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At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus,

At that time, … — When he was cast out by his countrymen, he was heard of at the court. The gospel, as the sea, what it loseth in one place, it getteth in another. But what? had not Herod heard of Christ till now? It is the misery of many good kings that they seldom hear the truth of things. Alphonsus king of Arragon bewailed it. And of Marcus Aurelius, one of the best Roman emperors, it is said, that he was even bought and sold by his court parasites. As for Herod, he may seem to have been of Gallio’s religion, even a mere irreligion. He lay melting in filthy pleasures, and minded not the things above. Whoredom, wine, and new wine had taken away his heart, Hosea 4:11 . St Luke, Luke 9:9 , adds that he desired to see Christ, but yet never stirred out of doors to go to him; good motions make but a thoroughfare of wicked men’s hearts; they pass away as a flash of lightning, that dazzleth the eyes only, and leaves more darkness behind it.

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And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.

And said unto his servants — So seeking a diversion of his inward terrors and torments. Perplexed he was and could find no way out, as St Luke’s word Luke 9:7 importeth. ( Διηπορει , de iis dicitur qui ita perplexi, et impediti quasi in luto tenentur, ut πορον μη ευρισκουσι , exitum non inveniant, Beza.) Conscience will hamper a guilty person, and fill him often with unquestionable conviction and horror. As those that were condemned to be crucified, bare their cross, that should soon after bear them: so God hath laid upon evildoers the cross of their own consciences, that thereon they may suffer afore they suffer; and their greatest enemies need not wish them a greater mischief. For assuredly, a body is not so torn with stripes, as a mind with the remembrance of wicked actions. And here Cain runs to building of cities, Saul to the delight of music, Belshazzar to quaffing and carousing, Herod to his minions and catamites; τοις παισιν αυτου , to his boys, which haply were his serious loves. so to put by, if possible, that melancholy dumps and heartqualms, as they count and call inward terrors. But conscience will not be pacified by these sorry anodynes of the devil. Wicked men may skip and leap up and down for a while, as the wounded deer doth; sed haeret lateri lethalis arundo, the deadly dart sticks fast in their sides, and will do without true repentance, till it hath brought them, as it did Herod, to desperation and destruction, so that he laid violent hands upon himself at Lyons in France, whither he and his courtezan were banished by Augustus. b

This is John the Baptist — Herod had thought to have hugged his Herodias without control when once the Baptist was beheaded; but it proved somewhat otherwise. Indeed so long as he played alone, he was sure to win all. But now conscience came in to play her part, Herod is in a worse case than ever; for he imagined still that he saw and heard that holy head shouting and crying out against him, staring him also in the face at every turn; as that tyrant thought he saw the head of Symmachus, whom he had basely slain, in the mouth of the fish that was set before him on the table. And as Judge Morgan, who gave the sentence of condenmation against the Lady Jane Grey, shortly after he had condemned her, fell mad, and in his raving cried out continually to have the Lady Jane taken away from him, and so ended his life.

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For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife.

For Herod had laid hold on John — If John touch Herod’s white sin (and who will stand still to have his eyes picked out?) John must to prison, without bail or mainprize; The action of procuring the release of a prisoner by becoming surety (‘mainpernor’) for his appearance in court at a specified time. ŒD and there not only be confined, but bound as a malefactor, as a stirrer up of sedition ( Unicum crimen eorum qui crimine vacabant, as Lipsius noteth upon Tacitus). Neither bound only, but beheaded without any law, right, or reason, as though God had known nothing at all of him, as that martyr expresseth it. All this befell the good Baptist, for telling the truth, Veritas odium parit. If conscience might but judge, how many of our hearers would be found to have a Herod’s heart towards their faithful ministers? Were there but a sword (of authority) in their hand, as he said to his ass, they would surely slay them, Numbers 22:29 . They would deal by them no better than Saul did by David, 1 Samuel 18:10 , while he was playing upon his harp to ease Saul’s distracted mind, he cast a spear at him. The most savoury salt (if they can do withal) must be cast out, and trodden underfoot; as Calvin and other faithful ministers were driven out of Geneva at the first; whereupon he uttered these gracious words: Truly, if I had served men, I had been ill rewarded, Certe si hominibus servivissem, male mihi merces persolveretur, … Beza in Vita Salv. but it is well for me that I have served him who never faileth his, but will approve himself a liberal paymaster, a rich rewarder.

