Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	know_v	life_n	2,879	5	4.5653	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05303	A treatise of specters or straunge sights, visions and apparitions appearing sensibly vnto men Wherein is delivered, the nature of spirites, angels, and divels: their power and properties: as also of witches, sorcerers, enchanters, and such like. With a table of the contents of the several chapters annexed in the end of the booke. Newly done out of French into English.; Discours des spectres, ou visions et apparitions d'esprits, comme anges, demons, at ames, se monstrans visibles aux hommes. English	Loyer, Pierre le, 1550-1634.; Jones, Zachary.	1605 (1605)	STC 15448; ESTC S108473	230,994	324

and granted against him That it was a thing never heard of in that palace that an extraordinary criminall accusation shoulde be laide against any man that in a foolish wantonnes and youthfull oversight onely without any will or intent to doe evill had adventured to doe that towardes a maiden which in very trueth did not deserve so much as the name of a simple iniury For howsoever he didde fondly in casting this paper into the bosome of the maide yet did hee not attempt to wrong her honour or chastitie neither didde he pursue or sollicite her in any shamelesse manner neither did he vse any dishonest or vnseemely speeches vnto her that might cause her so much as to blush at them And in briefe that he had not offered her any such foule or bitter iniury for the which hee had deserved by the Lawe either reproofe or any extraordinary punishment L. vlt. D. de Iniur And if it did so happen and fall out by chaunce afterward that the maide became sicke yet it was no consequent that he should be the cause of her sickenes Not without reason was that saying of the Greeke Poet Euripides That all those things which happened casually were very diverse and that the gods contrary to humane exspectation did take a pleasure to change things here belowe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is not any man so sound healthfull that can assure himselfe of his health not so much as a day and who knoweth what the evening or the morning may cause to betide vnto him either prosperous or vnfortunate many things doe happen as the olde saying is betweene the cuppe and the lippe Yea but the Complainant saith and averreth That in the scroll of paper there were certaine words charmed by force whereof their daughter fell sicke Certainely their speech is grounded vpon a very vaine and fraile foundation and the same vtterly overthrowes and destroys al their accusation For what man is there so litle seene or so vnskilfull in the course and causes of nature that will beleeve that charmes and enchauntments can have any power vpon men and that a figure a writing a line or a word bredde onely by the refraction of the aire should worke above and beyond nature and should have power to alter or change it in any sort whatsoever Every man knoweth sufficiently how that the Caball of the Iewes which dooth attribute so great force to writings and to the speaking and pronounciation of certaine wordes hath beene reprooved and hissed out of the Schooles by all learned Divines and that Reuclin the Almaine and others who have allowed and consented to the fond dotages and follies of the Caballists and Iewish Rabbines have beene censured and condemned by the Maisters of Sorbonne who did holde that all those enchauntments charmes and woordes which the Cabal vseth are nothing but meere Magicke and therefore without any efficacie as comming from the divell who lost all his power at the comming of our Saviour Christ into the world as hee himselfe hath confessed even by his Oracles vppon enquirie and demaund made to them by the Gentiles that lived after Christ Yea the Paynimes themselves which were guided and mis-led by the Divell did ever esteeme the Arte Magicke and all sortes of charmes to be nothing else but deceiptes and illusions And Plinie reciteth how the Emperour Ner● after hee hadde searched into all the secretes of Magicke and had spared no paines to sound the deapth thereof in the end hee found that it was but a meere abuse neither could Tyridates nor Simon Magus perfourme any thing although they had promised to acquaint him with the full knowledge and science of the same Besides it cannot any where be found that any person whatsoever was ever accused of beeing a Magician vnder the good and wise Emperours of Rome For they knew well that all accusation is to be held and accompted vaine where there is no lawfull colour of trespas committed And it is most certaine that Apulcius who lived vnder those good Princes Antoninus Philosophus L. Gracchus C. ●d legem Iul d● adult and P●rtin●x being accused before Claudius Maxi●●● the Governour of Affricke That he had allured gained to his love one Pudentilla and had so bewitched her that he had wrought her to marry him was fully acquitted from that accusation as being frivolous vaine and calumnious On the contrary those Emperours which were helde wicked and cruell Princes did finde a faire colour and pretence by the Arte Magicke and the Mathematiques to bring such vnder danger of torment punishment against whom they beare any malice hatred when they were not able to accuse and calumniate them of any other fault or offence How many noble and honourable Romans both men and women didde the Emperour Tiberius cause to be put to death onely vnder colour that they had consulted with the