and the stars Some write that with wishing they can send needles into the livers of their enemies Some that they can transferre corn in the blade from one place to another Some that they can cure diseases supernaturally flie in the air and dance with devils Some write that they can play the part of Succubus and contract themselves to Incubus and so young prophets are upon them begotten c. Some say they can transubstantiate themselves and others and take the formes and shapes of asses wolves ferrets cows apes horses dogs c. Some say they can keep devils and spirits in the likenesse of todes and cats They can raise spirits as others affirme drie up springs turne the course of running waters inhibit the sun and stay both day and night changing the one into the other They can go in and out at awger-holes and saile in an egge shell a cockle or muscel-shell through and under the tempestuous seas They can go invisible and deprive men of their privities and otherwise of the act and use of venery They can bring soules out of the graves They can teare snakes in peeces with words and with lookes kill lambes But in this case a man may say that Miranda canunt sed non credenda Poetae They can also bring to passe that cherne as long as you lift your butter will not come especially if either the maids have eaten up the creame or the good-wife have sold the butter before in the market Whereof I have had some triall although there may be true and naturall causes to hinder the common course thereof as for example Put a litle sope or sugar into your cherne of creame and there will never come any butter cherne as long as you list But M. Mal. saith that there is not so little a village where many women are not that bewitch infect and kill kine and dry up the milke alledging for the strengthening of that assertion the saying of the Apostle Nunquid Deo cura est de bobus doth God take any care of oxen CHAP. V. A confutation of the common conceived opinion of witches and witchcraft and how detestable a sinne it is to repaire to them for counsell or helpe in time of affliction BUt whatsoever is reported or conceived of such manner of witchcrafts I dare avow to be false and fabulous cosenage dotage and poysoning excepted neither is there any mention made of these kind of witches in the Bible If Christ had known them he would not have pretermitted to inveigh against their presumption in taking upon them his office as to heale and cure diseases and to work such miraculous and supernaturall things as whereby he himselfe was specially knowne beleeved and published to be God his actions and cures consisting in order and effect according to the power by our witch-mongers imputed to witches Howbeit if there be any in these dayes afflicted in such strange sort as Christs cures and patients are described in the new testament to have been we fly from trusting in God to trusting in witches who do not only in their cosening art take on them the office of Christ in this behalfe but use his very phrase of speech to such idolaters as come to seeke divine assistance at their hands saying Go thy waies thy son or thy daughter c. shall do well and be whole It will not suffice to disswade a witch-monger from his credulity that he seeth the sequele and event to fall out many times contrary to their assertion but in such case to his greater condemnation he seeketh further to witches of greater fame If all faile he will rather thinke he came an hour too late than that he went a mile too far Truly I for my part cannot perceive what it is to go a whoring after strange gods if this be not He that looketh upon his neighbours wise and lusteth after her hath committed adultery And truly he that in heart and by argument maintained the sacrifice of the masse to be propitiatory for the quick and the dead is an idolater as also he that alloweth and commendeth creeping to the crosse and such like idolatrous actions although he bend not his corporall knees In like manner I say he that attributeth to a witch such divine power as duly and onely appertaineth unto GOD which all witch-monger do is in heart a blasphemer an idolater and full of grosse impiety although he neither go nor send to her for assistance CHAP. VI. A further confutation of witches miraculous land omnipotent power by invincible reasons and authorities with disswasions from such fond credulity IF witches could do any such miraculous things as these and other which are imputed to them they might do them againe and againe at any time or place or at any mans desire for the devill is as strong at one time as at another as busy by day as by night and ready enough to do all mischief and careth not whom he abuseth And insomuch as it is confessed by the most part of witch-mongers themselves that he knoweth not the cogitation of mans heart he should me thinks sometimes appear unto honest and credible persons in such grosse and corporall forme as it is said he doth unto witches which you shall never heare to be justified by one sufficient witnesse For the devill indeed entreth into the mind and that way seeketh mans confusion The art alwaies presupposeth the power so as if they say they can do this or that they must shew how and by what meanes they do it as neither the witches nor the witch-mongers are able to do For to every action is required the faculty and ability of the agent or doer the aptnes of the patient or subject and a convenient and possible application Now the witches are mortall and their power dependeth upon the analogy and consonancy of their minds and bodies but with their minds they can but will and understand and with their bodyes they can do no more but as the bounds and ends of terrene sense will suffer and therefore their power extended not to do such miracles as surmounteth their own sense and the understanding of others which are wiser than they so as here wanteth the vertue and power of the efficient And in reason there can be no more vertue in the thing caused than in the cause or that which proceedeth of or from the benefit of the cause And we see that ignorant and impotent women or witches are the causes of incantations and charmes wherein we shall perceive there is none effect if we will credit our own experience and sense unabused the rules of phylosophy or the word of God For alas What an unapt instrument is a toothles old impotent and unweildy woman to flie in the aire Truely the devill little needs such instruments to bring his purposes to passe It is strange that we should suppose that such persons can worke such feates and it is more strange that
them and beleeve in them and their oracles whereby indeed all good learning and honest arts are overthrowne For these that most advance their power and maintaine the skill of these witches understand no part thereof and yet being many times wise in other matters are made fooles by the most fooles in the world Me thinks these magicall physicians deale in the common-wealth much like as a certaine kind of Cynicall people do in the churcâ— whose severe sayings are accompted among some such oracles as may not be doubted of who in stead of learning and authority which they make contemptible do feed the people with their own devises and imaginations which they preferre before all other divinity and labouring to erect a church according to their own fansies wherein all order is condemned and onely their magical words and curious directions advanced they would utterly overthrow the true Church And even as these inchanting Paracelsians abuse the people leading them from the true order of physick to their charms so do these other I say disswade from hearkening to learning and obedience and whisper in mens eares to teach them their frier-like traditions And of this sect the chiefe author at this time is one Browne a fugitive a meet cover for such a cup as heretofore the Anabaptists the Arrians and the Franciscane friers Truly not onely nature being the foundation of all perfection but also scripture being the mistresse and director thereof and of all christianity is beautified with knowledge and learning For as nature without discipline doth naturally inclinâ— unto vanities and as it were suck up errors so doth the word or rather the letter of the scripture without understanding not onely make us devoure errors but yeeldeth us up to death destruction and therefore Paul saith he was not â— minister of the letter but of the spirit Thus have I been bold to deliver unto the world and to you those simple notes reasons and arguments which I have devised or collected out of other authors which I hope shall be hurtful to none bâ—t my selfe great comfort if it may passe with good liking and acceptation If it fall out otherwise I should think my paines ill imployed For truly in mine opinion whosoever shall performe any thing or attaine to any knowledge or whosoever should travel throughout all the nations of the world or if it were possible should peepe into the heavens the consolation or admiration thereof were nothing pleasant unto him unlesse he had liberty to impart his knowledge to his friends Wherein becausâ— I have made special choise of you I hope you will read it or at the least lay it up in your study with your other bookes among which there is none dedicated to any with more good will And so long as you have it it shall be unto you upon adventure of my life a certain amulet periapt circle charme c. to defend you from all inchantments Your loving friend Reg. Scot. To the Readers TO you that are wise and discreet few words may suffice for such a one judgeth not at the first sight nor reproveth by hearsay but patiently heareth and thereby increaseth in understanding which patience bringeth forth experience whereby true judgement is directed I shall not need therefore to make any further suite to you but that it would please you to read my book without the prejudice of time or former conceite and having obtained this at your hands I submit my self unto your censure But to make a solemn suit to you that are partial readers desiring you to set aside partiality to take in good part my writing and with indifferent eies to looke upon my book were labour lost and time ill imployed For I should no more prevaile herein then if a hundred years since I should have intreated your predecessors to beleeve that Robin good-fellow that great and antient bull-begger had been but a cousening merchant and no devil indeed If I should go to a Papist and say I pray you beleeve my writings wherein I will prove all popish charmes conjurations exorcismes benedictions and curses not onely to be ridiculous and of none effect but also to be impious and contrary to Gods word I should as hardly therein win favour at their hands as herein obtain credit at yours Neverthelesse I doubt not but to use the matter so that as well the massemonger for his part as the witchmonger for his shall both be ashamed of their professions But Robin good-fellow ceaseth now to be much feared and popery is sufficiently discovered Neverthelesse witches charms and conjurors cousenages are yet thought effectuall Yea the Gentiles have espied the fraud of their cousening oracles and our cold prophets and inchanters make us fools still to the shame of us all but specially of Papists who conjure every thing and thereby bring to passe nothing They say to their candles I conjure you to endure for ever and yet they last not pater noster while the longer They conjure water to be wholesome both for body and soule but the body we see is never the better for it nor the soul any whit reformed by it And therefore I marvel that when they see their own