Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	faith_n	grace_n	2,759	5	6.0361	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16950	A true discourse, vpon the matter of Martha Brossier of Romorantin pretended to be possessed by a deuill. Translated out of French into English, by Abraham Hartvvel.; Discours veritable sur le faicte de Marthe Brossier. English.	Marescot, Michel, 1539-1605, attributed name. aut; Pietre, Simon, ca. 1525-1584, attributed name. aut; Le Bouthillier, attributed name. aut; Hartwell, Abraham, b. 1553.	1599 (1599)	STC 3841; ESTC S113238	24,481	52

the sinew of true wisedome and the Apostle forbiddeth vs to beleeue euery Spirit The faith of Christians is greatly commended but the credulitie of Magicians is much reprehended as being so great that it taketh away beliefe from all things and is the cause that by beleeuing euery thing though neuer so absurd in the end men will no more beleeue any thing at all Credulous Antiquitie hath bin deceiued by the delusions of Deuils and drawne to superstition and idolatrie but Christian Religion hath been alwaies contrarie to such deceits to the end that the honor of the true God and sinceritie of faith might be preserued And this was the cause that by the craft and subtiltie of the Deuill Christians had an euill report and were by these Sorcerers and Deceiuers expelled when they went about to work any of their delusions for then would they cause to bee proclaimed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Foorth Christians Faith is a sure and certeine way to come to veritie saluation and wisedome but too great credulitie is the path that leadeth headlong to falsehood fraud follie and superstition This difference of faith and credulitie may bee shewed by many examples of ancient times but there is none of them more worthie to bee written and knowne in these daies then the Historie of Martha Brossier of Romorantin pretended to bee possessed with a Spirit Many Prelates Diuines and Phisitians all of them acknowledging according to the Christian Faith that wicked Spirits doe enter into the bodies of men and that by the commaundement and word of God they are cast out haue by a diligent obseruation of all her signes and actions discouered the cousonage and counterfeiting of this woman and haue made their report thereof to the Parliament the true Protector and Defender of Pietie and Iustice. Other Diuines Religious persons and Phisitians there were which either through credulitie or to follow the opinion of the people or for some other reason haue said and assured that there was a wicked Spirit in the bodie of this woman challenging al others for Infidels and Atheists which should thinke or say that this woman was not a Daemóniake The Parliament by a solemne Decree of the Court hath confirmed the iudgement of the better and wiser sort and set downe an order that this credulitie and superstition should proceede no further to the detriment and hinderance of the Catholike Religion But to the end that there may rest no scruple or doubt in weaker mindes and that such a cousinage may be knowne to all the world we haue briefly and truly written the whole Historie we haue proued the said Martha not to haue been a Daemóniake wee haue faithfully described the opinion and reasons of those which thought the contrarie following therein the Original-writing of their owne hands word for word and haue withall confuted their arguments as being grounded vpon too light coniectures We doe hope that those which shall reade this discourse will receiue pleasure and profit thereby and con them thankes that without fearing the slaunder of euill speakers and looking to none other marke but onely to the trueth it selfe haue resisted and made warre against the Author of lyes and that they will likewise giue thankes to God who hath discouered this cousonage whereupon there might otherwise haue followed not onely false miracles but also great diuision and parts-taking among the people as by the discourse ensewing all men of vnderstanding may know On Tuesday the xxx of March 1599. at the commandement of the right Reuerend the Bishop of Paris there met together Marescot Ellain Hautin Riolan and Duret within the Abbie of Saint Geneuesua in the hall of my Lord Abbat where was brought before them one Martha Brossier who they said was possessed of a wicked Spirit and this was in the presence also of the said Lords the Bishop and the Abbat and many other persons of Note By the commandement of the said Lord Bishop Marescot as the ancientest of the rest questioned with her in Latin for the rumour went that she spake all manner of languages but she answered not a word Then said the Abbat She will not answer vnlesse my Lord Bishop commaund her Then the Bishop commaunded the Deuill to speake saying Adiuro te per Deum viuum vt respondeas Dommo Marescoto I adiure thee by the liuing God that thou answere Master Marescot But both the woman and the Deuill were mute She was againe questioned withall in Latin by Marescot the Phisitian and in Greeke by Master Marius Doctor of Diuinitie and the Kings Reader of Greeke Philosophie but she answered not a word Then the Bishop being very desirous and curious to discouer the trueth because the said