THE HISTORY OF MAGIC By way of APOLOGY, For all the Wise Men who have unjustly been reputed Magicians, from the Creation, to the present Age.  
Written in French, by G. NAUDAEUS' Late Library-Keeper to Cardinal Mazarin.  
Multos absolvemus, si caeperimus antè judicare quam irasci.  Senec. de ira. lib. 3. c. 29. 
Englished by J. DAVIES.  
Printed for John Streater, and are to be sold by the Booksellers of London, 1657.   

TO THE Most worthily Honoured S R. RICHARD COMBESK T.  
SIR,  
IT is certainly but reason, that Innocence, since it so easily meets with Persecutors, should at length light on some Patrons and Assertors, that as those are the Agents & Emissaries of Ignorance and Barbarism, making it their business to ruin it, so these might, as the Guardian-Angells of restored Civility and Letters, endeavour to vindicate it. You have here the greatest miracles of Mankind in their several times impeached of a crime, the greatest can be committed against either divine or humane Laws, viz. a Geotick, or superstitious & Diabolical Magic, violently prosecuted by a sort of people whose design it is, by noise and number to stifle Truth, and consequently, to make the most innocent the most guilty. In so much that all the liberty they now seem to have, is that of saying something for themselves, which is hoped may prove so considerable as not only to divert the Sentence, but knock off the fetters they have so long groaned under, and gain them an absolute Liberate.  
To which end, Sir, you are in this Country the Person they make their appeal to, with a certain confidence, that as the prejudice of former Judges hath not a little contributed to their misfortune, so your integrity may restore them to a reputation among men, great as when they were the light and ornaments of the Ages they lived in. This is a a trouble you might easily be induced to take upon you, did you imagine to yourself no other consequences of i●, than that, being looked on as an effect of your Goodness, you will oblige all those who cannot but compassionate the undeserved sufferings of such excellent men, & may expect that acclamation and applause, which ever attends the impartial execution of Justice. But when you reflect on the particular advantages accrueing to yourself by this Apology, you will haply be satisfied, there is something extraordinary in the address of it to you. For, what higher motives can Posterity have to believe, that the great perfections you are master of, the general affection you command, the public favour shines upon you, (which when uncourted ever speaks a certain excess of merit) are not the effects of any thing more than natural, than to find you rescuing the oppressed innocency of men, whom only a transcendency of abilities made the objects of envy and detraction? What can more satisfy the world, that, when you have done things, exceeding common apprehensions, it proceeds from your vast knowledge and acquaintance with those Sciences whose lustre dazzles ordinary capacities, than to find you relieving such as only popular ignorance and mistake have made unfortunate? And of this, what other effect can there be than that you live in the fame which they, by your Patronage, are restored unto; and consequently, in the esteem and veneration of all the Sons and Lovers of Learning, but particularly, as the meanest of that number, that of,  
Your most humble and most obliged Servant J. DAVIES.   

The AUTHOR'S motive and design in the present Work.  
ABout four or five years since, there came abroad a little Book in French, entitled, Noweau judgement, etc. New Reflections on what hath been said and written as well for, as against the Book of the curious Doctrine of the Great Wits of these times. At the end of this Book the Author inserted two Invectives, very short indeed, against Homer and Virgil; to what end or upon what ground it is not much material here to dispute; but in that of Virgil, he represents him as a most eminent Conjurer, and one that had done abundance of strange and incredible things by the assistance of Magic. This he presently remembered was taken verbatim out of the last Book published by the Lancre against Witchcraft; whereupon reflecting on what he had read, and calling to mind that not only Virgil but in a manner all great persons were in like manner charged with Magic, he imagined the charge might be unjust and groundless. This put him upon search of the truth, thinking it an act of piety to right the memory of those great men▪ and an obligation put upon the world, to endeavour their satisfaction, who want either time or couveniences to inform themselves, and so he resolved to communicate, what he had found, in this APOLOGY: whereof take this short account.  
In the first place he assigns certain conditions or qualifications necessarily requisite in him, that would judge of Authors, especially Historians and Daemonographers, who are the chief Architects of this Labyrinth of erroneous opinions, which who is once gotten into cannot well get out without this Clue. Then he divides Magic into several species, so to confront the charge and the Answer, which consists in the distinction of Magic into Diabolical and Natural. That done, he comes to certain general causes whence the suspicion hath been derived, viz. Politics, extraordinary Learning, Mathematics, Supposititious Books, superstitious Observations, Heresy, Malice, Emulation, Ignorance, Credulity in Readers, and want of circumspection and Judgement in Writers. This is fully dispatched in five Chapters, which are as it were a preludinm to XIV more, spent in the particular vindication of Zoroaster, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Democritus, and others, not proceeding so much according to the times wherein they flourished as their several qualities and employments. So that having run through the several vindications of Philosophers, Physicians, Religious men, Bishops, Popes, all to be done was to close up the treatise with a Chapter discovering the means whereby these Errors are maintained, and what will be the consequences of them if not suppressed.  
So much, as to the Author's design in this work. That dispatched, he thought fit to say something to those who might haply quarrel with him for his checquering it so much with sentences and Authorities out of Latin Authors. There are indeed a many and those the most refined Writers, who cannot, without a certain scorn and indignation, look on the writings of such, as, like them, will not employ themselves so trivially as to compose Love Stories and Romances for the entertainment of women and Children. For those his answer is, that as he quarrels not with them for using a Style proportionable to their capacities to whom they direct their Labours; so does he expect they should be as favourable to him, for not translating those Latin passages as such as are not particularly calculated for the meridian of the Populace, but some of a higher elevation, who measure not truth, by the credit of Historians and Demonographers, that have almost besotted the multitude with their extravagances. These indeed are a sort of people so much obliged one to another, that should we imitate them in the Labours we intent for posterity, we must do as the Rhodians did, who only changed the heads of ancients Statues to make them serve for new representations, such a strange art have they of disguising and dismembering one another's works that, strictly examined, there's nothing new but the Titles. For Citaions, he thought they only avoided them who never expected to be cited themselves▪ and that it were too great a presumption in any one to think himself so well furnished with conceptions as tosatisfie so great a diversity of Readers without borrowing any. But if ever there were any such, they were certainly Plutarch, Seneca, and Montagne, who yet have not blushed to derive from others whatever they thought contributed to the embellishment of their discourses. To prove this we need only mention the Greek and Latin verses cited almost in every line of their works, and particularly that of Consolation▪ consisting but of seven or eight Leaves sent by the former to Apollonius, wherein there are above 150. verses out of Homer, and near as many out of Hesiod, Pindar, Sophocles, and Euripides.  
Nor is he ignorant what these regulators of writing might oppose against this, viz. the authority of Epicurus, who in 300 Volumes left behind him, had not so much as one Citation; but this would make against them, by reason of the contrary consequences of these two different procedures, for the works of Plutarch, Seneca and Montagne, are daily read, sold, and reprinted, whereas of those of Epicurus, Laertius can hardly furnish us with a Catalogue. Yet would he not have this so understood as to approve their course who conceal the treasures of their own abilities to beg and borrow of others, never appearing but as people at false Musters, and, without any hazard to themselves, carrying other men's Arms. Tedious and fruitless discourses are like Forests of Cypress trees, fair and flourishing to the eye, but bearing no fruit suitable thereto.  
The surest way therefore were to keep the mean between these extremities, which is for a man to make a certain alliance between his own conceptions and those of the ancient, when the subject will bear it. For as it belongs only to such elevated and transcendent Souls as have something above the ordinary rate of men, to transmit their conceptions to us pure and naked, without any other convoy than that of Truth, and that it is the indicium of a low & reptile mind to undertake nothing of itself; so is it the proper character of a person unacquainted with vain glory and arrived to a considerable knowledge and experience of things to follow the tract which the most learned & best esteemed Authors have gone before him, and not so much endeavour to tickle the ears of his Readers, as to neglect what might satisfy their understanding.  
And this method hath our Author observed in this APOLOGY: which whoever shall examine without prejudice or passion, must certainly conclude it no small performance, especially if he consider the difficulty of the undertaking, the many Authors consulted, the particularities he hath been forced to quote, and the novelty of the Subject, which, were there nothing else, were enough to oblige the more ingenious, to countenance and encourage  
In nova surgentem, majoraqque viribus ausum,  
Nec per inaccessos metuentem vadere saltus.   

NAUD AEUS. Viris doctis et fautoribus suis.  
INtactae virtutis opus, juvenisque laborem  
Excipite illustres animae, doctique parentes  
Nominis et Genii, ne postera saecula credant,  
Et vos in Magicis pariter peccâsse susurris.   

The Contents of this Book.  

Chap. I. OF the conditions requisite to judge of Authors, especially Historian. Fol. 1.  
Chap. II. Of Magic and it Species. Fol. 11.  
Chap. III. That many eminent persons have been accounted Magicians who were only Politicians. Fol. 23.  
Chap. IU. That the great Learning of many excellent men hath many times been taken for Magic. Fol. 28.  
Chap. V. That great Mathematicians have been suspected for Magicians. Fol. 36  
Chap. VI That the Books attributed to divers great men are not a sufficient testimony to make them guilty of Magic. Fol. 42.  
Chap. VII. Of all the other causes which may give any occasion of suspicion thereof. Fol. 51.  
Chap. VIII. That Zoroaster was neither Author nor Abettor of Georick, Theurgic, or Artificial Magic. 63.  
Chap. IX. That Orpheus was no Magician. Fol. 80  
Chap▪ X. A Vindication of Pythagoras. Fol. 96▪  
Chap. XI. Of Numa Pompilius. Fol. 115.  
Chap. XII. Of Democritus, Empedocles, and Apollonius. Fol. 126.  
Chap. XIII. Of the Genii, or Daemons, attributed to Socrates, Aristotle, Plotinus, Porphyrius, Jamblicus, Chicus, Scaliger, and Cardan. Fol. 143.  
Chap. XIV. Of Alchindus, Geber, Artephius, Thebit, Anselm of Parma, Raimundus Lullius, Arnoldus de Villa nova, Peter d' Apono, and Paracelsus. Fol. 165.  
Chap. XV. Of Henry Cornelius Agrippa. Fol. 188.  
Chap. XVI. Of Merlin, Savanorola, & Nostradamus'. F. 202  
Chap. XVII. Of St. Thomas, Roger Bacon, Friar Bungey Michael the Scot, Picus Mirandula, and Trithemius. Fol. 224.  
Chap. XVIII. Of Robert of Lincoln, & Albertus Magnus. Fol. 241.  
Chap. XIX. Of the Popes, Sylvester II. and Gregory VII. Fol. 255.  
Chap. XX. Of Joseph, Solomon, and the Wise men. F. 273.  
Chap. XXI. Of the Poet Virgil. Fol. 285.  
Chap. XXII. Of the means whereby all these erroneous opinions are maintained, and what may be expected from them, if not suppressed. Fol. 298.    

THE HISTORY OF MAGIC; By way of APOLOGY, For all those eminent-people, who have unjustly been reputed Magicians.  

CHAP. I.  
Of the Conditions requisite to judge of Authors, especially Historians.  
THe learned and judicious 
a Lib. 5. de tradendis ● disciplinis.  Ludovicus Vives, who for his excellent worth, was thought the fittest of all the great Wits of the last age, as another Plutarch, to cultivate that of the famous Emperor Charles the Fifth, gives us a good Dichotomy of Prudence. One part regulates our enjoyments, preserves our health, directs our conversation, acquires charges and employments, and is so much taken up with the procurement of the gods of Fortune and the Body, that it hath gotten, among the Fathers, the title of Prudentia carnis, and is called by Latin Anthours, Vafricies & astuti●. The other, labouring only the cultivation and ornament of the nobler part of man, the Mind, and the enriching of it with Sciences and Disciplines, that so it might discover and practise what is most advantageous and real therein, is particularly employed in the censure and judgement of Authors. This is so truly necessary, and of such importance, that, being once well ordered, it so guides us into the interior of the persons we deal with, that it discovers the calms or tempests of their passions, the Euripus of their several agitations, and the admirable diversity of their inclinations. The advantage we are to make of it, is like that of a touchstone to distinguish truth from falsehood; of a Torch, to light us in the palpable darkness of Error, or we must look towards it, as our only Polestar, regulating our course and discoveries of Truth. For since she always appears to us masked with the passions of those, who either out of ignorance, or interest, endeavour to disguise her, we must, to enter into familiarity with her, and to be absolutely possessed of her, seek her out, as Palamedes did Ulysses, or young Aristeus the Sea-god; in those places where she is hidden and be so importunate with her, that after she lurked under the indiscretion of the ignorant, the envy of the passionate, the extravagancies of the temerarious, the blindness of the interessed, and an infinite number of fabulous, strange, and ridiculous opinions, she may appear at last restored to her own former shape;  

b Virg. Geor 4.  Et quant● illa magis formas se vertet in omnes,  
Tanto, nate, magis contende tenacia vincla,  
Donec talis erit, mutato corpore qualem  
Videris incaepto, tegeret cum lumina somno,  
To do this, we must shake off all the insinuating titles, the Panegyrics, the manifest gratulations, which are ordinarily bestowed on those, who are the most able to disguise her with the greatest Artifices and Palliations. For we should be more tender of our liberty, than to be fooled out of it by the number of their suffrages, as if we were obliged, as a packed Jury, to approve whatever they are pleased to tell us, and had not the freedom of a diligent disquisition and censure, to consider whether it be just and rational. To our discare, as to this point, may we justly attribute all the fables, impertinencies, and superstitions, that have to this day crept into the writings and imaginations of abundance of people, especially that simple and ridiculous opinion of a many, who have thought the most eminent men that ever were, even to the highest Magistrates of the Ecclesiastical State, Sorcerers and Magicians. But as this discare hath been extremely prejudicial to us, so must we endeavour to make it as advantageous, and use it as Telephus' spear, which only could cure the wounds it made; or as the Sun, who only disperses those clouds and mists which were risen in its absence.  
This task is indeed too difficult and subtle to be indifferently accommodated to all persons, and therefore Experience, which is only acquired by Time, the Reflection men ought to make on what they have conceived, the careful observation of the excellent sayings, and prudent actions of others, and above all things, that Indifference which should always carry the light before us in this disquisition of Truth, give a certain dispensation to weak, inconstant, and obstinate minds, as also to young men, such for the most part, as he whom Virgil describes, 
Ense velut nudo, parmâque, inglorius alba,  from employing themselves in this censure, whereof a riper age, and a well-settled constitution of mind, acquits itself with better success, and less difficulty. Nor can we but observe, that Erasmus, Vives, Scaliger, Bodin, Montaigne, Canus, Possevin, and many more, who reserved this employment for their more serious studies, have proved so fortunate in this kind, that we must needs (if with Seneca we acknowledge, that Bona mens nec emitur, nec commodatur) add something to it by their examples, and by the assistance of those precepts, which may be generally given for the regulation and refining of the judgement: whereof,  
The first is, to be very well versed in those Authors, who have been most excellent in this kind; as for instance, Seneca, Quintilian, Plutarch, Charron, Montaigne, Vives; as also in those admirable and great Genius's of History, Thucydides, Tacitus, Guicciardine, Comines, and Sleidan. Add to this an acquaintance with those who have been Authors of political and rational Discourses, and all such as are eminent for new discoveries and conceptions, such as Cardan, and the great Chancellor of England, Verulam, in all their books.  
The second requires the knowledge of Logic, to be able with more readiness and facility, to distinguish between true and false, simple and compound, necessity and contingence; which does (as it were) open the way to  
The third and last, which is a certain familiarity with the most profitable Sciences, and the most universal and general account of the affairs of this World that may be had, which is to be gained, partly by our own industry, partly by the endeavours of those who have gone before us, such as may be those of Historians. But in this the choice is of such consequence, that there cannot be too much circumspection used, especially in the present age, wherein self-love does so easily triumph over the industry of men, to force upon the world the fruits of their ignorance.  
— 
c Naogeorgus, Sat. 1.  Sic dira frequentes  
Scribendi invasit scabies, & turpe putatur  
In nullis penitus nomen praestare tabernis.  
In so much, that we may justly say of the Mystery of Printing, the Mint of all these rampant imaginations, what Seneca said upon such an occasion in Nature, as this is in Art, Si beneficia naturae utentium pravitate perpendimus, nihil non nostro malo accepimus. This is no more than what was foreseen above an hundred and twenty years since, by the learned Hermolaus, Patriarch of Aquilea, and Perrot, Bishop of Sipontum, and to which alone, as to their cause, we are to attribute the sudden dissemination of our modern Heresies, with this complaint into the bargain, that with all the advantages we derive from the Ancient, we are much inferior to them in point of learning. I therefore think it extremely necessary, amidst such a multitude of Authors, to be curious in the choice and selection of those▪ the diligent reading whereof may convince us, that they have been furnished with all the conditions required in a perfect Historian, such as was for the English, Polydor Virgil; for the Germans, Rhenanus; and for the French, Paulus Aemilius, and discard all the rest, who (as the forementioned) have not the mark of truth. But if we are desirous to read them, let it be on the same conditions, as Seneca permitted his friend Lucilius; Nec te prohibuerim (says he) aliquando ista agere, sed tunc cum voles nihil agere. For my part it should be my censure, that they be all suppressed, or that, as anciently all under forty years of age were forbidden the reading of the Apocalypse, and the last chapter of the Prophet Esdras, so they, whose judgements are not settled by the reading of good books, should not be permitted to surfeit on those abortive fruits of ignorance, whereof there is no end, but that of degenerating and bastardising the spirits of those that trouble themselves with them, Nam qui omnes etiam ind●gnas lectione schedas ex●utit, anilibus quoque fabulis accommodare operam potest.  
But before we dilate any further upon the censure and precaution we are to make of them, it will not be amiss, by the way, to lay open the extravagance of, I know not what, persons, who are of a saith, that Painting and Poesy are two sworn sisters, exercising an Empire over our Belief, equivalent to that of the most impartial Histories. For though it be presumed they may haply take their rise from a true Relation, yet taking the liberty to disguise it, as they please, with their chimerical imaginations, they have long since incurred the same sentence▪ 
Namque unum sectantur iter, & inania rerum  
Somnia concipiunt, & Homerus, & acer Apelles.  That person might very deservedly be laughed at, who should be persuaded that Turnus, little Tydaeus, and Rodomont, flung quarters of mountains at their enemies, merely upon the reputation of Poets; or that Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven upon an 
d Flor▪ de Remond. c. 13. of Pope Joan.  Eagle, because he is so represented in the Metropolitan Church of St. Andrew, in the City of Bourdeax; and that the Apostles played on cymbals at the funeral of the blessed Virgin, because a capricious Painter thought fit to paint them so: which considered, we may well excuse the Satirical retort of Beza, to the pictured argument, which Dr. De Saints thought so prevalent at the conference of Poissy. Nor shall I be too forward to give any more credit to so many other fabulous narrations, as have crept into the world (if it may be permitted to observe some, even in the Ecclesiastical History) under the banners of such insinuating and specious titles, as those of, De infantia Salvatoris, The Conformity of St. Francis, The Golden Legend, The Protoevangelium, The nine or ten Gospels, and a many such like, which having been at first printed in the Micropresbyticon, have been since prudently left out of the Orthodoxographia, and the Library of the Fathers. Those who would have Pliny, Albertus Magnus, Vincent de Beauvais, Cardan, and some others not inferior to them, accounted fabulous Secretaries of Nature, are in my judgement extremely insensible of the obligation we owe these great persons, for their excellent observations. It were much more rational to blast with this breath the impostures of Mountebanks, the resveries of Alchemists, the fooleries of Magicians, the riddles of Cabalists, the combinations of the Lullists, and other like extravagances of certain Engrossers, and Collectors of Secrets, since they do not▪ contribute any thing more solid to natural History, than all those old and rotten monuments of Olaus, Saxo-Grammaticus, Turpin, Neubrigensis, Merlin, Nauclerus, Phreculphus, Sigebert, Paulus Venetus, and a multitude of others, do to Policy and civil Society. For these, bestowing their time rather in gleaning what was scattered up and down, than in weighing the authority of the Authors from whom they borrowed their notes, have not only advanced an Iliad of chimerical and ridiculous stories, but with the same labour, brought upon the stage some more improbable than the other, reporting them as most true & certain. Of this, one reason or motive is obstinacy, in that having once exposed them, they could not imitate Sr. Augustine in his Retractations, Quamvis enim, saith Seneca, vana nos concitaverint, perseveramus, ne videamur caepisse sine causa. Another, haply more likely is that being content to follow the common tract of those, who when they write, make it their only business, to prove and make good what they have undertaken, by what means they care not, they bring in reasons and arguments by head and shoulders, and take hear-sayes for certain truth, and old wives tales for demonstrations:  
— 
e Prudent. in Symach.  Et sic observatio crescit  
Ex atavis quondam malè caepta, deinde secutis  
Tradi ta temporibus, serisque nepotibus aucta.  
This certainly must needs be an impertinent kind of writing, and proper to sheepy minds, such as wilfully quit the bark of Truth, to cast themselves one after another into the Sea of Error.  
But to avoid all these absurdities, we are only to consider the method & design of such as entertain us with these fine conceptions, and make an ascent from one to another, till we come to discover the first advancer of them, and haply the only man from whom all the rest derived them. For instance; It is out of all controversy, that all our old Romances took their rise from the Chronicles of Bishop Turpin; all the Stories of Pope joan, from one Marianus Scotus; the Salvation of Trajan, from one John Levit; the opinion of Virgill's being a Magician, from Helimnndus the Monk. This man once found out, we must diligently consider his quality, the party he inclined to, and the time wherein he first writ; and thence bethink ourselves, whether we ought not to give greater credit to those who have had the mannagment of Affairs, than to Monks and private men; to persons of honour and worth, than to the dregs of ignorance and the populace.  
In the second place, we are to look on Historians, (those only who are perfectly Heroic excepted) as a fort of people seldom or never representing things truly and naturally, but shadowing and masking them according as they would have them appear, and such as to gain their judgement a reputation, and to ensnare others therein; spare not either abilities or eloquence, Stretching, Amplifying, byassing and disguising all things, as they think most proper to their design. Hence it is that we find Heathens and Idolaters have spoken many things against the first Christians, out of the aversion they had to the Religion; that the adherents of some Emperors broached many indignities against the Popes; that the English represented the Maid of Orleans as a witch and Sorceress; and that modern Heretics have vented so many fables against the dignity of the Church, and the main Pillars of it.  
In the Third place, we are to make that judgement of Books which Paterculus made of Learned men, experience teaching us, that in a manner, all Histories within seven or eight hundred years past are so hydropically swollen with lying legends, that a man would think the Authors of them had made it their main strife, who should advance the greatest number, From these several conditions requisite to the censure of Historians, it may be inferred that theywill signify little as to the direction of those dull & earthly souls, which are represented to us in the Egyptian Hieroglyphics by the Onocephalus, a Creature that stirs not from the same place, that is to say, such as are not acquainted with any thing beyond the limits of their own Country, who read no Histories, who trouble not themselves, with any thing done elsewhere, and who are unletterred and ignorant to that degree, that when they hear some great person named, they think the discourse is about some African monster or something of the new world. For these having nothing either to contradict or oppose, make no difficulty to admit or reject what suits or suits not with their humour, quite contrary to the procedure of a prudent man, 
e Ae●●as Silvius.  cui si plura nôsse datum est, majora ●um sequuntur dubia; and of the old men represented to us by Aristotle, qui rerum vitiis longo usu detectis et cognitis, nihil impudenter asseverant, and of whom he says in the same place, that their long practice and experience makes them commonly incredulous, and suspecting all things: A qualification, which indeed must always be supposed in those who expect to make any advantage of their Readins!   

CHAP. II.  
Of Magic and its Species.  
The famous 
a Alciat Embl. 187.  Civilian hath in his Emblems, taken occasion to represent the three causes of ignorance by the image of Sphinx; pleasure, by her face; inconstancy, by her feathers; and pride, by her feet. Methinks it is not hard to add something to this representation, by observing the effect of ignorance by the cruelty of the same Monster. For as that took a certain pleasure in casting down from the top of the Rock she sat on, all those who either could not or would not resolve her Riddles; so Ignorance hath ever made it her business to precipitate those out of all credit and reputation, who, better employed, would not mind those fooleries and legerdemaines. Nor indeed can we but perceive, that, before Humanity and Learning became common and generally attainable by the happiness of this last age, all those who endeavoured their propagation and advancement, were (infamously) termed Grammarians and Heretics; those who made stricter scrutinyes into the knowledge of natural causes incurred the censure of Sceptics and Atheists; he who was more than Ordinarily versed in the Hebrew tongue, went for a Jew or an Apostate; and those who studied the Mathematics, and more hidden Sciences▪ were suspected to be Conjurers and Magicians; A Calumny that had no other ground then either popular Ignorance, or the envy which the multitude bears to the virtue of eminent persons, because of the little correspondence there is between the inclinations of the one and the other, as 
b Epist. 29.  Seneca ingenuously acknowledges in this passage; Nunquam volui populo placere: nam quae ego Scio, non probat populus, & quae probat populus; ego nescio.  
But since the former have, through the discoveries of time, and the endeavours of those who have undertaken their just cause, outlived and trampled on the censures of envy and Ignorance▪ I cannot sufficiently wonder, that amidst such a multitude of writers, there is not any one hath taken pen in hand to rescue the honour of all those hegemonick and predominant souls, and particularly the greatest Lights of Religion, even Popes and Prelates, from a vanity the most ridiculous and opposite to their state that can be imagined, which is, that of their having been Magicians, Sorcerers, and Conjurers. This task I shall without much difficulty undertake, yet hope to unskale the eyes of vulgar Ignorance, scrupulous simplicity and zeal, and Heretical malice: all which combine together to keep up these sables and erroneous opinions, to the prejudice of accused innocence, Truth, as to matter of fact, and the honour and integrity of Religion, which certainly never could so far miscarry in the choice of her principal Ministers, as that they should make an unnatural conjunction between the Prince of Light and that of Darkness, God and the Devil, Christ and Lucifer, Heaven and Hell, and the Sacrifices of the Creator and those of the most vile and abominable creature in the world. It is certainly not only to be admired, but deplored, that this opinion, kept above water by some vain and trivial conjectures, should have taken such rooting, that it now concerns us to maintain the piety of those great Souls, whose lives and actions should rather be an example by which to regulate ours, than afford us occasions of Apologies and Vindication.  
We shall then lay our foundation with the distinction of Magic into lawful, and unlawful or prohibited: whereof if every one were but intentive to observe the several species and effects, me thinks it were not very difficult to comprehend them. Let us then consider Man, as a perfect and accomplished creature, made after the image of his Creator, the noblest production of all Nature, such as she thought fittest to shed her favours on, and to furnish with her greatest excellencies, that so he might be Lord Paramount over all the rest, and exercise dominion over them, it being the inherent right of his excellency, 
— 
c Ovid. Met. 1.  Et quod dominari in c●ter● posset  
Natus homo,—  ordering and regulating his extraordinary actions, either by the particular grace of Almighty God, or by the assistance of an Angel, or by that of a Daemon; or lastly, by his own industry and ability. From these four different ways, we infer four kinds of Magic: Divine, relating to the first; Theurgic, to the second; Geotick, to the third; and Natural, to the last.  
The first is that sacred and divine Magic, which being absolutely happy and accomplished, exceeds our forces, and wholly depends on that Spirit, qui qu● vult spirat, and which discovers itself in its noble and supernatural operations, such as Prophecy, Miracles, the gift of Tongues, by means whereof it forces its knowledge upon mankind, affords it matter both of instruction and entertainment, so to chastise and mind men of their duties, and to raise a veneration for the Ministers of its Commandments. Magicians of this kind were Moses, Joshua, the Prophets, the Apostles, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and Simeon Stilites, those great Wonder-workers, and a multitude of others, who have exercised this Mosaical 
Lib. 30. cap. 1.  Magic. This Pliny, not understanding it, condemns; as also another, which he calls by the name of the Cyprian Magic, that is, that of St. Paul, who being in Cyprus, did, in the presence of the Proconsul Sergius, make Elymas the Sorcerer lose his sight. But this kind never discovered itself with so much lustre and miracle, as in those two transcendent actions, the alliance of God with man, made at several times, by Moses, and Jesus Christ, who confirmed it only by the virtue of this Magic. For the former, he was so fortunate in it, that having abjured what he ●ad learned in the school of men, he by the practice of this, delivered the people of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, and made himself a General of 600000 men, whom he and his Successors governed according to the Laws he had received from God with thunder and lightning. The latter, Jesus Christ, wrought wonders with so much ease, that both Jews and Gentiles, not able to comprehend whence that power was derived, which yet was no other than that of his Divinity, imagined all done by a wicked and Diabolical Magic. Thence it came they were so impudent (as 
d In 13. Ezech.  S. Hierome, and S. Augustine observe) that they published certain books under the title of, Magia Jesus Christi ad Petrum & Paulum Apostolos. But the said Doctors prove them clearly spurious, in that having seen and read them, they found them fraught with stories quite disconsonant to the actions of Jesus Christ, who left nothing behind him in writing, nor called Paul to the Apostleship till after his Ascension: besides that, he could not by his Magic have made the Prophets say what they had foretold both of his Deity and Coming.  
The second is the Theurgic, or White Magic, which upon the account of Religion, enjoins fasting and abstinences, piety, purity, candour, and integrity of life, that the Soul desirous of commerce with the superior Deities, may not be in any thing diverted by its polluted and sinful body. Hence it is that the Apostle says, Corpus quod corrumpitur, aggravat animam, and suffers not a man to make use of that strictness of Disquisition, which is absolutely necessary in this operation; which, me thinks, Scaliger too prodigally commends, if so be what he says in his third book against Cardan, be meant of this kind: 
e Exercit. 327. nu. 3.  Terti● divina est; nomen apud vulgus odiosum facit colluvies impostorum, propter Smerdis proditioonem ac perfidi●m infensa diu; hac Dominum Jesum fuisse promissum Regem; cognoverunt illi qui ad eum adorandum longinquis è regionibus profecti fuerant. For my part, I should rather explain this of Natural Magic, against the opinion of Loyer and Godelman, who ground theirs perhaps only on his, calling it Divine. Yet for his so doing there is some reason, since that those who practise it, acknowledge thereby that supreme and only Divinity, and may as well by the knowledge it gives us of the creatures, ascend to that of the Creator (according to the direction of Moses, Faciem meam non videbis, posterior a autem mea videbis) as by the assurance it gives us of the miracles of the new Testament, to that of the Redeemer. Otherwise we must suppose Scaliger extremely mistaken, in making such Panegyrics on this Theurgy, when it is, not unjustly, condemned by Delrio, Pererius, and all the rest, who deserve more credit than this modern Writer, who leaving not a stone unmoved to gain the reputation of a Magician, though ineffectually, thought fit, not long since, to put forth a Rhetoric, consisting of five parts, new and never used before, which he would make consonant to the Ancient, that is, the Art of Trithemius to Invention, Theurgy to Disposition, the Art of Armadel to Elocution, the Art Paulin to Pronunciation, and that of Lullius to Memory. For this, I doubt not, since his reputation increases daily, he will have his reward, that is, within fifty years he shall have as fine stories made of him, as there are now of Dr. ●austus, De Maugis, Merlin, Nostradamus', and others who are marked with red letters in the Magician's Calendar. To which Catalogue we must also add Homer, Socrates, Aristotle, Proclus, Jamblichus, Porphyrius, Maximus, and all the great Wits of these latter ages, if it be true, as they would fain persuade us, that they were acquainted with their Genii, and could dispose of their good Angels, merely by the Critical observation of all those ceremonies and Theurgic preparations, so much celebrated by the Poet Palingenius, that a man would think all the moral precepts, whereof his Zodiac of humane life is so full, aim only at the practice of all those knacks and Image-Arts of Armadel, Paulin, and the Planetary, Et hujusmodi superstitionum 
Agrip. de vanit▪ c. 45  genera, quae e● sunt perniciosiora, quò nobis apparent diviniora; since especially they bring us thorough the back door to the knowledge & practice of Conjurations and Diabolical Magic, quae cum sit occulta, non minus quam tetra & horribilis, 
Apul. in Apolog.  plerunque●octibus vigilata, & tenebris abstrusa, & arbitris solitaria, & carminibus mumurata, we ought consequently to be very distrustful of, as the principal instrument the Devil hath ever made use of, to pretend to the honour belongs not to him, and to be so idolised by men, as that he might divert them from the worship they owe their Creator. To compass this with the more ease, we see it hath been his constant employment, to bring into practice all the artificies and subtleties imaginable, putting on all shapes, and making his advantage of all creatures, to make this Idolatry the more universal, & consequently more abominable to him, who, for the love he bears us, called himself sometime a jealous God. We 
Exo. 20. 5.  have it from some Historians, that he spoke to Apollonius under the shape of an Elm, to Pythagoras under that of a River, to Simon Magus under that of a Dog, to some others under that of an Oak. He entertained the Heathen in their superstitions, by heaps of Stones and Statues, whence proceeded Oracles, and (as they say) presides yet among those wretched Assemblies which frequent his Sacrifices, under the representation of a Hee-goat, the ugliest may be seen; for which yet there must be no more respect had, than that Aprilibro made of Virgin Parchment, at the opening whereof (they say) he is obliged to answer; or that Shirt of Necessity, the Looking-glass of Darkness, and such instruments of perdition, as these poor, superstitious, and melancholy wretches take abundance 
Scalig. Exer. 327. num. 3.  of pains to make, cum cantiunculis, cadaveribus, funibus suspendiosorum; quae siquis attrectare aude at, etiam mereatur.  
The sentence we have passed against the second, may in like manner, with no less earnestness and truth, be directed to all those who busy themselves in a sort of endless Divinations, the spawn of the third kind of Magic, which there is no necessity of specifying more particularly, it being the custom of all that write on that Subject, to dispose it into Alphabets and Catalogues. But to deal ingenuously, it were much more discretion to give them a perpetual act of Oblivion, not only because we may say, and justly, that of them which Tertullian does upon another occasion, Tota pernicies quot species, tot dolores quot colores, tot venena quot genera, but also because they seem to be of the nature of a flame, which (as Ovid describes it) heightens and increases the more it is stirred: 
Vidi ego jactatas mot● face crescere flammas,  
Et rursus, nullo concutien●e, mori.  It were therefore much more to our purpose, and the advantage of Religion, to bestow some time in refuting what Picus, in his Apology, Crinitus, and the rest affirm, that this wicked and unlawful Magic was so predominant all over Egypt, that people resorted thither from all parts of theworld, as if it had been some Academy or Lycaeum, purposely set up for the propagation of this Idolatry. Hence it proceeds that Lucian's and Infidels derive much from this opinion, when they would prove that Moses, who according to the Wiseman, Josephus and Philo, had been instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, was so well versed in this Magic, that he made use of it in the working of miracles. To this some add, that Jesus Christ practised it, as we find in 
i De Relig. Christ. c. 30.  Marsilius Ficinus, and more particularly in 
k Cont. Gent. l. 1.  Arnobius, who affirms, that it was the common objection of those blind wretches, to say, Magus fuit, clandestinis artibus omnia perfecit: Aegyptiorum ex adytis Angelorum potentium nomina, & remotas furatus est disciplinal. This the Author of the Fortalitium fidei might have spared his ordinary glosses upon, had he but considered these objections, as ridiculous as those of a many others, who would have Abraham and Jacob pass for great Astrologers, Joseph for a Soothsayer, and Solomon for a Necromancer, grounded only on certain passages of the Bible, which many of our Doctors have interpreted much more superstitiously than ever did the Rabbins.  
But it is almost demonstrable, that this kind of Magic which was practised so universally over all Egypt was no other than the Natural, disguised haply with some vain and impertinent Ceremonies, as may be easily judged, in that Zoroaster, Zamolxis, Abbaris, Oromasis, Charondas and Damigeron, who were most eminent therein, as all Authors generally affirm, are commended 
in Alcib▪ ct in Carmide.  by Plato, especially the two first, as persons very intelligent and excellent for the knowledge of Nature rather than any command they had over those Genii, Spirits, and Robin-good-fellowes. This may be further proved by the examples of Plato himself, of Pythagoras, Empedocles, and Democritus, who have ever been reputed Philosophers and not Magicians, though by their travels into Egypt they had attained those Disciplines. For indeed it were a strange thing, as the Learned 
De sing. cert l. 29. fol. 517.  Bishop Mirandulanus observes, that, this Magic having been so much in vogue, neither Aristotle, nor any Philosopher of his rate, took any pains to leave us the least account of it, especially the former, who having observed whatever was conformable to reason in his Books, could not have forgot himself so far, as to pass over the effects of this admirable doctrine, in that little Book wherein he hath, with so much prudence, laid up together whatever he had discovered that were secret, and surpassing the Ordinary course of Nature.  
It is therefore no hard conjecture, to think that these transcendent Sciences, this rare doctrine, these admirable disciplines amounted to no more than the practice of our fourth and last kind of Magic, called Natural. To discover and unmask which, we are to remember that man being a Conversative creature, capable of discipline, and furnished with all instruments requisite for ratiocination and his instruction in the truth of all things, he is able to put them in practice, either for the attaining of an ordinary vulgar knowledge proportionable to that of others, little or not exceeding that of his Equals, such as have nothing extraordinary or miraculous in it, because (n) inaequalitas tantum est ubi● quae eniment 
See. Ep ist 33.  notabilia sunt; non est admirationi una arbour, ubi i n eandem altitudinem tota sylva▪ surrexit. Or haply to raise himself to the highest and most transcendent speculations, to avoid the common road, and take a Noble flight into those azure vaults of the purest part of our soul, to ●oare up into that terrestrial paradise of the Contemplation of Causes, that so he may at length arrive at that supreme degree of felicity; which only opens a man the way into those places so much celebrated by Lucretius, 
Lib. 2.  
Edita doctrinâ Sapientum templa serena.  This is indeed the true effect of this kind of Magic, which the Persians called, anciently, Wisdom, the Greeks Philosophy, the Jews Cabbala; the Pythagoreans, Science of the formal numbers; and the Platonics, the Sovereign Remedy, which seats the soul in perfect Tranquillity, and preserves the body in a good Constitution by the faculty it hath of being able to reconcile the passive effects to the active virtues, and to make these elementary things here below, comply with the actions of the Stars and celestial Bodies, or rather the Intelligences which guide them by materials, proper and convenient for that purpose. We may therefore conclude with the Learned Verulam, that this fourth kind of Magic Naturalem Philosophiam à veritate speculationum ad magnitudinem operum revocare nititur, it being nothing else then a practical Physic, as Physic is a contemplative Magic; and consequently since what is subalternate to the one is the same to the other, it will not be hard to disentangle it out of an infinite web of Superstitions, confine it to that which it only hath to do with, and appoint it its due bounds and limits. 
Quos ultràcitraque nequit consistere rectum.  These are no other than what are assigned to Physic by Wendelinus, Combachius, and the subtle 
De Divis. Scien.  Algazel, and confirmed by (p) Avicenna, who stating the parts of Natural Philosophy attributes to it, first Medicine▪ then Chemistry, Astronomy, Physiognomy and Oneiroscopy, to which may be added Chiromancy, Metoposcopy, Elioscopie, and Geomancy, that is, the three former to Physiognomy, and the last, as Albertus Magnus, Vigenere, Dr. Flood, Pompanatius, and Agrippa, would have it, to Astrology. All these parts, in regard they have some foundation in natural causes, may be, as these Authors affirm, freely practised, and that without the suspicion of any other Magic than the Natural such as is allowed and approved by all, yet provided always, that the professors confine themselves, the most strictly that may be; within the Limits of their Causes, without wand'ring into a million of ridiculous observations, such as but too too easily creep in to their minds, who make it their employment.   

CHAP. III.  
That many Eminent Persons have been accounted Magicians, who were only Politicians.  
WEre it lawful to add any thing to that excellent consideration upon which the French (a) Seneca built the first Chapter 
Montaigne.  of his Essays, namely that it is possible by several ways, and those absolutely different, to attain the same end; I know not any example contibutes more to the demonstration of this truth then that of the punishment of lying and fabulous Authors, whose malice may be suppressed by a means quite contrary to what was anciently practised by the Lycians 
Heracl. in frag. de politicis.  against false witnesses and informers. For whereas the custom among them was to treat such as slaves and to prostitute them in public places, we are on the contrary to establish a Law, that all Histories should be like those contracts which the Civilians call Stricti juris, and that the discovery of the first imposture should fairly entitle the whole body of the Book to the fire, or at least hinder the sale and publishing of it. Had this been as carefully looked after heretofore as it is necessary to be put in practice now, we should, I must confess, have fewer precepts but more profitable, fewer Books but more fraught with Learuing, less History but more truth, and consequently we should have something else to do than to trouble ourselves for 
Cassiodor. lib. 4. var. Epist. 22.  Apologies for all those excellent persons, (c) tanquam artis sinistrae contagione pollutos. Nay there is such a multitude of writers represent them as such, that the Civilian Heraldus, considering with himself that in these days they are only pitiful wretches that are drawn into these pernicious and unlawful practices, took occasion to say that the trade was now absolutely fallen into the hands of cheats and the Ignorant, 
5. Rer. judic.  (d) non amplius Philosophorum, sed rusticorum et idoitarum.  
Having therefore shown in the first Chapter of this Apology that the Propagation of all these vulgar errors happened by the want of Judgement in those that read Authors, we are now to proceed further in our design; and find out the general causes of all these false reports, which being of the same alloy with the most extravagant imaginations of the Poets, crept into reputation under the appearance of some adventure or occasion. Titus Livius seems to show us a little light in the Discovery of the first cause for which many excellent persons have been charged with Magic, though not any of them had ever the least acquaintance with it, where he tells us, 
Libr. 4. Dec. 1.  that, datur hac venia Antiquitati, ut miscendo humana divinis primordia urbium augustiora faciat. Whence we may easily conjecture, that the more subtle and practised Lawgivers knowing that the readiest way to gain Authority, amongst the people and to continue it, was to persuade them that they were only the Instruments of some supreme deity, who was pleased to favour them with its assistance and protection, have not unsuccessefully fathered all upon feigned Deities, pretended Conferences, imaginary Apparitions, and in a word, this Magic of the Ancients, the better to palliate their ambition, and to ●ay a surer foundation of future Empire. Hence came it, that sometime Trismegistus affirmed the derivation of his Laws from Mercury, Zamolxis from Vesta, Charondas from Saturn, Minos from Jupiter, Lycurgus from Apollo▪ Draco and Solon from Minerva, Numa Pompilius from the Nymph Aegeria, and Mahomet from the Angel Gabriel, who often whispered him in the ear under the Shape of a Pigeon, being as well instructed to further his design, as Pythagoras' Eagle and Sertorius' Hind were for theirs. Nay the Cheat hath proved no less fortunate to some Politicians, who using all the industry and artifices possible to gain the reputation of the indulgence of some Divinity, by the means of this Theurgy and feigned apparitions, have brought to pass, some adventures difficult beyond imagination. Such were those of the Hermit Schacaculis, 
Nouveau C●née pag. 102.  who, having acted that part excellently well for seven or eight years in a desert, at last drew the Curtains, possessed himself of several Cities, defeated a Bashaw, and Mahomet's Son, and had done much more mischief, had he not incensed the Sophy by the means of one certain Celender, who under pretences of devotion shook all Anatolia, and found the Turk work enough, till at last he lost his life in a pitched field. To be short, such another was Elinahel an African who took the same course to wrest the Sceptre out of his Master's hands the King of Morocco; to whom we might add a many others, whose extraordinary fortune gave Cardan occasion 
De Sapient. Lib. 5.  to advise such Princes and Sovereigns, who by reason of the meanness of their extraction, want of friends or a military force, have not credit enough to govern their Countries; to apply themselves, to this sacred Theurgy. By such means did James Bussularius make a shirt to rule for some time at Pavia; John de Vincence, at Boulongue; and Savanorola at Florence of which latter we have this remark of the Polite 
Lib. 1. Dis. ●3.  Italian in his discourse upon Livy; The people of Florence are no fools, yet Brother Hierom Savanorola persuaded them that he had conferences with God. But before all these, had Vespasian done as much by his miracles, and Nama the second 
Tertul. in Apol. cap. ●5.  founder of Rome, qui Romanos operosissimis superstitionibus oneravit, ut rapaces et adhuc feros hominee multitudine tot numinum demerendorum attonitos efficiendo, ad humanitatem temperaret.  
And indeed this kind of circumvention is of such consequence, that those who thought not fit to make use of it this way, as conceiving it too low, and not able to bring about their ambitious ends, have ascended a step higher, affirming themselves to be the Sons of these supreme Deities (rather Devils); under pretence of whose favour all other Lawgivers, and Politicians were glad to keep up their credit and Authority. Virg▪ 
— Veluti Parnassia laurus  
Parva▪ sub ingenti matris se protegit umbra.  When therefore we find Hercules calling himself the Son of Jupiter, Romulus of Mars, Servi●s of Vulcan, Alexander of Ammon, and so of others, we must conceive they did it, either to bring the people under obedience, and to gain that respect among men which they bore their supposed Fathers. Or haply their Mother's being more than ordinarily crafty and politic hoc pr●texunt nomine culpam; a trick probalbly played by those of Plato, Apollonius, Luther, and the Prophet Merlin, 
Alan. de Insulis.  whose Romance must needs take its rise from the pretty story of his birth, that so nothing might be omitted that should render his adventures more full of prodigy and astonishment.  
To this head may also be reduced the vanity of those private persons, who no less desirous, to have some influence over their fellow-citizens and the ordinary rate of men, than Princes and Monarches have over their subjects, make it their business to persuade us that the Gods have an extraordidary rendernesse for their persons by assigning them some Guardian-Angell, or Director in all the most important actions of their lives, Among these may be ranked Socrates, Apollonius, Chicus, Cardan, Scaliger, Campanella and some others, who would persuade themselves, that all the proofs and assurances which they should be pleased to afford us of their familiar Demons should be acknowledged by ●s, with no less veneration than those ancient Commentaries 
Reuclin. de Art cabalist.  of the Rabbins, which lay it down as undeniable that among the Patriarches of the Old Testament, Adam had been governed by his Angel Raziel, Sem by Jophiel, Abraham by Tzadkiell, Isaac by Raphael, Jacob by Piol, and Moses by Mitraton. No● indeed do I see any reason to pass any other judgement of the one than of the other; and that the best advantage we can make of all these extravagances, is to use them as a Collyrium to help us to discern truth from falsehood, real Magic from fictions and pretences, and political and natural operations from the Diabolical, which, as such, are condemned by all. Such were those practised sometime 
●. Tim▪ c. 3.  against Moses, by the Magicians of Pharaoh, called by St. Paul, Jammes, and Mambres; those of Simon Magus who opposed St. Peter; of Cynops, who was drowned upon the prayer of St. John the Evangelist; of Elymas struck blind by St. Paul; of Zaores and Arphaxat, who▪ according 
Liv. 6.  to the History of Abdias, were destroyed by thunder in Persia. To these we may add of latter times Dr. Faustus, Zedechias the Jew, the little Scot, Trois-eschelles, he who under Charles the fifth, would needs be called Magister videns, 
Lege. 7. Cod. de malef et Mathem.  and a many others of whom we must understand the Decree, thundering in the Code against Magicians, Magis, in quacunque sint parte terrarum, humani generis inimici credendi sunt.   

CHAP. IU.  
That the extraordinary Learning of many great men hath oftentimes been accounted Magic.  
FUrius Vesinius the Peasant, accused before the people of Rome for a sort of wizzardry done by him upon the Lands of his neighbours, which though of greater extent, yet yielded not so great a Crop as his that were less, would take no other course to justify his Innocence, then to bring along with him, on the day of his appearance, all the Instruments of Agriculture, kept in very good order, beseeching his Judges to believe that he had made use of no other poisons or unlawful drugs than those, together with abundance of pains and a many watchings, which, to his sorrow, he knew not how otherwise to represent. In like manner these great persons 
— Queis arte benigna  
Et meliore luto finxit pracordia Titan,  need no more, to blast this Calumny, which to this day lies heavy upon them, than to manifest and discover the proceedings whereby they have attained so great Learning and Abilities. Those indeed they were so eminent for, that it seems in some sort to excuse their weakness who could refer them to no causes but what were extraordinary, and upon no other account have made it a crime, such as, were it not true what Apuleius says, that, Calumniari quivis innocens potest, revinci 
Apolog. 1.  nisi nocens non potest, we might say are in a manner entailed on all persons of more than ordinary desert. Galen, that great Genius of Medicine, 
Cap. 17. de ratione curandi per sang. missionem.  confesses that at Rome he was thought guilty of it, for diverting a fluxion, by Phlebotoimy in less than two days, which Erasistratus could not effect in a long time, because he would not make use of that remedy. Apuleius was forc'● to the trouble of two Declamations in public, and to display all his great abilities and Learning to rescue them from the censure of Magic, which his Enemies would fasten on them, wherein they must needs be mistaken, unless they took the word according to the explication of Sr. Hierom, 
Ad cap. 2. Daniel.  where he says, Magi sunt qui de singulis philosophamur. For if it be restrained to that sense, we shall freely acknowledge, that Galen, Apuleius, and the rest for whom we make this Apology, were Magicians, that is, studious persons, indefatigable, as to travel; and consequently pale, 
Apul. Apolog. 1.  wan, and sickly, quibus continuatio etiam literalis laboris omnem gratiam corpore deterget, habitudinem tenuat, succum exsorbet, colorem obliterat, vigorem debilitat.  
These indeed are the charms and enchantments, whereby they came to understand the Trivium and Quadrivium of the seven Liberal Sciences, so much celebrated by the Moderns, and consequently arrived to the knowledge of the whole Encyclopedy. This it was, that in some sort raised them to a communication with that Divinity which Homer attributes to the Sun, because he sees all things. This likened them to the Gymnosophists, who as Philostratus affirms, thought themselves the more acceptable to their Gods, the higher they jumped and lifted themselves up into the air in their carols and dances. That indeed bred the quarrel, these great intelligences raised themselves to such a height of perfection, that the ignorance of the ages they lived in, envying the distance between them and other men, hath always charged them with impiety in their Speculations and Theory, and Magic in their Actions. 
In vita Nici●.  As to the former, Plutarch was the first Author of this excellent observation, where he tells us that Anaxagoras and those Philosophers, who first found out the causes of Eclipses, communicated it to their Disciples in a Cabalistical & Traditional way very secretly, not daring to venture it among the people, whose faith it was, that only temerarious and impious persons sought out any reason for those entraordinary effects, which depended immediately on the will of the Gods, whose Liberty they thought incompatiblewith the indisturbed order of those causes, whereof the Philosophers pretended a natural Demonstration. Hence proceeded the rigorous punishment inflicted on them, either by banishment, as happened to Protagoras, or long imprisonment as to Anaxagoras, out of which Pericles had all the trouble in the world to make him go. Nay they would not pardon Socrates, but condemned him upon this very account that his Philosophy had something different from those that went before him. These harsh proceedings gave Plato 
in Epist.  such an alarm, that he ingenuously confessed to Dionysius, that for that very reason he had not advanced any opinion of his, but under the name of Socrates or some other Philosopher, lest sometime or other he should be called to account for it. The same person, consulted by the Athenians 
Plat. lib. de Daemone Socrat:  about the execution of the Oracles answer which had commanded them to double their Altar, which was of a Cubick figure, took that occasion, as extremely advantageous, to persuade them to the study of Philosophy especially Mathematics, without the knowledge whereof it was absolutely impossible to satisfy the Oracle▪ This might haply seem fabulous to a many who have a greater reverence for Antiquity then to Imagine it so stupid and Ignorant; but that the Author from whom we have this testimony is not to be suspected guilty of either mistake or negligence. But if we come nearer our own age, we shall find there was not much more reason, some ages since, to deny as Lactantius did, against Avicenna, that the Torrid Zone was habitable; or to dispute against the opinion of the Antipodes, and to say, by way of raillery, to those that maintained 
Lib. 3. de fals● sapientia, c. 23.  it, Et miratur aliquis hortos pensiles inter septem mira narrari, cum Philosophi & agros, & maria, & urbes, & montes, pencils faciant?  
Nay, so ridiculous and contrary to Religion was this opinion thought in that time, that the 
Aventinus, lib. 3. Annal. Boio●.  poor Bishop Virgilius was excommunicated, and condemned for an Heretic, for patronising that reverse of this world, long before it was discovered by Columbus. Nor is it a thing less strange, that Philastrius should put into the Catalogue of the heretical and condemned opinions in his time, that of some Philosophers, who held the Solidity of the Heavens, which yet hath ever been acknowledged, and still is in the Schools, though within these thirty or forty years, some Professors have discarded it, to introduce the ancient, which was the more common and authentic in the time of Philastrius.  
It is therefore no miracle, when all the propositions of these great wits, though most solid and rational, have ever met with contempt, by the Gentiles, out of suspicion of impiety; by the Christians; of heresy, only because they happened in ages distrustful of those vast and extraordinary acquests of learning, if the greatest part of Philosophers, Mathematicians, and Naturalists have been unjustly charged with Magic: an observation 
Initio Dialect.  we are obliged for, to that great person, whom Laurentius Valla calls the last of the Latins, who among other lamentations directed to Philosophy, forgot not to say, Atque hoc ipso affines 
1. De Consol. Philosoph. pros●▪ 4.  fuisse videmur maleficio, quod tuis imbu●i disciplinis. From which passage we may learn, that that calumny hath been so pinned to the sleeves of all that have professed those Disciplines, that it seems in a manner an essential property in them to be accounted Magicians▪ since it seldom or never happens, that any Lawyers and Divines (unless Heretics) have been charged therewith. Whereas on the contrary, those who are the most intimately acquainted with Philosophy, have not been able to ward off this reproach, or divert men from attributing the fruits of their industry to their proficiency in the Academy of Devils, where they yet profited more than in any of the other Sciences, if we may trust those who would furnish us with more Magicians, quam olim muscarum 
Plaut. in T●uc.  est, tum cum caletur maxim.  
But to facilitate the discovery in this point, all our business is to observe the first appearances of Learning, the first risings of great Wits, the time they flourished, the ages which have brought forth most, and take notice by the way, how that ignorance hath always persecuted them with this calumny. It will tell us, if we will hearken to it, that Zoroaster and Zamolxis never did any thing, but fool away their time in Sacrifices; that Pythagoras, Democritus, Empedocles, Socrates and Aristotle had never known any thing, had they not applied themselves to the Daemons; that Apuleius was but a Wizard; that Geber, Alchindus▪ Avicenna, and all the most excellently learned among the Arabians, were Professors of Magic; that Roger Bacon▪ Ripley, Bongey, Scotus, were so many cunning men among the English, excellently well versed in Necromancy, and very able Conjurers; that Chicus, the Conciliator, Anselm of Parma, and divers other Italians, were very well acquainted with the business of Invocations; that Arnoldus de Villa nova, and William of Paris, were also very fortunate therein, in France. In a word, all Countries that had any men famous for learning were sure to have also Magicians; whereof, for want of the former, Germany had always been barren enough, Albertus Magnus excepted, till that, furbished & refined by letters, it brought forth Trithemius & Agrippa, as the Ringleaders of all the forementioned. To these: if we believe Bodin, we must add Hermolaus & Cardan▪ if the Lancre▪ Scaliger & Picus; if some others yet more superstitious, all the most eminent persons, as if there had been no other schools than the Ca●es of Toledo, no other books than the Claviculae, no other Doctors than Devils, no other ways for a man to become learned, but by the practice of all those Magical Superstitions; or lastly, that the reward of a great industry, and the fruits of excellent endowments, were only to enable a man to cast himself into the claws of that enemy of mankind, whose acquaintance is but too too easily procured, it being his business, to go about like a roaring Lion, seeking whom he may devour.  
Having therefore well considered whence it comes to pass, that many have made such disadvantageous glosses on the learning of these great persons; I am, in the first place, persuaded it might proceed from a reason common to all the erroneous persuasions which insensibly thrust in among us, as the learned Verulam hath observed, Is humano intellectui error est proprius & perpetuus, 
Lib. 3. instaur. mag.  ut magis moveatur & excitetur affirmativis quam negativis. In the second, that haply it might come from this, that these Philosophers soaring up into contemplations too high and remote from ordinary apprehensions; those, who, in comparison of them, only crept upon the ground, were obliged to admire them, and, in time, to reproach, as over-confident and supernatural, whether this change proceeded from the weakness of their judgement, or a design to calumniate them, as Seneca observes, quam magnus mirantium, tam 
De vita beata.  magnus invidentium est populus. Or lastly from this, that whatever the most subtle and ingenious among men can perform, by the imitation or assistance of Nature, is ordinarily comprehended under the name of Magic, until such time as it be discovered by what ways and means they effect those extraordinary operations. Of this we have an example in the invention of Guns and Printing, and the discovery of the new world; the people whereof, thought at first sight, that our ships were made by Magic, our vaults & arches by enchantment, and that the Spaniards were the Devils that should destroy them, with the thunder and lightning of their Arquebuzzes and Guns.  
From what hath been said may be inferred, that all these great persons have incurred the censure of Magicians, for having performed many strange things by the assistance of Physic and other Sciences they were Masters of, and in the practice whereof all good Authors are wont to comprehend Magic. The reason of this, is, that they are not so easy to be prostituted to the knowledge of the Vulgar as the Mechanics are, which cannot so much command admiration, because, being exercised about manifest and palpable Bodies, it is a manner impossible that the Authors thereof should keep up the secret of their several causes and operations. And this leads us to a necessity of acknowledging that the practice of the Mathematics, and, above all, of these Mechanics, and judiciary Astrology, hath contributed much to the confirmation of all these erroneous opinions, as we shall show more at large elsewhere.   

