and ashes Hamilear the Carthaginian Captaine led on by the Ariolists sacrificed all the while he was in fight in hope of better successe but finding it in the discomfiture of his party to fall out on the contrary he cast himselfe as a desperate sacrifice into the fire to quench it with his blood that had put him in so great hopes and stood him in so little stead Rhadagusus a King of the Gothes in warring against the Romans did nothing almost but immolate or sacrifice for auspication or divinations sake so that they began boastingly to spread abroad Rhadagusus who had reconciled to himselfe the protection and assistance of such Gods was sure to overcome But nevertheless he was taken and slain with above 100000. of his army Papyrius Cursor oppugning Aquilonia the Pullarian Auspicator would needs be presaging clean contrary to his tokens whose fallacie being found out the Consul praesumed a good omen notwithstanding and beginning the fight caused the lying Augur to be placed in the front and the first dart that was cast by the enemy struck him stark dead Eudemus being foretold by a cunning dream-speller that although he was now in exile yet he should return to his own Land within five yeares within which space he notwithstanding dyed in â—â—racusa but to make his prediction good he said he meant his grave which is every mans own land Constantia an honourable dame of Rome having received assurance from Astrologers of a long healthfull and most happy life fell sick within sive daies after of a burning feaver and finding that there was no way but death she strained her husbands hand and concluded both her speech and life with these complaining words Behold what truth is in the vain pregnosticates of fond Astrologers Ninus who detested all Astrologers with their deceipts suppressed Zoroastes who would deale in nothing without their encouragement Pompey with his guard of prophets lost his head and Caesar by contempt of Oracles subdued his enemies Iustinian exiling all sorts of false Prophets with their bag and baggage did flourish as a Conquerour whereas Iulian admitting them with all their packs of falshoods and blasphemous lies did perish as a castaway At such time as Brittanicus waited for the great lot of the Roman Empire by the comfort and encouragement of a vaine Astrologer he lost both life and all by the rigour of a bloody Tyrant Thrasillus the Mathematician whom Tiberius had taken into familiarity presaging good things upon the sight of a ship but things falling out contrary to what he predicted Tiberius was purposed as they walked together to cast him down a praecipice for a falsary and an intruder into his secrets Seneca by a pretty fancy bringeth in Mercury perswading with the Gods that they would abridge the life of Claudius if not for any other cause yet even for pitty and compassion of the poore Astrologers who had already been taken with so many lies from yeare to yeere about this point as if the destinies were not more favourable then their grounds were sure the credit of Astrology would decay for ever St. Ambrose telleth of one that prognosticated great store of raine to fall after an exceeding drought but none was seen till it was obtained by the prayers of the Church Galen writeth that none of all those Prophets and Astrologers whose skill was commended and their depth admired in his time at Rome gave any perfect judgement either as touching the disease the continuance or cure thereof Manfredus a rare Doctor of Astrology assured Ordelaphius a Prince in Italy that that very yeere wherein he died if there were any certain knowledge by his art he should not end his life before extremity of age had made him lame and unweldy Paulus Florentinus lived till 85 yeeres of age and yet he would assure his friends in private that he never found one comfort that might promise long life in the figure of his birth but sudden death with many tragicall and most lamentable accidents The great dearth of Cattle which was so certainly expected by the Calculators Anno 1558. turned to a wonderfull encrease of all kinds of sustenance At the same time that the fond Bohemians were affraid to be consumed with sudden sire that should come down from Heaven as some preachers gave warning they were almost drowned with a second Flood by means of excessive showres spring-tides and store of land-waters that ranne down with immoderate abundance as if God had resolved to descry the falshood of their jugling At another time the people were so scared with an universall feare of waters scattered aboad by prophets of this kind as a certain Abbot seeking to prevent the worst built him a Tabernacle upon the top of Harrow on the Hill but the conclusion is that before Summer was halfe spent all the ditches were drawn dry and the castle perished for lack of water Paul Flerent noting two constellations under which the State of Florence was refreshed after long and bloudy warres findeth them so crosse and opposite one to another as himselfe is forced to confesse that small light of assurance may be taken from the blaze of this Beacon Pencer prognosticated upon the last Comet that our bodies should be parched and burned up with heat but how fell it out Forsooth we had not a more unkindly Summer for many yeeres in respect of extraordinary cold 25. Of the Heavens calculating their own purport without the helpe of an Artist and the suspition of Magastromancers predicting rather by diabolicall instinct or the suggestion of their own Familiars then from any vertue of the starres THe day before Iulian died one and he an heathen watching over night saw a conjunction or compact of the Stars expressing thus much in legible characters To day is Julian slain in Persia Also Didymus Alexandrinus had a vision of white horses running in the ayre and they that rode upon them said tell Didymus in this very houre Iulian is slain and bid him tell it to Athanasius the Bishop Constantine in his holy