From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"IT might, perhaps, almost be said that the best commentaries upon Nicolas Remý's Daemonolatreiae were the volumes of the other eminent authorities, Boguet, De Lancre, Guazzo and the rest; above all the supreme work of Sprenger and Kramer, to which subsequent writers so constantly refer, the Malleus Maleficarum."--Demonolatry (1929) by Montague Summers
"[It is] not unreasonable that this scum of humanity, [ witches], should be drawn chiefly from the feminine sex."--Daemonolatreiae libri tres (1595) by Nicholas Rémy
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Daemonolatreiae libri tres is a 1595 work by Nicholas Remy. It was edited and translated by Montague Summers and published as Demonolatry in 1929.
Along with the Malleus Maleficarum, it is considered one of the most important early works on demons and witches. The book was "drawn from the capital trials of 900 persons, more or less, who within the last fifteen years have in Lorraine paid the penalty of death for the crime of witchcraft."
The Daemonolatreiae contains citations from a great many authors, ancient and modern, including Johann Weyer who is cited as an authority as if there were no differences between his position and that of Rémy. More importantly, however, the book is also based on cases from the archives, but, unfortunately, Rémy seems never to have returned the cases that he used, so it is impossible to check his account of any particular case against the original records.
Full text[1]
DEMONOLA TJ> y
Ly
NieOLAJ REMJ
Privy Gouncillor to The Most Serene Duke of Lorraine,
and Public Advoeate to his Duchy
Translated by E. A. ASHWIN + Edited with Introduc-
tion and Notes by the REV. MONTAGUE SUMMERS
►p DRAWN FROM THE GAPITAL b
JP TRIALS OF 900 PERSONS, MORE *
^ OR LESS, WHO WITHIN THE LAST ^
b FIFTEEN YEARS HAVE IN LOR-
3 j RAINE PAID THE PENALTY OF j
>P WITCHCRAFT b
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE
AND MOST RENOVVNED OARDINAL
OHARLES OF LORRAINE,'
HIS MOST WORSHIPFUL LORD AND PATRON,
NICOLAS REMY
YVISHES ETERNAL FELICITY
T HE eroivning evil of all the misery and ealamities into whick our
times kave fallen, 0 Most illustrious Prinee, is that nothing is
now so easy or so little accounted as for men not only to despise
the institutions of our forefathers and to inventand eontrivefor themselves
strange religious cults of whatsoever kind and whenever they please, but
even to put away from them and abjure their very faith and belief in
God, whom all other creatures and things ereated obey. Some of these
owe their fall to their persistent and over-curious temerity ìn inquiring
into and weighing with their native reason those things which must
neeessarily transeend the understanding of all the senses: and having
t( set their course by the light of human reason” they have been ship-
wrecked and have overwhelmed themselves in the terrible surges and
- CHARLES OF LORRAINE. The third ef this name and title; son of Diáe Charles
III of Lorraine and Claude de Bourbon, daughter of Henri II. He was bom at Naney, i Jidy,
1367, and after the dealh of his cousin the Cardinal de Guise, 1578, the see of Metz. for which
he was destined was administered by Nieolas Bosmard, Biskop of Verdnn. On 14 Deeember ,
/571?, Charles of Lorraine was ereated a Oardinal Deaeon by Sixlus V, and on 5 Aprìl, 1591,
whilst he was at Rome, Gregory XIV raised kim to the Cardinal Priesthood with the title of
Santa Agata. So great were the learning and exemplary piely of the yorng prelate that he was
eleeted Arehbishop of Strasburg, 2 May, 1592, an eleetion duly eonfirmed by Clement VIII.
ílnhapbily he was stmek down by paralysis, and the Church lost a worthy and deooted son when
he diea the death of the just at Naney, 24 Nooember, 1607. Amongst olher Orders he welcomed the
Milanese Ambrosians to his dioeese; he founded new houses of Capuchins and Minims. Out
of his devotion he gave many precious gifts to the Sanetnary of Lorelo, including a Cross, a
ehaliee, two massive eandlestieks, emets, a pax, and aspergillum and holy water vat, a box
for the hosts, all of erystal and gold of exquisite workmanship. He gave many noble gifts to his
Church of S. Agatha at Rome, and to Melz Cathedral he presenled the rieh tapestries that for
long years adomed the fane on greater festivals.
VI
DEDIO ATION
ivhirlpools of the rankest blasphemy. Others, on the eontrary, have been
destroyed by their slaggishness and slow stupidity of rmderstanding, by
which they are ehiefly exposed to credulity when they are fanned by the
wind of anger or desire and other powerful ajfeetions. It is in suck
preserves that the devil looks for his prey, and he does not eease to hunt
for the man of such mental sloth who has been led on by poverty to
despair, by injury to revenge, or by the desire of something to the seizure
and acquisition thereof For by such spurs he urges them on, and then he
moulds them into a readiness to embraee any plan that he snggests, and
leads them by magnifieent and specious promises to swear allegianee to
him.
The atheists of the former elass are begotten, bred and proteeted by
the freedom which in our time has arisenfrom the variety and eonfision
of nations, and it is generally said that their mmbers have reaehed a
flgure that is not easily ereditable. But either because they brood in
silenee over their blasphemies and, hiding behind the eover of whatever
form of religion eomes to their hand, eseape deteetion and accusation;
or else beeaase they do not, out of zeal for their opinions, eolleet a
following, they are overlooked and are only ealled—a term of the basest
inadequacy in view of the enormity of their impiety — licentious: in any
ease no proeeedings are taken against them, nor are they held up for a
public example.
Asfor those of the seeond elass who are befonled in the mire of
witchcraft, I would to God that it were false indeed that their mmbers
have been inereased by the negligenee and laziness of those whose diity it
is to preaekfrom the public pulpits and to instruct and eonfirm the souls of
men in piety! But the truth is indieated by the faet that the greater
part of such men is drawn from the villagers and peasants who hear but
frigid and infrequent discourses, it may be even no sermons at all eoneem-
ing God and the things by which a sound faith (our ehief proteetion
against the wiles of that Crafty one) is establisked, nonrished and deep-
rooted in the hearts of Christians. This faet has led many to the opinion
that we should rather pity than prnish such men; sinee it is not of their
own wish and desire that they have sunk to such a level of foulest depravity,
but owing to the inevitable misfortune of their weakness and utter feeble-
ness; and that whatever their sin may be, it is as it were eonfined within
the bounds of their own folly and error of heart, and does not do any
exterior karm to other people. It is possible that suck eonsiderations have
kept many Frenehmen ('jvho in other respeets are in no way inferior to
DEDIOATION
vii
other men in their intelleetml aeiimen and soiindness ofjndgement) from
having implieit belief in iviteheraft. But ivhetker it be madness or
impietj), this erime is always assoeiated witk and inseparable from soreery
and the mortal harming ofotherfolk and other such manifest iniquities that
it is verily a eomplete marvel all men have not reeognised tke fre beneath
such smoke.
And for my part, sinee my lot has been for so many years to
eondnet the trial of eapital offenees in Lorraine, it has seemed that there
is no course left me but to pablisk the trnth of all the prodigious tales
that are told of this sort of witchcraft, particularly such as have eome
witkin my own experience in my examination of eases wkich have passed
through my own hands. This was not at first my deliberate design and
purpose, sinee I knew that many excellent and weighty volumes have
already been published on this subject by the most leamed authors, and
sinee neither my private nor my public affairs left me leisure enough to
write anything but an ill-constructed and inadequate treatise. But it is
my custom to rest myself between my periods of ojfiee, and as far as
possible to relieve the tedium of labour by some pleasant variety; and
sinee I retired from myjudicial ojfiee to tum to more eongenial studies,
and from what I have reeently read or keard there was impressed upon
my memoiy somewkat asyet untold relating to the ilhisions and spells
of witches; wkerefore I eoneentrated upon this as if it had been some
poetiefable (and eertainly there might well appear to be some ajfinity
between the two), and wrote a eopy of verses upon tke subject, which
rkymes I later threw earelessly into my eoffers. All the projit I expected
from this was agreeably to pass away my hours of ease and not give my-
self up entirely to sloth and laziness. But at last,yielding to eonsiderable
encouragement, and being provided with the neeessary leisure by the
pestilenee which was then infesting tke eity, the desire eame upon me to
weave together these seattered and disordered twigs, that ivitk them I
migkt asfar as I could sweep away any doubt that might remain in any
man } s mind which kept him from aeeepting the truth of these matters.
But beeanse even so my work did not seem to earry enough eonvietion (for
wko may not suspect even the tmth to be a jietion in that kind of
writing?), I had recourse to a method which is apt to earry tke most
weight and anthority in persuading men of the tmth; namely, the exact
and elear designation of the events, persons, plaees and times eomprised
in my work: not indeed of all of them, but only of those which I had
noted and remarked in reeentyears. For, as I have said, it was not at tke
Vlll
DF.DIOATION
first my intention to gather together this biindle ofi tales, nor had I pre-
pared myselfifior so extensive a work.
However, stieh as this book is which I have in the end eompleted ,
rather by ehanee than by intention, I have been the more easily persuaded
to publish it sinee I heard firom that very disereet and eminent man, my
good firiend, Thierry Alix, Master ofi Aeeompts in the realm ofi
Lorraine, that such a step would findfiavour with our Most Serene Duke,
your Father, with whom he told me he had actually spoken on the subject.
It then remained fior me to ehoose fior it a patron on whose proteetion and
ehampionship it might rely against the maliee ofi those who eagerly and
earpingly note and observe everything in order to findfiault with it. To
have ehosenfor this ofifiee your noble selfi, so great a Prinee and so near
in blood to all the mightiest Kings ofi Christian Europe, would have been
the extreme ofi audacity were it not that I am a man ofi Lorraine, born
and bred, bringing out ofi my eomtrýs stores that which I think may be
ofi some use, and thus as it were in native eonfidenee I venhire to beg this
fiavour ofiyou, who are the ehiefi glory and ornament ofi Lorraine ; or
rather were it not foryour gracious kindliness which no one hasyet sought
and been denied, andfioryour fiavour and benevolenee towards all whom
you know to have earned any eommendation in letters, so that it is said
that there is no surer road than this toyour approbation.
If, perehanee over-eonfident, I dare to embellish and adorn this my
work with the splendour ofiyour most honoured and illustrious name, so
that I may the better save and salve itfrom darkness and spleen, it will
beyour kindliest indidgenee alone shouldyou allow it fior the reasons and
causes I have rehearsed above, which all have their origin in you: and
althaugh it is unworthy ofi your high renown and greatness, yet I
would humbly entreat you to aeeept it as afiree gifit firom him who vows
and devotes himselfi wholly to you with allpossible lowliness and humility,
and who will never eease to pray the Supreme Maker ofi all long to pre-
serve you safe and mharmed in allyonr many and dijficult tasks, and may
He ever grant you, my dear Lord, allyour desires, and fulfil your every
hope.
From Nanty.
TO THE
COURTEOUS READER
I T is the custom of those who ojfer a book to the pnblie to prefaee some explana-
tion of the eirenmstanees which have led to the writing of it, so that they may
not be eharged either with a rash adventure, or with arroganee in eorteealing the
ptirity of their motives. In order that I may eseape such an aeevsation, espeeially
having regard to the subject of my work which has been treated so variotisly and
with stieh eontroversy by so many aathors, I have taken eare, honoured Reader, to
show you that I had indeed some good cause for my undertaking, and that, if
my argtiments should at all eome home to you, they should be not without some
proof.
When a man’s attention is continuously engaged with a eertain subject, his
mind beeomes so full of it that often he forms the design of reeording his opimons
of it in writing, either to occupy his moments of leisure, or mayhap because he
thinks that his observations will not be entirely without serviee to others. I shall
not deny that in writing this Demonolatry whieh I now pnblish, I was aetaated
by both the above motives, but by eaeh in a dijferent degree. For while I was for
nearly fifteenyears continuously eondneting the trials of eriminals in Lorraine, my
head was enlirely filled with eonsiderations of the monstrous assemblies of the
witches, who were very frequently among those who eame up before me for trial,
with thoaghts of their banquetings, daneings, eharms and spells, their journeyings
throvgh the air, the horrid praetiees of their eamal relations with the Demon,
their frequent transmatation into other shapes and forms (for so it seemed), and
all the erimes and blasphemies with which it is well known that their lives are
pollnted and ntterly defiled. And if at times my inelinations turned to the gentler
muses (as must the engine of any man who has some literary bent), and I wished
agreeably to occupy my leisure from my judicial work with the making of verses,
it was the thought of such subjects as I havejnst ermmerated that,from my reeent
memories of them, used to beat at my brain for expression and fovnd me not un-
willing to give it words; for it seemed to me to be a subject not unsuitable for
verses, whìch it was my pleasure to make during my vaeations. Aeeordingly, I
wrote of this or that aspeet of the subject at haphagard as it ehaneed to eome to
my mind; and I was like one who makes a robe and earelessly throws aside the
ix
X
TO THE COURTEOUS READER
aittings in a disordered heap; but later, when they have grown to a eertain number,
takes eaeh one out earefidly and uses those pieees that are smtablefor the makìng
of a patchwork garment which, if it has no other merit, may like a pieee of mosaie
own rsme beatity from its very variety.
But because the narration of actual faels (of which this medley is full)
is the best means of eoming at the elear light of truth; and beeanse such faets are
read with more attention than fables or inventions; and because men ean more
easily occupy their time with a work which eombines enlertainment with utility: I
thought that 1 shonld not ill employ my labour if I saved from so mmerited a
judgement those parts of my work which, owing to their strangeness and novelty
and theform in which they are written, might not eommand belief; and therefore
I had recourse to a method which usually earried the most eonvietion of the trnth,
and so I strengthened the anthority of my arguments by an exact designation of the
events, persons, plaees and times which I have ehronieled. But sinee I had not from
thefirst been eolleeting the neeessary material, and I had (as I have said) only
jotted down such details in my leisure as they oeemred to me from time to time
singly out of so vast and seattered a store; I began to seleet and reeord whatever
seemed best suited to my pmposefrom my examinations of prisoners dmìng the
last fiveyears, and I endeavoured to reeolleet what 1 could from those of theyears
before, which I had something negleeted, so that my observations might be the bet-
ter amplified. Finally, wishing to find some eongenial occupation for my solitude
in the eonntry (whither I had retired on account of the plague mhieh was raging
in the eity), I fornd among my papers the materials I requiredfor these eom-
mentaries, and elassified them under their proper heads, and so I was able to affeet
some eohesion throughout the whole.
These I now put beforeyou, hononred Reader, all duly andfaithfilly reeord-
ing the resalts of my long observation and experience. And I think thatyoa will
have no cause to eondemn my work, unless perhaps they are right who say that we
ought not to tolerate those who abuse their leisnre in terrijying men's minds by
tellingfar-fetehed stories of idle andfutile maiters which could hardly have gained
any eredenee even in the dark days of ignorant antiquity. And although this objee-
tion is snjfieiently met by what I havejnst said of the auihenticity of all the eir-
cumstances, witnessed by the public reeords of the plaees where eaeh of them oe-
curred: yet, that I might sweep away all seraples and doubis from the minds of
those who eome as strangers and guests to this book, I have nol hesitated to amplify
it with eertain similar andparallel ineidents taken from other learned and eloquent
anlhors; sinee I thonght that the narration of other events which agree with my
own experience would in no small degree bringyet grealer light to bear upon the
truth.
T O THE COURTEOUS READER
XI
I have given my work the title of Demonolatry. For althongh their meta-
morphoses, spells, strange leeeheraft, glamoiirs, raising of storms, and other such
portents have eaeh of them material enovgh to merit a separate title;yet I thonght
that the greatest emphasis should be laid upon the abominable blasphemy of their
impious cult, sinee that is the cause from which all the other manifestations of
witchcraft have their origin and beginning. It is this, indeed, which has,from its
very diffienlty and magnitude, persuaded the more ignorant that there is in it some-
thing of a divine nalure; for it is easy for wretched mortals to mistake the false
for the true. Who indeed would not worship as a god a being who ean at will
ehange the shape and appearanee of things; ean in a moment take away life, and
again restore it as though reealled from the dead; ivhom the very elements obey;
who eanforetell the future; and ean perform countless other prodigies which are
far beyond the eapaeities and strength of humanity?
If perhaps someone may objeet that I hane used little art or method or order
in settingforth these observations, I shall take no great ojfenee, sinee I have ample
excuse. For who, as the oldproverb says, ean make brieks without straw? Fíever-
theless, I deeided to present them to the reader such as they are, without melhod or
order, rather than throngh fear of their báng too diseonneeted to allow them to
remain any longer hidden and mrapped round with the thiek darkness of silenee.
For I knew that they eontained much which (asfar as I have heard) no one has
hitherto put into zvriting, or at least has not eonfrmed with such authentic testi-
mony, and distingaished with such variety. Nor has any writer in his narrative
adduced so great a mmber of eases as I have been able to bring fonvard and at
first hand. Aeeordingly, as I have said, after an individual eortsideralion of my
examples and faets I was led to do no less than eolleet them together in one body:
but sinee much of my work seemed to adapt itself to such a form, and I was not
sorry for the employment it gave me, I was determined to put it all together, how-
ever roughly, in the manner in whichyou now see it: even as from a few seattered
hoiises in the course of time eities eome into being with erooked and disordered
streets, becausc the whole eity was not planned as such from the beginning, but
grew up haphazard with no fixed parpose, beyond the ehoiee of a rather more level
site for bailding here and there. Yet this eolleetion is not so entirely without some
method that it has not a continuous thread; not indeed such as is demanded by the
careful andpreeise traditions andpreeepts of art, but such as is usual in the telling
of tales, where eaeh ineident is reeorded in aeeordanee with ihe order and plaee of
its oeenrrenee.
Thus I seleeted to write in what manner it is that men first beeome infeeted
with the taint of witchcraft; in what arts they are instriieted, and how theyjourney
to their Sabbats, and the plots they weave there; how they cause siekness and heal
XII
T O THE COURTEOUS READER
it at their will; how they bring ruin upon the erops; whetker, when they are brought
to trial, they repent, or whether they are so hardened in their obstinaey that they
defeat the sagaeity of even the wisest Judge; and how they devise and perform many
more ejfeets of this sort, which ìt would take too long to enumerate. For from all
these faets it will be easy to understand and be folly eonvineed that there are
witches, unless we deliberately intend to see and understand nothing. This indeed
may be the first and most important question in this dispute. And if my work as a
whole should not meet with approval, as being too prolix and dijfuse,yet perhaps
the reader will find some pleasure in many of its details, taken severally by them-
selves.
It may be that some will accuse me of being nothing but a retailer of marvel-
lous stories, seeing thatl speak of witc.hes raising up clouds and travelling throagh
the air, penetraling through the narrowesl openings, eating, daneing and lying
with Demons, andperforming many other such prodigies andporlents. But I would
have them know first that it was from no seattered rumours, but from the inde -
pendent and eoneordant testimony of many witnesses that, as I have said, I have
reported these things as eertain faets; seeondly, that I have argued these matters
not captiously but logieally, and have always tried to adduce proofs which are in
aeeordanee with the spirit of the Ghristian religion; andfinally, that all who wish
to do so are perfeetly free to disagree wìth me, for I do not profess to give utter-
anee to infallible deerees. However, if anyone shonld ask me my opinion of these
relations, I shonld say that they are not far from the truth, and that they are
eertainly more worthy of eredenee than are several other tales which, nevertheless,
the wrilers of aneient times regarded as beyond all doubt. For what are we to
think of the story to be fonnd in the Commentaries of C. Epidius, of trees and
oxen and even asses speaking? Or of an oliveyard erossing the public road, and
a ploughedfield erossing over to take itsplaee? Yet Pliny * says that this happened
in his day in the land of the Marmeini. What are we to think of the stories of
Amphìon | leading wild beasts and trees, and Orphms roeks, by their singing
and music? Tet Pausanias (Heliakon 2 ) ivrites that an Egyptian told him that
their Magieians, who were very famous in their art, could actually do this. What
of two hills rushing together like rams, and fiying apart again? Tet Roman
- “Pliny.” “Historia NatmalisII,
83: “Non mimts mirum ostentum et noslra
cognouit aetas, anno Neronis prineipis supremo,
sieut in rebus eius exposuimus, pratis oleisque,
intereedenle uia publica, in eontrarias sedes
transgressis, in agro Mamteino, praediis
Uectii Mareelli equitis Romani, res Neronis
proenranlis
t "Amphion." Son 0/Antiope by Japiter;
King of Thebes and hnsband of Niobe. See
Hyginus, “Fabellae,” VI and VII. Also
Horaee, "Ars Poetiea," 331-36:
siluestris homines soeer interpresque deorum
caedìbus et uiclu foedo deterruit Orpheas,
dietns ob lenire iigris rabidesque leones;
dictus et Amphion, Thebanae eondilor urbis,
saxa mernre sorto tesludinis et preee blanda
ducere quo uellet.
T O THE COURTEOUS READER
xm
History # testifies that this occurred onee near Modena. What, finally, of the
seed sowing itself wkile the soivers took their rest: of ehairs walking about and
pouring out wine and waler: of brazen cup-bearers ojfering the cup: all of which
Apollonins | said that he saw at the house of larehas and other Gymnosophists?
My narration must not, therefore, be doubted on the ground that it eontains much
that is new and unheard-of and eontrary to the laws of nature: for much that the
Demons, with their mighty powers, are able to perform is entirely ineonsistent with
the normal limitations of nature. No one then will think my narration unworthy
on thal account to be handed doum to posterity, as long as it is free from all
absnrdity. For I know that there are many who, because of such reports, are ready
to believe others which are atterly ridiculous: as that witches ean by their spells
ehange men from being men and turn them into beasts; that their souls at times
depart from their bodies, and return again to them asifby right of poslliminy; that
those with whom the Demon lies beeome pregnant by him; and many other such
vanities which they tell us in all seriousness, trying to persnade us of their tmth.
But I have no more in eommon with those who in this way let the reins of their
credulity go loose, than I have tvith those who hold them in too tight. For both
are in error: the folk on the one hand who rejeet the evidenee of logie and daily ex-
perienee; and on the other hand the folk who belieoe and aeeept what must be
repngnant to the understanding of any wise man.
Let the gentle reader, then, estimate andjndge everything by the light of his
own reason. And if I have been led by erednlity, to which even the best of us are
at times snbjeet, to aeeept too strange a matter for the lruth; or if through excess
of eritieism, of which sometimes even the most modest are gailty, I have too readily
rejeeted anything; the reader will pardon it in eonsideration of the experience and
eonfidenee which, from my long judicial praetiee, I have won in this sort of dis-
quisition. For when a man has himself seen and heard these things, it gives him
the greater eovfidenee to speak of them, and the greater resolve in defending his
- "Roman HistoryPlìrty, “Historia
Naturalis," II, 83: "Factum est et hoe semel,
quod equidem in Etmseae disáplinae uolumini-
hus inueni, ingens terramm portentiim, L.
Mareio, Sex. Iulio eoss. in agro Mutinensi.
Namque montes duo inter se concurrerunt,
crepitu maximo adsultantes, recedentesque, inter
eos Jlamma fumoque in eoeliim exeunte interdiu,
speetante e uia Àsmilia magna equitum Roma-
norum, familiarumque et uiatorum multiludine.
Eo concursu itillae omnes elisae: animalia
permnlta, quae intra j\verant, exanimata sunt,
anno ante soeiale beílum, quod haud seio an
funestius terrae ipsi ItaliaeJuerit quam eiidlia.”
| "Apollonius." larehas, the oldest of the
sages and ehief o/ the Brahmins, entertained
Apollonius when this philosopher visited India.
See the “Uita Apollonii" of Philostratus,
Book III. The ehairs and dumb-waiters were
meehanieal eontrivanees. Book V, xii, has:
Suiv 5 « rapà roís ’IvSoIs rovt rpíirobas «aì
roìis oívo^óoos *aì ó<ra avrópara «V<#>oiràv
«Tirov, ov$’ óirojs tro<p(£oivro avrá, ýptro, ovr’
ibtrfin paOilv, ÓAA iirfivti piv, £ij\ovv S’oóte
17ÍT0V. When among the Indians he beheld
their tripods and their dumb waiters and other
automala, which I deseribed as entering the
room 0/ their own aeeord, he did not ask how
they were eontrived, nor did he ask to be
informed; he only praìsed them, but did not
aspire to imitate them.
xiv TO THE COURTEOUS READER
opinion against those who dissent from it. Yet I am eonseioiis that I have not
written in any eontentioiis spirit, nor witk a view to exciting admiration or ap-
platise by reason of the strange things Ihave to tell; but Iprotest that I have only
striven after and kept my eyes upon the same truth which has been pursued by many
others, although their quivers have been not so amply firnished with arrows as
is mine now. And if my efforts are reeeived as I hope, eertes I trust (with the
help of God) tofollow them up withyet fnrther essays which no one who wishes
to skow me but barest jnstiee ean ever pretend will have been nndertaken to no
pnirpose and in vain.
daiide and Emamel
to their Fatker’s
Book.
S INCE the same anthor # gave you birth
fVho brought us also to this earth,
We are your brothers; and J twould look
Hl and mbrotherly, 0 Book }
Iffromyonr homeyou should go out
Upon your wanderings without
Some parting gift or blessing. So,
Seeing no better way we know
As needy seholars, we must use
The seholars 1 way, who court the Muse
Either to bless their friends , or curse
Their enemies in feeble verse.
First, let no earping eritie dare
Searchyou forfmlts which are not there:
Or, if he needs must heave his gorge
At work not wrought at his own forge,
To drink the poison of his tongrn
May he grow ears more rough andlong
Than those the fool King onee pressed flat
To hide them ’neath his Phrygian hat.
Strong in this wish go boldly henee
And enter with all eonfldenee
The Courts of jnstiee: fan the fire
Before it flieker and expire
Vntended by some Judge too slow
To stir its embers to a glow;
For in these days there are toofew
Who mll relentlessly pursue
Witches mtilyfor vengeanee sake,
They bring them to the bmning stake.
- Sinee the same author. The original verses are hendeeasyllabies.
xv
Maybe this ivish beeomes us not
Who ivith the Muses east our lot:
For eaeh of us is of an age
More prone to kindliness than rage.
Yet none should blame us if we dare
To take you to a brother’s eare,
Sinee the same aathor gave you birth
Who broiigkt us also to this earth.
Afrieamis
to his Father’s Book.
A Quatrain.
Y OU shall not go without some gift from me.
If I ean do no more than wish you this :—
No ill tongne damnyon andeservedly,
And may your friends eondone whate’er’s amiss.
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
T HE Gauls, remarks Julius Caesar, in his De Bello Gallieo, VI, are
among the most superstitious of all nations on the faee of the
earth. Not only do they offer human saerifiees, but they have
a mysterious eollege of priests, the Druids, who perform these
loathly rites with many strange and horrid eeremonies and who straitly
encourage and nurture this abominable superstition. Moreover, as early
as 280 b.g., aeeording to the historian Justin, when Brennus was invading
Maeedonia and Greece,no stepdid he take unless the omensofthe saerea
birds had first been consulted and found favourable, for the Gauls are
more versed than any other folk in the arts of augury and divination.
\Vriting a century after the time of Caesar, Pomponius Mela, the
geographer, deseribes the Gauls as a spleenful and superstitious raee, a
people savage and dangerous to the last degree, sinee they eonsidered
that their gods could be best plaeated with mortal blood. There
existed among them seeret soeieties who were instructed by the Druids
in occu!t lore; they were observers of the hosts of heaven, and from
the trail of a swift vagrom eomet or the blaze of a falling star they
revealed to the people the implaeable and relentless will of their dark
deities. These wizard masters elaimed as their diseiples the seions of
the noblest houses; they tore young and likely lads from their homes
to train them in every hidden art; their sehools were the solitary eaves
of the eold pathless mountains or the darkest depths of fearfulíy
haunted woods. The same writer tells of the maiden priestesses, nine
in number, who dwelt upon the lone Isle of Sein amid the surges of
the Atlantie, off the eoast of Brittany, weird women who were believed
to have the power of raising storms at sea and of lulling the waves to
rest again by their potent eharms; nay, more, who could transform
themselves into the shape of any beast or bird of prey, who couId send
pestilenee and famine, or if they would could heal any manner of dis-
ease even such as leeeheraft might not touch, who knew the future
and could tell it.
It was at the eommeneement of the fifth century that the Franks began
to occupy Gaul, and in the course of not a great many years the aneient
Frankish legislation, the Salie Law, was reduced to a written form, to
be finally sanetioned under King Clovis, who ruled from 481-511.
That seeret rites and witchcraft were far from uncommon is amply
evideneed by the provisions of this venerable eode. At first heavy fìnes
were infiieted. Seventy-two sous and half a golden eoin was the penalty
xvii
XVIII
editor’s introduction
for fashioning that eharm of bale, the dreaded witch’s knot; any who
accused his neighbour of soreery yet was unable to prove the eharge
might be amereed in the same sum; an equal mulct the statute de-
manded from the man who said untruly that such a one had been
present at the Sabbat; again a yet larger fine, one hundred and eighty-
seven sous, was imposea for defaming any woman as a witch unless
elearest proof of her iniquities were fortheoming; whilst if any witch
was eonvieted of having feasted upon the flesh of ehildren, the enormous
sum of two hundred sous was levied.
The eode of the Visigoths preseribed yet sterner measures. The
warlock who had killed any person by his spells and ineantations was
to be punished with death; if he had harmed goods or the erops in
the fields, but it could not be shown that he had taken Iife, his mis-
deeds were rcwarded with scourging and serfdom. Such was the fate
of “workers of evil and those who raised tempests, those who are said
to destroy the vines or harvest by their ineantations, those who by the
invoeation of devils trouble their neighbours or who saerifiee at night
to the Demon whom in their wickedness they eall upon with impious
prayers.”
Eeelesiastieal authority now took up the matter. At the beginning
of the sixth century the bishops eomplained that the south of Franee
was infested by augurs and diviners who exercised such an untoward
infhienee over not merely the peasants but men of public position and
power that in some distriets there was hardly a person to be found,
rieh or poor, minded to engage upon any serious undertaking with-
out having previously consulted these eharlatans and worse than
eharlatans, who not only emptied the purses of their dupes but made
their Iives miserable with their lying propheeies and predietions. The
bishops ordered that so far from resorting to these wretches, their
quondam elients are rather to denounce them to the loeal authorities,
and after having been duiy punished, the crew of false diviners and
paynim haruspices will be sold into bitter bondage and slavery.
Witchcraft, and accusations of witchcraft, beeame prominent in
connexion with the politieal game of kings and queens. When in 578
Fredegonde lost one of her sons, she promptly eontrived that the
general Mummol, whom she openly hated, should be accused of having
killed the young prinee by soreery. It was alleged that he had eon-
sulted with and obtained envenomed eharms from eertain evil hags
who lay under the liveliest suspicions of being adepts in poisoning and
the blaek art. However that may be, he was arrested, whilst a number
of the witches eoneerned with him were burned at the stake, drowned
or broken on the wheel. Sinee in spite of repeated tortures no eonfes-
sion could be extorted from Mummol himself, his life was spared, but
he had been so maltreated that he survived only a fcw days, and it
was rumoured at the time that he was, in faet, ineontinently assassinated
by the royal eommand.
XIX
editor’s introduction
When two other ehildren of Chilperic and Fredegonde died suddenly
in swift succession, this fumished ground for further accusations of witch-
eraft against prominent people who stood in the old queen’s way and
whom she did not hesitate to put to death. At the same time Frede-
gonde herself was gìven over to the grossest superstitions, and she
maintained a paek of fortune-tellers and warlocks, in particular a
woman possessed by a pythonieal spirit, in whose powers she tnisted
to secure her from the consequences of her erimes. By means of these
foul satellites she succeeded in terrorizing the kingdom until her death
in 597. Her great rival, Brunehaut, was executed at the eommand of
dothaire II in the year 613. She aíso was eommonly reputed to be a
witch, and it was said that she was espeeially skilled in the frigid eharm
of impoteney known as noner l'aiguillette , a deviee which was regarded
with espeeial horror and detestation, as being audaciously and most
contumeliously opposed to the direet eommand of the Oreator.
Chilperic III in 742 issued an appeal to the eeelesiastieal authorities
to assist him in suppressing all kinds of divination; saerifiees to the
fiend; human saerifiees which were still offered in dark eorners and
the remoter distriets, where the life of a slave counted for little; worship
of the dead and neeromaney, the eonfeetion of poisons and unclean
love-amulets, with many other dangerous erafts and conjurations.
Under Charlemagne the statutes beeome even more definite and
were more strietly enforeed. A law was passed which prohibited in
most absolute terms any consultations with eommon fortune-tellers or
any inquiry from such folk as to the meaning of dreams or any kind of
peering into the future; magieians, enehanters, those who pretend to a
knowledge of the years to eome, those who feign to be able to evoke
rain or tempests or who elaim that they ean procure fair weather,
observers of times, seryers and mediums, are threatened with the
elosest imprisonment until it ean be shown that they have wholly
turned from their wicked ways. Any plaees such as a grove, a Druid
dolmen, a pagan well, whcre it is reputpd that witches hold their
rendezvous are to be utterly demolished and burned with fire.
YVhen this eode was first promulgated with its provision allowing for
liberty upon amendment after a brief term of imprisonment, it is elear
that the full extent of the evil and the danger to soeiety had not been
fully reeognized. For the son of Charlemagne, Louis de Debonnaire
(le Pieux), who succeeded his father in 814, and who was greatly
beloved by his subjects for his gentleness and sweet temper, soon felt
no little alarm at the continual reports which reaehed him. More-
over, a Council of Paris in 829 addressed a veiy solemn appeal to the
sovereign to assist by the secular arm Holy Church in the crusade
against witchcraft, and it has been well said by De Cauzons that in
this statute is eontained the basis of all future legislation against this
horrid erime. Again, it proves that the power of the soreerer and of
the magieian was seriously regarded as something very noxious and
XX
editor’s introduction
dangerous in the highest degree. ÍC Ce eanon a de l’importanee, ear il
fait appel au bras séculier eontre les soreiers, de plus il affirme assez
elairement que leur pouvoir n’est pas chimérique.” The Council de-
elares that ainong the most erying evils of the day is the terrible faet
that on every side, in every town and throughout the whole country
swarm Satan’s gonfaloniers, neeromaneers, diviners, sibyls, poisoners,
lewd prophets, enehanters, those who reveal dreams, rewarders of
familiars, and all these the Divine laworders shall be punished without
merey. Various Biblieal ordinanees are reeited, such as “a man, or
woman in whom there is a pythonieal or divining spirit, dying let them
die” ( Leviticus , xx, 27), and “Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live,”
(A.V. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” Exodus, xxii, 18). It is
very important and signifieant that the time has now been reaehed
when these texts are legally quoted not to justify but to enforee the
execution of witches. It may be remarked that a eertain suspicion or
vein of treason was always eonsidered to be eommingled with witch-
eraft, sinee the person had transformed his allegianee from the lawful
sovereign, the Prinee of the land, to an alien, the devil. This idea was
afterwards elaborated in fuller detail by the jurists, and an even darker
shade was given to it when the witch was held to be guilty of lese-
majesty, a false traitor to Almighty God.
The legislation of Charles le Chauve, who died in 877, is as drastie
and as pregnant in its import as any pandeet of the sixteenth or seven-
teenth centuries. It is notieeable too that the eode enaets that offenders
in this kind are to be sought out and arrested. It is no longer a ques-
tion of unshamed and notorious wizardry, but those to whom any
overt suspicion attaehes are to be brought to trial. “If they be found
guilty, whether men or whether women, let them die the death as
law and justice demand. And not only the prineipals in this abomina-
tion, but also those who eonsort with or consult them, shall pay the
penalty in order that the very memory of so heinous a erime may be
utterly abolished and uprooted from our land.”
The effeet of these measures was to drive the evil underground. The
ninth and tenth centuries were for Franee uneasy and most wretched
years, a dark era of invasions, of eivil wars, of revolting provinees, and
the thousand bitter woes such disturbances bring in their train. It was
largely a period of ehaos and anarehy, sinee the prinees for the most
part were too much occupied in maintaining their position by foree of
arms to apply the law in its full rigour. Oeeasional prosecutions are
reeorded, such as that at Orleans under Robert le Pieux in 1022, of
the Cathari, a not unnumerous soeiety of devil-worshippers, and eon-
temporary ehronielers reeord many a history of possession and hideous
sortilege when the powers of evil were exalted.
Actually the offieial reeords are few, but so soon as a more general
order is restored we find that amongst the eheeking of other erimes and
abuses, this evil also, which owing to the sad aeeidents of the state had
editor’s introduction
XXI
so long continued almost seatheless, is dealt with by authority with no
faitering hand. It was in April, 1233, that Gregory IX offieially estab-
lished the Order of Preaehers as the Pontifieaí Inquisitors for all
dioeeses of Franee, more espeeially eommending to their eare the
southern provinees, that they might aid to subdue the sedition and
insurgency which unhappily ran riot there. The good friars at onee
began to take eognizanee of the dark erime of witchcraft, and from
about the middle of the thirteenth century a number of trials and
judicial inquiries are reeorded. It is true that in 1257, when the ques-
tion was posed to Alexander IV whether it was the particular provinee
of the Inquisition to deal with eases ofsoreery, that Pontiff in his bull,
Quod stiper nonniillis, direets that they should not extend the sphere of
their duties uniess in the accusation there is manifest heresy involved;
and this rule was actually embodied in the eanon law by Bonifaee VIII,
who reigned from 1294-1303, but the point arises whether the invoea-
tion of demons is not per se heretieal, and the great authority Sylvester
Mazzolini deeides that such indeed must be the ease, that all witches
are, in faet, hereties, material or formal. Bernardo di Como in his
Ltieerna Inquisitorum , under the title “Daemones Inuocare,” discusses
“Daemones Inuocare an sit haereticum,” and allows that there are
two probable opinions either of which may be followed. It is neeessary
to make some very earefiil and niee distinetions here, but for my part
I subscribe to Lapus, who says, “Inuocans daemones est haereticus,
cum attrìbuat eis id quod est Dei, per quem omnia faeta sunt.” At
the same time it is only fair to add that one must distinguish, and in
1473 the Carmelitcs of Bologna held that it was not neeessarily always
heretieal, and Ugolini Zanghino, in his Tractatus de Haeretids , xxii,
writes that there are eertain operations of magie which do not involve
the maliee of heresy. On the other hand, as Bernardo di Como lays
down: “Implorare auxilium a daemone in his quae sunt supra facul-
tatem hmnanam, sicut in uaticinatione de futuro, et in aliis operibus
magieis, in quibus complementum operis ex uirtute daemonum expec-
tatur, est apostasia a fide, per pactum initum cum daemone, uel
uerbotenus si inuocatio intersit, uel faeto a!iquo, etiam si saerifieia
desint.”
Ineidentally it may be remembered that eharges of soreery often
resolved themselves into eharges of murdcr, for the witches of all
countries were adepts in the art of poisoning, and in such eases the
offenees were tried before the eivil courts. Thus one of the accusatioris
against Bernard Délicieux was that he had attempted the life of
Benediet XI by magie arts; and in 1308 the Sire d’LJlmet was brou^ht
to Paris upon a eharge of attempting to kill his wife by soreery, whilst
íhe hags whom he had employed were buried alive or burncd at the
stake. Three centuries later in the English trials for witchcraft the
accused when senteneed are eondemned as being guilty of murder.
Thus in the famous ease of the Laneashire witchcs of 1612, the accused
XXII
editor’s introduction
were direetly indieted for having killed eertain persons by their arts,
and, to quote only one verdiet, the jury found “ Anne Whittle , alias
Chattox , Elizabeth Deuice, and Iames Deiiiee, guiltie ofthe seuerall murthers
by Witchcraft, eontained in the indietments against them, and euery
of them.” Many similar instanees might be eited, but it will suffice to
point out that in George Gifford’s A Dialogtie eoneerning Witches and
Witchcrafts, 1593, when Daniel says a witch by the word of God ought
to die the death not because she kills men, for she eannot (except
by poison), but because she deals in devils, the interlocutor retorts
that the Énglish law does not put them to death for soreery but for
murder.
Typieal eases which eame before the Inquisition were such as that of
Angèle de la Bathe in 1275, who eonfessed that she habitually copulated
with a familiar to whom she had borne a monstrous ehild; and ìn 1459
at Langres that of a mysterious hermit, Robinet de Vaulx, which latter
gave rise to the prosecutions at Arras, implieating a large number
of persons, of nobles and wealthy burghers as well as eommon folk.
Although Gregory XI in 1374 authorized the Inquisition to prosecute
all eases of soreery, the loeal Parlements gradually weaned this offenee
from eeelesiastieal jurisdiction. In 1390 a secular offieial by name
PoulaIlier, Prevost Marshal of the distriet, arrested several soreerers
at Laon, and Bodin, De la Démonomanie des Soreiers, IV, 1, says that
thereafter eognizanee of these offenees was eonfined to the secular
tribunals. “Mais depuis la eognoissanee fust attribuee aux Iugez laiz,
priuatiuement aux gens d’Eglise par arrest du mesme Parlement l’an
mil trois eens nonante, qui fut sainetement ordonné.” Aeeordingly,
although Jeanette Neuve was tried and sent to the stake by the court
of the Abbey of Saint-Chaffre, this was in its eapaeity as haut-justicier,
and not as an eeelesiastieal tribunal. Moreover, poisoning was laid to
her eharge, for the Sire de Burzet, having fallen out with his wife and
wishing to be reeoneiled, applied to Jeanette for a potion. She gave
him some mysterious drug, which was seeretly administered in a cup
of wine to the lady, who within a very few hours was dead.
It may be noted that ofthe great writers upon demonology, four at
least, Jean Bodin, Nieolas Remy, Henri Boguet and Pierre de Lanere,
were secular magistrates and presidents of secular courts.
Supremely interesting and of the first importanee as they are, but
bare mention must be made of the three great eases of the Knights
Templars, S. Joan of Are, and Gilles de Rais.
It has been said that “at the beginning of the fomteenth century
all Christendom, from Great Britain to Cyprus, was convulsed by the
tragie eatastrophe of the Knights Templars, than which history knows
no more formidable trial, nor has the final verdiet been given even
to-day.” The exact source whence proeeeded the immediate demmeia-
tion of the Templars is uncertain. It may eertainly be allowed that
Philip Le Bel regarded with jea!ous suspicion the strongholds that the
xxm
editor’s introduction
Templars had built up and down throughout Franee; it is ineontest-
able that he not only eoveted but feared the vast riehes of the Order.
Yet it is difficult to think that he did not eredit at Ieast some of the
eharges which were brought against the Order, for it is elear that
many of these were substantially established. No doubt extravagant
stories were bniited and believed in many quarters, the episode would
be unique in human history were it not so. Many members protested
their entire innoeenee, and it is not to be supposed that the more
occult mysteries and inner seerets of Baphomet, the osculum obseoetmm
and the Gnostie liturgy were revealed to any save to the most tmsted
initiates.
Even in this long series of trials, which in various countries of
Europe and throughout the eities and provinees of Franee extended
over a period of more than five years, the proeeedings of two separate
courts ean be distinguished, the papal eommission and the royal
eommission.
With regard to the eondemnationofS. Joan of Are as “menteresse,
pemicieuse, divinesse, superstitieuse, blasphemeresse de Dieu, ydolatre,
invoeateresse de déables, apostate, scismatique et hérétique,’ s it is
superfluous to point out that Pierre Cauchon, who elaimed the Maid
for the eeelesiastieal arm, was merely an agent of the English, and
even if the tribunal before which she was brought had acquitted her
she would yet have remained the prisoner of the King of England. It
was in 1449 that Charles VII opened the proeess for the revision of this
irregular trial, and Pope Calistus III appointed a eommission of the
highest and most reverend prelates to investigate the matter. The
Arehbishop of Rheims, the Bishop of Paris, the Bishop of Coutances
and the Grand Inquisitor of Franee, Jean Brehal, on the 7th July,
1456, delivered their judgement. They deeided that the proeess was
uncanonical, unjust, fraudulent and malicious; they anniilled, repudi-
ated, revoked, pronounced invalid and deelared utterly null and void
the sentenee, so that the who!e trial was quashed as a manifest error
both in right and in justice, proeeedings which were perfidious and
defamed, false and indign, a peijured proeess full of manifest eontra-
dietions.
The supreme curia before which in Oetober, 1440, was brought
Gilles de Rais, eonsisted of two tribunals, the eeelesiastieal court whose
president was Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes; and the eivil
court which had as its shrieve Pierre de l’Hospital, ChanceUor of
Brittany. The finding of the eeelesiastieal court was that GiUes was
shamefuUy guilty of witchcraft, Satanism, heresy, saerilege, apostasy,
and other heinous erimes, wherefore he was handed over to the eivil
arm to reeeive the punishment due to such deeds. The secular court
senteneed him to death on multiplied eharges of murder as well as for
the aforesaid offenees.
It may be remarked that when the Inquisition and the Bishops
XXIV
editor’s introduction
delegated their jurisdiction in these eases to the eivil courts, the accused
were treated with far greater severity and even the innoeent had little
ehanee of eseape. Miehelet, La Soreière, II, 3, says: “ Partout oìi les
tribunaux Iaiques revendiquent ees affaires, elles deviennent rares et
disparaissent du loins pour eent années ehez nous, 1450-1550-Nulle
eondamnation sous Charles VIII, Louis XII, Fran^ois 1 “.” This is
of course, greatly exaggerated, and eases could be quoted during the
hundred years mentioned by Miehelet, and in the reigns of these three
kings, that is to say, from 1483 to 1547. Thus on the gth Oetober,
1519, Catherine Peyretonne was executed at Montpezat. She eon-
fessed to habitual attendanee at the Sabbat, and for many years she
had stolen infants from the eradle, saeriíieing them to her familiar,
Barrabam, and adoring the fiend with obseene ritual. In 1521 at
Besan^on two shepherds, lyeanthropes, Miehel Verdun and Pierre
Burgot, were bumed alive. Under í’ran^ois I there were terrible
seandals at the eonvent of St. Pierre at Lyons, which was convulsed by
an outbreak of demoniaeal possession. There was an execution in
1539, and again in 1540 at Toulouse. In the same year the Norman
Parliament bumed in the old market-plaee at Rouen two shepherds of
Tosny, a hamlet near Gisors, by name Delanie and Morin, obstinate
and self-eonfessed Satanists of long eontimianee.
It is true that under such a king as Frangois I, whose pose was to
be the baroque Amadis of monarehs; who was fantastie and fiekle in
his showy ehivalry; as variable as he was versatile; whose ideal was the
useless magnifieenee of the Field of the Cloth of Gold; whose nature
was at the bottom profoimdly indifferent; who took love and devotion
but who gave not even gratitude; under such a king as this it is true
that it was not to be expected the laws would reeeive any impetus or
weight. Privately, both he and his mother were ineredibly lax and
frivo!ous as regards their views upon religion, but at the same time
offieially they reeognised that the Gatholie Church was of immense
importanee and had a great temporal authority. The bnital blas-
phemies of the i8th and igth Oetober, 1534, when Holy Mass was
reviled and the venerated statue of Our Lady mutilated, were rightly
avenged with the gibbet and the stake.
A very different eharaeter was Henri, this seeond son, who upon
the death of the young dauphin Fran^ois beeame heir to the throne.
“II est né Saturnien,“ was the elever mot of Simon Renard; and a
Venetian ambassador wrote: “He is melaneholy, saying little, and
devoid of repartee; but when onee he has said a thing he holds to it
mordietis, for he is very elear and deeided as to his opinions.” “He is
brave, and loves hunting and fighting; and he is very religious, and
will not ride on Sundays.” So judged Matteo Dandolo. And one of
the opinions to which this very religious young king held in his deeided
way was that Franee must be eleared of the witches and devil-wor-
shippers who were reemiting their ranks from every quarter, to the great
editor's introduction
XXV
eontempt of God and His Holy Mother. At the side of Henri II, solemn
and watchful as a Spanish grandee, there stood not his wife, the
Florentine Catherine de’ Mediei, “the shopkeeper’s daughter” as they
enielly dubbed her, but a Iady of exquisite beauty, la grande Sénése/iale.
Henri was eighteen years old when he fell under the enehantment of
Diane de Poitiers, and when he died twenty-three years later he was
no less devoted. Pale, tall and slender, she was ever soberly elad, for
at the time Henri first beeame her lover she wore quiet weeds for her
husband. and in knightly wise he also adopted for his badge the silver
and blaek his lady favoured, embla2oning cverywhere her deviee, a
ereseent moon with the motto Donee totum impleat orbem. Diane was all
reserve and mystery; intensely religious and jealous of the honour of
her faith, she looked with proudly intolerant eyes upon the seandals
wrought by soreery and witchcraft throughout the fair realm of Franee.
This great lady, who, as she said, “would not for an empire have
spoken to a Huguenot,” did not suffer the law to sleep. “Le sombre
règne d’Henri II et de Diane de Poitiers finit le temps de toléranee.
On brfìle, sous Diane, les hérétiques et les soreiers. Oatherine de Medieis,
au eontraire, entourée d’astrologues et de magieiens, eut voulu protéger
ceux-ci.” Even during her husband’s lifetime Queen Catherine found
means to have continually in her retinue a number of occultists, some
of no very good repute. It was whispered that their royal mistress
herself was not infrequently present at unhallowed rites, but very
seeretly for fear not so much of the king, as of the omnipotent Duchesse
de Valentinois. Oertainly Oatherine had consuìted her astrologers on
the eve of the 29th June, 1559, for early that morning she sent urgent
messages to Henri begging him not to venture to the jousts. Her
w r arnings were laughed at, and, as fate willed and the Huguenots
planned, the lanee of Montgomeri lodged a splinter in the royal brain.
At onee the Queen assumed eontrol of affairs, and Diane retired to
her splendid chàteau of Anet. Although Catherine de’ Mediei may have
proteeted the magieians, those subtle poisoners and dark diviners im-
mediately among herownentourage, with thatcuriousofficial orthodoxy
which so often aeeompanies an irregular mystieism and uneasy curiosity
eoneerning the future, she did not in any way attempt to relax the
eommon law nor did she shelter the smaller fry. Indeed throughout
the reigns of her three sons, Fran$ois II, 1559-1560; Charles IX, 1560-
1574; and Henri III, 1574-1589, the witch prosecutions were pursued
with the utmost energy and vigour. Not inaeed that they in any way
relaxed whilst Henri IV and Louis XIII occupied the throne; whilst
even under Louis XIV there were some terrible eases of Satanism in
the provinees, and in Paris itself occurred the resounding seandals of
la Voisin and her vile assoeiates.
Ofthe Valois, Charles IX and Henri III were more than suspected
of having dabbled in these ill-omened seerets. Bodin tells us that
Charles IX, urged it would seem by tiekling curiosity, himself interro-
xxvi editor’s introduction
gated in liveliest detail the notorious Trois-Eehelles, vvhose erimes he
pardoned on eondition that the warlock gave him a full deseription
of the Sabbat and other foul praetiees. “Le Roy Charles 9. apres disner
eommanda qu’on luy amenast Trois-Eehelles, auquel il auoit donné
sa graee pour accuscr ses eompliees. Et eonfessa deuant le Roy en
presenee de plusicrs grad Seigneurs, la fagon du transport des soreieres,
des danees, des saerifiees faiets à Satan, des paillardises auec les Diables
en figurc d’hommes & de femmes: & quc chacun prenoit des poudres
pour faire mourir hommes, bestes, £? fruits.”
Whether Henri III actually dabbled in occult arts or nois uncertain,
for the evidenee which has eome down to us is most violently prejudiced
and inimieal, but whatevcr may be the truth of the matter, it is fairly
well established that the assassination of this monareh on ist August,
1.589, was largely the result of reports which were most industriously
circulated by the Leaguers, openly accusing him of soreery. Early in
1589 was published a pamphlet entitled Les soreeleries de Henry de Valois y
et les oblatìons qu'il faisoit au diable dans le bois de Vineennes , and this is
excccdingly preeise in its details. Even more fantastie stories of sehools
for blaek magie being held at the Louvre are related in Remonstranees
à Henry de Valois sur les ehoses horribles envoyées par un enfant de Paris %
j 5 8 9 -
At the end of the sixteenth century Franee was Iiterarily honey-
eombed by the vast seeret soeiety of witches, whose members, ever
busy at their evil work, might be found everywhere, in crowded eapital
and in remote hamlet, in palaee and in eottage, of both sexes and of
all ages, even the very youngest, for, as was proved time after time,
the older adepts trained up their ehildren almost from the eradle in their
diabolie eraít. No whit aoes Bodin exaggerate when he says, “par la
souffrance des Iuges eeste vermine a si bien multipiié, que Trois-
esehelles dist au Roy Charlcs ix qu’il y en auoit plus de trois eens
mille en ee Royaume” ( Dimonomanie , IV, 5). There were happily also
many brave hearts who were found faithful to their duty, and not a
few works of great value were penned by deep seholars, priest and lay-
man alike, investigating magistrate whose offieial task, and private
observer whose individual responsibility, set the quill to the paper.
As we have already remarked, four great and honourable names stand
out pre-eminently at this period for the noble serviees which at no
small eost and pains they rendered human soeiety.
Jean Bodin, to whom Bnmetière assigns a plaee in Freneh literature
beside Henri Estienne and Amyot, was born at Angers in 1520, and
died at Laon in 1596. His famous De la Démonomanie des Soreiers, which
was fìrst published at Paris, 4to, 1580, ran into many editions and had
an immense infiuencc in its day.
The Discours des Sorders of Henry Boguet, “Grand Juge de St.
Claude, au Comté de Bourgogne,” which has been well termed “a
book precious as gold,” was published (in its present amplified form)
editor’s introduction xxvii
at Lyons in 1602. Boguct died in 1619; and his vvork, a summaiy of
his aetivities in the Dolonais distriet, has reeently been translated ìnto
English as An Examen ofWitches (John Rodker, 1929).
In 1603 the Parliament of Bordeaux gave Pierre de Lanere a
speeial eommission to visit on a circuit extraordinary the provinees of
Bayonne and Labourd. He has left a reeord of his aetivities in that
great work Tableau de Vlneonstanee des Mamaìs Anges et Dimons , which is
universaliy regarded as one of the most va!uable and authoritative in
the whole library of demonologists. The book was publishcd in 1610,
but the first issue, “as eorreeted and revised,” is 1612. De Lanere
died at Paris about the year 1630. Two lesser known but equally
valuable works by the same author are L'inerednlite et mesereanee da
sortilege, Paris, 1622; and Du Sortilege (sine loeo ), 1627.
Nieolas Remy was born in 1530 at Oharmes, of which town his
íather, an honoured and aetive magistrate, was mayor. Destined from
his earliest years to the legal profession, sinee at this time Lorraine did
not yet boast a University, he pursued his studics in Franee, probably
at Orleans. He proeeeded to the degree of Lieentiate in Laws, and for
one-and-twenty years occupied the ehairs both of Laws and Literature
in more than one aneient eollege. In letters patent which were granted
to Remy he is qualified as “lieeneié ès lois des Universités de Franee,
oìi il auroit versé l’espaee de vingt ung ans, faisant profession, la plupart
d’iceulx, d’enseigner tant les lettres humaines que les droietz.” On 15
Mareh, 1570, one of his matemal uncles, Frangois Mittat, retired in his
favour from the offiee of lieutenant-general of the bailiwick of the
Vosges, one of the three ehief bailiwicks into which Lorraine was
divided, and for the spaee of five years from this date Remy resided at
Mirecourt, winning throughout the distriet no small reputation as a
most just and honourable administrator. On 4 November, 1575, Duke
Charles III summoned Remy to Naney in the eapaeity of ms private
seeretary. In the following year the Duke promoted him as a member
of the tribunal of the éehevins or Provosts of Naney.
The Provosts of Naney werc a ducal court, senators, four or six in
number, who were appointed by the Duke himself. Their president
was the Master Provost, and as in earlier days the court had eonsisted
of only two magistrates, Remy often speaks of this tribunal as the
duumuiri. The Provosts judged all eriminal eases throughout the wapen-
take and tithing of Naney, a region eomprising some seventy-two vil-
lages, from Frouard in the north to Affracourt, Xirocourt and Vaudé-
ville in the extreme southern marehes. During these years vast numbers
of eases of soreery were investigated throughout this loeality, and Remy
as a judge had little lcisurc from his avoeation. Moreover, the very
many petty courts of Lorraine, seignorial tribunals, communal tri-
bunals and others, continually referred intrieate and difficult eases to
Naney. In faet eventually there were but a few independent tribunals
such as those of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mincs and Saint-Hippolyte which
xxviii
editor’s introduction
enjoyed the right of pronoimeing a eapital sentenee without the eon-
firmation of the Provosts of Naney.
From 1576 to 1591 Remy was not the least aetive member of this
distinguished body. Every ease and proeess of soreery in Lorraine eame
under his notiee for cxamination. Even those which he himself did not
judge in person were submitted to him by the amplest sworn reports.
It was owing to his zeal in this fimetion that he obtained the title
“scourge ofwitches,” and on 9 April, 1583, Charles III raised him to
noble rank as a reeognition of the tireless serviees he had rendered the
State. The letters patent say: “En chacune de ees eharges il se serait
eomporté avee tel acquit et satisfaetion de son devoir que nous en
aurions toujours regu bon eontentement.” On 1 August, 1589, Remy
on account of his extraordinary legal knowledge and immense erudition
was honoured with the title of Councillor of the Privy Council of Lor-
raine. The Duke now entmsted him with various eommissions of the
first importanee, and on 24 August, 1591, when Remy was sixty-one
years old he was named in succession to George Maimbourg Procureur-
General of the Duchy of Lorraine, that is to say, Lord High Justice
with supreme power and jurisdiction. Armed with eomplete eontrol
over all the courts throughout the duchy, not only did he encourage
the magistrates to exercise the utmost vigilanee in the pursuit, and the
most unrelenting severity in the eondemnation of witches, but, par-
ticularly during the year 1596, he himself joumeyed up and down the
Í jrovinee, examining suspects, searehing out even the most remote vil-
ages and hamlets, and inquiring into all eases with the most indefatig-
able energy and perseveranee. Remy filled the high offi.ee of Procurer-
General from 1591 to 1606.
During the few intervals of leisure his duties allowed he was wont
to retire to his country-house at Saint-Mard, near Bayon, where he
delighted to turn to literary studies, amoeniora stiidia, and woo the Muse
both in Freneh and in Latin. During term-time he lived at Naney in a
house in the Rue du Haut-Bourgeois, as appears from a list of the house-
holders of Naney drawn up in 1589, and preserved in the library of that
town. Remy was married, by some it is said to an Italian lady, and he
was the father of a numerous family, of whom his three sons, Claude,
Emmanuel, and Seipione were espeeially distinguished. On 3 June,
1598, a. son of Nieolas Remy, who was then sixty-eight years old, was
baptized at the parish church of Notre-Dame de Naney, as appears
from the registers of that date. It were superfiuous to recount in detail
the honours which were heaped upon him by his sovereign and his
fellow-citizens. On 26 August, 1599, the Dukc at the rcquest of his
daughter-in-law, Catherine de Bourbon (sister of Henry IV ofFranee),
granted to Claude, Remy’s eldest son, the reversion of the post of Pro-
curcr-General. Remy himself actually filled the offiee untii 1606, when
Claude, who had just eompleted a brilliant course of study at Paris,
was ready to undertake the duties from his father, who at the age of
editor’s introduction
XXIX
seventy-two retired to Charmcs to rest in the eventide of a Iong and
honoured life. He was required, however, to pen a deseription of the
eeremonies which took plaee when Marglierita de Gonzaga, daughter
of the Duke of Mantua and seeond wife of Henri le Bon, Duc de Bar,
made her state entry into Naney on 15 June, 1606. The brochure,
written in most elegant Latin, is entitled Quae sunt ad XVII Cal. Iul. An.
M. DC. VI. honoris ergo exhibitaque adnentante primnm ad Nanceium Sereniss.
Margarita, Clariloci ad Nanceium, excudebat Ioannes Sauinc typo-
graphus. Again, when Henri le Bon, now beeome Henri II of Lor-
raine, was arranging his entry into his good eity of Naney in 1609, the
painter Florent Drouin was sent to Remy that he might eonfer with
the old eoiineillor eoneerning the mottoes and verses proper to be in-
seribed upon the tablatures and triumphal arehes. A Few months pre-
viously, on 7 Mareh, 1609, Henri II as a particular mark of his esteem
had granted Remy an additional pension of 300 franes. The Duke’s
entry actually took plaee on 20 April, 1610, and among the most
eminent guests at the state banquet which was held at the Hótel-de-
Ville, were Nieolas Reiny and his son the Procurer-General, Claude.
The verses Remy had written for the oeeasion, although not actually
inseribed in golden letters on the arehes, sinee the Duke had ordered
the strietest eeonomy, were printed, Quae primnm solennius in urbem
Nanceium ingredienti Henrieo II duci Lotharingiae. . . . Ciues adornabant, nisi,
ut sumptibus pareeretnr, uetuisset eius Celsitudo , Naneeii 1610. Remy died
the death of the just at Charmes in April, 1612.
As might have been expected from so great a lover of books, Nieolas
Remy left a large and valuable library. Many of these voíumes with
his signature are in the Muséc lorrain at Naney; others have passed
into the hands of eolleetors, and in particular M. Lucien Wiener pos-
sesses several of these treasures. A portrait of Remy, engraved by
Woeriot, has been preserved. It is an oval medallion. The counten-
anee is marked by the highest intelligenee, and there is an air of pro-
found gravity. Formerly the Musée lorrain exhibited as a portrait of
Remy an oiì painting which was reproduced by Leelere in the Mémoires
de rAeadémie de Stanislas , 1868 (p. xxxix), but it is unlike the genuine
portrait and is now thought by most authorities to be Claude Remy,
the eldest son of Nieolas. Details of this may be found in the Journal
de la Soeiété d’arehéologie lorraine, 1857, pp. 240-1.
The fruit of Nieolas Remy’s historieal studies may be seen in his
Discours Des Choses Advenves En LorraÌne, depuis le deeez du Duc NÌeolas
iusques à celuy du Duc René. This treatise was dedieated “A Serenissime
Prinee Monseigneur Maximilian Comte Palatin du Rhin, Duc de la
haute & basse Bauiere, ©'e.,” and was printed at Pont-à-Mousson
“Par Melehior Bemard, imprimeur de Monseigneur le Duc de
Lorraíne en son Vniuersité,” 4to, 1605. 1 ° this edition the very
beautiful engraved title with the figures of Prudence and Strength
should be remarked. This book was reprinted in 1617 and 1626. The
XXX editor’s INTRODUCTION
death of Duke Oharles III was signalized by an Eiegy írom Remy’s
pen.
But the most famous of all his productíons is his Demonolatry,
“a terrible, and in some sense an awe-inspiring volume.” JVieoíai
Remigii , Sereniss. Ducis Lotharingiae A Consiliis Interioribiis Et In Eius
Ditione Lotharìngiea eognitoris publici daemonolatreiae libri tres,
Ex Iudiciis eapitalibiis nongentomm plus miniis homirmm , qui sortilegii erìmen
intra annos quindecim in Lotharingia eapite luerunt. The first edition was
publishcd at Lyons, 4to, 1595, and in the same year it was issued at
Cologne, “apud Henricum Falkenburg.” There is a duodecimo
edition of Frankfort, “In offieina Palthenii.” This was reprinted in
1597, and the Frankfort bookseller Zaeharias Palten dedieated his
edítion to the “highly renowned and most distinguished seholar, Otto
Casmann, sehool-reetor, sometíme preaeher at Stade,” because he in
his teaehing was in full agreement with this admirable treatise. In
his History of the German People , Part III, vi, Janssen says: “This work
was found to be of such general usefulness that in the years 1596 and
1598 a German translation of it was brought out under the title
‘Daemonolatria/ i.e. ‘Von IJnholden und Zaubergeistern, des Edlen
Ehrenvesten und hoehgelarten Herm Nieolai Remigii welche wunder-
barliehe Historien, so sieh mit der Hexen deren iiber 800 im Herzog-
tum Lotharingen verbrennet, zugetragen, sehr niitzlieh, lieblieh und
notwendig zu lesen.’ ” The translation w 7 as by Teucrides Annaeus
Privatus, Frankfort, at the shop of Cratandrus Palthenius. Remy’s
work was reprinted at Hamburg, quarto, in 1693 and 1698. There is
also a German transíation with an engraved frontispieee of eonsider-
able merit, Hamburg, oetavo, 1693.
As perhaps might have been expected, the energy and vigour of
Nieolas Remy earned him many enemies among the Satanists, and
although they hardly dared oppose him openly during his lifetime,
after his death the most ignoble and lying legends were circulated
eoneeming this great and noble name. It would perhaps hardly seem
worth while making referenee to such stories, but unfortunately they
won eredenee amongst those who wished to believe them, and as they
have actually appeared in print and are quoted, these calumnies
eannot entírely be passed over in silenee. The folIowing ridiculous
eanard is retailed by Alexandre Erdan in his La Franee Mystique,
seeond editíon, Amsterdam, 1858, Vol. I, p. 133, xl, where we are
told of Remy: “Ce misérable parla tant et si ardemment du démon,
qu’il finit par en perdre la téte: il alla, un bcau jour, se dénoneer lui-
mème eomme soreier, et il fut brálé publiquemenC ’ “If they have ealled
the goodman of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his
household?” The following account of Remy I have translated from
that most erudite work, Bibliotkèque Lorraine , ou Histoire des Hommes
ìllnstres , folio, Naney, 1751. This we owe to the learning and labours
of the famous Benedietine Dom Augustíne Calmet, one of the greatest
xxxii
editor’s introduction
these are now brought into order, reduced to writing , homologized and published,
a reeord which Lorraine has never possessed before , so that no advoeale may for
the future be able lo find any matler for eomplaint, and allege that in such a
difficulty and suck a doubt it is impossible to establish any ruling by preeedent,
which has in the past too often been the ease.
In fine, before the reign of Charles III in Lorraine no body of
laws had been written down and there was no reliable appeal to pre-
eedent. M. Remy, in this work, which is eomposed in Freneh, quotes
a large number of passages from Greek and Latin authors, and it is
embellished, as is usual with his pages, with the ample fruils of his
wide learning and most elegant erudition.
The praise of so great a seholar as Calmct means much, and it
were superfluous to emphasize his encomium of the admirable Remy.
We have briefly reviewed the events, the continuance and inerease of
the abominable soeiety of witches, which led up to and neeessitated his
crusade in Lorraine at the end of the sixteenth century. No historieal
reeord could be more valuable, no reeord could be more interesting
than this graphie account eompiled from first-hand knowledge and the
experience of many years which Remy has given us. That it is in
every essential true I see no reason to doubt. Dom Calmet in his
Histoire Ecclesiastique et Ciuile de Lorraine , livre xxxiii (folio, Naney,
1728), writes: “Comment de persuader qu’une infinité de Procedures
faites avee tant de soin et de maturité, par de très graves Magistrats,
& par des Juges très eelairez, soient toutes fausses? que des effets aussi
réels que ceux que raeontent, par exemplc, M. Remy, homme grave
& s^avent, & dont il a rempli les trois Livres de sa Démonolatrie,
ayant exercc pendant plus de quinze ans l’offiee de Juge & de Pro-
cureur Genéral de Lorraine; que tout ee qui a été éerit sur ee sujet par
Binsfeld Suffragant de Tréves, homme très sage & très eapable; que
tous les proeés de Soreiers < 2 ? de Soreieres dont les Greffes é? les
Arehives de la Provinee sont remplis, ne eontiennent que des illusions
& des faussetez? Si l’on nous eitoit des ehoses éloignées, arrivées dans
un autre pays, & dans un sièele d’ignoranee & reculé, je n’en défierois
beaucoup davantage: mais les Auteurs dont j’ai parlé, vivoient dans
le sièele méme ou ees ehoses se passoient. Ils les ententoient, & en
étoient très bien informez. Ils ont éerit dans le temps le plus éelairé,
& le plus féeond en habiles, qu’ait eut la Lorraine. M. Remy eite les
noms & surnoms des personnes; il marquc les dates, les familles, les
demcures & villages des accusez, & des temoins qui ont été ouis, &
qui ont comparu devant lui depuis les années 1580 jusqu’en 1590, à
Naney, & dans les Villages des environs.”
That Remy should have stamped out the evil was, humanly
speaking, impossible, but he eertainly seotehed it. Had it not been
for his efforts and the efforts of other great and brave men, his eon-
temporaries, it is difficult to say to what a height this plaguc of evil
might not have grown. As it was there wcre terrible seandals during
EDITOR S INTRODOOTION
XXXIII
the first half of the seventeenth century, but it was the work and the
writing of Remy, Boguet, Bodin, De Lanere and others which enabled
the authorities to deal drastiealíy with the soreerer and the Satanist.
It is iinneeessary to do more than refer to the eases of Louis Gaufridi
in 1611; of Urbain Grandier in 1617; of Madeleine Bavent in 1647;
and the terrible seandals which eommlsed Paris in 1679-82. Actually
the last execution in Franee for witchcraft seems to have been that of
a man who was eondemned upon multiplied eharges by the Parliament
of Bordeaux in 1718.
The prosecution, it is true, gradually eeased, but the dcvil-wor-
shippers, albeit more seeretly, continued their vile cult, and examplcs
of tneir aetivities might be given throughout the whole of the nme-
teenth century. To mention but three of even Iater date, the horrible
events which took plaee in February 1922, in 1924, and again at
Bordeaux in January, 1926, the Mesmin seandals, assuredly ealled for
thejudgement ofa Remy or a De Lanere. On Tuesday, 24th September,
1929, the Daily Express published an artiele upon the “Revival of
Soreery in Franee.” Maitre Maurice Gareon, a leading Freneh
barrister, deelared that seareely a week passes but some ease of witch-
eraft eomes up in one part of the country or another. This gentleman
has made a speeial study of the survival of soreery, vriteheraft and
Blaek Masses in Franee, and has appeared in court in many eases
involving these dark praetiees. He has actually examined the paets
written and signed in blood, eomposed with every circumstance of
legal phraseology', by which some wretches assign their souls to the
devií m return for material benefits, power, money, or the gratifieation
of their base lusts.
Nor must it be supposed that Franee is singular in this respeet.
The same horrid eontraets are made in England to-day as were signed
and sealed by Aliee Kyteler, by Demdike and Julian Cox; by Pierre
Aupetit, by Boullé, by Grandier, by l’abbé Guibourg. Witchcraft is
praetised in seeret and almost overtly. Yet there stands the law divine
which Nieolas Remy inseribed upon the title-page of his mighty work
well-nigh three and a half centuries ago: ÍJir siue mulier , in quibus
Pythoniens uel diuinationis fuerit spiritus morte moria(ur.
Montague Summers.
In Festo Ssmi. Rosarii D.M.V. , 1929.
EDITOR’S FOREWORD
I T might, perhaps, almost be said that the best eommentaries upon Nieolas
Remýs Dzemonolatreia were the volames of the other eminent anthorities,
Boguet, De Lanere, Guazzo and the rest; above all the supreme work of Sprenger
and Kramer, to which subsequent writers so eonstantly refer, the Malleus
Malefieanim.
These great men without exception ivrote from the same point of view, they
were eontending against the same malign and baleful soeiety, which, however
divergent in its seemingly endless ramifieations throughout Europe, however
varied in minor details superficially modijied by loeal tradition and peculiar use,
was and is essentially and eternally the same, having as its objeet and aim the
same adoration and dominion of the dark powers, working evilly everywhere the
same evil works. As notably proves the ease, the logieal consequence follows
that the pages of Remy should be illustrative of the ehapters of De Lanere, and
that De Lanere should eolligate the Manual of Boguet, whilst Boguet in Frànee
so strikingly parallels the admired Giiazzo of Milan.
There is one faet which stands out elearly from an intensive study of the
demonologists, and as a eontrary and entirely baseless error has been advoeated
for the aeeeptanee of those who have little knowledge of this vast library, it may
not be impertinent to eorreet a mistake that might on oeeasion mislead the less
informed. It has been said that the witch eovens of the Middle Ages and later
centuries were a eontimiation of some old paynim religion (othenvise totally
unknown), to which the name “Dianie cult" has been given. This is merest
fantasy. Of reeent years the theory has been put forward by the author of The
Witch-Cult in Western Europe, but this lady signally failed to prove her
proposition. It has been thovght to be an original suggestion, although actually
such is very far from the ease. The same eoneeit, eonsiderably elaborated, will be
found in the work Del Oongresso Notturno delle Lammie by Girolamo
Tartarotti of Rovereto, which was fmblished at this town in 1749. Of eonsider-
able interest from the historieal point of view, Tartarotti’s work, so far as his
arguments and conclusions are eoneerned, has long sinee been entirely diseredited.
The rubric of Ohapter IX of the First Book runs: Si mostra l’identità della
Soeietà Dianiana eolla moderna Stregheria. Unfortunately for himself
such demonstration was inevitably btyond the author's powers, although he
makes a mighty effort to bolster up his erotehet. But then Tartarotti for all his
oddities and his idée fixc was a seholar, and he had read the anthors from
whom he quotes.
In pursuance of the general plan of the present Series I have farnished this
work of Remy with a minimum of annotation. As I have already remarked in
XXXV
xxxvi
editor’s foreword
my Foreivord to the Compendium Malcfìcarum, / am eonstantly being
requested to equip these marmals of the demenologists witk far more extensive
eommentaries. Although I am bound to believe that such glosses would be useful,
and I hope valuable to stndents of this vastyel all-important snbjeet, to provide
such an excursus is hardly praetieable; sinee, maugre the faet that it were a
work of altogether exceptional interest, in view of the immense amonnt of accumu-
lated material of which much is the gathering of my own experience, whilst
much has been eonveyed to me by many eorrespondents whom I am well pleased
to have an opportunity of thanking for their continued kindness, such an under -
taking would neeessitate the ivriling a History with relations well-nigh as copious
and detailed as those transmitted to us by the indefatigable and judicious Remy
himself
My best thanks are due to Dr. II. J. Jíorman for giving much of his
vahable time lo reading through the proofs of this book as also for the generons
loan of not a few rare pieees on witchcraft from among the rnany treasures of
his library.
TABLE O F OONTENTS
FAOB
DEDICATION
V
TO THE COURT£OUS READER
ix
GRATULATORY VERSES
XV
editor's introduction
xvii
editor’s forevvord
XXXV
THE FIRST BOOK
PAQB
i Tht Indiieements by which
Men may Jirst be led
aslray by Demons, and so
falling beeome Dealers in
Magie i
ii How Demons prepare, for
those whom tney have
won by their Cunning,
DruggedPowders, IVands,
Oinlments and Varioas
Venoms of the sort: some
of which cause Death,
some only Siekness, and
some even Healing. And
how these things are not
always, or for all Men,
poisonons: sinee there
may be found some who
are minjmed by fre-
quent Applieations of
them, nolably they whose
Offiee and Biisiness it is
to eondemn ÌVitehes to
Death i
XXXV 11
FAOS
h. iu ThatlVitehes canwithsafety
anoint their Idands and
their entire Bodies with
their Magie Ointmenls:
yet if they but touck the
Edge of a Person's Gar-
ment it will at onee prove
fatal to such a one , pro-
vided that it is the Witck’s
intent to Hurt. For other-
wise such Gontaet is fiarm-
less and dots not injure 6
iv That when Demonsfirst ap-
proaeh their Followers,
they bring them Money;
but aftenvards, when the
Glamour has vanished, it
is fmnd to be nothing but
Dung, Brieks, Leaves or
some such Matter. Why
they eannot gioe true
Money, although they are
said lo be the Gtiardians
and Keepers of the Trea-
sures bnried in the Earth 7
XXXVIII
OONTENTS
PAOE
ch. v That it is not enoagh for
Demons to hold Men
bonnd and fettered by a
Verbal Oath: but they
fmthermore mark them
ivith their Talons as an
Endvring ÌYitness of the
Servitnde to which they
have subjected them. In
ivhat Part of the Body
this Mark is most often
made: and how that part
is entirely Insensitive and
Devoid of Feeling 8
vi That Demons lie ivith Men,
but in a Manner which is
Cold, Joyless, Vain and
Barren. That they never~
theless eelebrate Mar-
riages, and even simulate
and pretend Jealotisy 1 1
vn That Demons eondense for
themselves a Body out of
some Matter ana assume
the Shapes of various Liv-
ing Things; and at times
even take a Htman Shape,
but of a Low and De-
praved Countenance, and
always with their ilands
and Feet hooked and bent
like Birds of Prey 27
viii That Demons use the Speeeh
of the Women with whom
they Converse; but their
Vtteranee is indistinet,
thin, and a hoarse mnffied
Murmur 29
ix That Satan often DelvAes
men by an Appearanee of
Righteonsness; and he has
his Diseiples as skilled as
Possible in the same Hy-
poerisy, that their Wic-
kedness may be the more
Seeret and less 0pen to
Conjecture and Suspicion 31
x The essential Filthiness of
Demons is proved by the
Faet that their Appear-
anee is always aeeom-
panied by a Loathsome
Steneh; and that they so
PAGE
carefully instrvet their
Snbjeets to Avoid all
Cleanliness, espeeially of
ihe Hands, the Washing
of which is a Hindranee
to Wiuhcrafì. And how
this should be Under-
stood 38
xi That Witches, just as they
are said to have done in
Aneient Heathen Days,
makt yearly Offerings to
their Demons jor the pur-
pose either of Averting
the Menaee of Blows, or
of Winning Exemption
from the less Pleasant of
the Daties to which ihey
are Pledged by iheir Paet.
And that such Offerings,
when they are Animals,
must be entirely Blaek 40
xn That when WÌtches mean
to Fly to their Sabbat,
they Dupe the Jealoasy
of their Hasbands by
eharming them into a deep
Sleep, or by Substìtuting
some Objeet in their own
Likeness to take their
Plaee 43
xiu That there are many Fanlts
for which the Demons
bring Witches to task
with the ulmost Severity;
such as Faihtre to attend
the Noctumal Assem-
blies; the Healing of
Diseases without Per-
mission: svffering an in-
jttty to be nnavenged;
Failare to do Evil; Stub-
bomness: dissnading an-
other from Wrongdoing:
eonfessing their Guilt to
a Judge; using their
Spells wìthout Siteeess;
and my> many other
Shorteamings of this
Kind. For these they are
punished with the most
Savage Beating, or else
they must atone for them
by some Serious Loss of
their own Goods
44
É
eONTENTS
XXXIX
ch. xiv That Witches do ojìen
really and in faet Travel
to their Noetamal Syna-
gogttes; and often again
stteh Jonmeyings are but
an Empty Imagination
begotten of Dreams; and
that tkey are equally right
who snpport either of these
Opinions. Fttrlher, that
these Jovmeys are per-
formed in Varioits Man-
ners; and on what Nights
they most eommonly take
plaee in Lorraine 47
xv That all kinds of Persons
attend the Noetnmal As-
semblies of Demons in
Large Nttmbers; but the
Majority of these are
Women, sinee that Sex
is the more snseeptible to
Evil Comsels 56
xvi That the Food blaeed before
Witches at their Banquels
is Tasteless and Mean,
and not of a Kind to
satisfyHunger. Thatthis
has led many to the not
Unnatural Opinion that
these Feasts are a mere
Vìsion and Phantasm;
but that such is not al-
ways the ease; for at times
they do truly feed upon
Hrnnan Flesh, Animals
which have been found
Dead, and other un-
wonted Meats of that
Kind. But that they are
always laeking in salt and
in Bread. And the prob-
able Reasons for their
Abstaining from those
two Artieles in Parlievlar 57
xvu That the Danees, which
were in Aneient Days
performed in the Worship
of Demons, are still used
to-day at their Noehsmal
Assemblies. That they
eaiise far more Fatigue
than the ordinary Danees
of Men. Also that they
are daneed by Witches
baek to baek in a Ring.
That they are always a
ready Source of Viee; and
eome little short of Mad-
ness
xvui Thai Witches bind them-
selves by a Solemn Oath,
which they repeat after the
Demon himself, not to be-
tray their Companions in
Crime to the Judge. But
they do not tmst to that
alone: for they take fur-
ther Precautions against
such a Risk by eoneealing
their Names, and by eotser-
ing their Faees with a
Mask or Veil or some such
thing
xix However j'oyless and even
ridiculous the Songs and
Danees at the Demons'
Assemblies, nevertheless
the Witches on taking
their Debartnre have to
retum Thanks as if they
had enjoyed the greatest of
Pleasvre
XX That Demons order theit
Assemblies after the Man-
ner of Men, and reeeive
the customary Kiss of
llomage from their Sub-
jeels; and that there is one
of their Number who is
the Chief to whom such
Honoitrs are paid
xxi That Demons ofìen send
upon the Fruits and Crops
great Ntmbers of Small
Animals of Different Sorts,
whìch destroy and devoitr
them in a Moment. And
how this eomes about
xxn That Witches miist always
have to report some Fresh
Injary worked upon a Fel-
low creature sinee their last
Meeting; and they do not
eseape Punishment if they
eome to the next Meeting
gtdltless of some Crime of
Witchcrafì
eONTENTS
PAGE
XXIII That Demons ehange Ihem -
selves for ihe lime into the
Skapes of Variotis Ani-
mals aeeording to their
Requirements. And wken
they wish to mix with their
Subjects they nearly al-
ways assume the Shape of
a Goat, espeeially when they
pnbliely manifest them-
selves in order to be Wor-
shipped and Revered 69
xxiv The Transveeiion of Men
tkrongh the Air by Good
Angels, of which we read
in Time past, was ealm
and free from Labour;
ihat by whick Witckes are
now transported by De-
mons is full of Pain and
Weariness 73
xxv However ineredible it may
appear, yet all Witches
with one Voiee deelare that
they are often endned by
their Demons with the
Power of raising the
doiids; and that, being
borne up Ìn these, theydrive
and thmst them wkitker
they will, and even, if
nothing obslrvets tkem,
shake them down in Rain
upon the Earth. Togetker
wilh the Circumstances
mentioned by tkem as
Neeessary and Peevliar to
the Aeeomplishment of
this Matter 74
xxvi The Soitnds of Bell, because
they eall Men to Holy
Prayer, is odious and
baleftl to Demons; and it
PAGE
is not witkout Cause that
Bells are often rung
when Hailstorms and
other Tempests, in which
Witches’ Work is sus-
peeted, are brooding and
threatening 76
en. xxvh That wkich ts struck by
Lightning is oflen seen to
be Marked and Seored as
it were by Claws; and this
has led many to believe
that the Demon plays
some Parl in it. For it is
thonght that, when he as-
sumes a Body, he prefers
to take one provided wilh
Claws and Talons afler
the Manner of the Wild
Beasls 78
xxvm They are in Error who,fol-
lowing the Epiemeans,
deny that Demons aeeost
Men, tempt them with
their Offers, strike them
with Terror, set Snares for
them, and are Evil, Bale-
ful and Injurious to Men;
for the Truth of this is
shown tn eoantless Stories
both Saered and Profane;
and it is eonfirmtd by the
unanimous Statements of
our Witches of to-day 79
xxix Not only are Witches, as has
already been said, earried
through the Air by De-
mons; but being in the
Air they devise and work
much Harm to Men: and
finally are they gently and
quielly plaeea down upon
the Ground, even as Birds
alight 83
H.
THE SECOND BOOK
That it is nol in the Demon’s
Power to reeall the Souls
of the Dead totheirBodies.
But sinee they are the
greatest Mimiekers of the
Works of God, they often
appear to do this when they
enter into the Bodies of the
Dead andfrom ivithin give
them Motion like that of
the Living,just as we see
in the ease of Aatomalons.
Also ihe History of the
Blasphemy, Parricide,and
Monstrous Loves of Pet -
rone of Dalheim
86
eONTENTS
FAGE
xli
PAQE
ch. n The Taint o/ WitchcTaft is
often passed on as it were
by Contagion by infeeted
Parents to their Children;
for tkus they hope to win
Favoitr with their Little
Masters. That it is ill
done to eondone this Crime
in ehildren, as some do, on
aeeornt of their Age; both
beeatise of its atronoits
Heinotisness, and beeaiise
there is almost no Hope of
ever purifying one who has
onee been infeeted 92
m That Witches make Evil
Use of Human Corpses;
espeeíally of Abortive
Births, Criminals put to
Death by the Law, or any
that have died some Shame-
ful or Dishonourable
Death 99
iv That the Snares set by
Witches for Mankind ean
with thegreatest Diffhilty
be avoided; for in some
unknown Shape and Form
they slip into Laeked and
Barred Houses by Nìght,
and by their Dread Arts
overpomer with the Heavi-
est Sleep those who are
there in Btd, and do many
other Marvels ; against
which there is no more
Effeetive Proteelion than
the Prayers with which we
are aeenstomed to entrnst
and eommend ourselves
to God on going to Bed.
With somtiiìhat eoneem-
ing the Method by which
they cause that Charmed
Sleep 103
v That the much-talked-af
Examples of Metamor-
phosis, both in Aneient
and Reeent Times, were
true in Appearanee only,
but not tn Faet; for the
Eyes are deeeivtd by the
Glamorons Arl of the
Demons which eatise such
Appearanees. And al-
thongh these False Ap-
pearanees are aeeom-
panitd by Aetions which
are fomd to be perfeetly
Gemine, this does not
prove the Truth of such
Metamorphoses; for it is
agreed that such Aetìons
are performed by the
Demons which eontrol the
whole Matter; they being
by Natnre abíe very quick-
ly to bring their Designs
toEffeet 108
ch. vi That Satan often eompels
his Subjects to be aeees-
sory to his Dark Deeds;
and for that Purpose uses
many Things which are
not of themselves Veno-
mous or Poisonous, but
merely Rotten and Stink-
ing; and why he does this 114
vn Examples of the Variotts
llls that Witches seeretly
bring upon Men, showing
hmv greatly their Spells
and Snares are to be feared 114
vm TheHerbs,Powder,Slraw$,
and otier such Trasí
which Wilches strew on
the Groitnd are a eertain
Cause of Death or Illness
to those who Walk upon
them, provided that it is
the Witch’s intention and
wish to injure them; but
those against whom no
Evil is eonlemplated ean
Walk safe ana tmharmed
overthem. And this elear-
ly shows the Cunning and
Wile of the Devil in
Afflieting and Deslroying
Men 117
ix For what Reason it is that
the Devil often demands
the Witches’ Consent when
he is Plotting and eon-
triving Evil against any-
one:with several Examples
to show that such is his
Usuat Praetiee 120
eONTENTS
H,
PAOE
x Another Example in proof of
the same Argament: and
kow the Murders eom-
mitted by Demons often
Uave no traee behind them 130
xi Yet another ExampU, the
Credibility of which is
eonfirmea by tke Aathorìty
of the Aneients: and of the
Proteetion which must
abooe all be sought against
the WiUs and Assaults
of Salan 130
xn More ExampUs to the same
Effeet: and tkat the De-
mons east headlong down
those Wham they haoe had
Lieenee from Witches to
injure 132
PAOE
ch. xiu Sornefiirtker Examples; and
how Demons and their
Attendant Witches set
Fire to Houses and
Buiídings 133
xiv Two more Examples; and
how at the Prayer of their
Diseiples the Demons ob -
stniet the Breath and ehoke
the Life of those upon
whom they wish to be
Avenged 135
xv Yet olher ExampUs: and that
Demons straightway in-
fliet Wounds upon those
Whom they have a Man-
date from a Witch to In -
jure 135
THE THIRD BOOK
1 That when we would have
the Saints to be the
Anthors of Sieknesses, we
labonr mder the same
Error which made the
Pagans formerly impute
ihe Cause of their Mis-
fortunes to one of their
Gods. And this has given
rise ta another Error, that
we must go to the same
Source for our Remedies;
as do those who are stung
by Seorpions. That this
Érror is to no small De-
gree eonfirmed by the speei-
ous Miraeles performed
by Demons in their Por-
tents; and it is disputed
whether these are merely
Illtisions, or whelher there
is any Trulh in Them 137
n More of the Cunning of De-
mons in Deslroying and
Polluting Mankind 142
m That there is nolhing which
ean so quickly and effeet-
ively inauce ÍVitehes lo re-
move an Evil Spell as
Threals and fílows and
Viotenee. But that no
small Care must be taken
Ust a slight Evil be ex-
ehanged for a Greater,
attended with even heavier
Loss. The eommon Pro-
cedure in this Matter is
deelared; and it is dis -
puted whether or not such
foreible Extortion of a
Cure ean be praetised
without Mortal Hurl to
his Soul who uses it 143
iv That the Cures of Demons
are atways disguised rnder
some Appearanee of Reli-
gion; and that they are
often effeeted throvgh the
Ageney of some Man in
High Position, that they
may acquire even Greater
Authority. But that the
Demons at times betray
their Baseness by the use
of Foul and Obseene Mat-
ters in iheir Cures 154
v That there are many Ob-
staeles which are admitted
by Wilches lo hinder them
from Curìng the Ills which
they have brought upon
Others. And what these
are is deelared by ReUoant
Examples and Theories 158
eONTENTS
xliii
- j?ì-
PAOE
vj That as an End to a Life of
every Críme and Impiety,
the Demon insistently
urges and impels his Sub-
jeets to kiU tììemselves with
iheir own Hand, espeeial-
ly when he sees that there
is imminent Danger of
their being Suspected.