CHAP. V.  
That Mathematicians have many times been accounted Magicians.  
AMong all the Precepts which contribute any thing to the regulation and conduct of our Actions, me thinks there is not any more serious or of greater consequence then that which minds us, that, Venena non dantur nisi melle circumlita, & vitia non decipiunt nisi sub specie Virtutum. Of this we have daily experience, in that as Coiners of false money employ all their industry so to dispose some little Gold or Silver upon bad pieces that they may pass for good and current; so the greatest part of those who by reason of the lightness and vanity of their Doctrine fall into the general contempt, are forced to change Scenes, to disguise, and if they are Heretics, for example, to take the title of Divines; if Impostors, of Chemists, if Mounte-banks, of Doctors; if Sophisters, of Philosophers; if Conjurers, of Wellwishers to the Mathematics. This makes sad and strange confusion in all things, especially the Sciences, that, if it be not absolutely impossible, it is certainly very difficult to be able to discern the Legitimate professors from the Ignorant and presumptuous profaners of them; who, having scattered into them abundance of cheats & superstitions, have made them so suspectful, that even those who have courted them with greatest religion could never do it with the general approbation and allowance of all. This certainly is one principal reason whereby the most critical and accomplished Wits, have given their Enemy's occasion to defame them as Magicians, because they had made greater discoveries into those four parts of the Mathematics, which are called by 
e Eph. 45. l. 1. var. Metal. c. 24. in Encom. Art. liberal▪  Cassiodorus, Quadrifariae Mathesis Januae; by Sarisberiensis, Quadrivii rotae; and by Calcagnin, Quadriga disciplinarum, that is, Arithmetic Geometry, Music, and Astrology. These indeed are such, that, by reason of ●he subtle operations are wrought by them, the Jesuit Pererius 
De Mag. l. 1. cap. 9▪  took occasion to divide Natural Magic into two kinds. One hath an absolute dependence on Physic and its parts, working, by the means both of the occult and known qualities of all things, many times, very strange and miraculous effects, such as might be the Golden hen of Sennertus, the Magnetical unguent of Goclinus, the Lamp and invulnerable Knight of Burgravius, the Idaeall powder of Quercetanus, the Fulminant Gold of Beguinus, the Vegetal Tree of the Chemists, and many such natural miracles which these Authors affirm they have seen and experienced. The other giuded by Mathematical precepts, makes certain artificial Engines by means whereof we come afterwards to admire 
Epist. 45. lib. 1. var.  that Sphere of Archimedes, parvam machinam, gravidam mundo, Caelum gestabile▪ compendium rerum, Speculum naturae. To that add those Automata of Daedalus, those Tripods of Vulcan, the 
Du Bartas. 1. Week. 6. day.  Hydraulicks of Boëtius the Pigeon of Architas, that industrious Iron-fly presented to the Emperor Charles the V. by John de Mont royal, which  
— from under's hand flew out  
And having flown a perfect Round about,  
With weary wings returned unto her Master,  
And (as judicious) on his Arm she placed her.  
Besides which, there are many other productions of man's wit, working, it as it were in ●pight of nature, which have so dazzled weaker minds, that it is indeed no wonder, if, not able to discover the reasons, which were purposely kept from them, they have attributed all those instruments and engines, rather to Diabolical operations then humane industry, and have through ignorance, bespattered the greatest Mathematicians with the infamy of Magic. An instance of this we have in that Archimedes of Gascony, Francis Flussad of Candale, who was not able to ward off the blows of that Calumny. To him add John Denys an excellent Mathematician of our time, who printed an Apology for himself in the year 1570. and pleaded his own cause at London. And to him, Pope Silvester, Bacon, Michael Scotus, Albertus Magnus, and all the rest who now put in their Bills of Complaint. Ovid. de Nace. 
Fructus obest, peperisse nocet, nocet esse feracem.   
Wherein there is certainly much justice, their only crime being, that their Sciences, their instruments, their brazen heads, their Clocks, and all their other subtle Inventions, have so astonished the populace, that instead of referring these singular effects to their true cause and the experience of the Mechanics▪, the Operator whereof, is▪ if I may so express it, penè socius naturae, occulta 
Cassiod l. ● var. Ep ●5  reserans, manifesta convertens, miraculis ludens, it hath attributed all to Diabolical Magic. This they think was very much more in reputation five or six hundred years since than itis now● and that was publicly taught in certain Schools in Spain, whereof the ruins are yet to be seen in the Cellars near Toledo and Salamanca. But this rather begs our belief then requires it, in as much as the Authors from whom we have these things, being no more Authentic Testimony, than what we might produce to affirm as much of the Castle of Vicestre. But indeed, it is a certain piety not to think that City ever was the Seminary of so many Magicians, which God honoured with a prerogative above all other, that the doctrine and policy of his Church was confirmed and maintained therein by the assemblies of 17. Counsels; besides that those who make Sylvester a Magician acknowledge that he learned, what he knew that way, at Toledo.  
But when it shall be hereafter evinced that Sylvester was no such man, but the greatest and most excellent Mathematican of his Age, it will be but rational to grant, that, by the Magic taught at Toledo is only meant the Mathematics, which had gained such reputation there, and were so perfectly taught, that a certain English man called Daniel Morlerus (who flourished in the year 1190. and writ excellently well therein) after a long abode in Barbary to learn them, was at last advised to transport himself to Toledo, as the most famous place for their profession in the World. Such, it seems, it was then, and continued so, long after, even to Alphonsus' King of Castille in the year 1262. who became such a Maecenas and Patron of these disciplines that he gave, by way of recompense, to certain Arabians whose assistance and industry he had made use of in composing his Astronomical Tables, above 400000 Crowns: so infinitely desirous was he of being accounted the common Benefactor of all the Mathematicians of his time, that there needs no further security for it, than that infinite number of Treatises and Translations upon this subject, which had never been done but by the influence of his name, and the example of his Liberality. 
l. ult. c. ult. adv. Astrolog.  That indeed brought these Disciplines much into request, especially judiciary Astrology, as Mirandula observes, that it is not to be wondered at, that the place where it was so diligently practised, should be taken for the School of Magic. If 
Metam. lib. 2.  so, those certainly, who gloried in the imitation of the ginger Diophanes, who boasted in Apuleius that he certainly knew qui dies copulam nuptialem affirmet, qui fundamenta moenium perpetuet, qui negotiatori commodus, qui viatori celebris, qui navigiis opportunus, must needs expect to be branded 
lib. de Idololat.  for Magicians, not much differing from the opinion of Tertullian, who sometimes said, Scimus Magiae & Astrologiae inter se societatem. It is also the opinion of the Civilians, who under the same head, treat De Maleficis et Mathematicis, upon occasion of Divinations and this Astrology, which hath been condemned under the name of Mathematics, because Justinian desirous to make his Constitutions clear and intelligible, made use of the most usual and Vulgar words: Vulgus autem, says Gellius, quos gentilitio 
lib. 1▪ c. 9▪  vocabulo Chaldaeos dicere oportet, Mathemati●os dicit. We have it confirmed also by a passage in Juvenal, Sat. 14. 
Nota Mathematicis genesis tua—  which, as that of Gellius, is not to be understood of Arithemetick, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy, which are particularly signified by the name of Mathematics, and generally approved by all, but only of Judiciary Astrology, which is, with much reason, condemned by the Church, not as suspected guilty of any thing of Magic, but as a Profession, quae stellis ea quae geruntur 
Origen. hom. 3. Hierom▪  in terra consecrat, makes us slaves to the destinies, and is absolutely in consistent with all kinds of Religion.   

CHAP. VI  
That the Books attributed to divers great persons, are not a sufficient testimony to make them guilty of Magic.  

Steph. Forcat▪ in Prometheo▪  WE find in History, that that potent King of Egypt, Ptolemaeus Philadelphus, having spared no industry to add to and adorn the proud Library he had erected in Alexandria, appointed, for its further splendour, a certain solemn day, on which all the Poets assembled together, recited verses in honour of the Muses, that the most able and fortunate might be gratified with the presents he had designed for them. These guerdons were already voted to divers of the Candidates, when Aristophanes, who was the seventh of the Judges, opposed the sentence of the rest, and opening the treasury of his memory, amazed all with the greatness of his reading and his miraculous learning, and discovered that the pieces they thought so excellent and accomplished, were not theirs who had recited them, but had been taken out of the best Authors, whom he particularised one after another, making such an Inventory of Felonies, that the King, People, and Judges revoked the former sentence, for to favour some others, who had not brought any thing, but what was of their own invention. For my part, I am clearly of opinion, that there was not more occasion, for that Aristophanes in the time of Ptolemy, than there is in this, and that he should find much more occasion to discover his prodigious reading, not only in the censure and condemnation of Plagiaries, but also in the vindications of these great persons. For in stead of receiving those eulogies and honorary titles, sometimes given them by Richard de Bury, Chancellor of England, the greatest Lover of Books that hath been since the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who, to insinuate the advantage of good books, tells us, Hi sunt Magistri qui nos instruunt sine virgis & 
Cap. 2. Philobiblii.  ferula, sine verbis & cholera, sine pannis & pecunia: si accedis non dormiunt, si inquiris non se abscondunt, non remurmurant si oberres, cachinnos nesciunt si ignores; in stead of these Eulogies, I say, they have fathered upon them a number of pernicious and pestilent books, for which, in stead of these commendations, they meet with only the contempt and imprecations of those, who cannot distinguish these supposititious brats from their true and legitimate children.  
This hath given some occasion to imagine, that many great men have not been charged with Magic, but merely upon this fourth cause, and the books unjustly fathered upon them, such as are those of Trithemius' Catalogue, and many other Manuscripts, qui e● periculosius errand, quò in soliditate 
Sarisber. Polycrat. l. 1. c. 18.  naturae & vigore rationis suum fundare videntur errorem. For an Antidote against the venom of this fourth kind, according to our method in the precedent, we are to show that there is no probability, that all these books improbatae lectionis, as 
Vulpian▪  the Civilians call them, were ever written or composed by those, under whose names and authority they are published, which yet if we should grant, yet can there not any certain proof be deduced out of them, to conclude the Authors Magicians. For, in the first place, we have no other knowledge or account of these books, than what we find in certain Catalogues, who furnish us with their titles in such a manner, that we cannot judge, unless by some other circumstances, what the Authors drift and design was in the composition of them, whether to illustrate or confute, plead for or against, mantain or condemn the subject they treat of, and busy themselves about. Whence it came to pass, that many finding by these Catalogues, that Alexander Aphrodisaeus had written of Magical Arts, Aquinas of judiciary Astrology, and Roger Bacon of Necromancy, have presently entered into imaginations contrary to what they should, believing that they contained nothing else, but the precepts and direction we are to follow, to be perfect in the practice of all those Divinations, and consequently, that there was much reason, why the Authors should be accounted Magicians.  
But this consequence is vain, light, and groundless; for besides the first error, we may observe a second, which, because not so obvious, hath deluded a many, even to this day, who held that there needed no more to qualify any one, an Enchanter or Magician, than to write of Magic: which once granted, we must also infer, that all those who undertake to write against, and to convince them, should be bemired with the same vice, and accordingly incur the same punishment. For it must be supposed, that they cannot discover the absurdity of their precepts and maxims, unless they understand and declare them to us, which if they do, they become equally guilty, because the good or bad intention of the one and the other, doth not make any alteration in the case, relating only to the nature of Precepts, which should have no more force taken out of Picatrix than Delrio, if he hath once explained them, nor of the prohibited Authors, than those who refute them. Nay, we must press further, and affirm, that all those who are able to discourse pertinently of Magic, aught to be condemned as Magicians, were there no other reason than that it is in their power, as much as theirs who did it before, to furnish us with books and precepts, which if they do not, it is either because they think it not convenient▪ or out of some other motive, without any prejudice to their learning. We find Socrates, Carneades, and divers others accounted good Philosophers, though they would never take the pains to commit any thing to writing; Hortensius, thought, in Cicero's time, the best Orator in all Rome, who, probably, out of an imitation of a many others highly celebrated by Seneca and Cicero, would never publish any of his Declamations. Add to this, that it were a strange simplicity to think, that only such as have been in the Circle, are practised in Invocations, and have exercised Magic, can write or make books of it, whereas every one is at liberty to discourse according to his humour, of a thing wherein there is neither precepts, order, nor method, and where all a man hath to do, is to mingle the characters of the twelve Signs and the seven Planets, the names of certain Angels mentioned in Scripture, the Tohu and the Boh●, the Urim and Thummim, the Beresith and Merchava, the Ensoph and the Agla of the Cabalists, with the Hippomanes, Virgin parchment, Pentacle, the dead man's muffler, the Death's head, the blood of Owls and Bats, and certain prayers and conjurations out of the Flagellum Daemonum, to make a world of mysterious Books and Treatises. These must afterwards be sold very secretly, and for good round prices, by such as can make no other shift to stave off their clamorous necessities, than by making a trade of these cheats and impostures, to the cost and sorrow of many weak, superstitious, and melancholy inclinations, who think they are within sight of Felicity, and can do miracles, when they meet with these Cheats and Mountebanks. 
— Tam magna penuria mentis ubique!  
In nug as tam prona via est!—   
Lastly, there is no likelihood that these books, which are only for the most part, the fruits of a long Theory and Speculation, should be sufficient proofs to convince the Authors of Magic, which consists rather in certain practices and operations, than in the laying down of precepts; he 
Disquis. de magicis a●tionib.  only, according to Biermannus, deserving the name of a Magician, who contracts with the Devil to make use of him in what he shall think fit to employ him in. This definition indeed cannot possibly agree to all those, for whom we make this Apology, if there be no other charge against them, than that of the Books they have written on this Subject▪ since it is possible they made them without any contract expressed or understood, simple or public, as we have shown before. Nay, to take away all controversy, it is a pure calumny maliciously advanced, an opinion ab olutely erroneous and rash, to think to maintain or prove, that any one of them ever made or troubled himself with the composure of any Book treating of Geotick or unlawful Magic, or of any Species or difference thereof. And this, in the first place may be confirmed by the Testimony of him who is accounted the Prince and Ringleader of the 
De Vanit. Scient. cap. 45.  Magicians, who very well understood the cheers and suprises of all these Books vamped and never set up with false Titles, and fathered upon Zoroaster, Enoch, Trismegistus, Abraham, Solomon, Apuleius, Aquinas, Albertus magnus, and several other great persons. To this add the Suffrage of 
De praest. Lib. 2. Cap. 5.  Vuierus and all those who have written with most judgement upon this subject, grounded, probably upon the same reason that made Picus Mirandula give the like Judgement of some such Books of 
l. 1. adv. Astrolog.  Judiciary Astrology, which, as he says, are falsified by certain impostors, who, quoniam, quae produntur ab iis, rationibus confirmari non possunt, sive ipsi illa vera credunt, sive credi volunt ab aliis, libros hujusmodi fabularum, viris clarissimis et antiquissimis inscribunt, et fidem errori suo de fictis Authoribus aucupantur.  
The same remark we may make on all the other kinds of Quacksalving, especially that of Alchemists, who think they have not done their duty and cheated as they should, if after they have made a shift to find the explication of all their Chimeras in Genesis, the Apocalypse, the Hieroglyphics, the Odyssey, the Metamorphôses, nay even in Epitaphs, Sepulchers, and Tombs, they should not send their Books into the world under the names of Mary Mose's Sister, Trismegistus, Democritus, Aristotle, Synesius, Avicenna, Albertus magnus, and Aquinas. As if all these Learned men and great Authors had had no other employment all their lives then blowing & stirring of fires, or making of Circles, Characters and Invocations; and that the barbarism, the extravagances, the childishness, want of order, the lowness, error, and Ignorance of all these Books were not sufficient arguments to rescue from so black a calumny, such transcendent Souls, and Intelligences of Litterature, 
Omnes coelicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes.  And not only that, but with the same labour discover unto us the muddy, and pestilent source, the Styx and Tartarus, whence proceed all these little Monsters, these Apparitions, these Bastards, these abortive fruits, which indeed is no other 
Cic. de divin. l. 1.  than the temerity of some poor reptile Spirits, qui sui quaestûs causa fictas suscitant sententias: fathering them upon the first comes into their mind 
C. 4. Comment. in Sphaeram. cap. 17▪ lib. 2. Polycrat.  never minding any reason, choice consideration or respect. Hence it comes that Chicus affirms he had seen a Book written by Cham concerning Magic, and another made by Solomon, de umbris Idaearum; that John of Salisbury 
●dve●. Astrolog. lib. 1.  makes mention of an Art of Dreams vented under thename of Daniel; that the two Picus' acknowledge not for legitimate the treatises of Necromancy 
Francis c. lib. 5. cap. 6. Antip. l. 1.  attributed to Saint Hierome, Aquinas, and Plato; and that the Abbot Trithemius, not without reason, laughs at all that is fathered upon Albertus Magnus and divers others.  
For what reason or ground is there to believe that Hypocrates was Author of the Book of Lunar Astrology, Plato of that of the herbs and the Cow, Aristotle of those of the Apple of Vegetables of the properties of Elements and the Secrets of Alexander, Galen of that of Enchantments; Ovid, of that of the Old Woman, and the Loves of Pamphilus; Seneca, of the little Book of Virtues and the Epistles of St. Paul; and that all the be●t Authors spent their time so trivially upon trifling Books of no Value or consequence; whereof we have so little assurance of the true Authors, that we are not certain to whom we ought to attribute a many we afford places to in our Libraries. For, to pass by the works of Orpheus, Trismegistus, Berosus, and Manethon, all which are absolutely feigned, some Apocryphal pieces of holy writ; doubtful Treatises of Hypocrates, Galen, those questioned by Erasmus at the impression of the Fathers, the Pamplets of Ge●s●n, Fenestella, Pythagoras, and Cato, and all that lie under suspicion among Humanists; is it not strange that Francis Picus, successor to the 
Lib. 4. Examine. vanit. doctrinae gent.  Learning as well as Principality of his Uncle the great Picus, the Phoenix of his Age, should take so much pains to prove, that it is altogether uncertain whether Aristotle be Author of any one Book of all those that are found in the Catalogue 
I. 4. c. 6. De rectâ rat. Philosoph.  of his Works? And yet he is therein seconded by Nizolius, and the business so strictly discussed by Patricius, that, after he had discovered a miraculous industry in the scrutiny of the truth 
Discuss. Peripat. Tom. 1. l. 3.  of that proposition, he concludes at last, that, of all the Books of that great Genius of nature, there are but four, of little bulk and less consequence, come to us, as his, without the least doubt or controversy; that is, That of he Mechanics, and three others he writ against Zeno Goro●as and Xenophanes. On the other side Ammonius, in his Commentaries upon the Predicaments, affirms, that there were in the Library of Alexandria forty Books of Analytics, all under the name of Aristotle; though he had made but four, whereof the two first are answerable to the nine cited by 
Comment. in lib. Hipp. de ●at. humana.  Diogenes Laertius. But this, if we credit Galen, is to be attributed to the emulation that was between the Kings of Pergamus and Egypt in rewarding those who brought them the Books of any good Author, especially Aristotle; for the greater ornament▪ of their Libraries; it having never happened before, that the Titles of Ancient 
Discuss. peripat. Tom. 1. l. 3.  Books had been falsifyed. But in this point we should have been more large had not Patricius taken the pains before us; or that it had been necessary to demonstrate how unjust it is, and beside all appearance of reason, that some, under their names, whose prodigious Learning raised them to greatest reputation, have pestered the world with an infinite number of impertinent fragments, disordered collections, fabulous Treatises, fruitless writings, and Books shuffelled together without reason, method, or judgement.  
— Quos— ipse  
Non siani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes.   

CHAP. VII.  
Of all the other Causes which may give any occasion of suspicion thereof.  
THough the number of those who have endeavoured to discover & explain to us the nature & condition of Magic within these two hundred years is almost infinite yet me thinks the first that undertook it have done it with no small distraction, as not seeing well; and the greatest part of the more Modern have endeavoured to faciliate the disquisition by the use of those Glasses which make Ants seem as great as a man's thumb, so to represent to us in their Books, atoms like Mountains and flies like Elephants, that is, magnify the smallest faults into the greatest crimes, by a childish metamorphosis of the least jealousy into truth, of a hearsay into a demonstration, and accidents of no consequence into prodigious and memorable Histories. Whence it is not to be wondered at, that as the higher & greater things are, the more subject they are to Lightning; so the greatest part of those Noble Souls of past ages, those tutelary Gods of Parnassus and favourites of the Muses have not been free from that of Tongues. For being the principal Actors upon the Stage of this world, and as much above the ordinary rate of men, as they are above other Creatures; their leasts, faults and most in considerable misapprehensions have been more narrowly pried into, whether it be that the least mark or mole is more obvious in an extraordinary Beauty than on some poor Baucis or Cybale, or that, according to the saying of the sententious Poet. 
Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se  
Crimen habet, quanto major qui pecat habetur.   
However it be, we may add this cause to the precedent, as one of the principal that hath caused learned men to be thought Magicians, and upon account whereof the curiosity of Albertus magnus, the natural Magic of Bacon, the judiciary Astrology of Chicus, the Mathematics of Sylvester, and he resy of Alchindus, and certain superstitious obervations, have been reputed Geotick and diabolical Magic. But it must be confessed, it is for the most part the malevolent interpretation of those who judge not of things, but with misprision; of Authors, but by their outside and superscriptions; of Books, but by their titles; nor of men, but by their vices; divulging what they ought in prudence to conceal, and priding it, not only to lay open to the world the miscarriages of all these great persons, but magnifying and aggravating them purposely to prepossess, and consequently make us pass sentence against their innocence, which certainly ought to have all the fair play that may be, it being just to suppose it not so weak and wounded as it is represented to us. Besides, should we a little more narrowly search into the truth of this opinion quae mala attollit et exaggerate, 
Lips. de co●●taa.  & cothurnis quibusdam auget, we shall find all these proofs resolved into conjectures, and all these enormous crimes into certain vain and trivial snperstitions. Nor is it in the mean time any miracle at all, that these glorious men in their times should somewhat degenerate that way, nay endeavour to practise them, when it is of ordinary experience, that what is most accomplished, is also most delicate and perishable. Thus we find that the sharpest points are the soon blunted, the perfectest white the most easily soiled, the best complexion the most subject to several altrations, & we have it from holy Writ, that the noblest of the Angels was the first that fell.  
Having therefore thus deduced all the causes we could find of this suspicion as to what concerns the accused, we shall in the rest of this Chapter observe five others, which we may say, have contributed more to the propagation of this erroneous opinion, than the former. These are, Heresy, Malice, Ignorance, Credulity, and the Dis-circumspection, and want of judgement in Authors and writers.  
For the first, it amounts to something more than a conjecture that Alchindus▪ Peter d' Apono, Arnoldus de Villa nova Riply, and some others who with some reason have been suspected guilty of Heresy, may without any be charged with Magic, though Tertullian sometimes said, Notata 
De pr●scrip. Cap. 43.  sunt etiam commercia Haereticorum cum Magis plurimis, cum Circulatoribus, cum Astrologis, 
De anima, cap. 57  cum Philosophis. Which censure be confirms elsewhere, calling Magic, haereticarum opinionum 
Disquisit. mag. in p●olog.  auctricem. Hence haply some Catholic Doctors, especially Delrio and Maldonat, took occasion to lay it down as a Maxim, strengthened by constant experience, that either the Authors and first 
lib. de Daemon.  promoters of Heresies, have been themselves Magicians, as Simon Magus, Menander, Valentinianus, Carpocrates, Priscillianus, Berengarius, and Hermogenes; or that prohibited and Magical Arts have always come in the neck of some heresy. This they exemplify out of some Historians of Spain, who relate, that after the Arrians had long continued therein, the Devils were for a good space of time seen tormenting men there. So was the heresy of Hus seconded by a great tempest of Sorcerers and Demons through Bohemia and Germany, and that of the Lollards through the Apennine Hills. Of this the Jesuit Maldonat gives five principal reasons, which we shall not press in this place.  
In the second cause of suspicion, we may observe, that Malice sometime, made Apuleius be accused of Magic by his wife's friends; the Pope's Sylvester and Gregory by the Emperors they had excommunicated, and some Heretics their implacable enemies. To which may haply be added the procedure of the English against the Maid of Orleans, who accordingly condemned her for a Witch, whereas the Langey and du Haillan make her act another quite contrary part. But if the common opinion of those who were best acquainted with her may prevail, there is little probability she should have been a Witch, which is the conclusion Valerandus Varanius puts to the History he made of her.  
Tandem collatis patres ultroque citroque  
Articulis, flammas sub iniquo judice passam  
Darcida, concordi decernuntore: modumque.  
Angligenas' violasse fori, jurisque tenorem.  
But Learning, formerly alleged by us as one of the principal causes of this false accusation, obliges us now to say something of Ignorance, its adverse party, and show, how prodeminant it was, as well among the Greeks before Socrates, who may be called the Patriarch of Philosophy, as the Latins, from the times of Boetius, Symmachus and Cassiodorus, till the last taking of Constantinople. Then indeed the world began to put on another face, the Heavens to move upon new Hypotheses, the Air to be better known as to Meteors, the Sea to be more open and easy, the Earth to acknowledge a Sister Hemisphere, men to enter into greater correspondences by Navigation, Arts to be delivered of those miraculous inventions of Guns and Printing. Then were the Sciences restored to their former lustre, in Gormany by Reuchlin and Agricola, in Switzerland by Erasmus, in England by Linacer and Ascham, in Spain by Vives, and Nebrissensis, in France by Faber and Budaeus, in Italy by Hermolaus, Politianus, Picus, and the Greeks who fled thither for refuge from Constantinople; and lastly in all other parts of the earth, by the means of new Characters and Printing. We formerly observed out of Plutarch that, before the revolution happening in Socrates' time, it was not lawful in Greece to advance any thing of Astrology, to study the Mathematics, or profess Philosophy. Thence we are now to consider what capacity may be allowed those, who, suffering the best Authors to moulder away in Libraries, made use of no other Grammarians, than Graecismu● Barbarismus and Alexander de Villa dei; no other Rhetoricians than Aquilegius; no other Philosophers, than Gingolfus Rapoleus▪ Ferrabrit, and Petrus Hispanus; no other Historians, than the, Fasciculus Temporum, and the Mother of Histories, nor other Books in Mathematics than the Compot Manuel, and the shepherd's Calendar. What could the Grammarians expect from these, but Barbarisms like that of the Priest, whom the Master of Sentences mentions baptising of infants, In nomine Patria, Filia, & Spiritua Sancta? What could Philosophers find there, but suppositions, ampliations, restrictions, sophisms, obligations, and a Labyrinth of fruitless niceties comprehended under the title of Parva Logicalia? So also, for those that read Histories, what entertainment had they but that of ridiculous tales upon Merlin's prophecy, S●. Patrick● Purgatory, Pilat's▪ Tower, Ammon's Castle, Pope Joan, and abundance of such fabulous trash and trumpery, as now, 
Vix pueri credunt nisi qui nondum are lavantur.   
Not indeed is it any thing extraordinary, when they are commonly accounted Magicians that can produce Roses and Summer-Flowers in the depth of Winter. That those gallant men, who have been seen like so many Stars shining in that dark and Melancholy night, and have darted the influences of their miraculous Learning, in the coldest and frostiest season of Letters, have passed to us under the same Title, through the over easy belief of those who first mistook, then represented them for such. But alas what shall we say of a sort of empty unballasted souls, but that they may be easily weighed down any way by an erroneous persuasion, which is as constant an attendant of ignorance, as a shadow is of the body, or envy of virtue.  
And now we have but a step to the fourth cause of suspicion which fastens on these great persons, that is, from Ignorance to that of Credulity, which easily admits abundance of such things, as though improbable and superstitious, ordinarily fall and follow one in the neck of another. To make this more evident and apprehensible, we must begin with what we find related in a little Treatise, which St. Agobart Bishop of Lions made in the year of Christ 833, against the extravagance of the people then, who believed that those could trouble the air, and raise tempests, who, for that reason, in the first chapter of the Capitularies of Charlemaigne, and Lewis the Debonair, are called, Tempestarii, sive immissores Tempestatum. It was, it seems, the common, and, by a many, stiffly maintained opinion, that there were in his time certain Conjurers, that had the power to make it hail and thunder, or to raise tempests, as often and when they pleased, so to spoil and destroy the fruits of the earth; which so destroyed, they afterwards sold to certain Inhabitants of the Country of Magodia, who every year brought ships thorough the air, to carry away those provisions. This was grown into such a vulgar article of faith, that the good Bishop had much ado one day, to deliver three men and a woman out of the clutches of the distracted multitude, who were dragging them to execution, as having fallen out of those ships. The same Author relates further in the same book, that there being a general mortality 
Life of Charlemaigne.  among Cattle, especially Oxen, (whereof there died such a number over all Europe, that Belleforest thought fit to take notice of it in his Additions upon Nicholas giles) the more superstitious sort of people presently imagined, that one Grimoald, Duke of Benevent, and a great enemy of Charlemaigne, had sent a many men with venomous powders, which they should scatter up and down the sens, fields, and into springs: Insomuch, that this holy and judicious person, seeing abundance of innocent people daily hanged, drowned, and extremely persecuted for this simple fable, ends his book full of indignation, with this excellent sentence; Tanta jam stultitia oppressit miserum mundum, ut nunc sic absurdè res credantur à Christianis, quales nunquam antea ad credendum poterat quisquam suadere Paganis.  
These and the like Fables were but the Prologue to Romances, which came upon the stage immediately after, in the reign of Lewis the Debonair (in whose time the Bishop was still alive) and multiplied so strangely by the ignorance of that age, easily, it seems, laid asleep by any absurdities, though ever so extravagant, that all tho●, who meddled with the history of that time, would needs, to render it more pleasant, interweave it with abundance of such relations. This is very pertinently observed by a certain Divine, who ingenuously confesses, that, Hoc ●rat 
Pitheus in Galfred● Mon.  antiquorum plurium vitium, vel potius quaedam sine judicio simplicitas, ut in cl●rorum virorum gestis scribendis se minus existimarent elegantes, nisi ad ornatum (ut putabant) sermonis, poetic as fictiones, vel aliq●id earum simile admiscerent, & consequenter vera f●lsis committerent. Nay, such reputation did these books gain, that in the year 1290, James de Voragine, Bishop of Gennes, Homo (as Vives, and Melchior Canus call him) ferrei oris, plumbei cordis, animi certe parum severi & prudentis, yet whose intention was certainly good, thought fit to introduce that style into the Ecclesiastical History, and so writ a Golden Legend, whereby many devout and pious souls were edified, till the late Heretics began to metamorphose it in a sovereign Pantagruelisme, purposely to affront the Catholics, and undermine the foundations of the reverence they pay those holy, but pernicious Relics.  
To the vanity of these Romances we are further obliged for all the false relations which were soon after scattered among the people▪ of the miraculous stratagems of Sylvester, Gregory, Michael Scotus, Roger Bacon, Peter d' Apono, Thebit, and in a manner, all the most learned of that time. These proved excellent entertainments, till the year 1425, when an infinity of other superstitions began to swarm, giving (as it were) a cessation to the precedent. And these we have thought fit to particularise, to show it is no miracle, if the great knowledge of a many of that time occasioned millions of ridiculous stories and fictions, when the zeal and good life of the greatest Saints, & the conduct & courage of the greatest Captains and Commanders have met with the same fate. Nor does it amount to much, that some of their books have been condemned as conjuring books, when a many others, whereof the very reading sufficiently clears their innocence, have met with as little favour. We may instance in the three propositions made by the famous Chancellor of the University of Paris, Gerson upon the Romance of the Rose, and the judgement of John Raulin, a famous Doctor of the same University upon that of Oger the Dane, wherein they affirm the Authors as certainly damned as ever Judas was, if they died without repentance, for the making and venting of such pieces.  
Lastly, though it be always more rational and commendable, so to interpret, as to give the best sen●e to every man's writings, than to impeach them, and to excuse than to aggravate, to avoid a comparison with those, who worship not the rising Sun, but with affronts and imprecations; yet can we not, but make this Chapter full weight with the explication of the last cause of the whole calumny, which to do Truth right, is nothing else, but the negligence of Authors, or rather their want of circumspection and judgement in the composition of their works. For whether they have an itch to swell them with less trouble, or prove in some degree what they had once undertaken, or make ostentation of their reading, or that those found the best entertainment and reception, who were fullest of strange and miraculous adventures; or lastly, were so sottish, as to believe all things, they have so outvied one another in the allegations of these fabulous stories, that the impertinences of old Romances, the fooleries of I know not what books, the tales of 
In Philo-Pseude.  old wives, and such fictions, as those of Lucian's Dialogues, and Apuleius' Metamorphoses, have these Authors taken for irrefragable Demonstrations, 
Metalog. l. 2. c. 7.  as being a sort of Writers, Qui compilant omnium opiniones & eae▪ quae etiam à vilissimis dicta, & scripta sunt, ab inopia ●udicii scribunt; & proponunt omnia▪ quia nesciunt praeferre meliora. But it were a thing hard and presumptuous, and haply too tedious, to show by a large censure on all those that have written on this subject, what freedom, every one took to discourse thereof at random and to interweave abundance of trivial tales with the most certain and undeniable Truths. For this we may bring to the Bar John Nider, James. Sprenger, and Henry Institor, the Former confessing ingenuously (against 
l in cata●● go. in B●●lioth. Theolog.  Trithemius and Molanus, who made him Judge upon the Witches of Germany) that whatsoever he had said of them, and other Magicians in the last book of his 
m Fo●micarii. lib. 5. c. 3  Formicarium, which is as it were the Leaven of all that hath been said since upon that Subject, he had learned from a Judge of the City of Berne, & a Benedictine Monk, who before his going into the Order, had been, Necromanticus, Joculator, Mimus, & Truphator apud Seculares Principe▪ insignis & expertus. The two other have faggoted together so many stories into the Malleus Maleficarum, which came abroad in the year 1494 that Vuier had some reason to question whether they deserved any more credit than those brought by Niderus.  
The same judgement may be given upon a many others who have followed these as it were by the scent, whose miscarriages yet are not so considerable as those of some latter writers, and particularly of that eminent man of France, John Bodin. Thy sman, having, with a miraculous vivacity attended by a solid judgement, treated of all things divine, natural and civil, would haply have been thought something more than Man, nay some Intelligence, had he not left some tracks of his humanity, in his Demonomancie, handsomely 
K. James. In lib. de strigib.  censured by the late learned King of Eugland Majori collecta study, quam scripta judicio. But to make the best of it, we may say, that this great ingenuity more than ordinarily versed in the holy Tongue; was a little besotted with the Learning 
In judicio librorum ●●dini.  of the Rabbins and Thalmudists, quibus, as the Jesuit Possevin affirms, hoc libro tam videtur addictus, ut ad eos s●piùs recurrat quam ad Evangelium, Whence we may easily conceive that this Book, and that which Vuier made of the impostures and delusions of Devils may stand for the two extremes in comparison of the mean which should be observed in judging of the truth of these things, and the integrity of the principal Authors, who first advanced them. By this means we are disengaged from the rest, who, by fabulous reports, and the little judgement they discover in this Disquisition would have us embrace the Clouds of their imaginations instead of the real Juno, and thereby engage us to a recantation of such an abundance of childish and spurious Opinions, as are demonstrative arguments that our Minds may be much more justly said to creep than to fly; and that, to be rescued from these Chimeras, they must be set at Liberty, and absolutely possessed of their full right, that so they may freely do their duty, which is to reverence and acquiesce in ecclesiastial History, to discourse upon natnr●ll, and to be always doubtful of the Civil.   

CHAP. VIII.  
That Zoroaster was neither Author nor Promoter of Geotick, Theurgic or unlawful Magic.  
WE have indeed many discoveries of the the nimbleness and subtlety of that Emperor's wit, whose infamy for his Apostasy outweighed the reputation, his many Virtues and perfections otherwise, which were wholly particular in him, had gained him. But me thinks he never made a greater expression of 
Ammiam. Mar●ellin▪  it then at Paris, when the Subtle Orator Delphidius, having accused before him Numerius Governor of Languedoc, and perceiving he had not sufficient testimony to convince him, cried out, as it were in indignation, that No man would ever be found guilty if he had no more to do then to deny. The word was no sooner out of his mouth, but the Emperor Julian judiciously replied, that no man's innocency was secure, if bare accusations should be admitted for proofs. His meaning in that witty retort was, that the impeached are not always criminal, nor the accused punishable; and that to condemn a man and to last the verdure of his Innocence, there are other proofs required then that of a simple word, which argues oftener the ignorance, rashness, or passion, of some envious and malevolent person, than it does the guilt or desert of him against whom it is directed.  
This certainly cannot but make something for all these renowned persons, who must needs be crushed by the multitude of their Accusers, if we were obliged, as Civilians, or forced, as were anciently the Roman Tribunes, rather to count the suffrages then to examine the reasons; or if Senecae had not sometime given us this advice, which we may now make use of for their defence, Non tam bene cum rebus humanis geritur, ut meliora pluribus placeant. But he who by a diligent reading knows how to discover the reality of things, will not think this multitude so considerable. For as some Captains are glad to fill their Troops with Rogues and hedge Birds, and force arms upon Boys and peedees to give the enemy a check upon the first appearance; so the Timon's of Literat●re, and enemies of all learned men make use of such another Stratagem, and levelly against their Fame, the authority of a multitude of wretched & Vulgar Souls with certain plagiaries and cutpurses of writers. These, like the Potamonick Philosophers think nothing good or right, but what is judged so by others, see not but with Spectacles, as the Lamiaes, have no other clothes then the cast ones of their Masters, as the peedees, 
Ci●. de nat. dear. l. 1.  follow no other path then what is the most beaten, like so many sheep, and in all things resemble those religious Disciples of Pythagoras apud quos tantum opinio praejudicatae poterat, ut etiam sine ratione valeret Authorit●s.  
I shall not therefore stand to sift all popular assertions of the Magic of the ancient Philosophers, such as were Zoroaster, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Democritus, and others; but, having treated of it in general, descend now to particulars, and make that good of every one, which hath been proved of all together. With this caution nevertheless, that it is not my intention to pursue the design as far as any thing may be said of it, if a man would undertake to write whole Volumes, in defence of every one of these great persons. For when we have once examined the opinions of the best Authors upon their doctrine, whatever may be added otherwise, is not produced so much for explication as to swell up a Volume, and make those, whose Stomaches cannot bear such repetitions, say what they do of a many others.  
Et veterem in limo ranae ●ecinere querelam.  
This engagement cannot be better or more fitly begun then with the defence of Zoroaster, a person represented to us, as the living spring and original of all Magicians, neither more nor less than Cain was of murderers, Nimrod of Tyrants, Ninus of Idolaters, and Simon Magus of Heretics, through the opinion of the Abbot Serenus in 
c 
Collat. 8. c. 21. Lib. 2. divin. Instit.  
De idolor. Vanit.   Cassian, of Lactantius, St. Cyprian, Pererius and most other Doctors, is much more probable. They hold for certain that men should not imagine any other Author of this perverse and unlawful Magic than Satan, the sworn enemy of all the Creation, who made use of this Geotick long before the Deluge. For, as Eusebius 
Praep. Evang. l. 5. c. 7.  observes, the innocency of the first ages had not been defiled and corrupted with all those vain superstitions and ceremonies, if this jealous spirit, envying the hoped-for salvation of mankind, had not bend all his forces to ensnare them as deeply in this Magical Idolatry as they were in all other exorbitancies and iniquities, which in time so far prevailed over virtue, that God could do no less than send an universal Deluge to cleanse the earth from all those abominations. But the waters were no sooner returned into their place, but this spirit of presumption, this Beelzebub, Prince of Flies, began to renew his practices, and to lay the foundation of his second Monarchy in those weak minds, which are most easily taken, and entangled in the cobwebs of a multitude of suspicious operations, strange sacrifices, and magical superstitions. It is not indeed possible to particularise and tell justly, who, of all the men of this second age of the world, was the first instrument of this fatal enemy of Nature, to disperse his conjurations over the habitable earth, as we find them now received and practised.  

Lib. 30. c. 1, 2.  Whence we may charge Pliny with a double error, where he treats of this Subject; one, in that being an Epicurean as well as Lucretius, 
Et mundum nullo credens re●tore moveri  
Naturâ volvente vices & lucis & anni;  as he openly professes in these words, with no 
Lib. 2.  less rashness than ignorance, Per quae haud dubie declaratur, naturae potentiam id quoque esse quod Deum vocamus; he had not recourse, as the Christians and Platonic Philosophers, to the first Author of Magic, who is no other than he whom we have already described, as may be further, were it needful, proved by a passage of Porphyrius 
Praep. Evang.  cited by Eusebius. The other is, where he affirms Zoroaster to have been the first that ever practised it, and brought it into esteem among men. This, how unlikely soever, is received with so little difficulty by all that have written after him, that few or none have taken the pains to examine that proposition; which, as it is grounded chiefly on the long time it hath been acknowledged, and their authority who maintain it; so is there but little reason it should be received as infallibly true, when Pliny himself wonders, how the memory and precepts of Zoroaster could be preserved so long time, he having lived, according to one Eudoxus, whom he citys for it, six thousand years before Plato. Nay, if we allow the opinion of Pererius and some Moderns, who make 
De Mag. l. 1. c. 13.  him flourish in the time of Ninus and Abraham, yet this age we have so slender an account of, and the things said of it, so lost in the Labyrinth of so many ages, that it were more ingenuous to confess our ignorance, than presumptuously to affirm Zoroaster, of whom, 
Ad nos vix tenuis famae perlabitur umbra,  to have been the first of all Magicians. Add to this, that the little knowledge we have of him is so disguised by Historians, that we can hardly meet with two or three, who do not contradict and confute one another in the history of this person.  

Hister. l. 2. Serm. 2.  For if with Theodoret and Agathias we call him Zarades, he will presently be confounded, by all those Writers who mind not the order of time and Chronology, with one Zaratas, whom Plutarch makes Master to Pythagoras; with one 
Li●. de genit. animae, è Timaeo.  Zabratus, mentioned by Malchus (who is no other than Porphyrius) in the life of Pythagoras; 
1. Stro●iat.  and with one Nazaratus, whom some in Clemens Alexandrinus would have to be the Prophet Ezekiel. Or if we will allow him the name of Zoroaster, as the most common, yet will there be no less difficulty to guess which of the six men, who were of the same name, was the Magician, 
Bulenger Eclat. ad Arnob. c. 5.  four whereof are named by Arnobius, the fifth by Suidas, and the sixth by Pliny. Further, be it supposed that the true Zoroaster was well known among so many, yet must we allow somewhat to Sixtus Senensis, who mentions two Kings of that name, one of the Persians, Author of Natural Magic; the other of the Bactrians, first Inventor 
Lib. 18. c. 19  of the Diabolical: somewhat to Rhodoginus, and divers others, who will allow both Nations but one Zoroaster for a Lawgiver, that according to the common opinion of all Writers, endeavoured to persuade them that he had received his Laws and Constitutions from a certain Divinity, whom he called Oromasis. But, what should make us yet more distrustful of what is said of him, is, that the same Authors would persuade us, that he was the son of that Oromasis, or Arimanius, 
Lib. de origine animae, è Timaeo.  whereas Plutarch, the most considerable man of Antiquity assures us, that Zoroaster meant nothing else by those two words he pronounced so often, than the good and bad Daemon, to which he was wont to refer that miraculous order which is observed in the course of Nature and revolution of all things, as Heraclitus did to harmony; Anaxagoras, to mind and infinite; Empedocles, to friendship and debate; and Parmenides, to light and darkness. This the same Author confirms in the Treatise of Isis and Osiris, as also Diogenes Laertius, Brissonius, Calcagnin and Philelphus, who would not disparage their judgement so much, as to heap multitudes of fables and contradictions one upon another, to represent this Zoroaster as the Prince of Magicians. For indeed there is much more reason to think him, that of Philosophers and Professors of Learning, as, when we have refuted the error of this pernicious opinion, we shall make appear. It does indeed sufficiently undermine itself by the discord of those that maintain it, and the attendant contradictions, as it ordinarily happens in all other lies; yet, to blow it up, and to apply a remedy as sovereign as the disease is inve●eterate, we must reduce all these opinions to four principal heads, and, in the particular explication of them, show, that there is no reason in the world, why this Zoroaster should be represented to us, as the first and most eminent of all Conjurers and Magicians.  

In Gallicis.  The first shall be that of Goropius Becanus, as being the easiest, and needing no other solution than to be understood and proposed. For that Zoroaster was no Magician, he endeavours▪ to make good, by alleging it was a mere fable, and that really there never was any such man; which right he does not only do him, but Mercurius Trismegistus, & Orpheus, deriving the Etymology of these words from a certain Cimmerian language in use, as he says, from the Creation to the Deluge. But while he chimerises on that in liberty of conscience, there falls from him a manifest contradiction, observed since by Patricius, in 
In Magia Philosophica.  that having maintained the negative as an undeniable axiom, he afterwards indifferently confounds this Zoroaster with Japhet one of the sons of Noah.  
But this opinion, if true, would in some sort agree with the second, which we are now to deduce, the promotets whereof endeavour to prove, That Cham and Zoroaster were but one person, according to Berosus, Didymus of Alexandria, and the Author of the Scholastic History, that Cham was the first that exercised Magic after the Deluge, 
Lib. 3.  as is affirmed by the same Berosus in his History; and that, this granted, it is to be inferred, that Zoroaster after the restauration of the world, first began to soil men's minds with the soot of his invocations & sorceries. Nay, they stick not to affirm that the first he practised them on, was his own Father, affirming, that the only motive that Noah had to thunder such a curse against him, was that the other had by his Magic so bound and made him impotent▪ that having, at it were, lost the prerogative of his nature, Corn. Gall. Eleg. 3. 
Diriguit, quantusque fuit calor, ossa reliquit.  Insomuch, that afterwards he could not get any children, either on his wife or any other, as is so clearly and methodically set down by Berosus, that we need not seek that contradiction in his History, which is falsely imposed upon him by du 
Fol. 76.  Verdier in his Censure. Whence it comes to pass, that many keep a coil to have this opinion of the first Author of Magic maintained, not only upon the account of Berosus, who indeed is the most ancient and venerable Historian we have left, but also those of Gregory of Tours, and St. Clement, (the two other principal opinions) who, to strengthen his authority say, that Chus or Misraeim, the two elder sons of Cham were surnamed Zoroaster, which signifies only Living Stars, in acknowledgement of the miraculous operations which they effected by this Disclipline.  
But if we seriously consider the strength of these proofs, we shall at last find, that the two latter are no more probable than the former, and that the whole web of the Argument hath no more truth than likelihood, as is not hard to show. For first, as to the three Authors, who make Cham and Zoroaster but one and the same person; P●tri●ius, who produces the authority 
In Magia Philosoph.  of the second, immediately adds, that it deserves no credit, as having no ground of reason or probability. The same account doth Pererius 
De Mag. c. 13.  make of the authority of the third, who says, that Ninus subdued Cham, who was yet alive, and called Zoroaster, making him, according to the opinion of some, King of Thrace; whereas Justin affirms, in the beginning of his History, that the Zoroaster that was overcome by Ninus was King of the Bactrians. According then to the calculation of this Writer, Cham must have lived, at least, twelve hundred years, since Ninus was contemporary with Abraham and Melchisedec, whom St. Epiphanius, relying on the translation of the 
H●res. 55.  seventy Interpreters, places 1100 years after the Flood, to which add the hundred years that I'm lived before; it will be evident, that he could not be overcome by Ninus, unless he be allowed to live twelve hundred years, a thing not affirmed by any Author.  
Nor can it be probably said, that notwithstanding his father's curse, he outlived him by two hundred and fifty years, and his brother Sem by six hundred. For as to Berosus, I think it much more pardonable not to credit him than those that preceded him; since all the books published under his name, are nothing but the extravagant imaginations of Annius a Monk of Viterbo, as hath been well observed by 
a Lib. 1. Polit.  Faber Stapulensis, 
b Lib. 5. de tradend. discipl.  Vives, 
c Lib. 18. c. 1. de Civit.  Goropius, 
d Qu. 5. de repar. temp. Hieros'.  Vergara, 
e Syntag. 4. de Diis Gentium.  Giraldus, 
f Lib, integro, Romae Ed●t. 1560  Gaspar Varenus, Melchior Canus, and divers others, whose authority is of greater consequence against him, than all that 
g Lib. 2. de lo●. Tb●ol.  Postel, quem insania, saith 
h Lib. de origin●●. he●r. sol. 20 & 222.  Scaliger, à communi invidia liberare debet, could say to keep up his credit, as making use of him, as a Base on which to ground the learned Resveries he daily fancied to himself, upon the happy conquests of the universal Empire▪ promised the French Monarchy.  
The same answer may be made to the second proposition of the contrary Argument, which, stilted up by the only authority of Berosus, would prove Cham to have been a Magician. There needs no more than to deny it, unless it be meant of natural Magic, or rather those Sciences, wherein Delrio says he was instructed by his father Noach, which name he thinks corrupted by 
* Lib. 3. c. 1.  Pliny into that of Azonach, who he affirms to have been the Master of Zoroaster, as 
† Daemon. l. 2. cap. 2.  Bodin observes, that he changed that of Gabbala into Jotappe, or Jochabelia, Author of a certain kind of Magic. And yet there is not much to be built on that light conjecture of Delrio▪ since what he 
Disq. Magic. l. 1. c. 3.  says absolutely, that, Cham & silii ejus magiam bonam edocti sunt à Noacho, cannot be any ways understood of this Zoroaster, who is represented to us, as a most eminent practiser of Magic and Necromancy.  
Nor needs there any other answer to the story of the Magic which Cham exercised upon his father, brought upon the stage to confirm the second proposition. For since we have no other Author for it than Berosus, falsified by the Monk of Viterbo, there is no reason to admit it for true, and make it outlive the credit and authority of him whose it was, seeing, that if we look narrowly into the original of this relation, and take off its mask, we shall find that it is grounded upon the curse pronounced by the Patriarch Noah in the ninth of Genesis, Maledictus puer Chanaan, servus servorum erit fratribus suis. Whereof though the cause be clearly laid down in the same place, yet Berosus, the Rabbins, and Thalmudists must needs gloss upon, and metamorphose it as they please, but with a doctrine so flat, and conceptions so contradictory and fantastic, that they may serve, beyond any thing I know, to convince us of the truth of what Lactantius says, Hac 
In divinar. Instit. l. 5. c. 3.  mendaciorum natura est, ut cohaerere non possint. For if we credit the former in his History, we must withal believe that Cham used certain charms and sorceries, to make his father unable as to the act of generation, If the Rabbi 
n Pererius in Genes. l. 14. c. 1. vers. 17. & Genebrar. l. 1. Chronolog.  Levi in his Commentary on Genesis, that, like another Saturn, he guelt him of the parts necessary for that act. If R. 
o In fortalitio fidei, l. 3. p. 204.  Samuel, that he showed him such a nasty and abominable trick, that I shall be more tender of chaste ears than to mention it, and pass it by, as Laur. Valla did a word of the like signification▪ Malo ignorari, quam me docente cognosci And last, if we refer ourselves to the 
p Ibidem.  Thalmudists, we must grant that I'm incurred this malediction for all the causes together mentioned by the Rabbins, which we have particularised, to show, that though Zoroaster should assume Cham's person, yet were there no justice to condemn him for an Enchanter and Magician.  
Having therefore dispatched that, we come now to discover the error of the third opinion, which men have had of this person: according to which, many have thought him to have been King of the Bactrians, because Justin seems to be of their side, when speaking of Ninus, in the first book of his Epitome, he says, Postremum illi bellum cum Zoroastre Rege Bactrianorum fuit, qui primus dicitur artes magicas invenisse, & mundi principia, syderumque motus diligentissimè spectasse. And yet this Herculean passage, which hath been always quoted, to call down the good reputation of Zoroaster at his enemy's feet, may easily be refuted by the contrary authority of Diodorus Siculus, who says, that this King of the Bactrians, against whom Ninus made war, was called Oxiartes and of whose Magic, neither he not Ctesias, who according to Arnobius, writ his particular History, make not the least mention. Nor indeed does Justin speak of it, but under the caution of a Hear-say, and in such ambiguous and doubtful expressions, that not specifying what kind of Magic this Zoroaster was Author of, there is nothing more obvious than to conclude from the consequent words, & mundi principiae, coelique motus diligentissime spectasse, that it was meant of the philosophical and natural. Whence it is certain, that according to the fourth and last opinion, which the most reserved have had of this Zoroaster, he was an excellently knowing man, well acquainted with all manner of Disciplines, a subject of Ninus, contemporary with Abraham, and by country a Chaldaean, who having been instructed by Azonach, one of the Disciples of Sem or Heber, was so earnest in the cultivation and restauration of the Disciplines lost by the Flood, that he became the most eminent man of his time, and writ a many books, of which Suidas says, Four treated of Nature, one of Precious Stones, and five of Astrology. To these Pliny adds some of Agriculture, and Mirandula another 
In epist. ad Marsil. Ficin.  of Chaldaic Sentences, which he said he had in his Library, with Commentaries upon them in the same language; one part whereof was first printed at Paris, and since augmented by Patricius, who digested it into the first part of his Book, De Magia Philosophica, alluding, in all probability, to that of Zoroaster, which certainly was only natural and philosophical. Nor is it hard to infer thus much from those shreds which we have left of his Aphorisms and Sentences, which are so far from being guilty of any thing of diabolical or superstitious Magic, that, on the contrary, Steuchus Eugubinus, in his so much cried up Book against Infidels, Atheists, and Philosophers, makes use of them ever and anon, to prove and maintain the mysteries of Christian Religion. Add to this, the improbability that Syrianus, the most learned of all the Platonics, would bestow on them a Commentary of ten books, as Suidas affirms he did; or that Marsilius Ficinus would cite them so often in his Book Of the Immortality of the Soul, and Picus draw fifteen of his Conclusions thence, if they had been fraught with so many trivial and superstitious things, such as many have imagined them, contrary to the opinion of the same Ficinus, Mirandula, and Plato. The first of these lays it down as a certain maxim, that à Zoroastre, omnis manavit Theologorum veterum sapientia; the second openly confesses in the defence of his conclusions, that that Magic, which studies the perfect knowledge of Natural Philosophy was first brought into vogue by Zoroaster 
In Alcibiade.  & Zamolxis; and the last tell us that the Magic of Zoroaster is nothing but that knowledge of divine things wherein the Kings of Persia caused their children to be instructed, ut ad exemplar mundanae Reipub▪ suam ipsi Rempublicam regere edocerentur.  
To make this good weight, we might add a many Authorities and passages out of the best Authors, were they not already produced by 
s De Reg. Pers●r. l. 2.  Brissonias, 
t Eclog. ad Arnob. cap. 5▪ 6.  Bulenger, 
u Convivior. l. 2.  Philelphus and 
x Philo soph. Barvaricae. l. 1.  Heurnius, who have made a faithful collection of all that can be said, to prove that these Mages of Persia and Chaldaea, were only priests and Philosophers▪ and their doctrine an excellent Theology grounded upon the worship and adoration of one supreme omnipotent Divinity, as is pertinently observed by the Learned Master of Lactantius, where he says, that Eorum Magorum & eloquio et negotio, primus Hosthanes verum Deum merita ma●estate prosequitur, et Angelos Ministros & nuncios dei, sed veri, ejus venerationi novit assistere. Whence we may well judge that, if Pliny describe this Hostanes (so excellent a person in the judgement of Arnobius) as a famous impostor and Mountebank, Zoroaster must needs meet with worse handling from him and others, who thinking it a shame to be beaten out of the pit, will yet to keep this so long agitated question in play, fly to certain impertinent and simple observations of the presages of his Nativity, the course of his life, and the manner of his death. From thence they would conclude, forsooth, that his laughing when he was borne, the beating of his brain, so strongly that it forced back one's hand; his twenty years' solitude, and the fire from Heaven which consumed him for his offences, are, (were there no other reasons) more than authentic proofs to make him a great enchanter and Magician. This indeed may seem something probable, to those who look on all Securities as good and solvent, who will receeive any money though ever so bad, who mind only the superficies of things, & quorum nusquam penetrat ad intima telum.  
But since we must try what we can pick out of these proofs, we may answer, to the first▪ that there is not any one can assure us that this laughing of Zoroaster happened precisely on the day of his nativity, whether when he was asleep or awake, whether by the percussion of the Air, or only an agitation of his lips all which one should know to judge aright of it. But to take away the prodigy & strangeness of this accident, Hypocrates tells us 
Lib. de Septimestri. partu.  that Children, assoon as they are born seem to laugh or cry as they sleep; and that, waking, there is a constant vicissitude of laughing and crying till they have passed forty days. This might have happened more particularly to Zoroaster through abundance of Spirits, and consequently heat, which rescuing him from that humidity that is common to others, caused that action in him, which might well signify that he should one day prove a very great man, but not a Magician. It is indeed a Circumstance hath ever been thought very fortunate, so that it gave 
Eclog. 4.  Virgil occasion to say 
— Cui non risere parents,  
Nec deus hunc mensa, Dea nec dignata cubili est.  
Aphoris. ●3. Sect. 1.  For those who laugh so soon are ordinarily more active and lively, or as Hypocrates calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, such as have a certain nimbleness and vivacity of spirit, and accordingly give greater hopes of their future good fortune, than those who are stupid, slow, and whose spirits are dull and heavy.  

