body it seemeth that then they cannot move it And therefore it must needs be that they cannot take upon them any body But it may be said that the Angells by their Commandement onely may move the body with a motion locall which they give unto it in touching of it not with a corporall kind of touching but a spirituall Against this solution they dispute further saying It behoveth the mover and the thing moved to be connexed and united together as appeareth by Aristotle But in saying that an Angell doth command any thing of his own will it is to be presupposed that then he is not together with the body which is said to be governed by him and therefore he cannot move the body onely by his commandement Hereunto I answer That the Commandement of the Angell doth demand an execution of his vertue and puissance and therefore it must of necessity be that there be some spiritual touching of that body by which it is moved They insist yet further and say That the Angells cannot move bodies with any locall motion and that therefore in vain should the bodies be obedient unto them seeing they should still remain immoveable And to prove this they bring divers Arguments Their first Argument is taken from the Authority of Aristotle who saith That the locall motion is the principall and most perfect of all other motions Now the Angells if it be granted that they take a body cannot use any lesser or inferiour motions I followeth therefore by a more forcible reason that they can much lesse use any locall motion which is the greatest and the most excellent of all others But the answer is easy and we say That the Angels moving themselves with a locall motion by the phantasmaticall body which they took may also cause the other lesser motion by using some corporall agents for the producing of those effects which they purpose like as the Smith useth fire to soften the Iron and to reduce it to that which they have an intention to make of it And as touching that saying of Aristotle That the locall motion is the chiefest of all motions the reason thereof is because every corporall nature having life is apt to move it self locally by the means of the Soul be it either reasonable or sensitive which giveth life unto it Their second Argument is That the locall motion of naturall bodies doth follow their forms But the Angels are not causes of the forms of natural bodies and therefore they cannot be a mean to give them any local motion Neverthelesse answer may be made them That in bodies there be other locall motions then those that do adhere unto the forms as the flowing and ebbing of the Sea do not follow the substantiall form of the water but the influence of the Moon with much greater reason therefore may other locall motions then such as adhere to to the forms follow spirituall and incorporall substances Their third Argument is That the corporall members do obey to the conception of the Soul in a locall motion in asmuch as they have from her the beginning of life now the bodies which the Angells take unto them have not from them the beginning of life for then it would behove that the bodies and the Angels should be united together And therefore it followeth that the bodies by them assumed cannot be obedient to any locall motion I answer That the Angells have their vertue lesse restrained or hindred then the Souls insomuch that being separated from all corporall massinesse they may neverthelesse take an Ayry body the which they can move locally at their will and pleasure Besides all the former Arguments they reply yet further and say That every corporall motion doth not obey to the command of the Angells as touching the forming and fashioning thereof now the figure which the Angells take is as a kind of form And therefore by the onely Commandement of the Angels cannot any body take any form or figure whatsoever be it either of man or of any other diverse kind comprised under one gender To this the answer is That the figure which the Angells take is in very truth a form which is made by the abscision and dismembring as a man may say of the thickning of the Ayre or by the putrefaction of it or by the similitude and motion which may be taken of the same matter But there is a very great difference between the Form and Figure that is made so accidentally and that which is naturall and according to the true substance of a thing the which cannot possibly be confounded with this accidentall Figure This is not all which they object for they say further touching the Devills That if they do invest themselves with a body then they ought to be within the body which they have taken Now Saint Jerome interpreting that place of the Psalmist The Lord is in his holy Temple and the Glosse do say that the Devills do command and rule over Images and Idolls externally and cannot be in them internally and the Idols are bodies as every man knoweth And therefore it cannot be said that the Devills can take upon them any bodies I answer That to be in or within a body of some substance hath a double and twofold entendment of understanding In the first sort it is understood under the Terms of Divinity And in this manner nothing letteth but that the Devill may be in a body In the second sort it is meant according To the essence as in giving a being to the thing and in working man in it which is proper unto God onely howbeit that God doth not make a part in the essence of any thing For God is a substance separated and abstracted solely and onely in it self And for the further interpretation of Saint Jerome and the Glosse which say That the Devill is not in Images we may affirm that they do privily and closely reprehend the false opinion of the paynims and Idolaters who made but one thing of the Idoll were it of Wood Brasse or Stone and of the unclean spirit that remained within it and by that means would have made a living substance of that which in its own nature was senselesse and without life not having either hands to touch withal or feet to go on or tongue to speak with except such onely as the Devill did seem to give unto it by his deceitfull illusions To make short they object this Argument also If the Angells and Devills do take to them anybody either they are united unto The whole body or to some Part thereof If they be united onely to a Part thereof then can they not move the other part but onely by the means of that part which they do move But this cannot possibly be for otherwise the body assumed should have such parts as should have the Organs determined to the motion which is proper to none but living bodies But if the Angells and Devills be United immediately to the
from the Stone Taraxippe Or else it is for that the Cock and the Lion partaking both of them of the nature of the Sun but the Cock more then the Lion it happeneth that the Lion perceiving it doth presently fly from him as the valiant Hector is said to fly before Achilles who was more brave and more warlike then he Or else it is because the Cock being a celestiall fowl and the Lion a terrestriall Creature and of a gâ—osser matter having the spirits more sensitive and brutal then the other doth therefore by nature yield and give place to that which is more excellent And this reason seemeth unto me in some sort allowable the rather for that those Devils which are of a more materiall and terrestrial nature and be called Devils of the Sun do fly the voice of the Cock as well as the Lion as Psellus teacheth us And thus in my opinion you see sufficiently how all the Arguments and foolish dreams and fancies of the Epicures may be soon answered and easily dissolved The Arguments of those which deny that the Angells and Devils can take unto them a body Confuted THey which do deny that the Angels and Devills can take unto them a body do not aim at the mark to deny their essence as do the Sadduces but they do it onely to disprove and impugne their Apparition For it is a good consequent if the Angels and Devils take not upon them any body then can they not appear And if one should reply unto them and say That in our spirit and understanding the Angels and Devills may give some shew and token of their presence To this they have their exception ready That things spirituall and intelligible and all sorts of Intelligences do represent themselves by things that are sensible We will see therefore by what reasons they endeavour to prove that an Angell or a Devill cannot take a body unto them No Body say they can be united to an incorporal substance but onely that it may have an essence and a motion by the means of that substance But the Angells and Devils cannot have a body united in regard of any essence for in so doing we must conclude that their bodies should be naturally united unto them which is altogether untrue and therefore it remaineth that they cannot be united unto a body but onely in regard of the motion which is a reason of no sufficiency for the approving of their opinion For thereof would follow an absurdity in regard of the Angels to wit That they might take all those bodies that are moved by them which is a very great and grosse errour For the