SCOT'S Discovery of VVitchcraft PROVING The common opinions of Witches contracting with Divels Spirits or Familiars and their power to kill torment and consume the bodies of men women and children or other creatures by diseases or otherwise their flying in the Air c. To be but imaginary Erronious conceptions and novelties WHEREIN ALSO The lewde unchristian practises of Witchmongers upon aged melancholy ignorant and superstious people in extorting confessions by inhumane terrors and tortures is notably detected ALSO The knavery and confederacy of Conjurors The impious blasphemy of Inchanters The imposture of Soothsayers and Infidelity of Atheists The delusion of Pythonists Figure-casters Astrologers and vanity of Dreamers The fruitlesse beggerly art of Alchimistry The horrible art of Poisoning and all the tricks and conveyances of juggling and Liegerdemain are fully deciphered With many other things opened that have long lain hidden though very necessary to be known for the undeceiving of Judges Justices and Juries and for the preservation of poor aged deformed ignorant people frequently taken arraigned condemned and executed for Witches when according to a right understanding and a good conscience Physick Food and necessaries should be administred to them Whereunto is added a treatise upon the nature and substance of Spirits and Divels c. all written and published in Anno 1584. by Reginald Scot Esquire Printed by R. C. and are to be sold by Giles Calvert dwelling at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls 1651. To the Honorable mine especiall good Lord S. Roger Manwood Knight Lord chief Baron of her Majesties Court of the Eschequer 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 onely with hospitality and almes but by divers other devises and waies 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 travell in that behalf Whereas also you have a speciall 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 principall person I thought this my travell 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 lesse 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 excerciseth 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 travell 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 publike smart For in truth that Common-wealth remaineth in wofull state where fetters and halters bear more sway than mercy and due compassion Howbeit it is naturall to unnaturall 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 minde do seldome meet and feed together in a dish so a discreet 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 bloud in these daies have least authority to shed it Moreover sith I see that in cases where lenity might be noisom and punishment wholsom 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 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 apperteineth to God who onely is the Creator of all things who onely searcheth the heart and reines who onely knoweth our imaginations and thoughts who onely openeth all secrets who onely worketh great wonders who onely hath power to raise up and cast down who onely maketh thunder lightning rain tempests and restraineth them at his pleasure who onely sendeth life and death sicknesse and health wealth and wo who neither giveth nor lendeth his glory to any creature And therfore 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 keep it themselvs or leav 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 divil 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 direct the course of the whole world imputing unto him power 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 beleeve she doth that which he himselfe hath wrought sometimes that the devil seemeth to do that by compulsion which he doth most willingly Finally the writers hereupon are so eloquent full of variety that somtimes they write that the devil doth all this by Gods permission only somtimes 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 commandment of a malicious old witch miraculously to answer her appetite as well in every
not onely in members but chiefly of vitall spirits and of the heat which spirits are never in such a body as Incubus hath being but a body assumed as they themselves say And yet the most part of writers herein affirme that it is a palpable and visible body though all be phansies and fables that are written hereupon CHAP. XI That Incubus is a naturall disease with remedies for the same besides magicall cures herewithall expressed BUt in truth this Incubus is a bodily disease as hath been said although it extend unto the trouble of the mind which of some is called the mare oppressing many in their sleep so sore as they are not able to call for helpe or stirre themselves under the burthen of that heavy humor which is ingendred of a thick vapor proceeding from the crudity and rawnesse in the stomach which ascending up into the head oppresseth the braine insomuch as many are much infeebled thereby as being nightly haunted subject therewith They are most troubled with this diâ—ease that being thereunto ly right upward so as to turne and ly on the one side is present remedy Likewise if any hear the groaning of the party speak unto him so as he wake him he is presently releeved Howbeit there are magicall cures for it as for example S. George S. George our ladies knight He walkt by day so did he by night Untill such time as he her found He her beat and he her bound Untill her troth she to him plight She would not come to her that night Whereas S. George our ladies knight was named three times S. George Item hang a stone over the afflicted persons bed which stone hath naturally such a hole in it as wherein a string may be put through it and so he hanged over the diseased or bewitched party be it man woman or horse Item you shall read in M. Malefie that excommunicâ—tion is very notable and better than any charme for this purpose There are also other verses and charmes for this disease devised which is the common cloak for the ignorance of bad physitians But Leonard Fuchsius in his first book and 31 chapter doth not onely describe this disease and the causes of it but also seetteth down very learnedly the cure thereof to the utter