The Dippers Dipped, Article 2

The Dippers Dipped · Article 2

p. 199Remarkeable Histories OF THE ANABAPTISTS, WITH OBSERVATIONS thereupon.

THE French after the first course of solid dishes,Quelque choses. entertaine their guests with Kicke-shoses, and wee with fruit.

In the former part of this Treatise (courteous Reader) as well in the propounding our arguments for the orthodox faith, as in the Refutation of the Anabaptists objections against it; I desired to set before thee Solid and substantiall dishes, to strengthen thee in the true doctrine of thereformed Church of England: but in these ensuing relations and observations, I make bold to set on the board Kicke-shoses, and variety of strange fruits: which though peradventure they will not much nourish thy faith, yet eaten with a graine of Salt, will some way irritate thy appetite, and help thy digestion and concoction.

OBSERVAT. I.

That the Anabaptists are an Illiterate, and Sottish Sect.

As Macarius, who had the care and oversight of erecting that magnificent structure at Ierusalem, built by Helena the mother of Constantine the great, was happy in his name: for Macarius in Greek signifieth blessed; and as Theodoret testifieth, a blessed man was he: so on the contrary, many Arch-hereticks, and Bo…tefeux of the Church and p. 200State, have been happily unlucky in their names; their God-Fathers at the Font proving Prophets, and the names they gave them, being presages of their qualities, and fortunes, and Characters of their persons. Haymo noteth out of Iraeneus, Hay. comp…nd. Eccles. Hist.that Ebion the Father of the Ebionites, signifieth in Hebrew poore and silly; and a silly poore man (God wot) was he. Manes the Father of the Manichees derives his name in Greeke from foreign insanio, or à foreign insania madnesse; and verily, a franticke heretick was he. Aërius the Father of the Aërian̄s carieth wind in his name, and a light giddy-braind fellow was hee; blowne into his heresie with the wind of ambition: as Saint Augustine declareth in his bed-roll of heresies.Aug. de haeres. ad quod-vult Deum. What should I descend to Maldonate, whose very name speaketh the abuse of his filts (Maldonatus quasi malè donatus) and to Ignatius the Founder of his Sect Ignatius Layola, who as he hath Ignem, fire in his name, so he and his Disciples have proved the greatest Incendiaries in the Christian world. I will trouble thee but with one instance more, and that is the Father of the Anabaptists of our age; who as I shewed thee before out of Bullinger, and Melancthon, was Nicholas Stock, Capite arido & macilento ac si esset ligneum.a man every way answerable to his name, for a very Block-head was he. Robertus Galius had a vision wherein he saw the Pope saying Masse with a lean, aaTheod. Hist. l. 1. c. 18. foreign.meagre, and a drye head, like as if it had been made of wood. Such of all the world was this Stock the head of the Anabaptists, and from this block when he was hewen downe in Germany, somebbSimlers praef. Bulleng. lib. 6 adv. Anabapt. chips flew into England. Although the eye of the mind of man since the fall,Pestis haec non tantum Germaniam, sed & Italiam, & Galliam, … dudum pervagat… est, & … etiam renascenti apud Anglos Ecclefiae Christi plurimum negoti dedit. is like to the eye of an Owle, that cannot endure the bright beames of the Sunne of righteousnesse; and howsover God in the first planting of the Gospell made use of illiterate men, such as were Tent-makers and Fisher-men; to the end that all might know, that He that planteth and he that watereth is nothing, but all is Gods, who giveth the increase: yet when the eye of mans understanding is anointed with the ey-salve of the ccLips. de Constant. Rato rectaest lumine spiritus directa.Spirit; the clearer and sharper the eye is, the better it discernes both Spirituall and Naturall objects: and since the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit have failed in the Church, the learnedst men whose knowledge God sanctified to that use, have proved the worthiest instruments of his glory, in proclaiming the doctrine of Saving Grace; and ddDaniel 12. 1 Kings 13. 33.Dan 121 Kgs 13:33turning many unto righteousnes, who shall shine as Starres in the skie for evermore. And as it remaines a blot upon Ieroboam, and his house never to be wiped out; that he made of the lowest of the people Priests of the high places: so it is not one of the least brands of the Roman Antichrist, that he filled the Church with a number of ignorant p. 201Masse-Priests, Monkes, and Fryers; who blind guides as they were, of the blinder people, fell together with them into the ditch of superstition, heresie, and sensuality. And think we the blindest men are the fittest to draw them out of it? This is the Anabaptists judgement; who as the Romanists teach ignorance to be the mother of devotion, so these to be the mother of Propheticall revelation, or interpretation. For Iohn Tuseoverer eeHistory the Anabaptists.a Gold-smith of Warendorp, pretending himselfe to be a Prophet sent from God, commanded the Senate in Munster to remove all their Magistrates, and put down all their Preachers, as well Evangelicks, as Papists; and to place in their roome twelve simple illiterate men to expound the word of God to the people, without any help of Arts or Tongues, by meer Enthusiasmes, or suddain inspirations, and ejaculations. Another of their Prophets, Iohn ffSleid. Commen. l. … Idem Prophe mandabat ne ullum deince librum haberent aut sibi …varent praet sacra Biblia… reliquos om… in publicum referri jussi… & aboleri; … se mandatu… Divinitus a… cepisse diceb itaque mag… numero libr… deportati slamena fuerunt omnes … sumpti.Matthias, commanded that none should keepe any booke in his house but the Bible, whereupon all the books that were found in any Library, Study, or House, save Bibles; were brought into the Market place, and a bone-fire made of them. But better all these obstinate Sectaries were burnt at a stake, then such a bonefire made in this Kingdome: after which would follow the ruine of all Schooles, and Universities, and more then Egyptian darknesse through the wide Kingdome. Since the extraordinary gifts of Prophesie and Languages have ceased in the Church, secular learning hath been as the Day-starre appearing in the Firmament of the Church before the Sunne; and where no Day-starre going before, no Sunne rising after. As for rude Mechanicks, and unlettered Artificers, to chuse them for our guides to the celestiall Canaan, is all one, as if an Army to march by night over narrow bridges, and by fearfull precipices should by common consent elect pur-blind men to lead the way; or a …leet at Sea after they have cut the line, and saile under an unknowne Climate in a ruffe Sea, and tempestuous weather, should among all the Mariners chuse the unskilfullest Pilots to steer their course. Wee read in the Apocalypse of aggApoc. … 11.Rev 11 Starre called Wormewood, bitter in the effects and influences; but a Starre in the light thereof. Such have ben the Authours, Devisers, and Broachers of other Heresies; bitter indeed in their tenets, and distastfull in their manners; yet Stars for their light of learning: whereas these false teachers cut as chips out of N. Stock resemble brands of hell fire, in which there is a sultring heat, but no light at all. Peruse if thou please (Christian Reader) all the ancient heresies listed by Epiphanius, Augustine, Philastrius, Alfonsus à Castro, Ambrosius de Rusconibus, and others; p. 202and therein thou shalt find the Ring-leaders great Clerks, and acute Sophisters. Whence is that true observation of Tertullian, Philosophi haereticorum Patriarchae, Gast. l. de Anabapt. error. …. 75. De eruditione …uid speran…um, ubi incitia &, ut pisi …quuntur, sim…licitas docen…ium summa ruditio est?Philosophers have been the great Grand-fathers of Hereticks; but of this base & contemptible Sect of the Stockites, there was never yet heard any Professour of eminent learning, neither is there like ever to be: for learning, they hold rather a disparagement, then ornament; an extinguisher, then a kindler of their new light, and strange fire. In a grosse and foggy Mist a cleare light cannot long shine, for either the light will pierce through the Mist, or the Mist will dampe the light: so, if it should fall out that any great Scholar should be admitted into their communion, either their grosse erronrs would in time put out the light of his knowledge, or the clear light of his knowledge soone dispell the Mist of their ignorance, and palpable errours. Which need the lesse confutation, because they contradict themselves as much as the truth. For,

