besieged began to be in great distress, for want of victuals; when many of the poor people perished by famine, one of the queens chanced to say privately to another, that she did not think it pleasing to God, that the miserable wretches should perish in that manner. The King, who had his own store-houses well furnished, not only for necessity, but even for luxury and abundance, hearing of her speeches, brings her into the open market-place, with her fellows, and, commanding her to kneel down, strikes off her head, and, when she was dead, brands her with lightness, and playing the whore. This done, the other queens applaud his doings, and give thanks to the heavenly Father. The King begins to dance, and invites the people, who fed upon nothing but bread and salt, to dancing and merriment.

When Easter was come, at which time the King had, with great confidence, assured the people, they should be freed, but no shew of freedom appeared; to find an excuse, he feigns himself sick, and keeps in for six days: Then comes out into the assembly, tells them, he had, in a vision, been set upon a blind ass; and that the heavenly Father had laid upon him the sins of all the multitude, and therefore, now, they were almost pure and clean purged from all iniquities. That this was the freedom he had promised unto them, and, with this, they ought to be contented.

Luther, hearing of the wild pranks of these mad men of Munster, about this time, published a discourse, concerning the Anabaptists, in the vulgar tongue; he said, it was very plain to all the world, that Munster was become the harbour and habitation of devils; for so the justice of God had punished the sins of Germany, and especially their loose and prophane life, that professed the gospel. That yet, in this very tragedy of Munster, the marvellous mercy of God evidently appeared, in that he had not permitted that old subtle serpent, the witty and cunning Satan, to contrive and govern that business; but only had given way to some silly, dull, and blockish devil, who seemed not well skilled in villainy, to be their guide and conductor. That the grossness and stupidity of all their doctrines and doings made faith of the dullness of that lewd spirit, which moved them. That their polygamies, their seditions, and rebellions might trouble the state, but could not hinder or do prejudice to the church, or gospel of Christ, to which they are so palpably contrary.

That no man of sense, or in his right wits, could be perverted by such means, or induced to favour such lewd people, or their practices. He further added a particular confutation of their principal errors.

In the month of April, King Ferdinand, at the request of the princes, held a diet of the empire at Worms, where, after some debate, it was agreed, that twenty-thousand crowns, by the month, should be levied for the taking in of the city, and the chastisement of the rebels; and withal, that, when it was taken, the innocent poor people, who had been abused, should be used with mercy, and restitution made to such honest men, as had been robbed of their estates, in this tumult. Hereupon, the bishop delivers over the army unto the General Oberstein.

In the city, the famine still increased, and the miserable perished in

affirmed, that, if in the time of Newhaven we had let them have six" thousand of our armed pikes, they would have marched through all France; so highly esteemed they the pike, who nevertheless, in our judgment, seem to have given over the same, or to make small account thereof.

Moreover, for the better and readier ordering and training of your men in every shire: Those, that are appointed to be captains, should have, under every of their several charges, only one sort of weapons, viz. one captain to have the charge of pikes, another of shot, &c. And no man's band to be less than two hundred men. By means whereof, your serjeant-major, or such to whom you shall commit the order of your footmen, may, from time to time, readily know the numbers of every sort of weapons, whereby he will at one instant range them into any order and form of battle you will have them. And every captain and his officers shall serve with their own men, which is a matter of great contentment to both captain and soldier. For otherwise, if he have charge of more sorts of weapons, then must he either disjoin himself from his officers in time of service, or else he must commit his men under another man's direction, which breedeth oftentimes great disliking and murmur.

Orders for the provision and guard of the Beacons.

FIRST, That the beacons be provided of good matter and stuff, as well for the sudden kindling of the fires, as also for the continuance thereof.

That the beacons and watch-places, appointed to give warning unto the country, of the landing or invasion of the enemy, be substantially guarded with a sufficient company; whereof, one principal person of good discretion to have the chief charge, at all times, of every

beacon.

That the beacons that are next to the sea-side, and are appointed to give the first warning, may be very sufficiently guarded, as well with horsemen as footmen, whereof some discreet soldier, or man of judgment, to have the chief charge, as hath been said before, who must be very respective and careful, that he give hot any alarm upon light matter or occasion: Nothing being more dangerous than false alarms to breed a contempt and security.

Your horsemen must be ready to give warning to the other beacons in the country, lest by weather they may be prevented, that they cannot kindle fire, or else the enemy may hinder them by sudden assault; and so either let the kindling of them, or extinguish the fire newly kindled, before the other beacons can take knowledge thereof. For it is always to be feared, that the enemy will seek, by all means and policy, not only to surprise the beacons, that are next the sea-side, and should give first intelligence unto the country; but also such as are appointed to guard them, if their watchfulness prevent them not.

Other necessary notes to be observed.

THAT there may be order taken to have a store of powder, match, bullets ready cast, moulds of divers bores, charges, bow-strings, shooting gloves, warlrasses, and such other necessaries fit to be used at that time: Whereof (I doubt me) whether the whole shire be able to furnish the tenth part, that would be required. Whereof it were good to be provided aforehand, and brought in carts, to those places of assembly; whereby men may be readily furnished for their money, and the service nothing hindered in time of need.

That it be looked unto, by such as have charge to take the view of men, and their weapons, that every shot be provided of a mould, a priming pin, a ferries, a flint, and match powder, which things are as needful to be seen into, as the piece itself, although few provide and make reckoning thereof.