Martha had said that this was no place to answere in commaunded that she should be caried into a Chappell Wherein a number of Tapers being lighted one Priest accompanied with two others all apparelled in decent and Priestly garments in the presence of the said Lord Bishop and the Abbat and many other persons of qualitie all being together in great deuotion and at their praiers began to exorcise her She being vpon her knees praying to God and making the signe of the Crosse presently tumbled her selfe backward first vpon her buttocks then vpon her backe and vpon her shoulders and then softly vpon her head Whilest she lay vpon her back fetching her breath very deepe and quaking in her flankes like a horse after he hath runne she turned her eyes in her head blared out her tongue and tolde the Bishop that he had not his Miter and bid him that he should goe and fetch it Then they caused certen Reliques of the very true Crosse to bee brought vnto her which she indured to be put in her mouth They presented also vnto her a Doctors whood which shee stoutly reiected as though the whood of a Diuine or the Miter of a Bishop had more vertue and more Diuinitie in them then the Reliques of the very Crosse. These things being done and many other which would bee to no purpose to rehearse the Lord Bishop commaunded that the Phisitians would tell him what they thought of it Who after that they had maturely deliberated together and considered all that they thought fit to bee considered reported to the Bishop with the consent of them all and by the mouth of the said Marescot the ancientest of them all what their opinion was and that in few words Nihil à Daemone Multa ficta Amorbo pauca Nothing of the Deuill Many things counterfeited and a few things of sicknesse And indeed all these actions were counterfeit as hereafter shall be shewed But in trueth her tongue was red and they perceiued some little rumbling vnder her short ribs on the left side proper to those that are subiect to the Spleene The day following which was Wednesday the last day of March Ellain and Duret met together and when the Exorcismes or Coniurations were againe repeated

vnto vs in the Chappel of my Lord of Saint Genenefue hearing Masse there celebrated by my Lord the right Reuerend Bishop of Paris and induring the Exorcisme performed on the Friday by Father Benet a Capuchine assisted therein by Father Seraphin a Religious person of the same Order who had exercised her vpon the daies aforesaid and on the Saturday by Master Clerk a Lay Priest assisted by Father of the Order of the Feuillans And there during the said time we saw her sometimes in constitution countenance and speech as a person sound of bodie and minde and sometimes dissigured with diuerse foule vnseemely and deformed lookes and now and then vexed and troubled with many different and furious motions of all the visible parts of her body All the said euill fauoured lookes being either full of a kinde of scoffing deceitfull and consining laughter or very fierce horrible and silent and oftentimes accompanied for the most part with a roaring In the middest of all this sometimes obeying and answering the Priest aswell in gesture as in words vpon commandements and demaunds that were conceiued in Greek Latin and English but as farre as wee did marke more often and more readily to Father Benet then to any other we do say in our consciences and certifie that which followeth That is to say as it may be that all this which is before set downe remaining to bee specified hereafter must necessarily be referred to one of these three causes which are Sicknesse Counterfeiting or Diabolicall possession And for the opinion that it proceeded of Sicknesse we are cleerely excluded from that for that the agitations and motions which we obserued therein doe retaine nothing of the nature of Sicknesses no not of those Diseases whereunto at the first sight they might haue been resembled it being neither an Epilepsie or Falling Sicknesse which alwaies supposeth the losse of sense and iudgement nor the Passion which we call Hysterica or Suffocation of the Matrix which neuer is either without vtter priuation or at least without restraint of breath of which accidents neuer did there any appeare vnto vs. But to the end we be not too long and by excluding generalities to exclude lik●wise all specialties to him that shall looke neere into the matter these motions aforesaid being found not to appertaine to any of the foure motions proceeding of Diseases that is to say Shiuering Trembling Panting and Conuulsion Or indeede if there doe appeare any Conuulsions and that a man will so call the turning vp of her eyes the gnashing of her teeth the writhing of her chaps which are almost ordinarie with this maid while she is in her fits the confidence which the Priest hath when he openeth her mouth and holdeth it open with his finger within it testifying sufficiently that they doe not proceed nor are caused by any disease considering that in Diseases he that hath a Conuulsion is not master of that part or member wherein it is hauing neither any power of Election or commaundement ouer it and particularly in the Conuulsion of the Iawes which is the most violent of all the rest the finger of the Priest