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
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
Duncane King of Scots and likewise Banquo his chiefest friend because of a prophecy that his posterity should succeed in the Kingdome Again upon a Wizards prophecy or prediction that he should never be slain by any man born of a woman nor vanquished till the wood of Bernane came to the Castle of Dunsinane this made him give up himselfe securely to all kind of wickednesse Nisaeus tyrant of Syracuse being foretold of his death by a Soothsayer thereupon riotously lavisht away all his wealth beforehand So did a rich man of Lions upon the calculating of his Nativity but lived and beg'd along time after Natholocus King of Scots desirous to understand somewhat of the issue of his troubles sent a trusty servant of his to enquire of a Witch who consulting with her spirits told him the King should be murdered not by the hands of his enemies but by one of his most familiar friends The messenger demanding instantly by whose hands Even by thine said she Whereupon he defyed her and bad her goe like an old witch and trusted he should see her burnt ere he should be drawne to doe so villanous a deed intending to signifie it sincerely to the King himselfe But by the way as he returned many fears and suspitions arose in his mind especially that the Kings jealousie would not be satisfied with his innocency so that he thought it the surest way for himselfe to doe the deed and thus induced he did it Cambyses dreaming that his brother Smerdis should raigne because he thought he saw him sitting in a regall Throne contrived his death by the means of one Praxaspes a magician who peradventure had either magically sent that dream or else interpreted to that purpose From an old orientall prophecy that about that time such as came out of the land of Iudaea should obtaine the whole government of affairs the Jews slew their governour and rebelled but to their own miserable destruction Vespasian being admonished by the Mathematicians to take heed of Metius Pomposianus because he had an imperiall Genesis whom though he wiser then to give credit unto such things neverthelesse preferred yet Domitian was drawn to put him to death upon the selfe same occasion 29. Of Magastromancers cluding Authority and deluding themselves in a presumption of impunity CLeomedes for many portentous malefices being fast shut up in a close sepulchre or coffin with a cover that many men could hardly lift laid upon it to keepe him safe against the day of triall when the day came he was vanished thence and not there to be found neither alive nor dead When they consulted the Oracle about his portentous escape it commended him for it as one of the last of the Heroes Apollonius Tyanaeus being convented before Domitian when he thought to take punishment of the Magician he forthwith vanished out of his presence Apuleius accused for magicall Arts and practices before Claudius a Christian Magistrate instead of confessing his fault fell to calumniate and traduce the very Laws for exhibiting the same under such penalties One Diodorus or Leodorus a most portentous Conjurer being therefore condemned and led to execution by his enchantments slipt out of the executioners hands and conveyed himselfe in the ayre from Catana in Sicily to Constantinople At last the Bishop of Catana caught him at unawares and caused him to be burnt in a fiery furnace At Cullen a certain Damsell being cited for playing of prestigious tricks she did many jugling feats before the Nobles as rending of towels breaking of glasses and presently making them whole againe c. which made them vain sport and they conclude them to be but joculatory pranks and so she escaped the Inquisitour David Ebroy a magicall Jew made those of his Nation believe that he was the Messiah come to free them from the servitude of the uncircumcised The King of Persia apprehending him he by his sleights escaped out of prison crossed a broad river and could never be overtaken One Caesarius Maltes a praestigious Jugler being taken at Paris escaped prison by his circulatory tricks for which being questioned again in another place and condemned the Governour by his power and against Law reprieved him as much taken with his feats of Leigerdemaine But nothing prospered after that in his government and he died not long after In the territories of Berne one Scaphius boasted that he could scape invisible when he pleased and so had oft times avoyded the hands of his capitall enemies At length when he grew ripe both for divine and humane vengeance he was espied by those that laid wait to apprehend him through a window and was so slain with a speare when he least dreamt of his death Caius Marius a man ignoble and a cruell author of civill warres after the first fight wherein he was vanquished by Sylla being taken naked and muddy by the enemy he was brought to the Minturnians and delivered to the Governour of the City who sitting in councell upon him gave sentence that he should be put to death presently and seeing none of the Citizens would undertake the execution they committed it to a Cimbrian horsman or some say a Frenchman who about to dispatch the businesse heard a great voyce out of a dark place Thou man darest thou kill Marius at which the man affraid let fall his weapon and ran away crying he durst not doe the deed and so he escaped At Venice a certaine maleficall Sorcerer being condemned made all the locks fall off and