confusion of the witch-mongers folly in this behalfe Hyperius being much bewitched and blinded in this matter of witch-craft hovering about the interpretation of Genesis 6. from whence the opinion of Incubus and Succubus is extorted Viderunt filii Dei filias hominum quod elegantes essent acceperunt sibi in uxores ex omnibus quas elegerant c. seemeth to maintaine upon hear say that absurd opinion and yet in the end is driven to conclude thus to wit Of the evill spirits Incubus and Succubus there can be no firme reason or proof brought out of Scriptures using these very words Hec ut probabilia dicta sunto quandoquidem scripturarum praesidio hac in causa destituimur As if he should say Take this as spoken probably to wit by humane reason because we are destitute of Scriptures to maintaine the goodnesse of the cause Tertullian and Sulpitius Severus do interpret Filios Dei in that place to be angels or evill spirits and to have been enamored with the beauty of those wenches and finally begat giants by them Which is throughly confuted by Chrysostome Hom. 22. in Gen. but specially by the circumstance of the text CHAP. XII The censure of G. Chaucer upon the knavery of Incubus NOw will I after all this long discourse of abhominable cloked knaveries here conclude with certaine of G. Chaucers verses who as he smelt out the absurdities of popery so found he the priests knavery in this maâ—ter of Incubus and as the time would suffer him he decided their folly and falshood in this wise For now the great charity and prayers Of limitors and other holy friers That searchen every land and every streame As thicke as motes in the sunne-beame Blissing halles kitchens chambers and bowers Cities borroughes castles and high towers Thropes barnes sheep-pens and dairies This maketh that there been now no fairies For there as wont to walken was an elfe There walketh now the limitor himselfe In under meales and in mornings And saith his mattens and his holy things As he goeth in his limitation Women may go safely up and down In every bush and under every tree There is none other Incubus but he c. The Fift Book CHAP. I. Of transformations ridiculous examples brought by the adversaries for the confirmation of their foolish doctrine NOw that I may with the very absudities contained in their own authors and even in their principall doctors and last writers confound them that maintaine the transubstantiations of witches I will shew you certain proper stuffe which Bodin their chief champion of this age hath gathered out of M. Mal. and others whereby he laboureth to establish this impossible incredible and supernaturall or rather unnaturall doctrine of transubstantiation First as touching the devill Bodin saith that he doth most properly and commonly transforme himselfe into a goat confirming that opinion by the 33. and 34. of Esay where there is no one tittle sounding to any such purpose Howbeit he sometimes alloweth the devill the shape of a blackmoore and as he saith he used to appear to Mawd Cruse Kaâ—e Darey and Ione Harviller But I marvell whether the devill createth himselfe when he appeareth in the likenes of a man or whether God createh him when the devill wisheth it As for witches he saith they specially transsubstantiate themselves into wolves and them whom they bewitch into asses though else-where he differ somewhat herein from himselfe But though he affirme that it may be naturally brought to passe that a girle shall become a boy and that any femall may be turned into the male yet he saith the same hath no affinity with Lycanthropia wherein he saith also that men are wholly transformed and citeth infinite examples hereof First that one Garner in the shape of a woolfe killed a girle of the age of twelve yeares and did eat up her armes and legges and carried the rest home to his wife Item that Peter Burgeâ— and Michael Werdon having turned themselves with anointment into wolves killed finally did â—at up an infinite number of people Which ly Wierus doth sufficiently confute But untill you see read that consider whether Peter could eat raw flesh without surâ—etting specially flesh of his own kinde Item that there was an arrow shot into a wolves thigh who afterwards being turned into his former shape of a man was found in his bed with the arrow in his thigh which the archer that shot it knew very well Item that another being Lycanthropus in the forme of a wolfe had his wolves feet cut off and in a moment he became a man without hands or feet He accuseth also one of the mightiest prince
never 〈◊〉 shrowds and shelters for the time and be they with never so much â—â—telousnesse and subtill circumspection clouded and shadowed yet will they at length be manisfestly detected by the light according to that old rimed verse Quicquid nix celat solis calor omne revelat What thing soever snow doth hide Heat of the sunne doth make it spide And according to the verdict of Christ the true Nazarite who never told untruth but who is the substances and groundworke of truth it selfe saying Nihil est tam occulium quod non sit detegendum Nothing is so secret but it shall be knowne and revealed THE xvj Booke CHAP. I. A conclusion in manner of an epilogue repeating many of the former absurdities of witchmongers conceipts confutations thereof and of the authority of James Sprenger and Henry Institor inquisitors and compilers of M. Mal. HItherto you have had delivered unto you that which I have conceived and gathered of this matter In the substance and principall parts whereof I can see no difference among the writers hereupon of what country condition estate or religion so ever they be but I find almost all of them to agree in unconstancy fables and impossibilities scratching out of M. Mal. the substance of all their arguments so as their authors being disapproved they must coine new stuffe or go to their grandams maids to learne more old wives tales whereof this art of witchcraft is contrived But you must know that Iames Sprenger and Henry Institor whom I have had occasion to alledge many times were copartners in the composition of that profound and learned booke called Malleus Maleficarum and were the greatest doctors of that art out of whom I have