that all the creatures of God are good and again when God in the creation of the world saw all that he had made was good the Devil is not comprehended within those words of commendation For it is written that he was a murtherer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him but when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own as being a lyer and the father of lyes and as John saith a sinner from the beginning Neither was his creation so far as I can find in that week that God made man and those other creatures mentioned in Genesis the first and yet God created him purposely to destroy I take his substance to be such as no man can by learning define nor by wisdom search out M. Deering saith Tha◠Paul himself reckoning up principalities powers c. addeth Every name that is named in this world or in the world to come A clear sentence saith he of Paul 's modesty in confessing a holy ignorance of the state of Angels which name is also given to Devils in other places of the Scripture His essence also and his form is also so proper and peculiar in mine opinion unto himself as he himself cannot alter it but must needs be content therewith as with that which God hath ordained him and assigned unto him as peculiarly as he hath given to us our substance without power to alter the same at our pleasures For we find not that a spirit can make a body more than a body can make a spirit the Spirit of God excepted which is Omnipotent Nevertheless I learn that their nature is prone to all mischeif for as the very signification of an Enemy and as an accuser is wrapped up in Satan and Diabolus so doth Christ himself declare him to be in the thirteenth of Matthew And therefore he brooketh well his name for he lyeth dayly in wait not only to corrupt but also to destroy mankind being I say the very tormentor appointed by God to afflict the wicked in this world with wicked temptations and in the world to come with Hell fire But I may not here forget how M. Mal. and the residue of that crew do expound that word Diabolus for Dia say they is Duo and Bolus is Morsellus whereby they gather that the Devil eateth up a man both body and soul at two morsels Whereas in truth the wicked may be said to eat up and swallow down the Devil rather than the Devil to eat up them though it may well be said by a figure that the Devil like a roaring Lion seeketh whom he may devour which is meant of the soul and spiritual devouring as very novices in Religion may judge CHAP. XXXIII Against fond Witchmongers and their opinions concerning corporal Devils NOw how Brian Darcies he-spirits and she-spirits Titty and Tiffin Suckin and Pidgin Liard and Robin c. his white-spirits and black-spirits gray-spirits and red-spirits Devil-toad and Devil-lambe Devils-cat and Devils-dam agree herewithal or can stand consonant with the Word of God or true Philosophy let Heaven and Earth judge In the mean time let any man with good consideration peruse that Book published by W.W. it shall suffice to satisfie him in all that may be required touching the vanities of the Witches Examinations Confessions and Executions where though the tale be told only of the accusers part without any other answer of theirs than their Adversary setteth down mine assertion will be sufficiently proved true And because it seemeth to be performed with some kind of authority I will say no more for the confutation thereof but referr you to the Book it self whereto if nothing be added that may make to their reproach I dare warrant nothing is left out that may serve to their condemnation See whether the witnesses be not single of what credit sexe and age they are namely lewd miserable and envious poor people most of them which speak to any purpose being old women and children of the age of 4 5 6 7 8 or 9. years And note how and what the Witches confess and see of what weight and importance the causes are whether their confessions be not won through hope of favour and extorted by flattery or threats without proof But in so much as there were not past seventeen or eighteen condemned at once at S. Osees in the County of Essex being a whole Parish though of no great quantity I will say the less trusting that by this time there remain not many in that Parish If any be yet behind I doubt not but Brian Darcie will find them out who if he lack aid Richard Gallis of Windsor were meet to be associated with him which Gallis hath set forth another Book to that effect of certain Witches of Windsor executed at Abington But with what impudency and dishonesty he hath finished it with what lyes and forgeries he hath furnished it what folly and frenzy he hath uttered in it I am ashamed to report and therefore being but a two-penny Book I had rather desire you to buy it and so to peruse it than to fill my Book with such beastly stuffe CHAP. XXXIV A Conclusion wherein the Spirit of spirits is described by the illumination of which Spirit all spirits are to be tryed with a Confutation of the Pneumatomachi flatly denying the divinity of this Spirit TOuching the manifold signification of this word Spirit I have elsewhere in this brief discourse told you my mind which is a word nothing different in Heb. from breath or wind For all these words following to wit Spiritus Ventus Platus Halitus are indifferently use by the Holy Ghost and called by this Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sacred Scripture For further proof whereof I cite unto you the words of Isaiah For his Spirit or Breath is as a River that overfloweth up to the neck c. in which place the Prophet describeth the coming of God in heat and indignation unto judgement c. I cite also unto you the words of Zacharie These are the four Spirits of the Heaven c. Likewise in Genesis And the Spirit of God moved upon the waters Moreover I cite unto you the words of Christ The Spirit or Wind bloweth where it listeth Unto which said places infinite more might be added out of holy Writ tending all to this purpose namely to give us this for a note that all the sayings above cited with many more that I could alledge where mention is made of spirit the Hebrew Text useth no word but one to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth as I said Spiritum ventum flatum halitum which may be Englished Spirit wind blast breath But before I enter upon the very point of my purpose it shall not be amiss to make you acquainted with the collection of a certain School Divine who distinguisheth and divideth this word
Nativities so as if Saturn and Mercury were opposite in any brute sign a man then born should be dumb or stammer much whereas it is dayly seen that children naturally imitate their Parents conditions in that behalf Also they have noted that one born in the Spring of the Moon shall be healthy in that time of the wane when the Moon is utterly decayed the child then born cannot live and in the conjunction it cannot long continue But I am sure the opinion of Julius Maternus is most impious who writeth that he which is born when Saturn is in Leo shall live long and after his death shall go to heaven presently And so is this of Allumazar who saith that whosoever prayeth to God when the Moon is in Capite Draconis shall be heard and obtain his Prayer Furthermore to play the cold Prophet as to recount it good or bad luck when Salt or Wine falleth on the table or is shed c. or to prognosticate that guests approach to your house upon the chattering of Pies or Haggisters whereof there can be yielded no probable reason is altogether vanity and superstition as hereafter shall be more largely shewed But to make simple people believe that a Man or Woman can foretel good or evil fortune is meer Witchcraft or Cosenage for God is the only searcher of the heart and delivereth not his counsel to so lewd reprobates I know divers writers affirm that Witches foretel things as prompted by a real Devil and that he again learneth it out of the Prophesies written in the Scriptures and by other nimble sleights wherein he passeth any other earthly creature and that the same Devil or some of his fellows runs or flies as far as Rochester to Mother Bungie or to Canterbury to M.T. or to Delphos to Apollo or to Aesculapius in Pergamo or to some other Idol or Witch and there by way of Oracle answers all Questions through his understanding of the Prophesies contained in the Old Testament especially in Daniel and Isaiah whereby the Devil knew of the translation of the Monarchy from Babylon to Graecia c. But either they have learned this of some Oracle or Witch or else I know not where the Devil they find it Marry certain it is that herein they shew themselves to be Witches and fond Diviners for they find no such thing written in Gods Word Of the Idol called Apollo I have somewhat already spoken in the former title of Ob or Pytho and some occasion I shall have to speak thereof hereafter and therefore at this time it shall suffice to tell you that the credit gained thereunto was by the craft and cunning of the Priests which tended thereupon who with their counterfeit miracles so bewitched the people as they thought such vertue to have been contained in the bodies of those Idols as God hath not promised to any his Angels or elect people For it is said that if Apollo were in a chafe he would sweat if he had remorse to the afflicted and could not help them he would shed tears which I believe might have been wiped away with that handkerchief that wiped and dryed the Rood of Graces face being in the like perplexities Even as another sort of Witching Priests called Aruspices prophesied victory to Alexander because an Eagle lighted on his head which Eagle might I believe be cooped or caged with Mahomets Dove that picked peason out of his ear CHAP. IV. The predictions of Soothsayers and lewd Priests the prognostications of Astronomers and Physitians allowable Divine Prophesie holy and good THe cosening tricks of Oracling Priests and Monks are and have been specially most abominable The superstitious observations of senceless Augurers and Soothsayers contrary to Philosophy and without authority of Scripture are very ungodly and ridiculous Howbeit I reject not the Prognostications of Astronomers nor the conjectures or forewarnings of Physitians nor yet the interpretations of Philosophers although in respect of the Divine Prophesies contained in holy Scriptures they are not to be weighed or regarded For the end of these and the other is not only far differing but whereas these contain only the words and will of God with the other are mingled most horrible lyes and cosenages for though there be many of them learned and godly yet lurk there in corners of the same profession a great number of counterfeits and coseners J. Bodin putteth this difference between Divine Prophets and Inchanters to wit the one saith alwayes true the others words proceeding from the Devil are alwayes false or for one truth they tell a hundred lyes And then why may not every Witch be thought as cunning as Apollo and why not every counterfeit cosener as good a Witch as Mother Bungie For it is odds but they will hit the truth once in a hundred Divinations as well as the best CHAP. V. The diversity of true Prophets of Urim and of the Prophetical use of the twelve precious stones contained therein of the divine voyce called Eccho IT should appear that even of holy Prophets there were divers sorts for David and Solomon although in their Psalms and Parables are contained most excellent Mysteries and notable Allegories yet they were not indued with that degree of Prophesie that Ely and Elisha were c. For as often as it is said that God spake to David or Solomon it is meant to be done by the Prophets for NATHAN or GAD were the Messengers and Prophets to reveal Gods will to David And Ahiam the Shilonite was sent from God to Solomon Item the spirit of Prophesied which Elias had was doubled upon Elisha Also some Prophets prophesied all their lives some had but one vision and some had more according to Gods pleasure yea some prophesied unto the people of such things as came not to pass and that was where Gods wrath was pacified by Repentance But these Prophets were alwayes reputed among the people to be wise and godly whereas the Heathen Prophets were evermore known and said to be mad and foolish as it is written both of the Prophets of Sibylla and also of Apollo and at this day also in the Indies c. But that any of these extraordinary gifts remain at this day Bodin nor any Witchmonger in the World shall never be able to prove though he in his book of Devilish madness would make men believe it for these were miraculously maintained by God among the Jews who were instructed by them of all such things as should come to pass or else informed by Urim so as the Priest by the brightness of the twelve pretious stones contained therein could Prognosticate or expound any thing Which brightness and vertue ceased as Josephus reporteth two hundred years before he was born So as since that time no answers were yielded thereby of Gods will and pleasure Nevertheless the Hebrews write That there hath been ever since that time a Divine voyce heard among them which
THE Discovery of Witchcraft PROVING That the Compacts and Contracts of WITCHES with Devils and all Infernal Spirits or Familiars are but Erroneous Novelties and Imaginary Conceptions Also discovering How far their Power extendeth in Killing Tormenting Consuming or Curing the bodies of Men Women Children or Animals by Charms Philtres Periapts Pentacles Curses and Conjurations WHEREIN LIKEWISE The Unchristian Practices and Inhumane Dealings of Searchers and Witch-tryers upon Aged Melancholly and Superstitious people in extorting Confessions by Terrors and Tortures and in devising false Marks and Symptoms are notably Detected And the Knavery of Juglers Conjurers Charmers Soothsayers Figure-Casters Dreamers Alchymists and Philterers with many other things that have long lain hidden fully Opened and Deciphered ALL WHICH Are very necessary to be known for the undeceiving of Judges Justices and Jurors before they pass Sentence upon Poor Miserable and Ignorant People who are frequenly Arraigned Condemned and Executed for Witches and Wizzards IN SIXTEEN BOOKS By REGINALD SCOT Esquire Whereunto is added An excellent Discourse of the Nature and Substance OF DEVILS and SPIRITS IN TWO BOOKS The First by the aforesaid Author The Second now added in this Third Edition as Succedaneous to the former and conducing to the compleating of the Whole Work With Nine Chapters at the beginning of the Fifteenth Book of the DISCOVERY LONDON Printed for Andrew Clark and are to be sold at Mris. Cotes's near the Golden-Ball in Aldersgatestreet 1665. To the Honorable mine especial good Lord Sir ROGER MANWOOD Knight Lord Chief Baron of Her MAJESTIES Court of the Exchequer IN-so-much as I know that your Lordship is by nature wholly inclined and in purpose earnestly bent to relieve the Poor and that not only with Hospitality and Alms but by divers other devises and wayes tending to their comfort having as it were framed and set your self to the help and maintenance of their Estate as appeareth by your charge and travel in that behalf Whereas also you have a special care for the supporting of their right and redressing of their wrongs as neither despising their Calamity nor yet forgetting their Complaint seeking all means for their amendment and for the reformation of their disorders even as a very Father to the Poor Finally for that I am a poor member of that Common-wealth where your Lordship is a principal person I thought this my travel in the behalf