CHAPTER IX

Whether the Devil can Truly Enrich His Subjects.
Argument.
E read that Stuphius paid his
army with magic money. Psellus writes that the devil cannot veritably fulfil any of his promises, but only offers empty mockeries to his worship- pers: but this view, while it may be true of some of the things that the devil is said to do, is false if it be made ap- plicable to everything that he is able to do. For I say that the devil, if God permits and he himself wishes, can en- rich his subjects: and if God com- manded him to do so, he would be
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compelled to obey, however unwilling he were: but only rarely does the devil wish this, and never does God command it, and very seldom does God permit it. The devil’s reluctance in this matter is clear, since we see that he most often cheats his subjects; and although he enriches a few with a little money at times, as he did Doctor Vlaet at Treves, he usually deceives them with empty hope and vain ap- pearances. Remy proves this by many examples taken from eye-wit- nesses as follows.
At Douzy on the goth September, 1586 it transpired that Seneel of Ar- mentiéres, having received from the devil what appeared to be a gift of money, hurried home rejoicing to count it; but when she shook out her purse she found nothing but charred bits of clay and coal. Catherine of Metz, on the 31st October, 1586, found nothing but pigs’ excrement. Claude Morelle, at Barr in December 1586; Benedict Driget, at Héricourt in Jan- uary ; Dominique Petronine, at Parg- ny in October 1586; all were proved to have been similarly deceived. Jeanne de Bans, at ChAalons-sur- Marne in July 1585, stated that she found on the road a sum of money wrapped in paper as the demon had foretold, and gleefully showed it to her husband ; but to her shame she found that instead of gold she had a rusty- looking pebble which crumbled at the first touch. Others have been given the leaves of a tree for money. But Catherine Ruffa, at Val-de-Villé near the Moselle, in 1587, admitted that she had once been given three genuine coins.
I have freely quoted these examples because they are publicly vouched for in the Courts of Justice. I could add many more, but think it unnecessary since the above are sufficient. __
Lorenzo Anania* (de Natura Dae-
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* “Anania.”’? Giovanni Lorenzo Anania, born at Taverna in Calabria, died c. 1582. His chief patron was the Archbishop of Naples,
COMPENDIUM
BK. I. CH. IX.
monum, II) adduces another reason why the devil is loath to enrich his votaries. He says that evil spirits are given to avarice, and that they amass treasures and money to meet the needs of Antichrist, the son of perdition, and that a certain soothsayer was told this by a demon. And although the demon is a liar and little faith can be placed in him, yet this is not far from the truth. But we are nearer to the true reason when we say that God never bids the devil to enrich his votaries (since He has no part in evil), and only very rarely permits it: for indeed these to whom the devil promises riches, dignity, honours and the favour of Princes are the most vile, abject, needy and despicable: and if they were rich before, they become poor: and if they were poor, they never become rich. And those who seek to acquire riches at the instance of the devil by their magic and against human laws, as may be seen from the first Canon Law de thesauris, the devil frightens to death or cruelly strangles. André Thevett (Cosmog. VIII, 1) tells that he heard from an eye-witness that a certain Greek named Macrianus was looking for treasure in the island of Paros, and was swallowed up by the earth. Anastasius quotes Cedrenus as telling the like, and many others have such stories, one of which I shall set down as being a wonder not unworthy of record. aS
Examples.
About the year 1520 at Basle a cer- tain simple-minded tailor afflicted with a stammer somehow or other
Caraffa. In 1581 was published at Venice his “De Natura demonum, libri quatuor.’’ A second edition followed in 1589. The reference here ts to Book II.
t ‘‘Thevet.”” This great French explorer is best known for his voyage to America when with others in 1556 he landed on the banks of the Penobscot. He has left a very complete ac- count of his visit.
‘BK. I. CH. IX.
entered the cave which has its entrance at Augst and going further into it than any had ever gone before, said that he saw marvellous sights. He said that, after burning consecrated corn, he went into the cave and first went through an iron gate, and then from one room to another, and so into a most beautiful flower garden. In the midst was a magnificently decorated hall where he saw a very beautiful Virgin with a golden diadem upon her head and her hair flowing loose; but the lower part of her body ended in a horrible serpent. This Virgin led him by the hand to an iron chest which was guarded by two black Molossian hounds, which by their baying pre- vented any from approaching: but the Virgin in some wonderful manner calmed them, and taking a bunch of keys from her neck, opened the chest and displayed every sort of gold, silver and copper money. And he said that the Virgin gave him no small sum of this money, which he brought back out of the cave. He added that the Virgin said that she was a King’s daughter who had always led a devout life, but that she had been changed by an evil spell into that monstrous shape and that there was no other hope of her recovery than for her to be kissed three ‘times by a youth of unimpaired chastity; for then she would be re- stored to her former shape, and would give asdowry to her liberator the whole treasure hidden in that place. He as- serted also that he twice kissed the Virgin, and twice saw upon her face such a horrible gloating at the thought of her liberation that he was afraid that he would not escape from her with his life. Afterwards he was taken by some loose boys into a brothel, and could never thereafter find the ap- proach to the cave, to say nothing of entering it again.
Who does not understand the illu- sion? The young man was not quite in his right senses: or a devil of the class of the Lamiae tempted him to kiss her, so that she might devour him after the
MALEFIGARUM
27 third kiss; but God did not permit it. The two dogs were other demons, or may have been the true or pretended guardians of the treasure. The money was perhaps real, and given with the permission of God.
Some years later another citizen of Basle entered that cave purposing to relieve his family’s poverty. He found nothing but the bones of human corpses, and seized with a sudden panic rushed out, and behaved so extrava- gantly that he perished miserably in three days. See Stamphius as above, and Beatus Rhenanus,* Book III, Mstortia Germanorum.
A few years before a certain Prior of Margulina, being in search of treasure, went with two companions into a pit in the cave of King Salaus near Pozzuoli, and met with a wretched death, never being seen again. This I have from Jacques de Villamont (Les Voyages, livre I, 23).
Andreas of Ratisbon { writes: ‘“‘ We know that many treasures have been collected by magic art, but it is not known who obtained possession of them.”
In our own time certain men began to dig for treasure at Pisa, but at last were beaten by the difficulty of the work and ceased from it.
Finally last year men started to dig where Nero’s§ palace is said to have
* “ Beatus Rhenanus.” 1485-1547. Human- ist and classical scholar, the friend of Erasmus and Gelenius.
t “‘Les Voyages.” “Les Voyages du Seig- neur Facques de Villamont.’’ I have used the Arras edition, 1598, of this very popular book. There were reprints Paris, 1600; Lyons, 1606 and 1607; Paris, 1609; Rouen, 1618; and Paris, 1698, which purports to be the Third Edition. This is, of course, incorrect.
+ ‘‘Andreas of Ratisbon.” All that is known of this historian is gathered from his works. Ordained priest at Eichstdtt in 1405, he joined the Canons Regular of S. Augustine at Ratisbon in 1410. His writings have won him the title of the ‘‘Bavarian Livy.”
§ ‘“Nero.”? Nero’s “‘Golden House” ex- tended from the Palatine across the valley of
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stood, in a place which is to-day a cloister for Holy Virgins, where there is a huge pine tree: but they were so tormented by devils that fear com- pelled them to desist from the work which they had begun; and mean- while many of the nuns dwelling in that place were possessed by devils. And what wonder, when they per- mitted this unlawful treasure search in their own grounds? Therefore God punished them in this life that He might pardon them in the future. Paul Grilland (De sortileg. q.3, n. 12) writes more exactly on this subject than do any others.
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