50
An Examen
read that, in pretending to bring living men to life, they have caused the death of the men; and as examples of this we may quote Calvin, of whom Jerome Bolsecque speaks in his Life; and another Minister from the borders of Poland and Hungary, whom Alanus Copus mentions in the sixth book of his Dialogues, and, later, Cardinal Bellarmine in his Controversies. In this manner also Cyril the Patriarch of the Arians rendered one blind who was but pretending to be blind. But indeed how should heretics have power to raise the dead to life, seeing that the Prophets of Baal could not bring fire down from Heaven, and Mani could not heal the sick King’s son, and Luther was brought into great danger when he wished to cast out the Devil from the body of a woman that was his disciple? Grilland, de Sortileg. VII. 4.I prefer, then, to say that sometimes witches are present at the Sabbat, and sometimes they are not; and that when they are so present they go there both in body and in spirit, and that Satan then places a fantom in their likeness so that a husband very often embraces an illusion instead of his wife, in just the same way that the poets pretend that Ixion embraced a cloud instead of Juno. Sometimes again Satan at that time makes himself a Succubus with whom the husband lies as if it were his wife. There can be no doubt that there are times when witches go to the Sabbat both in body and spirit without Satan putting any fantom in their place; Remy, Demonol. c. 4.but in such case the Devil induces so profound a sleep in those of the house, with mandragora or some other narcotic draught, that they cannot be awakened by any noise soever, and the husband, who has seen his wife come to bed before he
