carried it of their own accord And in the extremity of his death besought that his hands and tongue might be cut out by which he had blasphemed God and sacrificed to divels Trithemius retracted his opinion concerning the seven spirits in the seven Planets governing the world in their course by 354 yeeres apiece and four moneths protesting after this manner in the conclusion that of all these he believed and admitted nothing but as the Catholick Church believed and for the rest he refuted and contemned all as vaine fained and superstitious And as he disclaimed this to Maximilian the Emperour so he exclaimed against the Artists to Another Away with these rash men vayne men lying Astrologers deceivers of minds and pratlers of frivolous things For the disposition of the Stars makes nothing to the immortall soule to naturall science to supercelestiall wisdome A body hath power onely over a body The mind is free and not subject to Stars and neither receives their influences nor follows their motions c. Cornelius Agrippa in his youth wrote a Magicall book of occult Philosophy but in his sager yeeres wrote another of the vanity of Sciences wherein he confutes and condemns Magick Astrology and all kind of divination and cals the latter his recantation of the former But if towards his death he said indeed to his black Dog Away wicked beast thou hast utterly undone me without all doubt and notwithstanding all apologie his recantation was truer then his repentance For that was sufficient to convince others whereas this was not sufficient to convert himselfe Rodaick of Toledo hoping to finde treasures caused a Palace to be opened that had been kept shut for many yeeres there he found nothing but a coffer and in it a sheet and in it written a prophecy that after the opening thereof men like those painted in the sheet should invade Spaine and subdue it The King was therefore sorry and caused the coffer and castle to be shut again Phanias an Hierosolymitane servant by the advice of certain Magicians had emancipated himselfe to the divel in his hand writing for the obtaining of his masters daughter by vertue of their art But at length repenting he was converted by the prayer of St. Basil and the divel casting in the chirograph he was publiquely received into the bosome of the Church Cyprian a Magician while he sought by Magicall arts to inchant and dementate Iustina the Virgin was by her means converted to Christ For whose truth they both suffered Martyrdome Socrates offended at the bold and blind vagations of men in their disputations about the measures of the Sunne and of the Moon and other Stars wherein they laboured more in babling words then solid arguments undertaking to comprehend the whole circuit of the world with all the events therein from the beginning to the end Hereupon he withdrew his mind from these unlearned errours and applyed it wholy to consider mans fraile condition and the vitiousnesse and vertuousnesse of affections and to teach such manners as most pertained to honest and happy life A Priest of an oraculous Temple who had perceived that his divining divell had receded at the presence of Gregory Theametargus at the first calumniating but afterwards admiring his power desired to learn of him that mystery of commanding divels He taught him therefore the mysterie of godlinesse and confirmed it by a miracle whereupon he was converted forsaking his praestigious Idolatry yea wife children goods and all to follow him and so became an excellent servant in the Church and a great opposer of satan himselfe Marcellus and Apuleius two martyrs who first adhering to Simon Magus but seeing the miracles that were wrought by the Apostles converted from the Magicians praestigiousnesse and gave themselves wholy to believe and follow the Apostolicall doctrine for which they were martyred afterwards Hermogenes a magician disliking his own art brought a many of his magicall books and offered them to Iames the Apostle to be burnt 16. Of Magicians and Astrologers idolatrous account and other vain confident and servile superstitions they wrought in simple and credulous men THere was a certain man called Simon which before time in the same City used Magick or sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that himself was some great one To whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying This man is the great power of God And to him they had regard because that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries or magick Act. 8 9 10 11. To the same Simon a Statue was set up at Rome with this inscription To Simon the Holy God These Magicians and Astrologers in their generations were numbred among the Gods and had their Statues Images Oracles Temples Altars Sacrifices and Services viz. Zoroaster Trismegistus Mopsus Amphiaraus Apollonius Tyanaeus Amphilocus Accius Nanius Porphyrius Diodorus Thor Ollerus All these Mag-astro-mancers and many more arrogated a divinity to themselves from their divinations and had it attributed unto them by the superstitious people of several Nations Theagenes was so superstitious that he had in his house the Image of Hecate and durst at no time offer to stir out of doors till he had first consulted it For which his slavish superstition he grew into a Proverb among the very heathens themselves Archimedes the Geometrician by his art alone drawing out a massy ship which whole multitudes could not once move hereupon Hiero the King was so transported with admiration that he concluded Archimedes ought to be believed in whatsoever he said yea though he should say give him but footing and he would remove the whole earth Augustus together with Agrippa coming to the chamber of Theogenes the Mathematician and he predicting great and almost incredible things to Agrippa who first consulted him Augustus resolved to conceale his own geniture and would by no means have it calculated lest that lesse things might be prognosticated of him then were of Agrippa at last he yeilded to it by much importunity and Theogenes leaping at it and adoring him prognosticating his greatnesse because born under Capricorn for whosoever hath his horoscope in the first part of Capricorn shall be a King or an Emperour Augustus had forthwith such a confidence in this fatidical praesagitian that he divulged his natalitial Theme and caused the signe of the star Capricorn under which he was born to be impressed on his Coyn and placed in his Arms. Maximinus a great Tyrant and persecutor was so superstitiously fearful that he would do nothing without divination neither would by any means be drawn to transgresse an augurie or an Oracle no not a nayls breadth Frederick the second the Emperour having married Isabel sister to the King of England forbare her company till a certain hour that his Astrologers or wizzards had assigned for that purpose that so he might beget a son famous from the constellation But mark the fruits of this constellatory copulation poor Isabel dyed in
