what they had heard Now when they were neer the fenne no wind stirring Thraemnus looking into the Sea pronounced with a loud voyce as he had heard Great Pan is dead Which being proclaimed there was presently heard many and great and strange groanes As soon as they came to Rome the rumour hereof filled the whole City so that Tiberius sent for Thraemnus to confirme the truth thereof Then Demetrius told his story Beyond Britaine there are many desolate Islands some of which are dedicated to Daemons and Heroes and I sailed said he towards an Isle neere to Britaine where there are few inhabitants but all accounted hallowed by the Brittaines As I was there a great tempest arose in the ayre with stormes and lightnings that made us all afraid which thing the Islanders said fell out because some of the Daemons and Heroes were dead The grave Author gives this note upon them that these things were said and done in the time of Tiberius in which time our Saviour was conversant upon earth and then both silenced and expelled Devils 6. Of the Magicall Oracles and or aculous Magicians the causes of all Idolatry especially that inhumane abhomination of humane Sacrifices or immolations THe Rbodians did sacrifice a man to Saturne which they afterwards willing to mitigate did reserve unto those Saturnials one condemned to death whom being loaden with Wine they immolated at that feast In the I le Salamis which of old time they called Coronea untill the time of Diomedes a man was slaughtered to Agravala the daughter of Cecrops afterwards in the Temple of Pallas Agravala and Diomedes one of the 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 Seleâ—cus 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 Cartbage 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 Isracl 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 Iâ—ud 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 Chirou The Cretians did immolate a man to Iupiter The Lesbians to Dionysius The Phocensians to Diana Hereâ—hteus 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 â—assiope 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
extraordinary cold 25. Of the Heavens calculating their own purport without the helpe of an Artist and the suspition of Magastromancers predicting rather by diabolicall instinct or the suggestion of their own Familiars then from any vertue of the starres THe day before Iulian died one and he an heathen watching over night saw a conjunction or compact of the Stars expressing thus much in legible characters To day is Julian slain in Persia Also Didymus Alexandrinus had a vision of white horses running in the ayre and they that rode upon them said tell Didymus in this very houre Iulian is slain and bid him tell it to Athanasius the Bishop Constantine in his holy meditations casting up his eyes Eastward towards Heaven saw the similitude of a Crosse wherein were stars as letters so placed that visibly might be read this sentence in Greek In this thâ—u shalt overcome At what time Caesar was in the battell of Pharsalia one Caius Cornelius a notable prognosticator in Padua beholding the flying of Birds cryed out Now they give the onset on both sides and a little after as a man possessed with some spirit cryed out again O Caesar the victory is thine Such was that of Apollonius concerning Domitian of which before Numa Pompilius a Magician or Sortiary not inferior to any had frequent and familiar company confabulation and congression with Aegeria a Nymphish devill Simon Magus had a dogge they say could speak and doe many prodigious pranks Quintus Sertorius had an Hart which he consulted withall Pope Sylvester the second had a dogge which he held more deare then the Kingdom of Naples Laurentius also had such an one at Roan Iodocus de Rosa had the divell in a Ring Petrus Apponensis a magicall Physician had seven spirits which he kept in glasses Andreas an Italian had a great red dogge that would doe many prodigious feats Faecius Caredeus is said to have an aery spirit very familiar Stephen Gardiner had his darling cat Iohn Faustus had a dogge called prestigiar And Cornelius Agrippa had another called Monsieur A French Baron had a cat that vanisht into the ayre because he chid her And it is reported of an English one that had such another which did in like manner The same day that the Torensians overcame the Crotonians in Italy the victory was told at Corinth Athens and Lacedaemon Mercury minding to try the skill of Tyresias in vaticinating stole his Oxen and came to him in the shape of a man and told him they were lost Out they went together to make conjecture of the thiefe by Augury and the blind presager bad Mercury to tell him what bird he saw he answered an Eagle flying on the left hand that he said signified nothing to him Again he askt him what bird he answered a Crow sometimes looking upwards sometimes downward Then understanding all by instinct that Crow said he sweares by heaven and earth that thou canst restore me my Oxen again if thou wilt When Caius Marius had overcome the Sicambrians at the River Mosa the news of the victory was presently carried