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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	mean_v	seed_n	serpent_n	1,887	5	10.3579	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62397	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 ... : in sixteen books / by Reginald Scot ... ; 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 ... conducing to the compleating of the whole work, with nine chapters at the beginning of the fifteenth [sic] book of The discovery.; Discoverie of witchcraft	Scot, Reginald, 1538?-1599.; Scot, Reginald, 1538?-1599. Discourse concerning the nature and substance of devils and spirits.	1665 (1665)	Wing S945A; ESTC R20054	529,066	395

that these Apparitions of Souls are but knaveries and cosenages they object that Moses and Elias appeared in Mount Tabor and talked with Christ in the presence of the principal Apostles yea and that God appeared in the bush c. As though Spirits and Souls could do whatsoever it pleaseth the Lord to do or appoint to be done for his own glory or for the manifestation of his Son miraculously And therefore I thought good to give you a taste of the Witchmongers absurd opinions in this behalf And first you shall understand that they hold That all the souls in heaven may come down and appear to us when they list and assume any body saving their own otherwise say they such souls should not be perfectly happy They say That you may know the good souls from the bad very easily For a damned soul hath a very heavy and sowre look but a Saints soul hath a cheerful and a merry countenance these also are white and shining the other cole black And these damned souls also may come up out of Hell at their pleasure although Abraham made Dives believe the contrary They affirm That damned Souls walk oftenest next unto them the souls of Purgatory and most seldom the souls of Saints Also they say That in the old Law souls did appear seldom and after dooms-day they shall never be seen more in the time of grace they shall be most freequent The walking of these souls saith Michael Andr. is a most excellent argument for the proof of Purgatory for saith he those souls have testified that which the Popes have affirmed in that behalf to wit that there is not only such a place of punishment but that they are released from thence by Masses and such other satisfactory works whereby the goodness of the Mass is also ratified and confirmed These heavenly or purgatory souls say they appear most commonly to them that are born upon Ember-dayes and they also walk most usually on those Ember-dayes because we are in best state at that time to pray for the one and to keep company with the other Also they say That souls appear oftenest by night because men may then be at be at best leisure and most quiet Also they never appear to the whole multitude seldom to a few and most commonly to one alone for so one may tell a lye without controlment Also they are oftenest seen by them that are ready to die as Trasilla saw Pope Foelix Ursine Peter and Paul Galla Romana S. Peter and as Musa the maid saw our Lady which are the most certain appearances credited and allowed in the Church of Rome Also they may be seen of some and of some other in that presence not seen at all as Ursine saw Peter and Paul and yet many at that instant being present could not see any such sight but thought it a lye as I do Michael Andraeas confesseth That Papists see more Visions than Protestants he saith also That a good soul can take none other shape than of a man marry a damned soul may and doth take the shape of a Black-moor or of a Beast or of a Serpent or specially of an Heretick The Christian signs that drive away these evil souls are the cross the Name of Jesus and the relicks of Saints in the number whereof are Holy-water Holy-bread Agnus Dei c. For Andrew saith That notwithstanding Julian was an Apostate and a betrayer of Christian Religion yet at an extremity with the only sign of the Cross he drave away from him many such evil spirits whereby also he saith the greatest diseases and sicknesses are cured and the sorest dangers avoided CHAP. XXIX A Confutation of assuming of Bodies and of the Serpent that seduced Eve THey that contend so earnestly for the Devils assuming of bodies and visible shapes do think they have a great advantage by the words uttered in the third of Genesis where they say the Devil entered into a Serpent or Snake and that by the curse it appeareth that the whole displeasure of God lighted upon the poor Snake only How those words are to be considered may appear in that it is of purpose so spoken as our weak capacities may thereby best conceive the substance tenor true meaning of the word which is there set down in the manner of a Tragedy in such humane and sensible form as wonderfully informeth our understanding though it seem contrary to the spiritual course of Spirits and Devils and also to the nature and divinity of God himself who is infinite and whom no man ever saw with corporal eyes and lived And doubtless if the Serpent there had not been taken absolutely nor Metaphorically for the Devil the Holy Ghost would have informed us thereof in some part of that story But to affirm it sometimes to be a Devil and sometimes a Snake whereas there is no such distinction to be found or seen in the Text is an invention and a fetch methinks beyond the compass of all divinity Certainly the Serpent was he that seduced Eve now whether it were the Devil or a Snake let any wiseman or rather let the Word of God judge Doubtless the Scripture in many places expoundeth it to be the Devil And I have I am sure one wise man on my side for the interpretation hereof namely Solomon who saith Through envie of the Devil came death into the world referring that to the Devil which Moses in the letter did to the Serpent But a better Expositor hereof needeth not than the Text it self even in the same place where it is written I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed he shall break thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel What Christian knoweth not that in these words the mystery of our redemption is comprised and promised Wherein is not meant as many suppose that the common seed of women shall tread upon a Snakes-head and so break it in pieces c. but that special seed which is Christ should be born of a woman to the utter over-throw of Satan and to the redemption of mankind whose heel or flesh in his members the Devil should bruise and assault with continual attempts and carnal provocations c. CHAP. XXX The Objection concerning the Devils Assuming of the Serpents Body answered THis word Serpent in holy Scripture is taken for the Devil The Serpent was more subtil than all the Beasts of the field It likewise signifieth such as be evil speakers such as have slandering tongues also Hereticks c. They have sharpened their tongues like Serpents It doth likewise betoken the death and Sacrifice of Christ As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up upon the Cross Moreover it is taken for wicked men O ye Serpents and generation of Vipers Thereby also is signified as well a wise as a subtil man

credulity therein and when we may see the defect of ability which alwayes is an impediment both to the act and also to the presumption thereof And because there is nothing possible in law that in nature is impossible therefore the judge doth not attend or regard what the accused man saith or yet would do but what is proved to have been committed and naturally falleth in mans power and will to do For the law saith that to will a thing impossible is a sign of a mad-man or of a fool upon whom no sentence or judgement taketh hold Furthermore what Jury will condemn or what Judge will give sentence or judgement against one for killing a man at Berwick when they themselves and many other saw that man at London that very day wherein the murther was committed yea though the party confess himself guilty therein and twenty witnesses depose the same But in this case also I say the Judge is not to weigh their testimony which is weakened by Law and the Judges authority is to supply the imperfection of the case and to maintain the right and equity of the same Seeing therefore that some other things might naturally be the occasion and cause of such calamities as witches are supposed to bring let not us that profess the Gospel and knowledge of Christ be bewitched to believe that they do such things as are in nature impossible and in sense and reason incredible If they say it is done through the Devils help who can work miracles why doe not theeves bring their business to pass miraculously with whom the Devil is as conversant as with the other Such mischiefs as are imputed to witches happen where no witches are yea and continue when witches are hanged and burnt why then should we attribute such effect to that cause which being taken away happeneth nevertheless CHAP. VII By what means the name of Witches becometh so famous and how diversly people be opinioned concerning them and their