CHAPTER IX

Why God Permits the Devil so to Busy Himself with Witcheraft.
Argument.
HERE can be no doubt that there are many reasons for this. First, that glory may be increased
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even in us, when the glorious qualities of God are manifested in us.
Secondly, it is consonant with the laws of God ; for since He created man to be free, He freely permits him to sin.
Thirdly, we may see in this a proof of His benevolent government; for He gave free will even to the devil, and permits him to make use of it at times.
Fourthly, it proves His mercy to- ward the human race. For if the devil were permitted to do all the harm that he wished and could, no man would escape, but all would be killed. There- fore God often denies him the power to do harm.
Fifthly, it shows God’s wisdom. For although He allows the devil to use his natural powers, yet He causes that Father of Pride to be overcome by such foolish little creatures as men.
Sixthly, it shows His power. For although He allows the demon to effect the greater marvels, such as turning water into blood, He does not permit him to accomplish smaller things, such as the generation of gnats.
Seventhly, it shows His justice: for in this way God punishes men’s sins even in this life.
we
Examples.
In 1566, through the mouth of a demoniac woman at Laon, a demon in the hearing of all mocked at the Calvinists, crying out that he had nothing to fear from them since they were his friends and allies. This is too well known throughout Picardy for it to be denied; and it is recorded by Bishop Willem Damasus van Linda * (De fugiendis nostri seculi idolis, 1, 14).
* “Bishop Willem Damasus van Linda’? (or van der Lint), 1525-88. Bishop of Rure- monde and of Ghent. He was a staunch de- Sender of the Faith, and the author of many theological and controversial treatises, some of which he wrote in Dutch for the instruction and safeguarding of his people. See Thus in “De Katholiek,”’ CXXV (Leyden and Utrecht, 1904), 435:
II2
It was noted as a fact that when Martin Luther * died at Eisleben, the demons flew to his funeral from those who were possessed, as is recorded by Bredembach, Bk. VII, ch. 37 and 39.
In an ancient Life of S. Zenobius f of Florence, the history is told of a certain heathen woman of that city who was both noble and wealthy. Her husband died, leaving her with two sons whom she reared most carefully ; but when they had come to their full growth they fell one day into a rage and terribly beat their own mother
* °° Martin Luther.”’ Malvenda, “‘De Anti- christo”” (Romae, 1604), Liber X, p. 501, writes as quoting Bredembach: ‘‘Narrauit mthi uenerabilis Dominus N. aetate, doctrina, et uitae sanctimonia commendatissimus, atque etiam- num superstes, eo ipso die, quo nouus euange- lista Martinus Lutherus defunctus est, uniuersos daemoniacos, qui id temporis ad Gheelam Brabentiae spe liberationis, quam apud corpus S. Dymnae diuino beneficio plurimi istic 1am inde a multis retro annis consequi solent, aduecti erant, a teterrimis illis et horrendis daemonibus hospitibus suis liberatos. Postridie uero ab isdem rursus obsessos et discruciatos Suisse: daemones uero, cum interrogarentur ubt pridie delituissent, respondisse, principem tpso- rum et archidaemonem precepisse, ut uniuerst Spiritus maligni ad sui prophetae et fidelis co- operarit D. Martin Lutheri exequias conflue- rent, congruere enim, ut qui quam plurimos ad inferos seduxisset, a quam plurimis ad eosdem solemniter deduceretur.”’
S. Dympna, Virgin and Martyr, whose Relics are now venerated at Gheel, province of Antwerp, was the daughter of a pagan king in Ireland. In art she 1s represented with a sword in her hand and a devil chained at her feet. From time immemorial the Saint has been invoked upon behalf of those possessed by demons and lunatics. Miraculous cures and deliverances from demons have without number been wrought at her shrine. The feast of the Saint 1s 15 May, when many pilgrims visit the sanctuary, as also on the Tuesday after Pente- cost.
Tt “Life of S. Kenobius.” Apud Surium; Tom. 3; 25 May. S. Zenobius (died 337) is venerated as one of the Patrons of Florence when his Feast is kept, 25 May, with especial solemnity.
