i-dei or half gods beneath, Lares, Heroes, Genii,
which climb higher, if they lived well, as the Stoics held; but grovel on
the ground as they were baser in their lives, nearer to the earth: and are
Manes, Lemures, Lamiae, &c. [1165]They will have no place but all full of
spirits, devils, or some other inhabitants; _Plenum Caelum, aer, aqua
terra, et omnia sub terra_, saith [1166]Gazaeus; though Anthony Rusca in
his book _de Inferno, lib. v. cap. 7._ would confine them to the middle
region, yet they will have them everywhere. "Not so much as a hair-breadth
empty in heaven, earth, or waters, above or under the earth." The air is
not so full of flies in summer, as it is at all times of invisible devils:
this [1167]Paracelsus stiffly maintains, and that they have every one their
several chaos, others will have infinite worlds, and each world his
peculiar spirits, gods, angels, and devils to govern and punish it.

"Singula [1168]nonnulli credunt quoque sidera posse
Dici orbes, terramque appellant sidus opacum,
Cui minimus divum praesit."------

"Some persons believe each star to be a world, and this earth an
opaque star, over which the least of the gods presides."

[1169]Gregorius Tholsanus makes seven kinds of ethereal spirits or angels,
according to the number of the seven planets, Saturnine, Jovial, Martial,
of which Cardan discourseth _lib. 20. de subtil._ he calls them
_substantias primas, Olympicos daemones Tritemius, qui praesunt Zodiaco_,
&c., and will have them to be good angels above, devils beneath the Moon,
their several names and offices he there sets down, and which Dionysius of
Angels, will have several spirits for several countries, men, offices, &c.,
which live about them, and as so many assisting powers cause their
operations, will have in a word, innumerable, as many of them as there be
stars in the skies. [1170]Marcilius Ficinus seems to second this opinion,
out of Plato, or from himself, I know not, (still ruling their inferiors,
as they do those under them again, all subordinate, and the nearest to the
earth rule us, whom we subdivide into good and bad angels, call gods or
devils, as they help or hurt us, and so adore, love or hate) but it is most
likely from Plato, for he relying wholly on Socrates, _quem mori potius
quam mentiri voluisse scribit_, whom he says would rather die than tell a
falsehood, out of Socrates' authority alone, made nine kinds of them: which