conjurations confuted and brought to nought or at the least void of effect that they of all other will yet give such credit countenance and authority to the vaine cousenages of witches and conjurors as though their charmes and conjurations could produce more apparent certaine and better effects then their owne But my request unto all you that read my book shall be no more but that it would please you to conferre my words with your own sense and experience and also with the word of God If you find your selves resolved and satisfied or rather reformed and qualified in any one point or opinion that heretofore you held contrary to truth in a matter hitherto undecided and never yet looked into I pray you take that for advantage and suspending your judgement â—â—ay the sentence of condemnation against me and consider of the Rest at your further leisure If this may not suffice for to perswade you it cannot prevaile to annoy you and then that which is written without offence may be overpassed without any griefe And although mine assertion be somewhat differing from the old inveterate opinion which I confesse hath many gâ—ay hairs whereby mine adversarys have gained more authority then reason towards the maintenance of their presumptions and old wives fables yet shall it fully agree with Gods glory and with his holy word And albeit there be hold taken by mine adversarys of certain few words or sentences in the Scripture that make a shew for them yet when the whole course thereof maketh against them and impugneth the same yea and also their own places rightly understood do nothing at all releeve them I trust their glorious title and argument of antiquity will appear as stale and corrupt as the Apothecaries dâ—ugs or grocers spice which the
besides Bodin and all the popish writers in generall it please Danaeus Hyperius Hemingius Erastus c. to conclude otherwise The clouds are called the pillars of Gods tents Gods chariots and his pavillions And if it be so what witch or devill can make masteries thereof S. Augustine saith Non est putandum ist is transgressoribus angelis servire hanc rerum visibilium materiem sed soli Deo We must not think that these visible things are at the commandement of the angels that fell but are obedient to the only God Finally if witches could accomplish these things what needed it seem so strange to the people wheâ— Christ by miâ—acle commanded both seas and winds c. For it is written Who is this for both wind and sea obey him CHAP. II. The inconvenience growing by mens credulity herein with a reproofe of some church-men which are inclined to the common conceived opinion of witches omnipotencie and a familiar example thereof BUt the world is now so bewitched and over-run with this fond error that even where a man should seek comfort and counsell there shall he be sent in case of necessity from God to the devil and from the Physitian to the cosening witch who will not stick to take upon her by words to heal the lame which was proper only to Christ and to hem whom he assisted with his divine power yea with her familiar and charmes she will take upon her to cure the blind though in the tenth of S. Johns Gospell it be written that the devil cannot open the eyes of the blind And they attaine such credit as I have heard to my grief some of the ministery affirme that they have had in their parish at one instant 17 or 18. Witches meaning such as could worke miracles supernaturally Whereby they manifested as well their infidelity and ignorance in conceiving Gods word as their negligence and errror in instructing their flocks For they themselves might understand and also teach their parishoners that God only worketh great wonders and that it is he which sendeth such punishments to the wicked and such trials to the elect according to the saying of the Prophet Haggai I smote you with blasting and mildew and with haile in all the labours of your hands and yet you turned not unto me saith the Lord. And therefore saith the same Prophet in another place you have sowen much and bring in little And both in Joel and Leviticus the like phrases and proofes are used and made But more shall be said of this hereafter S. Paul fore saw the blindnesse and obstinacy both of these blind shepherds and also of their scabbed sheep when he said They will not suffer wholsome doctrine but having their eares itching shall get them a heap of reachers after their own lusts and shall turne their eares from the truth and shall be given to fables And in the latter time some shall depart from the faith and shall give heed to spirits of errors and doctrines of devils which speak lies as witches and conjurers do but cast thou away such prophane and old wives fables In which sense Basil saith Who so giveth heed to inchanters harkeneth to a fabulous and frivilous thing But I will rehearse an example whereof I my selfe am not only Oculatus testis but have examined the cause and am to justifie the truth of my report not because I would disgrace the ministers that are godly but to confirme my former assertion that this absurd error is growne into the place which should be able to expell all such ridiculous folly and impiety At the assizes holden at Rochester Anno 1581. one Margaret Simons the wife of Iohn Simons of Brenchly in Kent was arraigned for witchcraft at the instigation and complaint of divers fond and malicious persons and specially by the meanes of one Iohn Ferrall vicar of that parish with whom I talked about that matter and found him both fondly assorted in the cause and enviously bent towards her and which is worse as unable to make a good account of his faith as she whom he accused That which he for his part laid to the poore womans charge was this His son being an ungracious boy and prentise to one Robert Scotchsord clothier dwelling in that parish of Brenchly passed on a day by her house at whome by chance her little dog barked Which thing the boy taking in evil part drew his knife and pursued him therewith even to her door whom she rebuked with some such words as the boy disdained and yet neverthelesse would not be perswaded to depart in a long time At the last he returned to his masters house and within five or six daies fell sick Then was called to mind the fray betwixt the dog and the boy insomuch as the vicar who thought himself so priviledged as he little mistrusted that God would visit his children with sicknesse did so calculate as he found partly through his own judgement and partly as he himself told me by the relation of other witches that his said sonne was by her bewitched Yea he also told me that this his son being as it were past all cure received perfect health at the hands of another witch He proceeded yet further against her affirming that alwaies in his parish-church when he desired to read most plainly his voice so failed him as he could scant be heard at all Which he could impute he said to nothing else but to her inchantment When I advertised the poor woman hereof as being desirous to hear what she could say for her selfe she told me that in very deed his voice did much faile him specially when he strained himself to speake lowdest Howbeit she said that at all times his voice was hoarse and low which thing I perceived to be true But sir said she you shall understand that this our vicar is diseased with such a kind of hoarsenesse as divers of our neighbours in this parish not long since doubted that he had the French-Pox and in that respect utterly refused to communicate with him untill such time as being thereunto injoined by M. D. Lewen the ordinary he had brought from London a certificat under the hands of two Physitians that his hoarsenes proceeded from a disease in the lungs Which certificate he published in the church in the presence of the whole congregation and by this meanes he was cured or rather excused of the shame of his disease And this I know to be true by the relation of divers honest men of that parish And truly if one of the Jury had not been wiser then the other she had been condemned thereupon and upon other as ridiculous matters as this For the name of a witch is so odious and her power so feared among the common people that if the honestest body living chance to be arraigned thereupon she shall hardly escape condemnation CHAP. III. Who they be that are called witches
we will imagine that to be possible to be done by a witch which to nature and sense is impossible specially when our neighbours life dependeth upon our credulity therein and when we may see the defect of ability which alwaies is an impediment both to the act and also to the presumption thereof And because there is nothing possible in law that in nature is impossible therefore the judge doth not attend or regard what the accused man saith or yet would do but what is proved to have been committed and naturally falleth in mans power and will to do For the law saith that to will a thing unpossible is a signe of a mad-man or of a soole upon whom no sentence or judgement taketh hold Furthermore what jury will condemne or what Judge will give sentence or judgement against one for killing a man at Berwicke when they themselves and many other saw that man at London that very day wherein the murther was committed yea though the party confesse himselfe guilty therein and twenty witnesses depose the same But in this case also I say the judge is not to weigh their testimony which is weakened by law and the judges authority is to supply the imperfection of the case and to maintain the right and equity of the same Seeing therefore that some other things might naturally be the occasion and cause of such calamities as witches are supposed to bring let not us that professe the Gospel and knowledge of Christ be bewitched to beleeve that they do such things as are in nature impossible and in sense and reason incredible If they say it is is done through the devils helpe who can worke miracles why do not theeves bring their businesse to passe miraculously with whom the devil is as conversant as with the other Such mischiefes as are imputed to witches happen where no witches are yea and continue when witches are hanged and burnt why then should we attribute such effect to that cause which being taken away happeneth neverthelesse CHAP. VII By what meanes the name of witches becometh so famous and how diversly people be opinioned concerning them and their actions Surely the naturall power of man or woman cannot be so inlarged as to do any thing beyond the power and vertue given and ingrafted by God But it is the will and mind of man which is vitiated and depraved by the devill neither doth God permit any more than that which the naturall order appointed by him doth require Which naturall order is nothing else but the ordinary power of God powred into every creature according to his state and condition But hereof more shall be said in the title of witches confessions Howbeit you shall understand thâ— few or none are throughly perswaded resolved or satisfied that witches can indeed accomplish all these impossibilities but some one is bewitched in one point and some are cosened in another untill in fine all these impossibilities and many more are by several persons affirmed to be true And this I have also noted that when any one is cosened with a cosening toie of witch-craft and maketh report thereof accordingly verifiing a matter most impossible and false as it were upon his own knowledge as being overtaken with some kind of illusion or other which illusions are right inchantments even the selfe same man will deride the likely proceeding out of another mans mouth as a fabulous matter