Ma Dibdale And further he told them that the birds necke was broken and did lie vnder a Rosemarie bush in the Garden where-vpon three or foure going downe and finding the bird there they made a great wonderment of it whereat this exam doth verily beleeue that eyther Mainy had killed the bird and laid it there himselfe or else that this exam sister did it and had told Mainy of it for she saith that her sister Mainy were very great Also this exam saith that if the story she had heard hath beene written of Mainyes fits could be got there would appeare very many notable practises Ma Edmunds the Iesuit was the chiefe man that dealt with Mainy hath written as she hath heard a great booke of them This Edmunds as hath beene said before was a chiefe man and therfore whereas the rest had but their Albes on when they exorcised any he commonly had vpon him either a vestment or a cope She wel remembreth that the said Mainy sitting vpon a time by one of the priests affirmed that vnto his sight the priests finger and thumbe did shine with brightnes especially on the inner sides where-vnto the Priest aunswered that it might wel so be because quoth he they were anointed with holy oyle when I was made Priest At which words this exam laughing calling Ma. Mainy a dissembling hypocrite the priest said that it was not she but the deuill that did so laugh and raile Furthermore this examinate well remembreth that Ma. Richard Mainy being exorcised in the presence of a hundred people at the least on S. Georges day in the morning the priests affirmed that seauen deuils did thē shew themselues in him by such gestures and signes as declared them to be the Authors of the seauen deadlie sinnes This examinate saith that she hath almost forgotten the gestures but she will set them down as neere as her memory will serue her The said maister Mainy beeing bound in the chayre did lift vp his head looking highly and made gestures with his hand as though hee were tricking vp himselfe whereupon the priests said that the spirit that was comming vp then was Pride as it appeared by the said gestures Afterwards the said Mainy beginning to gape and snort the priests said that the spirit that then rose vp in him was Sloth Then hee fell to vomiting and the priests said that the spirit that then rose was Gluttony and drunkennes Againe he the said Mainy talking df purses and thus much in the hundred and of the forfeyting of this or that lease the deuil that then was risen the priests called Couetousnesse And thus the priests and hee went through all the deadly sinnes The said Mainy or the deuill in him as was pretended cōmending the Protestants for his good friends because they had all the said seuen deadly sinnes in them but railing at Catholiques for that they could not endure them but did euer and anon cut them of by confession The same day also shee well remembreth two things that Ma. Mainy spake of betwixt his descriptions of the said seauen deadly sinnes Oh quoth hee this is a great day of pompe at the Court I will stay no longer amongst you raskall priests but will go thether amongst my fellowes they all loue me there I am theirs and they are all mine or to this effect Also one Robert Bedell of Denham beeing a very zealous Protestant was buried the same day in that forenoone there happened a storme whereuppon Mainy pretended that the deuil spake to this purpose in him viz. Now they are about to bury Bedell and because he serued mee all his life time I am sending of him into hell At which words many that were present wept and prayed that if it were possible he might be saued This matter was so vrged and talked of as afterwards they drew his wife to become a Romish Catholique and so she died This examinate further saith that one Anne Smith about the Christmas the same yeere came to Denham where shee had remained but a little while before the priests had got her into their hands and said shee vvas possessed Touching this woman a number of things hath beene written of her as this examinate hath heard all which this exam saith she verily belieueth in her cōscience as also of all the practises tales of the priests touching both this examinate and all the rest with whō they dealt that they were altogether knaueries meer inuentions to deceiue the people by procuring an admiration of theyr priesthood and thereby to withdraw her Maiesties subiects to their religion Shee well remembreth as she saith that at one time Ma. Dibdale charged the deuill in Anne Smith as it was pretended to speake vnto him and aunswer him to that which he demaunded but notwithstanding she held her peace Then he commaunded her to speak in the name of the Father the sonne and the holy Ghost by the vertue of the holy Sacrament but yet she was silent Heerewith Ma Dibdale growing to be more earnest charged her or the deuil that was pretended to be in her to speake to him by the power and vertue of his holy priesthood and then she aunswered him Wherevpon this exam being present said to maister Dibdale Why Ma. Dibdale is there more vertue in your priesthood then in the blessed Trinity and the holy Sacrament And hee aunswered that though hee were but a simple man yet it pleased God for the honour of his Church to shew by this meanes the power of the priesthood Againe this exam saith that after she perceiued the deceit which the priests vsed she would rather then her life haue gotten from them but she was so watched so were the rest she meaneth the other women as they could by no meanes escape out of their fingers Theyr pretence was least the deuil should cause thē to drowne or kill themselues But this exam is perswaded in her conscience that the truth was why they kept them so straightly least going home to their friends they should haue disclosed theyr dissimulation and false pretenses of casting deuils out of those who were as free from them as themselues This exam and her sister did not see either Father or mother beeing in the same towne all the while that they were in theyr hands neither would they suffer either their father or mother to speake with them though they desired it many times At one time this examinate remembreth that beeing in the Kitchen garden at Denham shee heard a noyse in her vnckles garden on the other side of the wall supposing that her vnckle might be there she cryed out as loude as shee could vnckle vnckle who beeing there by chaunce and hearing of her knew her voyce asked her what shee would haue oh quoth shee good vnckle helpe me from hence for I am almost killed already amongst them heere and shall not liue if I continue heere long Vpon this occasion this
and I trust you will not doubt of it since it comes from so holy an Oracle as the deuils own mouth and therefore I wonder the Pope doth so long stand out At Maurisca hee lay 8 dayes in a traunce without all signe of life saue the beating of his hart in his prayer he saw Almighty God and his sonne standing by him with his Crosse vpon his shoulders and hee heard Almighty God commend him and his company to the protection of his Sonne Thus farre agree Fa Ignatius and the deuil At Sena the deuils durst not looke vppon his picture but hung theyr heads in theyr bosomes for very pure shame His picture in Malacia scared away a deuill his picture in paper at Madena pinned closely vppon a wall skared away a whole troupe of deuils out of foure women possessed the bare pronouncing his name at Rome skared out 2 legions of deuils A peece of his coife that hee wore heales a woman of the phrensie a peece of leather that he vsed at his stomack cures the plague a peece of his hayre-cloth purges an holy Nunne in the space of a yeere of 100. stones a peece of a relique of his close shut in a boxe burnes a deuill and makes him to roare the bredth of a chamber of a peece of a relique cast into the sea calmes the waues and stills the windes But the bare subscription of his name in a morsel of paper passeth all the rest This written in a patch of paper brought vnto the partie heales the tooth-ache the crampe the gowte the Sciatica the Leprosie the skuruies and beeing layd vppon the belly of a woman that hath endured her paine of trauaile two three or foure dayes and is past all hope of life takes away her paine facilitates the birth and recouers her life A sweet protecting Saint to that sweet sex the syllables of vvhose name are of more potencie and sauing health then the sacred syllables of the blessed name of our euer blessed Sauiour was euer read to be of Spectatum admissi risum teneatis Is it not a wonder aboue all wonders that any man should looke vpon these Antick wonders without a wonderous laughter hic nebulo magnus est ne metuas this foule wonder-maister is too full of wonders euer to be good CHAP. 12. ¶ Of the secret of lodging and couching the deuill in any part of the body that the Exorcist pleaseth THe great skar-buggs of old time as Hercules and the rest had a great humour as the Poets faigne to goe downe to Styx and to visit hell to see Pluto and his vglie ghosts and to behold the holes and dennes where hee lodged his blacke guard Our holy skar-deuils if they had liued with thē would haue eased them of that paines for they would haue shewed them hell and deuils heere aboue and haue carried them with a wet finger to their cabines and lodges and you shall find very deepe and waighty reasons of this Mercurie prince of Fairies had a rodde giuen him by Iupiter his Father whereby he had power not onelie to raise vp and driue afore him what ghosts hee pleased but also to remaund and still with the same rod as many as hee list The holy Romane Church hath as potently armed her twelue Worthies of hell and Weston their Blacke prince as euer Iupiter did arme his sweet sonne giuing them a power not onely to call vp driue and puffe out with theyr breath as many deuils as they pleased but also to controll cap lodge couch them as stil as a curre at the sound of his Maisters whippe is couched vnder a table By that time I haue opened you the causes and secrets of this and haue shewed you their seuerall lodges and formes I doubt not but you wil be able to tel me more newes from hell It is a poynt in the blacke art of deepest skill and power not to raise a spirit but to be able to rule and couch him safely and well and in this holy infernal science of casting out deuils Thyraeus tells vs that deuils be not all of a nature quality sise some be watry some ayrie some fierie and some sauour of the earth the watry and ayrie doe tast of theyr element and be easily mooued the fierie are more fierce and the earthy like melancholicke men more sullen not easily controld See this exemplified as cleerly in our patients as the nose on a mans chin Soforce Anne Smiths deuill was a sullen and silent spirit so she herselfe records him and could hardly be gotten by all dreadful cōiurations so much as to speake Captaine Maho in Sara was of a fel furious moode and many times when he was hunted vp into her body grew there so vnruly and outragious that the Exorcists seemed to feare least her bowels would burst Then was all hast made to get him downe againe which somtime was done with good seeming toile difficultie sweat that when it fel out pat as the deuil the priest would haue it it bred in the poore sillie spectators a wonderful admiration of the dignitie of the priesthood and power of the Catholique Romish Church Sara their apt scholler acted this scene commendably well where after a sore skirmish between the Exorcist and the deuill or Sara and the Priest the deuill was with much a-doe commaunded downe into her foote but in an another scene shee hit the needles eye where after a hote and sore encounter all the spirits with much adoe being commaunded to goe downe into her left foote they did it with vehement trembling and shaking of her leg to the great admiration of many of the standers by seeing the power of the Catho Romish Church the partie crying that her shooe would not be able to hold them all heere this act of lodging the deuil had a plaudite in the midst of the play Secondly who can but mate his wit with wonder hauing no more wits then one and stare out his eyes with amazement hauing but two to see the poore deuil brought into such a taking and to sauour so rankly lying at vntrusse that he would faine be gone out and shal see the tyrannical dreadful power of an enchaunting Priest by his remaunding might to keepe him in stil in spight of his nose and to commaund him for his more disgrace to take vp his lodge in a homely place of which you shal heare heereafter if it be not too foule Would not some tender-harted body in pure pittie of the deuils cry take of the priest and let the poore deuil be gone as I haue heard of a good natured gentleman at Parish-garden that cryed take off the dog for shame and let the poore Beare alone Pittiful Hiaclito vvould rather then his life for pure feare of the priest haue slunke out of Trayford behinde but it would not be he must be stayed vntil hee had his payment Yea Maho himselfe was taken downe so low with the deuil-squirting potion that he
A Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures to with-draw the harts of her Maiesties Subiects from their allegeance and from the truth of Christian Religion professed in England vnder the pretence of casting out deuils PRACTISED BY EDMVNDS ALIAS Weston a Iesuit and diuers Romish Priests his wicked associates Where-vnto are annexed the Copies of the Confessions and Examinations of the parties themselues which were pretended to be possessed and dispossessed taken vpon oath before her Maiesties Commissioners for causes Ecclesiasticall AT LONDON Printed by Iames Roberts dwelling in Barbican 1603. ⧠The Argument of the seuerall Chapters 1 THE occasion of publishing these wonders by the comming into light of the penned booke of Miracles 2 The fit time that the Popish Exorcists chose to act these miracles in 3 The places wherein these Miracles were played 4 More speciall considerations touching their choyse of places 5 The persons their Disciples pretended to be possessed and dispossessed 6 Their wayes of catching and inueigling their Disciples 7 Their holy pretences to make their Disciples sure vnto them 8 Their meanes and manner of instructing their Schollers 9 Of the secrets and strange operation of the holy chayre and holy potion 10 Touching the strange names of their deuils 11 The reasons why somtime one deuil alone somtimes an 100 sometimes a thousand are cast out at a clap 12 Of the secret of lodging and couching the deuill in any part of the body that the Exorcist please 13 Of dislodging rowsing and hunting the deuil by the dreadfull power of the presence approach bodily touch of a priest 14 Of the strange power of a Catholique Priests breath and of the admirable fire that is in a Priests hands to burne the deuill 15 Of the admirable power in a Priests gloues his hose his girdle his shirts to scorch the deuill 16 Of the wonderfull power in a Priests albe his amice his maniple his stole to whip and plague the deuil 17 Certaine questions aunswered concerning the Church of Rome her making and accumulating yet more dreadfull tooles and Engines for the deuill 18 Of the dreadfull power of holy water hallowed candell Frankincense Brimstone the booke of Exorcismes and the holy potion to scald broyle and to sizle the deuill 19 Of the astonishable power of Nicknames Reliques Asses eares in afflicting and tormenting the deuill 20 Of the dreadfull power of the Crosse and Sacrament of the Altar to torment the deuil and to make him roare 21 Of the strange formes shapes apparitions of the deuils 22 Of the admirable finall act of expelling the deuils and of their formes in the departing 23 Of the ayme end mark of all this pestilent tragaedie TO THE SEDVCED Catholiques of England * ⎠* SEduced disvnited Brethren there be two grand witches in the world that seduce the soules of the simple lead them to perdition Lying wonders and Counterfeit zeale The power of these two the spirit of God hath most liuely expressed vnto vs one in the person of Simon Magus the Sorcerer who with his lying wonders had so bewitched the simple people as they followed him with this acclamation This man is the power of the great and mighty GOD. The other in the person of some of the Corinthians who by the feigned zeale of the counterfeite Apostles were bewitched and carried from S. Paule the true and blessed Apostle of our Sauiour Christ. These two witching powers haue many yeeres since combined and vnited themselues in the Pope of Rome and his disciples who take vpon them the soueraigne power of our sauiour Christ with authority to commaund vncleane spirits and to make them obey