gathered matter and absurditie enough to confound the opinions conceived of witchcraft although they were allowed inquisitors and assigned by the pope with the authority and commendation of all the doctors of the university of Collen c. to call before them to emprison to condemne and to execute witches and finally to seaze and confiscate their goods These two doctors to maintaine their credit and to cover their injuries have published those same monstrous lies which have abused all Christendome being spread abroad with such authority as it will be hard to suppresse the credit of their writings be they never so ridiculous and false Which although they maintaine and stir up with with their owne praises yet men are so bewitched as to give credit unto them For proof whereof I remember they write in one place of their said book that by reason of their severe proceedings against witches they suffered intolerable assaults specially in the night many times finding needles sticking in their biggens which were thither conveyed by witches charmes and through their innocency and holinesse they say they were ever miraculously preserved from hurt Howbeit they affirm that they will not tell all that might make to the manifestation of their holinesse for then should their owne praise stink in their owne mouths And yet God knoweth their whole book containeth nothing but stinking lies and popery Which groundwork and foundation how weak and wavering it is how unlike to continue and how slenderly laid a child may soone discerne and perceive CHAP. II. By what means the common people have been made beleeve in the miraculous workes of witches a definition of witchcraft and a description thereof THe common people have been so assotted and bewitched with whatsoeever poets have faigned of witchcraft either in earnest in jest or else in derision and with whatsoever lowd liers and couseners for their pleasures herein have invented and with whatsoever tales they have heard from old doting women or from their mothers maids and with whatsoever the grandfoole their ghostly father or any other morrow masse priest had informed them and finally with whatsoever they have swallowed up through tract of time or through their owne timerous nature or ignorant conceipt concerning these matters of hags and witches as they have so setled their opinion and credit thereupon that they think it herefie to doubt in any part of the matter specially because they find this word witchcraft expressed in the scriptures which is as to defend praying to saints because Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus is written in â—â— Deum And now to come to the definition of witchcraft which hitherto I did defer and put off purposely that you might perceive the true nature thereof by the circumstances and therefore the rather to allow of the same seeing the variety of other writers Witchcraft is in truth a cousening art wherein the name of God is abused prophaned and blasphemed and his power attributed to a vile creature In estimation of the vulgár people it is a supernaturall work contrived between a corporall old woman and a spirituall divell The manner thereof is so secret mysticall and strange that to this day there bath never been any credible witnesse thereof It is incomprehensible to the wise learned or faithfull a probable matter to children fools melancholick persons and papists The trade is thought to be impious The effect and end thereof to be sometimes evill as when thereby man or beast grasse trees or corn c. is hurâ— sometimes good as whereby sick folks are healed theeves bewrayed and true men come to their goods c. The matter and instruments wherewith it is accomplished are words charmes signes images characters c. The which words although any other creature doe pronounce in manner and form as they doe leaving out no circumstance requisite or usuall for that action yet none is said to have the grace or gift to perform the matter except she be a witch and so taken either by her own a consent or by others imputation CHAP. III. Reasons to prove that words and characters are but bables and that witches cannot doe such things as the multitude supposeth they can their greatest wonders proved trifles of a young gentleman cousened THat words characters images and such other trinkers which are thought so necessary instruments for witchcraft as without the which no such thing can be accomplished are but bables devised by couseners to abuse the people withall I trust I have sufficiently proved And the same may be further and more plainly perceived by these short and compendious reasons following First in that the Turks and infidels in their witchcraft use both other words and other characters than our witches doe and also such as are most contrary In so much as if ours beeâ— bad in reason theirs should be good If their witches can doe anything ours can doe nothing For as our witches are said to renounce Christ and despise his sacraments so doe the other forsake Mahomet and his laws which is one large step to christianity It is also to be thought that all witches are couseners when mother Bungie a principall witch so reputed tryed and condemned of all men and continuing in that exercise
to do For â—â— Samuel 15.23 it is all one with rebellion Iesabel for her idolatrous 〈◊〉 is called a witch Also in the new testament even S. Paul saith the Galathians are bewitched because they were seduced and lead from the true understanding of the Scriptures Item sometimes it is taken in good part as the magicians that came to worship and offer to Christ and also where Daniel is said to be an inchanter yea a principall inchanter which title being given him in divers places of that story he never seemeth to refuse or dislike but rather intreateth for the pardon and qualification of the rigor towards other inchanters which were meer coseners indeed as appeareth in the second chapter of Daniel where you may see that the king espyed their fetches Sometimes such are called conjurers as being but rogues and lewd people would use the name of Jesus to worke miracles whereby though they being faithlesse could work nothing yet is their practise condemned by the name of conjuration