Chaldeans The Emperour Claudius of whome Ausonius speaketh That Non faciendo nocens sed patiendo fuit That is The hurt he did was not in dooing ill But in the patient suffring therof still Did condemne to die as beeing a Sorcerer a poore Knight of Rome because hee bare about him the egge of a Serpent beeing perswaded that the same was good to cause his suite in lawe to goe on his side In vita Carac And Antoniue Caracalla as saith Spartian did likewise condemne those that vsed to carry any tickets or writings tied about their neckes for a remedy against the Tertian and Quartane fevers The historie is wel known of Apollonius Thianeus whome Domitian a wicked Prince did cause to be tormented for his Arte Magicke albeit those that came and succeeded after him to wit Alexander the sonne of Mammea and Aurelianus did honour him during his life and after his death did consecrate Altares and Oratories vnto him And in briefe all the worlde knoweth howe that Valen and Valen●i●ian for causing so many famous and learned Philosophers and so many noble and woorthy Senatours and Roman Knights to be punished for the science of Magicke have beene reprooved and blamed by many Historiographers as namely Eunapius Zosymus Ammian Marcellin and others who in that regarde onely have over-ranged them in the rancke and number of evill Emperours And they doe marvellously blame those Commissaries to whome the triall and enquiry of this crime was committed if that may and ought to be called a crime which is rather a vayne perswasion or inveterate superstition bred and ingraffed in the hearts of men And therefore the Appellant concluded That both the Decree the Ordinance the Execution was ill and vniust and that the Iudgement ought to be corrected and amended and the partie to bee cleerely dismissed absolved and acquitted On the contrary parte the Defendaunt in the appeale saide and affirmed That the cause was rightly adiudged by the inferiour Iudge And that it was wel and iustly ordered that extraordinary processe should be made and awarded against the Appellant

Gregory Nazianzene hath set downe in his Prayers against Iulian the Apostata saith that these Monsters of Hecate which shee maketh to appeare vnto them that inuocate and call vpon her by way of Conjuration are not Dogges but vnmeasurable great Dragons with heads so fearefull and hideous that they which see them doe rest so amased confounded as they become for the time like dead men And therefore it is fayned of Vlisses Odisse ● that in his going downe to hel to see and question with the soule of Tyresias after hee had spoken to the soules of many dead men hee would not stay saith Homer the comming of Hecate for feare least she should present vnto him the head of some hideous Monster The custome of Hecate was to howle in the night about the streetes and turnings of Citties and Townes Lib. 4. Aeneid as Virgil recounteth which is the cause that some haue thought why the Greekes did call her Brimo Howbeit that the Scholiast of Apollonius the Rhodian recyteth that shee was so called because that Mercurie beeing willing to rauish her by force shee growing enraged made so filthy a noyse and gruntled so horribly against him that the God for feare left her and fled from her The husband of this Infernall Goddesse was Pluto of Pluto alias Dis. or Dis so called of the name of Riches as wee know that amongst the Hebrewes likewise the Diuell for the same reason is called Mammona Mammon Hee was called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for that hee is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say in Darknes and Inuisible But because he was the Cause and Authour of the death destruction and desolation of mankinde by his temptation And for this cause hee is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Hebrewe word Ed and is the very Ophioneus or Serpent the sworne enemie of God which as Pherecides said did contend and fight with Saturne and is the same Ate which Iupiter chased from Heauen which at this day doth range vp down marching wandring in the Heads of men That is to say doth ordinarily and continually tempt them and cannot be chased nor driuen away but by Prayers which are said to be the Daughters of Iupiter The Aegyptians did by another name call this Prince of diuels Serapis the God of the Aegyptians and the deriu●●●●n therof Charon whence deued Serapis which commeth of Saraph that is to Burne And in the same sort may the name of Charon the Ferrie-man of Hell be deriued of the Ebrew For Charon is as if one should say Furie Wrath or Rage But in the Creeke it signifieth not any thing Howbeit it is not to be thought that the Paynims would haue giuen him that name without some reason Gods of the Paynims Their names deriued from the Hebrewe And I am perswaded that they retained this name as also many others of their Auncient Gods by tradition from Iaphet and Iauan and Dodanim and their children who did yet speake the Hebrew tongue Of the selfe same Originall came Cerberus Cerberus whence deriued the tryple-headed Dogge of Hell which the Greekes did striue to interpret but in vaine and which I cannot thinke to come of any other then of Celeb baarets which is to say Dogge of the Earth or Diuel Infernall For by the name Dogge the Diuels were sometimes signified and designed and namely in the Magicke of Zoroastres they are called Dogges of the earth And certaine Cabalists interpreting that which is written in their Caball How the people of Israel comming out of Aegypt no