and doe pretend such a burning holy zeale vnto you as that they regard neither the pleasures profits nor preferments of this world nay not theyr owne liberty and liues but doe offer them vp both as a sacrifice for your soules consolation These are mighty powers to sway your iudgements and affections from vs vnto them Now if it shall appeare vnto you as cleere as the light of the sunne that these powers be feigned and counterfeite in them and that they be in truth nothing els saue the mists and allusions of Satan to dimme the ey of your vnderstanding and bewitch your affections to doate vppon theyr impious superstition what can you or any ingenious spirits doe lesse then bewaile your seduced misaffection vnto vs and to account them as the grand Impostors and enchaunters of your soules And that this may be cleerly manifested vnto you I beseech you in the bowels of our blessed Sauiour to let open your eares eyes to this short declaration to peruse and read it with a single ey and impartiall affection and if it shall not most perspicuously appeare vnto you that the Pope and his spirits he sendeth in here amongst you do play Almighty God his sonne Saints vpon a stage do make a pageant of the Church the blessed Sacraments the rites ceremonies of religion do cog coine deuils spirits soules departed this life to countenance and grace or face out their desperate abhominations then stand disvnited and disaffected as you doe It is not in any man I cōfesse to feele those diuine beames of burning zeale that were in S. Paule who wished himselfe Anathema for his kinsmen according to the flesh yet a man of Ionas spirit I can easily name that would most gladly be cast into the sea to calme this tempest of opposition risen here amongst vs and of Ieremies deuotion that doth pray for a fountaine of teares to bewaile the lamentable blindnes of his owne nation that men as you are borne free of an vnderstanding spirit and ingenious disposition should so basely degenerate as to captiuate your wits wils spirits to a forraine Idol Gull composed of palpable fiction and diabolicall fascination whose enchaunted chalice of heathenish drugs Lamian superstition hath the power of Circes and Medaeas cup to metamorphose men into asses bayards swine Is it not their owne brand they haue stamped on your forheads that England hath beene alwayes good asse to the Pope Who doth not bewaile the sely doating Indian Nation that falls downe and performes diuine adoration to a rag of red cloth and the besotted Aegyptians that kissed with earnest deuotion the Asse vppon which the Idol Isis sate and the lymphaticall priests of Baal that launced theyr owne flesh before an Idol of wood Would God your bewitched dotage were not as palpable and more lamentable then theyrs that fall downe adore a morsell of bread that kisse clip with religious deuotion the Popes toe for bearing the feigned counterfeit of our Sauiour on earth performed with the right Aegyptian glose non Papae sed Petro non asinae sed deae this honour is not to the Pope but to S. Peter not to the asse but to Isis Your Popes beeing proclaimed by your owne Oraclists to the world one to be an Asse another a Fox another
blowne downe the young gallant that stoode in his way but the Poets tell vs that hell hath a more deadly breathing then all so as if a bird doe by chaunce flie ouer the Stygian flood she is queled with the smell and falls downe stark dead We haue heere to acquaint you with a breathing company of priests that for potency of breath doe put downe Plinie Scaliger the bawde hell the deuill and all For the deuill who can wel enough endure the loathsome odours and euaporations of hell is not able to endure the vapour issuing from the mouth of a priest but had rather goe to hell then abide his smell Now what a monstrous coyle would sixe or seauen igniuomous priests keepe in hell if they should let loose the full fury of their blasts as Aeolus did vpon the Sea and distend their holy bellowes in consort amongst the poore ghosts were it not a plaine danger that they were likely to puffe all the deuils out of hell Mengus the Canonist for hel giues vs a rule that if the deuil be stubburne wil not obey the formidable exorcisme of the priest then that the priest shal os suum quam-proximè ad energumenum admouere bring his mouth as neer to the possesseds mouth as he can and by that time the deuil hath tasted on his breath if there be any life in him hee wil be glad to stirre Heere now you see the reason why Trayfords deuil rebounded at the dint of the Priests breath and was so glad to get him out at Trayfords right eare like a Mouse rather then he would come out iump against the priests mouth The little children were neuer so afrayd of hell mouth in the old plaies painted with great gang teeth staring eyes and a foule bottle nose as the poore deuils are skared with the hel mouth of a priest Take an example from Sara Williams of the vigorousnesse of their breath shee lay saith the penner of their miracles past all sence in a traunce beeing vtterly bereaued of all her sences at once the priest no sooner came neere her but she discerned him by the smell Was not this trow you a iolly ranke smel that was able to awake a poore wench out of a traunce Verily these doe out-smel the deuil by farre For though the deuil hath as is commonly reputed a fel ranke smel yet I neuer heard of any that could discerne a deuil by his smel The like soueraigne smel is in the sacrament of theyr Masse for Sara could alwaies saith our Authour verie exactly reckon vp how many had communicated by discerning them by theyr smell But for this they may haue an easie euasion happily they had beene so deepe in the Challice as a quick sented man might haue sauoured them a far off without helpe of the deuil Their breath which is nothing but ayre exhaled from theyr lunges beeing as you see of this affrighting power ouer the deuil what may wee deeme of the power of theyr holie hands if they come once to be applyed to the deuil First theyr holy fingers had in them the same diuine power if not in an higher measure that wee read to haue beene in our Sauiour Christ with a bare touch of theyr finger without any other ceremonie vsed by our blessed Sauiour in like case they restored hearing and sight to theyr patients beeing blind and deafe So hath the Miracle-Maister cleerely set downe that Sara being bereaued of all her sences as in a traunce the Exorcist toucheth her eares and eyes with his finger and she sees and heares This is but a flea-biting to that vvhich Ignatius his great grand-childe Edmunds exploited vvith his holy hand Iupiter armed with his dreadful thunder neuer made hel so to crack Heare it thorough the Iesuits own trumpet as himselfe hath proclaimed it to the world Vix dum exorcismos in choare manusque imponere capiti cum ille statim furere in altum erigi manibus pedibusque elaborare sacerdotis manum depellore omnia complere vocibus iuramentis maledictis blasphemis Edmunds had scarcely begun his adiuration layd his hand on Marwoods head but he presently falls into a furie stretches out his body beats with his feete and hands snatches at the priests hand makes all to ring with crying swearing blaspheming This vvas wel roared of a young deuil for a praeludium to the play vppon the bare touch of Edmunds hand But marke when the deuil grew hote with the continuing of this holy tricke and of hell Edmunds hand on his head still Sacerdos officium reparat manum in capite tenens the priest falls a fresh to his worke holding stil his hand on the possesseds head Now begins hel to worke Hic nouae tragoediae inusitatae voces verba in omnium auribus insonant Quid non venitis daemones inquit et tu Pippine quod nomen erat infestantis daemonis non vindicas nihil opis nihil auxilij in inferno reliqui est auferte oitò miserum flammis tradite sin minus communem hanc contumeliam vos non vultis aut non potestis vindicare tum iacula gladij cultri confodite me ignis pestis canes malū confumite Domus non corruis neque dehiscens me vult terra absorbere nec de caelo fulmen aliquod pessundare Quis hoc tolerare quis tantum incendium pati quis ita vti mille vnguibus discerpi vnquā visus est that is Heere strange tragicall exclamations filled all our eares Deuils why come yee not and thou Pippin which was the name of the tormenting deuill doost thou not reuenge my quarrell is there no ayde no succour left in hel Take mee miserable caytife and hurle mee into the infernall flames but if eyther you will not or cannot right this disgrace then you launces swords and kniues dash thorough me fire dogs plague mischiefe consume me house fall vpon me earth swallow mee lightning from heauen deuoure mee who can beare my burden who can endure my heate who can be thus torne in peeces beeing rent with a thousand nayles Who would not think that hee heard Hercules furens or Aiax flagellifer newly come from hell Was euer Prometheus with his Vulture Sisyphus with his stone Ixion with his wheele in such a case Did euer the God-gastring Giants whom Iupiter ouerwhelmed with Pelion and Ossa so complaine of theyr loade Or Phaeton so bellow when he was burned with Iupiters flames as poore Marwood heere bellowes and roares vnder Edmunds fierie flames and all with the onely touch of his head with his Ignatian hand Was it not by diuine Oracle that his maisters name should be Ignatius when his disciple caried such an vnsupportable waight of hel fier in his hand Will not his hand be an excellent instrument for Lucifer in hel to plague broile and torment his infernall fiends that hath such a fiend-tormenting power heere on earth Now here pittifull Marwood goe on in his direful notes A page inquit manum
an Hare and a kitchin pot set both before him left the Hare and ranne to the pot and thrust in his head vp to the eares so you hauing in your hand your Ma Mengus his dreadfull booke of Exorcisme entituled worthily Fustis fuga flagellum daemonum the cudgel the whip and the flight of rhe deuil loe the furious force of your fierie heate threw Mengus your deuil-whipper away and ranne vnto Sara and with your burning hands catched Sara by the foot and so fired the deuill along till you made him slip out where on man must name Now a few questions I must soyle and then I wil proceede to your holy geare 1. It may be asked how your hands came so holy as to shine at the top of your fingers like vnto the sunne Wherin you shal heare a peece of a Dialogue betweene Fid and Ma Maynie theyr Captaine scholler who sitting by Fid his pue-fellow and a priest hard by them did affirme that vnto his sight the priests finger and thumb did shine with brightnes especially on the inner sides where-vnto the priest aunswered that it might well be so because quoth he they were anointed with holy oyle when I was made priest At which words Fid laughing and calling Ma Maynie dissembling hypocrit the priest said It was not Fid but the deuill that did so laugh and rayle Heere you see a plaine reason how the priests hand comes shining and holy hath this pinching holy quality in it to cause a wench cry oh and hee that wil laugh at this reason may hap to catch a deuil 2 If any curious merry head wil demaund what needs the Amice the Albe holy candle holy crosse holy brimstone Brians bones the sacrament the crosse Salue Regina S. Barbara Mengus his deuil-whip his deuil-club his fray-deuil and the rest of that infernal rable since the onely holy hands of Edmunds the Iesuit alone hath power alone to rouse hunt chase baffle broyle toste the deuil and to make him to roare that hel it selfe did quake and tremble skudde and flye from his holy hand alone more fearefully and ghastfully then euer poore Mouse did tremble and flie from the sight of a glaring Cat. To this I aunswer that as all starres doe not participate alike the light of the sunne so all holy priests doe not receiue alike the influence of this hel-tormenting fire but as they come neerer to that Fons caloris Origo luminis Oculus caeli Ignatius the fountaine of this holie-deuil-driuing heate as his name dooth import as Edmunds his grand-child did so are there more potent and abundant beames of that miraculous fire communicated vnto them able to fry and broyle all the deuils in hell and as they stand farther off from the pure raies of his hell-fiering face so they are as the Moone but spotted and sprinckled with this satanicall flame 3 If this wil not content you but you wil pursue me with questions stil and know why Edmunds Dibdale and some other who had the deuils plenty of this deuil-frying heat in theyr holy hands did not dispatch the deuil quite and fire him out of his denne at once with theyr holy hands alone but elongated their worke tooke in the Albe the amice holy candle holy host and all the lousie holy wardrop to assist in the holy worke I aunswer this was theyr good nature to take in those petty implements and to doe them some grace that theyr mother holy Church whose hangings they are may thanke them for theyr labour especially considering they grow now adaies somewhat fully for want of cleane vse And lastly if they should haue dispatched hastily much good hūting sport had been lost the pleasure had been short the action by facility would not haue been so admirably esteemed the holy Church had lost theyr applause and the grace of the action by sodaine quick passage would haue receiued much eclipse and diminution And so I proceed to view their holy implements CHAP. 15. ¶ Of the admirable power in a Priests gloues his hose his girdle his shirt to scorch the deuill GEntle Reader thou must not meruaile to heare those supernaturall powers spoken of before to haue beene lodged in the bodies of holy priests considering that as the plague doth infect and hang in implements and garments and the leprosie vpon walls and beames of houses so wee finde those powerful vertues which shewed themselues apparantly in the constitution of the Priests to transfuse themselues and inhaere as effectually in the priests gloues theyr hose theyr girdle their shirts their ragges their patches yea in the water that some of their powerful hands had been washed withall So as these holy companions if they had beene metamorphosed into Fishes as Vlysses folowers were turned into swine they would haue proued notable good Cod-fish of whō the Fishermen report there is no part within them nor without that is bad A little I doubt mee old Thyraeus is to blame vvho painting a whole chapter with the glorious parts and qualities of an Exorcist intituling his discourse De conditionibus Exorcistarum hee is silent in this Maister-qualitie infixed in the temper and mould of a Priest or receiued from his splendent vnction that he should haue this dreadful fire to burne out a deuil and so by conuiuencie doth smother it in his garments and implements too Thyraeus was of some watry and earthy constitution and likely dooth cantle all Exorcists by himselfe Sure I am we finde them as liuely quick and mightie in operation in theyr exteriour ornaments as in theyr interiour complexion therefore we must not do them that wrong to bury them in obliuion Maho Saras chiefe deuil with much adoe was compelled to tel his name and the first word hee spake was out of Saras hand then was one of the priests gloues taken and put vppon her hand Maho durst not abide it but went his way straight and hee was so skared as we do not finde that euer he came there after It seemes he had stepped thether only to grace the priests gloues for you haue obserued that her hand was none of his ordinary haunt or els if he could not endure the gloue by reason of some senting quality the priests hand had left behind him wee may imagine the priest had beene vsing his hand holily and well when it sauoured so strongly that the deuil could not abide it And now it is not without great cause as you may see that our Catho Gentlewomen heere in England doe hold in such deere esteeme our wandring Cath priests enriching them with guilt rapiers hangings girdles Ierkins and coyfes more beseeming a noble man then a iugling Impostor to weare if they receiue no other possessiue kindnesse whereof wee all see they be no niggards of theyr store yet this recompence at their pleasure they may entertaine to haue a precious payre of priested gloues so sprightly perfumed with the pure odour-spicing from the hands of
