Part I, chapters 9–11: Of a certaine parishe Priest at Clauenna; and following chapters

CHAP. IX. Of a certaine parishe Priest at Clauenna, vvhiche fayned him selfe to be our Lady, and of an other that counterfeited him selfe to be a soule: as also of a certeine disguised Iesuite Frier.

TO the ende we may the better vnderstand[…] this matter, I wil yet rehearse an other history of a certeine parish priest, which chan[…]d a yeare before the other I spake of, whiche is set forth bréefly but yet truly, by loannes Stumpfius, in the German Chronicles of the Heluetians the 20. booke & 8. chapter, wherof also many notable men at this daye beare sufficient witnesse. A certaine parishe priest of Claeuenna, (whiche is a Citie néere the Laake or water Larius in the countrey of Rhetia, béeing farre in loue with an honest and faire mayden, the daughter of a citizen in the same town, oftentimes followed hir, as she went vnto hir fathers barne: and attempted to haue defloured hir, but she euer resisted, & put him backe. In the ende when he saw he could not obteyn his purpose, he priuily stole out of the church a blew cloth, beset with sundry starres, & therewith couering himselfe, saue only yt he left his armes & féete naked, whiche he also berayed with blood, he hideth himselfe without the towne, and there muffling his face with a thinne linnen cloath, méeteth again with the mayd, fayning himself with a coū terfait voyce, to be the blessed virgin Mary. Then in many words he declareth vnto hir diuers plages, which were shortely like to fall on the citie, for the heresies of Luther, (for at other times also he had bitterly inueyed againste Luther, in his open Sermons:) he also commaunded the mayd to shew many things vnto the citizens, touching holydays, fastings, generall processions. &c. And amongst other things he added, that there was a certain holy and religious mā, which had heretofore asked a thing at hir handes in the very same place, which she had hitherto denyed him, but now it was hir pleasure, if he required the same againe, she should in any wise graunt it, if she wold atteyn euerlasting life: and y[…] aboue al thing, she must concele and kéepe close this latter point vnto hir self. The maydē by & by blazed it about all ye citie, yt our Lady had visibly appeared vnto hir, & foretold hir of sundry plages likely to happē vnto ye citie. The inhabitantes taking good aduise on this matter, at the laste for feare of these imminent dangers & plages, gaue cōmandement, that thrée days should bée kept holy. In the which time the maid, supposing she should do high seruice to the uirgin Mary, fulfilleth the lust of that wicked knaue. This trecherie & deceyt being shortly after detected by the wonderfull prouidence of God, the varlet was first beheaded, and afterward brent in fire.

Erasmus Roterodamus writeth in his .xxij. booke of Epistles, vnto a certain bishop, excusing himself, touching certain points, which he had moued vnto him, to the ende he should be very circumspect: and amongst other things, making mention there of spirites or wandring soules, he reporteth this historie. There was (sayth he) a certain parish priest, who had dwelling with him in his house, a néece of his, a woman wel stored with money: Into whose chamber he would oftentymes priuily conuey himselfe, being disguysed in a shéete like vnto a Spirit: And then he cast forth a doubtfull voice, hoping that the woman woulde either procure a coniurer, for hir helpe, or els hir selfe make him aunswere. But she hauing a manlike courage, priuily requesteth one of hir friends to lodge in hir chamber secretely all night. The man being armed with a club in sted of other coniuring tooles, and being well tippled with drinke, to auoide feare, hideth him self in the bed. Sodaynly cōmeth the spirit roring very miserably: The coniurer with his club awaketh, leapeth out of his bed scant sober, and setteth vpon him. Then the spirite with his voyce and gesture beginneth to make him afrayd. But the drunken coniurer soone answered him: If (quod he) thou be ye diuel I am thy mother: & therwith catching hold on him, all to be beat him with his club, & would also haue slayn him, if he had not chaunged his voyce, and cried, O spare me for Gods sake, I am no soule, but I am sir Iohn. Which voice when the woman heard and knewe, she leapes out of hir bed, and partes the fraye. &c. The same Erasmus writeth in the forsayd […]pistle, that this Priest vpon Ester eue, put lyue crabs priuely into ye churchyard, hauing wax candles on light cleauing to their sides: whiche when they crauled amongst the graues, séemed to be suche a terrible sighte, that no man durst approch néere them. Hereof rose a fearfull reporte, wherewith all men béeing amazed, the priest declareth to ye people in the pulpit, that they were ye soules of dead men which desired to be deliuered out of their torments by Masses & almes déeds. This deceyte was espied by these means: that at the last one or two of the crabbes were found amongst ye rubbish, hauing the candles done out cleauing on their backs, which ye priest had not takē vp.