Dogge did barke against them They say that by Dogge is to be vnderstood the horrible and hideous face of the Diuels whom Moses did so well bridle by the Diuine Power that they could not worke any let nor hinderance to the Israelites in passing on dry foote through the red Sea Of the names of Diuels appearing in the shape of men But let vs passe on to other Deuils and first of all let vs entreat of those that vse to shew themselues in the Masculine forme and shape of Men and afterwards we will speake of those Specters that vsually appeare in the shape of women There was amongst the Greeks Of wrastling spirits or Diuels a Diuel which was named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the wrastling Diuell And thereof commeth the name of Lutin or Luitton which is very vsuall and common in Fraunce For Lutin commeth of Luitte which signifieth to wrastle I remember to this purpose that there was one of those wrastling diuels of which Strabo speaketh who wrastled against all Strangers that happened to come into Temesa a Towne of the Brutians in Italie was called the Temescan Diuel or Wrastler He was in times past a man named Polites one of the Companions of Vlisses And hauing beene slaine of the Brutians by treason hee inforced himselfe after his death to torment as well Strangers as those who had beene the authors of his death Of the spirit or diuell Alastor or the destroier Besides there was the Diuell Alastor the auenger or punisher of misdeedes which the Scholiast of Euripides writeth to be so called because nothing was hidden from him In Medea and as it is in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it may be that this is the Diuell called the Destroyer which the holy Scriptures and Origen doe call Azazel and which Zoroastres allegorically nameth the Hangman Contra Celsum or Executioner saying that it is not good to stirre abrode or to issue forth when the Hangman is walking in the Countrey that is when the Diuell the Destroyer doth execute the vengeance of God The Onosceles are also men Deuils hauing legs like vnto Asses so saith Psellus and the Satyres likewise Of spirits or diuels called Onoscels of Satyres which are Demy Goates which the holy Scripture calleth Hayrie Diuels or Sairim inhabiting desert places and farre off from the frequence of men Of these Satyres Faunus prince of the Satyrs Faunus was the chiefe or Prince to whom the Romanes did attribute all kindes of fearefull sights or terrours those Specters that presented themselues to be seene in diuers formes and they named him Iupiter Faunus And whensoeuer they heard any horrible or diuellish voyce they appeased him by Sacrifices yea they raised an Aultar vnto him in the Mount Auentine I●●h 6. Rō hist Of Pan the God of Shep beards as witnesseth Dionisius Halicarnasseus The God Pan was not much vnlike in shape to Faunus For he was as the other a Demy Goate from the nauell downewards and as it is well knowne to all men generally he was chief of Sheepheards of whom Virgil writeth Of Sheepe and Sheepheards too God Pan he hath the care He was called of the Latynes Inuus so saith Macrobius in his Saturnals A name that in my opinion commeth of Aeanas which signifieth to afflict and torment

of a long time forborne them and endured all the bravadoes and inventions that they could devise when at the last they vsed vnto him this speech Guido tu rifiuti desser di nostra brigata ma eccò quando in aurai trouvato que Iddio non sia che aurai fatto Wherevpon he retyring himselfe from them made them this answer Signori voi mipotet● dire à casa vostra cio che vipiace that is my Maisters you may say vnto me being at your owne home what you please meaning by that gentle frumpe that the sepulchres and churchyardes were the dwelling houses of such as they who molested him that is that they were little better then as dead men because they were ignorant and enemies to the learned Such an aunswer as this you shall hardly finde amongst all the Greekes and Democritus might well have spoken it to them that went about to make him afraide Notwithstanding the answer that he gave them did so touch them that knowing thereby his great constancie and assurance they left him in his sepulchre without counterfaiting themselves any more for spirits to molest or trouble him Common places of execution suspected for spirits to walke in Next after Sepulchres and Churchyardes the Gibets or common places of executions are greatly feared of the vulgar sort who do thinke that spirits do haunt and frequent there also And for that cause such fooles doe never cease haunting those places of purpose to feare and terrifie such as passe neere vnto the same To make short those places are so frightfull in the night time to some fearefull and timorous persons that if they heare the voyce of any person neere the place where any be hanging they will thinke it is their spirits or ghosts that doe walke thereabouts I remember me of a good iest which was once tolde me how in the Country of Mayne there was a fellow a notorious thiefe and murtherer well knowne vnto all his neighbours who by the sentence of the Lievetenant for criminall causes hee committed in Mauns was condemned to be hanged and strangled and was sent from thence backe to his owne Village wherein he dwelled to be executed and there to be set on a Gibbet standing vpon the high way from Mauns Some few dayes after his execution a certaine man travelling that way where his bodie hanged found himselfe verie sore wearied and laid him downe