a hote ghostly father as they may vse for a sure preseruatiue against any sparrow-blasting or sprite-blasting of the deuil This precious odour against a deuil that dooth continually issue from their annointed complexion dooth not onely ascend into theyr vpper and extend it selfe into theyr vtter ornaments as into their gloues but it descends also and distils into theyr inferiour habit and for want of a fit receptacle is readie many times to drop out at their heeles Dibdale Saras ghostly Father had of his fatherly kindnesse lent his ghostly child a payre of his old stockins that happilie had seene Venice Rome she as a spiritual token of his carnall kindnes doth weare them on her legs see thys odoriferous vertue in what exceeding measure it had discended downe and filled the very seames of Dibdales hose Saras deuil had been very turbulent and stirring in her body and was to be deliuered downe to his baser lodge he passed quietly downe til he came at her knee and comming downe hil too fast slipt ere he was aware into Saras legge where finding himselfe caught within the priests hose beeing on her legge he plunges tumbles like a Salmon taken in a net and cries barro ho out alas pul off pul off off in all hast with the priests hose or els he must marre all for there he could not stay all hast was made accordingly to ease the poore deuil of his paine and let him lie at his repose and was not this a goodly ginne to catch a Woodcocke withall cause him to shoote out his long bil and cry O the vertue of the priesthood ô the power of the Catholique Church when they saw with their owne eyes the hose hastily snatched off heard with their owne long cares Saras deuil cry oh beheld her legge quiet when it was bare without the house obserued how reuerently the priests touched handled and bestowed the hose when it was of and with what eleuation of their eyes to heauen they finished the wonder I cannot but wonder that in the heate of theyr zeale loue and admiration of the holinesse of the priests the spectators did not runne vppon them at once as the daughters of Scaeua the Iew did vpon the Exorcists and of pure holy zeale rend snatch and teare off all their holy apparel from off their backs euen vnto their bare and catch and carrie away some a peece of the Priests coate some a ragge of the amice some a patch of his breeches some a corner of his shirt and lay them vp in an holy casket for reliques against a raynie day The priests themselues doe full deuoutly casket vp as homelie and brayed wares as these God wote Heere make you no doubt but all more then comely hast was made to pull off Dibdales hose that the deuil might quickly cabin in his lodge for there was the deuils couert where they were said to rouze him when they came to the next hunt with their fiery holy hands which was not long intermitted as the wenches doe wofully complaine the priests hauing a ranke itch in their fingers to be fidling at that sport You are next to be informed that this deuil-killing vertue did not lye in the priests head onely as the poyson of an Adder doth nor yet in his taile alone as the light of a Glow-worme but was vniuersally diffused ouer all and euery part of his body and so transfused into all and euery part of the apparel that came neere his body Campians girdle that he wore as seemes at Tiburne and I wonder how they missed the roape that embraced his holy necke being enritched with an outlandish grace that it came from Ierusalem as Fa Edmunds tells vs and had there girded about the sepulcher of our Sauiour Christ shal tell you stranger newes then Dibdales stockins did Marwoods deuil being a stiffe resty spirit of kin as seemes to a malt-horse of Ware that wil not out of his way had beene coniured at Hackney by Stemp and other priests by the space of a moneth Mengus his club his whip his scare-deuil had beene many and sundry times assayed the inuocation of the blessed Trinity many times vsed Missa de spiritu sancto Edmunds owne words celebrata A choise Masse of the holy Ghost had beene celebrated dreadfull infernall Exorcismes had been thundered abroad Hic tamen nihil quicquam sentire visus est The sullen spirit seemed not to care for it a rush But when Edmunds came in accepto bissino quodam funiculo quem ipse Edmundus Campianus semper secū gestabat in sacrificijs vtebatur quem Saluatoris sepulchrum vinxisse Hierosolymis solebat dicere hunc Sacerdos ad latus applicuit Ad cuius contactum hic statim trepidare et conturbari coepit doloremque eius presentia in aliam corporis partē concessisse qua ille re perspecta energumenum esse manifestò deprehendit Taking in his hand a certaine silken twist which Fa Campion did alwayes cary about with him and vsed it at the celebration of the Masse and which he often said had beene at Ierusalem and girded our Sauiours tombe applied the same gently to Marwoods side at the touch whereof he presently began to tremble and turmoile and the paine of his side shifted into a new place whereby Edmunds discerned that Marwood was a Daemoniack in deede What a wonderfull Saint-maker is Tyburne by this that in a quarter of an houre shall miscreate a Saint whose girdle or twist prouided it be worne by the old Saint at the gallowes shal put downe at scaring of a deuil Mengus his club-deuil whip-deuil scare-deuil the Masse the inuocation of God our Sauiour Christ the holy Ghost and all I doe very much meruaile there were neuer strange miracles performed by the wood of those trees considering it hath beene blessed by some of their sacred bodies bedewed with their last spritefull breath which haue power to infuse their soueraigne vertue into more remote obiects and into things of as hard and repugnant a consistence It seemes they haue changed courses with the transfusion of miraculous vertue imagined by their idle braines to issue from our blessed Sauiour at time of his death whose coates that he wore at his blessed passion thy leaue as bare and naked without any powerfull miraculous vertue at all bestow all his diuine influences vpon the holy Crosse Contrariwise these communicate all the riches of their miraculous graces vpon their girdles and cloutes and leaue nothing for the poore gallowes to grace them withall But this holy potent girdle is not thus barely left You shal heare Edmunds gracing it in an higher straine Patris etiam Camp sacrum illum funiculum ad latus os vnus ex circumstantibus admouit quin ille iterum vehementer execratur et detestatur omnes eiusmodi res ore discerpit mandit dentibus conspuit daemoni commendat illam rem quae tantam ei molestiam faceret
most dutifully performed like a dutiful obedient sonne to his curst holie Mother the holy church of Rome But heare you fellow Comaedians heere you had like to haue spoiled the play for you be laboured your Fid your fellow she-deuil with your Stole so hard as she whined indeed and in choler had like to haue pulled off her deuils vizard and shewed her owne face and to haue told the Spectators that she was Fid your kinde fidler in deed and no he-deuil God wote that she knew the time when you would haue laboured her more kindly for she felt this stole-whipping three or foure dayes after and had the marks of it vppon her armes longer to be seene But she remembred you would finde time and place with kinder vsage to make her amends therefore she was content for once to beare it Latet anguis in herba a man would little suspect when he meetes with the Amice the Stole and the Maniple wound vp in a little casket that there were such blacke hel-mettal within them to excoriat and lancinate a deuil and it grieues me I confesse when I see our little children when they haue them how they in a natural childish instinct doe take thē for fit gawdes to trick vp their babies with-all and themselues doe put them for sport some vpon their owne fingers some vpon their breasts some vpon their foreheads and a little I muse when I see it considering the infused diuine vertue inherent in this sacred geare to discouer manifest and torment the deuil how it commeth to passe that we our children being in Edmunds and the Catholiques opinions all of vs possessed that these potent Engines doe not shew forth their manifesting tormenting vertue in none of our little children cause them to tumble foame and speake fustian as they doe in theyr owne To this may be aunswered that we and our children be out of their church and so out of the sphaere of the actiuitie of these holy Iewels and then that this is not a seated fixed vertue in these nouels but a mouing transitiue grace that goes out and in in them like a shittle in a Weauers loome But Sara and Fid doe furnish vs with an apter and fuller aunswer then both that is that we are not idonea subiecta not fit matter for these deuil-powers to work vpon till we haue been at their schoole and haue learned to spel our horne-booke the Crosse rowe with them For they themselues at first were no more moued with an Amice and a Stole then they were with a dish-clout and a malkin til they had taken out an holy lesson out of the priests play bookes and then they felt an heate that they wist not of before It is a currant tale of Achilles that his mother Thetis dipped him in the Sea all but his heele so made him impenetrable against the point of any weapon Our holie Exorcists haue surely beene plunged in the Riuer Styx in their holy attire for they haue neither speck of their body nor ragge belonging vnto them but it is hel-proofe and deuil-proofe altogether and that which Achilles had not it hath besides a power destructiue and triumphant ouer hel and the deuil The Priests poore Maniple that an ignorant Landresse would scarce haue bestowed the wrincing vpon put about Trayfords neck saith the miracle-founder baricadoed vp the deuil in Trayfords head that he durst not stirre and there he stoode so distressed for want of prouant that with a penny Mouse-trap you might haue caught him without a bayt at Trayfords right eare These priests ditements being seuerally so many infernal serpents and Scorpions to sting and bite the deuil what would you say if you see the poore deuil ensnared in them altogether and entangled in this sacred geare as Mars was in Vulcans net How pittifully imagine you would he look to see himselfe so priest-bitten as Aesops Foxe was flie-bitten and how would hee winch skip and curuet hauing so many fiery needles in his skin at once In this woful plight the wonder-writer presents him to your view telling you that for encrease of his torment they stripped Sara of her garments and put vppon her body all the priests implements at once and then how they tricked Saraes deuil being adorned with their priestly robes let the deuil or Sara tell I haue other Cod-fish in water that must not be forgotten CHAP. 17. Certaine questions aunswered concerning the Church of Rome her making and accumulating yet more dreadfull tooles and engines for the deuill THere is no good natured man as I thinke that should heare of these various and dreadfull whyps spoken of before to be inflicted vpon the deuils backe in a fierie consort at once but would haue some feeling remorse of the paines of the deuil and say with the wofull man nunc non est nouae plagae locus there is no free place left vppon the deuils skinne for any new lash But when this good natured man shal heare of the more various and more direful not whips but scorpions stings and fiery serpents of the holy Church the blacke gloomie armour embellished with the thicke smoake vapour of hell the swords darts and speares of fire pointed with grisly death that the Church doth arme her infernall souldiers the Exorcists withall against the princedome and power of hell hee will cry out with Marwoods tormented deuil terra dehisce ne sentiam illas plagas earth swallow mee vp before I come neere the scorch of those flames And these are in a blacke row as they stand in the blacke Miracle booke holy water holy candle halowed frankensence halowed brimstone the potion the crosse the sacrament Tiburne reliques the picture of an Asse burnt in fire nicknames to the deuil the picture of our Lady Aue Maries salue Reginaes the presence of S. Barbara and the presence of our Lady which you must read ouer very silently least the deuil hearing the names you heare him presently roare vppon you for feare The Poets to strike vs with a terror of the torments of Styx doe present before our eyes the three Eumenides sisters the Furies and tormentors of hell with black vgly visages grisly with smoake with whips of blood and fire in theyr hands theyr armes gored with blood and a huge bunch of a thousand snakes crawling down theyr haire Let me present you an Exorcist armed by the Church at all poynts to encounter hell and the deuil you wil laugh the Eumenides from of the stage First I must set him before your view as hee is in shew a thumbe-annointed priest accomplished in his holy geare in his albe his amice his maniple and his stole now imagine him as he is indeed and as you haue heard of him for hel his body a piller of burning brasse his hands flames of fire his gloues his girdle his hose his shirt lumps of sea-coales of hell his amice his maniple and his stole
streamers of scorching smoke the sacrament of gore-blood in one hand the crosse of tormenting coales in the other sprouting out holy-water with his mouth breathing out fire and brimstone at his nostrils euaporating frankinsence at his eyes the picture of an asse burning brimly at his eares his head crawling with dead-mens bones the picture of our Lady flashing at his breast nicknames of fire and blood running vpon his backe aue-maries and salue Reginaes sparkling downe to his heeles what a little hel doe you imagine walking vppon the earth And ere you stirre your imagination doe but imagine him a little further walking in our London streets a little before day light what time the Chimny-sweepers vse to make theyr walke and crying in his hellish hollow voyce hay ye ere a deuil to driue hay yee ere a wench to fire hay yee ere a boy to dispossesse What a feare trow yee would the spirit be in to heare young hell thus roare and how would he labour to get out at the parties breech a Hiaclito did at Trayfords before hee would dare to looke this hell-mouth on the face Heere now comes in a bundle of Quaeres that steppe ouer our way and will needes haue parlie with vs ere we go any further first whence deriue these fierie weapons theyr vigor and strength of goring the deuil which you call the publique armes and ensignes of the Church To this I aunswer that these publique weapons of holy Church that you haue heard some haue their strength and power of themselues as the sacrament and the Crosse some of the institution of holy Church as exorcismes aue-maries salue Reginaes caet some from the conseruation and halowing of the Church to these potent ends and effects as holy water holy candle holy brimstone holy Frankensence and the holy potion nick-names and the Asses eares And if heereuppon a Quaerist wil demaund ad quid perditio haec vvhat needes the holy Church to open her Armorie for hel and muster out her fiery weapons in such troupes and throngs considering that euery one of theyr thumb-annointed priests as yee haue heard doth at his holy vnction receiue this heate and fire into his hand and his body by the oyle of his thumbe wherby he is able with all his holy implements that hang vppon his backe to fire out the strongest deuil in hel with his owne proper hands his hote holy geare as Edmunds did Marwoods deuil and Dibdale did fire Maho out of Sara with his fiery engines this Quaerist I see doth not wel obserue I haue touched before that though euery priest be indeed annoynted with holy oyle on his thumbe and by that oyle doth receiue in that deuil-burning heate that doth dilate it selfe through his body garments and all yet because euery priest doth not bring his thumb prepared and qualfied alike but some haue a Millers some a souters some a Coliers thumb that wil not take in oyle wel and then some stand remote and a squint from the sunne of light and miraculous heate of Fa Ignatius the Miracle-maister it falls out that theyr burning glasses doe not so readilie take fire and their deuil-worke by their holy hands holy geare doth not alwaies fortunatly succeed Yea it falls out many times by your leaue that the subiect where-vppon they should worke being indisposed as not well managed and prepared by the priest as what fire can burne where the matter is not combustible and of touch the priests fire is striken no great combustion dooth ensue and this seemes the cause there was so little fire-worke between Anne Smith and them and sometime the priests powder it selfe for want of good looking to is danke and then though the stroke be good no great sparkles doe arise It was therefore wisely foreseene by the prouidence and deepe insight of theyr kinde Mother theyr holy Church to prouide them copias succedaneas seconding and fresh supplies of fire-workes that if their owne fire doe faile they may light and