The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 16

Lavater thinks with Tritemius, and as [1196]Olaus Magnus adds, leave that green circle, which we commonly find in plain fields, which others hold to proceed from a meteor falling, or some accidental rankness of the ground, so nature sports herself; they are sometimes seen by old women and children. Hierom. Pauli, in his description of the city of Bercino in Spain, relates how they have been familiarly seen near that town, about fountains and hills; _Nonnunquam_ (saith Tritemius) _in sua latibula montium simpliciores homines ducant, stupenda mirantibus ostentes miracula, nolarum sonitus, spectacula_, &c. [1197]Giraldus Cambrensis gives instance in a monk of Wales that was so deluded. [1198]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 Goodfellows, that would in those superst.i.tious 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 isles of Lipari, in former ages, and have been often seen and heard. [1199]Tholosa.n.u.s calls them _trullos_ and Getulos, and saith, that in his days they were common in many places of France.

Dithmarus Bleskenius, 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 crudel. daemon._ affirms as much, that these trolli or telchines are very common in Norway, "and [1200]

seen to do drudgery work;" to draw water, saith Wierus, _lib. 1. cap. 22_, dress meat, or any such thing. Another sort of these there are, which frequent forlorn [1201]houses, which the Italians call foliots, most part innoxious, [1202]Cardan holds; "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 platters, stools, chests, sometimes appear in the likeness of hares, crows, black dogs," &c. of which read [1203]Pet Thyraeus the Jesuit, in his Tract, _de locis infestis, part. 1. et cap. 4_, who will have them to be devils or the souls of d.a.m.ned men that seek revenge, or else souls out of purgatory that seek ease; for such examples peruse [1204]

Sigismundus Scheretzius, _lib. de spectris, part 1. c. 1._ which he saith he took out of Luther most part; there be many instances. [1205]Plinius Secundus remembers such a house at Athens, which Athenodorus the philosopher hired, which no man durst inhabit for fear of devils. Austin, _de Civ. Dei. lib. 22, cap. 1._ relates as much of Hesperius the Tribune's house, at Zubeda, near their city of Hippos, vexed with evil spirits, to his great hindrance, _c.u.m afflictione animalium et servorum suorum_. Many such instances are to be read in Niderius Formicar, _lib. 5. cap. xii. 3._ &c. Whether I may call these Zim and Ochim, which Isaiah, cap. xiii. 21.

speaks of, I make a doubt. See more of these in the said Scheretz. _lib. 1.

de spect. cap. 4._ he is full of examples. These kind of devils many times appear to men, and affright them out of their wits, sometimes walking at [1206]noonday, sometimes at nights, counterfeiting dead men's ghosts, as that of Caligula, which (saith Suetonius) was seen to walk in Lavinia's garden, where his body was buried, spirits haunted, and the house where he died, [1207]_Nulla nox sine terrore transacta, donec incendio consumpta_; every night this happened, there was no quietness, till the house was burned. About Hecla, in Iceland, ghosts commonly walk, _animas mortuorum simulantes_, saith Joh. Anan, _lib. 3. de nat. daem._ Olaus. _lib. 2. cap.

2._ Natal Tallopid. _lib. de apparit. spir._ Kornmannus _de mirac. mort.

part. 1. cap. 44._ such sights are frequently seen _circa sepulchra et monasteria_, saith Lavat. _lib. 1. cap. 19._ in monasteries and about churchyards, _loca paludinosa, ampla aedificia, solitaria, et caede hominum notata_, &c. (marshes, great buildings, solitary places, or remarkable as the scene of some murder.) Thyreus adds, _ubi gravius peccatum est commissum, impii, pauperum oppressores et nequiter insignes habitant_ (where some very heinous crime was committed, there the impious and infamous generally dwell). These spirits often foretell men's deaths by several signs, as knocking, groanings, &c. [1208]though Rich. Argentine, _c. 18. de praestigiis daemonum_, will ascribe these predictions to good angels, out of the authority of Ficinus and others; _prodigia in obitu principum saepius contingunt_, &c. (prodigies frequently occur at the deaths of ill.u.s.trious men), as in the Lateran church in [1209]Rome, the popes' deaths 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 Arion with his harp, appears, and makes excellent music, like those blocks in Ches.h.i.+re, which (they say) presage death to the master of the family; or that [1210]oak in Lanthadran 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 divers shapes, as c.o.c.ks, crows, owls, which often hover about sick men's chambers, _vel quia morientium foeditatem sentiunt_, as [1211]Baracellus conjectures, _et ideo super tectum infirmorum crocitant_, because they smell a corse; or for that (as [1212]Bernardinus de Bustis thinketh) G.o.d 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 Plutarch) the crows made a mighty noise about him, _tumultuose perstrepentes_, they pulled the pillow from under his head. Rob. Gaguinus, _hist. Franc. lib.

8_, telleth such another wonderful story at the death of Johannes de Monteforti, a French lord, _anno_ 1345, _tanta corvorum mult.i.tudo aedibus morientis insedit, quantam esse in Gallia nemo judica.s.set_ (a mult.i.tude 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 Lavater, Thyreus _de locis infestis, part 3, cap. 58._ Pictorius, Delrio, Cicogna, _lib. 3, cap. 9._ Necromancers take upon them to raise and lay them at their pleasures: and so likewise, those which Mizaldus calls _ambulones_, that walk about midnight on great heaths and desert places, which (saith [1213]Lavater) "draw men out of the way, and lead them all night a byway, or quite bar them 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. Hieronym. Pauli, in his book of the hills of Spain, relates of a great [1214]mount in Cantabria, where such spectrums are to be seen; Lavater and Cicogna have 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 Ketellus in [1215]Nubrigensis), that had an especial grace to see devils, _Gratiam divinitus collatam_, and talk with them, _Et impavidus c.u.m spiritibus sermonem miscere_, 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. Olaus Magnus, _lib. 6, cap. 19_, make six kinds of them; some bigger, some less.