Lib. 7. c. 1●.  Nor shall we need, if we may trust Pliny, trouble ourselves ●o derive any greater presage from the motion of his Brain, it being ordinary in all Children newly born to have a certain cavity about the brainpan where the sagittal future meets with the coronal, which is covered with a gross and thick membrane, about which, at least till it be converted into bone, a man may easily 
Isagogicae tractat. Sect. 2. c. 2.  perceive, visu & tactu (as the most Learned Anatomist Riolanus hath observed in his Osteologie) the constant beating of the brain, which haply was preceiv'd more strong and vehement in Zoroaster, than it is usually in other Children, by reason of the abundance of Spirits and natural heat, which we have shown to have been particular in him.  
Lastly, if any one will infer that Zoroaster was a Magician, because Pliny tells us that he remained 20. years in the Wilderness, and that Suidas and Volaterranus affirm that he died struck with a Thunderbolt; he must also with the same breath conclude that Epimenedes who stayed therein 50. years, that Moses, who spent the third part of his age in it, and that all the Fathers of Thebais were far greater Magicians than he, since they bestowed all their life time there: And that Tullus Hostilius, Pompeius Strabo, Aurelius Carus, Anastasius, and Simeon Stilites were great Sorcerers and enchanters, because they all died thunderstuck. And yet this is not a little in jurious to the truth of the History, and to what is expressly observed of the last, in the Spiritual Meadow of Sophronius, where it is said, that the Abbot 
Cap. 57  Julian Stilites incensing at an unseasonable hour, answered those who asked him the reason of it, quia modo frater meus Simeon à fulgure dejectus interiit, & ecce transit anima ejus in tripudio & exultatione. Whence may be easily observed their want of judgement, who, upon the dis-security of such vain conjectures, would persuade us that Zoroaster was the first inventor of Magic, and the greatest enchanter of his time. Which confidence I have the rather taken the trouble to refute, to make way for that light of truth which we are to follow in the account we have of him; and with the same breath, blow away the proofs and grounds of certain Authors, who believe, that all the Learning the ancient Philosophers acquired in Egypt, was no other than that of the Magic and Invocations of this excellent person.   

CHAP. IX.  
That Orpheus was no Magician.  
HUmane nature is so limited and confined that it cannot judge of things spiritual but by the sensible and material, nor of substances but by their Accidents, nor indeed of any thing it knows but by appearances. The only way then, me thinks, to disengage Truth out of all these masks and disguises, is, to take as strict and near a view of them as may be, and, when we come to the weight and trial of them, never to admit that prejudicated opinion, which often obliges us to choose and prefer shadows before bodies, darkness before Light, and the most extra-regular fables before certain and authentic Histories. This we are to do with so much the more diligence and circumspection in this Chapter by how much that there is not any thing, as Plutarch affirms, slides more insensibly into our souls, or hath so much charm and force to attract and insinuate as the disposition of certain tales handsomely couched and interwoven; such as, for instance, those of the miraculous Music of Orpheus, at which we see, that, 
Mirantur justique senes, trepidaeque puellae,  
Narrantis conjux pendet ab ore viri.   
To proceed then to a strict and dispassionate examination of all the grounds, which men have had to suspect this Great man, and first Professor of divinity, guilty of magic, we must build upon the foundations laid in the former Chapter, and say with Patricius, that, according to the testimony of Philo, Josephus, and all the best Authors, the Sciences and disciplines which had been lost by the Flood, having been re-established in the Schools of Sem and Heber, the first erected, as the Rabbins and Thalmudists affirm, Zoroaster, who had been instructed in them, and who might be one of the Sons or Nephews of Cham, endeavoured so much to dilate and make them flourish in his Country of Chaldaea, and among those of this Nation, that besides the knowledge which 
b 2. Florid.  Apuleius allows him of Medicine, and that of Astrology attributed to him by St. 
c Ad c. 2. Dan.  Hierome, 
d Homil. 3. in Hi●rem.  Origen, 
e Lib. 2. eleg. 5.  Proper●ius, 
f De Divinat.  Cicero, 
g In Conviv.  Philelphus and most Writers, and upon the account whereof they passed anciently for Astrologers, as the Canaanites for Merchants and the Arabians for Robbers, we have the Authority of Averro cited by 
h In Magia Philosoph.  Patricius, who says, that Philosophy was sometime in as much esteem in Chaldaea, as it was in his time in Spain by the means of the University of Corduba. All these Disciplines were afterwards translated into Egypt, when Abraham▪ as is observed in the Scripture, 
i Gen. 12▪  went down into Egypt, to sojourn there, because the famine was sore in the Land. For Josephus says plainly, and 
k In Epinomide▪  Plato seems to agree with him, that during his abode in that Country, he taught the Egyptian Priests the Mathematics, and gave them as it were the first rudiments of all the other Sciences, which thereupon so thrived and were so much improved that it became the springhead, whence the Greeks by long draughts got all their wisdom and Learning, by the travels and pilgrimages of Orpheus, Thales, Democritus, and Pythagoras: whereof, the first brought thence Theology, the second the Mathematics, the third Physic; and the last, all the forementioned with Moral Philosophy into the bargain.  
This is it we are now to prove of Orpheus, and hereafter of Pythagoras and Democritus, to show, by an apparent discovery of what they were, how much they are mistaken, who would still make 
Lib. 2. c. 6.  them no other than Sorcerers and Mountebanks. For as to Orpheus, Diodorus, Siculus affirms him to be one of the first that passed into Egypt (which happened about the year of the World 3060, long before Pythagoras, who returned thence in the time of Polycrates, Tyrant of Samos in the year 3●90.) and that he brought thence with him, his Hymns, his Dionysiacks, and his Orgia, which were no other than those of Isis and Osiris. This made 
m Civit. d●i. Lib. 18. c. 14.  St. Austin put him into the Chapter of Divine Poets, 
n Aeneid. 6  Virgil to give him the name and vestment of a priest where he says of him.  

Nec non Thrëicius longâ cum veste sacerdos,  
Obloquitur numeris septem discrimina Vocum.  So 
o Praep. Evang. Lib. 2. c. 2.  Eusebius gives him the title of the greatest Master of Theologie. 
p Orat exhortat. ad ventes.  Justin and 
q Apolog. pro Christian▪  Athenagoras assure us, that he was the first that advanced and proposed the names and sacrifices of the Ancient Gods, and reduced their Theology into order, not only in his Hymns and Books forementioned, but in divers others which Suidas says he made, of the Mysteries of the Trinity, of the occult reason of divine things, of sacred Conferences, of Oracles, and of Purgations. This gave Plutarch occasion to call his Learning 
Sympos. l. 2. qu. 3.  Sacred, insomuch, that divers Catholic Doctors have been of opinion, that it might be very serviceable to refute the Religion of the Ancients, and confirm Christianty. Among these were St. 
s Lib. cont Faustum Manch.  Augustine, 
t Praep. Evan. l. 13.  Eusebius, 
u Lib. de animi immortalitate.  Marsilius Ficinus, 
x in apolog. et in conclus.  Picus, 
y Comment. in Quintil. Lib. 1.  Mosellanus▪ 
z H●b. domad. l. 7.  Fabius Paulinus, and the Learned Divine, 
a Lib. 10. de perenni Philosoph. c. 7. lic. 2.  Steuchus Eugubinus, who, with great diligence and a commendable curiosity, hath made a certain Analogy or parallel between the Doctrine of Moses and that of Orpheus, the first Philosopher and Divine among the Greeks, as Zoroaster was among the Chaldaeans, and Trismegistus among the Egyptians.  
These Authorities I have been the rather inclined to sum up together, to show, both by the number and diversity of them, what account we should make of the most part of our Daemonographers, who must needs be guilty either of Ignorance or a huge presumption, if they know not or esteem not the judgement of so many great persons, qui, ut rationem nullam afferrent, ipsa autoritate nos frangerent, to court and embrace an old fable, and the dreams of doting Antiquity. And to make the madness complete, they think they have ground enough because they find it in Pausanias, who says, that some were of opinion, 
In Post. El●acis.  that this principal Divine among the Greeks was a Sorcerer and Magician, making it their business to retrieve the Story & dress it up, as they please; so it contribute any thing to the opinion they would either introduce or maintain, yet do I not meet with any of all those that maintain this extravagance, hath made it reach further than le Loyer, 
Lib. 4. c. 3.  in his de Spectris, where he says, that the Orpheotelestae were so called from Orpheus the greatest Sorcerer and Necromancer that ever was, whose writings contained nothing but the praises of Devils, as of Jupiter Alastor, Daemon Vindex, & exterminator; of Bacchus, his Master; of the Satyrs, of Phaneros, who in my judgement was that Lucifer whom we believe turn'dout of Heaven; the original of the Gods, alleged by Athenagoras; unchaste mixtures of Gods with men, (blazoned since by Homer and Hesiod) which indeed are nothing but the copulations of Devils, with Sorcerers, for the generation of Giants; and lastly, the initiations into Bacchanalian and Diabolilcal Ceremonies, shrouded in obscure terms, not understood even by those who were of the Magical Fraternity of the Orphcotelestae.  
From which passage it is easily conjectured, that the chiefest argument and motive to conclude Orpheus a Magician, may, according to this Author and the rest, be drawn from the charms and superstition of his Hymns, which, in some sense they may be taken in, or some exposition may be giving them, contain nothing but the names of infernal Spirits, the order of their sacrifices, and the several Ceremonies and ●uffumigations requisite in their invocations. Whence many have been persuaded, that they were as effectual in Geotick Magic, as the Psalms of David in the Divine▪ the divers letters, Syllables and Combinations of the Mercava in the Theurgic, and the medicinal applications of Virgil in the Natural. Bodin therefore doth 
Daemonom. l. 1. c. 5.  not unjustly charge Mirandula with too much superstition, for grounding some of his Conclusions upon the Doctrine of this Magician, who certainly must needs be such, when by the tones of enchanted Music, he drew after him, not only the most untractable Animals, but even Woods, Rocks, and Rivers, Horat. l. 1. Ode 12. 
Unde vocalem temerè insecutae  
Orphea Sylvae.  To this Philostratus adds, that he became Oracular after his Death by the Organs of his head, which kept in the Isle of Lesbos, answered the Greeks, that they should never take Troy without the Arrows of Hercules▪ & the Ambassadors of Cyrus that the fate of their Prince should be like his own, that is, that he should die by the hands of a Woman.  
But all this amounts to very little in comparison of what le Loyer affirms of this person▪ that is, that 
De Spectris l. 4. c. 3.  he instituted the Fraternity of the Orpheotelestae, among whom Bacchus had anciently the same place, as the Devil hath now in the Assemblies of Magicians, who have derived all their superstitious operations from these Orpheotelestae. This puts him into an astonishment, that none of all the Authors, who writ upon that subject before him, made no use of that proof to convince the followers of Peter d' Apono, and Vuierus, who deny there were any Magicians anciently, and laugh at the homage which they say they do the Devil. For he observes that what was s●ng in the Orgia, Saboe Evohe is answerable to the Shouts and exultations of Magicians Har Sabat Sabat; and that Bacchus, who was only a disguised Devil, was called Sabasius, because of the Sabat or conventions of these Bacchanalian Priests, wherein after they were initiated, they were wont to say, I have drunk of the Tabour, and have eaten of the Cymbal, and so I am admitted. Le Loyer would have this to be so explicated, that by the Cymbal we should understand the Cauldron or Basin, which they made use of, as the modern Magicians do, to boil the little children they feed on; and by the Tabour, the Goatskin out of which they drew the juice and quintessence to drink.  
This way the manner of admission to the Ceremonies of their Bacchus, which were so nasty and detestable, that Demosthenes had, as he 
In Orat. de corona.  observes, much reason to reprove Aeschines, his adversary, that in his younger years he and his mother had been initiated in them, and had cried Eure Sabaoe. But for my part, I am in as great an astonishment that he should not expect to be reproved himself and to be laughed at too for producing such trivial conjectures, such groundless proofs, and such fantastic, extravagant, and ridiculous conceptions to prove that the Orpheotelestae▪ practised all the Ceremonies, common among the Magicians of this time; and consequently, that he, who was the Institutor of them, aught to be the rather looked on, as an Enchanter and Magician. For if Reason may moderate the excess of these Symptoms, may we not by the way, truly affirm, that he gives the name of Orpheotelestae to all the Priestesses of Bacchus which yet appertained not but to the Masters of their Congregation. But then if the former consequence hold, this also must, That Hugh de Payennes, and Godefrey de St. Aumart, who founded the order of the Knight's Templars, were Sorcerers and Idolaters; because many Authors are of opinion, that this Order was abolished by Clement V. for these two Vices which had insensibly crept into it. And if that, this also, That all the corruption and irregularity of life, which happens often enough in most Orders and Religious Fraternities, long after their Institutions, must reflect upon the innocence and Sanctity of their Authors.  
But, in the mean time, there's no reason to admit for truth the wantonizing conjectures of this Writer upon the relation there is between the Magicians and the Orpheorelestae, since they proceed rather from an ambition in him to start out some new observation upon so threadbare a subject, then that he gave the extravagance any credit. To cure him of it, and to clear up the business from the bottom, we must remember, that, according to all the best Authors, the Bacchanalian Orgia or Dionysiacks were first instituted by Orpheus in his own Country, Thracia; ordaining that they should be celebrated by the Women when they were in their terms, merely to separate them for that time from the company their Husbands, to avoid the accidents which might happen if they should conceive in that condition. But finding by experience that they were ashamed to be at them, because it discovered what they were wont to dissemble with all possible artifice, and consquently, that he should be forced, to his own dishonour, to abolish them if he did not think of some remedy, took occasion from this dislike to make them more famous, permitting all women in general to exercise them upon certain days appointed for those Ceremonies. In these they took so much freedom and enjoyment, that, besides their Dances, which they regulated by the sound of Tabours and Cymbals, as also by the Voices and acclamations which they often repeated Euhoe, whence Bacchus, who was no other than the Sun, was since called Euhoeus, as Sabasius, from their running and skipping. There were also certain men disguised in women's clothes, who, as 
h De Syra Dea.  Lucian, 
i Lib. 1.  Columella, and 
k Praep. Evang. Lib. 2. c. 1.  Eusebius affirm, carried the image of the God Priapus, as the representation of fruitfulness, and the production of all things, which Orpheus would have highly esteemed and reverenced. But it being true, what the Poet says, 
Nox, & amor, vinúmque nihil moderabile suadent,  because, as he adds, 
Illa pudore vacat, vina Venusque metu.  these sacrifices and Ceremonies could not so well moderate their enjoyments, nor continue the use of them among those Nations who afterwards received them into their Countries, but at last they were made a cloak and covering for thousands of cheats, basenesses, and fornications, Cum vinum & nox, & misti faeminis mares aetatis 
Tit. Liv. Dec. 4. l. 9  tenerae majoribus discrimen omne pudoris extinxissent. Upon which account they were absolutely suppressed and abolished at Rome the year after its foundation 568. in the Consulship of Posthumus Albinus, and Martius Philippus.  
This hath cost me the pains of consulting Authors much more moderate and judicious than le Loyer was, when he described this imaginary Sabat of the Orpheotelestae, or Superiors of this Bacchic Fraternity, to show, by the naked truth and simple relation of what was done in these Orgia and Dionysiacks, how little reason this Author had (unless his great learning and vast reading may somewhat excuse him) to make such a strange metamorphosis of Euhoe into har-Sabat, a Tabour into a Goat which was sucked to the very last drop, and little Bells and Cymbals into great Kettles and Cauldrons, wherein they boiled little and newly born children. He might have hit, if not more fortunately, yet more pertinently, if he had reflected on the Bowls, which, as Pausanias affirms, the women, engaged in these Sacrifices, carried in their hands; or the Goat which gave Arnobius occasion to say, speaking to men who troubled themselves with these Congregations, Atque, ut vos plenos Dei numine ac majestate doceatis, caprorum reclamantium viscera cruentatis oribus dissipatis. This had been much more proper to prove what he said, than what he relates of the Tabour, or yet the passage of Demosthenes justly reproving Aeschines, for that he and his mother were initiated in these ceremonies, at that time much suspected and cried down for the reasons beforementioned, observed by Livy. But as Hercules overcame not the Hydra till he had cut off all her heads, so is it nothing to have overthrown this first Argument, if we cannot do the like with three others yet to come▪ since that the least of them remaining entire and without answer, were enough to maintain the suspicion there is, that Orpheus was a Magician.  
To begin then with that wherein they say, that his head became an Oracle, and gave answers in the Isle of Lesbos. I shall not stick at the doubt may justly be made, whether this story be true, though all the Authors speak of it with much contradiction, since that, it being supposed true, it makes nothing against Orpheus. For the miracle happened long after his death, and consequently it was not he that spoke thorough his scull; but the Devil undertook to give answers in it, to advance Idolatry amongst his creatures, making this head to speak, as he since did that of one Polycritus, which exposed in the Marketplace, foretold the Aetolians that they should lose the battle they were to fight against the Acharnanians. 
Phlegon. lib. de mirabilibus. Plin. l. 7. c. 52. Bern. Serm. 2. de Virg.  The like feat he also did with the head of one Gabinius, which after it had been retrieved out of a Wolves throat, did, in a long Poem, sing all the misfortunes which should happen to the City of Rome. The inference will be as prejudicial to the two last as to Orpheus. Were it not madness to say, that Samuel being dead answered the Witch, the Abbot Cassian, St. german, and another St. Macaire, that is, that all these holy persons were Magicians. For it must be thought, that as the Angels spoke under the persons of these last, for the instruction of the devout and faithful; so the Devil, the true Ape of all divine actions made his advantages of the former, the more easily to deceive men, and involve them in an abyss of new worships and superstitions.  
This granted, our next business is to show the 
●siodor. ●ar. Epist. ●. ep. 31.  little reason thereiss to believe that Orpheus, Mutis animalibus imperavit, vagosque greges, contemptis pascuis, ad audiendi epulas invitavit. This error, as we have observed in the first Chapter proceeds from this, that many times men take Poetical Fables for evident Truths; and the literal sense of their writings, for the allegorical and moral which they meant, as may be particularly observed in this fabulous music of Orpheus. It must then be understood of the civilization which his Laws wrought upon savage and barbarous people, reducing them to quiet and better conversation, if we take the security of Horace, who says,  De Art. poet. 
Sylvestres homines sacer interpresque Deorum,  
Caedibus, & victu foedo deterruit Orpheus,  
Dictus, ob id, lenire tigers, rabidosque leones.  
Which is also the common explication of 
o Orat. de Homero.  Dion, Chrysostom, 
p De Geneal. Deorum.  Boccace▪ 
q Lib. 2. ep. 41.  Cassiodorus, 
r Lib. 3 in somn. Scip. c. 3.  Macrobius, and 
s Lib. 1. c. 10.  Quintilian. It were therefore impertinent to endeavour to explain the seven several reasons which 
t Hebdemadum, l. 4. c. 6.  Fabius Paulinus would draw from the Philosophy of the Platonists, to prove this motion of things inanimate possible in Nature, since he confesses himself, that he proposes them not, but to exercise his learning; whereas, had he advanced seriously, and as true, Delrio hath so fully refuted them, that there were not now any ground to receive them as legitimate; besides that, their main drift was to show the possibility of that music, which certainly is a very weak proof, and in a manner of no consequence, if we consider with Apuleius, that, Non omnia 
Apolog. 2.  quae fieri potuerunt pro fact is habenda sunt.  
The conjecture they would draw from his Hymns would be more considerable than either of the precedent, if we were obliged to follow the gloss and interpretation which hath been 
Lib. de Spectris.  made of it by divers persons, especially le Loyer, who will, I hope, pardon me, if I endeavour to prove, that he hath been as unfortunate in the explication of his Hymns, as the Metamorphosis of the Orpheotelestae into Magicians. For, not to quarrel with the little account or knowledge we have of the Composer of them (since Genebrard assures us, that there is not any one book left of all those old Authors, and first Divines, such as Orpheus, Linus, Musaeus, Phenias, and Aristeus Proconesiensis, grounding his opinion haply on the authority of Cicero, who fathers these Hymns upon one called Cecrops, and those of Franciscus Picus, Selden, and Eugubinus, who ingenuously acknowledge that their Author is utterly unknown to us) we may show in two words, that these Hymns contain not any thing that should bring them into the least suspicion of Magic; whether they be considered literally, or in the several interpretations of their allegorical and moral sense.  
For to show that there is no such danger as to the former, we need only reflect on the industry of this first planter of Theology, who, to subdue and refine the spirits of a rough and savage people, took the most effectual course that could be thought upon, to bring about his enterprise, which was to possess them with a fear and veneration of certain Divinities. These he himself celebrates in his Hymns, as well to bring them into reputation by his example, as to leave his Successors a certain Model (as it were) of those observations and ceremonies which ought to be practised, to keep up the honour and devotion of their Sacrifices, whereof there were certainly many kinds. For as the ceremonies of Christianity, at the present, are not much different one from another, because they relate to the service of one only Almighty God; So those, of the false Religion of the Ancients, could not but be very contrary and discordant, by reason of the infinite number of Gods, Idols and Images, which were to be adored with Sacrifices peculiar to every one of them; Cum ex hoc Divorum numero, 
Lib. de Deo Socratis.  (saith Apuleius) nonnulli nocturnis vel diurnis, promptis & occultis, laetioribus vel tristioribus hostiis, vel ceremoniis, vel ritibus gauderent. But this proceeded merely from the sleight and subtlety of the Lawmakers and first Divines, who thus diversified the Sacrifices, as they saw it most convenient for the people. We have a manifest example hereof in these Hymns of Orpheus, unless any one would sift out a more mysterious and hidden sense under the veil of their Allegories, as Picus acknowledges we must, when he 
Praefat. in Apolog.  says, that, Ut erat veterum mos Theologorum, it a Orpheus suorum dogmatum mysteria, fabularum involucris, & poetico velamento dissimulavis, ut si quis legat illius hymnos▪ nihil subesse credat praeter fabellas nugasque meracissimas.  
But this Mythology once admitted, the Chemists presently explain these Hymns of their several Tinctures and their Philosopher's stone; the Cabalists, of the Ensoph and its Zephirots; Divines, of the mysteries of Christian Religion; Philosophers, of Nature and its causes; and Daemonographers, of Sacrifices and Conjurations. When yet there is no ground to believe, that Orpheus would conceal so many mysteries, and those so different one from another, under the mask of his fables, which can neither be interpreted of the universal spirit, or the Philosopher's stone, nor of the sorceries of Magicians. For as to the interpretation of Alchemists, we shall in the ensuing Chapters show, that it hath ever been one of their main fooleries, to be desirous to gloss on all things obscure and difficult, advantageously to their disquisition. For that of du Loyer and other Daemonographers, it were irrational to admit it for the legitimate, since first, we have the contrary authority of all the Catholic Doctors, specified before, who allow their authority may be used to confirm the principal points of our Religion. Secondly, we are able to show that they cannot be better interpreted than of Physic, according to the judgement even of the great Mirandula, who in the third of his Conclusions upon the Doctrine of Orpheus, says expressly, that Nomina Deorum quos Orpheus canit, non decipientium Daemonum, sed naturalium virtutum divinarumque 
Geogr. l. 10  sunt nomina. This is further confirmed by Strabo, who observes, that in all the Discourses were anciently made of the Gods, under the umbrage of divers Fables & Metamorphoses, were shrouded the most famous opinions of those who were particularly excellent in the knowledge of Nature. Such is Orpheus in his Hymns, which if we would 
Nat. quaest. cap. 14.  interpret in their tr●e sense, we must with Seneca observe, that the Egyptians, from whom this first Philosopher and Divine had derived all his learning, divided every element into two parts, one whereof they called the male, the other the female. Thus in the earth, rocks and stones; in the air, the winds; in the water, the Sea; in the fire, flame and thunder, are held the strongest and most forcible parts; and the soft and tractable earth, fresh waters, the most untroubled Air, and the least activefire, are the weaker and more feminine parts.  
In allusion to this, does Orpheus put two distinct Virtues into all the bodies of the Universe, one whereof was destined only to Govern its Sphere, the other to produce the effects which depended on its perfection. Desirous therefore to spread this doctrine under the sweetness of his Hymns, he composed them all under the names of his virtues, calling those he directed to the Earth, Pluto and Proserpina, to the water Thetis and Oceanus; to the Air, Jupiter and Juno; to the Fire, Aurora and Phaneta, and giving the names of the Nine Muses, and an Epithet of the God Bacchus to all the rest, whom he placed in the Spheres of the seven Planets the Firmament and the soul of the World, as may be seen more particularly in Caelius Rhodiginus. 
Lib. 22. c. 2.   
All which put together may be enough to demonstrate, that Le Loyer and such Writers have been extremely mistaken, when they interpreted those names of a Legion of Devils, and so pitifully charged this Author with Magic upon the Authority of Pausanias, who sufficiently refutes himself, both as mentioning it only upon the score of a common report, and that he fastens the same calumny upon Amphion, a person excellent only for Music, qui canendo chordis, as 
Lib. 2. variar▪ ep. 40.  (Cassiordorus hath well observed) Thebanos muros dicitur condidisse, ut cum homines labore marcidos ad studium perfectionis erigeret, saxa ipsa viderentur relictis rupibus advenisse. To which we may add one thing more that may oblige us to have sentiments 
Lib. 30, c. 1.  of this great person contrary to theirs who too lightly suspect him, which is, that Pliny himself delivers him out of the Inquisition after he had charged a many others, whose Innocence shall nevertheless appear when we come to their particular vindication.   

CHAP. X.  
A Vindication of Pythagoras.  

Lib. de audiendo.  HAd we not from Plutarch this Character of Pythagoras, that he was wont freely to acknowledge, that the greatest advantage he had reaped from Philosophy, was, Not to wonder at any thing; I should not easily be persuaded but that he would find much matter for his admiration, when he should consider how the malice and ignorance of men hath so changed the truth of his History, and the genuine sense of his Doctrine, that his life seems now like that of some Mountebank or Hocus Pocus, and his precepts so fabulous, impertinent, and at such distance with Reason, that a man cannot avoied astonishment at such a prodigious Metamorphosis. To reduce which to its former lustre and scour it from that rust and rubbish which obscure the Noblest strokes, and what ever is most like and natural in the Historical draught of this great Philosopher, we need only follow the method observed in the precedent Chapter. That is, as Virtue precedes Vice, and truth falsehood, to show, in the first place, what he hath been, according to the true telation of those who knew most of him, that so we may the more easily judge what account we should make of all these forged stories which impeach him so highly of sorcery and enchantment, as if he had done nothing all his life, to the destruction of those of his own Species, but deal and trade in, 
Quicquid habet Circe, quicquid Medaea veneni,  
Quicquid et herbarum Thessala terra gerit.   
This great person borne to things far above the ordinary rate of men, and having a mind, able to comprehend what ever the world could; that is, such as could not be satisfied within the narrow limits of a City, resolved to go and learn among the Egyptians & Chaldaeans what he could not in his own Country, that is, Ceremoniarum 
Apud. Florid. 2.  incredendas potentias, numerorum admirandas vices, & Geometriae solertissimas formulas. Having by a peregrination of fifteen years made himself Master of all manner of Disciplines, he brought, as it were, the Spoils of Egypt into Greece, and particularly into the City of Crotona, where he began to erect an Academy, according to the order which may be seen in Gellius. Here he though 
Lib. 1. c. 9  fit to communicate the precious talon he had acquired by his study and travel, and lay open the treasures of the encyclopedy, wherewith he was so enriched, that, not to rely too much on the testimonies of Laertius and Jamblichus, who might be thought too favourable to him, because they have made it their business to write his History; it is not to be doubted after the general consent of all good Authors, who have bu● justly been tender of the honour and respect due to his memory.  
For if we begin with his Philosophy, we have no reason to doubt of it, since he is called by 
Lib. 2. Florid.  Apuleius, Primus Philosophiae nuncupator & creditor, as well because he changed the name of Wisdom, in his judgement too arrogant, into that of Philosophy, as that he was the Prince and Institutor of the Italic Philosophers, as Thales had been of the jonick, as Laertius and others affirm; and that Reuchlin, who first dispelled the cloudy ignorance of Germany, hath designed the second Book of his Cabalistical Art, to explain and revive, in his Country, the Philosophy of Pythagoras, in imitation, as he says, of Faber Stapulensis and Marsilius Ficinus, who both in France and Italy had brought into reputation those of Aristotle and Plato. If we proceed to Medicine, 
e Lib. 9  Laertius and 
f 2. Florid.  Apuleius are a sufficient testimony to convince us, that he was excellently able in it. Nor have we worse security for his knowledge of the four parts of Mathematics. For as to Arithmetic or the Science of Numbers, besides the testimony of those two Authors, we may out of thousands 
In Lueullo.  pitch upon that of Cicero, who says, that Pythagoras deduced all things from Numbers and the Principles of Mathematics, whereto he attributed very great Mysteries, and gave the names of certain Divinities. These are explained at large by 
h Lib. de Iside & Osiride.  Plutarch and 
i Epist. lib. 5.  Calcagnin, who upon them ground the subtlery of that Ancient Custom of giving an account of all things by Numbers, as Picus promised to do in his Conclusions, to re▪ establish that Philosophy neglected ever since the time of Pythagoras, who was so well versed therein, that by the difficulties of it he tried the ingenuity of his Disciples. He also gained thereby some advantage as to the practice of Geometry, wherein he was so admirably able, that he, 
k 
Aristoxenus' apud Diogen.  
Pol▪ Virgil. ex Diog. l. 1. c. 19   first, brought the Geometrical instruments, of the invention of Moeris to perfection, and was the first among the Greeks, that used weights and measures. Which yet he could not have done without the assistance of that Science, which he studied with so much importunity, that having found out an excellent proposition in it, which is the 47. of the first Book of Euclid's Elements, he was so overjoyed, that he expressed his thanks to the Gods, in a Hecatomb, 
Apollodor. Supputator apud Diogen.  or Sacrifice of 100 Oxen.  
These two Sciences were as it were steps for him to ascend to two others more excellent, which are those of Music and Astronomy, the former whereof he must needs be well acquainted with, since 
m In somno Scip. lib. 2. Cap. 1.  Macrobius, 
n Musicae l. 1. c. 10.  Boetius, 
o In compendio Tim●i.  Ficinus, 
p Musicae l. 1. c. 8.  Gafurius, and 
q Epistol. l. 5. s. ●0.  Calcagnin (to omit all the rest who are of the same opinion) particularly describe his industry in finding out the tones of Music, by the proportion he observed in Smiths, when five or six beat upon their Anviles together. The same Macrobius, Athenaeus and Maximus Tyrius affirm that he first found out the inferior and celestial Harmony, whether it be interpreted of the admirable order and Symphony of Nature▪ or of the Music which 
r Lib. 14. Dcipnosoph. Serm. 21.  Pontus de Tyard, and 
s Au Dialong. 2. du solitaire.  Kepler do maintain there ought to be in the proportional revolution of those Globes and great Machines' of Heaven. Whence we may draw an evident argument of his knowledge in 
Lib. 20.  Astronomy; to learn which Justin says, he went 
Nat. hist. l. 2.  to Egypt to Babylon, and Pliny and Laertius affirm, that he first demonstrated the obliquity of the Zodiac, and discovered the nature and quality of the Planet Venus.  
Lastly, for what concerns the other Sciences, it may be presumed he was as well provided as for the former, if we may credit Ovid, andespecially Apuleius, who says, that Pythagoras learned of the Brachmanes, quae mentium documenta, quae corporum exercitamenta, quot partes animi, quot vices vitae, quae diis manibus pro merito suo cuique tormenta vel praemia. Add to this, the Laws he gave the Inhabitants of Crotona, and the three Books which Plutarch and Laertius say he writ, one of justitution, another of Civility, and the third of Nature; the fame whereof was so great that Plato hearing that Philolaus intended to publish them, gave order they should be bought up for him at the rate of a hundred minae of Silver.  
This Universal acquaitance with the Sciences gained him such respect in his life time, that Plutarch 
Plac. ●hil. l. 1.  affirms, he taught at Crotona and Metapont above thirty years without any interruption, being always followed by above 600. Auditors, who, for the integrity of his life and eloquence of 
De not deor. 1.  his discourses, took his words for Oracles, so far, that, as the Roman Orator affirms, his authority was thought reason, and divers Princes and 
In the treatise, of Philosophers conversing▪ with Princes▪  Potentates of Italy were glad, as Plutarch affirms, to take his advice in all affairs. For these great deserts did the people of Metapont immediately after his death consecrate his house, call it the Oratory of Ceres; and the Street, the Sacred Street of the Muses. Upon the same account, the Romans, having had an Oracle in the time of the Wars with the Samnites, that they should erect Statues to two men, whereof one had been the greatest Warrior, the other the wisest among the Grecians, without any debate cast that honour on Alcibiades and Pythagoras, the first having been the greatest Captain of his time, the other gained such reputation through all Italy, that qui sapiens haberetur, is continuò Pythagoreus 
Cic. Tuse. qu. 4.  putaretur.  
But it were an endless work to run over all the eulogies & honorary titles that are scattered of this person, in all the Books of the Ancients. These had an extraordinary esteem and reverence for him, as being indeed one of the greatest Wits of all Antiquity, who had the greatest earnestness for that which is good and honest, and who endeavoured more than any other among the Pagans to reduce mankind to a respect and knowledge of a first cause, and to draw it out of irregularity and dissolution, to raise it to the contemplation of things natural and Civil.  
From the little we have, it is easy to judge what might be said in his praise; we shall therefore now come to an examination of all those falsities, or rather extravagances, which some, either out of envy to his Virtue or enmity to his fame, have insensibly foisted into the relation of his life, grounded, probably at least, upon his vast knowledge of the Mathematics, and great Learning. Which once done, we shall need no more than the improbability & impertinences of those little stories, to satisfy us, what distance they are at with Reason, who not weighing the proofs they meet with, presently believe that all the ancient Philosophers, and first Authors of Sciences 
Epist. 65.  and Disciplines, such as Seneca calls Praeceptores, generis humani, have been absolute Necromancers and Magicians. For as to Pythagoras in particular, they are so confident, that they think it not to be questioned after the instances of it, which may be taken out of 
c Cap. 13, 16, 28.  jamblicus, in his life, 
d Lib. 24. c. 17. & 30  Pliny, 
e Lib. de Anim. c. 1.  Tertullian, 
f Adu. Celsum.  Origen, 
g De civet. Dei, lib. 7. c. 35.  St. Augustine, 
h Lib. 21. Histor.  Ammianus Marcellinus, and, the most accurate Writer on this Subject, 
i Lib. 3. Metalog. c. 1.  Delrio, not to put into the scale the authority of some late Daemonographers, quibus satisfactum non est, saith Sarisberiensis, nisi libello doceant quicquid alicubi scriptum invenitur, and who accordingly stifle their judgement with a confused collection of all the stories they can patch up together upon this Subject. Such are those that are brought upon the stage in the history of this person, whereof some may be found in Boissardus, who seems to have taken more pains than any, to rank him among the Magicians▪ whom he describes in his book of Divinations. From which and all the precedent may be inferred, that Pythagoras was accounted a Sorcerer and Magician; because, first, he had lived long in Egypt, and had read the books of Zoroaster, out of which he might probably have learned the properties of certain herbs, which he called Coracesia, Callicia, Menais, Corinthas'▪ and Aproxis, whereof the two first put into water, caused it to freeze, the two next were excellent against the biting of Serpents, and the last took fire at a distance. He also in one of his Symbols expressly forbade the use of Beans, which, according to the same superstition▪ he boiled, and, for certain nights exposed to the Moon, till such time, as, by a strange effect of Magic they were converted into Blood. This haply he did in order to another delusion, mentioned by Coelius Rhodiginus, after Suidas, and the Scholiast of Aristophanes in his Comedy of the Clouds, who affirm that this Philosopher writ with blood upon a hollow glass, what he thought fit, and holding the letters opposite to the face of the Moon, when she was in the full, he saw in the star what he had written in his glass. Add to this, his appearance with a golden thigh at the Olympic games; as also, that he caused himself to be saluted by the river Nessus; that he stayed the flight of an Eagle, tamed a Bear, killed a Serpent, drove away an Ox that spoiled a field of Beans, by the mere virtue of certain words. He was seen on the same day, at the same hour, in the City of Crotona and that of Metapont, and foretold things to come with so much certainty, that many think him called Pythagoras, because he gave as certain & as insallible answers, as the Pythian Oracle. This he performed by Onomancie, wherein he excelled as we may guess by the fragments we have of his superstitious Arithmetic, and the wheel attributed to him by Flood and Catinus.  
The troth on't is, I am ashamed to swell up this Chapter with the relation of so many fables and fooleries, so flat and inconsistent with truth, as might make us say with much more reason, what the Satirist anciently did,  Juven. Sat. 8. 
— Quid diceret ergo,  
Vel quó nunc fugeret, si nunc haec monstra videret,  
Pythagoras?—  
For my part, I think he would be distracted by two several passions, that is, that of amdiration at their want of judgement, who say of him, what they would be loath to affirm of the most notorious Cheat and Mountebank that ever was; or that of compassion for their shallowness, in the choice and trial of all these proofs, which may not by any means be received for legitimate. For it may be generally said of them, that it were absolutely irrational, to imagine that a man, so serious all his life, and so learned (as we have represented him) could spend his time in such vain fooleries and legerdemain, such as can be no other than the imaginary productions of popular ignorance, and the malice of his Enemies and Emulatours. That is a handsome observation of Rheuclin, 
De art. Cabal●. 2.  Non enim caruit aemulorum livore praestantissima ejus viri virtus, innocentissima vita, egregia doctrina, celebris fama, utque fit, nihil non pollutum reliquerunt invidi carptores. Timon, Xenophanes, Cratinus, Aristophon, Hermippus, & alii qui de Pythagora suis in libris mendacia plurima scripsere. This is particularly levelled at the stories that were crept into his Metempsychosis, and his prohibition of eating Beans: For as to the Histories which concern his Magic, he conceives them so feigned and absurd, that he would not so much as mention them, in a Book, wherein he should have brought in the greatest part, had he thought there had been any thing of truth in them, since the drift of it is to prove a resemblance between the Doctrine of Pythagoras, and the Cabala of the Hebrews, so far, that he affirms in his Book, De Verbo mirifico, that many strange and extraordinary things may be done by the virtue of numbers and words.  
But if the Metempsychosis, or transanimation, which was one of the principal points of Pythagoras' Doctrine, if the greatest part of his Symbols, his prohibition of eating things animate, the main actions of his life, and the history of his death, be so much controverted among Authors, what certainty can we have of these old wives tales, and Hocus Pocus tricks, when Laertius and jamblicus have prudently passed them by, instancing only in two or three of so great a number, and that upon the credit of other Writers. If further their authority be pressed, for their satisfaction, and that of all those who have accounted Pythagoras a Magician, we may rationally presume, that they did not put into their Books their own opinions of that person, but the false reports which from time to time had been scattered of him among the people, by the malice of Timon the Phlyrsian & others his enemies, qui viro alias 
Rhodigin. l. 19▪ c. 7.  Coryphaeo propemodum magicae vanitatis crimen inustum voluerunt. Thus came the fables beforementioned into reputation, which though they sufficiently refute themselves, we may yet, to discover the impertinency of every one in particular, affirm, that what hath been said before of the Egyptian Magic, and the books of Zoroaster, 
Cap. 2. & 8.  make it clear, that the voyage of Pythagoras into that Country, and his reading, as Clemens Alexandrinus delivers, of the books of that person, are rather arguments of his knowledge in Physic, medicine, and natural Magic, than any thing he could do in the Geotick and superstitious. His acquaintance with the former may be further argued, from his knowledge, as Pliny relates of certain herbs, from which our Adversaries would derive a certain proof to convince him of Magic. Which they might have done with some colour, if Pythagoras had described them with so much superstition, as sometimes did their Authors, Andreas and Pamphilus, in the book which Galen 
Lib. 6. de simp. med. facul.  says they made, Of Charms, and the conversion of the sacred herbs into Daemons, or had gathered them under some certain Star or Planet, as those that were anciently called Herbae Decanorum, for the 
C. 19 fol. 323.  reason given by Monsieur Moreau in his learned Comment upon The School of Salerna. But Pliny saying nothing of them that had any relation to these vain ceremonies and observations, I see not what reason they had to make such an extravagant conjecture, nay, he doubting withal, whether the 
Hist. nat. l. 24. c. 17.  book wherein they are described, should be attributed to Pythagoras, or to one Cleemporus. And if we must follow their opinion, who will have it to be his, their virtue was not so prodigious and extraordinary, but we daily find as much in Mallows, Basil, balm, Vervin, Horehound, Henbane, Cypress, Benjamin, and Germander, all which are very good against the biting of Serpents; or in the leaves of Willows, Vines, Lettuce, Violets, and Water-lily, which can much more easily cool water, than they do the air in sick folk's chambers. It may be also supposed, he might put in Saltpetre, which is used in stead of ice, to cool wine in the height of Summer. Nay, Pliny seems to give a reason of what might be thought most hard in the virtue and properties of these herbs, when he says that the root of Aproxis took fire at a distance, as Naphte did, because it might be of a bituminous nature, which exhaling many fat & unctuous spirits, taketh fire as a candle newly put out, which is not to be at all doubted of, after the many experiences of it, as they may be found in the books of 
r Lib. de bituminib.  Libavius and 
s Lib. de Subterraneis.  Agricola.  
The proofs deduced from this Philosophers forbidding the eating of Beans, and the course he took to convert them into blood, may refuted with as much ease as the precedent, since Rheuclin justly laughed at all those impertinencies, which some hollow and dislocated brains have forged upon this prohibition, such as might be that of Hermippus in Laertius, who thought Pythagoras would rather have suffered death at the entrance into a field of Beans, than pass thorough it to avoid his enemies. But the reason of the prohibition, was certainly no other than the first given by M. Moreau in the place before mentioned upon the 
Cap. 19  School of Salerna; namely, that Pythagoras, who commanded his Disciples to lie down to rest with the sound of the harp and pleasant songs, as it were to charm the soul, and, by harmony, to bring it into itself, absolutely forbade the use of that fruit, the juice whereof being flatulent, gross, and of ill nourishment, sends such vapours to the brain as make it heavy; and divert the spirits from minding the contemplations of Philosophy, which were the main business and entertainment of his followers. It may be also affirmed, that there was nothing extraordinary in the conversion he made of Beans into blood, for M. Moreau, in the said Commentary, shows clearly, that according to the principles of Chemistry, which put similitude and resemblance for causes of an action, it is a thing may be done and demonstrated by natural reasons. In the mean time, let no man persuade himself from hence, that Pythagoras ever made use of this Elixir of Beans, or humane blood, to write upon his hollow glass; for besides the little reason there is he should rather use blood in that business than any other liquor, 
u Lib. 4. de sensu.  Campanella proves by sound reasons that operation absolutely impossible. And whereas 
x Occult. Phil. l. 1. c. 6.  Agrippa boasted, that he knew the secret of it, and Natalis 
y Mythol. l. 3. c. 1, 7.  Comes hath written, that in the times of Francis the First, and Charles' the Fifth, men knew at Paris in the night, whatever had passed the day before in the Castle of Milan; the former only said it to gain reputation, as shall be shown more particularly in his vindication; and the relation of the latter is a pure Fable and Romance, advanced by those who would needs join Magic to the Arms of those two great Princes, as hath been affirmed before, of Ninus and Zoroaster, Pyrrhus and Croesus, Nectanebus and Philip of Macedon. Whence may be inferred, that what ever is said of this Looking-glass of Pythagoras, is as unjustly attributed to him, as the superstitious Arithmetic, and the wheel of Onomancie; or if he ever made use of it, it was certainly some game, imposture, or juggling trick, and, to conclude with Suidas, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
We may well pass the same sentence on the the relation of Laertius, concerning the golden 
Vit. Numa.  thigh of this Philosopher, since Plutarch openly acknowledges, that it was a pure stratagem of Pythagoras to gain him the reputation of some Heros or Demy-God, among the infinite number of people that came to the Olympic exercises. Which yet does not prejudice the probability there is, that that golden thigh was not attributed to him by the Ancients, but in some allegorical and moral sense, yet not such as Alchemists imagine, who think that Pandora's box, Jason's fleece, Sisiphus' stone, and Pythagoras' golden thigh, are the true Hieroglyphics of their Philosopher's stone. But much more likely it was, as Calcagnin makes it, when he says, in the explication of the particular marks of all the old Philosophers, that Phythagorae rerum abditarum pretium, & excellens 
Lib. 3. epist. f. 41.  indicatura, femur aureum fecit. Nor indeed is there any reason this thigh should be taken literally, or that we should believe it was of massy gold, as the tooth of the Silesiun youth, who lived within these forty years, not only by reason of the impossibility of it, both in Nature and Art, but also for the disagreement of Authors speaking of it; some, cited by Delrio, affirming it to 
Lib. 1. c. 5. quaest. 1. sect. 1.  be a golden river, which he made to run at the Olympic games; others, that it was his real thigh, according to 
c Var. hist. l. 2.  Aelian, Plutarch, Laertius, and Lucian. But the more probable opinion is that of 
d Cont. Celsum, l. 6  Origen, that it was of Ivory, it being easy to imagine that it was the natural thigh of Pythagoras, which being fair, white and smooth, was haply celebrated by some of his friends with a similitude to Ivory, a comparison we find Solomon makes use of, when he commends his Spouse, Thy belly is of Ivory, thy neck is as a Tower of Ivory. 
Cap. 5. & 7.  Add to this, that the Gods could not think of a fitter material to make Pelops a shoulder than this, because of the colour, and other relations there are between Ivory, and a delicate and smooth fleshiness, such as haply was that of this so much talked of thigh of Pythagoras.  
The reputation of all these miraculous operations gave occasion to say he was saluted by the genius of a river, which Laertius says was that of 
In vit. Pythag.  Nessus, Apollonius Dyscolus that of Samus, and Porphyrius that of Caucasus, which diversity shows what account we should make of such a salutation, as cannot but be fabulous, unless, to save the credit of these Authors, we should say it was another politic sleight of Pythagoras, such as I have read of Mahomet, who, having hid one of his Companions under ground, had instructed him, when he heard him passing by with a great multitude of people, to cry out through a Trunk that Mahomet was the great Prophet sent from the Living God. Which having done with care, he was very ill rewarded for it: for Mahomet desirous the cheat of the miracle should never be discovered, entreated those that were about him to mark the place where they had had so strange a revelation, by raising there a great heap of stones, which they immediately did with such devotion, that the poor subterranean Angel was presently buried under the weight of such a mass and Pyramid.  
Were I not afraid, while I would deliver Pythagoras out of one danger, to make him fall into another, and represent him as an impostor and crafty Politician, to take away from him the imputation of a Magician, I should with the same explication answer what is said of his appearance on the same day, at the same hour in the two several Cities of Crotona and Metapont. For it being a thing absolutely impossible as to men (whose essence requires no less union as to their own particular, than separation from all other) and not happening by divine permission, as the apparitions of some Saints in several places at the same time; as those of St. Ambrose, Agatha, Nicholas, and Benedict, we must conclude, that either it is a pure Chimaera and fiction (which I think the most probable) or that it was effected by the Subtlety of Pythagoras, who caused his gestures and person to be acted by one of his Disciples or Companions, whom he sent, in his name, to talk with some simple man or woman of either of those two Cities. Nor indeed needed there any more to raise the report of that miraculous apparition, which ought rather to be thus reconciled, then to have any recourse to spirits and Daemons. For it brings with it no difficulty or inconvenience, besides that Laertius gives such another interpretation of what Hermippus 
Vit Numa▪  affirms of Pythagoras' descent into Hell, and Plutarch of the tales were made of his Golden thigh, and the Eagle which he had so well instructed that he made him descend when he would upon his head, as they say Mahomet did his Pigeon. Yet it should seem by his story of the Eagle that Pythagoras was well acquainted with that part of Magic which consists in Ligatures, if we had not sufficient reasons to answer whatever may be said of the power he had over certain creatures. For if it be objected that he brought up a Bear familiarly in his lodgings, what reason is there to conclude he had tamed it by Magic, since that, not to mention that which was Paris' Nurse, or another which St. Corbinian made to carry his Luggage instead of the Ass whom it had devoured, the two Bears, called Mica aurea and Innocentia, which the Emperor 
Ammian Marcell.  Valentinian caused to be brought up in the same Chamber in a manner with his own; and that which Sindrigal Prince of the Lithuaniaus, had used to come from its den and Knock at his Chamber door, and receive a certain alms for its nourishment, wherewith it returned to the Woods till the next day that it came again at the same hour; these are enough, I say, to make us admire the Docility of these Creatures, which are not so savage, but the industry of men is able to reduce them, and that by the force, 'tis true, of certain words, not Magical and superstitious, but those pronounced by the Creator of all things, when he said to our first parents, Have 
Gen. 1.  dominion over the fish of the Sea, and over the fowl of the Air, and over all the Creatures that move upon the Earth.  
Nor is it worth much consideration, that Pythagoras, by the uttering of certain words, killed a Serpent which did abundance of mischief in Italy. For Boissardus, who citys Aristotle's Authority for the story, quotes not the Book whence he took it, and if we search a little more narrowly into it, we shall find it prove absolutely false, as being grounded only on their Ignorance who change Socrates into Pythagoras, and who take for sterling a fable related of the former, in a Book of the causes and properties of Elements, 

Discuss. peripat.  
Lib 1. l. 3. Vit. Numae.   which Patricius demonstrates falsely attributed to Aristotle. But this negllgence of Boissardus might have been well excused, had he not committed another great and more observable, when 
Lib. 19 c. 7.  he citys Plutarch to patronise the story of the Ox, which Pythagoras sent packing out of a Bean-field; after he had whispered something in his ear. He had better confessed he had translated it out of Caelius Rhodiginus, who indeed citys Plutarch in the beginning of his Chapter, but upon another occasion than that of this fable, whereof it will be found he never made any mention. To give it then a final shock, we may say, that it is absurd and irrational that this Philosopher, so grave & virtuous in all his other actions, should trouble himself to drive away that Creature, especially when it was executing his will, spoiling & trampling the beans, the use whereof he thought the greatest abomination in the World. But supposing he should take pains to do it, yet is it not likely it was by the virtue of certain words, or by the ways known and practised by certain Mountebanks, as may be seen in 
n De Ensalmis▪ Sect. 1. c. 1. art. 14. & Sect. 2. c. 2. art 13.  Emanuel de Moura, 
o In Hieroglyph. tit. bonorum obsequium.  Pierius, and 
p Lib. 2. contradict. tract. 2. contrad. 7.  Cardan; since the least Child, coming near the one might as easily have done it as this Philosopher.  
Lastly for what concerns his conjectures and predictions, we may say they can be but of three sorts, that is, moral, as those of Socrates, or natural, as those of Pherecydes, Thales, and Anaxagoras, or Diabolical and superstitious, as those of all Magicians. Since than it is easy to conjecture, by what hath been said concerning his doctrine, that he might well practise the two former, it were no less barbarism and simplicity to think he should be engaged in the last than to receive the proofs are brought for it, as good and Authentic, when they are only grounded upon the superstitious Arithmetic and the Wheel of Onomancy falsely attributed to him by 
q Tom. 1. tract. 2. part. 1.  Flood and 
r Lib. 1. & 8. Microcos. at the end of his Geomancy.  Catanus. For this Arithmetic and all the impertinent fooleries insensibly crept into it, is nothing but the pure imagination of those who would needs gloss upon the passage of Plutarch where he says, that the Pythagoreans honoured Numbers and Geometrical figures with the names of the Gods, calling a Triangle with equal sides Pallas and Tritogonia, because it is equally divided by three lines perpendicularly drawn from each angle. They called Unity by the name of Apollo, the binary by that of Contention and Boldness, the trinary by that of Justice, for as much as to offend or be offended, to do or suffer an injury, is done by excess and defect, Justice remaining equally in the middle.  
Nor is it a less injury to this great person, to think that he ever troubled himself with the practice of this Wheel which 
s Antipali. Malef. l. 1. c. 3.  Trithemius and 
t Lib. 2. Epis. Mathema.  Raguseus acknowledge as falsely published under his name, as that of Plato and Apuleius; or that he ever exercised Onomancy by the help of Common numbers represented by the Letters of 
Epist. 4.  the Alphabet, the seven Planets, the days of the week, & the 12. Signs, as Flood would persuade us in his Microcosm. For in the first place, this kind of Divination is counterfeit, and without any ground at all; this application of Numbers without any relation or correspondence with the signs and Planets; this Arithmetic absolutely fabulous. And lastly, it was ever the custom of those, who made it their business to bring into reputation, such impertinences as these, or any other Mathematical Niceties; to divulge them under the name of this Philosopher, by reason of the great knowledge he had therein. Whereof we have a manifest example in de Boissiere who within these 60. years making some additions to the Rythmomachia, hath in like manner put it out under the title of, Pythagorical Recreation, though there be nothing to manifest, as that Pythagoras minded this sleight, now attributed to him, as little as all the other stories, which deserve rather Juven. Sat. 8. 
— Purgantes corpora succos,  
Quicquid & in tota nascitur Anticirâ▪  than what we have been obliged to say in this Chapter, to discover their vanity, and the little ground there is to admit them for true.   

