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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89818	The history of magick by way of apology, for all the wise men who have unjustly been reputed magicians, from the Creation, to the present age. / Written in French, by G. Naudæus late library-keeper to Cardinal Mazarin. Englished by J. Davies.; Apologie pour tous les grands personnages qui ont esté faussement soupçonnez de magie. English	Naudé, Gabriel, 1600-1653.; Davies, John, 1625-1693.	1657 (1657)	Wing N246; Thomason E1609_1; ESTC R202977	182,379	328

worships and superstitions This granted our next businesse is to shew the little reason thereis to beleeve that Orpheus Mutis animalibus imperavit vagosque greges contemptis pascuis ad audiendi epulas invitavit This errour as we have observ'd in the first Chapter proceeds from this that many times men take Poeticall Fables for evident Truths and the literall sense of their writings for the allegoricall and morall which they meant as may be particularly observed in this fabulous musick of Orpheus It must then be understood of the civilization which his Laws wrought upon savage and barbarous people reducing them to quiet and better conversation if we take the security of Horace who sayes De Art poet Sylvestres homines sacer interpresque Deorum Caedibus victu foedo deterruit Orpheus Dictus ob id lenire tygres rabidosque leones Which is also the common explication of Dion Chrysostom Boccace Cassiodorus Macrobius and Quintilian It were therefore impertinent to endeavour to explane the seven severall reasons which Fabius Paulinus would draw from the Philosophy of the Platonists to prove this motion of things inanimate possible in Nature since he confesses himself that he proposes them not but to exercise his learning whereas had he advanced seriously and as true Delrio hath so fully refuted them that there were not now any ground to receive them as legitimate besides that their main drift was to shew the possibility of that musike which certainly is a very weak proof and in a manner of no consequence if we consider with Apuleius that Non omnia quae fieri potuerunt pro fact is habenda sunt The conjecture they would draw from his Hymnes would be more considerable than either of the precedent if we were obliged to follow the glosse and interpretation which hath been made of it by diverse persons especially le Loyer who will I hope pardon me if I endeavour to prove that he hath been as unfortunate in the explication of his Hymnes as the Metamorphosis of the Orpheotelestae into Magicians For not to quarrell with the little account or knowledge we have of the Composer of them since Genebrard assures us that there is not any one book left of all those old Authours and first Divines such as Orpheus Linus Musaeus Phenias and Aristeus Proconesiensis grounding his opinion haply on the authority of Cicero who fathers these Hymnes upon one called Cecrops and those of Franciscus Picus Selden and Eugubinus who ingenuously acknowledge that their Authour is utterly unknown to us we may shew in two words that these Hymnes contain not any thing that should bring them into the least suspicion of Magick whether they be considered literally or in the severall interpretations of their allegoricall and morall sense For to shew that there is no such danger as to the former we need onely reflect on the industry of this first planter of Theologie who to subdue and refine the spirits of a rough and salvage people took the most effectuall course that could be thought upon to bring about his enterprise which was to possesse them with a fear and veneration of certain Divinities These he himself celebrates in his Hymnes as well to bring them into reputation by his example as to leave his Successours a certain Modell as it were of those observations and ceremonies which ought to be practiz'd to keep up the honour and devotion of their Sacrifices whereof there were certainly many kinds For as the ceremonies of Christianity at the present are not much different one from another because they relate to the service of one onely Almighty God So those of the false Religion of the Ancients could not but be very contrary and discordant by reason of the infinite number of Gods Idols and Images which were to be ador'd with Sacrifices peculiar to every one of them Cum ex hoc Divorum numero saith Apuleius nonnulli nocturnis vel diurnis promptis occultis laetioribus vel tristioribus hostiis vel ceremoniis vel ritibus gauderent But this proceeded meerly from the sleight and subtilty of the Law-makers and first Divines who thus diversify'd the Sacrifices as they saw it most convenient for the people We have a manifest example hereof in these Hymnes of Orpheus unlesse any one would sift out a more mysterious and hidden sense under the veil of their Allegories as Picus acknowledges we must when he sayes that Ut erat veterum mos Theologorum it a Orpheus suorum dogmatum mysteria fabularum involucris poetico velamento dissimulavis ut si quis legat illius hymnos nihil subesse credat praeter fabellas nugasque meracissimas But this Mythologie once admitted the Chymists presently explane these Hymnes of their severall Tinctures and their Philosophers stone the Cabalists of the Ensoph and its Zephirots Divines of the mysteries of Christian Religion Philosophers of Nature and its causes and Daemonographers of Sacrifices and Conjurations When yet there is no ground to