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 Seribonius 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 Proelus 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 watch ulnesse 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 protend 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 beed 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 Gracchus 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 Gracchus 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 Lycius 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 Astorlogical diviners meeting together at an Oracle of Apollo Clarius fell to contest about their skill in the conjecturing art The question was how many Figs there were upon such a tree or how many Pigs there were in such a sowes belly Which Mopsus guest at and mist not a hair but Calchas because he could not do somuch pining with grief or envy took pet and dyed Eudoxus the chief Astrologer of his time affirmed that the Chaldeans are not to be credited in their natalitial prognostications or predictions Penaetius a Stoical Philosopher and yet rejected the predictions of the Astrologers Anchialus and Cassander excelling in all parts of Astrology yet used it not or rather abused it not to predictions Scylax Halicarnassaeus although eminent in Astrology neverthelesse abandoned the whole Chaldaical way of it Servius Tullius sleeping his head seemed to shine or burn some of the Diviners said that signifyed he should perish by lightning others that it was a token he should obtain Regal dignity Darius dreamed that the Camp of the Macedons was on fire and that he saw Alexander coming to him in clothes of the same fashion as his own were and that he was carryed on horseback through Babylon and so vanisht out of fight At this the dream spellers were divided in their divinations some interpreting it a fortune some an infortune some to the one side some to the other Betwixt the Tyrians and the Macedonians was a semblable prodigle blood on the one part seen in iron and on the other part in bread They of either party interpret it as a token of good successe to themselves But Aristander the most skilful of the Diviners expounded it thus on the Macedonian behalf if the blood had appeared outwardly
Duncane King of Scots and likewise Banquo his chiefest friend because of a prophecy that his posterity should succeed in the Kingdome Again upon a Wizards prophecy or prediction that he should never be slain by any man born of a woman nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the Castle of Dunsinane this made him give up himselfe securely to all kind of wickednesse Nisaeus tyrant of Syracuse being foretold of his death by a Soothsayer thereupon riotously lavisht away all his wealth beforehand So did a rich man of Lions upon the calculating of his Nativity but lived and beg'd along time after Natholocus King of Scots desirous to understand somewhat of the issue of his troubles sent a trusty servant of his to enquire of a Witch who consulting with her spirits told him the King should be murdered not by the hands of his enemies but by one of his most familiar friends The messenger demanding instantly by whose hands Even by thine said she Whereupon he defyed her and bad her goe like an old witch and trusted he should see her burnt ere he should be drawne to doe so villanous a deed intending to signifie it sincerely to the King himselfe But by the way as he returned many fears and suspitions arose in his mind especially that the Kings jealousie would not be satisfied with his innocency so that he thought it the surest way for himselfe to doe the deed and thus induced he did it Cambyses dreaming that his brother Smerdis should raigne because he thought he saw him sitting in a regall Throne contrived his death by the means of one Praxaspes a magician who peradventure had either magically sent that dream or else interpreted to that purpose From an old orientall prophecy that about that time such as came out of the land of Iudaea should obtaine the whole government of affairs the Jews slew their governour and rebelled but to their own miserable destruction Vespasian being admonished by the Mathematicians to take heed of Metius Pomposianus because he had an imperiall Genesis whom though he wiser then to give credit unto such things neverthelesse preferred yet Domitian was drawn to put him to death upon the selfe same occasion 29. Of Magastromancers cluding Authority and deluding themselves in a presumption of impunity CLeomedes for many portentous malefices being fast shut up in a close sepulchre or coffin with a cover that many men could hardly lift laid upon it to keepe him safe against the day of triall when the day came he was vanished thence and not there to be found neither alive nor dead When they consulted the Oracle about his portentous escape it commended him for it as one of the last of the Heroes Apollonius Tyanaeus being convented before Domitian when he thought to take punishment of the Magician he forthwith vanished out of his presence Apuleius accused for magicall Arts and practices before Claudius a Christian Magistrate instead of confessing his fault fell to calumniate and traduce the very Laws for exhibiting the same under such penalties One Diodorus or Leodorus a most portentous Conjurer being therefore condemned and led to execution by his enchantments slipt out of the executioners hands and conveyed himselfe in the ayre from Catana in Sicily to Constantinople At last the Bishop of Catana caught him at unawares and caused him to be burnt in a fiery furnace At Cullen a certain Damsell being cited for playing of prestigious tricks she did many jugling feats before the Nobles as rending of towels breaking of glasses and presently making them whole againe c. which made them vain sport and they conclude them to be but joculatory pranks and so she escaped the Inquisitour David Ebroy a magicall Jew made those of his Nation believe that he was the Messiah come to free them from the servitude of the uncircumcised The King of Persia apprehending him he by his sleights escaped out of prison crossed a broad river and could never be overtaken One Caesarius Maltes a praestigious Jugler being taken at Paris escaped prison by his circulatory tricks for which being questioned again in another place and condemned the Governour by his power and against Law reprieved him as much taken with his feats of Leigerdemaine But nothing prospered after that in his government and he died not long after In the territories of Berne one Scaphius boasted that he could scape invisible when he pleased and so had oft times avoyded the hands of his capitall enemies At length when he grew ripe both for divine and humane vengeance he was espied by those that laid wait to apprehend him through a window and was so slain with a speare when he least dreamt of his death Caius Marius a man ignoble and a cruell author of civill warres after the first fight wherein he was vanquished by Sylla being taken naked and muddy by the enemy he was brought to the Minturnians and delivered to the Governour of the City who sitting in councell upon him gave sentence that he should be put to death presently and seeing none of the Citizens would undertake the execution they committed it to a Cimbrian horsman or some say a Frenchman who about to dispatch the businesse heard a great voyce out of a dark place Thou man darest thou kill Marius at which the man affraid let fall his weapon and ran away crying he durst 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 spellers 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