of the poor the aged and the simple might be very fitly commended unto you for a weak house requireth a strong stay In which respect I give God thanks that hath raised up unto me so mighty a friend for them as your Lordship is who in our Laws have such knowledge in Government such discretion in these Causes such experience and in the Common-wealth such authority and never the less vouchsafe to descend to the consideration of these base and inferior matters which minister more care and trouble than worldly estimation And insomuch as your Lordship knoweth or rather exerciseth the office of a Judge whose part it is to hear with courtesie and to determine with equity it cannot but be apparent unto you that when punishment exceedeth the fault it is rather to be thought vengeance than correction In which respect I know you spend more time and travel in the conversion and reformation than in the subversion and confusion of Offenders as being well pleased to augment your own private pains to the end you may diminish their publick smart For in truth that Common-wealth remaineth in woful state where fetters and haltars beat more sway than mercy and due compassion Howbeit it is natural to unnatural people and peculiar unto Witchmongers to pursue the poor to accuse the simple and to kill the innocent supplying in rigor and malice towards others that which they themselves want in proof and discretion or the other in offence or occasion But as a cruel heart and an honest mind do seldom meet and feed together in a dish so a discreet and merciful Magistrate and a happy Common-wealth cannot be separated asunder How much then are we bound to God who hath given us a Queen that of Justice is not only the very perfect image and patern but also of Mercy and Clemency under God the meer fountain and body it self Insomuch as they which hunt most after blood in these dayes have least authority to shed it Moreover sith I see that in cases where lenity might be noisome and punishment wholesome to the Common-wealth there no respect of person can move you no authority can abash you no fear no threats can daunt you in performing the duty of Justice In that respect again I find your Lordship a fit person to judge and look upon this present Treatise Wherein I will bring before you as it were to the bar two sorts of most arrogant and wicked people the first challenging to themselves the second attributing unto others That Power which only appertaineth to God who only is the Creator of all things who only searcheth the heart and reins who only knoweth our imaginations and thoughts who only openeth all secrets who only worketh great wonders who only hath power to raise up and cast down who only maketh thunder lightning rain tempest and restraineth them at his pleasure who only sendeth life and death sickness and health wealth and wo who neither give nor lendeth his glory to any creature And therefore that which grieveth me to the bottom of my heart is that these Witchmongers cannot be content to wrest out of Gods hand his Almighty Power and keep it themselves or leave it with a Witch but that when by drift of argument they are made to lay down the bucklers they yield them up to the Devil or at the least pray aide of him as though the rains of all mens lives and actions were committed into his hand and that he sat at the stern to guide and direct the course of the whole World imputing unto him power and ability enough to do as great things and as strange Miracles as ever Christ did But the Doctors of this supernatural doctrine say sometimes That the Witch doth all these things by vertue of her Charms sometimes that a Spiritual sometimes that a Corporal Devil doth accomplish it sometimes they say that the Devil doth but make the Witch believe she doth that which he himself hath wrought sometimes that the Devil seemeth to do that by compulsion which he doth most willingly Finally the Writers hereupon are so eloquent and full of variety that sometimes they write that the Devil doth all this by God's permission only sometimes by his licence sometimes by his appointment so as in effect and truth not the Devil but the high and mighty King of Kings and Lord of hosts even God himself should this way be made obedient and servile to obey and perform the will and commandement of a malicious old Witch and miraculously to answer her appetite as well in every trifling vanity as in
worse they are And till you have perused my Book ponder this in your mind to wit that Sagae Thessalae Striges Lamiae which words and none other being in use do properly signifie our Witches are not once found written in the old or new Testament and that Christ himself in his Gospel never mentioned the name of a Witch And that neither he nor Moses ever spake any one word of the Witches bargain with the Devil their hagging their riding in the Air their transferring of Corn or Grass from one field to another their hurting of Children or Cattel with words or charms their bewitching of Butter Cheese Ale c. nor yet their transubstantiation insomuch as the writers hereupon are not ashamed to say That it is not absurd to affirm that there were no Witches in Jobs time The reason is that if there had been such Witches then in being Job would have said he had been bewitched But indeed men took no heed in those dayes to this doctrine of Devils to wit to these fables of Witchcraft which Peter saith shall be much regarded and hearkned unto in the latter dayes Howbeit how ancient soever this barbarous conceit of Witches Omnipotency is Truth must not be measured by Time for every old Opinion is not sound Verity is not impaired how long soever it be suppressed but is to be searched out in how dark a corner soever it lye hidden for it is not like a cup of Ale that may be broached toe rathe Finally time bewrayeth old errors and discovereth new matters of truth Danaeus himself saith that this question hitherto hath never been handled nor the Scriptures concerning this matter have never been expounded To prove the antiquity of the cause to confirm the opinion of the ignorant to inforce mine Adversaries Arguments to aggravate the Punishment and to accomplish the Confusion of these old women is added the vanity and wickedness of them which are called Witches the arrogancy of those which take upon them to work Wonders the desire that people have to hearken to such miraculous matters unto whom most commonly an impossibility is more credible than a verity the ignorance of natural causes the ancient and universal hate conceived against the name of a Witch their ill-favoured faces their spiteful words their curses and imprecations their charmes made in rime and their beggery the fear of many foolish folk the opinion of some that are wise the want of Robin Good-fellow and the Fairies which were wont to maintain that and the common peoples talk in this behalf the authority of the Inquisitors the learning cunning consent and estimation of Writers herein the false translations and fond interpretations used specially by Papists and many other like causes All which toyes take such hold upon mens fancies as thereby they are led and enticed away from the consideration of true respects to the condemnation of that which they know not Howbeit I will by God's grace in this my Book so apparently decipher and confute these Cavils and all other their Objections as every Witchmonger shall be abashed and all good men thereby satisfied In the mean time I would wish them to know that if neither the estimation of God's Omnipotency nor the tenor of his Word nor the doubtfulness or rather the impossibility of the case nor the small proofs brought against them nor the rigor executed upon them nor the pitty that should be in a Christian heart nor yet their simplicity impotency or age may suffice to suppress the rage or rigor wherewith they are oppressed yet the consideration of their sex or kind ought to move some mitigation of their punishment For if nature as Pliny reporteth hath taught a Lyon not to deal so roughly with a Woman as with a Man because she is in body the weaker vessel and in heart more inclined to pitty which Jeremiah in his Lamentations seemeth to confirm what should a Man do in this case for whom a Woman was created as an help and comfort unto him In so much as even in the law of Nature it is a greater offence to stay a Woman than a Man not because the Man is not the more excellent creature but because a Woman is the weaker vessel And therefore among all modest and honest persons it is thought a shame to offer violence or injury to a Woman in which respect Virgil saith Nullum memorabile nomen Foeminea in poena est God that knoweth my heart is witness and you that read my Book shall see that my drift and purpose in this enterprise tendeth only to these respects First that the glory and power of God be not so abridged and abased as to be trust into the hand or lip of a lewd old Woman whereby the work of the Creator should be attributed to the power of ae Creature Secondly that the Religion of the Gospel may be seen to stand without such peevish trumpery Thirdly that lawful favour and Christian compassion be rather used towards these poor souls than rigor and extremity Because they which are commonly accused of Witchcraft are the least sufficient of all other persons to speak for themselves as having the most base and simple education of all others the extremity of their age giving them leave to dote their poverty to leg their wrongs to chide and threaten as being void of any other way of revenge their humor Melancholical to be full of imaginations from whence chiefly proceedeth the vanity of their confessions as that they can transform themselves and others into Apes Owls Asses Dogs Cats c. that they can flie in the Air kill Children with Charms hinder the coming of Butter c. And for so much as the Mighty help themselves together and the poor Widows cry though it reach to heaven is scarce heard upon earth I thought good according to my poor ability to make intercession that some part of common rigor and some points of hasty judgement may be advised upon For the world is now at that stay as Brentius in a most godly Sermon in these words affirmeth that even as when the Heathen persecuted the Christians if any were accused to believe in Christ the common people cryed Ad Leonem So now if any Woman be she never so honest be accused of Witchcraft they cry Ad Ignem What difference is between the rash dealing of unskilful people and the grave counsel of more discreet and learned persons may appear by a tale of Danaeus his own telling wherein he opposeth the rashness of a few Townsmen to the counsel of a whole Senate preferring the Folly of the one before the Wisdom of the other At Orleance on Loyre saith he there was a Man-witch not only taken and accused but also convicted and condemned for Witchcraft who appealed from thence to the high Court of Paris Which accusation the Senate saw insufficient and would not allow but laughed thereat lightly regarding it and in the end sent him
c. to conclude otherwise The clouds are called the pillars of Gods tents Gods chariots and his pavillions And if it be so what Witch or Devil can make masteries thereof S. Augustine saith Non est putandum istis transgressoribus angelis servire hanc rerum visibilium materiem sed soli Deo We must not think that these visible things are at the commandement of the Angels that fell but are obedient to the only God Finally If Witches could accomplish these things what needed it seem so strange to the people when Christ by miracle commanded both seas and winds c. For it is written Who is this for both wind and sea obey him CHAP. II. The inconvenience growing by mens Credulity herein with a reproof of some Church-men which are inclined to the common conceived opinion of Witches Omnipotencie and familiar example thereof BUt the world is now so bewitched and over-run with this fond error that even where a man should seek comfort and counsel there shall he be sent in case of necessity from God to the Devil and from the Physitian to the cosening Witch who will not stick to take upon her by words to heal the lame which was proper only to Christ and to them whom he assisted with his divine power yea with her familiar and charms she will take upon her to cure the blind though in the tenth of S. John's Gospel it be written that the Devil cannot open the eyes of the blind And they attain such credit as I have heard to my grief some of the ministery affirm that they have had in their Parish at one instant 17 or 18 Witches meaning such as could work Miracles supernaturally Whereby they manifested as well their infidelity and ignorance in conceiving Gods Word as their negligence and error in instructing their flocks For they themselves might understand and also teach their parishioners that God only worketh great wonders and that it is he which sendeth such punishments to the wicked and such trials to the Elect according to the saying of the Prophet Haggai I smote you with blasting and mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands and yet you turned not unto me saith the Lord. And therefore saith the same Prophet in another place You have sowen much and bring in little And both in Joel and Leviticus the like phrases and proofs are used and made But more shall be said of this hereafter S. Paul fore-saw the blindness and obstinancy both of these blind shepherds and also of their scabbed sheep when he said They will not suffer wholesome doctrine but having their ears itching shall get them a heap of Teachers after their own lusts and shall turn their ears from the Truth and shall be given to fables And in the latter time some shall depart from the Faith and shall give heed to Spirits of Errors and Doctrins of Devils which speak lies as Witches and Conjurers do but cast thou away such prophane and old wives fables In which sense Basil saith Who so giveth heed to Inchanters harkeneth to a fabulous and frivilous thing But I will rehearse an example whereof I my self am not only Oculatus testis but have examined the cause and am to justifie the truth of my report not because I would disgrace the Ministers that are godly but to confirm my former assertion that this absurd error is grown into the place which should be able to expel all such ridiculous folly and impiety At the Assizes holden at Rochester Anno 1581. one Margaret Simons the wife of John Simons of Brenchly in Kent was arraigned for witchcraft at the instigation and complaint of divers fond and malicious persons and specially by the means of one John Ferral Vicar of that Parish with whom I talked about that matter and found him both fondly assorted in the cause and enviously bent towards her and which is worse as unable to make a good account of his faith as she whom he accused That which he for his part laid to the poor womans charge was this His son being an ungracious boy and prentise to one Robert Scotchford clothier dwelling in that Parish of Brenchly passed on a day by her house at whom by chance her little Dog barked Which thing the boy taking in evil part drew his knife and pursued him therewith even to her door whom she rebuked with some such words as the boy disdained and yet nevertheless would not be perswaded to depart in a long time At the last he returned to his Masters house and within five or six days fell sick Then was called to mind the fray betwixt the Dog and the Boy insomuch as the Vicar who thought himself so priviledged as he little mistrusted that God would visit his children with sickness did so calculate as he found partly through his own judgement and partly as he himself told me by the relation of other Witches that his said son was by her bewitched Yea he also told me that this his son being as it were past all cure received perfect health at the hands of another Witch He proceeded yet further against her affirming that alwayes in his Parish-Church when he desired to read most plainly his voyce so failed him as he could scant be heard at all Which he could impute he said to nothing else but to her inchantment When I advertised the poor woman hereof as being desirous to hear what she could say for her self she told me that in very deed his voyce did much fail him specially when he trained himself to speak lowdest Howbeit she said that at all times his voyce was hoarse and low which thing I perceived to be true But Sir said she you shall understand that this our Vicar is diseased with such a kind of hoarseness as divers of our neighbours in this Parish not long since doubted that he had the French-Pox and in that respect utterly refused to communicate with him until such time as being thereunto injoyned by M.D. Lewen the ordinary he had brought from London a certificate under the hands of two Physitians that his hoarseness proceeded from a disease in the lungs Which certificate he published in the Church in the presence of the whole Congregation and by this means he was cured or rather excused of the shame of his disease And this I know to be true by the relation of divers honest men of that Parish And truly if one of the Jury had not been wiser than the other she had been condemned thereupon and upon other as ridiculous matters as this For the name of a Witch is so odious and her power so feared among the common people that if the honestest body living chance to be arraigned thereupon she shall hardly escape condemnation CHAP. III. Who they be that are called Witches with a manifest Declaration of the cause that moveth men so commonly to think and Witches themselves to believe that they can
