 Section 22 of the Anatomy of Melancholy, Vol. 1. Subsection 1. Causes of Melancholy, God, a Cause It is vain to speak of cures, or think of remedies, until such time as we have considered of the causes. Sol Galen prescribes Glocco, and the common experience of others confirms that those cures must be imperfect, lame, and to no purpose, wherein the causes have not first been searched, as Prosper Calenius well observes in his tract, Deatra Bile, to Cardinal Caesius. In so much that Fonellius puts a kind of necessity in the knowledge of the causes, and without which it is impossible to cure or prevent any manner of disease. Empirics may ease, and sometimes help, but not solely root out. Sublata causa Toleto effectus, as the saying is. If the cause be removed, the effect is likewise vanquished. It is a most difficult thing, I confess, to be able to discern these causes whence they are, and in such variety to say what the beginning was. He is happy that can perform it a right. I will adventure to guess as near as I can, and rip them all up, from the first to the last, general and particular, to every species, that so they may the better be described. General causes are either supernatural or natural. Supernatural are from God and his angels, or by God's permission from the devil and his ministers. That God himself is a cause for the punishment of sin and satisfaction of his justice, many examples and testimonies of holy scriptures make evident unto us. Psalm 108.17 Foolish men are plagued for their offence, and by reason of their wickedness. Gehazi was stricken with leprosy. Two kings, verse 27. Jehorum was dysentery and flux, and great diseases of the bowels. Two chronicles 21.15. David plagued for numbering his people. One chronicles 21. Sodom and Gomorrah swallowed up. And this disease is peculiarly specified. Psalm 127.12 He brought down their hearts through heaviness. Deuteronomy 28.28 He struck them with madness, blindness, and astonishment of heart. An evil spirit was sent by the Lord upon Saul to vex him. Nebuchadnezzar did eat grass like an ox, and his heart was made like the beasts of the field. Heal and stories are full of such punishments. Lycurgus, because he cut down the vines in the country, was by backers driven to madness. So was Pentheus and his mother Agave for neglecting their sacrifice. Censor Fulveus ran mad for untiling Juno's temple to cover a new one of his own, which he had dedicated to fortune, and was confounded to death with grief and sorrow of heart. When Xerxes would have spoiled Apollo's temple at Delphos of those infinite riches it possessed, a terrible thunder came from heaven and struck four thousand men dead. The rest ran mad. A little after, the lyc happened to Brenus, lightning, thunder, earthquakes upon such a sacrilegious occasion. If we may believe our pontifical writers, they will relate unto us many strange and prodigious punishments in this kind inflicted by their saints. How Claude Auveas, sometime King of France, the son of Dagobere, lost his wits for uncovering the body of Saint Denis, and how a sacrilegious Frenchman that would have stolen a silver image of Saint John, at Burgburger, became frantic on a sudden, raging and tyrannizing over his own flesh. Of a lord of Radnor that, coming from hunting late at night, put his dogs into Saint Alvin's church—Lon Alvin, as they called it—and rising betimes next morning, as hunters used to do, found all his dogs mad, himself being suddenly stricken blind. Of Tiridates, an Armenian king, for violating some holy nuns, that was punished in like sort, with loss of his wits. But poets and papists may go together for fabulous tales. Let them free their own credits, howsoever they fain of their nemesis, and of their saints, or by the devil's means may be deluded. We find it true that Ulto Arturgo Deus, he is God the Avenger, as David styles him, and that it is our crying sins that pull this and many other maladies on our own heads. That he can by his angels, which are his ministers, strike and heal, saith Theonisius, whom he will, that he can plague us by his creatures, sun, moon and stars, which he useth as his instruments. As a husband's man, says Dancius, Dothelhachet, hail, snow, winds, etc. Et conjurati veniot in classical venti, as in Joshua's time, as in Pharaoh's reign in Egypt, they are but her so many executioners of his justice. He can make the proudest spirit stoop, and cry out with Julian the Apostate, vikisti galilei, or with Apollo's priests in Chrysostome, o coelum, o terror, unde hostes hic, what an enemy is this, and pray with David, acknowledging his power, I am weakened and sore broken, I roar for the grief of mine heart, mine heart panteth, etc. Oh Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chastise me in thy wrath. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and stabilise me with thy free spirit. For these causes, be like Hippocrates, would have a physician take special notice, whether the disease come not from a divine supernatural cause, or whether it follow the course of nature. But this is further discussed by Franciscus Valacius, De Sacre Philosophia, Chapter 8, Furnace and Julius Caesar Claudinas, to whom I refer you, how this place of Hippocrates is to be understood. Paracelsus is of opinion that such spiritual diseases, for so he calls them, are spiritually to be cured and not otherwise. Ordinary means in such cases will not avail. Non est reluctandum cum deo, we must not struggle with God. When that monster-taming Hercules overcame all in the Olympics, Jupiter at last, in an unknown shape wrestled with him. The victory was uncertain, till at length Jupiter described himself, and Hercules yielded. No striving with supreme powers. Neil Juvat Immensos Cratero Promitieri Montes. Physicians and physics can do no good. We must submit ourselves unto the mighty hand of God, acknowledge our offenses, call to him for mercy. If he strike us, una idem quay manus vulnus opon quay ferret, as it is with him that are wounded with the spear of Achilles, he alone must help, otherwise our diseases are incurable, and we not to be relieved. Subsection 2, Part 1. A digression of the nature of spirits, bad angels or devils, and how they cause melancholy. How far the power of spirits and devils doth extend, and whether they can cause this or any other disease, is a serious question, and worthy to be considered, for the better understanding of which I will make a brief digression of the nature of spirits. And although the question be very obscure, according to Postelis, full of controversy and ambiguity, beyond the reach of human capacity, fatior excedere vires intentiones mi ai, says Austin, I confess I am not able to understand it. Venetum de infinito non potes statuere, we can sooner determine with tulli, dinatura deorum, quid non sint, quam quid sint. Our subtle schoolmen, gardens, scalgers, profound thomists, fracassloriana and fenirliana achies, are weak, dry, obscure, defective in these mysteries, and all our quickest wits, as an owl's eyes at the sun's light, wax dull, and are not sufficient to apprehend them. Yet, as in the rest, I will adventure to say something to this point. In former times, as we read, Acts 23, the Sadducees denied that there were any such spirits, devils or angels. So did Galen the physician, the peripatetics, even Aristotle himself, as Pomponartius starty maintains, and Scaliger in some sort grants. Though Dandinas the Jesuit, commentary on Book II of the anima, stiffly denies it, substantiae separatiae and intelligences are the same which Christians call angels and flattenists devils, for they name all the spirits de monès, be they good or bad angels, as Julius Pollock's Onomasticon, Book I, Chapter I observes. Epicurus and atheists are of the same mind in general, because they never saw them. Plato, Plotinus, Porphyrios, Jamblicus, Porclas, insisting in the steps of Trismagistus, Pythagoras, and Socrates make no doubt of it, nor Stoics, but that there are such spirits, though much earring from the truth. Concerning the first beginning of them, the Talmudists say that Adam had a wife called Lillis, before he married Eve, and of her he begat nothing but devils. The Turks al-Quran is altogether as absurd and ridiculous in this point, but the scripture informs us Christians how Lucifer, the chief of them with his associates, fell from heaven for his pride and ambition, created of God, placed in heaven, and sometimes an angel of light, now cast down into the lower aerial sublunary parts, or into hell, and delivered into chains of darkness, two Peter, two four, to be kept unto damnation. Nature of devils There is a foolish opinion which some hold, that they are the souls of men departed. Good