actions SUrely the natural power of man or woman cannot be so inlarged as to do any thing beyond the power and vertue given and ingraffed by God But it is the will and mind of man which is vitiated and depraved by the devil neither doth God permit any more than that which the natural order appointed by him doth require Which natural order is nothing else but the ordinary power of God powred into every creature according to his state and condition But hereof more shall be said in the title of witches confessions Howbeit you shall understand that few or none are throughly perswaded resolved or satisfied that witches can indeed accomplish all these impossibilities but some one is bewitched in one point and some are cosened in another untill in fine all these impossibilities and many more are by several persons affirmed to be true And this I have also noted that when any one is cosened with a cosening toye of witch-craft and maketh report thereof accordingly verifying a matter most impossible and false as it were upon his own knowledge as being overtaken with some kind of illusion or other which illusions are right inchantments even the self-same man will deride the like proceeding out of another mans mouth as a fabulous matter unworthy of credit It is also to be wondered how men that have seen some part of witches cosenages detected and see also therein the impossibility of their own presumptions and the folly and falshood of the witches confessions will not suspect but remain unsatisfied or rather obstinately defend the residue of witches supernatural actions like as when a jugler hath discovered the slight and illusion of his principal feats one would fondly continue to think that his other petty juggling knacks of legierdemain are done by the help of a familiar and according to the folly of some Papists who seeing and confessing the Popes absurd Religion in the erection and maintenance of Idolatry and Superstition specially in Images Pardons and Reliques of Saints will yet persevere to think that the rest of his doctrine and trumpery is holy and good Finally many maintain and cry out for the execution of witches that particularly believe never a whit of that which is imputed unto them if they be therein privately dealt withall and substantially opposed and tryed in argument CHAP. VIII Causes that move as well Witches themselves as others to think that they can work impossibilities with answers to certain objections where also their punishment by Law is touched CArdanus writeth that the cause of such credulity consisteth in three points to wit in the imagination of the melancholick in the constancy of them that are corrupt therewith and in the deceit of the Judges who being inquisitors themselves against hereticks and witches did both accuse and condemn them having for their labour the spoil of their goods So as these inquisitors added many fables hereunto lest they should seem to have done injury to the poor wretches in condemning and executing them for none offence But sithence saith he the springing up of Luthers sect these Priests have tended more diligently upon the execution of them because more wealth is to be caught from them insomuch as now they deal so loosly with witches through distrust of gains that all is seen to be malice folly or avarice that hath been practised against them And whosoever shall search into this cause or read the chief writers hereupon shall find his words true It will be objected that we here in England are not now directed by the Popes Laws and so by consequence our witches not troubled or convented by the Inquisitors Haereticae pravitatis I answer that in times past here in England as in other nations this order of discipline hath been in force and use although now some part of the old rigour be qualified by two several Statutes made in the first of Elizabeth and 33 of Henry the eight Nevertheless the estimation of the omnipotency of their words or charmes seemeth in those statutes to be somewhat maintained as a matter hitherto generally received and not yet so looked into as that it is refuted and decided But how wisely soever the Parliament-house hath dealt therein or how mercifully soever the Prince beholdeth the cause if a poor old woman supposed to be a Witch be by the Civil or Canon Law convented I doubt some Canon will be found in force not only to give scope to the tormentor but also to the hangman to exercise their offices upon her And most certain it is that in what point soever any of these extremities which I shall rehearse unto you be mitigated it is through the goodness of the Queens Majesty and her excellent Magistrates placed amongst us For as touching the opinion of our Writers therein in our age yea in our Countrey you shall see it doth not only agree with foreign cruelty but surmounteth it far If you read a foolish Pamphlet dedicated to the Lord Darcy by W.W.

witn her for an old cloak to make her a safe-guard and that she was hanged for her labour CHAP. VIII What folly it were for Witches to enter into such deseprate peril and to endure such intolerable tortures for no gain or commodity and how it comes to pass that Witches are overthrown by their confessions A Las if they were so subtil as Witchmongers make them to be they would espie that it were meer folly for them not only to make a bargain with the Devil to throw their souls into hell fire but their bodies to the tortures of temporal fire and death for the accomplishment of nothing that might benefit themselves at all but they would at the leastwise indent with the Devil both to enrich them and also to enable them and finally to endue them with all worldly felicity and pleasure which is furthest from them of all other Yea if they were sensible they would say to the Devil Why should I hearken to you when you will deceive me Did you not promise my neighbour mother Dutton to save and rescue her and yet lo she is hanged surely this would oppose the Devil very sore And it is a wonder that none from the beginning of the world till this day hath made this and such like objections whereto the Devil could never make answer But were it not more madness for them to serve the Devil under these conditions and yet to endure whippings with iron rods at the Devils hands which as the Witch-mongers write are so set on that the print of the lashes remain on the Witches body ever after even so long as she hath a day to live But these old women being daunted with authority circumvented with guile constrained by force compelled by fear induced by error and deceived by ignorance do fall into such rash credulity and so are brought unto these absurd confessions Whose error of mind and blindness of will dependeth upon the disease and infirmity of nature and therefore their actions in that case are the more to be born withal because they being destitute of reason can have no consent For Delictum sine consensu non potest committi neque injuria sine animo injuriandi that is There can be no sin without consent nor injury committed without a mind to do wrong Yet the law saith further that a purpose retained in mind doth nothing to the private or publick hurt of any man and much more that an impossible purpose is unpunishable Sanae mentis voluntas voluntas rei possibilis est A sound mind willeth nothing but that which is possible CHAP. IX How melancholy abuseth old women and of the effects thereof by sundry examples IF any man advisedly mark their words actions cogitations and gestures he shall perceive that melancholy abounding in their head and occupying their brain hath deprived or rather depraved their judgements and all their senses I mean not of cousening Witches but of poor melancholick women which are themselves deceived For you shall understand that the force which melancholy hath and the effects that it worketh in the body of a man or rather of a woman are almost incredible For as some of these melancholick persons imagine they are Witches and by Witchcraft can work wonders and do what they list so do others troubled with this disease imagine many strange incredible and impossible things Some that they are Monarchs and Princes and that all other men are their subject some that they are brute beasts some that they be urinals or earthen pots greatly fearing to be broken some that very one that meeteth them will convey them to the gallowes and yet in the end hang themselves One thought that Atlas whom the Poets feign to hold up heaven with his shoulders would be weary and let the skie fall upon him another would spend a whole day upon a stage imagining that he both heard and saw interludes and therewith made himself great sport One Theophilus a Physician otherwise sound enough of mind as it is said imagined that he heard and saw musicians continually playing on instruments in a certain place of his house One Bessus that had killed his father was notably detected by imagining that a Swallow upbraided him therewith so as he himself thereby revealed the murther But the notablest example hereof is of one that was in