and a great number of Children in whose loue and obedience they may repose their age and that there was nothing more pleasing in this present life yet in the middest of his miseries the hands and faces of his Children were as horrible vnto him as the hang-mans It cannot well be exprest what greefe and vexation hee seemed to receiue when his Children brought him meate forcing him to eate and threatning him when hee refused it Hee confessed his Children did their duties yet he tooke al in ill part saying that he did not acknowledge GOD any more for his Father but did feare him as an aduersary armed with iudgement For he had bin three weekes in this apprehension when hee spake these things without eating or drinking but what they forced him vnto the which he receiued with great difficulty the which hee resisted withall his power spitting out that which they forced him to take Some of the Assistants were of opinion to make him a fraied to make him the more apt to receiue foode first for the Soule then for the bodie asking him if hee did not feare greater and sharper torments after this life then those heethen felt Hee confessed that hee did expect farre more sharpe and had alreadie horror of them yet hee desired nothing more then to bee cast head-long into them that hee might not feare other more greeuious torments They asked him againe if hee thought his sinne to bee so fowle as it could not bee pardoned through the bountie and infinite mercie of GOD His answere was that hee sayd sinned against the Holie Ghost which was so great a sinne as it is called a sinne vnto death that is to say subiect to the eternall vengeance of GOD and to the paines of hell Whereof this poore wretch discoursed amplie learnedly and to subtilie against himselfe Learned and Godly men which did assist him omitted no testymonies that might assure a wounded conscience that GOD is mercifull gentle and readie to pardon But all this could not diuert him from his opinion neither could they drawe any other thing from him but that hee desired much that hee might returne to some hope of pardon But it fares with mee sayth hee as with Cryminall persons shut vp in close prisons and fettered hand and foote Sometimes they are saluted by their friends passing by who aduise them to breake prison and to deceiue their gards if they can Such prisoners would gladly followe their counsell but it is a vaine desire Euen so is mine saied hee As for the scriptures which were cited vnto him touching the loue and affection of GOD the Father by reason of his Sonne IESVS CHRIST hee did aduowe them adding that they did belong onelie to them whome IESVS CHRIST did repute his Bretheren and his members but as for him hee had renounced that loue and willingly reiected all Brotherly allyance neither was hee ignorant in howe great tranquillity of minde they might bee who had once imbraced the promises of saluation and did rest themselues continually therein For confirmation whereof this his sad desaster sayd hee was propounded for an example before all mens eyes that if they were wise they should not hold it light nor happened by any chance but to learne by his ruine howe dangerous it is to fall anie thing from that which beelongs to the great glorie of the Sonne of GOD. Adding that it was a slipperie and a very dangerous passage yea most fearefull to him that stood not carefully vpon his gard Moreouer forasmuch as such euident examples of the vengeance of almightie GOD did seldome appeere to the eyes of men they deserued to bee the more carefullie regarded That amongest a great multitude and number of reprobates in the worlde his calamitie was not singular but his onely punnishment and ruyne did satisfie GOD a iust Iudge to admonish all others to haue a care of themselues He added with all that therein hee did acknowledge the seuerity of GODS iudgement who had chosen him to make him a spectacle rather then any other and to admonish all by one mans mouth to abstaine from all impietie confessing moreouer that there was no reproch nor punnishment which hee had not deserued by reason of his fowle offence After that hee had discoursed sincerely and grauely of the diuine Iustice hee sayd that they should not take it strange this his long speech touching the true reason of the will of GOD for that oftentimes GOD doth wrest out of the mouth of reprobates most assured testymonies of his Maiestie his Iustice and his fearefull vengance as wee see in IVDAS confessing his owne sinne and iustefying his Master Vsing a long discours vpon this sentence and desirous to shewe the greatnesse of GODS Iudgements there are some sayd hee who haue all things so wishfully as they liue in all delights without feare or apprehension of any harme as hauing attained the higth of all felycitie who notwithstanding are registred for perdition whereof IESVS CHRIST propounds an example in the rich man enioying all the pleasures of the world with a full gorge beeing after his death tormented in hell whereof mention is made in the sixteenth Chapter of the Gospell after Saint Luke That GOD doth often propound vnto makinde a hope of reward to drawe him to the right beleefe of His holy will and oftimes hee doth withdrawe them from their Impieties by prodigious and fearefull signes And yet as Impietie is naturall to Men they make not their profit of such instructions and thinke not that it concernes them but contrarywise impute it to any other thing rather then to the wisedome of GOD to feare and reuerence him Herevpon he made a bitter inuectiue against a certaine Philosopher whom hee had knowne aboue twenty yeares before for that this MOROSOPHE had beene so impudent to deliuer in his lessons yea to write it and to publish it in Print that all the miracles that IESVS CHRIST had done vpon the earth might well be done by a man that were skilfull in the knowledge of Naturall things It were hard to represent the admiration where-with they were surprised and with what compassion they were moued that came to visit him for the discourses which they heard from his mouth Euery man laboured earnestly to reduce this poore man to some hope of his saluation Among others there was one a reuerend man for his holynesse of life who departed not from the patients bed It was the Bishop of Capo d' Istria in the Venetians territories Hee ceased not to exhorte SPIERA and laboured by many testimonies of the holy Scriptures to diuert him from that apprehension beseeching him by their friendship by his loue to his Wife and Children and for that his health should bee precious vnto him that hee should haue a care of himselfe and print in his heart a hope and trust of saluation by IESVS CHRIST Adding that hee did not thinke that his spirit was altogether voide and destitute of some