beleeve that Orpheus would conceal so many mysteries and those so different one from another under the mask of his fables which can neither be interpreted of the universall spirit or the Philosophers stone nor of the sorceries of Magicians For as to the interpretation of Alchymists we shall in the ensuing Chapters shew that it hath ever been one of their main fooleries to be desirous to glosse on all things obscure and difficult advantageously to their disquisition For that of du Loyer and other Daemonographers it were irrationall to admit it for the legitimate since first we have the contrary authority of all the Catholike Doctours specifi'd before who allow their authority may be used to confirm the principall points of our Religion Secondly we are able to shew that they cannot be better interpreted than of Physick according to the judgement even of the great Mirandula who in the third of his Conclusions upon the Doctrine of Orpheus sayes expressely that Nomina Deorum quos Orpheus canit non decipientium Daemonum sed naturalium virtutum divinarumque sunt nomina This is further confirm'd by Strabo who observes that in all the Discourses were anciently made of the Gods under the umbrage of diverse Fables Metamorphoses were shrowded the most famous opinions of those who were particularly excellent in the knowledge of Nature Such is Orpheus in his Hymnes which if we would interpret in their tr●e sense we must with Seneca observe that the Aegyptians from whom this first Philosopher and Divine had deriv'd all his learning divided every element into two parts one whereof they called the male the other the female Thus in the earth rocks and stones in the air the winds in the water the Sea in the fire flame and thunder are held the strongest and most forcible parts and the soft and tractable earth fresh waters the most untroubled Aire and the least activefire are the weaker and more

feminine parts In allusion to this does Orpheus put two distinct Vertues into all the bodies of the Vniverse one whereof was destin'd only to Governe its Sphere the other to produce the effects which depended on its perfection Desirous therefore to spread this doctrine under the sweetnesse of his Hymnes he compos'd them all under the names of his vertues calling those he directed to the Earth Pluto and Proserpina to the water Thetis and Oceanus to the Aire Jupiter and Juno to the Fire Aurora and Phaneta and giving the names of the Nine Muses and an Epithet of the God Bacchus to all the rest whom he plac'd in the Spheres of the seven Planets the Firmament and the soul of the World as may be seen more particularly in Caelius Rhodiginus All which put together may be enough to demonstrate that Le Loyer and such Writers have been extreemly mistaken when they interpreted those names of a Legion of Devils and so pittifully charg'd this Author with Magick upon the Authority of Pausanias who sufficiently refutes himself both as mentioning it only upon the score of a common report and that he fastens the same calumny upon Amphion a person excellent only for Musick qui canendo chordis as Cassiordorus hath well observ'd Thebanos muros dicitur condidisse ut cum homines labore marcidos ad studium perfectionis erigeret saxa ipsa viderentur relictis rupibus advenisse To which we may adde one thing more that may oblige us to have sentiments of this great person contrary to theirs who too lightly suspect him which is that Pliny himself delivers him out of the Inquisition after he had charg'd a many others whose Innocencie shall neverthelesse appear when we come to their particular vindication CHAP. X. A Vindication of Pythagoras HAd we not from Plutarch this Character of Pythagoras that he was wont freely to acknowledge that the greatest advantage he had reap'd from Philosophy was Not to wonder at any thing I should not easily be perswaded but that he would find much matter for his admiration when he should consider how the malice and ignorance of men hath so chang'd the truth of his History and the genuine sense of his Doctrine that his life seems now like that of some Mountebank or Hocus Pocus and his precepts so fabulous impertinent and at such distance with Reason that a man cannot avoi'd astonishment at such a prodigious Metamorphosis To reduce which to its former lustre and scowre it from that rust and rubbidge which obscure the Noblest stroaks and what ever is most like and naturall in the Historicall draught of this great Philosopher we need only follow the method observ'd in the precedent Chapter That is as Vertue precedes Vice and truth falshood to shew in the first place what he hath been according to the true telation of those who knew most of him that so we may the more easily judge what account we should make of all these forged storyes which impeach him so highly of sorcery and inchantment as if he had done nothing all his life to the destruction of those of his own Species but deal and trade in Quicquid habet Circe quicquid Medaea veneni Quicquid et herbarum Thessala terra gerit This great person borne to things far above the ordinary rate of men and having a mind able to comprehend what ever the world could that is such as could not be satisfied within the narrow limits of a City resolv'd to go and learne among the Aegyptians Chaldaeans what he could not in his own Country that is Ceremoniarum incredendas potentias numerorum admirandas vices Geometriae solertissimas formulas Having by a peregrination