Discourse, Book I, chapters 1–7: The opinions of philosophers, Psellus, Cardan and Plato on spirits

A DISCOURSE CONCERNING The NATURE and SUBSTANCE OF Devils and Spirits.

IN TWO BOOKS.

The First, By REGINAL SCOTT Esq

The Second, Added in this Third Impression, as Succedaneous to the First, and conducing to the compleating of the Whole Work.

LONDON; Printed in the Year M.DC.LXV.

A DISCOURSE CONCERNING Devils and Spirits. BOOK I.

CHAP. I. The Philosophers Opinions concerning Devils and Spirits; their manner of reasoning thereupon, and the same confuted.

THere is no Question nor Theme (saith Hierome Cardane) so difficult to deal in, nor so noble an argument to dispute upon, as this of Devils and Spirits; for that being confessed or doubted of, the eternity of the Soul is either affirmed or denyed. The Heathen Philosophers reason hereof amongst themselves in this sort. First, they that maintain the perpetuity of the Soul, say, That if the soul died with the body; to what end should men take pains either to live well or die well, when no reward for vertue, nor panishment for vice insueth after this life, the which otherwise they might spend in ease and security? The other sort say, That vertue and honesty is to be persued, Non spe praemii, sed virtutis amore, that is, Not for hope of reward, but for love of vertue. If the soul live ever (say the other) the least portion of life is here: And therefore we that maintain the perpetuity of the Soul, may be of the better comfort and courage, to sustain with more constancy the loss of children, yea and the loss of life it self: whereas if the Soul were mortal, all our hope and felicity were to be placed in this life, which many Atheists (I warrant you) at this day do. But both the one and the other missed the cushion. For, to do any thing without Christ, is to weary our selves in vain; sith in him only corruptions are purged. And therefore the folly of the Gentiles that place Summum bonum in the felicity of the body, or in the happiness or pleasures of the mind, is not only to be derided, but also abhorred. For, both our bodies and mindes are intermedled with most miserable calamities: and therefore therein cannot consist perfect felicity. But in the Word of God is exhibited and offered unto us that hope which is most certain, absolute, sound and sincere, not to be answered or denyed by the judgment of Philosophers themselves: For they that preferr temperance before all other things as Summum bonum, must needs see it to be a witness of their natural calamity, corruption and wickedness; and that it serveth for nothing, but to restrain the dissoluteness, which hath place in their mindes infected with vices; which are to be bridled with such corrections; yea and the best of them all faileth in some point of modesty. Wherefore serveth our Philosophers prudence, but to provide for their own folly and misery; whereby they might else be utterly overthrown? And if their nature were not intangled in errors, they should have no need of such circumspection. The justice whereof they speak, serveth but to keep them from ravine, theft, and violence: and yet none of them all are so just, but that the very best and uprightest of them fall into great infirmities, both doing and suffering much wrong and injury. And what is their fortitude but to arm them to indure misery, grief, danger, and death it self? But what happiness or goodness is to be reposed in that life, which must be waited upon with such calamities, and finally must have the help of death to finish it? I say, if it be so miserable, why do they place Summum bonum therein? S. Paul to the Romans sheweth that it cannot be that we should attain to justice, through the moral and natural actions and duties of this life: because that never the Jews nor the Gentiles could e[…]press so much in their lives, as the very law of Nature or of Moses required. And therefore he that worketh without Christ, doth as he that reckoneth without his host.

CHAP. II. Mine own opinion concerning this Argument, to the disproof of some Writers hereupon.

