Christes witnesses shuld very wel vnderstand that both the Law the Prophets do bear record vnto our Sauiour Chryst that he shuld die for the world come again in the latter day to raise vp the dead bodies to glorifie them to carrie theÌ„ with him into eternal blisse And for this cause God wold haue these two excellent Prophets séene of the Apostles Lazarus soule did not only appeare but he came againe both in bodie soule as Iohn witnesseth in his 11. chap. he is as it were a sure token of our true resurrection which shall be in the last day as also others which our Sauiour Christ the Apostles in auncient time the Prophets haue raysed from the dead You shal neuer read that either Lazarus or any other haue told wher they were while they were deade or what kynde of being there is in the other world for these things are not to be learned and knowen of the dead but out of the word of God. The like may be said to that which is in the 27. chap. of S. Matthew that when Christ suffered on the Crosse the graues wer opened afterwards on the day of his resurrection many dead bodies did arise appeared to many at Hierusalem The soules of the dead did not only appeare neither did they warne the liuing or coÌ„maund them to do this or that for the deads sake to wit either to pray for theÌ„ or to go on pilgrimage to saints c. But the dead with their souls bodies togither came into the earth for héerby god would shew that he by his death hath ouercom destroyed death to the faithful that at the last day their soules bodies shall be knit togither and liue with God for euer Now what thâ—se holy men were that rose again whether they remained any time in this present life or died again or went with Christ into heauen loke the iudgement of S. Augustine in his .99 Epist. to Euodius his 3. booke De mirabilibus scrip ca. 13. To these we may ioyn that which Ruffinus writeth in his ecclesiastical historie .1 boke 5. chap. and which Socrates repeteth in his first boke 12. chap. touching Spiridion byshop of Cyprus He had a daughter called Irene with whoÌ„ a certaine friend of hirs left gorgeous apparel she being more wary than néeded hyd it in the ground within a while died Not long after coÌ„meth this man that owed the apparel hearing say the maideÌ„ was dead goeth to hir father whom somtimes he accuseth somtimes intreateth The old father supposing this maÌ„s losse to be his own calamitie coÌ„meth to his daughters graue ther calleth vpoÌ„ god beseching him that he would shew him before the time the resurrection which is promised And his hope was in vaine for the virgin being reuiued apeared to hir father shewed the place wher she had hid the aparel so departed again I will not deny this thing to be true For the like historie hath Augustine in his 137. epist. A certain yong man which had an euil name accused Boniface Augustines priest that he inticed him to filthinesse Now wheÌ„ the matter could neither be proued nor disproued by sufficient resons both of them were bid to goe to the graue of one Felix a Martyr that by a miracle the truth might be known They had not bin sent vnlesse before this time also some secrete matters had bin knowne by this meanes it may be well answeared that they were good or rather euill Angels which did appeare CHAP. XI VVhether the holy Apostles thought they savve a mans Soule vvhen Chryst sodenly appeared vnto them after his Resurrection WE reade in the 24. Chapter of S. Lukes Gospell that two Disciples which returned from Emaus to Hierusalem tolde the Apostles that they had séene Chryst aliue againe and whyles they yet spake the Lord stoode in the myddest of them and sayd vnto them peace be vnto you but they being amased and afrayd thought they sawe a spirit c. Out of this some go about to proue that the Apostles beléeued that spirits or soules did walke and appeare vnto men and that they themselues did thinke they sawe the spirite of Chryst as certaine of the olde Wryters doe expounde it or else some other mannes spirit This Argument may be answered two wayes First if they thought they sawe a Soule they thought a mysse But they were no lesse deceyued with the common sorte nowe than when they thought Chryst would rayse vppe an outward and earthly kingdome in which they shoulde be chiefe Secondly it may be that they supposed they sawe an euil or good Angell for there are more kyndes of spirites than one There is a spirit that created al thyngs to wit God the Father the Sonne and the Holie Ghost Agayne there be spirites that be created as good and euill Angels as also the soules of men which eyther are in the body or by death seuered from the body and abyde either in euerlasting lyfe or in eternal damnation As touching the state of Soules in Purgatorie where they are prepared to the Heauenly iourney and of Limbus puerorum there is nothing extant in holie Scripture It is manifest in scripture that God appeared vnto the holy patriarches to the prophets to kings and others in diuers visions and formes and that he shewed hym selfe vnto them and spake with them Iacob sawe a ladder reache from the earth vp to Heauen and God leaning on it Isaias sawe the Lord sitting vppon an high throne Daniell sawe an olde maÌ„ sitting and his sonne comming vnto him and receyuing all power of him TertulliaÌ„ and other holy fathers do teache that the sonne of God which at the appointed time shoulde take vppon him humaine fleshe didde appeare vnto the Patriarches in an angelicall shape When Iohn Baptist did baptise our sauioure in Iordan the Holy ghost was séene in the shape of a doue The holy scriptures in many places do testifie that good Angells haue oftentimes appeared to Gods ministers That euill spirits are often séene and that at this day they shewe themselues in diuers formes to inchaunters and coniurers and to other men also as well godly as wicked both histories and daily experience doth witnesse Truely we reade not that soules haue appered on this fashion By these we may easly gather that the Apostles when they thought they sawe a spirit did not beléeue they sawe a soule Could they not thinke I pray you they sawe an euill spirit Or rather that they sawe a good spirit or a good angel For it may be shewed by many examples that euen the faithfull haue bin troubled and feared at the appearing of good Angels In the eyght and tenth chapter of Daniel we read that the Prophet fel into a sicknesse at the sight of Angels The virgin Mary hirselfe was afrayde when she sawe the Angell Gabriel So was Zachary the priest
money as wel as he that hath the strong hande Saincte Paule exhorteth the Thessalonians in his firste Epistle and fourthe Chapter that they mourne not for the dead as the Gentiles doo If there had bene a fyer of Purgatorie as they haue falsely imagined hée coulde not haue bene angrie with them although they had taken their frendes departure somewhat impaciently c. Other argumentes whiche are broughte for the confirmation of Purgatorie are of late so confuted by many godly and learned men that it is maruel our aduersaries will so often repete them But before I leaue this matter I will here insert this historie folowing A certaine Germain béeing accused by the Inquisitours of heresie as they terme it that amongest his companions he denyed Purgatorie contrarie to the common consent of the Catholike Churche made his answeare thus If our parishe Priest quod he whome I credite very muche preache vnto vs true doctrine in the Pulpet eyther there is no Purgatorie at all or else it is cleane emptie For he oftentymes sayeth that Turkes Iewes heretikes and wicked men goe not into Purgatorie but straight into Hell fyer from whence they shall neuer bée delyuered Then that by Pardons whyche are euery where solde for money many soules are restored to their first perfection And moreouer that the Masse is of suche force that there is not one soong in al the world by whiche one soule at the least is not deliuered out of the flames of Purgatorie If these things quod he be true for I wil not go about to refell that whiche master Parson hath sayde I will stande in this my opinion For you do all complayne that the number of the Catholykes is very small the greater parte of men béeing deuided into sundry seâ—tes and the multitude of Epicures dayly increasing Then are all mennes pursses many times drawne drie by pardoners which for money sell their indulgences that by them the soules of men may be deliuered out of the torments of purgatorie Furthermore there is no village but there are a great many Masses soong in it before any one husbandeman dyeth What followeth then but that there is eyther no Purgatorie or one vtterly voyde and emptie When the Inquisitours who knewe very well that their men commonly taught such doctrine herd these things they were amazed and taking aduise togither they all berated him for occupying his heade aboute questions nothing appertaining vnto him which they commaunded him to leaue vnto diuines and to folow his owne busines There was in our countrey an honest and sober man who before the light of the Gospel began to appeare vsed this dilemma The bishop of Rome either hath authoritie to bring soules out of the paynes of Purgatorie or else he hath no authoritie If he haue that power and will not vse it excepte hee receyue money hée can not escape the faulte of crueltie and couetousenesse But if hée haue no suche authoritie surely it is great villanie to robbe so manye widdowes and fatherlesse chyldren and so arrogantly to boast hymselfe of aucthoritie whyche hée hathe not And if there be no Purgatorie as by the holy Scriptures it is playnly gathered there is not surely then mennes soules can neyther returne from thence nor offer themselues to be séene of men Nowe as touching the fourthe place namely Limbus puerorum in the which innocent chyldren as they call them are sayde to bée Papistes themselues scante dare affirme that they return again and appeare vnto men and craue their helpe for they teache that if they depart without baptisme they shall neuer enioy the sight of God and for that cause they may not be buried in the same churchyard with other christians Merciful God! how many godly matrones hath this false deuise miserably vexed I call it a false deuise for that they bring nothing out of the holy Scriptures wherby to proue this poynt of doctrine The Scriptures do not attribute so muche vnto externall baptisme whiche is by water Was the condition of infants better in the olde testament than in the new You do not reade that the olde fathers supposed that infantes whych dyed before the eyght day and therefore were not circumcised should be separated from the sight of God for euer Dauid the king and prophet said he shold folow his sonne whome God had called out of this lyfe before he was circumcised But it was not Dauids meaning that he should go into a place where he should be depriued of the sight of God for euer But it appertaineth not much vnto our purpose to dispute any further hereof Thus haue I nowe answered the chéefest argumentes of our aduersaries whereby they woulde proue the soules of good and euill men to offer them selues to be séene sometimes of them that liue after their departure by death from their bodies CHAP. XIIII VVhat those things are vvhiche men see and heare and fyrst that good Angels do somtimes appeare BUt thou wilte saye I doe not yet clearely and plainly vnderstand what maner of things those are wherof as it is sayd before Historiographers holy fathers and others make mention as that holy Apostles bishopps martires confessors virgins and many other which died long ago appered vnto certeine men lying at the point of death gaue them warning aunsweared vnto certeine questions commaunded them to do this or that thing and that some thing is seene and heard at certeine times whiche not only affirmeth it selfe to be this or that soule but also sheweth howe it may be succored and afterwardes retourning agayne giueth great thanks vnto them of whome it hath receyued such a benefite that the husband being dead came in the nighte vnto his wife nowe a widdowe and that seldome times any notable thing hathe happened whiche was not foreshewed vnto some man by certain signes and tokens You will say I heare and vnderstaÌ„d very wel that these things are not mens soules which continually remayne in theyr appoynted places I pray you then what are they To conclude in fewe words If it be not a vayne persuasion procéeding through weakenesse of the senses through feare or some suche like cause or if it be not deceyte of men or some naturall thing wherof we haue spoken much in the firste parte it is either a good or euill Angell or some other forewarning sent by God concerning the which we will speake more orderly and fully hereafter Our sauioure witnesseth in the gospell that children haue their good angells and we reade in the 18. of Matthew that the Lorde sayde Take héede ye contemne not one of these litle ones for I saye vnto you that their Angels in Heauen do alwayes behold the face of my father whiche is in Heauen Which words are not so to be taken as though they were neuer sent downe into the earth but the Lorde here speaketh after the manner of men For as seruaunts stande before their maisters to fulfill their commaundement euen so are the Angels
of those which lay in wayt to destroy Christ Iesus Wée reade in the tenth chapter of the Acts of the apostles that saint Peter fell into a traunce saw the heauens open and saw a vessel as it were a greate shéete descende downe vnto him from heauen knit togither at the foure corners wherin were all maner of foure footed beasts of the earth and wylde beasts and créeping things and foules of the heauen And there came a voyce vnto him Rise Peter kill and eate And in the .xvj. chapter as S. Paule was yet in Asia coÌ„ming downe towardes Troada this vision appeared vnto him There stode a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying Come into Macedonia and help vs Hereby Paul gathered it was the will of God that he should passe the sea and should preache the Gospell in Macedonia But I purpose not to write of Spirites and visions appearing vnto men in their sléepe least my Booke growe vnto an huge volume but only of those which we sensibly sée when we are awake CHAP. XVII That there happen straunge vvonders and prognostications and that sodeyn noises and cracks and such like are hearde before the death of men before battaile and before some notable alterations and chaunges IT happeneth many times that when men lye sicke of some deadly disease there is some thing heard going in the chamber like as the sicke men were wonte when they were in good health yea the sicke parties them selues do many times hear the same and by and by gesse what wil come to passe Oftentimes a litle before they yeld vp the ghost and some time a little after their death or a good while after either their owne shapes or some other shaddowes of men are apparantly séene And diuers times it commeth to passe that wheÌ„ some of our acquaintaunce or friends lye a dying albeit they are many miles off yet there are some great stirrings or noises heard Sometimes we thinke the house will fall on our heads or that some massie and waightie thing falleth downe throughout all the house rendring and making a disordered noise and shortlie within fewe monthes after we vnderstande that those things happened the very same houre that our friends departed in There be some men of whose stocke none doth dye but that they obserue and marke some signes and tokens going before as that they heare the dores and windowes open and shut that some thing runneth vp the staires or walketh vp and downe the house or doth some one or other such like thing But here I cannot passe this in silence that there are many superstitious men which vainly persuade theÌ„selues that this cousin and this or that friend of theirs wil shortly dye For in the end the falling out of the matter it selfe sheweth it was a vayne and folishe persuasion that they vnderstod suche things by any signes Cardanus in his booke De veriâ—ate rerum writeth that there was a certeine noble familie at Parma in Jtaly out of the which so often as any one died there was séene an olde woman in the chimney corner On a certaine tyme shée appeared when a mayden of the same familie laye very sicke and therefore they cleane dispayred of hir life but soone after she recouered againe and in the meane while an other which was theÌ„ in good helth sodainly dyed There was a certaine parishe priest a very honest and godly man whom I knewe well who in the plague time could tell before hand when any of his parishe should dye For in the night time he heard a noise ouer his bed like as if one had throwne downe a sacke full of corne from his shoulders which when he heard he would say Nowe an other biddeth me farewell After it was day he vsed to inquire who died that night or who was taken with the plague to the end he might comfort and strengthen them according to the duty of a good pastour It hath bin often obserued in Guilde halles where Aldermen sit that when one of those Aldermen was at the point of death there was hearde some ratling about hys seate or some other certeine signe of death The same thing happeneth beside pewes and stalles in Churches or in other places where men are often conuersaunt or accustomed to exercise their handy labour In Abbeys the Monks seruaunts or any other falling sicke many haue heard in the night preparation of chests for them in such sorte as the coffinmakers did afterwards prepare in déede In some country villages when one is at deaths dore many times there are some heard in the Euening or in the night digging a graue in the Churcheyarde and the same the next day is so found digged as these meÌ„ did heare before There haue bin séene some in the night wheÌ„ the moone shined going solemnlie with the corps according to the custome of the people or staÌ„ding before the dores as if some bodie were to be caried to the Church to burying Many suppose they sée their owne image or as they saye theyr owne soule and of them diuers are verily persuaded that except they dye shortlie after they haue séene them selues they shall liue a very great time after But these things are superstitious Let euery man so prepare him selfe as if he shoulde dye to morrowe left by being too secure he purchase himselfe harme There happen other straunge things also For when some lye in the prison in chaynes readie to suffer punishmeÌ„t for their offeÌ„ces many times in the night season there is heard a great noise and rumbling as if some body were breaking into the gayle to deliuer the prisoners When meÌ„ come to vnderstand the matter they can neither heare nor sée any body and the prisoners likewise say they heard no manner thing Some executioners or haÌ„gmen do report that for the most part they knowe before hand whether any maÌ„ shall shortly be deliuered into their hands to suffer for their swords will moue of their owne accord And there are other that saie they can tell before after what sorte the prisoners shall suffer Many wonderfull and straunge things happen about those which wilfully cast away theÌ„selues Somtime their corpses must be caryed a great way off before they béeing thrust in a sacke can be throwne into the sea and béeing layd in a waggon or cart the horse could scant draw them downe the hill but vp the hill they néed not labour at all for the carte woulde runne very fast of his owne accorde Some men béeing slayne by théeues when the théeues come to the dead body by and by there gusheth out freshe blood or else there is declaration by other tokens that the théefe is there present Plato writeth in the firste booke of his lawes that the soules of suche as haue ben slayne doo oftentymes cruelly molest and trouble the soules of those whiche slewe them For whiche cause Marsilius Fiscinus doth thinke it chaunceth that the wounde of a man being slayn
