The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 15

Of the matter of melancholy, there is much question betwixt Avicen and Galen, as you may read in [1057]Cardan's Contradictions, [1058]Valesius'

Controversies, Monta.n.u.s, Prosper Calenus, Capivaccius, [1059]Bright, [1060]Ficinus, that have written either whole tracts, or copiously of it, in their several treatises of this subject. [1061]"What this humour is, or whence it proceeds, how it is engendered in the body, neither Galen, nor any old writer hath sufficiently discussed," as Jacchinus thinks: the Neoterics cannot agree. Monta.n.u.s, in his Consultations, holds melancholy to be material or immaterial: and so doth Arcula.n.u.s: the material is one of the four humours before mentioned, and natural. The immaterial or advent.i.tious, acquisite, redundant, unnatural, artificial; which [1062]

Hercules de Saxonia will have reside in the spirits alone, and to proceed from a "hot, cold, dry, moist distemperature, which, without matter, alter the brain and functions of it." Paracelsus wholly rejects and derides this division of four humours and complexions, but our Galenists generally approve of it, subscribing to this opinion of Monta.n.u.s.

This material melancholy is either simple or mixed; offending in quant.i.ty or quality, varying according to his place, where it settleth, as brain, spleen, mesaraic veins, heart, womb, and stomach; or differing according to the mixture of those natural humours amongst themselves, or four unnatural adust humours, as they are diversely tempered and mingled. If natural melancholy abound in the body, which is cold and dry, "so that it be more [1063]than the body is well able to bear, it must needs be distempered,"

saith Faventius, "and diseased;" and so the other, if it be depraved, whether it arise from that other melancholy of choler adust, or from blood, produceth the like effects, and is, as Montaltus contends, if it come by adustion of humours, most part hot and dry. Some difference I find, whether this melancholy matter may be engendered of all four humours, about the colour and temper of it. Galen holds it may be engendered of three alone, excluding phlegm, or pituita, whose true a.s.sertion [1064]Valesius and Menardus stiffly maintain, and so doth [1065]Fuschius, Montaltus, [1066]

Monta.n.u.s. How (say they) can white become black? But Hercules de Saxonia, _lib. post. de mela. c. 8_, and [1067]Cardan are of the opposite part (it may be engendered of phlegm, _etsi raro contingat_, though it seldom come to pa.s.s), so is [1068]Guianerius and Laurentius, _c. 1._ with Melanct. in his book _de Anima_, and Chap. of Humours; he calls it _asininam_, dull, swinish melancholy, and saith that he was an eyewitness of it: so is [1069]Wecker. From melancholy adust ariseth one kind; from choler another, which is most brutish; another from phlegm, which is dull; and the last from blood, which is best. Of these some are cold and dry, others hot and dry, [1070]varying according to their mixtures, as they are intended, and remitted. And indeed as Rodericus a Fons. _cons. 12. l. 1._ determines, ichors, and those serous matters being thickened become phlegm, and phlegm degenerates into choler, choler adust becomes _aeruginosa melancholia_, as vinegar out of purest wine putrified or by exhalation of purer spirits is so made, and becomes sour and sharp; and from the sharpness of this humour proceeds much waking, troublesome thoughts and dreams, &c. so that I conclude as before. If the humour be cold, it is, saith [1071]Faventinus, "a cause of dotage, and produceth milder symptoms: if hot, they are rash, raving mad, or inclining to it." If the brain be hot, the animal spirits are hot; much madness follows, with violent actions: if cold, fatuity and sottishness, [1072]Capivaccius. [1073]"The colour of this mixture varies likewise according to the mixture, be it hot or cold; 'tis sometimes black, sometimes not," Altomarus. The same [1074]Melanelius proves out of Galen; and Hippocrates in his Book of Melancholy (if at least it be his), giving instance in a burning coal, "which when it is hot, s.h.i.+nes; when it is cold, looks black; and so doth the humour." This diversity of melancholy matter produceth diversity of effects. If it be within the [1075]body, and not putrified, it causeth black jaundice; if putrified, a quartan ague; if it break out to the skin, leprosy; if to parts, several maladies, as scurvy, &c. If it trouble the mind; as it is diversely mixed, it produceth several kinds of madness and dotage: of which in their place.

SUBSECT. IV.--_Of the species or kinds of Melancholy_.

When the matter is divers and confused, how should it otherwise be, but that the species should be divers and confused? Many new and old writers have spoken confusedly of it, confounding melancholy and madness, as [1076]

Heurnius, Guianerius, Gordonius, Sal.u.s.tius Salvia.n.u.s, Jason Pratensis, Savanarola, that will have madness no other than melancholy in extent, differing (as I have said) in degrees. Some make two distinct species, as Ruffus Ephesius, an old writer, Constantinus Africa.n.u.s, Aretaeus, [1077]

Aurelia.n.u.s, [1078]Paulus Aegineta: others acknowledge a mult.i.tude of kinds, and leave them indefinite, as Aetius in his _Tetrabiblos_, [1079]Avicenna, _lib. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. cap. 18._ Arcula.n.u.s, _cap. 16. in 9. Rasis_.

