There is another sorrow, which ariseth from the loss of temporal goods and fortunes, which equally afflicteth, and may go hand in hand with the precedent; loss of time, loss of honor, office, of good name, of labor, frustrate hopes, will much torment; but in my judgment, there in no torture like unto it, or that sooner procureth this malady and mischief:

Ploratur lachrymis amissa pecunia veris:

it wrings true tears from our eyes, many sighes, much sorrow from our hearts, and often causeth habitual melancholy it self, Guianerius tract.15.5. repeats this for an especial cause: Loss of friends, and loss of goods, make many men melancholy, as I have often seen by continual meditation of such things.

The same causes Arnoldus Villanovanus inculcates, Breviar, l.1.c.18. ex rerum amissione, damno, amicorum morte, &c. Want alone will make a man mad, to be Sans argent, will cause a deep and grievous melancholy.

Many persons are affected like Irishmen in this behalf, who if they have a good scimiter, had rather have a blow on their arme, then their weapon hurt: they will sooner lose their life, then their goods: and the grief that cometh hence, continueth long (saith Plater) and out of many dispositions, procureth an habit.

Montanus and Frisemelica cured a young man of 22. years of age; that so became melancholy, ab amissam pecuniam, for a summe of money which he had unhappily lost. Schenkius hath such another story of one melancholy, because he overshot himself, and spent his stock in unnecessary building.

Roger that rich Bishop of Salisbury, exutus opibus & castris à Rege Stephano, spoiled of his goods by King Stephan, vi doloris absorptus, atque in amentiam versus, indecentia fecit, through grief ran mad, spake and did he knew not what.

Nothing so familiar, as for men in such cases, through anguish of minde to make away themselves. A poor fellow went to hang himself, (which Ausonius hath elegantly expressed in a neat Epigram) but finding by chance a pot of money, flung away the rope, and went merrily home, but he that hid the gold, when he missed it, hanged himself with that rope which the other man had left, in a discontented humor.

At qui condiderat, postquam non reperit aurum, Aptavit collo, quem reperit laqueum.

Such feral accidents can want and penury produce. Be it by suretiship, shipwrack, fire, spoile and pillage of souldiers, or what loss soever, it boots not, it will work the like effect, the same desolation in Provinces and Cities, as well as private persons. The Romans were miserably dejected after the battle of Cannas, the men amazed for fear, the stupid women tore their hair and cryed. The Hungarians when their King Ladislaus, & bravest souldiers were slain by the Turks, Luctus publicus, &c.

The Venetians when their forces were overcome by the French King Lewis, the French & Spanish Kings, Pope, Emperor, all conspired against them, at Cambray, the French Herald denounced open war in the Senate: Lauredane Venetorum dux, &c. and they had lost Padua, Brixia, Verona, Forum Julij, their territories in the continent, and had now nothing left but the City of Venice it self, & urbi quoque ipsi (saith Bembus) timendum putarent, and the loss of that was likewise to be feared, tantus repente dolor omnes tenuit, ut nunquam alias, &c. they were pittifully plunged, never before in such lamentable distress.

Anno 1527, when Rome was sacked by Burbonius, the common souldiers made such spoile, that fair Churches were turned to stables, old monuments and books, made horse-litter, or burned like straw; reliques, costly pictures defaced, altars demolished, rich hangings, carpets, &c. trampled in the dirt.

Their wives & loveliest daughters constuprated by every base culion, as Sejanus daughter was by the hangman in publike, before their fathers and husbands faces. Noblemens children, and of the wealthiest citizens, reserved for Princes beds, were prostitute to every common souldier, and kept for Concubines;

Senators and Cardinals themselves dragd along the streets, and put to exquisite torments, to confess where there money was hid; the rest murdered on heaps, lay stinking in the streets; Infants brains dashed out before their mothers eyes. A lamentable sight it was to see so goodly a City so suddenly defaced, rich citizens sent a begging to Venice, Naples, Ancona, &c. that erst lived in all maner of delights.

Those proud palaces that even now vaunted their tops up to Heaven, were dejected as low as hell in an instant. Whom will not such misery make discontent?

Terence the Poet drowned himself (some say) for the loss of his Comedies, which suffered shipwrack. When a poor man hath made many hungry meales, got together a small summe, which he loseth in an instant; a Scholar spent many an houres study to no purpose, his labors lost, &c. how should it otherwise be?

I may conclude with Gregory, temporalium amor, quantum afficit, cùm hæret possessio, tantum quum subtrahitur, urit dolor: riches do not so much exhilarate us with their possession, as they torment us with their loss.

Next to Sorrow still I may annex such accidents as procure Fear; for besides those Terrors which I have before touched, and many other fears (which are infinite) there is a superstitious fear, one of the three great causes of fear in Aristotle, commonly caused by prodigies & dismal accidents, which much trouble many of us. (Nescio quid animus mihi præsagit mali.)