cap.
31._ Pinaeus of Paris, Albertus Magnus _de secret. mulier. cap. 9 & 10._
&c. and think they speak too much in favour of women. [6143] Ludovicus
Boncialus _lib. 4. cap. 2. muliebr._ _naturalem illam uteri labiorum
constrictionem, in qua virginitatem consistere volunt, astringentibus
medicinis fieri posse vendicat, et si defloratae sint, astutae
[6144]mulieres (inquit) nos fallunt in his. Idem Alsarius Crucius Genuensis
iisdem fere verbis_. Idem Avicenna _lib. 3. Fen. 20. Tract. 1, cap. 47._
[6145]Rhasis _Continent. lib. 24._ Rodericus a Castro _de nat. mul. lib. 1.
cap. 3._ An old bawdy nurse in [6146]Aristaenetus, (like that Spanish
Caelestina, [6147]_quae, quinque mille virgines fecit mulieres, totidemque
mulieres arte sua virgines_) when a fair maid of her acquaintance wept and
made her moan to her, how she had been deflowered, and now ready to be
married, was afraid it would be perceived, comfortably replied, _Noli
vereri filia_, &c. "Fear not, daughter, I'll teach thee a trick to help
it." _Sed haec extra callem._ To what end are all those astrological
questions, _an sit virgo, an sit casta, an sit mulier_? and such strange
absurd trials in Albertus Magnus, Bap. Porta, _Mag. lib. 2. cap. 21._ in
Wecker. _lib. 5. de secret_, by stones, perfumes, to make them piss, and
confess I know not what in their sleep; some jealous brain was the first
founder of them. And to what passion may we ascribe those severe laws
against jealousy, Num. v. 14, Adulterers Deut. cap. 22. v. xxii. as amongst
the Hebrews, amongst the Egyptians (read [6148]Bohemus _l. 1. c. 5. de mor.
gen._ of the Carthaginians, _cap. 6._ of Turks, _lib. 2. cap. 11._) amongst
the Athenians of old, Italians at this day, wherein they are to be severely
punished, cut in pieces, burned, _vivi-comburio_, buried alive, with
several expurgations, &c. are they not as so many symptoms of incredible
jealousy? we may say the same of those vestal virgins that fetched water in
a sieve, as Tatia did in Rome, _anno ab. urb. condita 800._ before the
senators; and [6149]Aemilia, _virgo innocens_, that ran over hot irons, as
Emma, Edward the Confessor's mother did, the king himself being a
spectator, with the like. We read in Nicephorus, that Chunegunda the wife
of Henricus Bavarus emperor, suspected of adultery, _insimulata adulterii
per ignitos vomeres illaesa transiit_, trod upon red hot coulters, and had
no harm: such another story we find in Regino _lib. 2._ In Aventinus