with them, as Dogs are; others again to abhor as serpents, and care not for them. The same belike Tritemius cals Ignios & sublunares, qui nunquam demergunt ad inferiora, aut vix ullum habent in terris commercium: "Generally they far excel men in worth, as a man the meanest worme; though some of them are inferior to those of their own rank in worth, as the black guard in a Prince's court, and to men again, as some degenerate, base, rational creatures, are excelled of brute beasts. That they are mortal, besides these testimonies of Cardan, Martianus, &c. many other Divines and Philosophers hold, post prolixum tempus moriuntur omnes; The Platonists and some Rabbines, Porphyrius and Plutarch, as appeares by that relation of Thamus: The great God Pan is dead: Apollo Pythius ceased; and so the rest. S. Hierome in the life of Paul the Ermite tels a story how one of them appeared to S. Antony in the wilderness, and told him as much. of our late Writers stifly maintaines that they are mortal, live e Paracelsus and die, as other creatures do. Zozimus 1. 2. farther adds, that religion and policy dies and alters with them, The Gentiles gods, he saith, were expelled by Constantine, and together with them, Imperii Romani majestas, & fortuna interiit, & profligata est; The Fortune and Majesty of the Roman Empire, decayed and vanished, as that Heathen in * Minutius formerly bragged when the Jews were overcome by the Romans, the Jews god was likewise captivated by that of Rome, and Rabsakch to the Israelites, no god should deliver them out of the hands of the Assyrians. But these paradoxes of their power, corporeity, mortality, taking of shapes, transposing bodies, and carnal copulations, are sufficiently confuted by Zanch. c. 10. 1. 4. Pererius in his comment, and Tostatus questions on the 6. of Gen. Th. Aquin. S. Austin, Wierus, Th. Erastus, Delrio, Tom. 2. 1. 2. quæst. 29. Sebastian Michaelis, cap. 2. de spiritibus, D. Reinolds Lect. 47. They may deceive the eyes of men, yet not take true bodies, or make a reall metamorphosis: but as Cicogna proves at large, they are * Illusoriæ & præstigiatrices transformationes, omnif. mag. lib. 4. cap.4. mere illusions and cozenings, like that tale of Pasetis obulus in Ab homine plus distant qua homo ab ignobilissimo verne, & tamen quidam ex his ab hominibus superantur ut homines à feris, &c. venere cum hominibus ac tandem mori, Cicogna. 1. part. lib. 2. c. 5. < Cibo & potu uti & tarch. de defect, oraculorum. d Plua Constantio prostigati sunt, &c. Lib. de Zilphis & Pigmeis. Dň gentium Romanorum numinibus una cum gente captivum. *Octovian dial. Judæorum deum fuisse & ex eorum concordia & discordia omnes boni & mali effectus promanant, 8 Omnia spiritibus plena, omnia humana reguntur; paradoxa veterum de quo Cicogna. omnif. mag. 1. 2. c. 3. Suidas, h Suidas, or that of Autolicus, Mercurie's son that dwelt in Pernassus, who got so much treasure by cozenage and stealth. His father Mercury, because he could leave him no wealth, taught him many fine tricks to get meanes, for he could drive away men's cattel, and if any pursued him, turne them into what shapes he would, and so did mightily inrich himself, hoc astu maximam prædam est adsequuntus. This no doubt is as true as the rest; yet thus much in general, Thomas, Durand, and others grant that they have understanding far beyond men, can probably conjecture, and foretel many things; they can cause and cure most diseases, deceive our senses, they have excellent skill in all Arts and Sciences: and that the most illiterate Divel is Quovis homine scientior, as Cicogna maintaines out of others. They know the vertues of Hearbs, Plants, Stones, Minerals, &c. of all Creatures, Birds, Beasts, the four Elements, Stars, Planets, can aptly apply and make use of them as they see good, perceiving the causes of all Meteors, and the like: Dant se coloribus (as * Austin hath it) accommodant se figuris, adhærent sonis, subjiciunt se odoribus, infundunt se saporibus, omnes sensus etiam ipsam intelligentiam dæmones fallunt, they deceive all our senses, even our understanding it self at once. They can produce miraculous alterations in the ayre, and most wonderful effects, conquer armies, give victoríes, help, further, hurt, cross and alter humane attempts and projects (Dei permissu) as they see good themselves. * When Charls the great intended to make a channel betwixt the Rhene and Danubius, look what his workmen did in the day, these spirits flung down in the night, Ut conatu Rex desisteret, pervicere. Such feats can they do. But that which Bodine 1. 