aperiam duo Themata homines praecipua instituit alterum Geniturae alterum Actionum So that these Athla are not the Theme or Figure of the Nativity or of such things as are borne with us but rather whatsoever wee Acquire afterwards And here Scaliger takes occasion to let the world know that Himselfe is the onely Man that hath rescued his Athlon out of the very Jaws of Oblivion which he saies is a word used only by Manilius and which though it be very Ancient yet neither the Jewes Greeks nor Arabians had any knowledge of He confesseth them that it is very Ancient Now would I very faine aske this Question of Him Whether this Word if it be so Ancient be either Greeke Hebrew or Arabicke I suppose hee would be very wary how he answered this Question lest he should be forced to contradict himselfe Let us see then if we can discover the true Originall of this Word and briefly set downe whence this Athlon whose Etymology hath been for so long time unknown is derived We have formerly shewed that the Ancient Hebrewes digested all the Observations which they made at the Nativity of a Child into Twelve Places either on some Instrument or else in a plaine Figure only We have also said that these Twelve Places according to Abarbanel R. Jacob Kapol were called by one Generall name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Machataloth that is to say Ligaturae not according to the Usual Acception of the Lature Word Ligatura which signifies a little Scrol tyed about the Neck or Arme for the cure of some Disease or other R. Nathan much abuseth himselfe in taking the word in this Sense and saying that they used to tie the Geniture or Figure of the Nativity about the Neck of the Child which Abarbanel proves to bee very False But they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Machataloth from the Verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chatal which signifies to Bind because that they were taken and considered all together as United and not severally and apart For if any one of them were omitted there could no perfect Judgement be given of the Fortune of the Child Now from this Chatal or Machataloth is Athlon corrupted which Manilius describing the Astrology of the Ancients hath so often made use of and none but Hee And thus you see whence this word which Scaliger so much rejoyceth over and will needs perswade us 't was utterly Unknown to the Hebrewes is derived As for the Greekes though perhaps they might have it yet the Vaine-glory wherewith they were puffed up made them forbeare the use of it and put them upon inventing of new Termes for all that they ever had received from the Ancients by this means depriving Us of the knowledge of Antiquity the hidden Mysteries whereof we shall more fully discover in our Cribrum Cabalisticum and shall there also more fully prosecute this Choyce Point of Learning touching the Astrology of the Ancients Let us now descend to the Reading of the Stars PART IIII. Of the Reading of the Stars and what ever else is seene in the Aire CHAP. XII Whether it be Possible to reade any thing in the Clouds and in all other Meteors THE CONTENTS 1. HOw many wayes this Reading by the Meteors may be performed 2. Battailes and fearefull Prodigies seene in the Aire 3. The Reasons they give who are of Opinion that these Prodigies are Supernaturall 4. Reasons given to the Contrary Angels and Saints how they have sometimes been seene to appeare in the Clouds 5. A new and Quaint Opinion touching the diverse kinds of Figures that appeare in the Clouds and a Conjecture upon the Secret mentioned by Trithemius of conveying Newes agreat Distance off 6. The Authors Resolution concerning strange Sights in the Aire 7. The Raining of Blood in the figure of a Crosse not Naturall against Cardan 8. The Manna in the Wildernesse marked with the Hebrew letter Vau according to some of the Rabbins and what Consequence we may hence deduce against Them 9. Haile in Languedoc figured like Arms Snow like Stars in shape spoken of by Kepler 10. The Rainbow the Hieroglyphicke of Sorrow 11. Diverse Opinions concerning the Generation of Comets and whether they Natuturally presage some Evill to come or not 12. Rules to know what Pillers Swords Bucklers Trumpets and fiery Arrowes seene in the Aire foretell Hebrew Letters sometimes seene in the Aire 13. What Letters have been devised in Imitation of the figures made by Cranes in their Flight Presages of Accidents to come taken from Birds I Make no Question but that those who account Averroēs an Atheist Cardan a Libertine and Pomponatius an Ungodly person and who being charmed with the Doctrines of some Over-scrupulous men will not be beaten out of the Common Road will looke very strangely upon this Proposition which I have here made touching this so Unheard-of Kind of Reading But leaving them to their own Astonishment and taking little notice of what they can say since They are not the men to whom we write let us come in the last place to discover the Secrets of this kind of Reading 1. First Reading presupposeth some Visible Signe whether it be in Letters Characters Markes Ciphers Staves Torches Darts Javelins Knots Streakes Colours Holes Points Living Creatures or any other Sensible thing Now all these Figures or Signes may be represented in the Clouds and the Reading of them may be performed three manner of wayes Either by Letters or Knowne Characters or by Hieroglyphickes or lastly by Signes or Markes which doe represent Perfectly and not Obscurely that which we read For these Signes are different from Hieroglyphickes in this that Hieroglyphickes doe represent things Obscurely as for Example expressing a Battail by a Sword but the other contrary wise Clearly and Plainly as namely one Battail by another Now all these Letters Markes and Hieroglyphicks are represented not only in the Clouds but sometimes also in all the other Meteors as Comets Lightning Raine Haile Snow Manna and White Frosts as we shall see hereafter We begin with the Clouds 2. The most Intelligible Signes Marks or Characters that are figured in the Clouds are Armed Men Onsets Armes and Battels which appearing in order for many daies together do give notice to Men of some semblable Event to follow Now whether these Prodigies proceed from some Naturall Cause or else are produced by the power of Almighty God for to admonish us of our sins we shall examine hereafter but this is most certaine that we never faile of seeing the Event to answer the Sign and that to the great Astonishment of all those men who would reduce all things to the Principles of Philosophy About twenty foure yeares before the Birth of our Saviour Christ there were two Armies seen to encounter each other in the Aire and that with so great violence as that men might heare if at least the story be true the Running of their Horses Vid. T. Liv. l 2. Decad.
Reason which we shall produce hereafter which is both easie and better knowne without casting himself upon the Maximes of a Philosopher that scarce any body understands As for the Long Continuance of these Prodigious Sights in the Aire it may be answered in a word that it was Naturall seeing that the Histories doe intimate they were not seene continually and without Intermission and by Consequence it might so fall out that at some time or other the next day the Winds might possibly dispose the Clouds after the same manner as on the day before The Third Reason which is that the Figures of Angels have been often seen in the Clouds is not of sufficient Force to prove that these Effects are Supernaturall For oftentimes the Clouds if they be Thicke and Smooth doe receive the Raies and Species of things here below which is the Cause that we see them by Reflection as in a Looking-glasse By reason whereof Cardan reports that one day there was the Appearance of an Angel seen in the Clouds at Millane which caused great Astonishment in the People till such time as Pelicanus a Philosopher made it plainly appeare to them that this Angel was nothing else but the Reflection of an Image of Stone that was on the top of the Church of S. Godart which was represented in the Thicke Clouds as in a Looking-glasse And thus might Pomponatius have given a reason of the Apparitions in the Aire afore-mentioned namely of S. Celestine at the City of Aquileia and of S. Petronia at Bologne without engaging himselfe in so long and tedious a Disputation 5. From this Emission of the Raies and Species some have conceived that all those Figures that are seen in the Aire are nothing else but the Images of things here below And therefore they say that those Armies which have been often seen in the Aire were the Raies of some Armies that were in some part of the Earth or other And so that Navy of Ships that was seene floating in the Clouds by the Romans when they were preparing to goe against the Genois and against Perses the last King of the Macedonians who was vanquished by Aemilius was likewise nothing else but the Image of their owne Navy which appeared upon the smooth surface of a Cloud And according to this Doctrine peradventure the Armies of Forreign Kings may be knowne and Newes may be conveyed at a vast distance there being nothing to hinder it For as for those Objections which are made against the Reading that Cornelius Agrippa speaks of which he said might be done by the help of the Moon which should receive the Species of the Characters as a Looking-glasse doth they can have no place here for as much as the Clouds are not very farre removed from us and the Raies of Characters or any other things presented before them cannot be spent before they can reach so farre as they must needs do with the Moon by reason of its too great Distance And thus perhaps is that Secret of Trithemius discouered where he undertakes to send Newes abroad and make it knowne a great distance off in an Instant by the help of certaine Spirits whose names he there sets downe which are in my Opinion nothing else but the Winds some whereof are more proper for the disposing of of the Clouds then others are We may possibly discourse some other time more fully of these Secrets of his which have beene hitherto accounted either utterly False or else Diabolicall 6. It remaines now that we satisfie this Doubt here proposed Namely whether these Figures that are seen in the Aire and in the Clouds be the Images and Representations of things here below and consequently purely Naturall and are of no signification Or whether they are produced and formed by the Providence of God who ceaseth not continually to forewarn us by some Visible Signe or other of what Evils soever are to befall us as we have formerly said Chap. 3. To which I shall give this Answer which I conceive to be most True Namely that without all doubt Many of these Figures are Naturall and are produced either Accidentally in the Clouds or else by the Emission of the Image and Species of things here below as we have already said But that there are also some which we must referre to the wonderfull workes of God Of this Later kind are Those spoken of by the Author of the History of the Maccabees 2 Mach. cap. 10. where Judas fighting in Heavens Quarrell had an Apparition sent him of five Horsemen appearing in the Aire which pursued his Enemies with so great violence as that above twenty thousand of them fell upon the place Sed cum vehemens pugna esset apparuerunt adversarijs de caelo viri quinque in Equis fraenis aureis decori ducatum Judae is praestantes ex quibus duo Machabaeum medium habentes armis suis circumseptum incolumem conservabant in adversarios autem tela et fulmina jaciebant ex quo et caecitate confusi et repleti perturbatione cadebant If it be here objected that these five Horsmen might possibly have been the Image and Species of some of the Armie I answer that it appeares by the Circumstances that this could not be so it being most evidently true that these Horsemen did not only seeme to fight but did Really fight and charge the Enemie And if the Lightning here mentioned had been Naturall and had beene discharged from the Clouds Both Armies should then have felt it alike But seeing in that confusion and mixture of both Armies together the Darts fell from Heaven upon One of them only and not upon the other we must necessarily conclude that this was the Hand of God Besides that this Prodigy happened also in a cleare bright day when the Aire was darkned with no Cloud So that as I am of Opinion with Cardan and Pomponatius that oftentimes we may see in a Cloud as in a Looking-glasse the Species of the Statue of an Angel or of a Saint placed either on the top of a Church or elsewhere or else that our Sight may be deceived and betrayed by our Imagination so do I likewise believe that these Visions may sometimes also be Divine as was that Image of a Crosse shining most gloriously in the Aire which was seene by Constantine the Great who afterwards found the Event to follow according to the words that he saw written on it In hoc signo vinces An. 316. Hist Tripart l. 1. c. 5. The Histories of the Lives of the Saints are full of the like Visions which cannot be attributed to the Power of Nature alone 7. After the Consideration of the Clouds wee shall in the next place come to that of Raine wherein we can make use of no other way of Reading besides the Second which is by Hieroglyphickes And of this kind is the Raining of Blood or of Water of a Bloody Colour such as was that which fell in