Monta.n.u.s, _med. part. 1._ [1080]"If natural melancholy be adust, it maketh one kind; if blood, another; if choler, a third, differing from the first; and so many several opinions there are about the kinds, as there be men themselves." [1081]Hercules de Saxonia sets down two kinds, "material and immaterial; one from spirits alone, the other from humours and spirits."

Savanarola, _Rub. 11. Tract. 6. cap. 1. de aegritud. capitis_, will have the kinds to be infinite; one from the mirach, called _myrachialis_ of the Arabians; another _stomachalis_, from the stomach; another from the liver, heart, womb, haemorrhoids, [1082]"one beginning, another consummate."

Melancthon seconds him, [1083]"as the humour is diversely adust and mixed, so are the species divers;" but what these men speak of species I think ought to be understood of symptoms; and so doth [1084] Arcula.n.u.s interpret himself: infinite species, _id est_, symptoms; and in that sense, as Jo.

Gorrheus acknowledgeth in his medicinal definitions, the species are infinite, but they may be reduced to three kinds by reason of their seat; head, body, and hypochrondries. This threefold division is approved by Hippocrates in his Book of Melancholy, (if it be his, which some suspect) by Galen, _lib. 3. de loc. affectis, cap. 6._ by Alexander, _lib. 1. cap.

16._ Rasis, _lib. 1. Continent. Tract. 9. lib. 1. cap. 16._ Avicenna and most of our new writers. Th. Erastus makes two kinds; one perpetual, which is head melancholy; the other interrupt, which comes and goes by fits, which he subdivides into the other two kinds, so that all comes to the same pa.s.s. Some again make four or five kinds, with Rodericus a Castro, _de morbis mulier. lib. 2. cap. 3._ and Lod. Mercatus, who in his second book _de mulier. affect. cap. 4._ will have that melancholy of nuns, widows, and more ancient maids, to be a peculiar species of melancholy differing from the rest: some will reduce enthusiasts, ecstatical and demoniacal persons to this rank, adding [1085] love melancholy to the first, and lycanthropia.

The most received division is into three kinds. The first proceeds from the sole fault of the brain, and is called head melancholy; the second sympathetically proceeds from the whole body, when the whole temperature is melancholy: the third ariseth from the bowels, liver, spleen, or membrane, called _mesenterium_, named hypochondriacal or windy melancholy, which [1086]Laurentius subdivides into three parts, from those three members, hepatic, splenetic, mesaraic. Love melancholy, which Avicenna calls _ilis.h.i.+_: and Lycanthropia, which he calls _cucubuthe_, are commonly included in head melancholy; but of this last, which Gerardus de Solo calls _amoreus_, and most knight melancholy, with that of religious melancholy, _virginum et viduarum_, maintained by Rod. a Castro and Mercatus, and the other kinds of love melancholy, I will speak of apart by themselves in my third part.i.tion. The three precedent species are the subject of my present discourse, which I will anatomise and treat of through all their causes, symptoms, cures, together and apart; that every man that is in any measure affected with this malady, may know how to examine it in himself, and apply remedies unto it.

It is a hard matter, I confess, to distinguish these three species one from the other, to express their several causes, symptoms, cures, being that they are so often confounded amongst themselves, having such affinity, that they can scarce be discerned by the most accurate physicians; and so often intermixed with other diseases, that the best experienced have been plunged. Monta.n.u.s _consil. 26_, names a patient that had this disease of melancholy and caninus appet.i.tus both together; and _consil. 23_, with vertigo, [1087]Julius Caesar Claudinus with stone, gout, jaundice.

Trincavellius with an ague, jaundice, caninus appet.i.tus, &c. [1088]Paulus Regoline, a great doctor in his time, consulted in this case, was so confounded with a confusion of symptoms, that he knew not to what kind of melancholy to refer it. [1089]Trincavellius, Fallopius, and Francanza.n.u.s, famous doctors in Italy, all three conferred with about one party, at the same time, gave three different opinions. And in another place, Trincavellius being demanded what he thought of a melancholy young man to whom he was sent for, ingenuously confessed that he was indeed melancholy, but he knew not to what kind to reduce it. In his seventeenth consultation there is the like disagreement about a melancholy monk. Those symptoms, which others ascribe to misaffected parts and humours, [1090]Herc. de Saxonia attributes wholly to distempered spirits, and those immaterial, as I have said. Sometimes they cannot well discern this disease from others.

In Reinerus Solenander's counsels, (_Sect, consil. 5_,) he and Dr. Brande both agreed, that the patient's disease was hypochondriacal melancholy. Dr.