Georgius Buchananus, prince of all Poets in this […]ur age, reporteth an historie in his Comedie called Franciscanus, of one Langus a priest, who falsly affirming that in a field of Scotlāde full of Brimstone there were soules miserablie tormented, which continually cried for helpe an[…] succor, suborned a countrye clowne whom he would coniure, as if he had bin one of those soules. Which disceyte of his, y[…] husbandmā afterward discouered whē he was drūk. I woulde heare repeate his verses, but that his bookes are nowe in euery mans hands. While I was writing these things, it was reported vnto me by credible persons, that in August[…], a noble citie of Germanye, this present yeare 1569. there was a mayde and certeine other men seruants in a great mans family, which litle regarded the sect of the Iesuite Friers: & that one of the sayd order made promise to their master, that he would easyly bring thē to an other opinion: & so disguising him selfe like vnto a Dyuell was hid in a priuie corner of ye house: vnto the which place, one of the maides going, either of hir owne accorde to fetch[…] some thing, or being sente by hir master, was by ye disguised Iesuite made maruellously afrayde: whiche thing she presently declared vnto one of the mē seruants, exhorting him in any wise to take héede of the place. Who shortly after going to the sam[…] place, & laying hold on his dagger, sodeynly stabbed in the counterfeit diuell, as he came rushing on him. This history, is written in dutche verses, and put in print, and nowe almost in euery mans hands.

CHAP. X. That it is no maruell if vayne sightes haue bene in olde time, neither yet that it is to be maruelled at, if there be any at this day.

MAny other like examples might be brought but these may suffize to proue euidently, to what point ambition, couetousnesse, enuy, hatrede, stubburn̄esse, idlenesse and loue, do most commonly driue men.

We sée by common experience, that proude ambitious men dare aduenture any thing. If they may hurt or hinder other men by accusations, slanders, or any other ways or meanes, whom they suppose may preiudice or let their exalting to honor, they sticke not at all to doo it. What maruell is it then that Monkes and Priests, which desire to be aloft, indeuor now a days to purchase vnto themselues authoritie by false miracles, vayne apparitions, and suche other lyke trumperie.

All men knowe what a pernitious thing couetousnesse is. For they which are not contented to liue with a little, but will néedes be rich, neyther care for any man, nor yet spare any man. Hungry guttes séeke sundry wayes to fill themselues: fewe willingly endure hunger. Wherefore it is not to be maruelled at, if amongst Monkes & priests at these our dayes, who haue b[…]n euer reported to be couetous, there be some found, which by false apparitions of soules, séeke their gaines, inuenting holy pilgrimages, and other baytes to get money For what wil not idle & slouthfull lubbers attempt to purchase riches? Doth not Saint Paule say, that those whiche wil waxe ryche by idlenesse, fall into the snares of the Diuell?

Emulation, wilfulnesse, enuie hatred, contention, desire to ouercome, what they may do, what they may bring to passe, dayly experience teacheth vs. The preachers of Berna, whē they perceiued thei could not ouercom their aduersaries by any other meanes, yelded thēselues (which is horrible to be spoken) vnto the Deuil, making him one of their counsel. And who can deny but ye priests now adayes are also for the most part, stubborn, and full of contention.