fire it againe at the Churches holy candle Yea sometimes they light vppon such a laxe watry and reumaticke deuil that hee squirts out the priests fire the holy brimstone holy candle and all and goes laughing away This is when they are too busie and imprudently apply theyr fire-worke to oppositely and directly against the deuils spouting place then there is no way but to winde vp all their holy trinkets in a capcase and to ayre them handsomly againe at the next pitch for a deuil If the Sceptick wil pry higher demaund whence the Pope his consistory doe borrow that diuine power to consecrate water candle brimstone Frankincense potions Exorcismes nick-names and asses eares and to sublimate theyr nature put into them such a fiery scorching flame as shal turne thē into serpents and scorpions to bite and sting the deuil and to fire him out of his hold as men smoke out a Foxe out of his burrow these beeing of theyr owne nature and in shew silly poore stuffe to hold such diuine facultie in them This is a saucie question and deserues to be aunswered with scorne But because wee wil giue reason of all that proceeds from that sacred head wel may his holines and his Chapter doe as much as S. Peter did for as for our Sauiour and his holy Apostles wee neuer read that they halowed candle nor dealt with nick-names and Asses eares in casting out deuils but of Peter by your leaue there lies a tale and that is this as Thyraeus doth tel it out of one Martinus a Saint Simon Magus the Sorcerer sent vnto Peter the Apostle certaine deuils in the likenes of dogges to deuoure the blessed Apostle S. Peter being taken on a suddaine not looking for such currish guests as beeing belike at dinner consecrates on a suddaine certaine morsels of bread and throwes them to the dogge-deuils and by the power of that bread they were all put to flight And is not this a faire tale of Simon and his hel-dogges that would haue snapt vp S. Peter but onely for a soppe of bread and is it not a faire strong thred to hang a whole castle of fire-works vpon Martin hath a black braine conceiting bul-beares and black band-dogges of Saint Peter Ergo the Pope and his Church haue authority and power to consecrate and hallow water oyle salt wax brimstone frankensence potions Exorcismes nicknames and asses eares and to put in them a scorching fire to sindge the deuils beard Because the consequence is so validous we wil looke a little into these holy fire-works but very sparingly and cursorily for holding you too long in these vnsauory perfumes CHAP. 18. ¶ Of the dreadfull power of holy water halowed candell Frankincense Brimstone the booke of Exorcismes and the holy potion to scald broyle and to sizle the deuill IF you look vpon the bare face of these holy Engines you wil take them for very trifles and toyes but I must say vnto you in good sadnes as
of all who by the onely sprinckling of holy water did remorphize an olde woman that had been turned into a Mare The miracle had beene stronger if she had been turned into a horse And yet I trust you wil not say but that this holy water was strong enough thus for Circes drench could doe little more that turned Vlysses men into Swine and yet that was faine to be taken downe ere it could doe the feate this onely besprincked did turne a Mare into a woman againe Lucians oyntment I confesse that he got a little of by peeping in at a creuise and spying the Witch annoynt her body withall came neere the force of this forcible water of Rome For Lucian tels vs himselfe that by that time hee had annointed himselfe all ouer with that enchaunted oyle he was turned into an Asse and that hee so liued by the space of six or seauen yeeres in the shape of an Asse vnder very cruell maisters that whipped him sore as vnder a Gardiner a tyle man a Corier and such like and that at last hee was metamorphosed into the shape of a man by eating of Roses What would a little of that Asse-making oyle doe if it had the good hap to be blessed and super-charmed by his Blessednesse at Rome Well this holy water of Rome had as fayre a discent as that Lucian oyle for that did come from a Witch of Thessalia and this holy water doth come from the witch of Delphos of whom the Roman Poet saith thus Spargit aqua captos lustrali Graia sacerdos whence Numa Pompilius the grand sorcerer the Popes grand founder of holy trinckets tooke it and of him the Romane Wisard Pope Sixtus or Pope Alexander begged it hath left it for an holy deuil-whippe to his deere mother Church And heere I must needes confesse a slippe of my memory as who can beare all this dreadful hel-geare in his head without a surcharge that before I had recounted you the wonderful powers of this Aqua fortis to scald out a deuil and make a woman of a mare I should haue acquainted you how the Miracle-minter in his miracle booke doth solemnly tell vs that the deuil himselfe did solemnly proclaime from hel that there were foure dreadful deuil-scourges in the priests holy budget holy water halowed candle frankensence and the booke of Exorcismes whereby you may plainly see that vvith theyr intoxicating potions they had confounded the deuils wits and made him as wise as goodman Buttons boy of Waltham who hauing beene vsed to be beaten sometime with birch sometime with apple-tree twiggs sometime with Willow tells his Maister wisely that of all three apple-tree was the worst whereby his Maister knew how to sting him the more soundly And vvhat needs now any more wier-drawing and prophaning of holy scripture for the founding crediting of your enchaunted water it hath the same warrant of his soueraigntie as Campian had of his martyrdome hel the deuil ipse dixit who you know doth not vse to faile But Sara Williams tels vs that she said no such thing and that the priests themselues for the better gracing of those foure holy scourges were the deuils Heralds and did proclaime them in her name or the name of the deuil and so put it downe in theyr Miracle-booke as the deuils owne words As they were faine at euery turne in her fits pageants and traunces to help out the deuil in her part beeing oft non plus and many things falling in better extempore to grace the play withall then that which was meditated and set downe in her part And therefore they would often say and write downe that Saras deuil said thus and so where none but the priest-deuil himselfe who played three parts in one somtime the priest sometimes the deuil sometimes the deuils prompter or Interpeter as the puppets haue alwaies a mimicall prolocutor to tel what they meane said one word And why might not they to keepe the stage ful cog in a deuil when they listed as gamesters cogge in a Die vvhen Agazarius the Iesuit tels vs that hee hauing brought from Rome certaine halowed holy graines hauing giuen them to his holy children for their seuerall necessities and wants they by misfortune lost the said graines and he comforts his holy shriuelings his ghostly good children telling them in honest termes that a little prety peble stone taken vp out of a gutter would serue the turne euen as well so it were receiued kept with humility and deuotion But our holy tragaedians were as seemes afraid that these old brayed geare holy water halowed candle and frankensence would not hold out and play their parts wel and therefore they thought good to cry them out of hand as they vse to cry Mackerels when they are afraide of smelling This feare was very needlesse for as you see holy water in this deuil-pageant hath acquit it selfe wel especially in the miracle of the Mare so you shal see holy candle frankincense and the rest play theyr parts no worse for they were all deuil-whippes of the maker of a staight stocke cleane corde sure twist as true and wel-knotted stuffe as euer Wades myll did afford You shal haue holy candle play his part in the Authour his owne phrase and penning for his better grace The whole house at Denham saith the Miracle-maker was so haunted with spirits that a mayde could not carie a candle lighted in her hand except it were halowed No meruaile though the candles went out so thicke at Denham for there the deuils kept theyr acts in tenebris so thicke with the poore maids as Sara confesseth she durst not goe to Dibdales chamber alone for feare of deuil-puffing as little gessing by his vnholy handling he had beene an holy priest Yet the baudy Poet tells them that somtime a little candle-light doth not amisse at that deuil-worke and therfore not amisse inserted by the Author that an halowed candel should sometime burne before the deuil But in an other passage the miracle-noter tels vs that the deuil puffed at the holy candel as hard as he could and could not get it out this Sara saith was puffed in by the penner to puffe vp a part for the holy candel to play But I am verily of opinion that the deuil puffed indeede and that the priests had a iust scantling size of the deuils breath to know how strong and deepe the deuil was able to puffe and when hee puffed his best themselues hauing often out-breathed and out-puffed him as you haue formerly heard and therefore they knew how to hallow a candle so high and to such a pitch as the deuil with all the breath in his belly should not be able to puffe it out And why not as easily and with as good a grace as to hallow a candel to such a sublimitie abstract quintessential nature as doth this day burne before the blessed shrine of our Lady at Arras without wasting or diminution
without receauing any adition of matter to feede and preserue the light except nutriment onely It was no great disgrace to the deuils puffe that could not blow out the holy candel being happily supported by the holy candlestick of the priest But you must be enformed of a farre greater foyle sustained by the deuil at the hands of a young child by the vertue of this holy candel holden in his hand Heare the Miraclist report it in his owne gracious Idiome Sara being set in a chaire shee raged more then ere shee did before especially at the presence of an infant holding a holy candell crying oft with terrible voyce and countenance I will eate thee but the child nothing abashed thereat was brought to hold the candell to her nose and to put him to silence O Catholicam fidem O fidem Cathoticam that hast such a check and soueraignty ouer all the power of hell as that thy priests leade about deuils after them as men leade Beares by the nose or Iack an Apes in a string and enduest thy young Infants with such heroical magnanimitie as they dare play with the deuils nose and crie Iack deuill ho deuill blow out the candell deuill and the poore deuil stands like a mute in a blacke sanctus with a bone in his mouth and dares not speake one word The two next deuil-scourges proclaimed from hel were Frankincense and the booke of Exorcismes the former whereof though it pleased you not to grace with any special miracle accomplished alone hauing many new initiats to aduaunce that stood you in more stead yet to shew that your deere Mother-church did not bestow her blessing vppon such a iewel for naught you gaue him his due time order and place and marshalled him very honourably according to his discent somtime with the powerful potion sometime with brimstone sometime wirh holy water sometime with holy candle shewing vs by the worthines of his companion that hee was none of the rascal crue Indeede you needed be the lesse careful for this by reason it is alwaies of worth very sufficient to grace and aduaunce it selfe both in regard of the antiquity as also of the honourable discent thereof as springing from no meaner stemme then the three Kings of Cullen that brought it with gold and Mirrhe for a present vnto our Sauiour Christ And therefore it hath beene worth the keeping esteeme in your Mother-church euer since and hath receiued her deere motherly blessing by consecration and benediction And so wee find that your holy Mother hath layd her holy hands vppon gold likewise and consecrated and blessed that amiable mettall to whereby it hath had and shewed as much power ouer deuils haunting houses walking in Churchyeards and speaking out of images as Frankincense holy candle and holy water haue But little did those three good Kings of Cullen know what a powerful rich present they had brought vnto our Sauiour whē they presented him with Frankincense as little deeming of fuming any deuil in theyr way or profugating a deuil from the body of our blessed Sauiour But your eyes pierced farther thē these 3. Kings could notwithstanding it is generally accoūted they had eye-sight enough as comming from the head and fountaine of wisedome vnderstanding and wit and you cleerely saw that the Egyptian priests perfuming theyr two grand Idols Isis and Osiris with this holy smoake and hearing Tully proclaime of theyr Images at Rome in omnibus vicis statuae factae ad eas thus cerei that they halowed them and theyr Altars with frankinsence and candle you haue very wisely deuoutly and heathenishly smoaked your Altars your images your Churches your vestments your reliques your beades your bookes your breeches with this perfume for feare of deuil-blasting and therefore you needed not vppon our deuil Theater to grace it with any new wonder The fourth feareful whip halowed out of hel was the booke of Exorcismes which though Stemp the priest shewed Sara a little corner of out of his pocket when he was new come from London to Denham telling her he had brought her Maister a whip and that Sara knew it as wel by the crosses figures as a begger knew his dish or an old curre a kitchin whippe by a corner of the steale it had beene so often thundred vpon yet we find in our tragaedie that this plaid not the most tragicall monster-part nor did not the greatest wonders and that vppon very wise and important considerations First this booke was sicut fortis equus spatio qui saepe supremo vecit Olympia It had playd so many worthy parts and caried away the garland so oft in all the Lists Turnaments and Iusts with the deuil that it needed no new Io paean to be honoured with-all Secondly it hath hanging on it all the seales and stamps of holy popes for many hundred yeeres with all their potent benedictions and it hath had the deere and louing mothers blessing with priuiledge of birth-right and priority of honour besides and therefore it might wel stand and breath a while without any new addition or title of aduauncement Thirdly it serued wonderous aptly ad terrorem et stuporem incutiendum populo in steede of thunder and lightning to bring Iupiter vpon the stage by these dreadful frightful Exorcismes thundring clapping and flashing out the astonishing of Gods names Iehouah Tetragrammaton Adonai and the rest to amaze and terrifie the poore people and to possesse them with an expectation of some huge monster-deuil to appeare Who standing at gaze with trembling and feare hearing the huge thunder cracke of adiuration flie abroad and no deuils to roare and then seeing the Exorcist in a rage to throw away his thunder booke behind him and hunt the deuil with his owne holy hands and instantly hearing the deuil rouze out of his cabin as a Lyon out of his denn bellow out with his roaring voyce Oh oh oh I burne I burne I scald I broyle I am tormented This must needes make the poore Madge Owlets cry out in admiration of the power of the potent priesthood O Catholicam fidem O fidem Catholicam O the Catholique faith O the power of the faith Catholique Brimstone and the holy potion needed no Herrauld from hell to proclaime their potency and might for where so euer they went they caried hel before them both for vgly blacknes smoake scorching broyling and heate As you may see in the poore she-deuil Sara that bore in her face the very Idaea of hell imprinted branded in her by these dreadful fumigations For the force vse and application of this Engine I referre you to the tenth chapter not that you must think that the loathsome hellish potion of Sacke Sallet-oyle and Rue mashed together and by force poured downe into her stomacke a full pint at a time did of their owne natural qualities fume vp and intoxicate her braine as Tobacco Giniper and Henbane mingled together would doe or that the owne vnkind fulsomnes of