Matholdus said it was asthma, and nothing else. [1091]Solenander and Guarionius, lately sent for to the melancholy Duke of Cleve, with others, could not define what species it was, or agree amongst themselves. The species are so confounded, as in Caesar Claudinus his forty-fourth consultation for a Polonian Count, in his judgment [1092]"he laboured of head melancholy, and that which proceeds from the whole temperature both at once." I could give instance of some that have had all three kinds _semel et simul_, and some successively. So that I conclude of our melancholy species, as [1093]many politicians do of their pure forms of commonwealths, monarchies, aristocracies, democracies, are most famous in contemplation, but in practice they are temperate and usually mixed, (so [1094]Polybius informeth us) as the Lacedaemonian, the Roman of old, German now, and many others. What physicians say of distinct species in their books it much matters not, since that in their patients' bodies they are commonly mixed.

In such obscurity, therefore, variety and confused mixture of symptoms, causes, how difficult a thing is it to treat of several kinds apart; to make any certainty or distinction among so many casualties, distractions, when seldom two men shall be like effected _per omnia_? 'Tis hard, I confess, yet nevertheless I will adventure through the midst of these perplexities, and, led by the clue or thread of the best writers, extricate myself out of a labyrinth of doubts and errors, and so proceed to the causes.

SECT. II. MEMB. I.

SUBSECT. I.--_Causes of Melancholy. G.o.d a cause._

"It is in vain to speak of cures, or think of remedies, until such time as we have considered of the causes," so [1095]Galen prescribes Glauco: 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 [1096]Prosper Calenius well observes in his tract _de atra bile_ to Cardinal Caesius. Insomuch that [1097]"Fernelius 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 thoroughly root out; _sublata causa tollitur 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 [1098]variety to say what the beginning was. [1099]He is happy that can perform it aright. 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 G.o.d and his angels, or by G.o.d's permission from the devil" and his ministers. That G.o.d 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, Ps. cvii, 17. "Foolish men are plagued for their offence, and by reason of their wickedness." Gehazi was stricken with leprosy, 2 Reg. v. 27. Jehoram with dysentery and flux, and great diseases of the bowels, 2 Chron. xxi. 15. David plagued for numbering his people, 1 Par. 21. Sodom and Gomorrah swallowed up. And this disease is peculiarly specified, Psalm cxxvii. 12. "He brought down their heart through heaviness." Deut. xxviii. 28. "He struck them with madness, blindness, and astonishment of heart." [1100]"An evil spirit was sent by the Lord upon Saul, to vex him." [1101]Nebuchadnezzar did eat gra.s.s like an ox, and his "heart was made like the beasts of the field." Heathen stories are full of such punishments. Lycurgus, because he cut down the vines in the country, was by Bacchus driven into madness: so was Pentheus and his mother Agave for neglecting their sacrifice. [1102]Censor Fulvius ran mad for untiling Juno's temple, to cover a new one of his own, which he had dedicated to Fortune, [1103]"and was confounded to death with grief and sorrow of heart." When Xerxes would have spoiled [1104]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. [1105]A little after, the like happened to Brennus, 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 [1106]Clodoveus, sometime king of France, the son of Dagobert, lost his wits for uncovering the body of St. Denis: and how a [1107]sacrilegious Frenchman, that would have stolen a silver image of St. John, at Birgburge, became frantic on a sudden, raging, and tyrannising over his own flesh: of a [1108]Lord of Rhadnor, that coming from hunting late at night, put his dogs into St. Avan's church, (Llan Avan they called it) and rising betimes next morning, as hunters use to do, found all his dogs mad, himself being suddenly strucken blind. Of Tyridates an [1109]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 feign of their Nemesis, and of their saints, or by the devil's means may be deluded; we find it true, that _ultor a tergo Deus_, [1110]"He is G.o.d 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 [1111]Dionysius) whom he will; that he can plague us by his creatures, sun, moon, and stars, which he useth as his instruments, as a husbandman (saith Zanchius) doth a hatchet: hail, snow, winds, &c. [1112]_Et conjurati veniunt in cla.s.sica venti_: as in Joshua's time, as in Pharaoh's reign in Egypt; they are but as so many executioners of his justice. He can make the proudest spirits stoop, and cry out with Julian the Apostate, _Vicisti Galilaee_: or with Apollo's priest in [1113]Chrysostom, _O coelum! o terra! unde hostis 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," &c. Psalm x.x.xviii. 8. "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chastise me in thy wrath," Psalm x.x.xviii. 1. "Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken, may rejoice," Psalm li. 8. and verse 12.

"Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and stablish me with thy free spirit." For these causes belike [1114]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 farther discussed by Fran. Valesius, _de sacr. philos. cap. 8._ [1115] Fernelius, and [1116]J. Caesar Claudinus, 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 c.u.m Deo_ (we must not struggle with G.o.d.) 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 descried himself, and Hercules yielded. No striving with supreme powers. _Nil juvat immensos Cratero promittere montes_, physicians and physic can do no good, [1117]"we must submit ourselves unto the mighty hand of G.o.d," acknowledge our offences, call to him for mercy. If he strike us _una eademque ma.n.u.s vulnus opemque feret_, as it is with them that are wounded with the spear of Achilles, he alone must help; otherwise our diseases are incurable, and we not to be relieved.