I For my part do also think this Argument, about the Nature and Substance of Devils and Spirits, to be so difficult, as I am perswaded that no one Author hath in any certain or perfect sort hitherto written thereof. In which respect I can neither allow the ungodly and prophane sects and doctrines of the Sadduces and Peripateticks, who deny that there are any Devils or Spirits at last; nor the fond and superstitious Treatises of Plato, Proclus, Plotinus, Porphyrie; or yet the vain and absurd opinions of Psellus, Nider, Sprenger, Cumanus, Bodin, Michael, Andreas, Janus, Matchaeus, Laurentius Ananias, Jambilchus, who with many others write so ridiculously in these matters, as if they were babes frayed with bugges: Some affirming, That the souls of the dead become spirits, the good to be Angels, the bad to be Devils: Some, That Spirits or Devils are only in this life; Some, That they are men: Some, That they are women; Some, That Devils are of such gender as they list themselves: Some, That they had no beginning, nor shall have ending, as the Manichees maintain: Some, That they are mortal and die, as Plutarch affirmeth of Pan: Some, That they have no bodies at all, but receive bodies, according to their phantasies and imaginations: Some, That their bodies are given unto them: Some, That they make themselves. Some say, They are wind: Some, That they are the breath of living creatures; Some, That one of them begat another: Some, That they were created of the least part of the mass, whereof the Earth was made: and some, That they are substances between God and Man, and that of them some are Terrestrial, some Celestial, some Watery, some Airy, some Firy, some Starry, and some of each and every part of the Elements, and that they know our thoughts, and carry our good Works and Prayers to God, and return his benefits back unto us, and that they are to be worshipped, wherein they meet and agree jump with the Papists; as if you read the notes upon the second chapter to the Colossians, in the Seminaries Testament printed at Rhemes, you shall manifestly see, though as contrary to the Word of God as black to white, as appeareth in the Apocalypse, where the Angel expresly forbad John to worship him.

Again, some say, That they are mean betwixt Terrestrial and Celestial bodies, communicating part of each nature; and that although they be eternal, yet that they are moved with affections: and as there are Birds in the air, Fishes in the water, and Worms in the earth; so in the fourth Element, which is the fire, is the habitation of Spirits and Devils. And lest we should think them idle, they say, They have charge over men, and Government in all Countries and Nations. Some say, That they are only imaginations in the mind of man. Tertullian saith, They are Birds, and fly faster then any fowl of the air. Some say, That Devils are not, but when they are sent; and therefore are called evil Angels. Some think, That the Devil sendeth his Angels alroad, and he himself maketh his continual abode in Hell, his Mansion place.

CHAP. III. The opinion of Psellus touching Spirits; of their several Orders; and a Confutation of his Errors therein.

PSellus being of authority in the Church of Rome, and not impugnable by any Catholick, being also instructed in these supernatural or rather Diabolical matters by a Monk called Marcus, who had been familiarly conversant a long time, as he said, with a certain Devil, reporteth upon the same Devils own word, which must needs understand best the state of this question; That the bodies of Angels and Devils consist not now of all one element, though perhaps it were otherwise before the fall of Lucifer; and, That the bodies of Spirits and Devils can feel and be felt, do hurt and be hurt: in so much as they lament when they are striken; and being put to the fire are burnt, and yet that they themselves burn continually, in such sort as they leave ashes behind them in places where they have been; as manifest tryal thereof hath been (if he say truly) in the borders of Italy. He also saith upon like credit and assurance; That Devils and Spirits do avoid and shed from out of their bodies, such seed or nature, as whereby certain vermin are ingendered, and that they are nourished with food, as we are, saving that they receive it not into their mouths, but suck it it up into their bodies, in such sort as sponges soke up waser. Also he saith, They have names, shapes, and dwelling places, as indeed they have, though not in temporal and corporal sort.

Furthermore, he saith, That there are six principal kind of Devils, which are not only corporal, but temporal and worldly. The first sort consist of fire, wandering in the Region neer to the Moon, but have no power to go into the Moon. The second sort consisting of air, have their habitation more low and neer unto us: These (saith he) are proud and great boasters, very wise and deceitful, and when they come down are seen with streams of fire at their tail. He saith, That these are commonly conjured up to make Images laugh, and Lamps burn of their own accord; and that in Assyria they use much to prophesie in a Bason of Water. Which kind of Incantation is usual among our Conjurors: but it is here commonly performed in a Pitcher or Pot of water; or else in a Vial of Glass filled with water, wherein they say at the first a little sound is heard without a voyce, which is a token of the Devils coming. Anon the water seemeth to be troubled, and then there are heard small voyces, wherewith they give their answers, speaking so softly as no man can well hear them: because (saith Cardan) they would not be argued or rebuked of lyes. But this I have elsewhere more largely described and confuted. The third sort of Devils are earthly; the fourth, watery, or of the Sea. The fift, under the Earth. The sixt sort are Lucifugi, that is, such as delight in darkness, and are scant indued with sense, and so dull, as they can scarse be moved with Charms or Conjurations.