was good yet neverthelesse there were among the People that worshipped them and this is the reason they are reproved by God Now that hee had no intention at all to set up Idolatry by this Act appeares clearly in this that the Kings his Successors who all were of the same Beliefe are not any where reproved for this crime untill the Reigne of wicked Achab who was seduced by his wife Jezabell the most Imperious woman that ever was Thus we read in the History of Kings that Jehu did that which was right in the sight of the Lord Yet neverthelesse Non reliquit vitulos aureos qui erant in Bethel 4. Reg. 10.30 in Dan. And I would faine know if this King should have worshipped these Calves how he could have done that which was right in the sight of God who never punished his people so severely as when they had given themselves up to worship Idols And how Asa in like manner King of Samaria could have walked in the wayes of David if he had beene tainted with this horrible Crime Et fecit Asa rectum ante conspectum Domini sicut David pater ejus and yet notwithstanding Excelsa non abstulit He took not away the High places that is to say Vitulos the Calves As if the Author of the holy Scriptureshad purposed to prevent the Objection which is usually made concerning the erecting of these Calves to an evill End for these words seeme to have been set downe so expresly meerly for the confutation of those men that are wedded to their owne wills and for the clearing of the truth of that which I have here delivered Cor Asa perfectum fuit cum Domino etsi Excelsa non abstulerit Which is an Infallible Argument that they acknowledged in these Calves or Cherubins the same which they of Jerusalem did in those of the Arke namely the presence of the Invisible God sitting there as on his Throne notwithstanding that many out of simplicity worshipped the bare figure of this Work of Mens hands And this is that which God so often complaines of As if this were the Literall meaning of this Passage to wit that the Kings of Israel had indeed done that which was right in the sight of God and had lived according to his Lawes yet that they might have done better if they had taken away these Cherubins which were the cause of the destruction of many who made other use of them then that for which they were intended I remember to have read somewhere to this purpose of a Bishop of Marseille who seeing that many of his people behaved themselves toward the Images that are usually placed in Churches with so great respect as that one day he observed some of their actions that came within the compasse of Idolatry he caused them all to be broken to pieces leaving only a very few in some certain places of his Diocess So true it is that we often abuse those things which were instituted only to good ends I shall only adde one word more for the defending of the Innocence of the Samaritans which is that when Salmonazar had ransacked their Country he sent into it Colonies out of Persia who falling to commit Idolatry as they had used to doe in their own Country God sent Lions among them to destroy them For remedy of which calamity 4 Reg. 17 they could finde out no better expedient then to send for one of the Jewish Priests whom they had lead away captives for to instruct these Idolaters in the Worship of the true God which being done they were freed from that calamity which is a certaine Argument saith Abiudan that all the Samaritans were not Idolaters This observation of Abiudan Moncaeus takes no notice of yet He hath also an Observation which Abiudan passes by out of the hate I conceave that he bare to the True Messias and because that the Testimony made against himselfe namely that when our Saviour Christ uttered the Story or Parable of the Travailer that fell among Theeves the Samaritan is there said to have had more pity on him then the Priest of Jerusalem I shall adde here that the same God being become Man did not at all deny himselfe to be a Samaritan when he was called so by way of reproach which doubtlesse he would have done if he had knowne this people to be wholy Idolatrous 9. But now in the progresse of this Discourse the Curious Critick who uses to leave nothing unsifted may happily propose this Question to me If the Cherubins of the Arke were made in the forme of Calves what should move almost all Writers to maintaine that they were in shape like young Boyes I confesse I could willingly have put off the answering this Question which neither Abiudan nor Moncaeus have taken any notice of or else have purposely passed it by to some other time But seeing that I write to the Learned it concernes me willingly to omit nothing that makes for my subject that so I be not ranked in the number of those men that when they write of any argument doe voluntarily slip over the choycest things in it I say then in two words and without making any long discourse on it since that I handle this very Question in another place that all the Authors both Greek and Latine and the greatest part of the Jewish too as Aben-Ezra Scelomoh and the Talmudists who have attributed the forme of young Boyes to these Cherubins have done it upon such weake grounds that we need but onely to rehearse them to shew their insufficiency There is nothing say many of these last named Authors cited by Kimchi which more confirmes the opinion of the Cherubins being made in the figure of Young Men or Lads then the Etymology of their name For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherub is compounded of the servile Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caph which signifies sicut and of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabeia which signifies in Chaldee a Young Boy or Youth and in the plurall number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherabaia that is to say sicut Adolescentes or Pueri Very good but Moses spoke not Chaldee but Hebrew and therefore if this controversie must be decided by the Etymology of the name why cannot I say with much more reason out of the Hebrew Etymology of the word that these two Cherubins were made in the form of Saddles seeing that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherub is said to be derived by transposing the letters into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherab which signifies equitare Cap. 15. v. 9. Cap. 22. v. 35. is in Hebrew a Saddle as you may see in Leviticus and in the first book of the Kings Or else we may say that these Cherubins were made in the form of Raine seeing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherabib a word that cometh very near Cherubin signifies sicut pluvia Let us now examine the Reasons
1. Plutarcb in Vit. Caes Dion Suet. Appian l. 44. Alex. ab Alex. l. 3. c. 15. Eueas Sylv. Deser Europ c. 15. Fincil in nov-Evang Lycost Beaistcau Tesserant Belleforest in their Histories of Prodigies the Voices of the Men and the Clashing of their Armour Not long after was the truth of this Vision made manifest to the world For Marius and Sylla by their Factions making as it were a Shambles of the Feilds were the cause of so much Bloodshed as that the Romans never received a greater Blow then This. In like manner when the Gothes Hunnes and Lombards invaded Italy the Europeans Palestine and the Turks Constantinople there were seen in the Aire Armes all bloody Men raging like Mad and Dogs so feirce and cruell as that the very Description is full of Horror But that we may not borrow Examples abroad it is reported that in the yeare 1561. the like Prodigies were seen in our owne Country of France and even in the City of Paris also which not long after suffered under an infinite number of Calamities Of late yeares also while the King continued his Seige before Montauban there appeared at Caen at the beginning of the Night very many Dreadfull Sights in the Aire A City seemed to be beseiged Ordnance planted Souldiers drawne forth and the Clouds moving forward and backward appeared like to two pitched Battels that stood ready to charge each other and that which caused the greatest Terrour in the Beholders was that these Figures seemed to be all bloody and as it were Inflamed and the Face of the whole Heavens also was most dreadfull to behold Now these Hieroglyphicks and Letters that are seene in the Clouds are more Frequent then others though not so certaine And because people doe not much take care to observe them I doubt not but if I should here set down what I my selfe have sometimes seen in the Clouds I should be laughed at notwithstanding the Consideration of These Things ought not to be rejected by those that are Curious as we shall shew hereafter For besides those wonderfull Effects which Philosophers have observed doe happen daily in the Clouds it is also an Admirable thing to see Qu' elles se forment En cent diverse portraicts dont les events les transforment En Centaurs Serpens Hommes Oyse aux Poissons Et d'vne forme en autre errent en cent fasons In English thus How into severall Formes themselves they throw Which Winds change into Shapes of Things below Biras Fishes Serpents Centaures Men and thus Shift in a Round of Figures various 3. Let us now proceed to the Consideration of these Prodigies and discover whether there be any Secret meaning in them or not Those men that are of opinion that these strange Sights in the Clouds are not Accidentall and have no Signification in them endeavour to prove their Assertion by these three Reasons The First is because their Generation is wholy above the Power of Nature seeing that no man can assigne any Natural Cause for it The Second is because that their Duration is much different from that which Philosophy alloweth them For if we consider the Figure of a Cloud we shall finde that it cannot preserve it selfe in the same Form and bigness the space of one hour only but is presently scattered and changed into some other shape very much different from the former But as for these Prodigious Figures which we speake of they have been sometimes seen to last for the space of forty dayes as the Author of the History of the Maccabees testifieth who reporteth this wonderfull strange Story 2. Maccab c. 5. here following Eodem tempore Antiochus secundam profectionem paravit in Aegyptum Contigit autem per universam Jerosolymam civitatem videri diebus quadraginta per aēra Equites discurrentes auratas stolas habentes hastis quasi cohortes armatos et cursus equorum per ordines digestos et congressiones fieri cominùs et scutorum motus et Galeatorum multitudinem gladijs districtis et telorum jactus et aureorum armorum splendorem omnisque generis loricarum A like Prodigy happened to the same City a little before the utter Destruction of it by Titus son to the Emperour Vespasian who was the Instrument of punishing the Inhabitants thereof for committing the most Horrid Crime that ever the Sunne beheld For there were seen at that time for above a whole daies space Armies of men running up and downe in the Clouds Joseph de Bel. Jud. l. 7. c. 12. and Chariots likewise the very sight whereof astonished the Beholders The Third Reason to prove that these Figures are not Accidentall nor produced by the Power of Nature only is because that the Praiers of Godly men have oftentimes been the cause that there have appeared in the Clouds the Figures of Angels and of Saints whose Assistance hath been implored in some Calamitous Times as S. Celestine was seen at Aquileia and S. Petronia at Bologne 4. But those who are of a Contrary Opinion bring Arguments against the former and maintaine that there is nothing seen in the Clouds but what may be Naturall For as concerning the manner how these strange Sights are generated it is every whit as much knowne to us as that of Comets which are often ingendred in various and severall shapes as Pointed Round Long Large and in the Figure of Haire according as the Matter is Disposed In like manner may the Body of a Cloud be formed by the Wind which carrieth it to and fro into ten thousand severall shapes which appear strange to our sight though in themselves they are cleane otherwise And thus the First of the afore-said Reasons is overthrowne The Second seemes to have much more Force but in Truth hath none at all For though the History of the Maccabees say that these Fearful Sights of Armies appeared in the Clouds for forty daies together yet it doth not say that they were Really such but only that they Appeared to the Beholders to be such Now their Sight might be deceived by a strong Imagination caused from having seen it once as it often happens in the like case If it be Objected that though one Single man might have been deceived yet that Many could not possibly and that therefore the same thing having been seen by All it must necessarily be Reall and not Imaginary To this I answer that Many may be deceived as well as One single person seeing that the Imagination of Many is altogether as strong as that of a single person and besides that if the Cloud wherein these Figures appeare be Thick and Moist the Raies of our Eyes being prepossessed by our Imagination may easily think they see that which we fancy to our selves This Answer is set downe more fully by Pomponatius De Incant who treating of so difficult and bold a Subject as this might have cleared himselfe of the Objections made against it by using another
satisfying Namely because they worshiped God who is often called in the Hebrew tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schamaim a word that signifies also the Heavens As for their being said to worship the head of an Asse those that impute the beginning of this error to the great service the Hebrewes had done them by Asses at their comming up out of Egypt seeme not at all to speake with any probability And yet Tacitus seemes to me much more ridiculous when he saies that the Jewes worshiped Asses because they found them out water in the Wildernesse Hist 1.5 Sed nihil aequè saith he quam inopia aquae fatigabat cum grex Asinorum agrestium è pastu in rupem nemore opacam concessit Secutus Moses conjecturâ herbidi soli largas aquarum venas aperit And then presently he adds that in recompence of this benefit Effigiem animalis quo monstrante errorem sitimque depulerant penetrali sacravêre A pleasant Fable this which yet is confuted by what the same Author himselfe elsewhere writes as we have before shewed I should therefore rather say that the affection which every man beares to his owne Religion is so eager and violent that in all ages upon all occasions those of a contrary Beliefe have been very apt to fall fowle upon each other The Jewes therefore either for having been bound up by so many Commandements or else for having been so obedient to their God might have been called Asses as Charles the fifth was wont to call the French for being so tamely obedient to their Kings And even the Primitive Christians were not free from this very injury for their common Epithete was Asinarij as Tertullian reports till the time of that Emperour whose excessive hate against our Saviour Jesus Christ carried him on to that heigth of unparallel'd Malice as that he caused a statue to be erected bearing the shape of an Asse houlding up a booke with one of his hoofes with this inscription on it Deus Christianorum Ononychitis 4. Now the Jewes were the more readily believed guilty of all kindes of Idolatry because that besides that they had been observed to have runne blindly after some sorts of it they dwelt also neare a People that were very great Idolaters But neither is there any more truth in the imputation layd upon their neighbours then in that wherewith the Jewes themselves are aspersed So true it is that after a Nation is once cried downe their very best actions are suspected The Syrians were indeed justly accused for being somewhat guilty in this particular but that they ever worshiped the Fishes of the Sea neither Xenophon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symp. l. 3. c. 8. De. Nat. Deor. 3. De. Animal l. 12. c. 11. Fastor 11. Lib. 4. Epig. 43. Ouirocrit 1. c. 12. In Sphaer Manil. fol. 343. Plutarch Cicero Diodorus Siculus Aelian Ovid Martiall Artemidorus nor among the Moderns the learned Scaliger who to this purpose cites some verses of the Poet Menander can without doing them manifest injury accuse them But they abstained say they from the eating of them and if any were so daring as to eat of them they were immediately punished with a swelling in their bodies Whence the Poet Persius tooke occasion to call Fishes Dij inflantes corpora But that we may disabuse those that have been mislead into this perswasion and discover the true ground of this error we confesse that the Syrians did indeed abstaine from the vse of some certaine kinds of Fishes which by reason of their venomous nature did really cause swellings in those that eat of them And we may daily observe out of the Naturalists See Rondelet in his History of Fishes that as the flesh of some Land-Creatures is dangerous in like manner also it is in those of the Sea Now the Fishes which the Syrians did abstaine from Lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chiliad 9. Chap. 275. were the Apua and the Maenis two very venemous kindes of Fishes as you may see in Plutarch and Johannes Tzetzes We may therefore conclude it meerely fabulous which is reported of the Syrians namely that they abstaine not onely from all Sea-Fish but also from that of Rivers where the Apua nor the Moenis are at all found Erat is sayes the Interpreter of Xenophon speaking of the River Chalus magnis mansuetisque piscibus refertus quos Syri pro Dijs habebant neque eos loedi patiebantur sicuti nec columbas As for the Doves I shall examine the truth of the report elsewhere but for the Fishes nothing could have been spoken more false For if they would not suffer them to receive any harme as being the Gods they worshipped why then did they carry them to Jerusalem and sell them to the Jewes for food Certainly this had been so unpardonable a Crime as would have deserved to have been punished not with swellings only but even with death Tyri quoque saith Nehemias habitabant in ea inferentes pisces omnia venalia vendebant filijs Jehuda in ipsa Jerusalem Syntag. 