meditations calling up his eyes Eastward towards Heaven saw the similitude of a Crosse wherein were stars as letters so placed that visibly might be read this sentence in Greek In this thou shalt overcome At what time Caesar was in the battell of Pharsalia one Caius Cornelius a notable prognosticator in Padua beholding the flying of Birds cryed out Now they give the onset on both sides and a little after as a man possessed with some spirit cryed out again O Caesar the victory is thine Such was that of Apollonius concerning Domitian of which before Numa Pompilius a Magician or Sortiary not inferior to any had frequent and familiar company confabulation and congression with Aegeria a Nymphish devill Simon Magus had a dogge they say could speak and doe many prodigious pranks Quintus Sertorius had an Hart which he consulted withall Pope Sylvester the second had a dogge which he held more deare then the Kingdom of Naples
matter Iulian was trained up in Christianity and professed it but stealing to magicall Masters they so perverted him with their Magicall sophistry as that they utterly perverted him and that made him as soon as he durst appeare in his own colours apostate or fall away from it Ecebolius the Sophister who was one of Iulians Tutors while Constantius raigned he seemed very ardently to embrace the Christian faith but after that Iulian had obtained the Empire he presently conformed to those opinions and manners of the Emperour which he and his light had infused into him But Iulian being dead he pretended again to professe the Christian Religion and cast himselfe prostrate at the doore of the Church out of which he was excommunicated crying out to such as past by tread me under feet as unsavory salt yet after all this remained light and unconstant in his religion to an utter apostasie at the last Porphyrius that notable contemplator in Magick and practitioner also who of Christian turn'd Platonist and Pagan upon this occasion Certaine Christians of Caesarea Palestinae having reproved him sharply some say scourged him for the notorious scandall as well of his manners as opinions he indigning to be thus dealt withall quite deserted Christianity became a capitall enemy thereunto and wrote divers cursed books against Christian Religion besides those wherein he promoted magicall Philosophy and Paganisme wherein he blasphemed God and Christ and the Holy Ghost depraved and wrested the Scriptures calumniated the Prophets and Apostles and slandered sundry Fathers Doctors and Confessours of the Primitive Church Aquila making some flourishes in the Christian profession but not forsaking his former corrupt habit in the vanities of Astrologie but still abhorring the superstitious positions of Nativities was therefore reprehended by the orthodox teachers of those times But instead of amending those his pernicious errors he perversly opposed them even against the truth it selfe For which being expelled the Church he renounced Christianity turned Proselyte and became a circumcised Iow Pope Alexander the third they say suspended a Priest from his office for the space of a whole yeere for but consulting with an Astrologer about a thest that was committed in the Church Eleusius a Novatian Bishop and one who himselfe had sacrificed to Fortune was depriued of his Bishoprick for the baptizing of Heraclius a presaging Priest of Hercules and admitting him to the degree of a Deacon At Laodicea one Epiphanius a Sophister about to recite an Ode in the honour of Bacchus began to declame hence ye prophane and not initiated to the sacred Bacehanals Notwithstanding many of the Christians staid still as being taken with the fame of the Rhetorician Amongst the rest were the two Apollinares the father and the sonne both Clerks one a Presbiter the other a Lector Of which Theodorus the Bishop of Laodicea being advertised he reasonably chid the lay people and so pardoned them But as for the Apollinares after long sharp and publique rebuke he interdicted them the Church and communion of Christians Anatolius very familiar to Gregorius the Bishop being found to have sacrificed to Idols at Antioch and the prefect of the East being but too negligent and remisse in judging him for it the people began to rise in tumult and to lay hands upon Gregory himselfe whom they also impeached of Idolatry but unjustly Hereupon by the command of Tiberius the Emperour him that succeeded Iustin Anatolius was called in question and not having whereof to accuse Gregory at the acclamation of the people who could not endure such a wickednesse unpunished he was not only excluded the Church but condemned to the beasts 15. Of those that have retracted recanted repented of the study practice and consult of Magick and Astrologie and that either fruit fully or unfruit fully desperately or contritely MAnasseh was a Magician for he observed times and used inch auntments used witcherast and dealt with a familiar spirit and with wizzards 2 Chron. 33.6 yet we believe that he truly and unfainedly repented and although his prayer be Apecryphall for be besought the Lord his God and humbled himselfe greatly before the God of his father and prayed unto him and he was entreated of him and heard his supplication Then Manasseh knew that the Lord be was God Vers 12 13. Neither doe we make any doubt of the hearty and effectuall repentance of those Exercists Acts 19.17 18. because feare fell on them all and the name of the Lord Iesus was magnified and many that believed came and confessed and shewed their deeds many also of them which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed The like we believe of the Damsell Act. 16.16 17 18. because possessed with a spirit of divination passive rather then active the divel divining by her rather then she by the Divel The same followed Paul and us and cried saying these men are the servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of salvation A good confession in all respects take it to be the Damsels and not the Divels speech giving God and his Ministers their due and yet claming their own interest withall But as for Simon Magus his repenting pray ye to the Lord for me that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me Acts 8. 