1. 3. which are sayde to have so much power and puissance to worke myracles Rabbi Moses Egyptian mocketh and scoffeth at them that beleeve it and calleth them deceyvers and lyers that go about to perswade the simple credulous people to beleeve such fooleries And it had beene well done of Albertus Magnus if hee had helde his tongue and beene silent when he wrote of the confection of those Rings and Caracters which hee referred to the starres But that such kinde of Rings and Caracters are meerely superstitious and Diabolicall And that the Divell doth sometime enter into them and inclose hmselfe within them I will cite no other prooves vnto you then Andreas and Pamphilus two Phisitions Lib. 6. Desimplicibus medecin and the Horoscopes or casters calculators of Nativities and such like Starre-gazers all which doe gather their herbes at a certaine set houre observing verie curiously both the course of the starres and the verie hower wherein the Divell hath chiefest power and commaund over the herbes which they preserve and keepe And the same Andreas and Phamphilus did write certain Bookes which as Galen writeth they intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say The charmes and changes of hearbes consecrated to the Divels And more then that Pamphilus doth teach and set downe what ceremonies wordes and enchantments ought to bee vsed in pulling and gathering of the hearbes and rootes to the intent saith he That the Divell who hath rule and commaund over the herbes that are gathered may not doe any hurt or annoyance to them that gather them You may see therefore how that such superstitions ought not to be referred to the celestiall vertues or influences but vnto the power of the Divell which worketh vppon them supernaturally to deceive and seduce those that are giuen to be so superstitious The second argument of the Peripatetiques The Peripatetiques do yet insist further vpon the Puissance of the Heavens And they say That every natural Agent working vpoÌ„ divers obiects doth continually produce divers Actions as if waxe morter wood be put neere to the fire the waxe will melt the morter will grow harder and the wood will either burne or bend And yet notwithstanding all these operations have a certaine similitude from the part of the Agent for if one being a farre off do see the wax to melt hee may iudge that there is some fire neâ—re the which vpon occasion can as well harden the morter and burne the wood likewise Wherefore the heaven being a naturall Agent and having many things neere adioyning vnto it It must needes be that it must worke many effects Of the which the one is particularly the certaine signe of the other albeit many of them doe never take effect nor can be knowne what they be And forasmuch as of great events it must needes be that the causes be strong and forcible so contrariwise where the causes are powerful puissant the effects also must of necessitie be admirable because in nature the causes are ever answerable to the effects It is therefore no mervaile if the heaven do produce Specters and such like micaculous effects it having such power over the inferior Bodies Answer to their second Argument But this argument may bee soone aunswered in two words That the influence of the heavens doth worke by the will of God many things that are strange and admirable and yet such neverthelesse as are naturall But that the heavens haue the power to worke above nature and so to produce Specters that can in no wise be granted nor admitted because Nature it selfe is contrary therevnto the which ought first to be regarded and considered as the cause before wee can admit or allow of her effects Thus you see how easily all the reasons of the Peripatetiques are refuted and overthrowne how strong soever they seeme to be made to proove such power in the heavens Let vs now therefore see what they alledge to deny the essence and being of Divells The first Argument of the peripatetikes to pro that there are no divells Their first argument is that the Art Magike is nothing but meerely vaine and false But the intention of Magike is held to be principally of and by the Divells Therefore the Divells are not at all but are a vaine and false thing To this argument I answere That trew it is that Magike is a vaine Science and prohibited Answer to their first Argnment that the effects thereof are full of abuse and scandalous But that the Art Magicke is nothing and that the divells can not worke by it by the meanes of Magicians and Sorcerers is no consequent Their second Argument Their second argument is that if there be divells then they have a soule and members necessary to execute and performe the functions of the soule as wee see in living creatures And to the end that such things should consist and be the divells must of necessitie have a more solide and firme element then the ayre to wit the water or the earth where it behooveth them to abide and remaine Answer to their second Argument But this argument is of no sorce for I deny that it is necessary the divells should have a body and admit they doe make a shew of one when they appeare vnto vs yet that followeth not that they have such a one of their own nature but they do fit and accommodate themselves to our senses taking vnto them a body of an ayrie subtile and thin substance Their third Argument Their third argument is that if it bee graunted there bee Divelles it is principally in respect of Specters But the Specters are vaine or come for the most parte of the secret causes of the Heavens or of Nature and therefore all that which is said of divells is meerely false and vntrue Answer to their third Argument To this argument we neede not make any answer seeing we have before sufficiently satisfied them in this point Their fourth Argument is that it is not probable there should be any divells in that spatious emiptie circuit of the ayre or in the earth because Their fourth Argument if they be in so great a number as it is affirmed that they are they might be then as thicke and in as great a multitude as the birds of the ayre and so every place would be full of Specters spirits divells which would yeelde divers feares and terrours vnto men But that is not so For hardly shall a man see in the space of twenty yeares that in any Province any Specters do appeare and present themselves and when they do at any time shew themselves it may be attributed vnto Nature Again they adde this reason that if there be divells they should be either friends or enemies vnto men if enemies then some should be hurt and offended by them especially such as make a mocke and ieast at them and their essence as namely the
Answer to their tenth Argument do not suffice to produce a true shape of a humane body but onely by the due and ordinary meane of generation Neverthelesse so it is that the Angells and divells are capable to clothe themselves and to put on a certaine similitude of humane bodie as touching the colour and figure and other such exterior Accidents and that especially at such a time as when it may suffice them by a locall motion to moove any such bodies by meanes whereof both the vapors are thickned and againe purefied and made thin as also the clowds are diversly painted and figured But they obiect againe that this is not sufficient But they say that it behooveth the cause A reply to the former answer mooving to infuse some vertue into the body mooved but cannot infuse any vertue except it touch it And if it bee so that the Angells have not any touching nor feeling with the bodie it seemeth that then they cannot moove it And therefore it must needes be that they cannot take vpon them any body Answer to the reply But it may be said that the Angells by their commandement onely may moove the body with a motion locall which they give vnto it in touching of it not with a corporall kinde of touching but a spirituall A surreply to the former answer Against this solution they dispute further saying It behoveth the mover and the thing moved to be connexed and vnited togither as appeareth by Aristotle But in saying that an Angell doth commaund any thing of his own will Li. 7. Phisee it is to bee presupposed that then hee is not together with the bodie which is saide to bee governed by him and therefore he cannot move the bodie only by his commaundement Herevnto I answere That the commaundement of the Angell doth demaund an execution of his vertue and puissance and therefore it must of necessitie bee that there be some spirituall touching of that bodie by which it is moved The eleventh Argument They insist yet further and say That the Angels cannot move bodies with any locall motion and that therefore in vaine should the bodies bee obedient vnto them seeing they should still remain immoveable And to prove this they bring diverse arguments 8. Phisicorum Arguments vrging that angels cannot move bodies with a locall motion Their first Argument is taken from the authoritie of Aristotle who sayth That the locall motion is the principall and most perfect of all other motions Now the Angels if it be graunted that they take a bodie cannot vse any lesser or inferiour motions It followeth therefore by a more forcible reason that they can much lesse vse any locall motion which is the greatest and the most excellent of all others Answer to the first reason But the answere is easie and we say That the Angels moving themselves with a locall motion by the phantasmaticall bodie which they take may also cause the other lasser motions by vsing some corporal agents for the producing of those effects which they purpose like as the Smith vseth fire to soften the yron 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 everie corporall nature having life as apt to move it selfe locally by the meanes of the soule bee it either reasonable or sensitive which giveth life vnto it The second reason Their second Argument is That the locall motion of naturall bodies doth follow their formes But the Angels are not causes of the formes of naturall bodies and therefore they cannot be a meane to give them any locall motion Answere to the second reason Neverthelesse answere may be made them That in bodies there bee other locall motions then those that doe adhere vnto the formes as the flowing and ebbing of the Sea doe not follow the substantiall forme of the water but the influence of the Moone with much greater reason therefore may other locall motions then such as adhere to the formes follow spirituall and incorporall substances The third reason Their third Argument is That the corporall members do obey to the conception of the soule in a locall motion in asmuch as they have from her the beginning of life now the bodies which the Angels take vnto them have not from them the beginning of life for then it would behoove that the bodies and the Angels should be vnited togither And therefore it followeth that the bodies by them assumed cannot bee obedient to any locall motion Answer to the third reason I answere That the Angels have their vertue lesse restrayned or hindred then the soules insomuch that being separated from all corporall massinesse they may neverthelesse take an ayrie bodie the which they can move locally at their will and pleasure Their tvvelfth Argument Besides all the former Arguments they replie yet further and say That everie corporall motion doth not obey to the commaund of the Angels as touching the forming and fashioning thereof now the figure which the angels take is as a kinde of forme And therefore by the onely commaundement of the angels cannot any bodie take any forme or figure whatsoever bee it either of man or of any other diverse kinde comprised vnder one gender To this the answere is That the figure which the Angells take Answer to their tvvelfth Argument is in very truth a forme which is made by the abscision and dismembring as a man may say of the thickning of the ayre or by the purefaction of it or by the similitude and motion which may bee taken of the same matter But there is a very great difference betweene the forme 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 Their thirteenth Argument that divells cannot take a body This is not all which they obiect for they say further touching the Divells That if they doe invest themselves with a body then they ought to be within the body which they have taken Now S. Ierome interpreting that place of the Psalmist The Lord in his holy Temple and the Glosse doe say that the divells do command and rule over images and idolls externally and cannot be in them internally and the idolls are bodies as every man knoweth And therefore it cannot be said that the divells can take vpon them any bodies Answer to their thirteenth Argument I answer That to be in or within a body of some substance hath a double and two-folde entendment or vnderstanding In the first sort it is vnderstoode vnder the Tâ—rmes of Divinitie And in this manner nothing letteth but that the Divell may be in a body In the second sort it is meant according To the essence as in giving a beeing to the
vp and downe Wee say they are affected and altered according to the thinges which wee see and which are next vnto vs. As for example we perceiue I know not what salt humor being neere the Sea and in touching of Worme wood and of Rue we finde a kinde of bitternesse and when wee are neere a Smith we feele our teeth to gnash and to be set on edge at the noyse of his File or Saw wherewith hee worketh So likewise when these Images and figures do present themselues vnto vs wee cannot possibly abide nor suffer them but we finde our selues altered chaunged in our vnderstanding howbeit some more then other some For like as there be certaine seeds within the eyes of Cockes which shining and shooting into the eyes of the Lions doe so strike and pierce their eye-liddes and doe inflict vppon them such paine and griefe that they are constrained to flye from them being not able to abide or endure the sight of the Cocke So are there some men who haue their senses so apprehensiue and subtill that they cannot holde from being afraid when they see such vaine Images and figures before them Answere to the argument of Epicures touching the cause of feare at the sight of straÌ„ge Specters But hereunto we must giue them this aunswere that the feare which men haue by the sight of Specters or Spirites commeth in regarde that the thinges are vnaccustomed and admirable to the bodily senses not from any secret seeds which are coÌ„trary to our nature and much lesse from any naturall passion such as that is that wherewith men are touched that abide neere the Sea or those that see Rue or Wormewood or do heare the noyse of a Smithes file or sawe For if it were of any naturall passion that this feare proceeded then would not the partie terrified That the feare bred by the sight of Specters is because they are supernaturall and vnusuall be so confouÌ„ded astonished euen in the verie powers of the soule as it is commonly seene that men are at the sight of Specters or Spirits but rather he shuld be only moued by a certaine Antipathie or abhomination as Pomponatius calleth it and would onely abhor and flye from that which he so feareth Besides thinges that are supernaturall doe much more touch the senses of man then those things doe That Antipathies thinges which are naturally abhorring to men are by a secret cause in nature concealed and vnknowne In Problemat proanno which are naturall Neither are they to be compared with such things as hauing a natural cause howbeit secret doe happen to be seene daily and ordinarily Now I say that the cause of these things though naturall is secret For Alexander Aphrodiseus speaking of the noyse of the File and how it setteth the teeth on edge with other things of like nature saith that Nature hath reserued the reason thereof vnto her owne secret knowledge not being willing toimpart the cause thereof vnto men The like may bee affirmed of the greatest part of those Antipathies which being concealed from men yet cannot come of any secret seedes that are contrary or enemies to nature as the Epicures dote but are hidden in the secret Magazin or Store-house of Nature which hath not reuealed or laide the same open vnto any person Who can tell the reasoÌ„ why the Conciliatour otherwise called Peter de Albano did abhorre milke Why Horace and Iaques de Furly could not abide garlike nor Cardan could away with Egges And why that Gentleman of Gascoigne of whome Iulius Caesar Scaliger speaketh could not abide the sound of a Violl And of this latter in Cardan you may read the Historie The Phisitian Scaliger writeth how hee himselfe knew a GentlemaÌ„ his neighbor which had in him such an Antipathy at the sound of a Vyoll that as soone as euer he heard it were he in any company Another Gen. of this quality liued of late in Deuon neere Excesâ—er who could not endure the playing on a Bagpipe euen of the best fort and that either at table or elsewhere hee was constrayned to forsake the place and to go away to make water Now it happened that certaine Gentlemen hauing of along time perceiued and known this strange nature and disposition in him did one day inuite this Gent. to dine with them and hauing prouided 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 middest of them as it was not possible for him to get forth Now as they were in the middest of their dinner in came the Fidler and began to strike vp his Violl neere vnto the Gent. he that neuer heard the sound of that InstrumeÌ„t but was presently takeÌ„ with an extreame desire to pisse grew into an exceeding great paine for being not able to get from the table nor daring to lay open his imperfection to the whole company the poore man shewed by the often change of his countenance in what pitiful case and paine he was But in the end hee was constrayned to yeelde to the present mischiefe and to reueale his imperfection Hee that should vndertake to search and finde out the cause of this so admirable an Antipathie I assure me selfe hee should bee as long a time about it as was Aristotle in seeking out the cause of the Flowing and Ebbing of the Seas whereof haue written Gregorie Nazianzon Iustine Martyr Eusebius and others and yet he could neuer learne the certaine cause thereof But as touching the reason why the Lion doth flye from the Cocke It commeth not from any seedes that lye hidden within the eyes of the Cocke which from thence should strike into the eyes and hurt the sight of the Lion The reason why the Lion flieth from the Cocke but it is by a kinde of Antipathie whereof we haue formerly spoken By which also the Eliphant doth fly from the Hogge and the Horse from the Stone Taraxippe Or else it is for that the Cocke 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 perceiuing it doth presently flie from him as the valiant Hector is saide to flie before Achilles who was more braue and more warlike then he Or else it is because the Cocke being a celestiall fowle and the Lion a terrestriall creature and of a grosser matter hauing the Spirits more sensitiue and brutall then the other doth therefore by nature yeeld and giue place to that which is more excellent And this reason seemeth vnto me in some sort allowable the rather for that those Diuels which are of a more materiall and terrestriall nature and bee called Diuels of the Sunne do flye the voyce of the Cocke aswell as the Lion as Psellus teacheth vs And thus in my opinion you see sufficiently how all the Arguments and foolish
