Leading Churchmen subjected to the Onslaught of
Demons--Warfare with the Devil in corporeal
shape--Triumph of Churchmen--St. Maurus rebuking a
Troop of Evil Spirits--St. Romualdus' Five Years'
Conflict with Satan--The Faculty of St. Frances--St.
Gregory's Detection of the Devil entering a Man--A
Greedy Monk denied Christian Burial--Monk in
Purgatory--Institution of the Thirty Masses for the
Dead--An Excommunicated Gentleman of Rome hiring Pagan
Witches and Sorcerers--What befell them--St. Benedict
and the Blackbird's Song--A Monk restored to Life--St.
Benedict's Sister ascending to Heaven like a White
Dove--St. Francis' Dominion over Living Creatures and
the Elements--St. Catherine's Power over Evil
Spirits--St. Stanislaus' Miracles--A Dead Man giving
Evidence in a Court of Justice--The Dead refusing a
Renewal of Life--St. Philip Nerius and Evil
Spirits--Spirits ministering to St. Erasmus--St.
Norbert closing the Mouths of Evil Spirits--Story
relating to Henry I.--St. Margaret's Triumph--St.
Ignatius' Command over Devils--St. Stephen curing
Persons possessed of Devils--Satan's Hatred of St.
Dominick--St. Donatus endowing a Corpse with
Speech--St. Cyriacus, St. Largus, and St. Smaragdus,
the Martyrs--St. Clare--St. Bernard's Power--St.
Caesarius' Wonder-working Crook--St. Giles and the
Hind--St. Euphemia's Guardian Angels--St. Francis'
Spirit in Chariot of Fire--Devils blowing the Fire of
Discord--St. Bridget's Intercourse with Angels--St.
Denis' Spirit--St. Teresa and the Angels--St. Hilarian
a Match for Satan and his Sorcerers--Her Miracles--St.
Martin's Wonderful Power--St. Catherine's Body carried
by Angels to Mount Sinai--St. Francis Xaverius' Belief
in Virtue of Bells--St. Nicholas' Piety and
Powers--St. Ambrose's Power over Necromancers and
Spirits--St. Lucy raising her Mother from the
Dead--St. Anastasia sustained by Bread from
Heaven--St. Thomas enduring Martyrdom in Life and
after Death--Penance of Henry II.--Barbarous Conduct
of Henry VIII.--A Hungarian Legend.
If reliance can be placed on tradition and the writings of
biographers, good men (particularly those of them who took a leading
part in the ancient Church) were subjected to dreadful onslaughts by
Satan. Not only had they to contend with invisible spirits of
darkness, but they were compelled to carry on a continual warfare
with the devil, in corporeal shape, seeking to seduce them from their
faith. None were more frequently or fiercely assailed than the
canonised saints of the old Catholic Church. To their praise, however,
be it remembered, that almost invariably the Churchmen, sooner or
later, triumphed. Having good consciences, and being protected by
wonder-working relics, the saints defied the enemy of mankind. Those
seeking lengthened information on the subject should consult _The
Lives of the Saints, and the Calendars_, published by learned men, who
believed what they wrote, and spoke that which they thought to be
true. The subjoined sketches, read in connection with chapter XV.,
bear out what is affirmed.
St. Maurus had an encounter with Satan and a whole squadron of his
monsters in bodily shape. At Maurus' rebuke the troop vanished, but
not before they made the monastery shake, and brought the affrighted
monks to their knees.
St. Romualdus may be said to have had a five years' conflict with
Satan in visible forms. St. Frances had the faculty of seeing evil
spirits when people beside her perceived nothing but natural forms.
St. Gregory witnessed the devil entering into a man who indulged in
and loved lies. A monk who determined to throw off his habit and
forsake the monastery, was set upon by the devil in the form of a
black dog. Other monks who broke their vows shared no better. Because
a monk had been guilty of hoarding up a large sum of money, contrary
to the rules of his order, he was denied Christian burial, and his
body was cast upon a dunghill. After mass was said for the miser
thirty days, the deceased monk appeared to a brother of his order and
told him that he had been in purgatory till that day. From this
blessed liberation St. Gregory instituted the custom of saying thirty
masses for the dead. A gentleman in Rome, who was excommunicated by
St. Gregory for unlawfully putting away his wife, hired certain pagan
witches and sorcerers to torment the holy Pope. They caused the devil
to enter into the Pope's horse, that it might cast the rider and crush
him to death. The holy father, becoming aware of the plot, cast out
the devil, and struck the witches and sorcerers with blindness. St.