24. who can judge it to be other then false and fruitlesse For he was terrified onely with an apprehension of the punishment not of the sin and put off that duty to others which he should have exercised himselfe Tiberius importunate to know who should be his successor in the Empire it was answered even he that should first come to him the next morning Hereupon he gave order to his Tutor to bring his Nephew Tiberius to him very early the next day and the day appearing commanded Euodus ignorant of his intent and desire to goe out and bring in to him the first youth that he met which fell out to be Caius which when Tiberius saw he was infinitely troubled exceedingly beshrewing himselfe that he had sought after any Augurie or presage at all For whereas he might have lived and died a great deale more contentedly had he been altogether ignorant of things future their fore-knowledge now served onely to adde both to the miseries of his life and death After the death of Caesar which was said to follow the fatidicall prediction of Spurina the Mathematician the people lamented and wisht that the cursed Diviner had rather lost his skill then that a father of his Countrey should so have lost his life Nero was himselfe held to be a great Mag astro-mancer and wanted neither wit nor will nor wealth nor Tutors nor instruments nor study nor credulity yet for all this confessed that he never found any argument of truth nor experiment of reality in magicall operation which made him at last abdicate and renounce it reject and contemne it and abhorre
sickning alike and recovering alike supposed them therefore to be twins and so fetcht the cause from their like temper and constitution in their generation and conception but Possidonius a stoicke and much addicted to Astrology would needs have it to be from the constitution of the Stars at their conception and birth St. Augustine gives judgement forthe physitian against the Mathematitian grounded upon the disposition of the parents the soyle the nutrition c. and not upon the influence of the Stars Three brothers sonnes to the Cimmerian King contending about their fathers kingdome were content to referre themselves to Ariopharnes King of Thrace whom he judged worthiest of it Who gave judgement after this manner better then all the Ariolaters He caused their fathers body to be taken out of the Sepulchre and to be tied to a tree to see which of them could shoot neerest their fathers heart The eldest shot his father in the throat the second hit him in the brest the youngest would rather lose his hopes then shoot at all And to him for his pieties sake he designed the Kingdom Charles the great or as some say his sonne beholding a stupendous Comet one Egmund alias Egmard an Astrologer willing to have him thereby apprehend some fearfull mutations either to his person or to his dominions yet because he would seem not to terrifie him too much made use of those words of Scripture both against his own art and mind Be not dismayed at the signes of Heaven To whom the Emperour answered very devoutly We feare not Comets or prodigious signes but the maker of them and us and magnifie his mercy that would thus admonish us provoking and slothfull sinners by these or any other his tokens Frederick the third when a Countreyman came before him complaining that one of his horses was stoln out of his Inne askt where the thiefe was that said the Countreyman he could not tell How chance said the Emperor he stole not both thy horses as well as one The man answered the other was a Mare and not fit for a souldiers use whereupon instead of going to a wise man to finde out stolne goods the Emperour advised him to lead his mare up and down the severall streets and lanes and so by their mutuall neighing the thiefe came to be discovered In the time of Edward sirnamed the Martyr there appeared a terrible blazing Starre which the Wizzards and the vulgar would have to portend this and that but the more wise and religious said it was a signe of Gods anger for their wickednesse against the married Clergy The mother of George Castriot called Scanderbeg dreamed she was brought to bed of a Serpent which covered all Albania and devoured many Turks His father Iohn Prince of Albania hearing of this dream would seek for no exposition either of Oracles or Soothsayers but cheared his wife telling her he foresaw she should be delivered of a sonne an excellent warrior a great scourge of the Turks and a defender of the Christian faith Luctatius Catulus a notable Romane in the first Punick war was advised by the Senate not to consult the fortune of the praenestine lots Because the Commonwealth ought to be administred by patriall auspications that is by prudent counsels and not by forraine divinations And by this means he prospered and put an end to that war Apollo foreseeing the ruine of the Athenians counselled them for their safety to betake themselves to wooden walls sc their ships which very thing Themistocles out of his prudent observation had advised before Solon gave warning of the tyranny that should infest the state of Athens For which saith Cicero I may call him a prudent man but not a Diviner Because prudence was able to forespeak such a thing without Divination Divitiacus Heduus led more by Physiology then Astrology and by reason more then both as concerning the events of things future would never be drawn on alone by the augury of a divining Priest but would still adde thereunto his own prudent and rationall conjecture And by that alwaies ruled his affaires rather then by the other Otanes a noble Persian and most sagacious in conjecture suspecting the Magicians usurpation in suborning