unworthy of credit It is also to be wondered how men that have seen some part of witches cosenages detected and see also therein the impossibility of their own presumptions and the folly and false-hood of the witches confessions will not suspect but remaine unsatisfied or rather obstinately defend the residue of witches supernatural actions like as when a jugler hath discovered the slight and illusion of his principal seats one would fondly continue to thinke that his other petty jugling knacks of legierâ—emaine are done by the helpe of a familiar and according to the folly of some papists who seeing and confessing the Popes absurd religion in the erection and maintenance of idolatry and superstition specially in Images pardons and reliques of saints will yet persevere to think that the rest of his doctrine and trumpery is holy and good Finally many maintain and cry out for the execution of witches that particularly beleeve never a whit of that which is imputed unto them if they be therein privately dealt withall and substantially opposed and tryed in argument CHAP. VIII Causes that move as well witches themselves as others to think that they can work impossibilities with answers to certain objections where also their punishment by law is touched CArdanus writeth that the cause of such credulity consisteth in three points to wit in the imagination of the melancholike in the constancy of them that are corrupt therewith and in the deceit of the Judges who being inquisitors themselves against hereticks and witches did both accuse and condemne them having for their labour the spoile of their goods So as these inquisitors added many fables hereunto least they should seem to have done injury to the poor wretches in condemning and executing them for none offence But fithens saith he the springing up of Luthers sect these priests have tended more deligently upon the execution of them because more wealth is to be caught from them insomuch as now they deale so loosly with witches through distrust of gaines that all is seen to be malice solly or avarice that hath been practised against them And whosoever shall search into this cause or read the chief writers hereupon shall find his words true It will be objected that we here in England are not now directed by the Popes laws and so by consequence our witches not troubled or convented by the inquisitors Haereticae pravitatis I answer that in times past here in England as in other nations this order of discipline hath been in force and use although now some part of old rigor be qualified by two severall statutes made in the first of Elizabeth and 33 of Henry the eight Neverthelesse the estimation of the omnipotency of their words and charmes seemeth in those statutes to be somewhat maintained as a matter hitherto generally received and not yet so looked into as that it is refuted and decided But how wisely soever the Parliament-house hath dealt therein or how mercifully soever the Prince beholdeth the cause if a poor old woman supposed to be a witch be by the civill or canon law convented I doubt some canon will be found in force not onely to give scope to the tormentor but also to the hangman to exercise their offices upon her And most certain it is that in what point soever any of these extremities which I shall rehearse unto you be mitigated it is through the goodnesse of the Queens Majesty and her excellent magistrates placed amongst us For as touching the opinion of our writers therein in our age yea in our
the sword famine and pestilence They sacrifice their own children to the devill before baptisme holding them up in the aire unto him and then thrust a needle into their braines Ans. If this be true I maintain them not herein but there is a 〈◊〉 to judge them by Howbeit it is so contrary to sense and nature that were folly to beleeve it either upon Bodins bare word or else upon 〈◊〉 presumptions especially when so small commodity and so great danger and inconvenience insueth to the witches thereby They burn their children when they have sacrificed them Ans Then let them have such punishment as they that offered thâ—â— children unto Moloch Levit. 20. But these be meer devises of witâ—â—-mongers and inquisito's that with extreame tortures have wrung such confessions fâ—om them or else with false reports have belyed them 〈◊〉 by flattery and fair words and promises have won it at their hands at 〈◊〉 length They swear to the devil to bring as many into that society as they 〈◊〉 Ans. This is false and so proved elsewhere They swear by the name of the devill Ans. I never heard any such oath neither have we warrant to 〈◊〉 them that so do swear though indeed it be very lewd and impious They use incestuous adulâ—eâ—y with spirits Ans. This is a stale ridiculously as is proved apparently hereafter They boile infants after they have murthured them unbaptised 〈◊〉 their flesh be made potable Ans. This is untrue incredible and impossible They eat the flesh and drink the bloud of men and children openly Ans. Then are they kin to the Anthropophagi and Canibals But I beleeve never an honest man in England nor in France will affirme that he hath seen any of these persons that are said to be witches do so if they should I beleeve it would poyson them They kill men with poyson Ans. Let them be hanged for their labour They kill mens cattell Ans. Then let an action of trespasse be brought against them for so doing They bewitch mens corne and bring hunger and barrennesse into the country they ride and flie in the air bring stormes make tempests c. Ans. Then will I worship them as Gods for those be not the works of man nor yet of a witch as I have elsewhere proved at large They use venery with a devil call'd Incubus even when they ly in bed with their husbands have children by them which become the best witches Ans. This is the last ly very ridiculous and confuted by me elsewhere CHAP. X. A refutation of the former surmised crimes patched together by Bodin and the onely way to escape the inquisitors hands IF more ridiculous or abhominable crimes could have been invented these poor women whose chief fault is that they are scolds should have been charged with them In this libell you do see is contained all that witches are charged with and all that also which any witch-monger surmiseth or in malice imputeth unto witches power and practise Some of these crimes may not onely be in the power and will of a witch but may be accomplished by naturall meanes and therefore by them the matter in question is not decided to wit whether a witch can work wonders supernaturally For many a knave and whore doth more commonly put in execution those lewd actions than such as are called witches and are handged for their labour Some of these crimes also laid unto witches charge are by me denyed and by them cannot be proved to be true or committed by any one witch Othersome of these crimes likewise are so absurd supernaturall and impossible that they are derided almost of all men and as false fond and fabulous reports condemned insomuch as the very witch-mongers themselves are tashamed to hear of them If part be untrue why may not the residue be thought false For all these things are laid to their charge at one instant even by the greatest doctors and patrones of the sect of witch-mongers producing as many proofs for witches supernaturall and impossible actions as for the other So as if one part of their accusation be false the other part deserveth no credit If all be true that is alledged of their doings why should we beleeve in Christ because of his miracles when a witch doth as great wonders as ever he did But it will be said by some As for those absurd and popish writers they are not in all their allegations touching these matters to be credited But I assure you that even all sorts of writers herein for the most part the very doctors of the church to the school men Protestants and Papists learned and unlearned Poets and historiographers Jewes Christians or Gentiles agrâ—e in these impossible and ridiculous matters Yea and these writers out of whome I gather most absurdities are of the best credit and authority of all writers in this matter The reason is because it was never throughly looked into but every fable credited and the word Witch named so often in Scripture They that have seen further of the inquisitors orders and customes say also that there is no way in the world fâ—r thâ—sâ— poor women to escape the inquisitors hands and so consequently burning but to gild their hands with money whereby oftentimes they take pitty upon them and deliver them as sufficiently purged For they have authority to exchange the punishment of the body with the punishment of the purse applying the same to the office of their inquisition whereby they reap such profit as a number of these silly women pay them yearly pensions to the end they may not be punished again CHAP XI The opinion of Cornelius Agrippa concerning witches of 〈◊〉 pleading for a poor woman accused of witch craft and how be convinced the inquisitors COrnelius Agrippa saith that while he was in Italie many inquisitoâ— in the dutchie of Millen troubled divers most honest and noble matrones privily wringing much money from them untill their knavery was detected Further he saith that being an advocate 〈◊〉 councellor in the Common-wealth of Maestright in Brabant he had sorâ— contention with an inquisitor who through unjust accusations drew â— poor woman of the country into his butchery and to an unsit placeâ— not so much to examine her as to torment her Whom when C. Agrippa had undertaken to defend declaring that in the things done these was no proof no signe or token that could cause her to be tormented the inquisitor stoutly denying it said One thing there is which is proof and matter sufficient for her mother was in times past burned for a witch Now when Agrippa replyed affirming that this article was impertinent and ought to be refused by the judge as being the deed of another alledging to the inquisitor reasons and law for the same he replied again that this was true because they used to sacrifice their children to the devill as soon as they were borne and also because they usually conceived by spirits transformed