Gregory was entreated to restore the witches and sorcerers to sight,
but he refused to do so, lest they should be tempted to return to
their wicked art, and read books of magic and necromancy.
St. Benedict had his encounters with the tempter. One day the devil
transformed himself into a little blackbird, which fluttered about
him, and sang so sweetly that he was nearly drawn away from his
devotions and led into sin. By a higher power than his own he overcame
the enemy. He stripped himself of his clothes, and, casting himself on
a thicket of briars and thorns, mangled his body so severely that
blood ran from him in streams. The devil on one occasion endeavoured
to hinder the building of a monastery, and at another time he cast a
stone at a young monk and killed him. St. Benedict, in his goodness,
put the devil to flight, and restored the monk to life. This saint,
while watching over the spiritual welfare of the monks with whom he
was associated, observed the devil riding on a mule to the monastery,
and entering into an aged monk possessed of a covetous heart. Penance
and a trust in holy relics drove the evil spirit away, and brought the
monk to a proper frame of mind. When a pious sister of St. Benedict
died, he saw her spirit in the likeness of a white dove ascending to
heaven.
St. Francis, a devout servant of great sanctity, had dominion over all
creatures. Fire, air, water, and earth were also subject to him. He
drove away wicked spirits; he gave sight to the blind, speech to the
dumb, health to those in decay, and life to the dead. The elements
could not affect him. He walked upon fire, held his hands in a
burning hot oven without sustaining injury; and he and a companion
passed over the sea upon his cloak spread on the waves.
St. Catherine resisted the devil in various guises. On one memorable
occasion she witnessed two thieves being conveyed to the place of
execution, and tortured, in a cart. Instead of lamenting their sins,
they behaved like demons. Though no one else beheld anything unearthly
near the culprits, St. Catherine saw a multitude of devils provoking
them to blaspheme and curse. Having compassion on the unhappy men, she
went into the cart beside them, drove the evil spirits away, and
brought the condemned men to repentance before expiating their crimes.
St. Stanislaus performed miracles, and, as for evil spirits, he made
them fly as chaff before the wind. He cured sickness, and even gave
life to the dead. One instance of his supernatural power is worthy of
remembrance. Stanislaus bought a piece of ground from a man named
Peter, but received no receipt for the price paid. Peter died, and
then his heirs, to please the king, who desired to do Stanislaus an
injury, sought to have the land restored to them. An order of court
was about to be issued for the restoration of the land to Peter's
heirs, when the saint craved three days to bring forward proof of the
money having been paid. Accordingly an adjournment took place.
Meantime Stanislaus fasted, prayed, and watched. At the termination of
the time appointed, the saint, having offered up the holy sacrifice of
mass, went to Peter's grave and caused it to be opened; then, touching
the body with his crosier, the dead man came to life, followed the
saint to the court, testified, to the astonishment of all, that the
land had been lawfully bought, and duly paid for. After this no one
could dispute the ownership of the land, which, we ought not to omit
saying, had been bought for the Church. St. Stanislaus offered Peter a
renewal of life for many years, but he who had been dead chose to
return to the grave rather than to live longer a life of trouble. He
told the saint he was in purgatory, and that he had yet something more
to suffer for his sins, but still he would prefer undergoing his
deserved punishment, that at last he might be free. St. Stanislaus
accompanied Peter to the grave. Peter laid himself down in the dust,
and the ground was closed over him, in the presence of a multitude of
people.
St. Philip Nerius encountered three infernal spirits while in the
proper discharge of his Christian duties; and the ghosts of deceased
persons were visible to him. After the saint's death he appeared to
his favourite followers, environed with a glorious light. Spirits
ministered to St. Erasmus, at one time breaking the fetters wherewith
he was bound, and at another speaking comforting words to him when he
was sad at heart. St. Norbert had the power of controlling devils, and
casting them out of possessed persons. Evil spirits went about in his
time revealing all the sins of professing Christians, until St.
Norbert closed their mouths in reference to such shortcomings as had
been confessed to a priest. After the saint's death, he appeared to
divers persons who knew him in life.
The following story is told of Henry I.:--At the time he was dying, a
hermit saw the devil, in human shape, running in the direction where
the emperor lay. "Whither passest thou?" demanded the hermit. "I am
going," said the fiend, "to be present at his Majesty's death." "Come
again," said the hermit, "and tell me how far thou hast succeeded."