of fifteen years made himself Master of all manner of Disciplines he brought as it were the Spoiles of Aegypt into Greece and particularly into the City of Crotona where he began to erect an Academy according to the order which may be seen in Gellius Here he though fit to communicate the precious talent he had acquir'd by his study and travell and lay open the treasures of the Encyclopedie wherewith he was so inrich'd that not to rely too much on the testimonies of Laertius and Jamblichus who might be thought too favourable to him because they have made it their businesse to write his History it is not to be doubted after the generall consent of all good Authors who have bu● justly been tender of the honour and respect due to his memory For if we begin with his Philosophy we have no reason to doubt of it since he is call'd by Apuleius Primus Philosophiae nuncupator creditor as well because he chang'd the name of Wisdome in his judgment too arrogant into that of Philosophy as that he was the Prince and Institutor of the Italick Philosophers as Thales had been of the Ionick as Laertius and others affirme and that Reuchlin who first dispell'd the cloudy ignorance of Germany hath design'd the second Book of his Cabalisticall Art to explaine and revive in his Country the Philosophy of Pythagoras in imitation as he sayes of Faber Stapulensis and Marsilius Ficinus who both in France and Italy had brought into reputation those of Aristotle and Plato If we proceed to Medicine Laertius and Apuleius are a sufficient testimony to convince us that he was excellently able in it Nor have we worse security for his knowledge of the four parts of Mathematicks For as to Arithmetick or the Science of Numbers besides the testimony of those two Authors we may out of thousands pitch upon that of Cicero who sayes that Pythagoras deduc'd all things from Numbers and the Principles of Mathematicks whereto he attributed very great Mysteries and gave the names of certain Divinities These are explain'd at large by Plutarch and Calcagnin who upon them ground the subtlery of that Ancient Custome of giving an account of all things by Numbers as Picus promis'd to do in his Conclusions to re establish that Philosophy neglect'd ever since the time of Pythagoras who was so well vers'd therein that by the difficulties of it he try'd the ingenuity of his Disciples He also gain'd thereby some advantage as to the practice of Geometry wherein he was so admirably able that he first brought the Geometricall instruments of the invention of Moeris to perfection and was the first among the Greeks that us'd weights and measures Which yet he could not have done without the assistance of that Science which he study'd with so much importunity that having found out an excellent proposition in it which is the 47. of the first Book of Euclid's Elements he was so overjoy'd that he express'd his thanks to the Gods in a Hecatomb or Sacrifice of 100 Oxen. These two Sciences were as it were steps for him to ascend to two others more excellent which are those of Musick and Astronomy the former whereof he must needs be well

acquainted with since Macrobius Boetius Ficinus Gafurius and Calcagnin to omit all the rest who are of the same opinion particularly describe his industry in finding out the tones of Musick by the proportion he observ'd in Smiths when five or six beat upon their Anviles together The same Macrobius Athenaeus and Maximus Tyrius affirme that he first found out the inferiour and celestiall Harmony whether it be interpreted of the admirable order and Symphony of Nature or of the Musick which Pontus de Tyard and Kepler do maintaine there ought to be in the proportionall revolution of those Globes and great Machins of Heaven Whence we may draw an evident argument of his knowledge in Astronomy to learn which Justin sayes he went to Aegypt to Babylon and Pliny and Laertius affirme that he first demonstrated the obliquity of the Zodiack and discover'd the nature and quality of the Planet Venus Lastly for what concernes the other Sciences it may be presum'd he was as well provided as for the former if we may credit Ovid andespecially Apuleius who sayes that Pythagoras learnt of the Brachmanes quae mentium documenta quae corporum exercitamenta quot partes animi quot vices vitae quae diis manibus pro merito suo cuique tormenta vel praemia Adde to this the Lawes he gave the Inhabitants of Crotona and the three Books which Plutarch and Laertius say he writ one of Iustitution another of Civility and the third of Nature the fame whereof was so great that Plato hearing that Philolaus intended to publish them gave order they should be bought up for him at the rate of a hundred minae of Silver This Universall acquaitance with the Sciences gain'd him such respect in his life time that Plutarch affirmes he taught at Crotona and Metapont above thirty years without any interuption being alwayes follow'd by above 600. Auditors who for the integrity of his life and eloquence of his discourses took his words for Oracles so far that as the Roman Orator affirmes his authority was thought reason and divers Princes and Potentates of Italy were glad as Plutarch affirmes to take his advice in all affaires For these great deserts did the people of Metapont immediately after his death consecrate his house calling it the Oratory of Ceres and the Street the Sacred Street of the Muses Upon the same account the Romans having had an Oracle