and more noble were deified. The baser groveled on the ground, or in the lower parts, and were devils. The witch with Tertullian, Porphyrios the philosopher, Emterios maintains. These spirits, he says, which we call angels and devils, are naught but souls of men departed, which either through love and pity of their friends yet living, help and assist them, or else persecute their enemies whom they hated, as Dido threatens to persecute Aeneas. Omnibus umbra locus adero, derbis imporbe poranus. My angry ghost arising from the deep shall haunt thee waking and disturb thy sleep, at least my shade thy punishment shall know, and fame shall spread the pleasing news below. They are, as others suppose, appointed by those higher powers to keep men from their nativity, and to protect or punish them as they seek cause, and are called Boney and Mali genii by the Romans. Heroes, lares if good, lemures or lares if bad, by the Stoics, Governors of Countries, Men, Cities, Seith, Apuleus. Deus appellant qui ex hominem numero juste, ac prudenta vitae, curiculo gubernato, pro numene, postea ab omnibus priditi, fanis, et carimoniis vulgo admitunto, ut in egipto o Cyrus, et cetera. Tristitis, Capella calls them, which protected particular men as well as princes, Socrates had his demonium satoninum et igneum, which of all spirits is best, ad sublimes cogitationes animum erigentum, as the Platonist supposed. Plotinus his, and we Christians are assisting Angel, as Andreas Victorellus, a copious writer of the subject. Lordovicus de la Cerdà, the Jesuit, in his voluminous tract, the Angelo Custode, Zanches, and some divine stink. But this absurd tenet of Toreus, proclus confutes at large in his book, the anima et demone. Celus, a Christian, and sometimes tutor, Seith Caspinian, to Michael Powerpinatius, emperor of Greece, a great observer of the nature of devils, holds they are corporeal, and have aerial bodies, that they are mortal, live and die, which Martianus Capella likewise maintains, but our Christian philosophers explode, that they are nourished, and have excrements, they feel pain if they be hurt, which Cardon confirms, and Scaligo justly laughs him to scorn for. See Pascanto Aere, Cronun prognant o proiorum era, etc., or stroken, and if their bodies be cut, with admirable celerity, they come together again. Austin approves as much. Mutata casu corpore in deteriorum qualitatum eris spesioris. So doth Hyrome, commentarium in Epistula ad Ephesios chapter 3, Oregon, Tertullian, Lactantius, and many ancient fathers of the church, that in their fall their bodies were changed into a more aerial and gross substance. Rodin, book 4, Theatris Naturi, and David Crucius, Hermetici philosophii, book 1, chapter 4, by several arguments proves angels and spirits to be corporeal. Quiquid continento in loco corporeum est, ad spiritus continento in loco ergo, si spiritus sunt quanti erant corporei, ad sud quanti ergo sunt finiti ergo quanti, etc. Bodingo's father yet, and will have these animae separatigenii, spirits, angels, devils, and so likewise souls of men departed, if corporeal, which he most eagerly contends, to be of some shape, and that absolutely round, like sun and moon, because that is the most perfect form. Quain nihil habit asperitatus, nihil angulus incisum, nihil anfractibus involutum, nihil eminens, sed intercorpore perfecto est, perfect dissimum. Therefore all spirits are corporeal, he concludes, and in their proper shapes round. That they can assume other aerial bodies, all manner of shapes at their pleasures, appear in what likeness they will themselves, that they are most swift in motion, can pass many miles in an instant, and so likewise transform bodies of others into what shape they please, and with admirable celebrity remove them from place to place, as the angel did have a cook to Daniel, and as Philip the deacon was carried away by the spirit when he had baptised the eunuch. So did Pythagoras and Apollonius remove themselves and others, with many such feats, that they can represent castles in the air, palaces, armies, spectrums, prodigies, and such strange objects to mortal men's eyes, coarse smells, savours, etc., deceive all the senses, most writers of this subject credibly believe, and that they can foretell future events and do many strange miracles. Juno's image spake to Camillus and fortune statue to the Roman matrons, with many such. Zancius, Brodin, Spondanus, and others are of opinion that they cause a true metamorphosis, as Nebuchadnezzar was really translated into a beast, Lot's wife into a pillar of salt, Ulysses' companions into hogs and dogs by Kierke's charms, turn themselves and others as they do witches into cats, dogs, hares, crows, etc. Strozius' Kycogna has many examples which he there confutes, as Austin likewise doth, Discivitate Dei, Book XXVIII, that they can be seen when and in what shape, and to whom they will, safe-sellers, Tarmetzi, Niltale, Viderim, Necoptem, Videri, though he himself never saw them nor desired it, and sometimes carnal copulation, as elsewhere I shall prove more at large, with women and men. Many will not believe they can be seen, and if any man shall say, swear, and stiffly maintain, though he be discreet and wise, judicious and learned, that he have seen them, they account him a timorous fool, a melancholy desert, a weak fellow, a dreamer, a sick or a madman, they condemn him, laugh him to scorn, and yet Marcus of his credit told cellars that he had often seen them. And Leo Suavius, a Frenchman, Chapter VIII, in commentary Libri primi para Kelsey de Vita Longa, out of some Platonists, will have the air to be as full of them as snow falling in the skies, and that they may be seen, and with all sets down the means how men may see them. See Erevor Beratus, Oculi Soles, Blendente, Versus Cailum, Continu Avarint, Obtetus, etc., and safe moreover he tried it, Framistorum Fecchi Experimentum, and it was true that the Platonists said. Paracelsus confesseth that he saw them diverse times, and conferred with them, and so doth Alexander ab Alexander, that he so found it by experience when as before he doubted of it. Many deny it safe Levata, Despectris, Part I, Chapter II, and Part II, Chapter 11, because they never saw them themselves. But as he reports at large all over his book, especially Chapter 19, Part I, they are often seen and heard, and familiarly converse with men, as Lodovica's vives assure with us, innumerable records, histories and testimonies, events in all ages, times, places, and all travellers besides, in the West Indies and our northern climes. Nihil Familiarius, Crom in Agres et Urbibus, Spiritus Videre, Ardiere Crivetent, Dubiant, etc. Hieronymus Vita Parlii, Basil, Nacheforus, Eusebius, Socrates, Solzor Manus, Jacobus Boisardus in his tract, Despiratum Aparitionibus, Petrus Loyorus, Liba Despectris, Virus Liba I have infinite variety of such examples of apparitions of spirits for him to read that further doubts to his ample satisfaction. One alone I will briefly insert. A nobleman in Germany was sent ambassador to the King of Sweden, for his name, the time, and such circumstances I refer you to Boisardus, my author. After he had done his business, he sailed to Livonia on set purpose to see those familiar spirits, which are there said to be conversant with men and do their drudgery works. Amongst other matters, one of them told him where his wife was, in what room, in what clothes, what doing, and brought him a ring from her, which at his return, non-stine omnium admiratione, he found to be true, and so believed that ever after, which before he doubted of. Carden relates of his father, Facius Carden, that after the accustomed solenities, Anna 1491, 13th of August, he conjured up seven devils in Greek apparel, about forty years of age, some roddy of complexion, and some pale. As he thought, he asked them many questions, and they made ready answer that they were aerial devils, that they lived and died as men did, save that they were far longer lived, seven hundred or eight hundred years. They did as much excel men in dignity as we do, Germans, and were as far excelled again of those that were above them. Our governors and keepers are they moreover, which Plato and Critias delivered of old, and subordinate to one another, Ut enim homo homini, sig demonum demoni dominator. They rule themselves as well as us, and the spirits of the mean assault had commonly such offices, as we make horsekeepers. Neat herds and the basest of us overseers of our cattle, and that we can no more apprehend their natures and functions than a horse or man's. They knew all things, but might not reveal them to men, and ruled and domineered over us, as we do over our horses. The best kings among us, and