travelling that way, (seeking not her but hers) leaves a nephew of his, a proper young gallant (as if he had been sick) with her, till he came back again, and gives the young man charge so long to counterfeit, till he had deflowered the abbess, and as many besides of the nuns as he could, and leaves him withal rings, jewels, girdles, and such toys to give them still, when they came to visit him.  The young man, willing to undergo such a business, played his part so well, that in short space he got up most of their bellies, and when he had done, told his lord how he had sped:  [5139]his lord made instantly to the court, tells the king how such a nunnery was become a bawdy-house, procures a visitation, gets them to be turned out, and begs the lands to his own use.”  This story I do therefore repeat, that you may see of what force these enticements are, if they be opportunely used, and how hard it is even for the most averse and sanctified souls to resist such allurements.  John Major in the life of John the monk, that lived in the days of Theodosius, commends the hermit to have been a man of singular continency, and of a most austere life; but one night by chance the devil came to his cell in the habit of a young market wench that had lost her way, and desired for God’s sake some lodging with him. [5140]"The old man let her in, and after some common conference of her mishap, she began to inveigle him with lascivious talk and jests, to play with his beard, to kiss him, and do worse, till at last she overcame him.  As he went to address himself to that business, she vanished on a sudden, and the devils in the air laughed him to scorn.”  Whether this be a true story, or a tale, I will not much contend, it serves to illustrate this which I have said.

Yet were it so, that these of which I have hitherto spoken, and such like enticing baits, be not sufficient, there be many others, which will of themselves intend this passion of burning lust, amongst which, dancing is none of the least; and it is an engine of such force, I may not omit it. Incitamentum libidinis, Petrarch calls it, the spur of lust.  “A [5141] circle of which the devil himself is the centre. [5142]Many women that use it, have come dishonest home, most indifferent, none better.” [5143] Another terms it “the companion of all filthy delights and enticements, and ’tis not easily told what inconveniences come by it, what scurrile talk, obscene actions,” and many times such monstrous gestures, such lascivious motions, such wanton tunes, meretricious kisses, homely embracings.

[5144]  ------“(ut Gaditana canoro
Incipiat prurire choro, plausuque probatae
Ad terram tremula descendant clune puellae,
Irritamentum Veneris languentis)”------

that it will make the spectators mad.  When that epitomiser of [5145]Trogus had to the full described and set out King Ptolemy’s riot as a chief engine and instrument of his overthrow, he adds, tympanum et tripudium, fiddling and dancing:  “the