Angell did move the tongue of Balaams Asse and yet he entred not in his tongue And therefore it cannot be said that an Angell or a Devil can take a body unto them To this Argument I answer That true it is that an Angel and a Devill cannot to speak properly take unto them every body that is moved For to take a body signifieth to adhere unto the body Now the Angels and the Devils do take unto them a body not to unite it to their nature and to incorporate it together with their essence as he that taketh any kind of meat for sustenance much lesse to unite the same to their person as the Son of God took upon him the humane nature But they do it onely that they may visibly represent themselves unto the fight of men And in this sort the Angels and Devils are said to take a body such as is apt and fit for their Apparition as appeareth by the Authority of Denis Ariopagyte who writeth that by the corporal forms the properties of Angels are known and discerned Again they say that if the Angels and Devils do take a body it is not for any necessity that they have but onely to instruct and exhort us to live well as do the Angels or to deceive and destroy us as do the Devils Now both to the one and the other the imaginary Vision or the tentation is sufficient and therefore it seemeth that it is not needfull they should take unto them any body I answer that not onely the imaginary Vision of Angels is necessary for our instruction but that also which is corporall and bodily as we shall shew anone when we intreat of the Apparition of Angels And as concerning the Devils God doth permit them both visibly and invisibly to tempt men some to their salvation and some to their damnation Moreover they thus agree That God appeared unto the Patriarchs as is to be seen in the Old Testament and the good Angells likewise as Saint Augustine proveth in his book of the Trinity Now we may not say that God took upon him any body except onely in the mystery of his Incarnation And therefore it is needlesse to affirm that the Angels which appear unto men may take upon them a body I answer as doth Saint Augustine who saith That all the Apparitions which were in the old Testament were made by the Ministery of Angells who formed and shaped unto themselves certain shapes and figures imaginary and corporal by which they might reduce and draw unto God the Soul and Spirit of him that saw them as it is possible that by figures which are sensible men may be drawn and lifted up in spirit and contemplation unto God And therefore we may well say that the Angells did take unto them a body when they appeared in such Apparitions But now God is said to have appeared because God was the Buâ—t and mark whereunto by Vision of those bodies the Angels did endeavour and seek to lift up unto God the Souls of men And this is the cause that the Scripture saith That in these Apparitions sometimes God appeared and sometimes the Angels Furthermore they make this Objection Like as it is agreeing naturally to the Soul to be united to the body so not to be united unto a body is proper and natural unto the Angels and Devils Now the Soul cannot be separated from the body when it will Therefore the Angels and Devils also cannot take unto them a body when they will For answer whereof I confesse that every thing is born and ingendred hath not any power over his being for all the power of any thing floweth from the essence thereof or presupposeth an essence And because the Soul by reason of her being is united unto the body as the form thereof it is not in her puissance to deliver her self from the union of the body And so in like manner it is not in the power of any Angell or Devill to unite themselvs to any body as the form thereof but they may well take a body whereof they may be the moving cause and if a man may so speak as the figure of the figure The affirm moreover that between the body assumed if I may use this word and the party assuming there ought to be some proportion and similitude But between the
Angell or Devill and a body there is not any proportion for both the one and the other are of divers kinds and by consequent both of them are incompatible together To this I answer That if the proportion be taken according to the quantity greatnesse and measure there is no proportion between the Angels or Devils and a body because their greatnesse is not of one and the same kind nor of one and the same consideration Notwithstanding nothing can let but that there may be a certain habitude of an Angell to a body as of a thing that moveth to the motion and of a thing figured to the figure the which may be termed a proportion Another Argument they make which is this No substance finite whatsoever it be can have in any operations together An Angell is a substance finite and therefore it cannot both minister unto us and take to it self a body together But this is easily dissolved for I say that these two operations To take a body and to serve in their Ministery are ordained mutually to the Angels and therefore nothing hindreth them but that the Angels may use both of them at once and together Again they inferre that if Angells and Devils do take a body either it is a Celestial Body or some other having the nature of some of the four Elements Now the Angels cannot take a Celestiall Body for that the Body of the Heaven cannot divide it self nor cannot make any abstraction from it self much lesse can the Devils have the power seeing the Angels have it not Besides they cannot take unto them a body of Fire for then they should consume and burn the body near to which they do approach much lesse can they take a body of the Ayre for that is not figurable neither can they take any body that is a moveable Element and retaineth no form nor yet by the same mean can they have a Terrestriall body for we see it written how the Angels do very soon and suddenly vanish away out of sight as it appeared by that Angell which came to Tobias And the Devills also when they shew themselves in any Apparition can in a moment withdraw themselves from the sight of men And therefore being unable and unapt to take upon them any body either Elementary or Celestiall it must needs follow that they appear not at all To this I answer That the Angels and Devils may take a body of any Element whatsoever and which themselves will yea and of many Elements mixt together Neverthelesse it is most likely to be true and the common opinion is that they do soonest of all take unto them a body of the Ayre by thickning the same and forming it of vapours that mount and arise from the Earth and in turning and moving it at their pleasure as the wind moveth the Clouds being able to make the same to disappear and vanish away again whensoever they will by reason that it is nothing but a vapour But yet this will not satisfy them but they go further saying That every assumption of a body is limitted and bounded with some union But of an Angell and of a Body there cannot be made any of those Three means of Unity of which Aristotle speaketh For they cannot be made one by Continuation by Inseperability nor by Reason To this a man may answer as before That there is not any union in the assumption of a body by an Angell For if there were a union then in truth that which Aristotle speaketh should be requisite between the Angell and the body which it assumeth But there is not between them any union save onely that which is of a thing moving to the thing moved as we have before affirmed Again the good Angels say they in appearing unto us either do take True Figures visible and palpable or such as are altogether false if they have such as be true it should then follow that if they appear in a humane body then they do assume a True humane body But this is unpossible unlesse we should say That an Angell may enter into the body of a man which is a thing not convenient nor agreeable unto the Angelicall Nature And if they have False Figures this would be much more unfitting and unbeseeming them for that all feigning and dissembling or any kind of fiction is very unseemly in the Angels of Truth And therefore in what sort and fashion it be the Angels cannot take any Body upon them To this objection I answer That the bodies which the Angells do take have True and unfeigned forms so far forth as they may be seen and perceived by the senses be it in their colour or their Figure but not according to the nature of their kind For that cannot become sensible but by accident That therefore is no cause why a man should say that there is any fiction and feigning in the Angells for they do not oppose and set before our eyes humane shapes and forms because thereby they would be thought and esteemed to be men but to the end that by their humane properties we should know the vertues of the Angels And like as Metaphorous speeches are not therefore any whit the sooner to be reputed false in which by the similitude of things other significations are comprehended So the figures and forms of Angels are not false because they are taken and assumed to the similitude and semblance of men More then so they reply that the