One of the earliest and most strident of the Protestant attacks on the existence of ghosts was Ludwig Lavater’s (1527–1586) Latin treatise, De spectris, lemuribus et magnis atque insolitis fragoribus (1569), which was translated into English in 1572 under the title Of Ghostes and Spirites Walking by Nyght. A Protestant theologian who lived in Zurich, Lavater was the author of numerous books in support of the Protestant faith, but his refutation of the Catholic belief in ghosts was by far his most enduring work. It remained in print throughout the early modern period and was translated into French, German, English, and Italian. Throughout this treatise, Lavater set out to undermine the credibility of medieval ghost stories by attributing them to the false perceptions of impressionable people or to frauds perpetuated by duplicitous monks and priests. But Lavater could not deny that “many honest and credible persons” had, in fact, encountered apparitions of one kind or another. Following the authority of Saint Augustine (see pp. 49–54, above), he argued that these apparitions were not the souls of dead Christians, but rather the disguise of good angels sent by God or, more often, bad angels in the service of Satan. In the final part of his treatise, Lavater offered advice to individuals who encountered such apparitions. It was best to remain silent until its intentions were revealed. If the spirit was malign, a statement of faith was the best protection against its evil machinations.
The first part of this book, concerning spirits walking by night, wherein it is declared that spirits and sights do appear and that sundry strange and monstrous things do happen.
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Daily experience teaches us that spirits do appear to men.
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To all of the premises before handled, this also is to be added, which no man can deny, but yet many honest and credible persons of both kinds, as well men and women, of whom some are living and some already departed, which have and do affirm, that they have sometimes in the day and sometimes in the night seen and heard spirits. Some man walked alone in his house and, behold, a spirit appeared in his sight, yea and sometimes the dogs also perceive them and fall down at their master’s feet and will by no means depart from them, for they are sorely afraid themselves, too. Some man went to bed and laid down to rest and by and by there is something pinching him or pulling off the bedclothes. Sometimes it sat on him or lay down in the bed with him, and many times it walked up and down in the chamber. There have been many times men seen walking on foot or riding on horseback, being of a fiery shape, known unto diverse men, and such as died not long before. And it has come to pass likewise that some, either slain in the wars or otherwise dead naturally, have called unto their acquaintance being alive and have been known by their voice.
Many times in the night season, there have been certain spirits heard softly going or spitting or groaning, who being asked what they were have made answer that they were the souls of this or that man and that they now endure extreme torments. If, by chance, any man did ask of them, by what means they might be delivered out of those tortures, they have answered that in cases a certain number of masses were sung for them or pilgrimages vowed to some saint or some other such like deeds done for their sake, that then surely they should be delivered. Afterward, appearing in great light and glory, they have said that they were delivered and have therefore rendered great thanks to their good benefactors and have in like manner promised that they will make intercession to God and our Lady for them. And hereby it may be well proved that they were not always priests or other bold and wicked men, which have feigned themselves to be souls of men deceased, as I have said before. Insomuch that even in those men’s chambers, when they have been shut, there have appeared such things, when they have with a candle diligently searched before, whether anything has lurked in some corner or no. Many used at this day to search and sift every corner of the house before they go to bed that they may sleep more soundly and yet nevertheless they hear some crying out and making a lamentable noise, etc.
It has many times chanced that those of the house have verily thought that somebody had overthrown the pots, platters, tables, and trenchers and tumbled down the stairs, but after it waxed day they have found all things orderly set in their places again.
It is reported that some spirits have thrown the door off from the hooks and have troubled and set all things in the house out of order, never setting them in their due place again, and that they have marvelously disquieted men with rumbling and making a great noise.
Sometimes there is heard a great noise in abbeys and in other solitary places, as if it were coopers hooping and stopping up wine vessels or some other handicraft men occupied about their labor, when it is most certain that all in the house are gone to bed and have betaken themselves to rest.
When houses are in building, the neighbors many times hear the carpenters, masons, and other artificers handling all things in such sort, as if they were busily laboring in the daytime. And this strange wonder is joyfully received as a sure token of good luck.