the body And so in like manner it is not in the power of any Angell or divell to vnite themselves to any body as the forme thereof but they may well take a body whereof they may be the mooving cause and if a man may so speake as the figure of the figure Their fist Argument They affirme moreover that betweene the body assumed if I may vse this word and the party assuming there ought to be some proportion and similitude But betweene an Angell or divell and a body there is not any proportion for both the one and the other are of divers kindes and by consequent both of them are incompatible together Answer to their fist Argument To this I answer That if the proportion be taken according to the quantitie greatnes measure there is no proportion betweene the Angells or divells a body because their greatnesse is not of one and the same kinde nor of one and the same consideration Notwithstanding nothing can let but that there may be a certaine habitude of an Angell to a body as of a thing that mooveth to the motion and of a thing figured to the figure the which may be termed a proportion The sixt Argument Another Argument they make which is this No substance finite whatsoever it be can have many operations together An Angell is a substance finite and therefore it cannot both minister vnto vs and take to it selfe a body together Answer to their fixt Argument But this is easily dissolved for I say that these two operations To take a body and to serve in their ministerie are ordained mutually to the Angells And therefore nothing hindreth them but that the Angells may vse both of them at once Their seaventh Argument and together Againe they inferre that if Angells and divells do take a body eyther it is a Celestiall Body or some other having the nature of some of the foure Elements Now the Angells cannot take a Celestiall Body for that the Body of the heaven cannot devide it selfe nor cannot make any abstraction from it selfe much lesse can the divells have that power seeing the Angells have it not Besides they cannot take vnto them a body of Fire for then they should consume and burne the bodie neere to which they doe approach much lesse can they take a body of the Ayre for that is not figurable neyther can they take any bodie that is a moveable Element and retaineth no forme nor yet by the same meane can they have a Terrestriall bodie for we see it written how the Angels do very soone sodainly vanish away out of sight as it appeared by that angel which came to Tobias And the divels also when they shew themselves in any aparition can in a moment withdraw themselues from the sight of men And therefore being vnable and vnapt to take vpon them any body eyther Elementarie or Celestiall It must needes follow that they appeare not at all Answer to their seaventh Argument To this I answer That the Angells and divells 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 What kinde of body Angells divells take vnto them when they appeare that they doe soonest of all take vnto them a bodie of the ayre by thickning the same and forming it of vapors that mount and arise from the earth and in turning and mooving it at their pleasure as the winde mooveth the clowds being able to make the same to disappeare and vanish away againe whensoever they will by reason that it is nothing but a vapor Their eight Argument But yet this will not satisfie them but they go further saying That every assumption of a body is limited and bounded with some Vnion But of an Angel and of a body there cannot be made any of those Three meanes of vnity of which Aristotle speaketh For they cannot bee made one by Continuation by Inseparabilitie Lib. 1. Phisico nor by Reason To this a man may answer as before That there is not any vnion in the assumption of a body by an Angel For if there were a vnion then in truth that which Aristotle speaketh should bee requisite betweene the Angel and the body which it assumeth But there is not betweene them any vnion save onely that which is of a thing mooving to the thing mooved as wee have before affirmed Againe the good Angells say they in appearing vnto vs eyther do take True Figures visible and palpable or such as are altogether False Their ninth Argument If they have such as be True it should then follow that if they appeare in a humane body then they do assume a True humane body But this is impossible vnlesse we should say That an Angell may enter into the body of a man which is a thing not convenient nor agreeable vnto the Angelicall Nature And if they have False Figures this would be much more vnfitting and vnbeseeming them for that all feyning and dissembling or any kinde of fiction is very vnseemely in the Angells of Truth And therefore in what sorte and fashion it bee the Angells cannot take any Body vpon them Answer to their ninth Argument To this obiection I answer That the bodies which the Angells do take have True and vnfeyned formes so farre forth as they may be seene and perceived by the senses be it in their colour or their Figure but not according to the nature of their kinde For that cannot become sensible but by accident That therefore is no cause why a man should say that there is any fiction and feyning in the Angells for they do not oppose set before our eyes humane shapes and formes because thereby they would bee thought and esteemed to be men but to the end that by their humane properties we should know the vertues of the Angells And like as Metaphorras 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 formes of Angells are not false because they are taken and assumed to the similitude and semblance of men More then so they reply that the Angells and divells by the vertue of their Nature Their tenth Argument cannot worke or create any effects within humane bodies save only by the meanes of their naturall vertues But their naturall vertues cannot be in things corporall to forme any Figure of a humane body but onely by the vsuall and determined meane of generation to wit by the seede naturally ordayned to that effect in which sort the Angells and divells cannot take a body vpon them And the same reason and consideration is there of other figures of carthly bodies also which they take vnto them But heerevnto this answer may be made them That albeit the naturall vertues of a body
still continue burning and especially Mongibel the which occasioned and wrought infinite domages to the lands neece adioyning vnto it For the report is that the fire of Mongibel did range and spread it selfe so farre that the greatest part of Calabria was filled with the dust of the ashes and cinders thereof and two Villages Mâ—ntpilere and Liâ—olosi were quite burned and consumed And not these mountaines alone are onely subiect â—ofire and continuall burning Of the cause that the mountaines doe burne but Olans the Great writeth that in Iseland there is a mountaine which burneth continually the fire flame whereof doth never faile no more then that of Mongibel in the time of Plinie who writeth that the flame thereof did never cease The cause of these fiers Lib. 2. not hist doth Aristotle well set downe and that in few words in his bookes of Meteors For as there be many places of the earth Lib. 2. Meteor that have store of matter combustible there needeth no more but a trembling and shaking of the earth which being stirred vp by an ayre that hath entred in by some chinks and empty poares of the earth striving to issue forth doth in an instant and at once moove and shake the mountaine and so by the stirring and agitation thereof doth set it on a fire the which doth subtilly evaporate it selfe and taketh it nourishment of the ayre so mooved and stirred And like as after great store of windes it often happeneth that a trembling or quaking of the earth doth succeede so after a long trembling and mooving of the earth it must needs happen that these mountains must of necessity fall on burning Now if it be so that the mountaines for the reasons before alleadged may cast and vomite vp flames of fire why should there be any difficultie but that those other fierie flames appearing in the night should by the same meane be evaporated out of the earth Certaine it is that Aristotle writeth how in some places the earth in the concavities thereof Lib. de Mendo. is no lesse replenished with fiers and with windes then it is with water And therefore as there are springs of water hidden in the earth which may even suddainly and at once spring vp and cast forth water in aboundance out of the earth so it is not to be doubted but that the fiers which have beene long hidden in the caverns and hollow places vnder the ground may sometimes issue forthe and having found a cleere and free passage may leape vp and downe and walke at some times through the region of the ayre neither more not lesse then doth the fire of Mongibel of Vesuvius and of Iseland Which easting vp throgh the ayre great globes of fire flaming And mounting to the heavens do sâ—oâ—â— most clooâ—â—ly blazing Lib. Aeneid That I may speake as doth the Poet Vergil Lib. 3. Aeâ—eid who being profoundly seene and exercised both in Philosophie and in all kinde of learning was not ignorant that these fiers were of such a nature as being cast out of the caverns of the earth The diffrence betvveene the fiers appearing in the night those of mountayns continually burning they be carried for a time through the ayre and yet some of them more forcibly and violently then the other For those fiers which are stirred vp within the mountaines as they have more spirits that do animate and give life vnto them if I may so speake so doe they issue forth more suddainely and wanderlesse in the ayre then do those night-flames that do strike vp gently from the earth How men are deceived and led to drowne themselves by night-flames appearing vnto them But will some say we see that these night-fiers do oftentimes deceive men and will leade them to some riveâ— pond or other water where they doe cause them sometimes to be drowned To this I answer that they which follow such night-fiers appearing vnto them either they do it voluntarie or by constraint If by constraint then without doubt they are no night-fiers which they do so follow after but they are some divells or ill spirits metamorphosed into the formes of fiers But if they doe willingly and voluntarilie follow them they cannot excuse themselves of follie and of ignorance for it is the nature of such fiers continually to seeke after water being their contrarie element And this is evident by those flames of Mongibel which do draw themselves rather towards the sea then any other place as testifieth Pindarus in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say That the flame of Mongibel â—d 1. Olimp. is carried roling and tumbling even into the maine and deepe sea And in that this Poet affirmeth that the flame roleth and so is carried to the sea This may leade vs as it were by the hand to know the nature of those night-fiers which as they that have seene them do say are round and doe go roling continually till they come neere some river or pond in the which they do suddaintly disappeare and vanish away Of Night-fires seene frequenting about gallovvs and the cause thereof But before I leave this discourse of these night-fiers I will speake of that which the dommon opinion holdeth touching them and that is how that sometimes they do appeare vnmoveable neere vnto gallowes and such like places of execution If this be true as we must needes give credite therevnto seeing so many persons do with one consent report it we may yeeld yet a farther naturall cause of such Night-flames and that is that they are bred and concreated of the fat and drie exhalation of the bodies there hanged which comming to evaporate and strike vp into the ayre doth grow to be enflamed by the same reason as the vapors exhalations dried from the earth and being in the middle region of the ayre do change themselves into fire and so doe cause the thunder Of flames of fire issuing out of trees and other things beating one against another But to continue on our purpose touching naturall fiers do we not see and that without mervailing that the tops of trees blustring or beating one against another do strike out flames of fire and that not without feare vnto such as travell by night Certaine it is that Thucidides doth esteeme this to be naturall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Lucretius speaketh thereof as of a thing which happeneth vsually and is done by the same reason as two stones stricken together each against other do cause fire and as two tables of Laurell or any other hard wood being rubbed together for a long time one against the other will likewise strike out sparckles of fire Homer writeth that Mercurie was the first that taught this vsage of making fire to come forth by the striking together of two staves or stickes of Laurell wood In himnâ— Mercurii And truely it is not vnlike that
he learned it by seeing how the woodes by beating each against other through the continuall motion and agitation of the windes do sparkle out from them flames of fire Againe be there not also some pretious stones as the Carnaliâ—e the Rubie the Carbuncle the Carchedonie or the Garnet Of stones and other things shining like flames of fire in the night and other such like pretious stones that do shine in the night like fire In Scotland there is a kinde of rotten wood which in the night shineth verie cleere and bright and the like doe woods that are worme eaten There be some creatures as Woolves and Cats which have their eyes so fier it and flaming in the night that they will make even the most hardie to be afraide I have heard of Monsieur de Laundy Gualtier a Councellor in the Court of Parliament of Brittaine that neere vnto one of his manours he had a countrie house or farme within the which there haunted a Cat so terrible and frightfull that such as saw her by night did fall in a swound for very feare some would have bin of opinion that it was some Sorcerer metamorphosed or some wicked spirit if the said Lord of Launay being a gentleman of good spirit and one that could not be made beleeve that it was any other then a natural Cat had not found the meane to cause the same Cat to betaken by a ginne and being so slaine it was then apparant that the feare conceived thereof was but meerely vaine and without cause There bee certaine wormes that vse to appeare in Autumne which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines Cicindelas which do shine so cleerely in the night that those which know not that there bee such creatures would be verie doubtfull what to thinke if they should happen to see them But these wormes are nothing to speake of in comparison of that little Flie which is bred in the new world within the Island of Hispaniola appertaining to the Spanâ—ards This creature is of the bignes of a Beetle or Horse-flie and they which have seene of them doe esteeme it to be indeede a kinde of Horse-flie But vpon the matter it doth shine by night verie cleerely in all partes of her bodie but principally in the eyes the which in regard of the smalnesse of her bodie are verie exceeding great those her eyes are so bright-shining that a man may write and reade by their light The report is that the Indians do banquet in the night time by the light thereof a thing so strange and admirable that if the Spanish Historiographers did not report the same with one generall consent a man would scarcely credite it Of naturall ayrie things and vapors that seeme Phantosmes or Spectere and deceive the sight But to come from fierie things to other naturall vapors that come from the earth it is verie certaine that the ayre doth sometimes create those of vapors forms so mervailous that any man would take them for Prodigies or Specters When Silla entred into Italie with his armed forces there were seene two clowdes or vapors having the forme of Goates fighting one against another neere vnto the Mount Epheum in Campania Of a strange clowde or vapor appearing to Silla the Romans the which afterwards mounting aloft from the earth did spread and scatter themselves into divers partes and in the end vanished quite away not without the great wonder and astonishment of Silla and all his Armic And yet Plutarch saith that this was but a thing meerely naturall In vita Sillae because that after it became to be scattered abroade in the ayre it presently lost that imaginarie forme which it before represented And what shall we say to those vapors which do naturally happen in the desarts of Libia Of strange vapors vsuall in Barbarie their causes neere vnto one of those great Sands of Barbarie called Syrtis Magna Those vapors doe make an impression in the ayre of sundry bodies and formes of many creatures which sometimes will seeme not to stirre a foote from the place where they are and sometimes againe will moove themselves verie strangely as if they were either flying from or pursuing of some persons Dioâ—orâ—â— Siculus saith that these impressions of formes are of an infinite greatnesse Lib. 3. Biblioth and extending in great length and that they doe bring great feare and perturbation of minde to such as are notâ—sed to the sight of them For they pursue men saith he and after that they have gotten to them they doe disperse themselves over all their bodies in an extreame colde which is the cause that Marchants strangers passing by that coast one in great feare of them whereas on the contrarie theâ—â— hâ—bitants of that Country who doe often see such things doe make small accompt or do rather laugh at them Some have studied to render a reson of this so strange a marvell though it have seemed to be helde almost in manner as a fable And they say That in this Region there are stirring few or no windes at all or if there be any that they be very weake and warme and that the ayre there is very calme and quiet because there are no woodes nor shady vallies round about nor any hills distant and seperated one from another nor yet any Rivers great or small wherewith the plaine should be watered and refreshed nor any fertile landes nor exhalations nor odours from all which the windes do take their beginning and originall So that this whole Countrey being round about on all sides very hote and warme It happeneth like as wee see it fall out in the hote summer dayes when the warme south winde most raigneth That in every place there are bredde and created little cloudes which doe take diverse formes according to the different Impressions the fire receiveth And these cloudes being carried by those slowe and weake warme winds do sometimes mount aloft and sometimes leap vp and downe sometimes do move themselves by other such like motions agitations When they are not born vp by any wind they do stay neere to the earth thicke and formed as they were aloft And having nothing that is able to seatter and dissolve them They doe of themselves approach and drawe nie to such persons as they first happen to encounter Not that I inferre hereby That the ayre hath any election of motion in it selfe for that is impossible in nature That any thing without a soule shoulde voluntarily and of it selfe bee driven to moove it selfe or that it should either pursue or shunne it selfe but it is rather the persons that doe cause the same to moove And so is it of those clowdes formed in the ayre which doe make a shew and countenaunce as if they did follow or give place to those persons that doe come againâ—â— them who doe scatter and chase them on all sides with the violence and motion of
