Part 1

=Demonologia;=

OR,

NATURAL KNOWLEDGE REVEALED.

W. WILSON, PRINTER, 57, SKINNER-STREET, LONDON.

[Illustration: Spooky illustration]

DEMONOLOGIA; OR, NATURAL KNOWLEDGE REVEALED;

BEING

AN EXPOSÉ

OF

=Ancient and Modern Superstitions,=

CREDULITY, FANATICISM, ENTHUSIASM, & IMPOSTURE,

AS CONNECTED WITH THE

DOCTRINE, CABALLA, AND JARGON,

OF

AMULETS, APPARITIONS, ASTROLOGY, CHARMS, DEMONOLOGY, DEVILS, DIVINATION, DREAMS, DEUTEROSCOPIA, EFFLUVIA, FATALISM, FATE, FRIARS, GHOSTS, GIPSIES, HELL, HYPOCRITES, INCANTATIONS, INQUISITION, JUGGLERS, LEGENDS, MAGIC, MAGICIANS, MIRACLES, MONKS, NYMPHS, ORACLES, PHYSIOGNOMY, PURGATORY, PREDESTINATION, PREDICTIONS, QUACKERY, RELICS, SAINTS, SECOND SIGHT, SIGNS BEFORE DEATH, SORCERY, SPIRITS, SALAMANDERS, SPELLS, TALISMANS, TRADITIONS, TRIALS, &c. WITCHES, WITCHCRAFT, &c. &c.

THE WHOLE UNFOLDING

MANY SINGULAR PHENOMENA IN THE PAGE OF NATURE.

=By J. S. F.=

“The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, “And these are of them.”

“All which, by long discourse, I’ll prove anon.”

=London:= JOHN BUMPUS, 23, SKINNER-STREET.

1827.

CONTENTS.

Page

_Observations on Ancient and Modern Superstitions, &c._ 1

_Proofs and Trials of Guilt in Superstitious Ages_ 9

_Astrology, &c._ 18

_Practical Astrology, &c._ 25

_Natural Astrology_ 26

_Judicial or Judiciary Astrology_ 27

Origin of Astrology 28

Astrological Schemes, &c. 29

Table of the Twelve Houses 30

Signs to the Houses of the Planets 32

Angles or Aspects of the Planets 33

The Application of Planets 34

Prohibition 35

Separation 35

Translation of Light and Virtue 35

Refrenation 35

Combustion 35

Reception 36

Retrogradation 36

Frustration 36

The Dragon’s Head and Tail 36

Climacteric 37

Lucky and Unlucky Days 39

Genethliaci 41

Genethliacum 42

Barclay’s Refutation of Astrology 43

_On the Origin and Imaginary Efficacy of Amulets and Charms, in the Cure of Diseases, Protection from Evil Spirits, &c._ 51

Definition of Amulets, &c. 56

Effect of the Imagination on the Mind, &c. 59

_History of Popular Medicines, &c.—How influenced by Superstition_ 67

_Alchemy_ 73

Origin, Objects, and Practice of Alchemy, &c. 81

_Alkahest, or Alcahest_ 85

_Magician_ 91

_Magi, or Mageans_ 96

_Magic, Magia, Mateia_ 99

Magic of the Eastern nations,—a brief View of the Origin and Progress of Magic, &c.—

Chaldeans and Persians 101

Indians 109

Egyptians 110

Jews 115

_Prediction_ 123

_Fatalism, or Predestination_ 136

_Divination_ 142

Artificial Divination 142

Natural Divination 142

Axinomancy 143

Alectoromantia 143

Arithmomancy 144

Belomancy 144

Cleromancy 145

Cledonism 145

Coscinomancy 146

Capnomancy 146

Catoptromancy 147

Chiromancy 147

Dactyliomancy 148

Extispicium 148

Gastromancy 149

Geomancy 149

Hydromancy 150

Necromancy 150

Oneirocritica 150

Onomancy, or Onomamancy 152

Onycomancy, or Onymancy 154

Ornithomancy 155

Pyromancy 155

Pyscomancy, or Sciomancy 155

Rhabdomancy 156

_Oracle_ 157

_Ouran, or Uran, Soangus_ 163

_Dreams, &c._ 164

Brizomancy 164

Origin of interpreting Dreams 164

Opinions on the cause of Dreams 166

_Fate_ 168

_Physiognomy_ 171

_Apparitions_ 178

_Deuteroscopia, or Second-sight_ 194

_Witches, Witchcraft, Wizards, &c._ 204

Witchcraft proved by Texts of Scripture 225

Dr. More’s Postscript 226

The Confessions of certain Scotch Witches, taken out of an authentic copy of their Trial at the Assizes held at Paisley, in Scotland, Feb. 15, 1678, touching the bewitching of Sir George Maxwell 259

