Book III, chapters 42–45: Necromancy, the powers and degrees of the soul, soothsaying and frenzy

CHAP. XLII. By What wayes the Magicians and Necromancers do think they can call forth the souls of the dead.

BY the things which have been already spoken, it is manifest that souls after death do as yet love their body which they left, as those souls do whose bodies want a due buriall or have left their bodies by violent death, and as yet wander about their carkasses in a troubled and moist spirit, being as it were allured by something that hath an affinity with them; the means being known by the which in times past they were joyned to their bodies, they may easily be called forth & allured by the like vapours, liquors and savours, certain artificiall lights being also used, songs, sounds and such like, which do move the imaginative and spirituall Harmony of the soul; also sacred invocations, and such like, which belong to Religion, ought not to be neglected, by reason of the portion of the rationall soul, which is above nature: So the witch is said to have called up Samuel, and the Thessalian prophetesse in Lucan, to have caused a carcasse to stand upright: Hence we read in Poets, and those who relate these things, that the souls of the dead cannot be called up without blood and a carkasse: but their shadowes to be easily allured by the fumigations of these things; egges being also used, and milk, honey, oil, wine, water, flowre, as it were yeelding a fit medicine for the souls to reassume their bodies, as you may see in Homer, where Circe at large instructeth Ulysses; yet they think, that these things can be done in those places only where these kinds of souls are known to be most conversant, either by reason of some affinity, as their dead body alluring them, or by reason of some affection imprinted in their life, drawing the soul it self to certain places, or by reason of some hellish nature of the place; and therefore fit for the punishing or purging of souls: places of this kind are best known by the meeting of nocturnall visions and incursions, and such like Phantasmes; Some are sufficiently known by themselves, as buriall places and places of execution, and where publike slaughters have lately been made, or where the carkasses of the slain, not as yet expiated, nor rightly buried, were some few yeers since put into the ground; for expiation and exorcisation of any place, and also the holy right of buriall being duely performed to the bodies, oftentimes prohibiteth the souls themselves to come up, and driveth them farther off the places of judgement; Hence Necromancy hath its name, because it worketh on the bodies of the dead, and giveth answers by the ghosts and apparitions of the dead, and subterrany spirits, alluring them into the carkasses of the dead, by certain hellish charms, and infernall invocations, and by deadly sacrifices, and wicked oblations; such we read in Lucan of Erichthone the witch, who called up the dead, who foretold to Sextus Pompey all the event of the Pharsalian War: There were also in Phigalia a city of Arcadia, certain magicians, priests most skilful in sacred rites, & raisers up of the souls of the dead: and the holy scriptures testifie, that a certain woman a witch called up Samuels soul: Even so truely the souls of the saints do love their bodies, and hear more readily there, where the pledges of their reliques are preserved: but there are two kinds of Necromancy, the one called Necyomancy, raising the carkasses, which is not done without blood. The other Sciomancy, in which the calling up of the shadow only sufficeth: to conclude, it worketh all its experiments by the carkases of the slain, and their bones and members, and what is from them, because there is in these things a spirituall power friendly to them. Therefore they easily allure the flowing down of wicked spirits, being by reason of the similitude and propriety very familiar: by whom the Necromancer strengthened by their help can do very much in humane and terrestriall things, and kindle unlawfull lusts, cause dreams, diseases, hatred and such like passions, to the which also they can confer the powers of these souls, which as yet being involved in a moist and turbide spirit, and wandering about their cast bodies, can do the same things that the wicked spirits commit; seeing therfore they experimentally find, that the wicked and impure souls violently plucked from their bodies, and of men not expiated, and wanting buriall, do stay about their carcases, and are drawn to them by affinity, the witches easily abuse them for the effecting of their witchcrafts, alluring these unhappy souls by the apposition of their body or by the taking of some part thereof, and compelling them by their devillish charmes, by entreating them by the deformed carkases dispersed through the wide fields, and the wandering shadowes of those that want burials, and by the ghosts sent back from Acheron, and the guests of hell, whom untimely death hath precipitated into Hell; and by the horrible desires of the damned, and proud devils revengers of wickednesses. But he which would restore the souls truely to their bodies, must first know what is the proper nature of the soul from whence it went forth, with how many and how great degrees of perfection it is replenished, with what intelligence it is strengthened, by what means diffused into the body, by what harmony it shall be compacted with it; what affinity it hath with God, with the intelligences, with the heavens, elements and all other things whose image and resemblance it holdeth. To conclude, by what influences the body may be knit together again for the raising of the dead, requireth all these things which belong not to men but to God only, and to whom he will communicate them, as to Elishai who raised up the son of the Shunamite; so also Alcestis it reported to have been raised by Hercules, and to have lived long after; and Apollonius Tyanensis restored a dead maid to life. And here is to be noted that sometimes it happeneth to men, that their vivifying spirit is retracted in them, and they appear as dead and without sense, when as yet the intellectual nature remaineth united to the body, and it hath the same form, and remaineth the same body, although the power of vivifying extendeth not it self into it actually, but remaineth retracted in the union with the intellectual nature; yet it ceaseth not to be; and although that man may truly be said to be dead, inasmuch as death is a want of a vivifying spirit, yet is it not truly separated; and that body can be wakened again and live; and thus many miracles appear in these; and of this kind many have been seen amongst the Gentiles and Jewes in former ages; in the number of which is that which Plato reciteth in his tenth book de Republ. viz. that one Phereus of Pamphilia lay ten dayes amongst the slain in battle, and after that he had been taken away and laid to the fire two dayes, he revived and told many wonderfull things which he had seen in the time of his death; and concerning these things we have spoken partly in the first book, and shall yet speak further anon where we shall speak of Oracles which come forth in a Rapture, Extasie, and in the Agony of dying men.