a false King a Pseudo Smerdis for the true Smerdis being slain by Prazaspes a Magician and Patizites a Magician setting up his brother Smerdis a Magician who was in all parts very like the other Otanes advised his daughter a concubine to feele about the Pseudo Smerdis his head for Cambyses had cut off both the Magicians eares for distinction sake and thus cunningly finding out the truth they conspired against the usurping Magicians and slew them Agathocles made an oration to his souldiers whereby they were much encouraged But an ecclipse of the Sunne hapned at which thâ—y were not a little terrified Wherefore the King as carefull to give a reason of that as of the warre told them that if it had hapned before they set forth the prodigie might have portended something against them that made the expedition but seeing it fell out after their setting forth all the portent must needs be against them against whom the expedition was made And thus he encouraged them again and proo ved victorious William the Conquerour comming out of his ship to enter upon the English shore his foot chanced to slip so that he fell to the ground some doubted of the omen but one of the souldiers said wisely this did but signifie his taking possession of England Christophorus Golumbus after that he saw the Indians turne treacherous and grow implacable towards him told them having some skill in Astronomy to foresee an Ecclips that within few daies they should see the Moon his friend and portending terrible things to them because of their breach of hospitality Now when the Ecclipse hapned accordingly they ignorant of the cause took his prediction to be ratified and fearing the sequel used him with all curtesie and ladened him with gifts 19. Of Magicall and Astrologicall Artists and their Arts wittily derided wisely rejected and worthily contemned THe Army of the Romanes being deadly smitten by the darts and arrows of the Parthians and Cassius labouring to preserve and order such of the dispersed as repaired to him for another assault a certain Chaldaean advised him to protract the time a while til the Moon had runne over Scorpio and attained to Sagitarius Oh quoth he I reare Sagitarius or the Archer more then I doe Scorpio or the Serpent himselfe Spurina admonished Caesar to take heed of some perill that was towards him which could not be deferred beyond the Ides of March When the day came Caesar derided Spurina saying the Ides of March were come and yet he saw no hurt Yea quoth the Augur they are come indeed but for all that they are not past Thus they jeared one another but ere the predicted time was compleat the conspiracy of Caesars death took effect And thus the Astrologers jeare what got Caesar by jearing
take the Omen whether she should bring forth a son or a daughter an egge was taken from under a sitting hen and according to the prescripts of divining omination was kept warm in her hands or in the hands of her maids hatching it by turns till at last comes out a Cock gallantly crested or Combed whereupon Seribonius a Mathematician promised famous things of the infant and that he should raign but without any kingly ensign That it should be a male childe he gathered from the Cock chicken but by the same reason why should he be without any kingly ensigne seeing the Cock was so bravely crested or combed Proelus gives an example in a spirit which was wont to appear in the form of a Lyon but by the setting of a Cock before it vanished away because there is a contrariety betwixt a Cock and a Lyon Orus Apollo saith in his hieroglyphicks Dawes that are twins signifie marriage because this animal brings forth two eggs out of which male and female must be brought forth But if which seldom happeneth two males be generated the males wil not couple with any other females nor females with any other males but will alwayes live without a mate and solitary Therefore they that meet a single Daw divine thereby that they shall live a single life The Eagle portends victory but by blood because she drinks no water but blood An Owle because she goes to her young by night unawares as death comes unawares is therefore said to foretel death Yet sometimes because she is not blinde in the dark of the night doth betoken diligence and watch ulnesse which she made good when she sate upon the spear of Hiero. Faustina the wife of Antonius fell in love with a sword-player and fell sick for him her husband how this might be remedyed made his consult with the soothsayers whose advice was to kill the Fencer and let his wife bathe her in his blood and presently accompany with her himself and so the passion would be allayed Melampus the Augur conjectured at the slaughter of the Greeks by the flight of little birds when he saith thou seest that no bird taketh his flight in fair weather Swallowes because when they are dying they provide a place of safety for their young do portend a great patrimony or legacy after the death of friends A Bat meeting any one that is running away signifies an evasion for although she have no wings yet she flies A Sparrow is a bad omen to one that runs away for she flies from the Hawk and makes haste to the Owle where she is in great danger To meet a Lyon seeing she is amongst animals the strongest is good but for a woman to meet a Lyonesse is bad because she hinders conception for a Lyonesse brings forth but once A Dog in a journey is fortunate because Cyrus being cast into the Woods was nourished by a Dog till he came to the Kingdom Mice signifie danger for the same day that they did gnaw gold in the Capitol both the Consuls were intercepted by Hannibal by way of ambush neer Tarentum The Pismires because they know how to provide for themselves and to prepare safe nests for themselves protend security riches and a great Army Hence when the Pismires had devoured a tame Dragon of Tiberius Caesar it was advised that he should take heed of the tumult of a multitude If a Snake meet