2 Cap. 3. You may see other proofes of this in Mr. Selden who hath retracted this Errour but not the ground of it but I shall speake of this hereafter But to shew the vanity of this Fable yet another way I shall demand of these Authors above named whence they have learnt that the Syrians worshipped Fishes instead of Gods and for that reason abstained from eating of them I conceive the answer will be given in these two words Common Tradition We must therefore examine what this Tradition is that we may be able to judge whether it be true or not Aratus and Hyginus report out of the Ancients that an egge of a prodigious bigness In Phoeinom frag Cap. de Piscibus Lib. Fabul Cap. 197. fell from Heaven into the River Euphrates which the Fishes having by accident cast up upon the shore it was so warmed by the heat of a flight of Pigeons which sate upon it as upon other egges that at the end of some certaine number of dayes it was hatched and there came forth Venus who lived on earth so vertuously that being afterwards taken up into Heaven she intreated of Jupiter that those Fishes which had preserved the egge whence she came forth from shipwrack might be placed among the Stars Her request was granted and ever since the Syrians whom Authors usually confound with the Assyrians have had Fishes and Doves in great veneration Others say Vid. Cicer Tuscul qu. 5. Virgil. Georg. 3. Arat. loc citat that the Syrians did not begin to worship them and to place their silver Images in their Temples till the time that the daughter of Venus falling into the Poole Boeth was there turned into a Fish And now see what excellent reason we have to receive this Tradition for a true one What learned people we should be had we no other Historians but the Poets I know very well that the Fable
doe yearely cause their Children to passe over the Fire of St. John to this day Which Custome ought to be abolished seeing it hath been anciently condemned by a Councell held at Constantinople Syn. 6. in Trull can 64. In cap. 16.4 lib. Reg. Videantur Olaus Mag. in Histor Gothica Leo African in Descript Afric D. Ie. Chrysostom qui in Homil. de Nativitat S. Ioannis Solennes ejus honori 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excitatas ait ipsumque diem Lampada appellâ—ium and Theodoret proves clearely that this Custome of these Fires is still a rellick of the Ancient Abominations CHAP. II. That many things are esteemed Ridiculous and Dangerous in the Bookes of the Jewes which yet are without any blame maintained by Christian Writers THE CONTENTS 1. THat we ought not to rest on the bare Letter of the Scriptures 2. Authors that have treated of Ridiculous Subjects without being reproved 3. The Bookes of the Jewes lesse dangerous then those of the Heathens which yet are allowed by the Christian Fathers 4. The Feast that God is to make for the Elect with the Flesh of a Whale how to be understood 5. Ten things created on the Even before the Sabbath and what they were 6. The Opinions of the Ancient and Moderne Writers touching the end of the World what Fathers of the Church have been of the Jewes opinion in this Particular 7. Divers opinions concerning the number of yeares from the Creation to our Saviour Christ and what we ought to conclude as touching the End of the World 8. The Ancient Rabbins are falsly accused of speaking ill of our Saviour Jesus Christ 9. The third Objection in the Precedent Chapter and an Enumeration of some Errors of great Importance in our owne Books BUt be it so may some say that the Jewes are free from the guilt of these Crimes and their books not polluted with these Abominations yet it cannot be denied but that they have vented in them many fooleries more ridiculous ones The 2d Objection then a man can imagine and even some that are very dangerous too and that therefore they are unworthy our reading and the Curiosities found in them not to be valued at all This is the second Objection which was proposed in the precedent Chapter The Auswer If I were here to deal only with those that are free from Passion it would be easie for me to satisfie them in two words but since that I may chance to have to do with opinionative self-conceited men it will concern me to convince them by the force of Reasons backed with examples I say then that suppose there are many fooleries and absurd things found in the books of the Iewes but why then do we admit of the books of the Poets where you have nothing else For what can be conceived more ridiculous then that men should be transformed into Rocks Rivers Plants and Trees or what more remote from common sense then that Stones should discourse Flowers reason and trees make their moan and sigh out their afflictions why were the Fables of Aesope ever received which attribute the use of Reason to all things even the most insensible that nature hath produced And to say the utmost in one word Why then do we admit of the Bible which also make Trees as the Vine and the Bramble to speak The Trees went forth on a time to anoint a King over them Iudic. 9.8 and they said unto the Olive-tree Reigne thou over us But the Olive-tree said unto them should I leave my fatnesse wherewith by me they honour God and man and go to be promoted over the trees And this Tree refusing them they then make their addresses to the Fig-tree and afterwards to the Vine and at last they are constrained to come to the Bramble What a strange Metamorphosis is here If it be answered that these are Figures Similitudes and Parables which Ioathan made use of to expresse to the people the Tyranny of Abimelech and that in like manner the Ancient Poets proposed their Fables under which was alwayes couched some Philosophicall secret either Morall or Divine Why shall not the same Liberty be allowed to the Iewes also Will they have them to be lesse Rationall then the rest of Mankind or more Brutish then very Beasts Was there ever the like Peevishnesse seen 2. If the Jewes had busied themselves in describing the War betwixt Frogs and Mice as Homer hath done or in writing the Commendation of a Tyrant as Polycrates hath done the praise of Injustice as Phavorinus of Nero as Cardan of an Asse as Apuleius and Agrippa of a Fly and of a Parasiticall life as Lucian The same hath le S. du Belay done in divers of his Poems or of Folly as Erasmus we then should have them hooted at for Fooles or Mad-men Or had they made Epitaphs or Funerall Orations upon the death of a Cat an Ape a Dog a Didapper an Asse a Magpye a Flea as some of our Italian Fantasticoes have done we should no doubt heare them charged then with the finest wittiest Idolatrous Foolery that ever men were guilty of And yet the Authors of these Trifles heare no one word of it If they should yet but have taken upon them to set down the Rules of Divination as many of our Latine Christians have done or to teach the manner of Interpreting Dreames as one hath done in Gochlenius Barth Gochl Introd ad Physiog who tels you that as soone as you are awaked you must open a Psalter and the first Letter that is found in the beginning of the Page shall shew what shall happen As for example if it be A it signifies the Party shall be of a Free Nature if B he shall be powerfull in War C and D signifies Sadnesse and Death E and F that he shall have if he be married a Noble Of-spring G denotes some sad accident to befall him H foreshewes the Love of Women I a good and happy Life K Folly and Mirth and so forward of all the rest the very remembrance whereof makes me laugh If the Jewes I say should have busied themselves with such Sottish Impertinencies as these would any of the Christians so much as have touched their Bookes I shall passe by a thousand Fooleries wherewith our owne Bookes are stuffed and a thousand Fopperies which some people give credit to as that of Names and Numbers which is copiously handled by Raimundus Veronensis in his book intituled Opera del l' Antiqua honorata scienzae di Nomandia wherein a man shall see by the Letters of his name whether he shall live a long time or not whether of the two shall survive the Husband or the Wife What Preferments one shall rise to What Death a man shall dye and a world of such like Propositions which are not onely ridiculous but dangerous also And now let any man if he can find fault with the Jewish Rabbins whose writings are free from any
commonly called a Bezar-stone It will be objected perhaps that these Arabians are Trifling Vaine Writers and therefore that there is little credit to be given to them But I shall elsewhere undertake the Vindication of them from this Calumny and shall at present for the satisfaction of Self-willed men forbear to cite them any further but shall content my self with Examples borrowed from such among the Greeks and Latines as are accounted most Authentique Gregorius Turonensis In Hist Franc. besides an infinite number of Rarities which he reports of France saies that when they were sometime digging in the bridge at Paris there was found a peice of Copper whereon was to be seen the Figure of a Rat of a Serpent and of a Fire which being afterwards neglected and peradventure either broken to pieces or some way or other spoiled there was observed in a very short time after a great number of Serpents and Rats to haunt the City and they doe greatly annoy it still and we cannot without grief call to mind the many great Losses the City hath since that time endured by Fire all which Sad Accidents were never heard of here before the taking up of this Strange Plate of Copper It is also reported Camerar lib. 3. cap. 20. that after that Mahomet the Second had possessed himself of Constantinople the breaking of the Lower Jaw of a Brazen Serpent was the cause of the increasing of Serpents in those Parts So true it is that these Talismans have Power to divert many of those Calamities that afflict Mankind And who knowes not that by the means of These the Learned men of the Ages past have oft-times chaced away Insects out of their Cities and fields Chil. 3. c. 60. Circa â—â— 1160. as Gnats Locusts and Caterpillers If any desire to see some of these Examples he may have recourse to the Chiliads of John Tzetzes where this Greek Author who lived about the time of that Excellent Historian Anna Comnena daughter to the Emperour Alexius Comnenus reports that Apollonius by making a Talisman of a Stork kept these Troublesome Birds from comming into Constantinople and by another Talisman he drove away all the Gnats out of Antioch You may also see Ptolomies Centiloquium Athor 9. Ad marc Vels Epist 157. 130. Et in Manil and the Commentary of Abre Gefar falsly attributed to Haly as it is observed by Scaliger Furthermore I am of Opinion that the First Gods of the Latines which they called Averrunci or Dij Tutelares were no other then these Talismanicall Images and I ground this my Conjecture from hence that there are some Historians that affirm that they made some of these Tutelar Gods under certain Constellations but the poyson of Idolatry having infected the best of Sciences was the cause that these Images being afterwards taken for Gods the true and legitimate manner of making them was smothered and quite lost They were wont also to set up some of these Talismans upon the Prow of their Ships to preserve them from Shipwrack and all this to be done Naturally too seeing that a Talisman may be made under the Sign of Pisces that may for some certain time render the Waters Calm and free from Tempests The Greeks as Hesychius and Herodotus called these Figures set up in Ships 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word no doubt borrowed from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pitochim which signifies as much as Coelaturae and therefore the Chaldie Paraphrase renders it by this our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsilmenaija Now we are to take notice that these Figures were not at all of any Humane form but of some Coelestiall Figure or other which confirmes me in the Beliefe that they were reall Talismans Neverthelesse the Mariners had also their Statues of some Deity or other as of Mars Apollo Venus Mercury and the like which they placed at the Poop or hinder part of their Ships whence Virgil saies Aurato fulgebat Apolline puppis And Persius Jacet ipse in littore unà Ingentes de puppe Dei Which gave occasion to the Poets to feign that Jupiter stole away Europa under the shape of a Bull because the Ship of the Cretians Vid. Heurn Phil. Barb. who stole her away had for it 's Talisman the Figure of the Coelestiall Sign Taurus and for it's Deity a Statue of Jupiter The like Originall might probably that other Fable of Ganimed have had who is said to have been carried away by an Eagle the Bird Proper to the same God You may see further concerning this Particular in Sextus Pompeius lib. de Europa and Lactantius Cap. 11. lib. de Falsa Religione This custome of Mariners setting up of these Talismans or Images in their Vessels against Shipwracks is so Ancient that they say that among those that came with Aeneas from Troy there was One that had the Figure of two Lions that the Gadarenes had one with the Image of a Horse and that the Ship of Alexandria which St. Paul sailed in had the Images of Castor and Pollux or according to the Arabians the Gemini graved on it and that which carried Hippocrates when he took his journey to Abdera for the curing of Democritus bare the Figure of the Sun Now all these Talismans were not made so much for the avoiding of Shipwrack only as for the turning away of sOme other Disastrous Accidents or the procuring of some good Fortune or other And from this practise of the Ancients have the Christians taken Example though in a Christian way of having Images in their Vessels and Picturing in them the Saints whose names they bear 6. But since that I am unawares fallen upon this Choise Piece of Antiquity I shall here further adde that these Talismans were not set up in Cities only and Ships but also in the plaine open Fields too and it may be that that Stone so much famed among the Turks which they call Bractan and is set up at Mecha being four foot long and two foot broad as Suidas reports was only a Talisman For otherwise we must even content our selves with Turkish Fables and believe that it would never have been so highly prized by them but for that it served instead of a Bed to Abraham when he had knoweldge of his Maid Hagar For besides that this is ridiculous the Turkes will never acknowledge themselves to the Bastards and descended from a Servant-maid but from Sarah and this is the reason that they are so much delighted in being called Sarasins Others say that the reason why the Turks have this Stone in so much Veneration is because that Abraham tyed his Camell to it when he went up to the top of the Mountaine to sacrifice his sonne as Enthymius Zigabenus affirmes In Panopl or as some others of the more Trifling sort of the Arabian Writers will have it because it was erected in memory of a certaine Holy Woman who was taken up into Heaven and afterward
