Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	age_n	year_n	youth_n	286	3	8.0905	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02750	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 Edmunds, alias Weston a Iesuit, and diuers Romish priestes 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.	Harsnett, Samuel, 1561-1631.	1603 (1603)	STC 12880; ESTC S120922	196,686	296

George Peckhams house at Denham or my L. Vaux his house at Hackney and aske the deuil who saw our Sauiours eyes as hee sayes with his owne eyes touched him with his finger kissed him with his mouth and to make it past doubt tooke his oath vpon the Sacrament that it was true Or else trie if the argument wil not run in better moode and figure thus The very same deuil that Sainted Brian and Campian at Tiburne that proclaimed himselfe a Dotrel a Ninnie and a mad foole at Hackney that had the Asses eares clapt close to his head at Denham hath said roared and sworne so therefore it is true Or else thus The same Edmunds his twelue holy disciples that haue feigned a deuil Tragaedies sorted it into actes and scenes furnished it with hangings set vp a stage of forgerie replenished it with personated actors adorned it with fictious deuises dreames imaginations and ridiculous wonders haue cogged a new hel new deuils new roarings new oathes new kisses to cogge our Sauiour into the Sacrament therfore you may be cock-sure to finde him there CHAP. 21. ¶ Of the strange formes shapes and apparitions of of the deuills IT is a question moued by Scaliger Why men of a melancholick constitution be more subiect to feares fancies and imagination of deuils and witches then other tempers be His aunswer is quia ab atra bile atri fuliginosi generantur spiritus qui cerebrum pingunt turbulentis phantasmatibus because from their blacke sooty blood gloomie fuliginous spirits do fume into their braine which bring blacke gloomy and frightful images representations and similitudes in them wherwith the vnderstanding is troubled and opprest Men of this duskie turbulent and fantasticall disposition as they are very stiffe in their conceit absolute in their owne apprehension extreame violent and peremptory in their resolution which al grow from the earthy dry stiffenesse of the discursiue melancholicke spirits that doe possesse theyr braine so are they so full of speculations fansies and imaginations of spirits and deuils and those so Chimaericall and strange as the Philosophers old aphorisme is cerebrum Melancholicum est sedes daemonum a melancholicke braine is the chaire of estate for the deuil And an other aphorisme they haue founded on experience nullum magnum ingenium sine dementia there is no great wit without some mixture of madnesse Iohn Bodin the Frenchman is a perfect Idaea of both these who beeing in his younger yeeres of a most piercing quicke speculatiue wit which grew of a light stirring and discursiue melancholie in him fell as Hermogenes the mirror of wit did in the midle of his age to be a pure sot The cause whereof is the cooling and thickning of his melancholicke blood and the spending or going out of that lightsome actiue and stirring spirit which the heat of blood in his youth did better maintaine This man though during the prime of his wit he was of a most pregnant ripe and subtile discourse yet his wit beeing deepe woaded with that melancholick blacke dye had his braine veram sedem daemonum the theater and sporting house for deuils to daunce in for he hath in his braine such strange speculations fantasmes and theoremes for deuils as a man may see a great deale of madnes mixed with his great wit For he holds that deuils may transforme themselues into any shape of beasts or similitude of men and may eate drinke and conuerse familiarly with them and may haue the act of generation with women as they please And not that onely but that a Witch by oyntments charmes may transforme herselfe into the shape of any beast bird or fish that she may flie in the ayre that she may depriue men of their generatiue power that she may transferre corne out of one field into another and may cause haile thunder and winde at her pleasure And hee defends lycanthropia and the change of Vlysses men into swine by the Witch Circe to be reall and true and aboue all tels that vnsauory melancholicke ridiculous tale of an Egge which a Witch fold to an Englishman and by the same transformed him into an Asse and made him her Market-mule three yeeres to ride on to buy butter and how that at last shee remorphized him into the natiue shape of a man againe This mans cerebrum melancholicum is a notable forge for our popish Ethnicks to hammer a motly deuil out of But they haue more auncient and authenticke records for their Night-owles then this as namely that canonicall story in Virgill of Creüsa Aeneas his wife how Aeneas flying with Anchises his father and Creüsa his wife thorough the streets on Troy being all on a light flame lost his wife Creüsa in a crowde as he posted thorough the Citty and how that Creüsa appeared to him in her ghost as Aeneas went out at the gate told him that she was dead and was become one of the walking night-ghosts bidding him to take his father Anchises and shift for himselfe This is a most redoubted record of the walking of womens ghosts And for the appearing of bad and hurtful spirits in vgly and monstrous formes they haue their president and originall in the history of Mar Brutus who hauing put all his Army in a readines for the last fatall fielde to be fought betwixt him and Augustus and beeing alone at his booke in the deepe and silent night suddainly he heares a great rushing in the roome where hee sate and casting vp his head sees a foule ougly monstrous shaped ghost standing afore him and asking it angerly Quis tu Deus aut daemon what art thou a God or a deuil The ghost answers sum malus tuus genius I am thine euil angel the Capt askes fiercely again quid me vis what doost thou heere the ghost sayes cras Philippis me videbis to morrow I wil meet thee at the fields of Philippi the captaine answers resolutely videbo I le meet thee so falls constantly to his booke againe not bidding it God night Brutus recounts this spectrum to Cassius his fellow in Armes and Cassius perswades him that it was but a dreame But out of this and such like Heathenish dreames what a world of hel-worke deuil-worke and Elue-worke had we walking amongst vs heere in England what time that popish mist had befogged the eyes of our poore people How were our children old women and maides afraid to crosse a Churchyeard or a three-way leet or to goe for spoones into the Kitchin without a candle and no marueile First because the deuil comes from a smoakie blacke house he or a lewd frier was still at hand with ougly hornes on his head fire in his mouth a cowes tayle in his breech eyes like a bason fangs like a dogge clawes like a Beare a skinne like a Neger and a voyce roaring like a Lyon then boh or oh in the dark was enough to make their haire stand vpright And if that the bowle of