to rest vnder a tree not farre from the Gibbet But hee was scarse well setled to his ease when sodainly behold there commeth by another passenger that was going towards Mauns and as he was right over against the gallowes where the dead body hanged whom the partie knew well when he was alive he called him by his name and demanded of him with an high and lowde voyce as iesting at him if he would go with him to Mauns The man that lay vnder the tree to rest himselfe being to goe to Mauns likewise was very glad that he had found companie and said vnto the other Stay for me a little and I will goe with you The other to whom he spake thinking it was the theefe that spake vnto him hasted him away as fast as he could possible The man vnder the tree arising vp ranne after him as fast with a desire to overtake him and still he cried Stay for mee stay for mee but the other had not the leasure For his feare had set him in such a heate thinking still that the dead thiefe followed him at the heeles that he never left posting till he was quite out of breath Then was he forced to stay whether hee would or no and to abide till the other that followed did overtake him who by his presence brought him to be againe of good courage when he saw that his feare was meerely vaine and senselesse Now although as I have saide Churchyardes Sepulchres and Gibbets be common and vsuall places where vnhappie youthes doe make their resort to play the spirits yet so it is that sometimes their audaciousnesse passeth further Of counterfait spirits that vse to haunt mens houses for good cheere or lasciviousnes even to the dwellings and houses of men wher they have a hope either to carowse the good wine or to inioy their lascivious loves And thereof commeth the old French proverbe On sont filettes et bon vin Cest la où haute le lutin That is Where prettie wenches be and store of good wine There do the night-sprights haunt from time to time The tales of the Queene of Navarre and of Boccace are full of these dissembled spirits such as in the end have beene discovered not without receiving the due chastisement of their deserts And it is not to be doubted that if the true meaning of our lawes were pursued and duely followed Directarios qui in aliena caenacula furandi animo se conferunt Li. Sacularis D. de extraord crimimbus such lewd persons should bee as grievously punished yea and more severely then simple theeves For I know not better how to terme them than plain manifest Burglarers who do enter violently into other mens dwelling houses with an intent of stealing little other then felonious to whom our Civill Lawyers have appointed this punishment that either they should be sent to digge in the Mynes of mettalls or at least to suffer the Bastinado But that paine is too easie and gentle for them and I may well say that their behaviour doth deserve to bee punished with death as all privie and secret the●ves are according to the quantitie of the summe the qualitie of the persons and the circumstances of the places For their Act is farre more heinous then simple theft or fellowe Forasmuch as besides that they go with an intent to robbe and spoyle they do endevour also to sollicite and overthrow the honour and honest reputation of women of the which both the one and the other is punishable and especially if there happen any adulterie for that alone deserveth paines of death It is not once nor seldome that such sort of spirits have beene discovered by the Magistrate and sharply punished according to the exigence of the cause either with death or perpetuall infamie But it is not in our age and daies onely that these pranckes have beene vsed but even almost two thousand yeares ago or thereabouts Plautus in his Comedie intituled Mostelaria faineth how by a cunning sleight and devise of a servant an olde man his maister was made beleeve as hee came home from out of the Country that the spirits did haunt his house and that therefore both his sonne and he had forsaken and abandoned the same in his absence And this the servant did that he might the better cover and conceale the loose and dissolute behaviour of the sonne from the father and the better to colour the sale which bee had made of the house Of counterfait spirits affrighting folkes causing the death of persons by their

gathered at such time as certaine starres do raigne should in some point participate of the power and vertue of those same starres and that they should sometimes have such a power over and vpon the hearts of men as to make them to hate and to love or to cause them to be hated or loved and to bring them into favour and credite with Lords and great personages or to cause their disgrace and disfavour with them For this is but an idle invention of the Astrologers sufficiently heeretofore refuted by Picus Mirandola and condemned also by the daily experience which we have thereof to the contrarie And if there have beene happily some few which have made proofe according to their desire of that which the Astrologers have profest and vndertaken yet this maketh not that therefore their Art should bee any thing the more esteemed or set by no more then dreames are esteemed or held in any reckoning albeit many have found the effects of them as they have dreamed Nay more then so I dare say thus much that if such hearbes gathered vnder the influence of the starres doe happen to worke and to fall out in proofe according to the will of the partie that gathereth them it is the divell that doth so cooperate