doors fly open onely by a confection of certain herbs and mussitation of certain charms and so went his way 30. Of God and the Starres and men blasphemed accused calumniated defamed by or by the means of Magicians and Astrologers ALexander in a distempered mood having slaine Clytus his plaine but trusty friend afterwards ashamed of so foule a fact and having no other way to excuse so vile and dishonourable an action he urged his eligion spellers to try their fatidicall arts and to enquire whether it was not the ire of the Gods that had necessitated him so to doe and in conclusion after much calculating inspecting consulting the Gods are made to bear the blame in fatally enforcing so foule an act A certaine fatidicall Philosopher beating his servant for a fault the servant cried out of his masters injustice for punishing him for doing a thing that was not in his own will or power Seeing he himselfe had taught that men are fatally necessitated to doe either well or ill St. Augustine reports of a Mathematician in his time who was wont to say It was not men that lusted but Venus not men that killed but Mars not men that stole but Mercury It was not God that helpt or favoured but Iupiter c. Iustin Martyr Marullus Symeon Athanasius Eusebius Emissenus were calumniated and slandered by Magicians and Astrologers as if they had been the worst of them themselves Kunegunde they say was defamed for a whore by a diabolicall wizzard
false calumny and barbarous cruelty raised and maintained thirty yeeres persecution against the Christians devising and inflicting horried tortures upon Abdas or Audas a Bishop upon Benjamin a Deacon and also upon Hormisda a Nobleman Theoteclinus a Magician of Antioch under Maximinus by magicall force caused an Image of Iupiter to poure forth Oracles and such they were as served to whet on the Emperours persecution and to exasperate the hatred of the Citizens against the Christians 11. Of the divining envy dissimulation calumny blasphemy and enmity not onely against Christian Religion but even against Christ himselfe MIlesian Apollo being consulted about Christ whether he was God or man gave this answer That he was mortall according to flesh or body wise in portentous or monstrous workes but being apprehended by armes under Chaldean Judges with nailes and clubs he made a bitter end Upon which Lactantius his comment is That although the Oracle as it was forced began to speak truth yet it did it so subtilly and perversely as with intent to deceive the consulter being altogether ignorant of the mystery of God and man and so seems to deny him to be God by confessing him to be man But in that it acknowledgeth him to be mortall according to the flesh it is not inconsequent although against the mind of the Oracle but that he was immortall and God neverthelesse according to the Spirit And why must he needs make mention of the flesh when as it was enough to say him mortall but being pressed with truth he could not deny the thing to be as it was as he also was forced to confesse him to be wise And what saies Apollo to himselfe If he be wise then is his doctrine wisdome and no other and they are therefore wise that follow it and no other Why then doe their vulgar account us vain and foolish since we follow a master and Teacher wise by their Oraculous gods own confession In that he saith that he did portentous works by which he merited the faith of a Godhead he seems to assent unto us because he saith him to doe those very things which rightly understood and believed we glory in Neverthelesse he recollects himselfe and returnes to his daemonicall frauds of calumny and blasphemy For albeit he spake some truth as necessitated yet he seems to be a betrayer of himselfe and the gods in as much as he would have enviously concealed through an inimicall and deceiving lie that which the truth partly wrung from him And therefore he saith him to have done wonderfull workes but he meant it should be understood not by a divine but by a magicall or divining power But whereas he saith further that he was apprehended under Chaldaean Judges c. I demand hereupon whether they were Chaldeans by nature or by profession The first is not to be conceded as concerning Herod and Pilat nor yet properly as touching Annas and Caiaphas and therefore since he will needs call them Chaldeans the latter is rather to be supposed it is not strange to be believed that any one of them might be of the Chaldean profession or addicted to it And why might not the Chaldaeanizing Oracle be drawn to confesse so much against it selfe And might it not be one end of the Ecclipse at his passion to make even all the Chaldaeanizing Astrologers to confesse with some of their fellows that it was no other but the God of nature that now suffered One asking Apollo what God he might appease whereby to recall his wife from Christianity The Oracle gave this answer as St. Augustine cites it from Porphyrius a great enemy of Christ and Christians Sooner mayst thou write in water or fly in the ayre like a bird then remove the opinion of thy impious wife let her goe on as she will and sing a dead God in vaine fallacies and false lamentations whom the Judge rightly determining an ill death hath ended This Porphyrius cites and expounds blasphemously as if Christ died deservedly from the just sentence of his Judges But St. Augustine conceives Apollo spake not thus but his vaticinating Diviner and yet not he but this magicall calumniator that durst blaspheme above