Part 6
And perchance for this cause also, Priests and Monkes could not bee so well blamed, for their so often deceiuing plaine meaning folkes with craft and subtiltie, in so much as some of their moste holy Fathers, I meane Popes of _Rome_, haue bin very cunning in magicall sciences, as their owne Historiographers affirme, and by meanes of those artes, haue aspired to the high top of Popedome. =Beno= (or rather =Bruno=, for so I iudge his name is) who was also a Cardinall, set foorth the life of Pope =Gregorie= the seuenth, in writing, in the which hée sheweth the sayd Bishop to haue bene a proude, arrogant, malicious and couetous Monke, and that hée was throughly séene in the blacke art of Negromancie. =Bartholomeus Platina= (who being a sworne seruant with the Pope, excusing their faults as much as he can) writeth of =Siluester= the second, yͭ he gaue himselfe to the diuel, and that by his meanes, his counsell & magical deuises, he atteined yͤ great office of papacie. Doo ye think, that it is a hard thing for him yͭ is confederat with the enemy of mankind, to faine spirits & soules, or to cōiure a diuel, to make men beléeue he were a soule, do you thinke such men abhorre to doo such mischiefe? The =Historiographers= report that =Bonifacius= the 8. deceiued his predecessor =Celestinus=, by a voyce sent through a cane réed, as though it had come from heauen, perswading him to giue ouer his office of Popeship, and to institute therein, one =Bonifacius= a worthier man than he, except he would be thrust out of the kingdome of heauen. The poore simple Pope obeying this voyce, ordeined =Bonifacius= Pope in his steade, in the yeare of our Lord 1294. who first brought in the yeare of Iubile. Of this =Boniface=, the common people would say, _He came in like a Fox, he raigned like a wolfe, and died like a Dog_. If the very vicar of Christ, who hath all knowledge as it were fast lockt in the Coffer of his brest, could be deceiued, lette no man maruel any more if simple credulous husbandmen and citezens haue ben deceiued, and that it hath bin said to them: God spake this: This soule did aske helpe: and such like things, which are most false and vaine. Yf this man coulde counterfeit the voyce of God, coulde he not also faine the voice of dead men?
[Sidenote: Sometimes Laye men beguile the Priests.]
Before I procéede any further, this is also to be obserued, that plesaunt conceited fellowes, may oftentimes deceiue the priests, themselues. For when the priests did brag, that they coulde coniure Spirits and deliuer mens soules, it may be that other being wrapped in shéets, hauing vnderneth them liue coales in an earthen pot, appeared vnto priests, who by and by were persuaded they sawe saules which required their helpe to be deliuered. =Erasmus= in his =Colloquio= or talke which he intituled =Exorcismus, vel spectrum=, or a coniuration or vision, writeth howe one =Polus= maruellously deceiued a priest called =Faustus=. But there is no doubt but that priests being many times deceiued in iest by the lay men for pastimes sake, haue on the other side more often times beguiled them in earnest.
[Sidenote: Men walking by night.]
I haue spoken hitherto of men being awake, and now I will adde a fewe words of such as sléepe. There be many which haue such a kinde of disease, that they walke in their sléepe: which thing we reade to haue bin true in one =Theon= a =Stoicke=, and in =Pericles= seruant, who in their sléepe climed vp to the top of the house. I haue hearde of some which in their sléepe haue done that which béeing awake, they could not do by any meanes. If a man sée such a one walking in the night, either apparrelled or naked, and after here him say he was at the same time in his bed, he will straight thinke, it was his soule that he sawe, the like will he do if he heare such a one at his owne house.
CHAP. XI.
That many naturall things are taken to be ghoasts.
[Sidenote: Fayries of the earth.]
There happen daily many things by the ordinary course of nature, which diuers men, especially they that are timorous and fearefull, suppose to be visions or spirits. As for example, when they heare the crying of ratts, catts, weasels, martins, or any other beaste, or when they heare a horse beate his féete on the plankes in the stable at midnight, by and by they sweat for feare, supposing some bugges to walke in the dead of the night. Somtimes a bittour, or hearne (which birds are sildome séene with vs in _Germany_) or some other straunge birds, make a noise in the aire: many fooles straightwayes dreame, they haue heard I wotte not what. If a worme which fretteth wood, or that bréedeth in trées, chaunce to gnawe a wall of waynescot, or other timber, many will iudge they heare one softly knocking vppon an anduill with a sledge: and sometimes they imagine they heare many hammers at one time. Simple foolish men hearing these things, imagine, I know not how, that there be certaine elues or fairies of the earth, and tell many straunge and maruellous tales of them, which they haue heard of their grandmothers and mothers, how they haue appeared vnto those of the house, haue done seruice, haue rocked the cradle, and (which is a signe of good lucke) do continually tarry in the house. If such dwarfes or elues haue bene séene at any time, surely they were euill spirits. For we reade that the Gentiles in time past, had their familiar or houshold gods, whome they worshipped with great deuotion, because (as they thought) they tooke care of their house, and defended their family: and vnto these men, euil spirits did sometimes appeare, thereby to confirme them the more in their blinde superstition.