Depositions of certain persons, agreeing with confessions of the above-said witches 264

The Confession of Agnes Sympson to King James 267

The White Pater-noster 270

The Black Pater-noster 270

_Sorcery_ 272

_Sortes—Sortilegium_ 273

_Sibyls_ 282

_Talismans_ 283

_Philters, Charms, &c._ 285

_Hell_ 286

_Inquisition_ 297

Inquisition, or the Holy Office 297

_Demon_ 307

_Demonology_ 308

Derivation of the strange and hideous forms of Devils, &c. 315

The Narrative of the Demon of Tedworth, or the disturbances at Mr. Monpesson’s house, caused by Witchcraft and Villainy of a Drummer 338

_The Demon of Jedburgh_ 355

_The Ghost of Julius Cæsar_ 360

The Ghosts of the slain at the Battle of Marathon 360

Familiar Spirit, or ancient Brownie 361

_Gipsies—Egyptians_ 362

_Jugglers, their Origin, Exploits, &c._ 378

_Legends, &c.—Miracles, &c._ 393

_Monks and Friars.—Saints and Hermits_ 405

Of the Hermit of the Pillar—(St. Simeon Stylites, St. Telesephorus, St. Syncletia) 427

_Holy Relique-Mania_, &c. &c. &c. 431

PREFACE.

Among the multifarious absurdities and chicaneries, which at different _epocha_ of society have clung to, and engaged the attention of man, absorbing, as it were, his more active intelligence, the marvellous and the ridiculous have alternately and conjointly had to contend for pre-eminence; that, whether it were a mountain in the moon or a bottle conjuror; a live lion stuffed with straw or a mermaid; a Cocklane ghost or a living skeleton; a giant or a pigmy; the delusive bait has invariably been swallowed with avidity, and credited with all the solemnity of absolute devotion.

If we look back towards what are called the dark ages of the worlds that is, at times when men were mere _yokels_, and when the reins of tyranny, superstition and idolatry, were controlled by a few knowing ones, we shall see the human mind at its lowest ebb of debasement, grovelling either under the lash of despotism, or sunk beneath the scale of human nature by the influence of priestcraft,—a time, when the feelings of men were galloped over, rough shod, and the dignity of the creation trampled under foot with impunity and exultation, by a state of the most passive and degenerate servility: how much must it now excite our wonder and admiration of that supreme Providence, who, in his merciful consideration for the frailest of mortals, by a variety of ways and means best suited to his omnipotent ends, has dragged us gradually, and, as it were, reluctantly to ourselves, from darkness to daylight, by extinguishing the stench and vapour of the train oil of ignorance and superstition, lighting us up with the brilliant gas of reason and comparative understanding, while, under less despotic and more tolerant times, we are permitted the rational exercise of those faculties which formerly were rivetted to the floor of tyranny by the most humiliating oppression!

The pranks of popes and priests, conjurors and fire-eaters, have comparatively fled before the piercings of the intellectual ray. Witches no longer untie the winds to capsise church-steeples, and “topple” down castles,—they no longer dance round the enchanted cauldron, invoking the “ould one” to propitiate their cantrip vows:—Beelzebub himself with his cloven foot is seldom if ever seen above the “bottom of the bottomless pit;” ghosts and apparitions are “jammed hard and fast” in the Red sea; demons of every cast and colour are eternally spellbound; legends are consigned to the chimney-corner of long winter-nights; miracles to the “_presto_, quick, change and begone!” of the nimble-fingered conjuror; and holy relics to the rosary of the bigot. Amulets and charms have lost their influence; saints are uncanonized, and St. Patrick, St. Dennis, & Co. are flesh and blood like ourselves; monks and holy friars no longer revel in the debauches of the cloister; the hermit returns unsolicited from the solitude of the desert, to encounter with his fellow-men; the pilgrim lays by his staff, leaves the Holy Land to its legitimate possessors, and the tomb of St. Thomas-à-Becket, to enjoy, unmolested, the sombre tranquillity of the grave. Quacks and mountebanks begin also to caper within a narrower sphere; to be brief, the word of command, to use a nautical phrase, has long been given, “every man to his station, and the cook to the fore-sheet,”—worldly occupations have superseded ultramundane speculations. Astrologers themselves, who once ruled the physical world, have long ago been virtually consigned to the grave of the Partridges; and floods and storms are found to be phenomena perfectly consistent with the natural world. We also know that the sun is stationary, that the moon is not made of green cheese, and that there are stars yet in the firmament which the centifold powers of the telescope of a Herschell will never be able to explore.