There be some that judge it came to pass naturally, that we suppose we hear these things in the night, which we heard before in the daytime. Which question I leave to be discussed of better learned than myself.
Pioneers or diggers for metal do affirm that in many mines there appear strange shapes and spirits, who are appareled like unto other laborers in the pit. These wander up and down in caves and underminings and seem to bestir themselves in all kinds of labor, as to dig after the vein, to carry together ore, to put it into baskets, and to turn the winding wheel to draw it up, when in very deed they do nothing less. They very seldom hurt the laborers (as they say) except they provoke them by laughing and railing at them, for then they threw gravel stones at them or hurt them by some other means. These are especially haunting the pits, where metal most abounds.
A certain godly and learned man wrote once unto me of a silver mine at Davos in the Alps, upon which Peter Buol, a noble man, the overseer of the same place (whom they call Landammanus), had bestowed great cost a few years before, and had gathered thereby good store of riches.2 In the same mine was a spirit or devil of the mountain, who when the laborers filled the stuff they had dug into their vessels, he seemed, for the most part, every Friday, to be very busy, pouring metals of his own accord out of one basket into another. Wherewith the overseer was not offended and when he would either descend into the pit or come up again, blessing himself with the sign of the cross, he never received hurt. It chanced on a time that while the spirit was too busy intermeddling himself with everything, one of the miners being offended therewith, began to rail him very bitterly and with terrible cursing words bid him get him back thence in the Devil’s name. But the spirit caught him by the pate and so writhed his neck about that his face stood behind his back, yet notwithstanding he was not slain, but lived a long time after, well known unto diverse of his familiar friends, which yet live at this day, how be it he died within a few years after.
Gregorius Agricola, whose learned works that he wrote of metals, be yet extant in the end of his book of creatures living under the earth, he made two kinds of devils haunting in certain mines abroad.3 For he said, there are some cruel and terrible to behold, which for the most part do very much annoy and hurt the laborers digging for metal. Such a one was he who was called Annebergius, who only with his breath destroyed about twelve laborers at once in a cave called Corona Rosacea. The wind wherewith he slew them he let fly out of his mouth, for he appeared in the similitude and likeness of a horse. Such another was Snebergius, who wearing a black roll about his neck, took up a laborer aloft from the ground and set him on the brink of a certain exceedingly deep place, where there had sometime been a great store of silver, not without grievous bruising of his body.
And again he said there be some very mild and gentle, whom some of the Germans call Cobali, as the Grecians do, because they be as it were apes and counterfeiters of men, for they leaping and skipping for joy do laugh and seem as though they did many things, when in very deed they do nothing. And some others call them elves or dwarfs of the mountains, thereby noting their small stature, wherein they commonly appear. They seem to be hoare, wearing apparel like the metal refiners, that is, in a petticoat laced and an apron of leather about their loins. These hurt not the laborers, unless they misuse them, but do imitate them in all their doings. And he said, they are not much unlike unto those whom the Germans call Guteli, because they seem to bear good affection toward men, for they keep horses and do other necessary business. They are also like unto them whom they call Trulli, who taking on them the feigned shapes of men and women, do serve as it is said like servants both among other nations and specifically among the Suetians.
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That there happen strange wonders and prognostications and that sudden noises and cracks and such like are heard before the death of men, before battle, and before some notable alterations or changes.
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It happened many times that when men lie sick of some deadly disease, there is something heard going in the chamber, like as sick men were wont, when they were in good health, yea and the sick parties themselves do many hear the same and by and by guess what will come to pass. Oftentimes, a little before they yield up the ghost and sometime a little after their death or a good while after, either their own shapes or some other shadows of men are apparently seen. And diverse times it came to pass that when some of our acquaintance or friends lie dying, albeit many miles off, yet there are some great stirrings or noises heard. Sometimes we think the house will fall on our heads or that some heavy and weighty thing fell down throughout all the house, rendering and making a disordered noise, and shortly within a few months after we understand that those things happened the very same hour that our friends departed in. There be some men, of whose stock none do die, but that they observe and mark some signs and tokens going before, as that they hear the doors and windows open and shut, that something ran up the stairs or walked up and down the house or did someone or other such like thing.
