and afterward invaded and subverted by him, and the inhabitants transported into his land, whence they never returned, but remained scattered here and there like vagabonds, and all for their abominable Idolatry. Which ought to be a lesson to all people, Princes, and Kings, that seeing that God spared not these two Realms of juda and Israel, but destroyed and rooted them out from the earth, much less will he spare any other kingdom and Monarchy which continue by their Images and Idol-worship, to stir up his indignation against them. CHAP. XXV. Of many evils that have come upon Christendom for Idolatry. IF we consider and search out the cause of the ruin of the East Empire, and of so many famous and flourishing Churches as were before time in the greatest part of Europe, and namely in Greece, we shall find that Idolatry hath been the cause of all: for even as it got footing and increase in their dominions, so equally did the power of Saracens and Turkish tyranny take root and foundation among them, and prospered so well, that the rest of the world trembled at the report thereof; God having raised and fortified them, as before time he had done the Assyrians and Babylonians, as whips and scourges to chasten the people and Nations of the world that wickedly had abused his holy Gospel, and bearing the name of Christians, had become Idolaters: for no other name than this can be given them, that in devotion do any manner of homage to Images and pictures, whatsoever may superficially be alleged to the contrary. For be it the Image either of Prophet, Apostle, or Christ jesus himself, yet it is necessary that the law of God stand whole and sound, which saith, Thou shalt make thyself no graven Image, nor any likeness of things either in heaven above, or in earth beneath, thou shalt not how down to them, nor worship them, etc. Wherefore he performed the part of a good Bishop, that finding a veil spread in the entrance of a Church door, wherein the Image of Epiphan. John Bishop of jerusalem. Christ or of some other Saint was pictured, rend it in pieces, with these words, That it was against the authority of the sacred Scriptures, to have any Image of Christ set up in the Church. After the same manner, Serenus Bishop of Marscilla, beat down and banished all Images out of his Churches, as occasions of Idolatry: and to shun them the more, it was ordained in the Elibertine Council, that no Image nor picture should be set up in any Church: for which cause also the Emperor Leo the third, by an open Edict commanded his subjects to cast out of their Temples all pictures Paul. Diacon. lib. 6. cap. 14. and statues of Saints, Angels, and whatsoever else, to the intent that all occasions of Idolatry might be taken away: yea and he burned some, and punished divers otherwise, that in this regard were not pliant, but disobedient to his commandment. After which time, when Images were recalled into Greece and into Constantinople (the chief city and seat of the East Empire) it came to pass by a great and dreadful (yet just) judgement of God, that this famous and renowned city, in the world's eye impregnable, after long siege, and great and furious assaults) was at length taken by the Turks, who having won the breach, and entered with fury, drove the poor Emperor Palaeologus (even till then fight for the city's defence) to that extremity, that in retiring among the press of his own soldiers, he was thronged and trampled to death; and his slain body being found, was beheaded, and his head contemptuously carried about the city upon a lance. Now after the massacre of many thousand men, to make up a complete, & absolute cruelty, they drew the Empress with her daughters and many other ladies and gentlewomen to a banquet, where after many vile and horrible wrongs and disgraces, they killed and tore them in pieces in most monstrous manner. In all which, the execution of Gods most just wrath for Idolatry did most lively appear: which sin, accompanied with many other execrable and vile vices, must needs draw after it a grievous and terrible punishment, to serve for example to others that were to come: neither was it a thing by chance, or hap-hazzard, that the Christians were made a mocking stock to them in that woeful day, when in their bloody triumphs they caused a Crucifix to be carried through the streets in contempt, and throwing dirt upon it, cried in their Language, This is the gallant god of Christians. And thus did God licence and permit these savage Turks to commit every day grievous outrages, and to make great wastes and desolations in all Christendom, till that they grew so mighty, that it is to be feared lest the saying Lactant. lib. 1. Institut. ca 15. of Lactantius touching the return of the Empire into Asia, be not verified and accomplished very shortly, if there be no amendment practised: for we see by woeful experience, that almost all the forces which Christian Princes have mustered from all quarters, in pretence to resist their fury and rage, have not only been bootless and unprofitable, but also that which is worse, given them further occasion by their bloody victories, and wonderful slaughter of so many millions of men, to make them more obstinate in their detestable Mahometism & Turkish Religion than they were before: for they make their boasts thereof, and rear up trophies of their cruelties, taking no more pity of the vanquished, than the Butcher doth of a Sheep allotted to the slaughter. Whereof we have a pitiful example in the overthrow of the French army, which john the son of Philip Duke of Burgundy led against the Turk Bajazet, and by the treachery and cowardice of the Hungarians, who in the time of battle turned their backs and fled, was overcome: in that this wicked and cruel Tiger expressly charged, That all the prisoners (in number many) should be murdered one after another, which was readily executed before his eyes; so that saving the chief Captains and certain few Lords of the company, that were spared in respect of great ransoms, there escaped not one alive. Besides these general calamities, the Lord hath particularly shown forth his indignation against private persons and places for Idolatry: as in Spoletium at one time there perished by an earthquake three hundred and Cent. 4. cap. 3. fifty, whilst they were offering sacrifice unto Idols. At Rome under the Empire of Alexander Severus, after that the left hand of the Image of jupiter Cent. 3. cap. 14. was miraculously melted, the Priests going about to pacify the anger of their gods with Lectisterns and sacrifices, four of them together with the Altar and Idol were stricken in pieces with a thunderbolt, and suddenly such a terrible darkness overspread all the city, that most of the inhabitants ran out into the fields all amazed. Moreover, did not the Lord send lightning from heaven to inflame that notorious Temple of Idolatry, of Apollo, or rather the Devil of Delphos, in the time of julian the wicked Theodor. lib: 3. cap. 9 & 10. Apostate, whilst he was exercising tortures upon one Theodorus a Christian, and did it not consume the Image of Apollo to ashes? The famous and rich Temple of jupiter at Apamea, how strangely did it come to ruin and destruction? For when the Precedent and Tribunes (who had in Nicephorus lib. 12. c. 27. charge to destroy it) thought it a thing almost impossible, by reason of the strength of the walls, and matter of it; Marcellus the Bishop undertook the labour, and found out a man that promised to shake and root up the foundation of it by fire; but when he had put it in practice, a black Devil appeared and hindered the natural operation of the fire: which when Marcellus perceived, he by earnest and zealous prayer drove away the Devil, and so the fire rekindled and consumed it to nothing. In all which examples we may see the wonderful indignation of God against Idoll-worshippers when by such strange and extraordinary means he bringeth them to destruction. And this doubtless is no new course, for even since the beginning of the world (if we consult Histories) we shall find, that well nigh all the kingdoms, places, persons, and countries that have been any wise infected with this sin, have still come to some ruin or other, and to some great overthrow, and their Idolatry suppressed by some notable and strange accident. Whereof Saint Hierome may be a witness, who affirmeth, That when jesus being a child was carried into Egypt for fear of Herod, all the Idols of Egypt fell down, and all their miracles became mute, which the Prophet Isaias foreseeing, saith, Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud. Isay 19 1. and shall come into Egypt, and the Idols of Egypt shall melt in the midst of her. Besides, the general silence of the Devil in his Oracles throughout the world presently upon Christ's Incarnation, is a thing known and confessed of all men. Notwithstanding all which, the holy Pope will still maintain his Idolatry, albeit the Lord hath made manifest tokens of his indignation against it. As appeareth by that which happened in the year 1451, being the Pope's jubilee, when such a concourse of people was made from all quarters of the world to honour that superstitious day: for the people being upon Adrian's bridge, were so thrust together, that two hundred men and three horses lost their lives, being trampled upon and stifled to death: many fell into the water over the bridge, and so perished; of whom an hundred and thirty were buried at Saint Celsus. And these are the fruits of their Indulgences, which are too much bought and sought for, and of their jubilies, proceeding from the Bishop of Rome his impious and sacrilegious zeal. Now to eschew these and such like misfortunes; the true and only means is, an unfeigned diversion from all Idolatry and Superstition, and whatsoever else contrarieth the pure service of God, and a conversation unto him, to serve him in spirit and truth, as the Scripture exhorteth. CHAP. XXVI. Of those that at any time corrupted and mingled God's Religion with humane inventions, or went about to change or disquiet the discipline of the Church. NOw seeing that God hath set down a certain form of doctrine and instruction, according to which he would have us to serve him, and established a kind of discipline to be observed and maintained of every man inviolably, it behoveth therefore every Christian to conform himself unto this order; and not to be guided by every fickle imagination of his own brain, or every rash presumption that ariseth in himself, but only by the direct rule of God's Word, which only we ought to follow. By means of neglecting which duty, many vain and pernicious ceremonies and strange superstitions have been brought in and swayed mightily: by reason whereof great Controversies and Disputations are taken up at this day. Albeit indeed it be a thing manifest, that being not grounded and propped upon the Anchor of the Scriptures, they ought to be abolished, what brave outward show in appearance soever they bear. And that they set abroach things are not blameless and excusable before God, it appeareth by the punishment of Nadab and Abihu, who being Levit 20. Numb 34. ordained Priests of God, to sacrifice and offer only those things which were commanded in the Law, yet were so evil advised as to offer strange incense and perfume upon the Altar, received at the very instant of the fact condign punishment for their presumption: for suddenly this their strange fire invaded them so fiercely, and so piercingly, that they were soon burned and consumed therewith: and so they were not spared, albeit they were Aaron's sons, even his first borne, and Moses Nephews; that by them all other might fear and take warning how to enterprise any thing in God's service contrary to his express Ordinance. This moderation also aught to be observed in the Church Discipline, to wit, that every man contain himself within the Precincts of his vocation, and that none intrude themselves into any charge without being called of God thereunto: whereof Corah greatly faulted, when being not Numb. 16. content with the dignity of a Levites office which God had bestowed upon him, he ambitiously aspired to the Priest's office, and besides this stirred up and drew to his faction Dathan and Abiram, and many others, to the number of two hundred and fifty persons, against Moses and Aaron: but he drew withal the vengeance of God down upon himself and all that took his part in most horrible and fearful manner: for some of them, to wit, the two hundred and fifty, who, notwithstanding Moses reproose, were so hardy and presumptuous as to present themselves the next morrow after the tumult, openly before the Tabernacle, to offer Incense, as if they had been true Priests, were for their flame of Ambition and Pride, set on fire and consumed with the flame of God's wrath: others, to wit, Dathan and Abiram, for their audacious enterprise against God, in the person of his servants, Moses and Aaron, and their high mindedness and rebellion, in not coming out of their Tents at the commandment of Moses, were thrown down into the lowest pit, the earth opening her mouth, and swallowing them up alive with their Tents and Families, and all that belonged unto them, to the fearful amazement of the whole people, that were beholders of this Spectacle. Oziah King of juda, carried himself a long while uprightly and modestly 2 Chron. 26. in the service of God: but after God had given him many great victories over his enemies the Philistims, the Arabians, the Amorites, and that his renown and fear was spread not only to his neighbours, but also to strange nations, by and by his heart was puffed up with pride and self-conceit, that he dared to enter the Temple of God, and burn Incense upon the Altar, which belonged only to the Priest's office to do: and not obeying the strong resistance and countermand of the good Priests that had charge of the Temple, he was strucken with a Leprosy, and hastily carried out and sequestered from the society of men all his life time. And so this proud King that foolishly took upon him more than was lawful and convenient, was forced to recoil, and to be still, being humbled under so grievous a scourge as never for sooke him till his death. When the Ark of the Covenant was in bringing from Abinadabs' house 1 Sam. 6: 1 Chron. 13. in Kyriathjarim, in a Cart guided by Vzza and Ahio, Abinadabs' sons, it fell out on the way, that it being shaken by the Oxen, (unfit Servitors for such a work) Vzza put forth his hand to hold it; but therein he went beyond his charge, and therefore was punished forthwith with present death, for his inconsiderate rashness: for albeit he was both a Levite, and thought no evil in his heart, yet in no respect was be licenced to touch the Ark, being a thing lawful for the Priests only. Let therefore every one be advised by these Examples, to follow the rule in serving God, that is by him designed, in all simplicity, modesty, and obedience, without altering or declining, or undertaking any thing above or beside their calling. CHAP. XXVII. Of Perjuries. THe third Commandment (which is, Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain) is first and especially broken by Perjury, when God is so lightly esteemed, nay, so despised, that without any regard had to his Name, that is to say, to his Greatness, Majesty, Power, Divine virtue, and fearful justice, (for these be his names) men by fraud and malice abuse their Oaths, either in denying that which is true, or affirming that which is untrue, or neglecting their promises made and vowed to others: for this is neither to have respect unto his presence, who is every where, nor reverence to his Majesty, who is God of Heaven and Earth, but rather to make him bear witness to our lie and falsehood; as if he approved it, or had no power to revenge the injury and dishonour done to him. And therefore against such, in threatening words he denounceth judgement, that He will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain. Howbeit very many overboldly give themselves over to this sin, making little or no conscience to cousin one another even by forswearing: whereby they give most clear evidence against themselves, that they have very little fear of God before their eyes, and are not guided by any other rule save of their own affections by which they square out and build their oaths, and pull them done again at their pleasures; for let it be a matter of vantage, and then they will keep them, but straightway if a contrary persuasion come in their brain, they will cancel them by and by: wherein they deal far worse and more injuriously with God, than with their known enemies; for he that contrary to his sworn faith deceiveth his enemy, declareth that therein he feareth him, but feareth not God; and careth for him, but contemneth God. It was therefore not without good reason that all antiquity ever marked them with the coat of infamy that forswore themselves. And thereupon it is that Homer so often taunteth the Trojans by reason of their so usual Perjuries. The Egyptians Diod. l. 2. c. 2. had them in detestation as profane persons, and reputed it so Capital a crime, that whosoever was convinced thereof was punished by death. The ancient Romans reverenced nothing more than faith in public affairs, for which cause they had in their City a Temple dedicated to it: wherein for a more straight bond they used solemnly to promise and swear to all the conditions of Peace, Truces, and Bargains, which they made, and to curse those which went about first to break them: for greater solemnity and confirmation hereof, they were accustomed at those times to offer sacrifices to the image of faith for more reverence sake. Hence it was that Attilius Regulus, chief Captain of the Roman Army against the Carthaginians, was so highly commended of all men, because when he was overcome and taken prisoner, and sent to Rome, he only for his oaths sake which he had sworn, returned again to the enemy, albeit he knew what grievous torments were provided for him at his return. Others also that came with him, though they were entreated, and by their Parents, Wives, and Allies, instantly urged not to return to Hannibal's Camp, could in no wise be moved thereunto: but because they had sworn to the enemy, if the Romans did not accord to those conditions which were offered, to come again, they preferred the bond and reverence of their promised faith, though accompanied with perpetual captivity, before their private commodities, and nearest link of affection. But two of these ten (for so many were they) falsified their oath, and whatsoever missed they might cast to darken and disguise their Perjury with, yet were they condemned of all men for cowards, and faint-hearted Traitors: insomuch that the Censors also nored them with infamy for the fact; whereat they took such grief and inward sorrow, that being weary of their lives, they slew themselves. Now what can they pretend that profess themselves Christians and Catholics, to excuse their Perjuries, seeing that the very Heathen cry out so loud and clear, That an oath and Cic. offic. lib. 1. faith is so sacredly to be kept towards our enemies? This is one of the greatest virtues and commendations which the Psalmist attributeth to the faithful man, & him that feareth God, and whom God avoucheth for his own, Not to falsify his oath that he sweareth, though it be to his damage. The Psal. 15. Iosh 9 Gibeonites although they were so execrable a people, that for their great and horrible wickednesses and ahominations they might be well esteemed for Heretics, yet the Princes of Israel, after they had sworn and given their faith unto them, would in no wise retract or go against their oath, albeit, therein they were deceived by them, for fear of incurring the wrath of God, that suffereth not a Perjurer to go unpunished. Upon what ground or example of holy Scripture then may that Doctrine of the Council of Constance be founded, the purport whereof is, That a man ought not to keep his faith with Heretics? I omit to speak how these good Fathers (by Heretics) meant those men who fearing God, relied themselves upon his Word, and rejected the foolish and superstitious inventions of men. And under what colour can the Popes usurp this Authority, to quit and discharge subjects of their oath wherewith they are bound to their Superiors? yet this was the impious audacity of Pope Zacharia, Pope Boniface the 8, and Pope Benedict de la Lune, who freed the Frenchmen from their duty and obedience which they ought unto their Platina. Kings. In like manner disgorged Gregory the 7 his choler and spite against the Emperor Henry, by forbidding his Subjects to be his Subjects, Enguerran de Monstrelet. and to yield that obedience unto him which Subjects were bound to do. How be it if an oath be made either against God, or to the damage and hurt of our neighbour (it being for that cause unlawful) it behoveth us to know that we ought to revoke it, lest we fall into the sin of Saul and 1 Sam. 14. Marc. 6. Herod. Now what punishments God hath laid upon Perjuries, these Examples that follow shall make known unto us. Osee the last King of Israel, being made (by God's just judgement for his sins) subject and tributary to Salmanazar King of Ashur, without regard to the bond wherewith 2 Kings 17. he was bound, and to his faith which he had plighted, conspired and entered league with the King of Egypt, against him: but he discovering their seditious and privy conspiracies, assembled his forces, spoilt his country, and bade them war on all sides; laying siege to the chief City of his Kingdom, after three years took it, together with the forsworn King, whom he put in close prison, and kept very straightly, leading him and his whole Nation captive into Syria, to end their days in misery: of which evil, as of all others that happened in that war, the disloyalty and Treason of Osee was the next and chiefest cause. Among the beadroll of sins which Zedechias the last King of juda is noted withal in holy Scripture, Perjury is one of the count: for notwithstanding he received his Kingdom of Nabuchadnezzar, and had sworn 2 Chron. 36. fealty to him, as to his Sovereign, yet broke he his oath in rebelling against him; which was the very cause of his destruction: for Nabuchadnezzar to be revenged on his disloyalty, sent a puissant Army against jerusalem, which took, spoilt, and burned it, and overtook the Perjurer in his flight, and first made him a beholder of the slaughter of his own children, and then had his own eyes bored out, and was carried in chains to Babylon, serving for a spectacle to all posterity, of God's wondrous judgements upon Perjurers. And thus both the Kingdoms of Israel and juda were for breach and falsifying their Oath quite extinguished and razed out. The great deceiver and most treacherous person, one of them, that ever Plutarch. Greece saw, was Lisander the Lacedaemonian, a busybody, full of cunning, subtlety, and craft, and one that performed the most of his acts of War, more by fraud and stratagems, than by any other means: this was he that said, That when the Lion's skin (meaning Fortitude) would not serve, it was needful then to sow unto it the Fox's case (meaning subtlety) he made so little reckoning of forswearing himself, that he would often say, That children were to be cozened with trifles, as Dice and Cockles, and old men with Oaths: but with deceitful tricks he was occasion of much evil, and divers murders: but at last this Fox making war against the Thebans, for that they had taken part with the Athenians against him, and given them succour and means for recovering their liberty, was taken in the trap, and slain at the foot of their walls. Metius Suffetius, General of the Albans, procured the Fidenates to enter Livy. war against the Romans, contrary to his oath which he had sworn unto them, and being called by the Romans to their succour, and placed in an out Wing to help if need were, whilst the rest were fight, he drove away the time in ordering his men, and ranging them into squadrons, to see which part should have the best, that he might join himself unto that side. But Tullus the Roman King having obtained the victory, and seeing the cowardice, subtlety, and treason of this Alban, adjudged him to a most strange and vile death, answerable to his fact: for as he had in his body a double heart swimming between two streams, and now ready to go this way, now that, so was his body dismembered and torn in pieces by four horses, drawing four contrary ways: to serve for an example to all others to be more fearful and true observers of their oaths than he was. In old time the Africans and Carthagenians were generally noted for perfidy and falsehood above other Nations; the cause of which bruit was principally that old subtle Soldier Annibal, an old deceiver, and a notorious Perjurer, who by his crafts and cozenings which he wrought without Liv. Decad. 3. lib. 1. Religion or fear of God, raised up the evil report. This subtle Fox having made war in Italy sixteen years, and all that while troubled and vexed the Romans sore, after many victories, wastings of Countries, ruins, and sackings of Cities, and cruel bloodshed, was at length overcome by Scipio in his own Country; and perceiving that his Countrymen imputed the cause of their fall unto him, and sought to make him odious to the Romans, by laying to his charge the breach of that league which was betwixt them, he fled to Antiochus King of Syria, not so much for his own safeties fake, as to continue his war against the Romans, which he knew Antiochus to be in hammering, because they came so near unto his Frontiers: but he found his hope frustrate; for King Antiochus, for the small trust he affied in him, and the daily suspicion of his treachery, would not commit any charge of his Army into his hand, although for valiantness and prowess he was second to none of that Age. It came to pass therefore, that as soon as Antiochus was overthrown of the Romans, he was constrained to fly to Prusius King of Bythinia, that took him into his protection: but being as treacherous himself, he soon devised a means to betray him to Quintius, the General of the Roman Army: which when Annibal understood, and seeing that all passages for evasion were closed up, and that he could not any way escape, he poisoned himself, and so miserably ended his treacherous life. And thus the deceit which he practised towards others, fell at length upon his own Pate, to his utter destruction. Albeit that Perjurers and forswearers were to the Egyptians very odious justine. and abominable (as we said before) yet among them there was one Ptolemy, who to bereave his sister Arsinoe of her Kingdom, stained himself with this villainous spot, and thereby brought his purpose to pass; for pretending and protesting great affection and love unto her in the way of marriage (for such incestuous marriages were there through a perverse and damnable custom not unlawful) and avowing the same by solemn oath before her Ambassadors, did notwitstanding soon make known the drift of his intent, which was to make himself King: for being arrived in show to consummate Marriage, at his first approach he caused his Nephews (her sons which she had by her former husband Lysimachus, and were come forth from their mother to give him entertainment on the way) to be slain; yea, and lest they should escape his hands, he pursued them even to their mother's bosom, and there murdered them, and after (expelling her also from her Kingdom) caught the Crown, and reigned Tyrant in her room: all which mischief he committed by reason of the faithless oath which he had taken: and although that in such a case no oath ought to be of force to confirm so lawful affiance (though it be pronounced and taken by the name and in the Temple of their Idols) yet notwithstanding it being done with an evil conscience, and to an evil purpose, he that did it can be no less than a Perjurer. But for this and other vices it came to pass, that ere long he was conquered by the Gauls, who taking him in battle, slew him and cut off his head, and having fastened it upon a Lance, carried it in sign of victory and triumph up and down the host. A most notable example of the punishment of Perjury and falsehood in Vladislaus King of Hungary and his Army destroyed by the Turks, is set down in Bonfinus his Hungarian History, after this manner. It fell out Bonfinus. that the King of Hungary had so well bestirred himself against the Turks, that Amurathes was glad (upon unequal conditions, and even to his own hurt, and their good) to conclude a peace with him: wherein it was agreed, that certain Provinces should be restored to the Hungarian, which otherwise could not have been recovered but by great loss of men. This league being made, and the Articles thereof engrossed in both Languages, with a solemn oath taken on both parties for the consirmation of the same; behold the Cardinal of Florence, Admiral of the Navy which lay upon the Sea Hellespont (now called Saint George's Arm, which divideth Turkey It is so called by the French men, but more commonly, the Straits of Castille. from Greece) sendeth Letters to the King of Hungary to persuade him to disannul and repeal this new concluded peace: This practice likewise did Cardinal julian, the Pope's Legate in Hungary, with might and main help forward: which two good pillars of the Church, inspired with on and the same spirit, wrought together so effectually with the king, that at that instance he falsified his oath, broke the peace, and sent to Constantinople to denounce War afresh; and forthwith whilst their Ambassadors were retiring their Garrisons out of Misia, to bring them into their hands again, and had sent forty thousand crowns for the ransom of great men which were prisoners, and had restored the Realm of Rascia and all their Captives, according to the tenor of their late league, not knowing of this new breach: in the mean while (I say) he set forward his Army towards the great Turks in all expedition. Now the Turks secure and misdoubting nothing, were set upon unawares by the King, yet putting themselves in defence, there grew a long and sharp battle, till Amurathes perceiving his side to decline, and almost overcome, pulled out of his bosom the Articles of the aforesaid peace, & lifting up his eyes to heaven, uttered these speeches: O jesus Christ, these are the leagues that thy Christians have made and confirmed by swearing by thy name, and yet have broken them again: if thou be'st a God, as they say thou art, revenge this injury which is offered both thee and me, and punish those Truce-breaking Varlets. He had scarce ended these speeches, but the Christians battle and courage began to rebate, Vladislaus himself was slain by the I●nizaries, his horse being first hurt; his whole Army was discomfited, and all his people put to the sword, saving a few that fled: amongst whom was the right reverend Ambassador of the Pope, who as soon as he had thrust in over the ears, withdrew himself (forsooth) far enough from blows or danger. Then followed a horrible butchery of people, and a lamentable noise of poor souls ready to be slaughtered, for they spared none, but haled them miserably in pieces, and executed a just and rigorous judgement of God for that vile treachery and perjury which was committed. CHAP. XXVIII. More examples of the like subject. But let us add a few more examples of fresher memory, as touching this ungodly Perjury: And first King Philip of Macedony, who never made reckoning of keeping his oaths, but swore and unswore them at his pleasure, and for his commodity: doubtless it was one of the chiefest causes why he and his whole Progeny came quickly to destruction (as testifieth Pausanias') for he himself being 46 years old, was In Areadicis. slain by one of his own servants; after which Olympias his wife made away two of his sons, Anideus, and another which he had by Cleopatra, Attalus his niece, whom she sod to death in a Cauldron: his daughter Thessalonicaes children likewise all perished: and lastly, Alexander after all his great victories, in the midst of his pomp, was poisoned at Babylon. Gregory Tours maketh mention of a wicked Varlet in France among the people called Averni, that forswearing himself in an unjust cause, had his De confessoribus. tongue so presently tied, that he could not speak but roar, and so continued, till by his earnest prayers and repentance the Lord restored to himself the use of that unruly member. There were in old time certain people of Italy called Aequi, whereof the memory remaineth only at this day, for they were utterly destroyed Liv. lib. 3: by Q. Cincinnatus. These having solemnly made a league with the Romans, and sworn unto it with one consent, afterward chose Gracchus Cluilius for their Captain, and under his conduct spoilt the Fields and Territories of the Romans, contrary to the former league and oath. Whereupon the Romans sent Q. Fabius, P. Volumnius, and A. Posthumius Ambassadors to them, to complain of their wrongs and demand satisfaction: but their Captain so little esteemed them, that he bade them deliver their message to an Oak standing thereby, whilst he attended other business. Then one of the three turning himself towards the Oak, spoke on this manner: Thou hallowed oak, and whatsoever else belongeth to the gods in this place, hear and bear witness of this disloyal part, and favour our just complaints, that with the assistance of the gods we may be revenged on this injury. This done they returned home, and shortly after gathering a power of men, set upon and over came that truce-breaking Nation. In the year of Rome built, 317, the Fidenates revolted from the friendship and league of the Romans, to Toluminus the king of the Veyans, and adding cruelty to treason, killed four of their ambassadors that came to know the cause of their defection: which disloyalty the Romans not brooking, undertook war against them, and notwithstanding all their private and foreign strength, overthrew and slew them. In this battle it is said, that a Tribune of the soldiers seeing Toluminus bravely galloping up and down, and encouraging his soldiers, and the Romans trembling at his approach, said, Is this the breaker of leagues, and violater of the law of nations? If there be any holiness on earth, my sword shall sacrifice him to the souls of our slain ambassadors; and therewithal setting spurs to his horse, he unhorsed him, and fastening him to the earth with his spear, cut off his perfidious head: whereat his army dismayed, retired, and became a slaughter to the enemies. Albertus' Duke of Franconia having slain Conrade the Earl of Lotharingia, Melanct. Chr. Lib. 4 brother to Lewis the fourth, then Emperor, and finding the Emperor's wrath incensed against him for the same, betook himself to a strong castle at Bamberg; from whence the Emperor neither by force nor policy could remove him for seven years' space, until Atto the Bishop of Mentz by treachery delivered him into his hands. This Atto under show of friendship repaired to the castle, and gave his faith unto the earl, that if he would come down to parley with the Emperor, he should safely return into his hold: the Earl mistrusting no fraud, went out of the castle gates with the Bishop towards the Emperor; but Atto (as it were suddenly remembering himself, when indeed it was his devised plot) desireth to return back and dine ere he went, because it was somewhat late: so they do, dine, and return. Now the Earl was no sooner come to the Emperor, but he caused to be presently put to death, notwithstanding he urged the Bishop's promise and oath for his return: for it was answered, that his oath was quit by returning back to dine, as he had promised. And thus the Earl was wickedly betrayed, though justly punished. As for Atto the subtle traitor, indeed he possessod himself by this means of the Earls lands; but withal, the justice of God seized upon him, for within a while after he was stricken with a thunderbolt, and as some say, carried into mount Aetna, with this noise, Sicpeccatalues, atque ruendorues. Cleomenes King of Lacedemonia making war upon the Argives, surprised Comp●fulgos. Lib. 7. c. 3. them by this subtlety, he took truce with them for seven days, and the third night whilst they lay secure, and unwary in their truce, he oppressed them with a great slaughter, saying, (to excuse his treachery, though no excuse could clear him from the shame thereof) that the truce which he made was for seven days only, without any mention of nights: howbeit for all this, it prospered not so well with him as he wished: for the Argie uwomen, their husbands slain, took arms like Amazons, Tolesilla being their captainesse, and compassing the city walls, repelled Cleomenes, half amazed with the strangeness of the sight. After which he was banished into Egypt, and there miserably and desperately slew himself. The Pope of Rome with all his herd of Bishops, opposed himself against Chron. Carion. the Emperor Henry the fourth; for he banished him by excommunication from the society of the Catholic Church, discharged his subjects from the oath of fealty, and sent a crown of gold to Rodolph king of Suevia, to canonize him Emperor: the crown had this inscription, Petra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodulpho; that is, The Rock gave unto Peter, and Peter gave unto Rodolph the crown: Notwithstanding Rodolph remembering The Rock is Christ. 1 Cor. 10. his oath to the Emperor, and how vile a part it was to betray him whom he had sworn to obey and defend, at first refused the Pope's offer: howbeit by the persuasion of the Bishop's sophistry, he was induced to undertake the name and title of Caesar, and to oppugn the Emperor Henry by arms, even by four unjust battles, in the last of which Rodolph being overcome, lost his right hand, and was sore wounded otherwise: wherefore being ready to die, when one brought unto him his hand that was cut off in the battle, he in detestation of the Pope's villainy, burst forth into these terms, (many Bishops standing by) Behold here the hand wherewith I swore fealty to the Emperor, this will be an argument of my breach of faith before God, and of your traitorous impulsion thereunto. And thus he deceased, justly punished even by his own confession for his perjury. Howbeit for all this manifest example, the Pope and Bishops continued to persecute the poor Emperor, yea and to stir up his own sons, Conrade and Henry, to fight against him; so hardened are their hearts against all God's judgements. Narcissus' Bishop of jerusalem, a man famous for his virtues, and sharp Euseb. li. 6. c. 8. in reproving and correcting vice, was accused by three wicked wretches of unchastity, and that falsely and maliciously; for to prove their accusation true, they bound it with oaths and curses on this wise; the first said, If I lie, I pray God I may perish by fire: The second, If I speak aught but truth, I pray God I may be consumed by some filthy and cruel disease. The third, If I accuse him falsely, I pray God I may be deprived of my sight, and become blind. Thus Calumniation Lib. 2. Cap. 24. although the honesty and chastity of Narcissus was so well known to all the faithful, that they believed none of their oaths, yet the good Bishop, partly moved with grief of this false accusation, and partly with desire of quietness from worldly affairs, forsook his bishopric, and lived in a desert for many years. But his forsworn accusers by their death witnessed his innocence, which by their words they impugned: for the first, his house being set on fire extraordinarily, perished in flame, with all his family and progeny. The second languished away with an irksome disease that bespread his body all over. The third seeing the woeful ends of his companions, confessed all their villainy, and lamenting his case and crime, persisted so long weeping, till both his eyes were out. Thus God in his just judgement sent upon each of them their wishes, and thereby cleared his servant from shame and opprobry. Burghard Archbishop of Magdeburg, though in regard of his place and Chron Er●esti, Brotanff. profession, he ought to have given good example of honesty in himself, and punish perjury in others; yet he thrice broke his promise and oath with his own citizen's, the Senate and people of Magdeburg: for first he besieged them with a power of men, and though they redeemed their liberty with a sum of money (he swearing not to besiege them any more) yet without respect of truth and credit he returned afresh to the siege: but his perfidy was soon tamed; for they took him prisoner at that assault: howbeit he so assuaged their angry minds, with his humble and lowly entreaties and counterfe it oaths, never to trouble them any more, but to continue their steadfast friend, that they not only freed him from imprisonment, but restored him to all his dignities with solemnity: nevertheless the traitorous Archbishop returning to his old vomit, got dispensation for his oath from Pope john the twenty-three, and began afresh to vex, molest, and murder them whom he had sworn to maintain: but it was the will of God that he should be once again caught, and being enclosed in prison, whilst his friends sought means to redeem him, the gaoler beat him to death with a door bar, or as some say, with an iron rod taken out of a window; and so at last, though long, his perjury found its desert. The small success that the Emperor Sigismond had in all his affairs, (after the violation of his faith given to john Hus and Hierome of Prague Theatr. histor. at the Council of Constance, whom though with direct protestations and oaths he promised safe conduct and return, yet he adjudged to be burned) doth testify the odiousness of his sin in the sight of God. But above all, this one example is most worthy the marking, of a fellow that hearing perjury condemned in a pulpit by a learned preacher, and how it never escaped unpunished; said in a bravery, I have oft forsworn myself, and yet my right hand is not a whit shorter than my left. Which words he had scarce uttered, when such an inflammation arose in that hand, that he was constrained to go to the Chirurgeon and cut it off, lest it should infect his whole body; and so his right hand became shorter than his left, in recompense of his perjury, which he lightly esteemed of. About the year of our Lord 925, when King Ethelstane, otherwise called Adelstane, reigned here in England, there was one Elfrede a Nobleman, who with a faction of seditious persons conspired against the King presently after the death of his Father, and at Winchester went about to put out his eyes: but the King by the good providence of God escaped that danger; and Elfrede being accused thereof, fled to Rome, to the end to purge himself of the crime by oath before the Pope: who being brought to the Church of Saint Peter, and there swearing, or rather forswearing, himself to be clear, when indeed he was guilty, behold the Lords hand on him, suddenly as soon as his oath was pronounced, he fell down in a strange sickness; and from thence being brought to the English house in Rome, within three days after departed this life. The Pope sent word hereof to King Ethelstane, with demand, Whither he would have him buried among Christians or no: Who through the persuasions of his friends and kinsfolk, granted, that though he neither lived nor died like a Christian, yet he should have Christian burial. In the town of Rutlinquen a certain passenger came into an Inn, and Joh. le Gall. 1 vol. of his Table-talk. gave a budget to his host to be kept, in the which there was a great sum of money: but when he demanded it again at his departure, the host denied it, and gave him injurious words, with many mocks and taunts. Whereupon the passenger calleth him in question before the judge, and because he wanted witnesses, desireth to have him sworn: who without all scruple offered to swear and protest, That he never received or concealed any such budget of money from him; giving himself to the Devil if he swore falsely. The passenger seeing his forwardness to damn himself, demanded respite to consider of the matter, and going out, he meets with two men, who inquire the cause of his coming thither, and being informed by him, offer their help unto him in his cause: thereupon they return before the judge, and these two unknown persons justify that the budget was delivered unto the host, and that he had hidden it in such a place: whereat the host being astonished, by his countenance and gesture discovered his guiltiness: the judge thereupon resolved to send him to prison, but the two unknown witnesses (who were indeed two fiends of hell) began to say, you shall not need, for we are sent to punish his wickedness; and so saying, they hoist him up into the air, where he vanished with them, and was never after found. In the year of our Lord 1055, Goodwin Earl of Kent sitting at the table Stow. Chron. with King Edward of England, it happened that one of the cupbearers stumbled, and yet fell not: whereat Goodwin laughing, said, That if one brother had not holpen another (meaning his legs) all the wine had been spilt: with which words the King calling to mind his brother's death, which was slain by Goodwin; answered, So should my brother Alphred have holpen me had not Goodwin been: then Goodwin fearing the King's new kindled displeasure, excused himself with many words, and at last eating a morsel of bread, wished it might choke him if he were not guiltless of Alphreds blood. But he swore falsely, as the judgement of God declared, for he was forthwith choked in the presence of the King, ere he removed one foot from that place; though there be some say he recovered life again. Long time after this, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there was in the city of London, one Anne Averies widow, who forswore herself for Stow Chron. a little money that she should have paid for six pounds of tow at a shop in Woodstreet: for which cause being suddenly surprised with the justice of God, she fell down speechless forthwith, and cast up at her mouth in great abundance, and with horrible stink, that matter which by nature's course should have been voided downwards, and so died, to the terror of all perjured and forsworn wretches. There are in histories many more examples to be found of this hurtful and pernicious sin, exercised by one nation towards another, and one man towards another, in most profane and villainous sort, neither shaming to be accounted forsworn, nor consequently fearing to displease God and his majesty. But forasmuch as when we come to speak of murderers in the next book, we shall have occasion to speak of them more, or of such like, I will refer the handling thereof unto that place: only this, let every man learn by that which hath been spoken, to be sound and fraudless, and to keep his faith and promise towards all men, if for no other cause, yet for fear of God, who leaveth not this sin unpunished, nor holdeth them guiltless that thus taketh his name in vain. CHAP. XXIX. Of Blasphemers. AS touching Blasphemy, it was a most grievous and enormous sin, and contrary to this third Commanmandement, when a man is so wretched and miseble, as to pronounce presumptuous speeches against God, whereby his name is slandered and evil spoken of: which sin cannot choose but be sharply and severely punished; for if so be that God holdeth not him guiltless, that doth but take his name in vain must he not needs abhor him that blasphemeth his Name? See how meritoriously that wicked and perverse wretch that blasphemed and murdered (as it were) the name of God, among the people of Israel in the desert, was punished: he was taken, put in prison, and condemned, and speedily stoned to death by the whole multitude: and upon that occasion (as evil manners evermore begat good laws) the Lord instituted a perpetual Levit. 24. law and decree, that every one that should blaspheme and curse God, of what estate or degree soever, should be stoned to death, in token of detestation: which sentence, if it might now adays stand in force, there would not reign so many miserable blasphemers and deniers of God as the world is now filled and infected with. It was also ordained by a new law of justinian, Cod. lib. 3. tit. 43. That blasphemies should be severely punished by the judges and magistrates of Commonweals: but such is the corruption and misery of this age, that those men that ought to correct others for such speeches, are oftentimes worst themselves: and there are that think, that they cannot be sufficiently feared and awed of men, except by horrible ban and swear they despite and maugre God: nay it is further come to that pass, that in some places, to swearc and ban be the marks and ensigns of a Catholic, and they are best welcome that can blaspheme most. How much then is that good King Saint Lewis of France to be commended, who Nich. Gil. vol. Of French Chronicles. especially discharged all his subjects from swearing and blaspheming within his realm, insomuch that when he heard a * Lord of jenville. nobleman blaspheme God most cruelly, he caused him to be laid hold on, and his lips to be slit with an hot iron, saying, he must be content to endure that punishment, seeing he purposed to banish oaths out of his kingdom. Now we call blasphemy (according to the Scripture phrase) every word that derogateth either from the bounty, mercy, justice, eternity, and sovereign power of God. Of this sort was that blasphemous speech of one of King jorams Princes, who at the time of the great famine in Samaria, when it was besieged by the Syrians, hearing Elizeus the Prophet say, that the next morrow there should be plenty of victuals and good cheap, rejected this promise of God made by his Prophet, saying that it was impossible; as if God were either a liar, or not able to perform what he would: for this cause this unbelieving blasphemer received the same day a deserved punishment for 2 King. 7. his blasphemy, for he was trodden to death in the gate of the city under the feet of the multitude that went out into the Syrians camp, forsaken and left desolate by them, through a fear which the Lord sent among them. Senaccherib King of Assyria, after he had obtained many victories, and ●●odued much people under him, and also laid siege to jerusalem, became 2 King 19 unproud and arrogant, as by his servants mouth to revile and blaspheme the living God, speaking no otherwise of him than of some strange idol, and one that had no power to help and deliver those that trusted in him; for which blasphemies he soon after felt a just vengeance of God upon himself and his people: for although in man's eyes he seemed to be without the reach of danger (seeing he was not assailed, but did assail, and was guarded with so mighty an army, that assured him to make him lord of jerusalem in short space) yet the Lord overthrew his power, and destroyed of his men in one night by the hand of his Angel 185 thousand men, so that he was fain to raise his siege, and return into his own kingdom, where finally he was slain by his own sons, as he was worshipping on his knees in the temple of his god. In the time of the Maccabees, those men that were in the strong hold called Gazara, fight against the jews, trusting to the strength of the 2 Mach. 10. place wherein they were, uttered forth most infamous speeches against God: but ere long, their blasphemous mouths were encountered by a condign punishment: for the first day of the siege, Machabeus put fire to the town, and consumed the place (with the blasphemers in it) to ashes. Holofernes, when Achior advanced the glory of the God of Israel, replied on this fashion: Since thou hast prophesied unto us, that Israel shall be defended by their God, thou shalt prove that there is no God but Nabuchadnezzar, when the judeth 6. 7. sword of mine army shall pass through thy sides, and thou shalt fall among their slain: but for this blasphemy the Lord cut him short, and prevented his cruel purpose by sudden death, und that by the hand of a woman, to his further shame. Nay, this sin is so odious in the sight of God, that he punisheth even them that give occasion thereof unto others, yea though they be his dearest children, as it appeareth by the words of the Prophet Nathan unto King David: Because of this deed (saith he) of murdering Vriah, and defiling 2 Kings 12. Bathshabe, thou hast made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child that is borne unto thee shall surely die. In the Empire of julian the Apostata, there were divers great men that for the Emperor's sake sake forsook Christ and his religion: amongst Theod. lib. 3. cap. 11, & 12. Contempt of holy things. Lib. 1. cap. 3, 4. whom, was one julian, uncle to the Emperor, and Governor of the East; another, Foelix the Emperor's Treasurer: the first of which two, after he had spoilt all Christian Churches and Temples, pissed against the table whereon the holy Sacraments were used to be administered, in contempt, and struck Euzoius on the care for reproving him for it: the other beholding the holy vessels that belonged to the Church said, See what precious vessels Mary's son is served withal. After which blasphemy, the Lord plagued them most strangely: for julian fell into so strange a disease, that his entrails being rotten, he voided his excrements at his mouth, because when they passed naturally, he abused them to the dishonour of God. Foelix vomited blood so excessively night and day at his blasphemous mouth, that he died forthwith. About the same time there lived a famous sophister and Epicure called Theatr. hist. Libanius; who being at Antioch, demanded blasphemously of a learned and godly schoolmaster, What the Carpenter's son did, and how he occupied himself? Marry (quoth the schoolmaster, full of the spirit of God) the Creator of this world (whom thou disdainfully callest the carpenters son) is making a coffin for thee, to carry thee to thy grave: whereat the sophister jesting, departed, and within few days dying, was buried in a coffin, according to the prophecy of that holy man. The Emperor Heraclius sending Ambassadors to Cosroë the King of Persia to entreat of peace, returned with this answer, That he would never Vide l. 1. c. 21. ●ares. Phil. Chron. Ab. Vrusperg. cease to trouble them with war, till he had constrained them to forsake their crucified Christ, and to worship the Sun. But ere long he bore the punishment of his blasphemy: for what with a domestical calamity, and a foreign overthrow by the hand of Heraclius, he came to a most woeful destruction. Michael that blasphemous rabbin, that was accounted of the jews, as their Prince and Messias, as he was on a time banqueting with his companions, Fincelius de Miraculis. li. 2. amongst other things this was chiefest sauce for their meat, to blasphme Christ and his mother Mary, insomuch as he boasted of a victory already gotten over the Christians God. But mark the issue: as he descended down the stairs, his foot slipping, he tumbled headlong and broke his neck; wherein his late victory proved a discomfiture and overthrow, to his eternal shame and confusion. Three soldiers (amongst the Tyrigetes, a people of Sarmatia) passing through a Wood, there arose a tempest of thunder and lightning, which though commonly it maketh the greatest Atheists to tremble, yet one of them to show his contempt of God and his judgements, burst forth into blasphemy and despighting of God. But the Lord soon tamed his rebellious tongue: for he caused the wind to blow up by the root a huge tree, that fell upon him and crushed him to pieces, the other escaping to testify to the World of his destruction. At a village called Benavides in Spain, two young men being together Anthonio de Torquemeda. in a field, there arose of a sudden a terrible tempest, with such violence of weather and wind, and withal so impetuous a whirlwind, that it amazed those that beheld it. The two young men seeing the fury thereof coming amain towards them, to avoid the danger ran away as fast as they possibly might: but make what haste they could it overtook them: who fearing lest the same should swing them up into the air, fell flatlong down upon the earth, where the whirlwind whisking about them a pretty while, and then passing forth, the one of them arose so altered and in such an agony, that he was scarcely able to stand on his feet: the other lying still and not stirring, some others afar off, that stood under a hedge, went to see how he did, and found him, to be stark dead, not without marks upon him of wonderful admiration: for all his bones were so crushed, that the pipes and joints of his legs and arms were as easy to be turned the one way as the other, as though his whole body had been made of moss; and besides, his tongue was pulled out by the roots, which could not by any means be found, though they sought for it most diligently. And this was the miserable end of this wretched man, who was noted to be a great outrageous swearer & blasphemer of God's holy name; the Lord therefore chose him out, to make him an example to the world of his justice. No less notable is the example of a young girl, named Denis Benesield, Acts and Monuments of the Church. of twelve years of age: who going to school amongst other girls, when they fell to reason among themselves after their childish discretion about God, one among the rest said that he was a good old father: What, he? (said the foresaid Denis) he is an old doting fool: which being told to her mistress, she purposed to correct her the next day for it: but it chanced that the next day her mother sent her to London to the market, the wench greatly entreating her mother that she might not go, so that she escaped her mistress' correction. But the Lord in vengeance met with her: for as she returned homeward, suddenly she was stricken dead, all the one side of her being black; and buried at Hackney the same night. A terrible example (no doubt) both to old and young, what it is for children to blaspheme the Lord and God, and what it is for parents to suffer their young ones to grow up in blindness, without nurtering them in the fear of God, and reverence of his Majesty, and therefore worthy to be remembered of Paul Diacon. in the history of Anastatius. Sabel. Aenead. 8. lib. 2. Anton. Panor. of the acts of Alphonsus. Aeneas Silvius of the acts of Alphonsus. all. In the year 510 an Arrian Bishop called Olympius, being at Carthage in the baths, reproached and blasphemed the holy and sacred Trinity, and that openly: but lighting fell down from heaven upon him three times, and he was burnt and consumed therewith. There was also in the time of Alphonsus King of Arragon and Sicily, in an Isle towards Africa, a certain hermit called Antonius, a monstrous and profane hypocrite, that had so wicked a heart to devise, and so filthy a throat to belch out vile and injurious speeches against Christ jesus and the Virgin Mary his mother; but he was strieken with a most grievous disease, even to be eaten and gnawn in pieces of worms until he died. CHAP. XXX. Of those that by cursing and denying God give themselves to the Devil. AS concerning those that are addicted to much cursing, and as if their throats were Hell itself, to despighting and reviling against God (that is blessed for ever) and are so mad as to renounce him, and give themselves to the Devil: truly they worthily deserve to be forsaken of God, and given over to the Devil indeed, to go with him into everlasting perdition: which hath been visibly experienced in our time upon certain wretched persons, which have been carried away by that wicked spirit to whom they gave themselves. There was upon a time in Germany, a certain naughty pack of a most Luther upon the 15. chap. of the 1 Ep. to the Corinth. wicked life, and so evil brought up, that at every word he spoke almost, the Devil was at one end; if walking he chanced to tread awry, or to stumble, presently the Devil was in his mouth: whereof albeit he was many times reproved by his neighbours, and exhorted to correct and amend so vile and detestable a vice, yet all was in vain: continuing therefore this evil and damnable custom, it happened, that as he was upon a time passing over a bridge, he fell down, and in his fall gave these speeches, Hoist up with an hundred Devils: which he had no sooner spoken, bat the Devil whom he called for so oft, was at his elbow to strangle him, and carry him away with him. A certain soldier travelling through Marchia, a country of Almaigne, Wirius 3 Book chap. 17. of the delusion of spirits. and finding himself evil at ease in his journey, abode in an Inn till he might recover his health, and committed to the hostesses custody certain money which he had about him. Now a while after being recovered of his sickness, required his money again; but she having consulted with her husband, denied the receipt, and therefore the return thereof; and accused him of wrong, in demanding that which she never received: The soldier on the other side fretted amain, and accused her of cozenage: Which stir when the goodman of the house understood (though privy to all before) yet dissembling, took his wife's part, and thrust the soldier out of doors: who being throughly cha●ed with that indignity, drew his sword, and ran at the door with the point hereof: whereat the host began to cry, Thiefs, thiefs, saying that he would have entered his house by force: so that the poor soldier was taken and cast into prison, and by process of law ready to be condemned to death: but the very day wherein this hard sentence was to be pronounced and executed, the Devil entered into the prison, and told the soldier that he was condemned to die; howbeit nevertheless if he would give himself body and soul unto him, he would promise to deliver him out of their hands: the prisoner answering, said, That he had rather die being innocent, and without cause, than to be delivered by that means: again the devil replied, and propounded unto him the great danger wherein he was, yea and used all cunning means possible to persuade him: but seeing that he lost his labour, he at length left his suit, and promised him both help, and revenge upon his enemies, and that for nothing: advising him moreover when he came to judgement, to plead not guilty, and to declare his innocence and their wrong, and to entreat the judge to grant him one in a blue cap that stood by to be his advocate: (now this one in a blue cap was the Devil himself) the soldier accepting his offer, being called to the bar, and indicted there of Felony, presently desired to have his Attorney, who was there present to plead his cause: then began the fine and crafty Doctor of the laws to plead, and defend his client very cunningly, affirming him to be falsely accused, and consequently unjustly condemned, and that his host did withhold his money and had offered him violence, and to prove his assertion he reckoned up every circumstance in the action, yea the very place were they had hidden the money. The host on the other side stood in denial very impudently, wishing the devil might take him if he had it: then the subtle lawyer in the blue cap, looking for no other vantage, left pleading, and fell to lay hold of the host, and carrying him out of the Session's house, hoist him into the air so high, that he was never after seen nor heard of. And thus was the soldier delivered from the execution of the law most strangely, to the astonishment of all the beholders, that were eye witnesses of that which happened to the for sworn and cursing host. In the year of our Lord 1551, at Megalopole near Voildstat, it happened john Wierus. in the time of the celebration of the feast of Pentecost▪ the people being set on drikingng and carousing, that a woman in the company commonly named the Devil in her oaths; till that he being so often called on, came of a sudden, and carried her through the gate aloft into the air before them all, who ran out astonished to see whither he would transport her, and found her a while hanging in the air without the town, and then falling down upon the ground dead. About the same time there lived in a City of Savoy one that was both a monstrous swearer, & also otherwise very vicious, who put many good men to much fruitless pains, that in regard of their charge employed themselves often to admonish and reprove his wicked behaviour, to the end he might amend it: but all in vain, they might as well cast stones against the wind; for he would not so much as listen to their words, much less reform his manners. Now it fell out that the Pestilence being in the City, he was infected with it, and therefore withdrew himself a part with his wife & another kinswoman into a garden which he had: neither yet in this extremity did the Ministers forsake him, but ceased not continually to exhort him to repentance, and to lay before his eyes his faults and offences to the end to bring him into the right way. But he was so far from being touched or moved with these godly admonitions, that he strove rather to harden himself more and more in his sins. Therefore one day hasting forward his own mishap, as he was swearing and denying God, and giving himself to the Devil, and calling for him with vehehemency, behold even the Devil indeed snatched him up suddenly, and heaved him into the air, his wife and kinswoman looking on, and seeing him fly over their heads. Being thus swiftly transported, his cap tumbled from his head, and was found at Rosne; but himself no man could ever after set eye on. The magistrate advertised hereof, came to the place where he was taken, to be better informed of the truth, taking the witness of the two women touching that which they had seen. Here may we see the strange and terrible events of Gods just vengeance upon such vile caitiffs; which doubtless are made manifest to strike a fear and terror into the heart of every swearer and denier of God (the world being but too full at this day of such wretches) that are so inspired with Satan, that they cannot speak but they must name him, even him that is both an enemy to God and man, and like a roaring lion runneth and roveth too and fro to devour them: not seeking any thing but man's destruction. And yet when any pain assaileth them, or any trouble disquieteth their minds, or any danger threateneth to oppress their bodies, desperately they call upon him for aid, when indeed it were more needful to commend themselves to God, and to pray for his grace and assistance, having both a commandment so to do, and a promise adjoined, that he will help us in our necessities, if we come unto him by true and hearty prayer. It is not therefore without just cause, that God hath propounded and laid open in this corrupt age, a Theatre of his judgements, that every man might be warned thereby. CHAP. XXXI. More examples of God's judgements upon Cursers. But before we go to the next commandment, we will adjoin a few more examples of this devilish cursing. Martin Luther hath left registered unto us a notable example In Coll. Luth. shown upon a popish priest that was once a professor of the sincere religion, and fell away voluntarily unto Papism; whereof Adam Budissina was the reporter: This man thundered out most bitter curses against Luther in the pulpit, at a town called Ruthnerwald, and amongst the rest, wished, that if Luther's doctrine were true, a thunderbolt might strike him to death. Now three days after there arose a mighty tempest, with thunder and lightning: whereat the cursed Priest, bearing in himself a guilty conscience, for that he had untruly and maliciously spoken, ran hastily into the Church, and there fell to his prayers before the Altar most devoutly; but the vengeance of God found him out and his hypocrisy, so that he was strooken dead with the lightning, and albeit they recovered life in him again, yet as they led him homewards through the Churchyard, another fl●sh so set upon him, that he was burnt from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, as black as a shoe, so that he died with a manifest mark of God's vengeance upon him. Theodorus Beza reporteth unto us two notable histories of his own Homil. 26. in hist. passionis. knowledge, of the severity of God's judgement upon a curser and a perjurer; the tenor whereof is this, I knew (said he) in France a man of good parts, well instructed in Religion, and a master of a Family, who in his anger cursing, and bidding the Devil take one of his children, had presently his wish; for the child was possessed immediately with a Spirit: from which though by the servant and continual prayers of the Church he was at length released, yet ere he had fully recovered his health he died. The like we read to have happened to a woman, whom her husband in anger devoted with bitter curses to the Devil; for Satan assaulted her persently, and robbed her of her wits, so that she could never be recovered. Another example (saith he) happened not far hence, even in this country, Discipulus de Tempore Sermon. 116. Perjury. Lib. 1. cap. 29. upon a perjurer that forswore himself to the end to deceive and prejudice another thereby: but he had no sooner made an end of his false oath, but a grievous Apoplexy assailed him, so that without speaking of any one word he died within few days. In the year of our Lord 1557, the day before good friday, at Forchenum Job. Fincelius, lib. 3. de Mirac. a city in the Bishopric of Bamburg, there was a certain crooked Priest both in body and mind, through age and evil conditions, that could not go but upon crutches, yet would needs be lifted into the pulpit to make a Sermon: his text was out of the 11 chap. of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, touching the Lord's Supper; whereout taking occasion to defend the Papistical errors and the Mass, he used these or such like blasphemous speeches, O Paul, Paul, if thy doctrine touching the receiving of the Sacrament in both kinds be true, and if it be a wicked thing to receive it otherwise, then would the devil might take me: and (turning to the people) if the Pope's doctrine concerning this point be not true, then am I the devil's bondslave, neither do I fear to pawn my soul upon it. These and many other blasphemous words he used, till the Devil came indeed, transformed into the shape of a tall man, black and terrible, sending before him such a fearful noise, and such a wind, that the people supposed that the Church would have fallen on their heads: but he not able to hurt the rest, took away the old Priest, being his devoted bondslave, and carried him so far that he was never heard of. The bishop of Rugenstines' brother hardly escaped his hands: for he came back to fetch him; but he defending himself with his sword, wounded his own body, and very narrowly escaped with his life. Beside, after this there were many visions seen about the city, as armies of men ready to enter and surprise them, so that well was he that could hide himself in a corner. At another time after, the like noise was heard in the Church whilst they were baptising an infant; and all this for the abominable cursing and blasphemy of the profane Priest. In the year of our Lorld 1556, at S. Gallus in Helvetia, a certain man that earned his living by making clean rough and soul linen against the Sun, entering a tavern, tasted so much the grape, that he vomited out terrible curses against himself and others: amongst the rest he wished, if ever he went into the fields to his old occupation, that the devil might come and break his neck: but when sleep had conquered drink, and sobriety restored his senses, he went again to his trade, remembering indeed his late words, but regarding them not: howbeit the Devil to show his double diligence, attended on him at his appointed hour in the likeness of a big swarthy man, and asked him if he remembered his promise and vow which he had made the day before, and if it were not lawful for him to break his neck; and withal struck the poor man, trembling with fear, over the shoulders, that his feet and his hands presently dried up, so that he lay there not able to stir, till by help of men he was carried home; the Lord not giving the Devil so much power over him as he wished himself; but yet permitting him to plague him on this sort, for his amendment, and our example. Henry Earl of Schwartburg through a corrupt custom used commonly to wish he might be drowned in a privy: and as he wished, so it happened Albert. Kirant. Chron. Sax. l. 6. unto him, for he was so served, and murdered at S. Peter's Monastery in Erford, in the year of our Lord, 1148. The like befell a young Courtier at Mansfield, whose custom was in any earnest asseveration, to say, The Devil take me if it be not so: the Devil Cyriac. Spangenb. in ●legan●ijs veter is Adami. indeed took him whilst he slept, and threw him out of a high window, where albeit by the good providence of God he o●ught no great hurt, yet he learned by experience to bridle his tongue from all such cursed speeches, this being but a taste of God's wrath that is to fall upon such wretches as he. At Oster a village in the duchy of Megalopole, there chanced a most Theatr. hist. strange and fearful example upon a woman that gave herself to the Devil both body and soul, and used most horrible cursings and oaths, both against herself and others: which detestible manner of behaviour, as at many other times, so especially she showed at a marriage in the foresaid village upon S. john Baptists day, the whole people exhorting her to leave off that monstrous villainy: but she nothing bettered, continued her course, till all the company were set at dinner, and very merry. Then lo, the Devil having got full possession of her, came in person, and transported her into the air before them all, with most horrible outcries and roar, and in that sort carried her round about the town, that the Inhabitants were ready to die with fear, and by ct by tore her in four pieces, leaving in four several high ways a quarter, that all that came by might be witnesses of her punishment. And then returning to the marriage, threw her bowels upon the table before the Major of the town, with these words, Behold, these dishes of meat belong to thee, whom the like destruction awaiteth, if thou dost not amend thy wicked life. The reporters of this history were, john Herman the Minister of the said town, with the Major himself and the whole Inhabitants, being desirous to have it known to the world for example sake. In Luther's conferences there is mention made of this story following: Luther: Divers noblemen were striving together at a horse race, and in their course cried, The Devil take the last. Now the last was a horse that broke loose, whom the Devil hoist up into the air and took clean away. Which teacheth us, not to call for the Devil, for he is ready always about us uncalled and unlooked for, yea many legions of them compass us about even in our best actions to disturb and pervert us. A certain man not far from Gorlitz provided a sumptuous supper, and job. Fincelius. invited many guests unto it, who at the time appointed refused to come: he in anger cried, Then let all the Devils in hell come. Neither was his wish frivolous; for a number of those hellish fiends came forthwith, whom he not discerning from men, came to welcome and entertain: but as he took them by the hands, and perceived in stead of fingers, claws, all dismayed he ran out of the doors with his wife, and left none in the house but a young infant, with a fool sitting by the fire, whom the Devils had no power to hurt, neither any man else, save the goodly supper, which they made away withal, and so departed. It is notoriously known in Oundle a town in Northamptonshire, amongst all that were acquainted with the party, namely one Hacket, of whom more hath spoken before, how he used in his earnest talk to curse himself on this manner; If it be not true, then let a visible confusion come upon me. Now he wanted not his wish, for he came to a visible confusion indeed, as hath been declared more at large in the twentieth chapter of this book. At Witeberg, before Martin Luther and divers other learned men, a woman whose daughter was possessed with a spirit, confessed, That by her curse that plague was fallen upon her: for being angry at a time, she bade the Devil take her, and she had no sooner spoken the word, but he took her indeed, and possessed her in most strange sort. No whit less strange and horrible is that which happened at Neoburg Theatr. histor in Germany, to a son that was cursed of his mother in her anger, with this curse, she prayed God she might never see him return alive; for the same day the young man bathing himself in the water, was drowned, and never returned to his mother alive, according to her ungodly wish. The like judgement of God we read of to have been executed upon Antonio de Torquemeda. another son that was banned and cursed by his mother, in the city of Astorga. The mother in her rage cursed one of her sons with detestable maledictions, betaking him to the Devils of hell, and wishing that they would fetch him out of her presence, with many other horrible execrations: This was about ten a clock at night, the same being very dark and obscure; the boy at last through fear went out into a little court behind the house, from the which he was suddenly hoist up into the ayte, by men in show of grim countenance, great stature, and loathsome and horrible gesture, but indeed cruel fiends of hell, and that with such swiftness (as he himself after confessed) that it was not possible, to his seeming, for any bird in the world to fly so fast: and lighting down amongst certain mountains of bushes and briers, was trailed through the thickest of them, and so all torn and rend, not only in his clothes, but also in his hands and face and almost his whole body. At last the boy remembering God, and beseeching him of help and assistance, the cruel fiends brought him back again through the air, and put him in at a little window into a chamber in his father's house, where after much search and grief for him, he was found in this pitiful plight, and almost besides himself. And thus though they had not power to deprive him of his life, as they had done the former, yet the Lord suffered them to afflict the parents in the son, for the good of both parents and son if they belonged unto the Lord. But above all, this is most strange which happened in a town of Misina, Theatr. hist. Let not the strangeness of this example discredit the truth thereof, seeing we read how Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt, Gen. 19 and Corah with his Company swallowed of the earth, Numer. 16. which are stranger than this. Acts and Monuments. pag. 2101. in the year of our Lord God 1552, the eleventh of September; where a choleric father seeing his son slack about his business, wished he might never stir from that place: for it was no sooner said, but done, his son stuck fast in the place, neither by any means possible could be removed, no not so much as to fit or bend his body, till by the prayers of the Faithful his pains were somewhat mitigated, though not remitted: three years he continued standing, with a post at his back for his ease, and four years sitting, at the end whereof he died; nothing weakened in his understanding, but professing the faith, and not doubting of his salvation in Christ jesus. When he was demanded at any time how he did: he answered most usually, That he was fastened of God, and that it was not in man but in God's mercy for him to be released. john Peter son in law to Alexander that cruel Keeper of Newgate being a most horrible swearer and blasphemer, used commonly to say, If it be not true, I pray God I may rot ere I die: and not in vain, for he rotten away indeed, and so died in misery. Hither we may add a notable example of a certain young gallant that was a monstrous swearer, who riding in the company of divers gentlemen, Acts and Monuments. pag. 2105. began to swear and most horribly blaspheme the name of God: unto whom one in the company with gentle words said, he should one day answer for that: the Younker taking snuff thereat, Why (said he) takest thou thought for me? Take thought for thy winding sheet. Well (quoth the other) amend, for death giveth no warning, as soon cometh a lambs skin to the market, as an old sheep. God's wounds (said he) care not thou for me: raging still on this manner worse and worse, till at length passing on their journey, they came riding over a great bridge, upon which this gentleman swearer spurred his horse in such sort, that he sprang clean over with the man on his back, who as he was going, cried, Horse and man and all to the Devil. This terrible story Bishop Ridley preached and uttered at Paul's cross: and one Haines a Minister of Cornwall (the reprehender of this man) was the reporter of it to Master Fox, out of whom I have drawn it. Let us refrain then (wretches that we are) our devilish tongues, and leave off to provoke the wrath of God any longer against us: let us forbear all wicked and cursed speeches, and acquaint ourselves as well in word as in deed to praise and glorify God. CHAP. XXXII. Punishments for the contempt of the Word and Sacraments; and abuse of holy things. NOw it is another kind of taking the Name of God in vain, to despise his Word and Sacraments: for like as among earthly princes, it is accounted a crime no less than treason, either to abuse their pictures, to counterfeit or deprave their seals, to rend, pollute, or corrupt their letters patents, or to use unreverently their messengers, or any thing that cometh from them: So with the Prince of heaven it is a fin of high degree, either to abuse his Word profanely, which is the letters patents of our salvation; or handle the Sacraments unreverently, which are the seals of his mercy; or to despise his Ministers, which are his messengers untous. And this he maketh known unto us not only by Edicts and Commandments, but also by examples of his vengeance on the heads of the offenders in this case. For the former, look what Paul saith, That for the unworthy receiving of the Sacraments, many were weak and sick among the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 11. 29, 30. and many slept. How much more than for the abusing and contemning the Sacraments? And the Prophet David, That for casting the Word Psal. 50. 16, 17. of God behind them, they should have nothing to do with his Covenant. How much more than for profaning and deriding his Word? And Moses, when the people murmured against him and Aaron, saith, That Exod. 16. 8. their murmurings were not against them, which were but Ministers, but against the Lord. How much more than is the Lord enraged, when they are scoffed at, derided, and set at naught? Hence it is that the Lord denounceth Deut. 4. 2. & 12. 13. Apoc. 22. 18. Proverb 30. 6; a Woe to him that addeth or taketh away from the Word; and calleth them dogs that abuse such precious pearls. But let us come to the examples wherein the grievousness of this sin willly more open than by any words can be expressed. First, to begin with the house of Israel, which were the sole select people of the Lord, whom he had chosen out of all other nations of the world, to be his own peculiar flock, and his chief treasure, above all other people of the earth, and a kingdom of Priests, and a holy Nation; when Exod. 19 6. as they contemned and despised his Word spoken unto them by his prophets, and cast his law behind their back, he gave them over into the hands of their enemies, and of Ammi made them Loammi; that is, of his people, made them not his people: and of Ruhama, Loruhama; that is, of such as had found mercy and favour at God's hand, a nation that should obtain no mercy nor favour, as the Prophet Hosea speaketh. Hosea 1. 6, 7. This we see plainly verified first in the ten tribes, which under jeroboam fell away from the Sceptre of juda: for after that the Lord had sundry times scourged them by many particular punishments, as the famine, sword, and pestilence, for their idolatry and rebellion to his law; at the last in the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea King of Israel, he brought upon them a final and general destruction, and delivered them into the hands of the King of Ashur, who carried them away captive into Assyria; and placed them in Hala and in Habor, by the river of Gosan, and in the cities of the Medes; and in stead of them seated the men of Babel, of Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, in the cities of Samaria. Thus were they utterly rooted up, and spewed out of the land of their inheritance, and their portion given unto strangers, as was threatened to them by the mouth of Moses the servant of the Lord: and the cause of all this is set down by the Deu. 28. a King. 17. 13. holy Ghost, 2 Kin. 17. 13. to be, for that though the Lord had testified to them by all his prophets & seers, saying, Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the Law which I commanded your fathers: nevertheless they would not obey, but hardened their necks: & than it followeth in the 18 ver, Therefore the Lord was exceeding wroth with Israel, and put them out of his sight, and none was left but the Tribe of juda only. Now though the kingdom of juda continued in good estate long after the desolation of the ten tribes, (for this happened in the reign of Ahaz. King of juda;) yet afterward in the reign of Zedekiah, the great and famous city jerusalem was taken by Nabuchadnezzar the King of Babel, and utterly ruined and defaced: the glorious and stately temple of the Lord, built by Solomon, the wonder of the world, was burnt down to ashes, together with all the houses of jerusalem, and all other great houses in the land: all the rich vessels and furniture of the temple, of gold, silver, and brass, were carried to Babel by Nabuzaradan the chief steward. The king himself was bound in chains, and after he had seen his own sons slain before his eyes, had his own eyes put out, that he might never more take comfort of the light. The priests and all the greatest and richest of the people were carried away in captivity, and only the poor were left behind to dress the vines and till the land. Now what was the cause of this lamentable destruction of this holy City, of the Temple and Sanctuary of the Lord, and of his own people? it is set down by the holy-Ghost in express word, 2 Chro. 36. 15, 16. That, When the Lord sent unto them by his 2 Chron, 36. 15, 16. Messengers, rising early, and sending, because he had compassion on them, and on his habitation, they mocked the Messengers of God, despised his words, and misused his Prophets: and therefore the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, and there was no remedy. Behold here the grievous judgement of the Lord upon such as contemned his Word, and despised his Prophets. Thus was the first city and temple destroyed: and did the second fare any better? no verily, but far worse: for as their sin was greater, in that the former jews contemned only the Word spoken by the Prophets which were but servants, these despised the Word spoken by the Son himself, which is the Lord of life; so their punishment was also the greater: for as the Apostle saith, If they which despised Moses Law died without mercy, how Heb. 10. 28. 29. much sorer punishment are they worthy of which tread under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the Testament as an unholy thing, and neglect so great salvation, which first began to be preached by the Lord himself, and afterward was Heb. 2. 3. confirmed by them which heard him. Therefore the destruction of the second city and temple by Titus and Vespasian Emperors of Rome, was far more lamentable than that of the former: yea, so terrible and fearful was the judgement of God upon that nation at this time, that never the like calamity and misery was heard or read of: there at the siege of jerusalem the famine was so great within the walls, and the sword so terrible without, that within they were constrained to eat not only leather and old shoo's, but horse-dung, yea their own excrements, and some to devour their own children: and as many as issued out were crucified by the Romans, as they had crucified the Saviour of the world, till they had no more wood to nail them on. So that it was most true which our Saviour foreprophesied, That such should be the tribulation of that time, as was not from the beginning of Matth. 24. 21. the world, nor should be again to the end. At this destruction perished eleven hundred thousand jews, as Historians report; besides them which Vespasian slew in subduing the country of Galilee: over and besides them also which were sold and sent into Egypt and other provinces, to vile slavery, to the number of seventeen thousand: two thousand were brought with Titus in triumph; of which, part he gave to be devoured of wild beasts, and part otherwise most cruelly were slain. By whose case all nations may take example, what it is to reject the visitation of God's verity being sent unto them, and much more to persecute them which be sent of God for their salvation. And here is diligently to be observed the great equity of this judgement: they refused Christ to be their King, and chose rather to be subject unto Caesar; now they are by the said (their own) Caesar destroyed, when as Christ's subjects the same time escaped the danger. The like example of God's wrathful punishment is to be noted no less in the Romans also themselves, for despising Christ and his Gospel: for when Tiberius Nero the Emperor having received by letters from Pontius Tertul. Apol. cap. 5. Pilate, a true report of the doings of Christ jesus, of his miracles, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, and how he was received as God of many good men, was himself moved with belief of the same, and did confer thereof with the whole Senate of Rome, to have Christ adored as God. But they not agreeing thereunto, refused him, because that contrary to the law of the Romans, he was consecrated (said they) for a God before the Senate of Rome had decreed and approved him. Thus the vain Senate which were contented with the Emperor to reign over them, were not contented with the meek King of glory, the Son of God, to be their King; yea they contemned also the preaching of the two blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, who were also most cruelly put to death in the later end of Domitius Nero his reign, and the year of Christ 69, for the testimony and saith of Christ. And therefore after much like sort to the jews were they scourged and entrapped by the same way which they did prefer: for as they preferred the Emperor, and rejected Christ, so did Sueton. Tacitus. God stir up their own Emperors against them, in such sort, that both the Senators themselves were all devoured, and the whole city most horribly afflicted the space almost of three hundred years together. Neither were they only thus scourged by their Emperors, but also by civil wars, whereof three were sought in two years at Rome after Nero's death: as likewise by other casualties: for in Suetonius is testified, five thousand were hurt and slain by fall of a Theatre. How heavy and searefull the judgement of God hath been towards those seven famous Churches of Asia, to the which the holy Ghost writeth his seven Epistles, Revel. 2 and 3. histories sufficiently testify, and experience showeth: for whereas in the Apostles time, and long after in the days of persecution, no Churches in the world more flourished; after, when they began to make light account of the word of God, and to fall away from the truth to errors, from godliness to impieties, the Lord also made light account of them, and removed his Candlestick, that is, the ministry of his Gospel, from amongst them, and made them a prey unto Revel. 2. 5. their enemies: and so they which before were subjects to Christ, are now slaves to Mahomet; and there where the true God was worshipped is now a filthy Idol adored; and instead of the Gospel of Christ, is the Turks Alcoran; in stead of the seven stars and seven candlesticks are seven thousand priests of Mahomet, and worshippers of him: and thus for the contempt of the Gospel of Christ, is the Chrurch of Christians made a cage of Devils. Venerable Bede in his Ecclesticall history of England reporteth, That Beda li. 1. ca 15. about the year of our Lord 420, after that the Britons had been long afflicted by the Irish, Picts, and Scots, and that the Lord had given them rest from all their enemies, and had blessed them with such great plenty of corn, and fruits of the earth, as had not been before heard of, they fell into all manner of sins and vices, and in stead of showing themselves thankful to the Lord for his great mercies, provoked his indignation more fiercely against them: for, as he saith, together with plenty grew riot, and this was accompanied with a train of many other foul enormities, especially the hatred of the truth, & contempt of the Word, and that not only in the Laity and ignorant people, but even also in the Clergy and Shepherds of the people: for which cause the Lord first sent among them such a contagious plague, that the living were scarce sufficient to bury the dead: and when by this punishment they were not reclaimed, then by their own counsels and procurement the Lord brought upon them a fierce and mighty nation, even the Saxons of Germany; who albeit they came at first as helpers and succorers of them against their enemies, yet ere long proved their sorest foes themselves, and after much bloodshed drove them almost quite out of their Kingdom, confining them into a haven, nook, and corner of the same, where they remain till this day: and all this came upon them (saith that reverend Author) for their ingratitude for God's mercies, and contempt of the Word of God. Again, we read a little before this, how that God stirred up Gildas Acts and Monuments, pag. 32. a godly learned man, to preach to the old Britons, and to exhort them to repentance and amendment of life, and to forewarn them of plagues to come, if they repented not: but what availed it? Gildas was laughed to scorn and taken for a false Prophet; the Britons, with whorish faces and unrepentant hearts, went forward in their sins; and what followed? God to punish their contempt of his Word and Ministers, sent in their enemies on every side, and destroying them, gave their land to other nations. Again, not many years past, Almighty God seeing idolatry, superstition, Acts and Monuments. pag. 32. hypocrisy, and wicked living used in this land, raised up that godly learned man john Wickliff to preach unto our father's repentance, and to exhort them to forsake their idolatry and superstition: but his exhortations were not regarded, he with his sermons was despised, his books and himself after his death, were burnt: What ensued? A most grievous and heavy vengeance: they slew their lawful King, and set up three other on a row, under whom all the noble blood was slain up, and half the Commons destroyed; what by war in France, and civil discord among themselves, the cities and towns were decayed, and the land brought half to a wilderness. O, extreme plagues of Gods just vengeance! But these examples be general over whole nations: now let us descend to particular judgements upon private persons, for contemning, scorning, or despising the Word of God, the holy Sacraments, and the Ministers of the same. Hemingius a learned Divine, in his exposition upon the first chapter of S. john's Gospel reporteth, That about the year 1550 there was a certain Nich. Heming. lewd companion in Denmark, who had long made profession to mock at all Religion, and at devout persons: This fellow entering into a Church where there was a sermon made by the Minister of the place, began contrary to all those that were present, to behave himself most profanely, and to show by lewd countenances and gestures, his dislike and contempt of that holy exercise: to whom the preacher (being instant upon his business in hand) spoke not a word, but only sighing, prayed unto God, that this mocker might be suppressed: who seeing that the Preacher would no● contest against him, but contemned his unworthy behaviour, goeth out of the Church, but yet not out of the reach of God's vengeance: for presently as he passed out, a tile fell from the house upon his head, and slew him upon the place: a just judgement upon so profane a wretch. From whence all scorners and deriders of godly sermons, and the preachers of the same, may take example for their amendment, if they have any grace in them. Christopher Turk a Counsellor of Estate to a great Nobleman in Germany, Mart. ●ydius, Celebrat. deut. excels. going one day to horse, and mocking at a certain godly Nobleman who was then prisoner in his enemy's hands, uttered these or such like speeches; See what is become of these gallants, that sung so much one with another, When any one doth wrong us, God is our succour and defence: but he had scarce ended his words, when as a sudden grief took him, so that he was forced to alight from his horse, and to be carried to bed; where in stead of singing, he died in despair, drawing forth his tongue as black as a coal, and hanging out of his mouth. This happened the ninth of june, 1547. The contempt of the Sacrament of baptism was most notably punished Georst. le feure, lib. 3. Annal. Misniae. in a certain Curate of Misnia in Thuring: whose custom was whensoever he had baptised any women children, in contempt of the feminine sex, and without any regard to the holy Sacrament, to say, That they should not carry them back to the house, but cast them into the River. This profane Curate looking one day over the bridge of Elbe (which is a large and a deep River) how the boats did pass; no man touching him, nor his brain any way altered, but by a secret judgement of God, fell over the bridge into the water, and was presently drowned: that he which so impiously wished drowning to other, and that at the Sacrament of Baptism, was drowned himself. This happened in the year 1505. The contemptuous and irreverent handling of the Word of God in the Acts and Monuments. pag. 1730. pulpit, together with open hatred of the Gospel, was most famously revenged in one Nightingale the Parson of Gondal besides Canterbury, in the reign of Queen Mary, Anno 1555. This wretched Parson upon Shrove Sunday (which was the third day of the month of March) making a Sermon to his parishioners, entered beside his text, into an impertinent discourse of the Articles lately set forth by the Pope's authority, in commendation thereof, and to the disgrace of the Gospel: saying more over thus unto the people, My masters and neighbours, rejoice and be merry, for the prodigal son is come home: for I know that the most part of you are as I am, I know your hearts well enough, and I shall tell you what happened to me this week past: I was before my Lord Cardinal, and he hath made me as clean from sin as I was at the Font-stone; and he hath also appointed me to notify unto you the Bull of the Pope's pardon; and so reading the same unto them, he thanked God that ever he lived to see that day: adding moreover, that he believed, that by the virtue of that Bull he was as clean from sin as that night that he was borne: which words he had no sooner uttered, but the Lord to show that he lied, struck him with sudden death, and so he fell down out of the pulpit, never stirring hand nor foot, not speaking word, but there lay, an amazement and astonishment to all the people. Denterius an Arrian Bishop being at Byzantium, as he was about to baptise one Barbas after his blasphemous manner, saying, I baptise thee in the name of the Father, through the Son, in the holy Ghost, (which form of words is contrary to the prescript rule of Christ, that bade his disciples to baptise all nations, In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost) the water suddenly vanished, so that he could not then be baptised: wherefore Barbas all amazed, fled to a Church of purer Religion, and there was entertained into the Church by baptism. Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History reporteth the like accident to have happened to a Socrat. lib. 7. cap. 17. jew, who had been oftentimes baptised, and came to Paulus a Novatian Bishop, to receive the Sacrament again; but the water as before vanished; and his villainy being detected, he was banished the Church. Vrbanus Formensis and Foelix Iducensis, two Donatists by profession, rushing into Thipasa a city of Mauritania, commanded the Eucharist to be Opiate. Meltuit. Lib 2 contra Paren●anum. Cent. 4. cap. 6. thrown among the dogs; but the dogs growing mad thereby, set upon their own Masters, and rend them with their teeth, as being guilty of despising the body of Christ. Certainly a notable judgement to condemn the wicked behaviour of those miscreants, who were so profane, as not only to refuse the Sacrament themselves, but also to cast it to their dogs, as if it were the vilest and contemptiblest thing in the world. Vide lib. 1. cap. 17. Theopompus a Philosopher being about to insert certain things out of the writings of Moses, into his profane works, and so to abuse the sacred Word of God, was stricken with a frenzy; and being warned of the cause thereof in a dream, by prayers made unto God, recovered his senses again. This story is recorded by josephus. As also another of Theodectes Jeseph. Antiq: Liba 2. cap. 2. a Poet, that mingled his Tragedies with the holy Scripture, and was therefore stricken with blindness, until he had recanted his impiety. In a town of Germany called Itzsith, there dwelled a certain husbandman Luther in Coloq●ijs. that was a monstrous despiser and profaner of the Word of God and his Sacraments: he upon a time amidst his cups, railed with most bitter terms upon a Minister of God's Word; after which, going presently into the fields to overlook his sheep, he never returned alive, but was found there dead, with his body all scorched and burnt as black as a coal: the Lord having given him over into the hands of the Devil, to be thus used for his vile profaneness and abusing his holy things. This D. justus jonus in Luther's Conferences reporteth to be most true. In the year of our Lord 1553, a certain Cobbler's servant being brought up among the professors of the reformed Religion, and having received Philip. Melan. the Sacrament in both kinds, after living under Popery, received it after their fashion in one kind; but when he returned to his old Master, and was admonished by him to go again to the Communion as he was wont, than his sleepy conscience awaked and he fell into most horrible despair, crying that he was the Devil's bondslave, and therewithal threw himself headlong out of the window, so that with the fall his bowels gushed out of his mouth, and he died most miserably. When the great persecution of the Christians was in Persia under king Sozomen lib. 2. cap. ●1. Sapor, in the year of our Lord 347, there was one Miles an holy Bishop, and constant Martyr; who preaching, exhorting, and suffering all manner Vide lib. 1. cap. 16. of torments for the truth of the Gospel, could not convert one soul of the whole city whereof he was Bishop, to the faith: wherefore in hatred and detestation of it he forwent it clean: but after his departure the Lord made them worthily ●ue their contempt of his Word; for he sent the spirit of division betwixt King Sapor and them, so that he came with an army of men and three hundred Elephants against it, and quickly subverted it, that the very appearance and memorial of a city was coi defaced and rooted out. For certainly this is a sure position, where God's word is generally despised, and not regarded nor profited by, there some notable destruction approacheth. In a certain place there was acted a tragedy of the death and passion of Christ in show, but in deed of themselves: for he that played Christ's part, P●●lip. Melanct. in Collectane● Manlij. hanging upon the Cross, was wounded to death by him that should have thrust his sword into a bladder full of blood tied to his side; who with his fall slew another that played one of the women's part that lamented under the Cross: his brother that was first slain seeing this, slew the murderer, and was himself by order of justice hanged therefore: so that this tragedy was concluded with four true, not counterfeit deaths, and that by the divine providence of God, who can endure nothing less than such profane and ridiculous handling of so serious and heavenly matters. In the University of Oxford the history of Christ was also played, and cruelly punished, and that not many years since: for he that bore the person of Christ, the Lord struck him with such a giddiness of spirit and brain, that he became mad forthwith, crying when he was in his best humour, That God had laid this judgement upon him for playing Christ. Three other Actors in the same play were hanged for robbing, as by credible report is affirmed. Most lamentable was the judgement of God upon john Apowel (sometimes a Servingman) for mocking and jesting at the Word of God: This john Apowel hearing one William Malden reading certain English prayers, mocked him after every word, with contrary gauds and flouting terms; insomuch that at last he was terribly afraid, so that his hair stood upright on his head, and the next day was found besides his wits, crying night and day without ceasing, The Devil, the Devil, O the Devil of Hell, now the Devil of hell there he goeth: for it seemed to him as the Acts and Monuments, pag. 2103. other read, Lord have mercy upon us, at the end of the prayer, that the Devil appeared unto him, and by the permission of God depilved him of his understanding. This is a terrible example for all those that be mockers, at the Word of God, to warn them (if they do not repent) lest the vengeance of God fall upon them in like manner. Thus we see how severely the Lord punisheth all despisers and propha●●rs of his holy things, and thereby aught to learn to carry a most dutiful regard and reverence to them, as also to note them for none of God's flock, whosoever they be that deride or contemn any part of Religion, or the Ministers of the same. CHAP. XXXV. Of those that profane the Sabbath day. IN the fourth and last Commandment of the first Table, it is said, Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day: By which words it is ordained and enjoined us to separate one day of seven from all bodily and servile labour, not to idleness and looseness, but to the worship of God, which is spiritual and wholesome. Which holy ordinance when one of the children of Israel in contempt broke, as they were in the wilderness, by gathering sticks upon the Sabbath, he was brought before Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation, & by them put in prison until such time as they knew the Lords determination concerning him: knowing Num. 15. well, That he was guilty of a most grievous crime. And at length by the Lords own sentence to his servant Moses, condemned to be stoned to death without the host, as was speedily executed. Wherein the Lord made known unto them, both how unpleasant and odious the profanation of his Sabbath was in his sight, and how seriously and carefully every one ought to observe and keep the same. Now albeit that this strict observation of the Sabbath was partly ceremonial under the Law, and that in Christ jesus we have an accomplishment, as of all other, so also of this ceremony, (He being the true Sabbath, and assured repose of our souls) yet seeing we still stand in need of some time for the instruction and exercise of our Faith, it is necessary that we should have at least one day in a week to occupy ourselves in and about those holy and godly exercises, which are required at our hands; and what day fitter for that purpose than Sunday? which was also ordained in the Apostles time for the same end, and called by them Dies Dominicus, that is, the day of our Lord: because upon that day he rose from the dead, to wi●, the morrow after the jews Sabbath, being the first day of the week: to which Sabbath it by common consent of the Church succeeded, to the end that a difference might be put betwixt Christians and jews. Therefore it ought now religiously Cod li. 3. ●i. 12 〈◊〉. 