and they will not sticke to affirme that they caâ— rime either man or beast to death Also the West Indians and Muscovits do the like and the Hunnes as Gregory Turonensis writeth used the helpe of witches in time of warre I find another story written in M. Mal. repeated by Bodin that one souldier called Pumher daily through witchcraft killed with his bowe and arrows three of the enemies as they stood peeping over the walls of a castle besieged so as in the end he killed them all quite saving one The triall of the archers simister dealing and a proof thereof expressed is for that he never lightly failed when he shot and for that he killed them by three a day and had shot three arrowes into a rod. This was he that shot at a peny on his sonnes head and made ready another arrow to have slaine the Duke Remgrave that commanded it And doubtlesse because of his singular dexterity in shooting as he reputed a witch as doing that which others could not do nor think to be in the power of man to do though indeed no miracle no witch-craft no impossibility nor difficulty consisted therein But this latter story I can requite with a familiar example For 〈◊〉 Towne Malling in kent one of Q. Maries justices upon the complaint of many wise men and a few foolish boyes laid an archer by the heeles because he shot so neer the white at buts For he was informed and perswaded that the poor man played with a fly otherwise called a devill or familiar And because he was certified that the archer aforesaid shot better than the common shooting which he before had heard of or seen he conceived it could not be in Gods name but by inchantment whereby this archer as he supposed by abusing the Queenes liege people gained some one day two or three shillings to the detriment of the common-wealth and to his owne inriching And therefore the archer was severely punished to the great encouragement of archers and to the wise example of justice but specially to the overthrow of witch-craft And now again to our matter CHAP. XVI Authorities condemning the fantasticall confessions of witches and how a popish doctor taketh upon him to disprove the same CErtaine generall councells by their decrees have condemned the confessions and erroneus credulity of witches to be vain fantasticall and fabulous And even those which are parcell of their league whereupon our witch-mongers do so build to wit their night-walkings and meetings with Herodias and the Pagan gods at which time they should passe so farre in so little a space on cockhorse their transubstantiation their eating of children and their pulling of them from their mothers sides their entring into mens houses through chinks and little holes where a flie can scarcely wring out and the disquieting of the inhabitants c. all which are not onely said by a generall councell to be meet fantasticall and imaginations in dreames but so affirmed by the ancient writers The words of the councell are these It may not be omitted that certain wicked women following Satans provocations being seduced by the illusion of devils beleeve and professe that in the night-times they ride abroad with Diana the goddesse of the Pagans or else with Herodias with an innumerable multitude upon certain beasts and passe over many countries and nations in the silence of the night and do whatsoever those faiâ—ies or ladies command c. And it followeth even there Let all ministers therefore in their severall cures preach to Gods people so as they may know all these things to be false c. It followeth in the same counsell Therefore whosoever beleeveth that any creature may be either created by them or else changed into better or worse or be any way transformed into any other kind or likenesse of any but of the creator himselfe is assuredly an infidell and worse than a Pagan And if this he credible then all these their bargaines and assemblieâ— c. are incredible which are onely â—â—â—ified by the certaine foolish and extorted confessions and by a fable of S. Germane who watched the fairies or witches being at a reer banquet and through his holinesse stayed them till he sent to the houses of those neighbours which seemed to be there and found them all in bed and so cried that these were devils in the likenesse of those women Which if it were as true as it ifalse it mighâ— serve well to confute this their meeting and night-walkings For if the devils be only present in the likenesse of witches then is that false which is attributed to witches in this behalfe But because the old hammer of Sprenger and Institor in their old Malleo maleficarum was insufficient to knock down this counsel a young beetle-head called Frier Bartholomaeus Spineus hath made a new leaden beetle to beat down the counsell and kill these old woman Wherein he counterfeiting Aesops asse claweth the pope with his heeles affirming upon his credit that the counsell is false and erroneous because the doctrine swarveth from the Popish church and is not authenticall but apocryphall saying though uâ—truly that that counsel was not called by the commandement and pleasure of the Pope nor ratifâ—ed by his authoriâ—y which saith he is sufficient to disannul all councels For surely saith this â—rier which at this instant is a cheef inquisitor if the words of this counsell were to be admitted both I and all my predecessors had published notorious lies and committed many injurious executions whereby the Popes themselves also might justly be detected of error câ—ntrary to the catholique beleef in that behalfe Marry he saith that although the words and direct sense of this counsell be quite contrary to truth and his opinion yet he will make an exposition thereof that shall somewhat miâ—igate the lewdnesse of the same and this he saith is not onely allowable to do but also meritorious Marke the mans words and judge his meaning CHAP. XVII Witch-mongers reasons to prove that witches can worke wonders Bodins tale of a Friseland priest transported that imaginations proceeding of melancholy do cause illusions OLd M. Malificarum also saith that the counsels and doctors were all deceived herein and alledging authority therefore confuteth that opinion by a notable reason called Petitio principii or rather Ignotum per ignotius in this manner They can put changelings in the place of other children Ergo they can tranferre and tranâ—forme themselves and others c. according â—o their confession in that behalfe Item he saith and Bodin justifieth it that a priest in Friseland was corporally transferred into a faâ—re country as witnessed aâ—oâ—her priest of Oberdorf his companion who saw him aloft in the air Ergo saith M. â—al they have all been deceived hitherto to the great impunity of horrible witches Wherein he opposeth his folly against God and his church against the truth and against all possibility But surely â— is
provender as it were at the wrack and manger with this note wherein there is no contradiction for all must be true that is written against witches that if a witch deprive one of his privities it is done onely by prestigious meanes so as the senses are but illuded Marry by the devill it is really taken away and in like sort restored These are no jestes for they be written by them that were and are judges upon the lives and deaths of those persons CHAP. V. Of bishop Sylvanus his lechery opened and covered again how maides having yellow hair are most combered wâ—th Incubus how married men are bewitched to use other mens wives and to refuse their own YOu shall read in the legend how in the night-time Incubus came to a ladies bed-side and made hot love unto her whereat she being offended cried out so loud that company came and found him under her bed in the likenesse of the holy bishop Sylvanus which holy man was much defamed thereby untill at the length this infamy was purged by the confession of a devil made at S. Ieroms tombe Oh excellent peece of witch craft wrought by Sylvanus Item S. Christine would needs take unto her another maides Incubus and ly in her roome and the story saith that she was shrewdly accloyed But she was a shrew indeed that would needs change beds with her fellow that was troubled every night with Incubus and deale with him her selfe But here the inqusitors note may not be forgotten to wit that maides having yellow hair are most molested with this spirit Also it is written in the Legend of S. Bernard that a pretty wench that had had the use of Incubus his body by the space of six or seven years in Aquitania being belike weary of him for that he waxed old would needs go to S. Bernard another while But Incubus told her that if she would so forsake him being so long her true lover he would be revenged upon her c. But befall what would she went to S. Bernard who took her his staffe and bad her lay it in the bed besides her And indeed the devill fearing the bed-staffe or that S. Bernard lay there himself durst not approach into her chamber that night what he did afterwards I am uncertain Marry you may find other circumstances hereof and many other like bawdy lies in the golden Legend But here again we may not forget the inquisitors note to wit that many are so bewitched that they cannot use their own wives but any other bodies they may well enough away withall Which witch-craft is practised among many bad husbaned for whom it were a good excuse to say they were bewitched CHAP. VI. How to procure the dissolving of bewitched love also to enforce a man how proper soever he be to love an old hag and of a bawdy trick of a priest in Gelderland THe priests say that the best cure for a woman thus molested next to confession is excommunication But to procure the dissolving of bewitched and constrained love the party bewitched must make a jakes of the lovers shoe And to enforce a man how proper soever he be to love an old hag she giveth unto to eat among other meates her own dung and this way an old witch made three abbats of one house successively to dy for her love as she her selfe confessed by the report of M. Mal. In Gelderlend a priest perswaded a sick woman that she was bewitchâ—ed and except he might sing a masse upon her belly she could not be holpen Whereupon she consented and lay naked on the alter whilst he sung masse to the satisfying of his lust but not to the release of her grief Other cures I will speak of in other places more civill Howbeit certain miraculous cures both full of bawdery and lies must either have place here or none at all CHAP. VII Of divers saints and holy persons which were exceeding bawdy and lecherous and by certain miraculous meanes became chaste CAssianus writeth that S. Syren being of body very lecherous and of mind wonderfull religious fasted and prayed to the end his body might be reduced miraculously to chastity At length came an angel unto him by night and cut out of his flesh certaine kernels which were the sparkes of concupiscence so as afterwards he never had any more motions of the flesh It is also reported that the abbat Equiciu being naturally as unchaste as the other fell to his beads so devoutly for recovery of honesty that there came an angell unto him in an apparation that seemed â—o geld him and after that forsooth he was as chaste as though he had never a stone in his breech and before that time being a ruler over monkes he became afterwards a governour over nunnes Even as it is said Helias the holy monke gathered thirty virgins into a monastery over whom he ruled and reigned by the space of two yeares and grew so proud and hot in the cod-peece that he was fain to forsake his holy house and fly to a desert where he fasted and prayed two daies saying Lord quench my hot lecherous humors or kill me Whereupon in the night following there came unto him three angels and demanded of him why he forsook his charge but the holy man was ashamed to tell them Howbeit they asked him further saying Wilt thou returne to these damsels if we free thee from all concupiscence Yea quoth he with all my heart And when they had sworne him solemnly so to do they took him up and gelded him and one of them holding his hands and another his â—eet the third cut out his stones But the story saith it was not so ended but in a vision Which I beleeve because within five dayes he returned to his minions who pitiously mourned for him all this while and joyfully embraced his sweet company at his returne The like story doth Nider write of Thomas whom two angels cured of that lecherous disease by putting about him a girdle which they brought down with them from heaven CHAP. VIII Certain popish and magicall cures for them that are bewitched in their privities FOr direct cure to such as are bewitched in the privy members the first and speciall is confession then follow in a row holy-water and those ceremoniall trumperies Ave Maries and all manner of crossings â— which are all said to be wholesome except the witch-craft be perpetuall and in that case the wife may have a divorse of course Item the eating of a haggister or py helpeth one bewitched in that member Item the smoak of the tooth of a dead man Item to annoint a mans body over with the gall of a crow Item to fill a quill with quick-silver and lay the same under the cushin where such a one sitteth or else to put it under the threshold of the door of the house or chamber where he dwelleth Item