the most generous spirits, were not comparable to the basest of them. Sometimes they did instruct men and communicate their skill, reward and cherish, and sometimes, again, terrify and punish to keep them in awe as they thought fit. The same author, Carden, in his hypochon, out of the doctrine of Stoics, will have some of these genii, for so he calls them, to be desirous of men's company, very affable and familiar with them as dogs are, others, again, to abhor as serpents and care not for them. The same be like Tritemius calls Igneus et sublunares, Queen Nuncrum demurgant at inferiora, Advix Ullum harbent in teres comercium. Generally, they far excel men in worth, as man the meanest worm, though some of them are inferior to those of their own rank in worth, as the black-guard in a prince's court, and to men again, as some degenerate, base, rationalate creatures, are excelled of brute beasts. That they are mortal, besides these testimonies of Carden, Martianus, etc., many other divines and philosophers hold, post-prolixum tempus moriunta omnes. The Platonists and some Ravins, Porphyrius and Plutarch, as appears by that relation of Thomas, the great god Panius dead, Apollopithius seized, and so the rest. Saint Herum, in the life of Paul the Hermit, tells a story how one of them appeared to St. Anthony in the wilderness, and told him as much. Paracelsus of our late writers stiffly maintains that they are mortal, live and die as other creatures do. Zosamus, Book II, father adds that religion and policy dies and alters with them. The Gentiles' gods, he says, were expelled by Constantine, and together with them. Imperii Romani Magistus et fortuna interi it et profligata est. The fortune and majesty of the Roman Empire decayed and vanished, as that heathen in minutius formally bragged, when the Jews were overcome by the Romans, the Jews' god was likewise captivated by that of Rome and Ravsaka to the Israelites. No god should deliver them out of the hands of the Assyrians. But these paradoxes of their power, corporality, mortality, taking of shapes, transposing bodies and carnal copulations are sufficiently computed by Perarius in his comment, and to starters questions on the sixth of Genesis. Thomas Aquinas, St. Austen, Verus, Thomas Erastus, Del Rio, Sebastian Michaelis, Chapter II, Despiritibus, Reynolds. They may deceive the eyes of men, yet not take true bodies, or make a real metamorphosis. But, as Cicogna proves at large, they are Ilusoriae et prestigiatrii case transformationes, mere illusions and cosnings, like that tale of Pasatis obelis in Sridus, or that of Autolikus, Mercury's son, that dwelt in Parnassus, who got so much treasure by cousinage and stealth. His father Mercury, because he could leave him no wealth, taught him many fine tricks to get means, for he could drive away men's cattle, and if any pursued him, turn them into what shapes he would, and so did mightily enrich himself. This, no doubt, is as true as the rest. Yet, thus much in general, Thomas, Durand, and others, grant that they have understanding far beyond men, can probably conjecture and foretell many things. They can cause and cure most diseases, deceive our senses. They have excellent skill in all arts and sciences, and that the most illiterate devil is Quovis homilie scantor, more knowing than any man, as Cicogna maintains out of others. They know the virtues of herbs, plants, stones, minerals, etc., of all creatures, birds, beasts, the four elements, stars, planets, can aptly apply and make use of them as they see good, perceiving the causes of all meteors, and the like. Don't say coloribus, as Austen hath it. Accomodant say figuris. Adherent sonis. They deceive all our senses, even our understanding itself at once. They can produce miraculous alterations in the air, and most wonderful effects. Conquer armies, give victories, help, further, hurt, cross, and alter human attempts and projects, dei permissu, as they see good themselves. When Charles the Great intended to make a channel betricks the Rhine and the Danube, look what his workmen did in the day, these spirits flung down in the night. Ut cunatu regs desistere, per vicchere. Such feats can they do. But that which Baudin, book four, Theatrum Natorei, thinks, following Therias Belike and the Platonists, they can tell the secrets of a man's heart. Out cogitatiione's hominem is most false, his reasons are weak, and sufficiently confuted by Zanchius, book four, chapter nine, Hyromi, book two, Commentartiorium in Evangelium Matai, chapter 15, Athanasius, Chrystio 27 at Antiochum, Principem, and others. Section 23 of the Anatomy of Melancholy, volume 1 This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Recording by Morgan Scorpion The Anatomy of Melancholy, volume 1, by Robert Burton, section 23 Partition 1, section 2, Member 1, subsection 2, part 2 A digression of the nature of spirits, bad angels, or devils, and how they cause Melancholy, continued. Orders As for those orders of good and bad devils, which the Platonists told, is altogether erroneous, and those ethics Borny et Mali genii are to be exploded. These heathen writers agree not in this point among themselves, as Dandinus notes, and St. Mali nonconvenient. Some will have all spirits good or bad to us by a mistake, as if an ox or horse could discourse. He would say the butcher was his enemy because he killed him, the grazier his friend because he fed him. A hunter preserves and yet kills his game, and is hated nevertheless of his game. But Jamblichus, Salus, Plutarch, and most Platonists acknowledge bad, et ab iorum malafikiis carvendum, and we should beware of their wickedness, for they are enemies of mankind. And this Plato learned in Egypt that they quarrelled with Jupiter and were driven by him down to hell. That which Apolaus, Xenophon, and Plato contend of Socrates' demonium is most absurd. That which Plutonus of his, that he had likewise deum pro demonio, and that which Porphyric concludes of them all in general, if they be neglected in their sacrifice they are angry. Nay more, as carden in his hypercan will, they feed on men's souls. Elementa sunt plantis elementum, animalibus plantae, hominus animalia, erunt ed hominus alias, non autum diis, nimis enum remota est, eorum natura anostra, quapropta demonibus. And so be like that we have so many battles fought in all ages, countries, is to make them a feast and their soul delight. But to return to that I said before, if displeased they fret and chafe, for they feed be like on the souls of beasts, as we do on their bodies, and send many plagues amongst us, but pleased, then they do much good, is as vain as the rest, and confuted by Augustine, Book 9, Chapter 8, Decivitate Dei, Eusebius, Book 4, Feperato Evangelica, Chapter 6, and others. Yet this much I find that our schoolmen and other divines make nine kinds of bad spirits, as though Nicius hath done of angels. In the first rank are those false gods of the Gentiles, which were adored here to four in several idols, and gave oracles at Delphos, and elsewhere, whose prince is Bael Zebob. The second rank is of liars and equivocators, as Apollo, Pythias, and the like. The third of those vessels of anger, inventors of all mischief, as that Thutus in Plato, Euse calls them vessels of fury, their prince is Belial. The fourth are malicious, avenging devils, and their prince is Asmodeus. The fifth kind are cosners, such as belong to magicians and witches, their prince is Satan. The sixth are those aerial devils that corrupt the air and cause plagues, thunders, fires, etc., spoken of in the Apocalypse, and Paul to the Ephesians names them the princes of the air. Merecin is their prince. The seventh is a destroyer, Captain of the Furies, causing wars, tumults, combustions, uproars, mentioned in the Apocalypse, and called Abaddon. The eighth is that accusing or columniating devil, whom the Greeks call Diabolus. Diabolus, that drives men to despair. The ninth are those tempters in several kinds, and their prince is Mammon. Celus makes six kinds, yet none above the moon. Wirus in his Pseudomonarchia de Monis, out of an old book, makes many more divisions and subordinations with their several names, numbers, offices, etc. But Gazeus, cited by Ellipsius, will have all places full of angels, spirits, and devils, above and beneath the moon, ethereal and aerial, which Augustine cites out of Varo, book 7, Decivitate day, chapter 6. The celestial devils above and aerial beneath, or as some will, gods above, semi-day or half-gods beneath, lares, heroes, genii, which climb higher if they lived well as the Stoics held, but grovel on the ground as they were baser in their lives, nearer to the earth, and armanes, lemures, lamii, etc. They will