But God in His Goodness
and Merey often thwarts
this entel Seheme, and
rather leads them to find
Safety in Penilenee 161
vn Some further Examples in
lUustratìon of the above
Argument 163
vrn That the Demon's Gríp is
very Tenacious aná ean-
not easily be loosed onee it
has taken a Hold; and
therefore they use evtry
Effort toprevent their Sub-
jeets in Prison, even when
they art being tortured,
from eonfessing themselves
Guilty of the Witchcrajì
with which they are
Charged and so Jrom re-
tuming to a State of Graee
by their Penitenee. But
that often, when God so
wills, these Sehemes and
Stumbling-blocks of theirs
eome to fiíothing 164
IX That there are many Methods
used by the Judges of our
Day before they brtng a
Witch to the Torture to
eonnteraet the Charms by
which they are said to
milljfy the EJJieaey oj the
Tortitre; but that such
Methods are not to be
eommended, sinee, as the
Proverb says, they do but
dríve out one Nail with
Another, and overeome one
Evil with Another
ch. x That Knowledge oj the
Future belongs to God;
and if the Demons appear
to be endowed with stieh
Knowledge, it is nothìng
but a Presentiment and
Conjecture drawn by
shrewd indvetion from the
Past; or a simidated Pre-
dietion of Eoents which
they have themselves al-
ready determined upon;
or, finally, a very early
Annoitneement, made pos-
sible by their marvellovs
Speed, of Events which
have tdkenplaee in varíous
distanl Regions
XI That it need not seem mar-
vellous to anyone that the
Demons remain with their
Diseiples even daring the
Sessions of the Court:
sinee they are also fomd
tofregtient the inleríor of
Churches and Plaees haì-
lowed by the Majesty of
GoíTs Presenee, inet-
dentally a Memorable
Example of this is related:
and the Question is dis-
puted whether Demons
ean render themselves
visible to those alone
whom they will, although
many other Men are
present at the Time
xu That they are in Error who
deny tíal Witches ought to
bepimished at all; and the
Arguments with which
they eommonly Defend
their Opinions are one by
one Confuted
PAOB
167
17°
174
178
DEMONOLATRY
BOOK I
OHAPTER I
The Inducements by whick Men may firsl
bt led astray by Demons, and so falling
beeome Dealers in Magie.
XPERIENCE itself, to our
own great loss and bane, affords
us sad proof that Satan seizes
as many opportunities of de-
eeiving and destroying mankind as
there are different moods and affeetions
natural to the human eharaeter. For
such as are given over to their lusts
and to love he wins by offering them
the hope of gaining their desires: or if
n are bowed under the load of
/ poverty, he allures them by
some large and ample promise of
riehes: or he tempts them by showing
them the means of avenging them-
selves when they have been angered
by some injury or hurt reeeivea: in
short, by whatever other corruption
or luxury they have been depraved,
he draws them into his powcr and
holds them as it were bound to him.
But it is not our purposc to discuss
here what are those blind passions
and desires by which men may be led
into sin; for it would be a waste of
time and an abuse of learning to in-
volve ourselves in the much-worn eon-
trovenjy between Prometheus and
Epimetheus, reason and appetite.
Tnat we pass by, and say that Satan
assails mankind not only through
their seeret and domestie affeetions
and (if I may so cxpress it) by burrow-
ing into their very hearts, but also
openly and in deelared warfare, as it
is ealled. For he openly addresses
them by word of mouth, and appears
in visible person to eonverse with
them, as he did when he eontended
with the Saviotir in the wilderness
(S. Matlheiv iv). But this he does the
more easily when he finds a man
weakened by the hardships and eares
of life; for then he suggests to the
man that he is grieved at his mis-
fortunes and is willing to eome to
help him. But not even so ean he aid
and assist any man unless that rnan
has broken his baptismal pledge and
agreed to transfer his allegianee to
him and acknowledge him as his
Master. But if he eannot gain his
objeet in this way by mere persuasion,
then Satan employs those allurements
and temptations which I have already
mentioned: he fabrieates some fair
and deleetable body and offers it for
a man’s enjoyment: or he ean do
much by means of a false display of
riehes: or by providing drugs to
poison those upon whom a man
wishes to be avenged, or to heal those
to whom a man owes a debt of grati-
tude: often, indeed, the Demons
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. II.
foreibly drive and eompel men into
eomplianee by fieree threats and revil-
ings, or by the fear of the lash or
>rison. For men may just as easily be
ed by violenee to praetise soreery as
>y coaxing and blandishment, though
shall not here adduce cxamplcs to
substantiate this statement, sinee this
matter will be eonsidered more fully
in its due plaee: for the present I am
eontent to say that I have found it to be
the rarer ease for a soreerer to be driven
by foree into his abominable praetiees.
The truth is that, whcn Satan ean-
not move a man by fair words, he
eompels him by fear and threats of
danger. When Claude Morèle, who
was eonvieted of witchcraft at Serre
(5th Dee., 1586), was asked what was
tne ehief inducement that had first
led him to give himself to the Demon,
he answcred that he had withstood
the temptation of all the Demon’s
fair words, and had only yielded
when Satan had threatened to kill his
wifc and ehildren. At Guermingen,
igth Dee., 1589, Antoine Welch no
longer dared to oppose the Demon in
anything after he had threatened to
twist his neek unless he obeyed his
eommands, for he seemed on the very
point of fuífilling his threat. At Haré-
court, ioth Nov., 1586, when he
could by no promises persuade Alexée
Driget to dedieate herself to him, thé
Demon at last threatened to destroy
the house in which she lived: and this
misfortune indeed befell her not long
afterwards; but it will be more eon-
venient to discuss elsewhere whether
he was the actual cause of it, or
whether he merely foresaw that it
would happen. Certainly there are
many examples in the pagan histories
of houses being east down, the dcstruc-
tion of the erops, ehasms in the earth,
fiery blasts and other such disastrous
tempests stirred up by Demons for the
destnietion of men for no other pur-
pose than to bind their minds to the
observanee of some new cult and to
establish their mastery more and more
firmly over them.
Therefore we may first concludc
that it is no mere fable that witches
meet and eonverse with Demons in
very person. Seeondly, it is elear that
Demons use the two most powerful
weapons of persuasion against the
feeble wills o( mortals, namely, hope
and fear, desire and terror; for they
well know how to induce and inspire
such emotions.
CHAPTER II
How Demons brepare, for those whom they
have won by their Cunning, Dragged
Powders,* Wands, Ointments and Vari-
ous Venoms of the sort: some 'of which
eatise Death, some only Siekness, and
some even Healing. And how these
things are not always, or for all Men,
poisonous: sinee there may be found
some who are uninjured by frequent
Applieations of them, notably they whose
Offiee and Business it is to eondemn
WiUhes to Deatk.
F ROM the very beginning the
Devil was a murderer (S. John
viii), and never has he eeased to
tempt the impious to eommit slaughter
and parrieiae. Therefore it is no
wonder that, onee he has caught men
- “drugged poivders." It was believed that
wiUhes spread plague and pestilenee by means
of these diabolieal powders. During tne visita -
tion of siekness at Milan in 1598 it was popa -
larly held that a band of soreerers had engaged
themselves to disseminate the disease. For the
same reason the plague of Milan in 1629-30
was known as “La Peste degli Untori." These
wreUhes danbed walLs, doors, and furniture
with some purulent matler, and they also seat-
tered magie powders in a eirele uj> and down
the streets. To set foot in one of these meant
eertain deslmetion. See my “Geography of
WiUhcraft," pp. 559-62. See also Boguet,
“An Examen of Wiuhes" (John Rodker,
1929), ehapter xxiii, “Of the Powder Used
by WiUhes."
3K. I. CH. II.
DEMONOLATRY
in his toils, his first eare is to furnish
them with the implements and in-
stmet them in the praetiees of vviteh-
eraft. And lest the tnisiness shouId be
delayed or hindered through laek of
poison or difficulty in administeríng
it, he provides them at the very first
with a fine powder which must in-
fallibly cause the siekness or death of
those against whom it is uscd: nor
does its harmfiilness of neeessity de-
pend upon its being mingled with a
man’s food or drink, or applied to his
bare flesh; for it is enongh if but his
elothes be lightly dustcd with it. The
powder which kills is blaek; that
which only causes siekness is ashen, or
sometimes reddish in coIour. And
sinee witches are often led by fear or
bribery, and sometimes even by pity
(of which they elaim that they are not
entìrely destitute), to heal those who
have been strieken in this manner,
they are not without a remedy to
their hand; for they are given a third
powder, white in colour, with which
they dust the siek, or mix it with
their food or drink, and so the siek-
ness is dispersed. And these drugs of
varying properties and virtue are dis-
tinguishable only by their colour.
Claude Fellet (at Mazières, oth Nov.,
1584), Jeanne le Ban (at Masrmin-
ster, 3rd Jan., 1585), Oolette Fiseher
(at Gerbevilíe, 7th May, 1585),
and nearly all the women of their
fcllowship, reeord that they always
found the effeets of their powders
such as we have said. But this dis-
tinetion in the colours is not so much
to ensure the seleetion of the rcquired
poison (for the drngs owe their poteney
to the Demon, not to any inherent
properties of their own), as a visible
sign of the paet between the witch
and the Demon, and a guarantee of
faith. Matteole Guilleraca (at Maz-
ières, 4th Dee., 1584) ana Jeanne
AJberte (at S. Pierre-Mont, 8th Nov.,
1581) add that although the aihen-
coloured powder does not as a rulc
cause a fatal siekness, it has neverthe-
Jess the power to kill when it is first
3
reeeived by witches after their enlist-
ment in that army of wickedness; for
that initial step has a kind of prefer-
enee.
But it is a matter of no small wonder
that witches not only impregnate with
such poisons artieles of which the pur-
pose and usc is to drive away Demons,
out even make use of them during the
very time of prayer and the períorm-
anee of the Saeraments. At Seaulx,
nth Oet., 1587, jaeobeta Weher was
envious of tne lover of the daughter
of her fellow-countrymcn Petrone, but
could not injure her as she wished;
for the girl had emphatieally bidden
her beware of trying to harm her.
But at last, under pretext of doing
something else, she iníeeted an asperge
with the poison powder and sprinkled
the girl with it as she was praying in
church: and at onee she was strieken
with a mortal siekness and soon aíler
died. At Blainville, i6th Jan., 1587,
the whole neighbourhood, except
Alexée Belheure, had been invited to
a feast given by a noble knight named
Damielle on the oeeasion of his son’s
baptism. III brooking this slight, she
evaded the observation of those who
were earrying the newly baptized
ebild and, sprinkling it with a poison
powder of this kind, killed it.
And sinee it is not eonvenient for
them always to keep this powder
ready in their hand to throw, they
have also wands imbued with it or
smeared with some unguent or other
venomous matter, which they eom-
monly earry as if for driving eattle.
With these they often, as it were in
joke, strike the men or the eattle
which they wish to injure: and that
this is 110 vain or innoeent touch is
testified by the eonfessions of Franeois
Fellet (at Mazières, igth Dee., 1583),
Marguercta Warncr (at Ronehamp,
ist Dee., 1586), Matteole Guilleret
at Pagny-sur-Mosellc, 1584), and
aeobeta Weher whom I have just
mentioned.
Yet there are those who, thanks to
some singular blessing from Heaven,
BK. I. CH. II.
DEMO.N'OLATRY
are irrnmme from such attaeks;* for
witches have not always unlimited
powcr against all men, as Jeanne
Gransaint (at Condé-sur-l’Éscaut,
July, 1582) and Catharina Ruffe (at
Villc-sur-Mosclle, 28th July, 1587)
have reeorded that they wcre more
than onee informed by tneir Demons.
I remember questioning rhat woman of
Naney ealled Lasnier (Asinaria), from
her husband the ass-driver, upon the
statements of the witncsscs, ana espeei-
ally eoneerning this particular point;
and she spoke with great indignation
as follows: “It is well for you Judges
that wc ean do nothing against you!
For there are none upon whom we
would more gladly work our spite
than you who are always harrying us
folk with every torture and punish-
ment.” Jaqueline Xaluètia (at Grand-
Bouxières-sous-Amance, 2gth April,
1588), freely and without any prcvious
questioning, acknowIedged the same.
This woman, having long been sus-
peeted of witchcraft, was put in
ehains; but after a little she was liber-
ated by order of the Judge, because
she had endured all the torture of
lier questioning in an obstinate silenee.
After much tnrning of the matter over
in her mind, she could not rest until
she had workcd some evil upon the
Judgc who had treated her with such
severity; for the filthy rabble of
witchcs is eommonly desirous of re-
venge. Therefore she eeased not to
pester her Demon to find some safe
and easy way for her to vent her
- “immmie from such attaeks." King James
1 in his “ Damonologie ,” Seeond Book, ehapter
vi, disetisses what power witches may have lo
harm the Magislrate. “Jf he be slouthfull to-
wardes them, God is verie able to maíe them
instrumentes lo waken and punish his slouth."
fìut if he is diligent in examining and punish-
ing of them: “GOD will not permit their
master to tronble or hinder so good a woorke.
. . . For where God beginnes iustlie to strike
by his lawfull Lieutennentes, it is not in the
Demlles power lo defraude or bereaue him of
the ojfiee, or effeet of his powerfull and reueng-
ing Seepter."
spite: but he, knowing her folly
towards herself in this matter, kept
pleading different excuses for post-
poning the affair anri inventing reasons
why he should not eomply with her
wish. But at length, sinee Xaluctia
did not eease to importune him, he
told her in shame and grief that, in
plaee of that fortune which he had
often foretold for her, her own folly
and impotenee would be exposed and
would betray her. “I have always,
my Xaluétia,” he said, “endurcd very
hardly the unbridled severity of those
executioncrs towards you, and often
in the past have I had a mind to be
revenged: but I openly admit that all
my attempts eome to nothing. For
they are in His guardianship and pro-
teetion who alone ean oppose my
designs. But I ean repay these offieers
for their persccutions by causing them
to share in a eommon disaster, and
will strike the erops and the fields
far and wide with a tempest and lay
them waste as much as I am able.”
This is not unlike the statement of
Nieole Morèle (at Serre, 24th Jan.,
1587), that Demons are impregnated
and seared with an espeeial hatred
towards those who put into operation
the law against witches, but that it is
in vain that they attempt or seek to
wreak any vengeanee against them.
See how God defends and proteets
the authority of those to whom He
has given the mandate of His powcr
upon earth, and how He has there-
fore made them partakers of His pre-
rogative and honour, ealling thern
Gods even as Himself ( Ps. lxxxii): so
that w’ithout doubt they are saero-
sanet and, by reason of their duty and
their offiee, invulnerable even to the
spells of vvitehes. Indeed they are not
even bound in the least by the eom-
mands of the Demons tliemselves,
even though they may have previously
vowed allegianee to them and have
been touched with the stain of that
oath. For that witches benefit bv the
proteetion of the sanetity of a Magis-
trate’s offiee (at least for as long as
BK. I. CH. II.
DEMONOLATRY
they hold such offiee), so that they are
free from aJl the most importunate
eomplaints and instigations of their
Little Masters, who testified by
Didier Finanee (at Saint-Dié, I4tn
July, 1581), who said that during the
whoíe period of his magistraey he
never onee saw his familiar spirit,
who at all other times had been his
most sedulous adviser on every oeea-
sion. Therefore let the Magistrate
undertake his duties with eonfidenee,
knowiug that he is pursuing a voea-
lion in which he will always have
God as his ehampion and proteetor.
By reason of a like sanetity Marcus,
in the De Operatione Daemomm of
Psellus, tells that his Demon uttcred
no sound upon the days when the
Crucifixion and Resurrection are eom-
memorated,* although he strove his
utmost to do so. Moreover, the poisons
which Demons give to witchcs are
thus harmless only to those Judges
whom I have just mentioned: for
there ean be no doubt that the poisons
which they gather and eoneoet with
their own hands are equally injurious
to all men else and are imbucd with
equal venom against all. It has, more-
over, often been proved by experience
that witches also have their own
laboratories stuffed full of animals,
plants and metals endowed with some
natural poison; and these are so
numerous and various that they may
be reekoned as many as those which
Agamedej in Homer {Iliad, xi. 741)
is said to have known:
- The passage is thus tiirned óy Pierre
Morelle in his Latin version 0/ the ÍI
v. I quote Jrom tke Paris
edition of Gilbert Gemlmyn, 1615: “Siquidem
sub Griieis Passionisque dies, atque ipsam nobis
iienerandam Resvrreetionem, nihil omnino mihi,
quamlibet exoptanti snggerere uult."
j trpttT^vránfV Sí Bvyo. rp' efyí fa v$t)v
’A yaprjSjjv,
ìj rótra pápp.aKa rfir) otra rpepti tbptìa
Xpuv.
The sekoliasl on Theocritus, II, 16, says that
Agamede is the witch Perimede.
“Who knew all poisons that the wide
earth breeds.”
For they are in the diseipline and
serviee of that Master who is ignorant
of nothing which has power to destroy
men.
But I would rather that such matters
remain hidden in the bosom of Nature
than that, through my naming them,
they should eome to any man’s know-
ledge. And it is for this reason that I
have always been led, whcnever I have
found such things written down in the
examination of prisoners, to have
them altogether suppressed: or at
least I would advise, or rather ad-
monish, the actuary to omit them
when he reads out such examinations
in public. For in Lorraine it is the
custom to refer the judgemcnt of
eapital erimes to the votes of the
ignorant and excited multitude, giving
them full power, and having no regard
to the provoearion caused by a public
exhibition of the accused; although
this is eontrary to the reeommenda-
tion of the Duumvirs of Naney, to
whom the whole matter should first
be referred. Would that these matters
wcre not now so publicly known! But
it has indeed eome to pass after the
wont of mankind, who with impetuous
rashness thrust into the light those
matters whichshould more particularly
be kept hidden; and the memory of
such things lives longer and is often
more cunous and pìeasant to dwell
upon than that of natural human
happenings. In this way the Seholiast
of Theocritusf wrote that after many
ages he saw with wonder at Mount
Selinus in Sieily the verv mortars in
which Circe and Medea Drewed their
poisons. And if men have so prized
the mere implements, as if they were
the earthen lamp of Epictctus, what
must we think they would have done
t Theocritus, II, 14-16:
XaZp' ’EieáTa Ìatnr\i)Tt, xaì ts rt\os áftfiiv
òrráSti
tfráppjiKa rairr’ ípSottra ^tptíova fvryrt r« Ktp«ras
/ijJtítì Mtj8«ias /Áijrt èavtìàs Utpip.ý Sas.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. III.
6
if they had found the actual poisons,
or the seeret rule of compounding
them inseribed upon some monu-
ment?
☆
CHAPTER III
That Witches ean with sajtly anoint their
Hands and their entire Bodies with their
Magie Ointments: yet if they but toiieh
the Edge of a Persorís Garment it ivill
at onee fnove fatal to such a one, pro~
vided that it is the Witch's intent to
Hurt. For othenvise such Contact is
harmless and does not injure.
ITCHES have another most
treachcrous manner of apply-
ing their poison; for, having their
hands smeared with it, they take hold
of the very ends of a man’s garment
as it vvere to entreat and propitiate
him. Thus it is hardly possible for
you to be on your guara and avoid
them, sinee the aetion has an appear-
anee of kindness rather than of mjiiry.
Nevertheless, it is a most instant
poison to the body, as has been made
manifest by frequent expcríence: and
it is the more marvellous because the
vviteh’s bare hand endures vvith eom-
plete safety the p>oison vvhieh thus
penetrates even several folds of eloth-
ing. You may say that there have
been men vvho have transmitted the
infeetion of the plaguc to others
although they themselves vvere free
from it; but tíiis is not a parallel ease.
For, as vvill be cxplaincd elsevvhere
(Bk. I, Chap. XXXVII), this touch
of a vviteh is noxious and fatal only
to those vvhom the vviteh wishes to
injure: vvhereas the infeetion of the
píamie strikes those vvhom you least
vvish to harm. And this forees me to
believe that, in the ease vve are eon-
sidering, something is due to the
hidden ministry of the Demon, vvhieh
does not appear but vvorks in seeret;
and that the unguent is merely the
outward symbol of the vvretehed
vviteh’s eomplieity in the erime under
the guidancc and adviee of the
Demon. Indeed vve knovv from experi-
enee that the poison ean vvith im-
punity be hanaled and touched by
anybody after the vvitehes have been
throvvn into prison and have re-
nounced their partnership vvith the
Demon; and the oflìeers vvho are sent
to seareh for their boxcs of poison are
able to bring them baek in tneir hands
vvith safety.
This vvas proved not long sinee
(2nd Sept., 1589) at Furschcim, a
village in German Lorraine. Marie
Alberte and Catharina Praevotte,
just before they vvere senteneed for
vviteheraft, vvere asked to say vvhether
they had Ieft any of their evil poisons
at home, so that after they vvere dead
these venoms might not be a danger
to any. They at onee told vvhere the
poison could be found; and the
searehers brought tvvo earthenvvare
vessels eontaimng bitumen spotted
vvith yellovv and vvhite and glistening
here and there vvith speeks of metal.
Otillia Kelvers and Anguel Yzarts
(6th and 7th Aug., 1589) of the same
tovvn, and severaí other vvitehes in
other tovvns, vvere found to have done
the same. Some may think that the
vvitehes give such information in order
to curry favour vvith their Judges,
and that they cunningly indieate
some unguent vvhieh they have pre-
pared for some other and ordinary
domestie use instead of the true
poison; bnt this is not the ease, and
there are many elear prooís that there
is no pretenee or simulation in this
matter.
For, in the first plaee, if these
unguents are put upon the fire they
flare and splutter and glitter as noth-
ing else ean. Jeanne Miehaelis of
Etival (2nd June_, 1590) has testified
to this faet. Again, there have been
seen eases of vvitehea vvho as soon as
the Judge has given them permission
to rub or anoint themselves vvith the
unguent, have at onee been earried
aloft and have disappeared. Lucius
Apuleius (Bk. III, de Asino Aureo) tells
BK. I. CH. IV.
DEMONOLATRY
of Pamphile* that she in the same
way applied such an unguent to her-
seli ana, after a few tentative leaps
from the ground, flew up and away
in full flight. And however mucn
witches may differ eoneeming other
matters, they are all, when ques-
tioned, agreed about the magie use,
properties and powers of this oint-
ment. They are even particular in
deseribing its eokrnr; and this pro-
vides further proof that the matter is
no dream, but visible and pereeptible
to the eyes. At St. Dominiquc, 2nd
Dee., 1586, Jeanne Gallée tells that
the Demon gave it to her wrapped in
oak leaves, and that its colour was
white: and that she nearlv always
had her hands smeared with it that
she might never be without the means
of doing an injury on any oeeasion.
At Haraucourt, 2nd Nov., 1586, Alcxée
Drigie agrees with this, except that
she deelared hers was redaish in
coìour: and she adds that when, at
the instigation of the Demon, she
anointed with it her husband who was
lying asleep by her side he very soon
died in great agony, writhing and
eontorting all his limbs.
☆
CHAPTER IV
That when Demons first approaek their
Followers, they hring them Money; but
qfterwards, when the Glamour has
oanisked, it is found to be nothing but
Dung, Brieks, Leaves or some such
Matter. Why they eannot give true
Money, altnough they are said to be
the Gaardians and Keepers of the
Treasures bnried in the Earth.
I T is surprising, sinee, aeeording to
Cedrenus in his notes on Zonaras,
Demons are believed to guard and
- “ Metamorphoseon," ///, 22. Pamphile
the witch transformed herself into an owl, and
then “paulalim terra resuftat, mox in altum
Sublimala forinsecus tolis alis euolat."
Joannes Zpnaias, Byzantine historian and
have in their possession all the greatest
treasures which have been dug out of
or lie hidden in the earth, that never-
theless they ean never draw from them
any, even the very smallest, solid proof
of their frequent promises of munifi-
eenee and liberalily to their followers:
and if they do indeed produce and
display any such wealth, they do so
with no intent to enable men to make
use of it, but rather use it as a bait to
lure their dupes to destmetion, ruin
and death. Melanethon ( Progymnas -
mata Physiea, Bk. II) wrote that it
happened so to a man of Nuremberg
in the year 1530. A Demon pointea
out to nim a plaee where, he said, a
great treasure had formerly been
nidden; and in his greed for riehes
he at onee opened up the plaee. He
found a vault in which was a ehest
guarded by a blaek watch-dog: and
as he went in to seize it, the vault
eollapsed and enished him to death
in a mornent. One of hb servants had
been a witness of his attempt; and on
seeing this he fled in terror at the
great danger and spread abroad the
account of all that ne had witnessed.
You see how the Demon would not
make this man a sharer even of this
world’s riehes, although he had led
him on with a sure and eertain hope
of them. But there have been many
instanees to prove that this is a triele
and deeeit used of old by other
Demons.
Now it would eertaínly be foolish
to believe that they aet in this manner
through parsimony or a desire to keep
that of which they stand in no neea.
Rather has God, in His infinite good-
ness to men, by His providenee so
theologian, lived in the twelfth eentary under
Alexius I Comnenus and Calo~Joannes. His
“Annales," a ehroniele of the world from the
Creation to the aeeession of John Comnenus in
u 18 was much used in the Middle Ages.
Georgius Cedrenus, tìyzantine historian, is
the anìhor of an historieal work which begins
with the Creation and goes down to 1057.
Edited by Bekker, Bonn, 1838-39.
8
DEMONOLATRY
BKt I. GH. V.
ordained it lest, if Demons were to
reward men with truc wea!th, no
man’s integrity should be secure from
so great temptation; and lest such
money, onee acquired, should pro-
vide the means for indulgence in every
erime and wickedness: for Thales*
says that money has ten thousand
drugs to induce evil. Therefore (as
Pselhis asserts) Demonseannot aetoally
fulfil any of their promises, but ean
offer their worshippers the appearanee
only of eertain empty, ineonstant and
unstablc matters.
At Dieuze, 30th Sept., 1586, Sen-
nel of Armentières reeeivea, as she
thought, a gift of money from a
Demon, and joyfiilly ran home to
count it: but when she shook out the
urse, she found nothing but bits of
riek and eoal. Catharine of Metin-
gow (at Dieuzc, 4th Nov., 1386)
found swine’s dung. Ciaude Morèle (at
Serre, 3rd Dee., 1586), Benoit Drigie
(at Haraucourt, I5th Dee., 1585),
Dominique Pétrone (at Pagny, 20th
Oet., 1586), and several others found
the leaves of trees. Jeanne Ie Ban
(at Masmunster, 5th June, 1585)
found on the road a gold eoin wrapped
in paper as the Demon had foretold;
but when she eagerly showed it to
her husband she diseovered, not with-
out shame, that instead of gold she
had a rusty-coloured stone which
crumbled to powder at the very first
touch. Of all these whom I have tried
on a eapital eharge, Catharina Ruffa
(at Ville-sur-Moselle, 28th July, 1587)
alone admitted that she had onee had
three eoins from her Demon with no
deeeption.
- “ Thales .” Aetnally Thales lefl no
tvorks behind him, and the “De Collationibus
Dimtiamm et uirtulis,“ ivhenee this is quoted,
must be aeeotmled spurious.
☆
CHAPTER V
That it is not enough for Demons to hold
Men bound and fettered by a Verbal
Oalh: but they furthermore mark them
wilh their Talons as an Enduring Wit-
ness of the Servitude to which they have
subjected them. In what Part of the
Body this Mark is most ofìen made:
ana how that part is entirely Insensitioe
and Devoid of Feeling .f
I T is said that in olden times the
emelty and barbarity of masters
towards their slaves was in many ways
f “devoid of feeling.” There are very
many reeords in trials of the insensibility of the
Devil's mark. Robert Minto, mimster at
Aberfoile, in his “Seerel Commonwealth”
( i6gr ) writes: “A spot that I have seen, as
a small mole, horny, and brown-colourcd;
throw which mark, when a large pin was thmst
(both in butlock, nose, and rooff of the mouth),
till il bowed and beeame erooked, the witches,
both men and women, neither felt a pain nor
did bleed, nor knew the preeise time when this
was doing to them (their eyes only being
eoaeredOn roth Mareh, 16n, Louis Gau-
fridi, a priest of Aeemdes in the dioeese of
Marseilles, was visited in prison, ivhere he lay
under msdtiplied eharges of soreery, by two
physieians and two snrgeons who were ap-
pointed to seareh for the Devil’s mark. Their
report says they diseovered three marks. The
one was upon the right thigh. “IVhen we had
piereed this wilh a needle to the depth of two
fngers' breadth hefell no pain, neither did any
blood or other humour exude from the ineision”
The seeond was in the region of the loins.
“ Herein we drove the needle for three fngers'
breadth . . . and yet all the while the said
Ganfridy felt no pain, nor was there any
effluxion of blood or olher humour of any kind.
The third mark is about the region of the heart.
At firsl the needle was inlroduced without any
sensation beingfell, as in the previoas instanees.
But when the plaee was probed with someforee
he said hefelt pain, butyet no moislnre distilled
from this laeeration.” On s6lh April, 1634,
during the famous Loudun trials, (Jrbain
Grandier, the accused, was examined to diseover
the Deoil’s mark. Two such marks were found,
one upon the shoulder-blade, the other upon the
thigh, both of which broved insensible eoen
when deeply piereed with a sharp silver pin.
33. I. CH. V.
D EMONOLATRY
grievous, but its most intolerable
raanifestation was that they searred
them with marks as a precaution
against their possible eseape, so that
they could easily be reeognized and
recaptured. And so to-day the Devil
brands and seals those whom he has
newly elaimed as his own with such
tokens of harsh and inhuman slavery,
marking them espeeially (as some
say) on that part of the body which
was anointed by the priest on the
day of their baptism; just as thieves
ehange the brand on stolen eattle to
their own mark. Yet I am not per-
suaded of the soundness of this last
argument; for it wili be shown later
how the Demons more often soil and
befoul with their talons those parts
which the priest has in no way
touched. Similarly, I eannot readily
endorse the opinion of those who deny
that such devils’ marks, by wiping
out the outward sign of baptism,
beeome as it were a symbol of its
opposite. For they argue that it is
vain to attempt to expunge from the
body a token which is deeply im-
planted in the soul: yet by the same
reasoning it might be said that it is
supcrfluous in baptisrn to sprinkle the
body with water, although this is the
sign of the inward eleansing of the
soul.
But whatever may be the trnth ol
the matter, the faet itself is beyond all
doubt. For not only is it admitted
by various persons who, in different
plaees and at different times, have to
their own loss experienced it, but they
have even proved it by showing the
traees of the marks visible to the eye.
And it is a strange and marvellotis
faet that they ean endure the deepest
wound in that part which has been
marked in this manner by the Demon’s
talon without feeling any pain. Alexée
Bclheure (at Blainville, i6th Jan.,
1587), Nieolée Morèle (at Serre, 3rd
Dcc., 1586), and Jeanne Gerardine
(at Pagny, 2ist Nov., 1584) agreed
in saying that they had that symbol
of their perfidy branded upon their
9
brows. Quirina Xallaea (at Blain-
ville, 25th Feb., 1587) was branded
on the baek of the head: Claude
Fellét (at Mazières, gth Nov., 1584)
on the breast and baek: Domimque
Euraea (at Oharmes, 27 th Nov.,
1584) on the hip: Jana Scnwartz íat
Laaeh, 28th Mareh, 1588) on tne
right, and Jaquelina Xalueta (at
Grand-Bouxières-sous-Amance, 2Qth
April, 1588) on the left shoulaer.
And they said that the Demon had
put these marks up>on them at the
very moment whcn they denied the
Faith. The matter is, moreover, proved
by the sears themselves, which are
shown by a slight hardening of the
skin, if anyone is doubtful and wishes
to test the truth of it. And what may
seem more wondcrful is that the plaee
is entirely bloodless and insensitive,
so that even if a needle be deeply
thrnst in, no pain is felt and not a
drop of blood is shed. This faet is
held to be so eertain a proof of eapital
guilt that it is often made the base of
examination and torturc; and such
was the ease not long sinee at Epinal
(6th May, 1588). For Isabelle Pardée
was there taken upon a eharge of
witchcraft, and told the Mayor of
the town in which part of her body
she had been thus marked by the
Demon; upon w r hich he deeided to
test the truth of this alleged insensi-
tiveness. So he ordered a needle to
be thrust and deeply foreed into the
plaee in the presenee of a sufficient
number of witnesscs; and no drop of
blood issued from the wound, and
the witch gave not the slightest sign
of any pain. At Porrcntruy (30th
Oet., 1590), again, Claude Bogart
was about to be put to the torture
and, as the custom is, had had her
head shaved. A sear on the top of
her forehead was thus plainly brought
to light. Thereupon tne Judge, sus-
peeting the trutn, namely, that this
was the mark of the Demon’s talon,
which had before been hidden by her
hair, ordered a pin to be thrust deeply
into it; and wnen this was done it
10
DEMONOLATRY
BK. r. CH. V.
vvas seen that she felt no pain, and
that the wound did not bleed in the
very least. Yet she persisted in deny-
ing the truth, saying that her numD-
ness to pain vvas due to an old blow
from a stone; but after she was
brought to the torturc she not only
acknowIedged that the mark had
been made by a Demon, but re-
counted several other cruel injuries
which she had reeeived from him.
And quite reeently (i^.th July, 1591)
at Essey, a village a mile distant from
this eity, the present magistrate of
the plaee ordered the sergeant to
apply this test to Mugette, who was
eharged with witchcrait. The sergeant
therefore stripped her to see ìf he
could find such a mark, and at last
found it on her left thigh as big as a
wart; and when he probed this as
deeply as possible witn his steel, he
could neitner foree a groan from
Mugette nor any drop of blood from
the wound. But when he barely
prieked the plaee ncxt to the mark,
she uttered a great ery of pain and
the blood poured out.
Now the possible cause of this utter
insensibility need not be a matter of
very deep inquiry for any person who
eonsiders how nothing that eomes to
man from a Demon ean ever be any-
thing but mortal and pernicious. For
it seems to me that they are very far
from the truth who aseribe this matter
to natural causes, arguing in the fol-
lowing manner: that the bodies which
Demons form for themselves are of
more than iey eoldness: that mat f ers
which are brought into eontaet with
or surrounded by extreme eold are
usually dull and insensitive; just as,
in the depth of winter, we beeome
more sluggish and languid; and when
we eome to old age, which is as it
were the beginning of death (and the
dead eertainly are eold enough; and,
as Plutarch says in his Moralia, if a
razor be plaeed in iee it beeomes
blunt through the extreme eold),
all our senses are duller and more
torpid.
“The blood* grows sluggish with
advaneing age,
And all the body’s strength is frozen
up.”
Again, those parts in living animals
wnich have tne least heat have also
the least powcr of feeling, such as the
hair, bones, teeth and other like parts
which, as Disarius says in the Satur-
nalia\ of Macrobius, VII, 9, are
impervious to feeling.
For it eannot be held that such is
the quality of the niimbness in a living
ereatiire’s limbs c.aused by the Demon’s
mark. In the first plaee bccausc, if
anyone touches such a plaee witli his
hand, he ean distinguish no differenee
or ehange in it. Seeondly, bccause
when the causes of a natural eífeet,
espeeially if they are extrinsic causes,
are removed, the effeet also must dis-
appear. But it is the nature of the
Demons’ touch, of which we are speak-
ing, that the insensitiveness which it
induces endures for everj and the
farther it is removed from its cause
the more pronounced it beeomes.
Again, witcnes’ hands, which Demons
endow with the same fatal quality,
are often warm and laeking m this
kind of frigidity; yet limbs touched
by them, even tliough proteeted by
elothes, are afflieted with an enduring
numbness of this sort, as has more
than onee been proved by experience.
Finally, speaking in surgical terms, an
abrasion or cxcoriation of the skin
only eonsists, unless there is any
ftnther eomplieation, in the skir\ alone,
and lies no deeper: whcreas in the
ease of even the slightest wound of
the sort we are discussing, every part
beneath it for as far as the longest
pin ean penetrate is entirely drained
of all feeling.
- “ Theblood ” Vergil "Aeneid," V, 395-6:
“sed enim gelidus tardante seneeta
Sangtiis hebet , frigentque effoetae in eorpore
uires .”
f “ Saturnalia .” VII, 9: “Quae partes
humani eorporis sensu eareant ,”
BK, I. GH. VI. DEMON
Therefore the cause must be some-
thing entirely different from eold of
this sort, however bitter or hard. And
I think that it bears the same relation
to lightning, which, aeeording to eer-
tain meteorologists, causes an endur-
ing bloodlessness and insensitiveness
in the limbs of animals which it strikes
or touches. For lightning is, by eon-
trast, of a fiery nature and has been
the causc of many eonflagrations, as
Seneea* has shown in his Quaestiones
Nattirales. I conc!ude, then, that we
must emphatieally insist upon what I
have just said, namely, that there is
in Satan some seeret power to hurt
and destroy, not governed by any
natural Iaws: that they do but tnfle
time who seek to reeoneile his aetions
with natural causes; as if he were not
rather at perpetual strife and ever-
lasting warfare with nature. This ean
be most abundantly proved by the
following single example (which may
serve as a eorollary to what has been
said before), which I heard lately,
while I was living in the country at
Saint-Mard,t from the husband of a
woman who ehaneed at that time to
be eonvieted of witchcraft. He said
that he had for long suspected her of
blaek magie, ehiefly because, every
Thursday night when he went to bed,
he always felt her grow as eold as iee.
For (as we point out clsewhere) that
in Lorraine is about the time when
the Sabbat is dispersed and witches
depart from their Little Masters; and
it is no ridiculous or absurd belief to
hold that witches eontraet and ean
retain for some time this sort of
írigidity from their eontaet with
Demons. Moreover, it is not easy to
conjecture any other cause than that
which we have just propoundcd.
- “Seneea." Quaestionum Naluralium
Libri seplem (addressed to Lucilius Junior),
II, ss.
f “ Saint-MardNear Bayon. Hert Remy
had his comtry-house.
☆
|:j!' ÌM d-lfjÌ-Ì •u|
!:i
illiiiii'iijil
!•
!|ii
lí;i
lljlil
.1,1:
i:
i :
LATRY II
GHAPTER VI
That Demons lie with Men, but in a Man-
ner vohieh is Cold, Joyless, Vain and
Barren. That they nevertheless eelebrate
Marriages , and even sirmilate and pretend
Jealotisy.
LUTARGH in his Numa, anpiing
against the beliefs of the Egyp-
tians, says that it is absurd to believe
that Demons are eaptivated by human
bcauty and graee, and have inter-
course with mankind for the sake of
eamal pleasure. For Nature provides
physieal beauty as a stimulant to pro-
pagation, of which Demons have no
need, sinee they were ereated in the
beginning of a eertain fixed number
( Laetantiiis , de Jalsa religione: I. 8). It
must fo!low, then, that such inter-
course is powerless to generate so
wonderful a ereation as man. For, in
the first plaee, there must be a eora-
plementary eorrelation between the
speeies; and this eannot exist between
a Demon and a man: so utterly oppo-
site by nature are the mortal ana the
immortal, the eorporeal and the in-
eorporeal, the sentient and the irnen-
tient, or any two creatures which are
even more opposite and eontrary to
eaeh other. How such ineompatibles
ean mingle and copulate together
passes my understanding; and eertes I
eannot believe that any perfeet or
eomplete issue ean be brought to life
bv such a union. For there must
always be some proportion betwcen
the aetive and the passive agent, and
the extrcmes must meet in some eom-
mon mean, if they are to produce any
result.
Moreover, if like is bom from like,
how, I ask, ean a living being spring
from the union of such opposite ana
dissimilar natures? I know that you
will say that whcn Demons set them-
selves to this business they assumc
some body which they endow with the
powers, nature and appearanee of a
living human form (for man is eom-
posea of spirit and Dody). Let it be
12
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. VI.
granted that they assume some body,
for so far I am in agreement with you;
but I think that body will be either
the eorpse of a dead man, or else
some eoneretion and eondensation of
vapours; for methinks that I say else-
where that they usually adopt one of
these two methods of manifesting
themselves to us. But, I ask, ean any-
thing more absurd or ineredible be
said or imagined than that that which
is devoid of animal life ean have any
power or effieaey to impart life to
another? For this proeess of proerea-
tion is govemed by the laws of naturc,
aeeording to which no semen ean be
fertile unless it eomes from a living
man. I am aware that Peter of Pa-
lude* and Martin of Arlesf have said
that when Demons go about this work
they, as it were, milk the semen from
the bodies of dead men; but this is as
ridiculous as the proverbial dead don-
key’s fart.
And if, as S. Basil (On Isaiak, X)
and many others have maintained, the
Demon’s body is formed from a eon-
eretion of eondensed vapours, still the
business will go forward with no
f reater success, and such a body will
e no more adapted to the work than
that of which I have just spoken. For
if, as Cicero says (De natrna Deontm,
II), the vital foree which permeates
the whole world springs only from the
nature of fìre, without which there ean
be no power or cause of proereation
or generation; if, as Plmareh says in
his Moralia , there is no reason for the
laek of fertility in waste countries and
the nigged roeks of mountains except
that they are entirely devoid of fire, or
- Peter oj Valnde, of the Order oj S.
Dominie; died 1342. He is eonsidered one oj
the most distingaished Thomistie theologians
dming the Jirst half of the fomteenth eenlnry.
f “Martin of Artes.” Marlin de Arles of
Andosilla, aiithor of “ Traetatas insignis de
Superstiiionibus, eontra Malefieia, seu Sorti-
legia, quae hodie uigent in Orbe ierramm, in
lucem mperrime editus a Martino de Arles."
Paris, 1517. There is another edition, Rome,
1 559 •
if they have any, it is very little: what
seeds of life, I ask, what elements of
birth ean be looked for from such a
ncbulous parent which, being itself
spnmg from no father, has in itself no
heat which it ean infuse and eom-
miinieate by the aet of proereation ?
It is a faet that all witchc$ who
make a Demon free of their bodies
(and this they all do when they enter
his serviee, and it is as it were the first
pledge of their paet with him) are eom-
pletely in agreement in saying that, if
the Demon einits any seinen, it is so
eoldj that they reeoil with horror on
X 'Tt is so eold.” The physieal eoldness of
the Devil and the repeated assertion at the trials
that his semen was nipping and getid may point
to the use upon oeeasion of an artijieial penis.
Boguet, “An Examen of ÍVitehes ,” ekapter xii
(John Rodker, igsg), writes: “The imtehes'
eonfessions which I have had make me think
that there is tmth in this matter (of aetaal
eopidation); for they have all admitted that
they have coupled with the Devil, and that his
semen was very eold; and this is eonfirmed by
the reports ofPaul Grilland and the lnquisitors
of the Faith. facquema Paget added that she
had several times taken in her hand the member
of the Demon which lay with her, and ihat it
was as eold as iee and a good finger’s length ,
but not so thiek as that of a man.” De Lanere
reeords: “ Toutes les Soreières s'aeeordent en
eela, que la semenee, qu'elles refoinent du
Diable, est froide eomme glaee: . . . Que si la
semenee est ainsi froide, il s’ensuit qu'elle est
destituée de ses tsprils vitaux, et ainsi qu’tlle
en peut estre eaitse d’aucune génèratìon.” He
also gives the eonfession ofjeannetle d’Abadie,
a witch sixteen years old, who said: “Elle
fayoit l'accouplement du Diable, i eaase
qu'ayant son membre faiet en eseailles il faut
souffirir vne extresme douleur; outre que la
semenee est e.\tresmement froide, si lieu qu'elle
n'engrosse iarnais, ni eelle des autres hommes
au sabbat, bien qu'elle soit naiurelleWidow
Bush of Barton, an English witch, eonfessed
that the Devil who knew her as ayoung blaek
man “was eolder than man, and heavier, and
could not performe natrne as man.” Isobel
Gowdìe and Janet Breadheid, two Seoteh
witches of the Anldearne eoven, eonfesSed that
the Devil was “a meikle, blak, roeh man, werie
eold; and Ifand his natare als eold within mt
BK. I. CH. VI.
DEMONOLATRV
reeeiving it. In Psellus, De Daemonibus,
Marcus makes the same statement:
“If they ejaculate any semen it is, like
the body from which it eomes, so laek-
ing in warmth that nothing ean be
more unfit or unsuitable for proerea-
tion.”
I need not here run through all the
arguments which are usually adduced
in support of this opinion; for the
faet is proved by actual experience.
Alexandcr ab Alexandro* (Genialium
dìertim, II, 9) reeords that he knew a
man who told hím that the appear-
anee of a friend wlio had lately died
(but it is probable that this was a
speetral illusion of a Demon) eame
to him, very pale and wasted, and
tried to get into bed with him: and
although he fought with him and pre-
vented him from doing this, he yet
succeeded in inserting one foot, which
was so eold and rígid that no iee could
be eompared with it. Cardan| also
tells a similar stor%' of a friend of his
who went to bed in a ehamber which
had formerly been notoriously haunted
by Demons, and felt the touch of an
ieily eold hand. But to eome nearer
home, the eonfession of Ponsète of
Essey, who was eonvieted of witch-
erafi; at Montlhéry (4th April, 1583),
agrees with what has been said above.
She said that whenever, as is the way
of lovers, she put her hand in her
Demon’s bosom she felt it as hard and
rigid as marble.
Averroes, Blessed Albertus Magnus,
and several others add to the above
as spring-well-waler.” Isobel added: “He is
abler for ws that way than any man ean be,
onlie he ves heavie lyk a malt-sek; a hudg
nature, verie eold, asyee.”
- “Alexander ” Alessandro Aiessandri,
born in 1461; died eirea 1523. This famous
Keapolitan jurisconsult wrole learnedly upon
arehaeologieal subjects. Hìs famoas “ Genial-
ium Diernm Libri Sex,” was firsl published
at Paris in 1532.
| “Gardan” Girolamo Cardano, the
famous physieian, mathematieian, and philoso-
pher, was bom at Pavia in 1301 and died at
Rome in /576'.
13
two methods of procuring this mon-
strous proereationj a third which is
perhaps more eredible and probable.
Aeeording to them, the Demons injeet
as Incubi the semen which they have
previously reeeived as Succubi; and
this view ean reasonably be supported
by the faet that this methoa differs
from the natural and customary way
of men only in respeet of a very brief
intermission in its aeeomplishment.
This objeetion, moreover, they easily
overeome by quoting the extraordin-
ary skill of Demons in preserving mat-
ters from their natural dissolution.
But whether it be a man or a woman
who is eoneerned, in either ease the
work of nature must be free, and there
must be nothing to delay or impede it
in the very least. If shame, fear, horror
or some stronger feeling is present, all
that eomes from the loins is spent in
vain and nature beeomes sterile; and
for this reason the very consummation
of love and earnal warmth which it
implies will aet as a spur to the aeeom-
plishment of the venereal aet. But all
they who have spoken to us of their
copulations with Demons agree in say-
ing that nothing eolder or more un-
pleasant could be imagined or de-
seribed. At Dalheim, Petrone of Ar-
mentières deelared that, as soon as he
embraeed his Abrahel , all his limbs at
onee grew stiff. Hennezel at Vergaville,
J “MonstroiLS proerealion.” See Guazzo,
“Compendium Maleficarum,” Book I, ehabler
xi (John Rodker, ig2g), “ ÌVhether there Truly
are Incubus and Succubus Devils; and whether
Children ean be Generated by Copulation with
them.” Ludovico Maria Sinistrari, “ Demon•
iality,” 24, says: “ When women are desirous
of beeoming pregnant by the Demon (which
occurs only wilh ihe eonsent and at the express
wish of the said women), the Demon is trans-
formed into a Succubus, and during the aet of
eoilion with some man reeeives therefrom human
semen; or else he procures pollution from a man
during his sleep, and then he preseroes the spilt
semen at its natural heat, eonserving it wilh
the vital essenee. This, when he has connexion
with the woman, he introdnees into her womb,
whence follows impregnation.”
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. VI.
H
July 1586, said that it was as if
he had entered an ice-bound eavity,
and that he left his Sckwartzburg with
the matter imaeeomplished. (These
were the names of tneir Succubas.)
And all female witches maintain that
the so-ealled genital organs of their
Demons are so huge and so excessively
rigid that they eannot be admitted
without the greatest pain. Alexée Dri-
gie (at Haraucourt, ioth Nov., 1586)
reported that her Demon’s penis. even
wnen only half in ereetion, was as long
as some kitehen utensils which she
pointed to as she spoke; and that there
were neither testieles nor scrotum*
attaehed to it. Claude Fellet (at Ma-
zières, 2nd Nov., 1584) said that she
had often felt it like a spindle swollen
to an immense size so that it could not
be eontained by even the most eapa-
cious woman without great pain. This
agrees with the eomplaint of Nieole
Morèle (at Serre, I9th Jan., 1587)
that, after such miserable copulation,
she always had to go straight to bed
as if she had been tired out by some
long and violent agitation. Didatia of
Miremont (at Preny, 3ist July, 1588)
also said that, although she had many
years’ experience of men, she was
always so stretehed by the huge, swol-
len memberf of her Demon that the
- “Neither testieles nor scTotum.“ But a
Demon ivith wkom a iviteh eondemned by De
Lanare had connexion was othenvise provided.
“Ce mamais Demon ait son membre myparty,
moitii de fer, moìtii de ehair tout de son long,
et de mesme les genitoires
| “ huge, sivollen member.” Boguet, “An
Examen of lYitehes,” ehapter xii, reeords:
“Thievenne Paget said, moreover, thal when
Satan eonpled with her she had as much pain
as a woman in travail. Franfoise Seeretain
said ikat, whilst she was in the aet, she felt
somelhing buming in her stomaeh; and nearly
all witches affirm that this coupling is by no
means pleasurable to them, both because of
Salan’s agliness and deformity, and beeaase of
the physieal pain which it causes them as we
havejust said.” In leanne Bosdeau eon-
fessea before the High Chamber of jrntiee at
Bordeaux that the Devil appeared as “a great
sheets were drenehed with blood. And
nearly all witches protest that it is
wholly against their will that they are
embraeea by Demons, but that it is
uscless for them to resist.
Therefore I think that it is manifest
and plain enough that such copulation
eannot so titillate the nerves as to
evoke any semen; and everyone knows
that without semen there :an be no
proereation. But let us assume that
there are those whose lust ean be
aroused by such frigid and joyless em-
braees, and that the Demon ean find
here a man and there a woman of such
sort; and let us grant that he goes from
one to the other with great speed like
a stage tumbler: even thougn the de-
lay involved is of the shortest, the vital
element must surely be laeking for the
aeeomplishment of so great a matter
as propagation. Physieians sav that no
coupling ean have fertile resuíts unless
the maíe member penetrates to the
neeessary plaee, for the seed must be
disehargea in one plaee and must not
be spent or dissipated on the way.
For we suppose tnat as PIutarch re-
eords in his Moralia Zeno was right in
saying that semen is a mixture ex-
traeted from all the forees of life, and
that it loses all its poteney and virtue
unlcss it has a straight and uninter-
rupted passage to the womb. There-
fore Galen (De usu partiitm, XV) said
that a man’s yard must be at its most
rigid in the aet of eoition so that the
semen may be earried as far as pos-
sible. For even though the semen may
be fertile it is entirely ineapable of
Blaek Goat with a Candle between his
Horns; . . . He had eamal knowledge of her,
which was with greal Pain.” Hulchinson,
“Hislorieal Essay Conrerning Witchcraft
(seeond edition, 1720, pp. 42-3). The wìtches
told De Lanere thal “Le Diable, soit au'il ayt
la forme d'homme, ou qu’il soit en forme Le
Bouc, a tousiours vn membre de mulet, ayant
ehoisy en imilalion celuy de eet animal eomme
le mieux pourueu.” Àlso, “Le membre du
Diable est long enuiron la moitii d'vne aulne,
de medioere grossear, rouge, obscur, et tortu,
fort rude et eomme piquant.”
BK. I. CH. VI.
DEMONOLATRY
proereation if it eannot be deeply
enough injeeted, as happens in the
ease of those who are too quickly
brought to the erisis.
Furthermore, if we could aeeept as
truth all that has been affirmea on
this subject, it would neeessarily follow
that God is the abettor and eo-pro-
genitor of these monstrous obseenities.
í'or if Demons ean contribute nothing
more to propagation than is naturally
contributed by men, namely, the fer-
tilizing seed by which animal life is
generated, and, as it were, passed on;
then it should follow that the result
should be a perfeet and absolute
human being endowed with a reason-
ing soul. The neeessary conclusion is,
therefore, that either the proeess is left
in an ineomplete and imperfeet form,
or God Himself puts the last touch to
this imperfeetion and, in some sense,
sets His seal to it. For, as Aristotle
says (De orlu et interitn, Bk. II), it is
eertain that the mind eomes from
without and is divine by nature, and
that its origin is not in the human
semen. And Seneea (De eotisolatione ad
Albinam, eap. VI) says: “If you eon-
sider the true origin of the mind, it
does not grow from the gross earthly
body, but deseends from that Heavenly
Spirit.” Iamblicus ( De Mysterìis Aegyp-
tiorvm) also tells that, aeeording to the
theology of the Egyptians and Assv-
rians, man derives his material body
from the human aet of eoition, but his
eharaeter from the higher and uni-
versal Cause. And it is the opinion of
all devout thinkers (S. Augustine,
Qjiest. uet. et noui testam., post sententiam
Rabinomm Daoid Kimehi tn £achar. 12.
& Mosis Aegyplii) that the soul en-
dowed with reason is divinely ereated
and implanted in the body at the time
when the limbs take their shape and
form; that is, about forty-five days
after conception(Hippocrates, De natura
foetus). “He breathed into his nos-
trils,” says Moses (Genesis ii), “the
breath of life”: which Josephus
('IovBaÍKrj 'Apyaiohoyía, I, i) interprets,
“Hc endowea with a spirit man whom
15
He had already formed from the
dust.” Oertainly the soul does not flow
uninterruptedly through posterity like
a river from its source; although I
onee discussed this matter with a man
of no mean leaming who tried to eon-
vinee me that this was the ease, basing
his opinion upon the words which
preeede the above passage: inorease
and mvltiply. For sucn generation
of soul from soul is quite ineom-
patible with the immortality of the
soul, which is, however, a faet beyond
all doubt: because anything which
owes its cause and ineeption to some-
thing else must also have its own end-
ing and death. The Essenes,* as
Josephus tells in his irepl rov 'IovStuKoC
nohffiov, II, 7, were far wiser, who
said that souls eame from the rarest
uppcr air and, drawn by some
natural lure, entered into bodies as
into prisons. And the greater weight
should be allowed to their opinion,
because from their earliest youth they
earefblly studied the saered books and
the ntteranees of the prophets and
were far better fitted than any others
to interpret the meaning of the his-
tories of Moses. It would be the great-
est shame to us not to agree with them
in this matter; for their opinion was
upheld by that of men far removed
from the worship of the true God. Let
us hear what Porphyry,t the most
stubbom foe to the díristian faith,
says on this subject: “It is a fixed
prineiple of the religion and philo-
- “ Essenes .” One of the three leading
Jewish seets which jlomished in the seeond een-
tury. Amongst them Moses was held in such
high esteem that to blaspheme his name meant
death. They held that mortal dissolation was
welcome, sinee “bodies are eorrvptible and the
matter eomposing them is not lasling, but souls
are immortal and live for ever, and proeeeding
from the most sublle eiher have been drawn into
bodies as intoprisons by some natural longing."
t “ Porphyry." Born A.D. 233; died 303.
Of his work, ‘‘Against the Christian," in
ffteen books, only a few fragments preserved
in the writings of the great Apologists have
eome down to us.
i6
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. VI.
sophy of the Essenes, a most devoted
body of men, that there are immortal
souls which deseend from the rarer
upper air and enter into bodies, being
dravvn to the bodies by a sort of irre-
sistible natural instinet.” These are
not the words of one who merely re-
eords the opinions and beliefs of others,
but of one who approves and praises
tliem. Proclus* again, who was seeond
only to Porphyrius in his fieree baying
against the Christians in his Epieheire-
mata, writes (De anima et Daemone) as
follows of this migration of souls from
the upper regions into human bodies,
and of the cor.scqucnt notable ehange
in their eonditions: “The deseent of
the souI into the body cuts it off from
the divine spirit írom which it was
filled with understanding, power and
purity; but makes it partaker in gener-
ation, nature and material things, by
which it is imbued with oblivion, sin
and ignoranee.” It is elear £h>m this
that the mind is of divine origin, and
is not infiised or communicatcd by the
seed of the parents. Such also was the
teaehing of Aristotle (De anima, I, 4)
when he said that the mind is some
substance which seems to eome from
elsewhere and does not perish; that is
(as Lactantius explains more elearly
and at greater length), it is joined to
the material body only for so long as
this lives and is nourished. For in the
Seventh Book of his De Inslitiitione
Diuina he writcs as follows against the
heathen: “The mind is not the same
as the soul. Therefore from the time
that it reeeives the faeidty of breath-
ing” (tfiat is, as I interpret it, from the
time that it beeomes part of the animal
life), “it continues with the body till
the end, until it is freed from its bodily
prison and flies baek to its own plaee.”
But perhaps somebody will raise the
eonsideration of the following argu-
ment; that ehildren are bom from
obseene, incestuous, adulterous and
other abominable loves. Yet it should
- “Proeliis." Born ìn 410; died at Athens,
485 -
not appear absurd that God breathes
His divine spirit into such, just as He
does into those born in legitimate wed-
loek; nor need anybody for this reason
protest that God is the aider and
abettor of such eriminal lusts. indeed
it is a matter of great moment whether
the order and coursc of nature insti-
tutcd from the beginning by God shall
be preserved, or whether in spite of,
and rather in eontempt of Him some
moekery of it be set in motion. His
first, supreme and eternal eommand
respeeting human propagation was
INCREASE AND MULTIPLY. It ÌS direet
and simple. And just as, in legal
phraseology, a direet heir is one who
mherits straight from the testator
without the interposition of a third
party, or, as it is eommonly ealled,
immediately; so does proereation pro-
eeed direetíy from man to man, and
eannot be communicated through the
work of Demons. “There is no meon-
gxuity,” says Peter Lombardf (Senten-
iiamm, II; Distinetio, 32), “in the faet
that God should keep unchanged the
plan which He formed in the begin-
ning of the human raee, even though
human sin has interfered with it.”
These things are of the depth of the
wisdom ana knowledgc of God, VVhose
judgements are unscarchable (Romans
xi, 33). For so did God will tliat Abra-
ham should by Hagar the Egyptian
beget Ishmael, the forefather of many
nations (Genesis xvi, 10), and Lot, his
adopted nephew, through lying inees-
tuously with his daughters, begot
f “Peler I.ombard." “Magister Sentenlia-
rum,” bom eirea 1100; died eirea 1160-64.
The “ Senlenees ” (“Quatuor librt Sentenlia-
rum ”) may be regarded as the theologieal work
which gives Peter Lombard a speeial plaee amid
the authorities oj the Middle Ages. IVritlen
abotil 1143-51, this great opus eavers Ihe whole
body oj theologieal dotltine. Towards the
thirteenlh century the variotis books were divided
into “ distineliones ,” an old Latin term thal
first meanl a pause in reading and then a divi-
sion inlo ehapters. Bul the anthor has done no
more than let one Queslion follow anolher wilh-
out separate seelions.
BK. I. CH. VI.
DEMONOLATRY
Moab and Ammon, from vvhom the
very populous nation of the Cocle-
syrians* traee their origin (Genesis xix,
37 » 3*).-
But ìt must be
enatter if a man
Moloeh, or uscs it in any vvay other
dban that vvhieh is intended in that
etemal eommand, or thanis demanded
by order er required by use and neees-
sity. Indeed not even the heathen
philosophers approved the lieenee of
poets in this matter, vvhen they dis-
played on the stage the loves, mar-
riages, lusts and adulteries of their
gods; and for that reason Plato re-
jeeted Homer from his Republic; and
the Athenians pronounced him to be
ìnsane because, as Cornelius Nepos
»ys, he vvrote of gods at vvar vvith men.
This subject vvas more vvidely dis-
cussed by Serapion in his Panegyrie.
It is therefore the more surprising that
so many vvriters vvho profess Chris-
danity should eleave to such an
opinion and even tenaciously defend
it. For even Jornandes,t vvho vvas
Bishop of the Goths vvhen Justinian
was Emperor, did not hesitate in his
book on the origin of the Getae to
affirm that there vvere in Seythia vviteh
• “ Coelesyrians .” Tke namt Coele Syria
[fj Koíktj 2 upía -• holloiv Syria) was Jirst
gioen to tke loiv-lying part betiveen Libanus
end Antilibamis in the valleys of the upper
Orontes and Lita; but it was extended so as to
\rxlude the country east of Antilibanus up to,
and beyond, Damasats.
| “ Jornandes .” “Filimer, rex Gothoram
. . . ifui et lerras Sythieas cum sua gente
inlrotsse superius a nobis dictus est, reperit in
populo suo quasdam magas mulieres, quas
patrio sermone Haliurunas is ipse eognominat,
easque habens suspeclas , de medio sui prolur-
kat, longeque ab exercitu suo fugalas in solitu-
dinem, eoegit errare. Quas spiriltis immundi
per eremum mganles dum mdissent, et earum
m complexibus in coitu misaiissenl, genus hoe
ferocissimum edidere. . . . Tali ergo Hunni
stirpe ereati, Gotkommfinibus aduenereJor-
danes, “De Gelamm siue Golhontm origine ,”
xxio, ed. C. A. Gloss, Stuttgart, 1861 (pp. $3-
94 )-
thought quite another
saerifiees his seed to
17
vvomen, ealled in their native tongue
Aliontmnae [ Halmntnat ], vvho vvere
driven by Filimer the Gothie king into
the farthest deserts, vvhere they vvere
embraeed by unclean spirits and gave
birth to hideous, fieree dvvarfs from
vvhom the Huns vvere deseended. Wil-
liam of Pari$,í Thomas of Brabant§
(De uniuersali bono), Vineent of Bcau-
vais!| (XXI, 30), Heetor Boeee^ì (Bk.
VIII I),Johann Nider** (Formicarius,
V, 10), and others have eonfidently
asserted the same about the inhabit-
ants of Cyprus, the Hellequins, the
ì “WiUiam of Paris.” William of
Auvergne, Bishop of Paris, mediaeoal philoso-
pher and theologian, born towards the end of
the twelfth eentmy; died at Paris, 1243. His
works were firsl eolleeled and printed al Nurem-
berg, 1436, and there have been several subse-
quent editions, one of the latesl of which is
Orleans, 1674.
§ “ Thomas of BrabantA Dominiean,
and stiffragan bishop, 1201—70. He is generally
referred to as Thomas Canlimpralanus, or
Thomas of Cantimpré. His famous work,
“Bonum uniuersale de Apibus,” was im-
mensely popular, bul is now of the lasl
rarity. I have used the Douai edition of
’ 597 -
|| “ Vineent of Bcauvais.” Even the years
of the birth and dealh of this eelebrated eneyelo-
paedist are uncertain, but the dates most fre-
qucnlly assigned are //90 and 1264 nspeetively.
It is thought that he joined the Dominiean
Order shortly after 1218, and that he passed
praetieally his whole life in his monastery at
Beaaoais, ineessantly oeenpied with his enor•
mous work, of which the general title is “ Specu-
lum Maius, ,: eontaining 80 books dìvided into
3885 ehapters.
“Heetor Boeee.” Chronicler, and one of
the foanders of Aberdeen í/nioersiiy, 1463-
1536. The impetiis he gave to historieal studies
at Aberdeen was of lasting effeet. His works,
parliailarly the “Seotornm Hisloriaeare
highly esleemed.
- “Johann Nider.” Prior of the important
Dominiean house at Basle, Papal Inquisitor
and Reelor of the Umversity of Vienna. He
died in 1438. The “ Formicarius ” (or “For-
miearimn ”) is very famans, and there are eon-
stanl appeals to his authorily. The edition I
have used is that of Douai, 1602.
i8
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. VI.
Ursini, and the English Merlin' 1 '; and
Eeelesiastieal History has given faith
and authority to these tales. Follow-
ing the example of Lactantius,t De
Origine Erorris, II, 14 (whose error in
this matter was, nevertheless, long
sinee refuted), they uphold their
opinion on the ground that we read
in Genesis vi that the Sons of God ìay
with the daughters of men. But how
very far theyj twist the meaning of
- “ MerlinBoeee, “Seotomm His-
toriae,” folio, 1526, VIII, says: lt Constans
tum fama erat, Merliná incubi, ae nobilis
Britaniei sanguinis fzmina cócubitu, pgnaiii,
magieis earminibtis malos dfmones ad colloquia
excire: & ex his quf futura essent eognoseere .”
Joannes Nauclerus in his “ Chroniconuolu-
men secundum, generatio xo, writes: “Inuentus
est tum adoleseens diettis Merlimis, cuius mater
eonfessa esl se a spiritu in speeie kominis eonee-
pisse, hoe est, per incubum. Hie Merlinas
Ambrosins est dìctus natvs ex flia regis
Demetee, qua monada erat." The marginal
note has ‘'Merlinas ab ìnmbo damone eoneep-
tus,” p. 559,folio, Cologne, /579. Malvenda,
“De AntiekrisloLìbri Seemdrn, ix, notes:
“Merlimm seu Melkimm Anglicum uatem,
de quo mirandae fabulae narranlar, ex damonio
ineabo & filia Caroli magni Saera uirgine
genilu prodmt .” One may consult “Die Sagen
von Merlin” by San Marte (A. Schulz),
Halle, 800, 1855.
f “Lactantius.” “Deus . . . misit angelos
ad tvlelam, cultumque generis humani. Quibus
quia lìbentm arbitrium erat datum, praeeepit
ante ornnia, ne terrae eontagione maculati,
snbstantiae eaelestis amitterent digniialem,
seilieet id eos faeere prohibuit, quod seiebat esse
faetvros , ut ueniam sperare non possent. Ilaque
illos cum hominibas eommorantes dominator ille
terrae fallaeissimvs, consuetudine ipsapaulatim
ad uitia pellexil et mulierum congressibus inqui-
nauit. . . . Qui autem ex his proereati; quia
neque homines fuerunt, sed mediam quandam
nataram gerentes; non sttnl ad inferos reeepti,
sicuti in coelum parentis eomm. Ita duo genera
daemomm faeta sunt, unum eoeleste, altemm
tenenum.” Libri II, 14. It may be remarked
that Remy wholly misvnderstands the passage
from Genesis.
+ “Sons of God.” This passage has been
much discussed by the exegetes, and one may
profitably consult the eommentary in loeo ofi
the learnid Simstrari, who in his “Demont-
this from the truth is dearly enough
shown by the eommentators on that
ality,” XXXII-XXXIV (translation by the
present writer, Fortune Press, 1927) says:
“We also read in the Bible, 'Genesis' ehap. 6,
verse 4, that giants were bom when the sons of
God went in to the daughters of men: this is
the actual text. Now, those giants were men ‘of
great stature,' says 'Baruch' ehap. 5, verse 26,
and far superior to other men. Not only were
they distingaished by their huge size, but also
by their physieal bower, their rapine and their
tyranny. Through their misdeeds the giants,
aeeording to Cornelius a Lapide, in his ‘Com-
mentary on Genesis,’ were the primary and
prineipal cause of the Flood. Some eontend that
by Sons of God are meant the sons of Selh,
and by danghters of men the daughters of Cain,
bccause the former praetised piety, religion and
every other virluc, whilst the deseendants of
Cain were quite the reverse; but, wilh all due
deferenee to S. John Chrysostom, S. Cyril, S.
Theodore of Studium, Abbot Rupert of Deutz,
S. Hilary and others who are of that opinion,
it must be eoneeded that it hardly agrees with
the obviotts meaning of the text. Seriphire says,
in faet, that of the eonjnnetion of the Sons of
God and the daaghters of men were bom men
of huge bodily size: consequently, those giants
were not previously in existence, and if their
birth was the result of that eonjmetion, it ean-
not be aseribed to the intercourse of the sons of
Seth and the daughters of Cain, who, being
themselves of ordinary slature, could but pro-
ereate ehildren of ordinary stature. Therrfore,
if the intercourse in question gave birth to beings
of huge statnre, the reason is that it was not
the eommon connexion between man and woman,
but the operation of Incubì who, from their
nalure, may very wcll be styled Sons of God.
Such is the opinion of the Platonist Philoso-
phers and of Franeeseo Giorgio the Venetian;
nor is it diserepant from that of Josephns the
Hislorian, Philo Judaeus, S. Justin Martyr,
eiement of Alexandría, Terttillian, and Hugí
of S. Vietor, who look upon Incubi as eorporeal
Angels who have fallen into the sin of lewdness
wilh women. Irìdeed, as shall be shown here-
after, thoagh seemingly dislinet, those two
opinions are but one and the same.
“If therefore, these Incubi, as is so eom-
monly held, have begotten giants by means of
semen laken from man, it is impossiblt, as afore-
said, that of that semen shotild have been bom
any but men of approximately the same size as
he from whom it eame; for il would be in vain
3K. I. CH. VI.
DEMONOLATRY
passage, who say that it does not speak
of sons of God oy nature and genera-
don, but of those upon whom God
bestowed some peculiar benefit and
loved more than others and adopted
into His family as espeeially dear to
Him: such as were tne sons of Seth.
Those, on the eontrary, are ealled the
daughters of men whose only eom-
mendation was that they were born of
the raee of men; and such were the
daughters of Cain. Moreover S.
Augustinc {De Ciuitate Dei, XV, 23)
does not undcrstand this passage in
the literal sense, akhough he is fully
aware of the old heathen tales of
Incubi* and Succubi and definitely
affirms only just before that it is no
fable that Demons lie with men.
I too am of opinion that we must
aeeept the truth of this faet. But
Torquemada , f says in his Hexameron,
for the Demon, when aeling ihe part of a Suc-
cubus , to draw from man an unwonted quanlily
of prolifie liquor in order to proereate therefrom
ehildren of higker slatnre; quantityis irrelévant,
sinee all depends, as we have said, upon the
oilality of that liquor, not upon its quantity.
We are bound, therefore, to infer that giants are
born of another semen than man’s, and that,
consequently, the Incubus, for the pttrpose of
generalion, uses a semen which is not man’s.
But wkat, then, are we to say with regard to
this?
"Subject to eorreetion by our Holy Motker
Ckurch, and as a mere expression of prìvate
opìnion, I say that the Incubus, when having
intercourse with women, begets the human
fatus from his own seed.”
- "Incubi.” "Dt Ciuitate Dei ,” XV, 23.
S. Augustine says that there ean be no dotìbt
that the Silvans and Pans, eommonly ealled
Incubi, lust after and kave lain with women;
infaet eertain Celtic spirits, Dusii (quosdam
daemones, quos Drnios Galli nuncupant) are
exceedingly laseivioas and in their lusts eon-
tinaally fornieate and swive. The Holy Dodor
says that this faet is so well established it
were sheer impadenee to deny it.
t "Torquemada.” Antonio Turrecremata,
whose "Jardin de las Flores curiosas,” Sala -
manea, 1570, was translaled into Freneh by
Gabrìel Chappuys as “ Hexameron , ou six
iomnies,” Lyons, 1579. There are also edi-
DiaIogue III, Demons do not perform
this aet for the purpose of raising issue,
or in order to give or reeeive any
plcasure. (PlinyJ says that it is but
ehildish babbling to maintain that the
gods married among themselves, but
that in all those ages no issue was born
to them.) Their purpose is rather, by
the praetiee of such lewdncss, to sinfe
deeper and deeper into iniquity those
whom ihey have onee ensnared. It is
ridiculous, therefore, when they assert
that they are infiucnced by the passion
of love (God save the mark!). Yet it
is true, as will be told elsewhcre (Bk.
II, 2), that they eontraet and eele-
brate marriages with all the adul-
terer’s or rival’s impatienee which is
to be found among men. Nieole
Morèle (at Serre, 20th Jan., 1587)
said that when she had reaehed the
age at which maids are wooed, and
many suitors eame to court her, her
Litde Master§ often beat her cruelly
because she admitted them, ana
threatened her with worse punishment
if she did not refrain from doing so in
the future. And in the witches' Sab-
bats it is a erime (as they nearly all
affirm) to touch, or even lewdly to
solieit, a woman who has been joined
in wedlock to another: so eraftily do
Demons play the part of the jealous
lover. In this connexion Erasmus tells
{Epistolae familiares, XXVII, 20) that
there was a town in Switzcrland ealled
Sehiltaeh which was eompletely
bumed by an evil Demon for no other
reason than that the son of an inn-
tions of 1582, Lyons; 1589, Parìs; 1610,
Rouen. The third day treats of the incubus and
succubus.
X “ Pliny " “Historia Nataralis ,” 11 , 7:
"Matrìmonia quidem inter deos eredi, tantoque
aeuo ex his neminem nasei. . . puerilium prope
deliramentornm est.”
§ "Little Master.” Magistellus. Delrìo,
"Disquisitiones Magieae,” II, xvi, says that
a witch is siimmoned lo the Sabbat, "Euoca-
batur uoce quadam uelut humana ab ipso
damone, quem non uocant daemonem sed Magis-
terulum, aliee Martineltum hunc, siue Mar -
tinellnm.”
20
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. VI.
keeper (from whose house the fiames
began) had won the favour of the
Demon’s mistress: a stoiy which will
be fully narrated in due course.
But tlteir great eare to simulate all
these emotions does but show how far
they are from being true; for never is
there so busy an ostentation of truth
as when it eoneeais a lie, like a snake
hiding in the grass. For wcdlock was
instituted in order to prevent forniea-
tion and for the proereation of ehii-
dren; but, as has been said, this c<annot
apply to Demons, sinee they are
neither attraeted by venereal concu-
iseenee, nor have they any need to
eget ehildren: therefore it must fol-
low that all this matter is a deeeption,
a eontrivanee, a fallaey and a delu-
sion. The truth of this is made the
elearer and more manifest by the faet
that they who maintain the parent-
ship of Demons are nevertheless at
odas with eaeh other when they would
determine the origin, nature and man-
ner of the implied aet: for this dissen-
síon eoneeming one matter is a elear
argumcnt for its falsity. Some main-
tain that such Devils’ progeny is be-
gotten by none but human semen by
those means which I have just dis-
cusscd, namely, by a t apid alternation
of the male and l'emale offiees on the
part of the Demon; and the ehildren
so born they eall Adamitiei, as thoiigh
they deseended in an unbroken line
from Adam like the rest of men ; and
they say that in their infaney such
ehildren ery day and night, and are
heavy but emaeiated, and yet ean suck
five nurses dry; and that these defeets
are due to the impurity and the trans-
ferenee of that semen. (So William of
Paris, De Uniuers, pars ult.) Others,
on the other hand, elaim supcrhuman
powers for such ehildren, and assert
that they possess some attributes of
divinity, such as the aneients used to
aseribe to their heroes, who, aeeording
to Lucian, were held to be neither
ods nor men, but both. Of this we
ave the fbllest proof in what we find
written of the birth of Oastor and
Pollux, Bacchus, Alcxander, Romulus,
Aesculapius, and other such demi-
gods: that they were begotten by those
who wcrc at that time ealled gods, but
we eall Demons, who hid themselves
in an assiimed shape and so embraeed
the mothers of these men. And the
witchcs of our day assert that this is
still easily aeeomplished by Incubus
Devils, and that they are no less en-
dowed with the requisite powers of
proereation.
It may be argued that such a elaim
is a mere invention, evolved for the
sole purpose of hiding the shame of
the mothers; sinee it w r ould have dis-
graeed nobly born women if they had
admitted their adulteries, ineests and
obseenities; and, moreover, that it
would have been unsecmly to asperse
with any evil pollution the birth of
men so famous and pre-eminent in
both war and peaee, who so well
ser\'ed their country by their labours
and their heroie deeds. Yet even to
this day nearly all men show by their
speeeh and their thoughts that they
tnily and firmly believe in the pro-
ereation of men by Demons; and they
think that their strongest and most
unassailable proof lies in the faet that
they ean point to eertain women who
have lain with Demons and have given
birth to deformed and portentous
monsters, such as have been noted by
Gardan (De rerum uarietate, XVI. 39)
in Seotland, by Levin Lemne* iDe
Miraailis Oeailtis Naturae, I, 8) in Bel-
gium, and more than onee by our-
selves in Lorraine during our examina-
tions of witches. But this argument
ean easily be refutedf by anyone who
eares to probe and delve more deeply
into the whole matter. For, as IJlpian
- “Levin Lemne.” The eelebrated Dutck
philosopher, born at ^iriehsee, ^eland, in /505.
He died there in 1568. A diseiple of Oonrad
Gesner, he long praetised medieine in his native
town.
| “ This argument ean easily be refited."
It may be remarked that the leading authorities
do not agree with Remy.
BK. I. CH. VI. DEMONOLATRY 21
says (In l. ostentiim, De iierbomm signifi-
eatione), phenomena of thb sort are
against natnre; and I take him to
mean by this that they are disaeeor-
dant with the eommon laws of nature.
For either they exceed the measure
preseribed by naturc with superfluous
and extravagant limbs, as whcn one is
born with three hands or, maybe,
three feet or in some other part of the
body is endowed in a pretcrnatural
manner. Such was the enild of which
Ammianus Marcellinus ( Remm gesta-
mm Bk. XIX) reeords the birth at
Daphne, a fair and progressive suburb
of Antioeh, which had two mouths,
two sets of teeth, a long beard, and
four eyes. And in our own time many
ehildren have been born with two
heads, with six fmgers, with two
bodies, and with other limbs dupli-
eated in a marvellous manner. Or
else, on the eontrary, they are laeking
in the neeessary and usual equipment
of the human body. Such was that
shapeless mass like a palpitating
sponge or marine zoophyte with every
evidenee of life, which Levin Lemne
says (De Miraadis Oeenltis Jíatnrae, I, 8)
an island woman brought to birth not
long sinee in Lower Germany. I need
not here mention the Monoseeli* who
had but one leg, the headless Blemmyi,
and the Arimaspi who had one eye in
their foreheads, of whom we are told
- “ Monoseeli .” Better “ Monoeoli," t±ovó-
Kui\.os. Pliny, VII, 2: “homintm genus, qui
Monoeoli uocarenlur, singulìs cruribus, mirae
pernieitatis ad sallumAnltts Gellitts, IX,
iv, 9, “ltem esse in montibiis terrae Indiae
. . . homines qui monoeoli appellantitr, singu!is
cruribus saltiiatim currentes, uiuacissimae per-
nieitalis: quosdam etiam esse nullis eemieibiis,
oealos in kumeris habentes." The Blemmyae
wtre Ethiopians. Pliny, V, 8: “Blemmyis
traduntur eapita abesse, ore et oatlis peetori
adfixis."
The Arimaspi tvere snpposed tobea Seythian
people of JVorlhern Eurojje. Pliny, VII, 2, says
they lived "haud procul ab ipso Aquilonis
exortu." They were "uno oculo in fronle media
insignes, quibus assidue bellum esse eirea metalla
cum gryphis."
by Pliny (VII, 2 and V, 8): for the
parentage of such ereatnres is said to
have been known; but their shape
and appearanre was so depraved and
hideous that their very foulncss and
ugliness struck the beholder with hor-
ror. Christianus Massaeust ( Ohronieon,
Bk. XX) writes of one such which was
observed not many days before the
saek of Ravenna; namely, a her-
maphrodite ehild with one horn pro-
jeeting from its forehead, with arms
like wings, an eye in its knee, the feet
of a hawk, and marked upon the
breast with these marks—V The
following example is no less astound-
ing, for Levin (loeo supra eitato) testifies
that he himself saw it. It had a hooked
beak, a long smooth neek, quivering
eyes, a pointed tail, a strident voiee,
and very swift feet upon which it ran
rapidly to and fro as if seeking for
some hiding-plaee in its stable.
But nobody, who is amenable to the
proeesses of reasoning which always
earry the most weight in this kind of
argument, will fail to agree readily
that all these creatures, in respeet of
the formation of their animal bodies,
owe their ineeption to the same causes
which actuate Nature in her under-
taking of other matters. I shall leave
out of account the duplications and
superfluities of parts of the body; for
such eases eome under less suspicion
of being the result of eamal relation
with Demons, sinee it is agreed that
they are due to an excessive abun-
danee of semen, and there is nothing
monstrous in their anatomy; and I
shall base my argument upon that
shapeless and unfinished mass which
I have mentioned. Not even among
physieians is there any doubt that this
was begotten in the natural manner:
they only differ in their opinion of
the cause of its deformity. For some
aseribe it to a malformation of the
womb; some to unclean and evilly
■f "Christianus Massaeas." Chionicorum
multiplicis kistoriae utriusque testamenti . . .
libri i liginti, Antwerp,folio, 1540.
22
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. VI.
infeeted semen; some to the influence
of the stars and the heavens, and
espeeially that silent quarter of the
moon which Varro ealls intermen-
strual ;* while others arguc that it was
due to other natural causes; and any
one of those causes, or all of them
together, would prevent the ehild
from being bom with a normal and
proper boay. Others again argoe that
ìt is due to the lustful imagination of a
pruricnt woman without copu!ation
with any man, by means of which it
is possible for such abnormalities to be
brought to birth. For without the eo-
operation of a eoek, hens ean lay eggs;
but bccause of that defieieney tiiey
will not quicken, however long they
are incubated, but rather beeome
rotten.
Whatever may be the truth of it, I
have never yet heard any suggestion
made that a fcetus of this sort origin-
ates from nature, and not from
Demons. For even honest matrons,
far from the least suspicion of such
execrable copu]ation, have often been
known to give birth to such a ehild.
And, on the other hand, witches who
are said to have daily eamal relations
with Demons often bear ehildren eom-
plete with every natural attribute and
absolutely perfeet.
Now with regard to those horrifie
infants which, as soon as ever they see
the light, are manifestlv fearsome by
reason of their eries ana twistings and
appearanee, which are of the sort
f opiilarly aseribed to Demons; it may
e urgcd that there is much to support
the opinion that they are begotten by
Demons. Yet Euripides in his Eleetra
says:
“There is no birth but Nature is its
mother.”
But if the operative causcs be a little
more carefully examined, it will be
found that there is nothing in them
- “Intermenstnial." Intermenstruum: “the
time of the new moon." Varro, “De Re
Rìistiea," 1 , 37, 7.
which Naturc may not acknowledgc
as her own work. For it is apparent
that Nature uses a very large variety
in her moiilding of mankind espe-
eially; to such an cxtcnt that of all
men living it would be hard to find
two who are absoIutely alike in
features and habits, even if they be
born together at one birth. This was
elearly proved of old in the ease of
Esau and jaeob. No physieian wou!d
jump to the conclusion that this is due
to some quaJity in the semen, as if
Nature should bring forth such utterly
diflerent effeets from one and the same
cause; for, on the eontrary (as Cicero
says in his and his Laelius%), the
way of Nature is always simple, ever
aiming at and striving for umformity.
Then to what sufficicntly probable
cause ean we aseribe this great variety ?
There has been great prolixity of argu-
ment about it, but it has been gener-
ally agreed that it must be ehiefly
referable to the mother’s imagination.
And in this point it should be noted
what the Scriptures say eoneerning
jaeob ( Genesis xxx. 38). He bargained
with his father-in-law Laban that he
should have for his own all those sheep
which were spotted or speekled; and
in order that as many as possible
should be born of that sort, wnen the
sheep eame down to drink he set rods
of poplar and almond and plane tree
upon which he had peeled white
bands; so that by eonstant gazing at
these the senses of the sheep sliould be
affeeted, and the Iambs which werc to
be born should take the imprint of
those rods. And this wariness was not
in vain; for nearly all those sheep gave
birth to spotted lambs, although tliere
was not one such ram in the wholc
floek. This proved diserepaney, there-
fore, was not duc to any ìntrinsie pro-
perty of the semen, but to the images
ofthe rods operating extrinsically. llut
f “ Cato." “Cato Maior seu DeSenectute,"
33: “ Una tiia natarae eaque simplex."
% “ Laelim .” “Laelìus siue De Amieitia,"
IX, 32: “Natura mulari non potest."
BK. I. CH. VI.
DEMONOLATRY
if Nature allows such foree and faculty
to mere brute animals which have no
power of thought, what ean we cxpcct
ín the ease of mankind whose mind is,
as Plato says, àeucl\mros, which
Gieero* ( Ttisailanamm Dispntatiomm ,
I. 22) interprets as meaning “always
moving itself, always doing something,
never free from agitation even in
sleep”? For in sleep man’s mind is
troub!cd by visions of his deeds and
thoughts whilst he was awake (Maero-
bius\ Liber 1, In Somniam Seipionis, eap.
3). I think it was for this reason that
PlinyJ (VII, 12) said that there were
more difierenees among men than
arriong all the other animals; sinee
their swiftness of thought, their mental
agility and variety in eontrivanee must
set many distinetive marks upon them:
whcreas the minds of the other animals
are inert, and eaeh one is like every
other of its kind. And although
Leonard Vair,§ in his treatise On In-
eantations (II, 7), argues that the
variety of spots upon jaeob’s sheep
was <íue to the seeret might of the
Divine will rather than to the infiu-
enee of the striped rods, yet if the very
truth of the story be carefully eon-
sidered it must obviously prove him to
be in error. For if God had intended
to bring this thing about, what need
would there have been to usc those
- “ Cicero“Titsatlanartim Disputatio-
mm," /, 22: “ Aristoteles . . . ipsum animum,
lrrt\f)(tiav appellat nouo nomine, quasi
quamdam eonlinmtam molionem et perennem.”
| "Macrobìus.” “In Somniam Seipionis,”
1 ,3: l 'Cura oppressi animi eorporistie siue for -
tunae, qualis uigilantem faligaiierat lalem se
ingerit dormienti.”
t “ Pliny” “Historia Natmalis,” VII,
12: ”PIures in homine, quam in eeteris omnibus
animalibtis differentiae, quoniam uelocitas eogi-
tatioman, animique eeleritas, et ingenii narietas
mulliformes notas imprimat: cum eeteris ani-
mantibus immobiles sint animi, et similes
omnibtis, singulisque in suo cuique genere.”
§ “Leonard Vair.” Dorn at Benevenlo, of
Spanishdeseent, eirea 1540-, Diskop of Pozzaoli,
ivhere he died in 1603. His “De Faseino, Libri
III,” Paris, 1583; Venetiis aptid Aldivin,
1583, i* a tvork of singnlar ertidition.
23
rods as a sort of means or instrument
of His work, which there is little doubt
that Hc bases upon purely natural
causcs? Indeed, Vair is hoLst with his
own petard; for he forthwith praises
the opinion of S. Augustine to the
eontrary (De Ciuitate Det, XII) and, in
the 20th ehapter of his great book he
adduces argumcnts agamst such an
opinion, wherc he says that by means
of those variegated rods jaeob de-
frauded his father-in-law of a great
part of his floeks and causcd him not-
able loss; and he adds that it is cus-
tomary to plaee before sitting hens
those colours with which we wish the
ehieks to be marked; and this pre-
caution and forethought is most largely
exercised by those who take eare for
their ehildren by seeing that the bed
of eonfìnement shall have no pictures
or deeorations except such as are de-
eent and ennobling. For Pliny says
(VII, 12) that the mind is very reten-
tive of such images, and that much
that is popularly aseribed to mere
ehanee is due to the influence of things
seen, heard, remembered or imagined
at the actual time of eoneeption.
Plutarch (De plae. philos. V, 12) says
that many women have been known
to give birth to ehildren resembling
those pictures and statues in which
they had taken pleasure.
Now I do not understand this to
mean that every individual must
neeessarily derive his appearanee and
eharaetensties from sucn a cause. For
the operation of Nature’s laws is shown
by tne faet that we find the fcatures,
mannerisms, voiee, gait, and even the
stature of the parents reappearing not
only in their ehildren but in their
grandehildren after the lapse of many
years. Often they have a distinetive
mark on some part of their bodies
pcculiar to their family: as the sons
and grandsons of Scleucius had an
anehor on the thigh (Justin,|| XV);
|| “ Juslin “ Hisloriae ,” XV, iv:
l, Figura anehorae, quae in femore Seletieì nala
cum ipso paruulo fuit.”
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. VI.
24
and it is said that the Daeians (Pliny,* * * §
VII, 11) even to the fourth generation
had on the arm a elear mark belonging
to their raee. At Bergamo (Historia
Venetiomm) the males of the family of
the Golleoni vvere peculiar in that
most of them wcrc bom with three
testieles, a feature which was excel-
lently cxemplified in the famous Bar-
tolomeo Golleoni, whose equestrian
statue still stands at Veniee before the
Ghurch ofSS. Giovanni e Paolo;f and
for that reason the family still uses the
seal and symbol of three blaek testieles.
In the family of the Lepidi (PIiny,J
VII, 12) three were at different times
born with a inembrane over the eye.