10. to be observed, as it is also commanded in the civil law, with express prohibition not to abuse this day of holy rest, in unholy sports and pastimes of evil example. Nevertheless in stead hereof we use the evil imployance, abuse, and disorder of it for the most part, for beside the false worship and plentiful superstitions which reign in so many places, all manner of disorder and dissoluteness is in request, and beareth sway in these days: this is the day for tippling houses and taverns to be fullest fraught with ruffians and ribalds, and for villainous and dishonest speech, with lecherous and bawdy songs to be most ri●e: this is the day when dicing, dancing, whoring, and such noisome and dishonest demeanours, muster their bands and keep rank together; from whence foam out envies, hatreds, displeasures, quarrels, debates, blood sheddings, and murders, as daily experience testifieth. All which things are evident signs of Gods heavy displeasure upon the people where these abuses are permitted, and no difference made of that day wherein God would be served, but is contrarily mostdishonored by the overflow of wicked examples. And that it is a thing odious and condemned of God, these examples following will declare. Gregory Turonensis reporteth, That a husbandman, who upon the Lord's day went to plough his field, as he cleansed his ploughshare with an iron, the iron stuck so fast into his hand, that for two years he could not be delivered from it, but carried it about continually to his exceeding great pain and shame. Another profane fellow, without any Discipulus de tempore. ●er. 103. regard of God or his service, made no conscience to convey his corn out of the field on the Lord's day in Sermon time; but he was well rewarded for his godless covetousness: for the same corn which with so much care he gathered together, was consumed with fire from heaven, with the barn and all the grain that was in it. A certain Nobleman used every Lord's day to go a hunting in the Sermon while; which impiety the Lord punished with this judgement: he caused his wife to bring forth a child with a head like a dog, that seeing Theatr. hist. he preferred his dogs before the service of God, he might have one of his own getting to make much of. At Kimsta● a town in France, there lived in the year of our Lord 1559, job Fincel. l. 3. de Mi●ac. a certain covetous woman, who was so eager upon the world, and greedy of gain, that she would neither frequent the Church to hear the word of God herself, nor suffer any of her family to do it, but continually abode labouring and toiling about drying and pilling flax, and doing other domestical businesses: neither would she be reclaimed by her neighbours, who admonished and dehorted her from such untimely works. One Sabbath day as they were thus busily occupied, fire seemed to issue among the flax, without doing any hurt: the next Sabbath day it took fire indeed, but was quickly extinct: for all this she continued obstinate in her profaneness even the third Sabbath, when the flax again taking fire, could not be quenched till it had burnt her and two of her children to death; for though they were recovered out of the fire alive, yet the next day they all three died. And that which was most to be wondered at, a young infant in the cradle was taken out of the midst of the flame, without any hurt. Thus God useth to exercise his judgements upon the contemners of his commandments. The Centuriators of Magdeburge, entreating of the manners of Christians, Cent. 12. cap. 6. made report out of another history, that a certain husbandman (in Parochia Gemilacensi) grinding corn upon the Lord's day, the meal began to burn, Anno Dom. 1126, which though it might seem to be a thing mere casual, yet they set it down as a judgement of God upon him for breaking the Sabbath. As also of that which they speak in the same place Eccles. hist. Cent. 12. ib. of one of the Kings of Denmark, who when as he (contrary to the admonition of the Priests, who desired him to defer it) would needs upon the day of Pentecost make war with his enemy, died in the battle. But that may be better known to us all, which is written in the second book of Macchabees, of Nicanor the jews enemy, who would needs set upon them on the Sabbath; from which when other the jews that were compelled to be with him, could no way dissuade him, he was slain in the battle, and most miserably but deservedly handled, even the parts of his body shamefully dismembered, as in that History you may read more at large. Therefore in the Council at Paris every one labouring to persuade unto a more religious keeping of the Sabbath day, when they had justly Concil. Paris. lib. 1. cap. 50. complained, that (as many other things) so also the observation of the Sabbath was greatly decayed through the abuse of Christian liberty; in that men too much followed the delights of the world, and their own worldly pleasures, both wicked and dangerous: They further add, Multi nánque nostrum visu, multi etiam quorundam relatu dedicimus, etc. For many of us have been eye-witnesses, many have intelligence of it by the relation of others that some men upon this day being about their husbandry, have been strucken with thunder, some have been maimed and made lame, some have had their bodies (even bones and all) burnt in a moment with visible fire, and have consumed to ashes, and many other judgements of God have been, and are daily; Whereby it is declared, that God is offended with the dishonour of so high a day. And our time hath not wanted examples in this kind, whosoever hath observed them, when sometimes in the fairs upon this day the Wares have swum in the streets; sometimes the scaffolds at Plays have fall'n down, to the hurting and endangering of many; sometime one thing, sometime another hath fallen out, to the great damage and hurt of many that have no conscience of this day; yea, often to the endangering of their lives: and that which is most strange, within these late years, a whole town hath been twice burnt for the breach of the Sabbath, by the inhabitants, as all men judged: The just report thereof I pass over here to set down, until such time as I shall be better instructed. Famous and memorable also is that example which happened at London in the year 1583 at Paris garden, where, upon the Sabbath day were gathered together (as accustomably they used) great multitudes of profane people, to behold the sport of Bear baiting, without respect of the Lords day, or any exercise of religion required therein: which profane impiety, the Lord that he might chasten in some sort, and show his dislike thereof, he caused the scaffolds suddenly to break, and the beholders to tumble headlong down; so that to the number of eight persons, men and women, were slain therewith, besides many others which were sore hurt and bruised, to the shortening of their days. The like example happened at a town in Bedford shire called Risley, in the year 1607: Where the floor of a chamber, wherein a number were gathered together to see a play on the Sabbath day, fell down, by means whereof many were sore hurt, and some killed. Surely, a friendly warning to such as more delight themselves with the cruelty of beasts, and vain sports, than with the works of mercy and Religion, the fruits of a true faith, which ought to be the Sabbath day's exercise. And thus much for the examples of the first Table, whereof if some seem to exceed credit, by reason of the strangeness of them, yet let us know, that nothing is impossible to God; and that he doth often work miracles to control the obstinate impiety and rebellion of mortal men against his commandment. Besides, there is not one example here mentioned, but it hath a credible or probable Author for the avoucher of it. Let us now, out of all this that hath been spoken, gather up this wholesome lesson, to love God with all our heart and affection, to the end we may worship him, invocate his holy name, and repose all the confidence of our salvation upon him alone through Christ jesus, seeking by pleasing and obeying his will, to set forth his glory, and render him due thanks for all his benefits. FINIS. THE SECOND BOOK. CHAP. I. Of rebellious and stubborn children towards their Parents. We have seen in the former Book, what punishments they have incurred, that either maliciously or otherwise have transgressed and broken the commandments of the first Table: Now it followeth to discover the chastisements which God hath sent upon the transgressors of the second Table. And first concerning the first commandment thereof, which is, Honour thy father and mother, that thy days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord thy God hath given thee. I'm one of old Noah's sons, was guilty of the breach of this Gen 9 Commandment; who in stead of performing that reverence to his father which he ought (and that presently after the deluge, which being yet fresh in memory, might have taught him to walk in the fear of God) came so short of his duty, that when he saw his nakedness, he did not hide it, but mocked and jested at it: for which cause he was cursed both of his father, and of God, in the person of his youngest son Chanaan, and made a servant to the servants of his brethren: which curse was fulfilled in Num. 33. Deut. 7. his posterity the Canaanites, who being forsaken of God, were rooted up and spewed out of their land, because of their sins and abominations. Marvellous strange was the malice of Absalon, to rebel so furiously 2 Sam. 15. against his father David, as to wage war against him: which he did with all his strongest endeavours, without sparing any thing that might further his proceedings; insomuch that he grew to that outrage and madness, through the wicked and pernicious counsel of Achitophel, that he shamed not villainously to commit incest with his father's concubines, and 2 Sam. 16. pollute his blood even before the eyes of the multitude: by which means being become altogether odious and abominable, he shortly after lost 2 Sam. 18. the battle: wherein though himself received no hurt nor wound, yet was he not therefore quit; but being pursued by God's just judgement, fell unwittingly into the snare which he had deserved: for as he road along the forest, to save himself from his father's army; his moil carrying him under a thick oak, left him hanging by the hair upon a bough betwixt heaven and earth, until being found by joab, he was wounded to death with many blows. Whereby every man may plainly see that God wanteth no means to punish sinners when it pleaseth him; but maketh the dumb and senseless creatures the instruments of his vengeance: for he that had escaped the brunt and danger of the battle, (and yet not having therefore escaped the hand of God) was by a bruit beast brought under a senseless tree, which God had appointed to catch hold of him as an executioner of his just judgement: which if we consider, is as strange and wonderful an accident as may possible happen; and such an one as God himself provided, to punish this wicked, proud, and rebellious wretch withal: for seeing his outrage and villainy was so great as to rebel against his father, and so good and kind a father towards him as he was, it was most just, that he should endure so vile a punishment. Beside, herein doubtless God would lay open to the eyes of all the world, a fearful spectacle of his judgements against wicked and disobedient children, thereby to terrify the most impudent and malicious wretches that live, from this horrible sin. And for the same cause it was his pleasure, that that wicked and false Achitophel should fall into extreme ignominy and confusion for forsaking David, and setting forward with counsel and presence young Absalon against his father; for which cause with despair he hung himself. Now by this example it is easy to perceive how unpleasant this sin is in God's sight, and how much he would have every man to hate and detest it, seeing that Nature herself teacheth and instructeth us so far, as to yield duty and obedience unto those that begat, nourished, and brought us up. Notwithstanding all this, yet is the world full of ill advised and ill nurtured youth, that are little less disobedient unto their parents than Absalon was, as Adramalech and Saraser, that slew their father Sennacherib as he was worshipping in the Temple of Nisroth his god: but whereas they looked 2 King. 19 37. for the sovereignty, they lost the benefit of subjection, and were banished into Armenia, their brother Esarhaddon reigning in their stead. Gregory of Tours maketh mention of one Crannius the son of Clotarius Greg. of Tours fourth book. King of France, who having conspired treacherously, and raised war against his father, together with the Earl of Britain his supporter, were both vanquished and put to flight; but the Earl was slain in the pursuit: The Prince himself also (thinking to escape by sea, where lay provided certain ships ready to receive him) was in the mid way overtaken, together with his wife and children, whom he purposed to make partakers of his fortune, and were altogether (by the express commandment of his father) shut up in a little house, and there burned together. In this wise did Clotarius revenge the treachery and rebellion of his son, after a more severe, cruel, and fierce manner than King David did, who would have saved his son Absalon's life, notwithstanding all his wickedness, and malicious and furious rebellion: but this man chose being bereft of all fatherly affection, would use no compassion towards his son, but commanded so cruel an execution to be performed, not only upon him, but upon his daughter in law also, and their children, perchance altogether innocent and guiltless of that crime. A very rare and strange example, seeing it is commonly seen, that grandfathers use more to cherish and cocker their children's children than their own. Therefore we must think, that it was the providence of God to leave behind a notable example of his most just and righteous severity against disobedient and rebellious children, to the end to amaze and fear all others from enterprising the like. Philip Comineus hath recorded the treacherous tragedy of a most wicked Philip Comineus in the reign of Lewis the twelfth. cap. 63 and cruel son called Adolphus (for the world waxeth every day worse than other) that came in an evening suddenly to take his father the Duke of Gilderland prisoner, even as he was going to bed, and would not give him so much liberty as to pull on his hose (for he was bare legged) but carried him away in all haste, making him march on foot without breeches five long Almain miles, in a most cold weather: and then clapped him up in the bottom of a deep tower, where there was no light save by a little window, and there kept him close prisoner six months together. After which cruel fact, he himself was taken prisoner in like manner, and carried bound to Namur, where he lay a long time, until the Gaunts reprived him forthwith, and led him with them against Tournay, where he was slain: in the while of his imprisonment, his father yielding to nature, disinherited him of all his goods, for his vile ingratitude and unnatural cruelty, and left the succession of his dukedom to the Duke of Bourgondy. In the year of our Lord 1461, in a village called juchi, near to Cambray, Enguerr. de Monstr. vol. 2. there dwelled a certain man (or rather a beast) that in a great rage threw his own mother out of his doors thrice in one day, and the third time told her in fury, That he had rather see his house on fire, and burnt to coals, than that she should abide there but one day longer. It happened that the very same day, according to his cursed speech, his house was indeed fired, but how or whence no man could judge: and the fire was so fierce, that it consumed to ashes not only that house, but also twelve other houses adjoining: which was an evident figure of God's just judgement in punishing so vile and unnatural a deed by fire, seeing he deserved at the least to lose his house for banishing her out of it, that had borne him in her belly, and nourished him with the milk of her paps. In this place I may fitly insert two memorable examples of the same Alex. ab Alex. general. dier. Lib. 4. cap. 14. subject, gathered by an author of credit and fame sufficient, to this effect. It is not long (saith he) since a friend of mine, a man of a great spirit, and worthy to be believed, recounted to me a very strange accident which, he said, happened to himself, and proved his saying by the testimony of many witnesses: which was this: That being upon a time at Naples at a kinsman's and familiars house of his, he heard by night the voice of a man crying in the street for aid, which caused him to rise and light a candle, and run out to see what the matter was: being come out of the doors, he perceived a cruel and ugly shaped devil, striving with all his force to catch and get into his clutches a young man, that strove on the other side to defend himself, and for fear raised that outcry which he had before heard: the young man seeing him, ran to him forthwith, and catching fast hold by his clothes, and pitifully crying to God, would in no case let go his hold until his cruel enemy forsook him: and being brought into the house all dismayed and beside himself, would not let go his hold until he came to his senses again out of that exceeding fear. The cause of which assault was, he had led all his time a most wicked life, and had been a contemner of God, and a Rebel against his parents, using vile railing and bitter speeches against them, in such sort, that in stead of blessing, they had laid a curse upon him. And this is the first example. Concerning the second, I will also set down the Authors own words, as followeth. Of all the strange things (saith he) that ever I heard report of, that which happened not long since at Rome is most worthy to be remembered, of a certain young man of Gabia, borne of a base and poor family, but endued with terrible and furious nature, and addicted to a loose and disordinate life. This gallant picking a quarrel with his own father, in his anger reviled him with most gross and reproachful terms: In which mad fits, as one wholly given over to the Devil, he purposely departed to Rome to practise some naughty device against his father: but his ghostly father the Devil met him in the way, under the shape of a cruel and ugly fellow with a thick bushy beard, and hair hanging disorderly, and clothes all rent and tattered; who as they walked together, enquired of him why he was so sad: He answered, that there had passed some bitter speeches betwixt his father and him, and now he devised to work him some mischief. The Devil by and by like a crafty knave soothed him up & said, that he also upon the like occasion went about the same practice, and desired that they might pursue both their voyage and enterprise together: it was soon agreed upon betwixt them, being like to like, as the proverb goeth. Therefore being arrived at Rome, and lodged at the same Inn, one bed did serve them both; where whilst the young man securely and sound slept, the old malicious knave watching his opprtunity, caught him by the throat to strangle him: whereat the poor wretch awoke, and cried for help to God so that the wicked spirit was constrained to forsake him without performing his purpose, and to flee out at the chamber with such force and violence, that the house roof cracked, and the tiles clattered down abundantly. The host of the house being awaked with the noise, cried out to know what the matter was, and running into the chamber where this noise was, with a candle in his hand, found the poor young man all alone betwixt dead and alive, of whom (recovered) he learned out the whole truth, as hath been told: but he after this terrible accident repented him of his wicked life, and was touched with the sense of his grievous sin so nearly, that ever after he led a more circumspect and honest life. Thus much we find written in that Author. Henry the fifth inspired with the furies of the Pope of Rome, made war upon his father Henry the fourth, vexing him with cruel and often Philip. Melanc lib 4. Chron. battles, and not ceasing till he had spoiled him of his Empire, and till the Bishop of Mentz had proudly and insolently taken from him his Imperial ornaments even in his presence: but the Lord in recompense of his unnatural dealing, made him and his army a prey unto his enemies the Saxons, and to fly before them, stirring up also the Pope of Rome to be as grievous a scourge unto him, as he had been before time to his father. Now as the ambition of a Kingdom was the cause of this man's ingratitude, so in the example following, pride and disdain ruled, and therefore he is so much the more to be condemned, by how much a Kingdom is a stronger cord to draw men to vice, than a man's own affection. There was (saith Manlius) an old man crooked with age, distressed with poverty, and almost pined with hunger, that had a son rich, strong, and fat, of whom he entreated no gold or silver, or possession, but food and In Collectan. sustenance for his belly, and clothes for his back, but could not obtain it at his hands: for his proud heart, exalted with prosperity, thought it a shame and discredit to his house, to be borne of so poor and base parentage, and therefore not only denied him relief, but also disclaimed him from being his father, and chased him away with bitter and crabbed reproaches. The poor old man thus cruelly handled, let tears fall as witness of his grief, and departed comfortless from his Tiger minded son. But the Lord that gathereth up the tears of the innocent, looked down from heaven in justice, and sent a fury into the senses and understanding of this monstrous son, that as he was void of nature and compassion, so he might bevoid of reason and discretion for ever after. Another not so cruel and disdainful as the former, yet cruel and disdainful Manlius in collectan. enough to pluck down vengeace upon his head, would not see his father beg indeed, nor yet abjure him as the other did; but yet undertaking to keep him, used him more like a slave than a father: for what should be too dear for him that gives us life? yet every good thing was too dear for this poor father, Upon a time a dainty morsel of meat was upon the board to be eaten, which as soon as he came in he conveied away, and foisted in courser victuals in the room. But mark what his Fides sit apud authorem. dainties turned to: when the servant went to fetch it again, he found in stead of meat snakes, and of sauce serpents, to the great terror of his conscience: but that which is more, one of the serpents leapt in his face, and catching hold by his lip, hung there till his dying day, so that he could never feed himself, but he must feed the serpent withal. And this badge carried he about as a cognisance of an unkind and ungrateful son. Moreover this is another judgement of God, that commonly as children deal with their parents, so do their children deal with them: and this in the law of proportion is most just, and in the order of punishing most usual: for the proof whereof, as experience daily teacheth, so one example or two I will subjoin It is reported how a certain unkind and perverse Thearr. hist, son beat his aged father upon a time, and drew him by the hair of his head to the threshold: who when he was old was likewise beaten of his son, and drawn also by the hair of the head not to the threshold, but out of doors into the dirt; and how he should say he was rightly served, if he had left him at the threshold, as he left his father, and not dragged him into the streets, which he did not to his. Thus did his own mouth bear record of his impiety, and his own conscience condemn him before God and men. Another old man being persuaded by his son (that had married a young Guiliel. Lugdi. Discipulus de ●emp. wise) with fair and sugared promises of kindnesses and contentments, to surrender his goods and lands unto him, yielded to his request, and found for a space all things to his desire: but when his often coughing annoyed his young and dainty wise, he first removed his lodging from a fair high chamber to a base under room, and after showed him many other unkind and unchildly parts: and lastly when the old man asked for clothes, he bought four elnes of cloth, two whereof he bestowed upon him, and reserved the other two for himself. Now his young son marking this nigardise of his father towards his grandfather, hid the two else of cloth, and being asked why he hid them (whether by ingeniousness or instinct of God) he answered, To the end to reserve them for his father, against he was old, to be a covering for him. Which answer touched his father so near, that ever after he showed himself more love and obsequious to his father than he did before. Two great faults, but soon and happily amended. Would it might be an example to all children, if not to mitigate them, yet at least to learn them to fear how to deal roughly and crookedly with their parents, seeing that God punisheth sin with sin, and sinners in their own kind, and measureth the same measure to every man which they have measured unto others. The like we read of another George Lanterde disciplina liberorum. that provided a trough for his old decrepit unmannerly father to eat his meat in: who being demanded of his son also to what use that trough should serve, answered for his grandfather: What (quoth the child) and must we have the like for you when you are old? Which words so abashed him, that he threw it away forthwith. At Milan there was an abstinate and ungodly son, that when he was Theat. hist. admonished by his mother of some fault which he had committed, made a wry mouth, and pointed his fingers at her in scorn and derision. Whereat his mother being angry, wished that he might make such a mouth upon the gallows. Neither was it a vain wish, for within few days he was taken Mandate. 3. Cursing. li. 1. cap. 33. with a theft, and condemned by law to be hanged; and being upon the ladder, was perceived to wryth his mouth in grief, after the same fashion which he had done before to his mother in derision. Henry the second of that name, King of England, son of Geffrey Plantagenet, and Maud the Empress, after he had reigned twenty years, was content to admit his young son Henry (married to Margaret the French Kings daughter) into participation of his Crown: but he like an unnatural son to requite his father's love, sought to dispossess him of the whole; for by inciting the King of France and certain other Nobles, he took arms, and raised war against his own natural father: betwixt whom divers strong battles being fought, as well in England by the Deputies and friends of both parties, as also in Normandy, Poytou, Guian, and Britain; the victory always inclined to the father, so that the rebellious son with his allies were constrained to bend to his father's will, and to desire peace, which he gently granted, and forgave his offence. Howbeit the Lord for his disobedience did not so lightly pardon him, but because his hasty mind could not tarry for the Crown till his father's death, therefore the Lord cut him short of it altogether, causing him to die six years before his father, being yet but young, and like to live long. Lothair King of Soissons in France, committed the rule of the province of Guian to his eldest son Cramiris, who when (contrary to the mind of his father) he oppressed the people with exactions, and was reclaimed home, he like an ungracious and impious son, fled to his uncle Childebert, and provoked him towarre upon his own father, wherein he himself was by the just vengeance of God taken, and burned with his wife and children to death. Furthermore it is not (doubtless) but to a very good end enacted in the law of God, That he which curseth his father or mother should die the death, and that rebellious children and such as be incorrigible, should at the instance and pursuit of their own parents, by order of law be stoned to death. As children by all these examples ought not only to learn to fear to displease and revile their parents, but also to fear and reverence them, lest that by disobedience they kindle the fire of God's wrath against them: so likewise on the other side parents are here advertised to have great care in bringing up and instructing their children in the fear of God, and obedience to his will; lest for want of instruction and correction on their part, they themselves incur a punishment of their careless negligence in the person of their children. And this is proved by experience of the men of 2 Kin. 2. Bethel, of whose children two and forty were torn in pieces by Bears, for that they had been so evil taught as to mock the holy Prophet Elizeus, in calling him baldpate. Heli likewise the high priest was culpable of this fault, for having two 1 Sam. 1. 2. wicked and perverse sons, whom no fear of God could restrain, being discontent with that honourable portion of the sacrifices allotted them by God, like famished and unsatiable wretches fell to share out more than was their due, and by force to raven all that which by fair means they could not get: and that which is worse, to pollute the holy Tabernacle of God with their filthy whoredoms, in such sort, that the Religion of God Contempt of holy things. Lib. 1. cap. 34. grew in disgrace through their profane dealings. And albeit it may seem that their father did his duty in some sort, when he admonished and reproved them, yet it is manifest by the reprehension of the man of God, that he did no part of that at all, or if he did, yet it was in so careless, loose, and cold manner, using more lenity than he ought, or less severity than was necessary, that God turned their destructions (when they were slain at the overthrow of Israel by the Philistines) to be his punishment: for understanding the doleful news of his son's death, and the Arkes taking, at once, he fell backwards from his stool, and burst his neck, being old and heavy, even fourscore and eighteen years of age, not able either to help or stay himself. David also was not free from this offence; for he so much cockered a Kin. 1. 16. some of his children, that they proved the greatest plagues and scourges unto him, especially Absalon and Adonijah: for the one openly rebelled against him, and almost drove him out of his kingdom; the other usurped the title and honour of the kingdom before his father's death: of this it is recorded. That David so cockered and pampered him, that he would never displease him from his youth. But see how he was punished in them for this too great lenity; both of them came to an untimely death, and proved not only the workers of their own destruction, but also great crosses to their father. Ludovicus Vives saith, That in his time a certain woman in Flanders did Lib. 2. cap. 10. de institut: Christ. ●ami. so much pamper and cocker up two of her sons, even against her husband's will, that she would not suffer them to want money, or any thing which might furnish their roiotous life, both in drinking, banqueting, and dicing; yea she would stole from her husband to minister unto them: but as soon as her husband was dead, she was justly plagued in them both, for they fell from royoting to robbing, (which two vices are commonly linked together) and for the same one of them was executed by the sword, and the other by the halter, she herself looking on as a witness of their destructions, whereof her conscience told her that her indulgence was the chiefest cause. Hither may we refer that common and vulgar story, and I suppose very true, which is almost in every child's mouth, of him that going to the gallows, desired to speak with his mother in her care ere he died; and when she came unto him, in stead of speaking, bit off her care Cyriac. Spang. with his teeth, exclaiming upon her as the causer of his death, because she did not chastise him in his youth for his faults, but by her flatteries established him in vice, which brought him to this woeful end: and herein she was doubly punished, both in her son's destruction, and her own infamy, whereof she carried about her a continual ma●ke. This aught to be a warning to all parents, to look better to the education of their children, and to root out of them in time all evil and corrupt manners; lest of small sprigs they grow to branches, and of qualities to habits, and so either be hardly done off, or at least deprave the whole body, and bring it to destruction: but above all to keep them from idleness and vain pleasures, the discommodity and mischief whereof this present example will declare. At a town called Hannuel in Saxony, the Devil transforming himself job. Fincelius, lib. de Myrac. into the shape of a man, exercised many juggling tricks and pretty pastime to delight young men and maids withal, and indeed to draw after him daily great companies: one day they followed him out of the city gates, unto a hill adjoining, where he played a juggling trick indeed with them, for he carried them all away with him, so that they were never after heard of. This history is recorded in the Annals of the aforenamed city, and avouched to be most true; being a notable and fearful admonition to all parents, to set their children to learning and instruction, and to withdraw them from all such vain and foolish pastimes. CHAP. II. Of those that rebel against their Superiors. NOw as it is a thing required by law and reason, that children bear that honour and reverence to their natural parents which is commanded; so it is necessary by the same respect, that all subjects perform that duty of honour and obedience to their Lords, Princes, and Kings, which is not derogatory to the glory of God; & the rather, because they are as it were their fathers, in supplying that duty towards their subjects which fathers owe their children: as namely in maintaining their peace and tranquillity in earthly things, and keeping them under the discipline of God's Church; to which two ends they were ordained. For this cause the Scripture biddeth every man to be subject to the higher powers; not so much to avoid the punishment which might befall the contrary, as because it is agreeable to the will Rom. 13. of God. And in another place, To honour the King; and, To give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, as unto God that which is Gods. So also in Moses law we 1 Pet. 2. Mat. 22. Exod. 22. are forbidden to detract from, or speak evil of the Magistrate, or to curse the Ruler of the people. Yet for all this the children of Israel were not afraid many times to commit this sin, but then especially when they charged Moses with conspiring the murder of those Rebels that (under Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, Num. 16. Captains of that enterprise) set themselves against him and Aaron; whom not he, but God for their pride and stubbornness, had rooted out and destroyed: and thus they backbited and slandered Moses, and mutined against him, being their sovereign Magistrate and Conductor, that so meekly and justly had brought them out of Egypt, even by the special commission of Almighty God. But the fury of God's displeasure was so stirred up against them for this their fact, that they were scourged with a grievous plague, whereof died about four thousand and seven hundred persons. In the time of King David's flight from Absalon, who pursued him to 2 Sam. 16. bereave him of his kingdom, there was one Semei a jeminite, that in his wicked and perverse humour, in stead of service done unto his Sovereign, especially in that extremity, not only presented not himself unto him as a subject, but as a railer cursed him with most reproachful terms, as of Mandate. 3. Cursers, lib. 1. cap. 33. murderer, and wicked man, and also threw stones at him and his followers, in most despiteful manner: for which his malicious and rebellious act, though whilst David lived he was not once called in question: yet was he not exempted from punishment therefore; for in the end his wickedness fell upon his own head, and destruction overtook him by desert of another fault, at the commandment of Solomon. 1 King. 2. The punishment of Shiba the son of Bichri tarried not all so long, 2 Sam. 20. who having also with a proud and audacious heart stirred up the greatest part of Israel to rebel against David, then when he thought to have been most at quiet, enjoyed not long his disloyal enterprise; for being speedily pursued by David's servants, and besieged in the city Abel, his head was cut off by the citizens, and thrown over the wall, as a just reward for his rebellious act. But let us pass over these sacred histories, and come to profane, yet probable, and more near examples. When Camillus besieged the Phalischi, Liv. lib. 5. a people in Hetruria, near to mount Floscon, a Schoolmaster of the city, who had the rule over the chief men's sons, both touching instruction and governance, led them out of the city gates one day in show to walk, but indeed to betray them into Camillus' hands: which unfaithful dealing Camillus did not only mislike, but detest and refuse, thinking it an unhonest part by such finister means to bring even his enemies in subjection; and therefore reproving the trustless Schoolmaster, and binding his hands behind his back, he gave every one of his scholars a rod, with commandment to whip him back unto the parents, whom he had pretended so to deceive. A most noble act in Camillus (would we could find the like among Christians) and a most deserved punishment of the Schoolmaster, (would no traitor might be served better.) Neither might that worthy Roman repent his deed, for the Phalischi in admiration and love of this notable justice, freely yielded themselves and their city to him, which otherwise in long time, and without great effusion of blood he could not have achieved. Did Tarpeia the daughter of Sp. Tarpeius speed any better, when sh●t betrayed Liv. lib. 1. the tower whereof her father was the overseer; to Tatius King of the Sabines, who at that season besieged Rome, upon condition of a sum of gold, or as other writers say, of all that the soldiers wore on their left hands? No verily, for the Sabines (as soon as they had obtained their purpose) overwhelmed her with her left hand gifts; to wit, their shields, and not their rings and bracelets, which she hoped: to the end to leave an example to the posterity, how no promise nor oath ought to be of force to traitors, to keep them from punishment. Neither did these noble young men of Rome, amongst whom were the Tit. Liv. Consul Brutus sons, come to any better issue, when they conspired to receive King Tarqvinius into the city by night, who by the virtue and valour of their father was worthily expulsed: for their secret and wicked counsel being bewrayed to the Consuls junius and Pub. Valerius, by Vindicio a bondslave, they were apprehended, having letters about them written to Tarqvinius to the same effect: and being condemned, were first shamefully scourged with rods, and after executed to death. Pausanias' King of Sparta having conspired with the Persians against his Thucyd, lib. 1● own country, and as it were offered violence to his own bowels, fled into the Sanctuary of Pallas for relief, when he saw the Ephori to go about to Aelian. lib. 9 call him in question for his treason. Now whereas it was irrelegious to take him from thence by violence, they agreed to shut him up there continually, and so to pine him to death. Which when his mother understood, she was the first person that brought a stone to stop up the doors, to hinder him from getting forth: and therein showed a notable example of godly cruelty to her child, and cruel pity to her country: approving that saying of Aristippus, who being demanded why he neglected his son being borne of his body? answered, Do we not cast from us lice and phlegm which are also bred of our bodies? Insinuating, That they which have nothing to commend them to their parents but generation, are not to be esteemed as children; much less they that degenerate. When Brennus, Captain of the Gauls, brother to Belinus, and son to Moluntius King of Britain, besieged Ephesus, a devilish woman enticed with the jewels which Brennus wore about him, betrayed the city into his hands. But Brennus' detesting this abominable covetousness, when he entered the city so loaded her with gold, that he covered and oppressed her therewith. In like manner Herodamon delivered up to the Emperor Aurelian his own native city Tian●, in hope to save his own life by betraying his country. But it fell out quite contrary to his expectation; for though Caesar had sworn not to leave a dog alive within the walls, because they shut their gates against him, and also his soldiers were instant and urgent upon his Eras. in Apoph. lib. 6. promise, yet he spared the city, and destroyed the traitor, and quit himself of his promise, by hanging up every dog in the city, contrary to his own intent, and his army's expectation; yet agreeable to his words, and most correspondent to equity and true fortitude. In the year of our Lord 1270, the Bishop of Colonea practising to spoil the city of her privileges, and reduce it under his own jurisdiction: Hermanus Grinu, Consul, and chief Magistrate, withstood his power and authority with all his force, so that he could not bring his purpose about. Wherefore two Cannons belonging to the Bishop, sought to undermine this their enemy by policy, and to take him out of the way: for which end they invited him in very kind manner to dinner, but when he was come they brought him into a young lion's den (which they kept in honour of the Bishop) and unawares shut the doors upon him, bidding him shift for himself, thinking that it was impossible for him to escape out alive. But the Consul perceiving in what great danger he was, wrapped his cloak about his left arm, and thrusting it into the mouth of the hungry Lion, killed him with his right hand, and so by the wonderful providence of God, escaped without hurt. But the two traitorous Canons he caught right soon, and hung them at their Cathedral Church, to their own confusion, and tertor of all traitors. It was noble saying, and worthy the marking, of Augustus Caesar, to Ramitalches King of Thracia, who having forsaken Anthony, to take part with Augustus, boasted very insolently of his deserts towards him: then Caesar dissembling his folly, drank to another King, and said, I love treason, but I cannot commend nor trust a traitor. The same also in effect Philip of Macedony and julius Caesar were wont to say, That they loved a traitor at the first, but when he had finished his treason, they hated him more than any other: signifying, that traitors deserved no retribution of thanks, seeing their office was accepted for a time, yet they themselves could never be counted less than naughty and disloyal persons: for no honest man ever betrayed his country or his friend: and what greater punishment can there be than this? But for manifest proof hereof let this one example serve in stead of many, namely, of Theodoricke King of Francia, Albert. Crantz and Irminfride King of Thuringia, who being professed foes, and having sought many cruel battles, at length the latter was conquered of the former, by the lucky assistance of the Saxons. This Irminfride thus subdued, sued for pardon and release at the conquerors hand, but he was so far from pitying his estate, that he corrupted one Iringus a Nobleman, and Irminfride's subject, to murder his master, which he performed kneeling before Theodoricke, running him through with his sword at his back: which traitorous deed, as soon as it was finished, Theodoricke, though the setter of it, yet he could not abide the actor, but bade him be packing, for who could put trust in him that had betrayed his own master? At which words Iringus (mad with anger and rage) ran at Theodericke also with purpose to have slain him too; but his hand missing the mark, returned his sword into his own bowels, so that he fell down dead upon his master's carcase. What more notable and wonderful judgement could happen? surely it is an example worthy to be written in golden letters, and to be read and remembered of every one, to teach men allegiance and obedience to their Princes and Superiors, lest more sudden destruction than this fall upon them. After the death of jeronimus King of Siracuse, Andronodorus and Themistius, Tit. Livius. provoked by their wives descending of the blood royal, affected an usurpation of the crown, and wrought much hurt to the commonwealth: but their practices being discovered, the Praetors (by the consent of the Senators) slew them both in the market place, as rotten members of their common body, and therefore fit to be cut off. And when they understood, how their wives Damarata and Harmonia were breeders and incensers of this mischief, they sent to kill them also; yea and Heraclia, Harmonia her sister, guiltless and witless of the crime (for no other cause, but because she was sister unto her) was plucked from the Altar, and slain in the tumult, with two of her daughters that were virgins. And thus is treason plagued not only in traitors themselves, but also in those that are linked unto them in friendship and affinity. The glory and reputation of Fabritius the Roman is eternised by that noble act of his, in sending bound to Pyrrhus a traitor that offered to poison Cic. offic. lib. 3. him. For albeit that Pyrrhus was a sworn enemy to the Roman Empire, and also made war upon it, yet would not Fabritius treacherously seek his destruction, but sent back that traitor unto him, to be punished at his discretion. What notable treasons did Hadrian the fourth, Pope of Rome, practise against the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, yet all was still frustrate; for the Lord protected the Emperor, and punished the traitor with a sudden and strange death; for he was choked with a fly which went down his throat and stopped his breath, and could by no means be pulled out till it made an end of him. Besides, many others that went about the same practice, were brought to notable destructions: as that counterfeit fool whom the Italians set on to murder Frederick in his chamber, which had been performed, had he not leapt out of a window into a river, and so saved his life: for the fool being taken, was thrown headlong out of the same window and broke his neck. As also an Arabian Doctor, a grand poisoner, who going about to infect with poison his bridle, his saddle, his spurs, and stirrups, that as soon as he should but touch them, he might be poisoned, was discovered and hanged for his labour. In the year of our Lord 1364, when as the Emperor Charles the Albert. Crantz fourth, and Philip Duke of Austria, were ready to join battle in the field, Charles distrusting his own power, undermined his foe by subtlety on this fashion: he sent for three of Duke Philip's captains privily, and persuaded them with promises of rewards to work some means to terrify the Duke, and dissuade him from that battle: which they performed with all diligence; for they told the Duke, that they had stolen into the Emperor's tents by night, and viewed his power, which they found to exceed his by three parts, and therefore counselled him not to try the hazard of the battle, but to save his soldier's lives by flight, which if they tarried, they were sure to lose. Wherewithal the Duke mistrusting no fraud, sore affrighted, took the next occasion of flight, and returned home with dishonour. Now when these three traitors came to the Emperor for their compacted rewards, he caused them to be paid in counterfeit money, not equivaling the sum of their bargain by the twentieth part: which although at first they discerned not, yet afterwards finding how they were cozened, they returned to require their due, and complain of their wrong. But the Emperor looking sternly upon them, answered▪ That counterfeit money was good enough for their counterfeit service, and that if they tarried long, they should have a due reward of their treason. Ladislaus Lerezin, Governor of Alba julia in Hungary, under Maximilian Leunclanias' Annals of Turkey. the Emperor, in the year 1566: the City being besieged, and in some danger of losing, albeit he was advertised, That within two days he should receive some relief, yet yielded the City traitorously into the hands of the Turks upon composition. The cruel Turks forgetting their faith and all humanity, massacred all the soldiers within the City, and sent Ladislaus the traitor bound hand and foot to Selym the great Turk: where he was accused for his cruel slaying of some Turkish prisoners, and delivered to his accusers to be used at their pleasure; who (a just reward of his former treason) put him into a great Pipe sticked full of long nails, and then rolled him down from a high mountain, so as the nails ran through him, and ended his life in horrible torment. Besides, his son that was also partaker of this treason, died miserably without means, and abandoned of all men, in great poverty and extremity. When as the City of Rhodes was besieged by the Turk, there was in it a certain traitorous Nobleman, who upon promise to have one of Soliman's daughters given him in marriage, did many services to the Turk in secret, to the prejudice of the City. The Island and town being won, he presented himself to Solyman, expecting the performance of his promise: but he in recompense of his treason caused him to be flayed alive; saying, Camerarius Historicall meditat. cap. 7. That it was not lawful for a Christian to marry a Turkish wife, except he put off his old skin: being thus flayed, they laid him upon a bed all covered with salt, and so powdered him, that in short space he died in unspeakable tormenes. CHAP. III. More examples of the same subject. WHen Manuel the Emperor of Constantinople lay about Otto Frisingensis de rebus Freder. pri●. lib. 1. cap. 47. Antioch with an army prepared against the Turk, one of his chiefest officers, namely, his Chancellor, put in practise this notable piece of treason against him: he waged three desperate young men with an infinite sum of money to kill him on a day appointed, and then with a band of soldiers determined to possess himself of the Crown, and of the City, and to slay all that any way crossed his purpose. But the treason being discoured secretly to the Empress, she acquainted her Lord with it, who took the three traitors, and put them all to cruel deaths: and as for the Chancellor, he first bored out his eyes, and plucking his tongue through his throat, tormented him to death with a rigorous and most miserable punishment. When the Turk besieged Alba Graeca, certain soldiers conspired to betray the City into his hands, for he had promised them large rewards Bonfinus, lib. 3. Decad. 5. so to do; howbe it it succeeded not with them, for they were detected and apprehended by Paulus Kynifius Governor of Hungary, who constrained them to eat one another's flesh, seething every dayone to feed the other withal, but he that was last was fain to devour his own body. Scribonianus a captain of the Romans in Dalmatia, rebelled against the Lanquet. Chro. Emperor Claudius, and named himself emperor in the army; but his rebellion was miraculously punished, for though the whole army favoured him very much, yet they could not by any means spread their banners, or remove their standers out of their places as long as he was called by the name of Emperor, with which miracle being moved, they turned their loves into hatred, and their liking into loathing, so that whom lately they saluted as Emperor, him now they murdered as a traitor. To rehearse all the English traitors that have conspired against their Lanquet. Kings from the Conquest unto this day, it is a thing unnecessary, and almost impossible. Howbeit, that their destructions may appear more evidently, and the curse of God upon traitors be made more manifest, I will briefly reckon up a catalogue of the chiefest of them. In the year 1295 Lewline Prince of Wales rebelled against King Edward the first, and after much ado, was taken by Sir Roger Mortimer, and his head set upon the Tower of London. In like sort was David, Lewline's brother served. R●●s and Madok escaped no better measure in stirring the Welshmen up to rebellion. No more did the Scots, who having of their own accord committed the government of their kingdom to king Edward, after the death of Alexander (who broke his neck by a fall from an horse, and lest no issue male) and sworn fealty unto him; yet dispensed with their oath by the Pope's commission, and Frenchmens incitement, and rebelled divers times against King Edward: for he overcame them sundry times, and made slaughter of their men, slaying at one time 32000, and taking divers of their Nobles prisoners. In like manner they rebelled against King Edward Lanquet. Stow. the third, who made three voyages into that land in the space of four years, and at every time overcame and discomfited them, insomuch that well near all the nobility of Scotland, with infinite number of the common people were slain. Thus they rebelled in Henry the sixths' time, and also Henry the eights, and divers other kings reigns, ever when our English forces were busied about foreign wars, invading the land on the other side most traitorously. In the reign of King Henry the fourth there rebelled at one time against him Sir john Holland, D. of Excester, with the Dukes of Aumarle, Surrey, Lanquet. Salisbury, and Gloucester: and at another time Sir Thomas Percy Earl of Worcester, and Henry Percy son to the Earl of Northumberland: at another, Sir Richard Scroop Archbishop of York, and divers others of the house of the Lord Mowbray: at another time Sir Henry Percy the father, Earl of Northumberland, and the Lord Bardolph: and lastly, Ryce ap Dee and Owen Glendour, two Welshmen: all which were either slain, as Sir Henry Percy the younger; or beheaded, as the rest of these noble Rebels; or starved to death, as Owen Glendour was in the mountains of Wales, after he had devoured his own flesh. In the reign of Henry the fifth, Sir Richard Earl of Cambridge, Sir Richard Scroop Treasurer of England, and Sir Thomas Grace were beheaded for treason. No less was the perfidious and ungrateful treachery of Humphrey 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 until 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, betrayed him into the hands of john Mitton Sheriff of Shropshire, who conveied him to the city of Salisbury, where King Richard kept his household; where he was soon after put to death. But as for ungrateful Banister, the vengeance of God pursued him to his utter ignominy: for presently after, his eldest son became mad and died in a bores sti●: his eldest daughter was suddenly stricken with a foul lepry: his second son marvellously deformed of his limbs, and lame: his youngest son drowned in a puddle: and he himself in his old age arraigned and found guilty of a murder, 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 pass over the time of the residue of the Kings, where in many examples of treasons and punishments upon them are extant, and to come nearer unto our own age, let us consider the wonderful providence of God in discovering the notorious treasons which have been so oftenpretended, and so many, against our late Sovereign Queen Elizabeth, and protecting her so fatherly from the dint of them all. First therefore, to begin with the chiefest, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, in the eleventh year of her reign began a rebellion in the North, pretending their purpose to be sometimes to defend the Queen's person and government from the invasion of strangers, and sometimes for conscience sake to seek reformation of Religion: under colour whereof they got together an army of men, to the number of six thousand soldiers; against whom marched the Earl of Suffex, Lieutenant of the North, and the Earl of Warwick, sent by the Queen to his aid: Whose approach struck such a terror into their hearts, that the two Earls, 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 Earls, one of them (to wit) of Northumberland, was after taken in Scotland, and beheaded at York. Westmoreland fled into another Country, and left his house and family destroyed and undone by his folly. A while after this, what befell to john Throgmorton, Thomas Brooke, George Redman, and divers other Gentlemen at Norwich, who pretended a rebellion under the colour of suppressing strangers, were they not discovered by one of their own conspiracy Thomas Ket, and executed at Norwich for their pains? The same end came Francis Throgmorton to, whose treacheries as they were abominable, and touching the Queens own person, so they were disclosed not without the especial providence of God. But above all, that vile and ungrateful traitor William Parry, upon whom the Queen had poured plentifully her liberality, deserveth to be had in everlasting remembrance to his shame; whose treasons being discovered, he paid the tribute of his life in recompense thereof. What shall I say of the Earl of Arundel, and a second Earl of Northumberland? Did not the justice of God appear in both their ends, when being attainted for treason, the one slew himself in prison, and the other died by course of nature in prison also? Notorious was the conspiracy of those arch traitors, Ballard, Babington, Savage, and Tylney, etc. yet the Lord brought them down, and made them spectacles to the World of his justice. Even so that notorious villain Doctor Lopez (the Queen's Physician) who a long time had not only been an intelligencer to the Pope and King of Spain of our English Counsels, but also had poisoned many Noblemen, and went about also to poison the Queen herself, was he not surprised in his treachery, and brought to sudden destruction? In sum, 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 despite of them all brought her, being full of years, in peace to her grave: All these treasons had their breeding and beginning from that filthy sink of Romish superstition, from whence the poison was conveied into the hearts of these traitorous wretches, by the means of those common firebrands of the Christian World, the wicked Jesuits, 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 look for no better fruits from such trees. And hath the reign of our now Sovereign King james been free from these Sinon's? He hath as yet swayed the Sceptre of this Kingdom not fully nine years, and how many treasons have been 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 devilish and damnable practice of blowing up the Parliament house with gunpowder, together with the King, Prince, and all the Nobles and chief Pillars of the Land, is never to be omitted nor forgotten, but to be remembered as long as the Sun and Moon endureth, to the shame of their religion, and the professors 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 own pates, not only by a Divine and miraculous discovery of their treason (the very night before it should have been effected) but also by bringing the chief plotters thereof unto confusion; some by the ordinary proceeding of justice, and some by slaughter in resistance: and that which is not to be overpast, some of the principal of them being together in a chamber, were so scorched by their own powder, which was in drying, that they were driven to confess the heavy judgement of God to be upon them. I pray God such may ever be the end of all traitors, and that the religion which bringeth forth such horrible fruits may not only be suspected but abhorred of all. Moreover, there is yet another kind of treason, and another rank of traitors as pernicious 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 gain, 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 always in detestation in well governed Policies, and also evermore severely punished. The Aeginates punished them with the loss of their right hand thumbs, to the end they might no more handle a spear or a sword, but an oar: the Mitylenians with loss of their lives: the inhabitants of Samos marked them in the face with the picture of an Owl: 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 Valerius Maximus. this respect he borrowed from foreign cruelty: for having conquered Carthage, and got into his power all those Roman Rebels that took part against his country, he hung the Romans as traitors to their country, and mitigated the punishment of the Latins, as but perfidious confederates. Africanus the later, when he had subdued the Punic Nation, he threw all fugitives amongst wild beasts to be devoured. Lucius Paulus aftor the conquest of the King of Persia, committed these fellows to the mercy of Elephants. Generally there is no Nation under the Sun which holdeth them not in execration: and therefore our English fugitives, who under cloak of Religion not only abandon their country, their kindred, and their Prince, but also conspire the undoing, and swear the destruction of them, are they not worthy to be handled like traitors, and to have their quarters spectacles of perfidy? The bridge and gates of London bear witness of the woeful ends that these runagates come unto. As touching cowards (I mean such as preferring their lives or liberty, or any other by-respects, before their country's welfare, and either dare not or will not stand stoutly in defence of it in time of war and danger) they deserve no less punishment than the former, seeing that as they are open oppugners, so these are close underminers of the good thereof. And therefore the Romans did sharply chasten them in their government, as may appear by divers examples of the same: as first they were noted with this ignominy, never to eat their meat but standing; and hereunto they were sworn: Nay, they were in such hateful 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, Alex. ab Alex. that had rather be taken basely than die honestly and valiantly: The same Senate dealt more favourably with the captives which King Pyrrhus took, for they redeemed them, but with this disgrace, degrading them from their honours and places, until by a double spoil they had won their reputation again. L. Calpurnius Piso handled Titius the captain of his horsemen in Sicilia (one who being overcharged with enemies, delivered his weapons unto them) on this manner, he caused him to go bare footed before the army, wearing a garment without seams, he forbade him society with any save such as were noted with the same Valerius Max. lib. 2. cap. 2. fault, and from a General over horsemen he debased him to a common soldier. How did the same Senate correct the cowardice of Caius Vatienus (who to the end to privilege himself from the Italicke war, cut off all the fingers of his left hand:) even they proscribed his goods, and cast him into perpetual prison, that that life which he refused to hazard in defence of his country, he might consume in bondage and fetters. Fulgosius saith, That among the Germans it was so unhonourable Lib. 2. cap. 2. a part to lose but a shield in the war, that whosover had happened to do so, was suspended both from the place of common council, 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 sleep but with their heads to the bed's feet-ward; and besides, by the law they made them slaves and subjects to their own wives. What viler disgrace could there be than this? And yet the Lacedæmonians plagued them more shamefully: for with Phi. Agesilaus. them it was a discredit to marry in the stock of a coward; any man might strike them lawfully; and in their attire they went with their clothes rend, and their beards half shaved. Thus are all kind of traitors continually punished of the Lord by one means or other; and therefore let us learn to shun treason as one of the vilest and detestablest things in the world. CHAP. FOUR Of such as have murdered their Rulers or Princes. ZImri, Captain of half the chariots of Elah, King of All this whole chapter, in regard of murder, belongeth to the 6 commandment. 1. King. 16. Israel, conspired against his Lord, as he was in Tirza drinking till he was drunk in the house of Arze his Steward, and came upon him suddenly, and smote him till he died, and possessed the Kingdom in his room. Howbeit, herein he was the Lord's 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 Crown but seven days: for all Israel, detesting his fact, made Omri King over them, who besieged him in Tirza, and drove him into that extremity, that he went into the palace of the King's house, and burned himself and the house with fire. jozachar the son of Shimeah, and jeozabed the son of Shomer, came King. 12. 22. to no better end for murdering jehoash King of juda: for Amaziah his son after the kingdom 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 Book of the law; The fathers shall not be put to death for the 2 King. 14. 5. children, nor the children for the fathers, but every man shall bear this own sin. Neither did Shallum, that slew Zacharia King of Israel, prosper any better; 2 King. 15. for he reigned but one month in Samaria, when Menahim the son of Gadi rebelled against him, and slew him as he had done his master. Amon, the son of Manasseh, was slain by his own 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 pass the holy histories of the sacred Scripture, wherein, ever after any treason, the Holy Ghost presently setteth down the punishment of traitors, as it were of purpose to signify how the Lord hateth all such Rebels that rose up against his own ordinance: let us consider a little the consequents of these in profane, yet credible authors, and apply them unto our purpose. Archelaus King of Macedonia had a minion called Cratenas, whom he loved most entirely; but he again requited him not with love but Aelian. lib. 1. with hatred, and stretched all his wits to install himself in his kingdom, by deposing and murdering him: which though he accomplished, yet his deserts were cut short by the vengeance of God: for he continued not many days in his royalty, but he was served with the same sauce that he had made. Archelaus before him to taste of, even betrayed and murdered, as he well deserved. Lodovicus Sfortia to the end to invest himself with the Dukedom of Milan, spared not to shed the innocent blood of his two Nephews, the sons of Galenchus, together with their tutors, and one Francis Calaber, a worthy and excellent man; but the Lord so disposed of his purposes, that he (in stead of obtaining the kingdom) was taken prisoner by the King of France, so that neither he nor any of his off spring enjoyed that which he so much affected. When Numerianus was to succeed ●arus his father in the Empire, Arrius Axer his father in law, to the end to translate the Empire unto himself, Philip Melanst Cbro 1. lib. 3. entered a conspiracy, and slew his son in law, that nothing mistrusted his disloyalty: but the Praetorian army understanding the matter, discharged Arrius, and elected Dioclesian in his room, who laying hold upon his competitour, laid an action of treason to his charge, and put him to death in the sight of the multitude. Theodoricke and Frederick conspired against their own brother Thurismund Chro. Sigebert. King of the Visigothes, to the intent to succeed him in his Kingdom: And albeit that nature reclaimed them from the act, yet they slew him without all compassion. But after thirteen year's reign the same Theodericke was requited by his other brethren with the same measure that he before meted to his brother Thurismund. And so though vengeance slept a while, yet at length it wakened. Aelias' Antonius Gordianus, Emperor of Rome, though so excellent Philip Melanct Chron. a young Prince, that he deserved to be called the Love and jewel of the World, yet was he slain by one promoted by himself to high honour, Aventin. lib. 2. called Philip Arabs, when he was but two and twenty years old: after whose decease this Philip got himself elected Emperor by the Band, and confirmed by the Senate. All which notwithstanding, after five years Decius rebelled, and his own soldiers conspired against him, so that both he at Ingratitude punished. Verona, and his son at Rome, were slain by them about one time. After the death of Constantine the Great, his three sons dividing the Aventin. lib. 3. Empire betwixt them, succeeded their father. Constantine the eldest had for his share Spain, France, the Alps and England; Constance the second held Italy, Africa, Graecia, and Illyricum; Constantine the younger was King and Emperor of the East. But ambition suffered them not to enjoy quietly these their possessions: for when the eldest being more proud and seditious than the other, not content with his allotted portion, made war upon his brother Constance his Provinces, and strove to enter Italy, he was slain in a battle by Aquileia, when he was but five and twenty years old; by which means, all the provinces which were his, fell to Constance, and therewithal such a drowsiness and Epicurism for want of a stirrer up after his brother's death, that he fell into the gout, and neglected the government of the Empire: Wherefore in A●sourge and in Rhetia they created a new Emperor; one Magnentius, whose life before time Constance had saved from the soldiers, and therefore his treachery was the greater. This Magnentius deprived and slew Constance, but was overcome by Constantine the third brother in Illyricum, yet in such sort, that the conqueror could not greatly brag, for he lost Notable ingratitude punished. an infinite company of his men, and yet miss of his chief purpose, the taking of Magnentius, for he escaped to Lions, and there massacring all that he mistrusted, at last growing (I suppose) in suspicion with his own heart, slew himself also: and so his traitorous, ingrateful, and ambitious murder was revenged with his own hands. Victericus betrayed Lnyba king of Spain, and succeeded in his place; seven years after, another traitor slew him, and succeeded also in his Ritius lib. 1. de regib. Hispan. place. Mauritius the Emperor was murdered by Phocas, together with his wife and five of his children, he seating himself Emperor in his room: Howbeit, traitors and murderers can never come to happy ends: for as he had slain Mauritius; so Priscus, Heraclianus, and Phorius three of his chiefest captains, conspiring against him, with three several armies gave him such an alarm at once at his own doors, that they soon quailed his courage, and after much mangling of his body, cut him shorter by the head and the kingdom at one blow. In the time of Edward the second and Edward the third in England, one Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villainous outrages in shedding Lanquet. much blood, and at last King Edward himself, lying at Barkley castle, to the end that he might (as it was supposed) enjoy Isabel his wife, with whom he had very suspicious familiarity. After this, he unjustly accused Edmund Earl of Kent of treason, and caused him to be put to death therefore: and lastly, he conspired against King Edward the third, as it was suspected, for which cause he was worthily and deservedly beheaded. Among this rank of murderers of Kings we may fitly place also Richard the third, usurper of the Crown of England, and divers others Stow. which he used as instruments to bring his detestable purpose to effect: as namely Sir james Tirrèl Knight, a man for nature's gifts worthy to have served a much better Prince than this Richard, if he had well served God, and been endued with as much truth and honesty as he had strength and wit: also Miles Forest, and john Dighton two villains fleshed in murders. But to come to the fact, it was on this sort: When Richard the usurper had enjoined Robert Brackenbury to this piece of service of murdering the young King Edward the fifth, his Nephew, in the Tower, with his brother the Duke of York, and saw it refused by him: he committed the charge of the murder to Sir james Tirrel; who hasting to the Tower, by the King's Commission received the keys into his own hands, and by the help of those two butchers, Dighton and Forest, smothered the two Princes in their bed, and buried them at the stair's feet: which being done, Sir james road back to king Richard, who gave him great thanks, and as some say, made him knight for his labour. All which things on every part well pondered, it appeareth, that God never gave the world a notabler example, both of the unconstancy of worldly w●ale, and also of the wretched end which ensueth such despiteful cruelty: for first, to begin with the ministers, Miles Forest rotten away piecemeal at Saint martin's, Sir james Tirrel died at the Tower hill beheaded for treason, King Kichard himself (as it is declared elsewhere) was slain in the field, hacked and hewed of his enemies, carried on horseback dead, his hair in despite torn and tugged like a dog: besides, the inward torments of his guilty conscience were more than all the rest: for it is most certainly reported, That after this abominable deed he never had quiet in his mind; when he went abroad, his eye whirled about, his body was privily fenced, his hand ever upon his dagger, his countenance and manner like one always ready to strike, his sleep short and unquiet, full of fearful dreams, insomuch that he would often suddenly start up and leap out of his bed, and run about his chamber, his restless conscience was so continually tossed and tumbled with the tedious impression of that abominable murder. CHAP. V. Of such as rebelled against their Superiors, because of Subsidies and Taxes imposed upon them. AS it is not lawful for children to rebel against their parents, though they be cruel and unnatural, so also it is as unlawful for subjects to withstand their Princes and Governors, though they be somewhat grievous and burdensome unto them: which we affirm, not to the end that it should be licenced to them to exercise all manner of rigour and unmeasurable oppression upon their subjects (as shall be declared hereafter more at large) but we entreat only here of their duties which are in subjection to the power of other men, whose authority they ought in no wise to resist, unless they oppose themselves against the ordinance of God. Therefore this position is true by the word of God, That no subject aught by force to shake off the yoke of subjection and obedience due unto his Prince, or exempt himself from any tax or contribution, which by public authority is imposed: Give (saith the Apostle) tribute to whom tribute belongeth, custom to whom custom pertaineth, fear to whom fear is due, and honour to whom honour is owing. And generally in all actions wherein the commodities of this life (though with some oppression and grievance) and not the Religion and service of God, nor the conscience about the same is called into question, we ought with all patience to endure whatsoever burden or charge is laid upon us, without moving any troubles, or showing any discontentments for the same: for they that have otherwise behaved themselves, these examples following will show how well they have been appaied for their misdemeanours. In the year of our Lord 1304, after that Guy Earl of Flanders having Nich. Gil. vol. 1 rebelled against Philip the Fair his Sovereign, was by strength of arms reduced into subjection, and constrained to deliver himself and his two son's prisoners into his hands, the Flemings made an insurrection against the King's part, because of a certain tax which he had set upon their ships that arrived at certain havens: and upon this occasion great war, divers battles, and sundry overthrows on each side grew, but so, that at last the King remained conqueror, and the Flemings (for a reward of their rebellion) lost in the battle six and thirty thousand men that were slain, beside a great number that were taken prisoners. Two years after this Flemish stir, there arose a great commotion The same author. and hurly burly of the rascal and basest sort of people at Paris, because of the alteration of their coins: who being not satisfied with the pillage and spoilage of their houses, whom they supposed to be either causes of the said alteration, or by counsel or other means any furtherers thereunto, came in great troops before the King's Palace, at his lodging in the Temple, with such an hideous noise and outrage, that all the day after, neither the King nor any of his officers durst once stir over the threshold: nay they grew to that overflow of pride and insolency, that the victuals which were provided for the King's diet, and carried to him, were by them shamefully thrown under feet in the dirt, and trampled upon in despite and disdain. But three or four days after this tumult was appeased, many of them for their pains were hanged before their own doors, and in the city gates, to the number of eight and twenty persons. In the reign of Charles the sixth, the Parisians (by reason of a certain tax which he minded to lay upon them) banded themselves and conspired together against him: they determined once (saith Froissard) to have beaten down Louvre, and S. Vincents castle, and all the houses of defence Vol 2. cap. 120. about Paris, that they might not be offensive to them. But the King (though young in years) handled them so ripe and handsomely, that having taken away from them their armour, the city gates and chains of the streets, and locked up their weapons in S. Vincents castle, he dealt with Cap. 129. them as pleased him. And thus their pride being quashed, many of them were executed and put to death: As also for the like rebellion were at Cap. 130. Nic. Gil. Vol. 2. Troy's, Orlean, Chalon, Sens, and Rheims. About the same time the Flandrians, and especially the inhabitants of Gaunt wrought much trouble against Lewis the Earl of Flanders, for divers Froiss. v. 2. c. 97. taxes and tributes which he had laid upon them, which they in no respect would yield unto. The matter came to be decided by blows, and much blood was shed, and many losses endured on both sides, as a means appointed of God to chastise as well the one as the other. The Gaunts being no more in number than five or six thousand men, overthrew the Cap. 92. Earl's army consisting of forty thousand, and in pursuit of their victory took Bruges, whither the Earl was gone for safety, and lying in a poor woman's house, was constrained (in the habit of a beggar) to fly the City. And thus he fared till King Charles the sixth sent an army of men to his succour (for he was his subject) by whose support he overcame those Rebels Cap. 180. in a battle fought at Rose Bec, to the number of forty thousand: and the body of their chieftain Philip Artevil, slain in the throng, he caused to be hanged on a tree. And this was the end of that cruel Tragedy, the Nic. Gil. vol. 2. country being brought again into the obedience of their old Lord. A while before this, whilst King john was held prisoner in England, there arose a great commotion of the common people in France, against Froiss vol. 1. cap. 182. the nobility and gentry of the realm, that oppressed them: this tumult began but with an hundred men that were gathered together in the country of Beauvoisin, but that small handful grew right quickly to an armful, ●●on to nine thousand, that ranged and robbed throughout all Brie, along by the river Marne to Laonoise, and all about Soissons, armed with great bats shod with iron: an headless crew without Governor, fully purposing to bring to ruin the whole nobility. In this disorder they wrought much mischief, broke up many houses and castles, murdered many Lords; so that divers Ladies and Knights, as the Duchess' of Normandy & Orleans, were fain to fly for safeguard to Meaux: whither when these Rebels would needs pursue them, they were there overthrown, killed, and hanged by troops. In the year of our Lord 1525, there were certain husbandmen of Sovabe Sleid. lib. 4. that began to stand in resistance against the Earl of Lupsfen, by reason of certain burdens which they complained themselves to be overlaid with by him: their neighbours seeing this, enterprised the like against their Lords: And so upon this small beginning (by a certain contagion) there grew up a most dangerous and fearful commotion, that spread itself almost over all Almain: the sedition thus increasing in all quarters, and the swains being now full forty thousand strong, making their own liberty and the Gospels a cloak to cover their treason and rebellion, and a pretence of their undertaking arms (to the wonderful grief of all that feared God) did not only fight with the Roman Catholics, but with all other without respect, as well in Sovabe as in Franconia: they destroyed the greater part of the Nobility, sacked and burnt many castles and fortresses, to the number of two hundred, and put to death the Earl of Helfest, in making him pass through their pikes. But at length their strength was broken, they discomfited and torn in pieces with a most horrible massacre of more than eighteen thousand of them. During this sedition there were slain on each side fifty thousand men. The captain of the Sovabian swains called Geismer, having betaken himself to flight, got over the mountains of Milan, where by treason he was made away. In the year of our Lord 1517, in the Marquesdome of the Vandals, the like insurrection and rebellion was of the commonalty, especially the base sort, against the Nobility, Spiritual, and Temporal, by whom they were oppressed with intolerable exactions: their army was numbered of ninety thousand men all clowns and husbandmen, that conspired together to redress and reform their own grievances, without any respect of civil Magistrate, or fear of Almighty God. This rascality of swains raged and tyranized every where, burning and beating down the castles and houses of Noblemen, and making their ruins even with the ground: Nay, they handled the Noblemen themselves, as many as they could attain unto, not contumeliously only, but rigorously and cruelly, for they tormented them to death, and carried their heads upon spears, in token of victory. Thus they swayed a while uncontrolled, for the Emperor Maximilian winked at their riots, as being acquainted with what in juries they had been overcharged: but when he perceived that the rude multitude did not limit their fury within reason, but let it run too lavish to the damnifying as well the innocent as the guilty, he made out a small troup of mercenary soldiers, together with a band of horsemen, to suppress them, who coming to a city were presently so environed with such a multitude of these swains, that like locusts overspread the earth, that they thought it impossible to escape with their lives; wherefore fear and extremity made them to rush out to battle with them. But see how the Lord prospereth a good cause, for all their weak number in comparison of their enemies, yet such a fear possessed their enemy's hearts, that they fled like troops of sheep, and were slain like dogs before them: insomuch, that they that escaped the sword, were either hanged by flocks on trees, or roasted on spits by fires, or otherwise tormented to death. And this end befell that wicked rebellious rout, which wrought such mischief in that country, with their monstrous villainies, that the traces and steps thereof remain at this day to be seen. In the year of our Lord 1381, Richard the second being King, the Commons of England (and especially of Kent and Essex) by means of a Stow Chron. tax that was set upon them, suddenly rebelled, and assembled together on Blackheath, to the number of 60000 or more: which rebellious rout had none but base and ignoble fellows for their captains; as Wat Tiler, jack Straw, Tom Miller, but yet they caused much trouble and disquietness in the Realm, and chiefly about the city of London, where they committed much villainy, in destroying many goodly places, as the Savoy, and others; and being in Smithfield, used themselves very proudly and unreverently towards the King: but by the manhood and wisdom of William Walworth, Major of London (who arrested their chief captain in the midst of them) that rude company was discomfited, and the ringleaders of them worthily punished. In like manner in the reign of Henry the seventh, a great commotion was stirred up in England by the Commons of the North, by reason of a Stow Chron. certain tax which was levied of the tenth penny of all men's lands and goods within the land; in the which the Earl of Northumberland was slain; but their rash attempt was soon broken, and Chamberlain their captain with divers other hanged at York, for the same. Howbeit their example feared not the Cornishmen from rebelling upon the like occasion of a tax, under the conduct of the Lord Audley, until by woeful experience they felt the same scourge: for the King met them upon Blackheath, and discomfiting their troops, took their captains and ring leaders, and put them to most worthy and sharp death. Thus we may see the unhappy issue of all such seditious revoltings, and thereby gather how unpleasant they are in the sight of God. Let all the people therefore learn by these experiences to submit themselves in the fear of God to the higher powers, whether they be Lords, Kings, Princes, or any other that are set over them. CHAP. VI Of Murderers. AS touching Murder, which is (by the second commandment of the second Table) forbidden in these words, Thou shalt not kill: the Lord denounceth this judgement upon it, That he which striketh a man that he dieth, shall Exod. 21. die the death. And this is correspondent to that Edict which he gave to Noah presently after the universal flood, to suppress that general cruelty which had taken root from the beginning in Cain and his posterity, being careful for man's life; saying, That he will require the blood of man, at the hands of either man or beast that killeth him: adding moreover, That whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man also his blood shall be shed, seeing that God created him after Gen. 9 his own Image: which he would not have to be basely accounted of, but dear and precious unto us. If then the bruit and unreasonable creatures Exod. 21. are not exempted from the sentence of death pronounced in the law, if they chance to kill a man: how much more punishable than is man, endued with will and reason, when maliciously and advisedly he taketh away the life of his neighbour? But the heinousness and greatness of this sin is most lively expressed by that ordinance of God set down in the 21 of Deutronomy, where it is enjoined, That if a man be found slain in the field, Deut. 21. and it be not known who it was that slew him, than the Elders and judges of the next town assembling together, should offer up an expiatory sacrifice by the hands of the Priests, to demand pardon for that cruel murder, that the guilt of innocent blood might not be imputed unto them. And if by oversight or negligence without any malice, hatred, or pretence, one killed another, yet was he not exempted from all punishment, but suffered to fly to the city of refuge, to be kept, and as it were enclosed until his innocency Num. 35. were made manifest, or at the least until the death of the high Priest. From this (it may seem) arose the custom of Painims in the like case; which was, that if a man had unwillingly committed murder, he did presently avoid the country, and go unto some man of power and authority of a strange nation, and present himself at his gate, sitting with his face covered, humbly entreating pardon and reconciliation for his murder: and for one whole year he might not return into his country. On this manner was the son of a certain King of Phrygia entertained in King Croesus' court, who unadvisedly had slain his own brother. Whereby Herod. lib. 1. it is manifest, how odious and execrable in all ages, and all places, and all people, this murder hath been: insomuch that men did shun their very meeting and company, and abandon them out of their temples and public assemblies, as people excommunicate and profane. And yet for all this, mankind (for the most part) like savage beasts hath by the instigation of that wicked spirit (who was a murderer from the beginning) been too too addicted to this kind of cruelty, not being afraid to offer violence to nature, and shed innocent blood. Such was the frantic and perverse cruelty of the second man Cain, when without any occasion, but only Gen. 4. through envy, he slew his brother Abel, and that traitorously: which deed, albeit it was done in secret and without the view of men, yet it could not shun the piercing eye of God, who reproved him for it, saying, That the blood of Abel cried for vengeance from the earth. And although this cursed and wicked murderer received not immediately a condign punishment answerable to his crime (God to the end to spare man's blood, using undeserved favour towards him) yet escaped he not scot free, for he was pursued with a continual torment and sting of confcience, together with such an incessant fear, that he became a vagabond and a runagate upon the earth: and seeing himself brought into so miserable an estate, he fell to complaining, that the punishment was greater than he was able to bear. Thus God permitted this wretch to draw out his life in such anguish, that for a greater punishment he might pine away the rest of his days without comfort. A man may find in this world many such brother murdering cain's, who for no occasion stick not to cut their throats, whom (for the bond of common nature wherein all men are linked together as branches to one root) they ought to acknowledge for their brethren and friends: upon whom the heavy hand of God hath not been more slack to punish either by one means or other, than it was upon their eldest brother Cain. But seeing the number of them is so great, and it is not so convenient to heap up here so huge a multitude together, it shall suffice only to recount the most famous and notablest of them, as of those that have been men of note and reputation of the world, or that through an ambitious desire of reigning, have by arms sought to achieve their purposes: for these for the most part are the greatest murderers and butchers of all, that through their wicked affections, worldly pomp, or desire of revenge, have no remorse of making the blood of men run like rivers upon the earth, making no more account of the life of a man, than of a fly or a worm. Such an one was Abimelech one of the sons of Gedeon, who to the end judg. 9 to usurp the regiment of the people, (which his father before him refused) got together a rout of rascal and vile fellows, by whose aid coming to his father's house, he slew seventy of his brethren, even all except joathan the youngest, that stole away and hid himself. After which massacre, he reigned in jollity three years, and at the end thereof was cut short by God, together with the Sichemites his provokers and maintainers, who were also guilty of all the innocent blood which he had shed: for God sent the spirit of division betwixt them, so that the Sichemites began to despise him, and rebel against him; but they had the worst end of the staff, and were overcome by him: who pursuing the victory, took their city by force, and put them all to the edge of the sword. And after he had thus destroyed their city, put fire also to the castle, wherein he consumed near about a thousand persons of men and women, that were retired thither to save their lives. And thus God brought upon them the mischief which they had consented and put their hands unto: for as they had lent him aid and furtherance to the shedding of his brethren's blood, so was their own blood with their wives and children's shed by him: yet this tyrant not content therewith, made war also with the inhabitants of Tebez, and took their city, and would have forced the tower also, wherein the citizen's had enclosed themselves; but as he approached to the wall, a woman threw down a piece of a millstone upon his head, wherewith finding himself hurt to death, he commanded one of his soldiers to kill him outright. And thus this wicked murderer that had shed the blood of many men, yea of his own brethren, had his brains knocked out by a woman, and died a most desperate death. The bloody treachery of Baana and Rechab, chief captains of Ishbosheth, Saul's son, in conspiring against and murdering their master whilst 2 Sam. 4. he slept, abode not long unpunished; for having cut off his head, they presented it for a present to king David, hoping to gratify the king, and to receive some recompense for their pains. But David being of an upright Treason, lib. 2. cap. 3. & 4. and true kingly heart, could not endure such vile treachery, though against the person of his enemy; but entertained them as most vile traitors and master-murtherers, commanding first their hands and feet to be cut off, which they had especially employed as instruments about that villainy, and afterwards caused them to be slain, and then hanged for an example to all others that should attempt the like. For the like cause was joab (General of king David's host) for killing Abner traitorously (who forsaking Ishbosheth, had yielded himself to the King) cursed of David, with all his house, with a most grievous and terrible Treason; lib. 2. cap. 3. curse. And yet notwithstanding a while after he came again to that pass, as to murder Amasa one of David's chief captains, making show to salute and embrace him. For which cruel deed, albeit that in David's time he received no punishment, yet it overtook him at last, and the same kind 2. Sam. 20. of cruelty which he had so traitorously and villainously committed towards others, fell upon his own head, being himself also killed as he had killed others: which happened in king Solomon's reign, who executing the charge and commandment of his father, put to death this murderer in the tabernacle 1. King. 2. of God, and by the Altar, whither he was fled as to a place privileged for safety. CHAM VII. A suit of examples like unto the former. LEaving the Scripture, we find in other writers notable examples Herod. lib. 1. of this subject▪ As first of Astyages king of the Medes, who so much swarved from humanity, that he gave in straight charge that young Cyrus his own daughter's son, now ready to be borne, should be made away by some sinister practice, to avoid by that means the danger which by a dream was signified unto him. Notwithstanding the young infant finding friends to preserve him alive, and growing up by means of the Peers favour (to whom his grandfather by his cruel dealings, was become odious) obtained the Crown out of his hands, and dispossessing him, seated himself in his room. This Cyrus was that mighty and awful king of Persia, whom God used as an instrument for the delivery of his people out of the captivity of Babylon, as he foretold by the Prophet Isaiah: who yet (following kind) made cruel war in many places for the space of thirty years: and therefore it was necessary that he should taste some fruits of his insatiable and bloodthirsty desire, as he indeed did: for after many great victories and conquests over Oros. lib. 2. divers countries achieved, going about to assail Scythia also, he and his army together were surprised, overcome, and slain, to the number of two hundred thousand persons: and for his shame received this disgrace at a woman's hand, who triumphing in her victory, threw his head into a sack full of blood, with these terms, Now glut thyself with blood which thou hast thirsted after so long time. Cambyses, Cyrus' son, was also so bloody and cruel a man, that one day he Herod. lib. 3. shot a nobleman's son to the heart, with an arrow, for being admonished by his father of his drunkenness, to which he was very much given, which he did in indignation, and to show that he was not yet so drunken but he knew how to draw his bow. He caused his own brother to be murdered privily, for fear he should reign after him; and slew his sister for reproving him for that deed. In his voyage to Aethiopia, when his army was brought into so great penury of victuals, that they were glad to feed upon horse flesh, he was so cruel and barbarous, that after their horses were spent he caused them to eat one another: but at his return from Egypt, the Susians his chief citizens welcomed him home with rebellion: and at last, as he was riding, it so chanced, that his sword fell out of the scabbard, and himself upon the point of it, so that it pierced him through, and so he died. After that Xerxes by his overbold enterprise had disturbed the greatest part of the world, passed the sea, and traversed many countries, to the Diodor. lib. 11. end to assail Greece with innumerable forces, he was overcome both by sea and by land, and compelled privily to retire into his country with shame and discredit: where he had not long been, but Artabanus the captain of his guard killed him in his palace by night: who also after that and many other mischiefs committed by him, was himself cruelly murdered. The thirty Governors which the Lacedæmonians set over the Athenians by compulsion, were such cruel tyrants, oppressors, and bloodsuckers justine. of the people, that they made away a great part of them, until they were chased away themselves violently: and then being secretly dogged and pursued, were all killed one after another. Pyrrhus' king of Epire that reigned not long after Alexander the great, was naturally disposed to such a quickness and heat of courage, that he could never be quiet but when he was either doing some mischief to another, or when another was doing some unto him: ever devising some new practice of molestation for pastimes sake. This his wild and dangerous disposition began first to show itself in the death of Neoptolemus, who was conjoined king with him, whom having bidden to supper in his lodging under pretence of sacrifice to his gods, he deceitfully slew: preventing by that means Neoptolemus pretended purpose of poisoning him when occasion should serve. After this he conquered Macedonia by arms, and came into Italy to make war with the Romans, in the behalf of the Tarentines, and gave them battle in the field, and slew fifteen thousand of them in one day: he took their camp, revoked many cities from their alliance, and spoilt much of their country even to the walls of Rome: and all this in a trice without breathing. Again by Ascolie he encountered them the second time, where there was a great overthrow of each side of fifteen thousand men: but the Romans had the worst, and took their heels. When he was entreated by the Sicilian embassadors to lend them aid to expulse the Carthaginians out of their Isle, he yielded presently and chased them out. Being recalled by the Tarentines into Italy for their succour, he was conquered by the Romans after he had made war upon them six years. At his return to Epire he reentered by violence Macedonia, took many places, overcame the army of king Antigonus that resisted him, & had all the whole realm rendered into his hand. Being entreated by Cleominus to make war upon Sparta, to the end toreinstall him in his kingdom which he was deprived of: forthwith he mustered his forces, besieged the city, and spoilt and wasted all the whole country. Afterwards there being a sedition raised in the city of Argos between two of the chiefest citizens, one of the which sent unto him for aid, he (what issue soever was like to ensue, whether victory or vanquishment) could not abide in peace from disquieting others and himself, but must needs go to take part in that sedition: but to his cost, even to his destruction. For first in his way he found an evill-favoured welcome by an ambush placed of purpose to interrupt his journey, amongst whom he lost his son: which mishap nothing dismayed him, nor abated any whit of his purpose or courage from pursuing this journey to Argos, though the citizens themselves entreated him to retire, and though he had no business there save only to look over the town● being arrived by night, and finding a gate left open for him to enter by, by the means of him that had sent for him to his aid, he put his soldiers in, and possessed himself of the town incontinently. But the city being aided by Antigonus and the King of Sparta, charged and pressed him so sore, that he sought means to retire out of the same, but could not. At which time being about to strike a young man of the city that had done him some hurt, his mother being aloft upon the roof of an house, perceiving his intent, threw down a tile with both her hands upon his head, and hit him such a knock upon the neck through default of his armour, that it so bruised his joints, that he fell into a sudden swound, and lost his sight, his reins falling out of his hand, and he himself tumbling from his saddle upon the ground, which when some of the soldiers perceived, they drew him out of the gate, and there, to make an end of the tragedy, cut off his head. The cruelty of the Ephori was marvellous strange, when being unwilling once to hear the equality of lands and possessions to be named, which Agis Plutarch. their King, for the good of the commonwealth (according to the ancient custom and ordinance of Lycurgus) sought to restore: they rose up against him and cast him in prison, and there without any process or form of law sttangled him to death, with his mother and grandfather. But it cost them very dear: for Cleamenes who was joint King with Agis, albe it he had consented to the weaving of that web himself, to the end he might reign alone; yet ceased he not to prosecute revenge upon them, which he did not only by his daily and usual practices openly, but also privily; for taking them once at advantage, being at supper all together, he caused his men to kill them suddenly as they fat. And thus was the good King Agis revenged. But this last murderer which was sullied and polluted with so much blood, he went not long unpunished for his misdeeds: for soon after, Antigonus King of Macedonia gave him a great overthrow in a battle, wherein he lost Sparta his chief city, and fled into Egypt for succour: where after small abode, upon an accusation laid against him, he was cast into prison, and though he escaped out with his company by cunning and craft, yet as he walked up and down Alexandria in armour, in hope that through his seditious practices the citizens would take his part, and help to restore him to his liberty; when he perceived it was nothing so, but that every man forsook him, and that there was no hope left of recovery, he commanded his men to kill one another, as they did. In which desperate rage and fury he himself was slain, & his body being found, was commanded by King Ptolomey to be hanged on a gibbet, and his mother, wives, and children that came with him into Egypt, to be put to death. And this was the tragical end of Cleomenes King of Sparta. Alexander the tyrant of Pheres never ceased to make and spy out all occasions of war against the people of Thessaly, to the end to bring them generally in subjection under his dominion: he was a most bloody and cruel minded man, having neither regard of person or justice in any action. In his cruelty he buried some alive, others he clothed