The Reformation, which originated in the trammels of vice itself, gave the Devil in hell and his agents on earth, such a “_belly-go-fister_,” that they have never since been able to come to the scratch, but in such a petty larceny-like manner, as to set all their demonological efforts at defiance. This is the first time “old Nick” was ever completely floored; though, it would appear, from the recent number of new churches, built no doubt with the pious intention of keeping him in abeyance, that he has latterly been making a little head-way;—these, however, with the “Holy alliance,” like stern-chasers on a new construction, should the “ould one” attempt to board us again in the smoke of superstition, will, without much injury to the hull of the church, pitch him back to Pandemonium, there to exhaust his demonological rage in the sulphuretted hydrogen of his own hell; while the lights of revealed religion, emanating from these soul-saving foundations, like Sir Humphrey Davy’s safety-lamp, will give us timely warning of the choke-damp of damnation before it have time to explode about our ears.

It behoves us, nevertheless, to pray that we may merit this protection, and to watch, for we know not at what hour the _cracksman_ may pay us an unwelcome visit; for, whatever pampered hypocrites and mercenary prayer-mongers may pretend to the contrary, our worldly goods, although but of a temporary and perishable nature, are as essential to our existence and respectability here below, as our spiritual faith is necessary to our heavenly and eternal happiness above, however unequal the comparison.

Among the creatures of the Devil, no one has a more decent claim to his clemency, than the caterwauling canting hypocrite. The hypocrite is a genus to which a variety of species belong, the subdivisions of which are too numerous for our present purpose; we shall only therefore offer a few remarks on one kind of these vampyres, drawn from daily observation. If not absolutely gluttons, although many of them are _gourmands_ in excess, hypocrites are invariably fond of their ungodly guts, for which they are at all times ready to sacrifice their God, their King, their country and their friends. They have a stomach like a horse, and a reservoir like a brewer’s vat. The hypocrite of circumstances prays, or pretends to pray, in adversity, and swears in good earnest, like a trooper, in prosperity,—he is either a roaring bedlamite or a whining calf, a peevish idiot, a buffoon, or a disgusting bacchanal;—in short, he is capable of such derogatory pranks and extremes, that, as the occasion serves, he with equal facility rises from the bended knee of supplication to extend the hand of venality, aye, and of sensuality too, to the object of his latent and ungovernable concupiscence. His bloated chops, at one time, resemble a passive pair of bagpipes, while, at another, they are inflated with all the arrogance of beggarly pride and momentary superfluity. He is never ashamed to beg, and only afraid to steal—although equally adapted for the one as the other. A consummate, a brawling, and a suspicious egotist—he will hear no one but himself, no opinion but his own. In his own house he is a bear; in the house of another, a nuisance; and every where a _nil desideratum_. Self-eulogy is his most constant theme; and his loathsome flattery, either applied to himself or others, is invariably bespattered with the most _impious_ invocations of the Deity, to witness his rebellious professions of patience, submission, abstinence, and every other exotic virtue, which he knows only by name. His cant is of the basest and most servile description; and for the attainment of some object, however pitiful or paltry, important or consequential, he is the same venal wretch all over. Where his expectations are defeated, and the yearnings of his bowels unappeased, his sycophancy is succeeded by slander, impertinence, insult, and the most unfounded suspicion. The cringing, wriggling wretch, at length, having wormed himself through a world of unpitied degradation, filth, and obscenity, attempts, at the end of his career, to offer up to his God, what has been indignantly rejected by the Devil—he dies as he lived, a pauper, equally to fortune and fame—without one redeeming qualification to keep alive even his name, which is never mentioned unless mingled with that kindred contempt and insignificance to which it was by nature and existence so closely allied.

Popular traditions are always worth recording; they illustrate traditions and exemplify manners: they tend to throw off the thraldom of the intellect of man, and stimulate him to exertions compatible with the intentions of his existence. It is with this view that the materials of which the following pages are composed, have been collected. Priestcraft, the foster-mother of superstition, is now sunk too far below the horizon ever to set again in our illumined hemisphere. The history of their former influence may, nevertheless, enlighten and amuse, as well as guard the tender ideas from receiving impressions calculated to stupify the reason and riper judgment; thus withdrawing the flimsy veil of error and credulity, by an exposure of those fallacies too often credited, because frequently passed over without the aid of investigation through the more refined medium of moral and physical research.