These (saith [1216]Munster) are commonly seen about mines 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. Georgius Agricola, in his book _de subterraneis animantibus, cap.

37_, reckons two more notable kinds of them, which he calls [1217]_getuli_ and _cobali_, 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, [1218]Cicogna avers 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, _cap. 11_, he gives many instances.

The last are conversant about the centre of the earth to torture the souls of d.a.m.ned men to the day of judgment; their egress and regress some suppose to be about Etna, Lipari, Mons Hecla in Iceland, Vesuvius, Terra del Fuego, &c., because many shrieks and fearful cries are continually heard thereabouts, and familiar apparitions of dead men, ghosts and goblins.

_Their Offices, Operations, Study_.] Thus the devil reigns, and in a thousand several shapes, "as a roaring lion still seeks whom he may devour," 1 Pet. v., by sea, land, air, as yet unconfined, though [1219]

some will have his proper place the air; all that s.p.a.ce between us and the moon for them that transgressed least, and h.e.l.l for the wickedest of them, _Hic velut in carcere ad finem mundi, tunc in loc.u.m funestiorum trudendi_, as Austin holds _de Civit. Dei, c. 22, lib. 14, cap. 3 et 23_; but be where he will, he rageth while he may to comfort himself, as [1220] Lactantius thinks, with other men's falls, he labours all he can to bring them into the same pit of perdition with him. For [1221]"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 [1222]Austin, "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, &c., errs, 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 G.o.d by curing of several diseases, _aegris sanitatem, et caecis luminis usum rest.i.tuendo_, as Austin declares, _lib. 10, de civit Dei, cap. 6_, as Apollo, Aesculapius, Isis, of old have done; divert plagues, a.s.sist them in wars, pretend their happiness, yet _nihil his impurius, scelestius, nihil humano generi infestius_, nothing so impure, nothing so pernicious, as may well appear by their tyrannical and b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifices of men to Saturn and Moloch, which are still in use among those barbarous Indians, their several deceits and cozenings to keep men in obedience, their false oracles, sacrifices, their superst.i.tious impositions of fasts, penury, &c. Heresies, superst.i.tious observations of meats, times, &c., by which they [1223] crucify the souls of mortal men, as shall be showed in our Treatise of Religious Melancholy.

_Modico adhuc tempore sinitur malignari_, as [1224] Bernard expresseth it, by G.o.d's permission he rageth a while, hereafter to be confined to h.e.l.l and darkness, "which is prepared for him and his angels," Mat. xxv.

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." [1225]"They govern provinces and kingdoms by oracles, auguries," dreams, rewards and punishments, prophecies, inspirations, sacrifices, and religious superst.i.tions, varied in as many forms as there be diversity of spirits; they send wars, plagues, peace, sickness, health, dearth, plenty, [1226]_Adstantes hic jam n.o.bis, spectantes, et arbitrantes_, &c. as appears by those histories of Thucydides, Livius, Dionysius Halicarna.s.sus, with many others that are full of their wonderful stratagems, and were therefore by those Roman and Greek commonwealths adored and wors.h.i.+pped for G.o.ds with prayers and sacrifices, &c. [1227]In a word, _Nihil magis quaerunt quam metum et admirationem hominum_; [1228]and as another hath it, _Dici non potest, quam impotenti ardore in homines dominium, et Divinos cultus maligni spiritus affectent_. [1229]Tritemius in his book _de septem secundis_, a.s.signs names to such angels as are governors of particular provinces, by what authority I know not, and gives them several jurisdictions. Asclepiades a Grecian, Rabbi Achiba the Jew, Abraham Avenezra, and Rabbi Azariel, Arabians, (as I find them cited by [1230]Cicogna) farther add, that they are not our governors only, _Sed ex eorum concordia et discordia, boni et mali affectus promanant_, but as they agree, so do we and our princes, or disagree; stand or fall. Juno was a bitter enemy to Troy, Apollo a good friend, Jupiter indifferent, _Aequa Venus Teucris, Pallas iniqua fuit_; some are for us still, some against us, _Premente Deo, fert Deus alter opem_. Religion, policy, public and private quarrels, wars are procured by them, and they are [1231]delighted perhaps to see men fight, as men are with c.o.c.ks, bulls and dogs, bears, &c., plagues, dearths depend on them, our _bene_ and _male esse_, and almost all our other peculiar actions, (for as Anthony Rusea contends, _lib. 5, cap.

18_, every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular, all his life long, which Jamblichus calls _daemonem_,) preferments, losses, weddings, deaths, rewards and punishments, and as [1232]Proclus will, all offices whatsoever, _alii genetricem, alii opificem potestatem habent_, &c.

and several names they give them according to their offices, as Lares, Indegites, Praest.i.tes, &c. When the Arcades in that battle at Cheronae, which was fought against King Philip for the liberty of Greece, had deceitfully carried themselves, long after, in the very same place, _Diis Graeciae, ultoribus_ (saith 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_ favour or dislike us: _Saturni non conveniunt Jovialibus_, &c. He that is Saturninus shall never likely be preferred. [1233]That base fellows are often advanced, undeserving Gnathoes, 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 [1234]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 _familiarem daemonem_ to inform him, as Numa, Socrates, and many such, as Cardan ill.u.s.trates, _cap.

