which may justly be called the rage of furious beasts, that run without reason upon their own deaths:”  [289]_quis malus genius, quae furia quae pestis_, &c.; what plague, what fury brought so devilish, so brutish a thing as war first into men’s minds?  Who made so soft and peaceable a creature, born to love, mercy, meekness, so to rave, rage like beasts, and run on to their own destruction? how may Nature expostulate with mankind, Ego te divinum animal finxi, &c.?  I made thee an harmless, quiet, a divine creature:  how may God expostulate, and all good men? yet, horum facta (as [290]one condoles) tantum admirantur, et heroum numero habent:  these are the brave spirits, the gallants of the world, these admired alone, triumph alone, have statues, crowns, pyramids, obelisks to their eternal fame, that immortal genius attends on them, hac itur ad astra.  When Rhodes was besieged, [291]_fossae urbis cadaveribus repletae sunt_, the ditches were full of dead carcases:  and as when the said Suleiman, great Turk, beleaguered Vienna, they lay level with the top of the walls.  This they make a sport of, and will do it to their friends and confederates, against oaths, vows, promises, by treachery or otherwise; [292]—­dolus an virtus? quis in hoste requirat? leagues and laws of arms, ([293]_silent leges inter arma_,) for their advantage, omnia jura, divina, humana, proculcata plerumque sunt; God’s and men’s laws are trampled under foot, the sword alone determines all; to satisfy their lust and spleen, they care not what they attempt, say, or do, [294]_Rara fides, probitasque viris qui castra sequuntur._ Nothing so common as to have [295] “father fight against the son, brother against brother, kinsman against kinsman, kingdom against kingdom, province against province, Christians against Christians:”  a quibus nec unquam cogitatione fuerunt laesi, of whom they never had offence in thought, word, or deed.  Infinite treasures consumed, towns burned, flourishing cities sacked and ruinated, quodque animus meminisse horret, goodly countries depopulated and left desolate, old inhabitants expelled, trade and traffic decayed, maids deflowered, Virgines nondum thalamis jugatae, et comis nondum positis ephaebi; chaste matrons cry out with Andromache, [296]_Concubitum mox cogar pati ejus, qui interemit Hectorem_, they shall be compelled peradventure to lie with them that erst killed their husbands:  to see rich, poor, sick, sound, lords, servants, eodem omnes incommodo macti, consumed all or maimed, &c. Et quicquid gaudens scelere animus audet, et perversa mens, saith Cyprian, and whatsoever torment, misery, mischief, hell itself, the devil, [297] fury and rage can invent to their own ruin and destruction; so abominable a thing is [298]war, as Gerbelius concludes, adeo foeda et abominanda res est bellum, ex quo hominum caedes, vastationes, &c., the scourge of God, cause, effect, fruit and punishment of sin, and not tonsura humani