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with many blows. Unable to endure this outrage she cursed their bodies with horrible imprecations, falling on her knees and beating the ground with her hands, and calling upon Erinnys and the hellish furies to bring madness upon her sons. The demons heard her from the depths of darkness; and they attacked the young men, driving them to a fury so that they immediately became like mad dogs and began bit- ing each other’s limbs. The servants ran up, there was a great outcry, and some brought ropes and some chains, and the young men were bound; but even so their madness could not be restrained.
S. Augustine, in The City of God, XXII, 8, refers to the following story told by one Paul. While (he said) we were still living at Caesarea in our native country of Cappadocia, our eldest brother began to maltreat our mother in a terrible and insufferable manner, not hesitating to lay his hands on her. The rest of us brothers and sisters bore this patiently without speaking a word for our mother to our brother to ask him why he treated her so: but our mother, goaded by woman- ish anguish, determined to punish her cruel son by cursing him, and went after cock crow to the font of Holy Baptism where she called down the wrath of God upon her son. Then there came to her some demon in the form, as it is said, of our father, and asked her what she wished to do; and she answered: ““I'o curse my son, for his intolerable ill-treatment of me.” Then that enemy, since he can easily find a place in the heart of an angry woman, persuaded her to curse all her children; and she, kindled by his viperish counsel, prostrated herself and seized the sacred font, and with her hair all disordered and her breasts bared begged from God the following boon :—that we should be banished from our country and wander about foreign lands as a terrible example to the whole human race. Our mother’s prayers soon took effect, and her ven-
BK. Il. CH. IX.
geance at once fell upon our eldest and guiltiest brother ; for he was seized with just such a shaking of his limbs as your Holiness saw in me three days ago. Before a year had passed we were all afflicted with the same punishment in the order of our age. But when our mother saw the great effect of her curses, she could no longer endure the conscience of her unnatural behaviour or the general disgust felt against her, but tied a cord round her throat and thus miserably ended her unhappy life. Unable to bear the scandal of these events, we all left our native land and were scattered in all directions, and after long wandering we have won freedom from our afflictions.
In the County of Flanders (hear and tremble!) there is a Monastery (but it is well not to reveal its situation or the name of its Order) where there were three who were monks in name, but in reality beastly gluttons and whore- mongers, who had no shame at all in theircrapulenceor their lechery. Once when they had sat drinking till late in the night one of them, not quite so hardened in sin, said : ““We have given enough to Bacchus and our stomachs. Let us at least thank God.” “For my part,’ said another, who was bolder, **I thank Cacodemon; and I think it is he who should be thanked, since it is he whom we serve.”’ They then left the table with laughter and went to the dormitory, each with his wench. They had hardly lain down when there walked in through the bolted door a demon, in the form of a great fierce black man dressed like a hunter, and with him two little cooks. He looked threateningly at the beds and in a terrible voice exclaimed: ‘‘Where is he who gave thanks to me? I am here to repay him!” Then he dragged that man from his bed, quaking and nearly dead with fright, and giving him to the cooks ordered them to spit him and roast him by the blazing fire. They at once obeyed, and the wretched man was roasted and most obviously died. The rest were nearly dead with
I
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terror, for the room was filled with the stench of the burned body. At last the hunter turned to the others who were cowering half dead under their blan- kets, and said: ‘“‘You also deserve the same punishment, and I would will- ingly inflict it; but I am prevented by a higher power and leave you against my will. But I warn you to mend your ways, lest an even more terrible fate should overtake you.” The demons then vanished; but the men did not recover their courage or even their speech until broad daylight. Then when they arose they found their com- rade dead and (to prove that it had been no empty vision) quite blackened and burned. I doubt whether there has been so useful an example as this for hundreds of years.