[Sidenote: Olaus Magnus.]
=Olaus Magnus= Archbishop of _Vpsalia_, writeth in his history =de Gentibus Septentrionalibus=, that euen at this day also, there are spirits séene in these countries, which hauing the shape of men, do men seruice in the night, dressing their horse, and looking to their cattell. The winde in the night, ouerthroweth some thing, or shaketh a casement or lid of the window: many by and by thinke they sée a spirite, and can very hardly be brought from that vaine opinion.
[Sidenote: Echo.]
This thing is also according to nature, that when a man either crieth or speaketh in the woods, valies, or other hollow places, =Echo= wil resound the later word or sillable, so plainly many times, that a man would verily thinke some liuing bodie made him answere againe. Many would be afraide hereof at all times, but especially in the night season, except he knew very well it were a naturall thing.
[Sidenote: Cardanus.]
=Cardanus= in his booke =de Subtilitate lib.18.= rehearseth a maruellous historie of one =Comensis=, who very late in the night, comming to a riuersside, not knowing where he might passe ouer, called out aloude for some bodie to shewe him the foorde, and when the =Echo= made him answere, hee supposing it to be a man, asked him if he might passe ouer here: to whom the =Echo= answered again in yͤ Italian tong, Here, here. But in yͭ place was a whirlpoole, and a great roring of the water: Therfore yͤ man douting, asketh once or twice againe, whether the riuer might be past ouer in the same place: to which the =Echo= answered stil that it might. In the end, when he had escaped yͤ passage without danger, he told his friends, how by the persuasiō of the diuel, he had almost throwne himself hedlong into the riuer, and drowned himself. In the same place, he saith, that the great Hall at =Ticinium= in _Italy_, doth render sundry and manifold voyces, if one speake in it, and that the voyces as it were die and make an end much lyke a mans voyce, when he lyeth a dying, in so much that a man can scant be perswaded it is the noyse of =Echo=.
[Sidenote: Things shyning by night.]
[Sidenote: Hector Boethius.]
There are certain things which shine only in the night, as some precious stones doo, the eyes of certaine beastes, a Glowoorme, or Globard, as also some kinde of rotten wood, wherewith many times children so terrifie their play-fellowes, that they imagine with themselues, to sée euil spirites, or men all burning with fire. =Hector Boethius= writeth, that a certain King of Scots caused some of his men to be disguised in garments with bright shining scales, hauing in their hands rotten wood instéed of staues, and so to appeare to his nobilitie and Lords in the night, exhorting them to fight couragiously with their enemies, and promising them to obtaine victorie. Whereby the noble men supposing they had séene angels, behaued themselues valiantly, and atchieued the victorie.
[Sidenote: Burning lights.]
Many times candles & small fires appeare in the night, and séeme to runne vp and downe. And as the yong men in _Heluetia_, who with their firebrands which they light, at the bonfires in Shroftide, sometime gather themselues togither, and then scatter abroad, and againe, méeting togither, march in a long rancke: euen so doo those fires sometime séeme to come togither, and by and by to be seuered & runne abroad, and at the last to vanish cleane away. Sometime these fires goe alone in the night season, and put such as sée them, as they trauell by night, in great feare. But these things, and many such lyke haue their naturall causes: and yet I will not deny, but that many times Diuels delude men in this maner.
[Sidenote: Exhalatons.]
Natural Philosophers write, that thicke exhilations aryse out of the earth, and are kindled. Mynes full of sulphur and brimstone, if the aire enter vnto it, as it lyeth in the holes and veines of the earth, will kindle on fier, and striue to get out. Sometimes fire bursteth out of the earth, as high as a tall trée, and is suddeinly put out againe. Which thing is to be thought to procéede of fierie matter, séeking a vent to gush out. Wee reade of the mount _Aetna_ in _Cicilie_, that in times past it burnt continually, day and night, casting forth flames of fire, fiery stones and ashes in great aboundance. The lyke is read also at _Vesuuius_ a hill in _Campaine_, about a Germaine mile from _Naples_: The same hill in the time of =Titus= the Emperour, as S. =Hierom= reporteth, cast foorth of it so much fire, that it burnt the country, and cities, and people rounde about it, and filled the fieldes adioyning full of cinders and ashes. These two hilles, euen in our dayes boyling with great heate, haue very much indamaged the people inhabiting thereabout. In _Iseland_, as =Olaus Magnus= witnesseth, are found fiers which breake out of the earth. And as whole hilles and mountaines may burne, euen so may a litle fire be kindled in the earth, and yet wander very large. They which trauelling by the way, or by some other meanes chaunce to sée these things, and know not the naturall causes of them, imagin by reason of feare, that they haue séene men burning like fire, or some other straunge thing, which they haue heard other men talke of. And by means of their great feare, oftentimes they fall into great daungerous diseases.
