Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	holy_a	spirit_n	worship_v	3,077	5	9.0447	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67363	The tragical history of Jetzer, or A faithful narrative of the feigned visions, counterfeit revelations, and false miracles of the Dominican fathers of the covent of Berne in Switzerland, to propagate their superstitions for which horrid impieties, the prior, sub-prior, lecturer, and receiver of the said covent were burnt at a stake, Anno Dom. 1509 / collected from the records of the said city by the care of Sir William Waller, Knight ; translated from his French copy by an impartial pen ...	Waller, William, Sir, d. 1699.; Impartial pen.	1679 (1679)	Wing W548; ESTC R18749	85,978	50

Magdalene toucht Christ the marks of it appear'd in his forehead ever after with abundance of such impertinent stuffe wherewith the doating Friers used to fill up their Sermons Upon Easter-Eve the Lecturer being returned from his Journey two of their Friends amongst the Burgesses of the City namely Mr. Martyn a Goldsmith and Mr. Luke a Glasier had a strange itching humour to see and hear the V. Mary which communicating to the Fathers and they ashamed to deny and yet afraid to grant yet importunity at last prevail'd and they were desir'd to wait the Virgins leisure At last when they had almost quite worn out their patience to the stumps as they sate with two of the Fathers big or rather bursting with expectation out comes the Novice Megerlin who for that time acted the Virgin in all his Accoutrements his first feat of activity was to put out the Lamps and then applying himself to Jetzer Commanded that the Fathers should drive on the point of the Conception with more vigour and zeal and when he or she had besprinkled them with Holy Water and after a strange fashion lighted the Lamps again that were in the cross walk of the Covent using the benefit of their surprize disappear'd without the least suspicion given to their superstitious noddles Now these credulous fools were fob'd off with a very short interlude lest too long a Vision might have produced some accident that might possibly have rub'd up some jealousie in their dull brains of Imposture and Forgery Eight dayes after Easter the four Fathers which were the main Wheels in the Engine being in close Consult the Prior of Basil made them a Visit to see the sport and that he might contribute his Mite to this blessed design he brought with him not only a fine robe of a whitish grey for a property but curious Vizards and Masks and some cunningly contrived Engines to accommodate the Puppet-play and some small Wafers which the Sub-prior could varnish and paint over with admirable artifice They waited for an opportunity wherein they might give the Spectators a trial of their skill during the time that the Prior of Basil sojourn'd with them Now for a preparation to their designed Comedy they brought the Sacrament in its Pixe and placed it on the Table together with a Treatise made by Bernardin de Bustis the Cordelier as also another Tract written by the said Prior of Basil in confutation of the said Treatise of Bernardin and advised Jetzer if ever the V. Mary should appear again he should speak thus to her If thou beest verily the mother of Jesus Christ worship thy Son here before thee carry him unto his place and tear in pieces that Treatise which is erroneous about thy Conception That night the Lecturer appeared in the shape of the Virgin and kneeling devoutly before the Sacrament worshipt it saying withall Yes yes this is my Son and then takes the Treatise of Bernardin de Bustis tears it all in pieces with indignation and then turning to Jetzer Doubt not of the Truth of my Revelations which I have now so Authentically sealed and attested And presently she carries the Sacrament away with her and conveighs it to its own place in the Chappel In the Morning the Fathers gave him a Visit to whom he gave a particular account what had passed seeming to question the truth of these apparitions for his Confessor had put this Crotchet in his head that from thence he might take an occasion to set on foot a new game To whom the Prior of Basil answer'd Brother John An evil Spirit could never worship and carry away the holy Sacrament Why replyed the Lecturer cunningly did not the Devil carry our Saviour to the top of an high Mountain The issue of this dispute was they all agreed that Jetzer should conjure the Spirit upon its next appearance by the Power of God the Father God the Son and God the H. Ghost to tell him directly whether it were a Good or an Evil Spirit And if it should answer that it was a Good Spirit that then he should command it by virtue of the aforesaid Charm to say One Pater Noster one Ave Mary and the Creed which without question would be impossible for any evil Spirit to doe Matters being thus laid the next night comes the V. Mary with great state and pomp usher'd in with Wax-candles which she brought lighted with her from Heaven and placed them very devoutly upon his Table then drawing near to Jetzer he began to Conjure her in the manner and form aforesaid To this she readily Answers Yes yes I am a good Spirit I am Mary and Jesus is my Son whom I worshipt visibly before thee the last night and then carried him away to the Altar If thou beest a good Spirit replyed Jetzer let me hear thee say distinctly thy Pater Noster Ave Maria and the Creed Hereupon she falls down devoutly upon her knees and repeats the Lords Prayers till she came to those