power of the Devil or any of his Agents to restrain mens senses or bind others from eating or drinking by intercepting their power or stomach or deprive a man of the use of any member save only that secret one and sign of our virility which in Germany they often deprive men of by making them run up into their bellies Sosprengerus tells of a man of Spira who when he thought he had lost his premises sent for Physitians and Chirurgeons to search for them who found no scar or wound at all therefore he repair'd to the VVitch he had offended and appeas'd her and so was cur'd Also a Citizen of Ratisbone furnishes us with another example of one who violently laid hold upon a VVitch and threatening to strangle her compell'd her to loose him from that nodus All these Bodinus relates in chap. 1. of his second book INsulanus Abbot and Lord of the Novallians who now is sent Ambassadour to Constantinople by the King and Polonus who is also called Pruniskus Ambassadour for France told me that one of the greatest Kings of the VVorld being very desirous of the knowledg of the number of his years and the time of his death sent for Jacobius a Sorcerer who when he had ended Masse and consecrated the Host commanded a first-born son or man-child of ten years old who was provided for the purpose to be beheaded presently and putting the head upon the Host pronounced certain words and inscribed some characters not necessary to be known by us Then he ask'd the head what he would have which answered only two words I suffer violence At this the King was inraged and cryed Take away the head and presently in that fury dyed This story is very common in the Country wherein it was acted and very certainly reported although there were onely five persons present at the thing These things thus writes Bodinus JOhannes Charterius that wrote the History of Charls the VII tells us how one Guilhelm Edelinus a Doctor of Sorbon was condemned for Sorcery upon Christmas Eve in the year 1453 who confest he had often in the night-time been carried abroad to a great meeting of Magitians where he alwayes renounced God and ador'd the Devil in the shape of a Goat kissing his posteriors A Certain poor man when his Wife often went forth in the night and forth would remain the man knew not where making for her excuse to him either that she went to stool or bath with her neighbours wherein when he had often disprov'd her he began to suspect her chastity and threatned to kill her unlesse she directly told him where her haunt was She being terrified with the sense of present danger told the matter plainly as it was in every particular and furthermore that he might experience the truth of what she said promised him he should see and go himself whither she used to go And to that purpose giving him an oyntment wherewith they being both anointed and she having pronounced some words the Devil immediately carried them from the Countrey of the Lochii to the Burdegalensian Sands which are distant no lesse than fifteen dayes journey or more when the man saw himself in company with Magitians Witches and Devils in a humane but horrid shape a thing very unusual to him and in a strange Countrey he began to blesse himself and say Good God where are we now At which words the whole company vanished Then he understood that he was naked and was forced so to wander up and down the fields till morning when he light upon some Countrey-man that set him in his way And so making the best shift he could he returned to Lochium where he accused his Wife positively of all these things before the Magistrate who commanded her to be apprehended But she miâ—igating the businesse as much as she could confessed the most part of the businesse and acknowledging her fault returned from her wickednesse ALso some few years since a woman of great quality at Lugdunum rose in the night and taking a gally-pot out of her closet anointed her self with it muttering some words withall a stallion that lay with her that night observing her when he could not see her rose to look for her and when he found nothing but the gally-pot taken with novelties and curiosity he also as he had seen her before anointed himself with the oyl that was in it when he immediately found himself to be amongst a great company of Witches and Sorcerers in the fields about Lotharingia whereat he was much amazed But in the first place calling upon God to assist him the whole company disappear'd and he finding himself all naked returned to Lugdunum accused the Witch who confessing all the businesse was burnt for it A Thing of the same nature befell a Nobleman of Maldunum who by some words of a Milner together with the instigation of his own curiosity was induced to go amongst a company of Witches to see fashions forsooth but when he was among the thickest of them an extream horrour seized of him insomuch that although he did not invoke Divine aid the devil said with a very loud voyce Who is this that is so fearful And when he sought to depart their company the Witches