the devill himselfe For Apollo himselfe durst not but speak well of him saying he was such a God and King as made the heavens the earth and Sea and the deep things of Hell to tremble of whom both he and his fellow Daemons were afraid Such also was the answer of Hecate concerning Christ and so were all the rest of them Among some forced and dissembled truths abundance of blasphemy and calumny against Christ and Christian religion The Pythian Oracle being consulted again and again by the Athenians what religion was best to be set up would stil answer their Fathers or Countries customes rites or ceremonies Not but that he would false religion in all variety but that he feared a change of religion might make way to reformation of Christianity 12. Magicians Astrologers Diviners Diabolically praedicting maliciously envying malefically imprecating and venefically murdering such as inhibited opposed confuted contradicted them or their arts That is either by violence treachery or sorcery seeking and venturing their adversaries destruction whether they were Kings or Priests Christians or Persians VItellius having commanded by his Edicts that the Chaldeans Mathematicians Magicians judiciall Astrologers and Diviners should depart the City of Rome and be banished all Italy within the Kalends of October Thereupon the Chaldaeans set up an imprecatory and devotory libell threatning that Vitellius Germanicus by the day of the same Kalends should be no where or not in being And yet not that by Fate so much as vaticinall malesice Domitian having decreed the banishment of the Astologers although he much presumed to be an Astrologer or Diviner himselfe they likewise casting his constellation told him what time he should die Ascletarion the Mathematician especially threatned his death to his own face At which Domitian angerly demanded what death found he by his art that he should die himselfe He answered that he himselfe should be eaten up of dogs which saith the story fell out as prodigiously as inevitably Now those dogs being divels without doubt it was easie for the Divell to suggest unto the Astrologer what he meant to effect himselfe so easie is it for Astrologers to predict those things whereof they intend to be the instruments or by their effascinating predictions to instigate others to commit And if they understood not these very things by diabolicall instinct to satisfie their tempting invocations how should Apellonius Tyanaeus disputing in the Schooles at Ephesus stop on a sudden with defixed eyes and distracted conntenance cry out at the very instant that Domitian was slaine at Rome well done Stephanus kill the Tyrant that Tyrant Domitian is even now wounded slayne dead Well might a Magician be advised of the act when it was a soothsaying divination that provoked to doe the deed Iustine Martyr was slain by the treachery of
and condemne himselfe for ever having to doe with it Origen is often cited by Magicians and Astrologers as if he were their own howbeit in his books and especially as Eusebius cites him he plainly and abundantly refutes them And therfore if he were more addicted to them it is certaine enough that he converted from them St. Gyprian sometimes addicted to the study of magick repented of it at his conversion And if that booke de duplici Martyrio be his we have there this his confession They that use Magicall arts have denied Christ and made a compact with the Divell from which evill the mercy of the Lord hath delivered us as it hath also from all the rest in which we were held while we sometimes walked according to the old man St. Augustine confessed that he was very much enclined to the study of Magick and Astrology but after his conversion he utterly abandoned and condemned it And to this purpose relates this story of himselfe A friend of his one Firminus and he walking together both of them being addicted to the constellationall way Firminus askes his opinion of his constellation about a secular businesse he had then in hand St. Augustine somewhat changed in his generall opinion of it told him that he conceived that way to be vaine and ridiculous Firminus insisted and told him a story from his father and his fathers friend two genethliacall Astrologers and so precise observatours as that they calculated the births of the very bruit beasts in their families And it so fell out that his mother bare him and the others mayd brought forth a sonne also in one day houre and minute as neere as could be guest But now these two so born alike proved to be of various and contrary both fortunes and manners in every respect Upon this relation of Firminus Augustine abhorred the falsity of natalitiall prognostications more and more and so resolved to cast it off without all scruple and not onely so but was instant to convince the other of this vanity from his own narration and thus to revoke him from it too As St. Augustine was preaching to the people there was presented before him in the Church a Mathematician Concerning whom he thus spake This man of race a Christian then relapsed is now returned a penitent and being terrified with the power of the Lord he is now againe received to the mercy of the Lord. Seduced he was by the enemy and long continued a Mathematician not onely seduced but seducing as wel deceiving as deceived Many lies hath he spoken against God who gave unto him a power to doe good not to doe evill saying It is not a mans will that makes him commit adultery but Venus nor yet to commit