128_, _Arcanis prudentiae civilis_, [1235] _Speciali siquidem gratia, se a Deo donari a.s.serunt magi, a Geniis caelestibus instrui, ab iis doceri_. But these are most erroneous paradoxes, _ineptae et fabulosae nugae_, rejected by our divines and Christian churches. 'Tis true they have, by G.o.d's permission, power over us, and we find by experience, that they can [1236]hurt not our fields only, cattle, goods, but our bodies and minds. At Hammel in Saxony, _An._ 1484. 20 _Junii_, the devil, in likeness of a pied piper, carried away 130 children that were never after seen. Many times men are [1237]affrighted out of their wits, carried away quite, as Scheretzius ill.u.s.trates, _lib. 1, c. iv._, and severally molested by his means, Plotinus the Platonist, _lib. 14, advers. Gnos._ laughs them to scorn, that hold the devil or spirits can cause any such diseases. Many think he can work upon the body, but not upon the mind. But experience p.r.o.nounceth otherwise, that he can work both upon body and mind. Tertullian is of this opinion, _c. 22._ [1238]"That he can cause both sickness and health," and that secretly. [1239]Taurellus adds "by clancular poisons he can infect the bodies, and hinder the operations of the bowels, though we perceive it not, closely creeping into them," saith [1240]Lipsius, and so crucify our souls: _Et nociva melancholia furiosos efficit_. For being a spiritual body, he struggles with our spirits, saith Rogers, and suggests (according to [1241]Cardan, _verba sine voce, species sine visu_, envy, l.u.s.t, anger, &c.) as he sees men inclined.

The manner how he performs it, Biarmannus in his Oration against Bodine, sufficiently declares. [1242]"He begins first with the phantasy, and moves that so strongly, that no reason is able to resist." Now the phantasy 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.

_Quibusdam medicorum visum_, saith [1243]Avicenna, _quod Melancholia contingat a daemonio_. Of the same mind is Psellus and Rhasis the Arab.

_lib. 1. Tract. 9. Cont_. [1244]"That this disease proceeds especially from the devil, and from him alone." Arcula.n.u.s, _cap. 6. in 9. Rhasis_, Aelia.n.u.s Montaltus, in his _9. cap_. Daniel Sennertus, _lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 11._ confirm as much, that the devil can cause this disease; by reason many times that the parties affected prophesy, speak strange language, but _non sine interventu humoris_, not without the humour, as he interprets himself; no more doth Avicenna, _si contingat a daemonio, sufficit n.o.bis ut convertat complexionem ad choleram nigram, et sit causa ejus propinqua cholera nigra_; the immediate cause is choler adust, which [1245]

Pomponatius likewise labours to make good: Galgerandus of Mantua, a famous physician, so cured a demoniacal woman in his time, that spake all languages, by purging black choler, and thereupon belike 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, &c., mingling himself among these humours. This is that which Tertullian avers, _Corporibus infligunt acerbos casus, animaeque repentinos, membra distorquent, occulte repentes_, &c. and which Lemnius goes about to prove, _Immiscent se mali Genii pravis humoribus, atque atrae, bili_, &c. And [1246]Jason Pratensis, "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 unclean spirits settled in our bodies, and now mixed with our melancholy humours, do 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. [1247] Agrippa and [1248]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; 'tis a difficult question. Delrio the Jesuit, _Tom. 3. lib.

6._ Springer and his colleague, _mall. malef_. Pet. Thyreus the Jesuit, _lib. de daemoniacis, de locis infestis, de Terrificationibus nocturnis_, Hieronymus Mengus _Flagel. daem_. and others of that rank of pontifical writers, it seems, by their exorcisms and conjurations approve of it, having forged many stories to that purpose. A nun did eat a lettuce [1249]without grace, or signing it with the sign of the cross, and was instantly possessed. Durand. _lib. 6. Rationall. c. 86. numb. 8._ relates that he saw a wench possessed in Bononia 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, _Ne daemon ingredi ausit_, and exorcise all manner of meats, as being unclean or accursed otherwise, as Bellarmine defends.

Many such stories I find amongst pontifical writers, to prove their a.s.sertions, let them free their own credits; some few I will recite in this kind out of most approved physicians. Cornelius Gemma, _lib. 2. de nat.

mirac. c. 4._ relates of a young maid, called Katherine Gualter, a cooper's daughter, _an._ 1571. that had such strange pa.s.sions 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 vanished; she vomited some twenty-four pounds of fulsome stuff of all colours, twice a day for fourteen days; and after that she voided great b.a.l.l.s of hair, pieces of wood, pigeon's dung, parchment, goose dung, coals; and after them two pounds of pure blood, and then again coals and stones, or which some had inscriptions bigger than a walnut, some of them pieces of gla.s.s, bra.s.s, &c. besides paroxysms of laughing, weeping and ecstasies, &c.

_Et hoc (inquit) c.u.m horore vidi_, this I saw with horror. They could do no good on her by physic, but left her to the clergy. Marcellus Donatus, _lib.

2. c. 1. de med. mirab._ hath such another story of a country fellow, that had four knives in his belly, _Instar serrae dentatos_, 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 concludes, _Certe non alio quam daemonis astutia et dolo_, (could a.s.suredly only have been through the artifice of the devil). Langius, _Epist. med. lib. 1. Epist. 38._ hath many relations to this effect, and so hath Christophorus a Vega: Wierus, Skenkius, Scribanius, all agree that they are done by the subtlety and illusion of the devil. If you shall ask a reason of this, 'tis to exercise our patience; for as [1250]Tertullian holds, _Virtus non est virtus, nisi comparem habet aliquem, in quo superando vim suam ostendat_ 'tis to try us and our faith, 'tis for our offences, and for the punishment of our sins, by G.o.d's permission they do it, _Carnifices vindictae justae Dei_, as [1251]Tolosa.n.u.s styles them, Executioners of his will; or rather as David, Ps. 78. ver. 49. "He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, indignation, wrath, and vexation, by sending out of evil angels:" so did he afflict Job, Saul, the Lunatics and demoniacal persons whom Christ cured, Mat. iv. 8. Luke iv. 11. Luke xiii.