Geilana, the wife of the Duke of Franconia, ordered SS. Kilian,* Colo- man and Totnan to be put to death, and this crime remained hidden until God discovered its author in the fol- lowing manner. One of those who had struck S. Kilian with his sword was suddenly possessed by a demon and began to cry aloud: “O Kilian, you persecute me cruelly, for I am con- sumed with fire and cannot hide what I did. I see threatening me a sword red with your blood.”? He kept shout- ing like this for a long time, tearing himself with his own teeth, until he passed from present to eternal punish- ment. Of such it is written, ‘Destroy them, O Lord, with double destruc- tion ”’ (Jeremiah, xvii, 18). The other associate in the killing fell into a mad- ness and disembowelled himself with his sword, passing from the torments
* “S. Kilian.” SS. Kilian, Coloman, and Totnan converted the Thuringian Duke Goz- bert, who after baptism was bound to put away his brother’s widow, Geilana, whom he had wedded, since under the Christian dispen- sation this pagan marriage was unlawful— Geilana plotted vengeance and in the absence of the Duke caused §. Kilian and his two com- pantons to be murdered, 8 Fuly, 689. S. Kilian 1s Patron of Wiirzburg.
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of this present time to those of eternity. And what of Geilana when this was known to her? The wretched woman was infuriated to the point of extremest agony; and not long afterwards this ogress was seized with tormenting pains and cried out at the top of her voice: ‘I am justly tortured, since I set the torturers upon the Holy Men; I am rightly tormented, since I pre- pared torments for them. O Kilian, you come upon me relentlessly; you light the fire, O Kilian; and you, O Totnan apply the burning coals. Be content with your victory, for you have sufficiently avenged your wrongs. O Kilian, you are named from a cup; but the drink you give me is too bitter.’ Saying this she was cruelly tortured, so that she could hardly be held by many people; and at last in excruciating pangs passed to the tor- ments prepared for the devil. Thomas Netter* in his book against the Wycliffites, De Sacramento Euchar- istiae, cap. 63, vouches that in 1384 he was an eye-witness of the following. He writes in these words: “‘I tell the story of what I saw myself with the eyes of my flesh in the Cathedral of S. Paul in London. The venerable Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Arundel of happy memory, whose father and brother were Earls of Arundel, sat there in the Episcopal throne in judgement, with Bishop Alexander of Norwich and others as his assessors, and put some questions concerning the faith in the Eucharist to one William Taylort from Worcester
* “Thomas Netter.’ Born at Saffron Wal- den, c. 1375; died at Rouen, 2 November, 1430. Carmelite theologian and controversialist. He took a prominent part in the prosecution of Wycliffites and Lollards, confounding their teachers and refuting their abominable doc- trines in many admirable treatises. He died in the odour of sanctity; miracles were wrought at his tomb; and it 1s hoped that his cult will shorily be confirmed by the Congregation of Rites.
+ “William Taylor.” This horrid heretic graduated M.A. at Oxford and proceeded to
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who had been charged with heresy. When this man could by no means be turned to the true faith, and persisted in calling and believing the most Sacred Host to be nothing but ‘blessed bread,’ he was finally ordered to do reverence to the Host. But he blasphemously replied: “Trulya spider is more worthy to be revered.’ Im- mediately there descended from the top of the roof a huge and hideous spider, and came straight on its thread to the blasphemer’s mouth, and per- sistently tried, while he was yet speak- ing, to gain an entrance through his polluted lips. Thomas of Woodstock, uncle of the King, was present and witnessed the miracle. The Arch- bishop immediately arose with the other bishops, and expounded to the whole congregation there gathered what the avenging hand of the Lord had done to the blasphemer. A demon in the form of the spider possessed the blasphemer and so avenged the dis- honour done to God.”
Sophronius writes as follows of a vengeance taken by the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Heliopolis of Syria (Baal- bek) there was an actor named Gaia- nus who used to blaspheme against the Holy Mother of God publicly in the theatre. The Holy Mother ap- peared to him and said: “Do not, I beg you, do not such hurt to your soul.”? He did but the more blaspheme against her, and she came a third time
priest's Orders. Under Archbishop Thomas Arundel he was laid by the heels for his sub- versive and blasphemous opinions. 12 Feb- ruary, 1420, he recanted and was absolved. 5 May, 1421, he was charged in convocation by the Bishop of Worcester, to which diocese he belonged. Condemned to perpetual imprison- ment, he was afterwards pardoned. However, he gave continual trouble by his teaching against prayer, the veneration of the Cross, the worship of the Saints, and other holy doctrines. In the end this pestilent wretch was degraded Srom his Orders and burned at Smithfield, 1 March, 1423. See Shirley's “‘Fascicult £1za- niorum,”’ pp. 412, 5qq.; Wilkins, ““Concilia,” III, 404.