Sometimes jugglers are called witches Sometimes also they are called sorcerers that impugne the gospell of Christ and seduce others with violent perswasions Sometimes a murtherer with poison is called a witch Sometimes they are so termed by the very signification of their names as Elimaâ— which signifieth a sorcerer Sometimes because they study curious and vaine arts Sometimes it is taken for wounding or grieving of the heart Yea the very word Magus which is Latine for a magician is translated a witch and yet it was heretofore alwaies taken in the good part And at this day it is indifferent to say in the English tongue She is a witch or She is a wise woman Sometimes observers of dreames sometimes sooth sayers sometimes the observers of the flying of fowleâ— of the meeting of todes the falling of salt c. are called witches Sometimes he or she is called a witch that take upon them either for gaine or glory to do miracles and yet can do nothing Sometimes they are called witches in common speech that are old lame curst or melancholike as a nick-name But as for our old women that are said to hurt children with their eyes or lambs with their lookes or that pull down the moon out of heaven or make so foolish a bargain or do such homage to the devill you shall not read in the bible of any such witches or of any such actions imputed to them The sixt Book CHAP. I. The exposition of this Hebrew word Chasaph wherein is answerâ—â— the objection contained in Exodus 22. to wit Thou shalt not 〈◊〉 a witch to live and of Simon Magus Acts. 8 CHasaph being an Hebrew word is latined Venefiâ—â—â— and is in English poisoning or witch-craft if you will so have it The Hebrew sentence written in Exodus 22. is by the 70. interpreters translated thus in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Latine is Veneficos sive veneficas non retinebitis in vita in Englishâ— You shall nor suffer any poisoners or as it is translatedâ— witches to live The which sentence Iosephus an Hebrew borne and man of great estimation learning and fame interpreteth in this 〈◊〉 Let none of the children of Israel have any poyson that is deadly or prâ—â—pared to any hurtfull use If any be apprehended with such stuffe let 〈◊〉 be put to death and suffer that which he meant to do to them for whâ—â— he prepared it The Rabbins exposition agreeth herewithall Lex Corâ—â—â— differeth not from this sense to wit that he must suffer death which other maketh selleth or hath any poison to the intent to kill any 〈◊〉 This word is found in these places following Exodus 22.18 Deut. 18. â—â— 2 Sam 9.22 Dan. 2.2 2 Câ—r 33.6 Esay 47.9.12 Malach. 3.5 Ierem. 27. Mich. 5.2 Nab. 3.4 bis Howbeit in all our English translations Chasaph translated witch-craft And because I will avoid prolixity and contention both at once I 〈◊〉 admit that Veneficae were such witches as with their poisons did 〈◊〉 hurt among the children of Israel and I will not deny that there 〈◊〉 such untill this day bewitching men and making them beleeve 〈◊〉 by vertue of words and certaine ceremonies they bring to 〈◊〉 such mischiefs and intoxications as they indeed accomplish by poisoâ—â— And this abuse in cosenage of people together with the taking of Goâ—â— name in vaine in many places of the scripture is reproved especialâ—â— by the name of witch-craft even where no poysons are According 〈◊〉 the sense which S. Paul used to the Galathians in these words where â—â— sheweth plainly that the true signification of witch-craft is cosenage ye foolish Galathians saith he who hath bewitched you to wit cosened or abused you making you beleeve a thing which is neither so 〈◊〉 so Whereby he meaneth not to ask of them who hath with charmeâ— c. or with poysons deprived them of their health life cattle or chilâ—dren c. buâ— who hath abused or cosened them to make them beleeâ—â— lies This phrase is alsoused by Job 15. But that we may be througly resolved of the true meaning of this phrase used by Paul Gal. 3. let us examined the description of a notable witch called Simon Magus made by S. Luke There was saith he in the city of Samaria a certain man called Simon which used witch-craft and bewitched the people of Samaria saying that he himselfe was some great man I demand in what other thing here do we see any witch-craft than that he abused the people making them beleeve he could worke miracles whereas in truth he could do no such thing as manifestly may appear in the 13. and 19. verses of the same chapter where he wondered at the miracles wrought by the apostles and would have purchased with money the power of the Holy Ghost to work wonders It will be said the people had reason to beleeve him because it is written that he of long time had bewitched them with sorceries But let the bewitched Galathians be a warning both to the bewitched Samaritans and to all other that are cosened or bewitched through false doctrine or legierdemaine least while they attend to such fables and lies they be brought into ignorance and so in time be led with them away from God And finally let us all abandon such witches and coseners as with Simon Magus set themselves in the place of God boasting that they can do miracles expound dreames foretell things to come raise the dead c. which are the workes of the Holy Ghost who onely searcheth the heart and reines and onely worketh great wonders which are now stayed and acomplished in Christ in whom who so steadfastly beleeveth shall not need to be by such meanes resolved or confirmed in his doctrine and gospell And as for the unfaithfull they shall have none other miracle shewed unto them but the signe of Ionas the prophet And therefore I say whatsoever they be that with Simon Magus take