There is the undoubted instanee of
Nicacus,§ a member of a noble family
of Byzantium, who was born through
his mother’s adultery with an Ethio-
pian; and although he was quite free
lìrom any c.olour, his son was a pure
Ethiopian. Similar to this is Plutarch’s
instanee of a Greek woman who gave
birth to a blaek ehild and was there-
fore eonvieted of adultery; but it was
found that she was deseended in the
- ‘Thny:' “Historia NatnralisJ' VII, xi:
l, Quarto partu Daeontm originis nota in
braehio reddititr
t “SS. Giovanni e PaoloThe efmreh,
better known as San Janipolo, was built 1246-
1390 and belongs to the Dominieans. Tke
famotis slalne of Bartolomeo Colleoni, the
seeond equestrian statue raised in Italy after
the tevival of the arts, was designed and
modelled by Andrea Verroehio and east in 1496
by Alessandro Leopardi.
Colei (coleus = *oÀeos, Ion. «ovX<o?) are
the testieles, as in the “Priapeia,” xxviii:
“ Sed quum tu, posito, deus, pudore,
Ostendas mihi eoleos patentes,
Cum eimno miki mentida est uocanda .”
Tke great Italian humanist Franeeseo Filefo
U^S-i^8i) frequently boasted that he was
TfMÓpOT-
t “Pliny.” “Historia Natnraiis," VII,
12: ‘Tn Lepidornm gente tres, intermisso
ordine, obducto membrana oculo, genilos aeei-
pimus."
§ “ Nieaern .” This is from Pliny, “ His -
toria Natmalis," VII, 12.
fourth degree from an Ethiopian. The
ehildren of a soreeress of Nisibis|| had
on their bodies the mark of a spear,
the symbol of the Spartans; and this,
in spite of the great lapse of time, gave
rise to a eonvietion that she was
deseended from a very noble family.
Now whcn a ehild is born with some
liideous deformity which distinguishes
it from normal human appearanee,
this generally proeeeds from some such
cxcessive aetivity of the imagination
as we have mentioned. For if a woman
reeeives a strong mental impression
and dwells deepíy upon it, either at
the time of eoneeption or some time
durine gestation, the image of that
thought will generally be imprinted
upon her ehila: if she fìxedly eoneen-
trates her attention upon some real or
wished-for objeet, the rcsult is that her
vital essenees are affeeted by it, and
its image is transferred to and im-
printed upon the ehild in her womb.
rlutarch (De plae. pkilos. V, 12) quotes
Empedodes to the effeet that a ehild
is fashioned in the likeness of some
objeet seen at the time of eoneeption;
and the truth of this is fully proved by
instanees given by trustworthy writers.
Heliodorus, 1 | Bishop of Trieea, in his
II “NisibisOr Nesebis (now Nisibin);
also Antioehia Mygdoniae, a eelebraled eity of
Mesopotamia, and the eapital of Mygdonia.
It was of great importanee as a military post,
often being taken and recaptured. Finally it
feU into the hands of the Persians in tfie reign
of Jovian.
H “ Heliodorus .” The idenlifieation of
Heliodorm, the anthor of “Theagenes and
eharielea," with Heliodoms, Bishop of
Trieea in Thessaly,founded upon a passage in
Soerates, the eeelesiaslieal historian, has been
disputed. There is, however, no reason why
Rhode should be followed in this groundless
svggestion. On the other hand, the statement
of Nieephoms Callistus (who died about 1330)
in his “Eeelesiastieal History," that Helio -
dorus was bidden repudiate his romanee or
resign his see, and ehose the lalter altemative,
is just a fable.
The picture which had so great an effieet
upon Persina, the mother of Chariclea, was not
BK. I. CH. VI.
DEMONOLATRY
Historia Aethiopiea, (j AiduomKÍuv fiifìÁía
8 f*a), relates a story which, though it
may be mere fietion, yet bears the
mark of truth and is in aeeordanee
with all the probabilities. He says that
an Ethiopian woman freed her hus-
band of all scruplcs in acknowledging
his daughter Chariclea when she tola
him that she had had a picture of
Andromaehe before her eyes at the
time that she fulfilled her wifely func-
tion; and the hnsband, who was a
most keen-witted man, did not rejeet
this as a reason for his daughter’s,
whiteness, which was eontrary to
nature and to the use of the country.
The story of Marcus Damaseene is
well known, of the woman who gave
birth to a ehild bristling with eamel’s
hair, for no other reason than that, in
the aet of proereation, she had gazed
upon a picture of S. John the Baptist.
It was for this cause that, when his
nieee had given birth to a somewhat
hairy ehild, Pope Nieolas III* by an
ediet ordered the removal of all the
pictures in Rome (Guillaume de Paris,
Ckronicon Sabaiidiae, 46). Another man
at Hertogenboseh, as Vair tells in
Book I, ehap. 1-2, De Incantationibus ,
had been aeting the part of a demon in
a Miraele and had not yet removed
his mask, ehaneed to meet his wife
and, impatient of further delay, em-
braeed her: she then beeame pregnant
and gave birth to a ehild similar in
appearanee to her husband, upon
whom she had elosely gazed during
their embraees. It is told of a eertain
King Cippus| that horns grew out of
0/ Andromaehe (as Remy writes by a slip) but
of Andromeda. At the hour of reeognition it
was produced, and King Hydaspes is amply
eonvineed of the identity of his dasighler.
• “Pope Nieolas III." Giovanni Gaetani
Orsini, born at Rome eirea 1216; eleeled at
Viterbo, 25 November, t2yy; died at Soriano,
near Vilerbo, 22 August, 1280.
t “KingC.ippus.” This is related by Diego
Mexia, a Spanish writer of Seville, wno dwelt
long in Peru and did much to help and stablish
earíy Peruvian literature. Translated into
Freneh, “Les diverses legons de Pierre Messie,
his forehead as he was sleeping, be-
cause his mind was too deeply exer-
eised in dreams with some oxen in
which he had been interested during
the day. A young Spaniard named
Diego Ozorio went grey-headed in a
single night becausc he was fated to
die on the following day. And al-
though I know that these instanees
will appear to many ineredible, yet I
have thought fit to mention them so
that, through rough and thorny plaees,
a smooth and easier way may be pre-
pared towards the truth.
In view of the above examples of tlie
power of imagination, what should
hinder us from eonfidently aseribing
to the infiuence of sight those hideous
births aeeomplished by Nature; as
when, either at the time of eoneep-
tion or during pregnaney, women may
study too eagerly the picturc of some
Cacodemon such as may be seen in
paintings of S. Michael,t S. Epvrc,§
S. Antony|| and others? And therefore
the gTeat jurists in their legal writings
gentil-homme de Seuille ,” were immensely
popular. Published at Paris in 1556, afourth
and eomplete edition was issued al Tournon
in 16/6. The present referenee is to Livre II, 7.
£ “S. Miehael." Who is generally repre-
sented ensshing the fiend, as in the pictures by
Raphael, Guido Reni, Martin Sehoen, Signor-
elli, and other great masters.
§ “ S. Epore.” Or S. Avre. S. Aper, Bis-
hop of Toul, 500-503. This Saint, whose
feastfalls on 15 September, was eelebratedfor
his power ooer demons and loeally is held in the
highest veneration. The see of Naney is, as it
were, the heir of the aneient see of Toul. Upon
the Plaee de la Carrière, Naney, is the modern
ehareh of S. Epvre, built in a Golhie style by
Pierre Morey. The interior is very rieh in
deeoration.
|| “S. Antony.” S. An/ony Eremita, the
Great. He is invoked as a parlicular proteetor
against evil spirits. The Temptation of S.
Antony has been the subject of a vasl mmber
of paintings, some of most weird and feaftil
power. There are pietares by Martin Sehoen,
Teniers (who painted this seene lwelve times),
Breughel, Gallot, Ribera, Salvator Rosa,
C.aracci, isaae van Meehelen, and many other
artists.
D EM O NOLATRY
BK. X. CH. VI.
26
seem to excuse women of such a mis-
fortune, as being due to fate and not
their own fault. But if a picture ean
effeet such a result, much more will
the actual presenee of a Demon. And
it has been elearly enough shown that
Demons are often visibly present to
witches in one form or another.
Therefore it should not seem wonder-
ful that they at times give birth to
ehildren of such prodigious deformity*
(although I find that this has only
rarely happened).
A harder matter to understand is
the horrid harsh hissing which such
infants utter instead of wailing, their
headlong gait and their manner of
searehing into hidden plaees: for none
of those things ean be caused by any
silent picture devoid of sense or
motion, which affeets the sight only,
and not any of the other senses in such
a way as to influence the embryo.
Here we must eonfess that the Demons
aetively interfere and, for the most
part, enter either the mothers or their
unbom ehildren and endue them with
powers that are altogether super-
natural. This question we deal with
later, whcn we discuss their supposed
power of metamorphosis (II, 5).
Granted the above premises and
postulates, it is not, I thmk, absurd to
say that the birth of such monstroiis
and deformed ehildren is duc to the
- “prodigioní deformily .” For ihe qutslion
ivhether ehildren ean be generated by eopidation
wiih InetibtiS or Succubus deoils see Guazzo,
“Compendium Malefieamm ” ( Rodker, 1929),
I, ehap. xi. As this great authority says, there
ean be no doubt that a witch may bear a ehild
from connexion with an Incubus devil, and all
arguments lo the eontrary are vain and emply.
Dr. Haveloek Ellis has treated in detail the
Psyehie State in Pregnaney and the pre-natal
impressions of the woman in his “Erotie Sym-
bolism ,” being volume V of the “Studies in
the Psyehology of Sex." He tells us that “a
large mmber of eases of fatal deformities, sup-
posed to be due to maternal impressions, eannot
possibly be so caused. Many authorities have
absolntely denied the reality of matemal im-
pressions.”
faet that, at the eoneeption or during
the formation of the ehild, its mother
has had frequent intercourse with a
Demon, the sight of whom has so
strongly worked upon her imagination
as to affeet the appearanee of the
ehild. As for their savage mteranee
and their unnatural gait and running
about, these are altogether from the
Demon who, independently of the
mother’s wili, has entered into the
living ehild in the womb or into such
as are untimely bom through abor-
tion. And this, as Alexander ab Alex-
andro says ( Genialinm dierum, II, 25,
and V, 27), is the reason why such
infants were formerly thrown into a
river or the sea, or else banished to the
ends of the earth. And at the present
time the Church eonsiders them unfit
to reeeive Christian baptism,| and we
take eare ito smother them to death as
soon as they are bom; doubtless be-
cause they earry suspicion of the hid-
den presenee of a Demon Iurking
within them.
It is, then, most eertain that such
are the issue of men, not of Demons,
even though their shape and entire
eomposition may seem hardly human.
Cicero says ( De jìnibus bon. & mai, I)
that to understand the nature of any-
thing, two points are to be eonsidered:
first, the material from which a thing
is made; seeond, the foree by which it
is made. Now both of these are in the
eontrol of man, whereas neither of
them is at the effeetive eommand of a
Demon in the matter of such proerea-
tion. It is useless for eertain men of
ill-employed leisure to maintain to us
■(■ “unfit to reeeive ehristìan bapiismThis
is elean eontrary to the Church's teaehing. 'The
following mbries are from Ihe “Rituale
Romarnm“In monstris uero baptizandis, si
casus euenial, magna caulio adhibenda est: de
quo jí opus fuerit Ordinariiis loei, uel alii
perili consulanlur, nisi morlis pcriculum im-
mineal.
“ Monstmm, quod humanam speeiem non
prae se ferat, baptizari non debet: de quo, si
dubium fuerit, baptizetur sub hae eonditìone:
- Si tu es homo, ego te baptizo, ete* ”
BK. 1. CH. VII.
DEMONOLATRV
27
that such geminate and hybrid births
are due to external and adventitious
causes. In short, to return to the point
from which we digressed, there seems
more truth in the opinion of those who
deny that such proereation is due to
the borrowing (if I may so eall it) of
semen by Demons. Yet I know that
the eontrary opinion is held by many
Iearned authors with whom it wouId
seem rash to disagree if this were a
guestion of religion or saered matters;
but sinee it does not touch the prin-
eiples of faith, and even the Fathers
treat the matter as pureiy problemati-
eal, I do not think that I have at al!
plaeed my orthodoxy in question by a
free exposition of the reasons which
have led me to favour one opinion
rather than any other.
☆
CHAPTER VII
That Demons eondense for themselves a
Body out of some Matter and assttme the
Shapes of various Living Tkings; and at
times even take a Human Shape, but of a
Low and Depraved Countenance, and
always with their Hands and Feet liooked
and bent like Birds of Prey.
EMONS are by nature ineor-
poreal ( Psalm eiv, 4; * and
Hebrews i. 7); but it was agreed even
by the Platonists that they ean for a
time assume and make use of a body
eondensed out of the air or from some
grosser matter; and S. Augustine, in
his De Natura Daemomm, does not deny
that he is of the same opinion. S. Basii
also, on Isaiah x, writes that the bodies
of Demons are sometimes of air and
sometimes of fire, and often eom-
pounded of both these elements: there
ean, indeed, be no doubt that the
Demons take upon themselves just that
kind of eonerete body which answers
- “ Psalm " eiv , 4. “ Who makelh his
angels spiritsivhieh is quoted in (he “Epislle
to the Hebrews,” i. 7.
the particular purposc which they
have in view; and their different
shapes and appearanees may be said
to be as limidess as those adopted by
Proteus in his various forms. For just
as the exhalations of the earth form
themselves into elonds which, whcn
shaken by the winds, take an infinite
variety of shapes; so also do the
Demons, by means of their fluency and
rapid dexterity, shape their bodies
from a eonerete eondensation of air
and vapours into whatever form they
desire. S. Basil again, on Isaiah ii, says
that they often freakishly infest men
in the form of a eat or a fly or a dog
Iamblicus (De Mysteriis Áegyptiorvm)
and Psellus (De Daemonibns) write that
it is not possible to compute the
various forms in which they busy
themselves: for now they will eonfme
themselves within the very smallest of
bodies, and now dilate themselves into
monstrous size; sometimes they appear
as men, sometimes as women; they
will roar like lions, or leap like pan-
thers, or bark like dogs; and at times
will transform themselves into the
shape of a wine-skin or some other
vessel. Alvarado à Minues, Oviedo,
and those who have written of the
customs of the West Indians, testify to
very frequent meetings with Demons
appearing now in the shape of one
animal, now in that of another. And
here it is worth while to set down the
various shapes and forms in which
they have manifested themselves to the
witches of our own time.
At Serre, on the I9thjanuary, 1584,
Nieole Morèle avowed that, when her
Little Master visited her in prison, he
appeared in the shape and form either
oí a bird flying in by the window, or
of a hare or mouse running around, or
finally of a man by whom she was
defiled. Jeanne Gerardine, at Pagny-
sur-Moselle on the 23rd November,
1584, said that he likewise appeared
to her in prison in the shape of a blaek
dog. A woman ealled Lasnier of
Naney answered that she had seen
him in the likeness of a erab, when I
28
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. VII.
questioncd her as Examining Magis-
trate eoneerning the depositions of the
witnesses. Nearly all the vvomen ap-
prehended throughout the whole vvide
provinee of Lorraine have admitted
that the Demon uscd to visit them by
night, ereeping through the vvindovv
bars in the form of a eat or some other
small beast. In faet there is no animal
vvhose shape they do not at times
usurp, vvhen they are setting their
snares and plotting their sehemes: yet,
as the Abbot John Trithemius* ob-
serves, there is no shape vvhieh tliey
more readily assumc than that of man,
sinee that ìs the most eonvenient in
vvhieh to meet and eonverse vvith their
subjects.
And herein is most wondcrfully
manifesled the loving-kindness of God
tovvards vvretehed mortals: for Demons
ean never so eompletely ape the
human shape but that the deeeption
is apparent to even the most stupid.
Either their countcnancc is of a hide-
ous foulness; or their hands and feet
are distorted and hooked vvith elavvs
like those of obseene vultures; or else
they are conspicuous by reason of some
evident mark vvhieh betrays the savage-
ness of their nature. Johann Fiseher at
Gerbeville on the 4th May, 1585;
Hennezel, at Vergaville on the 5th
June, 1586; Salome, at the same plaee
on the 27th August, 1586; Catharine
Balandré, at Harberg on the 3rd
Deeember, 1584; Nieole Ganater, at
Meinfeld on the 8th July, 1585; Sennel
of Armentières, at Dieuze on the 30tli
September, 1587; and Jeanne Gerar-
dine, at Pagny-sur-Moselle on the 24th
November, 1584, affirmed that they
had often observed their Little Masters
eareffilly and attentively vvhen they
had appeared to eonverse vvith them,
and had notieed that their features
alvvays appeared dark and obscure,
- “Abbot TrithemimThis famoiis
Benedietine seholar was born at Trittenheim on
the Moselle, 1 February , 1462; and died at
Wiirzburg , s^Deeember, 1516. Ofhis more than
eighty ivorks only a part have appeared inprint.
and shapeless (a eharaeteristie noted
by Jornandes of the Huns, vvho are
said to be deseended from Incubus
Demons); that their eyes vvere deep
set, yet flashing like flames; that the
opening of their mouths vvas vvide and
deep, and alvvays gave forth a sulphur-
ous smell; that their hands vvere thin
and deformed vvith hairs and talons;
their feet of horn and eloven; their
slature never in proportion, but alvvays
unnaturally small or great; and that
they vvere in all respeets out of due
measiirement. Alexcc Bclhcure, at
Blainville on the i6th January, 1587,
added that she had sometimes seen
her Demon appear without a head, or
with one foot missing, whcn she joined
vvith her eompanions in their noctur-
nal danees.
This brings to my mind the rumour
vvhieh, in my ehildhood, was spread
eoneerning eertain hobgoblins vvhieh
werc said to be seen often daneing at
night at the eross-roads, and were
ealled "La mequie Hermequìnf\ that is
- il Hennequin.” Much folk-lore and tradi -
tion, old and new, are galhered aronnd this
goblin host. The word itself occurs in an exlra-
ordinary variety of forms, amongst the more
eemmon of which are ‘‘herleyain,” “ herlekin ,”
“ hierlekin ,” “ hellcquin ,” and “hellekinIn
the “Miraele de Saint Eloi” the name Herlaken
seems to be used as a synonym for Salan in the
phrase “par le eonsel de Herlaken.” This
form still survives in some remoter piovineial
distriets of Franee as a term for the will-o'-
the-wisp, and in Dorsetshire “ harliean ” de-
notes a tronblesome imp or fidgety yoangster.
In Old Freneh poems and romanees the name
der.otes a ghostly being who was the leader of
the shadowy liosts of the dead. In the thirteenth
cenlury Freneh ivriters speak of “La maisnie
Hierlikin ” or “La maisnie Helequin ” to de-
seribe a random rout of phantoms or evil spirits
who rode abroad on stormy nights in tvild
eavaleade. In Holland Hellekin is still the
wild hunter, so familiar from German tales,
who scours the darkling air with his fearfuL
paek. Waller Map speaks of a troop of night-
wanderers, ealled Herlethingi (6halanges noeti-
uage quas Herlethingi dieebant), amongst
whom "there appeared alive many who were
known to have been long sinee dead.” He says
BK. I. GH. VIII.
DEMONOLATRY
29
the Hellequin family. For vvriters of
repute have reeorded that the Helle-
quins traeed their origin to Incubus
Demons; but we have already dis-
cussed whether such a elaim is right or
wrong. It is, however, a faet that even
among the aneients Heeate* was be-
lieved to go on one foot, as has been
amply deseribed and discussed by the
eommentators on Aristophanes and
Homer; and she appearetl not only
during the night-time, but very often
also at noontide,f espeeially when
saerifiees were offered to the shades of
the dead. I do not know whether this
may rightly be referred to the passage
in the Psalrn (xci. 6) whcrc it speaks
of the Destmetion that wastcth at
noonday; though there are some who
think that by this is meant Demons
who transform themselves into angels
of light, or of noonday. But it will be
shown later (Bk. I. ehap. 14) that the
Demons do perform their danees even
at noonday. And more will be said in
its due plaee (I. 23) eoneerning their
thousand variations.
that eompanies of these troops “were very well
known in England even to the present day, the
reign of our À'ing Henry II," and he tells of a
host of Herlethingi who were seen in the
Marshes of Hereford and Wales in 1154.
Oderiens Vitalis, “Eeelesiastieal History,”
VIII, e. iy, has an account of a priest named
lYakelin, who, in January 1001, saw at Bon-
neval a eompany of Harlequin (“ Herle-
Kingi”), including many knighls, ladies and
eeelesiasties long sinee dead. See “The Vam-
pirt in Europe ” by Montague Sammers, ehap-
ter ii, pp. 97-98. They are oflen eonneeted
with a mythieal Herla, “a King of the Brilons
in the old old time ” of whom Mapes tells.
- “ Heeate.” See “ The Geography of
WitchcraJÌ,” by Monlaguc Sammers, pp. 6-8.
The Emptisa was 'Ovoanthís, ’Ovax<L\i]. Aris-
tophanes, “ Ranae,” 293; “ Eedesiazasae,”
1056.
f “ Noonlide .” The Herlethingi who were
seen on the Welsh borders of Herefordshire ap-
peared al noon, which was remarked as extra-
ordinary. Leone Allaeei tells of a vampire in
the island of Chios who appeared at midday in
the fields on the high-roads. “ The Vampire in
Etirope,” ehapter io.
CHAPTER VIII
That Demons use the Speeeh of the YVomen
ivith whom they Converse; biit their lJtter-
anee is indistinet, thin, ani a hoarse
muffled Murmur.
LTHOUGH, as we have already
said in the first ehapter of this
Book, the Devil works ehiefly by subtlc
and seeret ways to drive men to sin,
yet at times he employs for this pur-
pose the power of speeeh such as men
use in their intcrcoursc with eaeh
other; espeeially when he is seheming
to bind men to him by a formal eon-
traet in the paet of witchcraft. For
this is no ordinary and momentary
desertion to the Devil, like our lapses
into sin due to human frailty: it is a
doaimentary making over of our-
selves, in the same manner as master
and servant enter into an agreement
legally expressed in set terms and eon-
ditions of authority and obedienee.
For íhis reason a personal meeting and
eonversation is needed in order that
eaeh party may ratify such a paet.
It has already been shown that the
Devii often manifests himself to man
in human shape. It will be no less easy
to believe that he also holds voeal
intercourse with men. For if he ean
form for himself a human shape out of
eondensed air, what is to prevent him
from making use of the vibrations of
the same matter to countcrfeit the
human voiee? For by the reeeption
and repercussion of such vibrations,
even valleys often repeat and very
articulately imitate the voiee. This
faet, indeed, led the aneients in their
ignoranee to regard eertain statucs,
oaks and eaverns as their oraeles.
Apollonius (aeeording to the Life by
Philostratus, VI, 4) says that they
aseribed the power of speeeh to the
statue of Memnon at the moment
whcn the sun touchcd its lips, as it did
at its rising. Nieephoms GregorasJ in
X “Nieephones Gregoras." A Bygantine
historian, eirea 1293-1339. His work is in
thirly-eight books, eommeneing with the
1
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. VUI.
3 °
his Byzantine History , Bk. V, says:
“There are those who believe that eer-
tain Spirits, both good and evil, ae-
quaint mankind with a knowledge of
tne future by means of a voiee formed
out of the air and sensibly sounding in
the ears of men.’* Ana just as the
sounds of the voeal or^ans ean be re-
produced in their various tones and
aeeents merely by the eontrol of the
vibrations of a eomb (as Juvenal*
says); so also, thanks to their skill in
illasions, do the Demons, without
tonguc or palate or any functioning
of theii' throat or sides or lungs, inform
the air with any speeeh or idiom they
please. Those who formerly inhabited
Greeee (says Pscllus in his De Daemon-
ibus) gave their replies in the heroie
manner: those among the Ohaldaeans
uscd the speeeh of the Ohaldaeans: in
Egypt they spoke Egyptian; and when
those who lived in Armenia migrated
to other parts, they used the vcrnacu-
lar tonguc of the inhabitants.
And still to this day witches affirm
that their Little Masters speak to them
in their own tonguc as náturally and
idiomatieally as one who has never
left his native country; and that they
even take upon themselves names in
eommon use in the vernacular speeeh.
Margaret Luodman, at Vergavalle on
the 22nd January, 1587, said that her
Familiar’s name was Ungluck, that is
Misehanee: Sybilla Haar, at the same
plaee on the i4th November, 1586,
said that hers was named MnehLeid,
that is Harmful: that of Oatharine
Haffner, as she said at the same plaee
on the 25th September, 1586, was
Tzum Walt Vliegen, that is Flying-to-
the-Woods; ana Alexia Bernhard, at
Guermingcn on the 25th January,
1590, gave the name Feder Wusch, that
eaptme of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204
and eonehiding with the year /359. Tiventy -
four books have been printed eontaining the
period 1204 to 1351. Edited by Sehopen, Bonn,
/S29.
- “ JavenalVI, 381: “erispo numerantur
peetine ehordae."
is Feather-wipcr. Those who use the
Romanee tonguc (for the inhabitants
of Lorraine are divided between the
two languagcs) mention such names as
Maistre Persil, Joly-bois, Verdelet, Saute-
buisson, and many other such which it
wouId be idle to repeat.
But just as they ean never so eom-
pletely adopt a human appearanee but
that there remains something to ex-
pose the fraud and deeeption, as was
shown in Chaptcr VII; so they eannot
so perfeetly imitate the human voiee
that the falsity and pretenee of it is not
easily pereeived by tlieìr hearers.
Nieole Ganater at Meinfeld on the qth
July, 1585, Eva Hesolette who lived in
the vieinity of the Abbey of St. Epvre,
Jana Schwartz, a native of Armcourt,
at Laaeh on the 28th Mareh, 1588,
and many other women said that their
Demons spoke as if their mouths were
in a jar or eraeked piteher. And on
that account it is always their wont
whcn speaking to hoíd their heads
down, as do those who speak in shame,
being conscious of guilL Or else their
voiee is feeble and weak. For Hermo-
Iaus Berbams (Petms Crinitus,t De
honest. diseiplina, VII, 2) told that he
heard the voiee of a vvhispering Demon
answering a question which he and
Georgius PIaccntinus had put to him
eoneerning the enteleehy of Aristotle.
Pliny (XÀX, 2) writes that the same
sort of curiosity caused Apion the
grammarian, a leamed man, whom in
his youth he had himself often seen,
to summon a spirit to reeite Homer,
and asked it to tell what was its coun-
try and parentage, but did not dare to
■f “Pelms CrinitusPetro Crinito or
Rieeio. Bom at Florenee about 1463, died
eirea 1504. A pupil of Poliziano, he beeame
one of the most eelebrated literary men of his
day. His “De honesta diseiplina’’ ran inlo
many editions; first , Florenee, folio, 1300.
“Uitae Poetamm Latinomm” won greal re-
nown, and his own poems were higfdy eom-
plimented, Ugolino Verrio saying:
“Discipulique mei Criniti earnina Pelri
Aetemam uiuent.”
BK. I. CH. IX.
DEMON OLATRY
relate its reply. I take this to mean
that the Demon spoke in a voiee so
confused, ambiguous, muffled and
feeble that he could nnderstand no
elear and eertain meaning to report
aftenvards. For PsclJus (De Daemon-
ìbiis) says that Demons, for a!l their
effort, give utterance to a thin, weak
voiee, so that by reason of the indis-
tinet obscurity of it their lies may be
the harder to deteet. S. Gennadiiis,* * * §
Patriareh of Gonstantinople, heard the
confused voiee of a speetre standing by
night before the altar, when he
solemnly curscd it, as is testified in
their historieal writings by Cedrenus,f
Callistus$ and Theodoms Lcctor.§
The Demon Ulmus|j (Uita Apollonii by
Philostratus, VI, 10), which I eonjee-
turc to be a word formed from Ulmus,
an elrn, was summoncd by Thespesion,
the eldest of the Gymnosophists, and
greeted the sage Apollonius as he ap-
proaehed them. Tne leeanomaney of
the Assyrians and Ohaldeans iised to
- “ S. Gennadius /.” Patriareh of Con-
slanlinople, 458-471.
f “ Cedremu .” Georgins Cedrenus, Byzan-
tine historian. His ehroniele eommenees ivith
the Creation and goes down to A.D, 1057.
Edited by Bekker, Bonn, 1838-g.
J l, Callistus. ,, CallistusXanthopulusNice-
phorus was born in the latter part of the thir-
teenth cenlury and died about 1350. His “Ee-
elesiastieal History ” has been ediled by Duch-
Ine, s vols.,folio, Paris, 1630.
§ “ Theodortis .” A leetor attaehed to the
Church of Santa Sophia of Gonstantinople early
in ihe sixth eenlnry. He eomposed varioas his -
torieal works, but of these the “Historia
Tripartita ” exists in an imperfeet MS., and
his eontinaation of the narrative is only known
from two lengthy excerpts.
i| “ Ulmus“10 Sova,”
irrehta Si f)v, rpírov àir ÌKtívov v<p' <ì> Sitheyovro,
“vpóatmt ròv ao<f>òv 'ArroW<hviov,
xaì rrpo-
trtìrrt pìv avrov, tlit ÌKthtvtrOr/, rò SivSpov, rj
<puivì) Si fjv Ìvap 6 o<i n «aì BrjAvi. òntaiipaivt
S< rrpòi roi't 'liSoit roÌTa, ptraoTT/ottv ìjyov-
p-tvos ròv 'AttoAAvviov ttj t virtp aìrráiv Só(rjs,
iiriiSrj Sttfti if irávrat Aóyovs TtlvSwv Kaì tpya.”
It will be seen that the narrative somewhat
differs from Remy's account; the marvel was
performed by an elm tree.
31
evoke Demons which gave uttcrancc
through the pelvis in a harsh, thin
hissing. All these instanees go to prove
that imitation, which (as Fabius says,
Inst. orat. III, 5) is proper to art, ean
never so eompletely ape naturc that
there is not always some differenee,
and that the very truth far oiitstrips
the simulation which wou!d follow m
its traeks.
☆
CHAPTER IX
That Saian often Deludes men by an Ap-
pearanee of Righteousness; and he has
his Dìsdples as skilled as Possible ìn
the same Hypoerisy , that their Wicked-
ness may be the more Seeret and less open
to Conjecture and Siispieion.
I AMBLICUS (quando alia ntimina ali-
ter appareant) says: “Evil spiritsoften
usurp the likeness of gooa angels.”
And S. Paul (II. Corinthians xi. 14)
says that Satan most often fashioneth
himself an angel of light; and always
he wraps himself in some eovering
that he may the more easily deeeive
and destroy mankind. For who is so
eonfident and secure that he wouid
not at onee take eare to avoid and flee
from the Devil, if he showed himself
with his horns hideously standing out,
as it were, from his forehead, anrt thus
openly manifested his pernicious in-
tents ? Therefore, just as
“To coax a ehild to drink of bitter
wormwood,
Doetors first swceten the cup with
golden honcy:”T{
so the Evil One, to make his worthless
wares appear to men more saleable,
eovers them with a specious eoating
and (as Seneea said of the philosophers
of his time), after the manner of
apotheearies, eoneeals his poisons in
TJ “golden honeyLucrelius, I, 336-8;
“pueris absinthia laetia medentes
cum dare conantur, prius oras pocula circum
conlingunt mellis dulci Jlauoque liquore. . .”
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. IX.
32
boxes bearing the labds of the most
benefieial drugs. The more easily to
attraet a buyer, Satan assumes the
guise of a rieh and prosperous mer-
ehant; and to beget eonfidenee, he
takes eare to eoneeal all that is sordid,
deeeptive or unavailing. Even so do
horse-dealers point to the splendour
of the trappings and eaparisons as
proof of a norse’s breeding. And not-
withstanding that he holds nothing in
such utter detestation as the worship
of God and religious cxercises, yet in
his illiisions and ineantations he does
not forbear to make usc of devout
pilgrimages, offerings, libations, holy
rites and lustrations, solemn prayers,
expiations, alms, and all such matters
which smaek of zeal in religion, a de-
viee which wìll be shown later in its
plaee. It is for this reason that he
teaehes his subjects to acquire as great
a familiarity with religious usages as
with their evil superstitions, that they
may keep themselves the farther from
suspicion of their erimes.
Therefore no one need marvel that
witches, who daily eonsort with Dc-
mons, so aptly and excellently imitate
this hypoerisy: for, as Gieero says
(Epislola ad Atticum, n); “Like mas-
ter, like man.” As to the nature of
this mask, no fuller deseription ean be
found than that of S. Paul ( Colos -
sians ii. 23) whcre he shows the true
colours of such feigned wisdom, which
are superstition, false humility of mind,
and hurtful negleet of the body: for
Satan so often íights up his darkness
with this deeeption that it does not
pereeptibly differ from the light.
In Metz in our own time there was
a parish priest of holy life, who very
gravely e.xpostulated with a magis-
trate for ordering the arrest of one of
his parishioners, a woman who, in his
opinion, more than all others praetised
her religion with the greatest devotion
and piety. For she was always the
first at all the Holy Offiees, and was
the last to leave the church, and that
with rcluctance: she never eeased
from prayer even as she went her way,
and continually erossed herself: on no
day did she fail to approaeh as a sup-
pliant the shrines of the Saints: she
used her rosary well and assiduously:
she most rigidly observed all tne
solemn fasts: she addressed those
whom she met gently and humbly: in
short she failed in no single particular
to give evidenee of a lowly, pious and
religious mind. Yet this woman, so
eommended for her great saintliness,
was aftenvards provea to be guilty of
countlcss erimes of witchcraft, and
was justly senteneed by the Judge to
be burncd. And, as l'ar as I have
hitherto been able to understand from
their eonfessions, nearly all women
eonvieted of this erime have always
eloaked the abomination of their lives
under a similar eover of false and pre-
tended piety. Satan himself, their
ehief and tlieir head, when he first
approaehes them, arrays himself in
such a manner as to induce the hope
of some gain and profit, as we have
alreadv pointed out. It would be no
diffioiít matter to instanee faets in
eonfirmation of these conclusions.
In the very eradle of the world, in
the form of a serpent he uscd coaxing
words to impel Éve to pluck and eat
the forbidden fruit of the tree of know-
ledge (Genesis iii). Aeeording to Jose-
phus ('IovhaiKT) 'Apyo.Lo\oyl<í I, 1), he
was then living on terms of famili-
arity with Adam and his wife. Later,
Moses exhibited his image in bronze
to the Hebrews, that by beholding it
they might be healed of the poisonous
bites of snakes (Nnmbers xxi, 8 and
John iii, 14). Again, the God Aescu-
lapius was brought in that shape from
Epidaurus to Rome in order to allay
the plague. It was for this reason that
many of the interpreters of the Hiero-
glyphies supposed that the serpent was
at that time the symbol of bodily and
spiritual health; and therefore the re-
pulsiveness of this hideous and loatli-
some beast is here no valid objeetion
to our argumcnt. It may, howevcr,
be more helpfiil to quotc more reeent
and definite authority. S. Gregory
BK. 1. CH. IX.
DEMONOLATRY
(Dialogaes , I, 4) writes that, after all
other wiles had failed him, Satan ap-
peared to S. Equitius* * * § arrayed as a
monk, because that habit in itself gave
a greater impression than the eommon
dress of a saintly manner of life.
Sabellicust ( Ennead, VIII, 1) and
Platina ( Uita CeUstini) reeord that in
the pontifieate of S. Celestine IJ
(which, aeeording to Massacus, the
author of the Chronicles of the IVorld,
was in the year 438) Satan appeared
in Crete in the likeness of Moses, the
most aneient of the prophets, and was
seen by the Jews who ìnhabited that
island, and told them that he would
lead them on foot baek to the Prom-
ised Land; and the sea stood up like
a wall on either side, as did the waters
of the Red Sea when the people were
led out of Egypt; and many were be-
guiled by this illusion and, rashly en-
tering the water, were overwhelmed
and drowned in the sea; all except a
very few who at the last were eon-
vineed of their folly and tumed to
Christ for help. Sulpicius Severus,§ in
his Life of that Saint, v-TÌtes that
Satan onee attempted to delude S.
Martin, Bishop of Tours, by appearing
to him in a golden crown and a purple
robe as if he were Christ eome down
- “S. Et]uitius.” Biskop of Matelìea to~
tvards the end of the fiflh century. There is a
reeord of his visit to Rome in a.d. 487.
Í “Sabellìciis .” Marcus Anloniiis Coccius
ellieits, tke famoits humanist, born at Rome
in 1436. He long resided at Veniee and
leetared there. He died in 1306. His eolleeted
tvorks were issned in four volames, Basle, 1560.
} “S. Celestine I” He sneeeeded S. íìoni-
faee as Pope 10 September, 422 (aeeording to
Tillemont, thoagh the Bollandists say 3 Nov -
ember); and died 26 Jttly, 432, as is generally
believed. The exact date is nneertain, but the
year 438 given by Massaens would seem to be
some six or seven years too late for the event
reeorded.
§ “Sulpicius Severits." Bom in Aquitaine
eirea 360; died about 420-23. He was a dis -
eiple of S. Martin, whose biographer he be-
eame. This “Uita S. Martini” was long
immensely popular.
33
from Heaven to judge the worId. But
when he found all his efforts vain, he
fled away, leaving no evidenee of his
presenee except an intolerable steneh.
The entire Christian Church rever-
ently and piously worships and vener-
ates the Consubstantial and Coequal
Trinity, as is proved not only by the
undoubted evidenee of the Gospel, but
also by propheeies in the Mosaie mys-
teries long before. It is probably due
to the influence of those propheeies
that Hermes was ealled Trismegistos
in the Poimandres, || because the Mind
God begat with his word a seeond
mind to be his executive foree. Aífeet-
ing the glory of such great majesty the
Demon, in the year 1121, appeared
with three heads to a eertain Pre-
monstratensian eanon and tried to
persuade him that he was that Three-
fold Deity (whereas in truth he was
the Triform Heeate) in the eontem-
plation of whom the eanon so fixedly
occupied his mind; and that, because
of his signal desert and notable devo-
tion, he had appeared in visible form
that he might worship his very pres-
enee. But the eanon easily smelt the
fraud and, after having reeeived him
with a great ery and shout, at last
routed and drove him away.
It is not only by the assumption in
this manner of a fair and goodly ap-
pearanee that the Devil masks his
abominable designs. For again and
again it has been proved a false eon-
clusion to argue that a eloak of right-
eousness is an indieation of a godly
life; and, as the proverb says, the cowl
does not make the monk; and the life
of many men is far different from their
speeeh and appearanee. Therefore
|j “ Poimandres .” Hermes Trismegistus
was the name given by the Egyptians to Tkoth,
god of wisdom, leaming and literature. To
him was attributed the aalhorship of the saered
writings, henee ealled “ Hermelie” by the
Greehs. The name Hermes was thus put al Ihe
head of a whole eyele of mystie literatare, pro-
duced in the Christian era. The “ Poimandres”
is one of the earliest of these treaiises.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. IX.
34
the Devil often uses such eonversation
as should promote piety, religion and
holiness; and often even deelares that
he eannot enter into any paet or agree-
ment without many such devout eollo-
quies. indeed this is one of his oldest
trieks. For just as, in aneient days,
the Pythian priestesses and the Vestals
werc eonstrained to perpetual virgin-
ity, so also now only virgins and
women too old to sìn with men ean
be admitted to the praetiee of eertain
divinations. Tibullus* says:
Thriee the boy’s saered Iots she drew;
and he
Brought her sure news of omens from
the streets.
And there werc not a few rites, such
as those which Plntareh (De eohibendi
iraetindiam) ealls Nephalia or Meli-
sponda, in which it was eonsidered the
gravest erime to touch wine or to in-
aulgc in any luxury. Philostratus, in
his Life of Apollonius of Tyana (II,
57), reeords tnat this philosopher in-
ìormed the Indian King Phraotes that
they who wishcd to consult the oraele
of Amphiaraus were requircd by the
priests to fast for a whole day and to
abstain from wine for three days. And
in Book XI of the Golden Ass of Apul-
eius we read of one Lucius who, on
his initiation as one of the Pastophori in
the rites of Osiris, was strietly bidden
by Mithras the Priest to refrain from
the pleasures of the table for ten days,
to eat no flesh, and to drink no wine.
In this connexion I remember a not
unamusing story which was told to
me by Melehior Erricus when he was
living in the intimate eonfidenee of
our Most Serene Duke; and I shall
• “Tibiilhis," I, iii, 12-13:
“Illa saeras pueri sortes ter suslulit: illi
Kettulit e triaiis omnia eerta puer."
Upon which Sealiger glosses: "Sortes erant
signa, quae dabantur alieai pucro de triuio,
quae st eomienerant ei signo, quod illt, qui
sortes dederat, habebat in animo, tunc bene
secum agi j>utabant." “Pueri e triaiis"
ó rvgýy, oportebat enim ignotum esse.
here relate it with the greater assur-
anee, because my own doubt of its
tnith was afterwards removed by
the very man of whom the story is
told. Theodore Maillot (who as an
old man beeame Govemor of a Pro-
vinee in Lorraine) in his younger days
was desperately anxious to marry a
maiden of the highest nobility; but he
was entirely and utterly without hope
of winning her. For not only was ne
C r in fortune, but he eame of a
ìble family engaged in trade,
which was then despised as ignoble;
and therefore he could see no honour-
able means of even deelaring his love.
Aeeordingly, as men in despair at hope
deferred readily seize upon any plan
without eonsidering whether it should
be followed or avoided, so Maillot
approaehed a fellow-servant from
Germany, who he had heard had a
Demon ready to perform all that he
asked, and told him his trouble, asking
him not to bcgrudge him any help that
he could give him, and addmg that he
would not prove ungratcful. The Ger-
man eagerly embraeed this oppor-
tunity: for in aeeordanee with his paet
it was neeessary for him within a few
days to render himself to his Demon,
brmging with him another man will-
ing to take over his debt, or else to
have his neek twuted by the Demon.
To effeet his purpose, therefore, he
appointed Maillot to meet him at twi-
Iight on the following day in a elose
and seeret ehamber; and hardlv had
they eome there, whcn suddenly tlie
doors opened and there entered a se-
ductivclv beautiful girl (for the Demon
purposeíy showed himself first in that
shape, lest Maillot should be horrified
at his frightful appearanee), who said
that she could oDtain for Maillot that
marriage which he so ardently de-
sired, provided that he wou!d fol!ow
her instnietions. And when he eagerly
and impatiently asked what was her
adviee, she told him first of all to
avoid all thieving, drunkenness, Iust,
wrong-doing, blasphemy, and all other
viees which defile the soul; to praetise
BK. I. CH. IX.
DEMONOLATRY
devotion; to help the poor aeeording
to his means; to fast twice a week; to
observe all Holy Days, and to pray
daily; and sedulously to do all that it
beseemed a Ghristian to do. For if he
would bind himself by an oath to
observe all this, he would without any
diffiailty win the bride that he de-
sired. Having said this, and having
appointed a day by which he should
give his answer, she departed. Maillot,
seeing that he could gain so great a
benent by such holy and honourable
means, thought that he need have no
hesitation in willingly and gratefully
aeeepting. But as he eonsidered more
and more deeply about it and kept
fiuctuating between hope and fear,
one of the household who was a priest
guessed from his faee that there was
some matter which was thus distraet-
ing him and, after approaehing him
in friendly manner and diseovering
what was amiss, by his admonishments
prevailed upon him not to stoop to
any further eonversation with the
Demon. The German was thus dis-
appointed of his hope; and it was not
long before he paid the penalty ae-
eording to his paet. For not many
days later, as he was riding on a
smooth and open road, he feU upon
his head and died instantly.
In a reeently written account of
her, the author states that a similar
experience befell Nieole Obry,* the
possessed woman of Laon: namely,
- “JVìeolé ObryThis bosstssed girl,
aged sixleen, the daughUr of “Pierre Obry
marehand boneher et de Calherint Veaillot
dememant en la ville de Vrevin, au pais de
Tieraseht, en l'eueschi de Ixwn en Laonnais ,”
was exorcized and delivered from the demon
Beelzebub in theyear 1566 by Jehan Bonlase,
Professor of Hebrevo in the Oollege of Mon-
taigut. The exorcisms were performed in Laon
Oatkedral, and the ease attracUd much atten-
tion. Bonlase wrote an account of the pro-
eeedings: “Le manuel de l'admirable vietoire
du Corps de Dieu sur Vesprit maling Beelzebab
obUnue à Laon, 1566. . . Paris, 1575.
This was several times reprinUd, and there is
an “abbrégie histoire” of /573.
35
that her Demon, who appeared to her
in the likeness of a blaek man, eon-
fìned his speeeh with her to matters of
holiness, modesty, religion and the
study of the Scriptures; and when he
first aeeosted her he was espeeiafiy
emphatie in urging her to that way of
life above all. Did not the Devil, in
order to tempt Christ who is the ex-
ample of all the saints, speak ia hon-
our of the testimony of the Seripmres ?
Did he not fall down before Him and
worship Him, saying: “Thou art the
Son of God” ? (Mark iii, n). With the
same guile and cunning he proelaimed
before all the people that the Apostle
Paul was the servant of God preaehing
the word of salvation, when he spoke
through the damsel possessed with a
spirit of divination {Aets x\à, 17). And
to what purpose dia he do this, but to
embarrass tne herald of the Gospel
and, as it were, to smear his sword
with honey, uttering the truth with
most lying lips, and obscuring the
elear light with the dense smoke of
darkness? For this reason Christ re-
buked him and bade him hold his
peaee; and similarly S. Paul east him
out of the body which he was then
possessing.
Here may be noted the cunning of
the Demon’s stratagem. For in this
manner he enters the Christians’ eamp
by means of a false countersign, and
then sets upon them and slays them
with their own weapons. For aíthough
nearly all his words are in aeeordanee
with the Gospel teaehing; yet sinee
they are, so to speak, taken eaptive by
him whom it is the greatest impiety to
obey in matters of religion, they should
therefore be carefully avoided and
mistnisted: for, as S. Ircnaeus says,
their milk is mingled with gypsum.
And even as there is said to have been
found at Heraelea in Pontus the sweet-
est honey, but that whocvcr ate of it
feli at onee to the earth and died in
the most amazing agony; so it shou!d
be elear to everyone that, if anyone is
so credulous as to allow himself to be
influenced by them, nothing but in-
D EMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. IX.
36
stant destruction ean result from fol-
lowing the Demon’s ostensibly salu-
tary preeepts, maxims and examples.
For s>nce obedienee is the very founda-
tion of the worship of God, and Satan
is before all the imitator of God, he
thinks that he has done his work most
excellcntly well if he ean by any means
lead men to obey him. Just as bird-
eatehers deeoy birds into their snares
and nets by means of the songs of
trained eaptive birds, so does Satan
train his subjects to speak always of
piety, religion and sanetity, while, by
means of such insidious words, he
thrusts down those whom he has onee
caught, and overwheIms them in the
gulf and abyss of all erime and abom-
ination.
A third form of counterfeit saintli-
ness eonsists in self-torture as it was
formerly praetised by the Donatists,
and now by the Anabaptists and eer-
íain others of no account, who set far
greater store by such a false ostenta-
tion of saneti monionsness than bv any
true observanee of Ghristian diseipline
and self-denial. It is manifest that this
also is an invention of Satan, the de-
stroyer of life. For how many of us ean
doubt that his purpose in this is that
such men may be conspicuous in the
eyes of men, and (as that famous dra-
matist* has said) that they may en-
gage the attention of fools by their
funambuIation, rather than praetise
piety from their hearts and show
themselves to God, who holds His
theatre in seeret, as truly eontrite and
afflieted. Christ said : “Do not sound
a trumpet before thee, as the hypo-
erites do in the synagogues and in the
streets, that they may have glory of
men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward.” This false ostentation
was, moreover, eondemned many
years ago by men who had no know-
íedge of the true religion; for they
- "that famous dramatist." Terenee; Pro-
logns in “ Heeyram ,” 4-5:
"Ita populus stadio stupidus in funambulo
Animum occuparat ...”
even counted it one of the greatest of
human follies. Here, bccause of its
old-time eleganee and the rare splen-
dour of its omate and flowery style, I
shall quote word for word a most
apposite passage from Apuleius upon
this subject. He says (Golden Ass, Bk,
VIII), speaking of the Priests of the
Syrian Goddess, Cybele: “Taking up
a scourgc (which these gelded erea-
tures earry ever with them) woven to
a great length from a tough fleeee and
knotted about with the knuckle-bones
of many sheep, they violently beat
themselves therewithal, and are mar-
vcllously abie to endure the pain of
the stripes. Then, as if a sword had
been uscd for saerifiee, might you see
the ground wet with the filth of ef-
feminate blood drawn by the lashing
of the scourgc. And when through
weariness, or sated with butchcring
themselves, they rest from tearing
their flesh, they hold out their robes
and many vie together to east in alms
of eopper and even of silver; and
thereto they give them bottles of wine,
milk, eheese, flour and wheat.”
Some few years ago there eame to
Mirecourt, the ehief eity of a large
Provinee among the Vosges where I
was for some years Deputy-Govemor,
a vagrant haunter of the markets
whose praetiee it was to wandcr
through the provinees in the guisc of
a penitent, and so serape together
money and other neeessities of life.
When the church was filled, as it al-
ways was on Sundays, he wouId sit
down before the High Altar naked to
the navel, holding in one hand a flint
stone and in the other a whip; and
then he would not eease to pound his
breast emelly, and wrctchealy to lash
his baek. This he continually did dur-
ing pnblie prayer and on such days as
High Mass was eelebrated. The people
at nrst pitied him and wondcre<l wnat
erime he had eommitted that ealled
for so dire a penanee, and so outdid
eaeh other in giving him alms. But
the man, enriehed by his lucrative
begging, went gleefully to his hostelry,
BK. I. CH. IX.
DEMONOLATRY
37
where he first tended his body with
eertain lotions known to him which
hardened him and enabled him to en-
dure future stripes; then fell at onee
to eating and arinking wine, all the
time reviling the very women who had
hospitably reeeived him with bitter
and scurrilous words, and often with
the foulcst obseenities. This eame at
last to the ears of the Mayor, who had
the man thrown into príson and qucs-
tioned him as to why he so immoder-
ately afflieted himself; and he was
eonstrained to eonfess that he did so
not, as he had before pretended, in
order to cxpiatc some erime, but rather
to excite the pity of the people so that
he might more easily and more profit-
ably obtain alms from them. He
adaed, moreover, that the lashing did
not cause him so much pain as it ap-
peared to the onlookers; for not oniy
was he hardened to it by long use, but
he also used eertain herbs which
numbed the feeling of his limbs and
rendered them for a time less sensitive
to pain. Whcn the matter was thus
eleared up and investigated, by order
of the Duumvirs of Naney who have
jurisdiction over all eriminals in Lor-
raine, he was senteneed to be whipped
through the streets with uncommon
severity, to be branded with a hot
iron upon one shouIder, and to be
banished.
That the aneient Egyptians also
praetised this kind of seIf-torturc in
their saered rites we learn from Hero-
dotus in his EuUrpe. Ovid,* Ibis , 453-
4, writes that the Galli, the priests of
the Mother Goddess of Ida, did like-
wise:
And may you in your frenzy geld
Ì oursclf,
e those whom Mother Cybele in-
eites
To Phrygian excesses.
• “Ovid." “ Ibis453-4:
" Attonitusque seees, ut quos Cybeleia mater
ineitat ad Phrygios uilia membra modos."
And:
With frantie gcstures do they geld
themselves.
Horaee also (Satires, II, 3, 223) writcs:
Bellona delights in the shedding of
blood.
For the devotees of that Goddess,
whom Ulpian (De offieio Proconsulari,
Lib. VII) ealls Bellonarii ,t draw blood
from their own arms with their swords.
Martial also refers to this (XI, 84):
White arms are slashed by the too cruel
knives,
Whcn in the Phrygian danee the fren-
zied band
Rages.
Pliny also has touched upon this (XI,
49). AIexander ab Alexandro (Genial-
ium diemrn, IV, 17) writes that such
fanaties were derided by Zenoerates
the Physieian, who said that either
they believed that they were Gods to
whom they were saerifieing, in which
ease they deserved no pity; or else
they believed them to be men, in
which ease they ought not to saerifiee
to them. This also, aeeording to S.
Augustine in the City of God, Book II,
xi,wastheopinionofAntistius Labeo;J
for he distinguished good from evil
spirits by the differenee in their wor-
snip: the evil were propitiated by
f “Bellonarii." For whom see Tibullus, I,
vi, 45, ete.; Juvenal, io, 123; Lucan, /, 565;
Tertullian, “ Apologia ,” ix; Laetantins , I, xxi,
16; Minucius Felix, “Octauius," xxx, 5. The
ootaries of Bellona on their mystie festivals,
espeeially the great solemnity, 20 Mareh ,
gashed their limbs till they dripped and gtished
with blood. Henee, as Trebellius Pollio tells
us (Dimis Claudius, 4), this daU was known
as “dies sanguinis."
J “Antislius Jjibeo." The eelebraled jurist
who lioed about the beginning of the Chnstian
era, 54 a.e. to a.d. 17. He was the founder
of a great legal sehool at Rome. There was
another Labeo, Comelius, whose ivritings are
often quoUd by Maerobias. S. Augustme at
times hardly distinguishes the lwo, and indeed
they may have been the same person.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. X.
38
bloodshed and torturc, while the good
delighted in joyful eeremonies, such
as feasts and banquets.
I would not have anyone conclude
from this that I eonsiaer the King-
dom of Christ to eonsist in luxuries and
pleasurcs, for I know that the ehief
token of His serviee is the Cross. But
I would have men understand that
such sclf-torture as I have deseribed
is not altogether to be taken as a proof
of piety wnen it is done in the public
ana ostentatious mannertoofrcquently
raetised. For it is in this way that
atan most often sets his stage; doubt-
less because he sees Christians morti-
fying themselves with fasts, vigils, soli-
tude and labour when they would
conquer the flesh, or when they do
voluntary penanee for their sins, or
when they prepare themselves for
prayer and holy meditation. For Satan
ìn maliee often eopies their example,
and extends it even to such excessive
se!f-torture, as if, forsooth, a man’s
piety could be measured by the vio-
lenee with which he attaeks his own
body: such is the guile and cunning of
the Evil One. In this manner by some
immoderation and excess he parodies,
distorts and defiles even the most holy
praetiees. But it must not be thought
that I intend a word against the true
and sineere diseipline of Christians,
or to eritieize anything which has the
approval of the Church.
☆
GHAPTER X
The essential Filthiness of Demons is
proved by tke Faet that their Abpearanee
is always aeeompanied by a Loathsome
Steneh; and that they so eareftilly in-
struct their Subjects to Avoid aíl OÍeanli-
ttess, espeàally of the Hands, the Wash-
ing of which is a Hindranee to Witch-
eraft. And kow this should be Vnderstood.
N the Holy Scriptures the Devil is
eonstantly referred to as Behemoth,
that is to say, “the impure animal and
the unclean spirit” (see S. Gregory,
in Memorabilia, Matthew xii, Mark i
and v, Job xl). It is not only because
the Devil is, as all his aetions and pur-
poses show, impure in his naturc and
eharaeter that we should eonsider this
name to be aptly applied to him; but
also becausc ne takes immoderate de-
light in external filth and uncleanness.
For often he makes his abode in dead
bodies; and if he occupies a living
body, or even if he forms himself a
body out of the air or a eondensation
of vapours, his presenee therein is al-
ways betrayed by some notably foul
and noisome steneh. Most often, in-
deed, he dwells in those parts of the
body which, like the bilge of ships,
harbour the excremental waste of the
body. Consequently the Pythoness
woman in the Bible is ealled a ven-
triloquist,* which, as Gratian points
out in his Deeretals, means “speaking
from the stomaeh.” The gifts of the
Demon also are fashioned from ordure
and dung, and his banquets from the
flesh ofbeasts thathave died. Aeeord-
ing to the proverb, Iike eleaveth to
like; or, as it is eommonly said, like
master like man; and so the Devil for
the most part has for his servants
filthy old hags whose age and poverty
serve but to enhanee their fou!ncss;
and these, as being of a vitiated nature
most apt to his purpose, he instniets
in all impuríty and uncleanness.
Above all he cautions them not to
wash their hands, as it is the habit of
other men to do in the moming; for
he tells them that to do so constitutes
a sure obstruction to his ineantations.
This is the ease whether it is the
witches themselves who wash their
- ,l Ventrìloauist." The Witch of Endor is
deseribed as the possessor of an “'óbh," a
familiar spirit. The LXX translates this word
“'óbk" by iyyarTTpáp.v8oi, perhaps beeaase of
the belief in antiquity thal ventriloquism was
not a nataral faadty, but due to the temporary
obsession of the medium by a spirit. See “ The
History of Wilchcraft" by Montagae Summers,
ehapter v, “ Tht Witch in Holy Wrìt"
WL 2 . CH. X.
DEMONOLATRY
Imaofsj as wc learn from the answer
im-Vgiven to her examiners by Alexia
te..'.zra of Bctoncourt at Mirecourt in
Drrsnber 1584, and by countlcss
g'.tars whose names I have not now
r* rae; or whethcr it is the intended
•'.:r~ns of their witchcraft who wash
hands, as was stated by Claude
7 J 2 st (Mcrsuay, Febmary 1587) and
J.:hanna Latomia (Haraucourt,
- '*rruary 1587). The former of those
srrmen harboured a grudge against
JcTninique Duranta because they both
visied to wcd the same man; and the
jarond nurscd a vindietive hatred of
rre Malurtica because, being neigh-
reors, they had almost daily quarrcls
£=d eontentions: but neither of them
rruld by their spells or poisons satisfy
eieir desire for vengeanee, because
ti.eir would-be vietims were proteeted
against their eharms by this washing
ef their hands. Sebastienne Maxent
ìaeh, April 1588), Jana Schwartz
aeh, Mareh 1588), Joanna Ulrichs
-anfracourt, May i588),and Fran$ose
Perine (Bains-les-Bains, June 1588)
affirmed that this ablution is a sure
proteetion against evil spells, provided
that when a man leaves his house he
also eommits himself with prayer to
the safe-keeping of God. The hag
Schwartz added that she had learned
this faet from her Little Master, Joliet,
when she was expostulating with him
because she had repeatedly failed to
injure the wife of Nieolas Calvé with
the very poisons which she had used
with immediate effeet against many
others. To this cause, also, the woman
IJlriehs attributcd her failure to rid
herself by witchcraft of her husband;
for she tried many times to do this,
becausc of the repulsion and loathing
she felt for him as a bed-fellow. And
quite reeently (at Essey, June 1591),
whcn Mugeta was about to be burned
at the stake and was supping for the
last time with her husband, she ealmly
warned him in the hearing of many
people never to leave his house in the
morning without eommending him-
self to God and washing his hands, if
39
he wishcd to be safe and securc from
the eharms of witches.
How it is that so slight a matter
earries such poteney, or why it should
be of more importanee in this respeet
to wash the hands than any other part
of the body, it is not easy to gucss. It
may be that that Impostor uses this
cunning pretext to eover a diflerent
design, and by tortuous and winding
methods attain his purposc for us.
Jean Bodin quotcs an example of this
trom Wier, whcre the Demon most
Btrietly enjoined a eertain witch to
keep a pair of old shoes, telling her
that they would be a proteetion to her
against the threatenea malevolenee of
anotherwitch; for it cannotbedoubted
that his reason for thus warning her
was that she might continue to wallow
in the mire of sin, which bears some
likeness to muddy shoes. For this
cause also Philo Judaeus wouId have
it understood that God eommanded
Moses to put off his shoes when he
approaehed Him.
lt is eertain that among the Egyp-
tians water was the s>Tnbol of punty,
and that they believed that Iustrations
and expiations were most effeetive
when aeeompanied by its use. And it
was frequently used in the rites and
eeremonies of the Pagans; for we read
in the Seeond Book of the Aeneid,
717-720:
Do thou, my father, hold the saered
vessels.
For me, so late returned from bloody
war,
- Twcre erime to touch them till I
purifv
My body in the living stream.
And in the Fourth Book (635), when
Dido siimmons her sister Anna as to
the holy rites she says to the old
nurse:
Bid her at onee go purify her body
With river water.
And in the Sixth Book (636), Aeneas
Sprinkles purc fresh water o’er his
body.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XI.
40
And the old man in Horaee {Satires,
II) who vvent about the streets asking
the Gods for immortality always
washed his hands in the moming.
Hesiod also, in liis Works and Days
(336), forbids a man to pour a morn-
ing libation to Jove, or even to enter
any river or spring, with unwashcd
hands. In Homer,* before Telema-
chus made his supp!ication to Pallas
he washed his hanas in sea water. The
law of God in the Old Testament
frequently eommends suc!i cxtemal
eleansing with water, espeeiaily of the
hands; and we read that this was a
custom much used by the Jews, who,
when they saerifieed a heiíer, washed
their hands over it { Devteronomy, xxi).
For elean hands, such as should al-
ways be raised to God (I. Timothy 1),
are the symbol of a pure heart. And
proverbially we speak of a man wash-
mg his hands to signify his guiltless-
ness; as Pilate did publicly to testify
his innoeenee ( Mattheiv xxvii). And
eonversely, the Jcws tried to bring the
diseiples of Christ into ill repute be-
cause they sat down to eat with un-
washed hands. I do not know whether
it was for the sake of avoiding a cause
of offenee tliat S. Peter ehanged that
custom after Ohrist’s Passion: for S.
Clement, his friend and almost daily
eompanion, has left written reeora
that he seldom sat down without
washing (Valerius Pierius,| Hiero-
glyphiea , XXI, eap. 33).
- “ Homer“OdysseyII, 260-61:
TijAepa^os & àirávtvOt Kiì ov iirì 0íva OaÀátraifi,
X«7pas vaj/áfÁtvoí irokiTfi óAós, 'ASývfl-
t “Pierìtis.” The best editions of íhe
“ Hieroglyphiea” of Valeritis Pierius are gener-
ally eonsidered to be the folio, Lyons, 1602; and
the quarto, Lyons, 1610.
☆
CHAPTER XI
That Witches,just as they are said to have
done in Aneienl Heathen Days, make
yearly Offerings to their Demons for the
purpose either of Avertingthe Menaee of
Blows, or of Winning Exemption from
the less Pleasant of the Dulies io which
they are Pledged by their Paet. And that
such Offerings, when they are Animals,
must be entirely Blaek.
E VEN as earthly Lords and Masters
exact yearly payments either in
labour or money from their vassals
whom they permit to use and enjoy
their property, so is the Devil most
striet to exact from his subjects, on the
day due for their fulfilment, prompt
pa>nnent of the pledges by which they
have formally eontraeted to enter his
serviee: espeeially if they have cause
to seek exemption from any payment,
such as an excuse from presenting
themselves at the nocturnaI feasting
and daneing, or from any similar
obligation. Dominique Zabella (of
Rogevillein the Tendon distriet, 1583)
reported that such payments in licu of
serviee were most eommonly made by
the more wealthy witches: for she
said that she had seen very many of
them not only gain the favour of their
Little Masters, but even avert the
threatened penalty when they had
fallen short of what had been required
of them, by saerifieing a steer or a
wethcr, or by offering some other cus-
tomary gift; and that they even pur-
ehase cxemption from attendanee at
the appointed time and plaee of the
Sabbat. This is eonfirmed by Didier
Finanee of Mandray, who freely eon-
fessed at Saint-Dié on the I4th July,
1581, that he was under compulsion
to make some such offering to his
Little Master late in the evening of a
eertain day, which fell every year
about the rising of the Dog Star, at a
eertain plaee upon Donon, which is
a verv steep mountain in the Vosges;
and tnat such offering was not aeeept-
able unless it was entirely blaek.
BR. I. CH. XI.
DEMONOLATRY
4*
That it is no new thing for Satan to
affeet this colour is elearly shown by
all the HÌstories. Plutarch (De oracu~
lumdefectu, 145) says that when, under
the name of Mopsus,* he gave utter-
anee to oraeles, and a eertain Proeon-
sul of Asia sent letters to ask whethcr
he would rather that a whitc or blaek
calfwcresacrificed to him,heanswered
that he preferred the blaek one. That
it was the custom to consult Demons in
this manner by means of written letters
and inseriptions upon wax is shown by
the follo\ving from Juvcnal, X, 55:
Meet is it, then, to plaee our waxen
tablets
On the Gods’ knees.
And AIcxander ab Alcxandro (Geni-
alium Diemm, III, 22) says that the de-
erees of blind antiquity forbade the
priest to saerifiee any but blaek vie-
tims to Dis and the gods of the nether
world. So in the Sabbat deseribed by
Horaee ( Sermonum , I, 8, 26-27) the
witches Ganidia and Sagana
clawed the earth up,
And tore a blaek lamb with their
teeth.
No doubt the reason is, as Pythagoras
writcs, that this colour has some kin-
ship with evil; and it is appropriate
that what is dedieated and saerifieed
to the author and instigator of all evil
should be blaek in colour. Beatrix of
Bayon (Gerbeville, August 1585) added
that not even the poorer witchcs, who
form the majority of that seet, are im-
mune from such obligatory payments;
but that everyone had to give to the
utmost of her means in sign of her vas-
salage, and this she saw done at Mo-
ycnmoutier on 17th February, 1589.
Some give blaek eoeks or nens, as
Desirée Paray of the distriet of Etival
- “ Mopsns.” Son of Apollo and Manlo,
the daughter of Tiresias. He was a eelebrated
seer. In eonjtmelion with the proòhet Amphilo-
chus he fomded Mallos in dlieia. llere ìn
later days ke had an oraele, which still existed
in the time of Strabo.
(in November 1589), and Cathe!on
Vineent, Catharine Praevotte and
Apollonie, of Freissen, in September
1^89) stated that they gave. Some
pìuck the hair from their heads, or
present a straw or a little bird or some
such small gift, it may be eoins made
from ox-hide. These gifts, however
insufficicnt, are aeeepted by the Dc-
mons; for it is cnough, as Johann
Fiseher said that he had often been
told by his Little Master, if they bring
a willing and conscientious spirit. But
if any of them refuses or omits to make
some payment, she immediately incurs
threats, blows, siekness, the death of
her ehildren, household loss, or some
signal disaster. For fear, then, of such
consequences, their promptness in ful-
filling such obligations is greater than
I ean say, sinee their diligenee and zeal
is so stimulated by terror and dread.
The very same spur prieked the
breasts of the aneients, their minds
were tainted with the same erroneous
belief, although they wcre not bound
by the terms and eonditions of a previ-
ous agreement. Referenee is made by
Cicero, De Legibns, II, 11; Pliny, II,
7; AIexandcr ab Alexandro, I, 13;
and Volterra,| Philologia, De eelebra -
tione Saeromm , XXIX, to the following
faets:—At Rome on the Palatine Hill
there stood an old altar to Fever. On
the Esquiline there was another to Dc-
testable Ill-fortune. Near the Temple
of OrbonaJ there were shrines to the
j - “ VolterraRaphael Maffei, more gener-
ally known as Raphael Volaierramis, bom at
Volterra in 1451, died at Rome 1322. His life
was devoted tò study, and Tirabosehi says his
learning was only equalled by his piety. His
most important work, “Commentariorum urba-
norum libri,” XXXVIII, was reprinted seoeral
times during the sixteenlh century. His glosses
on the “Malleus Malefieamm ” were printed
with that work, 8vo, 1376.
J “Orbona.” An aneient Italian goddess
who by slaying ehildren rendered parents ehild -
less. She was invoked to aoert /ter imath in
“ Indigitamenta,” the mystie priestly books.
deero, “De Natura Deorum,” III, 23, 63,
speaks of her sanctuary on the Via Saera.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XI.
42
deitìes Postvorta,* Prorsarf Apprehen-
sìort, Fear, the Averter,X Robtgo§ the
bringer of blight; and other noxious
deities whom you may eall by the
eommon name of Veioves ,|| whose al-
tars were much famed in other parts
of Rome: these were propitiated with
gifts that they might not prove ob-
structive or cause some ineonvenienee.
The same siiperstitìon was widespread
among the Greeks and other nations.
Thus the Athenians saerifieed to the
gods of ContumeIy and Shamelessness,
lest they should be aífiieted with those
viees: the Boeotìans to Apollo Pomo-
pionf\ lest their provinee should be
- “ Postvorta .” Aeeording to Varro
(apud Gettius, XVI, 16, 4), a goddess pre-
siding over ehildbirth, who was invoked when
the ehild made the ivrong presentation. Aeeord-
ing to Maerobias, ( ‘Somniitm Seipionis," I, 7,
a goddess presiding over the future, as opposed
to Antevorta.
t “ Prorsa." The goddess presiding ooer
births with the head foremost. Varro ut
supra.
j “The Averter." Auerruncus “ Auertendo.
Auerruncare, ut deus, qui eis rebus praeest
Auerruncus." Varro, “De Lingua Latina."
§ “Robigo." Aeeording to Ovid, “Fasti,"
IV, goy; Terlullian, “De Spectaculis," XV;
and Laetantins, I, xx, 17, afemale deity. Ofìen
Robigas, eonsidered as a god. See Varro, “De
Lingva Latina vi; “De Re Rastiea," 1 , i, 6;
Serviiis on Vergil, “Georgies," I, /5/.
|| “Veioves. From “ue” (sometimes
“ uae ”), an insepatable partiele denoting “ out"
(berhaps == Sanserit “vi-in-," “ vi-dha-va
Latin, “uidua"), which serves to negalive the
idea of the simple word or to strengthen a simple
deprivalive notion (e.g. “uegrandis," small;
“uepallidus," very pede): and Jou~; of Jup-
piter. Properly “anti-Jove." Vejovis was an
Elmsean deity, a god ofthe wdcrworld, whose
power to injure eorresponded to that of Jupiter
to help. He was worshìpbed at Rome, where
his temple stood in the hollow between the Arx
and the Capitol.
“PornopionApollo Sminthem, for
whom see Homer, “lliad,” I, 39, wilh the
Seholia and gloss of Eustathius; Strabo, XIII,
i, 48 and 63; Aelian, “De natura animalinm
XII, 3; Oement of Alexandria, “ Protrepticus,"
H >39 {P- 34 i ‘d- Potter); Pausanias, X, 12,5.
infested with miee: the Oetaeans to
Hercules Oonopios** lest they should
be plagucd with gnats: the Rhodians
to Apollo Erythibios ;lest their erops
should be afflieted with the blight;
and the men of Gades performed the
most solemn rítes to Poverty and Old
Age, that they might not press too
hardly upon them.
Would God that so fanatieal and in-
sane an error had not permeated our
own times: that so great a madness
had not depraved our own divine
rites and eeremonies! Oh, that men
would refleet (as Gieero long ago
rightly admonished us) that our eere-
monial worship of God is demanded
not in fear, or in fulfilment of a paet,
orasa priee to be paid; but is eniefly
to be observed for the sake of that
communion which exists between God
and man, with piety and devotìon
which are of all things aeeeptable to
God and firmly establish His abiding
plaee with men!
Persius writes (Sat. II, 73-74):
A mind eomposed to right, the holy
thoughts
Of my own souI, a pure and noble
heart,
(For to invoke the help and merey of
God without bringing such gifts is
manifestly absurd.)
With these I may approaeh the saered
temples;
And all my saerifiee is eommon meal.
The image of a mouse slood beside Apollo’s
tripod in his temple in the Traad, and white
miee lioed under his altar. So the Bohemian
peasanls to-day easefidly keep white miee as
a eharm against their kin who ravage the
Jields.
- “ Conopios.” KihvtDifi (“culex’’), thegnat
or mosquito.
++ u Erythibios." Apollo,proteetor of erops
from blight. Strabo, XIII, t, 64; Eustathìus
on Homer, “Iliad," I, 39; Dittenberger’s
“Sylloge inseriptiomm Graeeamm” (seeond
edition ), jVb. 6og, Vol. II, p. 386.
BK. I. CH. XII.
DEMONOLATRY
And Horaee ( Caminum , III, 23, 17-
20):
Let but the hand on the altar be inno-
eent,
And ’tvvill appease the angry Penates
With pious meal and sparkling salt.
43
the impiety of such conduct is abun-
dantly elear of itself, and has no need
of emphasis by a preaeher. It is
enough to have shown that:
The meanest gift serves to appease the
Heavenly Powers,
If piously a man eonfess his sins.
Here I will not dwell upon those who
eall upon the Gods by name, and &
brazenly and openly beg them to
grant their particular wishes: OHAPTER XU
By slaughtering an ox you hope to
prosper, That when IVitehes mean to Fly to their
And o’er its entrails pray to Mercury: Sabbat, they Dupe the Jealotisy of their
“Grant me good fortune, grant me Hasbands by Charming them into a dtep
that my floek Sleep, or by Substituting some Obieet m
And heras may be prolifie.” their own Likeness to take their Plaee.
Or those who would avert some feared
misfortune, as in Vergil ( Atneid , VIII,
556 - 7 ):
In dread, the mothers multiplied their
vows,
And as the danger neared, their fear
inereased.
Often, indeed, men grow indignant
and load their Gods with insults and
revilings bccause they had trustcd
that, after they had made offerings to
them, they wou!d be favourable and
propitious to them. Thus it is said
that a eertain Italian gamester, be-
causc he had lost in his gaming,
cursed all his Gods except S. Antony *
(of whose saered fire he stood in eon-
siderable fear); and on the next day
he offered wax eandles to eaeh of
them as a suppliant to atone for his
blasphemies, but purposely passed by
the altar of S. Antony, saying: “It ìs
beyond measure just that thou, whom
I have provoked with no insult,
shouldst not now reeeive from me any
propitiatory offering.”
But perhaps it were better to say no
more on this subject, sinee it is hardly
suitable for an eeelesiastie to discuss;
espeeially when it is eonsidered that
- "S. Antony." Eremila; the Great. S.
Antony's fire is erysipelas.
A S I was writing this there eame
into my hands the statements of
eertain prisoners at Forpaeh (a town-
ship of Lorraine in Hither Germany),
from which I leamed for the first time
that whcn witchcs are about to fly
from their husbands’ beds to their
assemblies, it is their praetiee, in order
to prevent their husbands frora noting
any dcparture from their ordinary
daily and nightly habits, to eharm
them by their spells into a sleep from
which they eannot easily be aroused;
or else to íay beside them as they are
buried in repose some dummy in their
likeness, which their husbands should,
if they happened to awake, imagine to
be their wives. Bertrande Barbier ad-
mitted that she had often done this;
and that, to sink her husband in such
a sleep, she had many times tweaked
his ear after having with her right
hand anointed it with the same oint-
ment which she used upon herself
when she wished to be transported to
the Sabbat. Eller, the wifc of an oífieer
at Ottingen, said that she had substi-
tuted in her plaee a ehild’s pillow, and
Sinehen May of Speirehen some
twigs, after they had invoked the name
of their Demons; and in this manner
they had often deeeived their hus-
bands. Maria, the wife of Johann
Sehneider of Metzereeh, used a bundle
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XIII.
44
of straw anointed with her ointment,
\vhich uscd to vanish as soon as she
herself had returned to the house.
Catharina Ruífa deelared that her
Demon had himself at times taken her
plaee in the bed.
☆
dlAPTER XIII
That ihere are many Faults for ivhieh the
Demons bring IVitehes to task with the
utmost Severiiy: such as Failnre to altend
the Noetnmal Assemblies; the Ilealing of
Diseases without Permission; svjfering an
injury to be unavenged; Failme to do
Evil; Stubbomness; dissmding another
from {Vrongdoing; eonfessing their Guilt
to a Judge; tising their Sbeìls without
Success; and very many other Shorteom-
ings of this Kind. For these they are
punished with the most Savage Bealing,
or else they must atone for them by some
Seriotis Loss of their oivn Goods.
I F there is one supremc and endur-
ing cause of offenee, it is that which
arises from envy, which (as Ciccro
says) is by far the bitterest and most
abiding of all motives. And if this be
truc of mankind, what ean wc but
think its influcnce will be with Satan,
who has no greater eare or anxiety
than to be ever seeking some fresh
ealamity or misery wherewith to affliet
mankind, because their eondition in
life is to some degree more fortunate
than his own? It shou!d not, then,
appear wonderful that onee he has
gamed power and authority over any
man, he shotild prove so hard a master
and treat him so cruelly and unmcrci-
fullv. It is, indeed, the perpetual eom-
plaint of such that he never fails to
ìnvent reasons for imputing some fault
or contumacy to them, and for blam-
ing and severely punishing them; and
that never, even for a single moment,
does he allow them any peaee.
At Altwcicr in January 1585, Kuno
Gugnot testified that, because he was
sometimes late and sometimes infre-
quent in his attendanee at the Sabbat,
he had more than onee been beaten
almost to death by the Demon.
Another time he paid a heavy penalty
because, without asking permission,
he had dared to restore to health the
danghter of Dominiquc Ray, to whom,
at the Demon’s instigation, he had
given poison. But by far his most terri-
fying experiencc was when the Demon
earned him through the air and set
him down over the river Moselle in a
precipitous plaee full of peril by reason
of the rapias; and did not eease from
threatening to east him down and
drown him, until he promised to
poison Desidcrius Galerius, with whom
he was at enmity; and not long after-
wards he was eompelled, by the
Demon’s strietest eommands, to do
that deed.
jeanne Gerardine (at Villc-sur-
Moselle, June 1587), Catharinc Ruffa
(at Pagncy-sur-Mosclle, Nov. 1584),
and Framjoise Fellet affirmed that
they had often been punishcd for
their negleet of wrongdoing: and,
aeeording to Nieole Morèle (at Serre,
Jamiary 1587), the punishment was
so severe that her breath was taken
away and she almost died. And she
added that this need not seem sur-
prising; for the Demon had hands of
iron with which he so pounded their
heads that it seemed to those who felt
them that they had been deprived of
their bones. Álcxée Belheure (Blain-
ville, Feb. 1587) and CIaude Morèle
(at Serre, Dcc. 1586) eomplained that
they had, to their great hurt, very
often cxpcrienced the like punish-
ment. And sometimes he so flies in
their faee with his talons that he leaves
it all rent and torn; as Rosa Gerar-
dine, of the Etival distriet, in Novem-
ber 1586, made manifest to the Judge
by showing the sears which sne yet
bore.
The Demon put every pressure upon
the same Belheure to poison her hus-
band. But when, for love of him,- she
would not do this, he was infuriated
by her refusal and affiieted her with
BK. I. CH. XIU.
DEMONOLATRY
the dropsy; and she siiffered from that
swelling for six whole months, and did
not reeover until her feet were laneed
and eighteen pints of the most stinking
matter were drawn off.
Hc did not eease to urge Margareta
Luodman (Vergaville, Jan. 1587) to
poison her ncighbour’s cow whtch had
eaten all her eabbages and trodden
down all her garden; and gave her
some poison on a wooden píatter for
that purpose. But she shrank from do-
ing it becausc she feared that her
ncighbour, whom she knew to be a
very shrewd woman, would deteet her
in the erime. At last, therefore, in
order to free herself ol' that obligation
and so that she might at any eost
appease her Little Master, she ehose
rather to kill with the same poison the
one steer which she had in her own
stable. Bertrande Barbier (Forpaeh,
Aug. 1587) was also eompelled to pay
by the loss of her own eattle for spar-
ing those of another against the eom-
mand of her Little Master.
With the utmost importunacy the
Demon drove Apollonie (of Freissen,
Aug. 1587) to promise that she would
never rest until she had done some
great injuiy' to the family of her fellow-
townsman Eysart. But she was unable
to ftilfil her promise; for she was pre-
vented by God, into whosc eare and
proteetion Eysart used to entmst him-
self and his family at the dawning of
every day. At last she was driven to
the neeessity of appeasing the Demon’s
vexation at her failure to keep her
promise by the murder of her ten-
year-old danghter, whose name was
Eugel. Another Demon imposed the
same compulsion to kill her own off-
spring upon Oatharine Praevote (in
Freissen, Sept. 1589). For she had
eoneeived a violent desire to p>oison
the only daughter of her neighbour
Miehael Koeh, and had many times
tried to do so, but without success;
for the ehild’s father kept her safe
from evil spells by means of daily
prayers and Iustrations. At last, as
the Demon kept eomplaining that he
45
was being baulked of his prey, the
heartless mother did not flineh from
eompensating him over and above by
poisoning her own infant son, Odilo.
It is, in faet, an immutable law that,
if witches have failed in their attempt
to injure another, they must them-
selves beeome the vietims of their in-
tended maliee; for the Demon never
permits his designs to fail for laek of
some objeet. And if several witches
together have made an attempt, and
there is a question as to which of them
sliall bear the brunt of their failurc,
the matter is deeided by lot, and she
X n whom it falls must pay the pen-
for them all. The same Praevote
states that this coursc was onee taken
by herself and her assoeiates in erime.
“For,” she said, “we had plotted to-
ether to bewitch the floeks of a eob-
ler of Freissen, but for some reason
or other we were thwarted in our
attempt. Nevertheless, something had
to be aehieved, so that by some means
he might be satisfied who was eon-
fidently awaiting his prey. We de-
eided, therefore, to draw Iots to deter-
mine wliich of us should suffcr for it;
and the lot fell upon Agnes Eyswitz,
the evilest and wickcdest woman of
us all. And she, without in the least
shrinking from the atroeity of the deed,
with the greatest readiness and in the
presenee of her eompanions gave a
poisoned drink to her twenty-year-old
son, named Peter, in conscquence of
which his whole body was not long
after marvellously distorted and dis-
figured.” Without doubt she was eon-
strained either to do this or else herself
to suffer an even more painful death
at the hands of the Demon, who never
eondones any failure.
In the same way Balial Basle fof
St. Nieolas-de-Port near Dombasle-
sur-Meurthe, Mareh 1587) did not
persist in his contumacy with im-
punity. For bccause he negleeted to
obey the Demon’s eommand to poìson
a eertain man whom he bitterly nated,
he suffered such terrible punishment in
his own housc that (as he said) he
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XIII.
46
would rather die at onee than have to
endure the like torments again.
Neither did that Margarita, whom
we have just mentionea, eseape the
vengeanee of the Demon for naving
dissuadcd her fellow-witches from
their maliee, when they had met to-
gether by the pool of Wapenbruch
and, following their usual praetiee,
were beating tne water with the intent
to destroy tne fruits of the trees. Her
reason was that she remembered that,
thanks to that fruit, she had more
than onee been able to endure a long
and severe famine. But the Demon so
terribly railed against her, and more-
over beat her so emelly, that she soon
ehanged her mind and agreed to that
aet of destruction.
At Meinfeld, in January 1586,
Jeanne le Ban, confounded by the
weight of the evidenee against her
and moved by fear of the threatened
torture, eonfessed to the Judge all her
erimes and witchcraft, and, repeating
the words after the Judge, bade de-
part for ever the Demon to which she
was subject. But not long afterwards
the Demon found her alone in her
rison, and so pounded and kieked
er that she thought her last day had
eome. However, the gaolers oppor-
tunely intervened and prevented nim
from earrying his savage fury any far-
ther. It is a faet that ner whole baek
was still diseolonred with the marks
of reeent blows when she reported this
occurrence to the Magistrate. For the
same reason, the frank eonfession of
her guilt, Ótilla Kelvers (Freissen,
Aug. 1590) was so fiereely beaten in
prison Dy her Little Master that her
eries were heard a very Iong way off
by the Oastellan’s servants.
See how very harsh and unjust a
master is the Devil, even to tbose who
have surrendered themselves entirely
to his will: whereas Christ ever teaehes
that His yoke is easy and His burden
light, and urges those who would have
rest for their souls to take it upon
them. It is, indeed, but meet that two
such opposite systems of serviee shou!d
be abso!utely eontrary in their pur-
poses and results. The supreme law
of Christ is love boni of faith, and
sinee He gathered us into His church,
He has given us no more saered eom-
mand than this; in S. John xiii. 34:
“A new eommandment I give unto
you, that ye love one anotlier as I
have loved you.” Again, in verse 35:
“By this shall all men know that ye
are my diseiples, if ye have love one
to another.” This eommandment is
not hard to obey; it is full of love, joy
and happiness. And if we fall short in
our observanee of it, God does not at
onee pour forth His wrath upon our
stubbomness, but is slow to punish
and loath to ehastise. And if He must
punish, His punishment is moderate
and always salutary, that of a father
rather than of a master; arising from
the love of Him who ehastisetn, not
from the avenger’s hate. The preeepts
and eommanas of the Devil, on the
eontrary, are always eoneemed with
envy, treaehery, cruelty, slaughter,
loss and wrong. See S. John viii and
Revelations xii. For from the beginning
he was a murdercr, a caIumniator,
robber, destroyer, traitor, tormentor
and slaughterer. And his ehief desire
and objeet is that his subjects shotdd,
like himself, busy themselves to pro-
cure the misery and misfortune of
others. If his fo!Iowers disobey him
or hesitate to perform his bidding, the
consequence is, as has been said, that
they are beaten and pounded even to
death; and if they obey his behests,
they are wretchedly involved in eon-
tinual misery and anguish; just as
they who, against their natural ten-
demess of heart, are eompelled by
their duty to be witnesses of bloody
and revolting speetaeles. Moreover,
pity, which is the first of human in-
stinets, the fear of arrest, and the eon-
seionsness of their sins never allow
them to be of ealm and easy mind;
but they are for ever the vietims of
distress, evil impulses, misery and
ealamity.
☆
BK. I. CH. XIV.
DEMONOLATRY
CHAPTER XIV
That Witches do oflai really and in faet
Travel to their Noeliimal Synagogties;
and often again such Joumeyings are but
an Empty Imaginalion begotten of
Dreams; and that they are equally right
who snpport either of these Opinions.
Further, that these Joumeys are per-
formed in Various Manners; and on what
Nights they most eommonly take plaee in
Lonaine.
T HERE is much eontroversy and
dissension among those who treat
of this aspeet of witchcraft; as to
whethcr witches do in faet fly to and
bodily present themselves at the noto-
rious evil assemblies of Demons, or
whether they are only possessed by
some fantastie dclusion, and, as hap-
pens when the empty mind is filled
with dreams at night, merely imagine
that they are so present. There are
good arguments and examples in sup-
port of both sides in tWs dispute.
Credible authors such as Fr. à Tu-
rella,* and Jean Bodin in his Daemono-
mania , have vouched for eases where
womcn have manifestly spent the
whole night at home, and even in bed
with their husbands, and yet on the
next morning they have eonfidently
recounted many details of the Sabbat
at which they have aílìrmed they were
present on tne previous night. Other
women, again, have been kept under
express observation througnout the
night by their friends and relations, as
well as their ncighbours, who had be-
eome suspicious of them because of
eertain rumours; and they have been
seen to move spasmodieally in their
- “ Tnrtlla." Pierre Turrel, a Freneh
philosopher and astrologer, was born at Autun
in the seeond half of the Jfìeenth eenhtry, and
died at Dijon, where he was Reetor of the
Sehools during the seeond deeade of the six-
teenth eentitry. He is the anthor of a very
eurious work upon the inflaenee of the Heavenly
Bodies , “La Phiode, e'est à dire la Fin du
Monde," 1531.
47
sleep as if they were smitten with some
acute pain; or even to mount upon a
ehair or some other objeet and aet as
if they were spurring a horse to great
speed: vet they did not go out of the
house, Dut on awaking appeared as
weary as if they had rctumed from a
long joumcy, and told wonderful
stones of what they imagined they had
done, and were much offendea and
angry with those who would not be-
lieve them. For these reasons many
have been Ied to believe that the Sab-
bats are 110 more tlian dreams and
visions sent by the Demon into the
minds of those whom he has snared in
his net. This opinion has not a few
supporters of great wcight; and S.
Jerome does not dissent from it whcre
his only reason for quoting the argu-
ment of a eertain Jew of his time, who
fallaciously adduced the authority of
the story of Habakkuk ( Daniel xiv,
32-38), was to show that the trans-
portment and transveetion of the Pro-
phet through the air was a miraele and
outside the laws of nature.
On the other side there is no iaek
of well-reputed authors, for example,
illrieh Molitort and Jean Bodin, who,
both by argument and exampies,
maintain the literal truth of this raat-
ter. For (they say) they have heard
the evidenee of those who have
smeared and nibbed themselves with
the same ointmentj that witches use,
t u Ulrich Molitor." This writer was bom
at Constance, where he died in 1492. He was
a doetor both of Roman and Canon Law, and
procurator in the Episeopal etiria at Constance.
Upon the request of Arehdnke Sigismund of the
Tyrol he wrote a treatise, “De Laniis frie] et
Phitonieismulieribus, Tractatuspulcherrimus."
Aeeording to Stanislans de Gtiaita the fìrst
edition is 4to, 1465. There were several re-
prints before the end of the eentrny, and German
translations appeared in 1544 and 1575. It is
quite an error to suppose that Molitor denied the
existence of witches, in faet he insists upon this,
although he states that there is much deeeption,
and much extravagance in popalar belief. •
{ “ Ointment." De Lanere, “Tableaa de
l'ineonstanee," II, Discours I, says: “Les
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XIV.
48
and have in a moment been earried
with them to the Sabbat; though it
eost them many days’ journey to re-
turn from it when, as Apuleius says,
the song was done and the blind foree
of conjured Powers was expended.