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to him repeating the same words. When he would not mend his ways, but even increased his blasphemies, she appeared to him as he was sleeping one mid-day, and without saying any- thing touched his hands and feet with her finger; and when he awoke he found himself without hands or feet, lying there wretched, maimed and use- less. He then confessed to all how and why he had suffered that fate. He was thus mercifully punished for his blas- phemy; for so do the Blessed Saints mete out gentle punishment.
Nider says: When I was studying sacred Theology at the University of Cologne, there was a virgin some fifteen or sixteen years old, well enough behaved as manners are now counted, and she was living away from her parents in the house of a kins- woman. She happened to break a common earthenware pot belonging to this kinswoman, who was sore angered when she knew of it, and cried out that it was due to the girl’s care- lessness. This angered the girl all the more because it was but a very com- mon pot; and in her temper she de- clared at dinner-time that she would not eat, nor even come to the table. Her kinswoman said to her: “You must eat.’ But the girl muttered to herself some such words as: “If I must eat, be it so in the name of the devil,”? and thus came to the table, neglected to asked the customary bless- ing, and with her first mouthful of bread (as it is thought) felt a fly in her mouth. Being by no means able to eject it, she swallowed this and was immediately possessed ; yet she always kept her faculties and reason, although she was often tormented by the demon. She was sorrowfully taken back to her parents’ house, and for a long time no one was found who could deliver her. But at last a certain Dominican had pity on the girl and her parents, and undertook to exorcise her on con- dition that, if she were delivered, no earthly reward should be given to the exorcist, but that the girl should serve
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God for the rest of her life, if she freely consented to do so, in her present vir- gin state, and not be given to any in marriage. Thisgood priestthen offered the Holy Sacrifice, and the possessed girl made the usual offering and was
‘present throughout the whole Mass
without appearing to suffer any tor- ments. But after long exorcism the demon came out of her, leaving every limb of her virgin body bruised; and from that time she began to serve God in virgin chastity.
The same author tells the following. When Peter,* the famous Judge of witches, resigned his office, he went back to Berne and lived there. But one day he returned to the Castle of Blankenburg, where a kinsman of his had succeeded him in his office, and there intended to do some business with certain of his acquaintances. Then a witch, together with four men who were her associates in this crime, being busy late one night with the mysteries of their art, searched their brains for a means of grievously harm- ing or killing Peter by witchcraft in some secret manner without being suspected. Accordingly when night came Peter crossed himself and went to his bedroom, but with the intention of keeping awake all night in order to write some necessary letters so that he might be able to leave the place in the morning. As he was thus awake, in the middle of the night it suddenly seemed to him that the day had come, for he was deceived by a fictitious light. Being then angry with himself because he thought he had wasted the night, he put on his clothes without blessing himself as he should, and went downstairs to the place where he kept his writing materials, and found it locked. He then became more angry and began climbing upstairs again to his bedroom, allowing himself, in his irritation, one brief word of cursing, mentioning the name of the devil. At
* “Peter oPormicarius, Lib. V,. ¢. 9, 4; 7+
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once he was hurled downstairs in dense darkness so violently that his servant, who was sleeping near at hand by the stairs, was awakened and, coming out to see what was the matter, and lighting a light, saw his master Peter lying senseless on the ground with all his limbs broken and profusely bleeding. Some time later it was dis- covered through the confession of a prisoner that those four men and that witch had thus hurled Peter down the stairs. Note, reader, what harm came to Peter through neglecting to make the sign of the Cross.