But here I cannot pass this in silence that there are many superstitious men, which vainly persuade themselves that this cousin and this or that friend of theirs will shortly die. For in the end the falling out of the matter itself showed it was a vain and foolish persuasion that they understood such things by any signs.
Cardanus in his book Concerning the Truth of Things wrote that there was a certain noble family at Parma in Italy out of which so often as anyone died, there was seen an old woman in the chimney corner.4 On a certain time she appeared, when a maiden of the same family lay very sick, and therefore they greatly despaired of her life, but soon after she recovered again, and in the meanwhile another, who was then in good health, suddenly died.
There was a certain parish priest, a very honest and godly man, whom I knew well, who in the plague time could tell beforehand, when any of his parish should die. For in the night time, he heard a noise over his bed, like as if one had thrown down a sack full of corn from his shoulders, which when he heard, he would say, “Now another has bid me farewell.” After it was day, he used to inquire who died that night or who was taken with the plague to the end that he might comfort and strengthen them according to the duty of a good pastor.
It has been often observed in guildhalls where aldermen sit, that when one of those aldermen was at the point of death, there was heard some rattling about his seat or some other certain sign of death. The same thing happened beside pews and stalls in churches or in other places, where men are often conversant and accustomed to occupy their handy labor.
In abbeys, the monks, servants, or any other falling sick, many have heard in the night preparation of chests for them, in such sort as coffin makers did afterward prepare in deed.
In some country villages, when one is at Death’s door, many times there are some heard in the evening or in the night digging a grave in the churchyard and the same the next day is so found dug, as these men did hear before.
There have been seen some in the night when the moon shone, going solemnly with the corpse, according to the custom of the people, or standing before the doors, as if some body were to be carried to the church to burying. Many suppose they see their own image or, as they say, their own soul and of them diverse are verily persuaded that except they die shortly after they have seen themselves, they shall live a very great time after. But these things are superstitious. Let every man so prepare himself, as if he should die tomorrow, lest by being too secure he purchase himself harm.
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In the second part of this book, we have to consider what those things be that (as we have already shown) are both heard and seen in the daytime and the night, whether they be the souls of dead men or no. Also what the old writers have judged of them, and what the Holy Scriptures do teach us herein.
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That the true Samuel did not appear to the witch in Endor.
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Now touching the examples by them commonly alleged, which do think that the souls of men do return again unto the living upon the earth, I will first entreat of Samuel’s apparition, of which matter nowadays there is great contention and reasoning.5 And (as I trust) I shall prove by strong arguments that very Samuel himself did not appear in soul and body, neither that his body was raised up by the sorceress, which perchance then was rotten and consumed unto dust in the earth, neither yet his soul was called up, but rather some devilish spirit. First, the author of the two books of Samuel said that Saul did ask counsel of the Lord and that he would not answer him, neither by visions nor by Urim nor by his prophets.6 Wherefore if God disdained by his prophets yet living and other ordinary ways to give answer unto him, whom he had already rejected, we may easily conjecture that he would much less have raised a dead prophet to make him answer. And the rather, for that as we have a little before said, the law of God has severely by a great threatening forbidden to learn ought of the dead and would not have us to search for the truth of them nor that any man should use divination by spirits, and such other devilish arts.
Secondly, if very Samuel indeed appeared, that must of necessity have come to pass either by the will of God or by the work of magical art. But God’s will was not that Samuel should return. For he had condemned necromancy and would not have us to ask counsel at the dead and that the spirit of God did that which was contrary hereunto or did permit the saints to do it or was present with them that did ought contrary thereto, it may not be granted. And that those things were done by the force and operation of magical art, we cannot affirm. For the wicked spirit has no rule or power over the souls of the faithful to bring them out of their places when he wanted, if they be in the hand of God and the bosom of Abraham, nay (which is less) he has no power over filthy and unclean swine, for he was driven (as we read in the seventh chapter of Matthew) to beg leave before he could enter into the herd of swine.7 And how then should he have any power over the soul of man? Yet can it not be denied that God sometimes for certain causes does give the Devil and his servants, magicians and necromancers, power to do many things, as to hurt and lame man and beast and to work other strange things? But that God does give the Devil leave to raise dead bodies, or to call, bring forth, or drive away souls, especially out of heaven, it has no ground at all in Scripture, neither can there be any reasonable cause alleged, wherefore God would or should give the Devil license to do these things contrary to the usual and common order, yea and against his own express commandment. For vain and childish is the cause hereof that is given of some men that Samuel should appear to certify and astonish Saul, as if God could not have feared him by other ways and means. Was he not before utterly abashed and dismayed?
