Part 16

In the year 1240 a large rain-procession was held in Luettich. Three times repeated it failed of all effect, "because in the supplication of all saints God's mother had been forgotten." In a new procession "Salve regina" was therefore sung, and the rain immediately came down with such violence that the devout procession was dispersed.--The clergy sometimes, in order to produce rain, would lead a donkey before the gate of the church, hang the litany about his neck, put a wafer in his mouth, and then bury the animal alive.

Especially was the Church of the Middle Ages rich in awful formularies of malediction, testifying to an enormous brutalization of thought and feeling. A single specimen of these formularies will be more than sufficient to illustrate:--

"By the might, power and authority of God, the Almighty Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and in the name of the Holy Virgin the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the holy angels, archangels, St. Michael and St. John the Baptist, in the name of the holy apostle Peter and all the apostles, in the name of the holy Stephen and all the holy martyrs, and St. Adelgunda and all the holy virgins, and of all the saints in heaven and on earth to whom power is given to bind and loose,--we curse, execrate and exclude from the mother Church through the bond of malediction (here follows the name of the persons). May their children be orphaned; may they be cursed upon the field, cursed in the city, in the forest, in their houses and barns, in their chamber and their bed, in the town-hall, in the village, on land and sea; may they be cursed in the church, in the churchyard, in the court-room, on the public square and in war; whether they be talking, sleeping, waking, eating or drinking, whether they be going or resting, or doing any other thing, let them be accursed in soul and body, reason and all their senses: cursed be their progeny, cursed be the fruit of their land, cursed be all their limbs, head, nose, mouth, teeth, throat, eyes, and eyelashes, brain, larynx, tongue, breast, lungs, liver, legs, and arms, skin and hair; cursed be every thing living and moving in them from head to foot, etc. I conjure thee, Lucifer, and all your crew, by the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, by the incarnation and birth of Christ; I conjure thee by the power and the virtue of all saints, that thou never leave them in quiet, night or day, until thou have brought them to ruin, destroyed them by water, or led them to the gallows, or caused them to be torn by wild beasts, or their throat to be cut by enemies, or their bodies to be destroyed by fire," etc., etc.

A biblical ground for ordeals was found in Numbers v. 12-28.

The "Witch-hammer" will be more fully described hereafter. The student of history should not neglect this volume, which is the ripest fruit of Catholic dualism, and clearly shows the results to which it tends.

"Gott in der Geschichte," III.

Yet in the days of Erasmus of Rotterdam the theologians were making great ado over this knotty problem.

This confession Cornelius Agrippa makes in his "Occult Philosophy." Theophrastus Paracelsus and others were less modest.

Thus reasoned, as late as the middle of the sixteenth century, Borrichius (Olaf Borch), who was professor in chemistry at the University of Copenhagen and wrote a book upon the wisdom of the Egyptian Hermes.

Agrippa: "De Occulta Philosophia," 1. I., c. 24.

We have found in a "Magia Divina" the following directions for accomplishing a perpetuum mobile naturae, the efficacy of which we leave for the reader to decide.

"During the twelve nights after Christmas 1-1/2 measures of dew are collected from fruit-trees, and preserved well enclosed. In the month of March dew is again collected from both fruit-trees and meadows and is preserved in another phial. Dew collected in May is poured in a third and rain of a thunderstorm during the summer in a fourth. Thereupon the contents of the four phials are mixed and one measure of it is poured into a great transparent glass retort where, well covered, it must remain a month until it becomes foul. Put it then over fire and subject to heat of the second degree. When sufficiently distilled a substance thick as honey is left. In this residue are poured four grains of astral tincture. The mixture is exposed to a heat of the first degree, by which it is converted into a thick, jet-black lump which again is dissolved, forming below an ink-like fluid, and above a vapor, in which many colors and figures are seen. These soon disappear, and every thing is changed into water, which begins to turn green, and green palaces, constantly enlarging, and mountains and lovely pastures appear, while the water is diminished more and more. When now you find that no more dew rises from the earth within the glass, take the water which you received from the distillation, mix with it a drachm of astral tincture and pour an ounce of this mixture into the glass bulb. Then every thing begins again to live and grow. Add every month an ounce of this mixture. If then the glass ball is well closed, and is not stirred, a vapor gradually arises, and is condensed into two shining stars, like the sun and the moon, and like the latter, one of these stars waxes and wanes; and all the phenomena of nature, thunder, lightning, hail, rain, snow and dew, will appear in your glass ball as in the real world around you. All this will happen if you keep the great Creator before your eyes and in your heart, and if you conceal from the wicked world this great secret."