frensie But hee continued so long this his maner and fashion that his maister in the end had espied it and having discovered the same God knoweth what delight and pleasure hee tooke at it and what sporte hee made when hee woulde tell and declare it vnto others This poore Horse-keeper seeing himselfe and his humour discovered would not abide any longer with his Maister who knew him to be a very good servant for any promise or rewarde that hee made or offered vnto him because hee sawe himselfe to be deprived of his pleasant folly and idle fancie Of madnesse growing through choler and blood mingled and disturbing the braine As touching those mad-men in whom choler is mingled with blood they are of a quite different disposition from the former for they are furious hardie iniurious insolent and readie to strike hurt and wound men And the more that choler doth abound in their braine the more dangerous and mischeevous they are And especially when the choler doth boyle burne in the braine and commeth to be adust thicke and clammie adhering and sticking to the ryme or skinne of the braine then they grow so furious that they differ little or nothing from wild mad beasts in such sort that a man shal see some of them to wound beat outrage themselves to eate their owne flesh to pursue even their neere kinsfolkes friends and familiars as if they were their greatest enemies These kinde of furious mad-men are very frequent and common in the Southerne Countries yea even in Italie towards Abruzza Apulia Calabria and Naples where the ayre is more hote then elsewhere There are to be seene monasteries wherein such frantike mad folkes whom they call men feâ—tred or Mati de Cadena are shut vp and enclosed In France which is a Region very temperate you shall seldome see this kinde of mad-men who are to be kept vp tyed and bound as they vse them in Italie Marâ—cco Fez Tremisan and other countries towards the South Of lumatikes or madnesse growing by fits at severall times Finally there be yet besides the former another sort of mad-men which have intermissions and times of vacancie from their fits or maladie of madnesse some of which have them onely two or three times in the yeere and others more often according to the Moones whom the Greekes Mat. 4.17 as also the Evangelist Saint Mathew call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Lunatiques These for that they are but seldom at times taken with their fits of madnes are called Enthusiastiques that is Ful of divine Furie or Fanaticall in whom the cause of their maladie proceedeth because they abound in heate neere about the Intellectuall part In Problem as Aristoâ—le writeth Such were the Sibills and the Bacchantes or Mimallonides the Galls and Coribants who were said to receive some god into their breastes And those Galls and Corybantes did at times and by fits grow so furious and frantike as in their furie they would cut off their owne genitalls which Ovid Catullus and others doe testifie like as also the Priests of Baal and of Isis would cut launce and wound their owne armes legs with knives 3. Reg. 18. De Asinâ— Aur. as is to be see one in the bookes of Kings and in Apuleius The like at this day doe the Dervises in Turkie Of the Corybantes are come these Greeke words testifying and discovering their passion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say To Corybantise to make the leape parillous to shake the hairâ— or lockes and as the common speech is to nodde or cast the head to the dogges Of these kindes of persons doth Vlpian speake where hee decideth it that those servants which have at any time beene possest with any furious humour of folly and have vsed to yeelde aunswers neere vnto any Temples in shaking and nodding their heads as fooles they are not to be held faultie and being once bought and sold they are not subiect to redhibition by the law of the Roman Magistrates Ediles Curules And this shall suffice to be spoken both as touching the externall senses corrupted as also concerning the fantasie altered and offended or perished by divers accidents of any maladie either corporall or spirituall It is now requisite that we ioyne together the senses both externall and internall which is the phantasie imagination And that we shew what persons are subiect most commonly to receive aswell in their corporall senses as in their spirituall false imaginations and vaine phantosmes and to have their mindes troubled with madnesse melancholie and frensie CHAP. XI What persons are most commonly subiect to receive false Imaginations and Phantosmes and to have the Braine troubled and distracted IT is commonly seene that feare doth engender in the hearts of such men as are subiect to fearefull impressions many false perswasions and wrong imaginations And for this cause feareful persons do shew themselves to be trobled in their minds with feare terror Two sorts of fearefull persons for that which hath no apparance of truth veritie Now there be two sorts of fearefull persons the one of them are so naturally by reason of the imbecilitie of their age or of their sexe The others are accidentally and by some outward cause whereof in part some reason may be yeelded and yet partly also the same is vnknowne and secret as being reserved in the cabinet of the secrets of God himselfe Of persons naturally fearefull Amongst those that are by nature fearefull I may in the first place put those that are given to be superstitious notwithstanding that at the first shew it may bee saide that superstition is rather an accidentall kinde of feare Of such as are given to bee superstitious But yet if we regard it more neerely and advisedly and doe consider that those weaker sorts of persons are easily given to be superstitious which the Philosophers also do hold and maintaine I doubt not but in the end it will be accorded that they are to be deemed superstitious by reason of the imbecillitie of their nature And therefore we see that women and old men are more addicted to superstition then any other because their naturall is more weake and their forces are lesse assured I will not say but that sometimes superstition commeth also by meanes of some externall cause of maladie and sicknesse or some other such like accident as that of Bion Boristenites Plinius Iunior li. 7. Epistolarum Epist 26. Tum demum inquit sumus optimi dum infirmi sumus beatumque in posterum innoxium destinamus vitam who comming to be sicke did so change his opinion even at an instant that of a meere Atheist and most prophane wicked person as he was he became so superstitious as hee would make many vowes farre vnworthy and vnbeseeming a Philosopher and tyed bills and scroles about his necke in hope to finde by them recoverie of his health Now as the wicked
reasons which he afterwardes yeeldeth in shewing That the divell doth serve himselfe of the humours or braine in men corrupted so seizing on the same doth enter into the bodies of such distempered persons in the tiem of their fittes that from the braine troubled and offended doth proceede this disease of the Epilepsie or the Falling-evill But I say according to the resolution of Saint Thomas Aquine that the divell may possesse the humours being corrupted or the braine being so troubled and offended of the paâ—tie so diseased and that this is a thing that doth happen vsually and commonly And I wot wel that the antient Magitians to call vp their divells or spirits and to know of them such things as were to come did helpe themselves with the bodies of Epileptiques and persons troubled with that disease Into the which the divells did easily enter at such time as the evill or fit tooke them and did speake by their mouthes vnto the Magitians or by some other externall signes did declare vnto them what was to come And I remember that I have read in Apuleius that he was accused before the Proconsull of Affricke Apologia 1. Apuleius servum suum Thallum remâ—tis arbitris secreto loco arula lucerna paucis consciis carminâ— cantatum corruere fecit deinde nescium sui excitâ—vit Obiection touching strange languages and prophecies c. vttered by persons distempered that it should be by nature corrupted how that he aided himselfe with his servant Thallus being surprized with the Falling-sicknesse at such time as he performed his magicke sacrifices And hee defended or excused himselfe of this crime so coldely that he seemeth to consent therevnto And it is well knowne that next to Apollonius Thianeus he was one of the greatest Magitians that can be remembred But saith yet Levinus those medecines that doe purge Melancholie Madnesse Burning-fevers the Epilepsie and such like do cause all those thinges to cease which we affirm to be caused in such bodies by the divels namely to speake strange languages to prophecie and fore-tell things to come to tell wonders of things past and to doe that which is not possible for man to doe by nature Therefore it may be concluded that it is not the divell but rather Nature corrupted which so moves the humors and stirres vp troubles the soule in that maner But I doe vtterly deny that the divells by medecines can be driven or cast out of such bodies neither can hee proove it vnto me by any example I am not ignorant that Pomponatius writeth Answer to the former Obiection that the divel cannot be cast out of bodies possest by medecines De precantat But it appears not that those purges did ex pell the divell In oratio de laudibus medecinae that the antient Exorcists or Coniurers did purge with helleborus the bodies of such as were beset with divells before they made their coniurations howbeit he cannot alleadge or bring me any good and sound historie to proove his saying And though he affirme that the wife of Frauncis Maigret Savetier of Mantua who spake divers languages was healed by Calceran a famous Phisitian of his time who did minister vnto her a potion of helleborus And that Erasmus agreeing with him doth write how hee himselfe saw a man of Spoleta in Italie that spake the Almaine tong very well albeit hee had never beene in Almaine and that after a medecine had beene given vnto him hee did avoid by the fundament a great number of wormes and so was healed and did never after speake the Almaine tongue any more yet doe I hold the truth of this very suspitious It might bee rather that the divels left these presently vpon the medecines given them onely because he would have men beleeve and wickedly attribute this power to bee in phisicke rather then to any worke of God though it were not indeed by any vertue of the phisicke Lib. 2. cap. 16. de abdit rer causis and do rather give credite to Fernelius one of the greatest Phisitians of our age who doth vtterly denie that there is any such power in phisicke And he reciteth a historie of a young Gentleman the sonne of a Knight of the Order who being possessed by the divell could not in any sorte be healed by any potions medicines or diet ministred vnto him Nor by that neither You may assoone beleeve the one as the other for all phisicke all superstitions and Coniurations are of like efficacie in this case Opinion of the Astrologers confuted That the speaking of strange languages c. by persons distempered in their bodies proceedeth of the influence of the Starres but onely by Coniurations and Exorcismes And even in our time there was better triall made heereof in that woman or Demoniaqne of Vervin who for all the medicaments that were given vnto her by those of the pretended reformed religion could never be healed but onely by the vertue and efficacie of the holy Sacrament of the Altare But to come to other matters of this kinde As little reason also have the Astrologers to attribute vnto their Starres such force and influence as to say That they doe infuse and instill into humane bodies certaine admirable faculties and so doe cause them to speake divers and straunge languages for their opinion is as farre from the trueth and to be abhorred as that of the Phisitians neither can they finde any reasons whereby they are able or ought to perswade that the Starres are the cause of any such myracle chauncing in the bodies of men And howsoever for proofe of their Assertion they doe vrge That the Moone according to the encreasing and decreasing thereof dooth produce very terrible effectes in the bodies of Lunatique persons and that according to certaine constellations of the Starres the corporall matter is disposed more or lesse to receive the celestiall Impressions yet dooth it not followe for all that That the Lunatiques in speaking and vttering diverse languages are not surprised and possessed by the Divell but that the same their diversity of tongues should proceed from the Starres For what should I say more But that the auntient Paynims themselves were not ignorant but did acknowledge that both Melancholique persons Mad-men and Lunatiques speaking diverse and sundry languages and prophecyings were men possessed with Divelles And therefore they did vse to call them Fanaticos and sometimes Ceritos Ceritus quasi Cereristus gracis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plâ—utuâ— in Poe nulo neque nos populus pro Ceritis insectabit lapidibus De sacro morbo 1. Reg. as if they shoulde say Persons stricken by Ceres sometimes Demetrioleptous and Numpholeptons and Daimonountas as Lucian witnesseth and sometimes persons possessed by Hecate which was an infernall divell or by Heros as saieth Hippocrates And in the Bible in the bookes of Kings wee see that Saul being in a melancholique passion was assailed and vexed with an evill spirite and
