506 SIGNS AND WONDERS. 



LIB. viz. government of his realme. Besides that hee was a great 

 iusticier and very noble, hee was very valiant and happy, 

 by meanes whereof hee obtained great victories, and came 

 to this greatnes, as is written in the Spanish histories, 

 whereon it seemes needelesse to write more. I will onely 

 have a care heereafter to write what the bookes and histo 

 ries of the Indies make mention of, the which the Spanish 

 writers have not observed, having not sufficiently vnder- 

 stood the secrets of this country, the which are things very 

 worthy to be knowne, as we shall see heereafter. 



CHAP. xxin. Of the presages and strange prodigies ivhic/i 

 happened in Mexico before the fall of their Empire. 



Deut. Although the holy Scripture forbids vs to give credite to 



Hier. x. signes and vaine prognostications, and that S. lerome doth 

 admonish vs not to feare tokens from heaven, as the Gen 

 tiles do : yet the same Scripture teacheth vs that monstrous 

 and prodigious signes are not altogether to bee contemned, 

 and that often they are fore-runners of some generall 

 Lib. ixde changes and chasticements which God will take, as Euse- 



demonstra. 



Evangel, bins notes well of Cesarea. For that the same Lord of 



Monst. i. 



heaven and earth sendes such prodiges and new things in 

 heaven, in the elements, in beasts, and in his other crea 

 tures, that this might partly serve as an advertisement to 

 men, and to be the beginning of the paine and chastise 

 ment, by the feare and amazement they bring. It is written 

 in the second booke of Macabees that before that great 

 2 Mac. 5. change and persecution of the people of Israel, which was 

 caused by the tyranny of Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, 

 whome the holy Scriptures call the root of sinne, there were 

 seene for forty dayes together thorowout all lerusalem great 

 squadrons of horsemen in the ayre, who with their armour 

 guilt, their lances and targets, and vppon furious horses, 