=Demonologia.=

OBSERVATIONS ON ANCIENT AND

MODERN SUPERSTITIONS, &c.

The mind of man is naturally so addicted to the marvellous, that, notwithstanding the brilliant eructations of knowledge that have been elicited and diffused out of chaotic darkness since the establishment of the Christian religion, and the revival of learning and the arts, the influence still of ancient superstition is by no means entirely annihilated. At the present period, however, it is principally confined to the uneducated portion of the community; although, at a more remote period, its limits were by no means so circumscribed. A belief in the existence of apparitions, witches, sorcerers, and magicians, is still credulously supported in many parts of the world, though less so in civilized Europe than in other countries, Lapland and some parts of Sweden and Norway excepted. But how much must it astonish us when we look back to the distant ages of Greece and Rome, the nurseries of the sciences and the arts, to find the greatest heroes and statesmen imbibing and fostering the same ridiculous prejudices, and strenuously cultivating the same belief, paying obedience to augurs, oracles, and soothsayers, on whose contradictory and equivocal inferences their prosperity or adversity was made to depend. In fact, little more than a century ago, do we not behold things still more extravagantly credulous and ferocious; namely, the burning of women for the imaginary crime of witchcraft, incidents of which we have given in the body of this work, a crime much more innocent than that of priestcraft, which triumphantly prevailed at the very same period, and which still holds the minds of thousands in subjection?

A belief in judicial astrology was supported and cultivated by men remarkable for their extraordinary genius and talents.

Legends, miracles, prophecies, &c. are relics of superstitious ages. What also is extraordinary, is, that few species of superstition, if any, originated with the _populace_. They were the inventions of barbarous ages before the dawn of reason—afterwards the fabrications of men actuated by ambition, and a desire to servilize the human mind.

As regards the Romans only, a people whom we are taught from our infancy to respect, and who, indeed, in their better days, were truly venerable for their virtue and valour, what is there in their history more astonishing than their implicit belief in augury[1]? Their belief in omens or preternatural appearances of the heavenly bodies, in eclipses, comets, and dreadful thunder-storms, may be forgiven. They had made small progress in astronomy; they had not learnt that an eclipse is a matter of common calculation; and that storms are, in most cases, highly beneficial to the earth, and nowise connected with past or future events. But when we find them giving implicit credit to their priests, who thought proper to predict good or evil, merely from the appearance of the entrails of sacrificed animals, from the flight of birds, from chickens, foxes, &c. we are at a loss to conceive how a deception of this kind could have prevailed, without being detected and exposed by the good sense of the people. The mob alone, or the common soldiers and sailors, were not merely influenced by the reports of the augurs[2]; their kings or commanders undertook no expedition without consulting these oracles, and were always unsuccessful, if they confided so much in themselves as to disregard their opinions. In some cases, it is easy to suppose that they might have been in concert with the augurs, to promote some favourite point, to raise an enthusiasm in the people in their favour, or to inspire the soldiers with fortitude in some dangerous enterprise. But it is not so easy to suppose that this was always the case, because, upon the evidence of their historians, it appears that there was generally but little connexion between them; and that, although the people looked to the commander for _orders_, they regarded the augurs as superior beings who were to grant _success_.

The art of augury the Romans had from the Tuscans, and the Tuscans from the Greeks, who probably derived it from the Chaldeans; but the progress of the art is as absurd as the origin of it is obscure. The only wonder is, that it had so much influence upon a people, in the whole of whose history we find so many brilliant examples of solid sense, of learning, and of eloquence. Their historians, who rank among the most learned of their writers, and of whose abilities we can even now be judges, gravely relate the process of consulting augury, and the success of it. Yet the augurs were men following one another in regular succession. Was there none to betray the secret? Was the art of juggling an hereditary secret without one interruption? Tyranny first broke the chain. When Rome was governed by tyrants, these despised augury, and prosecuted their wicked purposes, whatever might be the appearance of the entrails of an ox; and as they, no doubt, often succeeded in their enterprises, augury would naturally fall into disrepute. These circumstances, in the great chain of causes and events, would naturally pave the way for a more rational religion. We are indebted to Henry VIII. for the commencement of the reformation; but, if the pope would have sanctioned his lust and his extortion, that advantage would have probably been derived from a better sovereign.