quicken the readers spirits by this variety to dispose him to higher considerations and vppon euery history draw him to the reuerence of almighty GOD who is iust and mercifull As for those sicke persons that are strooke with a Melancholike humour whereof I represent many histories in this section we haue seene and heard spoke of diuers kindes All beeing hurt especially in the imaginatiue facultie haue strong and very strange apprehensions Some imagining that they are become pots of Earth or of Glasse through-out all their bodies or part of it flye all company for feare of breaking Others thinking that they are become Woolues or Cockes howling and crowing and beating their armes as if they had wings Some haue feared infinitely least the ground vnder them should open others that haue represented vnto them-selues nothing but hideous fantasies and death Some that haue imagined them-selues dead and would no more eate nor drinke Some haue thought they haue had Stagges-hornes on theyr heads Some haue cast them-selues into Pondes and Riuers where they haue perished or else haue beene found in extreame danger and haue beene drawne out happely for them There was an Italian Monke possest with such a melancholike humour as hee cast himselfe into the Gulfe of Venice and there was lost An other confessed that the Euill-spirits had often awaked him in the night and perswaded him to cast him-selfe head-long into a Well They do all in a manner feare things of nothing and do not apprehend those that are hurtfull They are afraide of a Foxes tayle where-with they would whippe them of strawe where-with they would shakle them and if you tye them by the legges but with a rush vnto a bed post they will moue no more then Images and contrariwise they will some-times break Cordes and Chaines of Iron where-with you shall thinke to holde them Sometimes they sing and talke incessantly other times they weepe and are mute the humour comming to alter more the furye increaseth and they fall into despayre and perpetuall desire of death the seeke for nothing but for Kniues to murder themselues for windowes to cast themselues downe head-long for dores to flye out at and commit some excesse that they might auoide this feare which doth torment them And therefore we doe alwayes see them sad amazed terrified like vnto little children which goe in the darke the fume of this black and melancholike humour marueylously troubling the seat of the vnderstanding whence proceedes this amazement So wise men doe hold that the humours of the body doe alter our complexion whence after doth proceede the change of the actions of the minde so as the faculties of the mind do follow the disposition of the body There hath beene found a melancholike man which hath supposed himselfe to be without a head to cure him whereof they haue charged his head with a hat of lead which was such a continuall burthen vnto him as in the end he was helpt of that imagination Hee that thought himselfe to bee all of Glasse was recouered by the approch of a friend of his who said that hee was yet more brittle and iesting politikely with him freede him from his Imagination with good wordes Some haue beene seene who imagining themselues condemned to die could not bee diuerted from that apprehension but in seeing of a Pardon counterfetted to that ende taking the paynes to reade it himselfe for his better assurance An other saying that hee was dead and in his graue was retyred from that humour by the dexteritie of his Companion who shut himselfe vp with him and eating perswaded him to eate saying that it was vsuall among the dead Some hold their eyes still fixt vppon the ground and are wonderfully offended to heare any one laugh finde nothing that is good fayre nor well done bee it neere or farre of imagining still that they will put them into prison beate or kill them they crye him mercy whom they first met they kneele down for feare to an Infant or to a little Dogge they seeke holes obscure places they make Men beleeue that they are bewitched inchaunted and poysoned To conclude this disease is a Tree whereof we cannot number the branches nor the leaues I had forgotten to say that there are some which feare and hate their most familier and greatest friends others that cannot indure any man and feare nothing so much as to bee seene Some haue feare of all creatures whatsoeuer or of some in particucular those which haue beene bitten by madde-Dogges are wonderfully afraid of Water To conclude howe many particular fantasies and diseases soeuer there be of melancholicke humours so many sorts of frensies there bee But it is a generall thing almost in all persons toucht with any melancholike humour troubling the braine simplie moued with strange fumes which proceed from this venemous humour or augmented by some newe accident as the biting of madde-Dogges by extraordinary illusions or otherwise to grow fearefull especially of things which are in no sort to befeared Nowe it remaines that wee produce some notable Histories of our Times touching these passions My intention in