Resemblance and of Figures For if a man endeavour to counterfet any other mans Countenance and that he fancy himselfe to have His haire eyes nose mouth and all other parts like Him and in a word if he imagine himselfe to be like him in his Physiognomy he may by this meanes come to know what his Naturall Inclinations and what his Thoughts are by the same which he finds in Himselfe during the time of this his Making of Faces This Opinion is grounded upon the Experience of Campanella Ee sensu rerum Magia who expresseth himselfe in these words Cum quis hominem videt statim imaginari oportet fe nasum habere ut alter habet et pilum vultum frontem locutionem et tunc qui affectus et cognitationes in hac cogitatione illi obrepunt judicat homini illi essE proprios quem ita imaginando contuetur Hoc non absque ratione Experientia Spiritus enim format corpus et juxta affectus innatos ipsum fingit exprimitque I alwaies thought that the opinion of Campanella was that a man should only imagine himselfe to have the same Countenance with the Other as his words seem to mean but when I was at Rome understanding that he was brought into the Inquisition I did out of Curiosity to be satisfied in this Particular take the paines to visit him there Being therefore in the company of some Abbots we were brought to the Chamber where he was who as soon as he perceived us came to us and intreated us to have a little patience til he had ended a little Note which hee was writing to Cardinall Magaloti When we were sate down we observed him oftentimes to make certain wry Faces which we conceived to proceed either from folly or else from some Pain that the Violence of the Torments which he had endured put him too the calves of his Legs being all beaten black and blew and his buttocks having hardly any Flesh on them it having beene torne from him piece-meale to the end they might force him to confesse the Crimes that he was accused of But a Learned German will shortly publish the History of his Life and Misfortunes To returne then to our purpose one of our company amongst other discourse asking him if he felt no pain He smiling answered No. And supposing that we had been something troubled at the Wry FAces which he made he told us that at our comming in he fancied himself to be Cardinal Magaloti as he had heard him described and he asked Us withall if he were not a very hairy man Now I who had before read that Passage in his Book which I have before set down presently conceaved that these Wry Faces are altogether Necessary for to be able to judge aright of another mans Naturall Inclination I shall not here set down what passed betwixt us in this Interview because it is wholly besides my present Subject I shall now therefore rerurne to the Effects which are found in Physiognomy and are produced by the force of Resemblance We see then by experience and all knowing Physiognomists have observed it that if a man have a Round Forehead he is very subject to Folly and Lightnesse being very easily moved any way in like manner as a Round Figure is the most apt for motion and the Naturall reason of this is because that the Spirits ascending up and meeting with a place of a Round Figure they are very easily moved any way It is also observed that those that have a Sharp Chin that stands forward and a little Forehead are very Brutish and Stupid in a Word they are qualited like a Hog whose image they in a manner bear And without troubling my selfe any further with bringing in Instances of this nature you may have recourse to the Physiognomists who will furnish you with good store of them by which you will be able to judge how great the Vertue and Power is of Resemblance and Figures 14. The Art of Divination of Dreames is also grounded upon Resemblance as may appear out of the Holy Bible Gen. 40. where Joseph foretold the Cupbearer that within three dayes he should be restored to his office again because he had dreamed that he pressed three clusters of grapes into Pharaohs Cup. But he foretold the Baker that after three dayes he should be hanged and his Flesh should be eaten by the birds of the Air because that He also had dreamed that he bare three baskets full and that the birds eat up all that was in them He foretold also the seven years of Plenty and the seven years of dearth by the seven Fat Kine and the seven Lean Ones and by the seven Full ears of Corn and the seven Thin ones according as Pharaoh had dreamed Prophane Histories also affoard us many Examples of this kind proving the power of Similitudes For Hecuba being with Child dreamed that she was delivered of a Firebrand which burnt up her Kingdome and this was Paris who was afterwards the cause of the burning of Troy down to the ground I shall here adde moreover that this Resemblance of Dreames hath oftentimes been so powerfull as that what one hath dreamed he hath afterward seen really come to passe Thus Cornelius Ruffus Plin. lib. 7. c. 50. dreaming that he had lost his sight became shortly after quite blind A like story to this is related by Galen in his book De Praesag ex Insomn And the Reader may have recourse to those Authors that have written of this Subject as Nicephorus Salomon Judaeus Synesius Plato Cicero Valerius Maximus Cardan and Artemidorus who have examined all that Chrysippus Antipater Artemones Jamblichus Aristides Apomazar the Arabian and Scirnachan the Indian have said concerning this Particular 15. Painting and Sculpture do also wonderfully confirme this Power of Figures for as much as those that are Sad and Weeping Pieces do make us so sad as that they sometimes draw Tears from our Eyes and the Merry and Cheerfull Pieces make us Joyfull and cause us to laugh And this is the reason why these Later are very seldom made use of in Holy matters and the Former Sort are so Frequent in our Churches where we shall oftner find Jesus Christ pictured on the Crosse then Rising from the Dead or Sitting at the right hand of his Father because that besides that the Painting him in that Posture puts us in mind both of our Redemption and of his Love towards us who being Immortall would yet become Man that so he might be in a Capacity to Die for Us it also moves us by the Vertue of Resemblance to be sad as It is so great is the power it hath over us Est enim Similitudo saith Porta pictus sermo vel pictura loquens quae quovis sermone quibusve notis Valentior est 16. Lastly the secret Vertues of Resemblance and of Figures appear as well in Musicke as in any other of the Sciences Thus it is
know that the Sun penetrates very farre into the Earth and there gives life to Plants and Living Creatures too which when we see taken up astonish us very much as appeares out of Georgius Agricola De Animal subt and the Learned Licetus who is still Professor at Padua As for Subterraneous Fishes we find them but too often enlivened by the Stars to our great Disadvantage as you may observe out of the Third book of Seneca's Nat. quaest c. 19. Who also in another place sayes that Philip having sent men downe into an old Gold-mine to see if the Covetousnesse of Man had yet left there any thing Undiscovered they perceived Rivers running along those deep Cavernes and many other Prodigious Sights by which we may be certainely assured that the Heavens do operate through every part of the Universe Descendisse illos sayes this Learned Author Lib. 5. 〈◊〉 15. cum multo lumine multos durasse dies deinde longa via fatigatos vidisse flumina ingentia conceptus aquarum inertium vastos pares nostris nec compressos quidem terra supereminente sed liberae laxitatis non sine horrore visos And those that write of the Riches of America assure us that the Mine of Ptosi where Gold is generated is so hollow and so deep that nothing can more fitly represent the Dreadfull Image of Hell If then the Starres do operate within the bowels of the Earth upon Living Creatures Plants and Metals why not upon Stones also I do therefore account the Conclusion of Hieron Hangest an Ancient Learned Sorbonist to be most True who searching after the Reason of Gamahes concludes after a long dispute that the Figure or Painting on them proceeds from two Causes from the Starres and from the Property of the Earth Lib. de caus fol. 88. See here his own words Quid igitur discendum sit respondeo ex duplici radice posse contingere Uno modo ex radice Siderea secundum Astrologorum authoritatem multis experimentis comprobatam Alio modo ex radice inferiore c. Now this Power or Vertue of the Starres works Indifferently upon All Things which Consideration hath moved many that stand up for the Power of Figures to believe that all sorts of Stones Metalls or other Matter indifferently if it be graved and wrought according to the Rules before delivered would worke the same Effect For as Fire heateth all things that are set before it in like manner do the Stars Operate say they upon All Things Indifferently But I hold the First Opinion to be the Truer and more certaine not that this Later is False but because the Effect Here is Slower For the Fire will indeed heat all things that are placed neare it but if the Matter be Indisposed the Heat will not worke so speedily as we see in Green Wood and in a Pibble stone which requireth a longer time to grow hot in then a Brick doth and so in all other things It is required then to the end that the Stars may Operate the more Easily and in lesse time that the Matter be before hand indued with some Quality that is proper to the Effect which we have proposed to our selves and have also some Sympathy with those Celestiall Signes which we intend to make use of You may see this Sympathy and the Wonderfull Correspondence that there is betwixt Stones Mineralls Herbs Plants Flowers Tasts Smels Colours Beasts Fishes Birds and all things else and the Stars Ton. 4. Cant. 1. c. 31. in Georgius Venetus his booke De Harmonia Mundi and in the Learned Comment of M. Moreau a Physician upon Schola Salernitana the reading whereof Cap. 19. p. 322. seq in all sorts of books what ever is truly very Admirable 5. The Fourth Objection which is brought by the above-named Authors is that if this Art of preparing Images be Certaine and their Vertue so great as is said the Egyptians Arabians and Persians who were the First Inventers of them would then have made themselves Lords of the whole Earth in subduing all their Enemies which thing they have not done but contrariwise have themselves all been Conquered To this I answer that no Image or Talismanicall Figure can possibly be Capable of operating so Great an Effect they may indeed possibly excite in some small measure the courage of Combatants and make them lesse fearefull of the Terrors of Warre but these Qualities alone will never be sufficient for the obtaining of a Victory If any here urge against me the Story of Nectanabo who is said to have drowned all his Enemies Ships by making certaine little Vessels of Waxe and then drowning Them I answer that the Story lookes very Doubtfully neither doe I give any more Credit to it then to those Flams we heare reported of Sorcerers in our owne daies who are said by pricking a little Image of Waxe in any part of it to wound the same part of the body in the person whom it represents But suppose These Things were so yet it could not be from hence concluded that these Effects were wrought by the Vertue of the Stars but rather by some Evill Angels to whom God may have given some such Power Lib. citato Gulielmus Parisiensis utterly denies these stories to be True as indeed they are meerly Fabulous neither do I believe there is any one of them that hath any Truth it in If it be returned upon us that there is nothing in them but a man may believe since Possibly they Might be True I answer that Many Things Might have been which never yet Haven been as for instance there might have been more Sunnes and more Worlds then one 6. The Fift Objection is that it is Necessary that Naturall Agents should Arist Phys 7. some way or other Touch the thing they are to Operate upon but a Figure which cureth the Stone Collicke or any other Disease toucheth not at all the Part Affected the Vertue of it therefore cannot be Naturall The answer to this Objection is so easie that Dist 37. in Sent. without troubling our selves to reckon up with Scotus the severall wayes of Touching we need no more but give an Instance in a Hot Bricke For as a Bricke receives heate from the Fire without touching either Cole or Flame in like manner doth an Image receive the Influence of the Stars without Touching Any Part of the Heavens In a word all the Touching which is here found is only a Virtuall Touching as we see in the Sunne which though it be so farre distant from the Earth doth neverthelesse warme it by Its Vertue And as a Bricke heated either by the Sun or by the Fire doth afterwards operate upon any other body communicating its Vertue to it if it be applied unto it in the same manner doth a Figure or Image operate upon Another Body communicating the Influences which it hath received from the Stars unto It if it be in like manner applyed