the bones of fishes and of pure water because the Island is so barren that it beareth neither corne nor wine By reason whereof the spirites of the people doe become verie grosse dull partly in regard of their manner of living and of the ayre and partly in respect of the nature of the soyle and by meanes of the extreame cold that there exceedeth And thereof it proceedeth that for the thicknesse of the aire for the vapours which are ingendred by reason of the colde many images and formes are seene wandring and straying here and there the which the feare and imagination the weaknes of the braine in the inhabitants doth conceive and retaine even so long till they come to fall vnder the sense of the sight which suffereth it selfe to be perswaded that they are true formes and shapes in verie deed And when the sight which is the most sharpe and quickest of all the senses is once offended and abused then do those Ilanders thinke and beleeve that they see touch and embrace the Specters and vaine Images of such men as are dead and were knowne vnto them in their life time for that the minde dooth alwayes waies perswade it self of things known vnto them conceyved in their fantasie And he addeth But this may be thought verie straunge how these vaine visions of spirites should seeme in the end to speake and talke vnto them and when they are vanishing away from them to tell the inhabitants that they go thence into the Mountaine Heclae Neverthelesse wee must know thus much that this Mountaine is like that of Mongibell in Sicilye which at times doth vomit out flames of fire which is the cause that through a long and inveterated perswasion the inhabitants of this Isle have beene of opinion that within the hollow places and Caverns of this Mountaine the soules of the dead doe endure their purgatorie like as many also are perswaded that the soules did suffer in Mongibell which in times past was held to be the Forge and furnace of Vulcan and of late hath bin callet Aetna a name which in mine opinion commeth of Athuna that signifieth an Oven Thus you see what Cardan sayth concerning those spirits that doe sometimes shew themselves and appeare in Island wherevnto answere may bee made That the Isle of Thule now called Iseland Ansvver to the latter reason of Cardan is not so barren and vnfruitfull as he reporteth it neither are the inhabitants so poore and miserable as that they do live of nothing but of meale of fish-bones in stead of bread Those that have beene in this Isle doe report no such matter And as touching the nature of this soyle being full of a kind of pitch of the nature of Sulphre or Brimstone I beleeve Cardan in that poynt but yet that the bad and corrupt feeding and nouriture of vnwholsome grosse nutriments or that this pitch it selfe can so thicken the ayre the sensitive spirits in such sort as a man should imagine himselfe to see touch embrace spirits specters that is beyond my knowledge I make no doubt but that herbes and rootes being taken without any other nutritive substance and those meates that are of evill digestion to the stomacke or doe carrie a strong savour in the mouth as Onions Garlike and such like things doe thicken and corrupt the ayre so as it may cause infection And thereof commeth the Proverb That after a Famine commeth the Pestilence For the poore people not having bread to feede vpon doe sustaine and norish themselves with such infectious victualls And then when the Sunne hath heated the ayre and being at the height doth shoote and pierce into the bowells of the earth as Homer termeth it and doth make vs to feele the force of her scorching beames and parching heate Then incontinently doth the Pestilence also beginne to grow hote by the infection of the ayre which is before infected by the corrupt feeding of the people Moreover I know well that Brimstone and Sulphre do thicken the ayre insomuch as the birds sometimes flying over it do sodainely fall downe dead Neverthelesse as I have already said I cannot conceive that by reason of bread and ill feeding or by vertue of the soile partaking of sulphre a man should see any Specters and those false and imaginative onely For the land of Iewry where the like kinde of pitch or sulphre groweth in the lake Asphaltites doth not complaine of seeing any Spectes as the Islanders doe And if such pitch or sulphurous soyle should cause the generation of Specters assuredly they would appeare and shew themselves more easily in the land of Iewry then in Island because in Iewry the ayre is more warme and of much more heate then in Iseland where the windes do carry a great sway The which will soone dissipate and scatter all figures created in a grosse and thicke ayre so as they shall not have any leasure to forme and shape themselves For there must of necessitie be such an ayre as may bee warme and milde without any windes that should cause them to stay and abide so long that a man may exactly discerne them as Specters And this is a thing most cleere and manifest that the winter and the colde are so farre from making the ayre warme or thicke that they do rather make it cleere pure and subtile Last of all I will say this more that if the Specters do proceede in Iseland by reason of the ayre which is perpetually thicke and grosse there in that Countrey We must conclude also that the Specters there should be perpetuall likewise But the Iselanders do not see any but very seldome and that but once onely in their whole life time How then is it possible that the ayre should bee the cause of their generation But let vs admit all these reasons of Cardan together with their absurdities and let vs see what answer he will make to his owne obiection in that he affirmeth how these Specters do speake and talke vnto men saying That they go to the mountaine Herlu Is the pitch or sulpher in that soyle the cause thereof or is it caused by the thicke and grosse ayre or by the nuriture and feeding of the inhabitants Can the sense of hearing be offended and abused as well as the sight by meanes of the ayre that it should enter within the cartilage or gristle of the care and that it should carry by the empty passage thereof even into the braine distinct and plaine sounding voyces and yet such as should notwithstanding be false and imagined Truly these reasons are farre vnworthy and vnbeseeming a man any thing though never so little seene or exercised in Philosophy much more so great a Philosopher and Phisitian as Cardan was Neverthelesse I am of the opinion that Cardan did not erre in Philosophie through ignorance but having a desire continually to appeare more learned he did ever bend himselfe to impugne that which hee knew the
soundest and best part of men did hold and maintain And amongst other things he did ever shew a minde and disposition in the greatest part of his bookes to call in doubt and question the apparition of Specters In the which notwithstanding he doth mervelously repugne and contrary himselfe not knowing if there were any specters or if there were none somtimes alledging the authority of Psellus sometimes that of Facius Cardanus his owne father Both which did constantly maintaine the Specters and Apparitions of divells and especially Facius Cardanus who had not onely one spirit and familiar but seaven all at one time which did reveale vnto him and acquaint him plainely with many strange and goodly mervailes and sometimes affirming that all whatsoever was spoken and reported of the Apparition of spirits and Specters was nothing else but ieasts tales and leasings But this shall suffice for the discussing of Cardan his reasons and opinions Let vs now therefore proceede to refute the opinion of those which affirme that the Angells and divells cannot take vpon them a body like vnto this of ours CHAP. V. Of the Arguments of those which deny that the Angells and Divells can take vnto them a Bodie THey which doe deny that the Angells and divells can take vnto them a body do not ayme at the marke to deny their essence as do the Saduces but they doe it onely to disprove and impugne their Apparition For it is a good consequent If the Angells and divells take not vpon them any body then can they not appeare And if one should reply vnto them and say That in our spirit and vnderstanding the Angells and divells may give some shew and token of their presence To this they have their exception readie That things spirituall and intelligible and all sorts of intelligences doe represent themselves by things that are sensible Wee will see therefore by what reasons they indevour to proove First objection to proove that Angells and divells cannot take vnto them a body that an Angell or a divell cannot take a body vnto them No body say they can be vnited to an incorporall substance but onely that it may have an essence and a motion by the meanes of that substance But the Angells and diuells cannot have a body vnited in regard of any essence for in so doing we must conclude that their bodies should be naturally vnited vnto them which is altogither vntrue and therefore it remayneth that they cannot be vnited vnto a bodie but onely in regard of the motion which is a reason of no sufficiencie for the approving of their opinion For thereof would follow an absurditie in regarde of the Angels to wit That they might take all those bodies that are moved by them which is a verie 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 Divell can take a bodie vnto them Answere to the first Argument or obiection To this Argument I answere That true it is that an Angell and a Divell cannot to speake properly take vnto them every bodie that is moved For to take a bodie signifieth to adhere vnto the bodie Now the Angels and the Divels do take vnto them a bodie not to vnite it to their nature and to incorporate it together with their essence as hee that taketh any kinde of meate for sustenance much lesse to vnite the same to their person as the sonne of God tooke vpon him the humane nature But they doe it onely that they may visibly represent themselves vnto the sight of men And in this sort the Angels Divels are said to take a bodie such as is apt fit for their apparition Cap. 15. calest Hierachiae as appeareth by the authoritie of Denys Ariopagyte who writeth that by the corporal forms the properties of Angels are knowne and discerned The second Argument Againe they say That if the Angels and Divels doe take a bodie it is not for any necessitie that they have but onely to instruct and exhort vs to live well as do the Angels or to deceive and destroy vs as do the Divels Now both to the one and the other the imaginarie vision or the tentation is sufficient and therefore it seemeth that it is not needfull they should take veto them any bodie Answer to the second Argument I answere that not onely the imaginarie vision of Angels is necessary for our instruction but that also which is corporall and bodily as we shall show anone when we intreate of the Apparition of Angels And as concerning the Divels God doth permit them both visibly and invisibly to tempt vs some to their salvation and some to their damnation Moreover they thus argue The third Argument Li. 3. ca. 11. 12. That God appeared vnto the Patriarchs as is to be seene in the old Testament and the good Angels likewise as Saint Augustine proveth in his Bookes of the Trimitie Now wee may not say that God tooke vpon him any body except onely in that mysterie of his Incarnation And therefore it is needlesse to affirme that the Angels which appeare vnto men may take vpon them a bodie Answer to their third Argument I answere as doth Saint Augustine who sayth That all the apparitions which were in the olde Testament were made by the ministerie of Angels who formed and shaped vnto themselves certaine shapes and figures imaginarie and corporall by which they might reduce and drawe vnto God the soule and spirite of him that sawe them as it is possible that by figures which are sensible men may be drawne and lifted vp in spirit and contemplation vnto God And therefore wee may well say that the Angels did take vnto them a bodie when they appeared in such apparitions But now God is sayde to have appeared because God was the butte and marke whervnto by vision of those bodies the Angels did endevour and seeke to lift vp vnto God the soules of men And this is the cause that the Scripture sayth That in these Apparitions sometimes God appeared and sometimes the Angels Their fourth Argument Furthermore they make this obiection Like as it is agreeing naturally to the soule to be vnited to the bodie so not to be vnited vnto a bodie is proper and naturall vnto the Angels and Divels Now the soule cannot bee separated from the bodie when it will Therefore the Angels and Divels also cannot take vnto them a bodie when they will For answere whereof I confesse that everie thing borne and ingendred hath not any power over his being Answer to their fourth Argument for all the power of any thing floweth from the essence thereof or presupposeth an essence And because the soule by reason of her being is vnited vnto the body as the forme thereof it is not in her puissance to deliver herselfe from the vnion of
death still doubt P. Yea much more I now rest doubtfull than I did before Ap. Poore man T is time thou now leave off thy doubting And let thy Tombe so ponderous and heavy Henceforth make cease all doubtfulnesse within thee Lucian also scoffing at him and his folowers saith That they aide themselves of their senses as if they had none at all in not beleeving that they do see that which they have seene or to heare that which they have heard as being altogether senslesse and not assuring any thing for certaine which may come into the vnderstanding by the senses Sextus the Philosopher who was one of this Sect hath written a very large volume wherein he assayeth to maintaine the opinion of Pirrhon by the authority of many auncient Philosophers and Poets and to shew by lively demonstrations and arguments That the sight the hearing the smelling and other the humane senses are subiect to be deceived be they never so sound and that wee doe neither imagine nor take an opinion of any thing but falsely and inconsiderately But it is more than time that we doe set downe with as great brevitie as may be what should move Pirrhon and his disciples to be so obstinate to deny all things though never so manifest and to impugne the veritie of the senses It is not without cause that I should touch this poynt for it followeth with good reason That if the Sonse the Imagination and the Intellect be false then that also which we comprehend by them as the Specters must needes bee false and deceitfull likewise The Arguments of the Sceptiques against Specters And as touching Specters Beholde what the Sceptiques do alleadge to refute them First they say That of things incomprehensible no demonstration can be made and by consequence no iudgement And as it is most sure and certaine that the Specters are incomprehensible in nature so is not possible for any man to give any demonstration or iudgement of them For those thinges of which demonstration may be made have a substance certaine comprehensible and assured to be such which cannot be saide of Specters The which even amongst the dogmaticall Philosophers who were most earnest maintainers of that opinion is certaine were called in doubt as namely by the Peripatetiques who of all other Philosophers being the most dogmaticall and opinionative did wholy impugne and deny the being of any Specters Answer to the first argument of the Sceptiques But to this argument I answere That albeit the Specters be incomprehensible in their owne nature yet when they appeare vnto vs they are comprehensible by the senses which doe carry them to the Intellect or vnderstanding and the same dooth then give such demonstration and iudgement of them according as is the subiect thereof and that is it iudgeth of them supernaturally as of a thing supernaturall The second argument of the Sceptikes That the senses are vncertaine and deceived in regarde of the vncertainetie and variety of the accidents in man which being knowne by the senses doe cause in them diverse and different imaginations and effects But will the Sceptiques now say The senses can not see or discerne any thing in truth and how is it then possible that vpon an obiect falsely conceived a man may ground his iudgement and maintaine the essence thereof But now let vs see what they alleadge for the regard of the senses It is most certaine say they that the senses do not comprehend any thing but by th' accidents Of the which the essence is vncertaine and variable according vnto the subiects wherein they offer themselves to be seene For we see that in following the vncertaintie of the accidents there are to be marked and observed divers imaginations fantasies and natures in creatures of which the senses doe ' comprehend and perceive some things either more or lesse in them as the Eagle hath her sight more cleere then all other birdes and the dogge hath his nosthrilles more subtile to smell and to take the sent of any thing far more excellent than any other beast whatsoever Contrariwise the Owle seeth not at all but only in the night and there are many creatures which can smell little or nothing at all And this proceedeth not of any other thing than of the accidents which being divers and different in creatures dooth make their imaginative powers to be as divers and different likewise That this is so and that the accidents do present themselves in creatures according to the diversitie of their condition or disposition It appeareth even amongest men who according as they shall finde themselves disposed so will they alwayes imagine the thinges that are present As those that have a fever doe iudge all things to be hote and to them that have their tongue or taste distemperd by meanes of any fever wherewith they are aggreeved all meates doe seeme to be exceeding bitter and so is it likewise of all other accidents wherewith men are touched and whereof they have an imagination by their senses Insomuch that there are found some men who in their sleep walke go vp and downe and which is almost incredible doe execute all such actions as they vse to doe when they are waking With such a maladie or infirmitie were stricken Theon Tithoreus the Stoicke and the servant of Pericles of whome we reade That the one vsed to walke in his sleepe and the other did vsually in his sleepe creepe vppe to the toppe of the house as is reported by Diogenes Laertius Lib. 9. de vita Philosophorum Lib. examin is doctrin Gent. And Francis Picus of Mirandola writeth that himselfe knew many in his time to whome the like had happened Besides Aristotle in his booke of Auscultations writeth That in the Cittie of Tarentum there was a Taverner which in the day time did vse to sell wine and in the night would runne vppe and downe through the Towne in his sleepe as if he hadde beene madde or frantike and yet would so well looke to the keeping of the keyes of his Taverne or Wine-seller which he carried hanging at his girdle that a many of gallants having plotted made a match to get it from him yet lost their labour and were disappoynted of their purpose Barâ—boâ—us also telleth how there was a certaine man in Pisa In lib. vt vim D. de Iust Iur. which in his sleepe would vse to arise and arme himselfe and to runne vp and downe wandering through the towne still talking and singing as hee went And Marian a Doctour of the Civill Lawe writeth that there was a neighbour of his a yoong woman Cap. ad studientium that in her sleep would arise out of her bed and bake her bread sleeping In like sorte Laudensis writeth how hee had a companion his fellow student at Paris In Clem. 1. de homicid an Englishman borne who without awaking went in the night not farre from the Church of Saint Benet
