The wonders of the little world, or, A general history of man in six books : wherein by many thousands of examples is shewed what man hath been from the first ages of the world to these times, in respect of his body, senses, passions, affections, his virtues and perfections, his vices and defects, his quality, vocation and profession, and many other particulars not reducible to any of the former heads : collected from the writings of the most approved historians, philosophers, physicians, philologists and others / by Nath. Wanley ...

CHAP. XIX. Of extraordinary things in the Bodies, Fortunes, Death, &c. of divers persons.

TRavellers that have determined to pass through divers Countries, lightly touch those common occurrences that present themselves to every mans eye; but if they meet with any thing extraordinary, these they set a special and particular remark upon, as matter wherewith mens knowledge may be improved, and their curiosity gratified. If I have staid the longer upon this Chapter, it is possibly for some such reason as this, that the Reader may have something, if not so profitable as he could wish, yet not altogether unpleasant in the perusal.

1. Antonius Cianfius, a Book-seller at Pisa some few years since, putting off a shirt which was made straiter to his body than usual, flames were seen to issue from his back and arms, and that also with a crackling noise, to the affrightment of the whole family. The truth of this is attested as well as the History related by Fortunius Licetus, that great Philosopher of this Age, in the second Book and 28. Chapter of his Commentary of the Causes of Monsters.

2. That is strange which is recorded of M. Fu∣rius Camillus, that though he had gained many im∣portant Victories, was often General in the head of an Army, was Censor, was five times created Dictator, and at four several times had trium∣phed, and was also called the second Founder of Rome, yet was he never chosen Consul.

3. Nicholas Wotton was termed a Center of Re∣markables, so many met in his person; he was Dean of the two Metropolitan Churches of Can∣terbury and York; he was the first Dean of those Cathedrals; he was Privy Counsellor to four suc∣cessive Soveraigns King Henry the Eighth, King Edward the Sixth, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth; he was employed thirteen several times in Embas∣sies to foreign Princes, and which is not the least remarkable, in the first of Queen Elizabeth he was offered the Archbishoprick of Canterbury, and re∣fused it: he died 1566.

4. Iohn Story, Doctor of Law, a cruel Persecu∣tor in the days of Queen Mary, fled afterwards

into Brabant, being trained into the Ship of Mr. Parker, an English man, the Master hoised Sail, and over was this Tyrant and Traitor brought into England, where refusing to take the Oath of Su∣premacy, and professing himself a Subject to the King of Spain, he was executed at Tyburn, where being cut down half dead, after his privy members were cut off, he rushed on the Executioner, and gave him a blow on the ear, to the wonder of the by-standers.

5. It is said of Crassus (Grandfather to that Crassus, who was slain in the Parthian War) that he was never known to laugh all his life time, and thereupon was called Agelastus, or the man that never laught.

6. Antonia, the Wife of Drusus, as it is well known never spit; and Pomponius the Poet, one that had sometimes been Consul, never belched.

7. † It is memorable which is recorded of a King named Wazmund, and was the Founder of Warwick Town, that he had a Son named Offa, tall of sta∣ture, and of a good constitution of body, but blind till he was seven years old, and then saw, and dumb till he was thirty years old, and then spake.

8. In the first year of the Reign of Queen Eliza∣beth died Sir Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, of whom it is reported for a certain, that his pulse did beat more than three quarters of an hour after he was dead, as strongly as if he had been still alive.

9. George Nevil, fourth Son of Richard Nevil Earl of Salisbury, was consecrated Bishop of Exeter when he was not as yet twenty years of age, at twenty five he was made Lord Chancellor of Eng∣land, and discharged it to his great commenda∣tion, his ability supplying the luck of age in him.

10. When I was in Italy, that Paradise of the World, the outward skin of a Lady of Verona, though lightly touched, did manifestly sparkle with fire: This spectacle so worthy of the research of the inquisitive and curious, is faithfully exposed to the World by the publick Script of Petrus à Ca∣stro, the learned Physician of Verona, in his Book de Igne lambente, whom I shall follow in the rela∣tion of this story. The illustrious Lady Catherina Buri, the Wife of the noble Io. Franciscus Rambal∣dus, a Patritian of Verona, of a middle age, indiffe∣rent habit of body, her universal temper hot and moist, her liver hot and dry, and so abounding with bilious and black blood, with its innate fer∣vour and an age fit for adustion, increased by vehe∣ment grief. This noble Lady the Creator endued with so stupendous a Dignity and Prerogative of Nature, that as oft as her body was but lightly touched with linen, sparks flew out plentifully from her limbs apparent to her domestick Ser∣vants, as if they had been struck out of a flint, ac∣companied also with a noise, that was to be heard by all. Oftentimes when she rubbed her hands upon the sleeve of her smock that contained the sparkles within it, she observed a flame with a tailed ray running about, as fired exhalations are wont to do: insomuch that her Maids were of∣tentimes deluded, supposing they had left fire in the bed after warming of it in Winter, in which time also fire is most discernible. This fire was not to be seen but in the dark, or in the night: nor did it burn without it self, though combustible matter was applied to it: nor lastly, as other fire did it cease within a certain time, but with the same manner of appearance of light it shewed it self after my departure out of Italy.