words And forgive us our trespasses then turning to Jetzer Mark brother John says she had I not been conceived in Original Sin I had small cause to say forgive us our Trespasses but rather forgive them their trespasses This said she went on with the rest Then she begins her Ave but after an odd fashion Hail Mary I am full of Grace and Jesus Christ my own Son is with me Blessed am I amongst women and blessed is the fruit of my Womb Then she falls to her Creed And when she had repeated those words The third day be rose again from the dead she added And appeared unto me first and not to Luke and Cleophas and so finisht the remainder And when she had in short said Dear brother John do not fancy that any evil spirit thus durst appear to thee 't is I the Blessed Virgin she comforted him with Holy-Water and taking up her Candles she went and placed them before the Image of our Lady which stood in the Walk of the Cloyster The Fathers presently found them and told the Friers that the Virgin Mary had brought those Wax-candles with her from Heaven which were of such a strange nature that no power on earth could light them the Virgin her self must come down from Heaven to do it or it must never be done Several of the Burgesses of the Town were show'd these holy Reliques and their celebrated Properties and when one or two had made a trial in vain the third man it seems unhappily lighted them which put the Prior into a great chafe yet he had an Excuse ready saying That when we begin to undervalue the great favours of God it 's just with him to take away their virtue and so seem'd to come off pretty handsomly But Jetzer at the instruction of his Confessor who to make him more settled in his Faith taught him how to raise scruples not being fully satisfied in the point was resolved upon an Experiment to try the Virgins Patience

with all imaginable Industry he applyed himself to it Hereupon he calls all the Fathers before him gravely reproves them for entring into these dangerous Intrigues for though he could have applauded successful Knavery yet was he unwilling to bear the shame or punishment of what would more than probably in time come to light the Fathers had one Excuse but it was an approved one that they had a Pious and Holy intention in all they did and hoped that their zeals to the Truth and the credit of their Order would Atone as great a failing as that came to The Provincial smiled and not willing to discourage a Pious Design whilst there was any hopes of a fair Issue he went again to Jetzer and gravely exhorted him to continue constant in his Obedience to his Superiours to believe that they were Persons of severe Integrity and having as he thought somewhat sweetned his surly Humour left him to himself The next day the Prior of Basil resolv'd to have a bout with him and when he had made his Approaches with all the Art and Subtilty imaginable he found Jetzer as cross-grain'd and awkward in his Faith of the Apparitions as ever especially in the matter of the coloured Hoste so that in conclusion some of the Fathers best Friends and such as were of the most discerning Heads advised them to make sure work to dispatch this peevish Fellow with a Dose of Poyson presuming he would tell no tales in the other World And that they might the more securely do it they agreed to give him the afore-mentioned Potion mixed with something that would do the feat that so when he came to Act the Passion again the simple Spectators might believe that in his Extasie his Soul Departed and was transported to Heaven by the Angels As soon as the Fathers Strangers were gone the Sub-Prior who was hardned in his Roguery to his own Ruine fell to work again and cook'd him a Mess of Broath well seasoned with Spiders and other Poysons telling Jetzer that the Fathers would come and Dine with him and had sent him a Mess of wholsom Broth to stay his Stomack because it might perhaps be somewhat late ere Dinner was ready he falls to crumb his Pottage and as dull a Blockhead as he was yet observed that so far as the Bread was wet with the Broth it turned of a greenish colour and that there were some yellow Seeds mingled with it a confused suspicion began to dawn in his Brain that there might be mischief intended so that for all that the Sub-Prior and he that waited on him could do for their Lives he would not be perswaded to taste a spoonful This vext them and saying little went out to give their confederates an Account how ill-favouredly the Project had succeeded Jetzer as soon as they were gone throws his Broth out of a side-window which lookt into a little Yard where the Fathers for their Pleasure kept young Wolves these greedy creatures made no scruple of the Mess but hastily lapt it up who in a while turn'd up their Heels and gave Jetzer an ocular demonstration what kindness the Sub-Prior had for him At their return he gave them a round rattle and spared none of his course Eloquence to tell them their own all which the Sub-Prior would have evaded by telling him that he was an ungrateful Rascal a wicked Varlet to Reproach them with what they abhorred from their Souls and that it was no wonder if it killed the Wolves seeing some things were rank Poyson to Beasts which were wholsom Food to Man as he endeavoured to prove by some Instances and he being no great Philosopher had his Mouth stopped but his Mind not at all satisfied Towards the end of June the Provincial with his Colleagues return'd from Lyons having dispatcht no business because the Italians of their Order