y man
where his friends are, about what employed, though in the most remote
places; and if they will, [1262]"bring their sweethearts to them by night,
upon a goat's back flying in the air." Sigismund Scheretzius, _part. 1.
cap. 9. de spect._ reports confidently, that he conferred with sundry such,
that had been so carried many miles, and that he heard witches themselves
confess as much; hurt and infect men and beasts, vines, corn, cattle,
plants, make women abortive, not to conceive, [1263]barren, men and women
unapt and unable, married and unmarried, fifty several ways, saith Bodine,
_lib. 2. c. 2._ fly in the air, meet when and where they will, as Cicogna
proves, and Lavat. _de spec. part. 2. c. 17._ "steal young children out of
their cradles, _ministerio daemonum_, and put deformed in their rooms,
which we call changelings," saith [1264]Scheretzius, _part. 1. c. 6._ make
men victorious, fortunate, eloquent; and therefore in those ancient
monomachies and combats they were searched of old, [1265]they had no
magical charms; they can make [1266]stick frees, such as shall endure a
rapier's point, musket shot, and never be wounded: of which read more in
Boissardus, _cap. 6. de Magia_, the manner of the adjuration, and by whom
'tis made, where and how to be used _in expeditionibus bellicis, praeliis,
duellis_, &c., with many peculiar instances and examples; they can walk in
fiery furnaces, make men feel no pain on the rack, _aut alias torturas
sentire_; they can stanch blood, [1267]represent dead men's shapes, alter
and turn themselves and others into several forms, at their pleasures.
[1268]Agaberta, a famous witch in Lapland, would do as much publicly to all
spectators, _Modo Pusilla, modo anus, modo procera ut quercus, modo vacca,
avis, coluber_, &c. Now young, now old, high, low, like a cow, like a bird,
a snake, and what not? She could represent to others what forms they most
desired to see, show them friends absent, reveal secrets, _maxima omnium
admiratione_, &c. And yet for all this subtlety of theirs, as Lipsius well
observes, _Physiolog. Stoicor. lib. 1. cap. 17._ neither these magicians
nor devils themselves can take away gold or letters out of mine or Crassus'
chest, _et Clientelis suis largiri_, for they are base, poor, contemptible
fellows most part; as [1269]Bodine notes, they can do nothing _in Judicum
decreta aut poenas, in regum concilia vel arcana, nihil in rem nummariam
aut thesauros_, they cannot give mone