=Demonologia;=
OR,
NATURAL KNOWLEDGE REVEALED.
W. WILSON, PRINTER, 57, SKINNER-STREET, LONDON.
[Illustration: Spooky illustration]
DEMONOLOGIA;
OR,
NATURAL KNOWLEDGE REVEALED;
BEING
AN EXPOSÉ
OF
=Ancient and Modern Superstitions,=
CREDULITY, FANATICISM, ENTHUSIASM, & IMPOSTURE,
AS CONNECTED WITH THE
DOCTRINE, CABALLA, AND JARGON,
OF
AMULETS,
APPARITIONS,
ASTROLOGY,
CHARMS,
DEMONOLOGY,
DEVILS,
DIVINATION,
DREAMS,
DEUTEROSCOPIA,
EFFLUVIA,
FATALISM,
FATE,
FRIARS,
GHOSTS,
GIPSIES,
HELL,
HYPOCRITES,
INCANTATIONS,
INQUISITION,
JUGGLERS,
LEGENDS,
MAGIC,
MAGICIANS,
MIRACLES,
MONKS,
NYMPHS,
ORACLES,
PHYSIOGNOMY,
PURGATORY,
PREDESTINATION,
PREDICTIONS,
QUACKERY,
RELICS,
SAINTS,
SECOND SIGHT,
SIGNS BEFORE DEATH,
SORCERY,
SPIRITS,
SALAMANDERS,
SPELLS,
TALISMANS,
TRADITIONS,
TRIALS, &c.
WITCHES,
WITCHCRAFT, &c. &c.
THE WHOLE UNFOLDING
MANY SINGULAR PHENOMENA IN THE PAGE OF NATURE.
=By J. S. F.=
“The earth hath bubbles, as the water has,
“And these are of them.”
“All which, by long discourse, I’ll prove anon.”
=London:=
JOHN BUMPUS, 23, SKINNER-STREET.
1827.
CONTENTS.
Page
_Observations on Ancient and Modern Superstitions, &c._ 1
_Proofs and Trials of Guilt in Superstitious Ages_ 9
_Astrology, &c._ 18
_Practical Astrology, &c._ 25
_Natural Astrology_ 26
_Judicial or Judiciary Astrology_ 27
Origin of Astrology 28
Astrological Schemes, &c. 29
Table of the Twelve Houses 30
Signs to the Houses of the Planets 32
Angles or Aspects of the Planets 33
The Application of Planets 34
Prohibition 35
Separation 35
Translation of Light and Virtue 35
Refrenation 35
Combustion 35
Reception 36
Retrogradation 36
Frustration 36
The Dragon’s Head and Tail 36
Climacteric 37
Lucky and Unlucky Days 39
Genethliaci 41
Genethliacum 42
Barclay’s Refutation of Astrology 43
_On the Origin and Imaginary Efficacy of Amulets and Charms, in
the Cure of Diseases, Protection from Evil Spirits, &c._ 51
Definition of Amulets, &c. 56
Effect of the Imagination on the Mind, &c. 59
_History of Popular Medicines, &c.—How influenced by
Superstition_ 67
_Alchemy_ 73
Origin, Objects, and Practice of Alchemy, &c. 81
_Alkahest, or Alcahest_ 85
_Magician_ 91
_Magi, or Mageans_ 96
_Magic, Magia, Mateia_ 99
Magic of the Eastern nations,—a brief View of the Origin and
Progress of Magic, &c.—
Chaldeans and Persians 101
Indians 109
Egyptians 110
Jews 115
_Prediction_ 123
_Fatalism, or Predestination_ 136
_Divination_ 142
Artificial Divination 142
Natural Divination 142
Axinomancy 143
Alectoromantia 143
Arithmomancy 144
Belomancy 144
Cleromancy 145
Cledonism 145
Coscinomancy 146
Capnomancy 146
Catoptromancy 147
Chiromancy 147
Dactyliomancy 148
Extispicium 148
Gastromancy 149
Geomancy 149
Hydromancy 150
Necromancy 150
Oneirocritica 150
Onomancy, or Onomamancy 152
Onycomancy, or Onymancy 154
Ornithomancy 155
Pyromancy 155
Pyscomancy, or Sciomancy 155
Rhabdomancy 156
_Oracle_ 157
_Ouran, or Uran, Soangus_ 163
_Dreams, &c._ 164
Brizomancy 164
Origin of interpreting Dreams 164
Opinions on the cause of Dreams 166
_Fate_ 168
_Physiognomy_ 171
_Apparitions_ 178
_Deuteroscopia, or Second-sight_ 194
_Witches, Witchcraft, Wizards, &c._ 204
Witchcraft proved by Texts of Scripture 225
Dr. More’s Postscript 226
The Confessions of certain Scotch Witches, taken out of
an authentic copy of their Trial at the Assizes held at
Paisley, in Scotland, Feb. 15, 1678, touching the
bewitching of Sir George Maxwell 259
Depositions of certain persons, agreeing with confessions
of the above-said witches 264
The Confession of Agnes Sympson to King James 267
The White Pater-noster 270
The Black Pater-noster 270
_Sorcery_ 272
_Sortes—Sortilegium_ 273
_Sibyls_ 282
_Talismans_ 283
_Philters, Charms, &c._ 285
_Hell_ 286
_Inquisition_ 297
Inquisition, or the Holy Office 297
_Demon_ 307
_Demonology_ 308
Derivation of the strange and hideous forms of Devils,
&c. 315
The Narrative of the Demon of Tedworth, or the
disturbances at Mr. Monpesson’s house, caused by
Witchcraft and Villainy of a Drummer 338
_The Demon of Jedburgh_ 355
_The Ghost of Julius Cæsar_ 360
The Ghosts of the slain at the Battle of Marathon 360
Familiar Spirit, or ancient Brownie 361
_Gipsies—Egyptians_ 362
_Jugglers, their Origin, Exploits, &c._ 378
_Legends, &c.—Miracles, &c._ 393
_Monks and Friars.—Saints and Hermits_ 405
Of the Hermit of the Pillar—(St. Simeon Stylites, St.
