hey will sooner lose their
life, than their goods: and the grief that cometh hence, continueth long
(saith [2340]Plater) "and out of many dispositions, procureth an habit."
[2341]Montanus and Frisemelica cured a young man of 22 years of age, that
so became melancholy, _ab amissam pecuniam_, for a sum of money which he
had unhappily lost. Sckenkius hath such another story of one melancholy,
because he overshot himself, and spent his stock in unnecessary building.
[2342]Roger that rich bishop of Salisbury, _exutus opibus et castris a Rege
Stephano_, spoiled of his goods by king Stephen, _vi doloris absorptus,
atque in amentiam versus, indecentia fecit_, through grief ran mad, spoke
and did he knew not what. Nothing so familiar, as for men in such cases,
through anguish of mind to make away themselves. A poor fellow went to hang
himself, (which Ausonius hath elegantly expressed in a neat [2343]Epigram)
but finding by chance a pot of money, flung away the rope, and went merrily
home, but he that hid the gold, when he missed it, hanged himself with that
rope which the other man had left, in a discontented humour.

"At qui condiderat, postquam non reperit aurum,
Aptavit collo, quem reperit laqueum."

Such feral accidents can want and penury produce. Be it by suretyship,
shipwreck, fire, spoil and pillage of soldiers, or what loss soever, it
boots not, it will work the like effect, the same desolation in provinces
and cities, as well as private persons. The Romans were miserably dejected
after the battle of Cannae, the men amazed for fear, the stupid women tore
their hair and cried. The Hungarians, when their king Ladislaus and bravest
soldiers were slain by the Turks, _Luctus publicus_, &c. The Venetians when
their forces were overcome by the French king Lewis, the French and Spanish
kings, pope, emperor, all conspired against them, at Cambray, the French
herald denounced open war in the senate: _Lauredane Venetorum dux_, &c.,
and they had lost Padua, Brixia, Verona, Forum Julii, their territories in
the continent, and had now nothing left, but the city of Venice itself, _et
urbi quoque ipsi_ (saith [2344]Bembus) _timendum putarent_, and the loss of
that was likewise to be feared, _tantus repente dolor omnes tenuit, ut
nunquam, alias_, &c., they were pitifully plunged, never before in such
lamentable distress. _Anno_ 1527, when Rome was sacked by Burbonius, the
common soldiers made such spoil, that fair [2345]ch