to do For â—â— Samuel 15.23 it is all one with rebellion Iesabel for her idolatrous 〈◊〉 is called a witch Also in the new testament even S. Paul saith the Galathians are bewitched because they were seduced and lead from the true understanding of the Scriptures Item sometimes it is taken in good part as the magicians that came to worship and offer to Christ and also where Daniel is said to be an inchanter yea a principall inchanter which title being given him in divers places of that story he never seemeth to refuse or dislike but rather intreateth for the pardon and qualification of the rigor towards other inchanters which were meer coseners indeed as appeareth in the second chapter of Daniel where you may see that the king espyed their fetches Sometimes such are called conjurers as being but rogues and lewd people would use the name of Jesus to worke miracles whereby though they being faithlesse could work nothing yet is their practise condemned by the name of conjuration Sometimes jugglers are called witches Sometimes also they are called sorcerers that impugne the gospell of Christ and seduce others with violent perswasions Sometimes a murtherer with poison is called a witch Sometimes they are so termed by the very signification of their names as Elimaâ— which signifieth a sorcerer Sometimes because they study curious and vaine arts Sometimes it is taken for wounding or grieving of the heart Yea the very word Magus which is Latine for a magician is translated a witch and yet it was heretofore alwaies taken in the good part And at this day it is indifferent to say in the English tongue She is a witch or She is a wise woman Sometimes observers of dreames sometimes sooth sayers sometimes the observers of the flying of fowleâ— of the meeting of todes the falling of salt c. are called witches Sometimes he or she is called a witch that take upon them either for gaine or glory to do miracles and yet can do nothing Sometimes they are called witches in common speech that are old lame curst or melancholike as a nick-name But as for our old women that are said to hurt children with their eyes or lambs with their lookes or that pull down the moon out of heaven or make so foolish a bargain or do such homage to the devill you shall not read in the bible of any such witches or of any such actions imputed to them The sixt Book CHAP. I. The exposition of this Hebrew word Chasaph wherein is answerâ—â— the objection contained in Exodus 22. to wit Thou shalt not 〈◊〉 a witch to live and of Simon Magus Acts. 8 CHasaph being an Hebrew word is latined Venefiâ—â—â— and is in English poisoning or witch-craft if you will so have it The Hebrew sentence written in Exodus 22. is by the 70. interpreters translated thus in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Latine is Veneficos sive veneficas non retinebitis in vita in Englishâ— You shall nor suffer any poisoners or as it is translatedâ— witches to live The which sentence Iosephus an Hebrew borne and man of great estimation learning and fame interpreteth in this 〈◊〉 Let none of the children of Israel have any poyson that is deadly or prâ—â—pared to any hurtfull use If any be apprehended with such stuffe let 〈◊〉 be put to death and suffer that which he meant to do to them for whâ—â— he prepared it The Rabbins exposition agreeth herewithall Lex Corâ—â—â— differeth not from this sense to wit that he must suffer death which other maketh selleth or hath any poison to the intent to kill any 〈◊〉 This word is found in these places following Exodus 22.18 Deut. 18. â—â— 2 Sam 9.22 Dan. 2.2 2 Câ—r 33.6 Esay 47.9.12 Malach. 3.5 Ierem. 27. Mich. 5.2 Nab. 3.4 bis Howbeit in all our English translations Chasaph translated witch-craft And because I will avoid prolixity and contention both at once I 〈◊〉 admit that Veneficae were such witches as with their poisons did 〈◊〉 hurt among the children of Israel and I will not deny that there 〈◊〉 such untill this day bewitching men and making them beleeve 〈◊〉 by vertue of words and certaine ceremonies they bring to 〈◊〉 such mischiefs and intoxications as they indeed accomplish by poisoâ—â— And this abuse in cosenage of people together with the taking of Goâ—â— name in vaine in many places of the scripture is reproved especialâ—â— by the name of witch-craft even where no poysons are According 〈◊〉 the sense which S. Paul used to the Galathians in these words where â—â— sheweth plainly that the true signification of witch-craft is cosenage ye foolish Galathians saith he who hath bewitched you to wit cosened or abused you making you beleeve a thing which is neither so 〈◊〉 so Whereby he meaneth not to ask of them who hath with charmeâ— c. or with poysons deprived them of their health life cattle or chilâ—dren c. buâ— who hath abused or cosened them to make them beleeâ—â— lies This phrase is alsoused by Job 15. But that we may be througly resolved of the true meaning of this phrase used by Paul Gal. 3. let us examined the description of a notable witch called Simon Magus made by S. Luke There was saith he in the city of Samaria a certain man called Simon which used witch-craft and bewitched the people of Samaria saying that he himselfe was some great man I demand in what other thing here do we see any witch-craft than that he abused the people making them beleeve he could worke miracles whereas in truth he could do no such thing as manifestly may appear in the 13. and 19. verses of the same chapter where he wondered at the miracles wrought by the apostles and would have purchased with money the power of the Holy Ghost to work wonders It will be said the people had reason to beleeve him because it is written that he of long time had bewitched them with sorceries But let the bewitched Galathians be a warning both to the bewitched Samaritans and to all other that are cosened or bewitched through false doctrine or legierdemaine least while they attend to such fables and lies they be brought into ignorance and so in time be led with them away from God And finally let us all abandon such witches and coseners as with Simon Magus set themselves in the place of God boasting that they can do miracles expound dreames foretell things to come raise the dead c. which are the workes of the Holy Ghost who onely searcheth the heart and reines and onely worketh great wonders which are now stayed and acomplished in Christ in whom who so steadfastly beleeveth shall not need to be by such meanes resolved or confirmed in his doctrine and gospell And as for the unfaithfull they shall have none other miracle shewed unto them but the signe of Ionas the prophet And therefore I say whatsoever they be that with Simon Magus take
there said we My servant said he What is his name said we He said little devill What is thy name said we Satan said he What doth old Alice call thee said we Partner said he What doth she give thee said we Her will said he How many hast thou killed for her said we Three said he Who are they said we A man and his child said he What were their names said we The childs name was Edward said he what more then Edward said we Edward Ager said he What was the mans name said we Richard said he What more said we Richard Ager said he Where dwelt the man and the child said we At Dig at Dig said he This Richard Ager of Dig was a Gentleman of fourty pounds land by the year a very honest man but would often 〈◊〉 he was bewitched and languished long before he died Whom else 〈◊〉 thou killed for her said we Woltons wife said he Where did she dwel In Westwell said he What else hast thou done for her said we What she would have me said he What is that said we To fetch 〈◊〉 meat drink and corn said he Where hadst thou it said we In eâ—eâ—â— house said he Name the houses said we At Pâ—tmans at Farmes aâ— Millens at Fullers and in every house After this we commanded 〈◊〉 in the name of Jesus Christ to depart from her and never to trouble her any more nor any man else Then he said he would go he would go but he went not Then we commanded him as before with some more wordâ— Then he said I go I go and so he departed Then said the maid he is gone Lord have mercy upon me for he would have killed me And then we kneeled down and gave God thanks with the maiden prayed that God would keep her from Satans power and assist her with his grace And noting this in a piece of paper we departed Satans voice did difer much from the maids voice and all that he spake was in his oâ—â— name subscribed thus Witnesses to this that heard and saw this whole matter as followeth Roger Newman vicar of Westwell Iohn Brainford vicar of Kenington Thomas Tailor Henry Tailors wife Iohn Tailor Thomas Frenchbornes wife William Spooner Iohn Frenchborne and his wife CHAP. II. How the lewd practise of the Pythonist of Westwell came to light and by whom she was examined and that all her diabolicall speech 〈◊〉 but ventriloquie and plain cousenage which is proved by her owâ— confession IT is written that in the latter daies there shall be shewed strange illusions c. in so much as if it were possible the very elect 〈◊〉 be deceived howbeit Saint Paul saith they shall be lying and false wonders Neverthelesse this sentence and such like have been often laid in my dish are urged by diverse writers to approve the miraculous working of witches whereof I will treat more largely in another place Howbeit by the way I must confesse that I take that sentence to be spoken of Antichrist to wit the pope who miraculously contrary to nature philosophy and all divinity being of birth and calling base in learning grosse in valure beauty or activity most commonly a very lubber hath placed himselfe in the most lofty and delicate seat putting almost all christian princes heads not only under his girdle but under his foot c. Surely the tragedy of this Pythonist is not inferior to a thousand stories which will hardly be blotted out of the memorie and credit either of the common people or else of the learned How hardly will this story suffer discredit having testimony of such authority How could mother Alice scape condemnation and hanging being arraigned upon this evidence when a poor woman hath been cast away upon a cosening oracle or rather a false lie devised by Feats the juggler through the maliciouâ—â—nstigation of some of her adversaries But how cunningly soever this last cited certificat be penned or what shew soever it carrieth of truth and plain dealing there may be found contained therein matter enough to detect the cosening knavery thereof and yet diverse have been deeply deceived therewith and can hardly be removed from the credit thereof and without great disdain cannot endure to hear the reproofe thereof And know you this by the way that heretofore Robin good-fellow and Hob-gobblin were as terrible and also as credible to the people as hags and witches be now and in time to come a witch will be as much derided contemned and as plainly perceived as the illusion and knavery of Robin good-fellow And in truth â—hey that maintain walking spirits with their transformation c. have no reason to deny Robin good-fellow upon whome there have gone â—s many and as credible tales as upon witches saving that it hath not pleased the translators of the Bible to call spirits by the name of Robin good-fellow as they have termed diviners sooth-sayers poisoners and coseners by the name of witches But to make short worke with the confutation of