angels, according to the number of the seven planets, Saturnine,
Jovial, Martial, of which Cardan discourseth lib. 20. de subtil. he
calls them substantias primas, Olympicos daemones Tritemius, qui
praesunt Zodiaco, &c., and will have them to be good angels above,
devils beneath the Moon, their several names and offices he there sets
down, and which Dionysius of Angels, will have several spirits for
several countries, men, offices, &c., which live about them, and as so
many assisting powers cause their operations, will have in a word,
innumerable, as many of them as there be stars in the skies.
[1170]Marcilius Ficinus seems to second this opinion, out of Plato, or
from himself, I know not, (still ruling their inferiors, as they do
those under them again, all subordinate, and the nearest to the earth
rule us, whom we subdivide into good and bad angels, call gods or
devils, as they help or hurt us, and so adore, love or hate) but it is
most likely from Plato, for he relying wholly on Socrates, quem mori
potius quam mentiri voluisse scribit, whom he says would rather die
than tell a falsehood, out of Socrates' authority alone, made nine
kinds of them: which opinion belike Socrates took from Pythagoras, and
he from Trismegistus, he from Zoroastes, first God, second idea, 3.
Intelligences, 4. Arch-Angels, 5. Angels, 6. Devils, 7. Heroes, 8.
Principalities, 9. Princes: of which some were absolutely good, as
gods, some bad, some indifferent inter deos et homines, as heroes and
daemons, which ruled men, and were called genii, or as [1171]Proclus
and Jamblichus will, the middle betwixt God and men. Principalities and
princes, which commanded and swayed kings and countries; and had
several places in the spheres perhaps, for as every sphere is higher,
so hath it more excellent inhabitants: which belike is that Galilaeus a
Galileo and Kepler aims at in his nuncio Syderio, when he will have
[1172]Saturnine and Jovial inhabitants: and which Tycho Brahe doth in
some sort touch or insinuate in one of his epistles: but these things
[1173]Zanchius justly explodes, cap. 3. lib. 4. P. Martyr, in 4. Sam.
28.
So that according to these men the number of ethereal spirits must
needs be infinite: for if that be true that some of our mathematicians
say: if a stone could fall from the starry heaven, or eighth sphere,
and should pass every hour an hundred miles, it would be 65 years, or
more, before it would come to ground, by reason of the great distance
of heaven from earth, which contains as some say 170 millions 800
miles, besides those other heavens, whether they be crystalline or
watery which Maginus adds, which peradventure holds as much more, how
many such spirits may it contain? And yet for all this [1174]Thomas
Albertus, and most hold that there be far more angels than devils.
_Sublunary devils, and their kinds._] But be they more or less, Quod
supra nos nihil ad nos (what is beyond our comprehension does not
concern us). Howsoever as Martianus foolishly supposeth, Aetherii
Daemones non curant res humanas, they care not for us, do not attend
our actions, or look for us, those ethereal spirits have other worlds
to reign in belike or business to follow. We are only now to speak in
brief of these sublunary spirits or devils: for the rest, our divines
determine that the devil had no power over stars, or heavens;
[1175]Carminibus coelo possunt deducere lunam, &C., (by their charms
(verses) they can seduce the moon from the heavens). Those are poetical
fictions, and that they can [1176]sistere aquam fluviis, et vertere
sidera retro, &c., (stop rivers and turn the stars backward in their
courses) as Canadia in Horace, 'tis all false. [1177] They are confined
until the day of judgment to this sublunary world, and can work no
farther than the four elements, and as God permits them. Wherefore of
these sublunary devils, though others divide them otherwise according
to their several places and offices, Psellus makes six kinds, fiery,
aerial, terrestrial, watery, and subterranean devils, besides those
fairies, satyrs, nymphs, &c.
Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly work by blazing stars,
fire-drakes, or ignes fatui; which lead men often in flumina aut
praecipitia, saith Bodine, lib. 2. Theat. Naturae, fol. 221. Quos
inquit arcere si volunt viatores, clara voce Deum appellare aut pronam
facie terram contingente adorare oportet, et hoc amuletum majoribus
nostris acceptum ferre debemus, &c., (whom if travellers wish to keep
off they must pronounce the name of God with a clear voice, or adore
him with their faces in contact with the ground, &c.); likewise they
counterfeit suns and moons, stars oftentimes, and sit on ship masts: In
navigiorum summitatibus visuntur; and are called dioscuri, as Eusebius
l. contra Philosophos, c. xlviii. informeth us, out of the authority of
Zenophanes; or little clouds, ad motum nescio quem volantes; which
never appear, saith Cardan, but they signify some mischief or other to
come unto men, though some again will have them to pretend good, and
victory to that side they come towards in sea fights, St. Elmo's fires
they commonly call them, and they do likely appear after a sea storm;
Radzivilius, the Polonian duke, calls this apparition, Sancti Germani
sidus; and saith moreover that he saw the same after in a storm, as he
was sailing, 1582, from Alexandria to Rhodes. [1178]Our stories are
full of such apparitions in all kinds. Some think they keep their
residence in that Hecla, a mountain in Iceland, Aetna in Sicily,
Lipari, Vesuvius, &c. These devils were worshipped heretofore by that
superstitious Pyromanteia [1179]and the like.