From the second part of Goethe's Faust the reader may remember Doctor Wagner, Faust's former famulus, busily engaged at the alchemic furnace in preparing a homunculus, an artificial man. The same "Magia Divina" from which we have quoted the preceding directions, allows us also to trace the secret of the learned Wagner: the art of producing "homunculos philosophicos." In a retort of the most beautiful crystal glass is poured one measure of the purest May-dew, collected when the moon is crescent, and two measures of blood from a youth, or three measures from a girl. Both the boy and the girl must be hale and, "if possible," chaste. When this mixture has fomented during a month, and been transformed into a reddish clay, the menstruum which is formed on the top is drawn off by means of tubes hermetically attached to the retort, gathered into a clean glass vessel, mixed with one drachm animal tincture, and the mixture is again poured into the retort where it is kept during a month in gentle heat. A sort of bladder will have then formed which is soon gradually covered with an organic net of little veins and nerves. Sprinkled every fourth week with the menstruum above quoted, the bladder grows during four months. When now you notice a peeping sound and movements of vitality in the glass, look into it and you will discover to your joy and amazement a most beautiful pair, a boy and a girl, which you can contemplate with heart-felt admiration for this lovely work of nature, though their height is but six inches. They move and walk about in the glass, where in the midst there is a tree growing with all kinds of pleasant fruits. If now you pour into the retort every month, two grains of animal tincture, you can keep them alive six whole years. When one year old they can inform you of many secrets of nature. They are benevolent in their disposition, and obey you in every thing. But at the end of the sixth year you will find that this beautiful pair who have eaten hitherto of all kinds of fruit, except those growing on the tree which sprang up in the midst of the retort, now begin to eat also the fruit of that. Then a vapor is found in the retort, which grows denser, assumes a blood-red color and emits flashes. The two homunculi are terrified, and try to hide themselves. Finally every thing around them is parched, they die, and the whole is changed into a fuming mass. If the glass is not very large and strong it explodes, causing great damage.

Every planet had among the twelve signs of the Zodiac its own house, and it was especially propitious when in any of those abodes. The following table shows the order:--

Saturn dwells in Capricornus. Jupiter " " Pisces and Sagittarius. Mars " " Aries and Scorpio. The Sun " " Leo. Venus " " Taurus and Ursa Major. Mercurius " " Virgo and Gemini. The Moon " " Cancer.

Each of the twelve signs (thirty degrees on the arc of the heavens) was divided into three "faces" (ten degrees). The position of the planet was most auspicious when in the first face of the house; if in the third its favorable influence was doubtful.

As the reader will see from the first table given above, the signs of the Zodiac were supposed to sustain a relation to the elements and to temperaments. Aries, Leo and Sagittarius were warm, dry, fiery and choleric. Mars entering these signs--excepting that of Aries which was his own house, in which he was auspicious--must therefore bode draught, conflagration and pestilence. Taurus, Virgo and Capricornus, were cold, dry, earthy, melancholic. Saturn in the second sign of Taurus might consequently betoken a severe winter. The signs of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces were cold, damp, watery and sanguine. The dominion of the Zodiacal constellations over the human body was divided as follows: Aries presided over the head and face, Taurus over the neck and throat, Gemini over the shoulders, arms and hands, Cancer over the breast, ribs, lungs and spleen, Leo over the upper part of the stomach, back and side, Virgo over the lower part of the stomach and intestines, Scorpio over the generative organs, Sagittarius over the anus, Capricornus over the knees, Aquarius over the thighs, Pisces over the feet. The planets exercised the same influence as their houses, and all elementary things subordinated to a planet were considered to be, during auspicious aspects, excellent remedies for affections in the limbs presided over by that planet. The series of analogies, of which we have given an example above, were therefore inexhaustible mines even for the physicians of the Middle Ages. Since, for instance, Capricornus which presided over the knees, is the house of Saturn, and all crawling animals are connected with this planet, the fat of snakes is an effective remedy against gout in the knees, especially on Saturday, the day of Saturn.

The days bear yet, in many languages, the names of the planets which were assigned to them in gray antiquity by Astrology.

