histories doo generallie leaue it euident, as a thing either of custome or of particular necessitie, of which later Virgil saith; Sanguine placastis ventos & virgine cæsa, &c. As Silius dooth of the first, where he telleth of the vsuall maner of the Carthaginenses, saieng after this maner; Vrna reducebat miserandos annua casus, &c. But to procéed with our owne gods and idols, more pertinent to my purpose than the rehersall of forreine demeanours: I find that huge temples in like sort were builded vnto them, so that in the time of Lucius, when the light of saluation began stronglie to shine in [Sidenote: _Ptol. Lucensis._] Britaine, thorough the preaching of the gospell, the christians discouered 25. Flamines or idol-churches beside three Archflamines, whose préests were then as our Archbishops are now, in that they had superior charge of all the rest, the other being reputed as inferiours, and subiect to their iurisdiction in cases of religion, and superstitious ceremonies. [Sidenote: Monstrous proportions of idols.] Of the quantities of their idols I speake not, sith it is inough to saie, that they were monstrous, and that each nation contended which should honour the greater blocks, and yet all pretending to haue the iust heigth of the god or goddesse whom they did represent. Apollo Capitolinus that stood at Rome, was thirtie cubits high at the least; Tarentinus Iupiter of 40.; the idoll of the sonne in the Rhodes, of 70 (whose toe few men could fadam;) Tuscanus Apollo that stood in the librarie of the temple of Augustus, of 50. foot; another made vnder Nero of 110. foot; but one in France passed all, which Zenoduris made vnto Mercurie at Aruernum in ten years space, of 400. foot. Wherby it appeareth, that as they were void of moderation in number of gods, so without measure were they also in their proportions, and happie was he which might haue the greatest idoll, and lay most cost thereon.