CHAP. XI.  
Of Numa Pompilius.  
THeodorus Gaza, the learnedst Greek that ever came from Constantinople, being asked by a friend of his, what Author he would preserve, in case a general wrack were to destroy all the rest, would not seem so fond of his own Traductions, as to prefer Aristotle or Cicero before Plutarch. Him he thought worthy to survive all the rest, not so much, as I conceive, for his admirable learning & variety, as to perserve in him the most judicious Author that ever was, what could not 
Montaigne l. 2. c. 2.  have been found in any other, to wit, the judgement he gave of all the things he treated of, which we might make use of as a certain mark to distinguish truth from falsehood, or as a guide to conduct us thorough those noble ruins of Antiquity, which we find in his Works. This puts me into a more than ordinary admiration, at the malice or negligence of most of our Daemonographers, who will not apprehend the true account which this Author gives us of Numa Pompilius, as they have done long since in the Metamorphosis of Apuleius, which they quote upon all occasions, as a manifest history to prove lycanthropy. Out of some such jealousy it was, that the Author thought himself obliged to give us all the precautions possible, to show that his transmutation was a mere Fable and Romance, when he says in the first page of his Book, At ego tibi sermone isto Milesio varias fabellas conseram, and a little after, Fabulam Graecam incipimus, lector intend, laetaberis. Which laid down, if those are deservedly laughed at, who would establish and confirm a proposition of such consequence by a relation acknowledged to be fabulous, even by the Author of it, we may with as much reason affirm those guilty of a greater malice and temerity, who so apparently falsify the authorities of Plutarch, Dionysius Halicarnassaeus, and Livy, to convert into Magic the admirable wisdom and excellent policy of Numa.  
That I undertake his vindication next that of Pythagoras, is not grounded on the opinion of 
Metam. 15.  divers, especially Ovid, who have made him later, and a Disciple of that Philosopher; since Livy 
Lib. 1.  says in his Decades, Authorem doctrinae ejus, quia non extat alius, falsò Samium Pythagoram edunt. The same is also confirmed by the said 
d Antiq. Rom. lib. ●.  Dionysius Halicarnassaeus, 
e Vit. Numa.  Plutarch, 
f Lib. 19 c. 8. antiq. ●ect.  Rhodiginus; and 
g De principiis rer. nature. in Pythag.  Pererius; the former whereof shows that the City of Crotona was but founded in the fourth year of Numa's reign; and the three others insist much upon all the chronological reasons which may prove these two persons not to have been Contemporaries, but by a figure of Anachronism, ordinary, and indeed tolerable, in Poets; but by no means allowed an Historian. But in regard jamblicus observes in the life of Pythagoras, that he had borrowed all his learning from the Theology of Orpheus, I have put their Chapters one after the other, without being too Critical, as to the time wherein they flourished, since it contributes nothing to their vindication, and that I am obliged to neglect it in divers other parts of this Apology.  
We are then to note, that the accusation against Numa is grounded upon four principal points, the least whereof, were it true, were enough to condemn him for an Enchanter and a Magician. For, first, it is urged, that the Genius attributed to him by 
d Lib. 2.  Ammianus Marcellinus, and which 
e Lib. 2. Antiq. Roman.▪  Dionysius Halicarnassaeus, 
f In vit. Numae.  Plutarch and 
g Dec. 1. l. 1.  Livy affirm to have been one of the nine Muses, or rather a Nymph called Aegeria, was no other than a Succuba with whom he was very familiar, as being one of the cunningest and best verse▪ d that ever was, in the invocations of the tutelary Gods, and the Genii of Men and Cities. Hence 
h De orig. Etrur. f. 139.  Postellus takes occasion to maintain, that th●s Familiar was the same that had attended Vesta the wife of Janus or Noah, and then was Guardian of Rome, Quo duce, says he, Numa tantae molis urbem stabilivit. It is also taken for certain, that by the assistance and industry of this Divinity, he did many strange and miraculous things, to gain reputation among the people of Rome, that so he might govern at his pleasure. To this purpose is haply, what is related by Dionysius Halicarnassaeus and Plutarch, That having once invited many Citizens to supper, he entertained them with mean and ordinary things, and with plate that spoke neither wealth nor magnificence. But they had not sat down long, ere he took occasion to tell them, that the Goddess whom he conversed with, at that very instant was come to give him a visit, and that immediately thereupon the room was excellently well furnished, and the tables covered with all manner of meats, the most exquisite and delicate in the world. The same may also be confirmed by the discourses he 
Initio, l. 5.  had with Jupiter, such as may be seen in Arnobius, who says that Numa, by the advice of his Nymph Aegeria, found out a way to bind two Devils, or internal Gods, Faunus and Picus, who taught him how to invocate Jupiter, and force him to come to him by strong and imperious conjurations, in case he should not willingly and of his own accord. This it seems he was so fortunate in, that he fetched out of his throne, the greatest and most powerful of all the Gods, and forced him to declare, how by sacrifice he should expiate the thunder and lightning. To which may be added the hydromancy which Varro, cited 
De Civit. D●i, l. 3. c. 35.  by St. Augustine, says, he was very well versed in; as also his magical books, discovered four hundred years after his death, and condemned to the fire as most pernicious, in the Consulship of Publius Cornelius and Marcus Bebius. All this admitted, we may well conclude with all our Daemonographers, especially le Loyer and Delrio, the most learned among them▪ That Numa Pompilius was the greatest Magician of any that ever wore Crown, and that he had a greater power over Devils than over men, since he made use of the assistance of the former, to reduce the Roman people to subjection and obedience to his Laws and Institutions.  
But if we would show how all these Authors are too prodigal of our leisure and their own, when they take so much pains to hatch a sort of strange and hideous imaginations, and thereby captivate our belief, we need do no more than take a view of the first draught of this person, done not only by Livy, and D. Halicarnassaeus, who drew the first lines of him, but particularly by Plutarch, who hath clad him in his proper colours, and all the circumstances and particularities of his life, that we might thereby judge of the least vices and virtues, as also the disposition, custom and proceedings of this great Politician, and second Founder of Rome. Whence it will not be hard to resolve, what credit we should give all these after-draughts and copies of the modern, who have rather followed the Original in their own fantastic imaginations, than that of Plutarch and the best Historians, who seem not to mention Numa, but out of a design to celebrate his virtues, and admire the excellent conduct, whereby he fastened and established the Roman Monarchy. For that, being loose, and but newly set together, might easily have been ruined by the least hostile violence, if Numa had not by a peace of three and forty years, given it time to take root and growth, looking on the Roman people as a Champion that were to fight, having exercised itself at leisure, for the time he should reign over it, would by that means prove strong enough to oppose any that should question the limits of their Empire.  
The first thing he did, after he had possessed himself of the government, was to soften and civilize the City, converting their rough & warlike humour into a gentle and tractable, remitting that height of courage and earnestness of fight, by Sacrifices, Festivals, Dances, and Processions▪ nay sometimes, as Plutarch says, representing unto them the fear of the Gods. To this end did he make them believe, that he had strange visions, or had heard of great calamities, purposely to keep down their hearts in a dread of the Gods. To this may also be applied that passage of Tertullian, cited in the third Chapter of this Apology, but much more pertinently that of Lactantius, 
Divinar. Instit. l. 1. c. 22.  who says that Numa, Sic novi populi feroces animos mitigavit, & ad studia pacis à rebus bellicis avocavit. Whence may be drawn a certain argument, that whatsoever hath been said of the Nymph Aegeria, was nothing but the mere pretences and palliations of this crafty Politician, who by that Fable would establish the authority of his Sacrifices, Laws, and Constitutions, as is well observed by the same Lactantius, when, speaking of Numa, he says, that to settle these things, aliqua cum authoritate, simulavit cum Dea Aegeria nocturnos se habere congressus. This increases my admiration at the Lethargic judgements, or seared consciences of our Daemonographers, who can so securely deprave the authority of this Author, with those of Halicarnassaeus, Livy, and Plutarch, to give some colour to what they would have believed, and so ground the truth of their proposition upon the most palpable falsity can be imagined. For if le Loyer and 
m Lib. 2. c. 5.  Delrio may be credited, the principal Authors that affirm all these fables we have related of Numa, are Plutarch, and D. Halicarnassaeus, which yet when we come to read, and peruse, we shall find, that on the contrary they are those that resute, undermine, discover, and advise us not to credit them.  
And that it is so, to begin with the opinion they had of the Nymph Aegeria; Plutarch having 
Vit. Numae.  made a long discourse of the credit ought to be given these divine apparitions, concludes it with his own opinion, to this effect. Howbeit, if any be of a contrary opinion, he is left at liberty; for, I do not hold those things improbable, which others relate of Lycurgus and Numa, and others of their quality; who, being to deal with rough and savage people, and obliged to introduce great alterations into the government of their Countries, have prudently pretended communication with the Gods, since those fictions and pretences were advantageous even to those whom they persuaded to a belief of them. This he further confirms, when three or four pages after he says, immediately after he had cited the verses of Timon the Phlyrsian, that this personation of Numa was nothing else than the love of a Goddess, or some Nymph of the mountains, and the secret meetings he pretended to have with her. This seems to have been transcribed out of D. Haliearnassaeus, where speaking 
Antiq. Roman. l▪ 2.  of Numa, he says, as Portus' Latin Translation hath it, Multa autem eaque admiranda de eo dicunt, referentes humanam ejus sapientiam ad Deorum monita: fabulosè enim dicunt illi congressum fuisse cum quadam Nympha Aegeria, quae illum assidu● Regiam sapientiam edoceret. Nay Livy, who is 
Lib. ●  taxed with no other vice, than that of having filled his History with abundance of prodigies & miraculous things, confesses ingenuously, that Numa resolved to keep the Romans in subjection by the fear of the Gods, and seeing it would not easily fasten on them, without the disguise and circumvention of some counterfeit miracle, simulavit sibi cum Dea Aegeria congressus nocturnos, ejus se monitu quae acceptissima Diis essent sacra instituere, sacerdotes suos cuique Deorum praeficere.  

Lib. 21▪  But indeed Ammianus Marcellinus seems to be more pertinently cited by our Daemonographers, and consequently to favour them more than all the precedent. For, discoursing upon a certain vision which the Emperor Constantius had, he says, that the correspondence between Gods and men is not a thing so extraordinary, but that there were manifest examples of it in the Genii, which sometime were familiar with Hermes, Socrates, Apollonius, Numa, Scipio, Marius and Augustus. From which passage it might be imagined, he was of opinion, that it was not fabulous what was said of the Nymph Aegeria, and the conversation that was between her and King Numa. But, be it supposed that this was his opinion, yet can it not conclude any thing to the prejudice of the precedent, since that thorough all his History, he discovers himself very prone to believe and amplify such narrations; alluding to which, I conceive, 
De trad. disciplinis, l. 5. f. 38.  not improbably, Ludovicus Vives presumed to pronounce this judgement on his History, Ammiani Marcellini quod superest opus, nec Oratoris omnino nec historici.  
Lastly, for Postellus' Comment upon the Fable, I think it of the same metal, with what he relates in his Cosmography, where he says that the Aethiopians are black, by reason of the curse God thundered against Chus the first Author of their Nation, because Cham, his father, had known his wife in the Ark, against the express command of the Patriarch Noah to the contrary. Nor indeed can there be a more true and modest solution made to all these vain and chimerical speculations, then to say of their Author as the Proconsul Festus did of St. Panl, Insanis Postelle, multae te literae ad insaniam eonvertunt.  
Having thus discovered the weakness & falsity of the proofs, brought to make this Aegeria a Witch or Succuba, which was only a subtle fiction of Numa's, we must do as much with those which 
s De spectr. l. 2. c. 5.  le Loyer and 
t Disquisit. Magic. l. 2. qu. 9  Delrio would draw out of the same Authors to make good the enchanted Banquet, and the conference he had with Jupiter, by the means of this Hydromancy. But this was nothing but the fabulous invention of Numa to surprise Faunus and Picus, putting wine and honey into the Spring out of which they were wont to drink, that they, being taken, should show him the way to invocate Jupiter, & know of him what he should do to expiate the Lightning, as we have already observed out of Plutarch and Arnobius. For as to D. Halicarnass●us, 'tis true, that speaking of the Nymph Aegeria, he mentions also the Supper Numa made by her means; but what he says in consequence, sufficiently shows that he held it a mere fiction, adding immediately after the relation, sed qui res omnes fabulosas 
Antiq. Roman. l. 2.  ex historia tollunt, Numam haec quae de Aegeria dicebat finxisse dicunt, ut qui Numen divinum metuerent facilius animum ad se adverterent, & leges quas esset laturus libenter ut àdiis latas acciperent.  
In like manner hath not Plutarch fallen upon a relation of these fables, without a precaution given before, beginning very judiciously thus. By these rudiments and as it were apprenticeship of Religion, the City of Rome became so civilised, & had such an admiration for the great power of K. Numa, had it received for truths such tales, as had no more likelihood of truth then there is in mere Fables and thought there was nothing incredible nor impossible to him that he should desire to effect.  
There remains therefore only the objection concerning his Books about which I shall not glean up all that may be said of their number, 
In commentar. ad 3. Pliniis capita de papyro memb.  and the time, when, and the manner, how, they were found, since Guillandinus hath very learnedly performed that task, and that it is sufficient for me to show, that they were not burnt as treating of Magic, as divers modern Authors would persuade us. For it was not the opinion of any of the ancients, as may be easily demonstrated, in that, according to that of 
y Vit Numae.  Plutarch, 
z Dec. 4. l. ult.  Livy, and 
a Apud Plin. l. 13. c. 13.  Caius Piso Censorius, they treated only of the offices and duties of the Priests, and the Philosophy of the Greeks, such as it had been in Numa's time; to that of 
b Ibidem.  Cassius Hemina, they treated only of the Philosophy of Pythagoras; and to that of 
c Divinar. instit. c. 22.  Lactantius, 
d Apud▪ D. August. de civet. Dei. l. 7. c. 34.  Varro, and 
e Apud Plin citato in vit. Numa.  Tuditanus, they contained only the order and causes of the sacrifices and ceremonies he had instituted amongst the Romans. Which last opinion I think the more probable, because it discovers the reason why the Senate thought it not convenient they should be divulged, for since we find in Plutarch that Numa forbade the Romans to believe that God had the form either of Man or Beast; and to make any image or Statue of him, which was observed for the space of 70. years, and permitted not they should do sacrifice but with the pouring out of wine, milk, and a little flower, it is probable he had given reasons at large in his Books of that new kind of worship. These coming to light and acknowledged for his, four thousand years after, as Plutarch affirms, or according to 
Petron. in fragm.  Cassius Hemina 535. when the City of Rome was so full of Idols, ut facilius esset Deum quam hominem invenire, and that all the temples continually sweltered in the blood of the Victims, it is, I say, easily conjectured, that the Books of this Roman Trismegistus, who, in Juvenal, passes for the example of a great Priest, were burnt by order of the Senate, for fear lest some great change might happen in Religion, if by the perusal of those Books, it had been known what reasons Numa insisted on, both to establish the purity of his Sacrifices, and to cleanse men's mind from Idolatry, which had taken such root there at the time of this discovery, that the best expedient was to destroy those Books which were otherwise likely to put the whole Roman Monarchy into disturbance; it being a maxim among Politicians, that the troubles & dissensions in the State are ever consequential to those that happen in Religion.  
This in my judgement was the true cause of the condemnation of these books, and not that which le Loyer, and other moderns have endeavoured 
Lib. 1. c. 11.  to find out in Magic, or yet what Cassius Hemina, who might haply live in Augustus' time, seems to relate of their treating of the Philosophy of Pythagoras. For as to the former, his opinion being without any ground or Authority, eâdem facilitate contemnitur quâ affertur. For that of the latter, it is sufficiently refuted, not only in what we have showed before, that Pythagoras was latter than Numa, and, that this last came not into Italy, according to 
h Lib. 17. c. 21.  Gellius, till the reign of Tarquin the proud, but also by the testimony and contrary opinion of 
i Dec. 4. l. Vlt.  Livy, who says, that one Antius Valerius gave the same judgement of these Books Vulgatae opinioni, as he adds, quâ creditur Pythagorae auditorem fuisse Numam, mendacio probabili accommodatâ fide. After all which answers and solutions, all I have to wish, is, that our Daemonographers would own either more modesty or more judgement, that they may not hereafter so indiscreetly forge such Monsters and Chimaeras as afrerwards frighten them, and make them run away, and cry like little Children, who are many times startled at the dirt they cast in the faces of their companions, quasi quicquam infelicius sit homine, cui sua figmenta dominantur.   

CHAP. XII.  
Of Democritus, Empedocles, and Apollonius.  
I Should never have presumed to remove the precious and venerable bounds of Antiquity, which the God Terminus in the fabulous Theology of the Romans, signified to us immovable, did I not somewhat rely on its being called by Arnobius, errorum plenissima mater, so far at least as to be satisfied, it was no sacrilege to bring that to the test which hath been held for true. And this I do after so many ages, as, by their long and various revolutions, are wont, as well in Civil History as natural, to drag after them along train of fables, and from time to time to give them new force and vigour by the multitude of those who, out of mere respect to Antiquity, are ensnared by them. And indeed it were too great a severity to be obliged to follow the superstitious tract of those, who will not do the least violence to Antiquity, which, as if our eyes were not able to endure a full light, puts a cobweb before them, and burdens all things, especially the memory and lives of great persons, with fables and fictions, as it does the Statues erected to them with dust and filth. This our design leads us to maintain, by the examples of these three great Philosophers or rather Daemons of knowledge, versed in all Sciences, and the chiefest, and of greatest Authority among their people, that is, Democritus, Empedocles and Apollonius. These have undergone such a change and Metamorphosis, by those who make it their business to write without minding that precept of Horace, 
Quid de quoque viro, & cui dicas, saepe caveto,  that besides that they are delivered over to us all three for Sorcerers and enchanters, it is further believed, that Democritus was such a fool as to put out his own eyes, after he had blown away his estate in a fruitless search of the Philosopher's stone; and that Empedocles, as an ambitious Desperado, cast himself into the burning furnaces of Mount Gibel.  

Hor. de art. poet. — Deus immortalis haberi  
Dum cupit Empedocles, ardentem frigidus Aetnam  
Insiluit—  
But these calumnies are so far from being true or well grounded, that, on the contrary, there's nothing easier than to show how they are absolutely false, if we may bestow but a few lines on them before we come to join issue with the most material part of the Charge put in against the reputation and Learning of these excellent Persons. For first, as to the Book of the Sacred Art, and the knowledge and practice of Alchemy, attributed to Democritus, it is a symptom that signifies the depraved imaginations of our Furnace-Imps, who know no other project to gain any credit to the Books of their Art, than to father them on Moses, Solomon, Trismegistus, Aristotle, nay (such is their stupidity and want of judgement) Adam; 
a Quintil. Declam. 18. in Libanii. mania.  ut authoritatem videlicet sumat ab homine quae non habet ex veritate. But to make an absolute discovery of this imposture, sufficiently laughed at by 
b Alchymiaes expugnatae, l. 2. c. ●6.  Riolanus, 
c De consensu. l. c. 3.  Guibert, and 
d Variar. lect. l. 4. c. 9  Semertus, we may affirm, that this Book was never made by Democritus, since the learned Mercurial assures us that Chemistry was not known at all in Aristotle's time, and that Delrio shows; there is no tract of it in any good Author, till from Caligula's time, when it first broke the shell, till that of Dioclesian, under whom lived one Zozimus, who, as Delrio thinks, 
Exercit. ad Annal Bar. Diatr. 10.  is the most ancient Greek that hath written of it. To which may be added that Casaubon says, he saw in the K. of France his Library, a manuscript treating of the making of Gold, entitled, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or, the sacred Art, who yet never mentions Democritus for the Author of it. To make this good weight, we may urge the poorness of conceptions which it discovers, and the censure long since given it by Laertius, when having been very punctual in the Catalogue of this Philosopher's works, he says that others; under his name, either falsely attributed to him, or taken out of his Writings, may assure us, notwithstanding the Authority of Psellus, who makes him the Author of it, that Democritus had nothing to do with it, but some other Greek, less learned, and much latter, Yet might question the Authority of Mercurial, and conclude against him, that Aristotle was versed in Chimestry because he says in his Problems, that Oil may be extracted out of salt, which it cannot but by distillations and Furnaces; if 
f In Bibiotheca.  Gesner & 
g Discuss. perip. Tom. 1. l. 24.  Patricius had not proved those Problems not to be Aristitle's, and that it is hard to guess at the time when they were writ, for that as 
h In Philosoph Poeturâ.  Henry Stephen first observed, the Books of Theophrastus, Of Sweeting and Weariness, are transcribed in a manner Verbatim in them.  
But me thinks, those are yet more irrational, who, with 
i Apolog. c. 46.  Tertullian, believe that this Philosopher put out his own eyes, because he could not look on Women without some concupiscential insurrections; or with 
k Lib. 10. c. 17.  Gellius and 
l Lib. de curiositia●.  Plutarch, that he might study Philosophy more freely, and be less diverted by external Objects; or lastly with Laberius, that he did it, 
— malis benè  
Esse ne videret civibus.  For besides the unlikelihood and diversity of these reasons, we must clearly discredit Hypocrates in his Epistle to Damagetus, where he says, that being employed by the Abderites to cure the madness of Democritus▪ he found him reading certain Books and dissecting Animals, actions certainly much inconsistent with want of sight. We may therefore imagine, that as his Laughter was moral, his blindness was so too; and that fabulous Antiquity hath, as Scaliger conceives, 
In problemat. Gellian. prob. 72.  represented him blind, quod aliorum more oculis non uteretur.  
Nor do I see any more reason to believe what is▪ said of Empedocles, that he cast himself into the flames of Mount Gibel, ut cum repenté non apparuisset, 
Divinar. instit. l. 3. ●. 8.  says Lactantius, abiisse ad Deos crederetur. For Empedocles was so far from that extravagance of ambition, that Laertius assures us, that with incredible constancy he refused a Royal crown presented to him, preferring a life peaceable and free from those vain Grandeurs, before the greatest enjoyments of Princes. And indeed the story is good for none but Politicians, who comment on and make their advantages of it, when they credit it no more than they do a many others; nor indeed do Pausanias and Timaeus in Laertius, dissemble the falsehood of it; this latter concluding his opinion with theirs in part of an Epigram, 
Si se flagrantem male sanus jecit in Aetnam,  
Quomodo adhuc Megaris structa sepulchra jacent?   
For my part, it shall ever be my faith, that the vast pains and industry of this Philosopher in the disquisition of natural things considered, if he died in that manner, it proceeded rather out of his over curiosity to find out the cause of so miraculous an effect, as it afterward happened to Pliny in the burning of Vesuvius, than out of any design he had to get into the Catalogue of 
Plin. in Epist.  the Gods, by so hazardous and indiscreet a resolution.  
Having therefore brushed off the dust which hid the lustre & perfection of these living Images and models of virtue, we come now to what is most material to our purpose, that is, to answer those proofs, which may be drawn out of Pliny and other Writers, who would fasten on them the black patches of diabolical Magic, ad quam discendam, says Pliny, Pythagoras, Empedccles, 
Lib. 30. c. ●  Democritus, Plato, navigauêre, exiliis veriùs quam peregrinationibus susceptis. This he more particularly confirms of Democritus, when he adds in the same place, Plenumque miraculi et hoc, pariter utrasque artes effloruisse, Medicinam dico, Magicenque, eàdem aetate; illam Hippocrate, hanc Democrito illustrantibus. And elsewhere he says, he was Magorum post Pythagoram studiosissimus, 
Lib. 2. c. 1●.  and that he maintained thousands of little stories and ridiculous propositions which could not be effected but by Magic. Of this mettle were these, that of the blood of several young birds might be engendered a Serpent, which eaten would cause a perfect understanding of the singing 
Lib. 24. c. 17.  of Birds; that there were certain herbs so powerful and endued with such virtue, that they were requisite in the invocation of the Gods, and would make criminals confess what judges and torments could not. He affirms further that 
Lib. 28.  he had writ a Book of the nature of the Chameleon, which contained things absolutely trivial, 
Lib. 30. c. 1.  Magical, and superstitious; and lastly that he had published the works of Dardanus a famous Magician, whereto he added his own fraught with follies of the same nature, and abundance of vain observations.  
Empedocles he is a little more favourable to, in that he gives him not the quality of Magician, but only where he makes him one of the ancient Philosophers who travelled into Egypt; nor indeed were there any proofs to make him such, if Satyrus did not let fall a word to that purpose in Laertius, where he citys nine or ten verses of this Philosopher's, wherein are comprehended his Magical operations, and which are all the ground whereupon the Moderns have made him act the part of a Magician. Of these, one of 
Lib 2. qu. 9 & 11.  the most considerable is Delrio who hath ranked among the miraculous operations of ancient Magicians those of Empedocles when he mitigated the fury and violence of the Etesian winds, paralleling it with that of one Erric King of the Goths, who was surnamed Windy-cap, because he made the wind to blow which way soever he turned it. To that may be added what is said of his making the Plague to cease in the Country of the Salinuntians, and of the women he delivered of a long and dangerous suffocation of the Matrix. But since it may well be imagined, that he omitted these things because he thought them either fabulous or natural, we may as safely pass the same sentence on those we have specified as well of him as Democritus, since they are all of the same coin; and that to speak seriously of them, it is absolutely irrational to think these two great persons guilty of such pitiful weaknesses contrary to the confidence we should have of their vast Learning and integrity, had we no other security for it then that of Lucretius and Hypocrates. The former thinks it an honour to be the Celebrator of Empedocles' virtues, when after a long discourse in the praise of Sicily, he says, that,  Lib. 1. 
Nil tamen hoc habuisse viro praeclarius in se,  
Nec sanctum magis & mirum clarumque videtur.  
Carmina quinetiam divini pectoris ejus  
Vociferantur, & exponunt praeclara reperta,  
Ut vix humanâ videatur stirpe creatus.  
The latter, whom we may justly call the Oracle of truth, assures us in his Epistles what account we should make of the admirable wisdom of Democritus, which gave Celsus occasion to call 
Lib. 10.  him, magni nominis Philosophum; and Gellius, 
c. 12. 17.  nobilissimum Philosophorum; virum praeter alios venerandum, authoritateque antiquâ praeditum.  
But as the same turf brings forth many times both wholesome and hurtful herbs, and Bees suck honey whence Caterpillars do poison; so the travels, which they say these Philosophers underwent, to learn Magic, must now serve us as a pregnant proof, that they were the occasions of their great Learning and Polymathy. And this must be the more probable, if we reflect on what hath been already said of the Magic of the Egyptians, and the travels of Orpheus, Zoroaster, and 
Lib▪ de vita Apollon. c. 2.  Pythagoras; as also on the authority of Philostratus, who, though of a contrary opinion to us, as to the Sages of Persia and the Egyptians, yet says, that Pythagoras, Democritus, and Empedocles, notwithstanding their conversation with them, would not learn any thing of their Science. To strengthen this yet further, we may add the negative authority of Laertius, who makes not the least mention of the Magic of Democritus, and but one word by the way of that of Empedocles, not specifying, contrary to his custom, any thing he had done by the means of it, without bringing on the stage the common solution of this kind of argument. And yet it were but just to urge it, when he from whom i● is taken had made it his business to say all he could, and to particularise whatever belongs to the Subject he treats on. For instance, if any should undertake to give an exact account of all the Sciences, and should say nothing of Medicine, it might be justly inferred, he did not rank it among them. So it may be concluded, that Laertius and two hundred and eleven Authors, whom he quotes, had not heard ought of the Magic of these two Philosophers, since he says not any thing of it in his Book, where yet he intended a full collection, even to the juggling tricks of Pythagoras, and the most inconsiderable particulars, though fabulous, he had read of others.  
But as to Democritus in particular, we may 
Lib. 30. c. 1.  balance Pliny's authority with what he says himself of the doubt which many made to believe things so leight and trivial of a man so wise and discreet in all his other actions. And to that add the contrary authority of Gellius, who hath made 
Lib. 10. c. 12.  an express Chapter, De portentis fabularum quae Plinius secundus indignissimè in Democritum Philosophum confert; where he discovers at large the vanity of all the forementioned fables, and at last concludes with these words; Multa autem videntur ab hominibus male solertibus hujusmodi commenta in Democriti nomen data, nobilitatis, autoritatisque ejus perfugio utentibus. Nor indeed do I find any more than two things in these objections of Pliny, which we may at all stick at, that is, the magical books written by Democritus, and those of Dardanus published by him. To which may be answered, that such proofs conclude not directly, as we have shown in the sixth Chapter of this Apology; that these books are not specified by Laertius, or any other, and that it is extremely uncertain who that Dardanus should be. For though Pliny, Tertullian, and Apuleius make him a great Magician, yet all they say of him is upon the credit of Columella, who says, Lib. 10. 
At si nulla valet medicina repellere pestem,  
Dardaniae veniant arts.—   
If we will refer the business to the Civilians, this Dardanus may well be some other than a Magician, since they say, that Dardanarii are properly Seplasiarii, Propolae, Proxenetae, that is, Engrossers and Regraters, who fill their barns and storehouses with all sorts of provision, to be sold again at extraordinary rates, when a dearth should happen, as it is learnedly interpreted by 
f Observat. l. 10. c 19  Cujacius and 
h Adversar. l. 9 c. 3.  Turnebus. To this I add, to leave this erroneous persuasion as naked as may be, what 
i Cap. 9  Solinus, speaking of the stone Cathochites, which stuck to the hands of those that handled it, as if it had been of a viscous and glewy nature, saith, Democritum Abderitem ostentatione scrupuli hujus frequenter usum, ad probandam occultam nature ● potentiam in certaminibus quae contra magos habuit. And to that, the opinion of the Spaniard 
Delictor Magic. l. 2. c. 2. art. 2.  Torreblanca, who says expressly, that Magiam Daemoniacam pleno ore negarunt Democritus, Averro, Simplicius, & alii Epicurei qui unà cum Saddu●aeis Daemons esse negarunt. For indeed he well discovered what account he made of Spirits and 
Lucian. in Philops●ud  Magic, when he pleasantly laughed at those young men of Abdera, who had disguised themselves like Devils, purposely to frighten him in 

Imperat.  
Julian. in Epist.   his solitude, and that being sent for by King Darius, and entreated by him to raise up his wife, he answered him with a good moral instruction, that he would do it with all his heart, provided he would bring him but three men who had never bewailed the death of their nearest friends; for there needed no more than to write their names, and put them upon his wife's tomb, to make her rise again immediately. This was much different from the proceeding of Simon Magus, or rather 
Glycas Annal. p. 4. f. 415.  the counterfeit Monk Santabarenus, who entreated by the Emperor Basilius, that he might see his Son, though dead; was much more kind than Democritus, for he gave him a meeting with him, as he went a hunting, and suffered them to embrace one another for some time; which it was as easy for him to do by his Enchantment, as it was impossible for Democritus, who had attained the knowledge of all things, save that of Magic.  
Nor is my admiration less, that Delrio should also refer thereto what was done by Empedocles to hinder the over-violence of the winds that blew in his Country. For Laertius explaining it, says, He commanded a many Asses to be flayed & their skins to be made into bags, and put upon the tops of mountains, to repress the immoderate gusts of the Etesian winds. Wherein it is easily perceived there was no more Magic, than in the industry he used to deliver the Salinunti●ns from the plague caused by the noisomeness of a river, by cutting into it two little rivulets, which dissolved the viscousnesse, and carried away all the filth, or in the simple cure he did of the suffocation of the Matrix, which yet hath given some occasion to say, that he raised a woman to life, and to Satyrus in Laertius, that he was a Magician, though most part of the verses he produces to prove it, and among others these,  
Pharmaca queis pellas morbos, relevesque senectam  
Percipies, quae cuncta tibi communico soli  
Extinctumque hominem nigro revocabis ab Orco.  

Rer. reckoned tar. l. 2. c. 1, & 2.  should be interpreted as Talentonius says, of a secret he had to keep a body, for some time, from corruption, though deprived of nourishment, respiration, and the beating of the Arteries; upon the explication whereof may be consulted Galen, 
Lib. 6. de loois affectis, c. 5. in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Goreus, and the forementioned Talentonius.  
Drawing now near unto the end of the Chapter, I have briefly two things to note upon the Romance we have from Philostratus in the life of 
Antrop. l. 13 c. 3. lib. de Divinat.  Apollonius. But I shall first observe the inadvertency of Volateranus, Cassiodorus, Boissardus, and the Lancre, who assure us there is now to be seen in the Vatican at Rome a book, De figuris conicis, composed by Apollonius Thyanaeus, the ambiguity of the name having made them mistake him for Apollonius Pergaeus, surnamed Magnus Geometra, who lived in the time of Cleomedes, an hundred and fifty years before the nativity of our Saviour; for he it was that writ eight books de Ominicono, four whereof are translated out of the Greek by Frederick Commandin, printed at Bologne in the year 1566. This being granted, as needing no other proof, I shall say, first, that this Apollonius Thyanaeus might be some virtuous man, of a vast and powerful wit, one who made excellent advantages of philosophical speculations and his own nature, to dispose of that of Kings and Princes, and so came as near the Hero's and Demigods, as he was far from the ordinary sort of men. Whence Sidonius Apollinaris took occasion very much to celebrate one of his friends, a Counsellor to, and of great authority with Evarix King 
Lib. 8. epist. 3.  of the Goths, putting him into the scales with this Philosopher. Lege virum, said he to him (Fidei Catholicae pace praefara) in plurimis similem tui, id est, à divitibus ambitum, nec divitias ambientem, cupidum scientiae, continentem pecuniae, inter epulas abstemium, inter purpuratos linteatum. This certainly might well seem strange in the mouth of a Bishop, and a friend who would commend another, were it not evident by the testimonies of Eusebius and Cassiodorus, that this Apollonius was a famous Philosopher and a very wise man. Besides, that it were imprudence to credit the fictions of Philostratus rather than the authorities of St. Hierom, and Justin Martyr, who assign no other cause of all his miraculous operations than the knowledge he had of Nature, and so absolutely clear him of Magic; the former saying in his Epistle to Paulinus, Apollonius sive Magus, ut vulgus 
Ep. 103.  loquitur, sive Philosophus, ut Pythagorici tradunt. The latter is much more open in his Questions 
Qu. 24.  to the Orthodox, Apollonius ut vir naturalium potentiarum, & dissensionum atque consensionum earum peritus, ex hac scientiae mira faciebat, non authoritate divina; hanc ob rem in omnibus indiguit assumptione idonearum materiarum quae eum adjuvarent ad id perficiendum quod efficiebatur.  

Quaest. in S. Script. 23.  But if this be not enough, we may read in St. Anastasius and Cedrenus, that one Julian a Chaldaean, and another famous Magician called Manethon, slighted all the natural performances of Apollonius, as being nothing in comparison of what they daily did, by the means of Geotick and prohibited Magic; whereas there cannot any proof to the contrary be drawn out of a many Authors, who have forged as many lies and Chimeras upon his life, as all our old Romances have done on that of Paladin Rowland. For Vopiscus 
In D. Aureliano, epist. 3. l. 8.  made not that Book he promised of his History; Sidonius had described him such as we have represented him; Tascius Victorianus and Nicomachus are not to be met with, in any Library; so that it cannot be judged in what sense they writ of him. And for the more ancient, Hierocles had borrowed 
Euseb. in Hieroclem.  all his relation from Philostratus, who had dressed up his at the request of the Empress Julia; as at the present, Love-stories and Romances are written for the entertainment of Queens and Princesses. Besides the false notes of his own imagination, he made use of those of one Maximus, who had written a relation of what Apollonius had done at Tarsus, but his main assistance was the Diary or Diurnal of Damis. Of the integrity of this Damis, since a Lion may be known by his claw, and that a man need not drink up the Sea, to try whether it be salt; we are not to make the least account, si●ce he is so impudent as to affirm, 
Lib. 1. c. 3. l. 2. c. 2.  in Philostratus, that he had seen the chains wherewith Prometheus had been fastened to Mount Caucasus, which were yet in the stones, when he passed it with Apollonius, who was travelling to the Indies. But as all things, even the most fabulous, have some ground, and that all painting supposes a firm and solid body under it, so must it be acknowledged, that this great Volume blown up with falsities, was written by Philostratus out of no other design, than to make a parallel between the miracles of this Philosopher, and those of Jesus Christ, purposely to undermine the foundations of our Religion, and set people at a loss, whether of the two they rather ought to credit, our Saviour or Apollonius. The same course took Eunapius, an implacable enemy of the Christians, to disparage the miracles of Saints and Martyrs, by advancing a many invented by himself of Plotinus, Sosipater, Porphyrius, Maximus, jamblicus, and divers other Platonists, whose lives he writ. That the case stands thus with Philostratus, the conjecture is but too probable; for the Empress Julia's desire, to see something of his writing (as being a man very polite and eloquent) might well give him occasion to publish that chimerical, yet pernicious History, in the time of the sixth Persecution, which happened under Septimus Severus, about two hundred and ten years after Christ, when the Pagans endeavoured the destruction of Christianity, no less by Artifices than by open war. Upon this very account was it, that Vopiscus 
In Divo Aureliano.  celebrated so highly, though in few words, the virtues and miracles of this Thyanaeus; for according to the learned Casaubon's gloss upon it, Cum 
In notis ad Vopiscum.  hoc tibicine fulcirent homines pagani ruentes jam superstitiones suas, nemo debet mirari Vopiscum hoc loco in illius laudes ferri.  
We may therefore pass our final judgement on all this, with Paulus Orosius, and Leonard Vair, viz. That as the greatest part of the Fables of Poets, and other Heathen Writers, seem to have taken their disguises out of the holy Scriptures; as for instance, the Deluge in the time of Deucalion and Pyrrha, from that of Noah; the fall of Phaeton, from the miracle of Joshua; the Giant's war, from the Tower of Babel; the Ambrosia of the Gods, from the Manna of the Israelites; the plague at Rome from that in the Desert; and the Serpent of Aesculapius, from the Brazen one erected by Moses. So without question all the extravagancies of Philostratus upon his Apollonius, took their rise from the true miracles of our Saviour, since he hath been pleased to oppose the Daemon, which came to give Apollonius' mother notice of 
Lib. 1. c. 3, 4, 7, 9, 19 l. 2. c. 2. l. 4. c. 1, 6, 16. l. 8. c. 5.  his nativity, to the mystery of the Annunciation; the singing of Swans, to that of the Angels; the lightning that sell from Heaven, to the Star that appeared in Bethleem; the Letters sent to him from divers Kings, to the adoration of the Magis; the discourses he held, when very young, in the Temple of Aesculapius, to the disputation of Christ among the Doctors; the questions put to him by his Disciples, to those of the Apostles; the judgement he passed upon the Eunuch and the Concubine, to that on the woman taken in adultery; the apparition he met with upon Mount Caucasus, to the temptation of the Devil in the wilderness; the incredulity of the Ephesians, to that of the Jews; his deliverance of a young man possessed with the Devil, to the like action of Christ; the Maid he raised to life at Rome, to Jairus' daughter; his appearing to Damis and Demetrius without the City, to that of our Saviour to the two Disciples going to Emmaus; the words he said to them, to those of Jesus Christ, Spiritus carnem & ossa non habet; and lastly, his death and ascension, either to that of Christ, or to the translation of Enoch or Eliah. All these parallels I have the rather thought fit to particularise, to show the malice, and the pitiful and indiscreet subtlety of Philostratus; and consequently, that the safest way to refute all these fictions, is to deny them any relation to Magic, contrary 
De rerum praenot. l. 7. c. 10.  to what Franciscus Picus hath done, because Jews and Gentiles might make their advantage of them, and thence draw an example, to prove what they have so often said of Christ in the Gospel, Now we know thou hast a Devil, for thou castest out Devils, through Beelzebub the prince of Devils. 
Adversus Hieroclem.  Besides that, we must with Eusebius absolutely deny them, and so proceed, according to his directions in the discovery of them, that we may lay open the weak grounds they are built upon, and all the imperinencies and contradictions they are 
Ci●. in Paradoxes.  guilty of, Ut vetusta habeantur ista, non ut in vincula virorum sint, sed oblectamenta puerorum.   

CHAP. XIII.  
Of the Genii attributed to Socrates, Aristotle, Plotinus, Porphyrius, Jamblicus, Chicus, Scaliger, and Cardan.  

De apparit▪ Spirit. c. 14. num. 346.  THe Jesuit Thyraeas' quotes an observation of some people sufficiently superstitious, who say that all Children borne in the Ember-weeks commonly bring along with them their cawls or certain membranes, and are much more likely than others to gain the acquaintance and familiarity of the Genii designed for their conduct. The same Privilege they also pretend to, according to Ptolemy, who have the Moon, in conjunction 
Quadrip. l. 4. c. 13. textu. 18.  with Sagittary, Lady of their actions, or with Pisces, of the Nativity. All we infer hence, is, to imagine one of these two happened in the Nativities of all those for whom we make this Chapter, since that by the Authority of most Authors, every one of them might presume he was brought into the Temple of Glory and Immortality by the extraordinary assistance of some Genius or familiar Daemon, which was to them, as Apuleius says, singularis praefectus, domesticus 
Lib. de Deo Socrat.  speculator, individuus arbiter, inseparabilis testis, malorum improbator, ●onorum probator. But since this opinion cannot be asserted without much injury done to these great men, and taking away from the obligation we owe their excellent Labours, by the means whereof, and not by that of these Daemons and tutelary Gods, so many precious relics and monuments of their Learning have come to our knowledge: me thinks it is but just we should continue them in their deserved reputation, and show the true meaning may be given this Conversation and correspondence, how extravagant their imaginations are who believe it to have been such as that of the Angels with holy men, or that of Devils with Magicians.  
For to come as near the truth as may be, we are to observe that the Platonics, as 
d 
Lib. de Myster.  
Egypt.   Jamblichus and 
e Comment in Phaedo●▪  Foxius affirm, assigned four kinds of rational Creatures, after that which they called the first Being, or first Goodness, that is, the first Author and Mover of all things; that is to say, the Celestial Gods or Angels; the Daemons inferior to them; the Heroes; and the souls of all men. The principal duty and employment 
Lib. de animâ et Daemone.  of the Daemons being, as Proclus affirms, only to interpose and manage the affairs and conduct of the last, and to be as it were their guides and interpreters towards the Gods, some have taken occasion, from the resemblance of these actions, with those of the souls over their bodies; to call them sometimes by the name of Daemons. And to do this they thought there was much more reason, when they arrived to such a defiance of the Slavery and tyranny of the matter wherein they were as it were immersed, that they had the absolute disposal of all their faculties, and were as miraculous 
De Deo Socrat.  in all they did as those Daemons were thought. According to this sense that does Apuleius say, Animus humanus etiam nunc in corpore situs, Daemon nuncupatur; and Heraclitus, that the Spirit of a man was to him instead of a Genius, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: besides that it may easily be inferred from these two verses of Virgil. 
— Diine nunc ardorem mentibus addunt  
Eurgale? an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido?  that the just desires and good operations of the soul may in like manner be qualified with the name of God. Add to this what Porphyrius says, after Plato in his Timaeus, that God hath assigned the superior faculty of our Mind as a Daemon to conduct us, and that it may be justly called Eudaemon, who looks on Wisdom as the Pharos that should direct it in all the actions of his life.  
This might well serve for a general solution to that whatever may be said of the familiarity and acquaintance of Socrates, Aristotle, and others, with certain Devils; were it not also requisite, to answer the objections may be made against them in particular. To begin then with that famous and so well known Daemon of Socrates, no less celebrated by their Authority from whom we have the history of it, than by the great 
De sact. & dict. Socrat. in Theage.  diversity of opinions concerning it. Some affirm it might truly be some Apparition, & others that it was a pure fiction of that Philosopher, or of his two Disciples Xenophon and Plato, who as falsely advanced the report of this divine assistance, as that of the Oracle's declaring him the wisest of Mankind, as if there were any reason to bestow the highest and proudest Title imaginable, on a lewd fellow that publicly processed Ignorance, Sloth and Sodomy, who lived upon alms, knowing not any art or discipline, and endeavouring to discredit all the Sciences by his ignorant Wisdom▪ 

Passerat. in Poemat. de nihilo.  Socraticique gregis fuit haec Sapientia quondam  
Scire nihil—  a man that breathed nothing but the introduction of Atheism, deservedly reproved and laughed at by Aristophunes, Timon, Aristotle and Athenaeus. And lastly a man that for all the praises have been given him, is only obliged to two of his disciples, persons not free from suspicion, and consequently not absolutely creditable, who might as well write Apologies for him, a●d outvie one another in his commendations, as Gellius observes that one of them did when he writ his Institutions of 
Lib▪ 14. c. 3.  Cyrus, out of emulation to the other, who had published ten Books of Commonwealth.  
But these are desperate Sallies of a dangerous sort of spirits, who, purposely to expose him to general contempt, so freely discredit the Authority of these two great Philosophers, as also those of Apuleius, Maximus Tyrius, Cicero, Plutarch and the best Authors, out of no other motive then that of mere vanity and a groundless hope of being thought more critical and quicksighted than others for breaking and battering this ancient image. I should, for my part, rather be of their number who reverence it, out of a belief that so many Authors would not bestow such Eulogies on Socrates, or call him, as Martial did, magnum Senem, as Persius, barbatum Magistrum, as Val. Maximus, palliatum animum virilitatis robore, 
Lib. de deo Socratis.  or lastly as Apuleius, Divinae prudentiae senem, if he had not been so famous for his wisdom, that they are rather to be excused then condemned who, with some reason thought he had acquired it by the favour and assistance of his Daemon. With this misfortune, nevertheless, that there is as much uncertainty in the explication of the nature of it according to this opinion, as there was malice and calumny in the precedent. For 
o Ibidem.  Apuleius will have it to be a God, 
p Divinar Lib. 2. c. 14.  Lactantius and 
q In Apolog.  Tertullian, a Devil, 
r In Theage  Plato, invisible; Apuleius affirms that it might be visible 
s De Deo. Socr.  Plutarch that it was a certain sneezing on the left or right side, according to which Socrates presaged good or bad success in the thing undertaken. 
t S●rmonib. 26. 27.  Maximus Tyrius says, it was only a remorse of conscience against the violence of his natural inclination, which was neither heard nor seen, whereby Socrates was restrained from doing what was ill; 
u De incantationibus, c. 11.  Pompanatius, that it was the ascendent of his Nativity, & lastly 
x Essays. l. 1. Chap. 11.  Montaigne that it was a certain impulsion of the will, that presented itself to him, beyond the direction of his discourse. But for my part, I think it may be truly and rationally said, that this familiar Daemon of Socrates, which was to him, 
y Apul. de deo Socr.  in rebus incertis prospectator, dubiis pr●monitor, periculosis viator, was only the good regulation of his life, the wise conduct of his Actions, his experience of things, and the result of all his Virtues, which wrought in him that prudence, which may justly be termed the salt and seasoning of all actions, the rule and line of all affairs, the eye which sees, directs and disposes all; and in a word, the Art of life, as Medicine is the Art of health. So that there is much more reason to believe that the soul of this Philosopher, not only refined from its violent passions, but enriched with all sorts of Virtues, was the true Daemon of his carriage, than toimagine him entangled in the delusions and conversing with Hobgoblins, crediting them or following their directions, an imagination so absurd that Plutarch thought himself concerned to endeavour to weed it out of our belief. For in his Book upon Socrates' Daemon he says, that Socrates slighted not celestial things, as the Athenians would have it believed at his condemnation, but that abundance of imaginary apparitions, fables, and superstitions having crept into the Philosophy of Pythagoras and his disciples, whereby it was become absolutely ridiculous and contemptible, he endeavoured to regulate it by prudence, to cleanse it from all those Stories, and not to believe any more than what he thought rational.  
To this we may add a general Goodness shining through all his actions, and that he had no other design then to lead his neighbour in the paths of virtue, and thence perceive the little ground we have to conclude this Genius to have been a bad Daemon. Which yet we should rather believe than that it was a good Angel, since that he must either have it voluntarily and by divine permission (a secret hath not been yet revealed) or by the force of his conjurations. But these must needs be vain at that time, wherein Angels rather commanded men, and were not courted with so much facility as since the passion of Jesus Christ, who hath delivered us from the slavery of sin, to make us equals and companions to Angels, who would not be adored by St. 
z A●oc. 19 20.  John, as they had sometimes been by 
a Gen▪ 18▪ 2.  Abraham.  
This foundation laid, there remains only to resolve three difficulties which may happen concerning this Daemon. The first is, why he never persuaded him to do any thing, but only not to undertake something, and to take heed and avoid it. To this it may be answered that Socrates needed it not, in as much as being naturally inclined to whatever were virtuous, his particular endeavour was, by a long habit, to arrive to that reservedness which the greatest persons, even in their most violent passions, and notwithstanding their courage, either have or aught to have. This is true prudence, which regulates their conduct, and makes them do all things wisely, quae ratio, saith Cicero, Poetas, maximeque Homerum impulit, ut principibus Heroum, Ulyssi, Agamemnoni, Diomedi, Achilli, certos deos discriminum & periculorum comites adjungerent.  
The second is a proof taken from the Ecstasies which were ordinary to this person, whence some conclude they could not happen to him but by the means of a Daemon more powerful than that of the perfection of his Soul. As if it were not more rational, with Aristotle and Marsilius 
Lib. 13. de immort.  Ficinus, who represent Socrates as a man extremely melancholy, to imagine these ecstasies as natural in him as those of Charles de Boville, mentioned 
In Biblioth. lib. de Scrip torib▪ Ecclesiast.  by Gesner and Trithemius. For Melancholy may for a long time entertain the Soul, in a deep meditation, and when the Spirits attend the soul to that place where it retreats as it were into its centre, to do it some service there, the other parts are deprived of their influent heat, and seem not to have any spark of life, and this is properly what is called Ecstasy.  
The last depends upon the great number and certainty of the predictions of this Philosopher, whence is drawn the same inference as from the precedent, as that Socrates was certainly the instrument of that Daemon, which not content to have declared him the wisest of all men, would needs add a further respect to him by the means of his Oracles and answers. To this may be said, that, besides that it were an open breach of Horace's commandment.  

Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus  

De art. Poel.  Inciderit,—  to attribute these predictions of Socrates, and the advice he gave his Friends, to some Divinity; it were more rational to conceive, that, as he was absolutely inclined to moral actions, so had he so particularly considered all the accidents that happen to men, that any thing almost gave him some light to judge of and foresee what was to come. Hence it also came that he was reputed the eighth wiseman of Greece, because he absolutely resigned himself to the practice of commendable and virtuous Actions, not meddling with the fruitless speculations of the Sciences; which, like money, are sometimes current, sometimes cried down, one while stamped one way, another, another; but always embased and very leight. And herein he imitated the seven famous persons of Antiquity, among whom was only Thales whose wisdom exceeded the contemplation of those things which were in common use among men; for, him excepted, all the rest acquired that so honourable title by their great understanding of Morality, and Matters of State and Government.  
There are those, who, to make Aristotle not inferior to Socrates, maintain he had the particular assistance of some Daemon. But these, methinks, do his doctrine as much violence as 
e De subtilit. l. 19  Cardan did that of Averro (who never believed there were any Devils) when he introduces a Daemon who called himself one of his disciples and followers; or the Alchemists daily do to Avicenna, to whom, (though, in 
f Quodlibet. 3. quaest. 8. ex ejus comment. in lih. Meteor.  Aegidius Romanus, he absoutely deny the possibility of their metallic transmutation) they yet attribute the knowledge and practice of the Philosopher's stone. For there is nothing, so certain in the Doctrine of Aristotle, not wherein his Interpreters do so much agree; as that he never admitted any other intelligences than those which caused the motion of the celestial Bodies, discarding all other kinds of Daemons and Angels, so confirming his own principles, and admitting nothing which was not known to him either by motion or operation. This is the general assertion of the Peripatetics, with 
g Quaest. de Daemonib. art. 1.  Aquinas, 
h Parte. 2. partis de universo spiritu.  William Bp. of Paris, 
i De incantation. c. 10  Pompanatius, 
k Lib. 19 de subtle. et l. 6. de variet c. 93.  Cardan 
l In Academic. contempl.  Theupolus, 
m Comment in Fernel. l. 1. de abditis. c. 11.  Riolanus, 
n Lib. de Daemon. c. 3  Niphus, and 
o Lib. 29. de singul. certam. p. 519.  Bernard Mirandulanus, who expressly says, illud negare non possumus, Aristotelem ratione naturali non pervenisse nisi ad form as quae in corpore aliquo sunt. To the same purpose Niphus, before him, said, that such forms and separated substances, according to the doctrine of the Peripatetics, erant Teretismata quaedam & figmenta, such as Theupolus says Aristotle ever slighted, tanquam Sphingis & Chimaerae inania nomina, attributing what is commonly said of them, to nature, that is, to the properties of natural things, to the humour and temperament of Animals, to the qualities of places, and to their vapours and exhalations, leaving nothing at all for the substances to do. And that there is not any dispute concerning them in his works, is, not that he could not assert them without some Demonstration, but that he durst not openly refute them, not because he would not contradict Plato, who had gained much reputation by introducing them, but that he would avoid the censure of impiety by opposing the Laws of his Country, & the common opinion concerning Gods & Oracles. However it be, we cannot conclude according to his doctrine, that they were any thing but dreams and Chimeras. For if there were any, they must be either Corporeal or incorporeal; to say they were incorporeal were to contradict what he says in the 12. of his Metaphysics, that there is no Intelligence but is joined to some body. Besides they must be thought all good; and void of malice and corruption according to what he says in the ninth Book of the same treatise, that sin cannot proceed but from matter; wherein▪ as he explains it in his Ethics, lies the sensual appetite, which, when it exceeds and overrules the rational, causes that deformity. If they were corporeal, their Bodies were either eternal or mortal; the former they cannot be, because, in all his Physics, he assigns but one only body of that nature, that is that of Heaven. If mortal, they were either simple or compound; if simple, what he says in the first and second Book, de Anima, that she is never found in a simple Body, cannot any way stand with it; if the latter, they were consequently corruptible, palpable, perceptible, and subject to a thousand changes and alterations, which cannot be admitted.  
Nor does it amount to much that he hath the word Daemon in several places of his Books, for than it must be conceived he speaks according to the opinion of the vulgar & the Platonics, as Alexander & Niphus affirm, upon the fifth of his Metaphysics, and the third, Of the generation of Animals, Chap. 14. Or haply he made use of that word speaking of God, as is evident from that passage in the second Book of his Rhetoric, where he says, that the Daemon is sent to divers persons of extraordinary Prosperities, not out of any affection he bears them, but to make their Calamity the more remarkable; for certain it is that only God can send those prosperities.  
Besides all these proofs, me thinks there is one very pertinent may be had out of his Book Of Divination by dreams, where to show there was nothing supernatural in them, he says, Omnin● autem quoniam nonnulla etiam somniant animalia, a Deo certé missa non erunt somnia, neque hujus gratiâ fiunt, sed daemonia sané ernnt, siquidem natura daemonia est, non divina. For though it hath bred much controversy among the Interpreters and Commentators of Aristotle, about the sense wherein the Epithet, he gives Nature, should be taken, yet me thinks Leonicus hath guessed better than any of the rest▪ and that the Learned 
p Comment▪ on that place.  Carpentarius hath discovered the full signification of that Phrase, when he says that Aristotle would thereby show, 
q In cap. 13. Alcinoi digress. 4. pag. 338.  in naturâ bené ordinatâ dependente ex coelestium orbium conversione ipsis Intelligentiis, eam vim ad omnia explicanda reperiri posse propter quam alii ad Daemones confugerunt. This explication does first confirm what we have said before of Aristotles' opinion concerning these separated substances, and then confute the only 
Cap. 7. lib. de investig. Daemon.  Reason which Cesalpinus gives to assert them, even out of his very doctrine.  
This certainly were enough to satisfy the World how much this Philosopher is injured, when he is charged with the familiarity of one of these Genii or Daemons, which he never took for any thing but dreams and imaginations. But here are yet some trivall Objections raised by certain Authors, who wanting Reason to compass their design, fly to Stratagems and cast dust in our eyes. Medina and others upon 
s 1. Secundae quaest. 109. ●rt. 1.  Aquinas would affirm, that the reach of our spirit is not so great, as to be able to dive into the knowledge of nature, as did that of Aristotle, without the particular assistance of some good or bad Genius. And that he made use of the latter, is not, say they, to be questioned, after the proofs which 
s In proaem. de vit. Philosoph.  Laertius, and 
t 
11. Part. de universo spirit.  
Cap. 92. 153. & 2. part. c. 6.   William, Bishop of Paris, afford. The former citys a Book of his treating of Magic; the latter, in divers places of his Works, says that this Philosopher had for Counsellor in all his Actions, a Spirit he made to come down out of the Sphere of Venus, by the sacrifice of an ensnared Lamb, and some other Ceremonies. This piece of superstition gave Emanuel de Moura 
Lib. de Ensal. Sect. 2. c. 3. n. 19  occasion to relate out of Philoponus in the life of Aristotle, against those who would make him an Atheist, that he was so strangely cajoled by a Woman, that she made him consult the oracle of Apollo. Add to this what Plutarch and Laertius affirm, that he ordained by his last will, that there should be dedicated to Jupiter Soter and Minerva Sotira the effigies of certain Animals, of stone, of four cubits, in performance of the vow he had made for Nicanor's health. Besides all which, the said de Moura would have him confess 
Sect. 2. c. 2▪ num. 20.  in his first book, Of Heaven and the World, Se cum aliis obtulisse diis trina sacrificia, in recognitionem trinae perfectionis in eyes inventae.  
From these passages may be inferred, not only that he believed Devils, and was very superstitious in his Religion, but also that he had stumbled on the hardest & highest mystery of our Faith, that is, the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of Essence, as 
y Tom. 2. tract. 25 sect. 3.  Salmeron would have it, and before him 
z Lib. 2. de comparat. Aristot. & Platonis.  Trapezontius, who hath writ a complete book, Of the conformity of Aristotle's doctrine with the Scriptures. It was also the opinion of that famous Divine 
a Apud Sibyllam 1. Decad. Peregr. quaest. cap. 8. qu. 1. quaestiuncula 4.  Henry d' Assia, that Aristotle might naturally arrive to as perfect a knowledge of Divinity, as that discovered to our first Parent, when he slept in the terrestrial Paradise, or that of St. Paul when he was taken up into Heaven. But the spinning out of these proofs, would bring us at last to discourse of the salvation of this Philosopher, an opinion so common, that one of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church hath said, speaking (as it were) to him, Aristoteles, laudaris ubi non es, & cruciaris ubi es; and Werlinus citys a certain Philosopher called Lambert du Mont, 
In addit. 2. ad Trithemium.  who hath made a Magistral question, upon what may be rationally thought of it. It were therefore much more rational to unravel all these absurdities, which fall one in the neck of another, without aim or end, and clear up the forementioned, than to digress into further repetitions.  
We shall then begin with the authority of Medina, who seems to have little reason to strip Aristotle of his own proper faculties, to bestow on him others; and to deny him the excellency of his own nature, to make him subject to that of a Daemon. For what ground is there, that those natural Truths, which he says, Aristotle arrived to the knowledge of, should now be thought suspicious and doubtful, through a swarm of Moderns and Innovators, daily increasing under the banners of Telesius, Patricius, Campanella, Verulamio, Jordan, Brun, and Bassonius, out of no other design, than to put a slur upon that Philosophy, and to undermine that great building which Aristotle, and above twelve thousand who have writ upon him, have spent so many ages to build up; and this not so much by any demonstation or force of reason, as the advantage of that vicissitude and revolution of all things, which insensibly brings it to a declination, 

Virgil. Aeneid. 2. — Et jam per moenia clarior ignis  
Auditur, propiufque aestus incendia volvunt.   
The book cited by Laertius of Aristotle's Magic, cannot at all confirm this opinion of Medina; for it is clear, that he thought it spurious, when citing it only in the Proem to his Lives, he mentions it not in the particular Catalogue of this Philosopher's works. Besides that, it may well be thought of the fame cloth with that of Democritus, mentioned before, and all those Magical 
In notis ad Psellum de Daemonib.  Manuscripts, which, as M. Gaumin thinks, the modern Greeks have published under the name of Solomon, and divers of the Ancients. For it may be gathered from Laertius, that Aristotle affirmed therein, that the Persian Mages meddled not with Divinations; and consequently, it being fathered on him, there is more reason to conclude for our opinion, than that of our Adversaries.  
Nor should they be so confident upon the authority of William of Paris, since that in another 
Lib. de legib. c. 28▪  place speaking of this Genius, he says, that Aristotle, deceptus fuit ab ipso familiari Daemone suo quem de coelo Veneris descendisse opinabatur, quod hoc ex somno Rustici cujusdam acceperat. This clearly shows he had taken this flat and pitiful relation out of a certain book of Conjurations and Astrology, which Trithemius says was falsely published 
Antipali malef. l. 1▪ c. 3.  under his name.  
For Emanuel de Moura, he evidently injures Philoponus, who, according to the Greek Text, and the old Translation conformable to that of Nunnesius, says only, that Aristotle having attained the seventeenth year of his age, was advised by the Pythian Oracle, to apply himself particularly to Philosophy.  
The clause in his Will, concerning the erection of the Statues he had vowed for Nicanor, might, for a shift, make a better proof than any of the precedent, if this discreet Philosopher had not done it, in imitation of Socrates, to preserve his memory from the infamy of Atheism, and to leave a remorse of conscience for those who had accused him of it, which should make more for his justification, than the three Sacrifices he made the Gods, or the knowledge of the Trinity, attributed to him by divers Catholic Doctors. For these are all Chimeras grounded merely on what he says, speaking of the Ternary number, in his first book of Heaven, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; That is, Quapropter hoc à natura numero sumpto, perinde atque quadam illius lege, & in Deorum sacrificiis celebrandis uti solemus. From which passage cannot be concluded any thing, but that Aristotle says, that the number Three was much used in Sacrifices in his time. Somewhat to confirm this we have in Theocritus, when he says in his Pharmaceutria, 
Ter libo, terque haec pronuncio mystica verba.  But that Aristotle neither did, or could have thought any such thing, is learnedly shown 
Lib. 3. c. 15. adversus Calumniat. Platon.  by Cardinal Bessarion, who laughed at Trapezontius, for taking so much pains to prove from that Text, that Aristotle had a perfect knowledge of the Trinity. Which rashness deserves the greater censure, in that he never considered, 
1 Part. qu. 32. art. 1.  that all the Fathers, and after them Aquinas, have maintained it impossible and impious, to endeavour the proof of it by natural reasons, and opposite to the authority of St. Paul, to make Aristotle and Plato so Eaglesighted in the mysteries of our Religion. Besides, it is utterly disconsonant to the Philosophy of Jesus Christ, to celebrate these Philosophers so highly in the apprehension of Christian Truths.  
Whence we may also with the same labour give Henry de Assia his answer, viz. that the essence of material things is the only object of the spirit of the way-faring man, as the Schoolmen express it, that is of man while he is in this world.  
Were it our design to swell up this Chapter into a Volume, we need only make a particular refutation of all may be said of the Magic of the Platonics, taking the relations of an infinite number of Authors, who would fain persuade us to things utterly impossible. But since it were vainly to squander time away, to lop off the branches in stead of pulling up the roots, we must with that begin the ruin of all these fabulous narrations, and show, that whatever the Platonics have advanced, either of Daemons or Magic, can neither be proved by reason nor experience. For first, as to what they say, that Nature cannot afford two Extremes without some Medium, cementing and uniting them; and that Heaven and Earth are two Extremes, which can have no other Medium than these intellectual powers; The Peripatetics answer, that they neither assign the Medium, nor the Extremes right; for they should have opposed the first Mover, which is absolutely immutable, impassable, and immovable, to things sublunary, and afterwards join them together by the celestial Nature, which is naturally invariable and eternal, and yet potentially subject to mutation, resembling God in its intelligences, and things transitory in its motion. We may as easily answer what they say, that the soul of the World being diffused and dispersed thorough the whole Universe is not idle, but produces Animals in all its parts, and that those generated in Fire and Air are properly these called Daemons. For, besides that this universal Soul is formally denied by Mersennus in his book against Deists, Aristotle 
1 Part, 2. c. 20.  never held, that an Animal that must use several Organs, can be produced and conserved in the purity of those two Elements. And for their last reason, derived from those many effects, which must necessarily be attributed to those causes, I would, before I am forced to allow it for good, they had satisfied, as they ought, 
k Lib. de Incantat.  Pompanatius, 
l Contradict. 6. tract. 2. lib. 2. contradict.  Cardan, and the learned Bishop 
m Lib. 29. de singul. certamine.  Bernard Mirandulanus, who pertinently show, that to believe Angels and Daemons, it were better to refer to the assurances of our Religion, than to all those experiences whereof a reason might be given out of the principles of natural Philosophy.  
This granted, no question, but all that may be said of the Genii attributed to Porphyrius, Plotinus, and jamblicus, may be referred to what we have already said of the Daemon of Socrates, and that the other stories and miracles related of them, are either merely the flatteries of their Disciples and Followers, or the pure inventions of Eunapius, purposely advanced by him, to lessen the esteem which men had of the sanctity of the new Christians. And that the case stood thus with these three Philosophers, it may be judged by that Treatise of Plotinus, De proprio Daemone, that what he says of it, was rather out of conjecture than experience. Nor could Porphyrius give better security for the little credit he gave all those superstitious practices, than the Epistle read of him in 
n Lib. 3. de curate. Graecanic. affect.  Theodoret, and 
o Praep. Evang. l. 5. c. 6.  Eusebius. For he lays down therein eight or nine difficulties he made, touching the invocations of Devils, and their Sacrifices; the least whereof were enough to convince us, that he was no Magician. All the trouble than falls upon jamblicus, because he was the man answered all those difficulties and doubts, which hath given Authors occasion to tell more miracles of him than the two former. But the best on't is, that it is yet with less ground and reason; for as to Alectromancie, by which Zonaras, 
Timon 3. in Valent.  and most of the Daemonographers affirm, that he endeavoured to find out the name of him that should succeed the Emperor Val●ns, Ammianus 
Histor. lib. 26.  Marcellinus, who lived in the same time, delivers him from that calumny, not making the least mention of him in the particular account he hath given us of that story. And for his Ecstasies, evocations, and other miracles, a man needs not take the pains to refute them, because they sufficiently destroy themselves, both by the absurdity that attends them, and that fear Eunapius was in, 
Lib. de vitis Sophistar. in jamblico.  to be thought an Impostor for his relations. This were enough to satisfy us, that these Philosophers were not Magicians, and that if there remain any difficulty concerning their Books, which might any way prejudice their innocence, as such as may be fraught with abundance of superstitious things, we refer them to the sixth Chapter of this Apology, unless we should rather follow the opinion of Cardan, who speaking of 
De Subtly at. l. 19  these Daemons, says very judiciously, Nolim ego ad trutinam haec sectari, velut Porphyrius, Psellus, Plotinus, Proclus, jamblicus, qui copiosè de his quae non videre, velut historiam scripserunt.  
The same motive which made me speak of these ancient Philosophers, obliges me to say something of three modern, who are charged with an acquaintance and conversation with their Genii, that is, Chicus Aesculanus, Scaliger, and Cardan, whereof what I shall deliver of the first, tends rather to the vindication of Truth, than the merit of his person, or the advantage may be reaped from his Works. For the only Commentary we have of his upon the Sphere of Sacrobosco sufficiently discovers that he was not only very superstitious, 
Disquisit. l. 1. c. 3.  as Delrio calls him; but also that he had a soft place in his head, there being three things in it, that very much lay open his weakness. The first is, his interpretation of Sacrobosco's book, according to the sense of Astrologers, Necromancers, and Chiroscopists. The second, his citations of abundance of falsified Authors, fraught with old wives tales and fooleries, such as, for instance, that of Solomon, De umbris idaearum; Hipparchus, De vinculo spiritûs; De ministerio naturae; De Hierarchiis Spirituum; Apollonius, De arte magicâ; Zoroaster, De Dominio quartarum octavae Spherae; Hypocrates, De stellarum aspectibus secundum Lunam; Astafon, De Mineralibus constellatis; and divers others of the same metal. The third that he often makes use of the Revelations of a Spirit called Floron, which he said was of the Order of the Cherubims, and being once asked what the spots in the Moon were, he roundly answered, Ut terra terra est. But, besides that he does not attribute this spirit to himself in any place of the said Commentary, it may be easily 
Lib. 2. c. 30.  judged, that this relation is like what Pliny says of the Grammarian Appion, who invocated the Devil, to know what Countryman Homer was. 
In his Daemon●maniae  Or to that related by Bodin, of Hermolaus Barbarus, who did the same, to know what Aristotle meant by the word Entelechia. Or lastly, to what Niphus says of one in his time, who saw the way to make the 
y Commentin disput. 3. destruct. quaest. An Necromantia sit vera▪  Philosopher's stone written in a piece of paper that was shown him by a bearded Devil. For all which extravaganeys, what better solution can there be than that of Lucretius, 
Quis dubitat quin omne sit hoc rationis egest as?   
Were I at liberty to follow my inclination rather than my duty, I should be loath to say any thing against the Genii attributed to the two only men, whom we may oppose to the most learned and eminent of the Ancients, as being the last production and miracle of Nature, Scaliger, and Cardan. For I am clearly of opinion, that either they were themselves deceived in acknowledging those Genii, because they could not, after much examination, find any cause of such extraordinary perfection; Or that they have done it out of modesty, as unwilling to discover, by their learning, how much all others were below them. Or lastly, they endeavoured, by those particular assistances, to elude the envy and jealousy, which might have been consequent to the great Fame they have acquired by their unwearied industry.  
But since Truth is the sooner found by the associated disquisitions of a many, those may well deserve our attention, who say; first, That Scaliger practised that sleight by the example of all great persons; and secondly, that he might not be thought to give ground to the ambition of his Antagonist. The Genius he attributed to himself, was, as we find in his Poetical Art, a simple 
Lib. 3. cap. 26.  sally and emotion of Spirit, whereby the Soul was (as it were) inflamed in itself, and so elevated into the knowledge of things, during which a man may sometimes speak or write something he understands not, when the heat of that Enthusiasm is over.  
For Cardan, 'tis true he speaks so variously of his Genius, that after he had absolutely affirmed in a Dialogue entitled Tetim, that he had one, and that Venereal, yet participating of the nature of Saturn and Mercury, and in his Book, De libris propriis, that it communicated itself to him by Dreams, he in the same place is at a loss, whether he truly had any or no, or that it was the excellency of his own nature, Sentiebam, says he, seu ex Genio mihi praefecto, seu quod natura mea in extremitate humanae substantiae conditionisque & in consinio immortalium posita esset, etc. and so concludes in his Book, De rerum varietate, 
Lib. 16. c. 93.  that he had not any, confessing ingenuously, Ego certè nullum Daemonem aut Genium mihi adesse cognosco. Whence it may safely be judged, that he and Scaliger had no other Genius, than that of the vast learning they had acquired by their indefatigable labours, and the experience they had of things, upon which raising up their judgement, as on two Pyramids, they judged pertinently of all things, and suffered nothing to escape them, till they had known and mastered it.   

CHAP. XIV.  
Of Alchindus, Geber, Artephius, Thebit, Anselm of Parma, Raymundus Lullius, Arnoldus de villanova, Peter d' Apono, and Paracelsus.  
SHould we credit the fabulous Philosophy of the Poets, who represent all things under the Mythology of their inventions, there were some ground to receive the Authority of Pliny, for good; 
Lib. 30. c. 1.  where he says that Magic is a Branch of Medicine. The motive to believe this, is only, that the so much celebrated Sorceress, Circe, is by the Poets thought to be the Sister of Aesculapius, the first inventor of Medicine, and one of the Sons of Phoebus or the Sun, whose Daughter this Sorceress also was, according to the Poet, who, speaking of her, says very freely, 
Dives inaccessis ubi solis filia lucis  
Urit adoratam nocturna in lumina cedrum.   

Ecclus. c. 38  But since we have a more authentic Authority, that of the Scriptures, which makes God the first Author of so necessary an Art, we need no more to discover the error of Pliny, and with the same labour, to rescue Medicine, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Isidorus Peliusiota calls it, from the calumny of this inveterat persuasion. And if so, it must also deliver the professors thereof from the censure, which, to the prejudice of their Innocence, seemed to be fastened on them upon the account of the pernicious & Diabolical Magic, which 
c Lib. 2. de spectr. c. 6.  le Loyer 
d De divina. c. 1.  Boissardus 
e Disquis. Mag. l. 1. c. 3.  Delrio, 
f De praestig. l. 2. Lib. 3.  Vuierus, and the rest of the Daemonographers, with divers Historians, affirm to have been the practice of Alchindus, Geber, Lullius, and the rest whose cause we plead in this Chapter.  
For though it be endeavoured to represent them, especially the Arabians, as the Bacchants did Orpheus, and that Empirics, Astrologers, Chemists and Magicians would gladly cut them in pieces, that they might challenge the greatest and best part in every one of them; yet is it easy to judge by the fragments remaining of their works, and compositions, that they were Physicians. But with this misfortune, that it is as impossible punctually to know the particulars of their Lives, and the time of their birth, (which certainly is as indiscoverable) as that of the people called Aborigines, without beginning; or of those, whom the Poets make to come down out of the Clouds, to avoid the blasting of their Noble and generous actions by the meanness of their Original. This nevertheless is not so much to be attributed to any negligence of the Arabians to leave us some account thereof; as to the Barbarism reigning among the Latins in their time who have troubled themselves to translate the Books which might have given us some knowledge and discoveries thereof, so little, that they have not so much as made a collection of the lives of the most learned men that were in esteem even among themselves. In so much that it may be truly said, that what we now know of R. Lullius, Arnoldus de villa novo, Peter d' Apono, and the rest, is rather grounded on the doubtful conjectures and several passions of modern Authors, than the proofs and testimonies derived from the Ancient.  
Whence it comes to pass that I can only guess of this famous person Alchindus, with whom we begin the vindication of Physicians, that he might flourish five or 600. years since, because Averro●s who lived abont the year 1160. and of whom 
Quodlibet. 9  giles of Rome says he had seen his two Sons at the Court of the Emperor Frederick Red-beard, gives him great Eulogies, and makes a large commemoration 
De subtle. l. 16.  of his Books, as Cardan relates. To which he adds much in praise of him, giving him the Tittle not only of a great ginger, with Albohazen Haly, and Haly Rodoan; or that of a most learned and experienced Physician, with Rasis and Mesue; or lastly, that of a subtle Philosopher, with Averro and Wimpinal, but proceeding further, and grounding, in all probability, his opinion as well upon what they said, as his own judgement, he allows him an honourable place among the greatest Wits, that ever were, that is, Archimedes, Aristotle, Euclid, Scotus, Suisset, Apollonius Pergaeus, Archit as, Mahomet the inventor of Algebra, Geber, Galen, and Vitruvius. It were not then hard to judge, what an excellently learned person this was, not only by the two Books that are printed of his, De Temporum mutationibus, &, De gradibus medicinarum compositarum investigandis, but also by divers others, frequently cited by Authors, under the titles of, De ratione sex Quantitatum; de quinque Essentiis; de motu diurno; de Vegetabilibus; & de Theorica magicarum artium. Whereof all the difficulty is concerning this last, since Francis Picus, and Wimpinall have made whole Treatises out of it, wherein they discourse at large of the Heresies, blasphemies, and absurdities which may be observed therein, as also of the Magic which Alchindus endeavoured to introduce. Hence is it, that all the Daemonographers have taken occasion to speak of him, as an eminent and pernicious Magician. And yet Johannes Picus, the miracle and astonishment of his age, says expressly in his Apology, that he knew but three men that had made the best advantages of natural and lawful Magic, Alchindus, Roger Bacon, and William Bishop of Paris.  
But to extract truth out of these so manifest contradictions, me thinks, when a man hath well considered, in Aimery, Wimpinal, and Francis Picus the main grounds of that Book, there may two things be rationally said of it. One, that it is extremely superstitious, and full of heretical propositions and directly opposite to the principles of Faith, as having been writ by one that lived under the Law of Mahomet, and took a freedom to write without any respect to Christian Religion, which he accounted false and ill-grounded. Whence it is no miracle, if he, Avicenna, Algazel, Averro, and all the Arabians have fallen into these abysses and precipies since they were not guided by that polestar which conducts us now through these manifest errors and falsities. The other, that there is no ground 
Disquis. l. 1. c. 3.  to make this Author a Magician, when Delrio is content to rank him only among the superstitious, & that he was so far from having aught to do with Theurgic or Geotick Magic, that on the contrary, he seems to have no other design in his Books than to refer to Nature whatever was attributed to Angels and Devils. In which opinion he hath been since seconded by Peter d' Apono, and Pompanatius, who, in order thereto, imagined an absolute dependence of things sublunary upon the celestial, and that the former derived all their virtues and properties from the Latter, and every particular from the whole, by the means of certain corporeal rays which passed from the least even to the greatest. And these he assigned for cause of whatever was done in nature, as Plato did Idaea's; Avicenna, Intelligences; Hermes and Marsilius, Ficinus, the Stars and Planets; Camillus and Albertus magnus the specificiall form; and Galen, Temperament. Whence we may pass a final judgement 
Lib. de potestate artis & naturae, c. 3.  with R. Bacon, quod multi libri reputantur inter Magicos qui non sunt tales, said continent sapientiae dignitatem. If so, Alchindus cannot be condemned of Magic; if we do not in the same sentence include all those Authors, who, as he, have endeavoured to take away the admiration that follows a many extraordinary effects, by the discovery of some more probable causes which they have found out.  
I should pass by Geber without mentioning him among those that have been charged with Magic, upon the security of Cassiodorus, who says, Calumnia non praesumitur, ubi nulla probatio 
Variar. l. 19 Epist. 5.  habetur, were I not obliged to answer the only argument which our Daemonographers draw by head and shoulders out of a book which Trithemius 
Antipal. l. 1. c. 3.  says was made by Geber King of the Indians, upon the relation between the seven Planets and the seven names of God, and some others quoted for Magicians in the second Book of Picatrix. To which it may briefly be replied that this Geber King of the Indians was nothing to this we speak of; and that that Book ought no more to be condemned as treating of Magic, than the Commentary of R. Abraham Aben-Ezra, upon the sixth treatise of the first part of the Thalmud, where he makes a Symbolisation between the ten Hebrew Sephirots and ten celestial Spheres, and the ten Commandments of the Law.  
But to take away all suspicion there may be of truth in this proof, it must be said, it is absolutely false and absurd; since that, notwithstanding 
In his Ciphers. fol. 118.  the Autohrity of Vigenere, it is unquestionable, that this Geber, who, they say, was King of the Indians, is a mere fable and Chimaera of these wretched Charcole-marchants; who by that pitiful fiction, would gain more reputation to the Chemical writings of a Philosopher of the same name. This Geber, as Leon of Africa affirms, was a Greek by Nation, first a Christian, than a Mathumetan; and lived, as he says, 100 years after Mahomet; or, according to the calculation of 
a Descrip. of Africa. Bibliothec. part. 2.  Vigner about the year 723. though, if the 100 years be taken precisely, it should be affirmed he lived rather in the year 732. whereto yet 
b Prologue. Mathemat.  Blancanus does not agree but makes him flourish in the year 801. unless the mistake be, that he went upon the time of his death, and Vigner upon that of his Navity. However it be, this takes away nothing from his Learning, upon occasion whereof Cardan hath not forgot to put him to the test, among the most eminent advancers of Literature. Nor indeed was the honour above his deserts, since he was so great an ginger, that, as Blancanus affirms, he reformed many things in the Almagestum of Ptolemy; and for Chemistry, 
a De Metal. 2.  Fallopus and 
b Par. 4. advers. Paracels.  Erastus seem to approve the judgement of the Chemists, who call him the Master of Masters in that Art. Add to this, that the Catalogue of his works faithfully got together by Gesner, is an evident proof that he knew all but Magic, of which or of the Books he writ thereof, neither he nor any good Author hath delivered any thing, 
De vera. Sapient. c▪ 29.  as knowing what Lactantius says, Turpe est hominem ingeniosum dicere id, quod si neges▪ probare non possit.  
And indeed if all those who make it their business to write, had been as careful to observe this precept, as they have been ambitious to make ostentation of their knowledge and reading, by heaping together all those fabulous Stories which make ever so little to their purpose, we should not be now to show that that of Artephius, and his living 1025. years by the force of his Magic, is, if not absolutely false, extremely suspicious, as having been glossed upon by the Alchemists and Roger Bacon. For he says in his Book of the abbridgment of Theology, that this Philosopher or Chemist travelled all over the East, and was to see Tantalus, who sat in a throne of Gold; and discoursed very pertinently of the most abstruse secrets of all the Sciences. In 
a Lib. suae Philosophiae.  another of his works, he says that he was a live in Germany even in his time. To which add what others say in 
b Lib. 2. de praenot. c. 6.  Francisus Picus, that it is he who is represented to us by Philostratus under the name of Apollonius. All this put together and well considered, sufficiently discovers, how far they are mistaken, who, notwithstanding the impossibility of this 
Animad. in cap. 38. Scholae Saler●it.  length of life, evinced by M. Moreau and divers others, do yet maintain, and faggot together so many fables upon this person, and, to make it the more plausible, will needs father on him two Books or fragments. One, called Clavis majoris saepientiae, treats so perfectly well of the order and procedure to be observed in getting the Philosopher's stone, that Johannes Pontanus, one of the greatest Dreamers among the Chemists, confesses ingenuously, that he had never known the degrees of fire, the principal agent in this Art, had he not read that Book. The other is a little treatise, superstitious and ridiculous beyond expression, where he teaches a way to know the Characters of the Planets, the signification of the motion of Animals, as also what they mean when they sing, the virtues of all Herbs, the Philosopher's stone, things past, present, and to come; with divers other secrets and experiments, and at last, the way to prolong life. All which may 
De rer. variet. l. 16.  be seen in Cardaen, who hath transcribed it word for word, rather to laugh at, then out of any credit he gave those absurdities; the relation whereof he concludes with his own judgement in these words, Quidnam stultius excogitari potest ut quod Nero tanta impensa, tot immolationibus deductis ex Arabia Magis impetrare non potuit, hic verbis simplicibus ostendere promittaet. In like manner, one James Gohory, who would needs be called Leo Suavius, a great favourer and abetter of such extravagancies, had no way to disguise the Magic of Artephius than to mask it with the term of Chemical morality, when, speaking of it and his fair promises, he says, that, si scriptum sequamur, 
Comment. in c. 7. l. 1. Paracles. de vita long●.  non solum incredibilia videntur, sed ridicula; rerum si scientiam parabolicam, non abhorrere omninò à fide sapientum. For my part, I think the business were sooner decided by saying that that Treatise was some man's who had a design to abuse the strange credulity of a many Authors, or ground a practice of Magic upon the fooleries of his own brain and the speculatious of Alchindus, whose maxims he makes use of though he names him not.  
Nor is it a less ingratitude towards the memory of that famous ginger Thebit Bencorat (whom some would have a Jew or Spaniard by Nation; but, as Lelandus affirms, he was an English man) the first finder out, according to Blancanus, 

In prolegom.  
Mathemat.   of the trepidation of the eighth Sphere, in the year 1270. to rank him amongst the Magicians, and to say with the facecious Poet and prototype of Rabelais, Merlin Coccaius, 
Ecce Magus Thebit, qui tempestate, venenis,  
Grandinibus, quadam destruxit imagine regnum.   
For if a man look narrowly into the reasons whence the suspicion is derived, he will find they have no other ground then certain Books attributed to him, treating of natural Magic, the composition of Annulets and Images, and the properties of herbs, stones, and the Planets, whence I doubt not but the Demonographers easily pump out the sutlest and obscurest pa●t of Magic. But for my part, I can perceive nothing in it but the tract of a superstitious Astrology which in this time, was in greater reputation than any of the other Sciences, by reason of the particular inclination Alphonsus' King of Spain, had for the study of it nor long before. Wherefore it is not much to beadmired, when, as Lactantius 
De Instit. c. 6.  saith, Mores ac vitia Regis imitari, genus obsequii judicatur, if Thebit & a many more endeavoured so much the propagation of it, that like a fat and fertile soil it brought forth abundance of weeds, and tares, among the good wheat, that is, that it was burdened with a many vain and superstitious things amidst the fundamental rules and the certain precepts which their daily observations laboured out. But if the Book published under this Astrologers name were a sufficient testimony to convince him of the crime he is charged with, we must in like manner conclude Ptolemy 
Intipal. l. 1. c. 3.  an eminent Magician, because Trithemius citys three Magical Books as unjustly attributed to him as the forementioned to Thebit. And that this is the misfortune of the latter, is sufficiently 
On c. 14. l. 3. of Pbi lostratus.  evident by the account which Arthur Thomas gives of one of his Books treating of the virtue of herbs and the Stars; which was, that Thebit explained in it the opinion of Marcilius Ficinus (who yet lived 250. years after him) concerning Planetary Annulets and images made under certain Constellations. Whence it may be safely concluded, that these superstitious treatises are the mere forgeries of some Mountebanks and modern Cheats; And consequently, that it is a foul shame to harbour any such calumny against Thebit, who hath furnished us with so many good Books of Astrology, that he can hardly be allowed time to mind these trivial fragments, and that moreover, as Jacobus Curio hath well observed, quam in non vatis seu inerrabilis sphaerae vestigandis motibus gener●s● cum obscuris & prop● inexplicabilibus difficultatibus certaverit, eruditis non est incognitum.  
My next step should be to Raimundus Lullius, were I not obliged to say a word or two in the defence of one Anselm of Parma, who is celebrated by 
a In Anastas. Physiolog.  Bartholomew Cocles, as a great Philosopher, and blasted by 
b Lib. 2. de praestig. c. 3.  Wierus, 
c Lib. 1. cap. 3. quaest. 4.  Delrio, and the rest of the Daemonographers, with the title of a Sorcerer and Magician; because, say they, the Emsalmists, or those who cure wounds by words, take their name from this Anselm. But there is more ground to believe, that the Professors of this kind of Medicine abuse the name of St. Anselm, from whom they pretend the derivation of this virtue, as the Salutators in Spain do that of St. Catharine; those who heal the biting of Serpents in Italy, that of St. Paul; and some others in France, that of St. Hubert. Or it is more probable 
Apud Emanuel de Moura, prooem. opusc. de Ensalmis.  that the Emsalmists are, as Bravus and Carvalho affirm, so called, because they make frequent use of certain verses of the Psalms, which might properly be called Empsalmi, as he who practised them to do some cure, Empsalmator, or Empsalmista.  
This being clear, and beyond all considerable contradiction, we come at last to the two Idols and tutelary Gods of the Alchemists, Raimundus Lullius, and Arnoldus de Villa nova, though their allegations, who make them Magicians; are grounded rather on the custom which Authors have taken to make them act all parts, than on the number or truth of the proofs which may be had of this suspicion. For as to Raimundus Luilius, 
De unius ●egis veritate, l. 5. c. 53.  I find Peter Montuus laughing at the new Dialectic, which he would needs introduce, after he had transcribed it by open robbery out of the Arabian Abezebron, grounding his so doing upon Lullius' saying himself, that it were very good in the time of Antichrist, to satisfy his demands in general terms, Ut si interrogaretur quid credis? in Deum; quare? quia placet mihi: cur placet tibi? quia Deus est; quid est Deus? cui proprie competit deificare; quare deificat? quia talis est 
In vita R. Lullii.  ejus natura. I find also that Charles Bovillius takes occasion from the imposture of certain miracles, to put him into the Catalogue of Blessed; that Gregory the Ninth governing at Avignon, in the year 1371, condemned his Doctrine, because a a certain Bishop had discovered therein above five hundred errors. That the Chemists attribute to him the knowledge of the Philosopher's stone, by a simple Metamorphosis of the Impost put by King Edward upon the wools, which were transported out of England into Brabant, to the Sum of six millions of gold, which was bestowed on him by this Chemist, to make war against the Turk and the Infidels. And if we would show how far the vapours of the Mercury had disturbed his brains, we need only quote the voyages he made, as Bovillius relates, as well to the Pope, as King Philip the Fair, to have the three Propositions granted, which may be seen at the end of his Book, De natali pueri. Which were these, that all the Military Orders that were up in his time should be form together into one body; That the works of the Philosopher Averro should be absolutely suppressed; and that Monasteries should be built in all parts of the world to instruct in strange languages▪ such as should enter into vows for the conversion of Infidels. But I could never yet discover upon what reasons the greatest part of the Daemonographers, and some Historians, as Vigner, have presumed to represent 
In his Ecclesiast. History, ann. 1285.  him as a Magician.  
To give them time to produce them, we shall in the mean while speak of Arnoldus de Villa nova, who was not an ignorant Friar or Beguin, as R. Lullius; or some wretched and wandering Chemist, as he is represented to us. For, on the contrary, it is certain, he was the learnedst Physician of his time, equally acquainted with the Latin, Greek, and Arabian Tongues, and one whose writings sufficiently witness his abilities in the Mathematics, Medicine, and Philosophy, the practice whereof gained him favour and employment about Pope Clement, and Frederick King of Sicily, who certainly would never have made use of him, if they had thought him a Conjurer or Magician, such as a many are persuaded he was.  
Among these is Francis Pegna, who refers to Satanical delusion the metallic transmutation, 
Comment. 36. in 2. partem Directorii Eymerici q. 11  which John Andreas, a famous Canonist, says, he saw him do at Rome. Add to this the proof they draw from two little books published under his name, one treating, De physicis ligaturis, the other, De Sigillis 12 Signorum. But to show that he is as unjustly charged with Magic by these Authors, as he is with the writing of the Book, Detribus Impostoribus, by 
a Lib. de Alcoran. & Cenevangelistar. concordia, f. 27  Postellus, or to have been the first that tried the generation of a man in an Alembick, by some in 
b Lib. 14. Rer. Hispanicar. c. 9  Mariana, we are first to consider that 
c Lib. 1. c. 5. qu. 1. sect. 4  Delrio absolutely clears him of this accusation; affirming against the said Pegna, that it was injurious to the Clergy of Rome at that time, to imagine they should employ Arnoldus de Villa-nova, or permit him to practise so freely in their City, if they could have discovered in him the least indicia of Magic. Nor is it a less manifest abuse to attribute to him the Book, De physicis ligaturis, since it is evident he did only translate it out of an Arabian, one Lucas Ben Costa. And for that, De Sigillis 12 Signorum, besides the question it is, whether it be his, as being not comprised in the collection of his works, we may roundly answer, that it is like those of Thebit, Chicus, and the rest, and that all the prejudice it can do him, is to confirm the opinion of the vain and supers itious speculations he was guilty of in Astrology. But even of this no man will doubt, 
Lib. 5. cont. Astrolog. c. 1.  that shall observe in Picus, how he laughed at the very Science, when he would assign the birth of Antichrist in the year 1345, and confirm and maintain all his other heresies, which Vigner, in his Ecclesiastical History, takes the more pains to particularise, by how much the more sympathy and resemblance there is between them, and those of the Heretics and new Religionaries of these time●.  
But if the particular and overcurious study of Astrology, hath ever proved prejudicial to those 
In the year 1308.  who have practised it, we may truly say, that the famous Physician Peter d' Apono, hath felt the stings of Calumny more than any of the precedent upon that account. For the common opinion of almost all Authors, is, that he was the greatest Magician in his time, that he had mastered the seven Liberal Sciences, by the assistance of seven familiar Spirits, which he had constantly lodged in a Crystal; That he had the way, like another Pasetes, to force back the money he had spent into his purse again; and, to conclude with a proof as manifest as undeniable, That it is certain he was accused of Magic, in the eightieth year of his age, & that dying in the year 1305, before sentence was passed upon him, he was nevertheless (as Castellanus affirms) condemned to the fire, and it was ordered, that a bundle of Straw or Osier, representing him, should be burned in the public place at Milan, purposely by an example so rigorous, and the fear of incurring the like punishment, to prohibit the reading of three superstitious and abominable books of his. Of these the first was called Heptameron, now printed at the end of the first Tome of Agrippa's Works; the second, that which Trithemius calls, Elucidarium Necromanticum Petri de Albano; and the last, one, by the same Author, called, Liber experimentorum mirabilium de annulis, secundum 28 mansiones Lunae.  
All which proofs, as well of his practice and his books, as the Sentence thundered against him by the Inquisition, might indeed persuade us that he was the most deeply guilty of all that meddled with those magical and superstitious observations. But we are as well to consider the face, as the reverse of his Medal, and take it out of the false light, wherein his adversaries have placed it, to view it in its proper situation, and observe therein the draught of a man that appeared as a miracle amidst the ignorance of his age. One he was, that besides the knowledge of the Tongues and Medicine, had so searched into that of the less common Sciences, that having left, by his writings of Physiognomy, Geomancy, and chiromancy, enough to prove his abilities therein, he shook hands with them all, and his own youthful curiosity, to apply himself wholly to Philosophy, Physic, and Astrology. In these he proved so fortunate, that not to say any thing of the two former, whereby he insinuated himself into the Caresses of the Popes and Princes of his time, and gained that reputation wherein he now shines among all the learned; it is evident he was excellently well skilled in the last, as well by the Astronomical figures he caused to be painted in the great Hall of the Palace at Milan, as his translations of the books of Rabbi Abraham Ben Ezra. To which we may add those he made himself of the Critical days, and the illustration of Astronomy, as also the suffrage of the famous Mathematician Regiomontanus, who made an excellent Panegyric to him, in the quality of an ginger, in an Oration he pronounced publicly at Milan, when he was upon the explanation of the book of Alfraganus.  
From his so great celebration of this Science, through all his works, especially in the hundredth fifty sixth Difference of his Conciliator, have some Authors taken occasion to maintain an opinion directly contrary to that of the precedent, to wit, that that Sentence passed upon him not for his Magic, but because he would give an account of the miraculous effects that happen many times in Nature, by virtue of the Celestial Bodies, without referring them either to Angels or Daemons. 
3. Parte lib▪ tribrat.  This is clear by the collection which Symphorianus hath made of the passages of his Differences, as such as are not to be read without the precaution and peremptory authority of Franciscus Picus● 
De praenot. l. 7. c. 7.  who▪ speaking of him, says expressly, Ab omnibus fermè creditus est Magus; ver●m constat quam oppositum dogma ei aliquando tributum sit, quem ettam Haeresium inquisitores vexaverunt, quasi nullos esse Daemones crediderit. To which may be added, that 
a Lib. 1. de patientia, c. 3.  Baptista of Mantua, upon this score, calls him, Virum magnae, sed nimium audacis temerariaeque doctrinae; that 
b Angelogr. part. 2. c. 21  Casmannus numbers him among those who referred all miracles to nature; and that 
c De Spectr. qu. 2. l. 4. c. 3.  le Loyer affirms, that he laughed at Sorcerers and their Sabats. Whence it might be wondered at, that yet the same Authors, in divers other places, rank him among Conjurers and Magicians, were it not ordinary with those who write upon this Subject, so to swell up their books, by copying out whatever they find in others, that they seldom observe the Poet's advice, 
Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum.  Nor can it but happen so, when having gotten to the middle or end, they forget what they said at the beginning, and become like that Didymus, who having denied a thing in one of his books, another was produced wherein he affirmed it.  
But I should not have insisted on all these proofs of the impiety of Peter d' Apono, so to rescue him from the crime of Magic, by charging him with that of Atheism, if I had not something to clear him of both. For this, I have not only the testimony of the most illustrious and religious Frederick Duke of Urbino, who, for his great deserts, erected a Statue to him, among those of the most eminent men that are to be seen in his Citadel; but also the public attestation of the City of Milan, causing his Effigies to be set up over the gate of their Palace between those of Titu● Livius, Albertus Magnus, and Julius Paulus, with this inscription upon the Base.  PETRUS APONUS PATAVINUS PHILOSOPHIAE MEDICINAEQUE SCIENTISSIMUS, OB IDQUE CONCILIATORIS NOMEN ADEPTUS, ASTROLOGIAE VERO ADEO PERITUS, UT IN MAGIAE SUSPICIONEM INCIDERIT, FALSOQUE DE HAERESI POSTULATUS, ABSOLUTUS FUERIT. 
This me thinks were enough to show, that all the Objections formerly made to convince him of Magic are rather imaginary then real. But to make an absolute discovery of their falsehood, we 
Daemonomagiae. qu. 16.  may answer what Ludwigius hath said of the seven spirits who taught him the seven Liberal Sciences, that this fabulous relation proceeded from the 
Differentia 156.  said Peter's affirming, after Albumazar, that the prayers made to God, when the Moon is in conjunction with Jupiter in the Dragon's head, are infallibly heard; and that for his own particular, he had no sooner made his addresses, but, according to his own expression, Sapientiam à primo visus est sibi in illa amplius proficere. Nor indeed could it but give divers Authors occasion to smile at his indiscretion in disacknowledging his great Industry and Labours, to become obliged for his Learning to the superstition of a certain prayer which must needs be vain & ineffectual taken inwhat sense soever. For if it be directed to the Stars, it were absolute bestiality to think they could hear it; if to God, I would gladly know whether he were deaf before that conjunction; whether he would not receive our prayers without it, or whether that force did necessitate him to condescend to our desires. Hence was it, that Johannes Picus, speaking of this new Solomon 
Lib. 4. adv. Astrolog. c. 8.  had reason to say, Consulerem Petro isti ut totum quod profecit suae potius industriae, ingenioque acceptum referret, quam Joviae illi suae supplicationi.  
In like manner, for the three Books divulged under his name, it may be said, they are no less unjustly attributed to him than divers others to most of the great Wits, besides that Trithemius 
Antipal. Lib. cap. 3.  will not acknowledge them to be legitimate, because of the great number of fables therein fathered upon this Author; and what he had said before in his Catalogue of eccelesiastical Writers, that he thought nothing true of what was said of the Magic of Peter d' Apono, because he could never understand he had writ any Book upon that subject. To which if we add the general silence of all Libraries, and the confirmation Symphorianus 
Tract 4. Lib. de claris Medicinae Scriptoribus.  gives the Authority of Trithemius, affirming he had never seen any of his Magical Books, save a certain Difference where he treats of it by the way, I conceive there is nothing can hinder us from declaring him innocent, and concluding with the more rational party, that the suspicion men have had of his being a Magician proceeds, as its true original, from the power he attributes to it in the Hundred fifty six difference of his Conciliator, and his faculty of predictions by the assistance of Astrology, upon which, in process of time, all these fables and Chimeras crept in, according to the true saying of Propertius, 
Omnia post obitum pingit major a Vetust as.   
Lastly for this Arch-heretick in Philosophy, Medicine, and Religion, Theophrastus Paracelsus, who is now the Zenith, and rising Sun of all the Alchemists, me thinks those who would rescue him from the crime of Magic, yet without abatement as to any other he stands charged with, may with reason say much in his vindication. Among other things, that the novelty of his conceptions, the difficulty of his style, and the obscurity of a many words frequent in his works, such as, for instance, Ens Pagoicum, Cagastricum, Cherionium, Leffas, Jesadach, Trarames, Stannar, Perenda, Relloleum, and abundance of the like, make the reader so doubtful of his meaning, that he must needs go feeling in the darkness of such Maeanders, and knows not whether he speaks of a Sheep's trackle or a pill, a stone or bread, the Devil or Nature. Which if so, there is much more ground to doubt, whether he makes use of Magic as of riddles (after the example of Trithemius) to disguise his precepts, and to conceal the vanity of his Art, which he thought should be the more admired, the less it is understood.  Lucret. l. 1. 
Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantur, amantque  
Inversis quae sub verbis latitantia cernunt.  
But for my part, since I have not studied the Dictionary Rulandus hath compiled of the Phrases of this Author, so far as to be able to judge of his works and to understand them, I shall, in this question of his Magic be guided by the opinion of his chiefest Interpreters, Severinus the Dane, and Crollius. These make it only the veil and vizard of his doctrine, witness the latter, 
In Epistol● scrip. Paracelso.  page 77. of his preface, Paracelsum expertis stylo magico scripsisse, non vulgo, sed sibi & intelligentibus in schola magica educatis, sapientiae filiis, mysteria sua sub variis nominibus occultasse. And indeed it is certain, that the names of divers Spirits scattered frequently up and down his Books, such as might be taken for covies of Devils, are to be understood, according to the opinion 
Comment. in l. 4. Paracelsi, de vita longa.  of James Gohory, the first favourer of Paracelsus in France, of extractions and divers essences▪ of their properties and preparations, or lastly of things mineral, vegetal and animate, such as he made use of in the composition of his Remedies. With this agrees that of Johannes Oporinus; who 
Apud Erastum. part. 1  was his servant a long time, and having made the first discovery of what is now objected to him, makes no mention of his Magic, or his invocations; and Wetterus, who having stayed twenty seven months with him, says only, that, when he was drunk, he would threaten to bring in millions of Devils, to show what power he had over them, not to take any notice of what a many say of the familiar Daemon which was locked up within the pommel of his sword. For, not to bring upon the stage the opinion of the Alchemists who maintain, it was the secret of the Philosopher's stone, it were more rational to believe, that, if there were any thing within it, it was certainly two or three doses of his Laudanum, which he never went without, because he did strange things with it, and used it as an universal medicine to cure all manner of diseases.  
It might here be said that it signifies not much to have gleaned up these proofs to strike Paracelsus' name out of the Catalogue of Magicians, when he himself, not content to have put Magic for one of the four pillars of Medicine, hath endeavoured further to acquaint us with the precepts and nature of it, and that, in all his Books and 
Lib. 1. c. 4.  particularly in that de Philosophiâ sagaci, where he divides it into six species and different parts. The first treats of the signification of the signs happening besides the order of Nature, as the Star that appeared to the wise men. The second, of the Metamorphoses and transmutation of Bodies; the third, of the virtue of words and speech; the fourth, of Annulets; the fifth, of enchanted images; and the last, of the Cabal, which he said was to be used to do all those extraordinary actions which cannot be reduced to any of the other five parts. Such are these, to ripen fruits in an instant; to make one horse travel further in a day, than another shall in a month; to discourse intelligibly with those that are above 500 miles' distance from us; and in a word, to do whatever seems, and ever hath been thought impossible. But I extremely wonder since he pretended to the absolute knowledge of all these kinds of Magic, why he never did any thing by the assistance of them. For certainly it had been much more reputation to him, to confirm this new doctrine by some of his experiences, than to follow the ordinary tract of Mountebanks, who break out into a torrent of common and popular eloquence to celebrate the miraculous power of their Drugs, and call themselves Professors and Operators, as if they had the certain cure of all diseases.  
At nusquam, totos inter qui talia jactant,  
Apparet quisquam qui re miracula tanta  
Comprobet.  
But, however it be, I shall not quarrel with their opinion, who hold, that one of the principal advantages which learned and industrious men have over the ignorant, is, that it is in their power to make new Systems, and advance new Principles, nay change the order, precepts and method of the Sciences, shortening or lengthening them, like a Stirrup, as they please. Of which number Paracelsus being one thought he might as well invert the course of Magic, as he had done that of Medicine and Philosophy, and boasted he could have done of Religion, threatening both the Pope and Luther to bring them both to his Maxims when he should think fit to do it. Though therefore he might justly be condemned as an Arch-heretick for the depravedness of his opinion in point of Religion, yet do I not think he should be charged with Magic. For this consists not in the Speculations and Theory; which every one may explicate and amplify according to his fantasy, but in the practice of the Circle and Invocations, wherein, as we have already shown, not any one of the Authors, that have the greatest aversion for his Doctrine, would ever maintain he employed himself.   