First,Contradictions … the doctrine …nd practises of …e Anabap…sts. they condemne the Baptisme of children upon this ground, because they say they cannot be assured of the truth of their faith, and repentance; by which reason they should forbid or forbear the christening of men in riper yeares also, forasmuch as these teachers can be no way assured of the sincerity of their Scholars faith, and true purpose of amendment of life. For though they professe the one, and promise the other; yet they may do it in hypocrisie, and for worldly ends. Or if they will say we ought to beleive their profession and promise for themselves, why then ought we not as well to beleive their profession and promise for their Children, when the Fathers or God-fathers undertake for them at the Font?

Secondly, they preach the doctrine of mortification of the flesh, and crucifying the lusts thereof; and yet withall they maintaine plurality of wives, and adulterous and incestuous copulations, under the title of spirituall marriages, with those of their own Sect.

ConjugiumhhVirg. Aen. 4. vocat, hoc praetexit nomine culpam.

Thirdly, they allow of no set formes of prayer, or studied Sermons; because such as they conceive, who use them, pray not by the Spirit: yet themselves in their Assemblies make use of set hymnes, and Psalmes, which notwithstanding they make us beleive they sing by the Spirit, according to the example of the Apostle:Cor. 14. 15. I will pray with the spirit, and will pray with understanding also, I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with understanding also.

Fourthly, they cry up the doctrine of the crosse, and boast much of p. 203their suffering for righteousnesse sake: yet where they get any strength and can make head, they resist the powers ordained of God, and make war against their lawfull superiours, as we may soe in Sleiden, Gastius, and Guy-de-bres.

Fiftly, They inveigh against covetousnesse, and to extirpate that root of all evill, teach men to renounce all proprietie in their goods, and to have all things in common: Yet they rob Monasteries, plunder townes, and villages, rifle houses, and turne the wicked, as they tearm them, out of their possessions, and hold them themselves; and when they are upbraided with this their rapine, they alleadge that text for themselves, The meek shall possesse the earth, Matth. 5. 5.Matt 5:5presuming themselves to be those meeke ones, though we shall prove them hereafter to be a most cruell and bloody sect.

Sixtly, They teach that the office of a civill Magistrate cannot consist with Christian perfection, yet they themselves in Munster and elsewhere had a Consul, and Senatours, and a Headsman of their own, yea, and a King also, Iohn Leiden the Tayler, who stitched up a Kingdome in one yeer, and ravelled it out the next.

Seventhly, They strip themselves stark naked, not onelyonly when they flocke in great multitudes, men and women together, to their Iordans to be dipt; but also upon other occasions, when the season permits: and when they are questioned for it, they shelter this their shamelesse act, with the proverb, Veritas nuda est, the truth is naked, and desires no vail, masque, or guise; which reason if it were good, would hinder them from holding private Conventicles as they do, and when there is processe out against them, running into corners to hide themselves; for as the proverb is, Veritas nuda est, Truth is naked, which warranteth them, as they conceive, to throw off their clothes: so also there is a like proverb, Veritas non quaerit angulos, truth seekes no corners, nor innocencie starting holes, yet they doe.

Lastly, in their Confession printed this yeer, they finde themselves agrieved with the name of Anabaptist, saying, they are falstly so called: yet it is well knowne they all of them either rebaptize or are rebaptized, and consequently are properly foreign actively or passively. But as Corvinus in his elder age so quite lost his memory, that he forgot his owne name: so these are so ignorant, that they know not their own proper name. If these disclaime second Baptisme, they are none of the sect: if they practise it, how can they truely say that they are falsly called Anabaptist? If Anabaptists be their nicke name, what is their p. 204right name, whereby they may be distinguished from mother Christians Catholike or Hereticks? They have hitherto been known in generall by no other names then of Anabaptists, or Catabaptists, and never a barrell better herring. And Anabaptist deprives children of Baptisme, and a Catabaptist depraves Baptisme. A Catabaptist may sometimes be no Anabaptist, such as was Leo Copronymus, who defiled the Font at his Baptisme, yet was he not Christened againe: but every Anabaptist is necessarily a Catabaptist; for the iteration of that Sacrament is an abuse and pollution thereof.

OBSERVAT. II.

That the Anabaptists are a lying and blasphemous sect, falsly pretending to divine Visions and Revelations.

