Of Credul. and Incredul. pag. 159.
A serious Disswasive from Popery, pag. 38, 39.
3. But if matters of fact be witnessed and attested by many or divers persons that were ear and eye-witnesses, yet may their testimony bear no weight in the balance of Justice or right Reason, because they may be corrupt in point of interest, and so have their judgments mis-guided and biassed by the corruption of their desires and affections, or relate things out of spleen, envy, and malice; and so may not in these mysterious matters be fit authority to rely upon, nor competent evidence in these particulars, as Dr.Casaubonis forced to confess in these words: “In the relation of strange things, whether natural or supernatural, to know the temper of the Relator, if it can be known: and what interest he had, or might probably be supposed to have had, in the relation, to have it believed. And again, whether he profess to have seen it himself, or taken it upon the credit of others. And whether a man by his profession in a capacity probable to judge of the truth of those things, to which he doth bear witness.” Every one of these particulars would require a particular consideration. For if there be interest in point of Religion, then all authorities, all colour of reason is drawn in to make good this interest, and verity is commonly stifled in this contest for selfness and interest, and the adverse parties stigmatized with all the filthy lyes and enormous crimes that can be invented, as is most manifest in these instances. The Popish party finding themselves hindred and opposed in point of the highest interest, have forged a thousand false stories and tales to make good the interest of their Party, and have left no dirt and dung unscraped up to throw in the faces of their Opponents; and so have each Party done against other, where religious interest was the quarrel, as BishopHallhath truly observed in this passage, where he is shewing the abominable corruptions of the Church ofRome: “A Religion that cares not by what wilful falshoods it maintains a part; asWickliffsblasphemy,Luthersadvice from the Devil,TindalsCommunity,Calvinsfeigned Miracle, and blasphemous death,Bucersneck broken,Beza’s Revolt, the blasting of Huguenots,Englandswant of Churches, and Christendom, QueenElizabethsunwomanliness, her Episcopal Jurisdiction, her secret fruitfulness, English Catholicks cast in Bears skins to Dogs,Plessesshameful overthrow,Garnatsstraw, theLutheransobscene Night-Revels,Scoriesdrunken Ordination in a Tavern, the Edict of our gracious KingJames(An.87.) for the establishment of Popery, our casting the crusts of our Sacrament to Dogs, and ten thousand of this nature, maliciously raised against knowledge and conscience, for the disgrace of those whom they would have hated, e’re known.”
The rise of this opinion that we are disputing against, that the Devil makes a visible and corporeal League with the Witches, that he sucks upon their bodies, hath carnal Copulation with them,and that they are changed into Hares, Dogs, Cats, or Wolves, and the like, was soon after the thirteenth hundred year of Christ, when asFrederickthe Second had made a Law temporal, for the burning of Hereticks. And not long after that, was the Inquisition set up inRomeandSpain, and then did the Inquisitors and their Adherents, draw in from the Heathen Poets, and all other Authors, whatsoever might carry any colour of authority or reason, the better to countenance their bloody and unjust proceedings, where they drew thousands of people into the snare of the Inquisition for pretended Witchcraft, which they made to be Heresie. And whatsoever these have written concerning these things, such asDelrio,Bodinus,Remigius,Springerus,Niderus,Spineus,Grillandus, and a whole rabble besides not necessary to be named, are nothing but lyes and forgeries, and deserve no credit at all for these reasons. 1. Because as many of them as either were Inquisitors themselves, or those that had any dependence upon them, or received benefit by their proceedings, are all unjust and corrupt Authors and Witnesses, as writing and bearing witness for their own ends, interest, and profit, having a share in the Goods and Estates of all that were convicted and condemned: and the Wolf and Raven will be sure to give judgment on the Serpents side, that he may devour the man, though never so innocent, because they hope to have a share of his flesh, or at least to pick the bones. 2. These Authors that were the first Broachers of these monstrous stories of Apparitions and Witches, and are so frequently quoted by others, (that ought to have been more wary, and might have seen reason enough to have rejected all their feigned lyes and delusions) were not only sharers in the spoil of the Goods of the condemned (who were judgedper fas & nefas) but also had another base end and interest, to wit, to advance the opinion of Purgatory, praying for the dead, setting up the vain Superstitions of the virtue of the sign of the Cross, holy Water, and the like. And therefore they did forge so many stories of Apparitions, and Souls coming forth of Purgatory, and recorded so many false, lying, and impossible things from the forced, extorted, and pretended confessions of the Witches themselves, which were nothing else but an Hotch-potch of horrid and abominable lyes, not to be credited, because the Authors only invented them, to promote their own base ends and wretched interests.
