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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	part_n	write_v	2,284	5	5.4903	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54396	The devill of Mascon, or, A true relation of the chiefe things which an unclean spirit did, and said at Mascon in Burgundy in the house of Mr. Francis Pereaud, minister of the Reformed Church in the same towne / published in French lately by himselfe ; and now made English by one that hath a particular knowledge of the truth of this story.; Antidémon de Mascon. English	Perrault, François, 1577-1657.; Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.	1658 (1658)	Wing P1584; ESTC R40060	21,898	64

THE Devill of Mascon OR A true Relation of the chiefe things which an uncleane Spirit did and said at Mascon in Burgundy in the House of Mr Francis Perreand Minister of the Reformed Church in the same Towne Published in French lately by himselfe And now made English by one that hath a particular knowledge of the truth of this Story OXFORD Printed by HEN HALL Printer to the UNIVERSITY for RICH: DAVIS 1658. TO MY REVEREND AND LEARNED FRIEND Doctor Peter Du Moulin Sir THough I suppose you will looke upon my sending you Monsieur Perreauds French booke as a minding you of the promise you were the other day pleased to make me of putting it into an English dresse Yet I hope you will doe me the right to believe that if the subject were not extraordinary if my own pen were not as you know it is preingaged to a theme of a very distant nature I should think it injurious to the publique and to you to be accessary to his turning translatour of anothers bookes that hath already manifested in severall languages how able he is to write excellent ones of his own I must freely confesse to you that the powerfull inclinations which my course of life studies hath given me to diffidence backwardnesse of assent the many fictions and superstitions which as farre as I have hitherto observed are wont to blemish the relations where spirits witches are concerned would make me very backward to contribute any thing to your publishing or any mans believing a story lesse strange then this of Monsieur Perreand But the conversation I had with that pious Author during my stay at Geneva and the present he was pleased to make me of this Treatise before it was printed in a place where I had opportunities to enquire both after the writer and some passages of the booke did at length overcome in me as to this narrative all my settled in disposednesse to believe strange things And sinc I find that you have received an account both of Monsieur Perreand himselfe and severall things relating to his booke from that great scholar and excellent person your Father I have no reson to doubt but that as your skill in the tongues out of which and into which this treatise is to be translated will bring it the greatest advantages that it can receive from a translators pen So the reputation which your and your learned Fathers names will give it will prove as effectuall as any thing of that nature can be to make wary readers as much believe even the amazing passages of it as I hope you doe that great truth of my being in a high degree Sir Your very affectionate friend and humble servant ROBERT BOYLE TO THE HONORABLE AND MOST EMINENT IN GOODNES AND LEARNING Mr Robert Boyle Sir IN obdedience to the charge which you have beene pleased to lay upon me I have translated this admirable story worthy to be knowne of all men and of singular use to convince the Atheists and halfe believers of these times Most of which will perswade themselves that there is no such thing in the world as any spirituall immateriall intelligent substance And some of them will say that which most of them thinke That if they could have any certainty that there are Devills they would believe also that there is a God And Satan to confirme these pretenders to the title of strong wits in their pernicious unbeliefe will scarce once in an age discover himselfe in any visible or audible manner but either to the rudest poore people and the most bestial natures in some remote barren heath or if he converse with Magicians whose wit is of a forme somewhat higher it is onely in secret conference that the confessions of the first sort may be ascribed to the fumes of grosse and terrestriall melancholy as the onely Devill that frameth meetings and dances of witches in their braines and that the profession of the other sort may be imputed to the imposture of wicked men such as all Magicians are Likewise when they are told of persons possest or obsest with Devils they ascribe those disorders to sicknesse or juggling And the truth is that the Devill doth most harme where he is least seene heard and suspected Wherefore I verily beleive that he hath not in many ages done more wrong to his kingdome then in disclosing himselfe so plainely and sensibly as he did in the passages here related for thereby he hath left no shift for the unbeliefe of reasoning Atheists And though this was a witty Devill yet in that respect he was not well read in the Politiques of Hell Many relations are extant of manifestations of Daemons the most certaine are in the history of the Gospell how the Devils spake alowd out of possessed bodies in the presence of great multitudes which they did constrained and frighted by the presence of the Lord of life their Soveraine and their Judge But no history either sacred or profane antient or moderne relateth such a voluntary publique continued and undeniable manifestation of the wicked Spirit as this doeth For this familiar conversation of the Devill was not with Magicians and witches but with godly men And it was not in a corner or in a desert but in the midst of a great city in a house where there was daily a great resort to heare him speake and where men of contrary religions met together whose pronenesse to cast a disgrace upon the dissenting parties did occasion the narrow examining and the full confirming of the truth thereof both by the Magistrate and by the Diocesan of the place All these particulars and many more have beene related to my Reverend Father when he was President of a National Synod in those parts by the man that was most concerned in them the Author of this booke a religious well poised and venerable Divine who if he be a live still is above 80 yeares of age He writ this relation when it was fresh in his memory yet did not publish it but 41 yeares after in the yeare 1653 being compelled to it by the many various and therefore some false relations of that story which were scattered abroad With this he set out a Treatise about Demons and witches which he intituled Demonologia a booke worth reading His behaviour in all these passages was prudent couragious and godly for he allwaies resisted the Devill in his severall postures whether of an Angell of light or of an open enemy of God He was tempted by the evill Spirit sometimes to curiosity sometimes to covetousnesse sometimes to feare sometimes to jesting and merriment But the good man was alwaies alike grave constant and serious in rebuking Satan and using the weapons of righteousnes against him on the right hand and on the left And he was not disappointed of his trust in God for in all the time of that persecution God permitted not that stirring Devill to doe him any harme or to any

