Of the Nature of Spirits (Pictorius’ Isagoge), part 1 of 4

ISAGOGE: An Introductory DISCOURSE Of the nature of such Spirits as are excercised in the sublunary bounds; their Original, Nam[…]s, Offices, Illusions, power, Prophesies, Miracles; and how they may be expelled and driven away.

By Geo. Victorius Villinganus Dr. in Physic.

In a Discourse between CASTOR and POLLUX.

Castor. THE Greeks do report, that Castor and Pollux have both proceeded from one Egg; but this I scarcely credit, by reason of the difference of your minds; for thou affectest the heavens, but she meditates upon the earth and slaughters.

Pollux. And from thence perhaps was derived that argument, That liberty of lying was always assigned to the Greeks.

Castor. Principally.

Pollux. But it is not to be supposed that the Greeks are vain in all things; but as many others, when they speak out of a three-footed thing; whereof also the Poet Ovid speaks in verse, — Nec singunt omnia Graeci.

Castor. In this proverb I protest they are most true, without any exception, that is, one Man to another is a Devil.

Pollux. Wherefore believest thou this to be most true, Castor?

Castor. Truly, that man to man is a devil and a ravening wolf, daily events do most certainly prove, if we do but note the treacheries that one man invents daily against another, the roberies, thefts, plunderings, rapes, slaughters, deceits, adulteries, and an hundred vipers of this nature; the fathers persecutes the son, with a serpentine and poisonous biting; one friend seeks to devour another, neither can the guest be safe with his host.

Pollux. I confess it is truth thou speakest; but for ought I hear, thou dost misunderstand the Etymology of the word compared in this Proverb; for Daemon here it is not an horrible or odious name, but the name of one that doth administer help or succour unto another, and whom Pliny calls a God.

Castor. Therefore dost thou affirm the word Daemon in this Proverb to signify any other than a cunning and malicious accuser?

Pollux. Thou hast not shot besides the mark: for, that there are more Daemons than that sublunary one which thou understandest, every one may easily perceive; who hath not negligently read the opinions of the most excellent Plato.

Castor. I desire therefore, that thou wouldst not conce[…]l such his writings; but that I may apprehend the marrow thereof.

Pollux. I will embrace such thy desire, for truly I do delight to treat with thee concerning this subject; mark therefore and give attention.

Plato divided the order of Devils or Spirits into three degrees, which as they are distinct in the greatness of their dignity, so also they are different in the distance and holding of their places. And the first order he ascribeth to those spirits whose bodies are nourished of the most pure element of air, wrought and joined together, in a manner, as it were with splended threads, not having so much reference to the element of fire, that they may be perspicuous to the sight; neither do they so much participate of the earth, that they may be touched or felt; and they do inhabit the Coelestial theatre attending and waiting on their Prince, not to be declared by any human tongue, or beyond the commands of the most wise God.

But the other degree is derived from those Spirits which Apuleius termeth rational animals, passive in their mind, and eternal in their time, understanding the apostate spirits spread abroad from the bounds and borders of the Moon, unto us under the dominion of their Prince Beelzebub, which before the fall of Lucifer had pure clarified bodies; and now, like unto the former, do wander up and down, after their transgression, in the form of an airy quallity.

Castor. These I do not conceive are understood in the Greek Proverb: for these do hurt, and are the accusers and betrayers of men, But proceed.

Pollux. The third degree of spirits is of a divine deity, which is called by Hermes, a divine miracle to man, if he do not degenerate from the Kingly habit of his first form; whom therefore of this kind the Greeks and Plato have called Daemons, that is, God; and that man may be like unto God, and profitable and commodious one to another; and so also (the Syrian being witness) we have known Plato himself to have been called Daemon, because he had set forth very many things of very high matters, for the good of the commmon wealth; and so likewise Aristotle, because he very largely disputed of sublunaries, and all such things as are subject to motion and sense. Homer calleth good and evil Spirits, Daemons, without putting a discrimination.

Castor. Thou hast committed the ship to the waves Pollux; therefore cease not to proceed, and declare something more concerning the Office and imployment of these Spirits, to whom Plato attributeth the second degree, and calleth them Lunaries.

Pollux. What shall I say?

Castor. In the first place, declare wherefore thou hast before termed these spirits cunning and much knowing accusers.

Pollux. St. Augustine unfoldeth this difficulty, and saith, that a Devil doth so far signify the cunning and much knowing quickness and vivacity of his deceitful wit, that by the congruent and agreeable seminal mixture of elements, he doth so know the secret and unknown virtues of men, as those things which may be effected and wrought by themselves successively and leisurely according to the course of nature, he by a speedy hasting or forcing of the works of nature, or by his own art, sooner bringeth the same to pass. An example hereof he giveth in the wise men of Pharoah, who immediately brought forth frogs and serpents at the commandment of the King, which nature more slowly and leisurely procreateth.

Castor. Thou hast excellently answered to the question, Pollux; but add something concerning the original of those Spirits which do resist and refuse virtue; for oftentimes doubting, I have been persuaded that such Erynnes as are from God, do not appear out of the earth.