Sack Oyle and Rue did distemper her stomacke and enforced her to straine vomite and crie or the pestilent choaking stuffing pernicious fume of Brimstone filling her eyes mouth nose and scorching her with the coales fire til she looked as blacke as hel mouth did of their owne proper force cause her to crie scritch and howle for what hellish Butchers would euer put a poore wench to such paine but you are to imagine that these loathing intoxicating piercing broyling choaking qualities were suspended in their proper subiects by the soueraigne consecrating power of the kinde mother church of Rome that these consecrate Engines made the poore deuil in Sara to tremble fume vomit straine scritch and roare by the pure vertue of the kind churches sweet benediction And hoping you wil be thus kindly affected for their sakes who wish you as wel as they did Sara and would vse you as kindly if they had you in their fingrings as being perswaded that you are all euery each one possessed with deuils I wil spend no time to entreate you but proceede to my farther taske CHAP. 19. ¶ Of the astonishable power of Nicknames Reliques and Asses eares in afflicting and tormenting the deuill WHen a Lyon a Fox and an Asse were met together in pilgrimage it was much wondered at by the common-wealth of beasts what that consociation meant considering the dissimilitude and disparitie of the beasts So when a man shal meete with these three in a ranke Reliques Nicknames and Asses eares hee may perhaps muse at this vnequall combination but when hee shall vnderstand quò iter vna capiunt whether they bend theyr course so louingly together and shal be aduertised that they march hand in hand in an aequipage to set vpon a deuil to afflict torment and cast him out of his hold he wil muse much more This gentle muser must be put out of his dumpes by taking out his first primer lesson Ignorantia causarum genuit admirationem It is nothing but ignorance of causes that is the mother of admiration and therefore when we haue instructed this admirator in the secret causes and principles of this vnseemely connexion we shal ease him of his labour cause his wonderment to cease The maine ground pillar and principle of all is the bottomlesse deitie of the holy Church of Rome who as she is able to make Gods of bread Saints of deuils and to place them in heauen so is she as able to change flies into Serpents fleas into Scorpions Nicknames into whips Asses eares into scourges to chastise and chase away all the deuils in hel So as that these two Nick-names and Asses eares are indeede but two crystal looking glasses wherein you may behold liuely represented vnto you the authority and diuine prudence of the holy Romish Church Authority in choosing out such shadowes and 〈…〉 hilëities to controll the principalities and powers 〈…〉 nes prudence in selecting the base and ridiculou◠〈…〉 gs of the world to confound all the wisedome and policy of the deuil I am therefore in gentle and kind wise to aduise and entreate you that you vse these looking glasses carefullie and aright thorough-out the whole course of this our admirable blacke Arte and that you measure not our proceedings heerein by the scale of sence vnderstanding or wit iudging of things according to their owne nature qualities and formes for so wee may be thought to haue dealt not onely childishly and ridiculously but many times impiously and blasphemously to but to esteeme of things vsed and imployed in this admirable science according as they are improued sublimate and aduaunced by the authority of holy church of Rome and according to the secrets and mysteries of the Arte. As for example what man iudging according to wit vnderstanding or sence can imagine that a Witch can transforme her selfe into the likenes of a Cat a Mouse or an Hare and that shee being hunted with Hounds in the forme of an Hare and pinched by the breech or whipped with scourges in the similitude of a Cat the same pinch or marke shal be found in the breech of the Witch that was before made by the Hounds in the breech of an Hare and yet shal you see this sencelesse witlesse and brainlesse conceite verified made sooth in the practise of our holy coniuring crue the thing being really acted and performed indeed Looke in Fid Williams Deposition and there you shal finde that the whole Quier of our twelue holy priests had a solemne assembly at the whipping of a Cat and did whip the Cat so long in a Parlor at Denham til shee vanished out of their sight and sending next day to Bushie to see in what case the Witch was whose spirit they had Cat-hunted ouer night the Witch was found in child-bed and her childe newly dead Whereby it plainly appeares that the whipping of the Cat so it be done by Catholique priests is no iest nor the hunting of the Witch heere no fabulous apprehension but a good Catholique sooth agreeable to the maiestie grauitie and wisedome of that venerable holy Church And so wil you iudge likewise of nicknames Asses eares by that time I haue shewed how grauely and reuerendly the holy Church hath set them vpon the deuils head and how by her soueraigne authority and commaund she hath made him to weare beare them in spite of his fuming nose First you shal haue the Canon and constitution as I finde it set out in Mengus the Licentiate authorized Maister for Hel and next the practise of the Canon by our 12. holy legates according to the constitution of their deere mother Church The Canon for nick-naming and rayling on the deuil runnes thus in Mengus his fourth Exorcisme of his dreadful deuil club If after the Masse celebrated of the holy Ghost signing the possessed with fiue signes of the Crosse sprinkling him with holy water inuocating ouer him the name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost which Aue maria and thundering out the potent Exorcisme armed with all the dreadfull and astonishable tytles of God the deuill shew him selfe refractarie and will not depart nor expresse his name tum sunt in eum dicenda improperia then you must come vpon him with as many nick-names as you can possiblie deuise Now if you wil learne to nick-name the deuil in print and cum priuilegio vnder the signet and seale of the holy Church at Rome take heere a messe of nick-names as they are dressed and serued in from the Popes Maister-Cooke and scalder for hel and let hel it selfe be raked you shal neuer finde the like Audi igitur insensate false reprobe daemonum magister miserrima creatura tentator hominum deceptor malorum angelorum fallax animarū dux haereticorū pater mendacij fatue bestialis insipiens ebriose praedo infernalis serpens iniquissime lupe rapacissime sus macra famelica immundissima bestia Scabiosa bestia truculentissima bestia crudelis bestia cruenta bestia
dooth the story of S. Margaret who with the bare signe of the Crosse afrighted a deuil that was comming vnto her in the forme of a great Dragon Or that of Martian and Iulian who with the signe of the Crosse went vp and downe killing of serpents as Hercules did Monsters or that of the old man who spying an Aspe in the bottom of a fountaine did front the entrance to the fountaine with so many signes of the Crosse as hee went downe to the bottom filled his pot with water and returned from the Aspe without any harme or that of Bishop Sabin who hauing poyson mingled in his cup by an Archdeacon who meant to make him away signed himselfe with the Crosse drunk off the poysond cup felt not the least grudging or distemper after the same I doubt the Pope his Maister would hardly belieue him in this who would giue some good store of crownes to be secured by crosses from the danger of poyson I doe not see poysoning any where so rife as in Italy and especially at Rome where Crosses are not dainty And what becomes of that goodly auncient Poem made and sung in honour of the Crosse Ista suos fortiores Semper facit et victores Morbos sanat et languores Reprimit daemonia That is The Crosse in battaile is a shield Which who so beares still winnes the field Against diseases t is a spell A charme against the power of hell It is very great reason they should doe it diuine honour called Latria and sweat and spit and clamor in theyr Sorbone for the same since they giue it the diuine supreame power of our blessed Sauiour For what did our Sauiour heere on earth or what could he do more or what did he adorne his owne style withall to S. Iohn sending his disciples vnto him to know whether hee were Christ he said no more then this Goe backe vnto Iohn and tell him what you haue seene and heard how that the blind see the lame goe the deafe heare and vnto the simple is the gospell preached And dooth not this bring vs plainly within compasse of the heathen challenge that we be lignei dei cultores worshippers and seruaunts to a woodden god Our deuill-comaedians whose ayme was as you see by playing ouer all the trinkets toyes pedlars ware of the Popes holy budget and by gracing them vvith some seeming quality against the deuil to aduaunce the credit of the Catholique church and to bring into admiration theyr owne persons and priestly power that so they might catch the poore Gudgins they fished so industriously for left out no old ceremonie nor Engine of the Romane Church that had any name or reputed faculty that way and therefore they mustered the Church standard amongst theyr fierie troupes but they did aduaunce and adorne with moe miracles their new reliques and theyr owne proper persons theyr hands theyr gloues theyr stockings theyr priestly ornaments as theyr amice stole maniple and albe then they did the old approoued coate-armour of the Church and that vpon a right wise ground in regard that these did more properly neerely and effectually worke for the magnifying of themselues and theyr priestly authority Therefore the holy Crosse was often presented on the stage but neuer with that acclamation and plaudite that their other forenamed holy implements were The first honour the Miraclist doth bestow vppon it is this that it serued to discouer Sara to haue a deuil in that shee could hardly be brought to signe herselfe with the signe of the Crosse Next it holy water at a pinch when it would not goe downe past Saras mouth into her throat but stucke in the way her throat was signed with the crosse then it slipped down as easily as a draught of Ale It seemes that holy water was old for you see when it was fresh the deuil himselfe was not able to come within the smell but leapt out at a window for hast to be gone Thirdly it restored speech to Sarah when it was lost Sara could not speake saies the Recorder till the priest had signed her throat with the crosse Sara was now a scholler of some standing as shee saith and knew when her cue came to say ouer her geare Fourthly Sara knew a peece of the crosse by the smell and that might she doe right wel for they kept it so sweet in a boxe saith Sara that she must haue had a shrewd pose that should not haue found it Fiftly it brought Sara to her selfe when shee was in a traunce or opened her eyes when shee was broade awake Yet old Edmunds bestowes more grace vppon it alone then all these for when he had hunted vp the deuil into Marwoods head with his holy hands meaning to barricado him there that the people might see him looke out at Marwoods eyes eares and nose as a prisoner doth vse to looke out at an yron grate hee signes Marwoods throat with the signe of the Crosse with this holy adiuration hîc Christi limen est hos limites ne transcende this is Christes owne limit see that yee step not ouer this line and yet as seemes for feare the deuil should haue aduentured to put his foote ouer the line hee claps on the sacred maniple to winds it about his neck that if there were neede the Crosse might call to his good neighbour to helpe stop the thiefe For these holy hunting Engines were better managed then our ordinary cry of hounds that wil flie out euery one striuing to leade away the chase and leaue his fellowes behind our hunting dogges had beene managed to stay for each other that the cry might be ful and that one might help out another at a dead fault And thus they dismissed the holy crosse the stage without any great alarum or sound of the common drum Enters the holy Sacrament vppon their stage deformed by these hell-monsters into a most detestable Idoll of the masse with a farre more solemne grace worthy of a far better place if these miscreants had not playd so long with hel-smoake that it had put out theyr eyes cleane but they that haue playd with God Christ and the holy Ghost the deuill must giue them leaue to play with Christes blessed institution to I say they present it with great pompe in regard of the thrise glorious state impiously blasphemously and chimerically conceited by them to be in royall person within Such a monstrous metamorphosis as Homer Pindarus Hesiode nor all the fabulous Graecian wits put in a mash durst neuer faine forge or dreame of any their despicable gods that any God should be made of a morsell of bread This new molded masse-Idoll laughed at by some loathed by many detested of all pious and ingenious spirits that haue not intoxicated their wits with that enchaunted Babylonian chalice wanting witnesse in heauen and beeing hissed at on earth must be brought vppon our deuil-stage to be graced honoured and confirmed from hell And
marry her who would she should neuer haue child But to returne to our similitudes and deuil visages againe the Miracle-minter deales heere with these formes and faces of deuils as Sosia in Amphitryo dealt with the battaile at Teliboüs who ranges two maine Armies deuides them into squadrons wings and flanks and makes them meete and encounter and none but himselfe alone is vpon the stage And indeed it is good decorum in a Comaedie to giue vs emptie names for things and to tell vs of strange Monsters within where there be none When a man heares of these frightful similitudes wherein the deuils are conceited to depart as flames whirlewinds snakes cats fire and smoake hee would imagine the spectators should be much gastred and skared at the going out of the deuils in these feareful formes and that the chambers and roomes where the daemoniacks and the company are should be shaken with the whirlewind scorched with the flames and soiled with brimstone and smoake and that the assembly should tremble to see the deuill whirle about in the similitude of a snake as a fire-dragon spoutes whirles in the ayre but at our gentle deuils departure there was neither shape seene nor wind heard nor motion felt nor flames nor smoake nor whirling fire-snake perceiued at all and therefore you must heedfullie obserue the Authours clause alwaies annexed as Amen to a masse vnto the end of the sentence As seemed or appeared to the possessed So as the out-casting of these vgly deuils visards lyes thus The priests doe report often in their patients hearing the dreadful formes similitudes and shapes that the deuils vse to depart in out of those possessed bodies which they haue dealt with-all beyond Seas and this they tell with so graue a countenance pathetical termes and accommodate action as it leaues a very deepe impression in the memory and fancie of their actors so as when it comes to their cue to play the same part ouer as namely when after dreadful adiuration the deuil is said to goe out then doth the Exorcist very soberly aske the party in what forme or similitude the deuil appeared vnto him at his departing and he hauing conned his lesson of formes and shapes before from the priest lights vpon some such forme and shape as he hath receaued from the priest And then the Echo is Thanks to the blessed virgin and the whole Quier of heauen And if the Exorcist doe suspect the wit or memory of his scholler as being nothing perfect in his Kalender of formes he wil not stick to prompt him by his question being afore an Auditory of Romish guls whose braines swarme with bul-beggers as to aske him if the deuil did not depart in such or such a forme and then the actor either for feare or flatterie of his good maister dares not but say yea Another rule you must learne in a Comaedie wel acted and conuaied for the deuil that the daemoniacks be so neerely placed yet in seueral roomes each to other that one may heare without benefit of Midas long eares what is said vnto or by the other and so the second may be yare and ready to take his cue and turne of the former and put to a little of his owne wit for the better gracing the wonder Or else if propinquitie and fitnes of the roomes wil not serue for one to be the others Parrat and Echo touching the shape let the shape be handsomly agreed of by the deuil-actors before or else prouide a mistris Plater for an intelligencer or intercursitor betweene them that may in a trice relate to one what the other hath done and said Lusty Iolly Ienkin was conceited giuen out by the Exorcist to goe out of Sara in the similitude of a whirling snake Marwood was in another roome yet so neere as he caught the snake by the tayle and cryes out where he lay at the dreadful sight adding that hee saw it come whirling by his window with a wind in most terrible wise Heare Maister Maynie for all report you this deuise the