have no place but all full of spirits, devils, or some other inhabitants, plenum chylem, air, aqua, terra, et omnia subterra, Ceth Gazeus. Though Antony Rusca in his book The Inferno, book 5, chapter 7, would confine them to the Middle Region. Yet they will have them everywhere. Not so much as a hair of reds, empty in heaven, earths or waters, above or under the earth. The air is not so full of flies in summer, as it is at all times of invisible devils, this Paracelsus stiffly maintains, and that they have every one their several chaos, others will have infinite worlds, and each world his peculiar spirits, gods, angels, and devils, to govern and punish it. Singular, nonually, Credent, Cuocoe, Cidero, Posse, Dickey, Orbez, Turanqui, Appellant, Cidus, or Parcum, Criminimus, Devon, Pricet. Some persons believe each star to be a world, and this earth an opaque star, over which the least of the gods presides. Gregorius Salsanas makes seven kinds of ethereal spirits or angels, according to the number of the seven planets. Saturnine, Jovial, Marshal, of which Cardon discourses book 20, Disubtilitate, Rherum, he calls them Stubtantius primus, Olympicus demonis tritemius, Cripricent, Zodiacal, etc., and will have them to be good angels above, devils beneath the moon, their several names and offices he there sets down, and which Donicius of Angels will have several spirits for several countries, men, offices, etc., which live about them, and as so many assisting powers cause their operations will have, in a word, innumerable, as many of them as there be stars in the skies. Markilius Fakinas seems to second this opinion, out of Plato or for himself I know not, still ruling there in theories, as they do those under them again, all subordinate, and the nearest to the earth will us, whom we subdivide into good and bad angels, call gods or devils, as they help or hurt us, and so adore, love, or hate. But it is most likely from Plato, for he relying wholly on Socrates, Cremm Mori, Portia's Cremmentieri, Volerice, Scribit, whom he says would rather die than tell a falsehood, out of Socrates' authority alone, made nine kinds of them, which opinion be like Socrates took from Pythagoras, and he from Trismegistus, he from Zoroastres, first god, second idea, three intelligences, four archangels, five angels, six devils, seven heroes, eight principalities, nine princes, of which some were absolutely good, as gods, some bad, some indifferent, into deus et hominus, as heroes and demons, which ruled men, and were called Genii. Or as Proclus Unjamblicus will, the middle betricks God and men. Principalities and princes, which commanded ensuade kings and countries, and had several places in the spheres perhaps, for as every sphere is higher, so hath it more excellent inhabitants, which be like is that Galileus a Galileo, and Kepler aims at in his Nuncio Ciderio, when he will have satanine and jovial inhabitants, and which Tycho Brahe doth in some sort touch or insinuate in one of his epistles. But these things, Zancus justly explodes, Chapter 3, Book 4. So that according to these men the number of ethereal spirits must needs be infinite, for if it be true that some of our mathematicians say, if a stone could fall from the starry heaven, or eighth sphere, and should pass every hour and hundred miles, it would be sixty-five years or more before it would come to ground by reason of the great distance of heaven from earth, which contains, as some say, a hundred and seventy millions, eight hundred miles, besides those other heavens, whether they be crystalline or watery, which magnus adds, which pro-adventure holds as much more. How many such spirits may it contain? And yet, for all this, Thomas Albertus, and most, hold that there be far more angels than devils, sub-lunary devils, and their kinds. But be they more or less, quod supran nos nihil ad nos, what is beyond our comprehension, does not concern us. However, as Martianus foolishly supposeth, a theory dimones noncurrent res humanus, they care not for us, do not attend our actions, or look for us. Those ethereal spirits have other words to reign in belike, or business to follow. We are only now to speak in brief of these sub-lunary spirits or devils, for the rest are divines determined that the devil had no power over stars or heavens, carbonibus, crelo, porcent, deducare, lunum, etc. By their charms, versus, they can seduce the moon from the heavens. Those are poetical fictions, and that they can cisteri aquan fluius, et vertere sedero retro, etc., stop rivers and turn the stars backward in their courses, as canadia in horus, tis all false. They are confined until the day of judgment to this sub-lunary world, and can work no farther than the four elements, and, as God permits them. Wherefour of these sub-lunary devils, though others divide them otherwise according to their several places and offices, celus makes six kinds, fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and subterranean devils, besides those fairies, satyrs, nymphs, etc. Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly worked by blazing stars, fire-drakes, or igneous faturi, which lead men often in flumina percipita, saith Baudin, book two, Theatrum Naturae, folium 221. Cross-inquite archery, si volent viatores, clavavocche deum apelare, ought faunam, facche terum contingente adorare o potet, et hoc amuletum marjoribus, nostris acceptum ferre debemus, etc. Whom, if travelers wish to keep off, they must pronounce the name of God with a clear voice, or adore Him with their faces in contact with the ground, etc. Likewise, they counterfeit sounds and moons, stars often times, and sit on ship-masts. In navigiorum sumitatibus visunto, and a called dioscuri, as Eusebius Lieber contra filosofus, chapter forty-eight informeth us, out of the authority of xenophonies, or little clouds, ad motum neschio quem volantes, which never appear, saith Cardon, but they signify some mischief or other to come unto men, though some again will have them to pretend good, and victory to that side they come towards in sea-fights. St. Elmo's fires, they commonly call them, and they do likely appear after a sea-storm. Vazivilius, the Polonian duke, calls this apparition Sanctigamani Sidus, and saith, moreover, that he saw the same after in a storm as he was sailing, 1582, from Alexandria to Rhodes. Our stories are full of such apparitions in all kinds. Some think they keep their residence in that heckler, a mountain in Iceland, Etna in Sicily, Lippari, Vesuvius, etc. These devils were worshipped here to fall by that superstitious Paromantea and the like. Aerial spirits, or devils, are such as keep quarter, most part, in the air, cause many tempests, thunders, and lightnings, tear oaks, fire steeples, houses, strike men and beasts, make it rain stones, as in Libby's time, wool, frogs, etc. Can defeat armies in the air, strange noises, swords, etc., as at Vienna before the coming of the Turks, and many times in Rome, as Skeretius, Lavarta, Julius Obsequens, and old Roman, in his book of prodigies, Aburbe, Condita, 505. Machiavell have illustrated by many examples, and Giusephus, in his book De Bello Giudeaco, before the destruction of Jerusalem. Orwich Postellus, in his first book, Chapter 7, De Orbis Concordia, uses as an infectual argument, as indeed it is, to persuade them that will not believe there be spirits or devils. They cause whirlwinds on a sudden, and tempestuous storms, which, though our meteorologists generally refer to natural causes, yet I am of Baudin's mind, theatrum naturei, book two, they are more often caused by those aerial devils, in their several quarters. For tempestatibus says Richard Argentine, as when a desperate man makes a way with himself, which by hanging or drowning they frequently do, as Comanus observes, tripodium argentis, dancing and rejoicing at the death of a sinner. These can corrupt the air and cause plagues, sickness, storms, shipwrecks, fires, inundations. At Monstraconis in Italy, there is a most memorable example in Jovianus Pontanus, and nothing so familiar, if we may believe those relations of Saxo-Gromaticus Olus Magnus Damianus Aigores, as for witches and sorcerers, in Lapland, Lithuania, and all over Scandia, to sell winds to mariners and cause tempests, which Marcus Paulus the Venetian relates likewise of the Tatars. These kind of devils are much delighted in sacrifices, saith Porphyry, held all the world in awe and had several names, idols, sacrifices, in Rome, Greece, Egypt, and at this day tyranny is over and deceived those ethnics and Indians being adored and worshipped for gods. For the Gentiles gods were devils, as Trismagistus confesseth in his Asclepius, and he himself could make them come to