Sunday, dies Solis, is the day of the Sun. Monday, dies Lunae, is the day of the Moon. Tuesday, dies Martis, is the day of Mars, i. e., Tiw. Wednesday, dies Mercurii, is the day of Mercury. Thursday, dies Jovis, is the day of Jupiter, i. e., Thor. Friday, dies Veneris, is the day of Venus, i. e., Freja. Saturday, dies Saturni, is the day of Saturn.

The original names seem to have been introduced by the Romans during the later period of the republic. That the idea is derived from Egypt is shown by a passage in Dion Cassius [l. XLIII., c. 26; compare E. Roth, "Geschichte userer abendlaendischer Philosophie," I., pag. 211]. The question when and how they were introduced by our forefathers will perhaps remain forever a matter only of conjecture. It has caused astonishment that the order in which the days were named after the planets, though the same with all nations, is not the order in which they were supposed to be placed in the universe (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon). This riddle is solved by the passage in Dion Cassius referred to, in a manner such that the astrological origin of this nomenclature must be undoubted. He relates, namely, that the Egyptians devoted every one of the twenty-four hours to a certain planet. The first hour of the first week-day (Saturday) was given to the uppermost planet, Saturn, the second to Jupiter, the third to Mars and so on, according to the order of the planets. The 24th hour of Saturday consequently fell also to Mars, and the first hour of the succeeding day to the Sun, by which that day was therefore named Sunday. The 24th hour of Sunday falls according to the same calculation to Mercury, and the first hour of Monday to the Moon; and so on. The astrological distribution of the hours between the planets according to their successive order in the heavens thus explains the apparent disorder which occurs in the week. In the magical works by Cornelius Agrippa, Peter de Albano and others, of which the author has availed himself, tables concerning the distribution of the hours are found. These writers have collected from all quarters, and not least from Ptolemy and the Alexandrians, materials for their magical apparatus.

The prescriptions for these perfumes are found in Cornelius Agrippa's "Occulta Philosophia," l. I., c. 44.

They are found in Agrippa's "Occulta Philosophia," l. III. cc. 25, 26, 27, 28.

Many pages could be filled with subtle speculations over the word Bereshit, the first word in the Old Testament. That the sensual world is only a secondary world, a reflex of the ideal world, the Cabalists proved by showing that Holy Writ commences not with the first but with the second letter of the Alphabet, namely [Hebrew] (b), which in its form is half a square [found in the number of the world], and therefore signifies an accomplished separation between spirit and matter, between good and evil. By a transposition of the letters in Bereshit, in accordance with the method of the Cabala, two other words are obtained which mean "in the first Tishri," showing that the world had been created in the month of Tishri (September). The sum of the numerical value of the letters in the word Bereshit equals the sum of the numerical value of the letters in two words which mean "He created by the law,"--a proof that the law is the instrumental cause of the world. Further, Bereshit can be divided so as to form two words meaning "He created six" (six days, six millenniums, the six extensions of universal space, etc.); or, "He created a ram," which was, according to the Hebrew Cabalists, the same ram that was sacrificed instead of Isaac, and the Christians add, the same "Lamb of God" which gave itself a sacrifice for man.

The table from which the author has amused himself in extracting, according to the rules, this name, is found in "Occulta Philosophia," 1. III. c. 26.

Agrippa's book gives the subtle rules for finding the "signs" or the signatures of the demons.--The reader must remember the part played by the "signs" of microcosmos and the earth-spirit in Goethe's Faust.

Since they (the newly converted Anglo-Saxons) are accustomed to slaughter many oxen and horses in their feasts to the honor of the devils (their ancient gods) it is necessary to allow this custom to remain, but based upon another principle. Thus there must likewise be celebrated on the feast days of the Church and of the Holy Martyrs whose relics are kept in the churches built in heathen sacrificial groves, a perfectly similar festival, by enclosing a place with green trees and preparing a religious banquet. Still the animals must not be sacrificed to Satan's honor, but slaughtered to the praise of God and for the sake of food, for which the Giver of all good gifts must be thanked.

"Creberrima fama est multique se expertos vel ab eis qui experti essent, de quorum fide dubitandum non est, audisse confirmant, silvanos et faunos, quos incubos vocant, improbos saepe exstitisse mulieribus et earum appetisse ac peregisse concubitum, et quosdam daemones, quos Dusios Galli nuncupant, hanc assidue immunditiam et tentare et efficere plures talesque asseverant, ut hoc negare impudentiae videatur." (De civitate Dei. lib. 15, cap. 23).

"Recognitiones divi Clementis ad Jacob," lib. II.