11. I have read (saith Ross••) of one who had a horn grew upon his heel, a foot long; which be∣ing cut off, grew again, and would doubtless have still renewed, if the tough and viscous matter had not been diverted and evacuated by Issues, Purges, and Phlebotomy.

12. Fernelius saith, he saw a Girl that lived in near neighbourhood to him, the ligaments of whose joynts were so very loose, that you might bend and turn any of them this or that way at your pleasure; and that it was so with her from the time of her birth.

13. Sir Iohn Mason born at Abington, bred at All souls in Oxford, died 1566. and lies buried in the Quire of St. Pauls. I remember this Distick of his long Epitaph.

Tempore quin{que} suo regnantes ordine vidit, Horum à Consiliis quatuor ille fuit. He saw five Princes which the Scepter bore, Of them was Privy Counsellor to four.

That is, to Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, Q. Mary, and Q. Elizabeth.

14. Thomas Bourchier successively Bishop of Worcester, Ely, and Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cardinal by the Title of St. Cyriacus in the Baths, being consecrated Bishop of Worcester, An. 1435. the fourteenth of Henry the Sixth, he died Archbi∣shop of Canterbury 1486. the second of King Henry the Seventh; whereby it appears, that he wore a Miter full fifty one years, a term not to be paral∣lel'd in any other person: he saw the Civil Wars of York begun and ended, having the honour to marry King Henry the Seventh to the Daughter of King Edward the Fourth. Nor is it the least of wonders, that he lost not himself in the La••y∣rinth of such intricate times.

15. Sir Thomas Frowick was made Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, in the eighteenth year of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh, four years he sate in his place accounted the Oracle of the Law in his Age, though one of the youngest men that ever enjoyed that Office. He 〈◊〉〈◊〉 report∣ed to have died floridâ juventute, before full forty years old; so that he was Chief Justice at thirty five: he died 1506. Octob. 17.

16. That was great and excellent in Socrates, that whatever fell out of joy, or otherwise, he re∣turned with the same countenance he went forth with, and was never seen to be more merry or me∣lancholy than at other times in any alteration of times or affairs.

17. In the Reign of King Iames, in the year 1613. on the 26. of Iune, in the Parish of Christ-Church in Hampshire, one Iohn Hitchel, a Carpen∣ter, lying in bed with a young child by him, was himself and the child burnt to death with a sud∣den Lightning, no fire appearing outwardly upon him, and yet lay burning for the space of almost three days, till he was quite consumed to ashes.

18.Lucius Fulvius being Consul of the Tuscu∣lani, who at that time rebelled, he deserted them, and was thereupon made Consul at Rome; and so it fell out, that in one and the same year in which he was an Enemy to Rome, he triumphed at Rome, and a Consul over those to whom he had been Consul.

19. It is said of Charles Earl of Valois, that he was the Son of a King, Brother to a King, Uncle to a King, and Father to a King, and yet no King himself.

20. There was amongst the Magnesians one Protophanes, who in one and the same day won the Prize in the Olympick Games, both at Wrast∣ling,

and other Games: when he was dead certain Thieves opened his Sepulchre, and went into it, hoping to have found something to prey upon; after which many others also went in to behold the remains of his body; and this is certain, that his ribs were found to be not distinct, as those of o∣ther men, but from the shoulder to those that are called the short ribs, there was only one continued and entire bone instead of the greater ribs.

21. Some are born with bones concrete and so∣lid, and th••se, they say, neither sweat nor thirst; such a one was Lygdamus the Syracusan, who in the 33. Olympiad had the first Crown of Wrastling: his bones were found to be of a solid substance throughout, without any marrow in them, or place for it.