their images by magic spells, and are now as much respected by our papists, saith Pictorius, under the name of Saints. These are they which Corden thinks desires so much conal copulation with witches, incubite and succubite, transform bodies, and are so very cold if they be touched, and that serve magicians. His father had one of them, as he is not ashamed to relate, an aerial devil bound to him for twenty and eight years. As a gripper's dog had a devil tied to his collar, some think that Paracelsus, or else Erastus belies him, had one confined to his sword-pummel, others wear them in wings, etc. Janus and Jambres did many things of old by their help, Simon Margus, Kinops, Apollonius Tyanius, Jamblicus, and Tritimius of late, that showed Maximilian the emperor his wife after she was dead, Ed Berucum in collo ages, saith Codolman, so much as the wart in her neck. Del Rio, Book 2, has diverse examples of their feats, Cicogna, Book 3, Chapter 3, and Weiris in his book De Frustigius de Monum, Broisardus de Mergus Ed Beneficus. Water-depples are those niads or water-nymphs which have been here to explore conversant about waters and rivers. The water, as Paracelsus thinks, is their chaos, wherein they live. Some call them fairies, and say that her bondia is their queen. These cause inundations, many times shipwrecks, and deceive men diverse ways as succuba or otherwise, appearing most part saith Tritimius in women's shapes. Paracelsus has several stories of them that have lived and been married to mortal men, and so continued for certain years with them, and after, upon some dislike, have forsaken them. Such a one as Ageria, with whom Numa was so familiar, Diana, Kearies, etc. Olaus Magnus has a long narration of one Hultherus, a king of Sweden, that having lost his company, as he was hunting one day, met with these water-nymphs or fairies, and was feasted by them. And Hector Boethius, or Macbeth, and Banquo, two Scottish lords, that as they were wandering in the woods, had their fortunes told them by three strange women. To these, here to fore, they did use to sacrifice, by that Udromantea, Hydromantea, or divination by waters. Terrestrial devils are those Laures, Duniae, Forns, Satyrs, Woodnymphs, Foliots, fairies, Robin Goodfellows, Trully, etc., which, as they are most conversant with men, so they do them most harm. Some think it was they alone that kept the heathen people in awe of old, and had so many idols and temples erected to them. Of this range was Dagon amongst the Philistines, Baal amongst the Babylonians, Astartes amongst the Sedonians, Baal amongst the Samaritans, Isis and Osiris amongst the Egyptians, etc. Some put our fairies into this rank, which have been in former times adored with much superstition, with sweeping their houses, and setting up a pail of clean water, good riddles, and the like, and then they should not be pinched but find money in their shoes, and be fortunate in their enterprises. These are they that dance on heaths and greens, as Lovata thinks with Tritimius, and as Olas Magnus adds, leave that green circle which was commonly found in plain fields, which others hold to perceive from a meteor falling, or some accidental rankness of the ground, so nature sports herself. They are sometimes seen by old women and children. Hyrom Pauly, in his description of the city of Berkino in Spain, relates how they have been familiarly seen near that town, about fountains and hills. Non unqum says Tritimius, in Sur la Tibula Montium Simpliciores, hominates Ducanth, stupenda mirantibus ostentes miracula, nolaum sonitas, spectacular, etc. Giroldus Cambrensus gives instance in a monk of Wales that was so deluded. Paracelsus reckons up many places in Germany, where they do usually walk in little coats, some two feet long. A bigger kind there is of them called with us Hobgoblins, and Robin Goodfellas, that would in those superstitious times grind corn for a mess of milk, cut wood, or do any manner of drudgery work. They would mend old irons in those Aeolian islands of Lepari in former ages, and have been often seen and heard. Tholassanus calls them Tullus, and Getullus, and Ceth, that in his days they were common in many places of France. Desmarus Blaescanius, in his description of Iceland, reports for a certainty that almost in every family they have yet some such familiar spirits, and Felix Malleolus, in his book de credulitate de monibus ad hibbenda affirms as much, that these trolley or telkinés are very common in Norway, and seem to do drudgery work to draw water. Cethuerus, book one, chapter twenty-two, dress meat, or any such thing. Another sort of these there are, which frequent full-on houses, which the Italians call foliots. Most part, inoxious, garden-holes. They will make strange noises in the night, howl sometimes pitifully, and then laugh again. Cause great flame and sudden lights, fling stones, rattle chains, shave men, open doors and shut them, fling down clatters, stools, chests. Sometimes appear in the likeness of hares, crows, black dogs, etc., of which read Petrus Thiraeus the Jesuit, in his tract De Locus infestis, part one, chapter four, who will have them to be devils, or the souls of damned men that seek revenge, or else souls out of purgatory that seek ease. For such examples Perus Sigismundus Caretius leave with inspectors part one, chapter one, which he says he took out of Luther most part. There be many instances. Plinus Secundus remembers such a house of Athens, which Athenodorus the philosopher hiled, which no man does inhabit for fear of devils. Augustine, Decivitate Dei, book twenty-two, chapter one, relates as much of her spurious the tribune's house at Zubenda near their city of Hippos, vexed with evil spirits to his great hindrance. Cum aflictione animallium et servorum suorum. Many such instances are to be read in Nidarius Formica, book five, chapter twelve, three, etc., whether I may call these Zim and Orchim, which Isaiah, chapter thirteen, twenty-one speaks of, I make a doubt. See more of these in the said Scaretius Libratispectris, book one, chapter four, he is full of examples. These kinds of devils many times appear to men, and to fright them out of their wits, sometimes walking at noonday, sometimes at nights, counterfeiting dead men's ghosts, as that of Caligula, which, saith Suetonius, was seen to walk in the vineyard's garden where his body was buried, spirits haunted, and the house where he died, nulla nox sine terrora transacta, donic incendio consumpta. Every night this happened, there was no quietness till the house was burned. About Hecler in Iceland, ghosts commonly walk, animus mortuorum simulantes, saith Johannes Ananius, book three, denatured demonium, Olaf's book two, chapter two, natal liberti aparitionibus spirituum, Corn Manus, demiraculis mortuorum, part one, chapter 44, such sites are frequently seen circa Selpulchre at Monasteria, saith Lovata, book one, chapter 19, in monasteries and about church yards, loca paludinosa, ampla edificia, solitaria, edcaide hominum, notata, etc. marshes, great buildings, solitary places, all remarkable as the scene of some murder. Thaureus adds, ubi gravius pecatum est commisum, impii, aparum, offessoris et nequito incignes habitant, where some very heinous crime was committed, there the impius and infamous generally dwell. These spirits often foretell men's death by several signs, as knockings, groanings, etc. though Richard Argentine, chapter 18, de prestigius de monum, will ascribe these predictions to good angels out of the authority of Fikinus and others, prodigia in obitu princupum cipus contingunt, etc. prodigies frequently occur at the deaths of illustrious men, as in the latter in church in Rome, the pope's death are foretold by Sylvester's tomb. Near Rupes Nova in Finland, in the Kingdom of Sweden, there is a lake in which, before the governor of the castle dies, a spectrum in the habit of arian with his harp appears and makes excellent music, like those blocks in Cheshire, which they say, presage death to the master of the family, or that oak in L'Anthadron Park in Cornwall, which foreshows as much. Many families in Europe are so put in mind of their last by such predictions, and many men are forewarned, if we may believe Paracelsus, by familiar spirits in diverse shapes as cocks, crows, owls, which often hover about sick men's chambers, velquia morientium for ditatum sentient, as Paracelsus conjectures, et idio supertectum infirmorum croquetant, because they smell a coarse, or for that, as Bernardinus de Bustis thinkers, God permits the devil to appear in the form of crows and such-like creatures to scare such as live wickedly here on earth. A little before Tully's death, saith Plutoc, the crows made a mighty