Hac Munsterus.

Vbi videas quaso Lector, quomodo suo se iugulet gladio, videas inquam hic eadem de incendio Hecla & Atna opinionem & sententiam, qua tamen lib 4.

Eiusdem, admodum est dispar, vt illic ad causas infernales confugiat.

Habet profecto India occidentalis mons quidam flammiuomus aquiores multo, quam hic noster censores & historicos, minime illic barathrum exadificantes: Cuius historiam, quia & breuis est, & non illepida, subijciam, ab Hieronimo Benzone Italo in Historiar noui orbis, lib. 2. his verbis descriptam.

Triginta quinque, inquit, milliarium interuallo abest Legione mons flammiuomus, qui per ingentem craterem tantos sape flammarum globos eructat, vt noctu latissime vltra 10000. passuum incendia reluceant. Nonnullis fuit opinio, intus liquefactum aurum esse, perpetuam ignibus materiam. Itaque Dominicanus quidam monachus cum eius rei periculum facere vellet, ahenum & catenam ferream fabricari curat moxque in montis iugum cum quatuor alijs Hispanis ascendens, catenam cum aheno ad centum quadraginta vlnas in caminum demittit. Ibi ignis feruore, ahenum cum parte catena liquefactum est. Monachus non leuiter iratus Legionem recurrit, fabrum incusat, quod catenam tenuiorem multo, quam iussisset ipse, esset fabricatus. Faber aliam multo crassiorem excudit. Monachus montem repetit: Catenam & lebetem demittit. Res priori incoepto similem exitum habuit. Nec tantum resolutus lebes euanuit, verum etiam flamma globus repente e profundo exsiliens, propemodum & Fratrem & socios absumpsit. Omnes quidem adeo perculsi in vrbem reuersi sunt, vt de eo incoepto exequendo nunquam deinceps cogitarent &c.

O quam censura dispar? In montano India occidentalis camino auram: Islandia vero, infernum quarunt. Sed hoc vt nimis recens, ac veteribus ignotum fortasse reijcient: Cur igitur eundem, quem in Hecla Islandia, animarum in Chimara carcerem, Lycia monte, cuius noctu diuque flamma immortalis perhibetur, non sunt imaginati scriptores? Cur no in Ephesi montibus, quos tada flammante tactos, tantum ignis concipere accepimus, vt lapides quoque & arena in ipsis aquis ardeant, & ex quibus accenso baculo, si quis sulcum traxerit, riuos ignium sequi narrator a Plinio? Cur non in Cophantro Bactrorum monte, noctu semper conflagrante? Cur non in Hiera Insula, medio mari ardente? Cur non in Aolia, similiter in ipso mari olim dies aliquot aliquot accensa? Cur non in Babyloniorum campo, interdiu flagrante? Cur non in Athiopum campis, Stellarum modo, noctu semper nitentibus? Cur non in illo Lipara tumulo, ampla & profunda voragine hiante, teste Aristotele, ad quem non tuto noctu accedatur: ex quo Cymbalorum sonitus, crotalorum boatus, cum insolitis & inconditis cachinnis exaudiantur? Cur non in Neapolitanorum agro ad Puteolos? Cur non in illa superius commemorata Teneriffa pyramide montana, instar Atna, iugiter ardente, & lapides, vt ex Munstero videre est, in aera exspuente? Cur non in illo Aethiopum iugo, quod Plinius testatur, horum omnium maximo aduri incendio? Cur non denique in Vesuuio monte, non sine insigni vicinia clade, & C. Plinij exitiali detrimento, dum insueti incendij causas perscrutaturus venit, nubium tenus flammas cum saxis euomente, pumicum & cinerum ineffabili copia aera replente, & solem meridianum per totam viciniam densissimis tenebris intercipiente? Dicam, & dicam quod res est: Quia scilicet illis, vtpote notioribus, fidem, etsi inferni esse incendia finxissent, minime adhiberi prauidebant: Hecla vero astum, cuius rumor tardius ad eorum aures peruenit, huic commento vanissimo stabiliendo, magis inseruire putabant. Sed facessite: Deprahensa fraus est: Desinite posthac illam de inferno Heklensi opinionem cuiquam velle persuadere. Docuit enim & nos, & alios, vobis inuitis, consimilibus incendijs, operationes suas Natura, non Infernus. Sed videamus iam plura eiusdem farina vulgi mendacia, qua Historicis & Cosmographis nostris adeo male imposuerunt.

The same in English.

THE SEUENTH SECTION.

[Sidenote: Frisius. Munsterus.] The flame of mount Hecla will not burne towe (which is most apt for the wieke of a candle) neither is it quenched with water: and by the same force that bullets are discharged out of warlike engines with vs, from thence are great stones cast foorth into the aire, by reason of the mixture of colde, and fire, and brimstone. This place is thought of some to be the prison of vncleane soules. Item: Zieglerus. This place is the prison of vncleane soules.

Will not burne towe. Where these writers should finde such matters, it is not easie to coniecture. For our people are altogether ignorant of them, neither had they euer bene heard of heere among vs, if they had not brought them to light. For there is no man with vs so rashly and fondly curious, that dareth for his life, the hill being on fire, trie any such conclusions, or (to our knowledge) that euer durst: which notwithstanding Munster affirmeth, saying: They that are desirous to contemplate the nature of so huge a fire, & for the same purpose approch vnto the mountaine, are by some gulfe swallowed vp aliue, &c. which thing (as I sayd) is altogether vnknowen vnto our nation. [Sidenote: Speculum regale written in the Noruagian tongue.] Yet there is a booke extant, written in the ancient language of the Noruagians, wherein you may finde some miracles of earth, water, fire, and aire, &c. confusedly written, few of them true, and the most part vaine and false. Whereupon it easily appeareth that it was written long since by some that were imagined to be great wise men in the time of Popery. [Sidenote: Whence the fables of Island grew.] They called it a royall looking glasse: howbeit, in regard of the fond fables, wherewith (but for the most part vnder the shew of religion and piety, whereby it is more difficult to finde out the cousinage) it doeth all ouer swarme, it deserueth not the name of a looking glasse royall, but rather of a popular, and olde wiues looking glasse. In this glasse there are found certaine figments of the burning of Hecla, not much vnlike these which we now entreat of, nor any whit more grounded vpon experience, and for that cause to be reiected.

But that I may not seeme somewhat foolehardy, for accusing this royall looking glasse of falshood (not to mention any of those things which it reporteth as lesse credible) loe heere a few things (friendly reader) which I suppose deserue no credit at all.

1. Of a certain Isle in Ireland, hauing a church and a parish in it, the inhabitants whereof deceasing are not buried in the earth, but like liuing men, do continually, against some banke or wall in the Churchyard, stand bolt-vpright:

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