Telesephorus, St. Syncletia) 427
_Holy Relique-Mania_, &c. &c. &c. 431
PREFACE.
Among the multifarious absurdities and chicaneries, which at different
_epocha_ of society have clung to, and engaged the attention of man,
absorbing, as it were, his more active intelligence, the marvellous and
the ridiculous have alternately and conjointly had to contend for
pre-eminence; that, whether it were a mountain in the moon or a bottle
conjuror; a live lion stuffed with straw or a mermaid; a Cocklane ghost
or a living skeleton; a giant or a pigmy; the delusive bait has
invariably been swallowed with avidity, and credited with all the
solemnity of absolute devotion.
If we look back towards what are called the dark ages of the worlds that
is, at times when men were mere _yokels_, and when the reins of tyranny,
superstition and idolatry, were controlled by a few knowing ones, we
shall see the human mind at its lowest ebb of debasement, grovelling
either under the lash of despotism, or sunk beneath the scale of human
nature by the influence of priestcraft,—a time, when the feelings of men
were galloped over, rough shod, and the dignity of the creation trampled
under foot with impunity and exultation, by a state of the most passive
and degenerate servility: how much must it now excite our wonder and
admiration of that supreme Providence, who, in his merciful
consideration for the frailest of mortals, by a variety of ways and
means best suited to his omnipotent ends, has dragged us gradually, and,
as it were, reluctantly to ourselves, from darkness to daylight, by
extinguishing the stench and vapour of the train oil of ignorance and
superstition, lighting us up with the brilliant gas of reason and
comparative understanding, while, under less despotic and more tolerant
times, we are permitted the rational exercise of those faculties which
formerly were rivetted to the floor of tyranny by the most humiliating
oppression!
The pranks of popes and priests, conjurors and fire-eaters, have
comparatively fled before the piercings of the intellectual ray. Witches
no longer untie the winds to capsise church-steeples, and “topple” down
castles,—they no longer dance round the enchanted cauldron, invoking the
“ould one” to propitiate their cantrip vows:—Beelzebub himself with his
cloven foot is seldom if ever seen above the “bottom of the bottomless
pit;” ghosts and apparitions are “jammed hard and fast” in the Red sea;
demons of every cast and colour are eternally spellbound; legends are
consigned to the chimney-corner of long winter-nights; miracles to the
“_presto_, quick, change and begone!” of the nimble-fingered conjuror;
and holy relics to the rosary of the bigot. Amulets and charms have lost
their influence; saints are uncanonized, and St. Patrick, St. Dennis, &
Co. are flesh and blood like ourselves; monks and holy friars no longer
revel in the debauches of the cloister; the hermit returns unsolicited
from the solitude of the desert, to encounter with his fellow-men; the
pilgrim lays by his staff, leaves the Holy Land to its legitimate
possessors, and the tomb of St. Thomas-à-Becket, to enjoy, unmolested,
the sombre tranquillity of the grave. Quacks and mountebanks begin also
to caper within a narrower sphere; to be brief, the word of command, to
use a nautical phrase, has long been given, “every man to his station,
and the cook to the fore-sheet,”—worldly occupations have superseded
ultramundane speculations. Astrologers themselves, who once ruled the
physical world, have long ago been virtually consigned to the grave of
the Partridges; and floods and storms are found to be phenomena
perfectly consistent with the natural world. We also know that the sun
is stationary, that the moon is not made of green cheese, and that there
are stars yet in the firmament which the centifold powers of the
telescope of a Herschell will never be able to explore.
The Reformation, which originated in the trammels of vice itself, gave
the Devil in hell and his agents on earth, such a “_belly-go-fister_,”
that they have never since been able to come to the scratch, but in such
a petty larceny-like manner, as to set all their demonological efforts
at defiance. This is the first time “old Nick” was ever completely
floored; though, it would appear, from the recent number of new
churches, built no doubt with the pious intention of keeping him in
abeyance, that he has latterly been making a little head-way;—these,
however, with the “Holy alliance,” like stern-chasers on a new
construction, should the “ould one” attempt to board us again in the
smoke of superstition, will, without much injury to the hull of the
church, pitch him back to Pandemonium, there to exhaust his
demonological rage in the sulphuretted hydrogen of his own hell; while
the lights of revealed religion, emanating from these soul-saving
foundations, like Sir Humphrey Davy’s safety-lamp, will give us timely
warning of the choke-damp of damnation before it have time to explode
about our ears.