They have heard also of those who
have gone on foot to the Sabbat with
theír ehildren, whom they meant to
initiate at the solemn assembly, and
werc aftcrwards earried home through
the air by the Demon.* Many, again,
have stated in evidenee that they have
spoken to persons on their outward
journey and met them again on their
rcturn late at night, when they gave
astonishing and perplexing answers to
their questions. Then there are the
eonversations at the Sabbat itself,
which have afterwards been reported
in identieal words by different persons
who were present. There are eases of
the reeogmtion of the masks, disguises
and veils with which eaeh witch eovers
her faee to eoneeal her identity; and
of the vessels, garments and furniture
litires et les InquìsiteuTs disét, que les soreiers
eomposent et font ees ongnens ou graisses, ou
que le Diable les leur donne: Que la plus part
se font auec de la graisse de petit enfant
qué Satanfaiet oeeire à des soreières. Mais ils
tiennent que ees ongaents ne peuuent sermr en
ee eas d autre ejfeet, que pour assoupir les sens
des soreiers, afin que Satan ionisse mieux à son
aise d’eux." fVeyer, “De Lamiis," III, 17,
iiJTÍtes: “De naturalibus pkarmaei somniferis,
quibus \nterdum \Uudunlur Lamiae, de earttm
item unguenlis, et quibusdam plantis sopori•
feris, mentemque impense turbantibus." In his
obinion tke ointments of witches are toxic, pro-
aiteìng excitement and deliriam, or nareotie,
aivakening evil dreams. “Lamiamm quoque
unguentum propemodnm simile tradit Hierony-
mtis Cardanus, post cuius inanetionem mirabilia
nideri apparet."
- ln many eonfessions il is said that tkey
walked (0 the rendezvous, and De Lanere in
dealing with such eases deeides: “II is truly as
eriminal and abominable for a Soreerer to go to
the Sabbat on foot as to be voluntarily eonveyed
thilher by the Detnl." See Montague Summers,
“The History of Witchcraft" (1926), ehapter
iv, pp. 118-133.
used at the Sabbat. Joachim| reeords
such instanees. Their shouts and eries
have been heard by shepherds keeping
their floeks near by. There are the
dummies which the women have left
by their husbands to take their plaee
in their own absenee. In short there
are very many of those who have joined
that pestilential seet whoagree in their
statements and evidenee on all these
matters; and I have thought good to
seleet the following cxample, as being
most pertinent to the matter in ques-
tion, and report it rather more fully.
In May 1589 the inhabitants were
holding a earnival at Líitzen, a not
ineonsiderabie town at the foot of the
Vosges. A man named C!aude Cho-
teau was returning at nightfall from
there to a neighbouring village ealled
Wisembach, and had elimbed the bet-
ter part of the hill which stands be-
tween the two plaees, when he was
suddenly pu!led up by a violent whirl-
wind. He looked about in astonish-
ment and could see no reason for such
an unusual happening, for everyvvhere
else it was perfeetly ealm. Then he
observed in a retired eorner, loeally
known as Morèle, six masked womcn
daneing around a table laid with
much gold and silver, tossing their
heads like mad women; and near them
was a man sitting upon a blaek bull
watching them as if he were some
casual passer-by. He stood still for a
little, therefore, to eolleet himself and
observe it all more elosely; but they
instantly disappeared and vanished
from his sight. So, reeovering from his
fright, he resumed his journey and had
assed the top of the hill, when be-
old! those women were foIIowing him
behind, tossing their heads about as
t “ joaehim ” Camerarius, born at Bam-
berg in 1300, ditd at Leipzig in 1574. The
real name (which he Latìnized) of this eele-
brated seholar was Liebhard or Kammer-
meister, sometimes spell Camtr-Meister. The
present referenee is to his "De natura el affeeti-
onibat demonum libelli duo Phlarehi Chero-
nensis cum explicatiombus." IJpsiae, 1376,
oelavo.
BK. I. CH. XIV.
DEMONOLATRY
before, and preserving as if by agree-
ment a profound silenee. Before them
went a man with a blaek faee and
hands curved like hooks, with which
the horrid apparition would have rent
and clawed his faee if he had not
drawn his sword and defended him-
self. But on his doing that, the man
eeased to threaten him, and disap-
peared like one in fear for his life.
(This supports the eontention of Plato
and Psellus and eertain aeademte
philosophers that Demons are sus-
eeptible to and afraid of threats, blows,
cuts and wounds. This matter we deal
with clsewherc.) Nevertheless, those
women showed themselves again, and
with them the man who, as I said, was
sitting upon a bull and watching their
danee. fo him Choteau, growing
bolder, went up and said: “What!
Are you here, friend Desiré Gaxet?”
(For that was his name.) “I beg you
to proteet me if you ean: for I
solemnly promise that I will never
speak of anything which I have seen.”
Hardly had he said this, when he was
agaín caught up in a whirlwind or
cloud; and when he at last got free
from it he found himself alone on the
round far away from the road; but
e found his way baek to it and re-
turned home as quickly as he could.
Three days after giving evidenee of
this he was again summoned before
the Judge and added to his former
statement the following: that he re-
membered that, when he had gone
near to the table to see what sort of a
banquet was there set out, the Demon
had ìmmediately flown at his faee with
his claws; and that while he was de-
fending himself with his sword he had
been lifted up by a violent wind and
earried to the eataraets of Combri-
mons, not less than two hundred paees
away. And lest anyone should put this
story down to the ravings of a drunken
man frightened by the loneliness of the
night and the plaee, Barbette Gaxet,
one of those six women, had the month
before told the same story to the Judge
in almost the same words; adding that
49
Desiré Gaxet and his wifc had given
Choteau two measures of eom and
two eheeses of cow’s milk as the priee
of his silenee about what he had seen.
And when he and she were brought
faee to faee, they agreed in all respeets
except only that Barbette said that the
reason that the Demon had attaeked
Chotcau was not, as he had falsely
said, that he had approaehed near the
table, but that he had tried to steal a
gold cup from it.
Here is another similar instanee.
Johann von Hembaeh had hardly
grown to manhood whcn his witch
mother took him with her to the noe-
turnal assembly of Demons. And, be-
cause he was skilled in its use, she bade
him play the flute, and elimb a tree*
near by that he might the better be
heard. This he did; and having leisure
to observe their danees, and struck
with wonder at the uncommon man-
ner of them (for everything there was
preposterous and ridiculous), he ex-
elaimed: “Good God 1 where did this
crowd of fools and madmen eome
from?” Seareely had he said this when
he fell to the ground and was hurt in
one shoulder, and when he ealled upon
them to help him, he found himself
alone. This adventure he openly pro-
elaimed; and while various opimons
were being expressed eoneeming it,
some maintaining that it was a visíon,
and others that it had really happened,
it so happened after a little that alí
doubt was removed. For one of the
women who had joined in that danee,
Gatharina Prevotte, was soon after-
wards taken up at Freissen in Septem-
ber 1589 on suspicion of witchcraft,
and recountcd the wholc matter as it
has already been told, although she
was as yet unaware that Hembaeh had
been spreading the story, and without
- “Climb a tree." This ìnstanee is also re-
lated by Gttazzo. See “Compendium Malefi-
eamm," /, xii (set the translation published by
John Rodker, igsg, p. 45). On p. 37 a wood-
cut shows the danee wiih the fiddler seated in a
tree.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. GH. XIV.
50
having been previousiy questioned
eoneerning it. Otiila Kelvers (at
VVerdenst, Aug. 1590) and Anguel
Eysartz (at Dieuze, Dee. 1590), who
were found guilty of witchcraft in the
folIowing year, severally told the same
story, adding weight to their evidenee
by naming the plaee, Mayebuch,
where it happened.
The following is no Iess pertinent to
the subject. As Nieolette Lang-Bern-
hard was returning from the old mill
of Guermingcn to Assenoncour on the
25th July, 1590, and was going along
a forest path at high noon, she saw in
a field near by a band of men and
women daneing round in a ring. But
because they were doing so in a man-
ner eontrary to the usual praetiee, with
their baeks tumed towaras eaeh other,
she Iooked more elosely and saw also
daneing around with tne others some
whose feet were deformed and like
those of goats or oxen. Nearly dead
with fnght, she began fas we do when
some sinister disaster tnreatens us) to
eall upon the saving Name of Jesus,*
and to beseeeh Him that she might at
least retum safe and unhurt to her
house. Thereupon all the daneers
seemed to vanisn at onee, except one
named Petter Gross-Petter, who rose
quickly into the air, and was seen to
let falí a mop such as bakers use to
elean out their ovens before putting in
their dough. Meanwhile Nieolette was
caught in a violent gale so that she
could hardly breathe; and afler she
had reaehea home she lay ill in bed
for three whole days. When Nieolette
- “Name of Jesus.” (f. Anthony Hor-
neek's aeeotmt of the Swedish ivitehes in the
years i66g and i6yo, brinted, 1681, as an ap-
pendìx to the “Sadaucismus Tritimphatvs."
Coneeming the transveetion of imtehes he
ivrites: “A little girl of Elfdale eonfessed,
that naming the Name of Jestis as she was
earried away , she fell sáddenly ttpon the
Grovnd, and got a great hole in her Side,
which the Devil presently healed up again, and
away he earried her; ànd to this day the girl
eonfessed she had exceeding great pain in her
and her neighbours had spread the
story of this through all the village, it
seemed to Petter that to keep silent
would be tantamount to a eonfession
of gui!t; so he went straight and laid
a mighty bitter eomplaint before the
Judge; but in the ena, fearing that if,
as appeared probable, he should lose
his ease, he would be exposing him-
self to even greater danger, he pur-
posely broke off and desisted from it.
But this did but the more inerease
suspicion against him, many eonsider-
ing that it was due to his eonseienee
of guilt that he now bore in silenee an
accusation which he had at first bit-
terly resented. Aeeordingly, theJudge
inquired all the more earefiilly into his
life and habits and, finding sure indi-
eations that the suspicions against him
were not baseless, ordered him to be
Iaid by the heels. He was then with no
great difficulty induced to eonfess his
erime, and finally to name and make
known others who had been his part-
ners in it. Among these were Baroelia
the wife of Joannes Latomus, and
Mayetta the wife of Laurcntius the
Chief Magistrate (who were tried at
Dieuze in Febmary and Mareh re-
speetively, 1591), who severally but in
the same words eonfessed the truth of
what their aeeompliee Petter had said
about the baek-to-baek daneingf and
f “ Baek-to-baek daneing." Boguet, “An
Examen of WiUhesehap. xxi, says in his
deseription of the Sabbat: “Following this,
they aanee; and this they do in a ring baek to
baek . . . now they danee in this manner baek
to baek so that they may not be reeogrtiged.”
There are oery many referenees to thisfavonrite
pieee of ehoreography. De Lanere, “Tableaa
de l’lneonstanee, III, Diseonrs iii, in de-
seribing the mitehes' danees, says: “La troisi-
ìme est aussi le dos toumé, mais se tenant tous
en long, et sans se déprendre des mains, iLt
s'approehent de si pris qu'ils se tonehent, et se
reneontrent dos à dos, un homme avee une
femme: et à eertaine eadanee ils se choquent et
frapent impudiquement evl eontre etd .” Hutch-
inson, “A HistorieaL Essay Conceming Witch-
erafì," seeond edition, syso (p. 43), gives a
eonfession of Jeanne Bosdeau (/59^): “The
BK. I. CH. XIV.
DEMONOLATRY
51
the mingling of the eloven-hoofed ones
in the danee. Their testimony was
eonfirmed by that of a herdsman
named Johann Miehel, who, in fur-
ther proof of the truth of his words,
added that he had played the part of
>iper to that danee, putting his shep-
ìerd’s erook to his mouth and moving
ìis fingers upon it as if it had really
)een a pipe; and that whcn Nieolette
(as has been told) in fear ealled upon
Jesus and moreover signed herself with
the Cross, he had fallen headlong from
the tall oak in which he was sitting;
after which he had been caught up in
a whirlwind and earried to a meaaow,
ealled Weiller, where he had a little
before left his floeks grazing. But the
final and ineontrovertible proof of the
tnith of this occurrence was the faet
that the plaee where this daneing had
been enaeted was found, on the day
after the matter was reported by Nieo-
lette, trodden into a ring such as is
found in a circus where horses run
round in a eirele; and among the other
traeks were the reeent marks of the
hoofs of goats and oxen. And these
marks remained visible until the field
was ploughcd up in the following win-
ter. Furthcr evidenee was given by
Niekel Clein, Didier Widder, Gaspar
Sehneider, and as many as werc after-
wards ealled upon by the Judge to
speak upon the matter.
Here is an actual faet, not a vision-
ary dream; an occurrence witnessed
by the eyes, not merely understood by
hearsay; eonfirmed by the eonsistent
evidenee of independent witnesses, not
based upon the deliberate and fie-
titious report ofa single person. Ifthis
is not proof enough to eonvinee any-
one, I have no more to say but that
he must abide by his eontrary opinion:
only I would have him know that I
have not imagined or invented any
part of the story; but have, on the
blaek Goat earried a lighted Candle in his
Fundamenty and all the ÌYitehes had Candles
which they lighted at his, and daneed irt a
drele Baek to Baek."
eontrary, omitted to mention several
instanees in proof of this argument
which eame to my knowlcdge during
the eapital trials of witches, and have
sinee been forgotten by me.
On the other hand, I am quitc will-
ing to aeree with those who think that
such Sabbat meetings at times exist
only in dreams. It was very elearly
stated not long sinee in her evidenee
by Catharine Prevotte (at Freissen,
September 1589) that sometimes
witches are ftilly awake and actually
present at these assemblies; but that
often they are merely visited in their
sleep by an empty and vain imagina-
tion. For the Demons are cqually
ready either to transport them wnithcr
they wish when they are awake, or to
impress the image ot such a happening
upon their minds while they are sleep-
ing and (as Galen says, Definit . Med.)
innuenced by a brief mania. But I
eannot agree with those who elass
eestasies, mental emotions and abstrae-
tions from the body as pertaining to
this matter; for I do not think that
such a view ean rightly be defended,
espeeially when it is elaimed that they
are caused by the ageney of Demons.
S. Paul, speaking of a man caught up
to the third heaven, freely admits
(II. Corinthians xii, 3) that he could not
tell whether it was m the body or out
of the body; for God alone knoweth.
And we read that S. Peter, together
with the two other diseiples, was so
dazed by the glory of the transfigured
Lord, and so rapt in eestasy, that he
did not know what he said or where he
was. And, sinee we are pleased to
eommend the opinion of the Pagans in
this matter, Pliny* (VII, 52) quotcs the
- “Pliny." “Reperimsis inter exempla,
Hermotim Clazomenii animam relieto eorpore
trrare solitam, uagamque e longinquo rmdta
annmtiare, quae nisi a praesente nosà non
possent, eorpore interim semianimi: donee ere-
mato eo immiei (qui Cantharìdae uocabantur)
remeanti animae uelut naginam ademerint.
Aristeae etiam uisam euolantem ex ore in Pro-
eonneso, corui ejffigie, magna quae sequitur
fabulositate." Proconnesus is an island of the
DEMON OLATRY
BK. I. CH. XIV.
52
aneient story that the spirít of Her-
motimus of dazomenae left his body
and returned from long journeys to
tell of many events which could only
have been known by one who had
been present at them; and he adds
that the spirit of Aristaeus was seen
rising from his mouth in Proconnesus
in the shape of a raven; but he eon-
cludcs that these were mere fables.
The question of the soul’s wandering
from the body, and its subsecjuent re-
turn to it as if to its home, is one of
great diffienlty and quite beyond the
understanding of any man. It is our
pious and Christian belief that the
uniori of soul and body ean only be
dissolved by death, ana that after its
dissolution they will not be reunited
until the day of the Last Judgement.
Now if witchcs, after being aroused
from the profoundest sleep, tell of
things they have seen in plaees so far
distant as eompared with the short
pjeriod of their sleep, the only conclu-
sion is that there nas been some un-
substantial journey like that of the
soul: yet it does not neeessarily follow
that the witch’s soul has left her body
and been on that journey; for no man
ean endure such an experience and
remain none the worse for it. The
phenomenon has something in eom-
mon with that kind of sleep in which
it appears as if the soul has fled,
although in truth it is but deeply hid-
den, such as we see in the ease of
sufferers from apoplexy, epilepsy, or
suffocation of the womD. For whiíe it
is lying thus latent, the Demons, whose
speed is beyond eomparison (for, as
Iamblicus says, De Mysteriis Aegyplio-
rum, eap. de intcllectu et anima, it is a
natural property of the ineorporeal to
fly at onee to any desired plaee in
Propontis {Sea 0/ Marmora) off the north
eoast of Mysia. Of the epie poet Aristeas, who
is said to kave been a mj/slie writer and a
magieian, we only have fabulous accounts. His
date is quite nneertain; some plaee him about
the tìme of Homer, but we ean only say that
he was eonsiderably earlier than Herodotns.
spite of all obstaeies), imbue and fill
tne soul with a vision of all those things
the images of which they have with
ineredible speed brought from far-
distant lands. Similarìy, it is a not
altogether absurd opinion of those
optieians mentioned by Aristotle (De
sensibus et iis quae sensn pereip.), that it
is not by the penetration of rays but
by the reeeption of images, as in the
ease of a mirror, that an objeet is per-
eeived by the eyes and afterwards
communicated to the brain. For it is
eeríain that Demons often insinuate
themselves into men’s minds and, with
God’s permission, impress upon them
and mark them with whatever
thoughts they please: in faet, this is
so well known that there is no need to
dwcll furthcr upon it. And Cardan
(De siibtililate, XVIII), who inherited
this kind of susccptibiiity to demoniae
influence, does not deny that witches
during their sleep imagine that they
are visiting various distant lands where
they see kings, theatres, danees, gar-
dens, fountains, parks, and other sights
of rare beauty, and that they even
imagine they have slept and taken
their pleasure with the most eomely
young men; but lest he should eon-
found himself with his own argument,
and in order to bring witchcraft into
line with natural causes, he tries to
find a rational explanation for this;
namely, that witches are in the habit
of eating chestnuts, beans, colewort,
opium, onions and phasels:—a ridicu-
lous argumcnt, sinee witches are not the
only people who eat such things, nor
are they always eating them. Perhaps,
then, it is not surprising that he at onee
rather ineonsistently adds that he
thinks there must be some foundation
of faet in these witches’ visions.
But to resume my discussion of these
nocturnal assemblies, and the better
to sustain the truth of them, I think it
good to expound the manner and the
way by which witches hasten to attend
the Sabbat.
The eommonest praetiee of all
witches is to fly up through the ehimney.
BK. I. GH. XIV.
DEMONOI. ATRY
If anyone objeets that ehimneys*
are too small and narrow, or raises any
other difficulties, he must know that,
by virtue of that Demonolatry which
makes all things monstrous and por-
tentous, they are first bidden to excecd
their natural limits; and, moreover,
the matter beeomes more intelligible
when it is remembered that the ehim-
neys are squarc and widc in all peas-
ants’ eottages, and that it is from this
elass that the vile rabble of soreery is
mostly derived.
Alexia Violet (in the distriet of
Thann, 1583), Jeanne le Ban (Mas-
munster, Julý 1585), Claude Fellet
(Mazières, Nov. 1585), Dominique
Petrone fGironcourt, Oet. 1585), and
nearly all (Masmunster, July 1585) of
those eonvieted of this erime, have by
their free and several eonfessions bome
witncss to the truth of this faet. Nieole
Ganette (Mazières, Dee. 1583) added
that it was her custom, when she was
preparing to start on that journey, to
ut one íòot up into a basket after she
ad smeared it with the same oint-
ment which she had used upon her-
self. Fran^ois Fellet (at Vergaviìle,
Deeember, 1585) said that he used to
plaee his left foot, not in a basket but
on the ends of the backward bent
twigs of a besom which he íìrst
anointed. Others, again, use other
methods to fly to their assemblies.
Margareta Doliar said that she had
eften been earried there riding upon
a wicker net or a reed, after having
prononneed eertain requisìte words.
Alexia Bernard (in Gucrmingen, Jan.
1590) said that she rode upon a pig;
and Hennezel F.rik (at Vergaville,
July 1586) that his father went upon
a huge mighty bull, and his mother
trn a forkea stiek such as is used in
stables; but when these two went
• “ehimneysAnthony Horneek, in his
esamni 0/ the Swedish ivitehes of i66g and
1670, says: “Bting asked how they could go
erith Iheir Bodies through Ghimneys and broken
psmes of Glass, they said that the Devil did
fist remooe all that might hinder them in their
JSght, and so they had room emmgh to go."
53
together they always flew upon a reed.
Jeanne Gransaint (at Condc-sur-
l’Escaut, July 1582) of Montigny said
that whcncver she wished to make this
journey there immediately apneared
before her door a terrible blaele dog,
upon which she boldly mounted as
upon a wcll-tamed horse; and in pay-
ment for her passage, when she dis-
mounted she was in her tum mounted
and defiled by the dog; but first (as it
seemed to her) it ehanged itself into
a not uncomely young man. Erik
Charmcs (Pangy-sur-MoselIc, 1574)
said that the Demon, like some ferry-
man, used to earry them one by one
over any river that Iay in their path;
but that they had to make their way
on foot both before and after they
eame to such a river. Barbellina Rayel
fBlainville, Jan. 1587), Fran$ois Fellet
(Mazières, in the distriet of Pangy-
sur-MoselIe, Dee. 1583), and not a
few others said that they had very
often gone on foot to the Sabbat, espe-
eially when it was to be held sorae-
where near,or if they could find others
to keep them eompany by the way;
for it is said that a eompanion on the
road is as good as a eonveyanee.
In passing, it will not be out of plaee
to add here what witches eommonly
say about the day on which they
hold these meetings. Johann Fiseher,
Colette his wife (Gerbeville, Mav
1585), Margareta Warina (Roneý,
Dee. i586),Nicole Ganette (\lasmun-
ster, July 1587), Claude Morèle (Serre,
Dcc. 1586) and, in a word, all who
have so far been tried on the eapital
eharge in Lorraine, and whose evi-
denee ean be relied upon, aflìrm that
these Sabbats are only held on Wed-
nesday or Saturday nights. They do
not give any reason for this; but I
suspect that it is bccause the Demons
are occupied elsewhere on other
nights. For, as S. Basilf says (De Saneto
t "Basil." The work "De Spirila
Saneto," which was written about 475, was
eooked in part by the Maeedonian denial and
in part by eharges that S. Basil had himself
"slurrcd over the Spirit."
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XIV.
54
Spiritti), the Demons eannot be in dif-
ferent plaees at the same time. And
those who have written of the aetivities
of witches in other distriets reeord that
they hold their Sabbats on other nights
than those just mentioned; and it is
reasonable to suppose that the Sabbat
nights in different plaees vary aeeord-
ing to the distanee betwecn them and
the time taken in going from plaee to
plaee. “The Gods,” says Apollonius,
rhilostratiis in eiiis uita, Lib. IV, eap. 13
(and by these I take him to mean
Demons), “do not remain ever in the
same plaee; but they go now to the
Ethiopians, now to Athos, and now to
OIympus.”
But all this is largely a matter of
conjecture. It remains to be eon-
sidered whether there is any fixcd and
settled hour for these noctumal assem-
blies and synagogues. Of all the many
Í risoners whom I have seen, two only,
ean de Ville (Luvigny, Oet. 1590)
and Agathe, the wife of Frangois Tail-
leur (Pittelange, Sept. 1590), have so
far given me any information in regard
to this matter. They said that the two
hours immediately preeeding mid-
night were the most suitable and op-
E ortune, not only for these assemblies
ut for all other devilish terrors, illu-
sive appearanees and groanings; and
that tne hour after midnight was not
unsuitable. They gave no reason for
this, and I shall not waste time in un-
f rofitable conjectures. This only shall
say: that no other hours of the night
are held in such suspicion for ghostly
apparitions by those who go ìn any
fear of such things. Indeed, they are
not without cause for such a belief; for
experience teaehes that these hours are
ehiefly notorious for speetres and ter-
rible apparitions, and the aneients
have amply testified to this in their
writings. In Apuleius (for it is good
to quote even from fables which, while
not reeording faets, do nevertheless
represent the probable truth as nearly
as possible), Áristomenes says that he
and his eompanion Soerates were at-
taeked by the famous witches, Meroè
and Panthia, about the third watch,
which I take to mean about midnight,
for it is then that the seeond watch
ends aeeording to the arrangement of
the watchcs said to have been made
by Palamedes, their first inventor, in
the Trojan War. Pliny the Younger
(Epist. Bk. VII, 6), telling how the
philosopher Athenodorus was attaeked
oy a speetre in the form of a wasted
and squalid old man, adds that this
happened in the silenee of the night.
And Livy writes that a voiee louder
than human was heard above the
temple of Vesta in the silenee of the
night. Among later authors Alexan-
der ab Alexandro, Genialmm Diernm, V,
24, writes that he heard during the
siíent time of the night a terrifying riot
of witches in eertain houses at Rome.
This silenee of the night is interpreted
by eredible authorities as meaning
that intempestive period which (as
Censorinus,* De die natali, eap. 9, says)
immediately preeedes midmght. Plu-
tareh in his Brutus speeified the depth
and (which is pertinent to this ques-
tion) middle of the night, speaking of
that monstrous and horrible speetre
which appeared to Marcus Érutus
when he was about to lead his army
out of Asia. ApoIlonius, Apud Pkilo-
strahtm, IV, 5, writing of tne miraele
of the shade of Aehilìes seen by him,
says that after it had spoken with him
for a while it vanished becausc the
eoeks began to crow. From this Euse-
biusf of Oaesarea, In eonfatatìone eonlra
- “ Censorínus .” “De Die Natali,” eap.
xxio: “ Concubium ,” cum itum est ad aibitam.
Exinde “ intempesta ,” id est rrnlta nox, qua
mhil agi tempestimon est: tme “ad mediam
noetem,” dicetur: et sie “media nox."
f “ Eusebius .” “The Falhtr of Ckurch
Histoty,” bom about 260; died before 341.
The referenee is to this mriter’s “Contra Hiertb
elen .” Hieroeles, who as govemor in tìithynia
and in Egypt was a emel enemy of the Christiaru
dwing the persecutions, hád atlaeked them
before the actual perseetdion with his pen. His
work merely eonsisled of a eomparison betiveen
Our Lord and Apollonius of Tyana, in which
he made great use of the life by Philostratns.
BK. I. CH. XIV.
DEMONOLATRY
Hieroelen quarta, concludes that the un-
seaaonable time of night just before
cocltcrow is the most fitted for the
summoning of and unholy speeeh with
an evil Demon. Telephion of Miletus
(Apuleius, Golden Ass, Bk. II) was set
to guard a dead body at Lanssa from
the designs of witch women, and said
that he saw one of these witches in the
form of a weasel at such a time of the
night. “It was dusk,” he said, “and
then the night fell and the darkness
deepened, and it was time to be in
bed, and then eame that untimeous
season of the night, and I grew more
and more afraid; when suddenly a
weasel erept up to me and attaeked
me so violently that I was amazed at
the boldness of so small an animal.”
The intempestive time of night is
plaeed by Servius ( Aeneid , III) at mid-
night, and by Macrobius [Satumalia,
I, 3Ì at just after midnight: for then
is tne most opportune time for the
aetivities of the Prinee of Darkness and
(as Zephaniah* says) evening wolves,
whcn it begins to be unfit for the ordi-
nary work of men. And, to retum to
what ApolIonius says of the cockcrow
being inimieal to apparitions of the
night, I remember reading not long
ago, in the report of the eapital triaí
of a witch at Dieuze, a story which has
some relevanee to the question into
which we have digressed. This witch,
whose name was Babilla Latoma (at
Dieuze, Dee. 1591), was minutely
questioned by the Judge about the
nightly doings of witches; and among
otner things she answered that no
more fatally obstructive a thing could
happen to them than that the eoek
should crowf while they wcre making
Eusebius shows the profane absurdity and
falsity of his writings.
- “Z'phaniah." III, 3: “Her prinees
ivithin her are roaring lions; her judges are
evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till
the morrow" [A. V.).
f “The eoek shoald crow." That the
crowing of a eoek dissolves enehantments is a
tradition of extremest anliquity. De Lanere
says: “Le coq s'oyt par fois es Sabbals sonnát
55
their preparations. Similarly (July
1591), Jonann Bulmer and Desirée his
wife of l’Amanee distriet said that,
when it was about time to break up
their assemblies, their Little Masters
often used to ery out repeatedly: “Ho!
Make haste and away, all; for the
eoeks begin to crow!” From this I
conclude that they are unable to pro-
long their bminess beyond that time:
and, indeed, I know from PlinyJ (X,
21) and Aelian that the crowing of the
eoek is feared by lions and seolopendras.
Furthcrmorc, it b most ominous if
they crow out of season, and espeeially
during the night against their habit;
as Raphael Maffei (Volaterranus),
Philologiae, Lib. XXV, reeords to have
happened on the birth-night of the
eldest son of Matteo Viseonti the
Great, Lord of Milan, when the eoeks
kept up a continual and wearisome
crowing. The boy was therefore
named Galeazzo, and grew to be so
famed for his eloquence and military
prowess that (as Jovius§ says, ln elogits
elaromm uirorum ) he far surpassed even
the most famous prinees of his day.
Now I no more question that this was
foreshown by that cockcrowing than
that the cockcrow is antipathetie to
lions and seolopendras. But I maintain
that it is not so much the crowing of
the eoek (for manv other birds have
an even loudcr ana more effeetive ery
than eoeks) that impedes the maliee
of witches, as the faet that such crow-
ings are as a rule only heard at that
time of the night which is unsuited to
their work; and therefore it is said
that the aneients regarded eoeks as
ealendary, because they werc the
heralds and dividers of the hours of
the night.
la Retraiete aux Soreiers." For firther details
see “The Hislory of ÌYiteherafì," by Mon -
tague Summers, pp. 117-18.
X “ Pliny .” The Seolopendra is a kind of
multipede.
§ “ Jooiiis .” Paolo Giovio, the famotis
hislorian, bom at Como, igth April, 1483;
died at Florenee, nth Deeember, 1552.
56
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XV.
GHAPTER XV
That all kinds of Persons attend the Noe-
tiimal Assemolies of Demons in Large
Niimbers; but the Majority of these are
IVomen, sinee that Sex is the more sus-
eeptible to Evil Counscls.
TACOB MEYER, a careful eompiler
J of Annals, writes that at Arras under
P’hilip of Burgundy those who were
eonvieted ofwitchcraft and questioncd
eoneeming their aeeompliees said that
those who met together with them in
their assemblies were drawn from
every elass and eondition of men and
women. A warlock named Trois-
Esehelles, aeeording to Jean Bodin in
his Demonomania, told King Charlcs
IX that the numbcr of those whom he
kn.ew to be infeeted with the erime of
witchcraft in Franee amonnted to
many thousands. In Lorraine, during
the sixteen years in which I have
judged prisoners eharged with this
erime, no less than eight hundred
have been elearly proved guilty, and
eondemned to death by our Duum-
virs; besides nearly as many more who
have saved their íives by flight or by
a stubborn endurance of the torture.
For the trial of such eases is so beset
with doubts and perplexities that the
Judge is very often balked of his ex-
peetations, as we shall explain more
Fully in due course.
But all those taken up for witchcraft
are unanimous in their assertion that
the Sabbats are attended by great
numbers. Jeannele Bari (Masmunstcr,
Junc 1585) and Nieole Ganète (July
1585) said that the numbers were so
great whenever they werc present. that
they felt no iittle pity for the human
raee when they saw how many enemies
and traitors werc opposed to it, and
that it was most surprising that mor-
tals did not suffer greater damage
from them. Catharina Ruffa (Ville-
sur-Moscl!e, June 1587) stated that
she saw no less than nve hundrcd *
on the night when she was first en-
tieed into their eompany. Barbeline
Rayel (Blainville, Jan. 1587) said that
the women far excceded the men in
numbcr, sinee it was much easier for
the Demon to impose his deeeits upon
that sex f—an observation which
Torquemada also made in his
Hexameron. Certainly I remember to have heard of far more cases of women than men; and it is not unreasonable that this scum of humanity should be drawn chiefly from the feminine sex, and that we should hear mostly of women simplists, wise women, soreeresses, enchantresses, and masked Lombard women. For in estimating numbcrs
and frequcncy it is cnough to reekon
those who form the majority. Fabius
(In declamationibus) says that women
are more prone to believe in witch-
eraft; and Pliny (XXV, 11) that
women excel in their knowledge of
witchcraft.
blées (dcuze mille ámes dans un petit eanton
basque, voy. Lanere; six mille pour une
bicoque, La Mirandole voy. Spina)."
■f “ ThatsexIn King James’ “Dtsmono-
logie ,” II, 5, Philomathes asks, speaking oj
iviteheraft, “tVhat ean be the cause that there
are tiventie women giuen to that eraft, where
ther is one man?" Épistemon explains: “ The
reason is easie, for as that sexe is frailer thsn
man is, so it is easier to be intrapped in these
grosse snares of the Deuill, as was over well
proued to be tme, by the Serpenls deceiuing of
Eua at the beginning, which makes him the
homelier with that sexe sensine."
☆
- “Five handred." Miehelet "La Soreiire"
writes: “Ces sabbats étaient d'immenses assem-
EZ. I. CH. XVI.
DEMONOLATRY
GHAPTER XVI
Tkat the Food plaeed before Witches at
thtìr Banquets is Tasteless and Mean,
and not of a Kind to satisfy Hvnger.
That this kas led many to ihe not Un-
natural Opinìon that tkese Feasts are a
mere Vision and Phantasm; but that
such is not always the ease; for at times
they do tnily feed upon Human Flesk,
Animals wnich have been found Dead,
and other unwonted Meats of that Kind.
But that they are always taeking in Salt
and in Bread. And the probable Reasons
for their Abstaining from those two
Artieles in Particular.
O RGIES of earnal indiiigenee and
danees form the eommonest oeea-
sions among mankind for eelebrations
and banquets; and the Demon is eare-
fìil to provide ali these in order to
attraet to himself more numerous and
more devoted followers. For after he
has so pandered to their base passions
it foliows that it is easier for him to
p!unge them into erimes at which
they had shuddered before, so marvel-
!ously cunning is he to persuade any
whom he has caught in the nets of his
!ubricity. But we shall discuss later
how he occupies them with Iewdness
and daneing; for the present it is
worth whilc to eonsider how this hos-
pitable and entertainlng host reeeives
his guests.
In the first plaee, all who have been
honoured at his table eonfess that his
banquets * are so foul either in appear-
anee or smell that they would easily
cause naiisea in the hungricst and
greediest stomaeh. That Barbeline
(Serre, Aug. 1586), whom wc have
lately mentioned, and Sybilla Morèle
said that every deseription of food was
set out there, but so mean and poor
- "His banquets.” The Salamanea doetors
say: “ They make a meal from food eiiher fur-
nished by themselves or by the Devil. lt is
sometimes most delieioas and delieate, and
sometimes a pie baked from babies they have
slain, or disinterred eorpses. A suitable graee
is said before such a table
57
and ill eooked that it could seareely
be eaten. Nieolas Morèle (Serre, Jan.
1587) said that it was so evil-tasting
and bitter that he was eompelled to
spit it out at onee; and that when the
wicked Demon saw this he was so
angry that he cou!d hardly keep his
hands ofF him. And for drink he gives
them in a dirty little cup wine like
elots of blaek blood.
Saiome (VergaviIIe, Aug. 1586),
Dominique Petrone (Gironcourt, Oet.
1586), Gatharina Ruffa (Vilic-sur-
Moselle, Junc 1587), Anna Morele
(Harreville, Nov. 1581), jaeobeta
Weher (Dieuze, Sept. 1584), Anna
Riehemont (Pettelange, Sept. 1590),
Stephaneta Marehant (Héming, May
1591), and nearly all of their sort,
deelare that there is no laek of nearly
every kind of food, except salt and
bread, but for which it could be said
to be a regular Lord Mayor’s banquet.
Now it is eertain that it is not wíthout
design that these two artleles of food
are wanting, and that there must be
some reason for the detestation in
which they are held by Demons; and
this reason need not be far to seek
when it is duly eonsidered what in-
herent antipathy subsists between
their natures and properties and those
of the Demons. For tnere is in Demons
a deeply implanted and seared hatred
of all pure religíon and divine worship,
and they detest and abhor all saered
rites and eeremonies and all that is
used in them; and in the Aneient Law
no saerifiee was aeeeptable to God
without salt. “And every oblation of
thy meat ofrering” (saith the Lord)
“shalt thou season with salt; neither
shalt thou suffer the salt of the eove-
nant of thy God to be laeking from
thy meat offering” ( Levitieiis ii, 13).
And in the New Testament we fmd
(S. Mark ix, 49): “Every saerifiee shall
be salted with salt; for salt is good.”
This use of salt is exemplified ìn our
modern eeremonies, espeeially in bap-
tism, by which we are born again to
salvation. Also it is customary to
mingle salt with the water which is
«3
vj*
1
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XVI.
used in exorcisms to drive away
Deraons.
Again, in the Old Testament ( Mala -
ehi i; Leoitiais xxiv), they offered upon
the altar shewbread (which the trans-
lators of the Septuagint version ex-
plain as meaning bread plaeed before
the Lord and in His presenee). And
in the most Holy Saerament of the
Eucharist eonseerated bread beeomes
the true and very Body and is eaten
by ehristians. The Maeedonians
formerly used bread as a symbol when-
ever they entered upon any very
saered treaty, as we learn from Quin-
tus Curtius (Bk. VIII): “For” (he
says') “eaeh of the parties to a bond
used to cut bread with a sword and
oífer saerifiee.”
There is nothing that the Demons
hate so much as justice, which (as
Orpheus says in his Hymns),
Deals ever fairly ’twixt opposing wills.
And eonversely (as Plato says in his
Theaitetos) none of our aetions is so
nearly godlike as those which are per-
formed with justice and equity. Now
there is nothing more symbolieal to
mankind of these qualities than salt;
and this was the opinion of Pytha-
goras, as we Iearn from Alexander in
his Pythagorean Commentaries in
Laertius. For salt * keeps and pre-
serves whatever is plaeed in it, and is
derived from the purest of all sub-
stanees, namely, sea-water; and there-
fore is salt the symbol of purity. For
this reason also Plato said that it was
the most aeeeptable and most eom-
monly used of saerifieial offerings.
Horaee ( Od. II, 16) speaks of “a shin-
ing salt-eellar on a frugal table,”
doubtless because salt was always
- "Salt." Bodin says that salt is an em-
blem of eternity ("De La Dfmonomanie,” III,
5). Philip Ludwig Elieh emphatieally draws
attention to the absenee of salt from these ban-
r ts, “ Dtemonomagia ,” Quaestio vii. Gentien
Clerc, who was tried at Orleans in 1615,
expressly deelared: “On se met à table, oit il
n'a iamais peu de sel .”
regarded in a particularly religious
light. In the same way Homer and
the Greeks always spoke of “saered
salt.” The aneients believed that their
tables needed no other blessing so long
as there was salt upon them, as we
may leam from Amobius,t where he
says: “Bless your tables by plaeing a
saít-eellar upon thera.” Ana bread is
so neeessary a thing to sustain life
that the Holy Scriptures use that word
to signify all kinds of food and all the
daily neeessities of human existence.
ConsequentIy the Demons, who desire
nothing so much as that men should
not live in equity with eaeh other,
strive their hardest to prevent men
from obtaining the food wherewith
to sustain themselves; and the truth
of this is elearly enough shown by the
countIess injuries, plagues and eaiam-
ities with which they daily affiiet the
affairs of men, and the ineessant evils
and misfortunes which they eontrive
against them.
But let us leave these matters, which
are at best open to conjecture; and
let us retura to our intermpted setting
out of the banquet with its strange
and unaccustomed foods. Dominiaue
Isabelle (Rogeville, 1583) added that
sometimes the table was even laid with
human fiesh—a custom which Belle-
forest ( Cosmographia , II, 6) says was
very eommon among the Seythian
soreerers also, who were ealled Baehsi,
a name probably derived from Bae-
chus,í wnom they ehiefly worshipped,
and who is moreover ealled Flesh-
eater by Plutarch in his Lives of
Pelops and Themistoeles.
Isabella Pardaea (Epinal, May
t “ Amobius .” This writer lived about
AJ>. 300 in the reign of Dioeletian. His eele -
brated work, “Aduersus Nationes" (ed. Aug.
Reifferseheid, Vienna, 1875), ** ehiefly valuable
for the information whkh it supplies eoneeming
Greek and Roman customs and ritaal.
t “ Baeehsis“Baeehas n'était qu'un
dèmon époavantable et misant, ayant eornes en
tite etjavelot en main. C'était le máitre guide-
danse, et dieu des soreiers et soreiires .”—
Leloyer, " Discours des Speetres," VII, 3.
I
BK. I. CH. XVI.
DEMONOLATRY
1588), Didier Finanee (St. Dié, Julv
1581) and Albert Magendre (at Metz)
said that the more wcll-to-do witches
sat at the top of the tables; and Ste-
phaneta Marehant (Héming, May
1591) added that these drank from
sílver, whcrcas the poorer ones drank
firom carthcnware cups, but that in all
other respeets they were egual partners
and partieipants in all their seeret rites.
Most of the witches whom we have
just mentioned asserted that these
banqucts in no way satisfied their
hunger or thirst, but that their appe-
tite for food and drink remained just
as great after they had eaten as before;
and for this reason many have been
led to believe that these feasts are
nothing but dreams and illusions, such
as we read of in the legends of the
gardens of Tantalus and the apples of
the Hesperides. This view seems to be
bome out by the statement of jeanne
Miehaélis (Essey, June 1590), that
those who are present at such assem-
blies see nothing elearly or eom-
pletely, but that everytning seems
misty, confused and vague, just as it
is with those whose sight is made dizzy
and dim through drunkenness or
fright or sleep, or is dulled by some
drug. We read also in the works of
Erasmus that by means of his inean-
tations Pasetes often caused the most
sumptuous banqucts suddenly to ap-
pear, and again, when he wished, to
vanish in a moment from sight with-
out any to remove them. And Numa
Pompiíius (who is said to have been a
famous soreerer) used often to enter-
tain his gucsts by suddenly and magi-
eally causing the table to be spread
with the most exquisite dainties with-
out any human ageney. Apollonius
of Tyana said that he saw in India
Brahmins who in his presenee pro-
duced banquets with the most elabor-
ate vessels and meats, although there
was no sign of any servers to prepare
them or to bring on and ehange the
dishes (Philostrahis in eius uila, III, 8).
But it must not be thought that the
power of Demons is so limited and
59
circumscribed that they ean do no
more than ereate a mere illusionary
appearanee. For they do at times en-
tertain their followers to a real ban-
quet: although the dishes are made
from the flesh of animals which have
died, and from other things which
men eonsider as refuse, as we have
mentioned before. Many of those who
have attended them have mentioned,
among the victuals provided at such
feasts, a eat, a blaek kid, a dunghill-
eoek, and other things not as a ru!e
used for Imman food, and seareely fìt
for consumption. Then there is the
well-known story, told by Andrea
Aleiati * and many others, of the
traveller who imprudcntly ehaneed
upon an assembly of witches one night
and, astonished at such a rare and
strange sight, besought the help of
God as a Ghristian should; whereupon
the whole feast suddenly vanished
from his sight and all that was left
of the whoIe display was one silver
cup.f It is impossible to eoneeive that
this cup had any other purposc than
to hola that which was drunk; for if
the drink was no more than an iilu-
sion there is no reason why the cup
also shouId not be imaginary.
- "Aleiati." The famoiis Italian jiiriseon-
sult, bom in 1492 and died in /550. He pro-
fessed law at Avignon, Milan, Ferrara and
other eelebrated miversities.
t "One silver cup." This story is not 1m-
like the legend of the “Luck of Eden Hall."
It is related that the senesehal going to draw
water from the well of S. Cuthbert saw a num-
ber offairies at their revels. He observed stand-
ing near by a curiously painted glass cup which
he seizea in spite of their protests. As they
vanished a fairy eried:
Ifthat glass either break 01 fall,
Farewell the Luck of Eden Hall.
The cup, yet unbroken, is preserved with the
greatesl eare. There is also a “Laek of Work-
ington Hall" in Cumberland, an agate cup
presented by Mary Queen of Seots lo Sir Henry
Curwen in 1568. The “Luck of Mnneaster,"
preserved at Maneaster Castle, Cumberland, is
a very beautiful glass bowl presented by King
Henry VI to Sir John Permington in 1463.
6o
DEMONOLATRY
DK. I. CH. XVII.
It may be said, then, that there is
equal justicc in both the views of this
question; for sometimes the food so
given to witches is actual food; where-
as at other times the Demon, in whose
ehoiee the matter rests, merely causes
them to imagine that they are feasting.
We have just stated that the same
alternatives are tme of the witches’
joumeying to the Sabbat; and that
sometimes they are actuaíly present
in person, whereas at other times they
are not, but are resting at home in a
deep sleep and only imagine that they
have gone to íhe Sabbat, sinee their
senses have been deeeived by the
Demon, who, by his eharms, ean
cause many faneies to ereep into the
minds of sleepers—faneies which, even
after waking, leave the mind eon-
vineed of their truth as if they had not
been dreams but rather undoubted
and unauestionable bodiiy aetions.
For so does that erafty one mingle
truth with falsehood, that he may the
more easily aehieve his purpose.
☆
CHAPTER XVII
That the Danees, which ivere in Aneienl
Days performed in the IVorship of
Demons, are still used to-day at tkeir
jíoelnrnal Assemblies. That they cause
far more Fatigae than the ordinary
Danees of Men. Also that they are
daneed by VVitehes baek to baek in a
Ring. That they are ahvays a ready
Source of Viee; and eome little short of
Madness.
W ITH wondrous cunning the
Demons, whcn the Pagans in
their irnpious error uscd to worship
them, werc wont to pretend that they
took pleastire in those things to which
they saw that mankind had a pro-
pensity; and so, as S. Basil says, undcr
the guisc of religion, kept stimulaling
men’s inelination to sin. And thatofaìí
such human proelivities they more es-
peeially cultivatcd that of daneing and
eapering (which always open no small
window to viee) is witnessed by cxtant
writings eoneerning the rites and saeri-
fiees of the aneients. Among the
Greeks, we hear of the hymns sung by
Thescus (Plutarch) with solemn dane-
ing round the altars of the Gods. And
among the Latins, Numa (Plutarch)
estabhshed a Oollege ofSalii, or Dane-
ing Priests, which endurcd up to the
time of Antonius Eniphon, whose
sehool Cicero is said to have fre-
qucntcd after his forensie Iabours (as
Macrobius has observed in his written
rrferenees to it, Salumalia, III, 12),
and even to the time of Antoninus
Varius,* who, as Herodian aífirms,
whcn offering a saerifiee to Helio-
gabalus,f had some Phoenieian womcn
run daneing around his altar and beat-
ing loudly upon eymbals and drums,
while the whole Senate and Equcs-
trian Order stood round as if ìn a
theatre. Before that, the israelites
tumed aside from the true worship to
idolatry and daneed in a ring around
the ealf which was molten from their
golden trinkets ( Exodus xxxii).
And now% after the glory of the
Gospel, light has driven from men’s
minds the clouds of this impiety and
they have eeased to take Demons for
gods, yet in their seeret assemblies the
Demons still keep this custom of dane-
ing, and make its observanee even
more flagrant than before. And just
as their banquets are attended by
hungcr and bulimy, their copulations
by pain and disgust, their largesse by
poverty and want, and all their bene-
fits by loss and damage to the re-
eipients of them; so also those dane-
ings and eaperings, which are ordin-
arily a pleasure, never fail to cause
- “ Varini." Antonitnis Heliogabalus,
“qui Uarius etiam dictus est,” (“ Lampridius ,
í/.'to,” /).
•f “Heliogabalus." The Emperor, says
Casaubon, was ealled by this name, “Synis
homo de Syriaei idoli nomine ita diclus.”
Alah Gabal, quasi dieas “Deus monlis.” Sal-
masius adds: “Sol Alagabalns nuncupalus .”
BK. I. CH. XVII.
BEMONOLATRY
vveariness and fatiguc and the greatest
distress. Indeed Barbelina Rayel
(BlainviIIe, Jan. 1587), and nearly
every witch who has taken part in
them, said that on rcturning home
afterwards they wcre so tired that they
often had to lie down for two wholc
days for wcarincss. But the most piti-
abíe and unjust eondition imposed
upon them is that no one may be
cxcused from daneing; for if, on the
plea of age or siekness, any of them
rcfuses that labour, she is quickly
scourged and so beaten with fists and
feet as salted fish are poundcd with
hammers to beat out the bones.
Further, that they danee all their
danees in a ring, and with their baeks
turncd to eaeh other (as we see in one
of the paintings of the Graees), is
afitrmed by Aenen Weher (Blainville,
June 1587), Joanna Gerardina (Ver-
gaville, Junc 1586), Dominique Pet-
rone (Pangy-sur-MoselIe, Nov. 1584),
Hennel Armentaria (Gironcourt, Oet.
1586), Anna Ruffa (Dieuze, Sept.
1586), Zabella the wifc of Joannes
Deoelatiis (Dicu7.c, Oet. 1586), Odilla
Gaillarda (Epinal, Oet. 1588), and
countIcss other witches whose names
I think best to omit here for the
sake of brevity. Sybilla Morèle
(Serre, Nov. 1586) added that they
wcnt round always to the left;* and
Pliny (XXVIII, 2) says that this was
also the custom of the Druid priests,
who always moved round in a ring
when praying; and he says that this
was always most solemnly performed to
the Ieft. And many centurics before
it had been the symbol of Pythagoras
to move round in a eirele.
It is unccrtain what is the reason or
causc for this prepostcrous inversion,
unless it be that they fear to be reeog-
- “ To the lejì.” Gnazz.0, “Compendium
Malefiearnm," /, 12, says, “Then folloiv
danees, which are ptrformed in a eirele, but
ehoays round to the left; and just as our danees
eoe for pleasme, so their danees and measares
ering them labour and fatigae and tke grealest
Zil."
61
nized by eaeh other if they should
danee faee to faee. For they think
they have no small cause to fear lest
those who have been tried and found
guilty of witchcraft should be induced
by torture to betray their aeeompliees
to the Judge; and for this reason they
go masked to the Sabbat, as we have
said elsewhere. Or it may simply be
that they love to do everything in a
ridioiloiis and unscemly manner. For
they tum their baeks towards the
Demons when they go to worship
them, and approaeh them si<leways
like a erab; when they hold out their
hands in suppIication they turn them
downwards; when they eonverse they
bend their eyes toward the ground;
and in other such ways they behave in
a manner opposite to that of other
men.
However this may be, wc know
well enongh from cxpcricnce that this
passion for daneing is nearly always
the begetter of sin among men. For
either ìt leads to luxury and viee, as
Seipio Acmilianus (Macrobius, Satum.
III, 14), in his speeeh against the
judiciary Iaw of Tibcrius Gracchus,
eomplains was the ease even in his
day; or to fanatieal frenzies and mad-
ness, the origins of which are always
attributcd to daneing in the writings
of the aneients eoneeming Maenads ,
Iìaeehae, Vitermones, Corybants, Thyades
and tìassarides. This also was shrewdly
remarked of an immoderately and
intemperately daneing woman by
Alfonso,t that very wise king of Aragon
and Sieily, when he said: “Wait; this
woman is iust about to give utterance
to an oraele of Sybilla” (see the Life of
this monarehby Beeeadelli, Liber 1)4
f “ Alfonso .” Alfonso I, King of Naples
and Sieily. He sneeeeded to the throne of
Arragon in 1416, but spent liltle time in hts
native land. It was not until 1442 that he
finally securcd the throne of Naples. He died,
aged sevenly-fmr, in 1458.
X “ tìeeeadetli .” Antonio Beeeadelli, ealled
from his nalive town 11 Panormita, wax
bom at Palermo in 1349. Being eonsidered
the greatest poet and sehoìar of his day, in 1433
62
DEMONOLATRY
UK. I. CH. XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII
That Witches bind themelves by a Solernn
Oalh, which they repeat after the Demon
himself\ not to betray their Companions
in Cnme to the Jitdge. But they do not
tmst to that alone: for tkey take fnrther
Preeaations against such a Risk by eon-
eealing their Jfames, and by eovering
their Faees with a Mask or Veil or
some such thing.
I T has long been the praetiee of
those who are assoeiated in the
erime of vriteheraft to bind themselves
together by an oath under the heaviest
of curses in order to give them greater
eonfidenee in eaeh other; and so that
they may be less ready, in the event
of their being taken up by the Iaw, to
betray that which they have together
plotted. ThusJanaàBanno (Masmun-
ster,July 1585) and Jacobus Agathius
of Ligny (April 1588) stated that it
was a point of the strietest honour
among witches that, if they should
ehanee to be brought to trial for their
erimes, they should not give evidenee
against eaeh other however exqui-
sitely they might be tortured; and
that they should aiways be able thor-
oughly to depend upon such silenee.
They have made this such an essential
part of their religion that they think
that the consequences of violating that
oath are etemal punishment. This
was elearly shown in the ease of Mar-
gelotte of Brinden (Epinal, May 1588),
who gave evidenee of the acutcst dis-
tress after she had eonfessed her
erimes; and when the Judge asked
her the reason for this, sne answered
at Siena he was publicly crowntd with laiorel
by the Emperor Sigismimd. Two years later
Alfonso stimmoned him to the eoitrt of Jfaples
and raised him to patrieian rank. As ojjeial
historiographer Beeeadelli eommitted to writing
the memorable deeds and sayings of the King
in his famous “De Dietis et Faetis Alphonsi
Regis Memorabilibns ,” upon which Aeneas
Sylvitis wrote a eommentary. Beeeadelli ,
ivealthy and respeeted by all, died in his villa
by the Bay of Jíaples in 1471.
that, bccause she had not kept her
oath to the Demon, to keep silenee
about herself and her aeeompliees, she
was in mortal terror lest she must,
after her death, be punished in eternal
fiames for her perjury. Epvrette Hose-
lotia (in the pansh of S. Epvre cxtra
urbem atToul, Fcbruary 1587) added
that this oath is dietated in solemn
words by the Demon; and that not
long sinee she had seen Barbe Marget
ana jeanne Petrone bound by it,
whcn they were first admitted to their
soeiety.
But becausc tliis precaution often
proved insufficient, and there were
continually eases of witches being eon-
strained to an unwilling eonfession by
dint of questionings and torturc,
witches guarded against this risk by
ensuring as far as possible that they
should not be reeognized by their
assoeiates, either by name or by sight.
And therefore they never eáll the
Demon or eaeh other by their names;
but when they have cause to summon
eaeh other to the feast, or to the
danee, or for any other purpose, they
do so in some such manner as the
following: “Holla! Bains-les-Bains,
Dieuzc, Haraucourt, Lenuncourt!”
That is to say, You from those villages
and towns, eome here. This faet has
been divulged by Barbeline Rayel
(Blainville, Jan. 1587) and many
other witches whose names I do not
now reeall. Furthermore, they never
assemble together without being
masked, or with their faees blaekea,
and often (as observed by Apollonius
in Philostrattis, VIII, 7) eovered with
a flour sieve, or as Vergil says ( Georg .
II, 387):
Hideously mask themselves with hol-
Iow shells.
This praetiee is espeeially observed by
rieher ones, whose wealth makes them
more conspicuous and liable to be
reeognized; as had often been re-
marked, so they said, by Qjuirina
Xallaea (Blainviíle, Feb. 1587), Rosa
Gerardine (Etival,Nov. i586),Joanna
BK. I. CH. XIX.
DEMONOLATRY
Wcher (at Vergaville, September
1584), Joanna Gerardine (Pangy-sur-
Moselle, Nov. 1584), Odilla Boncourt-
(Haraucourt, Dee. 1586), Jeanne
le Ban (Masmunster, July «585),
and Franeois from Maizières (Pangy-
sur-Moselie, Dee. 1583). And lest
anyone should think this a mere fabri-
eation, when the Judgc, in order to
test her, said to Nieole Morèle (Serre,
Jan. 1587) that this was all nonsense,
she proved her words bv asserting that
she still had her masK hidden in a
ehest at her house; and when this was
seairehed for and found, she eonfessed
that she had had it from her step-
mother, who had altered it to fit her
when they first wcnt together to
those abominable assemblies.
I think, too, that it was for this
reason that the Lombards ealled
witches “Masks”; * and that it is
from this that wc derive our vemaailar
word “Masqucrader,” applied to those
who run masked about the streets in
their Carnivals of pleasure.
See how some eovering or disguise
is always used by those who do what
they fear to have known, and those
who, through eonseienee of sin, are
always uncasy in their minds! See
also what positive evidenee wc have
- “ MasksMasca=a witch, and is equi-
valent to "stria.” The word is used early: e.g.
"Lex LongobadonanII, tit. xi, 3: "Nullus
praesnmat aldiam alienam aut aneillam, quasi
strigam, quae dicitur Masea, oeeidere.” Also
“Edictum Rothari” tit. 77: "Si quis eam
strigam, quod est Masea, elamaaerit.” Du
Cagne adds: "Amuemi etiam num ‘ Masques’
seorta noeanl”; and he notes: “ Maseo, Pro-
uincialibus etiammm sagam, ueneficam sonat.
Hine Gallicum 'Masque' larua nalum arbi-
tror, quod primum deformes essent eiasmodi
lamae atque tarfies quales uulgo finguntur
mulierculae Hlae nenefieae” There are in the
trials many allusìons to the masks which were
wom at tnese assemblies. Thus in 1613 Barbe
de Moyemont said that at the Sabbat, "elle a
veu daneer les assistans en nombre de srpt d
hsietpersonnes, partie desquslles elle ne eognois-
soit a eeaist des masques hideux qu'elles auoient
de mrire.”
63
that it is no idle rumour that witches
do in person attend these assemblies!
But tnis we have already demon-
strated at gTeater length.
☆
CHAPTER XIX
Howeverjqyless and even ridienlons the Songs
and Danees at ihe Demons' Assemblies,
nevertheless the Witches on taking their
Departure have to retum Thanks as if
they had enjoyed the greatest of Pleasnre.
J UST as eertain plants turn their
faees ever toward the sun and
lòllow him like handmaids, and just
as the tide flows and ebbs in eorre-
spondenee with the waxing and wan-
ing of the moon, so also do songs and
music influence men’s spirits by soften-
ing them or hardening them or stir-
ring up any emotíon soever in them.
Gracchus, whenever he was making
an oration, used to have a skillea
player upon an ivory flute eoneealed
oehind him, to play such music as
would either arorne his flagging ener-
gies or ealm his passion. And it is
said that Alcxander f was so exasper-
ated by a eertain song of the minstrel
Timotnaeus that he rushed straight
from the banauet for his weapons;
but he was tnen so soothed oy a
different song that he laid aside all
his feroeity and retumcd ealmed and
paeified to bis guests. Thucydides says
(Bk. V) that the Laeedaemonians—
not from any religious motíve, but
rather for the sake of restraining the
impetuousness which always fills a
soldier as he first attaeks the enemy—
used to employ tmmpeters, who by
the modulation of their music caused
their armies to go into battle in a ealm
and orderly manner. On the eontrary,
those who lived in eolder regions and
whose spirits were not so quickly
f “ Altxander .” This ineident is espeeially
familiar from Dryderis great poem, "Aicx-
ander's Feast; or, The Power of Musique, an
Ode in Honoitr of St. Cecilia's Day; 1637.”
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XIX.
64
enkindled used to bc spurred on to
battle by the blare of tnimpets, the
shriiling of elarions, the elashing of
shields, the shouts of men, and the
beating of drrnns. Lucan (I, 431)
speaks of
The Vangiones * and fieree Batavians,
Spurrcd on by strident brazen trum-
pets.
Without doubt (as Aristotle says)
music affeets the mind in various ways,
and men’s eharaeters and aetions are
very widely swayed by its modula-
tions. It was for this reason that Piato
said (Dial. II) that, if ehildren were
to be brought up to nobility of ehar-
aeter, it was neeessary to keep from
them the Lydian and the Phrygian
measures, bccause the former wouId
damp and depress their spirits and
the latter wouId excite them to wan-
tonness and luxury. To these two
may well be added a third kind of
music vvhieh goads and impels its
hearers to a fanatieal frenzy. Such
vvere the Hymns said to have been
sung in honour of the Gods in the
aneient davs of folly, by the Cory-
bantes , the Priests of Cvbele (whom
Homer for that reason ealled “Dan-
eers to music”), to the aeeompani-
ment of eymbaís and other instru-
ments of music (Verg. Aen. IX, 619).
The Bereeynthian f drums and horns
Of the Idaean Mother summon you.
Such also were the loud, diseordant
eries with which the Baeehants, the
devotees of Bacchus, used tofill the air.
Where’er you turn are eries of youths
and women,
The noise of drums hand-beaten, and
the sound
Of hollow brazen trumpcts and long
horns. (Ovid, Metam. IV, 28.)
- “ Vangiones.” A German people on ihe
Rhine, zvkose anàent eapital is now VVorms.
f “ Bereeynthian." The epithel is derioed
from the motintain Bereeyntns , upon the banks
of the river Sangarias in Phrygia, saered to
Òybele.
Such also wcre the ehants sung by the
Salii of Mars Graditms $ as they daneed
and leaped solemnly through the eity
beating their shields. Such, finally,
vvere the songs of all whose rcligious
rites wcre performed by night and
wcre, therefore, ealled J\'uktelia (Verg.
Aen. IV, 301):
Like a frenzied Thyad
When eries of “Bacchus!” herald the
saered orgies,
And Mount Cithacron rings with eries
by night.
With these may be reekoned the
songs and eries uttcrcd at night by
the witches of our time in eompany
with Demons. For if the temperate
and cquablc sort of music ean soothe
not only men but even vvild beasts (as
Hcrodotus tells of the dolphin of
Arion of Methymna), and cause them
to lay aside their fiereeness, it is
equalíy truc that harsh and diseordant
soimds have power to drive and goad
even the most peaeeable to a frenzy;
and this is, as I have just said, elearly
shown by the use of drums and trum-
pets and a general uproar and din of
shouting, by which even the most
lethargie are impelled to court the
most open dangers of battle (Verg.
Aen. VI, 165):
Whctting their vvarriors’ zeal with
shouts and trumpets.
Now there must be, at the vvitehes’
night meetings, some similar music of
a kind to exclude from them all human
sympathies (if, indeed, they are at all
touched by such emotions), and to
make them the more ready and eager
to eompass the downfall and destruc-
tion of the human raee, which is the
Demons’ one purpose and intention.
Therefore all is done to a marvelloiis
inedley and confusion of noises, and
it is beyond the power of words to
deseribe the uncouth, absurd and
X “Gradiuus.” This surname is probably
derivedfrom “gradiorand so signifies he who
steps forth, or marehes oul boldly.
BK. 1. CH. XX.
DEMONOLATRY
6 5
diseordant sounds that are uttered
there. For one sings to a pipe, or rather
pieks a rod or stiek from the ground
and bIows upon it as if it were a pipe,
as Margareta Janina (at Morhanges,
Sept. 1587) and many others have
reporteel; anotlier beats and strums
with his fingers upon a horse’s skull
for a lyre, as was told by Margareta
Doliaria (at Vergaville, Oet. 1856),
Sybilla Capcllaria ( ibidem , Nov. 1586),
and Sinehen May of Ostheim upon
her trial at Amanee, June 1586;
another beats an oak tree with a cud-
gel or heavy club, and so produccs a
roaring sound like the beating of
hea\7 drums, as joannes Bulmer and
Desideria his wifc said they had seen
done; and all the while tne Demons
sing with a raucous, trumpet-like
voiee, and the wholc mob with roar-
ing and harsh eries make the heavens
eeho, and frenziedly rage, shouting,
hissing and yelling. Altogether it ìs
like those choruses of tne Roarers
mentioned by Athcnacus when quot-
ingfrom Clearchus, in which everyone
sang as he pleased without heeding
the choragus; or like the orders
shouted to the rowers when a storm
or tempest is threatening.
By tnis they are all utterly worn
out: nevertheless, before they are dis-
persed, they are obliged to thank the
Demon inordinately, as if he had en-
tertained them with the gladdest and
most graceful music. For if any of
them negleets or rcfuscs to do this,
he is at onee beaten so savagely and
eraelly that, as those who have ex-
erieneed it testify, he often has to
eep to his bed for two days after
it. This was affirmed by Jeanne
Gransaint and many others of that
seet.
But perhaps we have devoted too
much time to a not very important
matter: though it was not altogether
to be omitted, so that men may know
that it is not without purposc that the
Demons alfeet such harsh and dis-
eordant music. Yet there is also some
justification for applying here the
proverb, “As the lips are, so is the
íettuce.”
☆
CHAPTER XX
Tkat Demons order their Assemblies after
the Manner of Men, and reeeive the
enstomary Kiss of Homage from their
Sabjeets; and that there is one of their
Nvember who is the Chief, to whom such
Hononrs are paid.
T HEY who swcar fealty to their
feudal Lord do so by falling on
their knees before him, giving the re-
quired kiss and plaeing their joined
hands between his hands, thus symbol-
izing a lowly and willing obedienee of
spirit; and the Demons most strietly
exact a similar homage from their
subjects whenever they hold their
assemblies, although the eeremony is
conducted in the strangest and most
degraded manner, as is everything
else that they do. For this purpose
one of the Demons occupies tne posi-
tion of Chief of them all. Bcatrix
Bayona (Gerbeville, Aug. 1585), of
her own aeeord and without being
Í uestioned, said that one of the
lemons always sat on a high throne
with a proud and haughty demeanour,
and that eaeh in turn approaehed him
with awc and trembling and, in sign of
submission, fell prone at his feet and
reverently embraeed them. Nieole Ga-
natia (Masrminster, July 1585), Ku-
no Gugnot (Hoehfeld, Jan. 1585),
Frangois Fellet (Pangy-sur-Moselle,
Dee. 1583) and his sister Fran^oise
(■ibidem , Nov. 1584) and Barbeline
Rayel (Blainvìlle, Jan. 1587) likewise
said that there was ahvays one who was
invested with the ehief authority on
the night of their assembly.
Let no one think that the belief in
this ehieftainship among Demons pro-
eeeds from a mere supcrstitious fable,
argviing that it is absurd to look for
oraer where all is lawless and disor-
dered; for he must know that this
belief is based upon the authority of
66
D EMONOLATRY
BK. I. GH. XX.
holy and approved writers. St. Thomas
(Part i, q. 109, Arts. I and 2), Fran-
eis of Vittoria * (In repetitione Magiae),
and Antonius Torquemada (in his
Hexameron, Dial. 3) have discoursed so
Jucidly upon this authority and power
of Demon over Demon that there is no
need for further inquiry into the qucs-
tion; but above ail wc read in the
Gospels (S. Matthew ix and xíi; S.
Mark iii; S. Luke xi) that the Pharisees
aeetised Ghrist of easting out devils by
Beelzebiib the ehief of the devils. Now
although this was only what the Phari-
sees said, yet the Commcntators are of
opinion that it was entirely eonsonant
with the aneient Hebrcw theology;
and this view was cloqucntly main-
tained by Eusebius of Gaesarea (In
confutalione Philostrali, Lib. VI) in his
disputc with Herodes, whcrc he asserts
that the Lamia which afflieted Menip-
pus with insane love was a Demon who
was fulfilling the eommands of Apol-
lyon, a greater and more powerful
Demon. And if ever one of the lower
order of Demons refnses to obey as
soon as he is summoned by ineanta-
tion, the higher Demons visit him with
intoíerable punishment; and of all
things they are quickest to punish that
sort of slaekness or obstmaey. This
doetrine was formally and expressly
taught in his Exorcisms by Girolamo
Menghi.f who had himself been
taught by Lucanus. And just as Ghrist
is the head of His Church, so also the
- “ Vittoria." This famons Spanish theolo-
gian was horn about 1480 at Vittoria, a pro -
vinee of Avila in Old Casiille; and died i2th
August, 1546. He joined the Order of S.
Dominie, of which he is one of the great
inteUectual glories. He held the prineipa .1
ehair of theology in the Univcrsity of Sala-
manea from 1524 nntil 1544. He lefi a large
mtmber of valtiable mamiseripts, but his only
published work is the “Releetiones XII Theo-
logieae in duo libros distinetaeAntwerp
1604.
t “Menghi." A Capuchin of Valmontone.
Author of “Compendio dell' arte essoreistiea
Veniee , dvo, /6bj; “Flagelhtm Daemomm
with the “Fustis Daemomtm," Veniee, /539.
damned have their leader (whom Por-
phyrius ealls Serapis, ana the poets
PJuto) whose eommands they per-
form; and of the heavenly substances
there is one order which rulcs and
eommands, and another which is sub-
jeet and obeys. Dionysius has dealt in
such detailwith the CcIestialHierarchy
that anything which couId here be
added to his cxposition wou!d be
superfluous. The aneients also, in
their worship of them, distinguished
between the greater and the lesser
Gods.
Furthcr, in his eapaeity of Overlord,
the Demon is not always eontent with
the said kneeling and embraeing of his
hips; for (though it shames me to say
it) they are foreed against their wish
to kiss the Demon’s posteriors after he
has ehanged himself into a hideous
goat, smeiling, as many affirm, far
worse than do young goats at the
approaeh of winter. After this, says
Jeanne Gransaint (Gondé-sur-Meuse,
July 1582), to the terror of the be-
holders he ehanges to some huge
monster, in size and shape not unlike
a mighty wine vat, eeaselessly breath-
ing out fire and smoke íiom his enor-
mous mouth, in order to inspire fear
into his subjects—a very eommon mo-
tive of his aetions, as will more fitly be
shown in another plaee.
The following ìs the most usual
method of adoration adopted by
witches. First they fall upon their
knees; then they streteh out their
hands as suppliants, but behind their
baeks and with the palms downward,
and continue to hold them out to him
until he tells them that it is enough and
more than enough. So does the evil
and wicked one love to have everything
perverted and distorted.
☆
BK. I. CH. XXI.
DEMONOLATRY
GHAPTER XXI
That Demons often send upon the Fruits
and Crops great Nambers of Small
Animals of Different Sorts, which de-
stroy and devour them in a Moment. And
how this eomes about.
HERE is war and deathless hatred
between the wicked Demon and
Nature; for whereas every effort of
Nature is direeted upon proereation
and production, the Demon always
strives to spoil and destroy her works.
And as if he were not eontent with hail
and snow and other destmetive phe-
nomena of the weather, in which he is
popularly believed to bear a hand, he
eeases not to use many other astonish-
ing means to eompass his purpose.
Alexia Violaea bore witness that, after
running here and there like the
Baeehantes with her eompanions, she
used to seatter in the air a fine powder
given to her by the Demon for that pur-
pose; and that from this were gener-
ated eaterpillars, bruchuses, locusts,
and such pests of the erops in such
numbers that the fields on all sides
were at onee eovered with them.
Evrette Hoselette (of St. Epvre, Feb.
1587), Alexée Drígie (Haraucourt,
Nov. 1586), Odilla Boncourt (Harau-
court, Dee. 1585), and Rosa Gerardine
(Etival, Nov. 1586) said that bv a
similar method they had more than
onee raised a great army of miee which
at onee burrowed into the ground and
gnawed the roots of the growing erops.
Jeanne Porelle (Chàteau-Salins, April
1582) eonfessed that if she bore a
gnidge against anyone she used to send
the breeze upon his eattle so that they
died a slow and miserable death
through its continual stinging; and
that she could do this as often as she
wished, simply by tearing up the first
plant that eame to her hand and
throwing it to the ground, after mut-
tering a eertain spell. Petrone Armen-
tarius and Joannes Malrisius (as will
be shown at greater length in due
course), by spreading eertain herbs
67
about a tree, used to eall up wolvcs
which rushed upon those sheep which
they were bidden to attaek, and did
not make an end of their destmetion
until they had done great slaughtcr.
Anton Welsch was asked to lend the
garden behind his house for the witches
to hold their Sabbat on the following
night. At first he said that he coula
not, because he had to be away that
night; but whcn they none the less
kept asking and insisting upon it as if
it was their right, he allowed himself
to be pcrsuadcd: yet, as he had said,
he went away. When he eame home
again in the morning and entered his
garden, he found it all eaten up by
eaterpillars and slugs, and the whole
garden full of those beasts; but he bore
this in silenee, sinee he reeognized the
signs of that abominable seet. For it
was for that reason that he had first
denied them the use of the garden, and
afterwards had gone away from the
house, so that he might not be a wit-
ness of his own loss, and to some
extent beeome an unwilling aeeom-
pliee.
Certain doubters and disbelievers
argue that it is in the power of none
but Almighty God to fashion or ereate
anything; but they bring no new light
upon the matter. For everyone knows
that all things were made by Him, and
without Him was not anything made
that was made, from the Angels down
to the very worms. But what is there
to prevent the Demon from gathering
the widely seattered members of some
speeies of creature and quickly massing
tnem together in one píaee? Have we
not elearly proved in more than one
plaee in this treatise that he ean
aeeomplish far more difficult things
than this? 1 suspect also that, when
showers of frogs fall with the rain
during a thunaer-storm, it is by the
Demon’s art that they have first been
raised into the air; for it does not seem
possible that they could be generated
m so short a time as the clouas remain
in the sky, or that they could be drawn
up by the sun like the vapours and
68
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XXII.
cxhaiations of the earth. The old story,
related by Julius Obsequcns,* hitherto
derided and aseribed to the illusory
power of Demons, is probably subject
to the same cxplanation, wliere wc
read that for three days it rained
blood, earth, stones, milk, brieks and
oil; for nothing in nature was ever
likely to producc such a rcsult. The
aneients themselves, indeed, wcrc
learned enongh in the laws of nature,
and always reekoned such things as
prodigies and aeeidents quitc outsidc
of naturc.
No one need boggle at the thought
of such animals defying the laws of
gravity and being raised by the Demon
into the sky to fall straight to the earth
without being hurt, and so being
gathered together in one piaee; for
such a feat is well within the powcrs of
men but slightly endowed with the
magie arts. In our own time at Naney
a eertain German Count was seen to
cause all the flies in his bedroom to
gather upon his dagger stuck into the
wall,verymuchas bees hang in a bunch
like a clustcr of grapes í'rom a tree
when they swarm. Another man
eharmed all the snakes of the neigh-
bourhood into a fire built within a
magie eirele; and when one larger
than the rest refiised to enter, the spell
was again reeited and it was eompelled
to east itself into the fire with the
others. If men, therefore, with the
help of Demons, ean easily perform
such feats for their mere amusemcnt,
what, I ask, must we think the Demons
themselves will do whcn they devote
their vvhole energy and attention to
the satisfaetion of the lust for harm
that is the very essenee of their naturc ?
- U julius Olsequens." This name is pre-
Jixed to a fragmenl generally entilled u De Pro-
digiis ,” eontaining a reeord of those phenomena
ivhieh the Romans designated as “ Prodigia ” or
"Ostenta." The series extends from the eon-
salship of Seipio and Lelius, ipo n.e., to the
eonsnlship of Fabitis and Aelius , n u.c. Of
the eompiler nothing is knoum, but it has been
snggested that he lived in the fomth century.
CHAPTER XXII
Thal \Yitches mttsl always have to report
some Fresh Injtiry worked npori a Felloiv-
ereatme sinee iheir last Meeling; and
they do nol eseape Piinishment if they
eome to the next Meeting guiltiess of
some Grime of \Yitchcraft.
J UST as masters, when they examine
their stcwards’ accounts, are striet
to punish any sloth or negligenee on
their part, so also when the Demon
inquires into the affairs and aetíoiis of
his subjects at his Sabbats, he terribly
vents liis vvrath upon those who eannot
show proof that they have gone on in-
ereasing in erime and vviekedness. For
none of them eseapes punishment if he
eannot report himself guilty of soine
new erime sinee the last meeting; but,
to retain his Master’s favour, he must
always show that he has steeped him-
self in some new sin. Dominiea Za-
bella at Rogeville, 1583, said that this
was a faet so vvell known by ali vvho
mareh behind that iniquitous banner
that it was the ehief of all their eares
not to eome to the Sabbat unpreparcd
in this respeet. And lest they shou!d be
able to plead ignoranee as an excuse,
that wicked Master holds elasses in
which he instmets them in every one
of the erimes which he demands from
them, teaehing them how to bring
dcstruction upon the fruits; how to
send upon the trees and erops bru-
chuses, moths, eaterpillars and such
pestilent vermin; how to bewitch the
floeks; how to eharm the erops away
from another man’s field, or to destroy
them with mildew or some otlier
disease; how to seatter poison about;
and hovv to do all in their povver
to ruin the vvhole mortal raee. Eaeh
one of these faets has been swom to
upon oath in the eonfessions left by
Hennel Armentaria (Dieuze, Sept.
1586), AnnaRuffa ( ibidem , Oet. 1586),
Johann Fiseher, Oolette his wife
(Gerbeville, May 1585) Matteole Guil-
leraea (Pangy-sur-Moselle, Dee. 1584),
BK. I. CH. XXIII.
DEMONOLATRY
Fran^ois Fellet ( ibidem, Jan. 1584),
and nearly all who have been infeeted
with the taint of witchcraft.
O-IAPTER XXIII
Thal Demons ehange tkemselves for the
time inlo the Shapes of Varioiis Animals
aeeording to their Requiremenls. And
itihen they ivish lo mix wilh their Sub-
jeets they nearly always assume the Shape
of a Goat, espeeially when they òiibliely
manifest themselves in order to be Wor-
shipped and Revered.
D KMONS are not merely a debased
mental eondition in man, as was
maintained by Dcmocritus and Aver-
roés and the wholc Peripatetie Sehool;
but are essential spirits, if I may soput
it, eonstant in their own nature. This
is elearly proved by the Gospel, where
wc read that they asked and were per-
mitted to enter a herd of swinc; for
how could Avariee or Ambition or
Perfìdy enter into swine? Moreover,
it has already been so conclusively
shown again and again in this treatise
that when Demons attaek men upon
the earth they are no mere empty
phantoms of the faney, but that they
assume tangible bodies and appear
openly and manifestly, that it would
be but waste of labour for anyone to
(}ucstion this matter any farther. But
it is worth while now to eonsider what
are the shapes and forms which they
prineipally assume, not with referenee
to the quality and differenee of the
element m which they exist (which has
been dealt with by Psellus, Cap. Qyo-
modo Daemones oeenpent hominem), but
with referenee to the demands and
exigencies of the particular work or
task which they have in hand.
When they fiírst approaeh a man to
speak with him they do not wish him
to be terrified by any unusual appear-
anee, and therefore they prefer to
69
assume a human shape * and manifest
themselves as a man of good standing
in order that their words may earry
more weight and authority; and for
this reason they like to wear a long
blaek eloak, such as is only worn by
honoured men of substance. It is true
that many hold that their purposc in
this last is to eoneeal the deformity of
their feet, which is an ineradieable
token and sign of their essential base-
ness; and tliat blaek is, besides, most
appropriate to them, sinee all their
eontrivings against man are of a blaek
and deadly nature.
But when, throitgh habit and fre-
quent expericnce, eonfidenee has
grown and fear has gradually vanished,
then they ehange themselves into this
- "A human shape .” In the trials of vari-
ous countries there are inmmerable deseriptions
which might be quoted. Thus John l-Valsh of
Dorsetshire, T566, deseribed the Devil as
"Sometymes like a man in all proportions, sau-
ing thal ht had clouen feete." Margaret John-
son, one of the Laneashire eoven in 1633, staled
that Ihere appeared to her "a spirit or divell in
the similitude and proporlion of a man, appar-
elled in a suile of blaek, tyed about w"‘ silke
pointes." A Yarmouth witch in 1644 "heard
one knoek at her Door, and rising to her Win-
dow, she saw, it bting Moonlight, a tall blaek
Man there." Joan Wallis of Keiston in Hmt-
ingdonshire said that "the Deoill eame to her
in the likenesse of a man in blaekish eloathing,
but had eloven feet." Susanna Edwards, a
Devonshire witch, 1682, said: "She did meet
wilh a genlleman in afield ealled the Parsonage
Close in the town of Biddiford. And saith that
his apfiarrel was all of blaek. . . .Being de-
manded whal and who the gentleman she spake
of was, the said examinant answered and said,
That it was the DeoilAt the famous Norlh
Btrwick meeting in /550 the Deoil "was elad
in ane blak gown with ane blak hat vpon his
head." At Pittenweem in 1704 a girl Isobel
Adams saw the Devil as "a man in blaek
elothes with a hat on his head, silting al the
table
in Beatty Laing's house. De Lanere says
thal Jeame Hervillier in 1578 "eonfessa qu'à
l'áge de donze ans sa mère la presenla en
formt d’vn grand homme noir, et vestu de noir,
botté, esptronni, auec vne espée au eosti, et vn
chtual noir à laporte."
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CII. XXIII.
70
or that animal aeeording to their
present purposes. Thus ( when they
go with anyone on his way, they most
often take the form of a dog, which
may foIIow him most elosely without
raising any suspicion of evil in the
onlookers. In this manner, in the year
1548, a eertain Italian named Andrea
used to lead about with him a blind
red dog which wouId tell him every-
body’s seerets and do many other mar-
vels. Gornelins Agrippa, also, had as
his daily attendant a Gaeodemon * in
the shape of a blaek dog with a Jeather
eollar studdcd with nails forming a
magie inseription (Paulus Jovius, in
eius elogio). In the eity of Nieaea
(Abdias,t Babyl. Epucopus; Hist.
Apost., Lib. III) seven Demons in
his shape Iay hid among the tombs
- “ Cacodemon .” The story is found in
Paulus Jovius, “Elogia Doctorum ÍJironm”
e. toi. lt is also related by Boguet, “An Exa-
men of Witches," Chapter VII, but Weyer,
11 De Magis InfamibasV, 11 and 12, relates
the whole eìrenmstanee. Opera omnia, 1670,
pp. 110-11: “Silentio inuolui diutius .. . non
patiar quod in diuersis a!iquot seriptoribas
legerim, diabohtm forma eartis ad extremum
Agrippae halitam eomitem ipsiftisse tl postea
neseio quibus modis euanuisse. . . . Canem
hme nignim medioeris statiaae, Gallieo nomine
Monsieur (quod Domimtm sonat) nuncupatum
noui ego . . . at uere nataralis erat eanis mascu-
Itts . . . eatisam autem huìc falsae opinioni de-
disse opinor, partim quod eanem hunc piieriliter
nimis amaret (ut sunt quorundam homimtm
mores) oscularetur plerumque, aliquando et a
latere hunc sibi admoveret m mensa."
f “AbdiasA eolleetion of Aets of the
Apostles ” ivhieh was formed, probably by a
monk, in the Frankish Church in the sixth een-
tury. By a mistake eoneeming the authorship,
it was under the title “Historia Certaminis
Apostolorvm ” aseribed to Abdias, who is said to
hape been a diseiple of the Apostles and first
Bishop of Babylon. The nucleus of this eollee-
tion was formed by the Latin “ Passiones" of
those Apostles eoneerning whom there were no
gnostie or semi-gnostie “legendatíiat is, SS.
James Major and Minor, Philip, Bartholo-
mew, Simon and Jude. Amongst many aeere-
tions there is a very early tradition to be found,
and it is believed historieal truth.
and molested the passers-by, until
at the prayer of the inhabitants S.
Andrew drove them into the wildcr-
ness. And not very long ago there was
in the Vosges a man named Didier
Finanee who, whenever he sat down
with others to meat, always had a dog
curled round his feet; and he usea
seeretly to reaeh down his hand and
take from the dog poison which he
could then administer to whom he
pleased; and very many died by this
means before any suspicion was
attaehed to him as the author of these
erimes.
But if they wish to earry anyone
through the air, as often happens when
they go to their Sabbats, tney usually
take the shape of a horse, sinee that
animal is best fitted for such work, and
so earry their riders with great veloeity
whither they will. Thus Òlaus Magnus
(Histor. de gentibus Septent. III, 19)
reeords that Hadingns, the Danish
King, after he had been driven from
his throne by a faetion, was brought
baek to his kingdom over an immense
distanee of sea by the Demon Odin in
the form of a horse. Torquemada tells
in the Hexameron that, when he first
applied himself to letters, he had a
eompanion who one night went for a
walk out of Guadalupe, wherc he was
studying Grammar, and was met by a
Demon on a horse who persuaded him
to mount with him and so go to Gra-
nada, whither he had intended to go
on the next day. And in spite of tne
great distanee they eompleted this
journey in a single night, aíthough the
norse was slow and lame. Now, lest
any should be unwilling to believe this
man’s story, I may ada that he was a
man of exceptioiuíl powers and worth
who eamed a most honourable liveli-
hood by the praetiee of medieine in the
Court of the Emperor Charles V. And,
if I remember rightly, the Annals of
the Franks speak of one in another
loeality who, aeeording to some
authors, was a Count of Máeon. This
man was ealled from a banquct which
he happened to be eelebrating, and
BK. I. CH. XXIII.
DEMONOLATRY
was foreed to mount upon a horse
which he found ready before the door,
and was immediately before the eyes
of many witnesscs earried up so high
that he disappeared from sight. Doubt-
less that day and hour had been
appointed to him to be bome away by
tne Demon on some evil errand. At
Joinvilla, moreover, and in many
other plaees of this Provinee, soreerers
have borne witness that they have
often seen tlieir Demons earrying
before them an image of S. Humbert *
such as is eommonly seen at our eross-
roads.
But whcn he requires to warn a
witch of some matter, and there are
people present who prevent him from
eonversing, the Demon takes the body
of a little fly (and for this cause he is
known as Bcelzebub), and in that
shape hovers about the witch’s ear and
whispers what he has to say. Besides
many others whose names I have not
now by me, this was observed by
Claudine Simonette, who was eon-
vieted of witchcraft (Sept. 1588) atle
Chátelet, and her son Antoine; for
they said that they saw about their
temples the Demon in that shape of a
fly, as they were being Ied to prison;
and that he diligently warnea them
not to prove themselves by their own
eonfession guilty of the eharge against
them, even if the most exquisite tor-
tures were employed to induce them to
do so. For if they eonfessed they would
still be eertain of the cruellest punish-
ment; whereas if they hela their
tongues they would soon eseape safe
and unharmed.
Often again he pleases to enter other
persons’ nouses at night with his
witches, making his way through the
roof or the winaow bars or some other
narrow entranee; and for this ptirpose
the shape of a eat is the most eon-
venient. The Demons assume this
form so easily and naturally that they
- “S. Htimbert.” S. Htmbert /, Abbot of
Maroilles, who died in 682.
71
ean hardly be distinguished or reeog-
nized, unless it be that they are wilder
and more savage than is usual in
domestie eats; and so it is eonstantly
afiìrmed by nearly all who have ever
witnessed this matter.
Sometimes a man beeomes jealous
of one of his feIlows who has been eare-
ful and diligent in earing for his floeks,
and is anxious to find some means of
venting his spite upon him without
incumng any suspicion. Then some
Demon eomes to his aid in the shape
of a preying wolf which rushes upon
the fíoeks and slaughtcrs them; a!ftcr
which the man accuses his fellow-ser-
vant before their master of negligenee,
so that at last he has to make good the
loss out of his own wages. Petrone
Armcntarius of Dalheim and Joannes
Malrisius of Sulz-Bad freely eonfessed
that they had often done this among
other manifestations of their abomin-
able art; and they added that the fol-
lowing was the means they used to
snmmon the Demon to their assistanee.
They tore up some grass and threw it
against the trunk of a tree, saying eer-
tain words; and at onee there eame
out a wolfwhich immediately fell upon
the designated floeks. Indeed there
could be no more fitting agent for such
work than that beast which is more
than all others endowed by nature for
depredation.
At times also Demons appear in the
form of a bear, when tney wish to
seem as terrible as possible to tlieir
diseiples. This is espeeially the ease
when they raise up tempests and show
themselves in all their monstrous
horror. Barbeline Rayel (Blainville,
Jan. 1587) stated that she had more
than onee witnessed such manifesta-
tions; and added that, to enhanee the
horror, they used to drag behind them
a long train of eymbals and bells and
ehains, to the noise of vvhieh they
added an appalling howling. But I
am inelined to think that she was de-
luded in this matter, taking tlie false
appearanee for the trnth in her great
panie and confusion. Nevertheless
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. GH. XXIII.
72
Hermas,* who (as some say) was the
diseiple of S. Paul, writes tnat he saw
the Demon in such terrible shape;
namely, a great beast, as it wcre a
whalc; and fiery Iocusts eame out of
his inouth.