thee take heed of an ill tongued enemy for this animal hath no power but in his mouth A Snake creeping into Tiberius his palace portended his fall Two Snakes were found in the beed of Sempronius Gracchus wherefore a soothsayer told him if he would let the male go or the female escape he or his wife should shortly dye he preferring the life of his wife killed the male and let the female escape and within a few dayes he dyed But Tully tels the story otherwise and reasons better upon it I marvel saith he if the emission of the female Snake should bring death to Tiberius Gracchus the emission of the male Snake were deadly to Cornelia why he did dismisse either of them For the soothsayers answered nothing of any future accident if neither were dismist And that Gracchus his death followed the cause I believe was some disease and not the Serpents dismission Meeting of Monks is commonly accounted as an ill omen and so much the rather if it be early in the morning because these kind of men live for the most part by the suddain death of men as Vultures do by slauhgters Apollonius and his companions according to his advice caused the phantasm of an Hagge to vanish away by reviling it for he knew that was the best remedy against such invasions For so fearful is this kind of spirits that they once moved tremble and are compelled by feigned terror and false and impossible threats So the Hagge of Menippus Lycius who was the cause of the Pestilence being stoned by his command and the pestilence ceased And was not that because they are afraid of impossible beatings as well as impossible threatnings 21. Of Magicians Astrologers Diviners envying opposing differing contradicting confuting both themselves and one another CAlchas and Mopsus two great Augurs or Astorlogical diviners meeting together at an Oracle of Apollo Clarius fell to contest about their skill in the conjecturing art The question was how many Figs there were upon such a tree or how many Pigs there were in such a sowes belly Which Mopsus guest at and mist not a hair but Calchas because he could not do somuch pining with grief or envy took pet and dyed Eudoxus the chief Astrologer of his time affirmed that the Chaldeans are not to be credited in their natalitial prognostications or predictions Penaetius a Stoical Philosopher and yet rejected the predictions of the Astrologers Anchialus and Cassander excelling in all parts of Astrology yet used it not or rather abused it not to predictions Scylax Halicarnassaeus although eminent in Astrology neverthelesse abandoned the whole Chaldaical way of it Servius Tullius sleeping his head seemed to shine or burn some of the Diviners said that signifyed he should perish by lightning others that it was a token he should obtain Regal dignity Darius dreamed that the Camp of the Macedons was on fire and that he saw Alexander coming to him in clothes of the same fashion as his own were and that he was carryed on horseback through Babylon and so vanisht out of fight At this the dream spellers were divided in their divinations some interpreting it a fortune some an infortune some to the one side some to the other Betwixt the Tyrians and the Macedonians was a semblable prodigle blood on the one part seen in iron and on the other part in bread They of either party interpret it as a token of good successe to themselves But Aristander the most skilful of the Diviners expounded it thus on the Macedonian behalf if the blood had appeared outwardly
the jeast believed all to be spoken seriously And within a few daies after having a servant of his fallen sick of a Fevrr gave him a piece of bread the first day inscribed with the Fecane and so every day in order to the last word and then he was cured Others likewise seeing the efficacy of this amulet followed the example and obtained the like effect Till at length the jest of it came out and so the vertue of it ceased Gotschalcus and Wierus relate this story one from his own knowledge the other from anothers report and though they vary in circumstances yet they agree in the effect A certaine woman grievously troubled with sore eyes light upon a certaine knavish Scholler to whom she complained of her infirmity craved the help of his art and promised liberally to reward him He either to make sport or in hope of gaine promised to help her and to that end took a piece of paper wherein he wrote such kind of Characters as were never invented or seen before and underneath them wrote these words in great Letters The divel pull out thine eyes and stop up their boles with dung This he folds up and wraps it in a piece of cloth and ties it about her neck and bids her have an especiall care that it be not taken thence nor yet opened or read by any means All this she observes awfully and her watery eyes were cured About a yeere or two after either she let fall off through carelesnesse or else had a desire to see what was there contaned the charm then being opened and read and the cursed contents thereof understood and abhorred it was cast into the fire which done her sore eyes returned in as grievous manner as before I have read it in an Orthodox divine that he knew a young Gentleman who by chance spilling the salt of the Table some that sate with him said merrily to him that it was an ill omen and wisht him take heed to himselfe that day of which the young man was so superstitiously credulous that it would not goe out of his mind and going abroad that day got a wound of which he died not long after Old Ennius fained many answers of the Pythian Apollo and delivered them in verse when as Apollo had long before left off his poeticall prophetizing and yet even these spake as true and was found as effectuall as any of the rest Numa Pompilius Scipio Affricanus Lucius Scylla Quintus Sertorius Minos King of Crete Pisistrates the Athenian Tyrant Lyeurgus and Zaleucus are all noted for assimulating of religion or a faigning of divination and oraculous