Remy relates the following mar- vellous story. Jeanne Blaise of Baden had a son-in-law named Rayner with whom she lived in the same house. A fellow countryman of this Rayner, one Claude Gerard, had long ago lent him a pair of breeches, but so far had been unable by any impor- tunity to get him to give them back to him. Weary of so long a delay he at last came to Rayner to ask when he was going to be done with his subter- fuges, but found that he was away from home and that only his mother-in-law Blaise was sitting by the fire with their family. He therefore asked her to re- turn him his garment, saying that, as often as her fine son-in-law had made a fool of him, he would find that he was well able to pay him back in his own coin. This enraged the woman; but she decided to refrain from words so that she might be fully avenged in deed upon the man, and asked him to wait a few days more, and he should have what he wanted without any further delay. In the meantime she asked him if he would not sit down with her by the fire for a little in friendly wise and partake of some ap- ples which she had just baked. Gerard declined more than once, saying that he had no leisure to tarry there any longer and that he had no wish for the food which she offered him; but one of the applesstuck to the palmof his hand, and was so hot that he was forced to try to knock it off with the other hand.
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Then both his hands were stuck, as if they had grown together, while the apple between them kept waxing hotter until he was driven nearly out of his mind. He therefore cried out on some who were present to have pity on him, and each brought what remedy he could, some bringing water to quench the heat, and others tools for forcing his hands apart; but none of these were of any avail. It then be- came clear that it was a matter of some evil art, and one of his more under- standing neighbours advised that he should be taken to the place where the evil had first come upon him: and when this was done old gammer Blaise began to make fun of what had happened to him; yet she gently rub- bed his arm from the shoulder to the hand, and thereupon the apple fell from him and the pain was assuaged, and he was able to use his hands freely as before.
A certain German Jurisconsult (Gédelman, Lib. 1, de Lamiis, cap. de malitia Diabolt) tells the following history. Elizabeth the daughter of John, King of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, was married to Joachim the Elector of Brandenburg; and he left her at his death Queen of the town of Spandau, at the confluence of the rivers Havel and Spree. While she was yet living in this town, a certain soldier came travelling through the Province and was taken ill and had to go to bed; and he gave his hostess a purse of money to keep for him, Some days later, when he had re- covered, he asked for his purse. But the avaricious woman was loath to part with so much money and deliber- ated with her husband whether she must give it back, and they decided that she should deny having received it. Accordingly when the soldier again asked for it she brazenly said that she had never had it and that she won- dered at his impudence in daring to ask for something which he had never given her to keep. Moved to indigna- tion, the soldier in his turn accused the
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hostess of perfidy ; and her husband, as if in defence of his wife, thrust the soldier out of the house. Enraged by the hostess’s theft, he stood before the door and drew his sword as if to attack the host, and beat upon the door. The host asked for help from his neigh- bours, complaining that his house was being attacked ; and the officers ran up and took the soldier off to prison for causing a public disturbance. After a few days the Mayor of the town sent a report of the case to another place, and asked that a sentence should be passed; upon which it was decided that the house had been publicly at- tacked and that therefore the soldier must be sentenced to death. When the day of his execution was at hand, the devil came to him in his prison and told him what sentence the Judges would pass upon him, promising that he would free him from that danger on condition that he gave himself to the devil. The soldier firmly answered that he would rather die, although he was innocent. The devil with great eloquence exaggerated his danger; but when he could not influence the soldier’s determination he finally pro- mised him his freedom without any condition; saying: ““When: you come into the Court, say that you are un- skilled in pleading and ask for an advocate ; and I shall be there wearing a dark hat decorated with feathers. Ask then that I may be permitted to plead for you.” Thinking that he might do this without sinning, the soldier said that he would follow this advice. Next day he was led into the Court, where he saw a lawyer wearing a dark hat. The prosecutor demanded that the soldier should be put to death for causing a public disturbance; whereupon the soldier said that he was unfamiliar with legal procedure and asked that his advocate might speak for him. The Judges consented: and then the devil discoursed learnedly on the law, saying that he ought not to be sentenced to death who was neither the origin nor real cause of the quarrel
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and disturbance; that the soldier had been turned out and robbed by the host; and he said that they would find the purse if they looked in a certain place. The host violently denied this with terrible cursing. Then the devil added: “‘Swear then that, if you did rob this man, the devil may seize you and carry you away.” And when he had repeatedly sworn this, invoking the devil, that advocate left his learned pleading, suddenly went up to the host and, seizing him, took him away with a great noise through the window and over the market square to the terror of all; and the host’s body was never afterwards found.
