Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	day_n	young_a	youth_n	211	3	8.3188	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05303	A treatise of specters or straunge sights, visions and apparitions appearing sensibly vnto men Wherein is delivered, the nature of spirites, angels, and divels: their power and properties: as also of witches, sorcerers, enchanters, and such like. With a table of the contents of the several chapters annexed in the end of the booke. Newly done out of French into English.; Discours des spectres, ou visions et apparitions d'esprits, comme anges, demons, at ames, se monstrans visibles aux hommes. English	Loyer, Pierre le, 1550-1634.; Jones, Zachary.	1605 (1605)	STC 15448; ESTC S108473	230,994	324

adventurous beganne to rush vpon Monsieur the spirite saying vnto him Sir if you be the Divell I am his damme And therewithall he curried him so lustily with sound blowes of his cudgell that the spirite which was of no other substance than flesh and bone did so well feele his Bastanadoes as hee cryed out for pardon and saide hee was Maister Iohn At this worde his neece leapt out of hir bed and stayed herfriend from dealing with him any further And this shall suffice to speake of artificiall devises which doe in a sorte seeme very cunning and subtile and do passe withall so cunningly as the most crafty are overtaken and abvsed by them Wee will now proceede to speake of other artificiall prankes more grosse and not so fine and such as are played and vsed vpon sottish and simple witted persons Of iests wher by simple persons are deceved and deluded lib. 2. of the Courtier It is a thing very ordinary and vsuall with common Iesters to be alwayes deluding of simple and credulous folkes And you may well thinke how easie a matter it was to make that man beleeve any thing whatsoever of whome Balthasar Castilion speaketh who was easily perswaded and drawne to beleeve that hee was starke blinde The history is thus Two Bouffons or pleasant companions after they had long played and jested with a poore simple fellow made him in the end to lay him downe And within a while after they having put out the candle made a shew as if they had beene still playing at the cardes and did perswade him who was layde that there was light still burning in the chamber and that they did still holde on play Insomuch as at last this poore man began to cry out vnto them saying Oh sirs I am blinds The others replying vnto him and making shew as if they did come neere him with the candle said that he was deceived and that it was nothing but a fantasie that was come into his head for that his eyes were still very faire and goodly to looke vnto Ayme quoth he this is no fantasie nor I see no more than as if I never had had eyes in my head This poore sotte say I woulde have easely beene made beleeve all manner of false visions that any man could have presented vnto his sight And if his companions had withall made a noyse and rumbling in the Chamber it had beene enough to have scared and frayed him as if the Fairies and Spirites had already taken him by the shinnes Besides it is a common tricke of vnhappy boyes to make especiall choice of Churchyardes there to terrifie others Churchyards places most suspected for spirits to walk in because those are helde to be places most suspected for Ghostes and Spirites to haunt in and inhabite In those places they will sometimes set Crevises alive or Tortoyses and putte a burning candle on their backes and after will let them to go to the intent those that shall see them slowly marching or creeping neere about the sepulchres may suppose them to be the soules of dead men In himno Mercurii And truely Homer saith That the Tortoise is armed with deceipt and imposture or that I may vse his owne worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meaning in my conceit That by her simple persons are deceived in the night season More than that there be of those Streete-walkers and idle companions which wil apparel themselves like warre-woolves and take vnto them the habite of some supposed spirite or Divell and so keeping neere vnto the sepulchres of the dead they will counterfeit themselves all the night to be ghosts and spirites Lavater recounteth how it happened one day in a Towne of Switzerland named Zurich Libr. 1. de Spectris that certaine yoong lusty Gallants and carelesse youths having changed their apparell did daunce all night long and within a certaine churchyard and it happened that one of them more pleasantly disposed than she rest taking vp the bone of a dead man did play therewithall vpon a beere of wood that was neere by and was vsed for the carriage of the dead corpes and hee made it to sound as if he had beene playing on a Tabor Some there were that happened to perceive it who as it seemeth being none of the wisest did presently spreade abroade throughout all the towne and reported that they had seene a daunce of dead men and that it was greatly to be doubted that some plague and mortalitie would follow after it Certaine it is that it is much the worse when as such fooles doe finde others as very fooles as themselves For else it might happen that their trumperies and deceiptfull illusions which they prepare to abuse others would fall vpon their owne heades and they might chaunce at some time or other to be so well marked for their labour as they would remember it all their lives after But if these maister fooles doe gaine little or nothing in playing the divelles towardes such as are more divelles