Aerial spirits or devils, are such as keep quarter most part in the
[1180] air, cause many tempests, thunder, and lightnings, tear oaks,
fire steeples, houses, strike men and beasts, make it rain stones, as
in Livy's time, wool, frogs, &c. Counterfeit armies in the air, strange
noises, swords, &c., as at Vienna before the coming of the Turks, and
many times in Rome, as Scheretzius l. de spect. c. 1. part 1. Lavater
de spect. part. 1. c. 17. Julius Obsequens, an old Roman, in his book
of prodigies, _ab urb. cond._ 505. [1181]Machiavel hath illustrated by
many examples, and Josephus, in his book de bello Judaico, before the
destruction of Jerusalem. All which Guil. Postellus, in his first book,
c. 7, de orbis concordia, useth as an effectual argument (as indeed it
is) to persuade them that will not believe there be spirits or devils.
They cause whirlwinds on a sudden, and tempestuous storms; which though
our meteorologists generally refer to natural causes, yet I am of
Bodine's mind, Theat. Nat. l. 2. they are more often caused by those
aerial devils, in their several quarters; for Tempestatibus se
ingerunt, saith [1182] Rich. Argentine; as when a desperate man makes
away with himself, which by hanging or drowning they frequently do, as
Kommanus observes, de mirac. mort. part. 7, c. 76. tripudium agentes,
dancing and rejoicing at the death of a sinner. These can corrupt the
air, and cause plagues, sickness, storms, shipwrecks, fires,
inundations. At Mons Draconis in Italy, there is a most memorable
example in [1183]Jovianus Pontanus: and nothing so familiar (if we may
believe those relations of Saxo Grammaticus, Olaus Magnus, Damianus A.
Goes) as for witches and sorcerers, in Lapland, Lithuania, and all over
Scandia, to sell winds to mariners, and cause tempests, which Marcus
Paulus the Venetian relates likewise of the Tartars. These kind of
devils are much [1184]delighted in sacrifices (saith Porphyry), held
all the world in awe, and had several names, idols, sacrifices, in
Rome, Greece, Egypt, and at this day tyrannise over, and deceive those
Ethnics and Indians, being adored and worshipped for [1185] gods. For
the Gentiles' gods were devils (as [1186]Trismegistus confesseth in his
Asclepius), and he himself could make them come to their images by
magic spells: and are now as much respected by our papists (saith
[1187] Pictorius) under the name of saints. These are they which Cardan
thinks desire so much carnal copulation with witches (Incubi and
Succubi), transform bodies, and are so very cold, if they be touched;
and that serve magicians. His father had one of them (as he is not
ashamed to relate), [1188]an aerial devil, bound to him for twenty and
eight years. As Agrippa's dog had a devil tied to his collar; some
think that Paracelsus (or else Erastus belies him) had one confined to
his sword pummel; others wear them in rings, &c. Jannes and Jambres did
many things of old by their help; Simon Magus, Cinops, Apollonius
Tianeus, Jamblichus, and Tritemius of late, that showed Maximilian the
emperor his wife, after she was dead; Et verrucam in collo ejus (saith
[1189]Godolman) so much as the wart in her neck. Delrio, lib. 2. hath
divers examples of their feats: Cicogna, lib. 3. cap. 3. and Wierus in
his book de praestig. daemonum. Boissardus de magis et veneficis.
Water-devils are those Naiads or water nymphs which have been
heretofore conversant about waters and rivers. The water (as Paracelsus
thinks) is their chaos, wherein they live; some call them fairies, and
say that Habundia is their queen; these cause inundations, many times
shipwrecks, and deceive men divers ways, as Succuba, or otherwise,
appearing most part (saith Tritemius) in women's shapes.
[1190]Paracelsus hath several stories of them that have lived and been
married to mortal men, and so continued for certain years with them,
and after, upon some dislike, have forsaken them. Such a one as
Aegeria, with whom Numa was so familiar, Diana, Ceres, &c. [1191]Olaus
Magnus hath a long narration of one Hotherus, a king of Sweden, that
having lost his company, as he was hunting one day, met with these
water nymphs or fairies, and was feasted by them; and Hector Boethius,
or Macbeth, and Banquo, two Scottish lords, that as they were wandering
in the woods, had their fortunes told them by three strange women. To
these, heretofore, they did use to sacrifice, by that ὑδρομαντέια, or
divination by waters.
Terrestrial devils are those [1192]Lares, genii, fauns, satyrs, [1193]
wood-nymphs, foliots, fairies, Robin Goodfellows, trulli, &c., which as
they are most conversant with men, so they do them most harm. Some
think it was they alone that kept the heathen people in awe of old, and
had so many idols and temples erected to them. Of this range was Dagon
amongst the Philistines, Bel amongst the Babylonians, Astartes amongst
the Sidonians, Baal amongst the Samaritans, Isis and Osiris amongst the
Egyptians, &c.; some put our [1194]fairies into this rank, which have
been in former times adored with much superstition, with sweeping their
houses, and setting of a pail of clean water, good victuals, and the
like, and then they should not be pinched, but find money in their
shoes, and be fortunate in their enterprises. These are they that dance
on heaths and greens, as [1195] Lavater thinks with Tritemius, and as
[1196]Olaus Magnus adds, leave that green circle, which we commonly
find in plain fields, which others hold to proceed from a meteor
falling, or some accidental rankness of the ground, so nature sports
herself; they are sometimes seen by old women and children. Hierom.
