OTHER APPARITIONS OF SPECTRES.
Plutarch, whose gravity and wisdom are well known, often speaks of
spectres and apparitions. He says, for instance, that at the famous
battle of Marathon against the Persians, several soldiers saw the
phantom of Thesus, who fought for the Greeks against the enemy.
The same Plutarch, in the life of Sylla, says that that general saw in
his sleep the goddess whom the Romans worshiped according to the rites
of the Cappadocians (who were fire-worshipers), whether it might be
Bellona or Minerva, or the moon. This divinity presented herself
before Sylla, and put into his hand a kind of thunderbolt, telling him
to launch it against his enemies, whom she named to him one after the
other; at the same time that he struck them, he saw them fall and
expire at his feet. There is reason to believe that this same goddess
was Minerva, to whom, as to Jupiter Paganism attributes the right to
hurl the thunderbolt; or rather that it was a demon.
Pausanias, general of the Lacedemonians,[304] having inadvertently
killed Cleonice, a daughter of one of the first families of Byzantium,
was tormented night and day by the ghost of that maiden, who left him
no repose, repeating to him angrily a heroic verse, the sense of which
was, _Go before the tribunal of justice, which punishes crime and
awaits thee. Insolence is in the end fatal to mortals_.
Pausanias, always disturbed by this image, which followed him
everywhere, retired to Heraclea in Elis, where there was a temple
served by priests who were magicians, called _Psychagogues_, that is
to say, who profess to evoke the souls of the dead. There Pausanias,
after having offered the customary libations and funeral effusions,
called upon the spirit of Cleonice, and conjured her to renounce her
anger against him. Cleonice at last appeared, and told him that very
soon, when he should be arrived at Sparta, he would be freed from his
woes, wishing apparently by these mysterious words to indicate that
death which awaited him there.
We see there the custom of evocations of the dead distinctly pointed
out, and solemnly practiced in a temple consecrated to these
ceremonies; that demonstrates at least the belief and custom of the
Greeks. And if Cleonice really appeared to Pausanias and announced his
approaching death, can we deny that the evil spirit, or the spirit of
Cleonice, is the author of this prediction, unless indeed it were a
trick of the priests, which is likely enough, and as the ambiguous
reply given to Pausanias seems to insinuate.
Pausanias the historian[305] writes that, 400 years after the battle
of Marathon, every night a noise was heard there of the neighing of
horses, and cries like those of soldiers exciting themselves to
combat. Plutarch speaks also of spectres which were seen, and
frightful howlings that were heard in some public baths, where they
had put to death several citizens of Chaeronea, his native place; they
had even been obliged to shut up these baths, which did not prevent
those who lived near from continuing to hear great noises, and seeing
from time to time spectres.
Dion the philosopher, the disciple of Plato, and general of the
Syracusans, being one day seated, towards the evening, very full of
thought, in the portico of his house, heard a great noise, then
perceived a terrible spectre of a woman of monstrous height, who
resembled one of the furies, as they are depicted in tragedies; there
was still daylight, and she began to sweep the house. Dion, quite
alarmed, sent to beg his friends to come and see him, and stay with
him all night; but this woman appeared no more. A short time
afterwards, his son threw himself down from the top of the house, and
he himself was assassinated by conspirators.
Marcus Brutus, one of the murderers of Julius Caesar, being in his tent
during a night which was not very dark, towards the third hour of the
night, beheld a monstrous and terrific figure enter. "Who art thou? a
man or a God? and why comest thou here?" The spectre answered, "I am
thine evil genius. Thou shalt see me at Philippi!" Brutus replied
undauntedly, "I will meet thee there." And on going out, he went and
related the circumstance to Cassius, who being of the sect of
Epicurus, and a disbeliever in that kind of apparition, told him that
it was mere imagination; that there were no genii or other kind of
spirits which could appear unto men, and that even did they appear,
they would have neither the human form nor the human voice, and could
do nothing to harm us. Although Brutus was a little reassured by this
reasoning, still it did not remove all his uneasiness.