possessioÌ„ of life euerlasting they that depart in vnbeléef do streight way becoÌ„ partakers of eternal damnation The souls do not vanish away die with the body as the Epicures opinion is neither yet be in euery place as som do imagin touching this matter I wil allege pithie manifold testimonies out of the holy scripture out of which alone this question may ought to be tried discussed Our sauior Christ Iesus which could well iudge of these misteries in the .3 of Iohn saith So God loued the world that he wold giue his only begotteÌ„ son that who so beleueth on him shold not perish but haue life euerlastiÌ„g For god seÌ„t not his son into the world to coÌ„demn the world but that the world by him might be saued He that beleueth in him is not coÌ„demned he that beleueth not is coÌ„demned alredy bicause he beleued not in the name of the only begotteÌ„ son of god And in the .5 of Iohn he saith Uerily verily I say vnto you he that heareth my word beleueth on him that sent me hath euerlasting life shal not come into iugemeÌ„t or coÌ„demnation but hath passed alredy froÌ„ deth to life he doth not say that his sins shold first be purged in purgatorie And in the .6 cha he saith This is the wil of him that sent me that euery one that séeth the son and beléeueth on him should haue life euerlasting and I will raise him vp at the last day againe verily I say vnto you he that beleueth on me hathe life euerlasting In the .14 of Iohn also our Lord sauior Christ Iesus saith that he wil take vs vp to himself that where he is there shuld we be also c. When Christe sent forth his disciples to publish his gospel in the .x. of Math. he said vnto theÌ„ Go ye into the whole world preach the gospel to euery creature he that beleueth is baptized shal be saued and he that beleueth not shal be coÌ„demned in the 5. ch of the 2. to the Corin. the apostle S. Paule saith we knowe that if the earthly house of this tabernacle be destroyed we haue a building of god that is a house not made with haÌ„ds but eternal in the heaueÌ„s c. By these places it may be euidently gathered that the soules of the faithfull are taken vp into eternall ioy the soules of the vnfaithfull assoone as they are departed froÌ„ their bodies are condeÌ„ned to perpetual tormeÌ„t And that this is done streightway after death may be perceyued by the words that Christ spake to the théefe on the crosse when he hoong on his right hand This day shalt thou be with me in paradise And in the 14 chap. of the apocalips it is writteÌ„ I hard a voice that said vnto me write blessed are the dead that dye in the lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 .i. amodo as the old traÌ„slatioÌ„ redeth that is by by out of haÌ„d without delay SteueÌ„ in the very point wheÌ„ he loked to be stoned cried lord Iesu receiue my spirit He douted nothing but was assuredly persuaded that his soul shold straightway be traÌ„slated to eternal ioy Paule in the .j. chap. of his epist. to the Philip. sayth I desire to be losed or I couet to depart hence to be with christ Here is no meÌ„tioÌ„ at al made of purgatory in which the soules shold be first purged If thou wilt here obiect that the persons afore aleged wer saints martirs we say farther the Paradyse was opened also to the théef assoone as he became repentant And that the soules both of the faithfull vnfaithful which presently after their death are translated to heaueÌ„ or hel do not returne thence into the earth before the day of the last iudgement may wel be perceiued by the parable of the rich man clothed in purple Lazarus as we read in the .xvj. of Luke For wheÌ„ the rich man prayed Abraham that he would sende Lazarus vnto him to cooâ—e his tong Abraham gaue him this aunswer Betwixt thée and vs there is a great gulfe set so that they which wold goe hence from Abrahams bosome to you in Hell can not neyther can they come from thence to vs And when he be sought him that he would sende Lazarus to his fathers house to admonishe his fiue brethren least they also should come into that place of torment he sayd vnto him They haue Moses and the Prophets let them hear them And again If they heare not Moyses the Prophets neither wil they beleue though one rose agayne froÌ„ the dead CHAP. V. Testimonies of the auncient fathers that deade mens soules parted from theyr bodyes dooe not vvander here vpon earth THis matter was also thus vnderstoode by the holy and auncient Fathers For Augustine in his .xviij. Sermon De verbis Apostoli hathe that there bée two mansions the one in euerlasting fyre the other in the euerlasting kyngdome And in his .xxviij. chapter of his first booke De peccatorum meriâ—is remissione contra Pelagianos in the seueÌ„th tome of his works he sayth Neyther can any man haue any middle or meane place so that he maye be any other where than with the diuell who is not with Christ. And in his notable worke de ciuitate Dei the .xiij. booke and .viij. chapter he sayth The soules of the godly so soone as they be seuered from their bodies be in rest the soules of the wicked in torment vntill the bodies of the one bée raysed vnto lyfe and the other vnto euerlastyng deathe which in scripture is called the second death Iustine also an auncient father writeth in Responsione ad Orthodoxos quest 75. that the difference of the iust vniust doth appeare euen as soone as the soule is departed from the body For they are caried by the angels into such places as are fit for them that is the soules of the iust are brought vnto Paradyse where they haue the fruition of the sighte and presence of Angels and Archangels and moreouer the â—ight of our sauior Christ as it is conteined in that saying whiles we are straungers from the body we are at home with god And the soules of the vnrighteous on the other side are caried to Hell as it is sayde of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon Hell is troubled vnder thée being ready to méete thée c. And so till the day of resurrection and rewarde are ethy reserued in suche places as are méetest for them Saint Hillarie in the ende of his exposition of the second Psalme writeth that mens soules are straight way after death made partakers of rewards or punishments And touching the soules of the old Patriarks that dyed before the natiuitie of Christ Austin Hierom Nazianzen and other holy Fathers teache that God in certain places by him chosen out for that purpose hath preserued the soules of all
and many times they ar coÌ„trary to themselues and therfore they haue not alwayes thought aright Sometime they send vs to the word of God as to the most certayne rule and leauell of faith There are examples ynow by whiche it may be shewed that the olde Councelles haue erred in some of their determinations The Councell of Ariminum hath allowed the Arrians doctrine The second Ephesin councell did subscribe to Eutiches The Councell holden at Carâ—hage which CipriaÌ„ gathered pronouÌ„ced flatly against the scriptures c. What shall we say was done in later times It is well ynough knowen by histories who hathe resisted Councels and ruled them and what hath bene chiefly handled in them for certayne hundred yeares And what for the most parte hathe by and by followed after them euen cruel warres and bloudy slaughters If nowe those auncient Councels coulde erre who will maruayle that they which haue assembled since haue erred But as touching the apparitions that I may all other things omitted talke only of them tell me I pray you who should certifie the Councles whether this or that vision were true or false Certaynly no Councels can bring to passe that the lyes whiche haue bin scatred abroade shall nowe begin to be true tales although they of the Councel haue saide they are true It is euen as foolishe to say the Pope who wil be counted aboue all Councels hath confirmed this or that miracle to be true which they say was wrought in some one monastery or other How can the bishop of Rome being so far off knowe any thing better than they which dwell in the same places If the bishop hauing no other assuraunce than out of their words or writings which perhaps go about to erecte newe pilgrimages and newe deuises to get money confirme once that this or that soule was séene it must straight way without any gaynsaying be beleued But if any other men who haue with diligence sought out the truth of the matter do testifie the contrary al that they say must not be regarded Consider I beséeche you of this matter Before all haue doubted whether the thing were so or no but assoone as the Pope doth giue his verdicte or some Church man do in his dreame sée it to be so it is a heynouse matter afterwards to doubt of it O tyme O manners As touching other common and laye men as they terme them which say they haue séene one after his death and haue heard and knowne him and haue spoken with him I easyly graunt they haue séene and heard some thing and haue thought verily they were soules and that they dyd speake with them But it foloweth not therfore that they were soules indéede much lesse that any dead man hath appered in body and soul vnto them For at Domes day only the soules shall returne to their bodies agayne Soules are spirits but spirits are inuisible wherefore they cannot so be séene vnlesse they take some outward shape vpoÌ„ them But it can neuer be proued by the testimony of holy scripture that as good euil Angels so soules take some shapes vpon them Besides this it is most true that oftentimes the shapes and formes of them whose soules are not yet sundred from their bodies by death as when one lieth vpoÌ„ his death bed are no lesse séene than theirs which are already dead Therfore it is not necessary that we beleue the ghosts which are séene to be soules By these things you vnderstaÌ„d what is to be thought of the tale of Platina Nauclerus others which write that a certeine Bishop sawe Pope Benedict the eyght lately dead in a solitary place sitting vpon a blacke horse being demaunded why he was so caried about with the blacke horse he warned the bishop that he shold distribute the money which was giuen to the vse of the pore but nowe wickedly kept to other purposes vnto those pore folks to whome of right it beloÌ„ged Other tales of like stampe are ryfe euery where CHAP. XIII VVhether soules do returne agayne out of Purgatorie and the place vvhich they call Limbus puerorum THat soules whiche are gon either to Heauen or to Hell returne not thence nor appeare agayne before the latter daye perchaunce some menne woulde easely graunte but they imagine there is a thirde place whych is Purgatorie oute of the whiche soules doe retourne vppon earthe For as yet the laste sentence hath not passed on them and therfore as yet they maye bée helped and therefore also they doe craue helpe and shewe themselues vnto men But wée haue proued before at large bothe out of the scriptures and also out of the writings of the auncient fathers that the soules of the faithful are saued and that the soules of the vnbeleeuers are damned immediatly without delay and therefore there is no Purgatorie Agaynst this they alledge sundry argumentes amongst the whiche thys albeit it be very common yet is it the chéefest when they say that no man is saued excepte he be purged from all his sinnes and that sinne cleaueth vnto vs euen vnto the graue If wée saye that puritie and cleannesse consisteth not in our woorkes or in the paynes which we endure but that God through faith in his sonne Iesus Christe who is our only redemption iustification satisfaction and raunsom for our sinnes doth iustifie vs they streyght aunsweare that our faith is vnperfecte and that the moste godly men complayne when they departe hence of the weakenesse of their fayth And therefore that God dothe not take vp suche kynde of men straightwayes into heauen nor yet bycause they are not vtterly voyde of fayth thrust them presently downe into hell And therfore that there is a middle place betwene bothe whiche is called Purgatorie in which the soules are purified from the imperfection whiche remayned in them at the time of their death and out of the which they are deliuered by the merits of the liuing and by large pardons Is not this as muche as to attribute that vnto our owne paines and to external fyre whiche ought only to be ascribed vnto the death of Christ Doth not Christe teache vs that if at any time we féele any weakenesse of faith we shold crye out with the Apostles Lorde increase our faith Doth God disdaine to heare the prayers of his faithfull people in the extremitie of death Christ sayth he that is washed hath no néede saue to washe his féete but he is cleane euery whitte Hée wyll saue vs not for the woorthinesse of our faythe but by his méere grace onely He dooth bestow these things amongst vs as if some ryche man did fréely giue meate and drinke vnto others wherof some of them receyueth it in woodden some in earthen and some in siluer or golden vessels or as if a Prince did distribute vnto euery one a piece of golde and some receyue it with a féeble hande and some with a strong and lustie hande He that hath the weake hande receyueth