Within a short time Satan returned, howling and crying out, "Woe, woe
to us, we are cozened, and have lost our labour; all our slight and
power have come to nought; the angels have confounded us and driven us
away. As the works and merits of the soul were examined and weighed in
the balance, in presence of us and the angels, and our scale began to
sink down with the weight of his sins, there stepped in a burned man
with a golden cup and put it into the other scale, which caused it to
descend with great force. Seeing this, the angels cried out 'Victory,'
and conveyed away the soul with them, leaving us nothing but shame,
ignominy, and confusion." The renowned martyr St. Lawrence turned out
to be the burned man the devil saw with the cup.
St. Margaret at one time had a severe encounter with a serpent that
appeared with death in his looks. She triumphed then as well as at
other times. The enemy wounded her sorely and often, but she was
cured, and ever afterwards had peace.
St. Ignatius had a strange command over the devils, who abhorred and
persecuted him as their great enemy. Both at Paris and Rome the devils
appeared to him in ugly shapes. Before he prevailed they nearly choked
him, and scourged him so sorely that he did not recover for some time.
In St. Ignatius' life-time the arch-fiend seems to have had
considerable power. At one time he possessed a child, a woman, and a
soldier, and raised tempests and furious storms. How far the mischief
would have been continued no one can tell, had not this saint
withstood him to the face. It fell upon a time that the holy fathers,
in a certain Loretto college, were greatly disturbed night and day by
devils making a hideous noise, and appearing like black-a-moors, cats,
bears, and other beasts. Recourse was had by saying holy mass,
prayers, sprinkling holy water, using exorcisms, and applying relics
of saints, without effect. Father Ignatius' assistance was ultimately
solicited; and he, without much difficulty, drove away the tormentors
as if they had been as many mice.
St. Stephen exercised great control over Satan. The saint cured no
fewer than threescore and thirteen persons possessed of devils.
Satan had a deadly hatred against St. Dominick, and often endeavoured
to destroy his soul and body. St. Donatus was another mark at which
the devil shot his fiercest arrows; but a man who raised the dead, as
this saint did, did not stand in fear of an evil spirit. St. Donatus
raised to life a woman that died suddenly without informing her
husband where she had concealed a sum of money belonging to him. From
the mouth of the grave the resuscitated woman told where the treasure
lay. A dishonest creditor was proved to be a false swearer and cheat
by a corpse endowed with speech by St. Donatus.
St. Cyriacus, St. Largus, and St. Smaragdus drove evil spirits not
only out of afflicted persons, but out of the country. Cyriacus, in
particular, was so famous for his power over evil spirits, that
princes in distant lands solicited his assistance to banish the demons
to their own peculiar place of torment.
The holy virgin, St. Clare, though a feeble woman, fought and
prevailed over the devil that came to her in the form of a black man.
St. Bernard cured persons possessed of devils, and he performed
miracles with a crook of St. Caesarius. The former used his staff as a
miracle-working instrument.
St. Giles was miraculously preserved by a hind sustaining him with her
milk in a cave; and such was the saint's care over the helpless
animal, that on two occasions he drew a line on the ground over which
a pack of hounds chasing the hind could not pass, although there was
nothing visible to restrain them.
St. Euphemia had her guardian angels that protected her from the
violence of her enemies, who sought to burn her in an oven full of
pitch, brimstone, and tow. She came out of the oven unhurt, but two
men who laid hands on her were consumed by the flames. Wild beasts
refused to devour her in their dens, and iron lost its force on her.
St. Euphemia's time came however, and she met her fate as a martyr
with Christian fortitude.
St. Francis' spirit appeared in a chariot of fire, sweeping through
the air. Over a city distracted by factions and civil broils, he saw
the devils very jocund, blowing the fire of discord. With a loud voice
he commanded the spirits to depart; they obeyed him, and the city was
restored to peace and concord.
St. Bridget possessed the faculty of witnessing angels, and enjoyed
the privilege of having them for her companions; nevertheless, she had
to sustain many conflicts with the devil. One time she saw Satan in a
dreadful shape, with a hundred hands and as many feet. Terrified, she
fled from the horrid monster and took shelter near a holy relic, where
she was safe. In a sad hour of affliction the spirit of St. Denis
appeared to her, and told her he would be her protector ever
afterwards. She certainly, if report be true, turned out to be a saint
endowed with extraordinary power, which enabled her to give sight to
the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and health to the
sick; and, moreover, we are informed that she raised ten dead persons
to life. On account of these miracles, and for her most holy life,
Pope Boniface IX. canonised her, and put her in the number of the
saints.