CHAP. XLIII. Of the power of mans soul, in the mind, reason and imagination.

MAns soul consisteth of a mind, reason and imagination; the mind illuminates reason, reason floweth into the imagination: All is one soul. Reason unless it be illuminated by the mind, is not free from errour: but the mind giveth not light to reason, unless God enlighten, viz. the first light; for the first light is in God very far exceeding all understanding: wherefore it cannot be called an intelligible light; but this when it is infused into the mind, is made intellectuall, and can be understood: then when it is infused by the mind to the reason, it is made rationall, and cannot only be understood but also considered: then when it is infused by the reason into the phantasie of the soul, it is made not only cogitable, but also imaginable; yet it is not as yet corporeall; but when from hence it goeth into the Celestiall vehicle of the soul; it is first made corporeall, yet not manifestly sensible till it hath passed into the elementall body, either simple and Aerial, or compound in the which the light is made manifestly visible to the eye; The Chaldean Philosophers considering this progresse of light, declare a certain wonderfull power of our mind: viz. that it may come to passe, that our mind being firmly fixed on God, may be filled with the divine power; and being so replenished with light, its beams being diffused through all the media, even to this grosse, dark, heavy, mortall body, it may endow it with abundance of light, and make it like the Stars, and equally shining, and also by the plenty of its beams and lightness lift it on high, as straw lifted up by the flame of fire, and can presently carry the body as a spirit into remote parts. So we read of Philip in the Acts of the Apostles, who baptizing the Eunuch in India, was presently found, in Azotus. The like we read of Habacuc in Daniel: so others going through the doors being shut, escaped both their keepers and imprisonment; as we read of Peter the Apostle and of Peter the Exorcist: He may the lesse wonder at this, who hath seen those famous melancholick men, who walk in their sleepes and passe through places even unpassible, and ascend even unaccessible places, and exercise the works of those that are awake, which they themselves being awake could not do; of the which things there is no other reason in nature, than a strong and exalted imagination: but this power is in every man, & it is in the soul of man from the root of his Creation; but it is varied in diverse men, in strength and weakness, and is encreased and diminished according to his exercise and use, by the which it is drawn forth from power into act, which thing he that rightly knoweth, can ascend by his knowledge, even untill his imaginative faculty doth transcend and is joyned with the universall power, which Alchindus, Bacon, and Gulielmus Parisiensis do call the sense of nature; Virgil, the Etheriall sense, and Plato the sense of the vehicle: and his imagination is made most strong, when that Etheriall and Celestiall power is poured out upon it, by whose brightness it is comforted, untill it apprehend the species, notions and knowledge of true things, so that that which he thought in his mind, cometh to passe even as he thought, and it obtaineth so great power, that it can plunge, joyn and insinuate it self into the minds of men, and make them certain of his thoughts, and of his will and desire, even thorow large and remote spaces, as if they perceived a present object by their senses; and it can in little time do many things, as if they were done without time; yet these things are not granted to all, but to those whose imaginative and cogitative power is most strong and hath arrived to the end of speculation; and he is fitted to apprehend and manifest all things, by the splendour of the universall power, or intelligence and spirituall apprehension which is above him: and this is that necessary power, which every one ought to follow and obey, who followeth the truth; if therefore now the power of the imagination is so great, that it can insinuate it self unto whom it pleaseth, being neither hindred nor let by any distance of time or place, and can sometimes draw its heavy body along with it, whither it imagineth and dreameth: There is no doubt but that the power of the mind is greater, if at any time it shall obtain its proper nature, and being no way oppressed by the allurements of the senses, shall persevere both incorrupted and like it self; but now for example, that the souls abound with so plentifull Light of the Celestiall Stars, and hence, a very great a bundance of light redoundeth into their bodies; so Moses face did shine, that the children of Israel could not behold him by reason of the brightness of his