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1572 · Of Ghosts and Spirits Walking by Night

Ludwig Lavater · 1572

Of Ghosts and Spirits Walking by Night

Ludwig Lavater, a minister of the Reformed church at Zurich, published De spectris in 1570, and this English translation by R. H. appeared two years later. It became the standard Protestant account of ghosts. The first part shows that many supposed apparitions are the fancies of the melancholy, the fearful and the dim-sighted, or frauds by priests and monks, yet that spirits and strange noises and forewarnings do truly occur. The second argues against the Catholic doctrine that they are souls returned from purgatory, treating Samuel and the witch of Endor at length; what appears is a good or evil angel. The third explains why God permits such sights and how Christians should behave when they meet them. The text follows the EEBO-TCP transcription.

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Contents

  1. 1.Title page54 w.
  2. 2.To the reader; dedication to Johann Steiger2,397 w.
  3. 3.Part I, chapters 1–3: Concerning certaine vvordes vvhiche are often vsed in this Treatise of Spirits; and following chapters5,023 w.
  4. 4.Part I, chapters 4–6: Men vvhich are dull of seing and hearing imagine many things vvhich in very…; and following chapters3,733 w.
  5. 5.Part I, chapters 7–8: Timotheus Aelurus counterfeating him selfe to be an Angell; and following chapters4,622 w.
  6. 6.Part I, chapters 9–11: Of a certaine parishe Priest at Clauenna; and following chapters4,014 w.
  7. 7.Part I, chapters 12–14: A proofe out of the Gentiles histories; and following chapters4,948 w.
  8. 8.Part I, chapters 15–17: A proofe by other sufficient vvriters, that Spirits doe sometime appeare; and following chapters5,716 w.
  9. 9.Part I, chapters 18–19: It is proued by testimonies of holy scripture; and following chapters4,074 w.
  10. 10.Part II, chapters 1–3: The opinion or beleefe of the Gentiles, Ievves, and Turkes; and following chapters5,182 w.
  11. 11.Part II, chapters 4–6: Testimonies out of the vvorde of God, that neither the soules of the faithfull; and following chapters4,763 w.
  12. 12.Part II, chapters 7–8: That the true Samuell did not appeare to the vvytche in Endor; and following chapters4,521 w.
  13. 13.Part II, chapters 9–12: VVhether the Diuell haue povver to appeare vnder the shape of a faithfull man?; and following chapters5,001 w.
  14. 14.Part II, chapters 13–18: VVhether soules do returne agayne out of Purgatorie and the place vvhich they…; and following chapters6,201 w.
  15. 15.Part III, chapters 1–4: God by the appearing of Spirits doth exercise the faithfull; and following chapters5,136 w.
  16. 16.Part III, chapters 5–9: Hovv Christian men ought to behaue themselues vvhen they see spirites; and following chapters5,183 w.
  17. 17.Part III, chapters 10–12: That sundrie kyndes of superstition haue crept in; and following chapters4,630 w.