prest and ready to serue god Esay the 63. The Angell of his face that is whiche standeth ready in his sight preserued them And further they which often stand in presence of their lorde are acceptable vnto them and priuy to their secrets Out of this place of Math. Saincte Herome in his CoÌ„mentaries and other fathers do conclude that God doth assigne vnto euery soule assoone as he createth him his peculiar Angell which taketh care of him But whether that euery one of the elect haue hys proper Angell or many Angels be appoynted vnto him it is not expresly sette foorth yet this is most sure and certayne that God hath giuen his Angels in charge to haue regard and care ouer vs Daniel witnesseth in his tenth chapter that Angels haue also charge of Kingdomes by whom God kéepeth and protecteth them and hindreth the wicked counsels of the deuill It may be proued by many places of the Scripture that all Christian men haue not only one Angell but also many whome God imployeth to their seruice In the .34 Psalm it is sayde the Angell of the Lorde pitcheth his tentes rounde about them whiche feare the Lorde and helpeth them which ought not to be doubted but that it is also at this daye albeit we sée them not We reade that they appearing in sundrye shapes haue admonished menne haue comforted them defended them deliuered them from daunger and also punished the wicked Touching this matter there are plentifull examples whiche are not néedefull to be repeated in this place Somtimes they haue eyther appeared in sléep or in manner of visions and sometimes they haue perfourmed their office by some internall operations as when a mans mynde foresheweth him that a thing shall so happen and after it happeneth so in dâ—ede which thyng I suppose is doone by God through the ministerie of Angels Angels for the most part take vpon them the shapes of men wherein they appeare And so it may be that saint Felix and Sainte Agnes and other whiche haue appeared vnto honest and godly men were the Angels of god Angels haue appeared not only one at a time but also whole Armies Hostes of them as vnto Iacob the Patriarch and Heliseus the Prophete It is read in the Ecclesiasticall historie written by Socrates and Sozomenus that Archadius the Emperor receyued Gaina with all his Armie of Souldiours into the Citie of Constantinople to defende it but this traitour went about to get the rule of the Citie into his owne handes and therefore he sente a bande of men to fire the Emperours Pallace whiche sodenly espied a great Host of Angels of large stature armed like vnto Souldiours wherevppon they gaue ouer their enterpryse offiering Then sent he others who reported the verie same At the last he went himself saw it to be so and so left his purpose and thus God by a miraculous meanes preserued the Citie and Churche of Constantinople from the craftie suttletie of the tyrant Whereas Saynte Augustine in hys booke De cura pro mortuis agenda Chapter .10 writeth that deade men haue appeared vnto the lyuing in dreames or any other meanes whatsoeuer shewing them where their bodies lay vnburied and requiring them to burie them There hée supposeth that these are the woorkes of Angels by the dispensation of Goddes prouidence vsing vnto good purpose bothe good and euill Angels according to the vnsearchable depthe of his iudgementes He saythe not that soules appeare in sléepe but the similitude of soules Hée addeth further if the soules of the deade had any thing to do with matters of the lyuing that we myght talke with them as often as wée lyst in our sléepe hys mother no nyght woulde leaue him who to lyue with him followed him both by Sea and by land suche loue bare she towards hir Sonne CHAP. XV. That sometimes yea and for the most part euill Angels do appeare COntrarywise euil Angels are hurtful and enimies vnto men they follow them euerie where to the ende they may withdraw them from true worshipping of God and from faythe in hys onely Sonne Iesu Chryst vnto sundrie other thyngs These appeare in diuers shapes for if the Deuill as Paule doth witnesse transfourmeth hymselfe into an Angel of light no lesse may he take the shape of a Prophete an Apostle Euangeliste Byshoppe and Martyr and appeare in their lykenesse or so bewitche vs that wée verily suppose we heare or sée them in verie déede Hée taketh on hym to tell of things to come whether hée hit them ryghte or wrong Hée affirmeth that he is this or that soule that he maye be delyuered by this or that meanes that by these means he may purchase credite and authoritie vnto those things whiche haue no grounde of Scripture By meanes of false myracles he decréeth newe Hollydayes Pilgrimages Chappels and Aulters by coniurations blessings and enchauntmentes he attempteth to cure the Sicke to make his dooings haue authoritie You shal reade maruellous straunge things in Arnobius Lactantius and other holie Fathers who wrote agaynst the Gentiles and their supersticion after what sorte Deuils haue deluded the myserable Gentiles and haue entrapped them in many errors He ioyned and hid himselfe in their Idols he spake thorough them from one place to an other he made them to moue and dyd such straunge miracles that verie lame menne leauing their stilts wheron they leaned in the Temples of their Idols returned home to their houses without any helpe or stay of them but especially in the Temple of Aesculapius who was counted the Patron of Phisicke many of these kynd of myracles are reported to haue happened Wherfore there is no cause why the Papistes at thys daye shoulde so insolently glorie of the lyke myracles by the which they go about to proue their intercessioÌ„ of Saints and such like trumperie CHAP. XVI Of vvondrous Monsters and suche like NOw as concerning other straunge things wée must hereafter searche what nature they are of as when one dieth that ther is somewhat séene or some great noyse is sodenly hearde but especially the many signes and wonders happen before the deathe of greate Princes It is wel knowen by histories what signes went before the deathe of Iulius Caesar amongest the whiche a greate noyse was hearde in the night time in very many places farre and néere As concerning other Emperors and Kings and other great mennes deathes we reade that some certaine forewarnings were hearde or séene wée must also consider what those straunge things are which for the most parte happen before the innouations of kingdomes before battailes seditions and subuersions of Cities I say flatly euen as I sayde before concerning spirits if they be not vayne persuasions or naturall thyngs then are they forewarnings of God whiche are sent eyther by good Angels or by some other meanes vnknowen vnto vs that we might vnderstande that all these things happen not by aduenture without the wil pleasure of God but
the other made aunswere by waye of reasoning called violentum Nay sayth hée hereby ye may gather that your religion is naught and oures good for the diuell assaulteth those whome he feareth will shortly reuolte from him It is not much vnlike which Aeneas Siluius who was afterwardes made Pope called Pius 2. reciteth in his Historie of the Councell of Basill out of the lyfe of holy Benedict father of the Monkes called after his name Hée sometymes visityng a certayne Monasterie of holy men espyed an infinite route of diuels who as it were fighting with the holy fathers labored to disturbe the good workes which they went about And he foorthwith going to a faire full of marchandise and buying and selling saw there but one diuell and he also idle and sad sitting vppon a watchtoure wherat saint Benedict maruelling that he saw the place whiche was holy and dedicate to prayer full of dyuels and that he founde the prophane place which was occupied with periurie and other offences garded but with one Diuell hée coniures the same Diuell to declare and shewe vnto him the true cause therof who streight answered him that it was néedefull the holy place shoulde be assaulted by many diuels but those whiche sinned of their voluntarie accorde had no néede to bée deceyued by the Diuell But I aske thée thys question O thou Papist myghte not the Gentils in ancient tyme haue obiected the same to the Christians when they demaunded of them why their Oracles ceassed and why there were so fewe Uisions If those Spirites or bugges be Diuels why doe you then saye and beléeue that they are the soules of dead menne whiche desyre helpe of you I wyll shewe you the verye true cause why those visyons are nowe so seldome tymes séene forsoothe bycause the Dyuell perceyueth that wée vnderstande hys subtleties and craft therefore hée hunteth after other men and seeketh to deceyue them As for example when thou wilt cramp some man by the toes in the night time as sometimes pleasant fellowes vse to do to recreate themselues when they trauel and so draw him out of his bed if thou perceyue he be acquainted with thy sleyght by and by thou leauest him and goest vnto an other which is fast asleep and cannot perceiue the deceyt There be other causes also why these things happen nowe more seldome If any man deceiue thée once twice or thrice afterwardes thou openest thy eyes and espiest what he doth and what he goeth about so when we haue béene often beguiled with false apparations we will not easily be persuaded if any man tel vs that a soule or spirit hath appeared as the prouerb saith Moreouer whereas nowe adayes fewe stand in feare of spirites many might be easily found who would séeke them feele them yea and also handle them This is wel known therfore no man will gladly put on a visour or otherwise counterfeit himselfe to be a ghost A man may soone persuade a childe that ther is is a black man a tall woman which wil put chyldren that crie in their budget c. but after they are come to maturitie of yeares they will no more be feared with visours and such like persuasions they will laugh at thy follie if afterwards thou go about to make them so afraid Euen so when we were children in the Scriptures that is when we vnderstood them not we might be easily seduced to beleeue many things But nowe that we reade them in all manner of tongs and do dayly profit in them we do not suffer our selues to be so mocked neither do we beléeue euery vaine apparition How many sightes of spirites did the knauerie of the Monkes of Berna driue away after it was once detected Things are set vp in the fieldes to feare awaye the birdes whiche at the last also they perceyue to be but trifles and are not dryuen away any longer with suche toyes What maruel is it then if after so great a shipwracke of godlynesse and truth men albeit they are simple do at the last open their eyes CHAP. III. VVhy God doth suffer straunge noyses or extraordinarie rumblings to be heard before some notable alterations or othervvise IN that there happeneth certayne straunge things before the death of men and also before notable alterations and destructions of countries as maruellous crackes terrible roaring surely it turneth to good vnto the iust to further damnation to the wicked For by these means God sheweth that nothing commeth to passe by chaūce or by aduenture but that the life and deth the prosperous or vnfortunate estate of al men is in the power and hand of god It is nothing so as the Epicures affirme that God hath no regard whether any man lyue or be borne or do well or euill or otherwise or whether common welthes do florish or be made wast Chryst himselfe techeth vs that not so much as a sparrow falleth vnto the ground without the wil of god Salomon Daniel say that the hearts of kings are in Gods hands and that he appoynteth or deposeth kings at his pleasure Wherfore if we happely do heare any noises or such like they ought rather to put vs in good comfort than to make vs afrayd And againe God héereby admonisheth vs that we be not idle and secure for he hath in al ages stirred vp his seruants not only with words but also with rare and strange apparitions The very Gentiles accounted these myraculous things as the admonitions and warnings of their gods as it may be séen euery wher in ther histories And albeit it be very likely that most of these things happen by the deuils procuremēt yet neuerthelesse we héerin perceiue Almightie God his fatherly care loue preseruation of vs against the deuises of the deuil For albeit the deuil take no rest but is alwayes in redynesse to destroy vs yet can he not hurt vs so long as God kepeth watch defendeth vs The wicked who despise the preaching of Gods worde are sore terrified with these things in so much that they not knowing whether to turne thēselues are constrained to confesse that god doth gouern al mens actions that there are good and euil spirites Otherwise they coulde in no case be repressed but that they woulde do greater mischiefe vnto the faithful except God by these meanes dyd cast feare vppon them and as it were with a snaffle or brydle did hale and drawe them backe CHAP. IIII. After vvhat sort they should behaue themselues vvhiche se good or euil spirits or mete vvith other strange aduentures and first hovve Ievves and Gentiles behaued themselues in the like cases THat we may rightly vnderstand how we ought to behaue our selues if any thing eyther good or euill appeare vnto vs we wil first declare how the gentiles and Iewes vsed themselues in like cases Amongest the Gentiles not only those wandring spirits beare men in hande that they were mens soules but also shewed what were good and
last reade least .102.27 for other in reade other name in .103.7 for made full reade made not ful â–ª 128.30 for certifie reade terrifie .130.31 for beate reade chyde .132.1 for ended reade in déede .136.16 for this is that is reade that is this is .143.33 for Delphis reade â—i Delphis .147.24 for was in vayne reade was not in vayne 1â—2.15 for haue lent reade lent .153.7 for late reade later .185 â–ª 14. for prouerb sayth reade prouerb sayth burnt childe dreads fire ¶ To the right excellent and moste wise and vertuous lorde Iohn Steigerus CoÌ„sul of the noble coÌ„mon welth of Berna his good lorde and patron Lewâ—s Lauaterus of Tigurin wisheth health MAny and diuers thinges are resoned vpon both of the learned and vnlearned as well of other matters as also of Spirites which are séene and heard and make men afrayde in the night season and in the daye tyme by sea and by lande in the fieldes woods and houses And lykewise concerning suche straunge things whiche for the most parte happen before the death of certayne men especially greate Princes and before notable innouations of kingdomes and empires Many which neuer sawe or hearde any of these thinges suppose all that is reported of them to be méere trifles and olde wyues tales for so muche as simple men and suche as are fearefull and superstitioâ—s persuade themselues they haue séene this or that when in déede the matter is far otherwise Againe there are some which as soone as they heare of any thing especially if it happen in the nighte they by and by thinke some spirite doth walke and are maruellously troubled in mynde bycause they can not discerne naturall things from spirites And some chéefly those which hunt after gaynes by the soules of dead men affirme that the moste parte of suche things which are hard or séene are the soules of dead men whych craue helpe of them that are liuing to be deliuered out of the tormentes of most cruell payne in Purgatorie Many not only of the common sorte but also menne of excellent knowledge do maruayle whether there bée any spirits or no and what maner of things they are Yea some of my familiar friends haue many times requested me to shewe them my opinion concerning these matters Wherefore me séemeth it shall be worth my laboure if I declare briefly and playnly out of the word of God what we ought to iudge concerning these things For the ministers of Gods Churche can take nothing more profitable in hande than to instructe the people of God purely and plainly in suche necessary matters as come in question out of the word of God whiche is a lanterne as the psalmist saith vnto our féete and a light vnto our pathes and to deliuer them from all erroure and superstition and bring them out of all wauering and dout And verily their study and diligence is to be highly commended who for these fewe yeares ago haue set foorth certayne bookes drawen out of the scriptures writteÌ„ in the Germayne tong against sundry errours theirs likewise who in these our dayes by writing of bookes do teache instructe and confirme the rude and vnlearned people For amongst many other excellent benefits which God our heauenly Father hath bestowed vppon mankinde this also is a great and most liberall gifte that in this latter and as it were olde age of the world he hath brought to light by the arte of imprinting as well many other good authors as also the holy scriptures of the olâ—e and newe testament written in diuers languages wherby he dothe not only teache vs amply and fully what to beléeue and what to doe but also mightyly subuerteth and quite ouerthroweth diuers and sundry errours which by little and little haue crept into the Church Truly all suche are very vngrateful towards God which doe not willingly acknowleage this so notabel a benefite As touching this my treatise concerning Spirits and straunge wonders I haue deuided it into three partes for the more clere vnderstanding therof In the first parte I shewe that there are visions and spirits and that they appeare vnto men sometimes and that many and maruellous things happen besides the ordinarie course of nature In the second I discusse what manner of things they are that is not the souls of dead meÌ„ as some meÌ„ haue thought but either good or euill Angels or else some secrete and hid operations of god In the third I declare why God doth sometime suffer Spirits to appeare and diuers forewarnings to happen and also howe men ought to behaue them selues when they happen to méete with such things In these points or partes the chiefest thing whereon men vse to reason touching this matter are conteined Nowe I meane to handle this matter being very obscure and intricate with many questions I trust so plainly clerely out of the holy scriptures wheron we may surely stay our selues out of the auncieÌ„t fathers allowed historiographers and other good writers that those which are studious and louers of gods truth may well vnderstand what may be denied and thought of those apparitions and other straunge and maruellous matters And I also trust that euen our aduersaries also in case they will lay their affections aside but a litle while will say that I haue truly alleaged all their arguments and confuted them without any rayling or bitternesse For my purposed ende is according to the doctrine of saincte Paule to edifie and not to destroy As touching diuinatioÌ„s blessings iugglings coÌ„iurings and diuers kinds of sorcerie and generally of all other diuelishe practises certayne learned men of our time haue written bookes as Gasper Peâ—cerus Ioannes Viera Ludouicus Mellichius and perchaunce some others also whose works I haue not yet séene It is not long ago since Ioannes Riuius a man learned and eloquent published a booke in the latine tong entreating of spirites and superstition In the which booke albeit very briefly yet doth he as he is wont in all things very finely and eloquently intreat of this matter and of other foolishe superstitions And albeit that I doo write more largely of this yet was it not my minde to gather togither all those things whiche I coulde haue spoken and alleaged touching the same matter but only suche as séeme the chiefest and most especial points partly because I wold not be tedious to the reader partly also least my bookes should growe vnto an ouer greate quantitie I haue great hope that Ioachimus Camerarius that excellent man who readeth the auncient writers both gréeks and latins with exquisite iudgemeÌ„t and hath great experience in all things will shortly write learnedly and at large of this matter and also of others like vnto it For so much he séemeth to promise in his preface to Plutarches booke De defectu oraculorum figura consâ—crata Delphis wherin he handleth the nature and operations of diuels and also in other of his writings I for my parte had once
