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← ExitThe Anatomy of Melancholy

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Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On.

Besides, as I have said, this humour is the devil’s bath, the devil’s bathing place, because of the disorder of our humours and the weakness of our organs. By God’s permission he may possess us inwardly to torment us, as he did Saul and others. He is the prince of the air and can assume various shapes and deceive all our senses for a time. But his power has its limits: he may terrify us, but cannot harm us;

God has given his angels charge over us; he is a wall around his people, Psalm 91:11–12. Some prescribe medical treatment in such cases: it is God’s instrument, and appropriate. The devil works through the humours, and diseases with mixed causes must have mixed remedies.

Levinus Lemnius discusses this subject at great length in chapters 57 and 58 of his Exhortation to a Well-Ordered Life. Besides the chief remedy of confidence in God, prayer, heartfelt repentance and so on—on which, for comfort and instruction, read Lavater’s On Spectres, part 3, chapters 5 and 6; Wierus’s On the Deceptions of Demons, book 5, addressed to Philip Melanchthon; and others—and besides the Christian armour prescribed by Paul, he sets down certain amulets, herbs and precious stones, all with marvellous powers for driving away demons, to drive away devils and their illusions.

Sapphires, chrysolites, carbuncles and so on, which have marvellous power to ward off ghosts, witches, incubi and spirits of the air, if the records of the ancients are to be believed.

Among herbs he lists pennyroyal, rue, mint, angelica and peony. Richard Argentine, in chapter 20 of On the Deceptions of Demons, adds hypericum or St John’s wort, the perforated herb, which drives away devils by a divine power and is therefore called the flight of demons:

all these, when properly used as fumigations, resist the torments caused by demons and relieve minds afflicted by demons and poisonous vapours; they expel the devils themselves and all diabolical illusions.

Antonius Musa, the Emperor Augustus’s physician, recommends betony for this purpose in chapter 6 of On Betony. The ancients therefore used to plant it in churchyards, because it was considered a holy herb, effective against frightening visions, protecting the places where it grew and sanctifying those who carried it about them.

Mattioli says much the same in his commentary on Dioscorides. Others recommend skilfully performed music: Saul was helped in this way by David’s harp. Fires are to be lit in rooms haunted by spirits, with plenty of lights, fragrant substances, perfumes and fumigations, as the angel taught Tobias;

fumigations of sulphur and bitumen, frankincense, myrrh and bryony root, with many similar individual ingredients collected by Wecker in book 15, chapter 15 of On Secrets.

Take one drachm of sulphur; boil it again in white-bryony water so that the sulphur is more diluted; give it to the patient, for demons are diseases, says Richard Argentine in the final chapter of On the Deceptions of Demons.

Vigetus has a much more extensive prescription for this purpose, which the same Wecker quotes from Wierus: Take sulphur, wine, bitumen, opopanax, galbanum, castoreum, and so on.

Ernestus Burgravius, in The Lamp of Life and Death, and Fortunius Lycetus give this reason for using sweet perfumes, fires and so many lights in such places: because these attract good spirits and repel evil ones; because good spirits are pleased with them, while evil spirits abhor them.

And therefore the ancient pagans, present-day Muslims and Roman Catholics keep lamps burning continually in their places of worship, all day and all night, and use lights at funerals and in their tombs: lamps burning from liquefied gold, to last for many ages, says Lazius, so that demons may not harm the body; lights burning perpetually, as the Vestal Virgins and prophetic priestesses formerly maintained, with many similar practices,

on which read Tostatus on 2 Kings, chapter 6, question 43; Thyreus’s On Haunted Places, chapters 57, 58, 62 and others; Pictorius’s Introduction on Demons; and so on. Consult them for further examples.

In such a case Cardan would have the sufferer keep his eyes entirely shut if he sees anything that troubles him, or slash the air with a sword in the places where the spirits walk and dwell—for swords and spears terrify them—or fire a pistol at them. For, being bodies composed of air, as Caelius Rhodiginus in book 1, chapter 29, Tertullian, Origen, Psellus and many others maintain, they feel pain if struck.

Roman Catholics commonly prescribe and employ crosses, holy water, blessed prayer beads, amulets, music and the ringing of bells—for this purpose the bells are consecrated and, as they put it, baptized—magical signs, counterfeit relics, quantities of Masses, pilgrimages, offerings, adjurations, and what else besides?

Alexander Albertinus a Rocha, Petrus Thyreus and Hieronymus Mengus, with many other Roman Catholic writers, prescribe and set down various forms of exorcism, both for houses possessed by devils and for possessed people. But I agree with Lemnius: it is merely a harmful adjuration, or rather a mockery, sheer deception, a counterfeit charm serving no purpose. These are follies and inventions,

among them the absurd story of a penitent woman seduced by a magician in France, at S. Bawne, and exorcised by Domphius, Michaelis and a company of deceitful friars.

