The theatre of Gods judgements wherein is represented the admirable justice of God against all notorious sinners ... / collected out of sacred, ecclesiasticall, and pagan histories by two most reverend doctors in divinity, Thomas Beard ... and Tho. Taylor ...

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 yeeld 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 chiefe citizens of Rome, to wit, Simmachus and ••oe∣ti••••, only for secret surmise which he had, without pro∣bability, that they two should weave some she web for his destruction. After which cruell deed, as he was one day at supper, a fishes head of great bignesse beeing served into the table, purposing to be very merry, sudden∣ly the vengeance of God assailed, amased, oppressed, and pursued him so freshly, that without intermission or breathing it sent his body a senselesse trunk into the grave in a most strange and marvellous manner: for he was conceited (as himselfe reported) that the fishes head was the head of Simma∣chus, whom he had but lately slaine, which grinned upon him, and seemed to face him with an overthwart threatning and angry eye: wherewith hee was so scarred, that he forthwith rose from the table, and was possessed with such an exceeding trembling and icle ehilnesse that ran through all his joynts, that he was constrained to take his chamber and goe to bed, where soone after with griefe and fretting and displeasure hee died. He com∣mitted also another most cruell and traiterous part upon Odoacer; whom inviting to a banquet, he deceitfully welcommed with a messe of swords in stead of other victuals, to kill him withall, that he might sway the Em∣pire alone both of the Gothes and Romanes without checke.

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, cities and villages that he passed by, putting all to fire and sword, without shewing mercy to any: on this manner he went spoiling through France, and there at one time gave battell to the united forces of the Romans, Vice∣gothes, Frenchmen, Sarmatians, Burgundians, Saxons, and Almaignes: after that he entered Italy, tooke by way of force Aquilea, sacked and de∣stroyed

Millan, with many other cities, and in a word spoiled all the coun∣trey: in fine, being returned beyond Almaigne, having married a wife of excellent beauty, though he was well wived before, he died on his marri∣age night suddenly in his bed: for having well carowsed the day before, he fell into so dead a sleepe, that lying upon his backe without respect, the bloud which was often woont to issue at his nostrils, finding those conduits stopped by his upright lying, descended into his throat, and stopped his winde. And so that bloudy tyrant that had shed the bloud of so many peo∣ple, was himselfe by the effusion of his owne bloud murthered and stifled to death.

Ithilbald king of Gothia at the instigation of his wife put to death very unadvisedly one of the chiefe peeres of his realme: after which murther, as he sate banquetting one day with his princes, environed with his gard and other attendants, having his hand in the dish, and the meat between his fin∣gers, 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.

Sigismund king of Burgundy suffered himselfe to be carried away with such an extreame passion of choler, provoked by a false and malicious ac∣cusation of his second wife, that he caused one of his sonnes 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 himselfe king: which deed being blowne abroad, Clodomire sonne to Clodovee and Clotild king France, and cousin german to Sigismund, came with an army for to revenge this cruell and unnaturall 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 joyne battell, Sigismunds souldiers forsooke him, so that hee was taken and pre∣sently put to death, and his sonnes which he had by his second wife were taken also, and carried captive to Orleance, and there drowned in a Well. Thus was the execrable murther of Sigismund and his wife punished in their owne children. As for Clodomire, though he went conqueror from this battell, yet was he encountered with another disastrous misfortune: for as hee marched forward with his forces to fight with Sigismunds bro∣ther, he was by him overcome and slaine; and for a further disgrace, his dismembred head fastened on the top of a pike was carried about to the en∣terview of all men. Hee left behinde him three young sonnes, whom his owne brethren and their uncles Clotaire and Childebert, notwithstanding their young and tender yeres, tooke from their grandmother Clotildes cu∣stody, that brought them up, as if they would install them into some part of their fathers kingdome; but most wickedly and cruelly, to the end to possesse their goods, lands, and seigniories, bereft them all of their lives, save one that saved himselfe in a Monastery. In this strange and monstrous act Clotaire shewed himselfe more than barbarous, when he would not take pity upon the youngest of the two, being but seven yeares old, who hearing his brother (of the age of tenne yeres) crying pittifully at his slaughter, threw himselfe at his uncle Childeberts feet with teares, desiring him to save his life: wherewith Childebert being greatly affected, entreated his brother with weeping eies to have pity upon him, and spare the life of this poore infant: but all his warnings and entreaties could not hinder the savage beast

from performing this cruell murther upon this poore childe, as he had don upon the other.

The Emperour Phocas attained by this bloudy means the imperiall dig∣nity, even by the slaughter of his lord and master Mauricius, whom as he fled in disguised attire for feare of a treason pretended against him, he being be∣foretime the Lievtenant Generall of his army, pursued so maliciously and hotly, that he overtooke him in his flight, and for his further griefe, first put all his children severally to death before his face, that every one of them might be a severall death unto him before he died, and then slew him also. This murtherer 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 preheminence and authority over all other Bishops: which he did to the end that the staine and blame of his most execrable murther might be either quite blotted out, or at least winked at. Vnder his regency the forces of the Empire grew wondrously into decay▪ France, Spaine, Almaigne, and Lombardy, revolted from the Empire: and at last himselfe being pursued by his son in law Priscus with the Senatours, was taken, and having his hands and feet cut off, was together with the whole race of his off-spring put to a most cruell death, because of his cruell and tyrannous life.

