The Anatomy of Melancholy

THE SECOND PARTITION. THE CURE OF MELANCHOLY. SECTION 1. MEMBER 1. SUBSECTION 1. Unlawful Cures Rejected.

Long-established melancholy may seem a persistent, unrelenting disease, difficult to cure, accompanying most sufferers to the grave, as Montanus observes. Yet it can often be helped, even in its most violent form; or at least, according to the same author, it can be moderated and greatly eased. “We must not despair.” A cure may be difficult, but it is not impossible for even the worst sufferer, if he is willing to accept help.

With this good hope I shall proceed, using the same method for the cure that I used earlier in recounting the causes: first general treatments, then particular ones, arranged according to the different forms of the disease. Some of these cures are lawful, others unlawful. Although the latter are widespread, familiar and often used, they are rightly condemned and must be examined.

First, can this disease and similar ones be cured by the diabolical means commonly practised by the Devil and his agents—sorcerers, witches, magicians, etc.—through spells, cabalistic words, charms, inscribed signs, images, amulets, magical bindings, love potions, incantations, etc.? If they can, is it lawful to use these means, including magnetic cures, or to seek them for our benefit in any circumstances?

The first question—whether they can perform such cures—is disputed by many writers, some affirming and others denying it. Valesius, Medical Controversies, book 5, chapter 6; the Hammer of Witches; Heurnius, Practical Medicine, book 3, chapter 28; Caelius, book 16, chapter 16; Delrio, volume 3; Wierus, On the Deceptions of Demons, book 2; Libanius; Lavater, On Spectres, part 2, chapter 7; Holbrenner the Lutheran, Against Pistorius; Polydore Vergil, On Prodigies, book 1; Tandlerus; Lemnius—and Hippocrates and Avicenna among the rest—deny that spirits or devils have any power over us. With Pomponazzi of Padua, they attribute everything to natural causes and humours.

The opposite opinion is held by Bodin, On the Demon-Mania of Witches, book 3, chapter 2; Arnoldus; Marcellus Empiricus; Pistorius; Paracelsus, Apodixis Magica; Agrippa, Occult Philosophy, book 2, chapters 36, 69, 71 and 72, and book 3, chapters 23 and 10; Marsilio Ficino, On Obtaining Life from the Heavens, chapters 13, 15, 18, 21, etc.; Galeotto, On Various Learning, chapter 24; Giovanni Pontano, volume 2; Pliny, book 28, chapter 2; Strabo, Geography, book 15; Leo Suavius; Goclenius, On the Weapon Salve; Oswald Croll; Ernst Burggraf; Dr Fludd, etc. Cardan, in On Subtlety, adduces many proofs from the Ars Notoria, Solomon’s damaged works, ancient Hermes, Artefius, Costaben Luca, Picatrix, etc., that such cures can be performed.

They can make fire incapable of burning, bring back thieves or stolen goods, show the faces of absent people in a mirror, make serpents lie still, stop bleeding, cure gout, epilepsy, mad-dog bites, toothache, melancholy, “and every evil in the world.” They can make men immortal or young again, as a Spanish marquis is said to have become through one of his slaves. Some of these feats, tricksters in China still maintain—as Trigault writes—that they can accomplish through their extraordinary medical skill; and some of our modern alchemists claim the same for their extraordinary stills, spells, philosophers’ stones and charms.