CHAP. XV.  
Of Cornelius Agrippa.  
Were there no more requisite to declare a man a Magician, than that he should give himself the title, or were it just, that who should brag he could do thousands of tricks and invocations, were truly guilty of the practice thereof, that Impostor and Mountebank that wandered up and down Germany in the time of Trithemius, should certainly be taken for the most exquisite Conjurer of our last ages, since he was so ambitious to be known, and called every where by these honourable titles, Magister Georgius Sabellicus, Faustus junior, Fons Necromanticorum, Astrologus, Magus, Chiromanticus, Agromanticus, Pyromanticus, & in Hydra arte nulli secundus. With the same confidence of Truth may we affirm, that if the composition of Magical Books were a sufficient proof to convince their Authors of this crime, no compurgation of Eloquence could deliver Agrippa, since he is at such loss of modesty, as to publish, by writings printed even in his life time, the rules and precepts thereof. 
Epist. ad Joan. Virdumguin.  But as the said Trithemius tells us in his Epistles, that this Sabellicus had no other ground for that foolish ostentation, than the impudence and temerity he was guilty of, in promising all things without effecting any; so may it be said, that this Book of Agrippa discovers him to be rather of their rank, who, to make a noise, and gain reputation, pretend to know many things beyond the ordinary reach of men, than of that of Conjurers and Magicians.  
This I undertake to make good in this Chapter, not so much out of opposition to most Authors, as to propose it as a problem, for those who desire to see the reasons of both sides, as a Paradox in respect of the common opinion, and as a true resolution to those, who by my reasons shall think it such. For I doubt not, but amidst the great diversity of men's judgements, such an opinion must needs fall under one of these three interpretations. Whereof as I shall always find favour from the two extremes, so do I expect that those who hold it new and paradoxal, should excuse me, if I endeavour to clear up the truth, because, if it be not such, it is a charity to rescue what is so near it from so dangerous a calumny, and to deliver the person, to avoid the censure of Lactantius, who says that, Non major est iniquitas 
Instit. l. 5. c. 1.  probatam innocentiam damnasse, quam inauditam. But if it be such, a man is at liberty to maintain it, and celebrate the praises of Agrippa, as Isocrates some time did those of Busiris, and Cardan those of Nero. With this caution by the way, that their opinion be absolutely discarded, who hold that Agrippa cannot be represented, but like an Owl in a Night-piece, because of his magical deformity; that he was a superstitious vagabond; that all his travels and peregrinations were but so many flights and escapes; and that he died in great necessity, (as being forsaken by, because abominable to, all the world) among Beggars and the Scurf of the City of Lions. For to do otherwise, were, to speak ingenuously, to be guided by the ignorance or passion of Paulus Jovius, and the Daemonographers, rather than the truth of the History, and thereby to pass such a disadvantageous judgement on a man, who was not only a new Trismegistus in the three superior faculties, Theologie, the Civil Laws, and Medicine; but one, who by travelling thorough all parts of Europe, would roll his mind into all Sciences and Disciplines, to be like that Argus, who, 
Centum luminibus cinctum caput unus habebat.   
By this means, came he from one employment to another, at last to that 
z 
Agripp. l. 6. ep. 18. Lib 7. epist. 21. Thevet in his life.  
Agrippa 2. tom. p. 596. Idem l. 3. & 4. epist. Idem l. 6. & 7. Idem 13. primis epist. l. 1. Idem in Expostul. Catiline. fol. 510, 511. Id. epist. 47. l. 7. Id. in defence. proposit. sol. 596. Idem ep. 38. lib. 1. Idem 76. & 79. l. 3. Idem 84. l. 5. Idem passim n epist.   of Secretary to the Emperor Maximilian; a Favourite of Antonins Delevus, and Captain in his Troops; Professor of Divinity at Dole, and Pavia; Syndic, and Advocate▪ General of the City of Metz; Physician to her Highness the Duchess of Anjou, Mother to King Francis the First; and lastly, Concellour and Historiographer to the Emperor Charles the Fifth. All these charges may well secure his reputation amongst the greatest persons, and therefore we needed not to have cast into the balance, that he was employed at twenty years of age by some Gentlemen of France, to endeavour the transmutation of metals; that two years after he publicly explained that obscure and difficult book of Reuclin, De Verbo mirifico; that he understood eight several Languages; that he was chosen by the Cardinal de saint Croix, to assist him in the Council which was to be held at Piso. To this we may add, That the Pope writ a Letter to him to exhort him, as he had begun, to continue in well-doing; That the Cardinal of Lorraine would needs be Godfather to one of his sons in France; That a marquis of Italy, a King of England, the Chancellor Mercurius Gatinaria, and Margaret Princess of Austria, courted him into their service at the same time: And lastly, that he was singular friend to four Cardinals, five Bishops, and all the learned men of his time, such as Erasmus, Faber Stapulensis, Trithemius, Capito, Melancthon, Capellanus, Montius, and Cantiuncula.  
This granted, I cannot much wonder, that 
a In Elogiis lib. de Myster. notarum, Quaest. 16.  Paulus Jovius calls him, Portentosum ingenium; that 
b Daemonomag. p. 209.  James Gohory places him, inter clarissima sui saeculi lumina; that 
c Lib. de praestig. pass.  Ludwigius calls him, Venerandum Dominum Agrippam, literarum literatorumque omnium miraculum, & amorem bonorum; that 
d Lib. de vit. Medic. in e jus vita.  Uvierus, Melchior Adam, and a many others, speak of him very honourably, complaining that all these eulogies, and testimonies, these extraordinary perfections, these great employments and dignities should not any way shake the opinion men have to this day of his being a Magician. Which indeed is the more deplorable, because there are but two or three proofs to make him such, which since they are so false and forged, that it were madness or malicious ignorance, to take them for authentic, I should rather believe that this opinion hath not crept into the imaginations of Authors so much by any of these three ways, as by the indiscretion of the first Advancer of it. For what he first broached, the rest took for good security, to describe Agrippa as the Prince of Magicians, and blast his reputation with all the injuries imaginable, so far as to curse him with Bell, Book, and Candle. Nor is this any thing extraordinary in them, it being their design to praise or dispraise to the world's end, right or wrong it matters not, and that without any heed or moderation, a many persons, of whom they neither have nor would know any thing, save that they have been condemned or approved by such and such; and consequently, that they cannot be mistaken, if they pass the same judgement on them; Horat. 
O imitatores servum pecus! ut mihi saepè  
Bilem, saepè jocum, vestri mouêre tumultus!   
But haply I may be thought too harsh with these Authors, since that what was alleged before, may somewhat clear Agrippa; yet is not so pregnant, as absolutely to acquit him from all suspicion of Magic. I would therefore ask Delrio, one of his greatest adversaries, why the judgement of the Pope, the authority of so many Cardinals & Bishops, the favour of two Emperors, and so many Kings, are not as good and authentic proofs to clear his innocence, as that whereby he would justify Arnoldus de Villa nova from being a Magician, because the Clergy of Rome, among whom he lived a while, would not have employed him, if they had known him to be such. Besides, if this first reason, out of which it were not hard to deduce a many more, give them not full satisfaction, I wish 
From cap. 41. to cap. 48.  they would, for their better, consider what Declamations the said Agrippa makes against Magic, not only in his Book, Of the Vanity of the Sciences, but also in his treatise of Original Sin, 
Pag. 555.  in his Complaint against the Schoolmen in the fourteenth Epistle of the fifth Book, wherein he was indeed a little elevated by a holy zeal, and some animosity against the French: and in Epist. 26. of the same Book, of which Epistle I shall only give notice, that the title is transposed in the last edition; where it is Amicus ad Agrippam, instead of Agrippa ad Amicum, as it is printed with the three Books of his occult Philosophy, Anno 1533.  
Add to this, that being Syndic, and Advocate General of the City of Metz, he directly opposed the proceedings of Nicolas Savini then Inquisitor for the Faith in the said City, who would have punished a poor Country woman as a Witch; and stickled so much in the business that he got her released, and the accusers and witnesses well fined; which shows he was not so superstitious as the greatest part of those who calumniate him.  
To make his charge high enough, it is further urged that the Divines of Louvain passed a severe censure upon his Declaration against the Sciences; that John Catilinet, a Franciscan declaimed publicly against the explication he had made at Dola, de Verbo mirifico; that the Dominicans of the City of Metz writ against the propositions he had published in defence of the opinion of Faber Stapulensis, concerning the Monogamy of St. Anne. And yet not one of these censurers could take occasion to make any remarkes upon the two first Books of his occult Philosophy printed long before any of these pieces, at Paris, Antwerp, and other places, and every where with the Privilege and approbation of those who had the management of such affairs. But it may haply be conjectured that the Adversaries will answer this last reason, by saying, that there is indeed no danger in those Books, it being Agrippa's design to make that advantage of the curious Philosophy and Learning therein contained, as a gilt pill, to make the poison of the other to slide down more easily; imitating therein the subtlety of the Crocodile, which counterfeits the voice of a man, to devour him, or rather the stratagem of Satan transforming himself into an Angel of Light, or of some beautiful Creature, the more easily to deceive us. We shall therefore take this occasion to discover, how much the avarice of Booksellers, and the vanity of certain men▪ who have no other employment then to make counterfeit ke●● to all Books and treatises that are ever so little difficult and obscure, have injured the memory of this Author, fathering on him a fourth Book full of vain, Magical, superstitious, and abominable Ceremonies, and publishing it with the three of his Occult Philosophy, together with some other shreds and fragments of Peter d' Apono, Arbatel, Pictorius, Trithemins, and commentaries upon the whole History of Pliny by Stephanus Aqueus; the reading whereof we must acknowledge much more dangerous to a mind carried through weakness, away with such vanities, then that of Ovid to a debauched person, of Martial to a Flatterer and detractor, of Lucian to a Scoffer, of Cicero to a proud man, and of Lucretius to an irreligious man and an Atheist. But note by the 
Depraestig. Lib. 2. c. 5.  way, that these Books are as falsely fathered on them, as that fourth upon Agrippa, as Vuierus, in defence of the last, affirms, that that Book was not published till twenty seven years after his death, and that certainly he was not the Author of it. And for Agrippa, we may object, that he says in his Epistles, that he had reserved to himself 
Lih. 4. Ep. 56. Lib. 5. ep. 14.  the key of the three Books he had published. For besides that we may probably answer, that he mentioned such a Key merely to be courted by the curious, upon which account, 
a Lib. de mist not.  James Gohory and 
b Comment. in Paracels. de vita longa. f. 61.  Vigenere affirm he boasted that he knew the secret of Pythagoras' glass, as also that of 
c In his Ciphers f. 16. 27.  extracting the spirit of Gold, to turn Silver or Copper into perfect Gold, yet not for a greater quantity than the weight of the Body whence it was extracted amounted to. Besides this reason, I say, he clearly expresses what he means by such a key when he says in the 19 Epist. of the 5. Book. Haec est illa vera, & mirabilium operum occultissima Philosophia. Clavis ejus Intellectus est, quanto enim altiora intelligimus, tantó sublimiores induimus vir tutes, tantoque & majora, & facilius & efficacius operamur. This I suppose takes away all difficulty concerning this occult Philosophy unless we would raise any out of the third Book printed with the other two, in in the year 1533. he being then a 
a Lib. 7. Epist.  Domestic of the Archbishop's of Cullen, who thought himself much honoured with the 
b Epist. dedicat.  dedication of them and 
c De occ. Phil. l. 2▪  permitted him to publish them according to the Privilege of the Emperor Charles, V. From which circumstances may be inferred, that as the two first were published long before, without any prejudice to the Author's reputation, so is there not any thing in the third, that may give any suspicion of Magic, unless it be particularly to such, as, like fearful travellers, take roots for folded Serpents, huts and bushes for Highwaymen waiting for them, Et motae ad Lunam trepidant arundinis umbram. For he treats not of any thing, under the title of Divine and Ceremonious Magic, but of Religion, of God, and of his names and attributes, as also of Daemons and Angels, of Intelligences and Genius's, of sacrifices, of Man and his several operations. And all this according to the opinions of Divines, Philosophers and Cabalists, not advancing any thing, but what, as he acknowledges himself, he had taken out of the printed, much read, and much approved Books of H●●o Porphyrius, Proclus, Calcidus Synesius, Ammonius, Psellus, Albertus magnus, Roger Bacon, William of Paris, Gatalinus, Johannes Picus, Reucli●●s, Riccius, and such like; who are only suspected of Magic by those that are frighted at any thing they are unacquainted with, and as Lncretius says, fear, 
— Nihilo quae sunt metuenda magis, quam  
Quae pueri in tenebris pavitant finguntque futura.   
To this we may add, that he hath, in his preface, cautiously retracted what ever might have crept into his works contrary to the doctrine of the Church, & does both 
a Lib. 4. E●. 56. l. 5. E●. 14. Dedic. l. 3. Philosoph.  there and all thorough his works, excuse himself, saying that, Minor quam adolescens hoc composuit. It is then out of all controversy that there will not hereafter be any so barbarous & inhuman as to gloss more disadvantageously upon the heats & sallies of his youth, then on those of Picus, Albertus magnus, Aeneas Silvius, and divers others, who may as well as Agrippa imitate the penitent King, where he says, Remember not, O Lord the sins and ignorances' of my youth.  
Having thus defeated the strongest and most unsuspected proof of the Adversaries, and rendered it vain and of no consequence, the rest are easily rooted, as such, as are fitter to fill up the Magical Romances of Merlin, Maugis and Dr. Faustus, than that they should be found in the serious and considerate writings of Historians and Daemonographers, at least such as ought to be such. Among these, Delrio, Thevet, and Paulus Jovius are the most considerable witnesses that come in against the life, manners, and doctrine of Agrippa. The former was a man of such a vast and prodigious reading that he hath omitted nothing that any way made for his 〈◊〉 the other two seem to speak of him with more candour and integrity, in as much as they prudently rank him amongst the most illustrious men, and liken him to that altar of Midas, which seemed sometimes to be of Gold, but for the most part of stone. 
In the lives of illustrious men.   
To begin then with the deposition of Thevet, who having first drawn him according to the Original of Bohemians and Cingarists, 
Quos aliena juvant, propriis habitare mole stum,  very confidently gives you a reason for all his Travels, which was, that he could not stay long in any place, before he had shown some trick of his Art, which being discovered, and he thereby known to be an Enchanter and Necromanner, all he could do was to fly from one Country to another like those apes that leap from one tree to another, and from one bough to another, till at last they are taken by the Hunters. To make this testimony the more authentic, Delrio makes oath that the Emperor Charles V. would never admit him to his sight, 
Disquisit. l. 2. qu. 12.  after he had entertained him with some discourses that he could find out and discover great treasures by his Magic: as also that, being at Louvain, 
Lib. 2. quest. 39  when the Devil had murdered one of his Pensioners, he commanded him to enter into his body, and to walk seven or eight turns in the public place of the City before he quitted it, that so he might not be troubled or suspected for his death, when the people should find him dead of a sudden and natural one. To which add that of the third witness Paulus Jovius, who, in his Eulogies, says, that, discarded by all the world, he died very poor at Lions, and that touched with some remorse of conscience, he dismissed a great black Dog that had followed him all his life, taking off his neck a Choler full of images and Magical figures, saying to him with some exasperation, Abi perdita bestia quae me totum perdidisti, whereupon the Dog went and cast himself into the Saone, and was never seen afterwards.  
Though the ridiculousness of these relations sufficiently discover their falsity, yet to pluck them up by the roots, we are to reflect on that saying of Machiavelli, that if Cesar had been vanquished by Pompey, no question, but he would have been described to us, not such as he is now, but more extravagantly wicked then ever Catiline was. Thus the greatest part of Mankind interpreting the actions of others always suitably to their fortune, all the Virtues we now admire in him, would have been turned into so many vices, nor could nature have afforded colours sad enough to disguise him so as to please some Writers. For we may infer from this Maxim that we may dash out of the Calumnies fastened upon Agrippa, the story of the pensioner of Louvain, as such as we may more rationally deny with Ludwigius, than Delrio affirm it, since he hath taken it word for word out of a Book called The Theatre of Nature, published in Italian and Latin under the name of Stroza Cicogna, and in French and Spanish under that of Valderama. For the rest, they are feigned upon the real actions of his life, which ever since he put out his Book of the vanity of Sciences, men endeavoured to interpret in a contrary sense, and make them as deformed and abominable, as they would have been thought noble, virtuous, or at least tolerable, if he had not committed that fault, which indeed proved the cause of all his misfortune. This it was also, and not his Magic, that incensed the Emperor Charles V. as he himself acknowledges in 
* 2 Tomi. sol. 251. Epist. dedicat. Apol. in buerel● advers. Scholast. p▪ 447. In defension. prop. De Monogam. p. 584. & Epist. 15▪ 27. lib. 6.  several places of his works, and made him slight his service; nay he would have gone further, if Cardinal Campege, and the Bishop of Liege had not appeased him. This disgrace gave his envyers, and emulators occasion to calumniate him with Magic, grounding their malice on his publishing his three Books of occult Philosophy. The two former▪ as we have shown, were published long before this tempest arose, and stood out the surges of detraction, but coming again into the press they underwent the same fate with the third, so that there was no more mercy for them than the others as if all things had conspired both their and their Authors ruise. Thence it comes that Thevet attributes all his travels to a base shifting from place to place, and from Country to Country by reason of his Magic. And yet there's nothing so certain, as that all the voyages he undertook from the twenty second year of his age were upon the Negotiations of some Kings and Princes that employed him, in the quality of an Agent.  
Thus his coming into England was, as 
a Tom. 2. f. 596 l. 3. ep. 58. & 60. l. 7. ep. 1. 21. 44. 26. and elsewhere.  he himself affirms, to manage an affair of great consequence; it was upon the account of Maximilian the Emperor that he followed the army he sent into Italy; the Duchess of Anjou sent for him into France, Margaret of Austria into Antwerp; the Archbishop of Cullen into Germany. And upon some such other occasion he returned again into France, where he died, in the year 1535. not at Lions, as 
b De praestig. l. 2. c. 5  Thevet and 
c In vitis illustr. medi●or.  Paulus Jovius affirm; but, more truly, according to Wierus and Melchior Adam, in the City of Grenoble, at the Receiver General's house, of the province of Dalphine, whose Son died, some years since, first Precedent of the said City.  
Lastly for the story of the Dog, represented to us with greater eloquence than truth by Paulus Jovius, 
Venalis cui penna fuit, cui gloria flocci;  what surer judgement can be passed on it, after so evident a falsity, but that it is a pure Calumny forged by his emulators? For as men have strange inclinations for certain animals, as that of Alexander for his Horse, of Augustus for a Parrot, of Nero for a Starling, of Virgil for a butterfly, of Commodus for an ape, of Heliogabalus for a Sparrow, of Honorius for a Hen, and of others for others; so Agrippa placed his affection on the most ordinary, keeping constantly five or six Dogs in his house, whose names are often mentioned in five or six of his 
n Lib. 2. ep. 72. 74. 76. 77.  Epistles, as also in the Epitaphs which some of his Friends made upon them. Though 
o De praestig. l. 2▪ c. 5.  Wierus, who was his servant says he had but two, which were perpetually with him in his study, whereof one was called Monsieur, and the other Mademoiselle. But since the incertainty of the number of his Dogs, which he might daily change, makes nothing to his prejudice, I conceive it best concluding with the said Wierus, that they might indeed give his enemy's occasion to raise the report that the Devil conversed with him under the form of a great black Dog, as they had before heard that Simon Magus, Sylvester, Dr. Faustus, and the Bragadochio of Venice, had one perpetually at their heels under the shape of such a Creature.  
Having thus faithfully laid down the reasons producible on both sides, though I leave all persons to incline to which they think it most rational, yet shall I for my own particular conclude the Chapter with that saying of Seneca, more true 
De ira. lib. 3.  on this occasion then many others, Crede mihi levia sunt, propter quae non leviter excandescimus.   

CHAP. XVI.  
Of Merlin, Savanorola, and Nostradamus'.  
THere is a story, that among many birds that came not near the Temple of Minerva, the Goddess of Sciences and Reason, the Crows durst not take their flight about it, much less light upon it. If it be lawful to give it any other sense than the literal, I think the most probable were this; that that bird, so considerable in the superstitious Augury of the Ancients, according to this verse of Virgil, 
Saepe sinistra cava praedixit ab ilice cornix,  being the true Hieroglyphic of those who search after things to come, it is to teach us, that all those who are over-inquisitive in such things, together with the Authors and Observers of I know not 
Senec.  what chimerical and fabulous prophecies, quae unicuique pro ingenio finguntur, non ex vi Scientiae, should be eternally excluded the Temple of Minerva, that is, the conversation of learned and prudent men. For indeed, it were more rational 
Lib. 2. cont. Gent.  to acknowledge with Arnobius, Quae nequeunt sciri nescire nos confitemur, neque ea conquirere aut investigare curamus quae comprehendi liquidissimum est non posse, quamvis mille per corda suspicio se rigat atque intendat humana, than to waste our spirits in the pretended mysteries of the Cabala, the superstitious invocations of Magic, the fruitless study of the Philosopher's stone, and the fantastical predictions of certain Figure-flingers, and Cunning-women, since they are extravagancies that find no entertainment, but in the imaginations of vulgar and reptile souls, easily taken in such cobwebs, as a mind any thing masculine cannot be ensnared in, without an absolute loss of reputation and prudence.  
For two reasons have I brought in Savanorola and Merlin into the number of the great persons, for whom I make this Apology; one is, that they were the Prophets of their Countries, as they say Nostradamus' was of France, Lolhardus of Germany, and Telesphorus and the Abbot Joachim of Calabria. The other, that it is a kind of justice to make a true discovery of them, so to raise them from under those heaps of calumnies, which cover both them, and what we should know of them. As to the famous Merlin, all Authors hitherto have thought him gotten by an Incubus, who was a little too familiar with a certain King's daughter, than a Nun in a Monastery at Carmarthen. What credit can be expected for all the other stories of his life, when we must be less prudent, and more credulous than 
z Lib. 4. de origine & gestis Britannor.  Godfrey of Monmouth, from whom we have them, to believe such a nativity as this any way possible? Whence we may safely infer, that the foundation of such a prodigious relation, being so ill laid, it must needs be absolutely false and forged, as we shall without any difficulty demonstrate. For if our Daemonographers will not admit the generation of Merlin to have been by the ordinary way, they must needs acknowledge, that whatever is said of him is nothing but pure fiction; and consequently, the surest and safest way to answer them is, to deny what they say, as confidently as they affirm it.  
I shall not therefore at the present make it any question, whether there are such Daemons as the Incubi and Succubae, but only with 
a Lib. 2. de praestig c. 33. & sequent.  Wierus, 
b Decad. 3. c. 2. qu. 2. p. reg. qu.  Sibilla, 
c De variet. c. 8.  Cardan, 
d Angelogr. part. 2. c. 21. qu. 6.  Casmannus, 
e Lib. de Phythonissis.  Ulric Molitor, 
f Disc. of the principle of Generation.  Guibelet, 
g De perenni philosop. l. 6. c. 23.  Eugubinus, 
h Daemonolog. l. 1. c. 6.  Nicholas Remy, Maldonat, and divers others, deny that their copulations with mankind can produce any generation, whether they do it by eluding the imagination, or make use of humane bodies. Not because, as Nicholas Remy would have it, man and the Devil differ in specie; for a Mule is engendered between a Horse and an Ass; nor yet because God will not cooperate with such an action, by the infusion of a soul, for Adulterers, Fornicators, and incestuous persons, should never engender for the same reason; but for that if they engender, it is necessary it should be of their own seed, or a borrowed. To think they have any of their own, were too palpable an absurdity, since that, as they are immaterial substances, they cannot possibly have that excrement, and (as it were) quintessence extracted out of abundance of nourishment, and consisting of blood and spirits. Besides that, if this were granted, their productions would be like themselves, or rather some mediate substance between a man and a Daemon, than an absolute man▪  
Burdonem ut sonipes generat commixtus asellae,  
Mulus ut Arcadicis ab equina matre creature.  
Tityrus ex ovibus oritur hircoque parent.  
Musinonem capra ex vervegno semine gignit  
Apris atque sue setosus nascitur ibris,  
Ut lupus & catula formant coeundo liciscam.  
On the other side, to attribute to the Daemons a power to transport the seed from one place to another, without diminishing the generative virtue, and the principle which it contains, is a tenant hath no reason at all to support it, when even those that have the instrument of generation of an overgreat length, are not so able for the act, because the conduit being so long, the seed cools, and the principle is weakened. And that it must be much more thus in the seed of the Incubi, is not to be questioned, since that Witches, & cottidianae istae, as they are called in Lipsius, genialiam libidinum victimae, infelices mulierculae, do all unanimously confess in their depositions, that they find it extremely cold, and receive it without either pleasure or satisfaction, as having not those spirits without which there cannot be any, nor indeed generation be effected. Further, as Gold being the most perfect of Metals, is accordingly of the most difficult production, so must it be thought, that man, the noblest of all Creatures, hath by the same reason a more difficult, a more perfect, and a more accomplished generation than any other. Add to this, that the most considerable authority, which may be brought against this negative, out of Genes. 6. is no more advantageous to our Adversaries, than the great number of experiences they endeavour to collect from Apollonius, Alexander, Romulus, Servius Tullius, Simon Magus, Geffrey Great-tooth, Balderus, Luther, the Huns, and Counts of Cleveland, or the Corocoton of new Spain, and the Nefesoglians of the Turks. For that passage of Genesis, where it is said, After the sons of God went in to the daughters of men, etc. is to be understood, according to Eugubinus, and Maldonat, of the sons of Seth, who was a holy man, and esteemed by God, and the daughters of Cham, the most corrupt man of his age; Or, as some interpret it, by the Sons of God are meant Judges, whom the Scripture often calls by the name of Elohim. And lastly, for the said experiences, no doubt, but they are fabulous, and the mere fictions of such as thought to make those persons more recommendable by such Romances, which indeed, while the world was yet in swaddling clouts, were good to cover and conceal Adulteries, and to preserve the reputation of those Ladies, who were more than ordinarily desirous of their pleasure. But now, that the world's grown up to years of discretion, and more than ever▪ refined, Mart. 
Et pueri nasum Rhinocerotis habent,  such inventions are thought as vain and trivial, as all the stories of the Magical Romances of Maugis d' Aigremont, Dr. Faustus, or our Merlin. Of this latter, all, I think, may be truly and rationally said, is, that he was not the son of one of 
In Scriptorib. Angliae.  these Incubi, and that according to the description we have of him from Lelandus and Balaeus, he was the most excellent Philosopher and Mathematician 
In centuriis.  of his time, Disciple to Telesinus, and a great Favourite to four Kings of England, viz. Vortigern, Ambrose, Utherpendragon, and Arthur, whom all Romancists make the first Institutor of the Knights of the Round Table, with whom agrees the Poet Annevillanus, 
Arthurus teretis mensae genitiva venust as.  But as to the rest of his actions, what is not buried in the ruins of Time, is come to us darkened with such clouds of fables and lies, that 
a In prooem. libror. 5. de reb. Anglic.  Gulielmus Neubrigensis, and 
b Lib. 1. historiae Anglicanae.  Polydore d' Urbino do with reason laugh at this Godfrey of Monmouth, who hath transplanted some of those of Merlin's Romance into his History, and hath made a collection 
2. Part of his Library, an. 536.  of certain Prophecies, as falsely attributed to him, as to that other Merlin, surnamed the Savage or Caledonian, whom Ranulphus and Trevisa, 
In Centur▪ Script. Anglic.  in Vigner and Balaeus would distinguish from the former. Nor are their conjectures without some ground, who would maintain that there was but one Merlin under these two names, but in several times and successively, Ambrose and then the Caledonian, since they were both Contemporaries, that they lived under the same Kings, and excelled in the same Science, and that, according to the vulgar error, they both writ certain short Prophecies and predictions. Upon which when I find the Commentaries, of a large Volume, of Alanus, a man not ignorant in his age, I am forced to acknowledge with Cicero, that, Nihil tam 
De divinat. 2.  absurdè dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo Philosophorum, For I cannot think any thing at a greater distance with possibility, than the accident on which Merlin took occasion to publish his excellent Prophecies, which was this. King Vortigern was advised by the Magicians, to build a 
Galf. de orig. & gest. Britann. l. 4. c. ult. Adamus, initio commentar. f. 8.  strong Tower in some part of his Realm, where he might live securely, not fearing the Saxons whom he had brought out of Germany. Coming to build, they had hardly laid the foundations, but the earth in one night swallows up all, and leaves not so much as the tracks of any Edifice. Upon that, the Magicians persuaded him, that to fasten the stones well, they should be sprinkled with the blood of a child born without a father, such as Merlin, after a long search, happened to be. Being accordingly brought to the King, he first disputed with his Magicians, and told them, that under the foundation of that Tower there was a great Lake, and under that Lake two great and terrible Dragons, one red, signifying the people of England, or Britain, the other white, representing the Saxons. These Dragons were no sooner disburdened of the earth that lay upon them, but they begin a furious combat, whence Merlin takes 
Lib. 2.  occasion to bewail the condition of England in his Prophecies.  
But for my part, I cannot imagine there is any thing equally fabulous with this story, unless a man will squander away so much leisure, as to look into this Godfrey of Monmouth's book, to observe 
Lib. 6. c. 2.  the subtle invention, like that of Amphitruo in Plautus, whereby Merlin made Utherpendragon assume the person of Gorlois, and by that means enjoy the fair Ingerna; as also that of the Dance of the Giants, that is, great stones and rocks, which he transported out of Ireland into England, to erect a Trophy near the City of Ambrosiopolis. But that one 
a Lib. 2. de Sckismate. c. 19  Gervase, Chancellor to the Emperor Otho the Fourth; as 
b Lib. de oriis imperatoriis.  Theodoric a Niem relates, hath so glossed upon it, as not to be ashamed to affirm, that these great rocks and mountains turned perpetually in the air, and that not held up by any thing, I cannot sufficiently admire. Whereas 
c 
In Genethliaco Edvard. princip. Cambriae, in Topograph.  
Hiberniae.   Lelandus, who hath made a more curious search into the Antiquities of England, laughs at the indiscretion of these Authors, affirming this Dance of the Giants to be nothing but divers heaps of great stones, which Merlin caused to be raised like Pyramids or Trophies near the said City, in imitation haply of those, which Sylvester Girard says were in Ireland upon the mountain Cyllarus in the time of Henry the Second of England. Bythese patterns you may judge of the whole piece of these ridiculous fictions, and so, whether Badius Ascensius had not 
In Epist ad Lectorem.  some ground, speaking of the nine books of this Godefrey printed by him, to say, In quibus si diligenter legeris, agnosces, aut meram antiquitatis integritatem, aut admirandam illius saeculi, cum in nominibus, tum verò in temporibns su●putandis calliditatem.  
From this Merlin, so highly favoured by the Kings of England, we pass to Brother Hierom Savanorola, born in the City of Ferrara, a Friar of the Order of St. Dominick. This man knew so well how to husband his eloquence, and so discover the candour and integrity of his life, that having gained extraordinary reputation among the people of Florence by his preaching, which did not only charm the most delicate ears of his Audience with Rhetorical expressions and figures, but also raised the hearts and affections of all sorts of persons, by his zeal and great devotion, he began by degrees to discover some symptoms of his secret ambition. This happened, when in the year, 1484, as he acknowledges himself, in the book he hath made upon his Prophecies, he intruded into matters of Policy, and caused himself to be called to the Council then held at Florence for the settling of a popular Government, wherein he stirred up all the Citizens unanimously to embrace it, proposing to them four or five points of great consequence much conducing thereunto, which he said had been revealed to him by Almighty God, & which accordingly they must punctually observe, to make their State the most flourishing of those of all Italy. Whereupon, though affairs were not carried on as he had imagined to himself, yet did he make it his business to add daily to the reputation he had gained among the people, teaching in his Sermons of the year 1489, upon explication of the Apocalypse, that the Church was threatened with an approaching reformation, to succeed that of the little Kings and Tyrants of Italy, who were soon after to feel the revenging scourge for all their iniquities. This he could do so strangely, by passages out of the Scripture, and the security he gave them of his own revelations, that after the roaming of Charles the Eighth into Italy, foretold by him two years before, it was generally expected he should return again, upon no other ground than his affirmation of it. Nor indeed could they be convinced of the contrary, till the year 1498, wherein both Charles, and he who had favoured him so much in his predictions, exchanged this life for a better; the former by a sickness that took him at Amboise; and Savanorola by the punishment of fire, which, in the commotion that happened in the City of Florence, upon the refusal to manifest the truth of his Prophecies, he suffered publicly, with two of his Brethren, entering into the fire with a Franciscan, who had offered to maintain the falsity of them, by such a demonstration and trial.  
But to this contributed not a little, the indignation, not only of Pope Alexander the Sixth, and most of the Clergy, against whom he ordinarily railed in the Pulpit, but also of the principal Citizens of Florence, by reason of the execution, which, by his advice, was done upon seven or eight of the noblestamongthem. So that having no other friends than the faction of Paul Anthony Soderin, who made his advantages of him, to keep up the popular State against Guy Anthony Vesputius, who would have settled a kind of an Aristocracy, they were not able to resist the contrary party, which in the heat of the commotion forced open the gates of his Monastery to bring him to execution, so to quiet the City by the death of a man who kept them at a distance with the Pope, by reason of the novelty of his Doctrine, and raised such factions and parties amongst them, as had they gone further, must needs have buried them in the ruin of their State and signory.  
I am not ignorant that many Authors are of a direct contrary opinion to me, as who am inclined to assent to Paulus Jovius, Machiavelli, and Cardan, who rank this Author, if not among the most fortunate, yet among the most eminent and famous Politicians, as being one of those Monks St. Hierom speaks of, Qui Daemonum contra se pugnantium portenta fingunt, ut apud imperitos, & vulgi homines miraculum sui faciant. For one half of the book he hath writ upon his Prophecies, contains nothing but the conferences he had with the Devil, taking him for a Hermit. But what indeed contributed much to his reputation, was the influence he had over two sorts of persons who favoured him very much. The former were certain Catholics, as Johannes Picus, and Franciscus of Mirandula, de Benivenius, Marsilius Ficinus, Flaminius, 
g In Peplo illust viror Italiae  Marth●us Tosca●us, and divers others, who received his predictions as celestial and divine, and speak not of his piety, Learning and good life, but witha certain admiration. In so much that Benivenius a Florentine Priest put forth a Book of his miracles and Prophecies; and Franciscus Picus was so passionate in his vindication, that he sticked not, though a man very religious and a sound Catholic, to derogate much from the Authority and power of the Pope, to show that Alexander the Sixth had no reason to forbid him the Pulpit, and to excommunicate him.  
The other sort of people that had a great veneration for him, were of a different religion from the former, that is, 
a In elogiis. in part 3. of his histor. Library, anno, 1598.  Beza, 
b In his Apolog. against Lessivis & Cotten. c. 52.  Vigner, Cappel, du 
c In his mystery of Iniquity.  Plessy, Mornay, and all the Lutherans of Germany, who ordinarily in their writings call him the faithful witness of the Truth, the forerunner of Evangelicall reformation, the scourge of great Babylon, the sworn enemy of the Roman Antichrist, and in a word, to conclude with 
d 
In epist. Philosoph.  
Savanorolae praefixa.   Jessenius, a Jessen, the Italian Luther. Only it is to be wondered they called him not also the John Hus of that Country since they both suffered the same punishment, that they were but Archhereticks, and are both written in Capitals in the Catalogue of their Martyrs, as may be seen by these verses put under his effigies.  
En Monachus solers, rerum scrutator acutus,  
Martyrio ornatus, SAVONAROLA prius.  
But there is this main difference between these two sorts of persons; that the former have said much good of Savonarola, because, replying on the common opinion, they thought him a good man, not searching any further than others into his internal dissimulation, or rather because most of them were his intimate friends, as is apapparent, in that Johannes Picus, who disposed, as he could, of Benivenius and Marsilius Ficinus, was resolved a little before his death, to turn Dominican, upon the mere persuasion of this Friar; as also in that Franciscus Picus dedicated a 
Fran. Pic. in ●●us vita.  Book to him entitled, De morte Christi & propriâ cogitandâ. On the contrary the other sort had no otner reason to celebrate him, but that his Doctrine was not perfectly Catholic, that he threatened the ecclesiastics with an approaching reformation; that he preached scandalously against the manners of the Clergy & Court of Rome▪ and la●tly, because he derogated from the Authority of the Popes. For which, if my word may not be taken, take it from Beza, who speaking of him in his Eulogies, says roundly and confidently, Homini tam perditò scelerato quam fuit Alexander ille Borgia Pontifex hujus nominis sextus, usque adeo displicuisse, ut non ni si te indignissimé damnato, & cremato quiescere potuerit, maximum esse videtur singularis tuae pietatis argumentum. Whence it is clear that all the praise hath been given him to this day is to be attributed either to the affection of his favorities and friends, or the subtlety of certain Heterodox persons, who would gladly make him more zealous then St. Paul, more eloquent than chrysostom, and more learned than St. Augustine, out of an imagination that it is some way advantageous to them.  
But to make a more rational and equitable judgement of him, we may say, first, of the Predictions which have made him so famous, that they are so far from being the effects of divine Magic, such as were those of the Prophets, and divers other Saints and favourites of God, that on the contrary, they have proved almost all false. 
Comines. l. 8. c. 19  For instance, these: his affirming that Charles VIII. would come a second time into Italy; that he should come to an unfortunate end, that endeavoured to rule in Florence; that Johannes Picus should recover of the sickness, whereof, two days after, he died; and divers others of his prophecies, much more vain than these, as they are at large cited and exemplifyed in a Book which Johannes Pogus hath purposely written to discover the falsity of them. But if any have fallen out true, it is to be attributed either to Chance, or that he had notice of what should be done by some of those many friends he had in the Counsels of the Florentines, and the K. of France. And lastly for the rest of of his actions, they easily discover him a very great Politician, put many times upon very honourable Employments, and endued with an Eloquence, so ready and persuasive, that he may well be compared to those ancient Orators, who were as powerful in popular and democratical Governments as the winds are upon the Sea, entertaining them as they pleased both in the Calms of peace and Storms of war, tossing them now, on one side, then on the other turning them upside down; and in a word, disposing them at their pleasure by the Charms of their discourses. This may Savonarola presume he did for the space of ten years at Florence, though he had withal the assistances of his revelations and a counterfeit sanctimony to keep up his credit for so long a time; knowing well by the examples of Mahomet and Arrius that the respect we have for Religion hath an extraordinary influence upon us, and that when a man hath once the reputation of living holily, he persuades the people to what he pleases; especially when he is endued with the grace of well speaking, and a more than ordinary eloquence. To prove this, we may instance in the fortunate and temerarious enterprise of the Religious man Almohadi, who being excellently learned and well vers'din the Alcoran, undertook without any other assistance than that of an ginger that seconded him with his predictions, and the great opinion men had of his life, to crown, King of afric, the Son of a Potter, a poor and necessitous man, called Abdelmon. To effect which with more ease, he first, got some followers by the introduction of a new Heresy, and then perceiving himself sufficiently seconded so far as to engage in the public Affairs, and to reform them at his pleasure, he began to propose that Abdelmon, was a person rai●'d up by God, who through his means, would plant the holy Alphurcanistick Law through all the world. His next business was to preach down the race of the Almoravides, calling them Tyrants and Usurpers, as such as had driven out the family of the Alabeci, and the blood of their Prophet Mahomet. This done, he set upon the person of the Caliph of Baldac, high Priest of their Law, and did so well, by the force of his persuasions, that, having gotten this Abdelmon the assistance of the greatest part of the Nobility, there happened a great battle between them, wherein the King Albohaly Aben Tessin being killed in the year 1147. this Noble Potter Abdelmon was made King and Miramomelin of afric. From this story I leave men to judge, whether Savonarala 
In elogiis▪  might not govern at Florence, quando (as Paulus Jovius, speaking of him, well observes) nihil validius esset ad persuadendum spec●e ipsa pietatis, in qua etiam tuendae Libertatis studium emineret.  
I should have left Michael Nostradamus' out of this Apology, were it not to add some lustre to so many excellent persons, by the temerarious ignorance and little merit of this upstart prophet, as the sparkling of a Diamond is heightened by a little foil. Or rather to imitate that great Julius 
Poetie. l. 6. c. 6.  Caesar Scaliger, who having passed his judgement on the most famous Poets, would needs give the same upon Rhodophilus and Dolet alleging by way of excuse that it was in imitation of Aristotle, who in the same Book treats of living Creatures and their ordure and excrements. This may I much more apply to this Monster of abuses, whose li●e I shall not set forth according to its principal circumstances, since they are so flat and pitiful that no Historian hath yet meddled with them, but the Author of the French Janus, and the Pleyades, it being my business, only to observe the vanity of his Designs. For not content to have cheated us in his predictions, which he printed at the beginning of every year from 1550. till 1567. he further imagined, that he might easily blast the memory of Merlin, Telesphorus, Cataldus, Lolhardus, Joachim Savonarola, Laurentio Miniati, Antonio Torquatö, and all those that had dabbled in predictions, by the reputation he was in hope to gain by publishing a Decad of Centuries, upon the future state of all things in the world. These were no sooner abroad, but they immediately got him a quite contrary repute: some, as Ro●sard and Monluc not knowing what to say to their 
Lib. 4. of his Commenlaris.  falling out true sometimes; and others looking on them as lies fooleries and impostures, and containing such a diversity of crafty ambiguities, that it were in a manner impossible not to find something among so many thousands of tetrastics upon any occasion a man can propose to himself: Accordingly did▪ some take thence occasion to make sport with those falsities, among whom the most ingenious was he, who, without charging him with contradictions, or calling him Monster d' abus, and Monstra-damus▪ as divers did, only sent him this Distich; 
Nostra damus, cum verba damus, nam fallere nostrum est;  
Et cum verba damus, nil nisi nostra damus.   
But as there is no Cause so desperate which, in time, meets not with some that will patronise it; so much it be acknowledged, that there are a many hollow brains, and minds fit only to receive any thing that is extravagant, and that without any examination, who think their pockets empty without these Centuries, which they idolise as Humanists do Petronius, and Politicians Tacitus, looking on them as more infallible than the Gospel, and making it appear on all occasions that happen daily though ever so trivial.  Virg. geor. 4. 
— Novit namque omnia vates!  
Quae sint, fuerint, quae mox ventur● trahantur.  
Yet does not this Idolatry hinder, but that among those who admire them so much, it is a controversy by what means the Author could arrive to such a certain knowledge of things to come. Some hold he got it by the practice of judicial Astrology; others, that it was revealed to him by the means of some familiar Daemon; and a third sort, that he had no other assistance then that of the capacity of the humane Soul to foretell things to come. For, according 
Cap. 7. l. q. Metaph.  to the opinion of Avicenna, when she is disengaged from the government of the body, she suffers a certain paralysis, and leaves it as it were buried in the mass of its terrestrial Element, that so she may be free to consider what is at the greatest distance from her. Then it is that she sees things to come as present, which she could not have done while the exigencies of the body divert her from this contemplation. And this happens for the most part, when, being forced against her natural motion by the violent agitation of Melancholy she displays and discovers what is most hidden in her, that is her divine and celestial forces and faculties; so that there is nothing hinders her from exceeding her ordinary Limits, and arriving to the knowledge of things to come. Of this we have some experience in old men, who being in the utmost declination of their age, do often foretell what afterwards comes to pass; as if the soul, by a certain anticipation, were already at Liberty. To strengthen this last opinion, they add that were some reason to charge Nature with a certain discare of mankind if she denied this perfection to man when we see the 
Apud▪ Plut.  birds called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Messengers of the Gods, as Euripides terms them, and several other Creatures, foretell, by the disposition of the Air the changes of seasons, wind, rain, fair weather, tempests, and all this without any other instruction than that of their natural instinct.  
I have been more particular in this last cause, then in the other two, because Nostradamus' himself confesses in his Epistle to the three Centuries dedicated to Henry the second of France, that he uttered his predictions rather through a natural instinct attended by a Poetical fury, then by any assistance of the rules of Poesy, though he had reconciled them to astronomical Calculations.  
But since the truth & reputation of that so Mysterious book cannot subsist but by one of these three reasons, they certainly are to be blamed for their over-credulity, who would ground the Authority of this Fortune-teller, upon causes, which if they had well examined them, they should have found more false than any of his Centuries. And this it were the more easy to show, in that, of all predictions and Prophecies that ever came to our knowledge, we have not met with any more particular than those of Nostradamus', who precisely marks out all the accidents and several Circumstances, even to occurrences of little or no concernment. Whence in the first place I infer, that he could not compose those predictions by the assistance of Astrology, the Authors whereof having not left us any rules whereby we might attain the knowledge of those particulars. For these are no more under the juridiction of that Art, by reason of the uncertain emergencies of their causes, than things purely free and contingent, such as are the actions that depend merely on our will, and which in regard they have not any determinate truth or falsehood cannot be either known or foreseen by the help of any humane science, till such time as they are present. In the second place, I infer, that he could not have done it by any revelation from Daemons, because even they, considered in their nature, have not any knowledge of these actions which are free & depend purely on our will, as being not able to foresee them either in their causes, or their effects. Not in the former, because they are uncertain while they remain buried in the several motions of our mind, as being such as St. Paul speaks of to the Corinthians, None knows the things of man but the spirit of man that is in him: not in the latter, as being such as cannot be known till they appear. So that if we allow his prophecies any foundation, it must be that of the third cause, grounded on the natural capacity men sometimes have to foretell things to come, which yet is pertinently refuted by 
a De divinat l. 2.  Cicero and the learned 
b De Sacra Philosoph. c. 30.  Valesius, who dig up the very corner stones of this erroneous opinion.  
To answer therefore, in few words, all those reasons alleged to confirm it, we are indeed to acknowledge, that Melancholy may, by reason of its qualities, make men more desirous and capable of Sciences, more earnest in the disquisition of causes, and more perseverant in the deepest contemplations upon any subject; nay that it may cause certain motions in the soul, whereby it makes sooner discoveries of the reason it would find out. But we must deny that there can proceed from it this natural Divination, whereof there is not in it either the cause, principles, or beginnings. Nor is it to be credited, that old men are more likely to foretell things than others, unless it be by way of Revelation, as Jacob did, or the Pope Pius V. & the Archbishop Angelo Catto. Of these two last, the former knew by revelation 
Comines. l. 2. c. 3.  that the Christians had gained the battle of Lepanto; the other acquainted Lewis the Sixth with the death of the Duke of Burgundy at the very hour it happened. And lastly for the foresight of certain Creatures, Leonard Vair will tell us, that the gesture of their bodies does not portend any thing to come, but only what is present, that is, the humid influx of the Air, which, by a natural instinct, they feel in their bodies, assoon as it gathers together in the Element. And as to the Birds which shift Countries according to the several seasons of the year, it is not so much out of any foresight in them, of Spring, Winter, or Autumn, as a certain knowledge of those vicissitudes according to the natural alteration of their bodies, proceeding merely from heat and cold, or some other quality unknown to us.  
This premised, I leave those to judge who are not over-easily drawn in to embrace opinions without any reason or ground, what esteem should be had of these fine Centuries, which are so ambiguous, and contradictory, so obscure and enigmatical, that it were no miracle if among a thousand tetrastics, whereof every one speaks commonly of five or six several things, and particularly such as ordinarily happen, there comes in a Hemistick mentioning the taking of a Town in France, or the death of a Grandee in Italy, a plague in Spain, a Monster, a great fire, a victory, or something of this nature, as if those Emergencies were extraordinary, and happened not at one time or other. And yet this is the main motive of that little hope there is to see these prophecies verified as being such as we cannot compare to any thing more fitly then to Therame●es's shoe, which fitted all feet; or that Lesbian rule, which being of Lead, bend itself to all figures, concave, oblique, round, and cylindrical. So may we say of this Author, that his main design was so to write as to avoid a clear and intelligible sense, that Posterity might interpret his predictions as they pleased. For though John Aim Chavigni, one that, of all others, hath foolishly trifled away his pains upon all kinds of Prophecies hath shown in his French Janus, that the greatest part of Nostradamus' predictions are accomplished near thirty years since; yet are they still brought upon the stage when any thing remarkable falls out, as for Instance, those that are scattered abroad upon the death of the Marshal d' Ancre the great fortune of Monsieur de Luynes; and the firing of the Palace and the Bridges of Paris. And indeed, that there are not found some upon all occasions, is only because men will not be at the pains to search them out, since they met with something about that imaginary monstrous fish which some years since was sold up and down in effigy, and that the Author of a little book called▪ The Chemist, or French Conserver, says very ingenuously, pag. 15. that Nostradamus' had spoken of him, above thirty four years before he was born, quoting him by his name and Arms in the 31. tetrastick of the 6th. Century, 
La Lune au plein de Nuict sur le haut mont,  
Le nouveau Sophe, d' un seul cerveau l' a veuë.  This he is so confident of, that he affirms it cannot possibly be meant of any other than himself, for certain reasons by him laid down in the said Book. But because it may be objected that the Author of the French Janus, who translated divers of the Centuries into Latin verse, does, by the explication he makes of them evince the truth at least of some of those tetrastics, & consequently that I ought not so far to discredit them, especially those whose events are yet uncertain; I shall briefly answer, and withal conclude this Chapter with that excellent passage of Seneca, Patere etiam aliquando Mathematicos vera dicere, & tot sagittas cum emittant, unam tangere, 
Noct. Attic. t. 14. c. 1.  aberrantibus caeteris. To which add that of Phanorinus in Gellius, that, ista omnia quae aut temerè aut astutè vera dicunt, prae caeteris quae mentiuntur, pars ea non sit millesima.   

CHAP. XVII.  
Of St. Thomas, Roger Bacon, Bungey, Michael the Scot, Johannes Picus, and Trithemius.  
I Have sometimes wondered there should be among the Romans a Law so barbarous, as should empower the Dictator to put to death any Citizen he pleased, without allowing him to make any defence for himself, and that without the least fear of being called to any account for so doing. But there is more reason to wonder now, when a man reflects on the temerity of those Writers, who, though they have not the power of the ancient Dictator's of Rome, do yet so confidently condemn 
Lib. 1. Policrat. c. 27.  the most eminent Authors, not as deserving death, but as guilty of a crime, as Johannes Sarisberiensis affirms of it, morte digni sunt qui à morte conantur scientiam mutuare, which deserves nothing less. Nay, such is their impudence, that they have no more respect for Religious men, Bishops, and Popes, than they had before for Philosophers, Physicians, and others of greatest authority among the Learned. For if we look for any reason of this rigorous proceeding, there will be no other sound than that they strike at all, without any exception of persons, Tros Rutulusve fuat, out of an excess of zeal to the truth, as they imagine; so under the shadow and conceit of their pretended integrity, to the prejudice of the accused innocent, to gain the greater credit to certain collections and glean of I know not what ridiculous and ill digested relations, which would never find Readers, were there not more fools who are delighted to see extravagant pictures, than wise men that have the patience to contemplate a simple and natural Beauty.  
Since therefore it were indiscretion in me to break off this Apology, when I am come to that point for which principally I undertook it, I think it now time to speak of Religious men, and to show what ingratitude it were in us to make so slight acknowledgement of the obligation we owe them for the preservation of Letters, from the times of Boetius, Symmachus, and Cassiodorus, to the last taking of Constantinople. At which time Learning began to creep out of Monasteries, which for all the time before, had been (as it were) public Christian Schools, where not only youth, but also such men as would apply themselves that way, were instructed in all manner of Disciplines, Sciences, & Morality, and that to such a height, that not content with that so famous Quadrivium of the Mathematieks, which, besides all that is now shown in Colleges, was then taught, Medicine, both as to Theory and Practice was so well cultivated, that we need no more to convince us how expert they were therein, than the writings of Aegidius, Constantine, and Damascene, Joannitius, Peter of Spain, and Turisanus. So that it were easy for me to answer those who charge them with illiterature and ignorance, did I not think it more requisite to apply the remedy where there is most need, and by culling out five or six among them, 
— Qui ob facta ingentia possunt  
Verè homines, & Semidei, Heroesque vocari,  to rescue them from the crime of this Magical Idolatry, which were so much the more horrid and abominable, practised by them, by how much they are principally those who should oppose it, and cleanse men's minds thereof, as well by the example of their good lives, as by the zeal and fervency of their learned instructions.  
We are then to consider, that the Author of the Book entitled Ars notoria, published by Giles Bourdin, lays this foundation for the reputation thereof, that the holy Ghost had dictated it to 
a Lib. 1. advers. Astrolog.  St. Hierom, which we must allow upon another assurance of his, that he translated the history of Judith in one night. To which add, that Johannes 
Franc. Picus l. 5. de praen. c. 6.  Picus affirms, he had seen a book of Enchantments, which divers weak judgements hold was interpreted by the same St. Hierom, though with as little reason, as Trithemius affirms, as some attribute certain conjurations of the four principal Devils to St. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage. This consideration premised, I doubt not, but the evident falsehood of these calumnies, will prove a certain light to the judgement we should pass on those books of Necromantical Images, the Metallick Art, the Secrets of Alchemy, and that De essentiis essentiarum, divulged and vented daily under the name of St. Thomas Aquinas, justly surnamed by 
a Io. Picus l. 1. advers. Astrolog. Idem. in Heptaplo in Ecclesi●ste, & in lib. de Thealog. study.  Picus, Splendour Theologiae, by Erasmus, Vir non sui saeculi, by 
b De trad. Discipl l. 5.  Vives Scriptor de schola omnium sanissimus, and by the consent of all Authors, with that of the Church, The faithful Interpreter of Aristotle and the holy Scripture, The base and foundation of Scholastical Divinity, and in a word, the Angelical Doctor. For I would know, what ground there were to imagine, that this great Intelligence, canonised in the year 1322, and whose doctrine was approved by a Decree of the University of Paris, in the year 133●▪ and by three Popes, Innocent V, Urban VI, and John XXII, should trouble himself with either Magic, or the extravagancies of the Alchemists, who might indeed have brought him over to their party, had they not forgot one thing, which is to dash out and corrupt, as some Heretics do, that passage of his Commentaries, upon the second Book of the Master of Sentences, where he formally 
Distinct. 7. quaest. 3. art. 1. ad 5.  impugns the possibility of their transmutations of Metals. Whence, me thinks, they should take warning not to expose themselves so freely to the scorn of those who distrust whatever comes from them, & who read these supposititious books out of no other design, than to observe their great indiscretion therein, and the little judgement they have to carry on their subtle plots. We may instance, not to engage into an infinity of proofs, in their making this great Doctor speak so childishly in the Book De essentiis essentiarum, that he might very well be said to have no more acquaintance with his works, than the barbarous Inhabitants of Margajats and Topinamboux in afric, who should believe that such low and reptile conceptions could fall from a mind so high and sublime; or that he ever dreamt of what they make him say in the same Treatise of an 
De essent. essentiar. tr. 4. c. 2.  Astrological Book, which Abel, son of Adam, lodged within a stone, found after the Deluge by Hermes, who took the book out of it, wherein was taught the Art of making Images under certain Planets and Constellations. Besides the story concerning himself, that being disturbed in his studies, by the great noise of Horses passing by his door every day at watering time, he made the image of a Horse, according to the rules of the said Book, which being put in the street two or three foot under ground, the Grooms were thenceforward forced to find out another way, as being not able to make a Horse pass that way, 
Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici?  For I think a man must be more Agelastus than ever Crassus was, if he can refrain laughing at this pretty relation, since that, not to say any thing of the absurdity of its circumstances, there could not possibly be found out another more contrary 
S cund. Secund. quest. 69. art. 2. quest. 12. art 14.  to the Doctrine of St. Thomas, who in all his works, and particularly in his Sum, in his Quodlibet Questions, and in his Treatise of Secret Virtues and Properties, denies, that these images can receive any virtue from the Stars and Constellations under which they were made. This certainly were enough to show the impertinence and absurdity; it is, to charge this great person with contributing aught to the composition of these books, though we should not press, that Trithemius in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Authors, mentions not any one of them printed with the body of his works, collected into seventeen Tomes; nor take any notice, that Johannes Picus laughs at that book of Necromantical Images, and Franciscus his nephew, though much a servant and favourer of the Alchemists, makes it a great question, whether those Books of the Metallick Art, are not to be attributed rather to the Alchemists then St. Thomas. To which I may add, that, as Delrio affirms, the Commentaries upon the Nativity of one Thomas an English man, have been published under his name because of the nearness there is between these two Latin words, Anglicus and Angelicus; so it may safely be inferred, that since, according to all the Daemonographers, there have been divers other persons of the same name that have writ several Books in Magic, it were more rational to imagine that that of the Necromantical images should be rather fathered on them then on St. Thomas of Aquin, of whom it shall be said, in spite of all Ignorance, and to the despair of the Authors of these calumnities, 
— Et molliter ossa quiescent  
Semper, & in summo mens aurea vivet Olympo.   