noise about him, tumultuose per strepentes. They pulled the pillow from under his head. Robertus Gagrinus, Historia Francorum, Book 8, telleth such another wonderful story at the death of Johannus de Monteforte, a French lord, Anne of 1345. Tantacore vorum multitudo edibus morientis incedit, quantum essay in Gallia nemo dudicasset. A multitude of crows alighted on the house of the dying man, such as no one imagined existed in France. Such prodigies are very frequent in authors. See more of these in the said Lavata, the Reyes de Locas infestes, Part 3, Chapter 58, Pictorius del Rio, Cicogna, Book 3, Chapter 9. Necromancers take upon them to raise and lay them at their pleasures, and so likewise those which Mizzaldus calls ambulones, that walk about midnight on great heaths and desert places, which, saith Lavata, draw men out of the way, and lead them all night a byway, or quite bar them out of their way. These have several names in several places. We commonly call them pucks. In the deserts of Lop, in Asia, such illusions of walking spirits are often perceived, as you may read in M. Paulus the Venetian his travels. If one lose his company by chance, these devils will call him by his name, and counterfeit voices of his companions to seduce him. Hywonimus Pauli, in his Book of the Hills of Spain, relates of a great mount in Cantabria where such spectrums are to be seen. The Vata and Cicogna have a variety of examples of spirits, and walking devils in this kind. Sometimes they sit by the highway side to give men falls, and make their horses stumble and start as they ride, if you will believe the relation of that holy man Catellus in Nubrogensis. That had an especial grace to see devils. Gratiam divinitus colatum, and talk with them, et impervidus conspiritibus somonum mischere, without offence, and if a man curse or spur his horse for stumbling, they do heartily rejoice at it, with many such pretty feats. Subterranean devils are as common as the rest, and do as much harm. Olas Magnus, Book Six, Chapter Nineteen, make six kinds of them, some bigger, some less. These, says Munster, are commonly seen about minds of metals, and are some of them noxious, some again do no harm. The metal men in many places account it good luck, a sign of treasure and rich ore when they see them. Georgeus Agricola, in his book De Subterineus Aminantibus. Chapter Thirty Seven reckons two more notable kinds of them, which he calls Getulii and Kobali, both are clothed after the manner of metal men, and will many times imitate their works. Their office, as Pictorius and Paracelsus think, is to keep treasure in the earth, that it be not all at once revealed. And besides, Hecogna averse that they are the frequent causes of those horrible earthquakes which often swallow up not only houses, but whole islands and cities. In his third book, Chapter Eleven, he gives many instances. The last are conversant about the centre of the earth, to torture the souls of damned men to the day of judgment. Their egress and regress, some supposed to be about Edna, Lippari, Mons Hecla in Iceland, Vesuvius, Terra del Fuego, etc., because many shrieks and fearful choirs are continually heard thereabouts, and familiar apparitions of dead men, ghosts and goblins. End of Section Twenty Three Section Twenty Four of the Anatomy of Melancholy, Volume One This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. Recording by Morgan Scorpion The Anatomy of Melancholy, Volume One by Robert Burton, Section Twenty Four Partition One, Section Two, Member One, Subsection Two, Part Three Subsection Three Subsection Two, Part Three A digression of the nature of spirits, bad angels, or devils, and how they cause melancholy, continued. Their offices, operations, study Thus the devil reigns, and in a thousand several shapes, as a roaring lion still steaks whom he may devour, One Peter Five by sea, land, air, as yet unconfined, though some will have his proper place in the air. All that space between us and the moon, for them that transgressed least, and hell for the wickedest of them. Hic velet in carcare ad finum mundae, tunk in locum funestiorum trodendi, as Augustine holds the Civitata day, Chapter Twenty Two, Book Fourteen, Chapters Three and Twenty Three. But be where he will, he rages while he may, to comfort himself, as lactantius thinks, with other men's faults. He labours all he can to bring them into the same pit of perdition with him. For men's miseries, calamities, and ruins are the devil's banqueting dishes. By many temptations and several engines, he seeks to captivate our souls. The Lord of Lies, saith Augustine, as he was deceived himself, he seeks to deceive others. The ringleader to all naughtiness, as he did by Eve and Cain, Sodom and Gomorrah, so would he do by all the world. Sometimes he tempts by covetousness, drunkenness, pleasure, pride, etc. Heirs, dejects, saves, kills, protects, and rides some men, as they do their horses. He studies our overthrow, and generally seeks our destruction. And although he pretend many times human good, and vindicate himself for a god by curing of several diseases, aegis sanitatum et caicus luminus usum vestitutuendo, as Augustine declares, Book X, Dissivitatidae, Chapter 6, as Apollo, Esculapius, Isis, of old have done, divert plagues, assist them in wars, pretend their happiness, yet, nihil his imperious, scholestius, nihil humano ganeri infestius. Nothing so impure, nothing so pernicious, as may well appear by their tyrannical and bloody sacrifices of men to Satan and Moloch, which are still in use among those barbarous Indians. There are several deceits and cousinings to keep men in obedience. Their false oracles, sacrifices, their superstitious impositions of fasts, penury, etc. Heresies, superstitious observations of meats, times, etc., by which they crucify the souls of mortal men, as shall be showed in our treatise of religious melancholy. Modicul ad hoc tempore, sanitum malignari, as Bernard expresses it, by God's permission he rageeth awhile, hereafter to be confined to hell and darkness, which is prepared for him and his angels. Matthew 25. How far their power doth extend, it is hard to determine, what the ancients held of their effects, force, and operations, I will briefly show you. Plato in Critias, and after him his followers, gave out that these spirits or devils were men's governors and keepers, our lords and masters, as we are of our cattle. They govern provinces and kingdoms by oracles, auguries, dreams, rewards, and punishments, prophecies, inspirations, sacrifices, and religious superstitions, varied in as many forms as there be diversity of spirits. They send wars, plagues, peace, sickness, health, death, plenty. Ad stantes he ciam nobis, spectantes et albitrantes, etc., as appears by those histories of Thucydides, Livius, Dionysius, Halicarnassus, with many others that are full of their wonderful stratigems, and were, therefore, by those Roman and Greek commonwealths adored and worshipped for gods with prayers and sacrifices, etc. In a word, nihil magus querent quermetum et admirationum hominum, and, as another half it, decain on protest querm impotenti art dori in hominus dominum et divinus cultus maligni spiritus affectent. Tritimius in his book Deceptum Secundis assigns names to such angels as are governors of particular provinces, by what authority I know not, and gives them several jurisdictions. Asclepillades agreecian, Rabbi Akiba the Jew, Abraham Avanesra and Rabbi Azrael, Arabians, as I find them cited by Cacogna, father add, that they are not our governors only, said ex-Iorum concordium et discordia, Borny et Mali affectus promenant. But, as they agree, so do we and our princes, or disagree, stand or fall. Juno was a bitter enemy to try, Apollo a good friend, Jupiter indifferent, Acravanus tucris, Pallas iniquia furit, some are for us still, some against us, Prementi deo, ved deus alter opum. Religion, policy, public and private quarrels, wars are procured by them, and they are delighted perhaps to see men fight, as men are with cocks, balls, and dogs, bears, etc. Plagues, deaths depend on them, or bene and Mali essay, and almost all our other peculiar actions. For, as Antony Roussea contends, Book 5, Chapter 18, every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular, all his life long, which Jamblicus calls de monum. Preformance, losses, weddings, deaths, rewards and punishments, and, as Proclus will, all offices whatsoever, Ali-i genitricum, Ali-i opificum, protestatum, habent, etc., and several names they will give them according to their offices, as lares, indegaitis, facetitis, etc. When the Arcades in that battle at Keroni, which was fought against King Philip for the liberty of Greece, had