( 54 ) 
that gave tbemfelves up to the deceitful delights 
and entertainments of lewd Women, in thofe early 
times as well as now, I cannot better prove than by 
thofe remarkable inftances you quoted from a MS. 
in Lincoln Colledge, in Oxon, which you kindly com- 
municated to me, after you had mentioned them in 
one of your Learned Ledfures in our Theatre. They 
are as follow, Novi enim ego Magi ft er Thomas Gaf- 
coigne, licet indignus , fact a Theologta Dotfor, qui hac fcripfi 
& collegia diver fos viros 9 qui mortui fuerunt ex putrefac- 
tions membrorum fuorum genitalium dr corporis fui ; qua cor- 
ruptio & put refaff io, ut ipfi dixerunt y caufata fuit per ex - 
ercitium copuU carnalis cum mulieribus. Magnus enim dux 
in Angliy fcil. J. de Gaunt, mortuus eft ex tali putrefacx 
tione membrorum genitalium , dr corporis [ui, caufata perfre • 
quentationem mulierum . Magnus enim fornicator fuit , ut in 
toto Regno Anglia divulgabatur , dr ante mortem [uamjacens 
Jic infirmus in letto , tandem putrtf actionem Regi Anglia 
Ricardo fccundo oflendit , cum idem Rex eundem Ducem in 
fud infirmitate vifitavit ; dr dixit mihi qui iff a novit 0 - 
nus fi delis facr£ Theologia Baccalaureus. Willus etiam 
longe vir matures at at is dr de civitat. Londonii , mortuus 
eft ex tali putrefaflione membrorum fuorum genitalium 
dr corporis fui , caufata per copulam carnalem cum Mulieribus , 
ut ipfemet pluries confejfus eft ante mortem fuam, quttmma- 
nu [ua propria elecmofynas diflribuit ut ego novi anno Dni. 
1430. Now what thofe inftances mentioned from Ar- 
den , or thefe from Gafcoigne, who was then Chancellor 
of Oxford , cou’d poflibly be but Venereal Cafes, I 
would be obliged to any body to inform me. Certain 
it is, no Difeafe was ever known to be gotten by the 
carnal Converfation of Women, which firft attacked 
the Genitals , caufing a Corruption and Putrefaction of 
them, and afterward of the whole Frame of the Bo- 
dy, but that which is Venereal. For nothing is more 
commonly 