predictions and neverthelesse prevailed by this means and ruled both by Laws and arms Persia being oppressed with the sordid domination of the Magicians Darius the King with some adjutors of like dignity entred into a pact that they should ride to such a place before Sunne rising and whose horse neighed there first it should be taken as an omen to make him King Now Darius his Groom to effect it the more prosperously for his master had rubd his hand in the genitall parts of a Mare and when they came to the place strok't the horse over the nose which presently neighed upon the smell Whereupon all the rest alighted and as from a divine suffrage saluted him King Alexander Severus yet a youth and dreaming of nothing lesse then an Empire making as boyes used Virgilian lots light upon certain verses that seemed to portend or praesignifie the Romane Empire to him Yea many such verses both of Homer and of Virgil have been often used to that end and have proved as significant and effectual as any presaging Oracle of them all 23. Of the aenigmaticall obscure amphibolicall ambiguous and aequivocating so so deluding speeches studiously and industriously delivered by oraculous magicall sorcerous and astrologicall predictors or diviners PYrrhus King of Epyre perceiving the power of the Romans against whom he went consulted the Oracle of Apollo and it gave him this doubtfull answer Aeacides I say The Romans conquer may Which he interpreted to himselfe in the best part but found the event as various as the words were dubious Craesus that rich King of Lydia consulting the Delphian Oracle which he himselfe had so munificently adorned to shew its gratitude it resolved him this Riddle If Craesus fearlesse shall passe Italy's river A Kingdom great wealth greater shall be shiver He now thought he should destroy anothers wealth and power and not his own But instead of bringing Persia within the power of Lydia Craesus himselfe fell into the hands of Cyrus And the Oracle gloried that which way soever it hapned it still spake true While Alexander was in a fight some that stood by him saw or imagined an Eagle fearlessely fluttering over his head then Aristander the onely diviner carrying a lawrell in his hand and shewed the souldiers a token of victory But it is uncertain of which he spake the Lawrell or the Eagle An Astrologer advised Epaminondas the Thebane to take heed of the Sea for that would be fatall to him Which he therefore carefully avoyded but found his death in a wood which was called by that name Another of them bad Philip of Macedon take heed of a Chara ret or Cart as a thing dismall or dangerous to his life whereupon he not only refrayned but proscribed the use of all such yet neverthelesse had his deaths wound given him in a City of such a name others say the hilt of the sword that killed him had a Chariot engraven on it Nere heard news from Apollo at Delphos that he should take heed of the siventy third yeere of age which made him very secure being then but about the age of thirty three But he understood not till it was too late that it was meant not of his owne but of the age of Galba who shortly after succeeded him Hannibal was foretold that he should not die but in the land of Lybia and when he thought himselfe secure as farre enough from that he took his death in a little village called Lybissa Inlian deluded by an Oracle in the ambiguous word thera signifying a beast and a river dreaming of nothing else but victory in his Persian war was there slain Caligula consulting about his geniture Sylla the Mathematician affirmed that his death was approaching The Antiatine Letts admonished him to take heed of Cassius For which cause he caused Cassius Longinus then proconsul of Asis to be slain unmindfull that Chaerea the man that did the deed was so called Zene the Emperour was told by his vaticinating prognosticators that he of necessity should be shortly in Constantinople he presumed it of the City and that he should goe thither in triumph and state but his men being beaten and fled he casually retired into a castle which the inhabitants thereabouts called by that name where he had leisure to see and bewaile his delusion Alexander besieging Tyrus dreamed he saw a
while he went forth so to doe he sacrificed it for the advantage of himselfe and his like Libo Drusus a loose rash young man was encouraged by Firmius Catus through the confidence of Chaldean promises magicall mysteries and interpretations of dreams to make insurrection against Tiberius Caesar but in the end was driven desperately his servants refusing to lay violent hands upon himselfe Immediately upon this the Senate consulted for the expelling of the Mathematicians and Magicians out of Italy and L. Pitnanius one of their number was cast down a Rock In Catilines conspiracy Lentulus was accused both by his letters and speeches which he used out of the Sybils books that the Kingdom of Rome was presaged to three of the Cornelian family viz. Cinna and Silla and himselfe the third to whom it was fated And moreover that now was the twentieth yeare from the burning of the Capitoll concerning which the haruspicks by their prodigies had given answer that civill warres there should be rife and bloody The haruspicks portended great and wonderfull things for the promotion of Caius Marius his ambition In the second Punick warre befides a tumult and distraction in the State such a confusion there was in religion as the cause and continuance of the other that men women young old noble plebeians all sacrisiced and prophecyed as they listed and he or she was no body that could not presage of one disastrous event or another Apollo gave such perplexed answers to the Lacedaemonians in their troubles that a Pagan Philosopher was provoked to tell him plainly If thou hadst answered thus in quiet times it had seemed frivolous to all only thy ignorance lurkes under our feares and distraction because such things are most