Idlenesse is the nurse and mother of all mischiefe: what goodnesse then may ye looke for of them, which not only exercise thē selues in no labours prescribed by God, neyther yet apply them selues to good learning, but day and night play the gluttons? Tell me I pray thee, whether the laboring husbandman, or the idle man, who alwayes spent his time in inuenting pernitio[…]s mischieues, firste found out those cruel instruments of warre which they call gunnes.

It might be declared in many words what loue is able to do. Now bicause Monks and priests liue idlely, abounding in all wantonnesse, and yet are restrayned from holy mariage, what maruell is it if at this time also they faine and counterfeite many visions, that they might therby the eas[…]er enioy their loue? And here I will not say it is to be feared, that there are many amongst them so wicked and villanous, as to exercise and practise magicall artes, & such like, which are vtterly forbidden. Who can then maruell hereafter, if it be sayd, they counterfaite spirits, affirming they haue let men sée this or that soule? For in what men soeuer these vices bée, whiche we haue rehearsed, surely those dare boldely aduenture any thing.

No kinde of men are more obnoxious to these kinde of things, than those whiche leade their life in monasteries, and colleges: & therfore no mā ought to maruell or thinke it a straunge thing, if we say that in times past many false visions haue bin practised, and may also at this daye likewise happen. For the world, as all men iustly complayne, waxeth worse and worse. Men are now more impudent more bould, more couetous, and more wicked, than euer they were in times past.

Moreouer the cleargie of Rome haue in many places this prerogatiue aboue others, that most men (especially such as are led by superstition) make much of them, worshipping them with great reuerence, no man so muche as suspecteth them to apply their minds to euill matters, to subtiltie, crafte, and disceyte: al men looke for other things at theyr handes. If therefore they addict them selues to euill deuises, they may easily deceyue men, excepte God miraculously reuele their wickednesse, & bring it to light, as we declared in a fewe examples rehearsed before.

And perchaunce for this cause also priests and Monks could not be so well blamed, for their so often deceyuing plaine meaning folks with crafte and subtiltie, in so much as some of theyr most holy fathers, I meane Popes of Rome haue bin very cunning in magicall sciences, as their owne historiographers affirme, and by meanes of those artes, haue aspired to the high top of Popedome, Beno (or rather Bruno, for so I iudge his name is) who was also a Cardinall, set foorth the life of Pope Gregorie the seuenth, in writing, in the whiche he sheweth the sayde bishop to haue bin a proude, arrogante, malitious and couetous Monke, and that he was thoroughly séene in the blacke arte of Negromancie. Bartholomeus Platina (who béeing a sworne seruaunt with the Pope, excusing their faults as much as he can) writeth of Siluester the seconde, yt he gaue him selfe to the Deuill, & that by his meanes, his counsell & magical deuises, he atteined ye great office of papacie. Do ye thinke, yt it is a hard thing for him that is confederat wt the enimy of mākinde, to faine spirits & soules, or to cōiure a Deuill, to make mē beleue he were a s[…]ule, do you think such men abhorre to do such mischiefe? The Historiographers report that Bonifacius the 8. deceyued his predecessor Celestinus, by a voice sent through a cane réede, as though it had come frō Heauen, persuading him to gyue ouer hys office of popeship, and to institute therin, one Bonifacius a woorthier man than he, except he woulde be thrust out of the kingdom of heauen. The poore simple Pope obeying this voyce, ordeyned Bonifacius Pope in his steade, in the yeare of our Lord .1254. who first brought in the yeare of Iubile. Of this Boniface, the common people wold say, He came in lyke a Fox, he raigned lyke a Wolfe, and died lyke a Dog. If the very vicar of Christ, who hathe all knowledge as it were fast lockt in the Coffer of his brest, could be deceyued, lette no man maruel any more if simple credulous husbandmen and citezens haue ben deceyued, and that it hath bin sayd to them: God spake this: This soule did aske helpe: and suche like things, whiche are most false and vayne. Yf this man coulde counterfeite the voice of God, coulde he not also faine the voice of dead men?