Angels and Devills by the vertue of their Nature cannot work or create any effects within humane bodies save onely by the means of their naturall vertues But their naturall vertues cannot be in things corporall to form any Figure of a humane body but onely by the usual and determined mean of Generation to wit by the seed naturally ordained to that effect in which sort the Angells and Devills cannot take a body upon them And the same reason and consideration is there of other figures of earthly bodies also which they take unto them But hereunto this answer may be made them That albeit the natural vertues of a body do not suffice to produce a true shape of a humane body but onely by the due and ordinary mean of Generation Neverthelesse so it is that the Angells and Devills are capable to cloath themselves and to put on a certain similitude of humane body as touching the colour and figure and other such exteriour Accidents and that especially at such a time as when it may suffice them by a locall motion to move any such bodies by means whereof both the vapours are thickned and again purified and made thin as also the Clouds are diversly painted and figured But they object again that this is not sufficient But they say that it behoveth the cause moving to infuse some vertue into the body moved but cannot infuse any vertue except it touch it And if it be so that the Angells have not any touching nor feeling with the
that there was a voice like the voice of a man behind him rebuking him and wondring at him why he did not stir up his Citizens to celebrate that solemnity he turned himself about and finding no man that spoke to him then he was perswaded it was a divine voice and gathered Iphitus and his companions to himself and made a great feast by which the solemnity became much more remarkable Plutarchus in Lycurgo CAssius Chaerea captain of the Guard with some others made a conspiracy against Caligula And when he was going into the Court he heard a voice from among the multitude commanding him to perfect their designes the Gods being their assistants At first he suspected that their plot was betrayed by some of the Conspirators but afterwards he perceived that he was incited thereunto either by some that knew it or by an Oracle from God On the 3d day therefore they slew Caius Circensis Josephus lib. 19. cap. 1. PErtharis King Arithpertus his Son who being banished by Grimoaldus and in his banishment sailing into Britain was warn'd by an unknown voice that Grimoaldus being dead by Phlebotomy he should seek for his fathers Kingdome Whereat being moved though he knew not the Authour yet returning into Italy within three Moneths after the death of Grimoaldus he was made King of the Lombards Platina in Dono. C. Hostilius Mancinus the Consull going into Spain as he was taking Ship at Hercules his Haven whither he went on foot this sounded in his ears Mancinus stay He being affrighted herewith turn'd his journy and went unto Genoa and when he had there shipped himself a huge great Snake appeared to him and presently vanisht out of sight He being conquer'd by the Numantes yielded basely Valerius Max. lib. 1. cap. 6. HEnry the third being Emperour kept the Feast of Pentecost at the City Ments in Almaine Where arose a dissention between the servants of the Archbishop of Mogun and the servants of Abbas Fuld about their hire They went from words to blows and fighting with Swords they polluted the Temple with mans bloud The Bishops running to them brake off this bloudy battle and again purged the Temple The tumult being afterwards pacified when they sang Thou hast made this day glorious The Devill was heard to cry aloud through the Temple I have made this day quarrelsome The Emperour amazed at this strange noise endeavoured to force away the Devill by giving many Alms and he himself with his Nobles distributed to the poor those dainties which were provided for his own Court Nauclerus Volumine 2. Generatione 36. WHen Rome being pillaged and undone by a home bred conspiracy Constans the Emperour had remained six years in Sicily he died at Sarogasa a City thereof in a Bath called Daphne For one Andreas went with him into the Bath and killed the Emperour by throwing down a Vessel on his head as he was wiping him Constans his death was known in the City the same day he died by a voice coming forth out of the Ayre Zonaras Cedrenus BOdin saith of Constantinus who is accounted amongst the skillfullest workmen of the Mettal-Art in France and is the most famous in all the Kingdome I have heard his comrades when blowing a long time no hope or likelihood of any good appeared ask advice from the Devill if they did right and might accomplish what they desired But he replyed in one word Travaillez take the pains the blowers being animated with this blew so strongly that they brought all to nothing and they would still have blowen if Constantine had not told them this was the Devills usual custome to answer doubtfully But that word Take the pains imployed that Alchymy should be laid aside and he should fall to some labour and honest Art or science commodious to get a living he is a mad man that thinks Gold can so quickly be made in making whereof nature spends more then a thousand years A Souldier gave a Horse to his kinsman that when he died he should sell him and give the Money to the poor He sold the Horse and kept the Money to himself Thirty dayes after his Soul returning It was the Devill saith Thirty dayes have I bin tormented in Hell but thou who gavest not to the poor what I had thee shalt go thither to day and I shall be translated from thence into Paradise The very same day the Devils snatcht him away and 12. dayes after his carcase was found in an exceeding high Mountain Vincentius lib. 24. cap. 8. HEctor Boethius in his 8th Book of the Histories of Scot. relates that in a small Village of Scotland scarce 14. Miles distant from Aberdene there was a very beautifull young man made open complaint before the Governour of Aberdene that he was many Months molested and troubled with a she Devill as they call it the handsomest that ever he saw and finally when the dores were shut she came to him by night and by her fair speeches forc't him to embrace her when 't was almost day she went away making no noise and trying many wayes he could by no means be freed from that so great and base vexation A prudent and devout Bishop commands the young man immediately to go to some other place and according to the Christian Religion to conform himself to prayer and fasting more zealouslly then he used to do hereby he thought the Devill would be put to flight from him when he saw him so intent upon all good works Upon this wholesome counsell followed good successe Which when the youth had religiously performed within few dayes after he was clearly delivered from these Hobgoblins So the He-Devill did no longer trouble the Woman of Navete after her confession and holy Communion which accompany prayer and fasting Legitur in vitâ Divi Bernhardi Vierus lib. 4. cap. 27. A Certain Maid in Burgus possest with Melancholly acknowledged that she was haunted with Vergilius his Ghost having for a long while conjured against it which we may the more easily believe because she was a plain girl very sincere and one who never went abroad Conjuration not at all prevailing a Physitian gave her at first some artificiall Medicines then some others to strengthen her and so she was restored Vierus lib. 4. c. 23. de praestigiis Daemonum PHilippus Wesselich Coloniensis A Monk of the Abbey called Knechtenstein an upright and pure person about the year 1550 was miserably and sundry wayes tortured by a Ghost which brought back again the lean Abbot dead many years before Sometimes he was carried under the roof of the house sometimes he was thrust between the rafters over the Bell oftentimes he was on a sudden conveyed through the wall On a time he was found his body being laid over a pond and his head lying upon the land At the last out comes the Ghost relating the cause of his long and manifold trouble to wit that this was that Abbot Mathias Durensis so many years buried who tortured him