Pauli, in his description of the city of Bercino in Spain, relates how
they have been familiarly seen near that town, about fountains and
hills; Nonnunquam (saith Tritemius) in sua latibula montium
simpliciores homines ducant, stupenda mirantibus ostentes miracula,
nolarum sonitus, spectacula, &c. [1197]Giraldus Cambrensis gives
instance in a monk of Wales that was so deluded. [1198]Paracelsus
reckons up many places in Germany, where they do usually walk in little
coats, some two feet long. A bigger kind there is of them called with
us hobgoblins, and Robin Goodfellows, that would in those superstitious
times grind corn for a mess of milk, cut wood, or do any manner of
drudgery work. They would mend old irons in those Aeolian isles of
Lipari, in former ages, and have been often seen and heard.
[1199]Tholosanus calls them trullos and Getulos, and saith, that in his
days they were common in many places of France. Dithmarus Bleskenius,
in his description of Iceland, reports for a certainty, that almost in
every family they have yet some such familiar spirits; and Felix
Malleolus, in his book de crudel. daemon. affirms as much, that these
trolli or telchines are very common in Norway, and [1200] seen to do
drudgery work; to draw water, saith Wierus, lib. 1. cap. 22, dress
meat, or any such thing. Another sort of these there are, which
frequent forlorn [1201]houses, which the Italians call foliots, most
part innoxious, [1202]Cardan holds; They will make strange noises in
the night, howl sometimes pitifully, and then laugh again, cause great
flame and sudden lights, fling stones, rattle chains, shave men, open
doors and shut them, fling down platters, stools, chests, sometimes
appear in the likeness of hares, crows, black dogs, &c. of which read
[1203]Pet Thyraeus the Jesuit, in his Tract, de locis infestis, part.
1. et cap. 4, who will have them to be devils or the souls of damned
men that seek revenge, or else souls out of purgatory that seek ease;
for such examples peruse [1204] Sigismundus Scheretzius, lib. de
spectris, part 1. c. 1. which he saith he took out of Luther most part;
there be many instances. [1205]Plinius Secundus remembers such a house
at Athens, which Athenodorus the philosopher hired, which no man durst
inhabit for fear of devils. Austin, de Civ. Dei. lib. 22, cap. 1.
relates as much of Hesperius the Tribune's house, at Zubeda, near their
city of Hippos, vexed with evil spirits, to his great hindrance, Cum
afflictione animalium et servorum suorum. Many such instances are to be
read in Niderius Formicar, lib. 5. cap. xii. 3. &c. Whether I may call
these Zim and Ochim, which Isaiah, cap. xiii. 21. speaks of, I make a
doubt. See more of these in the said Scheretz. lib. 1. de spect. cap.
4. he is full of examples. These kind of devils many times appear to
men, and affright them out of their wits, sometimes walking at
[1206]noonday, sometimes at nights, counterfeiting dead men's ghosts,
as that of Caligula, which (saith Suetonius) was seen to walk in
Lavinia's garden, where his body was buried, spirits haunted, and the
house where he died, [1207]Nulla nox sine terrore transacta, donec
incendio consumpta; every night this happened, there was no quietness,
till the house was burned. About Hecla, in Iceland, ghosts commonly
walk, animas mortuorum simulantes, saith Joh. Anan, lib. 3. de nat.
daem. Olaus. lib. 2. cap. 2. Natal Tallopid. lib. de apparit. spir.
Kornmannus de mirac. mort. part. 1. cap. 44. such sights are frequently
seen circa sepulchra et monasteria, saith Lavat. lib. 1. cap. 19. in
monasteries and about churchyards, loca paludinosa, ampla aedificia,
solitaria, et caede hominum notata, &c. (marshes, great buildings,
solitary places, or remarkable as the scene of some murder.) Thyreus
adds, ubi gravius peccatum est commissum, impii, pauperum oppressores
et nequiter insignes habitant (where some very heinous crime was
committed, there the impious and infamous generally dwell). These
spirits often foretell men's deaths by several signs, as knocking,
groanings, &c. [1208]though Rich. Argentine, c. 18. de praestigiis
daemonum, will ascribe these predictions to good angels, out of the
authority of Ficinus and others; prodigia in obitu principum saepius
contingunt, &c. (prodigies frequently occur at the deaths of
illustrious men), as in the Lateran church in [1209]Rome, the popes'
deaths are foretold by Sylvester's tomb. Near Rupes Nova in Finland, in
the kingdom of Sweden, there is a lake, in which, before the governor
of the castle dies, a spectrum, in the habit of Arion with his harp,
appears, and makes excellent music, like those blocks in Cheshire,
which (they say) presage death to the master of the family; or that
[1210]oak in Lanthadran park in Cornwall, which foreshows as much. Many
families in Europe are so put in mind of their last by such
predictions, and many men are forewarned (if we may believe Paracelsus)
by familiar spirits in divers shapes, as cocks, crows, owls, which
often hover about sick men's chambers, vel quia morientium foeditatem
sentiunt, as [1211]Baracellus conjectures, et ideo super tectum
infirmorum crocitant, because they smell a corse; or for that (as
[1212]Bernardinus de Bustis thinketh) God permits the devil to appear
in the form of crows, and such like creatures, to scare such as live
wickedly here on earth. A little before Tully's death (saith Plutarch)
the crows made a mighty noise about him, tumultuose perstrepentes, they
pulled the pillow from under his head. Rob. Gaguinus, hist. Franc. lib.