All devisers of new Religions and spirituall impostures ascribe their new doctrine and worship to some divine Author, either God himselfe, or some Angel sent from him; and this they doe not so much to amuse the vulgar, as to secure their tenets from the hazard of disputes, and exempt their persons and actions from the test of examination. He that speaketh from the earth, and beares himselfe upon humane authoritie and reason, can gaine no more upon his hearers, then the point of his sword, or dint of his Arguments can inforce their assent thereunto:Tim. 6. 16. but he that speaketh as from heaven captivateth our reason, and easily perswades us to resigne our eyes to him, who dwelleth in a light that none can approach unto. In humane debates and consultations we are not to regard so much quis as quid, who is he that speaketh, as what it is that is spoken: but contrariwise in celestriall mystries, and disputes about Religion, we are not so much to respect, quid as quis, what is that which our beliefe must embrace, as who he is that commands our assent; if it be he, who endued us with reason, all reason there is, that our reason should vaile bonnet to him: whence is that golden Aphorisme of Saint Gregorie, Qui in factis dei rationem non invenit, in infirmitate sua rationem invenit, cur rationem non inveniat, He who inquires into celestiall mysteries, and is at a fault in his search, and can finde no reason, why such things should be so, finds a sufficient reason in his owne infirmitie, why he cannot dive into the reason thereof. His meaning is, the plummet of mans wit is too light, and the line of his discourse too short to sound the bottome of these depths: for this cause it is that the broachers of new and absurd p. 205tenets, or rites in Religion, which naturall reason abhorres, to prevent all reasonings about them, pretend to Divine Revelations for them.Vale…ius Maximu. l. 1. c. 2 Minos Creten sium Rex in quoddam prae altum specus … cedere soleba… & in eamorat… tanquam a Jo…ve, a quo seor tum ferebat, tradi…as sibi le…ges praerogabet…. Numa Pompilius, ut P. R. sac…is obligaret, volebat videri sibi cum Dea Aegeria congressus esse nocturnos ejusque monitu accepta Diis immertalibus sacra i…stitue…e. Bullinger adv. Anabap. l. 1. c. 2. Helcesai…ae glo…iabantur librum ipsis coelitus demissum esse, quo mysteria resque divinae continerentur; qu… quisquis recitari audisset, eum peccatorum veniam consequi. Minos fained that he consulted with Iupiter in a deep vault, and from him received his law; Numa, that he had private conference with the Goddesse Aegeria, and from her received his rituall; Mahomet, that he discoursed with the Angel Gabriel, whose dictates are registred in the Alcharon; the Helcesaites, that they had a booke sent down from heaven, in which all Divine mysteries were revealed, which whosoever heard read, should presently receive remission of sinnes. In like manner, Stock, Muncer, Melchior, Georgius, Tuscoverer, and others by whose hands the envious man in these latter dayes sowed the tares of Anabaptisme, have deluded the people with pretended inspirations, visions, dreames, and Revelations.

Nicholas Stock gave it out that God spake to him by an Angel,Gui de Bres. l. 1. cont. Anabap. and revealed to him his will in dreames, promising him the plaee of the Angel Gabriel.Ils songoyent des sor ges, & disoyent que par visions ilsparloyent familierement aevec Dieu, & preschoyent te…s songes pour veritables, & comme Oracles divins a leurs Disciple.

Next to this Nicholas Stock, Sleid. Comment. l. 5. Certissime v… bis confirmo Deum nobis affutu um, nostramque fore victoriam: N…m ipse coram … promisit ipse, & qui fallere non potest aut mentiri, jussit, ut ad hunc modum rem aggrediar mulcatato Magistratu…e vos perterrefaciant machinae bellicae; pilas enim omnes quas illi tormentisin nos … cient, veste mea sum excepturus. Aspicite signum, & testimonium illius in nos perpetuae bene volenctiae; tolli…e oculos & arcum coelestem mihi ce…ite, cum enim in vexillo nostro sit idem depictus arcus; clare significat Deus hoc simulacro se nobis affutum in pralio.Thomas Muncer was most famous in the Anabaptists chronicle, who when the people that were discontented with their Magistrates, and encouraged by their hereticall teachers to rebell in Franconia, drew themselves into the body of an Armie, this Muncer marched not in the place (assigned for false prophets) in the taile, but in the head, and there made an oration to the souldiers, Advance brave spirits, ride on with your honour, and your right hand shall teach you terrible things. For God hath revealed to me, that the day shall be yours, he promised me, he who cannot lie, nor deceive, assured me, that he will fight for you; let not the Princes Artillery terrifie you, for this robe of mine shall receive, and dead all the bullets shot at you: look up to the sky, see you not there a rainbow in the clouds, the colours whereof we beare in our Streamers and Ancients, p. 206and can ye doubt of victorie, sith God, as you see, himself is our Standard bearer, & the heavens weare our colours? A new topick, and a true kinde of preaching according to Anthonie à Coneigsten his method, Per colores rhetoricos.

But the even answered not expectation: the bow in the clouds did them no service at all in their warre, neither did their prophet Muncer his robe serve as a target of steele to repell, and dead all the bullets shot against them; but as soone as ever this army of the Bores, and that other of the Princes were engaged, the people were miserably slaughtered with Veni Creator spiritus, in their mouths; expecting that God should fight for them from heaven, according to Muncers promise. Of Georgius, and Melchior Hofman, see before Sect. 1.