was left by her Parents direction and then she was not afflicted But if at any time it chanced that she had a Letter sent from the Abbatesse of that Monastery or Colledg there was a great trembling and horrour that invaded her and possessed her whole body as though she were assaulted with the relapse of her former disease but after she married a husband without any sense of her disease or affliction Vierus lib. 3. cap. 10. de praestigiis Daemon JOhn Fernelius relates in his second Book of occult causes That when a certain Man was travelling in Summer time he was very dry in the night and rising out of his dream and being awakened and finding no drink he by chance catched hold on some evil thing which he met and commanding it he perceived that his jawes were shut together as though by a hand and was like to have been strangled and when he was thus besieged and beset with this spirit he thought he saw in the dark a great black Dogg and feared to be devoured by it who afterwards being restored to his right wits again did relate it all in order Many judged this man by his pulse and heat and roughness of his tongue and by reason of too much watching was meerly mad and distracted The same Author reports That there was another young man of a Knights Family for some few years by the shaking of his body was judged to have the Convulsion fits for sometimes he would so move and fling his left arm only sometimes his right sometimes onely one finger otherwhile a leg and both at other times and the trunck of his body with such swiftnesse that being laid down he could scarce be held in by four servants But his head laid without being shaken or stirr'd at all and he had his tongue and speech free and was in his right mind and senses yea in the height of his Convulsions he was taken with it at least ten times every day but was well in the intervals but something worn out by pain It might have been deemed truly the Falling-sickness if it had brought madness and stupidity with it there were the most skilfull Physitians consulted with about it and they did think it was a Convulsion near bordering on the Epilepsie together with a malignant and venomous vapour that did beat against the back-bone out of which the vapour came which did flow into those nerves which are sprigg'd from the back-bone into the joynts all about but not into the brain this cause being taken for granted that it might be removed they ministred to him divers glysters and strong purgations of all sorts and Cupping-glasses were fastened to the roots of the nerves nourishing things oyntments plaisters which first were for purgation after for strengthening to drive away this malignant and poysonous humours these doing him little good they procured him sweating in Baths and in washes in the juice of the Ebeene Tree of Guaiaca which did as little help him because all of us strayed far from the knowledg of the truth for being first taken with it in the third moneth a certain devill being the author of all this mischief did betray himself with a voice and in uncouth words and phrases and sentences as well Latin and Greek although the afflicted party was ignorant of the Greek tongue he did detect many secrets of Physitians that he had circumvented them with much danger and that they had by their fruitlesse Medicines almost choaked his body And as often as the father came to visit his afflicted son he going a great way out of sight cryed out Drive away this which is coming to him or wrest the chain from his neck For by this you may know that the French Knights wore gold chains in which the Image of St. Michael did hang the subtile devil did feign that he feared the Image of St. Michael that he might more evidently deceive those that stood by As though he feared the picture of any Saint when he feared not Christ the expresse Image of God whom he was bold to assault yea and to tempt Furthermore being asked Who he was or by what power he might be removed he said That he had many receptacles within which he lay hid and could quietly go to other THe Town of Schiltach in Germany the 14th of the Ides of April which day was the very Thursday before Easter in the year of our Lord Christ 1533. was burned being set on fire by a Witch as Erasmus Roterdamus relates from the authority of Henricus Glareanus as also Cardanus in his 19. book de subtilitate The Devil made a noise and gave a hissing sign or watch-word from a certain place in one of the houses The Officer of the Town thinking it to be a thief went to search the place but found nothing nor any body but presently in another and higher room the same noise was heard whither also the Officer went to catch the Thief forsooth but when he found no body there neither but heard the same voyce upon the chimney top it presently struck into his mind that it was a Spectrall and he bid his servants be of good courage There were presently two Priests sent for who when they had used their skill in exorcisms were thus answered That he was a Devil indeed And when they asked him What he did there He said he would burn the Town And when the Priests threatned him he told them he valued not their threatnings for one of them was a Whoremaster and they were both Thieves Presently after he took a girle with whom he had had familiarity for fourteen years when in the interim she came to confession and received the Eucharist every year once and who had communicated but that very day and having carried her in the Ayr set her upon the very top of a chimney and delivering her a pot commanded her to turn it which whilest she did the Town was burned to the ground in no more than an hours space A Courtier of the Kings in a Speech he made at Wittemberg in the year 1538. concerning good and bad Angels makes mention of a certain Maid possest by the Devil for whom when prayers were made in the Church the Devil ceased his attempts and made as if he had wholly left her that by this deceit he might make her away before publique prayers were made for her For when as they had remitted their care of her whilest she went to the River to wash her hands she was drowned sooner than could be imagined IN the year 1536 at Franckford at Ucadra there was a Maid being the daughter of Marcus the Fisherman that was taken with a pain in the head and by a phrensie one Georgius a Kulisch a Citizen pitying her condition took her into his house at length when she was possessed of the Devil she did very wonderful feats whatsoever she fingred whether it was a cloath any bodies breast beard head she snatched at it and
to the Magitian when he should effect his promise When night was come both of them went into a Circle designed and prepared by Magicall incantations the Magitian by his charms raised a spirit which appeared in the likenesse of a Man receives the Mandate to bring Frederick home if he did not refuse to follow him Therefore the spirit immediately in the night comes to the Captive Prince saying to him Thy Brother Leopold hath sent me hither to take thee out of Prison Wherefore arise and mount this Horse and I will safely conduct thee to thy Brother To whom Duke Frederick answered Who art thou Ask not who I am saith the spirit but without further delay mount this horse if thou desirest to be delivered out of Prison then great fear and trembling seized not onely upon Frederick but also upon all that were with him but they signing themselves with the sign of the Crosse the spirit vanished away and returned alone to the Magitian In the Chronicle of Hedion book 4. IT is reported that in the year of Christ 1271. one John an Almain a Priest at Halberstadium was so skillfull in the Magick Art that upon Christmas Eve in the morning he said Masse thrice First at Halberstadium Secondly at Moguntia Thirdly at Colonia by the swiftnesse of his Horse which he rode upon which with incredible speed carried him from one of these Towns to the other Many very prodigious things are written which this Priest did by his Magicall Art IN the year of our Lord 1272. came to Cruce natum a Town in Lower Germany a Magitian full of tricks and Legerdemains who cut off his servant's head publickly in the Market place the people being spectators and within half an hour joyned that to his body which lay as it had been dead upon the ground the servant immediately recovering life and becoming as sprightful as ever he was He was seen carried up and down in the Ayre and making a great noise he seemed to be a-hunting to those that beheld him often times He seemed also sometimes to them that stood gazing at him to be an armed man that did greedily devour a Cart or Waggon of Wine or Wood and the Horses too IN the year 1553. two inchantresses were taken which by tempests hail and cold endeavoured to destroy the fruits of the Earth These women stole a Neighbours child which they cut in piecâ—s and put into a pot to boyl It came to passe by providence that the Mother seeking her child came at that instant and saw in the pot the diffected members of her child therefore these two pestilent Witches being taken and examined confessed by tortures that were deservedly inflicted upon them that if the boyling of this child had been perfected they had caused such terrible cold as had destroyed the fruits of the Earth Hedion book 5. IN the year of our Lord 1558. in a neighbour Town of Ahena a certain Magitian cured many mad-men by hearbs which the Devill had shewed him Moreover he had commerce with him and took dayly advice of him for curing of diseases it happened that there was great dissentions twixt him and a neighbour of his a Carpenter in their railings and brawlings the Carpenter did exasperate and vex the mind of the Magitian with some bitter and reproachfull speeches After some Moneths were expired the Carpenter fell into a dangerous disease and as one having forgot all former discontent between him and the Magitian seeketh to him to cure him of his most miserably afflicting sicknesse The Magitian counterfeiting himself appeased and much his friend whilst he promised his utmost indeavours to cure him in the