all vanished And when he returned he intended to discover the Sorcerers but they fled for their safety Bodinus Daemonom lib. 2. cap. 4. WE read in Paulus Grillandus a Lawyer of Italy a man very well experienc'd in the facts of Witches and Sorcerers That there was certain Country-man not far from Rome in the year of the world 1526. who when he saw his Wife rise naked in the night to anoint her self and that thereupon presently she was gone out of his sight and could not be found in the house the next day provided himself of a good cudgel wherewith to be labour her sides untill she should tell him whither and to what end she so conveyed her self last night which she presently doing he pardoned her upon condition that she would convey him amongst her fraternity She the next day anointed both her husband and her self and then they were presently mounted each of them upon a Goat and so presently brought amongst the murster of Witches Now his Wife had forewarned the man he should by no means name God or Christ unlesse in scorn and opproby to him when they were thus in the croud the wife appointed her husband to stand a little aloof till she had saluted the Prince of them who was most magnificently cloathed and guarded about with a great ring of men and women all honouring and waiting upon this their Lord and that by so doing he should see the whole of the businesse When they had done thus they began a ring-dance which is now taken up among the Countrey-people that dancing backwards they might not see one the others faces It may be to the intent they might not know nor accuse one another if perhaps they might be arraigned
Aristimentum in Persia Cyrus awakened out of his dream and suspended with this nocturnal vision and casting many wayes what should be the meaning thereof at last said That thereby was revealed to him from the gods that Hystaspes and his son Darius did lye in wait to surprise him and his Kingdom he used therefore his utmost endeavours to return into his own Countrey the Massegetians being conquered and leaves his son in his place but that Vision foretold That Cyrus should be shortly overthrown and that ere long Darius should obtain his Kingdom which came to passe after a short reign of Cambyses which came betwixt this and Darius his Conquest Sabellicus lib. 6. Ennead 2. SOcrates foresaw in his dreams that his Scholler Plato would be an excellent Orator and Philosopher for the day before he being brought to him by his father Socrates in his dream saw a white Swan fly into his bosome which by his musicall striking of his wings filled the Ayr which Dream as soon as Plato was brought to him he declared Pausanias in Atticis HIppocrates in his Epistle to Philopomenes relates his Dream thus That meditating solicitously of Democritus to whom being called to cure the Abderitani he saith that health would meet him in the morning I saw quoth he Aesculapius and as we were both before and even at the ports of the Abderitari Aesculapius appeared not as his pictures speak him mild and gentle but with squalid habit and an horrid aspect and there followed him Dragons a fierce kind of creeping creatures of huge length hissing in desarts and lawnes he had in his company likewise men that followed him with boxes of medicaments handsomely closed up immediately he reacheth forth his hand to salute me which God knowes I most joyfully imbraced I desired to wait upon him and to serve him in his administring Physick but he answered for present 't was not needful for this goddess of mortals and immortals will conduct thee being a stranger Whereupon turning my self I beheld a goodly fair Lady neatly and gloriously adorned about whose eyes there appeared such a circle of shining splendour that exceeded the glorious brightnesse of Stars He thereupon departed but the Lady taking me kindly by the hand leads me on a grave pace through the City and when we approached near a house wherein I thought I should have been entertained she departed like a ghost saying To morrow I shall find you with Democritus To whom as she was going away I said Dear Lady who are you and how may I call you Truth sayes she but she that thou seest coming towards thee and presently another Lady not uncomely appeared to me of a more bold aspect and more fierce whose name she told me was Opinion and that she lived with the Abderetani When I therefore awaked from my Dream I conceived the interpretation of it to be That Democritus needs not a Physitian God departing from administring of Physick when there is no matter or sicknesse which requires it but that Truth which alwayes dwelleth with Democritus saith he is in health and that Opinion which saith he is sick remaineth amongst the mad Abderetani ALexander was descended from Hercules by Carinus and from Aeacus on his Mothers side by Neoptolemus as it was verily thought It is reported that when Phillip King of Macedon first courted Olympiades taken with her beauty by the help of her brother Arybba whom Diodore in his sixteenth book calleth