Three men* were drinking together in a tavern and, being heated with wine, began discussing the immortal- ity of the soul and the pains of hell. One, rasher than the rest, said that it was all nonsense and the invention of priests; and the others laughingly ap- plauded him. Thereupon there came in a man of great stature but slightly built, who sat down and said: “‘What may you be discussing, and why are you all laughing?’’ The same bold fellow told him, and added that he would sell his soul cheap to any bidder, so that it were for money. “‘For how much,”’ said the newcomer, “will you sell it to me?” They soon agreed upon a price, and the man’s soul was bought and sold. They drank hard with the purchase money; and at last when it was night the buyer said: “It is time for each man to return to his own place. But do you tell me rightly: ifa man buys a horse which is tied up with a halter, has he not the right to take away both horse and halter?” Saying this, he seized the trembling vendor of his own soul before their eyes, and raising him up in the air carried him off to hell to see that which he had refused to believe. For that was a dealer in souls, like the King of
* “Three men.” This is from Thomas Cantimpratanus, “‘Bonum uniuersale,” II, 55, Pars;
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Sodom who said: ‘“‘Give me the souls, and you may have the rest.”
Again, Géddelmann says: A noble- man in Silesia had invited some guests, and the time of the feast had come and everything was ready, when he was disappointed by all his guests excusing themselves. Angry at their failure to appear, he broke out into these words: “Then let all the devils come, if no man can eat with me.” So saying, he went out and entered the church, where the priest was addressing his congregation, and listened to him for a while with the intention of calming his anger. But while he was in the church there came into the courtyard of his house some tall black horsemen who told his servant to call his master and tell him that his guestshad arrived. The servant went in terror to the church and told this to his master who, not knowing what to do, asked the priest’s advice. The priest broke off his sermon and advised that all the household should leave the house. This was done, the servants, men and women, all hurrying out; but it hap- pened that they forgot the baby and left it lying asleep in its cradle. The demons began to eat and shout and look through the windows in the form of bears, wolves, cats and men, holding up cups full of wine, and roast meats and fishes. When the neighbours and the priests and others saw this, the un- happy father cried: “Ah, where is my child?’? When he had said this, one of the demons carried the child in his arms to the window as if to show it to its parents. The nobleman was then in the utmost anxiety for the child’s safety, and asked a faithful servant of his: “What, I entreat you, am I to do?” The servant said: ‘‘Master, I will commend and commit my life to my God, and in the name of the Lord will go in and see whether, with God’s mercy and help, I can bring out your child.” ‘Good!’ said the nobleman. “God be with you and help you and preserve your soul.” After being blessed by the priest and the others,
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the servant went in and fell on his knees before the door of the chamber where the demons were assembled, and commended himself to God, and in that mind opened the door. There he saw demons of horrible appearance sitting, standing, walking and creep- ing about, who all ran together to- wards him shouting: ““Huh, huh! what are you doing here?” Sweating, but still trusting in God, he said to the demon who was carrying the child: “Give me that child.’? He answered: “By no means, for this child is now mine. Tell your master to come and takeit.”” The servant replied : ‘I domy duty in that state of life in which God has placed me, and I know that what- ever I do in duty is pleasing to God;
therefore as in duty bound, and with
the help of and in the name and might of Jesus Christ, I take the child from you and restore it to its parents”? And he took the child in his arms. The demons made no answer but: ‘“‘Huh, rascal! Huh, rascal! Leave the child, leave it; or else we will tear you to an hundred pieces.”? But he took no notice of their devilish threats, and went out unharmed, and gave the child back safe to its noble father. After some days had passed the demons vanished, and the nobleman was able to enter his house again with all his household.*
Again he writes; In Saxony a rich virgin had promised marriage to a handsome but poor young man. The man, fearing what would happen, told the girl that she was very wealthy and, like all her sex, changeable, and would hardly keep her promise, but the girl answered with the most solemn oaths: “If I marry any but you, then may the devil take me in that marriage!’’ And what happened? After some time she changed her mind and married an- other man, spurning her former be-
trothed, although he again and again
* “Flousehold.”’ It will be remembered that in “‘The Ingoldsby Legends’’ this history is turned as “The Lay of S. Cuthbert.”
