Book 16, Chapter 5: Of the divination by the sive and sheeres, and by the booke and key, Hemingius his opinion thereof confuted, a bable to know what is a clocke, of certeine jugling knacks, manifold reasons for the overthrowe of witches and conjurors, and their cousenages, of the divels transformations, of Ferrum candens, &c
1 To passe over all the fables, which are vouched by the popish doctors, you shall heare the words of N. Hemingius, whose zeale & learning otherwise I might justlie commend: howbeit I am sorie and ashamed to see his ignorance and follie in this behalfe. Neither would I have bewraied it, but that he himselfe, among other absurdities concerning the maintenance of witches omnipotencie, hath published it to his great discredit. Popish preests (saith he) as the Chaldæans used the divination by sive & sheeres for the detection of theft, doo practise with a psalter and a keie fastned upon the 49. psalme, to discover a theefe. And when the names of the suspected persons are orderlie put into the pipe of the keie, at the reading of these words of the psalme [If thou sawest a theefe thou diddest consent unto him] the booke will wagge, and fall out of the fingers of them that hold it, and he whose name remaineth in the keie must be the theefe. Hereupon Hemingius inferreth, that although conjuring preests and witches bring not this to passe by the absolute words of the psalme, which tend to a farre other scope;
2 yet sathan dooth nimblie, with his invisible hand, give such a twitch to the booke, as also in the other case to the sive and the sheeres, that downe falles the booke and keie, sive and sheeres, up starts the theefe, and awaie runneth the divell laughing, &c.
3 But alas, Hemingius is deceived, as not perceiving the conceipt, or rather the deceipt hereof. For where he supposeth those actions to be miraculous, and done by a divell; they are in truth meere bables, wherein consisteth not so much as legierdemaine. For everie carter may conceive the slight hereof: bicause the booke and keie, sive and sheeres, being staied up in that order, by naturall course, of necessitie must within that space (by meanes of the aire, and the pulse beating at the fingers end) turne and fall downe. Which experience being knowne to the witch or conjuror, she or he doo forme and frame their prophesie accordinglie: as whosoever maketh proofe thereof shall manifestlie perceive it. By this art, practise, or experience, you shall knowe what it is a clocke, if you hold betweene your finger and your thumbe a thred of six or seven inches long, unto the other end whereof is tied a gold ring, or some such like thing: in such sort as upon the beating of your pulse, and the mooving of the ring, the same may strike upon either side of a goblet or glasse. These things are (I confesse) witchcraft, bicause the effect or event proceedeth not of that cause which such couseners saie, and others beleeve they doo. As when they laie a medicine for the ague, &c:
4 to a childs wrists, they also pronounce certeine words or charmes, by vertue whereof (they saie) the child is healed: whereas indeed the medicine onelie dooth the feate. And this is also a sillie jugglers knacke, which wanteth legierdemaine, whom you shall see to thrust a pinne, or a small knife, through the head and braine of a chicken or pullet, and with certeine mysticall words seeme to cure him: whereas, though no such words were spoken, the chicken would live, and doo well enough; as experience teacheth and declareth.
5 Againe, when such as have mainteined the art and profession of conjuring, and have written thereupon most cunninglie, have published recantations, and confessed the deceipts thereof, as Cornelius Agrippa did, whie should we defend it? Also, when heathen princes, of great renowne, authoritie, & learning, have searched, with much industrie and charge, the knowledge & secrecie of conjuration and witchcraft, & finallie found by experience all to be false and vaine that is reported of them, as Nero, Julianus apostata, and Valence did; whie should we seeke for further triall, to proove witchcraft and conjuration to be cousenage?
6 Also, when the miracles imputed unto them, exceed in quantitie, qualitie and number, all the miracles that Christ wrought here upon earth, for the establishing of his gospell, for the confirmation of our faith, and for the advancement of his glorious name; what good christian will beleeve them to be true? And when Christ himselfe saith; The works that I doo, no man else can accomplish; whie should we thinke that a foolish old woman can doo them all, and manie more?