glister as if it had had many windowes Lib. 36. cap. 22. natural histor and as if the cleerenes of the light had beene inclosed and shut vp within the walls thereof notwithstanding that the day light never pierced into it A certaine Author writeth In vita Horatii that the Poet Horace was so lascivious and luxurious that he caused this stone of Talc to be placed in his chamber to the intent it might represent vnto him his strumpets in the very action of dishonesty But this was not a thing peculiar vnto Horace alone but it was common vnto him with many Emperours that did the like And in truth this Poet was worthie to be the friend and favorite of Mecenas who was not onely defamed to be wanton and effeminat in his speech in his habite and in his going but was a man of most corrupt manners and extreamly addicted to lust and licensiousnes in such sort that by the excessive ryot of his youth he became in his later yeares to be full of maladies and diseases in so much as be could not sleepe nor take his rest scarce a moment of an houre Howe the sight is deceived by many particular obiects But to returne to our purpose it is well knowne that ordinarily the spectacles or sight-glasses do make letters to seeme more great then they are indeede And those things which a man beholdeth within the water doe seeme also farre bigger then they be by nature And let any letters be never so small and little yet are they verie easie to be read through a viall filled with water Apples also if they swimme within a glasse do seeme much fairer then they are The starres likewise are farre greater to the sight if a man behold them through a clowde And the like is to be seene of the Sunne also If a man cast a ring into a cup or bole though the ring be in the bottome yet will it appeare as if it were in the superficies and top of the water The sea seemeth to be of an Azure colour and notwithstanding it hath not any color certaine In a bright and cleere ayre by an artificiall fire are to be seen many colours and many figures which are false by reason of the varietie of the matter of the fire And sometimes a man would even sweare that those that are sitting at a table together should be without heades or should seeme to be dead men or shoulde have the heades of some other creatures And the chamber where men are supping together will sometimes seeme to be full of serpents and there will seeme a Vine to spread and seatter abroade her boughes and braunches though indeed it be a meere illusion There be some men who in this our age have stuffed their Bookes with such devises as amongest others Cardan and Baptista de la Porta a Neapolitane De subtilitat Imagin natura Tho. Aquin. 1. parte q. 11.4 art 4. And there is not so much as Saint Thomas of Aquine but hath written of an hearb the which being sâ—t on sire will make the rafters or beames of the chamber seeme to be Serpents What should I say more The cloudes sometimes will seeme to be Monsters Lions Bulls Woolves painted and figured albeit in truth the same be nothing but a moyst humour mounted in the ayre and drawne vp from the earth not having any figure or colour but such as the ayre is able to give vnto it The which is subiect to a thousand impressions and changes Of the vncertainty of the other senses of the difference and discord of theÌ„ together Now after that wee have so largely discoursed of the sight if we should come to the other senses by what meanes can we better argue their vncertainty according to the opinion of the Sceptiques than to shew the difference that they have together which is in such manner that they doe not in any forte accord and agree neither have they any Sympathy any colligence or any proportion one to another And first of all if we will compare the senses of Smelling Of the differense and discord betwixt the other senses and that of the sight the Touching and the Taste with that of the Sight what better example can we have than the Apple the which in sight will be pale and yet in taste wil be sweete in handling will be light and in smel will be of a good and pleasant odour Heereby then it is manifest that the senses are not of any good accorde together amongest themselves And besides what can better demonstrate this than the colours whereof wee have earst spoken the which as they are vnknowne to the sight so doe they ingender a great discord amongst the senses If a man should say that every thing which is white in colour dooth proceede of a hote qualitie the contrary will appeere evidently by the Snow and by the Yce And if a man would say it were long of a colde qualitie The Ashes the Lime and the Plaister doe sufficiently shew that hee were deceived The like may a man affirme of other colours aswell blacke as those that participate both of white and blacke And how often is it seene that the Physitians are deceived in iudging of the temperature of their Simples by the sight onelie and not by the other senses I have seene a Practitioner in Physicke at Paris who did bragge in the open Parliament in the hearing of my selfe and an infinite number of people that can testifie the same likewise That by the simple sight alone he would knowe all the qualities and temperatures of hearbes that any should shew vnto him yea though they were come from America and such as the vertues of them were scarce yet knowne of Physitians But this Paracelsian was reiected and confuted with his Paracelsus and his ignorance was sufficiently discovered by such as had commission to question with him But what is the cause That being in a hote Bath wee doe thinke that our vrine is colde Is it not bicause our Touching or Feeling is vncertaine and doth not well accord and agree with the other senses In the winter by reason that we are colde all other externall things doe seeme vnto vs to be hote by the same reason that we alleadged before of the Bath Of the differense and discord of the senses of hearing and the sight And to come from the difference of the Feeling to that which the Hearing hath with the Sight Is it not most certaine that the Eye seeth sooner than the Hearing can vnderstand or discerne a thing The experience of this may be seene in the lightning the brightnesse and shining whereof is seene sooner than we can heare the thunder And sometimes the Hearing will iudge that it hath heard two blowes given at the striking of a thing which it hath seene to strike no more than once And heereof a man may have the experience by that which wee see daily to happen
their bodies And on the contrary they doe pursue such as recule and goe from them And by conversion of the cause it hapneth that beeing drawne by the raritie and vacuitie of the precedent motion They doe seeme to runne after such as go from them who staying or returning are incontinently abashed when they see themselves touched with the same and that these clowds before they light or fall vpon the ground do spread themselves very cold over all their bodies Of the Eclipses of the Sun the Moone and the causes thereof But to leave these airie vapours and to go alittle higher even to the body of the Moone what shall wee say to the superstition of the antient Romans who were so abashed and astonished at the eclipse thereof That wee reade howe sometimes an whole armie was stricken into feare and amazement by the sight of the same insomuch as they vsed to call and ring her with the sound of abason vntill such time as she were returned to her former shape and forme as witnesseth Plutarch In vita parili Amily Corneous Tacitus and Ovid. And the same Tacitus recounteth That in the beginning of the raigne of Tiberius In lib. 1. Amia certaine garrisons of Roman Souldiers vppon the Frontires of Germanie being revolted The thing that did most terrifie and astonish them and reduced them to their former duty obedience was an eclipse of the moone which put them in a fansie and conceipt that the gods were angry and displeased with them for that their enterprise And yet neverthelesse the cause of the Moones eclipse is knowne to be mecrely naturall without anie prodigiousnes at all in it For it is most certaine That the shadowe of the earth being opposed against the moone makes the eclipse thereof like as the moone being opposed against the sunne dooth make the eclipse of the sunne It is not therefore to be thought any strange matter if at this day there be many men that take all things vnknowne vnto them to be Specters and Prodigies and 〈◊〉 they be afraide of them without day iust occasion Of strange sights hapning in the seas yet naturall Psal 106. But what will such men say if they should saile on the seas where the woonderfull woorkes of God as David saith are more common and manifest than on the earth They would imagin themselves to be in another world and to heare and see other things than they are accustomed to doe in the earth Sometimes they shall see the fire which the Saylers call Saint Hermes to flie vppon their shippe and to alight vppon the toppe of the mast And sometimes they shall perceive a winde that stirreth vp such stormes The winde called Ecnephia as will runne round about their shippe and play about it in such sorte as by the hurling and beating of the clowdes will raise vppe a fire that will burne vppe the yardes the sayles and the tacklings of the shippe And of these windes Saint Luke speaketh in the Actes of the Apostles Acts 27. Sometimes the billowes of the sea will raise them even to the clowdes and in a moment east them downe againe to the botome of the sea sometimes they shall heare the roaring of the waves beating against the rockes the banckes and the cliffes vpon the sea shoare so as they shall be heard farre off not without great feare and astonishment as is to be seene by Charibdis and Silla on the coast of Sicily and by that great and terrible noyse of the sea-waves which beates on a rocke lying in the sea a seaventeene or eighteens leagues from Burdeaux and by the Frenchâ—â—en is called Les Asues de Burdeaux And if a man should faile into the sea of Amorica howe many sortes of whales shall he see farre differing from those which are in our Ocean sometimes they will be sâ—â—â—e like vnto a round wheele and fodainely like vnto a sharpe cutting sawe And others againe may beseeâ—â— to pursue and follow after a ship without leaving or forsaking it for a long time And in the sea of Mâ—â—â—day how many whales be there and monstrous fishes which may even astonish those that soe them To be 〈◊〉 There is nothing but will minister vnto them occasion either of feare or of admiration as by seeing maiters strange and vnvsuall to their sight so that a man may say of them as Sinesius say de of the Labians In Epistolis that wondred at the small breasts of the women which were with him in his shippe whom they never desisted from gazing and looking vppon by way of admiration The reason whereof the same Author yeeldeth to be this because the Libian women have their breasts so huge and great that they vse to give sucke vnto their infants over their shoulders The like woulde happen no doubt vnto these men that doe so superstitiously admire and stand in feare of all things that are strange and vnvsuall vnto them and to whome nothing is naturall but that which they see to happen and fall out daily and accustomably in their sight Of naturall things that deceive the sense of hearing But to come from the sense of seeing to that of the hearing how often is that also deceived in taking things naturall for other than they be indeede The Eccho is a sound proceeding from the voyce rebounding and striking backe againe either in forrests and woodes or valleis or hollow places of the sound of the Eccho or else by reason of the extreme heate in time of summer and yet neverthelesse how often and especially in the night season hath it deceived such persons as have thought it to be some other thing rather than an Eccho The historie recorded by Cardan of a friend of his a Counsellor of Come who thought he should have beene drowned by mistaking on Eccho in steede of a man is sufficiently well knowne Lib. 18. de subtilitate Howbeit Cardan had reason to esteeme that his friend for a very simple and senslesse man for if hee had considered never so little with advisement the voyce of the Eccho hee might easily have discovered that which deceived him And that it was no difficult matter to be discovered it is manifest in this That the Eccho aunswered him in the same termes and in the same accent that hee demanded namely by way of Interrogation and Demaund saying Shall I passe heere Whereas if it had beene a man hee would have aunswered without demaunding Passe here Now vpon this discourse of that Eccho Cardan telleth how in the great church of Pavis there is an Eccho that yeeldeth diverse voyces ever decreasing and lessening till that the last voyce thereof shall be heard without being distinctly and certainely discerned being much like vnto the voyce or groning of one that is a dying in such sorte saieth Cardan as a man woulde scarce beleeve that it were an Eccho In li. de varieta rerum But if hee that hath travelled
many thousands of persons as it were of souldiers giving a charge or onset in battell And when they are at the second they heare yet a farre greater noyse And being at the last then they heare as it were a great reioycing and showting of men triumphing as if the victorie had beene gotten This albeit it be verie admirable yet neverthelesse it is naturall And Clement Alexandrine himselfe doth esteeme the cause thereof to bee by reason of the concavitie of the places which maketh such a noyse to bee heard But wee doe dwell over long vppon these thinges which be naturall and in some sort miraculous and admirable of which if we should pursue the particularities such as Plinie Pausanias Strabo Seneca Elian Aristotle and others admirers of the works of Nature have described and numbred them we might make ahuge volume and yet digresse nothing at all from the scope of our intended purpose But our intent was onely to touch that which in Nature is most rare and marvellous and might be an occasion of feare and terrour and not that which is vsuall and commonly knowne vnto the most part of men or such as the cause thereof is in it selfe evident and apparant We will therefore now descend vnto such things as being meerely artificiall yet doe no lesse then those which are naturall feare and terrifie men if they be never so little ignorant of the causes of them CHAP. VIII That things Artificiall as well as things Naturall may sometimes deceive the Senses of the Sight and of the Hearing and drive men into a passion of feare and terrour HAving sufficiently entreated of those things that are bred and produced most singular in Nature and such as doe in some sort draw neere vnto a kinde of divinitie It now foloweth that we shew what the hand industrie and spirit of men dooth worke and effect and that so ingeniously and subtilly as many times a man would take it for as great a marvell as if it were some divine thing and supernaturall Now as there are manifold and sundry wits and spirits of men so doe there proceede from them many and divers kindes of cunning and artificiall devises Some have ayded themselves only with their owne invention without any Art at all Of artificial workes done by the Arte Antomatique or having motion in themselves others with their naturall invention have ioyned Art in all perfection But what Arte is there that dooth more instruct and teach ingenious and artificiall experiments than dooth the Mathematiques of the which both the Antomates and the Hydrauliques have drawne their originall And as touching the Antomates that is to say such woorkes as have a motion of themselves A man may well say That this is an Arte and Science of excellent and divine effects Libr. 1. Politie Truly Aristotle doth make great esteeme and reckoning of the Antomates wroght by Dedalus and of the Tripodes of Vulcan The which as the Poet saide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Did enter by their owne proper motion into the assembly of the gods The Scholiast of Euripides testifieth the like In Hecubam and so dooth Plato the Philosopher And Aristotle saith moreover in another place citing the authoritie of Philippe a Comicall Author Li. x. de Anim. That â—â—â—â—â—us did make a statue or Image of Venus the which â—â—â—â—e meanes of quickesilver artificially enclosed within 〈◊〉 did moove and stirre of it selfe The Philosopher Arcâ—itas borne at Tarentum in Italy made an artificiall Dove which did flie in the ayre as if it had beene alive And Archimedes composed a Sphere of glasse of such excellent workemanship that a man might therein perceive and comprehend the mooving of the Heavens and of the wandering planets as is reported by Claudian In Epigram de sphaera Archi. who was in an extreame admiration of that peece of worke And certainely Cassiodorus writeth Aemula natura parva reperta manus In lib. varior that Boetius of whose writing wee have certaine bookes of the Mathematiques was so excellently skilfull in the working of these Automates as he had not the like in his time Tibi saieth hee ardua cognoscere â—ir acula monstrare propositum est tuae artis ingenio â—et alla mugiunt Diomedes in are gravius buccinatur Aeuens anguis insibilat Aves simulatae sunt quae vocom propriam nesciunt habere duicedinem cantilenae probantur emittere Parva de illo referâ—mus cui coelim imitari faâ—est That is Thy profession is to knowe things of an high and profound nature and even to woorke miracles For by the ingeniousnes of thy Arte the dead mettalls doe bellow and mow like lowing beasts Diomedes is made in brasse to sound a Trumpet A brasen Serpent is taught to hisse and Birdes are formed and resembled as if all of them were made naturally And such things as have not any proper voyce are pâ—ooved by Arte to send foorth a most sweete and pleasing Musicke And yet all these things whereof we speake are little or nothing vnto him to whome it is given to imitate even the very Heavens But what neede wee insist vpon the examples of the Antients our owne Age is not vnfurnished of such excellent spirites comparable to that of Boetius For in the time of our Fathers every man knoweth that Charles the fift Emperour of Almaine had an Eagle presented vnto him that was in nothing inferiour to Architas his Dove nor to those Serpents Birdes and Diomede of Boetius for this Egle being made of nothing else but of mettall had divers little resorts which playing within it did make the same for a certaine time to flie of it selfe in the ayre A thing without doubt very strange and marvellous and which being seene by those that knew not the cunning workmanship contrived within it made them beleeve That there was some diabolicall thing in it and that it was nothing but meere Magicke and a bewitching and enchaâ—nting of the eyes In Paris there was a certaine Goldsmith borne in Aniow who died but very lately to whome I will give this honour That there was not either in Almanie Italie or any other countrey any man that was able to surmount and excell him in regarde of these Amomatique workes I my selfe sawe a Gailie of silver of his making in such an artificiall fashion that it would of it selfe moove and goe vppon a Table and a man might see how the motions within the same which rowed it vp downe when they came to the tables end woulde turne about the Gally as if they had had life and vnderstanding And the same Gold-smith before that time had made a certaine Triton or Seaman which when the resorts motions therof were bent or wownd vp set on going would shew himselfe so furious That anie who had seene it vpon the land how it tormented and vexed it selfe durst not have touched nor handled it Of th' artificiall works