the report of them is to shewe how much wee ought to feare our owne miseries to remember ourvanities and to thinke that GOD needes not to seeke far for any rods to scourge vs seeing that wee carry them in our own bowels that death is in this vessell of our bodies and that our soules are in miserable captiuitie if the light of grace heauenly truth doth not shine incessantly vpon them In our time a Gentleman fell into such an humour of melancholie as it was not possible in the extremity of his sicknesse to change an opinion he had that hee was dead so as if his friends and seruants came to flatter intreate or presse him to take some nourishment or phisicke he reiected all â—…aying that the dead had no neede of such things Sixe dayes past without receiuing of any foode and the seuenth being come which is mortall to hungry bodyes his friends deuised a policie to free him of this fantasie His Chamber beeing artificially made darke they caused certaine men to enter into it beeing masked and clothed in white sheetes tyed vp like vnto them that are buryed The table was couered with meate wher-with these masked Men began to fill them-selues making little noise but with their chappes and drinking hard The sicke man seeing this sport demanded what they were and what they did there They answered him that they were dead-men which made good cheere Howe then saith the sicke Man doe dead men eate I saide they and with a good stomacke If you will bee of the company you shall see that we speake the truth Presently the sicke man shakes his eares leapes out of his bed and begins to feede with these dead-men with a good stomacke Hauing dronke well sleepe takes him with the helpe of a drinke which they had prepared for him and giuen him in this banket of
Chap. 9. of his Treatise of the cure of Diseases WILLIAM of BRABANT writes in his Historie that a man of a setled iudgement was some-times so tormented with an euill spirit that at a certaine season of the yeare hee imagined himselfe to bee a rauening Wolfe running vp and downe the Woods Caues and Deserts especially after young Children More-ouer hee saith that this man was often found running in the Desarts like a man out of his wittes and that in the end by the grace of GOD hee came to himselfe againe and was cured There was also as IOB FINCEL reports in his 2. Booke of Miracles a Countri-man neere vnto Pauia in the yeare 1541. who thought himselfe to bee a Wolfe setting vpon diuers men in the fields and slew some In the end being with great difficultie taken hee did constantlye affirme that hee was a Wolfe and that there was no other difference but that Wolues were commonlie hayrie without and hee was betwixt the skinne and the flesh Some too barbarous and cruell Wolues in effect desiring to trie the truth thereof gaue him manie wounds vpon the armes and legges but knowing their owne error and the innocencie of the poore melancholie man they committed him to the Surgions to cure in whose hands hee dyed within fewe dayes after Such as are afflicted with that disease are pale their eyes are hollow and they see ill their tongue is drye they are much altered and are without much spittle in the mouth PLINIE and others write that the braine of a Beare prouokes brutish imaginations And he saith that in our time some made a Spanish Gentleman eate thereof whose phantasie was so troubled as he imagined that he was transformed it to a Beare flying into the Mountaines and desarts I. WIER lib. 4. Chap. 13. Of Diuelish deuises As for those Licanthropes which haue the imagination so impayred and hurt that besides by some particular power of Sathan they seeme Wolues and not Men to them that see them runne doing great spoile BODIN disputes very amply in his Demonomania lib. 2. Chap. 3. where he maintaines that the Diuell may change the figure of one body into another considering the great power which GOD hath giuen him in this elementarie world Hee maintaines that there be Licanthropes transformed really from Men into Wolues alledging diuers examples and Histories to that purpose In the end after many arguments hee maintaines the one and the other sort of Licanthropia And as for this represented in the end of this Chapter the conclusion of his discourse was that men are some-times changed into Beasts the humaine reason remaining whether it bee done by the power of GOD immediatly or that this power is giuen to Sathan the executioner of his will or rather of his fearefull iudgements And if we confesse saith he the truth of the holy writte in DANIEL touching the transformation of NABVCHODONOSER and of the Historie of LOTS wife changed into an immouable Piller it is certaine that the change of a Man into an Oxe or into a Stone is possible and by consequence possible into all other creatures But for that BODIN cites PEVCER touching the transformation of the Pilappiens and doth not relate plainly that which he doth obserue worthy of consideration vpon that subiect I will transcribe it as it is conteined in his learned worke intituled A Commentarie of the principall sorts of diuinations lib. 4. Cap. 9. according to the French edition In the ranke and number of Ecstatiques are put those which they call Licaons and Licanthropes which imagine themselues to bee changed into Wolues and in their forme runne vp and downe the fields falling vpon troopes of great and small Cattell teare in peeces what they incounter and goe roring vp and downe Church-yardes and Sepulchers In the forth booke of HERODOTVS there is a passage touching the Neuriens a people of Scythia who transformed them-selues into Wolues the which hee saith hee could not beleeue not with-standing any report that was made vnto him For my part I haue held it fabulous and rediculous that which hath beene often reported of this transformation of men into Wolues But I haue learned by certaine and tryed signes and by witnesses worthy of credit that they be