the Living Scorpion as to it's Image I answer that if it were so Nature should then make warre against It Self and should utterly destroy it self in a short time seeing that all Living Creatures would soone be destroyed by one another Most wisely therefore was it ordered that the Stars only and Men should have this Vertue communicated unto them 10. Disq Mag. l. 1. C. 4. quaest 1. De Incant The Ninth Objection is the Answer of Delrio to the Reasons brought by Cajetan and Pomponatius For whereas the Later of these saies that although Figure be not the Beginning and Cause of Operation yet it may operate very much seeing that we may observe out of Experience that the Figure of a Foule Deformed Man strikes us with a kind of Sadnesse whereas a Beautifull works in us an Effect quite contrary Besides Beautifull Objects do so move us as that we love them which Foul and Ill-favoured do not at all Therefore saith Pomponatius Figures have some Power to Operate Delrio answers nothing to this but only to the Consequence denying that Magicall Figures are Beautifull or Deformed But even Children may easily perceive that his Antecedent is utterly false For those Figures which he cals Magicall and we Talismanicall are Truly and Really Beautifull or Deformed according as the things are which they represent which are for the most part the Heavens and the Stars the Beauty whereof ravisheth our Senses Besides these Figures do ordinarily represent some Constellation or other as the Virgin the Twinnes and the rest Now if a Living Virgin and Living Twins are Beautifull or Deformed why then should not their Figures or Pictures be so too Let us now proceed to the Arguments of Cajetan which Delrio refutes with as little Reason as he hath done those of Pomponatius This Learned Cardinall then layes down this most True and Powerfull Conclusion in favour of Talismanicall Figures Figura licet non sit ipsum principium Operationis est tamen conprincipium He proves the Antecedent quia in artificum instrumentis efficit Figura ut illa sic vel sic operentur tum quia ferrum latum super aquas fertur quod si in formam aliam contrahas demergetur These reasons of his are so Strong and so Certain as that it is Impossible to overthrow them For seeing that a Plate of Iron that is Large and very Thin will swim upon the water but if you reduce it into a Round Solid form it sinks presently is it not evident that this proceeds meerely from the Figure What manner of Spirit must he be of that dares affirm the contrary unlesse it be one that meanes to say however as Delrio saies whose Answer you have in these words Respondeo Figuram esse Conprincipium in motu locali Operationibus quae per hunc motum fiunt ut sunt variae divisiones continui per dolabram per malleum per asciam per serram non verò in Operationibus quae fiunt per alterationem I cannot but wonder that this Acute Jesuite who hath shewed himself in other things a most Learned and Sound Philosopher so that he comes not short of any in the whole Society should so grosly offend here against those very Philosophicall Maximes which himself hath laid down For where he grants that Figure is a Co-principle in Locall Motion and in the Operations which this Motion produceth but not in those which are caused by Alteration he concludes against that which Himself had before laid down seeing that according to the Common Consent of all Philosophers Heat is caused by Motion but Heat is a kind of Alteration Therefore Figure is of It Self a Co-Principle in the operations which are caused by Alteration Again when he grants to Cajetan that a Large piece of Iron may perhaps swim upon the water yet he saies that it is not by reason of the Figure but of the Quantity these are his words Sed esto fiat erit non ratione Figurae sedratione Quantitatis Well but of It Self and in Sound Philosophy Quantitas non est activa See then what the Consequence must be And in the end when Cajetan concludes that it is the Figure therefore that makes a large piece of Iron to swim upon the Water Delrio answers that this Figure is only Accidental for saith he let this Large Thin piece of Iron be reduced into some other Figure either Circular Square or Five-angled it will doe the same that is to fay it will still swim upon the water therefore the Figure Operates not but by Accident But here Delrio deceives himselfe for Cajetan's Purpose is not to oppose one Flat Figure or as the Mathematicians speake In plano against another Flat Figure either Square or Circular but a Plaine Flat Figure against a Solid one For a Flat Figure whether it be Square Circular Octogonall or of what fashion soever it be will doe that which the same Figure if it be solid will not doe which is most True seeing that a piece of Iron that is Square and Thicke withall sinkes presently to the bottom of the water which the same piece of Iron would not doe were it Square and very Thinne It is therefore a most Undeniable Maxime that Figure hath some Power to Operate 11. The Other Objections which are made against the Power of these Images are set downe and refuted by Galeottus De Dectrina promise c. 24 the most weighty of which are these following In these Images which are ingraved on Gold for the cure of the Stone and the Pain in the Reines the Gold of its One Nature cannot worke this Cure much lesse then can the Image which being without Life cannot by any meanes alter the Gold and change it into another Nature Besides in the Image there is found neither Action nor Passion againe the Gold of It selfe whether it be figured or not is still of the same Species and Consequently the beames of the Starres must alwaies work upon it after one and the same manner and if it should work rather upon Gold which is Figured then upon that which is Plaine this Action would seem to proceed rather from the Election of the Heavens then from any other Cause In a word the Vertue which is attributed to this Figure can neither be Natural nor Artificial Not Naturall because it proceeds from Within much lesse is it Artificial because it is not communicated unto it by the Artificer it must therefore necessarily proceed from some Other Cause The Learned Answer of Galeottus to these Objections is this Non Enim in hac re mutatio speciei requiritur nec proprietas auri immutatur nec ulla Caelorum Electio intervenit nec ab Artifice vis illa sanandi datur nec Imago ut Imago quicquam Efficit c. sed principium Actionis ac Passionis affert ut B. Thomas Magnusque Albertus testantur non u◠Figura Imago Mathematicè animadversa sed ut efficit aliam in
Operation as the Talisman it selfe which is heated or penetrated by the Beams of the Stars We conclude then that we may Naturally and without the Aid of Spirits prove by the Secrets of Nature not only the Power of these Images but of many other Operations also which are more wonderfull As for Example to send Newes to our friends in lesse then an houres space above an Hundred Leagues off as Trithemius Abbas In Tract Apol. pro Societ Fratr de Ros Gruce Part. 3. c. 4. and Bartholemy Cordelier and after them Robert Flud have undertaken to doe To doe such Miraculous things by the help of Looking-glasses as we would think to be utterly Impossible such as were those strange Operations which Roger Bacon undertooke to do in the number Nine by which hee promised the Pope that if he would furnish him with such a Summe of mony as the Charge of making them would require he should be able to annoy the Turkes more by these Glasses then by an Army of a Hundred Thousand Men. Briefly if Aristotle had not informed us that the Image in the Aire which inseparably followed a certaine man so that he could never be rid of it was Naturall would it not presently have been concluded that it was some Familiar Spirit or some Demon that took upon it the Figure of this Man And yet neverthelesse this was only the Effect of the Man 's own Weaknesse of Sight which being unable to penetrate the Medium of the Aire it's beames were reverberated in like manner as in a Looking-glasse so that when ever his Eyes were open he still saw his own Image in the Aire De sens ter In Fernel Dialog de Fascino Which makes me to be of their Opinion who indeavour to vindicate the Ancients from the Imputation of Magicke and to thinke that the Workes which They did and which are commonly accounted Diabolicall proceeded meerly from some Naturall Principle and I am seriously of this mind that there can be nothing more Ridiculous then to have recourse to Spirits For besides that Campanella Riolanus Symphorianus Campegius and many others assure us that whatsoever they may have done yet They have never observed any thing that was Supernaturall at least in those Works which are said to proceed from Spirits We our selves may do without Their Aid whatsoever they can do seeing that they have no Advantage over Us but Operate only by applying Active things to Passive De Secret oper Art Nat. cap. 5. like as We do We conclude therefore with the Learned Bacon Non igitur oportet nos uti Magicis illusionibus cum potestas Philosophiae doceat operari quod sufficit PART III. Of the Horoscope of the Patriarches or the Astrology of the Ancient Hebrewes CHAP. VII That Idolatry is falsely said to have sprung from the Astrology of the Ancients THE CONTENTS THe Arguments against Astrology ill grounded and how by the waies of Nature it is possible to give judgement of the Good or Evill Fortune of a Child 2. The Resolution of Tho. Aquinas in the behalfe of Astrology 3. Gulielmus Parisiensis and Paracelsus refuted Astrology by whom found out The Error of Pliny in this Particular 4. Astrology both Good and Evill and how Moses a skilfull Astrologer 5. Idolatry whence sprung forth according to Marsilius Ficinus and Bechay a Jew Hannibal Hasdrubal Compounded names and why 6. The Opinion of R. Moses and the Author of the Booke of the Wisdome of Salomon concerning the Beginning of Idolatry The Conclusion of all before delivered 7. Fires used to be made by the Ancients to the Sunne and the Moone and for what Reason 8. Reasons given for the proofe of the Innocency of the Ancients in these Curiosities I Do not doubt but that now I here undertake to prove that the Patriarchs and First Fathers were Astrologers and Casters of Nativities I shall be accounted a Ridiculous fellow and that the Common Cry will be that my Opinions are Wild and Extravagant and without Common sense But be it so I have already endured so many Calumnies for endeavouring but to reforme the Ignorant as that I may very well say with the Poet Hoc quoque Naso feres quoniam majora tulisti Jam tibi sentiri Sarcina nulla potest All things are sweet unto me so that the Truth be but knowne and certainely my Enemies must of Necessity leave persecuting me unlesse they are more senselesse then Beasts I publish then Freely and Boldly This Curious piece of Doctrine which the Ignorance of the Hebrew tongue kept a long time hid from the Christians But seeing that my Custome alwayes is first of all to cleare the Subject which I handle from all suspicion it concernes me that before I discover the Secrets of this Astrology of the Ancients I make it appeare that Men have without just Reason or Ground questioned the Purity of this Science which teaching how to erect Nativities under the diverse Aspects of the Stars makes us Able to Foretell and that by a way of Natures owne teaching the Good or Evill Fortune that shall befall men 1. Those then that oppugne the Innocency of Astrology make use ordinarily of these two Reasons first that it is Vaine and of no Truth and secondly that it is condemned by the Maximes of our Religion which requireth nothing at our hands but this Burden of the Cloister Obedience and Humility And if we but consult the Canons where this Decree is to be seen written in red letters you will finde say they that it is not without Cause that This Art is cried down seeing it imposeth a Necessity upon our Actions and that the Principle on which it is grounded hath been of so dangerous Consequence as that it hath planted Idolatry in the Mindes of Men. Now if these Arguments had not been already answered by so many Authors it would concerne me to examine them in this place but Cardinall de Aliaco Lucius Bellantius Melanchthon Pirovanus Goclenius and Ranzovius have so judiciously done it to the satifaction of the most Criticall Palate as that he must be no Man that shall not acknowledge their Reasons to be most Just and Sound For if the Church say They cannot endure the very name of Astrology it is not meant of that Kind of Astrology which by the Rising and Setting of the Stars and by their severall Conjunctions is able to foretell Rain Thunder Stormes and Tempestuous weather and by Consequence the Plenty or Scarcity of Fruits as also by the Nature of these Celestiall Figures to judge of the Naturall Disposition of a new born Child as that it will be of a Temperate Humour if it be borne under a Temperate Signe and for the same reason will be also Meek Affable and Courteous or else on the contrary if it be borne under a Malignant Constellation by reason of Its being either too Cold or too Hot and Parching the Child will also abound with the Like Humour
