The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft, chapter 12: If the Devil, or Witches have power to perform strange things (part 3 of 4)

3. Therefore (he saith) I will shew, that the aid of Satan is not at all needful, that some solid body may be drawn without the comminution of it self, by a passage far less than it self. For the evil spirit, though he have a motive Blas; yet notwithstanding it is against piety, that he can hurt the innocent at his pleasure. Which certainly should come to pass, if every where he could inject these things, according to his nefarious will, for (he saith) I have seen these things happen to innocent children, to Virgins that were pious and devoted to God after a singular manner. And to prove this point he giveth these instances. Cornelius Gemma de Cosmocriticis doth recite that he had seen a piece of three pounds or 48. ounces weight, of a brass Cannon, which a Maid the Daughter of a Cooper had voided by stool, with its characters or letters, together with an Eele wrapt in its secundines. But it is impossible to nature to melt powdered metal in us, and to be detained so many months in its pristine figure in the Intestines, or that the Eele should so often be made into small powder and to arise again from death. And that pieces of wood and leather should so often be turned into small powder, and again restored into their former condition. For (he saith) I have seen at Bruxells in the year 1599. that an Oxe having taken three Herbs did vomit a Dragon with a tail like an Eele, a body as of leather, a Serpentine Head, and not less than a Partridge. There is (he saith) an History of a Polonish Countryman, seen lately of the Son of the Lord Ericius Puteanus. A certain rustick did attempt himself to cut the Squinsie that he had in his throat with a short Knife, which at unawares he swallowed, and that at the length he did void the same at the right side of the Abdomen, or lower belly, with much rotten matter after great tortures, and survived in health. Also at Vilvordia in the year 1636. a Countryman known unto me (he saith) intending to feed a Cow, did daily give her a bowl, in which he had boiled Pot-Herbs with bran. At last she waxeth leaner more and more every day, and begun to halt upon the right thigh: The Cow being killed, the short Knife of his Wives bended back into the haft of Box, is found hid betwixt the ribs and the shoulder blade: For the Country Woman in cutting the rape root, had left her Knife amongst the Pot-Herbs, and the Cow by drinking had swallowed it. Also (he saith) Ambrosius Paraeus relateth a story of a certain man whom Thieves had compelled to swallow a Knife, which he afterwards being sound did void by an Apostume of the side. Alexander Benedictus (he saith) doth mention another, to whom an Arrow had penetrated into his back, the hook of which of the breadth of three fingers he did void by stool without hurt. The same Author relateth of a certain Girl of Venice who had swallowed a Needle, and that after two years she voided it by urine, crusted over with a stony substance. Also (he saith) Antonius Benevenius doth relate, that an Hetruscan Woman had swallowed a Copper Needle or Pin, which three years after she voided at the Navil, and was sound. Valesius de Taranta (he saith) mentioneth a Girl of Venice (perhaps the same) who voided by urine a Pin of three fingers long. A certain Capucine at Eburum called Bullonius, by Sirname Hamptean, did with much aversion of mind drink up an huge living Spider, which he had seen fall into the Chalice in the time of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Within a few days he had a Phlegmon or bile that did arise in his right thigh, and with much rotten matter from thence he voided the whole Spider, but being dead. A young Merchant of Antwerp being playing at Venice in his mouth with an unripe Ear of Barley, did swallow the same with an huge fear of suffocation: From thence after three Weeks in the left side above the Girdle, an Apostume appeared, and at the length with the rotten matter the same Ear of a yellow colour is extracted whole. And he escaped sound. With Fernelius a Student is related to be cured by him who had voided an Ear of Corn by the ribs. Also Writers do commemorate, that the young one sometimes dead and wasted in the Womb hath voided the bones through the Womb, the belly, by the na vil, and sometimes by the fundament. More things of this nature do every where occur amongst Authors worthy of credit.