22. A certain Gentleman hath lived many years without any ejection of excrements by stool more than at his eyes; a little before noon he sits down at his table, commonly inviting divers Noble persons, about one a clock he rises from table, after he hath eat and drunk after the man∣ner of other persons, then he vomits up the dinner he had eaten the day before, exactly retaining all that he hath newly eaten, being to return that by vomiting the day following, as he did that he had eaten the day before, he ejects it putrid and filthy, not differing from other excrements. In his vo∣mits he raises it with ease, without delay, at once casting up a great quantity from his stomach, then washing his mouth with sweet waters, he returns to the table, and there eats as much as will suffice till the n••xt day at noon; he eats no break-fasts nor suppers, contented with a dinner only. He hath thus continued about twenty years. It of∣ten comes into my mind, that this Gentleman may have two ventricles, as those Creatures have that chew the cud, the one of which being newly fil∣led, provokes the other to empty it self by vomit; but the truth of this conjecture will be cleared on∣ly by Anatomy, if it will be permitted.

23. A noble Matron in our City for this six years space, about ten of the clock in the morning every day ••ills a Bason (containing two of our pints) by vomit, sometimes clear, at others black with an acour that stupifies the teeth, sometimes yellow with an extremity of bitterness; sometimes intensely green with a loathsom smell; at other times white and frothy; yet doth she never vomit up any thing of what she eat at supper over-night: in other respects she is of good health, and in that six years hath been delivered of five children: she is now almost thirty years of age.

24. I saw at Genoa (saith Cardanus) one Anto∣nius Benzus, of the Town of Port Maurice, he was thirty four years of age, his complexion was pale, his beard grew thin, as to the habit of his body he was fat, out of the paps of this man ••lowed so much of milk, as was almost sufficient to have suckled a child, and not only did it run out, but he would spirt it out with a great force. Such as have seen the new World affirm, that most of the men have abundance of milk.

25. Neubrigensis and also Huntingdon report of one Raynerus, a wicked Minister of a more wicked Abbot, that crossing the Seas with his Wife, he with his iniquity so over-weighed the Ship, that in the midst of the stream it was not able to stir, at which the Mariners astonished, cast lots, and the lot fell upon Raynerus; and lest this should be thought to happen by chance, they cast the lots again and again, and still the lot fell upon the same Raynerus: whereupon they put him out of the Ship, and presently the Ship, as eased of her bur∣den, sailed away: certainly a great Judgment of God, and a great Miracle, but yet recorded by one that is no fabulous Author, saith Sir Richard Baker.

26. In the time of King Stephen there appeared two children, a Boy and a Girl, clad in green in a stuff unknown, of a strange language, and of a strange diet, whereof the Boy being baptized died shortly after, but the Girl lived to be very old; and being asked from whence they were, she an∣swered they were of the Land of St. Martyn, where there are Christian Churches erected, but that no Sun did ever rise unto them: but where that Land is, or how she came hither she her self knew not. This I the rather write (saith mine Author) that we may know there are other parts of this World than those which to us are known: and this story I should not have believed, if it were not testified by so many and so credible Witnesses as it is.

27. Hugo, a child of five years old, was consti∣tuted Archbishop of Rhemes, to possess the Seat of the great Remigius, which was to parallel the ••oot of Hercules with the leg of a Fly.

28. At Hammel, a Town in the Dutchy of Bruns∣wick, in the year of Christ 1284. upon the 26. day of Iune, the Town being grievously troubled with Rats and Mice, there came to them a Piper, who promised upon a certain rate to free them from them all; it was agreed, he went from street to street, and playing upon his Pipe, drew after him out of the Town all that kind of Vermine, and then demanding his wages was denied it. Whereupon he began another tune, and there followed him one hundred and thirty Boys to a Hill called Kop∣pen, situate on the North by the Road, where they perished, and wer•• never seen after. This Piper was called the pyed Piper, because his cloaths were of several colours. This story is writ and religi∣ously kept by them in their Annals at Hammel, read in their Books, and painted in their Win∣dows, and in their Churches, of which I am a witness by my own sight. Their elder Magi∣strates, for the confirmation of the truth of this, are wont to write in conjunction in their publick Books, such a year of Christ, and such a year of the Transmigration of the children, &c. It's also observed in the memory of it, that in the street he passed out of, no Piper be admitted to this day. The street is called Burgelosestrasse; if a Bride be in that street, till she is gone out of it there is no dancing to be suffered.

29. Ptolomaeus, the Son of Lagus, intending to erect a Library at Alexandria, and to furnish it with all such good Books as were extant, request∣ed of the Jews inhabiting Ierusalem, that they would send him their Books translated into the Greek Tongue; they (forasmuch as they were yet subject unto the Macedonians) sent unto Ptolo∣maeus seventy Elders from amongst them, very skilful in their Books and both the Tongues. Pto∣lomaeus fearing, if they conferred together, they would conceal the truth revealed in their Books, commanded them severally every man by him∣self to write his Translation, and this in every Book throughout the Old Testament. When as they all came together in presence of Ptolomaeus, and compared their Translations one with another from the very beginning to the ending they had expressed the same thing with the same words, and in the same sentences: so that the Gentiles then present, pronounced those Scriptures to have been translated by the inspiration of the holy Spi∣rit of God.

