Page:A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More.djvu/155

Rh 4. He had lain in the ground near eight moneths, viz. from Sept. 22. 1591. to April 18. 1592. When he was digged up, which was in the presence of the Magistracy of the Town, his body was found entire, not at all putrid, no ill smell about him, saving the mustiness of the grave-Clothes, his joynts limber and flexible, as in those that are alive, his skin only flaccid, but a more fresh grown in the room of it, the wound of his throat gaping, but no gear nor corruption in it; there was also observed a Magical mark in the great toe of his right foot, viz. an Excrescency in the form of a Rose. His body was kept out of earth from April 18. to the 24. at what time many both of the same Town and others came daily to view him. These unquiet stirs did not cease for all this, which they after attempted to appease by burying the corps under the Gallows, but in vain for they were as much as ever, if not more, he now not sparing his own Family; insomuch that his Widow at last went her self to the Magistrate, and told them that she should be no longer against it, if they thought fit to fall upon some course of more strict proceedings touching her Husband.

5. Wherefore the seventh of May he was again digged up, and it was observable that he was grown more sensibly fleshy since his last interment. To be short, they cut off the Head, Arms and Legs of the corps, and opening his Back took out his Heart, which was as fresh and intire as in a Calf new kill'd. These, together with his Body, they put on a pile of wood, and burnt them to Ashes, which they carefully sweeping together and putting into a Sack (that none might get them for wicked uses) poured them into the River, after which the Spectrum was never seen more.

6. As it also happened in his Maid that dyed after him, who appeared within eight daies after her death to her fellow-servant, and lay so heavy upon her that she brought upon heir a great swelling of her eyes. She so grievously handled a Child in the cradle, that if the Nurse had not come in to his help, he had been quite spoiled; but she crossing her self and calling upon the name of Jesus, the Spectre vanished. The next night she appeared in the shape of an Hen, which when one of the Maids of the house took to be so indeed and followed her, the Hen grew into an immense bigness, and presently caught the Maid by the throat and made it swell, so that she could neither well eat nor drink of a good while after.

She continu'd these stirs for a whole moneth, slapping some so smartly that the strokes were heard of them that stood by, pulling the bed also from under others, and appearing sometimes in one shape, sometimes in another, as of a Woman, of a Dog, of a Cat, and of a Goat. But at last: her body being digged up and burnt, the Apparition was never seen more.

7. These things were done at Breslaw in Silesia where this Weinrichius then lived, which makes the Narration more considerable. This concealing the name of the parties, I conceive, was in way of civility to his deceased Towns-man, his Towns-mans Widow, and their Family. Rh