Mark ix. Tobit. viii. 3. &c. This, I say, happeneth for a punishment of sin, for their want of faith, incredulity, weakness, distrust, &c.

SUBSECT. III.--_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 l.u.s.t cause more mischief, _Multa enim mala non egisset daemon, nisi provocatus a sagis_, as [1252]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 infligeret_ (Erastus maintains) _si sagae quiescerent_; 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 Wierus, _lib. 3. cap. 53. de praestig. daem_. Austin Lerchemer a Dutch writer, Biarma.n.u.s, Ewichius, Euwaldus, our countryman Scot; with him in Horace,

"Somnia, terrores Magicos, miracula, sagas, Nocturnos Lemures, portentaque Thessala risu Excipiunt."------

"Say, can you laugh indignant at the schemes Of magic terrors, visionary dreams, Portentous wonders, witching imps of h.e.l.l, The nightly goblin, and enchanting spell?"

They laugh at all such stories; but on the contrary are most lawyers, divines, physicians, philosophers, Austin, Hemingius, Danaeus, Chytraeus, Zanchius, Aretius, &c. Delrio, Springer, [1253]Niderius, _lib. 5._ Fornicar. Guiatius, Bartolus, _consil. 6. tom. 1. Bodine, daemoniant. lib 2. cap. 8._ G.o.delman, Damhoderius, &c. Paracelsus, Erastus, Scribanius, Camerarius, &c. The parties by whom the devil deals, may be reduced to these two, such as command him in show at least, as conjurors, and magicians, whose detestable and horrid mysteries are contained in their book called [1254]Arbatell; _daemonis enim advocati praesto sunt, seque exorcismis et conjurationibus quasi cogi patiuntur, ut miserum magorum genus, in impietate detineant_. Or such as are commanded, as witches, that deal _ex parte implicite_, or _explicite_, as the [1255]king hath well defined; many subdivisions there are, and many several species of sorcerers, witches, enchanters, charmers, &c. They have been tolerated heretofore some of them; and magic hath been publicly professed in former times, in [1256]Salamanca, [1257]Krakow, and other places, though after censured by several [1258]Universities, and now generally contradicted, though practised by some still, maintained and excused, _Tanquam res secreta quae non nisi viris magnis et peculiari beneficio de Coelo instructis communicatur_ (I use [1259]Boesartus his words) and so far approved by some princes, _Ut nihil ausi aggredi in politicis, in sacris, in consiliis, sine eorum arbitrio_; they consult still with them, and dare indeed do nothing without their advice. Nero and Heliogabalus, Maxentius, and Julia.n.u.s Apostata, were never so much addicted to magic of old, as some of our modern princes and popes themselves are nowadays. Erricus, King of Sweden, had an [1260]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 would, insomuch 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 philters; [1261]_Turpes amores conciliare_, enforce love, tell any man where his friends are, about what employed, though in the most remote places; and if they will, [1262]"bring their sweethearts to them by night, upon a goat's back flying in the air." Sigismund Scheretzius, _part. 1.

cap. 9. de spect._ reports confidently, that he conferred with sundry such, that had 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, [1263]barren, men and women unapt and unable, married and unmarried, fifty several ways, saith Bodine, _lib. 2. c. 2._ fly in the air, meet when and where they will, as Cicogna proves, and Lavat. _de spec. part. 2. c. 17._ "steal young children out of their cradles, _ministerio daemonum_, and put deformed in their rooms, which we call changelings," saith [1264]Scheretzius, _part. 1. c. 6._ make men victorious, fortunate, eloquent; and therefore in those ancient monomachies and combats they were searched of old, [1265]they had no magical charms; they can make [1266]stick frees, such as shall endure a rapier's point, musket shot, and never be wounded: of which read more in Boissardus, _cap. 6. de Magia_, the manner of the adjuration, and by whom 'tis made, where and how to be used _in expeditionibus bellicis, praeliis, duellis_, &c., with many peculiar instances and examples; they can walk in fiery furnaces, make men feel no pain on the rack, _aut alias torturas sentire_; they can stanch blood, [1267]represent dead men's shapes, alter and turn themselves and others into several forms, at their pleasures.

[1268]Agaberta, a famous witch in Lapland, would do as much publicly to all spectators, _Modo Pusilla, modo a.n.u.s, modo procera ut quercus, modo vacca, avis, coluber_, &c. Now young, now old, high, low, like a cow, like a bird, a snake, and what not? She could represent to others what forms they most desired to see, show them friends absent, reveal secrets, _maxima omnium admiratione_, &c. And yet for all this subtlety of theirs, as Lipsius well observes, _Physiolog. Stoicor. lib. 1. cap. 17._ neither these magicians nor devils themselves can take away gold or letters out of mine or Cra.s.sus'

chest, _et Clientelis suis largiri_, for they are base, poor, contemptible fellows most part; as [1269]Bodine notes, they can do nothing _in Judic.u.m decreta aut poenas, in regum concilia vel arcana, nihil in rem nummariam aut thesauros_, they cannot give money to their clients, alter judges'

decrees, or councils of kings, these _minuti Genii_ cannot do it, _altiores Genii hoc sibi adservarunt_, the higher powers reserve these things to themselves. Now and then peradventure there may be some more famous magicians like Simon Magus, [1270]Apollonius Tyaneus, Pasetes, Jamblichus, [1271]Odo de Stellis, that for a time can build castles in the air, represent armies, &c., as they are [1272]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 _raro aut nunquam_ such impostors 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 this of [1273]melancholy amongst the rest. Paracelsus, _Tom. 4. de morbis amentium, Tract. 1._ in express words affirms; _Multi fascinantur in melancholiam_, many are bewitched into melancholy, out of his experience.