SUBSECT. II.--_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 [1118]Postellus, "full of controversy and ambiguity,"

beyond the reach of human capacity, _fateor excedere vires intentionis meae_, saith [1119]Austin, I confess I am not able to understand it, _finitum de infinito non potest statuere_, we can sooner determine with Tully, _de nat. deorum_, _quid non sint, quam quid sint_, our subtle schoolmen, Cardans, Scaligers, profound Thomists, Fracastoriana and Ferneliana _acies_, 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 xxiii., the Sadducees denied that there were any such spirits, devils, or angels. So did Galen the physician, the Peripatetics, even Aristotle himself, as Pomponatius stoutly maintains, and Scaliger in some sort grants. Though Dandinus the Jesuit, _com. in lib. 2. de anima_, stiffly denies it; _substantiae separatae_ and intelligences, are the same which Christians call angels, and Platonists devils, for they name all the spirits, _daemones_, be they good or bad angels, as Julius Pollux _Onomasticon, lib. 1. cap. 1._ observes. Epicures and atheists are of the same mind in general, because they never saw them. Plato, Plotinus, Porphyrius, Jamblichus, Proclus, insisting in the steps of Trismegistus, Pythagoras and Socrates, make no doubt of it: nor Stoics, but that there are such spirits, though much erring from the truth. Concerning the first beginning of them, the [1120]Talmudists say that Adam had a wife called Lilis, before he married Eve, and of her he begat nothing but devils. The Turks' [1121]Alcoran is altogether as absurd and ridiculous in this point: but the Scripture informs us Christians, how Lucifer, the chief of them, with his a.s.sociates, [1122]fell from heaven for his pride and ambition; created of G.o.d, placed in heaven, and sometimes an angel of light, now cast down into the lower aerial sublunary parts, or into h.e.l.l, "and delivered into chains of darkness (2 Pet. ii. 4.) to be kept unto d.a.m.nation."

_Nature of Devils._] There is a foolish opinion which some hold, that they are the souls of men departed, good and more n.o.ble were deified, the baser grovelled on the ground, or in the lower parts, and were devils, the which with Tertullian, Porphyrius the philosopher, M. Tyrius, _ser. 27_ maintains. "These spirits," he [1123]saith, "which we call angels and devils, are nought but souls of men departed, which either through love and pity of their friends yet living, help and a.s.sist them, or else persecute their enemies, whom they hated," as Dido threatened to persecute Aeneas:

"Omnibus umbra locis adero: dabis improbe poenas."

"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 see cause: and are called _boni et mali Genii_ by the Romans. Heroes, lares, if good, lemures or larvae if bad, by the stoics, governors of countries, men, cities, saith [1124]Apuleius, _Deos appellant qui ex hominum numero juste ac prudenter vitae curriculo gubernato, pro numine, postea ab hominibus praediti fanis et ceremoniis vulgo admittuntur, ut in Aegypto Osyris_, &c.

_Praest.i.tes_, Capella calls them, "which protected particular men as well as princes," Socrates had his _Daemonium Saturninum et ignium_, which of all spirits is best, _ad sublimes cogitationes animum erigentem_, as the Platonists supposed; Plotinus his, and we Christians our a.s.sisting angel, as Andreas Victorellus, a copious writer of this subject, Lodovicus de La-Cerda, the Jesuit, in his voluminous tract _de Angelo Custode_, Zanchius, and some divines think. But this absurd tenet of Tyreus, Proclus confutes at large in his book _de Anima et daemone_.

Psellus [1125], a Christian, and sometimes tutor (saith Cuspinian) to Michael Parapinatius, Emperor of Greece, a great observer of the nature of devils, holds they are corporeal [1126], and have "aerial bodies, that they are mortal, live and die," (which Martia.n.u.s Capella likewise maintains, but our Christian philosophers explode) "that they [1127]are nourished and have excrements, they feel pain if they be hurt" (which Cardan confirms, and Scaliger justly laughs him to scorn for; _Si pascantur aere, cur non pugnant ob puriorem aera_? &c.) "or stroken:" and if their bodies be cut, with admirable celerity they come together again. Austin, _in Gen. lib.

iii. lib. arbit._, approves as much, _mutata casu corpora in deteriorem qualitatem aeris sp.i.s.sioris_, so doth Hierome. _Comment. in epist. ad Ephes. cap. 3_, Origen, Tertullian, Lactantius, and many ancient Fathers of the Church: that in their fall their bodies were changed into a more aerial and gross substance. Bodine, _lib. 4, Theatri Naturae_ and David Crusius, _Hermeticae Philosophiae, lib. 1. cap. 4_, by several arguments proves angels and spirits to be corporeal: _quicquid continetur in loco corporeum est; At spiritus continetur in loco, ergo. [1128]Si spiritus sunt quanti, erunt corporei: At sunt quanti, ergo. sunt finiti, ergo. quanti_, &c.