4.Theat. nat. thinks, (following Tyrius belike and the Platonists) they can tell the secrets of a man's heart, aut cogitationes hominum, is most false; his reasons are weak, and sufficiently confuted by Zanch. lib. 4. cap. 9. Hierom. lib. 2. com. in. Mat. ad cap. 15. Athanasius quæst. 27. ad Antiochum Principem, and others. Orders.] As for those orders of good and bad Devils, which the Platonists hold, is altogether erroneous, and those Ethnicks boni *Oves quas abacturus erat in quascunq; formas vertebat Pausanias, Hyginus. Austin in 1. 2. de Gen. ad literam cap. 17. Partim quia subtilioris sensus a cumine, partim scientia calidiore vigent et experientia propter magnam longitudinem vitæ, partim ab Angelis discunt, &c. Lib. 3. omnif. mag. cap. 3. *L. 18. quest. *Quum tanti sit et tam profunda spiritum scientia, mirum non est tot tantasq; res visu admirabiles ab ipsis patrari, et quidem rerum naturalium ope quas multo melius intelligunt, multoq; peritius suis locis et temporibus applicare norunt, quam homo, Cicogna. quid interdiu exhauriebatur, noctu explebatur. Inde pavefacti curatores, &c. Aventinus, quic * & mali Genii, are to be exploded: these heathen writers agree not in this point among themselves, as Dandinus notes, An sint mali non conveniunt, some wil have all spirits good or bad to us by a mistake, as if an Oxe or Horse could discourse, he would say the Butcher was his enemy because he killed him, the Grasier his friend because he fed him; an Hunter preserves and yet kils his game, and is hated nevertheless of his game; nec piscatorem piscis amare potest, &c. But Jamblicus, Psellus, Plutarch, and most Platonists acknowledge bad, & ab eorum maleficiis cavendum, for they are enemies of mankinde, and this Plato learned in Egypt, that they quarelled with Jupiter, and were driven by him down to hellt. That which "Apuleius, Xenophon, and Piato contend of Socrates Dæmonium, is most absurd: That which Plotinus of his, that he had likewise Deum pro Dæmonio; and that which Porphiry concludes of them all in general, if they be neglected in their sacrifice they are angry; nay more, as Cardan in his Hipperchen will, they feed on men's souls, Ele menta sunt plantis elementum, animalibus plante, hominibus animalia, erunt & homines aliis, non autem diis, nimis enim remota est eorum natura à nostrá, quapropter dæmonibus: and so belike that we have so many battels fought in all ages, countries, is to make them a feast, and their sole delight but to return to that I said before, if displeased they fret and chafe, (for they feed belike on the sou's of beasts, as we do on their bodies) and send many plagues amongst us; but if pleased, then they do much good; is as vain as the rest and confuted by Austin 1. 9. c. 8. de Civ. Dei. Euseb. 1. 4. præpar. Evang. c. 6. and others. Yet thus much I finde, that our School-men and other Divines make nine kines of bad Spirits, as Dionysius hath done of Angels, In the first rank are those false gods of the Gentiles, which were adored heretofore in several Idols, and gave Oracles at Delphos, and elsewhere; whose Prince is Beelzebub. The second rank is of Lvars and Aquivocators, as Apollo, Pythius, and the like. The third are those vessels of anger, inventers of all mischief; as that Theutus in Plato; Esay cals them vessels of fury; their Prince is Belial. The fourth are malicious revenging Devils; and their Prince is Asmodeus. The fift kinde are cozeners, such as belong to Magicians and Witches; their Prince is Satan. *In lib. 2. de Anima text. 29. Homerus discriminatim omnes spiritus dæmones voca'. + A Jove ad inferos pulsi, &c. De Deo Socratis adest mihi divina sorte Dæmonium quoddam à prima pueritia me sequutum, sæpe dissuadet, impellit nonnunquam instar ovis, Plato. Agrippa lib. 3. de occul. ph. c. 18, Zanch. Pictorus, Pererius Cicogna. 1. 3. cap. 1. iræ. c. 13. k Vasa The m The sixt are those aerial devils that corrupt the aire and cause plagues, thunders, fires, &c; spoken of in the Apocalyps, and Paul to the Ephesians names them the Princes of the ayre; Meresin is their Prince. The seventh is a destroyer, Captain of the Furies, causing warres, tumults, combustions, uproares, mentioned in the Apocalyps; and called Abaddon. The eighth is that accusing or calumniating Devil, whom the Greeks call Ax, that drives men to despaire. The ninth are those tempters in several kinds, and their Prince is Mammon. Psellus makes six kinds, yet none above the Moon: Wierus in his Pseudomonarchiâ Dæmonis, out of an old book, makes many more divisions and subordinations, with their several names, numbers, offices, &c. but Gazæus cited by Lipsius will have all places full of Angels, Spirits, and Devils, above and beneath the Moon", ætherial and aerial, which Austin cites out of Varro 1. 