After Muncer and his chiefe associates; and Phifer, who deluded the people as much with dreames, as Muncer with visions; had acted their parts: Iohn Becold commonly known by the name of Iohn of Leiden, and Iohn Tuscoverer came upon the stage, and they so well acquitted themselves in the persons they took upon them, that the one gained the reputation of a Prophet, the other the title, and (for a time) the power of a King. First Iohn of Leiden in a fanaticall fury (pretending a Propheticall spirit) puts off his cloathes, and runs naked through the City of Munster, crying, The King of Sion is come, the King of Sion is come: Then returning home falls into a deep sleep, dreames for three dayes together, and as soon as he awaked faines himselfe speechlesse, and by signes demands Paper and Inke, and sets down twelve men, most of them mean tradesmen, to bee governours of the City of Munster: whereto he addes certaine conclusions, that a man was not tyed to one wife,Orit…r Propheta novus aurifex, is convocata multitudine commemorat patris coelestis hoc esse mandatum, ut imperium totius orbis terrarum Johannes Leid…nsis obtineat. Sueton. in Cal…g. but that he might marry as many as he pleased; and such other hereticall positions. Not long after this dumbe Prophet gaining his speech, told the people, that the spirit of prophesy was gone from him, and now rested in one Iohn Tuscoverer a Gold-smith; this new Prophet having called an Assembly, declared before them, that it was the will of the Heavenly Father, that Iohn Leiden should bee King of the whole world. As, saith he, God set Saul to bee King in Israel; and after him David taken from the sheep-fold: so hath he appointed Iohn Becold his Prophet to be King in Sion. Suetonius writeth, that after Caligula made himselfe a God, he ordained his great horse after the Heathen rite to be a Priest, Dignus profecto, saith Bencius, tali Deo Sacardos, & tali Sacerdote Deus; like God, like Priest: in like manner we may say here most truly,Bencius orat 3. Like Prophet, like King; a Smith-forge Prophet, p. 207and a Tayler-shop-board King; Iohn Leiden consecrates Tuscoverer a Prophet,Lib. 1. de Ex… ord. Anabap. p. 152. Tuscoverer crownes him a King. And as Iohn Leiden acted dumb Zacharie, so Gastius reports of a woman who took upon her to act the part of Iudith, about the middle of the siege of Munster. Addam stultitiae quoddam & temeritatis exemplum: mu… lier quaedam obsidionis tem pore inventa est, quae se Episcopo facturam polliceretur, quod Judit… Holoferni, &c.This Prophetesse made the people believe that God had put into her the spirit of Iudith, and that she would goe out of the City, and never return till she had brought back the Bishops head; having cut it off as Iudith did the head of Holofornes: she was not so mad, but diverse of the Citizens were as foolish, for they put her in gorgeous apparell, and drest her like Iudith; and she premeditated a speech like to hers: but shee could not keep her owne counsell. For before she came into the presence of the Bishop, her intent was discovered; and instead of cutting off the Bishop, head, she lost her owne. I shall trouble thee Christian Reader, but with one influence more. As Biddulph writeth in his travailes, that the Darvises (which are accounted Prophets among the Turks) run round so long, till they fall down as it were in a trance; and after they have layen in a seeming dead sleep for the space of an houre or more,Gastius l. 1. p. 12. Abbarella hoc utuntur praestigie; dejicit se aliquis aliquo Catabaptista, perinde acsi Epilepticus esset; spiritum qua… diutissime potest retinet ac se in exstasi esse simulat, horrendam praebere speciem aiunt qui viderunt, &c. rising up, they deliver their dreames for divine Oracles: so at Abbarella, a certain sort of Anabaptists fell down on the suddain, as if they swooned; holding their breath as long as they could possibly, till they swelled, and looked black in the face: insomuch that the standers by, were affrighted at the sight; in the end, after they were out of their extasie, and come to themselves; they told the people, what God spake to them in their Rapture: namely, that Zuinglius erred in his doctrine of Baptisme, that the christening of children was unlawfull, and that before two yeares came to an end, the day of judgement should be; and truly the former revelations were as true as the latter, it is now full a hundred yeares, since Gastio his book was printed at Basill (namely, in the yeare 1544.) And he relateth this Prophecie of theirs, as much more ancient then his book: so farre were these Epileptick Prophets out in their reckoning.

OBSERVAT. III.

That the Anabaptists are an impure and carnall Sect.

In a foule and spotted glasse we cannot perfectly see our face, neither in a foule and impure foule, is there any cleare reflection of the Image of God. God is a most pure and holy Spirit, and none are capable of his divine irradiations, and heavenly influences; but pure minds p. 208and chast bodies: on the contrary,…atth. 10. 1. …ark. 1. 27. & …3. 11. c. 6. 7. …atth. 8. 31. …ames 1. ult. the D…vill is tearmed in the Gospell foreign the uncleane spirit, who as he once besought our Saviour, to give him leave to enter into the herd of swine: so wheresoever he now enters, and whatsoever soule or body hee possesseth, hee maketh it a Nasty Sty. As the true Religion whereof God is the Author, is undefiled before God; so all false worship of God devised by Sathan and his instruments, is both defiled it selfe with idolatry or superstition, and defileth also the soules and consciences of all that practise it. Hence it is, that the Professours thereof are tearmed by Saint Iude, spots and blots; darke spots in regard of the errours of their understanding, and foule blots in regard of the impurity of their lives and conversation. Such were the false Prophets whom Saint Peter sets out in their colours,Pet. 2. 14. having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sinne, who allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonnesse, those who for a while escaped from them; who live in errour, to whom it is happened according to the Proverbe: the dogge is turned to his owne vomit againe, and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.

Such were those ungodly men, Saint Iude sets a marke upon, that turned the grace of our God into lasciviousnesse, vers. 4. gave themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, ver. 7. filthy dreamers, defiling the flesh, despising dominions, and speaking evill of dignities, ver. 8. Such were the Nicolaitans, and the Disciples of lezabell branded by the Spirit, Apoc. 2. 6. 20. Who defiled the marriage bed, and seduced the servants of God to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols. Such were most of the ancient Arch-hereticks, who as themselves were caught,…eron. ad Cres. Simon Magus …aeresin condidit Helenae merctricis odutus auxilio, &c. so they caught others esca voluptatis, with a fleshy bait: their Minions are upon record, Simon Magus had his Helena, Apelles his Philumena, Montanus his Maximilla, Donatus his Lucilia, Elpidius his Agape, Priscilian his Galla; and others their Mistresses. Not to tell you of Sergius the Pope his Marozia, Gregory the seventh his Matildis, Alexander the sixt his Lucretia, Leo the tenth his Magdalena, and Paul the third his Constantia: in which consideration I perswade my selfe, that the degenerating See of Rome is tearmed in the Apocalypse, Cap. 17. 19.the great whore; not only because she commits spirituall fornication in her idolatrous worship of Saints, Images, and Reliques: but because she permits corporall tolerating Stewes, and setting an easie rate upon all the impure vents of luxury,See Taxa Camerae Apostolicae. naturall and unnaturall. And though the Familists, Libertines, and Anabaptists, stand in opposition p. 209to Papists;Pontan in Catal. Sleidan. Comment. l. 10. Dogmata proponit Concionatoribus, viz. virum non esse devinctum uno conjugi, &c. Gastius, l. 1. de Anabap. Exord. p. 25. Non est adul erium apud nos, cum enim unum eundemque spiritum habeamus, nihil potest apud nos fieri, quod peccatum sit: ut enim unumhabemus spiritum, ita unum corpus sumus. Gastius de Exer. l. Anabap. l. 1. Sancto Galli publice animadversum est in pullas duas, quae donec ad Catabaptistas descisce, ent, inculpatae pudicitiae fuerant, sed simul atque corpus in Catabaptismum immerserant naufragium passae sunt virginitatis. Hist. Anabap. c. 3. yet the great fowler of s…ules catcheth them all with the same foule birdlime of impure lusts. Of the Libertines, and Familists, I need not speak; they have discovered their filthinesse in the face of the Su…: and for the Anabaptists, all their often washing will neither cleanse their conscience from the guilt, nor their reputation from the staine of carnall impurity. For though they tolerate not Stewes as the Pope doth, yet they allow of plurality of wives, and most uncleane practices under the name of spirituall marriages, nay some of them have not blushed to affirme that none of their Sect can commit adultery: because adulterium, according to the Etymologie ad alterum, is folly committed with another mans wife; and defiling anothers body: but all that are of their society are so knit one to the other, that they are all one body, as well as one spirit. They had no sooner instild this doctrine into the weaker Sex, but two maids at Sanctogall, immediately after their second Baptisme, made ship-wrack of their virginity; and a third dashing at the same rock, and being called in question by the Magistrate for her incontinency, professed that shee out of her pure conscience did it; that is, playd the Whore. For the Ring-leaders of our Sect told me, said she, that it was the will of the heavenly Father, that I should deny none the debt of Spirituall matrimony; & propterea fui adomnia obedientissima omnibus, qui spiritualis matrimonii debita postulabant. Iohn of Leiden their King and Prophet himselfe, though he pretended to never so much holinesse, yet was observed by a souldier in the night to steale from his wives bed, and truckle with the maid; which to colour, he made her his wife: and to justifie the marriage, he fell into that Propheticall sleep I spake of before, and after he had dreamed three dayes and three nights together, proclaimed his dreame for a divine Oracle; that no man was tyed to one wife: after which his Proclamation, all his Subjects ran to the handsomest women in the City, striving who should bee served first; and some with a forme of spirituall contract, some without it, so blasted the fairest flowers in all Munster, that there was not a maid of fourteene yeares of age that was not viciated.