8, telleth such another wonderful story at the death of Johannes de
Monteforti, a French lord, _anno_ 1345, tanta corvorum multitudo
aedibus morientis insedit, quantam esse in Gallia nemo judicasset (a
multitude of crows alighted on the house of the dying man, such as no
one imagined existed in France). Such prodigies are very frequent in
authors. See more of these in the said Lavater, Thyreus de locis
infestis, part 3, cap. 58. Pictorius, Delrio, Cicogna, lib. 3, cap. 9.
Necromancers take upon them to raise and lay them at their pleasures:
and so likewise, those which Mizaldus calls ambulones, that walk about
midnight on great heaths and desert places, which (saith [1213]Lavater)
draw men out of the way, and lead them all night a byway, or quite bar
them of their way; these have several names in several places; we
commonly call them Pucks. In the deserts of Lop, in Asia, such
illusions of walking spirits are often perceived, as you may read in M.
Paulus the Venetian his travels; if one lose his company by chance,
these devils will call him by his name, and counterfeit voices of his
companions to seduce him. Hieronym. Pauli, in his book of the hills of
Spain, relates of a great [1214]mount in Cantabria, where such
spectrums are to be seen; Lavater and Cicogna have variety of examples
of spirits and walking devils in this kind. Sometimes they sit by the
highway side, to give men falls, and make their horses stumble and
start as they ride (if you will believe the relation of that holy man
Ketellus in [1215]Nubrigensis), that had an especial grace to see
devils, Gratiam divinitus collatam, and talk with them, Et impavidus
cum spiritibus sermonem miscere, without offence, and if a man curse or
spur his horse for stumbling, they do heartily rejoice at it; with many
such pretty feats.
Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harm.
Olaus Magnus, lib. 6, cap. 19, make six kinds of them; some bigger,
some less. These (saith [1216]Munster) are commonly seen about mines of
metals, and are some of them noxious; some again do no harm. The
metal-men in many places account it good luck, a sign of treasure and
rich ore when they see them. Georgius Agricola, in his book de
subterraneis animantibus, cap. 37, reckons two more notable kinds of
them, which he calls [1217]getuli and cobali, both are clothed after
the manner of metal-men, and will many times imitate their works. Their
office, as Pictorius and Paracelsus think, is to keep treasure in the
earth, that it be not all at once revealed; and besides, [1218]Cicogna
avers that they are the frequent causes of those horrible earthquakes
which often swallow up, not only houses, but whole islands and cities;
in his third book, cap. 11, he gives many instances.
The last are conversant about the centre of the earth to torture the
souls of damned men to the day of judgment; their egress and regress
some suppose to be about Etna, Lipari, Mons Hecla in Iceland, Vesuvius,
Terra del Fuego, &c., because many shrieks and fearful cries are
continually heard thereabouts, and familiar apparitions of dead men,
ghosts and goblins.
_Their Offices, Operations, Study_.] Thus the devil reigns, and in a
thousand several shapes, as a roaring lion still seeks whom he may
devour, 1 Pet. v., by sea, land, air, as yet unconfined, though [1219]
some will have his proper place the air; all that space between us and
the moon for them that transgressed least, and hell for the wickedest
of them, Hic velut in carcere ad finem mundi, tunc in locum funestiorum
trudendi, as Austin holds de Civit. Dei, c. 22, lib. 14, cap. 3 et 23;
but be where he will, he rageth while he may to comfort himself, as
[1220] Lactantius thinks, with other men's falls, he labours all he can
to bring them into the same pit of perdition with him. For [1221]men's
miseries, calamities, and ruins are the devil's banqueting dishes. By
many temptations and several engines, he seeks to captivate our souls.
The Lord of Lies, saith [1222]Austin, as he was deceived himself, he
seeks to deceive others, the ringleader to all naughtiness, as he did
by Eve and Cain, Sodom and Gomorrah, so would he do by all the world.
Sometimes he tempts by covetousness, drunkenness, pleasure, pride, &c.,
errs, dejects, saves, kills, protects, and rides some men, as they do
their horses. He studies our overthrow, and generally seeks our
destruction; and although he pretend many times human good, and
vindicate himself for a god by curing of several diseases, aegris
sanitatem, et caecis luminis usum restituendo, as Austin declares, lib.
