tical woman in the town of Paderborn, who brought forth a male infant in a parson's gown and beaverpalliatum et pileatum modo ecclesiasticorum--who from his natural antipathy to papists always reviled them wherever he met them; this Father Delrius assures us was a fact of general notoriety, and a just judgment from God on the heresy of the mother. Niderius, in the chapter upon witches in Formicario, says that an heretical young witch at Cologn, by the help of a dæmon, took a handkerchief, and, in presence of a great company of noble spectators, tore it into pieces, and immediately afterwards produced it whole and entire; this wicked jade then took up a glass, threw it against the wall, broke it into a thousand fragments, and instantly shewed it to the company as whole as at first: Niderius concludes, with just indignation against such diabolical practices, that this girl was well handled by the Fathers of the Inquisition, where her tricks could stand her in no stead; which indeed is not to be wondered at, as the devil himself would not chuse to venture before that tribunal. Bodinus, in his treatise upon dæmons, relates that a conjurer named Triscalinus, performed some tricks before Charles the ninth of France, and by the black art contrived to draw into his hand several rings from the fingers of a courtier, who stood at a distance from him, and that every body saw these rings fly through the air to the conjurer, whereupon the whole company rising up against him for the performance of such diabolical feats (quæ nec arte, nec actu humano, nec naturâ fieri poterant) fell upon him, and by force brought him to confess that he conspired with the devil, which at first this hardened sinner was very unwilling to do; Bodinus with great candour observes, that this was indeed a blot in the fame of Charles the ninth, who in all other respects was a praise-worthy monarch; (alias laudato rege.) When my readers recollect the meritorious part that Charles the ninth acted in the massacre of Paris, he will own with me that the candour of Bodinus is extraordinary in producing a story so much to the discredit of a praise-worthy prince. There was one Zedekiah, a Jew physician, who in presence of the Emperor Lodowick the pious, in the year 876, swallowed a prize-fighter on horse back, horse and all, (hoplomachum equitem devoravit) -Nay he did more, he swallowed a cart loaded with hay, horses and driver, (currum quoque onustum fœno cum equis et auriga)-he cut off people's heads, hands and feet, which he fastened on again in the eyes of all the court, whilst the blood was running from them, and in a moment the man so maimed appeared whole and unhurt; he caused the Emperor to hear the sound of hounds in full chace, with shouts of huntsmen and many other noises in the air; and in the midst of winter shewed him a garden in full bloom with flowers and fruits, and birds singing in the trees; a most detestable piece of magic and very unworthy of an emperor to pass over with impunity, for he suffered the Jew doctor to escape. As it is always right when a man deals in the marvellous to quote his authority, I beg leave to inform the incredulous reader (if any there be) that I take these facts upon the credit of the learned Joannes Trithemius, a very serious and respectable author. One more case in point occurs to me, which I shall state, and then release my readers from the conjuror's circle, and this is the case of one Diodorus, vulgarly called Liodorus, a Sicilian conjurer, who by spells and enchantments turned men into brute animals, and metamorphosed almost every thing he laid his hands upon; this fellow, when the inhabitants of Catana would have persuaded him to, let them hang him quietly and contentedly, as a conjurer and heretic ought, took counsel of the devil, and cowardly flew away to Byzantium by the shortest passage through the air, to the great disappointment of the spectators; being pursued by the officers of justice, not indeed through the air, but as justice is accustomed to travel pede claudo, he took a second flight, and alighting in the city of Catana, was providentially caught by Leo the good bishop of that city, who throwing him into a fiery furnace, roasted this strange bird to the great edification of all beholders (sed tandem a Leone Catanensi episcopo, divinâ virtute ex improviso captus, frequenti in mediá urbe populo, in fornacem igneam injectus, ignis incendio consumtus est)—This anecdote is to be found in Thomas Fazellus, (lib. 5. c. 2. and again lib. 3. deca. 1 rerum Sicularum) who closes his account with the following pious remark, naturally arising from his subject, and which I shall set down in his own words-Sic divina justitia prævaluit, et qui se judicibus forte minus justo zelo motis eripuerat, e sancti viri manibus elabi non potuit. 'Thus,' says he, divine justice prevailed, and he, who had snatched himself out of the hands of judges, who perhaps were actuated by a zeal not so just as it should be, could not escape from this holy person.' NUMBER XXXII. Quis labor hic superis cantus herbasq; sequendi, LUCAN. lib. vi. 491, &o. HAVING in my preceding paper stated some of the proofs by which the orthodox theologicians make good their charge of sorcery against Heretics, Jews and Mahometans, and shewn from their authorities, faithfully and correctly quoted, how naturally the devil and his agents take to all those who separate from the mother church of Rome; having also briefly deduced the history of magic from its origin and invention, and taken some notice of those passages in holy writ, where sorcerers and magicians are made mention of, I shall now proceed to a more interesting part of my subject, in which I shall lay open the arcana of the art magic, and shew what that wicked and mysterious compact is, on which it depends, and explain the nature of those diabolical engagements, which a man must enter into before he can become an adept in sorcery. This compact or agreement, as grave and learned authors inform us, is sometimes made expressly with the great devil himself in person, corporally present before witnesses, who takes an oath of homage and 6 allegiance from his vassal, and then endows him with the powers of magic: this was the case with a certain Arragonese nobleman, which Heisterback in his treatise upon miracles tells us he was a witness to, also of the Vidame Theophylus in the year 537, as related by Sigisbert: sometimes it is done by memorial or address in writing, in the manner of certain Norman heretics, who wrote a petition to the Sybills, as chief of the necromancers: this petition sets forth that, Whereas the parties undersigning had entered into certain articles and conditions, and by solemn engagement bound themselves faithfully to perform the same, they now pray in the first place the ratification of those articles and conditions on the part of the Sybills; and that they would be pleased in conformity thereunto to order and direct their under-agents and familiars to do suit and service to the contracting parties agreeably to condition; and that when they were summoned and invoked to appear, they would be promptly forthcoming, not in their own shapes to the annoyance and offence of the contracting parties, but sprucely and handsomely, like personable gentlemen ; also that the petitioners might be discharged from the ceremony of compelling them by the drawing of a cir. cle, or of confining themselves or their familiars within the same. Secondly, that the Sybills would be pleased to affix some seal or signature to the convention, by which its power and efficacy with their subservient familiars might be rendered more secure and per manent. Thirdly, that the petitioners may be exempted from all danger, which might otherwise accrue to them, from the civil authority of magistrates or the inquisitorial power of the church. Fourthly, that all the temporal undertakings. |