Arymba whose friendship he obtained he stole her away from her Parents and married her and that the night before they enjoyed nuptial rights in a dream he thought he saw Jove touch his belly being descended from Heaven in thunder whereupon there was a huge fire which arose and presently dispersed it self into flames all about The same Philip a short time after his marriage dreamed That he sealed his Wives belly and that the sculpture of the seal as it seemed to him was the Image of a Lyon which vision he declaring to some that took upon them the interpretation of dreams they advised him to set a strict Watch or Guard upon his Wife but Telemesus said She would bring a Lyon-like child for that no vain thing is to be sealed therefore the dream signified that she would have a child of perfect animosity and courage Plutarchus in Alexandro SOphocles did often dream that Hercules speaking to him by name called him thief because he had stoln a golden vessel out of his Temple And that being detected and brought before the State he confessed himself guilty of the theft whereof Hercules accused him wherefore from that time ever after the Temple was called by the name of Hercules his Temple Fulgosus lib. 1. cap. 5. ANnaeus Seneca a Senator of Rome being commanded by Claudius the Emperour to undertake the Tutorship of Nero as yet a child hopefull by a towardly genius the night after he received him as 't is reported he dreamed that he had to his Scholler Caligula whose famous cruelty had appeared to the World Not long after the conditions and manners of Nero changing or rather being detected appearing he proved himself to have a soul void of humanity insomuch that it was admired because he was so like Caligula how it could otherwise come to pass but by the transmigration of Caligula his soul out of Hell into Nero. Petrarcha ex Suetonio Dione EUdemus a Cyprian a familiar friend of Socrates travelling into Macedonia cometh to Pherae a rich and famous City of Thessaly but oppressed and brought somewhat low by the inhumane tyranny of one Alexander he was there taken with such heavy sickness that Physitians despaired of his health who thus afflicted dreams that he saw a gallant young man who coming to him assured him of three things to come That he though now extreamly sick should shortly recover his health That the Tyrant of that City should dye within a few dayes And that he within five years should go to his own Country And the two first did manifestly come to passe accordingly for he beyond all hopes recovered his health the Tyrant was slain by his Wives brothers the third was somewhat more obscure for about the end of the fifth year as he was going from Sicily where he then lived to Cyprus he was taken out of this World by Wars at Syracusa we find that Interpreters of Dreams excuse the not coming of Eudemus home according to the dream by saying That by death his soul was delivered from the bonds of his body and returned to her Countrey Petrarcha ASpasia the daughter of Hermotimus after her Mother Phocensis dyed in labour together with her child being educated in penury and want of a Parent yet modestly and handsomely she often dreamed that she saw one who told her that her fortune should be such that she should be married to a gallant and honest Gentleman it chanced to the Maid that a swelling rose upon her very chin most ugly to behold which was
yet at length perswaded thereunto by her Mother she was by two fellows carried to his house and there confessed her sins to him but made no mention of her witchcraft her confession finished she saith Knowest thou by whom thou wast bewitched into this weaknesse The Priest answered mildly I know not quoth she Thou hast suspected me and that not without cause I brought upon thee the evill that thou art afflicted with for that thou didst cast me off the bridge into the mire but my departure out of this World is now at hand I will therefore cause that within a few dayes after my death thou shalt recover thy health which happened accordingly for according to the time for which she had contracted with the Devill she died And within thirty dayes after the Priest recovered his former health and strength IN the Lausanensian Diocesse a certain Witch caused the Family of a neighbour to be plagued with a grievous barrennesse not onely all the beasts and cattle and other domestick living creatures were unfruitfull but the wife of the family by the Witchcrafts of this fellow being made unfruitfull also had seven untimely births when at last the Witch was taken and examined he confessed that in a hole digged under the threshold of his dore there lay hid a serpent which as soon as removed the misery of barrennesse would cease which as soon as ever it was effected fruitfullnesse was restored to the whole family ibid. cap. 6. THe Wife of a great man in the Town of Reichshoffen being with child got to her house some weeks before the time she expected deliverance a Mid-wife There was in the said Town a famous Witch of whose company