monasteria_, saith Lavat. _lib. 1. cap. 19._ in monasteries and about
churchyards, _loca paludinosa, ampla aedificia, solitaria, et caede hominum
notata_, &c. (marshes, great buildings, solitary places, or remarkable as
the scene of some murder.) Thyreus adds, _ubi gravius peccatum est
commissum, impii, pauperum oppressores et nequiter insignes habitant_
(where some very heinous crime was committed, there the impious and
infamous generally dwell). These spirits often foretell men's deaths by
several signs, as knocking, groanings, &c. [1208]though Rich. Argentine,
_c. 18. de praestigiis daemonum_, will ascribe these predictions to good
angels, out of the authority of Ficinus and others; _prodigia in obitu
principum saepius contingunt_, &c. (prodigies frequently occur at the
deaths of illustrious men), as in the Lateran church in [1209]Rome, the
popes' deaths are foretold by Sylvester's tomb. Near Rupes Nova in Finland,
in the kingdom of Sweden, there is a lake, in which, before the governor of
the castle dies, a spectrum, in the habit of Arion with his harp, appears,
and makes excellent music, like those blocks in Cheshire, which (they say)
presage death to the master of the family; or that [1210]oak in Lanthadran
park in Cornwall, which foreshows as much. Many families in Europe are so
put in mind of their last by such predictions, and many men are forewarned
(if we may believe Paracelsus) by familiar spirits in divers shapes, as
cocks, crows, owls, which often hover about sick men's chambers, _vel quia
morientium foeditatem sentiunt_, as [1211]Baracellus conjectures, _et ideo
super tectum infirmorum crocitant_, because they smell a corse; or for that
(as [1212]Bernardinus de Bustis thinketh) God permits the devil to appear
in the form of crows, and such like creatures, to scare such as live
wickedly here on earth. A little before Tully's death (saith Plutarch) the
crows made a mighty noise about him, _tumultuose perstrepentes_, they
pulled the pillow from under his head. Rob. Gaguinus, _hist. Franc. lib.
8_, telleth such another wonderful story at the death of Johannes de
Monteforti, a French lord, _anno_ 1345, _tanta corvorum multitudo aedibus