But the same Cassius, in the campaign of Philippi, and in the midst of
the combat, saw Julius Caesar, whom he had assassinated, who came up to
him at full gallop: which frightened him so much that at last he threw
himself upon his own sword. Cassius of Parma, a different person from
him of whom we have spoken above, saw an evil genius, who came into
his tent, and declared to him his approaching death.
Drusus, when making war on the Germans (Allemani) during the time of
Augustus, desiring to cross the Elbe, in order to penetrate farther
into the country, was prevented from so doing by a woman of taller
stature than common, who appeared to him and said, "Drusus, whither
wilt thou go? wilt thou never be satisfied? Thy end is near--go back
from hence." He retraced his steps, and died before he reached the
Rhine, which he desired to recross.
St. Gregory of Nicea, in the Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, says
that, during a great plague which ravaged the city of Neocesarea,
spectres were seen in open day, who entered houses, into which they
carried certain death.
After the famous sedition which happened at Antioch, in the time of
the Emperor Theodosius, they beheld a kind of fury running about the
town, with a whip, which she lashed about like a coachman who hastens
on his horses.
St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, being at Treves, entered a house, where
he found a spectre which frightened him at first. Martin commanded him
to leave the body which he possessed: instead of going out (of the
place), he entered the body of another man who was in the same
dwelling; and throwing himself upon those who were there, began to
attack and bite them. Martin threw himself across his way, put his
fingers in his mouth, and defied him to bite him. The demoniac
retreated, as if a bar of red-hot iron had been placed in his mouth,
and at last the demon went out of the body of the possessed, not by
the mouth but behind.
John, Bishop of Atria, who lived in the sixth century, in speaking of
the great plague which happened under the Emperor Justinian, and which
is mentioned by almost all the historians of that time, says that they
saw boats of brass, containing black men without heads, which sailed
upon the sea, and went towards the places where the plague was
beginning its ravages; that this infection having depopulated a town
of Egypt, so that there remained only seven men and a boy ten years of
age, these persons, wishing to get away from the town with a great
deal of money, fell down dead suddenly.
The boy fled without carrying anything with him, but at the gate of
the town he was stopped by a spectre, who dragged him, in spite of his
resistance, into the house where the seven dead men were. Some time
after, the steward of a rich man having entered therein, to take away
some furniture belonging to his master, who had gone to reside in the
country, was warned by the same boy to go away--but he died suddenly.
The servants who had accompanied the steward ran away, and carried the
news of all this to their master.
The same Bishop John relates that he was at Constantinople during a
very great plague, which carried off ten, twelve, fifteen, and sixteen
thousand persons a-day, so that they reckon that two hundred thousand
persons died of this malady--he says, that during this time demons
were seen running from house to house, wearing the habits of
ecclesiastics or monks, and who caused the death of those whom they
met therein.
The death of Carlostadt was accompanied by frightful circumstances,
according to the ministers of Basle, his colleagues, who bore witness
to it at the time. They[306] relate, that at the last sermon which
Carlostadt preached in the temple of Basle, a tall black man came and
seated himself near the consul. The preacher perceived him, and
appeared disconcerted at it. When he left the pulpit, he asked who
that stranger was who had taken his seat next to the chief magistrate;
no one had seen him but himself. When he went home, he heard more news
of the spectre. The black man had been there, and had caught up by the
hair the youngest and most tenderly loved of his children. After he
had thus raised the child from the ground, he appeared disposed to
throw him down so as to break his head; but he contented himself with
ordering the boy to warn his father that in three days he should
return, and he must hold himself in readiness. The child having
repeated to his father what had been said to him, Carlostadt was
terrified. He went to bed in alarm, and in three days he expired.
These apparitions of the demon's, by Luther's own avowal, were pretty
frequent, in the case of the first reformers.
These instances of the apparitions of spectres might be multiplied to
infinity; but if we undertook to criticise them, there is hardly one
of them very certain, or proof against a serious and profound
examination. Here follows one, which I relate on purpose because it
has some singular features, and its falsehood has at last been
acknowledged.[307]
Footnotes:
[304] Plutarch in Cimone.
[305] Pausanias, lib. i. c. 324.
[306] Moshovius, p. 22.
[307] See the following chapter.