Lib.2.de præstig. Dæmon.cap.5.
Vit. Germ. medic.pag.16.
Anim. mag.præf.
Again, where Authors are engaged for interest sake, they fall into heat, passion, malice, and envy, and what they cannot make out by strength of arguments, they labour to make good by lyes and scandals, as is most apparent in this one Example we shall here give.Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, a person in his time well known to most of the Learned inEurope, and admired for his general and universal skill in all kind of Learning, having published a Piece which he styled,A Declaration of the incertitude and vanity of Sciences and Arts, and the excellency of the Word of God: wherein amongstother things he had sharply taxed the Monks and Fryars, and other Orders, of their ignorance, idleness, and many other crimes and misdemeanors, whereby certain Theologasters ofLovain(netled with their own guilt) did in bitter malice draw up certain Articles against him, therein accusing him of Errour, Impiety, and Heresie, and had so far incensedCharlesthe Fifth then Emperour against him, that he had commandedAgrippaunheard to make a Recantation. But he writing a strong, polite, and pithy Apology, gave them such a responsion, that afterwards they did never reply; by which, and the mediation of divers learned Friends, who gaveCæsara right information of the end and drift of that Book, and of the things therein contained, He was pacified, and brought to a better understanding of the matter. Yet this could not protectAgrippafrom the virulent malice of the Popish Witchmongers, but that they forged most abominable lyes and scandals against him, especially that wretched and ignorant MonkPaulus Jovius, that was not ashamed to record in his Book intituled,De Elogiis doctorum Virorum, thatAgrippacarried a Cacodemon about with him, in the likeness of a black Dog, and that he died atLyons, when it is certain he died atGratianople. From all which horrid aspersions and lying scandals he is sufficiently acquitted by the famous PhysicianJohannes Wierus, one that was educated under him, and lived familiarly with him; and therefore was best able to testifie the whole truth of these particulars. But any that are so perversly and wilfully blinded as to have a sinister opinion of this person, (whoab ineunte ætate in literis educatus esset, quâ fuit ingenii fælicitate, in omni artium ac disciplinarum genere ita versatus est, ut excelluerit) may have most ample satisfaction from the modest and impartial Pen ofMelchior Adams, who hath written his Life: as also from something that our Countryman, who called himselfEugenius Philalethes, hath clearly delivered: so that none can be ignorant of this particular, but such as wilfully refuse to be informed of the truth.
Inquir. into vulgar Errours, pag. 34.
Vid. vit. Germ. medic.pag.29.
