Besides Also, It Is Most True, That The Very Same Yse Being Melted With The Heat Of The Sunne, & Resolued

Into water, vpon the vpper part therof, standeth fishermen in as good stead to quench their thirst, as any land-

Riuer would do, which thing can no way be ascribed to a spirituall substance. It is not therefore spirituall, nor yet infernall. Now none wilbe so bold to affirme, that it hath celestiall matter, least some man perhaps might hereupon imagine, that this ise hath brought hell (which the historiographers annexe vnto it) downe from heauen together with it selfe: or that the same thing should be common vnto heauen, being of one & the same matter with ise, & so that the prison of the damned may be thought to haue changed places with the heauenly paradise, & all by the ouersight of these Historiographers. Wherfore seeing the matter of this historicall ise is neither elementarie (as we haue so often proued by this place of Frisius) neither spirituall, nor infernall, both which we haue concluded euidently in short, yet sound and substanciall reasons: nor yet celestiall matter, which, religion forbiddeth a man once to imagine: it is altogether manifest, that according to the said historiographers, there is no such thing at all, which notwithstanding they blaze abroad with such astonishing admiration, & which we thinke to be an ordinary matter commonly seene and felt. Therefore it is, and it is not: which proposition when it shall fall out true, in the same respect, in the same part, and at the same time, then will we giue credite to these frozen miracles. Now therefore the Reader may easily iudge, that wee need none other helpe to refute these things, but onely to shew how they disagree one with another. But it is no maruell that he, which hath once enclined himselfe to the fabulous reports of the common people, should oftentimes fall into error. There was a like strange thing inuented by another concerning the sympathy or conioining of this ise: namely, that it followeth the departure of that huge lumpe, whereof it is a part, so narrowly, & so swiftly, that a man by no diligence can obserue it, by reason of the vnchangeable necessitie of following. But we haue oftentimes seene such a solitarie lumpe of ise remaining (after the other parts thereof were driuen away) and lying vpon the shore for many weekes together, without any posts or engines at all to stay it. Therefore it is plaine that these miracles of ise are grounded vpon a more slippery foundation then ise it selfe.

SECTIO VNDECIMA.

[Sidenote: Frisius.] Non procat ab his montibus, (tribus pradictis) ad maritimas oras vergentibus, sunt quatuor fontes diuersissima natura. Vnus suo perpetuo ardore omne corpus sibi immissum raptim conuertit in saxum, manente tamen priore forma. Alter est algoris intolrerabilis. Tertius vel melle dulcior & restinguenda siti iucundissimus. Quartus plane exitialis, pestilens, & virulentus.

Etiam hac fontium topographia satis aperte monstrat, quam ex impuro fonte has suas narrationes omnes miraculosas hauserit Geographus. Id enim dicere videtur: Montes hos tres pradictos fere, contiguos esse: Siquidem tribus montibus quatuor fontes indiscrete adscribit. Alioqui si non vicinos statuisset, vni alicui horam duos fontes adscripsisset. Sed neque hi montes contigui sunt (quippe multis milliaribus inuicem dissiti) neque iuxta hos fontes illi quatuor reperiuntur: quod, qui credere nolit, experiatur. Caterum ad hac confundenda sufficit, credo, ipsorum historicorum contrarietas. Nam de duobas fontibas quidam Frisio his verbis contradicit. Erumpunt ex eodem monte (Hecla) fontes duo, quorum alter equarum frigiditate, alter feruore intolerabili exedit omnem elementarem vim. Hi duo sunt primi illi Frisij fontes, nisi quod hic miraculum indurandi corpora, alteri fontium attributum, omissum sit. Atqui non simul possunt ex ipso monte, & iuxta montem erumpere.

Hic vero libenter quasierim, qua ratione quisquam ex Peripatecicis dicat, aliquid ipso elemento aqua frigidius, aut igne calidius? Vnde demum, scriptores, ista frigiditas? Vnde iste feruor? Nonne e Schola vestra accepimus aquam esse elementum frigidissimum & humidum, atque adeo fngidissimum, vt ad constituendas qualitates secundas, remitti sit necesse, nec simplicem vsibus humanis inseruire? (Hac ego nunc Physicorum oracula fundo, vera an falsa, nescio). Testis est vnus omnium, & pro omnibus, Iohannes Fernelius lib. 2. Physiologia, cap. 4. Sic, inquit, qualitates ha (quatuor prima) quatuor rerum naturis summa obtigerunt, vt quemadmodum paro igne nihil calidius, nihilque leuius: Sic terra nihil siccius, nihil grauius: Aquam sinceram, nullius medicamenti vis gelida euincet, vt nec aerem, vllius humor. Summa praterea sic illis insunt, vt ne minimum quidem possint augescere, remitti vero possint. Nolo huc rationes seu argumenta Physicorum aggregare. Vnum profecto hic cauendum est, ne dum fontium miracula pradicant scriptores, vt glaciem Islandorum, ita etiam fontes creatorum numero eximant. Nos fontium adiuncta, qua huc scriptores pertraxerunt ordine persequemur. Primus suo perpetuo calore: Plurima sunt in Islandia therma seu fontes calidi: Pauciores ardentes: quos neque cuiquam miraculo esse debere existimamus, cum huiusmodi, vt a scriptoribus didici, passim abundet Germania, pracipue in ijs locis, qua non sunt procul ab Alpium radicibus. Nota est fama thermarum Badensium, Gebarsuiliensium, Calbensium, in ducatu Wirtebergensi, & multarum aliarum quarum meminit Fuchsius in lib. de arte medendi. Et non solum Germania, sed etiam Gallia, & longe magis omnium bonorum parens Italia, inquit Cardanus. Et Aristoteles narrat, circa Epyrum calidas aquas scaturire, vnde locus Pyriphlegeton appellatur. Atque inquam, hac ideo minus miranda, quod vt incendij montani, ita feruoris aquei caussas indagarint Natura speculatores: Aquam scilicet per terra venas sulphureas, aut aluminosas labi, indeque non calorem solum, sed saporem etiam & virtutes alienas concipere. Docuit hoc Aristoteles libro de mundo. Continet, inquit, terra in se multos fontes, vt aqua, ita & spiritus & ignis: Quidam amnium more fluunt, & vel ignescens eijciunt ferrum: Nunc tepida aqua erumpunt, nunc feruentissima, nunc temperata. [Sidenote: Lib 3. Nat. quast.] Et Seneca: Empedocles existimabat ignibus, quos multis locis apertos tegit terra, aquam calescere, si subiecti sint solo, per quod aqua transitus est. Et scite de thermis Baianis Pontanus.

Baiano sed ne fumare in littore thermas Mirere, aut liquidis fluitare incendia venis: Vulcani fora sulphureis incensa caminis Ipsa monent, late multum tellure sub ima Debacchari ignem, camposque exurere opertos. Inde fluit, calidum referens ex igne vaporem, Vnda fugax, tectis feruent & balnea flammis.

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