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reminded her of her promise and her terrible oath: but she put all that be- hind her and, leaving him, celebrated her marriage with another. On the day of the wedding, when all her re- lations and friends and guests were gathered together, her conscience pricked her sorely and made her very sad. Then came two devils to the mar- riage house in the likeness of horsemen, and were welcomed and led to the table. Afterwards the tables were re- moved and they fell to dancing, and the bride danced with one of the horse- men to do honour to a stranger. He gave two leaps with her, and then in the sight of her parents and with her friends groaning and lamenting bore her up on high through the door. On the next day her wretched parents and friends looked for the bride to bury her, if they could find where she had fallen; but the same horseman came back with her clothes and jewels, say- ing: “‘Not over these things, but over the bride was power given to us by God.” So she gave herself body and soul to the devil, because she had broken her promise, and had more- over despised the oath which she had sworn.
Pietro Bizzari* tells the following:
* “Pietro Bizzari.” A humanist of the sixteenth century who won great repute for his elegant verses as also for his erudite but some- what diffuse histories and chronicles. He was born at Sassoferrato. Much of his work is conveniently collected in the Antwerp folio of 1589, ““Senatus Populique Genuensis Rerum Domi Forisque Gestarum Historiae atque An- nales,” “cum luculenta uariarum rerum cogni- tione dignissimarum, quae diuersis temporibus, et potissimum hac nostra tempestate continge- runt, enarratione.” I have used this edition. Certain of Bizzari’s shorter poems will be found in Gherw’s “Delitiae Italorum Poetarum’”?’ (1608), I, pp. 436-441; and in the “Carmina Illustrium Poetarum Italorum (Florence, 1719), I, pp. 250-255. Notable among these are the odes to Catherine de? Medici, and to Girolamo Priuli, who was Doge of Venice, 1559-1567. Of particular interest also are the addresses to the Earl of Leicester, Sir Thomas Randolph,
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In Suabia, which lies by Bavaria and Franconia, there was a very rich and wealthy nobleman named Richberger, whose yearly returns exceeded thirty thousand gold gulden. Yet, because of his manner of acting, he was not popular with the people; for he was of an unspeakably miserly nature. His. one aim was, by fair means or foul, to increase his wealth every day; and he tried to get everything into his own hands. Accordingly, when he foresaw the famine, which followed in the next year, he filled his barns with wheat and fruit and began to sell them at a great profit, so that the poor were compelled by his boundless avarice to buy their food from him; and they must either die of hunger or, if they wished to get food and nourishment, they were reduced to the utmost want and poverty, so dearly did he sell them corn and other necessaries. Among many others there came to him a cer- tain poor man burdened with children, who offered him six thalers, begging him to take the money and let him have a certain measure of wheat, and he would pay him the rest that he owed for it in a short time. But he looked proudly and angrily at him and told him to be gone at once and fetch the rest of the money if he wanted any corn; and so the poor wretch went away, bitterly cursing him. After a few days he sent one of his servants to in- spect his granaries as usual, and was told by him that there were three black oxen eating his corn: and the servant who reported this took to his bed the next day and soon after died. The same thing happened to a gentle- man whom the master had sent to see whether it was as he had been told: for he saw both oxen and horses. When he was told of this, the master deter- mined to go himself to the place and, coming to the door of the granary, he saw through the chinks the whole
and the brief ‘‘In mortem Eduardi Curtnaet.”’ Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, died in exile at Padua, September 1556.
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place full of countless cattle of all sorts, which were eating all the corn. He was so terrified by this sight that he at once became stark mad and rushed away in a frenzy committing many violent acts until he was caught and put in chains. This horrible event aroused great wonder in that province and especially in Aalen, where he had always been known as a most sober and prudent man.