Nay where interest hath a share, truth can hardly be expected, though it be but in more trivial things, as even but for aery fame and vain-glory, as may be manifest inHierome Cardan, who was a man of prodigious pride and vain-glory, which led him (as the learned Dr.Brownhath noted) into no small errours, being a great Amasser of strange and incredible stories, led to relate them by his meer ambition of hunting after fame and the reputation of an universal Scholar. And of no less pride and vain-glorious ambition was his AntagonistJulius Cæsar Scaligerguilty, of whom it may truly be said, that he was of the nature of those of theOttomanFamily, that do not think they can ever raign safely, unless they strangle all their Brethren; so he did not think that he could aspire to the Throne of being the Monarch of general Learning, without stifling the fame and reputation ofCardanand others, against whom he hath been most fell, and impetuously bitter. But whenmen fall out about professional interest, then the stories that through malice they invent and forge one against another, are incredible, as is manifest in many Examples; but we shall but give one for all, which is this. WhenParacelsus, returning from his Peregrination of ten years and above, was called to be Physical Lecturer atBasil, where he continued three years, and more, having by his strange and wonderful Cures drawn the most part ofGermany, and the adjacent Countries into admiration; so that he was, and might (notwithstanding the envy and ignorance of all his enemies) justly be styled,Totius Germaniæ decus & gloria: yet this was not sufficient to quiet the violent and virulent mind ofThomas Erastus, who coming to be setled atBasil, and finding that he could not outgo nor equalParacelsusin point of Medicinal Practice, and being strongly grounded in the Aristotelian Philosophy, and the Galenical Physick, did with all poyson and bitterness labour to confute the Principles of Chymical Physick thatParacelsushad introduced; and lest his arguments might be too weak, he backt them with most horrible lyes and scandals, thinking that many and strong accusations (though never so false) would not be easily answered, nor totally washt off: which after were greedily swallowed down byLibanius,Conringius,Sennertus, and many others: so apt are men to invent, and suck in scandals against others, never considering how false and groundless they are, or may be: for that he wrongfully and falsely accused him in many things, will be manifest to any unbiassed person, that will but take pains to read his Life, written by that equitable JudgeMelchior Adams, and that large Preface the learned PhysicianFredericus Bitiskiushath prefixed to his Works printed atGeneva1648.
History 1.
Vid. Resp. Rob. Flud. ad Foster.
History 2.
4. But if the Authors that report matters of fact in reference to these four particulars that we have named, were ear and eye-witnesses, and not single, but a greater number, and were not swayed by any corrupt or self-interest whatsoever; yet all this is not sufficient to give evidence in these matters, except they be rightly qualified in other things, that are necessarily requisite to capacitate a person rightly to judge of these nice and difficult matters, some of the chief of which we shall here enumerate. 1. The persons that are fit to give a perfect judgment of these matters, ought to be perfect in the organs of their senses, otherwise they may easily be deceived, and think the things otherwise than indeed they are; so some defects or distempers in the ears, eyes, or the rest of the sensories, may hinder the true perception of things acted or done. 2. They ought to be of a sound judgment, and not of a vitiated or distempered Phantasie, nor of a melancholick Temper or Constitution; for such will be full of fears, and strange imaginations, taking things as acted and wrought without, when they are but only represented within. These will take a bush to be a Boggard, and a black sheep to be a Demon; the noise of the wild Swans flying high upon the nights, to be Spirits, or (asthey call them here in the North)Gabriel Ratchets, the calling of a Daker-hen in the Meadow to be the Whistlers, the howling of the female Fox in a Gill, or a Clough for the male, when they are for copulation, to be the cry of young Children, or such Creatures, as the common people call Fayries, and many such like fancies and mistakes. 