Thales their own Country wiseman or Astrologer and he to Bias and he to Pittacus and so one to another till at last it came to Solon he gave it to Apollo himself And thus was it shuffled up betwixt the Astrologers and the Oraculists Strepsiades consulted a Thessalian Veneficke about pulling down the Moon from Heaven by magicall ends For at Athens they were wont to pay use rent taxes c. upon the first appearing of the new Moon Now if there were no Moon at all to appeare he thought this the onely way to prevent and defeat the creditors Macarius the Mitylenian a Priest of Bacchus bearing before him a face of justice and equity one committed to his trust a certain sum of money which in his presence he hid in a more safe and secret place of the Temple Afterwards the man calling upon him to restore what was deposited he called him into the Temple and there cut his throat Belesis a Babylonian Priest skilfull in Astrology and the art of divining had foretold to Arbaces the Mede that he should eject Sardanapalus out of the Assyrian Kingdome Which so falling out Arbaces made Belesis Governour of Babylon Now an Eunuch of Sardanapalus finding great store of treasure in his house brought it to Belesis who under a colour of carrying ashes transported it away it being the Kings due Which fact of his the Judges sentenced for capitall but that it was the Kings pleasure to pardon him The Romanes having spent much treasure in the Macedonian warre and their people greatly exhausted It was thought necessary that so much should be exacted of the pontificall Augures Aruspicks Diviners c. as might help to supply the present necessity for though they had praedicted faire for it yet had they themselves hitherto payd nothing to the warre This taxe made the predicting Priests so murmur and exclaime at the breach of their priviledges for that they could have wisht they had not been so forward in predicting and auspicating as they were 33. Of the infamy danger misery and ruine of such as have affectedly favoured or preferred and superstitiously credited or consulted Magicall and Astrologicall predictors OCtavius perswaded by certaine Chaldaean sacrifices or praedicting Soothsayers who had promised him that all should goe well with him stayd in Rome till he was there slain by Marcus his Souldiers that had entred the City And after he was dead a Chaldean prophesie was found in his bosome This man saith the Historian was as wise and just as any Roman of his time save that he had this great imperfection to frequent Soothsayers wise men and Astronomers more then men skilfull in arms and government Midas was so superstitiously troubled and distracted about his own dreams that he poysoned himselfe by drinking of Buls blood Aristodemus King of the Messenians in his warre against the Lacedaemonians was so disturbed at the dogs barking like wolves and that the grasse grew in his fathers house or about his houshold Gods which the diviners feared for ominous that he desperately made himselfe away Nicias the Athenian Captain was so exceeding fearful of the portent of an ecclipse that he sate still and suffered himselfe to be environed by his enemies and so betrayed both himselfe and 40000. souldiers to destruction Pomeralius by his predictions was the cause of a great slaughter to Constantine the sonne of Irene and of his own death to boot Stethatus accounted the chiefe Astrologer of his time by a foolish vaticination brought destruction both to Alexius and himselfe Emanuel Connuenus the Emperour much addicted to this madnesse timely besides the perpetuall infamy brought himselfe and a great Navy to utter confusion Peter Leonius a Physician by his vaine confidence of the Mathematicks gave occasion to the death of Laurence de Medices and his own after that Andronicus having made somewhat too severe an edict not onely against Conjurers and Necromancers but against all their relations to redeem the hatred of such severity he began to encourage and consult them himselfe And enquiring about his Successor the magicall diviner used his feats in water and there was seen written backward Si for Is the two first letters of his successors name Noting Isacius that slew him and raigned in his stead Didius Iulianus making the like inquisition by a glasse a child looking in it observed Iulians slaughter and the succession of Severus So was Iulian the Apostate deluded by his diviners to his utter destruction Otho Sylvius was led on by his predicting Astrologers to usurpation and riot and to kill himselfe desperately at last Maxentius was so deluded by his prognosticators with assurance of victory that he went on confidently but was vanquisht and perished Licinius called together his Augurs Aegyptian diviners Necromancers Veneficks praestigious sacrificers and pseudopresagers to enquire what should be the successe of the warre against Constantine They all at once predicted victory without doubt The inchanters made odes and rimes the Augures presignified happy successe by the flight of birds so did the Aruspicall sacrificulists from the intrayles and thus they made him confident to his vanquishment flight and extream confusion Italicus a Christian Governour having an accustomed hors-race with an aemulating neighbour a Pagan comes to Hilarion entreating his prayers because his Aemulator had used sorcerous imprecations whereby to disable his horses and stir up his own Hilarion judging such an occasion not worthy of his prayers counselled him to sell his horses which he kept for that purpose and to distribute the money to the poore He answered it was a publique custome and the other would not suffer it to be laid down and that in such their masteries they used insolently to domineere over the Christians He therefore being much importuned both by him and others condescended whether in merriment or to be rid of the importunity to give him a cup in which he used to drink in and bad him fill it with water and sprinkle his horses therewith and so dismist him This he did accordingly and wanne the goale against all expectation Whereupon Hilarion who thus intended to deride rather then to imitate any Magicall artifice was simulated for a Witch or Wizard by the Paganish party and required to penalty Elianor Dutchesse of Glocester consulted so long with Astrologers Wizzards and Witches till she came to be convented for one her selfe at last and after that lived and died miserably In a town within the territories of Brunswick they had hired a pyed Piper to conjure away all the Rats and Mice that much infested him This he did by his piping and charming but not being satisfied according to his expectation he piped or charmed again and there followed him an 130 children of that place all whom he led unto the side of an hill and conjured them every one into a gaping cleft thereof so that he and they were swallowed up and never seen after A Captaine consulting with a Wizard about the next daies battle he
friends there came one to the doore with a horse and made him come forth and get up and so carried him up into the ayre invisibly and he audibly crying out as he was carried up and down Another was seized on by the divell while he was presenting the praestigious pageantry of Hector and Achilles Another the divel came into his closet and left him there dead sitting in a chaire with his heart in his hand Pope Benedict the ninth strangled by the divel in a wood Iohn Faustus the divell entring his chamber with a terrible commotion was found dragd out of his bed and his face wrung quite behind him Bladad who not onely practised magicall arts but taught them to the Britaines in confirmation hereof would needs goe fly but fell headlong and was dasht in pieces against the Temple of Apollo in Troynovant Odo Bishop of Baia perished in prison Galeaceus caused a bold peremptory Astrologer to be hanged up Charles the seventh of France hang'd Aegidius the Marshall for his magicall exploits Simon the blind exorcist slain by his own wife possessed with a divell Stuphius taken by Radulph of Habspurge and burnt Methotin slain by the people and his body stak't Reatius killed by one whom he had deluded Hollerus slaine by his own aemulators Oddo drowned for all that he often sailed without a ship Ericus driven to hang himselfe Oluph desperately drowning himselfe Diodorus after all his prestigious evasions at length caught and