The fourth Chapter.
A summarie of the former fable, with a refutation thereof, after due examination of the same.
ONCERNING the veritie or probabilitie of this enterlude, betwixt Bodin, M. Mal. the witch, the asse, the masse, the merchants, the inquisitors, the tormentors, &c: First I woonder at the miracle of transubstantiation: Secondlie at the impudencie of Bodin and James Sprenger, for affirming so grosse a lie, devised beelike by the knight of the Rhodes, to make a foole of Sprenger, and an asse of Bodin: Thirdlie, that the asse had no more wit than to kneele downe and hold up his forefeete to a peece of starch or flowre, which neither would, nor could, nor did helpe him: Fourthlie, that the masse could not reforme that which the witch transformed: Fiftlie, that the merchants, the inquisitors, and the tormentors, could not either severallie or jointlie doo it, but referre the matter to the witches courtesie and good pleasure.
But where was the yoong mans owne shapeHis shape was in the woods: where else should it be? all these three yeares, wherein he was made an asse? It is a certeine and a generall rule, that two substantiall formes cannot be in one subject Simul & semel, both at once: which is confessed by themselves. The/98. forme of the beast occupied some/75. place in the aire, and so I thinke should the forme of a man doo also.Mal. malef. par. 1. quæ. 2. For to bring the bodie of a man, without feeling, into such a thin airie nature, as that it can neither be seene nor felt, it may well be unlikelie, but it is verie impossible: for the aire is inconstant, and continueth not in one place. So as this airie creature would soone be carried into another region: as else-where I have largelie prooved.In my discourse of spirits and divels, being the 17 booke of this volume. But indeed our bodies are visible, sensitive, and passive, and are indued with manie other excellent properties, which all the divels in hell are not able to alter: neither can one haire of our head perish, or fall awaie, or be transformed, without the speciall providence of God almightie.
But to proceed unto the probabilitie of this storie. What lucke was it, that this yoong fellow of England, landing so latelie in those parts, and that old woman of Cyprus, being both of so base a condition, should both understand one anothers communication; England and Cyprus being so manie hundred miles distant, and their languages so farre differing? I am sure in these daies, wherein trafficke is more used, and learning in more price; few yong or old mariners in this realme can either speake or understand the language spoken at Salamin in Cyprus, which is a kind of Greeke; and as few old women there can speake our language. But Bodin will saie; You heare, that at the inquisitors commandement, and through the tormentors correction, she promised to restore him to his owne shape: and so she did, as being thereunto compelled. I answer, that as the whole storie is an impious fable; so this assertion is false, and disagreeable to their owne doctrine, which mainteineth, that the witch dooth nothing but by the permission and leave of God. For if she could doo or undoo such a thing at hir owne pleasure, or at the commandement of the inquisitors, or for feare of the tormentors, or for love of the partie, or for remorse of conscience: then is it not either by the extraordinarie leave, nor yet by the like direction of God; except you will make him a confederate with old witches. I for my part woonder most, how they can turne and tosse a mans bodie so, and make it smaller and greater, to wit, like a mowse, or like an asse, &c: and the man all this while to feele no paine. And I am not alone in this maze: for Dan. in dialog. cap. 3.Danæus a special mainteiner of their fol/lies99. saith, that although Augustine and ApuleiusAugust. lib. de civit. Dei. cap. 17. 18. doo write verie crediblie of these matters; yet will he never beleeve, that witches can change men into other formes; as asses, apes, woolves, beares, mice, &c.