10, de civit Dei, cap. 6, as Apollo, Aesculapius, Isis, of old have
done; divert plagues, assist them in wars, pretend their happiness, yet
nihil his impurius, scelestius, nihil humano generi infestius, nothing
so impure, nothing so pernicious, as may well appear by their
tyrannical and bloody sacrifices of men to Saturn and Moloch, which are
still in use among those barbarous Indians, their several deceits and
cozenings to keep men in obedience, their false oracles, sacrifices,
their superstitious impositions of fasts, penury, &c. Heresies,
superstitious observations of meats, times, &c., by which they [1223]
crucify the souls of mortal men, as shall be showed in our Treatise of
Religious Melancholy. Modico adhuc tempore sinitur malignari, as [1224]
Bernard expresseth it, by God's permission he rageth a while, hereafter
to be confined to hell and darkness, which is prepared for him and his
angels, Mat. xxv.
How far their power doth extend it is hard to determine; what the
ancients held of their effects, force and operations, I will briefly
show you: Plato in Critias, and after him his followers, gave out that
these spirits or devils, were men's governors and keepers, our lords
and masters, as we are of our cattle. [1225]They govern provinces and
kingdoms by oracles, auguries, dreams, rewards and punishments,
prophecies, inspirations, sacrifices, and religious superstitions,
varied in as many forms as there be diversity of spirits; they send
wars, plagues, peace, sickness, health, dearth, plenty, [1226]Adstantes
hic jam nobis, spectantes, et arbitrantes, &c. as appears by those
histories of Thucydides, Livius, Dionysius Halicarnassus, with many
others that are full of their wonderful stratagems, and were therefore
by those Roman and Greek commonwealths adored and worshipped for gods
with prayers and sacrifices, &c. [1227]In a word, Nihil magis quaerunt
quam metum et admirationem hominum; [1228]and as another hath it, Dici
non potest, quam impotenti ardore in homines dominium, et Divinos
cultus maligni spiritus affectent. [1229]Tritemius in his book de
septem secundis, assigns names to such angels as are governors of
particular provinces, by what authority I know not, and gives them
several jurisdictions. Asclepiades a Grecian, Rabbi Achiba the Jew,
Abraham Avenezra, and Rabbi Azariel, Arabians, (as I find them cited by
[1230]Cicogna) farther add, that they are not our governors only, Sed
ex eorum concordia et discordia, boni et mali affectus promanant, but
as they agree, so do we and our princes, or disagree; stand or fall.
Juno was a bitter enemy to Troy, Apollo a good friend, Jupiter
indifferent, Aequa Venus Teucris, Pallas iniqua fuit; some are for us
still, some against us, Premente Deo, fert Deus alter opem. Religion,
policy, public and private quarrels, wars are procured by them, and
they are [1231]delighted perhaps to see men fight, as men are with
cocks, bulls and dogs, bears, &c., plagues, dearths depend on them, our
bene and male esse, and almost all our other peculiar actions, (for as
Anthony Rusea contends, lib. 5, cap. 18, every man hath a good and a
bad angel attending on him in particular, all his life long, which
Jamblichus calls daemonem,) preferments, losses, weddings, deaths,
rewards and punishments, and as [1232]Proclus will, all offices
whatsoever, alii genetricem, alii opificem potestatem habent, &c. and
several names they give them according to their offices, as Lares,
Indegites, Praestites, &c. When the Arcades in that battle at Cheronae,
which was fought against King Philip for the liberty of Greece, had
deceitfully carried themselves, long after, in the very same place,
Diis Graeciae, ultoribus (saith mine author) they were miserably slain
by Metellus the Roman: so likewise, in smaller matters, they will have
things fall out, as these boni and mali genii favour or dislike us:
Saturni non conveniunt Jovialibus, &c. He that is Saturninus shall
never likely be preferred. [1233]That base fellows are often advanced,
undeserving Gnathoes, and vicious parasites, whereas discreet, wise,
virtuous and worthy men are neglected and unrewarded; they refer to
those domineering spirits, or subordinate Genii; as they are inclined,
or favour men, so they thrive, are ruled and overcome; for as
[1234]Libanius supposeth in our ordinary conflicts and contentions,
Genius Genio cedit et obtemperat, one genius yields and is overcome by
another. All particular events almost they refer to these private
spirits; and (as Paracelsus adds) they direct, teach, inspire, and
instruct men. Never was any man extraordinary famous in any art,
action, or great commander, that had not familiarem daemonem to inform
him, as Numa, Socrates, and many such, as Cardan illustrates, cap. 128,
Arcanis prudentiae civilis, [1235] Speciali siquidem gratia, se a Deo
donari asserunt magi, a Geniis caelestibus instrui, ab iis doceri. But
these are most erroneous paradoxes, ineptae et fabulosae nugae,
rejected by our divines and Christian churches. 'Tis true they have, by
God's permission, power over us, and we find by experience, that they
can [1236]hurt not our fields only, cattle, goods, but our bodies and
minds. At Hammel in Saxony, _An._ 1484. 20 _Junii_, the devil, in
likeness of a pied piper, carried away 130 children that were never
after seen. Many times men are [1237]affrighted out of their wits,
carried away quite, as Scheretzius illustrates, lib. 1, c. iv., and
severally molested by his means, Plotinus the Platonist, lib. 14,
advers. Gnos. laughs them to scorn, that hold the devil or spirits can
cause any such diseases. Many think he can work upon the body, but not
upon the mind. But experience pronounceth otherwise, that he can work
both upon body and mind. Tertullian is of this opinion, c. 22.