St. Gregory of Tours recounts numerous miracles wrought by St. Denis
in life, and after his death. St. Teresa had glorious visions; and
after, in her walks and seclusions, had the company of angels with
beautiful countenances and corporeal shapes. In particular, one angel
of the order of the Seraphim attended her in times of danger with a
flaming sword, to drive back her enemies. Among St. Teresa's other
powers was one of no mean importance--the power of delivering souls
out of purgatory. Her faith in holy water was great, for by its force
she swept away devils as by a mighty river.
St. Hilarian was a match for Satan and his sorcerers. A young man,
desperately in love with a lady of rare beauty and chastity, who
rejected his advances, applied to certain sorcerers, ministers of the
temple of Esculapius. By means of their evil devices the damsel began
to love her admirer extravagantly; indeed, so much so, that her
emotions savoured more of madness than of true affection. Her parents
laid her at St. Hilarian's feet, and he immediately drove out a devil
that had taken possession of the maiden, both bodily and mentally. At
one time St. Hilarian did what at first seemed invaluable service to
the neighbourhood in which he lived. The people besought him to send
rain, as their crops were withering away, and their cattle dying of
thirst. He sent what they desired, but the rain bred serpents and
venomous creatures, which destroyed the fruits of the earth and
injured the inhabitants. Like St. Patrick, he drove away the reptiles,
and healed the people who had been wounded by them. St. Hilarian also
consumed, as with fire, a dragon of enormous size which swallowed
oxen, devoured men, and laid waste the country far and near.
St. Martin, like many other saints, possessed the wonderful power of
bringing the dead to life. It was said he had dominion over devils and
men, over the heavens and the elements, over diseases, and over all
birds and beasts of the field.
So holy was St. Catherine, that, when she died, angels carried her
body to Mount Sinai and buried it there, that her persecutors might
not discover where she was laid. From her place of sepulture a sweet
smell long continued to pervade the neighbourhood.
Although it would appear that all saints had many gifts and graces,
certain of them possessed peculiar talents denied to others. St.
Francis Xaverius, for instance, held the elements in his power. He was
almost constantly at war with the devil and the flesh. To frighten
away the one he kept ringing a bell by night, and to subdue the other
he wore a hair shirt, lived on spare diet, and slept on hard boards or
lay on the cold ground.
St. Nicholas was so uncommonly good a Catholic, that, even when an
infant at the breast, he would not suck his mother's breast but once
on the Wednesdays and Fridays. He, too, controlled the winds and
waves, and sent the evil spirit away howling through the tempest.
St. Ambrose, of ever blessed memory, controlled sorcerers and
necromancers, and made even the evil spirits obedient to him. On the
day of the saint's death the devils flew away, crying that they were
tormented by St. Ambrose.
St. Lucy raised her mother from the dead, and conquered demons.
St. Anastasia had power over Satan, and was for two months sustained
by bread from heaven. And what shall we say of St. Thomas and many of
the other saints who triumphed so gloriously in their day? St. Thomas,
Archbishop of Canterbury, we are told, endured martyrdom twice--once
in life, and again after death. To subdue the flesh, he scourged
himself until the blood ran down his body. He kept long night vigils,
and wore a hair shirt. In a vision he was told that he would
illustrate the Church with his blood--a prediction that was fulfilled.
It being proved that Henry II. was implicated in the foul deed, he had
to do penance in public and private before being absolved. Many years
afterwards, Henry VIII. commanded the dead saint to be summoned before
him, and having condemned him as a traitor, directed his name to be
erased from the catalogue of saints; forbade, under pain of death, his
day to be celebrated, or his name to be mentioned as a saint; and
ordered that his name should be blotted out of every book and calendar
in which it appeared. The revengeful king also commanded that the
saint's relics should be burned, and the ashes thereof scattered to
the winds.
With the following old tale in verse we close our collected
information on Demonology--a tale founded upon one of the most
extraordinary events recorded in the annals of the human mind. Not a
century and a half ago all the circumstances which form the romance,
with the addition of many others nearly as ridiculous, were not only
firmly believed by the peasants of a few Sclavonian villages, among
whom they were supposed to have happened, but were received as truths,
and seriously commented upon by learned divines and physicians of the
surrounding provinces. A superstition somewhat similar appears to have
prevailed in Bohemia and Silesia previous to the days of Dr. Henry
More, who details several of the stories to which it gave rise, in his
_Philosophical Works_:--
"I left the chaulkie Cliftes of olde Englonde,
And paced thro' many a Countrie faire to see,
Thorowe the Reaulme of Greece and Holie-Londe,
Untill I journeied into sadde Hongrie.