not things altogether inuented and incredible which are spoken of such transformations which happen euery yeare twelue dayes after Christmas in Liuonia and the Countries thereabout as they haue learned by their confessions which haue beene imprisoned and tormented for such crimes Behold how they report it to be done Presently after that Christmas day is past a lame Boye goes through the Countrie and calles the Diuels slaues together being in great numbers and inioynes them to follow him If they staye any thing then presently comes a great man holding a whippe made of little chaines of Yron where-with he makes them to aduance and some-times he handles these wretches so roughly as the markes of his whippe sticke long by them and puts them that haue beene beaten to great paine Being vpon the way behold they are all as it seemes to them changed and transformed into Wolues They are thousands of them together hauing for their conductor and guide this Whippe-carrier after whom they marche imagining that they are become Wolues Beeing in the open champian Countryes they fall vppon such troupes of Cattell as they finde teare them in peeces and carrye away what they can committing many other spoiles but they are not suffered to touche nor to hurt any reasonable creature When they approche neere vnto any Riuer their guide say they deuides the water with his whippe so as they seeme to open and to leaue a drye path betwixt both to passe through At the end of twelue dayes all the troupe is dispersed and euery one returnes vnto his house hauing layde away his Wolues forme and taken that of Man againe This transformation say they is done after this manner Those which are transformed fall sodenly to the ground like vnto them that haue the Falling-sicknesse and remaine like dead men voyde of all feeling They stirre not from thence neither goe into any other place neither are they transformed into Wolues but are like vnto dead carcasses for although you shake them and rowle them vp and downe yet they make no shewe of life From thence is sprung an opinion that the soules taken out the bodyes enter into these fantosmes or visions running with the shapes of Wolues then when the worke enterprized by the Diuell is finished they returne into their bodyes which then recouer life The Licanthropes them-selues confirme this opinion confessing that the bodyes doe not leaue their humaine forme neyther yet receiue that of a Wolfe but onelie that the soules are thrust out of their prisons and flye into Wolues bodyes by whom they are carryed for a time Others haue maintained that lying in Yrons in a Dungeon they haue taken the forme of a Wolfe and haue gone to finde out their companions many dayes iourney
the Mother had also giuen him the like councell to escape but GOD by his power did so staie him as hee had no power to flie Beeing carried to prison and examined at the first hee couered his parricyde accusing his Father that hee had slaine himselfe But his excuses beeing found friuolous hee was condemned to haue his right hand cut off then to bee pinched with hot pincers and in the ende hanged by the feete vpon a gibet and strangled with a stone of sixe score pound which should bee hanged at his necke A wicked counterfet beeing prisoner with him aduised him to appeale vnto Paris But hauing freely confessed the Parricide hee reuoked his appeale and was executed The History of our times Of the Heart of man Diuers Histories thereof in our time HAuing perced an Impostume grown of a long time vpon the seauenth turning ioynt where through the venom of his corruption it had made a great ouerture and gnawne the innermost membrane of the heart those which were present beheld one part of the heart which I did shewe them A. BENIVENIVS in his booke de abditis causis Chap. 42. Two Bretheren gentlemen falling out at tables the one of them gaue the other a wound with his knife iust on the seege of the heart the hurt gentleman bleeding exceedingly was carried and layed on a bed whereas all signes of death appeered Beeing sent for I applied that to the heart which I thought â—…it to strengthen it The patient hauing beene as it were at deathes doore vntil midnight beganne to come to himselfe and hauing vsed all the meanes possible I could deuise for his preseruation at length I sawe him cured whereby I knewe the heart had not beene perished as at the first I doubted but the filme or Capsula thereof called PERICALDION by the Greekes was lightly tainted The same Author Chap. 65. We haue seene ANTHONY ALâ—…IAT hurt and hauing his Pericordian vntoucht True it is that hee did sigh very much and lowd The internall parts beeing hurt bring death foure waies either through necessity of their function and office as the Lunges or by reason of the excellency of their nature as the Hart or through much losse of bloud as the Liuer the great arteries and veines or through the malignity of Symptomes and accidents as the neruie parts the ventricle and bladder Although some parts be incurable yet are they not mortall of absolute necessity otherwise death would ensue vpon the incurable hurts of boanes gristles and lygaments The Pericordion then is not mortall of it selfe but because it is impossible to attaine it without offending many other noble parts CARDAN in his Commentarie on the Aphorismes of Hipocrates booke 6. apb 18. Anatomizing a Scholler of mine dead in the Vniuersitie of Rome I found that this yong man had no Pericardion by meanes whereof in his life-time hee swounded very often and seemed as one dead through which defect at length hee died COLVMBVS booke 15. of his Anatomy A certaine Theefe being taken downe from the gallowes where he had bene hanged and not quite strangled was carefully looked vnto and recouered But like an vngratious wretch as he was returning to his old trade againe hee was apprehended and throughly hanged Wherevpon we would needes Anatomize him and wee found that his heart was all heary Which is likewise reported among the Grecians of Aristomenes of Hermogenes the Rhetorician of Leonydas of Lysander and others namely of a dog that ALEXANDER the great had This haire denotes not onely promptitude of Courage and peruerse obstinacy but many times valour contemning all danger BENIVENIVS in Chap. 83. de Abditis causis Vpon a certaine time making the Anatomy of a man at Ferrara wee found his heart cleane couered ouer with haire and indeede he had beene all his life time a desperate ruffian and a notable theefe AMATVS the Portingale in Centur. 