deceitfully carried themselves long after, in the very same place, deus Grechei, or Toribus, says mine author, they were miserably slain by Metellus the Roman. So likewise, in smaller matters, they will have things fall out, as these Boni and Mali genii favor or dislike us. Saturni, non-convenient Jovi-Alibus, etc. He that is Saturninus shall never likely be preferred. That base fellows are often advanced, undeserving Gnathos and vicious parasites, whereas discreet, wise, virtuous, and worthy men are neglected and unrewarded, they refer to those domineering spirits, or subordinate genii, as they are inclined, or favour men, so they thrive, are ruled and overcome. For, as Libanius supposeth in our ordinary conflicts and contentions, genius genio cedit et obtemperat. One genius yields, and is overcome by another. All particular events almost they refer to these private spirits, and, as Paracelsus adds, they direct, teach, inspire, and instruct men. Never was any man extraordinary famous in any art, action, or great commander, that had not familiarum de monum to inform him, as Numa, Socrates, and many such, as Carden illustrates, chapter 128. Arcanis prudentiae civillis, speciali sicridem gratia. But these are most erroneous paradoxes, inepti et fabulosae nucae, rejected by our divines and christian churches. Tis true they have by God's permission power over us, and we find by experience that they can hurt not our fields only, cattle, goods, but our bodies and minds. At Hamel in Saxony, Anna 1484, 20 Junii, the devil, in likeness of a pied piper, carried away a hundred and thirty children that were never after seen. Many times men are affrighted out of their wits, carried away quite as Scarecias illustrates, book 1, chapter 4, and severally molested by his means. Plotinus the Platonist, book 14, laughs them to scorn that whole the devil or spirits can cause any such diseases. Many think he can work upon the body, but not upon the mind, but experience pronounceeth otherwise, that he can work both upon body and mind. Tertullian is of this opinion, that he can cause both sickness and health and that secretly. Torellus adds by clangular poisons he can affect the bodies and hinder the operations of the bowels, though we perceive it not, closely creeping into them, saith Lybcius, and so crucify our souls. Et nociva melancolia fiori o sos effigit, for being a spiritual body he struggles with our spirits, saith Rogers, and suggests, according to Cardon, verbicina roche spicchei sine visu, envy, lust, anger, etc., as he sees men inclined. The manner how he performs it, biamanas in his oration against Bodin, sufficiently declares. He begins first with the fantasy, and moves that so strongly, that no reason is able to resist. Now the fantasy he moves by mediation of humours, although many physicians are of opinion, that the devil can alter the mind, and produce this disease of himself. Quibustum medicorum visum, saith Avakena, quod melancolia contingat ar demonio. Of the same mind is Celis and racist the Arab. That this disease proceeds especially from the devil, and from him alone. Arculanus elanius montaltus Daniel sanatus confirmas much, that the devil can cause this disease, by reason many times that the parties affected prophecy speak strange language, but non sine interventu humoris, not without the humour, as he interprets himself. No more doth Avakena, saith contingat ar demonio, sufficate nobis ud convertat complexionum at choloram nigram, et sid causa aegus propinqua choloram nigra. The immediate cause is cholor a dust, which pomponatius likewise labours to make good. Galgorandus of Mantua, the famous physician, so cured a demoniical woman in his time, that spake all languages, by purging black cholor, and thereupon, be like this humour of melancholy, is called Balneum Diaboli, the devil's bath. The devil, spying his opportunity of such humours, drives them many times to despair, fury, rage, et cetera, mingling himself among these humours. This is that which totalion arose, corpoivus impligunt acerbus casus, animaicui repentinos, membra distocrent, oculte repentis, et cetera, and which lemnius goes about to prove. Imiscunt se mali genii provus humoribus, acri atre billi, et cetera, and Jason pretensis that the devil, being a slender, incomprehensible spirit, can easily insinuate and wind himself into human bodies, and cunningly couched in our bowels, vitiate our healths, terrify our souls with fearful dreams, and shake our minds with furies. And in another place these unglean spirits settled in our bodies, and now mixed with our melancholy humours through triumph as it were, and sport themselves as in another heaven. Thus he argues, and that they go in and out of our bodies, as bees do in a hive, and so provoke and tempt us as they perceive our temperature inclined of itself, and most apt to be deluded. Agrippa and Lavater are persuaded that this humour invites the devil to it, wheresoever it is in extremity, and of all other melancholy persons are most subject to diabolical temptations and illusions, and most apt to entertain them, and the devil best able to work upon them. But whether by obsession, or possession, or otherwise, I will not determine, to the difficult question. Del Rio the Jesuit, Springer and his colleague, Malius Maleficarum, Petrus Thiraeus the Jesuit, Liba de Demoniarchis, De Locus Infestus, De Terrificati Onibus Noctonis, Hironibus Mengus Flagellus De Monium, and others of that rank of pontifical writers, it seems by their exorcisms and conjurations a proof of it, having forged many stories to that purpose. A nun did eat lettuce without grace, or signing it with the sign of the cross, and was instantly possessed. Durandus, Book 6, Rachanalli Divinorum Oficiorum, Chapter 86, Number 8, relates that he saw a wench possessed in Mononia with two devils by eating an unhallowed pomegranate, as she did afterwards confess when she was cured by exorcisms. And therefore our papists do sign themselves so often with the sign of the cross, Niddemon and Gredy Ossit, and exercise all manner of meats as being unclean or accursed otherwise, as Bellarmini defends. Many such stories I find amongst pontifical writers to prove their assertions let them free their own credits. Some few I will recite in this kind out of most approved physicians. Cornelius Gamma, Book 2, Denaturai Divinus Characterismus, Chapter 4, relates of a young maid called Catherine Gralta, a cooper's daughter, Annelle 1571, that had such strange passions and convulsions, three men could not sometimes hold her. She purged a live eel, which he saw, a foot and a half long, and touched it himself, but the eel afterwards banished. She vomited some twenty-four pounds of fulsome stuff of all colours twice a day for fourteen days, and after that she voided great balls of hair, pieces of wood, pigeons-dung, parchment, goose-dung, coals, and after them two pounds of pure blood, and then again coals and stones, of which some had inscriptions bigger than a walnut, some of them pieces of glass, brass, etc., besides paroxysms of laughing, weeping, and ecstasies, etc. Et hock inquit cum horore vidi, this I saw with horror. They could do no good on her by physics, but left her to the clergy. Markelles Donatus, Book 2, Chapter 1, Medica Historia Mirabilis, had such another story of a countryfellow, that had four knives in his belly, Insta Seretentatus, indented like a saw, every one a span long, and a wreath of hair like a globe, with much baggage of like sort, wonderful to behold. How it should come into his guts, he conclude, could assuredly only have been to the artifice of the devil. Languius has many relations to this effect, and so has Christopherus of Vega, Rierus, Skenchius, Scribanius, all agree that they are done by the subtlety and delusion of the devil. If you shall ask a reason of this, tis to exorcise our patience, for as Tatalian holds, vurtus, known as vurtus, nisicum param habit alicum, in close to parando, vim, swam, ostendat, tis to try us and our faith, tis for our offences and for the punishment of our sins, by God's permission they do it. Carnificates vindicati justi dei, as Tolosan stylesom, executioners of his will, or rather, as David, Psalm 78, verse 49, he cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, indication, wrath, and vexation, by sending out of evil angels. So did he afflict Job, Saul, the lunatics, and demoniical persons whom Christ cured, Matthew 4.8, Luke 4.11, Luke 13, Mark 9, etc. This, I say, happeneth for a punishment of sin, for their want of faith, incredulity, weakness, distrust, etc. Subsection 3, of witches and magicians, how they cause melancholy. You have heard what the devil can do of himself, now you shall hear