13265.Determined means bounded or limited. Saul’s torment recalls 1 Samuel 16:14–23; prince of the air recalls Ephesians 2:2. The Latin phrase and Burton’s separate English restatement are both represented. The passage retains his historical combination of humoral disorder and demonic agency.

13266.Physick means medicine or medical treatment. Psalm 91:11–12 supplies the protecting angels; the wall image also recalls Zechariah 2:5. Burton’s citation embraces a combination of images. The ensuing remedies belong to his historical account, not to present-day medical advice.

13267.The sentence returns to Lemnius; his Exhortation title remains unidentified. Lavater, Of Ghosts and Spirits (1596), III.5–6, pp. 190–195, recommends courage, prayer, fasting and Paul’s armour, supporting the spiritual counsel without verifying the herb and gemstone remedies. Paul’s image is in Ephesians 6:11–17. The printed all before profligandis dæmonibus is repositioned in modern English; both Latin and English repetition remain.

13268.The final condition makes the claim dependent on ancient testimony. Lemures are haunting spirits; stryges can denote witchlike or night-haunting beings; incubi are spirits imagined to oppress sleepers. Historical gemstone names do not map precisely onto modern mineral classifications; carbuncle denotes a glowing red gem.

13269.Perforata herba refers to the perforated appearance of the leaves; fuga dæmonum is a historical name expressing the supposed power to put demons to flight. The catalogue reports the authors’ claims and is not an endorsement of these uses.

13270.Suffitus means fumigation or aromatic smoke. Venenatis fumis is grammatically uneven in the printed sentence; this rendering takes it with the afflictions from which minds are relieved, rather than silently making poisonous smoke a separate recommended agent. The wording is preserved in the original column, with its grammatical uncertainty visible.

13272.The attribution to Augustus’s physician is Burton’s bibliographical claim; authorship and transmission of the treatise require separate collation. Secure means protect. The margin repeats the cemetery-planting claim in Latin.

13273.Accurate means carefully or skilfully executed. David’s playing occurs in 1 Samuel 16:23. Tobit 6 and 8 describe Raphael’s instruction to Tobias and the burning of a fish’s heart and liver; the next list of substances is not the recipe given in that biblical narrative.

13274.Simples are individual medicinal substances, as opposed to compounded preparations. Thus is the Latin noun for frankincense, not the English adverb. Brimstone is sulphur; bitumen is a tarry mineral substance.

13275.The prescription sign is represented by ℞ and translated Take. Drachm is a historical apothecaries’ unit; no modern dose is supplied. Vitis alba is the herbal name for white bryony, confirmed in The Grete Herball, chapter 73, not white wine. The abrupt demons are diseases is preserved as the cited statement, without extending it to everything Burton says about spirits.

13276.Receit means recipe or prescription. Opopanax and galbanum are gum-resins; castoreum is an animal-derived medicinal substance obtained from beavers. Burton gives neither quantities nor complete instructions here. Vigetus and the chain of quotation remain to be identified precisely.

13277.Genii are spirits, not intellectual abilities. The Latin explanation and Burton’s English restatement are both retained. Lycetus is Fortunio Liceti; the precise cited works and editions remain for collation.

13278.Mahometans and Papists are Burton’s historical religious labels. Pythonissæ denotes prophetesses or divining women. The association of these different rites with one explanation, and the extraordinary claim about liquefied gold, remain the reported account; they are not silently corrected or certified.

13279.The printed 2 Reg. belongs to the older Latin four-book numbering of Kings: its second book corresponds to 2 Samuel in most modern English Bibles. The modern column retains Burton’s title as 2 Kings; the older numbering and exact commentary locator must be kept distinct. The other titles are descriptive expansions of his abbreviations.

13280.Wink means close the eyes; ought means anything. Tertullian, Apology 22, describes demons as subtly constituted and dwelling in the air. This English comparison supplies context for one named authority, not verification of injury by swords or pistols. Cardan’s treatment and the collective attribution remain historical reports; their precise source passages are uncollated.

13281.Characters are inscribed signs or figures; peregrinations are pilgrimages; adjurations are solemn commands invoking sacred authority. Counterfeit and the sarcastic catalogue belong to Burton’s polemical voice. The reference to baptizing bells describes his account of their consecration.

13283.Pontificial means associated with the papacy. Burton’s first-person rejection marks a change from cataloguing proposed remedies to judging elaborate exorcisms. The Latin and English judgments are both retained; the accompanying margin describes failed attempts by priests.

13285.Circumventing means practising deception. The 1613 title page of Michaelis’s Admirable History names S. Baume, Friar Francis Domptius and the translator W. B. It clarifies Burton’s S. Bawne and Domphius, which remain as printed. The facsimile verifies these title-page forms, not the possession narrative or Burton’s assessment. W. B.’s identity is not established here.