to Rome by Castor and Pollux the Starry gods or as others say by the Impish divels themselves Plutarch reports many examples of demonicall familiars carrying newes of victory to the Romans in a moment from the remotest regions Cleombrotus sequestring himselfe from the society of men and frequenting solitary woods and caves to become more inward with Satyres was informed that there were Daemons wandring up and down to inspire dreams and Oracles and furnish men with prophecies and predictions Lactantius is of the mind that the cutting of the Whetstone by Accius Naevius and the drawing of the Ship by the Girdle of Claudia the Vestall and the like were obtained by their Familiars To which I may adde Thucia's drawing water in a sive Iodocus de Rosa was wont to say that he would put none other Messenger in trust with a cause of weight then him that lodged one night at Constantinople and the next under his Signet The spirit Orthon brought intelligence out of all corners of the world to Gaston Earle of Foix. The Spirit or Familiar which daily called upon Alaricus as he related to a certain godly Monk to begin his voyage towards Rome came from the divels court undoubtedly 26. Of Astromancers turning Pantomancers or presaging not onely upon prodigies but upon every slight occasion by every vile and vaine means and so occasioning superstitious people to an omination upon every accident and after any fashion DArius in the beginning of his raigne but changed the scabbard of his Sword from the Persian into the Graecian fashion and the Chaldaeans loath to let slip any occasion of keeping their art in ure straight way prognosticated thereupon the translation of his Kingdom to the Greekes A Raven let fall a clod upon Alexanders head and it brake to pieces and then flying to the next Tower was there intangled in pitch Aristander interprets it as a signe of the ruine of the City with some perill to the Kings person But what was last and least prognosticated was first and most found Alexander steeping Barley as the Macedonian custome was at the making of walls the birds of the ayre came and picked it up Now many took this for an unlucky token But the diviners that would spend their verdict in the most triviall matters rather then sit out told them it betokened that that Corn should nourish many countries Cicero derided the Baeotian vaticinators for predicting victory to the Thebanes from the crowing of Cocks So doth he the Lanuuian Aruspicks for making such a marvelous portent in that the Mice gnawed the Belts The City of Rome being mightily devested by the Gaules the Senators began to deliberate whether they should repaire their ruined walls or flit to Vejos Now a certaine Centurion of theirs comming by at that instant commanded the Ensigne to set down his Standard or Banner in that place saying it was best for them to abide there The Senators over hearing that voyce interpreted it as an omen and so desisted from consulting any longer about their migration or removall but resolved to stay at Rome still Lucius Paulus being about to warre with King Perses as he returned from the Court home to his own house his little daughter met him whom he kist and askt her why she lookt so sad she replied Persa was dead meaning her whelp or Pupper And this he took to be an omen or presage of the vanquishment and death of Perses Caecilia the wife of Metellus leading a Neece of hers now marriageable to the Temple to heare some hopes of a good husband she standing long there and hearing no answer to any such purpose desired her Aunt she might have leave to fit by her That thou shalt said she and I will yeild thee my seat This the Virgin accepted for an omen that she should succeed her in being married to Metellus after her decease Caius Marius fleeing to the house
not doe the deed and so he escaped At Venice a certaine maleficall Sorcerer being condemned made all the locks fall off and doors fly open onely by a confection of certain herbs and mussitation of certain charms and so went his way 30. Of God and the Starres and men blasphemed accused calumniated defamed by or by the means of Magicians and Astrologers ALexander in a distempered mood having slaine Clytus his plaine but trusty friend afterwards ashamed of so foule a fact and having no other way to excuse so vile and dishonourable an action he urged his eligion sp ellers to try their fatidicall arts and to enquire whether it was not the ire of the Gods that had necessitated him so to doe and in conclusion after much calculating inspecting consulting the Gods are made to bear the blame in fatally enforcing so foule an act A certaine fatidicall Philosopher beating his servant for a fault the servant cried out of his masters injustice for punishing him for doing a thing that was not in his own will or power Seeing he himselfe had taught that men are fatally necessitated to doe either well or ill St. Augustine reports of a Mathematician in his time who was wont to say It was not men that lusted but Venus not men that killed but Mars not men that stole but Mercury It was not God that helpt or favoured but Iupiter c. Iustin