daintiest actor that euer came vppon deuil-stage And as I aunswer to this poynt so doe I vnto that other as touching the deuils supposed similitudes in theyr pretended departing out of me Eytber it is altogether false and deuised by thēselues or else they led me to say so by theyr questions as if they asked mee whether Pride did not depart from me in the likenes of a Peacock it is very probable that I sayd he did and so of all the rest Or otherwise they tolde some in my hearing that such deuils did vse to depart from such as they possessed in such kinde of formes I pray GOD forgiue them for all theyr bad dealing with me Thus you haue these Romish deuil-vizards of formes similitudes and shapes of the deuils departing layd open vnto you by their owne schollers and actors to be naught els saue squibs crackers and fire-works forged out of the priests owne fancie and that there was no deuil but Edmunds or Dibdale the Priest Now let vs a little looke vpon the last and most artificial act of this infernal Tragaedie namely the final dispossessing and extruding the deuils by which of their ghastly dreadful Engines this conclusion was best and most cunningly performed The first honour of this great and admirable act of finall dispossessing the deuil did by great prouidence fall vpon a little casket of reliques wherein there falls out wonder vpon wonder For Trayford the possessed party espying a casket of reliques in Saras hand snatches them sodainly from her and applying the casket to his owne did expel Smolkin his owne Mouse-deuil Where the super wonder is that a man should without Exorcist Albe Aue marie or Salue Regina dispossesse himselfe of a deuil as wee finde Trayford did or rather the deuil dispossesse himselfe For Trayford the possessed was moued ruled and caried by the deuil as a wheele is by a turnspit curre that is put into it so as it was not Trayford that snatched the casket but the deuil nor Trayford that applied them to his mouth and expelled the deuil at his right eare in the likenes of a Mouse but the deuil This doth plainly instruct you in these two excellent points first the dreadful power of reliques when they lie pent and packed close together in a little roome that they worke like bottle-ale that is close kept from vent ready as soone as they be stirred to spout deuils dragons and all in a mans face next it reades you a plaine Lecture of the bodily feare of the deuil at the approach of an holy priest who chooses rather to make his owne squib fill it with Gunne-powder and setting it on fire to burne and blowe vp himselfe as Sardanapalus did then to attend the comming of a scalding Catholique priest The next expulsion of the deuil was by holy water alone wherein the power of the holy relique is the more aduaunced in that it came not from
the hand of any anointed priest but was taken by Sara and sprinckled vpon the deuil in the likenes of a Toad and towards the deuil-minister that came into Trayfords chamber and they both vanished away So as by these powerful instruments a deuil may not onely dispossesse himselfe which a man must imagine he had neede of great help to doe but also put to flight any other deuil that stands in his way or wil presume to come within his walke without his good leaue For else what reason had Saras deuil to be displeased at his fellow deuils comming into Trayfords chamber and to sprinckle him away but that it seemes he came rudely in without by your leaue The holy Crosse put to flight a whole Quier of Puppets that appeare dauncing the Morrice at the end of a gallerie and dissolued them so cleane as there appeared neither flame smoake nor ill odor from them and this wonder was accomplished by Sara for Sara saith the Miraclist signing her selfe with many signes of the Crosse the deuils in the likenes of Puppets vanished out of sight Heere our wonder like Amphitryos goblet begets an other wonder stil Sara by Crosses puts to flight a whole troupe of Puppet-deuils and yet the deuil within Sara cared not for the Crosses one iote These as seemes were but punie vrchin spirits that for want of good cheere at Denham house were pined and made feeble before the Exorcists came thither But Purre was a spirit of a tough mold and in reasonable good plight hee held the Exorcist good tacke til at length saith the Reporter by often inuocation of our blessed Lady and the whole company of heauen with Aue maries and other Anthemes of our blessed Lady especially Salue Regina Purre was cast out Here Church Anthemes as you see caried away the bucklers in expelling the deuil Sara the deuils sweet dauncing schoole had chosen amongst all the heauenly Quier S. Barbara for her patronesse and Saint who pittying her poore Client seeing all the deuils of hel in the poore wench and Maho theyr commaunder came downe her selfe from heauen to shew her grace she had there and that Saints may come from heauen a deuil-hunting if it stand with their good pleasure and assuming the office of an Exorcist into her owne hands casts out Maho the black Prince Maho takes this as no faire play and therefore himselfe complaines of it in his Dialogue with Dibdale that a woman had cast him out before vpon her owne feastiuall day This is no meane office you may be sure nor of little moment and waight when the glorious Saints of heauen come downe to discharge it nay you shal see that for the dignifying of this coniuring profession and to stop the mouthes of all carping obloquutors our blessed Lady her selfe vouchsafed to grace it with her presence in her owne proper person and to come in state with a princely trayne of caelestial virgins attending vppon her whom the deuil in scorne calls by a by-name Saffron-bagge Loe yonder cries the deuil to the Exorcist comes Saffron-bagge with her company of tripping-mayds thou canst doe nothing without her And the Miracle-maister sticks not to tell vs that shee played the Exorcists part too in helping of Sara After a long and painfull combat saith he Sara sayd somewhat cheerefully now our blessed Lady hath knowne my neede and hath holpen me for the deuil was gone out And it shal I trust be no disparagement to our Lady in this case to haue a simple word in shew matched vnto her highnesse which with the very sound pronunciation and name had the same vertue in expelling a deuil that her owne gracious presence in proper person had and that is in the Creede neither the name of God the Father God the Sonne nor God the holy Ghost nor the name of the virgin Mary which as you see is notwithstanding dreadful to the deuil but the bare naming and pronouncing of this word Catholique alone with the sounding of which sillables onely Sara sayth our Author did put to flight all her pernicious deuils So as this word Catholique in the Creede is as deepe a deuil-coniurer as euer Mengus was These seueral Champions as you see doe seuerally triumph and erect their seueral Trophies with spoiles of seueral deuils But it falls out sometimes that the graund Prince of darknes doth combine and vnite his forces calling to his ayde his Leaders Colonels and Captaines for hel as Hiaclito Helcmodian and the rest and pitches a maine field so as his forces stand strong against any one of these alone Then heare the General of our ghostly Camp how he marshals his bands troupes against the front of hel But the blessed Sacrament being brought inuocation made to our blessed Lady and all the Quier of heauen by the helpe of Aue maries Salue Reginaes and calling vpon the blessed Martyrs and applying their holy reliques especially of Fa Camp Fa Brian and the rest that had beene martyred at Tiburne hell it selfe quailes the deuils roare and the Prince with all his assistants and commaunders are finally cast out These are the troupes that preuaile against principalities powers dominions and all the kingdome of darknes these laded Maho and Modu the two Generals of the infernal furies with fire and brimstone and banished them for a final doome to be tormented in the bottomlesse pit of hell And thus closed vp our worthy Author his woorthy tragaedie with the confusion of the great Maister-deuils and the consolation of his pittifull possessed captiues and that loude famous acclamation of the spectators O Catholicam fidem O fidem Catholicam But the lamentable Chorus and Nuntios of this tragaedie Maister Maynie gentleman Fid Williams Sara Williams Anne Smith and Maister Tirrell doe tell vs another tale ending this deuill tragaedie with their own teares sighes exclamations and hideous out-cries against the deuill-priests the coggers coyners mynters and actors of this wicked lewd play Who were not content to play Maho and Modu the grand deuils themselues to play at bo peepe with Almighty God our blessed Sauiour his holy Angels and blssed Saints in heauen presenting them on this feigned Theater and making them to squeale pype tumble like puppits in a pageant after their owne impious fashion and to prophane and prostitute the blessed Sacrament making it a Pandar to their foule and monstrous lust but partly by flattery partly by feare partly by the bond of violated chastitie partly by their lothsome potions and vnnaturall fumigations brought them into the same dissimulation with themselues and to act the chiefe and principall parts in their diabolicall legerdemaine and when they had once masked them in theyr popish nets and gotten them into theyr holy ginnes they did so vnmanly so vnpriestly and so vnnaturally vse them as the deuil himselfe if he had beene indeed in presence could not haue vsed them worse And these misguised bewitched creatures now of better remorse doe tell vs that
the trussing vp of theyr iugling sticks winding vp theyr Pope-budget packing vp their Romane pedlarie grew from another cause which was because they vnderstood by some of their Sentinels that their iugling packing and legerdemaine did peepe out abroade in the Country occasioned diuers opinions and constructions of the same whereby present danger to theyr persons and stage-robes was like to ensue This mooued them to let Maho the deuil slinke out of Sara in that homly manner as you haue heard that they might though vncleanlie ridde theyr hands of him And now I pray you obserue how sutably to theyr former affaires they sorted themselues thence It is the fashion of vagabond players that coast from Towne to Towne with a trusse and a cast of fiddles to carry in theyr consort broken queanes and Ganimedes as well for their night pleasance as their dayes pastime our deuil-holy consort at theyr breaking vp house at Denham departed euery priest suted with his wench after the same good custome Edmunds the Iesuit saith one of their owne couey had for his darling Mistris Cressy Anne Smith was at the disposition of Ma Dryland Sara Williams of Ma Dibdale Mistrisse Altham of Cornelius and Fid Williams of Ma Leigh And was not this a very seemely Catholicke complement trow you to see a Fidler and his case a Tinker his bitch a Priest and his Leman a deuil his damme combined sweetly together I trust our deuils would neuer make sute to goe into any herd of swine so long as they had such kinde tender cattell to possesse dispossesse repossesse and surpossesse at theyr pleasure And this in the holy dialect is called gaining of soules scilicet for the deuill CHAP. 23. ¶ Of the ayme end and marke of all this pestilent tragaedy THe end of a Comaedie is a plaudite to the Authour and Actors the one for his inuention the other for his good action of a Tragaedie the end is mouing of affection and passion in the spectators Our Daemonopoiïa or deuil-fiction is Tragico-comaedia a mixture of both as Amphitryo in Plautus is and did by the good inuention and cariage obtaine both these ends First it had a plaudite often O Catholicam fidem and O that all the Protestans in England did see the power of the Catholick Church and it mooued affection with expression of teares Marwood did tumble foame and rage so liuely when hee was touched with Campians girdle as the gulld spectators did weepe to see the iugling knaue in such a supposed plight But our Romane Authors Edmunds and his holy crue his twelue holy disciples the plotters of this deuil-play had a farther and deeper end which by this impious deuise they had atchieued pretie well and that was after the Popes dialect the gaining of soules for his Holines and for Hell the bewitching of the poore people with an admiration of the power of theyr Romish Church and priesthood by these cogd miracles and wonders and thereby robbing them of theyr fayth towards God and theyr loyaltie to theyr Prince and reconciling them to the Pope the Monster of Christianitie And for the obtayning of this maine marke and end they vsed two chiefe subordinate ends The one was to bring in the deuill on the stage thorough the whole course of theyr tragaedie as the father of vs all and as the founder protector and fauourer of vs and of our most Christian profession The other by causing theyr deuils to speake act and behaue themselues as an hostile and sworne enemy to them and to theyr Romish superstition Which the besotted people conceiuing as the very true voyce of the deuill indeede were brought to phancie and imagine of vs all as of the grand children and heires of Satan and of hell and to esteeme of them as of the children of light and the vndoubted heires apparant to the celestiall kingdome of heauen In this theyr bewitched conceit they vvere brought to renounce theyr duty loue and allegeance to theyr naturall Soueraigne and to sweare theyr fealty and obedience to the vnnaturall monster of hell Vnto the atchieuing of this impious and trecherous designe namely the reuolt of the besotted people from their Prince and the most Christian Religion by the pure profession and swearing theyr obedience vnto the Pope of Rome they spared no person no condition no calling no profession in either our Church or common weale but abandond them all in theyr deuil-comaedie to the bottomlesse pit of hell And that the 7. horned Babylonian beast might appeare in his liuely orient colours to be he that durst opē his blasphemous mouth against the Almightie his Saints his accursed brood heere doe that in the assumed feigned person of the deuil which the deuil himselfe though a spirit of blasphemie neuer dared to doe that is to curse blaspheme ô hellish impietie my hart doth tremble at the sound the most beloued thrice-blessed annointed of the Lord the sacred person of our dread Soueraigne making her no other in this deuillish tragaedie then the deuils principal darling Heare the deuil or Edmunds in the deuils person who yet draweth his breath from the beames of her princely mercy whō himselfe accursed to the pit of hel in his owne dialect if your Christian eares dare to heare that which those Popish miscreants dare proclaime vpon their stage Oh cries Maho the deuil in Sara yonder commeth Saffron-bagge meaning our blessed Lady shee is come to helpe thee but shee cannot away with a principall person in this Realme and therefore I cannot away with her Heere the play-deuil is conceited so to loue the Queene as he must needes hate our Lady for not louing her Maiestie And to expresse his deuilships good wil forsooth vnto her Maiestie on S. Hughes day hee threatens the Exorcist that he would goe ring for the Queene and in another fit tels Dibdale in a rage that he would goe to the Court and complaine of him to the Queene and cause his head to be set vpon London bridge In another fit hee cryes out of Sara in a loude voyce God saue the Queene and her Ministers expressing his deuilships not onely good affection but zealous deuotion to her Maiestie and her Clergie But that which shewes their diabolicall impietie and opens the treasury of their hearts fraught with treachery and treason they solemnly present the deuil in Sara vpon theyr stage roaring out an oath touching her Maiestie in this wise by my troth she is mine and the Queene of heauen beeing called vppon hee sayd aloude another Queene is my Queene O detestable Romish villany et tamen viuunt and are at this day plotting a new inuasion to set vp a new Queene who haue and doe thus desperatly blaspheme God and the King And is her Maiesties Court more beholden to this Romish hellish Consort then her Maiesties sacred person Heare Modu Maynies deuil vaunting in his deuils voyce vpon S. Georges day that