6 Cur. 65. Being at Venice and present at the execution of a very notorious theefe the hangman that quartered his bodie found his heart meruailous hairye M. A. Muret booke 12. of his dyuers readings Chap. 10. I haue seeâ—…e the sepâ—…um that distinguisheth the ventrycles of the heart to be a gristle in some mens Bodies in others the left ventricle wanting or so little as it could hardly bee discerned Columb booke 15. of his Anatomy I found in two mens bodies that I opened a boane in the rootes of the great artery and of the arteryall vaine CORN GEMMA in the 2. booke of his Cyclognomia pag 75. In another I found a little boane betweene the gristly circles of the heart the chiefe artery and arteriall veine like to the boane which is commonly found in the heart of a stagge CORN GEMMA in the 1. booke Chap. 6. of his Cosmocritif Doctor MELANCHTHON in his first booke of the Soule testifies of CASIMIR Marquise of Brandebourg a Prince greatly afflicted in his life time with sundry griefes and consumed with long watchings that beeing opened after his decease the humor enclosed in the fylme of the heart was â—…ound quite dried vp and the heart so scorched that it was like a peare burnt in the fire TH. IORDAN in the 1. booke of signes of the plague Chap. 16. Not long since a Romaine gentleman died after hee had languished along time Being opened no heart appeared neither was there any part of it but the fylme left the vnmeasurable heate of his long sicknesse hauing wholy consumed it BERN. IELASIVS in the 28. Chap. of the 5. booke of the nature of things A young Prince being sickly and very much troubled with a payne at the heart assembled a great many Physitions togither for to consult of his dissease Among others there was a young practitioner who declared how he had read in certaine notes that the vse of garlick euerie morning expells a kinde of worme that feedes vpon the heart But both the remedy and the young man that propounded it were despised Not long after this Prince died and his body was opened by the commandement of his Father for to see the cause of his sicknesse death The dissection made they found a white worme hauing a sharpe bill of horne like a pâ—…llets gnawing the heart The Physitions tooke it aliue and layd it on a table in a circle made of the iuyce of garlick The worme began to writh and wriggle euery way still eschuing the iuyce that compassed it about Finally surmounted by the strength and sauor of the garlick it died within the circle to the astonishment of those that had despised so easie a remedie I. HEBANSTEIF in his treatise of the plague It is not long agoe that in the great Duke of Tuscans Court a certaine Florentine beeing assistant at the merry conceites of a pleasant iester was suddainly seized with vnexpected death whereat the company and his friends being much abashed for their better satisfaction after he was knowne to bee starke dead they had him opened and there was
falsely that those persones were the cause of such torments ANNE being resolued to returne no more to the Couent from whence her parents had taken her but to serue GOD deuoutly so as with as more setled iudgement this calamity left her notwithstanding if she receiued but letters from the Ablesse shee felt a shwering through-out all her Body as if shee should presently haue fallen againe into her former inconuenience Not long after she maried and was neuer troubled with that calamity more She told me also that ELSE KAMENSE was afflicted in the same manner as the rest were namely with the falling sicknesse that many times she talked idely too wherevpon the Nunnes were perswaded that shee had bewitched her selfe to the end she might not be suspected of that she had done insomuch that they all set vpon this maide whom the cunning man had told them was a witch The poore wench beeing carryed before the Iustice at the first confessed that shee was cause of that heauy spectacle wrought by meanes of the mixture of certaine poysons being at the place of execution and ready to die she protested that shee had neuer vsed any poyson but onely at times pronounced certaine curses After that Else and her mother were burned some of the inhabitants of Hammone a towne there by began to bee tormented of the euill spirit The minister of the place got foure or fiue of them into his house for to instruct and fortifie them against the impostures of the enemy But when hee had recited some articles of a Christans beliefe they beganne to mocke the Minister and to name certaine women of the Towne to whome they sayd they would go mounted vpon Bucks which should carry them thither Incontinently one of them got him a stride vpon a forme crying out that hee was ryding away Another stepping vp behinde him fell back-ward quite ouer and ouer and lighted against the Chamber dore which flying open hee tumbled from the toppe of the stayres downe to the bottome and had no hurt About the same time in a village named Houel hard by the same Towne diuers men were cruelly tormented of the euil spirit I. WIER in booke 4. Chap. 11. The Nunnes of the Couent of Nazareth at Cologne were tormented almost like those of Kantorp Hauing beene a long time diuersly vexed by the Diuell much more in the yeare 1564. For they were layd along vpon the ground as if it had beene to haue had the company