Lastly, the form which they most
gladly assume is that of a goat. This
they take when they have not to iineler-
take some sen’iee for anyone, but
would cxhibit themselves to their dis-
eiples to be worshipped with some
eeremony, and would display them-
selves in some majesty. It is not easy to
eonjeetitre why they prefer to assumc
this shape for such a pnrpose, unless
it be that it behoves a King to appear
in pnblie in that garb which best sets
off and displays his virtues; or per-
haps, as in the Pythagorean theory of
metempsyehosis, the Demon is most
willing to assume that body which
is most eonsonant with his eharaeter
and naturc. For goats are remarkable
above all other eattle for their rank
smell; and it is this quality in the
Demon of his unbearably fetid smell
which is the surest indieation of his
presenee. Again, the obseene lasei-
viousncss of goats is proverbial; and
it is the Demon’s ehief eare to urgc his
followers to the greatest venereal ex-
eesses; and lest they should laek any
opportunity, whenever he meets them
he assumcs that form which is the
most adapted to suc.h work, and does
not eease to seduce them to filthiness,
until finally he persuades them to
eommit even the most ungratifying
and revolting obseenities. Goats also
show great pugnacity towards those
whom they ehanee to meet; and simi-
larly the ÍDemon ahvays attaeks any
man whom he meets in any part of the
world. Varro (De re mstiea, I, 2, and
II, 3) says that the saliva of goats is
- “ Hermas .” The author of the book ealled
“The Shepherd ,” a work, eonsisting of five
visions, which in aneient times had great au-
thority and was ranktd with Holy Seriptare.
Origen held ihat the author was the Hermas
mentioned by S. Paul, “ Romans" xoi, 14.
poisonons to the fruits, and that their
bite brings an instant plague upon the
erops. 11 was for this reason that in the
law relating to the hiring of farms it
was provided that no tenant should
allow the offspring of a goat to graze
upon his farm. And the Astrologers
only admitted this animal to the
Heavens in a station outside the twclvc
eonstellations of the zodiae. Similarly,
the bite of Satan is viperoiis, and his
breath lethal and mortal; and sinee his
fall from the Council and Assembly of
Heaven he has so imnortnnately eon-
eerned himself with tíie affairsofmen
that they who would lie in the protee-
tion of the Lord’s fioek must above all
things take eare to keep him far away
and guard themselves frorn him by a
fenee. Goats have a fieree and trucu-
lent look, their brows are ruggcd with
horns, they have a long unkempt
beard, their eoat is shaggy and dis-
ordered, their legs are short, and the
whole formation of their body is so
adapted to deformity and foulness tliat
no more fitting shape could be ehosen
by him who, both within and without,
is entirely eomposed of shame, horrors
and monstrosities. It is an o!d saying
that the lips must eonform to the
lettucc.
In conclusion, whatever argument
may be fabrieated by those who would
do better to acknowledgc the truth of
this matter, for our part we aeeept the
unanimous evidenee of those who have
testified that this assumption of the
form of a goat is by far the most pleas-
ing to the Demon, espeeially when he
appears to his followcrs for the purpose
of reeeiving some honour from them.
This view is substantiated by the
account written by Gaguin f (De reb.
gestis Franeomm regum, Lib. X) of a
leamed theologian who was an Abbot
| "Gaguin.” Robert Gagmn , Trinitarian,
1425-1502; he was tmployed on various im-
portant busincsses during the rtigns of Louis
XII and Charles VIII, and among the works
he has left his historieal traetales are eonsidered
parlicularly valuable.
BK. I. CH. XXIV.
DEMONOLATRY
73
at Evreux. His name was Guillaume
Edeline; he fell madly in love with a
eertain noble matron and, seeing no
hope of possessing her, thought it
better to satisfy his passion with the
help of the Demon at any priee rather
than fail in the end to gratify his lust
to the full. To obtain his desire, there-
fore, he fulfilled the eondition imposed
upon him, which was that he snould
bow as a suppliant before the Demon
in the form of a goat, and venerate
him. The Spanish writer Torqucmada
in his Hexameron mentions tnat such
tragolalry was eommon among his
countrymcn. And if it is wished to
traee its origins fnrther baek, it will be
found that it has eome down to us
from the most aneient times. For
Hcsychius and other Greek writers
have reeorded that there stood promin-
ently in the teinple of ApoIIo a huge
oat or ram of bronze, to which divine
onours wcre paid. A further proof
that the Demons took an immoderate
delight in he-goats as a saerifiee is pro-
vided by the story of Theseus, who was
about to saerifiee a she-goat to Venus
on the sea-shore, whercupon she at
onee ehanged it into a he-goat, as if
that were the only vietim which was
pleasing to her; and therefore she was
aftcrwards ealled Epitragia. Strabo and
Pausanias have reeorded that the same
thing happened in the temple of Callia,
which was on Monte Gargano, as welí
as in that temple whcrc the oraeles of
Amphiaraus wcre delivered. And the
Goat-Pans, Satyrs, Fauns, Sileni apd
other rustic Gods whom the blind
Pagans worshippcd in their ignoranee
always appeared with their limbs de-
formed hke those of goats.
☆
CHAPTER XXIV
The Transveetion of Men through the Air
hy Good Angels, of which we read in
Time past, was ealm and free from
Labour; but that by which Witches are
now transporled by Demons is full of
Pain and Weariness.
HE Prophet Habakkuk was
earried in a moment from Judaea
to Babvlon, that he might feed Daniel
in the lions’ den with the food he was
taking to his reapers; and with like
swiftncss he was borne baek from that
plar.e to Judaca. Also Philip the
Deaeon, after he had baptized the
Eunuch of Gandaee the Qiieen of the
Etliiopians, as he went from Jeru-
salein to Gaza, was suddcnly found at
Azotus. And there are many other in-
stanees in the Holy Scripturcs of men
having been caught up by the Angels
of the Lord and earried with unbe-
lievable speed to the most remote
plaees. But such transportations were
so peaceful and quiet that they seemed
more like a dream than a true journey;
for His benefits are always a true help,
and are never a moekery. On the eon-
trary, the favours of Satan are baleful,
his solaees are irksome, his generosity
is ruinous and his kindness unscason-
able. If ever, therefore, for the sake of
sparing their labour, he earries his dis-
eiples through the air in this manner,
he leaves them far more heavily over-
eome with weariness than if thev had
eompleted a rough journcy afoot with
the greatest nrgeney. Tliis was in-
cluded by Catharina Ruífa (at Ville-
sur-MosclIc,Junc 1587) in heremimer-
ation of the frauds and impostures of
the Demon to whom she was subiect;
and Barbeline Rayel added (at Blain-
ville, Jan. 1587) that she had often
been so upset and fatigucd after such
a journcy that whcn she rcturncd home
she had to lie down for three entire
days before she was able to stand on
her feet.
☆
74
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XXV.
CHAPTER XXV
However ireredible it may apbear, yet all
Witches wilh one Voiee deeíare that they
are often endued by their Demons with
the Poiver of raistng Clouds; and that,
being bome up in these, they drive and
thmst them whither they wifl, and even,
if nothing obstmets them, shake them
down in Rain upon the Earth. Together
with the Circumstances menlioned by
them as Neeessary and Peealiar to the
Aeeomplishment of this Matter.
T HERE is no doubt that what fol-
Iows will surpass all belief, and will
appear very ridiculous to many. But
in my eapaeity as Judgc I remember
having senteneed to the stake for the
erime of witchcraft some two hundred
persons, more or less, who have in free
and open eonfession asserted that on
eertain set days it was their custom to
meet together by the bank of some
pool or river, preferably one well hid-
den from the eyes of passers-by; and
that there, with a wand given them by
the Demon, they used to stir the water
until there arose a dense vapour and
smoke, in the midst of which they
were bome up on high. This vapour
they form into a thiek cloud in which
thev and the Demons are enveloped,
ana they guide and steer them whither
they wish and at last shake them down
upon the earth as hail. Salome (Ver-
gaville, Aug. 1586) and Dominique
Zabella (Rogevtlle, 1583) add that,
before they thus stir the water, they
plaee in it either an earthen iar in
which the Demon has previousíy put
something unknown to the onlookers,
or else some stones of the same size as
they wish the hailstones to be. Deeker
Maygeth (at Morhanges, June 1591)
saia that she and her assoeiates in
erime used to be given blaek eandles
by the Demon, which they earried to
the pool Fonterssgmbe and held with
the flame downward until enough
drops of wax had fallen into the water.
Then they seattered some dmgged
powder into it; and finally beat the
water Iightly with blaek wands given
them by the Demon, at the same time
ehanting eertain words as a surc and
eertain spell of execration and hate.
After this the who!e air grew thiek, and
finally there fell a heavy rain or hail
upon those plaees which tliey had
named, unless perehanee there was
anything which prevented it.
This method of raising up clouds is
nothing new; for Pausanias wrote
that it was uscd many ages ago on
Mount Lycaeus in Areadia, whcre (he
says) “ there was a spring ealied Agnus
of so maxveIIous a nature that, after
eertain rites had been performed and
the water had been lightly stirred with
an oak braneh, a dense vapour like a
mist arose from it, which soon eon-
densed into a cloud which unitcd with
other ekrnds and shed heavy showcrs of
rain.” This is, then, no new ìnvention of
our age. Neither is it a dream or faney
of old women whose minds have been
confused by the Demon. But it is a
thing elearíy and plainly proved and
tested by wideawake and sane persons
who have witncssed it Thb faet is
supported by the following stories from
Malletis Malefieamm, which, being eon-
fident in the integrity of its authors, I
have not hesitated to set out here.
Certain j^dges, having a witch in
custody, wished to test by means of her
whethcr there was any truth in the
assertion that witches had tlie power
to raise up tempests. They therefore
released her (sinee it is eertain that
witches lose all their magie powers
while they remain in prison); and she
went apart to a thiekly woodcd plaee
where she dug a hole with her hands,
filled it with watcr and kept stirring
this with her fmger until a tniek cloua
grew up and arose from it. This cloud
was at onee piereed through with in-
eessant thunaer and lightning, to the
great terror and fear of the beholders.
But she said, “Be at ease. I shall now
cause this cloud to be borne away to
whatever plaee you wish.” And when
they had named a eertain wildemess
near by, the cloud was suddenly
BK. I. CH. XXV.
DEMONOLATRY
earried by the wind and tempest to a
roeky plaee, where the hail fell and did
no damage except withìn the limits
which had been preseribed.
Similar to this ìs the following story
of a Suabian peasant who was bitterly
eomplaining of the drouth from which
they were then suífering. His eight-
year-old daughter ehaneed to hear
him, and saia that if he wíshed she
would causc a plentiful rain to fall
upon his field, in which they wcre then
standing. Her father said that he very
greatly wished it; whereupon she asked
him lo give her a little watcr, and he
Ied her to a stream which flowed near
by. There she stirred the water in the
name of that Master (as she said) to
whom her mother was subject, and so
raised from it enough ratn to water
that field abundantly, though all the
land about it remaìned as dry as
before.
The following example is similar.
Le Sieur Claude Perot, the Master of
the Arehives of the Companions of S.
George near Naney, a truly good man
worthy of all trust in matters of even
greater import, assurcd me as I was
aiseossing this qucstion among some
friends that he had onee had a eom-
E anion who had been introduced by
is soreerer father into the eompany of
witches, and who could in the sight of
all his schoolfellows raise vapours of
this sort from a basin into which he had
poured a little eold water.
Jean of Oharmes (Gerbeville, Oet.
158:), Jana Oberta (of St Pierre-
mont, November 1581) and several
others of their seet have maintained
that, not in a vision but with their very
eyes, they have seen a great numbcr of
such persons as themselves borne up
together with them in clouds so raised,
and earried hither and thither more
3 uickiy than the wind or an arrow on
ìe wmg; and that the thiek clouds
were erossed and piereed by lightning,
and they heard tne roaring and peal-
ing of thunder eeho all around. Aicxia
Gran-Janna (Blainville, Jan. 1587)
tells tnat whiìe she was being borne
along in the midst of clouds and eame
to a plaee from which she could look
down upon one of her fclIow-towns-
men, named Jean Vehon, pasturing
his horses, there suddenly appeared to
her a very tall blaek man who, as if
anxious to serve her, asked her if she
bore any grudge against that peasant,
for he had at hand the means to
avenge her. She answered that she
bore the greatest ill-will to him, be-
cause he nad onee nearly beaten to
death her only son, who was pasturing
some horses on his mcadows. “Very
well!” said he. “Only give your eon-
sent, and I shall see to it that this
injury is no longer unavcnged.” No
sooner had he spoken than he arose up
higher than the eye could see, and a
thunderbolt fell with a great fiame and
thunder upon those horses and killed
two of them before the eyes of the
terror-strieken peasant, who was not
more than thirty paees away. To this
she testified in her swom statement.
Barbeline Rayel added that, with the
help of the Demon, witches drive and
rollgreat jars through the clouds until
they reaeh that plaee which they have
marked out for destruction; and then
they burst into stones and flames which
fall rushing down and beat flat every-
thing that they strike.
76
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. GH. XXVI.
GHAPTER XXVI
The Sound of Bells y because ihey eall Men
lo Holy Prayer, is odious and baleful to
Demons; and it is nol wilhoul Cause that
Bells* are often rung when Hailstorms
and olher Tempests, in which VVilehes'
Work is suspected, are brooding and
threatening.
I T is an aneient custom among Chris-
tians to ring bells as a eall to prayer
and supplication when any danger or
difficulty is at hand; more espeeially
whcn the air is violently distiirbed by
clouds and storms and hail and light-
ning are threatened. Whcn, therefore,
the Demon hears the sound of bells he
breaks into the greatest indignation,
cxclaiming that he is balked of his pur-
ose by the barking of those mad
itehes. This has been vouchcd for as
proved beyond any doubt by Maria, the
the wife of Johann Sehneider in Met-
zereeh, and before her by many other
womcn whose names I eannot now
remember. And if ever his subjects ask
him what he means by those bitehes,
he disdains to eall them by their name,
as is the wont of those who have to
refer to those whom they hold in utter
detestation, and answers: “Those gar-
rulous and idiotie Deguines which, as
you hear, are now so hatefully snarl-
ing at us.” This was also made elear
bv the eonfession left by Catharina
Pigeon (anno 1584), who was not
so long ago eonvieted of the erime
of witchcraft together with several
others.
That the Demon does in very truth
detest this sound, and that it is no mere
simulated affeetation of hatred, all the
witchcs who have been questioned on
the matter have maintained that they
have proved by frequent expcriencc.
And this is sufficiently indieated by
the faet that we not uncommonly hear
of bell-ringers being struck by light-
ning, and that they are more liable to
- “ Bells .” See Guazzo, ,l Compendium
Maleficarum," Book III , Chapter IV, ij,
"Of Ihe Sound of Bells."
such injury than any other men—a
matter to which we refer elsewherc.
Moreover, it is eommonly acknow-
ledged by witchcs that bells are very
great proteetion against tempests; ana
this belief has so Jaid hold of eertain
persons that they think there is no
more assured remedy than this, and
nothing which so eompletely tliwarts
and impedes the works of the Demons.
It is not inapposite to quote here the
account written by Paul Grilland of
an Italian witch named Lucrezia
whom the Demon, after having as
usual dismissed the Assembly, was
earrying home through the air, when
he heard the Angeltis ringing out its
salmation to the VirginMotherof God.
At onee, as though he were deprived
of all his strength, he dropped her
upon the thorns and brambles below.
Here she was seen and reeognized by
a young man who ehaneed to pass that
way; but at first she began to devise
some lying account of herself. Whcn,
however, she was entrapped by her
own words (for a lie is seldom eonsis-
tent), she told the young man every-
thing as it had happened, having first
bound him by an oath of silenee. But
he, being of an age at which it is hard
to keep a seeret, unguardedly told it to
one ot his friends; and so the report
spread as if it had been broadeast, and
cventually reaehed the Judge’s ears,
who held a full inquiry and severely
punished the woman for the erime
elearly proved against her.
Hennel of Armentières (Dicuze, Sept.
1586), Joanna Oberta (at St. Pierre-
mont, Nov. 1581), and eertain other
witches have stated that the ringing of
bells is quite without effeet unlcss it is
done early; that is, before the cloud
has reaehed the parts about the village.
At aíl events we must eome before the
presenee of the Lord, whose arm is
mighty to save ( Psalm xcv), and it is
most praiscworthy to have a careful
and diligent promptness and readiness
in this: neither is it an unsuitablc or
inopportune time for prayer, eVen
when the tempest is already raging and
DK. I. CH. XXVI.
DEMONOLATRY
spreading dcstructíon, even as Plautus*
says:
Tearing dovvn the tiles and guttcrs.
For Hc is just as ready to take away a
present evil as to avert a threatemng
and impending one. Every single
moment is timely and opportune for
prayer to Him ( S. Liìkt xviii. i).
Therefore it follows that the above
warning given by witches is an inven-
tion devised by their Little Masters in
order that men should be cut off from
all hope of divine help during their
actual miseries and ealamities. Fcuxcn
Eugel stated in additíon that the sound
of bells was useless and ineffeetive, if
during the exorcisms one of the witches
should be named by the concubine of
the priest; but I eonsider this to be
ridiculous and absurd.
And although some of late have
denied that Demons have in the air the
power of causing hail and similar
ealamities, and that therefore it is a
vain and idle superstítion to ring bells
as a proteetion against the violenee of
storms; yet they agree that Demons
are at times permitted by God to per-
form many extraordinary feats, in
which they very elearly show their
nature, and that they do many things
which are beyond the bounds of our
pereeptions or understanding. This is
elearly shown in the saered history of
Job, and in the Epistles of S. Paul
(Ephesians ii, 2), where power over the
air is manifestly aseribed to the
Demons.
Warning of the advanee and im-
pending attaek of the enemy is given
by the soundÌng of a trumpet; and no
one would eondemn this praetiee,
sinee the sound of such martial trum-
peting has in it something which aets
as a proteetion for even those who are
asleep against the enemy’s violenee
and attaek. For it is a summons to
arms, a eall to the soldiers to shake off
- “ Plaulus .” “Mosttllaria ,” /, « 7 , 37-28:
tempestas uenit,
Confringit Ugulas, imbrices<]ue.
77
their sloth and sleepiness and diligently
dlspose their outposts and all tlieir
preparations for defenee. “Put on,“
says S. Paul, the tmrnpet of the Gos-
pel, “the whole armour of God, that
ye may be able to stand against the
wiles of the deviP’ (Ephesians vi, 11).
Now the arms of a Chnstían are prayer
and aets of thanksgiving, to which they
are customarily ealled by the sound of
bells. Verily “The Lord is nigh unto
all them that eall upon Him in tnith;
He hears the supplicatíons of His
leople, and tums His ears to their
irayers ” (Psalms cxlv, 18). And, as
las been well said, by devout prayer
the Heavens are moved, and the gates
are opened of that inaeeessible plaee
where dwells the Majesty of Goa.
There are some, such as Pedro
Mcxia* in his Silva de varia leeeion, II, 9,
who go even fiirther in their defenee
of the custom of ringing bells at the
approaeh of a tempest, and eontend
that they dissipate and seatter the
clouds by virtue of the sheer volume
and vehemenee of their sound; as if
this were itself the cause, and not only
a contributory help. In exactly the
same way, engines of war are only
effeetive ìn proportion to the skill and
determination of their operators.
Nevertheless, I have heard such an
argument maintained by not a few,
though their attempts to make it good
are utterly vain. For who could
strongly enough disturb a matter so far
distant and endowed with so vast and
dense a body? It is impossible by a
mere clangour to dissolve and disperse
thunder or lightnings and bolts by a
mere noise and eommotion. And even
if bells had such power of seattering a
storm, what would be the rcsult of the
- '‘Mexia.” This famoiis Spanish author
was bom e. 1496 and died in 1592. His “Silva
de varia leeeion ,” published at Seville in /545,
has been eompared to the “Noetes Attieae” of
Aulus Gellins. Mexia was a great favonrile
wilh Oharles V and eolleeted materialfor a his-
tory of that monareh. This, unfortunately, was
never writlen.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XXVII.
78
destmetion of clouds already big vvith
hail ? For there must be fragments and
morsels which must fall violently upon
the plaees over which the clouds hang.
I should eonsider such a belief to be as
foolish as the aneient praetiee, men-
tioned by Pliny in his Nat. Hist.
XXVIII, 2, of tongue-clucking during
a time of lightning in order to appease
the angry Jove. Or I might apply the
proverb: r ‘A wasp buzzing round a
erieket; a puppy barking at a lion.”
☆
CHAPTER XXVII
That ivhieh is strvek by Lightning is oflen
seen to be Marked and Seored as it were
by Claws; and this has led many to be-
litve that the Demon plays some Part in
it. For it is thought that , when he
assiimes a Body, he prefers to take one
provided ivith Claws and Talons after
the Manner of the Wild Beasls.
I T usually happens that whcn trees
or walls or roofs are blasted or stniek
by lightning they are marked as it
were by claws. Some say that this is
caused Ídv the Demon, whose hands are
supposed to be hooked like talons.
But others laugh at this as an old
woman’s tale, and maintain that it is
due solely to natural causes, from
which even rarer and less intelligible
effeets ean spring. Indeed it would
appear reasonable that lightning, by
its very rapidity, should seore an objeet
as if with hooked spurs; even as it is a
property of flame, of which lightning
ìs eniefly eomposed, to leave streaky
marks upon that which it lieks. Aris-
totle noted this effeet whcn the temple
at Ephesus was destroyed by fire; and
such traees are to be found on nearly
all houscs which are burncd down.
Again, it is argued that that which is
ineorporeal, even if it bears a hand in
the work, is ineapable of any aetion
which would leave such marks and
impressions.
jBut all these eontentions are rcfuted
by one single argument, based upon an
axiom which has already been set
forth in this work; namely, that
Demons often form for themselves a
body out of some solid material, and
so, with the will and permission of God,
mingle themselves with the lightning
and do many things which are alto-
gether beyond the natural eapaeity of
manimate objeets: as whcn they keep
moving up and down as if they were
scrutinizing and investigating some-
thing, which is the reason for their
being ealled squalls and gusts. Or
when the lightning sometimes tums
aside from an objeet, or strikes it with-
out harming it; and at other times
crushes and destroys. In this connex-
ion I may also refer to the strange
eapriees of lightning which, although
Aristode aseribes them to natural
causcs, are eertainly most miraculous
and are undoubtedly eontrolled by
some divdne influence, as Seneea says.
Examples of this are the fusing of the
iron or bronze eoating of a shield,
vvhile the wood itself suffers no
violenee; or when a easket is left
whole and uninjured, while the silver
within it is blasted; or when the jar is
broken, but the wine remains; or when
all the venom is destroyed in evií
serpents and other poisonous beasts;
or whcn a pregnant woman is Ieft alive
and unharmcd, but the fetus within
her is killed.
Therefore I would not entirely set
aside the opinion of those who beìieve
that in such matters there is some other
influencc at work besides that whicb
ean be made to eonform with the
normal sequence of natural causes:
espeeially sinee it is found that nearly
all who m our tíme have given them-
selves into the power of Demons have
unanimously testified that, in their
wild and disordered orgies, they are
laeerated by elavvs. Thus, not long
ago, Jeanne Schwartz related that her
Little Master entered by night the
stable of Nieolas Bequenot in order to
kill his horse; but before doing so he
seored the outer wall with his claws in
such a way that you would have said a
BK. I. CH. XXVIII.
DEMONOLATRY
lion had been there. And I remember
when I was still a boy at my home in
Charmcs the lightning played over the
whole of my neighboiir’s house, and
lert plcntiful ana deep claw marks
right up to the end door by which it
had eome out from the house. And
when the inhabitants, attraeted by this
strange thing, jostled eaeh other to see
it, I also wcnt and saw it myself, not
without some offenee to my nostrils;
for the house was still filled with a
most foul smell of sulphur.
☆
GHAPTER XXVIII
They art in Error who,following the Ebi-
evreans ,, deny that Demons aeeost Men ,
tempt them with their OJfers, strike them
with Terror, set Snaresfor them, and are
Evil, Balefiil and Injurious to Men; for
the Truth of this is shown in eomtless
Stories both Saered and Profane; and it
is eonftrmed by the unanimous Statements
of our Witches of to-day.
HEODORUS* of Byzantium and
neariy all the Epicurean Sehool
denied that any man in his senses ever
truly saw a Demon; for the stories and
accounts of such apparitions they
aseribed to the amhorsnip of ehildren,
silly women, and siek men filled with
fears by reason of their feebleness of
mind and ignoranee. This belief they
derive from one which is even more
absurd; namely, that no such things as
spirits and Demons exist in the whole
realm of nature, and that therefore it is
idle to be afraid ofsuch phantasms and
apparitions. Cassius, who was a mem-
ber of the Epicurean seet, tried to bring
the eonstant and sober Brutus to this
way of thinking, as Phitareh recounts
in hls Life. But this opinion has been
- “ Theodorns .” Of Byzantium, a philoso-
pher who was a eontemporary of Plato, and is
spoken of in the "Phaedras" as a trieky logi-
eian. Cieero deseribes him (“ Brutusxii, 48)
as exc*lling rather in the theory than the prae-
tiee of his art.
79
eontradieted by that of nearly every
other sehool of philosophy, and its
falseness has been proved by agelong
experience; for history abounds in
examples of apparitions which were
absoIutely genuine, and not the imagi-
nary ereations of fear. There was that
which appeared to the same Brutus at
Philippi; another at Athens to the
philosopher Athenodoms; another to
Curtius Ruffus in Afriea; and that
which appeared to the whoíc Senate at
Rome (Pliny, Epist. VII, 27). This
last provides a speeially strong argu-
ment in favour 01’ our present eonten-
tion, becausc it was not seen only for
a moment but continuously for two
years. For the biographers of Anto-
ninus Pius, in whosc reign it occurred,
reeord that during the whole of that
period the Senator Marcus Rufus, who
nad died, used to sit in the same seat in
which he had sat in his life, where he
preservrd an unbrokcn silenee. I pass
over countIess other examples wnich
have occurred in more reeent times.
To such instanees Christian verity
has added its own contribution, but
with this distinetion and differenee;
namely, that some spirits are well db-
posed and kindly to men and every-
thing good is to be looked for from
them, whereas others are vengeful and
injurious and every plague and afflie-
tion is to be feared from them. If the
good spirits find a man bowcd down
with dejeetion, they raise him up and
strengthen him by their power; as it
happened to Abraham’s slave, Hagar,
when she and her son Ishmael wcre
desperate with thirst in the wildemess
of Beersheba (Genesis xxi, 16); and an
Angel appeared to her and, seeing that
she was afraid, first eomforted her and
told her not to fear, and then bade her
be of good hope for the fortune of her
son Ishmael (x, 3 and 4). We read in
the Aets of the Apostles that the same
thing happened to Cornelius the Cen-
turion; tor he was at first not a little
terrified at the sight of the Angel, but
was at onee delivered from his lear and
was told that his prayers had been
8o
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XXVIII.
heard and that his alms were grateful
and aeeeptable to God, and that he
might eonfìdently look fonvard to all
happiness and prosperity. And when
the women went at daybreak on the
Sabbath day to the sepulchre of our
Saviour, there appeared to them an
Angel elothed in a garment as white as
snow, who, when they werc in dread
of his countenance and raiment, told
them to lay aside all fear; and so when
they were reassured he told them
everything that they must do.
But those other spirits, when they
appear to a man, leave him half dead
with terror; their intention doubtless
being that a man in such a state of
eonsternation will not so easily deteet
their frauds and imposturcs, and that
any thought of wcll-doing which may
yet remain with him may in this
inanner be shaken off and destroyed.
For Plutarch quotes Thucydides as
saying that by far the most prolifie
fruit of terror is that it breaks up and
kills every good intention. And Cicero
(De oratore y III) quotcs írom an old
poet: “Fear doth bentimb me and
easts out all wisdom.” Plautus* also
says: “Fear puts the wholc soul into
a frenzy.” It was for this reason also
that the aneients thought that the God
Pan was the causer of sudden terrors
and unexpcctcd fears; and Pamphilust
Eusebius, writing to Bishop Theodore
and relating the story of Plutarch
about Thamus, includcs all the De-
mons undcr the name of Pan. And
therefore there are so many difierent
Ghosts, Hobgoblins, Lamias, Em-
puscs,J Spirits that ehange themselves,
- « Plautus .” “Epidiais," IV, l, 4:
Pauor territat mentem animi.
f "Pamphilas." Eusebius of Caesarea,
often ealled Eusebius Pamphili out of his devo~
tion to the memory of and his connexion with,
Pamphilus, the greal friend of sludents and the
founder of the magnijieent library of the Church
of Caesarea. Pamphilus after long perseenlion
and tortiire was beheaded pro fide early in 309.
X “ Embnses." See "The Vampire in Eu-
rope" by Montague Snmmers, 1929, Ghapter I,
pp. 2 and 3.
and other such speetres which, to
cause their beholders the greater ter-
ror, keep going from one shape to
another, as has been elegantly cx-
pressed by Aristophanes in the Frogs,
in the following verses:
Xan. By Zcus, I see a great beast!
Dionys. Of what sort?
Xan. Terrible! It takes all sorts of
shapes. ’Tis now
A bull, and now a mule, and
now a woinan
Most fair to look at!
Dionys. Where? Let me go to her!
Xan. But now she’s uo more woman,
but a dog!
Dio.nys. It is £mpusa then.
The author of the Life of S. Antony,§
Abbot of AIcxandria, says: “Whcn he
was dwelling in the desert some
abominable spirits tried to strike terror
into him by monstrously appearing in
various shapes: roaring and how!ing
at him like wild beasts; as serpents
harshly hissing at him; snarling and
gnashing their teeth; glaring with ter-
rible blazing eyes; breathing out
flames from their mouths and nostrils
and ears; in short, negleeting no pos-
sible form or shape which might appal
him.” S. Jerome in his Life of Aobot
Hilarion|| gives a similar instanee of
their imitation and variation of voiees,
if not of shapes: “Often at dead of
night he heard the wailing of infants,
the bleating of sheep, the lowing of
oxcn, the weeping as it wcre ofwomcn,
the roaring of lions, the uproar of
armies, and many other different
§ “ S. Antony" was born about the middle
of the third century, and S. Jerome plaees his
death in 356-y. The Life of S. Antony is allri-
buted to and generally aeeepted as the work of
Athanasius.
|| "S. Hilarion" ivas bom at Tabatha,
south of Gaza, Palestine, about 291; died in
the Island of Cyprus about 3yr. The ehief
source of information regarding this holy hermit
is the biography written by S. Jerome. This
"Llila S. Hilarionis" may be found in Migne's
"Patres Latini," XXIII, 29-54.
BK. I. CH. XXVIII.
DEMONOLATRY
81
sounds; so that he was strieken pros-
trate with terror at the mere sound
brfore ever he saw anything.”
For the Devil takes an ineredible
pleasure in using every eoneeivable
means to torment mankind, and is on
that account always seeking for oeea-
sions by which he may excite terror.
“ Ate says Homer,* “eomes first,
doing misehief to men throughout the
world.” And Suidas interprets Ate as
meaning the Devil, the Adversary.
There are plentifijl instanees of this
in aneient history which I do not in-
tend to touch upon here, sinee our own
times will provide more than sufficient
examples. The fìrst of these tliat
eomes to my mind eoneerns a eertain
earter of Naney who was out wooding
in the forest pass ofHennin, about two
miles from the eity, when he was over-
taken by an unexpected storm. He
hurricdly looked round for some pro-
teetion, and went under the nearest
tree that seemed to offer the best
eover, where he stood waiting for the
storm to abate. Suddenly he saw
another woodman; and when he
looked more elosely at him (as is cus-
tomary when we meet with a stranger),
he notieed that his nose kept shooting
out to an enormous length like a trum-
pet and then shot baek ìn a moment to
the natural size, that he had eloven
hoofs, and that his whole body was
abnormally large. At first he was
nearly dead with fright, but soon (as
is the custom in such straits) he made
the sign of the Cross, trusting in that to
proteet him; and at last he found him-
self alone as he had been before. But
he was so dazed that, whereas before
he could not have lost his way blind-
fold in the eity, now he could not tell
where he was, however much he tried;
but ran into the eity with his tongue
eleaving to his palate, his eyes starting
• “Homer .” “Iliad," IX, 505-7:
r) S' ’Anj oOivapr) re Kaì iprívm, ovvtita j rátrai
ttoAAÒv vrrtKTrpoOtn, <j>0uvtt St rt iraaav irt'
aXav
fìAáinovo i.vOpónrow:'
out, and trembling all over to such a
degree that it was easy to believe in the
truth of what he said had happened.
The story was still further substan-
tiated by the report given by some
other woodmen of what they had seen
from a distanee; namely, that it had
seemed to them that the air in that
plaee had beeome thiek and involved
in dense smoke.
'Hie following example bears out the
same argumcnt. Etienne Nieole of
Grand Bouxieres sous Amanee had
hired out, in April 1588, some wine
easks to a magistrate named Didier,
and repeatedly sent his wifc jaeobeta,
who was a famous witch, to demand
from him the agreed priee. At last
jaeobeta grcw weary of asking and
ìndignant at having lost so much
labour, and began to brood deeply
over some means of punishing
Didier for his subterfugcs, seeking for
some opportunity to injure him see-
retly. Meanwhile it fell out very aptly
that Didier was bidden to go ana
live in a lonely plaee by himself, be-
cause his house had been infeeted with
the plague; and he and his household
made their abode in some isolated
huts. Late one night (at the instanee
of jaeobeta) the Demon attaeked him
and his only son as they dwelt there,
with so horrible a clamour and roaring
that it seemed as if the heavens were
loosened and falling upon their roof.
That this was no feigned terror
maliciously invented by Didier in
order to spreadidle rumourswas shown
by what followed; for both he and his
son were made so ill by it that all
who saw them gave up all hope for
them.
Relevant to this argumcnt also is the
story, which will be told in more detail
in its own plaee, of the nurse to whom,
as she was watching by a ehild’s eradle,
there appeared the Demon of Erik
Charmes, who bore an evil will to
her, and threw her into the greatest
terror, smashing and hurling about the
glass of the windows with an appalling
noise.
82
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XXVD3.
Psellus writcs that the Demons, in
order to enhanee the terror, often hurl
stones,* but without harming anyone
with diem. Sigebert tells that the in-
habitants of Mainz werc plagued with
such a stoning in the year 853, and
that they could have endured this
nuisance ifit had not been followcd by
a far graver one, namely, a fire which
destroyed all those houses which the
Demon liad before attaeked with
stones.
A similar disaster befell Colombicrs,
a village six miles from Toul, within
our own memorv. At the very end of
this village on the road to Salsuria a
peasant had his eottage, humblc
enough but elean as his fortune would
E errmt, and never known to have been
auntcd by any speetres. Yet did a
Demon occupy it, who was at íìrst eon-
tent to throw stones at its inmates dur-
ing the night without hurting them;
but when they beeame so uscd to this
that they took no notiee of it and even
laughed at it, he could not cndure such
eontempt, and at dead of night set fire
to the eottage so that it was instantly
burned down almost to the ground. I
ehaneed to be travelling that way a few
days later and, hearing of this event
from the villagers, resolved to go mv-
self and see tlie ruin, so that I couíd
more elearly and authoritativcly report
the matter to others.
In this conncxion it is not inapposite
to relate a story told in his vemacular
tongue by the Spanish writer Torque-
mada ( Hexameron , Dial. 3). There was,
he says, at Salamanea a matron whose
house was eommonly reported to be
haunled by this sort of stoning. Hear-
ing this rumour, the mayor of the eity
resolved himself to prove whcther there
was any truth in these eonstant reports,
or whether they were rather inventions
of the servants of the house for the pur-
pose of eoneealing some misdemean-
- "HutI stones ” These would seem to be
Pollergtisi hauntings,for which see “ The Geo-
graphy of Witchcraft," by Montague Summers,
/927, pp. 184, 280, 282-6.
our; for among these there were two
not uncomely girls, and it was sus-
peeted that the whole story had been
mvented by them so that their lovers
might have easier aeeess to them.
Aeeordingly, the mayor went to the
house at the hour when the stoning
was said to be most frcqucnt; and with
him went no less tlian twenty of the
townsmcn, some of whom he sent with
a light to see whethcr there was any-
one at the top of the house who was
thus throwing stones at the servants.
They earefiilly searehed every eorner
and reported that tliey had found
nothing which could causc such
haunting; yet they determined to go
down to the basements, to which they
eame from the dining-room, and wait
there a little in the hope of diseovering
anything that might be there. And
hardly were they there before a great
showcr of stones began to fall upon
them witlv a loud noise, passing by all
their legs, however, without hurting
tliem. So they again sent some to see
wherc so heavy a showcr of stones
could eome from; and whcn every-
where was found empty as before,
many began to feel eonvineed that the
whole matter was indeed duc to the
arts and magie of Demons; and they
wcre fiirther strengthened in this
opinion by the faet that a continuous
hail of stones fell about their heads
even after they had rushed out of the
house in terror. At last one of them,
feeling more eonfident at a safe dis-
tanee, pieked up one of the stones and,
after having carefully noted its shape
and appearanee, threw it baek at the
house, saying, “If this eomes from you,
O Demon, throw it baek to me at
onee.” It was iinmediately hurled
baek, though without doing any
damage; whereupon they eeased to
have the slightest doubt but that the
matter was just as the matron had at
first reported.
I remember also that, when the pes-
tilenee was raging at Toulouse about
the year 1563, I was in Auch and was
spending the night gaming with my
BK. I. CH. XXIX.
DEMONOLATRY
friend Abelius of the Gathedral of that
aty (being of the age and having the
leisure for such pastimes), whcn all of
us who were gaming in the room wcrc
not slightlv molested by a wanton
Demon ot this sort. Stones werc
hurled hither and thither, but fell to
the ground without hurting anyone,
and the bolts of the door werc shot;
Í et there was nothing in the ehamber
ut the gaming-board, a table and
ehairs, none of which could have eon-
eealed any meehanism for producing
such results.
In this manner, as I have said, do
the good and evil angels differ in their
reasons for appearing to men; for their
motives are in every respeet eontrary,
and as opposite as is kindness to
hatred, eomfort to terror, help to harm,
or benefits to injury. From this it fol-
lows also, as I saieí at the beginning,
that it is impossible without grave
error to doubt that there are Spirits
which eoneern themselves in the affairs
of men, wishing them eithergood or ill,
either íienefiting or obstructing them,
either encouragmg or betraying them.
☆
etiAPTER XXIX
Not only are Witches t as has alrtady bttn
said, earritd throuf>h the Air by Demons;
bul bting in the Air they deoist and work
much Harm lo Men: and Jmally they are
gently and quietly fìlaeed down upon the
Ground, even as Birds alight.
T HEY who denv that witches really
go to their Saobats, holding that
such journcys are merely imaginary,
base their opinion ehiefly on the
authority of the Council of Aneyra,
which pronounced that this was an
entirely pagan and impious error. But
in the opinion of many this Council
was a merely Provindal one eonvened
by Marcellus the Bishop of Aneyra,
against whom Asterms Apollinarius
and Hilary wrote, as being even sus-
peet of the Sabellian heresy. And
83
although this view is later found eon-
firmed in the seeond eanon of the sixth
Trullan* Synod, yet it has been eon-
tradieted by the verdiets of many
Fathers of later times: among whom
were S. Ambrose, S. Augustinc [Cio.
Dei, X and XXI), S. Thomas (2 nd of
2nd, q. 95, art. 5), S. Bonavcntura (in
III. sent. dist. 19, 1. 3), Pope innoeent
VIII (in bulla praefixa Malleo Malefi),
and Cardinal Caictanus| (2 nd of 2nd,
q. 95 supcr art., 3. S. Thomae); as welí
as Lawyers of such high standing as
AlfonsoJ à Gastro ( De justa haeret.
pvnit. I, 14), Silvestcr§ Prieras {De
Strigibus), Pau!us Gri!landus|| [De sortil.
- “ Tndlan .” The Thìrd Council ofi Con~
stantinople, being the Sixth General Council,
sammoned in 678, but opened 7 Novembtr, 680,
is ofiten knoivn as the Trvllan CounciI, or Coun-
eil “in Trullo," sinee thefiathers met in a large
domed hall (“ trullus") ofi the Imperial Palaee.
It was presided over by three papal legates who
brought to the Counctl a long dogmatie lelltr
ofi Pope Agatho.
| “CaietanusTomaso de Vio Gaetani,
Dominiean Cardinal, philosopher, theologian,
and exegete; born soth Febmary, 1469, at
Gaeta; and died gth August, 1534, at Rome.
His eommentarits on the ' l Summa Theologiea,"
the first in that extensive field, begun in 1507
and finished rgss, are his greatest work and
they were immediattly reeogniged to be a elassie
in seholastie literature.
J “ Alfionso." à Castro. A Franeisean
theologian, firiend to Charles V and Philip II;
was bom in 1435 at Tjsmora, Leon, Spain; and
died al Bmssels, nth Febmary, 1558. The
"De Iusta Haeretieomm Punitione,” Sala-
manea, 1547, is reekoned among his most
important works.
§ “ Silvester." Franeeseo Silvester, a fa-
mous Dominiean theologian, was bom at Fer-
rara about 1474, and died at Rennes, igth Sep-
tember, 1526. He filled the highest ojfiees in
his order, being named Viear-Generai by Cle-
ment VII, and on yrd June, 1523, in the
general ehapter held at Rome he was appoinled
Master-General. He wrote many theologieal
works ofigreal value, and he is espeeially praised
fior the elearness and eleganee ofi his style.
|| “ Grilland." Paulus de Grillandif Cas-
tilionetis, "dioeesis aretinae (Arezzo) eriminal-
ium eatisamm auditor reu. p. d. Andreae de
DEMONOLATRY
BK. I. CH. XXJX.
84
II, q. 7), Martinus Navarrus^| fin
mamalì, c. 11, nu. 38), Sprenger (in
Malleo Malejieamm), and many others
who have conducted many and various
inquiries upon such witchcs. Un-
doubtedIy it has aiways seemed the
sounder and safer view to believe in
the literal truth of this matter; for it is
founded upon an argumcnt as to which
all Theologians are in perfeet agree-
ment; namely, that, after their fall and
apostasy, the Demons retained their
natural qualities intaet, which are
immortality, powcr, motion, speed,
knowledgc, and other such gifts which
were theirs from their origin. More-
over, the good spirits are able in a
moment of time not only themselves to
traverse immense distanees through
the air, but without difficulty to earry
men with them; as is sufficiently
proved by the instanees which we have
reeently quoted of the Prophet Haba-
cuc and Philip the Deaeon. It should
not, then, seem wonderful that the evil
spirits also should have this power.
There is no laek of examples to prove
the truth of this. In the Gospels ( S.
Mark v; S. Luke viii) we read of a man
possessed of an unclean spirit which
often bore him away into the wilder-
ness, having first broken his ehains.
And we know that Jesus Himself was
taken up by the Devil and set down
iaeobatiis, sanetissimi domini nostri papae al-
maeque urbis uicarii generalis." This aulhor
wrole an important “ Traetatns de Heretieis et
sortilegiis, omnifariam coilu torumque poenis"
which may be dated about 1525. The edition
published at Frankfort in 1592 has a eommen -
lary by the jurist Ponzinibio.
“ Pfavarras .” Martin Aspilcueta, gener -
ally known as Doetor JVavarrtis, the famotis
Spanish eanonist and moral theologian, was
born in the kingdom of Navarre, ijth Deeem-
ber, 1491; and died at Rome, sst june, 1587.
His “Manuale siut Enehiridion Confessario•
rum et Poenilentium,” Rome, 1568, was long
held as a elassie in the sehools and in actual
praetiee. His numerous ivorks have been eol-
leeted no less than four times: Rome, 1590,
three vols.,folio; Lyons, 1500; Veniee, 1602;
and Cologne, 1615, 2 vols.,fotio.
first upon a pinnaele of the temple, and
then upon a high mountain. There
may be some who think that these were
miraeles proper to that age, which God
permittea as being then of use in the
furtherance of the Gospel teaehing,
but that such miraeles are no longer
needed, and that there is no authority
for believing in them. To such I
answer that reeent history is full of ex-
amples of such occurrences, as wc shall
fully show later in this work, and that
fresh instanees keep eoming to light
every day. I shall nere relate a few of
these, which are elearly testified in the
reeords of the Provinees in which they
occurred.
At Gironcourt in the Vosges Provinee
there is a strongly enough built eastle
from the summit of vvhieh some tiles
vvere throvvn dovvn by lightning. Not
long afterwards (Oet. 1586) Sebas-
tiana Piearda was eharged vvith vviteh-
eraft in that village and eonfessed to
the Judgc that this had been the work
of a Demon and herself. “For,” she
said, “we vvere together in a cloud
rushing upon the eastle to destroy it
entirely, but this vvas not in our power:
yet we wcre able to infliet a little
damage upon it, so that vve should not
altogether fail in our attempt.”
The following is similar. A eertain
man named Kuno, vvho vvas a magis-
trate at Ronehamp in the parish of S.
Glement, wherc he lived, was with his
servants making hay in the country
whcn he saw a heavy storm brewing in
the sky, and made ready to run home.
But while he was about this, there was
a sudden flash of lightning, and he saw
six oak trees near him torn up by the
roots, vvhile a seventh which still stood
vvas all rent and torn as if by claws.
He then made all the more haste, and
in his hurry dropped his hat and the
implements which he was earryitig;
and there eame another eraek of
thundcr, and he saw in the top of an
oak near by a vvoman resting, vvho (as
is probable) had been set down there
from a cloud. Looking more elosely at
her, he reeognized her as an old woman
BK. I. CH. XXIX.
DEMONOLATRY 85
of the neighbourhood, and at onee
began to upbraid her in the following
words: “Are you that vile Margareta
Warina? I see that it was not without
reason that everyone has suspectcd you
of being a witch. How eame you here
in that state?” She answered: “Pardon
nie, I beg you, and keep what you
have seen seeret. Ifyou will do this for
me, I will undcrtake that neither you
nor yours shall ever suffer the least
harm from me.” If anyone feels a
doubt about this, let him know that it
was proved, not only by the evidenee
given upon the most solemn oath by
Kuno before the Judge, but also by
Warina’s own eonfession, repeatedly
rnade without any torture and eon-
firmed in the hearing of many at the
last moment of her Iife.
Here it is apposite also to relate what
I have learned, on the authority of
those who conducted them, from other
eapital trials. A storm burst with
much thunder and lightning upon the
slopes of the hill Altenberg, which is
near the rr.gion in Hohleeh in the
Vosges distriet; whcreupon the sliep-
herds and herdsmen who wcrc keeping
their floeks there (sinee it was exposed
to the storm) sought shelter in the
ncighbouring woods. Suddenly they
saw two peasants elinging to and en-
tangled in the topmost branehes of the
trees, and so terrified that it was ob-
vious that they had not eome there of
their own will, but had been driven
there by some uncxpected ehanee or
impulsc. The dirty and bedraggled
appearanee of their elothes also, wnich
seemed as if they had been dragged
through all sorts of mud and thoms,
gave fiírther point to the suspicion that
they had been dragged here and there
by their Little Master aeeording to his
custom. They wcrc the more eon-
firmed in this opinion when, after they
had remained there for some time to
make sure of what they had seen, sud-
denly without their noting it the two
men disappeared. Finally, all doubt
was removed not long aftervvards when
the two men wcre imprisoned and
freely eonfessed everything just as the
shepherds had reported it.
There is a house lying on the left as
you go from Belmont to VValdersbaeh,
on to the top of the roof of which the
same two men onee fell from a storin
cloud; and one of them, whose name
was Kàrrner, was much troubled as to
how they could eome safely to the
ground from such a height. For he was
as yet raw and inexpericnced in these
matters, and this was the first time he
had set out upon a cloud to work such
rnadness. The other, Amant, who had
been as a ehild initiated by his parents
into the serviee of the Demon and had
early beeome accustomed to such mat-
ters, laughcd at him and said: “Bc of
good heart, you fool; for the Master bv
whose virtuc we are able to aeeomplish
far more diffìcult things will make short
work of this little problem.” And it
was no sooner said than done; for they
were suddenly caught up in a whirl-
wind and set dovvn sale upon the
ground, while the whole housc shook
and seemed as though it would be
torn from its foundations. The men
themselves separately swore to this in
the very same words; and the occu-
pants of the house eonfirmed all their
story, as to the day and the tumult and
the shaking. And finally, they who had
in their lives been assoeiates in erime
were by the Judge’s sentenee eon-
sumcd together in the same fire.
All these examples together provide
a cumulative evidenee of the truth. I
could ifl wishcd relate many more in-
stanees which have eome to my know-
ledge in my trials of witchcs. But just
as a Iawyer hesitates to speak without
a good legal baeking, so I refrain from
aaducing eases in which I have no
documentary evidenee wherewith to
eonvinee my opponents. For, as I have
already said, before I resolved to vvrite
this work I negleeted much evidenee
which I'am novv sorry that I did not
Í )lace on reeord; sinee I have often
èlt the need of such evidenee, and
it has been altogether lost beyond
reeall.
THE SECOND BOOK
CHAPTER I
That it is not in tke Demons' Poiver lo re-
eall the Souls of the Dead lo tkeir
Bodies. But sinee they are the greatest
Mimiekers of the Works of God, they
often appear to do this when they enter
into the Bodies of the Dead and from
ivithin give them Motion like that of the
Living, just as ive see in the ease of
Aniomatons. Also the History of the
Blasphemy, Parrieide, and Monstrous
Loves of Petrone of Dalheim.
ERODOTLIS in Terpsiehort
makes mention of neero-
maney and vatieination by
means of Shades summoncd
from the Lovver World. Homer in the
Odyssey and Vergil in his Aeneid speak
of Mercury (who is believed to nave
been a powerful enehanter) as the evo-
eator of sou!s from Orcus. Moreover,
history, both saered and profane, is full
of examplcs of those who have eom-
pelled the shades of the departed to
retum to their bodies and answer
in human tongue the questions put
to them. When Saul was in doubt
whcthcr to fight a deeisive battle
against the Philistines or whether to
postpone it to some other time, he went
to inquirc of the Lord what would be-
fall if ne did battle; and when the Lord
answercd him not, he went to the town
of Endor hard by to an old woman
who, he had heard, was skilled in
raising the souls of the dead; and after
having swom an oath that he would
never reveal it to any man, asked her
to summon the soul of Samucl from
Hell. And hardly had she begun her
ineantations, when, behold, there sud-
denly appeared the figure of a vener-
able old man in priestly raiment, who
said that he was Samuel, and prophe-
sied to Saul that he and his sons would
be defeated and slain in battle on the
nextday,and thatwithhis life the king-
dom also would pass from his house.
Of very much the same nature is the
instanee, told by Lucan ( Pharsalia,
VII), of a newly-slain soldier who was
reealíed to life by a woman of Thes-
saly and foretold to Sextus Pompey the
result of the Pharsalian War. And lest
this should be thought a mere poetie
invention, the same story is quoted
from Varro by Pliny (Nat. JJist. VII,
52), in almost the same words, the only
dinerenee being that he said nothing
of the woman’s ineantation: “In the
Sieilian War Gabienus, the bravest of
Oaesar’s sea-eaptains, was captured by
Scxtus Pompey and, by his order, had
his throat cut so that his head was
almost severed from the body, and so
lay for a whole day. But towards even-
ing lie was heard by the many who
were thronging round him to groan
and implore them that Pompey should
eome to him, or else send one of his
friends; for he said that he had been
sent baek from Hell and had some-
thing to tell him. Pompey sent several
of his friends, to whom Gabienus said
that the Gods of the Lower Regions
were favourable to Pompey’s cause and
had listened to his prayers; that the
future would fall out aeeording to his
wishes; that he had been bidden to
announce this to them, and that as a
sign of the truth of his words he would
at onee expire when he had performed
that duty. And so it happened.”
Very íike this is the story of the
Egyptian prophet Zatehlas, told by
Apuleius (De Asino Aureo, II) as fol-
lows: “This man for a great sum of
money undertook to raise from Hell
the spirit of a dead young man and
bring him baek to life in his body, as if
by right ofpostliminy. Aeeordingly, he
propitiatea the stars of heaven, the in-
femal deities, the natural elements, the
noctumaI silenees, the Coptic shrines,
the inereases of the Nile,theMemphitíc
mysteries, and the saered Pharian
rattles; aíler which he laid a eertain
herb upon the eorpse’s mouth, and
86
zx~ n. ch. r.
DEMONOLATRV
87
another upon its breast. His breast
ehen began to heave, and his pulscs to
beat, and the eorpse vvas filled with
breath and rose up and started to
speak. And when ne was bidden to
divulge the mystery of his death, he
said that he had been killed with a
poisoned cup by his newly-wedded
bride, in order that he might leave the
bed free for her adulterer. After he
had so spoken, his body was at last
restored to the earth.”
There is no laek of modern examples
to mateh with those of aneient times.
In the year 1563 tliere was at Paris a
woman given to such praetiees, whosc
name I have thouj»ht nt to suppress on
account of the nobility and importanee
of her family. I went to visit her, as
was my custom sinee she was a fcllow-
countrywoman of mine, and found lier
with two offieers of the Royal House-
hold discussing how they could most
easily obtain possession of the trcasurc
which, they said, the King had granted
them an opportunity of inspeeting (for
the Leonine Law forbids a man to try
to win a treasure by means of impious
saerifiees or magie arts detested by the
law; and there are many other salu-
tary laws to restrain the eovetotis am-
bitions of courticrs). I heard one of
these men tellingin all scriousncss how,
not many days befòre, he had conjured
a eorpse on its gibbet to speak with
him on this matter, but that he had
been unablc to elieit anything definite
from it, sinee all its answers wcrc am-
biguous and pcrplexing.
From time immemorial it has been
believed that the souls of the dead ean
be raised from the tomb and, by means
of ineantations, ealled baek to their
bodies. But for my part I hold that the
mortal frame is so dissolved by death
that, cxcept by some speeial favour of
Almighty God, it eannot again be knit
and joined together until
That far day whcn, at the end of
time,
The fire of God shall reimite all
tíiings.
For, as Lucretius says (III, 942),
None is there that awakes
When onee the eold surcease of life has
touched him.
The story of Samuel* has been used to
substantiate the eontrary opinion; but
there are many authorities who have
not so interpreted it. For S. Augustinc,
agreeing with Tertiillian (De anima)
and not a few other orthodox writers,
says that this story is not to be taken as
a literal faet, but rather as a vision seen
by Saul, who, having sinned, was un-
able to form a right judgemcnt of it.
And that it was an illusion of the Devil
is shown beyond doubt by the follow-
ing argumcnt: if Samucl had truly
appeared, he, being a just man who
had in his life deelared that God alone
was to be worshipped, would not have
permitted himsell to be worshippcd
t>y the King. Again, a man of God
who was at rest ìn Abraham’s bosom
would not have said to a sinful man
worthy of hell-fire: “To-morrow thou
shalt be with me.” And Zonaras
(Annal. tomo i),t a most careful in-
quircr into Ghristian truth, says in ex-
position of this story that the spirit of
Samuel was not in truth, but only in
appearanee, ealled up; and he terms
it a speetre, not the spirit of Samuel.
For of a eertainty (as it is fully set out
in the last ehapter of the Synod of
Aneyra) those apparitions which are
raised by ineantations eannot be said
to exist really in the body, but only in
- "The Slory of Samuel.” For a full dis-
cussion of this see "The liistory of Witch-
eraft,” by Montagne Summers, igso, Ghapter
V, pp. 176-81. Remy is ineorreet in the opinion
he aseribes to S. Augustine, who held that the
viíion evoked by the woman ivas really and truly
the prophet Samuel.
| "Zonaras.” Joannes ^onaras, a eele-
brated Byzantìne historian and theologian of
the twelfth eentrny, The referenee here is to
his “ Annales ” in eighteen books, a ehroniele
from the ereation of the world to the dealh of
Alexis in 1118. It may be remarked that the
earlitr part is ehiejly derived from Josephus.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. I.
88
the spirit and in some figurc which dc-
eeives our sight. Or if there is a solid
human body, it is a dead eorpse which
(as Vitruvius says) moves organieally
through the ageney of a Demon which
has entered it; just as wc see in the ease
of automatons and daedalian meehan-
isms, which, as Cassiodorus* says (In
lib. Variorum), give forth a metallie
bellowing, or when brazen serpents
hiss, and imitation birds ineapable of
a voiee of their own vet sing as swcctly
as a nightingale. The Pythtan Tripods
move and walk of their own aeeord,
some pOuring out wine for the gucsts
and others watcr, as it is reported to
have been seen by Apolloniiis when he
was wilh Hiarehas and other Gymno-
sophists. I think that no rnan in his
senses will ever deny that even more
wonderful things than tliis ean be per-
formed by the snbtlety and agility of
Demons, seeing that they have no
small affinity with that vital spirit
which is the life of mankind.
There is a fiirther eonsideration
which does much to cxplain this whole
matter. For sinee they are foul and
unclean spirits it should not be sur-
prising that, as a pig returns to its
wallowing plaee, they should find their
favourite nabitation and lodging in
stinking eorpses. And therefore it is
that ghosts, that is Demons, are ehiefly
to be met with in churchyards and in
Í jlaees of punishment and execution
òr eriminals. For it is foolish and im-
piously pagan to believe that souls
naunt and hover about suc.h plaees
through longing for their disearded
bodies, sinee there are fixed and eon-
stituted plaees for the departed to
which they go. The passage in the
Epistle of S. Judc (verse g) seems to
- “CassiodorusAt the age of sevtnty this
great statesman retired to tfe monastery of
Viviers and there passed the last thirtyyears of
his life. The leisure hours ttihieh he spared
from study and writing he employed in the
eonstmetion of philosophieal toys such as sun-
dials and water-clocks. The referenee here is
to his u Uariarum ( Epistolarum ),” Libri XII.
bear a relation to this matter; whcre
he writcs that there was a stmggle be-
twccn the Devil (whom Franciscus Ve-
netus, Problem. saer. serip., tom. I, seet.
8, probl. 433, ealls A/.azelf) and the
Arehangel Miehael for the body of
Moses; for it is probable that the Devil
meant to occupy that body so that
he might the more easily beguilc the
Israelites and lay open the window for
idolatrous praetiees, as the Rabinieal
Books reeord that he did more than
onee afterwards in the appearanee of
many other dead men; and as the best
proteetion against such happenings
they preseribed that seven eireles
shovild be traeed rovind the tomb whcrc
a eorpse is buricd.
To all this must be added the faet
that Satan is the greatest aper of God’s
works, and it is his ehief eare to appear
to his subjccts as nearly as possible
God’s equal in powcr and might. S.
Peter raised Tabitha from the dead at
the prayer of the diseiples to whom she
had been devout in almsgiving; and
many ages before him, Elijah restored
to life the dead son of the widow
woman of Zarephath, who had sup-
plied him with food. Therefore, to
prove himself in no way inferior, Simon
tried by his magie spells to bring to life
the dead body of a boy who, Hege-
sippus says (III, 2), was elosely related
to Nero, and did indeed causc it so to
move that it appeared to have eome
baek to life; but it soon fell baek to
the ground dead as beíòre. For,
aeeording to Clement in his Itinerar -
ium, when he eeased from the spells
by which he had bound the eorpse, the
rcsult gave a elear and unmistakable
•f “ Azazel .” The word translated “ emis•
sary goat" ( Douay ) and “seapegoat” (A.V.)
in “ Levitieiis ,” xvi, is At.az.el, which appears
to be the name of an evil angel or demon. Pro-
fessor A. R. S. Kennedy in Commentary on
Levitiens, xvi, 8, in the ci Century Bible ”
writes: “In later Jemish lileratme (Book of
Enoeh) Atatel appears as the prinee of the
fallen angels, the offspring of the unions de-
seribed in ' Genesis' vi, iff.”
BK. II. CH. I.
DEMONOLATRY
89
proofofthe differenee betwcen the true
aets of God and the lying imitations
wrought by rash daring of Dernons.
Phlegon,* a freedman of the Emperor
Hadrian, tells of a similar thing hap-
pening at Tralles in Asia to a girl who
had been six months dead. Damis and
Philostratus, Ìn their Life of Apol-
lonius of Tyana, reeord that he often
restored the dead to life. And not long
sinee there was a German story circu-
lated in writing of a man named
Aulicus who, being told that his wife
was dead and that her body had been
laid in a tomb, hastened home to look
after his affairs and, brooding much
upon her lale into the night as is usual
in the ease of such a loss, saw her dis-
robing herself in her customary man-
ner and preparing to go to bed as
usual. In this purpose, sinee he had
reeeived eertain news of her death, he
opposed her for a liltle; but being eon-
vineed by her speaking in her own
voiee and by her elear exhibition of her
body,he permitted her to lie downwith
him; and for a short time they lived
their usual daily life together, until by
the potent words of an exorcist the
Demon, who had raised up that
eorpse and occupied it in order to
deeeive and, if possible, destroy the
husband, was eompelled to depart
from it. It is eertain that no cxorcism
cou!d have had this result if the
woman’s own soul had truly been in
her body; but just as the law provides
every opportunity for dispossessing a
man of what he has unjustly usurpcd,
so no one need marvel that the Demon
is thus east out from his insidious occu-
pation of a dead body, if he realizes
what foree there is in adjurations and
exorcisms to effeet this.
Of such sort were the Shades of
Thyestes, Polydoms, Tantalus, Aga-
memnon, Aehilles and other heroes,
which the poets tell us uscd to walk
about their tombs; for (to quotc
- “ Phlegon .” For a fidl aeeotml of this
set "The Vampire in Etirope” by Montague
Stimmers, 1929, Chapter I, pp. 34-38.
Eusebius, In refutatione sexta eontra
Hieroelem) these were the speetres and
apparitions of unclean spints moeking
fooLish men in the form of those
Ghosts, while they demanded for
themselves saerifiees in honour of the
dead, expiatory rites from their sup-
posed ehildren, and other such reli-
gious eeremonies. “For why” (asks
Eusebius) “should the Shades wish to
leave the Islands of the Blessed in order
to play such foolish trieks?” S. Justin
Martyr ( Apologia seetmda ad fratres)
proves the same insane error against
those who profess to be able to raise
souls from Hell by their ineantations,
namely, that they do not see that it is
not the shades of the dead but Demons
that they evoke. For it is all a vain
adumbration and imitation of the
truth, rather than any solid and sure
expression of it; and tliis is espeeially
so when a man who has onee died ana,
as they say, beeome the property of the
Nether Gods, retums as ìt were by
right of postliminy to the light so that
we think we see him with our eyes per-
forming those bodily aetions of which
he was eapable when his life was whole
and unimpaired.
A rare and singular proof of this
argumcnt is provided by the story
of Petrone Armentarius, at Dalheim,
1581, which I have fully related in my
Summary of this work. His Succuba
Abrahel foreed him to fulfil his solemn-
ly given promise to eommit foul
murdcr upon his only son; and whcn
he could not cndure his loss and was
driven nearly mad by tlie thought of
the infantieiae which he had peipe-
trated, she promised that, if he ìm-
plored her with supplication and
adoration, she would bring the boy
baek to life; and aeeordingly for a
whole year she causcd him by her
magie to appear as if he were living
and exercising his natural fimetions.
That this was no more than a deeep-
tion and illusion was elearly and abun-
dantly shown when, without any pre-
vious illness, the boy again died, and
immediately began to stink so abomin-
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. I.
90
ably that it was impossible to look at
him except from a distanee, and that
with the nostrils pressed elose together.
But sinee this story opens up eertain
questions worthy of eonsideration as
snowing the boundlcss and insatiable
ardour of the erafty Devil in imitating
and eopying the functions of human-
ity, ana becausc these questions eannot
eonveniently be dealt with without
some digression, it will not be foreign
to our present purposc to eonsider eer-
tain other matters which will help to
establish the truth of such a story, to
indieate its causes, lay bare its pitfalls,
show the damning nature of its rcsults,
and give to the improvident and eare-
less an inducement to a more attentive
avoidanee of such snares. In the first
laee, then, no one who has read what
have already written ean doubt the
existence of Ephialtes or Incubus De-
mons who, in the manner of men,
ravish and debauch the womcn who
have given themselves over to them;
for I eannot readily agree with the
Physieians that this is always a disease
of the body, by which the natural pas-
sage of the vital essenees is intereepted.
Similarly, it will not be difficult to be-
Iie\e that there are Hyphìaltes or Suc-
cubi who, in the form and appearanee
of women, lie down to men; for this
sin, which is the ehief delight of De-
mons, has been equally admitted on
both sides, and there is no more diffi-
culty in the one than in the other. Yet
it is more rarely that the Demons aet
as Succubi: either bccause it is not the
custom of women, whose modesty in
this matter they evilly imitate, to take
the initiative in inducing men to eom-
mit fornieation with them; or becausc
the rabble of witchcs is ehiefly eom-
posed of that scx which, owing to its
feebleness of undcrstanding, is least
able to resist and withstand tlie wiles
of the Devil. And eertainly, in all the
trials of witches that I have had to do
with, this has been the one and only
example of a Succuba. But so that it
may not be eompletely isolated, I have
deeided to add nere another example.
which was told me by a most trust-
worthy man, Melehior Errie, from the
private and seeret courts of our Most
Serene Duke.
There was (he said) at Hemingen,
when I was Governor there, a eertain
witch who, on being bidden by the
Judge to tell how he had first been led
away to such abominable iniquity and
by what wiles the Demon had ehiefly
seduccd him, freely and openly an-
swcred as follows: “Being a herdsman,
I was going my rounds one morning to
eolleet my eattle, and one of the girls
who uscd to open the stable doors for
them stirred my soul with love more
than all the rest, so that I began to
dream of her more and more both by
night and by day. At last, while my
thoughtswere deeply occupiedwithher
as I was alone in the meadows, there
appeared one like her hiding behind a
bush. I ran up to seize the prize of my
desire, and embraeed her in spite of
her stniggles; and after some repulses
she surrendered herself to me on eon-
dition that I should acknowIedge her
as my mistress, and regard her as she
were God Himself. I agreed to this. I
enjoyed her; and she at onee began to
enjoy me to such a degree that I was
alvvays unhappily subject to her will.”
Philostratus, in his Life of Apollo-
nius of Tyana, says that a somewhat
similar expcrience befell Menippus, a
diseipJe of Demeírius the Cymc. For
as he was going from Oorinth to Cen-
ehreae he met one in the form of a
beautiful foreign girl, apparently very
rieh, who said tnat she was smitten
with love for him, and in a friendly
manner invited him to go home with
her. He in his turn was taken with
love for her and lay with her often,
and even began to think about mar-
riage; for she had a house deeorated in
royal fashion. But after Apollonius had
examincd everything in tnat house, he
exclaimcd that she was a Lamia* who
wou!d quickly devour tlie young man
- “ Lamia .” See “The Vampire in Eu-
rope," 1929, Chapter /, pp. 3-5.
BK. II. CH. I.
D EMONOLATRY
entirely or affliet him vvith some not-
able injury.
It is elear that the Demon holds this
to be by far the greatest and riehest
fruit of his insidious wiles; and that,
like a dishonest usurer, he is always
adding to it and inereasing it by some
fresh ìmpiety: drawing error upon
error, as S. Jerome says ( In prooemio,
lib, II, commenlariorum in Zaehariam),
and always more and more deeply en-
gulfing those whom he has onee pol-
lutcd by erime. And the story with
which wc are now eoneerned ìs very
ertinent to this proposition. For fìrst,
aving scduccd tne man to an unspeak-
able venery and pcstiferous wencning,
he foreed nim to the atrocious murder
of his only son; and then, when he was
driven almost to the very last despair
by his remone for so great a eríme, he
led him lieadlong to an execrable
idolatry which is the culmination of all
sin; thus showing himself for what he
has been from his beginning, the
would-be rival and jea!ous affeeter of
Divine honour.
When God wishcd to test Abraham’s
faith He appeared to him and, having
enumerated ali His benefits to him,
bade him offer up his son isaae as a
saerifiee. So Abraham, thinking it a
sin not to obey God in anything what-
soever, took his son to the mountain
which God had named, and was there
about to offer the saerifiee demanded
had not God Himself intereeded to
prevent him, proelaiming that He was
not a God to wish him to be cruclly
bereft of his ehildren, after having
graciously made him a father in his
extremc old age; but that He only
wished to make trial whcthcr he would
obey such a eommand. Even so it now
delights that Ape the Demon to re-
enaet an imitation of that which God
did so many ages ago; and indeed it is
probable that he purposely look the
name Abrahel in this ease to give some
vcrisimilitude to his travesty of Abra-
ham’s saerifiee. But in the event he de-
arted from his pattern, in that it was
is espeeial eare and purpose to imbue
9 1
the father’s hands with the unnatural
murder of his son, against his deeply
inbom parental love. For ofa truth he
was a murderer from the beginning ( S.
John viii).
That divinations, vatieinations, the
ealling up of departed spiríts, and
many other such ineantations which
men have in the past performed undcr
the Devil’s auspices wcre always
aeeompanied with the solemn festal
eonseeration or saerifiee of some man
is shown by Homer in the ease of
Ulysses, by Silius in that of Seipio, by
Valerius Flaccus in that of Eson, by
Papinius in that of Teresia, and by
Horaee in tliat of eertain deadly en-
ehantresses. And nearly all the nations
who were addieted to his worship used
to befoul his altars with human vie-
tims, as Alexander [Genial. dier. VI, 20)
has shown at great length. Espeeially
were they wont to saerifiee their own
ehildren, as Euripidcs and Plutarch
(Parallel. 40) tell of Erechtheus; Pau-
sanias of Aristodcmus and Epcbolus;
Plutarch again of Marius and the
Carthaginians; and as Pietro Bembo
in his Ventlian History, Book VI, tells
of the inhabitants of New Spain before
ever the light of Christian trath had
shone upon them. Here aiso I may
quote the Bible story ofJephthah, who,
whcn making war upon the Ammon-
ites, vowcd that if he gained the vie-
tory he would saerifiee the fìrst thing
that eame out to meet him on his re-
turn home: and when his only daugh-
ter, who was yet a virgin, eame out to
meet him, none the less he offered her
up as a saerifiee. But although Jo-
sephus (Antiqu. V, 11) eonsiders that
she was put to the knife, Zonaras
(Annal. tomo I) that she was burned,
and SabeIIicus (Ennead I, 6) that she
was immolated as a vietim upon the
altar; yet there are not wanting those
who interpret eertain of the Hebrcw
authorities to the effeet that she was
only shut away for a time among the
virgins dedieated to God, and so was
taken away and removed as if by death
from the soeiety and eommon life of
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CII. II.
92
men. For it is written that she ob-
tained permission from her father, be-
fore he fulfilled his vow, to bewaií her
virginity for two months with her fel-
lows. Certainly such a saerifiee would
better befit a flesh-eating God, such as
Pliitareh ealls Bacchus: and if it was in
truth performed (as I eannot think
that the Theologians really believe), I
dare to affirm with Joscphus that it
was not a legitimate saerifiee, nor one
that was pleasing to God.
Furthcr, the truth of this story of
Petrone of Armentières is beyond all
doubt; for it was reported to the
Duumvirs of Naney in absolutc eom-
pleteness with its qucstions, proofs and
arguments. It was, moreover, fully
eonfirmed by the inhabitants of the
plaee, wlio assured many persons that
tliey had seen vvith their own eyes the
boy reealled to an appearanee of life.
As for the obseene relations of Pe-
trone with the Succuba, the truth
could only be known from the man
himself. His murder of his son is paral-
leled by the following example of Ber-
trande Barbier (Forbaeh, Aug. 1587),
who nourished a hatred for her son
, aeob Cremer because she suspected
lim of having stolen some money from
ìer; and, after a Demon had first
>rokcn open the doors, she entered his
iousc at night and killed him vvith a
poisoned drink. The wife of Stoffel the
CIothier held a violet-coloured light to
light them at their work; the vvife of
Quirin the Butcher earried the poison
in a blaek jug; Briee Merg ( ibidem ,
eodemque die) held the vietim’s head so
that the poison could more easily be
{ ioured into his mouth; and the piti-
ess mother herself administered the
poison. This was admitted by Briee
when he was examined before the
Judges on the same day as Bertrande,
and as a further proof he added that he
had taken off a blanket to bind the
son's limbs, so that he couId not
struggle when he was touched. Do-
minique Zabella (Rogeville, 1583) also
defiled herself with the murder not only
of her son, but also of her husband.
Alexia Belhoria (Blainville, Jan. 1587)
oisoned both her first and seeond hus-
ands. For they think no more of par-
rieide than of plain murder, being
equally ready and prompt to eommit
either sin: so eompletely have they
divoreed themselves from all humanity
and natural feeling.
☆
CHAPTER II
The Taint of Witchcraft is often passed
on as it were by Conlagion by infeeted
Parents to tkeir Children; for thus they
hope to ivin Favoar with their Litiíe
Masters. That it is ill done to eondone
this Crime in Children, as some do, on
account of their Age; both beeatise of its
atrocious Heinousness, and beeaitse there
is almost no Hope of ever tmrifying one
who has onee been infeeted.
T HE greed of Satan was always
infinite and insatiable; and onee
he has gained a foothold in any family
he has never been known to retreat
from it save under the greatest eom-
pulsion. Therefore it is always eon-
sidered to be one of the elearest and
surest proofs against those who have
been accused of witchcraft, if it is
found that they eome of parents who
have previously been eonvieted of that
erime.
The breed shovvs its deseent;
Degenerate blood reverts to its first
type.
(Seneea, Hippolytus.)
And there are daily examples of
hereditary erime manifesting itself in
the ehildren. It is the Demon’s ehief
eare to add daily to the numbers of his
subjects; and there is no easier way
for him to aeeomplish this purpose
than to drive and eompel those who
are already in his power to eomipt
their ehildren also.
Nieole Morèle (Serre, Jan. 1587)
eonfessed that she was taken by her
father to the Demons’ Sabbat before
BK. II. CH. II.
DEMONOLATRY
93
she had reaehed the age of puberty.
Another woman said that, although
she was not yet of an age to do after
the kind of women, she was sent by
her mother into a thiek wood where she
wou!d find a handsome young man
whom she would easily be able to love.
And it happened as her mother had
said; but as soon as she was in his
arms she felt that she had been
moeked; for it seemed to her that she
was embraeing some marble statuc, he
lay upon her so stiíf and heavy. His
parents, Erricus and Catharina, tried
at Vergaville, July 1586, gave Hen-
nezel a Sur.cuba to wife, who ealled
herself by the name of Sehivarlzbiirg.
As far as he could see whcn he first
approaehed her, her hair and gar-
ments were blaek, and her feet were
misshapen like horses’ hoofs: none the
less for that he madly loved her and,
abjuring all holy thoughts, at onee and
greedily wallowcd in earnal beastli-
ness with her; but it was as if he had to
do with a drain filled with eold watcr,
and he wcnt away ashamed and sor-
rowing with his purposc unaccom-
plished. Before Dominiquc Petrone
(Gironcourt, Oet. 1586) was twelve
years old his mother led him to a
similar abominable marriage.
For Golette Fiseher (Mainz, May
1585) and many other witchcs say that
it is a frequent custom for Demons
to eontraet marriage with hiimans;
and indeed Bertrande Barbier and
Sinehen May of Speirehen (Forbaeh,
Aug. 1587) said tnat they had been
present at such nuptials at times whcn
they happened to be at night in the
plaee wherc the eriminalsof that dis-
triet were crucificd; and they added
that, in plaee of the usual gift of a ring,
it was enough for the bridegroom to
stoop down and blow upon the bride’s
anus. Agnes Theobald (Puttelange,
Sept. 1590) said that she was present
when Oathalina and Eugel of ITudlin-
gen were solemnly espouscd to their
respeetive Beelzcbubs, and that the
roasted flesh of a blaek she-goat was
served at the wedding feast. Domin-
iquc Fallvaea (S. Blaise la Roehe, July
1587) said that she was gathering
rushes for binding up the vines witli
her mother, and they lay down on the
round to rest themselves. After they
ad talked for a little her mother
began to wam her not to be afraid if
she saw something unusual, for there
would be no danger in it; and as soon
as she had said this, there suddenly
appeared one in human form who
seemed like a shoemaker, for his belt
was stained here and there with piteh.
This man made her swcar an oath to
him, and marked her iipon the brow
with his nail in sign of her new allegi-
anee, and finally defiled her beíòre the
eyes of her mother. And the mother
in her turn gave herself to him in sight
of her daughter. Then they joined
hands and daneed round for a whilc;
and at last, after he had given them
money (or so at first it seemed, but
soon it all r.rumblcd to a powder), the
Incubus vanished into tlie air, and
they rctumed home.
Matthieu Amants Rozerat (Hue-
court, Sept. i=j86), in an attempt to
pcrsuade the Judgcs to eonsider his
age as an excuse for his erime of witch-
eraft, eomplained that he had first been
eommitted to that sin when he was of
an age at which he was entirely im-
potent and, bccause of his weakness,
under the direetion of others. For he
was hardly more than a ehild whcn he
was taken by his mother, together with
his brother and sister, as if to the wcd-
ding feast of a kinsman, where they
werc all eompelled to swear allegianee
to the Demon, although they werc
ignorant of what they were doing, after
the Demon had at great length held
out the promise ofstill greater entiee-
ments.
The following account bears out the
truth of those just related. They were
preparing the instruments of torture
in order to extract from Barbe Gilet
(Huecourt, Sept. 1587) a eonfession of
this erime, when she, looking ealmly
on, spoke as follow$: “What madness
it is to supposc tliat you ean extort a
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. II.
eonfession from me by foree! For if I
\vished I couId easily stultify your ut-
most attempts by means of the power
which is at my eommand to endure
every torture. But I gladly spare you
all that troublc. For because my
Master does not eease to importune me
to deliver into his power my four young
ehildren which still sur\’ive of many
that I have borne, I would far rather
submit myself to the cruellest death if
by that means I may save my little
ones from such a miserable fate as I
have myself suffered all this time. For
if I am acquittcd of tliis eharge it re-
mains for me to ehoose either to suffer
an even more terrible death at the
hands of my Master, or sorely against
my will to perform liis demands with
regard to my ehildren.”
The following is to the same effeet.
Frangoise Hacquart of Villé (1591),
in order at last to free herself from such
molestation, had abandoned to the
Demon her daughter Jana when she
was as yet seareely seven years old;
and among her other eonfessions she
ehaneed to hint this faet to the Judge.
As the daughter’s testimony eonfirmed
this statement, and sinee all furthcr
doubt was removed by the girl’s surc
and unerring account of the noetnmal
assemblies of witchcs at which she said
she had been present, all began to
form the opinion that she was equally
guilty with her mother of that erime.
But because she did not seem to be of
a suitable age to be punished by the
law (for it was not found that she had
as yet eommitted any vcnomous aet of
bcwitchment), the Lady of the Manor
undcrtook to wcan her from those un-
speakable habits by the most holy
teaehing within her means. Aeeord-
ingly, after the mother had suffercd
her punishment, she kept her for some
time under the eare ana admonition of
a eertain matron, until it seemed to
everybody that she had reeovered her
senses and her former freedom, having
east off the yoke of the Demon. But
alas! one mght as she was sleeping
as usual with the maid-servants, the
Demon caught her up as if to earry
her away; and it is thought tliat he
would have done so had he not been
prevented by the servants’ repeatedly
ealling on the Name of TESUS; but
being thus disturbed he left his destined
prey hanging upon the beams of the
roof, and departed. This was no mere
fabrieation of the servants generated
by a desire to spread an idle rumour;
for all the neighbours ran up at their
eries, and saw the thing with their own
eyes. And a further proof that no part
of this story was a deeeitfiil or maliei-
ous invention was provided by the faet
that the girl remained for the whole of
eight days and nights in a miserable
state ofstupor without eating or speak-
ing or sleeping. For Pliny \Nat. Hist.
XI, eap. ult.) is our authority that it
is impossible to endure starvation
without succumbing for more than
seven days; and if ever it were to eon-
tinue to the eleventh day it must be
admitted to be a miracuíous happen-
ing.
Therehave been manyothers within
my memory led away at a tender age
by their parents to sin whom, sinee
theyappeared to be alreadyeapable of
f uiít, we Duumvirs have senteneed to
e stripped and beaten with rods
around the plaee whcrc their parents
wcrc being bumcd alive. Tnis has
been the custom for many years; yet I
have never thought that the law was
fiillysatisfìed bysuch methods; espeei-
ally if, as will be said later, the ehild be
found to be of an age eapable of guilt
and it is proved that ne has eom-
mitted a poisonous aet of witchcraft;
for it seems to me that, out of eon-
sideration for the public safety, such
ehildren ought in addition to be
banished ana cxiled from the boun-
daries of human nature. For as to the
argument that punishmcnt has a eor-
reetive and ameliorating effeet upon
eriminals, I fear that it is vain to apply
it to such eases as we are eonsidering;
for cxperience has shown that they
who have fallen into the power of the
Demon ean rarely be rcscued except
BK. II. CH. II.
DEMON OLATRY
by death, so tenacious is he of his hold
upon that to which he has a right, and
so slow to loose anything from. his
clutches. And—if it is relevant to the
uestion to say so—what easier win-
ow to sin could be opened, what
greater hope of impunity could be
oífered or given, than if any just or
Iegitimate excuse should be admitted
for so great and detestable a erime?
Therefore let those whose offiee it is to
try such eases eonsider whether the
laws that eondone and excuse a
eriminal on account of the innoeenee
of his age ought rightly to be applied
to this erime, which is not only beyond
hope, but even tightens its grip with
inereasing years. For we read that
otlier far lighter sins have been visited
with the last severity as well by divine
as by human law. Forty-two ehildren
were rent in pieees by two bears for no
other reason than that they followed
Elisha, moeking him and saying: “Go
up, thou bald head!” Trebius the
Uerman Legate inffieted the extreme
penalty upon an impubic ehild, as
Marcianus l4, observed in his Eleventh
Book De Ptiblieis Judiciis, simply be-
cause, although he was lying at his
master’s feet when he was killea, he did
not report the murder. There is also
the famous Athenian judgcment, by
which a ehild was eondemned to death
because he had plucked the eyes out
of a crow; for by that he haa given
the fullest indieation of the sort of
erimes he would eommit as a grown
man. A like eonsideration induced me
and my colleagues a few years ago to
sentenee a thief not yet seventeen years
old to be crucified; for he had three
times been scourged, and had even
been branded upon one shoulder,
and yet continued to live a life of
theft and robbery. Bodin in his Dé-
monomanie (III, 5) reeords that by the
verdiet of the Parisian Senate the same
- “ Mareiarms." Aeliiis Marcianus, a
Roman jurist who lived under Garaealla and
Alexander Sevems. His works are frequently
quoled in the Digest.
95
sentenee was passed on an eleven-
year-old boy because he had killed
another boy with a stone and had
hidden the body.
In short, to return to the point from
which I have digressed, it is not just
to purchasc the safety of one at the
priee of the manifest danger of many
ìnnoeent persons undeserving of pun-
ishment. For it is beyond doubt that
the erimes which they eommit at
another’s behest while still in ignor-
anee of their nature, they will most
ardently pursue on their own behalf
whcn riper years have fìilly kindled in
them the lust of anger and revenge.
Thereseems to be morewisdom inwnat
Menander (Cic. Epist. II. ad Brutum)
says of this sort of erime; that it is
better met with a salutary severity
than with a profitless show of merey.
Geliius (XX, 1) also eommends the
harshness of Sextus Gaecilius in pun-
ishing the erime of soreery as a stern
encouragcment to good and pnident
living. There should be no laek of
examples to prove that their age does
not restrain such ehildren from eom-
mitting deeds of witchcraft at the in-
stigation of their parents; for I remem-
ber reading in the reports of the trials
of such that there have been ehildren
who have eonfessed that they earried
hidden under their nails a poison
given them by their parents, and that
they used to serateh their playfellows
and thus often kill them. But I eannot
now reeall their names or the time of
their trials; for I had not yet thought
of writing this work when I read
them.
But one instanee will suffice which,
when I was on the point of pubUsh-
ing this work, eame Defore us Duum-
virs at Barr in May 1591. This was the
ease of a boy not yet seven years old,
one Laurence of Ars-sur-MoseUe, tried
at Serre in May 1581, who made it
perfeetly elear by his own account that
he had been taken by his parents to the
execrable Demons’ Meeting, where he
had been set to tum the spit and see
to the roasting of the meat; and
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. II.
96
further, that his Little Master, who
ealled himself Verd-Joli, had more than
onee made him take some poison with
which he might kili the eattle of any-
one who caused him even the slightest
annoyanee; and that this proved in
the event to be so.
Upon this there arose no small dis-
pute and dissension among the Judges,
as to what course should be taken with
the boy who had perpetrated such
deeds. For some argucd that it was not
just that human soeiety should be any
íonger burdened with one who had so
basely beeome an enemy of the human
raee; that he did not appear to de-
serve pily, who had had no pity for
anyone whom he had wishccl to in-
jure: that his life ought not to be
spared, vvho had in the vilest manner
aeprived others of life and would,
uniess God prevented it, continue to do
so: that he was an outcast of the last
depravity, who would not have been
spared even by the laws of the Pagans,
who did not follow the way of piety as
we do: that one polluted by so great a
erime must uncloubtcdly be put to
death, even as a beast to wnich a
woman has lain dovvn, that there
should remain no traee or memory of
so exccrable and detestable a thing :
that it was impossible to plead in his
defenee innoeenee of intent, on vvhieh
account ehildren are spared in other
eases; for none could deny that he
had shown that persistenee of purpose
which belongs to one vvho harboiirs
the memory of an injury reeeived in
spite of the lapse of time; and, more-
over, he had taken his revenge in a
seeret. and skulking manner, hke one
who was quite eonseions of wrong-
doing. In the ease of a manifestly
hidcous erime it is not cnough to
administer the home diseipline and
adrnonishment usually rneled out to
ehildren; it must be brought before
the Judges and pimished with the full
severity of the law; that there could be
no question of granting impunity on
account of the prisoner’s age when it
was shown that his erime proeeeded
from máliet prepense: that the present
ease belonged to that eategory was
sufficiently proved by the prisoner’s
hatreds, thefts, lies, jcalousies and per-
jurics and such preliminary sins, to
which no one would deny that his
ehildish agewas subject: thattheonly
erime of which he had not: been guilty
before the age of puberty was that of
venery, and that only bec.ause his
powcrs vvere not yet sufiicientlv de-
veloped to perform that aet: and that
S. Gregory of Nyssa had expressed the
same opinion in his Antiqua (Cap. 1, de
deliet. puer.). Finally, it was novv quite
a eommon experence to find boys of
seven years more cunningly adept in
erime than, in less enlightened times,
vvere those who had already attained
the age of puberty; for it may truly
be said that ehildren are now so pre-
cociously and prcmaturcly knowing
and shrewd that, as the lawyers say,
they easily make good with their maliee
the defieieneies of their age.
On the other hand, those who took
a more lenient vicw argued that he
who did not know what he vvas doing
could not be said to have deserted to
the enemy: that for this reason it uscd
to be the custom to pardon a recruit
the first time hedeserted, on the ground
that he was as yet ignorant of military
diseipline: that it could not be pre-
sumed that an aet had been eom-
mitted in pitiless cruelty by one whose
nature and eharaeter it is to abhor and
abominate nothingso much as emelty:
that ehildren eannot endure the mere
sight of slaughter, wounds, fires, and
other such ealamities; and that it is
elearly shown by expericnce that they
immediately weep and howl at the
misfortunes of others: that ifthey have
ever been known to do otherwisc, it
must be eonsidered as being a prodigy
and that their aetions have not eon-
formed to their wishes; and there ean
be no erime where there is no eriminal
intent. That they are no more the
cause of another’s death than are the
knii'e, cudgel, stones or poison, or other
instrmnent by which a man’s life may
SK. II. CH. II.
DF. MONOLATRV
be taken; and no sane man would be
so foolish as to wreak vengeanee upon
such things because they had been in-
strumental in a man’s murder, for that
would be like a dog biting the stone
thrown at it and leaving alone him
who threw it. Certainly there werc
formerly eertain persons saered and
dedieated to the Gods of the Lowcr
World, upon whom anyone might
with impunity eommit murdcr or any
violenee; but such persons willingly
and knowingly offered themselves for
that foul saerifiee in rcturn for an
annual public contribution of whole-
sorne food; and this was done for the
purpose of purifying their country or
expiating some erime, plaguc or por-
tent, as it was in the ease of the seape-
goat which the Hebrews used to send
out into the wilderness. But nothing
of this could rightly be applied to this
boy, who had made no vow in return
for a rcward; who would not by his
death expiate a public danger or the
death of another; whose punishment,
in short, would in no way be exem-
plary save as a reproaeh to Nature for
not having more wisely and eom-
pletely instructed and fortified the
early ehildhood of mankind. That it
was in no sense apposite to instanee the
faet that an animal which has onee
been polluted and eontaminated by a
man’s lust is put to death that the
remembranee of it mav be wiped out;
for there was a vast dinerenee between
slaughtering an animal, which is born
in order to De slaughtered, and taking
the life of a human being for whose
benefit Nature allowcd the gift of life
to the other animals. Not even the
law always demanded the same pun-
ishment for the same offenee; but
lightens the sentenee for one man on
account of his position and fortune,
while it inereases and makes it heavier
for another on account of his meanness
and poverty; for (as Pliny says)
nothing could be more inequitable
than to pass an equal sentenee upon
all and sundry. It was, then, un-
worthily done to demand that men
97
and beasts should be subject to the
same law. It in no way detraeted from
the innoeenee and ingenuousness of
ehildren that they had a long memory
for an injury; that they glaaly seizea
upon a ehanee to repay one; or that
they took eare not to be caught in the
aet; for all this was true also of the
brute beasts, to which no one would
for that reason rightly attributc a eon-
sidered purpose. That the heinous-
ness of a deed depended upon the in-
tention of the aoer; and for that
reason the law dealt more leniently
with a murderer whose only intention
was to wound his vietim; but there
cou!d be no qucstion of erime on the
part of a ehild not yet eapable of guilt,
and far less ought there to be any
question of the degree of his culpa-
bility; for the law deelares that wnat
does not exist eannot be qualified. That
it was beside the point to distinguish
here between domestie diseipline and
public example; for it was no less
repugnant to the law, which is, as
Aristotle says, based upon prineiples of
proportion, to impose a public pun-
ishment for murder upon a ehild of
tender age than to sentenee an adult
man to be beaten and ehastised with
rods in his own house for the same
offenee. That ehildhood was entirely
innoeent of guile and ineapable of any-
thing which ought to be imputed to
maliee; for when Demosthenes spoke
of himself as still impubic and quite a
mere lad, IJlpian notes (i. 3, 51, De
sefmleh . uiol. jae. Cuialius observat. I.