mean time he resolves having this opportunity to revenge the wrongs he conceived and gives him a potion composed of venemous hearbs which as soon as the Carpenter had taken his body was cruciated and tormented with such extream pain that he suddenly gave up the Ghost The wife therefore of the Carpenter with his kindred accuse the Magitian of man-slaughter for which cause he is convented before the Senate at Ahena and being examined by torments he confessed this murder and other impious and most wicked deeds and that he had learned his Magick of a certain old Woman in the neighbourhood which lived at the Wood Hercynia for which most horrible and flagitious arts they caused him to be tyed to a stake and burnt to death Manlius in his Collections MArtin Luther using many words concerning Witches tells that his Mother was many wayes vext by an inchantresse a neighbour insomuch that she was wont for fear to shew her much kindnesse and by intreaties and courtesies used to procure her good will for this Witch did so torment her Infants by inchantments that with continuall crying they expired their lives And when a certain Preacher in his Sermon declaiming against such kind of Witches and alluding to her impiety he was so infested and infected with inchantments that he had no way to escape destruction for by these Witchcrafts the ground so shrinked from his feet as he went that he could not stay himself but was thereby forced into the River being unable to stay himself till he was cast therein And when it was enquired of Luther whether it were possible that such things should happen to the Godly he answered Yes certainly for our mind or Soul is subject to a lye yea our body is obnoxious to death and afflictions and I am perswaded that my sicknesses God permitting infest me by inchantments but God though he suffer his Elect to fall into such calamities yet he delivers them from the same TWo Witches being in an Inne filled two Urns or water-pots with water and set them aside and when in the evening they consulted whether they should destroy the corn or wine by chance the Host hearing their discourse and taking the water-pots he came softly to the bed-side where they lay and cast the water upon the Witches in bed which turning suddenly into Ice the Witches were utterly extinct Whereupon saith Luther the power of Satan greatly appears in these Witches for two wayes doth God shew his power by suffering the Devill to assail men by Witches first to punish the sins of the wicked secondly to try the pious and faithful and for their glorious approbation which they will obtain by their perseverance in faith for without the permission of Almighty God the Devil can hurt no man for the Lord saith He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye And Christ Without the Will of my Father a hair cannot fall from your head ALexander the sixth when he was Cardinal spent his time both day and night in contriving how he might obtain the Popedome and that he might more easily accommodate his desire he set his study upon the Satanical Art of Magick and so far proceeded therein that he promised the Devil diligently to observe him if he would satisfie him in those things he inquired He desired that the Devil
him to do in like manner Not long after Benedict gloriously shining appeared to Edelbertus the Monk and told him that he was translated from Purgatory to Beatitude Odilones and the Monks praying for him he appeared again to Odilones giving him thanks for that he had received so great mercy chiefly by his prayers Idem Ibidem RObertus Gaguinus telleth That John the Anchorite reported to Ansoaldus Bishop of Pictavum That he was raised by a certain reverend old man from his sleep and commanded to pray for the soul of Dogabert King of France the hour of his death which when he had done he saw a company of Devils in the middest of the Sea who carried the soul of the King in a boat hawling him to torments he calling upon Martin Maurice and Dionysius the Martyrs to help him against them and that those three men came to him cloathed in white garments professing they were the men he called on who helped Dogabert and freed the soul of the suppliant King from torments without delay and carried him with them to heaven Sigebertus in Chronico about the year of our Lord 645. telleth to a certain man That the soul of Dagobert coming to Judgment was accused by many Saints for his spoyling of Churches and that evill Angels endeavouring to take him away Dionysius the Parisiensian intervened and freed him onely prescribing that in satisfaction of the wrong he had done he should to the honour of God and the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul whom he had offended build a Church MAurice the Rothamagensian Bishop brought into the Temple after his death having received his soul again said to them that stood about him Mark well the last words of your Pastour I am naturally dead but am revived that I may declare to you what I have seen for I am to retain my soul no longer then I speak to you my conductors whose apparrell and countenance was most fair and lovely to behold and their speech most pleasant promised me going towards the Sun-rising the delectable and wished for enjoyment of Paradise and having finished the adoration of Saints at Jerusalem we went towards Jordan by the Inhabitants whereof our company increasing I was filled with exceeding joy and when I made haste to passe the River my companions reported that our Lord had taught that veniall sins which I had not formerly washed away by confession would be purged by the aspect and fear of the Devil which thereupon I should conceive forthwith there appeared an army of most ugly spirits flourishing and tossing most sharp Spears and vomitting out of their mouthes flames of fire so that the ayr seemed all over filled with Iron and flames at which sight I was miserably filled with horrour That therefore you may consult and provide for your safeties I have assumed this habite to speak to you and presently again he expired Vincentius lib. 25. cap. 4. MAcarius of Alexandria upon a time walking in Scyâ—hiotican solitude looking upon the skull of a dead man lying upon the ground began to obtest it by the name of Jesus and to interrogate it of what Countrey he was when he lived and in what place his soul sometimes his Inhabitant now abode His dry mouth denudated of flesh and nerves burst forth into speech answering he had been a Gentile and an Inhabitant of the next Village and that now his soul was thrust crowded as remotely deep into the Gulph of infernal perdition as Heaven is distant from the Earth but the incredulous Jews were thrown lower then he and Hereticks who endeavoured to pervert with falshood the revealed truth of Divinity lower then they Idem CYrillus Hierosolymitanus reporteth Whilest in great heaviness he was at prayer desiring that he might know the condition of the soul of Ruffus his dead Nephew he first smell 't a most heavy stink intolerable if he had not stopt his nose and presently after he saw Ruffus bound in burning chains vomiting flames out of his mouth mixt with smoak his body all over by reason of the heaâ— he seemed to suffer within sparkling fire and being much affrighted with this sad spectacle he earnestly desired to know for what cause a man who for his integrity of life was beloved of all men should be judged worthy of such punishments No fault was objected against him for ought he could find for which he was so tormented but his playing at dice which he sundry times using thought it a light sin or none at all and therefore neglected to confess it to a Priest Idem A Certain man in the confines of the Province Valeria before the Priest Severus came to him to absolve him of his sinnes finished his course presently the same day the Lord looking upon the pâ—â—â—ers and tears of Severus the young man revived and being asked what became of his soul whilest his body was deprived of it he answered That it was snatched by certain men blacker then Moors who breathed fire out of their mouthes and nostrils who carried him through open and rough places but as he was thus led being met by young men arrayed in white garments shining with a glorious light the Devils were forced to dismiss him and restore him to his body for that they said God had granted this to Severus who had by prayer devoutly desired it Therefore having confessed his sins to the same Priest and done penance he dyed the seventh day again but more happily then before Marulus ex Gregorio IN the time that Rome was repaired after the Goths had wasted it one rather wicked then ignoble being dead revived As his friends were bewailing his death and said Send one to the Church of Lawrence the Martyr to enquire what Tiburtius the Priest doth for I saw him put upon a pile of wood fiercely burning I also saw another pile which with the point of the flame thereof seemed to reach Heaven I heard a voyce breaking out of the flame which shewed for whom this punishment is prepared which having declared he was stricken not with a Planet but death it self and again returneth from whence he came and it appeared Tiburtius at that instant exhaled his wretched soul whom every man almost fore-judged every one detesting his life for though he was a Priest he had nothing belonging to his place besides the figure and name Idem STephen a Roman illustrious in his age going to Constantinople fell sick and dyed and because they who accompanied him had a desire by reason of the respect they owed him to carry his body to his native Countrey they enquired for one to imbalm him by taking out his bowels and applying Spices and ordinary means to keep the body from putrifying in the Journey They could find no imbalmer by all their inquisition they made after one but the next day the dead body was restored to life and lived long after though not so reformedly as he ought Wherefore many rebuked him because what horrid sights he had seen