4. From which matters of fact he thus concludeth: By which (he saith) it is manifest, that solid bodies sufficiently great, have penetrated the Stomach, the Bowels, the Womb, the Caul, the lower Belly, the skin upon the inside of the Ribs, the Bladder. Membranes (he saith) impatient of so great a wound. That is to say, that Knives have been transmitted through these Membranes without wound, which is equivalent to the penetration of dimensions made in nature without the help of the Devil. And that an human body may be drawn through a small hole, through which a Cat might only pass, but not through a Wall. Verily that the Devil cannot break a paper Window without the consent of his Master, is (he saith) manifest by the process and arrest of Ludovicus Godfredus the Witch, pronounced at Aix in Narbona, the last of April 1611. I pray you where have the three pounds of brass, of the Cannon of War, marked with its letters, laid hid? how for so many months hath the dross shined, in what part was the piece of brass greater than the intestine contained? While I was (he saith) shewing a necessary vacuity in the air, I promised that I would declare, that although the penetration of bodies by the primary law of nature, and by the common way of Artificers be forbidden: notwithstanding that while a body doth totally pass over into the dominion of the spirit, and is carried over, and is by that as it were weakened; then bodies do naturally and mutually penetrate one another, at least in that part that is porous: Because that the spirit then doth inclose the body under it self, and therefore as it were taketh away the dimensions.

5. And to confirm and open this point more fully, he saith: I will premise some things. The desire of eating Muscles did invade a Woman with Child. And she eateth some of them so very hastily, that she did devour the raw shells, twice or thrice broken with her teeth. Thereupon by and by within an hour, she bringeth forth a sound and adult Child, with the same half-chewed shells, and wounded in the belly. Therefore the shells without the aperture of the membranes, had forthwith penetrated the Stomach, Womb and Secundines: or else there were new shells generated upon the young Child. Neither could this later be true. For they were the true fragments of the Muscles, and not figuratively framed to the imitation of them. Furthermore, the appetite is not carried to a thing unknown: Therefore the appetite of eating the Muscles was not of the Child, but of the Woman. Therefore it was not necessary that new Muscles should be generated about the Child; for they were desired by the Mother that they might become nutriment to her, not the Child. Otherwise by the same argument of Identity, what things soever should by the appetite be desired, should be generated about the young Child; of whom when they could not be digested, they should be always either left remaining about the Child, or should there putrefie. Which is false both ways: for if it should putrefie, that which is desired would cause abortion; or if it were conserved there, it would be found regularly. For the Child is only nourished by the Navil: Therefore those external Muscles could neither be wished by the Child, nor could be profitable unto it, and by consequence, were neither for an end made anew, but sent to the young one by reason that it was an uterine appetite. The appetite is always directed from the end; but the Woman with Child desired the Muscles not the shells, neither that the Muscle being a living animal might remain in its former state, in which it was unprofitable to the Mother, nor could satisfie her appetite; and therefore much less hath had occasion of generating new and unprofitable shells about the young one. But however it be taken, the appetite was not to the shells twice or thrice broken. For if the Fishes had been taken forth of the shells, she had eaten the fish the shells being left. Therefore the concomitance and concision of the shells were accidental to the appetite. I suppose truly (he saith) that as the desire, terrour, &c. do generate seminal Idea's, which the hand of the Woman with Child doth send down to the young one, and doth depinge or figurate it in a set time: So the joy of finding that which the appetite did desire, doth bring that very thing to the Child. So verily the heaviness of heart of him that swallowed the Knife, the horror of having drunk the Spider, and of the Ear of Barley devoured, did repel or drive back those things beyond the membranes not able to suffer a wound without death. And these things (he saith) of things injected, entring by the ordinary power of nature, without the suspicion of Diabolical cooperation.