subtilit how hee knew an olde man which was so frighted and terrified with the conceit of a false vision that he could not be made beleeve but that he had seene aspecter and he died through the feare of that conceit Of women that they are naturally subiect to feares After children and old folkes next doe succeede women of all sorts whome Saint Peter in his Canonicall epistle termeth fraile and weake vessells well knowing the defect and imbecilitie of their courage and that the same is capable of all manner of feare and perturbation That was the cause as Harpocration writeth that the Greekes had a law Cap. 3. by the which for the considerations above expressed there were perpetuall tutors and overseers ordained and appointed to their women And in imagination of the same law was the Customarie law of France which decreeth that the wives should be in perpetuall tutelage of their husbands and that they may not be called into iudgement nor make contracts nor governe or dispose of their goods without leave and authoritie of their husbands And the law of the Romans in regard of their imbecillitie and naturall frailtie did make them vncapable to execute any places of charge either publicke or civill and excluded them from being Magistrates and Iudges and from all maner of plaints procurations intercessions for any other persons and from accusing and libelling against all such like actions as also from being arbitrers and vmpiers in any causes Lib. 2. D. de Regul Iuris L. cum praetor § penult D. de iualic l. 2. D. de re Iudicat l. neque D. de procu l. D. de crimine C. qui accusat In Apolog. ad DD. fratres In historia ecclesiasti And I have read in Iustin Martir and Eâ—sebius one thing that was worthy the observation amongst the Antient Romans and which is very well agreeing and consenting with our vsages manners and customes For though at this day the written lawes do conclude the woman to be vnder the power and commaund of her husband yet so it is that the Emperor Marke Antonyne did authorize privilege a certain maried woman that was a christian by his writing to have the governement and administration of her owne goods because her husband being a heathen Paynim did misuse and entreate her evill which sheweth very evidently that shee was vnder the power and governement of her husband till such time as the graunt and letters patents of the Prince did make frustrate his power and authoritie over her Wherefore seeing it is most certaine that women are naturally so fraile and weake it must needes be that feare is naturally attending vpon them and dooth ever accompanie them and it doth easily imprint sundry imaginations in their mindes like as a man would make in waxe an impression of some character with a Ring or Signet And it must needes be that their feare and apprehension is very great seeing their imagination doth engender so mervellous effects in nature as nothing more And letting passe whatsoever is written heereof in antient histories I will onely in this place recite a certaine accident which befell of late even in our time the same being a thing as marvellous as any one thing that you shall observe in any Authors whatsoever There was a certaine gentleman in a village neere the Towne of Argenton in Normandie Of a gentleman borne in Normandie which complotted with some of the inhabitants of that Village to play certaine plaies wherein should be acted certaine divells to the intent the pleasure and pastime of their Pageant might be the greater Of humane parts in forme of a monster And this Gentleman would needes himselfe bee apparrelled and attired in the habite of a divell and did play the part of a divell insomuch as after the plaies were ended hee resting in a heate and chafed in his furniture went home to his wife lay with her and had her companie clad in the same attire wherein he had played the divell By meanes wherof it hapned that his wife were it either by some vehement imagination that surprized her or else which I rather beleeve through a very feare which seized vppon her and is naturally in the hearts of all women she was delivered at the nine moneths end of a sonne so monstrous as in his countenance his head his face and all the other parts of his body especially in his feete hee resembled and was more like vnto a Satyre such as the Poets have described then vnto an ordinarie and naturall man After this shee had other children by her husband all which together with their brother the monster did survive both their father and their mother Vpon whose decease there grew a contention and variance betweene them touching the succession of his inheritance All of them endevouring to exclude this monster their elder brother not onely from the birth-right of being heire and eldest sonne but even from the totall succession of any thing that hee should claime or that might in right appertaine vnto him Heerevpon was the processe sued and the matter proceeded in suite betweene them before a ludge of an inferiour Court by whome it was ordered that they shoulde make their entry vppon the inheritance and that the eldest brother shoulde inherite as next heire vnto his father and mother according to the custome of Normandie From this sentence the younger brethren brought their appeale Of a processe or sute in an appeal broght against the said monster by his brethren vpon claime of inheritance and remooved it into the Court of Parliament of Roan where the cause was pleaded And the yonger brethren being Appellants did aleadge That they had great and iust cause to complaine vpon the wrong done them not onely in that their brother was admitted to the birth-right of being heire and eldest sonne to their father but also that hee should bee adiudged to have any parte in the succession of that living which neither did nor could in any sort fall or appertayne vnto him by any Lawes either divine or humane For besides that hee was a very monster borne and even against the ordinary course of nature And therefore was to be excluded for that onely cause from all naturall rights and priviledges as well of any legitimate and lawfull portion as of the birth-right and priviledge of the first borne There was not also any reason whie hee should be either termed or accompted for a man seeing hee was formed and created farre vnlike other men and did more resemble a Savage and a Satyre than a reasonable man That by the publique lawes of the Romans which concerned their religion and ceremonies the monster ought to be putte to death as soone as it was borne and then was to be throwen into the sea or into the next river or else was to be burned with fire made of those woods which are accounted vnfortunate as namely thornes hawthornes bryars and such
they have so acted the well representing and acting of their partes as themselves in the midst of their sporte have become truely and indeede furious and have done actes of outrage and fury even such as the parties did whome they represent The historie of Aesope the Stage player is well knowne who playing the pâ—â—te of Thiâ—stes did with his Scepter kill one of his owne boyes This Aesope was a great friend of Cicero and Hâ—râ—câ— gave him the epytheâ— and title of a grave man Lucian writeth of a certaine Actor or Stage player who playing the part of Aiax in a fury became in the middest of his parte so troubled and distracted in his senses that he did not any more faine himselfe to be furious but hee grow so truly and indeede From some he â—ore off their clothes From the Musitions hee snatched away their flutes and cornets To him that acted Vlysses if his coppe or bonnet wherewith hee was covered had not guarded him he had made his head a drinking place for the flâ—es In the end not content with these fooleries he descended from two Stage and placed himselfe in the middest betweene the Roman Senatours who having beene in times past Consulles were not without some feare lest this gallant would have mistaken them for Vlysses and Agamemnon and so have whipped them as if they had beene some curtall curre This historie maketh me to remember Vibius Gallus a Romane Oratour of whome Seneca speaketh how hee became as a man would say a very foole and distracted of his wittes only through the voluntary merrinesse and pleasaunt conceitednesse of his owne minde For hee vsing to immitate too too much the vaines of foolish persons and counterfaiting them to his vtmost This immitation so changed him in nature that hee became a meere foole and naturall indeede But to give an ende to this Discourse of furious and mad men I may not forget what Tertullian saith That those who be furious doe imagine that they fee other men or beasts in those whome they beholde as Orestes sawe his mother in his sister Electra and Aiax imagined Vlysses and Agamâ—â—non to be amongest a heird of beasts And to make shorte Agave and Athamas pursued and slew their owne children supposing they had killed savage and wilde beasts This shall suffice to be spoken touching the senses and the fantasie and concerning such who oftentimes by reason of the organs sensitive ill disposed or by means of their fantasie corrupted by sickenesse madnesse melancholy love excessive furie and other accidents have either externally or internally felt their naturall powers to be altered and changed and have deceived themselves by false visions and phantosmes It is now time that wee come to another question which ariseth out of this Discourse and can not well be seperated from it to wit If the divell can at any time convey or mingle himselfe with the senses either being sound or corrupted or with the humours and fantasie being offended oriâ— it be onelie the power and facultie of Nature or of the Starres which doe worke those marvellous effects vpon our bodies as is affirmed by Aveâ—reis Pomponatius and other Physitians who doe ordinarily attribute all things vnto Nature CHAP. XII That the Divoll doth sometimes convey and mingle himselfe in the Senses being corrupted and in the Phantasie affended contrarie to the opinion of the naturall Philosophers WE have heretofore shewed that ofttimes the Senses by reason of their imbecillity depravation and the Phantasie by meanes of divers maladies both corporall and spirituall doe feele in themselves an alteration from their proper and particular faculties as the eyes from seeing perfectly the eares from hearing the nose from smelling the mind and the phantasie from reasoning and discoursing and from discerning things by the vse of reason All which is so manifest and evidently true as to doubt thereof would be too too grosse a follie and ignorance because we see that the same daily happeneth and there are very few men who in their habitude or custome of life doe not receive and admit through accesse of yeares some change and alteration of their naturall senses and some dimination of their spirits And as touching those who in truth are wholy troubled and distracted from their sense or vnderstanding the examples thereof are so frequent and the multitude of them is so great and copions that no man can be ignorant of the same Yet this is not the point wherein any difficultie resteth or wherein should â—â—nsist the sumâ—â— of this dispuâ—e But it is sufficient plainely and simply to affirme that the nature of man may receive in it selfe changes may erre by the senses may be perverted in her discourse and may loose the vse of reason of prudence and of vnderstanding To be briefe in things which receive no contradiction as this same it should be but a vaine and lost labour to enter into any subtile discourse and to seeke out any great reasons and argumentes In heaping vp of the which a man shall bee sooner reprooved of too much curiositie then commended for his learning For this cause also have not I dwelt much in playing the Philosopher and dilating vpon that which is easie for every man to know and see of himselfe And if I have alleadged and cited both some reasons of phisicke and some histories which made to my purpose the same hath beene done rather by forme and way of discourse touching things whereof the notion is common then of any intention or purpose to enter into the depth and secrets of Philosophie especially in that which doth in no sort require the knowledge of a Philosopher But now as it is commonly seene that in the pursuit of any discourse which is easie in the first beginnings thereof it is vsuali to meete with some difficulties arising out of the principall matter a So doth it now fall out that in speaking of the senses and the phantasie I am fallen I know not how into an high and difficult question proceeding of that matter and that is Whether in the Senses being either sounder corrupteds or 〈◊〉 able Phaneasin being wounded and offended the Divâ—ll can possibly mingle and convey himselfe and there exercise his furie or if it be Nature only that worketh therein al aloue as is held by Pomponatius and Avenrâ—is according as I have formerly alleadged That nature is not the cause of any marvellous effects by working vpon the Senses or the phantasie corrupted or offended A speciall thing that maketh me firmely to beleeve that it is a kinde of mockery to say that Nature dooth worke in the Senses corrupted or in the Phantafie offended is this that then is must needes be inferâ—ed that the nature of man is more stâ—dâ—g and puissant when if is corrupted and depraved then when it is in it formd and entire estate Which indeed is nothing else but to erre in all true naturall Philosophie which doth ever preferre the habite before the
more strange or miraculous then the experience which we have of the Adamant which draweth the Iron vnto it Heere you see the very proper words of Pomponatius Answer to the reason of Pomponatius who deceiveth himselfe in saying that the enchantment which the eyes of the childe doe receive is derived from him that is the enchanter For then it should follow that the Enchanter ought first of all to have a sight of the thing represented and then afterwards should communicate the same to the childe For otherwise how is it possible hee should give that force vnto the boy which he himselfe hath not at all And as touching the comparison betweene the Adamant and the Iron that cannot any way serve to make for Pomponatius for betweene the Adamant and the Iron there is a kinde of Sympathy And what Sympathy I pray you can there be conceived betweene the soule of the childe and that of the enchanter the one being vnpolluted and the other polluted It were more fit therefore and convenient to affirme rather that this is a very worke of the divell of the which the enchanter serveth himselfe to know by the sight of the childe vnpolluted that which is secret and hidden from him And in my opinion Fernelius the Phisitian seemeth to have beene much more religious herein then Pomponatius For he freely confesseth that this is but a meere imposture and diabolicall deceit which commeth not of the effects of nature but by force of the charmes And you shall see his very owne wordes which he vseth in Latine being very elegant and in good termes Fernelius lib. 1. cap. 11. de Abditis rerum cau sis Vidi quendam vi verborum spectra varia in speculum derivare quae illic quaecunque imperaret mox aut scripto aut veris imaginibus ita dilucidè exprimerent vt promptè facile ab assidentibus omnia internoscerentur Audiebantur quidem verba sacra sed obscoenis nominibus spurcè contaminata cuiusmodi sunt Elementorum potestates horrenda quaedam inaudita principum nomina qui Orientis Occidentis Austri AquilonÃsque regionibus imperant That is to say I have seene a man who by the force of charmes and certaine words hath made divers specters and images to come within a mirrour or looking-glasse the which have there expressed either by writing or by some other demonstrations and true figures whatsoever he would command them and they have done it so cleerely and manifestly as it was most easie for the assistants and by-standers to know and discerne them There you shoulde heare certaine sacred and holy words pronounced but altogether polluted with most filthie and vile barbarous names as of certaine powers of the Elements and with certain horrible and vnknowne names of the Princes and chiefe of divels having a command over the Orient the Occident the South and North Regions of the world So that Fernelius attributeth these kind of enchantments and fascinations or the binding and bewitching of the eyes of children or boyes not vnto the faculties and powers of nature pure and vnpolluted but onely to the working of the divell which doth worke and shew forth his effects being called vp by the charmes and enchantments of the Magitian with whom he hath a certaine strict confederation neere aliance And this ought to be received and admitted before all the reasons of Pomponatius and others of that sect who take vpon them in matters meerely Metaphisicall and supernaturall to dispute as if they were simply Phisicall and Naturail I know well that Avicen bâ—sides all this The opinion of Avicen attributing enchantments to the vehemensy of the imagination Lib. 8. de Animalie 7. in Fine affirmeth that the cause of enchantments charmes commeth of the vehement imagination of the soule And he yeeldeth an example thereof in the Henne which having