burnt Iunctin an Italian prognosticating of himselfe as Astrologers rarely can be drawn to doe on the day he feared to be most dismall was knockt on the head by his books in his own study Peter of Pomfret executed for an imposterous traytor A Priest of Norimberge would needs goe conjure for treasure and digging found a hollow cave and therein spyed a chest and a black dogge lying by it which he was no sooner entred but the cave shut its mouth upon him and there he perished At Saltsburg a charmer undertook to enchant all the Serpents within a miles space which while he was effecting a great old serpent among the rest leapt upon him wrapt his taile about him and so drew him into the ditch and there he was drowned Gobrias that assisted Darius in freeing Persia from the Magicians cruell tyranny and execrable treachery a base massie Magician hard and close prest upon him so that one of his fellows durst not smite the villaine for feare of wounding his friend that had buckled with him But he bad not spare to use his sword though it were to the hazzard of himselfe which he rather chose to suffer then that such a miscreant should escape unavenged Alexander a pseudomantist as Lucian was preparing an accusation against him rotted lothsomely and so died miserably eaten up of worms Manes that magicall heretick or hereticall magician was in such favour with the King of Persia that he wrote all his portents for true miacles and his madnesse for divine fury His sonne falling sick he committed him to Manes his art for his cure Who confidently undertook it but faignedly performed it and therefore perceiving him to be worse and worse he fled into Mesopotamia Whence the King caused him to be fetcht back and flead off his skin alive and filled it with chaffe and gave his carcase to the dogs At the taking of Constantinople the Greeks superstitiously bewitched with a prophecy that a mighty enemy should be possessed of the greatest part of the City but should be defeated in the market-place called the Brazen Bull were both carelesse and dastardly in suffering the Turkes to make breaches upon the walls enter the City and arrive at the very place where they were cruelly slain themselves Bellantius the great Astrologer which is said to have given warning to Savanorola to beware of burning was neither able to foretell nor to prevent his own great perill in so plain a manner by the Stars but that he was most beastly murdered 35. Of the reformation of Magick and Astrology as well in Pagan States as Christian Churches with a Caveat in conclusion to English-men for to beware of Astrologicall Magicians or Magicall Astrologers as to redeem the old scandall and prevent the new calumny of their superstitious addiction to Soothsaying Prophecies and predictions NInus vanquished Zoroaster and in a contempt to his Magick and Astrology caused his books to be burnt Numa Pompilius and Dardanus would needs haâ—e their Magical books to be buried with them This might be their diabolicall envy or rather the divels own policy to have them thought and sought as things prizeable but it was indeed Gods providence to have them abolished as things detestable Hermogenes his books were burned by St. Iames the Apostle The Emperours Honorius and Theodosius ordained that such kind of books should be burned in the sight of the Bishops Athanasius speaks of whole volumes that were burnt even by the consent of the Arts greatest admirers Iodocus de Rosa his conjuring books were burnt by a common Councell Belike such a consumption hath alwaies been thought and found to be the best way of reformation and most conformable to that great example Acts 19.19 The Chaldaeans indigning the many oraculous and divining gods that were set up in severall countries and presuming to reform all to their own god Vr or Fire they proposed to divers Provinces that that God which prevailed to confound all the other should be accounted as the only God To this purpose they carry their Idol Fire in a Censer up and down with them and commit it to conflict with the other Idols of Gold Silver Wood Stone c. and it consumes them all The fame of the Chaldean Fire devouring all where it came coming to the eares of the Priest of Canopus an Aegyptian god in whose Temple was taught Magick by Aegyptian letters and not unlike Astrologie too or divining by the Stars since they have a Star also of that name this put him upon a crafty device to save the credit of his god He took a great earthen water pot full of holes and stopped them with Wax and filled it with water and painted it over and set it up instead of his God or rather this water pot was the belly of Canopus himselfe so fashioned In come the Chaldeans and as the two gods are put to the bickering the Wax melts and the water runs out and so the Fire is quenched and now is Canopus accounted for the victor After this comes Theophilus a Christian Priest to contest with him and he by the power and providence of God makes the very creature Fire to consume all in despight of all magicall force or fraud and so works the reformation The Alexandrians not well knowing how to prohibit the Astrologers directly did it subtilly They exacted a yeerly tribute not onely of the Astrologers but of all those that consulted them And this exaction they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fooles tribute thinking that either
many Sparrowes upon a tree and another comming in chirping to the rest told them that it told its fellows that there was a sack of Wheat spilt in such a place neere the City and they going to see found it so But how learnt Appollonius this rare divining art why peradventure by Democritus his prescript who named the Birds whose blood being mingled together would produce a serpent of which whosoever would eate should understand the voyces of Birds Or else by that of Hermes who saith If any one shall goe forth to catch Birds on a certaine day of the Kalends of November and shall boyle the first bird that he catcheth with the heart of a Fox that all that shall eate of this bird shall understand the voyces of Birds and of all other animals Or else that of the Arabians who say that they shall understand the meaning of bruits who shall eate the heart and liver of Dragons The Sybils the Bacchides and Niceratus the Syracusan and Amon were by their naturall melancholy complexion Prophets and Poets Hesiod Ion Tynnichus Calcinensis Homer and Lucretius were on a sudden taken with a madnesse and became poets and prophecied wonderfull and divine things which they themselves scarce understood Cornelius Patarus his Priest did at that time when Cesar and Pompey were to fight in Thessalia being taken with madnesse foretell the time order and issue of the battle How great heats love stirres up in the liver and pulse Physitians know discerning by that kind of judgement the name of her that is beloved So Naustratus knew that Antiochus was taken with the love of Stratonica When a mayd at Rome died the same day that she was married and was presented to Apollonius he accurately enquired into her name which being known he pronounced some occult thing by which she revived It was an observation among the Romans in their holy rites that when they did besiege any City they did diligently enquire into the proper and true name of it and the name of that God under whose protection it was which being known they did then with some verse call forth the Gods that were the protectors of that City and did curse the inhabitants thereof and so at length their Gods being absent did overcome them Vsyche in Apuleius prayes thus to Ceres I beseech thee by thy fruitfull right hand I embrace thee by the joyfull