In epist. de dicat. lib. propaedeumat. Aphoristicor. de Naturae viribus.  Had we the Book, which John Dee, Citizen of London a very great Philosopher and Mathematitian says he had written in defence of Roger Bacon, where he shows that whatever was said of his miraculous operations is rather to be attributed to the knowledge of nature, & the Mathematics than to any commerce or conversation he ever had with Daemons; I should have as little to say of him as of Apuleius who cleared himself from the like accusation in two Apologies. But since that Book (at least that I know of) never yet came abroad, I must imitate the grasshopper in Aelian, and supply the want of this broken string, with what is to be had, so to rescue the reputation of this English Franciscan, who was a doctor of Divinity, and the greatest Chemist, ginger and Mathematician of his time, from being condemned and buried among the multitude of Conjurers and Magicians. For, so far was he from making one of their number, that a man can no way better justify and defend him, then by producing his own declamations against Magic, unlawful Books, Characters and spells, as you have them in the three first Chapters of an Epistle he 
Disquisit. l. 31. c. 3. quest. 1.  writ of the Power of Art and Nature. Add to this that Delrio is content to observe only that there were some superstitious propositions in his Works, such as haply was that which Franciscus 
Lib. 2. de praenotione c. 1. & l. 7. c. 7.  Picus says he had read in his Book Of the six Sciences, where he affirms that a man may become a Prophet and foretell things to come by the means of the Class Almuchefi, composed according to the rules of Perspective, provided he made use of it under a good constellation, and had before hand 
Lib. 2. de Praestig. c. 2.  made his body very even, and put it into a good temper by Chemistry. Nor▪ indeed am I at all satisfied, why Wierus and divers others Daemonographers should so readily charge this Philosopher with the exercise of Geotick or prohibited Magic, when he, whom they all so much acknowledge, Johannes Picus of Mirandula, maintains, that he studied only the Natural. Whereto may be added the testimonies of three famous English Authors, 
a 
In praefa. Apolog. lib. de Script.  
Anglicis.   Lelandus 
b Lib. de Diis Syris Syntag. 1.  Selden and Bayly; as also that of Dr. 
c 2. In posteriori ed●tione Cantab. c Lib. 1. de ●ebus Anglicis.  Pits, who laughs at their foolish credulity who give any credit to this popular Error, especially since, as Selden affirms, there's no English Historian ever made mention of his Magical operations or any brazen 
Lib. 10. Symbolor. aureae menae pag. 453.  Head, which the populace believe he made. Upon occasion whereof Majerus observes that he is brought in as a great Magician in all Comedies and that the common report is, that he and his Fellow-Frier Thomas Bungey were seven years about that Head, merely to know of it whether there were not some means to compass England with a wall or Rampart, whereto it gave an answer which yet they could not understand, for, not expecting to receive it so soon, they were taken up with something else than harkening to that Oracle.  
A very fine relation certainly and suitable to the false witness from whom we have it, if ever there were any false, that is, the multitude, as having always been accounted such by all good Authors, especially 
a Lib. de vita beata.  Seneca and 
b Divinar. instit. l. 2. c. 3.  Lactantius. The former affirms, you must never appeal to it in any thing of Consequence, Quaerendum non quod vulgo placet, pessimo veritatitis interpreti: and the other had reason to admonish us, that Vulgus indoctum pompis inanibus gaudet animisque puerilibus spectat omnia, oblectatur frivolis, nec ponderare secum unamquamque rem potest. This were enough to stifle that vulgar story, should I say nothing of all the impertinences that accompany it, since they so evidently discover themselves. I take it therefore to be enough for my purpose to note that the structure and composition of this head was a thing absolutely impossible for the reasons I shall give for it in the next Chapter, and withal that Roger Bacon never minded the making of it, the whole fable having no other ground then common and popular reports. For it being ordinary old wives talk that Pope Sylvester, William of Paris, Robert of Lincoln, and Albertus Magnus had made such discoursing Statues, it might very well be added that Rober Bacon had in like manner made one, since that, being a great Mathematician, as may be seen both by the Treatises and instruments of his invention he sent to Pope Clement the fourth and his two Books, printed within these fifteen years, of Perspective and Glasses, it is not unlikely he did many extraordinary things by the help of that Science; whereof the cause being not known to the vulgar, (which was much more roughhewn, and barbarous than it is now) it could do no less than attribute them to Magic. But for that he hath for compurgators all learned men, and particularly the Jesuits, who put into their Mathematical Theses defended at Pont ● Mousson in the year 1622. on the day of the Cannonization of Ignatius, and Xavier, That it was 
Proposit. 12. optic.  possible for a man well versed in Optics and Catoptrics (such as undoubtedly Bacon was) dato quolibet objecto, quodlibet representare per specula, montem ex atomo, suillum aut asininum caput ex humano, Elephantem à capillo.  
What hath been said of Bacon, may be also applied to Thomas Bungey, who, merely because he was his Colleague in studies lying under the same misprision, must be included in the same defence. And for this there is so much the more reason, in that Delrio says not any thing of the Book he 
Disquisit. l. 1▪ c. 3 qu. 1.  writ of Natural Magic but that it contains certain superstitious propositions. Besides had he been in the least thought guilty of this crime, they would have been more careful then to make him Provincial of the Order of St. Francis in England, as Dr. Pits affirms he was; and withal that whatever is said concerning his Magic, proceeds only from his being an excellent Philosopher and Mathematician.  
The like solution may serve to justify Michael the Scot, who was no Ignorant person as those imagine who never saw his name but in the books of Daemonographers, a people that would have nothing to say of him, were it not to rank him among the Magicians, in imitation haply of the Poet Merlin Coccaius, who took a pleasure to describe his enchantments, and Dante the Florentine, who speaks thus of him, at the end of the twentieth Canto of his Hell.  

Quell' altro, che ne' fianchi é cosi poco,  
Michele Schotto fu, che verament▪  
Delle Magiche frode seppe il gioco.   

— See you that trifling fellow there?  
'Twas Michael the Scott, who knew his part▪  
In all the roguing cheats of Magic Art.   
For, besides that he is cited as a great divine by the most learned of the Carmelites, and Prince of the 
Part. sentent. distinct. 33.  Averroists, Johannes Bacco, it is easily judged, as well by the two Books we have of his, Of Physiognomy, and Questions upon the Sphere of Sacrobosco, as by his History of Animals and the testimony of Pits, that he was one of the most excellent Philosophers, Mathematicians, and Astrologers of his time; and upon that account much favoured by the Emperor Frederic II. to whom he dedicated all his Books, and foretold him that he should die in a castle called Fiorenzola, having also foreseen that himself should end his days in a Church. And indeed it came to pass, as de Granger in his Commentary upon Dante affirms, when being on a certain day adoring the body and blood of Jesus Christ, kneeling near the place, where a bell was then tolling, the rope drew down with it a stone, which falling on his barehead, killed him in the place, where afterwards he was buried.  
This laid down, I leave men to judge whether they who calumniate him without any proof, and that rather out of custom than any knowledge 
De reb. Anglicis.  they had of him, are to be credited rather than the Authority of Pits, a divine and modern Author, who speaking of him, says expressly, that though he was looked on as a Magician by the Vulgar, prudentium tamen et cordatorum hominum longè aliud fuit judicium qui potius perspicax ejus in scrutandis rebus abditis admirabantur ingenium, laudabant industriam, quam reprehendendam judicabant curiositatem, inspiciebantque hominis scientiam, non suspicabantur culpam. And for the formal authority of Dante and Coccaius, it cannot conclude any thing to our prejudice, since these two Poets might well derive such a narration from the vulgar, merely to sweeten and embellish their Poems, and that Cicero justly laughs at those who take the Poets for good security for any thing they say, when there is so great a difference between the conditions of a Poem and that of a History, quip 
Lib. de Leg.  cum in illa ad veritatem referantur omnia, in hoc ad delectationem pleraque.  
Since than it is easily discovered by what we have already said, that the ordinary judgement falling on learned men is to be charged with Magic I conceive few will wonder, if he who was called by 
a In Centur. miscel. proemi●.  Scaliger, Monstrum sine vitio, and by 
b Epist. Polit. l. 9. ●p. 4.  Politian (with the suffrages of the public voice) the Phoenix of all the great Wits, Picus of Mirandula, could not give Hermolaus Barbarus so slender an account of his expense of Six whole years in the reading of Scholastical Authors, but that the lustre of his great learning must needs so dazzle those who measured it with the fewness of his years when he began to break forth, that some, as 
a Lib. de anatom. ingenior.  Zara, looked on it as a miracle, and others, in 
b Oratione de Encyclopaed. vol. 1.  Tarquin Gallutius, are so injurious to him, as not to believe he could arrive to that wisdom and capacity but by the means of Magic. Upon which if I may give my opinion, I conceive I may truly say, that those who are so much prejudiced against the Learning of this great man, were persons certainly as ignorant as that Divine, who, as the same Picus affirms in his Apology, being asked what the word Cabala signified, answered, it was the name of a wicked man and an abominable Heretic, who had written divers things against Jesus Christ, and that all his followers were called Cabalists. For though it may be said, haply more truly of him than any other, 
— Primordia tantae  
Vix pauci meruere senes—  and that his Learning is to be admired as well in respect of his age as the time he lived in, wherein Letters did but as it were bud out of the thorns of Barbarism; yet is it too great a mistrust and limitation of nature and her forces to think she could not raise this man to such a supreme degree of perfection, as might be a mark for all those that would be like him. Mankind is a large field wherein Nature exercises herself several ways, sometimes sporting herself with an Amphistides, who could not tell as far as four, a Thersites, a Meletides or a Cecilian; and sometimes priding it in an Alexander, a Caesar, a St. Augustine, or a Picus of Mirandula; using, according to the opinion of Trismegistus, gold, silver, and lead in their Composition. It was a saying of Neocles in commendation of his Brother Epicurus, that Nature, in his generation, had assembled together all the Atoms of prudence into his Mother's Belly. And why may we not, with the same flourish, affirm that she may have united all the external causes of Air, climate, Stars, diet, towards the composition of a body, so to produce a Mind that should be the paragon of others, and as it were the mould by which others might be made. In this was cast that of Paulus de la Scale, who, in the year 1553. maintained, at Boulougne 1543 Conclusions upon several subjects of all kinds, and that before he was 22. years of age. That of the young man 
Lib. de Virg. Culice et Terentii fabulis  mentioned by Cardinal Bembus, who proposed 4500. at Rome. That of Postellus who moderated in the Schools at 13. years of age. That of Gesner and Erasmus, who were more learned at twenty, than others ordinarily are at fifty. That of Agrippa, who at twenty two interpreted the Pymander of Trismegistus, and the Book De verbo mirifico. That of Maldonat, who was admired for his reading of Divinity at twenty seven. And lastly that of Edward du Monim, who may be said to have been made up all of fire and spirit, since that, ere he was arrived to the twenty sixth year of his age, wherein he was killed, he was so great a Master of the Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew Tongues, as also of Philosophy, Physic, Mathematics and Theology, and had withal so fluent a vein of poesy in all those Languages, that he translated into Latin verse, and that in less than fifty days, Du Bartas' work of the Creation, and saw printed before his death, five or six large Volumes of his Poetry highly celebrated by the greatest wits of the last age, Fumaeus, du Perron, Goulu, Daurat, Morel, Baif, and du Bartas. Since therefore Pliny tells us, that Naturae rerum vis atque majestas in omnibus fide caret, si quis modo partes ejus ac non totum animo complectatur, and that we can exemplify in so many that came so near this Picus of Mirandula, were it not more rational to admire the extraordinary effects of Nature by judging of the one by the other, then basely to subject it to Spirits and Daemons, especially in things wherein there is not aught beyond the reach of her power and performance?  
Lastly, for the Abbot Trithemius, who is called by Thevet in his life, a subtle Philosopher, an ingenious Mathematician, a famous Poet, an accomplished Historian, a very eloquent Orator, and eminent divine; I find that those who would make him a Magician, may in the first place, ground their so doing on a little Book of three or four sheets printed under his name in the year 1612. entitled, Veterum Sophorum Sigilla & imagines Magicae, sive Sculpturae Lapidum aut Gemmarum ex nomine Tetragrammaton cum signatura planetarum, Authoribus Zoroastre, Salomone, Raphaele, Chaele, Hermete, Thelete, ex Joan Trithemii manuscripto erutae. Another ground may be his own speaking so pertinently of Magic, and his giving himself the title of Magician in some of his Epistles. And a third and last, his writing the Book of Steganography, a treatise stuffed with the names of Devils, and full of invocations, and, as very pernicious, condemned chiefly by Charles Boville a learned and eminent Divine, who makes it worse 
Lib. de intellectu sensu. etc. p. 73.  than that of Agrippa or any other Author, in the Epistle he sent to german Ganay Counsellor to the King, and since Bishop of Orleans, four years after he had seen and read it in the very study and Abbey of the said Trithemius. This was Authority enough for 
a Lib. 2. de praestig. c. 6.  Wierus, 
b In the lives of illustrious men.  Thevet, 
c Disquis. l. 2. q. 1.  Delrir, 
d Lib. de Magis & venefic.  Godelman and most of the Daemonographers to be of the same opinion.  
But for my part, I am of another, as conceiving that those, who would judge with more truth than passion as well of this last as the two former proofs, will beware how they blast with eternal infamy the memory of any man especially an Ecclesiastic, upon such poor grounds as these light▪ conjectures, which are absolutely vain, false, and forged. For besides the reasons laid down in our 6. Chap. that Pamphlet of making images and Characters upon Stones under certain Constellations is a pure imposture and cheat of Booksellers, who thought fit to print it as newly retrieved out of Trithemius' study, whereas, above 120. years before Camillus Lienard made it the third Book of his Mirror of precious Stones, besides that it was published by Ludovicus Dulcis in a treatise on the same subject, as also by Rodulphus Goclinus in above four or five several impressions 
De gener. & corrupt.  of his Book De Unguento Armario; so true is that axiom of Aristotle, that, Ad pauca respicientes de facili enuntiant. But be it supposed that that little treatise had been transcribed out of Trithemius', who would thence infer that a Book of superstitious Astrology were a sufficient testimony to condemn those of Magic who have it in their possession, especially since there cannot the least indicium be drawn from five or six Epistles printed at the end of Trithemius' Polygraphy, to confirm that opinion to his prejudice, nay they rather justify him, as may appear by the reading thereof and by 
a In clavi philosoph. Chymicae, sub finem.  Gerard Dorne and 
b Lib. de mysteriis ●otar & l. 1. Comment. in Paracel● de vita lon ga in Epist ad Joannem Westen burg.  James Gohory, who show from their enigmatical sense that they cannot be interpreted of any thing but Chemistry. So that it may be truly said that all the suspicion there is of his being a Magician, as he himself confesseth, proceeds only from the publication of a Letter he se●t to a Carmelite of Gaunt named Arnoldus Bostius, wherein he specified many miraculous and extraordinary effects, whereof yet he discovered the ways of performance in his treatise of Steganographie. For the judgement thereof of Charles Boville being published about the same time, people were presently persuaded that such things could not be taught in any but a Magic Book, and that Trithemius must needs be excellently well versed in Conjuring and Invocations.  
Now the first that opposed this calumny, after he, who was most concerned in it, had cleared himself, as well by the key to that book, and divers passages of his Works, was 
a Praefat. Comment. in Paracel. de vita longa.  James Gohory, who writ a short vindication of this Steganography, against the calumnies of Wierus Boville and Cardan. In which design he was seconded by 
b Pag. 12. of his Ciphers.  Vigenere, 
c De divinat. cap. 5.  Boissardus and 
d History of Tongues. c. 14. fol. 152. 159.  Duretus, who have shown that Trithemius had no other design in that book then to discover a new, and much surer way than that of his Polygraphie, to write and communicate freely one to another whatever were more secret, by the means of an invention which could never be suspected to have any other than the right sense, nor deciphered by any but him that had the key of it. This is further confirmed by one Sigismond an Abbot of the order of St. Benedict, who writ a Book, called, Trithemius sui ipsius vindex; and by the divine Adam Tamerus, in an Oration printed by him on that subject at Ingolstadt. But more remarkably than any, and so as to silence all difficulty, is it done by Gustavus Selenus who hath lately given us an explication of this Steganography in the third book of nine, that he hath published concerning Cryptographie. For he first shows why Trithemius would make it so difficult; why he would make use of that mask of spirits and invocations; and then he explains them and gives such overtures, as whence we may easily judge how far they disparage their own judgement, who with so little consideration blame things they understand not, and withal, that ordinary saying is true▪ that the most learned are not always the most discreet.   

CHAP. XVIII.  
Of Robert of Lincoln, and Albertus Magnus.  
IF it be true that the Authority of a many makes error the less censurable, and that the number of those that err with us makes our faults seem the more excusable, gives our opinions some ground, and hides the defects of our persuasion; I doubt not but those may easily make such an excuse their sanctuary, who seem to write out of no other design than to revive, in their works, all those calumnies which have been hitherto maintained by vulgar ignorance to the prejudice of the happy memory of Albertus Magnus, since that according to the Satirist, 
— Faciu●t high plura, sed illos  
Defendit numerus, junctaeque umbone phalanges.   
But if the number of these Authors were not yet less considerable than the prooss they bring, I should ingenuously confess, that it were in me no less temerity to take a course contrary to them, than it was anciently in Travellers not to cast a stone at those Pillars and Mercuries in the highways, to give others notice of them. And since it is not always, according to the saying of Pythagoras▪ the surest way to follow the most beaten tract, & that the most common opinions are ordinarily the most false, as being such as are rather applauded than examined; I shall stand upon the same liberty, which I have taken from the first Chapter of this Apology, to pass from the vindication of Religious men to that of Bishops, and show, that if ever great Learning and the ignorance of a barbarous age prejudiced any man, Robert Great-head, Bishop of Lincoln, or, as others, of Lancaster; and Albertus Magnus' Bishop of Ratisbonne have just cause to complain.  
As to the first, if we only except certain Demonographers, 
In confession Amantis apud Selden.  who, upon the account of a Brazen Head that spoke, which John Gower an English Poet, said he had endeavoured to make, to serve him instead of an Oracle, rank him among the 
Vol. 1. de r●b Anglicis.  Magicians; all Authors agree with Pits, that he was one of the most learned men of his time, a subtle Philosopher, an excellent Divine, a man equally acquainted with the seven liberal Sciences, and the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew Tongues, one that writ a great number of Books, whereof there are some remaining in Philosophy. Besides all which, he was of ●o holy and exemplary a life, that (not to prove it by the Fable, so well 
Disquis. l. c. 4. qu. 4. Sect. 1.  refuted by Delrio, concerning his death, and that of Pope Innocent fourth) Matthew Paris writes in his Chronicles, that he was in so much reputation among the English, that they called him, the holy Prelate, the King's faithful Counsellor, the Reformer of the Monks, the Director of Priests, the Instructor of the Clergy, the Nursing-father of Scholars and Students, the Preacher of the People, and the Scourge of Vices.  

In elogiis ●●ror doctorum.  And for Albertus, I am very much obliged to Paulus Jovius, that he had not honoured him with his Elegy, but upon the Title of Great, which was 
Livre du gouvernement d●e●●at.  given him even while he lived by the universal consent of all Schools. For if we consider with Botero, on what persons, and upon what occasions that title hath been bestowed, I believe there will be some miracle in it, to see a simple Friar of the Order of St. Dominick have an Epithet given him, not so ordinary with Popes, Emperors, and Sovereign Princes, had not his works discovered his desert to be so great, and his Learning so extraordinary, that such a recompense might seem inconsiderable, if Trismegistus had not so reserved the title of thrice great to himself, that it hath not been since communicated to any. Nor shall I 
In cate-log. Script. Ecclesiast.  need to say with Trithemius, that Non surrexit post eum vir similis ei qui in omnibus literis, scientiis et rebus tam doctus, eruditus, et expertus fuerit. Nor yet with Thevet, that he was so curious in the disquisition 
Vit. vir. illustr.  of the Secrets of Nature, that it might be said, one part of his soul was transported into the Heavens, another into the air, the third under the earth, and a fourth upon the waters, and that he had by some extraordinary course, so united and contracted together his whole soul, that nothing that this world comprehends could escape it. For all those Eulogies, added to what is commonly said of him, 
Inclytus Albertus doctissimus atque disertus,  
Quadrivium docuit, ac totum scibile scivit,  cannot so well help us to judge of his Learning as the reading of his own works which would make almost as many volumes as those of his Disciple Aquinas, if they were as well reprinted. It is not therefore to be admired, if so many things may be said of him upon the account of his knowledge, which being so great and extraordinary, some may very well be extremely doubtful, others, absolutely false and fictious. To confirm this we have John Matthew de Luna, who living 
L. de Rer. inventor. c. 12.  about 120 years since, held, though contrary to the opinion of Polydore Virgil, Magius, Mayerus, Pancirollus, Florence, Rivault, Zezoldus, and all Authors that writ of the invention of Fireworks, that Albertus Magnus first found out the use of Canon, Arquebuse and Pistol; For I could never find in these Authors any thing that came near this opinion save that such inventions were put in practice in his time, and that by a German Monk called Berthold Schwartz, or by a certain Chemist, who, as Cornazanus, an Author ancient enough, conceives, lived in the City of Cullen, where it is certain that Albertus Magnus lived, ever after he had taken the habit of a Dominican.  
And this makes me not a little wonder that the Alchemists should never bethink them of holding this opinion, since they might have done it with much more reason, than attribute to him the knowledge of the Philosopher's stone, as hath lately done their great favourer and a better Majerus, who is not ashamed, in his Symbols upon the golden table of the 12 Nations, to affirm, that St. Dominick had it first, and that those to whom he had left it, communicated it to Albertus Magnus, who by the advantages he made of it, discharged in less than three years, all the debts of his Bishopric of Ratisbonne, and afterwards taught it St. Thomas Aquinas, while he was his disciple. To give this the greater Authority, he highly celebrates three Books of Chemistry, which he attributes to him, whereof since there is not any of them either among the collection of his works, or specified in the Catalogue made of them by Trithemius, we are only to take notice of that 
L. 3. de auro.  which Fran. Picus says he writ, Of Quintessence, to show by the forgery of that, what account should be made of the others, it being certain that Albertus Magnus never contributed a thought towards it. This may be proved, not only from his laughing at the Alchemists and their pretended Transmutations in his third Book of 
a Tract. 1. c. 9  Minerals, as 
b ●. 3. Physic. c. 13.  Velcurion, and 
c Al●hym. impugnalae▪ l 2. c. 7.  Guybert endeavour to show, since he there maintains a quite contrary opinion; but because the Author of that Book calls himself therein, a Friar of the Order of St. Francis, and says he writ it in prison. These two circumstances, which must infallibly relate to John de Rupescissâ, easily evince, that some Impostor made it his business to play the Plagiary, and steal it out of a Book he had written on that subject, to divulge and gain it reputation under the name of Albertus Magnus, according to the ordinary cheat of all Alchemists, who make this their common sleight to inveigle people into a belief of their promises, and by that means, 
Noctem peccatis, et fraudibus addere nubem.   
To come then to what is most essential in this Chapter, and to what lies in our power to deliver this eminent person out of the Quagmire of the Magicians, as we have already drawn him out of that of the Alchemists. This were soon done if we would but appeal to the judgement of Anthony de Sienes, and Father Justinian, who writ his Life, or to take witnesses disengaged from all interest or passion, 
a In Catolog. Script. Ecclesiast. et Antipal. l. 1. c 3.  Trithemius, and 
b Apolog. art. 5.  J. Picus of Mirandula, who absolutely clear him from this calumny. Adding withal, that when it is said that Albertus Magnus was addicted to Magic, it must be understood of the Natural, for fear lest the false opinion of the contrary, might give many occasion to imagine that it were unlawful for us to do what he hath done.  
But since all these Authorities conclude nothing if some answer be not made to the proofs ordinarily produced to blast his innocence (not to mention that even from his youth, he had such a particular devotion to the B. Virgin, that she wrought such an alteration in his mind, that of an unrefined and unpolished one, she made it capable of comprehending all things) we are to 
Bzovius de sign. Eccles. tom. 1. l. 9 c. 11. sig. 36.  consider, that these proofs have no other ground than that of two Books falsely published under his name, and that Androides, which hath given occasion to thousands of Fables and impertinencies frequent in Authors.  
For the two Books Franciscus 
a De praenot. l. 7. c. 7.  Picus, and 
b Disquis. l. 1. c. 3.  Delrio agree in this, that it were an extraordinary injury to think this holy person Author of that de Mirabilibus, and in these words clear him of it, Alberto Magno tributus Liber de Mirabilibus, vanitate et superstitione repertus est, sed magno Doctori partus supposititius. To which F. Picus adds, that it is falsely attributed to him, as many others were, as, among the rest, that de secretis Mulierum, since Albertus is not so much as named at the beginning of it, as he who hath writ a Comment upon it would persuade us; besides that it is easily perceived, that the Author of it, who ever he was, lived some time after him, because he often citys his Authority. So that all the quarrel now lies against that entitled, the Mirror of Astrology, where is treated of the approved and forbidden Authors that have written of that Art. This is condemned by Gerson and Agrippa as extremely superstitious, and by F. Picus and divers others, because the Author of it maintains a very erroneous opinion in favour of Magical Books, which, with submission to better advice, he holds, should be carefully preserved, because the time than drew near, that, for certain reasons, not specified, men would have occasion to read and make use of them.  
To clear Albertus from all suspicion of Magic upon the account of this Book, I can produce no better testimony than that of J. Picus, a person more fit to judge of this difficulty than any other, who in his first Book against Astrologers maintains that the Treatise De Libris licitis et illicitis, was infallibly writ by R. Bacon, whose custom it was to cite and produce such Authors in all his Books, which cannot be observed in Albertus Magnus. Besides the said R. Bacon was so strangely addicted to judicial Astrology, that Henry d'Assia, William of Paris, and Nicholas Oresmus, all very eminent Doctors, thought themselves obliged to inveigh against his works, and all the vanities of Astrologers. But be it imagined this Book was writ by Albertus, I see not why his affirming that Magical Books should be preserved by Inquisitors, and persons of like Authority should make so much noise, since that about 100 years since, it was the advice of Revelin not to burn those of the Jews. 
a Antipal. l. 1. c. 2.  Trithemins is of the same opinion, & 
b 1. part. q. 2. art. ●. disp. 20. ●. 4.  Vasquez says peremptorily, that Magical Books are necessary, and Magicians permitted by God for the greater conviction of Libertines and Atheists, who by this means might be drawn to acknowledge there are other substances than what we judge of by the finger and the eye: Quo admisso, says he, facilius in eam sententiam adducantur ut numen aliquod fateantur▪ et magis ab Atheismo deterreantur, quo avidiùs Magicis artibus student, quod nisi inter Haereticos Deus permisisset, poenè omnes in Atheismo versarentur. To which concurs also Lactantius, when he says, that Democritus, Epicurus, ct Dicaearchus would not have so confidently denied the immortality of the Soul, Mago aliquo praesente, qui sciret certis carminibus cieri ab inferis animas, et adesse, et praebere se humanis oculis videndas, et loqui et future pr●dicere.  
If after all this Albertus be charged with any thing of Magic, it must be on some other pretence then that of these two books; s●nce it is clear from what hath been said, that he never had any hand in them. All therefore we have now to do, is to refute their error who are persuaded that brazen heads made under certain Constellations may give answers, and be as it were guides and Counsellors, upon all occasions, to those that had them in their possession. Among these is one 
a Apud Eman. de M●●ra, Sect. 2. c. 17. a●t. 6.  Ye●es, who affirms that Henry de Villeine made such a one at Madrid, broken to pieces afterward by the order of John 2. King of Castille. The same thing is affirmed by 
b 3. Decad. Per●gr. quest. c. 2 qu 3.  Bartholomew Sibillus, and the Author of the Image of the world, of Virgil; by 
c De g●stis R g. Anglor. l. 2. c. 10.  William of Malmsbury, of Sylvester; by 
d Apud. S●ld a. de D●●s Syris Syntag. 1. c. 2.  John Gower, of Robert of Lincoln; by the common people of England▪ of Roger Bacon; and by 
e In Exod.  Tostatus Bishop of Avilla 
f H●●me●. C●n●. 3. ●om. 4.  George of Venice, 
g Disquis. l. 1. c. 4▪  Delrio, Sibillus, 
h Lib. 2. Epist. ●p. 6.  Ragu●eus, 
i De incon. stant l. 2. c. 2.  Delancre and others, too many to mention, of Albertus Magnus; who, as the most expert, had made an entire man of the same metal, and had spent 30 years without any interruption in forming him under several Aspects and Constellations. For example; he made the eyes, according to the said Tostatus, in his Commentaries upon Exodus, when the Sun was in a Sign of the Zodiac correspondent to that part, casting them out of divers Metals mixed together, and marked with the Characters of the same Signs and Planets, and their several and necessary Aspects. The same method he observed in the Head, Neck, Shoulders, Thighs and Legs, all which were fashioned at several times, and being put and fastened together in the form of a Man, had the faculty to reveal to the said Albertus the solutions of all his principal difficulties. To which they add (that nothing be lost of the story of the Statue) that it was battered to pieces by St. Thomas, merely because he could not endure its excess of prating.  
But to give a more rational account of this Androides of Albertus, as also of all these miraculous heads, I conceive the original of this Fable may well be deduced from the Teraph of the Hebrews, by which as Mr. 
a De diis Syris, Synt. 1. c. 2.  Selden affirms, many are of opinion, that we must understand what is said in 
b c. 31.  Genesis concerning Laba●'s Gods, and in the first book of 
c c. 19  Kings concerning the Image which Michol put into the bed in David's place. For R. Eleazar holds that it was made of the head of a male child, the first born, and that dead-born, under whose tongue they applied a Lamen of Gold, whereon were engraved the Characters and Inscriptions of certain Planets, which the Jews superstitiously wandered up and down with, instead of the Urim and Thummim, or the Ephod of the high Priest. And that this Original is true and well deduced, there is a manifest 
Pergr. qu. ●●cad. 3. c. 2. q. 3.  indicium, in that Henry d' Assia and Bartholomaeus Sibillus affirm, that the Androides of Albertus, and the Head made by Virgil, were composed of flesh and bone, yet not by Nature but by Art. But this being judged impossible by modern Authors, and the virtue of Images, Annulets, and Planetary sigils being in great reputation, men have thought ever since (taking their opinion from Trismegistus affirming in his Asclepion, that, of the Gods, some were made by the Sovereign God, and others by men, who, by some Art, had 
De civet. dei. l. 8. c▪ 23.  the power to unite the invisible Spirits to things visible and corporeal, as he is explained at large by by St. Augustine) that such Figures were made of Copper or some other Metal, whereon men had wrought under some favourable Aspects of Heaven and the Planets. Which opinion, since it is the more common, it is fit we earnestly buckle with, and show that it was not without reason refuted by St. Thomas, William of Paris & Niphus, as false, absurd, and erroneous. To prove this the more easily we are to presuppose, that speech is the action of some thing that is living, and is not performed but by the voice which is defined by St. Thomas, after Aristotle, Sonus ab ore animalis prolatus. For it must needs be granted, that, if these Heads spoke, it was either because they were living and animate, or that the Daemons spoke in them. If the former, the Soul whereby they did it, must be vegetative, sensitive, or rational. It could not be vegetative, because, according to the faculties of the said Soul; such bodies should be ranked among Plants, be nourished, increase and produce their like. It could not be sensitive, for that, besides the faculties of the vegetative Soul, it presupposes two more, which are particular to it, and never granted to those Statues. Much less than can it be rational, unless we grant withal, that they could apprehend the Species of things, discourse, remember them, and, in a word, be like us.  
Moreover, if these Heads and Statues were really such, that is, living and animate, it was either by an accidental form or a substantial; not the first, at least according to the opinion of all Philosophers, who will never grant, that to discourse, to speak, to teach, to foresee what is to come; and such effects can depend on an accident, and not on a Substance. The latter is less possible, because such Statues could not receive that substantial form till they had been devested of what they had before; which there is no colour to imagine they should have done by a simple transmutation of figure, since the form of the copper and of their matter was still such as it was wont to be. Further, I would gladly know, where was their motion, the first indicium of life; where their senses, the sluices of all knowledge; and, in a word, (not to ravel ourselves into thousands of difficulties, arising from the original and operation of that Soul) where were the Parts and Organs necessary for their discourse and ratiocination.  
Nor does it avail any thing, to grant that the Daemons have spoken in them; for it must be done either as the Soul does in our Body, by the assistance of its Organs, or as one should do that answers in a Chest, or some broken pot. The former way is impossible such Statues being not furnished with Muscles, Lungs, an Epiglottis, and what is requisite to a perfect articulation of the Voice. The latter is as ridiculous, for, if it be true, why should those men take such pains to make a Man rather than a Trumpet, or a Head rather than a Bottle, since the Devil might as well answer by the one as the other, and that if he hath heretofore uttered his Oracles in Statues, it was to engage men to adore them, to the contempt of their Creator, whereas there is not the least mention of any Idolatry, in the Stories of this Androides, and these fine Heads. So that we may well conclude with the Royal Prophet, The Idols of the Gentiles are Silver and Gold, they have mouths and speak not, nor is there any breath in their nostrils; all we have to do (the reasons of 
L. 2. de Daemonibus c. 12. 13.  Trismegistus being fully refuted by Niphus) being to satisfy the Authority of Tostatus, one of the most ancient and most authentic Patrons of Albertus' Androides, that so we may at length give a final sentence against the vanity of all these Fables and pernicious falsities.  
I must indeed confess, that Tostatus was the most learned, nay the miracle, if I may so express myself, of the learned men of his age; since that, being Counsellor to the King, great Referendary of Spain, and Professor, in Salamanca, of Philosophy, Divinity, Civil and Canon Law, and all at the same time, he hath nevertheless written such large and laborious Commentaries, that were we not certain he died at forty, they were enough to persuade us he had lived an entire age. But when I find him affirming therein many things justly accounted fabulous by the World, as for instance, what is said concerning the birth of the Prophet Merlin, the Magic of Virgil, a brazen head that discovered the Jews in Spain, a certain earth in Hebron that was good to eat, the Androides of Albertus Magnus, and abundance of the like, I cannot but look on them as so many black patches of his humanity; nay, if we appeal to Scaliger, we must ingenuously acknowledge, 
L. 1. de Plantis ●n Theoph.  that hoc ostentationis vitium fuit magnis viris, ut globatim congererent omnia, non ut nihil reliquisse▪ sed ut nihil nescivisse viderentur: To reinforce which Argument, if any shall with Aristotle insist, 
Ethic. l. 7▪  that common report cannot be absolutely false, and consequently, that so many Authors would not have spoken of the Androides of Albertus, if something had not been in the wind, I shall finally answer, That my design is only to show that he could not by the help of superstitious Magic, make a Statue that should give him answers in an intelligible and articulate voice, upon all the doubts and difficulties he proposed thereto, as well of things present as to come; and not absolutely to deny that he might compose some Head or Statue of man, like that of Memnon, from which proceeded a small sound, and pleasant noise, when the rising Sun came, by his heat, to rarify and force out, by certain small Conduits, the air which in the cold of the night was condensed within it. Or haply they might be like those Statues of Boetius, whereof Cassiodorus 
L. 1. Variar. epist. 45.  speaking said, Metalla mugiunt, Diomedis in are grues buccinant, aeneus anguis insibilat, aves simulatae fritinniunt, et quae propriam vocem nesciunt, ab aere dulcedinem probantur emittere cantilenae; for such I doubt not but may be made by the help of that part of Natural Magic which depends on the Mathematics. It were therefore much more rational thus to interpret whatever hath been said of this Androides, than to prostitute the reputation of Albertus Magnus, Robert of Lincoln, and so many other persons of considerable quality to the judgement of certain Authors, who are so easily carried away with the slender assurance of a common opinion, Ovid. Met. 6. 
— Quae veris addere falsa  
Gaudet, et è minimo sua per mendacia crescit.    

CHAP. XIX.  
Of the Popes, Sylvester II. and Gregory VII.  
AS it was not lawful for every one in the old Testament to lend a shoulder to uphold the Ark of the Covenant, even though it were ready to fall, so there are a many that think it were not convenient, that all kinds of Writers undertook the defence of him whom Christ Jesus hath left as Head and Vicegerent of his militant Church. The reason is, that being persecuted by the enemy of mankind, who hath taken into his service all the modern Heretics, the better to oppose him, and so to strike at the foundation of spiritual Monarchy, He should employ no other than such Christian and Catholic Herculeses, as were Bellarmine, Baronius, and the ornament of Gascony Florimundus Remundus, to whom it properly belongs to vindicate the injuries done to the Successors of St. Peter, to purge their Annals of errors, and to heal their blindness who are imprudently carried away with the forgeries & calumnies of Heretics. And yet since, as Tertullian says, every one may be a Soldier in what concerns the defence of Religion; and that God was pleased to make use of the sling of a poor Shepherd to abate the pride of the Philistines, we may presume (yet without searching into the secrets of his will to find out the cause of Uzzah's death, for endeavouring to uphold the Ark) that, as he permits the Devil to set upon the Church by the means of the most inconsiderable Heretic, so is he not displeased that any one should defend her. And this I think it my duty to do, as to what concerns the crime of Magic, wherewith the simplicity of some ancient Authors and the malice of modern Heretics, would blast the reputation of those who have sat at the helm thereof in the quality of Popes. Not that I am so unadvised as to think their innocence stands in any need of my pen, since it is strong enough to rescue itself, with the assistance of the holy Spirit who never forsakes it, from such an accusation, and to overcome all the tempestuous hurricans of such calumnies, 
Illisos fluct us rupes ut vast a retundit,  
Et varias secum latrantes dissipat undas  
Mole suâ.—   
But being both by the relation of a Catholic, & the title of this Apology obliged to this duty, I might well be laughed at, if presuming to vindicate all the eminent persons, I should forget myself so far, as not to say some thing of those, who, by reason of their dignity, are the most highly considerable. And this the rather, since I withal pretend to draw from this Chapter the strongest Argument that may be, to justify all the others mentioned in this Book, whom no man will hereafter wonder to find charged with Magic, when even those who command us as Lieutenant's of God, and whom we respect as the high Priests & Prelates of our Religion could not avoid that reproach. Yet as God never permits error so to insinuate into any thing of importance, but there is light enough to discover it, if a man will look but narrowly thereto; so in this case, so many justifying circumstances offer themselves, and there are so many proofs to undermine the very groundwork of these accusations that men must needs be either strangely passionate or ignorant, if, having ever so little reason or judgement they do not perceive, that all those things which concern the Magic of the Popes, are nothing but Dreams, Castles in the Air, Chimaeras & Fables.  
For to begin with those that are less suspected, and by consequence may the most easily be vindicated, I conceive the first charged though but slightly, with this crime, was Leo the III. to whom is attributed a little Book called, Enchiridion Leonis Papae, contra omnia mundi pericula, containing abundance of Crosses, a many names of God, and the Cabala, abundance of mystical and unintelligible words. Whence it haply comes, that 
a De spectr. l. 4. c. 4.  Le Loyer and 
b Disquis. l. 2. quaest. 21.  Delrio do, with reason, laugh at those who think that Book was sent by this Pope to the Emperor Charlemain, since it contains only a certain Theurgy very flat and ill managed which yet some have since endeavoured to disguise in Italy under the name of St. Ubald Bishop and Confessor. But as for that sending, there's no more likelihood in it then in what is related by Emanuel De Moura, who says, 
Lib. de E●salsect. 1. c. 3. art. 1. & 2.  that there being a certain Scholar in the City of Conimbra, who healed wounds by virtue of certain words and prayers, the common report was, that they had been first sent by Pope Sixtus V. to John of Austria, then in war against the Turk, to be used in order to the curing of his wounded men. For as the said de Moura affirms, the Scholar gave him another reason of the virtue of those prayers, such as had no coherence with that of the Common opinion.  
Next to Leo III may be put that Monster, or rather Chimaera, John the eighth, otherwise called Pope Joan, a very knowing person and one that had writ a Book in Magic, as Balaeus and the Centuriators affirm, if that Achilles of the holy see, and the Patron of Papal honour, Florimundus Remnndus, had not undeceived us as to that fable, discovering the popular Error which had kept it in vogue, and snatching it out of the Trophy which Heretics had raised thereby against the Popes, so to turn it to their own shame and confusion, there being not now any among them so unadvised as to presume to revive it in his books, unless he expects to be immediately declared a malicious person in the superlative degree, or one very eminent for his ignorance and want of Judgement. Having not therefore any thing to add to what that learned Counsellor of the City of Bourdeaux hath said of him, I shall pass to Martin II. whom I shall not acknowledge justly charged with magic though Platinus said of him, that malis artibus Pontificatum adeptus est. For we are to consider it merely as a reproach of his enemies, and that that manner of expression, frequent in Platinus, even in the lives of divers other Popes who were not Magicians, must be understood of the favour, violence, corruption, Simony, and a many other unjustifiable ways, whereby such as endeavour the satisfaction of their ambition more than the tranquillity of their Conscience and the well fare of the universal Church, may haply attain, though not without abundance of trouble, that supreme dignity of Ecclesiastical Monarchy.  

De praestig. 〈…〉 c. 2.  To that Catalogue, if we credit Wierus, we must add all those inclusively who had the Chair from Sylvester II. to Gregory VII. that is about fifteen or sixteen. But since Benno, a schismatical Cardinal, who made a Catalogue of the Popes that we●e Magicians, reckons but four or five, that really were such, viz. Sylvester II. Benedict IX. John XX. and XXII. and Gregory VII. three whereof had never been suspected but by occasion of the other two, I think I need do no more than show what this Benno was, and endeavour the particular vindication of Sylvester and Gregory so to clear them all together of that calumny, and discover how little reason men have had to be corrupted so long by the Leaven of this erroneous opinion. For when I reflect on the first and most ancient Authors from whom this kind of injury hath been derived against the successors of St. Peter, I cannot but say with Apuleius, perinjurium est ei fidem in pejoribus habere, cui in melioribus non haberes, and consequently, fall into a double admiration; First, at the simplicity of a many of our Demonographers and modern Historians, who fill their Books with such trivial stories and fables taken out of those Authors without any discretion. Secondly, at the inveterate malice of Heretics who, to satisfy the envy and hatred they bore the holy See, (whose ruin they have as much conspired as ever Hannibal did that of Rome) make it still their business to seek out those calumnies and reproaches which good Authors cannot furnish them with, in the sepulchres and common shores of Schismatics, and, as the Civilian Michael Riccius hath 
Apolog. 2. Lib. de fide Gallica.  well observed, Antiquos & manuscriptos libros in latebrosis lucis laborios eevolvunt et ex foetido pulvere autores quosvis excitant, quos licentiosé in ipsos Pontifices scripsisse deprehendunt. Whether this be so, I appeal to that Collection which Mathias Flaccius Illyricus hath made in that great Volume entitled, Catalogus testium veritatis, which I cannot more fitly compare to any thing then to that Poneropolis of Philip of Macedon. For as that City was inhabited only by Exiles, Rogues, Cutpurses, pillory'd persons, and all the dregs and offals of the Country; So may it be truly said, that (the depraved passages out of the Fathers and Counsels only excepted) all that so vast Catalogue is only a heap of their shreds and fragments who had before either kicked against the Church; or been cut off from it as rotten and gangrened Members, such as, among a million of others, was the pretended Cardinal Benno, who made it his business to give us the representation of a bad Pope in Gregory VII. as Xenophon did that of a Virtuous and accomplished Prince under the person of Cyrus. For I can hardly believe that a man could say such strange things of the wickedest person in the world, as what this Author says of such a Pope, and upon his account of Sylvester II. John XX. XXI. and Benedict IX. who, if we may believe him, did by his Magic, force women to run after him through Woods and over Mountains, and gave infallible predictions of things to come. And yet these fables are nothing in comparison of what he adds concerning the Archbish Laurence, who perfectly understood the singing of Birds, and Gregory VII. who cast the holy Host into the fire, conspired the Emperor's death, poisoned six Popes, by the help of his friend and Confident Gerard Brazutus, and had so well Learned Magic of Theophylact and Laurence Sylvester's disciples, that he scattered fire when he shook his arms, and sent out thunder-cracks out of his sleeve. But this Author speaks too liberally to be believed, and since it was his design to traduce the Popes, he should have done it with more modesty and judgement, and so not have given 
a Disquis. l. 2. qu. 9  Delrio and 
b Of Antichrist cap. 17.  Florimundus Remundus occasion to Imagine his Book supposititious and forged, at the eruption of Lutheranism, or rather that he might have avoided the distaste of the more reserved and conscientious among those of the Reformation, and particularly 
c Biblioth. Histor. part. 2. p. 650. where he speaks of the death of Sylvester at the end of the year 1003.  Vigner, who hath these words of him, Cardinal Benno speaks after a strange manner of the Popes of these times, as also of the means whereby they arrived to that height, I know not whether he be an Author that may be credited, or no. Add to that the Censure given of him by 
* Lib. 4.  Papyrius Masson, in the History he hath written with too much liberty of Conscience of the Bishops that have governed the Church of Rome; for speaking of Sylvester and the injury done him by accounting him a Magician, he says, Atque hujus fabulae inventorem suspicor Bennonem presbyterum Cardinalem: is enim odio Hildebrandi multa quoque de praedecessoribus ejus fingit, quos ob mathematicas disciplinas velut Maleficos damnat, et hanc de Sylvestro narrat fabulam. Whence may easily be inferred that Bibliander 
Tabula 13.  hath a mind maliciously to deceive us, when he affirms, in his Chronicle, that this Benno was created Cardinal by Hildebrand, with whom he was in great friendship, whereas it is evident that that dignity was conferred on him by the Antipope Clement III. and that he ever followed the party of the Emperor Henry IU. a Schismatic and excommunicated person. To which may be added, for confirmation, his Letter found at the Council convened by the Cardinals who sided with Henry and his Antipope, against Urban II. and those whom they called favourers and followers of the Heresies invented by Pope Hildebrand; to disgrace whom, Ultramus Bishop of Noremberg and all the Partisans of the Emperor scattered abroad abundance of Challenges and Libels, as it is ordinary with Princes to be ever well furnished with such Advocates and defenders of their Causes, be they good or bad.  
But as this pretended Cardinal Benno, a person equally discarded both by Protestants and Catholics, seems to have done all he did out of a set design and purpose, to calumniate Gregory VII. so must it be acknowledged, that Platinus, an eminent writer of the lives of Popes, hath too credulously embraced what was said before him by Martin de Citeaux and Godefrey of Monmouth, in his Additions upon Sigebert, concerning Pope Sylvester, to represent him to us as a famous Conjurer and Magician. It were much better to search the truth of this story to the bottom, and not to trust either this Martin, who had been already deceived in the life of Pope Joan, or Godefrey, who entertains us with the fine Romance of Arthur and his Prophet Merlin. For had he pursued his design, with as much integrity as he was obliged to have done, those ridiculous fables, so frequent in his Writings, would not give us at this day occasion to think him not well affected towards the Popes, because of Paul II. who devested him of all honours and dignities after 
Paul. Jou. in Elogiis.  he had put him to the Torture. Or haply he made his advantage of whatever came to his hands taking all for current money, so by those fegaries, to humour the Readers, and show he was not ignorant of what others had said before him, than not that he gave them any credit himself.  
The same judgement may we pass upon Martinus Polonus who published such another story of Sylvester in the year 1320. for it is clear that he hath translated all he says of him, in his Chronological Supputations, out of this Godefrey who lived about the year 1150. and one Gervase an Orator of the City of Arles and Chancellor to the Emperor Ottho III. but withal the most confident forger of Fables and the most egregious Liar that ever took pen in hand. To prove which, there needs no more than the reading of his own Book, De ociis Imperatoris, where all he says is so extravagant, and at such a distance with reason and both ordinary and extraordinary possibility, that the Fables of Aesop, and the stories of Amadis are a hundred times more credible. Besides, not to make any difficulty about the diversity of Copies, and the Additions made to this Martinus Polonus, it were more prudence to conclude, that this authority cannot any way prejudice Sylvester, not only for the foregoing reason, but also because he tires us with such abundance of fabulous things in his Supputations, that it were no less lightness of persuasion than want of judgement to credit any thing he says of Sylvester. I produce for testimony the tales he hath stolen out of the Book de Infantia Salvatoris, and those he makes upon the history of Pilate, of the Greeks, who would steal the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul; of Sylvester's Dragon, which destroyed every day six thousand persons, and that of another that was of such vast bulk that eight yoke of Oxen were not able to draw him to the place where he was to be burnt. To which may be added those of Arthur of Britain, of the Prophet Merlin, of Pope Joan, of the Golden Letters of a hundred pound weight a piece, which Charlemaigne bestowed on twenty three Monasteries he had founded, & abundance of the same stuff good fornothing but, with the help of a cradle, to rock little Children asleep.  
And lastly, for Vincent d' Beauvais, and Antonine de Florence who may have let fall somewhat of the Magic of these Popes, I shall▪ with Melchior 
Chap. 22. of his Popular Errors.  Canus, and Florimundus Remundus, confidently affirm, that though they were creditable persons, yet in regard they have not been at the pains to consider well the places whence they have taken their Stories, nor weighed the things they have left behind them, they are of little or no Authority among such as cannot brook it, to see the Noble name of History upon the Portals of these monstrous Edifices built of Materials so confused and different, so far from being solid and well cemented. I have been the more large in answering these ancient Authors, because, these foundations once undermied, there's nothing so easy as to pull down the superstructure; such as are, the Authorities of Nauclerus, Funccius, Goldast, Gualterus, du Plessis, Balaeus, the Centuriators, and a whole Anthill of Lutherans▪ and Calvinists who have with much curiosity, not only transcribed out of those Ancients, but made on small additions to these plausible relations. Not that they were so simple & stupid as to take them for true, but because they imagined all makes for them that hurts their adversaries, and thought this kind of battery would prove very effectual, by the delinquency of 2. or 3. Popes, to make a Breach in the veneration due to all the rest, and to reproach the whole body with the imperfection of some one of its members; Est enim, as Sidonius saith, haec quaedam vis malis moribus, ut innocentiam multitudinis 
Lib. 9 Epist. 9  devenustent scelera paucorum.  
To level, therefore, this Tower of confusion, which, in some of our Historians & Demonographers, want of judgement; in Heretics, envy hatred and malice, have engaged them to build up to the dishonour of the Monarch of the Church, upon the too simple and easy credulity of those ancient Authors, we must begin with this Gerbert, or Sylvester II. He, they say, was Master in Magic to four or five of his successors, whereas there is more ground to acknowledge that he was the most virtuous person, and greatest Light as to all manner of Sciences, of the age he lived in, it being much more easy for us to give an account of his learning then the place of his extraction and manner of life, till he arrived to the Archbishopric of Rheims. For some, according to the common opinion, affirm, that he was first a Religious man at Fleury, or St. Bennets upon the Loire. Others there are that hold the contrary, grounding their opinion upon what he saith himself in one of his Epistles to the Emperor Otho III. wherein he openly tells him, that he had, from his Childhood, served his Father and Grandfather Otho the Great, before he was entertained into the service of Adalbero Archbishop of Rheims. But the true story is, that being chosen by Hugh Capet, to be Tutor to his Son Robert▪ he conferred on him that Archbishopric, whereof being devested by John XVII. he retired into Germany, to Otho II. who committed to this charge Otho III. and gave him, by way of recompense the Archbishopric of Ravenna, which he peaceably enjoyed, till that, his Disciple coming to the Empire, he was by him ordained Pope and maintained against the Romans in the dignity of supreme Bishop.  
These things well considered, I see not upon what ground Martinus Polonus and Platinus misrepresent him as a Magician. For I pray, what likelihood is there he should quit his Friar's frock to go and learn Magic at Toledo, Salamanca, or Sevill, the Metropolis of Andaluzia in Spain, when he never stirred out of the Abbey of Fleury, till he was taken thence by Hugh Capet, or as he saith himself, spent his youth in the service of Otho I. and TWO? And is it not more probable he should arrive to all these Ecclesiastical Dignities by the favour of two Kings of France and three Emperors, to whom he had done great and considerable services, rather than by any assistance or industry of the Devil, who never yet was so good a Master as to bestow a halfpenny on all the Magicians, notwithstanding their most remarkable beggary, as 
a Disquis. l. 2. qu. 12.  Delrio, 
b Daemonom. l 3. c. 3  Bodin, 
c Lib. 1. demonolat. c. 4.  Majole, Remy, and all Authors knowledge? And this they say proceeds from the special providence of God, who hath reserved in his own hands the power to enrich men and to distribute his favours and rewards according to the Psalr●ist, The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof; he openeth his hand, and filleth every living thing with blessing, he giveth unto every one, and upbraideth not; in his left hand are riches and glory.  
Nor is there any more marrow in what is added, that, having been answered by the Devil, that he should not die till such time as he had said Mass in Jerusalem, he was extremely surprised upon warning given him that he was near his death, when, not minding any thing he said it in the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, which is in Rome. As if he should be ignorant there was a Temple in the place of his constant residence called by that name, or should not have reflected on the ambiguity of Oracles, and would have celebrated Mass in a place unknown to him. But what is said of his end is much more flat and ridiculous, at least, if we could but be persuaded, that, as Martinus Polonus and Platinus affirm, he made a public acknowledgement of his fault, and that after he had given assured expressions of a sincere and perfect repentance, he committed a thing extremely superstitious, ordering that his body should, after his death, be put in a Chariot to be drawn by Oxen, without any body to guide them, that it might be buried in the place where they should stop. That happened before the Church of St. John Lateran, where the foresaid Authors with divers others, affirm that his Sepulchre gives a certain presage of the death of Popes both by a shock and crashing of the bones that are within, and by a great sweat and moistness of the stone without, as is observable, according to Platinus in the Epitaph set upon it.  
But this is all pure cheat and imposture, not only as to experience, never any such thing having been observed by any one to this day; but also as to the Inscription of this Sepulchre composed by Sergius IU. which is so far from making any mention of all these fables and extravagances, that, on the contrary, it is one of the most considerable testimonies we can have of the good life and integrity of this Sylvester. And indeed it is no small shame, that many Catholics should so much countenance this calumny, when Marianus Scotus, Glaber, Ditmare, Hilgaudus, Lambert, and Herman Contract, who were his Contemporaries, make not the least mention of it. Not to urge, that it is refuted evenby some dis-passionate Heretics, as Vigner in his Bibliotheca, and Papyrius Masson in his History of the Bishops of Rome, where speaking of Sylvester, he says, Plurimùm miramur confictam de eo fabulam mortalium aures ita penetrâsse, ut nunc quoque evelli ex plurimorum mentibus non possit; and so concludes that all this Tragedy came from Cardinal Benno's invention. Of which opinion is also Baronius, who speaking of him, says, Is fuit primus fingendae fabulae architectus, cujus authorem nominâsse solùm, sit refutâsse. But it is withal Vigner's judgement, that it may be very likely the Romans, haply not satisfied with Sylvester, as well for that he was a stranger, as because the Emperor had made him Pope without their Election, and that he expressed more earnestness and affection for his service than their inconstancy would permit, added somewhat to the suspicion, in that, he being well versed and excellent in the Mathematics, they out of their ignorance therein, looked on them as disallowed and damnable Sciences. And this indeed I am the more inclined with 
a In vitis Poncific.  Ciaconus, 
b Lib. Chrolog. ad ann. 1002.  Genebrard, 
c In his book of Antichrist.  Florimundus Remundus, and 
d Disquis. l. 2. quaest. 19  Delrio, to assign for the true cause of this suspicion, in that we are certain of two things which may confirm us very much. One is, that he flourished in the 9 th' age after Christ, which was incredibly rude, barbarous, and ignorant. The other, that he was certainly the most eminent, or one of the most eminent persons of his time, as well for matters of State, as for Learning and the knowledge of things divine, humane, and liberal. Of this we have pregnant proofs in his own Epistles, and the Decades of Blondus; besides his intimate 
Decad. 2. l. 3.  acquaintance with the Mathematics, which was such that he could discover and discern better than any other as Apuleius says, temporum 
Lib. 4. Floridorum.  ambitus, ventorum flatus, et Stellarum meatus, tonitruum sonora miracula, syderum obliqua curricula, Solis annua reverticula, and with the help of the Mechanics, make many rare and subtle instruments. Of that kind were those Hydraulick Machine's which William of Malmsbury says, he 
L. 2. de gestis Reg. Aug. c. 10.  made with such industry at Rheims, that by force of the water they made a sweet harmony; or that Clock, which as Ditmare relates, he made in such manner, that it discovered the Polestar; and that Brazen head, which was done with such ingenious artifice, that the said William of Malmesbury was 
In his additions upon Platinus.  himself deceived in it, when he attributed it to Magic. Add to this what Onuphrius says, viz. that he had seen in the Library of the Farneses', a learned Book of Geometry written by this Gerbert. And for my part (not to meddle with the opinion of Erfordi●nsis, and some others who make him Author of Clocks and the Arithmetic now among us) I think these proofs sufficient to evince, that those, who never had heard of Cubes, Parallellograms, Dodecaedra's, Almicanthara's, Valsagora's, Almagripa's, Cathalsem's, and other terms, frequent among Mathematicians, might well imagine they were certain spirits that he invocated, and that so many extraordinary things could not proceed but from a man that had something in him extraordinary, and consequently, that he was a Magician.  
Having been so large in the vindication of this Gerbert, or Sylvester II. 'tis fit something be said for his Scholars and particularly the Archbishop Laurence, who is traduced by the said Benno, as having learned Magic of Sylvester, and taught it Hildebrand or Gregory VII. This he does without alleging any other proof than that he was very intimately acquainted with both, and understood very well, and could interpret the singing of Birds, as, for experience sake, he one day did at Rome, before certain Prelates upon an accidental meeting with a Sparrow, that by his chirping acquainted his companions of a Cart full of Wheat overturned at the Gate called Major, and that it was much for their advantage. But the question is whether be the more censurable, Benno, who forged the story upon such another 
L. 4. c. 1. de vita Apollonii.  done by Apollonius in Philostratus, or du Plessy Mornay, who was so blinded by passion as to quote it as true and Authentic with all the forementioned of Gregory VII. lest he should leave out any thing that might swell up his Mystery of Iniquity. And yet this pretended Cardinal is forced to acknowledge in the same place, that Pope Benedict IV. (whom he hath as little favour for, as any of the rest) and this Archbishop Laurence were very well skilled in the Mathematics. And Baronius shows, by the relation 
Annal. To▪ 2.  of Petrus Damianus, that this Archbishop was so far from having any hand in Magic, that, on the contrary, he was a man of a very holy life, and, upon the account of his good works, after his death, put into the number of the Blessed Saints. Which thing, were there nought else, were enough to answer that scandalous Libel, divulged by Benno or the Lutherans to blast the memory and reputation of Pope Hildebrand, who could expect no less then to be bespattered with the detractions of that mercenary Author, when he had before felt the indignation of his Persecutor the Emperor Henry IV. For this implacable enemy of his in two several Assemblies of Bishops in Germany held at Majance and B●exina, because Hildebrand had twice excommunicated him as a Schismatic, and devested him of all his Lands and Dignities, caused him to be declared a perjured man, a Murderer, a Necromancer and a Heretic, setting up against him, as Antipope, Clement III. sometime Bishop of Ravenna, not omitting any thing he imagined would be prejudicial to him. This proceeding of the Emperor was that encouraged the modern Heretics to be so outrageous against this Pope, as may appear by the writings and bitter Satyrs of Goldast, Gaultier, Balaeus, du Plessis, and the Centuriators, who call him Sorcerer, Adulterer, Sodomite, and by a simple clinch, Brand-of-Hell, and all, because he was one of the greatest pillars that ever were of the Church, and, to speak of him sincerely and without passion, he it was that first put her into possession of her privileges, and rescued the Papacy from the slavery it was in, to the Emperors. Not to note that he is so highly celebrated in 
* L. 3. Chronol. ad an Christi 1075.  Genebrard, by a great number of Authors, that, since Marianus Scotus and St. Anselm, who were his contemporaries, say nothing of his Magic, no more than Martinus Polonus, Otho Frisingensis, Hugh of Clunie, Lanfranc, Bernard of Marseille, Platinus, Nauclerus, Masson, and many more, who would not have been silent had they discovered any such thing, it were absolute barbarism, in us to credit what this Benno says of him in particular. Upon his text have the Lutherans and Calvinists written their Comments never speaking of this man, but in the burning fever of indignation, and ever dipping the pen wherewith they draw him, in the gall of their own passions, purposely to make him, the most filthy and horrid monster that ever was clad with humane nature, never considering that their attempts are dashed to pieces against that Cornerstone on which J. Christ is pleased to build his Church, and that they gain nothing by all these calumnies, but shame and confusion to themselves, since that, as Tertullian saith, Telum aliquod in Petram constantissimae duritiei libratum, repercusso in eum qui emisit reciproco impetu saevit.   