wall and the river of Saone but the Demon threw it up to him againe and that it was the same stone he knew it by the marke of the coale Tornus taking up that stone found it very hot and said he believed it had beene in hell since he had handled it first Finally after all these words and actions the Demon went away the 22 day of December And the next day a very great viper was seene going out of my house and was taken with long pincers by some naylours our neighbours who carried it all over the towne crying Here is the Devill that came out of the Ministers house and finally left it at one William Clarke's house Apothecary where it was found to be a true and naturall viper a serpent rare in that countrey All the time that the Demon haunted my house God permitted him not to doe us any harme neither in our persons nor in our goods Those bells which he did so tosse and carry about he hanged at a naile over the chimney of the roome where he was most conversant the day that he left the house He had not so much power given him as to teare one lease of my bookes or to breake one glasse or to put out the candle which we kept lighted all the night long Wherefore I bow my knees and will as long as I live unto my gracious God to give him thanks for that great mercy This is the plaine and true relation of that Demons words and actions And Marcelin a Capuchin that preacht at the same time at Mascon hath truly related many of these passages in a booke of his printed at Grenable against Mr Bouterove saying that he had the story from diverse persons especially from Mr Fovillard Lievtenant Generall in the Balliage of Mascon who upon the generall rumour of that strange accident sent his brother in law Mr Francis Gucrin and Mr Guichard an Advocate to my house to desire me to come to him as I did to tell him the whole matter Yet by Marcellins leave it is not true that which he and other prejudicate and passionate men doe inferre out of it to disgrace my person and my profession namely that I had communication with evill Spirits For God beares witnesse to my conscience that I never had communication with those horrible creatures and know no more of them then what it hath pleased his divine wisdome to let me know by his word by this domestique experience and that my chiefe curiosity was to improve the little talent which God hath given me to instruct my selfe and others in the true and solid science of eternall salvation which is to know him the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent And truly Marcellin and others that have spoken and written of this history to my disadvantage herein contradict both Mr Fovillard Lievtenant Generall of Mascon and the Lord Gaspard Divet then Bishop of Mascon who upon the common report of these passages sent for Mr Tornus to know the truth of them And for more certainty sent his owne Secretary Mr Chamber to learne the particulars of them from mine owne mouth to whom I related all without concealing or disguising any thing These two Gentlemen Tornus and Chamber have told me since that the Bishop had heard that story with great admiration and had made some records of the same If any now enquire of me what may the cause be of this admirable accident as there is nothing more ordinary or more naturall to every man then to enquire of the causes especially of things extraordinary I will answere that considering the circumstances of time and place and persons which I had then to doe with many causes seeme to have concurred for it First whereas there are times in which Devils are in a manner unchained and have more liberty to doe their feats and other times when they are tyed short and restrained from acting as we learne in the twentieth chapter of the Revelation Truly one may with good reason say that when the Demon made himselfe so bold in my house it was a time when the Devill was as it were let loose for then the world was full of stories of the extraordinary pranks of those wicked Spirits This may be justified by the booke written by Mr de l' Anere one of the Kings Counsellours joined in Commission with Mr D' Espagnet President at Tolosa to Judge the witches of the country of Labour otherwise the Countrey of the Basques neere the Pyrenean mountaines the title of the booke is A representation of the inconstancy of Demons and wicked Spirits where such strange and horrible things are represented as will make the readers haire to stand To which joine the horrible story of Lewis Gauffredi a Priest of Marseilles one of the greatest instruments of the Devill that ever Hell brought forth who had beene burnt a little before by the order of the Court of Parliament of Aix in Province At the same time a Demon appeared at Lyons in the shape of a fine Gentlewoman to the Lieutenant of the Knight of the watch named la Jacquiere and to two others of his companions which three had carnall knowledge of that Demon and thereby came to a most tragicall and fearefull end Which story is printed among many other tragicall stories of our time At the same time which was in the year 1612 the like story to that of Lyons was publisht how in Paris the first of January of that yeare a person of quality had cohabitation with a Demon which to him appeared a beautifull Lady but the next morning that Lady being visited by Justices and Physitians was found to be the body of a woman that had beene hanged a few dayes before About the same time the prisons of Mascon were filled with a great number of men and women young and old of the village of Chasselas and other townes neere it all indicted of witchcraft who being condemned at Mascon appealed to the Court of the Parliament of Paris and were conducted to Paris by a massinger and some guards In the way a coach met them and in it a man that looked like a Judge who staid and asked the massinger what prisoners he led whence they came and whether they went The massinger having satisfied him the man if one may call him so eying these prisoners sayd to one of them calling him by his name Ho now art thou one of them Feare nothing for neither thou nor any of thy company shall suffer And his words proved true For soone after they were all released At the same time a girle of Mascon about 13 or 14 yeares of age daughter to one of the chiefe citizens of the towne lying with the mayd of the house perceived that she absented her selfe many times in the night and once asked her whence she came the maid answered that she came from a place where there was good company gallant dansing and all kinds