Martyr Marullus Symeon Athanasius Eusebius Emissenus were calumniated and slandered by Magicians and Astrologers as if they had been the worst of them themselves Kunegunde they say was defamed for a whore by a diabolicall wizzard So was Turbula In the time of Frederick the second there was a German sorcerer that did use to defame men by reproaching them publikly with their most secret sinnes Blanch wife to Peter of Castile had presented her husband with a rich Girdle unwitting that it was enchanted by a certain Iew so that still when the King put it on it appeared like a snake Maria de Padilla the Kings Concubine and the Iews Proselyte having herselfe a chiefe hand in it most calumniously charged the vertuous Queen with her own sorcerous act instigated thereunto by the envious Iew or Magician because the Queen had justly wrought the whole sect of them out of power and favour at Court But now the King being so imbittered by the prodigious apparition and other magicall predictions the Concubine was so imboldned that she prosecuted the poore innocent Queen to her death And after that so bewitched the King that she got into her place Elianor wife to Humphrey Duke of Glocester was impeached of sorcery by one Bolingbrooke an Astronomer who being himselfe apprehended accused her as accessary when as her greatest guilt in that art was her superstition in consulting not practising of it The prefect of Galatia missing his sonne certain servants of his were accused by the false divination of a pseudomantist as if they had slain him but no sooner were they executed but the young man returned safe home again Alexander being admonished by the divining lots that he should command him to be killed that first met him as he went out of the gate by chance an Asse-herd met him and he commanded it to be done accordingly But the poore man complaining of the injustice that he should being innocent be adjudged to such capitall punishment answer was made that must be imputed to the gods who had advised the King to slay the first that met him If it be so quoth the Asse-herd the lot means another and not me for my Asse which I drave before me met the King before I. The King delighted with this answer the Asse was executed and so the Gods the King and the Asse-herd were all excused by wit more then by Lot â—hea Sylviâ— the daughter of Numitor a vestall being compressed and found with child both she and her parents agreed to excuse it saying that she had suffered force not from a man but some God or Genius he that had done the deed had like-wise predicted that she should bring forth twins which though it so fell out yet by the sentence of the Councell the Law in that case was to be used against her A concention arising betwixt Cleomenes and Demaratus about the Kingdome of Lacedaemonia Cleomenes accused Demaratus as not the sonne of Ariston and therefore ought not to succeed The Lacedaemonians to be resolved in the businesse consulted the Delphian Oracle which Petiatis the Priest thereof being corrupted by Cleomenes gave answer that the party enquired upon was not Aristotis sonne Whereupon Demaratus conjuâ—ed his mother from the infernals to answer for him who replied that it was a God or an Heroe that deluded her and begat him And thus they accused one another Tertullian Iustin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Atbenagoras Arnobius Minutius Foelix Lactantius Augustine and so many as have written against the Idolatrous and magicall immolations of the Heathens have had much to doe to apologize for the Christians against all those false calumnies wherewith they impudently burdened them In simulating the Christians to be given to chuse wickednesse which they themselves were guilty of and to be the cause of those judgements which their own impieties had provoked Iulian and Maximinus were not onely satisfied to have them thus defamed and slandered but took occasion to determine their persecution and extermination During the Popedome of Benedict the third in the City of Mentz a Daemoniacall Familiar that lay lurking under a Sacrificulists Pall as he was sprinkling of holy water accused him publiquely that he had that night layn with his Proctors wife A certain Praetor or Judge having sentenced divers malefactors to death at the accusation of an Ariolist or Pythian vaticinator at length he took upon him to tell him of one more if he would not take it ill the Judge earnest to know who it was he insimulated his own wife and prefixt an houre wherein he would shew him her in the convent of other Witches But he knowing his own wives integrity and mistrusting the others calumny at the time appointed had invited unknown to the Ariolist a many of his kindred and friends to suppe with his wife and him And as they sate at supper he took an occasion to rise and goe with the Ariolist to the place where he shewed him in a spectrous apparition his own wife in the company of other Lamian hagges Enough to have deluded him had he not returned and found his wife at the table where he left her with the testimony of all those at the table that she had never stirred thence Whereupon he caused the Ariolist himselfe to be executed 31. Of praestigious Magicians and Astrologers prodigiously practising their arts for the promotion of their own and others filthy lusts NEctanebus an Aegyptian King and great Magician coming into Macedonia in King Philips time so practised it as to make Olympias Philips wife to dream that she should be married to