in bears and boars skins, and then set dogs at their tails to rend them in pieces; others he used in way of pastime to strike through with darts and arrows. And one day as the inhabitants of a certain city were assembled together in counsel, he caused his guard to enclose them up suddenly, and to kill them all even to the very infants. He slew also his own uncle, and crowned the spear wherewith he did that deed with garlands of flowers, and sacrificed unto him being dead, as to a god. Now albeit this cruel Tiger was guarded continually with troops of soldiers that kept night and day watch about his body wheresoever he lay, and with a most ugly and terrible dog, unacquainted with any saving himself, his wife, and one servant that gave him his meat, tied to his chamber door, yet could he not escape the evil chance which by his wife's means fell upon him: for she taking away the stairs of his chamber, let in three of her own brethren provided to murder him, as they did: for finding him asleep, one took him fast by the heels, the other by the hair, wring his head behind him, and the third thrust him through with his sword, she all this while giving them light to dispatch their business. The citizens of Pheres when they had drawn his carcase about their streets, and trampled upon it their bellies full, threw it to the dogs to be devoured; so odious was his very remembrance among them. I●gurth, son to Manastabal, brother to Micipsa King of Numidia, by Salusti birth a bastard, for he was borne of a concubine, yet by nature and disposition so valiant and full of courage, that he was not only beloved of all men, but also so dear esteemed of by Micipsa, that he adopted him joint heir with his sons Adherbal and Hiempsal, to his crown, kindly admonishing him in way of entreaty to continue the union of love and concord without breach between them, which he promised to perform.. But Micipsa was no sooner deceased, but he by and by not content with a portion of the Kingdom, ambitiously sought for the whole. For which cause he first found means to dispatch Hiempsal out of his way by the hands of the guard, who in his lodging by night cut his throat, and then by battle having vanquished Adherbal his brother, obtained the sole regiment without controlment. Besides, he corrupted so by bribes the Senators of Rome that had sovereign authority in and over his Kingdom, that in stead of punishment which his murder cried for, he was by the decree of the Senate allotted to the one half of the Kingdom. Whereupon being grown yet more presumptuous, he made excursions and riots upon Adherbals territories, and did him thereby much injury: and from thence falling to open war, put him to flight, and pursued him to a city, where he besieged him so long, till he was constrained to yield himself. And then having gotten him within his power, put him to the cruelest death he could devise: which villainous deed gave just cause to the Romans, of that war which they undertook against him, wherein he was discomfited: and seeing himself utterly lost, fled to his son in law Bochus, King of Mauritania, to seek supply of succour, who receiving him into safeguard, proved a false guard to him, and delivered him into the hands of his enemies, and so was he carried in triumph to Rome by Marius fast bound; and being come to Rome, cast into perpetual prison, where first his gown was torn off his back by violence, next a ring of gold plucked off his ear, lap and all; and lastly, himself stark naked thrown into a deep ditch, where combating with famine six days, the seventh miserably ended his wretched life, according to the merits of his misdeeds. Orsius, saith he, was strangled in prison. Methridates' king of Parthia put to death the king of Cappadocia, to Oras. Sabel. Treason, lib. 2. cap. 3. get his kingdom, and after under pretence of parlying with one of his sons, slew him also: for which cause the Romans took up the quarrel, and made war upon him, by means whereof much loss and inconvenience grew unto him as well by sea as by land. After the first overthrow, where one of his sisters was taken prisoner, when he saw himself in so desperate a case, that no hope of help was left, he slew two other of his sisters, with two of his wives, having before this war given his foruth sister (who also was his wife) a dram of poison to make up the tragedy. Afterward being vanquished in the night by Pompey the Roman, and put to flight with only three of his company, as he went about to gather a new supply of forces, behold tidings was brought him of the revolt of many of his Provinces and countries, and of the delivering up of the rest of his daughters into Pompey's hand, and of the treason of his young son Pharnax, the gallantest of his sons, and whom he purposed to make his successor, who had joined himself to his enemy, which troubled and astonished him more than all the rest▪ so that his courage being quite dashed, and all hope of bettering his estate extinguished, his other two daughters he poisoned with his own hands, and sought to practise the same experiment upon himself, but that his body was too strong for the poison, and killed the operation thereof by strength of nature: but that which poison could not effect, his own sword performed. Though Pompey the great was never any of the most notorious offenders in Rome, yet did this stain of cruelty, ambition and desire of rule, cleave Plutarch. unto him: for first he joining himself to Silla, dealt most cruelly and unnaturally with Carbo, whom after familiar conference, in show of friendship, he caused suddenly to be slain, without show of mercy. And with Quintius Valerius, a wise and well lettered man, with whom walking but two or three turns, he committed to a cruel and unexpected slaughter. He executed severe punishment upon the enemies of Sylla, especially those that were most of note and reputation, and unmercifully put Brutus to death, that had rendered himself unto his mercy. It was he that devised that new combat of prisoners and wild beasts, to make the people sport withal; a most inhuman and bloody pastime, to see humane and manly bodies torn and dismembered by brute and senseless creatures: which, if we will believe Plutarch, was the only cause of his destruction. Now after so many brave and gallant victories, so many magnificent triumphs; as the taking of King Hiarbas, the overthrow of Domitius, the conquest of Africa, the pacifying of Spain, and the overwelding of the commotions that were therein, the clearing of the sea coasts from Pirates, the victory over Methridates, the subduing of the Arabians, the reducing of Syria into a Province, the conquest of judea, Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, and Paphlagonia: I say, after all these worthy deeds of arms and mighty victories, he was shamefully overcome by julius Caesar in that civil war, wherein it was generally thought that he had undertaken the better cause in maintaining the authority of the Senate, and defending the liberty of the people, as he pretended to do: being thus put to flight, and making towards Egypt, in hope the King (for that before time he had been his tutor) would protect and furnish him, that he might recover himself again, he found himself so far deceived of his expectation, that in stead thereof the King's people cut him short of his purpose, and of his head both at once, sending it for a token to Caesar, to gratify him withal. Nevertheless, for all this, his murderers and betrayers, as the young King, and all others that were causers of his death were justly punished for their cruelty, by the hands of him whom they thought to gratify: for as Cleopatra the King's sister thr●w herself down at Caesar's feet to entreat her portion of the kingdom, and he being willing also to show her that favour, was by that means gotten into the king's palace; forthwith the murderers of Pompey beset the palace, and went about to bring him into the same snare that they had caught Pompey in. But Caesar after that he had sustained their greatest brunt, frustrated their purposes, and recovered his forces into his hands, assailed them with such valour and prowess on all sides, that in short space he overcame this wicked and traitorous nation. Amongst the slain, the dead body of this young and evil advised King was found, overborne with dirt. Theodotus the king's schoolmaster (by whose instigation ●lor. lib. 4. and advice both Pompey was slain, and this war undertaken) being escaped and fled towards Asia for his safety, found even there sufficient instruments both to abridge his journey and shorten his life. As for the rest of that murdering fellowship, they ended their lives some here, some there, in (that merciless element) the sea, and by (that boisterous element) the wind, which though senseless, yet could not suffer them to escape unpunished. Although that julius Caesar (concerning whom more occasion of speech Plutarch. will be given hereafter) did tyrannously usurp the key of the Roman Commonwealth, and intruded himself into the Empire against the laws, customs, and authority of the people and Senate, yet was it accounted a most traitorous and cruel part to massacre and kill him in the Senate, as he sat in his seat misdoubting no mishap, as the sequel of their several ends which were actors in this tragedy did declare: for the vengeance of God was so manifestly displayed upon them, that not one of the conspirators escaped, but was pursued by sea and land so eagerly, till there was Treason, lib. 2. cap. 3. & 4. Plutarch. nor one left of that wicked crew whom revenge had not overtaken. Cassius being discomfited in the battle of Philippos, supposing that Brutus had been also in the same case, used the same sword against himself (a marvellous thing) wherewith before he had smitten Caesar. Brutus also a few days after, when a fearful vision had appeared twice unto him by night, Eutrop. understanding thereby that his time of life was but short, though he had the better of his enemies the day before, yet threw himself desperately into the greatest danger of the battle, for his speedier dispatch; but he was reserved to a more shameful end., for seeing his men slain before him, he retired hastily apart from view of men, and setting his sword to his breast, threw himself upon it, piercing him through the body, and so ended his life. And thus was Caesar's death revenged by Octavius and Anthony who remained conquerors, after all that bloody crew was brought to nought: betwixt whom also ere long burst out a most cruel division, which grew unto a furious and cruel battle by sea, wherein Anthony was overcome, and sent flying into Egypt, and there taught his own hands to be his murderers. And such was the end of his life, who had been an actor in that pernicious office of the Triumvirship, and a causer of the deaths of many men. And forasmuch as Cleopatra was the first motive and fetter on of Anthony to this war, it was good reason that she should partake some of that punishment which they both deserved; as she did: for being surprised by her enemies, to the intent she might not be carried in triumph to Rome, she caused an aspe to bite her to death. Mark here the pitiful Tragedies that following one another in the neck, were so linked together, that drawing and holding each other, they drew with them a world of miseries to a most woeful end: a most transparent and clear glass, wherein the visages of Gods heavy judgements upon all murderers are apparently deciphered. CHAP. VI Other examples like unto the former. AFter that the Empire of Rome, declining after the death of Theodosius, was almost at the last cast, ready to yield Procopius. up the ghost, and that Theodorick king of the Goths, had usurped the dominion of Italy under the Emperor Zeno, he put to death two great personages, Senators and chief citizens of Rome, to wit, Simmachus and ●oeti●●, only for secret surmise which he had, without probability, that they two should wove some she web for his destruction. After which cruel deed, as he was one day at supper, a fishes head of great bigness being served into the table, purposing to be very merry, suddenly the vengeance of God assailed, amazed, oppressed, and pursued him so freshly, that without intermission or breathing it sent his body a senseless trunk into the grave in a most strange and marvellous manner: for he was conceited (as himself reported) that the fishes head was the head of Simmachus, whom he had but lately slain, which grinned upon him, and seemed to face him with an overthwart threatening and angry eye: wherewith he was so scared, that he forthwith rose from the table, and was possessed with such an exceeding trembling and icle ehilnesse that ran through all his joints, that he was constrained to take his chamber and go to bed, where soon after with grief and fretting and displeasure he died. He committed also another most cruel and traitorous part upon Odoacer; whom inviting to a banquet, he deceitfully welcomed with a mess of swords in stead of other victuals, to kill him withal, that he might sway the Empire alone both of the Goths and Romans without check. It was not without cause that Attila was called the scourge of God: for with an army of five hundred thousand men he wasted and spoiled all fields, jornand. Greg. de Tours. cities and villages that he passed by, putting all to fire and sword, without showing mercy to any: on this manner he went spoiling through France, and there at one time gave battle to the united forces of the Romans, Vicegothes, Frenchmen, Sarmatians, Burgundians, Saxons, and Almains: after that he entered Italy, took by way of force Aquilea, sacked and destroyed Milan, with many other cities, and in a word spoiled all the country: in fine, being returned beyond Almaigne, having married a wife of excellent beauty, though he was well wived before, he died on his marriage night suddenly in his bed: for having well carowsed the day before, he fell into so dead a sleep, that lying upon his back without respect, the blood which was often wont to issue at his nostrils, finding those conduits stopped by his upright lying, descended into his throat, and stopped his wind. And so that bloody tyrant that had shed the blood of so many people, was himself by the effusion of his own blood murdered and stifled to death. Ithilbald king of Gothia at the instigation of his wife put to death very unadvisedly one of the chief peers of his realm: after which murder, as he sat banqueting one day with his princes, environed with his guard and other attendants, having his hand in the dish, and the meat between his fingers, one suddenly reached him such a blow with a sword, that it cut off his head, so that it almost tumbled upon the table, to the great astonishment of all that were present. Sigismond king of Burgundy suffered himself to be carried away with Greg. of Tours, lib. 3. hist. such an extreme passion of choler, provoked by a false and malicious accusation of his second wife, that he caused one of his sons which he had by his former wife, to be strangled in his bed, because he was induced to think that he went about to make himself king: which deed being blown abroad, Clodomire son to Clodovee and Clotild king France, and cousin german to Sigismond, came with an army for to revenge this cruel and unnatural Refer this properly to lib. 2. cap. 11. part; his mother setting forward and inciting him thereunto, in regard of the injury which Sigismunds' father had done to her father and mother, one of whom he slew, and drowned the other. As they were ready to join battle, Sigismunds' soldiers forsook him, so that he was taken and presently put to death, and his sons which he had by his second wife were taken also, and carried captive to Orleans, and there drowned in a Well. Thus was the execrable murder of Sigismond and his wife punished in their own children. As for Clodomire, though he went conqueror from this battle, yet was he encountered with another disastrous misfortune: for as he marched forward with his forces to fight with Sigismunds' brother, he was by him overcome and slain; and for a further disgrace, his dismembered head fastened on the top of a pike was carried about to the interview of all men. He left behind him three young sons, whom his own brethren and their uncle's Clotaire and Childebert, notwithstanding their young and tender years, took from their grandmother Clotildes custody, that brought them up, as if they would install them into some part of their father's kingdom; but most wickedly and cruelly, to the end to possess their goods, lands, and seignories, bereft them all of their lives, save one that saved himself in a Monastery. In this strange and monstrous act Clotaire showed himself more than barbarous, when he would not take pity upon the youngest of the two, being but seven years old, who hearing his brother (of the age of ten years) crying pitifully at his slaughter, threw himself at his uncle Childeberts' feet with tears, desiring him to save his life: wherewith Childebert being greatly affected, entreated his brother with weeping eyes to have pity upon him, and spare the life of this poor infant: but all his warnings and entreaties could not hinder the savage beast from performing this cruel murder upon this poor child, as he had done upon the other. The Emperor Phocas attained by this bloody means the imperial dignity, Niceph. l. 18. 58. even by the slaughter of his lord and master Mauricius, whom as he fled in disguised attire for fear of a treason pretended against him, he being beforetime the Lieutenant General of his army, pursued so maliciously and hotly, that he overtook him in his flight, and for his further grief, first put all his children severally to death before his face, that every one of them might be a several death unto him before he died, and then slew him also. This murderer was he that first exalted to so high a point the popish horn, when at the request of Boniface he ordained, That the Bishop of Rome should have pre-eminence and authority over all other Bishops: which he did to the end that the stain and blame of his most execrable murder might be either quite blotted out, or at least winked at. Under his regency the forces of the Empire grew wondrously into decay▪ France, Spain, Almaigne, and Lombardy, revolted from the Empire: and at last himself being pursued by his son in law Priscus with the Senators, was taken, and having his hands and feet cut off, was together with the whole race of his offspring put to a most cruel death, because of his cruel and tyrannous life. Among all the strange examples of God's judgements that ever were declared in this world, that one that befell a King of Poland, called Popiel, for his murders, is for the strangeness thereof most worthy to be had in memory: he reigned in the year of our Lord 1346. This man amongst other of his particular kinds of cursings and swear, whereof he was no niggard, used ordinarily this oath, If it be not true, would rats might devour me; prophesying Munst. Cosmog. Mandate. 3. Cursing. l. 1. cyp. 30. thereby his own destruction; for he was devoured by the same means which he so often wished for, as the sequel of his history will declare. The father of this Popiel ceiling himself near death, resigned the government of his kingdom to two of his brethren, men exceedingly reverenced of all men for the valour and virtue which appeared in them. He being deceased, and Popiel being grown up to ripe and lawful years, when he saw himself in full liberty, without all bridle of government to do what he listed, he began to give the full swinge to his lawless and unruly desires, in such sort, that within few days he became so shameless, that there was no vice which appeared not in his behaviour, even to the working of the death of his own uncles, for all their faithful dealing towards him, which he by poison brought to pass. Which being done, he caused himself forthwith to be crowned with garlands of flowers, and to be perfumed with precious ointments: and to the end the better to solemnize his entry to the crown, commanded a sumptuous and pompous banquet to be prepared, whereunto all the Princes and Lords of his kingdom were invited. Now as they were about to give the onset upon the delicate cheer, behold an army of rats sallying out of the dead and putrified bodies of his uncles, set upon him, his wife and children, amid their dainties, to gnaw them with their sharp teeth, insomuch that his guard with all their weapons and strength were not able to chase them away, but being weary with resisting their daily and mighty assaults, gave over the battle: wherefore counsel was given to make great coal ●ires about them, that the rats by that means might be kept off, not knowing that no policy or power of man was able to withstand the unchangeable decree of God; for, for all their huge forces they ceased not to run through the midst of them, and to assault with their teeth this cruel murderer, Then they gave him counsel to put himself, his wife, and children into a boat, and thrust it into the midst of a lake, thinking that by reason of the waters the rats would not approach unto them: but alas in vain; for they swum through the waters amain, and gnawing the boat, made such chinks into the sides thereof, that the water began to run in: which being perceived of the boatman, amazed them sore, and made them make post haste unto the shore, where he was no sooner arrived, but a fresh muster of rats uniting their forces with the former, encountered him so sore, that they did him more scathe than all the rest. Whereupon all his guard, and others that were there present for his defence, perceiving it to be a judgement of God's vengeance upon him, abandoned and for sooke him at once: who seeing himself destitute of succour, and forsaken on all sides, flew into a high tower in Chouzitze, whither also they pursued him, and climbing even up to the highest room where he was, first eat up his wife and children (she being guilty of his uncle's death) and lastly gnew and devoured him to the very bones. After the same sort was an Archbishop of Mentz, called Hatto, punished Munster cosmographle. in the year 940, under the reign of the Emperor Otho the great, for the extreme cruelty which he used towards certain poor beggars, whom in time of famine he assembled together into a great barn, not to relieve their wants, as he might and ought, but to rid their lives, as he ought not, but did: for he set on fire the barn wherein they were, and consumed them all alive; and Mandate. 8. Avarice and unmercifulness comparing them to rats and mice that devoured good corn, but served to no other good use. But God that had regard and respect unto those poor wretches, took their cause into his hand, to quit this proud Prelate with just revenge for his outrage committed against them; sending towards him an army of rats and mice to lay siege against him with the engines of their teeth on all sides, which when this cursed wretch perceived, he removed into a tower that standeth in the midst of Rhine, not far from Bing, whither he presumed this host of rats could not pursue him; but he was deceived: for they swum over Rhine thick and threefold, and got into his tower with such strange fury, that in very short space they had consumed him to nothing; in memorial whereof, this tower was ever after called the tower of rats. And this was the tragedy of that bloody arch-butcher that compared poor Christian souls to brutish and base creatures, and therefore became himself a prey unto them, as Popiel King of Poland did before him; in whose strange examples the beams of God's justice shine forth after an extraordinary and wonderful manner, to the terror and fear of all men; when by the means of small creatures they made room for his vengeance, to make entrance upon these execrable creature-murtherers, notwithstanding all man's devises and impediments of nature: for the native operation of the elements was restrained from hindering the passage of them, armed and inspired with an invincible and supernatural courage, to fear neither fire, water, nor weapon, till they had finished his command that sent them. And thus in old time did frogs, flies, grasshoppers, and louse, make war with Pharaoh, at the command of him that hath all the world at his beck. After this Archbishop, in the same rank of murderers we find registered many Popes, of all whom the most notorious and remarkable are these two, Innocent the fourth, and Boniface the eighth, who deserved rather to be called Nocents and Malefaces than Innocents' and Boniface, for their wicked and perverse lives: for as touching the first of them, from the time that he was first installed in the Papacy, he always bend his horns against the Emperor Frederick, and fought with him with an army not of men, but of excommunications and cursings; as their manner is: and seeing that all his thundering Bulls and Canons could not prevail so far as he desired, he presently sought to bring to pass that by treason which by force he could not: for he so enchanted certain of his household servants with foul bribes and fair words, that when by reason of his short draught, the poison which Hieron. Marius. he ministered could not hurt him, he got them to strangle him to death. Moreover, he was chief sour of that war betwixt Henry, Landgrave of Thuring, whom he created King of the Romans, and Conrade, frederic son, wherein he reaped a crop of discomfitures and overthrows: after which, he was found slain in his bed, his body being full of black marks, as if he had been beaten to death with cudgels. Concerning Boniface, after he had by subtle and crafty means made his predecessor dismiss himself of his Papacy, and enthronised himself therein, Baleus. he put him to death in prison, and afterward made war upon the Gibilines, and committed much cruelty; wherefore also he died mad, as we heard Murdering Popes. before. But touching Popes and their punishments, we shall see more in the 44 chapter following, whither the examples of them are referred, that exceeding in all kind of wickedness, cannot be rightly placed in the treatise of any particular commandment. CHAP. IX. Other memorable examples of the same subject. IF we descend from antiquities to histories of later and fresher memory, we shall find many things worthy report and credit: as that which happened in the year Euguerran de Monstr. Vol. 1. 1405 betwixt two Gentlemen of Henault; the one of which accused the other for killing a near kinsman of his, which the other utterly & steadfastly denied: whereon DWilliam, County of Henault, offered them the combat in the city of Quesney to decide the controversy, when as by law it could not be ended: whereunto they being come, and having broken their spears in two, and encountered valiantly with their swords, at length he that was charged with and indeed guilty of the murder, was overcome of the other, and made to confess with his mouth in open audience the truth of the fact: Wherefore the Country adjudged him in the same place to be beheaded; which was speedily executed, and the conqueror honourably conducted to his lodging. Now albeit this manner of deciding controversies be not approved of God, yet we must not think it happened at all adventures, but rather that the issue thereof came of the Lord of Hosts, that by this means gave place to the execution of his most high and sovereign justice, by manifesting the murderer, and bringing him to that punishment which he deserved. About this very time there was a most cruel and out ragious riot practised and performed upon Lewis Duke of Orleans, brother to Charles' the Enguerran de Monstr. Vol. 1. sixth, by the complot and devise of john Duke of Burgundy, who (as he was naturally haughty and ambitious) went about to usurp the government of the realm of France, for that the king by reason of weakness of his brain was not able to manage the affairs thereof, so that great trouble and uncivil wars were grown up by that occasion in every corner of the realm. As therefore he affected and gaped after the rule, so he thought no means dishonest to attain unto it, and therefore his first enterprise was to take out of the way the King's brother, who stood betwixt him and home. Having therefore provided fit champions for his purpose, he found opportunity one night to cause him to come out of his lodging late by counterfeit tokens from the king, as if he had sent for him about some matters of importance: and being in the way to S. Paul's hostile, where the king's lodging was in Paris, the poor Prince suspecting nothing, was suddenly set upon with eighteen roisters at once, with such fury and violence, that in very short space they left him dead upon the pavement, by the gate Barbet, his brains lying scattered about the street. After this detestable and odious act committed and detected, the cruel Burgundian was so far from shaming, that he vaunted and boasted at it, as if he had achieved the most valorous and honourable exploit in the World (so far did his impudency outstretch the bond of reason.) Nevertheless, to cast some counterfeit colour upon this rough practice, he used the conscience and fidelity of three famous Divines of Paris, who openly in public assemblies approved of this murder; saying, That he had greatly offended, if he had left it undone. About this device he employed especially M. john Petit, a Sorbonist Doctor, whose rashness and brasen-facednesse was so great, as in the council-house of the King, stoutly to aver, That that which was done in the death of the Duke of Orleans was a virtuous and commendable action, and the author of it to be void of fault, and therefore aught to be void of punishment. The preface which this brave Orator used, was, That he was bounden in duty to the Duke of Burgundy, in regard of a goodly pension which he had received at his hands, and for that cause he had prepared his poor tongue in token of gratitude to defend his cause. He might better have said thus, That seeing his tongue was poor and miserable, and he himself a senseless creature, therefore he ought not to allow or defend so obstinately such a detestable & traitorous murder committed upon a Duke of Orleans, and the same the King's brother, in such vile sort; and that if he should do otherwise, he should approve of that which God and man apparently condemned, yea the very Turks and greatest Paynims under heaven; and that he should justify the wicked, and condemn the innocent, which is an abomination before God; and should put darkness in stead of light, and call that which is evil, good: (for which the Prophet Esay in his fifth chapter denounceth the jugdements of God against false prophets) and should follow the steps of Balaam, which let out his tongue to hire for the wages of iniquity: but none of these supposes came once into his mind. But to return to our History: The Duke of Burgundy having the tongues of these brave Doctors at his commandment, and the Parisians who bore themselves partially in this quarrel (generally favourers of his side) came to Paris in arms, to justify himself, as he pretended, and struck such a dreadful awe of himself into all men's minds, that notwithstanding all the earnest pursuit of the Duchess, the widow of Orleans, for justice, he escaped unpunished, until God (by other means) took vengeance upon him: which happened after a while, after that those his complices of Paris (being become lords and rulers of the city) had committed many horrible and cruel murders, as of the Constable and Chancellor, two head officers of the realm, whose bodies fast bound together, they drew naked through the streets from place to place in most despiteful manner: for the Dauphin escaping their hands by night, and safeguard in his castle, after that he heard of the seizure of the city; found means to assemble certuine forces, and marched to Montereaufautyon with 20000 men, of purpose to be revenged on the Duke for all his brave and riotous demeanours: hither, under colour of parling and devising new means to pacify these old civil troubles, he enticed the Duke, and being come, at his very first arrival, as he was bowing his knee in reverence to him, he caused him to be slain. And on this manner was the Duke of Orleans death quitted, and the evil and cruelty showed towards him, returned upon the murderers own neck; for as he slew him treacherously and cowardly, so was he also treacherously and cowardly slain, and justly requited with the same measure that he before Treason, lib. 2. cap. 3. had measured to another: notwithstanding herein the Dauphin was not free from a grievous crime of disloyalty and truth-breach, in working his death without shame of either faith-breach or perjury, and that in his own presence, whom he had so often with protestation of assurance and safety, requested to come to him. Neither did he escape unpunished for it; for after his father's decease he was in danger of losing the Crown, and all for this cause: for Philip Duke of Burgundy taking his father's revenge into his hands, by his cunning devices wrought means to displace him from the succession of the kingdom, by according a marriage betwixt the King of England and his sister, to whom he in favour agreed to give his kingdom in reversion after his own decease. Now assoon as the King of England was seized upon the government of France, the Dauphin was presently summoned to the marble Table, to give answer for the death of the old Duke: whither, when he made none appearance, they presently banished him the realm, and pronounced him to be unworthy to be succeeder to the noble Crown: which truly was a very grievous chastisement, and such an one as brought with it a heap of many mischiefs and discomfitures, which happened in the war betwixt England and him, for the recovery of his kingdom. Peter, son to Alphonsus' King of Castille, was a most bloody and cruel F●ois. lib. 1. hist. Tyrant: for first he put to death his own wife, the daughter of Peter Duke of Bourbon, and sister to the Queen of France: next he slew the mother of his bastard brother Henry, together with many Lords and Barons of the realm, for which he was hated not only of all his subjects, but also of his neighbour and adjoining countries: which hatred moved the foresaid Henry to aspire unto the Crown; which, what with the Pope's avouch, who legitimated him, and the help of certain French forces, and the support of the Nobility of Castille, he soon achieved. Peter thus abandoned, put his safest guard in his heels, and fled to Bourdeaux, towards the Prince of Wales, of whom he received such good entertainment, that with his aid he son reentered his lost dominions, and by main battle chased his bastard brother out of the confines thereof: but being re-installed, whilst his cruelties ceased not to multiply on every side, behold Henry (with a new supply out of France) began to assail him afresh, and put him once again to his shifts: but all that he could do, could not shift him out of Henry's hands, who pursued him so hotly, that with his own hands he soon rid him out of all troubles, and afterwards peaceably enjoyed the kingdom of Castille. But above all the horrible murders and massacres that ever were heard or read of in this last age of the World, that bloody massacre in France, under the reign of Charles the ninth, is most famous, or rather infamous; wherein the noble Admiral, with many of the nobility and gentry, which were Protestants, were most traitorously and cruelly murdered in their chambers and beds in Paris, the four and twentieth of August, in the night: in this massacre were butchered in Paris that very night ten thousand Protestants, and in all France, (for other cities followed the example of Paris) thirty, or as some say, forty thousand. I will not stand to relate the particular circumstances and manner thereof, it being at large described by divers writers both in French and English: only to our purpose, let us consider the judgements and vengeance of Almighty God upon the chief practisers and plotters thereof, which were these: Charles the ninth then King, by whose commission and commandment this massacre was undertaken; his brother and successor the Duke of Anjou; the Queen mother, his bastard brother, and the Duke of Guise, yea the whole town of Paris; and generally all France was guilty thereof. Now observe Gods just revenge: Charles himself had the thread of his life cut off by the immediate hand of God, by a long and lingering sickness, and that before he was come to the full age of 24 years: in his sickness blood issued in great abundance out of many places of his body, insomuch that sometimes he fell and wallowed in his own blood: that as he had delight to shed the blood of so many innocents', so he might now at the latter end of his days be glutted with blood. And surely by this means the Lord did put him in mind of his former bloody murders, to draw him to repentance, if it were possible. The Duke of Anjou, who succeeded this Charles in the Crown of France, and was called Henry the third, was murdered by a young jacobine Monk, called Friar jaques Clement, at the instigation of the duke de Maine and others of the league, and that (wherein appeareth manifestly the hand of God) in the self same chamber at S. Cloves wherein the Council for the great massacre had been taken and plotted, as it is constantly affirmed. The Duke of Guise, in the year 1588., the 23 of December, was murdered by the kings own appointment, being sent for into the king's chamber out of the council chamber, where attended him 45 with rapiers and poniards ready prepared to receive him. The Queen mother soon after the slaughter of the Duke of Guise, took the matter so to heart, that she went to bed, and died the first of januarie after. Touching all the rest that were chief actors in the tragedy, few or none escaped the apparent vengeance of God: and as for Paris and the whole realm of France, they also felt the severe scourge of God's justice, partly by civil wars and bloodshed, and partly by famine and other plagues; so that the Lord hath plainly made known to the world, how precious in the sight of his most Holy Majesty, is the death of innocents', and how impossible it is for cruel murderers to escape unpunished. CHAP. X. Of divers other Murderers, and their several punishments. Maximinus' from a shepherd in Thracia, grew to be an Emperor in Rome by these degrees: his exceeding strength and swiftness in running commended him so to Severus then Emperor, that he made him of his guard, from that he arose to be a Tribune, and at last to be Emperor: which place he was no sooner in possession of, but immoderate cruelty (all this while buried) began to show itself: for he made havoc of all the Nobility, and put to death those that he suspected to be acquainted with his estate: insomuch as some called him Cyclops, some B●siris, others A●teus, for his cruelty. Wherefore the Senate of Rome seeing his indignity, proclaimed him an enemy to their commonwealth. and made it lawful for any man to procure his death: Which being known, his soldiers lying at the siege of Aquileia, moved with hatred, entered his tent at noon day, and flew him and his son together. justinian the younger (no less hateful to his subjects for his cruelty than Maximinus) was deposed from the empire by conspiracy, and having his nostrils slit, exiled to Chersona, Leontius succeeding in his place. Howbeit ere long he recovered his Crown and Sceptre, and returned to Constantinople, exercising more cruelty at his return, than ever he had done before: for he had not only put to death Leontius and Tiberius, but also all that any way favoured 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 slain by Philippicus, to verify 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 father's skull (whom he in battle had slain) so displeased her therewith, that (attributing more to natural affection than unity of marriage) decreed with herself to hazard life and kingdom, to be revenged upon this grievous injury; wherefore she thus practised: A knight called Hemichild was enamoured with one of her maids; him she brought into a secret dark place by policy, in show to enjoy his love, but indeed to be at her command; for she supplied his love's place: and then discovering herself, put it to his choice, either to kill her husband, or to be accused by her of this villainy. Hemichild chose the former, and indeed murdered his Lord in his bed; and after the deed done, fled with her to Ravenna. But mark how the Lord required this murder, even most strangely; for they both which were linked together in the fact, were linked together also in the punishment; and as they had been joint instruments of another's destruction, so he made them mutual instruments of their own for Rosimund thinking to poison him too, made him drink half her medicine: but he feeling the poison in his veins, stayed in the mid way, and made her sup up the other half for her part: so they died both together. The Electors of the Empire disagreeing in suffrages, Adolphus Duke Munst. Cosm. Phi. Melan. lib. of Nassavia, and Albertus' Duke of Austria, took upon them the regiment and managing of the State: whereupon grew grievous wars in all Germany, and dissension between the two State-men, so that Adolphus was slain by the Duke of Austria in battle by the city of Spire: whose death was thus notably revenged. All that took part against him, or that were accessary to the murder, perished most strangely; Albert Earl of Hagerloch was slain, Otto of Ochsensteme was hanged, the Bishop of Mentz died suddenly of an apoplexy, in his cellar, the Bishop of Strasbrough was butchered by a Butcher: the Earl of Leimingen died of a frenzy, the Duke of Austria himself was slain by his nephew john, from whom he had taken the government of Suevia, because of his unthriftiness: generally they all came to destruction, so grievous is the cry of innocent blood, against those that are guilty thereof. After the death of Woldimirus King of Rhythenia, his son Berisus succeeded in the kingdom, who though he was a virtuous and religious Treason, lib. 2. cap. 3. Prince, yet could not his virtue or religion privilege him from the malice of his brother Suadopolcus, who gaping and itching for the Crown, slew his brother this good Prince as he was sleeping in his Chamber, together with his Esquire that attended upon him: and Chron. Pol. lib. 2. cap. 10. not content herewith, but adding murder to murder, he assaulted another of his brethren by the same impiety, and brought him to the same end. Whereupon the last brother jorislaus (to be revenged on this villainy) set upon him with an army of men, and killing his complices, drove him to fly to Crachus king of Polonia for succour: who furnishing him with a new army, sent him back against his brother, in which battle (his success being equal to the former) he lost his men, and himself escaping the sword, died 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 hateful and ungodly a thing it is to be either a protector or a saver of any murderer, mark the judgement of God that fell upon this king of Polonia, though not in his own person, yet in his posterity; for he being dead, his eldest son and heir Crachus Treason, lib. 2. cap. 3. 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 dropped crocodiles tears) but to some savage and cruel beast: howbeit ere long (his treachery being discovered, and disseised of his kingdom) he died with extreme grief and horror of conscience. And thus we see that Crachus his kingdom came to desolation for maintaining a murderer. john the high Priest of Jerusalem, son and successor to judas, had a brother termed jesus, to whom Bagoses the lieutenant of Artaxerxes army promised the Priesthood, meaning indeed to depose john, and install him in his room: upon which occasion this jesus growing insolent, spared not joseph. antiq. judaic. li. 11. c. 7 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 blood, and that of his own brother, and so impious, that the Lord in Profanation of holy things, Lib. 1. cap. 34. justice could not choose 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 lamb they offered upon the altar, they should pay fifty groats to the king of Persia, besides the profanation of their temple with the uncircumcised Persians, who entered into it at their pleasures, and so polluted the Sanctuary and holy things of God: this punishment continued upon them seven years and all for this one murder. Gerhardus Earl of Holsatia, after he had conquered the Danes in many and sundry battles, was traitorously slain in the city Kanderhusen, by one Treason, lib. 2. cap. 3. Nicolaus jacobus, a rich Baron: so that whom the open enemy feared in the field, him the privy subtle foe murdered in his chamber. But the traitor and murderer, albeit he fled to the castle Schaldenburg, and got a band of soldiers to defend himself, yet he was surprised by the Earl's sons, who tormenting him as became a traitor to be tormented, at last rend his body into four quarters, and so his murder and treason was condignly punished. Above all, the execution of God's vengeance is most notably manifested in the punishment and detection of one Parthenius an homicide, treasurer Greg. of Tours, lib. 1. cap. 36. to Theodobert king of France; who having traitorously slain an especial friend of his called Ausanius, with his wife ●apianilla, when no man suspected or accused him thereof, he detected and accused himself after this strange manner: As he slept in his bed, suddenly he roared out This example belongeth also to the 11. chap most pitifully, crying for help, or else he perished: and being demanded what he ailed, he half asleep answered, That his friend Ausanius and his wife, whom he had slain long ago, summoned him to judgement before God: upon which confession he was apprehended, and after due examination stoned to death. Thus though all witnesses fail, yet a murderers own conscience will betray him. Pepin and Martellus his son, kings of France, enjoying prosperity and ease, fell into divers monstrous sins: as to forsake their wives Casp. Headsman li. 6. cap. 17. and follow whores: which filthiness when the Bishop of Tung●ia reproved, Dodo the harlors brother murdered him for his labour: but he was presently taken with the vengeance of God, even a lousy and most filthy disease, with the grief and stink whereof being moved, he threw himself into the river of Mosa, and there was drowned. How manifest and evident was the vengeance of God upon the murderers Martian. S●o●u●. of Theodorick Bishop of Treverse ● Conrade the author of it died suddenly: the soldier that helped to throw him down from the rock, was Hermanus contract us. choked as he was at supper two other servants that laid to their hands to this murder, slew themselves most desperately. About the year of our Lord 700. Ge●lian the wife of Gosbere prince of Wurtiburg, being reproved by Kilianus for incest (for she married her Casp. Headsman li. ●. cap. 10. husband's brother) wrought such means, that both he and his brethren were deprived of their lives: but the Lord gave her up to Satan in vengeance, so that she was presently possessed with him, and so continued till her dying day. A certain woman of Milan in Italy hung a young boy, and after devoured him instead of meat, when as she wanted none other victuals▪ and when she was examined about the crime, she confessed that a spirit persuaded her to do it, telling her, that after it she should attain unto whatsoever she desired: for which murder she was to r●●●nted to death by a lingering and grievous punishment. This Arlunus reporteth to have happened in his time. And surely how soever openly the Devil showeth not himself, yet he is the mover and persuader of all murders, and commonly the doctor. For he delighteth in men's bloods and their destruction, as in nothing more. A gentleman of Chaleur in Fossignie, being in the Duke of Savoys army, in September the year of our Lord 1589, and grieving to behold the cruelties which were exercised upon the poor inhabitants of that country, resolved to depart from the said army: now because there was no safer nor nearer way for him, than to cross the lake to Bonne, he entreated one of his acquaintance, named john Villain, to procure him means of safe passage over the lake: who for that purpose procured two watermen to transport him, with his horse, apparel, and other things: being upon the lake, the watermen, whereof the chiefest was called Martin Bourrie, fell upon him and cut his throat: john Villain understanding hereof complained to the magistrates; but they being forestalled with a present from the murderer, of the gentleman's horse, which was of great value, made no inquisition into the matter, but said, that he was an enemy which was dispatched: and so the murderers were justified; but God would not leave it so unpunished: for about the fifteenth of july 1591., this Bourrie going with divers others to shoot for a wager, as he was charging the harquebuse which he had robbed the gentleman of when he murdered him, it suddenly discharged of itself, and shot the murderer through the heart, so that he fell down stark dead, and never stirred nor spoke word. In the first troubles of France, a gentleman of the troops which besieged Moulins in Bourbonnois, was taken with sickness, in such sort that History of France, Charles the ninth. he could not follow his company when they dislodged; and lying at a Baker's house which professed much friendship and kindness to him, he put such confidence in him, that he showed him all the money that he had: but so far was this wretch from either conscience or common honesty, that assoon as it was night he most wickedly murdered him. Now mark how God revenged it: it happened not long after, that the murderer being in sentinel, one of his own fellows unawares shot him through the arm with a harquebuse, whereof he languished the space of three months, and then died stark mad. The town of Bourges being yielded by Monsieur D'yvoy, during the first troubles in France, the inhabitants were inhibited from talking together, The same history. either within or without the town, or from being above two together at a time: under colour of which decree many were most cruelly murdered: And a principal actor herein was one Garget captain of the Bourbonne quarter, who made a common practice of killing innocent men, under that pretence. But shortly after, the Lord that heareth the cry of innocent blood met with him for he was stricken with a burning fever, and ran up and down blaspheming the Name of God, calling upon the Devil, and crying out if any would go along with him to hell, he would pay his charges; and so died in desperate and frantic manner. Peter Martin, one of the Queries of the King of France his stable, and Postmaster at a place called Ling, in the way towards Poyctou, upon The same history. a sleight accusation, without all just form of lawful process, was condemned by a Lord to be drowned: The Lord commanded one of his Falconers to execute this sentence upon him, upon pain to be drowned himself: whereupon he performed his master's command: But God deferred not the revenge thereof long; for within three days after, this Falconer and a Lackey falling out about the dead man's apparel, went into the field and slew one another. Thus he that was but the instrument of that murder was justly punished: how much more is it likely that the author escaped not scot free, except the Lord gave him a heart truly to repent? It hath been observed in the history of France, since the year of our Lord 1560, that of a thousand murders which remained unpunished in regard of men, not ten of them escaped the hands of God, but came to most wretched ends. In the year of our Lord 1546 john Diazius, a Spaniard by birth, living a student and Professor in Paris, came first to Geneva, and then to Strasbrough, and there by the grace of God's spirit saw his sorbonical errors, and renounced them, betaking himself to the profession of the purer religion, and the company and acquaintance of godly men: amongst whom was Bucer that excellent man, who sent him also to Nurnburge, to oversee the printing of a book which he was to publish. Whilst Diazius lived at this Nurnburge (a city scituat upon the river Dimow) his brother, a lawyer, and judge lateral to the Inquisition, by name Alphonsus, came thither, and Sleid. lib. 17. by all means possible endeavoured to dissuade him from his religion, and to reduce him again to Popery. But the good man persisted in the truth notwithstanding all his persuasions and threats: wherefore the subtle fox took another course, and feigning himself to be converted also to his religion, exhorted him to go with him into Italy, where he might do much good; or at the least to Angust: but by the counsel of Bucer and his friends he was kept back, otherwise willing to follow his brother. Wherefore Alphonsus departed, and exhorted him to constancy and perseverance, giving him also fourteen crowns to defray his charges. Now the wolf had not been three days absent, when he hired a rakehell and common butcher, and with him flew again to Nurnburge in post hast: and coming to his brother's lodging, delivered him a letter, which whilst he read, the villain his confederate cloven his head in pieces with an axe, leaving him dead upon the floor, and so fled with all expedition. Howbeit they were apprehended, yet quit by the Pope's justice (so holy and sacred are the fruits of his Holiness) though not by the justice of God, for within a while after he hung himself upon his mules neck at Trent. Duke Abrogastes slew Valentinian the Emperor of the West, and advanced Eugenius to the crown of the Empire: but a while after, the same sword which had slain his lord and master was by his own hands turned into his own bowels. Mempricius the son of Madan, the fourth King of England, then called Lanquet. Chro. Britain after Brute, had a brother called Manlius, betwixt whom was great strife for the sovereign dominion: but to rid himself of all his trouble at once, he slew his brother Manlius by treason, and after continued his reign in tyranny and all unlawful lusts, the space of twenty years: but although vengeance all this while winked, yet it slept not, for at the end of this space, as he was hunting, he was devoured of wild beasts. In the year of our Lord God 745 one Sigebert was authorised king of the Saxons in Britain, a cruel and tyrannous Prince towards his subjects. and one that changed the ancient Laws and customs of his Realm after his own pleasure: and because a certain Nobleman somewhat sharply advertised him of his evil conditions, he maliciously caused him to be put to death. But see how the Lord revenged this murder, he caused his Nobles to deprive him of his kingly authority, and at last as a desolate and forlorn person, wand'ring alone in a wood, to be slain of a swineherd, whose master he (being king) had wrongfully put to death. About the year of our Lord 793 Ethelbert king of the East Angles, a learned and right godly Prince, came to the court of Offa the king of Acts and Monuments. Mercia, persuaded by the counsel of his nobles, to sue for the marriage of his daughter, well accompanied like a prince with a great train of men about him: whereupon Offa's Queen conceiving a false suspicion of that which was never minded, That Ethelbert under the pretence of this marriage, was come to work some violence against her husband, and the kingdom of Mercia, so persuaded with king Offa and certain of his Council that night, that the next day following Offa caused him to be trained into his palace alone from his company, by one called Guymbertus, who took him and bound him, and after struck off his head, which forthwith he presented to the king and Queen. Thus was the innocent King wrongfully murdered, but not without a just revenge on God's hand: for the aforesaid Queen, worker of this villainy, lived not three months after, and in her death was so tormented, that she bit and rend her tongue in pieces with her teeth, which was the instrument to set abroach that murderous practice. Offa himself understanding at length the innocency of the king, and the heinous cruelty of his fact, gave the tenth part of his goods to the Church, bestowed upon the Church of Hereford, in remembrance of this Ethelbert, great lands, builded the Abbey of S. Albon, with certain other Monasteries beside, and afterward went to Rome for his penance, where he gave to the Church of S. Peter, a penny through every house in his dominion, which was commonly called Romeshot, or Peterpence, and there at length was transformed from a king to a monk. Thus God punished not only him and his wife, but the whole land, for this vile murder. One principal cause of the conquest of this land by the Normans, was Ranulphus. a vile and horrible murder committed by one Goodwin, an Earl in England, upon certain Mormans that came overwith Alfred and Edward, to visit their mother Emma, that had been married to King Canutus. This matter thus fell out: When these two came from Normandy to England, to visit their mother, as I have said, Earl Goodwin having a daughter called Godith, whom he thought to marry to Edward, and advance him to the kingdom, to bring his purpose to pass used this practice, that is, to persuade King Hardeknout and the Lords, not to suffer those Normans to be within the Realm, for jeopardy, but rather to punish them for example: by which means he got authority to order the matter himself: Wherefore he met them on Gild down, and there wretchedly murdered, or rather martyred the most part of the Normans, killing nine, and leaving the tenth alive throughout the whole company; and then tything again the said tithe, he slew every tenth knight, and that by cruel torment, as winding their guts out of their body, after a most savage manner: among the rest he put out the eyes of the elder of the two brethren, Alfred, and sent him to an Abbey at Elie; where being fed with bread and water, he ere long ended his life. Now albeit he obtained his purpose hereby; and married his daughter to Edward, who was after King, called Edward the Confessor, yet did not God's justice sleep to punish this horrible murder: for he himself died not long after suddenly, having forsworn himself, and the normans with William their Duke ere long came into this Island, to revenge this murder, as also to claim a right of inheritance bequeathed unto him by Edward his Nephew: and how he succeeded, and what misery he brought this whole Nation unto, who knoweth not. But here is the justice of God: As the Normans coming with a natural English Prince, were most cruelly and barbarously murdered of Englishmen; so afterwards the Englishmen were slain and conquered, by the Normans coming with a foreign King, being none of their natural country. In the year of our Lord six hundred threescore and eighteen, Childerich King of France caused a Nobleman of his Realm, called Bolyde, to be bound to a stake, and there beaten to death, without the pretence of any just crime or accusation against him: For which cruelty his Lords and Commons, being grievously offended, conspired together, and slew him and his wife as they were hunting. In the reign of Edward the second and Edward the third, Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villainous outrages, in shedding much humane blood: but he was also justly recompensed in the end; first he murdered King Edward the second, lying in Barkeley Castle, to the end he might, as it was supposed, enjoy Isabel his wife, with whom he had very suspicious familiarity. Secondly, he caused Edward the third to conclude a dishonourable peace with the Scots, by restoring them all their ancient writings, charters, and patents, whereby the Kings of Scotland had bound themselves to be feudaries to the Kings of England. Thirdly, he accused Edmund Earl of Kent, uncle to King Edward, of treason, and caused him unjustly to be put to death. And lastly he conspi redagainst the King to work his destruction; for which and divers other things that were laid to his charge he was worthily and justly beheaded. In the reign of Henry the sixth, Humphrey the good duke of Gloucester, and faithful protector of the King, by the means of certain malicious persons, to wit, the Queen, the Cardinal of Winchester, and especially the marquis of Suffolk, (as it was supposed) was arrested, cast into hold, and strangled to death in the Abbey of Bure: For which cause the Lords hand of judgement was upon them all: for the marquis was not only banished the land for the space of five years, but also banished out of his life for ever; for as he sailed towards France, he was met withal by a Ship of War, and there presently beheaded, and the dead corpse cast up at Dover; that England wherein he had committed the crime, might be a witness of his punishment. The Queen, that thought by this means to preserve her husband in honour, and herself in estate, thereby both lost her husband and her state: her husband lost his realm; and the Realm lost Anjou, Normandy, with all other places beyond the sea, Calais only excepted. As for the Cardinal, who was the principal artificer of all this mischief, he lived not long after; and being on his death bed, murmured and grudged against God, ask wherefore he should die, having so much wealth and riches? and saying, That if the whole Realm would save his life, he was able either by policy to get it, or by riches to buy it: but death would not be bribed; for all his abundant treasure he died miserably, more like a Heathen than a Christian, without any show of repentance. And thus was the good Duke's death revenged upon the princiall procurers thereof. As the murder of a gentleman in Kent, called master Arden of Feversham, was most execrable, so the wonderful discovery thereof was exceeding rare. This Arden being somewhat aged, had to wife a young woman, no less fair than dishonest, who being in love with one Mosby more than her husband, did not only abuse his bed, but also conspired his death with this her companion: for together they hired a notorious Ruffian, one Black Will, to strangle him to death with a towel as he was playing a game at tables: which though secretly done, yet by her own guilty conscience, and some tokens of blood which appeared in his house, was soon discovered and confessed. Wherefore she herself was burnt at Canterbury: Michael, master Arden's man, was hanged in chains at Feversham: Mosby and his sister were hanged in Smithfield: Greene another partner in this bloody action was hanged in chains in the high way against Feversham: And Black Will the Ruffian, after his first escape, was apprehended and burnt on a seaffold at Flushing in Zeeland. And thus all the murderers had their deserved deuce in this life, and what they endured in the life to come (except they obtained mercy by true repentance) is easy to judge. CHAM XI. Of the admirable discovery of Murders. AS the Lord hath showed himself a most just Judge, in punishing most severely this horrible sin of shedding man's blood, so hath he always declared his detestation thereof, and his will to have it punished by those who are in his stead upon the earth, and have the sword of vengeance committed unto them: by his miraculous and superhaturall detecting of such murderers from time to time, who have carried their villainies so closely, as the eye of man could not espy them: plainly showing thereby, that the blood of the slain crieth to the Lord for vengeance from the earth, as Abel's did upon Cain▪ and that God will have that law stand Gen. 4. true and firm, which he made almost before all other laws: He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. If I should commit to writing Gen. all the examples of this kind, which either are recorded in Authors, or which daily experience doth offer unto us, it would require rather a full Book than a short Chapter for that subject: And therefore I will be content with some few, and those for truth most credible, and yet for strangeness most incredible. And to begin with our own country: About the year of our Lord Ex historia jornlens. 867, a certain Nobleman of the Danes, of the king's stock, called Lothebrocus, father to Inguar and Hubba, entering upon a certain time with his hawk into a cockboat alone, by chance through tempest was driven with his hawk to the coast of Norfolk in England, named Rodham: where being found, and detained, he was presented to king Edmund, that reigned over the East-Angles in Norfolk and Suffolk at that time. The King (as he was a just and good man) understanding his parentage, and seeing his cause, entertained him in his Court accordingly; and every day more and more perceiving his activity, and great dexterity in hunting and hawking, bare special favour unto him: insomuch that the King's Falconer bearing privy malice against him, for this cause, secretly as they were hunting together in a wood, did murder him, and threw him in a bush. Lothebroke being thus murdered, and shortly miss in the King's house, no tidings could be heard of him, until it pleased God to reveal the murder by his dog: which continuing in the wood with the corpse of his Master, at sundry times came to the Court, and fauned on the King: so that the King suspecting some such matter, at length followed the trace of the hound, and was brought to the place where Lothebroke lay. Whereupon inquisition being made, at length by some circumstances of words, and other suspicions, it was known that he was murdered by Berik● the King's Falconer: who for his punishment he was set into the same boat of Lothebroke alone, and so committed to the mercy of the sea: but the sea more merciful to him than he was to Lothebroke, carried him directly to the coast of Denmark, from whence Lothebroke came; as it were there to be punished for his murder. Here the boat of Lothebroke being well known, hands were lay upon him, and by torments he was enquired into: but he to save himself, uttered an untruth of King Edmund; saying, That the King had put him to death in Norfolk. Whereupon revenge was devised, and to that end an army of men prepared and sent over: which was the first occasion of the Danes arrival in this land. Thus was this murder wonderfully discovered by means of a dog. Plutarch in his book Desolertia a●imalium, reporteth the like story of a Plutarch. Sole●ria anim●. soldier of King Pyrrhus, who being slain, his dog discovered the murderers: for when as the dog could by no means be brought from the dead body, but fawning upon the King, as it were desiring help at his hand; the King commanded all his Army to pass by in good order by two and two, till at length the murderers came; and then the dog flew upon them so fiercely, as if he would have torn them in pieces; and turning to the king, ran again upon the murderers. Whereupon being apprehended and examined, they soon confessed the fact, and received condign punishment for their desert. Plutarch ascribeth this to the secret of Nature's instinct: but we must rather attribute both this and all such like, to the mighty finger of God. who to terrify men from shedding humane blood, doth stir up the dumb creatures to be revealers of their bloody sin. The like story the same Author reporteth of the murder of the Poet Hesiod, who being slain by the sons of Ganyctor, the murder, though secret, The same. and the Murderers, though unknown to all the world save to God and their own conscience, were discovered and brought to punishment by the means of a dog which belonged to him that was murdered. The like also we read of two French Merchants, which travailing together through a certain Wood, one of them rose against the other for the Blondus. desire of his money, and so slew him, and buried him▪ but the Dog of the murdered Merchant would not depart from the place, but filled the Woods with howl and cries. The murderer went forward on his journey, and the Inhabitants near the said Wood, found out the murdered corpse, and also the Dog, whom they took up and nourished till the Fair was done, and the Merchants returned; at which time they watched the Highways, having the Dog with them: who seeing the murderer, instantly made force at him without all provocation, as a man would do at his mortal enemy: which thing caused the people to apprehend him; who being examined, confessed the fact, and received condign punishment for so foul a deed. The same Author reporteth yet a more memorable and strange story of Blondus. another murder discovered also by the means of a dog, which I may not omit. There was (saith he) a certain maid near Paris, who was beloved of two young men; the one of whom as he was going to visit his love, happened to be murdered by the way, and buried: now his dog which he had with him would not depart from the grave of his master: at the last the young man being miss by his father and brethren, was diligently sought for; but not finding him, at last they found his dog lying upon his grave, that howled pitifully as soon as he saw his master's brother: the grave was opened, and the wounded corpse found, which was brought away, and committed to other burial, until the murderer should be descried: Afterward, in process of time, the dog in the presence of the dead man's brethren espied the murderer, and presently assaulted him with great fierceness: Whereupon he was appreliended, and examined, and when by no means nor policy he would confess, the magistrate adjudged, That the young man and the dog should combat together: The dog was covered with a dry sod skin in stead of armour, and the murderer with a spear, and on his body a thin linen cloth; and so they both came forth to fight: but behold the hand of vengeance: the man offering at the dog with his spear, the dog leapt presently at his face, and caught him fast by the throat, and overthrew him: whereat the wretch amazed, cried out to the beholders, Take pity on me, and pull off the dog from my throat, and I will confess all▪ the which being done, he declared the cause and manner of the whole murder, and for the same was deservedly put to death. All these murders were discovered by dogs, the Lord using them as instruments to reveal his justice and vengeance upon this bloody sin, but these following by other means: The murder of the Poet Ibycus was detected by Cranes; as you may see in the 36 chapter of this book more at large set forth. Luther recites such another story as that of Ibycus, of a certain Almaigne, Luther. who in travelling fell among thiefs, which being about to cut his throat, the poor man espied a flight of Crows, and said, O Crows I take you for witnesses and revengers of my death. About two or three days after, these murdering thiefs drinking in an Inn, a company of Crows came and lighted on the top of the house: whereupon the thiefs began to laugh and say one to another, Look yonder are they which must revenge his death, whom we dispatched the other day. The Tapster overhearing them, told it to the magistrate; who presently caused them to be apprehended, and upon their disagreeing in speeches and contrary answers, urged them so far, that they confessed the truth, and received their deserved punishment. There was one Bessus (as Plutarch reporteth) who having killed his father, was brought both to knowledge and punishment by the means of Plutarch. Swallows: for his guilty conscience persuaded him, that the Swallows in their chattering language did say to one another, That Bessus had killed his father: whereupon not able to conceal his own guiltiness, he bewrayed his horrible fact: and was worthily and deservedly for the same put to death. But of all the examples that either reading or experience can afford, none in my opinion is either more admirable, or a more clearer testimony of God's providence & justice, than that which happened about a Lucquois Merchant, Pasquier, Recerche●▪ lib. 5. c. 20. who coming out of England to Rouen in France, and from thence making towards Paris, was in the way, on a mountain near to Argentueil, murdered by a Frenchman his servant, and his body thrown amongst the Vines. Now as this fact was a doing, a blind man ran by, being led by his dog; who hearing one groan, asked who it was? Whereunto the murderer answered, that it was a sick man going to ease himself. The blind man thus deluded, went his way, and the servant with his master's money, and with Papers of his takes up at Paris a good sum of money, and sets up a shop at Roan. Now this Merchant being expected at Luca a whole year together, whither he had sent word he would shortly repair; when he came not, a messenger was dispatched to seek him out; and after much enquiry at London and Rouen, and elsewhere, he learned at last in an Inn, that a Lucquois Merchant about six months before had lodged there, and was gone to Paris: where also not hearing any tidings of him, he suspected that he was murdered, & made his complaint to the Court of Parliament at Rouen: Which embracing this business (being directed by God's providence) made enquiry up and down the Town, Whether there were any that within seven or eight months had set up a new shop; and finding one, caused him to be arrested for a supposed and a pretended debt: but in the end examined him upon this murder, and laid it to his charge: herewith the prisoner, solicited partly bythe remorse of his conscience, & partly by hope of freeing himself by a bribe, confessed the fact in private to the Justice but as soon as he perceived that he went about to call in witnesses to his confession, he denied it again: in brief, the new Merchant is committed to prison, and he sueth the Justice for forgery and false imprisonment: the Justice can by no means clear himself, but only by the assurance that all men had of his honesty. The matter hangs thus in suspense, till at length the dead carcase of the Lucquois was ●eard of, and the blind man also came to light who heard the noise of the murder: to make short, this blind man was brought to confront the prisoner; and twenty men were caused to speak one after another, and still the blind man was demanded, whether he knew their voices, and said, That that was the man that answered him on the mountain. This course being ofttimes reiterated, the blind man hit always on the right, and never miss. Whereupon the Court condemned him to death, and before he died he confessed the fact, to the great glory of God's Justice, and the great amazement and strange astonishment of all men. At Paris, in the year of our Lord 1551, a certain young woman was brained by a man with a hammer, near unto Saint Opportunes Church, Pasquier, Recerches, lib. 5. c. 20. as she was going to midnight Mass, and all her rings and jewels taken from her: This hammer was stolen from a poor Smith there by the same evening; who therefore being suspected of the murder, was cruelly handled, and put to extraordinary torture, by reason of the vehement presumptions made against him; in such sort, that he was quite lamed and deprived of the means to get his living; whereby being reduced into extreme poverty, he ended his life in great misery. All this while the murderer remained unknown almost for the space of twenty years, and the memory of the murder seemed to be buried with the poor woman in her grave: now mark the justice of God, who hath promised, that nothing shall be so hid but shall be brought to light. It happened, that one john Flaming, Sergeant of the Subsidies at Paris, being upon occasion of business at S. Leups, a Village by Montmorency, chanced among other talk at Supper to say, how he had left his wife at home sick, and no body with her but a little boy: there was an old man then present, named Monstier, and a son in law of his, who immediately upon this speech went away that night, with each of them a basket of cherries and a green goose, and came about ten of the clock the next morning to Flaming house, where they intended to murder both the woman and the boy, and to possess themselves of all the goods that they could conveniently carry away: but the Lord prevented them of their purpose: for being let in at the doors by the boy, pretending that they came from the husband with th●se remembrances to his wife, they presently slew the boy, thinking also to surprise the woman; but she hearing the cry of the boy, locked fast her chamber door, and cried for help out at her window, whereupon the neighbours running to the house took these two villains, one hidden in the funnel of the Chimney; and the other in a Well in the Cellar, with nothing but his nose above water. Now these two wretches being thus apprehended, arraigned, and condemned, being on the seaffold at the place of execution, the old man desired to speak with the Smiths widow, whose husband was suspected for the first murder: of whom when she came, he asked forgiveness; saying, that it was he which had killed the young woman by S. Opportunes Church. Thus the Lord discovered both the innocency of the Smith, and the guiltiness of this vile murderer, and that twenty years after the fact was committed. Not long since the like discovery of a murderer was made here in England in Leicestershire, not far from Lutterworth, almost twenty years after the fact committed, The murder was committed by a Miller upon one in his Mill, whom he buried in the ground hard by: This Miller removed unto another country, and there dwelled a long space, until at last guided by God's Almighty providence, to the manifestation of his justice, he returned unto that place to visit some of his friends. Now in the mean time whilst he was there, the Miller that now possessed the former Mill, had occasion to dig deep into the ground, where he found the carcase of a dead man, presently it was suspected that some had been murdered, and was there buried: whereupon the Lord put it into their hearts to remember, how about twenty years before a certain neighbour of theirs was suddenly miss, and could never be heard of, insomuch that all supposed him to have been dead in some strange country: this carcase they suspected to be his, and bethinking themselves who was then Miller of that Mill, behold he was there ready in the town, not having been there for many years before. This man was suspected, and thereupon examined, and without much ado confessed the fact, and received deserved punishment. Who seeth not here manifest traces and footsteps of God's providence? First in reducing the murderer to that place at that time: Secondly, in stirring up the Miller to dig at the same time also: thirdly, in putting into the hearts of the people the missing of such a man, whose memory was almost forgotten: and lastly, in causing the murderer to confess his deed, when as no proof nor witness could be brought against him: but here is the justice of God against all such, Vengeance will not suffer the murderer Acts 28. 4. to live. Henry Ranzovius, Lieutenant for the King of Denmark in the Duchy of Ranzovius. Holsace, makes relation in a letter of his, of an ordinary means of finding out Murderers, practised in the kingdom of Denmark by King Christiernus the second, and permitted over all his Kingdom; the occasion whereof (he saith) was this: Certain Gentlemen being on an evening together in a stove, fell out among themselves, and from words grew to blows (the Candles being put out) insomuch that one of them was stabbed with a poniard. Now the deed doer was unknown by reason of the number; although the Gentleman accused a Pursuivant of the Kings for it, who was one of them in the stove. The King to find out the homicide, caused them all to come together in the stove, and standing round about the dead Corpse, becommanded that they should one after another lay their right hand on the slain Gentleman's naked breasts, swearing they had not killed him: the Gentlemen did so, and no sign appeared to witness against them; the Pursuivant only remained, who condemned before in his own conscience, went first of all and kissed the dead man's feet, but as soon as he laid his hand on his breast, the blood gushed forth in abundance, both out of his wound and nostrils, so that urged by this evident accusation, he confessed the murder, and by the Kings own sentence was incontinently beheaded: whereupon (as I said before) arose that practice which is now ordinary in many places of finding out unknown Murders; which by the admirable power of God are for the most part revealed, either by the bleeding of the corpses, or the opening of the eye, or some other extraordinary sign, as daily experience doth teach. The same Author reporteth another example far more strange, in the same letter written to David Chytreus, which happened at Itzehow in Denmark. A Traveller was murdered by the highway side, and because the murderer could not be found out, the Magistrates of Itzehow caused the body to be taken up, and one of the hands to be cut off, which was carried into the prison of the Town, and hung up by a string in one of the Chambers: about ten years after, the murderer coming upon some occasion in to the prison, the hand which had been a long time dry began to drop blood on the Table that stood underneath it: which the Gaoler beholding, stayed the fellow, and advertised the Magistrates of it; who examining him, the Phi. Lonicer. Theat. hist. Fides sit apud authorem. Though strange, yet not incredible, since God can as well turn Calf's heads into men's, as a rod into a serpent, or water into blood. murderer giving glory to God, confessed his fact, and submitted himself to the rigour of the Law, which was inflicted on him, as he very well deserved. At Winsheime in Germany, a certain Thief after many Robberies and Murders committed by him upon Travellers and Women with child, went to the Shambles before Easter, and bought three Calves heads, which when he put into a Wallet, they seemed to the standers by to be men's heads: whereupon being attached and searched by the Officers, and he examined how he came by them, answered and proved by witnesses, that he bought Calves heads, and how they were transformed ●hee knew not: whereupon the Senate amazed, not supposing this miracle to arise of naught, cast the party into prison, and tortured him to make him confess what villainy he had committed; who confessed indeed at last his horrible murders, and was worthily punished for the same, and then the heads recovered their old shapes. When I read this story, I was half afraid to set it down, lest I should seem to insert fables into this serious Treatise of God's Judgements: but seeing the Lord doth often work miraculously for the disclosing of this foul sin, I thought that it would not seem altogether incredible. Another murderer at Tubing betrayed his murder by his own sighs, which were so deep and incessant, in grief not of his fact, but of his small Lonicer. booty, that being but asked the question, he confessed the crime, and underwent worthy punishment. Another murderer in Spain was discovered by the trembling of his heart; for when many were suspected of the murder, and all renounced it, the Judge caused all their breasts to be opened, and him in whom he saw most trembling of breast, he condemned, who also could not deny the fact, but presently confessed the same. At Isenacum a certain young man being in love with a maid, and not having wherewith to maintain her, used this unlawful means to accomplish his desire; upon a night he slew his host, and throwing his body into a Cellar, took away all his money, and then hasted away; but the terror of his own conscience and the judgement of God so besotted him, that he could not stir a foot until he was apprchended. At the same time Martin Luther, and Philip Melancthon abode at Isenacum, and were eye-witnesses of this miraculous judgement, who also so dealt with this murderer, that in most humble and penitent confession of his sins, and comfort of soul, he ended his life. By all these examples we see, how hard it is for a murderer to escape without his reward: when the justice of man is either too blind, that it cannot search out the truth, or too blunt, that it doth not strike with severity the man appointed unto death, than the justice of God riseth up, and with his own arm he discovereth and punisheth the murderer; yea, rather than he shall go unpunished, senseless creatures and his own heart and tongue rise to give sentence against him. I doubt not but daily experience in all places affordeth many more examples to this purpose, and especially the experience of our Judges in criminal causes, who have continual occasion of understanding such matters in their Circuits: but these shall suffice for our present purpose. CHAP. XII. Of such as have murdered themselves. WHen the Law saith, Thou shalt not kill, it not only condemneth the kill of others, but much more of ourselves: for charity springeth from a man's self; & therefore if they be guilty of murder that spill the blood of others, much more guilty are they before God that shed their own blood: and if nature bindeth us to preserve the life of all men as much as lieth in our power, then much more are we bound to preserve our own lives, so long as God shall give us leave. We are here set in this life as soldiers in a station, without the licence of our Captain we must not depart: our soul is married to the body by the appointment of God, none must presume to put a sunder those whom God hath coupled: and our life is committed to us as a thing in trust, we must not redeliver it, nor part with it, until he require it again at our hands that gave it into, our hands. Saint Augustine in his first Book De Civitate Dei, doth most Aug. de civet. lib. 1. cap. 26. strongly evince and prove, That for no cause voluntary death is to be undertaken: neither to avoid temporal troubles, lest we fall into eternal; nor for fear to be polluted with the sins of others, lest by avoiding other men's sins, we increase our own; nor yet for our own sins that are past, for the which we have more need of life that we might repent of them: nor last: for the hope of a better life, because they which are guilty of their own death, a better life is not prepared for them. These be the words of Augustine: wherein he allegeth four causes, by which men are moved to this unnatural act; and concludeth, that for none of them, nor for any other cause what soever, a man ought to lay violent and bloody hands upon himself; yea, concludeth peremptorily, that a better life after death doth not receive such, to wit, that wilfully and desperately murder themselves, and die without repentance, as commonly they do. But here it is to be observed, that many which seem to make away themselves, are murdered and made away by the Devil, and not by themselves: for otherwise it were not possible that then should perish so strangely as they do: as when some have been hanged with their knees almost touching the ground; others upon a weak twig, not strong enough to bear the weight of the tenth part of their body: others been drowned in a puddle of water: which plainly showeth, that the Devil, either as the principal actor, or at least as a helper, was the procurer of their murders, and not always themselves: And therefore I must needs say with Luther, That both charity and conscience inhibites resolutely to judge all such to be damned that seem to have made havoc of their own lives; for the mercy of God is incomprehensible, and why may he not save the souls of them, whose bodies he gave leave to the Devil to torment, yea to destroy? Besides, we read of many holy women, who in the time of persecution cast themselves into the deep stream to preserve their chastity from the violence of the wicked persecutors; and yet were reputed in the Church for holy Martyrs. Saint Augustine's judgement is worthy to be learned and imitated of all concerning this matter, who thus defineth the case: Of these (saith he) I dare avouch nothing rashly: it may be the Church of God was persuaded by divine authority to receive them into the number of Martyrs; or it may be they did this act, not being deceived, after the manner of men, but being commanded of God, not erring, but obeying; as also we are to judge of Samson: now when God biddeth, and without all doubt makes known his will, who can call this obedience a crime? who can accuse a duty of piety? But a little after he giveth a caveat, Ne divina iussio ullo nutet incerto; that is, that we be sure God bids; for often times the devil translates himself into an Angel of light, and will feign a message from God, which proceedeth from his own malice. All this is to be conceived only touching that extraordinary case of those holy women that drowned themselves, and yet were held for Martyrs in the Church of God: as for others that shall wilfully and woefully shed their own bloods, and rob themselves of that precious jewel of life which God hath given them to keep, no doubt but as they commit a horrible and heinous crime, so they incur a horrible and fearful judgement: yea, the very act itself is both a crime and a judgement; a crime deserving a further judgement, even eternal damnation in hell fire; and a judgement and punishment of some notable sins comm●●ed by them before, and of an ungodly and wicked life unrepented of. The drift therefore & purpose of these examples following is this, to show how the Lord punisheth oftentimes in men an ungodly life with voluntary and wilful murder of themselves, and this wilful murder of themselves with eternal damnation after this life ended, as a just recompense of their deserts; and all to teach us repentance, the only means to prevent both these. The first we read of in holy Scripture that cruelly murdered himself 1 Sam. 31. 4. with his own hands, was King Saul; who, as it is recorded of him, was a most wicked man and a Tyrant: for being chosen from among all the people of Israel to be King by the Lords own appointment, and advanced as it were from the Plough to the Sceptre, he like a most ungrateful wretch kicked against his advancer, and rebelled against his God that had done so great things for him: yea, he not only contemned his laws, and cast his commandments behind his back but also proved a most cruel Tyrant, and shed much innocent blood: amongst the rest of his cruelties, this was the chief; upon the false accusation of Doeg the Edomite, he caused fourscore 1 Sam. 22. 18, 19 and five persons, that were Priests, and wore a linen Ephod, to be stain at one time, and Nob the City of the Priests to be smote with the edge of the sword, both man and woman, child and suckling, Ox and Ass: yea, so wicked was he, that when the Lord would not answer him neither by Prophets, nor by dreams, nor by any other means, he went to take counsel of the Devil, at the mouth of the Witch of Endor: for all which his 1 Sam. 28. 15. abominable wickedness, the Lord gave him over at last to so desperate a mind, that rather than he would fall into the hands of his enemies, he fell upon his own sword, and murdered himself. Zimri also, the King of Israel, is set forth by the holy Ghost to be a wicked man, and a traitor: for he conspited against his master Ela, the son 1 King. 16. 10, 18, 19 of Baasha King of Israel, and flew him as he was drinking in Tirza, and proclaimed himself King in his room: but the army hearing thereof, made Omri, the Captain of the host, King: who coming to besiege Tirza, wherein Zimri was, Zimri seeing that the City was taken, went into the palace of the King's house, and there, together with the house burnt himself, rather than he would fall into the hands of his enemy: Now the holy Ghost setteth it down in plain words, that the Lord sent this judgement upon him for his sins which he had sinned, in doing that which was evil in the of the Lord, and walking in the way of jeroboam, who made Israel to sin. Achitophel, that great Counsellor of State to King David, of whom it is 2 Sam. 17, 20. said, that the counsel which he counselled was like the Oracle of God, when he saw that the counsel which he gave was not followed, but despised, he saddled his Ass, and arose and went home into his own city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself: And that this was Gods just vengeance upon him for his former wickedness, it may appear both by his conspiracy with Absalon against his liege lord king David, 2 Sam. 16. 21, 22. and also that wicked counsel which he gave unto him, of going in unto his father's concubines in the sight of the people. In the second book of the Maccabees is recorded a notable story of one 2 Mac. 14. 37, 38. Raz is an Elder of Jerusalem, who is there set forth to be a man of very good report, constant in religion, a father of the Jews, and a lover of the city: yet notwithstanding, this man rather than he would fall into the hands of Nicanor his enemy, murdered himself after a most fearful and savage manner, for first he fell upon his sword, and when as for haste that struck dispatched him not, he ran boldly or rather furiously to the wall, and cast himself down headlong; after which yet breathing, he got up on a steep rock, and rending out his bowels with his own hands, threw them amongst the people, calling upon the Lord of life, that he would restore them again unto him. The author of that book commendeth this fact for a valiant and noble deed; but surely we are taught out of the book of God by God's spirit, that it was a most bloody, barbarous, and irreligious act: for rather should a man endure all the reproaches and torments of an enemy, than imbrue his own hands in his own blood; and therefore if he were not extraordinarily stirred up hereunto by the spirit of God, this must needs be a just punishment of some former sin wherein he lay without repentance, and a forerunner of an eternal punishment after this life. Let us join judas and Pilate together, the one being the betrayer of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ our Saviour, the other the condemner of him, and that against his conscience: as they both agreed in one malicious practice against the life of Christ, so they disagreed not in offering violence to their own lives: for judas hanged himself, and his bowels gushed out, and Pilat being banished to Vienna, and oppressed with the torment of conscience Acts 1. Euseb. and fear of punishment for his misdeeds, to prevent all killed himself, and so became a notable spectacle of God's justice, and Christ's innocence. The Jews, as they are recorded in Scripture to be a stiffnecked and stubborn Nation, above all the Nations under the Sun, so none were ever more hardy and daring in this bloody practice of self-murder than they were; which may be thought a portion of God's just judgement upon them for their sins: three examples of greatest note I will propound, which I think can hardly be matched. When the City of Jerusalem was taken by Herod and Sosius, there was a certain Jew that had hidden himself in a den with his wife and seven josephus' de bell. jud. lib. 1. c. 12. 13. children; to whom Herod offered both life and liberty, if he would come forth: but the stiffe-hearted wretch had rather die than be captive to the Romans: therefore refusing Herod's offer, he first threw down his children headlong from a high rock, and burst their necks, next he sent his wife after them, and lastly tumbled himself upon their carcases to make up the tragedy: a horrible and lamentable spectacle of a proud and desperate mind. The second example is nothing inferior to the former. After the siege and sacking of Jotapata by the Romans, forty Jews (among whom was josephus the writer of this story) having hid themselves in a cave, by mutual consent killed one another, rather than they would fall into the hands of josephus Fulgol. lib. 3. c. 2. the Romans▪ josephus only, with one other, by his persuasion, by great art and industry, after the other were slain, proceeded not in that bloody enterprise, but yielded themselves to the mercy of the enemies, and so escaped with their lives. This fearful obstinacy may well be imputed to the justice of God upon them, as for their other sins, so especially for crucifying the Lord of life, whose blood they imprecated might fall on them and on their children. The third example surpasseth both the former both in cruelty and obstinacy: Eleazar the Jew after the taking of Jerusalem fled into the tower of Messada with nine hundred followers; being besieged there by Sabinus Flavius, a Roman Captain, when he saw that the walls were almost beaten Fulgos. lib. 3. cap. 2. down, and that there was no hope of escaping, he persuaded his companions by a pithy and vehement Oration, and drew them to this resolution, that ten should be chosen by lot, which should kill all the rest, together with their wives and children, and that afterward they themselves should kill each other. The former part of this Tragedy being performed, the surviving ten first set on fire the Tower, that no prey might come unto the enemy (the victuals only preserved, to the end it might be known, that not hunger, but desperate valour drew them to this bloody massacre▪) then according to their appointment, by mutual wounds they dispatched one another: and of so great a number not one remained, besides one woman with her five children, who hearing the horribleness of their determination, hid herself in a cave in the ground, and so escaped with the life of herself and her children, and became a reporter of this whole story. The like story is recorded by Livy touching the Campagnians; who being besieged by the Romans, and constrained to yield up their City unto them upon composition, Vibius, a chief nobleman of the City, with seven Liv. lib. 26. and twenty other Senators, that they might not fall into their enemy's hands, after they had glutted themselves with wine and good cheer, drank all of them poison, and so bewailing the state of their country and embracing each other, and taking their last farewell, died ere the enemies were received into the city. Buthes, otherwise called Boges by Herodotus, Governor of Thracia, being besieged in the city Eion, by Cymon the Athenian captain, to the end that Fulgos. l. 3. c. 2. the enemy might receive no benefit nor great glory by his victory, first caused the city to be fired, and then by one consent they all killed themselves. So likewise did Ariarathes king of Capadocia, when he was besieged by Perdicca. Cato Vticensis, rather than he would fall into the hands of julius Caesar, his enemy, after his victory over Pompey, fell upon his own sword, and slew himself; having first read Plato's book of the immortality of the soul. So likewise did Marcus Antonius, after that he was over come by Augustus. And Cleopatra the Egyptian Queen, when as by her allurements she could not entice Augustus to her lust, as she had done Anthony, but perceived that she was reserved for triumph, escaping out of prison, and placing herself in her sumptuous sepulchre, near to the body of her dead paramour, set an Asp to her left arm, by the venom whereof she died as it were in a sleep. Thus the Lord doth infatuate the minds of wicked and ungodly persons, and such as have no true knowledge nor fear of the true God in their hearts, making them instruments of his vengeance, and executioners of his wrath upon themselves. Hannibal the son of Amilchar, after many victories and much bloodshed Fulgos. of the Romans, at last being overcome, and doubting of the faith of Prusia the King of Bythinia, to whom he was fled for succour, poisoned himself with poison which he always carried in a Ring to that purpose. At the destruction of Carthage, when as Asdrubal the chief Captain Fulgos. submitted himself to the mercy of Scipio, his wife cursing and railing on him for his base mind, threw her children into the midst of a fire, and there ended her days: and Asdrubal himself not long after followed her by a voluntary and violent death. When Cinna besieged the city of Rome, two brothers chanced to encounter Philip. Melan. Chron. 