great perplexity imagining that his nose was as big as a house insomuch as no friend nor Physician could deliver him from this conceipt nor yet either ease his grief or satisfie his fancy in that behalf till at the last a Physician more expert in this humour than the rest used this devise following First when he was to come in at the chamber door being wide open he suddenly stayed and withdrew himself so as he would not in any wise approach nearer then the door The melancholick person musing her eat asked him the cause why he so demeaned himself Who answered him in this manner Sir your nose is so great that I can hardly enter into your chamber but I shall touch it and consequently hurt it Lo quoth he this is the man that must do me good the residue of my friends flatter me and would hide my infirmity from me Well said the Physician I will cure you but you must be content to indure a little pain in the dressing which he promised patiently to sustain and conceived certain hope of recovery Then entred the Physician into the chamber creeping close by the walls seeming to fear the touching and hurting of his nose Then did he blind-fold him which being done he caught him by the nose with a pair of pincers and threw down into a tub which he had placed before his patient a great quantity of bloud with many pieces of bullocks livers which he had conveyed into the chamber whilest the others eyes were bound up and then gave him liberty to see and behold the same He having done thus again two or three times the melancholick humour was so qualified that the mans mind being satisfied his grief was eased and his disease cured Thrasibulus otherwise called Thrasillus being sore oppressed with this melancholick humour imagined that all the ships which arrived at port Pyraeus were his insomuch as he would number them and command the mariners to lanch c. triumphing at their safe returns and mourning for their misfortunes The Italian whom we called here in England the Monarch was possessed with the like spirit or conceit Danaeus himself reporteth that he saw one that affirmeth constantly that he was a cock and saith that through melancholly such were alienated from themselves Now if the fansie of a melancholick person may be occupied in causes which are both false and impossible why should an old Witch be thought free from such fantasies who as the learned Philosophers and Physicians say upon the stopping of their monethly melancholick flux or issue of bloud in their age must needs increase therein as through their

through weakness of mind and body are shaken with vain dreams and continual fear The Scythians being a stout and a warlike Nation as divers writers report never see any vain sights or spirits It is a common saying A Lyon feareth no Bugs But in our childhood our Mothers maids have so terrified us with an ugly Devil having horns on his head fire in his mouth and a tail in his breech eyes like a bason fangs like a Dog claws like a Bear askin like a Niger and a voyce roaring like a Lyon whereby we start and are afraid when we hear one cry Bough and they have so frayed us with Bul-beggers Spirits Witches Urchens Elves Hags Fairies Satyrs Pans Faunes Sylens Kit with the canstick Tritons Centaures Dwarfes Gyants Imps Calcars Conjurers Nymphes Changelings Incubus Robin Goodfellow the Spoorn the Mare the man in the Oak the Hell-wain the firedrake the Puckle Tom-thombe Hob-goblin Tom-tumbler Boneless and such other Bugs that we are afraid of our own shadows insomuch that some never fear the Devil but in a dark night and then a polled Sheep is a perilous beast and many times is taken for our Fathers soul specially in a Churchyard where a right hardy man heretofore scant durst passe by night but his hair would stand upright For right grave writers report that spirits most often and specially take the shape of women appearing to Monks c. and of Beasts Dogs Swine Horses Goats Cats Hares of Fowles as Crowes night Owles and shreek Owles but they delight most in the likeness of Snakes and Dragons Well thanks be to God this wretched and cowardly infidelity since the Preaching of the Gospel is in part forgotten and doubtless the rest of those illusions will in short time by Gods grace be detected and vanish away Divers writers report that in Germany since Luthers time Spirits and Devils have not personally appeared as in times past they were wont to do This argument is taken in hand or the ancient Fathers to prove the determination and ceasing of Oracles For in times past saith Athanasius Devils in vain shapes did intricate men with their illusions hiding themselves in waters stones woods c. But now that the word of God hath appeared those sights Spirits and mockeries of Images are ceased Truly if all such Oracles as that of Apollo c. before the coming of Christ had been true and done according to the report which hath been brought through divers ages and from far Countries unto us without Priestly fraud or guil or as the spirits of Prophesie and working of Miracles had been inserted into a Idol as hath been supposed yet we Christians may conceive that Christs coming was not so fruitless and prejudicial in this point unto us as to take away his spirit of Prophesie and Divination from out of the mouth of his elect people and good Prophets giving no answer of any thing to come by them nor by Urim nor Thummim as he was wont c. And yet to leave the Devil in the mouth of a Witch or an Idol to Prophesie or work Miracles c. to the hinderance of his glorious Gospel to the discountenance of his Church and to the furtherance of Infidelity and false religion whereas the working of Miracles was the only or at least the most special means that moved men to believe in Christ as appeareth in sundry places of the Gospel and specially in John where it is written That a great multitude followed him because they saw his Miracles which he did c. Nay is it not written That Jesus was approved by God among the Jews with miracles wonders and signes c. And yet if we confer the Miracles wrought by Christ and those that are imputed to Witches Witches miracles shall appear more common and nothing inferior unto his CHAP. XVI Witches Miracles compared to Christs that God is the creator of all things of Apollo and of his names and portraiture IF the Witch of Endor had performed that which many conceive of the matter it might have been compared with the raising up of Lazarus I pray you is not the converting of water into milk as hard a matter as the turning of water into wine And yet as you may read in the Gospel That Christ did the one as his first miracle so may you read in M. Mal. and in Bodin that Witches can easily do the other yea and that which is a great deal more of Water they can make Butter But to avoid all cavils and least there should appear more matter in Christs miracle then the others you shall finde in M. Mal. that they can change water into Wine and What is it to attribute to a Creature the power and work of the Creator if this be not Christ saith Opera quae ego facio nemo potest facere Creation of substance was never granted to Man nor Angel Ergo neither to Witch nor Devil for God is the only giver of life and being and by him all things are made visible and invisible Finally this woman of Endor is in the Scripture called Pythonissa whereby it may appear that she was but a very cosener for Pytho himself whereof Pythonissa is derived was a counterfeit And the original story of Apollo who was called Pytho because he killed a Serpent of that name is but a Poetical fable for the Poets say he was the God of Musick Physick Poetry and Shooting In heaven he is called Sol in earth Liber Pater in hell Apollo He flourisheth alwayes with perpetual youth and therefore he is painted without a beard his picture was kept as an Oracle-giver and the Priests that attended thereon at Delphos were coseners and called Pythonists of Pytho as Papists of Papa and afterwards all Women that used that trade were named Pythonissae as was this Woman of Endor But because it concerneth this matter I will briefly note the opinions of divers learned men and certain other proofs which I finde in the Scripture touching the ceasing of Miracles Prophesies and Oracles BOOK VIII CHAP. I. That Miracles are ceased ALthough in times past it pleased God extraordinarily to shew Miracles amongst his people for the strengthening of their faith in the Messias and again at his coming to confirm their faith by his wonderful doings and his special graces and gifts bestowed by him upon the Apostles c. yet we ordinarily read in the Scriptures That it is the Lord that worketh great wonders Yea David saith That among the dead as in this case of Samuel God himself sheweth no wonders I find also That God will not give his glory and power to a creature Nicodemus being a Pharisee could say That no man could do such Miracles as Christ did except God were with him according to the saying of the Prophet to those Gods and Idols which took on them the power of God Do either good or ill if you can c.