The same man saith, That some Devils are worse than other, but yet that they all hate God, and are enemies to man. But the worser moity of Devils are Aquei, Subterranei, and Lucifugi; that is, watery, under the Earth, and shunners of light: Because (saith he) these hurt not the souls of men, but destroy mens bodies like mad and ravening beasts, molesting both inward and outward parts thereof. Aquei are they that raise tempests, and drown Seafaring men, and do all other mischiefs on the water. Subterranei and Lucifugi enter into the Bowels of men, and torment them that they poss[…]ss with the phrinsie, and the falling evill. They also assault them that are miners or pioners, which use to work in deep and dark holes under the earth. Such Devils as are earthy and airy, he saith, enter by subtilty into the minds of men, to deceive them, provoking men to absurd and unlawful affections.

But herein his Philosophy is very unprobable; for if the Divel be earthy, he must needs be palpable; if he palpable, he be must needs kill them into whose bodies he entereth. Item, if he be of earth created, then must he also be visible and untransformable in that point: for Gods creation cannot be annihilated by the creature. So as though it were granted, that they might add to their substance matter and form, &c. yet it is most certain, that they cannot diminish or alter the substance whereof they consist, as not to be (when they list) spiritual, or to relinquish and leave earth, water, fire, air, or this and that element whereof they are created. But howsoever they imagine of water, air, or fire, I am sure earth must alwayes be visible and palpable, yea, and air must alwayes be invisible, and fire must be hot, and water must be moist. And of these three latter bodies, specially of water and air, no form nor shape can be exhibited to mortal eyes naturally, or by the power of any creature.

CHAP. IV. More absurd Assertions of Psellus and such others, concerning the actions and passions of Spirits; his definition of them, and of his experience therein.

MOreover the same Author saith, That Spirits whisper in our minds, and yet not speaking so lowd, as our ears may hear them: but in such sort as our souls speak altogether when they are dissolved; making an example by lowd speaking afar off, and a comparison of soft whispering neer at hand, so as the Devil entreth so neer to the mind as the Ear need not hear him; and that every part of a Devil or Spirit seeth, heareth, and speaketh, &c. But herein I will believe Paul better then Psellus, or his Monk, or the Monks Devil: For Paul saith, If the whole body were an eye, where were hearing? If the whole body were hearing, where were smelling, &c. Whereby you may see what accord is betwixt Gods Word and Witchmongers.

The Papists proceed in this matter, and say, That these Spirits use great knavery and unspeakable bawdery in the breach and middle parts of man and woman, by tickling, and by other lecherous devices; so that they fall jump in judgment and opinion, though very erroneously, with the foresaid Psellus, of whose doctrine also this is a parcel, to wit, That these Devils hurt not Cattel for the hate they bear unto them, but for love of their natural and temperate heat and moisture, being brought up in deep, dry and cold places. Marry they hate the heat of the Sun and the Fire, because that kind of heat dryeth too fast. They throw down stones upon men, but the blows thereof do no harm to them whom they hit; because they are not cast with any force; for saith he, The Devils have little and small strength, so as the stones do nothing but fray and terrifie men, as scare-crows do Birds out of the Corn-fields. But when these Devils enter into the pores, then do they raise wonderful tumults in the body and mind of man. And if it be a subterrene Devil, it doth writhe and bow the possessed; and speaketh by him, using the spirit of the Patient as his instrument. But he saith, that when Lucifugus poss[…]ss[…]th a man, he maketh him dumb, and as it were dead: and these be they that are cast out (saith he) only by F[…]sting and Prayer.