written thys my treatise in the vulgar tong and now bicause I trust it shal be also profitable to other men I haue translated it into latine adding certayne things thereto This my booke which I haue with greate laboure and study gathered out of many mens writings I present and offer vnto you most noble consul according to the ancient fashion and custome not for that I suppose you haue any néed of my teaching touching these things which are herein haÌ„dled For I am not ignoraunt vnder what teachers you haue attained vnto true learning and how you haue and do continually reade ouer sundry good authors with perfecte knowledge in many tongs But partely that I might purchase credite and authoritie vnto this my booke with those men vnto whome your goodnesse godlines and constancie whche you haue alwayes hitherto euermore shewed and yet do shewe in setting foorth true religion and mainteyning good lawes is throughly knowen and partly that I might shewe my selfe in some respecte thaÌ„kfull vnto you For your honour hath bestowed many benefits on me whom you only knowe by sight and vppon other ministers of the Church wherby ye haue so bouÌ„d me vnto you that I shall neuer be able to make any recoÌ„pence Wherefore I most earnestly beséech you not to refuse this signe and token of my good will be it neuer so simple but rather to voutchsafe when ye haue leisure from the laboure and toile of the common welth to reade ouer this my booke for I haue good hope it will not séeme vnpleasaunt vnto you and others in the reading as well for the playne order I vse therin as also for the sundry and manyfold histories in it recited Almightie God who hath so blessed you with his heauenly gifts that for them albeit very yong you haue aâ—pired vnto the highest degrée in your noble citie and dominioÌ„ of Berna voutchesafe to preserue you in health and increase and multiply his good gifts in you My Lords and brethreÌ„ the ministers of Tigurine and also your olde coÌ„panion master George Grebelius that excellent man in lerning vertue and nobilitie hartily salute your Lordship From Tigurine in the month of Ianuary the yeare of Christs Natiuitie 1570. A TABLE OF the Chapters of the three principall partes touchyng Spirites walking by nyght Of the fyrste parte COncerning certain words which are often vsed in this Treatise of Spirites and diuers other diuinations of things to come Chapter 1. Folio 1. Melancholike persones and madde men imagining things whiche in very deede are not Chapter 2. Folio 9. Fearefull menne imagine that they see and heare straunge things Chapter 3. Fol. 14. Men whiche are dull of seing and hearing imagine many things which in very dede are not so Chapter 4. Fol. 16. Many are so feared by other menne that they suppose they haue heard or seene Spirites Chapter 5. Fol. 21. Priests and Monkes fayned themselues to be Spirites also howe Mundus vnder this coloure defiled Paulina and Tyrannus abused many noble and honest matrons Cha. 6. Fo. 23. Timotheus Aelurus counterfeating himselfe to bee an Angell obteyned a Bishoprike foure Monks of the order of prechers made many vayn apparitions at Berna Cha. 7. Fol. 28. Of a counterfaite and deceyuing spirite at Orleaunce in Fraunce Chapter 8. Fol. 37. Of a certâ—ine parish priest at Clauenna which fayned him selfe to be our Lady and of an other that counterfaited himself to be a Soule as also of a certayne disguised Jesuite Fryer Chapter 9. Fol â–ª 41. That it is no maruell if vayne sights haue ben in olde tyme neyther yet that it is to be maruelled at yf there be any at this day Chapter 10. Fol. 45. That manye naturall thyngs are taken to bee ghostes Chapter 11. Fol 49. A proofe out of the Gentiles histories that ghostes doe oftentymes appeare Chapter 12. Fol. 53. A proofe oute of the histories of the auncient Churche and of the writings of holy Fathers that there are walking Spirites Chapter 13. Fol. 62. That in the Bookes set foorth by Monkes are many ridiculous and vaine apparitions Chapter 14. Fol. 65 A profe by other sufficient writers that Spirits do sometime appeare Chapter 15. Fol. 68. Daily experience teacheth vs that Spirites do appeare to men Chapter 16. Fol. 7â— That there happen straunge wonders and prognostications and that sodayne noises and cracks and suche like are hard before the death of men before battaile and before some notable altâ—rations and chaunges Chapter â–ª 17. Fol. 77. It is proued by testimonies of holy scripture that Spirits are sometime seene and heard and that other strange matters doâ— often chaunce Chapter 18. Fol. 85 To whome when where and after what sort Spirits do appeare and what they do worke Chapter 19. Fol. 88. The Chapters of the second parte The opinion or beleefe of the Gentiles Iewes and Turkes concerning the estate of soules seperated from their bodies Chapter 1. Fol. 92. The Papists doctrine touching the soules of dead men and the appearing of them Chapter 2. Fol. 102. What hath followed this doctrine of the Papists concerning the appering of mens soules Chapter 3. Fol. 110. Testimonies out of the word of God that neither the soules of the faithfull nor of infidels do walke vppon the earth after they are once parted from their bodies Chapter 4. Fol. 114. Testimonies of the auncient Fathers that dead mens soules parted from their bodies doe not wander here vppon earthe Chapter 5. 116 A confutation of those mennes arguments or reasons which affirme that dead mens soules doo appeare And first that is answeared whiche certaine doo alleage to wit that God is omnipotent and therfore that he can worke contrary to the ordinarie course of nature Chapter 6. Fol. 123. That the true Samuell did not appeare to the witche in Endor Chapter 7. Fol. 127. A confutation of their arguments which would haue Samuell himselfe to appeare Chapter 8. Fol. 133. Whether the Diuell haue power to appeare vnder the shape of a faithfull man Chapter 9. Fol. 140. Moses and Elias appeared in the Mount vnto Chryst our Lorde many haue ben raysed from the dead both in body and soule and therfore soules after they are departed may returne on earth againe Chapter 10. Fol. 145. Whether the holy Apostles thought they sawe a mans soule when Chryste sodeynlye appeared vnto them after his Resurrection Chapter 11. Fol. 148. Concerning the holy Fathers Councels Bishops and coÌ„mon people which say that soules do visibly appeare Cha. 12. Fo. 151. Whether soules do returne agayne out of Purgatorie and the place which they call Limbus puerorum Cha. 13. Fol. 155. What those things are whiche men see and heare and firste that good angels 〈◊〉 sometimes appeare Chap. 14. Fol. 159. That sometymes yea and for the moste part euill Angels doâ— appeare Chapter 15. Fol. 163. Of wondrous monsters and suche lyke Chap. 16. Fol. 164. That it is no harde thing for the diuell to appeare in diuers shapes and to bring
companie are so troubled in minde that they thinke their friends enimies and cannot tell in the world where they are and whether they go all the which commeth by feare Plutarche in his booke De sera numinis vindicta reporteth a maruellous and notable historie of one called Bessus who after he had murdered his father hid him selfe a long season But on a time as he went to supper espying a swalowes nest with his speare he thrust it downe and when those which supped togither with him misliked and abhorred his crueltie for we like not those men that trouble litle birdes and other beasts bicause we iudge them austerne and cruell he aunswered haue they not saith he falsly accused me a greate while crying out on me that I haue slayne and murdered my father Those which wer◠present being striken with greate admiration reported these his words to the king who immediatly caused hym to be tormented and examining the matter diligently at the last founde him giltie and punished him as a manquiller of his owne father Hereof ye may gather what fear◠can do the swalowes coulde not speake and yet he perswaded him selfe that they vpbrayed him with murdering his father Euen so many through feare imagine that they heare and sée many thinges whiche in deede are méer◠trifles Procopius in the beginning of the warres of Italie declareth that as Theodoricus sate at meate after he had put to death Boethius and Symmachus his sonne in lawe a fishes head being brought before him he sawe in it the countenance of Symmachus looking horribly which biting the nether lip with lowring eyes séemed to threaten him wherewith the King béeing sore abashed fell into a gréeuous sicknesse wherof he afterwards died Yea feare if it be vnmeasurable maketh vs to abhorre those things whiche otherwise should be comfortable vnto vs The apostles of our lorde Jesu Christ may be examples hereof Who in the night season being in greate daunger in the Sea when they sawe Christe walking on the water approching towards them wer maruelously appalled For they supposed they sawe a Spirit and cried out for feare But the Lorde came to deliuer them out of that present daunger wherein they were After his resurrection they were maruellously affrayde and as S. Luke saith they verily supposed they saw a Spirit when in deede he appeared vnto them in his owne body Therfore the lord comforteth hartneth them saying Behold my hands my féet for I am euē he hādle me and sée for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye sée I haue They through great ioy could not beleue it but maruelled at it Héere thou séest by feare it came to passe that the Disciples supposed the lord him self to haue ben a ghost And therefore no man ought to maruell if we hindered by feare mistake one man for an other and perswade our selues that we haue séene spirits whereas no suche were They whiche are of stout and hautie corage frée from all feare seldome tymes sée any spirits It is reported of the Scythiās a warlike natiō dwelling in mountaynes from whom it is thought the Turkes take their originall that they neuer sée any vayne sightes of spirits Authors write that Lions are not feared with any bugs for they are full of stomacke and deuoide of feare CHAP. IIII. Men vvhich are dull of seing and hearing imagine many things vvhich in very deed are not so THey which are weake of sight are many tymes in suche sorte deceyued that they beholde one man in stede of an other Poare blynded men whom the Gréekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which can not sée any thing except it be very néere their eyes as for the most parte students are which night and daye turne ouer their bookes are so muche deceiued in their sight that they are many times ashamed to vtter what they haue thought they haue séene And it standeth by naturall reason that an ore séemeth to be broken in the water and a tower foure cornered a farre off sheweth to be rounde Those whiche drinke wine immoderately in suche sorte that their eyes beginne to waxe dimme and stare out of their heads like hares whiche haue bene caried hanging on a staffe a mile or twaine sée things farre otherwise than sober men doe They suppose they sée two candles on the table whē there is but one desiring to reache the potte they put their hand amisse In Euripides tragedie named Bacchis Pentheus affirmeth that he séeth two sunnes and two cities of Thebes For his braines were maruellously distempered It is a common saying that if wine haue the victorie all things seeme to bée turned vpside downe trées to walke mountaines to be moued riuers to runne against the head c. Salomon exhorteth all men from dronkennesse in his prouerbes cap. 23. shewing what discommodities ensue therof and amongst other things he sayeth thus Thy eyes shall sée straunge to witt visions and maruellous apparitions For as timorous men imagin miraculous things euen so do dronken men who of purpose corrupt and spoile their sight And albeit God shew many wonders in the aire and in the earth to the ende he may stir men vp from idlenesse and bring them to true repentaunce yet notwithstanding we must thinke that dronken men which sit vp vntill midnight do often say they haue séene this or that vision they haue behold this or that wonder when as in déed they are vtterly deceyued For in case they had retourned home in due season and not ouercharged themselues with too much wine no suche thing had appeared vnto them For in dede their eyesight had not bin blinded Doth it not often come to passe that when men are once throughly warmed wyth wine they mistake one for another of whom they thought they were abused in worde or déede and violentlye flye on them with weapon The place before alleaged out of Salomon maye also bée vnderstood to thys purpose Thy eyes shall sée straunge to witte women to luste after them For experience teacheth vs that men being dronk assaie to rauishe matrones and maydens which béeing sober they would neuer once thinke vppon Wine immoderately taken is the nurse of rashe boldnesse and filthy lust Aristotle writeth that some menne through the féeblenesse of their sight beholding in the aire néere vnto them as it were in a glasse a certaine image of them selues suppose they see their owne angels or soules and so as the Prouerbe is they feare their owne shadowe Although men in obscure and darke places can sée nothing yet doo they not I pray you imagine they sée diuers kindes of shapes colors And we many times suppose those things which we sée to be farre otherwise than in déede they are It is well knowne a mans sight maye be so deceiued that he verily thinkes that one deuoureth a sword spitteth out money coales and suche like that one eateth breade and spitteth foorth meale
in his book de nobilitate c. 30. that it is to be séen in the historie of Rodulphus king of the Romains that when the sayde Rodulphus had vanquished Othotarus King of Boemia continuing on the place all nyght where tho battell was fought about mydnight certain spirites or Deuils with horrible noyse and tumulte troubled and disordered his whole armie And that those were spirites walkyng by night it appeared hereby that they sodeynly vanyshed away lyke smoake The same Author writeth in his .xxvj. chapter That in the yeare of our Lorde .1280 as one of the Plâ—bans as they call them belonging to the churche of Tigurine preaâ—hed to the people the graue stone of the tumbe or sepulchre of the two martyrs Felix and Regula patrones of the same place violently brake a sunder no man mouyng or touching it giuing a horrible sound lyke vnto thunder so that the people were no lesse astonished and afrayde than yf the vaute of the Churche had fallen downe And he sayth that the same yeare the third day of October the greater part of the citie of Tigurum was brent with fire and more ouer that sedition was moued amongest the Citizens for certaine Ecclesiasticall disciplines and for the Imperiall Banne as they terme it In the yere of our Lord .1440 the twelfth day of December at the dedicatioÌ„ of the foresayd churche about midnight there was the like noyse hearde and immediatly after followed ciuill warres whiche the Tigurins held with vncertaine successe against the other Heluetians for the space of seuen yeares and more The same writer in the .33 Chap. hath that at the same tyme in the yeare of our Lorde .1444 before that valiaunt battayle whiche a fewe Heluetians fought agaynst the innumerable companye of Lewes Dolphine of Fraunce faught by the wall Basill in the tyme of generall the Councell there was hearde certayne nyghtes about those places the alarme of Souldiours the clattering of harneys and the noyse of menne encountring togyther c. Here I purposely omitte many suche lyke examples for there are many Bookes bothe of auncient and also of newe writers touchyng straunge signes and wonders wherin these may be redde CHAP. XVIII It is proued by testimonies of holy scripture that spirits are sometime seene and heard and that other straunge matters do often chaunce YEt perchaunce it wil be obiected vnto vs that wée bring no testimonie oute of holy Scripture touchyng this matter especially to proue that Spirites doo oftentymes appeare vnto menne I aunswere that truthe it is There are fewe things hereof in the Scriptures and yet notwithstanding somewhat is to be redde in them It is read in Saincte Mathewe his fourtéenth chapter of Christes Disciples that when in the night season by reason of a contrary wind they were in greate daunger of drownyng in the lake of Genazareth and that in the dawnyng of the daye the Lorde walked on the water they béeyng afrayde cryed out supposyng they sawe a Spirite Héereof we gather that they knewe well ynoughe that Spirites appeared vnto men vpon sea and lande Lykewise when the Lorde being rysen from death appeared vnto his disciples meaning to assure them of his Resurrection they thought at the firste that they sawe a Spirit In the which place Chryst denieth not but there are Spirits and straunge sightes and that they are sometimes séene but he rather confirmeth the same by putting a difference