Of the like staine, though not altogether of the same straine, were the two false Prophets discovered in London, 1642. Richard Farnham, and Iohn Bull: Whereof one of them, Richard Farnham the Weaver, to make a more sensible (as he conceived) demonstration of his extraordinary calling, like to that of Hosea, took to himselfe a wife of fornications, p. 210a Sea-faring mans wife;See the printed Relation, two years since published. who returning home, laid her in Newgate, where she was arraigned and condemned for having two husbands: yet through mercy, obtained a Reprieve. But I will touch no more upon this Pitch, lest I defile my hands, and the Readers eyes therewith.

OBSERVAT. IV.

That the Anabaptists are a cruell and bloody Sect.

Suetonius writeth, that a Physiognomer being demanded what he thought concerning the naturall inclination and constitution of Tiberius the Emperour,Sueton. in vit. Tiberii. Lutum sanguine temperatum. answered, I see in him foreign, dirt mingled with blood: Thereby intimating, that he would prove a most leud, lascivious, and cruell Emperour; the dirt in his complexion representing filthinesse, and the blood, Cruelty. Such is the temper of the Anabaptists, filthy and impure, as I have shewed before; and which is far worse, cruell and bloodie.

As it is the peculiar Attribute of God to be the Saviour, and Preserver of Man-kind: Job. 7. 20. Apoc. 9. 11. John 8. 44.Job 7:20Rev 9:11John 8:44so the Devils proper name is in Hebrew Abaddon, in Greek Apollyon, that is, The destroyer. He was a murderer from the beginning, as our Saviour teacheth us: feducing our first parents; and by his suggestion bringing in sinne, and by sin, death upon them, and all their posterity. He was accessarie to the first murder that ever was committed, by Cain, upon the body of his brother Abel. Fraterno primum maduerunt sanguine terrae; and since he hath been the ruine and destruction of many millions of men.

First, under colour of Religion, inducing them sacrificare humanas hostias, to butcher men in sacrifices to him; In some places their Parents, as amongst the Tribali: in others the children, as in the valley of Hinnon: among the Indians, their Kings and Priests: and in other Countries, either the best of men, or the nearest of blood.

Secondly, by imbroiling single men in duels, Famili. … in frayes and riots, Kingdoms in wars, both forraigne and domesticall.

Lastly, by raising persecutions against the liue servants of God, and maintainers of the Orthodoxe Faith; In the first Ages of the Church, by Heathen Emperours; in the middle, by the Arians and Antitrinitarians; and in the later, by the Antichrist of Rome, and his p. 211Adherents. As for the Heresie of the Anabaptists, it is neither so ancient as some of the former; neither was it ever so far dispersed; neither had it power to doe so much mischiefe, and make such havock of the true Church: Yet since it first sprung up in Germany, it hath caused and occasioned the effusion of very much blood, as I declared before in the Introduction to this Treatise,Eras. Adag. and by a few instances as it were ex fimbriâ de textu, by the list and selvige you may judge how deeply the cloth is dyed in blood.

To passe by the horrible parricide committed in the field of the Sancto Galli by an Anabaptist upon his owne brother,L. 1. p. 22. Immane par…cidium quod Germanum in Germanus in Germanum f…atrem admisit, in sancto Gallensium agro, quis quomodo poterit memorare? advocat f…ater fratrem nihil tale cogitantem in patris, matris, sororum, totiusque familiae consessum, jubet ut in medio genu deponat; ut autem iste in genua sese demisit, corripit frater ensem quem in hoc attulerat, at que per fratris jugulum protenus adegit, caput que detondit, quod parentum pedibus advolutum pecto…a exanimat; e reliquis corporis trunco magna …uor…s vis emanat, concidunt atque amentia …mo…iuntur quotquo… adsunt. which Gastius relateth after this manner: The elder brother, by the instigation of the devill, having his sword under his cloak, calls his brother (nothing aware of his bloody intent) before his father, mother, sisters, and the whole family; commands him there to kneele downe before them, and suddenly whips out his sword, and cuts off his head, and throwes it at the feet of his Parents; whereat they were so affrighted, that thay dyed mad: The murderer himselfe defending the fact, and saying, Volunt as Dei impleta est.

At the first rising of the Anabaptists in Suevia and Franconia, to the number of forty thousand, they killed all the Nobles and Gentrie that made any head to stop their popular fury. And no marvaile the peoples fingers were dipt in blood, when their King and Prophets whole hands and armes were embrued in it. Tho: Muncer their Prophet, Senatour, and Generall, (for he was all these) in the first speech he made in the head of his Armie by Frankhus, (above mentioned) told the people, That it was Gods promise that the righteous should wash their feet in the blood of the wicked, and therefore he exhorted them to fall pell-mell upon all the Princes, and Magistrates, and Landlords, as tyrants and theeves that sucked the blood of the people, and lived in luxurie and wantonnesse; and to kill every mothers sonne of their enemies, and offer them up, was an acceptable sacrifice to God.