Pollux. The Ecclesiastical Scripture every where maketh mention of the rising of them; but I will unfold such a doubt: and there do arise many and various opinions of writers, but more commonly Peter Lombardus in his book of Sentences, draweth his Allegations out of St. Augustine upon Genesis; to wit, that the Devil was before his fall an Archangel, and had a fine tender body, composed by God, out of the serenity and purest matter of the sky and air, but then after his fall from an Archangel, he was made an Apostate, and his body no more fine and subtil; but his body was made that it might suffer the effect of a more gross substance, from the quality of the more obscure, dark, and spissious air, which body also was stricken and astonished with the raging madness of pride, did draw away very many which were then Angels with him into his service and bondage, that they might be made Devils, who in this troublesome world do exercise their servile courses for him, and they do compel the inhabitants therein, or rather entice them; and to this purpose they undertake various endeavours, and do attempt various and manifold horrible studies, that are abominable unto God, and they serve in slavery and thraldom to Beelzebub their Prince, and are held in most strong captivity.

Castor. What? have we the fall of this Archangel no where else in holy writ, but in the writings of St. Augustine.

Pollux. We have also the fall of other Angels.

Cast[…]r. Where?

Pollux. In Esaias, to whom thou shalt give the honour of an Evangelist, rather than a Prophet, because he so fully and plainly foretold of Christ and his kingdom: he maketh mention here of in his 14 Chapter. And we have them also spoken of by the Apostle Peter, when he saith, God sp[…]red not his Angels which sinned. 2 Epist. 2.

Castor. Have the Devils a select place appointed them by God, which they inhabit?

Pollux. Peter the head of the Church, in the place before quoted, affirmeth them to be c[…]st headlong into […]ell, reserved in t[…]e c[…]ains of hell, from whence (as Cortesius […]ith […] go out, unless it be to tempt, provok[…] and […] m[…]n. But St. Augustine the ch[…]pion […]f Christ, in his book of the ago[…]y […], teach[…]th, That these kin[…] sublunar[…] r[…] gion. And in his 4[…] Epist. he […]et[…] f[…]rth, That the most dark an[…], is predestin[…]ted […] may the more nearly […] the[…]r […] of […] and detaining.

Castor. Origen hath taught, that the p[…]ishment of the Devils are appointed for a time; what sayst thou to this?

Pollux. What shall I say? unless I should bewail and deplore the opinion of so great a man.

Castor. Wherefore shouldst thou do so?

Pollux. Truly if they have hardened themselves in wickedness, time cannot purge nor cleanse them; or if they never so much desire it, they can never be able to accomplish it; for there is no space of repentance, nor time to recall what is past, given unto them.

Castor. Thou hast now declared that the Archangel that became an Apostate, did draw away very many other Angels with him in his fall, that they might become Devils: could not he of his own proper inseperate mallice after his fall sufficiently rule over his own Province, without the Angels that fell with him?

Pollux. He could: but being allured by that pride, which made him so arrogantly affect the Majesty of God, he did so far strive to be like unto God, that he chose very many Ministers, unto himself, to which in general he doth not commit all things he would have effected, but divers things to divers Ministers, as may be gathered from the Hebrew Astronomers. Those which we call Jovii & Antemeridianii, which are false Gods, that is, lyers, which desire to be esteemed and adored for Gods, and they are appointed as Servants and slaves to the Devil their Prince, that they might allure the people of the earth into a common love of themselves, which Plato saith, Is the fountain of all wickedness, that they may aspire to authority and greatness, covet to be gorgeously clothed, to be called Monarchs of the earth in perpetual power, and Gods upon earth. It is said, that it was one of these that spoke to our Saviour, shewing him all the Kingdoms of the earth, saying, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Castor. Certainly these Meridiani, I have almost declared to appear a madness in Libieus Sapho and Dioclesian the Emperor, who accounted, it the utmost degree of blessedness was, to be reputed for Gods.

Pollux. Truly, this is a certain natural foolishness of the mind, and of human nature: he began, having taken certain little birds, to teach them by little and little to pronounce human words, and say, Sapho is a great God. Which birds when they could pronounce the words perfectly, he sent them abroad for this end and purpose, that flying every where abroad, they might repeat those words; and the people which were ignorant of his deceitful invention, were drawn to believe, that those words were spoken by divine instinct, and thereupon adore and worship him for a God. The other would compel his Subjects hereunto, that prostrating themselves down, and lifting up their hands, they should worship him as Almighty.

Castor. But are not they the captives of the Devil, who s[…]ir up wars, which are called bloody-men in Scripture?

Pollux. The Martialists of the north part of the world, are called executioners of vengeance authors of devastations, and sowers of evil, wor[…]ing and executing judgment with Asmod[…]us, for their King Abadaon or Applyon, whom St. John in his Rvelations, mentioneth to be ban[…]hed and expelled; for these Spirits h[…]ve committed to them rapines, hatred, envy, robberies, wrath, anger, the excitements and provocations to sin, war and fury; sometimes making the Meridional Spirits their M[…]ssengers. And Arioch the Spirit of vengence, whose work is to cause discord among brethren, to break wedlock, and disolve conjugal love, that it's impossible to be renewed; of these mention is made in the 39 Chapter of Ecclesiast[…]c[…]s. And Esaias the heavenly Prophet speaketh of other Spirits sent from God to the Aegyptians to make them err, which were spirits of darkness, that is, of lies: and this kind of spirit they call Bolichim.