and worke with it rather then any power or vertue of the starres because thereby he intendeth to bring men into an errour and to thinke that there is a certaine kind of divinitie or divine power in the starres Questio 115. Tomo 1. summae sacrae Theol●g and according as Thomas of Aquine affirmeth to imprint in their mindes a certaine terrour and feare of the puissance and power of the starres Cap. 20. the which is a thing whereof the Prophet Ieremi● willed the Iewes to take heede of Vmeothoth hashamains al-theh-hathu ci ichhathu hag oim mehemma that is to say Feare ye not the signes of heaven for of them do the Gentiles stand in feare And therefore they who have vsed to attribute such power vnto hearbes cut or gathered vnder the influence of the starres are vtterly to be reiected as the Philosophers Thebanus Alexander Trallian Albertus surnamed Magnus Eudemus Necepsus Andreas and Pamphilus Phisitians of whom we have before spoken and those persons also which were called Herescopes whom likewise the Divines do vtterly reproove and condemne in this behalfe But before wee will shut vp this Discourse of witchcraft and enchantments The historie of a young mā that soght to winne the love of a maid by charmes and was therfore sued and condemned by the law and that which may bee saide touching the same I hold it not amisse and it will be very little from the matter which we have in hand to set downe heere in this place the report of a certaine accident that came to bee in controversie and was debated and decided in the court of Parliament of Paris The question was touching a processe made extraordinarily against a young man in a cause wherein he was charged that by certaine scroles or papers and such like charmes he attempted the honour and chastitie of one whom he loved whether the same processe ought to be admitted and received The cause was pleaded as a verball appellation in the Court Criminall This cause was pleaded and the arest or iudgement affirmed by Monsieure Pilcar the 16 of Aprill 1580. by two famous advocates of the palace and it seemeth that it was vpon an appeale first brought from the Iudge of Lavall The summe of the processe was thus A certaine young man being exceedingly enamored on a young gentlewoman descended of a great house and desiring to purch●se her in mariage yet seeing his owne meanes and abilitie to bee so small as he found little hope to get the consent of her parents therevnto and by that meane to attaine to the top of his desires Besides perceiving that she was sollicited by divers persons of great calling and good reputation he bethought himselfe of a shorter course as hee imagined and that was to gaine the love of the maiden by any meanes whatsoever To this effect he continually haunted and frequented the house where she was and courting her with all kindes of submissive and humble entreaties and with proffers of all his best services which he supposed might bee most agreeable and to her contentment he endevoured to gain her love and to winne her affections In the end seeing himselfe scorned and in a manner cleane out of hope of that which he most desired hee determined to make triall of an extreame remedie And therevpon going to a certaine Priest who was a notorious Sorcerer and did vse to give out little scroles or billets to procure love hee tooke of him one of those papers and finding his mistrisse in a place fitte for the purpose he conveyed the paper into her bosome whilst himselfe made semblance that he was but playing and ●easting with her But it happened farre otherwise then hee imagined for thinking to gaine her love he cast such drugges or whether it were such charmes into her bosome that they brought the maiden neere to the point of death Her father and mother being marvelously sadde and sorrowfull for her sickenesse were certified in the end what was the cause thereof And therefore causing an information to be drawne and preferred against the young man they got a decree against him to have his bodie apprehended the which was executed accordingly And afterwardes the Iudge gave sentence that the lawe shoulde proceede peremptorily vppon the hearing of the witnesses personally brought against him From this sentence as also from the decree touching his apprehension was the appeale broght and the pleading thereof was offred to a present hearing The Appellant said that he had beene offered great and evident wrong in that the inferior Iudge had not onely decreed a Capias against his body but had also adiudged that the lawe shoulde proceede vpon the evidence of the witnesses personally brought against him That it was very true and hee did acknowledge that which was laide in the information and that hee did put into the bosome of the Complainants daughter a little scroll of paper written but that there was not therein either any drugges or poyson nor any other such thing as might woorke an alteration in the health of the mayden That if hee had conveyed anie poyson into it there was no doubt but he had beene worthy of capitall punishment according to the fifth chapter of the Lawe Cornelia Si quis venenum necandi hominis causa habuerit L. 3. D. ad l. Cornelia de Sicariis That the saide scroll of paper could not be any poyson for to empoison any bodie neither had it any such force or vertue but that it was onely a writing which he had cast into the bosome of the maide not thinking any evill or hurt to her And that therfore ther was no cause why any such extraordinary processe should be made