[1238]That he can cause both sickness and health, and that secretly.
[1239]Taurellus adds by clancular poisons he can infect the bodies, and
hinder the operations of the bowels, though we perceive it not, closely
creeping into them, saith [1240]Lipsius, and so crucify our souls: Et
nociva melancholia furiosos efficit. For being a spiritual body, he
struggles with our spirits, saith Rogers, and suggests (according to
[1241]Cardan, verba sine voce, species sine visu, envy, lust, anger,
&c.) as he sees men inclined.
The manner how he performs it, Biarmannus in his Oration against
Bodine, sufficiently declares. [1242]He begins first with the phantasy,
and moves that so strongly, that no reason is able to resist. Now the
phantasy he moves by mediation of humours; although many physicians are
of opinion, that the devil can alter the mind, and produce this disease
of himself. Quibusdam medicorum visum, saith [1243]Avicenna, quod
Melancholia contingat a daemonio. Of the same mind is Psellus and
Rhasis the Arab. lib. 1. Tract. 9. Cont. [1244]That this disease
proceeds especially from the devil, and from him alone. Arculanus, cap.
6. in 9. Rhasis, Aelianus Montaltus, in his 9. cap. Daniel Sennertus,
lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 11. confirm as much, that the devil can cause
this disease; by reason many times that the parties affected prophesy,
speak strange language, but non sine interventu humoris, not without
the humour, as he interprets himself; no more doth Avicenna, si
contingat a daemonio, sufficit nobis ut convertat complexionem ad
choleram nigram, et sit causa ejus propinqua cholera nigra; the
immediate cause is choler adust, which [1245] Pomponatius likewise
labours to make good: Galgerandus of Mantua, a famous physician, so
cured a demoniacal woman in his time, that spake all languages, by
purging black choler, and thereupon belike this humour of melancholy is
called balneum diaboli, the devil's bath; the devil spying his
opportunity of such humours drives them many times to despair, fury,
rage, &c., mingling himself among these humours. This is that which
Tertullian avers, Corporibus infligunt acerbos casus, animaeque
repentinos, membra distorquent, occulte repentes, &c. and which Lemnius
goes about to prove, Immiscent se mali Genii pravis humoribus, atque
atrae, bili, &c. And [1246]Jason Pratensis, that the devil, being a
slender incomprehensible spirit, can easily insinuate and wind himself
into human bodies, and cunningly couched in our bowels vitiate our
healths, terrify our souls with fearful dreams, and shake our minds
with furies. And in another place, These unclean spirits settled in our
bodies, and now mixed with our melancholy humours, do triumph as it
were, and sport themselves as in another heaven. Thus he argues, and
that they go in and out of our bodies, as bees do in a hive, and so
provoke and tempt us as they perceive our temperature inclined of
itself, and most apt to be deluded. [1247] Agrippa and [1248]Lavater
are persuaded, that this humour invites the devil to it, wheresoever it
is in extremity, and of all other, melancholy persons are most subject
to diabolical temptations and illusions, and most apt to entertain
them, and the Devil best able to work upon them. But whether by
obsession, or possession, or otherwise, I will not determine; 'tis a
difficult question. Delrio the Jesuit, Tom. 3. lib. 6. Springer and his
colleague, mall. malef. Pet. Thyreus the Jesuit, lib. de daemoniacis,
de locis infestis, de Terrificationibus nocturnis, Hieronymus Mengus
Flagel. daem. and others of that rank of pontifical writers, it seems,
by their exorcisms and conjurations approve of it, having forged many
stories to that purpose. A nun did eat a lettuce [1249]without grace,
or signing it with the sign of the cross, and was instantly possessed.