Castor. Is unlawful venery, and excessive gluttony, also to be imputed to the Devils?

Pollux. Yes chiefly; for Iamblicus doth assert, That the Spirits of the the water of the western part of the world, and some meridional Spirits, are pred[…]stinated to this purpose; such as Nisrach and Kollen, that do so frame and contrive unlawful loves which produce shame and dishonesty, revellings and gr[…]andizings, surfeitings, with excessive drunken[…]ss, wanton dances, gluttony and vomiting, t[…]ey […] about lakes, fish-ponds and rivers, a[…] are the worst, soul and most fraudulent kind […]f Spiri[…]s: an[…] by Al[…]inach an occidental spir[…]; […]e […] se[…]k s[…]ipwrecks, tempests, earthquakes, […] and frequ[…]ntly subverteth and over-[…] ships; and if he will appear visible, he […] and is seen in the shape of a woman. The […] Astronomers before spoken of, do say, […] spirits of the air, do cause thunders, […] and t[…]underbolts, that so they might […] and infect the air, and produce pestilence […]. Of such kind of spirits St. John […] in the 9 Chapter of the Revela[…], […] Meceris for their tutelar, which is a spirit causing heat in the time of noon. St. Paul calle[…]h him, The prince of the power of the air, and the spirit that ruleth in the children of disobedience.

Castor. Are there so many monsters in phlegeton, Pollux?

Pollux. And many more; for the same Hebrew Assertors do declare and maintain, that there are are spirits of the fiery element, raging about like the fierce Panthers, which are conversant under the lunary regions, that whatsoever is committed to them, they forthwith execute the same. And there are spirits of the earth, which inhabit in groves, woods and wildernesses, and are the plague and mischief of hunters; and sometimes they frequent open fields, endeavouring to seduce travellers and passengers out of their right way, or to deceive them with false and wicked illusions; or else they seek to afflict men with a hurtful melancholy, to make them furious or mad, that they may hurt them, and sometimes almost kill them. The chief of these are Sanyaab and Achimael, which are oriental spirits, a kind unapt for wickedness, by reason of the constancy of their dispositions. There are also subterranean spirits which do inhabit in dens and caverns of the earth, and in remote concavities of mountains, that they might invade deep pits, and the bowels of the earth; these do dig up metals, and keep treasures, which oftentimes they do transport from one place to another, lest any man should make use thereof: they stir up winds with flashing flames of fires: they smite the foundations of buildings, acting frightful dances in the night, from which they suddenly vanish away, with making a noise and sound of bells, thereby causing fear in the beholders; and sometimes dissembling, and faining themselves to be the souls of the dead: notwithstanding they are ignorant in compassing their deceits upon women; of which company the Negromancers do say, is Gazael, Fegor and Anarazol, Meridian spirits.

Castor. How warily ought a man to walk Pollux, amongst so many gins and snares?

Pollux. A man never walketh safely, unless he fortify and strengthen himself with the armour of God, which is, that his loins be girt about him with truth, and having on the breast-plate of righteousness, let him walk with his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and let him take the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation, whereby he shall dash in pieces all the darts of his adversaries. But hear further: there are also besides these, other lying spirits (although they are all lyars) yet these are more apt to lie; they are called Pythons, from whence Apollo is called Pythius. They have a Prince, of whom mention is made in the book of the Kings, where it is said, I will be a lying Spirit in the mouth of all thy prophets; from whom the spirits of iniquity do but a little differ, which also are called vessels of wrath. Belial, whom they have interpreted to be without any equal, and Paul calleth him an apostate or transgressor, is filthily inserviant for the worst inventions. Plato affirmeth Theut to have have been such a one, who was the first that found out and invented plays and dice: to whom we will join the Monk, who invented the use of Gunpowder, in his Engins of war. Of these Jacob makes mention in Genesis. where he blessed his Sons: he saith, Simeon, and Levi are bloody vessels of iniquity; Oh my soul, come not thou into their counsels. The Psalmist termeth these Spirits, vessels of death; Jeremiah, ves[…]els of wrath; Ezekiel, calleth them, vessels of death and destruction. The N[…]gromancers do call the said Belial, Chodar, an oriental spirit, which hath under him also the spirits of Juglers, who do imitate and endeavour to act miracles, that they may seduce false Magicians and wicked persons. It is apparently manifest, that the serpent which deceived Eve, was such a seducer, and Satan is his Prince, of whom it is spoken in the Revelations, that he should deceive the whole world. And such a one was he, that at Tubinga, in the sight of many people devoured a whole Chariot and some horses.

Castor. And what shall be the end of these false Prophets and workers of wickedness? I can scarce believe that there is any angle or corner in the whole fabrick of the world, that is free from them.

Poll. Scarce the smallest mite that may be seen.

Castor. Therefore thou dost truly call the world the receptacle of those f[…]lse lights.