ceremonies of harvests by the quiet silence of thy chests by the winged Chariot of Dragons thy servants by the furrows of the Sicilian earth the devouring wagon the clammy earth by the place of going down into cellars at the light nuptials of Proserpina and returnes of the last inventions of her daughter and other things which are concealed in her Temple in the City Eleusis in Attica The Aegyptians and Arabians confirme that the figure of the Crosse hath very great power and that it is the most sure receptacle of all the celestiall powers and intelligences because it is the rightest figure of all containing four right angles and it is the first description of the superficies having longitude and latitude and they said it is inspired with the fortitude of the Celestials Rabbi Israel made certaine cakes writ upon with certaine divine and angelicall names and so consecrated which they that did eate with faith hope and charity did presently breake forth with a spirit of Prophecy Rabbi Iohena the sonne of Iochabod did after that manner enlighten a certain rude Countreyman called Eleazar being altogether illiterate that being compassed about with sudden brightnesse did unexpectedly preach such high mysteries of the law to an assembly of wise men that he did even astonish all that were neere him A certain man called Heruiscus an Aegyptian was endued with such a divine nature that at the very sight of Images that had any deity in them he was forthwith stirred up with a kind of divine phrenzy The Sybil in Delphi was wont to receive God after two waies either by subtill spirit and fire which did break forth somewhat out of the mouth of the cave where she sitting in the entrance upon a brazen three footed stoole dedicated to a Diety was divinely inspired and did utter prophecyings or a great fire flying out of the cave did surround this prophetesse stirring her up being filled with a Deity to prophecy which inspiration also she received as she sat upon a consecrated seat breaking forth presently into predictions There was a Prophetesse in Branchi which sate upon an Extree and either held a wand in her hand given to her by some Deity or washed her feet and sometimes the hem of her garment in the waters by all these she was filled with divine splendor and did unfold many Oracles In the Countrey of Thracia there was a certaine passage consecrated to Bacchus from whence Predictions and Oracles were wont to be given the Priors of whose Temples having dranke wine abundantly did doe strange things Amongst the Charians also where the Temple of Clavius Apollo was to whom it was given to utter divine things they having dranke much Wine did strange things There was also a propheticall fountaine of Father Achaia constituted before the Temple of Ceres where they that did enquire of the event of the sick did let down a Glasse by degrees tied to a small cord to the top of the water and certaine supplications and fumes being made the event of the thing did appeare in the glasse There was also not farre from Epidaurus a City of Licaonia a deep Fume which was called the water of Iuno into which cakes of Corn being cast answers were given fortunate if the waters did quietly retaine what was cast in but unhappy if they did as it were scorning of them cast them back We read that Hermes Socrates Xenocrates Plato Plotine Heraclitus Pythagoras and Zoroastes were wont to abstract themselves by rapture and so to learne the knowledge of many things Also there was in Proconnesus a Philosopher of wonderfull knowledge called Atheus whose soule sometimes went out of the body and after the visitation of places farre remote returned again into the body more learned Also the soule of Harman Clezomenius was wont to wander abroad his body being left and to bring true tidings of things very farre off And there are even to this day in Norway and Lapland very many who can abstract themselves three whole daies from their body and being returned declare many things which are afar off Amphiarus the Prophet commanded those who would receive Oracles to abstaine one whole day from meat and three daies from wine that the soule could not rightly prophecy unlesse it were free from wine It was a custom amongst the Antients that they who should receive Answers certaine sacred expiations and sacrifices being first celebrated and divine worship ended did religiously lie down even in a consecrated chamber or at least in the skinnes of the sacrifices The Rulers of the Lacedaemonians were wont to lie down in
three a man was immolated whom led by youths about the altar at length was smitten by the Priest with a speare and so laid upon the fire and burnt which thing Dyphilus the King of Cyprus in the time of Seleucus abhominating appointed that not a man but an Ox should be sacrificed to Diomedes Amongst the Aegyptians in Heliopolis they sacrificed men To Juno they sacrificed three in a day To Dionysius called Omadius by those of Chios a man was sacrificed being cruelly torn in pieces The Lacedaemonians were wont to sacrifice a man to Mars The Phaenicians in the calamities of warre and pestilence were wont to immolate their dearest friends to Saturne The Curetes sacrificed of old their children to Saturne In Laodicea of Syria a Virgin was offered to Pallas The Arabians every yeere sacrificed a child and buryed it under the Altar All the Graecians commonly immolated a man before they went out to warre In the great City of Latinus a man was sacrificed upon the solemnity of Jupiter Not onely in Arcadia to Pan Lyceus nor in Carthage to Saturne but all men in common upon the appointed day of sacrificing a man did sprinkle the Altar with mans blood It was the manner of the Ancients in great calamities dangers that the Prince of the Nation or City should give up the best beloved of his children to a vengefull divell as a reward of redemption and mystically to slaughter him so delivered up Saturnus the King of that Region which the Phaenicians call Israel who after he had put off man being brought to the starre of Saturne having a deare and onely sonne of Anobret his new married Spouse called Jeud for so the Phaenicians call an onely sonne because the City was pressed with a most great and dangerous warre Him clad in regall ornaments he offered upon the Altar built and prepared to that purpose Aristomenes Messenius sacrificed three hundred at once to Jupiter whom they call Ichometes among whom Theopompus the King of the Lacedaemonians was a Noble and Regall Hoste The Tauroscythians whatsoever stranger they took and they took many driven thither by tempest they were wont forthwith to sacrifice them to Diana In Pella a City of Thessalia a man of Achaia was sacrificed every yeere to Peleus and Chiron The Cretians did immolate a man to Iupiter The Lesbians to Dionysius The Phocensians to Diana Herechteus the Atticke and Macharius the Roman one sacrificed his daughter to Proserpina the other to a Daemon his defensor Jupiter and Apollo is said to have brought great calamity upon Italy because the tenth part of men was not sacrificed to them The Pelasgi and the Aborigenes the earth being fruitlesse vowed to sacrifice to Iupiter and Apollo the tenth part of all that should be born The Celti and almost all the more Easterly people did sacrifice by homicide Saturne was angry with the Carthaginians because whereas formerly they had sacrificed to him the more excellent of their sonnes afterwards they immolated to him infants privily bought and obscurely educated instead of their children whereupon to appease him they publiquely sacrificed to him two hundred of their most Noble young men The Athenians being afflicted with famine because