Ficta Religio.

False religion.

Regali residens meretrix pulcherrima sella,[1]
Purpureo insignem gestat honore peplum,
Omnibus & latices pleno è cratere propinat,
At circum cubitans ebria turba iacet.
Sic Babylona notant, quae gentes illice forma,
Et ficta stolidas relligione capit.

A beauteous harlot reclining on a royal seat wears a robe resplendent with purple, the badge of honour. From a full bowl she passes round the cup of drink to all, and round about the drunken crowd sprawls in stupor. Thus they indicate Babylon, who with her alluring beauty takes in the doltish nations with false religion.

Antiquissima quaeque com-
mentitia.

The oldest things are all invented

Pellenaee senex, cui forma est histrica, Proteu, [1]
Qui modò membra viri fers, modò membra feri.
Dic agè quae species ratio te vertit in omnes,
Nulla sit ut vario certa figura tibi?
Signa vetustatis, primaevi & praefero secli: [2]
De quo quisque suo somniat arbitrio.

Proteus, old man of Pallene, whose outward appearance changes like an actor’s, assuming sometimes the body of a man, sometimes that of a beast, come, tell me, what is your reason for turning into all kinds of shapes, so that you have no permanent form as you constantly alter? I offer symbols of antiquity and the very first times, concerning which everyone dreams up what he will.