St. Augustine, Of the citie of God vvith the learned comments of Io. Lod. Viues. Englished by I.H.

L. VIVES.

DEad (a) carcasses, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, morticinia, the dead flesh. (b) For if a goodly.]

Et eternos animam collegit in orbes, Non illuc auro positi, nec thure sepulti Perueniunt,—Lucan. lib. 9.

The eternall spheres his glorious spirit do holde, * 1.1 To which come few that lye embalmd in golde, &c.

(c) Gorgious] of whom in the Chapter before. (d) Scoffe at] The Romanes had great care ouer their burials: whence arose many obseruances concerning the religious perfor∣mance thereof: and it was indeed a penalty of the law: hee that doth this or that, let him bee cast forth vnburied: and so in the declamations: hee that forsakes his parents in their necessities, let him bee cast forth vnburied: hee that doth not declare the causes of their death before the Senate, let him bee cast forth vnburied; An homicide, cast him out vnburied. And so speakes Cicero to the peoples humour for Milo, when he affirmes Clodius his carcasse to be therein the more wretched, because it wanted the solemne rites and honors of buriall. (e) Philosophers] those of the Heathen: as Diogenes the Cynike for one, that bad his dead body should be cast vnto the dogs and foules of the ayre: & being answered by his friends, that they would rent and teare it: set a staffe by me then, said he, and I will beate them away with it: tush you your selfe shall be sencelesse quoth they: nay then quoth he what need I feare their tearing of me? This also did Menippus, & almost all the Cyniks. Cicero in his Quae∣stiones Tusculanae recordeth this answer of Theodorus of Cyrene vnto Lysmachus that threat∣ned him the crosse: let thy courtiers feare that (quoth he) but as for me I care not whether I •…•…ot on the ayre or in the earth: and so also saith Socrates in Plato's dialogue called Phaedo. (f) Whole armies] meaning perhaps those legions which Cato the elder speake of in his Ori∣gines, that would go thether with cheerfulnesse, from whence they knew they should neuer returne. Nay, it was no custome before Hercules his time to burie the dead that fell in war•…•…

for Aelian in his Historia varia doth affirme Hercules the first inuenter of that custome. (g) Poets to speake] with the peoples approbation. Lucan in his 7. booke of the Pharsalian warre, speaking of the dead that Caesar forbad should bee burned, or buried, after hee had brought forth (as his custome is) many worthy and graue sentences concerning this mat∣ter, at length he speaketh thus vnto Caesar:

Nil agis hac ira, tabesne Cadauera soluat, An rogus, hand refert: placido natura receptat Cuncta sinu:

In this thy wrath is worthlesse: all is one, Whether by fire or putrefaction Their carcasses dissolue: kinde nature still Takes all into her bosome.

And a little after:

—Capit omnia tellus Quae genuit; caelo tegitur qui non habet vrnam

Earths off-spring still returnes vnto earths wombe, Who wants a graue, heauen serueth for his tombe.

And so saith the Declamer in Seneca: Nature giues euery man a graue; to the shipwrackt the water wherein he is lost: the bodies of the crucified droppe from their crosses vnto their graues: those that are burned quick their very punishment entombes them. And Virgill, who appoints a place of punishment in hell for the vnburied, yet in Anchises his words, shewes how small the losse of a graue is. That verse of Maecenas

(Nec tumulum curo, sepelit natura relictos: I waigh no tombe: nature entombes the meanest:)

Is highly commended of antiquitie. The Urna, was a vessell wherein the reliques and ashes of the burned body was kept. (h) In a moment,] 1. Corinth. 15. 52.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Sepulchers.