certaine Tracts added which are not found at all in the Hebrew Those Peices that are Legitimate are these that follow First a Tract entitled Initium Sapientiae which is called by the Conciliator Introductorium which is indeed a very Choyce Peice and containes in it what ever is necessary to be observed in the Nativity of a Child Another called Liber Rationum where he discourseth of the Natures of the Signes the Revolution of Daies and Ages and of those Angels which have the Government of the world in their severall Turnes which is a Position maintained by Robert Flud also in his Apology for the Brethren of the Rosy Crosse as we have observed in our Notes upon R. Elcha Then follow in order these other Books Liber Interrogationum Liber Luminarium et Cognitio dici Critici seu de Cognitione cause Crisis De Mundo vel seculo which the Translator calls Liber Conjunctionum Planetarum Revolutionum annorum Mundi where he makes a Repetition of many things which are set down only in the Second Book by the Author It appeares then by this Catalogue that those two Tracts which the Conciliator makes to follow these and intitles Liber Nativitatum Revolutionum earum and Liber Electionum are not found in the Hebrew neither could I ever meet with any such Tracts in any one of all those Copies that I have seen of this Rabbins Works nor yet with diverse other things which are handled in That Collection which the Translator calls Tractatus insuper Particulares ejusdem Abrahae in quibus tractatur de Significationibus Planetarum in duodecim domibus However the Learned are very much obliged unto him seeing that before this Translation of his came abroad into the World the Astrology of the Hebrewes was wholy Unknowne to the Latines But to returne 11. We have shewed what Stars these Ancient Astrologers accounted Malignant in the Nativities of Children Let us now see which were those they accounted Benigne and Favourable and from whose Aspects they Presaged all Good Fortune to the New-born Child Abarbanel then saith that Sol was the Chiefest from whom they took their Omens of Good and this was the reason saith the same Author that when God caused King Hezekiah to be borne again as it were the second time he made choise of the Sun to be the Sign by which this Miracle should be wrought Next after the Sun they accounted Venus to be most Propitious and perhaps from this Observation of the Ancients it was that next to the Sun and the Moon This Planet was most especially Worshipped throughout the whole East as it is affirmed by R. Kapol Ben-Samuel These Ancient Hebrews acknowledged also the Planet Jupiter which they sometimes called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gad and sometimes also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mazal Tob and those that came after them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cocheb tsedek to be a very Favourable Star For which reason it was that the New-married Man was wont to give his Bride a Ring whereon was ingraved the fore-named words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mazal tob that is to say in the Natural signification of the Words A Good Star or Good Fortune desiring by this Ceremony that She might be delivered of all her Children under this Favourable Starre as it hath been observed both by Munster Aben-Ezra and Chomer Insomuch that the Later of these Authors affirmes that even in His time there were some that were so Curious as he calls them in these Observations or rather as we may justly say so Melancholick and Foolish as that they would not lye with their Wives but at some certain houres to the end that if they should prove with Child they might be brought to bed under this Starre whose Revolutions they were most diligent in Calculating But these Strange Fancies are found only among the Later Jewes and never entred so much as into the Thoughts of their Fore-fathers the Ancient Hebrewes as the same Chomer affirmes who observed only That which a certain Pure Innocence dictated unto them attributing no other Effect to the Stars then what were meerly Naturall and whose causes were imprinted on these Celestiall Bodies by Him who created all things in their Perfection 12. But it is now time that we answer this Weighty Objection that is made against us namely that seeing that the Holy Scriptures make not any mention of any of these Astrologicall Curipsities in the Lives of the Patriarks whom we affirm to have been Calculaters of Nativities a man may very well account them to be False if not Dangerous seeing they are grounded only upon the Fantasticall Conceits of the Rabbins who are known to have been of the Faction of the Judiciary Astrologers If I had not already elsewhere defended the Innocence of the Learned Jewes See my Advertisement to the Learned touching the Orientall Languages in this Particular I should in this place have taken an occasion to shew how much our Christian Writers have injured them by charging them unjustly with such things as they were never guilty of But now I shall only here make it appear that these Astrologicall Curiosities may be proved out of the Holy Scriptures For confirmation then of what we have here proposed we read in Genesis that Leah Jacobs Wife Gen. 30.11 called one of her Sons by the name of the Planet Jupiter which is called Gad under which no doubt he was born et peperit Zilpah saith the Latine following the Originall ancilla Leah ipsi Jacob filium et ait Leah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bagad et vocavit nomen ejus Gad. The Vulgar Translation and S. Hierome instead of Bagad translate Foclicitér which is the same with Cum Bona Fortuna as it is proved by S. Angustine who reprehendeth those that collected from this Text that the Ancients worshipped Fortune Vnde videtur Occasio saith he non benè intelligentibus dari tanquam illi homines Fortunam coluerint c. And that it may clearly and evidently appear that the Vulgar Translation understands by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gad Fortuna Bona which is one of the Epithets that is given to the Planet Jupiter as is acknowledged on all hands we need but turn to the 65. Chapter of Isaiah ver 11. where the same word is rendered by Fortuna Vos qui dereliquist is Dominum qui obliti estis montem Sanctum meum qui ponitis Fortunae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Legad mensam et libatis super eam The Sepuagint also had long before given the same Interpretation of this word rendering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bagad in Fortuna Now that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gad is the Planet Jupiter Aben-Esra testifieth expresly In Sphaet Iud. part 3. sec 5. col 2. where he saies that the Targum purposely retained this word as being the most proper for the expressing of this Star And Abarbanel upon the same Text of Genesis expounds this Passage without any Scruple
Switzerland Anno. 1534. which fell upon Peoples Cloaths in the form of Crosses Jo. Picus Mirandula hath Immortalized this Prodigy by a Large Copy of Verses among which you have the story of the Wonder fully delivered in these few that follow Permixtamque Crucem rubro spectavimus olim Nec morum discrimen erat Sacer atque Prophanus Jam conspecta sibi gestabant Mystica Patres Conscripti pueri conscriptus sexusuterque Et Templa Vestes a summa Caesaris aula Ad tenues vicos ad dura mapalia ruris Cernere erat liquidò deductum ex Aethere signum Cardan cannot believe that there is any Extraordinary Matter in This Raine for as much as the Red Drops saith He lighting upon Mens Cloaths might appeare in the forme of a Crosse by reason of the Waters spreading it selfe all along the threads which are wrought Crosse-wise But here he takes no notice that the Historians that report this Story affirm that these drops of Blood fell in the forme of Crosses not on Cloaths only but upon the Stones also and upon their Meale which is an Evident Demonstration that the Cause of it was not Naturall but proceeded from some Divine Power And certainly the same kind of Rain figured like Crosses which happened in the time of Julian the Apostate what could it betoken but the Sufferings of the Church and the Ignominy of the Crosse If you but run over the Annals and consider these severall yeares 747.783.959.1503.1507 you shall find that the like Prodigies have been the Fore-runners of such Truths as have most certainly afterwards come to passe I shall not here speake of the Raining of Wheat Wine Oyle Hony Mice and Frogs because that their Causes are more Naturall Neither will I deny but that These Things are sometimes also true Hieroglyphicks as it hath been sometime observed in Germany where the People being by an Intollerable Dearth brought almost to Despaire they were suddenly comforted by a Showre of Wheat which was seen to fall from the Clouds presaging the great Plenty of Corne that should follow which accordingly came to passe 8. All the Other Meteors also though they are Naturally produced doe yet sometimes serve for Signes which God makes use of when he intends to communicate unto us some Secret worthy of his Greatnesse Thus the Manna wherewith the Israelites were fed in the Wildernesse besides the many Wonders that it was indued withall had This also added to the rest as some of the Rabbins report that the graines of it were figured with the Hebrew Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Van very perfectly expressed and this was the Principall Reason say they that the Israelites wondering at the Novelty of this Character said one to another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man hon which is as much as to say What meaneth this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vau And so going on upon this Ground they afterwards find out a thousand Mysteries raising from hence a strange King of Doctrine which seemeth to be Repugnant to the very Principles of Common Theology However we may take Advantage hence and make use of these Conceits of Theirs in confuting the Peevishness and Stubbornnesse of this People and thus far it is Usefull to us As for Example when they say Exod. 6. that This Letter which in Numbers signifies Six gave them to understand that during the six daies of the week they were to gather this Manna and that this Number Sixe denoted also unto them the Misery and Sorrow wherewith God threatned them if they murmured any more against him Now that this Number say they is the Hieroglyphick of Labour and Servitude appeares out of Leviticus Levit. 25 Exod. 21 and elsewhere where it alwaies signifies Labour as for Example They were to work Six daies and to Till the Ground likewise Six yeares So an Hebrew Servant was bound to serve his Master Six yeares and Job was tried by Six Tribulations But suppose we should reply upon them Iob. 5. that all these Mysteries are more fully figured in our Messias would they conceive themselves bound think you to believe us seeing that we take our Foundation out of Their Own Doctrine Let us suppose then that the Manna was marked with the Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vau according to Themselves this Character signifies the Fruit of Life and it is the Character also of the Messias as it is proved by a Learned Venetian This Eating of Manna then Georg. Venet. i◠Harm Mund. might also figure out unto them their Earing of the Bread of Life which they One Day should enjoy as the Christians Now do Besides that it may appear that the Number of this Character which is Six doth perfectly agree with all things that have been spoken of CHRIST according to Their owne Computation we have long since arrived to the Sixth Age of the World which is the Age wherein our Saviour CHRIST appeared and not in Any Other so that this Number seemeth chiefly to point at and to concern Him Secondly if we would make knowne to the Samaritans the Wonders of his Love it is not without some Mystery that he sate him down at Jacobs Well De Trin. l. 4. c. 4. about the Sixt houre Whereupon S. Augustine saith Iam incipiunt Mysteria non enim frustrà horâ sextâ sedet quare horâ sextâ quia aetate seculi sextâ Thirdly we find in the Gospell that in the Sixt Moneth the Messias was foreshewed by an Angel Lu. 1.26 and at the same time conceived also in the Womb of the Virgin his Mother Fourthly Many are of Opinion that he was borne on the Sixt day of the Week and that on the same day also he ended his Long and Tedious Fast Fiftly that he came Six daies before the Passeover to Bethany which is interpreted The House of Obedience Lastly that upon the Sixt day of the Week and at the Sixt houre of that day he died for us upon the Crosse See now whether the Jewes are not confounded at least should be perswaded out of their Perversnesse by their Own Principles But to leave these My steties which we shall more fully examine in another place and shall clearly demonstrate That which shall be enough to convince the most Obstinate of this Naiton and to return to our Meteors 9. Snow Haile and Frost do also bear sometimes certain strange Characters the Reading whereof we are not to neglect For there hath Haile been often seen which hath borne the Figure either of a Crosse a Buckler a Heart or of a Death's-head and if we doe not carelesly passe by these Wonders when we meet with them we may no doubt afterwards find the truth of the Events foretold by these Hieroglyphicall Figures It is not many years since that in Languedoc a Friend of mine being abroad on hunting was upon the sudden amazed at an Extraordinary Noyse of Thunder and of a most Violent Wind which made him bethinke himself
ordinarily causeth the death of Princes and great Potentates who are otherwise much dried up by their Cares Watchings Rich Wine and high Odoriferous Meats And this is the reason Julius Caesar died shortly after the appearing of the like Comets Non aliàs Caelo toties cecidêre sereno Fulgura nec diri toties arsêre Cometae saith Virgil. These Comets therefore may presage the Death of Great Persons De Subtil l. 4. and be not onely the Signe of it as Cardan holds but the Cause also See what Ericius Puteanus hath said De Comet in this Particular They may also cause Barrennesse and consequently Famine for the Earth being two much dryed and suffering an Alteration either by the Exhalations that are drawn out of it or else by the immoderate Heat of the Aire and being also corrupted by the stinking Fumes issuing from the body of the Comet cannot give any perfect and Sufficient Nutriment to the Corne and other Fruits Then followeth the Pestilence and all other Diseases by reason saith Kepler of the Corruption of the Aire and Earth-quakes also which are caused not by Winds that are generated by the Vapours issuing from the Comer and getting into Cavernes and Subterraneous places as Kepler maintaines but by the Vapours that are Naturally ingendred within the bowels of the Earth by the great Heat caused in it which searching for some passage to get forth at and finding none by an extreame Violence causeth this Motion which is for the most part accompanied with some Diseases or other caused by the Noysome Vapours that ascend out of These Cavernes Besides the Aire being Heated together with the Malignity of the Matter of the Comet after it is extinguished or else when it beginneth first to ascend over-heating our blood is a Means of driving Princes and Great personages into strange Furies whence presently follow Wars Battels Heresies and a world of other sad Accidents Thus a little before the Wars of Peloponesus there appeared a Terrible Comet for the space of Seventy five daies together So did another before the Athenians suffered that great Losse in Sicily another before the Lacedemonians were vanquished by the Thebans another before Arrius vented his Heresy another before the Change of the Romane Empire another before the Mischeifs that happened during the time of Claudius the Emperour and this Comet is reported to have lasted six moneths Another presaged the Warres of Achaia and the Destruction of Corinth and of Thebes Another appeared immediately before the Gothes invading Italy another before the Army of Charles the Fift sacked Rome another foreshewed the breaking forth of the Faction of the Guelphes and Gibelines another the Bulgarians breaking in upon Thrace and another the Civill Warres of Caesar Pompey of which Lucan writes thus Jgnota obscurae viderunt sidera noctes Ardentemque polum flammis Caeloque volantes Obliquas per inane faces crinemque tremendi Sideris et terris minitantem bella Cometem Now all these Effects may proceed meerly from some such Causes as These But if it be so that Comets burne not nor are generated by any Elemntary Exhalations here below but that they are Above in the very Heavens which is the Opinion of the Learnedest Mathematicians we must then search for some other Causes so that those men then who affirme that these New Fires are Miracles are not wholy to be neglected for as much as it is recorded that in the time of Augustus