countenance; thus Socrates was transfigured, as we read, that in light he overcame the luciferous wheels of the Sun; So Zoroastes being transfigured, his body was takenup. So Eliah and Enoch ascended to heaven in a certain fiery chariot, so Paul was rapt up into the third heaven: So our bodies after the judgement of the world, shall be called Glorified, and in like manner be rapt up, and we may say by this means, shall shine as the Sun and Moon; which thing that it is possible, and hath formerly been done, Avicebron the Moore, and Avicen the Arabian and Hippocrates of Cous, and all the school of the Chaldeans do acknowledge and confirm: Moreover it is reported in Histories, that Alexander the great being circumvented and in great danger in India, did so burn in mind, that he seemed to the Barbarians to cast forth light; the father of Theodoricus also is reported to have cast forth sparks of fire through his whole body; the same thing a wise man also delivered concerning himself, so that sparkling flames did break forth here and there even with a noise; neither is this power of the soul found in men only, but sometimes even in beasts, as in the horse of Tiberius, who seemed to send forth flames out of his mouth. But the mind is above fate in providence, therefore is not affected either with the influences of the heavenly bodies, or the qualities of naturall things; Religion therefore can only cure it; but the sensitiveness of the soul is in fate, above nature, which is in a certain manner the knot of the body and soul, and under fate, above the body; therefore it is changed by the influences of the heavenly bodies, and affected by the qualities of naturall and corporeall things: now I call the sensitiveness of the soul, that vivifying and rectifying power of the body, the originall of the senses; the soul it self doth manifest in this body its sensitive powers and perceiveth corporeall things by the body, and locally moveth the body, and governeth it in his place, and nourisheth it in a body. In this sensitiveness two most principal powers predominate; viz. one which is called the Phantasy, or imaginative or cogitative faculty, of whose power we have already spoken, where we have handled the passions of the soul: the other which is called the sense of nature, of the which also we have spoken, where we made mention of witchcraft. Man therefore by the nature of his body is under fate; the soul of man, by the sensitiveness moveth nature in Fate, but by the mind is above fate, in the order of providence; yet reason is free at its own choice; therefore the soul by reason ascendeth into the mind, where it is replenished with divine light; sometimes it descendeth into sensitiveness and is affected by the influences of the heavenly bodies, and qualities of naturall things, and is distracted by the passions and the encountring of sensible objects: sometimes the soul revolveth it selfe wholly into reason, searching out other things either by discourse, or by contemplating it self: for it is possible, that that part of the reason, which the Peripateticks call the possible Intellect may be brought to this, that it may freely discourse and operate without conversion to his Phantasmes: for so great is the command of this reason, that as often as any thing incurreth either into the mind, or into the sensitiveness, or into nature, or into the body, it cannot passe into the soul, unless reason apply it self to it; by this means the soul perceiveth it self neither to see, nor hear, nor feel, not that it suffereth any things by the externall senses, untill cogitative reason first apprehend […]t; but it apprehendeth it when it is at leasure, not when it earnestly gapeth after another thing, as we manifestly see by th[…]se who he[…]d not those that they meet, when they more seriously think on some thing else. Know therefore that neither the superiour influences, nor naturall affections, nor sensations, nor passions either of the mind or body, nor any sensible thing whatsoever, can work or penetrate into the soul unless by the Judgement of reason it self. Therefore by its act, not by any extrinsecall violence, can the soul be either affected or disturbed, which thing even innumerable Martyrs have proved by their Martyrdom: So Anasarchus a Philosopher of Abdera, who, who by the the command of Nicocreontes a tyrant of Cyprus, being cast into a concave stone neglecting the pains of his body, while he was pounded with iron pestils, is reported to have said: pound, pound the shell of Anasarchus, thou nothing hurtest Anasarchus himself: The tyrant commanded his tongue to be cut off, but he with his own teeth did bite it off, and did spit it in the face of the Tyrant.

CHAP. XLIV. Of the degrees of souls, and their destruction, or Immortality.

