The superstition of the Dibrenses a bordering town in Epirus, besieged by the Turkes, is miraculous almost to report. Because a dead dog was flung into the only fountain which the citie had, they would die of thirst all, rather then drink of that unclean water, and yeeld up the Citie upon any conditions. Though the Prætor and chief Citizens began to drink first, using all good perswasions, their superstition was such, no saying would serve, they must all forthwith die or yeeld up the citie.

Vix ausum ipse credere (saith Barletius) tantam superstitionem, vel affirmare levissimam hanc causam tantæ rei vel magis ridiculam, quum non dubitem risum potius quam admirationem posteris excitaturam. The story was too ridiculous, he was ashamed to report it, because he thought no body would beleeve it.

It is stupend to relate what strange effects this Idolatry and superstition hath brought forth of the latter years in the Indies and those bordering parts: in what feral shapes the Divel is adored, ne quid mali intentent, as they say: for in the mountains betwixt Scanderone and Aleppo at this day, there are dwelling a certain kind of people called Coordes coming of the race of the ancient Parthians, who worship the Divel, and alledge this reason in so doing; God is a good man and will do no harm, but the divel is bad and must be pleased, lest he hurt them.

It is wonderful to tell how the divel deludes them, how he terrifies them, how they offer men, and women sacrifices unto him, an hundred at once, as they did infants in Crete to Saturne of old, the finest children, like Agamemnons Iphigenia, &c.

At Mexico, when the Spaniards first overcame them, they daily sacrificed viva hominum corda è viventium corporibus extracta, the hearts of men yet living, 20000 in a year (Acosta lib.5. cap.20.) to their Idols made of flower and mens blood, and every year six thousand infants of both sexes:

And as prodigious to relate how they burie their wives with husbands deceased, ’tis fearfull to report, and harder to beleeve.

Nam certamen habent lethi quæ viva sequatur Conjugium, pudor est non licuisse mori,

and burn them alive, best goods, servants, horses, when a grandie dies, 12000 at once amongst the Tartars, when a great Cham departs, or an Emperor in America:

how they plague themselves, which abstain from all that hath life, like those old Pythagoreans, with immoderate fastings, as the Bannians about Surat, they of China, that for superstitions sake never eat flesh nor fish all their lives, never marry, but live in deserts and by-places, and some pray to their Idols 24 hours together, without any intermission, biting of their tongues when they have done, for devotions sake.

Some again are brought to that madness by their superstitious Priests, (that tell them such vain stories of immortality, and the joyes of heaven in that other life) that many thousands voluntarily break their own necks, as Cleombrotus Amborciatus Auditors of old, precipitate themselves, that they may participate of that unspeakable happiness in the other world. One poisons, another strangleth himself; and the King of China had done as much, deluded with this vain hope, had he not been detained by his servant.

But who can sufficiently tell of their severall superstitions, vexations, follies, torments? I may conclude with Possevinus, Religio facit asperos mites, homines è feris; superstitio ex hominibus feras, Religion makes wild beasts civil, superstition makes wise men beasts and fools; and the discreetest that are, if they give way to it, are no better then dizards;

nay more, if that of Plotinus be true, is unus religionis scopus, ut ei quem colimus similes fiamus, that’s the drift of religion to make us like him whom we worship: what shall be the end of Idolaters, but to degenerate into stocks and stones? of such as worship these Heathen gods, for dii gentium dæmonia, but to become divels themselves?

’Tis therefore exitiosus error, & maximè periculosus, a most perilous and dangerous error of all others, as Plutarch holds, turbulenta passio hominem consternans, a pestilent, a troublesome passion, that utterly undoeth men. Unhappy superstition, Pliny calls it, morte non finitur, death takes away life, but not superstition. Impious and ignorant are far more happy then they which are superstitious, no torture like to it, none so continuate, so generall, so destructive, so violent.

In this superstitious row, Jewes for antiquitie may go next to Gentiles; what of old they have done, what Idolatries they have committed in their groves and high places? what their Pharisees, Sadduces, Scribes, Essei, and such sectaries have maintained, I will not so much as mention:

for the present, I presume no nation under heaven can be more sottish, ignorant, blinde, superstitious, wilfull, obstinate and peevish, tyring themselves with vain ceremonies to no purpose; he that shall but read their Rabbins ridiculous Comments, their strange interpretation of Scriptures, their absurd ceremonies, fables, childish tales, which they stedfastly beleeve, will think they be scarce rational creatures;