And put him in prison — Having first laid hold upon all the principles in his own head that might any way disturb his course in sin, and locked them up in restraint, according to that, Romans 1:18 , wicked men detain the truth, that is, the light of their own consciences (which is as another John Baptist, a prophet from God), this they imprison in unrighteousness, and become fugitives from their own hearts, as Austin hath it. c

For Herodias’ sake, his brother — Quam vulpinando fratri eripuerat, as one phraseth it. Pareus Eccles. Hist. And he had her not only for his wife, but for his mistress; for she ruled him at her pleasure, as Jezebel did Ahab, of which wretched couple it is said, that Regina erat Rex, Rex vero Regina. The Queen was the king, and the king was truly the queen. But it never goes well when the hen crows. How many have we known, whose heads have been broken with their own rib? Satan hath found this bait to take so well, that he never changed it since he crept into Paradise. And it is remarkable, that in that first sentence against man, this cause is expressed, Because thou obeyedst the voice of thy wife,Genesis 3:17; Genesis 3:17 .

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For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.

For John had said unto him, It is not lawful — Others knew it to be so, but none dared tell him so but John. In like sort Elijah told Ahab that he had troubled israel (those times and these did very much suit; John was another Elias, Herod and Herodias answered to Ahab and Jezebel). So Latimer presented for a new year’s gift to King Henry VIII a New Testament, with a napkin, having this posy about it, Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. He also wrote a letter to the king, after the proclamation for abolishing English books; where we may see and marvel at his great boldness and stoutness, who as being yet no bishop, so freely and plainly dared to so mighty a prince, in such a dangerous case, against the king’s proclamation, set out in such a terrible time, take upon him to write and to admonish that which no counsellor dared once speak unto him, in defence of Christ’s gospel. King Asa, though a godly prince, imprisoned the prophet for dealing plainly with him. Archbishop Grindal lost Queen Elizabeth’s favour, and was confined, for favouring prophecies, …, as it was pretended; but in truth, for condemning an unlawful marriage of Julio an Italian physician with another man’s wife, while Leicester in vain opposed against his proceedings therein. (Camd. Elizab.) God’s truth must be told, however it be taken, and not be betrayed (as it is too often) by a cowardly silence.

It is not lawful for thee to have her — And yet the pope frequently dispenseth with such incestuous marriages, King Philip III of Spain, were he now alive, might call the Archduke Albert both brother, cousin, nephew, and son: for all this were he unto him, either by blood or affinity: being uncle to himself, first cousin to his father, husband to his sister, and father to his wife, and all by papal dispensation. Abhorred filth!

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And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.

And when he would have put him to death — Why, what had the good Baptist done, that he must die? The people must be made believe that he suffereth for practising against the king. But this was so thin a falsehood that it might be transparently seen through. Tenue mendacium pellucet. Seneca. Therefore Herod dared not kill him, though he much desired to do it, lest the people should move to rebel. He knew himself hated by them already for his cruelty and other crimes. Now if he should exasperate them afresh by executing the Baptist, whom they highly honoured, who knew what they would do? Tyrants, how terrible soever, have their fears, that curb and keep them in, for a time at least, from many notorious outrages. In the beginning of Queen Mary’s reign, after the tumult at Bourn’s sermon at the Cross (where the people flung daggers, and were ready to pull him limb from limb out of the pulpit, for persuading them to Popery), the Lord Mayor and Aldermen were willed to call a common council, and to signify to the said assembly the Queen’s determination, sc. that albeit her Grace’s conscience is stayed in matter of religion, yet she graciously meant not to compel or strain other men’s consciences, otherwise than God shall, as she trusted, put in their hearts a persuasion of the truth that she is in, through the opening of the word unto them by godly, virtuous, and learned preachers.

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But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod.