impressing and credited in such kind of times Apuleius saith St. Augustine an Affricane and therefore best known to us Affricanes for all his magicall arts could not attain to a Kingdom no nor yet to any judiciall power in a Commonwealth for all his judiciary Astrologie Did he modestly contemn these things as a Philosopher Nay did he not hunt and hire and contend with the Citizens of Choas where he marryed a wife about the setting up of a Statue to him So that if he arrived at no greatnesse it was not because he had no will but no power A certain prophecy given out and published at Rome at the removing of the Emperour Tiberius that he should never return any more occasioned the death of many well disposed Citizens who ventring too farre upon this little ground to discharge their Countrey from the clog of servitude were cut off by cruelty About the same time Furius Scribonianus was exiled because he had enquired after the Princes death by Chaldeans or Astrologers Mahomet and Sergius both of them by magicall and praestigious tricks set up themselves the one for a King the other for a Prophet Fredericke Barbarossa leading an army against them of Millaine they sent an Arabian magician to play the veneficke and take away his life by poyson which being discovered and he apprehended notwithstanding he threatned that he could doe it with words and would doe it unlesse he were dismist yet this moved not the King to feare his malefice but he therefore inflicted on him the sharper punishment Pope Iulius the third gave a Cardinals hat to a youth whom he favoured and being askt the reason of it said That he found by Astrology that it was the youths destiny to be a great Prelate which was impossible except himselfe were Pope and therefore that he did raise him as the driver on of his owne Fortune Certaine rude uncivill clowns under a colour of a prophecy that they should conquer and subdue the holy Land raked a sort of vagabonds and bankrupts together who falling forthwith to spoyle and robbery were hanged upon Gibbets almost in every Countrey as they past The young Duke of Viseo in Portingale having once been pardoned by Don Ivan el Grande at the suit of the Queen his sister was encouraged by the Mathematicians and Astrologers to rebell again with assurance that he should obtaine the Crown whereof he not onely failed but besides was deprived of his life by the course of ordinary justice My Lord of Northampton tels the story of two Countreymen of ours one sometimes professing Greeke in Cambridge the other of the same calling one contriving treason sedition or faction from the starres but clapt under hatches when the planets promised most fortunate successe the other undutifully taking armes against his Soveraigne and often confessing he had never dealt in that attempt but by encouragement of a certain prophecy that he should prevaile against his Prince by popular devotion 28. Of impostorous Magicke and Astrologie the causes of preposterous villany or the Magastromancers instigating to those execrable acts which otherwise had never been invented or intended And other cursed consequents CAracalla remaining in Mesopotamia sent to Maternus whom he had left Governour of Rome to assemble all the Astrologers and Mathematicians and procure them to give their opinions secretly whether there were any conspiracies on foot against him and to give their judgements how long he should live and what death he should die Maternus did so and as the Astrologers had advised wrote that Macrinus his prefect was the conspirator and therefore did warn him to see Macrinus dispatcht out of the way As the Letter came to Caracalla he was at that instant upon a sport which he would not intermit so committed the Letters to Macrinus to read over and make report of their contents to him afterwards Macrinus in perusall of them finding himselfe accused of such treason as he never thought of and doomed or necessitated to it by Astrologicall judgement and considering the Emperours jealous cruelty and Maternus his envy thought there could now be no safety for him either in excusing or delaying and so set Martial a discontented Centurion whose brother he had caused to be put to death to murder him Among the other prodigies that were said to prognosticate Domitians death there was seen a crown encircling about the Sunne Now because Stephanus signifies a Crown the Astrologers would have the Crown to signifie Stephanus and he must be the man thus destinied to dispatch Domitian and this very thing was it that heartned him to doe the deed Dioclesian because a Druid or Sorceresse had foretold him that he should be Emperour after he had slain a Boare he not onely killed all the Boares he could but slew all the men he knew that had the name of Aper or Boare Valens understanding by a constellated figure that one should succeed him whose name began with Θ. or Th. thereupon caused divers to be slaine whose names began after that manner Edward the fourth wrought the death of George Duke of Clarence his brother instigated thereunto by a foolish prophecy that one whose name began with a G. should succeed him It was upon a prophecy or prediction that Mackbeth slew