It behoves us, nevertheless, to pray that we may merit this protection,
and to watch, for we know not at what hour the _cracksman_ may pay us an
unwelcome visit; for, whatever pampered hypocrites and mercenary
prayer-mongers may pretend to the contrary, our worldly goods, although
but of a temporary and perishable nature, are as essential to our
existence and respectability here below, as our spiritual faith is
necessary to our heavenly and eternal happiness above, however unequal
the comparison.
Among the creatures of the Devil, no one has a more decent claim to his
clemency, than the caterwauling canting hypocrite. The hypocrite is a
genus to which a variety of species belong, the subdivisions of which
are too numerous for our present purpose; we shall only therefore offer
a few remarks on one kind of these vampyres, drawn from daily
observation. If not absolutely gluttons, although many of them are
_gourmands_ in excess, hypocrites are invariably fond of their ungodly
guts, for which they are at all times ready to sacrifice their God,
their King, their country and their friends. They have a stomach like a
horse, and a reservoir like a brewer’s vat. The hypocrite of
circumstances prays, or pretends to pray, in adversity, and swears in
good earnest, like a trooper, in prosperity,—he is either a roaring
bedlamite or a whining calf, a peevish idiot, a buffoon, or a disgusting
bacchanal;—in short, he is capable of such derogatory pranks and
extremes, that, as the occasion serves, he with equal facility rises
from the bended knee of supplication to extend the hand of venality,
aye, and of sensuality too, to the object of his latent and ungovernable
concupiscence. His bloated chops, at one time, resemble a passive pair
of bagpipes, while, at another, they are inflated with all the arrogance
of beggarly pride and momentary superfluity. He is never ashamed to beg,
and only afraid to steal—although equally adapted for the one as the
other. A consummate, a brawling, and a suspicious egotist—he will hear
no one but himself, no opinion but his own. In his own house he is a
bear; in the house of another, a nuisance; and every where a _nil
desideratum_. Self-eulogy is his most constant theme; and his loathsome
flattery, either applied to himself or others, is invariably bespattered
with the most _impious_ invocations of the Deity, to witness his
rebellious professions of patience, submission, abstinence, and every
other exotic virtue, which he knows only by name. His cant is of the
basest and most servile description; and for the attainment of some
object, however pitiful or paltry, important or consequential, he is the
same venal wretch all over. Where his expectations are defeated, and the
yearnings of his bowels unappeased, his sycophancy is succeeded by
slander, impertinence, insult, and the most unfounded suspicion. The
cringing, wriggling wretch, at length, having wormed himself through a
world of unpitied degradation, filth, and obscenity, attempts, at the
end of his career, to offer up to his God, what has been indignantly
rejected by the Devil—he dies as he lived, a pauper, equally to fortune
and fame—without one redeeming qualification to keep alive even his
name, which is never mentioned unless mingled with that kindred contempt
and insignificance to which it was by nature and existence so closely
allied.
Popular traditions are always worth recording; they illustrate
traditions and exemplify manners: they tend to throw off the thraldom of
the intellect of man, and stimulate him to exertions compatible with the
intentions of his existence. It is with this view that the materials of
which the following pages are composed, have been collected.
Priestcraft, the foster-mother of superstition, is now sunk too far
below the horizon ever to set again in our illumined hemisphere. The
history of their former influence may, nevertheless, enlighten and
amuse, as well as guard the tender ideas from receiving impressions
calculated to stupify the reason and riper judgment; thus withdrawing
the flimsy veil of error and credulity, by an exposure of those
fallacies too often credited, because frequently passed over without the
aid of investigation through the more refined medium of moral and
physical research.
=Demonologia.=
OBSERVATIONS ON ANCIENT AND
MODERN SUPERSTITIONS, &c.
The mind of man is naturally so addicted to the marvellous, that,
notwithstanding the brilliant eructations of knowledge that have been
elicited and diffused out of chaotic darkness since the establishment of
the Christian religion, and the revival of learning and the arts, the
influence still of ancient superstition is by no means entirely
annihilated. At the present period, however, it is principally confined
to the uneducated portion of the community; although, at a more remote
period, its limits were by no means so circumscribed. A belief in the
existence of apparitions, witches, sorcerers, and magicians, is still
credulously supported in many parts of the world, though less so in
civilized Europe than in other countries, Lapland and some parts of
Sweden and Norway excepted. But how much must it astonish us when we
look back to the distant ages of Greece and Rome, the nurseries of the
sciences and the arts, to find the greatest heroes and statesmen
imbibing and fostering the same ridiculous prejudices, and strenuously
cultivating the same belief, paying obedience to augurs, oracles, and
soothsayers, on whose contradictory and equivocal inferences their
prosperity or adversity was made to depend. In fact, little more than a
century ago, do we not behold things still more extravagantly credulous
and ferocious; namely, the burning of women for the imaginary crime of
witchcraft, incidents of which we have given in the body of this work, a
crime much more innocent than that of priestcraft, which triumphantly
prevailed at the very same period, and which still holds the minds of
thousands in subjection?
A belief in judicial astrology was supported and cultivated by men
remarkable for their extraordinary genius and talents.
Legends, miracles, prophecies, &c. are relics of superstitious ages.
What also is extraordinary, is, that few species of superstition, if
any, originated with the _populace_. They were the inventions of
barbarous ages before the dawn of reason—afterwards the fabrications of
men actuated by ambition, and a desire to servilize the human mind.