7. de Civ. Dei c. 6. "The cœlestial Devils above, and aerial beneath," or, as some will, gods above, Semidei or half gods beneath, Lares, Heroes, Genii, which clime higher, if they lived well, as the Stoicks held; but grovel on the ground as they were baser in their lives, nearer to the earth: and are Manes, Lemures, Lamiæ, &c. They will have no place but all full of Spirits, Devils, or some other inhabitants; Plenum Cælum, aer, aqua, terra, & omnia sub terrâ, saith Gazeus; though Anthony Rusca in his book de Inferno, lib. 5. cap. 7. would confine them to the middle Region, yet they wil have them every where, Not so much as an haire breadth empty in heaven, earth, or waters, above or under the earth. The air is not so full of flies in summer, as it is at all times of invisible devils: this Paracelsus stiffely maintaines, and that they have every one their several Chaos, others will have infinite worlds, and each world his peculiar Spirits, Gods, Angels, and Devils to governe and punish it. P I * "Singula nonnulli credunt quoque sydera posse Dici orbes, terramque appellant sydus opacum, Gregorius Tholosanus makes seven kindes of ætherial Spirits or Angels, according to the number of the seven Planets, Saturnine, Jovial, Martial, of which Cardan discourseth lib. 20. de subtil. he cals them substantias primas, Olympicos demones Tritemius, qui præsunt Zodiaco, &c. and will have 1 Quibus datum est nocere terræ et mari, &c. nec. lib. 1. cap. 28. roas, lares, genios. m Physiol. Stoicorum è SeUsque ad lunam animas esse æ hereas vocarique he• Mart. Capella. P Nihil vacuum ab his ubi vel capilLib. de Zilp. *Palingenius. lum in acre vel aqua jaceas. Lib. 1. them them to be good Angels above, Devils beneath the Moon, their several names and offices he there sets down, and which Dionysius of Angels, will have several spirits for several countries, men, offices, &c. which live about them, and as so many assisting powers cause their operations, will have in a word, innumerable, as many of them as there be Stars in the Skies. * Marcilius Ficinus seems to second this opinion, out of Plato, or from himself, I know not, (still ruling their inferiours, as they do those under them again, all subordinate, and the nearest to the earth rule us, whom we subdivide into good and bad angels, call Gods or Devils, as they help or hurt us, and so adore, love or hate) but it is most likely from Plato, for he relying wholly on Socrates, quem mori potius quam mentiri voluisse scribit, out of Socrates authority alone, made nine kindes of them: which opinion belike Socrates took from Pythagoras, and he from Trismegistus, he from Zoroastes, first God, secondly Ideæ, 3. Intelligences, 4. Arch-Angels, 5. Angels, 6. Devils, 7. Heroes, 8. Principalities, 9. Princes: of which some were absolutely good, as Gods, some bad, some indifferent inter deos & homines, as heroes and dæmones, which ruled men, and were called genii, or as *Proclus and Jamblicus will, the middle betwixt God and men, Principalities and Princes, which commanded and swayed Kings and countries; and had several places in the Spheares perhaps, for as every spheare is higher, so hath it more excellent inhabitants: which belike is that Galilæus à Galileo and Kepler aimes at in his nuncio Syderio, when he will have Saturnine and Jovial inhabitants : And which Tycho Brahe doth in some sort touch or insinuate in one of his Epistles: but these things *Zanchius justly explodes, cap. 3. lib. 4. P. Martyr. in 4. Sam. 28. So that according to these men the number of ætherial Spirits must needs be infinite: For if that be true that some of our Mathematicians say: if a stone could fall from the starry heaven, or eight Sphear, and should pass every houre an hundred miles, it would be 65 yeares, or more, before it would come to ground, by reason of the great distance of heaven from earth, which contains as some say 170 Millions 803 miles, besides those other heavens, whether they be Crystalline or watery which Maginus addes, which peradventure holds as much more, how many such spirits may it containe? And yet for all this *Comment in dial. Plat. de amore cap. 5. Ut sphæra quælibet super nos, ita præstantiores habent habitatores suæ sphæræ consortes, ut habet nostra. Lib. de Amica, et dæmone med. inter dcos et homines, dica ad nos et nostra æqualiter ad deos ferunt. Saturninas et Joviales accolas. * In loca derusi sunt infra cælestes orbes in aerem scilicet et infra ubi Judicio generali re servantur. Thomas, |