beaten the Cocke in fight will stretch herselfe vp vpon her feet and beate with her wings and set vp her traine as if shee were a Cocke indeede and sometimes may bee seene a little horne growing out of her legge such as hath the Cocke And heereof saith hee it may be knowne and comprehended the obeisance which nature beareth and yeeldeth to the imaginative conceits and cogitations of the soule And by this would Avicen inferre that the cogitations sometimes are such as they have power to alter and change both the sensitive Organs and the internall or interiour part in such sort that a man should find himselfe as it were altogether transformed in himselfe Which serveth well to confirme the opinion of Avenrâ—is who said that the imagination of them which are bitten by a mad dogge is so great and violent that even in their vrine as we have erst said a man shall see as it were the figures of little dogges But this which Avicen affirmeth cannot stand in regard of the transmutation of the common sense The opinion of Avicen refuted or of the phantafie and apprehension And it doth extend too farre also the imaginative powers of the soule the which howsoever they doe worke in vs marvelous and strange things yet neverthelesse the same is onely by anaturall apprehension and commotion which mooveth and stirreth vp in vs and in our body a certaine heate and colde as we see in them that are growne into a suddaine choler or into a feare And it doth sometimes so change our health that it is the cause either of death or of some extrâ—ame greâ—fe or sicknesse And to little purpose is that comparison of the Henne or of the partie bitten with a mad dogge set downe by Avenrois and Avicen forasmuch as the same is beyond all experience and it is very hard to be beleeved especially that same touching the partie so bitten by a mad dogge For as touching that of the henne it is no new nor strange matter if having beaten the Cocke she doe imagine herselfe to bee a Cocke seeing that the Cocke himselfe which maketh the Hen as the saying is will sometimes endure other Cockes to mount vppon him and to tread him as if hee were a Henne Neither is this any thing abhorring from nature nor is it any other thing but such as daily happeneth and that even by the vertue imaginative of naturall creatures But that the imagination can engender in vs such marvellous effects as the bewitching and blinding of the eyes and the enchantment of the senses vseth to produce and bring forth that is an heresie in nature which ought to be hissâ—d at and vtterly reâ—ected if there be no better reasons to be yeelded for it Obiection of Pomponatius touching specters the sights appearing to Dion and the noise heard by Antonie and that such are no naturall impressions in the soule Apud plutarchum in vita Antonii Dionis To make short no lesse false and vntrue also is that which the same Pomponatius speaketh inferring that that which Dion is reported to have seene and that which
Antonie is written to have heard was but an impression in the soule of some signes and tokens which did foreshew and prognosticate some future evills which should afterwards befall and happen vnto them For even as saith he it happeneth in sleeping that a man taketh an impression in his minde of strange things that shall befall vnto him So in waking if a man be in a deepe muse and profound imagination hee shall take an impression into his soule by the force of the heavens of that which shal betide fal vnto him And a man shall imagine that he seeth and heareth as in a dreame that which dooth presage some future mishap and disaster to come Notwithstanding as we have bâ—fore said following the authoritie of Aristotle Answer to the former obiection there is not any imagination so strong and forcible that can so pervert the senses that they will suffer themselves to be guided or misâ—led thereby And as he saith well it may be that there may bee an exceeding great passion and such as is that De somno vigilia wherewith persons afflicted with an extreame fever vse to be touched who commonly doe imagine that they see images and figures in a wall albeit in truth and very deede they see nothing at all But that such men as are sound and well disposed should suffer themselves to be abused by the force of their imagination vnlesse it were by the Prestigies and illusions of Sathan or that they can possibly see whatsoever they do profoundly imagine is too too abhorring from any reason to be affirmed Or to make the heaven the cause thereof seemeth to proceede only for default of a more apparant or better reason to confirme it Better it were therefore as hath beene said to referre the cause of all this Of the means how the imaginative power and senses may be deceived in specters and phantosmes by the illusion of the divell Tome 2. Summe Saâ—rae Theolog quest 80. Arti. 2. to the working of the divells who as Saint Thomas of Aquin saâ—th may cause the same to proceede by the locall motion as well of the humane inferiour bodies as of the spirits and powers sensitive if they be not repressed by the divine powers and puissance For so it is that by the locall motion of the humours in sleepe there do present themselves divers sensible formes and figures as Aristotle saith caused through the aboundance of the blood that descendeth to the sensitive principles and there doe leave divers impressions of sensible motions the which do conferre and keepe themselves in the sensible Species or shapes and doe move the apprehension in such sort that they do appeare as if the sences outwardly did moove themselves So that it is not strange that the divel having power permitted him as is saide to moove the humours may also make and cause them waking to receive by the eies or other senses diverse imaginations figures voyces sounds and other things that see me very strange marvellous And this is the cause as Saint Angustine saith That there is not any of the corporall senses but the divell may possesse the same and vse it at his pleasure if God do so permit him Serpit hoc malum Diaboli saith this Doctour per omnes aditus sensuales dat se figuris accommodat se coloribus Lib. 18. Quest adharet sonis odoribus se subijcit infundit se saporibus quibusdam nebulis implet omnes meatus intelligentiae That is to say So mischievous is the divell that he creepeth throughout all the passages of the senses Hee adhereth vnto soundes he subiecteth and insinuateth himselfe into smelles and odours hee powreth himselfe into savours and hee filleth all the passages of the intelligence with certayne mistes and clowdes And by the same reason it happeneth also That the divell dooth cast himselfe also into the inward and interiour senses and into the fantasie of men and mooveth them in the same sorte as hee dooth the externall and by a certayne extasie and alienation of their spirites which hee causeth hee maketh diverse formes specters and phantosmes to appeare in their imaginations the which at such times as they awake from sleepe will so lively represent themselves to the externall senses that a man cannot be otherwise perswaded but that hee hath truly and indeede seene them albeit the same were but a pure illusion of the divell Of diabolical extasies happening to witches and sorcerers that they be not by the departing of the soule from the bodie for a season but onelie by illusion of the divell Now this dooth leade vs as it were by the hand to those discourses and reports of Witches and Sorcerers In whose fantasies and internall senses the divel dooth so well and cunningly imprint and fasten certaine Images and figures of things that the same doe afterwards convey themselves to their outward senses howbeit that they have neither seene nor heard the same but onelie in a kinde of dreame and diabolicall extasie For that the soule of the Sorcerer shoulde issue foorth and departs out of the body as some persons of this age have imagined is a thing that cannot in any sorte be appreoved and wee will easly refute and disproove the same by sufficient reason and authorities when time shall serve and that we come to speake of prodigious dreames But vpon the matter it shall nowe suffice 26 Quest â— cap. Episâ—op that the Councell of Ancyra according as is to be read in the Cannon Lawe hath determined that whatsoever the divelles doe instill into the spirites and mindes of Sorcerers and Sorceresses is not by any abstraction made of the soule out or from the body but onely by true and pure illusions fantosmes and deceptions making them beleeve that they ride I knowe not on what kinde of beastes with Dianâ— the goddesse of the Paynims and with Herodiade It appeareth also by the determination of the same Councell that the Sorcerers which see such things are seduced by the divell and through their infidelitie doe deserve to bee mis-led by those diabolicall illusions And this sheweth apparantly that the Sorcerers and Sorceresses doe never enter and fall into such kinds of extasies in the which they see diverse phantosmes that doe convey themselves to the externall senses at the time of their awaking except they have intelligence and confederation with the divell For otherwise the divell could never fasten his illusions so deepely in their imagination to make them believe that they had seen that in their body which they doe not see indeede but onely in spirite and imagination of the minde And I say this expresly to refute the opinion of some Phisitians of our time as namely Baptista de Porta a Neapolitane Opinion of Baptista de Porta and other Physitions refuted a tributing the extasies of Sor cerers to oynt ments c. who doe affirme and maintaine that the sleepes of Sorcerers replenished
not be credible that men may in very deede be chaunged into woolves First I deny that the Scripture doth precisely affirme that Nabuchodoneser was changed into a beast but that he did eate hay as a beast and that the nailes of his fingers and his feete did grow as the clawes of an Eagle The which is a thing worthie to be marked and doth evidently shew vnto all such vndiscreete persons as would have men to be transformed into woolves how much their mindes and vnderstanding are subiect to vnconstancie and indiscretion that they cannot make any profite but do wrest to their ownesense that which being well examined doth make altogether against them For in that the Scripture saith the nailes of Nabuchodonozer did grow in such a manner and that hee did eate hay as an Oxe it giveth vs to vnderstand that his forme or shape was not changed but that hee had so lost the vse of reason and his vnderstanding that hee thought and imagined himselfe to bee a beast and hee didde therefore eate hay as a beast not that hee was really and indeede a beast For seeing his essentiall forme was not changed as themselves do confesse and the corporall and reasonable parts of man are two essences so lincked and conioyned together that before the day of death they can never be seperated how can it be that the reasonable part being not possible to bee changed because it is essentiall to man as themselves alleadge yet the body which is vnited and tyed vnto the reason and vnderstanding should and may notwithstanding bee changed and transformed Certainely the bodie of man and the soule are Relatives and a man cannot presuppose a humane body to be living and walking but hee must give vnto it a reasonable soule and so likewise on the contrarie part wee cannot take any consideration heere below of a living soule vsing reason but we must give it a body proportioned with all the draughts features and lineaments of a man This being a thing so true and certaine as to make a doubt thereof would be a manifest errour and against the principles of naturall Philosophie How can it then bee that the soule being not to be changed by their owne confession our bodies neverthelesse should bee changed and take the body of a beast But they inferre yet further say men have the power to make a cherry-tree or such like plant Obiection by sundry examples to beare and bring foorth roses or apples and they can change yron into steele and the forme of silver into gold wherefore then should it be thought so strange a matter that the divell should change the figure of a body into some other shape seeing his power doth by farre exceede that of men Solution and answer to the first example Goodly comparisons no doubt as though the man which doth graft in a tree a rose or any other graft be he that doth cause to grow within or vpon the tree or the wilde stocke that which is so strange and different from the proper substance of the tree and not rather nature it selfe which by meanes of the sappe of the tree mounting to the graft doth make it to be incorporated and vnited to the barke and body of the same tree and as Virgil saith Vdo facit in elescere libro Certaine it is that he which doth graft it doth nothing else but lend his hands to Nature the which as touching the rest according to the power that God hath given it doth worke and bring it forth causing it to come to these effects as we see The which howsoever they may seeme marvelous yet are they notwithstanding meerely naturall and easie to bee comprehended as proceeding from that which doth delight in the diversitie of her worke and as Petronius Arbiter saith Non vno contenta valet natura tenore Sed commutatas gaudet habere vices Great is the force of nature her course oft changing Never contented with one kinde of working Now God hath not given such power vnto the divell so to transforme any body into another and to alter and change the substance thereof in any sort neither is there any likenesse or identity of reason betweene the grafting of a tree and the transmutation of an entire and solide substance into another body And more then that howsoevering grafting of any thing a man do cut away even halfe the stocke to incorporate the graft yet doth the stocke still remaine the same and the graft taketh it noriture of the sappe of the stocke and doth retaine the nature thereof and that this is so it is apparant for that in the grafting of roses vpon an hawthorne or other wilding or an oke they will grow to be greene by reason of the sappe of the wilding or of the oke And therefore the nature of the tree is not so changed by the new grafting of it but that a man may easily take knowledge of the first substance thereof the which is farre otherwise in the substance of any man that is said to be changed and transformed by the divell for that therein cannot be discerned the tract or shew of any humane shape So that then the divell must bee acknowledged to bee of more might and puissance then Nature it selfe the which the Hebrewes did esteeme in a maner as a god Answer to the 2. example Now as touching that they alleadge that man doth change yron into steele and silver into gold they do not see how therein they doe most grosely and absurdly speake against themselves For I will vse no other then their owne comparison to refell all those that shall maintaine the transmutation of any true substance For as it is most certaine that yron doth easily refine it selfe into that which in nature is next and neerest vnto it that is steele neverthelesse it is alwaies yron and is easie to be discerned from that steele which is fine and naturall And as silver being molten and dissolved with matters of another nature may easily take the colour of gold and come to counterfait and adulterate the same and yet is not able to change it but that it will be discovered for such as it is being tried either with the graver the touchstone the hammer or some such meanes In like manner the divell howsoever by charming the eyes and sight of the beholders hee doe seeme in some sort to adulterate and falsifie the substance of man in making it appeare other then it is indeede yet neverthelesse doth not the humane substance suffer any change or alteration So that we may briefely resolve and conclude this point with Saint Thomas of Aquine that the divell deceiving and deluding both the inward and outward senses In 2. sententia distinct 8 and consequently the iudgement of men doth represent vnto them things divers and farre different from their naturall substances neither is the same a thing more new or strange vnto him then it is vnto some men who
