A Mirror both for Saints and Sinners, Treatise · Chapter 10
CHAP. X. Examples of Gods Judgements upon Adulterers, and unclean persons.
FOrbidden by God, Exod. 20. 14. Deut. 5, 18. Mar. 10. 19. Luke 18. 20. Mar. 10. 11, &c. Luk. 16. 18. Rom. 13. 9. Complained of, Iob 24. 15. Esa. 57. 3. Ier. 9. 2. & 23. 10. Hos. 7. 4. Iam. 4. 4. Prov. 6. 26. Ezek. 23. 45. Jer. 5. 7. Mat. 5. 28, 32. Gal. 5. 19. 2 Pet. 2. 14. Rom. 2. 22. Ier. 13. 27. Prov. 30. 20
Threatened, Psal. 50. 18, &c. Mal. 3. 5. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Heb. 13. 3. Ier. 29. 23. Hos. 4. 2, &c. Hos. 4. 13, 14. Iam. 2. 11. Rev. 2. 22.
Punished, Lev. 20. 10. Prov. 6. 32. Ioh. 8. 3, 4.
Scripturall examples: Iudah, Gen. 38. 16, &c. Potiphars wife, Gen. 39. 7.
David, 2. Sam. 11. 4. the Benjamites, Iud. 19. 25. Amon, 2. Sam. 13. 11, &c.
Mary Magdalen, Iohn 8. 4.
The Corinthian, 1 Cor. 5. 1. Absalon, 2 Sam. 16. 22. Reuben, Gen. 35. 22. Lot, Gen. 19. 36. Herod, Mat. 14. 3.
Other examples: Ninus King of Assyria fell in love with Semiramis wife of Menon, one of his Officers, and when he could not perswade Menon to deliver his wife to him, he threatened to pull out his eyes, whereupon Menon hanged himselfe, and Ninus married his wife. Diod. Sic.
Julius Caesar was a great adulterer, defiling many of the chief Senators wives, for which, amongst other things, he was murther'd in the Senate-house. Sueto.
Augustus the Emperour was an adulterer, and being at a feast, he took a Noble woman from the table, her husband being by, and had her into a chamber, and after brought her back, her eyes very red, and her hair all disordered: Ibidem. The like adulterer was Tiberius, and most of the Romane Emperours.
C. Caligula was a most impudent, and impure adulterer: he took many wives from their husbands, and when he had satiated his lust with them, hated them as much as formerly he had pretended love to them. Theat. vitae hum. He committed Incest with his own sisters and then banished them.
Messalina the wife of Cladius the Emperour: was one of the most impudent adulteresses that ever was in the world. She had a chamber in her palace, wherein her selfe with many of the Noble women of Rome did commonly prostitute themselves: she sent for Appius Sylvanus a Noble young man, and solicited him to lie with her, and because he refused, she accused him to the Emperour her husband, as Potiphars wife did Joseph, and caused him to be put to death: She also would needs be married to Caius Silus, & made a great feast at her wedding & gave him much of the Emperours treasure. She caused divers of the Noble women of Rome in her palace to commit adulterie, their husbands standing by, and looking on, rewarding them greatly for the same; but if any refused to do it, she hated them exceedingly, and by all meanes sought their destruction. She eagerly doted upon a common dancer, and when she could not prevail with him to lie with her, she caused her husband to command him to obey her in whatsoever she should require of him, and thereby had her desire with him: the like she did with many others. She went often to the common Stewes to satiate her lust with all comers: Striving with the famousest Strumpets in all Rome to exceed them in their divellish art, & to vie with them in their filthy lusts. For which at the complaint of the Nobles she was put to death. Lang. Chron.
Nero having made a great feast in a publick Theater, after supper commanded all his guests to go into some house hard by, into which he had gathered abundance of wives, virgins, maid-servants, and harlots, and there to defile whom they pleased, commanding that none should be denied, so that the servant committed wickednesse with his Mistris, his Master being by, and base fellowes with Noble virgins, their fathers being by, &c. Xiphilinus.
Romulus ordained a Law amongst the Romanes, that a man might put away his wife if she was proved to have committed adultery or consented to the poisoning of her children: but if he put her away for any other cause, she was to have halfe his goods, and the other halfe went to the goddesse Ceres. Plut.