and discourse the Mid-wife advised the Gentlewoman who was great with child to take speciall heed but after some dayes she for recreation sake went to the Castle and met with certain women come together to a feast where this Witch was also who touched or stroaked the belly of the Lady with both her hands as it had been in the way of salutation Whereupon she presently perceived her young one to move in her Womb with great pain and grief whereat wonderfully affrighted she returns home and tells the Mid-wife what had befallen her who with a sad countenance cries out We have lost the child which came to passe accordingly for she had an untimely birth and that in such manner that at one time she was delivered of the head of the child at another of the feet at another of the hands and so of the rest Ibidem IN a certain Town of the Argentinensian Diocesse one whose name for modesty sake I conceal had at his house one of his Tenants cutting wood whom a Cat of a vast magnitude at unawares set upon which when he had driven from him by blows another more fierce joyneth to the former against whom whilst he more sharply contends a third comes so that at first he was put to a strait being forâ—'â— to use the utmost of his strength against three such maine and cruell Cats neither could he drive them away and free himself from them without the receiving of many hurts and wounds which Combat being finished the man falls to his work presently two Serjeants apprehend him and carry him before the Judge who being exceedingly moved with rage and fury commanded them to cast him into an ugly prison his groaning and often sighings nothing availing him for clearing or making manifest his innocency and the Judges anger did daily encrease exclaiming against the wicked fellow as he called him who would not acknowledg his villanous doings after three dayes were passed upon the often importunities of others the Judge sends for him to the Senate to receive his judgment when he was come to the Senate the inraged Judge could not with patience look upon him he poor man falleth down upon his knees and humbly begged that he would hear him speak for himself the Judge sadly laid to his charge that he had grievously wounded the three chief Matrons of the Town and yet was so impudent that he denied the wickednesse which he had so villanously perpetrated within a few dayes past which the poor wretch hearing answered that he had never hurt any Woman in all his dayes the Judge on the other side thundered out that it was notoriously known that he so hurt these Gentlewomen that they lay in their beds with all their members and parts of their bodies so out of joynt that they were not able by their own proper strengths so much as to turn themselves from one side to the other he again denies that he ever hurt these gentlewomen But saith he I well remember that upon that day whereon I was apprehended and for that cause was cast into prison I being set upon by beasts used all the vigour and strength I had to quit my self of them and drive them away which words amazed all that were present They enquire by what beasts he was set upon then he declares all that was done very orderly The truth being thus discovered the Judges seek what they can to hush up the businesse and procure what silence they could for the preservation of the honour of the Matrons IN the Basiliensian Diocess in the Confines of Lotharingia and Alsatia a Gentleman of great fame did inveigh against an old woman with somewhat bitter language who thereby inraged determined to take most speedy revenge of him as she said which threats he little valued yet the very night after there arose a blister in his neck which when he scratched it overspread his whole face and neck and an horrible form of Leprosie made ugly his whole body being in this condition and suspecting the Witch guilty of Inchantments he sendeth for his friends with whom he might best advise and take counsel and declares the whole businesse especially the threats of the old woman What need is there of many words the woman is taken and being exercised with torments and examined confessed the fact and the Judge inquiring diligently into the manner and cause saith she I boyling with revenge for the contumelious words which he spake against me returning home met there with a maligne spirit to whom inquiring of me the cause of my grief I told the whole businesse and sought to him for revenge whereupon the Devill asked me What evil I desired to be inflicted upon him I answered I desire that his face may be so blown up or swelled with a continual tumour which may make him most ugly to behold Saith the Devil going from me I have already struck him with a more loathsome plague then thou desirest which when she had confessed she was deservedly burnr to ashes Serun Part. cap. 11. IN the Constantiensian Diocess betwixt the Towns of Brisacum and Friburgum a leprous woman told to many auditors that she falling out with another woman and many railing words passing betwixt them as soon as she came home a sudden wind blowed