following was first authorized and printed at Rome and afterwards at Avenion Anno 1515. And lest that the devill should lie hid in some secret part of the body every part thereof is named Obsecro te Iesu Christe c. that is I beseech thee O Lord Jesus Christ that thou pull out of every member of this man all infirmities from his head from his haire from his braine from his forehead from his eyes from his nose from his eares from his mouth from his tongue from his teeth from his jawes from his throate from his neck from his backe from his brest from his paps from his heart from his stomach from his sides from his flesh from his blood from his bones from his legs from his feet from his fingers from the soles of his feet from his marrow from his sinewes from his skin and from every joint of his members c. Doubtlesse Jesus Christ could have no starting hole but was hereby every way prevented and pursued so as he was forced to do the cure for it appeareth hereby that it had been insufficient for him to have said Depart out of this man thou unclean spirit and that when he so said he did not performe it I do not think that there will be found among all the heathens superstitious fables or among the witches conjurors poets knaves coseners fooles c. that ever wrot so impudent and impious a lie or charm as is read in Barnardine de bustis where to cure a sick man Christs body to wit a wafer-cake was outwardly applied to his side and entered into his heart in the sight of all the standers by Now if grave authors report such lies what credit in these cases shall we attribute unto the old wives ales that Sprenger Institor Bodin and others write Even as much as to Ovids Metamorphosis Aesops fables Moores Utopia and divers other â—ansies which have as much truth in them as a blind man hath sight in his eye A charme for the bots in a horse You must both say and do thus upon the diseased horse three dayes together before the sunne rising In nomine pa ✚ tris fi ✚ lii spiritus ✚ sancti Exorcizo te veâ—mem per Deum pa ✚ trem si ✚ lium spiritum ✚ sanctum that is In the name of God the father the sonne and the Holy Ghost I conjure thee O worm by God the Father the son and the Holy Ghost that thou neither eate nor drink the flesh blood or bones of this horse and that thou hereby maist be made as patient as Iob and as good as S. Iohn Baptist when he baptized Christ in Iordan In nomine pa ✚ â—ris fi ✚ lii et spiritus ✚ sancti And then say three Pater nosters and three Aves in the right eare of the horse to the glory of the holy trinity Do ✚ minus fili ✚ us spiri ✚ tus Mari ✚ a. There are also divers bookes imprinted as it should appeare with the authority of the church of Rome wherein are contained many medicinall prayers not onely against all diseases of horses but also for every impediment and fault in a horse insomuch as if a shoe fall off in the middest of his journey there is a prayer to warrant your horses hoof so as it shall no â— breake how farre so ever he be from the Smithes forge Item The Duke of Alba his horse was consecrated or canonized in the Low-Countries at the solemne masse wherein the Popes bull and also his charm was published which I will hereafter recite he in the mean time sitting as Vice-roy with â—his consecrated standart in his hand till masse was done A charm against vineger THat wine wax not eager write on the vessel Gustate videte quâ—â— am suavis est Dominus CHAP. XV. The inchanting of serpents and snakes objections answered concerning the same fond reasons why charmes take effect the rein Mâ—homets pigeon miracles wrought by an asse at Memphis in Aegypt popish charmes against serpents of miracleworkers the taming 〈◊〉 snakes Bodins lie of snakes COncerning the charming of Serpents and snakes mine adversaries 〈◊〉 I have said think they have great advantage by the words of David is the fifty eight psalme and by Jeremy chap. eight expounding the one prophet by Virgil the other by Ovid. For the words of David are these Their poison is like the poison of a Serpent and like a deafe Adder thâ— Stoppeth his eare and heareth not the voice of the charmer charm 〈◊〉 never so cunningly The words of Virgil are these Frigidus in 〈◊〉 cantando rumpitur anguis As he might say David thou liest for the cold-natured snake is by the charms of the inchanters broken all to peece in the field where he lieth Then cometh Ovid and he taketh his countreymans part saying in the name and person of a witch Vipereas 〈◊〉 verbis carmine fauces that is I with my words and charmes can breâ—â— in sunder the vipers jawes Matry Jeremy on the other side encountereth this poetical witch and he not onely defendeth but expoundeth his fellowe prophets words and that not in his own name but in the naâ—â— of Almighty God saying I will send serpents and cockatrices among you which cannot be charmed Now let any indifferent man christian or heathen judge whe thâ—â— the words and minds of the prophets do not directly oppugne these poâ—â— words I will not say minds for that I am sure they did therein but jest 〈◊〉 trifle according to the common fabling of lying poets And certainly I 〈◊〉 encounter them two with other two poets namely Propertius and Horace the one merrily deriding the other seriously impugning their fantasticâ— poetries concerning the power and omnipotency of witches For when Virgil Ovid c. write that witches with their charmes fetch down the Moon and starres from heaven c. Propertius mocketh them in the words following At vos deductae quibus est fallacia Lunae Et labor in magicis sacra piare focis En agedum dominae mentem convertite nostrae Et facite illa meo palle at ore magis Tunc ego crediderim vobis sidera amnes Posse Circeis ducere carminibus But you that have the subtil slight Of fetching down the moon from skies And with inchanting fire bright Attempt to purge your sacrifice Lo now go too turn if you can Our madams mind and sturdy heart And make her face more pale and wan Than mine which if by magick art You do then will I soon believe That by your witching charmes you can From skies aloft the starres remeeve And rivers turne from whence they ran And that you may see more certainly that these poets did but jest and deride the credulous and timerous sort of people I thought good to shew you what Ovid saith against himself and such as have written so incredibly and ridiculously of witches omnipotency Nec mediae