Divinity Dost thou use to draw poor guiltless women to the rack by these forged devises Dost thou with such sentences judge others to be Hereticks thou being more a Heretick than either Faustus or Donatus Be it as thou sayest Dost thou not frustrate the grace of Gods Ordinance namely Baptism Are the words in Baptism spoken in vain Or shall the Devil remain in the child or it in the power of the Devil being there and then consecrated to Christ Jesus in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy-Ghost And if thou defend their false opinions which affirm that Spirits accompanying with women can ingender yet dotest thou more than any of them which never believed that any of those Devils together with their stoln seed do put part of that their seed or nature into the creature But though indeed we be born the children of the Devil and damnation yet in baptism through grace in Christ Satan is cast out and we are made new creatures in the Lord from whom none can be separated by another mans deed The Inquisitor being hereat offended threatned the Advocate to proceed against him as a supporter of Hereticks or Witches yet nevertheless he ceased not to defend the silly woman and through the power of the Law he delivered her from tho claws of the bloudy Monk who with her accusers were condemned in a great sum of money to the Charter of the Church of Mentz and remained infamous after that time almost to all men But by the way you must understand that this was but a pety Inquisitor and had not so large a Commission as Cumanus Sprenger and such other had nor yet as the Spanish Inquisitors at this day have For these will admit no Advocates now unto the poor souls except the Tormentor or Hangman may be called an Advocate You may read the sum of this Inquisition in few words set out by M. John Fox in the Acts and Monuments For Witches and Hereticks are among the Inquisitors of like reputation saving that the extremity is greater against Witches because through their simplicity they may the more boldly tyrannize upon them and triumph over them CHAP. XII What the fear of death and feeling of torments may force one to do and that it is no marvel though Witches condemn themselves by their own confessions so tyrannically extorted HE that readeth the Ecclesiastical histories or remembreth the persecutions in Queen Maries time shall find that many good men have fallen for fear of persecution and returned unto the Lord again What marvel then though a poor woman such a one as is described elsewhere and tormented as is declared in these latter leaves be made to confess such absurd and false impossibilities when flesh and bloud is unable to endure such trial Or how can she in the midst of such horrible tortures and torments promise unto her self constancy or forbear to confess any thing Or what availeth it her to persevere in the denial of such matters as are laid to her charge unjustly when on the one side there is never any end of her torments on the other side if she continue in her assertion they say she hath charms for taciturnity or silence Peter the Apostle renounced cursed and forsware his master and our Saviour Jesus Christ for fear of a wenches menaces or rather at a question demanded by her wherein he was not so circumvented as these poor Witches are which be not examined by girles but by cunning Inquisitors who having the spoil of their goods and bringing with them into the place of judgement minds to maintain their bloudy purpose spare no manner of allurements threatnings nor torments until they have wrung out of them all that which either maketh to their own desire or serveth to the others destruction Peter I say in the presence of his Lord and Master Christ who had instructed him in true knowledge many years being forewarned not passing four or five hours before and having made a real league and a faithful promise to the contrary without any other compulsion than as hath been said by a question proposed by a girl against his conscience forsook thrice denied and abandoned his said Master and yet he was a man illuminated and placed in dignity aloft and neerer to Christ by many degrees than the Witch whose fall could not be so great as Peters because she never ascended half so many steps A Pastors declination is much more abominable than the going astray of any of his sheep as an Ambassadours conspiracy is more odious than the falshood of a common person or as a Captains treason is more mischievous than a private souldiers mutiny If you say Peter repented I answer that the Witch doth so likewise sometimes and I see not in that case but mercy may be imployed upon her It were a mighty temptation to a silly old woman that a visible Devil being in shape so ugly as Danaeus and others say he is should assault her in manner and form as is supposed or rather avowed specially when there is promise made that none shall be tempted above their strength The poor old Witch is commonly unlearned unwarned and unprovided of counsel and friendship void of judgement and discretion to moderate her life and communication her kind and gender more weak and frail than the masculine and much more subject to melancholy her bringing up and company is so base that nothing is to be looked for in her specially of these extraordinary qualities her age also is commonly such as maketh her decrepite which is a disease that moveth them to these follies Finally Christ did clearly remit Peter though his offence was committed both against his divine and humane nature yea afterwards he did put him in trust to feed his sheep and shewed great countenance friendship and love unto him And therefore I see not but we may shew compassion upon these poor souls if they shew themselves sorrowful for their misconceipts and wicked imaginations BOOK III. CHAP. I. The Witches bargain with the Devil according to M. Mal. Bodin Nider Danaeus Psellus Erastus Hemingius Cumanus Aquinas Bartholomaeus Spineus c. THat which in this matter of Witchcraft hath abused so many and seemeth both so horrible and intolerable is a plain bargain that they say is made betwixt the devil and the Witch And many of great learning conceive it to be a matter of truth and in their writings publish it accordingly the which by Gods grace shall be proved as vain and false as the rest The order of their bargain or profession is double the one solemn and pulick the other secret and private That which is called solemn or publick is where Witches come together at certain assemblies at the times prefixed and do not only see the Devil in visible form but confer and talk familiarly with him In which conference the Devil exhorteth them to observe their fidelity unto him promising them long life and prosperity
Then the Witches assembled commend a new disciple whom they call a novice unto him and if the Devil find that young Witch apt and forward in renunciation of Christian Faith in despising any of the seven Sacraments in treading upon Crosses it spitting at the time of the elevation in breaking their fast on fasting-daies and fasting on Sundaies the Devil giveth forth his hand and the novice joyning hand in hand with him promiseth to observe and keep all the Devils commandements This done the Devil beginneth to be more bold with her telling her plainly that all this will not serve his turn and therefore requireth homage at her hands yea he also telleth her that she must grant him both her body and soul to be tormented in everlasting fire which she yieldeth unto Then he chargeth her to procure as many men women and children also as she can to enter into this society Then he teacheth them to make ointments of the bowels and members of children whereby they ride in the air and accomplish all their desires So as if there be any children unbaptized or not guarded with the sign of the cross or orizons then the Witches may and do catch them from their mothers sides in the night or out of their cradles or otherwise kill them with their ceremonies and after burial steal them out of their graves and seeth them in a chaldron until their flesh be made potable Of the thickest whereof they make ointments whereby they ride in the air but the thinner potion they put into flaggons whereof whosoever drinketh observing certain ceremonies immediately becometh a master or rather a mistress in that practise and faculty CHAP. II. The order of the Witches homage done as it is written hy lewd Inquisitors and peevish Witch-mongers to the devil in person of their songs and dances and namely of Lavolta and of other ceremonies also of their excourses SOmetimes their homage with their oath and bargain is received for a certain term of years sometimes for ever Sometimes it consisteth in the denial of the whole faith sometimes in part The first is when the soul is absolutely yielded to the Devil and hell fire the other is when they have but bargained to observe certain ceremonies and statutes of the Church as to conceal faults at Shrift to fast on Sundaies c. And this is done either by oath protestation of words or by obligation in writing sometimes sealed with wax sometimes signed with bloud sometimes by kissing the Devils bare buttocks as did a Doctor called Edlin who as Bodin saith was burned for Witchcraft You must also understand that after they have delicately banqueted with the Devil and the lady of the Fayries and have eaten up a fat Ox and emptied a Butt of Malmsie and a Binn of Bread at some Noble mans house in the dead of the night nothing is missed of all this in the morning For the Lady Sibylla Minerva or Diana with a golden rod striketh the vessel and the binn and they are fully replenished again Yea she causeth the Bullocks bones to be brought and laid together upon the hide and lappeth the four ends thereof together laying her golden rod thereon and then riseth up the Bullock again in his former estate and condition and yet at their return home they are like to starve for hunger as Spineus saith And this must be an infallible rule that every fortnight or at the least every moneth each Witch must kill one childe at the least for her part And here some of Bodin's lies may be inserted who saith that at these Magical assemblies the Witches never fail to dance and in their dance they sing these words Har har Devil devil dance here dance here play here play here Sabbath sabbath And whiles they sing and dance every one hath a broom in her hand and holdeth it up aloft Item he saith that these night-walkings or rather night-dancings brought out of Italy into France that dance which is called La volta A part of their league is to scrape off the oyl which is received in extream folly unction I should have said But if that be so dangerous they which sock the corps had need to take great care that they rub not off the oyl which divers other waies may also be thrust out of the forehead and then I perceive all the vertue thereof is gone and farewell it But I marvel how they take upon them to preserve the water powred on them in Baptism which I take to be largely of as great force as the other and yet I think is commonly wiped and washed off within four and twenty hours after baptism but this agreeth with the residue of their folly And this is to be noted that the Inquisitors affirm that during the whole time of the Witches excourse the Devil occupieth the room and place of the Witch in so perfect a similitude as her husband in his bed neither by feeling speech nor countenance can discern her from his wife Yea the wife departeth out of her husbands arms insensibly and leaveth the Devil in her room visibly Wherein their credulity is incredible who will have a very body in the fained play and a phantastical body in the true bed and yet forsooth at the Name of Jesus or at the sign of the Cross all these bodily Witches they say vanish away CHAP. III. How Witches are summoned to appear before the Devil of their riding in the air of their accompts of their conference with the Devil of his supplies and their conference of their farewel and sacrifices according to Danaeus Psellas c. HItherto for the most part are the very words contained in M. Mal. or Bodin or rather in both or else in the new M. Mal. or at the leastwise of some writer or other that maintaineth the almighty power of Witches But Danaeus saith the Devil oftentimes in the likeness of a summoner meeteth them at Markets and Fairs and warneth them to appear in their assemblies at a certain hour in the night that he may understand whom they have slain and how they have profited If they be lame he saith the Devil delivereth them a staff to convey them thither invisibly through the air and that then they fall a dancing and singing of bawdy-songs wherein he leadeth the dance himself Which dance and other conferences being ended he supplieth their wants of powders and roots to intoxicate withal and giveth to every novice a mark either with his teeth or with his claws and so they kiss the Devils bare buttocks and depart not forgetting every day afterwards to offer to him Dogs Cats Hens or bloud of their own And all this doth Danaeus report as a truth and as it were upon his own knowledge And yet elsewhere he saith In these matters they do but dream and do not those things indeed which they confess through their distemperature growing of their melancholick humor and therefore