Jupiter Hammon and should conceive a famous childe by him And thus it was brought about Olympias sent for Nectanebus to learn of him what should become of her in as much as it was rumored abroad that King Philip was minded to forsake her and to take another he tels her under hand that he received a charge from the Oracle as he came out of Aegypt to go and help a neglected Queen whom Jupiter Hammon greatly loved and intended to embrace The following night he causes her to dream of such a thing yea and by his diabolical charm effects the like imagination in Philip now absent in war Thus is Olympias earnestly longing after Jupiter and the next day calls again for Nectanebus and enquires of him when shall be this much expected time He bids her to adorn her bed and make her-self fit to receive so divine a Paramour but adds he will come to her in the shape of a Dragon with a Goats head and horns At the hearing of which she greatly terrifyed he replies if you be afraid of such a congression make me a bed hard by and I will secure you from all affrightment At night to bed goes the credulous Queen royally prepared as became such an entertainment and as soon as all was silent the magical impostor raises a praestigious commotion and apparition and goes to bed to the Queen himself and so begets Alexander the Great hereupon reputed the son of Jupiter Hammon When Alexander was now grown up he with his Tutor and Father Nectanebus walking abroad in the evening and standing hard by the steep of a Rock Alexander hastily turning himself round about thrust the Magician down the precipice at unawares where he was so dashed and sore bruised in the fall that his death must necessarily follow Then complaining of Alexanders rash act Alexander replyed thou oughtest rather to complain of thine own Art that busies thee in the searching the things of the Heavens and lets thee not foresee what impends thee on earth Alas quoth he what mortal man can avoid his own fate I foreknew while I was in Aegypt that mine own son should be the occasion of mine own death What am I thy son said Alexander To whom Nectanebus confesses the whole truth and dies A certain Aegyptian burning in lust towards another mans wife confults with a Magician or Sorcerer how he might obtain his desire He answered nothing hindred but the mutual love that was between the husband and the wife whereupon he hired the impostor to stir up a dislike betwixt them which he laboured after this praestigious manner making the woman appear to the man as if he had a shagg'd Mare in his bed A paganish young man in Gaza extreamly loved a Virgin that was a Christian and when all his dalliance availed not to his end he went to Memphis thinking to bring it about by Magical Art Where after a yeers attendance he was instructed by Aesculapius his vaticinators to put a certain plate of brasse with a portentous figure under the threshold where the maid dwelt and to recite certain torments or charmes of words over it Whereupon the Virgin grew mad in love with him and did nothing but call for the young man nightand day But her parents had her to Hillarion who presently by his wisdom and piety dispossessed her of that magical and constellational fury Turbula a Martyr in Persia being falsly accused and condemned by the Magicians one of them fell greatly enamoured with her excellent beauty would have corrupted her with promise of safety to her and her followers and other great rewards but all would not prevail Vter Pendragon coming into Cornwall cast his eyes upon fair Igreâ—e wife to the Duke of that Province whom he very importunately solicits but all to little purpose the constant wife that so dearly loved her Lord would by no means be won to do him that dishonour Merlin therefore is consulted who to bring her to his bow scorns to use any petty magical Philters but he new moulds the shape of the King and prints upon his face the very feature of Gonlois her own Lord by which means he soon violated this Ladies chastity in the bed of praestigious delusion A Magical Monk in Spain or some Fryer Praedicant was familiar with a Nobleman that had a fair wife He tempts her chastity and is repulsed upon his unsatisfied importunity she acquaints her husband it is consented to admit him again and watched to entrap him At the time appointed he comes in a secular habit and equipage she is resolute still and refusing but the night gave boldnesse to the attempt and now what he cannot perswade he seeks to enforce She resists it and cries out to give the watchword to her husband and those that lay in wait but all in vain for he by his effascinating Art had charmed them all into a dead sleep As they strugled together she spyed a dagger at his back and therewithal stabbed him to the