Prophet to wit I will cause the Prophets and unclean spirits to depart out of the land and when any shall yet Prophesie his parents shall say to him Thou shalt not live for thou speakest lyes in the name of the Lord and his Parents shall thrust him through when he Prophesieth c. No no the foretelling of things to come is the only work of God who disposeth all things sweetly of whose counsel there hath never yet been any man And to know our labours the times and moments God hath placed in his own power Also Phavorinus saith That if these cold Prophets or Oraclers tell thee of prosperity and deceive thee thou art made a miser through vain expectation if they tell thee of adversity c. and lye thou art made a miser through vain fear And therefore I say we may as well look to hear Prophesies at the Tabernacle in the bush of the Cherubin among the clouds from the Angels within the Ark or out of the flame c. as to expect an oracle of a Prophet in these dayes But put the case that one in our Common-wealth should step up and say he were a Prophet as many frantick persons do who would believe him or not think rather that he were a lewd person See the Statutes Eliz. 5. whether there be not laws made against them condemning their arrogancy and cosenage so also the canon laws to the same effect Chap. III. That Oracles are ceased TOuching Oracles which for the most part were Idols of silver gold wood stones c. within whose bodies some say unclean spirits hid themselves and gave answers as others say that exhalations rising out of the ground inspire their minds whereby their Priests gave out Oracles so as spirits and winds rose up out of that soil and indued those men with the gift of Prophesie of things to come though in truth they were all devices to cosen the people and for the profit of Priests who received the Idols answers over night and delivered them back to the idolaters the next morning you shall understand that although it had been so as it is supposed yet by the reasons and proofs before rehearsed they should now cease and whatsoever hath affinity with such miraculous actions as Witchcraft Conjuration c. is knocked on the head and nailed on the cross with Christ who hath broken the power of Devils and satisfied Gods justice who also hath troden them under his feet and subdued them c. At whose coming the Prophet Zachary saith That the Lord will cut the names of Idols out of the Land and they shall be no more remembred and he will then cause the Prophets and unclean spirits to depart out of the land It is also written I will cut off thine Inchanters out of thine hand and than shalt have no more Soothsayers And indeed the Gospel of Christ hath so laid open their knavery c. that since the preaching thereof their combes are cut and few that are wise regard them And if ever these Prophesies came to take effect it must be upon the coming of Christ whereat you see the Devils were troubled and fainted when they met him saying or rather exclaming upon him on this wise Fili Dei cur venisti nos cruciare ante tempus O thou Son of God why comest thou to molest us or confound us before our time appointed which he indeed prevented and now remaineth he our defender and keeper from his claws So as now you see here is no room left for such guests Howbeit you shall hear the opinion of others that have been as much deceived as your selves in this matter and yet are driven to confess that God hath constituted his Son to beat down the power of Devils and to satisfie Gods justice and to heal our wound received by the fall of Adam according to Gods promise in Genesis 3. The seed of the woman shall tread down the serpent or the Devil Eusebius in his first book De praedicatione Evangelii the title whereof is this That the power of Devils is taken away by the coming of Christ saith All answers made by Devils all Soothsayings and Divinations of men are gone and vanished away Item he citeth Porphyry in his book against Christian Religion wherein these words are rehearsed It is no marvel though the Plague be so hot in this City for ever since Jesus hath been worshipped we can obtain nothing that good is at the hands of our Gods And of this defection and ceasing of Oracles writeth Cicero long before and that to have happened also before his time Howbeit Chrysostome living lone since Cicero saith That Apollo was forced to grant that so long as any relike of a Martyr was held to his nose he could not make any answer or Oracle So as one may perceive that the Heathen were wiser in this behalf then many Christians who in times past were called Oppugnatores incantamentorum as the English Princes are called Defensores fidei Plutarch calleth Boeotia as we call bablers by the name of Many words because of the multitude of Oracles there which now saith he are like to a spring or fountain which is dryed up If any one remained I would ride five hundred miles to see it but in the whole world there is not one to be seen at this hour Popish cosenages excepted But Plutarch saith That the cause of this defection of Oracles was the Devils death whose life he held to be determinable and mortal saying they dyed for very age and that the divining Priests were blown up with a Whirle-winde and sunk with an earthquake Others imputed it to be the sight of the place of the Planets which when they passed over them carryed away that art with them and by revolution may return c. Eusebius also citeth out of him the story of Pan which because it is to this purpose I will insert the same and since it mentioneth the Devils death you may believe it if you list for I will not as being assured that he is reserved alive to punish the wicked and such as impute unto those Idols the power of Almighty God CHAP. IV. A tale written by many grave Authors and believed by many wise men of the Devils death Another story written by Papists and believed of all Catholicks approving the Devils honestly conscience and courtesie PLutarch saith That his Countreyman Epitherses told him that as he passed by Sea into Italy many passengers being in his boat in an evening when they were about the Islands Echinadae the wind quite ceased and the ship driving with the tide was brought at last to Pax and whilest some slept and others quaft and othersome were awake perhaps in as ill case as the rest after supper suddainly a voyce was heard calling Thamus in such sort as every man marvelled This Thamus was a Pilot born in Aegypt unknown to many that were in the ship wherefore being

his pen and truly he might as well by the same authority have rased out of the Testament S. Mark 's Gospel CHAP. XII When How and in What sort Sacrifices were first Ordained and how they were prophaned and how the Pope corrupeth the Sacraments of Christ AT the first God manifested to our father Adam by the prohibition of the Apple that he would have man live under a law in obedience and submission and not to wander like a Beast without order or discipline And after man had transgressed and deserved thereby Gods heavy displeasure yet his mercy prevailed and taking compassion upon man he promised the Messias who should be born of a woman and break the Serpents head declaring by evident testimonies that his pleasure was that man should be restored to savour and grace through Christ and binding the mindes of men to this promise and to be fixed upon their Messias established Figures and Ceremonies wherewith to nourish their Faith and confirmed the same with miracles prohibiting and excluding all mans devices in that behalf And upon his promise renewed he enjoyned I say and erected a new form of worship whereby he would have his promises constantly beheld faithfully believed and reverently regarded He ordained six sorts of divine Sacrifices three Propitiatory not as meriting remission of sins but as figures of Christs propitiation the other three were of thanksgiving These Sacrifices were full of Ceremonies they were powdered with consecrated Salt and kindled