As regards the Romans only, a people whom we are taught from our infancy
to respect, and who, indeed, in their better days, were truly venerable
for their virtue and valour, what is there in their history more
astonishing than their implicit belief in augury[1]? Their belief in
omens or preternatural appearances of the heavenly bodies, in eclipses,
comets, and dreadful thunder-storms, may be forgiven. They had made
small progress in astronomy; they had not learnt that an eclipse is a
matter of common calculation; and that storms are, in most cases, highly
beneficial to the earth, and nowise connected with past or future
events. But when we find them giving implicit credit to their priests,
who thought proper to predict good or evil, merely from the appearance
of the entrails of sacrificed animals, from the flight of birds, from
chickens, foxes, &c. we are at a loss to conceive how a deception of
this kind could have prevailed, without being detected and exposed by
the good sense of the people. The mob alone, or the common soldiers and
sailors, were not merely influenced by the reports of the augurs[2];
their kings or commanders undertook no expedition without consulting
these oracles, and were always unsuccessful, if they confided so much in
themselves as to disregard their opinions. In some cases, it is easy to
suppose that they might have been in concert with the augurs, to promote
some favourite point, to raise an enthusiasm in the people in their
favour, or to inspire the soldiers with fortitude in some dangerous
enterprise. But it is not so easy to suppose that this was always the
case, because, upon the evidence of their historians, it appears that
there was generally but little connexion between them; and that,
although the people looked to the commander for _orders_, they regarded
the augurs as superior beings who were to grant _success_.
The art of augury the Romans had from the Tuscans, and the Tuscans from
the Greeks, who probably derived it from the Chaldeans; but the progress
of the art is as absurd as the origin of it is obscure. The only wonder
is, that it had so much influence upon a people, in the whole of whose
history we find so many brilliant examples of solid sense, of learning,
and of eloquence. Their historians, who rank among the most learned of
their writers, and of whose abilities we can even now be judges, gravely
relate the process of consulting augury, and the success of it. Yet the
augurs were men following one another in regular succession. Was there
none to betray the secret? Was the art of juggling an hereditary secret
without one interruption? Tyranny first broke the chain. When Rome was
governed by tyrants, these despised augury, and prosecuted their wicked
purposes, whatever might be the appearance of the entrails of an ox; and
as they, no doubt, often succeeded in their enterprises, augury would
naturally fall into disrepute. These circumstances, in the great chain
of causes and events, would naturally pave the way for a more rational
religion. We are indebted to Henry VIII. for the commencement of the
reformation; but, if the pope would have sanctioned his lust and his
extortion, that advantage would have probably been derived from a better
sovereign.
It is a circumstance no less remarkable, that, notwithstanding we read
of the superstitions of the Greeks and Romans with wonder and some
degree of contempt, we cannot acquit ourselves of having yet retained a
very considerable portion Of the same superstitious spirit. We are even
indebted to them for almost all our popular whims. A hare crossing the
way—a person sneezing—stumbling—hearing strange voices—and the falling
of salt upon the table, were all with them omens of good or evil,
according to circumstances, and remain so with thousands at the present
time, and in this enlightened country. Persons of otherwise no mean
understanding have been greatly perplexed, and have even turned pale at
such occurrences. To the above may be added, a coal starting from the
fire[3]—the death-watch—the sediment of the sugar rising to the top of
the tea-cup, and many others. We may also mention the success of those
impostors, who pretend to calculate nativities (_see_ ASTROLOGY) and
predict events; and the many foolish instances for belief in the success
of lottery-tickets.
Ignorant as the Romans were of a superintending Providence, and of the
revealed will of the Divine Majesty, their trust in such omens was
pardonable, and deceived as they were by the artifices of their
soothsayers, who could contrive to _time_ their prophecies, and express
them in such a manner that they should appear to be punctually
fulfilled, we cannot wonder if the wisest among them were induced to
place confidence in imposture. But that we should be as much attached to
this species of divination is a weakness, than which there is none we
ought more to blush at. Although we boast of our superior understanding,
improved as it is by the knowledge of eighteen centuries, we are guilty
of a weakness which is excusable only in an unenlightened heathen. This
subject might, perhaps, be treated with the ridicule of satire, or the
silence of contempt, but the more we consider it, the more we should be
inclined to doubt the fact, that there can exist a human and reasonable
being so weak, as to believe that futurity can be revealed by trifling
events, or by the lowest of mankind, under the name of conjurors. But
the fact cannot be doubted: cases of the kind occur every day; and the
happiness of individuals and families often lies at the mercy of such
impostors.