death And running into the room where her husband and the rest were she found them so fast asleep that all she could do could not awake them now having none in her family either to hear or help her she suspected some malefice and went stoutly and cast the dead carcase into the stâ—eet Where passers by lighting upon it the businesse is brought before the Corrigidor and the dead party is discerned The next day the Prior of the Covent is desired to summon all his fellows together who all came onely this party is absent they then knock at his chamber door but no body makes answer at last they break open the door and there they espie a Torch in the Chimney burning very dimly Now neither the husband nor any of the family could be awaked till that Torch was extinct A certain souldier that by Magical Philters had sought to procure the love of such a woman one night imagined that he enjoyed her in his dream but he awaking found himself cast into a filthy myry ditch and there embracing in his arms a carcase or carâ—ion of a dead beast In Misâ—ia a young man using the Art or means of a Magician to enjoy her whom he loved was brought into a by-room by malefical incantations there was brought in to him the spectrene apparition of her whom he loved the besotted youth taking it for real put forth his hand to embrace her at which his brains were violently dasht out against the walls the carcase so beaten upon the Magician that he himself â—ay half dead a long time after The Oracles themselves ordained scenical and Floralian enterludes The Magical Philosophers had their notorious Harlots and professed not onely a necessity but a lawfulnesse of having them The Persians and Chaldeans were burning mad upon their own sisters daughters mothers Both their Magical Religion and Laws were for wrong and lusts Romulus whose birth life and death was praestigious is thought to be begot upon a Vestal by
another mans wife and yet every day Mars must needs come there into the midst of heaven and that in so great a Region that men are born there every houre is not to be denied Among the Indians and Bactrians there are many thousands of men which they call Brachmans they both by traditions and laws of their Fathers neither worship Images nor eate any thing that is animate they neither drink wine or beere but farre from all malignity are onely attending upon God but yet all the other Indians in the same Region are involved in adulteries murder drunkennesse idolatry yea there are found some of them dwelling in the same climate which hunting men and sacrificing devoure them And yet not any of the Planets which they call good and happy could prohibite these from slaughter and mischiefe neither could the malefick starres impell the Brachmans to malefice or malefacture Among the Persians there was a law of marrying daughters sisters and mothers themselves neither did they celebrate these nefarious marriages in Persia onely but also in all other climates of the world wheresoever they came whose wickednesse other Nations abominating called them Magusiaeans and there are in Aegypt Phrygia and Galatia very many of the Magufiaeans that by succession from their fathers are still polluted with the same wickednesse And yet we cannot say that in the Nativities of them all there was Venus in termes and in the house of Saturne and with Saturne Mars aspecting Among the Getulians this is the law or custom the women till the fields build houses and doe all such like works and moreover they may meet with whom they please neither are they accused for it by their husbands nor called therefore adulteresses though they mingle indifferently with all and especially with strangers Also their women contemne all perfumes neither weare they dyed garments but goe bare footed On the contrary their men delight in vestures and odours and various colours yet doe they it not out of effeminacy for they are valiant and warlike above other Nations Neverthelesse all the women that are born among them had not Venus ill affected in Capricorne or Aquarius nor were all the men born under Venus constituted with Mars in Aries which the fopperies of the Caldaeans can claim makes men both valiant and delicate at once Among the Bactrians the women use gallant ornaments and precious oyntments and are more reverenced by their handmayds and servants then their husbands are and ride abroad in a singular pompe their horses adorned with trappings of gold and precious stones neither doe they live chastly but mingle with servants as well as strangers nor are they accused by their husbands because they Lord it over them Notwithstanding the nativity of every Bactrian woman had not Venus with Iupiter and Mars in the midst of heaven and termes of Venus Amongst the Arabians all adulteresses are put to death and those punished that are onely but suspected In Parthia and Armenia homicides are executed sometimes by the Judges sometimes by the kindred of him that was murdered but he that shall kil a wife a sonne or a daughter or a brother or sister unmarried is not so much as accused for it for so is the law Contrarily we see among the