2. together in single fight, one of Cinna's army, the other of the contrary: and the one having slain the other, after that the Conqueror perceived that it was his brother whom he had slain, he slew himself also, to make satisfaction for his brother's blood: and so they were both buried in one grave. Norbanus a Consul of Rome flying from Scylla, slew himself at Rhodes, rather than he would fall into his enemy's hands: and so did likewise Marius the son, at Praeneste. Of the murderers of julius Caesar, almost all became also the murderer of themselves: Cassius stabbed himself with the same dagger wherewith he had stabbed Caesar: Brutus the night before his overthrow at Philippi, saw in his chamber a vision of a great fearful man; and he demanding who he was, and what he would, he answered, I am (O Brutus) thy evil spirit, and to morrow thou shalt see me at Philippi: To whom Brutus with a bold courage answered, I will therefore see thee there. The next day Brutus being conquered by Augustus and Anthony, at Philippi, fell upon his own sword and slew himself. Methridates that bloody and mighty King of Pontus being overcome of Lucullus and Pompey, and set upon by his own son, went about to make away himself by poison: which when it took not effect, by reason of his daily taking of Antidotes, he forced a French soldier of his to lay violent hands upon him; and so he became a wilful spiller of his own blood, that had caused the blood of so many thousands to be spilt. His two wives Monica and Veronica, hearing of the miserable end of the king, made likewise themselves away; for the one hanged herself, but when the weight of her body broke the cord, she committed herself to Bochis the Eunuch to be slain: the other received poison, which when it wrought not so speedily as she desired, Bochis also was made an instrument to dispatch her. Most famous and notorious is the story of Lucretia, who being ravished Livit. by Tarqvinius the younger, and impatient of that injury and disgrace, slew herself openly, and gave cause by her death of the change of the Roman State, from the government of Kings to Consuls. Sophronia another Roman woman, but a Christian, when as she could by Euseb. no means escape the lust of Decius the Emperor, daily assaulting her chastity, took a sword, and by her husband's consent slew herself; and so to prevent one sin, she committed another far worse than that she feared. Portia the daughter of Cato, and wife of Brutus, hearing of the death of her husband at Philippi, sought for a knife to kill herself; which being denied her, she eat burning coals, and so ended her life by a strange kind of death. We read of many wanton and lewd Poets that have thus made an end of themselves: who as for the most they are Epicures and Atheists, so seldom come to a good end: Labienus the railing Poet (who for that cause was called Rabienus) understanding that his books were adjudged to be burned by a public Decree, would not survive his own writings, and therefore killed himself. Lucretius the Atheist taking a love potion to incite his lust, was by the force thereof deprived of his senses, and so deprived himself also of life in his rage. Empedocles the vainglorious Poet, affecting the name of a god, and of immortality, threw himself headlong into mount Aetna, and so perished. Silvius Italicus being taken with an incurable disease, chose rather to be his own murderer, than to endure the torment of his sickness. Cornelius Gallus a amatorius Poet, having robbed the City Thebes, over which he was set to be governor by Augustus Caesar, and fearing Ammianus Marcellinus. to be called to account, prevented the punishment of humane justice, by executing the justice of God upon himself with his own hands. Of those that persecuted the Church of Christ, very many were given over by God to be persecutors of themselves, and spoilers of their own lives: as Nero for example, the first Emperor that took in hand to persecute Suet. Christians, he seeing himself in danger to be murdered by one appointed for that purpose, to prevent the malice of the murderer, murdered himself. Magnentius another tyrant, and enemy to Christ's Church, being overcome by Constantius, brother to Constans, whom he had slain, fled to Lions, and there became his own Butcher: whose death as soon as his brother Decentius understood, he also hanged himself. Galerius the Emperor, after he had tormented the Christians by all cruel means, and left no way unattempted whereby he might root them out of his Kingdom, fell into a grievous disease, through the torment whereof, not being able to endure any longer, he thrust a sword into his own bowels, and so miserably ended his days. And to come nearer to our own age, in King Edward the sixths' days one Clerk an open enemy to the Gospel, hanged himself in the Tower: so did Pavier Town-clerk of London: so did the son of one Levar a husbandman, that mocked and scorned at the holy Martyr master Latymer: so likewise did Henry Smith a Lawyer, another open adversary to God's truth. Richard Long, another enemy to God's truth, drowned himself at Calais, in King Henry the eights days. john Plankney, a Fellow of New College in Oxford, did the like Anno 1566. and likewise one Hanington, a Fellow of the same College, in a well at Milan; or, as some think, at Rome. Of these you may read more in the first book. Hither I might add many examples of modern experience, as namely of a covetous wretch in the Isle of Elie, who being cast in a suit of Law, through impatience of grief, came home and hanged himself: of another that had been a great dealer in worldly matters, and an undoer of a Family or two of good credit and revenue, by usury, and taking forfeiture of bonds, and that by his own flattering persuasion: being himself arrested at Huntingdon for debt, rather than he would satisfy it, though he was able enough, cut his own throat, after a most fearful and horrible manner: another being a man of note and good possessions, threw himself down headlong from the top of a Church. Many such like examples I could adjoin, with their names and places of abode, but I forbear, least by reporting Gods judgements upon the dead, I should offend some that are alive. These therefore already proposed may be a sufficient taste of this kind of judgement, inflicted by God upon wicked persons: and also may serve for a caveat and warning to all men to take heed how they offer violence to their own lives, seeing it is not only a punishment of sin past, but a fearful sin itself, and a forerunner and causer of punishment to come, even of eternal punishment, except the Lord extraordinarily and miraculously show mercy, which none ought to presume of. CHAP. XIII. Of Parricides, or Parent Murderers. IF all effusion of humane blood be both horrible to behold, and repugnant to nature, then is the murdering of Parents especially detestable, when a man is so possessed with the Devil, or transported with a hellish fury, that he lifteth up his hand against his own father or mother, to put them to death: this is so monstrous and inormous an impiety, that the greatest Barbarians ever have had it in detestation: wherefore it is also expressly commanded in the Law of God. That whosoever smiteth his father or mother Exod. 21. in what sort so ever, though not to death, yet he shall die the death. If the disobedience, unreverence, and contempt of children towards their Parents, are by the just judgements of God most rigorously punished (as hath been declared before in the first commandment of the second Table) how much more than when violence is offered, and above all, when murder is committed? Thus the Egyptians punished this sin: they put the committants upon a stack of thorns, and burned them alive, having beaten their Diodor. Sic. bodies beforehand with sharp reeds made of purpose. Solon being demanded why he appointed no punishment in his Laws for Parricides; answered, that there was no necessity, thinking that the wide world could not afford so wicked a wretch. It is said, that Romulus for the same cause ordained no punishment in his Common wealth for that crime, but called every murderer a Parricide; the one being in his opinion a thing execrable, and the other impossible. And in truth there was not for 600 years' space (according to Plutarch's report) found in Rome any one that had committed this execrable fact. The first Parricide that Rome saw, was Lucius Ostius, after the first Punic war; although other Writers affirm, that M. Malliolus was the first, and Lucius the second: how soever it was, they both underwent the punishment of the Law Pompeia, which enacted, That such offenders should be thrust into a sack of Leather, and an Ape, a Cock, a Viper, and a Dog, put in to accompany them, and then to be thrown into the water, to the end that these beasts being enraged and animated one against another, might wreak their teen upon them, and so deprive them of life after a strange fashion, being debarred of the use of the air, water, and earth, as unworthy to participate the very Elements with their deaths, much less with their lives: which kind of punishment was after practised and confirmed by the constitution of Constantine the Great. And albeit the regard of the punishment seemed terrible, and the offence itself much more monstrous, yet since that time there have been many so perverse and exceeding wicked, as to throw themselves headlong into that desperate gulf. As Cleodoricke son of Sigebert King of Austria, who being tickled with an unsatiable lust of reign through the deceivable persuasions of Cleodovius Greg. of Tours, lib 2. King of France, slew his father Sigebert as he lay asleep in his Tent in a forest at noon time of the day; who being weary with walking, laid himself down there to take his rest: but for all that, the wicked wretch was so far from attaining his purpose, that it fell out clean contrary to his expectation: for after his father's death, as he was viewing his treasures, and ransacking his coffers, one of Cleodovius factors struck him suddenly, and murdered him, and so Cleodovius seized both upon the Crown and Treasures. After the death of Hircanus, Aristobulus succeeded in the government of joseph. antiq. Judea, which whilst he strove to reduce into a kingdom, and to wear a crown, contrary to the custom of his predecessors, his mother & other brethren contending with him about the same, he cast in prison, & took Antigonus his next brother to be his associate: but ere long (a good grateful son) he famished her to death with hunger that had fed him to life with her tears, even his natural mother: And after persuaded with false accusations, caused his late best beloved Antigonus to be slain by an ambush that lay by Strato's tower, because in the time of his sickness he entered the Temple with pomp. But the Lord called for quittance for the two bloodsheds immediately after the execution of them: for his brother's blood was scarce washed off the ground, ere in the extremity of his sickness he was carried into the same place, and there vomiting up blood at his mouth and nostrils, to be mingled with his brothers, he fell down stark dead, not without horrible tokens of trembling and despair. Nero that unnatural Tyrant surpassed all that lived, as in all other vices, Corn. Tacit lib. 14. so in this; for he attempted thrice by poison to make away his mother Agrippina: and when that could not prevail, by reason of her usual Antidotes and preservatives, he assayed divers other means: as first a devise, whereby she should be crushed to death as she slept, a loosened beam that should fall upon her; and secondly by shipwreck: both which when she Sueton. cap 33. escaped, the one by discovery, and the other by swimming, he sent Anic●tus the Centurion to slaughter her with the sword: who with his companions breaking up the gate of the City where she lay, rushed into her Chamber, and there murdered her. It is written of her, that when she saw there was no remedy but death, she presented her belly unto the murderer, and desired him to kill her in that part which had most deserved it, by bringing into the world so vile a monster: and of him, that he came to view the dead carcase of his mother, and handled the members thereof, commending this, and discommending that, as his fancy led him, and in the mean time being thirsty, to call for drink: so far was he from all humanity and touch of Nature: but he that spared not to imbrue his hands in her blood that bred him, was constrained ere long to offer violence to his own life, which was most dear unto him. Henry the son of Nicolotus Duke of Herulia, had two wicked, cruel, and Munst. Cosmog. lib. 3. unkind sons, by the younger of whom, with the consent of the elder, he was traitorously murdered, because he had married a third wife: for which cause Nicolotus, their cousin-german, pursued them both with a just revenge; for he deprived them of their kingdom, and drove them into exile, where they soon after perished. Selimus the tenth Emperor of Turks was so unnatural a child, that he Philip. Melan. Chron. lib. 5. ● Munst. Cosmog. lib. 4. feared not to dispossess his father Bajazet of the crown by treason; and next to bereave him of his life by poison. And not satisfied therewith, even to murder his two brethren, and to destroy the whole stock of his own blood. But when he had reigned eight years, vengeance found him out, and being at his back▪ so corrupted and putrified his reins, that the contagion spread itself over all his body: so that he died a beastlike and irksome death, and that in the same place where he had before oppressed his father Bajazet with an army, to wit, at Chiurle a city of Thracia, in the year of our Lord 1520. in the month of September. Charles the younger, by surname called Crassus' son to Lodovick the third, Casp. Hedian. lib. ●. cap. 29. was possessed & tormented with a devil in the presence of his father, & the Peers of the Realm; which he openly confessed to have justly happened unto him, because he had pretended in his mind to have conspired his father's death and deposition: what then are they to expect, that do not pretend, but perform this monstrous enterprise? A certain degenerate and cruel son longing and gaping after the inheritance of his father, which nothing but his life kept him from, wrought this means to accomplish his desire: he accused his father of a most filthy unnameable crime, even of committing filthiness with a Cow; knowing that if he were convicted thereof, the law would cut off his life: & herein he wrought a Theat. hist. double villainy, in going about not only to take away his life (which by the law of nature he ought to have preserved) but also his good name, without respecting that the stain of a father redoundeth to his posterity, and that children Mandate. 8. Calumniation lib. 2. cap. commonly do not only inherit the possessions, but also imitate the conditions of their parents: but all these supposes laid aside, together with▪ all fear of God, he indicted him before the Magistrate, of incest, and that upon his own knowledge: insomuch that they brought the poor innocent man to the rack, to the end to make him confess the crime; which albeit amidst his tortures he did, as soon as he was out, he denied again: howbeit his extorted confession stood for evidence, and he was condemned to be burned with fire, as was speedily executed, and constantly endured by him, exclaiming still upon the false accusation of his son, and his own unspotted innocency; as, by the issue that followed, most clearly appeared; for his son not long after fell into a reprobate mind, and hanged himself: and the Judge that condemned him, with the witnesses that bare record of his forced confession, within one month died all, after a most wretched▪ and miserable sort. And thus it pleased God both to revenge his death, and also to quit his reputation and innocency, from ignominy and discredit in this world. Manfred Prince of Tarentum, bastard son to Frederick the second, smothered Philip. Melan. Chron. lib. 4. No better fruit to be expected of any bastard imp. his father to death with a pillow, because (as some say) he would not bestow the kingdom of Naples upon him: and not content herewith, he poisoned also the heirs of Frederick, to the end he might attain unto the crown, as Conrade his elder brother, and his nephew the son of Henry the heir, which Henry died in prison; and now only Conradinus remained betwixt him and the kingdom, whom though he assayed to send after his father, yet was his intention frustrate, for the Pope thundered out his curses against him, and instigated Charles Duke of Angiers to make war against him: wherein bastard and unnatural Manfred was discomfited and slain, and cut short of his purpose, for which he had committed so many tragedies. Martin Luther was wont to report of his own experience this wonderful history of a Locksmith, a young man, riotous and vicious, who to find fuel for Luther. his luxury, was so bewitched that he feared not to slay his own father & mother with a hammer, to the end to gain their money and possessions: after which cruel deed, he presently went to a shoemaker and bought him new shoes, leaving his old behind him, by the providence of God to be his accusers: for after an hour or two the slain bodies being found by the Magistrate, and inquisition made for the murderer, no manner of suspicion being had of him, he seeming to take such grief thereat. But the Lord that knoweth the secrets of the heart discovered his hypocrisy, and made his own shoes which he had left with the Shoemaker rise up to bear witness against him: for the blood which ran from his father's wounds besprinkled them so, that thereof grew the suspicion, and from thence the examination, and very soon the confession, and last of all his worthy and lawful execution. From hence we may learn for a general truth, that murder, never so secret, will ever by one means or other be discovered; the Lord will not suffer it to go unpunished, so abominable it is in his sight. Another son at Basil, in the year of our Lord God, 1560, bought a quantity of poison of an Apothecary, and ministered it to none but to his own father, Casp. Headsman 4. part. Chron. accounting him worthiest of so great a benefit: which when it had effected his wish upon him, the crime being detected, in stead of possessing his goods which he aimed at, he possessed a vile and shameful death; for he was drawn through the streets, burnt with hot Irons, and tormented nine hours in a wheel, till his life forsook him. As it is repugnant to nature for children to deal thus cruelly with their parents, so it is more against nature for parents to murder their children: insomuch as natural affection is of greater force in the descent than in the ascent, & the love that parents bear their children, is greater than that which children redound to their Parents; because the child proceedeth from the father, and not the father from the child, as part of his father's essence, and not the father of his: Can a man then hate his own flesh, or be a rooter out of that which himself planted? It is rare, yet sometimes it cometh to pass. Howbeit as the offence is in an high degree, so it is always punished by some high judgement: as by these examples that follow shall appear. The ancient Ammonites had an Idol called Moloch to the which they offered their children in sacrifice: this Idol, (as the Jews write) was of a great stature, and hollow within, having seven chambers in his hollowness, whereof one was to receive meat, another turtle Doves, the third a sheep, the fourth a ram, the fifth a calf, the sixth an ox, and the seventh a child: his hands were always extended to receive gifts; and when a child was offered, they were made fire hot to burn it to death: none must offer the child but the father: and to drown the cries of it, the Chemarims (for so were the Priests of that Idol called) made a noise with bells, cymbals and horns: thus is it written, that king Ahab offered his son, yea, and many of the children of Israel beside, as the Prophet David affirmeth: They offered (saith he) their Psal. 106. 37, 38. sons and daughters to Devils, and shed innocent blood, etc. this is the horrible crime. Now mark the judgement concerning the Canaanites: the landspued them out for their abominations, Achab with his posterity was accursed, himself being slain by his enemies, and the crown taken from his posterity, not one being left of his offspring to pis against the wall, according to the saying of Elias: as for the Jews, the Prophet David in the same place declareth their punishment, when he saith, That the wrath of the Lord was Verse 40. kindled, and he abhorred his inheritance, and gave them into the hands of the heathen, that they that hated them were lords over them. In the year of our Lord 1551, in a town of Hassia called Weidenhasten, job Fincelius, lib. 1. de Mirac. The twentieth day of November, a cruel mother inspired with Satan, shut up all her doors, and began to murder her four children on this manner: she snatched up ā sharp axe, and first set upon her eldest son, being but eight years old, searching him out with a candle behind a hogshead, where he hid himself, and presently (notwithstanding his pitiful prayers and complaints) clavae his head in two pieces, and chopped off both his arms: Next she killed her daughter of five years old, after the same manner: another little boy of three years of age (seeing his mother's madness) hid himself (poor infant) behind the gate, whom as soon as the Tiger espied, she drew out by the hair of the head into the floor, and there cut off his head: the youngest lay crying in the cradle but half a year old, him she (without all compassion) plucked out and murdered in like sort. These murders being finished, the Devil incarnate (for certain no womanly nature was left in her) to take punishment of herself for the same, cut her own throat; and albeit she survived nine days, and confessing her fault, died with tears and repentance, yet we see how it pleased God to arm her own hands against herself, as the fittest executioners of vengeance. The like tragical accident we read to have happened at Cutzenborff, a Theat. hist. City in Silesia, in the year 1536, to a woman and her three children; who having slain them all in her husband's absence, killed herself in like manner also to make up the tragedy. Concerning stepmothers, it is a world to read how many horrible murders they have usually practised upon their children in law, to the end to bring the inheritance to their own brood, or at least to revenge some injury supposed to be done unto them: of which, one or two examples I will subnect as a taste out of many hundred, leaving the residue to the judgement and reading of the Learned. Constantius, the son of Heraclius, having reigned Emperor but one year, Zonor as come. 5. was poisoned by his stepmother Martina, to the end to install her own son Heraclon in the Crown: but for this cruel part becoming odious, to the Senate, they so much hated to have her or her son reign over them, that in stead thereof they cut off her tongue and his nose, and so banished them the City. Fausta the wife of Constantine the great fell in love with Constantine her son in Law, begotten upon a Concubine: whom when she could not Zonor as 3. Annl. Sex. Aur. persuade unto her lust, she accused unto the Emperor, as a solicitor of her chastity; for which cause he was condemned to die: but after the truth known, Constantine put her into a hot bath, and suffered her not to come forth, until the heat had choked her, revenging upon her head her son's death, and her own unchastity. CHAP. XIIII. Of Subject Murderers. SEeing then they that take away their neighbour's lives do not escape unpunished, (as by the former examples it appeareth) it must needs follow, that if they to whom the sword of Justice is committed of God, to repress wrongs, and chastise vices, do give over themselves to cruelties, and to kill and slay those whom they ought in duty to protect and defend, must receive a greater measure of punishment, according to the measure and quality of their offence. Such an one was Saul the first king of Israel; who albeit he ought to have been sufficiently instructed out of the law of God in his duty in this behalf: yet was he so cruel and bloody-minded, as contrary to all Justice, to put to death Abimelech the high Priest, with fourscore and five other Priests, of the family of his father, only for receiving David into his house: a small, or rather no offence. And yet not satisfied therewith, he vomited out his rage also against 1 Sam. 22. the whole city of the Priests, and put to the merciless sword both man, woman, and child, without sparing any. He slew many of the Gibeonites, who though they were relics of the Amorites that first inhabited that land, yet because they were received into league of amity by a solemn oath, and permitted of long continuance to dwell amongst them, should not have been awarded as enemies, nor handled after so cruel a fashion. Thus therefore he tyrannising and playing the Butcher amongst his own subjects (for which cause his house was called the house of slaughter) and practising many other foul enormities, he was at the last overcome of the Philistims, and sore wounded: which when he saw, fearing to fall alive into his enemy's hands, and not finding any of his own men that would lay their hands upon him, desperately slew himself. The same day three of his sons, and they that followed him of his own household, were all slain. The Philistims the next day finding his dead body despoiled among the carcases, beheaded it, and carried the head in triumph to the temple of their god, and hung up the trunk in disgrace in one of their Cities, to be seen, looked upon, and pointed at. And yet for all this was not the fire of God's wrath quenched: for in King David's time there arose a famine that lasted three years, the cause thereof was declared by God to be the murder which Saul committed upon the Gibeonites: wherefore David delivered Saul's seven 2 Sam. 21. sons into the Gibeonites hands that were left, who put them to the most shameful death, that is, even to hanging. Amongst all the sins of King Achab 1 Kings 21. and jezabel, which were many and great, the murder of Naboth standeth in the fore front; for though he had committed no such crime as might any way deserve death, yet by the subtle and wicked devise of jezabel, foolish and credulous consent of Achab, and false accusation of the two suborned witnesses, he was cruelly stoned to death: but his innocent blood was punished first in Achab, who not long after the War which he made with the King of Syria, received so deadly a wound, that he died thereof, the dogs licking up his blood in the same place where Naboths blood was licked, according to the foretelling of Elias the Prophet. And secondly of jezabel, whom her own servants at the commandment of jehu (whom 2 Kings 9 God had made executor of his wrath) threw headlong out of an highwindow unto the ground, so that the walls were died with her blood, and the horses trampled her under their feet, and dogs devoured her flesh, till of all her dainty body there remained nothing saving only her skull, feet, and palm of her hands. joram son of jehosaphat King of Judah, being after his father's death 2 Chron. 21. possessed of the Crown and Sceptre of Judah, by and by exalted himself in tyranny, and put to death six of his own brethren, all younger than himself, with many Princes of the Realm: for which cause God stirred up the Edomites to rebel, the Philistines and Arabians to make war against him, who foraged his country, sacked and spoiled his cities, and took prisoners his wives and children, the youngest only excepted, who afterwards also was murdered, when he had reigned King but a small space. And lastly, as in doing to death his own brethren, he committed cruelty against his own bowels, so the Lord struck him with such an incurable disease in his bowels, and so perpetual (for it continued two years) that his very entrails issued out with torment, and so he died in horrible misery. Albeit that in the former book we have already touched the pride and arrogancy of King Alexander the Great; yet we cannot pretermit to speak of him in this place, his example serving to fit for the present subject; for although as touching the rest of his life he was very well governed in his private actions, as a Monarch of his reputation might be, yet in his declining age (I mean not in years, but to deathward) he grew exceeding cruel, not only towards strangers, as the Cosseis, whom he destroyed to the sucking babe, but also to his household and familiar friends: Insomuch that being become odious to most, fewest loved him, and divers wrought all means possible to make him away, but one especially, whose son in law and other near friends he had put to death, never ceased until he both ministered a deadly draught unto himself, whereby he deprived him of his Iustin●. wicked life, and a fatal stroke to his wives and children after his death, to the accomplishment of his full revenge. Phalaris, the Tyrant of Agrigentum, made himself famous to posterity by no other means than horrible cruelties, exercised upon his subjects, inventing Orose. every day new kinds of tortures to scourge and afflict the poor souls withal. In his dominion there was one Perillus artificer of his craft, one expert in his occupation, who to flatter and curry favour with him, devised a new torment, a brazen bull of such a strange workmanship, that the voice of those that were roasted therein, resembled rather the roaring of a Bull, than the cry of men. The Tyrant was well pleased with the Invention, but he would needs have the Inventor make first trial of his own work, as he well deserved, before any other should take taste thereof. But what was the end of this Tyrant? The people not able any longer to endure his Cic, Off. 2. monstrous and unnatural cruelties, ran upon him with one consent, with such violence, that they soon brought him to destruction: and as some say, put him into the brazen Bull (which he provided to roast others) to be roasted therein himself: deserving it as well for approving the devise, as Perillus did for devising it. Edward the second of that name, King of England, at the request and desire Enguerran de Monstr. Vol. 1. of Hugh Spencer his darling, made war upon his subjects, and put to death divers of the Peers and Lords of the Realm, without either right or form of the law, insomuch that queen Isabel his wife fled to France with her young son, for fear of his unbrideled fury, & after a while finding opportunity and means to return again, guarded with certain small forces which she had in those countries gathered together, she found the whole people discontented with the King's demeanours, and ready to assist her against him: so she besieged him with their succour, and took him prisoner, and put him into the Tower of London to be kept, till order might be taken for his deposition; so that shortly after by the Estates (being assembled together) he was generally and jointly reputed and pronounced unworthy to be King, for his exceeding cruelties sake which he had committed upon many of his worthy Subjects; and so deposing him, they crowned his young son Edward (the third of his name) King in his room, he yet living and beholding the same. john Maria Duke of Milan may be put into this rank of Murderers: Paul. jovius. for his custom was divers times when any Citizen offended t'him, yea, and sometimes without offence too, to throw them amongst cruel Mastiffs to be torn in pieces and devoured. But as he continued and delighted in this unnatural kind of murder, the people one day incensed and stirred up against him, ran upon him with such rage and violence, that they quickly deprived him of life. And he was so well beloved, that no man ever would or durst bestow a Sepulchre upon his dead bones, but suffered his body to lie in the open streets uncovered, save that a certain harlot threw a few Roses upon his wounds, and so covered him. Alphonsus the second, King of Naples, Ferdinand's son, was in tyranny towards his subjects nothing inferior to his father: for whether of them Sabell. Guicciar. li. 1. Philip. de Com. Bemb. Histor. Vent. lib. 2. imprisoned and put to death more of the Nobility and Barons of the Realm it is hard to say; but sure it is, that both were too outrageous in all manner of cruelty: for which, so soon as Charles the eight, King of France departing from Rome, made towards Naples, the hatred which the people bore him secretly, with the odious remembrance of his father's cruelty, began openly to show itself by the fruits; for they did not nor could not dissemble the great desire that every one had of the approach of the Frenchmen: which when Alphonsus perceived, and seeing his affairs and estate brought unto so narrow a pinch, he also cowardly cast away all courage to resist, and hope to recover so huge a tempest: and he that for a long time had made war his trade and profession, and had yet all his forces and armies complete and in readiness, making himself bankrupt of all that honour and reputation, which by long experience and deeds of arms he had gotten, resolved to abandon his kingdom, and to resign the title and authority thereof to his son Ferdinand, thinking by that means to assuage the heat of their hatred, and that so young and innocent a King, who in his own person had never offended them, might be accepted and beloved of them, and so their affection toward the French rebated and cooled. But this devise seemed to no more purpose than a salve applied to a sore out of season, when it was grown incurable, or a prop set to a house that is already fall'n. Therefore he tormented with the sting of his own conscience, and finding in his mind no repose by day, nor rest by night, but a continual summons and advertisement by fearful dreams, that the Noblemen which he had put to death, cried to the people for revenge against him, was surprised with so terrible terror, that forthwith, without making acquainted with his departure either his brother or his own son, he fled to Sicily, supposing in his journey, that the Frenchmen were still at his back, and starting at every little noise, as if he feared all the Elements had conspired his destruction. Philip Comineus, that was an eyewitness of this journey, reporteth, That every night he would cry, that he heard the Frenchmen, and that the very trees and stones echoed France into his ears: And on this manner was his flight to Sicily. King Charles in the mean while having by force and bloodshed to terrify the rest, taken two passages that were before him, the whole Realm without any great resistance yielded itself unto his mercy, albeit that the young King had done what he could to withstand him. But at length seeing the Neapolitans ready to rebel, and himself in danger to be taken prisoner, he fled from the Castle of Naples, and with a small company got certain Brigandines, wherein he sailed to the Island Ischia, thirty miles from Naples: saying at his departure this verse out of the Psalms, How vain are the watchmen and guards of that City which is not guarded and watched by the Lord? which he often repeated, and so long as Naples was in his view. And thus was cruelty punished both in Ferdinand the father, and Alphonso the son. Artaxerxes Ochus the eight King of the Persians began his reign with thus many murders: he slew two of his own brethren first: secondly, Herodot. Euagoras' King of Cyprus, his partner and associate in the kingdom; thirdly, he took Gidon traitorously, and was the cause of forty thousand men's deaths that were slain and burned therein; beside many other private murders and outrages which he committed: for which cause the Lord in his justice reigned down vengeance upon his head: for Bagoas one of his Princes ministered such a fatal cup to his stomach, that it mortified his senses, and deprived him of his unmerciful soul and life, and not only upon his head, but upon his Kingdom and his son Arsame also, for he was also poisoned by the same Bagoas, and his Kingdom was translated to Darius' Prince of Armenia; whom when the same Bagoas went about to make taste of the same cup, which his predecessors did, he was taken in his own snare; for Darius understanding his pretence, made him drink up his own poison which he provided for him: and thus murder was revenged with murder, and poison with poison, according to the Decree of the Almighty, who saith, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc. Exod. 22. 24. In the year of the World 3659. Morindus a most cruel and bloody Stow. minded Prince reigned here in England, who for his cruelties sake came to an unhappy and bloody end: for out of the Irish seas came forth a Monster which destroyed much people: whereof he hearing, would of his valiant courage needs fight with it, and was devoured of it: so that it may truly here be said, that one Monster devoured another. There was (as Aelianus reporteth) a cruel and pernicious Tyrant, who Aelianus. to the end to prevent all practices of conspiracy and treason (as Tyrant's are ever naturally and upon desert timorous) that might be devised against him, enacted this Law among his subjects, That no man should confer with another, either privately or publicly, upon pain of death: and so indeed he abrogated all civil society: (For speech, as it was the beginning and birth of fellowship, so it is the very joint and glue thereof) but what cared he for society, that respected nothing but his own safety? he was so far from regarding the common good, that when his subjects, not daring to speak, signified their minds by signs, he prohibited that also: and that which is yet more, when not daring to speak, or yet make signs, they fell to weeping and lamenting their misery, he came with a band of men even to restrain their tears too: but the multitudes rage being justly incensed, they gave him such a desperate welcome, that neither he nor his followers returned one of them alive. And thus his abominable cruelty came to an end, together with his life; and that by those means (which is to be observed) by which he thought to preserve and maintain them both. Childericus, who in the year 697, succeeded in the Kingdom of France Michael. Ric. lib. 1. de regibus Franc. l. 2. c. 46. Theodoricke (that for his negligence and sluggish government was deposed, and made of a King, a Friar) exercised barbarous and inhuman cruelty upon his subjects: for he spared neither noble or ignoble, but mixedly sent them to their graves, without respect of cause or justice. One of the noble sort he caused to be fastened to a stake, and beaten with clubs, not to death, but to chastisement: which monstrous cruelty so incensed the people's mind against him, that there wanted no hands to take part with this club-beaten man against the Tyrant his enemy. Wherefore they laid wait for him as he came one day from hunting, and murdered him, together with his wife great with child, no man either willing or daring to defend him. Tymocrates the King, or rather Tyrant of the Cyrenians, will give place to none in this commendation of cruelty: For he afflicted his subjects with many and monstrous calamities, insomuch that he spared not the priests of his gods, which commonly were in reverend regard among the Heathen; As the bloody death of Menalippus (Apollo's priest) did witness, whom to the end to marry his fair and beautiful wife Aretaphila, he cruelly put to death: how beit, it prospered not with him as he desired: for the good woman not contented with this sacrilegious contract, sought rather means to revenge her first husband's death, than to please this new lecher's humour: Wherefore she assayed by poison to effect her wish; and when that prevailed not, she gave a young daughter she had to Leander, the Tyrant's brother, to wife, who loved her exceedingly; but with this condition, that he should by some practice or other work the death and destruction of his brother: which indeed he performed; for he so bribed one of the grooms of the Tyrant's chamber, that by his help he soon rid wicked Tymocrates out of the way by a speedy and deserved death. But to abridge these long discourses, let us look into all times and ages, and to the histories of all Countries and Nations, and we shall find, that Tyrant's have ever come to one destruction or other. Diomedes the Thracian King fed his horses with man's flesh as with provender, but was made at last provender for his own horses himself by Plut. in Dion. Hercules. Calippus the Athenian, that slew Dion his familiar friend, and deposed Dionysius the Tyrant, and committed many other murders amongst the people, was first banished Rheginum, and then living in extreme necessity, slain by Leptines and Polysperchon. Phil. Melanct. lib. 2. Valemar. Clephes' the second King of the Lumbards', for his savage cruelty towards his subjects was slaughtered by one of his friends. Damasippus that massacred so many Citizens of Rome, was cut off by Scylla. Ecelinus that played the Tyrant at Taurisium, gelding Boys, deflowering Maids, maiming Matrons of their Dugs, cutting children out of their mother's bellies, and killing 1200 Patavians at once that were his friends, was cut short in a battle. In a Word, if we read and consult Histories of all Sabel. l. 8. c. 3. Countries and times, we shall find seldom or never any notorious Tyrant and oppressor of his subjects that came to any good end, but ever some notable judgement or other fell upon them. CHAP. XV. Of those that are both cruel and disloyal. NOw if it be a thing so unworthy and evil beseeming a Prince, as nothing more, to be stained with the note of cruelty, how much more dishonourable is it, when with cruelty, disloyalty and falsehood is coupled? and when he is not ashamed not only to play the Tyrant, but also the traitor, dissembler, and hypocrite; to the end he may more freely pour out the ●ome of his rage against those that put confidence in him. This is one of the foulest and vilest blots that can be, wherewith the honour and reputation of a man is not only stained, but blasted and blotted out, not ever to be recovered: for what persuasion can one have of such? Or who is so fond as to put affiance in them? This was one of the notorious vices of King Saul, when maligning the prosperity of David, he cunningly promoted him to be General of his Army, and married him to one of his daughters, to this end, that by exposing 2 Sam. 18. him to the hazards & perils of war, he might bring him to speedy destruction; seeking besides other unlawful means to put him to death by▪ but what was the end of this unjust murderer, we have declared in the former Chapter. But above all that by treason and deceit made way unto their cruelty, the Emperor Antonius, surnamed Caracalla, was the chief▪ who to revenge Herodian. himself more at full upon the Citizens of Alexandria in Egypt, feigned as if he would come see their City, built by Alexander, and receive an Oracle from their god: Which when he approached near unto, the Alexandrians prepared to entertain him most honourably: and being entered, he went first to visit their Temples where to cast more colours upon his treachery, he offered many sacrifices, & in the mean while perceiving the people gathered together from all quarters to bid him welcome, finding opportunity fitting his wicked and traitorous enterprise, he gave commandment, that all the young men of the City should assemble together at one place; saying, That he would acquaint them to range themselves in battle after the manner of the Macedonians, in honour of King Alexander. But whilst they thus assembled together in mirth and bravery, he making as though he would bring them in array by going up and down amongst them, and holding them in talk, his army enclosed them on all sides: then with drawing himself with Kiss guard, he gave the watchword, that they should rush upon them; which was performed with such outrage, that the poor credulous people being surprised at unawares, were all most cruelly massacred. There might you see the most horrible, barbarous, and incredible butchery of men that ever was heard of: for besides those that were actors in this bloody tragedy, there were others that drew the slain bodies into great ditches, and very often haled in them that were scarce dead, yea and sometimes that were altogether alive; which was the cause that divers soldiers perished at the same time, when those that having some strength of life left, being haled to the ditch, held so fast by the halers, that divers times both fell in together. The blood that was shed at this massacre was so much, that the mouth of the River Nilus, and the sea shore were died with the streams thereof, that ran down by smaller Rivers into those plain places. Furthermore, being desirous to obtain a victory over the Parthians, that he might get himself fame and reputation thereby, he passed not at what rate he bought it: he sent therefore Ambassadors with Letters and Presents to the King of Parthia, to demand his daughter in marriage, though he never intended any such thing, and being nonsuited at the first with a denial, yet pursued he his counterfeit purpose with much earnestness, and with solemn Oath protested his singular good affection and love that he bore unto her; so that in the end the match was condescended unto by all parties, whereof the Parthian people were not a little glad, in hope of so durable a peace, which by this marriage was like to be established betwixt them. The King therefore with all his subjects being ready to entertain this new Bridegroom, went out with one consent to meet him in the midway: their encounter was in a fair plain, where the Parthians having sent back their horses, being unarmed, and prepared, not for a day of battle, but of marriage and disport, gave him the most honourable welcome they could: but the wicked varlet finding opportunity so fit, set his armed soldiers upon the naked multitude, and hewed in pieces the most part of them; and had not the King with a few followers bestirred him well, he had been served with the like sauce. After which worthy exploit and bloody stratagem he took his voyage Treason, lib 2. cap 3 backward, burning and spoiling the towns and villages as he went, till he arrived at Charam, a City in Mesopotamia; where making his abode a while, he had a fancy to walk one day into the fields, and going apart from his company to unburden nature, attended upon by one only servant, as he was putting down his breeches, another of his company ran in and struck him through with his dagger. Thus God blessed the World, by taking out of it this wicked Tyrant, who by treason and treachery had spilt so much innocent blood. Seturus Galba, another bird of the same feather, exercised no less perfidious cruelty upon the people of three Cities in Lusitania: for he assembled them together, in colour of providing for their common affairs: but when he had gotten them into his hands unarmed and weaponless, he took nine thousand of the flower of their youth, and partly committed them to the sword, and partly sold them for bondslaves. The disloyal and treacherous dealing of Stilico towards the Goths, jornand. Paul. demil. how dear it cost him and all Italy beside, Histories do sufficiently testify: for it fell out, that the Goths (under the conduct of Allaricus) entered Italy with a puissant and fearful Army, to know the cause why the Emperor Honorius withheld the pension which (by virtue of a league, and in recompense of their aid to the Empire in time of war) was due unto them: which by riper judgement and deliberation of the Council was quieted; and to preserve their Country from so imminent a tempest, offer was made unto them of the Spaniards and Frenchmen, if they could recover Treason, lib. 2 cap. 3. them out of the hands of the Vandals; which usurped over them; so that incontinently they should take their journey over the Alps towards them, and depart their Coasts. Which offer and gift the Goths accepting, did accordingly fulfil the condition, and passed away, without commiting any riot or any damages in their passages. But as they were upon mount Cinis, making toward France, behold Stilico, Honorius his father in law (a man of a stirring, stubborn, and rash spirit) pursueth and chargeth them with battle unawares, and dreaming of nothing less: whereat they, being at the instant amazed, quickly gathered their spirits together, and putting themselves in defence, fought it out with such courage and eagerness, that the traitor's Army was wholly discomfited, and he himself with one of his sons, slain. The Goths having gotten this victory, broke off their voyage to France, and turned their course back again to Italy, with purpose to destroy and spoil; and so they did; for they laid waste all the Country of Piedmont and Lombary, and elsewhere, and besieged Rome itself: so that from that time Italy never ceased to be scourged and tormented with the Goths for the space of eighteen years. Moreover, whosoever else have been found to follow the steps of these truce, peace, and promise-breakers (void of truth and regard of reputation) always underwent worthy punishment for their unworthy acts, and fell headlong into confusion and ignominy, making themselves subjects worthy to be cursed and detested of all men. CHAP. XVI. Of Queens that were Murderers. IF these and such like cruelties as we have spoken before, be strange and monstrous for men, what shall we then say of wicked and bloody women, who (contrary to the nature of their sex) addict themselves to all violence and bloodshedding, as cursed jezabel Queen of Israel did; of whom sufficient hath been spoken before. Athaliah, ahab's daughter, and wife to joram King 2 Kings 11. of Judah, was a bird of the same feather: for she was possessed with such a spirit of fury and rage, that after the death of her son Ochosias (that died without issue) she put to death all the blood royal, to wit, the posterity of Nathan, Solomon's brother, to whom by right of succession the inheritance of the Crown appertained, to the end that she might install herself into the kingly diadem: after this cruel butchery of all the royal male children, except joas, who (by God's providence) was preserved alive, she usurped the Crown and Sceptre of Juda full seven years; at the end of which date, joas was exalted to the Crown, and she not only deposed, but slain by the hands of her Guard that attended upon her. Semiramis the Queen of Assyria was a woman of an ambitious spirit, who through her thirst of reigning counterfeited her sex, and attired her Sabellic. self like a man to get more authority and reverence to herself. She was the destruction of many thousand people, by the unjust war which she stirred up; besides that, she was a notorious strumpet, and withal a murderer of those that satisfied her lust; for still as they came from her bed, some lay privily in watch to kill them, lest they should bewray her villainy: it is reported, that she was so shameless, that she solicited her own son to commit incest with her; who in detestation of her filthiness and cruelty raised a power against her, and conquering her in one great battle, caused her most deservedly to be put to death. Brunchild (whom Histories call Brunhault) a Queen of France by marriage, Aimon. Nic. Gil. vol. 1. but a Spaniard by birth, was a woman that bred much mischief in her age, and that wrought many horrible and death-deserving crimes: for partly with her subtle devices, and partly with her own hands, she murdered ten Kings of France one after another: she caused her husband to slay his own brother: she procured the death of her nephew Meroveus, whom against all equity and honesty she had secondly espoused for her husband; for he being hated of his father for that vile incest, and perceiving himself in danger of taking, made one of servants thrust him through. After she had committed these and many other foul facts, she went aboutalso to defraud Clotairius the son of Chilpericke, of the right of the Crown, which pertained unto him, and to thrust in another in his room: whereupon arose great war, in the which as she dealt more boldly and manfully than the condition of her sex would bear, so she received the due wages of her brave and virtuous deeds for she was taken prisoner, with three of her nephews, whose throats she saw cut before her face, and after herself was set upon a Camel, and led through the host three days together, every man reviling, mocking, reproaching, and despighting her; and at last by the award and judgement of the Princes and Captains of the Army she was adjudged to be tied by the hair of her head, one arm and one foot to the tail of a wild and un●●med horse, and so to be left to his mercy to be drawn miserably to her destruction: which was no sooner executed, but her miserable carcase (the instrument of so many mischiefs) was with men's feet spurned, bruised, trampled, and wounded after a most strange fashion: and this was the woeful end of miserable Brunchild. Edilburga, the daughter of Offa King of Mercia, in England, who was married to Brigthricus King of the West Saxons, was a woman so passing Malmesbur. all the bounds of humanity, and so given to cruelty and other beastly conditions, that she first poisoned divers of the Nobles of the Kingdom: and then having practised this wickedness upon them, she at length poisoned also the King her husband: for which cause flying over into France unto Charles the Great for fear of punishment among her own people, when by reason of her beauty it was offered unto her, that she should marry either with the King himself or with his son; because she chose the son before the father, married neither the one nor yet the other, but was thrust into a Monastery, where she not forgetting her old trade, playing the harlot with a Monk, was expulsed from thence, and ended her life in great penury and misery. About the same time that this Edilburga was thus working her feats in Acts and Monuments. England, Irene, another most idolatrous and cruel minded woman, being Empress of the greeks, was as busy for her part at Constantinople. This wicked woman, through the means of Pope Adrian, took up the body of Constantine Emperor of Constantinople, her own husband's father; and when she had burned the same, she caused the ashes to be cast into the sea, because he disannulled images. Afterward reigning with her son Constantine the sixth, son to Leo the fourth, and being at dissension with him for disallowing the worshipping of images, caused him to be taken and laid in prison: who afterward, through power of friends, being restored to his Empire again, at last she caused the same her own son to be cast in prison, and his eyes to be put out so cruelly, that within short space he died. After this, the said Empress as it were triumphing in her cruelty and idolatry, caused a Council to be held at Nice, where it was decreed, That images should again be restored to the Church▪ but this Council was after repealed by another Council holden at Frankford by Charles the Great: and at length this wicked woman was deposed by Nicephorus (who reigned after) and was expulsed the Empire, and after the example of Edilburga above mentioned (being condignly punished for her wickedness) ended her life in much penury and misery. Alexius Emperor of the greeks dying, left behind him a wicked Sabel. lib. 7. Decad. 1. and cruel woman, his late wife now widow. this widow being exhorted by the Peers of the Empire to a second marriage, and to that end choice being offered unto her of all the Nobility, to choose whom she should best affect, notwithstanding refused all: for she was so linked in familiarity with one of her own household called Grifo (who afterward when he came to be Emperor called himself Emanuel) that for his love she refused all other matches: with this Grifo this wicked woman entereth a secret and bloody practice: she consulted with him, that he should bring into the Court a number of his servants secretly armed; which coming in at divers times, and by divers ways, to avoid suspicion, she disposed in the house in secret places, to be ready at her call to execute her bloody designment. This being thus plotted, she called together the Peers of the Empire, and demanded of them, if they were content that she should choose to her husband whom she pleased, and that they would acknowledge him for their Emperor whom she should choose; when as the Noblemen hereunto consented, supposing that she would have chosen one fitting for her estate, she presently saluted this Grifo, her old adulterous companion, for her husband and Emperor, and commanded them all to swear fealty unto him; which when as they all utterly refused and disdained, the wicked woman forthwith called the bloody troop prepared for that purpose, and caused them all to be murdered, not one escaping alive. Thus to satisfy her wicked lust, she spared not to spill the blood of the most part of her Nobility after a most savage and cruel manner: and indeed she enjoyed her desire, but behold the issue of it: from this time forward the race of Constantine ceased to sit in the Imperial throne, and no doubt but God's vengeance also fell upon her and her wicked husband. In the year of our Lord 700. Gracus the famous King of Poland being Herbutus. Hist. Polon. lib. 1. cap. 6. deceased, the Crown and Government descended upon his only daughter Venda, by full consent of the whole Realm. This Venda being of a proud and stately nature, refused to be joined in marriage with any; saying, That she had rather be a Prince herself, and governed by her own power, than the wife of the greatest Prince in the World. Among many that were suitors unto her, there was one Ritigerus, a noble and mighty Prince of the Theutons; whose suit being not only denied, but scornfully rejected, and he notwithstanding greatly inflamed with her love, went about to enforce her by strength to his will: but she as valiant as he, raised a great power to withstand his violence: when the matter was ready to come to deciding by blows, Ritigerus his army perceiving the resolution of Queen Venda, and the danger and loss which was like to arise to them, and that upon so slight an occasion, refused to fight: so that Ritigerus being thus forsaken, for grief and shame slew himself: and Queen Venda returning to Cracovia, and there sacrificing to her gods for her good success; at last, lest her successful government should be stained with some disastrous misfortune, and so her pride abated, to prevent this fear, desperately threw herself from an high bridge into the River Vistula, and there ended her glorious and proud days with a shameful and ignominious death. Let every one both great and small learn by these examples to contain themselves within the limits of humanity, and not be so ready and prompt to the shedding of humane blood, knowing nothing to be more true than this, That he that smiteth with the sword, shall perish with the sword. CHAP. XVII. Of such, as without necessity, upon every light cause, move war. AS in Surgery, so in a Commonwealth we must account war as a last refuge, and as it were a desperate medicine, which without very urgent necessity, when all other means of maintaining our estate against the assaults of the enemy fail, ought not to be taken in hand: and indeed the chief scope and mark that all those that Cic. Off. lib. 1. lawfully undertake war, aught to propound to themselves, should be nothing else, but the good and quiet of the Commonwealth, with the peace and repose of every member thereof. And therefore so oft as any reasonable offers and conditions of peace are propounded, they ought to be accepted, to the end to avoid the mass of evils (as ruins, bloudsheds, robberies) which always accompany war as necessary attendants: for whosoever doth not so, but upon every light occasion runneth to Arms, and to try the hazard of battle, they manifest their own foolish and pernicious rashness, and their small conscience in shedding humane blood. Amongst the good Kings of Judah, josias for piety and zeal in the service of God, was most renowned: for he purged the Realm from all dross of idolatry, repaired the decayed Temple, and restored it to the first glory; and yet for all this for committing this one crime, he lost his life: for as Necho King of Egypt was passing with an Army toward the King of Babylon in Charcamis, beside Euphrates, to bid him battle, he would 2 Chron. 35. needs encounter him by the way, and interrupt his journey by unprovoked war; yea, though Necho had by embassage assured him not to meddle with him, but entreated only free passage at his hand: yet would not josias in any wise listen (so opinionative and self-willed was he) but gave him battle in the field, without any just cause, save his own pleasure, which turned to his pain: for he caught so many wounds at that skirmish, that shortly after he died of them, to the great grief of the whole people, and the Prophet jeremy also, that lamented his death. King john of France (for refusing reasonable conditions of peace at the English men's hands) was overthrown by them two miles from Poytiers, Froiss. vol. 1. Nic. G●l. 2. with a great overthrow: for the Englishmen in regard of their own small number, and the huge multitude of the French to encounter with them, timorously offered up a surrender of all that they had either conquered, taken, or spoiled, since their coming from Bourdeaux, and so to be sworn not to bear Arms against him for seven years, so that they might quietly depart. But the King, that crowed before the Conquest, affying too much in the multitude of his Forces, stopped his ears to all conditions, not willing to hear of any thing but war, war, even thinking to hew them in pieces, without one escaping: but it fell out otherwise, for the English men entrenching themselves in a place of advantage, and hard of access, enclosed with thick hedges and brambles, disturbed and overthrew with their Archers, at the first onset, the French Horsemen, and wounded most of their men and horses with multitude of arrows: it tarried not long ere the footmen also were put to flight on the other side, and the whole Army of threescore thousand men, by bare eight thousand English, discomfited: divers great Lords were found slain in the field, and divers others with the King himself carried Prisoners into England: which was a great shake to the whole Realm, and the occasion of many tumults and disorders that ensued afterwards. Moreover, as it is a rash part to hazard the doubtful event of battle indiscreetly, and without cause, so it is a point of no less folly to thrust one's self voluntarily into any action of war without charge, not being particularly called and bound thereunto, or having a body unsufficient and unfit for the same. And this was also one of the warlike points of Discipline which the ancient Romans used; That none should presume to fight for his Country, before he had been admitted by some Captain by a solemn Oath. Of all the Histories that I ever read, I know none more strange in matter of war, than this which I now go about to recite, of Henry of Luxenbourg, Froiss. vol. 1. cap▪ 130. Emperor of Germany, who when he heard that his son Charles King of Bohemia was in the French Army, and that Philip of Valois, King of France, was ready to give battle to the English, albeit he was blind, and consequently unfit for war, yet would needs take part with the French: and therefore commanded his men at Arms to guide him into the place where the Field was to be fought, that he might strike one blow. They as foolish as himself, not willing to cross his mind, and fearing to lose him in the press, tied him fast to the reins of their bridles, being by this means so coupled together, as if they meant all to perish together if need were, as indeed they did, for they were overcome in battle, and the next day found all dead, horse and men fast bound together. This accident befell at Crecy near Abrevile, in which journey the French King sustained an inestimable damage, for he lost fifteen of his chiefest Princes, fourscore Ensigns, twelve hundred Knights, and about thirty thousand men. In the year 1455. the Hungarians without any just cause or pretence, Theatr. Histor. made war upon the Emperor Otto, only moved with a desire of bringing under their subjection the German powers; and the rather at this time, because they supposed the Emperor's strength of war to be weakened, and his power of men lessened, by those continual troubles and wars which he had been daily occupied in: notwithstanding Otto, as by his former deeds of Arms, he deserved the surname of Great, so in this exploit especially, for he conscribed eight Legions of men out of Franconia, Bavaria, and Bohemia, and with that small valiant handful, overturned and destroyed the huge unchristened multitude of his enemies: for albeit the Bohemians being placed in the Rearward, were as suddenly and unexpectedly assaulted by the enemy, that craftily passed over the River Lycus to set upon them behind, as unhappily put to flight with the loss of the carriages and victuals, which they were set to protect; yet Otto with his other Legions renewing the battle, and encouraging his soldiers, gave the enemy such an encounter and repulse, that he put them to flight and slew them with a miserable slaughter: three of their Kings he took Prisoners, and few of that vast Army escaped with their lives. On the Emperor's side died many worthy men, among whom Conrade the Emperor's son in law, and Burghard Duke of Suevia were two, beside many other. In this successive battle, it is to be noted above the rest, how religiously the Emperor both began and finished it: the day before the Fight he enjoined a Fast in his Army, and directed his prayers to the Almighty, relying more upon the presence of God's help, than his own power: after the Conquest gotten, he caused solemn thanks to be given in all Churches to God, for the great deliverance. I would our modern Generals and Captains would learn by this example to follow his footsteps, and not to make their prayers quaffings, and their thanksgiving carousing, as they use to do, even as it were purposely to tempt the Lord, and to stir up his wrath against them. Penda King of middle England, making war upon Anna King of East Angles, slew him in open field: with which victory being puffed up by Lanq. Chron. pride, he sent defiance to Osway King of Northumberland also: who hearing of his approach proffered him great gifts, and fair conditions of peace, which when Penda obstinately refused, he was slain in battle with thirty of his most noble Captains, although he had thrice the number of people which Osway had. And thus the heathen and bloody Pagan ended his cruelty, and paid dear for his too much forwardness in war. CHAP. XVIII. Of such as please themselves overmuch in seeing Cruelties. THe Romans were so accustomed by long use of war to behold fightings and bloodshed, that in time of peace also they would make themselves sports and pastimes therewith: for they would compel poor captives and bondslaves either to kill one another by mutual blows, or to enter combat with savage and cruel beasts, to be torn in pieces by them. The first (according to Seneca) that devised and put in practice this unkindly Combat of Beasts and Malefactors, was Pompey, who provided an Army of Seneca. eighteen Elephants to fight with men, and thought it a notable and commendable spectacle to put men to death after this new and strange fashion. Oh how men's minds are blinded with over much prosperity! He esteemed himself at that time to be higher in dignity than all other, when he thus threw to wild beasts people of far Countries, and in the presence of the people caused so much blood to be shed: but not long after himself was betrayed by the treachery of the Alexandrians, and slain by a bondslave (a just quittance for murdering so many of that condition:) thus much of Seneca. Now it is manifest that this was an ordinary pastime among the Romans, albelt it is strange, that any pastime or pleasure could arise by seeing poor Creatures interchangeably strike one another to death, and humane blood to run like water along the streets. It was not then without cause, but by a special will of God to revenge cruelty, Flor. that the bondslaves (conducted by Spartacus the Fencer) rebelled against their masters in Rome, after they had broken through the guards of Lentulus his house, and issuing out of Capua, gathered together above ten thousand fight men, and encamped themselves in mount Vesuvius; where being besieged by Clod●us Glaber, they sallied so rudely and boisterously upon him, that the victory and spoil of their enemy's tents remained on their sides: after this they ran over all the Land, foraged the Country, and destroyed many Villages and Towns, but especially these four, Nola, Nocera, Terrenevae, and Metaponte, were by them sacked and spoiled with a strange and bloody overthrow: after all which, having encountered two Consuls, they overcame Lentulus on mount Apennine, and discomfited Gaiu● Cassius near Modene▪ all which victories and lucky proceedings did so embolden and puff up the courage of Captain Fencer, that he determined to give an alarm to Rome, and to lay siege unto it: but the Romans preparing and directing all their Forces to withstand their practices, gave him and his crew so sore a repulse, that from Rome they were fain to fly to the uttermost parts of Italy, and there seeing themselves penned in on all sides, and driven to deep extremity, they gave so desperate an onset on their enemies, that both their Captain and they were all slain. And thus the Romans made jolly pastime with their Fencers and bondslaves, and more (I think at this time) than they either looked or wished for: for four hundred of them being taken by the bondmen, were enforced to show them pastime at the same game whereat they had oftentimes made themselves merry at their costs; and to kill one another, as they had before Oros. l. 5. c. 24. time caused them to do. How curious and desirous the people of Rome was wont to be of beholding Corn. Tacit. Annal. l. 4. these bloody and mischievous games, Cornelius Tacitus in the fourth book of his Annals declareth at large: where he reporteth, That in the City of the Fidenates (in the twelfth year of the Reign of Tiberius) the people being gathered together to behold the Fencer's prizes were fifty thousand of them hurt and maimed at one time, by the Amphitheatre that fell upon them; a cruel pastime indeed, and a strange accident, not coming by adventure (as some suppose) but by the just vengeance of God, to suppress such pernicious and uncivil sports. The same story is registered by Paulus Orosius in his seventh book, with this adjection, That at that time were slain more than twenty thousand persons. I cannot pass over in silence two notable and memorable Histories of Senec. l. 1. de benefic. two Lions, recorded by two famous Authors, Seneca the one, and Aulu● Gellius the other. The first of whom reporteth, That he saw on the Theatre a Lion, who seeing a slave that sometimes had been his keeper, thrown among the beasts to be devoured, acknowledged him, and defended him from their teeth, and would not suffer any of them to do him hurt. The second bringeth the testimony of one Appianus, that affirmeth himself to Aul. Gel. N●ct. A. tic. l. 5. c. 14. have seen at Rome a Lion, who for old acquaintance sake which he had with a condemned servant, fawned upon him, and cleared him in like manner from the fury of the other beasts. The History was this: A certain bondslave too roughly handled by his master, forsook him, and fled away, and in his flight retiring into a desert, and not knowing how to bestow himself, took up a cave for his lodging, where he had not long abode, but a mighty Lion came halting to his den, with a sore and bloody leg: the poor slave all forgone at this strange and ugly sight, looked every minute to be devoured, but the Lion in another mood came fawningly and softly towards him, as if he would complain unto him of his grief: whereat (somewhat heartened) he bethought himself to apply some medicine to his would, and to bind up the sore as well as he could; which he had no sooner done, but the Lion made out for his prey, and ere▪ long returning, brought home to his Host and Chirurgeon certain gobbets of raw flesh, which he half roasting upon a rock by the Sunbeams, made his daily sustenance, for the time of his abode there: notwithstanding at length wearied with this old and savage life, and hating to abide long in that estate, he forsook the desert, and put himself again to adventure: now it chanced that he was taken by his old master, and carried from Egypt to Rome, to the end to be an actor in those beastly Tragoedies; but by chance his old patient the Lion (taken also since his departure, being ready amongst other beasts to play his part) knew him by and by, and ran unto him, fawning and making much of him: the people wondering at this strange accident, after enquiry made of the cause thereof, gave him the Lion, and caused him to lead him in a string through the City for a miracle: for indeed both this and the former deserve no other name. Thus God reproveth the savage inhumanity of men, by the example of the wild and furious beasts at whose teeth poor servants found more favour than at their master's hands. The Emperor Constamine weighing the indignity of these and such like pastimes, and knowing how far they ought to be banished from the society of men, by a public Edict abolished all such bloody and monstrous spectacles, In like manner these monomachies and single combats performed in places enclosed for the purpose, wherein one at the least, if not both, must of necessary die, aught to be abrogated in a Christian policy, as by the Lateran Council it was well enacted, with this penalty, That whosoever should in that manner be slain, his body should be deprived of Ecclesiastical burial: and truly most commonly it cometh to pass, that they that presume most upon their own prowess and strength, and are most forward in offering combat, either lose their lives, or gain discredit, which is more grievous than death. CHAP. XIX. Of such as exercise too much rigour and severity. FUrthermore we must understand, that God doth not only forbid murder and bloodshed, but also all tyranny and oppression; therein providing for the weak against the strong, the poor against the rich, and bondslaves against their masters: to the end that none might be trodden under foot, and oppressed of others, under pain of his indignation. Insomuch therefore as the Romans used such rigour towards their servants, it came to pass by a just judgement of God, that they being Lords over all the World, were three sundry times driven by their servants into great extremities. As first in Rome within the walls, at the sametime when they also were troubled with the seditious factions of their Tribunes. Secondly in Sicily, where they horribly laid waste the whole Country: the cause of which commotion was, because the Romans had chained a multitude of slaves together, and in that order sent them to ma●●ur and till the ground: for a certain Syrian first assembled two thousand men of them that came next hand, then breaking up the Prisons, multiplied his Army to forty thousand, and with them pulled down Castles, razed up Towns, and destroyed every where. The third undertaken by a Shepherd, who having killed his master, set at liberty all the bondmen, and prepared an Army of them, wherewith he spoilt Cities, Towns, Castles, and discomfited the Armies of Servilius and Lucullus who were praetors at that time: but at last they were destroyed and rooted out by little and little: and this good service got the Romans at their servants hands. As every Nation hath his proper virtue and vice ascribed to it, so the Spaniards for their part are noted famous for cruelty towards their subjects and vassals, insomuch that (as experience in many witnesseth) they are intolerable in that kind: for which cause they have bor●● the marks of God's Justice, for their rigorous and barbarous handling of the poor West Indians, whom they have brought to that extremity by putting them to such excessive travels in digging their mines of Gold (as namely in the island Hispagnola) that the most part by sighs and tears wish by death to end their miseries: many (first killing their children) have desperately Benzon. Milan. of the new world. hung themselves on high trees; some have thrown themselves headlong from steep mountains, and others cast themselves into the sea to be rid of their troubles; but the Tyrant's have never escaped scot-free, but came always to some miserable end or other: for some of them were destroyed by the inhabitants, others slew one another with their own hands, provoked by insatiable avarice: some have been drowned in the sea, and others starved in the Desert; in fine, few escaped unpunished. Bombadilla, one of the Governors of Hispagnola, after he had swayed there a while, and enriched himself by the sweat and charge of the inhabitants, was called home again into Spain: whitherward (according to the commandment received) as he embarked himself, shipping with him so much treasure as in value mounted to more than an hundred and fifty thousand ducats, beside many pieces and grains of Gold, which he carried to the Spanish Queen for a Present, whereof one weighed three thousand ducats, there arose such a horrible and outrageous tempest in the broad sea, and beat so violently against his ships, that four and twenty vessels were shivered in pieces, and drowned at that blow: there perished Bombadilla himself with most of his Captains, and more than five hundred Spaniards, that thought to return full rich into the Country, and became with all their treasures a prey unto the fishes. In the year of our Lord 1541. The eight day of September, there chanced in the City Guatimala (which lieth in the way from Nicaragna Westward) The same Author. a strange and admirable judgement. After the death of Alvarado, who subdued this province, and founded the City; and was but a little before slain in fight, it reigned so strangely and vehemently all this whole day and night, that of a sudden so huge a deluge and flood of waters overflowed the earth, streaming from the bottom of the mountains into the lower grounds, with such violence, that stones of incredible bigness were carried with it; which tumbling strongly downwards, bruised and burst in pieces whatsoever was in their way. In the mean while there was heard in the air fearful cries and voices, and a black Cow was seen running up and down in the midst of the water, that did much hurt. The first house that was Overthrown by this tempest, was dead Alvaradoes, wherein his widow (a very proud woman, that held the Government of the whole Province in her hand, and had before despited God for her husband's death) was slain with all her household, and in a moment the City was either drowned or subverted: there perished in this tempest of men and women sixscore persons: but they that at the beginning of the flood ●ted, saved their lives. The morrow after the waters were surceased, one might see the poor Spaniards lie along the fields, some maimed in their bodies, other with broken arms or legs, or otherwise miserably wounded. And thus did God revenge the monstrous Spanish cruelties exercised upon those poor people, whom instead of enticing by fair and gentle means to the knowledge of the true God and his Son Christ, they terrified by extraordinary tyranny (for such is the Spanish nature) making them think that Christians were the cruelest and most wicked men of the earth. In the year of our Lord 1514. happened the horrible sedition and butchery of the Croysadoes in Hungary: the story is this, There was a general discontent amongst the people, against the King and chiefest of the Realm, because they went not about to conquer those places again from joach. Curcu● in his Annals of Silesia. the Turk which he held in Hungary. Thereupon the Pope's Legate published Pardons for all those that would cross themselves to go to war against the Turk. Whereupon suddenly there gathered together a wonderful company of thiefs and robbers, from every corner of Hungary, who together with great multitudes of the common people that were oppressed by the insolency of the Nobility (creating themselves a General) committed a most horrible spoil almost over all Hungary; murdering all the Gentlemen and Bishops they could meet withal: the richest and those which were noblest descended, they empailed alive. This cruel rage continuing, at last the King raised Forces against them, and ere long they were defeated in a set battle, by john the son of Vayvod Stephen, who having cut the most of them in pieces, took their Leaders, and put them to death by such strange torments as I have horror to remember: for the General of this seditious troop, called George, he caused to be stripped naked, and a Crown of hot burning iron to be set upon his head; then some of his veins to be opened, and made Lucatius his brother to drink the blood which issued out of them. After that, the chiefest of the Peasants, who had been kept three days without meat, were brought forth, and forced to fall up on the body of George (yet breathing) with their teeth, and every one to tear away and eat a piece of it. Thus he being torn in pieces, his bowels were pulled out, and cut into morsels, whereof some being boiled, and the rest roasted, the Prisoners were constrained to feed on them: which done, all that remained were put to most horrible and languishing deaths. An example of greater cruelty can hardly be found since the world was a world, and therefore no marvel if the Lord hath punished the King and Realm of Hungary, for such strange cruelties, by suffering the cruel Turks to make spoil of them. Cruel chastisements are prepared for them that be cruel and inhuman. During the Peasant's war in Germany, in the year 1525. a certain Gentleman not content to have massacred a great number even of those which had humbly craved pardon of him, used in all company to glory of his exploits, and to tell what murders and thefts he had committed. But some months after he fell sick, and languished many days of an extreme pain in the reins of his back; through the torment whereof he fell into despair, and ceased not to curse and deny his Creator, who is blessed for ever, until that both speech and life failed him. Neither did the severity of God's justice here stay, but showed itself on his posterity also; for his eldest son seeking to exalt the prowess and valour of his father, vaunted much of his father's exploits in an open assembly at a banquet; wherewithal a countryman being moved, stabbed him to the heart with his dagger: and some few days after the Plague falls among the residue of his Family, and consumeth all that remaineth. CHAP. XX. Of Adulteries. IT followeth by the order of our subject now to touch the transgression of the third Commandment of the second Table; which is, Thou shalt not commit Adultery: in which words, as also in many other Texts of Scripture, Adultery is forbidden, and grievous threatenings denounced against all those that defile their bodies with filthy and impure actions, estrange themselves from God, and conjoin themselves to whores and ribauds. This sin did the Israelites commit with the woman of Madian, by means whereof they were to follow strange gods, and to fall into God's heavy displeasure, who by a cruel Plague destroyed 24000. of them for the same sin. And forasmuch as the Madianites (through the wicked and pernicious counsel of Balaam) did lay this snare for them, and were so villainous and shameless, as to prostitute and be Bawds to their own wives; therefore they were by the express Commandment of God discomfited, their Kings and false prophets, with all their men and women, except only their unpolluted virgins that had known no man, slain: and all their Cities and dwellings burned and consumed to ashes. As every one ought to have regard and care to their honesty, so maids especially, whose whole credit and reputation hangeth thereupon; for they that make no account thereof, but suffer themselves to be polluted with any filthiness, draw upon them not only most vile infamy, but also many great miseries: as is proved by the daughter of Hippomenes Prince of Athens, who being a whore, her father shut up in a stable with a wild horse, giving him no provender, nor other meat to eat, that the horse (naturally furious enough, but more enraged by famine) might tear her in pieces, and with her carcase refresh his hunger, as he did. Pontus' Aufidian understanding that his daughter had been betrayed and sold into a lechers hands by a slave of his that was her schoolmaster; put them both to death. In like manner served Pub. Atilius, Falisque his daughter, that fell into the same infamy. Vives reporteth, that in our father's Lud, Vives. days, two brothers of Arragon perceiving their sister (whom they ever esteemed for honest) to be with child, (hiding their displeasure until her delivery was passed) came in suddenly, and stabbed her into the belly with their daggers, till they killed her, in the presence of a sage matron that was witness to their deed. The same Author saith, That when he was a young man, there were three in the same Country, that conspired the death of a companion of theirs, that went about to commit this villainy, and as they conspired, so they performed it, strangling him to death with a napkin, as he was going to his filthiness. As for Adulterers, examples are infinite both of their wicked lives and miserable ends. In which number many of them may be scored, that making profession of a single life; and undertaking the vow of chastity, show themselves monstrous knaves and ribauds, as many of the Popes themselves have done. As we read of john the Eleventh, Petr. pramonst. bastard son to Lando his predecessor, who by means of his Adulteries with Theodora, than Governess of Rome, came by degrees to the Papacy; so he passed the blessed time of his holy Popeship with this virtuous Dame, to whom he served instead of a common Horse to satisfy her insatiable and disordinate lust: but the good and holy father was at last taken and castin prison, and there smothered to death with a pillow. Benedict the Eleventh, di●ing on a time with an Abbess, his familiar, was poisoned with Bal. certain figs that he eat. Clement the Fifth was reported to be a common Bawd and a protector of whores: he went apart into Avignion, and there stayed of purpose to do nothing but whore-hunt: he died in great torment of the bloody flux, pleurisy, and grief of the stomach. In our English Chronicles we read of Sir Roger Mortimer Earl of March, in the time of Edward the Third, who having secret familiarity with Isabel, Edward the Seconds wife, was not only the cause to stir her up to make war against her husband, but also when he was vanquished by her, and deposed from his Crown, his young son being installed in his Throne, caused him most cruelly to be put to death, by thrusting a hot spit into his body, at his fundament. He also procured the Earl of Kent, the King's uncle, to be arraigned and beheaded at Winchester, for that he withstood the Queens and his dealings, and would not suffer them to do what they listed. All these mischiefs sprung out from the filthy root of Adultery. But the just judgement of God not permitting such odious crimes to be unpunished nor undetected, it so fell forth at the length, that Isabel the old Queen was discovered to be with child by the said Mortimer: whereof complaint being made to the King, as also of the kill of King Edward his father, and conspiring and procuring the death of the Earl of Kent the King's uncle, he was arraigned and indicted, and by verdict found guilty, and suffered death accordingly like a Traitor, his head being exalted upon London-bridge, for a spectacle for all murderers and adulterers to behold, that they might see and fear the heavy vengeance of God. CHAP. XXI. Of Rapes. NOw if Adultery, which with liking and consent of parties is committed, be condemned, how much more grievous and heinous is the offence and more guilty the offendor, when with violence the chastity of any i●, assailed, and enforced? This was the sin wherewith Sichem the son of Hemor the Levite is marked in holy Scripture; for he ravished Dina, Jacob's daughter, for Go●. which cause Simeon and Levi revenged the injury done unto their sister upon the head of not only him and his father, but all the Males that were in the City, by putting them to the sword. It was a custom amongst the Spartans' and Messenians during the time, of peace betwixt them, to send yearly to one another certain of their daughters, to celebrate certain feasts and sacrifices that were amongst them: now in continuance of time it chanced that fifty of the Lacedaemonian virgins being come to those solemn feasts, were pursued by the Messenian gallants, to have their pleasures of them: but they jointly making resistance, and fight for their honesties, strove so long, not one yielding themselves a prey into their hands, till they all died: whereupon arose so long and miserable a war, that all the Country of Messena was destroyed thereby. Aristoclides a Tyrant of Orchomenus a City of Arcadia, fell enamoured with a maid of Stymphalis: who seeing her father by him slain, because he seemed to stand in his purposes light, fled to the Temple of Diana, to take Sanctuary, neither could once be plucked from the image of the goddess, until her life was taken from her but her death so incensed the Arcadians, that they fell to Arms and sharply revenged her cruel injury. Appius a Roman, a man of power and authority in the City, inflamed Titus 1. vius. with the love of a virgin, whose father height Virginius, would needs make her his servant, to the end to abuse her the more freely, and whilst he endeavoured with all his power and policy to accomplish his immoderate lust, her father slew her with his own hands, more willing to prostitute her to death, than to so soul an opprobry and disgrace: but every man stirred up with the woefulness of the event, with one consent pursued, apprehended, and imprisoned the foul lecher; who fearing the award of a most shameful death, killed himself to prevent a further mischief. In the year of our Lord 1271. under the Reign of the Emperor Rodolph, the Sicilians nettled and enraged with the horrible whoredoms, adulteries Nic. Gil. vol. 1. and Rapes, which the Garrisons that had the government over them committed, not able any longer to endure their insolent and outrageous demeanour, entered a secret and common conspiracy upon a time appointed for the purpose, which was on Easter Sunday, at the shutting in of the evening, to set upon them with one accord, and to murder so many as they could: as they did, for at that instant they massacred so many throughout the whole Island, that of all the great multitude there survived not one to bear tidings, or bewail the dead. At Naples it chanced in the King's Palace, as young King Frederick, Ferdinand's son, entered the Privy Chamber of the Queen his mother, to comb. lib. 3. bist. Venet. salute her and the other Ladies of the Court, that the Prince of Bissenio waiting in the outward chamber for his return, was slain by one of his own servants, that suddenly gave him with his sword three deadly strokes in the presence of many beholders; which deed he confessed he had watched three years to perform, in regard of an injury done unto his sister, and in her to him, whom he ravished against her will. The Spaniards that first took the Isle Hispaniola, were for their whoredoms and Rapes, which they committed upon the wives and virgins, all Benzon. Milan. of the newfound Land. murdered by the inhabitants. The inhabitants of the Province Cumana, when they saw the beastly outrage of the Spanish Nation, that lay along their Coasts to fish for The same Author. Pearl, in forcing and ravishing (without difference) their women young and old, set upon them upon a Sunday morning with all their force, and slew all that ever they found by the Seacoasts Westward, till there remained not one alive: and the fury of the rude uncivil people was so great, that they spared not the Monks in their Cloisters, but cut their throats as they were mumbling their Masses; burnt up the Spanish houses, both religious and private, burst in pieces their bells, drew about their Images, hurled down their Crucifixes, and cast them in disgrace and contempt overthwart their streets to be trodden upon: nay, they destroyed whatsoever belonged unto them, to their very dogs and hens, and their own countrymen that served them in any service, whether religious or other, they spared not, they beat the earth, and cursed it with bitter curses, because it had upholden such wicked and wretched Caitises. Now the report of this massacre was so fearful and terrible, that the Spaniards which were in Cubagna doubted much of their lives also; and truly not without great cause: for if the Indians of the Continent had been furnished and provided with sufficient store of barks, they had passed even into that Island, and had served them with the same sauce which their fellows were served with; for they wanted not will, but ability to do it. And these are the goodly fruits of their Adulteries and Rapes, which the Spanish Nation hath reaped in their newfound land. The great calamity and overthrow which the Lacedæmonians endured at Lectria, wherein their chiefest strength and powers were weakened and consumed, was a manifest punishment of their inordinate lust committed upon Phil. Melanct. lib. 2. two virgins, whom after they had ravished, in that very place they cut in pieces and threw them into a pit: and when their father came to complain him of the villainy, they made so light account of his words, that in stead of redress he found nothing but reproach and derision, so that with grief he slew himself upon his daughter's sepulchre: but how grievously the Lord revenged this injury, Histories do sufficiently testify, and that Leuctrian calamity doth bear witness. Brias' a Grecian Captain being received into a Citizen's house as a guest, Pausan. lib. 2. forced his wife by violence to his lust: but when he was asleep, to revenge her wrong, she put out both his eyes; and afterward complained to the Citizens also, who deprived him of his Office, and cast him out of their City. Macrinus the Emperor punished two Soldiers that ravished their Hostess on this manner: he shut them up in an Ox's bowels with their heads out, and so partly with famishment, and partly with worms and rottenness, they consumed to death. Rodericus King of the Goths in Spain forced an Earl's daughter to his lust; for which cause her father brought against him an Army of Saracens johan. Magnus. and Moors, and not only slew him with his son, but also quite extinguished the Gothicke kingdom in Spain: in this war, and upon this occasion, seven hundred thousand men perished, as Histories record, and so a kingdom came to ruin by the perverse lust of one lecher, Anno 714. At the sacking and destruction of Thebes by King Alexander, a Thracian Captain which was in the Macedonian Army took a noble Matron prisoner, Plut. in vita Alexand. Sabel. lib. 5 c. 6. called Timoclea, whom when by no persuasion of promises he could entice to his lust, he constrained by force to yield unto it: but this noble minded woman invented a most witty and subtle shift both to rid herself out of his hands, and to revenge his injury: she told him, that she knew where a rich treasure lay hid in a deep pit; whither when with greediness of the gold he hastened, and standing upon the brink, pried and peered into the bottom of it, she thrust him with both her hands into the hole, and tumbled stones after him, that he might never find means to come forth: for which fact she was brought before Alexander, to have justice; who demanding her what she was, she answered, that Theagenes, who led the Theban Army against the Macedonians, was her brother. Alexander perceiving the marvellous constancy of the woman, and knowing the cause of her accusation to be unjust, manumitted and set her free with her whole Family. When C●. Manlius having conquered the Gallogrecians, pitched his Liv. l. b. 33 Army against the Tectosages (people of Narbonia towards the Pyrene monntaines) amongst other prisoners, a very fair woman, wife to Orgiagous Regulus, was in the custody of a Centurion, that was both lustful and covetous: this lecher tempted her first with fair persuasions, and seeing her unwilling, compelled her with violence to yield her body, as slave to fortune, so to infamy and dishonour: after which act, somewhat to mitigate the wrong, he gave her promise of release and freedom, upon condition of a certain sum of money; and to that purpose, sent her servant that was captive with her to her friends to purvey the same: which he bringing, the Centurion alone, with the wronged Lady met him at a place appointed, and whilst he weighed the money, by her counsel was murdered of her servants: so she escaping, carried to her husband both his money, and threw at his feet the villain's head that had spoiled her of her chastity. Andrea's King of Hungary having undertaken the voyage into Syria for the recovery of the Holy Land, together with many other Kings and Princes, Chronica Hun●ariae. committed the charge of his Kingdom and Family to one Bannebanius, a wise and faithful man, who discharged his Office as faithfully as he took it willingly upon him. Now the Queen had a brother called Gertrude, that came to visit and comfort his sister in her husband's absence, and by that means sojourned with her a long time, even so long, till he fell deadly in love with Bannebanius Lady, a fair and virtuous woman, and one that was thought worthy to keep company with the Queen continually: to whom when he had unfolded his suit, and received such steadfast repulse, that he was without all hope of obtaining his desire, he began to droop and pine, until the Queen his sister perceiving his disease, found this perverse remedy for the cure thereof; she would often give him opportunity of discourse, by withdrawing herself from them being alone, and many times leave them in secret and dangerous places, of purpose that he might have his will of her, but she would never consent unto his lust; and therefore at last, when he saw no remedy, he constrained her by force, and made her subject to his will against her will: which vile disgraceful indignity when she had suffered, she returned home sad and melancholy, and when her husband would have embraced her, she fled from him, ask him, if he would embrace a whore, and related unto him her whole abuse, desiring him either to rid her from shame by death, or to revenge her wrong, and make known unto the world the injury done unto her. There needed no more spurs to prick him forward for revenge: he posteth to the Court, and upbraiding the Queen with her ungrateful and abominable treachery, runneth her through with his sword, and taking her heart in his hand, proclaimeth openly, that it was not a deed of inconsideration, but of judgement, in recompense of the loss of his wife's chastity: forthwith he flieth towards the King his Lord, that now was at Constantinople, and declaring to him his fact, and showing to him his sword besmeared with his wife's blood, submitteth himself to his sentence, either of death in rigour, or pardon in compassion: but the good King enquiring the truth of the cause, though grieved with the death of his wife, yet acquit him of the crime, and held him in as much honour and esteem as ever he did; condemning also his wife as worthy of that which she had endured, for her unwomanlike and traitorous part. A notable example of justice in him, and of punishment in her, that forgetting the law of womanhood and modesty, made herself a Bawd unto her brother's lust: whose memory as it shall be odious and execrable, so his justice deserveth to be engraven in marble with characters of gold. Equal to this King in punishing a Rape, was Otho the first: for as he passed through Italy with an Army, a certain woman cast herself down Albert, Crantz. lib. 3. at his feet for justice against a villain that had spoiled her of her chastity; who deferring the execution of the law till his return, because his haste was great, the woman asked, who should then put him in mind thereof? he answered, This Church which thou seest shall be a witness betwixt me and thee, that I will then revenge thy wrong. Now when he had made an end of this warfare, in his return, as he beheld the Church, he called to mind the woman, and caused her be fetched; who falling down before him, desired now pardon for him whom before she had accused, seeing he had now made her his wife, and redeemed his injury with sufficient satisfaction: not so I swear (quoth Otho) your compacting shall not infringe, or colludo the sacred Law, but he shall die for his former fault, and so he caused him to be put to death. A notable example for them, that after they have committed filthiness with a maid, think it no sin, but competent amends, if they take her in marriage whom they abused before in fornication. Nothing inferior to these in punishing this sin, was Gonzaga Duke of Ferrara, as by this History following may appear. In the year 1547. a Citizen Theat. hist. of Comun was cast into Prison upon an accusation of murder, whom to deliver from the judgement of death, his wife wrought all means possible: therefore coming to the Captain that held him Prisoner, she sued to him for her husband's life; who upon condition of her yielding to his lust and payment of two hundred Ducats, promised safe deliverance for him; the poor woman seeing that nothing could redeem her husband's life, but loss and shipwreck of her own honesty, told her husband: who willed her to yield to the Captain's desire, and not to pretermit so good an occasion; wherefore she consented: but after the pleasure past, the traitorous and wicked Captain put her husband to death notwithstanding: which injury when she complained to Gonzaga Duke of Ferrara, he caused the Captain first to restore back her two hundred Ducats, with an addition of seven hundred Crowns, and secondly to marry her to his wife; and lastly, when he hoped to enjoy her body, to be hanged for his treachery. O noble justice, and comparable to the worthiest deeds of Antiquity, and deserving to be held in perpetual remembrance! As these before mentioned excelled in punishing this sin, so this fellow following excelled in committing it, and in being punished for it; his Theat. hist. name is Novellus Cararius, Lord of Pavia, a man of note and credit in the World for his greatness, but of infamy and discredit for his wickedness. This man after many cruel murders and bloody practices, which he exercised in every place where he came, fell at last into this notorious and abominable crime; for lying at Vincentia, he fell in love with a young maid of excellent beauty, but more excellent honesty, an honest Citizen's daughter, whom he commanded her parents to send unto him, that he might have his pleasure of her: but when they regarding their credit, and she her chastity, more than the Tyrant's command, refused to come, he took her violently out of their house, and constrained her body to his lust; and after, to add cruelty to villainy, chopped her into small pieces, and sent them to her parents in a basket for a present: wherewith her poor father astonished; carried it to the Senate, who sent it to Venice, desiring them to consider the fact, and to revenge the cruelty. The Venetians undertaking their defence, made war upon the Tyrant, and besieging him in his own City, took him at last prisoner, and hanged him with his two sons, Francis and William. Diocles, son of Pisistratus, Tyrant of Athens, for ravishing a maid was slain by her brother; whose death when Hippias his brother undertook to Lanquet. revenge, and caused the maiden's brother to be racked, that he might discover the other conspirators, he named all the Tyrant's friends (which by commandment being put to death) the Tyrant asked, whether there were any more? None but only thyself (quoth he) whom I would wish next to be hanged; whereby it was perceived how abundantly he had revenged his sister's chastity: by whose notable stomach all the Athenians being put in remembrance of their liberty, expelled their Tyrant Hippias out of their City. Mundus, a young Gentleman of Rome, ravished the chaste Matron Paulina in this fashion: when he perceived her resolution not to yield unto his Lanq. ●●ron. lust, he persuaded the Priests of Isis to say, that they were warned by an Oracle, how that Anubius the god of Egypt, desired the company of the said Paulina: to whom the chaste Matron gave light credence, both because she thought the Priests would not lie, and also because it was accounted a great renown to have to do with a god: and thus by this means was Paulina abused by Mundus in the Temple of Isis, under the name of Anubius. Which thing being after disclosed by Mundus himself, he was thus justly revenged; the Priests were put to death, the Temple beaten down to the ground, the Image of Isis thrown into Tiber, and the young man banished. A principal occasion of the Danes first arrival here in England (which after conquered the whole Land, and exercised among the Inhabitants most 〈◊〉 historia Iornalo●●i. horrible cruelties and outrages) was a Rape committed by one Osbright a deputy King, under the King of the Westsaxons in the North part. This Osbright upon a time journeying by the way, turned into the house of one of his Nobles called Bruer, who having a wife of great beauty (he being from home) the King after dinner (alured with her excellent beauty) took her to a secret Chamber, where he forcibly, contrary to her will, ravished her: whereupon she being greatly dismayed and vexed, made her moan to her husband at his return, of this violence and injury received. The Nobleman forthwith studying revenge, first went to the King, and resigned to his hands all such services and possessions which he held of him, and then took shipping and sailed into Denmark, where he had great friends, and had his bringing up: there making his moan to Codrinus the King, desired his aid in revenging of the great villainy of Osbright against him and his wife. Codrinus glad to entertain any occasion of quarrel against this Land, presently levied an Army, and preparing all things for the same, sendeth forth Inguar and Hubba, two brethren, with a mighty Army of Danes into England; who first arriving at holderness, burnt up the Country, and killed without mercy both men, women, and children: then marching towards York, encountered with wicked Osbright himself, where he, with the most part of his Army was slain and discomfited: a just reward for his villainous act; as also one chief cause of the Conquest of the whole Land by the Danes. In the year of our Lord 955. Edwine succeeding his uncle Eldred, was Lanquet. King of England: this man was so impudent, that in the very day of his Coronation he suddenly withdrew himself from his Lords, and in sight of certain persons ravished his own kinswoman, the wife of a Nobleman of his Realm, and afterward slew her husband, that he might have unlawful use of her beauty: for which act he became so odious to his Subjects and Nobles, that they jointly rose against him, and deprived him of his Crown, when he had reigned four years. CHAP. XXII. Other examples of God's Judgements upon Adulterers. AMongst all other things, this is especially to be noted, how God (for a greater punishment of the disordinate lust of men) struck them with a new (yet filthy and stinking) kind of Disease called the French Pox; though indeed the Spaniards were the first that were infected therewith, by the heat which they caught Paul. jovius. Bembus. among the women of the newfound lands, and sowed the seeds thereof first in Spain, and from thence sprinkled Italy therewith, wherethe French men caught it, when Charles the Eighth their King went Guicciardine. against Naples. From whence the contagion spread itself throughout divers places of Europe. Barbary was so overgrown with it, that in all their Cities the tenth part escaped not untouched, nay almost not a Family but was infected. From thence it ran to Egypt, Syria, and the grand Cair; and it may near hand truly be said, that there was not a corner of the habitable world, where this not only new and strange (for it was never heard of in ancient ages) but terrible and hideous scourge of God's wrath stretched not itself. They that were spotted with it, and had it rooted in their bodies, led a languishing life, full of aches and torments, and carried in their visages filthy marks of unclean behaviour, as ulcers, boils, and such like, that greatly disfigured them. And herein we see the words of Saint Paul verified, That an Adulterer sinneth against his own body. Now for so much as the world is so brutishly carried into this sin, as to none more, 1 Cor. 6. 