3. They ought to be clear and free from those imbibed notions of Spirits, Hobgoblins, and Witches, which have been instamped upon their Phantasies from their very young years, through ignorant and superstitious education, wherewith generally all mankind is infected, and but very few that get themselves extricated from those delusive Labyrinths, that parents and ignorance have instilled into them. From hence it is, that not only the stolid and stupid Vulgar, but even persons otherwise rational enough, do commonly attribute those sleights and tricks that our common Jugglers play, unto the Devil, when they are only performed by Leger-de-main, or sleight of hand, Boxes, and Instruments aptly fitted; and will not stick to believe, and strongly to affirm to others, that they have seen the Jugglers Familiar or Devil, when it was but a poor Squirrels skin stuffed with hair or moss, and nimbly agitated by the hands of the Juggler: which makes me call to mind a very lepid and pertinent Accident that once in my younger years happened inBurrow-bridgeupon a great Fayr holden there upon St.Barnabasday: I being in Company with divers Gentlemen, whereof two were Masters of Arts, and walking in the Horse-Fayr, we espyed a great crowd and ring of people, and drawing near, there was a person commonly known through most of the Northern parts ofYorkshireby the name ofJohn Gypsie, being as black as any of that Tribe, with a Feather in his Hat, a silk slasht Doublet, upon a fair Holland Half-shirt, counterfeiting himself half drunk, and reeling to and fro, with a fine Tape or Incle-string tyed fast together at the two ends, and throwing it, (as it were) carelesly two or three times about a smooth Rod, that another man held by both ends, and then putting the bout of the Tape upon the one end of the Rod, and then crying, It is now fast for five shillings; but no sooner reeling and looking aside, the man that held the Rod did put off the bout of the Tape again, and stillJohn Gypsie, would cry and bet that it was fast, then would there come two or three, and bet with him, and win, and go away (as it were) laughing him to scorn, yet still he would continue, and pray the Fellow that held the stick not to deceive him, and plainly shew the people, that it would be fast when the bout was put on, then would the Fellow that held the stick, still put off the bout whenJohn Gypsielooked away, whereby the people believed that he was in drink, and so deceived by him that held the Rod, and so many would come and bet with him, and lose: so that he used to win much money, though the bout was put off every time, and none could discern any alteration in the string. This strange Feat (which I confess, as he handled and acted it, was one of the neatest thatever I saw in all my life) did so surprize all my Companions, and in part himself, that some of them were of opinion, that he had some stone in the Ring upon his finger, by virtue of which he performed the Trick. But the most part concluded, that it could not be done but by the power and help of the Devil, and resolved to come no more nearJohn Gypsie, as a man that was a Witch, and had familiarity with the Devil. But I that then was much guilty of curiosity, and loth to be imposed upon in a thing of that nature, then also knowing the way and manner how all the common Jugglers aboutCambridgeandLondon(who make a Trade of it) did perform their Tricks, I slipt away from my Company, and went to the place again where I found him still playing; and thrusting in, I desired to hold the stick, which he refused not; and so in a short time I perceived how it was done, and so returned to my Company, and shewed them the sleight and mystery of it, which made them very much ashamed of their folly and ignorance. They may deride this story that list, and yet it may serve for instruction to the wisest, and there are hundreds yet living that knew this person, and where he was born, which was atBolton-bridgenearSkiptoninCraven, and have seen him play this trick of fast and loose, as I have related it: so that if a man meet with a crafty cunning Fellow, he commonly by way of Proverb calls himJohn Gypsie. 4. They ought to be free in their judgments asin æquilibrio, and not to be radicated nor habituated in the belief of those things; for then they will hardly be disswaded from their opinions, but pertinaciously adhere unto them, though never so absurd, and will be apt to ascribe all effects, that they understand not, unto Devils and Witches, as is manifest in the JesuitRoberti Foster,Sennertus, and many others, who attributed the effects of the Hoplocrism or Weapon-salve, and the Sympathetick Powder unto the operation of the Devil and Witchcraft, when they are but meerly natural. Which makes me call to mind a pretty story that happened when I was but a young Boy. For where I once learned at the School, there was one who was Rector of the Church, who was a very godly man, a good and constant Preacher, accounted very learned, and Bachelor of Divinity: this person being informed, that I and some other Boys could play some odd Feats of sleight of hand, especially to put a Ring upon our Cheek, and to throw it unto a staff holden fast by both the ends; this he by no means did believe could be done but by Diabolical means, and did advise and threaten us to desist from such practices, as devillish and damnable. So ready even the otherwise Learned may be, when once setled in these fond and absurd opinions of the too great power of Demons and Witches, to ascribe that unto them, which is performed by Nature and lawful Art.