with fire which was preserved in the Tabernacle of the Lord which fire some think was sent down from heaven God himself commanded these Rites and Ceremonies to our fore-fathers Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob c. promising therein both the amplification of their families and also their Messias But in tract of time I say wantonness negligence and contempt through the instigation of the Devil abolished this institution of God so as in the end God himself was forgotten among them and they became Pagans and Heathens devising their own ways until every Countrey had devised and erected both new Sacrifices and also new Gods particular unto themselves Whose example the Pope followeth in prophaning of Christs Sacraments disguising them with his devices and superstitious Ceremonies contriving and comprehending therein the folly of all Nations the which because little children do now perceive and scorn I will pass over and return to the Gentiles whom I cannot excuse of cosenage superstition nor yet of vanity in this behalf For if God suffered false Prophets among the children of Israel being Gods peculiar people and hypocrites in the Church of Christ no marvel if there were such people amongst the Heathen which neither professed nor knew him CHAP. XIII Of the Objects whereupon the Augurers used to Prognosticate with certain Cautions and Notes THe Gentiles which treat of this matter repeat an innumerable multitude of Objects whereupon they prognosticate good or bad luck And a great matter is made of sneezing wherein the number of sneezings and the time thereof is greatly noted the tingling in the finger the elbow the toe the knee c. are singular notes also to be observed in this Art though specially herein are marked the flying of Fowls and meeting of Beasts with this general caution that the object or matter whereon men divine must be sudden and unlocked for which regard children and some old fools have to the gathering Prim-roses True-loves and four-leaved grass Item the person unto whom such an object offereth it self unawares Item the intention of the diviner whereof the object which is met is referred to Augury Item the hour in which the object is without fore-knowledge upon the sudden met withal and so forth Pliny reporteth that Gryphes flie alwayes to the place of slaughter two or three dayes before the battel is fought which was seen and tryed at the battel of Troy and in respect thereof the Gryphe was allowed to be the chief Bird of Augury But among the innumerable number of the portentous Beast Fowls Serpents and other creatures the Toad is the most excellent object whose ugly deformity signifieth sweet and amiable fortune in respect whereof some superstitious Witches preserve Toads for their familiars And some one of good credit whom I could name having convented the Witches themselves hath starved divers of their Devils which they kept in boxes in the likeness of Toads Plutarch Cheronaeus saith that the place and site of the signs that we receive by Augury are specially to be noted for if we receive them on the left side good luck if on the right side ill luck insueth because terrene and mortal things are opposite and contrary to divine and heavenly things for that which the Gods deliver with the right hand falleth to our left side and so contrariwise CHAP. XIV The division of Augury persons admittable into the Colledges of Augury of their Superstition THe latter Diviners in these mysteries have divided their soothsayings into twelve Superstitions as Augustinus Niphus termeth them The first is prosperity the second ill luck as when one goeth out of his house and seeth an unlucky beast lying on the right side of his way the third is destinie the fourth is fortune the fifth is ill hap as when an infortunate beast feedeth on the right side of your way the sixt is utility the seventh is hurt the eight is called a cautel as when a beast followeth one and stayeth at any side not passing beyond him which is a sign of good luck the ninth is infelicity and that is contrary to the eight as when the beast passeth before one the tenth is perfection the eleventh is imperfection the twelft is confusion Thus farre he Among the Romans none could be received into the Colledge of Augurers that had a bile or had been bitten with a Dog c. and at the times of their exercise even at noon-days they lighted Candles From whence the Papists convey unto their Church those points of infidelity Finally their observations were so infinite and ridiculous that there flew not a sparkle out of the fire but it betokened somewhat CHAP. XV. Of the Common Peoples fond and superstitious Collections and Observations AMongst us there be many women and effeminate men marry Papists alwayes as by their superstition may appear that make great Divinations upon the shedding of Salt Wine c. and for the observation of dayes and hours use as great Witchcraft as in any thing For if one chance to take a fall from a Horse either in a slippery or stumbling way he will note the day and hour and count that time unlucky for a journey Otherwise he that receiveth a mischance will consider whether he met not a Cat or a Hare when he went first out of his doores in the morning or stumbled not at the threshhold at his going out or put not on his shirt the wrong side outwards or his left shooe on his right foot

the Falling-sickness and all Feavers Gowts Fluxes Fistula's issues of blood and finally whatsoever care even beyond the skill of himself or any other foolish Physitian is cured and perfectly healed by words of Inchantment Marry M. Ferrarius although he allowed and practised this kind of Physick yet he protesteth that he thinketh it none otherwise effectual than by the way of constant opinion so as he affirmeth that neither the Character nor the Charm nor the Witch nor the Devil accomplish the cure as saith he the experiment of the Tooch-ach will manifestly declare wherein the cure is wrought by the confidence or diffidence as well of the Patient as of the Agent according to the Poets saying Nos habitat non Tartara sed nec sidera caeli Spiritus in nobis qui viget illa facit Englished by Abraham Fleming Not hellish furies dwell in us Nor Stars with influence heavenlys The spirit that lives and rules in us Doth every thing ingeniously This saith he cometh to the unlearned through the opinion which they conceive of the Characters and holy words but the learned that know the force of the mind and imagination work miracles by means thereof so as the unlearned must have external helps to do that which the learned can do with a word only He saith that this is called Homerica medicatio because Homer discovered the blood suppressed by words and the infections healed by or in mysteries CHAP. XIII Of the Effects of Amulets the drift of Argerius Ferrarius in the commendation of Charms amp c. four sorts of Homerical Medicines and the choyce thereof of Imagination AS touching mine opinion of these Amulets Characters and such other bables I have sufficiently uttered it elsewhere and I will bewray the vanity of the superstitious trifles more largely hereafter And therefore at this time I only say that those Amulets which are to be hanged or carried about one if they consist of Herbs Roots Stones or some other metal they may have divers medicinable operations and by the vertue given to them by God in their creation may work strange effects and cures and to impute this vertue to any other matter is Witchcraft And whereas A. Ferrarius commendeth certain Amulets that have no shew of Physical operation as a nail taken from a Cross Holy-water and the very sign of the Cross with such like Popish stuffe I think he laboureth thereby rather to draw men to Popery than to teach or perswade them in the truth of Physick or Philosophy And I think thus the rather for that he himself seeth the fraud hereof confessing that where these Magical Physitians apply three seeds of three-leaved grass to a Tertian