[Sidenote: Glasses.]
The arte perspectiue doth also worke this wonderfull feate, that diuers and sundrie shapes will appeare in glasses, made and sette togither aftter a certeine artificial sorte: sometimes they will séeme to goe out of the doores, and resemble men of our familiar acquaintance. Many things in very déed are naturall, although we cannot finde any naturall reason for them.
And yet by the way, they shewe themselues too foolishe, which labour to bring all things to natural causes. Here I will say nothing of these men, which can beare plaine and rude people in hande, that they, or some other of their acquaintance, haue séene strange things, which they earnestly auouch to be true, when as indéede there was no suche thing. How often I pray you, do we heare things affirmed as true, which afterward proue most false: as that one was caried away bodie and soule, that an other was put to death, and an infinit nomber of such like reports.
CHAP. XII.
A proofe out of the Gentiles histories, that Spirites and Ghoasts do oftentimes appeare.
Albeit many melancholicke, madde, fearefull, and weake sensed men, doo oftentimes imagine many things which in very déed are not, and are likewise deceiued, sometime by men, or by brute beasts: and moreouer mistake things which procéede of naturall causes, to be bugges and spirites, as I haue hitherto declared by many examples, yet it is most certaine and sure, that all those things which appeare vnto men are not alwayes naturall things, nor alwayes vaine terrors to affray men: but that spirites doo often appeare, and many straunge and maruellous things doo sundry times chance. For many such things of this sort, are to be red in diuers graue and auncient Historiographers: and many men of no small credite, haue affirmed, that they haue séene spirites both in the day and in the night also. And here I will orderly declare a fewe histories out of diuers allowed authors, touching spirites which haue appeared and shewed themselues.
[Sidenote: Triton appeared to Iulius Cæsar.]
=Suetonius Tranquillus= writeth, that when =Iulius Cæsar= marching out of _Fraunce_ into _Italie_ with his army, and comming to the riuer _Rubico_, which diuideth _Italie_ from the hether _Fraunce_, staying there a while, and reuoluing with himselfe howe great an enterprise hee had taken in hand, as he was wauering in mind whether he shuld passe the water or not, suddeinly there appeared a man of excelling stature and shape sitting hard by, pyping on a réede. (=Melancthon= in his Phisickes calleth him =Triton=) vnto whom when not only shepheards, but also very many souldiers from the campe, and amongst them diuers trumpetters had flocked to heare him, he sodeinly snatched a trumpet from one of them, and leaped to the riuer, and with a lustie breath blowing vp the alarum, went to the farther side. Then sayd =Cæsar=, good lucke mates, let vs goe whither the gods warnings leade vs, and whither our enemies iniquitie calleth vs: The dice are throwne. And so he transported ouer.
[Sidenote: Theseus seene in the battaile of Maratho.]
=Plutarke= writeth in =Theseus= life, that many which were in the battaile of =Marathonia=, against the =Medians=, did affirme, that they sawe the soule of =Theseus= armed, (who long time before died of a fall) before the vauntgard of the =Grecians=, running and setting on the barbarous =Medians=. For which cause the =Athenians= afterward were moued to honor him as a demigod.
=Pausanias= writeth in =Atticis=, That in the field of =Maratho=. 400. yeares after the battaile there foughten, there was heard the neying of Horses, and the encountring of souldiers, as it were fighting euery night: And that they which of purpose came to heare these things, could heare nothing, but those that by chaunce came that way, heard it very sensibly.
The same =Plutarke= writeth in the life of =Cimon=, that when the citizens of =Cherouesus=, had by faire words called home their captaine =Damon=, (who before for diuers murthers departed the citie) afterwards they cruelly slew him in a Hotehouse, as he was bathing himselfe, and from that time foorth, there were many strange sightes séene in the same place, & many times also most gréeuous gronings were there heard, insomuch that they were euer after constreined to stop vp the hotehouse doores.
Also in yͤ life of =Dion=, he reporteth that the saide =Dion= being a stoute & a couragious man without any feare, sawe notwithstanding a great and maruellous horrible sight. For when he chaunced to sit alone in the entry of his house in the euening (those are =Plutarks= owne words, as =Xiliander= interpreteth them) musing & discoursing many things with himselfe, being sodeinly moued with a great noyse, he arose and looked backe to the other side of the gallerie, and there he espied a monstrous great woman, who in apparell and countenaunce nothing differing from a Tragi, call furie, swept the house with a broome. With the which sight being amazed & terribly afraide, he called his friends and acquaintance vnto him, and declaring vnto them what he had séene, desired thē to remaine with him al that night: for béeing as it were stricken dead with feare, he doubted least it would appeare vnto him againe, if he were alone, which indéede neuer hapned after. But a fewe daies after, his sonne threwe himselfe headlong from the top of the house, and died, and he himselfe being stabbed through the bodie, ended his miserable life.