mooving of the soule being quicke and sodaine we may not marvell nor thinke it strange if as by the beating and striking together of the flint and the steele there are forced out sparkle of fire so also by the agitation of the spirits the arising and boiling of the humours and the mooving of the soule of man he may by the organs fit and proper therevnto vtter foorth speeches never heard before and some strange language til then vnknown Now the facultie of the soule is very apte and readily disposed to perceive and apprehend the knowledge of things and to be embewed with their principles even before such time as it commeth to vse them in such sort as the opinion of Plato seemeth to have some likelihoode of truth that our knowledge and vnderstanding is no other thing than a kinde of remembring For even so the soule which is the principall and most divine parte of man at such time as it is stirred and mooved against the naturall motion thereof and beginneth to bee troubled with corporall maladies it dooth then also happen to vtter and putte foorth that which lay before hidden and concealed in the most profound and inward partes thereof a to witte such faculties and forces as bee even divine and celestiall And like as there be some trees and plants which doe not cast foorth from themselves any good seent or odour but onely when they are rubbed and chafed with the hand even so the faculties and powers of the soule doâ—never so shew themselves as when they come to be stirred and mooved And by the same reason the jeate and the amber will not be made to drawe vppe to them the strawe or the rush till such time as they be first rubbed and a long time chafed betweene the handes And whereof commâ—th iâ— saith â—â—â—inus further that they which be neere to the point of death do commonly prophecie the which Homer also witnesseth in divers bookes of his Iâ—iads except it be because an vnaccustomd force Aâ—iad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exciting and stirring vp it selfe within them before death doth as it were ravish them in a kind of divine inspiration in such sort as they be besides themselves and doe suffer themselves to be carried away with the power of the spirit or soule which is then set on discoursing vttering by their mouthes such things as are afterwards to ensue and come to passe But let Levinus say what he list as a Phisitian he cannot for all that perswade me Levinus Lâ—mnius opinion confuted that men do naturally speake divers languages vnlesse it be either by miracle and by the power of the holy spirit of God as did the Apostles or else by the aide and helpe of the divell as did they whome the antient Christians of the Primitive Church called Energomenous and whom we call Demoniaques or persons possest Yea but saith he the agitation of the humours by sicknesse and the mooving of the soule both which doe cooperate and worke together may worke wonders and make them to speake divers languages To this I answer that it is not either the humours or the soule which do cause a man in his sicknesse or fever to speake divers languages but it is the divell who doth as wee have said mingle himselfe in the humours being corrupted And so is the resolution vpon this point of Saint Thomas Aquinas who speaking of lunaticall persons vexed by the divell according to the encrease and decrease of the Moone saith that the divells doe considder howe the humours of the bodie are disposed to their effectes and accordingly they doe follow the course of the Moone which hath a certaine commanding power over the braine and the humours in such sort as man shall see more lunatike persons tormented by the divell then of anie other sorts whatsoever The words of that Doctour are these The reasons why the divells do the more exercise their rage according to the encrease of the Moone is for two respects First because that thereby they may make the creature of God to wit the Moone the more infamous as saith both Saint Ierome and Saint Iohn Chrysostome In cap. 4. super Mathe. Homil. 54 in Mathe. Secondly for that they doe vsually worke according to the naturall vertues and faculties and in their workings and effects doe consider the aptnesse and disposition of the body Now it is manifest that the braine of al other parts of the body Lib. de somno vigilia is the most moist as Aristotle affirmeth and for that cause it is principally subiect vnder the domination and power of the Moone the which by her particular propertie hath the power to moove the humours and they troubling the braine doe give occasion to the divell to mixe and convey himselfe into and amongst them and so to trouble the phantasie of the partie Thus you see the very words vsed by this Doctour Questione 115. Tim. 1. sacrae Theologiae Art 5. which may serve also against Hippocrates who derided some in his time that thought the Falling-evill to be caused onely by the wrath and anger of the gods and not of any disturbance or depravation of the braine And for that cause Lib. de sacro morbâ— Hypocrates his opinion touching the Falling-evill as hee saith they vsed then expiations and charmes to chase and drive away this sacred evill or disease the which hee denied to bee a thing that ought in any sort to bee beleeved that the gods did in any sort cause it because the body of man could not be any waies polluted or defiled by the gods they being pure and chaste And by the vsing of expiations and purgations it must be inferred that they touching our bodies do pollute and defile them the which to beleeve of the divine powers could not but be blasphemous and wicked Hypocrates his opinion confuted But this Phisitian did not consider that there were many sorts of gods amongst the Pâ—yniâ—s that those which they held to be terrestrial infernal they called numina lava that is Hurtful gods or evil spirits such as vsed to possesse the bodies and to hurt them And for this cause did they vse to make their supplications vnto them for feare lest they should doe them some harme And if they did finde themselves to have any evill and vnquiet nights and ill dreames by them then did they vse to purge and cleanse themselves as we shall heereafter shew in another place fit for that purpose This sheweth plainly that Hippocrates knew not well what to thinke whether the gods did inwardly possesse and seize vpon the body of the partie troubled with the Epilepsie or surprized with the Falling-evill seeing he alleadgeth no other reason then this I know not how taken from his Paganisme which we have shewed to be very vaine of no moment even by the opinion of those of his owne religion I doe not in any sort reproove those good
gathered at such time as certaine starres do raigne should in some point participate of the power and vertue of those same starres and that they should sometimes have such a power over and vpon the hearts of men as to make them to hate and to love or to cause them to be hated or loved and to bring them into favour and credite with Lords and great personages or to cause their disgrace and disfavour with them For this is but an idle invention of the Astrologers sufficiently heeretofore refuted by Picus Mirandola and condemned also by the daily experience which we have thereof to the contrarie And if there have beene happily some few which have made proofe according to their desire of that which the Astrologers have profest and vndertaken yet this maketh not that therefore their Art should bee any thing the more esteemed or set by no more then dreames are esteemed or held in any reckoning albeit many have found the effects of them as they have dreamed Nay more then so I dare say thus much that if such hearbes gathered vnder the influence of the starres doe happen to worke and to fall out in proofe according to the will of the partie that gathereth them it is the divell that doth so cooperate and worke with it rather then any power or vertue of the starres because thereby he intendeth to bring men into an errour and to thinke that there is a certaine kind of divinitie or divine power in the starres Questio 115. Tomo 1. summae sacrae Theolâ—g and according as Thomas of Aquine affirmeth to imprint in their mindes a certaine terrour and feare of the puissance and power of the starres Cap. 20. the which is a thing whereof the Prophet Ieremiâ— willed the Iewes to take heede of Vmeothoth hashamains al-theh-hathu ci ichhathu hag oim mehemma that is to say Feare ye not the signes of heaven for of them do the Gentiles stand in feare And therefore they who have vsed to attribute such power vnto hearbes cut or gathered vnder the influence of the starres are vtterly to be reiected as the Philosophers Thebanus Alexander Trallian Albertus surnamed Magnus Eudemus Necepsus Andreas and Pamphilus Phisitians of whom we have before spoken and those persons also which were called Herescopes whom likewise the Divines do vtterly reproove and condemne in this behalfe But before wee will shut vp this Discourse of witchcraft and enchantments The historie of a young maÌ„ that soght to winne the love of a maid by charmes and was therfore sued and condemned by the law and that which may bee saide touching the same I hold it not amisse and it will be very little from the matter which we have in hand to set downe heere in this place the report of a certaine accident that came to bee in controversie and was debated and decided in the court of Parliament of Paris The question was touching a processe made extraordinarily against a young man in a cause wherein he was charged that by certaine scroles or papers and such like charmes he attempted the honour and chastitie of one whom he loved whether the same processe ought to be admitted and received The cause was pleaded as a verball appellation in the Court Criminall This cause was pleaded and the arest or iudgement affirmed by Monsieure Pilcar the 16 of Aprill 1580. by two famous advocates of the palace and it seemeth that it was vpon an appeale first brought from the Iudge of Lavall The summe of the processe was thus A certaine young man being exceedingly enamored on a young gentlewoman descended of a great house and desiring to purchâ—se her in mariage yet seeing his owne meanes and abilitie to bee so small as he found little hope to get the consent of her parents therevnto and by that meane to attaine to the top of his desires Besides perceiving that she was sollicited by divers persons of great calling and good reputation he bethought himselfe of a shorter course as hee imagined and that was to gaine the love of the maiden by any meanes whatsoever To this effect he continually haunted and frequented the house where she was and courting her with all kindes of submissive and humble entreaties and with proffers of all his best services which he supposed might bee most agreeable and to her contentment he endevoured to gain her love and to winne her affections In the end seeing himselfe scorned and in a manner cleane out of hope of that which he most desired hee determined to make triall of an extreame remedie And therevpon going to a certaine Priest who was a notorious Sorcerer and did vse to give out little scroles or billets to procure love hee tooke of him one of those papers and finding his mistrisse in a place fitte for the purpose he conveyed the paper into her bosome whilst himselfe made semblance that he was but playing and â—easting with her But it happened farre otherwise then hee imagined for thinking to gaine her love he cast such drugges or whether it were such charmes into her bosome that they brought the maiden neere to the point of death Her father and mother being marvelously sadde and sorrowfull for her sickenesse were certified in the end what was the cause thereof And therefore causing an information to be drawne and preferred against the young man they got a decree against him to have his bodie apprehended the which was executed accordingly And afterwardes the Iudge gave sentence that the lawe shoulde proceede peremptorily vppon the hearing of the witnesses personally brought against him From this sentence as also from the decree touching his apprehension was the appeale broght and the pleading thereof was offred to a present hearing The Appellant said that he had beene offered great and evident wrong in that the inferior Iudge had not onely decreed a Capias against his body but had also adiudged that the lawe shoulde proceede vpon the evidence of the witnesses personally brought against him That it was very true and hee did acknowledge that which was laide in the information and that hee did put into the bosome of the Complainants daughter a little scroll of paper written but that there was not therein either any drugges or poyson nor any other such thing as might woorke an alteration in the health of the mayden That if hee had conveyed anie poyson into it there was no doubt but he had beene worthy of capitall punishment according to the fifth chapter of the Lawe Cornelia Si quis venenum necandi hominis causa habuerit L. 3. D. ad l. Cornelia de Sicariis That the saide scroll of paper could not be any poyson for to empoison any bodie neither had it any such force or vertue but that it was onely a writing which he had cast into the bosome of the maide not thinking any evill or hurt to her And that therfore ther was no cause why any such extraordinary processe should be made
and granted against him That it was a thing never heard of in that palace that an extraordinary criminall accusation shoulde be laide against any man that in a foolish wantonnes and youthfull oversight onely without any will or intent to doe evill had adventured to doe that towardes a maiden which in very trueth did not deserve so much as the name of a simple iniury For howsoever he didde fondly in casting this paper into the bosome of the maide yet did hee not attempt to wrong her honour or chastitie neither didde he pursue or sollicite her in any shamelesse manner neither did he vse any dishonest or vnseemely speeches vnto her that might cause her so much as to blush at them And in briefe that he had not offered her any such foule or bitter iniury for the which hee had deserved by the Lawe either reproofe or any extraordinary punishment L. vlt. D. de Iniur And if it did so happen and fall out by chaunce afterward that the maide became sicke yet it was no consequent that he should be the cause of her sickenes Not without reason was that saying of the Greeke Poet Euripides That all those things which happened casually were very diverse and that the gods contrary to humane exspectation did take a pleasure to change things here belowe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is not any man so sound healthfull that can assure himselfe of his health not so much as a day and who knoweth what the evening or the morning may cause to betide vnto him either prosperous or vnfortunate many things doe happen as the olde saying is betweene the cuppe and the lippe Yea but the Complainant saith and averreth That in the scroll of paper there were certaine words charmed by force whereof their daughter fell sicke Certainely their speech is grounded vpon a very vaine and fraile foundation and the same vtterly overthrowes and destroys al their accusation For what man is there so litle seene or so vnskilfull in the course and causes of nature that will beleeve that charmes and enchauntments can have any power vpon men and that a figure a writing a line or a word bredde onely by the refraction of the aire should worke above and beyond nature and should have power to alter or change it in any sort whatsoever Every man knoweth sufficiently how that the Caball of the Iewes which dooth attribute so great force to writings and to the speaking and pronounciation of certaine wordes hath beene reprooved and hissed out of the Schooles by all learned Divines and that Reuclin the Almaine and others who have allowed and consented to the fond dotages and follies of the Caballists and Iewish Rabbines have beene censured and condemned by the Maisters of Sorbonne who did holde that all those enchauntments charmes and woordes which the Cabal vseth are nothing but meere Magicke and therefore without any efficacie as comming from the divell who lost all his power at the comming of our Saviour Christ into the world as hee himselfe hath confessed even by his Oracles vppon enquirie and demaund made to them by the Gentiles that lived after Christ Yea the Paynimes themselves which were guided and mis-led by the Divell did ever esteeme the Arte Magicke and all sortes of charmes to be nothing else but deceiptes and illusions And Plinie reciteth how the Emperour Nerâ— after hee hadde searched into all the secretes of Magicke and had spared no paines to sound the deapth thereof in the end hee found that it was but a meere abuse neither could Tyridates nor Simon Magus perfourme any thing although they had promised to acquaint him with the full knowledge and science of the same Besides it cannot any where be found that any person whatsoever was ever accused of beeing a Magician vnder the good and wise Emperours of Rome For they knew well that all accusation is to be held and accompted vaine where there is no lawfull colour of trespas committed And it is most certaine that Apulcius who lived vnder those good Princes Antoninus Philosophus L. Gracchus C. â—d legem Iul dâ— adult and Pâ—rtinâ—x being accused before Claudius Maxiâ—â—â— the Governour of Affricke That he had allured gained to his love one Pudentilla and had so bewitched her that he had wrought her to marry him was fully acquitted from that accusation as being frivolous vaine and calumnious On the contrary those Emperours which were helde wicked and cruell Princes did finde a faire colour and pretence by the Arte Magicke and the Mathematiques to bring such vnder danger of torment punishment against whom they beare any malice hatred when they were not able to accuse and calumniate them of any other fault or offence How many noble and honourable Romans both men and women didde the Emperour Tiberius cause to be put to death onely vnder colour that they had consulted with the Chaldeans The Emperour Claudius of whome Ausonius speaketh That Non faciendo nocens sed patiendo fuit That is The hurt he did was not in dooing ill But in the patient suffring therof still Did condemne to die as beeing a Sorcerer a poore Knight of Rome because hee bare about him the egge of a Serpent beeing perswaded that the same was good to cause his suite in lawe to goe on his side In vita Carac And Antoniue Caracalla as saith Spartian did likewise condemne those that vsed to carry any tickets or writings tied about their neckes for a remedy against the Tertian and Quartane fevers The historie is wel known of Apollonius Thianeus whome Domitian a wicked Prince did cause to be tormented for his Arte Magicke albeit those that came and succeeded after him to wit Alexander the sonne of Mammea and Aurelianus did honour him during his life and after his death did consecrate Altares and Oratories vnto him And in briefe all the worlde knoweth howe that Valen and Valenâ—iâ—ian for causing so many famous and learned Philosophers and so many noble and woorthy Senatours and Roman Knights to be punished for the science of Magicke have beene reprooved and blamed by many Historiographers as namely Eunapius Zosymus Ammian Marcellin and others who in that regarde onely have over-ranged them in the rancke and number of evill Emperours And they doe marvellously blame those Commissaries to whome the triall and enquiry of this crime was committed if that may and ought to be called a crime which is rather a vayne perswasion or inveterate superstition bred and ingraffed in the hearts of men And therefore the Appellant concluded That both the Decree the Ordinance the Execution was ill and vniust and that the Iudgement ought to be corrected and amended and the partie to bee cleerely dismissed absolved and acquitted On the contrary parte the Defendaunt in the appeale saide and affirmed That the cause was rightly adiudged by the inferiour Iudge And that it was wel and iustly ordered that extraordinary processe should be made and awarded against the Appellant