6. Now he proceedeth to prove penetration of dimensions by natural power in another way. Something like to these (he saith) appeareth in things that from within are to without taken away, which I will dispatch (he saith) in one or two examples. The Wife of a Taylor of Mechlinia, seeth a Souldier before the doors to lose his hand in a conflict: Forthwith being stricken with horror, she brought forth a Daughter with one hand, the other awanting, with the stump all bloody, which hand of hers could not be found, and the flux of blood killed the Child. The Wife of Marke de Vogeler, a Merchant of Antwerpe in the year 1602. seeing a Souldier begging whose right Arm an Iron Bullet in the Siege of Ostend had taken away, and which he carried about as […]et bloody; by and by after that she brought forth a Daughter […]anting an Arm, and that the right one too, the shoulder of whom […]eing yet bloody the Chirurgion ought to consolidate. She hath Married to a Merchant of Amsterdam, by name Hoochcamer, and is yet living this year 1638. But the right Arm was no where to be found, neither the bones or any corruption did appear, into which the Arm might be wasted in a little hour. But the Souldier not being seen, the Child had two Arms, neither could the Arm that was torn off be annihilated. Therefore the Womb being shut the Arm was taken away. But who tore it away naturally, and whither was it taken? certainly trivial reasons do not square or agree in so great a portent or Paradox. I am not he that will say these things. I will say this at the least: That the Arm was not taken away or torn off by Satan. Furthermore it was of less weight to carry away elsewhere the Arm torn off, than to have torn the Arm from the whole body without death. The Wife of a Merchant (he saith) known unto us, as soon as she heard that thirteen were to be beheaded (it happened at Antwerpe in the time of the Duke of Alva) and Women with Child are led with inordinate appetites, she determined to see the decollations. Thereupon she ascends the Chamber of a Widdow that was a familiar friend to her that lived in the Market-place. And the spectacle being seen, forthwith the pain of Child-birth took her, and she brought forth a full grown infant with a bloody neck, whose head did no where appear.

7. From these most stupendious and almost incredible stories, he draweth these conclusions. I do not find (he saith) that human nature doth abominate the penetration of dimensions, seeing it is most frequent to the seeds of things. For in the seeds of things, that primevous Energie of penetrating bodies, doth yet consist, but not subject to force, art or human arbitrement. For there are many bodies many times more ponderous than the matter of which they are framed. It is necessary (he saith) that more than fifteen parts of water do fall in together into one, that one part of gold may from thence be made. For weight is not made of nothing: but argueth the ponderating matter in the ballance. Therefore water doth naturally penetrate its body so often as the gold doth overweigh the water. Therefore the domestick and daily progress of seeds in Generations, doth require that the body doth penetrate it self by condensation, which is altogether impossible to an Artificer. We grant (he saith) that there are pores in the water, these notwithstanding cannot contain so much as fourteen times the quantity of its whole. Therefore it is ordinary, that some parts of the water do penetrate themselves into one place.

8. And to illustrate this going before he saith: By an example, Aqua fortis doth by its spirit make Brass, Iron or Silver remaining opacous in their natures so transparent that they cannot be seen, and doth pass the metal thorough filtring paper, which otherwise will not transmit, no not the most small powder, which metal doth essentially remain still a metal in specie or kind. But not that the similitude of penetration of dimensions doth uniformly square with the propounded example of the metal. Because reasons do not agree to so great a Paradox, wherein (he saith) I willingly acknowledge the manner to be indemonstrable à priori. Even as no man can know by what means the Idea impressed in the seeds doth figurate, direct, and dispose the things that it hath framed. And therefore we are forced to hunt forth the same à posteriori.

9. From all which he draweth this Conclusion. There is therefore another far different power of incantation, besides the Devils. And therefore natural and free. He hath no Dominion over the just. But if the power of inchanting were free to the Devil, also it would be equally free to him to kill by a Knife or a Maul. And so none should be free. Therefore the Witch (he saith) doth, per ens naturale, form imaginatively a free Idea, which is natural and noxious. Which Idea Satan cannot form. Because that the formation of Idea's do require the Image of God and a free power: And therefore the Witches do operate by a natural force, no less against the just and innocent, than against wicked men. Seeing that inchantments do more easily infect Children than those of ripe age, sooner Women than stout Men: A certain natural power is signified to be limited to the inchantment, to which it is easily resisted by a stout and couragious mind. The Devil therefore offereth filth and poysons to his Clients, that he may knit fermentally Idea's formed in the Imagination of the Witches unto them. And he preserveth that Ideal poyson, that it may not be blown away with the wind, or being covered in the earth, it be not destroyed by putrefaction. But he carrieth that poison locally near to the object, to be inchanted: But to apply it, or carry it into the man, he by no means is able. And therefore the Witch doth also send forth another executive medium, or mean emanative and commanding, which mean is the Idea of a strong desire. For it is inseparable to the desire to be carried about things wished for. To all which the Devil as a Spectator doth assist in the conduction.