of the same And againe I imagine that according to theyr most monstrous opinion our Sauiour had been in the Sacrament as the soule is said to be in the body that is totus Ch in toto sacramento et totus in qualibet parte sacramenti So as whether you cut or breake the sacrament after consecration the part that you distribute doth cōtaine whole Christ and euery part of him then can no incision deuide our Sauiours body and cause it to bleed no more then cutting of an arme can deuide the soule I feare his deuilship was too suddaine in this resolution of bleeding or els that his wits were troubled with smoake Secondly I wonder considering the deepe wit and policy of the deuil how it standeth with his wisedome to resolue so cleare easily on the Romish Catholicks side all the deepest matters depending betweene vs and them considering as Edmunds the deuils priuado affirmeth that Protestants be all friend to the deuil Catholicks his sworne enemies This is to weaken himselfe and his forces and to cause his friends to forsake his colours and flie vnto his enemies as wee find by these his temerarious resolutions hee lost 4 or 5000. long-bild birds at a clap Either all is not well with the deuill in his wits or els the priests had so scalded him in the breech as hee durst doe no other And what a strange aduantage haue the Romists of vs Protestants that haue gotten them two heads whereof neither can erre a Pope and a deuill The deuils aunswers resolutions here to cases propounded by the priests are diuine Oracles farre passing the old Oracles hee was wont to make in Apollos Temple at Delphos or the Trophonian denne for they were mixed with aequiuocation the new Iesuitical and old diabolicall tricke but these are cleere direct and plaine Dibd What sayest thou to the Sacrament of the Altar Deuil It is the very body of Christ cut it and thou shalt see it bleede And heerein the deuils headship surpasseth the Popes headship by farre for the Popes head-peece may ake with strong wine stirring choller or strong poyson and his Holines must haue a counsel called and he must be placed in his Consistorian chaire as Caiphas in the seate of the High priest ere hee can prophecie certaine and right and it must be in causis fūdamentalibus fidei to and then he shal speake truth whether he wil or no like Balams Asse but the deuils headship needes none of these molestations solemnities nor exceptions His censure is in actu vltimo ready quick certaine sound infallible cleere admitting no interpretation Who being alwaies ready at hand to cōmaund by Mengus his whip his club or his deuil-bugge or an Exorcists holy hands more potent then all these and hauing his taile wel sizled with brimstone or scalded soundly with holy water afore what a good-yeere needs all this leuel coyle stirre for determinations of counsels resolutions of Popes allegations of Fathers disputations of subtilissimus angelicis Seraphicus doctor ex ordine minorum that doe cramp mens wits turne them out of their sockets Ecce your subtilissimus angelicissimus Seraphicissimus Doctor the deuil and t is no more then thus Exor Deuill what sayest thou to the Pope Is hee Antichrist or head of the Church yea or no Deuil Oh no he is the head of the Church Exor May hee excommunicate Princes and diuest them from theyr crownes De Oh he may he may Exor Hath hee the temporall sword directly or no and is hee Rex regum of the world and all the Emperors Kings and Princes his Lieutenants to place and displace at his pleasure De Oh they be all his vassals Exo May the Iesuits his spirits in ordine ad Deum cog lye aequiuocate adulterate murther stab poyson Christian Princes for aduauncing the Popes Monarchie the King of Spaine or no De Oh they may doe what they list in ordine ad deum This is a short cut t is but an Oh for a preface and the rest is an Oracle and so all the grand cases for either Church or Common-wealth are dispatched And if they want deuils in Italy to exorcise and aske Oracles of let them come but ouer into London in England and wee haue ready for them Darrells wife Moores Minion Sharpe Skelton Euans Swan Lewis the deuil-finders and deuil-puffers or deuil-prayers and they shal start them a deuil in a lane as soone as an Hare in Waltham forrest that shal nick it with aunswers as dead as Westons and Dibdales deuils did And wee shal as easily finde them a route rable and swarme of giddy adle lunaticke illuminate holy spectators of both sexes but especially a Sisternity of mimpes mops and idle holy women that shal grace Modu the deuil with their idle holy presence and be as ready to cry out at the mowing of an apish wench and the lowing or bellowing of a brainlesse empty fellow O the glory of God O the power of prayer as the Romish guls did troupe about Sara Fid and Anne Smith and cry out at the coniuration of the Exorcist O the Catholique fayth O the power of the fayth Catholique Haec tempora hi mores These are the times wherein we are sicke and mad of Robin good fellow and the deuil to walke againe amongst vs and I feare the latter times wherein lying signes faigned wonders cogged miracles the companions of Antichrist shal preuaile with the children of pride giddines and misbeleefe We doe not asseuer that the deuil cannot say a troth or that he hath not some-time proclaimed the truth we know he cried and said to our Sauiour Christ We know thee who thou art the holy one of God wherein he sayd and cried truly but this was vpon coaction from the mighty hand of God and not vppon questioning and dialoguizing with the deuil which we neuer read that eyther our Sauiour or his holy disciples did Nay wee see that our Sauiour checked the deuil so saying truly of him and commaunded him to hold his peace as not accepting of any witnes or testimony from the deuils If Edmunds and his twelue deuilish tragaedians could in deede haue coniured a deuil as the deuil of deuil there was but the cogging coniuring knaues themselues that would haue giuen testimonie to the prayers Sacraments and seruice of God established in our Church as they faigned Modu their deuil to doe we would haue disdained and reiected his testimonie as our Sauiour Christ did But see Westons great wit the Author and contriuer of this deuill-sport When the cogge-deuill speakes of vs O that is our disgrace confusion when he speakes of the Romish church and the bleeding of the Sacrament O that is Gods oracle and their triumphant exaltation O despicable heathenish beggerie to goe a begging good wordes and credit from the deuil And loe heere good Christian Reader plaine Gentilisme without welt or couer The Gentiles beeing forsaken of God and giuen vp into a
reprobate minde did resort vnto theyr Oracles to aske other counsels and resolutions from the deuil and what doe our Romish Impostors lesse or in other sort then Croesus Alexander Pyrrhus and the rest of the heathen Captaines did Let some subtile Sorbonist giue mee an essentiall difference betweene them They asked the deuil questions so doe our priests they asked about matters of their common-weale our priests doe more they aske about matters of God and the Church they tooke the deuils word for a graceful diuine fauour vnto them so doe our priests they accounted the deuils answer as the oracles of God so doe our priests It is the body of Christ cries the deuill cut it and thou shalt see it bleede Why now t is cock or deuil-sure against all the Protestants in the world except the difference be this the deuill neuer aunswered the heathen Captaines in any matter of import but in amphibologies and clowdes for feare of beeing taken tripping in a lye our Romish deuils doe giue their answers bare-faced without any circuition or aequiuocation at all and therefore our Romish deuils are sure the sonnes of theyr sweet Sire the Pope and the darlings of theyr deere mother the holy Church of Rome But ô lamentable desperation of the church of Rome When King Saule for his disobedience was depriued of the good spirit of God and had a bad spirit sent from God to haunt and afflict him and that Almighty God in his heauy displeasure would neither aunswer him by Vrim Thummim nor reuelation from heauen he then in a desperate mood goes to the Witch at Endor to aske counsel of her Quid dicis What sayest thou to my state The loathsome abhominations and Ethnike Impostures of the Church of Rome where-with they haue gulled and made drunken the Kings of the Nations being by the piercing glorious light of the Gospel displayed and vncouered to the open view of the world and that church for her whoredome being depriued of the holy spirit of Almighty God and giuen ouer to the spirit of darknes giddines and iugling deceite hauing now neyther testimonie from Gods diuine Oracles nor breathings from that heauenly cleare fountaine nor presence of holy Fathers to countenance their monstrous deformations doe in a desperate fury and hellish resolution resort vnto the Oracles of the deuil and would coniure vp from hel the Prince and power of darknes to be their proloquutor and to grace them with a wonder Heare their lamentable voyce fraught with despaire quid dicis Prince of darknes what sayest thou for our Masse What sayest thou for our Sacrament of the Altar And now good Reader obserue the top of hellish resolution and the gulfe of dispaire wherein the Romish church is plunged when neither God Angel nor deuil can be gotten to speake for them for heere was neither Angel S. Mary S. Barbara nor deuil nor spirit in all this faigned tragaedie as we haue let you to see thorough the whole course of the same O lamentable desolation Weston and his twelue Priests doe play the deuils themselues all to grace from hel being now forsaken of heauen their pope their Masse their Sacraments their Medalls their agnus Dei their charmes their enchauntments their coniurations their reliques their hellish sorceries et praeualuit hec potestas tenebrarum This power of darknes played by the children of darknes preuailed to the gayning vnto his holines and to hel foure or fiue thousand soules and that in a very little and short time VVhose heart wil not bleede for pitty and his eyes gush out with teares for compassion of our blinded besotted bewitched poore Nation The rather when he shal cast his eye vpon the maine worke shape and end of all this deuillish deuise which was this One of the chiefe impediments that haue hindered from time to time the designments of the Pope the King of Spaine and their agents against her Maiestie and this Kingdome hath beene the want of a sufficient number of Catholiques heere in England to assist them for the supplying whereof his Holines hath from time to time set on worke all his instruments of hell When the Lords in the North were to take vp armes against her Maiestie and the state the Pope denounced his Excommunication against her and against all that should take her part and sent his Priests hither not onlie to intimate vnto thē what the Pope had done therein but likewise to sollicite as many Catholiques as they could to vnite themselues in strengthening that rebellion assuring them that they were absolued from their duty and allegeance and that they were bound vnder paine of the Popes displeasure and of incurring the like censure if they should refuse so to doe And Saunders is confident that if there had beene sufficient notice in time of the said excommunication the number of the Catholiques that would haue taken part with the said Earle would haue beene so great as that her Maiestie with all the forces she could make could not haue been able to haue withstoode them At what time the second attempt as I haue touched in the beginning by force was in plotting betwixt the Pope and the King of Spaine for the sending ouer into England of the Duke of Guise Saunders being gone about that time into Ireland to animate and assist the Traytor Desmond and likewise to incite and allure her Maiesties subiects there to take his part the feare of want of sufficient assistance heere at home did greatly perplex them where-vpon about the yeere 1580 and a little after many more priests and some Iesuits also were sent into this Realme then at any time before to labour by all meanes possible for the with-drawing of her Maiesties subiects from their duty and allegeance by reconciling vniting their harts to her mortal enemie the Pope To which purpose it were hard to recount their false and alluring enticements by exclaiming without all ciuil modesty and truth against the doctrine of the Church of England now established by deprauing her Maiesties gouernment and the whole estate of the Realme in most barbarous and outragious inuectiues and libels and by terrifying of some peruerting of others with strange reports of the strength and preparation of the King of Spaine and the Pope ready to inuade this Land About this time also their traffique merchandizing by pardons medals graines Crosses Agnus deies was exceeding all measure wherewith they deluded and inueigled many of the simpler sort But all these deuises notwithstanding either for that the number they laboured for did not so encrease as they desired or that the Iesuits had an ambitious desire to carie away the garland from the rest of their brethren and companions in this seruice Fa Weston then the Prouinciall of all the Iesuits in England deuised this hellish trick of casting out deuils by the which they so preuailed as they gayned in a very short space foure or 5000 to be reconciled to the Pope And
matters before the Lords of the Counsell concerning her knowledge of sundry priests and Iesuits and as touching one Stoughton who was a notable spy that carried ouer young maids and boyes to be Nunnes and priests brought ouer Letters as occasion serued and continueth as shee thinketh the same trade still After that this exam had beene at the Court aboue a weeke and examined in that space three or foure times the seruaunts of the said L. Grey remaining there still it pleased the Lords of her Maiesties Counsell to send her backe with them to the Lord Anderson to writ theyr letter to his Lordship that he should send for this exam father and not onely to deale with him to see that this exam went to the Church according as she had promised but also that there might be no further proceeding in law against her in respect that she had beene reconciled the which direction the Lord Anderson did accomplish so as this exam continued at her fathers vntill the yeere 1594. After this examinate had remained thus with her father about three or foure moneths the said Ma. Harrington came vnto her and told her he had beene all that while beyond the seas and keeping company with her againe as a man ought to doe with his wife sometimes at Denham and sometimes this exam comming to him to London hee allowed her after the rate of about 20 marks by the yeere She likewise saith that when maister Harrington suspected this exam to be with child he put an hundred pounds into one Ma. Fits his hand to the vse of her and her child if she had any This exam further saith that within about a yeere after that the said maister Harrington had come from beyond the seas as hee pretended and kept companie with her as his lawfull wife hee was apprehended for a priest and first committed to the Towre and then to the Marshalsea Beeing in prison this examinate had a warrant from Ma. Young to goe vnto him and at her comming vnto him he wept and said that if hee might for shame hee would take another course then hee did He cryed her mercy for the abuse offred vnto her and promised that if she would be content she should neuer want Howbeit as she was enformed he told such Catholiques as came vnto him who had vnderstanding that this examinate did challenge him for her husband that shee this examinate did greatly slaunder him vtterly denied that euer hee was married vnto her or euer kept company with her as men doe with theyr wiues Whereupon all such Catholiques as heard thereof did greatly rate this examinate for challenging of him to be her husband and said shee did belie him and that it was the deuill that caused her to raise that slaunder of him being a Catholique priest She further saith that the said Harrington being condemned and executed the 18 of February 1593 as she remembreth she married againe with Ralfe Dallidowne a Smith in Holborne the 20 of Ianuary 1594 as shee thinketh And hauing receiued herselfe the said hundred pound from Ma. Fits her husband Dallidowne had it all except it were some 6 or 7 pound which she had spent before This exam further saith that many times since shee hath conformed her selfe many priests haue greatly blamed her vsing words to this effect vnto her viz. They haue tolde her that they wondred how shee could be brought to goe to the English church considering the great power of the priesthood and of the holy reliques of the Church of Rome To whom this exam hath sometimes aunswered that she was well before she came into theyr hands and still so continueth shee thanked God and thereupon hath desired them that they