Those who are addicted to this species of superstitious credulity are no
doubt of that class of people who are called _well-meaning_, and would
be greatly incensed were we to ask them whether they believed in the
superintendence of a Divine Providence. They would answer, “Surely—God
forbid we did not!” And yet, is it consistent with our received ideas,
or with the revealed wisdom and perfections of the Deity, to suppose
that he should declare that futurity is locked up from the penetration
of mankind, and yet should reveal the events of it by the sediments of a
cup of coffee, the flame of a candle, or the starting of a sulphureous
coal? Is not this offering the greatest insult to him? A step farther,
we have, indeed, gone, and but a step towards the very highest insult;
we have supposed that he makes known the secrets of futurity to the
meanest vagrants and impostors, to the men and women whom the magistrate
very properly punishes as much against their foreknowledge as against
their inclination. The impossibility of our acquiring by any means a
knowledge of future events, and the miserable condition of human life if
we had that knowledge, might be here insisted on; but they must be
obvious to every thinking man. A better dissuasive from the credulity
which is the subject of this discourse, would be to insist upon the
gross and insulting impiety of endeavouring to pry into what the Deity
has pronounced hidden and concealed, and that by agents the most mean
and contemptible. Let those who are still credulous in the appearance of
their coffee grounds, their spilling of salt, their passing under a
ladder or scaffolding[4], and all the paraphernalia of the impostures of
pretended divines, consider with what propriety, decency and respect,
they can hereafter appeal to the Deity by the epithets of _all-seeing_
and _omniscient_; and when they have done that, let them reflect upon
the dignity and importance of those agents, in whose revelations they
confide, in preference to his decrees.
Under the head of superstition may be ranked fatalism; for it follows
from this dogma of faith, that all means of averting predestined events,
that is, all future events whatever, are not only unavailing, but
impious. It is manifest, that if this were consistently adhered to,
every effort conducive to self-preservation, or even the common comforts
and accommodations of life, would be paralysed; there would be no end to
all the duties of social life; nay, to the very existence of the human
species. Though this speculative principle, however, has never been able
entirely to overpower and extinguish the feelings and dictates of nature
to this extent, except among a few fantastical maniacs, there are proofs
enough in the history of mankind of its pernicious practical effects.
One of the most conspicuous examples of this, is found among the
professors of the Mahomedan faith, in their abstaining from the means of
stopping the progress of the plague. Among Christian sects, professing
this doctrine, the like evils have arisen in an inferior degree, as
exemplified in the opposition which the inoculation of the small-pox met
with from this religious prejudice. _See Sir Gilbert Blane’s Elements of
Medical Logic, page 208._
PROOFS AND TRIALS OF GUILT IN SUPERSTITIOUS AGES.
It were well, perhaps, did the cruelties practised in former ages lay
generally at the door of superstition. The extraordinary trials to which
those suspected of any guilty action were conducted with many devout
ceremonies, by the ministers of religion, were declared to be the
judgments of God. The kinds of ordeal were various, _e. g._ holding in
the hand a red hot bar; plunging the arm into boiling water; walking
blindfold amidst burning ploughshares; passing through fires;
challenging the accuser to single combat, when frequently the ablest
champion was permitted to supply his place; swallowing a morsel of
consecrated bread; swimming or sinking in a river for witchcraft, or, as
it was called, weighing a witch; stretching out the arms before the
cross, till the soonest wearied dropped his arms, and lost his estate,
which was decided by this very short process, called _juidcium crucis_,
&c.
A dispute occurred between the Bishop of Paris and the Abbot of St.
Denis, about the patronage of a monastery, and Pepin, surnamed the
Short, not being able to pronounce upon their confused claims, decreed
that it should be settled by one of these judgments of God: viz. _The
judgment of the cross._ Each of the disputants chose a man, and both of
the men appeared in the chapel, where they extended their arms in the
form of a cross. The spectators, more orderly than those of the present
day; still, although they watched every motion of the combatants with
the most pious attention, the old English spirit, which rules so
prevalently at the present period, was proof against every other
consideration—they betted on the feat, first on one side, then on the
other, according as the odds seemed to run in favour or against. The
Bishop’s man was first tried; he let his arms drop and ruined his patron
for ever. Though these trials might sometimes be evaded by the artifice
of the priest, numerous, nevertheless, were the innocent victims who
suffered from these superstitious practices.
They were very frequent between the tenth and twelfth century. William
Rufus, having accused Hildebert, the Bishop of Mans, of high treason,
was on the verge of submitting to one of these trials, when he was
convinced by Ives, Bishop of Chartres, that they were against the canons
of the constitution of the church, and adds, that in this manner
“_Innocentiam defendere, est innocentiam perdere_.” In 1066 an abbot of
St. Aubin of Angers, having refused to present a horse to the viscount
of Tours, which the viscount claimed in right of his lordship, whenever
an abbot first took possession of that abbey; the ecclesiastic offered
to justify himself by the trial of the ordeal, or by duel, for which
purpose he proposed to find a substitute. The duel was first agreed to
by the viscount; but, reflecting that these combatants, though
sanctioned by the church, depended solely on the address or vigour of
the adversary, and consequently could afford no substantial proof of the
equity of his claim, he proposed to compromise the matter in a manner
which strongly characterised these times: he surrendered his claim, on
condition that the abbot should not forget to mention him, his wife, and
his brothers, in his prayers! As the orisons appeared to the abbot of
comparatively little value with the horse, the proposal was accepted.
In the tenth century the right of representation was not settled: it was
a question whether a son’s sons ought to be accounted among the children
of the family, and succeed equally with their uncles, if their fathers
happened to die while their grandfathers survived. This point was
decided by one of these combats. The champion in behalf of the right of
children to represent their deceased father, proved victorious. It was
then established by a perpetual decree, that they should from that time
forward share in the inheritance along with their uncles.