of man during which indignity their eies remained closed which afterwards they opened very shame fastly as if they had endured some grieuous paine A young wench named GERTRVDE of 14. yeares of age gaue way to all this mischiefe She had beene often abused with those wantō apparitions in her bed wherof her laughter made proofe although she had tried diuers meanes to remedy it but all in vaine For as a fellowe of hers lay on a pallet by her only for to keepe her from such apparitions the poore wench grewe affraied hearing the noise that was made in Gertrudes bedde of whome at length the Diuell tooke possession and beganne to afflict her with sundry sorts of Convulsions In her fit she was like a blind body vttering strange and inconstant speeches tending to dispaire The like did diuers others and so this plague preuailed by little little augmented much more when these poore afflicted soules began to haue recourse vnto vnlawfull remedies Now whilest the Diuell tormented them thus some of them were taken with the plague and as long as they had it the euil spirit neuer troubles them through a singular goodnesse of GOD who lymiteth vnto Satan certaine boūds which he cannot passe witnesse IOB in afflicting those whō GOD hath deliuered vp vnto him for a time in this world The beginning of all this calamity proceeded from certaine lewd youthes who hauing gotten acquaintance by playing at stoole-ball thereby with one two of those Nunnes climbed ouer the walles enioyed their loues But afterwards leauing of that course by reason they were depriued of the meanes to continewe it the Diuell corrupted the phantasie of those miserable creatures and entreated them as hath beene declared I. WIER booke 1. Chap. 12. To these may be added another Nunne of the Couent of Bosledue hard by Saint Iohns Church named IVDITH whom I haue seene tormented of the Diuill with strange convulsions for hee so stopt her throate that shee could not swallowe any meate and many times held her toung in such sorte that hee kept her from speaking likewise I haue heard her vtter ridiculous and horrible speaches With her I will ioyne another maide seruant to a Nunne of a great and noble house A Country fellowe had promised her marriage but hee fell in loue with another whereat she was so grieued that being gone some halfe a mile from the Couent she met the Diuell in the likenes of a proper yong man who began to talke very familiarly with her discouering vnto her all the Country fellowes secrets with the speech hee had vsed to his newe loue and that to the end he might haue made the wench fall into dispaire and so drawne her to haue made her self away Being come to a little brooke he tooke the bottle of oile which she carried that she might the better passe ouer the bridge and enticed her to go with him to a place that hee named which shee refused saying what would you haue me do going along those marshes Wherevpon he vanished away which so affrighted the poore maide that she fell into a swound her Mistres being aduertised of it sent a litter to fetch her to the Couent Where she lay a long time sick and as it were depriued of sense being troubled in spirit after a strange manner and diuers times complayned that she was miserably tormented of the Diuell who would haue her carry her away through the windowe Afterward she was married to that Country-fellowe and recouered her former health The same At Leuensteet a village belonging to the Duke of Brunswick there was a maide named MARGARET ACHILS about twenty yeares old dwelling with her Sisters Vpon the second day of Iune going to make cleane a paire of showes she tooke one of her kniues that was some halfe a foote long and as shee was beginning to scrape them being set in a corner of the Chamber and very weake with an ague that had held her a long time suddenly an old woman came in who asked her whether she had her ague still and how she felt her-selfe in her sicknesse and so without any farther talke departed After the shooes were made cleane this maide let the Knife fall into her lap which she could not finde againe although she had sought very diligently for it whereat she was some-what afraide but farre more when she perceiued a black Dog lying vnder the Table whom she droue away hoping to finde her Knife The Dog being 〈◊〉 began to shew his
BELLAY attribute to the diuine vengeance because hee kept not the promise which hee made with such an imprecation to the Millanois His death â—…ell on the 6. of May 1527. To this purpose I will adde another Historie though it be ancient reported by ALBERT CRANT in his 6. Booke of the affaires of Saxony Chap. 45. where hee writes that the Emperor FREDERICK the first being in Saint PETERS Monastery at Erford the floore whereon hee went suddenly sanke vnder him and if he had not caught hold on an Yron barre of a window hee had fallen into the Iakes of the Monasterie wherein certaine Gentlemen fell and were drowned amongst the which was HENRY Earle of Schuartzbourg who carried the presage of his death in an vsuall imprecation If I do this or that I would said he I might be drowned in the Iakes But omitting other ancient Histories it being no part of our purpose to touch them in these collections but reseruing them for some other hand and worke I will present the examples of our time concerning imprecations and despightfull speaches eyther against GOD or our neighbours A Soldiar trauelling through the Marquisate of Brandebourg feeling him-selfe not well staied in an Inne gaue his 〈◊〉 his money to keepe Not long after being recouered he asked it againe of the woman who had agreed before with her husband to detaine it Wherefore she denyed that she had any of him and rayled at him as if he had done her wrong to aske it whereat the traueller was so enraged that he accused her of disloyaltie and theft which the Host hearing he tooke his wiues part and thrust the other out of dores who