Ague and four to a Quartain that the number is not material But of these Homerical medicines he saith there are four sorts whereof Amulets Characters and Charms are three howbeit he commendeth and preferreth the fourth above the rest and that he saith consisteth in illusions which he more properly calleth stratagems Of which sort of illusions he alledgeth for example how Philodotus did put a Cap of Lead upon ones head who imagined he was headless whereby the party was delivered from his disease or conceit Item Another cured a woman that imagined that a Serpent or Snake did continually gnaw and tear her entrails and that was done only by giving her a Vomit and by foisting into the matter vomited a little Serpent or Snake like unto that which she imagined was in her belly Item Another imagined that he alwayes burned in the fire under whose bed a fire was privily conveyed which being taken out before his face his fansie was satisfied and his heat allayed Hereunto pertaineth that the Hickot is cured with sudden fear or strange news yea by that means Agues and many other strange and extream diseases have been healed And some that have lien so sick and sore of the Gowt that they could not remove a joynt through sudden fear of fire or ruin of houses have forgotten their infirmities and griefs and have run away But in my tract upon melancholy and the effects of imagination and in the discourse of Natural Magick you shall see these matters largely touched CHAP. XIV Choice of Charms against the Falling-Evil the biting of a mad Dog the stinging of a Scorpion the Tooth-ach for a Woman in Travel for the Kings-Evil to get a Thorn out of any member or a Bone out of ones Throat Charms to be said Fasting or at the gathering of Herbs for sore Eyes to open Locks against Spirits for the Bots in a Horse and specially for the Duke of Alba's Horse for sower Wines c. THere be innumerable Charms of Conjurers bad Physitians lewd Chirurgians Melancholick Witches and Coseners for all diseases and griefs specially for such as bad Physitians and Chirurgians know not how to cure and in truth are good stuffe to shadow their ignorance whereof I will repeat some For the Falling-Evill TAke the sick man by the hand and whisper these words softly in his Ear I conjure thee by the Sun and Moon and by the Gospel of this day delivered by God to Hubert Giles Cornelius and John that thou rise and fall no more Otherwise Drink in the night at a Spring water out of a skull of one that hath been slain Otherwise Eat a Pig killed with a knife that slew a man Otherwise as followeth Ananizapta ferit mortem dum laedere quaerit Est mala mors capta dum dicitur Ananizapta Ananizapta Dei nunc miserere mei Englished by Abraham Fleming Ananizapta smiteth death Whiles harm intendeth he This word Ananizapta say And death shall captive be Ananizapta O of God Have mercy now on me Against the biting of a Mad-Dog PUt a silver Ring on the finger within the which these words are graven ✚ Habay ✚ habar ✚ hebar ✚ and say to the person bitten with a mad Dog I am thy Saviour lose not thy life and then prick him in the nose thrice that at each time he bleed Otherwise take Pills made of the skull of one that is hanged Otherwise write upon a piece of bread Irioni khïriora esser khuder feres and let it be eaten by the party bitten Otherwise O Rex gloriae Jesu Christe veni cum pace In nomine Patris max. in nomine Filii max. in nomine Spiritus sancti prax Gasper Melchior Balthasar ✚ prax ✚ max ✚ Deus I max ✚ But in troth this is very dangerous insomuch as if it be not speedily and cunningly prevented either death or phrensie insueth through infection of the humor left in the wound bitten by a mad Dog which because bad Chirurgians cannot cure they have therefore used foolish cosening Charms But Dodonaeus in his Herbal saith that the herb Alysson cureth it which experiment I doubt not will prove more true then all the Charms in the world Bat where he saith That the same hanged at a mans Gate or Entry preserveth him and his

bonum Thou shalt not do evil that good may come thereof Lombertus saith that Witchcraft may be taken away by that means whereby it was brought But Gofridus inveyeth sore against the oppugners thereof Pope Nicholas the fifth gave indulgence and leave to Bishop Miraties who was so bewitched in his privities that he could not use the gift of Venery to seek remedy at Witches hands And this was the clause of his dispensation Ut ex duolus malis fugiatur majus that of two evils the greater should be avoided And so a Witch by taking his doublet cured him and killed the other Witch as the story saith which is to be seen in M. Mal. and divers other Writers CHAP. XX. Who are Priviledged from Witches what bodies are aptest to be bewitched or to be Witches why women are rather Witches than men and what they are NOw if you will know who and what persons are priviledged from Witches you must understand that they be even such as cannot be bewitched In the number of whom first be the Inquisitors and such as exercise publick justice upon them Howbeit a Justice in Essex whom for divers respects I have left unnamed not long since thought he was bewitched in the very instant whiles he examined the Witch so as his leg was broken thereby c. which either was false or else this rule untrue or both rather injurious unto Gods Providence Secondly such as observe duly the Rites and Ceremonies of the holy Church and worship them with reverence through the sprinkling of holy Water and receiving consecrated Salt by the lawful use of Candles hallowed on Candlemas-day and green leaves consecrated on Palm-sunday which things they say the Church useth for the qualifying of the Devils power are preserved from Witchcraft Thirdly some are preserved by their good Angels which attend and wait upon them But I may not omit here the reasons which they bring to prove what bodies are the more apt and effectual to execute the art of fascination And that is first they say the force of celestial bodies which indifferently communicated their vertues unto Men Beasts Trees Stones c. But this gift and natural influence of fascination may be increased in man according to his affections and perturbations as through anger fear love hate c. For by hate saith Varius entereth a fiery inflammation into the eye of man which being violently sent out by beams and streams c. infect and bewitch those bodies against whom they are opposed And therefore he saith in the favour of women that is the cause that women are oftner found to be Witches than men For saith he they have an unbridled force of fury and concupiscence naturally that by no means it is possible for them to temper or moderate the same So as upon every trifling occasion they like brute beast fix their furious eyes upon the party whom they bewitch Hereby it cometh to pass that whereas women having a marvellous sickle nature what grief soever happeneth unto them immediately all peaceableness of mind departeth and they are so troubled with evill humours that outgo their venemous exhalation ingendered through their ill-favoured dyet and increased by means of their pernicious excrements which they expel Women are also saith he monethly filled full of superfluous humors and with them the melancholike blood boileth whereof spring vapours and are carried up and conveyed through the nostrils and mouth c. to the bewitching of whatsoever it meeteth For they belch up a certain breath wherewith they bewitch whomsoever they list And of all other women lean hollow-eyed old beetle-browed women saith he are the most infectious Marry he saith that hot subtil and thin bodies are most subject to be bewitched if they be moist and all they generally whose veins pipes and passages of their bodies are open And finally he saith that all beautiful things whatsoever are soon subject to be bewitched as namely goodly young men fair women such as are naturally born to be rich goodly Beasts fair Horses rank Corn beautiful