In the eleventh century, the same mode was adopted, to decide between
two rival liturgies! A couple of knights, clad in complete armour, were
the tests to decide which was the true and authentic liturgy.
The capitularies of Dagobert say, that if two neighbours dispute
respecting the boundaries of their possessions, let a piece of turf of
the contested land be dug up by the judge, and brought by him into the
court, and the two parties shall touch it with the points of their
swords, calling on God to witness their claims: after this, let them
combat, and let victory prove who is right or who is wrong. In these
combats in Germany, a solemn circumstance was practised in these
judicial combats. In the midst of the lists they placed a _bier_; by the
side of which stood the accuser and the accused, one at the head and the
other at the foot, where they leaned in profound silence for some time
before the combat commenced. In his preface to Way’s Fableaux, Mr. Ellis
shews how faithfully the manners of the age are painted in these ancient
tales, by observing the judicial combat introduced by a writer of the
14th century, who, in his poem, represents Pilate as challenging Jesus
Christ to _single combat_; and another, who describes the person who
pierced the side of Christ as a knight who jousted with Jesus.
It appears that judicial combat was practised by the Jews. Whenever the
Rabbins had to decide on a dispute about property between two parties,
neither of which could produce evidence to substantiate the claim, it
was terminated by single combat. The Rabbins were impressed with a
notion that consciousness of right would give additional confidence and
strength to the rightful possessor. It may, however, be more
philosophical to observe, that such judicial combats were more
frequently favourable to the criminal than to the innocent, because the
bold wicked man is usually more ferocious and hardy than he whom he
singles out as his victim, and who only wishes to preserve his own quiet
enjoyments: in this case the assailant is the most terrific opponent.
Those who were accused of robbery in these times were put to trial by a
piece of barley bread, on which the mass had been performed; and if the
accused could not swallow it, they were declared guilty. This mode of
trial was improved by adding to the _bread_ a slice of _cheese_; and
such was their credulity and dependance on heaven in these ridiculous
trials, that they were very particular in this holy _bread_ and
_cheese_, called the _corsned_. The bread was to be of unleavened
barley, and the cheese made of ewes milk in the month of May[5].
The _bleeding of a corpse_ was another proof of guilt in superstitious
ages; nor is the custom yet entirely abolished. If a person were
murdered, it was believed, that at the touch or approach of the
murderer, the blood gushed out from various parts of the body. By the
side of the bier, if the smallest change was perceptible in the eyes,
mouth, feet or hands of the corpse, the murderer was conjectured to be
present, and many innocent persons doubtless must have suffered death
from this idle chimera; for when a body is full of blood, warmed by a
sudden external heat and symptoms of ensuing putrefaction, some of the
blood vessels will burst, as they will all in time. This practice was
once allowed in England, and is still looked on in some of the
uncivilized parts of these kingdoms as a means of detecting the
criminal. It forms a rich picture in the imagination of our old writers;
and their histories and ballads are laboured into pathos by dwelling on
the suppositious phenomenon.
All these absurd institutions, Robertson observes, cherished and
inculcated, form the superstitions of the age believing the legendary
histories of those saints who crowd and disgrace the Roman calendar.
These fabulous miracles had been declared authentic by the bulls of the
Popes, and the decrees of Councils—they were greedily swallowed by the
populace; and whoever believed that the Supreme Being had interposed
miraculously on those trivial occasions mentioned in legends, could not
but expect his intervention in matters of greater importance when
solemnly referred to his decision. Besides this ingenious remark, the
fact is, that these customs were a substitute for written laws, which
that barbarous period had not; and as it is impossible for any society
to exist without _laws_, the ignorance of the people had recourse to
these customs, which bad and absurd as they were, served to terminate
controversies which might have given birth to more destructive
practices. Ordeals are, in fact, the rude laws of a barbarous people,
who have not obtained a written code, and not advanced enough in
civilization, to embrace the refined investigations, the subtle
distinctions, and elaborate inquiries, which are exacted by a Court of
Law.
It may be presumed, that these ordeals owe their origin to that one of
Moses, called the “Waters of Jealousy.” The Greeks also had ordeals, for
we read in the Antigonus of Sophocles, that the soldiers offer to prove
their innocence by handling red hot iron, and walking between fires.
One cannot but smile at the whimsical ordeals of the Siamese. Among
other practices to discover the justice of a cause, civil or criminal,
they are particularly attached to the use of certain consecrated
purgative pills, which the contending parties are made to swallow. He
who retains them longest, gains his cause! The practice of giving
Indians a consecrated grain of rice to swallow, is known to discover the
thief in any company, by the contortions and dismay evident on the
countenance of the real thief.
In the middle ages they were acquainted with secrets to pass unhurt
these secret trials: one is mentioned by Voltaire for undergoing the
ordeal of boiling water; and this statement is confirmed by some of our
late travellers in the East. The Mevleheh dervises can hold red hot iron
between their teeth. Such artifices have been often publicly exhibited
at Paris and London. On the ordeal of the Anglo-Saxons, Mr. Sharon
Turner observes, that the hand was not to be immediately inspected, and
was left to the chance of a good constitution to be so far healed during
three days (the time they required to be bound up and sealed, before it
was examined) as to discover those appearances when inspected, which
were allowed to be satisfactory. There was also much preparatory
training, suggested by the more experienced: besides, the accused had an
opportunity of _going alone into the church_, and making _terms_ with
the priest. The few spectators were always at a distance; and cold iron
or any other inoffensive substance might be substituted, and the fire
diminished at the moment. There can be no doubt they possessed these
secrets and medicaments, which they always took care to have ready at
hand, that they might pass through these trials in perfect security.