That, in the said musters and assemblies, there be good numbers of labourers appointed, who may also be assigned to have a spade, a mattock, a shovel, an ax, or a bill. And these pioneers, to resort to the places of assembly, at every alarm; over whom, should be a skilful engineer appointed, to have the chief charge and govern

ment.

And, whereas you have great numbers of hacknies or hobblers, I could wish, that upon them you mount as many of the highest and nimblest shot as you can, which may be sent down to the sea-side upon every alarm, or to such streights and places of advantage, as to a discreet leader shall seem convenient. The which arguliteers shall stand you in as great stead, as horse of better account,

For, by the means of them, men will take great courage to offer a proud attempt upon the enemy, being assured of their succour, if any occasion or appearance of danger force them to retire.

It were considerable, that all the youth of the land were well prepared with bows and arrows. For in woody places, or behind banks, or in other places these might annoy the horse and men: Witness the brave battles atchieved in France, by bowmen; and these arms would supply many thousands, which are not able to get better.

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A

WARNING FOR ENGLAND,

ESPECIALLY FOR LONDON;

IN THE

FAMOUS HISTORY OF THE FRANTICK ANABAPTISTS,

Their wild preachings and practices in Germany.

Printed in the Year 1642. Quarto, containing twenty-eight pages.

the of our Lord 1525, all was put into an

uproar and confusion, by the seditious preaching of some turbulent ministers. The ringleader among them was one Thomas Muncer, who pretending a wonderful and more than ordinary zeal, having with great passion preached against the popish errors, at length began to preach against Luther, terming him as too cold, and his sermons as not savouring enough of the spirit; with great earnestness he pressed the exercises of mortification, and exhorted to a more frequent and familiar conversation with God; he pretended to some divine revelations, that God by dreams and visions did reveal unto his saints his will. By these discourses, he won a great opinion and reputation with the people, who daily flocked after him and admired him as a man divinely inspired: At length he began more plainly to publish his design, and told his followers, that he had received a command from God to kill and root up all wicked princes and magistrates, and to chuse better in their places.

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Frederick, Elector of Saxony, hearing of these his seditious sermons, banished him out of his country; from thence he went first to Norrenburg, then to Mulhuse; every where poisoning the people with his seditious doctrine; because the senators of Mulhuse, and the better sort, disliked him, he wrought so effectually with the base people, that, rising in a tumult, they turned out their chief magistrates, and created others. So that now Muncer was not only a preacher, but a senator; whatsoever he commanded, was done, his pleasure was a law, and his direction in all things, as he said, a divine revelation. He taught a community of all goods to be most agreeable to nature, and that all freemen ought to be equal in dignity and condition. By this means he gathered great companies of mean people, who, leaving their labours, thought fit and just to take part with others of better wealth

and store.

In Swevia and Franconia, near forty thousand peasants took arms

upon this occasion; who robbed a great part of the nobility, and plundered many towns and castles, Muncer, being their chief captain. He had a companion, a bold fellow, one Phifer, who talked much of his dreams and nightly apparitions; especially of one dream, wherein, he said, he saw in a barn an infinite company of rats and mice, all which he had chaced away and destroyed: This dream he expounded to be a commandment sent him from God, that by force and violence he should destroy all the nobility. And Muncer, to the same purpose, moved the boors throughout Franconia and Thuringia to undertake this holy war, as he called it, against their princes. Phifer, with some of his troops going out into the neighbour-country, wastes and destroys noblemen's houses, chaceth away the most, taketh some, and bringeth them captives. This good success gave great courage to the party. Muncer wins his forces with the rest of Phifers.

In the mean while, Albert Count of Mansfield, setting upon them with some troopers, kills about two hundred. The seditious, discouraged with this loss, retire a while and keep in. This gave leisure and time to the neighbouring princes, John Duke of Saxony and his Cousin George, Philip Landgrave of Hesse, and Henry Duke of Brunswick, to collect some forces against them, about one thousand five hundred horse and some companies of foot. The rebels sat down on the side of a mount where they had some advantage of the place, but they were not well armed, and most of them ignorant in war. The princes therefore out of pity advised them to lay down their arms, and offered them pardon, if they would deliver up the authors of the sedition. Muncer, finding himself in some danger, encourageth them with a long and earnest exhortation; pretends, That this great action was undertaken by command from heaven, that God would undoubtedly assist them against the tyrants; that he had promised in many places of scripture to assist the oppressed against their wicked governors; that those tyrants, so he called the princes, followed only their ease and pleasures; neglected justice; pillaged their subjects with intolerable exactions; had no care to reform the corruptions of the church; spent all their life in pride and luxury: That therefore, without doubt, the time was now come, when God would take vengeance upon those Canaanites, and restore to his own good people the liberties of their goods, their lives, and consciences: That, as God had assisted Gideon, and David, and the Israelites, and gave them victories by miracles, so they should now find his power and love no less in their deliverance; and, for a token of his especial favour, mark, said he, yonder rainbow in the clouds, which, being represented in our own colours, God hereby giveth us an evident testimony that he is present with us in this battle, and will root out our enemies."

Some few of the more desperate were animated with this oration, and especially with the rainbow; but the most of them apprehended the instant danger, and the rather, because in their army all was carried tumultuously without any rule or order. Muncer, against the law of arms and of nations, had killed a noble young gentleman who was sent to parly with them. The princes being the more provoked with this cruelty prepared for the onset. Philip the young prince of Hesse spoke