beholders As when I tell you in the presence of a multitude what you have thought or done or shall do or think when you and I were thereupon agreed before And if this be cunningly and closely handled it will induce great admiration to the beholders specially when they are before amazed and abused by some experiments of naturall magick arithmeticall conclusions or legierdemain Such were for the most part the conclusions and devices of â—eats wherein doubt you not but Iannes and Iambres were expert active and ready CHAP. XV. How men have been abused with words of equivocation with sundry examples thereof SOme have taught and others have written certain experiments in the expressing whereof they have used such words of equivocation as whereby many have been overtaken and abused through rash credulity so 〈◊〉 sometimes I say they have reported taught and written that which their capacity took hold upon contrary to the truth and sincere meaning of the author It is a common jest among the water men of the Thames to shew the parish Church of Stone to the passengers calling the same by the name of the lanterne of Kent affirming and that not untruly that the said church is as light meaning in weight and not in brightnesse at midnight as at noonday Whereupon some credulous person is made beleeve and will not stick to affirm and swear that in the same church is such continuall light that any man may see to read there at all times of the night without a candle An excellent philosopher whom for reverence unto his same and learning I will forbear to name was overtaken by his hossesse at Dover who merrily told him that if he could retein and keep in his mouth certain pibbles lying at the shore side he should not perbreak untill he came to Calice how rough and tempestuous so ever the seas were Which when he had tryed and being not forced by sicknesse to vomit nor to lose his stones as by vomitting he must needs do he thought his hostesse had discovered unto him an excellent secret nothing doubting of her amphibologicall speech and therefore thought it a worthy note to be recorded among miraculous and medicinable stones and inserted it accordingly into his book among other experiments collected with great industry learning travell and judgement All these toies help a subtle cousener to gain credit with the multitude Yea to further estimation many will whisper prophecies of their own invention into the ears of such as are not of quickest capacity as to tell what weather c. shall follow Which if it fall out true then boast they and triumph as though they had gotten some notable conquest if not they deny the matter forget it excuse it or shift it off as that they told another the contrary in earnest and spake that but in jest All these helps might Pharaohs jugglers have to maintain their cousenages and illusions towards the hardening of Pharaohs hearts Hereunto belong all manner of charmes periapts amulets characters and such other superstitions both popish and prophane whereby if that were true which either papists conjurors or witches undertake to do we might daily see the very miracles wrought indeed which Pharaoh's magicians seemed to performe Howbeit because by all those devices or cousenages there cannot be made so much as a nit so as Iannes and Iambres could have no help that way I will speak thereof in place more convenient CHAP. XVI How some are abused with naturall magick and sundry examples thereof when illusion is added thereunto of Jacobs pied sheep and of a black Moore BUt as these notable and wonderfull experiments and conclusions that are found out in nature it self through wisdome learning and industry do greatly oppose and astonish the capacity of man so I say when deceit and illusion is annexed thereunto then is the wit the faith and constancy of man searched and tryed For if we shall yeeld that to be devine supernaturall and miraculous which we cannot comprehend a witch a papist a conjuror a cousener and a juggler may make us beleeve they are gods or else with more impiety we shall ascribe such power and omnipotency unto them or unto the devill as only and properly appertaineth to God As for example By consederacy or cousenage as before I have said I may seem to manifest the secret thoughts of the heart which as we learn in Gods book none knoweth or searcheth but God himself alone And therefore whosoever beleeveth that I can do as I may seem to do maketh a god of me and is an idolater In which respect whensoever we hear papist witch conjuror or cousener take upon him more than lieth in humane power to performe we may know and boldly say it is a knack of knavery and no miracle at all And further we may know that when we understand it it will not be worth the knowing And at the discovery of these miraculous toies we shall leave to wonder at them and begin to wonder at our selves that could be so abused with bables Howbeit such things as God hath laid up secretly in nature are to be weighed with great admiration and to be searched out with such industry as may become a Christian man I mean so as neither God nor our neighbour be offended thereby which respect doubtlesse Iannes and Iambres never had We finde in the Scriptures divers naturall and secret experiments practised as namely that of Iacob for pied sheep which are confirmed by prophane authours and not only verified in lambs and sheep but in horses peacocks conies c. We read also of a woman that brought forth a young black Moore by means of an old black Moor who was in her house at the time of her conception whom she beheld in phantasie as is supposed howbeit a jealous husband will not bee satisfied with such phantasticall imaginations For in truth a black Moor never faileth to beget back children of what colour soever the other be Et seâ— contra CHAP. XVII The opinion of Winchmoâ—gers that Divels can create bodies and of Pharaohs Magicians IT is affirmed by Iames Sprenger and Henry Institor in M. Mal. who cite Albert. In lib. de animalib for their purpose that divels and Witches also can truely make living creatures as well as God though not at an instant yet very sodainly Howbeit all such who are rightly informed in Gods word shall manifestly perceive and confesse the contrary as hath been by Scriptures already proved and may be confirmed by places infinite And therefore Iannes and Iambres though Satan and also Belzebub had assisted them could never have made the serpent or the frogs of nothing nor yet have changed the waters with words Neverthelesse all the learned expositors of that place affirm that they made a shew of creation c. exhibiting by cunning a resemblance of some of those miracles which God wrought by the hands of Moses Yea S. Augustine and many