Thirdly, if Samuel were brought back, the same was done either by his will and consent, or without the same, but that he did freely and of his own accord obey the sorceress, no man I think is so blind to imagine. For that were utterly repugnant to the law of God that he should confirm witchcraft and sorcery by his example. If the witch had called for Samuel while he lived, doubtless he would not have approached her. And how then can we believe that he came to her after his death? We may not so say that the witch compelled him to resort to her against his will, for the Devil has no power over the souls of the godly, and magic itself is of no force. Heathen superstition no doubt it is that words uttered by magicians after their peculiar manner or figures drawn should have such a secret and hidden operation . . .
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The third part of this book, in which is shown why or to what end God suffers spirits to appear and other strange things to happen, as also how men ought to behave themselves when they meet with any such things.
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God by the appearing of spirits does exercise the faithful and punish the unbelievers.
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It follows now hereafter to be entreated of why God suffers spirits, ghosts, and horrible sights to appear, etc. and also why he does permit other strange and miraculous things to happen. And furthermore how men ought to behave themselves when they see any such things.
God does suffer spirits to appear unto his elect unto a good end, but unto the reprobate they appear as a punishment. And as all other things turn to the best unto the faithful, even so do these also, for if they be good spirits, which appear unto men, warning and defending them, thereby do they gather the care, providence, and fatherly affection of God toward them. But in case they be evil spirits (as for the most part they are), the faithful are moved by occasion of them unto true repentance. They look diligently unto themselves so long as they live, lest the enemy of mankind, who lies always in wait, should bring them into mischief and take further advantage to vex and hurt them. God also by these means does exercise and try their faith and patience, to the end they continue in his word and receive nothing contrary to the same, have it never so fair to show nor do any manner of thing against his word, although those spirits do not straightaway cease to vex them. God does also suffer them to be exercised with haunting of spirits, for this cause, that they should be more humble and lowly.
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How Christian men ought to behave themselves when they see spirits and first that they ought to have a good courage and to be steadfast in faith.
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How Christian men ought to behave themselves in this behalf, it is fully and amply declared in the Holy Scriptures, in like manner as all other things are, which pertain unto our salvation. To wit, that first we ought to be of good courage without fear, being assured and constant in true faith. For if they be good angels that show themselves unto us, then are they sent unto us from God to a good end and purpose. But if they be wicked and evil, they can do us no harm be they never so desirous, except God gives them leave thereto. If it be nothing but a vain imagination that we have, or an idle sight objected unto our eyes, surely it is great folly to be anything afraid. Indeed, it is natural unto us to be amazed with fear when we see such things, for very godly men, as we read both in the Old and New Testament, were stricken with exceeding fear when they saw good angels, but yet a man must pull up his heart again. When Christ’s disciples saw their master walking on water and approaching near the ship, they thought they saw a spirit and they were astonished and cried out through fear.8 But the Lord said unto them, be of good comfort, it is I, be not afraid . . .
But if it please God to exercise you by the Devil for a certain time, as he did sometime Job, you must patiently suffer all things that he lays upon you, and that willingly for God’s commandments’ sake.9 And know you well that he cannot thus much hurt neither your goods, nor body, nor soul without the permission and sufferance of Almighty God. If God give him leave to plague your body, think with yourself howsoever it be done, that God has so done for your profit and commodity, who also sends grievous sicknesses upon other men, but other means and instruments, or else does exercise them with other kinds of calamities. Be therefore strong and constant in faith, yet let everyone beware of boldness, temerity, and heady rashness.