durst not hazard themselves in France for fear of the Wars which then were hot in that Countrey and therefore their General Chapter was Adjourn'd to Padua whither the Germans Delegated Dr. Munken and Dr. Paul in the Name of the rest As soon as these Fathers came to Berne Jetzer made a heavy complaint to them how his Life had been attempted whereupon the Provincial promis'd to Examine the matter and to do him Justice in it Upon the Meeting of all the Fathers they all pleaded for themselves what they had before done to Jetzer so that the business fell and came to nothing and Jetzer must go seek his Amends where he could get them But to give him some Satisfaction Dr. Amman of Strasburgh gave him a Gold Ring to wear on his Finger which he protested was out of meer Honour and Reverence to that Holiness which he saw so eminently appear in him But at his Departure the crafty Doctor told Jetzer that that Ring was a Relique so Sacred and Precious that it ought not to be exposed to the danger of being lost and therefore with Jetzer's good leave he would keep the Ring for him as safe if he had it in 's own possession bidding him not doubt but that the Virtue of this Consecrated Ring would reach him at a far greater distance than that was Whilst these Strangers Sojourn'd at Berne the four desperate Accomplices in the Design resolving to push forward the Project to the utmost agreed to give them another proof of their Art and accordingly after Midnight Mass The Sub-Prior in the shape of the Virgin Mary and the Lecturer Personating St. Cicily entred his Cell The V. Mary first began O blessed Brother John my Son Jesus has sent me once again unto thee charging thee to press thy Holy Fathers to pursue his Command and mine St. Cicily took her turn and said I am Saint Cicily the Handmaid of the ever blessed Virgin in whose train I have oftentimes appeared to St. Dominick the Patriarch of your Holy Order be Faithful and Obedient And as she proceeded in her Oration Mary very Officiously address'd her self to examine Jetzer's Wounds whether they were perfectly cured and as ill-luck would have it he knew the Officious hand so that not able to suppress his resentments he stamps and rages frets and fumes unmeasurably crying out What ye Rogues and Rascals will ye never leave Persecuting a miserable wretch The Sub-Prior was surprized but had an Answer ready Dear brother this was onely to prove thy sagacity in these matters compose thy Passions and do not disturb the Covent with these out-crys and so saying they disappeared The Provincial before his Departure suspecting the Issue Advised these daring undertakers to proceed no further therein but to let it die of it self and upon his Report thereof to the General of their Order and four other of their most Eminent Divines they gave their Judgment That this Affair could not be of God but was undertaken and managed by the Inspiration of the Devil however they were over the Shooes and would be over the Boots too and therefore without any

regard to the Displeasure and Just Indignation of God resolv'd to make a shaft or a bolt of it And knowing that if they should let the matter die it would come out at last to their shame before the World they resolv'd either to gain their design'd point in confirming their Doctrine by the credit of these Apparitions and feigned Miracles or if Jetzer were unmanageable they would rid their Hands and the World of him by Poyson In the City of Berne there was one Mr. William Diesbach an Ancient Advocate of that Town a Person of Judgment and Prudence and one that had a particular Respect to these Fathers being Honorary Patron to their Sodality his Advice they craved how they should behave themselves in this Important Affair Alleadging that our Blessed Lady complained of their remissness as often almost as she appear'd which was very frequently that they did not divulge her Commands to the Higher Powers they pray his Advice therefore whether it were not expedient to satisfie her by offering to the Council an Authentick Narrative of what has passed He being a discerning Person Counselled them not to precipitate matters but leave them to be ripened by time which would sufficiently divulge them to the World if at least Providence judg'd it expedient They Answer That the Virgin was very urgent and importunate with them and declared she would expect their demurres no longer so that they began to fear she should break out upon them with some marks of her Displeasure for their Negligence Diesbach rejoyns with a countenance between jest and earnest That if the Virgin was in such Post-haste she must take her own course which Repartee had they not been blinded might have assured them that he was no such credulous Fool as they might imagine An unbyassed Judgment might easily conclude that nothing but Judicial blindness and hardness of Heart could have been enough to strengthen the zeal of these Fathers to pursue their Project after such disappointments discouragements and disasters as they had met withall But on they went whither their own Folly led them One Night after a plentiful Collation which they had given the Friers to make them sleep more soundly the Lecturer Sub-Prior and the Receiver secretly conveyed themselves into our Ladies Chappel the Prior himself stood Sentinel for fear of surprize where with rare Artifice they taught the Image of our Lady to weep tears of Blood for which purpose they had reserved a Liquor tinctured by the afore-said Lazarus Dandalus and that so Naturally