Durand. lib. 6. Rationall. c. 86. numb. 8. relates that he saw a wench
possessed in Bononia with two devils, by eating an unhallowed
pomegranate, as she did afterwards confess, when she was cured by
exorcisms. And therefore our Papists do sign themselves so often with
the sign of the cross, Ne daemon ingredi ausit, and exorcise all manner
of meats, as being unclean or accursed otherwise, as Bellarmine
defends. Many such stories I find amongst pontifical writers, to prove
their assertions, let them free their own credits; some few I will
recite in this kind out of most approved physicians. Cornelius Gemma,
lib. 2. de nat. mirac. c. 4. relates of a young maid, called Katherine
Gualter, a cooper's daughter, _an._ 1571. that had such strange
passions and convulsions, three men could not sometimes hold her; she
purged a live eel, which he saw, a foot and a half long, and touched it
himself; but the eel afterwards vanished; she vomited some twenty-four
pounds of fulsome stuff of all colours, twice a day for fourteen days;
and after that she voided great balls of hair, pieces of wood, pigeon's
dung, parchment, goose dung, coals; and after them two pounds of pure
blood, and then again coals and stones, or which some had inscriptions
bigger than a walnut, some of them pieces of glass, brass, &c. besides
paroxysms of laughing, weeping and ecstasies, &c. Et hoc (inquit) cum
horore vidi, this I saw with horror. They could do no good on her by
physic, but left her to the clergy. Marcellus Donatus, lib. 2. c. 1. de
med. mirab. hath such another story of a country fellow, that had four
knives in his belly, Instar serrae dentatos, indented like a saw, every
one a span long, and a wreath of hair like a globe, with much baggage
of like sort, wonderful to behold: how it should come into his guts, he
concludes, Certe non alio quam daemonis astutia et dolo, (could
assuredly only have been through the artifice of the devil). Langius,
Epist. med. lib. 1. Epist. 38. hath many relations to this effect, and
so hath Christophorus a Vega: Wierus, Skenkius, Scribanius, all agree
that they are done by the subtlety and illusion of the devil. If you
shall ask a reason of this, 'tis to exercise our patience; for as
[1250]Tertullian holds, Virtus non est virtus, nisi comparem habet
aliquem, in quo superando vim suam ostendat 'tis to try us and our
faith, 'tis for our offences, and for the punishment of our sins, by
God's permission they do it, Carnifices vindictae justae Dei, as
[1251]Tolosanus styles them, Executioners of his will; or rather as
David, Ps. 78. ver. 49. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger,
indignation, wrath, and vexation, by sending out of evil angels: so did
he afflict Job, Saul, the Lunatics and demoniacal persons whom Christ
cured, Mat. iv. 8. Luke iv. 11. Luke xiii. Mark ix. Tobit. viii. 3. &c.
This, I say, happeneth for a punishment of sin, for their want of
faith, incredulity, weakness, distrust, &c.
SUBSECT. III.—_Of Witches and Magicians, how they cause Melancholy_.
You have heard what the devil can do of himself, now you shall hear
what he can perform by his instruments, who are many times worse (if it
be possible) than he himself, and to satisfy their revenge and lust
cause more mischief, Multa enim mala non egisset daemon, nisi
provocatus a sagis, as [1252]Erastus thinks; much harm had never been
done, had he not been provoked by witches to it. He had not appeared in
Samuel's shape, if the Witch of Endor had let him alone; or represented
those serpents in Pharaoh's presence, had not the magicians urged him
unto it; Nec morbos vel hominibus, vel brutis infligeret (Erastus
maintains) si sagae quiescerent; men and cattle might go free, if the
witches would let him alone. Many deny witches at all, or if there be
any they can do no harm; of this opinion is Wierus, lib. 3. cap. 53. de
praestig. daem. Austin Lerchemer a Dutch writer, Biarmanus, Ewichius,
Euwaldus, our countryman Scot; with him in Horace,
Somnia, terrores Magicos, miracula, sagas,
Nocturnos Lemures, portentaque Thessala risu
Excipiunt.———
Say, can you laugh indignant at the schemes
Of magic terrors, visionary dreams,
Portentous wonders, witching imps of Hell,
The nightly goblin, and enchanting spell?
They laugh at all such stories; but on the contrary are most lawyers,
divines, physicians, philosophers, Austin, Hemingius, Danaeus,
Chytraeus, Zanchius, Aretius, &c. Delrio, Springer, [1253]Niderius,
lib. 5. Fornicar. Guiatius, Bartolus, consil. 6. tom. 1. Bodine,
daemoniant. lib 2. cap. 8. Godelman, Damhoderius, &c. Paracelsus,
Erastus, Scribanius, Camerarius, &c. The parties by whom the devil
deals, may be reduced to these two, such as command him in show at
least, as conjurors, and magicians, whose detestable and horrid
mysteries are contained in their book called [1254]Arbatell; daemonis
enim advocati praesto sunt, seque exorcismis et conjurationibus quasi
cogi patiuntur, ut miserum magorum genus, in impietate detineant. Or
such as are commanded, as witches, that deal ex parte implicite, or
explicite, as the [1255]king hath well defined; many subdivisions there
are, and many several species of sorcerers, witches, enchanters,
charmers, &c. They have been tolerated heretofore some of them; and
magic hath been publicly professed in former times, in [1256]Salamanca,
[1257]Krakow, and other places, though after censured by several
[1258]Universities, and now generally contradicted, though practised by
some still, maintained and excused, Tanquam res secreta quae non nisi
viris magnis et peculiari beneficio de Coelo instructis communicatur (I
use [1259]Boesartus his words) and so far approved by some princes, Ut
nihil ausi aggredi in politicis, in sacris, in consiliis, sine eorum
arbitrio; they consult still with them, and dare indeed do nothing
without their advice. Nero and Heliogabalus, Maxentius, and Julianus
Apostata, were never so much addicted to magic of old, as some of our
modern princes and popes themselves are nowadays. Erricus, King of
Sweden, had an [1260]enchanted cap, by virtue of which, and some
magical murmur or whispering terms, he could command spirits, trouble
the air, and make the wind stand which way he would, insomuch that when
there was any great wind or storm, the common people were wont to say,
the king now had on his conjuring cap. But such examples are infinite.
That which they can do, is as much almost as the devil himself, who is
still ready to satisfy their desires, to oblige them the more unto him.