power For besides him there is no saviour none can deliver out of his hand Who but he can declare set in order appoint and tell what is to come He destroyeth the the tokens of foothsayers and maketh the conjecturers fooles c. He declareth things to come and so cannot witches There is no helpe in inchanters and soothsayers and other such vaine sciences For divels are cast out by the finger of God which Matthew calleth the spirit of God which is the mighty power of God and not by the vertue of the bare name only being spoken or pronounced for then might every wicked man do it And Simon Magus needed not then to have proffered mony to have brought the power to do miracles and wonders for he could speake and pronounce the name of God as well as the apostles Indeed they may soone throw out all the divells that are in frankincense and such like creatures wherein no divels are but neither they nor all their holy water can indeed cure a man possessed with a divell either in body and mind as Christ did Nay why do they not cast out the divell that possesseth their owne soules Let me heare any of them all speake with new tongues let them drinke but one dramme of a potion which I will prepare for them let them cure the sicke by laying on of hands though witches take it upon them and witchmongers beleeve it and then I will subscribe unto them But if they which repose such certainety in the actions of witches and conjurors would diligently note their deceit and how the scope whereat they shoote is money I meane not such witches as are falsely accused but such as take upon them to give answers c as mother Bungie did they should apparently see the cousenage For they are abused as are many beholders of jugglers which suppose they do miraculously that which is done by sleight and subtilty But in this matter of witchcrafts and conjurations if men would rather trust their own eyes than old wives tales and lies I dare undertake this matter would soone be at a perfect point as being easier to be perceived than juggling But I must needs confesse that it is no great marvell though the simple be abused therein when such lies concerning those matters are maintained by such persons of account and thrust into their divine service As for example It is written that S. Martine thrust his fingers into ones mouth that had a divell within him and used to bite folk and then did bid him devoure them if he could And because the divell could not get out at his mouth being stopt with S. Martins fingers he was fain to run out at his fundament O stinking lye CHAP. XXX That it is a shame for papists to beleeve other conjurors doings their owne being of so little force Hippocrates his opinion herein ANd still me thinks papists of all others which indeed are most credulous and doe most maintaine the force of witches charmes and of conjurors cousenages should perceive and judge conjurors doings to be void of effect For when they see their owne stuffe as holy water salt candles c. conjured by their holy bishop and priests and that in the words of consecration or conjuration for so their own Doctors terme them they adjure the water c. to heal not onely the soules infirmitie but also every malady hurt or ach of the body and doe also command the candles with the force of all their authority and power and by the effect of all their holy words not to consume and yet neither soul nor body any thing recover nor the candles last one minute the longer with what face can they defend the others miraculous workesâ— as though the witches and conjurors actions were more effectuall than their owne Hippocrates being but a heathen and not having the perfect knowledge of God could see and perceive their cousenage and knavery well enough who saith They which boast so that they can remove or help the infections of diseases with sacrifices conjurations or other magicall instruments or means are but needy fellows wanting living and therefore refer their words to the divell because they would seeme to know somewhat more then the common people It is marvell that papists doe affirm that their holy water crosses or bugges words have such vertue and violence as to drive away divels so as they dare not approach to any place or person besmeared with such stuffe when as it appeareth in the Gospell that the divell presumed to assault and tempt Christ himself For the divell indeed most earnestly busieth himselfe to seduce the godly as for the wicked he maketh reckoning and just accompt of them as of his own already But let us goe forward in our refutation CHAP. XXXI How conjurors have beguiled witches what bookes they carry about to procure credit to their art wicked assertions against Moses and Joseph THus you see that conjurors are no small fooles For whereas witches being poor and needy goe from doore to doore for relief have they never so many todes or cats at home or never so much hogs dung and charvill about them or never so many charmes in store these conjurors I say have gotten them offices in the church of Rome whereby they have obtained authority and great estimation And further to adde credit to that art these conjurors carry about at this day books entituled under the names of Adam Abel Tobie and Enoch which Enoch they repute the most divine fellow in such matters They have also among them bookes that they say Abraham Aaron and Salomon made Item they have books of Zachary Paul Honorius Cyprian Ierome Ieremy Albert and Thomas also of the angels Riziel Razael and Raphael and doubtless these were such books as were said to have been burnt in the lesser Asia And for their further credit they boast that they must be are skilfull and learned in these arts to wit ars Almadell ars Notoria ars Bulaphiae ars Arthephii ars Pomena ars Revelationis c. Yea these conjurors in corners stick not with Iustine to report and affirm that Ioseph who was a true figure of Christ that delivered and redeemed us was learned in these arts and thereby prophesied and expounded dreams and that those arts came to him from Moses and finally from Moses to them which thing both Pliny and Tacitus affirm of Moses Also Strabo in his cosmographiâ— maketh the very like blasphemous report and likewise Apollonius Molon Possidonius Lisimachus and Appian term Moses both a magician and a conjuror whom Eusebius confuteth with many notable arguments For Moses differed as much from a magician as truth from falshood and piety from vanity for in truth he confounded all magick and made the world see and the cunningest magicians of the earth confesse that their own doings were but illusions and that his miracles were wrought by the finger of God But