The same Psellus, with his mates Bodin and the penners of M. Mal. and others, do find fault with the Physitians that affirm such infirmities to be curable with diet, and not by inchantments; saying, That Physitians do only attend upon the body, and that which is perceiveable by outward sense; and that as touching this kind of divine Philosophy, they have no skill at all: And to make D[…]vels and Spirits seem yet more corporal and terrene, he saith, That certain Devils are belonging to certain Countries, and speak the language of the same Countries, and none other; some the Assyrian, some the Chaldaean, and some the Persian tongue, and that they feel stripes, and fear hurt, and specially the dint of the Sword (in which respect Conjurors have Swords with them in their Circles, to terrifie them) and that they change shapes, even as sodainly as men do change colour with blushing, fear, anger, and other moods of the mind. He saith further, That there be brute beasts among them, and yet Devils, and subject to any kind of death; insomuch as they are so foolish, as they may be compared to Flies, Fleas, and Worms, who have no respect to any thing but their food, not regarding or remembring the whole from out of whence they came last. Marry Devils compounded of Earth, cannot often transform themselves, but abide in some one shape, such as they best like, and most delight in; to wit, in the shape of Birds or Women; and therefore the Greeks call them Neidas, Nereidas, and Dreidas, in the feminine gender; which Dreidae, inhabited, (as some write) the Islands beside Scotland, called Druidae, which by that means had their denomination and name. Other Devils that dwell in dryer places transform themselves into the masculine kind. Finally, Psellus saith, They know our thoughts, and can prophesie of things to come. His definition is, That they are perpetual mindes in a passible body.

To verifie these toyes he saith, That he himself saw in a certain night a man brought up by Aletus Lybius into a Mountain, and that he took an hearb, and spat thrice into his mouth, and anointed his eyes with a certain Ointment, so as thereby he saw great troops of Devils, and perceived a Crow to flie into his mouth; and since that hour he could prophesie at all times, saving on Good-friday, and Easter-sunday. If the end of this tale were true, it might not only have satisfied the Greek-Church, in keeping the day of Easter, together with the Church of Rome; but might also have made the Pope (that now is) content with our Christmas and Easter-day, and not to have gathered the minutes together, and reformed it so, as to shew how falsly he and his predecessors (whom they say could not err) hath observed it hitherto. And truly this, and the dancing of the Sun on Easter-day morning, sufficiently or rather miraculously prove that computation, which the Pope now beginneth to doubt of, and to call in question.

CHAP. V. The Opinion of Fascius Cardanus touching Spirits, and of his Familiar Devil.

FAscius Cardanus had (as he himself and his son Hierome Cardanus report) a familiar Devil, consisting of the fiery Element, who, so long as he used Conjuration, did give true answers to all his demands; but when he burned up his Book of Conjurations, though he resorted still unto him, yet did he make false answers continually. He held him bound twenty and eight years, and loose five years. And during the time that he was bound, he told him that there were many Devils or Spirits. He came not always alone, but sometimes some of his fellows with him. He rather agreed with Psellus then with Plato: for he said they were begotten, born, died, and lived long; but how long they told him not: howbeit, as he might conjecture by the Devils face, who was 42 years old, and yet appeared very young, he thought they lived two or three hundred years; and they said that their souls and ours also died with their bodies. They had Schools and Universities among them: but he conceived not that any were so dull headed, as Psellus maketh them. But they are very quick in credit, that beleive such fables, which indeed is the ground-work of Witchcraft and Conjuration. But these Histories are so gross and palpable, that I might be thought as wise in going about to confute them, as to answer the stories of Fryer Rush, Adam Bell, or the golden Legend.

CHAP. VI. The Opinion of Plato concerning Spirits, Devils and Angels; what Sacrifices they like best, what they fear; and of Socrates his familiar Devil.

PLato and his followers hold, that good Spirits appear in their own likeness; but that evil Spirits appear and shew themselves in the form of other bodies; and that one Devil reigneth over the rest, as a Prince doth in every perfect Common-wealth overmen. Item, they obtain their purposes and desires, only by intreaty of men and women; because in nature they are their inferiors, and use authority over men none otherwise than Priests by vertue of their function, and because of Religion, wherein (they say) they execute the Office of God. Sometimes, they say, that the fiery Spirits or supreme Substances enter into the purity of the mind, and so obtain their purpose; sometimes otherwise, to wit, by vertue of holy Charms, and even as a poor man obtaineth for Gods sake any thing at a Princes hand as it were by importunateness.