the hands of his Kinsmen And presently after Italy was punished with great slaughter And lest that any should think this thing fabulous and commentitious the Author of it is Cornelius Balbus one of Caesar's Favourites Suetonius TItus the Emperour had this of the Oracle He should dye in the same manner that Ulysses perished and dyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Sea Ulysses was slain by his son Telegonus by a Wray-spear that is by a weapon of that fishe's bones instead of an Arrow And so Titus was kill'd by his brother Domitian with the poyson of a Sea-Hare Coelius lib. 26. cap. 30. JUstinianus the Roman Emperour about the year of our Lord 533 sent one Mundus a Captain into Dalmatia against the Ostrogoths who inhabited Salonas And when he went out with his son Mauritius to behold the Camp he was slain by the Goths and so fulfilled the Oracle and freed many from their fear But there were some who said That there were some Prophetical Verses pronounced by one of the Sybills whose opinion was that Mundus was to perish with his issue where at length Africk was to be taken by the Romans But then Justinian did restore Africk to the tame Vandals This Prophecie of Sybill did much perplex and affright many men who did expect that there would a suddain destruction come upon the whole World But the event death and end of this Captain Mundus and his son did shew that such like Prophecies were obscure and ambiguous and how fallacious the Artificers of Magick were Aventinus lib. 3. Annal. Bojorum et Johan Magnus lib. 10. cap. 14. MAnuel Comnenus hoping that the thred of his life should be extended did put himself into a Monasticall habit so that he ended both his life and his reign together who had reigned eight and thirty years excepting three moneths to which continuance of the Empire that old Oracle seemed to allude Tui prehendet te Postrema nominis viz. The last part or syllable of thy name will put Finis to thy life For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last syllable of the name of Manuel with the Greeks doth comprehend or compleat that number Nicetas lib. 7. XErxes beginning War with the Grecians when he was vanquished and overcome at Salamina he constituted Mardonius that he should prosecute the Warr in his name But when he little availed and prospered at the Plateas when he fought and flew his fame began to be mute Mardonius left a great Treasure in the Tent which he had buried in the ground Polycrates the Theban enticed with hope of it did buy the field But when he had a long time made scrutiny and search for the Treasure and yet did not find it he consulted Apollo's Oracle at Delphos by what means he might find the Treasure Apollo answered him in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Turn every stone And when he did so it is said that he found great store of gold Erasmus in Chiliadibus AFter that twelve Kings had created Setho to be King of Aegypt and making a strict covenant between themselves that they should not entrench one upon another and so by a sure conspiration did rule Aegypt but in the mean while it was known by the Oracle that he that should sacrifice or offer in an Iron vessell should only obtain the Egyptian Empire Not very long after it came to passe that when by chance when all the Kings stood in Vulcans Temple in the manner of sacrificers the chief Priest of the Temple numbring each of them except Psammetichus who stood in the last place took the Phiall and offered and he being compelled by necessity took off his Helmet and sacrificed therewith then he bore his Censer as the rest of the Kings did the thing being minded and observed incontinently they that stood by remembred the Oracle and consulting together they judged Psammetichus to be worthy of death But by chance it happened to be known The greatest part of the Kingdome being shaken off the other Kings did relegate and dismisse by their Law another part of them into the fenny part of Aegypt and that the rest should abstain from that Psammetichus did take very ill that ignominy and underhand took private counsell how he should revenge that contumely therefore in the interim it was told by the Oracle out of Latone which was in the Buti City accounted the truest of all those that the Aegyptians had that he should use the help and aid of the brazen men that should issue out of the Sea and that they should vindicate Psammetichus and inthrone him in great dignity Not much time was spent ere that the Jonians mixt with the Carian viewing all the Sea-cost thereabouts that they might rob thereabouts and being driven by Storms and Tempests did voluntarily steer their course into Aegypt therefore one of the inhabitants seeing them land and come on shore affrighted at the uncouthnesse and strangenesse of the thing being full of fear related it to Psammetichus that the brazen men were come For the Aegyptians untill that time had never seen an harnessed Souldier then he perceived that the fatall