A priest named Epachius* was over- taken by the judgement of God be- cause he presumed to do that which he was not worthy to do. For when he should have been in the church keeping the Vigil of the Nativity of Christ, he kept leaving the church and going into his house where he drank lewdly of foaming cups of wine, so that many said they had seen him drinking that night till after cock- crow. But since he was of noble rank and there was not his superior in secular dignity in that town of Riom, he was asked to celebrate the solemn- ities of the Mass; and the wretch did not hesitate, although sodden with wine, to undertake that which no man, even after fasting, can approach with- out fear and searching of hisconscience. But when he had pronounced the sacred words and had broken the sacrament of the Lord’s Body, and had himself taken It and distributed It to others to eat, he uttered a neigh like a horse and fell to the ground and vomited out the Sacred Mystery, which he had not been able to chew with his teeth, and was carried from the church by his servants. And he never recovered from that epilepsy; but with the waxing and waning of each moon, so his malady increased and abated; for the unhappy man could by no means keep from drinking too much wine.
Not long ago, after the people of Dorpatt had embraced the Lutheran
* “Epachius.” This is from S. Gregory of Tours, ‘‘De gloria Martyrum,”’ I, 87. t “Dorpat.”” This is from Tilmannus
COMPENDIUM
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teaching, on the Saturday before Easter Sunday the Lutherans had concluded their meeting and the people were returning from the holy church of the Blessed Virgin Mother, when one of them met another who was his friend and asked him to come home and dine with him, for he had a fine fat Westphalian ham all ready. The other, not at all shocked, an- swered that he had a plump boiled chicken which he would bring as his contribution to the feast. They sat down to table; and one of them, eat- ing a chicken bone rashly, nearly swallowed it, so that it could neither be extracted nor gulped down, and he was suffocated the same day. The other was seized by an evil spirit on the day after Easter, and soon after- wards, shaken by madness and fury, gasped out both his life and the demon.
Peter of Cluny (Liber Miraculorum, II, 1) tells the following as a warning to heretics. A certain Count of Macon was sitting in his palace on the town’s patronal festival with a large company of soldiers and others around him, when suddenly a stranger on horse- back entered the palace gate and, as they all looked on in wonder, rode right up to the Count. When he had come near him he said that he wished to speak to him, and not so much asked as commanded him to arise and follow him. Compelled by some un- seen power and unable to resist, the Count arose and went to the palace door where he found a horse ready for him. He was bidden to mount, and did so; whereupon the man seized the reins and in the sight of all began to
Bredenbachius. His work, which was first printed at Douai, has a Dedication, signed at Cologne, 1563, to Fulius Plugh, Bishop of Nuremberg. The ‘“‘Historia belli Liuonict quod gestis magnus Muscouitarum Dux,” “‘auctore Tilmanno Bredenbachio,” occupies bp. 217-239, of the folio ““Rerum Muscoui- tarum Auctores Uarit Unum in Corpus nunc primum Congesti,”’ Frankfort, 1600.
BK. II. CH. X..
carry him swiftly up through the air. The whole town ran up at his loud crying and wretched lamenting to see this strange spectacle, and watched him flying through the air for as long as their eyes could follow him. They heard him for a long time crying out: “Help, citizens, help!’ But they could not help him, and he was taken from the sight of men and became, as he deserved, an eternal associate of the demons. So did this man expiate in this life and the next his despoiling of churches and his sacrileges. . In a very old life of S. Calais* we read of a woman named Gunda who was enticed by the subtle Deceiver to mock the Holy Spirit. For she put on man’s clothing and tried to enter the monastery of the Saint, to test the truth of his prophecy that no woman would ever be able to enter there. But, by the just judgement of God, before she even came in sight of the closed approach to the cloisters, she was seized by the devil and driven back; and was so shamefully tormented by him that I blush to speak of it. For he thrust her head between her thighs, so that she who had tried to imprint a false kiss upon the holy threshold was forced to kiss the filthy parts of her own body; and she had to exhibit openly to all who wished to see it that sex which she had tried to conceal be- neath a man’s clothing. The result of this was that no woman thereafter dared to approach the monastery.
* “8. Calais” or S. Carileff (c. 540) was a monk of Menat on the Sioule, in Auvergne. For the sake of greater solitariness this holy recluse withdrew and fled away to the desert near Le Mans when he made his hermitage at the place since called Aninsole. His reputation for sanctity became so great that before long a monastery grew up there of which he was forced to assume the government. A life of S. Calais was written by S. Siviard, Abbot of Aninsole, died 687. The feast of S. Calais is observed on zi July.
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MALEFICARUM
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