The same saith Danaeus, _lib. 3. de sortiariis_. _Vidi, inquit, qui Melancholicos morbos gravissimos induxerunt_: I have seen those that have caused melancholy in the most grievous manner, [1274]dried up women's paps, cured gout, palsy; this and apoplexy, falling sickness, which no physic could help, _solu tactu_, by touch alone. Ruland in his _3 Cent. Cura 91._ gives an instance of one David Helde, a young man, who by eating cakes which a witch gave him, _mox delirare coepit_, began to dote on a sudden, and was instantly mad: F. H. D. in [1275]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 de Saxonia, and others. The means by which they work are usually charms, images, as that in Hector Boethius of King Duffe; characters stamped of sundry metals, and at such and such constellations, knots, amulets, words, philters, &c., which generally make the parties affected, melancholy; as [1276]Monavius discourseth at large in an epistle of his to Acolsius, giving instance in a Bohemian baron that was so troubled by a philter 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 fideles inde magos_ (saith [1277]Libanius) _in officio retineat, tum in consortium malefactorum vocet._

SUBSECT. IV.--_Stars a cause. Signs from Physiognomy, Metoposcopy, Chiromancy_.

Natural causes are either primary and universal, or secondary and more particular. Primary causes are the heavens, planets, stars, &c., by their influence (as our astrologers hold) producing this and such like effects. I will not here stand to discuss _obiter_, whether stars be causes, or signs; or to apologise for judical astrology. If either s.e.xtus Empericus, Picus Mirandula, s.e.xtus ab Heminga, Pererius, Erastus, Chambers, &c., have so far prevailed with any man, that he will attribute no virtue at all to the heavens, or to sun, or moon, more than he doth to their signs at an innkeeper's post, or tradesman's shop, or generally condemn all such astrological aphorisms approved by experience: I refer him to Bellantius, Pirova.n.u.s, Marascallerus, Goclenius, Sir Christopher Heidon, &c. If thou shalt ask me what I think, I must answer, _nam et doctis hisce erroribus versatus sum_, (for I am conversant with these learned errors,) they do incline, but not compel; no necessity at all: [1278]_agunt non cogunt_: and so gently incline, that a wise man may resist them; _sapiens dominabitur astris_: they rule us, but G.o.d rules them. All this (methinks) [1279]Joh.

de Indagine hath comprised in brief, _Quaeris a me quantum in n.o.bis operantur astra_? &c. "Wilt thou know how far the stars work upon us? I say they do but incline, and that so gently, that if we will be ruled by reason, they have no power over us; but if we follow our own nature, and be led by sense, they do as much in us as in brute beasts, and we are no better." So that, I hope, I may justly conclude with [1280]Cajetan, _Coelum est vehiculum divinae virtutis_, &c., that the heaven is G.o.d's instrument, by mediation of which he governs and disposeth these elementary bodies; or a great book, whose letters are the stars, (as one calls it,) wherein are written many strange things for such as can read, [1281]"or an excellent harp, made by an eminent workman, on which, he that can but play, will make most admirable music." But to the purpose.

[1282]Paracelsus is of opinion, "that a physician without the knowledge of stars can neither understand the cause or cure of any disease, either of this or gout, not so much as toothache; except he see the peculiar geniture and scheme of the party effected." And for this proper malady, he will have the princ.i.p.al and primary cause of it proceed from the heaven, ascribing more to stars than humours, [1283]"and that the constellation alone many times produceth melancholy, all other causes set apart." He gives instance in lunatic persons, that are deprived of their wits by the moon's motion; and in another place refers all to the ascendant, and will have the true and chief cause of it to be sought from the stars. Neither is it his opinion only, but of many Galenists and philosophers, though they do not so peremptorily maintain as much. "This variety of melancholy symptoms proceeds from the stars," saith [1284]Melancthon: the most generous melancholy, as that of Augustus, comes from the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Libra: the bad, as that of Catiline's, from the meeting of Saturn and the moon in Scorpio. Jovia.n.u.s Ponta.n.u.s, in his tenth book, and thirteenth chapter _de rebus coelestibus_, discourseth to this purpose at large, _Ex atra bile varii generantur morbi_, &c., [1285]"many diseases proceed from black choler, as it shall be hot or cold; and though it be cold in its own nature, yet it is apt to be heated, as water may be made to boil, and burn as bad as fire; or made cold as ice: and thence proceed such variety of symptoms, some mad, some solitary, some laugh, some rage," &c.

The cause of all which intemperance he will have chiefly and primarily proceed from the heavens, [1286]"from the position of Mars, Saturn, and Mercury." His aphorisms be these, [1287]"Mercury in any geniture, if he shall be found in Virgo, or Pisces his opposite sign, and that in the horoscope, irradiated by those quartile aspects of Saturn or Mars, the child shall be mad or melancholy." Again, [1288]"He that shall have Saturn and Mars, the one culminating, the other in the fourth house, when he shall be born, shall be melancholy, of which he shall be cured in time, if Mercury behold them. [1289]If the moon be in conjunction or opposition at the birth time with the sun, Saturn or Mars, or in a quartile aspect with them," (_e malo coeli loco_, Leovitius adds,) "many diseases are signified, especially the head and brain is like to be misaffected with pernicious humours, to be melancholy, lunatic, or mad," Cardan adds, _quarta luna natos_, eclipses, earthquakes. Garcaeus and Leovitius will have the chief judgment to be taken from the lord of the geniture, or where there is an aspect between the moon and Mercury, and neither behold the horoscope, or Saturn and Mars shall be lord of the present conjunction or opposition in Sagittarius or Pisces, of the sun or moon, such persons are commonly epileptic, dote, demoniacal, melancholy: but see more of these aphorisms in the above-named Ponta.n.u.s. Garcaeus, _cap. 23. de Jud. genitur. Schoner.

lib. 1. cap. 8_, which he hath gathered out of [1290]Ptolemy, Albubater, and some other Arabians, Junctine, Ranzovius, Lindhout, Origen, &c. But these men you will reject peradventure, as astrologers, and therefore partial judges; then hear the testimony of physicians, Galenists themselves. [1291]Carto confesseth the influence of stars to have a great hand to this peculiar disease, so doth Jason Pratensis, Lonicerius _praefat. de Apoplexia_, Ficinus, Fernelius, &c. [1292]P. Cnemander acknowledgeth the stars an universal cause, the particular from parents, and the use of the six non-natural things. Baptista Port. _mag. l. 1. c.