time was come and quickly he entered in league with the Jonians and with their companions and got them on his side for the appointed war with many promises and Psammetichus aided with these helps quickly destroyed the Kings by whom he was relegated and dismissed and all the Countrey was yielded to him Sabellicus lib. 4. Ennead 2. ex Herodoti lib. 2. MAnuel Comnenus Emperour having a Son born that he might make his birth-day more famous did entertain his noblest Citizens as the custome was with a sumptuous feast carrying boughs in their hands and called his Son Alexius not onely that he might honour him with his Grandfathers name but for the Oracles sake who by ambages and doubtfull speeches gave answer that so long the stock of the Comnenian family should endure as the name did comprehend the letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per A. Alexius per J. Johannes per M. and A. Manuel and his son Alexius not obscurely did signify Nicetas lib. 5. THe Countrey of Baeotia being spoiled and devastated by the sury violence and war of the Thracians they who over-lived the slaughter went into the innermost concavest den where the Oracle was That there they should take up their seats where they should see the white Crows By and by in Thessaly near the Pagaeatican promontory when they were objected there to their sights there were discovered to be white Crowes which being wet in Wine the boyes sent out de-albifyed and anointed with brine or plaister Coelius lib. 57. cap. 11. WHen the Teuâ—ri-Cretensians sought themselves out new habitations and asking advice of the Oracle received this answer That they should there fix their station and inhabit where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est terrae â—ilii eos adorirentur where the sons of the Earth should set upon them They wandring about Mysta and Ciliâ—ia
Of these some are Dukes and as it were Masters others Earls and Schollars There is also another cunning of these to search out the passage not onely of horses and beasts but also of men by a cloathed or covered by a naked by a hard ground by small stones by great stones as that the number of those who passed by doth not at any time almost deceive them who by a fit word may be called Searchers These shewed forth a notable example of their Art in the Warr which Ferdinand waged against the Moors For when as a hundred Saracen's horsemen had avowed to their King never to return unless they had shewn forth some famous act against the Christians and had privily come through wayes unpassible and to fall upon the Christians garrison The Searchers somewhat perceiving their way and number made the Watch acquainted of their lying in wait and they having followed the horsemen they constrained them being shut in on both sides to yield themselves in the channel of a brook being tyed together in a long rank with one rope Laurent Valla book 1. of Histories ALexander Emperour in the year of the Lord 904 as Sigebert writeth was idle being given to riot and Magick He having demanded of his Juglers Whether he was to live long he received an answer If he had taken away from the brazen Boar in the Theatre his teeth and privy members By which saying they did signifie that he was given to gluttony and lusts from the which if he did not abstain he would hasten his death that which fell out For after bathing yielding himself to banquets and sports a vein being broken he dyed with an issue of bloud Zonaras Cedrenus SImeon Duke of Bulgarians had brought War on the Crobatians it is told to Lacapenus a Roman Emperour there was an Image placed in the top of Xerolophus his vault toward the West that was turned into the shape of Simeon the head of which Image if it be cut off the death of Simeon should not be far off That being done the same hour it was told the Emperour he to have dyed of a pain of the stomach Zonaras IN the Gades there is an old stone in the brink of the Sea most excellently graven upon the passage with Saracens work downward broad and squared upward narrowed and of so great an heighth as a Crow is wont to fly on high upon which is the Image of a man lifted up of Copper raised up on his feet having his face toward the South and a great Club holding in his right hand Which club as the Saracens deliver shall fall out of his hand in the year in which a King to be in France shall be boâ—n who in the last times shall subject all Spain unto Christian Lawes And straightway as soon as the Saracens shall see the Club fallen they shall all flee from their treasures laid in the earth The Saracens deliver That Mahomet while he was yet alive built that Idol and engaged a certain Legion of devils thither by the Art of Magick the which holds it so strongly that it could never be broken by any neither doth it suffer Christians to come to it without danger but onely Mahometans and that Birds sitting on it it suddenly killeth them Turpine of Rhemes with Eufordiensis chap. 68. AMong the Biarmians Laplanders Bothnians Finlanders Northern people there