18. the Lord therefore hath declared his anger against it in divers sorts, so that divers times he hath punished it in the very act, or not long after, by a strange death. Of which, Alcibiades, one of the great Captains of Athens, Sabell. may stand for an example; who being polluted with many great and odious vices, and much given to his pleasures, and subject to all uncleanness, ended his life in the midst thereof: for as he was in company of a Phrygian strumpet (having flown thither to the King of Phrygia for shelter) was notwithstanding set upon by certain Guards, which the King (induced by his enemies) sent to stay him; but they though in number many, through the conceived opinion of his notable valour, durst not apprehend him at hand, but set fire to the house, standing themselves in arms round about it, to receive him if need were: he seeing the fire, leapt through the midst of it, and so long defended himself amongst them all, till strength failed in himself, and blows increasing upon him, constrained him to give up his life amongst them. Pliny telleth of Cornelius Gallus and Q. Elerius, two Roman Knights, Plin. lib. 7. that died in the very action of filthiness. In the Irish History we find recorded a notable judgement of God upon Holinshed. a notorious and cruel lecher, one Turgesnis, a Norwegian, who having twice invaded Ireland, reigned there as King for the space of thirty years. This Tyrant not only cried havoc and spoil upon the whole Country, abusing his victory very insolently, but also spared not to abuse virgins and women at his pleasure, to the satisfying of his filthy lust. Omalaghlilen King of Meth was in some trust with the Tyrant: his only daughter Turgesnis craved for his Concubine; but he having a ready wit, and watching his opportunity, seemed not only not to deny his daughter, but to offer him the choice of many other his nieces and cousins, endowed (as he s●● them forth) with such singular beauty, as they seemed rather Angels than mortal Creatures. The Tyrant as it were ravished, and doting in love with those pecrlesse pieces, could endure no delay, but must needs possess himself of their bodies, and that very speedily: to which Omalagblilen condescending, attired his daughter in princelike apparel, and with her sixteen proper young men, beautiful and amiable to behold, in like array, and so being sent unto the King, were presented unto him in his Privy Chamber, having none about him but a few dissolute youthful persons: whereupon those disguised young striplings drew forth from under their long womanish garments their skins, and valiantly bestirring themselves, first stabbed their weapons points through the body of the Tyrant, and then served all those youths about him with the like sauce, they making small or no resistance. And thus the abominable lecher, together with his rabble of filthy Panders, received the due reward of their ugly filthiness; and by this means the Irish Nation was freed from the slavery of a cruel Tyrant. Theodebert, the eldest son of Glotharius, died amidst his whores, to whom Mich. Rit. Neap. he was (though married) too too much addicted. The like befell one Bertrane Ferrier at Barcelone in Spain, according to the report of Pontanus. Lib. de obedi. In like manner there was one Giachet Geneve of Saluces, a man that had Fulgos. lib. 6. cap. 12. both wife and children of his own, of good years, well learned, and of good esteem amongst his neighbour citizen's, that secretly haunted the company of a young woman; with whom being coupled one evening in his study, he suddenly died: his wife and children seeing his longtariance, when time required to go to bed, called him, and knocked at his door very hard, but when no answer was made, they broke open the doors that were locked on the inner side, and found him (to their great grief and dismay) lying upon the woman stark dead, and her dead also. Claudius' of Asses, Counsellor of the Parliament of Paris, (a man very evill-affected toward the Professors of the Gospel) committed villainy with one of his waiting-maids, in the very midst whereof he was taken with an Apoplexy, which immediately after made an end of him. Not long since, here in our own Country, a Nobleman's servant of good credit and place with his master, having familiarity with another man's wife, as he was about to commit villainy with her in a chamber, he fell down stark dead with his ho●e about his heels: which being heard (by reason of the noise his fall made) of those which were in the lower room, they all ran up hastily, and easily perceived both the villainy he went about, and the horrible judgement of God upon him for the same. This happened in Northamptonshire, as it was testified by very godly, honest, and sufficient witnesses. Another in Hertfordshire about Barkway, having the company of a harlot in a Wood, was also surprised by the judgement of God, and struck dead as it seemed in the very committal of that filthy act: his name I conceal, as also of the former, that none might think themselves disgraced thereby, but all learn to fear the wrath of God, and tremble at his judgements. We read also of a Chirurgeon, who disdaining his honest wife, had abandoned himself to a strumpet; and going on a time to horseback, and asked by his wife whither he went, he answered scornfully, To the Stews, going indeed presently to his Adulteress. After a while he returneth to horse, and offering to manage his round, the horse leaps and bounds extraordinarily, and casts this wretched man out of the saddle, in such sort, as one of his feet hung in the bridle. The horse being hot, ran so furiously upon the stones, as he beat out his brains, and never stayed until he came before the Stues, where this miserable man remained dead upon the place. The Spaniards in the West-Indies going to seek gold near unto the gulf Benzo. Gomar●. Hist. jud. lib. 2. cap. 57 of Uruba, their Captain, called Horeda, carried away the daughter of the Cacique or Lord of the place prisoner, and abused her as his Concubine: the Cacique soon after came to the Captain, making show that he came to redeem his daughter, but being come into his presence, he reproached him with injurious words, and shot a poisoned arrow at him, with an intent to kill him; but he wounded him only in the thigh: whereupon the Spaniards rushing in suddenly with their swords drawn, slew the Cacique, his wife, and all his company. But this villainous Captain escaped not the arrow of God's wrath: for he was driven to retire out of that Country into Hispaniola, where he died of his wound within few days after in extreme pains: all his company being embarked to Spain-ward, were driven back by the wind, and after infinite toils, some of them were slain by the Indians, and the rest died miserably of divers Diseases: and this was the fruit of that Adultery. In the year 1533. a certain religious man in the Town of Clavenne in Stumpsius. lib. 10. bist. of Swiss. the Grisons Country, being enamoured with a certain beautiful maid, assayed by all means to corrupt her chastity, and to allure her to his will: but when by no means he could obtain his desire, he counterfeited certain apparitions and revelations, abusing the sacred Name of God, and of the Virgin Mary, and so seduced this poor maid to his lust: but his imposture being discovered, he was committed to prison, and notwithstanding his Order, was publicly beheaded, and his body burnt. CHAP. XXIII. Showing that Stues ought not to be suffered among Christians. BY this which hath been spoken it appeareth manifestly, how infamous a thing is it among Christians to privilege and allow public places for Adulteries, albeit it is a common thing in the greatest Cities of Europe; yea, and in the very bowels of Christendom, where no such villainy should be tolerated. There is nothing that can cast any colour of excuse upon it, seeing it is expressly contrary to God's ediet in many places: as first, Thou shalt not commit Adultery: and in Leu. 19 29. Thou shalt not pollute thy daughter in prostituting her to be a where, lest the land be defiled with wheredom, and filled with wickedness: and in Deut. 23. 17. Let there be no where of the daughters of Israel, neither a where-keeper of the sons of Israel. This is the decree of God, and the rule which he had given us to square our affections by, and it admitteth no dispensation. But some do object, that those things are tolerated to avoid greater mischiefs: as though the Lord were not well advised when he gave forth those Commandments, or that mortal men had more discretion than the immortal God. This truly is nothing else but to reject and disannul that which Saint Paul requireth as a duty of all Christians; namely, That fornication Ephes. 5. and all uncleanness should not once be named amongst us, neither filthiness, foolish talking, or jesting, which are things not comely; forsomuch as no whoremonger nor unclean person can have any inheritance in the Kingdom of God. Plate the Philosopher, though a Panim, and Dial. 3. ignorant of the knowledge of the true God, for bad expressly in his common wealth Poets and Painters to represent or set to the view any unclean and lascivious counterfeit, whereby good manners might be any ways depraved. Aristotle following his master's steps, ordained in his Politics, That all filthy communication should be banished out of his City. How Lib. 7. cap. 17. far then were they from giving leave and liberty for filthy and stinking brothel-houses to be erected and maintained? In this therefore the very Heathen are a shame and reproach to those that call themselves Christians and Catholics. Besides, the goodly reason which they allege for their upholding of their Stues is so far from the truth, that the contrary is ever truer; namely, that by their odious and dishonest liberty more evil ariseth to the world than otherwise would, insomuch as it setteth open a wide door to all dissoluteness and whoredoms, and an occasion of lechery and uncleanness even to those that otherwise would abstain from all such filthy actions. How many young folk are there, as well men as women, that by this means give themselves over to looseness, and undo themselves utterly? How many murders are, have been, and still will be committed thereby? What a disorder, confusion, and ignominy of nature is it, for a father to lie with her with whom his son had been but a little before? Or the son to come after the father? and such like: but by the just judgement of God it cometh to pass, that that which is thought to be enclosed within the precincts of certain appointed places, spreadeth itself at large so far, that oftentimes whole streets and Cities are poisoned; yea, even their houses, who in regard of their place either in the Law or policy, aught to stop the stream of such vices: nay, which is more marvel, they that with open mouth vaunt themselves to be God's Lieutenants on earth, Christ's Vicars, and Successors to his Apostles, are so filthy and abominable, as to suffer public bawds and whores to be under their noses uncontroled; and which is more, to enrich their treasures by their traffic. Cornelius Agrippa saith, That of all the ●e-bauds of his time, Pope Sextus was most infamous: for he builded a most glorious and stately Stues (if any state or glory can abide in so bad a place) as well for common Adultery, as unnatural Sodomy, to be exercised in. He used (as Heliogabalus was wont to do) to maintain whole herds of whores, with whom he participated his friends and servants as they stood in need, and by Adulteries reared yearly great revenues into his purse. Baleus saith, That at this day every whore in Rome pays tribute to the Pope, a julle; which amounted then to twenty thousand Ducats by the year at least; but now the number is so increased, that it ariseth to forty thousand. I think there is none ignorant, how Pope Paul the third had by computation five and forty thousand whores and courtesans, that paid him a monthly tribute for their whoredoms: and thus also this holy Father was a protector and upholder of the Stues, and deserved by his villainous behaviour (for he was one of the lewdest Adulterers of that time) to bear the name of the master and erectour of these filthy places: and herein both he and the rest of that crew have showed themselves enemies to God, and true Antichrists indeed, and have not only imitated, but far surpassed shameless and wicked Caligula in all filthy and monstrous dealings. Thou shalt not (saith Moses) bring the hire of a whore into the house of the Lord Deut. 23. thy God for any vow: by what title then can these honest men exact so great rent from their whorish Tenants, seeing it is by the Law of God a thing so abominable? Truly it can no otherwise be but a kind of art of bawdry, as may be gathered out of the Law which is in F. deritu nupt. L. palem. Qui habet mancipia, etc. The meaning whereof is, That he which for gain prostituteth his slaves to the lust of men, and draweth thereby commodity to himself, is a Bawd: He is also stained with infamy by the Law Athletas, that partaketh the gain or wages of a whore. How much more than is that Law of justinian to be commended, which commandeth all whores to be banished out of the confines of Cities and Commonwealths? It was also a worthy and memorable act of Theodosius, when he rooted the S●cr. l 5. c. 18. Ecclesiast. hist. Stues out of Rome; and of Saint Lewis King of France, that pulled down the Stues at Paris, and chased away, as near as he could, all loose and whorish women from his Dominions. The ancient Romans permitted no woman to become an open whore, before she had made a formal declaration Lib. de pud. of her intent before the Aediles; thinking by this means to quench their hot lust, because they would be ashamed to make such an open confession. And by a decree of the Senate it was enacted, That no woman coming of gentile stock should be suffered to give herself over to this Trade, it being a stain and blot to true Nobility. CHAP. XXIIII. Of Whoredoms committed under colour of Marriage. SEeing that oftentimes it falleth out, that those which in show seem most honest, think it a thing lawful to converse together as man and wife by some secret and private contract, without making account of the public celebration of Marriage as necessary, but for some worldly respects, according as their foolish and disordinate affections misperswadeth them, to dispense therewith: It shall not be impertinent as we go, to give warning how unlawful all such conversation is, and how contrary to good manners, and to the laudable customs of all civil and well governed people. For it is so far from deserving the name of Marriage, that on the other side it can be nothing but plain whoredom and fornication: the which name and title Tertullian giveth to all secret and privy meeting which have not been allowed Corn. Tacit. of, received, and blessed by the Church of God. Again, besides the evil examples which is exhibited, there is this mischief moreover, that the children of such a bed cannot be esteemed legitimate, yea God himself accurseth such law less familiarity, as the mischiefs that arise therefrom do declare, whereof this one example which we allege shall serve for sufficient proof. In the reign of Lewis the Ninth, King of France, and julius the Second, Pope of Rome, there was a Gentleman of Naples called Antonio Bologne, that had been Governor of Frederick of Arragon's house, when he was King of Naples, and had the same Office under the Duchess of Malfi after she was widow; with whom in protract of time he grew to have such secret and privy acquaintance (albeit she was a princess and he her servant) that he enjoyeed her as his own wife. And thus they conversed secretly together under the colour of Marriage accorded betwixt them, the space of certain years, until she had boar unto him three children: by which means their private dealings which they so much desired to smother and keep close, burst out and bewrayed itself. The matter being come to her brother's ears, they took it so to the heart, that they could not rest until they had revenged the vile injury and dishonour which they pretended to have been done to them and their whole house, equally by them both. Therefore when they had chased them first from Ancona, whither in hope of quietness they had fled out of Naples, they drove them also out of Tuscan: who seeing themselves so hotly pursued on every side, resolved to make towards Venice, thinking there to find some safety: But in the midway she was overtaken, and brought back to Naples, where in short space she miserably ended her life: for her brother's Guard strangled her to death, together with her chambermaid, who had served in stead of a Bawd to them; and her poor infants which she had by the said Bologne. But he by the goodness of his horse escaping, took his flight to Milan, where he sojourned quietly a long while, until at the instant pursuit of one of her brothers, the Cardinal of Arragon, he was slain in the open streets, when he least mistrusted any present danger. And this was a true Cardinal like exploit indeed, representing that mildness, mercifulness, and good nature which is so required of every Christian, in traitorously murdering a man so many years after the first rancour was conceived, that might well in half that space have been digested, in fostering hatred so long in his cruel heart, and waging ruffians and murderers to commit so monstrous an act: wherein albeir the Cardinal's cruelty was most famous, as also in putting to death the poor infants, yet God's justice bore the sway, that used him as an instrument to punish those who under the vail of secret Marriage thought it lawful for them to commit any villainy. And thus God busieth sometime the most wicked about his will, and maketh the rage and fury of the Devil himself serve for means to bring to pass his fearful judgements. CHAP. XXV. Of unlawful Marriages, and their issues. NOw to redress all such evils as have before been mentioned, and to avoid all inconveniences in this case, God of his bountiful mercy hath ordained Marriage as a remedy to be applied to all such as have not the gift of continency, lest they should fall into fornication: which notwithstanding many shameless creatures that blush not at their own filthiness, but rather rejoice therein, make no account of. Such are they that making Marriage one of the Sacraments of the Church, do nevertheless despise as a vile and profane thing; albeit that the Apostle saith, That Marriage is honourable among all men, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge. But they have it not in that estimation, seeing by authority they are deprived of the use thereof, and not of Adultery. That which is honest and laudable is forbidden, and that which is sinful and unlawful, allowed of. This (saith Sleiden) is the custom of the German Bishops, for money to suffer their Lib. 4. Priests to keep harlots, not exacting any other punishment, saving their purses, to privilege their knaveries. But these reins of liberty were let more loose in certain Villages of the Cantons of Swissers, where it was Lib. 3. not only winked at, but also commanded, That every new Priest should have his private whore for his own tooth; that he might not intermeddle with other men's. Neither was it without reason that john le Maire said, how under the show and colour of chastity, Priests whoredoms did overflow, being men abandoned to all dissolute and riotous living. Now than it were far better to marry than to burn; yet in such sort to marry, that all giddiness and inconsideration set aside, every one should matched himself according to his degree and age, with great respect and good advisement had unto them both, to the end to avoid those mischiefs and enormities which oftentimes happen, when either by an over-hardy, foolish, and rash presumption, a man would nestle himself in an higher nest than his estate and calling requireth, or by a sensual and fleshly lust passing the bounds of reason, goeth about to constrain and interrupt the law of nature. The chiefest thing that is required in Marriage, is the consent of parties, as well of themselves that are to be joined together, as of each of their parents; the contrary whereof is constraint, where either party is forced: as it happened to those two hundred maids which the Benjamites took by force and violence to be their wives. Judg. 21. This was a reproach to Romulus the first King of Rome, when he ravished the Sabine virgins that came to see their sports, which was cause of great war betwixt them. Moreover besides the mutual joint of love which ought to be betwixt man and wife, it is necessary that they that marry do marry in the Lord, to serve him in greater purity, and with less disturbance; which cannot be if a Christian marry an Infidel, for the great difficulties and hindrances that usually spring from such a root. Therefore it was straight forbidden the people of God to contract Marriages with Idolaters; yea, and the holy Patriarches before any such law was given, had Exod. 34. 16. Deut. 7. 3. carefully great regard (in the Marriages of their children) to this thing, as the example of Abraham doth sufficiently declare. Therefore they that have any manner of government and authority over unmarried folks, whether they be fathers, morthers, kinsmen, or Tutors, aught to have especial care and regard thereof. Yea, Christian Princes and Lords, or Rulers of Commonwealths, should not in this respect be so supine and negligent in the performance of their Offices, as once to permit and suffer this amongst them, which is so directly contrary to the Word of God; but rather by especial charge forbid it, to the end that both their Laws might be conformable, and in every respect agreeable to the holy Ordinance of God; and that the way might be stopped to those mischiefs which were likely to arise from such evil concluded Marriages. For what reason is it that a young maid baptised and brought up in the Church of Christ, should be given in marriage to a worshipper of Images and Idols; and sent to such a Country where the worship of God is not so much as once thought upon? Is not this to pluck a soul out of the House of God, and thrust it into the house of the devil? out of Heaven, into Hell? than which, what greater apostasy or falling from God can there be? whereof all they are guilty, that either make up such Marriages; or give their good will or consent to them, or do not hinder the cause and proceedings of them, if any manner of way they can. Now that this confusion and mixture of Religion in Marriages is unpleasant and noisome to God, it manifestly appeareth Gen. 6. where it is said, that because the sons of God (to wit, those whom God had separated for himself from the beginning of the world to be his peculiar ones,) were so evil advised, as to be alured with the beauties of the daughters of men, (to wit, of those which were not chosen of God to be his people; and to marry with them, corrupting themselves by this contagious acquaintance of profane people, with whom they should have had nothing to do) that therefore God was incensed against them, and resolved simply to revenge the wickedness of each party without respect. Beside, the monstrous fruits of those profane Marriages, do sufficiently declare their odiousness in God's sight: for from them arose giants of strength and stature, exceeding the proportion of men, who by their hugeness did much wrong and violence in the world, and gained fearful and terrible names to themselves: but God (provoked by their oppressions) drowned their tyrannies in the Flood, and made an end of the world for their sakes. In the time of the Judges in Israel, the Israelites were chastised by the hand of God for this same fault; for they took to wives the daughters of the uncircumcised, and gave them their daughters also. In like sort framed Judges 3. they themselves by this means to their corrupt manners and superstitions, and to the service of their Idolatrous gods: but the Lord of heaven reigned down anger upon their heads, and made them subject to a stranger, the King of Mesopotamia, whom they served the space of eight years. Look what happened to King Solomon for giving his heart to strange women 1 Kings 11. that were not of the household of God's people: he that before was replenished with such admirable wisdom, that he was the wonder of the world, was in his old age deprived thereof, and besotted with a kind of dulness of understanding, and led aside from the true knowledge of God to serve Idols, and to build them Altars and Chapels for their worship; and all this to please forsooth his wives humours, whose acquaintance was the chief cause of his misery and Apostasy. CHAP. XXIV. Touching incestuous Marriages. NOw as it is unlawful to contract marriages with parties of contrary religion, so it is as unlawful to marry those that are near unto us by any degree of kindred or affinity, as it is inhibited not only by the law of God, but also by civil and politic constitutions: whereunto all nations have ever by the sole instinct of nature agreed and accorded, except the Egyptians and Persians, whose abominations were so great, as to take their own sisters and mothers to be their wives. Cambyses King of Media and Persia, married his own sister, but it was not long ere he put her to death: a just proof of an unjust and accursed marriage. Many others there were in protract of time, that in their insatiable lusts showed themselves no less unstaied and unbriedled in their lawless affections than he: One of which was Antigonus King of Judea, Joseph. antiq. lib. 17. cap. 15. son of Herodes, surnamed Great, who blushed not to marry his sister, the late wife of his deceased brother Alexander, by whom she had borne two children: but for this and divers other his good deeds, he lost not only his goods (which were confiscated) but was himself also banished out of his country into a foreign place, from Judea to Vienna, in France. Herod also the Tetrarch was so impudent and shameless, that he took The same, l●b. 18. cap. 3. from his brother Philip his wife Herodias, and espoused her unto himself: which shameless and incestuous deed john Baptist reproving in him, told him plainly how unlawful it was for him to possess his brother's wise: but the punishment which befell him for this, and many other his sins, we have heard in the former book, and need not here to be repeated. Anton. Caracalla took to wife his mother in law, alured thereunto by her fair enticements: whose wretched and miserable end hath already been touched in the former book. The Emperor Heraclius, after the decease of his first wife, married his own niece the daughter of his brother: which turned mightily to his undoing; for besides that, that under his reign, and as it were by his occasion, the Saracens entered the borders of Christendom, and spoiled and destroyed his dominions under his nose, to his foul and utter disgrace, he was over and above smitten corporally with so grievous and irksome a disease of dropsy, that he died thereof. Thus many men run riot, by assuming to themselves too much liberty, and break the bounds of civil honesty required in all Contracts, and too audaciously set themselves against the commandment of God, which ought to be of such authority with all men, that none (be they never so great) should dare to derogate one jot from them, unless they meant wholly to oppose themselves as professed enemies to God himself, and to turn all the good order of things into confusion. All which notwithstanding, some of the Romish Popes have presumed to encroach upon God's right, and to disannul by their foolish decrees the laws of the Almighty: As Alexander the sixth did, who by his Bull approved the incestuous marriage of Ferdinand Sleid. lib. 9 King of Naples with his own Aunt his father Alphonsus sister by the father's side: which otherwise (saith Cardinal Bembus) had been against all law and equity, and in no case to be tolerated and borne withal. Henry the seventh, King of England, after the death of his eldest son Arthur, caused (by the special dispensation of Pope julius) his next son named Henry, to take to wife his brother's widow called Katherine, daughter to Ferdinando King of Spain, for the desire he had to have this Spanish affinity continued: who succeeding his father in the Crown, after continuance of time, began to advise himself, and to consult whether this marriage with his brother's wife were lawful or no; and found it by conference both of holy and profane laws utterly unlawful: whereupon he sent certain Bishops to the Queen to give her to know, That the Pope's dispensation was altogether unjust, and of none effect to privilege such an act: to whom she answered, That it was too late to call in question the Pope's Bull which so long time they had allowed of. The two Cardinals that were in Commission from the Pope to decide the controversy, and to award judgement upon the matter, were once upon point to conclude the decree which the King desired, had not the Pope impeached their determination in regard of the Emperor Charles, nephew to the said Queen, whom he was loath to displease: wherefore the King seeing himself frustrate of his purpose in this behalf, sent into divers Countries to know the judgement of all the learned Divines concerning the matter in controversy, who (especially those that dwelled not far off) seemed to allow and approve the divorce: Thereupon he resolved (rejecting his old wife) to take him to a new, and to marry (as he did) Anne of Bulloine one of the Queen's maids of honour, a woman of most rare and excellent beauty. Now as touching his first marriage with his brother's wife, how unfortunate it was in it own nature, and how unjustly dispensed withal by the Pope, we shall anon see by those heavy, sorrowful, and troublesome events and issues which immediately followed in the neck thereof. And first and formest of the evil fare of the Cardinal of York, with whom the King being highly displeased for that at his instance and request, the Pope had opposed himself to this marriage, requited him (and not undeservedly) on this manner: first he deposed him from the office of the Chancellorship: secondly, deprived him of two of his three bishoprickes which he held: and lastly, sent him packing to his own bouse, as one whom he never purposed more to see: yet afterward being advertised of certain insolent and threatening speeches which he used against him, he sent again for him: but he not daring to refuse to come at his call, died in the way with mere grief and despite. The Pope gave his definitive sentence against this act, and favoured the cause of the divorced Lady: but what gained he by it, save only that the King, offended with him, rejected him and all his trumpery, retained his yearly tribute levied out of this Realm, and converted it to another use: and this was the recompense of his goodly dispensation with an incestuous marriage: wherein although, to speak truly and properly, he lost nothing of his own, yet it was a deep check and no shallow loss to him and his successors, to be deprived of so goodly a revenue, and so great authority in this Realm, as he then was. CHAP. XXVII. Of Adultery. SEeing that marriage is so holy an institution and ordinance of God, as it hath been showed to be; it followeth by good right that the corruption thereof, namely Adultery, whereby the bond of marriage is dissolved, should be forbidden: for the woman that is polluted therewith, despiseth her own husband, yea and for the most part hateth him, and foisteth in strange seed (even his enemy's brats) in stead of his own, not only to be fathered, but also to be brought up and maintained by him, and in time to be made inheritors of his possessions: which thing being once known, must needs stir up coals to set anger on fire, and set abroach much mischief: and albeit that the poor infants are innocent and guiltless of the crime, yet doth the punishment and ignominy thereof redound to them, because they cannot be reputed as legitimate, but are even marked with the black coal of bastardy whilst they live: so grievous is the guilt of this sin, and uneasy to be removed. For this cause the very Heathen not only reproved adultery evermore, but also by authority of law prohibited it, and allotted to death the offenders therein. Abimelech King of the Philistims, a man without circumcision, and Gen. 26. therefore without the covenant, knowing by the light of nature (for he knew not the law of God) how sacred and inviolable the knot of marriage ought to be, expressly forbade all his people from doing any injury to Isaac in regard of his wife, and from touching her dishonestly upon pain of death. Out of the same fountain sprang the words of queen Hecuba in Euripides, speaking to Menelaus touching Helen, when she admonished him to enact this law, That every woman which should betray her husband's credit, and her own chastity to another man, should die the death. In old time the Egyptians used to punish adultery on this sort; the Diedor. man with a thousand jerkes with a reed, and the woman with cutting off her nose; but he that forced a free woman to his lust, had his privy members cut off. By the law of julia, adulterers were without difference adjuged to death, insomuch that julius Antonius, a man of great parentage and reputation among the Romans, whose son was nephew to Augustus' sister (as Cornelius Tacitus reporteth) was for this crime executed to death. Aurelianus Lib. 4. Annal. the Emperor did so hate and detest this vice, that to the end to scare and terrify his soldiers from the like offence, he punished a soldier which had committed adultery with his hostess in most severe manner, even by causing him to be tied by both his feet to two trees bend down to the earth with force, which being let go, returning to their course, rend him cruelly in pieces, the one half of his body hanging on the one tree, and the other on the other. Yea and at this day amongst the very Turks and Tartarians, this sin is sharply punished. So that we ought not wonder that the Lord should ordain death for the Adulterer. If a man (saith the law) lie with another man's wife, if (I say) he commit adultery with his neighbour's Levit. 20. 10. wife, the Adulterer and the Adulteress shall die the death. And in another place, If a man be found lying with a woman married to a man, they Deut. 22. 22. shall die both twain; to wit, the man that lay with the wife, and the wife, that thou mayest put away evil from Israel. Yea, and before Moses time also, it was a custom to burn the Adulterers with fire, as it appeareth by Gen. 38. the sentence of juda (one of the twelve Patriarches) upon Thamar his daughter in law, because he supposed her to have played the whore. Beside all this, to the end this sin might not be shuffled up and kept close, there was a means given, whereby if a man did but suspect his wife for this sin, though she could by no witness or proof be convinced, her wickedness notwithstanding most strangely and extraordinarily might be discovered. And it was this: The woman publicly at her husband's suit called in question before Num. 5. the Priest, who was to give judgement of her after divers ceremonies and circumstances performed, and bitter curses pronounced by him, her belly would burst, and her thigh would rot, if she were guilty, and she should be a curse amongst the people for her sin; but if she was free, no evil would come unto her. Thus it pleased God to make known, that the filthiness of those that are polluted with this sin, should not be hid. This may more clearly appear by the example of the Levites wife, of whom it is spoken in the 19, 20, and 21. Chapters of judges, who having forsaken her husband to play the whore, certain months after he had again received her to be his wife, she was given over against her will to the villainous Rape, l. 2. c. 19 and monstrous lusts of the most wicked and perverse Gibeonites, that so abused her for the space of a whole night together, that in the morning she was found dead upon the threshold: which thing turned to a great destruction and overthrow in Israel; for the Levite, when he arose, and found his wife newly dead at the door of his lodging, he cut and dismembered her body into twelve pieces, and sent them into all the countries of Israel, to every tribe one, to give them to understand, how vile and monstrous an injury was done unto him: whereupon the whole nation assembling and consulting together, when they saw how the Benjamites (in whose tribe this monstrous villainy was committed) make no reckoning of seeing punishment executed upon those execrable wretches, they took arms against them, and made war upon them; wherein though at the first conflict they lost to the number of forty thousand men, yet afterward they discomfited and overthrew the Benjamites, and slew of them 25000. rasing and burning down the City Gibea (where the sin was committed) with all the rest of the Cities of that Tribe, in such sort that there remained alive but six hundred persons, that saved their lives by flying into the desert, and there hid themselves four months, until such time as the Israelites taking pity of them, lest they should utterly be brought to nought, gave them to wife (to the end to repeople them again) four hundred virgins of the inhabitants of Jabes Gilead, reserved out of that slaughter of those people, wherein man, woman, and child, were put to the sword, for not coming forth to take part with their brethren in that late war. And forasmuch as yet there remained two hundred of them unprovided for, the Ancients of Israel gave them liberty to take by force two hundred of the daughters of their people: which could not be but great injury and vexation unto their parents, to be thus robbed of their daughters, and to see them married at all adventures, without their consent or liking. These were the mischiefs which issued and sprang from that vile and abominable adultery of the wicked Gibeonites with the Levites wife, whose first voluntary sin was in like manner also most justly punished by this second rape: and this is no new practice of our most just God, to punish one One sin punished with another. sin by another, and sinners in the same kind wherein they have offended. When King David, after he had overcome the most part of his enemies, 2 Sam. 11. and made them tributaries unto him, and enjoyed some rest in his kingdom, whilst his men of war pursuing their victory, destroyed the Ammonites, and were in besieging Rabath their chief City, he was so inflamed with the beauty of Bathshabe, Vriahs' wife, that he caused her to be conveyed to him to lie with her: to which sin he combined another more grievous; to wit, when he saw her with child by him (to the end to cover his adultery) he caused her husband to be slain at the siege, by putting him in the Vanguard of the battle at the assault; and then thinking himself cocksure, married Bathshabe. But all this while, as it was but vain allurements, no solid joy that fed his mind, and his sleep was but of sin, not of safety, wherein he slumbered: so the Lord awakened him right soon by afflictions and crosses, to make him feel the burden of the sin which he had committed: first therefore the child (the fruit of this adultery) was stricken with sickness and died: next his daughter Thamar, Absaloms' sister, was ravished by Ammon one of his own sons: 2 Sam. 12. 2 Sam. 13. thirdly Ammon for his incest was slain by Absalon: and fourthly Absalon (ambitiously aspiring after the kingdom, and conspiring against him) 2 Sam. 15. raised war upon him, and defiled his Concubines, and came to a woeful destruction. All which things (being grievous crosses to K. David) were inflicted by the just hand of God, to chastise and correct him for his good, not to destroy him in his wickedness: neither did it want the effect in him, for he was so far from swelling and hardening himself in his sin, that chose he cast down and humbled himself, and craved pardon and forgiveness at the hand of God with all his heart, and true repentance: not like to such as grow obstinate in their sins and wickedness, and make themselves believe all things are lawful for them, although they be never so vile and dishonest. This therefore that we have spoken concerning David, is not to place him among the number of lewd and wicked livers, but to show by his chastisements (being a man after Gods own heart) how odious and displeasant this sin of Adultery is to the Lord, and what punishment all others are to expect that wallow therein, since he spared not him whom he so much loved and favoured. CHAP. XXVIII. Other examples like unto the former. THE history of the ravishment of Helen, registered by so many worthy and excellent Authors, and the great evils that pursued the same, is not to be counted altogether an idle fable, or an invention of pleasure, seeing that it Herod. l●. 2. is sure, that upon that occasion great and huge war arose between the Grecians and the Trojanes; during the Thucyd. which the whole Country was havocked, many Cities and Towns destroyed, much blood shed, and thousands of men discomfited; among whom the ravisher and adulterer himself (to wit Paris, the chief mover of all those miserable tragedies) escaped not the edge of the sword; no nor that famous city Troy (which entertained and maintained the adulterers within her walls) went unpunished, but at last was taken and destroyed by fire and sword. In which sacking, old and grey headed King Pri●m, with all the remnant of his half slain sons, were together murdered, his wife and daughters were taken prisoners, and exposed to the mercy of their enemies: his whole kingdom was entirely spoiled, and his house quite defaced, and well nigh all the Trojane Nobility extinguished: and as touching the whore, Helen herself (whose disloyalty gave consent to the wicked enterprise of forsaking her husband's house, and following a stranger) she was not exempt from punishment: for as some writers affirm, Ant. Vols. upon Ovidi epist. of Hermione to Orestes. she was slain at the sack: but according to others, she was at that time spared, and entertained again by Menelaus her husband; but after his death, she was banished in her old age, and constrained for her last refuge (being both destitute of relief and succour, and forsaken of kinsfolks and friends) to fly to Rhodes, where at length (contrary to her hope) she was put to a shameful death, even hanging on a tree, which she long time before deserved. The injury and dishonour done to Lucrece, the wife of Collatinus, by Sextus Tit. Livius. Tarqvinius, son to Superbus the last King of Rome, was cause of much trouble and disquietness in the City and elsewhere: for first she (not able Rape, l. 2. c. 19 to endure the great injury and indignity which was done unto her, pushed forward with anger and despite) slew herself in the presence of her husband and kinsfolk, notwithstanding all their desires and willingness to clear her from all blame: with whose death the Romans were so stirred and provoked against Sextus the son, and Tarqvinius the father, that they rebelled forthwith, and when he should enter the City, shut the gates against him, neither would receive or acknowledge him ever after for their King. Whereupon ensued war abroad, and alteration of the state at home● for after that time Rome endured no more King to bear rule over them, but in their room created two Consuls to be their governor's; which kind of government continued to julius Caesar's time. Thus was Tarqvinius the father shamefully deposed from his crown, for the adultery, or rather, rape of his son; and Tarqvinius the son slain by the Sabians, for the robberies and murders which by his father's advice he committed against them; and he himself not long after in the war which by the Tuscan succours he renewed against Rome to recover his lost estate, was discomfited with them, Plutarch. and slain in the midst of the rout. In the Emperor Valentinianus time, the first of that name, many women of great account and parentage, were for committing adultery put to death, as testifieth Ammianus Marcellinus. When Europe, after the horrible wasting and great ruins which it suffered by the furious invasion of Attila, began to take a little breath and Li. 28. find some ease, behold a new trouble, more hurtful and pernicious than the former, came upon it, by means of the filthy lechery and lust of the Emperor Valentinianus, the third of that name, who by reason of his evil bringing up, and government under his mother Placidia, being too much Procop. subject to his own voluptuousness, and tied to his own desires, dishonoured the wife of Petronius Maximus, a Senator of Rome, by forcing her to his pleasure; an act indeed that cost him his life, and many more beside, and that drew after it the final destruction of the Roman Empire, and the horrible besacking and desolation of the City of Rome: For the Emperor being thus taken and set on fire with the love of this woman, through the excellent beauty wherewith she was endued, endeavoured first to entice her to his lust by fair allurements; and seeing that the bulwark of her virtuous chastity would not by this means be shaken, but that all his pursuit was still in vain, he tried a new course, and attempted to get her by deceit and policy; which to bring about, one day setting himself to play with her husband Maximus, he won of him his Ring, which he no sooner had, but secretly he sent it to his wife in her husband's name, with this commandment, That by that token she should come presently to the Court, to do her duty to the Empress Eudoxia: she, seeing her husband's Ring, doubted nothing, but came forthwith, as she was commanded; where, whilst she was entertained by certain suborned women, whom the Emperor had set on, he himself cometh in place, and discloseth unto her his whole love, which he said he could no longer repress, but must needs satisfy, if not by fair means, at least by force and compulsion, and so he constrained her to his lust. Her husband advertised hereof, intended to Rape, li. 2. cap. 19 revenge this injury upon the Emperor with his own hand: but seeing he could not execute his purpose, whilst Actius, the Captain General of Valentinianus army lived (a man greatly reverenced and feared for his mighty and famous exploits, achieved in the wars against the Burgundians, Goths, and Attila) he found means by suggesting a false accusation of treason against him (which made him to be hated and suspected of the Emperor) to work his death. After that Actius was thus traitorously and unworthily slain, the grief of infinite numbers of people for him, in regard of his great virtues and good service which he had done to the Commonwealth, gave Maximus●it ●it occasion to practise the Emperor's destruction, and that by this means: He set on two of Actius most faithful followers, partly by laying before them the unworthy death of their master, and partly by presents and rewards, to kill the Emperor; which they performed as he was sitting on his seat of judgement in the sight of the whole multitude; among whom there was not one found that would oppose himself to Maximus in his defence, save one of his Eunuches, who stepping betwixt to save his life, lost his own: and the amazement of the whole City with this sudden accident was so great, that Maximus having revenged himself thus upon the Emperor, without much ado not only seized upon the Empire, but also upon the Empress Eudoxia, and that against her will, to be his wife (for his own died but a little before:) Now the Empress, not able to endure so vile an indignity (being above measure passionate with grief and desire of revenge) conspired his destruction on this manner: She sent secretly into Africa to solicit and request most instantly Gensericus King of the Vandals, by prayers mingled with presents, to come to deliver her and the City of Rome from the cruel tyranny of Maximus, and to revenge the thrice unjust murder of her husband Valentinian; adding moreover, that he was bound to do no less, in consideration of the league of friendship which by oath was confirmed betwixt them. Gensericus well pleased with these news, laid hold upon the offered occasion, which long time he had more wished than hoped for, and forthwith (being already tickled with hope of a great and inestimable booty) rigged his ships and made ready his army by Sea, launching forth with three hundred thousand men, Vandals and Moors, and with this huge fleet made strait for Rome. Maximus mean while mistrusting no such matter, especially from those parts, was sore affrighted at the sudden brute of their coming; and not yet understanding the full effect of the matter, perceiving the whole City to be in dismay, and that not only the common people, but also the Nobility had for fear forsaken their houses, and fled to the Mountains or Forests for safety: he I say destitute of succour, took himself also to his heels, as his surest refuge; but all could not serve to rid him from the just vengeance of God prepared for him, for the murders which he had been cause of: for certain Senators of Rome, his private and secret foes, Mandate. 6. lib. 2. cap. 8. finding him alone in the way of his flight, and remembering their old quarrels, fell upon him suddenly and felled him down with stones, and after mangled him in pieces, and threw his body into Tiber. Three days after arrived Gensericus with all his forces, and entering Rome, found it naked of all defence, and left to his own will and discretion: where (albeit he professed himself to be a Christian) yet he showed more pride and cruelty, and less pity than either Attila or Allaricus, two heathen Kings: For having given his soldiers the pillage of the City, they not only spoiled all private houses, but also the Temples and Monasteries in most cruel and riotous manner. All the best and beautifullest things of the City they took away, and carried a huge multitude of people prisoners to Africa, amongst the which was Eudoxia the Empress (with her two daughters Eudocia and Placidia) who was the cause of all this calamity; but her treachery saved not herself nor them from thraldom. And thus was Rome sacked and destroyed more than ever it was before; insomuch, that the Roman Empire could never Treason, lib. 2. cap. 3. after recover itself, but decayed every day, and grew worse and worse. These were the calamities which the adultery of Valeutinian brought upon himself and many others, to his own destruction, and the utter ruin of the whole Empire. Childericke King of France, son to Merouce, for laying siege to the chastity Paulus Aemil. Nic. Gil. of many great Ladies of his Realm, the Princes and Barons conspired against him, and drove him to fly for his life. Eleonor the wife to King Lewis of France (he that first cut through the Paulus Aemil. sea surrowes towards Jerusalem, against the Turks and Saracens) would needs courageously follow her husband in that long and dangerous voyage; but how? Marry, whilst he travailed night and day in peril of his life, she lay at Antioch bathing herself in all delights, and that more licentiously than the reputation or duty of a married woman required: wherefore being had in suspicion, and evil reported of for her lewd behaviour, it was thought meet that she should be divorced from the King under pretence of consanguinity, to the end she should not altogether be defamed. The fair daughters of Philip the fair King of France escaped not at so Fulgos. li. 6. c. 1. good a rate: for the King as soon as he smelled out the haunt of their unchastity, caused them to be apprehended and imprisoned presently: howbeit one of them (namely, the Countess of Poitiers) her innocency being known, was set at liberty, and the other two (to wit, the Queen of Navarre, and the wife of john de le March) being found guilty by proof, were adjudged to perpetual imprisonment: and the Adulterers (two brethren of the country of Anjou) with whom these Ladies had often lain, were first cruelly slain, and after hanged. Charles, son of the aforesaid Philip the fair, had to wife the daughter of Froiss. vol. 1. cap. 22. the Earl of Artois, that also offended in the like case, and in recompense received this dishonour and ignominy to be divorced, and put in prison, and to see him married to another before her face. In the reign of Charles the sixth there befell a notable and memorable Frois. Vol. 3. cap. 45. accident, which was this: one jaques le Grissel, of the Country of Alencon being enamoured with a Lady no less fair than honourable, the wife of the Lord of Carouge, came upon a day when he knew her husband to be from home, to her house; and feigning as if he had some secret message to unfold unto her on her husband's behalf (for their familiarity was so great) Rape, lib. 2. cap. 19 entered with her all alone into a most secret chamber, where as soon as he had gotten her, he locked the door, and throwing himself upon her, forced her unto his lust, and afterward saved himself by speedy flight. Her husband at his return understanding the injury and wrong which was done him by this vile miscreant, sought first to revenge himself by justice, and therefore put his cause to be heard by the Parliament of Paris; where being debated, it could not well be decided, because he wanted witnesses to convince the crime, except his own wives words, which could not be accepted: so that the Court, to the end that there might some end be made of their quarrel, ordained a combat betwixt them; which was forthwith performed: for the two duelists entering the lists, fell presently to strokes, and that so eagerly, that in short space the quarrel was decided: the Lord of Carouge, husband of the wronged Lady, remained conqueror, after he had slain his enemy that had wronged him so wickedly and disloyally: the vanquished was forthwith delivered to the hangman of Paris, who dragged him to mount Falcon, and there hanged him. Now albeit this form and custom of deciding controversies hath no ground nor warrant either from humane or divine Law (God having ordained only an Oath to end doubts, where proofs and witnesses fail) yet doubtless the Lord used this as an instrument to bring the treacherous and cruel Adulterer to the deserved punishment and shame, which by denial he thought to escape. A certain Seneschal of Normandy perceiving the vicious and suspicious behaviour of his wife with the Steward of his house, watched them so Fulgos li. 6. c. 1. narrowly, that he took them in bed together; he slew the Adulterer first, and after his wife for not all her pitiful cry for mercy, with innumerable tears for this one fault, and holding up in her arms the children which she had borne unto him, no nor her house and parentage, being sister to Lewis the eleventh then King, could not withhold him from killing her with her companion: Howbeit, King Lewis never made show of anger, or offence for her death. M●ssel●na, the wife of Claudius the Emperor, was a woman of so notable incontinency, that the would contend with the common harlots in filthy Lanq. Chron. pleasure: at last she fell in love with a fair young Gentleman called Silius, and to obtain more commodiously her desire, she caused his wife Sillana to be divorced; and notwithstanding she was wife to the Emperor then living, yet she openly married him; for which cause, after great complaint made to the Emperor by the Nobles, she was worthily put to death. Abusahed King of Fez was with six of his children murdered at once by his Secretary for his wife's sake whom he had abused. And it is not long sithence Paul. jovius, Tom. 2. lib. 38. Sleid. lib. 10. the two Cities Dalmendine and Delmedine were taken from the King of Fez, and brought u●der the Portugals dominion, only for the ravishment of a woman, whom the Governor violently took from her husband to abuse, and was slain for his labour. CHAP. XXIX. Other examples like unto the former. Marry of Arragon, wife to Otho the third, was so unchaste and lascious a woman, and withal barren (for they commonly Munst. Cosmog lib. 3. Casp. Headsman Mist. Ecclesiast. go together) that she could never satisfy her unsatiable lust· she carried about with her continually a young lecher in woman's clothes to attend upon her person, with whom she daily committed filthiness: who being suspected, was in the presence of many, untyred, and found to be a man; for which villainy he was burnt to death. Howbeit the Empress, though pardoned for her fault, returned to her old vomit, and continued her wanton traffic with more than either desired or loved her company: at last she fell in love with the County of Mutina, a gallant man in personage, and too honest to be alured with her stale, though he was often solicited by her: wherefore like a Tugre she accused him to the Emperor (for extreme love converts to extreme hatred if it be crossed of offering to ravish her against her will; for which cause the Emperor Otho caused him to lose his head: but his wife being privy to the innocency of her husband, traversed his cause, and required justice, that though his life was lost, yet his reputation might be preserved: and to prove his innocency, she miraculously handled Iron red with heat without any hurt; which when the Emperor saw, searching out the cause very narrowly he found out his wife's villainy, and for her pains caused her to be burned at a stake, but on the Earl's wife he bestowed great rewards, even four Castles in recompense of her husband, though no reward could countervail that so great a loss. Rodoaldus the eighth King of Lombary being taken in Adultery even in the fact, by the husband of the Adulteress, was slain without delay. Anno Chron. Philip. Melanct lib. 3. 659. In like sort, john Malatesta slew his wife and the Adulterer together, when he took them amidst their embracements. So did one Lodowick, steward of Normandy, kill his wife Carlotta and her lover john Lavernus, as they were in bed together. Hedion in his Chronicle telleth of a Doctor of the Law that loved his Proctor's wife, with whom as he acquainted himself over familiarly and unhonestly, Casp. Headsman part. 4. both at her own house, when her husband was absent, and at a bath in an old woman's house hard by, the Proctor watched their haunt so near, that he caught them naked together in the bath, and so curried the lecherous Doctor with a currycomb, that he scraped out his eyes, and cut off his privy members; so that within three days after he died: his wife he spared, because she was with child, otherwise she should have tasted the same sauce. Another story like unto this he telleth of a Popish Priest, that never left to lay siege to the chastity of an honest Matron, till she condescending to his desire, brought him into the snare, and caused her husband to geld him. I would to God that all that dishonour their profession by filthy actions might be served after the same manner, that there might be fewer bastards and bawds and common strumpets than there are now adays, and that since the fear of God is extinguished in their souls, the fear and certainty of sudden judgements might restrain them. Wolfius Schrenk reported to Martin Luther, how in Vaitland four murders were committed upon the occasion of one Adultery; for whilst the Adulteress strumpet was banqueting with her lovers, her husband came in with a hunting spear in his hand, and struck him through that sat next unto her, and then her also; other two in the mean while leapt down stairs with fear and haste, broke their arms and shortly after died. A certain Cardinal committed daily Adultery with a man's wife, that Theatr. histor. winked and as it were subscribed unto it: wherefore her brother taking this dishonour to his house in evil part, watched when the lecher had promised to come, but upon occasion came not, and in the dark slew his sister and her husband, supposing it to have been the Cardinal: but when he perceived his error, he fled the country for fear of the Law: Howbeit, before his departure he wrought such means, that whom he miss in his purpose of the sword, him he murdered by poison. This judgement is not only for Adulterers, but for Wittols also, that yield their consents to the dishonouring of their own wives; a monstrous kind of creatures, and degenerate not only from the law of humanity, but of nature also. Martin Luther hath left recorded in his writings many examples of judgements on this sin, but especially upon Clergy men, whose profession as it requireth a more strict kind of conversation, so their sins and judgements were more notorious, both in their own natures, and in the eye and opinion of the world, some of which, as it is not amiss to insert in this place, so it is not unnecessary to believe them, proceeding from the mouth of so worthy a witness. There was (saith he) a man of great authority and learning, that forsaking his secular life, betook himself into the College of Priests (whether Luther in Epist. consolat ad Lucum Cranach. of devotion, or of hope of liberty to sin, let them judge that read this history) this new adopted Priest fell in love with a Mason's wife, whom he so wooed, that he got his pleasure of her; and what fitter time but when Mass was singing did he daily choose for the performing of his villainy? In this haunt he persisted a long season, till the Mason finding him in bed with his wife, did not summon him to law nor penance, but took a shorter course and cut his throat. Another Nobleman in Thuringa being taken in adultery, was murdered after this strange fashion by the Adulteresses husband; he bound him Luther. hand and foot and cast him into prison; and to quench his lust, seeing that Ceres, that is, gluttony, is the fuel of Venus, that is, lust, denied him all manner of sustenance, and the more to augment his pain, set hot dishes of meat before him, that the smell and sight thereof might more provoke his appetite, and the want thereof torment him more. In this torture the wretched lecher abode so long, until he gnew off the flesh from his own shoulders, and the eleventh day of his imprisonment ended his life. His punishment was most horrible, and too too severe in respect of the inflicter, yet most just in respect of God, whose custom is to proportion his judgements to the quality of the sin that is committed. Luther affirmeth this to have happened in his childhood, and that both the parties were known unto him by name, which for honour and charity sake he would not disclose. There was another nobleman that so delighted in lust, and was so inordinate in his desires, that he shamed not to say, that if his life of pleasure, Luther. Mandate. 1. Atheism, Lib. 1. cap. 25. and passing from harlot to harlot might endure ever, he would not care for heaven or life eternal. What cursed madness and impiety is this? a man to be so forgetful of his Maker and himself, that he preferred his whores before his Saviour, and his filthy pleasure before the grace of God? Doth it not deserve to be punished with Scorpions? Yes verily, as it was indeed; for the polluted wretch died amongst his strumpets, being strucken with a sudden stroke of God's vengeance. In the year 1505. a certain Bishop well seen in all learning and eloquence, and especially skilful in languages, was notwithstanding so filthy in his conversation, that he shamed not to defile his body and name with many adulteries: but at length he was slain by a Cobbler, whose wife he had often corrupted, being taken in bed with her, and so received a due reward of his filthiness. In the year of our Lord 778. Kenulphus King of the West Saxons in Britain, as he usually haunted the company of a certain harlot which he Lanquet. Chr. kept at Merton, was slain by one Clito the kinsmun of Sigebert that was late King. Sergus a King of Scotland was so foul a drunkard and glutton, and so outrageously given to harlots, that he neglected his own wife, and drove The same. her to such penury, that she was fain to serve other noble-women for her living; wherefore she murdered him in his bed, and after slew herself also. Arichbertus elder son unto Lotharius King of France, died even as he was embracing his whores. In sum to conclude this matter, our English Chronicles report, that in the year of our Lord 349, there was so great a plenty of corn and fruit in Britain, that the like had not been seen many years before: but this was the cause of much idleness, gluttony, lechery, and other vices in the land: (For usually case and prosperity are the nurses of all enormity:) but the Lord requited this their riotous and incontinent life with so great a pestilence and mortality, that the living scantly sufficed to bury the dead. Petrarch maketh mention of a certain Cardinal, that though he was Petrarch. seventy years old, yet every night, would have a fresh whore, and to this end had certain bawds purveyors and providers of his trash: but he died a miserable and wretched death. And Martin Luther reported, that a bishop being a common frequenter of the stews in Hidelberg, came to this mistrable end; the boards of the chamber whither he used to enter went loosened, that as soon as he came in he slipped through and broke his neck. But above all, that which we find written in the second book of Fincelius job Fincel. Lib. 2. is most strange and wonderful, of a priest in Albenthewer, a town near adjoining to Gaunt in Flanders, that persuaded a young maid to reject and disobey all her parents godly admonitions, and to become his concubine: when she objected how vile a sin it was, and how contrary to the Law of God, he told her, that by the authority of the Pope, he could dispense with any wickedness, were it never so great, and further alleged the discommodities of marriage, and the pleasure that would arise from that kind of life: in fine, he conquered her virtuous purpose, and made her yield unto his filthy lust. But when they had thus pampered their desires together a while, in came the devil, and would needs conclude the play: for as they were banqueting with many such like companions, he took her away from the Priest's side, and notwithstanding her pitiful crying and all their exorcising and conjuring, carried her quite away, telling the Priest that very shortly he would, fetch him also, for he was his own darling. I may not here pass over in silence an Irish history, famous both for Holinshed. notorious villainy, and excellent in justice; wherein we may see by the adultery of one filthy Friar occasion given not only of much bloodshed, but of the ruin of a famous City, called Rosse, situate in Leinster. This City being first an unwalled town, was (to prevent the sudden invasion of the Irish) compassed about with a large and strong wall, by the advice and charges of one Rose, a chaste widow and bountiful Gentlewoman: This Rose had issue three sons, who being bolstered out by their mother's wealth and their own traffic, made divers prosperous voyages into far countries: but as one of the three chapmen was employed in his traffic abroad, so the pretty poppet his wise began to play the harlot at home, and that with none but a fat religious cloisterer of the town: they wallowed so long in this stinking puddle, that suspicion began to creep into men's brains, and from suspicion the matter was so apparent, that it grew to plain proof: her unfortunate husband was no sooner come home, but notice hereof was blown in his ears, so that with grief and anger he grew (for such is the nature of jealousy) almost stark mad; and not only he, but the whole town took themselves as extremely wronged by this shameful fact: whereupon divers of them conspiring together, agreed (as being a deed of charity) to grub away such wild shrubs from the town, and so flocking together in the dead of the night to the Abbey, wherein this Fryet was cloistered (the monument of which Abbey is yet to be seen at Rosse on the South side) they undersparred the gates, and breaking open the doors, stabbed the Adulterer, with the rest of the Covent, through with their weapons; where they left them goring in their blood, and gasping up their ghosts in their couches: a cruel act, I must needs confess, in the executioners; who being carried away with private revenge, had no measure in their cruelty; but yet a just vengeance upon the executed, that harboured and maintained so wretched a person: but secret and deep are the judgements of God, who punisheth one sin with another, and maketh one wicked man a rod to plague another, and after casteth the rod also into the fire: for so did he here; stirring up the rest of the Clergy to be a means to punish this cruelty: for when as these three brethren not long after sped themselves into some far country to continue their trade, the religious men being informed of their return homeward, every night did not miss to set a lantorne on the top of a high rock (which was used to be set upon the Hulk tower, a notable mark for Pilots, in directing them which way to stern their Ships, and to eschew the danger of the rocks, which are there very plentiful) and so by this practice these three passengers bearing sail with a good wind, made right upon the lantorne, supposing it had been the Hulk tower, and so ere they were aware their Ship was dashed upon the rocks, and all the passengers over-whirled in the Sea. And thus was Adultery punished with cruelty, and cruelty with treason: but see the end; upon this there grew so great quarrels and discontentments between the townsmen and the religious, the one cursing the other, that the estate of that flourishing town was turned upside down, and from abundance of prosperity, quite exchanged to extreme penury. CHAP. XXX. More examples of the same argument. I Cannot pass over in silence a history truly tragical, touching the death of many men, who by reason of an Adultery slew one another in most strange and cruel manner, and indeed so strangely, that (as far as I ever read or knew) there was never the like particular deed heard of, wherein God more evidently poured forth the stream of his displeasure, turning the courage and valour of each part into rage and fury, to the end that by their own means he might be revenged on them. In the Dukedom of Spaleto, which is the way from Ancona to Rome (of the ancient Latins called Umbria) there were three brethren, who kept in their possession three Cities of the said Dukedom, namely Faligno, Nocera, and Trevio: the eldest of whom, whose surname was Nicholas, as he passed from one town to the other, being at Nocera, lodged divers times in the Castle in the keepers and Captain's house, whom he had there substituted to defend the place with an ordinary band of soldiers. Now as he made his abode there a few days, he grew to cast a more lascivious eye upon the Captain's wife than was meet, and from looking fell to lusting after her; in such sort, that in short space he got very privy and familiar acquaintance with her, and oftentimes secret and suspicious meetings: which being perceived by her husband, he after watched so narrowly their haunts, that once he spied them together without being seen of them: nevertheless, digesting and swallowing up this sorrow with silence, and without giving forth any tokens thereof, he consulted in himself to revenge the injury by the death and rasing out, not only of the Adulterer, but also of the whole race and fraternity. Now when he had hampered this enterprise, and laid forth the plot thereof in his head, he dispatched presently a messenger to the three Gentlemen brethren, to invite them against the next day to the hunting of the fairest wild Boar that was this many a day seen in the forests of Nocera. Signior Nicholas failed not to come at the time appointed, accompanied with Duke Camerino, who desired to be one of this jolly crew: they supped in the town, but lodged in the castle, where being at rest, about midnight the Captain rushed into his chamber with the greatest part of his guard, and there handled Signior Nicholas on this manner; he first cut off his privy members, as being principal in the offence, than thrust him through on both sides with a spear, next plucked out his heart, and lastly, tore the rest of his body into a thousand pieces. As for the Duke Camerino, he shut him up in a deep and dark dungeon with all the strangers of his retinue. At day break another of the brethren called Caesar, that lay that night in the town, was sent for to come and speak with his brother, and as soon as he was entered into the Court of the Castle, seven or eight of the guard bound him and his followers, and carried him into the chamber where his dead brother lay chopped as small as flesh to the pot, and there murdered him also. Conrade the third brother, being by reason of a Marriage absent from this feast, when he received the report of these pitiful news, gathered together a band of men from all quarters, and with them (assisted with the friends and allies of the Duke Camerino then prisoner) laid siege to the Castle, they battered the walls, made a breach, and gave the assault of entrance, and were manfully resisted five hours long, till the defendants being but thirty or forty men at the most, not able to stand any longer in defence, were forced to retire and lay open way of entrance to the enemy: then began a most horrible butchery of men; for Conrade, having won the fort, first hewed them in pieces that stood in resistance, then finding the Captain's father, slew him, and cast him piecemeal to the dogs; some he tied to the tails of wild horses, to be drawn over hedges, ditches, thorns, and briers; others he pinched with hot Irons, and so burnt them to death: which when the Captain from the top of the dungeon where he had saved himself, beheld, he took his wife whom he held there prisoner, and binding her hand and foot, threw her headlong from the top of the tower upon the pavement: which the soldiers perceiving, put fire to the tower, so that he was constrained through heat and smoke (himself, his brother, and his little child) to sally down the same way which he had taught his wife a little before to go, and so all three broke their necks: their carcases were cast out to be meat for Wolves, as unworthy of humane sepulture. And this was the catastrophe of that woeful tragedy, where by the occasion of one Adultery (so heavy is the curse of God upon that sin) a number of men came to their ends. In the histories of our time we find recorded a fearful story of many murders springing from one Adultery, together with the hand of God upon the Adulterers themselves; the story is this: an Advocate of Grass in Provence, called Tolonio, that having the managing of the affairs of the Signior of Chabrye, and by that means familiar access to him and his Lady, by this familiarity alured the Lady, who was then forty years old, and had four children, to his filthy lust: and being plunged into this gulf, Satan did thrust them headlong into others: for first they practised and performed the massacre of her husband, walking in his Warren, by two murderers suborned to that end: and secondly, when her eldest son seemed to dislike her wicked behaviour with the Advocate, they also wrought his death, by losing certain boards in a gallery, where he used ordinarily to walk, so that as soon as he set his foot on these disjointed boards, he fell down headlong, and had his brains beaten out. And thirdly, when her younger son showed his discontent to their brutish conversation, yet nothing misdoubted them to be guilty of the former parricides, these wicked wretches resolved to prevent him also, lest he should interrupt their resolved filthiness. Wherefore they hired a murderer to make him away; who watching his opportunity, thrust him headlong down a steep rock, so that he was at the bottom sooner slain than he felt the murderer. After all this, these two miserable wretches, finding that they were observed by all men, and noted, did practise to marry together: but there was one betwixt them, namely the Advocate's wife; wherefore they conspired her death to make up the mess, and indeed the villainous lecher, her husband, lying one night by her, strangled her with a napkin; and then cried out with a loud voice for help, pretending that a catarrh had suffocated her in her sleep. But for all his cunning, the father of his wife mistrusted her death to be violent, and caused him to be strictly examined upon the same; who presently by silence bewrayed his guilty conscience, and after without torture confessed both his fact, and all the murders before mentioned: for which he was condemned to be quartered alive in the market place of Grass, where he dwelled, and where his murders were committed. As for that cruel Lady his associate, because she could not be found, being fled the country, she was condemned by contempt, and executed in picture. But though she escaped the hand of justice among men, yet the hand of God pursued her: for flying to Genoa, she was first robbed by a servant of all she had, and after being constrained to serve an old widow, and to teach her daughters, being tormented with the sting of her own conscience, within short space died in great misery. In the time of Pope Stephen the eighth, there was a varlet Priest that was Chaplain in the house of a marquis of Italy, who although he was very Luth. prand. lib. 5. cap. 15. mishapen and evil favoured, yet was entertained of the Lady marquis his mistress to her bed, and made her paramour: upon a night as he was going to lie with her according to his wont (his Lord being from home) behold a dog barked so fiercely, leaping and biting at him, that all the servants of the house being awaked ran thitherward, and finding this gallant in the snare, took him, and for all his bald crown stripped him naked, and cut off clean his privy and adulterous parts: and thus was this lecherous Priest served. Pope john the thirteenth, a man as of wicked conversation in all things▪ Luth. prand. lib. 6. cap. 6. so especially abominable in whoredoms and adultery, which good conditions whilst he pursued, he was one day taken tardy in the plain fields, whither he went to disport himself; for he was found in the act of adultery, and slain forthwith: and these are the godly fruits of those single life-lovers, to whom the use of marriage is counted unlawful, and therefore forbidden, but Adultery not once prohibited nor disallowed. CHAP. XXXI. Of such as are divorced without cause: BY these and such like judgements, it pleaseth God to make known unto men how much he desireth to have the estate of marriage maintained and preserved in the integrity, and how much every one ought to take heed how to deprave or corrupt the same: now then to proceed. If it be a sin to take away, ravish, or entice to folly another man's wife, shall we not think it an equal sin for a husband to forsake his wife, and cast her off to take another, she having not disannulled and canceled the bond of marriage by adultery? Yes verily; for as concerning the permission of divorce to the Israelites under the law, our Saviour himself expoundeth the meaning and intent thereof in the Gospel, to be nothing else Matt. 19 but a toleration for the hardness and stubbornness of their hearts, and not a constitution from the beginning; upon which occasion speaking of marriage, and declaring the right and strength of the same; he saith, That whosoever putteth away his wife, except it be for adultery, and marrieth another, committeth adultery; and he that marrieth her that is put away, committeth adultery also. All which notwithstanding the great men of this world let lose themselves to this sin too licentiously, as it appeareth by many examples: as of Antiochus Theos, son of Antiochus Soter, King of Syria, who to the end to go with Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, and marry his daughter Bernice, cast off his wife Laodicea, that had borne him children, and took Bernice to be his wife: but ere long he rejected her also, and betrayed her to her enemies (namely his son Callinicus) who slew her with one of her sons, and all that belonged unto her: and then he took again his old wife, for which cause Ptolemie Euergetes (son to Philadelphus) renewed war upon him. Herod the Tetrarch was so bewitched with the love of Herodias his brother Joseph. of the Jewish antiquity, lib. 18. cap. 7. 9 Philip's wife, that, to the end he might enjoy her, he disclaimed his lawful wife, and sent her home to her father King Aretas; who being touched and nettled with this indignity and disgrace, sought to revenge himself by arms: and indeed made so hot war upon him, and charged his army so furiously, that it was discomfited by him: after which shameful loss, he was by the Emperor Caligula's commandment banished to Lions, there to end the residue of his days. Among the Romans Marcus Antonius was noted for the most dissolute and impudent in this case of divorce, for albeit that in the beginning of his Plutarch. triumvirship he forsook his first wife to marry Octavius his sister, yet he proceeded further, not content herewith, but must needs forsake her also, to be with Cleopatra the Queen of Egypt, from whence sprung out many great evils, which at length fell upon his own head, to his final ruin and destruction: for when he saw himself in such straits, that no means could be found to resist Octavius, be sheathed with his own hands his sword into his bowels, when all his servants being requested, refused to perform the same; and being thus wounded, he fell upon a little bed, entreating those that were present, to make an end of his days; but they all fled and left him in the chamber crying and tormenting himself, until such time that he was conveyed to the monument wherein Cleopatra was enclosed, that he might die there. Cleopatra seeing this pitiful spectacle, all amazed let down chains and cords from the high window, and with the help of her two maids drew him up into the monument, uniting their forces, and doing what they could to get his poor carcase, though by a shameful and undecent manner, for the gate was locked and might not be opened; and it was a lamentable sight to see his poor body all besmeared with blood, and breathing now his last blast (for he died as soon as he came to the top) to be drawn up on that cruel fashion. As for Cleopatra, who by her flattering allurements ravished the heart of this miserable man, and was cause of his second divorce, she played her true part also in this woeful tragedy, and as she partaked of the sin, so she did of the punishment: For after she saw herself past hope of help, and her sweetheart dead, she beat her own breasts, and tormented herself so much with sorrow, that her bosom was bruised, and half murdered with her blows, and her body in many places exulcerate with inflammations: she pulled off her hair, rend her face with her nails, and altogether infrensied with grief, melancholy, and distress, was found fresh dead, with her two maids lying at her f●●t: and this was the miserable end of those two, who for enjoying of a few foolish and cursed pleasures together, received in exchange infinite torments and vexations; and at length, unhappy deaths together in one and the same place: verifying the old proverb, For one pleasure a thousand dolours. Charles the eighth, King of France, after he had been long time married to the daughter of the King of the Romans, sister to the Archduke of Austria, Philip. de come. was so evil advised as to return her home again upon no other occasion but to marry the Duchess of Britain, the sole heir to her father's Dukedom: wherein he doubly injured his father in law the Roman King; for he did not only reject his daughter, but also deprived him of his wife the Duchess of Britain, whom by his substitute (according to the manner of great Princes) he had first espoused. Bembus in his Venetian history Bembus. handling this story, somewhat mollifieth the fault, when he saith that the Roman King's daughter was never touched by King Charles in the way of marriage all the while she was there, by reason of her unripe and overyoung years. After a while, after this new married King had given a hot alarm to all Italy, and conquered the Realm of Naples; as the Venetians were deliberating to take the matter in hand of themselves, and to resist him, Maximilian the Roman King solicited them in the same, and thrust them forward, as well that he might confederate himself with the Duke of Milan, as that he might revenge the injury touching his repelled daughter: so that by this means the French K. was fore troubled at his return, having to withstand him all the Venetian forces, with the most part of the Potentates of Italy: notwithstanding he broke through them all, after he had put the Venetians to the worst: but being returned after this victorious and Phil. de Com. triumphant voyage, it happened that one day as he led the Queen to the Castle of Amboise, to see some some sport at Tenise, he struck his forehead against the upper door-poste of the gallery, as he went in, that he fell presently to the ground speechless, and died incontinently in the place, Surs●vil. from whence (though the filthiest and sluttishest place about the Castle) they removed not his body, but laid it on a bed of straw to the view of the world from two of the clock in the afternoon till eleven at midnight, and this good success followed at last his so much desired divorce. CHAP. XXVII. Of those that either cause or authorize unlawful Divorcements. ALthough the Commandment of our Saviour Christ be very plain and manifest, That man should not separate Matth. 19 those whom God hath joined together, yet there are some so void of understanding and judgement, that they make no conscience to dissolve those that by the bond of marriage are united: Of which number was Sampsons' father in Law, who took his daughter, first Judges 15. given in marriage to Samson, and gave her to another; without any other reason, save that he suspected that Samson loved her not. But what got he by it? Marry this; the Philistims provoked against him, consumed him and his daughter with fire, because that by the means of his injury Samson had burned their corn, their vineyards and their olive-trees. After the same sort dealt Saul with David, when he gave him his daughter 1 Sam. 25. Michol to Wife, and afterward in despite and hatred of him took her away again, and bestowed her upon another: wherein, as in many other things, he showed himself a wicked and profane man, and was worthily punished therefore, as hath been before declared. Hugh Spencer, one of King Edward of England's chiefest favourites, insomuch Frois. Vol. 1. that his ear and heart was at his pleasure, was he that first persuaded the King to forsake and repudiate the Queen his Wife (daughter to Philip the Fair, King of France) upon no other occasion, but only to satisfy his own appetite, and the better to follow his delights: And thus by this means she was chased out of England, and driven to retire to King Charles her brother; where hoping to find rest and refuge, she was deceived: for what by the crafts and practices of the English, and what by the Pope's authority (who thrust himself into this action, as his custom is) she was constrained to dislodge herself, and to change her country very speedily: wherefore from thence she went to crave succour of the County of Henault, who furnished her with certain forces, and sent her towards England: where being arrived, and finding the people generally at her command, and ready to do her service, she set upon her enemy Hugh Spencer, took him prisoner, and put him to a shameful death, as he well deserved: for he was also the causer of the deaths of many of the Nobles of the Realm: therefore he was drawn through the streets of Hereford upon an hurdle, and after his privy members, his heart, and head, were cut off, his four quarters were exalted in four several places, to the view of the world. Now if these be found guilty, that either directly make, or indirectly Guicciar. l. 4. procure divorcements, shall we accuse them that allow and authorise the same, without lawful and just occasion? No verily, no though they be Popes that take it upon them: as we read Pope Alexander the sixth did, who for the advancement of his haughty desires, to gratify and flatter, Lewis the twelfth, King of France, sent him by his son a dispensation to put away his Wife, daughter to King Lewis the eleventh, because she was barren and counterfeit, and to recontract Anne of Bretaigne, the widow of Charles the eighth lately deceased. But herein, though barrenness of the former was pretended, yet the Duchy of the later was aimed at, which before this time he could never attain unto. But of what force and virtue this dispensation by right was, or at least ought to be, it is easy to perceive, seeing it is not only contrary to the words of the Gospel, Matth. 19 but also to their own decrees, secund. part. quest. 7. Hi qui matrimonium: where in is imported, that marriage ought not to be infringed for any default or imperfection, no not of nature. But Popes may maim and clip both the Word of God and all other writings, and do what soever themselves liketh, be it good or bad. CHAP. XXXIII. Of Incestuous persons. ALthough Incest be a wicked and abominable sin, and forbidden both by the Law of God and man, in so much that the very heathen held it in detestation, yet are there some so inordinately vicious and dissolute, that they blush not once to pollute themselves with this filthiness, Reuben the Patriarch was one of this Gen. 35. vile crew, that shamed not to defile himself with Bilha his father's concubine; but he was cursed for his labour: for whereas by right of eldership and birth he ought to have had a certain prerogative and authority over his brethren, his excellency shed itself Gen. 49. like water, and he was surpassed by his brethren both in increase of progeny and renown. Ammon one of King David's sons was so strongly 2 Sam. 13. enchanted with the love of his sister Thamar, that to the end to fulfil his lust, he traitorously forced her to his will: but Absalon her natural brother (hunting for opportunity of revenge for this indignity towards his sister) Rape. Lib. 2. cap. 21. invited him two years after to a banquet with his other brethren, and after the same, caused his men to murder him for a farewell. The same Absalon that slew Amnon for Incest with his sister, committed himself incest with his father's concubines, moved thereto by the wicked 2 Sam. 16. counsel of Achitophel, that advised him to that infamous deed of defiling his father's bed: but it was the forerunner of his overthrow, as we have already heard. Divers of the Roman Empetours were so villainous and wretched, as to Suct. Lamprid. make no bones of this sin with their own sisters, as Caligula, Antonius, and Commodus: and some with their mothers, as Nero, so much was he given over and transported to all licentiousness. Plutarch telleth us of one Cyanippus, that being overcome with wine, deflowered Oros. l. 7. c. 4. his own daughter Cyane, but he was slain of her for his labour. Neither do I think it so unnatural a part for her to kill her father, as in him to commit incest with his own daughter: for the Oracle lessened, or rather approved her fault, when it abhorred and chastened his crime: for when Syracuse was grievously infected with the pestilence, it was pronounced by the Oracle, That the plague should continue till the wicked person was sacrificed: which dark speech when no man knew, Cyane haled her father by the head to the Altar; telling them, that he was that wicked person pointed at by the Oracle, and there sacrificed him with her own hands, killing herself also with the same knife, that her innocency might be witnessed even by her blood. Thus it pleased God even among the idolatrous heathen, to execute justice and judgement upon the earth, though by the means of the devil himself, who is the author of all such villainy. Valeria Thusculana was in love with her own father, and under colour of another maid got to lie with him: which as soon as he understood, he slew Plutarch. himself in detestation of his own ignorant abomination and wickedness: nay, so monstrous and horrible is this sin, even in the sight of man, that Nausimenes (a woman of Athens) taking her own son and daughter together, Valerius. was so amazed and grieved therewith, that she never spoke word after that time, but remained dumb all the rest of her life time: as for the incestors themselves, they lived not, but became murderers of their own lives. Papyrius a Roman, got with child his own sister Canusia: which when their father understood, he sent each of them a sword, wherewith they slew themselves. But above all, the vengeance of God is most apparent in the punishment Zodar. lib. 3. of Heraclius the Emperor, who to his notorious wickednesses, heresies, persecutions, and paganism, he added this villainy, to defile carnally his Paul. Diac. l. 18 own sister; so to his notorious punishments (the Saracens sword, dropsy, and the ruin of the Empire) the Lord added this infamous and cruel judgement, that he could not give passage to his urine, but it would fly into his face, had not a pentise been applied to his belly to beat it downward. And this last plague was proper to his last sin; wherein the very member which he had abused, sought revenge of him that had abused it; for that he had confounded nature, and most wickedly sinned against his own flesh. Agathias writing of the manners of the Persians, reporteth, That certain Agathias. Philosophers coming out of Egypt into Greece, where they had seen all manner of unnatural mixtures, found the carcase of a man without sepulchre; which when in charity they buried, the next day it was found unburied again: and as they went about to bury it the second time, a spirit appeared unto them, and forbade them to do it; saying, that it was unworthy that honour, seeing that when it lived he had committed incest with his own mother. A notable story, showing that the very earth abhorreth this monstrous confusion of nature: the truth whereof let it lie upon the Author's credit. Most abominable was the incest of Artaxerxes King of Persia; for first he took to himself Aspasia his brother Cyrus' concubine, having overcome Herodot. lib. 9 him in war; and afterward gave the same Aspasia to his own son Darius to wife; from whom, after carnal knowledge, he took her again, committing incest upon incest, and that most unnaturally: but mark how the Lord punished all this; first, Darius his eldest son was put to death for treason; then Othus (succeeding in the inheritance) slew Arsame another of his brethren; and albeit Artaxerxes himself died without note of judgement, yet his seed after him was punished for his offence; for so miserable a calamity pursued them all, that in the second generation not one was left to sit upon his throne. Now to teach us how execrable and monstrous this kind of sin is, and how much to be abhorred of all men, the example of a bruit beast may stand in stead of a lesson for us; it being so worthy of remembrance, that I thought meet to make rehearsal of it in this place. It is reported by Varro Varro. a learned and grave Writer (whom S. Augustine often commendeth in his Lib. 2. de Rerustica, cop. 7. book de Civitate Dei) of a certain horse which by no means could be brought to cover a mare that was his dam, until by hiding her head they beguiled his senses: but after when he perceived their guile, and knew his dam being uncovered, he ran so furiously upon the keeper with his teeth, that incontinently he tore him in pieces. Truly a miraculous thing, and no doubt divinely caused, to reprove the enormous and too unruly lusts of men. CHAP. XXXIV. Of effeminate persons, Sodomites, and other such like Monsters. SArdanapalus King of Assyria was so lascivious and effeminate, that to the end to set forth his beauty, he shamed not to Frog. lib. 1. paint his face with ointments, and to attire his body with the habits and Ornaments of women, and on that manner Cic. lib. 5. Tusc. quest. to sit and lie continually among whores, and with them to commit all manner of filthiness and villainy: wherefore being thought unworthy to bear rule over men, first Arbaces his lieutenant rebelled; then the Medes and Baby lonians revolted, and jointly made war upon him, till they vanquished and put him to flight: and in his flight he returned to a tower in his palace, which (moved with grief and despair) he set on fire, and was consumed therein. Such like was the impudent lasciviousness of two unworthy Emperors, Commodus and Heliogabolus, who laying aside all Imperial gravity, showed Lamprid. themselves oftentimes publicly in woman's attire; an act as in nature monstrous, so very dishonest and ignominious: but like as these cursed monsters ran too much out of frame in their unbridled lusts and affections, so there wanted not many that hastened and emboldened themselves to conspire their destruction, as unworthy in their judgements to enjoy the benefit of this light: wherefore to one of them poison was ministered, and when that would take no effect, strangling came in the room thereof, and brought him to his end▪ the other was slain in a jakes where he hid himself, and his body (drawn like carrion through the streets) found no better sepulchre than the dunghill. Touching those abominable wretches of Sodom and Gomorrah which Gen. 19 gave themselves over with all violence, and without all shame and measure, to their infamous lusts, polluting their bodies with unnatural sins, God sent upon them an unnatural rain, not of water, but of fire and brimstone, to burn and consume them, that were so hot and fervent in their cursed vices: so that they were quite rooted and raked out of the earth, and their Cities and habitations destroyed, yea and the very soil that bore them, made desolate and fruitless; and all this by fire, whose smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace: yea and in sign of a further curse for to be a witness and a mark of this terrible judgement, the earth and face of that country continueth still parched and withered: and (as josephus saith) whereas before it was a most plentiful and fertile soil, and as it were an earthly paradise, bedecked with five gallant Cities; now it lieth desert, unhabitable, and barren, yielding fruit in show, but such as being touched, turneth to cinders. In a word, the wrath of God is so notoriously and fearfully manifested therein, that when the holy Ghost would strike a terror into the most wicked, he threateneth them with this like punishment, saying: The Lord will rain upon each wicked one, Psal. 11. 6. Fire, snares, and brimstone, for their portion. Howbeit this maketh not but that still there are too many such monsters in the World, so mightily is it corrupted and depraved: neither is it any marvel, seeing that divers Bishops of Rome, that take upon them to be Christ's Vicars, and Peter's successors, are infected with this filthy contagion: As namely, Pope julius the third, whose custom was to promote none to Ecclesiastical livings save only his buggers: Amongst whom was one Innocent, whom this holy father (contrary to the Suffrages of the whole College) would needs make Cardinal: nay, the unsatiable and monstrous lust of this beastly and stinking goat was so extraordinary, that he could not abstain from many Cardinals themselves. john de la Casae, a Florentine by birth, and by office Archbishop of Benevento, and Deane of his Apostatical chamber, was his Legate and Intelligencer in all the Venetian Signories▪ a man equal, or rather worse than himself; and such a one, as whose memory ought to be accursed of all posterity, for that detestable book which he composed in commendation and praise of Sodomy; and was so shameless, nay rather possessed with some devilish and unclean spirit, as to divulgate it to the view of the world. Here you may see (poor souls) the holiness of those whom you so much reverence, and upon whom you build your belief and religion: you see their brave and excellent virtues, and of what esteem their laws and ordinances ought to be amongst you. Now touching the end that this holy father made, it is declared in the former book among the rank of Atheists, where we placed him. And albeit that he and such like villains please their own humours with their abominations, and approve and clear themselves therein, yet are they rewarded by death, not only by the law of God, but also by the law of julia. Levit. 20. When Charlemaigne reigned in France, there happened a most notable judgement of God upon the Monks of S. Martin in Tours, for their disordinate lusts: they were men whose food was too much and dainty, whose case was too easy, and whose pleasures were too immoderate, being altogether addicted to pastimes and merriments: in their apparel they went clad in silk like great Lords; and (as Nichol. Gill. in his first Volume of Nic. Gil. Vol. 1. French Chronicles saith) their shoes were gilded over with Gold, so great was the supper fluity of their riches and pride: in sum, their whole life was luxurious and infamous: for which cause there came forth a destroying Angel from the Lord (by the report of Budes the Abbot of Clugnie) and slew them all in one night, as the first born of Egypt were slain, save one only person that was preserved, as Lot in Sodom was preserved. This strange accident moved Charlemaigne to appoint a brotherhood of Canons to be in their room, though little better, and as little profitable to their Commonwealth as the former. It is not for nothing that the law of God forbiddeth to lie with a beast, and denounceth death against them that commit this foul sin: for there have been such monsters in the world at some times, as we read in Calius Levit. 18. and Volaterranus, of one Crathes a shepherd, that accompanied carnally Exod. 22. Levit. 20. Deut. 27. with a she Goat; but the Buck finding him sleeping, offended and provoked with this strange action, ran at him so furiously with his horns, that he left him dead upon the ground. God that opened an Ass' mouth to reprove the madness of the false Prophet Balaam, and sent Lions to kill the strange inhabitants of Samaria, employed also this Buck about his service in executing just vengeance upon a wicked varlet. CHAP. XXXV. Of the wonderful evil that ariseth from this greediness of lust. IT is to good reason, that Scripture forbids us to abstain 1 John 2. from the lust of the flesh and the eyes, which is of the world and the corruption of man's own nature; forsomuch as by it we are drawn to evil, it being as it were a corrupt root which sendeth forth most bitter, sour, and rotten fruit and this happeneth not only when the goods & riches of james 1. the world are in quest, but also when a man hunteth after dishonest and unchaste delights: this concupiscence is it that bringeth forth whoredoms, adulteries, and many other such sins, whereout spring forth oftentimes floods of mischiefs, and that divers times by the self-will and inordinate desire of private and particular persons: what did the lawless lust of Potiphars Wife bring upon joseph? Was not his life endangered, and his body Gen. 29. kept in close prison, where he cooled his feet two years or more? We have a most notable example of the miserable end of a certain woman, with the sacking and destruction of a whole City, and all caused by her intemperance and unbridled lust. About the time that the Emperor Phocas was slain by Priscus, one Gysulphus Sabel. (Governor and Chieftain of a Country in Lombary) going out in defence of his Country against the Bavarians (which were certain relics of the Huns) gave them battle, and lost the field and his life withal: Now the Conquerors (pursuing their victory) laid siege to the chief City of his Province, where Romilda his Wife made her abode; who viewing one day from the walls the young and fair King, with yellow curled locks galloping about the City, fell presently so extremely in love with him, that her mind ran of nothing but satisfying her greedy and new conceived lust: wherefore (burying in oblivion the love of her late husband, with her young infants yet living, and her Country, and preferring her own lust before them all) she sent secretly unto him this message, That if he would promise to marry her, she would deliver up the City into his hands: he, well pleased with this gentle offer (through a desire of obtaining the City, which without great bloodshed and loss of men he could not otherwise compass) accepted of it, and was received upon this condition, within the walls: and lest he should seem too perfidious, he performed his promise of marriage, and made her his wife for that one night; but soon after (in scorn and disdain) he gave her up to twelve of his strongest lechers, to glut her unquenchable fire: and finally nailed her on a gibbet, for a final reward of her treacherous and boundless lust. Mark well the misery whereinto this wretched woman threw herself, and not only herself, but a whole City also, by her boiling concupiscence, which so dazzled her understanding, that she could not consider how undecent it was, dishonest, and inconvenient, for a woman to offer herself, nay to solicit a man that was an enemy, a stranger, and one that she had never seen before, to her bed, and that to the utter undoing of herself and all hers. But even thus, many more (whose hearts are passionate with love) are blindfolded after the same sort (like as poetical Cupid is feigned to be) that not knowing what they take in hand, they fall headlong into destruction ere they be aware. Let us then be here advertised to pray unto God that he would purify our drossy hearts, and divert our wand'ring eyes from beholding vanity, to be seduced thereby. CHAP. XXXVI. Of unlawful gestures, Idleness, Gluttony, Drunkenness, Dancing, and other such like dissoluteness. LIke as if we would carry ourselves chastely and uprightly before God, it behoveth us to avoid all filthiness and adultery, so we must abstain from uncivil and dishonest gestures, which are (as it were) badges of concupiscence, and coals to set lust on fire, and instruments to injure others withal. From hence it was, that Pompey caused one of his soldier's Sabel. eyes to be put out in Spain, for thrusting his hand under a woman's garment that was a Spaniard: and for the same or like offence did Sertorius command a footman of his band to be cut in pieces. O that we had in these days such minded captains, that would sharply repress the wrongs and ravishments which are so common and usual amongst men of war at this day, and so uncontrolled! they would not then doubtless be so rise and common as in these days they are. Kissing is no less to be eschewed than the former, if it be not betwixt those that are tied together by some bond of kindred or affinity, as it was by ancient custom of the Medes and Persians, and Romans also; according to the report of Plutarch and Seneca: and that which is more, Tiberius Caesar forbade the often and daily practise thereof in that kind, as a thing not Suet. to be freqented, but rather utterly abhorred, though it be amongst kinsfolks themselves. It was esteemed an indignity among the Grecians, to kiss any maid that was not in blood or assinity allied unto them; as it manifestly appeareth by the earnest suit and request of the wife of Pisistratus the Tyrant of Athens, to put to death a young man for kissing her daughter in Valer. li. 1. c. 5. the streets, as he met her, although it was nothing but love that moved him thereto. Saint Augustine also affirmeth, That he which wantonly kisseth a De civitat. Dei lib. 21. cap. 11. woman that is not his wife, deserveth the whip. It is true, that the holy Scripture often mentioneth kissing, but either betwixt father and child, or brethren or kinsfolks, or at least in a manner of salutation betwixt one another Gen. 27. 