iustly incensed with such dealing drew his sworde and ranne against the gate The Host began to crie out that hee went about to breake into his house and robbe him For which cause the Souldier was apprehended carryed to prison and arraigned before the Magistrate ready to be condemned to death The day came wherein sentence was to bee giuen and executed the Diuill entred into the prison and tolde the prisoner that hee should bee condemned to dye neuerthelesse he promised him if so bee hee would giue himselfe vnto him to keepe him from all harme The prisoner answered that he would rather dye innocent as he was then be deliuered by such means The Diuil hauing shewed him againe the danger wherein hee stood and receiuing the repulse promised not-withstanding to helpe him for nothing and worke in such sort that he should be reuenged on his enemies Hee councelled him then when he should be brought to his tryall to maintaine that hee was innocent and to desire the Iudge to let him haue him for his aduocate whom he should see standing there in a blew Cap which should plead for him The prisoner accepted the offer and the next day being brought to the Barre hearing his aduersaries accusation and the Iudges opinion required according to the custome of the place that he might haue an Aduocate to plead his cause which was granted him This craftye Lawyer stood forth and very subtilly began to defend his client alledging that hee was falselie accused and by consequence wrongfully condemned for the Hoste kept away his money and had misused him besides Therevpon hee vp and tolde how the whole matter had past and declared the place where the money was locked vp The Host on the other side defended himselfe and the more impudently denyed it giuing himselfe to the Diuill both body and soule if so be he had it Where-vpon this Lawyer in the blew Cappe leauing his cause layde hold on the Host carried him out of the hall and hoysted him vp so high in the ayre that it was neuer knowne what became of him afterward I. WIER in his 4. booke of Diuelish deuises Chap. 20. PAVL EITZEN in the 6. Booke of his Morales Chap. 18. saith that this happened in the yeare 1541. and that this Souldier came out of Hungarie In the Towne of Rutlingen a certaine traueller comming into an Inne gaue his Hoste a budget to keepe wherein there was a great summe of money At his departure asking it againe the Hoste denyed hee had any and rayled at him for charging him with it The traueller sued him in the lawe and because there was no witnesse of the matter hee was going to put the Host to his oath who was ready and most desirous to take it and gaue himselfe to the diuill if euer he receiued or kept away the Budget that was in question The plaintiffe required some respite to take aduise whether hee should put the defender to his oth or no and going out of the Court he met two men that asked him the occaston of his comming thither He vp and told them the matter Well sayde they wilt thou bee contented that we shall helpe thee in the cause He answred them I not knowing what they were Ther-vpon they returned all three into the Court where the two that came last began to maintaine against the Hoste that the Budget was deliuered vnto him and that he receiued it and locked it vp in such a place which they named The periured wretch could not tell what to reply and as the Iudge was about to send him to prison the two witnesses began to say it shall not need for wee are sent to punish his wickednesse Saying so they caught him vp into the ayre where he vanished away with theÌ„ and was neuer seene more IOHN le GAST of Brisae in the 2. volume of his Table-talke pag. 131. GILBERT COVSIN of Nosereth in his Narrations PETER ALVARADO a Spanish Captaine making warre on the Indians of Peru receiued a grieuous hurt in a skirmish whereof he dyed two dayes after Lying in his death-bed being asked where he felt his paine In my soule said he it torments me when the newes of his death came to his wife BEATRICE a very proud woman then resident at Guattimall she began to rage to make imprecations and to fall out with GOD euen to say That hee could not deale worse with her then to take away her husband There-vpon shee hung all her house with black and began to mourne in such sort that shee could not be drawne to receiue any sustenance or comfort She did nothing but weepe lye along on the ground teare her hayre and demeane her-selfe like a madde woman Amidst her husbands pompous obsequies of whom GOMARA writes that he maried two sisters and was a long time polluted with foule incest and all this despightfull mourning shee forgot not to assemble the chiefest of the towne together and there to make them declare her for Gouernesse of the Country and to sweare fealtie and obedience vnto her But now let vs heere what came to passe vpon these imprecations and despightfull speeches The 8. of September 1541. it rained so mightely for 24. houres together that the next day about nine or ten of the clock at night two Indians came and
the knowledge of any was found shutte vp fast in the former Dungeon hauing the face and countenance of a man distracted who required them that they should lead him presently vnto their Lord to whome hee had some-things of great and waighty importance to impart Beeing brought before him hee tolde him that hee was come from Hell The occasion was that beeing no longer able to endure the rigour of the prison vanquished with despaire fearing death and voyde of good counsell hee had called the Diuell to his ayde that hee would drawe him out of that captiuitie That soone after the euill spirit had appeared vnto him in the Dungeon in a hideous and terrible forme where they had made an agreement according to the which hee had beene drawne and carryed from thence not without greeuous torments then cast head-long into places vnder-ground that were wonderfull hollow as in the bottome of the