while he went forth so to doe he sacrificed it for the advantage of himselfe and his like Libo Drusus a loose rash young man was encouraged by Firmius Catus through the confidence of Chaldean promises magicall mysteries and interpretations of dreams to make insurrection against Tiberius Caesar but in the end was driven desperately his servants refusing to lay violent hands upon himselfe Immediately upon this the Senate consulted for the expelling of the Mathematicians and Magicians out of Italy and L. Pitnanius one of their number was cast down a Rock In Catilines conspiracy Lentulus was accused both by his letters and speeches which he used out of the Sybils books that the Kingdom of Rome was presaged to three of the Cornelian family viz. Cinna and Silla and himselfe the third to whom it was fated And moreover that now was the twentieth yeare from the burning of the Capitoll concerning which the haruspicks by their prodigies had given answer that civill warres there should be rife and bloody The haruspicks portended great and wonderfull things for the promotion of Caius Marius his ambition In the second Punick warre befides a tumult and distraction in the State such a confusion there was in religion as the cause and continuance of the other that men women young old noble plebeians all sacrisiced and prophecyed as they listed and he or she was no body that could not presage of one disastrous event or another Apollo gave such perplexed answers to the Lacedaemonians in their troubles that a Pagan Philosopher was provoked to tell him plainly If thou hadst answered thus in quiet times it had seemed frivolous to all only thy ignorance lurkes under our feares and distraction because such things are most impressing and credited in such kind of times Apuleius saith St. Augustine an Affricane and therefore best known to us Affricanes for all his magicall arts could not attain to a Kingdom no nor yet to any judiciall power in a Commonwealth for all his judiciary Astrologie Did he modestly contemn these things as a Philosopher Nay did he not hunt and hire and contend with the Citizens of Choas where he marryed a wife about the setting up of a Statue to him So that if he arrived at no greatnesse it was not because he had no will but no power A certain prophecy given out and published at Rome at the removing of the Emperour Tiberius that he should never return any more occasioned the death of many well disposed Citizens who ventring too farre upon this little ground to discharge their Countrey from the clog of servitude were cut off by cruelty About the same time Furius Scribonianus was exiled because he had enquired after the Princes death by Chaldeans or Astrologers Mahomet and Sergius both of them by magicall and praestigious tricks set up themselves the one for a King the other for a Prophet Fredericke Barbarossa leading an army against them of Millaine they sent an Arabian magician to play the veneficke and take away his life by poyson which being discovered and he apprehended notwithstanding he threatned that he could doe it with words and would doe it unlesse he were dismist yet this moved not the King to feare his malefice but he therefore inflicted on him the sharper punishment Pope Iulius the third gave a Cardinals hat to a youth whom he favoured and being askt the reason of it said That he found by Astrology that it was the youths destiny to be a great Prelate which was impossible except himselfe were Pope and therefore that he did raise him as the driver on of his owne Fortune Certaine rude uncivill clowns under a colour of a prophecy that they should conquer and subdue the holy Land raked a sort of vagabonds and bankrupts together who falling forthwith to spoyle and robbery were hanged upon Gibbets almost in every Countrey as they past The young Duke of Viseo in Portingale having once been pardoned by Don Ivan el Grande at the suit of the Queen his sister was encouraged by the Mathematicians and Astrologers to rebell again with assurance that he should obtaine the Crown whereof he not onely failed but besides was deprived of his life by the course of ordinary justice My Lord of Northampton tels the story of two Countreymen of ours one sometimes professing Greeke in Cambridge the other of the same calling one contriving treason sedition or faction from the starres but clapt under hatches when the planets promised most fortunate successe the other undutifully taking armes against his Soveraigne and often confessing he had never dealt in that attempt but by encouragement of a certain prophecy that he should prevaile against his Prince by popular devotion 28. Of impostorous Magicke and Astrologie the causes of preposterous villany or the Magastromancers instigating to those execrable acts which otherwise had never been invented or intended And other cursed consequents CAracalla remaining in Mesopotamia sent to Maternus whom he had left Governour of Rome to assemble all the Astrologers and Mathematicians and procure them to give their opinions secretly whether there were any conspiracies on foot against him and to give their judgements how long he should live and what death he should die Maternus did so and as the Astrologers had advised wrote that Macrinus his prefect was the conspirator and therefore did warn him to see Macrinus dispatcht out of the way As the Letter came to Caracalla he was at that instant upon a sport which he would not intermit so committed the Letters to Macrinus to read over and make report of their contents to him afterwards Macrinus in perusall of them finding himselfe accused of such treason as he never thought of and doomed or necessitated to it by Astrologicall judgement and considering the Emperours jealous cruelty and Maternus his envy thought there could now be no safety for him either in excusing or delaying and so set Martial a discontented Centurion whose brother he had caused to be put to death to murder him Among the other prodigies that were said to prognosticate Domitians death there was seen a crown encircling about the Sunne Now because Stephanus signifies a Crown the Astrologers would have the Crown to signifie Stephanus and he must be the man thus destinied to dispatch Domitian and this very thing was it that heartned him to doe the deed Dioclesian because a Druid or Sorceresse had foretold him that he should be Emperour after he had slain a Boare he not onely killed all the Boares he could but slew all the men he knew that had the name of Aper or Boare Valens understanding by a constellated figure that one should succeed him whose name began with Θ. or Th. thereupon caused divers to be slaine whose names began after that manner Edward the fourth wrought the death of George Duke of Clarence his brother instigated thereunto by a foolish prophecy that one whose name began with a G. should succeed him It was upon a prophecy or prediction that Mackbeth slew