so often The viper The serpent c. and that his children are called the generation of vipers but upon this first description of the divell made by Moses For I think none so grosse as to suppose that the wicked are the children of snakes according to the letters no more than we are to think and gather that God keepeth a book of life written with penne and inke upon paper as citizens record their free men CHAP. XXXI Of the curse rehearsed Gen. 3. and that place rightly expounded John Calvines opinion of the divell THe curse rehearsed by God in that place whereby witchmongers labour so busily to prove that the divell entered into the body of a snake and by consequence can take the body of any other creature at his pleasure c. reacheth I think further into the divels matters than we can comprehend it or is needfull for us to know that understand not the wayes of the divels creeping and is far unlikely to extend to plague the generation of snakes as though they had been made with legges before that time and through his curse was deprived of that benefit And yet if the divell should have entered into the snake in manner and form as they suppose I cannot see in what degree of sin the poore snake should be so guilty as that God who is the most righteous Judge might be offended with him But although I abhorre that lewd interpretation of the family of love and such other heretiques as would reduce the whole Bible into allegories yet me thinks the creeping there is rather metaphorically or significately spoken than literally even by that figure which is there prosecuted to the end Wherein the divell is resembled to an odious creature who as he creepeth upon us to annoy our bodies so doth the divell there creep into the conscience of Eve to abuse and deceive her whâ—â— seed neverthelesse shall tread down and dissolve his power and 〈…〉 And through him all good christians as Calvine saith obtaine power to doe the like For we may not imagine such a materiall tragedy as there is described for the ease of our feeble and weak capacities For whensoever we find in the scriptures that the divell is called god the prince of the world a strong armed man to whom is given the powâ— of the air a roaring lion a serpent c. the Holy Ghost moved us thereby to beware of the most subtill strong and mighty enemy and to make preparation and arm our selves with faith against so terrible an adversary And this is the opinion and counsell of Calvine that we seeing our own weaknesse and his force manifested in such termes may beware 〈◊〉 the divell and may flie to God for spirituall old and comfort And as for his corporall assaults or his attempts upon our bodies his night walkings his visible appearings his dancing with witches c. we are neither warned in the scriptures of them nor willed by God or his prophets to flie them neither is there any mention made of them in the scriptures And therefore think I those witchmongers and absurd writers to bee as grosse on the side as the Sadduces are impious and fond on the other which say that spirits and divels are only motions and affections and that angels are but tokens of Gods power I for my part confesse with Augugustine that these matters are above my reach and capacity and yet so farre as Gods word teacheth me I will not sticke to say that they are living creatures ordained to serve the Lord in their vocation And although they abode not in their first estate yet that they are the Lords ministers and executioners of his wrath to trie and tempt in this world and to punish the reprobate in hell fire in the world to come CHAP. XXXII Mine own opinion and resolution of the nature of spirits and of the divell with his properties BVt to use few words in a long matter and plain termes in a doubtfull case this is mine opinion concerning this present argument First that divels are spirits and no bodies For as Peter Martyr saith spirits and bodies are by antithesis opposed one to another so as a body is no spirit nor a spirit a body And thaâ— the divell whether he be many or one for by the way you shall understand that he is so spoken of in the scriptures as though there were but one and sometimes as though one were many legions the sense whereof I have already declared according to Calvins opinion he is a creature made by God and that for vengeance as it is written in Eccles. 39. vers 28. and of himselfe naught though imployed by God to necessary and good purposes For in places there it is written that all the creatures of God are good and again then God in the creation of the world saw all that he had made was 〈◊〉 the divell 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 â—â—es and as Iohn saith a sinner from the beginning Neither was his creation so far as I can finde 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 that Paul himselfe reckoning up principalities powers c. addeth Every name that is named in this world or in the world to come A cleer sentence saith he of Pauls modesty insconfessing a holy ignorance of the state of angels which name is also given to divels 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 it must needâ— 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 Neverthelesse I learn that their nature is prone to all mischiefe for as the very signification of 〈◊〉 enemy and an accuser is wrapped up in Satan and Diabolus so doth Christ himselfe declare him to be in the thirteenth of Matthew And therefore he brooketh well his name for he lyeth dayly in wait not onely to corrupt but also to destroy mankind being I say the very â—â—mentor 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