turning himself round about thrust the Magician down the precipice at unawares where he was so dashed and sore bruised in the fall that his death must necessarily follow Then complaining of Alexanders rash act Alexander replyed thou oughtest rather to complain of thine own Art that busies thee in the searching the things of the Heavens and lets thee not foresee what impends thee on earth Alas quoth he what mortal man can avoid his own fate I foreknew while I was in Aegypt that mine own son should be the occasion of mine own death What am I thy son said Alexander To whom Nectanebus confesses the whole truth and dies A certain Aegyptian burning in lust towards another mans wife consults with a Magician or Sorcerer how he might obtain his desire He answered nothing hindred but the mutual love that was between the husband and the wife whereupon he hired the impostor to stir up a dislike betwixt them which he laboured after this praestigious manner making the woman appear to the man as if he had a shagg'd Mare in his bed A paganish young man in Gaza extreamly loved a Virgin that was a Christian and when all his dalliance availed not to his end he went to Memphis thinking to bring it about by Magical Art Where after a yeers attendance he was instructed by Aesculapius his vaticinators to put a certain plate of brasse with a portentous figure under the threshold where the maid dwelt and to recite certain torments or charmes of words over it Whereupon the Virgin grew mad in love with him and did nothing but call for the young man nightand day But her parents had her to Hillarion who presently by his wisdom and piety dispossessed her of that magical and constellational fury Turbula a Martyr in Persia being falsly accused and condemned by the Magicians one of them fell greatly enamoured with her excellent beauty would have corrupted her with promise of safety to her and her followers and other great rewards but all would not prevail Vter Pendragon coming into Gornwall cast his eyes upon fair Igrene wife to the Duke of that Province whom he very importunately solicits but all to little purpose the constant wife that so dearly loved her Lord would by no means be won to do him that dishonour Merlin therefore is consulted who to bring her to his bow scorns to use any petty magical Philters but he new moulds the shape of the King and prints upon his face the very feature of Gonlois her own Lord by which means he soon violated this Ladies chastity in the bed of praestigious delusion A Magical Monk in Spain or some Fryer Praedicant was familiar with a Nobleman that had a fair wife He tempts her chastity and is repulsed upon his unsatisfied importunity she acquaints her husband it is consented to admit him again and watched to entrap him At the time appointed he comes in a secular habit and equipage she is resolute still and refusing but the night gave boldnesse to the attempt and now what he cannot perswade he seeks to enforce She resists it and cries out to give the watchword to her husband and those that lay in wait but all in vain for he by his effascinating Art had charmed them all into a dead sleep As they strugled together she spyed a dagger at his back and therewithal stabbed him to the death And running into the room where her husband and the rest were she found them so fast asleep that all she could do could not awake them now having none in her family either to hear or help her she suspected some malefice and went stoutly and cast the dead carcase into the street Where passers by lighting upon it the businesse is brought before the Corrigidor and the dead party is discerned The next day the Prior of the Covent is desired to summon all his fellows together who all came onely this party is absent they then knock at his chamber door but no body makes answer at last they break open the door and there they espie a Torch in the Chimney burning very dimly Now neither the husband nor any of the family could be awaked till that Torch was extinct A certain souldier that by Magical Philters had sought to procure the love of such a woman one night imagined that he enjoyed her in his dream but he awaking found himself cast into a filthy myry ditch and there embracing in his arms a carcase or carrion of a dead beast In Misnia a young man using the Art or means of a Magician to enjoy her whom he loved was brought into a by-room by malefical incantations there was brought in to him the spectrene apparition of her whom he loved the besotted youth taking it for real put forth his hand to embrace her at which his brains were violently dasht out against the walls the carcase so beaten upon the Magician that he himself lay half dead a long time after The Oracles themselves ordained scenical and Floralian enterludes The Magical Philosophers had their notorious Harlots and professed not onely a necessity but a lawfulnesse of having them The Persians and Chaldeans were burning mad upon their own sisters daughters mothers Both their Magical Religion and Laws were for wrong and lusts Romulus whose birth life and death was praestigious is thought to be begot upon a Vestal by Mars by Amulius her Uncle by the Genius of the place by a divining Priest by a common souldier The things to be chiefly noted in him are the Magical lusts of his birth wrongs of his life and judgements of his death Simon Magus had his Helena and take Helena's for Harlots so had Nicolaus of Antioch so had Marcus so had Marcion so had Apelles so had Montanus so had Priscillian All Hereticks most or all Mag-astro-mancers And it is a question whether they made more use of their women in their Magick their heresies or their lusts Gallirrhoe a noble Virgin and already betrothed to an husband bathing in the River and according to a Magical instance with odes and incantations imploring Scamander to take her maiden-head Simon the Athenian praestigiously faigning himself to be Scamander did vitiate her by that means Echerates the Thessalian coming to consult Apollo at Delphos and there seeing Pythia a Virgin of exceeding beauty violently ravished her upon which it was decreed that no Virgin or young woman should after that be set over the Oracle but some old Crone of fifty at least yet in a virgins habit Aristocrates King of the Messenians in as much as he could not allure the Priestesse of Diana Hymnia to his lusts and to avoid his importunity flying to the Altar he forceably ravished her there For which he was stoned by the Arcadians and the Priesthood was afterwards transferred from a Virgin to a marryed wife Decius Mundus a young man of dignity and wealth falling desperately in love with Paulina the faire and yet chaste wife of Saturninus offered her twenty