saith he these things which they report of themselves are but meer illusions Psellus addeth hereunto that certain magical hereticks to wit the Eutychyans assemble themselves every Good-friday at night and putting out the candles do commit incestuous adultery the father with the daughter the sister with the brother and the son with the mother and the ninth moneth they return and are delivered and cutting their children in pieces fill their pots with their bloud then burn they the carkasses and mingle the ashes therewith and so preserve the same for Magical purposes Cardanus writeth though in mine opinion not very probably that these excourses dancings c. had their beginning from certain Hereticks called Dulcini who devised those feasts of Bacchus which are named Orgia whereunto these kind of people openly assembled and beginning with riot ended with this folly Which feasts being prohibited they nevertheless haunted them secretly and when they could not do so then did they it in cogitation only and even to this day saith he there remaineth a certain image or resemblance thereof among our melancholick women CHAP. IV. That there can no real league be made with the devil the first author of the league and the weak proofs of the adversaries for the same IF the league be untrue as are the residue of their confessions the Witchmongers arguments fall to the ground for all the writers herein hold this bargain for certain good and granted and as their only maxim But surely the indentures containing those covenants are sealed with butter and the labels are but bables What firm bargain can be made betwixt a carnal body and a spiritual Let any wise or honest man tell me that either hath been a party or a witness and I will believe him But by what authority proof or testimony and upon what ground all this geer standeth if you read M. Mal. you shall find to the shame of the reporters who do so vary in their tales and are at such contrariety and to the reproach of the believers of such absurd lies For the beginning of the credit hereof resteth upon the confession of a baggage young fellow condemned to be burnt for Witchcraft who said to the Inquisitors of likelihood to prolong his life if at leastwise the story be true which is taken out of Nider If I wist quoth he that I might obtain pardon I would discover all that I know of Witchcraft The which condition being accepted and pardon promised partly in hope thereof and partly to be rid of his wife he said as followeth The novice or young disciple goeth to some Church together with the mistress of that profession upon a Sunday morning before the conjuration of holy water and there the said novice renounceth the faith promiseth obedience in observing or rather omitting of ceremonies in meetings and such other follies and finally that they do homage to their young master the Devil as they covenanted But this is notable in that story that this young Witch doubting that his wives examination would bewray his knavery told the Inquisitor that in truth his wife was guilty as well as he but she will never I am sure quoth he though she should be burned a thousand times confess any of these circumstances And this is in no wise to be forgotten that notwithstanding his contrition his confession and his accusation of his own wife contrary to the inquisitors promise and oath he and his wife were both burned at a stake being the first discoverers of this notable league whereupon the fable of Witchcraft is maintained and whereby such other confessions have been from the like persons since that time extorted and augmented CHAP. V. Of the private league a notable tale of Bodins concerning a French Lady with a confutation THe manner of their private league is said to be when the Devil invisible and sometimes visile in the midst of the people talketh with them privately promising that if they will follow his counsel he will supply all their necessities and make all their endeavours prosperous and so beginneth with small matters whereunto they consent privily and come not into the fayries assembly And in this case me thinks the Devil sometimes in such external or corporal shape should meet with some that would not consent to his motions except you will say he knoweth their cogitations and so should be bewrayed They also except they were idiots would spie him and forsake him for breach of covenants But these bargains and these assemblies do all the writers hereupon maintain and Bodin confirmeth them with a hundred and odd lies among the number whereof I will for divers causes recite one There was saith he a noble Gentlewoman at Lions that being in bed with a lover of hers suddenly in the night arose up and lighted a candle and when she had done she took a box of ointment wherewith she annointed her body and after a few words spoken she was carried away Her bed-fellow seeing the order hereof leapt out of his bed took the candle in his hand and sought for the Lady round about the chamber and in every corner thereof But though he could not find her yet did he find her box of ointment being desirous to know the vertue thereof besmeered himself therewith even as he perceived her to have done before And although he was not so superstitious as to use any words to help him forward in his business yet by the vertue of that ointment saith Bodin he was immediately conveyed to Lorrein into the assembly of Witches Which when he saw he was abashed and said In the name of God what make I here And upon those words the whole assembly vanished away and left him there alone stark naked and so was he fain to return to Lions But he had so good a conscience for you may perceive by the first part of the history he was a very honest man that he accused his true lover for a Witch and caused her to be burned And as for his adultery neither M. Mal. nor Bodin do once so much as speak in the dispraise thereof It appeareth throughout all Bodins book that he is sore offended with Cornelius Agrippa and the rather as I suppose because the said C. Agrippa recanted that which Bodin maintaineth who thinketh he could work wonders by Magick and specially by his black Dog It should seem he had pretty skill in the Art of Divination For though he wrote before Bodin many a year yet uttereth he these words in his book De vanitate scientiarum A certain French protonotary saith he a lewd fellow and a cosener hath written a certain fable of miracle done at Lions c. What Bodin is I know not otherwise than by report but I am certain this his tale is a fond fable and Bodin saith it was performed at Lions and this man as I understand by profession is a civil Lawyer CHAP. VI. A disproof of their
extraordinary power and cloathed him with extraordinary shape whereby he might be made an instrument able to accomplish that matter as he did to his Angel that carryed Habacuck to Daniel and to them that he sent to destroy Sodome But you shall understand that this was done in a vision and not in verity of action So as they have a very cold pull of this place which is the special piece of Scripture alledged of them for their Transportations Hear therefore what Calvin saith in his Commentary upon that place in these words The question is whether Christ were carryed aloft indeed or whether it were but in a vision Many affirm very obstinately that his body was truly and really as they say taken up because they think it too great an indignity for Christ to be made subject to Satans illusions But this objection is easily washed away For it is no absurdity to grant all this to be wrought through Gods permission or Christs voluntary subjection so long as we yield not to think that he suffered these temptations inwardly that is to say in mind or soul And that which is afterwards set down by the Evangelist where the Devil shewed him all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of the same and that to be done as it is said in Luke in the twinkling of an eye doth more agree with a vision than with a real action So far are the very words of Calvin Which differ not one syllable nor five words from that which I had written therein before I looked for his opinion in the matter And this I hope will be sufficient to overthrow the assertions of them that lay the ground of their Transportations and flying in the air hereupon He that will say that these words to wit that Christ was taken up c. can hardly be applyed to a vision let him turn to the Prophesie of Ezekiel and see the self same words used in a vision saving that where Christ is said to be taken up by the Devil Ezekiel is taken up and lifted up and carryed by the Spirit of God and yet in a vision But they have less reason that built upon this sandy rock the supernatural frame of Transubstantiation as almost all our Witching Writers do For Sprenger and Institor say that the Devil in the likeness of a Falcon caught him up Danaeus saith it was in the similitude of a man others say of an Angel painted with wings others invisible Ergo the Devil can take say they what shape he list But though some may cavil upon the Devils transforming of himself yet that either Devil or Witch can transforme or transubstantiate others there is no title or colour in the Scriptures to help them If there were authority for it and that it were past all peradventure lo what an easie matter is it to resubstantiate an Asse into a Man For Bodin saith upon the word of Apuleius that if the Asse eat new Roses Anise or Bay-leaves out of spring-water it will presently return him into a Man Which thing Sprenger saith may be done by washing the Asse in fair water yea he sheweth an instance where by drinking of water an Asse was turned into a man CHAP. VIII The Witchmongers objection concerning the history of Job answered THese Witchmongers for lack of better arguments do many times object Job against me although there be never a word in that story which either maketh for them or against me insomuch as there is not the name of a Witch mentioned in the whole book But I pray you what Witchmonger now seeing one so afflicted as Job would not say he were bewitched as Job never saith For first there came a messenger unto him and said Thy oxen were plowing and thy asses were feeding in their places and the Sabeant came violently and took them yea they have slain thy servants with the edge of the sword but I only am escaped to tell thee And whilest he was yet speaking another came and said The fire of God is fallen from heaven and hath burnt up thy sheep and thy servants and devoured them but I only am escaped alone to tell thee And whilest he was yet speaking another came and said The Chaldeans set out their bands and fell upon thy camels and have taken them and have slain thy servants with the edge of the sword but I only am escaped alone to tell thee And whilest he was yet speaking came another and said Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their elder brothers house and behold there came a great wind from beyond the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house which fell upon thy children and they are dead and I only am escaped alone to tell thee Besides all this He was smitten with boiles from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head If any man in these dayes called Job should be by the appointment or hand of God thus handled as this Job was I warrant you that all the old Women in the Countrey would be called Coram nobis Warrants would be sent out on every side publick and private inquiry made what old Women lately resorted to Jobs house or to any of those places where these misfortunes fell If any poor old Woman had chanced within two or three months to have borrowed a courtesie of seasing or to have fetcht from thence a pot of milk or had she required some alms and not obtained it at Jobs hand there had been argument enough to have brought her to confusion and to be more certain to have the right Witch apprehended figures must have been cast the sive and shears must have been set on work yea rather then the Witch should escape a Conjurer must have earned a little money a circle must have been made and a Devil raised to tell the truth Mother Bungy must have been gone unto and after she had learned her name whom Job most suspected she would have confirmed the suspition with artificial accusations in the end some Woman or other must have been hanged for it But as Job said Dominus dedit so said he not Diabolus vel Lamia sed Dominus abstulit Which agreeth with the tenor of the text where it is written that the Devil at every of Jobs afflictions desired God to lay his hand upon him Insomuch as Job imputed no part of his calamity unto Devils Witches nor yet unto Conjurers or their Inchanments as we have learned now to do Neither sinned he or did God any wrong when he laid it to his charge but we dishonor God greatly when we attribute either the power or propriety of God the creator unto a creature Calvin saith We derogate much from Gods glory and omnipotency when we say he doth but give Satan leave to do it which is saith he to mock Gods justice and so fond an assertion that if Asses could speak they would
matter according to the deceived mind and imagination of Saul and his Servants And therefore in truth Sirach spake there according to the opinion of Saul which so supposed otherwise it is neither Heresie nor Treason to say he was deceived He that weigheth well that place and looketh it advisedly shall see that Samuel was not raised from the dead but that it was an illusion or cosenage practised by the Witch For the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God according to that which Chrysostom saith Souls in a certain place expecting judgement and cannot remove from thence Neither is it Gods will that the living should be taught by the dead Which things are confirmed and approved by the example of Lazarus and Dives where it appeareth according to Deut. 18. that he will not have the living taught by the dead but will have us stick to his Word wherein his will and testament is declared Indeed Lyra and Dionysius incline greatly to the latter And Lyra saith That as when Balaam would have raised a Devil God interposed himself so did he in this case bring up Samuel when the Witch would have raised her Devil which is a probable interpretation But yet they dare not stand to that opinion least they should impeach S. Augustines credit who they confess remained in judgement and opinion without contradiction of the Church that Samuel was not raised for he saith directly That Samuel himself was not called up And indeed if he were raised it was either willingly or per force if it were willingly his sin had been equal with the Witches And Peter Martyr me thinks saith more to the purpose in these words to wit This must have been done by Gods good will or per force of art magick it could not be done by his good will because he forbad it nor by art because Witches have no power over the godly Where it is answered by some that the commandement was only to prohibit the Jews to aske counsel of the dead and so no fault in Samuel to give counsel We may as well excuse our Neighbours wife for consenting to our filthy desires because it is only written in the Decalogue Thou shalt not desire thy neighbours wife But indeed Samuel was directly forbidden to answer Saul before he dyed and therefore it was not likely that God would appoint him when he was dead to do it CHAP. IX That Samuel was not raised indeed and how Bodin and all Papists dote herein and that souls cannot be raised by Witchcraft FUrthermore it is not likely that God would answer Saul by dead Samuel when he would not answer him by living Samuel and most unlikely of all that God would answer him by a Devil that denyed to do it by a Prophet That he was not brought up per force the whole course of the Scripture witnesseth and proveth as also our own