The displaying of supposed witchcraft

by John Webster

Hist. 7.

3. “Therefore (he saith) I will shew, that the aid of Satan is not at all needful, that some solid body may be drawn without the comminution of it self, by a passage far less than it self. For the evil spirit, though he have a motive Blas; yet notwithstanding it is against piety, that he can hurt the innocent at his pleasure. Which certainly should come to pass, if every where he could inject these things, according to his nefarious will, for (he saith) I have seen these things happen to innocent children, to Virgins that were pious and devoted to God after a singular manner. And to prove this point he giveth these instances. Cornelius Gemma de Cosmocriticis doth recite that he had seen a piece of three pounds or 48. ounces weight, of a brass Cannon, which a Maid the Daughter of a Cooper had voided by stool, with its characters or letters, together with an Eele wrapt in its secundines. But it is impossible to nature to melt powdered metal in us, and to be detained so many months in its pristine figure in the Intestines, or that the Eele should so often be made into small powder and to arise again from death. And that pieces of wood and leather should so often be turned into small powder, and again restored into their former condition. For (he saith) I have seen at Bruxells in the year 1599. that an Oxe having taken three Herbs did vomit a Dragon with a tail like an Eele, a body as of leather, a Serpentine Head, and not less than a Partridge. There is (he saith) an History of a Polonish Countryman, seen lately of the Son of the Lord Ericius Puteanus. A certain rustick did attempt himself to cut the Squinsie that he had in his throat with a short Knife, which at unawares he swallowed, and that at the length he did void the same at the right side of the Abdomen, or lower belly, with much rotten matter after great tortures, and survived in health. Also at Vilvordia in the year 1636. a Countryman known unto me (he saith) intending to feed a Cow, did daily give her a bowl, in which he had boiled Pot-Herbs with bran. At last she waxeth leaner more and more every day, and begun to halt upon the right thigh: The Cow being killed, the short Knife of his Wives bended back into the haft of Box, is found hid betwixt the ribs and the shoulder blade: For the Country Woman in cutting the rape root, had left her Knife amongst the Pot-Herbs, and the Cow by drinking had swallowed it. Also (he saith) Ambrosius Paræus relateth a story of a certain man whom Thieves had compelled to swallow a Knife, which he afterwards being sound did void by an Apostume of the side. Alexander Benedictus (he saith) doth mention another, to whom an Arrow had penetrated into his back, the hook of which of the breadth of three fingers he did void by stool without hurt. The same Author relateth of a certain Girl of Venice who had swallowed a Needle, and that after two years she voided it by urine, crusted over with a stony substance. Also (he saith) Antonius Benevenius doth relate, that an Hetruscan Woman had swallowed a Copper Needle or Pin, which three years after she voided at the Navil, and was sound. Valesius de Taranta (he saith) mentioneth a Girl of Venice (perhaps the same) who voided by urine a Pin of three fingers long. A certain Capucine at Eburum called Bullonius, by Sirname Hamptean, did with much aversion of mind drink up an huge living Spider, which he had seen fall into the Chalice in the time of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Within a few days he had a Phlegmon or bile that did arise in his right thigh, and with much rotten matter from thence he voided the whole Spider, but being dead. A young Merchant of Antwerp being playing at Venice in his mouth with an unripe Ear of Barley, did swallow the same with an huge fear of suffocation: From thence after three Weeks in the left side above the Girdle, an Apostume appeared, and at the length with the rotten matter the same Ear of a yellow colour is extracted whole. And he escaped sound. With Fernelius a Student is related to be cured by him who had voided an Ear of Corn by the ribs. Also Writers do commemorate, that the young one sometimes dead and wasted in the Womb, hath voided the bones through the Womb, the belly, by the navil, and sometimes by the fundament. More things of this nature do every where occur amongst Authors worthy of credit.”

Reas. 4.

4. From which matters of fact he thus concludeth: “By which (he saith) it is manifest, that solid bodies sufficiently great, have penetrated the Stomach, the Bowels, the Womb, the Caul, the lower Belly, the skin upon the inside of the Ribs, the Bladder, Membranes (he saith) impatient of so great a wound. That is to say, that Knives have been transmitted through these Membranes without wound, which is equivalent to the penetration of dimensions made in nature without the help of the Devil. And that an human body may be drawn through a small hole, through which a Cat might only pass, but not through a Wall. Verily that the Devil cannot break a paper Window without the consent of his Master, is (he saith) manifest by the process and arrest of Ludovicus Godfredus the Witch, pronounced at Aix in Narbona, the last of April 1611. I pray you where have the three pounds of brass, of the Cannon of War, marked with its letters, laid hid? how for so many months hath the dross shined, in what part was the piece of brass greater than the intestine contained? While I was (he saith) shewing a necessary vacuity in the air, I promised that I would declare, that although the penetration of bodies by the primary law of nature, and by the common way of Artificers be forbidden: notwithstanding that while a body doth totally pass over into the dominion of the spirit, and is carried over, and is by that as it were weakened; then bodies do naturally and mutually penetrate one another, at least in that part that is porous: Because that the spirit then doth inclose the body under it self, and therefore as it were taketh away the dimensions.”

Reas. 5.

Hist. 1.

5. And to confirm and open this point more fully, he saith: “I will premise some things. The desire of eating Muscles did invade a Woman with Child. And she eateth some of them so very hastily, that she did devour the raw shells, twice or thrice broken with her teeth. Thereupon by and by within an hour, she bringeth forth a sound and adult Child, with the same half-chewed shells, and wounded in the belly. Therefore the shells without the aperture of the membranes, had forthwith penetrated the Stomach, Womb and Secundines: or else there were new shells generated upon the young Child. Neither could this later be true. For they were the true fragments of the Muscles, and not figuratively framed to the imitation of them. Furthermore, the appetite is not carried to a thing unknown: Therefore the appetite of eating the Muscles was not of the Child, but of the Woman. Therefore it was not necessary that new Muscles should be generated about the Child; for they were desired by the Mother that they might become nutriment to her, not the Child. Otherwise by the same argument of Identity, what things soever should by the appetite be desired, should be generated about the young Child; of whom when they could not be digested, they should be always either left remaining about the Child, or should there putrefie. Which is false both ways: for if it should putrefie, that which is desired would cause abortion; or if it were conserved there, it would be found regularly. For the Child is only nourished by the Navil: Therefore those external Muscles could neither be wished by the Child, nor could be profitable unto it, and by consequence, were neither for an end made anew, but sent to the young one by reason that it was an uterine appetite. The appetite is always directed from the end; but the Woman with Child desired the Muscles not the shells, neither that the Muscle being a living animal might remain in its former state, in which it was unprofitable to the Mother, nor could satisfie her appetite; and therefore much less hath had occasion of generating new and unprofitable shells about the young one. But however it be taken, the appetite was not to the shells twice or thrice broken. For if the Fishes had been taken forth of the shells, she had eaten the fish the shells being left. Therefore the concomitance and concision of the shells were accidental to the appetite. I suppose truly (he saith) that as the desire, terrour, &c. do generate seminal Idea’s, which the hand of the Woman with Child doth send down to the young one, and doth depinge or figurate it in a set time: So the joy of finding that which the appetite did desire, doth bring that very thing to the Child. So verily the heaviness of heart of him that swallowed the Knife, the horror of having drunk the Spider, and of the Ear of Barley devoured, did repel or drive back those things beyond the membranes not able to suffer a wound without death. And these things (he saith) of things injected, entring by the ordinary power of nature, without the suspicion of Diabolical cooperation.”

Reas. 6.

Hist. 1.

Hist. 2.