should bee no more respected nor spared then the finger of another man but should be as quickly bitten off Adding hereunto moreouer that the accidents of Diseases aswell as the Diseases themselues being found to haue their times of beginning increasing full force and declination these torments here as they first tooke their beginning and mounted to their vttermost extremitie all at once so did they likewise cease all in a moment Diseases and the motions also of Diseases especially those that are violent as they leaue the bodie feeble the visage pale the breath panting this maide on the contrarie at the end of her fittes was found to be as little moued and changed in pulse colour countenance and breath as euer she was before yea which is the more to be noted as little at the end of her Exorcisme as at the beginning at euening as in the morning at the last day as at the first Notwithstanding touching the point of Counterfeiting the insensibilitie of her bodie during her extasies and furies tried by the deepe prickings of long pinnes which were thrust into diuerse parts of her hands and of her necke and afterwards plucked out againe without any shew that euer she made of feeling the same either in the putting in of them or in the taking out of them and also without any mark of blood a griefe which without Magike and without speech could not in our opinion be indured without any countenance or shew thereof neither by the constancie of the most couragious nor by the stoutnesse of the most wicked nor by the strong conceite of the most criminall Malefactors tooke from vs almost the suspition of it but much more perswaded vs from that opinion the thin and slender fome that in her Mad-fits we saw issue out of her mouth which she had no meanes to be able to counterfeit And yet more then all this the very consideration before mentioned of the little or no change at all that was seene in her person after all these most sharpe and very long pangs a thing which no bodie in the world did euer trie in their most moderate exercises we are driuen euen till this houre by all the lawes of discourse and knowledge yea and almost forced to beleeue that this maide is a Daemóniake and the Deuill dwelling in her who is the author of all these effects for that next after the corporall and materiall causes which wee doe not finde to haue had any place in this matter come the spirituall and supernaturall causes in the highest degree whereof acknowledging God to be the Father of grace and mercie and the Angels to bee ordained for the tuition and consolation of Mankinde as Christian Philosophers wee haue learned and know that there is none but the Deuill that delighteth in doing euill Now if wee had seene that which my Lord of Saint Geneuefue and many others doe report that this maide was lifted vp into the ayre more then foure foote aboue fiue or sixe strong persons that held her it would haue been an argument vnto vs of an extraordinarie power ouer and beyond the common nature and condition of man But not being present at that wonder we doe giue a testimonie of our knowledge which is as much or rather more admirable then that force and power was viz. that being demaunded and in her exorcising commaunded my Lord of Paris furnishing the Priest with questions and Interrogatories this maide diuers and sundrie times by many persons of qualitie and worthie of credit was seene and heard to obey and answere to purpose not onely in the Latin tongue wherein it had not been impertinent peraduenture to haue suspected some collusion but also in Greeke and in English and that vpon the sudden She did we say once againe vnderstand the Greeke and English languages wherein wee beleeue

A TRVE DISCOVRSE VPON THE MATTER OF MARTHA BROSSIER of ROMORANTIN pretended to be possessed by a Deuill Translated out of French into English by ABRAHAM HARTVVEL Ecclesiastic 19. He that is hastie to giue credite is light minded and shall be held as one that sinneth against his owne Soule LONDON Imprinted by Iohn Wolfe 1599. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD RICHARD BY THE PROVIDENCE of God Lord Bishop of London my very good Lord. RIght Reuerend The late notable Accident that happened at Nottingham wherein your Lordship among others hath taken great paines to examine search and sift out the truth hath bred sundry rumors not onely in the North but also in the South parts of this Realme according to the seuerall humours of sundry persons some of them holding opinion that all that Action was true and acted in deed by the Deuill in the bodie of the Boy and some others of the wiser and more stayed sorte remayning in a suspense what they should thinke of it in so much that diuerse of the latter sort being persons of good Note and Qualitie knowing that I was well acquainted with the matter as hauing been an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Reader of the proofes collected together and openly read in a very Honorable and Solemne assemblie did deale earnestly with me that I would declare vnto them euen in fide boni viri in the faith of an honest man what I thought thereof And although I did truely and according to their charming request relate vnto them how plainely euidently and manifestly it was proued