45. of acquaintance, according to the custom of the people of God▪ and 2 Sam. 20. 9 sometimes also it is mentioned as a token of honour and reverence, which the subject performeth to his superior in this action. In the former ages 1 Sam. 10. Christians used to kiss also; but so, that it was ever betwixt parties of acquaintance; and in such sort, that by this manner of greeting they testified to each other their true and sincere charity, peace, and union of heart and soul in the Lord. Such chearings and loving embrace were pure and Iust. Apolog. 2. Tertull. holy, not lascivious and wanton, like the kisses of profane and lecherous wretches and strumpets, whereof Solomon maketh mention. Furthermore, every man ought to shun all means and occasions which Prov. 7. 13. may induce or entice them to uncleanness; and amongst the rest especially Idleness, which cannot choose but be as it were a wide door and passage for many vices to enter by, as by experience we see in those that occupy themselves about no good nor profitable exercises, but misspend their time in trifling and doing nothing, and their wits either upon vain and foolish conceit to the hurt of others; or upon lascivious and unchaste thoughts, to their own overthrow; whereas on the contrary, to them that are well employed either in body or mind, no such thing betideth; wherefore we ought to be here advertised every one of us to apply ourselves to some honest and seemly trade, answerable to our divers and several estates and conditions, and not to suffer ourselves to be overgrown with Idleness, lest thereby we fall into mischief; for whom the adversary (that malicious and wicked one) findeth in that case, he knows well how to fit them to his purpose, and to set them about filthy and pernicious services. Next to idleness, the too much pampering the body with dainty and much food is to be eschewed: for like as a fat and well fed horse winceth and kicketh against his rider, so the pampered flesh rebelleth against God and a man's own self. This fullness of bread, and abundance of ●●shly delights, was the cause of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: and therefore our Saviour to good purpose warneth us, to take heed to ourselves, that we Ey●ch. 16. ●●. be not oppressed with surfeiting and drunkenness: and the Apostle, to take no thought for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof, but to walk honestly, not Luke 21. 34. Rom. 13. 13. Ephes. 5. being given to gluttony and drunkenness, chambering, and wantonness: and in another place, not to be drunk with wine, wherein is excess: for besides the loss of time and mispence of goods, the grievous diseases and pangs of the body, and dulling and besotting of the wit, which spring from intemperance, many other great evils depend and wait thereon; as whoredoms, adulteries, uncleannesses, quarrels, debates, murders, with many other such like disorders and mischiefs. Noah, that holy Patriarch, by drinking too much wine, not only discovered Gen. 9 his own shame, but also was the occasion of that cruel curse which the Lord sent upon the posterity of Cham, which even to this day lieth heavy upon them. Lot, though he hated the sin of Sodom, and escaped the punishment of Gen. 19 Sodom, yet being overcome with the wine of the mountains, he committed incest with his own daughters, and made a new Sodom of his own family. Balthasar, rioting and revelling amongst his pots, had the end both of life and kingdom denounced against him, by a bodiless hand-writing upon the Dan. 5. wall, the Lords decree. Whilst Holofernes besotted his senses with excess Judith. 13. of wine and good cheer, judith found means to cut off his head. The Emperors Septimius Severus, and jovinianus, died with eating and drinking too much. Likewise a certain African called Donitius, overcharged his stomach Euseb. with so much food at supper, that he died therewith. Gregory of Tours reporteth of Childericke a Saxon, that glutted himself so full of meat and drink over night, that in the morning he was found choked in his bed. In our memory there was a Priest in Rovergne, near Milan, that (dining with a rich farmer for his year's dinner) cheered himself so well, and filled his belly so full, that it burst in two, and he died suddenly. Alexander the great having invited many of his favourites and captains to supper, propounded a crown in reward to him that should drink most: Plutarch. now the greatest drinker swallowed up four steanes of wine, and won the prize, being in value worth six hundred crowns; but lost his life (a jewel of greater worth) for he survived not three days after the vile excess: besides, the rest that strove with him in this goodly conflict of carousing, one and forty of them died to bear him company. The same Alexander was himself subject to wine, and so distempered divers times therewith, that he often slew his friends at the table in his drunkenness, whom in sobriety he loved dearest. Plutarch telleth us of Armitus and Ciranippus, two Syracusians, that being Incest, lib. 2. cap. 31. drunk with wine, committed incest with their own daughters. Cleomenes, King of Lacedemonia, being disposed to carouse after the manner of the Scythians, drank so much, that he became, and continued ever after, senseless. Anacreon the Poet, a grand consumer of wine, and a notable drunkard, was choked with the husk of a grape. The monstrous and riotous excesses of divers Roman Emperors (as Tiberius by name, who was a companion of all drunkards) is strange to be heard, and almost incredible to be believed: he loved wine so well, that in stead of Tiberius they called him Biberius, and in stead of Claudius, Caldus, and in stead of Nero, Mero; noting by those nicknames, how great a drunkard he was. The Earl of Aspremont (after he had by infinite excess exhausted all his substance) being upon a day at S. Michael, drank so excessively, that he died therewith. Cyrillus a Citizen of Hippon, had an ungracious son, who leading a riotous and luxurious life, in the midst of his drunkenness killed his own Aug. tom. 10. Ver. 33. mother great with child, and his father, that sought to restrain his fury, and would have ravished his sister, had she not escaped from him with many Parricid. li. 2. cap. 11. wounds. Bonosus the Emperor is reported to have been such a notorious drunkard, that he was said to be borne not to live, but to drink: if any Ambassadors Flavius Vopis. came unto him, he would make them drunk, to the end to reveal their secrets: he ended his life with misery, even by hanging, with this Epitaph, That a tun, not a man, was hanged in that place. Philostrates, being in the baths at Sinuessa, devoured so much wine, that he fell down the stairs, and almost broke his neck with the fall. Martid. li. 11. Zeno, the Emperor of the East, was so notoriously given to excess of meats and drinks, that his senses being benumbed, he would often lie as Platina. one that was dead: wherefore being become odious to all men by his beastly qualities, his wife Ariadne fell also in detestation of him, and one day as he lay senseless, she transported him into a tomb, and throwing a great stone upon it, pined him to death, not suffering any to remove the stone, or to yield him any succour; and this was a just reward of his drunkenness. Pope Paulus the second, beside the exceeding pomp of apparel which he used, he was also very careful for his throat: for (as Platina writeth of him) he delighted in all kind of exquisite dishes, and delicate wine, and that in superfluity: by which immoderate and continual surfeiting he fell into a grievous Apoplexy, which quickly made an end of his life. It is reported of him, that he eat the day before he died two great Melons, and that in a very good appetite; when as the next night the Lord struck him with his heavy judgement. Alexander the son of Basilius, and brother of Leo the Emperor, did so wallow and drown himself in the gulf of pleasure and intemperance, that Philip. Melanct. lib. 4. one day, after he had stuffed himself too full of meat, as he got upon his horse, he burst a vein within his body, whereat upwards and downwards issued such abundance of blood, that his life and soul issued forth withal. The modern examples of Gods fearful judgements upon drunkards, not only in other countries, but even in this Nation of ours, are many and terrible: all which if I should stand to report, it would be matter for a whole book. Our reverend Judges in their several circuits do find by experience, that few murders and manslaughters are committed, which are not from this root of drunkenness: for when men's brains are heat with wine and strong drink, than their tongues are let loose to opprobrious speeches, and thence proceed both sudden quarrels, and deliberate challenges, wherewith thousands are brought to their untimely ends: Besides, the Lord punisheth the Drunkard many ways; first, in his soul, with impenitency and hardness of heart: which commonly followeth this vice: for as Saint Augustine saith, As by too much rain the earth is resolved into dirt, and made unfit for tillage; so by excessive drinking, our bodies are altogether unfit Aug. de Vitand. Ebriet. Ser. 231. for ●he spiritual tillage, and so can bring forth no good fruits of holiness and righteousness; but rather like biggest and marshes; are fit to b●●ed nothing but serpents, frogs, and vershine, that is, all manner of abominable sins and leathsome wickedness. Secondly in his body, with deformedness of feature; filthy diseases, and unseasonable death: for excessive drinking breedeth crudities, Rheums, Imposthumes, Gouts, Consumptions, Apoplexies, and such like; whereof men perish before they are come to the half of their natural years: and this is one principal cause why men are now so short lived in respect of that they have ●●en heretofore. Thirdly, in his estate, for commonly poverty, yea penury followeth this vice at the heels; as Solomon teacheth. P●ov. 21. 27. And lastly, with sudden death and destruction, even in the midst of their drunken fits, as woeful experience doth make manifest every day, and almost in every corner of this land. Within these few years, of mine own knowledge, three not far from Huntingdon being overcome with drink, perished by drowning; when being not able to rule their horses, they were carried by them into the main stream, from whence they never came out alive again, but left behind them visible marks of God's justice, for the terror and example of others; and yet what sin is more commonly used and less feared than this. Concerning Dancing (the usual dependants of feasts and good cheer) there is none of sound judgement that know not, that they are baits and allurements to uncleanness, and as it were instruments of bawdry: by reason whereof they were always condemned among men of honour and reputation, whether Romans or greeks, and left for vile and base minded men to use. And this may appear by the reproach that Demosthenes the Orator gave to Philip of Macedony and his Courtiers, in an Oration to the Athenians, wherein he termed them common dancers, and such as shamed not as soon as they had glutted their bellies with meat, and their heads with wine, to fall scurrilously a dancing. As for the honourable Dames of Rome, truly we shall never read that any of them accustomed themselves to dance, according to the report of Sallust touching Sempronia, whom he judged to be too fine a dancer and singer to be honourable withal: as if these two could no more agree then fire and water. Cicero in his apology of Muraena rehearseth an objection of Cato against Muraena. his client, wherein he challenged him for dancing in Asia; which he maketh a matter of so great reproach, that not daring to maintain or excuse the fact, he flatly denyeth it; saying, That no sober and discreet man ever would commit that fault, unless his sense and reason was bereft him. Plutarch also setting forth the virtues of women, putteth in this among the rest, that she ought to be no dancer: and speaking in another place to all others as well as women, biddeth them to repulse even their friends, if they should lead and entice them to that exercise. Besides, all the ancient Doctors of the Church have utterly condemned them as unlawful: Thou learnest to sing profane and idle songs (saith Basil) and forgettest the godly Psalms and Hymns which were enact ●ught thee▪ thou caperest and leapest with thy feet in dances (unwise, as thou art) when a● thou shouldest rather bend thy knees in prayer to the almighty but what gain 〈◊〉 got thereby 〈◊〉 Mary this, that virgins return robbed of their virginities and married wives of their tr●th to their husbands: both, and all, less chaste than they went; and more dishonest than they should, if not in act, which peradventure may be, yet stainedin thought, which cannot be eschewed. Hear (saith Chrysost.) you maids and wives, which are not ashamed to dance and trip it at others marriages, and to pollute your se●es; wheresoever a lascivious dance is danced, there the devil beareth the other part, and is the author of it. It is better (saith Ambrose) to dig and delve upon holy days than to dance. And in another place writing to his sister, he saith, That he ●eed not care for dissolute behaviours and songs which are used as marriages to make him merry withal; for when banquets are concluded with dances, then is chastity in an evil case and in great danger to suffer shipwreck by those suspicious allurements. Besides this, dancing hath been absolutely forbidden by consent of the whole Church of Christ before time, Orig. lib. i contr. Ce●s. Can. 5. & 52. under pain of excommunication; as it may appear by the Constantinopolitan Council under justinian the Emperor: what answer can they make then to this, that are Christians, and allow of these forbidden sports? Is it the denying of a man's self? The spiritual regeneration? The putting off the old man touching our conversation in this life? And if all adultery Ephes. 5. 4. and uncleanness, all filthiness and foolish talking, jesting and such like, ought not once to be named amongst us, because they are things not comely: If I say it be not lawful to jest or speak the least lascivious word that is, how shall it be lawful to do an action with the motion and consent of the whole body, which representeth nothing else but folly, vanity, and lasciviousness? And this is for them that demand where dancing is forbidden in the Scripture; which I touch as it were by the way, and do but point at, not minding to frame any long discourse thereof, seeing there is a particular treatise touching the same matter, which he may read that desireth to know any more touching it. Now let us see what goodly fruits and commodities have risen therefrom. The daughters of the children of Israel being dancing in Silo upon a festival day, after the manner of the uncircumcised Idolaters, were ravished by the Benjamites for to be their wives, and that mixedly without regard of one or other, were they of never so high or base condition. Judg. 1●. At the feast which Herod the Tetrarch made to the Princes and Captains and Nobles of Galilee, the daughter of Herodias pleased him and his company so well with her dancing, that to gratify this filthy strumpet the incestuous Tyrant caused john Baptist to be beheaded. Mark. 6. Lodowick, Archbishop of Magdeburge, celebrating a solemn feast at a town called Calven, invited many of the worthy Citizens to make merry with him: the place for their joyalty was the great hall wherein judicial causes were appointed to be discussed. Here after the banquet ended they fell a dancing, men and women mixedly together, such a ridiculous roundelay, and such a multitude, that what with the weight of their bodies, or rather the indignation of God against them for this scurrilous and immodest behaviour, the beams of the house began to crack and threaten a certain ruin; whereat the Archbishop affrighted, caught hold by a fair dame, and began first to go down the stairs; but the steps afore loosened, as soon as he trod upon them, tumbled down, and he and his consort headlong withal, and were crushed in pieces. And thus he that was principal of the feast and sport, was made an example to all the rest, of the Lords vengeance▪ because he dishonoured his calling and profession by such lewd and light behaviour: and this was one goodly effect of dancing. Another we read of in the Chronicles of the same City to this effect, Chron. Magdeburg. in a village called Ossemer, adjoining to Stendell: As the Popish Priest played the minstrel to his parishioners that danced the morris before him, and rejoiced in their merry May-games, a tempest arose, and a thunderbolt struck off his night hand, together with the harp which he played on, and consumed about twenty four men and women of the company: a just punishment of so profane a Priest, who in stead of dehorting them (as his duty bound him) from that lascivious custom, played the chief part in their madness, and was an enticer of them unto it. Moreover, in many places, by dances grievous and spiteful quarrels have been stirred up, and many murders executed, the examples whereof are so evident and notorious, that it is not needful now to stand upon them: to conclude therefore this point with the saying of Lodovicus Vives, There Lodovicus Vives. is not a greater vanity in the world than dancing; for (saith he) I heard of certain men of Asia, that coming into Spain, when they first saw the Spaniards dance, were so sore affrighted, that they ran away for fear, supposing them to have been either possessed with some spirit, or out of their wits at least: and truly I think if a man had never seen a woman dance before, he could hardly be of another judgement, there being nothing that resembleth frenzy and lunacy more than the strange shake and motions of the body at the noise of a beaten sheepskin: verily it is a pastime to mark the grave behaviour, the measurable march, the pomp and ostentation of women dancers, and the great care they have to perform wisely so foolish an action▪ it is very likely that all their wit at that time is distilled from their head into their feet, for there it is more requisite and needful than in their brain. Thus much saith Lodovicus Vives. Now touching Mummeries and Masks, I place them in the same rank with the other; for somuch as they are derived from the same fountain, and communicate the same nature, and produce the same effects, and oftentimes are so pernicious, that divers honourable women have been ravished and conveyed away by their means: nay, and some Masquers have been well chastised in their own vices: as it happened in the reign of Charles the sixth, to fix that masked it to a marriage at the hostile of S. Paul's in Paris, being attired like wild horses, covered with loose flax, dangling down like hair, all bedaubed with grease for the fitter hanging thereof, and fast bound one to another, and in this guise entered the hall, dancing with torches before them: but behold suddenly their play turned to a tragedy; for a spar●● of one of their torches fell into the greasy flax of his neighbour, and set it immediately on fire, so that in the turning of an hand they were all on ●lame than gave they out a most horrible outcry: one of them threw himself headlong into a tub of water provided to ●ince their drinking cups and goblets, and upon that occasion standing not far off: two were burnt to death, without stirring once from the place: The bastard Foix and the Earl of Jovy escaped indeed present death; but being conveyed to their lodgings, they survived not two days: the King himself being one of the s●●, was saved by the Duchess of Berry, that covering him with her loose and tide garments 〈◊〉 the fire before it could seize upon his flesh. Froyssard the Vol. 4 cap. 5●. reporter of this tragedy, ●aith▪ That the next morrow every man could say, tha● this 〈◊〉 wonderful sign and advertisement sent by God to the King to warn him to renounce all such fond and foolish devices which he delighted too much in, and more than it became a King of France to do: and this was the event of that gallant Masque. It resteth now that we speak somewhat of Plays and Comedies, and such like toys and May-games, which have no other use in the world but to deprave and corrupt good manners, and to open a door to all uncleanness: the ears of young folk are there polluted with many filthy and dishonest speeches, their eyes are there infected with lascivious and unchaste gestures and countenances, and their wits are there stained and embrued with so pernicious liquor, that (except Gods good grace) they will ever savour of it: the holy and sacred Scripture ordained to a holy and sacred use, is oftentimes by these filthy swine profaned, to please and to delight their audience: in few words, there is nothing else to be found among them, but nourishment to our senses of foolish and vain delights. For this cause many of the sager Romans, as Nasica and divers other Censors, hindered the building of the Theatres in Rome, for an opinion they had, that their sports and Tertul. Oros. pastimes which were exercised therein, served to no other purpose but to make the people idle, effeminate, and voluptuous: and besides, the masters, guiders, and actors of Plays were always debarred as men infamous, from bearing any public Office or dignity in the Commonwealth. Tiberius Caesar himself, though of most corrupt and rotten manners and Tacit. lib. 4. conversation, yet in open Senate complained and found fault with the immodesty of Stage-players, and banished them at that same time out of Italy. When Domitian was Censor, he put out of the Senate a Citizen of Rome, because he was too much addicted to the imitation of the fashions of Fulgos. D●●●riositate. Players and Dancers. And Plutarch saith, that we ought to shun all such spectacles. If then such pastimes were by the judgements of the Romans noted with infamy, shall we have their equals in follies in better account? Basil calleth such sports and pastimes, the workhouse, forge, and common shop of all Homil. 4. wickedness: and therefore chrysostom prayeth and admonisheth the faithful of his time to abstain from frequenting such places. S. Augustine also for biddeth to bestow our money upon tumblers, jugglers, and players, and Homil. 6. in 1. cap. Gen. Can. 51. such like. Beside, by the Constantinopolitan Council under justinian, it was inhibited to be once present at such sports, under the pain of excommunication: and that the ancient Christians did by common consent not only condemn, but also utterly abstain from such pastimes, it may appear by the testimony of Tertullian writing to the Gentiles to this effect: We renounce and send back (faith he) sport's and plays unto you, as to the head and fountain from whence they were first derived: we make no reckoning of th●se Apolog. things which we know were drawn from superstition: we love not 〈◊〉 be h●ld the folly of turning with Chariots, nor the unchastity of the Theatre, nor the cruelty of sword playing, nor the vanity of leaping, ●r●stling and dancing: but take pleasure in exercises of better report, and less h●r●. Moreover, how odious and irksome in the sight of the Lord such spectacles are, and what power and sway the devil beareth therein, they 〈◊〉 of God upon a Christian woman (reported by, Tertullian) may sufficiently instruct us. There was a woman (saith he) that went to the 〈◊〉 to see Tertull. de spect. a play, and returned home possessed with an unclean spirit: who being rebuked in a conjuration for daring to assault one of the ●aith, that professed Christ; answered, that he had done well, because he found her upon his own ground. The same author reporteth another example as strange, of a woman also that went to see a Tragedy acted, to whom the night following appeared in a dream the picture of a sheet (a presage of death) casting in her teeth that which she had done; and five days after, death himself seized upon her. As touching wanton songs, and unchaste and ribald books (that I may be (brief) I will content myself only with that which is alleged by Lodovicus Vives Lib. of instruction of a Christian woman. concerning that matter. The Magistrate (saith he) ought to banish out of his dominion all unhonest Songs and Poems, and not to suffer novelties to be published day by day in rhymes and ballads, as they are: as if a man should hear in a City nothing but foolish and scurrilous Ditties, such as would make even the ●onger sort that are well brought up to blash, and stir up the indignation of men of honour and gravity: this ought Magistrates to prevent, and to discharge the people from reading Amadis, Tristram, Lancelot due Lake, Melusine, Poggius scurrillities, and Boccace novelties; with a thousand more such like toys: and thus much out of Vives. CHAP. XXXVII. Of Thiefs and Robbers. IT follows that we speak in the next place of such as by their greedy covetousness and unquenchable desire of lucre, transgress the fourth commandment of the second Table; to wit, Thou shalt not steal: wherein not only simply theft, but also Sacrilege is condemned: and first of Sacrilege. Into this sin fell wretched Aehan in the time of joshua, Joshua 7. when in the sack of Jericho he seeing a Babylonish garment, with certain gold and silver, covered it and stole it away, and hid it in his Tent, contrary to the commandment of the Lord: for which cause the Lord was offended with his whole people, as if they all had been accessary to the crime, and enfeebled them so before their enemies, that they were beaten down at Hay, and shamefully put to flight: neither was his anger appeased, until that the offendant being divinely and miraculously descried, was stoned to death and burnt with his children and all his substance. But to come unto profane stories, let us begin with Heliodorus, Treasurer josephus. of Seleuchus King of Asia; who by the King's commandment and suggestion of one Simon Governor of the Temple, came to take away the gold and silver which was kept in the Treasury of the Temple, and to transport it unto the King's Treasury; whereat the whole City of Jerusalem put on sackeloth, and poured out prayers unto the Lord: so that when Heliodorus was present in the Temple with his soldiers ready to seize upon the treasure, the Lord of all spirits and power showed so great a vision, that he fell suddenly into extreme fear and trembling: for there appeared unto him an horse with a terrible man sitting upon him, most richly barbed, which came fiercely and smote at him with his forefeet: moreover, there appeared two young men, notable in strength, excellent in beauty, and comely in apparel, which stood by him on either side, and scourged him with many stripes: so that Heliodorus that came in with so great a company of soldiers and attendants, was strucken dumb, and carried out in a litter upon men's shoulders; for his strength was so abated, that he could not help himself, but lay destitute of all hope of recovery, so heavy was the hand of God upon him, until by the prayers of Onias the high Priest he was restored; then lo he confessed, that he which dwelled in heaven had his eye on that place, and defended it from all those that came to hurt and spoil it. Another of this crew was in Crassus the Roman; who entering Jerusalem, josephus. Zonar. robbed the Temple of two thousand talents of silver and gold, beside the rich ornaments, which amounted in worth to eight thousand Talents, and a beam of beaten gold containing three hundred pound in weight: for which sacrilege, the vengeance of God so pursued him, that within a while Camposul. lib. 1. after he was overcome by the Parthians, and together with his son slain, his evil gotten goods being dispersed, and the skull of his head being made a ladle to melt gold in, that it might be glutted with that being dead, which alive it could be never satisfied with. Herod following the steps of Hircanus his predecessor, that took out of josephus' l. 17. Zonar. Annal. 1 the sepulchre of King David three thousand talents of money, thinking to find the like treasure, broke up the sepulchre in the night, and found no money, but rich ornaments of gold, which he took away with him; howbeit to his cost: for two of his servants perished in the vault, by a divine fire, as it is reported, and he himself had small success in his worldly affairs ever after. julian the Apostata rob the Church of the revenues thereof, and took away all benevolences and contributions to schools of learning, to the end the children might not be instructed in the liberal Arts, nor in any other good literature. He exaggerated also his sacrilege with scornful jests; saying, That he did further their salvation by making them poor; seeing it was written in their own Bibles, Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: but how this sacrilegious thief was punished, is already declared in the former book. Leo Groponymus took out of the Temple of Constantinople an excellent Lib. a. cap. 20. Zonar as. crown of gold beset with precious stones; which Mauritius had dedicated to the Lord; but as soon as he had set it on his head, a cruel fever seized upon him, that he died very shortly. The punishment of the sacrilege of Queen Vrraca in Spain was most wonderful and speedy▪ for when in her war against her son Alphonsus she Fulgos. l. 1. c. a. wanted money, she rob the Church dedicated to S. Isidore, and took with her own hands the treasures up, which her soldiers refused to do: but ere she departed out of the Church vengeance overtook her, and struck her dead in the place. Moreover, the Lord so hateth this irreligious sin, that he permitteth the devil to exercise his cruelty upon the spoilers of profane and Idolatrous temples, as he did upon Dyonisius the Tyrant of Syracuse; who after many robberies of holy things, and spoiling the Churches, died suddenly with extreme joy, as author's report. He spoilt the Temple of Proserpina at Locris, and shaved off the golden beard of Aesculapius at Epidamnum; saying, It was an unseemly thing for Apollo to be beardless and his son bearded: he deprived jupiter Olympus of his golden raiment, and gave him a woollen coat instead thereof; saying it was too heavy for him in the Summer, and too cold in winter, and this was more convenient for both seasons. The pretext of all his sacrilege was this, That seeing the gods were good, why should not he be partaker of their goodness. Such another was Cambyses King of Persia, who sent fifty thousand men Sabel. l. 1. c. 3. Herod. lib. 4. to rob and destroy the temple of jupiter Ammon; but in their journey so mighty a tempest arose, that they were overwhelmed with the sand, not one of them remaining to carry news of their success. Brennus was constrained to slay himself, for enterprising to rob the Temple Fulg. lib. 1. c. 2. of Apollo at Delphos: Philomelus, Onomarchus, and Phayllus, went about the same practice, and indeed rob the Temple of all the treasures therein; but one of them was burned, another drowned, and the third broke his neck: to conclude, the Athenians put to death a young child, for taking but a golden plate out of Diana's Temple; but first they offered him other jewels and trinkets, which when he despised in respect of the plate, they rigorously punished him as guilty of sacrilege. Cardinal Wolsey being determined to erect two new Colleges, one at Stow. Chron. Oxford, and the other at Ipswich, obtained licence and authority of Pope Clement the seventh, to suppress about the number of forty monasteries, to furnish and set forward the building of his said College: which irreligious sacrilege (I call it sacrilege both because he was persuaded in conscience that those goods belonged to the Church, and so to him it was sacrilege: as also for that he did it in pride of his heart) was furthered by five persons, who were the chief instruments of the dissolution of Daintry Monastery, because the Prior and Covent would not grant them certain lands in farm at their own price. But what punishment ensued upon them at God's hand the world was witness of: for of these five persons, two fell at discord amongst themselves, and the one slew the other, for the which the survivor was hanged; the third drowned himself in a well; the fourth, being then worth two hundred pounds, within three years became so poor that he begged until his dying day; and the fifth (called Doctor Allen) was cruelly maimed in Ireland▪ The Cardinal himself falling into the King's displeasure, was deposed from his bishopric, and died miserably: the Colleges which he meant to have made so glorious a building, came never to any good effect, the one at Ipswich being clean defaced, the other at Oxford unfinished. And thus much of sacrilege: Now let us come and see the punishment of simple theft, the principal cause whereof is covetousness; which is so unruly an evil, and so deep rooted in the heart of man, that ever yet it hath used to encroach upon the goods of others, and to keep possession of that which was none of its own; breaking all the bonds of humanity, equity, and right, without being contained in any measure or mean; whereof we have a most notable example in the old world before the flood, which (by Moses report) overflowed with iniquity and extortion, the mighty ones oppressed the weak, the greater trod under foot the less, and the rich devoured the poor. When the Lord saw the general deluge of sin and disorder thus universally spread (which indeed was a sign of great defection and contempt of him) he like a just judge that could not endure these monstrous iniquities, sent a deluge of waters amongst them, by opening the windows of heaven, and breaking up the fountains of the great deeps, and giving passage to the waters both by heaven and earth, so that it reigned forty days, and forty nights without ceasing, and the waters prevailed upon the earth, and overcovered the high mountains by fifteen cubits, the earth being reduced into the same estate which it had in the beginning before the waters were taken away from the face thereof: verily it was a most hideous and sad spectacle, to see first the valleys, than the hills, and last the highest mountains so overflown with water, that no show or appearance of them might be perceived; it was a dreadful sight to behold whole houses, tossed to and fro up and down in the waves, and at last to be shivered in pieces: there was not a City nor village that perished not in the deep, not a tree nor tower so high that could overpeere the waters: as they increased more and more in abundance, so fear, horror, and despair of safety increased in the heart of every living soul. And on this fashion did God punish those wicked rebels, not at one blow, but by little and little increasing their pain, that as they had a long time abused his patience, and made no reckoning of amendment, so the punishment of their sin might be long and tedious. Now in this extremity one could not help another, nor one envy another, but all were concluded under the same destruction, all surprised, assieged, and environed alike, as well he that roved in the fields, as he that stayed in the houses, he that climbed up into the mountains, as he that abode in the valleys, the merciless waters spared none: it was to no purpose that some ascended their high houses, some climbed upon trees, and some scaled the rocks, neither one nor other found any refuge or safety in any place, the rich were not saved by their riches, nor the strong by the pith of their strength, but all perished and were drowned together, except Noah and his family: which punishment was correspondent unto the world's iniquity, for as the earth was corrupted and polluted with abundance of sin, so God sent abundance of water to purge and cleanse away the filthiness thereof, as at the latter day he will send fire to purify and refine heaven and earth from their dregs, and restore them to their first and purest estate. And thus God revenged the extortion and cruelty of that age. But yet for all this, those sins were not then so defaced and rooted up, but that they be burnished again and grown in time to as big a bulk: for even at this day the greatest part of the world is given to practise fraud and deceit, and by unlawful means to encroach upon others goods: which subtleties though they desire never so to disguise and cloak, yet will they ever be condemned and reputed kinds of theft before God: now as some are of greater power & authority than others in the world, so answerable to themselves is the quality of their sins, and by consequence the punishment: the greater of power, the greater thiefs, and the greater judgement; for if a poor man that through poverty and necessity cutteth a purse or stealeth any other trifle, be culpable, how much more culpable shall he that is rich be, that usurpeth the goods of his neighbour? Draco the lawgiver of Athens, appointed death to be the punishment of sheft: Solon mitigated that rigour, and punished it with double restitution: The Locrians put out his eyes that had stolen aught from his neighbour: The Etrurians stoned them to death: The Scythians abhorred them more than all creatures, because they had a community of all things except their cups the Vatoeiane used such severity towards this kind of men, that as 〈…〉 taken a handful of 〈◊〉 he was sure to die for it. 〈…〉 being Censor, 〈◊〉 deemed his own son Buteo to death, being apprehended for theft. Tiberius' the Emperor punished a soldier after the time 〈◊〉 for stealing i●●eaco●ke in sum, there was no Commonwealth 〈…〉 was not highly detested, and sharply 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 where it w●s permitted and tolerated, 〈…〉 of 〈…〉. 〈…〉 yet as 〈…〉 a just dead of Tamburlaine that Tbeatr. histor. mighty 〈◊〉 and Conqueror of Asia, when a poor woman complained 〈…〉 of his soldiers, that had taken from her a little milk and a 〈…〉 the caused the soldier's belly to be ripped to see that her 〈◊〉 had falsely accused him on no, and finding the milk in his stomach; adjudged him worthy of that punishment, for stealing from poor ●● woman. When Theophilus reigned Emperor in the East there was a certain Zonar. Annal. 3 soldier possessed of a very gallant and brave horse which his Captain by all mea●es possible sought to get from him▪ but he would not in any case 〈…〉 he put him forth of pay, and took his horse, from him by force, and sent him for a present to the Emperor Theophilus: now it chanced that this poor soldier was slain in the battle for want of his horse, and his wife and children lest destitute of succour, insomuch that through necessity she was constrained to fly to Constant inople, and to complain to the Emperor of the injury done unto her husband; with this resolution entering the City, she met the Emperor riding upon her husband's horse, and catching the horse bridle, challenged him not on●y for stealing the horse, but also being the cause of her husband's death. The Emperor wondering at the woman boldness, examined her more narrowly▪ and found out the whole practice of that wicked Captain whom he banished presently, his Empire, and bestowed his possession in recommence upon the distressed widow. Ibicus the Poet being set upon by Thiefs, when he saw that they would not only spoil him of his money but of 〈◊〉 he also cried for help and revenge to the crane's that flew over his head a while after ●● these murdering 〈…〉 together in the market Place, the same crane's appearing unto 〈…〉 they whispered one another in the care, and said, ●onder 〈…〉 which though secretly spoken, yet was overheard 〈…〉 they being examined and found guilty, were put to death for their 〈◊〉. The like story Martin Luther reporteth touching a traveller; Luther. only 〈…〉 in this that as Cranes detected the former: so Crows laid open the latter. In the year 138●▪ when as all Saxony was so infested with Theeyes that Albert. Crantz. lib. 10. cap. 7. no man could travel safely in the country the Princes calling a Council, for down this order. That not only the Thiefs themselves should be severely punished▪ but all that did protect, or harbour any of them; which 〈…〉 as Theodoricke Country of We●ingr●de impugned, the body of 〈◊〉 Council sent for him, and adjudged him to a most cruel and shameful 〈◊〉. In the year 1410▪ Henry Duke of Luneburg a most just and severe Crantz. lib. 10. cap. 30. Prince, went about to purge his Country from all thefts and robberies▪ insomuch that the least offence committed in that kind he suffered not to go unpunished: now it happened as the Duke went towards Lun●burge, he seen before him one of his chiefest officers to provide necessaries against his coming: who riding without a cloak, the weather being cold, 〈◊〉 a ploughman to lend him his cloak till his return: which when the clown refused to do, he took it without leave, but it cost him his life for ●●, for the ploughman awaited the Duke's coming and directed his complaint unto him on this manner: What availeth i● (O● most noble Princes to seek to suppress the courage of thiefs and spoilers, when as thy chiefest officers dare commit such things uncontrolled, a● the Lieutenant of 〈◊〉 but now taken from me my cloak? The Duke hearing this complaint, and considering the cause, dissembled his counsel 〈◊〉 his return 〈◊〉 from Luneburge unto the same place, where calling for his Lieutenant, and rating him for his injury, he commanded him to be hunged upon a tree. A wonderful severity in justice, and worthy to be commended: for what hope is it to root out small and pity thiefs, if we suffer grand thiefs to go uncorrected? There is another kind of these practised of them that be in authority, who under the title of confiscation assume unto themselves stolen goods, and so much the re●dilier, by now much the value of the things amounteth to more worth: an action altogether unjust, and contrary to both divine and humane laws, which ordain to restore unto every man his own: and truly he that in stead of restitution withholdeth the goods of his neighbour in this manner, differeth no more from a 〈◊〉 than that the one stealeth boldly without fear, the other ●n●orously and with great danger: and what greater corruption of justice can there be than this? For who would follow the Law upon a thief, when he knoweth he shall rather run into further charge, than recover any of his old loss? Beside this, it happeneth that poor small thiefs are often drawn to the whip, or driven to banishment, of sent to the gallows, when rich grand thiefs lie at their case, and escape uncontrolled, albeit the quality of their 〈◊〉 be far unequal: according to the Poet: The simple dove by law is censured, Dat veniam cervis, vexat censura columbas. When ravenous 〈◊〉 escape unpunished. The world was ever yet full of such ravenous Raven's; so nimble in pilling others goods, and so greedy of their own gain, that the poor people in stead of being maintained and preserved in the peaceable enjoying of their portions, are gnawn to the very bone● amongst them: for which cause Homer in the person of Agamemnon calleth them devourers of men. Likewise also the Prophet David in the 〈◊〉 Psalm calleth them Eaters of his people: and yet want they not flatterers and 〈◊〉 friends (canker worms of a Commonwealth) that urge them forwards, and devise daily new kind of exactions, like horse-lead●es to sucked out the very blood of men's purses: showing so much the more wit and deceit therein, by how much the more they hope to gain a great part 〈◊〉 of unto their selves: being like hunger-starved Harpeis', that will never be fortified, but still match and catch all that cometh near their 〈◊〉: and these are they that do good to no man, but hurt to all; of whom the Merchant findeth himself aggrieved, the Artificer trodden under foot, the poor labourer oppressed, and generally all men endamaged. CHAP. XXXVIII. Of the excessive burdening of the Commonalty. AS it is a just and approved thing before God, to do honour and reverence to Kings and Princes, and to be subject under them in all obedience; so it is a reasonable and allowable duty to pay such tributes and subsidies (whereby their great charges and honourable estate may be maintained) as by right or equity are due unto them: and this is also commanded by our Saviour Christ in express words, when he saith, Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. And by the Apostle Paul more expressly, Pay tributes, render unto Mat. 22. 21. Rom. 1●. 7. all men their due: tribute to whom tribute belongeth, and custom to whom custom: Mark how he saith, Give unto all men their due: and therein observe, that Kings and Princes ought of their good and just disposition to be content with their due, and not seek to load and overcharge their subjects with unnecessary exactions, but to desire to see them rather rich and wealthy, than poor and needy; for thereby cometh no profit unto themselves. Further it is most unlawful for them to exact that above measure upon their Commons, which being in mediocrity is not condemned: I say it is unlawful both by the law of God and man (the Law of God and man is termed all that which both God and man allow and agree upon, and which a man with a safe conscience may put in practice:) for the former we can have no other schoolmaster nor instruction, save the holy Scripture, wherein God hath manifested his will unto us concerning this very matter; as in Deuteronomy the eighteenth, speaking of the office and duty of a King, he forbiddeth them to be hoorders up of gold and silver, and espousers of many wives, and lovers of pride: signifying thereby, that they ought to contain themselves within the bounds of modesty and temperance, and not give the reins to their own affections, nor heap up great treasures to their people's detriment, nor to delight in war, nor to be too much subject to their own pleasures: all which things are means of unmeasurable expense: so that if it be not allowable to muster together multitudes of goods, for the danger and mischief that ensueth thereof, as it appeareth out of this place; then surely it is much less lawful to levy excessive taxes of the people; for the one of these cannot be without the other: and thus for the Law of God it is clear, that by it authority is not committed unto them, to surcharge, and as it were trample down their poor subjects, by unmeasurable and unsupportable impositions. As for that which the Prophet Samuel in the Name of God giveth notice to the Israelites of, touching the right of a King; wherein he seemeth to allow him the disposition of the goods and persons of his subjects: I answer first, That God being an immovable Truth, cannot contradict himself by commanding and forbidding the same thing; and secondly, that the word of the Text in the Original signifieth nothing else but a custom or fashion, as it appeareth by the 1 Sam. 11. 13. besides, the speech that the Prophet useth, importeth not a commandment, but an advertisement of the subjection, whereunto the people were about to thrust themselves, by desiring a King after the manner of other Nations, whose customs amongst them was to exercise authority and dominion as well over their goods as their persons: for which cause God would have them forewarned, that they might know how vile a yoke they put their owneneckes under, and what grievous and troublesome servitude they undertook, from the which they could no ways be delivered, no though they de●●●ed it with tears. Furthermore, that a King in Israel had no power (in right and equity) to take away the possessions of any of his subjects, and appropriate it to himself, it appeareth by Naboaths refusal no King Achab, to give him his 1 Kings 12. vineyard, though he requested it (as it may seem) upon very reasonable conditions, either for his money, or for exchange, so that a man would think he ought not to have denied him: howbeit his desire being thus crossed, he could not mend himself by his authority, but fell to vex and grieve himself, and to champ upon his own bit, until by the wicked and detestable complot of jezable, poor Naboath was falsely accused, unjustly condemned, and cruelly murdered; and then he put in possession of his vineyard: which murder (doubtless) she would never have attempted, nor yet Naboath ever have refused to yield his vineyard, if by any pretence of Law they could have laid claim unto it: but Naboath knowing that it Numb. 36. 9 was contrary to God's Ordinance, for him to part with his patrimony (which he ought most carefully to preserve) would not consent to sell over his vineyard, neither for love nor money, nor other recompense: and herein he did but his duty, approved by the holy Scripture. Now how odious a thing before God the oppression of poor people is, it is manifest by his own words in the Prophecy of Ezechiel, where he saith, Let it suffice, O Princes of Israel, learn off cruelty and oppression, and execute judgement Chap. 45. 9 and justice: take away your exactions from my people, and cease to thrust them from their goods and heritage's. Now concerning the law of man, which all men agree unto, because it is grounded upon reason and equity, we find no permission given to Kings to use the goods of other men at their pleasures; for that was far from equity: neither was there any such liberty bestowed upon them, by those that first in the beginning exalted them to that degree of dignity: but rather (as divers worthy Authors avouch) their own virtues and good behaviour which won them credit amongst the better sort, installed them first unto that honour. And truly there is Cic. lib. 3. de legibus. Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. 4. ca 6. nothing more rightful and justin man's society, than that every one should possess and enjoy that which is his own in peace and quietness, without disturbance or violence; in which respect also, rules of justice are established, called laws, which no good Kings will ever seek to stand against. They are indeed Lords of the earth, a● some say, and truly; but so, that their Lordships stretch no further than right, and pass not the rule of equity: and notwithstanding, the propriety of goods and possessions remaineth untouched. To Kings (saith So●●ca) pertaineth the sovereignty over all things, but to private men the propriety. Lib. 7. c. 4. & 5. de beneficiis. Tiberius Caesar being solicited by the Governors of the Provinces, to lay heavier tributes, and levy larger subsidies from his people, made (though a Painim) this notable answer, That a good shepherd ought to shear his sheep, not to flay them. Saint Lewis, that good King, amongst all his other wife and virtuous exhortations which he gave to his son before his death, this was none of the least nor last; That he should never crave any tax or subsidy of his subjects, but upon urgent necessity, and very just Nic. Gil. cause; and that if he did otherwise, he should not be reputed for a King, but for a tyrant. CHAP. XXXIX. Of those that have used too much cruelty to wards their subjects in Taxes and Exactions. IT is clear then by these foresaid assumptions, that a King may not impose upon his Subjects unmeasurable taxes and subsidies, lest he make himself guilty of extortion, the root and fountain many times of many great mischiefs and inconveniences, and in very deed from whence oftener changes, seditions, and ruins of Commonwealths have proceeded, than from any other cause beside. What happened to Roboam King of Israel, for showing himself too rigorous on this behalf to his subjects, but the defection of the greater part of his Kingdom from him; for being come to the Crown after the death of his father Solomon, when the people came and made a supplication to him, to be eased from his father's burdens, he (despising the counsel of his sage 1 Kings 12. and ancient. Counselors, and following the giddy advice of his young companions) gave them a most sharp and sour reply; saying, That if his father had laid an heavy yoke upon them, he would increase it; and if he had chastised them with rods, he would correct them with scourges; which when they of Israel heard, they revolted from him (all save the two Tribes of juda and Benjamin) and stoned to death his Collectors, and chose them another King to rule over them. Thus Roboam was deprived often parts of his Kingdom thorough his own unadvised tyranny, and fled all amazed unto Jerusalem, where he lived all his days without recovery of the same. Achaeus King of Lydia was hanged up against a hill, and his head thrown into a River running by, because of the great subsidies which he exacted of his people. Dionysius, the first of that name, a notorious and renowned Tyrant, not Plutarch. de Reg. only in regard of his exceeding cruelty, but also of his unjust rackings and exactions, was so violent in that practice of doing wrong, that alboit he well knew the griefs and vexations of the people, that ceased not to complain and lament their case continually, yet he diminished not their burdens, but multiplied them more and more, and sucked and gnew out all that ever he could, until he left them naked, empty, and despoiled: To Frog. lib. 21. conclude, this grand thief, that durst not trust his wife nor own daughters, after he had been discomfited by the Carthaginians, was slain by his servants. Of the Roman Emperors that most vexed the Commonalty with tribures and taxes, these three were chief, Caligula, Nero, and Caracalla; of whom this latter did most pill and pull the people, and would often say, That the gold and silver of the Kingdom pertained in right to none but Dion. & Xiph. him. Being reproved of his mother at a time, for his immoderate and excessive expenses; saying, That there was almost not so much more treasure left as he had already spent; he made her this answer, That she should take no care for that; for as long as his hand was able to wield his sword (which he held naked before her) he would not want money. This is the sword which many now adays (after the example of Caracalla) have taken up, to cut out (by force and violence) a way to their own wills, and to cut the throat of equity and justice, and to compel the poor people to forgo their goods, and surrender them into their hands: Now how odious and hateful these three were made unto the people by their own wicked demeanours, their miserable ends do sufficiently testify; which we have already before meant ioned, and mean afterward more at large to speak of. The Emperor Constance, son to Constantine, whose father was Heraclius, coming at a time out of Greece into Rome, abode there but five days; but ●ulg. lib. 9 c. 4. in that short space committed so much outrage in ransacking the Temples and other public places, and carrying away so many rich ornaments and pictures (whereof those places then abounded) that in man's remembrance no foreign barbarous enemy, having taken the City by force of war, ever went away with the like spoil: besides, he did so oppress the Allies and Tributaries of the Empire (and chiefly the Sicilians) with taxes and imposts, that many of them were constrained to sell their children for money to satisfy his extortion: and by this means he scraped together an infinite mass of rapines and evil gotten goods; but enjoyed the sweet of them not very long; for very soon after he was murdered by his own men of what, in his return out of Sicily and all that spoil which he had unjustly surprised, was suddenly taken and transported into Africa by the Saracens, that then inhabited the City Panorme. Lewis the eleventh, King of France, after he had overcharged his subjects with too grievous burdens of payments and taxes, fell into such a timorous conceit and fear of death, as never any man did the like; he attempted all means of avoiding or delaying the same; as first, during his sickness, he gave his Physician monthly ten thousand crowns, by that means to creep into his favour: wherein he, being in all other things a very niggard and pinch-penny, showed himself on the other side more than prodigal: next he sent into Calabria for an Hermit, reported to be an holy and devout man, to whom at his arrival, he performed so much duty and reverence, as was wonderful and unseemly: for he threw himself on his knees, and besought him to prolong his decaying life, as if he had been a God, and not a man: but all that he could do was to no purpose; no nor the relics which Pope Sextus sent him to busy himself withal, nor the holy vial of the Rheimes which was brought him, could prorogue this life of his, nor privilege him from dying a discontent and unwilling death: he suspected the most part of his nearest attendants, and would not suffer them to approach unto him in his sickness: after he had thus prolonged the time in hope, and yet still languished in extreme distress of his disease, it was at length told him in all speed, that he should not set his mind any longer upon those vain hopes, nor upon that holy man, for his time was come, and he must needs die. And thus he that during his Reign showed himself rough and cruel to his subjects, by too many and heavy impositions, was himself in his latter end thus roughly and hardly dealt withal. Christian the eleventh, King of Denmark, Norway; and Suecia, after the death of King john his father, reigned, the year of our Lord 1514. and was too intolerable in imposing burdens and taxes upon his subjects; for which cause the Suecians revolted from his government: whom though after many battles and sieges he conquered, and placed amongst them his garrisons to keep them in awe, yet ceased they not to rebel against him, and that by the instigation of a mean Gentleman, who very quickly got footing into the Kingdom, and possessed himself of the Crown and government. Now Christian having lost this Province, and being also in disdain and hatred of his own Country, and fearing least this inward heat of spite should grow to some flame of danger to his life, seeing that the inhabitants of Lubeck conspiring with his uncle Frederick, began to take arms against him, he fled away, with his wife (sister to the Emperor Charles the fifth) and his young children, to Zealand, a Province of the Emperors, after he had reigned nine years: after which the Estates of the Realm (aided by them of Lubeck) assembling together, exalted his uncle Frederick, Prince of Holsatia (though old and ancient) to the Crown; and publishing certain writings, addressed them to the Emperor and the Princes of his Empire, to render a reason of their proceeding, and to make known unto them upon how good considerations they had deposed and banished Christian, for the tyranny which he exercised among them. Ten years after this he got together a new Army by sea, in hope to recover his losses, but contrary to his hope he was taken prisoner, and in captivity miserably ended his days. Henry King of Suecia was chased from his Sceptre for enterprising to Nic. Gil. vol. 1 burden his Commons with new contributions: those that were devisers of new Taxes and Tributes, for the most part ever lost their lives in their labours: for proof whereof, let the example of Parchenus or Porchetes serve; who for giving counsel to King Theodebert touching the raising of new subsidies, was stoned to death by the multitude, in the City Trieves. Likewise was George Presquon cruelly put to death by the people, for persuading and setting forward Henry of Suecia, to the vexation and exaction of his subjects. CHAP. XL. More examples of the same subject. AIstulphus the nineteenth King of Lombary, was not only a most cruel Tyrant, but also a grievous oppressor Platina invita Zacharia. of his subjects with taxes and exactions; for he imposed this upon every one of them, to pay yearly Phil. Melanct. lib. 1. a Noble for their heads: against this man Pope Stephen provoked King Pepin of France, who coming with an Army drove the Tyrant into Tycinum, and constrained him to yield to partial conditions of peace. Howbeit Pepin was no sooner gone, but he returned to his old bias; wherefore the second time he came and drove him to as great extremity; insomuch as another peace was concluded: after the accomplishment whereof, perverse Aistulph still vexing his subjects, was plagued by God with an Apoplexy, and so died. justinian the Emperor, as he was profuse and excessive in spending, so was he immoderate and insatiable in gathering together riches, for he exercised Zonar. lib. 3. his wit in devising new tributes and payments, and rejoiced his heart in nothing more; for which causes there arose a grievous sedition at Constantinople against him; wherein not only the excellent and famous monuments of the Empire were burned, but also forty thousand men slain; and this was no small punishment for his oppression. At Paris there is to be seen in the corn market, a certain monument hard at the mouth of the common sink, which conveyeth away all the filth Eras. in lingua out of the City; the occasion whereof is reported to be this: A certain courtier seeing the king sad and melancholy for want of treasure, counselled him to exact of every countryman that brought ware into the city but one penny, and that but for two years together: which when the King put in practice, and found the exceeding commodity thereof, he not only continued that tax, but also invented divers others, to the great damage of the commonwealth, and enriching of his own treasury. Wherefore he that put it first into his head, when he saw that he had not so much authority in dissuading, as he had in persuading it, to take punishment of himself for that inconsiderate deed; and to warn others from attempting the like, he commanded by his testament, that his body should be buried in that common sink, to be an example of exaction and the filthiness thereof. Barnaby, Viscount of Milan, by the report of Paulus jovius, was an unconscionable oppressor of his subjects and tenants: for he did not only extort Tom. 2. Virerum illustrium. of them continual imposts and payments, but enjoined them to keep every one a dog: which if they came to any mishap, or were either too fat or too lean, the keeper was sure to be beaten, or at least some fine to be set on his head. This Tyrant was taken by john Galeacius, and after seven month's imprisonment poisoned to death. Archigallo, brother to Gorbonianus in nature, though unlike in conditions Lanquet. (for he was a good Prince, whereas this was a tyrant) was crowned King of Britain in the year of the world 3671: we may well place him in the rank, of oppressors; for he deposed the Noblemen, and exalted the ignoble, he extorted from men their goods, to enrich his treasure; for which cause the Estates of the Realm deprived him of his royal Dignity, and placed his younger brother Elydurus in his room, after he had reigned five years. Hardiknitus King of Denmark, after the death of Harold was ordained The same. King of England, in the year of our Lord 1041. This King as he was somewhat cruel (for he caused the body of Harold to be taken up out of the Sepulclire, and smiting off his head, to be cast out into the River Thames, because he had injured his mother Emma when he was alive;) so he was burdensome to his Subjects in tributes and exaction: for which cause growing into hatred with God and his Subjects, he was strucken with sudden death, not without suspicion of poisoning, after he had reigned three years. William Rufus, second son of William the Conqueror, succeeded his father, as in the Kingdom of England, so in disposition of nature: for they The same. were both cruel, inconstant, and covetous, and burdened their people with unreasonable taxes; insomuch, that what by the murrain of men by postilence, and oppressions of them by exactions, the tillage of the earth was put off for one year, being the year 1099, whereby ensued great scarcity the year following throughout all the Land: but for the oppression William was justly punished by sudden death, when being at his disport of hunting he was wounded with an arrow glancing from the bow of Tyrill a French Knight, and so his tyranny and life ended together. And here is further to be noted, that the place where this King was slain, was called New Forest; in which same place Richard, the Cousin german of King William, son to Duke Robert his brother, was likewise slain. This New Forest was made by William the Conqueror their father, who plucked down and depopulated divers Towns and Churches the compass of 30. miles about, to make this a Forest for wild Beasts: a most beastly sin, yea a bloody crying sin, too too much practised in these days, and that by great persons, that make no conscience to turn Towns into pastures, and men into sheep: but let all them behold the just vengeance of God upon this King's posterity: for when then either cannot or will not revenge, than God revengeth either in them or their posterity. In the year 1548. the Commons of Guyenne, Santonge, and Augoulemois fell into a great Rebellion, by reason of the extortions of the Customers Annals of France, Henry 2. and Farmours of Salt: the Rebels in a few weeks grew to the number of forty thousand men, armed with clubs and staves; who joining with the Islanders, by a general consent ran upon the Officers of the Custom, and with extreme fury put to sword all that they could take, notwithstanding the King of Navarre sought by all means to appease them. About the same time the Commons of Gascoigne rose in divers places, upon the same causes, and notwithstanding all that the Lord of Monneins, the King's Lieutenant, and all other Officers could do, they made a great spoil of many honourable Houses, and massacre of much people: insomuch, that the Lord of Moneins himself was slain by them, whilst he was making an Oration to them to pacify their rage: but at length these Rebels were suppressed by Francis of Lorraine, Earl of Aumale, and Anne of Mommorancye, high Constable of France, and the chief King-leaders and Captains of them executed according to their deserts. La Vergne was drawn in pieces by four horses: L'Estonnac, and the two brothers of Saulx, had their heads cut off: Tallemoigne and Galefer●, the two Colonels of the Commons, were broken upon the Wheel, being first crowned with a crown of burning iron, as a punishment of the Sovereignty which they had usurped. Thus the Lord punished both the one and the other, and the one by the other; the exactors for their oppression, and the tumultuous Commons for their Rebellion. Neither doth the Lord thus punish oppressors themselves, but also they that either countenance, or having authority, do not punish the same; as Lanquet. it appeareth by this example following. In the year of our Lord 475. there lived one Corrannus a King of Scots; who though he governed the people in peace and quietness a long space, and was indeed a good Prince, yet because his Chancellor Tomset used extortion and exaction amongst his Subjects, and he being advertised thereof, did not punish him, he was slain traitorously by his own Subjects. It is not unworthy to be noted, how Edward the Third, King of England, prospered a long while in the wars against France, and got many worthy and wonderful victories: but when Prince Edward, son unto the aforesaid Edward, after conditions of peace concluded, began to set taxes and impositions upon the Country of Aquitain, than did King Edward's part begin to incline, and the success of war, which the space of forty years never forsook him, now frowned upon him; so that he quickly lost all those lands which by composition of peace were granted unto him. CHAP. XLI. Of such as by force of arms have either taken away, or would have taken away, the goods and lands of other men. NOw if they that oppress their Subjects, and devour them in this manner be found guilty, then must they In this whole chapter note the nature of Ambition, and the frui●● thereof. needs be much more, that are carried with the wings of their own hungry ambitious desire to invade their lands and Signories, attended on with an infinite retinue of pillages, sackings, ruins of Cities and people; which are always necessary companions of furious unmerciful war. There are no floods so broad, nor mountains so steep, nor rokces so rough and dangerous, nor sea so long and furious, that can restrain the rash and headstrong desire of such greedy minded Sacres: so that if their body might be proportioned to the square and greatness of their minds, with the one hand they would reach the East, and with the other hand the West (as it is said of Alexander:) howbeit hereof they boast and glory no less than they that took delight to be surnamed City-spoilers: others burners of Cities; some conquerors, and many Eagles and Falcons, seeking as it were fame by infamy; and by vice, eternity. But to these men it often cometh to pass, that even then when they think to advance their Dominion, and to stretch their bounds and frontiers furthest, they are driven to recoil, for fear of being dispossessed themselves of their own lands and inheritances: and even as they dealt, with others rigorously and by strength of weapons, so shall they be themselves rehandled and dealt withal after the same measure; according to the Word of the Prophet denounced against such as they: Cursed be th●● that spoilest and dealest unfaithfully; when thou hast made an end of spoiling others, th●● th● self shalt be spoiled; and when thou hast done dealing traitorously, than treason shall begin to be practised against thee. And this curse most commonly never faileth to seize upon these great Thiefs and Robbers, or at least upon their children and successors; as by particular examples we shall see, after we have first spoken of Adonias, who not content with his own estate of being a King's son, which God had allotted him, went about to 〈◊〉 the 1 Kings 12. Crown and Kingdom from his brother Solomon, to whom by right it appertained Treason, lib. 2. cap. 3. (for God had manifested the same by the mouth of his father David) but both he and his assistants, for their overbold and rash enterprise, were justly by Solomon punished with death. Crassus' King of Lydia was the first that made war against Ephesus, and Herod. that subdued the greeks of Asia: to wit, the Phrygians, Mysians. Chalybeans, Paphlagonians, Thracians, Bythinians, jonians, Dorians, Aeolians, and Pamphilians, and made them all tributeries unto him: by means whereof he being grown exceeding rich and puissant, by the detriment and undoing of so many people, vaunted and gloried in his greatness and power, and even then thought himself the happiest man in the world, when most misery and adversity, grief and distress of his estate and wholehouse, approached nearest: for first and foremost one of his sons that was dear unto him, was by oversight slain at the chase of a wild Boar: next himself having commenced war with Cyrus, was overcome in battle, and besieged in Sardis the chief City of his Kingdom, and at last taken and carried captive to Cyrus, despoiled of all his late glory and dominion. And thus Crassus (as saith Plutarch after Herodotus) bore the punishment of the offence of his great Grandfather Gigas: who being but one of King Ca●daules attendants, slew his master, and usurped the Crown at the provokement of the Queen his mistress, whom he also took to be his wife: And thus this Kingdom decayed by the same means by which it first increased. Polycrat●s the Tyrant was one that by violence and tyrannous means grew from a base condition to an high estate: for being but one of the Herod. vulgar sort in the City Samos, he with the assistance of fifteen armed men seized upon the whole City, and made himself Lord of it: which dividing into three parts, he bestowed two of them upon his two brethren, but not for perpetuity; for ere long the third part of his usurpation cost the elder of them the best part of his life, and the younger his liberty, for he chased him away, that he might be sole possessor of the whole Island. After this, he invaded many other Islands, besides many Cities in the same Land: he raised the Lacedæmonians from the siege of Samos, which they had begirt: and when he saw that all things fell out so well to his own wish, that nothing could be more, fearing so great prosperity could not but carry in the ●ail some terrible sting of adversity and mischance, attempted by voluntary loss of something of value to prevent the mischief which he feared to ensue: and this by the advice of his dear friend and ally (the King of Egypt) therefore he threw a ring which he had of great price into the sea, to the end to delude Fortune (as he thought) thereby: ●ut the ring was after found in a fishes belly, and offered as a present unto him: and this was an evident presage of some inevitable this for tune that waited for him: neither did it prove vain and frivolous; for he was hanged upon a gibbet of Sardis, by the commandment of Orates the Governor of the City; who under pretence of friendship, and colour of rendering his treasure into his hands, and bestowing upon him a great part thereof, promising also to pass the rest of his days under his wing, for fear of the rage of Cambyses, drew him to come privately to speak with him, and so easily wrought his will upon him. Aristodemus got into his hands the government of C●ma, after he had made away the principal of the City: and to keep it the better being obtained, Dlonis. Halic. lib. 7. he first worm the vulgars' hearts by presents, then banished out of the City their children whom he had put to death, and entertained the rest of the youth with such variety of pleasures and delights, that by those devices he kept himself in his tyrannous estate many years: but as soon as the children of those slain Citizens were grown to ripe years of strength and discretion, being desirous to revenge their father's deaths, they set upon him in the night, so at unawares, that they put him and all his family to the slaughter. Timophanes usurped a principality, power, and rule in Corinth a free City, and became so odious thereby to the whole people, yea and to his Plutarch. own brother Tymoleon also, that laying aside all respect of nature, he slew him with his own hands, preferring the liberty of his Country before any unity or bond of blood. When the Cities of Greece (saith Orosius) would needs through too greedy a desire and ambition of reign▪ get every Lib. 3. cap. 12. one the mastery and sovereignty of the rest, they all together made shipwreck of their own liberties by encroaching upon others: as for instance, the Lacedæmonians, how hurtful and incommodious the desire of bringing their neighbour adjoining Cities under their dominion was unto them, the sundry discomfitures and distresses within the time of that war, undertaken upon that only cause, befell them, bear sufficient record. Oros. l. 3. c. 2. Servius Tullus, the son to a bondman, addicted himself so much to the Titus Livius. exploits of war, that by prowess he got so great credit and reputation among the Romans, that he was thought ●it to be son in law of King Tarqvinius, by marrying one of his daughters; after whose death he usurped the Crown, under colour of the Protectorship of the Kings ●oo young sons; who when they came to age and bigness, married the daughters of their brother in law Tullus; by whose exhortation and continual provokement the elder of them, which was called Tarqvinius, conspired against his father in law, and practised to make himself King, and to recover his rightful inheritance, and that by this means: he watched his opportunity when the greatest part of the people were out of the City about gathering their fruit in the fields, and then placing his companions in readiness, to serve his turn if need should be, he marched to the palace in the royal robes, guarded with a company of his comederates; and having called a Senate, as he began to complain him of the treachery and impudence of Tullus, behold, Tullus himself came in and would have run violently upon him; but Tarqvinius catching him about the middle, threw him headlong down the stairs, and presently sent certain of his guard to make an end of the murder which he had begun. But herein the cruelty of Tullia was most monstrous; that not only first moved her husband to this bloody practice, but also made her coach to be driven over the body of her father, which lay bleeding in the midst of the street, scarce dead. Manlius, after he had maintained the fortress of Rome against the Parricide, lib. 2. cap. 11. Gauls, glorying in that action, and envying the good hap and prosperity of Camillus, went about to make himself King, under pretence of restoring the people to their ancient entire liberty: but his practice being discovered, he was accused, found guilty, and by the consent of the multitude adjudged to be thrown headlong down from the top of the same fortress, to the end that the same place which gave him great glory, might be a witness and a memorial of his shame and last confusion: for all his valiant deeds before done were not of so much force with the people, to excuse his fault or save his life, as this one crime was of weight to bring him to his death. In former times there lived in Carthage one Hanno, who because he had Oros. lib. 4. cap. 6. more riches than all the Commonwealth beside, began to aspire to the domination of the City: which the better to accomplish, he devised to make show of marrying his only daughter, to the end that at the marriage feast he might poison the chiefest men of credit and power of the City whom he knew could or would not any ways withstand or countermand his purpose: but when this devise took no effect, by reason of the discovery thereof by certain of his servants, he sought another means to effect his will: He got together a huge number of bondslaves and servants, which should at a sudden put him in possession of the city but being prevented herein also by the Citizens, he seized upon a castle with a thousand men of base regard, even servants for the most part; whither thinking to draw the Africans and King of the Moors to his succour, he was taken and first whipped, next had his eyes thrust out, and then his arms and legs broken in pieces, and so was executed to death before all the people: his carcase being thus mangled with blows, was hanged upon a gallows, and all his kindred and children put to death, that there might not one remain of his strain, either to enterprise the like deed, or to revenge his death. That great and fearful warrior julius Caesar, one of the most hardy and valiant pieces of flesh that ever was, after he had performed so many notable exploits, overcome all his enemies, and brought all high and haughty purposes to their desired effect, being pricked forward with the spur of ambition and a high mind, through the means and assistance of the mighty forces of the commonwealth, which (contrary to the constitution of the Senate) were left in his hands, he set footing into the State, and making himself master and Lord of the whole Roman Empire, usurped a Plutarch. Suet. Eutrop. sovereignty over them: but as he attained to his dignity by force and violence, so he enjoyed it not long, neither gained any great benefit by it, except the loss of his life may be counted a benefit, which shortly after in the open Senate was bereft him: for the conspirers thereof, as soon as he was set down in his seat, compassing him about, so vehemently overcharged him on all sides, that notwithstanding all the resistance he could make for his defence, tossing amongst them, and shifting himself up and down, he was overthrown on the earth, and abode for dead, through the number of blows that were given him, even three and twenty wounds. The Monarchy of Assyria was at one instant extinguished in Sardana palus; and of Babylon in Balthasar, Arbaces being the worker of the first, and Darius' King of Persia, of the later; both of them receiving the wages, not of their wickedness, but also of their predecessors, and great grandfathers cruelty and oppressions, by whom many people and nations had been destroyed. Moreover, as the Babylonian Empire was overthrown by Darius of Persia, so was his Persian Kingdom (in Darius the last King of that country his time, this man's successor) overturned by Alexander. Again, the great dominion of Alexander (who survived not long after) was not continued to any of his by inheritance, but divided like a prey amongst his greatest captains, and from them the most part of it in short time descended to the Romans; who spreading their wings, and stretching their greedy talons far and near, for a while ravened and preyed over all the world, and enriched and bedecked themselves with the spoils of many nations; and therefore it was necessary that they also should be made a prey, and that the far fetched Goths and Vandals should come upon them, as upon the body of a great Whale that suffers shipwreck upon the sea shore: since which time the Roman Empire went to decay, and grew every day weaker than other; yea, and many Princes setting themselves against and above it, have robbed it of the realms and provinces which it rob others of before. And thus we may see how all things run as it were in a circle, and how great the uncertainty of this world is, seeing that the mightiest are subject to so many and great changes: for if there be any thing under the Sun that may carry any show of stability or continuance, surely it is a Monarchy or Commonwealth, grounded upon the unity and consent of all people, maintained by the authority of the greatest and most mighty, and underpropped with the shores of much strength and wealth, as the Roman Empire was; and yet for all that, there was never any, though never so well reared and furnished, and deep rooted, which at the length hath not been demolished, ransacked, and pulled up by some notable and strange calamity. And this is that which the spirit of God would give us to know, by the vision of that great image, represented to Nabuchadnezzar in a dream, according to daniel's interpretation thereof; to wit, that the four great and puissant Monarchies of the world should at last be ruined and dispersed, like the chaff before the wind, till they were consumed and brought to nothing, albeit they were glorious and excellent as gold and silver, or strong and mighty as brass and iron. How much more foolish and evil advised are they then, that for a certain apparent splendour and show of worldly honour (which is as frail as any rose, as variable as the wind, as light and vain as a shadow or smoke, as unassured as a rotten plank) have the eyes of their mind so dazzled, and their wits so bewitched, and all their affections so transported, as to mingle heaven and earth together, to dash the East against the West, to stir up discord and dissension betwixt man and man, and to shed so many thousand men's blood, and all for a paltry desire of reign, though to their own final ruin and destruction. And thus it came to pass in the time of the emperor Otho to a Duke of Sabell. Venice, called Peter Caudian, who (not content with his Dukedom) went about to usurp a tyrannical rule over the whole Signiory, and that by pride and threats, desiring rather to make himself terrible to the people by those bad means, than amiable and beloved by any means whatsoever; and thus daily he grew as in age so in insolency: he placed a garrison of men about his palace, and so fortifying himself, presently he showed himself in his colours, namely a cruel Tyrant: which when the multitude perceived, and remembered withal their liberty, which they were like to lose, they took up arms forthwith, in purpose to beat down his haughty mind: therefore they first set on fire his house, and caused him to forsake his fortress, and to betake himself to his shifts: but when by reason of the stopping of the passages he could not escape, they took him and his young son also which was with him, and put them to a most cruel and sudden death, and cast their carcases to be devoured of dogs. In the Empire of Maximilian, Lewis Sforce, a Prince of an inconstant Bembus, lib. 2. Of the Venetian history. and turbulent spirit, ambitious, and one that made no account of his promises nor faith, took upon him the government of Milan, after the death of his brother Galeaz, Duke of Milan, who was traitorously slain: in which action the first wrong which he did was to his brother's widow, whom he deposed; the second to his young nephew, his brother Galeaz son, whom he so brought up as if he never meant he should come to honour or goodness; for he suffered him not to be trained up either in learning or arms, but let him run into all possible occasions that might corrupt and spoil his tender age. Thus he enjoyed the principality thirteen years, all the while under his nephews reign; to whom when Alphonsus King of Naples had given in marriage one of his daughters, and perceived what small reckoning his uncle made of restoring him his Dukedom; after he had often and instantly entreated him without prevailing, at length he fell to threaten him with war: he fearing to have the worse, and to lose so great a dignity, wrought so by his own shifts and devices, together with the helping hand of Pope Alexander, that he put in the head of Charles the eighth of France to go and conquer Naples, for the hatred which his heart possessed against Alphonsus; supposing by this means the better to accomplish his affairs to his own desire. The King of France Guicciard. li. 1 was no sooner entered Italy, but Lewis Sforce ministered an Italian posset to his young nephew john Galeaz, that he immediately died upon it, and then he proclaimed himself Prince of the Duchy, by the aid of the principal of the Council, whom he had won to refer that honour unto him, by deposing the young son of john Galeaz, being then but five years old: but he declared presently his inconstant and perfidious nature, in breaking promise with the King of France, whom he had induced with so many fair speeches to undertake that voyage, and entering a new league with the Venetians both against him and the Pope, although ere long he served them with the same measure: but Lewis the twelfth, succeeding in the Crown of France, could not brook this injury done to his predecessor, but pretending a title to the Duchy of Milan, he dispatched an army thitherward, that bestirred itself so well, that in short space they brought under their subjection all the Cities and Towns near adjoining: which the citizens perceiving, began to rebel against their Duke, and killed his Treasurer: whereupon he (being not able to make his part good with the French abroad, nor daring to put any confidence in his own at home) left his castle to the charge and custody of a captain, and fled himself with his children to Almain, towards the Emperor Maximilians' court, hoping to find succour at his hand, as indeed he did: for he returned to Milan with five hundred Burgundians, and eight thousand Swissers, and was received again into the City. Being thus refortified with these and other more troops that came unto him, he encamped before Navarre, and by composition got the City into his hands from the Frenchmen. The French King in the mean while sent a new supplie of men into the Duchy, amongst whom were many Swissers, who so dealt with their countrymen that were on the Duke's side, that they brought them also to favour the King of France, and to forsake the Duke: which when he understood, he presently departed the city, and posting to the camp, hardened his soldiers, desiring them to play the men, and not to shrink, for he meant to give battle without delay: but the captains made answer, that they might not fight against their own nation, without especial leave from their Lords. Now in the mean while, whilst these things were in doing, they took order, that the Frenchmen should approach to Navarre, and intercept all the passages, that the Duke might not escape: He therefore laid aside his horse, and marched on foot in the squadron of Swissers, now joined to the French, in attire and armour like a Swisser, thinking by this trick to save his life: but all his counterfeiting could not save him from being taken, and from lying ten years' prisoner in the Tower of Loches, where he also died: and so all his high and ambitious thoughts (which scarcely Italy could contain) were penned up in a straight and narrow room. Guicciard. lib. 4. With the like turbulent and furious spirit of ambition have many Roman Bishops been inspired, who what by their juggling tricks, cousenages, and subtle devises, and what by force, have prospered so well, that of simple Bishops (which they were wont to be) they are grown temporal Lords, and as it were Monarches; having in their possessions lands, cities, castles, fortresses, havens, garrisons, and guards, after the manner of Kings; nay they have exalted themselves above Kings (so intolerable is Mark 10. Luke 22. their impudence) and made them subject to their wills; and yet they call themselves the Apostles pedigree, whom Christ forbade all such domination. But what of that? It pertaineth not to them to succeed in virtue, but in authority the Apostles: for if that charge had concerned them, than Pope Lucius the second would never have been so shameless, as to request Bal. in right of his Popeship the sovereignty over Rome as he did: neither when it was denied him, to have gone about to usurp it by force, and to bring his mind about to have laid siege to the Senate house with armed men, to the end that either by banishing or murdering the Senators then assembled together, he might invest himself with the Kingly dignity: but what got he by it? Marry this, the people being in an uproar in the City, upon the sight of this holy father's proud attempt, took themselves to arms, and ran with such violence upon master Pope, that they forthwith stoned his Holiness to death; but not like Stephen the Martyr for the profession of Christ jesus, but like a vile and seditious thief for seeking the Commonwealth's overthrow. Pope Adrian the fourteenth, a monks son, succeeding Lucius both in the Papacy, and also in ambition, took in hand his omitted enterprises; Sabel. Bal. for he excommunicated the Romans, until they had banished Arnold a Bishop, that gave them counsel to retain the power of electing their magistrate, and governing their city in their hands (a thing repugnant to his intent) and after he had degraded the Consuls, to make his part the stronger, he caused the Emperor Frederick to come with an army to the city; whom notwithstanding he handled but basely for his pains: for he did not only check him openly for standing on his feet, and holding the stirrup of his horse with his left hand, but also denied him the crown of the Empire, except he would restore to him Poville, which (he said) pertained unto him: how beit he got the Crown notwithstanding, and before his return from Rome into Germany, more than a thousand citizens that would not yield nor subscribe unto the Pope's will, were slain. After frederic departure, the Pope seeing himself destitute of his further aid, first excommunicated the King of Sicily, that in right of inheritance possessed the foresaid Poville: but when this served him to small purpose, he practised with Emanuel the Emperor of Greece to set upon him; which thing turned to his final confusion. After this (through his intolerable pride) he fell out with Frederick the Emperor, and to revenge himself upon him, discharged his subjects from their fealty to him, and him from his authority over them. Now mark his end: As he walked one day towards Aviane, a fly got in at his mouth and down his throat so far, that it stopped the conduit of his breath, so that for all that his physicians could do, he was choked therewith. And thus he that sought by all the means he could to make himself greater than he ought to be, and to get the mastery of every thing at his own will and pleasure, and to take away other men's rights by force, was cut short and rebated by a small and base creature, and constrained to leave this life, which he was most unworthy of. Hither may be referred that which befell the Emperor Albert, Duke of Austria, and one of his lieutenants in Switzerland, for going about to usurp and appropriate certain lands and dominions to him, which belonged not unto him. This Emperor had many children whom he desired to leave rich and mighty, and therefore by all means possible he endeavoured to augment his living, even by getting from other men whatsoever he could; and amongst all the rest, this was one especial practice, wherein he laboured tooth and nail to alienate from the Empire the land of the Swissers, and to leave it for an everlasting inheritance to his heirs: which although the Swissers would in no case condescend nor agree unto, but chose sued earnestly unto his Majesty for the maintenance of their ancient liberties and privileges which were confirmed unto them by the former Emperors, and that they might not be distracted from the Empire; yet notwithstanding were constrained to undergo for a season the yoke of most grievous tyranny and servitude imposed by force upon them: and thus the poor commonalty endured many mischiefs, and many grievous and cruel extortions and indignities at the hands of the Emperor's officers, whilst they lived in this wretched and miserable estate. Amongst the rest there was one called Grislier that began to erect a strong fort of defence upon a little hill near unto Altorfe, to keep the country in greater awe and subjection; and desiring to descry his friends from his foes, he invented this devise: He put a hat upon the end of a long pole, and placed it in the field before Altorfe, where were great multitudes of people, with this commandment, That every one that came by should do but dieth ere he awaketh; so money taken in usury, delighteth and contenteth at the first, but it infecteth all his possessions, and sucketh out the marrow of them ere it be long: Seeing than it is abominable both by the law of God and nature, let us shun it as a toad, and fly from it as a cockatrice: But when these persuasions will not serve, let them turn their eyes to these examples following, wherein they shall see the manifest indignation of God upon it. In the Bishopric of Collen a notable famous Usurer lying upon his deathbed ready to die, moved up and down his chaps and his lips, as if he Discipul. de tempore. had been eating something in his mouth; and being demanded what he eat, he answered, his money, and that the devil thrust it in his mouth perforce, so that he could neither will nor choose but devour it: in which miserable temptation he died without any show of repentance. The same author telleth of another Usurer, that a little before his death called for his bags of gold and silver, and offered them all to his soul, upon condition it would not forsake him: But if he would have given all the world, it could not ransom him from death: wherefore when he saw there was no remedy but he must needs die, he commended his soul to the Devil, to be carried into everlasting torments: which words when he had uttered he gave up the ghost. Another Usurer being ready to die, made this his last Will and Testament: My soul (quoth he) I bequeath to the devil who is owner of it, my wife likewise to the devil who induced me to this ungodly trade of life, and johanaes' Anglut. my deacon to the devil for soothing me up, and not reproving me for my faults; and in this desperate persuasion he died incontinently. Usury consisteth not only in lending and borrowing, but buying and selling also, and all unjust and crafty bargaining, yea and it is a kind of usury to detain through too much covetousness those commodities from the people which concern the public good, and to hoard them up for their private gain, till some scarcity orwant arise; and this also hath evermore been most sharply punished, as by these examples may appear. About the year 1543. at what time a great famine and dearth of bread afflicted the world, there was in Saxony a country peasant, that having carried his corn to the market, and sold it cheaper than he looked for, as he returned homewards he fell into most heavy dumps and dolours of mind with grief that the price of grain was abated: and when his servants sang merrily for joy of that blessed cheapness, he rebuked them most sharply and cruelly, yea and was so much the more tormented and troubled in mind, by how much he more he saw any poor soul thankful unto God for it: but mark how God gave him over to a reprobate and desperate sense: Whilst his servants road before, he hung himself at the cart tail, being past recovery of life ere any man looked back or perceived him. A notable example for our English cormorants, who join barn to barn, and heap to heap, and will not sell nor give a handful of their superfluity to the poor, when it beareth a low price, but preserve it till scarcity and want come, and then they sell it at their own rate; let them fear by this, lest the Lord deal so or worse with them. Another covetous wretch, when he could not sell his cornesodear as he desired, said the mice should eat it rather than he would lessen one jot of the price thereof: Which words were no sooner spoken, but vengeance took them: for all the mice in the country flocked to his barns and fields, so that they left him neither standing nor lying corn, but devoured all. This story was written to Martin Luther: upon occasion whereof he inveighing mightily against this cruel usury of husbandmen, told of three misers Luther. that in one year hung themselves, because grain bore a lower price than they looked for: adding moreover, that all such cruel and muddy extortioners deserved no better a doom, for their unimercifull oppression. Another rich farmer, whose barns were full of grain, and his stacks D. Pomeranus. untouched, was so covetous withal, that in hope of some dearth and dearness of corn, he would not diminish one heap, but hoarded up daily more and more, and wished for a scarcity upon the earth, to the end he might enrich his coffers by other men's necessities. This cruel churl rejoiced so much in his abundance, that every day he would go into his barns, and feed his eyes with his superfluity: Now it fell out as the Lord would, that having supped and drunk very largely, upon a night as he went, according to his custom, to view his riches, with a candle in his hand, behold the wine, or rather the justice of God, overcame his senses, so that he fell down suddenly into the mow, and by his fall set on fire the corn, being dry and easy to be incensed, in such sort that in a moment all that which he had scraped together and preserved so charily, and delighted in so unreasonably, was consumed and brought to ashes, and scarce he himself escaped with his life. Another in Misnia, in the year 1559, having great store of corn hoordedup, joh. Fincel li. 2. refused to succour the necessity of his poor & half famished neighbours: for which cause the Lord punished him with a strange and unusual judgement, for the corn which he so much cherished, assumed life, and became feathered fowls, flying out of his barns in such abundance, that the world was astonished thereat, and his barns left empty of all provision, in most wonderful and miraculous manner. No less strange was that which happened in a town of France called The same Author. Stenchansen, to the Governor of the town, who being requested by one of his poor subjects to sell him some corn for his money, when there was Fides fit apud authorem. none to be gotten elsewhere; answered, he could spare none, by reason he had scarce enough for his own hogs: which hoggish disposition the Lord requited in it own kind; for his wife at the next litter brought forth seven pigs at one birth to increase the number of his hogs: that as he had preferred filthy and ugly creatures before his poor brethren, in whom the image of God in some sort shined forth, so he might have of his own getting more of that kind to make much of, since he loved them so well. Equal to all the former both in cruelty touching the person, and miracle The same. touching the judgement, was that which is reported by the same author, to have happened to a rich covetous woman in Marchia, who in an extreme dearth of victuals, denied not only to relieve a poor man whose children were ready to starve with famine, but also to sell him but one bushel of corn, when he wanted but a penny of her price: for the poor wretch making great shift to borrow that penny, returned to her again, and desired her he might have the corn: but as he paid her the money, the penny fell upon the ground by the providence of God, which as she stretched out obeisance, and veil bonnet to the hat, and in every respect show themselves as dutiful unto it, as to his own person, imagining that his greatest enemies could not endure nor find in their hearts to do it, and therefore upon this occasion he might apprehend them, and discover all their close practices, and conspiracies, which they might brew against him: now there was one, a stout hearted man, that passing every day up and down that ways, could in no wise be brought to reverence the dignity of the worthy hat, (so unreasonable a thing it seemed in his eyes) whereupon being taken, the tyrant commanded him (for punishment of his open contempt) to shoot at an apple laid upon the crown of the head of his dearest child, and if he missed the apple, to be put to death: the poor man after many excuses, and allegations, and entreaties that he might not hazard his child's life in that sort, was notwithstanding enforced to shoot, and shooting, God so directed his shaft, that the apple was hit, and the child untouched; and yet for all this, he adjudged him to perpetual prison: out of which he miraculously escaping, watched the tyrants approach in so fit a place, that with the shaft that should have been the death of his son, he struck him to the heart; whose unlucky end, was a lucky beginning of the Swissers deliverance from the bondage of tyrants, and of the recovery of their ancient freedom, which ever after they wisely and constantly maintained. Nic. Gil. vol. 1. The Emperor Albert, purposing to be revenged upon them for his injury, as also for slaying many more of his men, and breaking down his castles of defence which he had caused to be builded in their country, determined to make war upon them; but he was slain ere he could bring it hat determination to effect by one of his own nephews, from whom (being his overseer and gardant for bringing up) he withheld his patrimony against all equity; neither by prayers or entreaty could be persuaded to restore it. These things (according to Nic. gills report in his first volume of the Chronicles of France) happened about the reign of Saint Lewis. Hither may be referred the history of Richard the first, King of England, called Richard Coeur de Lion: though not so much a fruit of ambition Ex Bibliotbeca Cariensi, etc. in him, as of filthy covetousness. This King, when as Widomarus Lord of Linionice in little Britain having found a great substance of treasure in the ground, sent him a great part thereof, as chief Lord and Prince of the country, refused it; saying, That he would either have all or none; but the finder would not condescend to that: whereupon the King laid siege to a castle of his called Galuz, thinking the treasure to lie there: but as he with the Duke of Brabant went about viewing the Castle, a soldier within stroke him with an arrow in the arm, the iron whereof festering in the wound, caused that the King within nine days after died: And so because he was not content with the half of the treasure that another man found, lost all his own treasure that he had, together with his life the chiefest treasure of all. CHAP. XLII. Of Usurers, and their theft. IF open larcenies and violent robberies and extortions are forbidden by the law of God, as we have seen they are, than it is no doubt but that all deceit and unjust dealings and bargains used to the damage of others are also condemned by the same law; and namely Usury, when a man exacteth such unmeasurable gain for either his money or other thing which he dareth, that the poor borrower is so greatly indammaged, that in stead of benefitting and providing for his affairs, which he aimed at, he hitteth his further loss and final overthrow. This sin is expressly prohibited in Leviticus, 25, Deuteronomy 23, and Psalm, 15; where the committants thereof are held guilty before God's judgement Seat, of iniquity and injustice: and against them it is that the prophet Levit. 25. 36 Deut. 23. 19 Psal. 15. 5. Ezechiel denounceth this threatening: That he which oppresseth or vexeth the poor and afflicted, he which robbeth or giveth to usury, and receiveth the increase into their bags, shall die the death, and his blood shall be upon his Eze. 18. 12. 