there was seen One of these Comets wherein appeared the Figure of a Child Whereupon the Divines being demanded what they thought of it returned answer That This Child should be Greater and more Powerfull then Augustus himselfe and such a one as should deserve to be Worshipped by Him But now whether these Comets be the Handiwork of God or whether they be but meere Exhalations or lastly suppose them to be New Stars appearing in the Heavens we shall in the next place proceed to shew that their Figures are Mysticall Characters or as it were a kind of Hieroglyphicks by which we may be able to read by vertue of Analogy what Good or Evill accidents shall befall us The General Rules whereof do here follow 12. The First is that if they are figured like a Columne or Piller they denote the Constancy of some Prince or of some Great Saint or else of some People or Nation And hence some of the Jewes have taken occasion to affirme that the Pillar of Fire which went along with the Children of Israel in the Wildernesse was given unto them as a Hieroglyphicke of Constancy and Stedfastnesse and that it was no Ordinary Comet whatever Andreas Rosa affirms to the Contrary De nov sid l. 1. pag. 783. who maintaines that it was meerly Naturall and had nothing Divine in it it being the Ordinary Course of Nature saith He once in two Thousand years to produce some such Light as This. Thus two thousand yeares or thereabout after the Creation of the world This Pillar of Fire appeared Two Thousand yeares after which was the Second Age was That Wonderfull Star seen that appeared to the Wise men at the Birth of our Saviour Christ and Two Thousand yeares after that which is the Third Age and which We Now live in a New Starre appeared in the Constellation of Cassiopeia Seneca Phavorinus Alpetragius and Elias Talmudista 7. Qu. Nat. cap. 19. Apud Agell Noc Att. c. 1. Apud Tichon Brah. de nov Stel. p. 783. seem to favour this Opinion But it hath nothing of Truth in it For besides that this Pillar of Fire had no Proper Motion at all as other Compets have no more then had the Starre which appeared to the Wise men which had nothing of the Nature of the Other Starres in it but only the Figure and Light neither yet did it appeare in the Second Age as Rosa affirmes but in the Third for they reckoned then Five Thousand yeares from the Creation these New Starres and Comets have been known to appeare much oftner and consequently it is most False that they are seene but every Two Thousand yeares De nov astr Comet l. 2. c. 51. Thus the Learned Licetus hath observed that within the space of 30. years or thereabouts namely betwixt the yeares 1572. 1604. Three new Stars were seene One in Cassiopeia another in the Constellation called Serpentarius and a Third in the Necke of the Swan The Second Rule is that when a Comet or fiery Meteor is Round Cleare Bright and not Duskie at all but lookes as it were like another Sun it may signifie the Birth of some Great Prince as Justin the Historian writes that the yeare that Mithridates was borne during the space of seventy daies there appeared a Comet some say that it was a Star but so Wonderfull a one as that the Greatnesse of it tooke up the fourth part of the Heavens and the Light of It eclipsed That of the Sun Nam saith he et quo genitus
directs of Letters various formes When their spread Wings are by the Violent stormes Of strong South-winds assailed by and by In a confused globe all mingled flie The Letter 's lost in their disranked wings For besides that in Battell they never observe any other Order or manner of Marshalling themselves 3. de Animal c. 13. Chiliad alib 2. de nat Deor. De solert Animal et in vit Thesei Ornitholog a man may observe also in their Flight that when either the Wind ceaseth or another begins to blow they presently break their Ranks and cast themselves into another Figure These Truths are largely discoursed of by Aelian Tzetzes Cicero and Plutarch and Particularly by Aldrovandus who reports from diverse of the Ancients that from this Diversity of Figure in the Flying of these Birds Palamedes in the time of the Trojan War took occasion to invent diverse Letters of the Alphabet which he added to those other that the Phoenicians had before In Xenijs Whence Martial Saies Turbabis Versus litera tota volabit Unam perdideris si Palamedis avem And certainly we often see that Cranes in flying do strangely imitate these Greek Letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 8. var. cap. 2 Cassiodorus goes further yet and assures us that not only some Letters but generally All of them were invented by Mercury in Imitation of the severall Figures he observed in the Flying of these Birds His words are so Considerable as that I think fit to insert them here Ut aliquid certum exquisitum dicere videamur has Literas primum ut frequentior tradit Opinio Mercurius repertor Artium multarum volatu Strymoniarium avium collegisse memoratur Nam hodiè Grues qui classem consociant Alphabeti formas Natura imbuente describunt quas in ordinem decorum redigens vocalibus consonantibusque convenienter admissis viam sensualem reperit per quam altè petens ad penetralia Prudentiae Mens possit alta pervenire They say that Wild-Geese also observe the same Method that Cranes do Now the Letters which all these severall Birds make in their Flying shew us only the Diversity of the winds or else the manner of their ordering themselves in Battell and no more But their Fighting Singing and manner of Feeding and going to Rest are of more Signification then so for these are often Signes of things to come Thus we usually see a Sick person is near his End when a Raven is observed to come croaking and to light upon or fly neer the Chamber where he lies the like whereof is observed also of Scritch-Owles and Horn-Owles Birds which by reason of their delighting in Darkness only and Shady places are accounted Unfortunate and Ominous The Fighting and Gathering together of all other sorts of Birds especially Birds of Prey and which feed upon Flesh doth likewise often foreshew some sad Accident approaching Thus Dion reports that when the Armies of the Triumvirate marched forth against the Complices of Pompey Lib. 50. to take a just Revenge of Coesar's bloud there were seen hovering over the Troops of Brutus and Cassius only great numbers of Ravens and Vultures which by their Many and Fearfull Cries did foreshew the Ruine of These Two Murtherers Neither need we travell so far for Examples of this Nature for we have a like Story to this delivered by Aeneas Sylvius who comming to be Pope was afterwards called by the name of In Europ Pius II. and it is this In that Part of Gallia saith he which is furnamed Belgica not far from the City of Leige a Falcon as she was sitting upon her Eggs in her Nest a company of Ravens perceiving her set upon her and not content with beating her devoured her Egges also and that with such Strange and Unusuall Out-cries as that the Boors and Shepherds thereabout who had observed this Strange Piece of Tyranny acted upon the Faulcon were very much amazed at it But at length the Faulcon though with much adoe being gotten from them the Shepherds thought the Quarrell to be now certainly over and that they should heare no more of these Out-cries But which much increased their Wonder on the Morrow they saw gathered together in the very same place so infinite a number of Faulcons and Ravens as that they could not have believed before that there were so many in the whole world all which were now gathered together to decide this Difference betwixt the Faulcon and the Ravens the Place and Combat being as it were agreed on on both sides The Faulcons pitched their Battell toward the South side of the Place and the Ravens toward the North and both the One and the Other observed their Ranks and Order as exactly and beheld each other with as fierce Countenances as if they had been Armies of Men. At length after they had been observed to keep this Order for some little time some of them being as it were in the Main Body of the Army and others in the Wings the Fight began with such Fury as that in an Instant the place all about was covered with Feathers and Bloud and with dead bodies of both Parties But in Conclusion the Faulcons wonne the Day and it seemed but Reasonable that They who fought in so just a Cause should bear away the Victory Now that this Battell fought betwixt these Birds did presage some Battell to be fought by Men in the same place Edovardus Scleikel endeavoureth to prove by the Event who writing the History of the year 1391. tells us that not long after this happened two Bishops pretending Right each of them to the Bishoprick of Leige were so incensed against each other as that filling all the parts round about with Souldiers they made a Sad and Bloudy Decision of the Controversie For Benedict XII and Gregory XIII whose Factions had likewise made a Division in the Church about the Popedome maintaining each of them the Bishop of his own Election drave on the businesse to so great a Height as that it was to be determined only by the Sword The Liegeois favoured the one Party and John Duke of Burgundy the other But in the end the Duke being stronger then his Enemies gave them Battell in the very same place where these Birds had fought before and wonne the Day with the losse of three Thousand of the Liegeois The like also happened An. 1484. when Lewis D. of Orleans fought against Charles VIII And that I may not trouble my self any further in collecting Instances of this kind you may have recourse to the fore-named Scleikel and Belle-forest who will furnish you with good store of the like Presages Hist Prod. it not being my Purpose to give you a Catalogue of them but only to examine their Cause We say then that Birds may Naturally foreshew sad Accidents approaching if we except all such as depend upon the Will of Man as to give Battell or Not to give Battell for in this
case all Presages are Vain And if by Chance the forementioned Battels were observed to be fought after those of the Birds yet the Birds cannot be thought to have fore-shewed them since it is by meer Accident that the Birds fought in the Aire either before or at the same time that men fought upon the Earth or else perhaps God may sometimes make use of these Extraordinary Signes to prepare us as we have said before against the Evils that we are to encounter with To keep our selves therefore within the Compasse of Naturall Causes we affirm that we may foresee Fair weather Raine Thunder Pestilence the Overwhelming of Cities and Hills and also the Naturall Death of Men by the Naturall Disposition of Birds and that three manner of Waies The First is by their Flight the Second by their Singing or Crying and the Third by their Leaving and Forsaking a Place The Later of these doth manifestly foretell the Falling of Mountains and of Cities and Houses the Pestilence and Famine approaching And the Two Other fore-shew the Change of Weather and the Naturall Death of Men. And here I cannot but wonder that among all those Historians that have written of the Presages of Birds there is scarcely any of them that have endeavoured to give the Natural Causes of them They will tell you perhaps that against Raine some certain Birds will fly close to the side of Rivers but they do not tell what should be the Cause of their Flying thither rather then to any other place But seeing that all these Actions are not done without some Reason or other we shall here indeavour in a few words to discover what it may be It is certain then that Birds which keep alwaies in the Air have a more perfect Sense and Apprehension of the present Temper of It then We can have and this is the reason why against all Changes of the Air and of the Weather they are wont to give us some Signe of it as for example to Sing and Chirp very pleasantly when the Aire is Clear and Calm and on the other side to change their Note when it begins to be troubled and overcast and to fly to Rivers sides when it is like to Rain especilly those that delight in eating of Worms which abounding most about River's banks by reason of the Corruption and Humidity alwaies come abroad out of the Earth against Wet weather And this is the Reason why Crowes fly to Rivers sides when it is like to Rain Secondly if the Aire begin to be infected with any Contagion they finding themselves annoyed thereby presently get them gone and quit the Country although it be so Fat and plentifull a one as that it affords them more store of Food then any other place can Thirdly they use to fly away and forsake a City or Hill which is neer falling to Ruine and to be Overwhelmed by reason that the Hill or City not falling to the ground suddenly as it seems to Us to do but by little and little there are caused by this meanes certain Rifts and Openings in the Earth out of which ascends so Contagious an Aire as that the Birds which are far quicker Sented then We are perceiving it presently leave the place and fly away Thus did those Birds which we have formerly mentioned out of Rab. Elcha fly all of them away even as much as the very Poultry when the City wherein they were was now ready to be overwhelmed by the Ruine of Two Mountains We have also said before that in a certain Village in Suitzerland called PLOURS the very Bees did the like The Instance of a Man neer death doth also confirm this Truth for when he is at his last Gasp the Pores being opened by a Certain Violent Labouring of Nature send forth so Corrupt an Aire or Sweat that the very Fleas not enduring it leave the place The same is also reported of Rats and Mice who will be sure to forsake a house that is ready to fall And certainly no man can doubt but that the Air which is pent up in the Close holes either of a Mountain or of the Foundation of a City or of the Walls of a House must needs be very Corrupt and Putrified Air which when it commeth to be exhaled must necessarily be very dangerous De Variet l. 3. c. 3 to all those that shall take it in And in this sense we are to understand Cardan when he saies that a City is neer its Ruine when the Ravens are observed to croak more then usually forasmuch as these Birds having a Sent of the Putrid Air that issueth out of the Earth think it to be Carrion after which they are so greedy saith Aelian as that getting to the tops of Trees or else flying about in the Air they turn themselves about toward every blast of Wind that so having a Sent of any they may goe and feast themselves upon it And for the same reason if they chance to flie over a house where any are Sick and that they alight upon it and cry more then they use to doe they have some Sense by reason of the Air that commeth out of the Sick persons Chamber of his approaching Death The Augury therefore or Divination by Birds used by the Ancients was not altogether so Ridiculous a thing and fit to be accounted only as a Piece of Superstitious Foolery Disquis Mag. l. 4. c. 2. q. 7. Sec. 2. as Delrio would make it to be And here I cannot choose but laugh at those men that will needs have Apollonius Tyaneus to be a Sorcerer and a Magician because he was able to imerpret the Language of Birds as if we might not see the Experience of this every day and perceive that a Hen useth alwaies one Certain Tone when She calleth her Young ones about her and a quite different one when she hath laid an Egge and makes a Third Kind of Noise Unlike either of the Former when she is any way frighted So that when I hear a Hen make a Noise I may say that either she hath found some Corn and now she calleth for her Young ones or else that now she hath laid an Egge or else that she is frighted And what should hinder but that by long Experience a man might be able to do the like by all other Birds As for the other Presages that may be taken from them and which are more Common Lib. 1. de Divin Lib. 1. Georg. De Temp. mut Repert de mut â—eriâ— Prognost perpet De ventis Deprogn temp Ephemerid Prognost temp Ephemerid aer perp I must refer the Reader to Cicero Virgil Alchindus Firminus Hieronymus Tortus Federicus Bonaventura Augustinus Niphus Alliacensis Minerva Gul. Gratarolus and Antonius Mizaldus CHAP. XIII That the Starres according to the Opinion of the Hebrew Writers are ranged in the Heavens in the forme of Letters and that it is Possible to reade there whatsoever of Importance is to happen throughout the