at the time of their birth do leave behind them their after-burthen which is a little thin and slender skin which they bring with them from their dammes belly Why therefore may there not be left or cast from the bodyes of naturall things certain thin and subtill forms or Images proceeding from them as well as a little skin and the after-burthen doth remain of the superfluity of little Creatures But all these Arguments may very easily be dissolved And first as touching the voyces which they say may simply be created of the Ayre I will not deny that For it is most certain that the voice is a certain beating and concussion of the Ayre which falleth under the sense of hearing as is affirmed by the Grammarians And the matter of the voice as saith Galen is the breath and respiration of the Lungs but the form thereof is the Ayre without the which neither can it be understood nor can it be called a voice Besides I will not deny but that the sounds are raised within the empty Ayre be it either by the winds or by some other externall cause But to say that the voices and the sounds are naturall and adherent to the Ayre as the Tide to the Sea and coldnesse to the Rivers and heat to the Sun It would then follow that without any externall cause at all both the voice and the senses should be treated in the Ayre and should perpetually adhere unto the Ayre as the Tide doth to the Sea and cold to the waters and heat unto the Sun But so it is that the winds are not alwaies in the Ayre and the sounds and voices are external things comming into the Ayre by the means of some other subject the which is nothing to neither in the Sea nor in the Rivers nor in the Sun because that in the Seas the Tide and cold in the waters and heat in the Sun are unseparably and continually And there is great difference between Accidents that are Separable and those that are Inseparable For the separable Accident as the Voyces and the Sounds in the Ayre may be abstracted and drawn from the substance of the Ayre and yet the Ayre shall neither perish nor be the sooner altered thereby But ebbing and flowing cannot be taken from the Sea but the nature thereof must needs be changed Nor can the heat be separated from the Sun but that he must then lose his light Neither can the cold be severed from the Rivers but that the quality and nature of the water must be changed which cannot possibly be because naturally water is cold And these three Accidents are inseparably knit to those three substances no lesse then blacknesse is to the Raven and whitenesse to the Swan Moreover it is a far greater foolery to say that of voices articulated and knit together the voices themselves should be bred and engendred in the Ayre For that is not onely against the nature of the Ayre but against all order established in the World Neither is it to any purpose to alledge for an instance the voice of an Eccho the which being carried in the Ayre doth spread it self and scattereth as a spark from the fire here and there not onely towards the party that made and dispersed the sound but to some other places likewise For the voice of the Eccho is engendred of the voice of the party and not of the Ayre and is dispersed as themselves confesse by the speech of the man from whom it took its Originall and first beginning Neither will I easily grant unto them that the voice of the Eccho doth disperse it self on all sides without losing it self or being extinguished For it is a thing very notorious and sufficiently proved that if the Eccho be dispersed into another place then that from whence it first received her voice she is no more discerned or understood as the voice of a man but onely as a confused and uncertain sound which ranging through the Vallies cannot be discerned but onely for a resounding noise and not otherwise Now as concerning those Images or similitudes which the Epicures alledg to be created in the thought or conceit saying that the mind of man doth refer unto the eyes whatsoever it dreameth or thinketh on and that by means of the abundance or concourse of the Atomes I do make them the same answer which Cicero yielded them that if the mind and the eyes do so symbolize and agree together in operations that whatsoever the mind shall imagine and conceive the eye may presently see It must needs then follow that some things shall present themselves to our eyes and sight which never were in being nor ever can be For I may dream or think of a Scylla a Chimera a Hippocentaure and such like conceited fictions which never were nor can be And I may fain unto my self in my mind strange Monsters and Anticks such as Painters do many times make which neither are things nor can possibly be To be short if this Argument of the Epicures were true it must needs be that all things whatsoever the mind presenteth should be of a certainty and they should fall so subject to our sight as we might plainly and sensibly see them the which is the greatest folly that can possibly be imagined Neither can they defend themselves with the continuall concourse of their Atomes which they say do uncessantly bring certain Images into the mind and into the eyes of men For be it that we should confesse that their Atomes do slide into the mind of man how can they conclude thereof that they descend into the sight nay how can they descend but that even by their own reasons their ignorance and sottishnesse may be discovered For if their Atomes do enter into the mind it must needs be then by that means that they be Invisible and that they do fly up and down very closely and subtilly as the very word doth also import Now if they fly invisibly in the mind how can they of themselves so readily make any thing visible and apt to be seen Certainly to make their Atomes visible and corporall there must be of necessity beforehand a great concurrence and huge heap of them drawn together which cannot be suddenly done but will require a great time Now in the mean while that these Invisible Atomes shall be a gathering and getting together into the mind they will be flitting and flying away some other where as soon as the mind which never retaineth one thing very long hath put them out of remembrance So that by this means they have not any leasure to form themselves visible to the eyes of the body but they return back again even as they came at first Invisible Now let us proceed and passe on to those Images which say the Epicures are reverberated from the Ayre being clear and transparant in her superficies I do agree with them that the Catoptike that is to say the Speculative being one of the kinds
Fables of the Poets who of a dead body made the abstraction of a shadow which they called the Image and Idoll thereof as is affirmed both by Sergius and Lucian and the Commentator upon Homer or else from those fabulous and idle dreams of the Rabbins and Talmudists which had their Nephes as saith the Author of Zoar. But the truth is that those Creatures which do use to cast their spoils from them do leave no other then a thin slender skin which being superfluous is no more remaining or abiding with the body Howbeit that it commeth from the body as appeareth both by the after-burthens of all creatures wherein the young ones being wrapped and enfolded in the bellies of their dams yet in comming from thence do easily and naturally cast them off as also by the spoils of the Serpent or Snake and by the skins of the Silk-worms and the Caterpillars the which superfluities are drawn and cast off particularly from these beasts or Creatures as a mark to the one to wit the Silk-worms and Caterpillars that they do change from their former state and to the other namely the Serpents to shew the poisons and ill hearbs and seeds which they have eaten all the Winter according as Virgil writeth of them These Arguments being thus finished Let us now come to that which the Epicures affirm to be the cause why any should be touched and attained with fear when they see such Images and figures which they affirm naturally to flit and fly up and down We say they are affected and altered according to the things which we see and which are next unto us As for example we perceive I know not what salt humour being near the Sea and in touching of Wormwood and of