Another Prophet of theirs, Iohn Matthias by name, who bore great sway with the people, when a black-smith pinched him with a disgracefull scoffe, calling him cacatum Prophetum, he procured him to be condemned to death, and himself would needs be the executioner, p. 212wounding him first with a holberd, and the wound proving not mortal,History of the Anabaptists. c. 3. he after shot him through with a pistoll: then shedding a few Crocodile teares, and seeming to take compassion on him, he pardoneth him for his rash speech, saying, that God was reconciled to him, and that he had a Revelation from heaven, that the man should not▪ die of his wounds: yet hee proved as in other things, so in that a false Prophet, the man dying a few dayes after. A man would think that their Tayler King Iohn of Leiden should rather use the needle, then the rapier or sword: yet when soone after his Coronation, he made a great… Feast, bidding at least 4000. men and women between the first and second course, he accuseth a man of high treason, and cuts off his head with his owne hand, and returnes merry to supper, and after supper, with the same bloody hand, takes upon him to administer the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of our Saviour, and not long after when there was a great famine in the City of Munster, and yet the King and his courtiers a…ated nothing of their varietie of full dishes, and one of his fifteene wives (for so many he had) somewhat more conscientious then the rest, said that she thought God was not well pleased with their feasting, and rioting in the palace, when the people pined for hunger in their houses, and many dyed famished in the streets; the King being told of it, brought her to the market place with other of his wives, & making her kneel down, there cut off her head, & commanded his other wives to sing and give praises for it to the heavenly Father. It will be here said that our Anabaptists in England were never arraigned, or condemned for any such crimes, and that they seem to be a sillie and harmelesse people: yet let us take heed how we suffer the egges of the cockatrice to remain amongst us; for when they be hatched there will break out of them most venemous serpents. The Lyon when he is very young is rather gamesome then ravenous, or cruell: but when he growes big and knowes his own strength, being hunger-bit, hee runnes roaring abroad seeking whom he may devoure.

OBSERVAT. V.

That the Anabaptists are a prophane and sacrilegious sect.