day when bon fires were made for Babingtons apprehension viz the 15 of Iuly The said mistris Pownd was of her sonnes Religion where-vpon after he was apprehended she had no ioy to stay there but was caried thence by one Ma Goodmans direction vnto mistris Leicester dwelling in Fleetstreete at the figne of the dogges head in the pot where shee had not remained aboue two dayes but vppon a search was taken committed to prison for reeusancie where she remained about a moneth and then escaped thence In this meane while viz from Whitsontide before specified Dibdale Lowe and Adams were apprehended and being arraigned this exam was brought by maister Youngs meanes whilest she was prisoner to giue in euidence against them at their arraignment The cause why she was brought to giue in euidence against them was for that maister Young hearing her name did examine her whether she was not one that did pretend her selfe to be possessed at Denham with whom Dibdale and the rest of the priests had dealt and there-vpon examined her touching her possession and the deuils dealing with her and particulerly of a peece of a knife which the priests said came out of her body This exam was prisoner in Bridewell where the said Fid was likewise prisoner with her where this exam found such fauour as hauing the liberty of the prison by maister Youngs appointment and thereby being trusted with some keyes she and Fid by her meanes escaped thence taking with them the Matrones girle which girle by the said maister Pownds direction was sent into Hampshire and placed with his Mother who had a house in the said County and did then lie there After she was escaped shee was placed by Ma. Pownds direction first in Cow-lane then by her mothers meanes with the French Embassadors wife where disliking she was by maisters Pownds meanes placed in a poore vvomans house by the Marshalsea and then againe with his mother and then going to the White-Lyon to see maister Pownd with her mistris she this exam whilst they two were talking together going to maister Simpsons chamber a priest was againe there apprehended and committed by maister Young againe to Bridewell where shee remained about 21 weekes in which time the Queene of Scots was beheaded Shee was discharged out of Bridewell by maister Secretary Walsinghams meanes at the sute of maister Dale a Merchant in Gracious-street and then remaining with her mother a while was placed with the said La. Stafford with whom shee dwelt about two yeeres viz. till she was married She saith that whē first she fell into the priests hands shee was about 18 yeeres of age and that shee is verily perswaded she neuer was possessed with a wieked spirit for the which shee thanketh Almighty God from the bottom of her hart but verily thinketh that she was verie much abused by the said priests in that they did perswade her as is before expressed that shee was possessed Besides shee saith that where it was giuen out by the priests that a peece of a knife came out of her mouth when she was in one of her fits she then was fully perswaded that they said vntruly therein although at that time being wholely addicted to Poperie she did reuerence them very much durst not contradict them She further saith that when Cornelius did first begin to exorcise her the manner thereof was this She being wel and in perfect memory and at that time not troubled with her former disease called the mother Cornelius and the rest set her in a chayre and bound her fast with towells then Colnelius hauing ended a short speech or Sermon the effect whereof she doth not now remember which was made before shee was bound in the chayre and being in his Albe and hauing a stole about his neck began to reade his Exorcismes whereat this exam doth now remember that shee began greatlie to shiuer and quake being then strooke with a great feare as though the deuill would greatlie torment and teare her because they had so bound her Besides shee saith which did encrease her feare she had beene told by diuers how others had beene troubled viz how in their fits they were greatly tormented how they could not endure the Priests to come neere them how when a priest did lay his hand vppon any part of them the said part would be so hote as though it would burne them to the bone how the deuil in them would raile vpon the Catholiques greatly commend the Protestants and many other such things they reported which this exam hath forgotten She further saith that she was then so zealous in Poperie and had such an opinion of the said priests that if shee could haue gotten vnder the Altar-cloath with a crosse in her mouth a candel in her hand she thought her selfe safe from the deuil When shee was exorcised the first time and so afterwards being bound in the chayre where shee seemed still to be wel notwithstanding their Exorcismes then they would pretend to giue her somewhat either to comfort her stomacke she seeming to faint through feare or to disclose the deuil which was hallowed and was very loathsome to her to take This hallowed medicine as she remembreth had Rue and oyle in it and was vgly to behold such as she thinketh they could not haue taken themselues Also she saith they would burne brimstone vnder her nose which shee saith would greatly trouble her and as shee supposeth did take away her sences from her Thus she saith they dealt with her as she supposeth some fiue or sixe times She further saith that they did bind her so fast at those times in a chayre as they almost lamed her armes and so brused all the parts of her body with holding tying and turmoyling of her that she was so sore she was compelled afterwards by the space of three yeeres to swathe her body She further saith that now she prayeth God for the priests that be aliue that God would forgiue them for dealing so with her and is very hartily sorie that euer she came into their company She further saith that vpon Wednesday in Whitson-weeke whilst shee was at Denham there came thether maister Salisbury that was executed Ma Iohn Gerrard and Ma George Peckham She also saith that she thanketh God shee neuer saw any thing that might terrifie her but onely the priests when they were exorcising that she neuer saw any visions and whatsoeuer they write or affirme of her touching any such matter shee affirmeth that they are all fained and vntrue And she addeth that she meruaileth that they should set downe any thing of her that shee should speake in her fits considering that it was giuen out the spirit that was in her was a sullen and dumbe spirit and would not therefore be brought to aunswer the priests and that the said spirit that was supposed to be in her was such a one the deuil that was in Mainy who was named Modion did affirme as many