Belial

Regem Belial aliqui dicunt statim post Luciferum fuisse creatum, ideoque sentiunt ipsum esse patrem & seductorem eorum qui ex Ordine ceciderunt. Cecidit enim prius inter alios digniores & sapientiores, qui præcedebant Michaëlem & alios cœlestes angelos, qui decrant. Quamvis autem Belial ipsos qui in terram dejecti fuerint, præcesserit: alios tamen qui in cœlo mansere, non antecessit. Cogitur hic divina virtute, cum accipit sacrificia, munera & holocausta, ut vicissim det immolantibus responsa vera: At per horam in veritate non perdurat, nisi potentia divina compellatur, ut dictum est. Angelicam assumit imagine in impense pulchram, in igneo curru sedens. Blande loquitur. Tribuit dignitates & prælaturas senatorias, gratiam item amicorum, & optimos famulos. Imperium habet octoginta legionum, ex ordine partim Virtutum, partim Angelorum. Forma exorcistæ invenitur in Vinculo Spirituum. Observandum exorcistæ, hunc Belial in omnibus succurrere suis subditis: Si autem se submittere noluerit, Vinculum Spirituum legatur, quo sapientissimus Salomon eos cum suis legionibus in vase vitreo relegavit: Et relegati cum omnibus legionibus fuere septuagintaduo reges, quorum primus erat Bileth, secundus Belial, deinde Asmoday, & circirer [*circiter] mille millia legionum. Illud proculdubio à magistro Salomone didiciste me fateor: Sed causam relegationis me non docuit, crediderim tamen propter arrogantiam ipsius Belial. Sunt quidam necromantici, qui asserunt, ipsum Salomonem quodam die astutia cujusdam mulieris seductum, orando se inclinasse versus simulacrum Belial nomine. Quod tamen fidem non meretur: Sed potius sentiendum, ut dictum est, propter superbiam & arrogantiam, relegatos esse in magno vase, projectos in Babylone in puteum grandem valde. Enimvero prudentissimus Salomon divina potentia suas exequebatur operationes, quæ etiam nunquam eum destituit: propterea simulachrum non adorasse ipsum sentiendum est, alioqui divina virtute spiritus cogere nequivisset. Hic autem Belial cum tribus regibus in puteo fuit. At Babylonienses ad hæc exhorrescentes, rati se thesaurum amplum in puteo inventuros, unanimi consilio in puteum descenderunt, detegeruntque & confregere vas, unde mox egressi captivi, in proprium locum porto sunt rejecti. Belial vero ingressus quoddam simulachrum, dabat responsa sibi immolantibus & sacrificantibus, ut testatur Tocz in dictis suis: Et Babylonienses adorantes sacrificaverunt eidem.

Some saie that the king Beliall was created immediatlie after Lucifer, and therefore they thinke that he was father and seducer of them which fell being of the orders. For he fell first among the worthier and wiser sort, which went before Michael and other heavenlie angels, which were lacking. Although Beliall went before all them that were throwne downe to the earth, yet he went not before them that tarried in heaven. This Beliall is constrained by divine venue, when he taketh sacrifices, gifts, and [burnt] offerings, that he againe may give unto the offerers true answers. But he tarrieth not one houre in the truth, except he be constrained by the divine power, as is said. He taketh the forme of a beautifull angell, sitting in a firie chariot; he speaketh faire, he distributeth preferments of senatorship, and the favour of friends, and excellent familiars: he hath rule over eightie legions, partlie of the order of vertues, partlie of angels; he is found in the forme of an exorcist in the bonds of spirits. The exorcist must consider, that this Beliall doth in everie thing assist his subjects. If he will not submit himselfe, let the bond of spirits be read: the spirits chaine is sent for him, wherewith wise Salomon gathered them togither with their legions in a brasen vessell, where were inclosed among all the legions seventie two kings, of whome the cheefe was Bileth, the second was Beliall, the third Asmoday, and above a thousand thousand legions. Without doubt (I must confesse) I learned this of my maister Salomon; but he told me not why he gathered them together, and shut them up so: but I beleeve it was for the pride of this Beliall. Certeine nigromancers doo saie, that Salomon, being on a certeine daie seduced by the craft of a certeine woman, inclined himselfe to praie before the same idoll, Beliall by name: which is not credible. And therefore we must rather thinke (as it is said) that they were gathered together in that great brasen vessell for pride and arrogancie, and throwne into a deepe lake or hole in Babylon. For wise Salomon did accomplish his workes by the divine power, which never forsooke him. And therefore we must thinke he worshipped not the image Beliall; for then he could not have constrained the spirits by divine vertue: for this Beliall, with three kings were in the lake. But the Babylonians woondering at the matter, supposed that they should find therein a great quantitie of treasure, and therefore with one consent went downe into the lake, and uncovered and brake the vessell, out of the which immediatlie flew the capteine divels, and were delivered to their former and proper places. But this Beliall entred into a certeine image, and there gave answer to them that offered and sacrificed unto him: as Tocz. in his sentences reporteth, and the Babylonians did worship and sacrifice thereunto.