VI, eap. 22) that he meant it to be
understood that he was not yet eap-
able of guilt: nor did it at all militate
against this view that boys tell Iies
through fear of the rod; that they are
spiteful to their fellows in ease of a
aispute; that they suffcr their masters
with an ill graee, and often hate them;
that they do not refrain from laying
their hands on others’ property; for
these are only the rudiments and
eradle of viee, not consummatcd
erimes and sins which must be re-
strained and vindieated by human
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH.II.
r
98
laws. And as to the allegation that
ehildren develop knowledgc and
understanding earlier than tney used
to do formerly, that was an age-old
eomplaint (Horaee, Carm. III, 7):
What is there grows not worsc to-day?
Our grandfathers werc bad, they say;
Our Fathers worse; and we, still worse,
Shall soon beget a greater cursc.
And in this opinion Horaee was fol-
lowed many years later by Salvius
Julianus* * * § (1 ,apud, § si quis cum tutor.de
Do. txcusa ), Domithis Ulpianusf (1.
lmpnbtrem De furt. 1. Haeredib. subf. de
Dolo.), Julius Paulusí (1. 4, de tribat.
aetione), and several other Juriscon-
sults; but they all denied that ehildren
werc eapable of guilt, except such as
were on the verge of puberty, that is
(aeeording to Callistratus§), when they
were withm no more than six months
of that age, or at the most within a
year, as Galen explains it in his
Aphorisms (III, 20), for they have not
arrived at years of diseretion until that
age. Finaliy, that it should be eon-
sidered a venial offenee if anyone eom-
mits a erime at the eommand of one
- "Saluius." Sahnus Julianus, a Roman
jurist. Under Hadrian and the Antonines he
was praefectus urbi, and twice consul. By the
order of Hadrian he drew up the “edictum
Perpetuum," which is of eonsiderable import-
anee in the history of Roman jurisprudence.
f "Ul6ianus.” Tke date of the birth of
this eelebrated jurist is unknown, but the
greater part of his works were imitten during
ihe reign of Caracalla. He was mmdeted by
the soldiery in 228. The eompilers of the “ Di -
gest" gathered so much from his work that these
excerpts form about one-lhird of the whole body
of that eode.
- ll Julius Paulus.” One of the most dis-
tinguished of the Raman jurists, and perhaps
the most fertile of all the Latin law writers.
Upwards of seoenty separate works by this au-
thorily are quoted in the "DigestHe suroioed
his eontemporary Ulpian.
§ "CaUistratus." This jrnist, who is fre-
quenlly eited in the "Digest," wrote at least as
late as the days of Sevems and Caracalla, a.d.
196-211.
whom he is eompelled to obey; and to
what extent ehildren of a tender age
are subject to the authority of their
parents would easily be judged by all
who werc willing to reeall their own
experienccs at that age.
Sentenee was passed in aeeordanee
with the latter view bccausc it seemed
to be the more lenient. But bccause
the sin of witchcraft is said to be
seareely possible to expiatc, and that if
there is any means of eífeeting this it
must eome from the daily penanee and
diseipline imposed by those who have
shut themselves away from the world
to cultivate a stemer and more rigid
devotion, it was deeided to plaee the
boy in a Convcnt of Minims|| which
stood near the plaee wherc the trial
was heard, and cxisted until a short
time ago. For nearly all said that
there was no hope of a ehange of
heart, and that they must expect
nothing if he cou!d not win baek his
salvation by that means. And may
God the Almighty, God the Father of
light, merey ana life grant that he
may be saved, that at last men may
have a surer and more eertain guide
as to how they should conduct future
trials of this sort! For of a truth in all
my expcrience hitherto I have not
heard of a single witch who has re-
turncd to bear good fruit; but, on the
eontrary, they all with one mouth
assert that, onee they have given their
allegianee to the Demon, they may
not with impunity be false to him.
And if ever they wish to renounce him,
or if they grow weary of him because
he fails to ftilfil his promises, or be-
eomes intolerably violent or impor-
tunate; yet they are unablc to free
|| "Minims" A religioas order founded by
S. Franeis of Paula. At first propagated m
Italy, they wtre introdaeed by speeial royal
faoour into Franee, whither the founder was
ealled in 1482. At his death in 1507 there ex-
isted five prooinees spread over Itaíy, Franee,
Spain and Germany. The rule is exceedingly
striet, and members of this family are ealled
upon to praetise extraordinary self-abnegation
and to eidtioate a spirit of humblest penitenee.
BK. II. CH. III.
DEMONOLATRY
themselves becausc of his continual
and assiduous urgings, threats and
blovvs. This very month, at Dom-
basle-en-Argonne, July 1591,) Jean
Bursar asserted that he had very often
tried to do this, but in vain.
faeilis descensus Auerni:
At reuocare gradum, superasque euadcre ad
auras,
iìoe opus, hie labor est.
Yet let us eonfess that all these things
depend upon the will and judgement of
Almighty God; and that this difficulty
of emerging from such sin arises not so
much from the untiring energy of the
Demon, as from a just ordinanee of
God that witchcs, being deprived of
and cut off from His graee, eannot by
their own power and strength free
themselves from the ehains of the
Devil.
☆
CHAPTER III
That Witckes make Evil Use of Human
Corfses; espeeially of Abortive Births,
Criminals but to Death by the Law, or
any that nave died some Shameful or
Dishonourable Death.
W E have the authority of Porphy-
rius, De Saerifieiis, and Psellus,
De Daemonibus, that witchcs very often
make foul usc of human eorpses in
their evilworks;* the supposition being
that, as soon as souls are freed from
their earthly connexion, they beeome
endowed with powers of vatieination;
but that they still retain some eontaet
with their former house of flesh, and
are therefore believed to hover around
and haunt their dead bodies. But tliis
seems to me entirely improbable; for
no one ever yeams for the prison from
which he has eseaped, nor ean there be
any need for a soul that has at last
attained to a state of purity to have
- "Evil Works." See Cuazzo, “ Compen -
dium Malefieamm" Book II, Chapter II.
99
any dealing with a fetid and putrid
eorpse; ana the separation effeeted by
death between souì and body, until we
appear before the judgement seat of
Ghrist, is greater than any that ean be
wrought or thought (II. Corinthians v.
ìoj. It is probable, therefore, that
this is all a deliberate and malicious
invention of the Demons that they
may more and more deeeive human
nature, and still more ignominiously
abuse mortal remains in their eon-
trivanees for the destruction of the
human raee. Tacitus ( Armal . II),
speaking of Piso who was suspcctcd of
soreery, says: “There were íound the
remains 01 human bodies taken from
the ground and their tombs, spells and
enehantments, and the name of Ger-
manicus seratehed on tablets of lead;
deeomposed flesh half bumed, and
other eantrips by which it is beheved
that souls are doomed to the infemal
deities.” Apuleius iGolden Ass, Bk. II)
also touches this point when he assigns
thereason for the praetíee atLarissa in
Thessaly of keeping a watch during the
night over the boaies of the dead, and
says: “Without doubt it was to pre-
vent the witchcs, who infested that
country, from shamefully bitíng pieees
out of them for use in bringing ealam-
ity upon the living.”
The witches of our own time also
use such praetíees, espeeially when
they ean eome by the eorpse of a man
who has been put to death and exposed
upon a eross as a public cxample. For
they derive the material for tneir evil
eharms not only from the eorpse, but
even from the instruments of its pun-
ishment, such as the rope, the ehains,
the stake, or the fetters; for it is a eom-
mon belief among them that there is
some virtuc and powcr in such things
in the preparation of their magte
r lls. They ean have no other reason
possessing themselves of the abor-
tive births of women; for they make
from the skin of these a parehment
which they inseribe with some bar-
barous and unknown eharaeters and
aftenvards use in the attainment of
IOO
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. III.
their dearest wishes. As to this,
Agrippa and Petrus de Abano and
Weyer, three masters in damnable
magie, have left instructions which sur-
pass all human nature. Others again
eook the fcctus in its entirety until it is
either reduced to dry ashes or melted
into a mass with which they mix eer-
tain other ingredients. Giovanni Bat-
tista Porta of Naples, in the Seeond
Book of his Natural Magie, observes that
this praetiee was used in his time.
Pliny wrote that not only midwives,
but harlots also, used thus to dislimb
abortions for the purpose of preparing
poisons for their erimes. And the prae-
tiee is eommon to-day in German Lor-
raine, as I have often found in my
examinations of witches on a eapitaJ
eharge.
Anna Ruffa, at Dieuze, Oetober
1586, acknowledged that she had
helped a witch named Lolla to dig up
a eorpse which had reeently been
biiriea by the great Gate of Dieuze, and
that from its eharred ashes they had
eoneoeted a potion which would cause
the eertain death of those whom they
wished to kill. Oatharina of Metingow
(ibidem, Sept. 1586) added that to
make it nastier to the taste, she used to
mix with the potion lupine, ferns,
eleeampane, ox-gall, soot, or anything
else that was even more bitter; for
they foree the poison into their vietims’
mouths against their will and in spite
of their utmost struggles, as will be
shown later. This is borne out by the
testimony of Meg Briea at Forpaeh,
Aug. 1587, eoneeming tne digging up
of the eorpse of an infant wíuch had
been buried the day before by its
father, Faber VV'olf. His account dif-
fers from the one above in only one
respeet; for he did not burn the body
to ashes, but melted it down into a
lump from which he could the more
easily prepare his unguent, afterwards
reducing the bones to ashes with which
to sprinkle the trees that their fmit
might fail. This agrees with the state-
ment of Fuxena Eugel at Bulligny,
April 1586, that she used to seatter
such ashes to the winds with curscs
and ineantations, either to burn off
the blossom from the trees or to kill
the erops. Maria, the wife of Johann
Sehneider, who lived in Metzereeh,
rccounted that Joanneta, tlie wifc of
Soniaus Mathes, gave premature birth
to a ehild which she seeretly buried in
the floor of the apartment in which
she lived; but eertain witches got
wind of this and dug it up again shortly
afterwards and reduced it to an oint-
ment, with which she herself had at
timesanointed a besomuponwhichshe
sat and was bome up on nigh to Bruch,
the plaee appointea for the Sabbat by
her Little Master, Rotisgen. Antoine
Welsch at Guermingen, Dee. 1589,
said that he had been told of similar
doings by the wives of Gross Miehel
and Besskess, eaeh of whom was very
well known to him among the eon-
federaey of witches; namely, that not
long sinee they had dug up from the
eemetery at Guermingcn two such
eorpses, which had lately been buried
by their parents, Bemhardi and An-
toine Lerehen, and that after eon-
sumingthem in fire they had eonverted
them to their magie uses; but first they
cut off the right arm with the shoulder
and ribs belonging to it, to be used as a
light in ease they wished to administer
poison to anybody at night. This is a
marvellous matter which might well
appear to be fabulous. The finger-tips
of that dismembered limb used to burn
with a blue sulphurous flame until they
had entirely eompleted the business
which they had in hand; and when the
flame was cxtinguished the fingers
wouId be just as wnole and unimpaired
as if they had not been providing the
tinder for a light; and however often
they had cause to usc it, the fingers
werc still found to be unditninished.
Not long after he had made this state-
ment, it was eonfirmed in almost the
same words by the wifc of that Bern-
hardi (Gucrmingcn, Jan. 1590); and
she did not deny the shameftil deeds
whicli she had eommitted upon her
own offspring; how for her hellish
DK. II. CH. III.
DEMONOLATRY
IOI
purposcs she had torn ít in pieees,
roasted it and destroyed it.
To any who eare to remember the
reeorded stories of times past, and to
eonsider carcfully the rumours which
are daily spread abroad, it will not
appear that this is any new matter or
more difficult to believe than many of
the portents to which Demons give
rise every day. Pliny tells that, wnilc
he was watching by the rampart, he
saw a light like a star upon the sol-
diers’ spears, and flames darting about
among the sail-yards without doing
any damage: these flames were eallea
by the sailors of that time Castor and
Pollux; but to-day, as I hear, they eall
them S. Anselm’s fire.* Now let us
grant that this is eaiised by exhala-
tions from the earth or the sea, which,
vibrating about the ends of the sail-
yards, burst into flame; let us grant
that these exha!ations hover about the
ends of the spars just as iron is at-
traeted by a magnet: how is it that
fire, which is quick to consume all
other things, operates in this ease
without the least buming or damage,
and leaves not the slightest traee of
itself behind? For, as Plutarch says,
fire is a ravenous and devouring beast
which consumes everything with which
it eomes in eontaet. If this seems in-
eredible in the ease of inanimate
- “S. Anselm's fire." Ralher S. Elmo's
fire. St. Peter Gonzalez was bom in ngo at
Astorta, Spain; and died 15th of Aprìl , 1346,
at Tuy. He entered the Dominiean Order, and
beeame a famous preaeher, but, so far from
seeking preferment and renown, he devoted his
life to the welfare of the ignorant mariners in
Galieia and along the eoasl of Spain. He is
buried in the eathedral of Tuy. S. Elmo's fire
is a pale eleetrieal diseharge sometimes seen on
stormy nights on the tips of sfiires, about the
deek and rigging of ships, in the shape of a ball
or brush, singly or in pairs, parlieularly at the
mastheads and yard-arms. The mariners be-
lieve them to be the souls of the departed,
whence they are also ealled eorposant (“eorbo
sanlo). The aneients ealled them Helena fire
when seen singly, and Castor and Pollux when
in pairs.
objeets devoid of feeling, it must ap-
pear miraculous that flames should for
a eonsiderable time adhere to a living
body without causing any injury or
lesion in the skin. Yet when Lucius
Martius, after the assassination of the
Seipios in Spain, was urging and stir-
ring up his soldiers to vengeanee, a
flame shone out from his head: the
same thing was seen upon Servius
Tullus as a ehild when he was asleep;
and at Anagnia a slave’s tunic burst
into flames, but after his death no
traee of fire could be found upon him
(Julius Obsequens, De Prodigiis ): these
are stories from Roman history. And
Vergil, who (as Macrobius says) often
wrapped up the truth in fietion, by
this augury foreshadowed the royaí
nature of Aseanhis (Aen. II, 683):
Lo, a light flame shone from Iulus’
crown,
And softly touched his hair, and
played around
His temples; yet it harmed him not
at all.
We must, then, concIude that this is
not the sort of fire which feeds upon
that which gives it life, like the fire
which we use every day; but that it is
no more than a false appearanee de-
vised by the Demon, who is quick to
deeeive the eyes of men in far more
diffieidt matters than this.
I remember also having read in the
eonfessions of witches about wander-
ing balls of fire often seen by them at
night, and speaking with a human
voiee; but I am without my memo-
randa of the plaee and time of such
appearanees. It is probable that these
are no more than the ignes fatui de-
seribed to us by the philosophers,
which are often seen by travellers in
hilly or marshy plaees. It is only to be
expccted that they should find a
natural origin for these phenomena,
seeing that they traee everything to
natural sources and admit no other
artifieer or workman than Nature in
any ease whatever. Yet the eommon
opinion still holds that this is an
102
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. III.
apparition or speetre. Pontius Tiar-
daeus * (De uniuersitate) says that the
Gauls in their vernacular tongue very
appositely eall it Aduiz , that is, a
Pnantasm; a name which is ordinarily
given to such images as are apparent
only to the sight. And this belief is
not altogether without reason, for in
the first plaee this flame is different in
its movements from natural fire, which
ean never run along without some
material to feed upon; and in the
plaees wherc the WiU-o’-the-wisp is
seen no one has ever found fuel enough
to support such a flame. Then, again,
it lures travellers into ponds and river
whirlpools and steep plaees; and this
not unjustly gives ríse to a suspicion
that there is some evil and mischievous
spirit in it, which thus holds out to
men a toreh to entiee them to destnie-
tion and death.
It is probable that it happened so in
that abominable business of which we
have just writtcn; namely, that it was
not a true flame which appeared on
the finger-tips of the arm tom from the
eorpse, but only a Demon in the form
of a flame, who ehooses such wretched
human remains as the fittest instni-
ment for his dark deeds, persuading
his subjects that there is some virtue in
them for the performanee of their most
difficult tasks; and espeeially if the
eorjise has been the vicum ofsome mis-
fortune, an abortive birth, or one
killed by poison or the sword or by
some otner violent death. For in such
violenee lies his ultimate triumph;
this is the ripest fmit and by far the
riehest reward of all his maliee and
seheming. Before elosing this discus-
sion I will add one or two examples.
Paul the Deaeon f (Lib. XX, rerum
- "Pontins Tiardaens." The great work of
fìishop Ponee de Tyard, “De Uniuersitate,”
was long held in highest esteem, and was ren -
dered even better known by the Freneh trans-
lation ”L'Unioers, ou discours des parties et de
la nalnre du monde,” /557.
t “Potd the Deaeon.” Paulus Diaconus,
also named Casinensis, historian, was bom at
Romanonim, sub Theodosio ) says that
when Pcrgamus was being besieged by
the Saraeens, the eitizens (as it is the
way of those in desperate straits to fly
to evil courses) consulted a eertain
soreerer as to how they could free their
eity from the siege. He answcred that
they wou!d eertainly succeed in this it
they dipped their right arms in a vessel
in which had been boiled a fcctus
foreiblv cut from a pregnant woman.
This they most rehgiously did; yet
they fell none the less into the hands of
their enemies; for it is to be thought
that the Demon devised that lie for no
other purpose than, through that atro-
cious parrieide, to heap sin upon sin on
the people of Pergamus ana so bring
them to their destruction. They are
not the only ones who have been be-
fouled by that bloody erime. BerosusJ
(if the writings attributed to him are
really his), together with Megas-
thenes § and Myrsilus i| and other
aneient authors, wrote that at one time
God sent a flood to punish men for
their custom of ripping infants from
their mothers’ w r ombs, for use either
at their execrable banquets or for
Friuli about 720, and died on the r^th April,
probably in 759. His Jirst literary work was
the "Historia Romana,” ivhieh is here quoted.
Jt is now eonsidered of litlle value, bul during
the Middle Ages it was highly esteemed and
frequently consulted as an authorily.
J ”Berosus” A priest of Belus at Babylon
who lived in the reign of Antiochus II, 261-246
b.c„ and ivrote in Greek a history of Dabylonia
in three books. The work, the materials for
which were derived from the Arehives in the
temple of Belus, is lost, but even the quotations
preserved in aneient authors are vahiable.
§ “ Megasthenes .” A Greek writer who was
sent by Seleucus Nieator as ambassador to San -
dracottus, King of the Prasii, a great and
powerful people on the Ganges. Megasthenes
wrote a u>ork on India in four books entitled
“ indiea ,” lo which the Greek geographers are
much indebted.
|| “ Myrsilas .” A Greek historieal writer of
uncertain date, a natioe of Lesbas, from whom
Dionysius of Halicamassus borrowed a part of
his account of the Pelasgians.
BK. II. CH. IV.
DEMONOLATRY
103
compounding and mixing poisons for
others. We read of infants being put to
the former use in Aristotle’s Ethies
(VIII, 5), vvhere he writes to Nieo-
machus of a woman so vicious and de-
praved that she used to rip open the
wombs of pregnant women and dcvour
the foctus which she had drawn from
them. ApoIIonius (Apud Pkilostratiim,
IV, 8), Diodorus (Lib. XX), and the
Sehohast upon Aristophanes in the
Wasps mention that this was also
formerly the custom of Lamias. And
Horaee (Ats Poet., 340) also says:
From the bloated body of an aged
witch
They cut a ehild that was not yet
quite dead.
We have already reeorded the de-
tailed testimony of Dominique Isa-
belle to the effeet that the witches of
to-day praetise the same custom.
Of the seeond use to which they put
such eorpses the folIowing example was
brought to my notiee not long before
I thought of publishing this work.
Johann Molitor of VVelferdingen had a
year-old ehild which was his ehief
delight; and Agathina of Pettelange,
Anna of Miltzingen, and Mayeta of
Hoehit stole it from its eradle and
plaeed it upon a burning pyre which
they had built for that puipose on a
steep mountain ealled La Grise; and
they earefiilly eolleeted its burned
ashes and mixed them into a friable
mass with dew shaken from the grass
and ears of eorn. This they usca for
sprinkling the vines and erops and trees,
so that their blossom should perish
and the fruit fail. But this is perhaps
more than enough about a particu-
larly unpleasant subject.
☆
CHAPTER IV
That the Snares set hy Witches for Man•
kind ean ivilh the greatest Dijfìetilty be
avoided; for in some nnknoitm Shape and
Form they sliò into Loeked and Barred
Houses by Night, and by their Dread
Arts overpoiver with the Heaviest Sleep
those who are there in Bed, and do tnany
other Marvels; against which there is
no more Effedive Proteetion than the
Prayers with which we are aeeiistomed
to entmst and eommend oiirselves to
God on going to Bed. With somewhat
eoneerning the Method by which they
eause that Charmed Sletp.
I T is not without cause that
suspected witches are everywhere
objeets of fear. For although their
power to injure whomsocvcr they will
is not unlimited, as may be seen m the
story of Asmodeus * the slayer of
Sara’s husbands ( Tobit viii) yet, with
the will of God, our own sins often
render us liable to injury at their hands,
as Antoine Welsch (Guermingen,
Dee. 1589), who was eonvieted on
- “ Asmodetis." tÒ Trovrjpòv Sat/xóviov.
A demon identified by some rabbis with Samael.
He is also ealled Chammadai and Sydonai. A
few eommenlators even hold that he is the same
as Beelzebitb or Apollyon (“ Apoealypse," ix.
2), an exlremely imlikely view. Johan Weyer,
however, in his li Pseudo~monarchia damonnm
gives some fantastie details eoneerning him. It
has been svggested thal Asmodetis is perhaps
the Persian “Aèshma daiva," who in the
“ Avesta ” is ncxt to Angromainyus, the ehief of
evil spirits. But the name Asmodens may be
Semitie. The Aramaie word áshmeday ” is
eognate with the Hebrew * 'hashmed"de-
straelion." Talmudic legend says that Asmo•
deus, or Asmodai, was implieated in the drunk-
enness of Noe, and has some truly extravagant
lales eoneerning him and King Solomon. More -
over, Asmodeus is regarded as the counterpart
of Lilith, and somelimes deseribed as ajocutar
elf. (i Cf : Le Sage’s "Le Diable Botteux")
Wiinsche, “Der bab. TalmII, 180-63.
Asmodeus was one of the deoils who possessed
Madeleine Bavent of the eonvent of SS. Louis
and Eligabelh at Louviers in 1642-43.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. IV.
104
his own eonfession of witchcraft,
made elear. And no man is so “Up-
right of life and free from erime”
(Hor. Carm., I, 22), that his eonseienee
does not priek him for some sin: no
man is so diligent and attentive in his
rcligious observanees but that some-
times, through stress of business, he
negleets those daily prayers and devo-
tions with which he is accustomed to
plaee himself in the eare and protee-
tion of God; and therefore it is not
without reason that even the most eon-
fident are sorely subject to this fear
(S. August, Ciu. Dei, XXI, 14). Be-
sides, our daily experience of tne faet
is proof enough that it is no light
danger that threatens us from this
source. For witches approaeh men
with their poisons while they are off
their guard, or often even when they
are asleep at night; and they even en-
trap the vigilant with their wiles: so
that it seems hardly possible to guard
against them by human foresight and
prccaution.
There are in this book many stories
which should abundantly satisfy the
reader on this point; but sinee they
have a rather fresh applieation here,
and sinee they are not without some
entertaining qualities, I trust that I
shall not seem tedious if I add a few
more examples at some length. And
first of all ìt is worth reeording the
evidenee given by a eertain witness
during the trial on a eapital eharge of
Margareta Luodman (Vergaville, Jan.
1587). Among other admissions, this
woman of her own aeeord acknow-
ledged that she had entered the house
of that witness one night with the
intention of foreing poison down his
throat while he was ìn a heavy sleep,
and that she had only just failed in the
attempt, for everything seemed to be
going well for her. But unfortunately
ne had surprised her by awaking from
his sleep, so that she and her assoeiates
in erime were eompelled to take to
flight without aeeomplishing their
purpose; while he pursued them with
a weapon and, wnen he could not
eateh them, hurlcd the most terrible
threats after them. To probe this
matter more thoroughly the witness
in question was examined, and in the
fullest manner eonfirmed all that the
witch had said; namely, that they had
attempted to poison him, and had only
been prevented by his happening to
awake. For he had not yet been
touched by their unguents, and he had
proteeted himself against so great a
peril and danger with the sign of the
Cross and theLord’s Prayer. Further,
that it was true that he had pursucd
them for a long way with a weapon.
but had been unable to eateh them.
Catharina of Metingow (Vergaville,
Sept. 1587) and the youth Hennezel (of
whom I have lately made mentionl,
jaeoba Weher (Vergaville, Oet. 1584),
Gaspar Haffner (Morhang, Aug.
1587), Margareta Jenina (Vergaville,
Jan. 1587), the same Margareta Luod-
man, Sennel of Armentières (Dicuze,
Sept. 1586), and nearly all who have,
been taken up for this erime in German
Lorráine, agreed in asserting that,
after they had served them for some
vears, their Demons had given them
this power of penetrating into houses,
so that they could easily make their
way in through the narrowcst eraek
after they had shrunk to the shape of
miee or eats or locusts or some other
small animal of that sort, aeeording to
their needs; and onee they wcre inside
they could, if they wished, rcsume their
proper form and so eonveniently
execute their designs in the manner
that has been deseribed: namely,
fìrst to anoint the limbs of their in-
tended vietim to prevent his awaken-
ing, and then to nold his mouth open
foreibly so that he should rejeet none
of the poison which they pour into his
mouth by the light of a eandle burning
with a sulphurous flame. The swom
account of herself left by this Marga-
reta Jenina is astounding. She eon-
eeived a violent hatred for her son
Jacquelin because he kept pestering
her to go and make money in the
neighbouring market towns of Alsaee,
BK. II. CH. IV.
DEMONOLATRY
and at last determined to use any
means to rid herself of his importun-
aey. With this purposc she and her
aeeompliees wcre earried by the De-
mon in the dead of night to his house
in Saxbringen, where they aroused
him from sleep, draeged him from
bed, and set him before the fire to
roast him alive if they were able; but,
being prevented bv some fate, they
turned their thoughts to some other
form of injury. So they took a pieee of
briek from the floor, opened his side,
and inserted it, whereupon the wound
at onee elosed up; and after many
months of agony the briek burst forth
again in the sight of many.
The following story of Bertrande
Barbier (Forpaeh, Aug. 1587) is very
similar. She eonfessed that, with the
help of her assoeiate witches, she had
inserted a bone in the neek of one
Elisa because she had refused her a
mug of milk. In the same way Sennel
of Armentières at Dieuze, September
1586, said that she had fixed a splinter
from a sheep’s rib in the top of Philip
Pistor’s foot, havnng first made an in-
eision with a fish’s spine; and that a
eallosity formed over it and caused
him violent and continuous pain.
This was afterwards eonfirmeel by
Pistor himself.
Sinee wc are on the subject of these
injuries so seeretly and astoundingly
causcd by witchcraft, I will add one
more example which must excite no
little wonder. Jana Blasia of Bains-
les-Bains had a son-in-law named Ray-
ner with whom she lived in the same
house. Claude Gerard had given this
Rayner his breeehes to mena, but had
been quitc unable to get them baek
from him for his usc; and at last in
exasperation he wcnt to Rayner to
ask him whcn he was going to make an
end of his subtcrfugcs and delays, but
found that he was not in thr. house and
that only Blasia, his mothcr-in-law,
was sitting by the hearth with his
family. So he asked her to rctum him
his breeehes, saying that if her fine son-
in-law had done making a fool of him
105
he would soon find someone else who
would mend them just as wcll. This
made her very angry, but she deeided
to say nothing and to wait until she
could take some praetieal revenge on
him; and she asked him to wait a few
more days, when he should have his
breeehes baek: meanwhile she asked
him to be so good as to sit down by
the hearth with her for a little and
taste one of her apples that she had
just baked. Gerard deelined this in-
vitation more than onee, saying that
he had no leisure to stay any longer,
and that he had no wish for the food
she was offering him; but one of the
apples stuck to the palm of his hand
and was so hotthat he at onee tried to
shake it off with the other hand;
whereupon both his hands were so
stuck together that they seemed as if
they would grow into one, and ail the
time the apple in the middle was burn-
ing them so that it nearly drove him
mad. Hc rushed out ealling upon
everyone he met for merey; ana every-
body brought the remedy that seemed
best to him, some saying that the bum-
ing should be eooled in water, and
others that his hands must be foreed
apart with instruments. But whcn
none of these proved of any use, and
it beeame elear that his misfortune was
duc to witchcraft, one of the neigh-
bours who was rather more shrewd
told him to go baek to the plaee where
the evil had first befallen him. This he
did, and the old beldame, Blasia,
treated the affair as a joke and laughed
at him; yet she rubbed his arm alittle
down to the hand, until the apple
dropped out; and at onee the pain
eeased, and he regained the full use of
his hands.
In these stories the following points
appear to me ehiefly worthy of note.
First, that, just as emperors grant eer-
tain military rewaras only to their
veteran soldiers, so the Demon grants
this powcr (aeeording to the witches’
belief) of ehanging ihemselves into
other forms only to those who have
served him for many years and have by
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. IV.
106
their evil deeds given proof of their
loyalty to him; and that this is, as it
were, their highest reward and prize
for Iong and faithfbl serviee. This was
fully shown by the eonfession of
Emcus Carmutius at Pagny in 1583,
and not a few others of that rabble,
whose names, however, I eannot now
fìnd in my note-book.
Seeondly, I eannot omit to remark
upon that heavy sleep with which
witches bind their vietims before they
administer their poison to them. The
Gospel ( S. Malthew xxiv, 43) wams us
to watch unceasingly that the thief
may not break in and take us asleep
and off our guard. Now the surest
watch is that kept by God over us in
answcr to our prayers. “Whoso dwell-
eth under the defenee of the most
High shall abide under the shadow of
the Almighty” (Psalm xci) safe from all
those dangers of which He is not the
author or source. “Except the Lord
keep the eity, the watchman waketh
butinvain” (Psalm cxxvii). Itmaybe
that some will laugh at the notion of
this eharmed sleep as a foolish old
wives’ tale. I shall not try to eonvinee
them by quoting how Homer’s Helen
mixed a draught of wine to bring
oblivion of all ills or, as Pliny inter-
prets it, delightfiil dreams (Odyss. IV,
221; XXVI, 1): nor whac Papin-
ius* writes about the enehanted wand
of Mercury: nor Vergil’s twig dnigged
with Stygian powers (Aen. yi): for
these are matters of poetie fietion, and
laek the very stamp of truth. I shall
- “ Papinitts .” P. Papinins Statius. The
referenee is to a passage in the “ Syhiae,” II, i,
189-90:
Quid mihi gaiidenti proles Oyllenia, uirga
Nuntiat?
also to a passage of the “ Thebaidos ,” II, 69-
7 o:
nee summa Tonanlts
Iussa, nee Areadiae retinent spiramina uirgae.
Vpon this Barthitis glosses: “De ‘uirgae Mer-
airialis' potestate peasliarem Traelat. satis
mysterioden damus in svperstitioman magno
Comm .”
be eontent to adduce such instanees as
are provided by everyday use and
experience. For who aoes not know
that there are in nature many sub-
stanees the intemal or external appli-
eation of which induces not only
drowsiness or sleep, but utter uncon-
sciousness and insensitiveness to the
most violentpain? Surgeons know the
use of such nareoties when they wish
to amputate a limb firom a man’s body
without his feeling the pain of it. An
amusing example of the skilful use of
such know!edge, but one at the same
time that must provoke our pity, is
told of a young man of Narbonne who
was taken into slavery by a Thraeian
pirate. While he was under the influ-
enee of a powerful drug he was so
neatly eastrated that, when he awoke,
he was amazed to find himself a
totally new man, having been deprived
of his virility. Mattioli | also tells of
the asses of Etruria which, having
eaten hemloek, used to fall into so
deep a sleep that they were often ear-
riea away for dead; and after a great
part of their hide had been taken off,
they w r ould at last awake and get up
on to their feet and msh baek to their
stalls braying miserably. Many such
drugs are known and their use reeom-
mended byehemists; such as damel,
nightshade, the msh eommonly ealled
Euripice,\ mandragora, eastor, poppy-
seea, and, as Ovid says in the Meia-
morphoses, XI (606-7):
Herbs innumerable, from whose milky
jmee
Night gathers softest sleep.
■f “MattioliPietro Andrea Mattioli, the
eelebrated Italian physieian and naturalist, was
bom at Siena in 1900 and died at Trent in
/577. He was the ehief physieian to the Em-
peror Maximilian II. His Commentaries upon
the writings of the older doetors are espeeially
esteemed.
\ “ Euripice.“ Pliny, “Historia Nalura-
lis,” LXX 1 (ed. Brotier, 1769): “Itmerno
eliamnnm unum iunci genus quod earipieen
uocant. Huius semine sommim alliei, sed
modum seruandum, ne sopor Jiat
BK. II. CH. IV.
DEMONOLATRY
Now if a dccp and lasting sleep ean be
caused by tne mere natural (jualities
and virtue of substances provided for
that purposc, what, I ask, will not the
Demons with their arts and eontriv-
anees be able to efleet? For not only
have they a perfeet know!edge of the
seeret and hiaden properties of natural
things, but they ean also, with the will
of God, effeet their purposes without
the extcrnal help of anything at all.
For eertainly I think that there ean
have been no other cause of the many
years’ sleep fif indeed the accounts are
truc) of Epimenides the Crctan and
many others, rccounted by Pausanias
and Eudemus and Simplicius; for
such sleep could never naturally have
lasted so long. As Aristotle says (De
somno et itigil.), in the ease of a sub-
stanee naturally endowed with some
property or virtue, when the normal
period of eflìeaey for that property has
Deen exceedcd it is impossible for that
svibstanee to continue to exercise its
effeet. Therefore it folIows that some
of the examples which have been
known must derive their cause from
some higher and more potent source,
and that they are altogether different
from eases that are brought about by
purely natural means.
The amulets eovered with unknown
eharaeters (to usc the words of Apu-
lcius), worn by eriminals to ensure
their silenee under torture, eannot
derive their numbing virtues from
nature; for they induce a state of
torpor only at a time when, by reason
of mtense pain, sleep is the last thing
tobeexpected. And they are generally
found writtcn upon tmy pieees of
parehment, and mav be worn at any
other time without Dringing the very
least desire or disposition to sleep.
Yet jurists of no mean repute have
held that these eharms enaole a pris-
oner to laugh at torture, and often
hinder the iudgcs from extracting the
truth. In the trial held not long sinee
by the magistrates of Sehlettstadt of
the assassins in Germany of Chris-
tiana, the Most Serene Queen of the
107
Danes, there was one of the mur-
derers, named Benigno, who could
easily have eseaped punishment; for
he was abroad when ne was inquired
for, and might have saved himself by
flight. But, relying upon one of these
amulets * given to him by a market
stroller, he voluntari!y offered himself
for trial nor did his eonfidenee prove
groundless; for all the instmments of
torture were worn out before the man
himself felt any effeet from them, and
so he was unbound quite unhurt, and
without having eoníessed. But as he
was on the p>oint of being diseharged
írom prison, he found himself unable
to bear any longer the Ioad of his guilt,
and of his own aeeord eonfessed his
erime and finally paid the penalty
with his life.
Here it may be argued that this is
less surprising in the ease of one who
wishes and strenuously exerts himself
to maintain silenee; sinee the power
which, with God’s permission, Satan
exercises over a man is never so strong
as when it is used with the full eon-
sent and approbation of the man him-
self; but that we ought not to think
that men ean be rendered thus eoma-
tose against their own will; for in that
ease tne who!e human raee would be
equally subject to such influence. To
this I answer that there is little or no
differenee betwecn negligenee, or
sufferance of a thing, and eonsent to
it, sinee such negligenee gives the
enemy every ehanee of assault and
attaek. For ne who negleets to set the
neeessary garrison and watch when an
enemy is threatening his eity, does in
effeet the same as he who knowingly
and intentionally betrays his eity; and
in such a ease the enemy may say that
he has rightfully taken possession;
just as by the law of usucaption it is
- "Amitlets." Upon this point Guazzp
shuu!d be eonsulted, “Comptndium Maleji-
carum," /, xo: "Whelher the Devil ean Make
Men Insensible to TortmeSee the transla-
tion, John Rodker, tpog, with my note upon
the passage, p. 55.
DEMONOLATRY
DK. II. CH. V.
108
not held tíiat a man has taken foreible
possession of anything that had no
apparent owncr before. Therefore
they bring that misfortune upon them-
selves, wno give themselves to sleep
without having fìrst prayed and be-
sought Almighty God for His heip;
sinee, as has just been said, that is
their safest shield and proteetion
against ail the wilcs of the Prinee of
Darkness. But the minds of men who
are about to sleep too often wander
into evil imaginings, like the Harlot
of Jerusalcm íto quote S. Jerome),
who turns aside for every passer-by
(Ad Ruslicum Alonaeknm, Ex Esaiae,
eap. 57).
CHAPTER V
That the miieh-talked-of Examples of
Metamorphosis, both in Aneient and
Reeent Times , were true in Appearanee
only , but not in Faet; for the Eyes are
deeeived by the Glamoroas Arl of the
Demons ivhieh cause such Appearanees.
And although these False Appearanees
are aeeompanied by Aelions ivhieh are
found to be perfeetly Gemine, this does
not prove the Truth of such Metamor-
phosts; for it is agreed that such Aelions
are performed by the Demons which
eontrol the whole Malter; they being by
Nalure able very quickly to bring their
Designs to Effeet.
I T is not my intention here to bring
the Ass of Apuleius again on to the
stage, or to adducc fresh examplcs to
support the old tales of the poets of
men being ehanged into beasts; but
only to bring forward such instanees as
are attested by the evidenee of many
witnesscs and are proved by actual
expcriencc. The witches of Dicuze,
Vergaville, and Forbaeh, and nearly
all who have hitherto been trìed for
this erime in the kingdom of Austria,
and whosc eonfessions have eome into
my hands, have maintained that they
ehanged themselves from men into
I
eats * as often as they wished to enter
another man’s house seeretly in order
to plant their pioison there at night.
These statements are bome out and
substantiated by the evidenee of many
who have reported that they have been
attaeked by witches in such shape;
and the evidenee has tallied in alí
respeets with regard to the faet itself,
the plaee, the persons, the time, and
every circumstancc and detail which
could be rcquired to establish eom-
E lete proof. The ease of Barbeline
.ayel (Blainville, Jan. 1587) is quite
reeent. She eonfessed that she had
transmuted herself into a eat, so that
in that shape she might the more
easily enter, and the more safely prowI
about the house of Joannes Ludovicus:
and that when she had done this, she
found his two-year-old ehild and Hlled
it by sprinkling over it a poison powder
which she was earrying in her paw.
Whcncver (as so easily happens
atnong neighbours and fellows) Pe-
trone of Armentières ÍDalheim, 1581),
of whom I spoke a little while ago, was
moved witn hatred or envy against
the herdsmen of neighbouring noeks,
he used to uttcr eertain words by which
he was ehanged into a wolf; and being,
in such disguise, safe from all suspicion
of ill doing, he wouId then fall upon
and rend in pieees every beast of the
herd that he could find. Joannes Mal-
risius acknowledged that he had done
the same thing when he was keeping
the floeks at Sulz-Bad aeross the woods.
As Vergil says in his eighth Eclogue:
Moeris I often saw ehanged to a woIf
And prowling in the woods.
- "Cats.” Bartolomeo Sbina has as the
mbrie of Cap. XIX of his '‘Quaestio de Strigi-
bus”: “Experienliat apparentis eomiersionis
strigim in eatos." He writes: “Comprobatur
etià id, quod assumptum est, in praedieta
ratione de apparentia strigum in fornarn
brutorii, et praeeipae eatoram, vt ipsae quoq.
striges fatenhtr, per testes Jidelissimos de uisu,
quatum ratione humana iudicare potest." ‘See
also Boguet, “An Examen of Witches,"
XLVII.
BK. II. CH. V.
DEMONOLATRY
And not long ago the Dolonais * wit-
nessed the public execution of two
werwolves who had been eondemned
to death by their Supreme Court.
To this elass belongs the story which
I heard mvself from the IIiustrious
Count Pauí à Salm, Prefeet of the
Saered Ghamber in the realm of Lor-
raine. I was expressing to him my
doubts as to whether it was an illu-
sion when a man appeared to take the
form of a beast, or whether there was
really any truth in such things; when
he told me the following story. He
held a signiory at Pettelange, whcre,
following their aneient custom, the in-
habitants used to pay a yearly tribute
of free serviee to nim and his family.
One year they had thus brought their
eart-loads of fuelling, and were reeeiv-
ing a gift of food in return, when (as
often hapnens) a fight began in the
eastle hall among the dogs that had
eome with them; and one biteh hid
itself in an oven for heating the baths.
As the rest of the dogs kept up a violent
barking at this one, one of the men
looked in the oven and, seeing that the
biteh was far more hideous to look at
than all the others, began to suspect
the truth (for that distnet is reported
to be infested with witches), ana gave
it a deep wound in the faee with a
weapon that he was wearing. Upon
this the biteh at onee rushed out at
the door, or at any rate she was no
more seen there. Shortly afterwards a
rumour spread all over the town that
there was an old woman lying in bed
with a wound, and that it was not
known where she reeeived it. Every-
one then began to suspect the trutn,
namely, that she was that rabid biteh
which had been wounded in the eastle
hall; and this, added to her former
- “ Dolonais .” Boguet , "An Examen of
ÌVitehes," XLVII, reeords that in ryii were
execvted Miehael Udon of Plane, Philibert
Montot, and Gros Pierre, who eonfessed that
they had ehant’ed themselves inlo woloes, and
in thatform killed and eaten several peoftle. In
1573 Gilles Gamier was bumed alive at Dóle
for the abominable erimt of lyeanthropy.
109
evil reputation, causcd her to be taken
and tnrown into prison. Finally, on
being minutely ^uestioncd, she freely
eonfessed all as it has here been tola,
at the same time acknowledging many
other aets of witchcraft.
Here I should relate also what I
heard from a eredible source to have
happened not long ago in Hither Bur-
gundy: how a eertain hostess eame
among her guests at suppcr in the form
of a eat and spitcfully attaeked them;
and when one of them cut off one of
her paws, she was found the next day
to have a hand missing. But because
my informant told me this only in
f iassing and I eannot fully verify the
àets, I have thought good to say no
more about it. But one more instanee
I will give, which I heard from the
renowned Lady Diana of Dommartin,
the wife of the illustríous Prinee
Charles Philìppe Croy, Marquis of
Haurech, my very kind patron, to
whose good graees I owe such ad-
vaneements in fortune as I have
enjoyed.
She told me that there was not long
ago in Thiecourt, a village on their
Iands, a woman addietea to witch-
eraft whom the Demon had endowed
with this power of assuming different
shapes. She had eontraeted an im-
moaerate hatred of a shepherd of that
village, and, wishing by any means to
procure his heavy punishment, sprang
ìn the form of a wolf upon his sheep
as they were grazing. But he ran up
and threw an axe at her and woundcd
her in the thigh, so that she was dis-
abled and was foreed to take refuge
behind the nearest bush, where she
was found by the pursuing shepherd,
binding her wound with strips torn
from her elothing to staneh the blood
which was flowing freely. On this
evidenee she was taken up, eonfessed
everything as I have related it, and
aid the penalty of her erimes in the
re.
The eommon opinion about such
monstrous transformations is no new
thing; for it was the belief of the
IIO
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CII. V.
aneients from time immemorial, as is
proved by more than one referenee in
their written works. Pliny (VIII, 22)
tells us that. Euanthes, an author of
great reputation, quotes from the
Annals of Areadia to the effeet that there
was a family of the tribe of Anthaeus
whose destiny it was that eaeh year
one of them must be ehosen by lot
and led to a pool over which, having
undressed, he must swim; and then he
was immediately ehanged from a man
into a beast. And if, after nine years,
he had not in the mcanwhile tasted
human blood, he might again assume
his former shape. Herodotus (Melpo-
mene) and Solinus ( Polyhist . Cap. 20)
tell that the Neuri, who live by the
Dnieper, are onee every year ehanged
into wolves for a few days, and after
the allotted period regain their former
appearanee. And Agrippas, the author
of the Olympioniea, left reeord that one
Demaenetus was ehanged into a wolf
because he had tasted the entrails of
a ehild whom the Areadians had
saerifieed to Jupiter Lveaeas. The same
thing happened, as Pausanias tells, to
Lyeaon the son of Pelasgus, when he
sprinkled the altar of Jupiter Lyeaeas
with the blood of his slaughtered son.
Let no one aseribe such stories to
the ignoranee of heathen blindness, on
the ground that they refer only to
those times when men lived without
the light of the Christian truth. For
it is said (Sigibert. in ehronie. ÍMÌth. III,
8) that Bajanus, the son of Symeon
who was Prinee of Bulgaria, could by
his evil spells ehange himself whcn-
ever he wished into a wolf or any
other beast. And Toraucmada in his
Hezameron, VI, relates tnat when a eer-
tain Russian ehieftain heard that there
was in his Prindpality a man who
could assume any shape he pleased, he
caused the man to be brought before
him in ehains, and orderedi him im-
mediatdy to give a sample of his skill.
The man answercd tnat he would
willingly do so if he might retire into
the next room by himself for a Iittle.
This was granted him; and he at onee
eame out in the natural form of a wolf,
but still in his ehains, to the great
wonder of all who beheld him; but two
very fieree dogs which the Prinee had
eoneealed for that purpose, fell upon
the wretched man and tore him in
pieees; nor was he helped at all by his
wolfish body, which at all other times
had stood him in good stead.
I need not dilate upon Homer’s
account of the eompanions of Ulysses,
nor the story of the Golden Ass told
by Lucian and Apuleius, nor the many
metamorphoses later fabled at great
length by Ovid. For anyone who
eares to eonsider rightly of this matter,
even if he relies soldy upon his naturaí
intelligenee and powcr of reasoning,
must allow that onee anything ìs
formed in its own shape and appear-
anee it eannot be ehanged exccpt by
its death; and that there ean be no
reeiproeation or interehange of bodily
forms. And ifhe will raise his thoughts
to the plane of Christian knowleage,
as every man should, not even the
most diffident will hesitate to affirm
that it is not in the power of the
Demon to effeet any such matter,
seeing that, of himself, he has no
power to pluck even a single hair from
the head of a man. For what madness
it is to believe that anything which has
been formed and ereated ean destroy
and overtum as it pieases the most
excellent work of Him who ereated it;
or that a soul endowed with reason
ean, even for a moment, dwcll or
reside in a body which is altogether
unadapted to the use of reason. For
eertainly, says Cicero, the human body
is by nature adapted and fitted for
the reasoning human soul. It may be
argued that such transformations are
permitted by Him who tums even
men’s misfortunes to a good purpose.
I grant this last; but what benefit
could accrue to anyone from such a
transmutation? Or who ever read of
such a thing in any saered history?
It is true that Nebuchadnezzar was at
one time reduced to the eondition of
the lowcr animals because he had
BK. n. CH. V.
DEMONOLATRY
III
aíTeeted divine honours; but he never
ehanged his bodily appearanee. Only
the wrath of Heaven eonstrained him
for some years to feed and be housed
with the beasts, and to grow his hair
and nails after the manner of beasts
for a proteetion and a defenee.
It is, therefore, absurd and ineredible
that anyone ean truly be ehanged from
a man into a wolf or any other animal.
Yet there must be some foundation for
the opinion so obstinately held by so
many: the countless stories that are
circulated about such happenings
eannot be entirely without warrant.
Nearly all who have deeply examined
this wnole qucstion are eonvineed that
such transformations are magieal por-
tents and glamours, which have the
form but not the reality of their appear-
anees; and that they ean be caused in
two ways.
The Demon ean so confuse the
imagination of a man that he believes
himself to be ehanged; and then the
man behaves and conducts himself
not as a man, but as that beast which
he faneies himself to be. Aulus Gel-
lius, XI, 5, notes that this faet was
formerly remarked by the Pyrrhonists
and Aeademies; and it is well known
to physieians that sufferers from a high
fever are often so affeeted in their
senses that they mistake the hallucina-
tions of their faney for the truth. So it
may have been with the man who is
said to have firmly believed that he
had been ehangea into an earthen
piteher, and wouId not alIow anyone
to eome near him for fear lest they
should knoek against him and break;
him; and he kept eomplaining be-
cause the servants did not set him up
on a high shelf wherc he would be
less liable to damage, but earelessly
left him Iying about on a bed. There
was another man who thought that he
had in his belly a jingling bridle and
other pieees of iron; and this ridicul-
ous notion could not be got out of his
mind until a shrewd physieian plaeed
some bridles in the pan ìnto which he
was easing hb belly, so that he thought
that he had exDelled them in that way.
So fruitful is tne imagination, onee it
beeomes diseased, of absurd and un-
heard-of ideas; and for this reason
Plato did not hesitate to eall it the
Mistress of Phantoms; Aristotle, the
Treasury of Images; and another
philosopher, the Craft-shop of Por-
tents.
Seeondly, these illusions ean be
caused extrinsically, when the Demon
causcs an actual oojeet to assume the
apparent shajie which suits his pur-
pose at the time, and so deludes a
man’s senses into the belief that an
objeet has been ehanged into a differ-
ent form. Thus, whcn Homer and
Vergil write of a man being taken out
of the battle when on the point of
defeat, or of one eoming into battle
to help those in difficulty, they de-
seribe such a man as having taken the
appearanee and likeness of the Gods,
in whose hands these matters lie, so
that he might not be reeognized even
by those who werc his daily friends
and eompanions. This is not unlike
the account given by S. Vineent * of
Beauvais in his Speaihim majits, Lib.
XVIII, of a woman who, at the
request of a Jew because she would
not lend herseif to his pleasure, a witch
so apparently ehanged into a mare
that she seemed to be such not only to
everyone else but even to her husband;
and only S. Macharius, sinee he was
a man of the rarest sanetity, was not
deeeived by that illusion, ana knew her
throughout for the woman that she
really was.
I think that the following example
- U S. Vinetni." Even theyears of ihe birtk
and deaik ofthis great ivriter are tineertoìn, the
dates most frequently assigned being ngo and
1264 respeetively. lt is thoaght that Vineent
joined the Dominieans in Paris shorlly after
1218, and thus he passed his life in the monas -
lery at Beaavais, where he was oeetipied wilh
his huge work, the general title of which is
“Speculum Majus." This eoniains no less than
eighty books, divided into g88j ehapters, and is
a vast eneyelopedia which may be said to em-
braee the whole field of knowledge of his day.
I 12 DEMONOLATRY BK. II. CH. V.
of a false occultation may fitly be
quoted here. An old man, tlie porter
of the Fortress of Bassompierre, had
married a young wife, but continucd
to maintain connubial relations with a
woman who had been his mistress be-
fore his marriage. His wife was in-
dignant at the presenee of this adult-
eress, who was not to be eompared
with her for youth or eomeliness, and
(as is usually the ease) went and told
her trouble to a neighbouring woman
and asked her to advise her what to
do. Her neighbour (whose name was
Lahire) told her to be of good eheer,
for she had ready a remedy for that
misfortune; and she gave her a herb
plucked from her garden and said that
if she put the juice of it in her hus-
band’s food, he would immediately
forget his other Iove. So she seasoned
his next meal with this juice; and at
first his head grew very heavy, and
then he sank into a profound sleep, on
at last awaking from which he found,
not without shame, that his whole
masculinity had been taken from him.
Being unable to eoneeal the faet any
longer, he told his wife of his misfor-
tunc; and she, seeing that she had been
deeeived by her own imprudence and
thoughtlessness, and that in begrudg-
ing the part to another she had herself
lost the whole, told her husband how
it had all happened; begging him to
forgive her, sinee she had aeted out
of lier great love for him The husband
readily pardoned her, sinee he knew
that he had brought the misfortune
upon himself by his lecherous lasei-
viousness: and íaid the whole matter
before the Lord of the plaee, Fran^ois
de Bassompierre (whose son is famous
as a supporter oi the Catholic Party
in the present upheavals in Franee).
He, eonsidering it to be his business to
ttike eare for tne health of one of his
servants, and to punish the witch in
exemplary fashion for so shameful a
erime, had that woman brought be-
fore him, and so terrified her by his
threats that he eompelled her to re-
store to the man thatof whichshe had
by her evil arts seemingly robbed him.
This she did by giving him another
herb; and so, being eonvieted by her
own aet, she was east into prison and
soon afterwards met the fate she de-
served in the flames. It is perfeetly
elear, then, that there was no actual
loss of the man’s generative organs;
but that a false glamour was drawn
over the eyes of those who imagined
them to have disappeared. For how
should it be more possible for that
member to grow again onee it had
been cut off than for the head or any
other limb to be renewed after it haa
been amputated from the body?
But there is another far stronger
argument which might appear to
prove the actuality of these transforma-
tions. It is not only the external
physieal shape that appears to be
ehanged; the witch is also endowed
with all the natural qualities and
powers of the animal into which she
ìs seemingly ehanged. For she acquires
fleetness of foot; bodily strength;
ravenous feroeity; the lust of howling;
the faculty of breaking into plaees,
and of silent movement; and other
such animal eharaeteristies, which are
far beyond human strength or ability.
For it is a matter of daily expericnce
that Satan does actually so empower
them. Thus they easily kill even the
biggest eattle in the nelds, and even
devour their raw flesh, when they
deseend upon them as swifdy as any
wolf or other ferocious beast; and they
enter loeked houses at night like eats;
and in every way imitate the nature
and habits of the animals whose shape
and appearanee they assume. Now this
eannot be explained away as a mere
glamour or prestige by which our
senses are deeeivea in the manner
already set forth; for they leave be-
hind them eonerete traees of their
aetivities. For cxample, they are some-
times caught in the very aet; and
failing that, there is the evidenee of
their night,pursuitand wounding,and
of the loss and damage which they
have inflieted; and, moreover, they
BK. II. CH. V.
DEMON OLATRY
all acknowlcdec t often without eom-
pulsion, that they have actually done
these things.
It must, then, be admitted that these
things are actually what they appear
to be; but that they are done through
the ageney of the Deinon, who, by
virtue of his immense preternatural
powcrs, makes their aeeomplishment
possible. (For it is written in Job that
upon earth there is not his like.) Thus
we must believe that it was by the
strength of Satan that the demoniae
was able easily to burst the ehains and
fetters with which he was bound
( S. Luke viii); for it is needless to say
that he could not have done this of
his own human strength. I shall not
dwc!l upon the stories told of the nuns
of Quesnoy by Christianus Massaeus
Í ehronieon mnndi, Lib. 20), how with the
)cmon’s help they elimbed the tallest
trees in the shape of eats, and hung
marvellously from the topmost
branehes; and perfeetly imitated the
eries of any sort of animal, and easily
aeeomplished many other things of a
most astounding nature.
We will admit, therefore, that
witches so well imitate the faculties,
powers and aetions of the beasts whose
appearanee they assume that they
differ but little from actuality; but
that they are in very truth actuaí will
not easiíy be believed by anyone who
will ponder upon the dignity and
excellence of man; how he was ereated
in God’s own image, as a marvellous
and transeendent type of the whole
worldly ereation, and has therefore
been ealled a mieroeosm. For God made
him a little Iower than the angels, and
Í >ut all things in subjection under his
eet; and tnrough baptism he wins
atonement and absolution, and at last
his body will be raised from the dead
unto unchanging eternity. Who ean
think that a soul so largely and vari-
ously blessed ean be put to such ludic-
rous humiliation as to be transferred
into the earease and entrails of the
baser animals, and be there hid as in a
sepulchre? Indeed I think that such
x, 3
a belief eannot be eonsistent with true
religion; for the Council of Aquileia
ronounced that it was a damnable
eresy to hold that anything could be
ehanged from that shape with which
it was at first endowed by God the
Father of all things. S. Augustine
(1 Ciu. Dti, XVIII, and Dt Trìn. III)
also gravely and severely reproves
those who believe that a man mav, by
the arts and might of the Devil, be
transmutcd into the body of a beast;
for the matter of things visible is under
the eontrol of God alone, and not of
the fallen Angels.
Not even tne Pagans could, for the
most part, stomaeh such a belief. For
Pliny, the author ofso many ineredible
stories, shows himself surprisingly and
fìrmly seeptieal on this p>oint, whcre he
says in his Nahiral History (VIII, 22) :
“Éither we must refuse to believe that
men ean be tumed into wolves and
baek again, or else wc must swallow
every fabulous tale that has ever been
told.” And when 01 aus Magnus (Hist.
de gentibus Septentr. XVIII, i^) aggres-
sively undertook the ehampionship of
this actual lyeanthropy and sought
everywhere for examples to prove his
ease, he imprudently adducea, among
others, the two following cxamples,
which rather refute and destroy his
own argument:—Speaking of wer-
wolves (for I will enange none of his
words), he said: “They entered a beer
eellar, and there drank out some easks
of beer and mead, and piled the empty
easks on topofeaehother in themiddle
of the eellar.” And a little later:
“Dividing Lithuania, Smazait and
Curland there is a wall left standing
from a ruined eastle; and at a eertain
time of the year some thousands of
them meet here and try their agility in
leaping over it; and if any of them
eannot do this (as is the ease with the
fat ones) they are beaten with the lash
by their leaders.” What is there in
these examples that is not more proper
to men than to wolves? To go down
into a eellar to draw the beer and
drink it, and to plaee the enipty easks
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. VI.
114
one on the other; to meet together
in thousands and hold an athletie
eontest, with a heavy penaity for those
who failed : not to be able to rid them-
selves of an obesity developed before
they were ehanged into wolvcs! All
this might just as weli be an account
ofmendrinleing, playing and eontend-
ing among themselves, but in a strange
and false Dodily appearanee. And, as
we have said, sucn an illusion of the
eyes ean easily be caused by spells
and ineantations, while in truth every-
thing is exactly as it was before.
☆
CHAPTER VI
That Satan often eomòels his Siibjeels to
be aeeessory to his Dark Deeds; and for
that Piirpose uses many Things which are
not of themselves Venomoiis or Poisonoiis,
but merely Rotten and Stinking; and
why he does this.
T HE following aspeet of witchcraft
is rare and, so far as I know, has
not hitherto been remarked. Fuxen
Eugel at Bulligny, in April 1586, and
Catharina Haffner at Vergaville, in
Sept. 1586, said that they had often
been deputed by the Demon to the
following task: Whcn they entered
another man’s house to poison him,
they had (to use their own words as
much as possible) to seize and hold him
down by the neek and belly and, as
soon as they were ready, to thrust well
into his mouth a pieee of deeayed flesh
from some dead beast; and this would
immediately kill him, just as if it werc
some very deadly poison. We may
learn from this that Satan always in
some manner disguises his evil designs
for our destruction. For who does not
know that he has no need of human
help to effeet his purposcs? Or who
ever heard that a pieee of dead flesh
ean be so poisonous as to be the neees-
sary and inevitable cause of death?
The exp!anation of his motive, then,
is that by making the witch a partiei-
pator in the work he makes ner an
aeeessory to the erime. And sinee
there must be some tangible instru-
ment which ean be attested by the
eyes, he uscs such things as are agree-
able to his filthy and unclcan nature;
such as the deeomposed fragments of a
dead body. But this we have treated
elsewhere in greater detail.
☆
CHAPTER VII
Examples of the Varions Ills that JVitehes
seeretly bring upon Men , showing how
greally their Spells and Snares are to be
fearea.
W E have already shown that not
only do the evil spirits make war
upon men on their own account, but
they take great pains to ensure that
their diseiples shall be in every way
equipped and instructed to eneom-
pass men’s destruction. And because
witches are often hampered in their
evil work by the fear of deteetion, or
by the difnculty and magnitude of
their undertaking, or by not knowing
how to set about it, or by ignoranee
of the spells neeessary to procurc a
seeret disaster; therefore the Demons
are always ready to their eall, and do
not eease to advise and encourage
them, to suggest the means to be
employed, and if neeessary to offer
their own help as partners, aeeom-
pliees or ministers of their erimes and
murders.
Jana Ulderique at Lanfracourt,
May 1588, was infuriated against Jean
Canard because he had rather gruffly
refused to pay her what she asked for
having helped him to keep watch over
the eomrmmal eattle; and something
had to be done to make him suffer in
his tum, Iest he should go unpunished.
(For it is the greatest torture to a witch
to pass over even the smallest insult.)
Her only difficulty was to know how to
DK. II. CH. vn.
DEMONOLATRY
avoid incurring suspicion if any harm
befell Canard m consetjuencc of their
quarrel; for it was a saying all over the
tovvnship that, if anyone wanted to
keep hiraself and his possessions safe
ana whole, he must avoid being cursed
by Ulderique. The Demon then
found her a way by which no suspicion
could possibly attaeh to her; for wìth
his help she entered the ioeked house
of Canard by the window, and there so
skilfully sunocated his baby as it was
sleeping in its eradle that it might
easily be thought to have died of eon-
vulsions. But the wretched parents
wcre not deeeived as to the cause of
their loss; for whcn some time later
Ulderique was on trial for witchcraft,
they stated with the utmost eonfidenee
in their evidenee that she was the
author of that erime; and so far from
denying this accusation, she gave the
elearest and most detailed eonftrma-
tion in her account of every point of the
erime.
Barbeline Rayel (Blainville, Jan.
1587) plotted with her Demon to do
some harm to Claudc Mammert, who
had done nothing whatever to hurt
her. (For it often makes no differenee
to them whether or not their vietims
have done anything to merit revenge,
as we have fully shown from the
account of Sebastienne Pieard.) They
agreed to do their work by night, when
they would be less likely to be caught
in the aet than by daytime; and so
they went to his bed as he was lying
asleep with his wife. By the Ded,
wrapped in swaddling eloths, was a
baby, which they took from its eradle,
intending to drown it in the river
which flowed near by. But the mother
was aroused by the ehild’s erying, and
began groping in the dark with her
hands aoout the eradle, to see if it had
buried itself in the blankets, or if the
swaddling eloths had worked loose and
it was ehoking itselfwith them, as had
happened to it more than onee before.
Finding the eradle empty, she jumped
out of bed to look for the ehila. Being
thus balked and thwartcd, the beldame
“5
witch could do no more, before she
flew up through the ehimney with her
Demon, than hide the ehild in the
framcwork of the bed, so that the
eagerly searehing mother should not
fìnd it so soon as she wished to; for this
was all that she could do as she de-
parted, when she was unable to infliet
any heavier loss upon the mother.
Mammert and his wife related this
cxpcrience when they were heard in
evidenee against Alexée Bclheure; but
it proved that they were wrong in sus-
peeting her of the erime. For not long
aftcrwards Barbeline, being suspected
on the strongest evidenee of witch-
eraft, was taken up and eonfessed that
she, and not Belncure, was guilty of
that deed.
She was also guilty of the fo!lowing
erimes against Johann Ludovic, whom,
she said, she hated for many reasons.
First, as he was erossing a river on his
way to a mill, with the help of her
Demon she shook a large saek of wheat
from his eart; and then sprinkled over
his horses some poison powder which
her Little Master had given her, so
that two of them died at onee and the
rest lingered on for many days in a
eomatose state. Seeondly, and not long
aftemards, in the illusory form of a
eat she entered his house at night and
with the same powder killed his two-
year-old son. Lastly, she plaeed a
poisoned pear on the road which he
would take to go to Gerbeville, as if it
had fallen from some wayfarer’s bag.
He rashly pieked it up and tasted it,
whereupon he beeame so serkrasly ilí
that he could hardly drag his feet home
for the pain. Not only had the Demon
foretold all these thmgs just as they
happened, but it was by his adviee that
she had píaeed the pear on the road.
Oatharine Rufla at Villc-sur-
Moselle, June 1587, acknowIedged
that she used to enter other people’s
houses at night by the ehimney, in
order to lay their babies face-down-
wards on the pillow and so suffocate
them; but that she always eontrived
to leave some evidenee which would
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. VII.
i >6
cause tlie husband to blame the wife
for such a misfortune, and so lead to
endless strife between them. For the
Demon always does his utmost to sow
seeds of dissension and quarrelling
between those who are bound together
by ties of Iove or kinship.
Lolla Gelaea at Dieuze, Sept. 1587,
aroused against herself the ill-will and
hatred of Catharina of Metingow, who
eagerly wished to vent herspite on her,
but could not think how to do so with-
out bringing suspicion upon herself;
for she knew that Lolla was on her
guard against her. But the Demon
found a safe way for her, and told her
to bring some live eoaís home with
them in their buckets when she and
Lolla eame in the next day as usual
from the salt kilns at Dieuze (which are
the most famous in all Lorraine); for
he would be at hand and would upset
Lolla’s bucket with a gust of wind,
upon which she must at onee breathe
upon her faee; and this would cause
her to give premature birth to her
ehild with the greatest agony. And it
happened as he had said. For at the
signal of her bucket being upset by the
Demon, Catharina blew her foul
breath upon Lolla, who at onee was
attaeked by the most violent labour
pains and only with the greatest
diffieiilty reaehed home in time.
Jana Gransaint at Condé, July
1582, was sitting by her lamp late one
night solely occupied in pondering
upon some means of revenging herself
upon Barbara Gratiosa, from whom
she had suffered some injury. At onee
the Demon eame to her in the form of a
eat and told her to pound a snail’s shell
to powdcr and dust Barbara’s elothes
with it. This plan she adopted, and
watched for a ehanee to put it into
effeet. And she did not have to wait
long; for she found Barbara in a re-
mote stable earrving straw into the ox
stalls, and sprinided the powder over
her and the oxen in the stable; and
this killed them all at onee. She after-
wards used the powder with lessdeadly
effeet upon the daughter of Antoine
le Bossu; for although she sprinkled it
liberally upon her, it only caused a
slight wcakness of her limbs; and whcn
a few days later she again sprinkled her
with the intention of heahng her, she
at onee reeovered from that weakness.
Here it should be noted in passing
that the drugs whic.h they use in this
manner have in themselves no inherent
powcr either to kill or to heal. For the
same thing eannot be effeetive in two
such eontrary direetions. It is all due
to the poteney of the seeret maehina-
tions and eontrivanees of the Demon;
and it is enough for him if the witches
do but set their hands to the work and
make themselves partners and aeeom-
pliees in the erime. In this referenee
we may quotc the statemerit of Pliny
(II, 103), that there was in Dodona a
spring into which if you plunged a
burning toreh it was extinguished, but
by the same proeess an extinguished
toreh was ignited. For no one ean
doubt that this prodigy was the work of
the Demon who uttered his oraeles
from that plaee; nor would any one
attempt to reeoneile it with natural
causes. In the same way Piutarch (jVum
bruta animalia ratione utantur) tells of the
soreeress Giree that with the selfsame
wand she took away and restored men’s
reason; and ehanged men ínto beasts,
and again restored them to themselves.
Petrus de Abano * also tells us in his
- “Abano.” Pietro d'Apone (or d’Abano)
was bom about 1246 in the village the name
of which he bears, and whìch is sitiiate at no
great distanee from Padua. A pupil of the
Arabian physieians, he praetised in Paris with
such great stieeess that he soon beeame exceeding
rìeh, and won great renown as a philosopher,
mathematieian and astrologer of thefirsl rank.
Being shrewdly suspect of soreery, a eharge
coloured by his Averroistie leelares at the Uni-
versity of Padua, he fell under the eognizanee
of the Holy Offiee, but died in 1316 before the
termination of his trial. Tht “Gomliatorf
written in 1303, aitained extraordinary fame,
and the edilion of 1434, Veniee, speaks of three
or four earlier printed editions, whilst it was
issued at least as late as 1536. The book was
plaeed on the Lisbon Indcx of 1634, but it has
BK. lì. CH. VIII.
DEMONOLATRY
Conciliator Diferentinm, 765, that hc
saw a conjurer who, by muttcring
eertain words in its ear, caused a bulí
to fall to the ground as if dead ; and by
repeating the same words made it eome
to Iife again and rise up on its feet. But
let us resumc the tale of our examples.
Alexéc Bclheure (Blainville, Jan.
1587) was always quarrelling with her
husband, as usually happens m a housc
suffering from poverty and daily want;
and her hatred of him reaehed such a
piteh that it was only the difficulty of
injuring him, not her will to do so, that
restrained her. The Demon said that
he would do it for her if she thought he
was worth her beseeehing; whereupon
she begged him in the most abjeet
terms and he undertook the work. It
ehaiieed that on that day, which was
Ghristmas Eve, the wrctched husband
had gone to the neighbouring town to
purchasc such things as a happy house-
ltold usually makes merry with at that
time, and was returning late at night.
On his way the Demon violently seized
him and beat him and thrcw him half'
dead into the pit of Donalibaria (for
such was the name of the plaeeì, and
flying baek to his good wife toíd her
what he had done. On hearing this
she at onee set out, to show how
anxious and worricd she was about his
rcturn; but ehiefly that she might see
with her own eyes the ealamity and
misfortmie which she had so long
wishcd to happen to liim; and when at
last she found him lying on the ground
and bcwailing his miserable luck, she
said: “Why, nusband! I was eoming
to meet you, because I was worried
about your being out so late in the
country. But why do I find you lying
on the ground and moaning like
this?” After she had been told what
she already kncw, she raised him up
never been ineltided in the Roman or Spanish
Indexes. The view taken by Pielro d'Abano of
the injhienee of the stars end his astrologieal tenets
are spemlalions which are more than dangerotis
and unorthodox. The “Heptameron sev Elementa
Magiae" deals with the invoeation of demons.
ti7
and, giving him what support she
could with her shoulder, brought him
home, where he died the same night
from the imbearable pain of his blows.
In the morning she summoned all the
neighbours and showed them his naked
eorpse all blaek and blue with bruises;
ana told them that he had fallen
among robbers the night before, and
had erept home with his Iast gasp
in that state. They all easily believed
this; for she was not young enough or
eomely enough to oe suspected of
having entertained adulterers.
jaeobeta Equina at Sulz-Bad, Oet.
1585, seeing eertain persons whom she
hated making their way through a
pass, and wishing to harm them in
sonie way, gave immediate utterance
to the first wish that occurred to her;
namely, that they should so lose their
way that they would be unable to find
it again. And it fell out as she had
asked. For they wandercd so far out of
their way that, when at last they
reaehed home, they were hardly able
to stand for wcariness.
See how vulncrable is man’s life to
the wiles and assaults of Demons!
Wherefore men shouId be advised to
keep their thoughts on God, that He
may aflord thern His proteetion, and
ive His angels eharge over them, and
eliver them from the snare of the
fowlcr and from the noisome pestilenee
(Psalm xci).
☆
GHAPTER VIII
The Herbs, Potvder, Slraios, and other stteh
Trash ivhieh Witches strew on the
Grotmd are a eertain Cause of Death or
Illtiess to those who Walk tipon them,
provided that it is the Wilch’s intention
and wish to injure them; but those aeainst
whom no Evil is eontemplated ean Walk
safe and nnharmed over them. And this
elearìy shows iht Cunning and Wile of the
Devil in Affiieting and Destroying Men.
I T has been shown from the defmite
assertions of wztches that they often
usc the same instriiments for procuring
11 8 DEMON'
both siekness and healing: that the
povvder with which they dust tlie
elothes of others is sometimes fatal to
them, although the witches themselves
may touch it with their hands with
impunity; and that the siekness so
caused is amenable to almost no curc
cxccpt such as the witch is willing to
provide; and that this curc usually
eonsists in the uttcrance of one or two
words, or a mere hand touch, and
often in the applieation of things which
ordinarily have no healing powcr at
all. From all this it is sufficiently elear
that there is in the things so uscd by
them no inherent or natural powcr
either of hurting or of healing; but
that, whatever prodigious results are
effeeted, it is all done by the Demons
through some power of which the
source and explanation is not known.
For in the examples of such doings we
fínd much that ean spring from no
probable cause in nature; but that
eertain substances behave in a manner
entirelv opposed to that which would
normally be expected from their
aetive and passive properties. This
will be proved and eíearly shown by
the folIowing instanees.
Odilla Boncourt at Haraucourt,
Dee. 1586, said that it was the praetiee
of witches, when they were afraid of
being deteeted in their erime, to
seatter a poison powder on the path
which they thought would be taken by
those whose misfortune they werc plot-
ting. And this is borne out by the eon-
fession of Rosa Gerardine at Essey,
Nov. 1586, that she had brought a
fatal siekness upon her eomrade
Stephanus Obcrtus by seattering such
a powder on his threshold before dawn.
Jacobus Agathius at Laaeh, Mareh
1588, said that the Demon had sug-
gested the same means to him as by
far the easiest way to rid himself of
the wifc of Hilary le Ban. Isabella
Bardaea at Epinal, May 1588, and
Martha Mergelatia said that they had
never failed in such an attempt against
anyone; espeeially if they had aeted
at the instigation of their Demon.
L A T R Y BK. II. GH. VIII.
Fran^oise Perine at Bains-les-Bains,
{ unc 1588, was passing a fruit tree
elonging to her neighoour Riberot,
and pieked up some pears which had
fallen from it; but, being caught in the
aet, was severely thrashed by him. As
she brooded on this, wishing by any
means to be revenged, it was not long
before the Demon showed her a ehanee
of fulfilling her wish by giving her a
herb whicn she must lay on the path
by which Riberot always went to his
work in the morning. This she did;
and when he, not suspecting any trap,
walkcd over the plaee, he was at onee
strieken with a siekness of which he
shortly died in great agony. Benoit
Drigie (Haraucourt, Dee. 1586) said
that his Demon had reeommended
him to put poison upon either the
door or the elothes of anyone whom
he wishcd to kill. Barbeline Rayel
(Blainville, Jan. 1587) said that she
had used this method against Franz
Pfeifer, whose neighbour she had
lately beeome; for she infeeted with
E oison powder the gate through which
is eattle went to water, and on the
next day three of his mares were found
lying dead in their stalls. CIaude
Morèle (Serre, Dee. 1586) did like-
wise outside the door of vVolfang of
Hadonville his kinsman; and as a
result of eoming out by that way, his
daughter was at onee seized with an
illness of which she soon died miser-
ably; and a horse fell and broke its
leg. With the same spell he vented his
spite upon Nieolas Augustin, the
Castellan of Serre, with whom he was
on terms of bad friendship; but after
a few days he was movea to pity at
seeing him suffer with so long and
heavy a malady; yet he could not
bring him any help or the least relief
from his siekness, sinee he was for-
bidden and prevented by his Demon,
although he continualIy cxpostu!ated
with him over this matter. Catharina
of Metingow at Dicuzc, Sept. 1586,
bitterly resented the refusal of a
eertain baker to let her have bread on
eredit, and begged her Demon to help
BK. II. CH. vm.
DEMONOLATRV
I
her to rcquite him for this. The
Demon at onee agreed, eager and
diligent as is ever his wont to provide
the means of any aet of vindietiveness,
and gave her some herbs wrapped in
paper which he told her to seatter in
some plaee frequently used by the
baker and his family. This she did
without delay, plaeing them in the
doorway by which he must neeessarily
eome out mto the village; and whcn
the baker, and after him his wife and
ehildren, had trodden upon them, they
were a!l seized with the same siekness,
and did not reeover until the witch,
moved by pity, obtained permission
from the Demon to restore them to
health. For this purpose she again
took some herbs and nid them under
their bed, as she had been instructcd;
and so they were all healed of their
siekness and regained their former
health.
Catharina Latomia at Haraucourt, Feb. 1587, in the same way put
a herb given her by the Demon upon
the threshold of the house of Jean
Antoine, with the result that, after his
wife had eome out that way, the milk
in her breasts was dried up and, in
conscquence, the ehild to whom she
was then giving suck died; this being
what the witch had ehiefly desired to
happen.
For just as of all living creatures
their lust is ehiefly to kill men, so of
human crcaturcs witches take an
espeeial delight in the slaughtcr of
iníants and those who by virtuc of their
age are innoeent and guiltless. Tliis
faet is cxemplified in the behaviour of
jaeoba Cavallia, that Drigie men-
tioned above, and Odilla, who, as I
remember, had an excessive tax
(aeeording to their own computation)
imposed upon them by the assessors of
the village in whtch they lived, and
wishcd to be avenged for that Ìnjusticc
by some signal aet of rctribution. The
Demon did not fail to provide them
with an apt and eonvenient means of
attaining their wish by seattering their
polson as thiekly as possible on the
grazing grounds of the eattle of that
village; and, to remove theír last
difficulty, he told them that they could
easily prepare the neeessary poison by
poundmg up the first worms that they
found until they were reduccd to a
powder fine enough to sprinkle. Whcn,
therefore, they had aeted aeeordingly,
within a few days there perished in tnat
village a hunared ana fifty head of
eattle, as Drigie said, or a hundrcd
and sLxty aeeording to Odilla’s ae-
count; for they werc qucstioncd separ-
ately, and agreed in everything cxccpt
the numbers. The truth of their state-
ments was attested by the faets them-
selves; for at about the tiine indieated
that number of eattle was lost by the
villagers.
Notiee that the herbs, dust, worms
and other such trash seattered about
by witchcs do not only cause siekness
or death, against which defensive
measures ean be taken when they are
eonveyed by eontagion as in the ease
of the breathing or touching of plaguc-
infested matters; but they also break
or wcaken lìmbs, and diminish, draw
off and dry up the milk in the breasts.
It is obvious that such effeets ean only
proeeed from some seeret eo-operation
of the Demon. This eonvietion is
strengthened by the faet that these
matters are harmful only to those
against whom they are intentionally
direeted; whilst everyone else ean
walk over them ana tread upon
walk over them and tread upon
them safely and without experiencing
any hurt. This is proved beyona
doubt by the following performanee
of Alcxéc Drigie (Haraucourt, Nov.
1586).
Her Demon gave her a handful of
fem to seatter on the path most fre-
qucntly used by the daughter of a
snepherd named Claude, of whom she
was jcalous, so that she might sud-
denly die. But her one fear was lest
this ealarnity should befall others also
who went that way, whom she had no
wish to injure. The Demon, howcver,
told her to be at ease on that seore,
sinee the poison wouId affeet no one
cxcept her for whom it was intended;
120
DEMON0LATRY
BK. II. CH. IX.
and it happened just as he had said.
For of all those who passed by that
way, only that shepherd’s daughter
met her death because of it. Not long
aftcrwards the same witch miserably
afflieted the health of Humbert the
Castellan by rnbbing his couch with
the same powdcr; but the eharm was
deadly to him alone; for many others,
both Defore and after him, had sat on
that couch.
Two more examplcs may aptly be
told here. One of these eoneems
Jeanne Poirelle (Chàteau-Salins, April
1582), one ofwhose poisoned eakes the
whole of a neighbour’s family ate, but
only that one perished whom she had
intended to kill. The other eoneerns
Hubertula of Grand-Buxières-sous-
Amanee, April 1589, who had been
treated witn gross unfairness by a
fcllow-townsman named N., and
thought that she would be abundantly
avenged upon him if she could poison
the five cows upon the produce of
which he and his family depended.
But there was danger of being caught
in the aet if she did this by touchtng
eaeh of them with a poisoned wand,
which was the method she used in
her other poisonings. To relieve her of
this fear, therefore, her Little Master
told her to go before dawn to the
pastures to which most of the eattle
wcre usually driven, and seatter about
a poison powder which he gave her.
Yet she still hesitated, being afraid lest
the poison would kill the wholc herd,
which she wished to spare exccpt for
the cows of that N. who was the only
one she wantcd to iníliet such a loss
upon. But the Demon assured her that
only his five cows would be harmed;
and so it proved; for only they of alí
the herd died or eontraeted any
siekness.
Away with thern, then, away with all
who say that the talk of a paet betwccn
witchcs and Demons is mere nonsense;
for the faets themselves give them the
lie, and are attested and proved by the
legitimate eomplaints of many men.
But some are so obstinate as to be
unable to pereeive this; they are such
doublc fools that no misfortunc ean
bring them wisdom.
☆
GHAPTER IX
For what Reason it is that the Devil often
demands the Witchcs' Gonsent when he is
Ploltìnf’ and eontriving Evil against any-
one: with several Examples io show that
such is his Usual Pradiee.
T HAT throngh the ageney of the
Devil men are strieken with
strange sieknesses of which physieians
eannot find the causc is elearly enough
shown in the story of Job, as wcll as by
what S. Luke (xiii, 11) tells of the
woman whom a spirit of infirmity had
so bound for eighteen years that,
throtigh the eontraetion of her sincws,
her whole body was bowed down. But it
has always been a very vcxed question
why the Devil should so often rcquirc
the eonsent of his diseiples before he
vmdertakes his evil work, as if his
powers would not otherwise be cqual
to it. Many think that the reason for
this is that, if he were able to do all
that he wished, the wholc human raee,
of which he has alwavs been the
implaeable enemy, would long ago
have perished; and that, therefore, as
soon as he was east forth from Heaven,
God took from him all powcr to do
ill at his own will, so that he could not
harm mankind except through the
ageney of men. Now although a good
ease could be made out for this vicw,
there is also much to be said for the
following opinion'That Satan, as
the exccutioner and minister of God’s
wrath, nearly always aets independ-
ently in bringing destaietion upon
men; and that he purposely demands
the eonsent that wc are discussing in
order that he may make his diseiples
partnersand aeeompliees in his erimes,
and at the same time earn their grati-
tude by procuring for them the aets
of vengeanee which they so ardently
DK. II. CH. IX.
DEMON OLATRY
121
desire; and by this means also he ean
blazon and display his powcr in aeeom-
lishing that which surpasscs all
uman strenglh; and finally, he
diverts all suspicion from the witchcs
by doing their work in their absenee,
and without their having even lifted a
finger to help him. The foliowing
reeords will make the qucstion of this
eonsent quite elear.
Beatrix Bayona {Gerbeville, Aug.
1 585) wishcd to be revenged upon
Petrone Maxent, who had done her
some great injury; and at last the
Demon to whom she owed allegianee
iindertook to aeeomplish this, provided
tliat she would give her eonsent. She
did not hesitate to say that that was
what she wishcd; and at onee the
Demon attaeked and killed the infant
son of Petrone; and on the next day
he annoiineed the deed to her, glory-
ingin it as in a task well done, insolentíy
adding that the mother was taking her
son’s death very impatiently, but that
not even her great grief couíd restore
him to life. By means of nothing more
than a curse Jana Gallaea at Mire-
court, Dee. 1583, attaeked the health
of Catharina Simonette, as she had
before done to many others; having
found out by long cxperience that the
bare cxprcssion of her wish was enough
to cause injury, in aeeordanee with the
Í aet she had formed with her Demon.
n the same way Barbeline Rayel
(Blainville, Jan. 1587) said that often
she had only to express a wish for her
Little Master to put it into effeet; and
that not only was he always excccdingly
prompt to execute such wishes, but
ne was also most careful in reporting
their aeeomplishment to her. For
hardly had she bcgun to curse a eer-
tain neighbour of hers, whcn the
Demon appeared to her in the shape of
a hidcous aog and told her that all had
alreadv been done as she had wishcd.
Rosa Gerardine (Essay, Nov. 1586),
AnnaDrigie (Haraucourt, Nov. 1586),
Jacotius Jacotinus (Mirccourt, Oet.
1586), Jaeob Fiseher and his wife
CoIette (Gerbeville, May 1586), and
many other witchcs asserted that
without doubt nearly everyone whom
they cursed wasted away.
Any erime that the witches them-
selves dare not undcrtake they seeretly
aeeomplish through their Demons
against those who have incurred their
hatred. Nieole Morèle (Serre, Jan.
1587) eonfessed that at her request the
Demon had sprinkled a blaek powdcr
over the horses of Nieolas Dominíque
as he was driving them to a near-by
spring, and that tney were seized with
the gravest siekness and soon after-
waras died in great misery. She said
furthcr that when she had poisoned the
eook ofthe Lord ofthe village in which
she lived so that he only just eseaped
death, she had first been most severely
beaten by her Demon, and was then
eompellea to put the inatter in his
hands so that he might do the eook an
even greater injury, and even kill him
if he wished. Whcn she had agreed to
this, he flew in a moment to his
kitehen and, without anyone seeing
him, poured a deadly powder into a
potion vvhieh the eook happened then
to be mixing in a mortar as a cure for
his siekness; owing to which venomed
eonfeetion he very soon departed from
the living. The Lord himself vouched
for the truth of this to me, sinee he had
been present at the time and had eare-
fully observed everything. In very
much the same way Martha Marge-
latia ÍEpinal, May i588),without being
herself present but tnrough the ageney
of her Demon, shook a fatal dust over
Nieolas the cartwright becausc he had
heaped up a pile of wood near her
fields and so causcd her some ineon-
venienee. Again, Jaquelina Xalueta
(G ratid-Buxières-sous-Amanee, April
1588) said that it had always been
uitc enough for her, as often as she
esired the death of either a man or a
beast, to nod to her Demon that such
was her wish, and it was done.
This was eonfirmed by the following
account given by her fcllow-country-
woman Hubcrtufa when she was tried
(Feb. 1589) for witchcraft in the ncxt
122
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. IX.
year:—“VVe had eome baek from the
nelds very tired from the work which
one Leonard had hired us to do, and
were eagerly looking forward to some
supper Deing brought to us. All at
onee his daughter pieked me out and
angrily began to seold me for my lazi-
ness, and ordered me, whilc I was
waiting, to pour the íye over some
linen that was piled up there to be
washed. I was indignant at being
given this cxtra work, and uttered a
curse against her; and my Little
Master at onee eame and promised
that he would soon pay her for her
pertness if I bade him. And, having
my ready eonsent, he did so. For on
the next aay the girl eame running in a
fright to her mother as she was super-
intending the work in the fields, and
told her that her baby brother who had
been left in her eare had, by an
aeeident which she had been unable to
prevent, been sealded with boiling
w'ater, and was at that very moment
breathing his last. When I heard this,
I easily guessed whose work it was; and
soon afterwards my Little Master ran
up to me and told me how, to please
me, he had served the girl in this way;
for she eertainly would not eseape
severe punishmcnt from her parents
for her negleet and earelessness, she
who had so impudently accuscd me of
laziness.”
One more example of this sort is
that of Jana Armacourt, at Lauch,
Mareh 1588, who took three sheaves of
eorn from a ncighbour’s field and hid
them in Alexée Cabuse’s garden as the
most eonvenient spot in which to eon-
eeal her theft; but she was not seeret
enough to avoid being seen in the
aet by Cabuse, who happened to be
in a sccluded part of ner garden.
Cabuse, as womcn will, told the neigh-
bours what she had seen; and in
consequence Jana not only began to
be ill spoken of, but was also brought
into some danger (for in Lorraine the
penalty for stealing anything from
another man’s garaen is the lash).
Therefore her anger and buming in-
dignation against Cabuse were beyond
words, and she did not eease to look
for any possible means to exact a fiilly
satisfaetory vengeanee for so great
an injury. As, therefore, she was
brooding deeply over this problem,
her Demon approaehed her and ehid
her for her sloth in allowing this weight
to rest upon her mind for so long,
when she had so often proved that he
was always ready to help her when-
ever she desired to be revenged: she
had only to give her eonsent, or to
leave the business to him, and it would
not be long before the woman was
Í unished for her mischievous tongue.
ana said that such was her wish, and
at onee that busy minister flew to
Alexée (who was then watching her
floeks in the meadows, and was trying
to drive baek an animal which had
broken into a neighbouring eorn-
field), caught her up in a wìurlwind
and dashed her to the ground with
such foree that her leg was broken, and
left her so stunned by her fall that she
had to be earried home half dead.
This story was told in identieal words
by Jana and Alexée, though they were
auestioned separately and neither of
tnem knew what the other had said.
And the whole thing was proved
beyond any doubt by the evidenee of
many people who had actually wit-
nessed the event.