that one Mr. John Pries a Famous Painter of Fribourg could not discern the Imposture though it was put to him and by this means it became a common Fame that our Lady had shed these Bloody tears The Sub-Prior to avoid all suspicion Artificially Poyson'd one of those red-coloured Hostes whereof the Reader has sometimes before been told and the Plot was thus laid that when Jetzer could be next perswaded to Act the Passion they would immediately before give him the Sacrament which would do his Work for him effectually and then the Sub-Prior engaged by an Act of his own to convey his Body into the Quire of the Church before the great Altar where they would Worship him to cover and colour their Murder and give it out that he was an eminent Saint who dyed in the very Act of the Passion and that his Holy Soul was transported from his Body into Heaven by the Angels And then they would Bury him with all the Solemnity imaginable due to so great Merits They had provided also a Young but a crafty Novice whom they placed behind the Curtains drawn before the Image of our Lady which stood behind the Altar and this Young Knave was to Act two Parts one while to plead on the behalf of the Virgin and then to Answer in the Person of Christ her Son The Reverend Fathers having thus prepared their Matters upon Fryday being the Feast of St. Eloy Patron of the Black-smiths about three a clock in the Morning the Prior came all in haste to Jetzer's Chamber and awakening him tells him with seeming transport that he should come and see an astonishing Miracle for they could not judge other than that the Image of our Blessed Lady did plentifully weep tears of Blood Jetzer gets him out of his Bed and was glad to see Miracles wrought any where rather than upon himself and with others of the Fathers whom they met running to the Chappel to see this Miracle Jetzer made one and entring the Chappel they fall down before this wonder-working Image Look Look says one that had his Eyes a little more open than the rest here 's real drops of blood upon our Lady's cheeks and others that stand ready to fall in the corners of her eyes The Reader must have a good Imagination to give himself the contentment to see the postures of these Hypocrites at that word One beats his Breast Another stands in an amazed posture as if he had less Life in him than the Image and intended to petrifie A third lifts up Eyes Hands Voice to Heaven but all lay with infinite Devotion at her Feet Humbly recommending themselves to her Gracious Protection deprecating her displeasure begging the Pardon of their sins and beseeching her to let her poor Suppliants know what secret guilt there might be upon them which might cause such grief in her that was the Author of all their comfort Upon this the Novice that lay incognito behind the Curtain began to sob sigh and groan most piteously so that her Son which she held in her Arms for so must you conceive could not but condole with her and ask her My most dearly beloved Mother whence come these sad complaints My dear Son replyed she with a voice interrupted with frequent sobbings have I not cause to weep when this deluded World will needs Honour me to your apparent prejudice and against all Reason make it an Article of their Faith That I was born without sin which is your sole Prerogative being both their Saviour and mine Satisfie your self Mother replyed her Son and dry up those tears I will now take this cause into my own hands and determine the point so as to put it for ever out of dispute Then turning his speech to Jetzer he continued his discourse Brother John my special friend seeing thy holy Fathers apprehensive of danger are afraid to reveal and divulge my Apparitions and Miracles which I have vouchsafed their Covent for confirming this grand Truth I will now in my own person decide the Controverversie that the City of Berne if it will escape those terrible Judgements which hang over their heads may engage in this quarrel and lend their power and authority to support and vindicate my Revelations But go thy ways into the Chappel of St. John and there repose thy self a while then return and present thy self before this holy Image with the marks of thy five Wounds exposed to open view where thou

you must know came in at the Window which they had made to comport with their Design and as he was returning the same way Jetzer perceived he had such shooes on as the Dominican Preachers wear he said little but fell down-right upon him and thrust him out at the Window a little faster than he would have gone so that he fell with his Head forward into the Court which though the fall was not very far yet it so bruised his Reverence that the Sub-prior and Receiver who stood under the Window were forced to carry him away to his Lodgings but Jetzer thinking he had play'd a famous prank cryed after them The Devil take you for a pack of Knaves And seeing the Priors Surplice lye there which in the Scuffle he had pluck'd over his Ears he tore it in pieces and fairly burnt it that there might be no token left to Convict him of an Assault upon the Person of the Prior. The Bishop of Lausanne with his Vicar and some others were now come to Town to whom the Council joyned the Prior of Thorberg the Provost of the Chapter the Dean and some others of their own Body to examine Jetzer touching the aforesaid matter who appeared in the Covent and the Bishop demands to be admitted into Jetzers Cell where he found him lying on his Bed and the Lecturer sitting by him giving him