13 pate. Neither truly doth the justice of God sleep in this respect, but taketh vengeance upon all such, and punisheth them after one sort or other, either in body or goods, as it pleaseth him: I myself knew a grand usurer in the country of Vallay that having scraped together great masses of gold and silver by these unlawful means, was in one night robbed of fifteen hundred crowns by thiefs that broke into his house. I remember also another usurer dwelling in a town called Argental, nigh unto Anovay under the jurisdiction of Tholosse in high Vivaria, who being in hay time in a meadow, was stung in the foot by a serpent, or some other venomous beast, that he died thereof: an answerable punishment for his often stinging and biting many poor people with his cruel and unmerciful usury. Nay it is so contrary to equity and reason, that all nations led by the instinct of nature, have always abhorred and condemned it; insomuch that the conditions of thiefs hath been more easy and tolerable than usurers; for theft was wont to be punished but with double restitution, but usury with quadruple: and to speak truly, these rich and gallant usurers do more rob the common people and purloin from them, than all the public thiefs that are made public examples of justice in the world. It is to be wished that some would examine usurers books, and make a De officio princip. lib. 4. ca 14 bond-fire of their obligations, as that Lacedaemonian did when Agesilaus reported that he never saw a fleerer fire: or that some Lucullus would deliver Europe from that contagion, as the Roman did Asia in his time. Lycurgus Alex. ab Alex. lib. 1 cap. 7. banished this canker worm out of his Sparta: Amasis punished it severely in his Egypt: Cato exiled it out of Sicily; and Solo condemned it in Athens; how much more should it he held in detestation among Christians? S. chrysostom compareth it fitly to the biting of an aspe; Chrysost. in Mat. cap. 5. as he that is stung with an aspe, falleth asleep as it were with delectation, her hand to reach, it miraculously turned into a serpent, and bit her so fast, that by no means it could be loosened from her arm, until it had brought her to a woeful and miserable end. Sergius Galba, before he came to be Emperor (being Precedent of Africa under Claudius, when as through penury of victuals, corn, and other food Fulgos. lib. 2. cap. 2. was very sparingly shared out and divided amongst the army) punished a certain soldier that sold a bushel of wheat to one of his fellows for an hundred pence, in ●ope to obtain a new share himself, in this manner, he commanded the Quaestor or Treasurer to give him no more sustenance, since he preferred lucre before the necessity of his own body and his friend's welfare; neither suffered he any man else to sell him any; so that he perished with famine, and became a miserable example to all the army, of the fruits of that foul droupsie covetousness. And thus we see how the Lord reigned down vengeance upon all covetous Usurers and oppressors, plaguing some on this fashion, and some on that; and never passing any, but either in this life some notable judgement overtakes them, either in themselves or their offsprings (for it is notoriously known that usurers children, though left rich, yet the first or second generation became always beggars) or in the life to come they are thrown into the pit of perdition, from whence there is no redemption nor deliverance. CHAP. XLIII. Of Dicers and Card-players, and their theft. IF any recreation be allowed us, as no doubt there is, yet surely it is not such as whereby we should work the damage and hurt of one another, as when by gaming we draw away another man's money with his great loss, and this is one kind of theft, to usurp any man's goods by unlawful means: wherefore no such sports ought to find any place amongst Christians, especially those wherein any kind of lot or hazard is used, by the which the good blessings of God are, contrary to their true and natural use, exposed to chance and fortune, as they term it: for which cause Saint Augustine is of this opinion concerning them: That the gain which ariseth to any party in play, should be bestowedupon the poor, to the end that both the Epist. 54. ad Maced. gamesters, as well the winner as the loser might be equally punished, the one by not carrying the stake being won, the other by being frustrated of all his hope of winning. Players at dice, both by the Elibertine & Constantinopolitan Council under justinian, were punished with excommunication: and by a new constitution of the said Emperor it was enacted, That no man should use Dice-play either in private or public, no nor approve Can. 77. Can. 50. the same by their presence, under pain of punishment: and Bishops were there appointed to be overseers in this behalf, to espy if any default was Cod. li. 3. tit. 43 made. a Od. 14. l. 2. Ludere doctior seu Graeco jubeas trocho, seu malis vetital●gibus alea. Horace an heathen Poet avouched the unlawfulness of this thing even in his time, when he saith that Dice-playing was forbidden by their law. Lewis the eighth, King of France, renowned for his good conditions and rare virtues; amongst all the excellent laws which he made, this was one, That all sports should be banished the Commonwealth, except shooting (whether with long bow or Cross bow) and that no Cards nor Dice should be either made or sold by any; to the end that all occasion of gaming might be taken away. Surely it would be very profitable and expedient for the Weal-public, that this Ordinance might stand in use at this day, and that all Merchants and Mercers whatsoever, especially those that follow the reformation of Religion, might forbear the sale of all such paltry Wares: for the fault in selling such trash is no less than the abuse of them in playing at them, for so much as they upon greediness of so small a gain, put as it were a sword into a mad man's hand, by ministering to them the instruments not only of their sports, but also of those mischiefs that ensue the same. There a man may hear curses as rife as words, ban, swear, and blasphemies, banded up and down; there men fret themselves to death, and consume whole nights in dark and devilish pastimes; some lose their horses, others their cloaks, a third sort all that ever they are worth, to the undoing of their houses, wives, and children; and some again from brawlings fall to buffet, from buffets to bloodshedding, from bloodshedding to hanging: and these are the fruits of those gallant sports. But this you shall see more plainly by a few particular examples. In a Discip●. de tempor. ser. 12. town of Campania a certain jew playing at dice with a Christian, lost a great sum of money unto him; with which great loss being enraged, and almost beside himself, as commonly men in that case are affected, he belched out most bitter curses against Christ jesus, and his mother the blessed Virgin, in the midst whereof the Lord deprived him of his life and sense; and struck him dead in the place: as for his companion the Christian, indeed he escaped sudden death, howbeit he was robbed of his wit and understanding, and survived not very long after: to teach us not only Blasphemy, Lib. 1. cap. 31. what a grievous sin it is to blaspheme God, and to accompany such wretches, and not to shun, or at least reprove their outrage; but also what monstrous effects proceed from such kind of ungodly sports, and how grievously the Lord punisheth them, first by giving them over to blasphemy, secondly to death, and thirdly and lastly to eternal and irrevocable damnation: Let our English gamesters consider this example, and if it will not terrify them from their sports, then let them look to this that followeth, which if their hearts be not as hard as adamant, will mollify and persuade them. In the year 1533. near to Belissana a city in Helvetia, there were three job. Fincell. Andrea's Muscabus in diabol. blasphemiae. profane wretches that played at dice upon the Lord's day without the walls of the city, one of which called Vlrich Schraelerus having lost much money, and offended God with many cursed speeches, at last presaging to himself good luck, he burst forth into these terms, If fortune deceive me now, I will thrust my dagger into the very body of God as far as I can: now Mandate. 4. Breach of Saboth, li. 1. 6. 35. Mandate. 3. Blasphemy, lib. 1. cap. 31. fortune failed him as before, wherefore forthwith he drew his dagger, and taking it by the point, threw it against heaven with all his strength: behold, the dagger vanished away, and five drops of blood distilled upon the table before them, and without all delay the devil came in place, and carried away the blasphemous wretch with such force and noise, that the whole city was amazed and astonished thereat: the other two (half beside themselves with fear) strove to wipe away the drops of blood out of the table, but the more they wiped it, the more clearly it appeared; The rumour of this accident flew into the city, and caused the people to flock thick and threefold unto the place, where they found the other two gamesters washing the board; whom (by the decree of the Senate) they bound with chains, and carried towards the prison; but as they passed with them through a gate of the city, one of them was strooken suddenly dead in the midst of them, with such a number of louse and worms creeping out of him, that it was both wonderful and loathsome to behold: the third they themselves (without any further inquisition or trial) to avert the indignation which seemed to hang over their heads, put incontinently to death; the table they took and preserved it for a monument, to witness unto posterity, both how an accursed pastime dicing is, and also what great inconveniencies and mischiefs grow thereby. But that we may see yet more the vanity and mischievous working of this sport, I will report one story more out of the same author, though not equal to the former in strangeness and height of sin, yet as tragical, and no less pitiful. In the year 1550, there lived in Alsatia one Adam Steckman, one that job Fincel. l. 2 got his living by tximming, pruning, and dressing vines; this man having received his wages, fell to dice, and lost all that he had gotten; insomuch that he had not wherewith to nourish his family, so that he fell into such a grief of mind, and withal into such pains of the head, that he grew almost desperate withal: one day his wife being busy abroad, left the care of her children unto him; but he took such great care of them that he cut all their throats, even three of them, whereof one lay in the cradle, and lastly would have hanged himself, had not his wife come in the mean while, who beholding this pitiful tragedy, gave a great outcry, and fell down dead; whereupon the neighbours running in, were eye witnesses of this woeful spectacle: as for him, by law he was judged to a most severe and cruel punishment: and all these pitiful events arose from that cursed root of Dice-play. We ought therefore to learn by all these things that have been already spoken, to abstain not only from this cursed pastime, but also from extortion, robberies, deceit, guile, and other such naughty practices that tend to the hurt and detriment of one another; and in place thereof to procure the good and welfare of each one in all kindness and equity, following the Apostles counsel, where he sayeth, Let them that stole steal no more, but rather Ephes. 4. 28. travel by labouring with his hands in that which is good, that he may have wherewith to succour the necessity of others. For it is not enough not to do evil to our neighbour, but we are tied to do him good, or at least to endeavour to do it. CHAP. XLIV. Of such as have been notorious in all kind of sin. BY these fore placed examples we have seen how heavy the judgements of God have been upon those that through the These examples of this Chapter may be referred to all the commandments for the most part. untamednesse of their own lusts and affections, would not submit themselves under the holy and mighty will of God, but have countermanded his commandments, and withstood his precepts, some after one sort, and some after another: now because there have been some so wicked and wretched, that being wholly corrupted and depraved, they have over flowed with all manner of sin and iniquity, and as it were maugred God with the multitude and heinousness of their offences; we must therefore spend sometime also in setting forth their lives and ends, as of the most vile and monstrous kind of people that ever were. In this rank we may place the ancient Inhabitants of the land of Canaan; an irreligious people, void of all fear and dread of God, and consequently given over to all abhominabl wickedness, as to conjure, witchcrafts, and unnameable adulteries: for which causes the Lord abhorring and hating them, did also bring them to a most strange destruction; for first and foremost Jericho (the frontier city of their country) being assaulted by the Israelites, for hindering their progress into the country; were all discomfited, not so much by josuah his sword, as by the huge stones which dropped from heaven upon their heads: and lest the night overtaking them should break off the final and full destruction of this cursed people, the day was miraculously prolonged, and the Sun made to rest himself in the midst of heaven for the space of a whole day: and so these five Kings hiding themselves in a cave, were brought out, and their necks made a footstool to the captains of Israel, and were hanged on five trees. The tyrant Pertander usurped the government over Corinth after he had Sabell. slain the principal of the city: he put to death his own wife, to the end to content and please his concubine; nay and was so execrable, as to lie with his own mother: he banished his natural son, and caused many children of his subjects to be gelded: finally fearing some miserable and monstrous end, and want of sepulchre, in conscience of his misdeeds, he gave in charge to two strong and hardy soldiers, that they should ga●d a certain appointed place, and not fail to kill the first that came in their way, and to bury his body being slain: now the first that met them was himself, who offered himself unto them without speaking any word, and was soon dispatched and buried according to his commandment▪ but these two were encountered with four other, whom he also had appointed to do the same to them which they had done to them. In this rank deservably we may place the second Dionysius his son, that Sabell. for his cruelties and extortions was slain by his own subjects: who though at the first made show of a better and milder nature than his father was of, yet after he was installed in his Kingdom, and grown strong, his wicked nature showed forth itself; for first he rid out of the way his own brethren, than his nearest kindred, and lastly, all other that but any way displeased him; using his sword not to the cutting down of vice, as it ought, but to the cutting the throats of his innocent and guiltless subjects: with which tyranny the people being incensed, began to mutiny, and from mutinies fell to open rebellion, persecuting him so, that he was compelled to fly and take harbour in Greece: where notwithstanding he ceased not his accustomed manners, but continued still freshly, committing robberies, and doing all manner of injuries and outrages, in wronging men; and forcing both women and maids to his filthy lusts: until he was brought to so low and so base an ebb of estate, that of a King being become a beggar and a vagabond, he was glad to teach children at Corinth to get his poor living, and so died in misery. Clearchus, another tyrant, after he had put to death the most part of the Sabell. Nobles, and chief men of account in the city of Heraclea, usurped a tyrannous authority over the rest: amongst many of whose monstrous enormities this was one, that he constrained the widows of those whom he had slain, against their wills to marry those of his followers whom he allotted them to; insomuch that many of them with grief and anger slew themselves: now there were two men of stouter courage than the rest, who pitying the miserable condition of the whole city, undertook to deliver the same out of his cruel hands: coming therefore accompanied with fifty other of the same mind and resolution, as though they would debate a private quarrel before his presence, as soon as convenience served, they diverted their swords from themselves into the tyrants bosom, and hewed him in pieces in the very midst of his guard. Agathocles, King, or rather tyrant of Sicily, from a porters son, growing Sabell. to be a man of war, took upon him the government of the country, and usurped the crown, contrary to the consent of his people: he was one given to all manner of filthy and unclean pollutions, in whom treachery, cruelty, and generally all kind of vice reigned, and therefore was worthily plagued by God; first by a murder of his youngest son, committed by his eldest sons son, that aspired unto the crown, and thought that he might be an obstacle in his way for obtaining his purpose: and lastly, having sent his wife and children into Egypt for safety, by his own miserable and languishing death which shortly after ensued. Romulus the first King of Rome was (as Florus testifieth) transported by Florus. a devil out of this earth into some habitation of his own, for the monstrous superstitions, conjure, thefts, ravishments, and murders, which during his pomp he committed; and moreover (he saith) that Plutarch, Plutarch. the most credible and learned Writer amongst Historiographers, both Greek and Latin, that ever writ, avoucheth the same for true; That he was carried away one day by a spirit in a mighty tempest of thunder and lightning, before the view of the whole multitude, to their great astonishment, insomuch that they fled at the sight thereof. What shall we say of Silla, that monster in cruelty, that most odious and execrable Tyrant that ever was, by whom all civil order and humane policy was utterly defaced, and all vice and confusion in stead thereof set up? did he not procure the death of six thousand men at one clap, at the Plutarch. discomfiture of Marius? And having promised to save the lives of three thousand that appealed unto his mercy, did he not cause them to be assembled within a Park, and there to have their throats cut, whilst he made an oration to the Senate? It was he that filled the channels of the streets of Rome, and other cities in Italy, with blood and slaughters innumerable: and that neither spared Altar, Temple, or other privileged place or house whatsoever, from the pollution and distainment of innocent blood: husbands were stain in their wife's arms, infants in their mother's bosoms, and infinite multitudes of men murdered for their riches: for if any were either rich, or owners of fair houses, or pleasant gardens, they were sure to die: besides, if there were any private quarrel or grudge betwixt any citizen, and some of his crew, he suffered his side to revenge themselves after their own lusts, so that for private mislike and enmity many hundreds lost their lives; he that saved an outlaw or proscribed person in his house, (of which there were too many of the best sort in his time) or gave him entertainment under his roof, whether he were his brother, son, or parent whatsoever, was himself for recompense of his courtesy and humanity, proscribed and sold, and condemned to death: and he that killed one of them that was proscribed, had for reward two talents (the wages of his murder) amounting in value to twelve hundred crowns, whether it was a bondslave that slew his master, or a son that murdered his father: coming to Preneste, he began to proceed in a kind of justiciall form amongst the citizens, and as it were by law and equity to practise wrong and injury: but ere long, either being weary of such slow proceedings, or not at leisure to prosecute the same any further, he caused to meet together in one assembly two thousand of them, whom he committed all to the massacre without any manner of compassion: As he was sitting one day in the midst of his palace in Rome, a soldier to whom he had granted the proscription of his dead brother, as if he had been alive (whom he himself before the civil war had slain) presented him in lieu of thanks for the great good turn the head of one Marcus Marius of the adverse faction, before the whole city, with his hands all imbrued in blood, which he also washed in the holy water sta●ke 〈◊〉 Apollo's temple, being near unto that place; and all this being commended and countenanced by Silla: he decreed a general disanulment and abrogation of all titles and rights that were passed before his time, to the end to have the more liberty both to put to death whom he pleased, and to confiscate men's goods, and also to unpeople and repeople cities, sack, pulldowne, and build, and to depose & make Kings at his pleasure: the goods which he had thus seized, he shamed not to sell with his own hands; sitting in his tribunal sear, giving oftentimes a fair woman a whole country, or the revenues of a city for her beauty, and to Players, Jesters, Jugglers, Minstrels, and other wicked effranchised slaves, great and unnecessary rewards: yea, and to divers married women also, whom (pleasing his eye) he deprived their husbands of perforce, and espoused them to himself, maugre their wills: being desirous to alley himself with Pompey, he commanded him to cast off his lawful wife, and taking from Magnus G●abri● his wife Aemilia, made him marry her, though already great with child by her former husband; but she died in travel in his house. In seasts and banqueting he was too immoderate, for it was his continual and daily practice: the wine that he drank usually was forty years old, and the company that he delighted to keep was compact of ministriss, tumblers, players, singers, and such like rascals, and with these he would spend whole days in drinking, carousing, dancing, and all dissoluteness. Now this disinordinate life of his did so augment a disease which was grown in his body, to wit an imposthume; that in time it corrupted his flesh, and turned it into louse; in such sort, that though he had those that continually followed him to sweep them off, and to louze him night and day, yet the increase was still so plentiful, that all would not serve to clear him for a moment: insomuch, that not his apparel, though never so new and changeable; nor his linen, though never so fresh, nor his bath, nor his laver, no nor his meat and drink could be kept unpolluted from the flux of this filthy vermin, it issued in such abundance: oftentimes in a day he would wash himself in a bath, but to no great purpose; for his shame increased the more. The day before he died he sent for one Granius, who attending his death, delayed to pay that which he ought to the Commonwealth; and being come in his presence, he commanded him to be strangled to death before his face: but with straining himself in crying after his execution, his imposthume burst, and vomited out such streams of blood, that his strength failed him withal; and passing that night in great distress, the next day made up his wicked and miserable end. After that Caligula began to addict himself to impiety and contempt of Dion. God, presently being not kerbed with any fear nor shame, he became most dissolute in all kind of wickedness; for at one time he caused to be slain a great number of people for calling him young Augustus, as if it had been an injury to his person to be so entitled: and to say briefly of all his murders, there were so many of his kindred, friends, senators, and citizens, made away by his means, that it would be too long and tedious here to recite: wherefore seeing that he was generally hated of the people for his misdeeds, he wished that they all had but one head, to the end (as it might seem) that at one blow he might dispatch them all. In sumptuousness and costliness of dishes and banquets, he neither found nor left his equal, Sueton. for he would sup up most precious stones melted by art, and swallow down treasures into his belly: his banquets were often served with golden loaves and golden meats: in giving rewards he was sometime too too prodigal, for he would cast great sums of money amongst the people certain days together, until his bags were drawn dry, and then new strange shifts must be practised to fill them up again: his subjects he over charged with many newfound and unjust taxes, exacting of them a tribute even for their meat: if there were any money controversies to be decided, the fourth part of the same was his share, which way soever the matter inclined: the eight penny of every Porter's gain throughout the city (which with travel they earned) he took into his purse: yea, and that which is more filthy and dishonest, the very whores and common strumpets paid him a yearly revenue for their bauderies; which act, though most villainous and slanderous, yet is made a sampler to some of our holy Popes to imitate, and indeed hath of many been put in practice: but to our purpose; whereas before his prodigality was so great as to scatter money like seed amidst the people; now his niggardliness grew on the other side so miserable, that he would have the people upon the first day of the year, every one to give him a new-yeares-gift, he himself standing at the door of his house like a beggar, receiving the people's alms. Moreover, of all that ever gave their lusts the bridle to abuse other men's wives, he was most impudent and notorious; for divers times he used to feast many fair Ladies and their husbands, and after his good cheer ended, to overview them severally a part, as Merchants do their wares; and to take her that pleased his fancy best into some secret place, to abuse at his pleasure: neither after the deed done to be ashamed to glory and vaunt himself in his wicked and filthy act. He committed incest with his own sisters, forcing them to his lust, and by one of them had a daughter borne, whom (saith Eutropius) his abominable concupiscence abused also in most filthy and preposterous manner: At length many conspired his destruction, but especially one of the Tribunes, which office we may after the custom of our French nation rightly term the Marshalship, and the officer one of our four Marshals, as Budeus saith) who showed himself more eagerly affected in the cause than the rest, pursued this enterprise in more speedy and desperate manner: for as the Tyrant returned from the Theatre by a by-way to his Palace (the third day of the feast, which he celebrated in honour of julius Caesar) the Tribune presented himself, as if in regard of his office, to import some matter of importance unto him: and having received a currish word or two at his hands (as his custom was) he gave him such a stroke between the head and the shoulders, that what with it and the blows of his complices, that going for the same intent, rushed upon him, he was ●laine amongst them, no man stirring a foot to deliver him out of their hands, though many looked on, and might have aided him if they would: he was no sooner slain, but his wife incontinently was sent after, and his daughter also that was crushed to death against a wall; and thus came his wretched self, with his filthy progeny, to a wretched and miserable end. Nero showed himself not only an enemy to God in persecuting his Church, but also a perverter and disturber of humane nature, in embruing Sueton. his hands in the blood of his own mother and grandmother, whom he caused to be put to death, and in killing his own wife and sister, and infinite numbers of all kind of people: beside, in adulteries he was so monstrous, that it is better to conceal them from modest ears, than to stir up the puddle of so stinking and noisome a dunghill: for which his villainies the Senate condemned him to a shameful and most ignominious death, and his armies and forces forsook him: which when he understood, he betook him to flight, and hid himself in an out way amongst thorns and bushes, which with great pain having passed through, being weary of his life, he threw himself down into a pit four foot deep; and when he could get none of his men to lay their hands upon him, he desperately and miserably slew himself. Vitellius, for the murders and other outrageous misdeeds which he committed, Sueton. was taken in his shirt, and drawn through the streets with a halter about his neck, and his hands bound behind him, and the point of a dagger under his chin; the people casting dirt and dung upon him in detestation, and calling him makebate and seditious villain, with other opprobrious reproaches: and at last being massacred with many blows, was drawn with a hook into Tiber, like a carrion. Domitian was a cruel enemy of the Christians▪ he rejected his own Sueton. wife to take a new, and being covertly reproved by Helvidius for the same, in a Play of the divorce of Paris and Enon, which he presented unto him, he put him to death for his labour. Many worthy Senators and chief men, and such as had borne the office of the Consul, without just cause given of reprehension, were murdered by him: he spared not his own blood and nearest allies, no nor his own brother Titus, but what with poison and sword, destroyed them all to confusion. But in the end, when he saw that the world hated him for his outrageous cruelties, he consulted with the Astrologians and Conjurers, what death did wait for him; one of the which amongst the rest told him that he should be slain, and that very shortly: wherewithal being sore troubled, he first caused him that had prognosticated this evil unto him, to be slain: then he compassed himself with a strong guard, and to the end to see them that should come near, he made his gallery walls where he walked, of such a kind of glistering and shining stone, that he might see in them all about him, both behind and before. When the day and hour which was fore-calculated for his death was come, one of the Conspirators came in with his left arm in a scarf, as if he had been sore hurt; feigning that he would bewray the whole treason which he so much feared; and being entered his Chamber, he presented him with a long discourse in writing, touching the matter and manner of the Conspiracy: and when in reading the same, he saw him most astonished; then he took occasion to strike him suddenly into the belly with his dagger, his own servants making up the murder, when they saw him go about to resist. And thus by all his wisdom and providence he could not rid himself from being surprised, nor hinder the execution of God's just foreappointed judgement. And these were the ends of those wicked Emperors, who in regard of their vile lives, were rather monsters than men; and not only they whom we have named, but many more also, as Antonius, Caracalla, Heliogabalus, and other like may be worthily placed in this rank. But of all, Heliogabalus is most famous: of whom is recorded in histories, that he was so prodigious in all gluttony, filthiness, and ribaldry, that the like I think was never heard of, except those monsters that went before; and yet I suppose he surpassed them too. Such was the exceeding and luxurious pomp of this beastlike Emperor, that in his lamps he used balm, and filled his fishponds with rose-water: the garments which he wore were all of the finest gold and most costly silks: his shoes glisteren with precious stones, curiously engraven: he was never two days served with one kind of meat, nor wore one garment twice; and so likewise for his fleshly wickedness, he varied it every time: Some days he was served at meals with the brains of Ostriches, and a strange fowl called a Phylocapterie, another day with the tongues of popinjays, and other sweet singing birds, being nigh to the sea; he never used fish in places far distant from the sea: all his house was served with most delicate fish: at one supper his table was furnished with seven thousand fishes, and five thousand fowls: At his remoovals in his progress, there followed him commonly six hundred chariots: he used to sacrifice with young children, and preferred to the best advancements in the Commonwealth most light persons; as Bawds, Minstrels, Players, and such like: in one word, he was an enemy to all honesty and good order. And when he was foretell by his Sorcerers and Astronomers, that he should die a violent death, he provided ropes of silk to hang himself, swords of gold to kill himself, and strong poisons in Jacinths and Emerauds to poison himself, if needs he should thereto be forced: Moreover, he made an high tower, having the boarded floor covered with gold plate, and broidered with precious stones, from the which tower he might throw himself down, if he were pursued of his enemies. But notwithstanding all this provision, (God's vengeance not permitting him to die as he would) he was slain of the soldiers, drawn through the city, and cast into Tiber, after he had reigned two years and eight months. Tigellinus, one of the Captains of Nero's guard, and a chief procurer and setter forward of his tyranny, was the cause of the death of many great personages in Rome: and being enriched by their spoil and other such like robberies, after the death of Nero (whom in his extremity he forsook) plunged himself, and wallowed in all manner of licentious and disordinate delights. Now though he was worthy of a thousand deaths for his cruelties towards many good citizens, yet by the means of one junius, the Emperor Galba his chief minion, whose favour he had by great sums of money bought and obtained (for he gave unto his daughter at one time five and twenty thousand crowns, and to himself at another time a carcanet worth fifteen thousand crowns for a present) he was spared and kept in safety: but as soon as Otho was installed in the Empire, his downfall and destruction began presently to follow: for Otho, to the end to gratify the Romans, sent to apprehend him, who was then in his houses of pleasure in the field, banqueting and sporting with his harlots, and using all manner of riot, albeit by reason of a deadly disease which was upon him, he was even at death's door. When he saw himself thus taken, and that no means of escape was left, (no not by the vessels which he had prepared at the sea shore for purpose, if need were, to convey him away) and that he which had commission to take him, would give him no advantage of escaping, though he offered him great rewards for the same, he entreated only leisure to shave his beard before he went; which being granted, he took a razor, and in stead of shaving, cut his own throat. CHAP. XLV. More examples of the same argument. HIeronymus, a true Tyrant of Sicily, enured and fashioned Tit. Liv. to all pride, and of most corrupt and rotten manners, began right after the death of his father Hiero, (that left him a peaceable and quiet Kingdom) to show ●orth his arrogance; for he quickly made himself fearful to his Subjects, both by his stately and proud manner of speech, as also by the hardness of access unto him, together with a kind of disdainful contempt of all men: but most of all did the inward pride of his heart appear when he had gotten a guard about his body; for than he ceased not to bait, by't, and devour, and to exercise all kind of cruelty against every man, and all kind of riot and excess of filthiness against himself: so that he became so odious and contemptible to his subjects, that they conspired against him, to deprive him both of his life and kingdom: which conspiracy though it came to light, yet for all that wanted not his due effect: for after he had (through listening to false reports) put to death unjustly his truest and dearest friends, and those that would indeed have helped him in his necessity, both with good advice and other succour, he was surprised as he walked in a narrow and straight way, and there cruelly murdered. Now there was one Andronodorus his brother in law, that aspired to the crown, had corrupted his manners, and thrust him forward to all these misdemeanours, to the end by those practices he might make him odious to his people, that by that means he might obtain his own purpose, as indeed he did: for after his death he seized upon the Sceptre, though with no long enjoyance; for through the troubles and commotions which were raised in the country by his means, both he, his wife, and whole race, together with the whole progeny of Hieronymus, whether innocent or guilty, were all utterly rooted out and defaced. Andronicus was one of the most wickedest men that lived on the earth in his time; for he excelled in all kind of evil: in ambition, boldness in doing mischief, cruelty, whoredom, adultery, and incest also to make up the whole number: besides, he was so treacherous and disloyal, that he traitorously slew the son and heir of the Emperor Emanuel, shutting him in a sack, and so throwing him into the sea; after which, by violence he took possession of the Empire of Constantinople, and like a strong thief seized upon that which was none of his own; but as soon as he had gotten his desire, than began his lusts to rage and rave, than he fell to whoring and forcing women and maids to his lust, whom after he had once robbed of their chastities, he gave over to his bands and ruffians to abuse; and that which is more than all this, he ravished one of his own sisters, and committed incest with her: moreover, to maintain and uphold his tyrannous estate, he slew most of the nobility, and all else that bore any show of honesty or credit with them, and lived altogether by wrongs and extortions: wherefore his subjects (provoked with these multitudes of evils which reigned in him, and not able to endure any longer his vile outrages and indignities) rebelled against him and besieged him, got him into their merciless hands, and handled him on this fashion following: first they degraded him and spoilt him of his imperial ornaments, than they pulled out one of his eyes, and set him upon an ass backward, with the tail in his hand in stead of a Sceptre, and a rope about his neck in stead of a crown; and in this order and attire they led him through all Constantinople, the people shouting and reviling him on all sides, some throwing dirt, others spittle, divers dung, and the women their pisspots at his head: after all which banqueting dishes, he was transported to the gallows, and there hanged, to make an end of all. Charles King of Navarre, whose mother jean was daughter to Lewis Lutton Frois. vol. 3. cap. 100 King of France, was another that oppressed his subjects with cruelty and rough dealing: for he imposed upon them grievous taxes and tributes, and when many of the chiefest of his Commonwealth came to make known unto him the poverty of his people, and that they were not able to endure any more such burdens, he caused them all to be put to death for their boldness: he was the kindler of many great mischiefs in France, and of the fire wherewith divers places of strength, and castles of defence were burned to ashes: he counselled the Count of Foix his son to poison his father, and not only so, but gave him also the poison with his own hands, wherewith to do the deed: Moreover, above all this, lechery and Adultery Nich. giles. swayed his powers, even in his old age; for at threescore years of age, he had a whore in a corner, whose company he daily haunted; and so much, that she at length gave him his death's wound; for returning from her company one day (as his use was) and entering into his chamber, he went to bed all quaking and half frozen with cold, neither could he by any means recover his heat, until by art they sought to supply nature, and blew upon him with brazen bellows Aquavitae and hot blasts of air; but withal, the fire unregarded flew betwixt the sheets, and inflamed the dry linen together with the Aquavitae, so suddenly, that ere any help could be made, his late quivering bones were now half burned to death. It is true that he lived fifteen days after this, but in so great grief and torment, without sense of any help or assuagement by Physic or Surgery, that at the end thereof he died miserably: and so, as during his life his affection over burnt in lust, and his mind was always hot, upon mischief and covetousness, so his days were finished with heat and cruel burning. Lugtake, King of Scots, succeeding his father Galdus in the Kingdom, Lanquet. was so odious and mischievous a Tyrant, that every man hated him no less for his vices, than they loved his father for his virtues: he slew many rich and noblemen for no other cause, but to enrich his treasury with their goods: he committed the government of the Realm to most unjust and covetous persons, and with their company was most delighted: he shamed not to deflower his own aunts, sisters, and daughters, and to scorn his wise and grave counsellors, calling them old doting fools: all which monstrous villainies (with a thousand more) so incensed his Nobles against him, that they slew him after he had reigned three years: but as the Proverb goeth, Seldom cometh a better; another or worse Tyrant succeeded in his kingdom; namely Mogallus, cousin german to Lugtake, a man notoriously infected with all manner of vices: for albeit in the beginning of his reign he gave himself to follow the wisdom and manners of his uncle Galdus; yet in his age his corrupt nature burst forth abundantly, but chiefly in avarice, lechery, and cruelty: this was he that licenced thiefs and robbers to take the goods of their neighbours without punishment, and that first ordained the goods of condemned persons to be confiscate to the king's use, without respect either of wives, children, or creditors; for which crimes he was also slain by his nobles. Besides these, there was another king of the Scots, called Atherto, in the The fame. year of our Lord 240. who showed himself also in like manner a most abominable wretch: for he so wallowed in all manner of unclean and effeminate lusts, that he was not ashamed to go in the sight of the people playing upon a flute, rejoicing more to be accounted a good Fiddler, than a good Prince; from which vices he fell at last to the deflowering and ravishing of maids and women, insomuch as the daughters of his nobles could not be safe from his insatiable and intolerable lust: wherefore being pursued by them, when he saw no means to escape, he desperately slew himself. The great outrages which the Spaniards have committed in the West Indies, are apparent testimonies of their impiety, injustice, cruelty, insatiable covetousness, and luxury; and the judgement wherewith God hath hunted them up and down both by sea and land, (as late and fresh histories do testify) are manifest witnesses of his heavy anger and displeasure against them: amongst all which, I will here insert none but that which is most notorious and worthy memory, as the wretched accident of Pamphilius Novares, and his company: This man with six hundred Spaniards making for the coast of Florida, to seek the gold of the river of Palmtrees, were so Benzon. Mil. turmoiled with vehement winds and tempests, that they could not keep their vessels from dashing against the shore, so that their ships did all split in sunder, and they for the most part were drowned, save a few that escaped to land, yet escaped not danger; for they ran roving up and down this savage country so long, till they fell into such extreme poverty and famine, that for want of victuals twelve of them devoured one another; and of the whole six hundred that went forth, there never yet returned above ten, all the rest being either drowned or pined to death. Francis Pizarre, a man of base parentage, for in his youth he was but a Benzon. hogheard, and of worse qualities and education, for he knew not so much as the first elements of learning, giving himself to the West Indian wars, grew to some credit in bearing office, but withal showed himself very disloyal, treacherous, and bloody-minded, in committing many odious and monstrous cruelties: entering Peru with an army of soldiers, to the end, to conquer new lands and dominions, and to glut his unsatiable covetousness with a new surfeit of riches (after the true Spanish custom) he committed many bloody and traitorous acts, and exercised more than barbarous cruelty: for first under pretence of friendship feigning to parley with Artabaliba, King of Cusco; the poor King coming with five and twenty thousand of unarmed men, in ostentation of his greatness, not in purpose to resist, he welcomed him and his men so nimbly with swords and curtleaxes, that they had all soon their throats cut by a most horrible slaughter, and the King himself was taken and put in chains: yea, and the City after this massacre of men abroad, felt soon the insolences of these brave warriors within: in fine, though Pizarre promised Artabaliba to save his life, in regard of a ransom, amounting to more than two millions of gold; yet after the receipt thereof he traitorously caused him to be hanged, contrary to both his oath, and all equity and reason: but this cruel perfidy of his went not long without punishment; for both he and all the rest that were any ways accessary, or consenting to the death of this King, came to a wretched end: but especially his four brethren, Ferdinand, Gonsal, john Martin of Alcantara, and Diego of Almagro; who as they were principal in the action, so were they in the punishment: the first that was punished was john Pizarre, who with many other Spaniards was surprised in the City of Cusco, and slain by the men of war of Mangefrem and Artabaliba: next after that there arose such a division and heartburning betwixt the Pizarres and Almagro, and their partakers, that after they had robbed and wasted and shared out the great and rich Country of Peru, they slew one another by mutual strokes: and albeit that there was by common consent an agreement accorded betwixt them, for the preserving of their unity and friendship; yet Francis Pizarre, envying that Almagro should be Governor of Cusco, and he not, interrupted all their agreements, by starting from his promises; and rekindled the halfe-quenched fire of war by his own ambition: for he presently defied Amagro, and sent his brother Ferdinand before to bid him battle; who so well behaved himself, that he took Almagro prisoner, and delivered him bound to his brother Francis, who caused him to be strangled in prison secretly, and after to be beheaded in public. Now Ferdinand being sent by his brother towards Spain, with a great mass of gold to clear himself of the death of Almagro, could not so well justify the fact, as that all his treasure could save him from the prison; and what became of him afterwards, known it is to God, but not to the world. A while after, the fellows and friends of Almagro, whose goods the Pizarrists hath seized upon, took counsel with Don Diego Almagro his son, to revenge the death of his father; therefore being in number but twelve, with unsheathed swords, they desperately burst into Francis Pizarres house, (than marquis and Governor of Peru) and at the first brunt slew a Captain that guarded the entrance of the Hall, and next him Martin of Alcahtara, and other more, that kept the entrance of the Chamber, so that he fell dead even at his brother the Marquis' feet: who albeit his men were all slain before his eyes, and himself left alone amidst his enemies, yet gave not over to defend himself stoutly and manfully, until all of them setting upon him at once, he was stabbed into the throat, and so fell dead upon the ground; and thus finished he and his complices their wretched days, answerable to their cruel deserts: but their murderers (though they deserved to be thus dealt withal) yet for dealing in this sort without authority, were not faultless, but received the due wages of their furious madness: for Don Diego himself, after he had been a while Governor of Peru, had his army overcome and discomfited by the Emperor's forces, and was betrayed into their hands by his own Lieutenant of Cusco, where he thought to have saved himself, and right soon lost his head, with the greatest Captains and favourites that he had, who were also quartered. Now of the five brethren we have heard four of their destructions, only one remaineth (namely Gonzalle Pizarre) to be spoken of; who being sent for by the conquerors to be their Chieftain and Protector against the Viceroy, that went about to make them observe the Emperor's laws and decrees, touching the liberty of the Indian Nation, was betrayed and forsaken by the same men that sent for him, and so fell into his enemy's hands, that cut off his head: The General of his army, a covetous and cruel man, that in short space made away above three hundred Spaniards, and all as it were with his own hand; was drawn up and down at a horse tail the space of half a quarter of an hour, and then hanged upon the gallows, & quartered in four parts. The Monk of Vauvard, called Vincent, who with his cross and porteise had encouraged Pizarre and his army against Artabaliba, and was for that cause created Bishop of Peru, when Diego came to the government, fled into the Island Puna to escape his wrath; but in seeking to avoid him, he fell into as great a snare; for the Islanders assaulted him one night, and knocked him to death with staves and clubs, together with forty Spaniards of his fellowship, that accompanied him in his flight, and started not from him in his death. And thus the good and holy Monk, for meddling with, and setting forward the murder of so many poor people, was for his pains and good deeds justly rewarded by the Indians of that Island. Moreover, after and beside all these troubles, seditions, and civil wars of Peru, all they that returned from Spain, suffered shipwreck for the most part: for their fleet had scarce attained the midst of their course, when there arose so terrible a tempest, that of eighteen ships, thirteen so perished, that they were never heard of after; and of the five which remained, two were tumbled back to the coast of Saint Dominick, all berent and shivered in pieces; other three were driven to Spain, whereof one hitting against the bay of Portugal, lost many of her men: The Admiral herself of this fleet perished near unto Saint Lucar de Baramede, with two hundred persons that were within her, and but one only of them all got safe into the haven of Calix, without damage. Here we may see how mightily the hand of God was stretched forth to the revenge of those wicked deeds and villainies which were committed by the Spaniards in those quarters. Peter Joys, bastard son to Pope Paul the third, was one that practised many horrible villainies, robberies, murders, adulteries, incest, and Sodomitries; Sleid. lib. 19 Ball. thinking that because his father was Pope, therefore no wickedness was unlawful for him to commit. He was by the report of all men, one of the most notorious, vilest, and filthiest villains that ever the world saw: he forced the Bishop of Faence to his unnatural lust, so that the poor Bishop, with mere anger and grief that he should be so abused, died immediately. Being made Duke of Plaisence and Parma, he exercised most cruel tyranny towards many of his subjects; insomuch, that divers Gentlemen that could not brook nor endure his injuries, conceived an inward hate against him, and conspired his death: and for to put in practise the same, they hired certain Ruffians and Roisters to watch the opportunity of slaying him; yea, and they themselves oftentimes went apart with these Roisters, keeping themselves upon their guards, as if some private and particular quarrels had been in hand. One day as the Duke went in his horselitter out of his Castle, with a great retinue, to see certain Fortifications which he had prepared, being advertised by his father the Pope (by the help of Magic which he practised) to look diligently to himself the tenth day of September: in which notwithstanding he was slain; for as he returned into his Castle, the Conspirators, to the number of thirty six, marched before him, as it were to do him honour, but indeed to do him villainy: for as soon as he was entered the Castle, they drew up the drawbridge for fear of his retinue that were without, and coming to him with their naked swords, cast in his teeth his tyranny, and so slew him in his litter, together with a Priest, the master of his horse, and five Almains that were of his Guard: his dead body they hung by a chain over the walls, and shaking it to and fro to the view of the people, threw it down headlong at last into the ditch; where the multitude to show their hates, wounded it with daggers, and trampled it under their feet: and so whom they durst not touch in his life, being dead they thus abused: and this befell upon the tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord 1547. Some of the Bishops of Rome for their rare and notable virtues, and the glory of their brave deeds, may be honoured with this dignity, to be placed in this worthy rank; for their good conditions and behaviours were such, that no tyrant, butcher, thief, robber, ruffian, nor any other, ever excelled them in cruelty, robbery, adultery, and such like wickedness, or deserved more the credit and reputation of this place than they. And hereof we have a manifest example in john the thirteenth, who pulling out the eyes of some of his Cardinals, cutting out the tongues of others, hewing off the hands, noses, and privy members of others, showed himself a pattern of such cruelty, as the world never saw the like: he was accused before the Emperor Otho, in a Synod, first for incest with two of his own sisters: secondly, for calling the devil to help him at dice: thirdly, for promoting young infants to Bishoprickes, bribed thereto by certain pieces of Gold; fourthly, for the ravishing of maids and wives, and lying with his father's concubine: yea, and lastly, for lyingwth his own mother, and many other such monstrous villainies: for which cause he was deposed from the Papacy, though re-installed again by the suit and cunning practice of his Whores; by whom as he recovered his triple Crown, so he lost shortly after his vicious life, by the means of a married whore that betrayed him. Pope Hildebrand, surnamed Gregory the seventh, was adorned with all Benno. Ball. these good qualities, namely to be bloody minded, a poisoner, a murderer, a conjurer, also a consulter with spirits, and in a word, nothing but a lump and mass of wickedness: he was the stirrer up of many battles against the Emperor Henry the fourth, and a provoken of his own son to depose and poison his father, as he did: but this wicked (I would say holy) Pope, was at last banished his Cathedral City, to Salernum, where he ended his days in misery. Pope Clement the sixth, of name contrary to his nature, for his inclemency, cruelty and pride towards the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria, was intolerable; he procured many horrible wars against the Empire, and caused the destruction of twenty thousand Frenchmen by the King of England, yea and poisoned the good Emperor also, so well he wished to him: Howbeit ere long himself was stifled to death, and that suddenly▪ not by any practice of man, as it was thought, but by the especial hand of God, in recompense of all his notable acts. john the four and twentieth was deposed by the Council of Constance, for these crimes following; heresy, Simony, manslaughter, poison, Benno. Ball. cozenings, adultery, and sodomitry, and was cast into prison; where remaining three years, he falsely made show of amendment of his wicked life, and therefore was graced with a Cardinal's hat, but it was not that which he expected; for which cause with despite and grief he died. It would be too long to run over the discourse of every particular Pope of like conditions, and therefore we will content ourselves in brief with the legend of Pope Alexander the sixth, reported by by two authors of credit and renown, and unsuspected; to wit, Guicciardine a Florentine Guicciard. l. 2. Bembus. Gentleman, and Bembus a Venetian Cardinal: This man (saith Guicciardine) attained to the Papacy not by worthiness of virtues, but by heaviness of bribes, and multitude of fair promises made to the Cardinals for his election, promising large recompense to them that stood on his side; whereupon many that knew his course of life were filled with astonishment, amongst whom was the King of Naples, who hearing of this election, complained to his Queen with tears, that there was such a Pope created that would be a plague to Italy and all Christendom: beside, the great vices which swayed in him, of which the same Author speaking, maketh this Catalogue and pedigree in his own Language, which followeth: Costum (dit il) escensimi non sincerita, non verita, non fede, non religione; avaritia insatiabile, ambitione immoderata, crudelta pinque barbara, ●o ardentissima cupidity di escalt are in qualunque mode, i figli voli, i qualierano molti: (that is Guicciard. lib. 2. to say) He was endued with most filthy conditions, and that neither sincerity, truth, faith, nor religion, was in him, but in stead of them, covetousness unquenchable, ambition unmeasurable, more than barbarous cruelty, and a burning desire of promoting his own children (for he had many) by what means soever. He persuaded King Charles the eighth of France to undertake war against Naples, and after he had brought him to it, presently he forsook him, and entered a new league with the Venetians, and the other Princes of Italy, to drive him home again. This was he (saith Cardinal Venetian. hist. lib. 6. Bembus) that set Benefices and Promotions to sale, that he which would give most might have most; and that poisoned john Michael the Cardinal of Venice at Rome, for his gold and treasure which he abounded with: whose insatiable covetousness provoked him to the committal of all mischief, to the end he might maintain the forces of his son, who went about to bring the whole lands & dominions of all Italy, into his possession● in adulteries he was most filthy and abominable, in tyranny most cruel, and in Magic most cunning, and therefore most execrable: supping one night with Cardinal Adrian, his very familiar friend, in his garden, having foreappointed his destruction that night by poison; through the negligence and oversight of his butler, to whom he had given the exploit in charge, that was deceived by mistaking the bottles, he drank himself the medicine which he had prepared for his good friend the Cardinal: and so he died (saith Bembus) not without an evident mark of God's heavy wrath, in that he which had slain so many Princes and rich men to enjoy their treasures, and went now about to murder his host which entertained him with friendship & good cheer into his house, was caught in the same snare which he had laid, and destroyed by the same means himself, which he had destinated for another: being thus dead, the whole City of Rome (saith Guicciardine) ran out with greediness and joy to behold his carcase, not being able to satisfy their eyes with beholding the dead Serpent, whose venom of ambition, treachery, cruelty, adultery, and avarice, had empoisoned the whole world. Some say, that as he purposed to poison certain Cardinals, he poisoned his own father, that being in their company, chanced to get a share of his drugs: and that he was so abominable to abuse his own sister Lucrece in the way of filthiness. When Zemes the brother of Bajazet the Emperor of the Turks came and surrendered himself into his hands, and was admitted into his protection, he being hired with two hundred ducats by Bajazet, gave poison to his new Client, even to him to whom he had before sworn and vowed his friendship: besides, that he might maintain his tyranny, he demanded and obtained aid of the Turk against the King of France, which was a most unchristian and antichristian part: he caused the tongue and two hands of Anthony Mancivellus (a very learned and wise man) to be cut off, for an excellent Oration which he made in reproof of his wicked demeanours and dishonest life. It is written moreover by some, that he was so affectionated to the service of his good lord and master the devil, that he never attempted any thing without his counsel and advice; who also presented himself unto him at his death in the habit of a post, according to the agreement which was betwixt them: and although this wretched Antichrist strove against him for life, alleging that his term was not yet finished; yet he was enforced to dislodge, and depart into his proper place, where with horrible cries and hideous fearful groans he died. Thus we see how miserably such wretched and infamous miscreants, and such pernicious and cruel tyrants have ended their wicked lives, their force and power being execrable and odious, and therefore (as saith Seneca) not In his book of the clemency of a Prince. able to continue any long time, for that government cannot be firm and stable, where there is no shame nor fear to do evil, nor where equity, justice, faith, and piety, with other virtues, are contemned and trodden under foot: for when cruelty once beginneth to be predominate, it is so insatiable, that it never ceaseth, but groweth every day from worse to worse, by striving to maintain and defend old faults by new, until the fear and terror of the poor afflicted and oppressed people, with a continual source and interchange of evils which surcharge them, converteth itself from sorced patience, to willing fury, and breaketh forth to do vengeance upon the tyrant's heads with all violence; whence ariseth that saying of the Satirical Poet to the same sense; where he saith, Few Tyrant's die the death that nature sends, Ad generum Cereris sine caede & sanguine pause, Descendunt reges & s●cca morte tyranni. But most are brought by slaughter to their ends. CHAP. XLVI. Of Calumniation and false witness bearing. WE have seen heretofore what punishments the Lord hath laid upon those that either vex their neighbours in their persons, as in the breakers of the fifth, sixth, and seventh Commandments; or damage them in their goods, as in the eighth: now let us look unto those that seek to spoil them of their good names, and rob them of their credit by slanderous reproaches, and false and forged calumniatious, and by that means go against the ninth Commandment, which saith, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour: In which words is condemned generally all slanders, all false reports, all defamations, and all evil speeches else whatsoever, whereby the good name and credit of a man is blemished, stained, or impoverished; and this sin was not only inhibited by the divine Law of the Almighty, but also by the laws of Nature and Nations: for there is no Country and People so barbarous, with whom these pernicious kind of Creatures are not held in detestation: of tame beasts (saith Diogenes) a flatterer is worst, and of wild beasts a backbiter or a slanderer: and not without great reason, for as there is no disease so dangerous as that which is secret, so there is no enemy so pernicious as he which under the colour of friendship biteth and slandereth us behind our backs: but let us see what judgement the Lord hath shown upon them, to the end the odiousness of this vice may more clearly appear. And first to begin with Doeg the Edomite, who falsely accused Achimelech the Highpriest unto Saul, for giving succour unto David in his necessity and flight: for though he told nothing but that which was true, yet of that 1 Sam. 22. 9 truth some he maliciously perverted, and some he kept back: and falsehood consisteth not only in plain lying, but also in concealing and misusing the truth: for Achimelech indeed asked counsel of the Lord for David, and ministered unto him the Shewbread and the sword of Goliath, but not with any intent of malice against King Saul for he supposed, and David also made him believe, that he went about the King's business, and that he was in great favour with the King: which last clause the wicked accuser left out, and by that means not only provoked the wrath of Saul, against the Highpriest, but also when all other refused, became himself executioner of his wrath, and murdered Achimelech, with all the nation of the Priests, and smote Nob the City of the Priests with the edge of the sword, both man, and woman, child, and suckling, ox and ass, not leaving any alive (so beastly was his cruelty) save Abiathar only, one of the sons of Achimelech, that fled to David, and brought him tidings of this bloody massacre. But did this 〈…〉 Spirit of God in the 52. Psalm proclaimeth his judgement: Why boastest thou in Psal. ●●. 1. 2. ●. thy wickedness thou Tyrant? Thy 〈…〉, and is like a sharp razor that cutteth deceitfully, etc. but God shall destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee and pluck thee out of thy tabernacle, and root thee out of the Land of the living. Next to this man we may justly place Achab the King of Israel, and jesabel 1 King. 21. his wife, who to the end to get possession of Naboths vineyard (which being his inheritance he would not part from) suborned by his wives pernicious counsel false accusers, wicked men, to witness against Naboth, that he had blasphemed God and the King, and by that means caused him to be stoned to death: but mark the judgement of God denounced against them both by the mouth of Elias, for this wicked fact: Hast thou killed (saith he) and taken possession? Thus saith the Lord, In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs even lick thy blood also: and as for Jesabel, dogs shall eat her by the wall of jesrael: thy house shall be like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nabat: I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, etc. Neither was this only denounced, but executed also; as we may read, 1 Kin. 22. 38. & 2 Kin. 9 36, 37, etc. & 2 Kin. 10. 7, etc. Amaziah the Priest of Bethel under jeroboam the wicked King of Israel, Amo● 7. 17. perceiving how the Prophet Amos prophesied against the Idolatry of that place, and of the King, he falsely accused him to jeroboam, to have conspired against him; also he exhorted him to fly from Bethel, because it was the King's Chapel, and fly into Judah, and prophesy 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: Lo there was the punishment of his false accusation. How notable was the judgement that the Lord manifested upon Hamon Ester 7. 10. the Syrian for his false accusing of the Jews, to be disturbers of the Commonwealth, and breakers of the laws of King Ahasuerosh? Did not the Lord turn 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 gallows which he prepared for Mordecai was he himself hanged upon. The men that falsely accused Daniel to King Darius, for breaking the Dan. 6. King's edict, which was, that none should make any request unto any for thirty day's space, save only to the King himself, 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 thrown 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 Lion's 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 profane histories: Apelles that famous Painter of Ephesus, felt the sting and ●●tternesse o● this venomous vi●er, for he was falsely accused by Antiphilus another Painter, an envier of his art and excellent workmanship, to have conspired with Theodota against King Ptolemy, 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 Theat. Hist. attain to that excellency of art which he had, he might by this false pretence work his disgrace and overthrow; as indeed he had effected, had not great persuasions been used, and manifest proofs alleged of Apelles innocency and integrity: wherefore Ptolemy having made trial of the cause, and found out the false and wrongful practice, he most justly rewarded Apelles with an hundred talents, and Antiphilus the accuser with perpetual servitude: upon which occasion Apelles in remembrance of that danger painted out Calumniation on this manner; a Woman gaily 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 evil favoured sluttish usher, quicksighted, and pale-faced, called Envy, at her right hand sat a fellow with long ears like King Midas to receive tales, and behind her two waiting maids, Ignorance and Suspicion. And thus the witty Painter, to delude his own evil hap, expressed Vide l. 1. c. 12. Example of Nero. the lively Image and nature of that detracting sin. This trick used Maximinus the Tyrant to deface the Doctrine and Religion of Christ in his time; for when he saw that violence and torments Euseb. l. 9 c. 6. prevailed not, but that like the Palm, the more it was trodden and oppressed, Nicep. l. 7. c. 27. the more it grew, he used this subtlety and craft to undermine it: he published divers books 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 filthiness was daily 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 increased in despite of Envy: and for these false accusers, they were punished one after another with notable judgements; for one that was a chief doer therein became his own murderer, and Maximinus himself was consumed with worms and rottenness, as hath been showed in the former Book. It was a law among the Romans, that if any man had enforced an accusation Eus. l. 5. cap. 21. against another, either wrongfully, unlawfully, or without probability, both his legs should be broken, in recompense of his malice: which custom, as it was laudable and necessary, so was it put in execution at divers times, as namely under the Emperor Commodus, when a profane Nicep. l. 4. c. 26. wretch accused Apollonius (a godly and professed Christian, and afterward a constant martyr of Christ Jesus) before the Judges, of certain grievous crimes, which when he could by no colour or likelihood 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, Nicep. l. 8. c. 46. and uprightness of life, when as he impugned the heresy of the Arrians, was circumvented by them, and deposed from his Bishopric by this means: they suborned a naughty strumpet to come in with a child in her arms, and in an open Synod of two hundred and fifty Bishops to accuse him of adultery, and to swear that he had got that child of her body: which though he denied constantly, and no just proof could be brought against him, yet the impudent strumpet's oath took such place, that by the Emperor's censure he was banished from his Bishopric; howbeit ere long his innocency was known, for the said strumpet being deservedly touched with the finger of God's justice in extreme sickness, confessed the whole practice, how she was suborned by certain Bishops to slander this holy man, and that yet she was not altogether a liar, for one Eustathius a handicraft's man got the child, as she had sworn, and not Eustathius the Bishop. The like slander the same heretics devised against Athanasius in a Synod Philip Melanct. Chron. lib. 3. Nicep. l. 9 c. 23. convocated by Constantine the Emperor, at Tyrus; for they suborned a certain lewd woman to exclaim 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 coming to the woman, asked her before them all, whether she durst say that he had ravished her; to whom she replied, yea, I swear and vow that thou hast done it (for she supposed it to have been Athanasius, whom she never saw) whereat the whole Synod perceived the cavil of the lying Arrians, and quitted the innocency of that good man. Howbeit these malicious heretics seeing this practice not to succeed, invented another worse than the former; for they accused him to have slain one Arsenius, whom they themselves kept secret; and that he carried one of his hands about him, wherewith he wrought miracles by enchantment: but Arsenius, touched by the spirit of God, stole away from them, and came to Athanasius, to the end he should receive no damage by his absence, whom he brought in to the Judges, and showed them both his hands, confounded his accusers with shame of their malice, insomuch as they ran away for fear, and satisfied the Judges both of his integrity, and their envious calumniation: the chief Broker of all this mischief was Stephanus Bishop of Antioch, but he was degraded from his Bishopric, and Leontius elected in his room. In our English Chronicles we have recorded a notable history to the like effect of King Canutus the Dane, who after much trouble, being established in the Kingdom of England, caused a Parliament to be held at London; where (amongst other things there debated) it was propounded to the Bishops, Barons, and Lords of that Assembly, Whether in the composition made betwixt Edmond and Canutus any special remembrance was made for the children or brethren of Edmond, touching any partition of any part of the land? which the English Lords, flattering the king, though falsely and against the truth, yea and against their own consciences, denied to be; and not only so, but for the King's pleasure confirmed their false words with a more false oath, that to the uttermost of their powers they would put off the blood of Edmond from all right and interest: by reason of which oath and promise they thought to have purchased with the King great favour; but by the just retribution of God it chanced far otherwise: for many of them, or the most part, especially such as Canutus perceived to have sworn fealty before time to Edmond and his heirs, he mistrusted and disdained ever after: insomuch, that some he exiled, many he beheaded, and divers by God's just judgement died suddenly. In the Scottish Chronicles we read how Hamilton the Scot was brought unto his death by the false accusation of a false Friar called Campbel: who being in the fire ready to be executed, cited and summoned the said Friar to appear before the high God, as general Judge of all men, to answer to the innocency of his death, and whether his accusation were just or not, betwixt that and a certain day of the next month, which he there named. Now see the heart and hand of God against a false witness, ere that day came the Friar died without any remorse of conscience; and no doubt he gave a sharp account to Almighty God of his malicious and unjust accusation. In the year of our Lord 1105, Henry Archbishop of Mentz, being complained of to the Pope, sent a learned man, a special friend of his, to excuse him, named Arnold; one for whom he had much done, and promoted to great livings and promotions: but this honest man in stead of an excuser became an accuser; for he bribed the two chiefest Cardinals with gold, and obtained of the Pope those two to be sent Inquisitors about the Archbishop's case: The which coming into Germany, summoned the said Henry, and without either law or justice, deposed him from his Archbishopric, and substituted in his place Arnold, upon hope of his Ecclesiastical gold: Whereupon that virtuous and honourable Henry is reported to have spoken thus unto those perverse Judges: If I should appeal to Acts and Monuments. the Apostolic Sea, for this your unjust process had against me, perhaps I should but lose my labour, and gain nothing but toil of body, loss of goods, affliction of mind, and care of heart: Wherefore I do appeal to the Lord Jesus Christ, as to the most highest and just Judge, and cite you before his judgement seat, there to answer for this wrong done unto me; for neither justly, nor godly, but corruptly, and unjustly, have you judged my cause. Whereunto they scoffingly said, Go you first, and we will follow. Not long after, the said Henry died: whereof the two Cardinals having intelligence, said one to the other jestingly, Behold he is gone before, and we must follow according to our promise. And verily they spoke truer than they were aware; for within a while after they both died in one day: the one sitting upon a jakes to ease himself, voided out all his entrails into the draught, and miserably ended his life: the other gnawing off the fingers of his hands, and spitting them out of his mouth, (all deformed in devouring of himself) died. And in like wise not long after the said Arnold was slain in a sedition, and his body for certain days lying stinking above the ground unburied, was open to the spoil of every rascal and harlot. And this was the horrible end of this false accuser, and those corrupted Judges. Thus were two Cardinals punished for this sin: and that we may see that the holy father the Pope is no better than his Cardinals, and that God spareth not him no more than he did them; let us hear how the Lord punished one of that rank for this crime. It is not unknown, that Pope Innocent the fourth condemned the Emperor Frederick at the Council at Lions, his cause being unheard, and before he could come to answer for himself: For when the Emperor, being summoned to appear at the Council, made all haste he could thitherward, and desired to have the day of hearing his cause prorogued, till that he might conveniently travel thither; the Pope refused, and contrary to God's law, to Christian Doctrine, to the prescript of the law of nature and reason, and to all humanity, without probation of any crime, or pleading any cause, or hearing what might be answered, taking upon him to be both Adversary and Judge, condemned the Emperor being absent. What more wicked sentence was ever pronounced? What more cruel fact (considering the person) might be committed? But mark what vengeance God took upon this wicked Judge. The writers of the Annals record, that when Frederick the Emperor, and Conrade his son were both dead, the Pope gaping for the inheritance of Naples and Sicily, and thinking by force to have subdued the same, came to Naples with a great host of men: where was heard in his court manifestly pronounced this voice; Veni miser ad judicium Dei, Thou wretch come to receive thy judgement of God. And the next day the Pope was found in his bed dead, all black and blue, as though he had been beaten with bats. And this was the judgement of God which he came unto. To this Pope and these Cardinals let us add an Archbishop, and that Acts and Monuments, pag. 700. of Canterbury; to wit, Thomas Arundel, upon whom the justice of God appeared no less manifestly than on the former: For after he had unjustly given sentence against the Lord Cobham, he died himself before him; being so stricken in his tongue, that he could neither swallow nor speak for a certain space before the time of his death. Hither might be adjoined the vengeance of God upon Justice Morgan, who condemned to death the innocent Lady jane; but presently after fell mad, and so died, having nothing in his mouth but Lady jane, Lady jane. In the reign of King Henry the eighth, one Richard Long, a man of arms in Calais, bore false witness against master Smith, the Curate of our Lady Parish in Calais, for eating flesh in Lent, which he never did: but he escaped not vengeance; for shortly after he desperately drowned himself. A terrible example unto all such as are ready to forswear themselves on a Book upon malice, or some other cause: a thing in these days over rise every where, and almost of most men little or nothing regarded. About the same time one Gregory Bradway committed the same crime of false accusation against one Broke, whom being driven thereunto by fear and constraint, he accused to have robbed the Customhouse, wherein he was a Clerk, of four groats every day; and to this accusation he subscribed his hand: but for the same presently felt upon him the heavy hand of God; for being grieved in his consciene for his deed, he first with a knife enterprised to cut his own thro●t; but being not altogether dispatched therewith, the Gaoler coming up and preventing his purpose, he fell forthwith into a furious frenzy; and in that case lived long time after. Hitherto we may add the example of one William Feming, who accused an Acts and Monuments. honest man called john Cooper, of speaking traitorous words against Queen Mary, and all because he would not sell him two goodly bullocks which he much desired: for which cause the poor man being arraigned at Berry in Suffolk, was condemned to death by reason of two false witnesses which the said Feming had suborned for that purpose, whose names were White and Greenwood; so this poor man was hanged, drawn, and quartered, and his goods taken from his poor wife and nine children, which are left destitute of all help: but as for his false accusers, one of them died most miserably; for in harvest time being well and lusty, of a sudden his bowels fell out of his body, and so he perished: the other two what ends they came unto, it is not reported; but sure the Lord hath reserved a sufficient punishment for all such as they are. Many more be the examples of this sin, and judgements upon it; as Acts and Monuments, pag. 2100. the Pillories at Westminster, and daily experience beareth witness; but these that we have alleged shall suffice for this purpose: because this sin is cousin German unto perjury, of which you may read more at large in the former book. It should now follow by course of order, if we would not pretermit any thing of the law of God, to speak of such as have offended against the tenth Commandment, and what punishment hath ensued the same: but forsomuch as all such offences for the most part are included under the former, of which we have already spoken; and that there is no adultery, nor fornication, nor theft, nor unjust war, but it is annexed to, and proceedeth from the affection and the resolution of an evil and disordinate concupiscence, as the effect from the cause: therefore it is not necessary to make any particular recital of them, more than may well be collected out of the former examples added hereunto; that in evil concupiscence and affection of doing evil, which cometh not to act, (though it be in the sight of God condemned to everlasting torments) yet it doth not so much incur and provoke his indignation, that a man should for that only cause be brought to apparent destruction, and be made an example to others, to whom the sin is altogether dark and unknown: therefore we will proceed in our purpose without intermeddling in special with this last Commandment. CHAP. XLVII. That Kings and Princes ought to look to the execution of justice, for the punishment of naughty and corrupt manners. NO man ought to be ignorant of this, that it is the duty of a Prince, not only to hinder the course of sin from bursting into action, but also to punish the doers of the James; making both civil justice to be administered uprightly, and the law of God to be regarded and observed inviolably: for to this end are they ordained of God, that by their means every one might live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty: to the which end the maintenance and administration of justice being most necessary, they ought not so to discharge themselves of it, as to translate it upon their Officers and Judges, but also to look to the execution thereof themselves, as it is most needful: for if law (which is the foundation of justice) be (as Plato saith) a speechless and dumb Magistrate; who shall give voice and vigour unto it, if not he that is in supreme and sovereign authority? For which cause the King is commanded in Deuteronomy, To have before him always the Deut. 17. 18. 19 Book of the Law, to the end to do justice and judgement to every one in the fear of God. And before the creation of the Kings in Israel, the chief Captains and Sovereigns amongst them were renowned with no other title nor quality, than of Judges. In the time of Deborah the Prophetess, though she was a woman, the weaker vessel; yet because she had the conducting and governing of the people, they came unto her to seek judgement. It is said of Samuel, that he judged Israel so long, till being tired with age, and not able to bear that burden any longer, he appointed his sons for Judges in his stead: who when through covetousness they perverted Judg. 4. 1 Sam. 7. 8. justice, and did not execute judgement like their father Samuel, they gave occasion to the people to demand a King, that they might be judged and governed after the manner of other Nations: which things sufficiently declared, that in old time the principal charge of Kings was personally to administer justice and judgement, and not as now to transfer the care thereof to others. The same we read of King David, of whom it is said, That during his reign he executed justice and judgement, among his people: and in another 1 Chron. 18. place, That men came unto him for judgement, and therefore he disdained 2 Sam. 15. not to hear the complaint of the woman of Tekoah; showing himself herein a good Prince, and as the Angel of God, to hear good and evil: for this cause Solomon desired not riches, nor long life of the Lord, but a wise 2 Sam. 14. and discreet heart to judge his people, and to discern betwixt good and evil: which request was so agreeable and acceptable to God, that he granted 1 King 3. it unto him; so that he obtained such an excellent measure of incomparable wisdom, that he was commended and reputed more for it, than for all his great riches and precious treasure beside. There is mention made in the Book of the Kings of his judicial throne wherein he used to sit and hear the causes of the people, and execute justice among them; and albeit he was the most puissant and glorious King of the earth, yet notwithstanding he scorned not to hear two harlots plead before him about the controversy of a dead infant. joram King of Israel, son of Achab, though a man that walked not uprightly 2 King. 6. before God, but gave himself to work abomination in his sight; yet he despised not the complaint of the poor affamished woman of Samaria, when she demanded justice at his hands, although it was in the time of war when Laws use to be silent, and in the besieging and famishment of the City; neither did he reject the Sunamites request, for the recovery of 2 King. 8. her house and lands, but caused them to be restored unto her. So that then it is manifest, that those Kings which in old time reigned over the People of God, albeit they had in every City Judges, yea and in Jerusalem also, as it appeareth in the nineteenth Chapter of the second Book of Chronicles; yet they ceased not for all that to give ear to suits and complaints that were made unto them, and to decide controversies that came to their knowledge: and for this cause it is that Wisdom saith, That by her King's Prov. 8. 15. reign, and Princes decree justice: whereunto also belongeth that which is said in another place, That a King sitting in the Throne of judgement Proc. 20. 8. chaseth away all evil with his eyes. Moreover, that this was the greatest part of the Office and duty of Kings in ancient times to see the administration of justice, Homer the Poet may be a sufficient witness, when he saith of Agamemnon, That the Sceptre and Law was committed to him by God, to do right to every man: answerable to the which, Virgil (describing the Queen of Carthage) saith, She sat in judgement in the midst of her People: as if there was nothing more beseeming such a person than such an action. And therefore the Poets not without cause feign jupiter always to have Themis (that is to say, Justice) at his elbow; signifying thereby, not that whatsoever Kings and Princes did was just and lawful, be it never so vile in it own nature (as that wanton flatterer Anaxarchus said to Alexander) but that equity and justice should always accompany them, and never depart from their sides. And hereupon it was that Aeacus, Minos, and Radamanthus the first King of Graecia, were so renowned of old antiquity, because of their true and upright execution of Justice, and therefore were not honoured with any greater title than the name of Judges. It is said of King Alexander, that although he was continually busied in Plutarch. affairs of war, and of giving battles, yet he would sit personally in judgement to hear criminal causes and matters of importance pleaded; and that whilst the accuser laid open his accusation, he would stop one ear with his hand, to the end that the other might be kept pure and without prejudice, for the defence and answer of the accused. The Roman Emperors Sueton. also were very careful and diligent in this behalf: as first julius Caesar, who is recorded to have taken great pains in giving audience to parties, and in dealing justice betwixt them. In like manner Augustus Caesar is commended for his care and travel in this behalf: for he would ordinarily sit in judgement upon causes and controversies of his subjects, and that with such great delight and pleasure, that oftentimes night was fain to interrupt his course, before his will was to relinquish it: yea, though he found himself evil at case, yet would he not omit to apply himself to the division of judgement, or else calling the parties before him to his bed. The Emperor Claudius, though a man otherwise of a dull and gross spirit, yet in this respect he discharged the duty of a good Prince, for that he would intermeddle with hearing his subjects causes, and do right unto them: he chanced once to make a very pretty and witty end of a suit betwixt a son and his mother, who denying and disclaiming him to be her son, was by the Emperor commanded to marry him; and so lest he should agree to that mischief, was constrained to acknowledge and avow him for her son: and to be short, it was very ordinary and usual among the Emperors, to take knowledge of matters controverted, but especially of criminal and capital causes; by means whereof the Apostle Paul, desirous to shun the judgement and lyings in wait of his enemies the Jews, appealed from them to Caesar; which he would never have done, if Caesar had not in some sort used to meddle with such affairs; and for further proof hereof, hither may be added the saying which is reported of Nero, in the beginning of his reign, That when he should sign with his hand a sentence of death against a condemned person, he wished that he could neither write nor read, to the end to avoid that necessary action. The bold answer of an old woman to the Emperor Adrian is very worthy Fulgos. lib 6. cap. 2. to be remembered; who appealing and complaining to the Emperor of some wrong, when he answered that he was not at leisure then to hear her suit, she told him boldly and plainly, That then he ought not to be at leisure to be her Emperor: which speech went so near the quick unto him, that ever after he showed more facility and courtesy towards all men that had any thing to do with him. The Kings of France used also this custom of hearing and deciding their subjects matters, as we read of Charlemaigne the King and Emperor, who commanded that he should be made acquainted with all matters of importance, and their issues, throughout his Realm. King Lewis the first treading the steps of his father Charlemaigne, accustomed himself three days in a week to hear publicly in his palace the complaints and grievances of his people, and to right their wrongs and injuries. King Lewis, surnamed the Holy, a little before his death gave Alm●. in charge to his son that should succeed him in the Crown, amongst other, this precept, To be careful to bear a stroke in seeing the distribution of justice, and that it should not be perverted nor depraved. CHAP. XLVIII. Of such Princes as have made no reckoning of punishing vice, nor regarded the estate of their People. IT cannot choose but be a great confusion in a Commonwealth, when justice sleepeth, and when the shameless boldness of evil doers is not kerbed in with any bridle, but runneth it own swinge; and therefore a Consul of Rome could say, That it was an evil thing to have a Prince, under whom licence and liberty is given to every man to do what him listeth: forsomuch then as this evil proceedeth from the carelessness and slothfulness of those that hold the stern of government in their hands, it cannot be but some evil must needs fall upon them for the same: the truth of this may appear in the person of Philip of Macedony (whom Demosthenes the Orator noteth for a treacherous and false dealing Prince:) after that he had subdued almost all Greece, not so much by open war, as by subtlety, craft, and surprise, and that being in the top of his glory, he celebrated at one time the marriage of his son Alexander, whom he had lately made King of Epire, and of one of his daughters, with great pomp and magnificence; as he was marching with all his train betwixt the two bridegrooms (his own son and his son in law) to see the sports and pastimes which were prepared for the solemnity of the marriage, behold suddenly a young Macedonian Gentleman called Pausanias, ran at him, and slew him in the midst of the press, for not regarding to do him justice, when he complained of an injury done unto him by one of the Peers of the Realm. Tatius, the fellow King of Rome with Romulus, for not doing justice in Plutarch. punishing certain of his friends and kinsfolks that had robbed and murdered certain Ambassadors which came to Rome, and for making their impunity an example for other malefactors by deferring and protracting, and disappointing their punishment, was so watched by the kindred of the slain, that they slew him even as he was sacrificing to his gods, because they could not obtain justice at his hands. What happened to the Romans for refusing to deliver an Ambassador, Titus Livius. Plutarch. who (contrary to the law of Nations coming unto them) played the part of an enemy to his own Country, even well nigh the total overthrow of them and their City: for having by this means brought upon themselves the calamity of war, they were at the first discomfited by the Gauls; who pursuing their victory, entered Rome, and slew all that came in their way, whether men or women, infants or aged persons, and after many days spent in the pillage and spoiling of the houses, at last set fire on all, and utterly destroyed the whole City. Childericke King of France is notified for an extreme dullard and blockhead, Paulus Aemil. and such a one as had no care or regard unto his Realm, but that lived idly and slothfully, without intermeddling with the affairs of the Commonwealth: for he laid all the charge and burden of them upon Pepin his Lieutenant General, and therefore was by him justly deposed from his royal Dignity, and mewed up in a Cloister of Religion to become a Monk, because he was unfit for any good purpose: and albeit that this sudden change and mutation was very strange, yet there ensued no trouble nor commotion in the Realm thereupon; so odious was he become to the whole land for his drowsy and idle disposition. For the same cause did the Prince's Electors depose Venceslaus the Emperor from the Empire, and established another in his room. Paulus Aemil. King Richard of England, among other foul faults which he was guilty of, incurred greatest blame for this, because he suffered many thiefs and robbers to rove up and down the Land unpunished: for which cause the Citizens of London commenced a high suit against him, and compelled him having reigned two and twenty years, to lay aside the Crown, and resign it to another, in the presence of all the States, and died prisoner in the Tower. Moreover, this is no small defect of justice, when men of authority do not only pardon capital and detestable crimes, but also grace and favour the doers of them: and this neither aught nor can be done by a sovereign Prince, without overpassing the bounds of his limited power, which can in no ways dispense with the law of God, whereunto even Kings themselves Exod. 21. are subject: for as touching the willing and considerate murderer, Thou shalt pluck him from my Altar (saith the Lord) that he may die, thy eye shall Deut. 19 not spare him, to the end it may go well with thee: which was put in practice in the death of joab, who was slain in the Tabernacle of God, holding his 1 King. 2. hands upon the horns of the Altar: for he is no less abominable before God that justifieth the wicked, than he that condemneth the just: and hereupon Prov. 17. that holy King S. Lewis, when he had granted pardon to a malefactor, Nich. giles. revoked it again, after better consideration of the matter; saying, That he would give no pardon, except the case deserved pardon by the law, for it was a work of charity and pity to punish an offendor; and not to punish crimes was as much as to commit them. In the year of our Lord 978, egelred the son of Edgare and Alphred, King of England, was a man of goodly outward shape and visage, but wholly given to idleness, and abhorring all Princely exercises: besides, he was a lover of riot and drunkenness, and used extreme cruelty towards his subjects, having his ears open to all unjust complaints; in feats of arms of all men most ignorant: so that his cruelty made him odious to his subjects, and his cowardice encouraged strange enemies to invade his kingdom; by means whereof England was sore afflicted with war, famine and pestilence. In his time (as a just plague for his negligence in Government) decayed the noble Kingdom of England, and became tributary to the Danes: for ever when the Danes oppressed him with war, he would hire them away with sums of money, without making any resistance against them: insomuch, that from ten thousand pounds by the year, the tribute arose in short space to fifty thousand: wherefore he devised a new trick, and sought by treachery to destroy them, sending secret Commissioners to the Magistrates throughout the Land, that upon a certain day and hour assigned, the Danes should suddenly and jointly be murdered: Which massacre being performed, turned to be the cause of greater misery: for Swain King of Denmark hearing of the murder of his countrymen, landed with a strange army in divers parts of this Realm, and so cruelly without mercy and pity spoilt the Country, and slew the people, that the Englishmen were brought to most extreme and unspeakable misery, and egelred the King driven to fly with his wife and children to Richard Duke of Normandy, leaving the whole Kingdom to be possessed of Swain. Edward the second of that name may well be placed in this rank: for Stow Chron. Phil. Com. though he was fair and well proportioned of body, yet he was crooked and evil favoured in conditions: for he was so disposed to lightness and vanity, that he refused the company of his Lords and men of honour, and haunted amongst villains and vile persons; he delighted in drinking and riot, and loved nothing less than to keep secret his own counsels, though never so important; so that he let the affairs of his Kingdom run at six and at seven: To these vices he added the familiarity of certain evil disposed fellows, as Pierce de Gaveston, and Hugh the Spencers; whose wanton counfell he following, neglected to order his Commonwealth by sadness, discretion, and justice: which thing caused first great variance betwixt him and his nobles, so that shortly he became to them most odious, and in the end was deprived of his kingdom: for the Scots that were so kerbed in his father's days, now played rex through his negligence, and made many eruptions into his land, killing and discomfiting his men at three sundry battles: besides, Charles of France did him much scathe upon his lands in Gasconie and Guyan; and at last Isabella his own wife, with the help of Sir john of Henault and his Henowaies (to whom the nobles and commons gave their assistance) took him and deprived him of his crown, installed his young son Edward in his place, keeping him in prison at Bartcley, where not long after he was murdered by Sir Roger Mortimer. CHAP. XLIX. How rare and geason good Princes have been at all times. IT appeareth by all these former histories, what a multitude there hath been of dissolute, proud, cruel, and vicious Princes, and of tyrants and oppressors, so that the number of good & virtuous ones seemeth to have been but small in comparison of them: which is also intimated by the tenor of the histories of the Kings of Juda & Israel, of whom (being in number forty) but ten only were found that pleased God in their reigns, and they of Juda; and yet of them ten, one was corrupted in his old age, and fell away to vile iniquities: but of Israel there was not one that demeaned not himself evil in his estate, and dealt not unjustly and wickedly before the Lord. As for the first Emperors, what manner of men they were for the most part, we have already sufficiently declared: Wherefore it was not unfitly spoken of him, that jeasting-wise told the Emperor Claudius, That all the good Caesar's might be engraven in one little ring, they were so few: so that then a King or Prince endued with virtue, bounty, and clemency, and that loveth his subjects, endeth strifes, and kindleth concord, is a special note of God's favour, and a gift inestimable; and that people that hath such a Prince for their support and stay, are infinitely blessed; they lie as it were upon a sunny bank, and ride in a most safe and quiet haven, whilst others are exposed and laid open to the cruelty of time, and are tossed and turmoiled with the waves of calamity and oppression; therefore this may be their song of mirth and rejoicing, whilst other nations sing nothing but welladaies: A sad afflicted soul, all pale with grief and wrong, Being eased from sense of dole, doth straightway change his song From moan to mirth, for why his thick and cloudy night, Is turned to purity of Titan's glorious light. The raging storm is past, and fear of shipwreck gone, Their weary ships at last a calmy shore have won. The Pilot safely lies reposed under lee, Not fearing frown of skies, or other misery. The strong and mighty blasts of furious winds are still, They do no more cast down huge Fir trees at their will: A pleasant gale succeeds of fruitful Zephyrus, Which recreates the seeds of spring voluptuous. Pack hence you wicked ones, with all your equipage Of murdering champions, envenomed with rage: Your horse are tired with toil, and all your strength's plucked down, Your swords have caught a foil by lovely peace's crown. O blessed glorious peace (that beautifiest each land, And mak'st all dangers cease, whereof in fear we stand) Distil thy favours pure (which are immortal things) On us that lie secure in shadow of thy wings. Even those thy holy train, which still attendance yield, Let them wax young again, and flourish in our field: justice and verity, which balance right from wrong, Let them attend on thee with equity among. Then shall the Swains rejoice under a Figtree lain, And sing with cheerful voice until the Suns decline: And all the world shall ring with echoes of our praise, Which to the Lord our King we warble out always. The simple harmless Lamb no greedy Wolf shall fear, Nor Kid new waned from dam shall stand in awe of Bear: But Sheep and Wolf shall make like friends one flock and fold, A fearless child shall take the rule of Tigers old. You flocks of Zion hill which through so many fears Of war and crosses, still have sown your field with tears, Take comfort to your hope, straight comes the joyful hour To reap a fruitful crop for all your torments sour. But alas it cometh to pass through the sins and wickedness of men, that Realms are oftentimes scared with the alarms and assaults of foes, and strangely afflicted with many evils, when as the State of government Esay 3. is troubled and changed by the iniquities of the people. CHAP. L. That the greatest and mightiest Cities are not exempt from punishment of their iniquities. WHereas great and populous Cities are as it were the eyes of the earth (as Athens and Sparta were said to be of Greece) there is no question but that they are so much the more unblamable for glutting and overcharging themselves with sins, by how much the more they abound with all manner of temporal goods and commodities, and that at length they tumble into utter ruin and desolation; for instead of being a pattern and direction unto others, of wisdom and good government, as they ought; they are for the most part examples of folly and vanity: for where is more evils and dissoluteness reigning, than in them? the principal cause whereof is that greedy worm Avarice, which begetteth in all estates much fraud, cozening, and other naughty practices, with many such like children: for through it every man looketh to provide for his own affairs, and to get any commodity or ease whatsoever to himself, even with all his power; not caring who be damnified, so he be enriched: The plenty of riches which there aboundeth, instilleth pride and haughtiness of mind into some, maketh others dissolute and effeminate, and besotteth others with carnal & unhonest pleasures; from which head spring rivers of evils, as envies, quarrels, dissensions, debates, and murders; all which things happen to them, that being transported and distracted with the furious contrariety of their disordinate affection, can find no contentment nor agreement with themselves, but must needs burst out into some outward mischiefs; Hence is that wonderful pomp and bravery, as well of apparel as other things: hence all gourmandise and drunkenness are so common, yea and adulteries so much frequented; wherefore the anger of the Almighty must needs be kindled, to consume them in their sins. One of the notablest Cities of the world for greatness and antiquity was Ninive, the capital and chief City of the Assyrian Empire: howbeit her greatness and power could not so protect her, but that after she had once been spared by the means of the Prophet jonas, who foretell her of her destruction, being returned to her former vomit again; to wit, of robberies, extortions, wrongful dealings, and adulteries, she was wholly and utterly subverted, God having delivered her for a prey into the hands of many of her enemies, that spoiled and peeled her to the quick; and lastly, into the hands of the Medes, who brought her to a final and unrecoverable desolation, as it was prophesied by the Prophet Nahum. Babylon was wont to be the seat of that puissant Monarchy under Nabuchadnezzar, where flourished the famous Astrologers, and notable wise men of the world, where the spoils and riches of many nations and countries were set up as Trophies, and kept as the remembrance of their victories; where also vices reigned, and all manner of excess and villainy overflowed: for by the report of Q. Curtius, the City did so exceed in whoredom Lib. 5. of the acts of Alexander. and adulteries, that fathers and mothers were not ashamed to be bawds unto their daughters, no nor husbands to their wives; a thing most strange and odious: wherefore it could not choose but in the end be sacked, and Oros. lib. 2. quite destroyed with an extreme ruin and destruction, the signs and appearance whereof yet are seen in the ruin of old walls and ancient buildings Paul. Jovius, Com. 2. lib. 33. that there remain. Amongst sea-bordering Cities, and for renown of merchandise, Tyre in former ages was most famous: for thither resorted the merchants of all Countries for traffic of Palestina, Syria, Egypt, Persia, and Assyria; they of Tarshis brought thither Iron, Led, Brass, and Silver: the Syrians sold their Carbuncles, Purple, broidered work, fine linen, coral, and pearl: the Jews, Hony, Oil, Treacle, Cassia, and Calamus: the Arabians trafficked with Lambs, Muttons, and Goats: the Sabeans brought merchandise of all exquisite spices and Apothecary stuff, with gold and precious stones; by means whereof it being grown exceeding wealthy, enriched by fraud and deceit, and being lifted up to the height of pride, and plunged in the depth of pleasures, it was at length by the just judgement of God, so sacked and ruinated, that the very memory thereof at this day scarce remaineth. The like judgement fell upon Sidon, and upon that rich and renowned Sabell. City of Corinth, which through the commodiousness of the haven, was the most frequented place of the world, for the intercourse of Merchants out of Asia and Europe; for by reason of her pride and corruption of manners, Thucyd. (but especially for her despising and abuse of the heavenly graces of God's spirit) which were sowed and planted in her, she underwent this punishment, Contempt of the word. Lib. 1. cap. 34. Eutrop. Oros. lib. 9 to be first finally destroyed, and brought into cinders by the Romans; and then after her re-edification, to be debased into so low and v●le an estate, that that which remaineth is no wise comparable to her former glory. Again, Athens the most flourishing and famous City of Greece for her fair buildings, large precincts, and multitude of inhabitants, but especially for her Philosophy, by means whereof recourse was made from all parts to her, as the fountain and wellspring of Arts, and the School and University of the whole world; whose policy and manner of government was so much esteemed by the Romans, that they drew from thence their laws; but now she lies dead and buried in forgetfulness, not carrying any of her former proportion or appearance. Carthage that noble City, mistress of Africa, and paragon to Rome, may not brag of any better issue than her fellows: for though she resisted and made her part good with Rome for many years, yet at length by means of her own inward and civil jars, she was utterly destroyed by them: for the inhabitants, not able to stand any longer in defence, were constrained to Oros. Eutrop. yield themselves to the mercy of their enemies: the women, to the number of five and twenty thousand marching first forth, and after them the men in number thirty thousand following; all which poor captives were sold for bondslaves, a few only of the principal excepted; and then fire was put to the City, which burned seventeen days without ceasing, even till it was Eutrop. clean consumed. It is true that it was re-edified after this, but which lasted not long, for it was again brought to destruction; that at this day there remaineth nothing but old and rotten ruins. And thus fared many other Cities, of which may be verified that which was spoken of Troy, that fields and corn are where Cities were. Nunc seges est ubi Tr●ia fuit. Numantium in Spain being besieged by the Romans, after it had borne the brunt of war and sacking, a long while made many desperate sallies upon their enemies: and lastly, seeing themselves consumed with famine, rather than they would bow their necks to the yoke of servitude, barring their gates, set fire on all: and so burning themselves with their whole City, left the enemy nothing but ashes for his prey and triumph: as the Saguntines not long before served Hannibal. Titue Livius. It is a marvellous and strange thing to consider, how that proud City hath lifted up her head above all others, and usurped a tyranny over Nations, and which Lactantius, Jerome, and Augustine, three learned fathers, entitled Babylon: how I say she hath been humbled for all her pride, and Rome he meaneth. impoverished for all her riches, and made a prey unto many Nations. It was sacked and ransacked twice by the Visigothes, taken once by the Herulians, surprised by the Ostrogothes, destroyed and rooted up by the Vandals, annoyed by the Lumbards', peeled and spoiled by the Grecians, and whipped and chastised by many others; and now 〈◊〉 Sodom and Gomorrah it is to expect no more punishment, but the last blow of the most mightiest his indignation, to throw it headlong into everlasting and horrible desolation. CHAP. LI. Of such punishments which are common to all men in regard of their iniquities. THese and such like effects of God's wrath ought to admonish and instruct every man to look unto himself for doing evil, and to abhor and detest sin, since it bringeth forth such sour and bitter fruits: for albeit the ways of the wicked seem in their own eyes fair and good, yet it is certain, that they are full of snares Prov. 22. and thorns to entrap and prick them to the quick: for after that, being fed with the liquorous and deceitful sweetness of their own lusts, they have sported themselves their fills in their pleasures and wicked affections, then in stead of delights and pastimes, they shall find nothing but punishment and sadness; their laughter, joy, pomp, magnificence, and glory, shall be turned into torments and dolours, weep, opprobries, ignominies, confusion, and misery everlasting: for if God spared not great Cities, Empires, Monarchies, and Kings, in their obstinate misdeeds, shall we think he will spare little Cities, Hamlets, and Villages, and men of base estate, when by their sins they provoke him to anger? no, it cannot be; for God is always of one and the same nature, always like unto himself: A God executing justice and judgement upon the earth; a God that loveth not iniquity; ● with whom the wicked cannot dwell, nor Jerem. 