Cambria triumphans, or, Brittain in its perfect lustre shevving the origen and antiquity of that illustrious nation, the succession of their kings and princes, from the first, to King Charles of happy memory, the description of the countrey, the history of the antient and moderne estate, the manner of the investure of the princes, with the coats of arms of the nobility
Enderbie, Percy, d. 1670.

MEMPRICIƲS.

MEmpricius the Eldest Son of Madan, his Father being dead, by right of Inheritance was Crowned with the Royal Diadem of Brittaine about the Year of the worlds Creation 4142. but long he enjoyed not his Soveraignty without Troubles and Opposition; for Man∣lius his younger brother, a man of an Ambitious spirit, Haughty and aspiring to Royal dignity, would not content himself with any Titles of Honour under the degree of a King; and there∣fore to bring this his Designe to his wisht for Period, he resolves either to subdue or to expell his brother: and to this purpose he insinuates himself into the bosomes of the Nobles, casts As∣persions upon his brother, Detracts and Malignes all his Actions; and so farre prevailes, that Rebellion is rais'd, and an unnatural Warre taken in hand, which was eagerly prosecuted on each part, and continued a long time; at length both Nobles and Commons finding Bellum minime bellum, and perceiving these intestine broyles, to wast their Country and threaten an utter Ruine, incline to peace; no fitter way can be thought upon then an attonement and re∣conciliation between the brothers; and therefore a day of meeting is appointed, and great hopes conceived of a final peace and Concord; but Mempricius having now got his brother under the fair pretence of becoming friends into his power, to avoid all Jealousies and Fears of future deceit and Treachery, becomes a Traytor himselfe, and by Treason caused his own brother to be slain, making that saying of the Poet good, Rara est concordia fratrunt. This perfidious and tragical scene performed, Mempricius, (his brother Manlius being taken away) enjoyes as he conceives a happy peace; this peace makes him forgetful both of his person and Honour, and now fearing nothing he contemns even the Deity, and precipitates not only himself but his subjects also into Sloth, Idlenesse, and Treachery; and when the Gate is set open, and free scope given to sin, though nemo repente fit pessimus, yet those who forsake Grace and Abandon themselves over to unlawful lusts and pleasures, fall from one sin to another till they arrive at last at the very Jawes of Hell: so fares it with Mempricius, his Wife or Wives give him not content, the fairest and choicest beauties must be his Concubines, and these as many as his own wandering fancy shall think fit, in these horrid sins he wallowes with all sen∣suality. I know some of Epicurus his Scholars or rather Atheists will excuse Mempricius for this his Platonick as it is now commonly stiled, love, and tell you that whatsoever is natural is no sin, and out of this deduce a most damnable consequence or conclusion, which chast ears abhor to hear: but this natural act as it is called, •••fied not Mempricius, he falls to that which is most unnatural, the sin of Sodomy, with wild and brutish Creatures, and by this means becomes hateful both to God and Man, but not without just punishment from Heaven: for intending to disport hemself in hunting becomes a prey to wild beasts, and by them is torn to pieces, after he had enjoyed the Kingdome twenty years, leaving to succeed him in his Throne, a son by his lawful wife called Ebrank. Mempricius his Reign is observed by those who write of him to have been Tyrannical. Plutarch though a Panim saith,* that God doth serve himself of wicked Tyrants as of Hangmen to execute his justice upon others, no lesse or more wicked then they; and that as poysons are sometimes medicinable, and necessary to purge sad humors and cure diseases; even so Tyrants are necessary to purge the sins and cure Page  14 the vices of wicked Subjects, To which end (saith he) Phalaris the Tyrant was ordained by Almighty God to govern the Agrigentins, and Marius the Romans. As for the brutish sin of Mempricius, holy Gildas brings it in, as one amongst the rest, for which God so severely puni∣shed the Britains;* and touching briefly the lives of some of the Kings and Princes that were in his time, as of Constantius, Aurelius, Conanus, Vortiporius, Cuneglasus and Maglocus, taxing them with Tyranny, perjury, sacrilegious murders and parricides, committed even before the holy Altars, &c. yea, and two of them of Sodomy; for which and other general corruptions and wickedness Gildas threatneth or rather prophesyeth the utter ruine and destruction which was to follow; which also Geffrey of Monmouth acknowledgeth saying, that King Cadwallader the last of the Race of the Britains used these words as he fled by the Sea into France with the reliques of the Brittish Nation, Vae nobis peccatoribus ob immania scaelera nostra, &c. And truly so great is the sin of Lust, especially in Kings and great Dukes and other Commanders in the sight of God (how little soever in these our sinful times we make of it) that whole Kingdomes for it have been destroyed. The Kingdom of Spain when it had flourished as well in Reli∣gion as Power from the time of King Richard (the first Catholick King thereof) for the space of 120 years, the wicked King Vitiza being a man given over to all lust and carnality infected and corrupted all Spain, not onely with the bad example of his one dissolute life (having ma∣ny Wives at once besides Concubines) but also with abominable lawes whereby he gave leave to all sorts of men to have as many Wives and Concubines as they listed; yea and forced Priests and such as lived Chast to Marry, by which means all Spain became within a while to be no better then a common stew or brodel: and although Almighty God according to his accustomed manner expected their conversion and amendment all the time of his Reign, and layed only the penalty thereof upon him, whom he deprived both of his Crown and of his Eye-sight by the means of Roderick who succeeded him in the Kingdome; yet when the said Roderick followed his steeps as well in his vicious life as in the maintenance of his abominable Laws; it pleased God of his justice to permit him to give the occasion both of his own ruine as also of the overthrow of all Spain by the sin of the flesh wherewith the whole Kingdome was, as it were, overflowed.

For as whereas King Roderick had sent a Kinsman of his own called Count Julian Ambassa∣dor into Africk, and in the mean time Ravished his Daughter, or (as some write) his Wife; the Count understanding it at his return, was so incensed therewith against the King, that for revenge thereof he practised with the Moores to bring them into Spain, who with his assistance Conquered it so speedily, and with such destruction of the people, that the punishment of God was most evident therein: for having first overthrown King Roderick (whose body could never after the battel be found) they subdued almost all Spain in Eight months or in Fourteen as some say, and slew 700000. of all sorts of people, besides great numbers of Captives which they sent prisoners into Barbary: and from that time forwards they remained in the possession of that Kingdome or in some great part thereof for the space of 700 years.

This example of the Conquest and subversion of Spain for the sins of the flesh, was so famous and so much observed by Godly and Wise men, at the same time when it hapned that St. Boni∣facius a Countryman of ours and Bishop of Mentz in Cermany, who lived in the same age and converted the Saxons and Frisons from Paganisme to the Christian Faith, proposed it to one called Etholbud King of the Mercians to withdraw him from his dissolute life, and tells him that in old Saxony where there was no Christianity, there if either Maid or Wife did commit Adultery or Fornication, she was first strangled and after burnt: and he that corrupted her, Hanged over her, or else she was stripped naked to the middle and whipped by chast Matrons from Town to Town, and prickt with sharp Knives till shee dyed therewith.