so carried many miles, and that he heard witches themselves confess as
much; hurt and infect men and beasts, vines, corn, cattle, plants, make
women abortive, not to conceive, [1263]barren, men and women unapt and
unable, married and unmarried, fifty several ways, saith Bodine, lib.
2. c. 2. fly in the air, meet when and where they will, as Cicogna
proves, and Lavat. de spec. part. 2. c. 17. steal young children out of
their cradles, ministerio daemonum, and put deformed in their rooms,
which we call changelings, saith [1264]Scheretzius, part. 1. c. 6. make
men victorious, fortunate, eloquent; and therefore in those ancient
monomachies and combats they were searched of old, [1265]they had no
magical charms; they can make [1266]stick frees, such as shall endure a
rapier's point, musket shot, and never be wounded: of which read more
in Boissardus, cap. 6. de Magia, the manner of the adjuration, and by
whom 'tis made, where and how to be used in expeditionibus bellicis,
praeliis, duellis, &c., with many peculiar instances and examples; they
can walk in fiery furnaces, make men feel no pain on the rack, aut
alias torturas sentire; they can stanch blood, [1267]represent dead
men's shapes, alter and turn themselves and others into several forms,
at their pleasures. [1268]Agaberta, a famous witch in Lapland, would do
as much publicly to all spectators, Modo Pusilla, modo anus, modo
procera ut quercus, modo vacca, avis, coluber, &c. Now young, now old,
high, low, like a cow, like a bird, a snake, and what not? She could
represent to others what forms they most desired to see, show them
friends absent, reveal secrets, maxima omnium admiratione, &c. And yet
for all this subtlety of theirs, as Lipsius well observes, Physiolog.
Stoicor. lib. 1. cap. 17. neither these magicians nor devils themselves
can take away gold or letters out of mine or Crassus' chest, et
Clientelis suis largiri, for they are base, poor, contemptible fellows
most part; as [1269]Bodine notes, they can do nothing in Judicum
decreta aut poenas, in regum concilia vel arcana, nihil in rem
nummariam aut thesauros, they cannot give money to their clients, alter
judges' decrees, or councils of kings, these minuti Genii cannot do it,
altiores Genii hoc sibi adservarunt, the higher powers reserve these
things to themselves. Now and then peradventure there may be some more
famous magicians like Simon Magus, [1270]Apollonius Tyaneus, Pasetes,
Jamblichus, [1271]Odo de Stellis, that for a time can build castles in
the air, represent armies, &c., as they are [1272]said to have done,
command wealth and treasure, feed thousands with all variety of meats
upon a sudden, protect themselves and their followers from all princes'
persecutions, by removing from place to place in an instant, reveal
secrets, future events, tell what is done in far countries, make them
appear that died long since, and do many such miracles, to the world's
terror, admiration and opinion of deity to themselves, yet the devil
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