Artaxerxes Mnemon King of Persia, fell in love with his own daughter, a beautiful Virgin, called Atossa, which his own mother Parysatis perceiving, perswaded him to marry her, and so to make her his wife: and though the Persian Lawes had formerly forbidden such incestuous marriages yet taking counsel with his wicked mother, and his own lust, he married her, after which time he never prospered in any thing that he took in hand. Diod. Sic.
Nero the Emperour, when he rode abroad with his mother Agrippina in his horse-litter, used ordinarily to commit incest with her. Suet.
Cleopatra being very young, was with her brother Ptolomaeus King of Egypt besieged in Alexandria by Iulius Caesar: After a while she caused one Apollidorus to binde her up in cloaths like a bed, and so carried her into Caesars tent, where being laid down at Caesars feet, the man opens his fardel, and a Venus comes forth, whose beauty Caesar being taken with, used her body at his pleasure, not long before she had been defiled by Pompey: But these were her childish whoredomes: Afterwards Mark Anthony being in Asia raising tributes, and ready to underake the Parthian Warre, sends for Cleopatra to plead her cause before him for assisting Cassius, his enemy, with money: She attires her self after the curiousest, and costliest manner that could be, and upon the River Cydnus enters into her Galley all guilt with gold, the oares covered with silver, that kept their stroakes by the sound of Musicians: the sailes were of purple silke: her self lay under a heaven of gold beset with all sorts of precious stones: many Ganimeds stood about her to fanne winde to coole her; her Ladies like Nymphs sat up, and down the ship, burning incense, and sweet persumes: Being come to the place where Anthony was, he, to keep the Roman gravity, sat in the Tribunal with the Officers and people about him, and sends for her thither: but she goes straight to her Inne, and all the people left Anthony to gaze upon her: So that being left alone, he returnes to his quarters, and sends to invite her to supper: She refuses, and excuseth herself: Anthony could no longer forbear, but goes to her, sups with her, eates and drinks in love: her beauty, wit, and smooth tongue soon bewitched him: She could readily speak Hebrew, Greek, Arabick, AEthiopick, and Persian language in their own Idiome: Anthony being thus taken, forgets his Warres his wives, and all relations: goes with her into Egypt, and spends his time in adulteries: till vengeance seized on them both, which was executed by Octa. Caesar. Lipsius.
Faustina the wife of M. Anthoninus the Philosopher was insatiable in her lusts: She used to prostitute herself in the stews, in the baths, in the Theaters: She used to frequent the places where naked men strove for masteries, and there noting those that were greatest of flesh, would send for them to commit filthinesse with her: She prefered to the Empire Commodus one of her adulterers, and the sonne of a sword-player, which ruined the Empire. Lipsius.
In France there was one Fredegundis, a famous whore, who for her beauty was entertained by Chilperic King of France, whom she caused to banish his Queen Andovera, and his other wife called Galsuinda she caused to be murthered, that she might enjoy the King alone; yet neither was she faithful to him, but prostituted her body to Landric, Master of the Kings horse. On a time the King being to go a hunting, went to bid his wife farewell, who was combing her haire: The King went softly behinde her, and with his wand in sport struck her behinde: She thinking it had been her Landric, said: What doest thou do, my Landric? It's the part of a good Knight to charge a Lady before, and not behinde: The King by this means finding her falshood, went his wayes on hunting, and she finding her self discovered, sent for Landric: told him what was happened, and therefore perswaded him to kill the King for his, and her safety: which he undertook, and effected that night as the King came late from hunting. French Hist.
Semiramis sought out men to satisfie her brutish lust, whom shortly after she used to slay. And at last she grew to that abominable impudence, that she drew her own sonne to lie with her; and to cover her filthinesse, enacted a law: That propinquity of blood should not hinder marriage. Orosius.
Cambyses King of Persia falling in love with his own sister, sent for his Judges, and asked them if there were any law that suffered a man to marry with his own sister? to whom they answered, That they found no such Law: but they found another Law that the Kings of Persia might do whatsoever they pleased: Whereupon he married her, and afterwards he married another of his sisters also. Herod.