reason may give us to understand For what quiet rest could the souls of the elect enjoy or possess in Abrahams bosome if they were to be plucked from thence at a Witches call and commandement But so should the Devil have power in heaven where he is unworthy to have any place himself and therefore unmeet to command others Many other of the Fathers are flatly against the raising up of Samuel namely Tertullian in his book De anima Justin Martyr In explicatione quae 25. Rabanus In epistolis ad Bonos Abat Origen In historia de Bileamo c. Some other dote exceedingly herein as namely Bodin and all Papists in general also Rabbi Sedias Hajas and also all the Hebrews saving R. David Kimchi which is the best writer of all the Rabbins though never a good of them all But Bodin in maintenance thereof falleth into many absurdities proving by the small faults that Saul had committed that he was an elect for the greatest matter saith he laid unto his charge is the reserving of the Amalekites cattel c. He was an elect c. confirming his opinion with many ridiculous fables and with this argument to wit his fault was too little to deserve damnation for Paul would not have the incestuous man punished too sore that his soul might be saved Justin Martyr in another place was not only deceived in the actual raising up of Samuels soul but affirmed that all the souls of the Prophets and just men are subject to the power of Witches And yet were the Heathen much more fond herein who as Lactantius affirmeth boasted that they could call up the souls of the dead and yet did think that their souls dyed with their bodies Whereby is to be seens how alwayes the world hath been abused in the matters of Witchcraft and Conjuration The Necromancers affirm that the spirit of any man may be called up or recalled as they term it before one year be past after their departure from the body Which C. Agrippa in his book De occulta Philosophia saith may be done by certain natural forces and bonds And therefore corpses in times past were accompanied and watched with lights sprinkled with holy water perfumed with incense and purged with prayer all the while they were above ground otherwise the Serpent as the Masters of the Hebrews say would devour them as the food appointed him by God Gen. 3. alledging also this place We shall not all sleep but we shall be changed because many shall remain for perpetual meat to the Serpent whereupon riseth the contention between him and Michael concerning the body of Moses wherein Scripture is alledged I confess that Augustine and the residue of the Doctors that deny the raising of Samuel conclude that the Devil was fetcht up in his likeness from whose opinions with reverence I hope I may dissent CHAP. X. That neither the Devil nor Samuel was raised but that it was a meer cosenage according to the guise of our Pythonists AGain if the Devil appeared and not Samuel why is it said in Eccl. that he slept for the Devil neither sleepeth nor dyeth But in truth we may gather that it was neither the Devil in person nor Samuel but a circumstance is here described according to the deceived opinion and imagination of Saul Howbeit Augustine saith that both these sides may easily be defended But we shall not need to fetch an exposition so far off for indeed me thinks it is Longe petita nor to descend so low as hell to fetch up a Devil to expound this place For it is ridiculous as Pompanacius saith to leave manifest things and such as by natural reason may be proved to seek unknown things which by no likelihood can be conceived nor tryed by any rule of reason But insomuch as we have liberty by S. Augustines rule in such places of Scripture as seem to contain either contrariety or absurdity to vary from the letter and to make a godly construction agreeable to the word let us confess that Samuel was not raised for that
were repugnant to the word and see whether this illusion may not be contrived by the art and cunning of the Woman without any of these supernatural devices for I could cite a hundred Papistical and cosening practices as difficult as this and as cleanly handled And it is to be surely thought if it had been a Devil the text would have noted it in some place of the story as it doth not But Bodin helpeth me exceedingly in this point wherein he forsaketh he saith Augustine Tertullian and D. Kimchi who say it was the Devil that was raised up which saith Bodin could not be for that in the same communication between Saul and Samuel the name of Jehovah is five times repeated of which name the Devil cannot abide the hearing CHAP. XI The objection of the Witchmongers concerning this place fully answered and what circumstances are to be considered for the understanding of this story which is plainly opened from the beginning of 1 Sam. 28. to ver 12. WHere such a supernatural miracle is wrought no doubt it is a testimony of truth as Peter Martyr affirmeth And in this case it should have been a witness of lyes for saith he a matter of such weight cannot be attributed to the Devil but it is the mighty power of God that doth accomplish it And if it lay in a Witches power to call up a Devil yet it lyeth not in a Witches power to work such miracles for God will not give his power and glory to any creature To understand this place we must diligently examine the circumstance thereof It was well known that Saul before he resorted to the Witch was in despair of the mercies and goodness of God partly for that Samuel told him long before that he should be overthrown and David should have his place and partly because God before had refused to answer him either by Samuel when he lived or by any other Prophet or by Urim or Thummim c. And if you desire to see this matter discussed turn to 1 Sam. 28. and confer my words therewith Saul seeing the host of the Philistines come upon him which thing could not be unknown to all the people fainted because he saw their strength and his own weakness and specially that he was forsaken so as being now strait of mind desperate and a very fool he goeth to certain of his servants that saw in what taking he was and asked them for a Woman that had a familiar Spirit and they told him by and by that there dwelt one at Endor By the way you shall understand that both Saul and his Servants meant such a one as could by her Spirit raise up Samuel or any other that was dead and buryed Wherein you see they were deceived though it were true that she took upon her so to do To what use then served her familiar spirit which you conceive she had because Sauls servants said so Surely as they were deceived and abused in part so doubtless were they in the rest for to what purpose I say should her familiar serve if not for such intents as they reported and she undertook I think you will grant that Sauls men never saw her familiar for I never heard any yet of credit say that he was so much in the Witches favour as to see her Devil although indeed we read amongst the Popish trumpery that S. Cicilie had an Angel to her familiar and that she could shew him to whom she would and that she might ask and have what she or her friend list as appeareth in the lesson read in the Popish Church on S. Cicilies day Well I perceive the Woman of Endors spirit was a counterfeit and kept belike at her closet at Endor or in the bottle with mother Alices Devil at Westwell and are now bewrayed and fled together to Limbo patrum c. And though Saul were bewitched and blinded in the matter yet doubtless a wise man would have perchance espied her knavery Me thinks Saul was brought to this Witch much after the manner that Doctor Burcot was brought to Feats who sold master Doctor a familiar whereby he thought to have wrought miracles or rather to have gained good store of money This fellow by the name of Feats was a Jugler by the name of Hilles a Witch or Conjurer every way a Cosener his qualities and feats were to me and many others well known and detected And yet the opinion conceived of him was most strange and wonderful even with such and in such cases as it grieveth me to think of specially because his knavery and cosenage reached to the shedding of innocent blood But now forsooth Saul covereth himself with a net and because he would not be known he put on other garments but to bring that matter to pass he must have been cut shorter by the head and soulders for by so much he was higher then any of the people and therefore whatsoever face the crafty quean did set upon it she knew him well enough And for further proof thereof you may understand that the Princes of the Jews were much conversant with the people And it appeareth manifestly that Saul dwelt very near to Endor so as she should the rather know him for in the evening he went from his lodging unto her house neither should it seem that she was gone to bed when he came but because that may be uncertain you may see in the process of the text That in a piece of the night he went from his house to hers and with much ado intreated her to consent to his request She finished her conjuration so as both Sauls part the Witches part and also Samuels part was played and after the solemnization thereof a Calf was killed a batch of Bread baked and a supper made ready and eaten up and after all this he went home the same night and had need so to do for he had some business the next day By these and many other circumstances it may be gathered that she dissembled in saying she knew him not and consequently counterfeited and made a fool of him in all the rest It appeareth there that he with a couple of his men went to her by night and said Conjecture unto me by thy familiar spirit and bring me up whom I shall name unto thee The godly-learned know that this was not in the power of the Witch of Endor but in the God of heaven only to accomplish Howbeit Saul was bewitched so to suppose and yet is he more simple that will be overtaken with the devises of our old Witches which are produced to resemble her And why should we think that God would rather permit the Witch to raise Samuel then that Dives could obtain Lazarus to come out of Abrahams bosome upon more likely and more reasonable conditions Well now doth this strumpet according to the guise of our cosening Witches and Conjurers make the matter strange
with the Heavens being altogether and one with the other to be considered as also because influences do not constrain but incline For many ordinary and extraordinary occasions do interrupt them as education custom place honesty birth blood sickness health strength weakness meat drink liberty of mind learning c. And they that have written the rules of judgment and agreee neerest therein being of equal authority and learning publish so contrary opinions upon one thing that it is unpossible for an Astrologian to pronounce a certainty upon so variable opinions and otherwise upon so uncertain reports no man is able to judge herein So as according to Ptolomy the fore-knowledge of things to come by the Stars dependeth as well upon the affections of the mind as upon the observation of the Planets proceeding rather from chance than Art as whereby they deceive others and are deceived themselves also CHAP. XXII The subtilty of Astrologers to maintain the credit of their Art why they remain in credit certain impieties contained in Astrologers assertions IF you mark the cunning ones you shall see them speak darkly of things to come devising by artificial subtilty doubtful Prognostications easily to be applyed to every thing Time Prince and Nation and if any thing come to pass according to their Divinations they fortifie their old Prognostications with new reasons Nevertheless in the multitude and variety of Stars yea even in the very midst of them they finde out some places in a good aspect and some in an ill and take occasion hereupon to say what they list promising unto some men Honour long Life Wealth Victory Children Marriage Friends Offices and finally everlasting Felicity But if with any they be discontented they say the Stars be not favourable to them and threaten them with Hanging Drowning Beggery Sickness Misfortune c. And if one of these Prognostications fall out right then they triumph above measure If the Prognosticators be found to forge and lye alwayes without such fortune as the blind man had in killing the Crow they will excuse the matter saying that Sapiens dominatur astris whereas according to Agrippas words neither the wiseman ruleth the Stars nor the Stars the Wiseman but God ruleth them both Corn. Tacitus saith That they are a people disloyal to Princes deceiving them that believe them And Varro saith That the vanity of all superstitions floweth out of the bosome of Astrology And if our life and fortune depend not on the Stars then it is to be granted that the Astrologers seek where nothing is to be found But we are so fond mistrustful and credulous that we fear more the fables of Robin Good-fellow Astrologers and Witches and believe more the things that are not than the things that are And the more unpossible a thing is the more we stand in fear thereof and the less likely to be true the more we believe it And if we were not such I think with Cornelius Agrippa that these Diviners Astrologers Conjurers and Coseners would dye for hunger And our foolish light belief forgetting things past neglecting things present aad very hasty to know things to come doth so comfort and maintain these coseners that whereas in other men for making one lye the faith of him that speaketh is so much mistrusted that all the residue being true is not regarded Contrariwise in these cosenages among our Divinors one truth spoken by hap giveth such credit to all their lyes that ever after we believe whatsoever they say how incredible impossible or false soever it be Sir Thomas Moore saith they know not who are in their own chambers neither who maketh themselves cockolds that take upon them all this cunning knowledge and great foresight But to enlarge their credit or rather to manifest their impudency they say the gift of Prophesie the force of Religion the secrets of Conscience the power of Devils the virtue of Miracles the efficacy of Prayers the state of the life to come c. doth only depend upon the Stars and is given and known by them alone For they say that when the sign of Gemini is ascended and Saturn and Mercury be joyned in Aquary in the ninth house of the heavens there is a Prophet born and therefore that Christ had so many virtues because he had in that place Saturn and Gemini Yea these Astrologers do not stick to say that the Stars distribute all sorts of Religions wherein Jupiter is the especial patron who being joyned with Saturn maketh the religion of the Jews with Mercury of the Christians with the Moon of Antichristianity Yea they affirm that the faith of every man may be known to them as well as to God And that Christ himself did use the election of hours in his Miracles so as the Jews could not hurt him whilest he went to Jerusalem and therefore that he said to his Disciples that forbad him to go Are there not twelve hours in the day CHAP. XXIII Who have power to drive away Devils with their only presence who shall receive of God whatsoever they ask in Prayer who shall obtain everlasting life by means of constellations as Nativity-casters affirm THey say also That he which hath Mars happily placed in the ninth house of the heavens shall have power to drive away Devils with his only presence from them that be possessed And he that shall pray to God when he findeth the Moon and Jupiter joyned with the Dragons-head in the midst of the heavens shall obtain whatsoever he asketh and that Jupiter and Saturn do give blessedness of the life to come But if any in his nativity shall have Saturn happily placed in Leo his soul shall have everlasting life And hereunto subscribe Peter de Appona Roger Bacon Guido Bonatus Arnold de villa nova and the Cardinal of Alia Furthermore the providence of God is denyed and the Miracles of Christ are diminished when these powers of the heavens and their influences are in such sort advanced Moses Isaiah Job and Jeremiah seem to dislike and reject it and at Rome in times past it was banished and by Justinian condemned under pain of death Finally Seneca derided these Soothsaying Witches in this sort Amongst the Cleones saith he there was a custom that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were gazers in the Air watching when a storm of hail shoul fall when they saw by any cloud that the shower was imminent and at hand the use was I say because of the hurt which it might do to their vines c. diligently to warn the people thereof who used not to provide Cloaks or any such defence against it but provided Sacrifices the rich Cocks and white Lambs the poor would spoil themselves by cutting their thombs as though saith he that little blood would ascend up to the clouds and do any good for their relief in this matter And here by the way I will impart unto you a Venetian superstition