Trees c. Yea a friend of his told him that he saw one with his eye break a precious stone in pieces And all this he telleth as soberly as though it were true And if it were true honest women may be Witches in despight of all Inquisitors neither can any avoid being a Witch except she lock herself up in a chamber CHAP. XXI What Miracles Witchmongers report to have been done by Witches words c. Contradictions of Witchmongers among themselves how Beasts are cured hereby of bewitched Butter a Charm against Witches and a counter-Charm the effect of Charms and words proved by L. Varius to be wonderful IF I should go about to recite all Charms I should take an infinite work in hand For the Witching Writers hold opinion that any thing almost may be thereby brought to pass and that whether the words of the Charm be understandable or not it skilleth not so the Charmer have a steddy intention to bring his desire about And then what is it that cannot be done by words For L. Varius saith that old women have infeebled and killed Children with words and have made women with child miscarry they have made men pine away to death they have killed Horses deprived Sheep of their Milk transformed Men into Beasts flown in the air tamed and stayed wild Beasts driven all noisome Cattel and Vermine from Corn Vines and Herbs stayed Serpents c. and all with words Insomuch as he saith that with certain words spoken in a Bulls ear by a Witch the Bull hath fallen down to the ground as dead Yea some by vertue of words have gone upon a sharp sword and walked upon hot glowing coals without hurt with words saith he very heavy weights and burthens have been lifted up and with words wild Horses and wild Bulls have been tamed and also mad Dogs with words they have killed Worms and other Vermin and stayed all manner of Bleeding and Fluxes with words all the diseases in mans body are healed and wounds cured Arrows are with wonderful strangeness and cunning plucked out of mens bones Yea saith he there be many that can heal all bitings of Dogs or stingings of Serpents or any other poyson and all with nothing but words spoken And that which is most strange he saith that they can remedy any stranger and him that is absent with that very Sword wherewith they are wounded Yea and that which is beyond all admiration if they stroke the Sword upwards with their fingers the party shall feel no pain whereas if they draw their finger downwards thereupon the party wounded shall feel intolerable pain with a number of other cures done altogether by the vertue and force of words uttered and spoken Where by the way I may not omit this special note given by M. Mal. to wit that holy Water may not be sprinkled upon bewitched Beasts but must

himself teacheth to make a Chicken have four legs and as many wings only by a double yolked Egg whereby also a Serpent may be made to have many legs Or any thing that produceth Egs may likewise be made double or membred dismembred and the viler creature the sooner brought to monstrous deformity which in more noble creatures is more hardly brought to pass There are also pretty experiments of an Egg to produce any fowl without the natural help of the Hen the which is brought to pass if the Egg be laid in the powder of the Hens dung dryed and mingled with some of the Hens feathers and stirred every fourth hour You may also produce as they say the most venomous noisom and dangerous Serpent called a Cockatrice by melting a little Arsenick and the poyson of Serpents or some other strong venom and drowning an Egg therein which there must remain certain dayes and if the Egg be set upright the operation will be the better This may also be done if the Egg be laid in dung which of all other things giveth the most singular and natural heat and as J. Bap. Neap. saith is Mirabilium rerum parens who also writeth that Crines faeminae menstruosae the hairs of a Menstruous woman are turned into Serpents within short space and he further saith that Basil being beaten and set out in a moist place betwixt a couple of Tiles doth engender Scorpions The ashes of a Duck being put between two dishes and set in a moist place doth ingender a huge Toad Quod etiam efficit sanguis menstruosus which also doth menstruous Blood Many Writers conclude that there be two manner of Toads the one bred by natural course and order of Generation the other growing of themselves which are called temporary being only ingendered of showers and dust and as J. Bap. Neap. saith they are easie to be made Plutarch and Heraclides do say that they have seen these to descend in rain so as they have lain and crawled on the tops of houses c. Also Aelianus doth say that he saw Frogs and Toads whereof the heads and shoulders were alive and became flesh the hinder parts being but earth and so crawled on two feet the other being not yet fashioned or fully framed And Macrobius reporteth that in Egypt mice grow of earth and showers as also Frogs Toads and Serpents in other places They say that Damnatus Hispanus could make them when and as many as he listed He is no good Angler that knoweth not how soon the entrails of a Beast when they are buried will engender Maggots which in a civiler term are called Gentles a good bait for small fishes Whosoever knoweth the order of preserving of Silk-worms may perceive a like Conclusion because in the Winter that is a dead seed which in the Summer is a lively creature Such and greater experiments might be known to Jannes and Jambres and serve well to their purpose especially with such excuses delayes and cunning as they could joyn therewithall But to proceed and come a little nearer to their feats and to shew you a knack beyond their cunning I can assure you that of the fat of a man a woman lice are in very short space ingendred and yet I say Pharaohs Magicians could not make them with all the cunning they had Whereby you may perceive that God indeed performed the other actions to indurate Pharaoh though he thought his Magicians did with no less dexterity than Moses work miracles and wonders But some of the Interpreters of that place excuse their ignorance in that matter thus The Devil say they can make no creature under the quantity of a Barly-corn and Lice being so little cannot therfore be created by them As though he that can make the greater could not make the less A very gross absurdity And as though that he which hath power over great had not the like over small CHAP. XIX That great Matters may be wrought by this Art when Princes esteem and maintain it of divers wonderful Experiments and of strange Conclusions in Glasses of the Art perspective c. HOwbeit these are but trifles in respect of other experiments to this effect specially when great Princes maintain and give countenance to students in those magical Arts which in these Countries and in this Age is rather prohibited than allowed by reason of the abuse commonly coupled therewith which in truth is it that moveth admiration and estimation of miraculous workings As for example if I affirm that with certain Charms and Popish Prayers I can set an Horse or an Asses head upon a mans shoulders I shall not be believed or if I do it I shall be thought a Witch And yet if J. Bap. Neap. experiments be true it is no difficult matter to make it seem so and the Charm of a Witch or a Papist joyned with the experiment will also make the wonder seem to proceed thereof The words used in such case are uncertain and to be recited at the pleasure of the Witch or Cosener But the conclusion of this cut off the head of a Horse or an Ass before they be dead otherwise the vertue or strength thereof will be the less effectual and make an earthen vessel of fit capacity to contain the same and let it be filled with the oyl and fat thereof cover it close and dawb it over with lome let it boyl over a soft fire three days continually that the flesh boyled may run into oyl so as the bare bones may be seen beat the hair into powder and mingle the same with