betwene him selfe spirits or vaine apparitions But as touching these two testimonies we wil speake more in another place It is a notable historie whiche we reade in the seconde Booke of Samuel concerning Saule who at what tyme the Philistians warred vpon hym and that he was in very great daunger of them he came to a woman who was a witche and desired hir to rayse Samuel from deathe that he might knowe his counsell touching the successe of the warres Shée raysed hym vp one whome Saule tooke to be Samuel in déede who also tolde him what euents shoulde come of the warres But whether hée were a true Samuel or a counterfait wée will dispute the matter more at large in his conuenient place As concerning other maruellous things there is somewhat to be read in the Scriptures In the seconde of Samuel the fifth chap. Also in the first of Paralipomenon and the .xiiij â–ª chap. we reade that the Philistins wente vp the seconde tyme into Iurie to make warres on Dauid Hée went vnto the Lord and shewed him the matter who commaunded him that he shoulde embushe himselfe behynde the wood with his armie and when he heard a rustling or noyse in the toppes of the trées he should immediatly sette vpon them This sounde they say was a strange and supernaturall sounde It is written in the second book of the Kings the .vj. and vij chapters that God deliuered the citie of Samariâ— from great famine when it was fiercely besieged by Benhadad king of the Assyrians â–ª for in the night season their enimies dyd heare the noyse of chariots the neyghing of horsses and shréeching of a huge armie as it were in their owne pauillions and tentes supposing therefore that the kyng of Israel had gathered togyther his footemen and horssemen and had nowe sette vpon them they soughte to saue themselues by â—lyghte leauyng theyr victuall and other prouision behynde them in their tentes In the fyrst of Samuel and the seuenth chapter God caused a wonderfull greate noyse to sounde ouer the Philistians and so destroyed them I meane they were so affrighted with a kynde of straunge feare that it was an easy matter to vanquishe them In the fifthe Chapter of Daniell yée may reade that king Balthasar in his roisting banquet espyed ryghte agaynste the candle a hande wryting vpon the wall what his ende shoulde bée It is read in the thirde Chapter of the seconde of the Machabées that there appeared a horsse vnto Heliodorus seruaunt vnto Seleucus Kyng of Asia as hee was aboute to destroye the temple at Hierusalem and vppon the horsse séemed to sitte a terrible man whiche made towardes him to ouerrunne hym On eche syde of hym were two yong men of excellent beautie whyche wyth whippes scourged Heliodorus The seconde of the Machabées and tenth chapter Iudas Machabeus encountred wyth hys enimies and when the battayle was hotte there appeared vnto the enimie oute of heauen fyue men sytting on horsses rayned with notable brydles of golde who ledde the Iewes hoste and two of them defended Machabeus from all his enimies And vnto Machabeus appeared a horsseman in a shinyng garment his Armour all of gold and shaking his speare Whereby it was signified that he shoulde obtayne a notable and famous victorie .2 Macha 11. I alleage not these examples for that I adiudge the bookes of Machabées of as good authoritie as the Canonicall Bookes of the newe and olde Testament but only for that they are ioyned together with them and may be read of euery
words when immediately there followed a great groning not of one man but of many being admiâ—t as it were with greate admiration And bicause many were present in the ship they said the same hereof was spéedely spred abroad at Rome Thamus sent for Tiberius the Emperor who gaue so much credite vnto the matter that he diligently enquired asked who that Pan was The learned men whome he had in great number about him supposed that Pan was he who was the Sonne of Mercuriâ— and Penelope â–ª c. These and such like things Eusebius who also reciteth this historie affirmeth to haue chaunced in that time of Tiberius in the which Chryst being conuersant amongst men expelled al maner of deuils from the societie of theÌ„ Other most Godly professours of our Religion affirme as namely Paulus Marsus in his Annotations vppon the first of Ouids Fasti that this voice was heard out of Paxe the very same night ensuing the day wherein our Lorde suffered in the â—9 yeare of Tiberius whiche was the same yeare that Chryst was crucifâ—ed in by the whiche voiâ—e being vttered in a wildernesse of solitarie rockes it was declared that our Lorde and God had suffred for vs For the word Pan in Géeke signifieth all and then the Lord of al the world was Crucified He addeth moreouer that Theodosius doth say that the Archadiâ—â—s do worship this God calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning thereby to signifie a Lord Ruler not of woordes but of al manner of material substances whose power is suche that it is able to create the essence and substance of al bodies whether that they be heauenly or earthly And albeit he refer this vnto the Sunne yet if a man marke diligently his mysteries haue a higher meaning c. Héereunto belongeth those things which are reported touching the chasing or hunting of Diuels and also of the daunces of dead men which are of sundrie sortes I haue heard of some which haue auouched that they haue séene them No man is able to rehearse all the shapes wherein spirites haue appeared for the Diuell who for the moste part is the worker of these things can as the Poets faine of Proteus chaunge himselfe into all shapes and fashions These walking spirits sometimes stoppe the way before men as they trauel and leade them out of their way and put them in suche greate feare that sometimes they become grayheaded in one night I remember I haue heard the like historie of my olde friende Iohn VVilling a godly and learned man of one in the Countie of Hannâ—w who not many yeares ago méeting with a walking spirite in the night season was so much altred that at his returning home his owne Daughters knewe him not Spirits oftentimes awake men out of their sléepe and cause many to forsake their owne houses so that they can not hire them out to any other Sometymes they ouerthrowe somewhat or strike men or cast stones at them and hurt them either in their bodies or in their goodes yea and sometime God dothe suffer them to bereaue men of their liues It often chaunceth that those mens faces and heades do swell which haue séene or heard spirits or haue ben blasted with them and some are taken mad as we sée by experience I remember wel it hath hapned that some supposing they haue séene armed men who were readie to take them haue therefore assayed to slay themselues which thing may be by craft of the Deuil Spirits do also trouble cattell in the night time in the pastures Thus muche concerning the first part of this woorke wherin I trust I haue proued and made it euident that albeit there be many which vainely persuade themselues they haue séene wandring spirits or haue behelde one in stéed of an other yet notwithstanding that ther are walking spirits that other straunge things do sometime happen I haue also shewed vnto whom they appeare especiallie and where when after what sort or in what fourmes they shewe themselues and what things they worke and bring to passe Whosoeuer dare flatlie denie these manyfolde and agréeable testimonies of the olde and newe writers he séemeth vnworthie in my iudgement of any credite whatsoeuer he say For as it is a great token of lightnesse if one by and by beléeue euery man whiche saithe he hath séene spirits so on the other side it is great impudencie if a man rashely and impudâ—ntely contemne all things which are aduouched of so many and so credible Historiographers and aunciente fathers and other graue men of great authoritie ¶ The second part of this Booke doth shewe that those Spirits and other strange sights be not the Soules of Men but be either good or euill Angels or else some secret and hyd operations CHAP. I. The opinion or beleefe of the Gentiles Ievves and Turkes concerning the estate of Soules seperated from their bodies IN the second part of this book we haue to consider what those thyngs be which as we haue before shewed are bothe hearde and séene in the daytime and in the night whether they be the souls of deade men or no also what the olde Wryters haue iudged of them and what the Holie Scriptures do teach vs herein Plato doth thinke that Heroicall and excellent soules as being of the pure sorte do mount aloft but that other base and viler soules that are defiled with the pleasures and lustes of the body do wander belowe on the ground and the same he déemeth to be those spirites whiche are eftsones séene Also other heathen and prophane writers say they are héereby moued to thinke that the soules of men doe lyue after death for that it is most cleare euident that many spirites wander and raunge hither and thyther and are oft times heard and séene and founde to talke with men for they suppose that most of these are mens soules Tertullian a very auÌ„â—ient writer in his boke De anima saith that the wise Heathens whiche dyd define the soule to be mortall for some of them as namely the Epicures thought that the soules dyed with their bodies thought that the soules of the wise if they departed from their bodies hadde their abiding on hygh but the rest were throwne downe into Hel. Furthermore the Heathen thought the Soules should stray continually abroade before they founde rest vnlesse the bodies from which they were seuered were rightly buried in the earth Wherefore as we may reade in Poets it was a gréeuous crime to caste foorth any bodie vnburied Hector in Homere besoughte Achilles that he would not cast foorth his carcasse to bée deuoured of Dogs and birds but that he would deliuer the same to be enterred by olde Priamus his father and Hecuba his mother Patroclus appeared in a vision by night after his deathe vnto Achilles and requested him to bestowe vppon him all funeral solemnities For otherwise he sayde the soules of those that were buried woulde thrust him backe
that he shuld not be able once to enter in at Hel gates Which example Tertullian aledgeth therwithal confuteth this vain opinion of the heathen Palinurus in Virgill besought Aeneas that he woulde cast earth on him when he was dead and erect vnto him an horsse for so did they call those Monuments of the deade in whiche albeit no man was layde yet were they vsed in the honour of the deceassed Vergill writeth that Deiphobus his Ghost wandred abroade vnto the whiche Aeneas erected an Horse For the Gentiles were of suche opinion in those dayes that they thoughte an emptie and counterfeyted buriall profited very much Moreouer the heathen were persuaded that the soules which dyed before their naturall time especially of those which perished by violent death whome they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by hanging drowning or beheading c. dyd strap abroade so long time as they should haue liued if they had not ben slaine by violent death Which opinion Tertullian also confuteth Plato in his 9. booke De legibus writeth that the soules of those which are slayne do pursue their murtherers so far that they do hurt them the which except it be vnderstoode by way of a Metaphor is likewise to be reiected The Catholik faith amongst the Iewes was that the soules of the dead did not return into this erth but either were at rest which was when they dyed in the faythe of the promised Messias or were condemned if they departed hence in their sinnes withoute repentaunce For Iob in his 7. chapter sayth Euen as the cloude vanisheth and fadeth away so he that goeth downe to the graue shall come vp no more nor returne into his house c. But if thou wilt say that Iob was an Ethnick it may be alleaged of Dauid that when he was in very greate daunger and death euen present before his eyes he prayed in the 31. Psalm Into thy handes O Lord I commend my spirite The Preacher also in his 12. chapter sayth The spirit shall returne to God that giueth it In the boke of Wisedome which of old wryters is attributed to Philo Iudeus the third chapter therof it is written the soules of the righteous are in the hande of God and no torment shal touch them And on the other side the soules of the wicked go downe into hell In the 49. Psalm it is written of those welthy worldlings whiche for lucres sake departe from God and his commaundements They are layd as shéepe in Hel death shal consume them and Hell is their habitation c. If the Iewes had beléeued that the soules after this life were tormented in Purgatorie no doubt amongst so many diuers kyndes of sacrifices whiche they offered for the sinnes of the lyuing they woulde at laste haue some one kynd of sacrifice wherby to redéeme souls or in some part to assuage and mitigate their paines And that soules do returne after deathe do offer themselues to be séene and beheld of men and require ayde of them we find no wher in the old Testament but rather the contrary In the 2. of Samuel 12. Dauid speaketh this of his yong childe that he begat by Bersaba that he could not bring him into life againe that he would go to him and the chyld should neuer returne vnto him againe And Iesus the sonne of Syrach in his .38 chapter sayth there is no returning from death Of the vision whiche was shewed to Samuel we will straightway speake in his proper place And that in latter ages long after Christ came in flesh there were some amongest the Iewes who thought that the soules seperated from their bodies dyd straye and raunge a broade it may hereby be gathered for that certaine of the Rabbines write that the soule of Naboth which was slayne bycause he woulde not sell his Uyneyarde to Achab was that Spirite that promised his helpe to seduce Achab béeing as it were one that coueted his death The Turkes also beléeue that the soule is immortall and that assoone as they are loosed from the body they come eyther into a place of rest or of torment But whether that they dyd think that soules returned agayn into the earth and roue there too and fro I could find no playn mention thereof in their Alcaron CHAP. II. The Papistes doctrine touching the soules of dead men and the appearing of them THe Papists in former times haue publikely both taught written that those spirits which men somtime sée and hear be either good or bad angels or els the soules of those which either liue in euerlasting blisse or in Purgatorie or in the place of damned persons And that diuers of theÌ„ are those soules that craue ayde and deliueraunce of men But that this doctrine of theirs and the whole state therof may be the more euideÌ„tly perceiued we wil more largely repete the same out of their owne bokes Iacobus de Cusa a Carthusian Frier Doctor of diuinitie wrote a book of the Apparition of soules after they were seperated fro the bodies which work of his hath in it many supersticious toyes and was Printed in a town belonging to the dominion of Berna named Burgdroâ—e in the yeare of our Lorde 1475. Popish writers commenting on the 4. boke of the Maister of Sentences do appoint foure places to receyue soules after they are departed from the bodies Thrée of the which places they say are perpetuall one which lasteth but for a tyme already lymitted The first place or receptacle is Caelum Empireum the firie heauen so termed of his passing gret brightnesse and glorie which they say is the seate ordeined for the blyssed sort this place by an other in Scripture is called Paradise The second place is Hel vnder the earth being the Mansion of Deuils and Infidels departing hence in deadely sinne without repentance The third place they tearme Limbus puerorum whiche is prouided as wel for the Children of the faythful as of the vnfaythfull who they say shal continually abyde there without any sense of payne being only depriued from the fruition of Gods presence And therefore they say that after their death they ought not to be buried in holy buriall The fourth place is Purgatorie whiche is prepared for them that departe hence without deadly sin or if they committed any such sinnes dyd some penance for them but yet made full satisfaction for theÌ„ or else went hence only stayned with venial sinne Of this place to wit Purgatorie Popish writers teach maruellous things Some of them say that Purgatorie is also vnder the earth as Hel is Some say that Hell and Purgatorie are both one place albeit the paines be diuers according to the deserts of soules Furthermore they say that vnder the earth there are more places of punishment in which the soules of the dead may be purged For they say that this or that soule hath ben séene in this or that