in another place And concerning this matter Cardanus saith that at every eclipse they were wont to think that Witches pulled down the Sun and Moon from Heaven And doubtless from hence came the opinion of that matter which spred so farr and continued so long in the common peoples mouths that in the end learned men grew to believe it and to affirm it in writing But here it will be objected that because it is said in the places by me alledged that Snakes or Vipers cannot be charmed Ergo other things may To answer this argument I would ask the Witchmonger this question to wit Whether it be expedient that to satisfie his folly the Holy-Ghost must of necessity make mention of every particular thing that he imagineth may be bewitched I would also ask of him what priviledge a Snake hath more then other creatures that he only may not and all other creatures may be bewitched I hope they will not say that either their faith or infidelity is the cause thereof neither do I admit the answer of such Divines as say that he cannot be bewitched for that he seduced Eve by means whereof God himself cursed him and thereby he is so priviledged as that no Witches Charm can take hold of him But more shall be said hereof in the sequel Danaeus saith that Witches Charms take soonest hold upon Snakes and Adders because of their conference and familiarity with the Devil whereby the rather mankind through them was seduced Let us seek then an answer for this cavil although in truth it needeth not for the phrase of speech is absolute and imports not a special quality proper to the nature of a Viper any more than when I say A Cony cannot flie you should gather and conclude thereupon that I meant that all other Beasts could flie But you shall understand that the cause why these Vipers can rather withstand the voyce and practice of Inchanters and Sorcerers than other creatures is for that they being in body and nature venomous cannot so soon or properly receive their destruction by venom whereby the Witches in other creatures bring their mischievous practices more easily to pass according to Virgil's saying CorrupÃtque lacus infecit pabula tabo Englished by Abraham Fleming She did infect with Poyson strong Both Ponds and Paestures all along And thereupon the Prophet alludeth unto their corrupt and inflexible nature with that comparison and not as Tremelius is fain to shift it with stopping one ear with his tale and laying the other close to the ground because he would not hear the Charmers voyce For the Snake hath neither such reason nor the words such effect otherwise the Snake must know our thoughts It is also to be considered how untame by nature these Vipers for the most part are insomuch as they be not by mans industry or cunning to be made familiar or train'd to do any thing whereby admiration may be procured as Bomelio Feats his Dog could do or Mahomet's Pigeon which would resort unto him being in the midst of his Camp and pick a Pease out of his ear in such sort that many of the people thought that the Holy-Ghost came and told him a tale in his ear the same Pigeon also brought him a scroll wherein was written Rex esto and laid the same in his neck And because I have spoken of the docility of a Dog and a Pigeon though I could cite an infinite number of like tales I will be bold to trouble you but with one more At Memphis in Aegypt among other jugling knacks which were there usually shewed there was one that took such pains with an Ass that he had taught him all these qualities following And for gain he caused a Stage to be made and an Assembly of people to meet which being done in the manner of a Play he came in with his Ass and said The Sultane hath great need of Asses to help to carry stones and other stuffe towards his great building which he hath in hand The Ass immediately fell down to the ground and by all signs shewed himself to be sick and at length to give up the ghost so as the Juggler begged of the Assembly money towards his loss And having gotten all that he could he said Now my Masters you shall see mine Ass is yet alive and doth but counterfeit because he would have some money to buy him provender knowing that I was poor and in some need of relief Hereupon he would needs lay a wager that his Ass was alive who to every mans seeming was stark dead And when one had laid money with him thereabout he commanded the Ass to rise but he lay still as though he were dead then did he beat him with a Cudgel but that would not serve the turn until he addressed his speech to the Ass saying as before in open audience The Sultan hath commanded that all the people shall ride out to morrow and see the triumph and that the fair Ladies will then ride upon the fairest Asses and will give notable provender unto them and every Ass shall drink of the sweet water of Nilus and then lo the Ass did presently start up and advance himself exceedingly Lo quoth his Master now I have won but in troth the Major hath borrowed mine Ass for the use of the old ill-favoured Witch his wife and thereupon immediately he hung down his ears and halted down right as though he had been stark lame Then said his Master I perceive you love young pretty wenches at which words he looked up as it were with joyful cheer And then his Master did bid him go choose one that should ride upon him and he ran to a very handsome woman and touched her with his head c. A Snake will never be brought to such familiarity c. Bodin saith that this was a man in the likeness of an Ass but I may rather think that he is an Ass in the likeness or a man Well to return to our Serpents I will tell you a story concerning the charming of them and the event of the same In the City of Salisborough there was an Inchanter that before all the people took upon him to conjure all the Serpents and Snakes within one mile compass into a great pit or dike and there to kill them When all the Serpents were gathered together as he stood upon the brink of the pit there came at the last a great and horrible Serpent which would not be gotten down with all the force of his Incantations so as all the rest being dead he flew upon the Inchanter and clasped him in the midst and drew him down into the said Dike and there killed him You must think that this was a Devil in a Serpents likeness which for the love he bare to the poor Snakes killed the Sorcerer to teach all other Witches to beware of the like wicked practice And surely if this be not true
one should hang a whole Testament or rather a Bible he might beguile the Devil terribly For indeed so would have S. Bernard have done whom the Devil told that he could shew him seven verses in the Psalter which being daily repeated would of themselves bring any man to Heaven and preserve him from hell But when St. Bernard desired the Devil to tell him which they were he refused saying he might then think him a fool so to prejudice himself Well quoth St. Bernard I will do well enough for that for I will daily say over the whole Psalter The Devil hearing him say so told him which were the verses lest in reading over the whole Psalter daily he should merit too much for others But if the hanging of St. Johns Gospel about the neck be so beneficial how if one should eat up the same More Charms for Agues TAke the Party by the hand and say Aeque facilis sit tibi haec febris atque Mariae Virgini Christi partus Otherwise Wash with the Party and privily say this Psalm Exaltabo te Deus meus rex c. Otherwise Wear about your neck a piece of a nail taken from a Cross and wrapped in wool Otherwise drink wine wherein a Sword hath been drowned that hath cut off ones head Otherwise take three consecrated Mass-cakes and write upon the first Qualis est Pater talis est vita on the second Qualis est Filius talis est sanctus on the third Qualis est Spiritus tale est remedium Then give them to the sick man enjoyning him to eat none other thing that day wherein he eateth any of them nor yet drink and let him say fifteen Pater nosters and as many Aves in the honour and praise of the Trinity Otherwise Lead the sick man on a Friday before Sun-rising towards the East and let him hold up his hands towards the Sun and say This is the day wherein the Lord God came to the Cross But as the Cross shall never more come to him so let never the hot or cold fit of this Ague come any more unto this man In nomine Patris ✚ Fi ✚ lii Spiritus ✚ sancti ✚ Then say seven and twenty Pater nosters and as many Aves and use this three days together Otherwise Fécana cagéti daphnes gebáre gedáco Gébali stant sed non stant phebas hecus hedas Every one of these words must be written upon a piece of bread and be given in order one day after another to the sick body and so must he be cured This saith Nicholas Hemingius he chanced to read in the Schools in jest so as one noting the words practised the medicine in earnest and was not only cured himself but also cured many others thereby And therefore he concludeth that this is a kind of miraculous cure wrought by the illusion of the Devil whereas in truth it will fall out most commonly that a Tertian Ague will not hold any man longer than so though no medicine be given or any words spoken Otherwise This word Abra cadabra written on a paper with a certain Figure joyned therewith and hanged about ones neck helpeth the Ague Otherwise let the urine of the sick body made early in the morning be softly heated nine dayes together continually until all be consumed into vapour Otherwise A Cross made of two little twigs joyned together wherewith when the Party is touched he will be whole specially if he hear it about his neck Otherwise Take a like quantity of water out of three Ponds of equal bigness and taste thereof in a new earthen Vessel and drink of it when the fit cometh In the year of our Lord 1568. the Spaniards and Italians received from the Pope this Incantation following whereby they were promised both Remission of Sins and good success in their Wars in the Low-Countries Which whether it be not as prophane and impious as any Witches Charm I report me to the indifferent Reader ✚ Crucem pro nobis subiit ✚ stans in illo sitiit ✚ Jesus sacratis manibus clavis ferreis pedibus perfossis Jesus Jesus Jesus Domine libera nos ab hoc malo ab hac peste then three Pater nosters and three Ave Maries Also the same year their Ensigns were by the Authority aforesaid conjured with certain Ceremonies and consecrated against their Enemies And if you read the Histories of these Wars you may see what victory they gained hereby Item they baptised their chief Standard and gave it to name St. Margaret who overthrew the Devil And because you shall understand the mysterie hereof I have the rather set it down elsewhere being indeed worth the reading For a bloody Flux or rather an Issue of blood TAke a cup of cold water and let fall thereinto three drops of the same blood and between each drop say a Pater noster and an Ave then drink to the Patient and say who shall help you The Patient must answer St. Mary Then say you St. Mary stop the Issue of blood Otherwise Write upon the Patients forehead with the same blood Consummatum est Otherwise say to the Patient Sanguis mane in te sicut fecit Christus in se Sanguis mane in tua vena sicut Christus in suapoena Sanguis mane fixus sicut Christus quando fuit crucifixus Otherwise as followeth In the blood of Adam death was taken ✚ In the blood of Christ it was all to shaken ✚ And by the same blood I do thee charge That thou do run no longer at large Otherwise Christ was born at Bethelem and suffered at Jerusalem where his blood was troubled I command thee by the Vertue of God and through the help of all Saints to stay even as Jordan did when John baptised Christ Jesus In nomine Patris ✚ Flii ✚ Spiritus sancti ✚ Otherwise Put thy nameless singer in the Wound and make therewith three Crosses upon the Wound and say five Pater nosters five Aves and one Credo in the honour of five Wounds Otherwise Touch that part and say De latere ejus exivit sanguis aqua Otherwise In Nomine Patris ✚ Filii ✚ Spiritus sancti ✚ c. Chimratchara sarite confirma consona Imohalite Otherwise Sepa ✚ sepagoga ✚ sta sanguis in Nomine Patris ✚ podendi ✚ Filii ✚ podera ✚ Spiritus sancti ✚ pandorica ✚ pax tecum Amen Cures commenced and finished by Witchcraft THere was a jolly fellow that took upon him to be a notable Chirurgion in the Dutchy of Mentz 1567. to whom there resorted a Gentleman that had been vexed with Sickness named Elibert having a Kerchief on his head according to the guise of sick folk But the Chirurgion made him pull off his Kerchief and willed him to drink with him freely The sick man said he durst not for he was forbidden by Physicians so to do Tush said this Cunning man they know not