Universe THE CONTENTS 1. THe Celestiall Configurations devised by the Greeks permitted by the Church though Dangerous This New Doctrine of the Reading of the Stars no whit repugnant to the Christian Faith 2. This Reading proved out of the Scripture Diverse passages of Scripture tending to this purpose interpreted 3. The Opinions of the Ancient Hebrews Greekes and Latines in this Particular 4. The reason why so few Authors of these Later times have medled herein What our Modern Writers as Reuchlin Picus Mirandula Agrippa Kunrath Banelli and Flud have delivered of this Subject 5. Postell's Intention of bringing it into Europe 6. The Stars ranged not in the forme of Arabicke nor Samaritane but of Hebrew Characters The Superstition of the Arabians in reading some kind of words Their Letters borrowed from the Hebrews 7. The Hieroglyphicall Living Creatures of the Aegyptians placed in the Heavens are not to serve for Letters The Constellations Imperfect 8. What things are to observed that one may be able to reade the Heavens What the reason is that New Stars often appeare according to the Rabbins 9. A Continued Enumeration of the severall Meanes that must be used for the rendering a Man Capable of this Reading The Star in the Taile of Ursa Major the fore-shewer of the Change of Empires and how 10. On which side we are to begin this Reading of the Heavens and how we must Interpret the words we find there 11. Of those Celestiall Letters that have foreshown all the Great Mutations in States The Fall of two Potent Kingdomes in the East read in the Heavens by R. Chomer 12. The Authors Judgement concerning this Reading of the Heavens THose who have diligently examined the Choycest parts of the Learning of the Ancients have observed that there is nothing that is more Absurd in Appearance then the Figures of the Celestiall Constellations For what a Confused thing is it say They that in those places which are destined to be the place of abode for the Blessed Spirits only there should be lodged such numbers of Beasts and some of them so dreadfull as that we cannot thinke of them but with Horrour If they had placed only Men there and had allotted a Castor and a Pollux Dominion there this might have been interpreted an Error of Love which suffers us not to be content in wishing small Honours to those we Love This Consideration might also have satisfied those who complained that the Celestiall Figures were nothing else but the Representations of the severall Scapes of Jupiter that the whole Face of the Heavens was filled with the Notes of his Incestuous Prankes so that if any one should undertake to excuse these Amorous Signes he would be the lesse blame-worthy in that hee did it only in Defence of the most sweet and Powerfull of all our Passions The Excuse of those who imposed upon these Incorruptible Bodies the Figures of Brute Beasts that are most subject to Corruption and even of Things Inanimate also was most just seeing that in so doing they had no other Designe but what was Religious Thus we see Fishes there Censers and Eares of Corn in a Virgins hand And those who are skilled in the Secrets of the Ancient Theology know well enough that it was not without some Mysticall reason that they placed one Crowne in the South part of Heaven consisting of Thirteen Bright Stars and another in the Northern part containing eight stars in it But to place Dragons there and Serpents and Hydra's Reason can never endure And yet see the Strangenesse of the thing For Though the Ancienes had thus filled the Heavens with Brute Beasts and that according to this their Doctrine one would have imagined this Celestiall Paradise to have been an Habitation of Monsters and a Dreadfull Wilderness rather then the Seat of the Blessed a Place abounding with all manner of Pleasures yet notwithstanding neither hath the Church ever reproved it nor any of the Ancient Fathers disavowed it Now the Subject we treat of is much lesse Scandalous and by Consequence more Tolerable For what danger can there be in affirming that the diverse Figures of the Starres represent and make up the different Characters of the Hebrew Alphabet And that as These Letters have some Signification when they are Single as well as when they are joyned with others in like manner the Stars either alone or joyned with other Stars doe note unto us some Mysteries Yea rather this Doctrine of ours is so farre from being such as men should beware of and hold it Suspected as that on the Contrary it teacheth the Manifold Wonders of God and proveth that all these Stars have not their Order bestowed on them in vaine and that their Motions and different Aspects are not utterly uselesse and without any Designe Insomuch that in my Opinion it would be no lesse then Blasphemy in any man to affirme the Contrary or to say that they are placed there only for Ornament and to beautifie the Heavens and to give Light and for no other cause at all But what Madnesse is it to confine these Wonderful Lights to One only Operation seeing that besides that Experience teacheth us that the Moone is the Governesse of all Humours the Sun the Principle of Life Saturn a Malignant Star Jupiter a Benign the Signe of Taurus cold and dry that of Gemini Hot and moist Aries Hot and dry and so of the rest we do also see daily that one and the same Simple here below serveth to diverse and sundry Operations and therefore if the Properties of Hearbs are not restrained to the narrow limits of One Sole Effect why should we thinke so unworthily of the Stars as not to believe the same of them Wee conclude therefore that beside those Wonderfull Qualities which wee acknowledge to be in them they may also represent by their Diversity of Aspects certaine Figures or Characters by which we may have some Apprehension of the Greatest Changes that happen here below And this Truth we will now endeavour to prove out of the Holy Scriptures 2. If then we can any where find in these Holy Scriptures that the Heavens have been called by the Holy Ghost A BOOK then doubtlesse we may conclude that there are in this Booke Letters and Characters which may be Understood by some or other Now that it is called a BOOKE appeares out of the Prophet Isaiah who speaking of the Last Day wherein all things shall Cease Isa 34.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he saith Complicabuntur sicut Liber Coeli where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caph in Hebrew which the Latine translateth Sicut signifieth in the Originall Quia So that as Isaiah hath said that the Heavens shall be rolled together so hath he at the same time given the Reason of it also Because they are a Booke If it be Objected that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie Sicut as well I answer that those that are but meanely versed in the Holy Scriptures
have Present to be Chiefly taken notice of I would then write the Whole Word thus rePRESENTative We are not then to wonder if in the Heavens we often see two or three Great Stars to goe to the Composition of a Word wherein there are Small Stars also and this is that which we are to have most particular regard unto as we have already shewed When they are Verticall to any Place And by this meanes may we be able to give a Reason of that which hath been hitherto Unknown as when the Astrologers affirm that when Caput Algol or Medusa's Head was Verticall to Greece the Stars did fore-shew the Calamities which afterwards happened unto it by the Tyranny of the Mahometans without giving us any Reason Why no more then they doe of their Confidence in assuring us that the same Constellation which will in a short time be Verticall to Italy also fore-shewes a strange Desolation that is to fall upon this Pleasant and Fertile Country Now all these Disasters though according as they are foretold so doe they Certainly come to passe yet neverthelesse is the Fore-seeing of them grounded meerely upon Experience neither can the Authors of these Predictions for the Most part give any other Reason of them But now according to this Doctrine of the Celestiall Writing we know that these Mutations shall happen on the Earth because we see they are written in the Heavens And this is the Reason that R. Chomer affirmes that the aforesaid Medusa's Head or the Stars that Compose it did foretell the Lamentable Desolation of Greece because that Five of the Principall Verticall Stars did for a good while together make up this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Charab Which in the Second Conjugation signifies To be Desolate understanding This particularly of Greece over which these Stars shone because that the number of its Letters which are Jod Vau Nun and which being put together make up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Javan that is to say Greece do yield the same number that Charab doth as you may here see 228 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Charab Destroied Desolate Summ. 12. 561 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Javan Greece Summ. 12. According to these Principles any man may foresee by the putting together the Stars of the same Constellation the Disasters that Italy is threatned with However it be Junctin an Italian Priest and a very excellent Astrologer is bold to utter these words Illud verò saith He In Sphar Io. de Sacrohos c. 1. speaking of this Medusa's Head Toleto nunc Apuliae Neapolitanorum regno est verticale moxque Italiam invadet quibus suam quoque cladem allaturum esse maximoperè est verendum Now how long before hand these Celestiall Letters do foreshew the Changes that are to happen no one Author that I know of hath precisely determined they only say that Before they are Verticall they do fore-shew this Change and whatsoever is to happen God being willing thus to prepare us for the Evils which are to befall us And after that they are precisely Verticall if our Repentance hath yet found any place in his Mercies He then causeth some New Star to appear and by its Intervening to shew as we have formerly said a quite Contrary Thing to what was before signified 10. In the Fifth Place the fore-named Authors affirm that to be able perfectly to understand this Celestiall Writing we must know how to distinguish exactly which Stars are Orientall and which Occidentall Meridionall and Septentrionall forasmuch as these Quarters of the Heaven are very Essentiall in this Reading For if any one desire to know say They the Good Fortune and Prosperitie of a Kingdome or of any Other thing he must then read those Letters which are Verticall to him or which want not much of being so from the West toward the East And if he would be informed of the Evill Accidents and Misfortunes that shall befall a place he must then begin to read from the North towards the West Now why the Good Fortunes of a Place should be read from the West toward the East rather then from the East toward the South and why the Ill Fortune is likewise to be read from the North toward the West I have not found any Reason given by any Author However I shall adventure to give this Conjecture at it namely that seeing that Nature being at Liberty and not hindered by any thing alwaies tendeth to the Best and that as Aristotle saith It would alwaies bring forth Males as being more Perfect Creatures then Females are if it were not hindered by some Repugnant Cause it is most proper that Good Things and all Perfections should be read from the West toward the East seeing that This is the Free and Naturall Motion of the Stars the other from the East to the West being a Contrary and Forced Motion As for Ill Fortune and Disasters they might according to this Principle have been read from the East toward the West had not the Oracle which cannot lye uttered this Wonderfull Truth A Septentrione pandetur malum Ier. 1.14 All Evill commeth from the North. But why from the North rather then from any other part of the World The Reason of this is not so easily given yet I conceive it would stand with sound Philosophy to answer that by reason of the Darknesse and Gloominesse of the Aire of those Parts caused by the great distance of the Sun and also by reason of the Evill Spirits which are the Authors of so much Evill and which inhabite Darke Places a man may very Reasonably say that all Misfortunes come from the North as being a Place which is full of these Evill Spirits or Demons as Historians testifie And from hence it will be an easie matter to apprehend the Reason why the Ancients figured in these Northerne Parts of the Heaven a Serpent or Dragon close by the Two Beares Uid Theodor Graminaij Myst Aquil. seeing that these Creatures are the True Hieroglyphickes of Tyranny Violence and all manner of Oppression And certainly who ever shall but runne over the Annals will finde that all the Great Desolations that have ever happened have come from the Notherne Parts The Assyrians or Chaldeans set on by Nabuchadonosor and Salmanasar have sufficiently manifested the Truth of this in burning to the ground a City and a Temple that was both the most Sumptuous and the most Holy in the world and in the Utter Ruine of a People whom God himselfe had taken into his own Speciall Protection and whose Father he particularly called Himselfe Sub Honorio Martiano Justiniano à n 412.456 551. And hath not Rome like a Second Jerusalem in like manner often felt the Fury of this Accursed Generation of the North when by the Cruelty of Alaricus Gensericus Totilas and the rest of the Gothick Hunne Vandale and Alane Princes It saw its Altars overturned It s Stately Palaces burnt to Ashes and Its Inhabitants consumed