of the slaughter of Androgeus and flying to the Gods for helpe Apollo did not answer that the Gods were to be pacified with righteousnesse humanity repentance or contrition but he adding death to death and plague to plague and cruelty to cruelty commanded that seven males and as many females not infants but men grown should every yeere be sent into Creet and there sacrificed Cepheus King of the Aethiopians and Cassiope his wife had one onely daughter named Andromeda in his time a huge sea monster infested the Countrey whereupon they consulting the Oracle for remedy answer was returned that could not be till Andromeda was exposed to that monster to be devoured Thus cruel were the Stars to those that afterwards were made Stars themselves Tiresias promised victory to the Thebanes but upon this condition that the sonne of Creon should be sacrificed as a victime for his Countrey Chalcas did vaticinate or prognosticate the destruction of Troy but upon the successe enjoyned that Iphigenia the daughter of Agamemnon should be immolated The Delphian Oracle being consulted about a great plague grassating among the Ionians it was answered that it could not be remedied unlesse Menelippus and Cometho and not onely so but unlesse a young man and a mayd were yeerely offered up at Diana's altar The Messenians consulting about some issue of their long warre with the Lacedaemonians it was predicted that theirs should be the victory but upon this condition that they should sacrifice an incorrupted virgin of the Aepytidaean family unto their God whereupon Aristodemus to gratifie his Countrey destinated his onely daughter to the immolation After the death of Julian the apostate there was found in Antioch sundry heads and carcases of men women and children hidden in chests wells pits and other secret holes all which he had idolatrously and barbarously caused to be slaine for Necromancy and divinations sake Especially in Carras in the Temple where he had performed his execrable abomination immediately before his going into Persia and had straitly commanded that the doores should be kept lockt and none to enter in till his return There was found a woman hanged up by the haire of the head her hands cut off and her belly ript up and all to vaticinate and ariolate his Persian Victory Such like anthropomanticke Sacrifices were used by Mithridates Heliogabalus c. by the Druides among the French by the Gothes to their God Odhen and by the Sclavonians to their great God Swantmith and more efficacious in answers to whom they were accustomed to sacrifice a Christian every yeere In the Taurican Region where Thoas was King it was a law of their sacrifices that whatsoever stranger came thither especially they that were cast upon their shore should be slain as a victime to Diana Taurica Idomeneus King of the Cretians returning to his own Countrey from the Trojane warre Neptune sent such a tempest that he was constrained to vow a Sacrifice unto him the first creature that met him as he came out of his ship now his owne sonne first meeting him to welcome his safe arrivall was so served In Albania a Region not farre distant from the Caspian sea they used to immolate a man to the Moon where many of the servants did divine and he that was most transported therein wandring alone in the wood was taken and bound by the Priest with a sacred chaine and nourished delicately for the space of a yeere and then led to be Sacrificed with the rest of the hosts That there were such heathenish and inhumane immolations and they pertaining to all kinds of divination either as preparations thereto or as consequents thereof is most evident and undeniable Deut. 18. v. 11 12. 7. Of the fatuity of fatations or fatidicall divinations HOw often is
by which he himself did seem to prophesie and so many women as he thought worthy to be partakers of his grace he made to prophesie especially he busied himself about women that were noble and rich and gayly clad and thus blasphemously he would flatter and allure them I will that thou shouldest partake of my grace because the Father seeth every Angel of thine alwayes before his face now the place of thy greatnesse is in us and it behoveth us to convene in one receive first from me and by me grace and be thou prepared as a Spouse to entertain her well-beloved that thou maist be as I and I as thou place thou in thy chamber the seed of light take from me thy well beloved and receive thou him and be received of him behold grace descendeth upon thee open thy mouth and prophesie Thus she being enticed seduced and puffed up and her heart beating and burning within her out of a hope or presumption to prophesie she dares to speak any doting follies and that from the heat of the spirit boldly impudently confidently vainly emptily And from thenceforth reputes her self a prophetesse gives thanks to Marcus who hath communicated his own Grace to her and now labours to recompense and reward him not only with all her wealth and substance but with her corporal copulation that in all things they may be one A certain Deacon in Asia who had received Marcus into his house fell into this very kind of calamity he having a very beautiful wise ' this Magician corrupted her both in body and minde or opinion so that she followed after him a long time at length after the brethren had converted her with great pains she spent her whole time in confession bewayling and lamenting the corruption that she had suffered by this heretical Magician or magical Heretick Priscillianus was very studious of Zoroaster the Magician and of a Magician made a Bishop He himself subjected Christ his actions and passions to the stars And the Priscillianists determined all men to be bound to fatal stars and that our body is composed according to the twelve signes as those they vulgarly call Mathem iticians use to do constituting Aries in the head Taurus in the neck Gemini in the shoulder Cancer in the breast and so running over the rest by name till they came to the soles of the feet which they attribute to Pisces called the last signe by the Astrologers These and the like fabulous vain and sacrilegious things hath this heresie woven together which is too long to prosecute And so is it to speak particularly of the Ebonites Valentinians Gnosticks Colarbasians Heracleonites Heraclites Ophites Cerdonians Marcionists Montanists Euchetanes Euphratians Senophians c. which were as infamous for praestigious Magick as portentous heresies I passe by the heresies of the Magical and Astrological Philosophers about the principles tearms matters efficacies and ends of all things celestial and terrestrial and their Magical opinions mixt with Idolatry Superstition Atheism and prophanenesse Of all the rest Ptolomie and the Ptolomaites would not be left out and it were but for names sake but Ptolomie was a bud or branch of the Gnosticks and the Valentinians and then he must needs be a piece of a Magician But I onely put the Ptolomaites heathenish or heretical to the construction and application of these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For hereupon I conclude that if Ptolomie the Genethliack was not an heretick yet Ptolomie the heretick was a Genethliack And that he and his followers are as easie to be posed puzzled and confuted in the one as the other 10. Of the inveterate malice and envy of Magicall operators and Astrologicall diviners in maligning defaming opposing and persecuting the Church and more especially the Ministers of Christ BEsides the canonicall history of Jannes and Iambres resisting Moses and of Simon Magus and Elymas withstanding St. Peter and St. Paul Ecclesiasticall story makes this relation