in the time of the Warrs with the Samnites that they should erect Statues to two men whereof one had been the greatest Warriour the other the wisest among the Grecians without any debate cast that honour on Alcibiades and Pythagoras the first having been the greatest Captain of his time the other gain'd such reputation through all Italy that qui sapiens haberetur is continuò Pythagoreus putaretur But it were an endlesse work to run over all the eulogies honorary titles that are scatter'd of this person in all the Books of the Ancients These had an extraordinary esteem and reverence for him as being indeed one of the greatest Wits of all Antiquity who had the greatest earnestnesse for that which is good and honest and who endeavour'd more then any other among the Pagans to reduce mankind to a respect and knowledge of a first cause and to draw it out of irregularity and dissolution to raise it to the contemplation of things naturall and Civill From the little we have it is easy to judge what might be said in his praise we shall therefore now come to an examination of all those falsities or rather extravagances which some either out of envy to his Vertue or enmity to his fame have insensibly foisted into the relation of his life grounded probably at least upon his vast knowledge of the Mathematicks and great Learning Which once done we shall need no more then the improbability impertinences of those little stories to satisfie us what distance they are at with Reason who not weighing the proofs they meet with presently believe that all the ancient Philosophers and first Authors of Sciences and Disciplines such as Seneca calls Praeceptores generis humani have been absolute Necromancers and Magicians For as to Pythagoras in particular they are so confident that they think it not to be question'd after the instances of it which may be taken out of Iamblicus in his life Pliny Tertullian Origen St. Augustine Ammianus Marcellinus and the most accurate Writer on this Subject Delrio not to put into the scale the authority of some late Daemonographers quibus satisfactum non est saith Sarisberiensis nisi libello doceant quicquid alicubi scriptum invenitur and who accordingly stifle their judgement with a confused collection of all the stories they can patch up together upon this Subject Such are those that are brought upon the stage in the history of this person whereof some may be found in Boissardus who seems to have taken more pains than any to rank him among the Magicians whom he describes in his book of Divinations From which and all the precedent may be inferr'd that Pythagoras was accounted a Sorcerer and Magician because first he had liv'd long in Aegypt and had read the books of Zoroastes out of which he might probably have learnt the properties of certain herbs which he called Coracesia Callicia Menais Corinthas and Aproxis whereof the two first put into water caused it to freeze the two next were excellent against the biting of Serpents and the last took fire at a distance He also in one of his Symbols expressely forbade the use of Beans which according to the same superstition he boyl'd and for certain nights expos'd to the Moon till such time as by a strange effect of Magick they were converted into Blood This haply he did in order to another delusion mention'd by Coelius Rhodiginus after Suidas and the Scholiast of Aristophanes in his Comedy of the Clouds who affirm that this Philosopher writ with blood upon a hollow glasse what he thought fit and holding the letters opposite to the face of the Moon when she was in the full he saw in the star what he had written in his glasse Adde to this his appearance with a golden thigh at the Olympick games as also that he caused himself to be saluted by the river Nessus that he stay'd the flight of an Eagle tam'd a Bear kill'd a Serpent drove away an Oxe that spoil'd a field of Beans by the meer vertue of certain words He was seen on the same day at the same hour in the City of Crotona and that of Metapont and foretold things to come with so much certainty that many think him call'd Pythagoras because he gave as certain as insallible answers as the Pythian Oracle This he perform'd by Onomancie wherein he excell'd as we may ghesse by the fragments we have of his superstitious Arithmetick and the wheel attributed to him

according to the Satyrist Faciu●t hi plura sed illos Defendit numerus junctaeque umbone phalanges But if the number of these Authors were not yet less considerable than the prooss they bring I should ingenuously confess that it were in me no lesse temerity to take a course contrary to them than it was anciently in Travellers not to cast a stone at those Pillars and Mercuries in the high-waies to give others notice of them And since it is not always according to the saying of Pythagoras the surest way to follow the most beaten track that the most common opinions are ordinarily the most false as being such as are rather applauded than examined I shall stand upon the same liberty which I have taken from the first Chapter of this Apology to passe from the vindication of Religious men to that of Bishops and shew that if ever great Learning and the ignorance of a barbarous age prejudic'd any man Robert Great-head Bishop of Lincolne or as others of Lancaster and Albertus Magnus Bishop of Ratisbonne have just cause to complain As to the first if we only except certain Demonographers who upon the account of a Brazen Head