Xerxes falling in love with Artaynta his daughter in law, often commited incest with her, which his wife Amestris taking notice of, and supposing that Artaynta's mother was the baude betwixt them, she sent for her, and put her to grievous torments, cutting off her breasts, & casting them to the dogs: she cut off also her nose, eares, lips, and tongue, and so dismissed her: but shortly after Xerxes going with his innumerable army against the Grecians, was plagued by God for his incest, and his wives cruelty, with the utter overthrow of his forces, and himself hardly escaped with life. Herod.
Solon made a law amongst the Athenians, that it might be lawful for any man to kill an adulterer, taking him in the fact.
Nerva the Romane Emperour made a law, that no man should marry his neece, or brothers daughter. Suet.
Agrippina was of so impudent, and lustful a disposition, that having formerly traded her self in manifold incests with Caligula her brother, and Claudius her Uncle, she at last offered her body to the lustful imbraces of her son Nero, who scarcely twenty yeares before was bred therein. Nero's Life.
The Egyptians used to punish adultery in a man by giving him a thousand jerks with a reed, and in a woman by cutting off her nose: And he that violated a free woman had his privy members cut off.
By the law of Julia amongst the Romanes, adulterers were without difference to be put to death.
Before Moses time it was a custome to burne adulterers in the fire as appears in the case of Thamar, Gen. 38. 24.
What mischiefs the Levites wife that played the adulteresse, brought upon all Israel, may be read, Judges 19, 20, and 21. chapters.
What misery David brought upon himself and family by committing adultery with Bathsheba, may be seen in 2 Sam. 12. 13. and 13. chapters.
Paris by his adultery with Helena, stirred up warres between the Grecians and Trojans, which lasted ten yeares, and ended in the ruines of that famous City and Kingdome of Troy: in the death of Paris and Helen: of King Priamus and all his posterity.
Sextus Tarquinius, sonne to Superbus the last King of the Romanes, by ravishing Lucretia the wife of Collatinus, was the author of manifold mischiefs: For Lucretia slew her self in the presence of her husband and kinsfolk: the Romanes expelled their King and his family, and would never be reconciled to them again; The adulterer was slaine by the Sabines; and his father also, fighting to recover his Kingdom, was slaine by the Romanes.
Valentinian the third, Emperour of Rome, by dishonouring the wife of Petronius Maximus, a Senator of Rome, lost his life, and was thereby the author of the final destruction of the Romane Empire. For Petronius being informed of the wrong which the Emperour had done him by defiling his wife, was purposed to revenge it with his own hands: but knowing that he could not do it whilest Actius the General of his Army lived, (a man famous for his valiant exploits against the Burgundians and Gothes) he accused him falsely to the Emperour of treason, and thereby procured his death: then did he stirre up some of Actius friends to revenge his death upon the Emperour: which they also performed upon him as he was sitting in judgement: then did Maximus not only seize upon the Empire, but upon Eudoxia the Emperesse, forcing her to be his wife; which indignity she not enduring, sent privately into Africa to Genserick King of the Vandals, to come and deliver her and the City of Rome from the Tyranny of Maximus, which occasion he laying hold of, came into Italy, with a huge Army, whereupon the Citizens of Rome were so affrighted, that they fled into the Mountains, and Maximus flying with them, was murthered by the way, and hewen in pieces by some of the Senators: And Genserick entring Rome, found it empty of inhabitants, but not of infinite riches, all which he exposed as a prey to his Army, and carried away into Africk, together with a great number of the people, and amongst them was Eudoxia the Emperesse, and her two daughters, Eudocia and Placidia: After which the Romane Empire could never recover it self, but grew weaker and weaker till it came to utter ruine.
Childerick King of France, was so ▪odious for his adulteries, that his Nobility conspired against him, and drave him out of his Kingdom.
Two of the daughters of Philip the fair, King of France, being found guilty of Adultery, were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and they which had committed adultery with them, were first slaine, and then hanged.
A certain Seneschal of Normandy suspected the vicious behaviour of his wife with his Steward, watched them so narrowly, that at last he found them in bed together, whereupon he slew them both: first, the adulterer, and then his wife, though she was sister to Lewis the eleventh, the then King. Fulgos. l. 6. c. 1.
A Nobleman in Burgundy having in Warre taken a Gentleman Captive: his wife being a beautiful Lady came to redeeme her husband: The Nobleman promised to free him if she would let him lie with her, which by the perswasion of her husband she consented to: But the adulterous Nobleman the next day cut off his prisoners head, and so delivered his body to his wife; which horrible fact being complained of by her to the Duke of Burgundy, he caused this Nobleman to marry her: but before night he cut off his head, and gave her all his possessions.