Bodine [1129]goes farther yet, and will have these, _Animae separatae genii_, 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, _quae nihil habet asperitatis, nihil angulis incisum, nihil anfractibus involutem, nihil eminens, sed inter corpora perfecta est perfectissimum_; [1130]therefore all spirits are corporeal he concludes, and in their proper shapes round. That they can a.s.sume 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 pa.s.s many miles in an instant, and so likewise [1131]transform bodies of others into what shape they please, and with admirable celerity remove them from place to place; (as the Angel did Habakkuk 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, [1132]cause smells, savours, &c., 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's statue to the Roman matrons, with many such. Zanchius, Bodine, Sponda.n.u.s, 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 Circe's charms; turn themselves and others, as they do witches into cats, dogs, hares, crows, &c. Strozzius Cicogna hath many examples, _lib. iii. omnif. mag. cap. 4 and 5_, which he there confutes, as Austin likewise doth, _de civ. Dei lib. xviii_. That they can be seen when and in what shape, and to whom they will, saith Psellus, _Tametsi nil tale viderim, nec optem videre_, though he himself never saw them nor desired it; and use sometimes carnal copulation (as elsewhere I shall [1133]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 hath seen them, they account him a timorous fool, a melancholy dizzard, a weak fellow, a dreamer, a sick or a mad man, they contemn him, laugh him to scorn, and yet Marcus of his credit told Psellus that he had often seen them. And Leo Suavius, a Frenchman, _c. 8, in Commentar. l. 1. Paracelsi 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 withal sets down the means how men may see them; _Si irreverberatus oculis sole splendente versus caelum continuaverint obtutus_, &c., [1134]and saith moreover he tried it, _praemissorum feci experimentum_, and it was true, that the Platonists said. Paracelsus confesseth that he saw them divers times, and conferred with them, and so doth Alexander ab [1135]Alexandro, "that he so found it by experience, when as before he doubted of it." Many deny it, saith Lavater, _de spectris, part 1. c. 2_, and _part 2. c. 11_, "because they never saw them themselves;" but as he reports at large all over his book, especially _c. 19. part 1_, they are often seen and heard, and familiarly converse with men, as Lod. Vives a.s.sureth us, innumerable records, histories, and testimonies evince in all ages, times, places, and [1136]all travellers besides; in the West Indies and our northern climes, _Nihil familiarius quam in agris et urbibus spiritus videre, audire qui vetent, jubeant_, &c. Hieronymus _vita Pauli_, Basil _ser. 40_, Nicephorus, Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomenus, [1137]Jacobus Boissardus in his tract _de spirituum apparitionibus_, Petrus Loyerus _l. de spectris_, Wierus _l. 1._ have infinite variety of such examples of apparitions of spirits, for him to read that farther doubts, to his ample satisfaction. One alone I will briefly insert. A n.o.bleman in Germany was sent amba.s.sador to the King of Sweden (for his name, the time, and such circ.u.mstances, I refer you to Boissardus, mine [1138]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 sine omnium admiratione_, he found to be true; and so believed that ever after, which before he doubted of. Cardan, _l. 19. de subtil_, relates of his father, Facius Cardan, that after the accustomed solemnities, _An._ 1491, 13 August, he conjured up seven devils, in Greek apparel, about forty years of age, some ruddy 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 (700 or 800 [1139]years); they did as much excel men in dignity as we do juments, and were as far excelled again of those that were above them; our [1140]governors and keepers they are moreover, which [1141]Plato in Critias delivered of old, and subordinate to one another, _Ut enim h.o.m.o homini sic daemon daemoni dominatur_, they rule themselves as well as us, and the spirits of the meaner sort had commonly such offices, as we make horse-keepers, 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 a 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 amongst 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, _Nihil magis cupientes_ (saith Lysius, _Phis. Stoicorum_) _quam adorationem hominum_. [1142]The same Author, Cardan, in his _Hyperchen_, out of the doctrine of Stoics, will have some of these _genii_ (for so he calls them) to be [1143]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 belike Tritemius calls _Ignios et sublunares, qui nunquam demergunt ad inferiora, aut vix ullum habent in terris commercium_: [1144]"Generally they far excel men in worth, as a man the meanest worm; though some of them are inferior to those of their own rank in worth, as the blackguard in a prince's court, and to men again, as some degenerate, base, rational creatures, are excelled of brute beasts."

That they are mortal, besides these testimonies of Cardan, Martia.n.u.s, &c., many other divines and philosophers hold, _post prolixum tempus moriuntur omnes_; The [1145]Platonists, and some Rabbins, Porphyrius and Plutarch, as appears by that relation of Thamus: [1146]"The great G.o.d Pan is dead; Apollo Pythius ceased; and so the rest." St. Hierome, 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. [1147]Paracelsus of our late writers stiffly maintains that they are mortal, live and die as other creatures do.