murder but Mars neither doth God make a man just but Iupiter And many other were his sacrilegious sayings How many Christians hath he gulled of their money How many have bought lying predictions of him at a deare rate But now as we believe of him he abhors this lying trade For having enticed others he now perceives himself to be the most ensnared by the devil And now penitent before God and men he is become a true convert For we perswade our selves it onely proceeds from the awfull feare of his heart Did we not rejoyce at that Mathematicians conversion who converted from a pagan although he seemed to doe it for some promotion in the Church But this penitent seeks for mercy onely and therefore is the rather to be commended both to your eyes and hearts Receive him and love him lest Satan again may tempt him Let your testimony and approbation confirm his conversion He was lost but now is found Long did he knock at the doores of the Church ere he was suffered to enter but he is now brought in and hath brought with him his bookes to be burnt by which himselfe might have burned unquenchably that they cast into the fire himselfe might enter into that everlasting refreshing We suffered him the longer to supplicate for the remedy from the schoole of Christ because the art wherein he hath been exercised is to be suspected not onely of falfity in it selfe but of fallacy in good And therefore we delayed him that he might not delude and tempt us But now we have admitted him that he might not be tempted again and deluded himselfe Pray ye therefore to Christ for him for the prayer of his Church is available against all impostures and impieties Iulian greatly corrupted with magicall superstition began a little through present horrour of conscience to look back again to Christianity and lay a while at the Church doores weeping and crying Tread upon me unsauoury Salt But Ecebolius a Magician hindred his true repentance and thorough conversion and brought him back again into that damnable superstition worse then at the first The same Ecebolius after Iulians death fayned the like repentance and is said to use the same words but to as little fruit The same Iulian having received his deaths wound roared and rayled at the Sunne which the Astrologers had made him believe was the auspicious dominator at his birth accusing it for shining so propitiously upon the Persians but not favouring him with any fortunate influence and so died impiously cursing God and the Stars but the Star-gazers and himselfe for adhering to them not undeservedly Wenceslaus sent for a wagon full of Conjurers to play tricks and make sport amongst the rest he called Zyto who comming in with a wide mouth cloven to both his eares swallowed up the chiefe Conjurer and voyds him again downward c. but was himselfe carried away by the divel which so moved Wenceslaus that he thence forwards seriously applied himselfe to the meditation of sacred things Pope Sylvester the second of a Monke became a Magician insinuated himselfe into the familiarity of a Necromanticall Saracene and stole from him a Conjuring-book and studying or practising that art obtained by the divels meanes the Popedome Which dignity so soon as he had ascended he dissembled his black art under that holy vestment but kept a brazen head in a secret place from which he sought and received divining answers And enquiring of the divell how long he should live in the Papall dignity he answered aequivocatingly that he should live long if he came not at Hierusalem Now in the fourth yeere of his Pontificate as he was sacrificing in the Church of the holy Crosse in Hierusalem at Rome he was suddenly stricken with a grievous feaver and began to be convinced that thus the divell had deluded him and now he must die Whereupon he began to be penitent and confessing before the people deplored the wickednesse of his magicall errour Exhorting all men avoyding ambition and diabolicall deceits to live well and holily intreating them every one that after his death the trunke of his body torne and dismembred as it justly deserved might be laid upon a Cart and buried in that place whither the horses
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
answered the day should be his upon condition he would not spare to kill the first man he met in the morning Which he performed accordingly and got the victory Then returning home joyfully found to his griefe that he had killed his own wife who out of her great love had come to him disguised in mans apparell thereby to take part with him in that daies adventure Valerian addicted to anthropomancy or predicting by intrailes of men women children was unfortunate in his government taken prisoner by Sapor King of Persia who used him for a stirrop to get on horseback on and afterwards caused him to be flayed alive Another that had lost a silver spoon would needs goe to a magicall wiseman to finde out the thiefe and it was agreed betwixt them that for better discovery he who had conveyed it away should lose one of his eyes and when he came home he found that sad marke inflicted on a little child of his own that had carelesly cast the spoon aside Cecrops having newly builded Athens two prodigies presently appeared in the place an Olive tree sprung up suddenly water strangely gushed forth Upon these Delphick Apollo is consulted who answered that the Olive signified Minerva and the water Neptune and that it was in the choyce of the Citizens to give the name of their City to