the oyl and annoint the heads of the standers by and they shall seem to have Horses or Asses heads If Beasts heads be anointed with the like oyl made of a mans head they shall seem to have mens faces as divers Authors soberly affirm If a Lamp be anointed herewith every thing shall seem most monstrous It is also written that if that which is called Sperma in any beast be burned and any bodies face therewithal anointed he shall seem to have the like face as the Beast had But if you beat Arsenick very fine and boyl it with a little sulphur in a covered pot and kindle it with a new candle the standers by will seem to be headless Aqua composita and salt being fired in the night and all other lights extinguished make the standers by seem as dead All these things might be very well perceived and known and also practised by Jannes and Jambres But the wondrous devices and miraculous sights and conceits made and contained in glass do far exceed all other whereto the Art perspective is very necessary For it shews the illusions of them whose experiments be seen in divers sorts of Glasses as in the hollow the plain the embossed the columnary the pyramidate or piked the turbinal the bounched the round the cornered the inversed the eversed the massie the regular the irregular the

themselves with a Devil that are not acquainted with God I have dealt and conferred with many marry I must confess Papists for the most part that maintain every point of these absurdities And surely I allow better of their judgments than of others unto whom some part of these cosenages are discovered and seen and yet concerning the residue they remain as they were before specially being satisfied in the highest and greatest parts of conjuring and cosening to wit in Popery and yet will be abused with beggerly Jugling and Witchcraft CHAP. VIII Of Natural Witchcraft or Fascination But because I am loth to oppose my self against all the Writers herein or altogether to discredit their stories or wholly to deface their reports touching the effects of Fascination or Witchcraft I will how set down certain parts thereof which although I my self cannot admit without some doubts difficulties and exceptions yet will I give free liberty to others to believe them if they list for that they do not directly oppugn my purpose Many great and grave Authors write and many fond Writers also affirm that there are certain families In Africa which with their voices bewitch whatsoever they praise Insomuch as if they commend either Plant Corn Infant Horse or any other Beast the same presently withereth decayeth and dyeth This mystery of Witchraft is not unknown or neglected of out Witchmongers and superstitious fools here in Europe But to shew you examples neer home here in England as though our voyce had the like operation you shall not hear a Butcher of Horse-courser cheapen a Bullock or a Jade but if he buy him not he saith God save him if he do forget it and the Horse or Bullock chance to dye the fault is imputed to the chapman Certainly the sentence is godly if it do proceed from a faithful and godly mind but if it be spoken as a superstitious charm by those words and syllables to compound with the fascination and misadventure of unfortunate words the phrase is wicked and superstitious though there were farr greater shew of godliness than appeareth therein CHAP. IX Of Inchanting or Bewitching Eyes MAny Writers agree with Virgil Theocritus in the effect of bewitching eyes affirming that in Scythia there are women called Bithiae having two bals or rather blacks in the apple of their eyes And as Didymus reporteth some have in the one eye two such bals and in the other the image of a Horse These forsooth with their angry looks do bewitch and hurt not only young Lambs but young Children There be other that retain such venom in their Eyes and send it forth by beams and streams so violently that therewith they annoy not only them with whom they are conversant continually but also all other whose company they frequent of what age strength or complexion soever they be as Cicero Plutarch Philarchus and many others give out in their writings This Fascination saith John Baptista Porta Neapolitanus though it begin by touching or breathing is alwayes accomplished and finished by the Eye as an extermination or expulsion of the Spirits through the Eyes approaching to the heart of the bewitched and infecting the same c. Whereby is cometh to pass that a child or a young man endued with a clear whole subtil and sweet blood yieldeth the like spirits breath and vapours springing from the purer blood of the heart And the lightest and finest spirits ascending into the highest parts of the head do fall into the Eyes and so are from thence sent forth as being of all other parts of the body the most clear and fullest of veins and pores and with the very spirit or vapour proceeding thence is conveyed out as it were by beams and streams a certain fiery force whereof he that beholdeth sore Eyes shall have good experience For the poyson and disease in the Eye infecteth the air next unto it and the same proceedeth further carrying with it the vapour and infection of the corrupted blood with the contagion whereof the Eyes of the beholders are most apt to be infected By this same means it is thought that the Cockatrice depriveth the life and a Wolf taketh away the voyce of such as they suddenly meet withal and beholds Old women in whom the ordinary course of nature faileth in the office of purging their natural monthly humors shew also some proof hereof For as the said J. B.P.N. reporteth alledging Aristotle for his Author they leave in a Looking-glass a certain froth by means of the gross vapours proceeding out of their Eyes which cometh so to pass because those vapours or spirits which so abundantly come from their Eyes cannot pierce and enter into the Glass which is hard and without pores and therefore resisteth but the beams which are carryed in the chariot of conveyance of the spirits from the Eyes of one body to another do pierce to the inward parts and there breed infection whilest they search and seek for their proper region And as these beams and vapours do proceed from the heart of the one so are they turned into blood about the heart of the other which blood disagreeing with the nature of the bewitched party infeebleth the rest of his body and maketh him sick the contagion whereof so long continueth as the distempered blood hath force in the members And because the infection is of blood the feaver or sickness will be continual whereas if it were of choler or flegm it would be intermittent or alterable CHAP. X. Of Natural Witchcraft for Love c. BUt as there is Fascination and Witchcraft by malicious and angry eyes unto displeasure so are there witching Aspects tending contrariwise to Love or at the least to the procuring of good will and liking For if the Fascination or Witchcraft be brought to pass or provoked by the desire by the wishing and coveting any beautiful shape or favour the venom is strained through the eyes though it be from a far and the imagination of a beautiful form resteth in the heart of the Lover and kindleth the fire where it is afflicted And because the most delicate sweet and tender blood of the beloved doth there wander his countenance is there represented shining in his own blood and cannot there be quiet and is so haled from thence that the blood of him that is wounded reboundeth and slippeth into the wounder according to the saying of Lucretius the Poet to the like purpose and meaning in these verses Idque petit corpus mens unda est saucia amore Namque omnes plerunque cadunt in vulnus illam Emicat in patem sanguis unde icimur ictu Et si comminus est os tum ruber occupat humor Englished by Abraham Fleming And to that body 't is rebounded From whence the mind by Love is wounded For in a manner all and some Into that wound of Love do come And to that part the blood doth flee From whence with