10, 12, 15_, will have them causes to every particular _individium_.

Instances and examples, to evince the truth of those aphorisms, are common amongst those astrologian treatises. Cardan, in his thirty-seventh geniture, gives instance in Matth. Bolognius. _Camerar. hor. natalit.

centur. 7. genit. 6. et 7._ of Daniel Gare, and others; but see Garcaeus, _cap. 33._ Luc. Gauricus, _Tract. 6. de Azemenis_, &c. The time of this melancholy is, when the significators of any geniture are directed according to art, as the hor: moon, hylech, &c. to the hostile beams or terms of [Symbol: Saturn] and [Symbol: Mars] especially, or any fixed star of their nature, or if [Symbol: Saturn] by his revolution or transitus, shall offend any of those radical promissors in the geniture.

Other signs there are taken from physiognomy, metoposcopy, chiromancy, which because Joh. de Indagine, and Rotman, the landgrave of Hesse his mathematician, not long since in his Chiromancy; Baptista Porta, in his celestial Physiognomy, have proved to hold great affinity with astrology, to satisfy the curious, I am the more willing to insert.

The general notions [1293]physiognomers give, be these; "black colour argues natural melancholy; so doth leanness, hirsuteness, broad veins, much hair on the brows," saith [1294]Gratanarolus, _cap. 7_, and a little head, out of Aristotle, high sanguine, red colour, shows head melancholy; they that stutter and are bald, will be soonest melancholy, (as Avicenna supposeth,) by reason of the dryness of their brains; but he that will know more of the several signs of humour and wits out of physiognomy, let him consult with old Adamantus and Polemus, that comment, or rather paraphrase upon Aristotle's Physiognomy, Baptista Porta's four pleasant books, Michael Scot _de secretis naturae_, John de Indagine, Montaltus, Antony Zara.

_anat. ingeniorum, sect. 1. memb. 13. et lib. 4._

Chiromancy hath these aphorisms to foretell melancholy, Tasneir. _lib. 5.

cap. 2_, who hath comprehended the sum of John de Indagine: Trica.s.sus, Corvinus, and others in his book, thus hath it; [1295]"The Saturnine line going from the rascetta through the hand, to Saturn's mount, and there intersected by certain little lines, argues melancholy; so if the vital and natural make an acute angle, Aphorism 100. The saturnine, hepatic, and natural lines, making a gross triangle in the hand, argue as much;" which Goclenius, _cap. 5. Chiros._ repeats verbatim out of him. In general they conclude all, that if Saturn's mount be full of many small lines and intersections, [1296]"such men are most part melancholy, miserable and full of disquietness, care and trouble, continually vexed with anxious and bitter thoughts, always sorrowful, fearful, suspicious; they delight in husbandry, buildings, pools, marshes, springs, woods, walks," &c. Thaddaeus Haggesius, in his _Metoposcopia_, hath certain aphorisms derived from Saturn's lines in the forehead, by which he collects a melancholy disposition; and [1297]Baptista Porta makes observations from those other parts of the body, as if a spot be over the spleen; [1298]"or in the nails; if it appear black, it signifieth much care, grief, contention, and melancholy;" the reason he refers to the humours, and gives instance in himself, that for seven years s.p.a.ce he had such black spots in his nails, and all that while was in perpetual lawsuits, controversies for his inheritance, fear, loss of honour, banishment, grief, care, &c. and when his miseries ended, the black spots vanished. Cardan, in his book _de libris propriis_, tells such a story of his own person, that a little before his son's death, he had a black spot, which appeared in one of his nails; and dilated itself as he came nearer to his end. But I am over tedious in these toys, which howsoever, in some men's too severe censures, they may be held absurd and ridiculous, I am the bolder to insert, as not borrowed from circ.u.mforanean rogues and gipsies, but out of the writings of worthy philosophers and physicians, yet living some of them, and religious professors in famous universities, who are able to patronise that which they have said, and vindicate themselves from all cavillers and ignorant persons.

SUBSECT. V.--_Old age a cause_.

Secondary peculiar causes efficient, so called in respect of the other precedent, are either _congenitae, internae, innatae_, as they term them, inward, innate, inbred; or else outward and advent.i.tious, which happen to us after we are born: congenite or born with us, are either natural, as old age, or _praeter naturam_ (as [1299]Fernelius calls it) that distemperature, which we have from our parent's seed, it being an hereditary disease. The first of these, which is natural to all, and which no man living can avoid, is [1300]old age, which being cold and dry, and of the same quality as melancholy is, must needs cause it, by diminution of spirits and substance, and increasing of adust humours; therefore [1301]