betwixt St. Peter and Simon Magus Nero being captivated with the effascinating allurements of Simon Magus who had gotten his heart by promising him through his wicked arts victory dominion health long life safety c. all which he believed that knew not how to prove the truth of things so that he held the chiefe place in his friendship for he took him to be the overseer and guardian of his life and health But after that Peter had detected his flagitious vanities and had demonstrated how that he onely belyed the species and appearances of things and that he effected no true solid thing at all then was he had in scorn and therefore consumed himselfe with griefe and envy And although he had experience of Peters power in other parts for under Claudius Caesar he was stricken with madnesse after that he was found to have dealt so maliciously against the Apostle Peter in Iudaea he wandred from East to West and comming to Rome first he boasted that he could raise the dead It so fell out that a Noble young man a kinsman of Caesars died about that time to the griefe of all Most of them advised that an experiment should be made whether he could be raised again from the dead Now Peter was accounted very famous for such mighty works but as yet the Gentiles had no faith as touching any such fact of his Yet their griefe requiring remedy to Peter they went and some of them thought it meet that Simon Magus should be called also Both of them being present Peter bad Simon begin first to raise the dead if he could and if he could not then he himselfe would not be wanting to the raising of the dead by the help of Christ Simon supposing that his art would avayle much in a City of the Gentiles proposed this condition that if he raised the dead then Peter should be slaine who injuricusly provoked so great a power for so he was called but if Peter prevailed in the fact he should in like manner be avenged of Simon Peter is content and Simon begins and drawing to the dead mans bed so soon as he began to inchant and murmurre his charms the dead corps seemed to move the head thereupon great was the cry of the Gentiles that he was alive already and spake with Simon and a greater indignation against Peter that he durst offer to compare himselfe to such a power The holy Apostle desiring silence said if the dead be raised indeed and live let him rise walke speake all this is but a phantasme and no reality call but Simon away from the bed side and then shall ye see not so much as the least shew of it Well Simon was brought from the bed and there remained not so much as a signe of any motion in the dead man Then Peter intent on prayer a while within himselfe and standing aloofe off from the corps cryed with a loud voyce Young man arise the Lord Jesus healeth thee and straight way he arose and spake and
the presages on the right hand are yours But if ye be disobedient and faint hearted then these poynting to them on the left hand are ordained for you A Soothsayer bringing in the intrailes of a sacrificed Oxe to Philip of Macedon sonne to Antigonus he asked Demetrius what his judgement was of those signes And whether he should keep the castle to himselfe or deliver it to the Messinians Demetrius smiling answered him If thou beest of the Soothsayers mind thou mayst deliver it up but if thou hast the mind of a King rather then shalt thou hold the Oxe by both the horns Lucullus with about 10000 going against Tigranes and his 130000 men and that upon the day before the nones of October on which formerly the Cymbrians had greatly discomfited Caesars army one told him that day was ominous to the Romans Let us fight them quoth he the more valiantly and so we shall make it accounted for an happy day hereafter of an unlucky day heretofore An Aruspex after his solemne lustration brought the intrailes to Crassus who let them fall out of his hands This as an argument of his age and weaknesse was interpreted for an ill token Whereat he smiling said though they thought him so old and weake in letting those intrails fall out of his hands yet he was young and strong enough to keep his sword in his hands Alexander drawing up to Babylon with his army the Chaldaeans admonished him to delay his entrance into the City for some ill signes which they foresaw But he being resolved answered them according to the common proverbe that he was the best Diviner that presaged the best things Then they requested him that seeing he was so resolved that he would enter the City on such a port as might be with his face towards the East and not towards the West He was content to observe them so farre but finding the way exceeding foule and myrie he entred the City the clean contrary way to their admonition When Apollonius and his companions were travelling in a bright Moonshine night the phantasme of an Hagge met them and sometimes it changed it selfe into this shape and some times into that and sometimes vanished out of their sight Now as soon as Apollonius knew what it was grievously reviling it he advised his companions to doe the like For he knew that was the best remedy against such invasions A certaine Iew having told Peter of Castile that his horoscope promised him most eminent fortune and successe in many things which for the most part falling out contrary and therefore the King angrily upbraiding the Genethliacke with the falsity of his art Alas quoth he though the heavens freeze never so hard yet a man may sweat in a bath Confessing that inferiour and ordinary meanes working contrary are sufficient to alter and prevent the force and power of the heavenly bodies The parents of a certaine Virgin came to blessed Macarius entreating him to pray to God that her humane shape might be restored to their daughter which they imagined to be turned into a Cow The holy man affirmed he could see no other thing in her but the appearance of a virgin and praying for them the praestigious delusion vanished and then they perceived her to be so too The Aegyptian likewise that had his wife made to appeare in his bed as if she had been a rugged mare appealed to Macarius and by his prayers the praestigious imposture was expelled A young man dwelling in Gareoth not farre from Aberdine was haunted mightily with a spectrous apparition of a beautifull woman inticing him to lewdnesse which he discovered to the Bishop who advised him to depart the place and betake himselfe to fasting and prayer and so he was delivered of the temptation A young Gentlewoman of the Countrey of Mar suspected by her parents and questioned somewhat severely confessed that a young man kept her company by night and sometimes by day but how he came in or went out she could not tell One day having watched they spied an horrible monstrous thing in their daughters armes which a Priest knowing the Scriputres and of honest life caused to vanish away 18. Of humane reason and prudence much more Christian wisdome making more probable and pertinent conjectures presages interpretations then can all the art and artifice of Magick and Astrologie IMmediately upon the destruction of Hierusalem there was seen a comet hanging over the Temple in the similitude of a fiery sword which did denounce fire and sword to the City Many nights together there shone a light about the Temple and Altar as if it had been day The vulgar did interpret it as betokening the good and liberty of their Nation but the more prudent thought the contrary An Heifer also ready to be sacrificed brought forth a Lambe in the middle of the Temple Also the Brazen gate divers nights together unlockt or opened it selfe and could very hardly be shut againe and this the most thought to be a token of some future