Anno Christi 1056. A certain Advocate in Constance extreamly lusted after the wife of the Kings Procurator, which Procuratour finding the Advocate, and his wife sporting together in a Bath, and afterwards in an old womans house hard by, he gat him a sharp curry-comb, and leaving three men at the doore to see that none should come in, he so curried the Advocate that he tore out his eyes, and so rent his whole body that he died within three dayes: The like he would have done to his wife, but that she was with childe.
In Germany a Gentleman of note solicited a Citizens wife to uncleannesse, which her husband being informed of watched them so narrowly, that finding them in bed together, he first slew the adulterer, and then his own wife. Luther's Col.
Mary of Arragon, wife to the Emperour Otho the third, was so unchast, and lascivious a woman, that she could never satisfie her lust, carrying about her a young lecher in womans clothes, with whom she daily committed filthinesse: but this fellow being at last suspected was in the presence of many untired, and found to be a man, for which he was burnt to death: yet did the Emperesse continue in her filthy course, falling in love with the Count of Mutina, a gallant young Gentleman, and because she could not draw him to her lure, she accused him to the Emperour for attempting to ravish her; whereupon the Emperour caused his head to be cut off: But by the meanes of his wife this wickednesse was discovered to the Emperour: who enquiring more narrowly into the bufinesse, found out his wives wickednesse, and for the same caused her to be burnt at a stake.
Rodoaldus the eighth King of Lombardy being taken in adultery, was by the husband of the adulteresse immediately slaine. P. Melan. Chron.
A Noble man in Thuringia being taken in adultery, the husband of the adulteresse took him, bound him hand and foot, and cast him into prison, and to quench his lust he kept him fasting; and the more to augment his paine, he daily set dishes of hot meat before him, that the sight and smell might the more provoke his appetite: In this torture the Lecher continued till he gnawed off the flesh from his own shoulders, and so the eleventh day after his imprisonment ended his wretched life. Luther.
Sergus a King of Scotland was so addicted to harlots, that he neglected his own wife, and drave her to such poverty that she was faine to serve another Noble-woman for her living: whereupon (watching her opportunity) she slew her husband in his bed, and her self after it. Lang. Chron.
Kenulphus King of the West-Saxons, as he usually frequented the company of a whore that he kept at Merton, was slaine by Clito the kinsman of the late King called Sigebert.
In the County of Fermanah in Ireland is a famous Meere called Logh-Erne, stretching out fourty miles: concerning which it's a common speech amongst the inhabitants, that this Lake was formerly firme ground, passing well husbanded with tillage, and replenished with inhabitants: But suddenly for their abominable Buggery committed with beasts, it was overflowed with waters, and turned into a Lake. Camb. Brit. Irel. p. 106.
Attalus who was one of Philip King of Macedonia's Courtiers & Favourites, Sodomitically defiled one Pausanias, a Noble young man, and not content therewith, at a drunken feast he exposed him to be defiled by his guests also. This indignity did so exasperate Pausanias, that he complained to King Philip of the wrong; who entertained him with scoffs, and scornes in stead of punishing the offender: Pausanias seeing this, was so enraged against the King, that on a day when he made a great feast for the Coronation of his son Alexander King of Epyrus, and for the marriage of his daughter Cleopatra, Pausanius watching his opportunity, slew him, thereby turning their melody into mourning, and their joy into sorrow. Diod. Sic.
Nero the Emperour kept many Catamites, and amongst the rest he caused the genitals of a boy called Sporus to be cut off, and endeavoured to transforme him into a woman, and causing him to be dressed like a woman, he was solemnly married to him, whereupon one said merrily: That it had been well for the world, if his father Domitian had had such a wife. Pez. Mel. Hist.
Anno Christi 1120. Henry the first being King of England, his two sonnes William, and Richard, with many Noble men, Knights, & others coming out of Normandy towards England, were shipwracked by the way, and drowned, all or most of them being polluted with the filthy sinne of Sodomy, too rife in those dayes, Henry Huntington.
Let not thine heart decline to the wayes of an whorish woman, go not a stray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea many strong men have been slaine by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the Chambers of death,
Prov. 7. 25, 26, 27.