that life and deathe peace and warre the alteration of Religion the exchaunge of Empires and of other things are in his power that we might thereby learne to feare him and to call vppon his name In the meane season Sathan also fayneth and worketh many thyngs to terryfie men and to plant superstition in their hartes But that all thyngs are not doone by Sathan héereby we maye vnderstande It chaunceth that one is thrust thorowe and slayne by one wyth whome hée neuer was at variance but hath euer vsed him as hys friende some man is drowned or falleth down from some highe place or otherwise is miserably slayne an euill spirite can haue no foreknowledge héereof for there are no naturall signes or coniectures going before them as there are in diseases yet notwithstanding some signes and rare casualties fall out before Héereof doe I gather that these things are wrought by God who onely knoweth that they shal come to passe and they are not onely admonishmentes vnto them whome they especially concerne but also vnto them whiche heare them and are present at the doing of them There was a certayne Magistrate within the liberties of Tigurine not long before I wrote this whom certaine of his friendes taried for to breake their fast with him before he tooke his iourney and thus waighting they supposed they heard a knyfe falling from the vpper parte or floore of the stewe wherein they were yet sawe they nothing and sodenly as they coÌ„muned togither of this straunge wonder they thought they heard it agayne In the meane while commeth the Magistrate vnto whome they declare what had happened and as they had skant ended their talke the knyfe fell agayne the thirde time in the hearing of the Magistrate who before doubted very much of the matter And therefore taking occasion héereby hée began to exhorte them that whereas within fewe dayes after a greate mariage shoulde be kepte in the same place they should all endeuoure to maintayne peace obserue sobrietie least perchaunce through quarelling murther it should be a bloudy mariage After he taking his iourney within a day or twayne dispatching his businesse as he was returning towards his Castle his horsse falling into a ryuer which was sodenly encreased with rayne after hée had long striued with the water at the last died myserably And that the Deuill dothe delude men wyth straunge happes héereof I gather that if any be taken with gréeuous sickenesse so that not onely the Phisition but also the sicke themselues dispaire of their owne healthe in the nighte tymâ— there is heard a noyse as if one were making a coffin or chest to lay one in or were burying a dead body that suppose I to be an illusion of the Deuil for hée thinketh verily the diseased wil die whom God by means of godly and earnest prayers dothe restore agayne to his former health Where as Plinie writeth that rauens are of such sharp senses that they wil flye thrée or foure dayes before vnto the place where carryon wil afterwardes be it is altogyther vaine fabulous If this were graunted it were no obsurditie to say that the deuil hath a knowledge of things to come yea euen where there are no naturall causes c. Moreouer he may by Gods permission if warres and mutinies be towardes stirre the instrumentes of warre and al other kynde of munition as it lyeth in the Armorie he can make a noyse reare a clamour crie as it were of a great Armie in the ayre and play as it were on a Drum and do other such things whiche al Hystoriographers affirme with one voyce haue oftentimes chaunced CHAP. XVII That it is no hard thing for the Deuill to appeare in diuers shapes and to bring to passe straunge things BUt it is no difficult matter for the deuil to appeare in diuers shapes not only of those which are aliue but also of deade mâ—nne whereof I spake also before when I entreated of Samuels appearing yea and whiche is a lesse matter in the fourme of beastes and birdes c. as to appeare in the likenesse of a blacke Dog a horsse an Owle and also to bring incredible things to passe it is a thing most manifest for he may through long and great experience vnderstande the effectes force of naturall things as of herbes stones c. and by meanes héereof woorke maruellous matters And then he is a suttle and quick spirit which can redyly take things in hande whiche in eache thing is of no small weight By his quicknesse by his knowledge in naturall things he may easily deceyue the eye sight and other senses of man and hide those things which are before our face and conuey other things into their places Whereof the holy Scriptures and histories continual experience beareth record Howe dyd the wicked spirit handle Iob what dyd he not bring to passe in shorte space What strange workes of an euil spirit did Bileam bring to passe did he not purchase a famouse name by his Magical arts what wonderful great miracles dyd Pharaos Sorcerers Did not Simon Magus so be witch the Samaritanes wyth his vnlawfull Artes that he would say he was the great vertue of God Touching this coniurer the olde Fathers write many things as Iereneus in his first book and tenth chapter Eusebius in his second booke thirtéenth chapter Egesipppus writeth in his third booke and second chapter of the destruction of Hierusalem that this Symon came to Rome and there set himselfe against Peter boasting that he could flye vp into Heauen and that hée came at the day appoynted vnto the Mounte Capitoline where leaping from the rocke he flew a good while not without the gret admiration of the people who nowe began to credite his wordes but sodenly he fell downe and brake his leg and after being carried vnto Aritia there died Iohannes Tritenhemius Abbot of Spanheimium writeth in his Cronicles concerning the Monasterie of Hirsgraue of the order of S. Bennet in the yeare of our Lorde .970 that Peter and Baianus the two Sonnes of one Simon a Monke ruled ouer the Bulgarians wherof the one namely Baianus was throughly séen in the Arte of Necromancie and thereby wrought many myracles He chaunged himselfe into a Wolfe so often as he list or into the likenesse of an other beast or in such sorte as he could not be discerned of any man and many other straunge things he could do and dyd whereby he brought men into great admiration And after in the yeare .876 he writeth that there was a certaine Iewe named Sedechias sometimes philosopher and physition vnto Lewes the Emperour who being very cunning in sorcerie did straunge miracles and wonderfull sleyghts before the Princes and before all other men For he brought it to passe by his cunning that he séemed to deuoure an armed man with his horsse and all his harnesse and also a carte loaden with hay together with the horsse and carter
to deliuer vs from euill to strengthen our fayth and to giue vs pacience and other necessarie things Neither should we be touched with compassion of other mennes miserie which are vexed with spirits but we woulde rather say that they can not tell what they speake and that they imagine many vayne feares Moreouer if other vnderstande that godly men are for their exercise vexed by spirits they become more pacient when soeuer they are sicke or otherwise troubled acknowledging theyr owne harmes to be but small in comparison of other mens For nothing is more greuouse than when a manne is tormented by the Diuel Nowe as touching infidells they are constrayned will they or nill they to confesse that there are diuels for there are many which would neuer be persuaded there are good or euill Angels or spirits except sometimes they had experience therof in déede God suffreth these things to chasten them For so muche as they will giue no place vnto truth but are wilfully deceyued it is good reason they be taught by diuelishe illusions what they must do or leaue vndone and that they be illuded by euill spirits after some other meanes Thus we reade in the .13 chapter of Deuteronomie if there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreames and giue thée a signe and wonder and that signe or wonder that he hath saide come to passe and then say let vs go after straunge Gods which thou hast not knowne and lette vs serue them hearkeÌ„ not thou vnto the words of that prophet or dreamer of dreames For the Lorde thy God proueth you to wit whether ye loue the Lord your God with all your soule Ye shall walke after the Lorde your God and feare him kepe his commandements and hearken vnto his voice serue him and cleaue vnto him And he addeth further that the same Prophete or dreamer shall dye the death By these words we do not only sée that God doth suffer suche leude fellowes to worke maruellous things but also to what ende and purpose he permitteth it that is to trye his faithfull how constant they be and how faithfully they would beleue in him if at any time spirits do come and foretell things to happen hereafter Our sauioure Christ saith in the thirde chapter of Saincte Iohn This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loued darknesse more than light bicause their déedes were euill for euery one that doth euill hateth the light neyther commeth he to the light least his déedes shoulde be reproued c. By the which woordes our Sauiour sheweth the cause why the worlde is condemned whiche is bycause they receyue not the lyght of the woorde of God or Christe himselfe who is the light of the worlde sette foorth vnto vs in his woorde but rather shut their eyes agaynst the cleare light preferring darkenesse that is errours superstition and wickednesse before the woord of god If God then condemne and reiecte the vnthankfull worlde what maruell is it if he vexe them with spirites and vayne apparitions Chryst sayth in the fyfth of Iohn I come in my Fathers name and you receyue me not yf an other come in his owne name you receyue him Christe laboured for their health and saluation this they woulde not acknowledge but refused him therfore was it the iust iudgement of God that they shold receyue others that hunted after their owne coÌ„moditie and profite suche as were Theudas Iudas of Galilee and many other false doctours and seditious seducers Wherefore if any refuse to giue eare to Christe and his ministers it is by the iust iudgemente of God that they hearken vnto Spirites and suche like things Saincte Paule in the seconde to the Thessalonians and seconde chapter writeth of Antichrist that he shoulde exercise greate tyrannie in the Churche of God and sheweth agaynst whome and for what cause God will suffer him so to do saying Among them that perishe bicause they recyued not the loue of the truth that they might be saued And therefore God shall sende them strong delusions that they shoulde beléeue lyes that all they myght be damned whiche beléeue not the truth but had pleasure in vnrighteousnesse And in the fourth chapter of his seconde Epistle to Timothe he earnestly beséecheth his scholer to be diligent in preaching dayly He giueth this reason for the tyme will come when they shall not suffer holsome doctrine but after their owne lustes shall they whose eares itche get them an heape of teachers and shall withdraw their eares from the truth and shal be turned vnto fables Now we sée the cause why god dothe suffer seducers false teachers and wicked spirites to deceyue men in the place of true doctours which is for that eyther they vtterly despise his woorde or little esteme it and can not abide godly and constant preachers Touching which matter wée will alleage a fewe examples Pharao contemned God and his seruants Moyses and Aaron wherfore God blynded his eyes that he gaue himself to be ruled by his Magi or wyse men and at the last perished miserably in the red Sea. Saule woulde not giue eare vnto Samuell who bare a ryght hart and good affection towardes his king he loued him not as by reason he shoulde haue done but haâ—ed him and all other that loued him right wel for he contemned the woord of god Wherfore it came to passe that being in extreme daunger he sought help of a witch to reare Samuel froÌ„ the dead that he might now vse his aduise whoÌ„ he despised béeing aliue disdayned to heare him This woman reareth one who is no otherwise called Samuel than when false gods are called gods when in very déede they are not gods but wood and stones or rather as Paul sayth .1 Corin. 10. very diuels This counterfait Samuel giueth him neither comforte nor counsell but driueth him to vtter desperation The same hapned vnto Saul whiche chaunceth vnto those stubborne children whiche despise their pareÌ„ts contemne their counsel wold gladly wishe their death at the last grow vnto y point that they wold willingly take in haÌ„d a great iourney on coÌ„dition it might be graunted them to heare them giue their last counsell An other example herof Achab king of Israel Iezabel his wife had many godly prophets amoÌ„gst whoÌ„ Elias was a man indued with the gifâ—e of shewing working miracles But they did not only conteÌ„ne those prophets but also cruelly murdered so many of them as they could catche Yet amongst the rest they especially laboured to intrap Elias who was exceading zelouse The Baalamites were in greate fauoure with the king but especially with the Quéene as hir chief dearlings And when the time approched that Achab shoulde suffer due and worthye punishement for his Idolatrie and wickednesse wherein he had long time liued he entred councell with his kinsman Iosaphat that they ioyning their powers togither might recouer agayne the
and knowe the truth c. By the woorde spirite are vnderstoode false teachers whiche vaunt themselues of the spirite of God But what cause is there why it maye not be vnderstoode of suche wandring spirites whiche haue induced men to take in hande many things In the seconde Epistle to the Thessalonians and the seconde Chapter when certayne affirmed the latter daye to be presente at hande Paule foretelleth them that there shall be a defection and that Antichrist shall first come saying Nowe we beséech you brethren by the comming of our Lorde Iesus Chryste by our assembling vnto hym that yée be not sodenly moued from your intent nor troubled neyther by spirite nor by word nor by letter as it were from vs as though the day of Christ were at hande Let no man deceyue you by any meanes c. Which wordes truely in my iudgement may also be verie aptly vnderstood of those wandering spirits Saint Iohn sayth in hys first Epistle and fourth chapter Dearly béeloued beléeue not euery spirit but trie the spirits whether they are of God for many false Prophetes are gone out into the world Héereby shall yée knowe the spirit of god Euery spirit that cōfesseth that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God and euery spirite whiche confesseth not that Iesus Chryst is come in the flesh is not of god c. Héere he speaketh not of spirites which falsly affirme themselues to be mens soules but of those teachers whiche boaste of themselues that they haue the spirite of god But in case we must not beléeue them being aliue much lesse ought we to credite them when they are dead And albeit that neyther Chryste nor hys Apostles had so diligently giuen vs warning not to suffer our selues to be seduced with myracles and with the talke of spirites yet notwithstanding dayly experience teacheth vs to be circumspect and warie in these cases For as soone as false teachers sée that they haue no testimonie of Scripture to defende themselues withall by and by they turne themselues to spirits and visions whereby they may confirme their Doctrine which thing hath opened a large window to many erroures To what inconuenience Ambition couetounesse enuie hath brought many of the clergie it is both well knowne by many examples and it hath also as it were by the waye béene before declared Haue not the orders of Monkes striued amongest themselues for the preheminence haue not they inuented newe miracles haue they not counterfeited Gods Pilgrimages Saintes spirits The holy Uirgin is a famouse notable exāple that we shuld not rashly beléeue euery spirit For at what time the Angel Gabriel apeared vnto hir in a visible shape saluted hir shewing hir before of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God she thought with hir selfe what maner of salutation that shuld be how this thing could come to passe séeing she had knowen no man Then at the last being enfourmed of the means by the Angel she sayd Behold the handmayde of the Lorde be it vnto me according to thy word Why then should we beléeue euery spirite especially those which teach things quite contrarie to the word of God. CHAP. IX After vvhat sorte the faithfull in the primitiue Churche vsed themselues vvhen they mette vvith spirites I Haue declared out of the word of God how good and godly men ought to behaue themselues when soeuer any spirites appeare vnto thē And truely the auncient Christians behaued themselues after this sorte For they were couragious without feare they gaue themselues to godlynesse and all good workes they diligently auoyded all things which were displeasing vnto God and they were also verie circumspect not to attribute too much vnto spirites and visions It was a cōmon custome amongst thē to blesse themselues with the signe of the Crosse when they met with these things which many also vse at this day Tertullian writeth in his booke De corona militis that the auncient Christians did many times marke their foreheades with the signe of the Crosse. S. Hierom exhorteth Demetriades that he often crosse his foreheade least that the destroyer of Egipt finde any place therein Origen also Epiphanius Chrisostome and Augustine write many things of the vertue of the holie Crosse. S. Athanasius writeth in hys booke de Humanitate verbi eiusque corporali aduentu fol. 67. In times past sayth he the deuils by vaine shewes and mockerie ensnared men abiding somtimes in wels somtime in ryuers in stones and woods and so by craftie deceytes brought vnwise men into sottishnesse But nowe since Gods worde hath appeared vnto vs suche sightes and vaine fantasies haue surceased Fol. 56. and .72 and in other places also he handleth the same matter Lanctantius writeth of the same in his fourth boke Diuinarum Institutionum 26. chapter and also thorowout the 27. Chapter He saythe that the deuill can haue no accesse vnto those nor any wayes hurte them whiche signe their foreheades with the crosse He addeth moreouer that the Christians vsed this ceremonie in olde time in casting out deuils and healing diseases Not for that they ascribed such efficacie and force to the externall signe of the crosse for that were supersticious but vnto the crosse that is to the merytes of Chryste whose worthinesse and excellencie they called withall to their remembrance Touching the holy Apostles or Apostolike Churches we reade not that they euer vsed the signe of the crosse in expelling deuils in curing diseases or in any other thing God spared the Iewes in Egipt whiche marked the doore postes with the bloude of the Lambe not that Lambes bloude is able to deliuer men from death but it was a figure of the bloud and passion of Christ Iesus And the Iewes sprinkled not bloud of their owne good deuotion as they terme it but by the commaūdement of god The holy fathers by the ceremonie that they signed themselues wyth the crosse mente to testifie their confidence in the crosse that is in the deth of Christ Iesus which abandoneth all euill and mischiefe The deuill neuer a whit feareth the crosse wherewith we signe our selues nor yet those pieces fragmentes of Christes crosse which are shewed for reliques but he trembleth at the power and force of Chrystes death by the whiche he was conquered and ouerthrowen If any man attribute too muche vnto ceremonies he cannot be excused from supersticion which worthily deserueth blame We read more in the auncient wryters that they vsed exorcismes or coniurations in the primatiu◠Churche against Deuils You may read in Tertullian in his booke De anima that vncleane spirites haue often times deceyued men haue taken on them the persones of others and haue fayned themselues to be the soules of dead men that men should not beléeue that all soules descended into Hell what is to be vnderstood by the worde Hell I haue shewed before and so to bring the beleefe of the latter Iudgemente