good but the more discerning conceived otherwise of it In the clouds were suddenly seen a little before Sun-set whole troops of armed men In the Feast of Pentecost the Priests entring into the Temple at night to celebrate the accustomed Sacrifice the first felt a mottion then heard a sound and after that understood a voyce crying out Depart we from hence Four yeeres before one Iesus the sonne of Ananias a plaine Countreyman cried out in a propheticall spirit while the City was yet in peace and abundance A voyce from the East a voyce from the West a voyce from the foure windes a voyce upon Hierusalem and upon the Temple a voyce upon the bridegroomes and the brides a voyce upon all the people At which the Elders were moved and caused him to be sharply punished but he changed not his voyce neither for feare nor stripes nor threats nor perswafions but at every stripe cried out woe to Hierusalem At length they weary with inflicting gave him over for one mad and that knew not what he said But he still continued in the same sad tune till the very beginning of the siege and then he ceased as one that needed denounce no more seeing the thing denounced was now come to passe Onely after the fire was already begun in the City and the Temple going about the wall he began to cry again Wo to the City the people and the Temple and woe also to me and so being smitten with something that was sling'd at him he died Many of the Astrologers conjecturing many things upon the geniture of Nero the saying of his father Domitius was held for the aptest presage that nothing could come from him and Agrippina but must be detestable and born for the publique evill Hannibal well nothing the unskilfulnesse and temerity of Terentius varro and Caius Flaminius divined of the Romans defeat and the Affricans victory against all the Soothsayers or diviners Hippecrates writing of two brothers
the jeast believed all to be spoken seriously And within a few daies after having a servant of his fallen sick of a Fevrr gave him a piece of bread the first day inscribed with the Fecane and so every day in order to the last word and then he was cured Others likewise seeing the efficacy of this amulet followed the example and obtained the like effect Till at length the jest of it came out and so the vertue of it ceased Gotschalcus and Wierus relate this story one from his own knowledge the other from anothers report and though they vary in circumstances yet they agree in the effect A certaine woman grievously troubled with sore eyes light upon a certaine knavish Scholler to whom she complained of her infirmity craved the help of his art and promised liberally to reward him He either to make sport or in hope of gaine promised to help her and to that end took a piece of paper wherein he wrote such kind of Characters as were never invented or seen before and underneath them wrote these words in great Letters The divel pull out thine eyes and stop up their boles with dung This he folds up and wraps it in a piece of cloth and ties it about her neck and bids her have an especiall care that it be not taken thence nor yet opened or read by any means All this she observes awfully and her watery eyes were cured About a yeere or two after either she let fall off through carelesnesse or else had a desire to see what was there contaned the charm then being opened and read and the cursed contents thereof understood and abhorred it was cast into the fire which done her sore eyes returned in as grievous manner as before I have read it in an Orthodox divine that he knew a young Gentleman who by chance spilling the salt of the Table some that sate with him said merrily to him that it was an ill omen and wisht him take heed to himselfe that day of which the young man was so superstitiously credulous that it would not goe out of his mind and going abroad that day got a wound of which he died not long after Old Ennius fained many answers of the Pythian Apollo and delivered them in verse when as Apollo had long before left off his poeticall prophetizing and yet even these spake as true and was found as effectuall as any of the rest Numa Pompilius Scipio Affricanus Lucius Scylla Quintus Sertorius Minos King of Crete Pisistrates the Athenian Tyrant Lyeurgus and Zaleucus are all noted for assimulating of religion or a faigning of divination and oraculous predictions and neverthelesse prevailed by this means and ruled both by Laws and arms Persia being oppressed with the sordid domination of the Magicians Darius the King with some adjutors of like dignity entred into a pact that they should ride to such a place before Sunne rising and whose horse neighed there first it should be taken as an omen to make him King Now Darius his Groom to effect it the more prosperously for his master had rubd his hand in the genitall parts of a Mare and when they came to the place strok't the horse over the nose which presently neighed upon the smell Whereupon all the rest alighted and as from a divine suffrage saluted him King Alexander Severus yet a youth and dreaming of nothing lesse then an Empire making as boyes used Virgilian lots light upon certain verses that seemed to portend or praesignifie the Romane Empire to him Yea many such verses both of Homer and of Virgil have been often used to that end and have proved as significant and effectual as any presaging Oracle of them all 23. Of the aenigmaticall obscure amphibolicall ambiguous and aequivocating so so deluding speeches studiously and industriously delivered by oraculous magicall sorcerous and astrologicall predictors or diviners PYrrhus King of Epyre perceiving the power of the Romans against whom he went consulted the Oracle of Apollo and it gave him this doubtfull answer Aeacides I say The Romans conquer may Which he interpreted to himselfe in the best part but found the event as various as the words were dubious Craesus that rich King of Lydia consulting the Delphian Oracle which he himselfe had so munificently adorned to shew its gratitude it resolved him this Riddle If Craesus fearlesse shall passe Italy's river A Kingdom great wealth greater shall be shiver He now thought he should destroy anothers wealth and power and not his own But instead of bringing Persia within the power of Lydia Craesus himselfe fell into the hands of Cyrus And the Oracle gloried that which way soever it hapned it still spake true While Alexander was in a fight some that stood by him saw or imagined an Eagle fearlessely fluttering over his head then Aristander the onely diviner carrying a lawrell in his hand and shewed the souldiers a token of victory But it is uncertain of which he spake the Lawrell or the Eagle An Astrologer advised Epaminondas the Thebane to take heed of the Sea for that would be fatall to him Which he therefore carefully avoyded but found his death in a wood which was called by that name Another of them bad Philip of Macedon take heed of a Chara ret or Cart as a thing dismall or dangerous to his life whereupon he not only refrayned but proscribed the use of all such yet neverthelesse had his deaths wound given him in a City of such a name others say the hilt of the sword that killed him had a Chariot engraven on it Nere heard news from Apollo at Delphos that he should take heed of the siventy third yeere of age which made him very secure being then but about the age of thirty three But he understood not till it was too late that it was meant not of his owne but of the age of Galba who shortly after succeeded him Hannibal was foretold that he should not die but in the land of Lybia and when he thought himselfe secure as farre enough from that he took his death in a little village called Lybissa Inlian deluded by an Oracle in the ambiguous word thera signifying a beast and a river dreaming of nothing else but victory in his Persian war was there slain Caligula consulting about his geniture Sylla the Mathematician affirmed that his death was approaching The Antiatine Letts admonished him to take heed of Cassius For which cause he caused Cassius Longinus then proconsul of Asis to be slain unmindfull that Chaerea the man that did the deed was so called Zene the Emperour was told by his vaticinating prognosticators that he of necessity should be shortly in Constantinople he presumed it of the City and that he should goe thither in triumph and state but his men being beaten and fled he casually retired into a castle which the inhabitants thereabouts called by that name where he had leisure to see and bewaile his delusion Alexander besieging Tyrus dreamed he saw a