whether of these they would The Citizens of both sexes are convented the men are for Neptune and the women for Minerva and the female sex being more numerous by one prevailed in the suffrage But Neptune indigning the rejection did so depopulate them with waves and flouds that they were fain to punish their women for their suffrage against him Alcamenes and Theopompus being Kings of the Lacedaemonians there was an Oraculous prophecy that Sparta should be lost through lucre Lycurgus calling this to mind rejected all riches and the people were brought truly into such a superstitious feare that whereas before they thought them the onely benefactors they now condemned them to death that first brought money in amongst them In the City of Come in Italy the Officiall and Inquistor having a great number of Witches and Wizzards in prison taking others with them would needs urge them to shew them their homages to the divell but were so beaten by them that some of them died within fifteen daies others renounced God hereupon and vowed themselves to the divels service Eucrates beholding Pancrates an Aegyptian magician doe many wonderfull feats insinuated himselfe into his friendship and communicated all his secrets to him The Magician at length perswaded him to leave all his family at Memphis and to follow him alone and after they came into their Inne he took a bat a bar or a broom and wrapt it with clouts and by his charms made it walke and appeare like a man and made it minister unto them in sundry services as drawing water c. then with another charm would be turn it into a pestel bolt bar or besome again Now one day when Pancrates was gone abroad into the market Eucrates would needs imitate his familiar and drest the bar or pestel muttered the syllables and commanded it to draw water and after it had done sufficiently commanded it to turn into a pestell or bar again But it would not obey but still drew water till he was afraid of drowning then he took a saw and sawed the bar in two and then both parts began to fetch and poure water in abundance till in comes Pancrates and turned it into what it was at first and so left his fellow and was never seen after of him Iohn Faustus light among a sort of his companions who when they were halfe drunk importuned him to play some of his pranks and the feat must be a Vine full of Grapes as the greater novelty now in the Winter season Faustus consented to satisfie their curiosity upon this condition that they should keep silence and not stirre out of their places nor offer to pluck a Grape till he bad otherwise they might pluck their own perill The praestigious sight is presented and every one had his knife drawn and hold of a branch but not to cut till he spake the word But having held them a while in suspence all suddenly vanished and every man appeared to have hold onely of his own nose and ready to have cut it off if the word had been once given 34. Of an evill Art worst to the Artists or the just punishment and dreadfull judgements befalling praestigious Magicians and fatidicall Astrologers THraseas the Augur telling Busyris the Aegyptian Tyrant that in a time of excessive drought there was no other way to procure raine but by sacrificing some stranger to Iupiter the King thereupon enquiring what countreyman he was and finding him to be a stranger sacrificed him the first And persisting in this inhumane way Hercules comming into Aegypt slew both the tyrant his sonne and all the Ariolists at their owne Altars Certaine Hetrurian Soothsayers gave envious perfidious and unprosperous divinations and directions to the Romans about a statue that was stricken with thunder and lightning for which they were slain by the people and that gave occasion to the boys to sing this proverbe in the streets Ill counsell is alwaies worst to the Counsellor A certaine Germane warfaring in Italy chose to him a souldier that was a Conjurer to be his mate to shew him his skill the circle is made the imprecation uttered the spirit hideously appears is asked about the successe at Gouletta confesses his ignorance and takes time to resolve disappeares and leaves such a terrour and stink behind that they had like to have been poysoned with the noysomenesse and died for feare Examples of the Magastromancers fatall miseries and unfortunate ends are too many to be instanc't in at large Zoroaster the first father of them was vanquisht by Ninus who burnt his books some say that he himselfe was burnt by the divell as he was provoking him by his magicall experiments Simon Magus as he would needs goe fly in the ayre had his magicall wings so clipt that he fell down and broke his neck Cynops as he went about to raise the dead out of the sea was himselfe swallowed up of the waves and died Zarces and Arphaxat both burnt by lightning Chalchas died for envy Tullus Hostilius provoking to thunder was himselfe stricken to death therewith Nectanebus killed by his own sonne Ascletarion eaten up of dogs as he went to execution Onomacritus expelled Athens by Hipparchus Messinius put to the sword by Valentinian Sempronius Rufus banished by Severus Heliogabalus an thropomantist slain and cast into a Jakes Nigidius Figulus died in exile Apoleius accused and condemned before Claudius Maximus proconful of Africa Amphiaraus swallowed up of the earth Romulus rapt up in a black stormy thundring cloud Aristaeus snatcht away by an evill spirit Zito fetcht away quick by the divel A Count of Matscon as he was making merry with his