Before I procéede any further, this is also to be obserued, that plesant conceited fellowes, may often times deceaue the priests them selues. For when the priests dyd brag, that they coulde coniure Spirits and deliuer mens soules: it may be that other being wrapped in shéets, hauing vnderneth them liue coales in an earthen pot, appeared vnto priests, who by and by were persuaded they sawe soules which required their helpe to be deliuered. Erasmus in his Colloquio or talke which he intituled Exorcismus, ve[…]pectrum, or a coniuration or vision, writeth howe one Polus maruellously deceaued a priest called Faustus. But there is nodoubt but that priests being many times deceyued in iest by the lay men for pastimes sake, haue on the other side more often times beguiled them in earnest.

I haue spoken hetherto of men being awake, and now I will adde a feaw words of suche as sléepe. There be many which haue suche a kinde of disease, that they walke in their sléepe: which thing we reade to haue bin true in one Theon a Stoicke, and in Pericles seruaunt, who in theyr sléepe, climed vp to the top of the house. I haue hearde of some which in their sléepe haue done that which béeing awake, they could not do by any meanes. If a man sée suche a one walking in the night, eyther appareled or naked, and after heare him say he was at ye same time in his bed, he will straight thinke, it was his soule that he sawe, the like will he do if he heare suche a one at his owne house.

CHAP. XI. That many naturall things are taken to be ghosts.

THere happen dayly many things by the ordinary course of nature, whiche diuers mē, especially they that are timorous and fearfull, suppose to be visions or Spirits. As for example, when they heare the crying of rats, cats, weasels, martins, or any other beast, or when they heare a horse beate his féete on the plankes in the stable at midnight, by & by they sweate for feare, supposing some buggs to walke in the dead of the night. Sometimes a bitter, or hearne (which birds are seldome séene with vs in Germany) or some other straunge birdes, make a noyse in ye aire: many fooles straight wayes dreame, they haue hearde I wote not what. If a worme whiche fretteth wood, or that bréedeth in trées chaunce to gnawe a wall of waynescot, or other tymber, many will iudge they heare one softly knocking vppon an anduill with a sledge: and sometimes they imagine they heare many hammers at one time. Simple foolish mē hearing these things, imagine, I know not howe, that there be certayne elues or fairies of the earth, and tell many straunge and maruellous tales of them, which they haue heard of their grandmothers and mothers, howe they haue appeared vnto those of the house, haue done seruice, haue rocked the cradell, and (which is a signe of good lucke) do continually tary in the house. If suche dwarfes or elues haue bin séene at any time, surely they were euill Spirits. For we reade that the Gentiles in tyme past, had their familiar or houshold gods, whome they worshipped with greate deuotion, bicause (as they thought) they toke care of their house, and defended their familie: and vnto these men, euill spirites did somtimes appeare, therby to confirme them the more in their blynde superstition.

Olaus magnus Archbishop of Vpsalia, writeth in his historie de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, that euen at this day also, there are spirites séene in these countries, which hauing the shape of men, do mē seruice in the night, dressing their horsse, and looking to their cattell. The wind in the night, ouerthroweth some thing, or shaketh a casement or lid of the window: many by and by thinke they sée a spirite, and can very hardly be brought from y[…] vayn opinion.

This thing is also according to nature, that when a mā either crieth or speaketh in the woods, valeys, or other hollow places, Echo will resound the later word or sillable, so playnly many times, that a man wold verily thinke some liuing body made him answere agayn. Many would be afrayd hereof at al tymes, but especially in the night season, except he knew very well it were a naturall thing.

Cardanus in his booke de subtilitate lib. 18, rehearseth a maruellous historie of one Comensis, who very late in the night, comming to a riuers side, not knowing where he might passe ouer, called cut aloude for some body to shewe him the foorde, and when the Echo made him answere, hée supposing it to be a man, asked him if he might passe ouer héere: to whom the Echo answered again in ye Italiā tong, Here, here. But in ye place was a whirlepoole, & a great roring of the water: Therfore ye man douting, asketh once or twice againe, whether the riuer might be past ouer in the same place: to which ye Echo answered stil y[…] it might. In ye end, when he had escaped the passage without daunger, he told his frends, how by the persuasion of the diuell, he had almost thrown himself hedlong into the riuer, and drowned himself. In the same place, he sayth, yt the great Hall at Ticinium in Italy, dothe render sundry and manyfolde voices, if one speak in it, and that the voyces as it were die and make an end much lyke a mans voyce, when he lyeth a dying, in so much that a man can scant be persuaded it is the noyse of Echo.

