of heaven from earth, which contains as some say 170 millions 800
miles, besides those other heavens, whether they be crystalline or
watery which Maginus adds, which peradventure holds as much more, how
many such spirits may it contain? And yet for all this [1174]Thomas
Albertus, and most hold that there be far more angels than devils.
_Sublunary devils, and their kinds._] But be they more or less, Quod
supra nos nihil ad nos (what is beyond our comprehension does not
concern us). Howsoever as Martianus foolishly supposeth, Aetherii
Daemones non curant res humanas, they care not for us, do not attend
our actions, or look for us, those ethereal spirits have other worlds
to reign in belike or business to follow. We are only now to speak in
brief of these sublunary spirits or devils: for the rest, our divines
determine that the devil had no power over stars, or heavens;
[1175]Carminibus coelo possunt deducere lunam, &C., (by their charms
(verses) they can seduce the moon from the heavens). Those are poetical
fictions, and that they can [1176]sistere aquam fluviis, et vertere
sidera retro, &c., (stop rivers and turn the stars backward in their
courses) as Canadia in Horace, 'tis all false. [1177] They are confined
until the day of judgment to this sublunary world, and can work no
farther than the four elements, and as God permits them. Wherefore of
these sublunary devils, though others divide them otherwise according
to their several places and offices, Psellus makes six kinds, fiery,
aerial, terrestrial, watery, and subterranean devils, besides those
fairies, satyrs, nymphs, &c.
Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly work by blazing stars,
fire-drakes, or ignes fatui; which lead men often in flumina aut
praecipitia, saith Bodine, lib. 2. Theat. Naturae, fol. 221. Quos
inquit arcere si volunt viatores, clara voce Deum appellare aut pronam
facie terram contingente adorare oportet, et hoc amuletum majoribus
nostris acceptum ferre debemus, &c., (whom if travellers wish to keep
off they must pronounce the name of God with a clear voice, or adore
him with their faces in contact with the ground, &c.); likewise they
counterfeit suns and moons, stars oftentimes, and sit on ship masts: In
navigiorum summitatibus visuntur; and are called dioscuri, as Eusebius
l. contra Philosophos, c. xlviii. informeth us, out of the authority of
Zenophanes; or little clouds, ad motum nescio quem volantes; which
never appear, saith Cardan, but they signify some mischief or other to
come unto men, though some again will have them to pretend good, and
victory to that side they come towards in sea fights, St. Elmo's fires
they commonly call them, and they do likely appear after a sea storm;
Radzivilius, the Polonian duke, calls this apparition, Sancti Germani
sidus; and saith moreover that he saw the same after in a storm, as he
was sailing, 1582, from Alexandria to Rhodes. [1178]Our stories are
full of such apparitions in all kinds. Some think they keep their
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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