Melancthon avers out of Aristotle, as an undoubted truth, _Senes plerunque delira.s.se in senecta_, that old men familiarly dote, _ob atram bilem_, for black choler, which is then superabundant in them: and Rhasis, that Arabian physician, in his _Cont. lib. 1. cap. 9_, calls it [1302]"a necessary and inseparable accident," to all old and decrepit persons. After seventy years (as the Psalmist saith) [1303]"all is trouble and sorrow;" and common experience confirms the truth of it in weak and old persons, especially such as have lived in action all their lives, had great employment, much business, much command, and many servants to oversee, and leave off _ex abrupto_; as [1304]Charles the Fifth did to King Philip, resign up all on a sudden; they are overcome with melancholy in an instant: or if they do continue in such courses, they dote at last, (_senex bis puer_,) and are not able to manage their estates through common infirmities incident in their age; full of ache, sorrow and grief, children again, dizzards, they carl many times as they sit, and talk to themselves, they are angry, waspish, displeased with every thing, "suspicious of all, wayward, covetous, hard" (saith Tully,) "self-willed, superst.i.tious, self-conceited, braggers and admirers of themselves," as [1305]Balthazar Castilio hath truly noted of them. [1306]This natural infirmity is most eminent in old women, and such as are poor, solitary, live in most base esteem and beggary, or such as are witches; insomuch that Wierus, Baptista Porta, Ulricus Molitor, Edwicus, do refer all that witches are said to do, to imagination alone, and this humour of melancholy. And whereas it is controverted, whether they can bewitch cattle to death, ride in the air upon a cowl-staff out of a chimney-top, transform themselves into cats, dogs, &c., translate bodies from place to place, meet in companies, and dance, as they do, or have carnal copulation with the devil, they ascribe all to this redundant melancholy, which domineers in them, to [1307]

somniferous potions, and natural causes, the devil's policy. _Non laedunt omnino_ (saith Wierus) _aut quid mirum faciunt_, (_de Lamiis, lib. 3. cap.

36_), _ut putatur, solam vitiatam habent phantasiam_; they do no such wonders at all, only their [1308]brains are crazed. [1309]"They think they are witches, and can do hurt, but do not." But this opinion Bodine, Erastus, Danaeus, Scribanius, Sebastian Michaelis, Campanella _de Sensu rerum, lib. 4. cap. 9._ [1310]Dandinus the Jesuit, _lib. 2. de Animae explode_; [1311]Cicogna confutes at large. That witches are melancholy, they deny not, but not out of corrupt phantasy alone, so to delude themselves and others, or to produce such effects.

SUBSECT. VI.--_Parents a cause by Propagation_.

That other inward inbred cause of Melancholy is our temperature, in whole or part, which we receive from our parents, which [1312]Fernelius calls _Praeter naturam_, or unnatural, it being an hereditary disease; for as he justifies [1313]_Quale parentum maxime patris s.e.m.e.n obtigerit, tales evadunt similares spermaticaeque paries, quocunque etiam morbo Pater quum generat tenetur, c.u.m semine transfert, in Prolem_; such as the temperature of the father is, such is the son's, and look what disease the father had when he begot him, his son will have after him; [1314]"and is as well inheritor of his infirmities, as of his lands. And where the complexion and const.i.tution of the father is corrupt, there ([1315]saith Roger Bacon) the complexion and const.i.tution of the son must needs be corrupt, and so the corruption is derived from the father to the son." Now this doth not so much appear in the composition of the body, according to that of Hippocrates, [1316]"in habit, proportion, scars, and other lineaments; but in manners and conditions of the mind," _Et patrum in natos abeunt c.u.m semine mores._

Seleucus had an anchor on his thigh, so had his posterity, as Trogus records, _lib. 15._ Lepidus, in Pliny _l. 7. c. 17_, was purblind, so was his son. That famous family of Aen.o.barbi were known of old, and so surnamed from their red beards; the Austrian lip, and those Indian flat noses are propagated, the Bavarian chin, and goggle eyes amongst the Jews, as [1317]

Buxtorfius observes; their voice, pace, gesture, looks, are likewise derived with all the rest of their conditions and infirmities; such a mother, such a daughter; their very [1318]affections Lemnius contends "to follow their seed, and the malice and bad conditions of children are many times wholly to be imputed to their parents;" I need not therefore make any doubt of Melancholy, but that it is an hereditary disease. [1319]

Paracelsus in express words affirms it, _lib. de morb. amentium to. 4. tr.

1_; so doth [1320]Crato in an Epistle of his to Monavius. So doth Bruno Seidelius in his book _de morbo incurab._ Montaltus proves, _cap. 11_, out of Hippocrates and Plutarch, that such hereditary dispositions are frequent, _et hanc (inquit) fieri reor ob partic.i.p.atam melancholicam intemperantiam_ (speaking of a patient) I think he became so by partic.i.p.ation of Melancholy. Daniel Sennertus, _lib. 1. part 2. cap. 9_, will have his melancholy const.i.tution derived not only from the father to the son, but to the whole family sometimes; _Quandoque totis familiis hereditativam_, [1321]Forestus, in his medicinal observations, ill.u.s.trates this point, with an example of a merchant, his patient, that had this infirmity by inheritance; so doth Rodericus a Fonseca, _tom. 1. consul.

69_, by an instance of a young man that was so affected _ex matre melancholica_, had a melancholy mother, _et victu melancholico_, and bad diet together. Ludovicus Mercatus, a Spanish physician, in that excellent Tract which he hath lately written of hereditary diseases, _tom. 2. oper.