than themselves So doe they as little advantage themselves when they thinke to terrifie and make afraide such men as are wise and of a minde settled and assured and who doe not easely or without good proofe and triall beleeve all things to be Spirites which doe appeere hideous and strange vnto them To this purpose there is a very notable Historic recited by Lucian of Democritus an excellent Philosopher in his time In Dialogo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Democritus being willing to withdrawe himselfe into a solitary place that hee might the more at his ease intend the study of Philosophy without being troubled by any body made choice of a sepulchre that was large and deepe in the ground and seated without the citie of Abdera within the which enclosing and shutting himselfe vp hee beganne to write and compose many things containing matter of notable and great learning The young youths of Abdera who esteemed him little better than a foole being advertised heereof apparelled themselves in the habite and shew of spirites and taking vnto them blackeroabes and certaine hideous visardes made like in shape vnto dead men having their sculles bare and naked they did environ the sepulchre round about dācing leaping fetching their gambolds in a round never ceasing still to intermingle straunge cries and voyces in their dauncing Democritus for all this mummery would not so much as lift vppe his eyes from his Booke but continued still writing of somthing all that time But in the end being weary of their cries and noyse he sayde vnto them Cease cease my friends to play the fooles thus as you doe and vse your fooleries to some others for I knowe you well enough Neverthelesse Guido Cavalcanti did in another forte aunswere certaine yoong Gentlemen of Florence that came to feare and terrifie him within a Churchyard where hee was verie busie and intentive in coutemplating certaine auntiént Toombes and Sepulchres For as Boccace affirmeth having

entonneled in a long cane or reede have deceived and seduced such as have beene scant well advised insomuch as they have caused them to doe things they would never have done if it had not beene by meanes of such abuse and illusion It is reported that Boniface the eight did vse this suttlety as a meane to climbe vnto the Papacie and faining himselfe to be an Angell he extorted the dignitie of the soveraigne Bishoppricke out of the handes of Celestine a simple holie man and more worthy to live in an Hermitage than to have that charge wherein he had beene placed and invested It is a matter also very famous and notorious how that in times past there was in the Towne of Angiers one that was servant vnto a rich and wealthy widow who to come to the toppe of his desires which was to gette his mistris in marriage by any practise whatsoever and that by meanes thereof hee might get an interest in the great wealth and goods which she possessed he fained himselfe to be the spirit of hir late deceased husband And breaking a wal or terrasse that was neere adioyning to his mistris bed side he put a reede thorow the same thorough the which speaking in the night season so as his Mistris might heare him hee oftentimes repeated these or the like wordes in effect My sweete love I am the soule of thy deceased husband who doe counsell thee for thy profite that thou take such a one thy servant in marriage This deceitfull illusion was of that force and efficacie that it fell out according as her servant had fore thought And indeede it was not ill for her for he became so good a husband that he died one of the richest and wealthiest persons of the towne insomuch as his riches is growne into a Proverb at this day throughout all Aniow Now there be some some persons Of divers artificiall devises vsed to make a shew of Spirits and Specters that together with some artificiall and coyned voyce doe also ioyne thinges naturall which at the first shew doe seeme very strange vnto the eyes of the Beholders As for example They doe clothe themselves in the skinnes of Sea-calves or Seales which naturally are of a glistering and shining colour and so doe they present themselves vnto those whome they have a purpose to deceive perswading them with a faint and fained voyce whatsoever they doe thinke good Sometimes they take a winding sheete or some white linnen clothes and doeaffirme themselves to be the soules and spirites of the dead And of these we can yeeld plentifull examples First of all here we may alleadge an history recited by Hector Boetius in his Annales of Scotland A certayne Scottish King having lost the battell against the Pictes found his people so discoraged that they were all out of love with the warres The King being much aggreeved therewithall did suborne certaine persons who being apparelled with bright shining scales and having in their handes truncheons of rotten wood which in Scotland is very common and dooth shine by night as wee have before saide did appeere vnto the Princes and Chiefetaines of the Scottish army being in their dead sleepe and awaking them did admonish them to fight afresh against the Pictes the antient enemies of the Scots And that they should not be afraide to assaile and set vpon them for that they were sent from God to tell them that they should vndoubtedly obtaine the victory This devise wrought so well and effectually that the Princes and Chiefetaines being of opinion that they had seene the Angels of heaven in their dreame did beleeve that God would fight for them and in this conceipt and