would deale no more with her but let her alone When shee hath thus aunswered them they haue often said to her that it was the deuill for a certaintie that still hunting of her did perswade her to goe to the Heretiques Church that if they had thought she would haue taken this course they would neuer haue dispossessed her To whom this examinate by way of aunswer hath replied A murren take you I was well enough before you dealt with mee and so haue beene euer since you left me Shee further saith that since shee was first examined before the Lord Bishop of London in March 1598 diuers priests haue vrged her greatly that shee should say nothing against the possessing or dispossessing vsed at Denham either concerning her selfe or any other bidding her aunswer that beeing then young she had forgotten all those things and threatning of her that if she confessed any thing against the holy priesthood or power of the Church in casting out deuils she should be burnt for an Heretique if euer the world changed The names of the priests that haue thus dealt with her both before shee was called for to be examined before the Lord Bishop of London and since at the least some of them are Ma. Sherwood Ma. Gerrard Ma. Blackman Ma. Iohn Greene and Ma. William Bruerton This exam also saith that about foure yeeres since it happened that her husband in a fray killed a man whereupon she was compelled to borrow ten pound of mistris White to be vsed in her husbands businesse certaine priests thought then that they might peraduenture haue drawne this examinate vnto them againe and so resorting vnto her namely as she remembreth maister Blackman maister Greene maister Wells with two or three other priests whom she knew not they told her that her falling from the Catholique Church was the cause that the deuill had made her husband to kill the said man Of late also she saith that one Perry seruaunt to maister Roper that lieth in Southampton-house challenging her for that she had reuealed where her sister Sara dwelt said that she played the Ferret and sought many mens liues that it was pittie she liued and that it were a good deede to shoote her through with a pistoll as she goeth in the streets Howbeit this exam saith that shee neuer meant any Catholique in England hurt some priests excepted who haue dealt hardly with her But beeing now vpon her oath to speake the truth shee hopeth that no honest man or woman will be angry with her for discharging her conscience adding that if it had not been so long ago since she was in the priests hands she could haue deliuered many moe things as touching their bad proceedings Shee further saith that the priests at theyr departure from Denham tooke euery one thence his woman with him Ma Edmunds the Iesuit had for his darling mistris Cressy then a widdow who was a daily guest there and one that did contribute very much both to him and the rest of the priests Anne Smith was at the disposition of Ma. Driland Sara Williams of maister Dibdale mistris Altham of Cornelius and this examinate of Ma. Leigh a priest likewise The examination of Anne Smith alias Atkinson taken by vertue of her
reported This exam further saith that shee being present by Mainy when he was in exorcising after that shee the first time had been exorcised by Cornelius Ma Edmunds the Iesuit did aske the deuil in Mainy whether she this exam was possessed or not and the deuil aunswered that she was Then quoth Ma Edmunds how chaunce he could not be brought to speake this other day when she was exorcised He the said deuil as she then supposed aunswered that the reason was because the spirit that was in her was sullen and dumbe Then they demaunding of his deuil what was the name of the spirit that was in this exam he aunswered Soforce And this was betwixt Christmas and Shrouetide She further saith that it was a common thing amongst them to giue out words as though Protestants were all possessed and there-vpon the priests would aske some that were pretended to be possessed or the deuil in them as it was supposed whilest they were exorcising them why they did not trouble them before whilst they were Protestants And the deuil would aunswer that there was no reason for them so to doe because the Protestants were theirs already She further saith that after the time she was out of the priests hands her former disease of the Mother did diuers times take her and continued with her as before it had done vntill being married she had children Since which time she hath beene rid of that disease she thanketh God She further saith that shee wel remembreth the morning when Alexander the Apothecarie was to goe to London to fetch more priests the day before this exam was first exorcised his horse prauncing and flinging of him downe he returned backe againe and constantly affirmed that the wicked spirit that was in this exam had caused his horse to fling him whereat when this exam laughed he the said Alexander affirmed that it was the deuill that laughed at him The confession of Ma. Anthonie Tyrrell Clerke written with his owne hand and auouched vpon his oath the 15 of Iune 1602. DIuers interrogatories beeing propounded to this examinate cōcerning the pretended casting out of deuils by maister Edmunds alias Weston a Iesuit and certaine other Seminary priests in the yeeres 1585 and 1586 at Hackney Denham and other places and as touching likewise the occasions or inducements that mooued them at that time to take such matters vpon them hee hath set downe his aunswer as followeth I will first answer to the circumstance of time which is heere propounded vnto me In the yeere 1584 I Iohn Ballard priest since executed with Ma. Babington and the rest comming together from Rome through Burgundy found there a great presse of souldiours and were aduertised that they were to serue vnder the Duke of Guise When wee came to Roane wee heard then directly that the said preparations were against England The same yeere as I remember Ma. Crighton a Scottish Iesuit was taken at the sea and after brought into England who by occasion of certaine writings which he had was driuen to confesse at large as I haue beene informed what the whole plot was and how far both the Pope and the King of Spaine had ingaged themselues in it Hereof I doubt not but that sundry Catholiques in England had sufficient notice from beyond the seas and especially Ma. Edmunds alias Weston the Iesuit who was then the chiefe as maister Garnet as I take it is at this present and therefore could not be ignorant of such important matters wherein principall men of his owne societie were engaged Not long after my cōming into England in the yeere 1585 maister Martin Aray a priest meeting with me at the end of Cheapside as I was turning to enter into Paules Churchyard tooke mee by the hand and whispering me in the eare bad me be of good cheere for that all things went now very well forward The king of Spayne quoth he is now almost ready with his forces to come into England and we shall be sure to heare some good newes therof very shortly wherefore it standeth vs now in hand that be priests to further the Catholique cause as much as possibly in vs lyeth or to this effect And this was the state of that time nourished I well perceiued with great hope of some great alteration by the meanes before expressed About the time of maister Arayes aforesaid communication with me maister Edmunds alias Weston had lately as it was reported cast a deuill out of one Marwood whereupon he the said maister Aray at the time before mentioned did highly commend vnto mee the exorcismes of Fa. Edmunds saying that hee the said Edmunds would make the deuils themselues now confesse that theyr kingdome was neere at an end Vpon the pretended dispossession of the said Marwood sundry other priests mooued thereunto I am perswaded by the instigation of maister Edmunds or for that they meant to shew theyr zeale in imitating of him did take vpon them to exorcise and cast deuils out of diuers persons viz. Sara and Friswood Williams William Trayford Anne Smith Richard Mainy and Elizabeth Calthrop whose necke was found broken at the bottome of a payre of stayres as the brute went then amongst vs. VVhen I saw this course I liked it well and was my selfe an Actor in it and did well perceiue that it was the matter whereat Ma. Aray had aymed when he told me that it stoode vs Priests in hand to further the Catholique cause as much as possibly wee could And indeed our proceedings therein had for a time wonderfull successe I cannot in my conscience esteeme the number fewer that in the compasse of halfe a yeere were by that meanes reconciled to the Church of Rome then 5 hundred persons some haue said three or foure thousand As touching the seuerall manners of dispossessing the said parties and of theyr fits traunces and visions diuers discourses were penned amongst the which I my selfe did penne one Ma. Edmunds likewise writ I am perswaded a quire of paper of Ma. Mainyes pretended visions For he thought as it seemed to haue wrought some great matter by him but was disappointed very ridiculously so as I thinke the said vision will hardly come to light There was also a Treatise framed to proue first that in former times diuers had been possessed Secondly that Christ hath left to his Church certaine remedies for the dispossessing of such parties Thirdly that in the casting out of deuils there hath beene great vse of application to the Daemoniacks of holy reliques In prosecution of the first part amongst other points the Author sheweth that GOD permitteth some to be possessed that thereby the faithlesse Atheists may learne that there is both a God and a deuill and that the faith of the Catholique Church may also be confirmed by the power left vnto her in casting out of deuils In the handling of the second point hee tryumpheth against the Protestants saying that for all theyr reformation which they talke of to be
so neere the order of the Primitiue Church yet they are not able either to discerne who are possessed amongst them nor how to giue thē remedy The third part is handled more largely to the great aduauncement power of Reliques As for holy water that S. Macarius thereby cured a woman who by Magicall enchauntment seemed to be turned into a Mare Likewise how S. Peter hallowed bread against the assault of certaine deuils which were sent by Simon Magus in the likenes of dogges to deuoure him For the power of priesthood there is an example alledged of S. Martin how he putting his fingers into the mouth of a Daemoniacke the deuill durst not bite him though he bad him to bite him if he had any power so to doe There is also mention made of the vertue of the blessed sacrament of holy oyle and of the bones of Saints The vse of all those things was very frequent in the exorcising of the parties possessed Insomuch as wee omitted not the reliques and bones of Ma. Campian Ma. Sherwin Ma. Brian and Ma. Cottam to haue some little testimonie by implication from the deuill to prooue them holy Matyrs If I be not deceiued Ma. Edmunds alias Weston was the Author of this booke and the examples by him alledged were brought of purpose to giue the more credit to his and our proceedings with the said parties before mentioned And indeed he was not therein deceiued for wee that were priests were thereby greatlie magnified by Catholiques schismaticks and weak protestants the two former beeing confirmed in the Romane Catholicke faith and the third sort therevnto reconciled as hath beene before mentioned And that cannot be denied but that in the course which wee held with the said pretended Daemoniacks many occasions were giuen and aptly taken to scorne and deride the orders seruice now established by her Maiesties lawes in the Church of England Likewise I must confesse that the course we held was so pleasing to such as saw it or were informed of it by those that they trusted as it prooued very gainfull vnto vs all that were priests wee had out of question procured vnto our selues very great fauour credit and reputation so as it was no meruaile if some young Gentlemen as Ma. Babington the rest were allured to those strange attempts which they tooke in hand by maister Ballard who was an Agent amongst vs. They saw as they supposed for both maister Babington and diuers of his company were oftentimes at the exorcisings that we had a great commandement ouer deuils which preuailed greatly with them as I think It would haue been a very strange thing I am perswaded that wee could not haue wrought men at that time to attempt which was prudently foreseene by Fa. Edmunds of purpose as I am resolued in my conscience to prepare the harts minds of Catholiques by those practises that when such forces as were intended should haue come into England they might haue been more readily drawn by him and vs to haue ioyned theyr forces with them And this is that I can say concerning the occasions or inducements that such matters were taken in hand at the time articulated Now as touching the substance of the generall interrogatory it selfe I haue perused the seuerall examinations and confessions of Sara Williams and Friswood her sister of Anne Smith and of Richard Mainy gentleman and am fully perswaded that they haue deposed the truth in such poynts whereof they were examined belonging to theyr pretended possession dispossessiō The effect wherof is that they were drawn by our cunning carriage of matters to seeme as though they had beene possessed when as in truth they were not neither were there any of the priests ignorant in my cōscience of their dissimulation nor the parties themselues as now it appeareth of our dissembled proceeding with them After I had beene my selfe first at one of theyr exorcisings it was my chaunce to he that night with maister Thomson a priest and a great Actor in those matters at his chamber by the Spittle and falling into some conference about it I vsed some such words as though I doubted whether the party were actually and really possessed For I my selfe being not acquainted with anie plot deuised by Fa Edmunds or any other spake my minde some-what more plainely then I perceaued Ma Thomson wel liked of His aunswer vnto me was in effect that he being my friend did earnestly wish me to cast forth no such speeches whatsoeuer I did thinke For quoth he the matter is iudged to be so by Fa Edmunds and some others that are Priests Besides such Catholiques as haue beene present at such fits haue receaued it for a truth that the parties are possessed And although I for my part will not make it an article of my Creede yet I thinke that godlie credulitie doth much good for the furthering of the Catholique cause and for the defacing of our common enemies and their proceedings or to this effect Not long after also talking with Ma Stamp at the Lo. Vaux his house in Hackney concerning these matters and demaunding of him seriously his opinion what he thought of them his aunswer was that they were things of such importance as would further the Catholique cause more then all the bookes that had beene written of late yeeres about the controuersies in Religion with the Protestants with which aunswer I seemed to rest contented because I saw thereby he was not willing to enter into any playner course with me I would not haue this my confession further extended then my meaning is I doe not take vpon me either directly or indirecty to oppose my selfe to the three poynts of the Treatise before mentioned which are strengthened with some authorities both of the Scriptures and of the auncient Fathers and Writers How be it as I account it presumption to denie all those Histories as touching the casting out of deuils in the Primitiue Church since the Apostles times so to beleeue all that is written thereof I hold it a point of great madnes and I doubt not but the soundest Catholiques in Europe are of my opinion For be it true that is alledged in the said treatise of S. Ambrose that he neuer heard of any that could counterfeit himselfe to be a Daemoniack yet later experience hath taught vs the contrary And indeede the artificiall skil considered where-vnto priests haue attained it is a very easie matter to bring a young girle or a youth to doe and speake those things which the Exorcists can readily colour and interpret as if it were both done and spoken by deuils that did possesse them But yet this I wil say and giue it for a rule to all Catholiques heereafter that wil not purposely suffer themselues to be deluded let them but mark diligently when they are present at any such actions what the parties pretended to be possessed doe eyther act or speak and then they shal perceaue nothing but may very well