Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent.

  • Beaumont, John, -1731.
Date:
1724
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    216/226 (page 202)
    we fee, the fame Fad, in divers Ages, is accounted in one place Piety, and in another Error. So far '/tventinus. Now there are many things to be noted in thisRe- lation : Firft, as to the evil Spirit’s throwing Stones, knocking at Doors, and burning Stacks of Corn, we have had the like Inftances in England and Scotland; and there is now a Houfe in London, in which, for the three Years laft paft, there have been heard, and are ftill, almoft continual knockings againft the Wainfcot, and Over-head ; and fometimes a Noife like telling of Money, and of Mens fawing, to the great difturbance of the Inhabitants ; and often Lights have been feen there like to flafhes of Light¬ ning ; and the Perfon who rents the Houfe has told me, that when fhe has removed eight Miles from London, the knockings have followed her. Secondly, It’s remarkable, that the Perfon chiefly concerned in the Difturbance at Camonty put himfelf upon the fiery Tryal for his Purgation, which I do not remember to have met with elfe-where, on the like Occafion. Thofe who are unacquainted in the Tryals of Ordeal, may have recourfe to feveral Au¬ thors concerning them. Bangertus in his Notes on the Chronicon SlanJ0rum, writ by Helmoldus and Arnol- dus, has drawn together many Inftances of them : In his Notes on the Firft, he writes. That there oc¬ cur many Examples of thofe Tryals from the fifth to the thirteenth Age, and fome later : And if what Aventinus relates, paft in his own time, it muft be fo late as about the Year 1500. for he was born An. 1465. and died in the 68th Year of his Age. If there were Truth in thofe Tryals, and to be relied on, we might juftly lament our Times. Heu ! tam prafentes nobis cognofcere Diuos Non licet.———— But