30. When Anterus had sate Bishop of Rome for one month only, he died; after whose death it was that Fabianus came from the Country, together with certain others to dwell at Rome, when such a thing as never was seen before at the Election of a Bishop happened then by the divine and celestial Grace of God. For when all the Brethren had gathered themselves together for to make choice of a Bishop, and many thought upon divers nota∣ble and famous men, Fabianus being there present with others, when as every one thought least, nay nothing at all of him, suddenly from above there came a Dove, and rested upon his head, after the example of the Holy Ghost, which in likeness of a Dove descended upon our Saviour; and so the whole multitude being moved thereat, with one and the same Spirit of God cryed out chearfully with one accord, that he was worthy of the Bi∣shoprick, and immediately he was taken and in∣stalled Bishop.

31. Constantine the Emperour going against the Tyrant Maxentius had a certain Vision. It was about noon, the day somewhat declining, when he saw in the Sky a lightsom Pillar in form of a Cross, wherein these words were engraven, In hoc vince, i.e. In this overcome. This so amazed the Emperour, that he mistrusting his own sight, demanded of them that were present, whether they perceived the Vision; which when all with one consent had affirmed, the wavering mind of the Emperour (understand it of Religion, whether he should become a Christian or not) was setled with that divine and wonderful sight. The night following he dreamed that Christ came unto him and said, Frame to thy self the form of a Cross, after the example of the sign which appeared unto thee, and bear the same against the enemies, as a fit Banner or token of Victory: which he accord∣ingly did, and was victorious.

32. That was a rare instance of propitious For∣tune which befel Thomas Serranus, who in one and the same year was consecrated Bishop, elected Cardinal, and also attained to the Popedom by the name of Nicholas the Fifth.

33. Franciscus Trovillon was a man of a middle stature, a full body, bald, except in the hinder part of the head, which had a few hairs upon it; his temper was morose, and his demeanour alto∣gether rustick: he was born in a little Village cal∣led Mezieres, and bred up in the Woods amongst the Charcoal men. About the seventh year of his age he began to have a swelling in his forehead; so that about the seventeenth year of his age he had a horn there as big as a mans finger end, which afterwards did admit of that growth and increase, that when he came to be thirty five years old, this horn had both the bigness and resemblance of a Rams horn. It grew upon the midst of his fore∣head, and then bended backward as far as the co∣ronal ••uture, where the other end of it did some∣times so stick in the skin, that to avoid much pain he was constrained to cut off some part of the end of it: whether this horn had its roots in the skin or forehead, I know not; but probably being of that weight and bigness, it grew from the skull it self; nor am I certain, whether this man had any of those teeth which we call Grinders. For two months together the man was exposed to shew in Paris, where (saith Vrstitius) in the year 1598. I in company with Dr. Iacobus Faeschius, the pub∣lick Professor at Basil, and Mr. Iohannes Eckenste∣nius, did see and handle this horn. From Paris he was carried to Orleance, where (as I am informed) he died soon after he came.

34. In the time of a grievous Persecution Felix Presbyter of the City of Nola, by a divine instinct hid himself in the corner of a ruined Wall, and before the Persecutors had pursued him thither, a Spider had drawn her web at the mouth of the hole whereinto the Presbyter had put himself. His enemies told them, that Felix was crept in at that very place; but they beholding the Spiders web, could not be perswaded, that any man could enter and lurk there where the Spiders lived and laboured so securely; and thereupon by their de∣parture Felix escaped. Paulinus once Bishop of that City hath these Verses upon this occasion, which I will also try to English.

Eccubi Christus adest, tenuissima aranea muro est, At ubi Christus abest, & murus aranea fiet. Where God is present, Spiders spin a wall, He gone, our Bulwarks like to cobwebs fall.