7 Also, when Christ knew not these witches, nor spake one word of them in all the time of his being here upon earth, having such necessarie occasion (if at leastwise they with their familiars could doo as he did by the spirit of God, as is constantlie affirmed) whie should we suppose that they can doo as they saie, but rather that they are deceivers[? ] When they are faine to saie, that witches wrought not in that art, all those thirtie three yeares that Christ lived, and that there were none in Jobs time, and that the cousening oracles are now ceased; who seeth not that they are witlesse, and madde fooles that mainteine it? When all the mischeefes are accomplished by poisons and naturall meanes, which they affirme to be brought to passe by words, it manifesteth to the world their cousenage. When all the places of scripture, which witchmongers allowe for the proofe of such witches, are prooved to make nothing for their purpose, their own fables & lies deserve small credit. When one of the cheefe points in controversie; to wit, execution of witches, is grounded upon a false translation;
8 namelie, You shall not suffer a witch to live (which is in Latine, Veneficam non retinebitis in vita) where the word in everie mans eare soundeth to be a poisoner, rather than a worker of miracles, and so interpreted by the seventie interpretors, Josephus, and almost of all the Rabbins, which were Hebrues borne: whie should anie of their interpretations or allegations be trusted, or well accounted of? When working of miracles is ceased, and the gift of prophesie also; so as the godlie, through invocation of the holie spirit, cannot performe such wonderfull things, as these witches and conjurors by the invocation of divels and wicked spirits undertake, and are said to doo; what man that knoweth and honoureth God will be so infatuate as to beleeve these lies, and so preferre the power of witches and divels before the godlie endued with Gods holie spirit? When manie printed bookes are published, even with authoritie, in confirmation of such miracles wrought by those couseners, for the detection of witchcraft; and in fine all is not onelie found false, and to have beene accomplished by cousenage, but that there hath beene therein a set purpose to defame honest matrones, as to make them be thought to be witches: whie should we beleeve Bodin, M. Mal. &c: in their cousening tales and fables?
9 When they saie that witches can flie in the aire, and come in at a little coane, or a hole in a glasse windowe, and steale awaie sucking children, and hurt their mothers; and yet when they are brought into prison, they cannot escape out of the grate, which is farre bigger: who will not condemne such accusations or confessions to be frivolous, &c? When (if their assertions were true) concerning the divels usuall taking of shapes, and walking, talking, conferring, hurting, and all maner of dealing with mortall creatures, Christs argument to Thomas had beene weake and easilie answered; yea the one halfe, or all the whole world might be inhabited by divels, everie poore mans house might be hired over his head by a divell, he might take the shape and favor of an honest woman, and plaie the witch; or of an honest man, and plaie the theefe, and so bring them both, or whome he list to the gallowes: who seeth not the vanitie of such assertions? For then the divell might in the likenes of an honest man commit anie criminall offense; as Lavater in his nineteenth chapter De spectris reporteth of a grave wise magistrate in the territorie of Tigurie, who affirmed, that as he and his servant went through certeine pastures, he espied in a morning, the divell in likenes of one whome he knew verie well, wickedlie dealing with a mare.
10 Upon the sight whereof he immediatlie went to that fellowes house, and certeinlie learned there, that the same person went not out of his chamber that daie. And if he had not wiselie boolted out the matter, the good honest man (saith he) had surelie beene cast into prison, and put on the racke, &c.
11 The like storie we read of one Cunegunda, wife to Henrie the second emperor of that name, in whose chamber the divell (in the likenes of a yoongman, with whome she was suspected to be too familiar in court) was often seene comming in and out. How beit, she was purged by the triall Candentis ferri, and prooved innocent: for she went upon glowing iron unhurt, &c. And yet Salomon saith; Maie a man carrie fier in his bosome, and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man go upon coles, & his feete not scortched? And thus might the divell get him up into everie pulpit, and spred heresies, as I doubt not but he dooth in the mouth of wicked preachers, though not so grosselie as is imagined and reported by the papists and witchmongers. And because it shall not be said that I beelie them, I will cite a storie crediblie reported by their cheefest doctors; namelie James Sprenger, and Henrie Institor, who saie as followeth, even word for word.
1 Fascius Cardanus had (as he himselfe and his sonne Hierome Cardanus report) a familiar divell, consisting of the fierie element, who, so long as he used conjuration, did give true answers to all his demands: but when he burned up his booke of conjurations, though he resorted still unto him, yet did he make false answers continuallie. He held him bound twentie & eight yeares, and loose five yeares. And during the time that he was bound, he told him that there were manie divels or spirits. He came not alwaies alone, but sometimes some of his fellowes with him. He rather agreed with Psellus than with Plato: for he said they were begotten, borne, died, and lived long; but how long, they told him not: howbeit as he might conjecture by his divels face, who was 42. yeares old, and yet appeared verie yoong, he thought they lived two or three hundred yeares; and they said that their soules and ours also died with their bodies. They had schooles and universities among them: but he conceived not that anie were so dull headded, as Psellus maketh them. But they are verie quicke in credit, that beleeve such fables, which indeed is the groundworke of witchcraft and conjuration.
2 But these histories are so grosse and palpable, that I might be thought as wise in going about to confute them, as to answer the stories of Frier Rush, Adam Bell, or the golden Legend.
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