this bastardly queanes enterprise and cosenage you shall understand that upon the â—ruite of her divinity and miraculous trances she was convented before M. Thomas Worton of Bocton Mather be a man of great worship and wisdome and for deciding and ordering of matters in this commonwealth of rare and singular dexterity through whose discreet handling of the matter with the assistance and aid of M. George Darrell esquire being also a right good and discreet Justice of the same limit the fraud was â—ound the cosenage confessed and she received condigne punishment Neither was her confession wonne according to the forme of the Spanish â—nquisition to wit through extremity of tortures nor yet by guile or â—attery nor by presumptions but through wise and perfect triall of eâ—ery circumstance the illusion was manifectly disclosed nor so I say as witches are commonly convinced and condemned to wit through malicious accusations by guesses presumptions and extorted confessions contrary to sense and possibilitie and for such actions as they can shew in trial nor example before the wise either by direct or indirect meanes but after due triall she shewed her feats illusions and trances with the residue of all her miraculous works in the presence of divers gentlemen and gentlewomen of great worship and credit at Bocton Malherbe 〈◊〉 the house of the said M. Wotton Now compare this wench with the witch of Endor and you shall see that both the cosenages may be 〈◊〉 by one art CHAP. III. Bodins stuffe concerning the Pythonist of Endor with a true story of counterfeit Dutchman UPon the like tales doth Bodin build his doctrine calling them Athoâ—â— that will not beleeve him adding to this kind of witch-craft 〈◊〉 miraculous works of divers maidens that would spue pins clowts 〈◊〉 as one Agnes Brigs and Rachel Pinder of London did till the miracle were detected and they set to open penance Others he citeth 〈◊〉 that sort the which were bound by
devils with garters or some 〈◊〉 like stuffe to posts c. with knots that could not be undone which an Aegyptians juggling or cosening seat And of such foolish lies 〈◊〉 with bawdy tales his whole book consisteth wherein I warrant 〈◊〉 there are no fewer then two hundred fables and as many impossibility And as these two wenches with the maiden of Westwell were deteâ—â— of cosenage so likewise a Dutchman at Maidstone long after he hâ—â— complished such knaveries to the astonishment of a great number 〈◊〉 good men was revealed to be a cosening knave although his 〈◊〉 were imprinted and published at London anno 1572. with this 〈◊〉 before the book as followeth A very wonderfull and strange miracle of God shewed upon a Dutchman the age of 23. years which was possessed of ten devils and was by Gods mighty providence dispossessed of them again the 27. of Ianuary last past 1572. UNto this the Major of Maidston with divers of his brethren sobâ—â—bed chiefly by the perswasion of Nicasius Vander Sceure the â—â—â—nister of the Dutch church there Iohn Stikelbow whom as it is there said God made the instrument to cast out the devils and four other credible persons of the Dutch church The history is so strange and so cunningly performed that had not his knavery afterwards brought him into suspicion he should have gone away unsuspected of this fraud A great many other such miracles have been lately printed whereof divers have been bewraied all the residue doubtlesse if triall had been made would have been found like unto these But some are more finely handled than othersome Some have more advantage by the simplicity of the audience some by the majesty and countenance of the confederates as namely that cosening of the holy maid of Kent Some escape utterly unsuspected some are prevented by death so as that way their examination is untaken Some are weakly examined but the most part are so reverenced as they which suspect them are rather called to their answers than the others CHAP. IIII. Of the great oracle of Apollo the Pythonist and how men of all sorts have been deceived and that even the Apostles have mistaken the nature of spirits with an unanswerable argument that spirits can take no shapes WIth this kind of witch-craft Apollo and his oracles abused and cosened the whole world which idol was so famous that I need not stand long in the description thereof The princes and monarchs of the earth reposed no small confidence therein the Priests which lived thereupon were so cunning as they also overtook almost all the godly and learned men of that age partly with their doubtfull answers as that which was made unto Pyrrhus in these words Aio te Aeacida Romaâ—os vincere posse and to Croesus his ambassadours in these words Si Croesus armae persis inferat magnum imperium evertet and otherwise thus Croesus Halin penetrans magnam subvertet opum vim or thus Croesus perdet Halin transgressus plurima regna c. partly through confederacy whereby they knew mens errands ere they came and partly by cunning as promising victory upon the sacrificing of some person of such account as victory should rather be neglected than the murther accomplished And if it were yet should there be such conditions annexed thereunto as alwayes remained unto them a starting hole and matter enough to cavil upon as that the party sacrificed must be a virgin no bastard c. Furthermore of two things onely proposed and where yea or nay onely doth answer the question it is an even lay that an idiot shall conjecture right So as if things fell out contrary the fault was alwayes in the interpreter and not in the oracle or the prophet But what marvel I say though the multitude and common people have been abused herein since Lawiers Philosophers Physitians Astronomers divines General councels and princes have with great negligence and ignorance been deceived and seduced hereby as swallowing up and devouring an inveterate opinion received of their elders without due examination of the circumstance Howbeit the godly and learned fathers as it appeareth have alwaies had a speciall care and respect that they attributed not unto God such devilish devices but referred them to him who indeed is the inventâ—r and author though not the personal executioner in manner and forâ—â— as they supposed so as the matter of faith was not thereby by them is peached But who can assure himselfe not to be deceived in matâ—â—â— concerning spirits when the Apostles themselves were so farre from knowing them as even after the resurrection of Christ having heard hâ—â— preach and expound the Scriptures all his life time they shewed themselves not onely ignorant therein but also to have misconceived there Did not the Apostles Thomas think that Christ himself had been a spirit until Christ told him plainly that a spirit was no such creature as hâ—â— flesh and bones the which he said Thomas might see to be in hâ—â— And for the further certifying and satisfying of his mind he commended unto him his hands to be seen and his tides to be felt Thomas 〈◊〉 answer be true that some make hereunto to wit that spirits take form and shapes of bodies at their pleasure might have answered Christ 〈◊〉 remaining unsatisfied might have said Oh sir what do you tell me 〈◊〉 spirits have no flesh and bones Why they can take shapes and fore and so perchance have you done Which argument all the witch-mon 〈…〉 in the world shall never be able to answer Some of them that maintain the creation the transformation transportation and transubstantiation of witches object that spirits not palpable though visible and answer the place by me before 〈◊〉 so as the feeling and not the seeing should satisfie Thomas But he shall well weigh the text and the circumstances thereof shall perceive 〈◊〉 the fault of Thomas his incredulity was secondly bewraied and condeâ—â—ed in that he would not trust his own eyes nor the view taken by 〈◊〉 fellow-Apostles who might have been thought too credulous in this 〈◊〉 if spirits could take shapes at their pleasure Jesus saith to him cause thou hast seen and not because thou hast felt thou beleevest 〈◊〉 he saith Blessed are they that beleeve and see not and not they 〈◊〉 beleeve and feele not Whereby he noteth that our corporal eyes 〈◊〉 discerne betwixt a spirit and a naturall body reproving him 〈◊〉 he so much relied upon his externall senses in cases where faith 〈◊〉 have prevailed and here in a matter of faith revealed in the word 〈◊〉 not credit the miracle which was exhibited unto him in most naturall 〈◊〉 sensible sort Howbeit Erastus saith and so doth Hyperius Hemingius Danaeus 〈…〉 Bodin c. that evil spirits eat drink and keep company with 〈◊〉 and that they can take palpable formes of bodies producing example thereof to wit Spectrum Germanicum seu Augustanum and the 〈◊〉 whose feet Lot washed as though
none other commonly but beets rootes nuts beanes pease c. Now saith he when I considered throughly hereof remaining doubtful of the matter there fell into my hands a witch who of her owne accord did promise me to fetch me an errand out of hand from far countries and willed all them whom I had brought to witnesse the matter to depart out of the chamber And when she had undressed her selfe and fâ—oted her body with certaine ointments which action we beheld through a chinke or little hole of the doore she fell downe through the force those soporiferous or sleepy ointments into a most sound and heavy sleep so as we did break open the doore and did beate her exceedingly but the force of her sleepe was such as it took away from her the sense of feeling and we departed for a time Now when her strength and powers were weary and decayed she awoke of her owne accord and began to speak many vaine and doting words affirming that she had passed over both seas and mountaines delivering to us many untrue and false reports we earnestly denied them she impudently affirmed them This saith he will not so come to passe with every one but onely with old women that are melancholick whose nature is extreame cold and their evaporation small and they both perceive and remember what they see in that case and taking of theirs CHAP. IX A confutation of the former follies as well concerning ointments dreames c. as also of the assembly of witches and of their consultations and bankets at sundry places and all in dreames BUt if it be true that S. Augustine saith and many other writers that witches nightwalkings are but phantasies and dreames then all the reports of their bargaine transporting and meetings with Diana Minerva c. are but fables and then do they ly that maintaine those actions to be done in deed and verity which in truth are done no way It were marvel on the one side if those things happened in dreames which neverthelesse the witches affirme to be otherwise that when those witches awake they neither consider nor remember that they were in a dreame It were marvel that their ointments by the physicians opinions having no force at all to that effect as they confesse which are inquisitors should have such operation It were marvel that their ointments cannot be found any where saving onely in the inquisitors bookes It were marvel that when a stranger is anointed therewith they have sometimes and yet not alwayes the like operation as with witches which all the inquisitors confesse But to this last frier Bartholomaeus saith that the witches themselves before they anoint themselves do heare in the night time a great noise of minstrels which fly over them with the lady of the fairies and then they addresse themselves to their journy But then I marvel againe that no body else hearth nor seeth this troope of minstrels especially riding in a moon-light night It is marvel