Note 78 — ENGLISH ASTROLOGERS.
Reading edition
"Day fatality" was especially insisted on by these students, and is curiously noted in a folio tract, published in 1687, particularly devoted to "Remarques on the 14th of October, being the auspicious birth-day of his present Majesty James II.," whose author speaks of having seen in the hands of "that genera scholar, and great astrologer, E. Ashmole," a manuscript in which the following barbarous monkish rhymes were inserted, noting the unlucky days of each month:—
January Prima dies menses, et septima truncat ut ensis. February Quarta subit mortem, prosternit tertia fortem. March Primus mandentem, disrumpit quarta bibentem. April Denus et undenus est mortis vulnere plenus. May Tertius occidit, et septimus ora relidit. June Denus pallescit, quindenus fœdra nescit. July Ter-decimus mactat, Julii denus labefactat. August Prima necat fortem prosternit secunda cohortem. September Tertia Septembris, et denus fert mala membris. October Tertius et denus, est sicut mors alienus. November Scorpius est quintus, et tertius e nece cinctus. December Septimus exanguis, virosus denus et anguis.
The author of this strange book fortifies his notions on "day fatality" by printing a letter from Sir Winstan Churchill, who says, "I have made great experience of the truth of it, and have set down Fryday as my own lucky day; the day on which I was born, christened, married, and I believe will be the day of my death. The day whereon I have had sundry deliverances from perils by sea and land, perils by false brethren, perils of lawsuits, &c. I was knighted (by chance unexpected of myself) on the same day, and have several good accidents happened to me on that day; and am so superstitious in the belief of its good omen, that I choose to begin any considerable action that concerns me on the same day."