aurea, a brave bed, a table of gold, &c. into which no creature came but one only woman, which their God made choice of, as the Chaldean priests told him, and that their God lay with her himself, as at Thebes in Ægypt was the like done of old. So that you see this is no news, the Divels themselves, or their jugling Priests' have plaid such pranks in all ages. Many Divines stifly contradict this; but I will conclude with Lipsius, that since "examples, testimonies and confessions, of those unhappy women are so manifest on the other side, and many even in this our Town of Lovan, that it is likely to be so. One thing I will add, that I suppose that in no age past, I know not by what destiny of this unhappy time, have there ever appeared or shewed themselves so many lecherous divels, Satyrs, and Genii, as in this of ours, as appears by the daily narrations, and judicial sentences upon record." Read more of this question in Plutarch vit. Numa, Austin de civ. Dei. lib. 15. Wierus lib. 3. de præstig. Dam. Giraldus Cambrensis itinerar. Camb. lib. 1. Malleus malefic. quæst. 5. part. 1. Jacobus Reussus lib. 5. cap. 6. fol. 54. Godelman lib. 2. cap. 4. Erastus, Valesius de sacra philo. cap. 40. John Nider Fornicar. lib. 5. cap. 9. Stroz. Cicogna. lib. 3. cap. 3. Delrio, Lipsius Bodine damonol. lib. 2. cap. 7. Pererius in Gen. lib. 8. in 6. cap. ver. 2. King James, &c,

SUBSECT. II.

How love tyrannizeth over men. Love, or Heroical Melancholy, his definition, part affected.

YOU

OU have heard how this tyrant Love rageth with brute beasts and spirits; now let us consider what passions it causeth amongst men.

* Improbe amor quid non mortalia pectora cogis? How it tickles the hearts of mortal men,

"Horresco referens,".

1

I am almost afraid to relate, amazed, and ashamed, it hath wrought such stupend and prodigious effects, such foul offences. Love indeed (I may not deny) first united Provinces, built Cities, and by a perpetual generation makes and preserves man

Physiologia Stoicorum 1. 1. cap. 20. Si spiritus unde semen iis, &c. at exempla turbant nos; mulierum quotidianæ confessiones de mistione omnes asserunt, & sunt in hac urbe Lovanio exempla. i Unum dixero, non opinari me ullo retro ævo tantam copiam Satyrorum, & salacium istorum Geniorum se ostendisse, quantum nunc quotidiana narrationes, & judiciales sententie proferunt. Virg. For it is a shame to speak of those things which are done

of them in secret, Eph. 5. 12.

kind, propagates the Church; but if it rage it is no more love, but burning lust, a disease, Phrensie, Madness, Hell. Est orcus ille, vis est immedicabilis, est rabies insana; 'tis no vertuous habit this, but a vehement perturbation of the mind, a monster of nature, wit, and art, as Alexis in "Athenæus sets it out, virilitèr audax, muliebriter timidum, furore præceps, labore infractum, mel felleum, blanda percussio, &c. It subverts kingdoms, overthrows cities, towns, families, mars, corrupts, and makes a massacre of men; thunder and lightning, wars, fires, plagues, have not done that mischief to mankind, as this burning lust, this brutish passion. Let Sodome and Gomorrah, Troy, (which Dares Phrygius, and Dictis Cretensis will make good) and I know not how many Cities bear record, & fuit ante Helenam, &c. all succeeding ages will subscribe: Ione of Naples in Italy, Fredegunde and Brunhalt in France, all histories are full of these Basilisks. Besides those daily monomachies, murders, effusion of blood, rapes, riot and immoderate expence, to satisfie their lusts, beggery, shame, loss, torture, punishment, disgrace, loathsome diseases that proceed from thence, worse then calentures and pestilent feavers, those often Gouts, Pox, Arthritis, palsies, cramps, Sciatica, convulsions, aches, combustions, &c. which torment the body, that feral melancholy which crucifies the Soul in this life, and everlastingly torments in the world to come.

Notwithstanding they know these and many such miseries, threats, tortures will surely come upon them, rewards, exhortations, è contra; yet either out of their own weakness, a depraved nature, or love's tyranny, which so furiously rageth, they suffer themselves to be led like an oxe to the slaughter; (Facilis descensus Averni) they go down headlong to their own perdition, they will commit folly with beasts, men "leaving the natural use of women," as Paul saith, "burned in lust one towards another, and man with man wrought filthiness."