Zozimus, _l. 2_, farther adds, that religion and policy dies and alters with them. The [1148]Gentiles' G.o.ds, he saith, were expelled by Constantine, and together with them. _Imperii Romani majestas, et fortuna interiit, et profligata est_; The fortune and majesty of the Roman Empire decayed and vanished, as that heathen in [1149]Minutius formerly bragged, when the Jews were overcome by the Romans, the Jew's G.o.d was likewise captivated by that of Rome; and Rabsakeh to the Israelites, no G.o.d should deliver them out of the hands of the a.s.syrians. But these paradoxes of their power, corporeity, mortality, taking of shapes, transposing bodies, and carnal copulations, are sufficiently confuted by Zanch. _c. 10, l. 4._ Pererius in his comment, and Tostatus questions on the 6th of Gen. Th.

Aquin., St. Austin, Wierus, Th. Erastus, Delrio, _tom. 2, l. 2, quaest.

29_; Sebastian Michaelis, _c. 2, de spiritibus_, D. Reinolds _Lect. 47._ 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 [1150]_Illusoriae, et praestigiatrices transformationes_, _omnif. mag. lib. 4. cap. 4_, mere illusions and cozenings, like that tale of _Pasetis obulus_ in Suidas, or that of Autolicus, Mercury's son, that dwelt in Parna.s.sus, who got so much treasure by cozenage and stealth. His father Mercury, because he could leave him no wealth, taught him many fine tricks to get means, [1151]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, _hoc astu maximam praedam est adsecutus_. 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 [1152]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 homine scientior_ (more knowing than any man), as [1153]Cicogna maintains out of others. They know the virtues of herbs, plants, stones, minerals, &c.; 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: _Dant se coloribus_ (as [1154] Austin hath it) _accommodant se figuris, adhaerent sonis, subjiciunt se odoribus, infundunt se saporibus, omnes sensus etiam ipsam intelligentiam daemones fallunt_, they deceive all our senses, even our understanding itself at once. [1155]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. [1156]When Charles the Great intended to make a channel betwixt the Rhine and the Danube, look what his workmen did in the day, these spirits flung down in the night, _Ut conatu Rex desisteret, pervicere_. Such feats can they do. But that which Bodine, _l. 4, Theat. nat._ thinks (following Tyrius belike, and the Platonists,) they can tell the secrets of a man's heart, _aut cogitationes hominum_, is most false; his reasons are weak, and sufficiently confuted by Zanch. _lib.

4, cap. 9._ Hierom. _lib. 2, com. in Mat. ad cap. 15_, Athanasius _quaest.

27, ad Antiochum Principem_, and others.

_Orders_.] As for those orders of good and bad devils, which the Platonists hold, is altogether erroneous, and those Ethnics _boni et mali Genii_, are to be exploded: these heathen writers agree not in this point among themselves, as Dandinus notes, _An sint [1157]mali non conveniunt_, 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; _nec piscatorem piscis amare potest_, &c. But Jamblichus, Psellus, Plutarch, and most Platonists acknowledge bad, _et ab eorum maleficiis cavendum_, 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 h.e.l.l. [1158]That which [1159]Apuleius, Xenophon, and Plato contend of Socrates Daemonium, is most absurd: That which Plotinus of his, that he had likewise _Deum pro Daemonio_; and that which Porphyry concludes of them all in general, if they be neglected in their sacrifice they are angry; nay more, as Cardan in his _Hipperchen_ will, they feed on men's souls, _Elementa sunt plantis elementum, animalibus plantae, hominibus animalia, erunt et homines aliis, non autem diis, nimis enim remota est eorum natura a nostra, quapropter daemonibus_: and so belike that we have so many battles fought in all ages, countries, is to make them a feast, and their sole delight: but to return to that I said before, if displeased they fret and chafe, (for they feed belike on the souls of beasts, as we do on their bodies) and send many plagues amongst us; but if pleased, then they do much good; is as vain as the rest and confuted by Austin, _l. 9. c. 8. de Civ. Dei_. Euseb. _l. 4. praepar. Evang. c. 6._ and others. Yet thus much I find, that our schoolmen and other [1160]divines make nine kinds of bad spirits, as Dionysius hath done of angels. In the first rank are those false G.o.ds of the gentiles, which were adored heretofore in several idols, and gave oracles at Delphos, and elsewhere; whose prince is Beelzebub. The second rank is of liars and equivocators, as Apollo, Pythius, and the like. The third are those vessels of anger, inventors of all mischief; as that Theutus in Plato; Esay calls them [1161]vessels of fury; their prince is Belial. The fourth are malicious revenging devils; and their prince is Asmodaeus. The fifth kind are cozeners, such as belong to magicians and witches; their prince is Satan.

The sixth are those aerial devils that [1162]corrupt the air and cause plagues, thunders, fires, &c.; spoken of in the Apocalypse, and Paul to the Ephesians names them the princes of the air; Meresin 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 calumniating devil, whom the Greeks call [Greek: Diabolos], that drives men to despair. The ninth are those tempters in several kinds, and their prince is Mammon. Psellus makes six kinds, yet none above the Moon: Wierus in his _Pseudo-monarchia Daemonis_, out of an old book, makes many more divisions and subordinations, with their several names, numbers, offices, &c., but Gazaeus cited by [1163]Lipsius will have all places full of angels, spirits, and devils, above and beneath the Moon, [1164]ethereal and aerial, which Austin cites out of Varro _l. 7. de Civ.