earth where hee had seene the prisons of the wicked their punishments darkenesse and horrible miseries seates that were stincking and fearefull Kings Princes and great men plunged in darkenesse where they burnt in flaming fire with vnspeakeable torments that he had seene Popes Cardinals and other Prelates attired in state and other sorts of men in diuers equipages afflicted with distinct punishments in very deepe gulphes where they were tormented incessantly Adding that hee had knowne there many of his acquaintance namely one of his greatest friends who knew him and inquired of his estate the prisoner hauing tolde him that their Country was in the hands of a cruell Lord hee then inioyned him that beeing returned he should command this rough Maister to leaue his tyranous vsage and to tell him that if hee continued his place was markt in a certaine seate thereby which he shewed vnto the prisoner And to the end sayd this spirit vnto the prisoner that the Lord of whome wee speake may giue credit vnto thy report bid him remember the secret counsell and the speech wee had together when as we carryed armes together in a certaine warre and vnder Commanders that hee named vnto him Then he told him in particular this secret their accord the wordes and mutuall promises the which the prisoner deliuered distinctly one after another in order vnto this Lord who was wonderfully amazed at this message wondering how it could bee that things committed by him alone the which hee had neuer discouered to any should bee decifred vnto him so boldly by a poore subiect of his who did represent them as if hee had read them in a Booke They adde that the prisoner hauing inquired of the other with whom hee deuised in Hell if it were possible and true that so many Men whom hee did see stately apparrelled should feele any torments the other answered that they were burnt with continuall fire and tortured with greeuous and vnspeakeable punishments and that all those ornaments of Golde and Scarlate were nothing else but burning fire so couloured That being desirous to feele if it were so hee went neere to touch this Scarlate which the other perswaded him to forbeare but the heate of the fire had scorcht all the palme of his hand the which hee shewed as it were roasted in the embers of a great fire The poore prisoner beeing set at libertie seemed to those that came vnto him at his returne to his house as a man distracted and growne dull which doth neither heare nor see alwayes pensiue speaking little and scarce answering the questions that were demanded him His face was become so hideous and his countenance so foule and wilde after this voyage as his Wife and Children did scarce know him and when they knew him there was nothing but crying and weeping seeing him so changed Hee liued but fewe dayes after his returne and could hardly settle his poore etate hee was so transported and changed AEEXANDER of Alexandria liber 6. Chap. 21. Neere vnto Torge in Saxonie a certaine Gentleman walking in the fieâ—…d mette wiâ—…h a Man which saluted him and offered him his seruice Hee made him his Horse-keeper The Maister was not very good but the seruant was wickednesse it selfe One daye the Maister beeing to goe forthe recommended his Horses vnto his seruant especially one aboue the rest which was of some price this seruant was so expert as hee drewe this horse vp into a very high Tower When the Maister returned his Horse which had his head at the window knew him and began to neigh. The Maister being amazed demanded who had placed his Horse in so high a Stable This good seruant answered that it was with an intent to keepe him safe that hee might not bee lost and that hee had carefully executed his Maisters commandement They had much a doe to shackle this poore beast and to let him downe with Ropes from the top of the Tower Soone after some whome this Gentleman had robd resoluing to pursue him in Iustice his Horse-keeper sayde vnto him Maister saue your selfe shewing him a Sack out of the which hee drew many horse-shoes puld by him from horse-feete to staye their course in the voyage which they vnder-tooke against his Maister who in the end being taken and put in prison inrreated his Horse-keeper to helpe him You are too fast bound there answered the seruant I cannot free you But the Maister making great instance in the end his seruant sayde I will drawe you out of captiuitie so as you make no signe with your hands thinking to saue your selfe Which agreed vppon hee takes him with his shackles and Bolttes and carryes him through the ayre This miserable Maister beeing amazed to see himselfe in such a strange field began to crye out Oh eternall GOD whether doe they carrye mee Sodenlye his seruant that is to say the Diuell let him fall in a Marish then comming home to the house lett es the Gentle-woman his Wife to vnderstand in what estate and where her Husband was that they might goe and deliuer him A riche man of Halberstad a famous Towne in Germanie did vsually keepe a good Table giuing vnto himselfe all the pleasures in this world hee could deuise so little carefull of his soules health as one day hee presumed to powre forth this blasphemie among his riotous companions that if hee might alwayes spend his dayes in delights hee would desire no other life But after some dayes and beyond his expectation hee must needs dye After his death there were dayly seene at night in his house which was stately built visions which appeared so as the seruants were forced to seeke an other aboade This riche man appeared with a troupe of other Banketmakers in a Hall which in his life-time serued onely to make seasts in Hee was compassed in by seruants which held Torches in their hands and serued at a Table that was couered with Cuppes and Goblets guilt carrying many Dishes and then taking them away More-ouer they heard the noyse of Flutes Luthes Virginals and other Instruments of Musicke