imagination they charged vpon the Pictes so lively and courageously as they both defeated and vtterly rooted them out of their coun trey Thus did these truncheons of rotten wood and these scales of fishes or rather Seale-skins give a notable occasion to this king of Scots to adde an artificia● devise of mans invention to the presence of men whose lively voyce ioyned to a thing m●erly natural yet strange at the first shew did cause thē that they which could not discerne neither the Nature of the one nor the Art of the other did take both the one and the other to be a verie vision and true Specter That which maketh mee most to marvell at these Princes and Chiefetaines is That though each of them severally and asunder by his owne bed side did see this naturall and artificiall vision none of them neverthelesse could discover this deceipt but that all in generall did beleeve that what was presented vnto them was surpassing and beyond nature But howsoever this was well carri●d without being discovered I suppose at this present the like would hardely and ill be done but that it woulde rather fall out contrary to the intention and meaning of the Deceiver so as himselfe would be deceived Erasmus in one of his Epistles which hee wrote vnto a certaine Bishop shewing That it is not alwayes sure nor expedient to give faith and credite vnto Specters the which are sayde by some to appeere vnto them amongest other Histories dooth bring in this that hapned in his time There was saith he a certaine person with whome a neece of his did dwell and soiourned being a woman rich and well monied and withall very covetous He counterfeiting himselfe to be a Ghost and a Spirite didde often vse to come in the night time into the chamber of his sayde neece and being covered with a white sheete did faine himselfe to be a soule departed He would vse also to vtter some doubtfull and ambiguous wordes and would make certaine rumblings and noyses in the ayre hoping that shee would have sent for some Exorcist to come vnto her or that she her selfe would have coniured it But as she had the courage more than of a woman so did she advise her selfe accordingly and caused a certaine friend of hers to come secretly into her chamber that should entertaine the spirite And having made him to drinke well because he should stand the lesse in feare of the Spirite and arming him with a good great cudgell as much as hee could well gripe in his hand that he might therewithall serve himselfe in steede of exorcismes shee caused him to be hidden in a corner by her bed side till such time as the supposed spirit should make his repayre thither who at his accustomed houre failed not to come and to make his wonted stirres and noyses bellowing and crying I knowe not in what sadde and sorrowfull sorte Vpon the heating of these stirres the good drunkard that wa● to play the Coniurer beganne to rowze himselfe halfe overcome as hee was with wine and sleepe The spirit seeing him drawe towards him endevoured with more strange voyces and gestures as well as hee could to repulse and terrifie him But this gallant who by reason of his wine that had warmed his braines was the more hardy and

so doth S. Lib. 15. cap. 23. de ciuitate Des. Augustine interpret that place And forasmuch as the Angels were created by God strong and puissant and are ordayned as Iudges of the world hauing the Regiment and gouernement thereof in diuers charges degrees and authorities For this cause the Hebrewes call them also Abirim which signifieth strong and Elobim Gods or Iudges And because they haue their vnderstanding sharpe quicke and subtill therefore they call them also Shanim which ought to be vnderstood both actiuely and passiuely For besides that of themselues they haue their vnderstanding quicke and subtill they doe also sharpen and open the vnderstanding and Intellectuall powers of men whom they visite Of the seuerall names of Diuils or euill Angels amongst the Hebrewes Greeks and Arabians Now the euil Angels diuels are also named like as the good Angels are Malachim by the name of messengers yet so as they haue an addition of an Epithet sit and answerable to their wicked euil nature which is Raaim The which some being deceiued by the affinitie of the Letters haue turned into Rashim which signifieth Heades Chiefes or Colonels But I do not know that I did euer read the word Rashim simply for Diuels And if it bee in any place vsed for the same it is rather by way of an Allegorie then otherwise as I am not ignorant that the Hebrewes allegorically doe call the Deuils The diuels in the auncient French were called Guelsers of the Almanie word Vaguerant id est Vagabond which commeth of the Hebrew word Gala. Rashe-galijoth That is Heads or Chiefes of Captiuitie and Chiefes of mishappe and of encombrāce Moreouer the deuils are called also as the angels Ruhhoth Spirits and in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Spirits deceiuers and wicked and euill spirits They are also tearmed by the Greekes Daemones and Diaboli Daemones because they bring feare vnto men and Diaboli because they are Detractours Lyers slaunderers which the Hebrewes doe expresse also in their Language by the Name of Satanim which in the vulgar Translation is translated Diuels Calumniators and enemies And the Arabians euen to this day doe retaine this name For they call the Diuels Satainim as is to bee seene in diuers places of the Alcoran Besides they are called of the Hebrewes Elilim as authors of all Idolatrie and of the Idoles of the Paynims And of this