The other sort of Devils and defiled souls are so conversant on earth, as that they do much hurt unto earthly bodies, specially in leachery. Gods and Angels (say they) because they want all material and gross substance, desire most the pure Sacrifice of the Mind. The grosser and more terrestrial Spirits desire the grosser Sacrifices, as Beasts and Cattel. They in the middle or mean Region delight to have Frankincense, and such mean stuffe offered unto them, and therefore (say they) it is necessary to Sacrifice unto them all manner of things, so the same be slain, and dye not of their own accord; for such they abhor. Some say, that Spirits fear wonderfully vain threats, and thereupon will depart; as if you tell them that you will cut the Heavens in pieces, or reveal their secrets, or complain of them to the gods; or say that you will do any impossibility, or such things as they cannot understand, they are so timerous as they will presently be gone: and that is thought the best way to be rid of them. But these be most commonly of that sort or company, which are called Principatus, being of all other the most easie to be conjured.

They say Socrates had a familiar Devil: which Plato relyeth much upon, using none other argument to prove that there are such Spirits; but because Socrates (that would not lye) said so; and partly because that Devil did ever disswade and prohibit, not only in Socrates his own cases, but sometimes in his friends behalf; who (if they had been ruled) might through his admonition have saved their lives. His Disciples gathered that his Devil was Saturnal, and a principal fiery Devil; and that he, and all such as do naturally know their Devils, are only such as are called Daemonii viri, otherwise coseners. Item, they say, That fiery Spirits urge men to contemplation, the airy to business, the watery to lust; and among these there are some that are Martial, which give fortitude; some are Jovial, giving wisdom; some Saturnal, always using disswasion and dehorting. Item, some are born with us, and remain with us all our life; some are meer strangers, who are nothing else but the souls of men departed this life, &c.

CHAP. VII. Plato's nine Orders of Spirits and Angels; Dionysius his Division thereof not much differing from the same; all disproved by learned Divines.

PLato proposeth or setteth forth nine several orders of Spirits, besides the spirits and souls of men. The first Spirit is God that commandeth all the residue; the second are those that are called Ideae, which gave all things to all men; the third are souls of heavenly bodies which are mortal; the fourth are Angels; the fift Archangels; the sixt are Devils, who are ministers to infernal powers, as Angels are to supernal; the seventh are half Gods; the eighth are Principalities; the ninth are Princes. From which division Dionysius doth not much swerve, saving that he dealeth (as he saith) only with good Spirits, whom he likewise divideth into nine parts or offices. The first he calleth Seraphim, the second Cherubim, the third Thrones, the fourth Dominations, the fift Vertues, the sixt Powers, the seventh Principalites, the eighth Archangels, the ninth and inferiour sort he calleth Angels. Howbeit, some of these (in my thinking) are evil Spirits; or else Paul gave us evil counsel, when he willed us, To fight against Principalities, and Powers, and all spiritual wickedness.

But Dionysius in that place goeth further, impropriating to every Countrey, and almost to every person of any accompt, a peculiar Angel; as to Jewry he assigneth Michael; to Adam, Razael; to Abraham Zekiel; to Isaac, Raphael, to Jacob, Peliel; to Moses, Metraton, &c. But in these discourses, he either followed his own imaginations and conceits, or else the corruptions of that age. Nevertheless, I had rarher confute him by Mr. Calvin, and my Kinsman M. Deering, than by my self, or mine own words. For Mr. Calvin saith, That Dionysius, herein speaketh not as by hearsay, but as though he had slipped down from Heaven, and told of things which he had seen. And yet (saith he) Paul was wrapt up into the third Heaven, and reporteth no such matters. But if you read Mr. Deering upon the first chapter to the Hebrews, you shall see this matter notably handled; where he saith, That whensoever Archangel is mentioned in the Scriptures, it signifieth our Saviour Christ, and no creature. And certain it is that Christ himself was called an Angel. The names also of Angels, as Michael, Gabriel, &c. are given to them (saith Calvin) according to the capacity of our weakness. But because the decision of this is neither within the compass of mans capacity, nor yet of his knowledge, I will proceed no further to discuss the same, but to shew the absurd opinions of Papists and Witchmongers on the one side, and the most sober and probable collections of the contrary-minded on the other side.