is this often kind of magicall divining The Magitian goeth into a closet content with one companion and his wife he smiteth a brazen Frog or Serpent with an hammer upon an anvil with certain stroaks and turns up and down hither and thither with a muttering of verses and straightway falling is snatched into a trance and layeth along for a short time as dead In the mean time he is most diligently kept by his foresaid companion lest a fly gnat or any other living creature should touch him Being returned to himself he sheweth a ring or little knife in token of his dispatched embassage and declareth unto his hires by certain signs what is done Olaus book 5. chap. 17. JAnnes the Master of Theophilus the Emperour was wont to foretell things to come by the prophesie and juglings of a bason When as sometime the Barbarians making use of three Leaders did annoy the Roman power the Emperour bade him hope well Between brazen Images which were in Euripus of the Circle a certain Image with three heads was reported to stand Therefore Jannes commanded three brazen hammers to be framed and them to be delivered to men of strong hands who at an appointed hour of the night came with him unto that Image and when he had commanded them they should valiantly smite the heads while they as it were with one stroke and force should cast down on the earth those heads A great part of the night being now finished Jannes came with those men unto the Image and repeating a magick verse taketh away the strength that was in the Image he bade the men with all their force to smite the heads of the Image By two of their most strong stroaks two heads of the Image shook off the third striking something more slackly he bended indeed yet plucked not away the head wholly from the body After the same manner was it done with the Captains of that Nation For an inbred sedition arising two of the Captains were slain the third received a wound but not deadly The Barbarians therefore being deprived of their strength returned home Cedrene APollonius Tyaneus when he disputed in Ephesus being almost separated from his soul and with inbent eyes as if he had been in the present thing said often Smite the sinner Stephen smite him And at last added The Tyrant is dead who was heard with the great admiration of all that were present afterward they received that on the same day and the very moment of hour Domitian the Emperour was slain at Rome by a man whose name was Stephen as Apollonius had then declared Fulgosus book 1. chap. 9. Xiphiline in Domitian STephen the Hagio-Christophorite it is the name of an office but for his wickednesse otherwise called Antichristophorite after that he knew from the Devil by Sethus a Magitian destruction to hang over the head of Andronicus Comnenus by him whose name had its beginning J. S. he appointed Isaac Angell whom Andronicus despised as a low-spirited man to be laid hold of and first to commit him to custody and then by the Judgment of Andronicus the Tyrant to kill him Therefore entring into the Chamber of Isaac in the evening he commanded Isaac to come down and to follow him But he delaying he brought force Isaac defending himself kills Stephen and going into the Temple with his sword drawn he goeth up into that Seat where Manslayers explaining their wicked deed desire pardon from those that go in and out But a multitude of the City in great number presently flow together unto the Temple The Uncle of Isaac helpeth him
night before a fearfull dream It seemed to him that he was invited by Caesar to supper but when he refused he was led by the hand against his will and strugling This man hearing the body of Caesar to be burnt in the Market-place although he had his Vision mistrusted and was also held with a Feaver came for the honours sake of him into the Market-place Assoon as he was seen one of the common people told his name to another which asked him he to another straitway it spread through all that this man was one of Caesars smiters For there was among the Conspiratours another of his surname Cornelius Cinna whom because they thought this was he by and by a violent force being made they in the very market-place tore him in pieces Plutarch in Caesar Brutus NEro Provinces a little after falling off from him was affrightned with evident signes of Dreams and significations of things to come and all things both old and new he never wonting to dream before At length his mother being killed he saw at the time of rest a Ship the stern by violence wrested from him governing it and to be drawn by Octavia his wife into the most narrow dark places And by and by to be filled up with a multitude of winged Ants sometimes to fetch a circuit from the Images of Nations dedicated to the Theatre or view of Pompey and to be driven away in their progresse an ambling Nag in which he very greatly delighted the latter part of his body transfigured into the form of an Ape and onely his head being whole to utter forth shrill neighings Suetonius GAlba the Emperour a little before