10. For (he saith) in truth, I have demonstrated already, that operative means are solely in the power of man. For only God is the most chiefly glorious Creator, to be infinitely praised, who hath Created the Universe forth of nothing. But man as far forth as he is the Image of God doth forth of nothing create certain Entia rationis, or non-Entities in their beginning, and that in the proper gift of the Phantastical virtue. Which are notwithstanding something more than meerly a privative or negative being. For first of all while these conceived Idea's do at length cloath themselves in the species or shape fabricated by the Imagination, they become Entities now subsisting in the middest of that Vestment, to which by the whole they are equally in them. And thus far they are made seminal and operative Entities: of which, to wit their assumed subjects are forthwith totally directed. But this power is given to man alone. Otherwise a seminal power to propagate, is given to the Earth, to Bruits, Plants, &c. Also the Dog by his madness can transfer or change his spittle or saliva into poyson, because it is peculiar to his kind or species. Which also is obvious in divers poysons of animals. But to form Idea's abstracted from their species and adjacent proprieties, that is given to none but man.

Having thus far at large traced his footsteps in these abstruse and mysterious matters, we shall come now to examine them and make some observations upon them. And although we may be sharply censured for taking upon us to question the things that he hath asserted, having been suo grad[…] an Adeptist, a person of profound judgment, great experience, general learning, high reputation, and now generally followed as the Chief Standard-bearer for Philosophy, Physick and Chymistry, that many esteem it no small glory to be called and accounted an Helmontian. Yet notwithstanding this we shall note some observations in this order.

1. He holdeth that the Devil doth only make the things invisible, or hides them by his spirit, and brings them near to the object into which they are to be injected, and that the Witch by the seminal Idea of her imagination, and the strength of her desire as the agent, or efficient cause, doth inject or thrust them into the body of the person, intended to be hurt or tormented; whereby he necessarily supposes a league or contract betwixt the Devil and the Witch, and therefore he calls them the Devils clients and those that are bound unto him. But what kind of contract this should be, explicite or implicite, internal and mental, or corporeal and visible, he tells us not; the latter of which we utterly deny, that it is in the power of the Devil to practise when he pleaseth, as we have before with sufficient arguments demonstrated at large. And for an implicite or mental league, we grant that all thieves, murderers, these kind of malicious and poysoning Witches and all other wicked persons are bound in a spiritual contract unto him: For he is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience. And what wickedness soever he hath tempted and drawn them unto, to be willing to commit, he prompteth and pusheth them on with all his skill and power to perpetrate and execute the same. But still this is to be understood only of his spiritual and invisible assistance, and not of any visible or corporeal aid, for else (as this Author confesseth) he might as well kill with a knife or a maul. And therefore we cannot here pass by the bold and groundless (if not impious) assertion of Sennertus, who though a very learned person in diverse parts of humane literature, yet drawn with the sway of popular opinion, did most miserably lapse in affirming that although Witches do purpose to hurt men, yet that they neither do nor can effect those things, but that the Witches being cast into a profound sleep, the Devil in the mean time acteth those things by himself; and thinks he proves this sufficiently by a fabulous and lying story feigned to be told of a Witch, that being in a deep sleep, when she waked, told that she had been transformed into a Wolf, and had torn in pieces a Cow and a Sheep, which were found to be so, and therefore the Devil must needs have done it. But in this he neither nameth the place, time, nor Author to avouch it, and therefore all reasonable Men may judge how palpable a falsity it is, for then if true it would follow that none could be safe, and that the Devil might kill immediately with swords or knives, which he cannot do.