CHAP. XX.  
Of Joseph, Solomon, and the Wise men.  
Were we to judge of a many Authors with a rigour suitable to the liberty they take to condemn even the most eminent men; or be so severe as to accuse & convict them of their impudence by the testimonies of their own forged calumnies: I conceive we might well rely on what Plato says in his Laws, that it is a temerarious liberty to pronounce of what is known and unknown with a like confidence, whereof he who hath once exceeded the limits, will never afterwards be confined thereby. For if we reflect on the precedent chapters of this Apology, it is easily observable, how that divers Historians and Demonographers have taken such a strange freedom to charge all sorts of men with Magic, that, not content to have impeached Philosophers, Physicians, Astrologers and others, they have passed to Monks, Bishops, and Popes, nay spare not those for whose good life and integrity we have the security of the Scripture, never considering the dangerous consequences of such an impeachment, as well in regard of the disorder and scandal it would occasion to such as are devout and truly Christian, as of the ill example which persons of loose lives might thence take, according to the saying of Sarisberiensis, Fortiùs et ●itiùs nos corrumpunt exempla 
L. 1. de m●gis curial. c. 5.  magnis cum subeunt animos Authoribus. But since I have not hitherto charged them with impudence, I shall forbear also in this Chapter, where they are the more excusable, for that what they say of the Magic of Joseph, Solomon, and the Wise men, seems to be derived from the authority of certain Catholic Authors and Doctors, whom yet we should not too rigorously tax with the little reason they had to teach any such thing, by reason of their candour, and the sincerity of their doctrine otherwise.  
Not to determine therefore these three Questions but with a modesty suitable thereto, I think, that if the collection I have been forced to make of so many fooleries and evident extravagancies, hath bred some little choler in me, the best way were to discharge it on the ordinary madness and impiety of our Alembick-Idolaters and Alchemists. These are a sort of people so strangely besotted with the Philosopher's stone, that, having found out the secret Mysteries thereof under the Metamorphoses, the Aeneid, the Odissey, the love of Theagenes & Chariclea, Epitaphs, Pictures, Sculpture, Antic, and Fantastic representations, and there being nothing but the Scriptures to make any further search in, they have been so profane as to take the sacrifice of the Mass, and the miracle of 
Vid. Majerus, Sandiv●●ius, Conrade & other Alchemists.  the Incarnation for Emblems and figures of what they found to be literally expressed in Genesis, the last chapters of the Prophet Esdras, the Canticles, & the Apocalypse, concerning that Sovereign transmutation. That, they say, was a thing infallibly known to the good man, Job, who by the assistance of it multiplied his wealth sevenfold; to Abraham, who waged wars against 4 Kings; to Joseph who of a sudden became so powerful; to Moses who turned the molten Calf into ashes, to Gideon▪ who represented it under a fleece, though not a golden one as that of the Argonauts; to Solomon, who made no more account of Gold than of pebble-stones; to St. John, of whom it is said in his Hymn,  
Inexhaustum fert thesaurum,  
Qui de virgis fecit aurum,  
Gemmas de Lapidibus:  
and lastly to St. Dominick, who taught it two of the most learned men of his Order, Albertus Magnus, and St. Thomas. All which extravagancies considered, it may well be said, Ovid. Met. 6. 
Proh superi, quantum mortalia ●ectora caecae  
Noctis habent!—  and admired, how such impertinencies and blasphemies should be harboured in the hollow brains of these melancholy persons, who, for recompense of their rashness or ignorance, deserve no less than to forfeit the name of men, since they have lost that which denominates him such, judgement and reason.  
This premised, we come to explicate that passage of Genesis, which hath given divers occasion 
Chap. 44.  to imagine, that Joseph, son of Jacob, and one highly commended by David as the Image and 
Psal. 104.  mystical representation of Christ, was addicted to all kinds of superstitious divinations, then in vogue among the Egyptians. For, from what he caused his Steward to say to his Brethren who were come to buy corn in Egypt, speaking of the 
Gen. c. 44. v. 5.  Cup, Is not this it in which my Lord drinketh? and what he says himself when they were brought 
v. 15.  before him, Wot ye not that such a man as I am can certainly divine? Some have imagined that he professed Divination, which he performed by a certain kind of Hydromancy, doing it either simply by the cup, as is ordinarily done by some Crystal vessel, lookingglass or any thing that is clear and smooth, or by the means of the water that was in it, as Julian the Apostate did, and those who at this day (though it be ill and superstitiously done by them) discover the thief & things lost, in a Viol or Bottle. Or lastly, he did it by the inspection of certain precious stones which were fastened within it. But certainly it were no hard matter to deliver this great Favourite of God from so dangerous a suspicion, if we will but follow the common opinion of all the Doctors of the Church, who, in Pererius would only find out a way whereby he might be excused from having addicted himself to the practice of that Divination, whereto he indeed had not so much as contributed a thought. Nor need we search for any other explication than that of Petrus Burgensis, if it be true, as he affirms, that instead of what we have in the vulgar translation, An ignoratis quod non sit similis meî in augurandi scientia? The Hebrew Text will bear this, Know you not that it is easy for great Lords and Princes, such as I am, to consult Soothsayers and Diviners? wherewith Egypt was at that time well furnished. But since this explication hath not been yet acknowledged, and that the vulgar version, authorized by the Council of Trent, admits the words before recited, we may, in the first place with 
a Quaest. 104. in Ge●esin.  Theodoret, St. 
b Quaest. 5●. in Gen. 2. 2.  Augustine, St. 
c Quaest. ●5. art. 7. in resp. ad 1.  Thomas, 
d In 〈◊〉 ●●cum.  Tostatus and 
e L. 1. de Magia di● intatr. 20.  Torreblanca, affirm, That Joseph spoke this ironically, alluding to the common opinion then current over all Egypt, nay even in strange Countries, that he had been advanced to that dignity by the happy events of his Predictions; or to daunt his Brethren and make them the more guilty, as having taken away that bowl or cup, whereon depended the continuance as well as the original of his great fortune, and that he foretold things that should certainly come to pass by the means thereof.  
This explication may be thought the more probable, in that when he commanded his Steward to put that vessel into the sack of the youngest, he only said to him, Put my cup, the silver cup, 
Gen. 44. v. 2.  in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his Corn-money, not mentioning it to be that whereby he was wont to presage and divine. Whereas when he commands him to pursue them and to bring them back, he gave him strict instructions what he should do and say, Up, follow after the men, and having overtaken them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? Is not this the Cup in which my Lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth; ye have done evil in so doing. Whence it is clear, that the addition of the●e words, and whereby indeed he divineth, et in quo augurari solet, was only put in the, more to frighten them, as that one of them should take that vessel, whereby Joseph had attained so high a fortune beyond the ordinary sort of people. But if, notwithstanding this reason, the words of Joseph and his servant are to be understood without any ambages or fiction, we must consider what Rupertus says of it, who observes that the word augurari is not 
L. 9 in Genes.  in that place taken precisely to signify or guess at something, whether by the observation of birds or some other superstitious way, but in its general acception to foresee or foretell things to come by any way whatsoever. Thus did Pliny 
Epistol. l. 4.  the younger, use it writing, to Tacitus, Auguror (nec fallit augurium) Historias tuas immortales futuras; 
Quaest. 2. in c. 44. Gen.  in which sense Rupertus and Pererius affirm, that the speech of Joseph may be taken, without quitting the literal, in that by reason of the gift he had of Prophecy, he might make use of the word augurari, and know future events. Which that he did, there needs no further proof than that of the interpretation of the dreams of Pharaoh and his Officers. To which may be added his detention of his Brethren for three days in Egypt, and then causing them to be pursued by his ●ervants at their departure, which might be to intimate that the Israelites should sojourn there for the space of three Generations, and that when they were to leave it, they should be pursued by all that multitude which was afterwards overwhelmed in the Red Sea.  
Whence I leave men to judge of the probability there may be that he should have written the Book entitled Speculum Joseph, mentioned by 
a Antipal. l. 1. c. 3.  Trithemius, or that we may believe 
b Lib. 36. histor.  Justine, who speaking of the Jews, says that Joseph envied by his Brethren, was sold by them to certain Merchants who carried him into Egypt, where in a short time he learned the magical Arts, and grew the best of any for the interpretation of dreams and prodigies, being not ignorant of any thing that could be known, in so much that he foretold the great dearth which happened in that Country, and, for that reason was much favoured by Pharaoh. From which story all that may be drawn, is, that he, Tacitus, and others either speak at random, or give a passionate account of that people, and that God, who is pleased to give us a true history of them by his faithful Secretary Moses, would not have us to stand in need of the Authority of those profane Authors, as to any thing they might say consonant to what he hath left in his admirable Books of the Pentateuch,  
I●, from what is said of Joseph in the 44. chap. of Genesis, he hath been reproached with Magic, I think there is much more ground to imagine the same thing of King Solomon, because of his great and prodigious Idolatry, considering the Wisdom he was master of before. For as there is nothing so certain as that he never practised any thing that were superstitious, while he continued in the grace of God, and a right administration of the favours he had received of him; So we must needs acknowledge (to avoid Lactantius' 
Instit. l. 5. c. 5.  censure, who says, that, eadem caecitas est, et de vero falsitatis, et mendacio nomen veritatis impo●ere) that possibly, forsaken of God for his luxury and Idolatry, he might fallen himself over to all manner of vices and abominations, and particularly as 
a Lib. Dis. quisit. c. 5.  Delrio, 
b To. 1. Sect. 9 probl. 487. et tom. 5. Sect. 1. prob. 81.  George of Venice, and 
c L. 7. de reb. Salom. c. 13.  Pineda affirm, to that of Magic, there being thousands of examples whence may be drawn this conclusion to his prejudice, that Luxury, Idolatry, and the vanity of Divinations, 
Et bene conveniunt, & in una sede morantur.  
Galat. 5. 2 Kings 21. 3.  For which we have the testimony of St. Paul, and what is said of King Manasses, in the Old Testament, that he reared up Altars for Baal, and a 
Verse 6.  little after, he observed times and used enchantments and dealt with familiar spirits and Wizzards. And since women are more addicted to Magic than men, as is learnedly shown by the Civilian Tiraqueau in his Conjugal Laws by the authorities of Cicero, Livy, Quintilian, Diodorus, and 
Lib. de reb. Salom. c. 13.  divers other good Authors, I make no question, with Pineda, but the 700. wives and the 300. Concubines which Solomon had might easily ensnare him in a Labyrinth of Charms, divinations, drinks, and other superstitious practices, which, if we credit Lucan, (disproven indeed by Ovid) have a greater influence on that passion than any other, since that he says, 
— Quas non concordia mixti  
Allig at ulla thori, blandaeque potentia form●,  
Traxerunt torti Magicâ vertigine fili.   
But though we should allow this might happen to Solomon that we have said, yet are we to beware how we exceed much further, and too easily be persuaded, that he should steal so much time from his pleasures and enjoyments, as it would require to write so great a number of Magical Books as there are at this day published under his name. This indeed is so great, that to prove they are false attributed to him, we need no more than ma ●e a Catalogue of such only as have been seen and cited by divers Authors. For though 
a Lib. 1. Choronolog. ad annum diluvii. 1460▪  Genebrard make mention but of three, and 
b Lib. 3. de reb. Solomon. c. 29.  Pineda but of 4. or 5. yet is it easily shown that there are a many more; for Albertus Magnus in his Book of the Mirror of Astrology quotes five: the first dated Liber Almadal, the second, Liber 4▪ Annulorum, the third Liber de novem candariis; the fourth, de tribus figuris Spirituum, and the fifth de Sigillis ad Daemoniacos. To these we may add four mentioned by Trithemius, 
Lib. 1. Antipal. c. 3.  entitled, the first, Clavicula Salomonis ad filium Roboam, the second Liber Lamene, the third Liber Pentaculorum, and the fourth de Officiis spirituum. Whereto if we add these three, viz. that of Raziel cited by 
a Lib. 10. de arte cabalisticâ.  Reuclin, de umbris Idaearum, mentioned by Chicus upon the Sphere of Sacrobosco; de Hydromantia ad filium Roboam, which 
b Li●. 1. de more prohibendi malos libros. c. 10.  Gretserus saith, he saw in▪ Greek in the Duke of Bavaria's Library. And lastly that Testamentum Salomonis, out of which M. 
c In notis ad Psellum.  Gaumin citys, many passages written in the same Language, we find that without comprising that called by 
d In fine 4 Annal.  Nicetas, Liber Salomonius, here are thirteen different ones, and yet withal Authentic. Which number, might well engage us to make the same judgement of them, as did sometime Roger Bacon, whose reflection thereupon I shall the rather quote, because it makes something for all those for whom I make this 
Cap. 2. de secretis operibus artis & naturae▪  Apology. Quicunque, saith he, asserunt quód Salomon composuit hoc vel illud, aut alii sapientes▪ negandum est; quia non recipiuntur ejusmodi libri auctoritate Ecclesiae, nec à sapientibus sed à seductoribus qui mundum decipiunt; etiam & ipsi novos libros componunt, & novas adinventiones multiplicant, sicut scimus per experientiam, & ut vehementius homines alliciant, titulos praeponunt famosos suis operibus; & ea magnis authoribus impudenter ascribunt.  
This granted takes away all the difficulty may arise about the Books of Solomon, unless it be 
De reb. Salome. l. 3. c. 29.  about that of Exorcisms, which Pineda affirms, either not to have been written by Solomon, or that he did it in the time of his Idolatry. And yet me thinks it were more rational, with Jansenius, Salmeron, Genebrard and Delrio, to grant, that, during the time that by his wisdom he knew all things, and was filled with good affection by reason of his sanctity, he might prescribe certain forms to chase away Devils, and to exercise people possessed by them; such as were those 
Luk. 11. Math. 12. Acts▪ 19 Antiq. Judaic. l. 8. c. 2.  practised by the Jews, in St. Luke, St. Matthew, and the Acts. Such were also those, as Josephus affirms, practised since by Eleazar, who cast a Devil out of the body of a possessed person, in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian, not by the virtue of a root, which could naturally have no power over Daemons and Creatures purely spiritual, but by the force of his exorcisms, which only had that power, as Delrio, 
x Angelograph. part. 2. c. 17.  Casmannus and divers others explain it.  
From these two passages of the Old Testament, we come now to that of the new, which is in the second of Math. where mention is made of the wise men who came from the East to adore Jesus Christ. I have no design to repeat in this place a number of Fables, such as Vipertus, a Dr. of Divinity and the Canon-Law hath taken such pains to gather together, in the History he hath written▪ of them, it being enough to my purpose to take out of the writings of 
a ad ann. 1. Christi.  Baronius 
b Exercitat 2. num. 19  Casaubon 
c In cap. 2. Math.  Maldonat, 
d Eclogae ad Arnob. c. 6.  Bullenger & many other, who have written at large on this subject, what is fit not to be omitted in this Chapter, and in few words, to discover what these wise men or Magis were, and by what means they had notice to come and adore Jesus Christ in Bethleem. For the first, the difficulty lies in the signification of the word Magi, being either ambiguous and equivocal, that is, such as many be understood of enchanters & socerers; such as signified a certain people among the Medes; who are so called in 
a Hist. l. 3.  Herodotus, 
b Geogr. l. 5.  Strabo, and 
c In Epitome. fidei Catholicae.  Epiphanius; and lastly might be said of the Sages of Persia. These three several interpretations have all had their patrons and favourers; 
d Lib. de Idololatria.  Tertullian understanding that passage of the first, Epiphanus and Panigarolus of the second, and Maldonat with Casaubon, of the last, that is for Mages, that is, the most virtuous and most venerable persons among the Persians, such as were in the same reputation in their Country, as the Brachamans were among the Indians, and the Druids among the Gauls. Which last opinion seems to be the more rational, in that the word Magi is Persian, that it is the custom of the Persians not to accost Kings without Presents, that the Evangelist speaks of them as persons of great quality and reputation; in a word, the Scripture itself lights as it were to the truth, when it says, that these wise men came from the East, there being no Author that ever held there were any other Magis that way than those of Persia. Yet is there no necessity to have any recourse to the sottish imagination of Paracelsus, who would have 
Lib. de vita longâ. Cap. 9  them ride post upon enchanted Horses, so to bring them in less than thirteen days out of so remote a Country, since there's nothing to convince us they might not spend more time in their 
Homil. 7. in Math.  journey, as St. chrysostom would have it, or were not of the nearest parts of that Country; besides that History affords us many instances of greater expedition and diligence, and that these wise men rid on Camels, which go with ease after the rate of at least 100 miles a day.  
This difficulty taken away, we are now only to find out the means whereby the wise men might be advertised of the Nativity of Jesus Christ. In which search, we shall not with the Priscillianists, affirm they it knew naturally by the mere inspection of the Star, lest we incur, with them▪ the censure of St. Augustine and chrysostom. And there being as little ground with 
a Lib. 1. cont. Celsum.  origen and St. 
b In cap. 19 Isaiae.  Hierome to think it was revealed to them by Daemons, as it had been to the Shepherds by Angels▪ because this were to make them Magicians, contrary to the truth before maintained, our safest course is to conclude with 
In cap. 2. Math.  Maldonat, that they had learned it from the prophecy of Balaam, that a new Star should appear at the birth of the Saviour of the world, according to what is said, Orietur stella ex Jacob, and in effect, they showed no less when they peremptorily said, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his Star, speaking of that Star, as a thing they thought well known among the Jews since it was so much among the Gentiles and Idolaters. But the subject of this Chapter is not so much my business as that of Divines, yet have I a confidence they will not take it ill that I have done what I have, and therein followed the doctrine and resolutions of the most eminent among them, so the better to clear up the difficulties arising out of this Chapter▪   

CHAP. XXI.  
Of the Poet Virgil.  
WHen I seriously reflect on the Condition of those learned men, who flourished four or five ages before the restauration of Sciences and disciplines in Europe, nothing seems more miraculous to me then that the most learned and best grounded among our Authors have appeared amidst that Barbarism like Roses among thorns, or Diamonds on the desert Mountains. And this so much the rather, in that at this day when we are encompassed with so great light as should make us judge of things with more caution, those who should make greatest use thereof are so dazzled therewith that they revive many opinions whose first Authors we daily declaim against, either for their want of judgement or ignorance. Whereof though the precedent Chapters of this Apology afford sufficient instances, yet have I reserved for this that which we have upon the authority of 
a Daem●nom. l. 2. c▪ 2  Bodin and de 
b Traitè de la mescreance dis sortilege co●vainc●. pag. 281.  Lancre concerning the Magic of Virgil, as one of the most pregnant proofs may be given of it, if we in the first place consider the reputation of these two persons, (the former being one of the most esteemed men of his age) and then, the little ground they had to draw that error, out of the works of certain Authors, that are but i dirt and dregs of the most Barbarous Writers, and who by the impertinences of their relations teach us that the great Chancellor of England, Verulam, had reason to tell us, that 
De augment. Scient.  hoc habet ingenium humanum, ut cum ad solida non suffecerit in supervacaneis & futilibus se atterat. For can there be any thing imagined that were more fantastic, and disconsonant to common sense and reason, then to see the Phoenix of Latin Poesy impeached not of that Poetical Magic, and fury, which, by the perfection of his works, hath charmed the greatest wits into an imitation of him, such as Statius, Silvius, and the Florentine Poet; and gained him the Title of most excellent Orator with Quintilian, St. Hierome, and Seneca; Father of Eloquence with St. Augustine, and to be the only man worthy the name of Poet, with J. C. Scaliger; but of the Geotick, superstitious, and unlawful. Which certainly had never been laid to the charge of this Ornament of Parnassus, had it not been for a sort of wretched Fabulists who by the excrescencies of their pitiful writings have traduced him, which yet I know not, whether I ought rather to quarrel with, than these two modern Authors and some others, quos fama obscura recondit who are so light of belief, as to take such impostors for lawful proofs of a calumny that turns much more to their prejudice than that of Virgil. For his life is so well known, and whatever he did that were any thing remarkable, so faithfully preserved by a many Authors, that we may well be astonished at those, who, at this day, would make use of the forgeries and fabulous inventions of 7. or 8. Barbarian slaves, and the opinions of the populace, to augment the Catalogue of Magicians with the name of this Poet, and to entertain us with thousands of little stories and fooleries, which, were they true, could do no less than make him be reputed one of the most expert that ever was in the Art. But since, on the contrary, they are false and ridiculous, they destroy themselves, there needing no more for their refutation, then to draw them up all together to find, (it being presupposed that they are all equally to be credited) that Dr. Faustus, Zedechias, Trois-eschelles and the most famous Conjurers that ever were, have not done any thing comparable to what they say Virgil hath, and consequently that they are not to be believed unless by such as will also grant, that 
Omnia jam fient, fieri quae posse negantur,  
Et nihil est de quo non sit habenda fides.   
But having said in the first Chapter of this Apology that we are indebted to the Monk Helinandus for all these fables, as finding (according to Gesnar, who makes him flourish in the year 1069.) no Author more ancient than he that made any mention thereof, and meeting since with the Collection of the Lives of the White Friars, whose Author citys Vincent de Beauvais affirming in his mirror of Hictory that the said Monk lived about the year 1209. I am forced ingenuously to confess I was mistaken, and that the first Author of all these extravagances, is, in my judgement no other than that Gervase, who, Theodoric à Niem says, was Chancellor to the Emperor Otho III. to whom he presented his Book entitled Ocia Imperatoris. This is a piece fraught with 
Lib. 2. de schismate c. 19 & 20  things so absurd, fabulous & impossible, as I have already observed that▪ I can hardly believe the man was in his wits when he writ it; and that I wrong him not, I appeal to the Reader. He says then (not to meldle with any thing but what is to our present purpose) that the wise Virgi set up a Brazen Fly on one of the gates of Naples, which, for the space of 8. years, that it remained there, permitted not a fly to enter the said City, That in the same place he caused a Shambles to be made, wherein meat never smelled or was the least tainted; that he placed on one of the gates of the same City two great images of Stone, one whereof was said to be handsome and merry, the other sad and deformed, having this power, that if any one came in on the side of the former all his affairs prospered according to his own desires, as he who came on the other, was unfortunate and disappointed in all things; that he set up, on a high mountain near Nap'es, a brazen Statue, having in its mouth a Trumpet which sounded so loud when the North wind blue, that the fire and smoke issuing out of those forges of Vulcan, which are at this day seen near the City of Poussola, were forced back towards the Sea, without doing any hurt or injury to the Inhabitants. That it was he made the baths of Calatura di petra bagno & adjuto di l' homo, with fair inscriptions in Letters of Gold, defaced since by the Physicians of Salerna who were ttoubled that men should thereby know what diseases every bath could cure. That the same Virgil took such a course that no man could be hurt in that miraculous Vault cut through the mountain of Pausilippo, to go to Naples; and lastly that he made a public fire, whereat every one might freely warm himself, near which he had place a brazen Archer with his ●●rrow drawn out, and such an inscription, If any one strike me, I will shoot off my arrow. Which a● length happened, when a certain fool striking the said Archer, he immediately shot him with his arrow, and sent him into the fire, which was presently extinguished.  
These impertinences were first transcribed out of this Author by Helinandus the Monk into his Universal Chronicle, and then by an English man 
Lib. 16.  one Alexander Neckam a Benedictine Monk, who relates ●ome of the precedent in his book Of the Nature and property of things. To which he adds, that Naples being troubled with an infinite number of infectious Leeches, it was delivered, assoon as Virgil had caused a golden one to be cast into a well: that he compassed his dwelling house and garden (where it never reigned) with an immovable stream of air, which was instead of a Wall, and had built in it a brazen bridge, by means whereof he went whither he pleased. That he had made also a Steeple with such miraculous artifice, that the Tower wherein it was though, of stone, moved in the same manner as a certain bell, that was in it, did, and that both had the same shaking and motion. Besides all which, he had made those Statues called the Preservers of Rome, which were watched night and day by Priests, for that assoon as any Nation entertained any thought of revolting and taking arms against the Roman Empire, immediately the Statue representing that Nation, and adored by it, moved; a bell, it had about the neck rung, and with its finger it pointed at that rebellious nation, in so much that the name of it might it be perceived in writing, which the Priest carrying to the Emperor, he immediately raised an Army to reduce and quiet it.  

Cap. 103.  Nor could this be missed by a certain Anonymous Author, who, about 120. years since, undertook to make a collection of the lives of Philosophers and Poets. For coming to speak of Virgil, he confidently says, Hic Philosophiâ naturali praeditus etiam Necromanticus fuit & mira quadam arte haec fecisse narratur. Which premised, he brings in the forementioned stories, which have been since coppy'd out verbaim out of the Latin Book of that Anonymus, by Symphorianus 
Lib. de claris Medicinae Scriptor. tract. 2.  Champier, and Albertus de Elib, who hath been so indiscreet and simple, as to put them into the second part of his Poetical Margarite, under the Title of Sentences and Authorities taken out of Laertius. Nay not content with that, he hath added thereto the story of a Roman Courtesan, who having hanged up Virgil in a basket, half way down a great Tower, he, to be revenged of her, put out of all the fire that was in Rome, making it withal impossible to light it again unless they took it out of the privy parts of that abusive woman, which yet so taken could not be communicated one to another, so that the whole City was obliged to come and visit her. Add yet this likely story was no sooner abroad but one Gratian du Pont thought it worth the inserting into his Controversies of the two Sexes male and female, printed at Thoulouse 1534. as a demonstration of the malice and wickedness of women.  
These fables I thought fit to faggot up together, and that according to the order of those that have maintained them, to show what credit we should give the great number of Authors affirming the same thing, without examining the sufficiency and integrity of him that first advainced it. But it would take up abundance of time to search narrowly into the business of the Fly and Leach; and it were as much vain glory as importunity to rake together all that may be said upon Astrological stamps and Sculptures, which the Greeks called Stoecheiodes and the Arabians Talismanicks. Such as were those of Constantinople and divers other such graven Stones, on which 
a In notis ad Vopiscum.  Casaubon, 
b In a letter he writ to Mr. Vazet.  Scaliger, and 
c Tom. 1. des Medit. Historic. l. 3. c. 20.  Camerarius have already made many excellent and curious observations, either to examine and refute, as well according to the rules of Polymathy, as Physic and Metaphysic, all the above-recited Stories, which need no other solution than a good confident Negative. And that the rather, for that Aristotle says very well, de fabulosè sophisticantibus non est dignum cum study 
Metaphy. 3.  intendere; and in the first of his Ethics, A man should not spend his time so trivially as to refute all sorts of opinions, but only such as have some probability and appearance of reason. Since therefore the relations of these Authors are fitter to entertain Old wives, Thracians, and Abderties, then to satisfy those who can judge and distinguish quid solidum crepet, we will dismiss this crew of Barbarians, such as are rather to be pitied than censured, to satisfy the Authorities of certain writers of greater reason, and consequently such as ought to be treated with more respect than the precedent.  
Those who read the life of this Poet, thought to be written by Tiberius Donatus, Master to St. Hierome, might haply be somewhat surprised, and be guilty of some little inclination to believe this suspicion may be true, in that speaking of Virgil's father, he says, Hunc quidam opificem figulum, plures Magi cujusdam viatoris initio mercenarium, mox ob industriam generum tradiderunt. But it 
Comment. vol. 1. traict● des eloges.  were more safe to follow the judgement of Delrio agreeing with that of Lacerda, who will not allow that Life, such as we have it now, to have been written by that ancient Donatus. For since he gives not any reason of that critical censure, I think, were there no other, this very line enough to make us account the whole piece counterfeit and that Donatus would never have committed 
Lib. 3. de poet. Lat. c. 37.  an error, which Crinitus, and others treating of the same subject have avoided. Nor can I imagine that Johannes Sarisberiensis would have mentioned this brazen fly that forced away all others from Naples, had it not been, from this story, though fabulous, to draw an excellent moral inscription, and to teach us by the example of Augustus, which he hath in the four Chapter of his Book de nugis curialium, that the public benefit is to be preferred before any private man's advantage and satisfaction. Besides, we are not more obliged to believe what he says by the way and under the caution of a hearsay, concerning this fly, than what divers Authors have said of so many other places, whence these little infects were banished, that their number might well make us doubt whether they ever were from any. For if we credit the Rabbins, there was not one to be seen in the Slaughter-house where the Beasts were killed and prepared for sacrifice, though the place was perpetually full of blood and raw hides. If Caelius Rhodiginus, there was not one in the place where the Olympic games were celebrated; nor yet in the City of Leucade in Acarnania. If Pliny, the Oxe-market at Rome; if Solinus, Herculeses, Temple; if Cardan, a certain house at Venice; if Dr. Gervais, the Refectory of the Abbey of Maillerais in Poictou, were never troubled with any. And lastly, if we credit Fusil, there is but one to be seen all the year long in the Shambles of Toledo in Spain. And for my part, I think Scaliger did very well to laugh at one of 
Exercit. 246. nu. 3▪  these Fly-drivers who having made a little plate graved with divers figures and Characters, and that under a certain constellation, had no sooner placed it on a window to try the experience, but one fly more confident than the rest, came and hanselled it with her ordure.  

Comment in Epist. D. Hieron. ad Paulinum.  The third whose authority is somewhat considerable is Tostatus Bishop of Avila, who ranks Virgil among those that practised Necromancy, and that because, as he says himself, he had read in the 16. Book of Helinandus' Chronologie, concerning the Fly and Shambles he had made at Naples. To which, not to discourse of the several ways there are to preserve divers things for a long time, and somewhat to excuse this great person, who should have examined these two stories before he had believed them, I should rather affirm, that all the blame is to be laid on this Helinandus, who hath so faithfully transcribed and stolen all these falsities, lies, and Impostures out of Dr. Gervase into his Chronicle, that he hath made it very much like Euolio's house in Plautus, quae inaniis oppleta est atque araneis. Nay I can▪ without passion, affirm, that I never found him cited by any Author, but upon the account of some ridiculous fables; of which citations I could easily produce such a number, as would more than justify the truth of what I say, were it as easy to lay them down in few words as it were requisite it should be done.  
But since the Authors who have made mention of the Magic of Virgil are so many that they cannot be examined one after another without loss of much time and abundance of repetitions, we must imitate the Civilians, who take Authorities per saturam, and so digesting all that remain into one Article, show, That, 
a De spectr. l. 1. c. 6.  Le Loyer maids mention of his Echo, 
b 1. Tom. oper. tract. de imaginibus c. 11.  Paracelsus of his Magical images and figures, 
c Lib. 4. Histor. Slavor. c. 19  Helmoldus of his representation of the City of Naples shut up in a glass bottle, 
d Peregr. quaest. de cad. 3. c. 2. quaestione. 3.  Sibyllus, and the Author of the Book entitled the Image of the World, of the head he made to know things to come by; 
e In Itinerario.  Petrarch, and 
f Lib. 3. de schismal. c. 19  Theodoric à Niem, of the Vault he made at Naples, at the request of Augustus; 
g Cap. 19 pag. 330▪ of his Ciphers.  Vigenere, of his Alphabet; 
h Antipal. l. 4. c. 3.  Trithemius of his Book of Tables and Calculations whereby to find out the Genius's of all persons; and lastly of those who have seen the Cabinet of the Duke of Florence, of an extraordinary great Looking-glass which they affirm to be that in which this Poet exercised Catoptromancy. To all which there needs no other answer, than that all these Authorities are too young, absurd, and ill grounded, and consequently too light to outweigh the General silence of all Authors that flourished during the space of ten Ages, and who certainly were extremely to blame not to have left us the least observation of all these miracles, if there had been any such thing, since they have given us a faithful account of a many other particularities of less consequence. For what ground is there to imagine that the Emperor Caligula, who did all that lay in his power to suppress the works of this Latin Homer, and so many other Zoilus' who have found something to quarrel at, even in the most inconsiderable actions of his life, would not have laid hold on a business which might have afforded so much fuel to their detraction? Or that the Emperor Augustus, who caused all Magical Books to be burnt, should so far forget and contradict himself as to receive him, being a Magician and Necromancer, into the number of his most intimate friends and favourites? There were certainly as much reason to believe that all Sodomitts 
Apud Em. de Moura l. de Ensal. Sect. 3. c. 4. num. 12.  tha● were in the world died the night of our Saviour's birth, and that as the famous Civilian Salicetus affirms, Virgil was one of that number.  
And yet for what concerns the precedent Authorities, it is not to be imagined that Petrarch, Theodoric à Niem, Vigenere, and Trithemius have been so indiscreet as thus basely to prostitute their reputation to the censures and satyrs of those who are not so easily laid asleep with these Fables. For it is certain that whatever they say thereof, hath been only to refute them, and to let us know that they were not so credulous as those others who have furnished us with the rest of those Authorities, as such as can no way expiate the fault they have committed in being so miserably ensnared in the cobwebs of Hear-saies, vagrant reports, and the common opinion of the inhabitants of Naples and places adjacent; who have always attributed to the conjurations of Virgil whatever seemed to them ever so little extraordinary & miraculous, and whereof they could find out no other beginning. This may be exemplifyed in that admirable cave or grott made in the mountain of Pausilippo near the City of Naples, whereof though Strabo (who lived in the time of Scipio, and the taking of Carthage, according to Athenaeus, or of Augustus and Tiberius, according to Patricius) make mention as of a thing very ancient; yet the Country people thereabouts will not be persuaded but that it was made by Virgil, at the importunity of the Emperor Augustus, because the top of the mountrin under which it is cut was so pestered with Serpents and Dragons, that there was not any man so confident as would presume to travel over it. So that the main stress of the business consists now in knowing what gave the first occasion of this suspicion, which certainly can be nothing else but the knowledge of the Mathematics, wherein Virgil was so excellent, according to the relation of Macrobius, Donatus, Lacerda, and the common consent of all Authors, that, besides his being an eminent Philosopher and well experienced in Medicine, it may nevertheless be affirmed, that the chiefest of his perfections, next to Poesy, was his acquaintance with Astronomy, and other parts of the Mathematics. And these, having ever been more subject to be charged with Magic than any of the other Sciences, have given some occasion to these unsettled minds to be confirmed in that erroneous opinion they had before entertained of him, by reason of his Pharmaceutria, or eighth Eclogue where he hath so learnedly represented▪ as Apuleius affirms, vittas molles, et verbenas pingues, et thura mascula et ●icia discolora, and whatever relates to Magic, that it would have been very much if he had avoided the suspicion of the practice thereof, especially from those, whom ignorance and the barbarism of the Ages they lived in, would not suffer to know that he had translated it word for word out of Theocritus. To which number we may add some others who are so stupid as not to know what advantages a great Wit can make of these fictions and embellishments, which certainly should no more prejudice Virgil, than the sorceries of Circe have done Homer; of Medea, Seneca; of Canidia, Horace; of Ericthon, Lucan; of Tiresias, Statius; of the Thessalian women, Lucian, and Apuleius; of the old Witch, Heliodorus; of Maeffalina, Coccaius; of Angelica, Ariosto; of Armida, Tasso; or lastly Mandraca, the Author of Astrea. Whence it is evident to any one, that, from this Chapter, may be drawn a most favourable conclusion for all those great persons for whom we have made this Apology; and that if so many fables, frivolous suspicions and slight persuasions have found entertainment in the straggling imaginations of those who will needs quarrel with common sense and the opinion of all the world, to make Virgil a Magician, what I have produced before, as also all that hath been said against Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Numa Pompilius, Democritus, Albertus Magnus, and the rest that have been brought upon the stage and vindicated, should no way derogate from their reputation, nor give any other impression of their learning and deportment than such as we ought to have of such as have been 
Magnanimi Heroes, nati melioribus annis,  and indeed so innocent as to these superstitions and fooleries, that their memory ought to be freed from the least suspicion of their ever having any hand therein.   

CHAP. XXII.  
By what means all these erroneous opinions are maintained, and what may be expected from them, if not suppressed.  
HAving through all the precedent Chapters, both by general and particular reasons, shown how it might come to pass that so eminent and extraordinary persons have been charged with Magic, and consequently deduced all I thought requisite for their vindication; I think there cannot any thing be now expected from me, save that, by way of conclusion to this Apology, I should specify the true causes and several occasions whereby these calumnies are entertained and gain reputation daily, and what prejudice and inconvenience (if some course be not taken) they will do as well the Authors, who maintain them, as what is to be truly believed concerning Magicians, and what order is to be taken for the punishment of those whom their sorceries and misdeeds discover and declare to be such. For the former, me thinks the several causes of such a suspicion may be reduced principally to three. The first is, that all the world is persuaded, and satisfied, that the strongest proof and greatest assurance that can be had of Truth, depends on a general consent and universal approbation, which, as Aristotle in the seventh of his Ethics, affirms, cannot be absolutely false and feigned; besides that it is a thing very plausible, & hath a great show of goodness & justice to follow the tract that's approved by all. Hence it comes to pass, that the ●ast that come to the business of writing and books, as well other Authors, as Daemonographers, grounding what they do on this Maxim, never mind the examination of what they find believed, and allowed for true by their Predecessors, and those who have written before them upon the same subject. So that what was false in them, spreads by this contagious approbation and applause, though not proceeding from judgement and the knowledge of the cause, but merely to second him that first led the dance, without ever considering that he who would be a wise and discreet Judge, ought very much to suspect what ever the people, that pessimus veritatis interpres, is most taken with, and is approved 
Sen. de vita beata.  by the greatest number, taking good heed that he be not carried away with the current of common & popular opinions. Nay▪ he is to be the more circumspect in this point, because the greatest part is commonly the worst, the number of Fools infinite, infection most dangerous, and most to be feared in a throng, the most beaten way the most easily deceives a man, that the wise man says, qui cit● credit levis est cord; and that 
Chap. 19  it is most certain, that when we are swayed by example and custom, without consulting reason, desert, and truth, we slip and fall one upon another, forfeit our reputation, run into precipices, and, in a word alienis perimus exemplis.  
The second general 'Cause is, that the greatest part of those who employ themselves in the composition and evulgation of some piece, such as they are able to work out, do commonly flatter themselves into a persuasion of such things, that they may do their business with greatest ease. And as they write not so much for any benefit to the public, to oblige it by an exact anatomy of Truth, as out of some motive of vanity or ambition or to comply with that necessity which forces them to satisfy famem non famam, as Thuanus says; so is it their custom to go to work as slightly and as cheap as possibly they can, not troubling themselves with a long and difficult evolution of the first Authors, or searching into the occasions they had to scatter all these fables & calumnies; nor racking their judgement with the consideration of those circumstances which should oblige them to ruminate, recollect, and reflect on things, so as to bring them to the grand Test of Reason, and thence draw solid and certain resolutions. And here certainly they much discover their weakness, and, because the advantages they derive from Nature are very slender, show, how they are led away by example, groping after things by hear-saies and conjectures, without ever sifting or examining them as they ought, especially in this Age, which is more fit to refine and sharpen men's judgements, than all the precedent put together were, by reason of the great revolutions that now happen, through the discovery of a new world, the disturbances occasioned by Religion, the restauration of Letters, the declination of Sects and ancient opinions and so many strange inventions and artifices; insomuch that Solomon might now, more truly than ever, say, Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding 
Pro. 8.  put forth her voice? She standeth on the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She cryeth at the Gates, at the entering of the City, at the coming in at the Doors. Whence it may be inferrd, that there never was a more favourable conjuncture than that of the present, to raise men's minds out of the Lethargy they are in, and enliven them to a retractation, and so to a contempt of abundance of false and absurd opinions; were they not, for the reasons before mentioned, indifferent as to the eternising their memories by the quality of their writings, out of a conceit that they gain reputation enough by the quantity, thereof, which they can swell up as they please, without much trouble or difficulty, with the assistance of a Method, devoutly observed of transcribing word for word▪ whatever hath been said a hundred and a hundred times over by others.  
And to do this, they are much obliged to the third and last cause of the propagation of all these falsities, which is a Custom lately introduced, of making ostentation of Polymathy or great reading, speaking on any sub●ect of all things, and upon any occasion of all subjects, as if there were no other design in writing than to collect and faggot together all, that may be said, and with all what hath ever been said on the subject then to be treated of; it being not the question who hits the mark, but who makes most shots. So that it is not to be admired if those who exactly observe such a method, are, like Merchants that take up all, burdened with many things of no value, and such as only corrupt and disparage others, which would be much more in request and reputation, were they culled out of the Chaos and confusion of those great Volumes. It is certainly a strange thing, that Delrio, Le Loyer, Bodin, de Lancre, Godelman, who have been, nay yet are, persons of credit and desert should write so passionately upon the subject of Daemons, Sorcerers and Magicians, as never to reject any Story, though ever so fabulous and ridiculous, of all those false and absurd ones, which they have without any discretion shuffled in among the true and legitimate. Nay had they no more than what we have refuted, it were enough to prejudice and discredit the truth of the rest, since that, as St. Augustine 
De Civ. dei. l. 7. cap. 35.  well observes Solent res gestae aspersione mendaciorum in fabulas verti, and as St Hierome, Liars are not believed when they speak truth: witness Aesop's herd-boy, who had so often called for help against the Wolf when there was no need, that he was neither believed nor assisted by any when afterwards he played the Tyrant in his Flock.  
So that if we obey the precept of Cassiodorus 
Epist. 44. l. 6. variar.  who says, that instructus redditur animus in futuris, quando▪ praeteritorum commovetur exemplis, we may, to resolve the second point proposed, very probably infer that all the ridiculous stories, fables and manifest untruths, which these Authors suffer so easily to slip into their writings, will infallibly turn to their prejudice, and, which is worse, to a mistrust of the truth of the subject they treat of, whenever some more free and unconfined wit, shall be pleased to examine things with much more diligence and circumspection than the Demonographers do. Thus have those of the Reformation within the last Century, made use of the Catholics arms against themselves, by bringing upon the stage the stories of the Golden Legend, the Apparitions of Tyndal, the Sermons of Maillart, Menot, & Barlette, & such other pieces written with no less superstition than simplicity, to confirm themselves in the opinion they hold of the nullity and falsity of their Miracles. Thus hath the learned and judicious Ludovicus 
a Lib. 2. de tradend. discipl. et lib. adversus Pseudo-Dialecticos.  Vives, and after him Ramus, and the modern Philosophers, took no other course to ruin and levelly that Labyrinth of frivolous difficulties, comprehended under the title of Parva Logicalia, than to make a full discovery of the impertinencies, flatness, and extravagance of all those fooleries of Suppositions, Ampliations, Restrictions, Sophisms, Obligations, Appellations, and other subtleties much more trivial and ridiculous. And yet these were in such reputation for the space of 400 years, that they found work enough for those who were accounted the greatest Sophists and Philosophers in the world, such as, in comparison of whom, Cassiodorus and St. Augustine understood nothing, as many are persuaded, of Dialectic, because they have not, in the precepts they have left us thereof, made any mention of the Chimaera, Antichrist, Sorts, Buridan's Ass, Nullus et Nemo. But these, together with all those frivolous rubrics and sophistications have been so fortunately levelled with the ground, by the foresaid Vives, that they are banished both out of the Schools and the memory of men, with as much confusion and contempt, as they had been introduced & maintained with ap- Spain, who the time of Lombard, and Peter of plause, from were the two first Authors and Promoters of this excellent kind of Dialectic.  
The result of all this, then, will be, that those who can make better advantages of what they read and learn than the slaves of Pedantism do, and who are so industrious as to judge of things to come, by a consideration of what are past, may by these examples easily foresee, That the writings of Demonographers, hydropically blown up with so many fables as almost stifle the truth, are threatened with the accomplishment in them▪ of Paterculus' saying, Naturali●er quod procedere non potest, recidit; and will prove like that great Colossus of Rhodes, which was ruined only by its own vast and prodigious height, or those great Edifices, which make the very foundations crack by the weight of their superstructures. And indeed experience teaches us that there is nothing more dangerous than to shuffle old wives tales, and relations that are doubtful, if not apparently false, among things of consequence: for the more circumspect part of mankind not able to credit, nay not to admit them, it often happens, that the vulgar, who hath not the ability to judge of things by themselves, is lead away by the opinion of those whom it esteems the most prudent, and, is persuaded, understand them much better. So that being by their example once arrived to so much confidence as to sleight and carp at any one of those stories and opinions it had sometimes held for true, it presently jumps into an equal uncertainty and contempt of all those others for which it had not greater authority and better grounds than they had for those that were discarded, 
Nam ●upidè conculcatur nimis ant● metutum.   
It were therefore much to be wished, as well for the reputation of our Demonographers, as the maintenance & explanation of the truth of the Subject they treat of, that they would be hence forward more cautious than to advance any History or Authority before they have diligently examined all circumstances, and would afford all things their true worth and weight. So doing shall they not be led into a disadvantageous opinion of any one but upon good ground, nor without reason advance these frivolous accusations, fraught with nought but wind and forgery, since that when they come to be narrowly examined, and the truth thereof discussed, it commonly happens that they prove mere Calumnies, weakly-grounded suspicions, and indeed but vain, light and inconsiderate words▪ which the Devil doth insensibly impose on the good names of the innocent, to the end they may one day prove occasions that that men shall not be able to discern and punish the guilty.  Lucret. l. 1. 
Verùm animo satis haec vestigia parva sagaci  
Sunt▪ per quae possis cognoscere caetera tutè.  
FINIS.