A.D. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1592. 



in this tumult of famine, of warre, and sedition ? If we 

 be subdued to the government of the Romans, we shall 

 weare out our unhappy dayes under the yoke of slavery. 

 But I thinke famine will prevent captivity. Besides, 

 there is a rout of seditious rebels much more intollerable 

 then either of the former miseries. Come on therefore, 

 my Sonne, be thou meat unto thy mother, a fury to these 

 rebels, and a byword in the common life of men, which 

 one thing onely is wanting to make up the calamities of 

 the Jewes. These sayings being ended, she killeth her 

 Sonne, roasting and eating one halfe, and reserving the 

 other, &c. Eusebius lib. 3. cap. 6. Now, what man will 

 not beleeve that this unhappy mother would full gladly 

 have passed over this her sonne into the possession of 

 some master or chapman, if she could have happened 

 upon any such, with whom she thought he might have 

 beene preserved ? That famine is well knowen which 

 oppressed Calagurium, a city of Spaine, when in olde 

 time Cneius Pompeius layed siege thereunto (Valerius 

 lib. 7. cap. 7.) the citizens whereof converted their wives 

 and children into meat for the satisfying of their extreame 

 hunger, whom doubtlesse they would with all their hearts 

 have solde for other victuals. That famine also is well 

 knowen which in the yere of our Lord 851 (Vincent, 

 lib. 25. cap. 26.) afflicted Germany, insomuch that the 

 father was glad to devoure his owne sonne. It is well 

 knowen after the death of the Emperour Henry the 

 seventh, in a famine continuing three whole yeres, how 

 the parents would devoure their children, and the children 

 their parents, and that especially in Polonia and Bohemia. 

 And that we may not onely allege ancient examples : it 

 is reported that there was such a grievous dearth of 

 corne in the yeeres 1586, and 1587, thorowout Hungary, 

 that some being compelled for want of food were faine 

 to sell their children unto the most bloudy and barbarous 

 enemy of Christians, and so to enthrall them to the 

 perpetuall yoke of Turkish slavery : and some are sayd 

 to have taken their children, whom they could no longer 



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