that they that think this to be but in a dreame can be perswaded that all the rest is any other thâ—â— dreames It is marvel that in dreames witches of old acquaintance meet so just together and conclude upon murthers and receive ointments rootes powders c. as witchmongers report they do and as they make the witches confesse and yet ly at home fast asleepe It is marvel that such preparation is made for them as Sprenger Bartholomew and Bodin report as well in noble mens houses as in alehouses and that they come in dreames and eate up their meate and the alâ—wiâ—e specially is not wearied with them for non-payment of their score or false payment to wit with imaginary money which they say is not substantial and that they talke not afterwards about the reckoning and so discover the matter And it is most marvel of all that the hostesse c. doth not sit among them and take part of their good cheer For so it is that if any part of these their meetings and league be true it is as true and as certainly proved and confessed that at some ale-house or some time at some Gentlemans house there is continuall preparation made monethly for this assembly as appeareth in S. Germans story CHAP. X. That most part of prophesies in the old Testament were revealed in dreams that we are not now to look for such revelations of some who have dreamt of that which hath come to passe that dreams prove contrary Nabuchadnezzers rule to know a true Expositor of Dreames IT is held and maintained by divers and gathered out of the 12. of Numbers that all which was written or spoken by the prophets among the children of Israel Moses excepted was propounded to them by dreames And indeed it is manifest that many things which are thought by the unlearned to have been really finished have been only performed by dreames and visions As where Solomon required of God the gift of wisdome that was I say in a dream and also where he received promise of the continuance of the kingdome of Israel in his line So was Esay's vision in the 6. of his prophesie as also that of Ezechiel the 12. Finally where Jeremie was commanded to hide his girdle in the clift of a rock at the River Euphrates in Babylon and that after certain daies it did there putrefy it must needs be in a dream for Jeremy was never or at least wise not then at Babylon We that are christians must not now slumber and dream but watch and pray and meditate upon our salvation in Christ both day and night And if we expect revelations in our dreams now when Christ is come we shall deceive our selves for in him are fullfilled all dreams prophesies Howbeit Bodin holdeth that dreams and visions continue till this day in as miraculous manner as ever they did If you reade Artemidorus you shall reade many stories of such as dreamt of things that afterwards came to passe But he might have cited a thousand for one that fel out contrary for as for such dreamers among the Jews themselves as had not extraordinary visions miraculously exhibited unto them by God they were counted couseners as may appear by these words of the prophet Zacharie Surely the idols have spoken vanity and the soothsayers have seen a ly and the dreamers have told a vainthing According to Solomons saying In the multitude of dreames and vanities are many words It appeareth in Jeremie 23. that the false prophets whilest they illuded the people with lies counterfeiting the true prophets used to cry out Dreames dreames We have dreamed a dreame c. Finally Nabuchadnezzer teacheth all men to know a true expositor of dreames to wit such a one as hath his revelation from God For he can as Daniel did repeate your dream before you discover it which thing if any expounder of dreames can do at this day I will believe him The eleventh Book CHAP.
things are not now to be looked for in all respects as are written Howbeit Iannes and Iambres were living in that time and in no inconvenient place and therefore not unlike to have that help towards the abusing of Pharaoh Cardane saith that although men attribute no smal force unto such seales as to the seal of the Sun authorities honours and favours of princes of Iupiter riches and friends of Venus pleasures of Mars boldnesse of Mercurie diligence of Saturne patience and induring of labour of Luna favour of people I am not ignorant saith he that stones do good and yet I know the seales or figures do none at all And when Cardano had shewed fully that art and the folly thereof and the manner of those terrible prodigious and deceitfull figures of the 〈◊〉 with their characters c. he saith that those were deceitfull inventions devised by couseners and had no vertue indeed nor truth in them But because we spake somewhat even now of signets and seals I will shew you what I read reported by Vincentius in suo speculo where making mention of the Jasper stone whose nature and property Marbodeus Gallus describeth in the verses following Iaspides esse decem species septemque feruntur His multorum cognoscitur esse colorum Et multis naset perbibetur partibus orbis Optimus in viridi translucentique colore Et qui plus soleat virtutis habere pro batur Coste gestatus fibrem fugat arcet hydropem Adpositusque juvat mulierem parturientem Et tutamentum portants creditur esse Nam consecratus gratum facit abque potentem Et sicut perhibent phantasmata noxia pâ—llit Cuiusin argento visfortior esse putatur Seven kindes and ten of Jasper stones reported are to be Of many colours this is known which noted is by me And said in many places of the world for to be seen Where it is bred but yet the best is through shining green And that which proved is to have in it more vertue plaste For being borne about of such as are of living chaste It drives away their ague fist the dropsie thirsting dry And put upon a woman weak in travell which doth lie It helps assists and comforts her in pangs when she doth crie Again it is beleev'd to be a safegard frank and free To such as wear and bear the same and if it hallowed bee It makes the parties gratious and mighty too that have it And noisome fansies as they write that meant not to deprave it It doth displace out of the mind The force thereof is stronger In silver if the same he set and will endure the longer But as I said Vincentius making mention of the Iasper stone touching which by the way of a parenthesis I have inferred Marbodeus his verses he saith that some Iasper stones are found having in them the lively image of a naturall man with a shield at his neck and a spear in his hand and under his feet a serpent which stones so marked and signed he preferreth before all the rest because they are antidotaries or remedies notably resisting poison Othersome also are found figured and marked with the form of a man bearing on his neck a bundle of hearbs and flowers with the estimation and value of them noted that they have in them a faculty or power restrictive and will in an instant or moment of time stanch bloud Such a kind of stone as it is reported Galen wore on his finger Othersome are marked with a crosse as the same author writeth and these be right excellent against inundations or overflowings of waters I could hold you long occupied in declarations like unto these wherein I lay before you what other men have published and set forth to the world choosing rather to be an academical discourser than an universall determiner but I am desirous of brevity CHAP. VIII The sympathy and antipathy of natural and elementary bodies declared by divers examples of beasts birds plants c. IF I should write of the strange effects of Sympathia and Antipathia I should take great pains to make you wonder and yet you would scarse beleeve me And if I should publish such conclusions as are common and known you would not regard them And yet Empedocles thought all things were wrought hereby It is almost incredible that the grunting or rather the wheeking of a little pig of the sight of a simple sheep should terrifie a mighty Elephant and yet by that means the Romans did put to flight Pyrâ—hus and all his hoast A man would hardly beleeve that a cocks combe or his crowing should abash a puissant lion but the experience hereof hath satisfied the whole world Who would think that a serpent should abandon the shadow of an ash c But it seemeth not strange because it is common that some man otherwise hardy and stout enough should not dare to abide or endure the sight of a cat Or that a draught of drink should so overthrow a man that never a part or member of his body should be able to performe his duty and office and should also so corrupt and alter his senses understanding memorie and judgement that he should in every thing saving in shape become a very beast And herein the poets experiment of liquor is verified in these words following sunt qui non corpora tantum Verum animas etiam valeant mutare liquores Some waters have so powerfell been As could not only bodies change But even the very minds of men Their operation is so strange The friendly society betwixt a fox and a serpent is almost incredible how loving the lizzard is to a man we may read though we cannot see Yet some affirm that our newt is not only like to the lizzard in shape but also in condition From the which affection towards a man a spaniell doth not much differ whereof I could cite incredible stories The amity betwixt a castrell and a pigeon is much noted among writers and specially how the castrell defendeth her from her enemie the sparrow-hawke whereof they say the dove is not ignorant Besides the wonderfull operation and vertue of hearbs which to repeat were infinite and therefore I will only refer you to Mattheolus his herball or to Dodonaeus There is among them such naturall accord and discord as some prosper much the better for the others company stand some wither away being planted near unto the other The lillie and the rose rejoyce in each others neighbour-hood The flag and the fernebush abhorre each other so much that the one can hardly live besides the other The cowcumber loveth water and hateth oil to the death And because you shall not say that hearbs have no vertue for that in this place I cite none I am content to discover two or three small qualities and vertues which are affirmed to be in hearbs marry as simple as they be Iannes and Iambre's might have done much