There is an anecdote of these times given by Camerarius, in his “Horæ
Subscecivæ,” which may serve to show the readiness of this apparatus. A
rivalship existed between the Austin Friars and the Jesuits. The
Father-general of the Austin Friars was dining with the Jesuits; and on
the table being removed, he entered into a formal discourse of the
superiority of the monastic order, and charged the Jesuits, in
unqualified terms, with assuming the title of “Fratres,” while they held
not the three vows, which other monks were obliged to consider as sacred
and binding. The general of the Austin Friars was very eloquent and very
authoritative: and the superior of the Jesuits was very unlearned, but
not quite half a fool. He was rather careless about entering the list of
controversy with the Austin Friar, but arrested his triumph by asking
him if he would see one of his Friars who pretended to be nothing more
than a Jesuit, and one of the Austin Friar’s who religiously performed
the above-mentioned three vows, show instantly which of them would be
the readiest to obey his superiors? The Austin Friar consented. The
Jesuit then turning to one of his brothers, the Holy Friar Mark, who was
waiting on them, said, “Brother Mark, our companions are cold; I command
you, in virtue of the holy obedience you have sworn to me, to bring here
instantly out of the kitchen fire, and in your hands, some burning
coals, that they may warm themselves over your hands.” Father Mark
instantly obeys, and to the astonishment of the Austin Friars, brought
in his hands a supply of red burning coals, and held them to whoever
thought proper to warm himself; and at the command of his superior,
returned them to the kitchen hearth. The general of the Austin Friars,
with the rest of his brethren, stood amazed; he looked wistfully on one
of his monks, as if he wished to command him to do the like; but the
Austin Monk, who perfectly understood him, and saw this was not a time
to hesitate, observed,—“Reverend Father, forbear, and do not command me
to tempt God! I am ready to fetch you fire in a chafing dish, but not in
my bare hands.” The triumph of the Jesuits was complete; and it is not
necessary to add, that the miracle was noised about, and that the Austin
Friars could never account for it, notwithstanding their strict
performance of the three vows.
ASTROLOGY, &c.
“This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in
fortune (often the surfeit of our own behaviour) we make guilt of
our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were
villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves,
thieves, and treachers (traitors), by spherical predominance;
drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an inforced obedience of
planetary influence; and all that we are evil in by a Divine
thrusting on; an admirable evasion of whoremaster to lay his goatish
disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded with my
mother under the Dragon’s tail; and my nativity was under _Ursa
Major_; so that it follows, I am rough and lecherous.—Tut, I should
have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament
twinkled at my bastardizing.”—SHAKSPEARE.
It is a singular fact, that men the most eminent for their learning were
those who indulged most in the favourite superstition of judicial
Astrology; and as the ingenious Tenhove observes, whenever an idea
germinates in a learned head, it shoots with additional luxuriance. At
the present time, however, a belief in judicial Astrology can only exist
in the people, who may be said to have no belief at all; for mere
traditional sentiments can hardly be said to amount to a belief.
It is said that Dr. Fludd[6] was in possession of the MSS. of Simon
Forman, the Astrologer. We have seen that the studies of Mathematics,
Astronomy, and Medicine, were early united in several persons connected
with the faculty of medicine. Real Astronomy gave birth to judicial
Astrology; which offering an ample field to enthusiasm and imposture,
was eagerly pursued by many who had no scientific purpose in view. It
was connected with various juggling tricks and deceptions, affected an
obscure jargon of language, and insinuated itself into every thing in
which the hopes and fears of mankind were concerned. The professors of
this pretended science were at first generally persons of mean
education, in whom low cunning supplied the place of knowledge. Most of
them engaged in the empirical practice of physic, and some, through the
credulity of the times, even arrived at a degree of eminence in it; yet
since the whole foundation of their art was folly and deceit, they
nevertheless gained many proselytes and dupes, both among the
well-informed and the ignorant.
When Charles the First was confined, Lilly, the famous Astrologer, was
consulted for the hour that should favour his escape.
A story, which strongly proves how much Charles II. was bigoted to
judicial astrology, and whose mind was certainly not unenlightened, is
recorded in Burnet’s History of his own times. The most respectable
characters of the age, Sir William Dugdale, Elias Ashmole, Dr. Grew, and
others, were members of an astrological club[7]. Congreve’s character of
Foresight, in Love for Love, was then no uncommon person, though the
humour now is scarcely intelligible. Dryden cast the nativities of his
sons; and, what is remarkable, his prediction relating to his son
Charles, was accomplished. This incident is of so late a date, one might
hope it would have been cleared up; but, if it be a fact, it must be
allowed that it forms a rational exultation for its irrational adepts.