name in my opinion is deryued the worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which as writeth Macrobius The auncient Greekes did vse to call both Apollo and Bacchus which in very truth were two Diuels that had more Images erected in their names then any other of the Heathen Gods and did longest of all abuse and seduce the Greekes the inuentours of all Idolatrie The seuerall names of diuels amongst the Latynes The Latynes also for their partes are not vnfurnished nor vnprouided of fit Names proper and significatiue touching Diuels For they vsed by diuers and seuerall Names to call them Lares Laruae Lemures Genij Manes And that those which they termed Lares were Diuels It appeareth in that Cicero translating Plato his Timeus calleth that Lares which the Philosopher named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Diuels The Grammarian Festus agreeing with Cicero saith also that they are Infernall gods or the soules of men And as touching the regard of the soules It is no strange matter to finde in S. Augustine and other auncient Authors That our forefathers beeing Gentiles did thinke That the soules of men after their dissolution from the bodies did become Daemones or Diuels Of Lares or Domesticall gods or diuels In lib. 6. Acneidos in the expheatiō of the ver Sedibus huncrefer ance suis Now these Lares were domestical or houshold gods because as Seruius said in olde times the dead bodies were vsually enterred and buried in their houses And therefore those Lares that is to say the soules of the dead were adored and worshipped euery one particularly in that house where their bodies were enterred Of the name of Lares was deriued that of Laruae which were Shadowes or Ghostes tormenting the domesticall and particular inhabitants of priuate houses And certaine it is that euen in the time of our fathers the Polapians being a certaine Northerne people before they were reduced to the Christian faith did bury the bodies of their parents in the harthes of their Chimneies and for default thereof they were vexed and tormented with Spirits that appeared vnto them The Philosopher Plutarch likewise doth affirme that these Lares haue the ouersight of houses In Problem R●● and that they are most seuere and cruell exactors and punishers of faultes committed and searchers or Inquisitors of the life and actions of those persons which are within their iurisdiction or precincts And he saith that they are clothed with Dogge-skinnes because as the Dogge is a beast that excelleth in sent and smelling so doe they as it were smell out a farre off the sins and misdeedes of men to the intent they may sharply punish and chastice them for the same But hee might haue added this rather if hee had beene a Christian That as Dogges are naturally enuious So these Lares or Diuels of this kinde do beare enuy and malice to mankinde Notwithstanding Festus whome we do gladly alledge seemeth to affirme That these Lares are sometime good for he names them sometime Praestites because they were thought to make all things safe and to keepe and preserue all thinges carefully and sometimes Hostilios for that they were supposed to driue away enemies But howsoeuer it bee certaine it is they were no other then verie Diuels who if they seemed sometimes to ayde and helpe men and to doe them some good yet the same was to the intent they might afterwardes worke them the more and greater harme and damage aswell inwardly in their Soules and consciences as outwardly in their bodies and goods Touching those Spirits which they call Lemures they are reckoned amongst the Laruae or hurtfull Spirites Of the Spirits called Lemures and are indeede Diuels which doe appeare in the night in the forme of diuers Beastes but most commonly in the shape and figure of dead men And Parphirus the Interpreter of Horace calleth them the Shadowes or wandring soules of men that dye before their time which is but an errour of the Pagans and hee addeth That the name of Lemures commeth of Romus the brother of Romulus by the chaunging of one letter into another because the Ghost or shadowe of that Prince did pursue Romulus his murtherer who to the intent hee might pacifie it instituted a feast which as the auncient Romane Calender and Ouid do set it downe was solemnized on the ninth day of the moneth of May Li. 5. Fastorum and by the Romans was called Lemuria which is as a man should say The feast of the Hob-Goblins Gli Farfarelli Maz zaruoli or Mazzapengoli Warre-Wolues or

Night Spirits or as the Italians vse to terme them Gli Farfarrelis c. That is Spirits that vse to walke only in the night times O●t●e Spirites called Genti De Demonio Oratisin Apologetico Those Spirits which the Latines call Genii are diuels also as both Apuleius and Tertullian do witnesse and the like affirmeth the Greeke Comick who saith That To euery man on earth a Demon is ordained The which his life to rule and gouerne is enioyned According to the tradition of the Church of Rome For certaine it is that these Genii and no other haue charge to keepe and protect euery man that is borne into the world And they are named Genii as Censorm saith because to them is committed the care of our generation or because they are borne with vs or for that they doe receiue and guard vs after we are engendred And these Genii haue not onely the ouersight and charge of euery particular person but euery kinde of people also haue their proper and peculiar Genius according as Symmachus a very famous Author hath written Saying Lib. 10. Epist That as the