Grecians and Romans parricide is not expiated but by the greater penalty Among the Atrians or Adroams he that stole the least thing was stoned but among the Bactrians he that stole but petty things was onely spit upon yet among the Romans such an one was beaten and wounded From the river Euphrates to the orientall Ocean he to whom murder or theft was objected was not much aggriâ—ved or tormented but if he had abused himselfe with a masculine and that come to light he was forced through paine to kill himselfe And yet the wise men of Greece were not ashamed to pursue specious boyes In the same orientall coast the parents and kindred if they had known their sonnes and kinsfolks subjecting themselves to turpitude they both killed them and would not vouchsafe so much as to bury them Amongst the Gaules the children marry publikly and by the law are noted with no reproach for it and yet truly it is not possible that all they among the Gaules who betray the flower of their youth should have Venus and Mercury in the house of Saturne and of Mars tearmes occident Among the Britaines many men have but one wife Among the Parthians many women on the contrary have but one husband and yet they all live chastely and obedient to lawes The Amazâ—ns have no men but at spring time they goe into other Countries and couple with their bordering neighbours and thus by a naturall law they all bring forth about one time and the males they slay the females they cherish and are all warlike women Mercury in his house with Venus is said by the Chaldaeans to make man covetous and money-mongers and devisers and paynters but in the house of Venus to make them unguentaries or perfumers and such as exercise their voyces as Stage-players and actors of fables And yet among the Saracens and Moores and in upper Lybia and in nether Germany and among the Sarmatians and the Sâ—ytâ—ians and other Nations that inhabit the Northern parts of the Sea Pâ—ntus in Alania also and Albania and Othene and Sauniâ— and Aurea there is found no money-hoorder no paynter no Architect no Geometrician no exerciser of his voyce no actor of fables but such a conjunction of Mercury and Venus is found to be altogether ineffectuall and vaine in so many and great parts of the world All the Medes nourish Dogges with no little cost and care to which they cast men dying and yet gasping notwithstanding all of them had not in a diurnall nativity the Moon with Mars under the earth in Cancer The Indians burn their dead with whom their wives are willingly burned together yet all those women that thus willingly endured the fire of their husbands had not in a nocturnall nativity the Sunne with Mars in the tearm of Mars in Leo. Many of the Germans use strangling yet is it not possible that all they who so hang themselves should have the Moone intercepted of Saturne and Mars Among all Nations men are born at all houres and we see laws and manners prevaile every where from the power of a mans free will Neither doth any mans nativity enforce him to doe any thing against it Neither doth it compell the Serans to homicide nor the Brachmans to the eating of flesh nor are the Persians thereby restrained from unlawfull marriages nor the Indians kept from the fire nor the Medes from the dogges nor the Parthians from marrying many wives nor are the Mesopâ—tamian women debarred from chastity nor the Graecians from their exercises nor the Romans from their rule nor the French from their muliebriousnesse nor can all the Nations which we call Barbarians be thus brought to approve the learning of the Muses All the Iewes by the
dreaming the like dream ah quoth the diviner it is to be feared thou wilt come last because this bird pursuing her prey follows in the taile of the other A certain Matron longing to be pregnant dreamt her belly was sealed up this presages barrennesse said one divining expounder because nothing can come forth of that which is sealed up Nay said another this imports fruitfulnesse because no body uses to seale up that vessell or bagge which is empty and hath nothing in it St. Ambrose thus derides their reasons Can any thing be more ridiculous then to say as the prognosticating Astrologers used that if a man be born under the Signe of Aries he shall be wise in counsell And why because the Ram is eminent in leading the flock Item he shall be rich And why because the Ram hath every yeer a rich fleece growing on his back If he be born under the signe Taurus he shall be strong laborious potent in service c. And why because the Bull or the Oxe submits his neck to the yoke He that is born under Leo Scorpio Pisces shall be fierce malicious silent And why because Lyons are fierce Scorpions are poysonous and Fishes are mute c. Upon the Statue of Augustus there was inscribed Caesar now it being thunder-striken it happened that the letter C was thereby blotted out upon which it was answered by the divining Oraculists that Augustus had onely a hundred dayes to live because the letter C notes that number and after that should be translated among the Gods because Aesar in the Hetrurian language signifies a God Livia being great