answered the day should be his upon condition he would not spare to kill the first man he met in the morning Which he performed accordingly and got the victory Then returning home joyfully found to his griefe that he had killed his own wife who out of her great love had come to him disguised in mans apparell thereby to take part with him in that daies adventure Valerian addicted to anthropomancy or predicting by intrailes of men women children was unfortunate in his government taken prisoner by Sapor King of Persia who used him for a stirrop to get on horseback on and afterwards caused him to be flayed alive Another that had lost a silver spoon would needs goe to a magicall wiseman to finde out the thiefe and it was agreed betwixt them that for better discovery he who had conveyed it away should lose one of his eyes and when he came home he found that sad marke inflicted on a little child of his own that had carelesly cast the spoon aside Cecrops having newly builded Athens two prodigies presently appeared in the place an Olive tree sprung up suddenly water strangely gushed forth Upon these Delphick Apollo is consulted who answered that the Olive signified Minerva and the water Neptune and that it was in the choyce of the Citizens to give the name of their City to whether of these they would The Citizens of both sexes are convented the men are for Neptune and the women for Minerva and the female sex being more numerous by one prevailed in the suffrage But Neptune indigning the rejection did so depopulate them with waves and flouds that they were fain to punish their women for their suffrage against him Alcamenes and Theopompus being Kings of the Lacedaemonians there was an Oraculous prophecy that Sparta should be lost through lucre Lycurgus calling this to mind rejected all riches and the people were brought truly into such a superstitious feare that whereas before they thought them the onely benefactors they now condemned them to death that first brought money in amongst them In the City of Come in Italy the Officiall and Inquistor having a great number of Witches and Wizzards in prison taking others with them would needs urge them to shew them their homages to the divell but were so beaten by them that some of them died within fifteen daies others renounced God hereupon and vowed themselves to the divels service Eucrates beholding Pancrates an Aegyptian magician doe many wonderfull feats insinuated himselfe into his friendship and communicated all his secrets to him The Magician at length perswaded him to leave all his family at Memphis and to follow him alone and after they came into their Inne he took a bat a bar or a broom and wrapt it with clouts and by his charms made it walke and appeare like a man and made it minister unto them in sundry services as drawing water c. then with another charm would be turn it into a pestel bolt bar or besome again Now one day when Pancrates was gone abroad into the market Eucrates would needs imitate his familiar and drest the bar or pestel muttered the syllables and commanded it to draw water and after it had done sufficiently commanded it to turn into a pestell or bar again But it would not obey but still drew water till he was afraid of drowning then he took a saw and sawed the bar in two and then both parts began to fetch and poure water in abundance till in comes Pancrates and turned it into what it was at first and so left his fellow and was never seen after of him Iohn Faustus light among a sort of his companions who when they were halfe drunk importuned him to play some of his pranks and the feat must be a Vine full of Grapes as the greater novelty now in the Winter season Faustus consented to satisfie their curiosity upon this condition that they should keep silence and not stirre out of their places nor offer to pluck a Grape till he bad otherwise they might pluck their own perill The praestigious sight is presented and every one had his knife drawn and hold of a branch but not to cut till he spake the word But having held them a while in suspence all suddenly vanished and every man appeared to have hold onely of his own nose and ready to have cut it off if the word had been once given 34. Of an evill Art worst to the Artists or the just punishment and dreadfull judgements befalling praestigious Magicians and fatidicall Astrologers THraseas the Augur telling Busyris the Aegyptian Tyrant that in a time of excessive drought there was no other way to procure raine but by sacrificing some stranger to Iupiter the King thereupon enquiring what countreyman he was and finding him to be a stranger sacrificed him the first And persisting in this inhumane way Hercules comming into Aegypt slew both the tyrant his sonne and all the Ariolists at their owne Altars Certaine Hetrurian Soothsayers gave envious perfidious and unprosperous divinations and directions to the Romans about a statue that was stricken with thunder and lightning for which they were slain by the people and that gave occasion to the boys to sing this proverbe in the streets Ill counsell is alwaies worst to the Counsellor A certaine Germane warfaring in Italy chose to him a souldier that was a Conjurer to be his mate to shew him his skill the circle is made the imprecation uttered the spirit hideously appears is asked about the successe at Gouletta confesses his ignorance and takes time to resolve disappeares and leaves such a terrour and stink behind that they had like to have been poysoned with the noysomenesse and died for feare Examples of the Magastromancers fatall miseries and unfortunate ends are too many to be instanc't in at large Zoroaster the first father of them was vanquisht by Ninus who burnt his books some say that he himselfe was burnt by the divell as he was provoking him by his magicall experiments Simon Magus as he would needs goe fly in the ayre had his magicall wings so clipt that he fell down and broke his neck Cynops as he went about to raise the dead out of the sea was himselfe swallowed up of the waves and died Zarces and Arphaxat both burnt by lightning Chalchas died for envy Tullus Hostilius provoking to thunder was himselfe stricken to death therewith Nectanebus killed by his own sonne Ascletarion eaten up of dogs as he went to execution Onomacritus expelled Athens by Hipparchus Messinius put to the sword by Valentinian Sempronius Rufus banished by Severus Heliogabalus an thropomantist slain and cast into a Jakes Nigidius Figulus died in exile Apoleius accused and condemned before Claudius Maximus proconful of Africa Amphiaraus swallowed up of the earth Romulus rapt up in a black stormy thundring cloud Aristaeus snatcht away by an evill spirit Zito fetcht away quick by the divel A Count of Matscon as he was making merry with his