But when Herod’s birthday was kept — All this was a mere plot, as St Mark also intimateth, in those words of his, Matthew 6:21 ; "And when a convenient day was come." This birthday then was the day appointed long before by Herod and his harlot for the acting of this tragedy. Res tota ex composito gesta est. Par. A great feast must be prepared, the states invited, the damosel must dance, the king swear, the Baptist thereupon be beheaded, that the Queen may be gratified. And this tragedy was new acted at Paris, A.D. 1572, when the French massacre was committed under pretence of a wedding royal. Cardinal Lorrain gave a great sum of money to him that brought the first news thereof to Rome, and the pope caused it to be painted in his palace.

The daughter of Herodlas danced — Tripudiabat tripped on the toe in a most immodest manner, as they used to do in their bacchanals, as the word signifieth. ωρχησατο, απο των υρχων , a vinearum ordinibus. from a type of wine. This old fornicator seemed to be taken and tickled with the sight, that like a madman he swears to give her her request, to the half of the kingdom, which yet was more than he could do, the kingdom being not his, but the Emperor of Rome’s, to dispose of. So as Robert, Duke of Normandy, passed through Falaise, he beheld among a company of young maids dancing, one Arlet, a tanner’s daughter, whose nimbleness in her dance so enamoured the Duke, that he took her for his concubine, and on her begat our William the Conqueror. Such and no better commonly are the effects of mixed dancings, which made Chrysostom say, Ubi est saltatio, ibi eat diabolus, Where dancing is, there the devil is. And another ancient calleth dancing a circle, whose centre is the devil, blowing up the fire of concupiscence in the hearts both of the actors and spectators. Augustine saith, Omnis motus et saltus petulantice est saltus in profundum cloacae, Every caper in the dance is a leap into a deep outhouse. No sober man doth dance, saith Cicero.

And pleased Herod — Who was now well heated with wine as an oven, Proverbs 23:31 ; Proverbs 23:33 , for then his eyes were apt to behold strange women, and his heart to utter perverse things. Gula Veneris vestibulum: Et Venus in vinis ignis ut igne furit. The throat of Venus into the court, and Venus is the firey wine as wild by fire. But what a monstrous thing it is to behold green apples on a tree in winter, to find youthful lusts in old decrepit goats!

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Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask.

He promised with an oath — He not only swore rashly, but confessed himself bound thereby to perform his oath (as the Greek word ωμολογησεν signifieth), to give her whatsoever she would ask; as Judah did Tamar, and as wantons use to do to their sweethearts. "Ask me never so much dowry and gift," saith Shechem, "and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife," Genesis 34:12 .

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And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger.

And she being before instructed, … — Partus sequitur ventrem, the birth follows the belly. Here was like mother like daughter, neither good bird nor good egg, as they say. Κακου κορακος κακον ωον . The mother and daughter both had an aching tooth at the Baptist, and sought an opportunity to be meet with him ( ενειχεν αυτω , Mark 6:19 ): which now having gotten, they pursued to the utmost. The damosel came with haste to the king, saith St Mark, Mark 6:25 , when once she had her lesson, as fearing, belike, she should come too late. Such another hussy as this was dame Alice Pierce, a concubine to our Edward III. For when as at a parliament in the fiftieth year of that king’s reign, it was petitioned that the Duke of Lancaster, the Lord Latimer, chamberlain, and this dame Alice might be removed from court, and the petition was vehemently urged by their speaker, Sir Peter la Mare; this knight afterwards at the suit of that impudent woman (working upon the king’s impotencies) was committed to perpetual imprisonment at Nottingham. And another such history we have of one Diana Valentina, mistress to Henry II, King of France, whom she had so subdued, that he gave her all the confiscations of goods made in the kingdom for cause of heresy. Whereupon many were burned in France for religion, as they said, but indeed to maintain the pride and satisfy the covetousness of that lewd woman. This was in the year 1554. And in the year 1559, Ann du Bourge, a counsellor of state, was burnt also for crime of heresy; not so much by the inclination of the judges as by the resolution of the queen, provoked against him: because, forsooth, the Lutherans gave out that the king had been slain, as he was running at tilt, by a wound in the eye, by the providence of God, for a punishment of his words used against Du Bourge, that he would see him burnt.

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