They can cause tempests, storms, which is familiarly practised by
witches in Norway, Iceland, as I have proved. They can make friends
enemies, and enemies friends by philters; [1261]Turpes amores
conciliare, enforce love, tell any man where his friends are, about
what employed, though in the most remote places; and if they will,
[1262]bring their sweethearts to them by night, upon a goat's back
flying in the air. Sigismund Scheretzius, part. 1. cap. 9. de spect.
reports confidently, that he conferred with sundry such, that had been
so carried many miles, and that he heard witches themselves confess as
much; hurt and infect men and beasts, vines, corn, cattle, plants, make
women abortive, not to conceive, [1263]barren, men and women unapt and
unable, married and unmarried, fifty several ways, saith Bodine, lib.
2. c. 2. fly in the air, meet when and where they will, as Cicogna
proves, and Lavat. de spec. part. 2. c. 17. steal young children out of
their cradles, ministerio daemonum, and put deformed in their rooms,
which we call changelings, saith [1264]Scheretzius, part. 1. c. 6. make
men victorious, fortunate, eloquent; and therefore in those ancient
monomachies and combats they were searched of old, [1265]they had no
magical charms; they can make [1266]stick frees, such as shall endure a
rapier's point, musket shot, and never be wounded: of which read more
in Boissardus, cap. 6. de Magia, the manner of the adjuration, and by
whom 'tis made, where and how to be used in expeditionibus bellicis,
praeliis, duellis, &c., with many peculiar instances and examples; they
can walk in fiery furnaces, make men feel no pain on the rack, aut
alias torturas sentire; they can stanch blood, [1267]represent dead
men's shapes, alter and turn themselves and others into several forms,
at their pleasures. [1268]Agaberta, a famous witch in Lapland, would do
as much publicly to all spectators, Modo Pusilla, modo anus, modo
procera ut quercus, modo vacca, avis, coluber, &c. Now young, now old,
high, low, like a cow, like a bird, a snake, and what not? She could
represent to others what forms they most desired to see, show them
friends absent, reveal secrets, maxima omnium admiratione, &c. And yet
for all this subtlety of theirs, as Lipsius well observes, Physiolog.
Stoicor. lib. 1. cap. 17. neither these magicians nor devils themselves
can take away gold or letters out of mine or Crassus' chest, et
Clientelis suis largiri, for they are base, poor, contemptible fellows
most part; as [1269]Bodine notes, they can do nothing in Judicum
decreta aut poenas, in regum concilia vel arcana, nihil in rem
nummariam aut thesauros, they cannot give money to their clients, alter
judges' decrees, or councils of kings, these minuti Genii cannot do it,
altiores Genii hoc sibi adservarunt, the higher powers reserve these
things to themselves. Now and then peradventure there may be some more
famous magicians like Simon Magus, [1270]Apollonius Tyaneus, Pasetes,
Jamblichus, [1271]Odo de Stellis, that for a time can build castles in
the air, represent armies, &c., as they are [1272]said to have done,
command wealth and treasure, feed thousands with all variety of meats
upon a sudden, protect themselves and their followers from all princes'
persecutions, by removing from place to place in an instant, reveal
secrets, future events, tell what is done in far countries, make them
appear that died long since, and do many such miracles, to the world's
terror, admiration and opinion of deity to themselves, yet the devil
forsakes them at last, they come to wicked ends, and raro aut nunquam
such impostors are to be found. The vulgar sort of them can work no
such feats. But to my purpose, they can, last of all, cure and cause
most diseases to such as they love or hate, and this of
[1273]melancholy amongst the rest. Paracelsus, Tom. 4. de morbis
amentium, Tract. 1. in express words affirms; Multi fascinantur in
melancholiam, many are bewitched into melancholy, out of his
experience. The same saith Danaeus, lib. 3. de sortiariis. Vidi,
inquit, qui Melancholicos morbos gravissimos induxerunt: I have seen
those that have caused melancholy in the most grievous manner,
[1274]dried up women's paps, cured gout, palsy; this and apoplexy,
falling sickness, which no physic could help, solu tactu, by touch
alone. Ruland in his 3 Cent. Cura 91. gives an instance of one David
Helde, a young man, who by eating cakes which a witch gave him, mox
delirare coepit, began to dote on a sudden, and was instantly mad: F.
H. D. in [1275]Hildesheim, consulted about a melancholy man, thought
his disease was partly magical, and partly natural, because he vomited
pieces of iron and lead, and spake such languages as he had never been
taught; but such examples are common in Scribanius, Hercules de
Saxonia, and others. The means by which they work are usually charms,
images, as that in Hector Boethius of King Duffe; characters stamped of
sundry metals, and at such and such constellations, knots, amulets,
words, philters, &c., which generally make the parties affected,
melancholy; as [1276]Monavius discourseth at large in an epistle of his
to Acolsius, giving instance in a Bohemian baron that was so troubled
by a philter taken. Not that there is any power at all in those spells,
charms, characters, and barbarous words; but that the devil doth use
such means to delude them. Ut fideles inde magos (saith [1277]Libanius)
in officio retineat, tum in consortium malefactorum vocet.
SUBSECT. IV.—_Stars a cause. Signs from Physiognomy, Metoposcopy,
Chiromancy_.