It is a matter of the greatest debate
whcthcr any man ean have so great
power against his fellows, or ean have
at his beek and eall all the Demons
of the universe to bring loss or destme-
tion upon whomsoever he pleases by
a mere curse or spell. That this is so
was, at any rate, the belief of the
aneients in times past, as is shown by
the extant fragments of the Twelvc
Tables: he who has removed the
crops by enohantment; and again
HE WHO HAS CAST AN EVIL SPELL
(Pliny, XXVIII, 2, and XXX, 1).
From this it may elearly be under-
stood that even at that time tliere
were eertain seeret and aneient curses
so potent that nothing against which
BK. tl. CH. IX.
DEMONOLATRY
they were direeted could eseape eal-
amity and disaster. It is truc that
Seneea derides this notion, saying that
such things could not be done in so
open a manner, and at the same time
defy all the efforts of the philosophers
to diseover their cause; but no one
need have his belief shaken on that
account; for Seneea here refers to the
rain showers which were thought to be
both cau$cd and dispersed by enehant-
ment; and this coula only seem utterly
impossible and absurd to a man who
related everything to natural laws.
In his De Jra , XVIII, he says: “It is
difficult to alter Nature; and onee the
elements have been compoundcd for a
particular rcsult, they eannot be
ehanged.” But he was an avowcd
Stoie, as is elear from nearly all his
written work and from the evidenee
given by Tacitus and Suetonius in
their Lives of him; and that Sehool of
Philosophers always rejeeted as im-
possible anything which was not in
aeeordanee with Naturc. Finally, his
opinion in this matter is rcfuted by the
cxamplcs and reeords that are every-
whcre to be found in writcrs of
undoubted authority.
PIutarch vvrites that Nomphis, in the
Fourth Book of the Herrnea, tells a
story which ean by no means be
accounted fabulous of a huge boar
that ravaged all the countryside around
Xanthus,* a eity of Lyeia, destroying
the erops and fruits, until it was killed
by Bellerophon; and whcn they gave
him no thanks for this great serviee, he
eamestly prayed to Neptunc to punish
them for their ingratitude. Aeeord-
ingly, their fields were flooded with
saìt water, so that all the erops werc
rotted and perished; and they were
not delivered from this ealamity until
Bellerophon, moved by the women’s
entreaties, prayed Ncptune at last to
pardon the eitizens of Xanthus. I am
- “Xanthus.” Bellerophon in later ages
was worshipped as a god in Lyeia; see Pama-
nias, II, it, 24; and Quintus Smyrnaetis, X,
162.
123
the more disposed to believe this story
because the Little Masters of our
present witches (who are, without
doubt, the gods vvhieh men onee
vvorshipped) do the same sort of thing
even now. For whenever something
happens to offend a witch there is
alwa)-s a Demon ready to revenge her
wrongs even more drastieally than she
herself had wished; and the Demons
exult when they are prayed to eon-
trive some help or retribution in such
eases. Thus they lead in one un-
broken ehain from the original vvrong
to resentment, from resentment to
revenge, and from revenge to a saeri-
legious and detestable cult which is by
far the worst of the abominations into
which they try to seduce mankind.
Indeed it is the way of nearly all
vvitehes now to take offenee at the very
slightest provoeation, to spit forth
their resentment with the greatest
aerimony, and so at last, after finding
some satisfaetion and eonsolation in
rctribution, to bring some remedy for
the evils which they have caused. This
ean be seen in the ease of Bellerophon,
vvho was first moved to anger, then
inflieted disaster, and then drove those
whom he had thus afflieted to sup-
plieate him for help in their desperate
straits. Similarly, whcn Xcrxes had
been for three davs in diffìculties owing
to eontrary wincís, on the fourth day
he asked the Mages to ealm the
tempest. And (says Hcrodotus in
Polymnia ), they dia so by saerifieing
eertain animals and performing eertain
rites in honour of Thetis and the
Nereids.
But let us return to our eonsidera-
tion of the seeret poteney of curses,
espeeially those which are uttcred by
men themselves against either indi-
viduals or communities. We know
from aneient history that eertain verbal
formulas fwhich Livy ealls spells of
execration) wcre used by Generals and
Dietators whcn they invoked the Gods
to curse eities and armies. I shall
quote in its entirety an cxample
from Macrobius ( Satumal , III, 9) of a
124
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. IX.
eomprehensive cursc upon the persons
and fortunes of the enemy, than which
no elearer formula is to my knowlcdge
extant:—
“O Father Dis, O Shades of Jupiter,
or by whatcver other name it is right
to invoke you, fill full of panie, fear
and terror all that eity and army which
I have in my mind; and whosoever
bears arms or weapons against our
legions and army, do you confound
those armies, those enemies, those men
and their eities and lands, and all who
live in the lands and eities of this
plaee and distriet: take from them the
light of heaven: cursc and execrate the
enemy’s army, his eities and his lands,
with the strongest curse ever pro-
nounced against an enemy. By the
faith of my offiee I give and eonseerate
them to you on behalf of the Roman
People and our armies and legions. If
you will perform this aeeording to my
wishes, intention and understanding,
then whosocver aeeomplishes this vow,
let it be done aright. With three blaek
sheep I beseeeh thee, O Mother Earth,
and thee, O Jupiter.”
As he invokes the Earth, he touches
the ground with his hands. As he
invokes Jupiter, he raises his hands to
Heaven. And as he takes his vow, he
plaees his hands upon his breast.
By this curse the aneient Annals
reeord that the Stoeni,* * * § and the eities
of Fregeílae,f Gabu,t Vcii§ and
- "Stoeni.” A Ligurian peoble in the Mari-
time Alps, conquered by Q. Mareitis Rex, 118
B.C. (Valerivs Maximus, X, 8).
f “FregellaeThe modern Ceprano, was
an aneient and important town of the Volsei,
conquered by the Romans and eolonized, js8
b.c. It took part with the allies in the Soeial
War and was destroyed by Opimins ( Lhy,
VIII, 22; Velleitis Patercuíus, II, 6).
X “ Gabii .” In early times one of the most
powerful Latin eities. It was taken by Tar-
quinius Superbus by stralagem (Livy, I, 55).
In the time of Augustus it was in ruins.
Horaee (“ Sermomm ,” I, xi) has: Gabiis
desertior uicus.
§ “ Veii .” One of the most aneient and
eminent eities of Etraria. It was taken by the
Fidcnae|| within the boundarics of
Italy; and outside those boundarics
Oarthage and Oorinth, and many
hostile armies and towns of Gauí,
Spain, Afriea and Mauretania, and
other nations were utterly destroyed.
And many believe that this also was
the cause ofeertain historieal ineidents,
as when for no apparent reason all the
men and horses of an army have been
seized with a suddcn terror and have
taken to flight; for it is thought that
this terror was sent upon them by ihe
invoeation of the cursc of Pan or some
other of the Gods; and therefore it was
ealled a Panie by Pausanias, and the
Fear sent from Heaven by Pindar.
Furthermorc, not only soldiers, but
eivilians also beeome involved in these
panies whcn the Powcrs eannot be
induccd to make an end of their
destmetion of a nation.
Actaeius plaeed a blazing hurdle on
the way by which Crassus would go;
and when Crassus eame to the plaee,
this man stood up and, after per-
forming eertain rites and libations,
uttcred a fearful and horrible curse,
ealling upon the names of terrible and
hitherto unheard-of Gods. And it is
believed that this curse was not with-
out effeet, in view of the remarkable
and memorable Parthian defeat which
followcd not long after (Plutarch irt
Uita M. Crassi; Cicero, De Diuinatione).
It was, besides, the opinion of the
gravest and soberest men that the
dietator Camillus in theyear 396 ( Livy, V, 8-
22; deero, “De Divinatione ,” I, 44; III, 32;
Plvlareh, “ Camillus,” V). Veii was 'ihen
ahandoned, and althongh an attempt was made
nnder Augustus to eolonize it, and it ranked as
a municipium, by the reign of Hadrian it had
again sunk inlo deeay.
|| “ Fidenae .” An aneienl eily in the land of
the Sabines. It frequently revolled and was as
frequenlly reeaptared by the Romans. The last
stmggle took plaee in 438 B.e., and in ilie
following year it was destroyed by the eon-
querors. Subsequently the town was in some
sort rebuilt, but it is spoken of as a poor plaee
(Cicero, "De Lege Agraria,” II, 33; Horaee,
"■Sermomm,” I, xi, 7; Juvenal, X, 100).
15K. II. CH. IX.
DEMONOLATHY
danger from such curses was not to be
despised, for whatever reason and by
whomcver they were uttered. Sue-
toniiis Caligula, III, says that Ger-
manicus sunered Piso to break his Iaws
and oppress his elients for a long time,
and aia not beeome enraged against
him until he found that he was using
soreerv and cursings against him; but
then ne eommanded his servants to
avenge him if any evil befell him.
In the same manner it is our custom
to-day to threaten those who are on
terms of enmity with us, espeeially if
they are under any suspicion of witch-
eraft, that if any evil happens to us
we shall hold them to be responsible.
And this is often a very usefuí prccau-
tion; for it has often been found by
experience that it has frightened them
into desisting and withdraw’ing from
their wicked intentions. The Latins
were not the first to aet upon this
opinion; for Hesychius,* * * § as well as
Aristophanes in his lost play, The
Seasons, f speak of a temple at Athens
dedieated to the Furies.í I think that
it was for the same reason that the
Latins built temples to Fever,§ Vertiim-
wkj [1 and Veiovis, lest these deities should
- “HesyckiusAn Alexandrine grammar-
ian tinder whose name a large Greek dietionaiy,
eontaining much literary and arehaologieal in-
formation, has been prtserved to us.
f il The Seasons.” This play of Aristo-
phanes, now lost, is quoted by Athenaens and
other later writers.
t “ Fitries .” The sanetiiary and eavem of
the Erinyes ai Athens were rtear the Areopagns.
§ “ Fever .” Febris, personified as a deity,
had three temples in Rome, the prineipal of
which was on the Falatinm, in the neighboiir-
hood of the Velabtvm. The words of Cicero,
“De Natrna Deomm ,” III, xxo, are very apt:
“Qyi tantus error fuit, ut pernieiosis etiam
rebus non modo nomen deontm tribuerelur, sed
etiamfaeta constituerentur. Febris enim fanum
in Falatio, et Orbonae ad aedrn Larum, et
aram Malae Fortanae Esquiliis eonseeralam
uidemusOrbona was the hitelary goddess of
parents bereft of their ehildren.
|f “Vertumnus.” The god of the ehanging
year, and henee the deity who gives good seasons.
125
be provoked by such curses to bring
harm and misfortune upon them; for
that it was a eommon praetiee to
invoke these deities is shown by the
writings left by the orators of that time.
Aesehines, in his speeeh against Ctesi-
phon, said: “He prays that the earth
may not bear fruit; and that women
may not bear ehildren like their
parents, but monsters,” ete. Very
much the same cursc eomes to the lips
of witches in our time when they have
been begging and someone has rcfused
them; for nothing is so eommon as for
them to utter a wish that all his family
may die of starvation, that his wife
may give birth to monsters, and his
whoIe house be infested with prodigies
and portents. Nor (deplorable as it is)
are such curses ahvays uttered aloud
in words, as we have remarked else-
where; for in the same speeeh Aesehines
said: “This fellow put a curse (ifit may
properlv be so ealled) in writing, to the
effeet that any eity or individual or
nation which opposed him should be
under the curse of Apollo and Artemis.”
This also is a eommon praetiee of our
witches; for it is not only the domestie
and private fortuncs of an individual
that they ruin and subvert with their
curses, but very often also the eommon
interests of thé whole public. In the
ease of an individual tney attaek his
eattle, beasts of burdcn, wife, ehildren,
and even his life; but they also bring
ruin upon all the floeks, erops, vintages
and often wholc villages and towns.
Moreover, they have at their eall
Demons who will at onee exccute their
desires, either by means ofa disease, or
a blight, or lightning, or an opening of
the earth, if the things that they have
curscd have not been eommended to
the proteetion of God; for otherwise it
is eertain that they are unable to harm
anything in the very least, as we have
fulíy shown elsewhere.
Different Demons have eharge of
Also as a symbol of mutability, wherefore
Horaee says “Vertumnis nahis iniquis ” of an
unstable man (“ SermommII, vii, 14).
DKMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. IX.
126
different duties, as was the casc with
the Gods of the Pagans. One stirs up
tempests on land, and another storms
at sea; this disease is brought by one,
and that by another, while a third
ealamity is the work of yet another. I
do not know whcther it ìs this that has
given rise to the erroneous idea that
when witchcs curse anyone, they wish
him to be struck with a siekness which
they believe to be under the eontrol
of some particular demi-god or Saint:
as whcn they curse a man with the
evils of S. John* * * § or S. Antony or S.
Manius| or S. Anastasius,J meaninjj by
this epilepsy, the saered fire, impetigo,
and madness. For many believe that
it is those Saints who send these ills
upon men, and that they are to be
worshippcd, and even imaged, aeeord-
ingly. They who hold such opinions
would do wcll to eonsider that
The Gods may not be jealous, nor do
evil,§
unless they have made themselves
Gods like those which the aneients,
blinded by the darkness of their errors.
• “S. Jokn.” Other Saints partiadarly in-
voked in eases of efiilepsy are the three Holy
Magi; S. Prix, Biskop of Clermont; S. Lam-
bert; and the Blessed Joaehim Pieeolomini,
O.S.M.
t “S. Martius.” S. Mangos, Bishop of
Eoora. Porluguese miters believe this Saint to
have been sent into Spain as a missionary by
the Aòostles; but it would appear from his Aets
that he was put to death by the Jews in the
fotirth eentary.
t “S. Anastasitis.” Onee a Magieian; an
offieer in the army of Ohosroes when that mon-
areh earried the Crossfrom Jemsalem to Persia.
This event led to the eonversion of the young
soldier, wko beeame a monk at Jemsalem.
Later he retumed to his natioe country to eon-
oert the people from their magie and the voorship
of fire. Afìer terrible svfferings he was
strangled and his head stmek off, 23 January,
628.
§ “ Eoil .” Claudian, “De Raplu Proser-
pinae
III, 27-28:
nee enim liuescere fas est,
Uel nocuisse Deos.
believed to be terrible, fieree and
baleful, and the ministers of those evils
which a man wished to be inflieted on
his fclIows with the utmost cruclty and
severity.
It may be argued that the men of
those times, who voluntarily sur-
rendered themselves to the power of
Demons, werc an easy prey to such
misfortuncs and ealamities; but that
they are not so now that God has taken
them under His eare and proteetion as
members of His floek. But this is not
the ease ; for both the Hebrews and
the Ohristians had their enrses and
maledietions, which were so bound up
with their religion that no one who
had justly incurred them might eseape
with impunity. King Ahaziah sent a
centurion with fifty soldiers to bring
Elijah to him, and he found him on
the top of a hill and bade him eome
down, saying that, if he did not do so
of his own aeeord, he had been sent to
bríng him bv foree. Elijah answered
that he wouíd show a sign to prove
that he was a true prophet, ana that
at his prayer fire woutd eome down
from heaven and consume the eaptain
and his soldiers; and whcn he had
uttered this curse against him, there
eame down fire and consumed the
centurion and his eompany. Then
Elisha, his follower and inseparable
eompanion (as Josephus ealls him),
cursed the ehildren who moeked him,
sa>dng: “Go up, thou bald head!” and
forty and two of them werc rent in
pieees by bears. David also pro-
nounccd a curse of vengeanee against
Joab for the slaying of Abner, which
was fiilfilled when he was put to death
as he held to the homs of the altar.
And in his Psalms, espeeially in the
Fifty-fifth and the Hunared and ninth,
David utters a curse upon his enemies:
“Let death seize upon them, and let
them go down quick into hell.” It
must not be thought that this was a
mere idle venting of his spleen; but
that he was moved by zeal for the
glory of the Lord to utter those words,
and hoped that it would befall them
BK. U. CH. IX.
DEMONOLATRY
as he had said. We read in the Gospel
that when Jcsus was hungry He eame
upon a fig tree and, finaing no fruit
upon it, put a curse of perpctual
sterility upon it. S. Paul struck Elymas
the Soreerer with blindness; and he
delivered Hymenaeus and AIexander
to Satan; and though some have
understood that this merely meant
that they werc shut out from the
Church and made bondsmen of Satan,
others think that physieal death was
also implied. For in another plaee
we read that this was the punishment
of Ananias and Sapphira, who fell
down dead simply at hearing the
Apostle’s rebuke; aeeording to the
propheey of Isaiah, who said: “With
the breath of their mouth they shall
slay the wickcd.”
There is, then, no question but that
there are Demons, the maledietory
invoeation of which often brings a
fatal result. But there is legitimate
seope for inquiry and doubt as to the
method by which they are to be in-
voked. There are some who hold that
such a rcsult follows naturally from the
utterance of eertain verbal syllables
and formulas, and that there ìs some
poteney in the manner and order of
their pronunciation, and in the number
of the words, to produce an effeet quite
different from tne actual signifieation
of the words. But this seems to me just
as ridiculous and absurd as the similar
belief in the virtue of written ehar-
aeters and letters; for there must be
some rational connexion between the
aetive and passive prineiples if they
are to producc any effeet. How ean it
be possible for a mere voeal noise to
aet so powerfully as to kill thus in an
instant a solid body, often when it is
at a great distanee away? What ean
there be in eommon betwecn written
eharaeters and numbers ? and the
breath drawn by living ammals? The
same letters, syllables and sounds
serve the accuser in his prosccution,
the accused in his defenee, and the
Judge in his sentenee; but no one
would maintain that for that reason
ia 7
they have power of life and death to
be used at eaeh man’s diseretion.
Charts and diagrams show how and
whcre a house may profitably or other-
wise be built; but they eannot either
shake or strengthen the building, even
if they be written and repeated a
thousand times on paper, or in the
air, or on wax.
Plato in the Timaeiis maintains that
all things eelestial and human, and the
whole natural univcrse, depend upon
numbers; and in the Parmenides he
aseribes such divinity to the Oru, that
he says that Unities are the only true
and immortal substances; such as the
Godlike Essenee which he ealls the
mind or the souI. But there is no traee
in his doetrine of this ineantation and
cursing by means of numbers.
Others say that it is the influencc of
the stars which makes these curscs
effeetive; but this view seems to be no
nearer to the truth. For it is agreed
that the stars are universal and
immutable; whereas witches rise up
and curse as often as their anger ìs
aroused against this or that man.
Others, again, aseribe these injuries
to the breath breathed by the witches,
as they utter their curses, from their
poisonous breasts; just as the Triballi*
and Illyrians, and the Bithiaet in
Seythia, are said to have bewitched
with the mere look from their eyes
(Pliny, VII, 2). But here again there
is much that is absurd and ineredible.
For, in the first plaee, as has already
been said, such poison eannot be of
sufficient virulence to reaeh people at
a distanee: moreover, how ean a witch
without danger to himself keep a
poison in his bosom which wilí be
noxious and fatal to others when he
breathes it upon them?
Again, ifall these things have power
to hurt, how eomes it tnat they have
also power to heal? For I remember
- “ Triballì .” A people 0/ Lower Moesia.
t “ Bithiae .” This name was gieen to eer-
tain women in Seythia, said to haoe two ptipils
to eaeh eye.
128
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. IX.
reading that witches, by pronoimeing
a curse in a eertain formula, have
thrown many into a grievous siekness;
and then, moved by their prayers, or
by fear, or by some other reason, they
have restored them to health by re-
peating the same words backwards.
Thus the wound and the remedy both
proeeed from the same words: even as
Circe took away and restored men’s
reason with the same wand, and by
the same proeess ehanged men into
beasts and beasts into men: similarly,
it is reeorded in many Histories that
there was a bull which fell down dead
when eertain words were whispercd in
its ear, and was restored to life whcn
the same words were repeated.
Therefore I prefer to believe that all
these things are signs and symbols of
something more seeret which they
eover as ìt werc with a disguise. For
a deeper and more careful eonsidera-
tion will show that their one true
source is the Demons: the reason
doubtlcss being that it was so arranged
by the paet between the Demon and
the witch; or that the same words
and eharaeters and numbers are uscd,
which were at first ordained in the
paet of some other witch by whom
íater witches have been instructed.
For this reason S. Augustine (De
doetrina, Christìana, II) says that it was
so constituted in the abominable asso-
eiation of Demons and men as a pledge
of their treacherous and disloyal
friendship; and we may well eall it,
in the words of Isaiah, a eovenant with
death and an agreement with hell.
Someone may say that this view is
ineonsistent with what we have just
said of the Holy Fathers, and Jesus our
Saviour, and His Apostles and dis-
eiples; but it is not so. For a man to
rush furiously and madly to avenge
a private injury is a very diíferent
matter from being impelled by love
and zeal for God’s glory to avenge that
which is done or said in eontempt and
despite of Him with the nse of for-
bidden arts. It matters much whethcr
such an aetion is gratcful and aeeept-
able to God as fiirthering His purposes,
or whcther He rejeets it as proeeeding
from unworthy motives. Whcn the
messengers of Christ eame to a eertain
village of the Samaritans to prepare
the neeessaries of life for the Lord and
those that were with Him, and the
men of the village rejeeted them and
would not reeeive the Lord within
their gates, His diseiples james and
John said: “Lord, wilt thou that we
eommand fire to eome down from
heaven and consume them, even as
Elias did?” But Jcsus turned and
rebukcd them, ana said: “Ye know
not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
As if Hc would say: “Elias, whom you
bring forward as an example, per-
formed the judgment of God which
was eommanded him by the Spirit;
but you, not at the eommand of God
but through the prompting of the
flesh, wish to infliet summary ven-
geanee” (S. Luke ix, 52-56).
It was for this reason also that
Onias, a just man who lived many
years ago, would not yield to the
prayers of his fel!ow-townsmen that he
should curse the priests who, with
Arístobulus, had taken sanctuary in
the temple. Joscphus (Antiq. Jud. XIV,
3) says that, foreseeing the eivil strife
at Jerusalcm, he had hidden himselfin
retirement; but they sought him out
and led him to their eamp, and asked
him, as he had onee by his prayers
brought rain in a time ofdrought and
so prevented the failurc of the erops,
so now to put Aristobulus and all his
followers under the curse of Heaven.
VVhen, after having for a long time
refiised, he was eoereed by the mob,
he stood up ainong them and prayed
as follows: “O God, the King of all
this world; sinee both these who stand
here with me are Thy people, and
they whom they oppose are Thy
priests, I pray that Thou wilt not hear
the prayers of either of them against
the other.” For he ehose to court
eertain danger to his life (for he was
at onee stoned by the people for tHis
prayer) rather than to yield to their
BK. II. CH. IX.
DEMONOLATRY
base passions and curse innoeent
men.
The story of Balak is well known
even to the most ignorant: how he
sent the prophet Balaam to curse the
Israelites, but that he could not; for
the very ass upon which he rode
obstinately resisted him, and even
expostulatcd with its master in human
speeeh bccause he did not understand
tnat he was prevented by Heaven from
that which he was hastening to do.
And so, not only did he not curse the
israelites, but they werc blessed by the
very Demon who, it is eertain, is above
all zcalous for the destruction of men.
(If the Demon wiahcs to hide his
wickedncss under a veil of probity, he
thinks that he eannot more eonve-
niently do so than by assuming a hatred
and detestation of that very sin. Thus
it is no uncommon thing for the vilest
whorcs to speak in praise of modesty.)
Similarly, PIutarch tellsofa priestess
at Athens who could not be induced
to curse Akibiades at the bidding of
the people, because she said that she
had entered the priesthood in order to
prav, and not to cursc.
Therefore it is the more to be
wondcrcd at that such curses are to-
day so frcquently in the mouths of
nearly all Christians, that through usc
they have eeased to be regarded as
worthy of eondemnation or rebuke;
and that the habit has grown so strong
that they are often uttered without
thought, and are no longer eonsidered
a erime. Yet S. Jerome ( In Levitiaim)
proelaims that they who negleet to
restrain their habit of cursing, even if
the cursc does not eome from their
hearts, nevertheless (aeeording to
Isaiah) sully their lips and befoul their
mouths. S. Peter also, to put a greater
eheek upon that lieenee, strietly bade
us to speak blessings always, knowing
that wc werc ealled to reeeive blessing
by inherilanee; and not to be pro-
voked by wrangling, not to be angered
by injuries, not to be exasperated by
eontentions. For even Miehael the
Arehangel (says S. Jerome), when
129
eontending with the Devil over the
body of Moses, did not dare to incur
the sin of blasphemy by etirsing even
him who was most worthy of male-
dietion.
What, then, must we think will be
the result of a earelessly uttercd curse?
Surely that it will fall upon him who
uttered it; just as when a man shoots
an arrow into the sky, it often falls
baek upon himself. As the bird flying
aimlessly, as the swallow wandering at
large, so (says Solomon, Proverbs xxvi)
shall the cursc causeless return upon
him who sent it forth. Yet still wc
dare to wish that we may be damned
if a matter prove to be other than wc
have stated it to be, although our
inner eonseienee eonviets us of insin-
eerity. Therefore we shou!d not be
surpriscd if the Areh-sehemer, who is
always in wait for us to make us his
prey, often takes us literally at our
word: as Weyer tells (De praest. Daem.
eap. 17) that it happened not long
sinee to one who, to serve his own
interests, perjured himself in giving
evidenee; and to inspire the greater
belief in his truthfulness added a wish
that he might go to perdition if he was
telling a he. For tne Devil at onee
bore nim away before the eyes of all,
and he was no more seen. This
man deserved no pity, seeing that by
his own thoughtless and rash lying he
courtcd his own damnation; for tiolenti
non Jit iniuria.
But how vile a thing it is for angry
arents to curse their ehildren and so
ring harm npon them ! For we have
the evidenee of history that this has
often happened. Plato (De legibtis, Lib.
VII) even held that no more terrible
thing couId happen to ehildren; and
even that it was unlucky, and not
seldom brought misfortune, to be
merelv indignant with them. “I know
men,” says 01 aus Magnus (Hist. de
Genl. Septent. XVI, 3), “as old as
myself, who have been cut ofl'
from their fathers’ blessing, and have
continually sufíered every kind of
misfortunc, poverty, ealamity and
DEMONOLATRY
DK. n. CH. X.
\
130
infamy.” It is for this reason that from
the most aneient times the lay popula-
tion of the Northern countries have
used the follovving custom:—when
their boys and girls are going to bed,
they reeite the Lord’s Prayer and the
Had Mary in the order of their ages,
and reeeive their father’s blessing.
And in Eeelesiastieiis, ehapter iii, verse
9, wc read: “The blessing of the father
establisheththe housesotehildren; but
the curse of the mother rooteth out
foundations.”
But perhaps I have dwelt too long
on a matter which is not open to mucn
doubt or eontroversy. Let us, then,
proeeed to some more examples.
☆
CHAPTER X
Another Example in proof of the same
Argtiment: and how the Marders eom-
mitted hy Demons often leave no traee
behind them.
H ERE follows another examplc,
not unlike those given above,
eoneerning one Bernard Bloquat. As
Joanna à Banno was working in the
fields, she saw this man going by with
his horses towards Strassburg, where
he had some business; and remember-
ing that he had long ago done her an
injury which she had not yet avenged,
she cursed and execratcd him so that
the misfortune befell him which I have
narrated in the Summary of this work.
For she had hardlv bcgun her curse
before he fell headlong from his eart
with such foree that he was instantly
killed: yet no part of his body was
injured, there was no wound or bruise
or swelíing, no limb was disloeated or
twistcd, nor vvas there any lesion in any
{ )art; so that it is to be believed that
ns life was cut off and his breath
stopped all in a moment by the
Demon. And lest anyone should think
that the truth of this depended on that
witch’s eonfession alone, he should
know that it was in every respeet eon-
firmed by Jean le Gharretier, who had
aeeompanied Bloquat on that journey
to help him; for many days before the
witch eonfessed he had spread his
account far and wide. Moreover, the
new and unheard-of manner of his
death was itself an argumcnt that it
was causcd by some rare power of evil.
Among other things, this story shows
the prompt diligenee of the Demon in
obeying his subjects’ invitation to
infliet an injury. Consequently we
may here add the testimony of Jeanne
of Montenay at Condé, July 1582, to
the efleet that she rarely had asked
the Demon to bring misfortune on
anyone without the deed following
immediately upon her word: so eager
and assiduous is he to seize every
opportunity of ill-doing.
■fr
CHAPTER XI
Tet another Example , the Credibilily of
which is eonfirmed by the Authonly of
the Aneients: and of the Proteetion
which must above all be soaght against
the Wiles and Assanlts of Satan.
T HE following story, also told in
my Summary, is illustrative of the
same argument. A witch, who was
eommonly known as Lasnier, used to
beg from door to door at Naney, and
by her age and infirmity so aroused
the pity of the more influential
eitizens that she every day reeeived
so much alms from them that she was
well able to lead a fairly eomfortable
life. One day she was, in her usual
manner, importunately asking alms at
the Dcputy Governor’s* door, whcn
unfortunatcly his eldest son eame out
and told her to eome baek at another
time because it was not just then eon-
venient to trouble the servants. She
took great offenee at this and, as is the
way of all witches, promptly cursed
him. Immediately, as though he had
caught his foot against a stone, he fell
- “ Govemor'sThe Dtjmty Governor of
Naney from /577 to 160J was Renanlt ae
Gornnay, Seignenr de Villers.
BK. II. CH. XI.
DEMONOLATRY
with such violenee and was in such
pain that he had to be earried baek
into the house at onee; and there he
told his servants how and in what
manner the whoIe thing had hap-
pened; adding that he did not owe his
misfortune to nis own earelessness, but
that he had been scruck from behind
by some higher foree, and that he had
no doubt that he would have broken
a limb if God had not helped him as he
fell. “For,” he said, “when I arose in
the moming I had eommended myself
to God with the sign of the Gross.”
But not even after this would the
witch let him be; for her Demon was
furious on learning of the failure of her
attempt, and even more vehemently
urged and required her to find some
means of destroying the young man,
saying that she could easily do so if
she attaeked him when he was not
proteeted by his morning prayers and
the sign of the Cross. For the Demon
himself acknowledged that this had
been the cause of the failure of the
former attempt. Afier some days it
happened that the young man put his
arm out of an upper window to take
some fledglings from a nest against the
wall, when he was lifted up from
behind and thrown through the win-
dow with such foree that he was
brought baek into the house for dead.
But after some hours he regained eon-
sciousness and, seeing his father weep-
ing and lamenting by his side, said:
“Do not be angry with me, father,
because of this aeeident. It was eer-
tainly not my fault; for something
eame at me from behind and thrust
me out in spite of my stmggles, and
I was forably overeome and east
down by something very heavy.” And
indeed there had been found by him as
he lay on the ground a log of wood
from a pile stored in an upper loft for
household use. He kept eonstantly to
this account, and died after a few days.
Shortly afterwards, by reason of
information reeeived from other
witches, and because she had for a long
time been suspect of witchcraft, ana
as a result of careful inquiry into the
matter we have just relatea, Lasnier
was east into prison; and after I had
examincd her in aeeordanee with the
depositions of the witnesses, I at last
induced her, without appíying any
torture, to make open eonfession of aíl
her erimes. And among these she told
in the same words that which the
young man had so eonstantly aífirmed.
For as soon as the Demon had aeeom-
plished that deed he had flown to the
meat market whcre she was and told
her everything that had happened;
and she maintained this assertion
until she met her death by fire at the
hands of the executioner.
This savage feroeity of Satan against
men is no new thing now for the íìrst
time heard of; for the writings of the
aneients, both saered and profane,
eontain more examples of it than I ean
eonveniently use. It was Satan who
stirred up the great wind from the
wildemess, which overthrew the house
where the sons of Job were feasting,
so that they all perished in its fàlí
(Job i, 19). Asmodeus, that is, the
Destroying Angel (whom the Rab-
binists ealí the Angel of Death), slew
the seven husbands of Sara the
daughtcr of Raguel on the night whcn
eaeh of them first approaehed the
marriage bed (Tobit iii, 81 . When the
Proconsul Aegeas orderetí S. Andrew
to be emeified at Patrae in Aehaia,
the evil spirit seized him and strangled
him. In the ehapter where Psellus
deseribes six kinds of Demon, Marcus
says Demons often destroy men by
fire or by a fall; and that they over-
whelm and sink ships laden with men.
Lemne Levin says that they seeretly
mingle themselves with the food,
drink, airs and breaths which we take
and reeeive into our bodies, and pol-
lute and vitiate many other things
which wc use for the maintenanee of
our health. Finally, the Holy Serip-
tures proelaim that our adversary the
Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about
seeking whom he mav devour (1 Peter
v, 8).
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. XII.
132
Therefore to so savage and fieree a
beast wc oppose the shield of solid
faith, the sword of the spirit, the
helmet of salvation, and our other
reserves of proteetion (so to speak),
such as temperanee, integrity, vigi-
lanee, fasting, prayers, and eonstant
siipplieations espeeially in the early
hours of the morning. For the witches
themselves eonfess that they are
thwartcd and balked in their attempts
by such means. And eertainly there is
no laek of Biblieal authority that the
Holy Prophets praetised their use.
David in his distress eries out: O Lord,
my God, early will I seek thee: In the
morning will I stand before thee and
behold thee: In the morning my
prayer shall eome before thee. So also
Isaiah says: In the morning, in the
morning hath the Lord turned His ear
to me. And again: With my soul have
I desired thee in the night; yea, with
my spirit within me will 1 seek thee
early. For at the prayer of His people
the Lord will defend and proteet them
from the dangers which threaten
them; not aeeording to the desires of
their own hearts, but aeeording to the
wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore I do the more wonder at
the folly and ignoranee of some who
blame the Christian customs; for
when the church bell rings in the
morning to summon men to their
prayers and devotions and, so to
speak, to tweak them by the ear, there
are men who at onee vilify and eon-
demn this praetiee as having been
instituted by those with whom they
difFer in matters of rcligious worship.
☆
CHAPTER XII
More Examples to the same Effeet: and that
the Demons east headlong down those
Whom they have had Lieenee from
Witches to injitre.
N OT tinlike the above is the follow-
ing story of some peasants, one of
whom was trashing the too luxuriant
branehes from the top of a tree,
another throwing fruit from a store-
housc into the yard to be pressed,
while a third was staeking arid arrang-
ing hay on the top of a waggon ; and
altliough none of them was taking
any eareless risks, they wcrc aíl
thrown and dashed to the ground so
violently that they had to be earried
away half dead : yet there was no sign
of any who had attaeked them. The
folkmin^, again, is even more to our
point. Ihere was in a remote wood
a pear tree of which Jean Rotier
haa long made up his mind to have
the fruit; for he did not think that, in
such an obscurc and inconspicuous
plaee, it would be notieed by anyone
who might wish to snateh this titbit
from his lips. None the less, the tree
was noted by Desire Salet, his fcIlow-
villager, who made up his mind to
be the first to get at the pears; but
Rotier found hira in the very aet,
and it was not long before he paid the
penalty for disappointing him of his
prize; for such men very easily take
offenee and are quick to seek revenge.
Aeeordingly, as was his custom in
other eases, he cursed Desire, who was
suddenly caught up in a whirhvind
and thrown to the ground, and was
hurt so in one leg that he was unable
to move from that plaee until some
shepherds who were minding their
sheep in the glades near by ran up at
his eries, and helped to bring him
home. And his leg was not yet healed
at the time when Rotier first made
this matter elear by his own free
eonfession.
Of the same kind is the story of
Epvrette Hoselotia, at Toul, February
1587. This woman had a son in the
serviee of Jean Halecourt, who had
been harshly treated by his master on
account of a eertain theft of which he,
more than any of the other servants,
was suspecteci. Resenting this, and
wishing for some revenge, his mother
eagerly sought her opportunity; and
as Jean was bringing his horses baek
from pasture, negíigently riding upon
BK. II. CH. XIII.
DEMONOLATRY
133
one of them, she and her Demon eame
up without being seen by anv, and
lowcrcd the horse’s neek so that its
rider slipped off to the ground and
broke his leg. And he still seemed
lame and erooked from that fa.II when
he appeared to give evidenee against
that witch.
☆
CHAPTER XIII
Some furlhtr Examplts; and how Demons
and their Altendant Witches set Fire to
Hoiises and fìtiildings.
LAUDE FELLET was always
quarrelling with a woman who
was her neighbour; for it is often a
fruitful sourcc of frietion when those
of cqual eondition live near to eaeh
other. And she had for a long time
ondered in her heart how she could
ring some seeret misfortune upon her
neighbour; for it was neeessary that
it should be done in seeret, sinee if any
evil befell the woman, all the inhabi-
tants would at onee blame Fellet for
it. Aeeordingly, she formed the follow-
ing plot with her Demon. She was to
go to her usual work in the fields,
while he would do her busincss for her
in the town: in this way no suspicion
could attaeh to her, sinee she would be
away from home. The neighbour’s
house was bolted and barred, and
behold! her infant son whom the
mother had left alone in the house was
heard erying pitiably within. All who
heard it ran up and broke open the
door to see what had happened to
make it ery so; and they found him
smothered and buried all over with
red-hot embers. They shook these off
with all speed, and took him from his
eradle in a desperate effort to save
him; but he was already breathing his
last, and died in their hands. The
rumour then began to spread that this
was eertainly Fellet’s doing, for it
was said that she had already taken
the same sort of vengeanee on several
others: therefore she was examined in
respeet of this erime and others of
which she had long been suspected;
and finally she was induccd to eonfess
openly that she was guilty, telling all
as it had been done by the Demon at
her request, and particularly of the
burning embers which he had
shovelled from undcr the hearth and
thrown upon the unfortunate ehild’s
eradle.
Sinee wc have touched upon the
subject of the fires and eonflagrations
causcd by Demons, I have thought
good to subjoin some various cxamplcs
of this aspeet of their aetivities, which
may help to elucidatc the truth of a
matter which has been the subject of
much doubt and eontroversy to many.
There is a village named Colmar in
the domains of the Lord Abbot of
Saint-Evre, Jacqucs de Tavigny,*
O.S.B., a prelate of most eminent
nobility and riehes, never sufficicntly
to be praised for his courtesy,
• “facques de Tavigny.” This great and
good prtlate is one of the glories of the Order of
S. Benediel. Being eonseerated Abbot in 1558
as stieeessor to Abbot Adrien Bandoir, he nílsd
his hoitse of Saint-Evre with a firm kindness at
a time when, owing to politieál ttpheavals and
exterior events, there was much relaxation in
religions life. On 17 May, 1567, he issued a
rmmber of new statiites for his monastery ,
ehiefiy with a view to eheeking too early pro-
fessions. The noble families iuould often en-
eomage and even eompel the yonnger seions of
their houses to embraee the monastie profession
before the striplings could be sure of a true
voeation, and as inflnenee often ted to high
honours, no small evils resulted. In 1595 jae-
ques de Tavigny was eleeted Viear-General of
the Benedieline Order for all territories eom-
prised under the Legaleship of the Gardinal of
Lorrame. He died, however, the following
year. Not long before he had begun tiie restora-
tion of Sainl-Evre, which had been greatly
damaged during the wars and inoasions of 1552.
The work was eontimed by his nephew, Lottis
de Tavigny, who was eleeted Abbol of Saint-
Evre in igg6. Dom Louis was eonseerated
Bishop of eíiristopolis and Saffragan of Toul.
The Abbey was eompleted in 1613. He died
7 August, 1643, and was saeeeeded as Abbot
by his nephew, Dom Mare-Franfois de Gieon.
DEMONOLATRY
13K. II. CH. XIII.
»34
benefieenee and integrity. Not twenty
years ago a eertain wanton Demon
began to throw stones ineessantly by
day and night at the servants of an
inhabitant of this village; but after he
had done this for a Iong time without
effeet, they began to treat it as a joke
and did not hesitate to hurl baek
taunts and insults at him. Therefore
at the dead of night he set fire to the
whoIe house in a moment, so that no
amount of watcr was enough to pre-
vent it from being immediately burncd
to the ground. This account I eagerly
heard from the servants, being led by
the strangeness of the event to cjucstion
them when I ehaneed to be gomg that
way not many days later.
The following story is the very
brother to that of Medea, who sent as
a gifl to Creusa the daughter of Creon
magie fire enelosed in a box, by which
the palaee in which she was then was
burned. Joanna Schwartz at Laaeh,
Mareh 1588, tried with all her might
to get Frangoise Huyna to give her a
pieee of dough before she put it in the
oven, so that she might make a eake
with it for her ehildren. But Huyna
refused her, saying that the dough had
been measurca out to last the whole
famiIyforaccrtainnumberof days,and
she couid not give any of it away with-
out causing her own house to go short.
Thcreupon Joanna never stopped
pondenng how she might fittingly pay
ner baek for that refusal. But she did
not have to wait Iong; for her Demon
gave her a napkin in which were some
tiny morsels like ehaff, and told her
to seerete it in Huyna’s house, and to
do soquickIy; foritwouldhappen that,
soon after sne had done so, tne house
would suddcnly burst into flames and
be consumed with all its furniture.
Aeeordingly she rolled the napkin into
a ball, went to Huyna as she was busy
in her bakchouse, and offered to sell
it to her for use in her loom, which she
had heard she was getting ready.
And when Huyna said that she did not
need it, sinee she expected to have
more than enough to ao in household
l
duties; nevertheless, the good woman
put it down in a flour tub that stood
near by, saying that if she had no use
for it at that time, she might rcturn it
at her leisure. Hardly haa she left the
house whcn the tub eontaining the
napkin burst into flames, and the
whole housc eaiight fire so rapidly
that no help could be brought quickly
cnough. Tnese two women separately
gave the same account of this event,
and so removed any possible doubt as
to its truth.
One more cxamplc, not unlike the
above, I shall take from Erasmus of
Rotterdam ( Epist.famil ., XXVII, 20).
There is a town in Switzerland ealled
Sehiltaeh which was entirely burnt
down in a moment on the tenth of
April, 1533. And aeeording to the
statements made bv the innabitants
to the Mayor of Fribourg, which eity
is eight German miles from the plaee,
the causc of that fire was said to be as
follows:—A Demon whistlcd in a eer-
tain part of an inn; and the host,
thinking it was a thief, went up but
found no one. The whistle was
repeated from a higher room, and
again the host went up to look for a
thief, but again founa no one. But
when the whistle was again heard,
this time from the top of the ehimney,
it eame into the host’s mind that it was
the work of some Demon. He bade
his family keep ealm; ealled two
priests; and they performed an cxor-
eism. He answered that he was a
Demon. Asked what he was doing
there, he said that he wished to bum
the town to ashes. When they threat-
ened him with holy things, he said
that he eared nothing for tneir threats,
sinee one of them was a whoremonger
and both of them were thieves. A
little later he raised up into the air a
young woman with whom he had been
mtimate for fourteen years (although
during all this time she had regularly
eonfessed herself and reeeived the
Eucharist), and set her on the ehim-
ney-pot; gave her a iar, and told her
to tum it up. She didf this; and within
BK. II. CH. XIV.
DEMONOLATRY
1 35
an hour the whole town was bumed
out.
We need not be greatly astonished
at this powcr of the Demons to cause
such rapid and instantaneous fires,
for even to this day we have men who
are most skilled in doing the like. I do
not refer to explosive powders and
such inflammatory substances, by the
use of which we see who!e houses
quickly set on fire and destroyed; for
they are matters of eomraon and every-
day use. I refer to some occult
method which is beyond normal
human understanding. Last year there
was in the train of a eertain Prinee a
simple fcllow from Germany (I name
no names, though Icouldcasily do so),
who professed tnat he had that which,
if he seattered some of it atnong the
houses, the whole town, many days
after he had left it, would be set on
fire and bumed out. And at last,
through an interpreter, he explained
to the Count, the Prinee’s son, the
nature of this substance, having first
bound them both by an oath never to
reveal or communicate the seeret to
anyone.
I know from Pliny (II, 105) that
naphtha has such an affinity for fire
that it very readily conducts flame;
but he is wide of the mark when he
says that it actually causes fire. For,
as I hear, it ean be kept with perfeet
safety for many days in the same room
with a bright and continual fire burn-
ing. But eertainly it is an execrable
and detestable invention; for, thanks
to it, no host is safe from his guests;
and the largest and most bcautifuí
eities, which eost many years’ labour
in the building and perfeeting, ean in
a moment be aestroyed at the pleasure
of one wicked man, with the eonse-
quent ruin of all the inhabitants.
☆
CHAPTER XIV
Two more Examples; and how at tke
Prayer of their Diseibles the Demons
obstrtiet the Breath and ehofee the Life of
those iibon whom they wish to be
Avengea.
CERTAIN peasant named Ma-
luctica was on his way early one
morning to a eastle by the Moselle to
sell some milk there, when a violent
whirlwind, although it was perfeetly
ealm everywhere else, so took away
his breath that he lav for a long time
between life and aeath. This mis-
fortune had been plotted against him,
with the help of a Demon, by Fran-
Í oise Fellet (at Pagny-sur-Mosclie,
Jeeember 1584), to vent his spite on
him for many injuries; as he after-
wards freely eonlessed in mere peni-
tenee for his erime.
In the same way jaeobeta Weher of
the Dieuze distriet, September 1584,
wished to give vent to her long hatred
of a young woman who was her
neighbour without incurring any more
suspicion; and w r hen the girl was in
the fields, the Demon caught her in a
violent wind so that she beeame more
svvollen day by day, and at last was
stifled.
Julius Obsequens says that at
Nursia, in the consulship of Lucius
Seipio and Caius Laelius, there arose
out of a elear sky clouds which killed
two men.
☆
CHAPTER XV
Tet other Examples; and that Demons
straightway infliet Wounds upon those
Whom they haoe a Mandate from a
Witch to Injure.
OLETTE FISCHER (Gerbeville,
May i585),withoutliftingherown
hand, caused her fellow-towsman
Claude Jaquimin to lose one eye, after
she had given her Demon a mandate
to that eífeet; as she herself openly
DEMONOLATRY
BK. II. CH. XV.
I 36
eonfessed to the Judge whcn she was
tried for witchcraft. Her story was the
more believed bccause Jaquimin after-
wards said that the wound to his eye
had been caused as it werc by a blow
from a suddcnly released braneh of a
tree, but that there werc no trees for
many paees in any direetion. There-
fore it was suspected that the wound
had been caused by some evil art.
A similar story was told by Jaeobeta
VVeher, whom we have just mentioned
“For many reasons,” she said, “I de-
tested a eertain peasant who was living
in the same housc with me; but I
could see no way of revenging myself
without incurring suspicion, for he
kept a keen and watchful eye upon me.
At last, howevcr, I found a way; for
at my entreaty my Demon thrust a
thorn deeply into his knee whilc he
was doing something among the
bushes; and for three months the
wound wou!d not heal, until I felt pity
for sneh long pain and prevailed upon
the Demon to make hím wholc again.
This he promptly did a few days later
when the man was wooding in the
forest, by putting an unguent upon
the wound.” All this was eonfirmed
in every detail as the witch had told it,
by the peasant when he was after-
wards questioned on the matter.
Ammianus Marcellinus (Lib.
XXVI) tells that a similar misfortunc
happened to Apronianus as he was
journeying to Syria; and adds that
this so roused his gall against witchcs
that as long as he lived he did not
eease to prosecutc them with every
punislimcnt and torturc.
That the Demon lends his help to
such work should not be doubted by
anyone who eonsiders how ready he is
to hurt, and what rapid and easy
means he has to infliet injurics. Yet I
am inelined to doubt the truth of all
this story of the thrusting in of a thom,
and the applieation of an ointment;
for it is admitted that the Deinon has
no need of such adventitious and
cxtcrnal aids to such aetions.
THE THIRD BOOK
☆
GHAPTER I
That ivhen ive would have the Saints lo be
the Authors of Sieknesses , we labour
under the same Error which made the
Pagans formerly impule the Cause of
their Misfortnnes to one of their Gods.
And this has given rise to another Error,
thal we must go to the same Source for
otir Remedies; as do those who are stung
by Seorpions. That this Error is to no
small Degree eonfirmed by the specious
Miraeles performed by Demons in their
Portents; and il is disputed whether
these are merely Illusions, or whether
there is any Truth in Them.
HROUGHOUT the Holy
Scripturcs wc fmd that God
severely punishes the sins
of mankind. For because
the men of Sodom turncd away
strangers and polluted eaeh other
with their lusts, He utterly destroyed
their eity and laid a curse upon
their whole country, so that it should
never bear fruit or anything that
grows. And by His prophet Gad,
He punished David for numbcring
the people, offering him the ehoiee
of three plagucs: either seven years’
famine, or three months to be defeated
by his enemies, or three days’ pes-
tilenee among the Hcbrews. He
punished the Israelites also for their
sins and wickedness with seventy
years’ eaptivity in Babylon. Finally,
ìn the elearest manner He proelaimed
in the Decalogue that He wou!d visit
the idolatry of the fathers upon the
ehildren to the third and fourth
eneration. And even now He often
raws the sword of His wrath against
us, for an example to us, and to reeall
us from our viees and bring us baek
into the right way. No one ean doubt
that His hands are ahvays stretehed
out upon the wicked.
Avenging God pursues the evil-doers.*
But no one, however unfamiliar
with the teaehing of the Fathers, ean
be ignorant that from the time when
men first began to sin God has
appointed His ministers of vengeanee
like a flame of fire consuming the very
elements and the whole world. There-
fore wc must wonder at the ill-
advised piety of some who would
make those who are numbered with
the Blessed the ministers of such
ealamities; thinking, forsooth, that
thus they will be more revereneed and
held in the greater awe by men; for
they maintain that one Saint affliets
men with the iteh, another with S.
Antony’s fire, and another with epi-
lepsy, in order to avenge insults and
wrongs offered them, as when their
worship has been negleeted, or in some
other manner they have suffered seorn
or iniury. Even in his time, Porphy-
rius (De saerifieiis, de spee. Daem. bononim
atque malomm ) eomplained that this
was the greatest of alltheevilswrought
by wicked spirits against mankind,
that whcrcas they wcrc themselves
the authors of the disaster which be-
fell men, such as pestilenee, poverty,
earthquakes, uphcavals, fires and
other like misfortunes and ealamities,
yet they maliciously aseribed the cause
of all these to one of the Gods, whose
delight is, on the eontrary, in fertility
and prosperity. Thus they drive men
to impkrns supplications and rites in
the belief that the Gods (whom,
aeeording to Cicero, every sehool of
philosopliy holds to be above all anger
and vindietiveness) are hostile to
them; or to the no less impkms belief
that the Gods are swayed by human
emotions when they vent their spite
with fire and slaughtcr and ruin.
Hippoerates vehemently opposed
the opinion of those who, whcn they
- "Aoenging." Seneea, "Hercules Furens,"
11 , 385 :
Sequitur superbos ultor a lergo Deus.
137
DEMONOLATRY
BK. UI. CH. I.
138
saw any suddenly thrown down and
convulscd with epilepsy, aseribed the
cause of that siekness to one of the
Gods who was angry with him, and
thought that it was neeessary to
plaeate him either by a votive prayer,
or by suspending some eharm about
the suffcrcr’s neek.
These eomplaints may with the
greater reason be made against the
men of our own day, from whosc
minds the light of the Óhristian tmth
has not yet shaken the blindness and
ignoranee which cause them even yet
to worship their Veioves and Robigines
with an open eonvietion of píety, and
to plaeate them with gifts that they
may no more be angry with them, or
to purchase their health with some
saerifiee, or finally to ward off and
avert impending misfortune. I write
with speeial referenee to eertain old
womcn who are for ever talking of
their lucky Saints, and how neeessary
it is to make pilgrimages to their
shrines; and hire themselves for much
money to undertake such pilgrimages.
I will not occupy myself with amulets,
phylaeteries, periapts and waxen
tablets, night-long watchings, the
cross-wise measuring of the siek and
other such trash, which are every-
where uscd with the greatest eon-
fidenee in their effìeaey although they
have been speeifieally anathematisea
by a Papal ediet.* All such things
might be passed over, were it not that
they have beeome notorious by assoei-
ation with eertain foul and monstrous
prodigies; for such so-ealled signs and
omens of the Saints are aeeompanied,
undcr the specious name of miraeles,
by innumerable illusions and impos-
tures of the devil. And although the
- “ Pabalediet .” As eonlained in the offieiai
Romem eaition of the “Corpus iuris eanoniei
eompleted in 1582 and issued by Gregory XIII,
wko reigned 1572-1585. Tfte Pope wasfamous
for his extraordinary knowledge of eanon and
eioil law, and had both stndied and professed
jttrispmdenee at the Umoersity of Bologna.
The referenee is: “ InDeeretis. Cap Non obser-
uelis,'’ 26, q. 7.
deceitfulncss of his wiles, and his skili
in deluding and imbuing men’s minds
with detestable ideas, are too well
known for me to have much need to
expose them here, yet I shall add a
fcw words on this subject, so that even
this matter may not be without
examples to make it elear.
There is in Metz a shrine f very
famous for the marvcllous cures which
are said to be effeeted by virtuc of le
beau Saint Bernard to whom it is
dedieated, although he has never yet
been beatified. I remember seeing its
interior columns draped and hung
with linen eloths from which wcrc
suspcndcd brieks, eoals, balls of tow
and hair, trumpery, bits of glass,
sword-blades, skins of lizards and
toads, and all sorts of such trash,
which, in the sight of any who eared
to be present, tne siek who had been
brougnt there in the greatest agony
had either vomited up or ejeeted from
some part of their bodies. There was
also a great pile of emtehes left behind
by those who had been restored to
health; who had eome there limping
with a great effort, but had gone home
aetive and vigorous. At the bidding
of Salcedius, who was Governor of
that Provinee, all these things were
removed in our time; but the shrine
did not for that reason lose its fame;
for the crowds who still floek to it are
as great as they ever wcre.
I do not doubt, O Most Illustrious
Prinee, that you, in your excmplary
devotion to God and your outstanding
wisdom, will at Iast reform this abuse
when it shall be in your power and
you wicld supremc authority over
things temporal and religious in that
distnet.
f “ Shrine .” It may be observed that there
is nothing of which the Church is more sus-
pieiotts than a wonder-working shrine. Such
irregularities as those of which Remy speaks are
eheeked tvith immediate and draslie measttres.
Le beau Bemard was a eoasin of Dake Jean
II, with whom he tvas at Veràee in /459, and
tmder whose barmer he foiight in Italy.
t
BK. m. CH. I.
DEMONOLATRY
I might add many more such
cxamples, if that had been my purpose
in beginning this work; but sinee I
have ìately given my mind somewhat
to this subject, I will relate two
instanees which eame to my notiee in
this very year. At Richthum, a village
in the territory of Count Otho the
Rhingrave, Nieolas Wanneson (Mor-
hange, September 1587) began to
suffer from so grievous a siekness that
his reeovery was despaired of. A eer-
tain witch who was his neighbour had
done this to him by her evil arts. As
is the way of those suffering from a
long and almost desperate illness, he
anxiously asked all who visited him
if they knew of any cure to tell him
of it for the sake of the pity which all
must feel for the misfortunes of others.
It so happened that the witch was
present among them; and either she
was moved by pity (a quality in which
witches profess that they are not
entirely laeking), or else she was
afraid of being put to the question by
the siek man’s relatives (for many
threats to that effeet had purposely
been uttered by all and sundry); but
in any ease she said that she had seen
people cured of the same siekness as
soon as they had made and performed
a vow to one of the Saints. ohe added
that le beau Bernard was particularly
famous for such curcs, for she did not
know of any who had ever sought his
help in vain; and she advised him to
send someone who was willing to go to
his shrine with a gift, and expiate his
siekness for him with the customary
prayers. He quickly found one, Hans
jaeob by name, who at onee under-
took and performed that pilgrimage,
did everytning as he had been told by
the witch, and returned to give an
account of all that he had done and
seen. It was then agreed by all who
were at that time with the siek man
that, at the very moment that Hans
had presented his votive offering, from
that same time the man had begun to
reeover; for it was then that with a
great effort he had begun to vomit up
»39
pieees of glass and balls of hair. These
objeets were shown to jaeob in an
earthen vessel to eonvinee him of the
truth; and Matis Hay, Maths Meier,
Nobis Petter and several others,
although they were questioned separ-
ately, gave the same account in the
same words.
In Oetober 1588 a young kins-
woman of mine brought me two iron
nails which, together with a great
quantity of stinking matter, she had
vomitea up in the sight ofall who were
with her in the house at the time. All
of us who knew the history and pro-
gress of her illness judgcd that tnese
were the leavings of a siekness with
which she had been strieken the year
before by Nieolaea Stephana (of wnom
we shall have something to say later).
For by reason of that vomiting a swei-
ling on her stomaeh which had been
as hard as a stone began to subside,
and her health, which had been very
poor for a whole year, began to
ìmprove and mend by degrees.
To this I may well add a parallel
ease which Lang, an Enghshman,
writes that he witncsscd in the year
1530 whcn he was praetising medieine
in tne train of the Prinees Palatine;
namely, that there was in their Pala-
tinate a demoniae woman who, after
long and acute pains in the belly,
vomited out of her mouth some long
curvcd iron nails, and some brass pins
wrappcd round with wax and hairs.
And that such occurrcnces were known
to the aneients is shown by what
{ ulius Obsequens recounts to have
appened at Aretium, in the eonsiil-
ship of Cnacus Domitius and Caius
Cassius, to a eertain woman who
vomited a quantity of flour from her
mouth, while she ejeeted many other
things besides down her nose. And
in our own time there have been books
enough published which abound in
examples of this sort of prodigy.
But I shall not easily be persuaded
to agree with those who hold that
these things are not what they appear
to be, but that our mortal senses are
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CII. I.
I40
so deeeived by an illiision that they
take the appearanee for the truth.
For as for their argument that nothing
ean eome out but vvhat has already
been put in, and that the objeets
which appear to be eieeted in this way
are of such a size that not even the
most crcdulous could imagine that
they had ever been swallowed down
the mouth or inserted up the anus,
which are the two largest passages into
the body; this ean be refutcd in more
than one way. In the first plaee, there
are many natural diseases which
engender eertain objeets in the body,
such as worms in the intestine, calculus
in the kidneys, stones in the joints,
little animals like ants in the urine,
and other such things, which are not
retained in the body but are expelled
through the very narrowest ehannels,
and often through an open wound.
Lemne Levin, speaking on this very
subject, says (De oeetdt. nalurae mii~
aculis, III, 40) that fragments of nails,
hairs, brieks, Iittle bones, and stones
have often been seen to be squeezed
and cxtracted from purulent ulcers
and sores, and that they are lhought
to be formed by the eoneretion of
festering matters. But no one will
deny that such things have either been
introduccd from outsidc, or that they
have not remained so long in their
plaee without injury to the body.
And if examplcs be songht in proof of
the eontentvon that they ean be
inserted and introdiveed, there is no
laek of well-attested evidenee with
regard to the matter in the works of
reeent authors of great praise and
rcpute.
Ambroise Paré writcs that there was
in Paris a learned man from Bourges
named Camcrs, who incautiously
swallowed an ear ofeorn which passed
through his throat into his lung; and
he was irnmediately seized with such
acutc pains that it seemed as if he must
die there and then. But Nature, which
negleets no possible means of pro-
teeting herself, quickly found a way to
rid herself of that hurt; for the ear
worked its way through the lobe of
the lungs, the rib muscíes, and finally
the surrounding membrane, until it
was ejeeted without any harm eoming
to Camers. The surgcons were Fernel*
and Huguet, men ofhigh and honour-
able standing in the praetiee of
medieine.
Paré gives another example which
is far more amazing even than the last,
both because of the size of the objeet
introdiieed and the dangerous depth
of its penetration, and becausc of its
winding and wandering throughout
the whole body without any fatal
result. There was (he savs) a shepherd
whom some robbers found in the
fields and foreed to swallow a six-inch
knife with a horn handle as thiek as a
thumb. Hcswallowcd it, and retained
it in his body for six whole months;
but he beeame so thin and emaeiated
that it was obvious that he was in very
great pain. At last there appeared on
his groin a stinking abseess which dis-
eharged much foul matter, from svhieh
in the presenee of all the town magis-
trates the knife was extractcd. Jobert
of Montpelier, a physieian, is said to
have kept it earetiiliy in his muscum
on aeeovmt of its miraculous rarity,
having obtained it from the surgcon
who had healed the wound, and who
lived at Somières, about eight miles
away from Montpelier.
I shall take one more cxarnplc from
the same source. The Prinee de
Rohan, of one of the most noble and
famous hovjses of Brittany, not long
ago kept for his pleasvire a fool namea
Guido who, as is the way of such men
to take rash and dangerous risks with
themselves, swallowed a knife-blade
three fingers Iong. Twelvc days later
he diseharged it by his anus, after it
had passed through all the great length
of his guts, of which the duodenum is
espeeially thin and narrow and is
rightly so named; and through all the
- “ Fernel .” Jean Fernel, "le Galien mod-
etne," was Physieian in Ordinaiy to Henri II
0/ Franee.
1
BK. m. CH. I.
DEMONOLATRY
multiplc and tortuous twists and folds
of his entrails.
If then Nature, without transgress-
ing the Iimits which she has imposed
upon herself, ean by her own working
either generate or admit such objeets,
what must we think that the Demons
will do, to whosc powcr (says Job)
nothing ean be likened or eompared?
And if this be admitted, there is
nothing to hinder a Demon from rais-
ing up mountains to an enormous
height in a moment, and then easting
tliem dnwn into the deepest abysses;
from stopping the ílow of rivers, or
even causing them to go backwards;
from drying up the very sea (if we
may believe Apuleius); from bringing
down the skies, holding the earth in
suspension, making fountains solid,
raising the shades of the dead, putting
out the stars, lightingupthe very dark-
ness ofHell, and turning upside down
the wholc seheme of this universe.
Wc often see iron softened and even
rnolten by fire, and again restored to
its former rigidity by no greater forees
than are at the eommand of feeble
man. Then ean anyone still refuse to
believe that the Demons, with the
reat powers that are theirs, ean intro-
ucc through the many apcrtures into
the human body such pieees of iron
and briek and stone! Does he think
their size is any obstaele, when the
Demons ean at their pleasure cause
them to eontraet and diminish even to
atoms and again resume their former
size when they are in position; or else
ean so distend the passages into the
body that they are able to admit
them? What is there in this more
difficult than to destroy an aged oak
without breaking its bark, or a strong
towcr without disintegrating the mor-
tar; or to cause a sword to waste away
while it rests in its sheath; or to grind
to powdcr all the bones without harm-
ing the rest of a man’s body; or to kill
the fcetus whilc sparing the pregnant
woman; or to melt bronze without
injuiy r to its reeeptaele; or to burst the
eask and leave all the wine standing
141
unspilled? Yet all these things are
done by lightning, either by its own
innate powers and properties, or else
as the agent of some Demon, as it is
inore eonveniently argued elsewherc.
I remember also seeing in the Pro-
vinee of Bordcaux those who healed
disloeated and broken limbs simply
by touching the girdles of those who
had been thus erippled, although they
were many miles away from them.
Gato (Apud Plin., XXVIII, 2) also
says that the same thing was done in
his day. I do not see how this ean be
possible, unless we admit the seeret
working of a Demon who subtly enters
the affeeted limbs and applies some
unknown curc, very much in the way
that, as we have just said, he performs
many other proaigies in the human
body. And if anyone tries to reeoneile
all these things with the normal pro-
eesses and operations of Nature, he
might just as well try to mcasure the
heavens with his hand.
But, it is argucd (Cardan, De stibtil .,
XVIII), jugglers and conjurers so
delude the speetators’ eyes that they
seem to thrust a knife into their
throats and then bring it out at their
mouths, to pieree their breast with a
sword, to bury a hunting spear in a
vital part of their entrails, to cut off
their hands, to pieree through their
noses, and infliet other wounds upon '
themselves. Again, they draw great
lengths of string from their throats as
if they were unro!ling a ball of it; they
mutilate and cut off their ears; and
it is said that not Iong sinee in Ger-
many one was seen to cut off his head
and immediately put it baek in its
piaee without suffcring any hurt.
They devour a wholc waggon of hay
together with the driver and the
horses, and perform many other
mar\’els which, as they all eonfess,
are done with the help of Demons.
To how much greater lengths, then,
will such deeeptions proeeed when
they are wrought by the Deroons
alone without the ageney of any man?
Will it not be very easy for them, when
DEMONOLATRY
BK. m. CH.t I.
142
a siek man is about to vomit, seeretly
to plaee such pieees of iron and other
trash in his mouth so that all the
speetators will think that they have
oeen vomited in the natural manner;
or to ereate the illusion of a wound in
the skin, through which these things
appear to be emitted? Surely, they
say, we should admit and acknow-
ledge this as being by far the more
likeiy and probable explanation, and
less antagonistie to nature.
But there is one faet which entirely
refutes such an argumcnt. These
objeets are not only seen by the eyes,
which are admittedly open to deeep-
tion: the reality of them is proved by
the faet that they ean be touched and
felt, whenever they are surgically
extracted from various bodies. I re-
member when I was a boy my father,
who was then Mayor of Charmes,
examincd a eertain witch who, among
her other erimes, eonfessed the follow-
ing:—that by her evil art she had
caused an abseess to grow on the ealf
of her ncighbour Blanehemont, and
that if they eared to open it, a ball
would eome out ofit. They therefore
laneed the abseess, and found in it a
big ball such as weavers use, which
was with difficulty extractcd by the
surgeon, Volsella, in sight of all who
were present. I saw this ball with my
own eyes when, at my father’s order,
it was brought to our housc by the
surgeon ; andall the servantscxamined
it carefully and attentively. Lang,
whose authority I have reeently
praised, has reeorded a similar
mstanee. There is, he says, in Ger-
many a town of the name of Ulrich,
where a farmer ealled Nenssesser was
afflieted with mystcrious bodily pains
so violent that he could not endure
them, and cut his throat; for while he
was yet alive an iron nail had been
extracted from under his skin, causing
him great pain. The surgcons, wish-
ing to examine and diseover the cause
of this rare siekness, opened the dead
man’s body; and in the presenee of all
the townsfolk who eared to attend,
there were found in his intestines a
stiek, four brass knives, two pieees of
iron, and a quantity of wool and hairs.
Whcn, therefore, the actuality of
these things is so obvious to the senses,
it is absurd to argue that because the
matter is strange and difficult it must
be an illusion; as if anything unlicard
of and difficult to understand must on
that account be unfeasible and im-
possible. Is it not better to examine
eaeh single ease on its merits than to
affeet an incredulous doubt and
uncertainly regarding the whole
subject?
☆
CHAPTER II
More of lhe Cunning of Demons in Destroy -
ing and Pollitáng Mankind.
T HE people of our country, espeei-
ally the peasants, have an ola and
pcrnicious custom. Whcn one of them
falls ill of some strange and unknown
siekness, he at onee sets about getting
something toeat or drinkfrom the house
of the witch whom he suspccts to have
caused his siekness; and this he eats or
drinks in the greatest eonfidenee that
it will restore him to health. Not a
few have maintained that they have
found a perfeet cure by this means;
and this is not denied by the witchcs
who have been questioncd with regard
to the matter.
The Judgc (at Chcrmesil, Novem-
ber 1584) asked Dominiquc Epvre
with some curiosity whether there was
any truth in the persistent rumours to
this effeet; and she answcred tltat
more than onee it had eome to her
ears that those whom she had be-
witched had reeovered their health
without her help or eonsent; and that
when she expostuIatcd with her
Demon, who had promised that no
one whom she had bcwitched should
reeover without her eonsent, he had
merely replied: “Are they not fools to
purchase their health from you and
bk. m. ch. m.
DEMONOLATRY
me, and to be so madly credulous as
to ovve it to our arts ana powers?”
O erafty Areh-sehemer, who so cun-
ningly cxploits man’s feebleness to
bring about his own downfall! For
how could he causc a more eomplete
wrcck and ruin than by undermining
a man’s faith, by which alone he is
brought near and reeoneiled to God,
and by which alone he ean ask and
obtain from God all that he desires?
When the demoniae’s father asked
Jesus to help him and his son, He
answered : “lf thou believe, I will help
thee.” Again, whcn the blind men
prayed Him to restore their sight, He
said: “Aeeording to your faith be it
unto you” (S. Matthew, ix). And
another time: “As thou hast believed,
so be it done unto thee” (S. Matthcw
viii). What is faith but the ehain by
which alone God’s goodness to men is
firmly securcd? Wnat is it but the
eovenant by which God reeeives us
into His eare and proteetion, and by
which we in our tum entrust ourselvcs
to His arms? What wonder, then, if
Satan, the great rival of God and
deadly hater of man, eannot endurc
such faith; and that he should have
no greater eare than to undcrmine
and destroy it, and finally transfer it
to none but himself. Many are the
deviees which he employs to this end;
but none is so eífeetive as when he
imbues a man with hope of reeovering
the health which he has onee lost.
For who would rcfu.se any eondition
to attain such a result? Therefore does
Satan first send sieknesses and mala-
dies (and, gracious God ! what mala-
dies! Not seldom they are such as to
drive a man to fury and madness):
then he shows a quick and easy way
to their cure; namely, the eatmg of
some food taken from the house of him
who is conicctured to have caused the
siekness. For who, being in such acute
pain, will be so steadfast and firm as
to rejeet so quick and seeminelygratui-
tous a remedy! Who wouIa not em-
braee it as the greatest benefit, or
think for a moment that there was any
143
guile or harm in it! But as Vergil has
ìt, Eclogue III:
“Frigidiis * 0 puerifngite hinc t latet anguis
in herha."
For in the first plaee he bids us put
all our eonfidenee and hope in that
morsel of food, and thus tums us from
the Crcator to the creature, which is
an intolerable blasphemy. Then he
attributcs the healing power of that
morsel not to any inherent quality of
its own, but to the faet that it has been
either stolen or begged from the witch.
And finally, which ìs most abominable
of all, he dríves us to the neeessity of
supplicating, beseeehing, and even
remuncrating the very persons whom
we know for a eertainty to be the
enemies and opponents of God and all
mankind, in general, and to have
strieken us in particular with an ill-
ness. It is as ìf we gave thanks to
robbers because they have only robbed
iis, and have not also murdered us.
And so we make witches even more
vindietive and eonfident in wrong-
doing, sinee tiiey see that they are
rcwarded for their evil deeds. And
finally we purchasc a brief and uncer-
tain bodily health at the priee of sure
and etemal damnation to our souls.
■ír
CHAPTER III
That there is nothing ivhieh ean so quickly
and effeetively inauce ÍVitehes to remove
an Evil Spell as Threats and Blows
and Violenee. But that no small Care
must he taken lest a slight Evil be
exchanged for a Greater , attended ivith
even heavier Loss. The eommon Pro-
eedare in this Matler is deelared; and it
is disputed ivhether or not such foreible
Extortion of a Cure ean be praelised ivith-
out Mortal Hurt to his Soul who uses it.
N EARLY all witches who have
been questioned on the matter
have eonfessed that, the more they are
- “ Frigidas .” Vergil, Eelogae III, 55.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. III.
feared the more eonfidently do they do
evil; vvhereas threats and the fear of
imprisonment avail much to foree
them to remove their spells. This vvas
fully and elearly admitted at Serre in
Deeember 1586 by Claude Morèle,
who said that nothing so effeetively
eompelled him to cure the ills which
he had causcd as the íear of arrest
or the threat of b!ows or some violenee.
There was a eertain man who, on
account of his widc knowlcdge and
cxperience, was admitted into the
inner councils of our Most Serene
Duke. I vvas talking with him of this
matter, whcn in all scriousncss he told
me the following:—It had been told
him that his little son had snddenly
been taken siek, and that it was
thought that a eertain old woman had
caused this by witchcraft. On hearing
this, he íìrst of all elosely questioned
the nurse, who had been earrying the
ehild when the siekness attaeked him.
Then he eonsidered and examined in
ever>' detail the natnre of the siekness,
vvhether or not it was one to which a
ehild of that age wouId naturally be
liabie; and when he had deeided
beyond doubt that it cou!d not have
been caused exccpt by some evil art
or spell, he concluded, after weighing
the vvhole matter very carefully in his
mind, that there was nothing left for
him to believe but that it was the old
woman who had caused his son’s siek-
ness. He therefore summoned her to
him, and when she was alone with
him in the house spoke to her at first
with much gentleness, asking her, if
she knew of any remedy for the siek-
ness, not to begmdge applying it, for
she would not find him ungrateful.
But when he saw that she began to be
very volublc in her efforts to remove
all suspicion from herself, and obstin-
ately denied that she kncw any remed-
ies, he took up a cudgel vvhieh he had
ready, and soDelabourcdhershouldcrs
and flanks that she said she would do
what he asked. She only asked a
little time to get together what was
required. This was at onee granted,
and she was given permission to do
what seemed good to her to the siek
ehild; and very soon, by the appliea-
tion of eertain matters, which werc
rather a blind to eover her vviteheraft
than of any virtue in themselves, she
restored hím to his former health.
My friend Antonius Blyenstem,
Trcasurcr of the Provinee of Dommar-
tin, onee told me that the same tliing
had happened to one of his sons.
“Ghildlike,” he said, “the boy had
wandcred away from his mother and
was playing about in church, whcn an
old woman eame by and stroked his
head as if in blessing, and after vvish-
ing him wcll wcnt out by the door.
At onee the boy’s head drooped, he
could hardly stand, and his erying
made it elear that he was siek. When
he was taken home and his siekness
grew worse every hour, there was no
doubt in the minds of all who had
heard what had happened that it had
been caused by that old woman, who
was already suspected of many aets of
witchcraft. Therefore she was foreibly
brought to my house by some of the
ncighbours to undo the evil whích she
had done; and as soon. as she was in
the boy’s presenee she began to be
afflieted in the same way as he; for her
who!e faee went livid and she foamed
at the mouth, so much to the speeta-
tor’s horror that she seemed about to
go mad. On the fol!owing night she
asked to lie in the same bed with the
boy, put her arms all about hirn and
her mouth to his moutli, as if she
meant to restore his health by her
warmth and breath. And the women
who were watching said that they
heard about the boy a buzzine such
as gadflies make in summer,untií there
disappeared from view a fragment of a
Gospel text which had been scwn on
to his pillow for an amulct; but they
could not tell whether the witch or her
Demon did this. But it was eertain
that the boy, who the day before had
been thought at death’s door, was per-
feetly well and strong by the dawn.
Yet the witch did not labour for
BK. III. CH. III.
DEMONOLATRY
nothing; for to repay herself for that
good deed she shortly afterwards be-
witched and killed the greater part of
the eattle which were stabled at that
house.”
There are many p>oints worthy of
observation in this stor)'. First, not
even the hoiiness and sanetity of a
church takes from witches the will and
the power to do evil, unlcss God in
His espeeiai goodness forbids and pre-
vents them. We have already given
an example of this; where a witch
during the saered offìee fatally
sprinkled with an asperge a girl whom
sne had been unable to injnre in any
other way. More than onee we have
seen the images of Saints broken and
east down in their shrines by lightning,
believed to have been direeted against
them by some Demon. For nowhere
do the Demons more love to perpe-
trate their iniquities than where their
hideousness is enhaneed and intensi-
fied by eontempt.
Seeondly, they Iike to disguisc their
malefaetions under the pretcxt of a
benedietion. Whcn Joab was about
to slay Amasa with a sword, he em-
braeed him in friendly fashion and
said: “Art thou in health, my
brother?” (II. Sam. xx. 9). And
Judas (whom the harmonizers of the
Old and New Testaments make Joab’s
parallel) saluted his Master with a
kiss, which is the mark of the greatest
friendship among the Jews, when he
was about to deliver Him to be tor-
tured and put to death by His cxecu-
tioners. It is, moreover, the custom of
soreerers to use in their eharms and
ineantations holy images, solemn
prayers, and even the ineffable Name
of God Himself. Finally, it is no new
thing, aeeording lo Aulus Gellius*
- “GellìtiS ." “/n libro Plinii Seeimdi
Naturalis Historiae septimo legimas: esse
quasdam in terra Afriea familias homimim,
uoce atque lingua effascinantium: qui si impen-
sius forte laudauerint pulchras arbores, segetes
laetiores, infantes amoeniores, egregios equos,
peeades pastu atque cultu opimas, emoriantur
repente haee omnia, milti aliae eatisae obnoxia."
H5
(IX, a) and Pliny (VII, 1), tofind men
who, oy blessing and overmuch prais-
ing the treesand erops.lay aspell upon
them and destroy tnem; and for this
reason it was an aneient custom, says
Aristotle, when a man was about to
praise anything, to prefaee something
in order to ward off any harm to that
which was praised. So Vergil writcs,
Eclogue VII:
“If he shall overpraise him, bind
valerian
Round the young poet’s brow, that
evil speaking
Do him no hurt.”
Thirdly, it is to be observed that the
benefit eonferred by Demons (if it ean
rightly be ealled a benefit) ts never
solid and full and unadulterated; but
always has to be paid for by its reei-
pient with some even greater loss or
misfortune. For no sooner have they
driven a siekness from one man than
they immediately transfer it to some
other; and one man’s safety is always
purchascd at the cxpense of another’s
destmetion. S. Gregory of Tours, in
his Historia Francorum, VI, 35, tells
how this faet was exemplified by eer-
tain witches of Paris who, after having
by their evil spell brought a mortal
siekness upon the Prefeet Mummol,
could by no other means restore him
to health than by winning his eonsent
to the death of the two-year-old son of
King Chilperic, who was his father’s
only and beloved heir to the kingdom.
The historians of aneient times are
full of examples of this transferenee of
evils wrought by men steeped in
devilish error. For instanee, when
Admetus was King at Pherae, Apollo
obtained from the Fates a eompaet
with Death that he should be spared
if another could be found to die for
him. And when a great ehasm opened
in the middle of the Forumf at Rome,
t tl Forum." When a ehasm gaped in the
Forum al Rome in 362 a.e., the soolhsayers
announced it could only be filled by throwing
into it the eity's greatesl treasvre , whereupon a
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. III.
I46
an oraele pronounced that it would
not elose up until a youth of the
highest hope had leapea into it. And
here it is profitable to remark upon
the wide differenee bctwcen the
fatherly goodness of God and the
tyrannieal cruclty and harshness of
the Devil; for God turns the misfor-
tunes of men to their own safety and
salvation; whcreas the Devil, when-
ever it lies in his power, turns their
prosperity to sure ealamity and des-
tmetion.
Fourthly, it should be noted that,
with the greatest moekery and eon-
tempt, witchcs ape and eopy the
methods employea by Elisha, Éliiah,
S. Paul, and many of the Holy Fathers
in reealling men to life; for they
streteh themselves limb for limb upon
the siek and embraee them with their
whole bodv. I have already stated at
some lengtli that Satan is the greatest
eopier and imitator of the works of
God.
And lastly, the Demon pretends a
horror and terror of parehments
inseribed with saered names or ehar-
aeters, eharms, phylaeteries, and such
talismans and periapts, which men
eommonly wear as a proteetion against
evil enehantments. But it must not be
thought that this is because such
things are any impediment to him;
for in nearly all their spells and im-
postures and cures he teaehes his sub-
jeets to usc such things in order to
ereate a greater impression of well-
doing, and more espeeially to fix the
attention of the ignorant upon such
thíngs, so that he may eonfirm and
establish them in their debased beliefs
and that, negleeting far more salutary
remedies, tliey may plaee their wholc
hope of safety in such trifles. For if
gallant youth, Mettus or Mettius Curtius, in
/ull armour, mmintei his steed and leaped into
tke abyss, which ineontinently elosed over him.
Varro says that the spot was blasted by light -
ning in 445 b.c. and was enelosed by Curtius,
one of the eonsvls for that year, whence the
legend had its origin.
(to quote S. John Chrysostom, Homel.
73 in Matlhew) the Gospel preaehed
lrom a pulpit has not benefited a man’s
soul, what profit to his body ean he
look for from fragments written on
f )icces of parehment? Wherein, I ask,
ies the virtuc of the Gospel? In the
form and eharaeters of its letters, or
in its sense and meaning? Therefore
it is all one to the Demons if a man
always bears such things about his
neek, if he has not their meaning
fìxcd and implanted in his soul.
But let us now return to our inter-
ruptcd narrative. Nieolaea Stephana,
who was a subject of the Premonstra-
tensian Abbey of Saint-Paul-de-Vcr-
dun, was engaged in Deeember 1587,
for pay, to rid the eastle of Dommartin
from a plague which was infesting it
(for she used to earn a living by such
means), and she did her work very
promptly and thoroughly. But when
the neeessary interval haa elapsed and
there was no longer any fear of the
plague again breaking out, and she
nad been paid her money and given
leave to depart, she was sorry to have
to leave so good and generous a way
of living sooner than she had expccted,
and deeided to find some means of
delaying her dcparture; and thought
that her best plan would be to bring
some siekness upon the Castellan’s
wife, sinee she had been so preeipitate
in disinissing her. So she at onee
deeided to affliet her with some illness,
so that she would again be hired to
stay and heal it. She aeeordingly went
forthwith to the woman’s bedrtKim
and, standing at the door, said:
“Look, your stay-laees are undonel
Let me tie them for you.“ And, while
doing her this apparent serviee, she
eleverly shook down the baek of her
neek some poison powder which she
had in her hand. At onee the woman
was seized with a violent trembling
of her limbs, such as occurs at the
onset of a high fever; and soon she
was afflieted with such pain in the feet
that her toes were hiaeouslY twisted
round to her heels. Whcn alí this was
BK. ni. CH. III.
DEMONOLATRY
sccn and undcrstood by the servants,
the witch was seized and kept under
observation, and finally terrified by
threats of a beating and the assurance
that she would not be liberated until
she had restored to health their mis-
tress whom she had bewitchcd. For
the suspicion that she was a witch was
enhaneed by the faet that they had
heard her say that, whatever skill she
liad in averting or preventing the
plague, she had learned from one
Matthieu Amants, who had not
Iong before been senteneed for witch-
eraft, and that as the priee of her
leaming she had been defiled by him
and made pregnant. At first she
loudly protested that they wcrc doing
her a grievous wrong to abusc her so
after she had done them so great a
serviee, and even threatened to hang
herself; but when she saw that they
remained just as firm in their purpose
and that she could get no good that
way, she ehanged her taeties and her
tone, and asked them, sinee they
insisted upon her curing their mis-
tress, to give her time to think whcthcr
she had ever heard tell of any remedy
for that siekness. After a íittle she
retumed and said that she had found
something upon which they could
eonfidently rely for the curc they
desired; for she knew of a herb which,
if bniised in the sníTerer’s bath, would
infallibly heal her; only she prayed
them not to be disturbed if some little
time elapsed before the cure was eom-
plete, sinee the siekness was not such
as could easily be remedied. Mean-
while the witch’s son, who was with
her there, seeing how his mother had
been treated, feared the like for him-
self, sinee he knew that he was her
assoeiate, and at the dead of night let
himself down by a rope from the
battlements of the eastle wall; but the
next day lie was caught and brought
baek and, being bidden to tell why he
had so seeretly made his eseape, told
the who!c story as it has been set down
here; adding that he himself had been
the prime instigator of his mother and
>47
had urged her to take this course whcn
she was seeking for an excusc to pro-
long her stay in the eastle; and he said
furthcr that there was no remedial
virtue in all those lotions which she
was so assiduous!y applying to the
siek woman, but that they were merely
a pretext to make it apnear that the
cure had been effeeted by natural
means; for from the very moment that
they had threatened to beat her she
had seeretly administered an antidote,
but had not been able to prevent the
siekness from continuing for its
allotted time. Let them wait until
two weeks to the hour had passed
from the time of the onset of the siek-
ness; for then without doubt the siek
woman would reeover and be freed
from all pain; feeling nothing worse
than a wearincss of the limbs. And
this predietion was not falsified, for at
the very time which he had named the
pain was assuaged. But on the follow-
ing night it returned with even greater
violenee; for, as it was afterwards dis-
eovered, the witch had repented of
having cured her because she saw that
by doing so she had provided an
opportunity for bringing a eharge of
witchcraft against herself, together
with indisputable evidenee of the
faet; for it has already been shown
that such siekriesses ean hardly be
etired or assiiaged except by the witch
who causcd them; and for this reason
she repeated and renewcd the poison.
Whcn, therefore, on the ncxt day they
eharged her son with the falsity of his
predietion, he curscd much under his
breath, but would only say that they
must beat his mother unmercifully,
for that was the only remedy for her
subterfugcs. So she was seized, and
two brawny peasants did not eease to
hammer and kiek and pound and
shake her, and fmally to drag her to
the fire, nntil she gave hrr promise to
heal the siek woman at that very hour.
And this promise she fulfillcd, giving
her to eat an apple which she had in
full view druggcd with a whitc
powder. Thus at last she was given
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. m.
I48
leave to depart as she had before been
promised, and fell into the hands of
the offieers ofjustice who were waiting
for her at the eastle gate. By these.
at the eommand of the Judgc who had
inquired into her life and behaviour,
she was arrested and lhrown into
prison, where she soon eonfessed
everything that we have here nar-
rated; and at Iast she and her son
were burned together in the fire.
There are lwo ehief lessons which
vv'e ean learn from this story. First,
that the remedies applied by witchcs
for the sieknesses they have caused
have no curativc power in themselves,
but are a mere eover to the spells
which, from fear of the law’s severity,
they dare not usc openly. Thus they
use herbs and unguents and lotions
and other things of everv-day use, in
which there is no particuíar medieinal
valuc. Or else it is their deliberate
purp>ose to steep men’s minds in
superstition; as when they persuade
them to undertakc with spccious piety
votive pilgrimages, nine days’ aevo-
tions, lustrations, offerings, and other
such exercises as are daily used by
Christians. Or, finally, their intention
is to undcrmine and destroy the faith
and trusl which we should plaee in
God alone, by causing us to transfer
it to some artiefe of food or drink
stolen from the witch’s housc, and by
eating which wc trust to be reeovered
from the illness with which wc are
suffering. For these beldams willingly
permit this to be done, even to the
cxtent of great damage to their house-
hold, so long as they ean implant in
the eommon mind the base notion that
they have at their eommand, as it
were from an apotheeary’s vvorkshop,
an infallible cure for their diseases.
Nay (as Pliny the Youngcr says), they
thus elaim to have eontrol over the
Gods in their own houscs, so that they
alone are able to help and proteet the
rest of the human raee.
Seeondly, wc must not negleet to
note hovv this story cxcmp!ifics the
truth that the Demon’s hands are so
tenacious that he does not easily aIIow
anything to be taken from him which
he has onee laid hold of. Therefore,
if at the request of his diseiples he has
afflieted anyone with a disease, it
usually happens that this must be
cxchanged for an even vvorse siekness,
as has already been said; or its cure
and easement must be delayed till a
eertain time which eannot be antiei-
ated, however much the witch may
eseeeh him to do so. Thus there must
always reinain something vvhieh the
Demon ean count as his gain. But let
us proeeed with the relation of other
examples.
Stephan Noaeh of Castel-nuit (,July
1586) for three years continuously
was so siek that it wanted little to
drive him mad. Being, therefore,
despaired by all, and having tried in
vain every remedy which the skill of
his physieians eoidd suggest, he at last
thought of approaehing a fortunc-
teller. There was at that time at Cran«
ville one who was pre-eminently
famous in that art, and to him in
person he told his whole trouble. The
fortune-telIcr said that the siekness
had been brought upon him by the
woman whom he would find talking
to his wife on his return home; ana
that he must vveave a ehain of pliant
twigs and throw it over her neek as
soon as he eame into her presenee, and
fiereely threaten to strangle her at
onee unless she immediately restored
him to health. Aeeordingly, he eame
home and found sitting with his wife
by the hearlh an old vvoman named
Pariseta of Ncuvi!lc, and, as he had
been told, terrified her by word and
deed as much as he could. She then
fell before his knees and begged him
to pardon her, and promised for sure
that she would heal him eompletely
from all his infirmity if he would but
do what she told him to do. This
was, first that he should make no
difficulty about eating a pear which
she would give him; for although at
first it vvould seem to be as hard as
stone, yet after he had rubbed it a
BK. III. CH. III.
DEMON OLATRY
little in his hands it would beeome as
soft as if it had been thoroughly well
eooked. Then he must go straight to
bed; for his siekness wou!d then attaek
him violently, even to the point of
death; and therefore he must eall in
two pieked matrons from the neigh-
bournood to keep watch over him
that night. The vjle woman meant to
proteet herself by the presenee of these
two women, in ease she were accused
of witchcraft when so long and grave
an illness should be so easily and
quickly cured; for it was by no means
her intention to do openly that which
she was to do. Noaeh deelared that
he would refusc no eondition as long
as he could be cured of his terrible
disease. But when he took the pear,
at first he could not get his teeth into
it, for it was plainly made of.iron;
but even as he was saying so, and in
the meantime rubbing it a little witb
his hands, he found to his surprisc
that it had beeome as soft as wool.
He ate it (and it was most nauseous
to the taste), and at onee felt such a
burning heat in his belly that red-hot
eoals could hardly have caused him
greater agony. He was hurricd into
bed, to all appearanee breathing his
last: his anxious wife brought two
matrons to watch over him with her
that night, to whom the witch volun-
tarily joined herself as the third, with
a countenance so eomposed to grief
that her false tears might easily have
been taken for those of his wífe.
