One of the most striking examples of the ascendancy of astrological
faith is in the instance of William Lilly. This man has fortunately
left us a narrative of his own life; and he comes sufficiently near
to our time, to give us a feeling of reality in the transactions in
which he was engaged, and to bring the scenes home to our business
and bosoms.
Before he enters expressly upon the history of his life, he gives
us incidentally an anecdote which merits our attention, as tending
strongly to illustrate the credulity of man at the periods of which
we treat.
Lilly was born in the year 1602. When certain circumstances led his
yet undetermined thoughts to the study of astrology as his principal
pursuit, he put himself in the year 1632 under the tuition of one
Evans, whom he describes as poor, ignorant, drunken, presumptuous
and knavish, but who had a character, as the phrase was, for erecting
a figure, predicting future events, discovering secrets, restoring
stolen goods, and even for raising a spirit when he pleased. Sir
Kenelm Digby was one of the most promising characters of these times,
extremely handsome and graceful in his person, accomplished in all
military exercises, endowed with high intellectual powers, and
indefatigably inquisitive after knowledge. To render him the more
remarkable, he was the eldest son of Everard Digby, who was the most
eminent sufferer for the conspiracy of the Gunpowder Treason.
It was, as it seems, some time before Lilly became acquainted with
Evans, that lord Bothwel and sir Kenelm Digby came to Evans at his
lodgings in the Minories, for the express purpose of desiring him
to shew them a spirit. Sir Kenelm was born in the year 1603; he must
have been therefore at this time a young man, but sufficiently old
to know what he sought, and to choose the subjects of his enquiry
with a certain discretion. Evans consented to gratify the curiosity
of his illustrious visitors. He drew a circle, and placed himself
and the two strangers within the circle. He began his invocations.
On a sudden, Evans was taken away from the others, and found himself,
he knew not how, in Battersea Fields near the Thames. The next morning
a countryman discovered him asleep, and, having awaked him, in answer
to his enquiries told him where he was. Evans in the afternoon sent
a messenger to his wife, to inform her of his safety, and to calm
the apprehensions she might reasonably entertain. Just as the
messenger arrived, sir Kenelm Digby came to the house, curious to
enquire respecting the issue of the adventure of yesterday. Lilly
received this story from Evans; and, having asked him how such an
event came to attend on the experiment, was answered that, in
practising the invocation, he had heedlessly omitted the necessary
suffumigation, at which omission the spirit had taken offence.
Lilly made some progress in astrology under Evans, and practised the
art in minor matters with a certain success; but his ambition led
him to aspire to the highest place in his profession. He made an
experiment to discover a hidden treasure in Westminster Abbey; and,
having obtained leave for that purpose from the bishop of Lincoln,
dean of Westminster, he resorted to the spot with about thirty persons
more, with divining rods. He fixed on the place according to the
rules, and began to dig; but he had not proceeded far, before a
furious storm came on, and he judged it advisable to "dismiss the
demons," and desist. These supernatural assistants, he says, had taken
offence at the number and levity of the persons present; and, if he
had not left off when he did, he had no doubt that the storm would
have grown more and more violent, till the whole structure would have
been laid level with the ground.
He purchased himself a house to which to retire in 1636 at Hersham
near Walton on Thames, having, though originally bred in the lowest
obscurity, twice enriched himself in some degree by marriage. He came
to London with a view to practise his favourite art in 1641; but,
having received a secret monition warning him that he was not yet
sufficiently an adept, he retired again into the country for two
years, and did not finally commence his career till 1644, when he
published a Prophetical Almanac, which he continued to do till about
the time of his death. He then immediately began to rise into
considerable notice. Mrs. Lisle, the wife of one of the commissioners
of the great seal, took to him the urine of Whitlocke, one of the
most eminent lawyers of the time, to consult him respecting the health
of the party, when he informed the lady that the person would recover
from his present disease, but about a month after would be very
dangerously ill of a surfeit, which accordingly happened. He was
protected by the great Selden, who interested himself in his favour;
and he tells us that Lenthal, speaker of the house of commons, was
at all times his friend. He further says of himself that he was
originally partial to king Charles and to monarchy: but, when the
parliament had apparently the upper hand, he had the skill to play
his cards accordingly, and secured his favour with the ruling powers.
Whitlocke, in his Memorials of Affairs in his Own Times, takes
repeated notice of him, says that, meeting him in the street in the
spring of 1645, he enquired of Lilly as to what was likely speedily
to happen, who predicted to him the battle of Naseby, and notes in
1648 that some of his prognostications "fell out very strangely,
particularly as to the king's fall from his horse about this time."
Lilly applied to Whitlocke in favour of his rival, Wharton, the
astrologer, and his prayer was granted, and again in behalf of
Oughtred, the celebrated mathematician.
Lilly and Booker, a brother-astrologer, were sent for in great form,
with a coach and four horses, to the head-quarters of Fairfax at
Windsor, towards the end of the year 1647, when they told the general,
that they were "confident that God would go along with him and his
army, till the great work for which they were ordained was perfected,
which they hoped would be the conquering their and the parliament's
enemies, and a quiet settlement and firm peace over the whole nation."
The two astrologers were sent for in the same state in the following
year to the siege of Colchester, which they predicted would soon fall
into possession of the parliament.
Lilly in the mean while retained in secret his partiality to Charles
the First. Mrs. Whorwood, a lady who was fully in the king's
confidence, came to consult him, as to the place to which Charles
should retire when he escaped from Hampton Court. Lilly prescribed
accordingly; but Ashburnham disconcerted all his measures, and the
king made his inauspicious retreat to the isle of Wight. Afterwards
he was consulted by the same lady, as to the way in which Charles
should proceed respecting the negociations with the parliamentary
commissioners at Newport, when Lilly advised that the king should
sign all the propositions, and come up immediately with the
commissioners to London, in which case Lilly did not doubt that the
popular tide would turn in his favour, and the royal cause prove
triumphant. Finally, he tells us that he furnished the saw and _aqua
fortis_, with which the king had nearly removed the bars of the
window of his prison in Carisbrook Castle, and escaped. But Charles
manifested the same irresolution at the critical moment in this case,
which had before proved fatal to his success. In the year 1649 Lilly
received a pension of one hundred pounds _per annum_ from the
council of state, which, after having been paid him for two years,
he declined to accept any longer. In 1659 he received a present of
a gold chain and medal from Charles X king of Sweden, in acknowledgment
of the respectful mention he had made of that monarch in his almanacs.
Lilly lived to a considerable age, not having died till the year 1681.
In the year 1666 he was summoned before a committee of the house of
commons, on the frivolous ground that, in his Monarchy or No Monarchy
published fifteen years before, he had introduced sixteen plates,
among which was one, the eighth, representing persons digging graves,
with coffins, and other emblems significative of mortality, and, in
the thirteenth, a city in flames. He was asked whether these things
referred to the late plague and fire of London. Lilly replied in a
manner to intimate that they did; but he ingenuously confessed that
he had not known in what year they would happen. He said, that he
had given these emblematical representations without any comment,
that those who were competent might apprehend their meaning, whilst
the rest of the world remained in the ignorance which was their
appointed portion.