Semiramis equo, Pasiphae tauro, Aristo Ephesius asina se commiscuit, Fulvius equæ, alii canibus, capris, &c. unde monstra nascuntur aliquandò, Centauri, Sylvani, & ad terrorem hominum prodigiosa spectra: Nec cum brutis, sed ipsis hominibus rem habent, quòd peccatum Sodomiæ vulgò dicitur; & frequens olim vitium apud Orientales illos fuit, Græcos nimirum, Italos, Afros, Asianos: Hercules Hylam habuit, Polycletum, Dionem, Perithoonta, Abderum & Phryga; alii & Euristium ab Hercule amatum tradunt. Socrates

Plutarch. amator. lib. "Lib. 13. *Rom. 1. 27. vita ejus.

k

* Lilius Giraldus.

pulchrorum

pulchrorum Adolescentum causa frequens Gymnasium adibat, flagitiosoque spectaculo pascebat oculos, quòd & Philebus & Phædon Rivales, Charmides & reliqui Platonis Dialogi, satis superque testatum faciunt: quòd verò Alcibiades de eodem Socrate loquatur, lubens conticesco, sed & abhorreo; tantum incitamentum præbet libidini. At hunc perstrinxit Theodoretus lib. de curat. græc. affect. cap. ultimo. Quin & ipse Plato suum demiratur Agathonem, Xenophon Cliniam,. Virgilius Alexin, Anacreon Bathyllum; Quod autem de Nerone, Claudio, cæterorumque portentosa libidine memorie proditum, mallem à Petronio, Suetonio, cæterisque petatis, quandò omnem fidem excedat, quàm à me expectetis; sed vetera querimur. Apud Asianos, Turcas, Italos, nunquàm frequentius hoc quàm hodierno die vitium; Diana Romanorum Sodomia: officina horum alicubi apud Turcas,

0

m

"qui saxis semina mandant”

arenas arantes; & frequentes querelæ, etiam inter ipsos conjuges hac de re, quæ virorum concubitum illicitum calceo in oppositam partem verso magistratui indicant; nullum apud Italos familiare magis peccatum, qui & post Lucianum & Tatium, scriptis voluminibis defendunt. Johannes de la Casa, Beventinus Episcopus, divinum opus vocat, suave scelus, adeoque jactat se non alia usum Venere. Nihil usitatius apud monachos, Cardinales, sacrificulos, etiam furor hic ad mortem, ad insaniam. Angelus Politianus, ob pueri amorem, violentas sibi manus injecit. Et horrendum sane dictu, quantum apud nos patrum memoria, scelus detestandum hoc sævierit! Quum enim Anno 1538. prudentissimus Rex Henricus Octavus cucullatorum cœnobia, & sacrificorum collegia, votariorum, per venerabiles legum Doctores Thomam Leum, Richardum Laytonum visitari fecerat, &c. tanto numero reperti sunt apud eos scortatores, cinædi, ganeones, pædicones, puerarii, pæderastæ, Sodomitæ, ('Balei verbis utor) Ganimedes, &c. ut in unoquoque eorum novam credideris Gomorrham. Sed vide si lubet eorundem Catalogum apud eundem Baleum; Puellæ (inquit) in lectis dormire non poterant ob fratres necromanticos. Hæc si apud votarios, monachos, sanctos scilicet homunciones, quid in foro, quid in aulá factum suspiceris? quid apud nobiles, quid inter fornices, quam non fæditatem, quam non spurcitiem? Sileo in

'Pueros amare solis Philosophis relinquendum vult Lucianus dial. Amorum. -Busbequius. " Achilles Tatius lib. 2. Lucianus Charidemo. P Non est hæc mentula demens. Mart. 1 Jovius Musc. * Præfat. lectori lib. de vitis pontif.