As morall vertue is placed in the middle between two extreames, the one in the excesse, the other in the defect: for example; liberlitie is in the middle betwixt prodigalitie in the excesse and covetousnesse in the defect; magnanimitie in the middle between ambition or haughtinesse p. 213in the excesse, and pusillanimitie or baseuesse in the defect: fortitude or true valour in the middle, between temeritie or fool-hardinesse in the excesse, and cowardise in the defect: so also true Religion hath her proper seat in the middle between superstition in the excesse, and profanenesse in the defect: and of the two extreames profanenesse is the worse, because it is neare neighbour to atheisme, which plucks up all Religion by the root, out of the heart. Religio is so called à Religando, because it bindeth the soule to God with the girdle of veritie: this golden belt of veritie, superstition ties too hard, and strait, prophanenesse too wide and loose. A superstitious man feareth God in such sort as he ought not, a prophane person feareth him not as he ought: the superstitious attribute that worship to God, which he requireth not, the prophane yeild him not that worship he requireth: superstition attireth Religion over gorgeously, prophanenesse strips her of her necessarie dresse of decent rites and ceremonies: in a word, superstition offers to God what he claimes not for his own, prophanesse sacrilegiously robs him of that which is his owne, in a particular manner. In detestation of which ungodly disposition in men, both Greeks and Latines have a proverbial spell, foreign procul este prophani; and, Odi prophanū vulgus et arceo, saith the Poet, away with profane persons, joyn not hands with those who finger holy things; If it be burglarie to break into mens houses and rifle them, what is it to rifle Churches? If it be felonie to rob men, what is it to rob God? The Anabaptists here with a heart of Adamant, and brow of brasse will be ready to answer, that like distracted men we rave at we know not whom, we cry down such a sinne as hath no existence: that the word sacriledge or holy theft is a meere scarcrow, or bugbeare to fright fools. For those things that are truely holy are laid up in the soul as the graces of the Spirit, which cannot be plundered: as for outward things there is no holinesse in them; neither in Churches, nor in Altars, nor in Fonts, nor in Pulpits, nor in Vessell or Vestments, nor in gleabs or Centries. What thou prophane Esau, are there no Sabbathes now to be hallowed? No Sanctuaries to be reverenced? no Sacraments to be Administred? no sacred oblations to be made? no duties to be paid to God and those who attend on his service? didst thou never hear of a distinction of a twofold holines, inherent, and relative, or as some rather phrase it, subjectiva, and objectiva, a holines in the subject and a holines in the object? inherent holines no intelligent man ever attributed to outward & inamimate things, for that holines is a fruit of faith p. 214produced in the soul by the operation of the holy Spirit, quae nec cripi nec surripi potest; but for relative holines, no Religious Christian ever denied it to these things. The ground of which relative holinesse is Gods peculiar interest in them, either by vertue of his own claime, and challenge to them, or by the fr…e will offering, donation and dedication of them to him by godly persons. In which regard some places are holy, as Temples hallowed to his Name: some dayes, as Feasts dedicated to his honour: some Persons, as Priests and Levites under the Law, Presbyters & Deacons under the Gospel, men set a part for his service: some Lands, profits and emoluments, as gleabs, tithes, first-fruits, oblations and other obventions, assigned for the maintenance of the Ministery: some utensils, as Tables, Fonts, Pulpits, Chalices, vestments, and the like, imployed in the immediate service and worship of God, & to alienate unjustly, detain or purloin any of these things frō any of those places, or persons to whom the Law of the Land agreeable to Gods Law hath appropriated or apportionated them, is that we call Sacriledge, which the heathen themselves by the glimmering light of Nature knew not only to be a sinne, but a hainous and capitall crime: for this is one of the Lawes in the twelve Tables so much commended,…c. pro Rosc. …mer. …sui in cule… vivos, & … mare projici. …uson. acet & ex…p. sacrilegi …hiusam bi…re coguntur, …a pota ter…es minasque … pentum ob…vari aiunt, … ut mortem …i ex metu …sciscant. Sacrum sacrove commodatum qui rapsit, parricida esto, Let him that steales away any holy thing, or dedicated to a holy use, be punished as a parricide, that is, as such a one who had murdered his father or mother, and what was such a persons doome by the Romane Law? To be sowed in a sack and cast alive into the sea. Neither was the punishment lesse severe among the Ethiopians, for if any were convinced of that crime amongst them, there was a potion given him to drink made of diverse kinds of poison, which they had no sooner taken of, but it wrought so upon their fancies, that they conceived themselves to be stung with all kinds of Serpents, and to rid themselves of the paine they made away themselves. Here these prophane wretches will be apt to reply, What are the heathen Lawes to us? How prove you out of Gods word that sacriledge is a sinne? To forbeare other testimonies which might be largely insisted upon, Saint Paul not only ranketh it among grievous sinnes, but sets it in a degree of impiety above Idolatry,…m. 2. 2…. thou which abhorrest Idols dost thou commit sacriledge? as if he should say, thou that so much detestest Idolatrie, that thou abhorrest the very name of an Idol, dost thou worse? namely commit sacriledge; sacriledge, without all doubt, is worse then Idolatry, for he more wrongeth the deitie, who robbeth the true God of that which p. 215is his due, then he who through a mistake exhibits honour to another in stead of him. And that this kinde of sacriledge we speak of, whereby Churches or Churchmen are defrauded of their due is no better nor worse then robbing God himselfe,Cap. 3. v. 8. 9. the Prophet Malachi affirmeth, Verbis non tantum disertis, sedet exertis, Will a man rob his gods? yet you have robbed me: but you say, Wherein have we robbed thee? in tithes and offerings, therefore are ye cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole Nation. Ye are cursed with a curse, what meanes this reduplication? can a man be cursed without a curse? are the latter words redundant and superfluous? doe they foreign; no such thing; the learned know better then so, the redoubling of the word is very significant in holy Scriptures, as where we read, Visitando vistabo, in visiting I will visit thee, that is, I will visit thee in a singular manner: and multiplicando multiplicabo, in multiplying I will multiply thee, that is, I will exceedingly multiply thee: and benedicendo benedicam, in blessing I will blesse thee, that is, I will extraordinarily blesse thee: so here in the Prophet, ye shall be cursed with a curse, imports no lesse then ye shall be cursed with a strange curse, a signall curse, such a curse as he that heareth his ears shall tingle, aud his knees smite one the other. Such a curse as was inflicted upon Xerxes, and Caepio, and Marcus Crassus, and Herod, and their associats for attemping or acting this horrible villani…: Xerxes sent an Army of 4000. to destroy the Temple at Delphos, and pillage all those precious things,Justin. hist. l. … Xerxes ante navalem congressionem 4000. Armatorum Delphos a… Templum Apollinis diripiendum misit, quae tota manu… nubibus & fulminib…s deleta est. which all those Kings, Princes and Nations, who by their Embassadours consulted the oracle concerning the successe of their warres, had laid up there; but his whole Army was destroyed by Thunder and Lightening from heaven: neither had Caepio the Consul better successe, after he had spoiled the famous Church of Tolouse, and from thence taken a great masse of gold, both he and every man in his Armie that had fingered any of that gold came to a miserable end, and gave occasion to that Latine proverb spoken of a man who liveth miserably & dies desperately, aurum habit Tolosanum, surely he had some of the gold of Tolouse in his keeping. In like manner Marcus Crassus after he had taken 2000. talents of gold out of the Temple at Ierusalem, Eras. Chil.which Pompey left there, was no sooner past over the river Euphrates, then his whole Army was routed by the Parthians, and part of the gold he caused to be carried out of the Temple, was melted and poured into his mouth, after he was slaine, with these words, Now surfeit of gold after thy death, wherewith thou could never be satisfied all thy life long. Yet Herod who could not p. 216but hear of this dysaster of Crassus, Dan. 5. 5.Dan 5:5living in those times & parts, would take no warning thereby:Theod. Eccles. Hist. l. 3. 11. but understanding of vast sums of mony layd up for safety in the Temple, and hid in the Sepulchre of David; sent his men of war to rifle the place,Felix sacrorum vasorum magnificentiam conspicatus, Ec…c, inquit, quam sumptuosi… vasis filio Mariae ministratur. Cap. 12. Sed isti impii non diu post paenas persolverunt Faelix de…epente flagelliocoelitus impacto sanguinem dies noctesq que ex ore fudit, flatimq que extinctus est; lulianus confestim in gravem morbum delapsus, visceribus put redine exesi interiit, & s…eleratu… ejus … inst…mentum blasphemiae p…tis illius ad flercus ejicicndum natae locum obti…uit. who in digging, as they came to the Cave neare the Coffins of David and Solomon, there brake out thence a fire, that burnt the sacrilegious delvers all to ashes. To these we may adde Balshazzar, Copronymus, Iulian the Governour of the East, and servant to the Apostate Emperour of that name, and Faelix, who all read a sad Lecture to Church-robbers, written in Characters of blood.

As soon as Balshazzar took the vessels of the Temple into his hand, and carrowsed in the cups, he saw a hand in the wall, writing his dreadfull doome. After Leo surnamed Copronymus, espyed a Crowne beset with Carbuncles in a Christian Church; and coveting after it, caused it to be fetched from thence, and had set it upon his head; there suddenly arose a Carbuncle in his fore-head, which suffered his Temples afterwards to take no rest. And as close did the punishment of the like sacriledge follow at the heeles of Iulian, and Faelix; for within a few weeks after, Faelix deriding at the rich plate, Maries sonne was served in, together with Iulian; had carried away all the rich presents, and massy vessels of gold, which the devotion of Constantine and Constantius, had dedicated to God in the new Temple at Ierusalem built by Queene Helena, Gods vengeance seised upon them both, Faelix dying of a flux of blood, and Iulian of the foule disease, called the Miserer…; which I spare to describe, lest it should defile my pen, as it did his sacrilegious mouth. Of this sinne which God so exemplarily punished, no sort of ancient hereticks or schismaticks were more guilty then the Donatists, from whom our Anabaptists are lineally descended; for Saint Augustine in his Epistle to Bonifacius, bitterly exclaimes against them for …ushing violently into the Churches of the Catholicks,Sleid. Com. l. 1o Ae…em Di… Mauricci suburbem invadunt, & cum vicinis omnibus aedificii… …ncendunt, de…nde Templa omnia di…ipiunt. breaking asunder the Altar boards, pulling down the partitions, and making havock of all things there; and herein our Anabaptists their cursed off-springs, learn to patrizare. Rotman with Cniperdolin, in the yeare 1534. after they had altered the Senate in Munster, seised upon the Church dedicated to Mauricius, situated in the Suburbs; and pillaged all the other Churches in the City. And in Suevia and Franconia, Muncer and Phifer, two principall incendiaries among the Anabaptists, made their Magazins in the Covent of the Franciscans, and cast their Ordnance there, and Phiser running into the country of Isfield, Hist. Anab. c. 3.pillageth all the Castles, and Churches. And p. 217their Taylor-King, Iohn of Leiden, of the Coapes, and Altar-cloathes, and rich vestments; (stolne from the Churches, which they pillaged) made good use; & by the help of his former trade, translated them all into apparell for himselfe, and his Courtiers. and glittering Caparisons for his horses. And what evill their Disciples mingled with Brownists, have done in the Sanctuar…es of God in England and Ireland, though I should hold my peace, the timber out of the beams, and the Chalices out of the Vestry, and the marble and brasse out of the Monuments of the dead, would proclaime it to the everlasting infamy of this prophane Sect. But it is time Claudere rivos, to shut down the Flood-gates, lest my discourse bee overflowne with these muddy and brackish waters. Sat prata biberunt.