lib. 5_, reckons up leprosy, as those [1322]Galbots in Gascony, hereditary lepers, pox, stone, gout, epilepsy, &c. Amongst the rest, this and madness after a set time comes to many, which he calls a miraculous thing in nature, and sticks for ever to them as an incurable habit. And that which is more to be wondered at, it skips in some families the father, and goes to the son, [1323]"or takes every other, and sometimes every third in a lineal descent, and doth not always produce the same, but some like, and a symbolizing disease." These secondary causes hence derived, are commonly so powerful, that (as [1324]Wolfius holds) _saepe mutant decreta siderum_, they do often alter the primary causes, and decrees of the heavens. For these reasons, belike, the Church and commonwealth, human and Divine laws, have conspired to avoid hereditary diseases, forbidding such marriages as are any whit allied; and as Mercatus adviseth all families to take such, _si fieri possit quae maxime distant natura_, and to make choice of those that are most differing in complexion from them; if they love their own, and respect the common good. And sure, I think, it hath been ordered by G.o.d's especial providence, that in all ages there should be (as usually there is) once in [1325]600 years, a transmigration of nations, to amend and purify their blood, as we alter seed upon our land, and that there should be as it were an inundation of those northern Goths and Vandals, and many such like people which came out of that continent of Scandia and Sarmatia (as some suppose) and overran, as a deluge, most part of Europe and Africa, to alter for our good, our complexions, which were much defaced with hereditary infirmities, which by our l.u.s.t and intemperance we had contracted. A sound generation of strong and able men were sent amongst us, as those northern men usually are, innocuous, free from riot, and free from diseases; to qualify and make us as those poor naked Indians are generally at this day; and those about Brazil (as a late [1326]writer observes), in the Isle of Maragnan, free from all hereditary diseases, or other contagion, whereas without help of physic they live commonly 120 years or more, as in the Orcades and many other places. Such are the common effects of temperance and intemperance, but I will descend to particular, and show by what means, and by whom especially, this infirmity is derived unto us.

_Filii ex senibus nati, raro sunt firmi temperamenti_, old men's children are seldom of a good temperament, as Scoltzius supposeth, _consult. 177_, and therefore most apt to this disease; and as [1327]Levinus Lemnius farther adds, old men beget most part wayward, peevish, sad, melancholy sons, and seldom merry. He that begets a child on a full stomach, will either have a sick child, or a crazed son (as [1328]Cardan thinks), _contradict. med. lib. 1. contradict. 18_, or if the parents be sick, or have any great pain of the head, or megrim, headache, (Hieronymus Wolfius [1329]doth instance in a child of Sebastian Castalio's); if a drunken man get a child, it will never likely have a good brain, as Gellius argues, _lib. 12. cap. 1._ _Ebrii gignunt Ebrios_, one drunkard begets another, saith [1330]Plutarch, _symp. lib. 1. quest. 5_, whose sentence [1331]Lemnius approves, _l. 1. c. 4._ Alsarius Crutius, _Gen. de qui sit med. cent. 3. fol. 182._ Macrobius, _lib. 1._ Avicenna, _lib. 3. Fen. 21.

Tract 1. cap. 8_, and Aristotle himself, _sect. 2. prob. 4_, foolish, drunken, or hair-brain women, most part bring forth children like unto themselves, _morosos et languidos_, and so likewise he that lies with a menstruous woman. _Intemperantia veneris, quam in nautis praesertim insectatur [1332] Lemnius, qui uxores ineunt, nulla menstrui decursus ratione habita nec observato interlunio, praecipua causa est, noxia, pernitiosa, concubitum hunc exitialem ideo, et pestiferum vocat.

[1333]Rodoricus a Castro Lucita.n.u.s, detestantur ad unum omnes medici, tum et quarta luna concepti, infelices plerumque et amentes, deliri, stolidi, morbosi, impuri, invalidi, tetra lue sordidi minime vitales, omnibus bonis corporis atque animi dest.i.tuti: ad laborem nati, si seniores, inquit Eustathius, ut Hercules, et alii. [1334]Judaei maxime insectantur foedum hunc, et immundum apud Christianas Concubitum, ut illicitum abhorrent, et apud suos prohibent; et quod Christiani toties leprosi, amentes, tot morbili, impetigines, alphi, psorae, cutis et faciei decolorationes, tam multi morbi epidemici, acerbi, et venenosi sint, in hunc immundum concubitum rejiciunt, et crudeles in pignora vocant, qui quarta, luna profluente hac mensium illuvie concubitum hunc non perhorresc.u.n.t. d.a.m.navit olim divina Lex et morte mulctavit hujusmodi homines, Lev. 18, 20, et inde nati, siqui deformes aut mutili, pater dilapidatus, quod non contineret ab [1335] immunda muliere. Gregorius Magnus, petenti Augustino nunquid apud [1336]Britannos hujusmodi concubitum toleraret, severe prohibuit viris suis tum misceri foeminas in consuetis suis menstruis_, &c. I spare to English this which I have said. Another cause some give, inordinate diet, as if a man eat garlic, onions, fast overmuch, study too hard, be over-sorrowful, dull, heavy, dejected in mind, perplexed in his thoughts, fearful, &c., "their children" (saith [1337]Cardan _subtil. lib. 18_) "will be much subject to madness and melancholy; for if the spirits of the brain be fuzzled, or misaffected by such means, at such a time, their children will be fuzzled in the brain: they will be dull, heavy, timorous, discontented all their lives." Some are of opinion, and maintain that paradox or problem, that wise men beget commonly fools; Suidas gives instance in Aristarchus the Grammarian, _duos reliquit Filios Aristarchum et Aristachorum, ambos stultos_; and which [1338]Erasmus urgeth in his _Moria_, fools beget wise men. Card. _subt. l. 12_, gives this cause, _Quoniam spiritus sapientum ob studium resolvuntur, et in cerebrum feruntur a corde_: because their natural spirits are resolved by study, and turned into animal; drawn from the heart, and those other parts to the brain.

Lemnius subscribes to that of Cardan, and a.s.signs this reason, _Quod persolvant debitum languide, et obscitanter, unde foetus a parentum generositate desciscit_: they pay their debt (as Paul calls it) to their wives remissly, by which means their children are weaklings, and many times idiots and fools.

Some other causes are given, which properly pertain, and do proceed from the mother: if she be over-dull, heavy, angry, peevish, discontented, and melancholy, not only at the time of conception, but even all the while she carries the child in her womb (saith Fernelius, _path. l. 1, 11_) her son will be so likewise affected, and worse, as [1339]Lemnius adds, _l. 4. c.