Hat but this is an old blew Hat c. and then you may seem to counter-charm it and re-deliver it to his satisfaction How to tell where a stollen Horse is become BY means of confederacy Steven Tailor and one Pope abused divers countrey people For Stephen Tailor would hide away his neighbours Horses c. and send them to Pope whom he before had told where they were promising to send the parties unto him whom he described and made known by divers signs so as this Pope would tell them at their first entrance unto the door Wherefore they came and would say that their Horses were stollen but the thief should be forced to bring back the Horses c. and leave them within one mile South and by West c. of his house even as the plot was laid and the pack made before by Stephen and him This Pope is said of some to be a Witch of others he is accounted a Conjurer but commonly called a wise man which is all one with Soothsayer or Witch CHAP. XXXI Boxes to alter one Grain into another or to consume the Grain or Corn to nothing THere be divers Juggling Boxes with false bottoms wherein many false feats are wrought First they have a Box covered or rather footed alike at each end the bottom of the one end being no deeper than as it may contain one lane of Corn or Pepper glewed thereupon Then use they to put into the hollow end thereof some other kind of grain ground or unground then do they cover it and put it under a Hat or Candlestick and either in putting it thereinto or pulling it thence they turn the Box and open the contrary end wherein is shewed a contrary grain or else they shew the glewed end first which end they suddenly thrust into a Boll or Bag or such grain as is glewed already thereupon and secondly the empty Box. How to convey with words or Charme the Corn contained in one Box into another THere is another Box fashioned like a Bell whereinto they do put so much and such Corn or Spice as the aforesaid hollow Box can contain Then they stop or cover the same with a piece of Leather as broad as a Testor which being thrust up hard towards the middle part or waste of the said Bell will stick fast and bear up the Corn. And if the edge of the leather be wet it will hold the better Then take they the other Box dipped as is aforesaid in Corn and set down the same upon the Table the empty end upward saying that they will convey the grain therein into the other Box or Bell which being set down somewhat hard upon the Table the Leather and the Corn therein will fall down so as the said Bell being taken up from the Table you shall see the Corn lying thereon and the stopple will be hidden therewith and covered and when you uncover the other Box nothing shall remain therein But presently the Corn must be swept down with one hand into the other or into your lap or hat Many feats may be done with this Box as to put therein a Toad affirming the same to have been so turned from Corn c. and then many beholders will suppose the same to be the Jugglers Devil whereby his feats and miracles are wrought But in truth there is more cunning Witchcraft used in transferring of Corn after this sort than is in the transferring of one mans Corn in the Grass into another mans field which the law of the twelve Tables doth so forcibly condemn for the one is a cosening sleight the other is a false lie Of another Box to convert Wheat into Flower with words c. THere is another Box usual among Jugglers with a bottom in the middle thereof made for the like purposes One other also like a Tun wherein is shewed great variety of stuffe as well of liquors as Spices and all by means of another little Tun within the same wherein and whereon Liquor and Spices are shewed But this would ask too long a time of description Of divert petty Juggling Knacks THere are many other beggerly feats able to beguile the simple as to make an Oat stir by spitting thereon as though it came to pass by words Item to deliver Meal Pepper Ginger or any Powder out of the mouth after the eating of Bread c. which is done by retaining any of those things stuffed in a little Paper or Bladder conveyed into your mouth and grinding the same with your Teeth Item a rish through a piece of a Trencher having three holes and at the one side the Rish appearing out in the second at the other side in the third hole by reason of a hollow place made betwixt them both so as the sleight consisteth in turning the piece of Trencher CHAP. XXXII To burn a Thred and to make it whole again with the Ashes thereof IT is not one of the worst feats to burn a Thred handsomly and to make it whole again the order whereof is this Take two Threds or small Laces of one foot in length a piece roll up one of them round which will be then of the quanity of a Pease bestow the same between your left fore-finger and your thumb Then take the other Thred and hold it forth at length betwixt the fore-finger and thumb of each hand holding all your fingers daintily as young Gentlewomen are taught to take up a morsel of meat Then let one cut asunder the same Thred in the middle When that is done put the tops of your two thumbs together and so shall you with less suspition receive the peice of Thred which you hold in your right hand into your left without opening of your left finger and thumb then holding these two pieces as you did the same before it was cut let those two be cut also asunder in the midst and they conveyed again as before until they be cut very short and then roll all those ends together and keep that Ball of small Threds before the other in your left hand and with a Knife thrust out the same with a Candle where you may hold it until the said Ball of short Threds be burnt to ashes Then pull back the Knife with your right hand and leave the ashes with the other Ball betwixt the fore-finger and thumb of your left hand and with the two thumbs and two fore-fingers together seem to take pains to frot and rub the ashes until your Thred be renewed and draw out that Thred at length which you kept all this while betwixt your left finger and thumb This is not inferiour to any Jugglers feat if it be well handled for if you have Legierdemain to bestow the same Ball of Thred and to change it from place to place betwixt your other fingers as may easily be done then will it seem very strange To cut a Lace asunder in the midst and to make it
not blind But surely he that cannot make one hair white or black whereof on the other side not one falleth from the head without Gods special Providence can never bring to pass that the visible creature of God shall become nothing or lose the vertue and grace poured therein by God the Creator of all things If they say that the Devil covereth them with a cloud or veil as M. Mal Bodin and many other do affirm yet me thinks we should either see the cover or the thing covered And though perchance they say in their hearts Tush the Lord seeth not who indeed hath blinded them so as seeing they see not yet they shall never be able to perswade the wise but that both God and man doth see both them and their knavery in this behalf I have heard of a fool who was made believe that he should go invisible and naked while he was well whipped by them who as he thought could not see him Into which fools Paradise they say he was brought that enterprised to kill the Prince of Orenge CHAP. XXXI A Comparison between Popish Exorcists and other Conjurors a Popish Conjuration published by a great Doctor of the Romish Church his rules and cautions I See no difference between these and Popish Conjurations for they agree in order words and matter differing in no circumstance but that the Papists do it without shame openly the other do it in hugger mugger secretly The Papists I say have Officers in this behalf which are called Exorcists or Conjurors and they look narrowly to other cosenours as having gotten the upper hand over them And because the Papists shall be without excuse in this behalf and that the world may see their cosenage impiety and folly to be as great as the others I will cite one Conjuration of which sort I might cite a hundred published by Jacobus de Chusa a great Doctor of the Romish Church which serveth to find out the cause of noise and spiritual rumbling in Houses Churches or Chappels and to conjure walking Spirits which evermore is knavery and cosenage in the highest degree Mark the cosening device hereof and confer the impiety with the others First forsooth he saith it is expedient to fast three days and to celebrate a certain number of Masses and to repeat the seven Penitential Psalms then four or five Priests must be called to the place where the haunt or noise is then a Candle hallowed on Candlemas day must be lighted and in the lighting thereof also must the seven Psalms be said and the Gospel of St. John Then there must be a Cross and a Censer with Frankinsense and therewithal the place must be censed or perfumed holy Water must be sprinkled and a holy Stoal must be used and after divers other Ceremonies a Prayer to God must be made in manner and form following O Lord Jesus Christ the knower of all secrets which alwayes revealest all wholesome and profitable things to thy faithful children and which sufferest a Spirit to shew himself in this place we beseech thee for thy bitter Passion c vouchsafe to command this spirit to reveal and signifie unto us thy servants without our terrour or hurt what he is to thine honour and to his comfort In Nomine Patris c. And then proceed in these words We beseech thee for Christs sake O thou spirit that if there be any of us or among us whom thou wouldst answer name him or else manifest him by some sign Is it Fryer P. or Doctor D. or Doctor Burc or sir Feats or sir John or sir Robert Et sic de caeteris circumstantibus For it is well tryed saith the gloss he will not answer every one If the Spirit make any sound of voyce or knocking at the naming of any one he is the Cosenour the Conjuror I would say that must have the charge of this Conjuration or Examination And these forsooth must be the interrogatories to wit Whose Soul art thou Wherefore camest thou What wouldst thou have Wantest thou any Suffrages Masses or Alms How many Masses will serve thy turn three six ten twenty thirty c By what Priest Must he be religious or secular Wilt thou have any Fasts What How many How great And by what persons Among Hospitals Lepers or Beggars What shall be the sign of thy perfect deliverance Wherefore liest thou in Purgatory and such like This must be done in the night If there appear no sign at this hour it must be deferred until another hour Holy water must be left in the place There is no fear they say that such a Spirit will hurt the Conjuror for he can sin no more as being in the mean state between good and evil and as yet in the state of satisfaction If the Spirit do hurt then it is a damned soul and not an elect Every man may not be present hereat specially such as be weak of complexion They appear in divers manners not alwayes in body or bodily shape as it is read in the life of S. Martine that the Devil did but sometimes invisible as only by sound voyce or noise Thus far Jacobus de Chusa But because you shall see that these be not empty words nor slanders but that in truth such things are commonly put in practice in the Romish Church I will here set down an instance lately and truly though lewdly performed and the same in effect as followeth CHAP. XXXII A late Experiment or cosening Conjuration practised at Orleance by the Franciscan Friers how it was detected and the Judgement against the Authors of that Comedy IN the year of our Lord 1534. at Orleance in France the Maiors wife dyed willing and desiring to be buried without any pomp or noise c. Her husband who reverenced the memorial of her did even as she had willed him And because she was buryed in the Church of the Franciscans besides her Father and Grandfather and gave them in reward only six Crowns whereas they hoped for a greater prey shortly after it chanced that as he felled certain Woods and sold them they desired to give them some part thereof freely without money which he flatly denyed This they took very grievously And whereas before they misliked him now they conceived such displeasure as they devised this means to be revenged to wit that his Wife was damned for ever The chief workmen and framers of this tragedy were Colimannus and Stephanus Aterbatensis both Doctors of Divinity this Colimannus was a great Conjuror and had all his implements in a readiness which he was wont to use in such business And thus they handle the matter They place over the Arches of the Church a young novice who about midnight when they came to mumble their Prayers as they were wont to do maketh a great rumbling and noise Out of hand the Monks began to conjure and to charm but he answered nothing Then being requireed to
Sive and the Sheers that down falls the Book and Key Sive and Sheers upstarts the Theef and away runneth the Devil laughing c. But alas Hemingius is deceived as not perceiving the conceit or rather the deceit thereof For where he supposeth those actions to be miraculous and done by a Devil they are in truth meer bables wherein consisteth not so much as Legierdemain For every Carter may conceive the sleight hereof because the Book and Key Sive and Sheers being stayed up in that order by natural course of necessity must within that space by means of the air and the pulse beating at the singers end turn and fall down Which experience being known to the Witch and Conjuror she or he do form and frame their prophesse accordingly as whosoever maketh proof thereof shall manifestly perceive it By this art practice or experience you shall know what it is a clock if you hold between your finger and your thumb a thred of six or seven inches long unto the other end whereof is tyed a gold Ring or some such like thing in such sort as upon the beating of your Pulâ—â— and the moving of the Ring the same may strike upon either side of a Goblet or Glass These things are I confess Witchcraft because the effect or event proceedeth not of that cause which such coseners say and others believe they do As when they lay a medicine for the Ague c. to a childs wrists they also pronounce certain words or charms by vertue whereof they say the child is healed whereas indeed the medicine only doth the feat And this is also a silly Jugglers knack which wanteth legier demain whom you shall see to thrust a pin or small knife through the head and brain of a Chicken or Pullet and with certain mystical words seem to cure him whereas though no such words were spoken the Chicken would live and do well enough as experience teacheth and declareth Again When such as have maintained the Art and Profession of Conjuring and have written thereupon most cunningly have published recantations and confessed the deceits thereof as Cornelius Agrippa did why should we defend it Also when Heathen Princes of great renown authority and learning have searched with much industry and charge the knowledge and secrecy of Conjuration and Witchcraft and finally found by experience all to be false and vain that is reported of them as Nero Julianus Apostata and Valence did why should we seek for further trial to prove Witchcraft and Conjuration to be cosenage Also when the miracles imputed unto them exceed in quantity quality and number all the miracles that Christ wrought here upon earth for the establishing of his Gospel for the confirmation of our faith and for the advancement of his glorious Name what good Christian will believe them to be true And when Christ himself saith The works that I do no man else can accomplish why should we think that a foolish old Woman can do them all and many more Also when Christ knew not these Witches nor spake one word of them in all time of his being here upon earth having such necessary occasion if at least wise they with their familiars could do as he did by the Spirit of God as is constantly affirmed why should we suppose that they can do as they say but rather that they are deceivers When they are fain to say that Witches wrought not in that Art all those thirty three years that Christ lived and that there were none in Jobs time and that the cosening Oracles are now ceased who seeth not they are witless and madde fools that maintain it When all the mischiefs are accomplished by poysons and natural means which they affirm to be brought to pass by words it manifesteth to the world their cosenage When all the places of Scripture which Witchmongers allow for the proof of such Witches are proved to make nothing for their purpose their own fables and lies deserve small credit When one of the chief points in controversie to wit execution of Witches is grounded upon a false translation namely You shall not suffer a Witch to live which is in Latine Veneficam non retinelitis in vita where the word in every mans ear soundeth to be a Poysoner rather than a worker of Miracles and so interpreted by the seventy Interpreters Josephus and almost all the Rabbins which were Hebrews born Why should any of their Interpretations or Allegations be trusted or well accounted of