with childe and willing to take the Omen whether she should bring forth a son or a daughter an egge was taken from under a sitting hen and according to the prescripts of divining omination was kept warm in her hands or in the hands of her maids hatching it by turns till at last comes out a Cock gallantly crested or Combed whereupon Scribonius a Mathematician promised famous things of the infant and that he should raign but without any kingly ensign That it should be a male childe he gathered from the Cock chicken but by the same reason why should he be without any kingly ensigne seeing the Cock was so bravely crested or combed Proclus gives an example in a spirit which was wont to appear in the form of a Lyon but by the setting of a Cock before it vanished away because there is a contrariety betwixt a Cock and a Lyon Orus Apollo saith in his hieroglyphicks Dawes that are twins signifie marriage because this animal brings forth two eggs out of which male and female must be brought forth But if which seldom happeneth two males be generated the males wil not couple with any other females nor females with any other males but will alwayes live without a mate and solitary Therefore they that meet a single Daw divine thereby that they shall live a single life The Eagle portends victory but by blood because she drinks no water but blood An Owle because she goes to her young by night unawares as death comes unawares is therefore said to foretel death Yet sometimes because she is not blinde in the dark of the night doth betoken diligence and watchfulnesse which she made good when she sate upon the spear of Hiero. Faustina the wife of Antonius fell in love with a sword-player and fell sick for him her husband how this might be remedyed made his consult with the soothsayers whose advice was to kill the Fencer and let his wife bathe her in his blood and presently accompany with her himself and so the passion would be allayed Melampus the Augur conjectured at the slaughter of the Greeks by the flight of little birds when he saith thou seest that no bird taketh his flight in fair weather Swallowes because when they are dying they provide a place of safety for their young do portend a great patrimony or legacy after the death of friends A Bat meeting any one that is running away signifies an evasion for although she have no wings yet she flies A Sparrow is a bad omen to one that runs away for she flies from the Hawk and makes haste to the Owle where she is in great danger To meet a Lyon seeing she is amongst animals the strongest is good but for a woman to meet a Lyonesse is bad because she hinders conception for a Lyonesse brings forth but once A Dog in a journey is fortunate because Cyrus being cast into the Woods was nourished by a Dog till he came to the Kingdom Mice signifie danger for the same day that they did gnaw gold in the Capitol both the Consuls were intercepted by Hannibal by way of ambush neer Tarentum The Pismires because they know how to provide for themselves and to prepare safe nests for themselves portend security riches and a great Army Hence when the Pismires had devoured a tame Dragon of Tiberius Caesar it was advised that he should take heed of the tumult of a multitude If a Snake meet thee take heed of an ill-tongued enemy for this animal hath no power but in his mouth A Snake creeping into Tiberius his palace portended his fall Two Snakes were found in the bed of Sempronius Gracchus wherefore a soothsayer told him if he would let the male go or the female escape he or his wife should shortly dye he preferring the life of his wife killed the male and let the female escape and within a few dayes he dyed But Tully tels the story otherwise and reasons better upon it I marvel saith he if the emission of the female Snake should bring death to Tiberius Graccbus the emission of the male Snake were deadly to Cornelia why he did dismisse either of them For the soothsayers answered nothing of any future accident if neither were dismist And that Graccbus his death followed the cause I believe was some disease and not the Serpents dismission Meeting of Monks is commonly accounted as an ill omen and so much the rather if it be early in the morning because these kind of men live for the most part by the suddain death of men as Vultures do by slauhgters Apollonius and his companions according to his advice caused the phantasm of an Hagge to vanish away by reviling it for he knew that was the best remedy against such invasions For so fearful is this kind of spirits that they once moved tremble and are compelled by feigned terror and false and impossible threats So the Hagge of Menippus Lyeius who was the cause of the Pestilence being stoned by his command and the pestilence ceased And was not that because they are afraid of impossible beatings as well as impossible threatnings 21. Of Magicians Astrologers Diviners envying opposing differing contradicting confuting both themselves and one another CAlchas and Mopsus two great Augurs or Astrological diviners meeting together at an Oracle of Apollo Clarius fell to contest about their skill in the