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The Archbishop of Mayence wrote to Cardinal Frederick, asking him

what credence might be attached to the prodigies related of

Milan. He received for answer, that they were all idle dreams.

The dreams of the learned, if they were not of the same nature as

those of the vulgar, did not exceed them in value; the greater

part beheld the forerunner and the cause of these calamities, in

a comet which appeared in 1628, and in the conjunction of Jupiter

and Saturn. Another comet that appeared in June in the same year

announced the poisonous anointings. All writings were ransacked

that contained any passages respecting poisons; amongst the

ancients, Livy was cited, Tacitus, Dionysius, even Homer and Ovid

were searched. Among the moderns, Cesalpino, Cardan, Grevino,

Salio, Pareo Schenchio, Zachia, and lastly the fatal Delrio,

whose Disquisitions on Magic became the text book on such

subjects, the future rule, and, in fact, the powerful impulse to

horrible and frequent legal murders.