The same author writeth in the life of =Decius Brutus=, how when =Brutus= was determined to transporte his army out of =Asia= into =Europe=, being in his tent about midnight, the candle burning dimly, and all the host quiet and silent, as he was musing and reuoluing with himselfe, he séemed that he hearde one entring the Tente into him, and looking backe vnto the doore, he sawe a terrible and monstrous shape of a bodie, which farre excéeded the common stature of men, standing faste by him without any words, wherewith he was sore afraid: and yet he ventured to aske it this question. What art thou (saieth hée) either a God, or a man? and why commest thou vnto me? Whereto the image answered: I am (quoth he) O =Brutus=, thy euill ghoast, at =Philippos= thou shalt sée mée. Then saith =Brutus=, being nothing amazed: I will sée thée. When the sight was vanished, he called his seruants, who tolde him, that they neither sawe any such thing, neither heard any voyce at all. All that night =Brutus= could not sléep one winke. In the morning very early, he goeth vnto =Cassius= and sheweth him his straunge vision. =Cassius= who despised all such things (for he was an Epicure) ascribed the whole matter to naturall causes. For his disputation hereof, is yet extant in =Plutarke=. Afterwards =Brutus= (being vanquished by =Augustus=, and =Anthony=, in the field of =Philippi=) slew himselfe because he would not bee deliuered into the hands of his enemies.
[Sidenote: Caius Cassius sawe Iulius Cæsar.]
=Valerius Maximus=, in his first booke and sixt chap. writeth that =Caius Cassius= sawe =Iulius Cæsar= in the battaile of =Philippi=, (in a shape of greater maiesty, than any man hath) setting spurres to his horse, and running on him with a terrible threatning countenance: which when =Cassius= sawe, he turned his backe to the enemy, and fled, and shortly after murthered himselfe.
[Sidenote: Drusus sawe a woman excelling all mortall creatures in maiestie.]
=Dio Cassius Nicæsus=, in his Roman historie from the beginning of his 55.booke writeth of =Drusus=, who by spoyling _Germany_ far and néere on euery side, came euen to the riuer =Albis=, where when he could not get ouer, erecting monuments of victorie, departed back againe: For he there saw a woman, excéeding the state of mortall creatures, which met him, and sayd vnto him: =Drusus=, which canst finde no end of thy gréedie desire, whither goest thou? It is not lawfull for thée to sée al these things: but rather get thée hence, for the ende both of thy life and worthie déedes is nowe at hand. When =Drusus= heard these things, he sodeinly chaunged his course, and being on his iourney, before he came to the riuer of =Rein=, he sickned and dyed. Other like foretokens the same author reporteth to haue hapned before his death, all the which notwithstanding, he nothing regarded. For two yong men appeared on horsebacke vpon the rampiers, and the shriking of women was also hearde, with many other such like. &c.
[Sidenote: Plinius secundus writing of spirits.]
=Plinius secundus= citizen of =Nouocomensis=, hath an Epistle of Spirits appearings, written vnto his friend =Sura= in the vii. booke of his Epistles, which we haue thought good to set downe whole in this place: Leisure (saith he) graunteth me libertie to learne, and giueth thée leaue to teache. Therfore I am very desirous to knowe whether thou thinke fantasies are any thing, and whether they haue any proper figure of their owne, and be some kinde of diuine power, or else whether they take vppon them some vaine & variable shape, according to the feare which we haue of them? That I should so beléeue, I am especially moued thereto by that which I heare saie happened to =Curtius Rufus=, who was as then, companion to the Proconsul of =Affrica=, bothe poore, and also of small reputation. And as he walked one day in a Gallerie towardes the euening their méeteth with him the shape of a woman, more great & beautifull, than any liuing creature. Wherat he béeing amazed, she telleth him that she is _Affrica_, and is come vnto him to foretell him of good happe to followe: First that he should go to Rome, and there take on him the state of great honoure, and afterwarde, that he should returne into the same prouince with full and high authoritie, and there end his daies. Which things came all to passe. And moreouer, the same figure (as it is saide) mette with him againe on the shore side, as he entred out of the ship, and came towardes _Carthage_ to take his charge and regiment in hande. Afterwards falling sick, when no man dispayred of his healthe, coniecturing things to come by those that had passed, and comparing aduersitie with his former prosperitie, he vtterly cast away all hope of recouerie. Is not this also more terrible, and no lesse maruellous, whiche I will now repeate as I haue heard it tolde?
[Sidenote: The spirit of Athens.]