A Treatise of Witchcraft eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 95 pages of information about A Treatise of Witchcraft.

A Treatise of Witchcraft eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 95 pages of information about A Treatise of Witchcraft.

    [Footnote i:  Hesiodus +ergon kai hemeron+ lib. 1.  D[e,]monas
    ait esse
+aera essamenous+_. proclus interpretatur quia sunt
    corpora aerea._]

    [Footnote k:  Iulius Scaliger de subtilitate ad Cardanum
    exercitatione 359. sectione 13.
]

Histories of all can witnesse of the Diuels appearance in human[l] shape:  thus a Pseudo-Moses, or Messias in Crete, perswaded the Iewes that it was he who brought their Fathers the Israelites out of Egypt, and led them through the Red Sea, and would conduct them also out of that land vpon the waters into Iudea.  But many following his counsell, perished:  the rest admonished by that destruction, turned back, accusing their folly; and when they made enquiry for this guide, to haue rewarded him according to his desert, was no where to be found, whereof they conceiued hee was a Diuell in Mans likenesse.  And such an one [m]was that merry (but malicious) spirit, who walked for a long time in Saxony, and was very seruiceable, clothed in country apparrell, with a cappe on his head, delighted to conuerse and talke with the people, to demaund questions, and answer what he was asked, hurting none, except iniured before, and then declared himselfe a right diuell in reuenge.

    [Footnote l:  Socrates Histori[e,] ecclesiast. lib. 7. cap. 38. &
    historia Tripar. lib. 12. cap. 9.
]

    [Footnote m:  Chronicon Hirsangiense.]

[n]The late Discoueries and Nauigations made into the west Indies, can furnish vs with abundant testimonies hereof, in which the mindes of the inhabitants are both terrified & their bodies massacred by his visible sight, and cruell tortures; yet (which is the opinion of many learned) he cannot so perfectly represent the fashion of a mans body, but that there is some sensible deformity, by which hee bewrayeth himselfe; as his [o]feete like those of an Ox, a Horse, or some other beasts, clouen houed, his hands crooked, armed with clawes, or talants like a vulture:  or some one misshapen part, wherein (though hee delight in the shape of man, as most fitting for company and conference) is demonstrated, the great and tender loue of God toward vs, who hath so branded this deceiuer, that hee may bee discerned euen of those who are but of meane capacity, and so consequently auoyded.  And as in his body assumed, so in his speech there is a defect, for it is weake, small, whispering, imperfect.

    [Footnote n:  Vide nauigation[~e] Monsieur de Monts, ad nouam
    Franciam, lib. 2. cap. 5.
]

[Footnote o:  Binfeldius de confessionibus maleficorum.  Alexander ab Alexandro dierum Genialium, lib. 1. cap. 19.  Remigius de D[e,]monolatria, lib. 1. cap. 7. & apud Rhodingium antiquarum lectionum lib. 29. cap. 5. est exemplum dignum admiratione.]
And thus it is [p]reported of Hermolaus Barbarus, who inquiring of a spirite,
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