contradict this; but I will conclude with [4688]Lipsius, that since
"examples, testimonies, and confessions, of those unhappy women are so
manifest on the other side, and many even in this our town of Louvain, that
it is likely to be so. [4689]One thing I will add, that I suppose that in
no age past, I know not by what destiny of this unhappy time, have there
ever appeared or showed themselves so many lecherous devils, satyrs, and
genii, as in this of ours, as appears by the daily narrations, and judicial
sentences upon record." Read more of this question in Plutarch, _vit.
Numae_, Austin _de civ. Dei. lib. 15._ Wierus, _lib. 3. de praestig. Daem._
Giraldus Cambrensis, _itinerar. Camb. lib. 1._ _Malleus malefic. quaest. 5.
part. 1._ Jacobus Reussus, _lib. 5. cap. 6. fol. 54._ Godelman, _lib. 2.
cap. 4._ Erastus, Valesius _de sacra philo. cap. 40._ John Nider,
_Fornicar. lib. 5. cap. 9._ Stroz. Cicogna. _lib. 3. cap. 3._ Delrio,
Lipsius Bodine, _daemonol. lib. 2. cap. 7._ Pererius _in Gen. lib. 8. in 6.
cap. ver. 2._ King James, &c.

SUBSECT. II.--_How Love tyranniseth over men. Love, or Heroical Melancholy,
his definition, part affected_.

You have heard how this tyrant Love rageth with brute beasts and spirits;
now let us consider what passions it causeth amongst men. [4690]_Improbe
amor quid non mortalia pectora cogis_? How it tickles the hearts of mortal
men, _Horresco referens_,--I am almost afraid to relate, amazed, [4691]and
ashamed, it hath wrought such stupendous and prodigious effects, such foul
offences. Love indeed (I may not deny) first united provinces, built
cities, and by a perpetual generation makes and preserves mankind,
propagates the church; but if it rage it is no more love, but burning lust,
a disease, frenzy, madness, hell. [4692]_Est orcus ille, vis est
immedicabilis, est rabies insana_; 'tis no virtuous habit this, but a
vehement perturbation of the mind, a monster of nature, wit, and art, as
Alexis in [4693]Athenaeus sets it out, _viriliter audax, muliebriter
timidium, furore praeceps, labore infractum, mel felleum, blanda
percussio_, &c. It subverts kingdoms, overthrows cities, towns, families,
mars, corrupts, and makes a massacre of men; thunder and lightning, wars,
fires, plagues, have not done that mischief to mankind, as this burning
lust, this brutish passion. Let Sodom and Gomorrah, Troy, (which Dares
Phrygius, and Dictis Cretensis will make good) and I know not how many
cities bear rec