any allowed authors that in the time of the apostles and many dayes after this gréeting was accounted as a prayer or that any godly men did salute and call vpon the holy virgin Which thing I write not bicause I would bereue the holy Uirgin of hir honor but least that against hir will wée giue hir that honour which is only due to God the Father and to his sonne Iesu christ For he is our onely mediatour and redéemer 1. Timoth. 2. Otherwise the Aue Marie and other such places of holy Scripture full of consolation and comfort touching the humanitie of Christ his punishment death and merites are to be often read and diligentely considered neither are the Scriptures to be pulled out of the handes of the laye people in whiche they may sée all these things with their owne eyes In déede I denie not but Spirites haue many tymes vanished away vpon the saying of Aue Marie but it was so doone that men myght therby be confirmed in their superstition But these men procéeding further did coniure or consecrate water with certain peculiar ceremonies and kept it in vessels in their churches houses and elsewhere amongest many other vertues ascribing this force vnto it that it chaseth away spirites and vayne sights They also consecrated salte and taught that whether soeuer it were cast it draue away spirits and all deceytes of the diuel yea and the diuel himselfe also Moreouer they coniured with certain ceremonies and words candles palme herbs and other creatures to driue awaye fantasies as they terme them They layde these and such lyke things as also the relikes of Saintes in those places wheras Spirits had ben séene or heard They also beare men in hande that greate belles and sancebelles by their noyse frayed spirites out of the ayre All these things are founde more at large in the Papists bookes whiche are written of the consecration of suche things and are publikely extant If belles be roong on S. Iohns day or S. Agathes day they say it is a most excellent remedie against spirits Some vsed to burn a buÌ„dell of consecrated herbes that with the smoke therof they mighte thase away diuels Many haue their peculiar and straunge blessings agaynst spirites There haue bene also many holy rites instituted by the coÌ„maundement of wandring soules as Masses for the dead vigils prayers and twelue months minds as though the soules of godly men being deliuered from all trouble were not immediately translated into eternall rest And it is also plain by reding the Poets and Historiographers that the Gentiles had their sacrifices for the dead as their rites called Nouendialia which were obserued the ninth day and their yearely feastes c. Howbeit those counterfait ghostes craued nothing so earnestly as that many Masses might be song for their sakes for they bare men in hand that those had great and maruellous force to redeme them out of Purgatorie Iohn Tritenhemius writeth in his Chronicles of the Monasterie of Hirsgauium about the yeare of our Lorde 1098. Henricus the fourth then being Emperoure that at such tyme as the order of the Cistertians first began there appeared many dayes and nights not far from the citie of Wormes great troupes of horsmen and footmen as if they were now going foorth to battail running now here now there in troupes that about .ix. of the clock at night they returned again to the hill nere at hand out of the which they vsed to come forth At last a certain monke of the abbey of Limpurge which stode not far from the hil wheÌ„ce they issued associating certain other vnto him came on a certain night to the place of the hil blissing himself with the sign of the holy crosse adiured them in the name of the holy and vnseparable Trinitie as they came out of the hill to declare vnto him who they were vnto whom one of the company made answer we ar quod he no vain things neither yet liuing souldiers but the soules of earthly meÌ„ seruing in this world vnder our prince who not loÌ„g since was slain in this place The armour furniture horses whiche were vnto vs instrumentes of sinne while we liued are euen nowe after oure death certayne signes and tokens of tormentes Whatsoeuer ye sée aboute vs is all firie vnto vs although you nothing discerne our fyre When the Monks enquired whether they might be holpen by men the spirit aunswered we may saith he be holpen by fasting and prayers but chiefly by the oblation of the body and bloud of Christ which thing we beseche you to do for vs As soone as he had so sayd all the whole route of spirits cried thrée times with one voice pray for vs pray for vs pray for vs And sodainly withall they séemed to be all resolued into fyre yea and the hill it selfe as if it had bin on fyre â—ast forth as it were a great crashing and rushing of trées They had in Churches a peculiar order of them whome they called Exorcistes or coniurers whose duetie was to coniure and driue awaye Diuels but they were not so indued with that gifte as the auncient Christians were and therefore they did but vaunt and boast of themselues Afterwards certaine Monks and priests well séene in Magicall sciences for they were neuer without such trim men toke vpon them to coniure and driue away euill spirits out of houses into wods desert places They wroght maruellouse straunge things and they sayd that a spirit in the name of saincts and by the vertue of their coniuring and charecters was constrayned to giue place whether he would or not In dede the Diuel giueth place but he doth it as enimies do which by flying chuse a more fitte place to fight in or more apte to embushe them selues That which Sathan doth he doth it willingly and of his owne accorde that he might withdrawe men from trusting in God only and driue them hedlong into Idolatrie Christ and his disciples cast out Diuels but they were loth and vnwilling to departe Moreouer they vsed to hang saincte Iohns Gospell about their necks and caried about wyth them hallowed waxe inclosed in a purse which they call an Agnus Dei. There are certaine bookes abroade especially one written by Iacobus de Clusa a Carthusian concerning the appearing of soules separated from their bodies wherin amongst other things we reade after what sorte men should prepare them selues when any Spirits appeare how they shall behaue them selues in comming to them in departing from them in the place where they appeare and what questions are to be proposed vnto theÌ„ touching whiche things I spake before in the second parte of this booke and second chapter where if you list you may finde them I haue heard men which haue confessed themselues to haue bin so superstitious that when the priest lifted vp the host as they call it in saying masse they woulde presently wipe their face with their hands bycause they
theyr feare was longer than they had cause to feare Upon this the house stoode desert and solitarie wholly leâ—te vnto the monster whiche haunted it yet was it proclaymed to bée solde if happily any man whiche was ignorant of this great mischiefe would eyther buy it or hire it Athenodorus chanced to come to Athens and there readeth the writing on the doore And when he had learned the price bycause he suspected the good cheapnesse thereof enquiryng further vnderstoode the whole matter and notwithstanding any thyng that he hearde he hired the house so muche the rather When it waxed nighte he commaundeth his seruauntes to make his bedde in the vtter partâ— of the house he taketh his writing tables his writing wier and a candle and sendeth all his seruantes into the inner part of the house He himselfe settleth his mynd his eyes and hand to write least his mind being vnoccupied should imagine it heard strange figures and should bréed vayne feare In the beginning of the night there was silence as is in all other places but not long after the iron began to ring and the chaines to moue but yet he would not looke vp nor let cease his writing but hardned his hart stopped his eares Then the noyse increaseth draweth néere and seemeth somtimes to be without the porche somtimes within Then he looketh back seeth and acknowledgeth the shape wherof he had heard before the image stood still beckned with his finger as though he had called him the philosopher on the other side signifieth with his hand that he should stay a while and falleth agayne to his writing The image shaketh his chaines ouer his head as he sate writing He looketh about again and séeth him becknyng as he did before And so rysyng vp without delaye taketh the candle in his hand and foloweth the image goeth before with a softely pase as though hée were heauily laden with chaines After hée had turned aside into the court of the house sodeinly vanishing away leaueth his walking mate alone He being forsaken layeth herbes and leaues gathered togither vpon the place The next day he goth to the rulers of the citie and willeth them to commaunde the place to bée digged vp whiche doone they fynde boanes wrapped and tyed in chaynes whyche the body béeing pâ—triâ—ied and consumed with long lying in the earth had lefte lying in bondes those boanes béeing gathered togither were buryed solemnely The house after they were orderly layde in the grounde was euer after cleare of all suche ghostes In these things I must beleue other mens reports but that which foloweth I can boldly affirme on myne owne knowledge I haue one with mée sometyme my bondeseruaunt but nowe enfraunchized and set at libertie a man not vtterly vnlerned with him my yonger brother lay togither in one bed He in his own imagination séemed that he saw a certain personage sitting vpon the bedde where he laâ—e putting kniues vnto his head and therwith polling off his heares When it was day light the â—eareâ— were found on the ground he being in very dede notted aboute the crownâ— of his head Shortly after the like happened vnto hym which made all men beléeue the firste was true The boy amongst a great many of his fâ—llowes chaunced to sléepe in the schole and being in sléepe there came certayne in at the windowes as he sayde clothed in white garments and shore of his heare as he lay and so departed agayne as they came This polling and also his haires scattered abroade were founde when it was day No notable matter ensued hereof except it were perchaunce that I was not accused of treason as I shoulde haue bin if Domitianus who died about this time had liued longer For there was a libell found in his coffers giuen vnto him agaynst me written by master Carus By whiche it may well be coniectured that in so much as those which are accused do vse to let their heare growe very long the cutting of my friends heare was a sure signe of escaping the great daunger which then hong ouer my head Wherfore I hartyly require you to strayne your learning The matter is worthy wherin ye may vse long and déepe consideration and I surely am vnworthy to whom ye shold opeÌ„ your knowlege You may therfore if it please you dispute the matter on both sids as ye are accustomed but yet I pray you haÌ„dle it more throughly on the one side least ye sende me away wandring and hanging in doubt whereas the cause of my séeking counsell is to the ende I might be quit out of doubt Fare ye well What answere master Sura who as it appereth was well learned made vnto master Pliny I do not finde But to say the truth what sound answer could he being a GeÌ„tile make herin The like history is to be red in the collections of Iohn Manlius coÌ„mon places who as Philip Melancthon reporteth dothe write that Theodorus Gaza had a lordship or manour place in Campana giuen him by Nicholas Pope of Rome In the manour wheÌ„ by chaunce one of his farmers had digged vp a coffin with dead mens bones in it there sodenly appeared a spirit vnto him commaunding him to burie the coffin againe or else his sonne should shortly after dye Which when the farmer refused to do shortly after his sonne was found slayne in the night A fewe dayes after the Spirit appeared agayne vnto the husbandman menacing and threatning him that in case he did not burie the aforesayde bones he would kill his other sonne also The man taking warning by his losse and séeing his other sonne fallen sicke goeth vnto master Theodorus and sheweth him all the matter He vnderstanding it goeth with him to the manour and there in the same place where the farmer had before digged vp the coffin casting a new graue they burie the coffin with the bones As soone as thâ—e bones were layde in the graue the husbandmans sonne immediatly recouered his health Dion writeth that the Emperour Traianus was lead out of the house where he hadde taken vp his Inne in the time of an earthquake into a more safer place Iulius Capitolinus which setteth out a fewe liues of the common Emperours reporteth that Pertinax for the space of thrée dayes before he was slayne by a thrust sawe a certayne shaddowe in one of his fishepondes whiche with a sword ready drawen threatned to slay him therby much disquieted him Flauius Vopiscus writeth that wheras Tacitus fathers graue opened it selfe the sides therof falling downe of their owne accord and that his mothers soule appeared bothe to him Florianus day and night as if she had bin liuing it was a most sure and infallible signe that he shoulde dye shortly after Ammianus Marcellinus writing of the signes or prognosticatioÌ„â— of Constantius death saith that he was troubled and terrified in the night season with shapes and figures The same author affirmeth in his 25. booke that a little before Iulianus