THe minde, because it is from God or from the intelligible world, is therefore immortal and eternal; but reaon is long-lived by the benefit of its celestial original from the Heaven; but the sensitive because it is from the bosome of the matter and dependeth on sublunary nature, is subject to destruction and corruption: therefore the soul by its minde is immortall, by its Reason long lived in its etherial vehicle, but resolvable unless it be restored in the circuit of its new body; therefore it is not immortal, unless it be united to an immortal mind therefore the sensitivenes of the soul or the sensitive or animal soul, because it is produced out of the bosome of a corporeal matter, the body being resolved, perisheth together with it, or the shadow thereof remaineth not long in the vapours of its resolved body, partaking nothing of immortality, unless it be also united to a more sublimed power; therefore the soul which is united to the minde, is called the Soul standing not falling; but all men obtain not this minde, because (as Hermes saith) God would propound it as it were a prize and reward of the souls, which they that shall neglect, being without minde, spotted with corporeall senses, and made like to irrational creatures, are allotted to the same destruction with them, as Ecclesiastes saith: there is the same destruction of man and beasts, and the condition of both is equall; as man dieth, so also they dye, yea they have all one breath, so that man hath no preheminence over a beast; thus far he. Hence many Theologians think, that the souls of men of this kinde have no immortality after they have left their body, but an hope of the resurrection only, when all men shall be restored. Austin relateth that this was the heresie of the Arabians, who affirmed that the souls perished together with their bodies; and in the day of judgement did arise again with them; whosoever therefore being upheld by the divine grace have obtained a mind, these according to the proportion of their works become immortal (as Hermes saith) having comprehended all things by their understanding, which are in the earth, and in the sea, and in the Heavens, and if there be any thing besides these above heaven, so that they behold even goodness it self: but they who have lived a middle life, though they have not obtained the divine intelligence, but a certain rationall intelligence of it; these mens souls, when they shall depart from their bodies, are bound over to certain secret receptacles, where they are affected with sensitive powers, and are exercised in a certain kind of act; and by imagination, and the irascible & concupiscible vertues, do either extreamly rejoyce, or greivously lament. Of which opinion Saint Austin also was, in his book which he wrote of the spirit and soul; The wise men of the Indians, Persians, Aegyptians & Chaldeans have delivered, that this soul superviveth much longer then its body, yet that it is not made altogether immortal, unless by Transmigration. But our Theologians do philosophize far otherwise concerning these things, that although there be the same common originall and beginning of all souls, yet they are distinguished by the creator with divers degrees, not only accidentall, but also intrinsecall, founded in their very essence, by the which one soul differeth from another, by that which is proper to it self; which opinion John Scotus also holdeth, and the Parisian Theologians have so decreed in their articles; Hence the wise man saith, I was an ingenuous child, and obtained a good soul, viz. a better then many others; and according to this inequality of souls, every one is capable in their degree, of their charge; which gift is freely given by God, as we read in the Gospel, that he gave to one five Talents, to another two, to another one, to every one according to his vertue, and the Apostle saith, he hath given, some to be Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists and Doctors, for the consummation of the Saints in the work of the Ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; for there are (saith Origen) certain invisible perfections, to the which are committed those things which are dispensed here upon earth, in which there is no small difference, as also is required in the men; wherefore some one attaineth the highest degree of wisdome and dignity; another little differeth from beasts & seeding beasts is made half a beast; another aboundeth in vertues and in wealth; another hath even little or nothing, & oftentimes that little which he hath is taken away from him, & given to him that hath; and this is the divine justice in the distribution of gifts, that they may correspond to the vertues of every receiver, to whom also rewards are given according to their works: that what proportion there is, of gifts to gifts, and of deserts to deserts, there may be the same proportion of rewards to rewards; to conclude, we must know this, that every noble soul hath a fourfold operation; First divine, by the Image of the divine propriety; the second intellectual, by formality of Participation with the intelligences; the third rational by the perfection of its proper essential essence; the fourth animal or natural, by communion with the body and these Inferior things; So that there is no work in this whole world so admirable, so excellent, so wonderfull, which the sou[…] of man, being associated to his Image of divinity, which the Magitians call a soul, standing and not falling, cannot accomplish by its own power without any externall help: Therefore the form of all Magical power is from the soul of man standing and not falling.

CHAP. XLV. Of Soothsaying, and Phrensie.

SOothsaying is that which the priests or others were stricken withall, and discerned the causes of things, and foresaw future things, viz. when Oracles and Spirits descend from the Gods or from Demons upon them, and are delivered by them; which descendings the Platonists call the falling down of superior souls on our souls; and Mercurius calls them the senses of the Demons, and the spirits of Demons. Of which sort of Demons the Ancients called Eurideae, and Pythonae, who, as the Ancients believed, were wont to enter into the bodies of men, and make use of the voyces, and tongues for the prediction of things to come; of which Plutarch also made mention in his dialogue of the causes of defect of Oracles. But Cicero following the Stoicks, affirms that the foreknowing of future things belongs only to the Gods; and Ptolomie the Astrologer saith, that they only that are inspired with a diety foretell particular things. To these Peter the Apostle consents, saying, Prophecying is not made according to the will of man, but holy men spake as they were moved by the holy ghost. Nor that the foretellings of things to come are properly the fallings down of the Gods. Isaiah affirms, saying, And tell unto us those things that are coming, and we will tell them, because ye are Gods; But these kinds of fallings down, or senses, come not into our souls when they are more attently busied about any thing else; but they pass into them, when they are vacant. Now there are three kinds of this vacancy, viz. phrensie, extasie, and dreams, of each of which in their order.