OBSERVAT. Ult.

Of the untimely deaths, and fearfull ends of the Ring-leaders of this Sect.

No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before him,Eccles. 9. 1. 2.Eccl 9:1Eccl 9:2 all things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked, to the cleane, and to the uncleane; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner, and hee that sweareth, as he that feareth an Oath. Thus speaketh King Solomon, either in the person of the Epicure denying speciall providence, or as most agree in his owne person, without any figure or Prosopopoeia at all, to deterre men from passing rash censures upon any in particular; for outward dysasters, in regard of the common calamities incident to all mankind: no man may certainly judge, whether a man bee in Gods favour or state of Grace, by the floate of these outward blessings, or that he is out of Gods favour; and in the condition of a Reprobate by the ebbe of them, or the contrary inundation of afflictions. For a man may be as miserable as Lazarus in this world, yet destinated to Abrahams bosome: as on the other side, a man may be as happy as Dives here, yet reserved for everlasting torments hereafter. It is therefore sage Counsell the Poet giveth, Ne te quaesiveris extra, seek not thy selfe out of thy selfe, neither value thy selfe by thy outward estate, but thy stock of inward vertues. Notwithstanding this generall observation concerning the benigne aspect of heaven in this life, or manifold dysasters, it is most certaine, that God exempteth some from common calamities, and powreth the full vialls of his p. 218vengeance upon others in such sort, even in this life; that the most secure sinners are constrained to professe in the words of the Psalmist,Psal. 58. 10.Ps 58:10 utique est fructus justo, utique est Deus judex in terra; doubtlesse there is reward to the just, doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth the earth. If God did not set a marke upon some notorious offenders in this life, and make them examples to others, upon what evidence could the Prophet say,Psal. 9. 16.Ps 9:16 the Lord is knowne by the judgement which hee executeth, the wicked is snared in the works of his owne hands. On which text the ensuing relations may serve as a briefe Commentary. Who cannot read Corah and his Complices sinne in their punishment? they made the first Schisme in the congregation, & in their time there was a wide rent made in the earth,Numb. 16. 31.Num 16:31 through which they descended quick into hell. Elymas the forcerer who endeavoured to seduce the proconsul frō the Christian faith, and cast a mist as it were before his eyes, that he might not discern true Religion from superstition, was suddenly smitten with blindnes. Cerinthus the old heretick,Acts 13. 11.Acts 13:11 who corrupted the doctrine of the Gospell in the purest times,Hayn. Compend. Eccl. hist. …. 1. resorting to a common Bath where he met the Apostle of Christ, was killed by the fall of the house, as soon as the beloved Disciple who made hast to shun him, was got out of the door: Montanus with his two trulls Priscilla and Maximilla, who betrayed the truth of God,Hieron. in Ca…al. took part of Iudas cord, and hanging themselves, thereby strangled that heresie in the Infancy. Manes who tare the seamelesse coat of Christ, and with a part thereof covered the hereticks called from his name Manichees, had his skin wholly torne from his flesh, and being thus excoriated in the quickest sense of lingering paine, he yeilded up his unhappy ghost; Vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras.

Arius who infected the greatest part of the world with his p…stilent heresie, came to a most shamefull end in the publick James at Alexandria, voyding his bowells at his easment there. Nestorius his tongue rotted in his mouth; wherewith for many yeares hee had blasphemed the person of Christ. To passe by other Arch-hereticks, who tasted of the cup of trembling in this life, out of which, it is to be feared,…ontan. Catal. …oeret. they now suck the very dregs in Hell. The intelligent Reader who peruseth the late stories of the Anabaptists,er Germani…n, Alsatiam … Sueviam …50000. cannot but take notice that many thousands of that Sect, who defiled their first Baptisme by their second, were baptized the third time with their own blood,…erunt truci…ti. yet suffered death: (non ut coronam fidei, sed poenam perfi…iae) Servetus an Anabap. as an Arian received the sentence of death at Geneva, p. 219Phifer at Mulhus, Rotman that sacrilegious Anabaptist was slaine in Saint Lamberts Church-yard; Tho: Muncer was put to the rack by George Duke of Saxony, and the Land-grave of Hesse, where he roared most fearfully, and in the end had his head cut off, and put upon a high pole in the fields. Three hundred Anabaptists that fell upon the Monastery of Bilsw…rd in Frizland, and rifled it, were all of them (save 62. that fled) either killed in the ruines of the Monasterie, or put to death by the hangman. I gave thee a touch, Courteous Reader, in the first Chapter, of their King Io: of Leiden, and their Consull Bernard Cuipperdoling, whose judgements slept not, for before the end of two yeares, in which they playd all their pranks, they together with their great Prophet were tyed to a stake, had their flesh torne from them with hot pinchers, in the end they were stabbed to the hearts,Krechting. and after they were dead, their bodies were put in iron cages, and hanged on the Steeple of Saint Lambert: Sleid. Com. lib. 10.the King according to his Royall dignity having his exalation, hanging higher then the Consull, and the Prophet.Alligantur palo, aderant binae carnifices ac forcipes igniti & per horum & amplius lacerati transactis demum per pectora mucronibus & caveis serreis illigati singuli ad summam turris urbis exponuntur penfiles; Rex quidem medius & quanta est bominis statura sublimior illis Idem verbis parum mutatis habet Pontan. in Catal. h…eret.