se
dangerous spectres, which haunted and maltreated all who had any
fields in the neighborhood of their tombs; that they cut off the head
of a man named Gretter, who also returned to earth. At other times
they thrust a stake through the body and thus fixed them to the
ground.

"Nam ferro secui mox caput ejus,
Perfodique nocens stipite corpus."

Formerly, they took the corpse from the tomb and reduced it to ashes;
they did thus towards a spectre named Gardus, which they believed the
author of all the fatal apparitions that had appeared during the
winter.

Footnotes:

[480] Thomas Bartolin, de Causis Contemptus Mortis a Danis, lib. ii.
c. 2.

CHAPTER XVIII.

GHOSTS IN ENGLAND.

William of Malmsbury says[481] that in England they believed that the
wicked came back to earth after their death, and were brought back in
their own bodies by the devil, who governed them and caused them to
act; _Nequam hominis cadaver post mortem daemone agente discurrere._

William of Newbridge, who flourished after the middle of the twelfth
century, relates that in his time was seen in England, in the county
of Buckingham, a man who appeared bodily, as when alive, three
succeeding nights to his wife, and after that to his nearest
relatives. They only defended themselves from his frightful visits by
watching and making a noise when they perceived him coming. He even
showed himself to a few persons in the day time. Upon that, the Bishop
of Lincoln assembled his council, who told him that similar things had
often happened in England, and that the only known remedy against this
evil was to burn the body of the ghost. The bishop was averse to this
opinion, which appeared cruel to him: he first of all wrote a schedule
of absolution, which was placed on the body of the defunct, which was
found in the same state as if he had been buried that very day; and
from that time they heard no more of him.

The author of this narrative adds, that this sort of apparitions would
appear incredible, if several instances had not occurred in his time,
and if they did not know several persons who believed in them.

The same Newbridge says, in the following chapter, that a man who had
been interred at Berwick, came out of his grave every night and caused
great confusion in all the neighborhood. It was even said that he had
boasted that he should not cease to disturb the living till they had
reduced him to ashes. Then they selected ten bold a