19 the fools stand before his presence. It is he that huteth the workers of unrighteousness, Psal. 5. and that destroyeth the liars, and abhorreth all deceitful, disloyal, perjurous, and murdering persons: as with him there is no exception of persons, so none, of what estate or condition soever, be they rich or poor, noble or ignoble, gentle, or carter-like, can exempt themselves from his wrath and indignation when it is kindled but a little, if they delight and continue in their sins: for as S. Paul saith, Tribulation and Rom. 2. 9 anguish upon the soul of every man that doth evil. Now according to the variety and diversity of men's offences, the Lord in his most just and admirable judgement, useth diversity of punishments: sometimes correcting them one by one, particular; otherwhiles altogether in a heap: sometimes by storms and tempests, both by sea and land; other times by lightning, hail, and deluge of waters▪ often by overflowing and breaking out of rivers, and of the sea also: and not seldom by remediless and sudden fires, heaven and earth, and all the elements being armed with an invincible force, to take vengeance upon such as are traitors and rebels against God ● sundry times he scourgeth the world (as it well deserveth) with his usual and accustomed plagues, namely of war, and famine, and pestilence, which are evident signs of his anger, according to the threats denounced in the law t●●●hing the same: and therefore if at any time he defer the punishment of the wicked, it is for no other end, but to expect the fullness of their sin, and to make them more inexcusable, when contrary to his bountifulness and long suffering (which inviteth and calleth them to repentance) they harden themselves and grow more obstinate in their vices and rebellion, drawing upon their heads the whole heap of wrath, the more grievously to assail them. And thus the vengeance of God marcheth but a soft pace (as saith Valerius Maximus) to the end to double and aggravate the punishment for the slackness thereof. CHAP. LII. That the greatest punishments are reserved and laid up for the wicked in the world to come. NOtwithstanding all which hath been spoken, and howsoever sinners are punished in this life, it is certain, that the greatest and terriblest punishments are kept in store for them in another world: And albeit that during this transitory pilgrimage, they seem to themselves oftentimes to live at their ease, and enjoy their pleasures and pastimes to their heart's contentment; yet doubtless it is so, that they are indeed in a continual prison, and in a dungeon of darkness, bound and chained with fetters of their own sin, and very often turmoiled and but cheered with their own guilty conscience, overcharged with the multitude of offences, and fore-feeling the approach of hell: And in this case many languish away with fear, care, and terror, being toiled and tired with uncessant and unsupportable disquietness, and tossed and distracted with despair, until by death they be brought unto their last irrevokable punishment; which punishment is not to endure for a time, and then to end, but is eternal and everlastingly inherent both in body and soul: I say in the body, after the resurrection of the dead; and in soul, after the departure out of this life till all eternity: for it is just and equal, that they which have offended and dishonoured God in their bodies in this life, should be punished also in their bodies in the world to come with endless torments: of which torments when mention is made in the holy Scripture, they are for our weak capacity sake called Gehenna, or a place of torment, utter darkness and hell fire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, etc. again, eternal fire, a pool and pit of fire and brimstone, which is prepared for the devil and his darlings: and how miserable their estate is that fall therein, our Saviour Christ giveth us to know in the person of the rich glutton, who having bathed himself in the pleasures and Luke 16. delights of this world, without once regarding or pitying the poor, was after cast into the torments of hell, and there burneth in quenchless flames, without any ceasing or allaying of his griefs: therefore whatsoever punishments the wicked suffer before they die, they are not quitted by them from this other, but must descend into the appointed place to receive the surplus of their payments which is due unto them: For what were it for a notorious and cruel Tyrant that had committed many foul and wicked deeds, or had most villainously murdered many good men, to have no other punishment but to be slain, and to endure in the hour of death some extraordinary pain; could such a punishment balance with his so many and great offences? Whereas therefore many such wretches suffer punishment in this world, we must think that this is but a taste and scantling of those torments and punishments which are prepared and made ready for them in the world to come. And therefore it often cometh to pass, that they pass out of this life most quietly, without the disturbance of any cross or punishment; but it is that they might be more strangely tormented in another world. Some not considering this point, nor stretching the view of their understanding beyond the aspect of their carnal eyes, have fallen into this foolish opinion, to think that there is neither justice nor judgement in heaven, nor respect of equity with the Highest: when they see the wicked to flourish in prosperity, and the good and innocent to be overwhelmed with adversity, yea and many holy men have fallen into this temptation, as job and David did, who when they considered the condition Job. 12. & Psal. 73. of the wicked and unjust, how they lived in this world at their heart's ease, compassed about with pleasures and delights, and waxing old in the same, were carried to their sepulchers in peace; they were somewhat troubled and perplexed within themselves, until being instructed and resolved by the Word of God, they marked their final end and issue, and the everlasting perdition which was prepared for them, and by no means could be escaped. And thus it cometh to pass (saith S. Augustine) that many sins Epist. 54. are punished in this world, that the providence of God might be more apparent; and many, yea most reserved to be punished in the world to come, that we might know that there is yet judgement behind. CHAP. LIII. How the afflictions of the godly, and the punishment of the wicked differ. WHich seeing it is so, it is necessary that the wicked and perverse ones should feel the rigour of God's wrath for the presumption and rebellion wherewith they daily provoke him against them; and although with those that fear God, and strive to keep themselves from evil, and take pains to live peaceably and quietly, it oftentimes goeth worse here below than with others, being laid open to millions of injuries, reproaches, and cruelties, and as it were sheep appointed to the slaughter; whereof some are massacred, some hanged, some headed, some drowned, some burned, or put to some other cruel death; yet notwithstanding their estate and condition is far happier than that of the wicked, for somuch as all their sufferings and adversities are blessed and sanctified unto them of God, who turneth them to their advantage, according to the saying of S. Paul, Rom. 8. 28. That all things work for the good to them that fear God: for whatsoever tribulation befalleth them, they cannot be separated from the love of God, which he beareth unto them in his well-beloved son Christ Jesus: be it then that God visiteth them for their faults, (for there is none that is clear of sin) it is a fatherly chastisement to bring them to amendment: be it that he exerciseth them by many afflictions, as he did job, it is to prove their faith and patience, to the end they may be better purified like gold in the furnace, and serve for example to others. If it be for the truth of the Gospel that they suffer, than they are blessed, because they are conformed to the image of the son of God, that they might also be partakers of his glory, for they that suffer with him, are assured to reigns with him: hence it is, that in the midst of their torments and oppressions, in the midst of fires and faggots flaming about them, being comforted with the consolations of God's spirit, through a sure hope of their happy repose and incorruptible crown which is prepared for them in the heavens, they rejoice and are so cheerful: chose the wicked, seeing themselves ensnared in the evils which their own sins brought upon them, gnash their teeth, fret themselves, murmur against God, and blaspheme him, like wretches, to their endless perdition. There is therefore great difference betwixt the punishments of each of these, for the one tendeth to honour and life, the other to shame and confusion: and even as it is not the greatness of torments that maketh the martyr, but the goodness of the cause; so the infliction of punishment unjustly, neither maketh the party afflicted guilty, nor any whit diminisheth his reputation: whereas the wicked that are justly tormented for their sins, are so marked with infamy and dishonour, that the stain thereof can never be wiped out. Let every one therefore learn to keep, himself from evil, and to contain himself in a kind of modesty and integrity of life, seeing that by the plagues and scourges wherewith the world is ordinarily afflicted; Gods fierce wrath is clearly revealed from heaven upon all impiety and injustice of men, to consume all those that rebel against him. Think upon this you inhabitants of the earth, small and great, of what quality or condition soever you be. If you be mighty, puissant, and fearful, know that the Lord is greater than you, for he is almighty, all-terrible, and all-fearefull: in what place soever you are, he is always above you, ready to hurl you down and overturn you, to break, quash, and crush you in pieces as pots of earth: he is armed with thunder, fire, and a bloody sword, to destroy, consume, and cut you in pieces: heaven threateneth from above, and the earth which you trample on from below; shaking under your feet, and being ready to spew you out from her face, or swallow you up in her bowels: in brief, all the elements and creatures of God look askew at you in disdain, and set themselves against you in hatred, if you fear not your Creator, your Lord and Master, of whom you have received your Sceptres and Crowns, Esay 40. and who is able (when he please) to bring Princes to nothing, and make the Rulers of the earth a thing of nought. Forsake therefore, if you tender the good, honour, and repose of yourselves and yours, the evil and corrupt fashions of the world, and submit yourselves in obedience under the Sceptre of God's Law and Gospel, fearing the just retribution of vengeance upon all them that do the contrary: for it is a horrible thing to fall into the hands of the Lord. And you which honour and reverence Heb. 10. 31. God already, be now more quickened and stirred up to his love and obedience, and to a more diligent practising of his will, and following his commandments, to the end to glorify him by your lives looking for the happy end of your hope reserved in the heavens for you by Christ J●sus our Lord, to whom 〈…〉 everlasting, Amen. A brief summary of more Examples, annexed to the former by the same Author. CHAP. I. Of such as have persecuted the Church of Christ. ZAcharias the son of Barachias, of whom S. Matthew speaketh in the three and twentieth chapter; and Saint Augustine in the 242 Sermon, de Tempore, in these words; Zacharie the high-Priest, reproving the rebellious people for the neglect of the worship of God, and the sacred laws, was slain of the people; and the detestable band of the Jews died the pavement with his blood, in the ninth year of the reign of joas King of Judah: which cruelty against this good man the whole nation of the Jews paid dear for; for when a year was past, an army of the Syrians came up against joas, and slew all the Princes of the people in Judah and Jerusalem: and there being but a small number of the Syrians, God delivered into their hands the whole multitude of the Jews. Rabbi johosua reporteth, that two hundred and eleven thousand were slain in the field, and ninety four thousand in the City, for the expiation of the blood of Zacharias, which blood boiled out of the earth till that day, as it were out of a seething Cauldron. Eg●as Patrensis, a Perfect of the Emperor in Achaia, when he had crucified Phil. Lonicer. Saint Andrew, was possessed of Satan, and slain. Incommodous Emperor Commodus, which was judged by the Senate more cruel than Domitian, and more impure than Nero, had a tragical end, both for his other vices, and principally for persecuting the Church of Christ. In the time of Constantine, one Teredates a great man in Armenia, grievously persecuted the Church: at which time Gregory the Great, famous for miracles, suffered many indignities from him, and at the last was shut up into a dark and muddy pit for the space of fourteen years. But Teredates the Prince of that nation, felt the horrible vengeance of God upon himself, his household, and his Nobles, for they were all transformed into swine, and lived like swine together, and devoured one another. Whether this story be true or fabulous, let the Reader judge: But it is reported by Nicephorus, lib. 8. cap. 35. In the reign of Constantius, after the Antiochian Synod, in the which Zozom. lib. 3. cap. 6. great Athanasius was condemned, the Eastern Cities, and especially Antioch, were shaken and quashed with wonderful Earthquakes, in revenge of the injuries done to that good man. Neither did Constantius the Emperor, an assertor and maintainer of the Cent. 4. cap. 3. Arrian heresy, escape unpunished for his perfidy and impiety. For first his warlike affairs 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 kingdom. At last in those sigh and complaints he parted this life, with a grievous and violent disease. The Uncle of julian the Apostata, called also julianus, at Antioch, in the Phil. Lonicer. temple profaned the holy table with pissing upon it. And when Eusoius the Bishop rebuked him for it, he struck him with his fist. Not long after he was taken with a grievous disease of his bowels putrifying, and miserably died, his excrements coming from him not by their ordinary passages, but by his wicked mouth. Under the Emperor Valence, a wonderful hail, the stones being as big as a man could hold in his hand, was sent upon Constantinople, and slew Fascic. Temp. many, both men and beasts, for that the Emperor had banished many famous men that would not communicate with Eudoxius the Arrian: and for the same reason a great part of Germa, a City of Hellespont, was thrown down by an earthquake; and in Phrygia such a famine succeeded, that the Inhabitants were fain to change their habitation, and to ●lee to other places. After the martyrdom of Gregory the Bishop of Spoleta, Flacchus the Phil. Lonicer. Governor, who was author thereof, was struck with an Angel, and vomited out his entrails at his mouth, and died. Under the Empire of Alexander, Mammea Agrippitus fifteen years old, Cent. 3. cap. 12. because he would not sacrifice to their Idols, was apprehended at Praeneste, whipped with scourges, and hanged up by the heels, and at last slain with the sword; in the midst of whose torments the Governor of the City fell from the Tribunal seat dead. Bajazet, a most cruel enemy of the Christians, was taken by Tamerlane Chr. Phil. lib. 5. the Tartarian King, and bound in golden chains, and carried about by him in an iron cage, latised and shown unto all, being used for a stirrup unto Tamerlane, when he got upon his horse. Gensericus the King of the Vandals, exercising grievous cruelty against the Orthodox Christians, he himself being an Arrian, was possessed of the Sigeb. in Chro. Devil, and died a miserable death, in the year 477. Honoricus the second, King of the Vandals, having used inexplicable Chro. Phil. l. 3. cruelty against the Orthodox Christians, hanging up honest matrons and virgins naked, burning their bodies with torches, cutting off their dugs and arms, because they would not subscribe to the Arrian heresy, was surprised himself with the vengeance of God: for his land was turned into barrenness through an exceeding drought, so that numbers of men, women, and beasts, died with famine; the pestilence also seized upon them, and he himself was stricken with such a disease of his body, that his members rotten off one after another. Anastatius Dicorus, a grievous persecutor of the Church of Christ, being Zonar. lib. 3. admonished in a dream, that he should perish with thunder, built him an house, wherein he might defend himself from that judgement; but in vain, 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, Paul▪ Diaconus lib. 18. the reb. Romans. committed horrible outrages against them; for first he slew at Jerusalem ninety thousand men, with Zachari● the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and also raged in like manner in Egypt, Lybia, Aethiopia, and would grant them no condition of peace, unless they would forsake Christ, and worship the Sun; he also put to death with most cruel torments Anastatius a godly Monk, because he constantly confessed the faith of Christ. But God met with him to the full; for his eldest son Syroes taken 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 keep 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 scoffs and rail of the people, and lastly caused him to be shot to death: and so that great terror of the world, and shedder of Christian blood, breathed out his soul after a miserable manner. Regnerus the King of Denmark, abrogating Christian Religion, and setting Crantz. lib. 3. cap. 2. up Idolatry in his Kingdom anew, the divine vengeance overtook him: for Helles, whom he had cast out of the Kingdom, returned upon him with an army of the Gauls, and overcoming him in battle, took him prisoner, and shut him up in a filthy prison full of serpents, which setting upon him, with their venomous bitings and stings, brought him to a most horrible end. Lysius the Emperor gave Heri●a his daughter, a virgin, because she was Offic. Ravisi. a Christian, to be trampled under foot of horses; but he himself was s●ain by the biting of one of the same horses. A Popish Magistrate having condemned a poor Protestant to death, before his execution caused his tongue to be cut out, because he should not confess the truth: in requital whereof, the next child that was borne unto him, was borne without a tongue. CHAP. II. Of Perjury. P●ilip King of Macedon, who was a great contemner of all oaths, and held the Religion thereof as a vain thing; for this cause (as all Writers affirm) the vengeance of God followed him and his posterity; for when he had lived scarce forty and six years, he himself was slain, and all his whole house in short time in short time after utterly extinguished; 〈◊〉 one of his sons was slain by Olympias his wife. Also another son, which he had by Cleopatra the 〈◊〉 of A●●alus, ●he tormented to death in a brazen vessel, compassed about with fire. The ●est of his sons periffied in like manner, and at last Pausan. in Arc. the famous Alexander his son, after great conquest achieved by him, in the middle course of his victories periffied miserably, some think by poison. In the Country of Arbernum, there was a certain wicked man that used ordinarily to for swear himself: but at one time after he had thus sinned, Greg. Turon. his tongue was tied up that he could not speak, but began to low like an o●e: yet repenting and grieving for his sin, he found the bond of his tongue loosed, and a readiness of speech given unto him again: whereby we see both the justice of God in punishing them that sin in this kind, and his mercy, in pardoning when they truly repent. At this day we have an example fresh and famous, of a certain maid that had stolen and pilfered many things away out of her mistress' house; of which being examined, she forswore them, and wished 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 Hospital, where she lies in lamentable misery; repenting as they say of her foul sin: The Lord be merciful unto her. CHAP. III. Of Epicures and Atheists. BArges●, otherwise called Elima●, a sore of implety, and a horrible Magician and Atheist, oftenly resisting the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas, before Sergius Paulus the Deputy; was presently struck with blindness by the hand of God: This man Saint Luke speaketh of, Acts 13. justin Martyr that lived not long after the Apostles Chron. Philip. times, a famous Christian, writeth thus to 〈◊〉 the Emperor: viz. after the ascension of Christ into Heaven, certain men stirred up by the Devil, called themselves gods; of which number was Simon the Samaritan, borne in a Village called Gitton. This man in the time of Claudius Caesar, by the power of the Devil, exercising Magical Arts, and working great wonders, was esteemed for a god, and a Statue erected unto him with this inscription; Simon● deo sancto, To Simon the holy god: The Samaritans also, with many of other Nations worshipped him as a god; but this Atheist meeting with Saint Peter at Rome, had great contentions with him; and boasting that he would ascend into Heaven in the sight of all was 〈◊〉 up into the air by Devils; but Peter commanded the Devils in the name of Christ to let him go, and so he fell down upon the 〈…〉 a pieces. Caius Caligula Emperor of Rome, raging against both 〈…〉 Jews, caused himself to be worshipped and his Images 〈…〉 places: He also dedicated the Temple of Jerusalem to 〈…〉; Euseb. l. 2. c. 7. commanding it to be called the Temple of famous jupiter, 〈◊〉 ●o he styled himself; but to show that he was but a wretched simple man, he reigned Sueton. but three years and three months, and was slain by Pherius a Tribute. Herod Agrippa when he suffered himself to be saluted and honoured as a Euseb. l. 2. c. 9 god, was presently smitten with horrible plagues in his bowels, when detesting the voice of his flatterers; said, I that was called but lately a god, 〈◊〉 in the bonds of death. Daphida, a biting and contentious Sophister, and hating all Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 1. cap. 8. both Heathenish and Christian, came to Delphos, and in a scoff asked the Oracle of Apollo, Whether he might find his horse or no; when he had none to find: the Oracle answered, That he should find a ●orse, but it should be his destruction. At his return from the Oracle, King A●talus his enemy ceased upon him, and set him upon a rock, the name whereof was a horse; causing him to be thrown down headlong, to learn what it is to mock the gods. CHAP. IU. Of Idolatry. THe wonderful Idolatry of the Heathens was so abominable, that their madness would astonish any reasonable man; not to speak of their jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Apollo, and the rest; Hesiod doth report that they had thirty thousand gods upon the earth, and some most strange ones. Troglodytes worshipped Snails; the Syrians Pigeons; the Romans Geese; because by their squeaking the Capitol was saved from the Gauls; the A●b●acians a Liònesse; because a Lioness had killed a Tyrant of theirs: The Delphians a Wolf, the Samians a Sheep; the Tenedians a Cow with Calf; the Albanians a Dragon; the Egyptians Rats and Mice, and Cats, and a Calf; wherein the Jews are said to imitate them in the Wilderness. But the Idolatry of the Romans was beyond all, for they worshipped not only the higher gods, as they called, but the basest things that could be named in the World: as the Ague, and the Gout, the Privy; yea and Priapus that filthy Idol of the Gardens. Now who seeth not but the vengeance of God hath been poured down upon all these Nations, for their impious Idolatry, having been delivered up into the hands of the Goths and Vandals, Turks and Tartarians, and make a prey unto them. Neither do the Papists come short of these Heathens in their Idolatry; for they turn the blessed Saints into Idols, and worship them in stead of God: Every country, and every city, and every house, hath his protecting Saint, which they daily invocate; yea, they ascribe a certain god to every member, and for their several cattle, beside their abominable Idolatry in worshipping their breaden god: but as God hath taken already in part vengeance upon that Idolatrous Whore of Babylon; so I doubt not but he will fulfil the full measure of his wrath upon them, in his due time, except they repent. CHAP. V. Of Blasphemy. A Certain holy man passing by a Wine-Taverne, went to prayer; wherein certain young men having passed the whole night in drinking and playing, and blaspheming the name of God, he met with a poor man horribly wounded in his body, and asked him of whom he had received those wounds; the poor man answered, that he had received them of those young men that were in that Tavern: whereupon the good man returned back, and enquired of them, why they had so wounded the poor man? The young men astonished answered, that there were none in the Tavern with them all that night but themselves; and presently went out to see the poor man thus wounded, but he was not to be found: whereupon being more amazed, they Discip. de Tem. judged that it was Christ whom they had thus wounded with their blasphemies. Anno 1551. in the coasts of Magnapolis, certain men abusing the feast job. Fincel. of Pentecost with much drinking, a certain woman in their company blasphemed God strangely, and called upon the Devils, who presently snatched her away, and carried her aloft into the air, from whence the ●ell down dead, the whole company beholding of her. At the coasts of Bohemia; Anno 1551. five dr●nken men quaffing together, with horrible blasphemies profaned the name of God; and the picture of the Devil being painted upon the wall, they caroused healths unto job. Fincel. lib. him: to which the Devil answered immediately, for the next-morning all five were found dead, their necks being broken, and quashed to places, a● though a wheel had gone over them, blood running out of their mo●●hes, nostrils, and ears, to the great astonishment of the beholders. Not many years since, two men contended together which of them should Lonicer. pour forth most blasphemies against God, but whilst they were exercising this devilish contention, one of them was stricken with madness, and so continued till his lives end. In like manner at Rome certain young men agreed together, that he should have the victory that could swear most: which wicked strife as soon as they entered into, one of them was deprived of the use of his tongue, Lonicer. another of his reason and understanding, and the rest remained as dead men; God reserving them alive for repentance. At Eslinga in Germany, upon Saint Katherine's day, a certain Nobleman Lonicer. having lost much money at play, with horrible execrations and blaphemies, commanded his man to bring him his horse that he might ride home, in a very dark night; but his servant dissuaded him from his journey, affirming how dangerous the way was, by reason of the waters and the fens that lay in the midst: whereat he began to rage and swear the more, and go he would. But he was encountered by the way with an army of infernal soldiers, which beset the nobleman on all sides, and threw him from his horse: Now there was in his company a virtuous and valiant gentleman, who set him again upon his horse, and held him on one side; whom when the spirits durst not attempt by reason of his innocency, they vanished out of sight; and they conveyed the nobleman into a monastery that was hard by, where he lay three days and died: such is the end of horrible and fearful blasphemers. A Vintner that accustomed himself to blaspheming, swearing, and drunkenness, and delighting to entertain such that were like himself, to swallow down his wine; upon the Lord's day standing at the door with a pot in his hand to call in more guests, there came suddenly a violent whirlew inde, and carried him up into the air in the sight of all men, and he was never seen more. CHAP. VI Of Conjucers, Magicians, and Witches. IOhn Faustus, a filthy beast, and a sink of many devils, led about with him an evil spirit in the likeness of a dog; being at Wittenberg, when as by the Edict of the Prince he should have been taken, he escaped by his magical delusions; and after at Noremberg being by an extraordinary sweat that came upon him as he was at dinner, certified that he was beset, paid his host suddenly his shot, and went away: and being scarce escaped out of the walls of the City, the Sergeants and other officers came to apprehend him. But God's vengeance following him, as he came into a Village of the Dukedom of Wittenberg, he sat there in his Inn very sad: the host required of him what was the cause of his sadness; he answered, that he would not have him terrified, if he heard a great noise and shaking of the house that night; which happened according to his presage: for in the morning he was found dead, with his neck wrung behind him; the Devil whom he served having carried his soul into hell. This story is set down by many in other terms; but Philip Lonicerus expresseth it in this manner, in his Theatre of Histories. Anno 1553. two Witches were taken which went about by tempest, hail, and frost, to destroy all the corn in the country; these women stole away a little infant of one of their neighbours, and cutting it in pieces, put it into a Cauldron to be boiled: but by God's providence the mother of the child came in the mean while, and found the members of her child thus cut in pieces and boiled. Whereupon the two Witches were taken, and being examined, answered, That if the boiling had been finished, such a tempest of ●aine and hail would have followed, that all the fruits of the earth in that country should have been destroyed; but God prevented them by his just judgement, in causing them to be put to death. Anno 1558. in a Village near to Ihaena in Germany, a certain Magician being instructed by the Devil in the composition of divers herbs, restored many unto their healths. He had daily commerce with that evil spirit, and used his counsel in the curing of diseases: but it happened that there fell a quarrel betwixt him and a neighbour of his a carpenter: who so exasperated him with his taunting words, that in few days after he caused the Carpenter, by his magical art, to fall into a grievous disease. The poor Carpenter sent for this Magician, and entreated him to help him in his need. The Magician feigning an appeased mind, but desiring to revenge the injuries done unto him, gave unto him a potion confected of such venomous herbs and roots, that being taken, the poor man presently died. Whereupon the Carpenter's wife accused the Magician of murder: the cause is brought to the Senate of Ihaena, who examining the matter, caused him by torments to confess the murder, and many other wickednesses, for which he was fastened to a stake and burnt to death. CHAP. VII. Of the profanation of the Sabbath. A Certain nobleman (profaning the Sabbath usually in hunting) had a child by his wife with a head like a dog, and with ears and chaps crying like a hound. Stratford upon Sluon was, twice on the same day twelvemonth (being the Lord's day) almost consumed with fire; chiefly for profaning the Lords day, and contemning his Word in the mouth of his faithful Minister. Feverton in Devonshire (whose remembrance makes my heart bleed) was oftentimes admonished by her godly Preachers, that God would bring some heavy judgement on the Town for their horrible profanation of the Lords day, occasioned chiefly by their Market on the day following. Not long after his death, on the third of April, Anno Dom. 1598. God in less than half an hour consumed with a sudden and fearful fire the whole Town, except only the Church, the Court-house, and the Almshouses, or a few poor people's dwellings; where a man might have seen four hundred dwelling houses all at once on fire: and above fifty persons consumed with the flame. And now again since the former Edition of this book, on the fifth of August last 1612, (fourteen years since the former fire) the whole Town was again fired and consumed, except some thirty houses of poor people, with the School-house, and Almshouses; they are blind which see not in this the finger of God: God grant them grace when it is next built, to change their Market-day, and to remove all occasions of profaning the Lords day. Let other Towns remember the Tower of Siloe, Luke 13. 4. and take warning by their neighbour's chastisements: Fear Gods threatenings, jeremy 17. 27. and believe Gods Prophets if they will prospet, 1 Chron. 20. 20. CHAP. VIII. Of Drunkenness. AN Ale-wise in Kesgrave near to Ipswich, who would needs force three Servingmen (that had been drinking in her house, and were taking their leaves) to stay and drink the three out'ts first: that is, Wit out of the head, Money out of the purse, Ale out of the barrel: as she was coming towards them with the pot in her hand, was suddenly taken speechless and sickher tongue swollen in her head; she never recovered speech, but the third day after died. This Sir Anthony Felton the next Gentleman and Justice, with divers others, eye-witnesses of her in sickness, related to me; whereupon I went to the house with two or three witnesses, and enquired the truth of it. Two servants of a Brewer in Ipswich, drinking for a rump of a Turkey, struggling in their drink for it, fell into a scalding Cauldron backwards; whereof the one died presently, the other lingeringly, and painfully, since my coming to Ipswich. A man coming home drunk, would needs go and swim in the mill pond; his wife and servants knowing he could not swim, dissuaded him, once by entreaty got him out of the water, but in he would needs go again, and there was drowned. I was at the house to inquire of this, and found it to be true. In Barnewell near to Cambridge, one at the sign of the Plough, a lusty young man, with two of his neighbours, and one woman in their company, agreed to drink a barrel of strong beer; they drunk up the vessel, three of them died within four and twenty hours, the fourth hardly escaped after great sickness. This I have under a Justice of Peace his hand near dwelling, besides the common fame. A Butcher in Haslingfield hearing the Minister inveigh against drunkenness, being at his cups in an Alehouse, fell a scoffing at the Minister and his Sermons. As he was drinking, the drink, or something in the cup quackned him, and stuck so in his throat, that he could neither get it up not down, but strangled him presently. At Tillingham in Dengy hundred in Essex, three young men meeting to drink strong waters, fell by degrees to half pints: one fell down dead in the room, and the other, prevented by company coming in, escaped not without much sickness. At Bungey in Norfolk, three coming out of an Alehouse in a very dark evening, swore they thought it was not darker in hell itself: one of them fell off the bridge into the water, and was drowned; the second fell off his horse; the third sleeping on the ground by the river side was frozen to death. This have I often heard, but have no certain ground for the truth of it. A Bay life of hed upon the Lord's day being drunk at Melford, would needs get upon his mare to ride through the street, affirming (as the report goes) that his mare would carry him to the Devil: his mare casts him off, and broke his neck. Instantly reported by sundry sufficient witnesses. Company drinking in an Alehouse at Harwich in the night over against one Master russel's, and by him once or twice willed to depart; at length he came down and took one of them, and made as he would carry him to prison, who drawing his knife, fled from him, and was three days after taken out of the sea with the knife in his hand. Related to me by Master Russel himself, Mayor of the town. At Tenby in Pembrokeshire, a drunkard being exceeding drunk, broke himself all to pieces from an high and steep rock, in a most fearful manner; and yet the occasion and circumstances of his fall so ridiculous, as I think not fit to relate, lest in so serious a judgement I should move laughter to the Reader. A Glazier in Chancery lane in London, noted formerly for profession, fell to a common course of drinking; whereof being oft by his wife and many Christian friends admonished, yet presuming much of God's mercy to himself, continued therein, till upon a time having surcharged his stomach with drink, he fell a vomiting, broke a vein, lay two days in extreme pain of body, and distress of mind, till in the end, recovering a little comfort, died. Both these examples were related to me by a Gentleman of worth upon his own knowledge. Four sundry instances of drunkenness, wallowing, and tumbling in their drink, slain by carts; I forbear to mention, because such examples are so common and ordinary. A Yeoman's son in Northamptonshire being drunk at Wellingbrough on a market day, would needs ride his horse in a brayery over the ploughed lands, fell from his horse, and broke his neck. Reported to me by a kinsman of his own. A Knight notoriously given to drink, carrying sometime payles of drink into the open field to make people drunk withal: being upon a time drinking with company, a woman comes in, delivering him a ring with this poesy, Drink and die; saying to him, This is for you; which he took and wore: and within a week after came to his end by drinking. Reported by sundry, and justified by a Minister dwelling within a mile of the place. One of Aylesham in Norfolk, a notorious drunkard, was drowned in a shallow brook of water, with his horse by him. Two examples have I known of children that murdered their own mothers in drink; and one notorious drunkard that attempted to kill his father; of which being hindered, he fired his barn, and was afterward executed one of these formerly in print. At a Tavern in Bread-street in London, certain Gentlemen drinking healths to their Lords, on whom they had dependence; one desperate wretch steps to the table's end, lays hold on a pottle pot full of Canary Sack, swears a deep oath, What, will none here drink a health to my noble Lord and Master? and so setting the pottle pot to his mouth, drinks it off to the bottom; but was not able to rise up, or to speak when he had done, but fell into a deep snoring sleep, and being removed, laid aside, and covered by one of the servants in the house, attending the time of his waking, was within the space of two hours irrecoverably dead. Witnessed at the time of the printing hereof, by the same servant that stood by him in the act, and help to remove him. In Dengy hundred near Mauldon, about the beginning of his Majesty's reign, there fell out an extraordinary judgement upon five or six that plotted a solemn drinking at one of their houses; laid in Beer for the purpose, drunk healths in a strange manner, and died thereof within a few weeks, some sooner, and some later. Witnessed to me by some that was with one of them on his deathbed to demand a debt, and oftentimes spoken of by Master Heyd●n, late Preacher of Mauldon, in the hearing of many? the particular circumstances were exceeding remarkable, but having not sufficient proof for the particulars, I will not report them. A man in Suffolk overtaken with wine, (though never in all his life before, as he himself said, a little before his fall, seeming to bewail his present condition, and others that knew him so say of him) yet going down a pair of stairs against the persuasion of a woman (sitting by him in his chamber) fell, and was so dangerously hurt, as he died soon after, not being able to speak from the time of his fall to his death. The names of the parties thus punished, I for bear for the kindred's sake yet living. These examples before going, are taken out of the report of that worthy Preacher of God's word in Ipswich, Master Samuel Ward, in his Sermon called A woe to Drunkards: to the which I will add one more of mine own knowledge lately executed. A young Gentleman of good fame, credit, and behaviour, being in July last overtaken by drink, and riding homeward void of wit and fear, was thrown by his horse, and his brains knocked out with the pummel of his sword. An example more remarkable for two causes: first, because he was not formerly given to that vice; and secondly, in that a friend of his meeting him by the way, entreated him that he would ride softly, and he would conduct him home; but he desperately spurring his horse over rough ways, was thus overthrown and perished: but I hope God had mercy on his soul. Saint Augustine in his three and thirtieth Sermon Ad fratres in eremo, relateth this strange example of one Cyril, a Citizen of Hippo, a man well esteemed and beloved in the City: He having one only son, did so cocker him, forbearing either to check him or correct him; but loving him (as that holy Father saith) not only above all things, but even above God himself; that by his too much liberty and indulgence, his son grew wonderful debaushed, and gave himself to filthy drunkenness. Upon a time, being vilely overtaken with drink, he came home, and tumbled over his mother being great with child, would have ravished his sister, slew his father, and wounded to death two of his other sisters. O fearful effect of drunkenness! thus God punished the father for his too much love and indulgence of his son, and the son for his vile impiety. Not unlike to this I find in Philip Lonicerus, Page 486. A certain man, saith he, that gave himself to the study of Godliness, was daily assaulted with the temptation of the Devil, who persuaded him if he would be quiet, to choose one of these three sins, either to make himself drunk, or to commit adultery with his neighbour's wife, or to kill his neighbour himself. The poor man thinking drunkenness the least sin, chose that; but being enraged with wine, he was easily drawn to the committal of the other sins; for being with wine inflamed, with lust he feared not to vitiate his neighbour's wife, nor yet to kill her husband, coming in the mean while seeking to be revenged of him: so giving himself to drunkenness, he wraps himself in all other wickedness. On the eighteenth of August 1629, one Thomas Wilson labourer, a known and common blasphemer of God's name by oaths and curses, and given much to drinking to excess, upon a slight occasion moved to displeasure against his wife, and not daring to do much violence unto her, turned it upon himself, and with his knife stabbed himself, many of his friends and neighbours being present; and so he died. On the 10 day of May 1629, one john Bone of Ely, (coachman unto one Master ●alu●●● of Beenham) a fellow very vicious, and exceeding in those two evils of profane swearing and drunkenness, on the Sabbath day in the Sermon-time, drank himself drunk; so that when he was to sit in the coach-box to drive the coach, he fell out thereof under the horses feet, where he was trodden to death, or so hurt at least, that he died shortly. On the six and twentieth of November 1621., one Richard Borne, servant to jasper B●rch Gardiner of Ely, accustomed to travel upon the Lord's day, and making no reckoning of the Sabbath, seldom or never coming to Church on that day, but went onwards to Saint I●es market, and so spent the day; and being drunk, was at length overtaken by the just judgement of God: and going up the stream in his boat, which he had loaden with marketable wares, he fell into the river, and was so drowned. On the third day of August 1618., one Thomas Alred of Godmanchester, in the County of Huntingdon Butcher, an accustomed Drunkard, being entreated by a neighbour to unpitch a load of hay, and being at that very time in drink, letting his pitchfork slip out of his hand, and stooping to take it up again, slipped from the cart with his head downwards, his fork standing 〈◊〉 with the tines, he fell directly upon them, which it once ran into his breast, and struck his heart so, that he died suddenly. On the sixteenth day of July 1628., one john Vintner of 〈…〉 Gardiner, a known drunkard, and one that would profanely (especially in his 〈◊〉) scoff at religion, and abuse good men▪ fell from the top of a 〈…〉 the ground and broke his neck, and so died. These ●ive lust examples were reported unto me, and written with his own hand, by a worthy Minister Master Goorge Nelson, Preacher of the Word of God in Godmanchester. CHAP. IX. Of rebellious and disobedient Children to their Parents. AGathias in his Book of the Persian manners, reporteth this story, That certain Philosophers, going into Egypt, and finding there a promiscuous commixture of fathers and mothers with their daughters and sons, and a miserable neglect of children towards their parents; returned speedily into Greece, and in a certain City there, finding the dead body of a man wanting burial, they in compassion committed the same into the earth; the next day coming the same way again, they found the same body digged out of the earth: which whilst they went about to bury the second time, a fearful spectrum appeared unto them, and forbade them to do it, saying, That he was a man unworthy to be buried, because he had committed incest with his mother, and despised and contemned his father. This narration showeth, that the very earth doth execrate and abhor such unnatural lust and disobedience. La●terbius in his Book of the discipline of children, reports a story of a certain young man, who had a father very old, that had bestowed upon him all his substance. This old man, being by the fault of age unmannerly at the table of his son, his son caused a wooden trough to be made for his father, to eat his meat in like a hog: which when his sons young child perceived, he asked his father for what use it should serve; his father answered, That it was for his Grandfather to eat his meat in; and (what saith the child) must I provide the like for you when you are old: Whereat his father being astonished threw away the trough, and ever after entertained his old father with greater reverence and obedient respect. CHAP. X. Of Murderers. Romulus' having marked out with a plough the compass of the walls of the City of Rome which he was a building, and had forbidden that no man should leap over the same, his brother, Rh●mus in scorn leapt over the wall; which Romulus taking in evil part, slew his brother, and reigned alone but at length being hated of the people for his insolency, he himself was slain by the fathers of the Senate at Caprea. Constantine the Great, after he had overcome Licinius his partner in the Empire, and obtained the sole Monarchy, grew both insolent and cruel; for he first put to death his own sisters; next his own son Crisp●● which he had by Minervea; then he slew his own wife Fausta in the baths; and lastly a number more of his friends. For which cruelty, though he was a man endued with excellent virtues, yet God struck him with a filthy Leprosy, which continued upon him until such time that he was converted to the faith of Christ, and baptised by Pope Silvester: after which he proved a most famous protector of the Church of Christ. Perillus that devised the brazen Bull for the Tyrant Phalaris, wherein men being enclosed and scorched with the heat that was under the Bull, did imitate the lowing of an Ox, to the end that there should be no compassion showed unto them by the King, if they had uttered a humane voice: but the author thereof was the first that endured the torment thereof; and after the Tyrant Phalaris himself was constrained to endure the same miserable end. In a famous City of Germany, at a nuptial festivity, a certain virgin Theat. Hist. was brought by a young man a Shoemaker, that made love unto her, to the solemn and usual dancing: when the maid should return home, the young man by chance was absent, so that she was conducted home by another; which when the Shoemaker knew, supposing himself to be wronged, he went presently to her father's house; and calling out the young student which guided her home, he slew him assoon as he came out of the doors. His father hearing the death of his only son, died within three days with grief, and was buried in the same grave with his son: the Shoemaker's mother died also with grief; and the murderer himself falling into desperation, threw himself headlong into a running river, and was drowned. Anno 156, a certain Nobleman abounding with wealth, not far from Augusta of the Vindiletians, brought up in his house a young Blackamoor: which villain when his Master was from home, rose up in the night, and slew not only his Lady, but the whole family: excepting one little daughter of the Noblemen. The Nobleman returning home after two days, and finding his gate shut, road nearer to the walls of the house, wondering. Where the Blackamoor upon the top of the house, with a fearful countenance, spoke unto him these words: O thou cruel man, thou rememberest how unworthily thou beatest me (not long since) for no fault, the memory whereof I still retained in my mind, and have revenged this wrong upon thine; behold here part of the carcase of thy wife, whom I have slain, with thy whole family, except this little child which I have reserved; and will restore it, if thou wilt promise me my life. The father being wonderfully disturbed, promised that which he desired: but the devilish Moor answered, I know thou wilt not keep promise with me, therefore take thy child unto thee; and threw her out of the window, where she was quashed in pieces; and then threw himself down headlong from the top of the house, that he might avoid the vengeance of his Master. This story was related unto Philip Count Nassau, by the Secretary of the Count of Hanault. CHAP. XI. Of Adultery. ANobleman in Burgundy, having taken in war a captive, a Gentleman that was his prisoner; the Gentleman's wife came to this Nobleman to redeem her husband; he promised that he should be set free, if that he might have the use of her body: the woman returned to her husband, and told him upon what terms he stood. The Gentleman said, that she could not show her love better unto him, than in yielding to his desire: which Author Phil. Lonicer. being accomplished, the traitorous adulterous Nobleman next day cut off the prisoners head, and gave his body to his wife: which horrible fact being complained of by her to the Duke of Burgundy, he presently sent for the Nobleman, and first constrained him to marry her; but before night he cut off his head, and gave her all his possessions. A like example is reported by the same Author of a Spanish Captain, who kept in prison a certain man that had violated the laws. This man having a beautiful wife, sent her to the Captain to desire his favour and freedom; which he promised, upon condition that she should yield to his lust; wherewith her husband being acquainted, advised her to yield for the saving of his life: the Spaniard after he had satisfied his lust upon her, commandeth over and above two hundred Ducats to be paid unto him; which being received, she conceiving a certain hope of her husband's liberty, the perfidious Spaniard brought him forth out of prison unto her, and presently remanded him back again into prison, and there commanded his head to be cut off. Which horrible fact, when the poor lamentable woman complained of to the Duke of Ferara, called Gonsaga, he presently sent for this Captain; and finding the accusation true, first commanded him to pay back again the two hundred ducats, with an addition of seven hundred crowns more; next he sent for a Priest, and married the woman to the Captain: which being done, when as he hoped to enjoy his new married wife, Gonsaga sent him presently to the gallows, and there he ended his miserable days. The wife of a certain Duke, being a lascivious woman, wrote two letters; one to the Duke her husband, and another to her Lover: but it happened by chance, that her letter written to her Lover, was delivered to her Husband the Duke; who thereby knowing her wickedness, came no sooner home, but slew her with his own hand. Anno 1056, a certain Doctor of the Law, an advocate in Constance, extremely lusted after the wise of the King's Procurator; which Procurator finding the Doctor and his wife together in a bath, playing and sporting, and afterward in an old woman's house hard by; he got unto him a sharp currycomb, and leaving three at the door, to watch that no man should come in, he so curried the Doctor, that he pulled out his eyes out of his head, and rend his whole body and members, that he died within three days: the like he had done to his wife, but that she was with child. In the year 1488, a certain Priest did so long assault the chastity of a Citizen's wife, that she was constrained to declare the same unto her husband; who forbade him his house, threatening that if ever he came there, he would geld him: but this bold Priest came again when he imagined an opportunity; the husband fell upon him, and bound him hand and foot, and performed what he had threatened, so that he went home in a miserable case. In Voitland, four murders were committed upon the cause of one Adultery: For when the adulterous woman was banqueting with her lovers, her husband came of a sudden into the Chamber, and slew first him that sat next his wife; the other two amazed, ran down the stairs and brake both their shoulders, and died within a short space: Then he slew his adulterous wife. This story Wolsi●s Schrencke reported to Martin Luther, as he himself confesseth. In a certain City of Germany, a Gentleman of good note did solicit and seduce to his lust a Citizen's wife, which her husband coming to the knowledge of, watched them so narrowly, that he found them in bed together; and rushing into the chamber, first slew the adulterer himself, and then his wife, being crept under a bed, and imploring his mercy till she could confess herself to a Priest; her husband asked her, Whether she were sorry for what she had done? Who answered, that she was grieved for it; which words were no sooner pronounced, but he thrust her through the heart with his sword, and was for the same adjudged by the City to have done justly. This story is reported in Colloq. of Luther. Luther doth report, that a man of great name and fame, did so burn with continual lust, that he blasphemously said, That if that pleasure was perpetual, he would never desire to have any part in the Kingdom of Heaven; so that he might be carried from one Stews to another, and from one Harlot unto another. I could add more examples of this kind; but these shall suffice, to show that God doth not only punish this horrible sin in the life to come, but also in this life with fearful judgements. CHAP. XII. Of Thiefs and Robbers. SPiredon, a Bishop of a certain City in Cyprus, was also delighted with keeping of irrational sheep; upon a night certain thiefs entered into his sheepfold, with an intent to steal away some of his sheep: but God protecting the shepherd and his sheep, infatuated the thiefs, that they could not stir out of that place till the morning: at what time the Bishop coming to view his flock, found them thus bound; who presently prayed to God for their delivery, and wished them to get their living hereafter by honest labour, and not by stealth; yet withal gave them a Ram with this pleasant tant: I give you this Ram that you may not seem to watch it in vain; and so set them free. A certain young man being bitten with a mad dog, fell presently after into madness himself; and was fain to be bound with chains. The parents of this young man brought their son to an Abbot called Ammon; entreating him, that by his prayers he would restore him to his former health; the holy Abbot answered, that they demanded that of him that passed his power: But this I can signify unto you, that the Devil holdeth you all bound in his chains, by reason of a Bull which you stole from a poor widow; and until you restore that Bull back again to the widow, your son shall never be healed. The parents presently confessed their fault, restored the Bull, and presently their son was delivered from this grievous disease. A certain Baker merrily talking with his neighbour, bragged, that in that great time of dearth which was then, he gained out of every bushel of Wheat above a crown: which words being related unto the Governor of the City, he sent for the Baker to supper, and examined him about those speeches; which the Baker could not deny: whereupon the Governor commanded him presently to put off his upper garments, and to knead so much dough before him, that he might find out the manner of his deceit; which being done, he and all his fellow Bakers in the town was cast into prison, to their great disgrace. The same Author reporteth, That at Prague in Bohemia a Jew being dead, his friends desired that he might be buried at Ratisbone, forty miles off; which because it could not be done without paying of great tribute, they put his carcase into a hog she●d full of sweet wine, and committed it to a carter to convey to Ratisbone. The thievish carters in the way being greedy of the wine, pierced the hogshead, and drinking themselves drunk with the wine, mixed with the stink of the dead carcase, most of them died. The same Luther reporteth, that at Wittenberg three thiefs having stolen a silver dish, brought it to a Goldsmith's wife to sell; who desired them to come again within an hour, and then she would bargain with them. In the mean while she related this business unto the Magistrates; who sending presently the Sergeants to apprehend the thiefs, they seeing themselves to be betrayed, resisted with their swords: but notwithstanding one of them was taken and executed, another escaped by flight, and the third being pursued over a bridge, leapt into the river Albis, and there was drowned. This example is more remarkable (saith Luther) because this fellow was a most notorious wicked wretch, and had cut off two fingers of his own fathers; at which very instant his father not knowing of it, being asked what was become of his son, answered, that he wished he was drowned in the river Albis; which wish was really performed at that very instant; for it was the voice of God's anger out of the mouth of a father. About Ailton in Huntington-shire, a lewd fellow stole one of his neighbours fat weathers; and bringing him home bound about his neck, 〈…〉 upon a great stone in the field to ●ase himself, where the weather st●●gling, fell over the stone, and pulled the thief after him; and so both striving, one for life, another for liberty, the thief was found dead in the morning, and the weather alive. CHAP. XIII. Of Treachery. WHen the two Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland had rebelled against Q. Elizabeth, and being defeated in the field, fled into Scotland; the Earl of Northumberland hid himself in the house of Hector of Harlawe an Armestrange, having confidence in him that he would be true to him: he notwithstanding for money betrayed him to the Regent of Scotland, from whence the Earl was sent into England, condemned of high treason, and beheaded. But it was observed, that this Hector, being before a rich man, fell poor of a sudden, and was so hated generally, that he never durst go abroad; insomuch that the Proverb (to take Hector's cloak) is continued to this day among them, when they would express a man that betrayeth his friend who trusted him. The like example we have of Banister who betrayed the Duke of Buckingham, in the reign of Richard the third. CHAP. XIV. Of the molestation of evil Spirits, and their execution of God's judgements upon men. ALmighty God sometimes doth execute his judgements himself, as he did upon Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and upon Sodom and Gomorrah; sometimes he useth the creatures as instruments, as frogs and lice, etc. to plague Pharaoh and the Egyptians: Sometimes he employeth the good Angels to that purpose, as an Angel to destroy the Army of Zenacherib before Jerusalem: but most ordinarily, he useth the ministry of evil Angels, who being forward enough of their own malice, he giveth more strength unto by his command, to execute vengeance upon wicked men. Thus Satan under the shape of a Serpent, beguiled our first parents Adam and Eve, and promised them great good, in the stead of punishments, which God had threatened unto them, Gen. 3. The same Satan vexed King Saul, 1 Reg. 16. This Satan rose against Israel, and stirred up David to number the people; whereat God being offended, struck Israel with a grievous peltilence, 1 Chronic. 21. It was Satan that got leave of God, that he might torture job with loathsome botches and boils, job 2. It was Satan that slew seven husbands, to whom Sarah the daughter of Raguel had married: Tobit. It was Satan that entered into judas Iscariots heart, and moved him to betray Christ, and hang himself, john 13. Acts 7. It was Satan that instigated Ananias and Saphira to lie to the Holy Ghost, whereupon they both died suddenly, Acts 5. Lastly, it was Satan that si●ted Peter, and buffered Paul. But to leave the Holy Scripture; Philip Melancthon reporteth, That he heard of two men credible and faith-worthy, that a certain Bottonian young woman, two years after her death, returned again to humane shape, and went up and down in the house, and sat at meat with them, but eat little. This young seeming woman, being at a time amongst other virgins, a certain Magician came in, skilful in diabolical Arts; who said to the beholders, This woman is but a dead carcase, carried about by the Devil; and presently he took from under her right armhole, the charm; which he had no sooner done, but she fell down a dead filthy carcase. Martin Luther reporteth the like of a woman at Erford in Germany, who being animated by the Devil, accompanied a young student that was in love with her, and went up and down divers years: but at last, the Devil being cast out by the prayers of the Church, she returned to a dead and filthy carcase. The same Luther in his Colloquies telleth us, how Satan oftentimes stealeth away young children of women lying in childbed, and supposteth others of their own begetting in their stead in the shapes of Incubus and Suco●bus; one such child Luther reporteth of his own knowledge at Halbersted; which being carried by the parents to the Temple of the Virgin Mary to be cured, the Devil asked the child (being in a basket upon the river) whither it was going? the young infant answered, That he was going to the Virgin Mary: whereupon the father threw the basket and the child into the river: The like he reporteth of another at Pessovia, which representing in all lineaments a humane shape, it was nothing else but a mere elusion of the Devil: this child, saith he, delighted in nothing but in stuffing itself with food, and egesting the same in a filthy manner, but was discovered, and disrobed, and cast out by the Prayers of the Church. At Babylon in the Temple of Apollo, a soldier breaking open a golden Chest, there flew out such a pestilent spirit, that infected the whole world with the plague: thus Aventine, lib. 2. cap. 17. Bruno the Bishop of Herbipolis, accompanying the Emperor through an arm of the Sea, heard this voice sounding in his ears; Ho, Ho, thou Bishop, I am thy Malus Genius, and whithersoever thou goest thou art mine; at this time I have no power to hurt thee, but thou shalt see me shortly again; and so it came to pass: For not long after, being in a room with divers others, part of the roof fell down, and flew this wicked Bishop alone, all the rest remaining safe and sound. Vrbanus Regius in a Sermon at Wittenberg, Anno 1538, concerning good and bad Angels, relateth a story of a certain young maid possessed by the Devil; for whom when prayers were made in the Church, he seemed to be quiet for the time, as if he were departed out of her, watching an opportunity to do her further mischief, as he did indeed; for, when as less care was taken of her, supposing her to be found, she going to wash her hands at the brink of a river running by, the Devil tumbled her headlong in, and drowned her in a fearful manner. Platina, Nauclerus, and other Historiographers write of Pope Bennet the ninth, who died in the year 1405, that he appeared (or the Devil for him) in a prodigious and bestial form, like a Bear in his body, and in his head and tail, like an Ass: and when he was asked by some, Why he showed himself in so ugly a shape, answered, That this shape was imposed upon him for his wicked and bestial behaviour when he was alive. In the hill countries of Bohemia, there used to appear an evil Spirit in the habit and shape of a Monk, whom the country people called Rubezall: This devilish Monk used to join himself unto travellers over those hills, and to bid them be of good courage, for he would lead them the right way thorough the woods: but when as he had purposely led them out of the way, so that they could not tell which way to turn themselves, he would leap● into a tree and laugh at them, with such a loud noise, that the whole wood would ring of him: This was a morrie Devil, such as our Robin-Goodfellow is said to be; but yet in his mirth he always affected mischief. Theat. Hist. pag. 120. Chunibert King of Lombardy, consulted with one of his trusty counsellors, about putting to death his two brothers, Aldo and Grauso. Whilst they were thus consulting in a by-window, there sat a great fly by them; one of the feet whereof, the King with his knife which he had in his hand cut off; in the mean while Aldo, and Grauso, entering into the Palace, met with a man with one of his feet cut off; who told them the King was purposed to slay them if they passed on: whereupon they returned and hid themselves in the Temple of Romanus the Martyr. The King hearing thereof, was much troubled how his Counsel might be revealed, and charged his Privy Counselors with infidelity: But the Counsellor answered, That he had not departed from his presence since the matter was contrived, but there sat a fly whose foot they cut off, which no question was the Devil (as it was) had revealed this secret in the shape of a man. Hereupon the King was reconciled to his brethren, and embraced them with love ever after. Thus the Devil sometimes doth good, but it is with an intent of greater mischief: Et sinon aliquâ nocuisset mortuus esset▪ Cronica Hedion. While certain Mariners were sailing in the Sea, a Monster was taken by them, in every thing like unto a woman; which being detained in the ship a good while, one of the Mariners fell in love with her, took her to his wife, and begot one child of her: after three years they returning to the same place again where the same Monster was taken, this woman-Devill leapt into the Sea with her child in her arms; the child was drowned, but she vanished away. Thus it is easy for the Devil to take upon him the shape of a man or a woman. Ex Colloquiis Lutheri. A certain Nobleman invited Martin Luther, and other learned men to his house: the Nobleman after dinner went out a hunting, where a Hare of great bigness, and a Fox of great swiftness, offered themselves unto his hounds. The Nobleman riding upon a good horse, followed them amain, but his horse falling down under him, died, and the Hare vanished into the air: This was certainly a diabolical delusion. Luther. The same Luther writeth, That certain Noblemen riding a race, they cried out, let the last be the Devils; one of the Noblemen having a spare horse, hasted forward with the rest of his company; but his horse that was le●t free, came softly behind, and was carried up by the Devil into the air. The Devil is not to be invited, for he is ready to come uncalled. Philip Lonicerus in his Historical Theatre, reporteth, that in a great plague, one carcase was seen to devour itself in a grave: which, the people being superstitious, thought it was a presage of the continuance of the pestilence; whereupon they sent unto Wittenberg to Luther and other godly Ministers, for their advice and counsel: he answered, that it was a delusion of the Devil, and if they gave credit thereunto, the sickness would increase; and therefore advised them that despising this delusion of the Devil; they should join together in prayer in God's holy Temple, to repress the fury and malice of the old Serpent; which by that means they obtained. At Rotingburge an honest and worthy Citizen having a beautiful daughter, to whom many Suitors frequented, there came also one in gallant apparel, and two men attending upon him, to be a Suitor unto that beautiful maid: but her father being displeased at his importunity, invited the godly Minister of the Town, and some other good men to supper; where entering into conference of divine matters, this gallant abhorring the same, desired them to talk of some other merry matters; which they refusing to do, he showed himself what he was, and with his companions disparished into the air, leaving a filthy stink behind him: thus the Devil doth go about to delude both men and women. Manlius in Col. A certain man abounding with wealth, invited to supper a company of his neighbours and friends; who, when they refused to come upon occasions, he wished that all the Devils in Hell would come: which wishes were not in vain, for presently great troops of Devils came unto his house, which he entertained at the first; and afterward (as my Author saith) perceiving by their fingers and feet to be infernal Spirits, he with his wife, trembling, ran out of the house, leaving a young infant in a cradle, and a fool rocking of it; both which were preserved alive after the departure of the Devils: job. Fincel. The Devil also appeared unto a Soldier that was given to play, swearing, and drinking; and having played with him all night, and won his money, he told him it was time to depart, and carried him away with him into the air, whither God knows; for he never was seen after. In the year of our Lord 1536, there was at Frankford a maid grievously tormented with a pain in her head, and a kind of frenzy, at the last she came to that pass, that it was manifest that she was possessed with the Devil; for if she touched any thing of any man's, either head, garment, or anything else, she drew money out of it of the usual coin of that country, and presently put it into her mouth and swallowed it; but sometimes they caught her hand, and wrung their money from her, and showed it up and down as a great wonder: She also in her fits spoke the high Dutch tongue perfectly, which she never learned not heard of; with many other things of great admiration. Luther being demanded, What course was to be taken to dispossess her of this evil Spirit; advised, that she should duly be brought unto the Church to hear Sermons, and to be prayed for publicly in the Congregation; by which means, shortly after she was delivered from Satan, and restored to her former health: this relation the wise Senators of Frankfurt caused to be published in Print, Anno 1538. Certain learned men in the Counsel of Basil, went into a wood for recreation sake, friendly to confer about the controversies of that time: Whilst they were there walking, they heard a bird like unto a nightingale singing most sweetly, above any Nightingale in the World, and also s●w a bird upon an arm of a tree, not like unto any bird: one of the company more hearty than the other, said thus unto her; I abjure thee in the name of the Lord jesus Christ; to tell us what thou art; to whom the bird answered, That she was one of the damned souls, and appointed to stay in that place until the last day, and then to endure everlasting punishments; whereupon she slew from the tree, and cried, O perpetual and infinite 〈◊〉 M●l●ncthon judged this to be an evil spirit, and so the event proved: for all that were present at this abjuration fell presently very sick, and shortly after died. Manl. Collecta. A certain panish Clerk (as C●sariu● reporteth) ex●elled all men in sweetness of singing, whom when at a time a godly and holy man heard, he said, This is the voice not of a man, but of the Devil; 〈…〉 he had abjured in the name of Christ, the Devil departed out of the body of the Clerk, and the body fell down into a dead carcase. Discip. de tempore. Paulus Diaconius in his sixteenth Book witnesseth, That in the reign of Anastasius the Emperor, there were in Alexandria many women and children, possessed of the Devil, which being taken with fury, uttered no other voice but like the barking of a dog. In the year of our Lord 1545, an evil spirit haunted the City Rotuill, sometimes in the shape of an hare, sometimes of a Weasel, sometimes of a G●ose, and with a clear voice threatened that he would fire the City, which malice of his, though God prevented, yet it struck great terror into the minds of the people. job. Finc. lib. 1. In the Dukedom of Luneberge, a certain woman possessed of the Devil, used to speak in her fits most pure Latin and Greek to the great admiration of all that heard her. Man. in Collect. At Fribuge in Misnia, a certain man of great piety and holiness, lying sick and near unto death, the Devil came unto him in the habit of a Bishop (he being alone) and exhorted the man to confess all his sins which he had committed in his life time, and that having pe●ne and Inkhorn he would write them down in order; but the old man being importuned by him, answered, Seeing thou urgest this, write down first this sentence: The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpent's head: which the Divell-Bishop no sooner heard but he vanished away, leaving a filthy savour behind him, and the man died in peace. Manl. in Collect. job Fincelius in his third book of miracles, writeth a strange story of a godly young maid, infested long, and possessed at length by the Devil, who in her acted strange things to the admiration of all men: but at length she was freed from his malicious molestation, by the earnest prayers of godly Ministers in the Church, the Devil flying out of her in the form of a swarm of flies out of a window. This story is at large related with many strange circumstances, by Philippus Lonicerus in his Historical Theatre. Page a hundred twenty and six. The same Author relateth a story of a maid of excellent beauty, whom the Priest of the town so induced and inveigled by his persuasions (saying that the Pope had pardoned him for all such offences) that she became his Concubine: Now when he had invited many of his companions to a feast, together with his Concubine, the Devil entered in amongst the guests, snatching away the young woman, and saying, Thou art mine: neither could the Priest or any of the company deliver her out of his hands. And thou also (sayeth the Devil to the Priest) and I mean to fetch thee shortly. Martin Luther reporteth this story out of the mouth of Doctor Gregorius Pontanus, how two Noblemen falling out in the Court of the Emperor Maximilian, vowed each others death. Now the Devil taking occasion out of this malicious vow, slew the one of the Noblemen in the night with a sword taken out of the others sheath, into the which he put the same again all bloody; whereupon this Nobleman was arraigned of this murder, and had been condemned, but that it was proved that he stirred not out of his chamber all that night: and therefore they concluded that it was the malicious fact of Satan. And yet the Nobleman because he intended this murder, though he acted it not, was condemned by the Emperor to perpetual banishment. And thus much concerning persons infested by the Devil. Now a word or two for places. Saint Augustine in his two and twentieth Book De Civitate Dei, chapter the eighth, reporteth of a certain Gentleman that lived not far from him in Africa, who had his house so infested with evil Spirits, that both his servants and his cattle died frequently. This man getting unto him the company of the Priests, & offering up the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ in his house, with servant prayers unto God against these evil Spirits, was thereby freed from any further molestation by them, as this holy Father writeth. Saint Gregory telleth us of the Spirit of one Paschasius, that haunted the Baths, and was seen by Sermanus the Bishop of Capua, by whose means and prayers the place was freed from that Ghost, or rather the Ghost was freed from that place. Greg. lib. 4. Dialog. Cap, 39 Gregory Nissen writes also of a certain Bath which was grievously infested by evil Spirits, wherein they took away the lives of many men. The like whereof is reported by Georgius Presbyter, of another house thus molested, where the evil Spirits would throw stones upon the table while they were at dinner, and filled the house with mice and Serpents, so that no man durst dwell therein. The like story reporteth mataphrastes in the life of Saint Pautheneus; and Lycus, in the life of the Emperor Anastasius. Pliny in his seventh Book, the twenty seventh Epistle, telleth us, that in an house in Athens there appeared continually a tall and lean shape of a man drawing chains after him; which when it was seen to sink down and vanish into a certain place of the ground, they digged and found the dead body of a man: which being removed, the house was freed from the molestation. What should I speak of the house of Eubatis in Corinth, written by Lucian? or of Pausanias the King of the Spartans', whose house was haunted by an evil spirit presently after he had slain his wife Cleonice, as Plutarch writeth? Or of the evil spirits that haunted the grave of that cruel Tyrant Caesar Caligula? Suet. Or of Nero that slew his mother Agrippina, who was continually after pursued with a spirit in his mother's shape? or of Otto that slew his predecessor Galba; after which he never ceased to be molestred with fearful and terrible visions? Or a number more which I might insert; but these shall suffice as a taste of a number more that Tyraeus the jesuit hath set down in his Book De infestis Locis. I add only two or three, and so an end. Alexander of Alexandro dwelling in Rome, in an house so infamous for strange sights, that no man durst dwell therein, reporteth, that beside the night tumults and horrible and fearful noises, there appeared unto him the shape of a map, of a filthy look, threatening countenance, and black and fearful in body, from which the house could by no means be set free. Cardanus, Lib. 26. c. 93. De rerum varietate, reporteth the like to haye happened to an house of a certain Nobleman in Parma. In which house always before the death of some of the family, an old woman of an hundred years old appeared sitting in the chimney corner▪ In an Island near unto the Arctic Pole, there is an hill out of the which, like mount Aetna, there bursteth out continually fire and smoke. There every night appeareth a company of evil Spirits, representing perfectly the shape of some friends which they know: whom when they go to speak unto, they presently vanish out of their sight. Olaus magnus. But enough, enough, of this unsaverie subject: only let us learn hereby to beware of this ambitious enemy of mankind, who as Saint Peter sayeth, Goeth about sometime like a Lion to devour us: Other times like a subtle Serpent to molest us, but all with a desire of our destruction. I may be thought too prolix in this Argument of God's judgements; but considering the fierceness of God's wrath against notorious sinners, and the hardness of men's hearts to be drawn to repentance, nothing I think can be judged too much. But yet to sweeten these sour pills, let me cover them a little with the sugar of God's merciful protection of his children by his holy Angels. CHAP. XV. The conclusion, concerning the protection of holy angels, over such as fear God. NOtwithstanding all these Judgements upon the wicked, yet God is good unto Israel, even to those that are of an upright heart. Psalm seventy three, Verse the first: for as he executeth his Judgements upon the one, so he defendeth the other, by his mighty providence; especially by the protection of Angels. Of which I purpose to give you many examples in this place: and first out of the holy Scriptures. Two Angels came to L●t in Sodom, struck the inhabitants with blindness and led Lot by the hand out of Sodom, ready to be destroyed by fire and brimstone, Genesis the nineteenth. When Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac, an Angel held his hand, and forbade him to kill his son, promising him from God a blessing for his obedience, Genesis 22. jacob in his return homeward, was comforted and strengthened against his brother Esau by the blessed Angels, Genesis the two and thirtieth. An Angel of the Lord when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, stood betwixt the camp of the Egyptians and the Israelites in a pillar of clouds by day, to protect the Israelites against the Egyptians, Exodus 14. Balaam when being sent for by Balaac King of Moab to curse the Israelites, an Angel with a sword drawn in his hand withstood him in the way, and commanded him to speak nothing but what the Lord should put into his mouth. Numbers 22. An Angel of the Lord appeared unto Gedeon, comforted him, and appointed him captain over the people, to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Madianites, judges, Chapter 6. An Angel of the Lord appeared unto Manoa and his wife who was barren, promising them a son, to be called Samson, that should deliver the Israelites out of the hands of the Philistims, judg. 13. It was an Angel in David's time which struck the Israelites with the pestilence, whereof died threescore and ten thousand; and when David prayed, put his sword up into his sheath, and saved the rest: the second book of Samuel, and twenty fourth Chapter. Elias the Prophet was refreshed with meat and drink, and in the strength thereof he traveled forty days and forty nights; even to Mount Horeb, by the Ministry of an Angel, 1. Kings, 19 Many legions of Angels environed the Prophet Elisha, which his servant, at his prayer, (his eyes being opened) saw and beheld, and all to defend him from the Assyrians that besieged Samaria; 2. Kings, 6. An Angel of the Lord slew in the camp of the Assyrians in one night an hundred fourscoure and five thousand men; 2. Kings, 19 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, being cast into the fiery Furnace by Nabuchadnezzar, for not worshipping his golden Image, were preserved alive and kept from hurt by an Angel of the Lord, Daniel 3. It was an Angel that stopped the mouths of the Lions, that they could not hurt Daniel that was cast into their Den, Daniel, 10. The Angel Gabriel declared unto Zacharias, that his wife should conceive with child, and bring forth john the Baptist in her old age, Luk● 1. It was the same Angel that announced to the Virgin Mary, that she should bring forth jesus Christ our Saviour, Luke 1. The same told the shepherds in the field, of Christ his Nativity and witnessed his resurrection and ascension into the heavens, Matthew 28 Mark 16. Acts the first. An Angel delivered the Apostles out of Prison, Acts 5. An Angel freed Peter from his chains, Acts 12. and Paul and Silas, Acts 16. An Angel comforted Paul upon the Sea, and all those that were with him, and delivered them from the Tempest, Acts twenty seven. All these Examples are out of the holy Scriptures, which is of infallible truth, and showeth that to be which is spoken by the Prophet David in the four and thirtieth Psalm, That the Angel of the Lord pitcheth his tents round about them that fear him. Now follow examples out of humane Writes; and first to begin with a story in Socrates, lib. 6. cap. 6. and Sozomen. lib. 8. cap. 4. When Arcadius was Emperor of Rome, and Saint chrysostom Bishop of Constantinople, there was Gainas, an Arrian, and a Barbarian by profession, who being powerful and great, went about to thrust Arcadius out of his Seat; but the Emperor compounding with him, sent him unto Constantinople with a troop of horse and foot, under the pay of the Emperor. This man desired to have a peculiar Church for them of his own Sect, for the free exercising of their Religion: which being denied by the Emperor, at the persuasion of Saint chrysostom, the Tyrant raised his forces in the night to spoil and havoc the City. But they were resisted the first and second night, by the show of a great Army of tall and lusty men, and so terrified, that they durst do nothing. The third night the Tyrant himself, thinking this to be but a fable, came in his own person with his whole Army, and found the same resistance: wherewith being terrified, he fled into Tracia; where he was slain most miserably. Thus this great City was protected by the ministry of Angels, as Jerusalem once was from the Tyrant Zenacherib. In the reign of Pompilius King of Poland, as the Polonian Chronicles do report, in the first book, and twelfth Chapter, there came two men o● a venerable countenance and habit to the Court gate, desiring entrance and entertainment; but they were repulsed by the Porter. Then they went to one Pyastus, a man of excellent holiness and charity, who entertained them into his house very lovingly, broached a Vessel of sweet Wine for their drink, and killed a fat Hog for their meat, which he had prepared against the first tonsure of his son, according to the custom of that Country. These men, or rather Angels, finding this kind entertainment, caused the Vessel of sweet Wine to multiply, so that the more they drank, the more still remained behind; and the Hog also in like manner. At last they wrought means, that Pompilius the King being dead, this good man was chosen King in his stead; and then disparished and were never more seen. Nicephorus in his seventeenth book, Chapter thirty five, reporteth a strange story of a Jewish child. This boy playing among other Christian children, was brought into the Temple by the Priest to care the relics of the Sacrament, as the custom was: who took it amongst his follows. Which as soon as the Jew his father understood, he put him into a fiery oven to be tormented to death: his mother sought him up and down the City, not knowing what was done; and at last, after three days, found him alive in the Oven: from whence being taken, there was no smell of fire about him. Thus God protected by his Angel this poor child. Instinian the Emperor, after he knew thereof, caused the boy and his mother to be baptised; and the father, who refused, he caused to be crucified to death. Under the Emperor Mauritius the City of Antioch was shaken with a terrible Earthquake, after this manner: There was a certain Citizen so given to bountifulness to the Poor, that he would never sup nor dine, unless he had one poor man to be with him at his Table. Upon a certain evening seeking for such a guest, and finding none, a grave old man met him in the Marketplace, clothed in white, with two companions with him, whom he entreated to sup with him: But the old man answered him, That he had more need to pray against the destruction of the City; and presently shook his handkerchief against one part of the City, and then against another; and being hardly entreated, forbore the rest. Which he had no sooner done, but those two parts of the City, terribly shaken with an Earthquake, were thrown to the ground, and thousands of men slain. Which this good Citizen seeing, trembled exceedingly. To whom the old man in white answered and said, By reason of charity to the poor his house and Family were preserved. And presently these three men (which no question were Angels) vanished out of sight. This story Sigubert in his Chron. reporteth, Anne 585. Philip Melancthon reporteth, That in a certain Village near unto the City Sygnea, a woman sent her son into the wood to fetch home her Kine: in the mean while, such a snow fell, that the boy could not return home again: his parents the next day (taking more care for the boy then for the kine) went out to seek him; and within three days, found him in the midst of the wood, sitting in a fair place where no snow had fallen: They demanded of him, Why he made not haste home: He answered, That he tarried till it was evening; being insensible both of the time and of the cold: They asked him again, Whether he had received any food or no? The boy answered, That a certain man brought unto him bread and cheese, which he did eat. Thus without doubt the child was preserved by an Angel, and the man that brought him the bread and cheese was an Angel of God. Tiburtius the Governor of Areciam, a Heathen man, forbade two Christian brothers, Pergentinus and Laurentinus, to preach Christ: First, he alured them by flattering speeches; which when it succeeded not, he caused them to be beaten with clubs. But the arms of them that beat them were so withered, that they could not strike a stroke: Then he went about to starve them in prison, but they were nourished by an Angel of God: After, he commanded them to walk barefooted upon burning coals, which they did without any sense of hurt: Lastly, the Image of jupiter being brought unto them to worship, they calling upon the name of Jesus, the brazen Image resolved into dust: whereupon many of the Heathen people forsook their Idols, and turned unto the faith of Christ. This story is written by Marullus Spalatensis, lib. 1. cap. 8. In that battle wherein judas Machabeus overcame Timotheus, five men appeared in golden Armour; whereof two defended Machabeus, and the other three assaulted the enemies; the second of Maccabees, Chapter the tenth. Likewise in the eleventh Chapter of the same Book, it is declared how two men in goodly Armour, and upon white horses, fought for the Jews against their enemies; as Castor and Pollux were seen to fight for the Romans against the Tusculans, at the Lake Regillum. When the Locrians made war with the Crotolians, there was seen two goodly young men upon white horses, fight for the Locrians; who as soon as the victory was gotten, were never seen more: which victory, at the same instant that it was gotten, was declared at Athens. Lacedaemon, and Corinth; places far distant from Locris and Crothon. When Attila the King of the Huns, calling himself the scourge of God, had with furious rage destroyed and wasted many Cities in Italy; he came at last to Rome, purposing also to destroy it: But Pope Leo the Great, by the commandment of Valentinian the Emperor, came out unto him, and by his prayers and entreaties made him so mild, that presently without doing any hurt he returned into his own Country. Hereupon, being demanded by his Nobles, Why he showed himself so obedient to the Roman Bishop; he answered, That it was not in honour of the Pope, but that he saw another man standing by in Priestly garments, threatening him with a naked sword in his hand, unless he would yield unto Pope Leo. This doubtless was an Angel protecting of the City of Rome from that cruel and merciless Enemy. We read in the lives of the Fathers, how a certain religious Christian was cast into prison by the soldiers of julian the Apostata, whom when Apolonius another godly Christian came to visit, the Centurion cast him also into prison, to accompany the other, and set soldiers to watch the prison lest they should escape; but late in the night an Angel of God was seen in a most clear light, and broke open the prison door: which being seen, the Watch fell down before those holy men, and the Centurion that night having his house sore shaken with an Earthquake, and some of his servants slain; the next morning came and delivered the two holy men out of prison with great trembling and fear. We read in the lives of the Fathers, of one Copres a holy man, that disputed with Manichee, and when he could not put him down in words, it was agreed between them, that the trial of the truth of their religion should be made by fire: whereupon a fire being made in the Marketplace, Copres went into it, and stood a time in it unhurt, being protected by the Angel of God; then the Manichee refusing to do the like, was thrust into the midst of the fire by the people, and was so scorched, that he scarce escaped with his life; so that the people abhorring his wicked doctrine, thrust him out of the City; saying, This seducer burneth alive. Baratanes the King of Persia made war upon the Romans; against whom Narsaeus the Emperor's General prepared an Army: and when the constantinopolitans were in great fear, two Angels in Bythinia charged certain men that went to Constantinople, to tell the Citizens that they should give themselves to prayer and fasting, and fear nothing, for they were sent of God to defend the Army of the Romans against the Persians; which they did accordingly for the Persian Army was defeated by Narsaeus, and the Saracens that came to help them in great multitudes, were drowned in the river Euphrates. This Socrates reporteth, Lib. 7. Capitul● 18. But to come to examples of later memory. Melancthon in his explication of the tenth Chapter of the prophecy of Daniel, relateth a story of Gryneus a famous learned and godly man, who having offended the Bishop of Vienna, called Faba, in a disputation about Religion, returned unto his sociates assembled together, whereof Melancthon was one: where discoursing of the disputation between him and the Bishop, I (saith Melancthon) was called out of the chamber, to speak with a certain grave man, of a venerable countenance and habit, who told me that we should remove Gryneus out of that place presently, for the Sergeants were come to apprehend him, and to cast him into prison: whereupon we presently conducted him through the City, and brought him unto the river's side, where we had him conveyed over into another Jurisdiction: and at our return to the Inn, found that the Sergeants had been there. Thus, saith Melancthon, we see that this grave old man was an Angel of God, that came to protect the good man from his enemies. In the year 1539, not far from Sitta in Germany, in the time of a great dearth, and famine, a certain godly matron having two sons, and destitute of all manner of sustenance, went with her children to a certain fountain hard by, praying unto Almighty God, that he would there relieve their hunger by his infinite goodness: as she was going, a certain man met her by the way, and saluteth her kindly, and asked her whither she was going; who confessed that she was going to that fountain there, hoping to be relieved by God, to whom all things are possible; for if he nourished the children of Israel in the desert forty years, how is it hard for him to nourish me and my children with a draught of water: and when she had spoken these words, the man, (which was doubtless an Angel of God) told her, that seeing her faith was so constant, she should return home, and there should find six bushels of meal for her and her children. The woman returning, found that true which was promised. In the year 1558, a cruel tempest raged in Thuringea, beating down houses, pulling up trees by the roots, and drowned by the violence of the water above forty persons, men and women. In this fearful inundation of waters, a notable and miraculous example of God's protection by Angels showed itself: for there was a woman newly brought to bed of a child, drowned, but the infant lying in a cradle, was carried with the violence of the water a great way off, and at last the cradle stopping at the bough of an appletree, was fastened till the waters decreased, and after divers days was found alive. The like example of a child miraculously preserved in the waters, is described by Husan●● in most elegant verses; the copy whereof you may read in the Historical Theatre of Lonicerus, pag. 196. Another child at Friburge in Misnia falling into the river, was carried violently a great space, until it came unto a Mill, where it stopped, and was miraculously taken up alive by God's protection, and his holy Angels. The like we read of concerning another child, miraculously preserved at Rotinberge, in the year 1565, as Lonicerus reporteth. I will add one more of my own knowledge, concerning an Inf●●t. 〈…〉 Town in Cambridge-shire, there was a cranny Steeple ready to 〈◊〉, under which a poor man with one child, had built a little cottage, and lived therein: it chanced that the Steeple fell upon that little cottage, the woman being in the town, and the child in the house: all men supposed the child had been crushed to pi●●es; but it pleased God, by the protection of his holy Angels, that certain pieces of the Belfry fell cross over the little cottage, and kept off the sto●●es from hurting of the child; which crying was heard, and they removing the stones and rubbish, found the child alive. The like happened at Huntingdon; where Saint Mar●●s Church, having a decayed Steeple, the Parishioners for 〈◊〉 to repair it; who about noon coming down to ●h●ir 〈◊〉, left certain children which were taught by the Minister, playing in the body of the Church, who had no sooner run into the Chancel to their victuals, but the Steeple tumbled down into the Church, beating down a great part of the Church: withal, behold the wonderful protection of God, if the Steeple had fallen upon the Lord's day, many hundreds had been slain; and if at any other time of the day, the Masons and the children had all perished: but blessed be the name of the Lord for this safe deliverance. Another example was related unto me by men of good credit, upon their own knowledge; how a certain man riding between two woods in a great tempest of thundering and lightning, road under an Oak to shelter himself; but his horse would by no means stay under that Oak, wenching, and kicking, and running away, whether his Master would or no: which his master perceiving, went unto another Oak hard by, where the horse stayed very quietly: but they had not long stayed there, but the first Oak with a grievous clap of thunder and lightning was torn all to fitters, and the man and horse in the other place escaped safely: Oh the wonderful protection of God, and that by the ministry of his holy Angels! In the year 1565, so great a tempest of rain and waters arose at Islebia, that it bore down houses before it; it fell most violently upon the house of one Barthold Bogt, so that it broke down the forepart of his house, where lay a child in a cradle; which the father, with hazard of his life, brought forth and carried into his adjoining neighbours house: two other of his children endeavouring also to save, he took in his arms to carry forth of the house, but the rage of the water hindered him, so that they rested upon a beam; from whence the one of his children was violently taken out of his arms, and he and the other being shaken from the post, were carried into the Orchard; where finding footing, stood up to the neck in water, with the child in his arms; and looking about for his other child, he found it sitting upon a piece of timber, and coming towards him, which he also took into his arms, and got up into a high pile of wood, where he rested all night, none being able to afford him any help. The next morning, when the waters were decreased, he came down to look for two other of his children which he had left in an upper part of the house, whom he found fast asleep; now he had no sooner taken them from thence, but that part of the house fell down also: where we may see a visible sign of God's protection by his holy Angels, who not only preserved all the family, but also kept that part of the house from falling, wherein the children lay sleeping, until they were brought forth. Many more examples of this kind might be added, but these shall suffice to show Gods great providence towards his children; who as he punisheth the wicked with most severe Judgements, so he protecteth those that fear him with extraordinary providence by his holy Angels: to show the truth of that, which the Apostle speaketh; that They are ministering Spirits, sent forth to wait upon them who shall be heirs of salvation, Hebrews 1. Verse 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