35. In the Reign of King Henry the Eighth there was one Mr. Gresham, a Merchant of Lon∣don, who was sailing homewards from Pa••ermo, a City in Sicily, wherein was dwelling at that time one Antonio sirnamed the Rich, who had at one time two Kingdoms mortgaged to him by the King of Spain. Mr. Gresham crossed by contrary winds, was constrained to anchor under the Lee of the Island of Strombulo, where was a burning Mountain. Now about the mid-day, when for a certain space the Mountain used to forbear send∣ing forth flames, he with eight of the Sailors ascen∣ded the Mountain, approaching as near the vent as they durst, where amongst other noises, they heard a voice cry aloud, Dispatch, dispatch, the Rich Antonio is a coming. Terrified herewith, they hasted their return, and the Mountain pre∣sently vomited out fire; but from so dismal a place they made all the haste they could, and de∣siring to know more of this matter (since the winds still thwarted their course) they returned to Palermo, and forthwith inquiring for Antonio, they found that he was dead about the instant, so near as they could compute, when that voice was heard by them. Mr. Gresham, at his return into Eng∣land, reported this to the King, and the Marin••••s being called before him, confirmed the same by their Oaths. Upon Gresham this wrought so deep an impression, that he gave over all merchandi∣zing, distributed his Estate, partly to his Kindred, and partly to good uses, retaining only a compe∣tency for himself, and so spent the rest of his days in a solitary devotion.

36. That is much to be admired at, as being little less than a Miracle, which is related of Xe∣nophilus, a Musician, who lived to the age of an hundred and five years without any manner of disease or indisposition of body throughout his whole life.

37. The Governour of Mountmarine besieged by Augustus, the base Son of the Prince of Salucia, was called forth as it were to parley, and then held Prisoner; he was threatned with death, if he yielded not up the place, and was so frighted with the apprehensions of this undeserved death, that he sweat blood over all his body.

Notes

• Barthol. de luce ani∣mal. l. 1. c. 17. pag. 148.
• Plut. in Ca∣mill••, pag. 129. Zuing. ••he∣atr. vol. 3. l. 4. p. 733.
• Full. Worth. p. 77. Ke••••.
• Fox. Acts and Monu∣ments, pag. 215••.
• Full. Worth. l. 9. cent. 16. p. 84.
• Plin. nat. ••ist l. 7. c. 19. pag. 166. Fulgos. Ex. l. 1. c. 6. p. 187. Solinus c. 4. p. 181.
• Plin. l. 7. c. 19. p. 166. Solin. c. 4. p. 181.
• †

  Bak. Chr. p. 8.
• Bak. Chron. p. 577.
• Full. Worth. p. 273. in Durham.
• Bartholin. Hist. Ana∣tomic. cent. 3. hist. 70. p. 139, 140. Barthol. de ••uce anim. l. 1. c. 19. p. 162.
• Ross. Arcan. Microcos. l. 3. c. 6. §. 10. p. 8••.
• Fernel. de abdit. rer. caus. l. 2. c. 9.
• Donat. hist. m••d. l. 6. c. 2. p. 301.
• Full. Worth•• pag. 137, 138.
• Full. Worth. p. 324. Es∣sex.
• Full. Worth. pag. 183. Middlesex.
• Solin. c. 4. p. 181.
• Bak. Chron. p. 615.
• Plin. l. 7. c. 43. Zuing. The∣atr. vol. 3. l. 4. p. 727.
• M. de S••r∣res, p. 163.
• Pausan. in Atticu.
• Zuing. The∣atr. vol. 2. l. 2. p. 295.
• Solin. c. 4. p. 182.
• Hen. Hiers obs. medle. l. 1. obs. 29. p. 250.
• He••. Hiers obs. medle. l. 1. obs. 29. pag. 251, 252.
• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 de ••••tilitat. Zuing. Th••∣atr. vol. 2. l. 2. p. 295. I••••••st. nat. hi••••. cl. 10. c. 5. p. 328.
• 〈…〉〈…〉 p. 7••.
• Bak. Chron. p. 73.
• Caus. holy Court, part 2. §. 2. pag. 168.
• Wier. de praestig. Daemon. l. 1. c. 16. p. 47. Schot. phys. curios. l. 3. c. 24. p. 519. Howels Ep. vol. 1. §. 6. epist. 59. p. 241.
• Euseb. Eccl. hist. l. 5. c. 8. p. 83.
• Euseb. Eccl. hist. l. 6. c. 28. pag. 110. History of Cardinals, part 3. l. 1. p. 216.
• Socrat. Eccl. hist. l. 1. c. 2. p. 214.
• Fulgos. Ex. l. 8. c. 10. p. 1129.
• Fabrit. obs. chirurg. cent. 2. obs. 25. p. 104.
• Heidfield in Sphing. c. 9. p. 250.
• Sand. Trav. l. 4. p. 248, 249. Clarks mir. c. 33. pag. 115.
• Patrit. de Regno, l. 2. tit. 3. p. 89.
• Iohnst. nat. hist cl. 10. c. 3. art. 6, p. 322.