Dei, c. 6._ "The celestial devils above, and aerial beneath," or, as some will, G.o.ds above, Semi-dei or half G.o.ds 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 are Manes, Lemures, Lamiae, &c. [1165]They will have no place but all full of spirits, devils, or some other inhabitants; _Plenum Caelum, aer, aqua terra, et omnia sub terra_, saith [1166]Gazaeus; though Anthony Rusca in his book _de Inferno, lib. v. cap. 7._ would confine them to the middle region, yet they will have them everywhere. "Not so much as a hair-breadth empty in heaven, earth, 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 [1167]Paracelsus stiffly maintains, and that they have every one their several chaos, others will have infinite worlds, and each world his peculiar spirits, G.o.ds, angels, and devils to govern and punish it.

"Singula [1168]nonnulli credunt quoque sidera posse Dici orbes, terramque appellant sidus opac.u.m, Cui minimus divum praesit."------

"Some persons believe each star to be a world, and this earth an opaque star, over which the least of the G.o.ds presides."

[1169]Gregorius Tholsa.n.u.s makes seven kinds of ethereal spirits or angels, according to the number of the seven planets, Saturnine, Jovial, Martial, of which Cardan discourseth _lib. 20. de subtil._ he calls them _substantias primas, Olympicos daemones Tritemius, qui praesunt Zodiaco_, &c., and will have them to be good angels above, devils beneath the Moon, their several names and offices he there sets down, and which Dionysius of Angels, will have several spirits for several countries, men, offices, &c., which live about them, and as so many a.s.sisting powers cause their operations, will have in a word, innumerable, as many of them as there be stars in the skies. [1170]Marcilius Ficinus seems to second this opinion, out of Plato, or from himself, I know not, (still ruling their inferiors, as they do those under them again, all subordinate, and the nearest to the earth rule us, whom we subdivide into good and bad angels, call G.o.ds 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, _quem mori potius quam mentiri voluisse scribit_, whom he says would rather die than tell a falsehood, out of Socrates' authority alone, made nine kinds of them: which opinion belike Socrates took from Pythagoras, and he from Trismegistus, he from Zoroastes, first G.o.d, second idea, 3. Intelligences, 4. Arch-Angels, 5. Angels, 6. Devils, 7. Heroes, 8. Princ.i.p.alities, 9. Princes: of which some were absolutely good, as G.o.ds, some bad, some indifferent _inter deos et homines_, as heroes and daemons, which ruled men, and were called genii, or as [1171]Proclus and Jamblichus will, the middle betwixt G.o.d and men.

Princ.i.p.alities and princes, which commanded and swayed kings and countries; and had several places in the spheres perhaps, for as every sphere is higher, so hath it more excellent inhabitants: which belike is that Galilaeus a Galileo and Kepler aims at in his nuncio Syderio, when he will have [1172]Saturnine and Jovial inhabitants: and which Tycho Brahe doth in some sort touch or insinuate in one of his epistles: but these things [1173]Zanchius justly explodes, _cap. 3. lib. 4._ P. Martyr, _in 4. Sam.

28._

So that according to these men the number of ethereal spirits must needs be infinite: for if that be true that some of our mathematicians say: if a stone could fall from the starry heaven, or eighth sphere, and should pa.s.s every hour an hundred miles, it would be 65 years, or more, before it would come to ground, by reason of the great distance of heaven from earth, which contains as some say 170 millions 800 miles, besides those other heavens, whether they be crystalline or watery which Maginus adds, which peradventure holds as much more, how many such spirits may it contain? And yet for all this [1174]Thomas Albertus, and most hold that there be far more angels than devils.

_Sublunary devils, and their kinds._] But be they more or less, _Quod supra nos nihil ad nos_ (what is beyond our comprehension does not concern us).

Howsoever as Martia.n.u.s foolishly supposeth, _Aetherii Daemones non curant res humanas_, they care not for us, do not attend our actions, or look for us, those ethereal spirits have other worlds to reign in belike or business to follow. We are only now to speak in brief of these sublunary spirits or devils: for the rest, our divines determine that the devil had no power over stars, or heavens; [1175]_Carminibus coelo possunt deducere lunam_, &C., (by their charms (verses) they can seduce the moon from the heavens).

Those are poetical fictions, and that they can [1176]_sistere aquam fluviis, et vertere sidera retro_, &c., (stop rivers and turn the stars backward in their courses) as Canadia in Horace, 'tis all false. [1177]

They are confined until the day of judgment to this sublunary world, and can work no farther than the four elements, and as G.o.d permits them.

Wherefore of these sublunary devils, though others divide them otherwise according to their several places and offices, Psellus makes six kinds, fiery, aerial, terrestrial, watery, and subterranean devils, besides those fairies, satyrs, nymphs, &c.

Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly work by blazing stars, fire-drakes, or _ignes fatui_; which lead men often _in flumina aut praecipitia_, saith Bodine, _lib. 2. Theat. Naturae, fol. 221._ _Quos inquit arcere si volunt viatores, clara voce Deum appellare aut p.r.o.nam facie terram contingente adorare oportet, et hoc amuletum majoribus nostris acceptum ferre debemus_, &c., (whom if travellers wish to keep off they must p.r.o.nounce the name of G.o.d with a clear voice, or adore him with their faces in contact with the ground, &c.); likewise they counterfeit suns and moons, stars oftentimes, and sit on s.h.i.+p masts: _In navigiorum summitatibus visuntur_; and are called _dioscuri_, as Eusebius _l. contra Philosophos, c. xlviii_. informeth us, out of the authority of Zenophanes; or little clouds, _ad motum nescio quem volantes_; which never appear, saith Cardan, 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; Radzivilius, the Polonian duke, calls this apparition, _Sancti Germani sidus_; and saith moreover that he saw the same after in a storm, as he was sailing, 1582, from Alexandria to Rhodes.

[1178]Our stories are full of such apparitions in all kinds. Some think they keep their residence in that Hecla, a mountain in Iceland, Aetna in Sicily, Lipari, Vesuvius, &c. These devils were wors.h.i.+pped heretofore by that superst.i.tious Pyromanteia [1179]and the like.

Aerial spirits or devils, are such as keep quarter most part in the [1180]

air, cause many tempests, thunder, and lightnings, tear oaks, fire steeples, houses, strike men and beasts, make it rain stones, as in Livy's time, wool, frogs, &c. Counterfeit armies in the air, strange noises, swords, &c., as at Vienna before the coming of the Turks, and many times in Rome, as Scheretzius _l. de spect. c. 1. part 1._ Lavater _de spect. part.

1. c. 17._ Julius Obsequens, an old Roman, in his book of prodigies, _ab urb. cond._ 505. [1181]Machiavel hath ill.u.s.trated by many examples, and Josephus, in his book _de bello Judaico_, before the destruction of Jerusalem. All which Guil. Postellus, in his first book, _c. 7, de orbis concordia_, useth as an effectual 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 Bodine's mind, _Theat. Nat. l. 2._ they are more often caused by those aerial devils, in their several quarters; for _Tempestatibus se ingerunt_, saith [1182] Rich. Argentine; as when a desperate man makes away with himself, which by hanging or drowning they frequently do, as Komma.n.u.s observes, _de mirac. mort. part. 7, c. 76._ _tripudium agentes_, dancing and rejoicing at the death of a sinner. These can corrupt the air, and cause plagues, sickness, storms, s.h.i.+pwrecks, fires, inundations. At Mons Draconis in Italy, there is a most memorable example in [1183]Jovia.n.u.s Ponta.n.u.s: and nothing so familiar (if we may believe those relations of Saxo Grammaticus, Olaus Magnus, Damia.n.u.s A. Goes) 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 Tartars.

These kind of devils are much [1184]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 tyrannise over, and deceive those Ethnics and Indians, being adored and wors.h.i.+pped for [1185]

G.o.ds. For the Gentiles' G.o.ds were devils (as [1186]Trismegistus 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 [1187]

Pictorius) "under the name of saints." These are they which Cardan thinks desire so much carnal copulation with witches (Incubi and Succubi), 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), [1188]an aerial devil, bound to him for twenty and eight years. As Agrippa'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 rings, &c. Jannes and Jambres did many things of old by their help; Simon Magus, Cinops, Apollonius Tianeus, Jamblichus, and Tritemius of late, that showed Maximilian the emperor his wife, after she was dead; _Et verrucam in collo ejus_ (saith [1189]G.o.dolman) so much as the wart in her neck. Delrio, _lib. 2._ hath divers examples of their feats: Cicogna, _lib.

3. cap. 3._ and Wierus in his book _de praestig. daemonum_. Boissardus _de magis et veneficis_.

Water-devils are those Naiads or water nymphs which have been heretofore conversant about waters and rivers. The water (as Paracelsus thinks) is their chaos, wherein they live; some call them fairies, and say that Habundia is their queen; these cause inundations, many times s.h.i.+pwrecks, and deceive men divers ways, as Succuba, or otherwise, appearing most part (saith Tritemius) in women's shapes. [1190]Paracelsus hath 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 Aegeria, with whom Numa was so familiar, Diana, Ceres, &c. [1191]Olaus Magnus hath a long narration of one Hotherus, 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, heretofore, they did use to sacrifice, by that [Greek: hydromanteia], or divination by waters.

Terrestrial devils are those [1192]Lares, genii, fauns, satyrs, [1193]

wood-nymphs, foliots, fairies, Robin Goodfellows, trulli, &c., 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, Bel amongst the Babylonians, Astartes amongst the Sidonians, Baal amongst the Samaritans, Isis and Osiris amongst the Egyptians, &c.; some put our [1194]fairies into this rank, which have been in former times adored with much superst.i.tion, with sweeping their houses, and setting of a pail of clean water, good victuals, 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 [1195]