Rue we find a kind of bitternesse and when we are near a Smith we feel our teeth to gnash and to be set on edge at the noise of his File or Saw wherewith he worketh So likewise when these Images and figures do present themselves unto us we cannot possibly abide nor suffer them but we find our selves altered and changed in our understanding howbeit some more then other some For like as there be certain seeds within the eyes of Cocks which shining and shooting into the eyes of the Lions do so strike and pierce their eye-lids and do inflict upon them such pain and grief that they are constrained to fly from them being not able to abide or endure the sight of the Cock So are there some men who have their senses so apprehensive and subtill that they cannot hold from being afraid when they see such vain Images and figures before them But hereunto we must give them this answer that the fear which men have by the sight of Specters or Spirits commeth in regard that the things are unaccustomed and admirable to the bodily senses and not from any secret seeds which are contrary to our nature and much lesse from any natural passion such as that is wherewith men are touched that abide near the Sea or those that see Rue or Wormwood or do hear the noise of a Smiths file or saw For if it were of any natural passion that this fear proceeded then would not the party terrified be so confounded and astonished even in the very powers of the Soul as it is commonly seen that men are at the sight of Specters or Spirits but rather he should be onely moved by a certain Antipathy or abomination as Pomponatius calleth it and would onely abhor and fly from that which he so feareth Besides things that are supernatural do much more touch the senses of man then those things do which are natural Neither are they to be compared with such things as having a natural cause howbeit secret do happen to be seen daily and ordinarily Now I say that the cause of these things though naturall is secret For Alexander Aphrodiseâ—s speaking of the noise of the File and how it setteth the teeth on edge with other things of like nature saith that Nature hath reserved the reason thereof unto her own secret knowledg not being willing to impart the cause thereof unto men The like may be affirmed of the greatest part of those Antipathies which being concealed from men yet cannot come of any secret seeds that are contrary or enemies to nature as the Epicures dote but are hidden in the secret Magazin or Storehouse of Nature which hath not revealed or laid the same open unto any person Who can tell the reason why the Conciliatour otherwise called Peter de Albano did abhor milk Why Horace and Jaques de Furly could not abide Garlike nor Cardan could away with Egs. And why that Gentleman of Gascoigne of whom Julius Caesar Scaliger speaketh could not abide the sound of a Violl And of this latter in Cardan you may read the History The Physitian Scaliger writeth how he himself knew a Gentleman his neighbour which had in him such an Antipathy at the sound of a Violl that as soon as ever he heard it were he in any company even of the best sort and that either at Table or elsewhere he was constrained to forsake the place and to go away to make water Now it happened that certain Gentlemen having of a long time perceived and known this strange nature and disposition in him did one day invite this Gentleman to dine with them and having provided and suborned a certain Minstrel of purpose they caused him to be kept close till the appointed dinner time when being set at Table they had so placed the Gent. in the midst of them as it was not possible for him to get forth Now as they were in the midst of their dinner in came the Fidler and began to strike up his Violl near unto the Gent. he that never heard the sound of that instrument but was presently taken with an extream desire to pisse grew into an exceeding great pain for being not able to get from the Table nor daring to lay open his imperfection to the whole company the poor man shewed by the often change of his countenance in what pitiful case and pain he was But in the end he was constrained to yield to the present mischief and to reveal his imperfection He that should undertake to search and find out the cause of this so admirable an Antipathy I assure my self he should be as long a time about it as was Aristotle in seeking out the cause of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Seas whereof have written Gregory Nazianzen Justine Martyr Eusebius and others and yet he could never learn the certain cause thereof But as touching the reason why the Lion doth fly from the Cock It commeth not from any seeds that lye hidden within the eyes of the Cock and which from thence should strike into the eyes and hurt the sight of the Lion but it is by a kind of Antipathy whereof we have formerly spoken By which also the Elephant doth fly from the Hogge and the Horse
not invited thereto in the day time she was transported by the Devill to a hill near unto the Village the Shepherds seeing her and because she had not water which she should throw into the ditch that she might stir up the tempest for she confessed that she observed this ceremony she made water and stirring that about in the ditch she spoke some certain words by and by the Heavens which now were as I may say all Crystalline clear were muffled with Pitchy Jet-like clouds foul and black masks and a great shore of hail came quickly upon the dancers in the Village and the VVitch returned into the Village again they seeing her did all verily believe that she had raised the tempest and laid hold on her and the Shepherds did give in their testimony that they saw her carried through the Ayr which she being accused of and convicted acknowledged it and was burned WE read a memorable History in Pontanus 5. libro The French of Suetia besieged in the Neapolitan Kingdome by the Spaniards when all things were parched with drought and heat and the French in their battell having a great scarcity of fresh water some Priests being Magitians did draw-about the Crucifix in the Streets in the night time and with innumerable railings and blasphemies they went their procession and threw it into the Sea afterwards they gave the consecrated host to an Asse and brought him to the Church-porch and there buried him alive then after some Verses and horrible blasphemies which is not fit to be mentioned there came great dashing showers and made almost a deluge and so by this means raised the siege and were freed from the Spaniards there was one in the year 1557. who threw all his Images and pictures into a Salt-peeter pit and afterwards there was abundance of rain ANd oftentimes Witches kill Cattle by sprinkling a certain kind of powder upon the thresholds they go over not that the powder can work such an effect which might rather as one would think kill the Witches that carries it about them then those creatures which go over it especially when the Witches hide it one foot under the ground but onely the Devill is the helper of it I have heard of three hundred beasts by this means which were destroyed in one instant in a Sheepfold of Biturgia Neither onely doth the Devill exercise his power not onely in raising of Tempests Hail Lightning and about Corn and beasts but also upon Men but chiefly upon wicked men and those VVitches which were burnt at Patavius in the year of our Lord 1564. which we have mentioned confessed that in those conventicles in which they were congregated together they worshipped the Devill in the shape of a Kid and when they were about to depart the place they heard a great voice pronounced by the Kid Either ye shall be revenged or else ye shall dye and so there were many men and beasts slain by him leaving no other means of preserving life NIderius writeth that sentence was pronounced by him against one Stadlinus of the Lausanensian Diocesse who confessed that seven young Children were killed in the VVombs of the Mothers and so also brought barrennesse upon all the Cattle that belonged to his family and being questioned about the matter gave answer that there was a certain beast whose name we keep secret that was laid there by him at the threshold which being taken away Bâ—rrennesse ceased in his house WE read in the Monstreletian History of a short Witch that was taken by a Priest who had two Toads that she had Baptized which she used to Magicall uses which I should esteem as ridiculous were there not daily examples that confirmed it VVhen Sir John Martin put in stead of the Governour of Laodunensis condemned a VVitch of S. Proba to be burned who shook off two great Toads which they found in her Coffers The Froisardian History witnesseth that there was one Curio with the Suesionians who asked Counsell of a VVitch that he might be revenged of an enemy who counselled him that he should Baptize a Toad and give it some brave name and give it the Sacrament which he did and many other things which is not to be expressed here he confessed Five Inquisitors after VVitches declare these things amongst others that examined a VVitch