¶ Touching these celestiall apparitions, the com|mon doctrine of philosophie is, that they be méere na|turall, and therefore of no great admiration. For of eclipses, as well such as are proper to the sunne, as also those that are peculiar to the moone, the position is not so generallie deliuered, as it is constantlie be|léeued. For the philosophers giue this reason of e|clipses.

In somuch as obseruing them to be ordinarie ac|cidents, they are ouerpassed and nothing regarded. Howbeit Lucane maketh a great matter of eclip|ses,Luc. lib. 1. and of other strange sights precéeding the blou|die battels betweene Pompeie and Cesar; intima|ting thereby, that prodigious woonders, and other rare and vnaccustomed accidents are significations of some notable euent insuing, either to some great personage, to the common-wealth, or to the state of the church. And therefore it is a matter woorth the marking, to compare effects following with signes and woonders before going; since they haue a do|ctrine in them of no small importance. For not ma|nie yeares after, the kings glorie was darkened on earth, nay his pompe and roiall state tooke end; a pre|diction whereof might be imported by the extraordi|narie eclipse of the sunne, a beautifull creature, and the ornament of the skie.