In 1670, the passion for horoscopes and expounding the stars, prevailed
in France among the first rank. The new-born child was usually presented
naked to the astrologer, who read the first lineaments in its forehead,
and the transverse lines in its hands, and thence wrote down its future
destiny. Catherine de Medicis brought Henry IV. then a child, to old
Nostradamus, whom antiquaries esteem more for his Chronicle of Provence
than for his vaticinating powers. The sight of the reverend seer, with a
beard which “streamed like a meteor in the air,” terrified the future
hero, who dreaded a whipping from so grave a personage. Will it be
credited, that one of these magicians, having assured Charles IX. that
he would live as many days as he should turn about on his heels in an
hour, standing on one leg, that his Majesty every morning performed that
solemn exercise for an hour; the principal officers of the court, the
judges, the chancellors, and generals, likewise, in compliment, standing
on one leg, and turning round!
It has been reported of several famous for their astrological skill,
that they have suffered a voluntary death merely to verify their own
predictions: this has been said of Cardan, and Burton the author of the
Anatomy of Melancholy.
It is curious to observe the shifts to which astrologers are put when
their predictions are not verified. Great winds were predicted, by a
famous adept, about the year 1586. No unusual storms, however, happened.
Bodin, to save the reputation of the art, applied it as a figure to some
_revolutions_ in the state, and of which there were instances enough at
that moment. Among their lucky and unlucky days, they pretend to give
those of various illustrious persons and of families. One is very
striking:—Thursday was the unlucky day of our Henry VIII. He, his son
Edward VI. Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, all died on a _Thursday_!
This fact had, no doubt, great weight in this controversy of the
astrologers with their adversaries.
The life of Lilly, the astrologer, written by himself, is a curious
work. He is the _Sidrophel_ of Butler. It contains so much artless
narrative, and at the same time so much palpable imposture, that it is
difficult to know when he is speaking what he really believes to be the
truth. In a sketch of the state of astrology in his day, those adepts,
whose characters he has drawn, were the lowest miscreants of the town.
They all speak of each other as rogues and impostors. Such were Booker,
George Wharton, Gadbury, who gained a livelihood by practising on the
credulity of even men of learning so late as in 1650, to the 18th
century. In Ashmole’s life an account of these artful impostors may be
found. Most of them had taken the air in the pillory, and others had
conjured themselves up to the gallows. This seems a true statement of
facts. But Lilly informs us, that in his various conferences with
_angels_, their voice resembled that of the Irish! The work is certainly
curious for the anecdotes of the times it contains. The amours of Lilly
with his mistress are characteristic. By his own accounts, he was a very
artful man; and managed matters admirably which required deception and
invention.
In the time of the civil wars, astrology was in high repute. The
royalists and the rebels had their _astrologers_ as well as their
_soldiers_! and the predictions of the former had a great influence over
the latter. On this subject, it may gratify curiosity to notice three or
four works which bear an excessive price; a circumstance which cannot
entirely be occasioned by their rarity; and we are induced to suppose,
that we still have adepts in this science, whose faith must be strong,
or whose scepticism weak.
The Chaldean sages were nearly put to the route by a quarto park of
artillery, fired on them by Mr. John Chamber, in 1691. Apollo did not
use Marsyas more inhumanly than his scourging pen this mystical race,
and his personalities made them feel more sore. However, a Norwich
knight, the very Quixote of astrology, arrayed in the enchanted armour
of his occult authors, encountered this pagan in a most stately
carousal. He came forth with “A defence of Judiciall Astrologye, in
answer to a treatise lately published by Mr. John Chamber. By
Christopher Knight. Printed at Cambridge, 1603.” This is a handsome
quarto of about 500 pages. Sir Christopher is a learned and lively
writer, and a knight worthy to defend a better cause. But his Dulcinea
had wrought most wonderfully on his imagination. This defence of this
fanciful science, if science it may be called, demonstrates nothing,
while it defends every thing. It confutes, according to the Knight’s own
ideas: it alleges a few scattered facts in favour of astrological
predictions, which may be picked up in that immensity of fabling which
disgraces history. He strenuously denies, or ridicules, what the
greatest writers have said against this fanciful art, while he lays
great stress on some passages from obscure authors, or what is worse,
from authors of no authority. The most pleasant part is at the close,
where he defends the art from the objections of Mr. Chamber, by
recrimination. Chamber had enriched himself by medical practice, and
when he charges the astrologers by merely aiming to gain a few beggarly
pence, Sir Christopher catches fire, and shews by his quotations, that
if we are to despise an art by its professors attempting to subsist on
it, or for the objections which may be raised against its vital
principles, we ought by this argument most heartily to despise the
medical science and medical men! He gives here all he can collect
against physic and physicians, and from the confessions of Hippocrates
and Galen, Avicenna and Agrippa, medicine appears to be a vainer science
than even astrology! Sir Christopher is a shrewd and ingenious
adversary; but when he says he only means to give Mr. Chamber oil for
his vinegar, he has totally mistaken its quality.
The defence was answered by Thomas Vicars, in his “Madnesse of
Astrologers.”
But the great work is by Lilly; and entirely devoted to the adepts. He
defends nothing; for this oracle delivers his _dictum_, and details
every event as matters not questionable. He sits on the tripod; and
every page is embellished by a horoscope, which he explains with the
utmost facility. This voluminous monument of the folly of the age, is a
quarto, valued at some guineas! It is entitled, “Christian Astrology,
modestly treated of in three Books, by William Lilly, student in
Astrology, 2nd edition, 1659.” There is also a portrait of this arch
rogue, and astrologer! an admirable illustration for Lavater!