ghostly Counsel The Bishop without more adoe waving the Ceremony of Prefaces commands the Prior and Jetzer under pain of Excommunication and by virtue of that Christian obedience to him due as Bishop of Lausanne on whom they did depend to whom they were subordinate and who had cognizance of all matters relating to the Faith and the Holy Sacraments to Confess to him the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth touching these pretended Apparitions Revelations and Miracles The Prior observing as little Ceremony as the Bishop answer'd with a loud voice and a proud look that by the Papal priviledges given to their Order they owed him no Canonical Obedience And though they did yet they owed a greater Obedience to the Queen of Heaven who had expressely forbidden them to give any Account to any person under the Sun save to his Holiness The Bishop asks him whether then he believed the Apparitions of the Virgin Mary to be a real Truth The Prior readily answers He did And that they had such unexceptionable evidences thereof as made it a Mortal sin in them to haesitate about it The Bishop then desires he might hear Jetzer himself declare his mind therein The Fathers all unanimously answer That he should discharge the Company then excepting those that were his immediate Retinue The Bishop consents so that none remained in the Cell with them but the Prior of Thorberg and Dr. Fricker a member of the lesser Council who supplyed the place of Jetzer's Interpreter They that were dismissed raised a great clamour adding many Menaces that they would make them dearly repent it if any foul play were offer'd The Bishop when the room was cleared searcht Jetzers wounds examining him of all the circumstances relating to them Jetzer answer'd very sillily and had been instructed to put on more simplicity than his own beseeching his Grace to receive the Report of the Reverend Fathers who were able to give him better satisfaction in all things than himself The Bishop being able to get nothing out of them who all hung together on a string commanded them however to proceed no further in so slippery a business waiting to see what discovery the Providence of God might make hereafter for indeed the Fathers when once the matter took wind and became town-talk prudently pluckt down Jetzers old Lodging and those of his two Neighbours that there might no foot-steps remain of the contrived Knavery so that the Bishop return'd almost as wise as he came After the Bishops departure the Fathers with all the Arguments they could muster could not perswade Jetzer to drink the Potion nor to have his wounds any more dress'd by them which they hitherto upon pretence of healing had kept raw and fresh and found in a little time that all his pain vanished and the wounds closed up of themselves which abundantly convinced him that the whole affair of his Wounds and Passion were mere contrivance and the V. Mary wholly Innocent in it speaking openly that he would divulge the truth to the world This gave the Fathers quick apprehensions of danger who were now beaten from their old shifts and were forced to have recourse to the Milder Expedients of Prayers and Tears to hold his tongue if not to justifie the things to have been reall seeing all was done for the upholding the Truth of the Conception of the Virgin and the Credit of their Order wherein he had a concern as well as they and did protest that the present healing of his wounds was not natural but an immediate Judgement inflicted upon the unbelieving Age which gave no more Credit to the Miracles of the Virgin And that he had best beware what he did seeing that if any Judgement should pass upon these Actions the greatest load would fall upon his own head and that they under the Protection of their Degrees and Dignities should more easily weather the storm Their chief design remaining was this That seeing they could not hoyste up Jetzer's credit to support their Doctrine they would take away his credit from accusing their wickedness for which end they proceeded in this fashion They put the Red-colour'd Sacrament in a Cabinet with the little Crosses of the Blood of Christ and lockt it up with four Locks Then they send for the Prior of Thorbergh Captain Hupschi Rudolph Huber and the Chancelor their great Confidents and inform them upon what account Jetzer had been discharg'd of his five wounds which Jetzer durst doe no other than confirm and the Case being thus if the Virgin Mary who had been highly provok'd should in pursuance of her just indignation fetch away from them the Sacred Hoste so miraculously colour'd and the Blood of Christ which she had deposited with them that then the world would certainly judge them guilty of some practice and that the Frier and they had invented these things merely out of their fruitful heads And therefore they had at that time desired their Honours presence who being persons of known Integrity might be able to vindicate their sincerity against all men they therefore humbly entreated them to keep three of the Keys of this Cabinet wherein the Sacred Reliques were put and the Prior should keep the fourth As these persons returned home they meet with the Burser of Wattevile to whom they relate what had passed who smiling askt them if they had no more wit than to trust to such slender security for perhaps nay without perhaps they had three other Keyes made of the same Wards which would open the Cabinet at their pleasure This single consideration made them immediately go back and civilly