History of Monsters. 385

extraordinary forms are produced. This is why so many marks, moles, and imprints—whether of red wine, various fruits, or meats—are repeatedly seen impressed upon the newborn at birth. For instance, if a cherry, a strawberry, or wine is thrown or poured onto the face or bosom of a pregnant woman, and she takes it with a disturbed mind, a mark of that object will appear impressed upon the fetus.

Similarly, as Levinus Lemnius testifies, the same thing happens if a cat, a mouse, or a weasel unexpectedly leaps upon a pregnant woman; a mark is immediately imprinted on the fetus, unless the woman quickly wipes the spot touched by the animal with her hand and then touches that same hand to a more hidden part of her body.

Cornelius Gemma relates a relevant case that occurred in Leuven to a pregnant woman near her time of delivery. Her husband, with a hostile expression, attacked her with a drawn sword. Although she escaped to safety, the part of the infant’s skull where the sword's edge had threatened sustained a large and severe rupture of the tissue. After the birth, such a large amount of blood flowed from it that no remedy could stop it, and the infant expired immediately. From this, those who deny that an impression can be made upon a well-developed fetus should realize how truly absurd their position is.

In cases where women have given birth to animals, such as a dog or a half-dog, and confessed to having had intercourse with dogs—as happened in Etruria during the time of Pope Pius III to a certain woman who, after giving birth to a dog, admitted she had consorted with one—the matter was brought before the Supreme Pontiff for the sake of expiation, as reported by Volaterranus.

A similar event occurred to another woman in Avignon, who, after giving birth to a dog, declared that a dog had mounted her; consequently, by order of King Francis of France, she was burned along with the dog. It must be said that these monsters could not possibly have come from the semen of a dog, as this contradicts the teachings of Aristotle.

In his *History of the Generation of Animals*, Aristotle denies that a sheep or a dog can be generated from a human, since they differ in the quality of their semen and the gestation periods of their wombs do not match. Therefore, it should be argued that such animals or monsters are sometimes created not from the semen of a beast, but from that of a human, when such a form is communicated to the fetus by the woman's frequent thoughts and imagination. For even if a dog were to mate with a woman, nothing would be generated from that semen; however, once human semen has been conceived, a monster is produced through the power of imagination and thought, because that woman, due to that unspeakable encounter, constantly fears she will give birth to a dog. For this reason, Saint Jerome records that he cleared a woman of the suspicion of adultery after she gave birth to a child who looked nothing like the father; it turned out a painting closely resembling the infant had been hanging in the woman’s home.

Wierus adds a case in confirmation of these assertions from the year 1575. At that time, a man in Gelderland, overcome with rage, spoke to his pregnant wife in this manner: "You carry an infernal demon in your womb, which I shall pierce with my sword." Not long after, the woman gave birth to a son who was elegantly formed in his lower parts, but the upper part was covered with red and black marks, with eyes located in the forehead, a foul mouth, long ears like a hunting dog, and two horns on the top of his head.

A demon-like specter can also be engraved on a woman’s mind by hearing or reading accounts of the nature and vileness of demons. Schenck also mentions a man who, during Carnival, dressed in a demon mask and approached his wife, claiming he wanted to procreate a demon. The woman conceived and gave birth to a fetus in the form in which demons are usually depicted.

From this we gather that the mother's imagination sometimes imprints a fictitious image upon the infant, making it look nothing like the father.

For this reason, a certain woman who had prostituted herself to another man outside her lawful marriage, fearing her husband's unexpected arrival, gave birth to a child who resembled not the adulterer with whom she had dallied, but was the spitting image of her absent husband. A witty epigram on this subject exists by Thomas More, which, because it is relevant here, we shall not hesitate to include:

The four sons your wife bore previously, Sabinus, see how very unlike you they are; you do not even consider them your own. But the little boy whom