what he can perform by his instruments, who are many times worse, if it be possible, than he himself, and to satisfy their revenge and lust cause more mischief. Malta enymala non egiset demon, Nisi provocatus as sagus, as Erastus thinks. Much harm had never been done, had he not been provoked by witches to it. He had not appeared in Samuel's shape, if the witch of Endor had let him alone, or represented those serpents in Pharaoh's presence, had not the magicians urged him unto it. Nec morbos vel hominibus vel brutis in frigoret, Erastus maintains. Men and cattle might go free, if the witches would let him alone. Many deny witches at all, or if there be any, they can do no harm. Of this opinion is whereas book 3, chapter 53, de prestigius demonum et incantati unibus ac veneficius. Austin Lerkimer, a Dutch writer, be a manus, a wikius, ualdus, or countryman scott, with him in horrors. Somnia terores magicos, miraculous sagas, nocturnus lemores, portentagre, thersola, risu, excipient. Say, can you laugh indignant at the schemes of magic terrors, visionary dreams, for tenuous wonders, witching imps of hell, the nightly goblin and enchanting spell? They laugh at all such stories, but on the contrary our most lawyers, divines, physicians, philosophers. Austin, Hemingius, Daneus, Ketraeus, Zanctius, Aretius, etc. Del Rio, Springer, Niderius, Cuiatius, Bartolas, Vaudin, Godelman, Damhoderius, etc. Paracelsus, Erastus, Scribanius, Camerarius, etc. The parties by whom the devil deals may be reduced to these such as command him in show at least as conjurers and magicians, whose detestable and horrid mysteries are contained in their book called Arbital, demonis enim advocati presto sunt. Seque ex or chismis et conjurati onibus quasi cogipati unto, ut miserum magorum genus, in impeietate deteniant, or such as are commanded as witches, that deal ex parte implicite, or explicite, as the king hath well defined. Many subdivisions there are, and many several species of sorcerers, witches, enchanters, charmers, etc. They have been tolerated here to force some of them, and magic has been publicly professed in former times, in Salamanca, Quaco, and other places, though after censured by several universities, and now generally contradicted, though practised by some still, maintained and excused. Tanquam ve secreta quai non nisi viris magnis et peculiari beneficio decorelo instructis communicator. I use Versartus his words, and so far approved by some princes. Ut nil ar si agredi in politicus, in sacrus, in conciliis, sine aorum abitruo. They consult still with them, and dare indeed do nothing without their advice. Nero and Hirlio Gabalus, Maxentius, and Julianus Apostata, were never so much addicted to magic of old, as some of our modern princes and popes themselves are nowadays. Ericus, king of Sweden, had an enchanted cap, by virtue of which, and some magical murmur or whispering terms, he could command spirits, trouble the air, and make the wind stand which way he could, in so much that when there was any great wind or storm, the common people were wont to say. The king now had on his conjuring cap. But such examples are infinite. That which they can do is as much almost as the devil himself, who is still ready to satisfy their desires, to oblige them the more unto him. They can cause tempests, storms, which is familiarly practised by witches in Norway, Iceland, as I have proved. They can make friends' enemies, and enemies' friends by filters. Terpes amores conciliare, enforce love, tell any man where his friends are, about what employed, though in the most remote places, and if they will, bring their sweethearts to them by night, upon a goat's back flying in the air. Sigismund Skaeretsius, part one, chapter nine, Despectress, reports confidently that he conferred with sundry such, that have been so carried many miles, and that he heard witches themselves confess as much, hurt and infect men and beasts, vines, corn, cattle, plants, make women abortive, not to conceive, barren. Men and women unact and unable, married and unmarried, fifty-several ways, says Baudin, book two, chapter two, fly in the air, meet when and where they will, as Kikogna proves, and Levata, Despectress, part two, chapter seventeen, steal young children out of their cradles. Ministerio de Monum, and put deformed in their rooms, which we call changelings, says Skaeretsius, part one, chapter six. Make men victorious, fortunate, eloquent, and therefore in those ancient monomachies and combats they were searched of old, they had no magical charms. They can make stick-freeze, such as shall endure a rapious point, musket-shot, and never be wounded. Of which read more in Boisardus, chapter six, Demagia, the manner of the adoration, and by whom it is made, where and how to be used, in expediteonibus bellicis, trelius, durelius, etc., with many peculiar instances and examples. They can walk in fiery furnaces, make men feel no pain on the rack, out alias torturus sentiere. They can staunch blood, represent dead men's shapes, alter and turn themselves and others into several forms at their pleasures. Agaberta, a famous witch in Lapland, would do as much publicly to all spectators. Modo prosila, Modo annus, Modo pocora ut crocus, Modo vaca, avis, colaba, etc., now young, now old, high, low, like a cow, like a bird, a snake, and what not. She could represent others what forms they most desire to see, show them friends absent, reveal secrets, maxima omnium admiratione, etc., and yet for all the subtlety of their eyes, as Lipsius well observes, Def physiologica stoicorum, Book 1, Chapter 17, neither these magicians, nor devils themselves, can take away gold or letters out of mine or cross's chest, et clientelis suis larguiri, for they are base, poor, contemptible fellows most pot, as Bodine notes. They can do nothing in dudicum decreta out poinus, in regnum conchilia vel arcana, nihil in nem numarium out thesaurus. They cannot give money to their clients, alter judges decrees, or councils of kings, these minuti genii cannot do it, altiores genii oxibi ad servilant, the higher powers reserve these things to themselves. Now and then, per adventure, there may be some more famous magicians, like Simon Margus, Apollonius Tuneus, Parcetes, Jumblicus, Ododistellis, that for a time can build castles in the air, represent armies, etc., as they are said to have done, command wealth and treasure, feed thousands with all variety of meats upon a sudden, protect themselves and their followers from all princes' persecutions by removing from place to place in an instant, reveal secrets, future events, tell what is done in far countries, make them appear that died long since, and do many such miracles to the world's terror, admiration, and opinion of deity to themselves. Yet the devil forsakes them at last, they come to wicked ends, and, rawo out nuncran, such imposters are to be found. The vulgar sort of them can work no such feats, but to my purpose they can, last of all, cure and cause most diseases to such as they love or hate, and of this melancholy amongst the rest. Paracelsus, Tom IV, De Morbis Arnentium, in express words affirms, multi fascinata in melancholyum, many are bewitched into melancholy, out of his experience. The same says Deneus, Book III, De Sotiaris Vidi, Inquit, Queen Melancholy Morbos gravisimos induxerent. I have seen those that have caused melancholy in the most grievous manner, dried up women's paps, cured gout, palsy, this and apoplexy, falling sickness, which no physique could help, solo tartu, by touch alone. Ruland in his III Quenturia curationum Empiricorum 91 gives an instance of one David Helder, a young man who, by eating cakes which gave him mox delirare coepit, began to dote on a sudden, and was instantly mad. F. H. D. in Hildesheim, consulted about a melancholy man, thought his disease was partly magical, and partly natural, because he vomited pieces of iron and lead, and spake such languages as he had never been taught, but such examples are common in Scribanius, Hercules disaxonia, and others. The means by which they work are usually charms, images, as that in Hector Boeicius of King Dufa, characters stamped of sundry metals, and at such and such constellations, knots, amulets, words, filters, etc., which generally make the parties affected, melancholy, as Monavius discorseth at large in an epistle of his to Ecclesius, giving instance in a Bohemian baron that was so troubled by a filter taken. Not that there is any power at all in those spells, charms, characters, and barbarous words, but that the devil doth use such means to delude them. Ut fidelis in De Magus, saith Libanius, in Orphicchio retiniat. Tom in consortium mother Factorum rugged. End of section 24