There are certayne things whiche shyne only in the nighte, as some precious stones doo, the eyes of certaine beastes, a Gloewoorme, or gloebearde, as also some kynd of rotten wood, wherewith many times children so terrifie their playfellowes, that they imagine with themselues, to sée euil spirits, or men al burning wt fire. Hector Boethius writeth, yt a certain king of Scots caused some of his men to be disguised in garments with brighte shyning scales, hauing in their hands rotten wood in stede of s[…]aues and so to appeare to his nobilitie and lordes in the night, exhorting them to fight couragiously with their enimies, and promising them to obtein victorie. Wherby the noble men supposing they had séene angels, behaued themselues valiantly, and atchieued the victorie.

Many tymes candles and small fiers appeare in the night, and séeme to run vp and downe. And as the yong men in Heluetia, who with their firebrands whiche they light, at the bonfires in Shroftide, somtime gather them selues together, and then scatter abrode, and agayne, méeting togither, march in a long ranke: euen so do those f[…]ers sometime séeme to come togither, and by and by to be seuered & run abroade, and at the last to vanish clean away. Somtime these f[…]ers go alone in the night season, and put such as sée them, as they trauel by night, in great fear. But these things, and many suche lyke haue their natural causes: and yet I will not denye, but that many tymes Dyuels delude men in this manner.

Natural Phylosophers wryte, that thicke exhalations aryse out of the earthe, and are kyndled. Mynes full of sulphur and brimstone, if the ayre enter vnto it, as it lyeth in the holes and veines of the earth, will kindle on fier, and striue to get out. Sometimes fier bursteth out of the earth, as high as a tall trée, and is soddenly put out agayne. Whiche thing is to be thought to procéede of fierie matter, séeking a vent to gushe out at. We reade of the mount Aetna in Cicilie, that in times past it burnte continually, day & night, casting forth flames of fier, fiery stones and ashes in great abundaunce. The like is read also at Vesunius a hill in Campaine, about a Germaine mile from Naples: The same hill in ye time of Titus the Emperour, as S. Hierom reporteth, cast foorth of it so much fier, that it burnt the countrie, and cities, and people rounde about it, and filled the fieldes adioyning full of cinders and ashes. These two hilles, euen in our dayes boyling with greate heate, haue very muche indamaged the people inhabiting thereabout. In Iseland, as Olaus Magnus witnesseth are found fiers which breake out of the earth. And as whole hilles and mountaines may burne, euen so may a little fier be kindled in the earth, & yet wander very large. They whiche trauelling by the way, or by some other meanes chaunce to sée these things, and know not the naturall causes of them, imagin by reason of feare, that they haue sene men burning like fier, or some other straunge thing, which they haue heard other men talk of. And by meanes of their great feare, often times they fall into greate daungerous diseases.

The arte perspectiue doth also worke this wonderfull feate, that diuers and sundrie shapes will appeare in glasses made and sette togither after a certeyne artificiall sorte: some times they will séeme to go out of the dores, and resemble menne of oure familiar acquayntaunce. Many things in very déede are naturall, althoughe wée can not fynde any naturall reason for them.

And yet by the way, they shewe them selues too foolishe, which labour to bring al things to natural causes. Here I will say nothing of those men, which can beare plain and rude people in hande, that they, or some other of their acquaintance, haue séen strange things, which they earnestly auouche to be true, when as in déede there was no such, thing. Howe often I pray you, do we heare things affirmed as true, which afterwarde proue moste false: as that one was caryed away body and soule, that an other was put to death, and an infinite number of suche like reports.