I sawe olde Cecrops' Towne, and famous Rome;
But Davyd's holie place I liked beste:
I sawe dire Sightes before I found my Home,
But much the direst at the Towne of Peste.
It was a goodlie Citie, fayre to see;
By its prowde Walles and towering Mosques it gave
A delicate Aspect to the Countree,
With its Bridg of Boates acrosse the Danow's Wave.
Yet manie thinges with Woe I did surveie;
The Stretes were overgrowne with spiery grasse;
And, though it was upon a Sabbath-daie,
No Belles did ringe to calle the Folke to Masse.
The Churchyardes all with Barrs were closed fast,
Like to a sinfulle and accursed place;
It shewd as though the Judgment-daie were past,
And the Dedde exiled from the Seate of Grace.
At last I met an old sadde Man, and asked
Where a tired Traveller maye finde repose.
The Old Man shook his Hed, and wold have passed;
But I caught him by his Arme and held his Clothes.
'Straunger,' said he, 'in Marie's name departe!'
(Soe saying, wold agen have passed me by);
His hollow Voyce sank depe into my Harte:
Yet I wold not let him goe, but asked Why?
'It now is Morne,' quoth he, 'the Sun shines brighte,
And the Springe is blithe, save in the Walles of Peste;
But, were it Winter wylde, and a stormie Nighte,
Not here, O Straunger, sholdst thou seeke to reste;
'Though Rayne in Torrents powred and cold Winds blew,
And thou with travelling tired and with Hunger pale.'
'Though the Sun,' sed I, 'shine brighte and the Daie be new,
I will not goe, till I have herd thy Tale.'
This woefull Wight then took me by the Hande;
(His, like a Skeletonne's; was bonie and cold).
He seemed as though he scarse cold goe nor stande,
Like one o'er whom full fourscore years had rold.
We came together to the Market-Crosse,
And the Wight all woe-begon spake not a Word.
No living thinge along our Waie did passe,
(Though dolours Grones in evrie House I herd).
Save one poore Dogge that walked athwart a Court,
Fearfullie howling with most pyteous Wayle.
The sadde Man whistled in a dismall sort,
And the poore thinge slunk away, and hid his Tayle.
I felt my verie Bloud creepe in my vaynes;
My Bones were icie-cold; my Hayr on ende.
I wishd myself agen uponn the Playnes,
Yet cold not but that sadde old Man attende.
The sadde old Man sate down upon a Stone,
And I sate on another by his Side;
He heaved mournfullie a pyteous Grone,
And then, to ease my doubts, himself applied.
'Straunger!' quoth he, 'Behold my Visage welle,
And graspe this bonie Hand so thinne agenn!
How manie Winters thinkest thou I telle?'
I answered doubtinglie: 'Three-Score and Tenn.'
'Straunger! not fourty yeares agoe I lay
A puling Infant in my Nurse's arms:
Not fourty daies agoe two Daughters gay
Did blesse my Vision with their dawning Charms.
'Yet now I am an olde and worn-out Man,
And evrie droppe of Bloud hath left my Vaynes;
Als' my fayr Daughters twaine lie cold and wan
And bloudless, bound in Deathe's eternal Chaynes.
'Straunger! This Towne, so pleasant to our sightes,
With goodlie Towers and running Streames so faire,
Whilom for tender Maydes and doughtie Knightes
From all Hungaria's Londe the Prize did beare.
'But now, the verie fewe that here remayne
Are sobbing out their Breath in sorie Guise;
All that might flie, have fled this mournfull playne
But onlie I, who wishe to close mine eyes.
'Seaven Weekes are gon since owr Townesfolke beganne
To wax both pale and sadd, yet none knewe why:
The ruddiest Visage yellowe seemed and wanne,
Our stoutest Youthes for very cold did cry.
'Some Doctours sed the Lakes did Agewes breede,
But Springe returning wold the same disperse;
Whyles others, contrarie to Nature's creede,
Averred the Heate itself wold make us worse.
'And though we leugh at these, like Doaters fonde,
Or Menn that love in Paradox to deale;
Yett, as the Sunn grew warme, throughout the Londe,
All Menn the more did wintrie shiverings feele.