soules of men are giuen vnto them with which they are borne So are the Genii attributed vnto seuerall peoples and Nations So likewise euery particular Towne had his Genius to the which it offered Sacrifices And there haue beene found many Titles and Inscriptions in the olde ruines of auncient Townes in the which hath beene written Genio Ciuitatis To the Genius of the Citie So likewise there was not any troope of men at Armes amōgst the Romans nor the Senate of Rome but had their particular Genius But aboue all the Genius of the Romane Emperour was had in great honour and it was a common thing to sweare by it and to inuocate and call vpon it in testimony of that Obeysance and subiection which they ought vnto the Prince whome that Genius had in protection And this superstition did endure and continue euen to the time of Tertullian In Apologetic● who reproouing the same did will and enioyne the Christians not to inuocate or call vpon the Genius of their Prince and from him euen to the time of Iustinian at the least as is to bee seene by a Lawe of Vlpian which was neuer chaunged nor refined by Trebonian L. si due patroni § Gli. D. de lure lur as others were that had lesse superstition in them This law did defend and prohibit any to sweare falsly by the Genius of the Prince and enacted that those which did so offend should suffer the Bastonado wherby they might be admonished not to sweare againe so rashly and vnaduisedly And wee may not forget That these Genii were sometimes paynted by the Paynims in the forme and shape of men hauing a horne betokening plentie or aboundance in their hand as is yet to be seene in many olde and auncient stampes or coynes and sometimes in the forme of Serpents which may well serue to vnderstand that verse of Perseus where he writeth Pinge duos angues Satir. 1. pueri sacer est locus extra meïte And this did not Seruius forget In lib. 5. Enei● dos in expisca●ione versus Cum lubricus anguis ab ●mis septem ingens gyros speaking of that Serpent which Aeneas in his Anniuersaries or yearely sacrifices celebrated to the name of his father Anchises did see to creepe vpon his Tom be Touching the which as Virgill saith Aeneas was vncertaine whether it were the Genius of his father or of the place And this may also helpe to the interpretation of another place in Theocritus in his Booke of Characters which I haue also corrected from the vulgar and commō reading where he saith That a superstitious person seeing by chaunce a Serpent in his house did consecrate vnto it a little chappell in the same place But my meaning is not here to speake of Serpents which as Plutarch saith were cōsecrated vnto Noble and Heroicall persons In vita Cleomedis and which after their deathes did appeare neere to their corpses for this is not any part of our matter albeit a man may very wel fit vnto the Genii that same which he hath deliuered touching this point Of the spirits called Manes Glossaer manes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To proceed therefore with our purposed Discourse let vs now ●nter to entreate of those Spirits which the Latines call Manes which also are no other then verie Diuels and are therefore of Festus called also by the former name of Laruae Also the manner was to paint them blacke and hideous as wee vse to paint Diuels and hellish Ghostes or shadowes And to this purpose there is a very pleasant and merrie History in Dion in the life of Domitian Xiphilin the Abbre●●ator of Dion the which I thinke will not be vnpleasing if I discipher it here at large After the victory had gotten against the Gethes the Emperour Domitian caused many shewes and triumphes to bee made in signe and token of ioy and amongst others hee inuited publickly to dine with him all sorts of persons both noble and vnnoble but especially the Senators and knights of Rome to whom he made a feast in this fashion Hee had caused a certaine house of al sides to be painted black the pauemēt therof was black so likewise were the hangings or seelings the roofe and the wals also black and within it hee had prepared a very low roomth not vnlike a hollow vault or cell ful of emptie siedges or seats Into this place he caused the Senators knights his ghests to be broght without suffering any of their Pages or attend ●nts to enter in with them And first of all hee caused a little square piller to be set neere to euery one of them vpō the which was written the parties name sitting next it by which there hāged also a lamp burning before each seat in such sort as is vsed in Sepulchers After this there comes into this melancholicke and dark place a number of yong Pages with great ioy and merriment starke naked and spotted or painted all ouer with a die or colour as black as Inke who resembling these Spirits called Manes and such like Idols did leape skip round about those Senators and Knightes who at this vnexpected accident were not a little frighted and afraid After which those Pages sate thē downe at their feete against each of them one and there stayed whilest certaine other persons ordayned there of purpose did execute with great solemnitie all those ceremonies that were vsually fit and requisit at the Funerals and exequies of the dead This done there came in others who brought and serued in in blacke dishes and platters diuers meats and viands all coloured blacke in such sort that there was not any one in the place but was in great doubt what would become of him and thought himselfe vtterly vndone supposing that he should haue his throate cut onely to giue