When working of Miracles is ceased and the gift of Prophesie also so as the godly through invocation of the Holy Spirit cannot perform such wonderful things as these Witches and Conjurors by the invocation of Devils and wicked Spirits undertake and are said to do what man that knoweth and honoureth God will be so infatuate as to believe these lies and so prefer the power of Witches and Devils before the godly indued with God Holy Spirit When many printed Books are published even with Authority in confirmation of such Miracles wrought by those coseners for the detection of Witchcraft and in fine all is not only found false and to have been accomplished by cosenage but that there hath been therein a set purpose to defame honest Matrons as to make them be thought to be Witches why should we believe Bodin M. Mal. c in their cosening tales and fables When they say that Witches can flie in the air and comeâ—â—n at a little coan or a hole in a Glass-window and steal away sucking Children and hurt their Mothers and yet when they are brought into Prison they cannot escape out of the grate which is far bigger who will not condemn such accusations or confessions to be frivolous c When if their assertions were true concerning the Devils usual taking of shapes and walking talking conferring hurting and all manner of dealing with mortal creatures Christs argument to Thomas had been weak and easily answered yea the one half or all the whole world might be inhabited by Devils every poor mans house might be hired over his head by a Devil he might take the shape and favour of an honest woman and play the Witch or of an honest man and play the Thief and so bring them both or whom he list to the gallows who seeth not the vanity of such assertions For then the Devil might in the likeness of an honest man commit any criminal offence as Lavater in his nineteenth Chapter Do spectris reporteth of a grave wise Magistrate in the Territory of Tigurie who affirmed That as he and his servant went through certain pastures he espyed in the morning the Devil in likeness of one whom he knew very well wickedly dealing with a Mare Upon the sight whereof he immediately went to that fellows house and certainly learned there that the same person went not out of his chamber that day And if he had not wisely bolted out the matter the good honest man
saith he had surely been cast into Prison and put on the rack c. The like story we read of one Canegunda wife to Henry the second Emperor of that name in whose Chamber the Devil in the likeness of a young man with whom she was suspected to be too familiar in Court was often seen coming in and out Howbeit she was purged by the tryal Candentis Ferri and proved innocent for she went upon glowing iron unhurt c. And yet Solomon saith May a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned Or can a man go upon coals and his feet net be scorched And thus might the Devil get him up into the Pulpit and spread Heresies as I doubt not but he doth in the mouth of wicked Preachers though not so grossely as is imagined and reported by the Papist and Witchmongers And because it shall not be said that I belie them I will cite a story credibly reported by their chiefest Doctors namely James Sprenger and Henry Institor who say as followeth even word for word CHAP. VI. How the Devil preached good Doctrin in the shape of a Priest how he was discovered and that it is a shame after Confutation of the greater Witchcrafts for any man to give credit to the lesser points thereof ON a time the Devil went up into a Pulpit and there made a very Catholick Sermon but a holy Priest coming to the good speed by his holiness perceived that it was the Devil So he gave good ear unto him but could find no fault with his Doctrin And therefore so soon as the Sermon was done he called the Devil unto him demanding the cause of his sincere preaching who answered Behold I speak the truth knowing that while men be hearers of the Word and not followers God is the more offended and my Kingdom the more inlarged And this was the strangest device I think that ever any Devil used for the Apostles themselves could have done no more Again when with all their familiars their Ointments c. whereby they ride Invisibly nor with all their charms they can neither convey themselves from the hands of such as lay wait for them nor can get out of Prison that otherwise can go in and out at a Mouse-hole nor finally cap save themselves from the gallows that can transubstantiate their own and other bodies into Flies or Fleas c. who seeth not that either they lie or are belyed in their miracles when they are said to transfer their neighbours Corn into their own ground and yet are perpetual beggers and cannot inrich themselves either with Money or otherwise who is so foolish as to remain longer in doubt of their supernatural power When never any yet from the beginning of the world till this day hath openly shewed any other trick conceit or cunning point of Witchcraft than Legierdemain or cosenage who will tarry any longer for further tryal when both the common Law and also the injunctions do condemn prophesying and likewise false miracles and such as believe them in these days who will not be afraid to give credit to those knaveries When hereby they make the Devil to be a God that heareth the Prayers and understandeth the minds of men who will not be ashamed being a Christian to be so abused by them When they that do write most frankly of these matters except lying Sprenger and Institor have never seen any thing herein insomuch that the most credible proof that Bodin bringeth of his wonderful tales of Witchcraft is the report of his Host at an Alehouse where he baited who will give further ear unto these incredible fables When in all the New-Testament we are not warned of these bodily appearances of Devils as we are of his other subtilties c. who will be afraid of their bugs When no such bargain is mentioned in the Scriptures why should we believe so incredible and impossible Covenants being the ground of all Witchmongers Religion without the which they have no probability in the rest of their foolish assertions When as if any honest mans conscience be appealed unto he must confess he never saw tryal of such Witchcraft or Conjuration to take effect as is now so certainly affirmed what Conscience can condemn poor souls that are accused wrongfully or believe them that take upon them impiously to do or work those impossible things When the whose course of the Scripture is utterly tepugnant to these impossible opinions saving a few sentences which nevertheless rightly understood releive them nothing at all who will be seduced by their fond arguments When as now that men have spied the knavary of Oracles and such pelf and that there is not one Oracle in the world remaining who cannot perceive that all the residue heretofore of those devices have been cosenages knaveries and lyes When the power of God is so impudently transferred to a base creature what good Christian can abide to yield unto such miracles wrought by fools When the old women accused of Witchcraft are utterly insensible and unable to say for themselves and much less to bring such matters to pass as they are accused of who will not lament to see we extremity used against them When the foolisher sort of people are always most mistrustful of hurt by Witchcraft and the simplest and dotingest people mistrusted to do the hurt what wise man will not conceive all to be but folly When it were an easie matter for the Devil if he can do as they affirm to give them great store of money and make them rich and doth it not being a thing which would procure him more Disciples than any other thing in the world the wise must needs condemn the Devil of folly and the Witches of peevishness that take such pains and give their souls to Devil to be tormented in Hell fire and their bodies to the Hangmen to be trussed on the Gallows for nichels in a bag CHAP. VII A conclusion against Witchcraft in manner and form of an Induction BY this time all kentish-men know a few fools excepted that Robin-Goodfellow is a Knave All wisemen understand that Witches miraculous enterprises being contrary to nature probability and reason are void of truth or possibility All Protestants perceive that Popish Charms Conjuration Execrations and Benedictions are not effectual but be toys and devices only to keep the people blinde and to inrich the Clergy All Christians see that to confess Witches do as they say were to attribute to a Creature the power of the Creator All children well brought up conceive and spie or at the least are taught that Juglers Miracles do consist of Legierdemain and Confederacy The very Heathen people are driven to confess that there can be no such conference between a spiritual Devil and a corporal Witch as is supposed for no doubt all the Heathen would then have every one his familiar Devil for they would make no Conscience to acquaint
Spirit into six significations saying that it is sometimes taken for the air sometimes for the bodies of the blessed sometimes for the souls of the blessed sometimes for the power imaginative or the mind of man and sometimes for God Again he saith That of spirits there are two sorts some created and some uncreated A spirit uncreated saith he is God himself and it is essentially taken and agreeth unto the three Persons notionally to the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost personally A spirit created is a creature and that is likewise of two sorts to wit bodily and bodiless A bodily spirit is also of two sorts for some kind of spirit is so named of spiritualness as it is distinguished from bodiliness otherwise it is called Spiritus a spiriando id est a flando of breathing or blowing as the wind doth A bodiless spirit is one way so named of spiritualness and then it is taken for a spiritual substance and is of two sorts some make a full and compleat kind and is called compleat or perfect as a spirit angelical some do not make a full and perfect kind and is called incompleat or unperfect as the soul There is also the spirit vital which is a certain subtil or very fine substance necessarily disposing and tending unto life There be moreover spirits natural which are a kind of subtil and very fine substances disposing and tending unto equal complexions of bodies Again there be spirits animal which are certain subtil and very fine substances disposing and tempering the body that it might be animated of the form that is that it might be perfected of the reasonable soul Thus far he In whose division you see a Philosophical kind of proceeding though not altogether to be condemned yet in every point not to be approved Now to the Spirit of spirits I mean the principal and holy Spirit of God which one defineth or rather describeth to be the third Person in the Trinity issuing from the Father and the Son no more the charity dilection and love of the Father and the Son than the Father is the charity dilection and love of the Son and Holy Ghost Another treating upon the same argument proceedeth in this reverent manner The holy Spirit is the vertue or power of God quickning nourishing fostering and perfecting all things by whose only breathing it cometh to pass that we both know and love God and become at the length like unto him which Spirit is the pledge and earnest penny of grace and beareth witness unto our heart whiles we cry Abba Father This Spirit is called the Spirit of God the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of him which raised up Jesus from the dead Jesus Christ for that he received not the Spirit by measure but in fulness doth call it his Spirit saying When the Comforter shall come whom I will send even the Holy Spirit he shall testifie of me This Spirit hath divers Metaphorical names attributed thereunto in the Holy Scriptures It is called by the name of water because it washeth comforteth moistneth softeneth and maketh fruitful with all godliness and vertues the mindes of men which otherwise would be unclean comfortless hard dry and barren of all goodness whereupon the Prophet Isaiah saith I will pour water upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground c. Wherewithal the words of Christ do agree He that believeth in me as saith the Scripture out of his belly shall flow rivers of waters of life And elsewhere Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never be more athirst Other places likewise there be wherein the Holy Spirit is signified by the name of water and flood as in the 13. of Isaiah the 29. of Ezek. the 146. Psalm c. The same Spirit by reason of the force and vehemency thereof is termed fire For it doth purifie and cleanse the wholeman from top to toe it doth burn out the soil and dross of sins and setteth him all in a flaming and hot burning zeal to prefer and further Gods glory Which plainly appeared in the Apostles who when they had received the Spirit they spake fiery words yea such words as were uncontrollable in somuch as in none more than in them this saying of the Prophet Jeremy was verified Nunquid non verba mea sunt quasi ignis Are not my words even as it were fire This was declared and shewed by those fiery tongues which were seen upon the Apostles after they had received the Holy Spirit Moreover this Spirit is called annointing or ointment because that as in old time Priests and Kings were by annointing deputed to their office and charge and so were made fit and serviceable for the same even so the elect are not so much declared as renewed and made apt by the training up of the Holy Spirit both to live well and also to glorifie God Whereupon dependeth the saying of John And ye have no need that any should teach you but as the same ointment doth teach you It is also called in Scripture The Oil of gladness and rejoycing whereof it is said in the Book of Psalms God even thy God hath annointed thee with the Oil of joy and gladness c. And by this goodly and comfortable name of Oil in the Scriptures is the mercy of God oftentimes expressed because the nature of that doth agree with the property and quality of this For as Oil doth float and swim above all other liquors so the mercy of God doth surpass and over-reach all his works and the same doth most of all disclose it self to miserable man It is likewise called the Finger of God that is the might and power of God by the vertue whereof the Apostles did cast out Devils to wit even by the finger of God It is called the Spirit of Truth because it maketh men true and faithful in their vocation and for that it is the touch-stone to try all counterfeit devices of mans brain and all vain Sciences prophane Practices deceitful Arts and circumventing Inventions such as be in general all sorts of Witchcrafts and Inchantments within whose number are comprehended all those wherewith I have had some dealing in my Discovery to wit Charms or Incantations Divinations Augury Judicial Astrology Nativity-casting Alchymistry Conjuration Lot-share Popery which is meer paltry with divers other not one whereof no nor altogether are able to stand to the tryal and examination which this Spirit of Truth shall and will take of those false and evil spirits Nay they shall be found when they are laid into the balance to be lighter than vanity very dross when they once come to be tryed by the fervent heat of this Spirit and like chaffe when this Spirit bloweth upon them driven away with a violent whirlwind such is the perfection integrity and effectual operation of this Spirit whose working as it is manifold so it is marvellous and