be by a witch made corporal being by God ordained to a spiritual proportion The cause of this grosse conceipt is that we hearken more diligently to old wives and rather give credit to their fables than to the word of God imagining by the tales they tell us that the divel is such a bulbegger as I have before described For whatsoever is proposed in scripture to us by parable or spoken figuratively or significatively or framed to our grosse capacities c. is by them so considered and expounded as though the bare letter or rather their grosse imaginations thereupon were to be preferred before the true sense and meaning of the word For I dare say that when these blockheads read Iothans parable in the ninth of Judges to the men of Sichem to wit that the trees went out to annoint a king over them saying to the olive tree Reigne thou over us who answered and said Should I leave my fatnesse c. they imagine that the wooden trees walked and spake with a mans voice or else that some spirit entred into the trees and answered as is imagined they did in the idols and oracles of Apollo and such like who indeed have eyes and see not ears and hear not mouthes and speak not c. CHAP. XIII The equivocation of this word spirit how diversly it is taken in the scriptures where by the way is taught that the scripture is not alwayes literally to be interpreted nor yet allegorically to be understood SUch as search with the spirit of wisdome and understanding shal finde that spirits as well good as bad are in scriptures diversly taken yea they shal well perceive that the divel is no horned beast For sometimes in the scriptures spirits and divels are taken for infirmities of the body sometimes for the vices of the minde sometimes also for the gifts of either of them Sometimes a man is called a divel as Iudas in the sixt of Iohn and Peter in the xvi of Matthew Sometimes a spirit is put for the Gospel sometimes for the mind or soul of man sometimes for the will of man his minde and counsell sometimes for teachers and prophets sometimes for zeal towards God sometimes for joy in the Holy-ghost c. And to interpret unto us the nature and signification of spirits we find these words written in the scripture to wit The spirit of the Lord shal rest upon him The spirit of counsel and strength The spirit of wisdome and understanding The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Again I will pour out my spirit upon the house of David c. The spirit of grace and compassion Again Ye have not received the spirit of bondage but the spirit of adoption And therefore Paul saith To one is given by the spirit the word of wisdome to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit to another the gift of healing to another the gift of faith by the same spirit to another the gift of prophesie to another the operation of great works to another the discerning of spirits to another the diversity of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues and all these things worketh one and the self same spirit Thus farre the words of Paul And finally Esay saith that the Lord mingled among them the spirit of errour And in another place The Lord hath covered you with a spirit of slumber As for the spirits of divination spoken of in the scripture they are such as was in the woman of Endor the Philippian woman the wench of Westwell and the holy maid of Kent who were indued with spirits or gifts of divination whereby they could make shift to gain money and abuse the people by sleights and crafty inventions But these are possessed of borrowed spirits as it is written in the book of Wisdome and spirits of meer cousenage and deceipt as I have sufficiently proved elsewhere I deny not therefore that there are spirits and divels of such substance as it hath pleased God to create them But in what place soever it be found or read in the scriptures a spirit or divel is to be understood spiritually and is neither a corporall nor a visible thing Where it is written that God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Sichem we are to understand that he sent the spirit of hatred and not a bulbegger Also where it is said If the spirit of jealousie come upon him it is as much to say as If he be moved with a jealous minde and not that a corporal divel assaulteth him It is said in the Gospel There was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 18. years who was bowed together c. whom Christ by laying his hand upon her delivered of her disease Whereby it is to be seen that although it be said that satan had bound her c. yet that it was a sicknesse or disease of body that troubled her for Christs own words expound it Neither is there any word of witchcraft mentioned which some sâ—y was the cause thereof There were seven divels cast out of Mary Magdalen Which is not so grossely understood by the learned as that there were in her just seven corporal divels such as I described before elsewhere but that by the number of seven divels a great multitude and an uncertain number of vices is signified which figure is usual in divers places of the scripture And this interpretation is more agreeable with Gods word than the papisticall paraphrase which is that Christ under the name of the seven divels recounteth the seven deadly sins only Others allow neither of these expositions because they suppose that the efficacy of Christs miracle should this way be confounded as though it were not as difficult a matter with a touch to make a good Christian of a vicious person as with a word to cure the ague or any other disease of a sick body I think not but any of both these cures may be wrought by means in processe of time without miracle the one by the preacher the other by the physitian But I say that Christs work in both was apparently miraculous for with power and authority even with a touch of his finger and a word of his mouth he made the blinde to see the halt to goe the lepers clean the deaf to hear the dead to rise again and the poor to receive the Gospel out of whom I say he cast divels and miraculously conformed them to become good Christians which before were dissolute livers to whom he said Go your wayes and sin no more CHAP. XIV That it pleased God to manifest the power of his Sonne and not of witches by miracles JEsus Christ to manifest his divine power rebuked the winds and they ceased and the waves of water and it was calme which if neither our divines nor physicians can do much
quiet Also they never appear to the whole multitude seldome to a few and most commonly to one alone for so one may tell a lie without controlment Also they are oftenest seen by them that are ready to dye as Trasilla saw pope Foelix Vrsine Peter and Paul Galta Romana S. Peter and as Musa the maid saw our Lady which are the most certain appearances credited and allowed in the church of Rome also they may be seen of some and of some other in that presence not seen at all as Vrsine saw Peter and Paul and yet many at that instant being present could not see any such sight but thought it a lie as I doe Michael Andraeas confesseth that papists see more visions than protestants he saith also that a good soul can take none other shape than of a man marry a damned soul may and doth take the shape of a black moor or of a beast or of a serpent or specially of an heretick The christian signs that drive away these evill souls are the crosse the name of Jesus and the relickâ— of saints in the number whereof are holiwater holy bread Agnus Dei c. For Andrew saith that notwithstanding Iulian was an Apostate and a betrayer of a christian religion yet at an extremity with the only sign of the crosse he drave away from him many such evill spirits whereby also he saith the greatest diseases and sicknesses are cured and the forest dangers avoided CHAP. XXIX A confutation of assuming of bodies and of the serpent that seduced Eve THey that contend so earnestly for the divels assuming of bodies and visible shapes do think they have a great advantage by the words uttered in the third of Genesis where they say the divell entered into a serpent or snake and that by the curse it appeareth that the whole displeasure of God lighted upon the poor snake only How those words are to be considered may appear in that it is of purpose so spoken as our weak capacities may thereby best conceive the substance tenor and true meaning of the word which is there set downe in the manner of a tragedie in such humane and sensible forme as wonderfully informeth our understanding though it seem contrary to the spirituall course of spirits and divels and also to the nature and divinity of God himself who is infinite and whom no man ever saw with corporall eyes and lived And doubtlesse if the serpent there had not been taken absolutely nor metaphorically for the divell the Holy-ghost would have informed us thereof in some part of that story But to affirme it sometimes to be a divell and sometimes a snake whereas there is no such distinction to be found or seen in the text is an invention and a fetch me thinks beyond the compasse of all divinity Certainly the serpent was he that seduced Eve now whether it were the divell or a snake let any wise man or rather let the word of God judge Doubtlesse the scripture in many places expoundeth it to be the divell And I have I am sure one wiseman on my side for the interpretation hereof namely Solomon who saith Through envie of the divell came death into the world referring that to the divell which Moses in the letter did to the serpent But a better expositor hereof needeth not than the text it self even in the same place where it is written I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed he shall break thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel What christian knoweth not that in these words the mystery of our redemption is comprised and promised Wherein is not meant as many suppose that the common seed of women shall tread upon a sâ—akes head and so break it in pieces c. but that speciall seed which is Christ should be borne of a woman to the utter overthrow of satan and in the redemption of mankinde whose heel or flesh in his members the divell should bruise and assault with continuall attempts and carnall provocations c. CHAP. XXX The objection concerning the divels assuming of the serpents body answered THis word serpent in holy scripture is taken for the divell The serpent was more subtill than all the beasts of the field It likewise signifieth such as be evill speakers such as have slandering tongues also hereticks c. They have sharpned their tongues like serpents It doth likewise betoken the death and sacrifice of Christ as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wildernesse so must the son of man be lifted up upon the crosse Moreover it is taken for wicked men O ye serpents and generation of vipers Thereby also is signified as well a wise as a subtill man and in that sense did Christ himself use it saying Be ye wise as serpents c. So that by this brief collection you see that the word serpent as it is equivocall so likewise it is sometimes taken in the good and sometimes in the evill part But where it is said that the serpent was father of lies author of death and the worker of deceipt me thinks it is a ridiculous opinion to hold that thereby a snake is meant which must be if the letter be preferred before the allegory Truly Calvines opinion is to be liked and reverenced and his example to be embraced and followed in that he offereth to subscribe to them that hold that the Holy-ghost in that place did of purpose use obscure figures that the clear light thereof might be deferred till Christs comming He saith also with like commendation speaking hereof and writing upon this place that Moses doth accommodate and fitten for the understanding of the common people in a rude and grosse stile those things which be there delivereth forbearing once to rehearse the name of satan And further he saith that this order may not be thought of Moses his owne device but to be taught him by the spirit of God for such was saith he in those dayes the childish age of the church which was unable to receive higher or profounder doctrine Finally he saith even hereupon that the Lord hath supplyed with the secret light of his spirit whatsoever wanted in plainnesse and clearnesse of eternall words If it be said according to experience that certain other beasts are farre more subtill than the serpent they answer that it is not absurd to confesse that the same gift was taken away from him by God because he brought destruction to mankind Which is more me thinks than need be granted in that behalfe For Christ saith not Be ye wise as serpents were before their transgression but Be wise as serpents are I would learn what impiety absurdity or offense it is to hold that Moses under the person of poysoning serpent or snake describeth the divell that poysoned Eve with his deceiptfull words and venomous assault Whence cometh it else that the divell is called