[6456]Erasmus well taxeth, _Coelum non sufficere
putant suis meritis._ Heaven is too small a reward for it; they make choice
of times and meats, buy and sell their merits, attribute more to them than
to the ten Commandments, and count it a greater sin to eat meat in Lent,
than to kill a man, and as one sayeth, _Plus respiciunt assum piscem, quam
Christum crucifixum, plus salmonem quam Solomonem, quibus in ore Christus,
Epicurus in corde_, "pay more respect to a broiled fish than to Christ
crucified, more regard to salmon than to Solomon, have Christ on their
lips, but Epicurus in their hearts," when some counterfeit, and some
attribute more to such works of theirs than to Christ's death and passion;
the devil sets in a foot, strangely deludes them, and by that means makes
them to overthrow the temperature of their bodies, and hazard their souls.
Never any strange illusions of devils amongst hermits, anchorites, never
any visions, phantasms, apparitions, enthusiasms, prophets, any
revelations, but immoderate fasting, bad diet, sickness, melancholy,
solitariness, or some such things, were the precedent causes, the
forerunners or concomitants of them. The best opportunity and sole occasion
the devil takes to delude them. Marcilius Cognatus, _lib. 1. cont. cap. 7._
hath many stories to this purpose, of such as after long fasting have been
seduced by devils; and [6457]"'tis a miraculous thing to relate" (as Cardan
writes) "what strange accidents proceed from fasting; dreams, superstition,
contempt of torments, desire of death, prophecies, paradoxes, madness;
fasting naturally prepares men to these things." Monks, anchorites, and the
like, after much emptiness, become melancholy, vertiginous, they think they
hear strange noises, confer with hobgoblins, devils, rivel up their bodies,
_et dum hostem insequimur_, saith Gregory, _civem quem diligimus,
trucidamus_, they become bare skeletons, skin and bones; _Carnibus
abstinentes proprias carnes devorant, ut nil praeter cutem et ossa sit
reliquum._ Hilarion, as [6458]Hierome reports in his life, and Athanasius
of Antonius, was so bare with fasting, "that the skin did scarce stick to
the bones; for want of vapours he could not sleep, and for want of sleep
became idleheaded, heard every night infants cry, oxen low, wolves howl,
lions roar" (as he thought), "clattering of chains, strange voices, and the
like illusions of devils." Such symptoms are common to those that fast
long, are so