that spoke which John Gower an English Poet said he had endeavoured to make to serve him instead of an Oracle rank him among the Magicians all Authors agree with Pits that he was one of the most learned men of his time a subtile Philosopher an excellent Divine a man equally acquainted with the seven liberal Sciences and the Latine Greek and Hebrew Tongues one that writ a great number of Books whereof there are some remaining in Philosophy Besides all which he was of ●o holy and exemplary a life that not to prove it by the Fable so well refuted by Delrio concerning his death and that of Pope Innocent fourth Matthew Paris writes in his Chronicles that he was in so much reputation among the English that they called him the holy Prelate the King 's faithful Counsellour the Reformer of the Monks the Director of Priests the Instructor of the Clergy the Nursing-father of Schollars and Students the Preacher of the People and the Scourge of Vices And for Albertus I am very much oblig'd to Paulus Jovius that he had not honour'd him with his Elogy but upon the Title of Great which was given him even while he liv'd by the universal consent of all Schools For if we consider with Botero on what persons and upon what occasions that title hath been bestow'd I believe there will be some miracle in it to see a simple Fryar of the Order of St. Dominick have an Epithet given him not so ordinary with Popes Emperours and Soveraign Princes had not his works discover'd his desert to be so great and his Learning so extraordinary that such a recompence might seem inconsiderable if Trismegistus had not so reservd the title of thrice great to himself that it hath not been since communicated to any Nor shall I need to say with Trithemius that Non surrexit post eum vir similis ei qui in omnibus literis scientiis et rebus tam doctus eruditus et expertus fuerit Nor yet with Thevet that he was so curious in the disquisition of the Secrets of Nature that it might be said one part of his soul was transported into the Heavens another into the aire the third under the earth and a fourth upon the waters and that he had by some extraordinary course so united and contracted together his whole soul that nothing that this world comprehends could escape it For all those Elogies added to what is commonly said of him Inclytus Albertus doctissimus atque disertus Quadrivium docuit ac totum scibile scivit cannot so well help us to judge of his Learning as the reading of his own works which would make almost as many volums as those of his Disciple Aquinas if they were as well reprinted It is not therefore to be admir'd if so many things may be said of him upon the account of his knowledge which being so great and extraordinary some may very well be extreamly doubtful others absolutely false and fictious To confirm this we have John Matthew de Luna who living about 120 years since held though contrary to the opinion of Polydor Virgil Magius Mayerus Pancirollus Florence Rivault Zezoldus and all Authors that writ of the invention of Fire-workes that Albertus Magnus first found out the use of Canon Arquebuse and Pistol For I could never find in these Authors any thing that came near this opinion save that such inventions were put in practise in his time and that by a Germane Monk call'd Berthold Schwartz or by a certain Chymist who as Cornazanus an Author ancient enough conceives liv'd in the City of Cullen where it is certain that Albertus Magnus liv'd ever after he had taken the habit of a Dominican And this makes me not a litle wonder that the Alchymists should never bethink them of holding this opinion since they might have done it with much more reason than attribute to him the knowledge of the Philosophers stone as hath lately done their great favourer and a better Majerus who is not asham'd in his Symbols upon the golden table of the 12 Nations to affirm that St. Dominick had it first and that those to whom he had left it communicated it to Albertus Magnus who by the advantages he made of it discharg'd in lesse then three years all the debts of his Bishoprick of Ratisbonne and afterwards taught it St. Thomas Aquinas while he was his disciple To give this the greater Authority he highly celebrates three Books of Chymistry which he attributes to him whereof since there is not any of them either among the collection of his works or specified in the Catalogue made of them by Trithemius we are only to take notice of that which Fran. Picus saies he writ Of Quintessence to shew by the forgery of that what account should be made of the others it being certain that Albertus Magnus never contributed a thought towards it This may be prov'd not only from his laughing at the Alchymists and their pretended Transmutations in his third Book of Minerals as Velcurion and Guybert endeavour to shew since he there maintains a quite contrary opinion but because the Author of that Book calls himself therein a Friar of the Order of St. Francis and saies he writ it in prison These two circumstances which must infallibly relate to John de Rupescissâ easily evince that some Impostor made it his businesse to play the Plagiary and steal it out of a Book he had written on that subject to divulge and gain it reputation under the name of Albertus Magnus according to the ordinary cheat of all Alchymists who make this their common sleight to inveigle people into a belief of their promises and by that means Noctem peccatis et fraudibus addere