haebades or sibyls, I am assured there be other
enthusiasts, prophets, _dii Fatidici_, Magi, (of which read Jo. Boissardus,
who hath laboriously collected them into a great [6467]volume of late, with
elegant pictures, and epitomised their lives) &c., ever have been in all
ages, and still proceeding from those causes, [6468]_qui visiones suas
enarrant, somniant futura, prophetisant, et ejusmodi deliriis agitati,
Spiritum Sanctum sibi communicari putant_. That which is written of Saint
Francis' five wounds, and other such monastical effects, of him and others,
may justly be referred to this our melancholy; and that which Matthew Paris
relates of the [6469]monk of Evesham, who saw heaven and hell in a vision;
of [6470]Sir Owen, that went down into Saint Patrick's purgatory in King
Stephen's days, and saw as much; Walsingham of him that showed as much by
Saint Julian. Beda, _lib. 5. cap. 13. 14. 15. et 20._ reports of King
Sebba, _lib. 4. cap. 11. eccles. hist._ that saw strange [6471]visions; and
Stumphius Helvet Cornic, a cobbler of Basle, that beheld rare apparitions
at Augsburg, [6472]in Germany. Alexander ab Alexandro, _gen. dier. lib. 6.
cap. 21._ of an enthusiastical prisoner, (all out as probable as that of
Eris Armenius, in Plato's tenth dialogue _de Repub._ that revived again ten
days after he was killed in a battle, and told strange wonders, like those
tales Ulysses related to Alcinous in Homer, or Lucian's _vera historia_
itself) was still after much solitariness, fasting, or long sickness, when
their brains were addled, and their bellies as empty of meat as their heads
of wit. Florilegus hath many such examples, _fol. 191._ one of Saint
Gultlake of Crowald that fought with devils, but still after long fasting,
overmuch solitariness, [6473]the devil persuaded him therefore to fast, as
Moses and Elias did, the better to delude him. [6474]In the same author is
recorded Carolus Magnus vision _an._ 185. or ecstasies, wherein he saw
heaven and hell after much fasting and meditation. So did the devil of old
with Apollo's priests. Amphiaraus and his fellows, those Egyptians, still
enjoin long fasting before he would give any oracles, _triduum a cibo et
vino abstinerent_, [6475]before they gave any answers, as Volateran _lib.
13. cap. 4._ records, and Strabo _Geog. lib. 14._ describes Charon's den,
in the way between Tralles and Nissum, whither the priests led sick and
fanatic men: but nothing performed without long fasting