It is a circumstance no less remarkable, that, notwithstanding we read of the superstitions of the Greeks and Romans with wonder and some degree of contempt, we cannot acquit ourselves of having yet retained a very considerable portion Of the same superstitious spirit. We are even indebted to them for almost all our popular whims. A hare crossing the way—a person sneezing—stumbling—hearing strange voices—and the falling of salt upon the table, were all with them omens of good or evil, according to circumstances, and remain so with thousands at the present time, and in this enlightened country. Persons of otherwise no mean understanding have been greatly perplexed, and have even turned pale at such occurrences. To the above may be added, a coal starting from the fire[3]—the death-watch—the sediment of the sugar rising to the top of the tea-cup, and many others. We may also mention the success of those impostors, who pretend to calculate nativities (_see_ ASTROLOGY) and predict events; and the many foolish instances for belief in the success of lottery-tickets.

Ignorant as the Romans were of a superintending Providence, and of the revealed will of the Divine Majesty, their trust in such omens was pardonable, and deceived as they were by the artifices of their soothsayers, who could contrive to _time_ their prophecies, and express them in such a manner that they should appear to be punctually fulfilled, we cannot wonder if the wisest among them were induced to place confidence in imposture. But that we should be as much attached to this species of divination is a weakness, than which there is none we ought more to blush at. Although we boast of our superior understanding, improved as it is by the knowledge of eighteen centuries, we are guilty of a weakness which is excusable only in an unenlightened heathen. This subject might, perhaps, be treated with the ridicule of satire, or the silence of contempt, but the more we consider it, the more we should be inclined to doubt the fact, that there can exist a human and reasonable being so weak, as to believe that futurity can be revealed by trifling events, or by the lowest of mankind, under the name of conjurors. But the fact cannot be doubted: cases of the kind occur every day; and the happiness of individuals and families often lies at the mercy of such impostors.

Those who are addicted to this species of superstitious credulity are no doubt of that class of people who are called _well-meaning_, and would be greatly incensed were we to ask them whether they believed in the superintendence of a Divine Providence. They would answer, “Surely—God forbid we did not!” And yet, is it consistent with our received ideas, or with the revealed wisdom and perfections of the Deity, to suppose that he should declare that futurity is locked up from the penetration of mankind, and yet should reveal the events of it by the sediments of a cup of coffee, the flame of a candle, or the starting of a sulphureous coal? Is not this offering the greatest insult to him? A step farther, we have, indeed, gone, and but a step towards the very highest insult; we have supposed that he makes known the secrets of futurity to the meanest vagrants and impostors, to the men and women whom the magistrate very properly punishes as much against their foreknowledge as against their inclination. The impossibility of our acquiring by any means a knowledge of future events, and the miserable condition of human life if we had that knowledge, might be here insisted on; but they must be obvious to every thinking man. A better dissuasive from the credulity which is the subject of this discourse, would be to insist upon the gross and insulting impiety of endeavouring to pry into what the Deity has pronounced hidden and concealed, and that by agents the most mean and contemptible. Let those who are still credulous in the appearance of their coffee grounds, their spilling of salt, their passing under a ladder or scaffolding[4], and all the paraphernalia of the impostures of pretended divines, consider with what propriety, decency and respect, they can hereafter appeal to the Deity by the epithets of _all-seeing_ and _omniscient_; and when they have done that, let them reflect upon the dignity and importance of those agents, in whose revelations they confide, in preference to his decrees.

Under the head of superstition may be ranked fatalism; for it follows from this dogma of faith, that all means of averting predestined events, that is, all future events whatever, are not only unavailing, but impious. It is manifest, that if this were consistently adhered to, every effort conducive to self-preservation, or even the common comforts and accommodations of life, would be paralysed; there would be no end to all the duties of social life; nay, to the very existence of the human species. Though this speculative principle, however, has never been able entirely to overpower and extinguish the feelings and dictates of nature to this extent, except among a few fantastical maniacs, there are proofs enough in the history of mankind of its pernicious practical effects. One of the most conspicuous examples of this, is found among the professors of the Mahomedan faith, in their abstaining from the means of stopping the progress of the plague. Among Christian sects, professing this doctrine, the like evils have arisen in an inferior degree, as exemplified in the opposition which the inoculation of the small-pox met with from this religious prejudice. _See Sir Gilbert Blane’s Elements of Medical Logic, page 208._

PROOFS AND TRIALS OF GUILT IN SUPERSTITIOUS AGES.