t

terim turpes illas, & ne nominandas quidem monachorum mastrupationes, masturbatores. *Rodericus a Castro vocat, tum & eos qui se invicem ad Venerem excitandam flagris cædunt, Spintrias, Succubas, Ambubeias, & lasciviente lumbo Tribades illas mulierculas, que se invicem fricant, & præter Eunuchos etiam ad Venerem explendam, artificiosa illa veretra habent. Immo quod magis mirere, fæmina fæminam Constantinopoli non ita pridem deperit, ausa rem planè incredibilem, mutato cultu mentita virum de nuptiis sermonem init, & brevi nupta est: sed authorem ipsum consule, Busbequium. Omitto Salinarios illos Ægyptiacos, qui cum formosarum cadaveribus concumbunt; & eorum vesanam libidinem, qui etiam idola & imagines depereunt. Nota est fabula Pigmalionis apud "Ovidium; Mundi & Paulini apud Agesippum belli Jud. lib. 2. cap. 4. Pontius C. Cæsaris legatus, referente Plinio, lib. 35. cap. 3. quem suspicor eum esse qui Christum crucifixit, picturis Atalantæ & Helenæ adeò libidine incensus, ut tollere eas vellet si natura tectorii permisisset, alius statuam bone Fortunæ deperiit, (Æiianus lib. 9. cap. 37.) alius Bone deæ, & ne qua pars probro vacet. Raptus ad stupra (quod ait ille) & ne os quidem a libidine exceptum. Heliogabalus, per omnia cava corporis libidinem recepit, Lamprid. vita ejus. † Hostius quidam specula fecit, & ita disposuit, ut quum virum ipse pateretur, aversus omnes admissarii motus in speculo videret, ac deinde falsa magnitudine ipsius membri tanquam vera gauderet, simul virum & fœminam passus, quod dictu fædum & abominandum. Utveram planè sit, quod apud Plutarchum Gryllus Ulyssi objecit. Ad hunc usque diem apud nos neque mas marem, neque fœmina fœminam amavit, qualia multa apud vos memorabiles & præclari viri fecerunt: ut viles missos faciam, Hercules imberbem sectans socium, amicos deseruit, &c. Vestræ libidines intra suos naturæ fines coerceri non possunt, quin instar fluvii exundantis atrocem fœditatem, tumultum, confusionemque naturæ gignant in re Venerea: nam & capras, porcos, equos inierunt viti & fœminæ, insano bestiarum amore exarserunt, unde Minotauri, Centauri, Sylvani, Sphinges, &c. Sed ne confutando doceam, aut ea foras efferam, quæ non omnes scire convenit (hæc enim doctis so

• Mercurialis cap. de Priapismo. Coelius 1. 11. antiq. lect. cap. 14. Galenus 6. de locis aff. *De morb. mulier. lib. 1. c. 15. Herodotus 1. 2. Euterpæ : axores insignium virorum non statim vita functas tradunt condendas, ac ne eas quidem fœminas quæ formosæ sunt, sed quatriduo ante defunctas, nec eum iis salinarii concumbant, &c. "Metam. 13. * Seneca de ira, 1. 11. c. 18, Nullus est meatus ad quem non pateat aditus impudicitiæ. Clem. Alex, pædag. lib. 3. c. 3. + Seneca 1. nat. quæst. ■ Tom. P. Gryllo.

lummodo,

lummodo, quod causa non absimili * Rodericus, scripta velim) ne levissimis ingentis & depravatis mentibus fædissimi sceleris notitiam, &c. nolo quem diutiùs hisce sordibus inqui

nare.

I come at last to that Heroical Love, which is proper to men and women, is a frequent cause of melancholy, and deserves much rather to be called burning lust, then by such an honourable title. There is an honest love I confess, which is natural, laqueus occultus captivans corda hominum, ut à mulieribus non possint separari, a secret snare to captivate the hearts of men, as + Christopher Fonseca proves, a strong allurement, of a most attractive, occult, adamantine property, and powerful vertue, and no man living can avoid it. Et qui vim non sensit amoris, aut lapis est, aut bellua. He is not a man but a block, a very stone, aut ‡ Numen, aut Nebuchadnezzar, he hath a gourd for his head, a pepon for his heart, that hath not felt the power of it, and a rare creature to be found, one in an age,

"Qui nunquam visæ flagravit amore puellæ:"

for semel insanivimus omnes, dote we either young or old, as ' he said, and none are excepted but Minerva and the Muses: so Cupid in Lucian complains to his mother Venus, that amongst all the rest his arrows could not pierce them. But this nuptiall love, is a common passion, an honest, for men to love in the way of marriage; ut materia appetit formam, sic mulier virum. You know marriage is honorable, a blessed calling, appointed by God himself in Paradise, it breeds true peace, tranquillity, content, and happiness, qua nulla est aut fuit unquam sanctior conjunctio, as Daphnæus in § Plutarch could well prove, & quæ generi humano immortalitatem parat, when they live without jarring, scolding, lovingly as they should do.