that the matter was a meere Imposture and Cousenage yet could I by no meanes settle a resolute perswasion in some of them that I had dealt sincerely with them therein neither would they be remoued from the doubtfull humour which had vsurped a predomination in them but would remaine still in the same vntill they might vnderstand more certaintie of this my asseueration deliuered vnto them Which strong conceit it seemeth they haue nourished and fostered in their minds partly vpon the extrauagant and extraordinarie Motions and Gestures of the Counterfeit Cranke that acted them and partly vpon the Stoicall conuersation and Holy life of the Chiefe Choragus that brought all those Actors vpon the Stage To deliuer these good minded people out of their error it is greatly desired by many and by some expected as a thing very conuenient that the saide collected proofes should be published to the world so as euery man thereby may see what notable practises haue been vndertaken but to what end I will not iudge In the meane while I am bolde to present vnto your view and censure this little pamphlet containing a true Discourse of a matter of the like Nature written and printed in the French tongue and directed to the French King which alighting into my hands tam oportune in so fit a time I thought good to translate and publish to the world to the end it may be seene that euen by the iudgement of the best Phisitians in France nothing was acted by the Boy of Notingham or this Mayde of Romorantin but might very well be performed by the course of Nature and without the helpe presence or assistance of a Deuill I was once determined to haue prefixed an Aduertisement to the Reader wherein I might haue made an Apologie for my selfe by alleadging some speciall reasons why I translated this discourse to answere some curious Carpers that may peraduenture taxe mee for setting forth the Ceremonies and Toyes that are commonly vsed and practised by the Popish Exorcists in their Coniurations in which respect some haue alreadie taxed mee for the Booke of Congo But I stand or fall to my God assuring my selfe that I haue neither here nor there done any thing which is not auouchable by the Sacred Scriptures let them feed their own humour as they list I meant also to haue enterlaced some other histories examples of former times touching such cunning counterfeit Possessions But when I had gathered them together I found that if I should haue followed that course accordingly as that cause had required I should haue made the head bigger then the body and the shortnesse of the time would not haue permitted me to finish it in fit oportunitie And therfore I haue reserued those Parralleles for a longer Treatise which as my leasure will affoord me I meane by Gods good leaue and fauour hereafter to publish In the meane time I beseech your Lordship to accept this little in good part and so in all humble dutie take my leaue From Lambehith the 17. of October 1599. Your Lordships assuredly at commaundement ABRAHAM HARTVVEL To the King SIR BY the commaundement of your Maiestie wee haue set downe in writing briefly and truly that which wee haue found in our visiting of Martha Brossier pretended to bee a Daemóniake together with the aduise which we haue giuen therein and thereupon in our consciences We present the same vnto your Maiestie without any Art without any painted shew without any flourish but with a naked simplicitie the faithfull companion of trueth which you haue desired from vs in this matter and which in euery other thing you haue alwaies loued and curiously sought This desire Sir is a most certaine proofe of the vprightnes which you carrie both in your mouth and in your soule as a witnesse of your iust and holy intentions whereby you haue gained and for euer confirmed the hearts of your Subiects withdrawne from your obedience and the amitie of forren Nations as much as you haue done by the terror of your Armes both the one and the other being as greatly assured in the certaintie of your word as they haue feared and stood in awe of your inuincible courage Receiue therefore Sir if it may please you the trueth contained in this little Treatise as a testimony of our most humble obedience and vouchsafe to honour the same with the benignitie of your surueigh in fauour of the singular affection that you beare vnto the trueth which indeede doth make you so much the more conformable to the Diuinitie whereof you are a liuely Image and which is the very Trueth it selfe Whom we doe humbly beseech to redouble vpon you his holy graces and blessings and to giue vnto you as much prosperitie good fortune and health as doe wish vnto your Maiestie SIR Your most humble most affectionate and most faithfull Subiects the Phisitians of Paris A TRVE DISCOVRSE VPON THE MATTER OF Martha Brossier of Romorantin pretended to be possessed by a Deuill AS faith is the gift of God and a vertue inspired by Diuinitie whereby we do stedfastly beleeue such things as do not appeare vnto vs neither by sense nor by naturall reason so is too great credulitie a vice that proceedeth from an infirmitie or weaknes of a mans minde and that oftentimes by suggestion of the wicked Spirit And therefore old authors haue said That not to beleeue lightly is