Among all the strange examples of Gods judgements that ever were de∣clared in this world, that one that befell a King of Poland, called Popiel, for his murthers, is for the strangenesse thereof most worthy to be had in me∣mory: he reigned in the yeare of our Lord 1346. This man amongst other of his particular kinds of cursings and swearings, whereof he was no niggard, used ordinarily this oath, If it be not true, would rats might devoure me; pro∣phesying thereby his owne destruction; for hee was devoured by the same meanes which he so often wished for, as the sequell of his history will de∣clare. The father of this Popiel seeling himselfe neere death, resigned the go∣vernment of his kingdome to two of his brethren, men exceedingly reveren∣ced of all men for the valour and vertue which appeared in them. He being deceased, and Popiel being growne up to ripe and lawfull yeares, when he saw himselfe in full liberty, without all bridle of government to doe what hee listed, he began to give the full swinge to his lawlesse and unruly desires, in such sort, that within few daies he became so shamelesse, that there was no vice which appeared not in his behavior, even to the working of the death of his owne uncles, for all their faithfull dealing towards him, which he by poi∣son brought to passe. Which being done, he caused himselfe forthwith to be crowned with garlands of flowers, and to be perfumed with precious oynt∣ments: and to the end the better to solemni••e his entry to the crowne, com∣manded a sumptuous and pompous banquet to be prepared, whereunto all the Princes and Lords of his kingdome were invited. Now as they were about to give the onset upon the delicate cheere, behold an army of rats sal∣lying 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 gard with all their weapons and strength were not able to chase them away, but being weary with resisting their daily and mighty as∣saults, gave over the battell: wherefore counsell was given to make great cole ••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 de∣cree 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 cruell murtherer, Then they gave him counsell to put himselfe, his wife, and children into a boat, and thrust it into the middest of a lake, thinking that by reason of the wa∣ters the rats would not approach unto them: but alas in vaine; for they swum through the waters amaine, and gnawing the boat, made such chinkes into the sides thereof, that the water began to run in: which being perceived of the boatman, amased them sore, and made them make poste haste unto the shore, where hee was no sooner arrived, but a fresh muster of rats uniting their forces with the former, encountred him so sore, that they did him more scath than all the rest. Whereupon all his guard, and others that were there present for his defence, perceiving it to be a judgement of Gods vengeance upon him, abandoned and for sooke him at once: who seeing himselfe desti∣tute of succour, and forsaken on all sides, flew into a high tower in Chouz∣itze, whither also they pursued him, and climbing even up to the highest roome where hee was, first eat up his wife and children (she being guilty of his uncles death) and lastly gnew and devoured him to the very bones.

After the same sort was an Archbishop of Mentz, called Hatto, punished in the yeare 940, under the reigne of the Emperour Otho the great, for the extreme cruelty which he used towards certain poor beggers, 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 barne wherein they were, and consumed them all alive; and comparing them to rats and mice that devoured good corne, but served to no other good use. But God that had regard and respect unto those poore wretches, tooke 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 hee 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 memoriall whereof, this tower was ever after called the tower of rats. And this was the tragedy of that bloudy arch-butcher that compared poore Christian soules to brutish and base creatures, and therefore became him∣selfe a prey unto them, as Popiel King of Poland did before him; in whose strange examples the beames of Gods justice shine forth after an extraor∣dinary and wonderfull manner, to the terrour and feare of all men; when by the means of small creatures they made roome for his vengeance, to make entrance upon these execrable creature-murtherers, notwithstanding all mans devises and impediments of nature: for the native operation of the elements was restrained from hindering the passage of them, armed and in∣spired with an invincible and supernaturall courage, to feare neither fire, water, nor weapon, till they had finished his command that sent them. And thus in old time did frogs, flyes, grashoppers, and lice, make war with Pha∣raoh, at the command of him that hath all the world at his becke.

After this Archbishop, in the same ranke of murtherers we finde regi∣stred 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 wic∣ked

and perverse lives: for as touching the first of them, from the time that he was first installed in the Papacie, he alwayes bent his hornes against the Emperor Fredericke, and fought with him with an armie not of men, but of excommunications and cursings; as their manner is: and seeing that all his thundering Buls and Canons could not prevaile so farre as he desired, he pre∣sently sought to bring to passe that by treason which by force he could not: for he so enchanted certain of his household servants with foule bribes and faire words, that when by reason of his short draught, the poyson which he ministred could not hurt him, he got them to strangle him to death. Moreover, he was chiefe sower of that warre betwixt Henry, Lantgrave of Thuring, whom hee created King of the Romanes, and Conrade, Frederickes sonne, wherein he reaped a crop of discomfitures and overthrowes: after which, he was found slaine in his bed, his body being full of blacke markes, as if he had beene beaten to death with cudgels.

Concerning Boniface, after he had by subtile and crafty meanes made his predecessor dismisse himselfe of his Papacie, and enthronised himselfe there∣in, he put him to death in prison, and afterward made war upon the Gibi∣lines, and committed much cruelty; wherefore also he dyed mad, as we heard 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 kinde of wickednesse, cannot be rightly placed in the trea∣tise of any particular commandement.

Notes

• Procopius.
• Iornand. Greg. de Tours.
• Greg. of Tours, lib. 3. hist.
• Referre this properly to lib. 2. cap. 11.
• Niceph. l. 18. 58.
• Munst. Cosmog. Mandat. 3. Cursing. l. 1. cyp. 30.
• Munster cos∣mographle.
• Mandat. 8. Avarice and unmercifulnes
• Hieron. Marius.
• Baleus.
• Murdering Popes.