his death had set apart out of his Treasure a Jewell set forth with Pearls and pretious stones to beautify his Tusculane-Fortuna That on a sudden as more worthy of a famouser place he dedicated unto Venus of or in the Capitoll But the next night he saw Fortune complain in his sleep of the Jewell being taken away and in good earnest to threaten that she would snatch away himself and also those things which he had given The Emperour being affrighted in the dream most early in the morning those being sent before who should make ready the Divine thing ran into Tusculanum and he found nothing besides warm embers on the Altar and an old man clad in black beside it holding Frankincense in a Glasse dish and unmixt Wine in an earthen cup. Suetonius DOmitian dreamed that Minerva departed out of the holy place denying that she could defend him further because she had been disarmed by Jupiter The same man dreamed that a Countrey-man came to him with a Sword and Minerva who was placed in his Chamber to have cast away her weapons and the same to go down out of a Chariot which was drawn with black Horses into a great gaping of the Earth He was presently slain by his layers in wait Xiphiline in his life ANthony Caracalla Emperour a little before that he was thrust thorow by Martial Tribune of the Souldiers and prepared a setting forward out of Antioch his father Severus stood by him with a Sword in his sleep and saith Even as thou hast slain thy brother Getas so will I kill thee Anthony therefore awaking out of sleep never doubted the end of his cruelty and life to be at hand when as before also the Diviners had foretold the like things Dion Nycaeus DIonysius of Syracusa as yet containing himself within a private habit a certain woman Hymeraea of no obscure stock while she took rest in her opinion climbed up to Heaven and there the seats of all the gods being viewed she takes notice of a mighty man of a yellow colour a freckled face bound with Iron chains covered underneath with the Throne and feet of Jupiter And the young man being asked what Captain the favour of beholding heaven had used who he was She heard that he was a cursed destiny unto Sicily and Italy and that being loosed from bonds he was to be a destruction unto many Cities The which dream she the day after by speech divulged And then after that fortune an enemy to the liberty of the Syracusans and hatefull to the lives of guiltlesse ones cast Dionysius being freed from his heavenly custody as it were a certain Thunderbolt into idlenesse and rest assoon as Hymeraea beheld him entring the walls among a dissolute rout for the honouring and beholding of him she called out this is he whom she had seen in her sleep That thing being known made the Tyrant carefull to take the woman out of the way Val. book 1. chap. 7. WHen Cicero followed Julius Caesar into the Capitoll and told him the last night Jupiter was seen by him who with a Golden chain had let down a little boy of a wonderfull towardnesse from Heaven unto the Gate of the Capitoll unto whom he had afterwards given a whip in his hand Octavius being then beheld whom Caesar had brought into the Capitoll for paying a vows sake he knew that to be him whom he had seen in his sleep His triumphs and Son being truly a scourge to the too much proud Nobilâ—ty of Rome made Cicero his dream certain Fulgosus book 1. chap. 5. Xiphil in Augustus Q. Catulus the Capitoll being dedicated at the time of his rest he saw Jupiter to have chosen one out of many children cloatâ—ed in Purple robes to whom he had given the Roman ensigns to be carried in his hand and the night following when sleeping he would drive away that very child out of Jupiters bosome Jupiter said that he should not remove the child because he kept him for the safeguard of the Roman Commonwealth On the morning following he by chance lighting on Octavius by his shape and garment knew that that was he whom he had seen at the time of sleep Fulgosus book 1. chap. 5. Xiphilin SLeep shewed unto Vespasian the father his own Royall office and of his sons For when he was as yet a private man in Achaia with Nero he saw it told him at his rest by an unknown person that his happinesse shall begin when a tooth should be taken away from Nero. Therefore being awakened he on whom he first happened was a Physitian who shewed him a tooth that he had pulled out of Nero. Therefore not much after the death of Nero followed likewise of Galba and after them the discords of Otho and Vitellus yielded the first beginnings and strength to Vespasian for rule Fulgosus book 1. chap. 5. Moreover Nero himself saw at rest Jupiters Chariot to be sent into the house of Vespasian which words when they wanted interpreting Josephus the Jew said they did betoken the Roman Empire to Vespasian Xiphiline in Vespasian JUlian being chosen Emperour by the Souldiers in France against â—is will said to some of his more dear friends On that night which had gone before the day of his being declared Emperour a certain likenesse was seen by him