'One miserable Wight did pyne and wane,
And on the seaventh Daie gave upp the Ghoste;
His Corse was oped by a Chirurgeon of fame
Who found that evrie dropp of bloud was loste.
'Nathless, our People though they pined and pined,
Yet never did our appetites decaye;
Whole Oxen scarse suffised when we dined,
And we cold drinke whole hogsheds of Tokaye.
'Soone Hundereds evrie daye gave up the Ghoste,
(Els' we a Famine in our Lande had bredde).
And, to repayr the Bloud that we had loste,
Our Beastes we killd and ate, but never bledde.
'Thus, by the Eve, our Colour freshe arose,
And we did look agen more briske and gay.
All Nighte deepe Slumbers did our Eye lidds close,
But worse and worse we wax by Breake of Daie.
'There was a taylour, Vulvius by name,
Who long had dwelt at Peste in honest pryde;
A Godlie Man he was esteemed by Fame,
And since some twelvemonths of a Feaver dyde.
'Now when at last this straunge Disease had growne
To suche a Highte as neer was heard afore,
Among the reste in our unhappie Towne
My youngest Daughter was afflicted sore.
'One Nighte it happed, as she was slepyng laied,
Her wayting Girle at Midnight left her roome
To fetch some possett, brothe, or gellie, made
To quelle the plague that did her life consume.
'When, as she softly shut the Doore, she heard
An heavie Thinge come lumbering upp the Stayres,
Whereon the buried Tailour soone appeard
And She (poor Mayd) full loud 'gan saye her Prayres.
'Shrowded he was, as when his Corse was laied
Under the Earthe, and buriall Service redde;
Nor yet was he a Ghoste, for his Footsteppes made
A Noyse more hevie than a Tunne of Ledde.
'She sawe him ope my Daughter's chamber-Doore,
And had no Spirit to persewe nor flie,
And Vulvius agen, in half an houre,
Lumbered downe Stayres yett much more hevilie.
'This Storie herd, I cold not chuse, but smild
To think the seelie Mayd such Feares cold shake,
Yet the next Nighte, to prove such Phan'sies wild,
I kept myself untille Midnighte awake;
'Whenn as the Midnight-Houre was past, I heard
An hevie thinge come lumbering upp the Stayre;
The Tailour Vulvius to my Sights appeard--
I could not follow to my Daughter fayre.
'Next Day, untoe a Convent nighe I hied,
And found a reverend Father at his prayer;
I told him of the Wonderres I had spied,
And begged his ghostlie Counsel I may share.
'Together to Sainct Stevenn's Churche we went,
And he a Prayer on evrie Gravestone made,
Till at the Tailour Vulvius' Monument
We stopped--we broughte a Mattocke and a Spade;
'We digged the Earthe wherein the Tailour lay;
Tille at the Tailour's Coffin we arrived,
Nor there, I weene, much Labour found that Day,
For evrie Nayle was drawen and the Hinges rived.
'This Sighte was straunge--but straunger yet remaynd,
When from the Corse the cered Clothes we tore;
The Veynes seemed full of Bloud, the Lipps distained,
All dripping with my Daughter's new-suck'd gore.
'When through own Towne this Sighte we had proclaimed,
A dismall Horrour chilled our Townsmen's hartes;
The Vampyre (So our Priest the Tailour nam'd)
Their Midnight-sleeps disturbed with feaverish startes.
The Churchyardes straight were ransacked all throughout
With Pick-ax, Shovell, Mattocke, and with Spade;
But evrie Corse that we did digge thereout,
Did shewe like living Menn in Coffins laied.
'It was the Corses that our Churchyardes filled,
That did at Midnight lumberr up our Stayres;
They suck'd our Bloud, the gorie Banquet swilled,
And harrowed everie Soule with hydeous Feares.
'And nowe the Priestes burnd Incense in the Quire,
And scattered Ave-Maries o'er the Graves,
And purified the Church with lustrall Fire,
And cast all thinges prophane to Danowe's Waves.
'And they barr'd with Boltes of Iron the Churchyard-pale
To keepe them out; but all this wold not doe;
For when a Dead-Man has learn'd to draw a naile,
He can also burst an iron Bolte in two.'
The sadde old Man was silent--I arose,
And felt great Grief and Horrour in my Breste.
I rode nine Leagues before I sought repose,
And never agen drew nigh the Walles of Peste."
MAGIC AND ASTROLOGY.