which confessed that she put the consecrated bread in a Napkin which she ought to have swallowed down and hid in the Cup where shâ— nourished the Toad and put to it the powders which she had given her by the Devill and so she muttered some few words which is not fit to be mentioned here and so sprinked the Sheepfold thresholds over which the Cattle were to passe over the aforesaid powder therefore she was apprehended and burned IN the examination of the Valerian Witches in Subaudia which was Printed stood to be sould we read that casting a certain kind of powder upon Plants they will quickly wither and dye I have saith Bodinus in my power some Judgments that are sent unto me by that worshipfull Gentleman the Lord of Pipemontens de barbu Dorcaea which by a Statute of Parliament 11. of January 1577. one was sentenced to death by the Governour of S. Christopher to Sanlisium which decree was confirmed and established and condemned to be burned and afterward the Witch confessed that she had killed three men by casting a little powder wrapped in a sheet of Paper into that place by which they were to journey and murmuring these words In the name of God and all Devills and other Conjuring diabolicall words Which is not fit to be inserted in this place NIderus writes who examined abundance of Witches that he saw one who onely by his voice could kill men and another that did turn up and down her neighbours Ghost being a horrible spectacle Anglus also writes of whose History we have formerly spoken being the Physitian of the Palatinate Princes that in the year 1539. there was an Husbandman of Ulrichus that was afflicted with such kind of enchantments Neusessurus by name thorow whose skin there was an Iron nail strucken and was so gnawed and tormented in his bowells and despairing of remedy strangled himself and was anatomized and cut up in the sight of all the Citizens and there was found in his body a Staff four Steel knives two plates of Iron and a bottome of hair And therefore no wonder is it if the Thessalonian Witch at Pamphila caused a Womans belly to swell and be tympanized as if she had been about to bring forth three births and for the space of eight Moneths she carried about her this burthen In like sort did that Martinian Witch which killed the German not by poison as Tacitus saith or by a Cocks Egg but by the help of the Devill And also that Witch in the Constantiensian Diocesse that did so puff up a mans body as though he had the leprosy and a little after troubled his mind Sprangerus and other
Inquisitors took care that she should be burned The same Sprangerus relates he being the cause of it that there was another burnt on the borders of Basil and Alsatia which confessed that she took grievously a contumely that was offered to her by a good honest man a Husbandman when she was asked what mischief she desired to be done unto that Husbandman that did so reproach her to which question she gave answer That she would have his face to swell Not long after the Husbandman was infected with a Leprosy these things she afterwards confessed to the Judge that she was not able to do such a thing but that it was done by the Devill by which argument we prove that all these things are done by the Devill who so insinuates and accommodates himself to the wills of men that use him that whosoever should cure his enemy should be killed by his sociate or companion WE also read in Sprangerus's Story of one Plumberus a certain Conjurer who lived at Lendenburg in Germany whom the Devill taught to shoot at and pierce a Crucifix with Darts before Venus feasts by which means using some kind of wicked words and shooting and darting into the Ayre he could daily kill and slay three men which he saw and knew although they were encloystered and shut up in the narrow circumference of a little Tower and sometimes did deliberate and consult whether he should destroy them or no. But at last the Countreymen did rear him in pieces without any Law-like Judgment after he had committed many bloudy murthers These things were done in the year 1420. Bodinus Daemonom lib. 2. cap. 8. AT the Pedemontanians one Caralius by name who seemed to be an Hermophrodite and when this Epicaene entred into other houses and a while after they did kill men therefore the Hermophrodite was attached and apprehended and did discover the conjurations and the conventicles of all the Witches and many of their diabolical acts for there were almost 40 Witches which did anoint the outward handle of the gates to kill men this was done and happened in the year 1536. And the same fell out afterwards at Geneva in the year 1568 where the Plague raged for the space of seven years of which there dyed many Cardan writes That he saw a certain Witch at Patavia which quickly kill'd a boy while she only gently touched his back with a rod. Glauca being a zealous Witch of Medea and the daughter of Creon King who married Jason whom afterwards she slew who sent her a golden Crown on the Marriage-day and when Glauca did set the Crown upon his head there shined out a flame by which he instantly was burned as Euripedes writes in Medea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he saith Non venenis tuis sed pharmacis not by thy poisons but druggs and Medicines WE have before made mention of a Biebrane Witch which was burnt at Laodunum in the year 1556 This Witch did debilitate and weaken men and strangely screwed them awry and destroyed beasts and fruit but at that very instant when she was burned all these ceased as we have had intelligence of the Judge who examined her besides the same Judge reported to me That when the Witch threatned a certain woman that she should never after give suck it so happened that her milk instantly dryed up and although she bore many children yet her breasts were dryed up but the Witch being burned quickly her breasts abounded with milk I heard this of a certain Nobleman that her Aunt did put an obstacle or did cause her to be barren and bring forth no children but when she dyed she confessed that she might get a place for her children but after her Aunt dyed and as soon as the clew of her life was unravell'd or within a short while after the Lady was with child and bore 2. or 3. children after she had been married eleven years Bodinus VIerus tells a story of a certain Conjurer which he saw in Germany who in the day-time in the sight of the people ascended flew upwards towards Heaven and when his Wife caught him by the feet as he was flying up she was taken up together with him and snatching hold on a Maid snatcht her up too and they hovered a good while in the Air the multitude stood wondring at the miracle A like Example we read in the History of Hugh Floriacensis a Mantisconensian Earl howling with a great voice O friends help me was caught up into the Air and carried away and wasn ever seen after The same Vierus relates That he saw men snatcht into the Air by devils And it was required of a certain Magitian in Germany who promised that he would bring out the Books of Franciscus the first King out of the Madrid Tower he was transported through the Ayr out of Spain into France but for all this nothing was done which was much feared lest that they should rush upon the Captain and break all the necks of the ruinators So there was a Jewish Magitian Sedechias by name who as John the Tritemian Abbot relates did shoot a man thorough the Ayr and tore his body and gathering up his limbs knit them together again as did Simon Magus Nero being present who did gulph up a load of Hay with Cart and Horses and drivers in the sight of all the people The End of the First Book THE VVonderfull History OF SPECTRALS AND The several Devices and Delusions of Devils and Evil Spirits The Second Book Of Oracles Prophecies and Predictions of Devils TElephus the King of the Mysons who did prohibit and interdict the Grecians from descending or going into the lower Countreys when he obstinately pursued Ulysses amongst the Vines but being hindred he fell upon the trunk or stump of a Vine Achilles was a great way off who shot a Dart into the King's left thigh but Peace being made and the Greeks returning to their own Country Telephus was a long time afflicted with the pain of the wound and when he could not be cured by any means when he was in great extremity he was admonished by Apollo's Oracle That he should make use of Achilles and Aesculapius his sons so he instantaneously sailed to Argos lest he should be denyed of the remedy that was promised him by the Oracle Achilles with Machaon and Podalyrius took care of his wound and in a short space that which the Oracle did predict came to passe CRoesuâ— the King of the Lydians when he had parted with oâ—eson as Atium he had another son that was dumb and for the cure of it he left nothing undone no stone was unturned and then he sent to enquire of the Oracle at Delphos to whom Pythia answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy speechless son great King Croesus high race Wish not his words to hear thy long'd-for Grace One day thy boon shall thee distresse when thou Shalt