died as he sate writing in the tents following the example of Iulius Cesar he saw the image of the publicke Genius or God of the place which was woont to be painted with Amaltheas horne in his hande departing from him more deformed and ill fauoured than when it began to mount vp to the narrowe top of the tent Lucanus as well an excellent historiographer as also a most learned Poet reckneth vp many forwarnings in his first booke of the battaile of Pharsalia which chaunsed before the great conflict betwéen Iulius Cesar and great Pompeius and amongst other things he writeth thus The trumpets blew and looke euen as the battaile ioynd apace â–ª So did the night with silent shaades increase hir darkishe face And then the ghosts of Sylla fierce were plainly sâ—ene in field Therby declaring euill signes of bloud that should be spilde And by the flud of Anien the husbandmen did spye Great Marius out of broken graue his head aduauncing hiye CHAP. XIII A proofe out of the histories of the auncient Churche and of the vvritings of holie Fathers that there are vvalking Spirits YF we reade ouer the Ecclesiasticall histories we shall finde many of these examples Sozomenus writeth in his ecclesiasticall historie the sixt booke and 28. chapter of one Apelles a blacke Smyth by occupation whose name was at that time very famous throughout Egipâ—e for the gifte of working miracles wherewith he was indewed who as he was one night hard at his work had appering vnto him a vision of a Diuel in the likenesse attire of a very beautiful woman mouing intising him to the vice of lechery But he sodenly catching the yron which he wrought on glowing hot out of the fire thrust it in the Diuels face scorched his visage wherat he fretting crying out in al hast fled away Likewise in his 7. booke and 23. chap. writing of the sedition raised at Antioche for the immoderate exactioÌ„ and tribute which Theodosius layd on the citie in the time of warrs wherby the people being offended ouerthrewe the images of the Emperour and his wife dragging them in roapes about the citie and reporting al kinde of villanie and dispite ageinst theÌ„ thus he saith But in the night before assoone as the rebellion began immediatly at the breake of the day it is certainly reported there was a straunge sight séene of a womaÌ„ hauing a huge stature and most horrible looke running vp and downe the cittie through the streats alâ—ft in the aire whisking â—eating the aire with a whip rendring a fearfull sound That as men are wont to prouoke wild beasts to anger whiche serue for publike spectacles euen so it séemed some euil angell by the crafte of the Diuell stirred vp that commotion amongst the people Theodorus Lector in his first booke of collectanies out of the ecclesiasticall historie writeth that as Gennadius patriarch of Constantinople came downe to the high aultar to make prayers and orizons there appeared vnto him a certaine vision or spirit in a most horrible shape and figure which so soone as he had sharplie rebuked straightways he herd a voice crying out aloud that so loÌ„g as he liued he wold giue place cease but wheÌ„ he was once dead he would surely ransack spoyle the Church Which when the good father heard he ernestly prayed for the preseruatioÌ„ of the Church soone after departed this life There are many things to be read in Gregoâ—iê° Nicephorê° â–ª who setteth foorth â—â—clesiasticall matters at larâ—â— Abdias in the liues of the Apostles concerning visions dreames miracles of saints and also appearings of spirites For wise men iudge they were more diligent redie in describing such things than in other maters which might haue beÌ„ to greater purpose and much more profitable for the readers to vnderstand Hée that readeth ouer the Hystories whiche in tymes paste haue ben written and that especially by Monkes shall méete with an innumerable company of these sorte Yet by the waye I must néedes say this that very many things haue bene written by them whych the Readers maye iustly suspecte and stande in greate doubte of Ludouicus Viues Beatus Rhenanus and many other learned men of our tyme in describing other things do fynde greate faulte with the Chronicles written by Monkes for that they were gathered togyther by vnlearned â—â—ltes without any iudgement But let euery man esteme of them as hée lâ—st For albeit there are diuers things in them very foolish ridiculous yet it may be wel thought that many things â—ere so in very déed as they haue committed them to writing A man shall méete with many places concerning visions appearingâ— of Spirits euen in the old fatherâ— also S. Ambrose in his .90 Sermon writeth of a noble Uirgin named Agnes who was crowned with martirdom for the profession of christian religion And as hir pareÌ„ts watched oâ—e night by hir graue they saw about midnight a goodly companiâ— of Uirgins clothed in golden vayles amongst whom also was their â—aughter arayed like vnto the rest who willing the other virgins to stay a while turning hir self towards hir parentes willed them in any case not to bewayle hir as if she were dead but rather to reioyce with hir â–ª for that she had obteined of god eternal life Which as soon as she had spokeÌ„ she immediatly vanisht out of sight S. Augustin deâ—lareth in his booke De cura pro mortuis agenda that when the Citie of Nola was besieged by the Barbaruus the citizens saw Felix the martyr playnly â—ppearing vnto them Touching S. Gregorie who in his Dialogues writeth many suche things we will in 〈◊〉 hereafter when his turne commeth Yée shall reade of many suche lyke in the liues of the auncient fathers which all are not to be reiected as vaine and fabulous for some parte of them were written by graue and learned men whereof letting the rest passe for breuitie sake I will héere rehearse one short historie It is to be séene in the life of Ioannes Chrysostom that Basiliscus Byshoppe of Comane who suffered as a Martir with Lucianus the Priest at Antioch vnder Maximianus the Emperor appéered vnto Sainte Chrysostome when he was in exile and sayde vnto him Brother Iohn be of good comforte for to morrowe we shall be togither But first he appéered to the Priest of that Churche and saide vnto him prepare a place for our deare brother Iohn who wyll shortly come hither Which things the euent proued afterwardes to be true CHAP. XIIII That in the Bookes set foorthe by Monkes are many ridiculous and vaine apparitions WE made mention a litle before of Chronicles written by Monkes Nowe as touching their legendes of Saintes as they terme their storehouses of examples and liues of auncient Fathers in the whiche are many apparitions of Deuils and Spyrits verily there is no cause at all why we shoulde ascribe much vnto them for the most
those that are departed from this lyfe in the true faith of the Messias to come in suche sort that they feele no gréefe but yet are depriued of the sight of god This place they call Abrahams bosom and hell for Hell doth not always betoken a place of tormente but also generally the state that soules are in after this lyfe And that our lord Iesus Christ did visite and release them and when he ascended caried them with himselfe into heauen Albeit certain of the fathers as Ireneus Tertullian Hilarie others think that they shal at the last day ascend to heaueÌ„ Some also there be of our tyme which maintaine this fonde opinion that the soules sléep vntil the day of the last iudgement in which they shal be again coupled with their bodies but this assertion hath no grouÌ„d in holy scripture of the which point diuers haue entreated But especially Iohn Caluin that worthy seruaunt of God in a proper treatise that hée wrote of the same matter in which he doth learnedly confute their reasons that maintein the contrary opinion Wherfore sith holy scriptures as the Fathers vnderstand interprete them teache that the soules of men as soone as they departe from the bodies do ascende vp into heauen if they were godly descende into hell if they were wicked and faithlesse and that there is no thirde place in which soules should be deliuered as it were out of prison that soules caÌ„ neither â—e reclaimed out of heauen or hell Hereby it is made euident that they caÌ„not wander on the earth desire aide of meÌ„ For first the soules of the blyssed néed no aide or help y men caÌ„ giue them on the other side the damned sort can no way be releued the which S. Ciprian the martir in his oration against DemetriaÌ„ dothe plainly witnesse in these words wheÌ„ we be once departed out of this world ther is afterward no place left for repeÌ„taÌ„ce no way to make satisfactioÌ„ here life is either woon or lost so forth Albeit the testimonies alredy alleged on this point of doctrin may wel suffise those that loue the truth are desirous to come to the knowledge therof yet to increase the nuÌ„ber I wil recite other testimonies also out of the fathers to proue manifestly that the soules departed do not again return wander on the earth so that all they which haue not yet stopped their cares that the truth myght not pierce enter into them may euideÌ„tly perceiue that those ancient tymes taught a far better doctrine of those spirits ghosts than other later tymes vnder poperiâ— haue coÌ„mended allowed Tertullian a very auncient writer in the end of his booke De anima sayth the soules do not any longer abide on the earth after they be once loosed from their bodies that neither by their own accord nor other mens coÌ„mandement they do waÌ„der at all after they haue descended into hel but he sayth that euil spirits do vse this kinde of deceyt to fayne themselues to be the soules of suche as are deceassed And that Hell is not open to any soule that it should afterward at any time depart thence Christ our Lord in the parable of the poore man that was in rest and the riche glutton that was in torment doth playnely ratifie vnder the person of Abraham that there can be no maÌ„ sent back to shew or tel ought of the state of hell And albeit the fathers haue noted certain errors and scapes in Tertullian yet ther was neuer any that reproued him for this opinion Athanasius in his booke of questioÌ„s the .xiij. question doth giue a reason wherfore God wil not suffer y any soul decessed shuld return vnto vs declare what the state of things is in hel what great misery is there hereby saith he many errors wold easily spring vp among vs for many diuels might so take on them the shape of men be traÌ„sformed into the likenesse of the dead say that they arose froÌ„ the dead and so publish many lying tales false opinions of things there don therby to seduce and hurt vs Weigh these words of Athanasius I pray thée Sainct Chrysostome in his nynetéenth Homilie on the eight chapter of sainct Mathews Gospell hath in maner the same woordes for hée moueth thys question Why suche as were possessed with Spirites lyued in graues Therefore sayeth he they abode there to put this false opinion in mens heads that those persons soules whyche by violent death departed were turned into Dyuels so dyd seruice vnto witches and soothsayers The which opinion the diuell first broughte in thereby to diminishe the Martyrs prayse and glorie that so the Sorcerers mighte â—lea those persons whose wicked trauell help they vsed those matters saith he ar far from truth For he proueth by the Scripture that the spirites of the godly are not vnder the power of the Diuels nor yet do stray abroade after deathe then that they woulde retourne vnto theyr owne bodyes if they myghte wander whether they lusted And further if they dydde any seruice too theyr Murderers by that meanes they should at their handes receyue a reward for an yll déede and displeasure By natural reason also it can not come to passe that a maÌ„s body should be turned into an other body and therfore also the spirite of a man can not be chaunged into a deuill But among other things which proprely belong to our purpose he sayth If we heare a noyse that sayth I am suche a soule we muste thus thinke that thys talke procedeth of some sleight and subtiltie of the deuill and that it is not the soule of the dead body that speketh these things but the Deuill that deuiseth them to deceyue the hearers And by and by he sayeth that these are to be counted olde wiues words or rather doting fooles toyes to mocke children withall For the soule when it is parted from the body cannot walke any longer in these parties For the soules of the iust are in the hands of god And on the other side the soules of the wicked after their departure hence are straightway lead aside and withdrawne froÌ„ vs which may euidently be séene by Lazarus the rich man And in another place also the Lorde sayth This day will they take thy soule from thée wherefore the soule cannot here wander when it is departed from the body A little afterwarde he addeth that it may be proued out of many places of scripture that the soules of the iust doo not here wander after death For Steuen saide Lorde receiue my Spirit and Paule desired to be loosed and to departe hence and to be with Christ. Also the scripture as touching the patriarks death vseth this phrase he is layde vnto his fathers growen vp vnto a good olde age And that the soules of sinners and wicked men cannot after their departure here abide any longer we may
learne by the riche mans words if we will wey and consider with our selues what he demaunded coulde not obteine For if after death mens soules might any longer haue their conuersation here on earth no doubte the riche man him selfe woulde haue retourned as his desire was and certified his friends of hell torments Out of which place of scripture it is most cleare that soules immediatly vpon their departure from their body are caried vnto a certein place whence they cannot of themselues returne but néeds must wait there for that terrible daye of iudgement Also in his secōd homily of Lazarus amōg other things he saith It is most playne not only by that we haue before rehearsed but also by this parable that soules parted from the body haue their abiding here no longer but are forthwith lead away For it came to passe saith he that he died and was caried away by the Angels And not only the soules of the iust but of the vniust and wicked are hence lead away caried to their proper places which doth euidently appeare by another rich man of which mētion is made in the 12. of Luke to whome the Lorde said Thou foole this night will they take thy soule from thée And in hys fourthe homily of Lazarus he plainly teacheth that we should giue more credite to holy Scripture than to one that came from the dead or an Angell from Heauen Herewithall he also sheweth that the dead do not only make no apperance vnto men liuing but yeldeth reasons wherfore they do not returne hither in these words If god had knowen that the dead being raised might haue profited the liuing he would neuer haue let passe so great a benefite who otherwise dothe giue and prouide vs all things profitable Furthermore he addeth that if it were requisite still to raise vp dead men to make relation vnto vs of such things as there are done this no doubt in continuaunce of time would haue bin neglected and so the Diuell very easily would haue broched and brought in damnable opinions into the world For he might often haue made counterfeit sights or suborne suche as should fayne their selues to be dead and buried and by by to present themselues before men as if they had bin in déede raised from death and by suche manner of persons might so haue bewitched simple soules that they would beleue whatsoeuer he would haue For if now when there is in déede no such thing the vayn dreames as it were of men decessed that haue bin shewed to mē in sleep haue deceyued peruerted destroyed many surely much sooner wold the same haue fallen out if it had bin a thing truly done this opiniō had preuailed in mens heads For if many dead persons had retourned backe again into this life the wicked spirit the diuell would easily haue deuised many sleights wiles brought in much deceit into the life of mā And therfore god hath cleane shut vp this dore of deceit not permitted any dead mā to returne hither shewe what things be done in the other life least the diuell might gredely catch this occasion to plant his fraudulēt policies For whē the prophets were he raised vp false prophets when the Apostles were he stirred vp false Apostles and whē Christ appeared in flesh he sent hither false Christs or Antechrists And when sincere sound doctrin was taught he brought into the world corrupt damnable opiniōs sowing tares whersoeuer he came And therfore although it had come to passe that dead mē shold return again yet wold he haue counterfeited the same also by his instruments by some fained raising of the dead through the blinding bewitching of mens eyes or otherwise by suborning of some whiche should feine themselues to be dead as I said before he would haue turned al things topsituruie and vtterly haue confounded them But god who knoweth all things hath stopped his way that he should not thus deceyue vs and of his great mercy towards vs hath not permitted that at any time any shold returne frō thēce tel vnto mē liuing such things as there are done héerby to instruct vs that we shold be of this opinion iudgemēt that the scriptures oughte to be beleued before other things whatsoeuer bycause that God in them hath most clerely taught vs the doctrine of the last resurrection Further by them he hath conuerted the whole world banished error brought in truth and cōpassed al these things by vile base fishers and finally in them hath giuē vs euery where plentifull argumentes of his diuine prouidence c. S. Cyril in his .xi. booke .36 chap. vpon S. Iohns gospell saith We ought to beleue that when the soules of holy men are gone away from the bodies they are commended vnto the goodnesse of God as into the handes of a most déere father that they do not abide in the earth as some of the heathens beleued vntil such time as they abhorred their graues neither that they are caried as the soules of wycked men vnto a place of excéeding tormēt which is hel Christ hauing first prepared this iorney for vs but that they rather mount vp aloft into their heauenly fathers hands c. And in the Popes canon law causa 13. quaest 2. Fatendū we read that many do beleue that some come from the dead to the liuing euen as on the other side holy Scripture doth witnesse that Paule was caught vp from the liuing into paradise Uppon these words the glose saith that some doe in dede so beleue but falsly sith they be but fansies vayne imaginations as it is in causa 26. quaestione 5. Episcopi What farther may be saide to those men that knowe these things and neuerthelesse do beleue that soules stray in the earth I knowe not yet that I may lay out al things plainly I wil here confute their chiefest arguments CHAP. VI. A confutation of those mennes argumentes or reasons vvhiche affirme that dead mens soules do appeare And firste that is aunsvvered vvhiche certaine doe alleage to vvitte that God is omnipotent and therfore that he can vvoorke contrary to the ordinary course of nature FIrst our aduersaries do lay against vs that by the vsual cōmon course of things the souls of the godly abide in heauē the soules of the wicked in hell vntil the last day do not walk at all but yet that god may dispence with them to appere here somtimes therby to instruct admonish vs And then Samuel did appere after his death vnto king Saule Moses also which forsooke this life many yeres before Likewise Elias who was taken vp into heauen in a fyrie charet appered vnto Christ our sauior his iij. disciples whō he toke with him at his transfiguratiō in the mount Lazarus also of Bethanie returned from death into the earth and many other also wer raysed from death by Christ his apostles and prophets Farther