Platos opinion.
Plato doth think, that Heroicall and excellent soules, as being of the pure sort, do mount aloft: but that other base and viler soules, that are defiled with the pleasures & lustes of the bodie, do wander below on the ground, and the same he déemeth to be those spirits which are eftsoones séene.
Also other heathen and prophane writers say, they are heereby mooued to thinke that the soules of men doo liue after death, for that it is most cleare and euident, that many spirits wander and raunge hither and thither, and are oft times heard and séene, and founde to talke with men: Tertullian. for they suppose that most of these are mens soules. Tertullian a very auncient writer, in his booke De anima, saith, that the wise Heathens, which did define the soule to be immortall, (for some of them, as namely the Epicures, thought that the soules died with their bodies) thought that the soules of the wise, if they departed from their bodies, hadde their abiding on high: but the rest were throwne downe into Hell.
Furthermore, the Heathen thought the Soules should stray continually abroade before they founde rest, vnlesse the bodies from which they were seuered, were rightly buried in the earth. Wherefore (as we may reade in Poets) it was a gréeuous crime to caste foorth any bodie vnburied. Homer. Hector in Homere, besought Achilles that he woulde not cast foorth his carcasse to be deuoured of Dogs and birds, but that he would deliuer the same to be enterred by olde Priamus his father, and Hecuba his mother. Patroclus appeared in a vision by night after his deathe vnto Achilles, and requested him to bestowe vppon him all funeral solemnities. For otherwise he saide the soules of those that were buried, woulde thrust him backe, that he should not be able once to enter in at Hell gates. Which example Tertullian aledgeth, and therwithal cōfuteth this Virgil. vaine opinion of the heathen. Palinurus in Virgill, besought Æneas, that he woulde cast earth on him, when he was dead, and erect vnto him an hearse, for so did they call those Monuments of the deade, in whiche albeit no man was layde, yet were they vsed in the honour of the deceassed. Virgill writeth, that Deiphobus his Ghost wandred abroade, vnto the whiche Æneas erected an Horse.
For the Gentiles were of suche an opinion in those dayes, that they thought an emptie and counterfeyted buriall profitted very much. Moreouer the heathen were perswaded that the soules which dyed before their naturall time (especially of those whiche perished by violent death, whom they call βιοθανάτους, as by hanging, drowning, or beheading, &c.) did straie abroade so long time as they should haue liued, if they had not bin slain by violent death. Which opinion Tertullian also confuteth. Plato. Plato in his ninth booke De legibus, writeth, that the soules of those which are slain, do pursue their murtherers so farre, that they do hurt them: the which, except it be vnderstood by way of a Metaphor, is likewise to be reiected.
The Iewes opinion.
The Catholike faith amongst the Iewes was, that the soules of the dead did not returne into this earth, but either were at rest, which was when they died in the faith of the promised Messias, or were cōdemned if they departed hence in their sinnes without repentance. Iob.7. For Iob in his seuenth Chapter saith: Euen as the cloude vanisheth and fadeth away, so he that goeth downe to the graue shall come vp no more, nor returne into his house, &c.
Psal.31.
Eccle.12.
Wisd.3.