They kept careful watch up to mid-
night, wlicn the witch, like another
Mercury,* seeretly dusted her eom-
panions with a powder offorgctfulness
• "Mereviy." So of Merairy sent forlh by
Jiipiter, Vergtl, "Aineid," IV, 242-45: "Tum
tiirgam eapit: hae animas ille euocat Oreo pal -
lentes, alias sub Tartara tristia mitlit, dat
somnosque adimitque, et lumina morte resig-
nal.”
Also Ovid, "Metamorphoseon,” I, 671-72,
when Merenry goes to lull Argus to slumber;
"Parw mora est, alas pedibus, uirgamqut
potenli somniferam sumsisse mam, tegimenque
eapillis."
H 9
so that they sank into a profound
sleep. Then she took the siek man
upon her shouldcr and earried him
into the garden, where she plaeed
him upon an cnormous bear which
appeared there. Then the bear kept
earrying him up and down and to and
fro, all the time groaning as if it wcre
being weighed down by too great a
burden; but in reality it was the voiee
of the Demon, eomplaining becausc
he was being foreed against nis naturc
to use his power for granting the man
the great benefit of the restoration of
his health. But the witch ehid him
for his tardiness, and more and more
insistently urged him to aeeomplish
his journey, saying: “Come on now,
lazy and hateful beast! Now you are
getting your deserts, you who so long
ago eompelled me against my will to
alrliet this man.” Tne panie-strieken
rider afterwards with the greatest
eonfidenee bore witness that he had
heard these words. Meanwhile the
women who were watching in the
bedroom awoke, and finding it empty
hurriedly searehed and examined the
whole house to see if they could find
the missing man; and when thev at
Iast found him in the garden aíone
with the witch, they asked why he had
gone away like that without telling
them, naked and unaccompanied.
The witch took eare to answer first,
saying: “Can you not see that I
brought him nere to empty his
bowels?" But thev did not stop to
bandy words with her, their only eare
being to take the man up and get him
baek to bed as quickly as possible;
yet all of them together could hardly
manage this by putting forth their
every effort, whcreas the witch had
easily earried him out by herself. Now
whereas the ehief eondition of their
aereement had been that Noaeh,
after he had performed all the aliove,
should be entirely cured of his disease,
yet there still remained no little pain.
The witch attributed this to the un-
timely arrival of those women, by
which she had been prevented from
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. III.
I48
leave to depart as she had before been
promised, and fell into the hands of
the offieers ofjustice who were waiting
for her at the eastle gate. By these,
at the eommand of the Judge who had
inquired into her life and behaviour,
she was arrested and thrown into
prison, where she soon eonfessed
everything that we have here nar-
ratea; and at last she and her son
were burncd together in the fire.
There are two ehief lessons which
we ean learn from this story. First,
that the remedies applied by witches
for the sieknesses tiiey have causcd
have no curative power in themselves,
but are a mere eover to the spells
which, from fear of the Iaw’s severity,
they dare not use openly. Thus they
use herbs and unguents and Iotions
and other things of every-day usc, in
which there is no particuíar medieinal
value. Or else it is their deliberate
purpose to steep men’s minds in
superstition; as when they persuade
them to undcrtakc with spccious piety
votive pilgrimages, nine days’ aevo-
tions, lustrations, offerings, and other
such exercises as are daiíy used by
Ohristians. Or, fmally, their intention
is to undcrmine and destroy the faith
and trust which we should plaee in
God alone, by causing us to transfer
it to some artiele of food or drink
stolen from the witch’s house, and by
eating which we trust to be reeovered
from the illness with which we are
suffering. For these beldams willingly
perrnit this to be done, even to the
extent of great damage to their house-
hold, so long as they ean implant in
the eommon mind the base nolion that
they have at their eommand, as it
wcre from an apotheeary’s workshop,
an infallible cure for their diseases.
Nay (as Pliny the Younger says), they
thus elaim to have eontrol over the
Gods in their ovvn houscs, so that they
alone are able to help and proteet the
rest of the human raee.
Seeondly, wc must not negieet to
note how this story cxemp!ifics the
truth that the Demon’s hands are so
tenacious that he does not easily alIow
anything to be taken from him which
he has onee iaid hold of. Therefore,
if at the rcquest of his diseiples he has
afflieted anyone with a disease, it
usually happens that this must be
cxchanged for an even worse siekness,
as has already been said; or its cure
and easement must be delayed till a
eertain time which eannot be antiei-
E ated, however much the witch may
eseeeh him to do so. Thus there must
always remain something which the
Demon ean count as his gain. But let
us proeeed with the relation of other
examplcs.
Stephan Noaeh of Castel-nuit (July
1586) for three years condnuously
was so siek that it wanted little to
drive him mad. Being, therefore,
despaired by all, and having tried in
vain every remedy which tne skill of
his physieians could suggest, he at last
thought of approaehing a fortune-
teller. There was at that time at Cran-
ville one who was pre-eminently
famous in that art, and to him in
person he told his who!c troubIe. The
fortune-teIIer said that the siekness
had been brought upon him by the
woman whom he would find talking
to his wifc on his return home; and
that he must vveave a ehain of pliant
twigs and throw it over her neek as
soon as he eame into her presenee, and
fiereely threaten to strangle her at
onee unless she immediately restored
him to health. Aeeordingly, he eame
home and found sitting with his wife
by the hearth an old woman nained
Pariseta of Ncuvillc, and, as he had
been told, terrified her by word and
deed as much as he coula. She then
fell before his knees and begged him
to pardon her, and promised for sure
that she wou!d heal him eoinplelely
from all his infirmity if he would but
do what she told him to do. This
was, first that he should make no
difficulty about eating a pear which
she vvould give him; for although at
first it wou!d seem to be as hard as
stone, yet after he had rubbed it a
BK. III. CH. III.
DEMONOLATRY
little in his hands it would beeome as
soft as if it had been thoroughly well
eooked. Then he must go straight to
bed; for his siekness would then attaek
him violently, even to the point of
death; and therefore he must eall in
two pieked matrons from the neigh-
bournood to keep watch over him
that night. The vile woman meant to
proteet herself by the presenee of these
two women, in ease sne were accused
of witchcraft whcn so long and grave
an illness should be so easily and
quickly cured ; for it was by no means
her intention to do openly that which
she was to do. Noaeh deelared that
he would refuse no eondition as long
as he could be cured of his terrible
disease. But when he took the pear,
at first he cou!d not get his teeth into
it, for it was plainly made of.iron;
but even as he was saying so, and in
the meantime rubbing it a little with
his hands, he found to his surprise
that it had beeome as soft as wool.
He ate it (and it was most nauseous
to the taste), and at onee felt such a
burning heat in his belly that red-hot
eoals could hardly have caused him
greater agony. He was hurried into
bed, to aìl appearanee breathing his
last: his anxious wife brought two
matrons to watch over him with her
that night, to whom the witch volun-
tarilyjoined herself as the third, with
a countenance so eomposed to grief
that her false tears might easily liave
been taken for those of his wife.
They kept careful watch up to mid-
night, when the witch, like another
Mercury,* seeretly dusted her eom-
panions with a powder of forgctfulness
- l 'Mercury." So of Meremy sent forth by
Jupiter, Vergil, "JEntid," IV, 242-45: "Tum
uìrgam eapit: hae animas ille euocat Oreo pal-
lentes, altas sub Tartara tristia mittit, dat
somnosque adimitque, et lumina morte resig-
nat
Also Ovid, " Metamorphoseon," I, 6'71-72,
when Mtrcury goes to lull Argus to slumber:
"Pama mora est, alas pedibus, uirgamque
potenti somniferam sumsisse manu, tegimenque
eapillis"
149
so that they sank into a profound
sleep. Then she took the siek man
upon her shoulder and earried him
into the garden, where she plaeed
him upon an enormous bear which
appeared there. Then the bear kept
earrying him up and down and to and
fro, all the time groaning as if it wcre
being weighed down by too great a
burden; but in reality it was the voiee
of the Demon, eomplaining becausc
he was being foreed against his nature
to usc his power for granting the man
the great Denefit of the restoration of
his health. But the witch ehid him
for his tardiness, and more and more
insistently urged him to aeeomplish
his journey, saying: “Come on now,
lazy and hateful beast! Now you are
getting your deserts, you who so long
ago eompelled me against my will to
affliet this man.” The panie-strieken
rider aftenvards with the greatest
eonfidenee bore witness that he had
heard these words. Meanwhile the
women who were watching in the
bedroom awoke, and finding it empty
hurriedly searehed and examined the
whole house to see if they could find
the missing man; and when thev at
last found him in the garden alone
with the witch, they asked why he had
gone away like that without telling
them, naked and unaccompanied.
The witch took eare to answer fìrst,
saying: “Can you not see that I
brought him nere to empty his
bowels?” But they did not stop to
bandy words with her, their only eare
being to take the man up and get him
baek to bed as quickly as possible;
yet all of them together could hardly
manage this by putting forth their
every effort, whereas the witch had
easily earried him out by herself. Now
whereas the ehief eondition of their
agreement had been that Noaeh,
after he had performed all the above,
should be entirely curcd of his disease,
yet tbere still remained no little pain.
The witch attributed this to the un-
timely arrival of those women, by
which she had been prevented from
I 5 0
DEMONOLATRY
bk. ra. ch. in.
earrying her well-begun work to a
successful conclusion; but she said
that the siekness wouid last for another
eight days at the most, after which his
health would be eompletely restored
without any further aisappointment.
And so it proved. Being apprehended
on the elear evidenee of this and many
other erimes, she was at last put in
prison; but, through the earelessness
of her wardresses, she broke gaol and
eseaped.
In this tale also there are points not
unworthy of the reader’s attention.
First, that among Christian men of
our day soothsayers eonfidently and
with impunity live and praetise their
art; altnough all men whose souls
have been imbued with a knowledge
of the true God have banished them
from the soeiety of men. Moses (Levil.
xx. 6 and Deut. xviii. 11), Saul (i Sam.
xxviii. 3) and Josiah (n. Kings xxiii.
24) pronounced the extreme penalty
against those under their authority
who were found to be soothsayers.
Constantine (I, 3, de Malefie. C.) eom-
manded that they who consulted with
them should be banished; and Con-
stantius and Julian (I, Nemo atispi-
eem) that they should be put to the
sword. At the Councils of Aneyra*
(eap. 24), Toledof (eap. 28) and
OrleansJ (eap. 32), among many
others, the Holy Fathers deereed that
they were to be exterminated from
the eonfines to Christendom. And it
has been finally agreed by all Chris-
tians that these men are not to be
cndured in the Church; and espeeially
do they execrate and eall down curses
upon those of them who hold their
meetings on Sundays. Yet do Kings
and Pnnees daily eonsort with such
men and summon them to them for
no small hire; and the eommon
people, more eonfident to sin with
- “Aneyra.” The proelamation of this
Council asfomd in the prooisions of the Canon
Episeopi, eirea goo.
f “ Toledo." The Councìls of 633 and 693.
t “ Orleans** The Council of 333.
such authority, follow their example.
For they consult with those who, by
tuming a sieveS or a key, diseover the
whereabouts of that wnich has been
stolen or lost; who immerse in holy
water parehments upon which are
written the names ol those who are
suspccted of theft; who praetise the
protraetion or eontraetion of napkins,
and use other such damnable arts as
could not be cquallcd by the impiety
of all the men of old times with their
pyromaney, aeromaney, hydromaney
and geomaney. Then those bands of
thieves who, under the false name of
tgyptians, roarn over the greater part
of Éuropc, stealing as if by lieenee, in
no way show themselves more plau-
sible than when they pretend to fore-
tell for the ignorant masses what
fortune is in store for them. Here I
will make no more than a passing
referenee to far more abominable
soothsayers than that one of Cran-
ville; such as the monk in Niderhau,
the woman at the Hot Springs near
Mirecour, the disehargea soldier at
Naney, and many others who publicly
and in security make a living by this
praetiee.
The story goes on to the effeet that
it was neeessary to twist that ehain of
pliant withs to throw over the witch’s
neek. It is a eommon belief that there
is nothing so effeetive to beat witches
with as a cudgel cut from a vine; but
it is not easy to find any reason for
this, if indeed it is true; and the eom-
mentators on Pliny (Hist. Nat. XIV),
Livy (In Flori eompendio), Plutarch
§ “SieveIn the “Opera Omnia ” of Cor-
nelias Agrippa. Lyons (no date ), Vol. II,
ehapter xxi, being a portion of a treatise attri -
buted to Pietro d'Apone, will be found full di-
reetions how to tum the sieoe, with an engrav-
ing. The riddle is svpported by seissors or pin-
eers which tivo persons snstain with their mtddle
fingers. A eonjaration is attered, and the in-
strument tums. It is neeessary to name the sus-
peets, and when the name of the guilty party is
spoken the sieve stops immediately in its oseil-
latìons.
BK. III. CH. III.
DEMONOLATRY
In Galba ), Vegetiiis Renatus* (Lib.
I. De rt militar.) and Spartianus| (/«
Adriani tiila), are still faeed with the
same difficuíty when they try to dis-
eover the reason why to be beaten
with a vine cudgel was a privileged
punishment reserved for soldiers who
were Roman eitizens, and why the
centurions bore a vine staíT as the sign
and symbol oftheir offiee. Thelegion-
ary in Apuleius (De Asin. Aur. Lib. 9)
was, I think, lying with the usual bold-
ness of his kind whcn he said that the
centurion had found outside the eamp
a gardener on the road and, inffiriated
at his silenee in answer to his questions
had knoeked him off his ass with the
vine wand which he earried in his
hand, and then, turning it round, had
split his head open with the larger end
ofit. And yet there must be something
in this which, as we read in Josephus
of Eleazar’s ringj and Solomon’s
• " Rmatits.” FlavitLS Vegetius Renahis,
the author of a trealise “Epitoma Rei Miii-
taris ,” which was probably written early in the
fifth eeninry. The malenals being meritieally
derived from many writers of different epoehs,
the restdt is that 1 isages of varytng periods are
indiseriminately mixed, and it has eoen been
snspeeted that the writer drew upon his imagina-
tion. Edited by C. Lang, Leipzig, 1885.
t "Spartiarms
The passage lo which re-
ferenee ts made deseribes the reforms of Hadrian
in mililary matlers: “nulli uitem, nisi robusto
et Bortae famae daret ” Upon this Casaubon
and Salmasias have oery ample notes which
may be consulted wilh profit. The former
glosses: “De uite centurionum omnia protrita:
illud tamen, quod seiam, explicauit adhuc
nemo: cur ut dittersa ponanlnr hie a Spartiano
haee duo: uitem dare, et faeere eentnrionem.
Ralio autem est: quia datio uitis, quasi desig-
natio fuit ad centurionatum: qui tunc postea
obibatur, cum erat aliquis uacuefactus loeits
morte unius centurionum, aut missione, uel re-
gradatione. Cum erant plures uite donati, pro-
mouebatur is qui erat gradu propior, aut qui
esset aniiquior eius loei condtdatus: Píisi qui
hunc proxime impellebat, eansam dieeret, cur
ille prior expelleretur.
$ “ Eleazar's ring
See “The History qf
iViteheraft,” Chapter V, pp. 194-5. Eleagar
(or Eliazar) was an exorcist, whom, in the
» 5 *
grass, has some notable effeet upon
the Demon and those whom he has
onee bound to himself. For it is told
of the Emperor Trajan that, when he
sent a written message to the oraele of
Jupitcr at Heliopolis to know whethcr,
after his war with the Parthians, he
would retum to Rome, the Demon
replied that he must bring into his
temple a vine wand split into two and
eovered with a handkerehief, and take
it out again on the day after the mor-
row. And although m this ease it
seems to be more eoneerned with
military qucstions and auguries, yet
it suggests that there is in the wood of
the vine some peculiar quality which
is laeking in other woods. This was
observed by Euphorion,§ who said
that formerly it was not lawful to make
an image of Rhea Dea except from
vine wood; and rightly so; for, as
Suidas testifies, she was otherwise
known as Cybcle, that is (aeeording
to Festus), the Goddess who drives
men to frenzy; and the Greeks had a
word KvfÌKjr&v, meaning to turn head
over heels; and her priests when per-
forming her rites used to roll tneir
heads about,
“NoddingH their heads to shake their
horrid plumes.”
And we have already told how this is
also done by witches when they are
frenzied in their danees. The Egyp-
tians believed that the vine grew trom
the seed ofgiants’ blood, because wine
presenee of the Emperor Vespasian, Josephus
actually saw easling out devils. The operator
applied to the nose of the possessed a ring hav-
ing attaehed to it a root which Solomon is said
to have preseribed; “Baaras” ( Solomon’s
grass ), a herb of magieal properties.
§ “ Evphorion.” Of Ókaleis in Euboea.
An eminent grammarian and poet, bom about
aj4 b.c. He tvas appointed librarian to Antio-
chus the Great, 231 . Of his tvritings, frag-
ments remain which were eolleeted by Meineke
in “Analeeta Alexandrina,” Berlin, 1848.
|[ “ Nodding .” Lucrctius, II, 632:
“terrifieas eapitam quatientes mtmirte eristas.”
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. UI.
»52
often makes men mad. Moses and
David speak figuratively of the grape,
meaning the blood. Órpheus* said
that it was unlawful to sow the vine
whcn the moon was entering the sign
of Virgo, as if there was little aeeord-
anee between Baeehie fury and vir-
inal modesty. And Pythagoras for-
ade the offering to the Gods of any-
thing from vines which had not been
cut. Finally, it eannot be without
some reason that wc are told that,
when Samson was moeking the im-
portunate and treacherous pleas of
Delilah, he told her that he would be
no stronger than other men if he were
bound with seven green withes of the
vine. Pliny (XXIX, 4} also says that
eoekerels will not crow if a ehain made
from vine twigs be hung about their
neeks.. For ages past, then, there has
been in the vine some property other
than that given to it by nature; and
all this goes to show that we must
admit that there lurk in it the seeds of
many abominations, not only by
reason of its innate power to overset a
man’s reason, by which wine beeomes
the conqueror of him who drinks it—
“Baeehmsf paved the way to erime,
’twas he
Who brought oblivion to the raging
Centaurs.”
But also, as is apparent from what we
have just said, by reason of the use to
which it is put in the magie arts.
The story then proeeeds to tell that,
before he could be restored to health,
Noaeh had to sit upon a bear; that
is, he had to put his faith in the power
of the Demon who was disguised as
- “ Orphms '’ The Orphie apoerypha were
edited by Hermann in 1805; and had been pre >
vionsly eolleeted by Gesner, 1764.
t “ Bacchus .” “ Georgies ,” //, 455-6:
“Bacchus et ad culpam causas dedit: ille
furentes
Centauros letho domuit
The referenee is to the dnmken brawl behveen
the Gentams and Lapithae at the rmptials of
King Pirithoas.
the bear which earried him. For it
is the Demon’s ehief aim, when he
wishes to corrupt us, that we should
put the greatest eonfidenee in him,
and there is always something of this
purpose in all his sehemes, so that he
may turn us from the Creator to the
creature and plunge us more deeply
into earthly thoughts. It is in eon-
neetion with this that wc see tumblers
and strolling jugglers always leading
bears with them, upon which, for a
fee, they plaee ehildren in order, for-
sooth, that they may thereafter be
more ser.ure from the fear of lioh-
goblins and speetres. Wc have already
mentioned many such ridiculous prae-
tiees, and in the fo!lowing ehapter we
shall deal with them in more detail
and at greater length.
But before we begin this task and
put an end to this qucstion, it is worth
while here to touch upon a matter
which has been dealt. with by many
authors : whcther or not it is possible,
without mortal hurt to the souI, to beg
and petition witches in this way to
heal our infirmities. Possibly it will be
said that any argument about this
question is superfluous after the elear
verdiet of so many of the older Theo-
logians, inehiding S. Thomas and
S. Bonaventura, supported by that of
more reeent authorities who eannot
be disregarded; but I have never been
persuaded that their utterances are
so inspired as to admitof nodiscussion.
For it makes agreatdifferencewhether
you take or obtain anything from
another by foree or by sypplieation:
in one ease you show eontempt and
disdain; in the other, admiration,
obedienee, and a humble and sub-
missive spirit of pleading. If a man
begs or bribes a witch to obtain from
her Little Master a cure for the siek-
ness from which he is suffering, then
I think that he does no less than as a
suppliant reverently to implore the
Demon for help, to ask to be bound to
him by a benefit reeeived, to worship
him with an offerin^, and therefore
to eonfess that he will be subjcct to
BK. III. GH. III.
DEMONOLATRY
him. Therefore every torment, and
even death itself, shou!d be endurcd
before we alIow ourselves to be led
into so horrible a saerilege. The Holy
Scriptures proelaim aloud that God
alone is to be worshipped and adored;
for He is a jealous God, who will not
sufler the glory and honour which is
due to Him to be paid to another
(Deut. vi. 4; S. Matthewxx ii. 37). And
this, I think, iswhat those Theologians
so sternly rebuke and eondemn. For
whcn the Emperor Gonstantine Iegis-
lated on this matter (In l. Ntilliis de
Malef. el Math.), he elearly showed
that the atroeity of the erime eon-
sisted in the pleadings and the
gifts with which soothsayers were
approaehed. And Photius in the
Mmoeanon* savs that the penalty of
that law shou!d only be incurred when
these consultations are aeeompanied
with offerings and sacrilegious saeri-
fiees.
But all these eonditions are observed
by the witches of our day. For first
they desire to be entreated, and often
even bribed with gifts; then they
deelare that the honour of one of the
Saints has been insulted and violated,
and that therefore he must be
appeased by a votive pilgrimage to
his shrine and by gifts and nine days’
saerifiees. What, in faet, it eomes to
is that you redeem your health by
worshipping and offering gifts to the
Demon who in the first plaee injured
it; and the witchcs speciously give the
- “ Nomoeanon .” A eolleetion of eeelesias-
tieal law, the elemenls of which are eompiled
from seetilar and eanon law. The Greek
Church has two such prineipal eolleetions. The
first, dating from the end of the sixth eentnry,
is aseribed to John Seholastieiis, tvhose eollee-
tion it amplifies and eompletes. The seeond is
aseribed to Photius, andforms a “Corpus Iuris”
of the Orlhodox eommmion. Photitis, the ehief
asithor of the great sehism between West and
Sast, was bom at Constantinople eirea 815,
and died in Febmary 897. But the “ Nomo-
eanon ” of Photiiis is hardly more tkan a re-
vision of the earlier eolleetion, probably made
by the Patriareh's orders.
Demon the name of a Saint so that
they may hide their saerilege under
some appearanee of religion. This
method of obtaining remedy for
disease is, then, entirely incxcusable,
and eannot be defended even on the
seore of the weakness of the flesh and
man’s natural eagerness and desire for
the restoration of his health; for men
should always look for such help from
their religion, the sanetity of which is
in this ease openly besmirehed, be-
fouled and violatea.
But if you use threats against a
witch whom you justiy suspcct of hav-
ing east a spell upon you; if, when
threats do not move her, you resort to
b!ows; if you eompel her willy-nilly to
remove the spell; where, I ask, is any
curryinj* offavour? What pleading or
beseeehing or veneration ean there be
in suc.h behaviour? How does the
matter stand when the effeet upon the
witch must be to make her bemoan
the faet that she has been despised and
driven to bring help to the very man
whom she has injured, rather than to
give her cause to boast of having
gained some favour or pleasure or
advantage? What if her Demon must
eonfess that he has been, so to speak,
seized by the scruff of his neek and
foreed to repair the wrong, and that
he has lost his prey and been put to
flight, moeked, derided, and thought
of no account? If a man pursucs a
thief and wrests baek from nim what
he has stolen, how ean he be said to
have done the thief any favour? If a
eaptain wins baek a eitadel and thrusts
out the enemy who has occupicd it,
what is there left for the enemy but to
eolleet his baggage if he ean and take
his way elsewhere ín shame and grief,
moiirning and bewailing that he has
justly been east out from the strong-
hold which he had possessed? And
whcn a man has taken and held some-
thing, but is eompelled to let go of it
becausc it has shaken itself free, or has
uttered threats against him, or has
attaeked him with a sword or some
other violenee, what does he reap
DEMONOLATRV
BK. III. CH. IV.
from his seizure of it but regret for
having lost it? In what respeet does a
man so bound demean himself, if in
spite of him who bound him he
hberates himself and regains his
freedom?
Nevertheless, I unhesitatingly agree
with Abdias, Bishop of Babyíon, that
the cures apparently wrought by
witches are not due to the applieation
of any effeetive remedy, but merely
rcsult from the witch’s eeasing from
aetive torment of the suffcrer; and I
am ehiefly eonvineed of this by the
faet that such cures are often effeeted
in a moment without the use of any
medieine, for such a rapid ehange
from siekness to health eannot seem
at all probable. Therefore, if a man
eonfìdently and boldly, being elear
in his eonseienee and trustíng in the
help of God, by threats or violenee
eoinpels Satan, represented by a
witcn, to abstain from injury and
magie spells, and to eease and refrain
from doing hurt, and to depart from
his body (for Iamblichusbelievedthat
this sort of siekness was nothing but
the presenee of a Demon in the body),
how, I ask, does he aet in any way
differently from the Exorcists who
bind demoniaes with ehains and beat
them and terrify them? But, you will
say, it is not so much in this that they
Í >lace their hope of saving them, but
àr rather in tne potent words of the
Holy Scriptures which they use in
their preseribed forms and with the
eeremonies ordained. Yet I maintain
that, in the ease of those others also,
their strength and energy are born of
their faith in God through Jesus
Christ ; for they must have abundant
faith who thus dare to curse, threaten
and beat witches, who are feared by
nearly all men. If it wcre not so there
would be a danger that such provoea-
tion wouId but the more ineense the
witch and cause her to spit forth her
venom with the more lieenee and
eontempt against the man who had
thus enragea her.
In any ease, even if they who
foreibly extort a cure from a witch are
not entirely free from guilt, perhaps
bccause of the mere faet that a witch
must neeessarily be eoneemed in any
such cure, and (as someone will point
out) there is an unavoidable smaek of
saerilege in such a proeeeding: yet it
must eertainly be admitted that such
behaviour is free from that eompaet
and bargaining with Demons which
so arouses God’s wrath against men,
and that such men are not actuated
by any evil intention or conscious of
any saerilegioiis blasphemy; and
finally, that they do not incur the
penalties laid down both in saered
(Levit. xix. and xx; Deut. xviii) and in
human law (1 JfuUus aruspex et 1 Nemo
de malef. et Math.) for those who turn
after soreerers and seek their adviee
and consult with them, or in any way
set them up as their helpers.
■fr
CHAPTER IV
That the Cures of Demons are always dis-
eiiised under some Appearanee of Re-
ligion; and that they are oflen effeeled
through the Ageney of some Man in High
Position, that they may acauire even
Greater Authority. But that the Demons
at times belray their Baseness by the use
of Foul ana Obseene Malters in their
Cures.
S ATAN very astutcly baeks his sor-
eeries with the seeming foree of re-
Iigion; for thus he more easily leads in-
to superstitious error the minds of
those whom he knows to be prone to
his worship; and, moreover, ne trans-
fers from his diseiples the suspicion of
having caused the prodigious cures
which are wrought by his help, so that
it may not seem that, becausc they are
to be thanked for the cure, therefore it
was also they who in the first plaee
caused the disease. Therefore the re-
sponsibility for the evil must be put
upon one of the Saints, who has been
BK. in. CH. IV.
DEMONOLATRY
angered to the point of revenge by the
negleet of his vvorship:
“ For their wrath is inflamed in the
sou!s of the saints.”
It follovvs then that his wrath must be
averted; but, good God! with what
expiations and propitiations! Oertain-
iy they wou!d have shamed the votar-
ies ofthe most ridiculous and fantastie
cults of remotest antiquity. That you
may wondcr ali the more, gentle
reader, I have thought it worth while
to illustratc this by one or two ex-
amples taken from my store.
There was at Naney within the last
ten years a witch named Thenotte,
who was onee asked to heal a neigh-
bouring woman of the siekness from
which she was siifTering ífor she was
much sought after for such work, like
those whom the Spaniards eall “De-
liverers”). She then deelared that the
disease had been sent by S. Fiaere,*
who must therefore be propitiated
with gifts and a pilgrimage, which, if
they liked, she wou!d herself gladly
undertake to perform. When the priee
of her serviees had been settled, she
first measured the siek woman eross-
wise with a pieee of waxed linen, and
then folded the linena eertain number
of tímes and plaeed it in her bosom as
if for safety. For the whole of the fol-
lowing night she kept watch before the
door of the siek voman’s house, and at
the break of day set out on her way
without ever uttering a word. When
she eame to the shrine of S. Fiaere she
- “S, Fiaere .” Abbot in Ireland; died
August 18, 670. Ht long dwelt in a kermitage
on the banks of the J'íore, of which the memory
is preserved in Kilfiaehra ( Kilfera), Kilkermy.
S. Fiaere migrated to Franee and bmlt an ora -
tory at Brogilltim ( Breuil), where his shrine is
yet a blaee of pilgrimage. During his life he
healea all manner of diseases, and rmmberless
curcs are wrought at his tomb. His shrine was
removed in 1568 to the Oathedral at Meaux
for safety from the violenee and destmetion of
the Calvinists, and preeioits Relies have been
distributed to other sanctuaries. Feast, 30
August.
155
entered and set fire to the linen, and
with the wax that dropped from it
traeed figures in the form of a eross on
the steps of the High Altar; and then
went out and walked three times round
the ehapel, the linen meanwhile giving
out spluttering and violet co!ourea
flames.
“Round that which was to purge, the
Iearned priest
Waved with due rites the lustral
toreh, whose light
Burned blue with suIphurous steneh
and tarr)' smoke.”t
And having performed all this, she re-
tumed to the town.
Notiee how in the performanee of
her so-ealled religious expiation she
made use of silenee, measurements,
watching, murmurings, figures and
fire. This is eertainly a most manifest
imitation of the soothsayers of olden
pagan times, who (as S. Augustine
says) used to utter their abominable
prayers around their idols’ altars to-
gether with horrible saerifiees. But by
far the most intolerable aspeet of these
cures is the faet that they often make
use offilth, sordid matters, excrements,
and many other such things than
which nothing could be imagined
more foreign to that purity which
ought always to be an aeeompaniment
of divine worship and eeremonies.
To this kind belongs the following
story of a peasant from the Vosges
whose name was Didier Finanee, at
Saint-Dié, July 1581. This man was
immoderately eager to avenge himself
unon his fellow-townsman Valentine
Valère, with whom he had long been
at enmity; but he had not yet been
able to find any safe and eonvenient
opportunity for ventbg his spite. How-
ever, the ehanee he was waiting for
t “ SmokeClaudian, “De VI Cons.
Hon.” 324-6.
“Lustralem sie rite faeem , cui lumen odornm
sulfure eaemleo nigroque bitnmine fumat,
eiratm membra rotat doctus parganda saeer-
ios."
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. IV.
156
presented itself as Valentine was rid-
ìng on his way alone in a lonely spot;
for as he eame to a rather dark piaee,
something like a shadow ran out and
pulled him from his horse with such
violenee that he was disabled in one
leg. But some time later Didier took
pity on the man, seeing him sufier for
so long, and going to him as if on some
other business, asked him how he had
eome by that aeeident. Having been
told at great length what he already
knew far better than the other, he
promised him a surc and quick cure as
long as he would do what ne told him,
His feIIow-peasant answcrcd that there
was nothing he would not do for that,
and eagerly waited to hear what he
must do. Then Didier told him to go
and beg from nine different stables
enough horse-dung to fill the boot
which he had been vvearing on his leg
when he fell, and to take it as an offer-
ing to S. Benediet, to whom there was
a famous shrine in Berquel, a town in
Germany; for by this means his limb
would by some occult virtue be made
sound again. But it was aftervvards
learned from him that he did not give
this adviee in the belief that it would
be of any help in effeeting the cure,
but simply to hide his magie art under
that fietion. For it is the custom of
witchcs to eoneeal their remedies un-
der the eloak of such religious expia-
tions; whercas in truth they have no
art at all with religion, but rather
old it altogether in seom and eon-
tempt.
It was in this way that Apollonius
onee defended himself before the Em-
peror Domitian against a eharge of
soreery brought against him because
he had stamped out the plague which
had infested the Ephesians; for he said
that he had obtained that boon by
praying to Hercules. And for that
reason a temple was dedieated to
the god in the name of the Averter,
’/l7roT/)Ó7raios (Philost. De Uila, VIII,
But sometimes they throw off all
pretenee of religion, and set to work in
other and utterly absurd vvays, pre-
sumably vvith the purposc of bringing
men into even greater ridicule. So it
vvas in thestory told byHerodotus (Lib.
II) of a eertain Pharaoh who was
struck blind for his impiety, because
during the flooding of the Nile he took
a dart and threw it into the midst of
the swirline watcrs. Eleven years later
he vvas told by an oraele to bathe his
eyes in the urinc of a woman who had
suffered only one man, and he would
regain his sight. What collyrium ean
there be in a woman’s urine potent
cnough to restore sight to the eves?
And why should it be more eíflcacious
eoming from a woman who has suf-
fered only one man, than from one
who has suffered many? It is nothing
but the eraft and guile, the impostures
and deeeits by which Satan leads
men’s minds into error so that he may
propagate, establish and eonfirm his
dominion over them; for that is the
one goal to which all his aetions are
aimed and direeted.
And to give more vveight and au-
thority to his aetions, he very often
performs them through the ageney of
Kings and Emperors. Thus it is told
of Pyrrhus that he used to heal suffcr-
ers from the spleen by touching them
with his right foot as they lay prone.
Then there is a story of Vespasian*
- “Vespasian." Tht aeeoiint of tke poor
man who was blind and another who was lame
presenting themselves before the tribanal of
Vespasian and imploring him to heal them, de-
elaring that the god Serapis had appeared to
them in a dream and admonished them to seek
the Emperor, who would restore them to health,
is to be found in Suetonius, “ Uespasianus,”
VII. The historian says thal Vespasian hesi-
tated, but at length made the essay and both the
blind and lame were healed. Taeitns gives an
evenfuller account of the miraeles of Vespasian,
and parlicularly emphasines these two cures,
adding: “ Utrumque, qui interjvert, mne quo-
que memorant, postquam ruiUum mendaeio
pretio." “ Histonamm," Liber IV, 8t. Hume,
in his “Essay on Miraeles," seleets this inei-
dent as an example of successful imposture, but
he has been eompletely answered by Paley in
BK. III. CH. IV.
DEMONOLATRY
which, sinee it eontains much that is
worthy of observation in relation to
our argument, I have not hesitated to
transeribe in full from Suctonius,
Tacitus, Sabellicus ( Ennead , III, 7)*
and other writers of no mean order.
The Emperor was sitting at his tri-
bunal at Alcxandria waiting for the
days of the hot winds to pass, whcn
two men of the eommon people eame
to him asking for the help which liad
been indieated to them by Serapis.
One of these men was blind, and the
other had a withered hand ; and they
said that they had been told in a dream
that the blind man would see the light
if Vespasian anointed his eyes with
his spittle, and the other man’s hand
would be made whole if he werc
touched by his heel. It was hardly be-
lieved that this could be so, and at first
Vespasian did not dare to put it to the
proof; but his friends urgcd upon him
that if the cure were aeeomplished it
would redound to the glory of Ozesar,
and if not it would only make the two
men ridiculous; so he made the experi-
ment in both particulars before the
whole assembly. And the result was
that one man had the use of his hand
restored, and the other again rejoieed
in ihe light of day. The truth was that
the Demon whom Egypt, the Mother
of errors, worshipped under the name
of Serapis, was afraid lest he should be
ousted from hisold seat by the Church
his “Evidenees of Chrislianily." The eom-
mentalors on Siietoniiis and Paley ogree that
the affair was a juggle behveen the Egyptian
priests, the palients and, perhaps, the Emperor.
lf thìs were not the ease it may well be, as
Tertullian thougkt, and as liogaet well sug•
gests in “An Examen of Witches," XXXV, a
diabolie eomlerfeil.
- “ Sabellicus .” Marern Antonius Cocceius
Sabellieas, a Venetian writer of eminenee. He
is the aaihor of "Ebistolarum libri XII";
“Oralionum libri XII"; "De situ IJenetae
libri tres"; and many poems, of which some
are devotional, such as “De lauaibus Deiparae
LJirginis Elegiae XII." I have used the eol-
leeted edition of his “ Opera ,” Veniee (Deeem-
ber 23), 1302.
of the faithfiil which had reeently been
established there; afflieted those two
men eaeh with his own disability, and
sent them both to ask help from Ves-
asian, so that by owing their cure to
is favour who was Emperor of the
world the eredit and authority of the
oraele should be enhaneed; and so
that he, from the height of his throne,
might not turn his mind to the radi-
anee of the true light.
Maximus Mariusf and Aclius Spar-
tianusj tell a similar story of the Em-
peror Hadrian. A eertain woman had
been deprived of her sight by some
supernatural power bccause she had
negleeted to obey an oraele which had
told her to go to the Emperor, who was
in a state of impatienee bordering
upon despair bccause of his siekness,
and tell him that he might spare him-
self his anxiety, for he would shortly
reeover from his disease. And whcn
$he was again warned in a dream to do
this, and in addition was given hope of
the reeovery of her sieht, having
learned diseretion from her punish-
ment she earefiilly and mcticu!ously
performed her task. And so the sight
of her eyes was restored whole to her,
t (, Marius." Aehially the work of this
Roman historian, who lived about a.d. 163-
230, has perished. He wrote a continualion of
the biographies of Roman Emperors from Nerva
to Heliogobalus tofollow the work of Suetonius.
Marius Maximus is much utilized by the ,l His-
toriae Augustae Seriptores.”
t “ Sparlianus." This historian relates the
tale, “Adrianus Gaesar," XXV, and adds that
tht Emperor was cured of his fever-. He also
says thal a blind man from Pannonia on an-
olher oeeasion whcn Adrian was siek eame and
touched the Emperor, "el ipse oculos reeepìt et
Adriamm febris reliquit, quamuis Marius
Maximus haee per sirmdationem faela eom-
memoret." (Jpon ivhieh Salmasius glosses:
“Ila uocasse Marium ineantationes et alia
remedia magiea, quae ad morbum Adriani
leuandum adhibita, seribit Dio, nullo modo
adduci possum ut eredam. Seio simitlalriees
ueteribus appellatas esse sagas, et ineantatriees
aniculas, et multa in saeris magieis per simul-
ationem fieri solita."
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. V.
I58
after she had, in obedienee to the same
waming, kissed the Emperor’s knees.
For the spiee of the story lies in that
iast eondition.
☆
GHAPTER V
That there are many Obstaeles which are
admitted by ÌVitehes to hìnder them from
Curìng the llls which they have brought
upon Others. And what these are is de-
elared by Relevant Examples and
Theories.
T HE way to injury and loss is al-
ways easy, wnereas the road to
wcll-being and safety is beset with
every kind of diffieiilty and obstaele.
Similarly, when witches desire to cause
siekness or death everything is ready to
their hand; for they have the oppor-
tunity, every sort of poison, curse,
eharms and spells, and the Demon
himself, the deviser and author of all
evil, who never fails them when they
summon him; but when it is a ques-
tion of healing a siekness or saving a
life, then there is always something to
hinder thern. For instanee, help has
already been sought from the priest or
the physieian or some other soaree;
the siekness was not caused by the
witch in question, but by another; as
soon as they are put in prison they are
entirely deprivea of the healing power
which they had before from the De-
mon; they are only permitted to heal
on eondition that they cxchange that
benefit for an even greater loss or in-
jury; they have not been elearly asked
in so many words to effeet a cure.
Such are among the cxcuscs which
they always oífer for their delays and
subterfuges in the matter of healing.
The following examples will make this
elearer.
Roses Girardine, at Essey, Nov.
1586, asserted for a faet that no dis-
ease could be curcd cxccpt by the
witch who had causcd it; for none of
thein was aIIowed to thrust her siekle
into another’s eorn. Thus the evil is
to be feared, and the remedy to be
sought, both from the same source.
Dominigue Euraca, at Oharmes, Nov.
1584, said that it was impossible to re-
store a siek man to health unless his
siekness was transferred in an aggra-
vated form to another, and that such
an cxchange was always the source of
some greater evil. Also that they im-
mediately lost their powers of healing
given them by the Demon ifany priest
or physieian had Iaid his hands on the
siek in an attempt to heal him. Alcxée
Drigie, at Haraucourt, Nov. ip86, said
that the cure was never absolutely
eomplete, but that there always re-
mained some traee of the siekness.
Catharinc Balandre, at Ardemont,
Dee. 1584, said that it was in vain to
look for any relief or cure of a siek-
ness from a witch onee she had been
brought to trial for witchcraft; for then
she was no longer under the protee-
tion of the Demon through whom such
cures are made possible. This agrees
with the statement of Nieole Morèle,
at Serre, Jan. 1587, when, being al-
ready a prisoner, he was asked to cure
the son of Jean Óhemat, whom he ad-
initted that he had afflieted with the
siekness from which he was suffering;
for he answercd that he had lost alí
such powers when, by the eonfession
of his guilt, he had entirely driven his
Demon from him; and in any ease the
very sanetity of his plaee of miprison-
rnent would prevent him from using
such powcrs; for it was impossible to
east spells for a cure in the very plaee of
vengeanee for the praetiee ofsuch arts.
This belief must have been in the
mind of Damis whcn he inferred that
his master, Apollonius of Tyana, was
cndowed with divine powers because
he broke the fetters from his leg with-
out any difficulty; for he argucd that,
being under restraint in prison, he
could not have done this by any magie
or soreery.
Oatharina Gillotia, Huecourt, May
1591, was asked what was the reason
that Ganassia Godefreda had not re-
eovered from the disease which she
BK. m. GH. V. D E M O N C
had brought upon her by witchcraft,
although she had often given her
apples and plums and other things to
eat which sne had successfully used in
curing others; and she answercd that
it was bccause Godefreda had not
first begged her to heal her. Balial
Basolus, of Saint Nieolas des Preys de
Verdun, Mareh 1587, and Oolette
Fiseher, of Gerbeville, Mareh 1588,
mentioned a new kind of obstaele;
saying that if a man afflieted in this
way were to make and perform a vow
to any of the Saints without having
told or consulted with them, this eon-
tempt of them prevented them from
doing anything further to heal the
siekness. But it must be suspected that
this obstaele is a fietion engendered
by their desire for gain or thanks, for
which they are above all things eager.
For witches make it their ehief busi-
ness to be asked to perform cures so
that they may reap some profit, or at
least gratitnde; sinee they are for the
most part beggars, who support life on
the alms they reeeive.
Now the obstaeles which are thus
said to prevent a witch from curing the
siekness which she has caused are not
altogether illogieal or unreasonable.
For in the first plaee it is not without
design that the Demon pretends that,
in eneeting a curc, he must have the
help of her through whose ageney he
has prcviously caused the disease. No
one doubts that he could do this alone
and single-handed; but he aets as he
does so that his wcll-doing may be
diminished and depreeiated by plaeing
the powcr of performing it at the
plcasure of another; and also that he
may earn a greater rcputation with his
diseiples for his serviee to them, when
he shows that he will not without eon-
sulting them alter anything of which
they have been the authors; for it is
no small source of gratifieation to a
witch to know that she is aeeredited
withpowersoflife and death over man-
kind; and that when she has east an
evil spell upon a man, it will not be re-
moved by any other means than, or
LATRY 159
before the time that, she herself shall
have determined upon.
Seeondly, as to their allegation that
they eannot effeet a curc cxcept upon
an untouched subject who has not al-
ready sought physieal relief from a
physieian or spiritual salvation from a
Í iriest; here afso there is some fraudu-
ent and malicious fietion, sinee in
neither of those eases is the Demon
likely to earn any reward for his cure.
Therefore this obstaele proeeeds rather
from the Demon’s jealousy and his
fear that he would get no eredit for a
cure which would probably be attri-
buted to another agent who had pre-
eeded him. Therefore they take the
greatest pains to inculcate in those
whom they have bewitched with a siek-
ness the belief that they must shun all
remedies, human and divine, if they
wish to reeover, and that if they even
think of having recourse to such
remedies they must eertainly lose all
hofie of ever regaining their health.
There is ahvays this fiirther motive,
that the Demon wishes to avoid in-
dulging the pity of his diseiples, if in-
deed they are ever moved by pity.
And thirdly, as to their being hin-
dered by the faet of their aeensation
and imprisonment, I would not deny
that this is true in the ease of those who
by eonfessing their sins and by peni-
tenee have driven the Demon írom
them; for then the paet is broken by
the terms of which they had reeeived
that sup>ernatural power of healing,
and therefore those powers must
dwindle and vanish. There ean be no
more eonvineing proof of this than the
faet that those m that eondition have
no more power to east injurious spells,
however much they may wish to, not
even upon the very torturers who put
them to the quesdon. Moreover, it has
often been proved that when the
Judge, from a wish to put this matter
to the test, by a mere nod or a word
diseharges them, they have at onee
flown away and, re-entering the
Demon’s household as it were by right
of postliminy, have performed many
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. V.
160
stupcndous prodigies. But if vvith eon-
tumacious obstinaey they persist in
denying their guilt; or if they do not
in so many words and after the cus-
tomary form forswear the soeiety of
the Demon and renege his friendship,
or rather abjurc their fealty to him and
shake oíf nis yoke: in that ease I
should say that their allegation is false,
that they are no longer able to do
anything undcr his auspices, particu-
larly if it is a matter of restoring a man
to health. For even when they are in
ehains in their prison eells their De-
mons often visit them, awake in them
a hope of freedom, give them their
adviee and offer them their serviees;
and are in every respeet as favourable,
indulgent and helpnil to them as they
ever were before: so that it is not
likely that they would refuse to heal a
siekness for them if they asked them,
and if it were safe for them to make
such a request. Moreover, it is foolish
to say that the witch is prevented by
his ehains, while the Demon, who has
no need of the witch’s eo-operation, is
in no way bound or in ehains. And
there is no Judge who would think of
putting any obstaele or hindranee in
the way of so salutary a deed, if it lay
at all within his diseretion.
Nieole Morèle’s father, at Serre,
Jan. 1587, was eharged with witch-
eraft and was pleading his cause in
rison, and something that he said
rought his daughter also under sus-
pieion of that erime. Consequently,
the Apparitor, who was then present,
persuaded the Judge to have her ar-
rested. Her Demon informed Morèle
of this while she vvas still at liberty, and
urged her to take some vengeanee on
the Apparitor for that injury, saying
that he would gladly undertakc the
execution of it if she asked him. She
agreed, and he at onee flew to the Ap-
paritor’s house, where he found his
wife sitting by the fire giving her baby
the breast, and passing by her he
dusted her breasts with so vcnomous a
powder that they wcre immediately
dried up and lost all their milk. The
Apparitor easily suspectcd the cause of
this and went to Morèle, who was
now in prison, and giving her a nieely
eooked millet eake to appease her,
asked her not to rcfuse him any help
that she could give in this matter; for
in rcturn he would take eare that she
laeked for nothing to make her life easy
whilc she was in prison: after vvhieh he
wcnt out, waiting to see what she
would do. The Demon immediately
appeared and ehid her bitterly for hav-
ing had eonverse with the Apparitor;
but at last he allowed himself to be
persuaded to restore the milk to his
wife, even to superfluity if she so de-
sired; and this he soon aftcrwards did
by seeretly dusting her with a white
povvder.
Catharine Oeray at Naney, 1584,
had been released on her own bail, but
was again thrown into prison both on
account offresh suspicions against her,
and by the strietest eommand of our
Most Serene Prinee, in an audience
vvith whom I had unrescrvedly laid
barethevvholefaetsofthisease. When
one of the witnesscs against her de-
posed t'nat, before she had been
brought baek to prison, she had east
a spell upon his arm and vvithered it,
she seized his arm violently as if in
anger and, to the great astonishment
of all who were present, it was imme-
diately made sound again; and after
having been for many months power-
less and uscless, it beeame in a moment
vigorous and eapable of performing all
its usual fimetions as before. This led
to a strong suspicion that she main-
tained her assoeiation with her Little
Master to the very last; for though she
had often been urged to abjure him
she had rcfused to do so, saying that it
vvas impossible to rejeet one vvhom you
had never admitted. There have been
other witches who, though in prison,
have preseribed the use of herbs and
Iotions and ungucnts and other such
remedies, saying that their applieation
to the siek would not be without re-
sult.
Lastly, the benefit of such cures is
BK. III. CH. VI.
DEMONOLATRY
qualificd either by some Iasting traee
of the sieknessj or often by its transfer-
enee with even greater pain and tor-
ment to another. This is but another
illustration of the faet which we have
already so often pointed out, that the
Demon never allows his prey to be
snatehed wholly from his hands, but
that there must always be something
as the priee and reward of his work.
Thus whcn he enters into a paet to
serve and work for a man (on which
account he is eommonly ealled the
man’s familiar spirit), he takes eare
tliat the ehief eondition of the pae.t
shall be that within a stated time he
shall be free to find a ncw master, or
else to do what he will with his present
master. It was by this eondition that
he had bound the father of that Ger-
man whom I mentioned in the story
of Maillot. And when the day for its
fiilfilment was imminent, and he could
find no one who would rid him of so
amiable a servant, he was finally eom-
pelled to transfer that pernicious pest
to his only son. The son had to rcnew
the unholy eompaet of allianee; but he
was granted a shorter period of time
before the lapse of whicn he must find
another to talee his plaee in the eoils of
that paet, or himseìf perish and fall a
prey to the hunter. And so it hap-
pened to that German. For when tne
wretched man couId find no one to re-
lieve him, as it werc, at his post of
watch, not even Maillot, who had
given him some hope, in the end as he
was joumeying through Italy with his
master, although he was on the alert
and his horse did not even stumblc, he
was thrown and instantly killed.
☆
161
CHAPTER VI
That as an End to a Life of tvery Crime and
Impiety, the Demon insistently urges and
imptls his Subjects to kill themselves with
their own Hand, espeeially when he sees
that there is imminent Danger of their
being Suspected. But God in His Good-
ness and Mtrey often thwarls this eniel
Seheme , and ralner leads them to fnd
Safety in Penilenee.
A LL who have surrcndered them-
selves to the power of the Demon
eonfess that he is so harsh and unjust
a taskmaster to them that they often
wish to throw ofF his yoke and return
to their former freedom; but that he
unremittingly prevents them from do-
ing so except by the one means of tak-
ing their own lives.* Therefore whcn
through weariness of his tyranny, or
becausc of their eonseienee of guilt, and
often through fear of the heavier pun-
ishment which surely awaits those who
are eonvieted of that erime, they de-
eide to make an end of themselves,
some hang themselves, others stab
themselves, others throw themselves
into a river or well, and others find
some other way; and they never find
any difficulty whenever they have
made up their minds to this course.
For their attempts upon themselves are
followed by such suddcn and instant
death that no one ean run to them
quickly enough to prevent it: so ur-
ently does the Demon, who eertainly
as a hand in it, hasten the business.
All doubt as to this is removed bv
the seareely eredible means by whicn
such suicidcs are eommitted. I remem-
ber seeing the eorpse of one eriminal,
Sedenarius by name, who had hanged
himself from a bone insecurely fixed in
the wall with a rotten strip of eloth
torn from his elothing, ana with his
- "Taking their own lives." See Gaazzo,
“Compendium Malefieamm," II, xiii: “Afier
the Many BlasOhemies Committed by Witches,
the Demon at last Tries to indnee them to Kill
Themselves with Their Own Hands."
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. GH. VI.
162
bent knees nearly touching the floor;
but by this means he had killed himseJÍ'
just as efFeetively as if he had been
hanged by a strong rope from a beam
at the top of the house with a skilled
hangman to perform the operation.
And nearly all who thus take their lives
die with similar speed and faeility.
But these poor wretches do not al-
ways have to put an end to their lives
and a term to their ealamities by the
way just explained; for the Divine
Shepherd in His ineffable goodness
and merey often ealls baek to the fold
the sheep that have been led away by
the wolf, and again feeds them on His
eelestial pastures. So it is that many
witches, as soon as they are east into
prison, do not defer the eonfession of
their erimes until it is wrung from them
by torture, but of their own aeeord and
with the greatest joy of spirit Iay bare
their sins; being, as they say, rejoieed
to have the opportunity offered them
by which, at the slight eost of their
miserable lives, they ean preserve
themselves from eternal unhappiness.
Joanneta Gallaea, at St. Dommique
Nov. 1586, provided ample proof to
this effeet, when she begged and im-
E lored the Judge not to postpone any
mger her wclí-merited punishment;
for she was prepared to suffer it with
an even mina that she might as quickly
as possible expiatc the gross impiety
towards God of which she had been
guilty. Nieole Morèle, Serre, Jan.
1587, from the moment when she eon-
fessed her erime to the Judge did not
eease to proelaim her happiness be-
cause she could now onee again eome
near to God, being free from all her
fealty to the Demon; and that she had
wished to do this for the last three
years, but had been unable even to
attempt it, so tcnacious of his prey is
that Areh-sehemer. Oatharine La-
tomia of Marehe, at Haraucourt, Feb.
1587, did not deny that for her great
wickedncss she was deserving of the
cxtreme penalty as well as of the
Judge’s utmost wrath; but if there yet
remained any room for merey, all she
asked was that her death should no
longer be deferred, so that she might
as soon as possible stand before the tri-
bunal of tnat Judge in whom was set
all her hope; for her soul was a very
heavy burdcn to her. Idatia of Mire-
mont, at Preney, July 1588, passion-
ately entreated the Judge to deliver
her up to death as soon as possible;
for even if she broke her ehains she
would never be free to repent and lead
a better life; sinee she haa pledged her-
self to the Demon, whom, like an im-
portunate ereditor, it was impossible to
eseape paying as long as she remained
alive. Ápollonia à Freissen (August
1589 said that nothing more welcome
could happen to her than death, in
which at last she would find an end to
her most wickcd life; for as long as she
lived she wou!d be unable to refrain
from blaek witchcraft, so indefatigable
was her Demon in spurring her to such
deeds; and that she could not free her-
self of his tyranny and yoke except by
death. Therefore she pleaded that an
end might be put to all her misery on
the very next day before any of the
others, and the way to her Heavenly
Father be opened for her. Antonia
Marehant, at Insming, May 1591, said
that she desired nothmg so much as to
be put alive on the fire as soon as
possible, for even in her own judgement
she had long sinee merited it.
There are even some who ask to be
purged by a seeond baptism,* think-
ing that by such means they ean again
be aeeepted into the family of Christ. I
remember reading in the reeords of the
trial of Joanna Gransaint, at Condé,
July 1582, that she repeatedly made
- "A seeond baptism." Baptism impresses
an inejfaeeable eharaeter on the sotd, tvhieh the
Council of Trent ealls a spirìltial and indelible
mark (Session VII, ean. ix). S. Cyrìl
(“ Praep. in Cat .”) ealls a baptism a "holy
and itidelible sealand Clement of Alexandna
V'De Diu. Seru.” XUI), "the seal of the
LordS. Thomas expounds the natare of this
indelible seal in the "Sismma," III, Q. lxiii,
a. 2.
HFC. III. CH. VII
DEMONOLATRY
such a request, but that the devout
Judge rightly exposed the folly of and
rejeeted her plea. For, alas! what
madness it is to ask for such a repeti-
tion, when everybody knows that it
has always been eonaemned and for-
bidden by the Church! Yet in our
time tliis error has found its advoeates;
biit so far as I know, and deservedly,
no one has hitherto thought it worth
while to rcfute them.
☆
OHAPTER VII
Somefartker Examples in Illustration of the
above Argiiment.
A S wc have said in the last ehapter,
the ailmination of this abomin-
able erime is that, after nearly a wholc
lifetime of saerilege and wickedncss,
witches cut off the little that remains to
them by laying violent hands upon
themselves, ana at last put an ever-
lasting end to an execrable life; and so
those whom he has in their lives
steeped in erime, the Demon brings to
eternal punishmcnt in their deaths.
This is elearly illustrated by the ease
of Didier Finanee, St.-Dié, July 1581,
upon whom, bccause hissoreeries were
aggravated by parrieide, the College
o t the Duumvirs of Naney pronounced
the exceptionally severe sentenee that
he shou!d be bumed with red-hot
tongs and then be plaeed alive on the
fire. Whethcr he was informed of this
by his Demon, as we shall later show to
have happened to eertain others, or
whcther it was foreseen by his own
eonseienee ofso terrible a erime, he de-
termined to eseape this sentenee by
seeking his own aeath. Therefore he
took a knife which had earelessly been
left in the bread ehest by one of the
gaolers, thrust it down his throat as far
as he could, and so died. In the last
two years I remember fifteen, more or
less, in Lorraine who have thus vio-
lently killed themselves to save them-
selves from public infamy; but I have
thought it better to bíot out their
163
names rather than to rcnew their
memory, lest the reader’s mind be
filled with horror if I fill my stage with
so many unspeakable and frightfiil
speetaeles. I shall therefore tum to the
eonsideration of matters which have
had a happier outcomc.
For (as someone has said) the arrow
does not a!ways strike everything at
which it is aimed; nor is it always in
Satan’s power to do as he wills with
men by his violenee. He is permitted
to tempt men, but not to dnve them.
Thereíore it is that he does not himself
thrrnt desperate men into the river
against their will, nor hang them with
a rope from a beam, nor stab them with
a knife; but only urges them to take
these courses in their madness. But
often all these aets of desperation are
prevented by God in His pity for the
weakncss of man, who in His wisdom
proteets them now in one way and now
ìn another; as will more elearly be seen
from the following cxamples.
Jeanne le Ban in open eonfession
bore witness that her Demon was in
nothing so importunatc as in his efforts
to persuade her to throw herself into
a well, or drown herself in a river, or
hang herself with a rope, or destroy
herself by some means or other. And
it was impossible to say how often she
had started to do so, wnen she had felt
herself foreibly prevented in the very
aet, like one who sees a morsel of food
snatehed from his lips. But even after
that she had not eeased from her at-
tempts, and after her imprisonment
she had bumed with a desire to kill
herself and had redoubled her efforts
to do so. And that she might not have
the excuseofthe impraetieability ofthe
deed, the Demon had shown her a for-
gotten pieee of ehain lying in a dark
eomer of her prison, which she could
if she would, put round her neek ana
so hang herselt. This plan pleased her,
and she would have earriea it out; but
she was prevented from eompleting her
purpose by the faet that she could find
notningfrom which tohang the ehain.
The Demon tried to pcrsuade Anne
DEMONOLATRY
BK. UI. CH. vin.
164
Drigie, Haraucourt, Nov. 1585, in the
same way. For he set before her eyes a
icture 01 the horror and torments of the
ames in which she was to be bumcd,
and of the shame and infamy of the
public example which was to be made
of her, and so easily persuaded her to
eseape all this by seeking her own
death. But she was led to ehange her
deeision by that dread and horror of
an immediate evil which is natural to
all men, as well perhaps as by the
thoiight of eertain damnation for her
soul, which is feared by even the most
abandoned. Thereíore she firmly re-
jeeted the Demon’s adviee, which was
that she should throw herself out of the
upper window of her prison, from
which there was a deep fall.
When he could by no other means
pcrsuadc Didier Gérard of Vennezey
to eommit this deed, he added as a final
inducement that, if he killed himself,
he would beeome a Demon like himself,
able to do whatever he wished; but not
even this could shake or move his
determination. For having been so
often before deeeived by the Demon,
he suspected all Iiis adviee, and would
eertainly not be ruled by him any more.
Further, he had no wish for an
apotheosis so different from that of the
Saints as it had been taught him.
☆
CHAPTER VIII
That the Dtmon's Grip is very Tenacious
and eannot easily be loosed onee it has
taken a Hold; and therefore they tise evtry
Effort to prevent their Snbjeets in Prison,
even ivhen they are being tortnred, from
eonfessing themselves Gnilty of the
Witchcraft with which they are Charged,
and so from retuming to a State of Graee
by their Penitenee. But that often, when
Goi s0 wills, these Sehemes and Stumb-
ling-bloeks of theirs eome to Nothing.
O NCE he has gained power over a
man the Demon so obstinately
retains his hold that he will not release
his grip or withdraw his help from him
even when he is in prison and undcr
the proteetion, as it wcre, of the Judge.
And although this had been made so
elear by all who have treated on this
subiect that it may seem superfluous to
embark upon any discussion of it, yet I
have no qualms about adding a few
words in order to unmask more eom-
letely the cunning plots of that
ehemer.
No sooner had Quirina Xallaca,
Blainville, Feb. 1587, been put in
prison than her Demon visited ner and
wamed her that she would not eseape
from that plaee before she had been
terribly raeked and searehed with the
torture; but that if only she would bear
in silenee a brief period of pain she
would eertainly gam her liberty after-
wards, and that he would not fail her
at her need in the meantime. And not
long aftcrwards it happened with her
as he had foretold ; for while she was
under torture and was being most
severely raeked, the Demon was all the
time lurking in her hair net encourag-
ing her and promising her that the tor-
ture would soon be over. And if by
ehanee the Judge signed to the tor-
turer to relax the pressure for a little,
the Demon antieipated this and fore-
told it to the miserable woman as if it
were his own doing. But whcn there
was no remittanee of her pain and it
cou!d no longer be endured by even
the most obstinate, she broke out as
follows: “Take me away! 1 have lis-
tened long enough to this traitor. See,
I am ready to eonfess the truth.” And
so, after being bidden to abjure him in
soíemn terms, she was freed from the
Demon’s yoke and gave a full account
of all her erimes from the day when she
had fírst bound herself to him.
Anna Xallaea, Blainville, Feb. 1587,
told a similar story in almost the same
words, except that the Demon had not
hidden in her hair, but deep down in
her throat while she was Deing tor-
tured, doubtIess so that he could more
easily prevent her from speaking if the
intolerable pain inelinea her to eon-
bk. m. ch. vni.
DKMONOLATRY
165
fess her guilt. And this faet did not eomes to my mind. This man, by
eseape the notiee of those who were eoneealing the truth and endiiring
present; for they saw her throat swcll the torture, twice eseaped the sentenee
up until it stood out on a Ievel with her of death; but when for the third time
ehin, and it beeame so livid and dis- he was taken red-handed, he eonfessed
eokmred that it might easiIybethought and paid a tardy but heavy penalty for
that she was suffering from an acute his erimes.
quinsy. There have also been those who have
Franeoise Fellet, Pangy-sur-Mo- endured the agony of torture without
selle, Nov. 1584, said that the same eonfessing, but when they were on the
neeessity for silenee was imposed ujx>n point of being disehargea from prison
her by the Demon; and, moreover, nave acknowledged the erime which
that her ears were so elosed to the voiee they have up to that point eoneealed.
of the Judge when he first examined This was lately instaneed by Mar-
her that she heard no more than if he gareta Valtrina, who for a whole hour
had not been speaking at all; but whcn cndured the most vehement torture
this eharm was broken and the truth without admitting any guilt; but at
had been wrung from her by torture, last when she was about to be set at
the Demon did not eease from that liberty she asked to see the Judge and,
time to threaten her with death; and after begging his forgiveness for her
therefore she begged that they wouId obstinaey, diselosed everything from
never leave her alone, espeeially at the time when the Demon had first
night, the solitude of whicn was par- ensnared her right through the whole
ticularly favourabIe to his attempts. story of all her erimes.
Anne Morèle at Hadonville, Nov. It is worth while to reeord what hap-
1581, and some others said that while pened to Alcxée Belheure, Blainvilfe,
thev were being tortured the Demon Jan. 1587, to the amazement and as-
had supported them from no nearer tonishment of all who wcrc present,
than the end of the raek, from which when she wished to do the same thing.
plaee he prevented them from speak- For as she was preparing herself to
ingjust as effeetively as if he had en- make free eonfession in this way and
tirely hidden himself in their ears. had, as is the Christian custom, blessed
It is, indeed, impossible to say how herself with the Lord’s Prayer, she was
fast the Demon holds to the prey he hurled against the wall behind her
has onee seized, in spite of the Jmige’s with such foree that many would have
most earefiillyeonsideredefTorts, which earried her out as a dead woman. But
he so often baffles that, thanks to him, as she gradually eame to herself, and
not a few witches have eseaped the due was asked what had caused her to fall
reward oftheir erimes. Formany.says in that manner, she said: “Can you
Iamblichus, have been put upon the not see him lying under the couch, that
fire and have not been burncd, for the murderer who took me by the throat
Demon within them has blown baek and nearly throttled me? See how he
the fire; or if they have been burned is threatening me with his looks and
they have not felt it, neither do they trying all he ean to frighten me from
feel any priekings or seratehes or any saying a word I This is not the first
tortures. I remember those who have time he has tried to keep me from tell-
been onee and even twice diseharged ing the truth; for while I was being
as innoeent, but on being taken up for tortured he was in my left ear like a
the third time they have at last eon- flea, busily waming me to hold my
fessed the erimes of which they had tonguc and not let myself be defeated
been guilty from the beginning. by a short time of not so very acute
Of these the ease of Fran^ois Fel- pain.”
let, at Pangy-sur-Mosellc, Dee. 1587, Thus like a strenuous pugilist he does
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. VIII.
166
not rest or tire as long as there remains reetor of all iheir aetions; or if they are
any ehanee of continuing the fight; at all so moved, their ease is like that
nor vvill he Ieave his hold on those who of the traitor Judas who felt remorse,
have onee entered his serviee until indeed, for his erime, but none the less
they are snatehed from him like a did not repent and turn again to God,
sheep from a wolf. And whcn he fore- but rather in the last despair brought
sees that this is going to happen, he uponhimseIfthc mostdamnabledeath.
often prevents it either by basely per- And this, as we have already shown, is
suading his diseiples to hang them- often done by witches.
selves, or else himself actualìy twists But I shall not base my discussion of
their neeks or beats them to death, or this question on the argumcnts of the
kills them in some other way, unless Theologians, but shall only put before
God restrains him. All this has been the reader what I have learned, from
amply shown by pertinent cxamples. my cxperiencc in examining not a few
And ìf he may not aehieve such a re- of them, of the stubbomness and ob-
sult, yet he tnes to work some sort of stinaey ofwitches. I have heard many
misehief or harm so that he shall not ofthemsaythattheyhaveoftenformed
leave them without hurting them in a wish to rid themselves of their Little
some way. Masters, both bccause they saw that
Thus, although
Catharina Latomia they wcre eheated by them, and ehiefly
of Marehe, at Haraucourt, Feb. 1587, bccause of their intolerable and savage
was not yet of an age to suffer a man, cruelty; but that they were unable to
he twice raped her in prison, being free themselves, for as soon as such a
moved with hatred for her because he thought entered their minds the De-
saw that she intended to eonfess her mon eame and punished it with a
erime; and she very nearly died from beating, or, failing that, all their
the injurics she reeeived by that eoi- efforts to emaneipate themselves had
tion. eome to nothing.
Here the question arises whether it Whcn Agathe, the wife of Fran-
is possible for a witch, against the will soisTailleur,atPittelange, September,
of the Demon, to break her eompaet 1500, grew weary of her harsh servi-
with him, or whether she is not ratlier tuae, she at last deeided to have re-
eompelled to keep it for as long as she course to a remedy which many have
Iives. If a Iawyer wcrc asked his impiously thought to be most effleaei-
opinion, no doubt he wouId say that a ous. Therefore she wcnt to the neigh-
eontraet which eontains a dishonour- bouring town of Sarveden aeeom-
able clause is not binding. But here panied by Eva, the daughter of Albert
there is no question of legality: the von Kirehel, and caused the priest to
point is whethcr, just as a military de- re-baptire her, Eva standing as her
serter is denied the right of postliminy godmother. None the more for that
( L . Iltm ei. Ex. quibuscaus. maior .), in the did the wicked spirit eease from beat-
same way those who have onee de- ing and kieking her, or from bespatter-
serted from God to the enemy of the ing her faee with all sorts of filth and
human raee are cut off from every ap- humiliating her in every possible way.
proaeh to God’s merey, so that they I shall not dwell upon what I have
may never return from the side to already reeorded to have happened to
which they have fled. Theywhomain- a girl at Joinville, who was ìnitiated
tain that this is the ease base their into the magie arts by her witch
opinion on the faet that witches are mother, and could not be so eom-
never moved to that repentanee which pletely reformed by devout teaehing
must preeede the remission of sins (S. and training but that the Demon kept
Mattheiv iii. 2), sinee they are hindered some hold over her by which he was
by the Demon who is tne vigilant di- able to be avenged upon her. For this
BK. III. CH. IX.
DEMONOLATRY
has long been their eomplaint, that the
mortar ean never be so thoroughly
eleaned but that it retains some seent
of tlie herbs which have been bruised
in it. But I would not understand this
to mean that the wound is, as they say,
ehironian* or irremediable. For is it
not writtcn: “Shall they fall, and not
arise? Shall he turn away, and not re-
turn?” ( Jeremiah , viii. 4). Or who
shall hinder the .Lord from releasing
the bound, giving sight to the blind, or
breaking their ehains? This I will say:
that as long as witchcs are undcr his
eontrol, tliat is, as long as they are not
influcnccd by any examination, im-
prisonment or torture, they always pre-
serve as eomplete a silenee as they ean
with regard to their erimes. There-
fore I believe that the supposed
wretchedness of imprisonment (al-
though, as I have said, this does not
always neeessarily follow) is, at the
will ofGod and when He expiates their
sins, the beginning of saívation for
witches. An analogy might be drawn
from the boil of Jason,| Tyrant of
Pherae, which the physieians could not
heal; but his bitterest enemy opened it
and saved him from eertain and in-
stant death. And the men of our
eoimtry have a proverb (if we may find
any truth in such sayings) that the
surcst road to happiness lies through
misfortune.
This view is abundantly substan-
tiated by the unanimous asserlion of
witches, that the fìrst light of iiberty
- “ Ohironian 77 » phrase isfrom Celstis,
V, xxviii, 3, “Chironium uultms." It also
oeetirs in the “ Herbarinm," a work of the
fourth eentniy longfalsely aseribed lo Apuleius.
77 u eenlaar Chiron being wounded by one of
the poisoned arrows of Herailes, bestowed upon
Promethens his immortality, but Jnpiter set
him among the stars.
f " Jason .” Tyrant of Pherae and general-
isstmo qf Thessaly, probably the son of l.yeo-
phron, who establisned a tyranny on the ruins
of the aristoeraey of Pherae. Jason sneeeeded
his father soon after 395 b . c ., and proved a
great warrior and diplomat. At the height of
his power he was assassinated, 370.
167
dawns on their misery on that day
when the Judge uscs violenee, terror-
ism and torturc against them; and they
earnestly beg not to be disehargea
from prison and again be delivered in-
to the bondage of that Tyrant; for
their only hope of salvation was to be
taken as quickly as possible to their
death whi e they werc penitent and
sorry for t teir sins. And they entreat
the Judge to pnnish in the same way
all others who eome up for trial ana
eonfess their erime; for by no other
means ean they put an end to their
evil-doing and wilchcraft, however
much they may wish to; so unremit-
tingly does the Demon stand over them
and threaten them as long as they are
free from custody and have not yet
been admitted to the asylum, as it
werc, and shelter of the law. But these
are matters which we may rather leave
to the judgement of the Theologians,
as I have already said. I have fulfilled
my purpose by reeording that which I
have observed.
☆
CHAPTER IX
That there are many Methods used by the
Judges of our Day before they brìng a
Witch to the Tortme to eoanteraet the
Charms by which t/uy are said to mtllijy
the Effieaty of the Tortme; but that such
Methods are not to be eommended, sinee,
as the Proverb says, t/uy do but drìve out
one Nail with Another, and overeome one
Eoil with Another.
T HERE are many, aeeording to
Ulpian and Fabius, who so de-
spise tortiire that their toleranee of it
ean easily ereate a false impression.J
That it was so in the ease of the harlot
Leaena, of Anaxarchus, of Antiphila
of Gyrene, and many others wc learn
J “False impression." Upon this matter
one may projìtably consult Guazzo, “ Compen-
dium Malefieamm," Book I, xo.
DEMONOI. ATRY
DK. III. CH. IX.
168
from the vvritings of Pliny* (Nat. I/ist.
VII, 23) and Valerius (Lib. VIII,
eap. 4); and the faet is a matter of
eommon knovvledge from every-day
experience. But it is agreed that this
often proeeeds either from physieal
hardness or mental determination;
and this ought not to seem at all won-
dcrful or strange, for it is possible for
human cndurancc to reaeh such a
piteh. This is more than sufficiently
elear from the stories as related by
Plutarch of Marius, who bore in silenee
the long and terrible pain of his leg be-
ing cut off; and of the Spartan boy
who hid a fox under his garment but
wouId not utter the Ieast ery of pain
when it rent and tore out his entrails
(Plutarch, in Laeonieis apophlhegm.).
But that, without feeling any pain, they
ean bear to have their arms twistcd and
foreibly stretehed and pullcd out, or
(as S. Gregory of Tours tells ,Hist.Franc.
VI. 35, was done in the ease of Mum-
mol,f the Prefeet under King Chil-
perie) stretehed from a beamj behind
their baek, or dragged out by pullcys;
or to be fastened by the fìnger-nails to
a stake; or that they ean during their
- “ Pliny .” “Paiientia eorporìs, ut est
erebra sors calamitalum, inmmera documenta
peperit. Clarìssimum in feminis, Leatnae mere-
trteis, quae torla non indicauit Harmodiam et
Arìstogitonem tyrannieidas: in tnrìs, Anax-
arehi, qui simili de causa cum torqueretur, prae-
rosam dentibus linguam, unamque spem indieii,
in tyranni os exspuil.” The Athenians kon-
oured the memory of Leaena by a bronze statue
of a lioness (kíaiva) uiithout a tongite, on the
Aeropolis belween the Propyleea and the temenos
of Artemis Braaronia. See Pansanias, i, 23,2;
Plutarch, ll De Garrvlitate ,” viii; and Poly-
aerms, viii, 45.
| ‘'Mtmmol.’' See “The Geography of
Witchcraft," by Montague Summers, Chapter
Vy PP- 354 S 5 •
t “Beam." The strappado. Coryat, who
saw this punishment inflieted al Veniee, ealls it
“a very tragieall and dolefull speetaele” (“ Cru-
dities,” I, 592). In Alfred Ceresole's Li-
gendes des Alpes Vaudoises ” (p. 13/) is an
illastration of a soreerer svbmitted to this tor-
ture.
torture go to sleep, which is impossible
exccpt whcn a man is at ease; this far
surpasses the belief of all men. Yet
this is so vvell known to be the ease, by
those who have subjected eriminals,
espeeially witches, to the torture, that it
has beeome their ehiefeare to know how
they ean oppose cunning to cunning,
and drive one nail out with another.
Therefore some take the precaution
of ordering their offieers to lift a witch
up and so earry her without her touch-
ing the ground, like another Antaeus,
from her housc to the prison. This is
espeeially the custom of the Germans
who live in the ffirther provinees of
Lorraine, and I think that it is for a
similar reason that our people of the
Vosges, espeeially the peasants, have
the folIowing custom: when a virgin
is to be mamed and is about to reeeive
the Saerament of Matrimony, two of
the strongest men make a ehair of
their folded arms and so earry her
from her house to the church, believing
that by this they effeetively gnard
against the spells and enehantments
which may be woven to hinder the
marriage.
Others cause the witch to take off all
her elothes and put on an under-gar-
ment which has been spun, woven and
stitehed all in one day; for it needs
something involving labour and diffi-
culty to eombat ana overeome so great
a diffieidty.
Others have the witch eompletely
shavcd§ from the soles of her feet to the
crown of her head before they bring
her to the torture, becausc they believe
that she mav have a Demon hidden in
the hair of her head or of some other
part of her body. PhiIostratus testifies
that this was done by the order of the
Emperor Domitian in the ease of Apol-
lonius of Tyana (In Apollonii uita,
VII, 34, and VIII, 7); becausc he had
more tnan onee said that he derived
his visionary powers from his hair, and
§ “Shaved.” For an aathoritative aeeonnt
of this proeedare see the “Malleus Malefi-
eamm,” Part III, Question 13.
DK. III. CH. IX.
DEMONOLATRY
therefore wouId by no means al!ow it
to be cut. And not long ago, at Mire-
court, Dee. 1583, when Alexia Gallaea
of Beroncourt was eager to diselose her
erimes to the Judgc Dut couId not be-
cause (so she said) of the presenee of
her Demon, she asked that her hair
might be cut off and thrown on to the
fire; and whcn this was done she at
onee began to enumerate all the erimes
she had eommitted under the Demon’s
auspices and leadership. It may be
that the Demon, who is always a base
imitator of God's works, in this also
tries to eopy that which we read of
Samson in the Bible; how he had been
forbidden from Heaven to cut off his
hair if he wished to keep intaet the
strength which God had given him,
for the seat of this was in his hair.
Others again think that by throwing
eold water ìn the witch’s faee they ean
drive away the Demon. Rosa Gerar-
dine, at Essay, Nov. 1586, eonfessed
that by this aíone was she brought to
eonfess, and that all other methods of
eoereing her meant nothing to her.
The following method has won the
approval of many who have used it,
and was witnesscd this very year by a
Prinee of great renown at Serre, a vil-
lage in the distrietofSt. Jean de Lenon-
cour. The witch is bound hand and
foot and thrown into a pool* of eold
watcr: if she swims out unharmcd, her
guilt is said to be proved; but if she
• "A pool." The praetiee of sivimming
was parliailarly favottrtd in England. It is
mentioned in his "Daanonologie” by King
James I, who regarded "their fleeling on the
water” as a good help to be used in the trial
of witches, sinee “it appeares that God hath op-
poynted (for a supematmall signe of the mon-
stnions impietie of the Witches) that the water
shal reftise to reeeine them in her bosom, that
hatie shaken off them the saered Water of Bab-
tisme, and wilfullie refused the benefite thereof”
The experiment was eontimiaily being tried up
and down the ermntry even during the nineteenth
century. For an aeeonnt of a trial resulting
from this as late as September /865 see the
"Geography of Witckcrafì,” Chapter II, pp.
17 &- 79 -
169
sinks she is held to be innoeent. Desi-
derius de Gandinot’ (Lex prima eon-
stitut. Neapol.), among other matters
relative to witchcraft, affirmed this to
beafactbeyondquestion. Thecustom
is believed to have reaehed us first from
YVestern Saxony, and espeeially from
\Vestphalia; and it had previously
reaehed those distriets from the Illy-
rians and Triballi; for among them
also therewcre soreeresses who,accord-
ing to Pliny (Hist. Jfat. VII, 2), could
not be submerged even when weighed
down by their garments.
Sprenger and Kràmer (Mall. Ma-
lef. Pt. III, Quest. 15) mention another
method which they had observed;
namely, that the witch must be
brought into the presenee of her Judge
with ner faee averted from him. Forit
is argued that if the witch ean get but
the merest glanee at him at the first,
she ean fill his mind with pity for her,
or rather ean bewitch him, just as the
basilisk or even the wolf tries to get the
first glanee at a man:
“The wolves saw Moeris first.”J
Now if the cause of all these things
be carefully eonsidered, none more
probable, I think, will be found than
that the Demon purposely offers the
oeeasion for such experiments, and so
provides the material, as it were, by
which men are the more easily led to
tempt God; for so they do when they
pass over and negleet the remedies
which lie to their hands, and tum to
strange and unwonted remedies which
have the Demon as their author and
suggestor. For this is the grossest im-
K , and it was for this that God
- rly punishcd the Israelites with
fiery serpents; and unless we keep our-
selves íree from this sin He will aeliver
f “ Gandino .” Desiderius Alberlas de Gan-
dino, a Neapolitan jarist, the aathor of a
"Traelatm super malefldis,” of which there
are editions, Rome, 1521; Lyons, 1555; Rome,
1575 -
X “ First .” Vergil, Eelogne, IX, 54: "lupi
Moerim aidere priores.”
DEMONOLATRY
BK. IÍI. CH. X.
170
us up for an example to that old ser-
pent the Devil, who is always ready to
use his poison against us when wc per-
mit it, and even eondone it.
But someone will say, the ordeal by
water,* and even by red-hot iron or
biiming eoals, which ìs far more severe,
was formerly praetised by Christians,
as the Saered Canons testify; and be-
fore that Moses ordered that a bitter
drink, aeeompanied with a curse and
execration, should be given to those
women who were suspected of adul-
tery, so that the truth, which otherwise
would remain in darkness, might be
brought to light. For no one has said
that by this saerifiee of jealousy (for
so it ìs eommonly ealled) Goa was
tempted; sinee it was done by His
eommand, as is seen in the Book of
Numbcrs (ehap. v).
To this 1 answcr that that was an ex-
ample fit for that age and for a stiff-
neeleed people who wcre so much ad-
dieted to the sin of adultery, and that
it was permitted for that time by God,
who, as S. Augustine says, knows just
how much eaeh man ought to suffer
and endure. But it eannot rightly now
be adduced in argument, sinee all such
outlandish trials are prohibited and
forbidden to Christians. And we are
elearly taught in the Gospel to leave
these seeret and hidden things to Him
who alone knows the hearts of the sons
of men, and not to delve or pry into
them furthcr than is demanded by the
duc exccution of justice; that is, the
voluntary or extorted eonfession of
prisoners justly eonvieted by the elear
testimony ofcrediblewitncsses. Forno
man, says S. Augustine, who has ra-
tional methods at his eommand ought
to tempt his God.
Let us rid ourselves, then, of these
unlawful, forbidden and damnable in-
quisitions, lest it be deservedly said of
us, as it was onee with the greatest in-
• “ Ordea .1 by ivaler.” IJpon the variotis
Ordeals and Appeals see Gaazzo , “ Compen -
dium MalejieanmBook II, Chapters xoii-
xix.
justice said by the Pharisees of Christ,
that we do not east out devils save
by Beelzebub the ehief of the devils
(o. Mattheiv xii. 24); or as Euscbius
said of someone, writing to Hieroeles,
“He is a demon, who drives out one
demon by another.” Let us not our-
selves dabble in those arts which we
eondemn and reprehend when they
are used by witches, and so hurl our-
selves to the penalties ofsin. Above all
let us not aggravate the offenee by
eommitting it under the eloak of Iaw
and justice, defending it by authority,
and so handing it down to posterity as
an example and a preeedent. For it is
human nature that onee an error has
gained public crcdence,posterityclings
tcnaciously to it and, as the Doetors of
Law say, hold it for the truth. We give
wrong the plaee of right, says Seneea
(Ejrist. XXII, 124), assoon as it has re-
eeived the sanetion of the public.
■ír
OHAPTER X
That Knowlcdge of the Future belongs lo
God; and if the Demons appear to be en-
dowed with sveh Knowledge, it is nothing
but a Presentijnent and Conjecture drawn
by shrewd Induction from the Past; or a
sirmlated Predietion of Events which they
have themselves already determined upon;
or, finally, a very early Announcement,
made possible by their marvellous Speed,
of Events whicn haoe taken plaee in vari-
ous distant Regions.
A LL who have embraeed and re-
tained any true religion agree
that knowledge and preseienee of fu-
ture events belongs to God alone (S.
John Ghrysostom, Homel. 18; Isatah
xli; Daniel ii). And whcn His dis-
eiples prcsumptuously pressed Christ
to restore again the kingdom to Israel,
He rebuked them saying: “It is not
for you to know the times or the
seasons, wiiich the Father hath put in
his own power” (Aets i). And Soerates
DK. III. CH. X.
DEMONOLATRY
said, Xenophon, Lib. 4, de diet. et faet.
Soeratis, that the Gods were not pleased
with the man who sought to know
that which they did not wish him to
know. Pindar also, although he lived
in an age when men’s minds were still
bound oy the base errors of Demons,
said that knowledge of the future was
hidden from men, and that only the
perspieaeity and keenness of the divine
light could penetrate it. So also,
Aulus GeUius tells us, XIV, 1, thought
Pacuvius, when he said: “They who
would foresee the future make them-
selves equal with Jove.” Apollonius of
Tyana, who professed that he was
ignorant of nothing which men ean
know, nevertheless said that the art of
divination surpassed all the bounds of
human nature, and that he did not
know whether any inan had any skill
in it. Further, he said, in his speeeh
before Domitian, that he was horrified
by those who, ignorant of the nature of
the Gods, dared to assert that they-
forekncw what was in the minds of the
Gods ( Philostralus , III, 13). Am-
mianiis Marcellinu$ ( Remmgest. XXV)
says that, although Julian, surnamed
the Apostate, was a most abandoned
and inveterate seeker of presages, this
Emperor acknowledged that only the
Powers above could foretell the out-
eome of future events.
Nevertheless, there is a strong belief
not only among the heathen whose
Gods are Demons, but among Ghris-
tians who acknowledge the preseienee
and foreknowledge of the true God,
thàt the future ean be foreseen by
vatieinations, portents, oraeles, dreams
and divinations; and that there is in
the Demons, who arepopularly thought
to have eontrol over such matters, a
powcr ofpredietion which is rarely de-
eeived. The supporters of this belief
elaim for it the unmistakable authority
of S. Basil, where, glossing upon
Isaiah viii, he says that the Demons
very often foretell the future; and of S.
Augustine where he says that they
know and announce events Iong before
they have happened. Serapis did this
171
when he predieted that within a eer-
tain time his image would be destroyed
and that his whole cult and worship
would be abolished with eontempt.
And the witch’s Demon* in the appear-
anee of Samuel told Saul that on the
ncxt day he would lose his kingdom
and his sons and his life ( I.Sam. xxviii).
Cimon’s dog (says Plutarch), that is
the Demon appearine in the form and
likeness of a aog, spoke to him in the
midst of its barklng in lmman tonguc
and foretold his eertain death. An-
other Demon, in the shape ofa yellow-
haired boy, appeared to that Julian
(the Apostate) whom wc have just
mentioned, and predieted that he
would die in Phrygia; and so it hap-
ened not long afterwards (Zonaras,
Annal. tomo. III). And, to eome to
more reeent times, another Demon
foretold to Guntram,f King of Orleans
and Burgundy, not only the year and
the dav, but even the very hour at
which Charibertwould die. And but a
short while ago, at Essay, June 1590,
four days before she was ìmprisoned to
answer a eharge of witcncraft, her
Little Master told Jana, ihe wifc of
Nieolas Miehel, that this would eer-
tainly happen to her. Aneient and
reeent history abounds in such ex-
amples of Demons’ predietions being
proved truc by the event.
What then? Shall we so allow our-
selves to be driven into a eorner by
these arguments that we must admit
that God communicatcs to the most
wickcd of all His creatures His plans
and dispensations formed with espeeial
regard to the affairs of mankind?
Certainly not! But just as the Devil
always apes and imitates all the other
- “ Wikh‘s Demon." It must be remem-
bered that Remy assitmes the unusual and indeed
inadmissible explanation that the speelre was
the Demon appearing as Samael.
f “ Guntram .” At the death of Clotaire in
561 the monarehy was divided between his four
sons: Guntram reigned at Orleans, Oharibert
at Paris, Sigebert at Reims, and thilperie at
Soissons. Charibert died in 567.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. X.
172
glorious powcrs of God, so more than
ever in this respeet does he exert every
effort whcreof he is eapable; for there
is nothing by which men ean more
easily be caught and choused than by
a seeming foreknowledge of their fu-
ture fate, whcther it be good or bad.
Then, too, his natural properties are
such as to make the praetiee of this
deeeption very easy for him. In the
first plaee, he has the memory of all
that nas happened from the remotest
antiquity and from the very beginning
of all things; and, as S. Basil says, even
wc, by eomparison and induction from
things past, ean often conjecture what
is to eome. In addition to this he is
endowcd with great keenness and sub-
tlety of pereeption; amazing agility
and speed of motion; and a ready
faeility for working swift glamorous
ehanges and variations in objeets. We
have the authority of S. Augustine to
the effeet that the Demon ean send
diseases, ean vitiate and corrupt the
very air, ean seduce men to his own
way of thinking, ean transform the
appearanee of things, and perform
many other prodigies; and all these
faculties open up for him a ready and
easy road to the early announcemcnt
of that which has already occurred or
the antieipatory predietion of what is
to eome. The longevity of the first
men is said to have given them much
leisure for observation; and out of this
arose the seienee of astrology, by which
it is thought to be possible to have
preeognition of the overthrow of king-
aoms, of wars, the yield of the erops,
pestilenees, and such matters. Whàt
wonder then if, having lived continu-
ously without even sleeping sinee the
beginning of the world, the Demons
with their vigorous memory and un-
fettered powers of reasoning have ae-
ouircd some faetilty for conjecturing
tnefuture? Physieians ean form a pro-
gnosis of impending diseases from the
patient’s aversion lrom or fastidious-
ness in regard to food, his physieal
lassitude,slceplessncss and othersymp-
toms; and when the siekness has taken
hold they ean conjecture its probable
severity or cure from the patient’s
sweating, excrcta and many other such
eritieal indieations. Will not a far more
eertain and uncrring judgement of
such things be formed by the Demons,
to whom all the inner and hidden
seerets of nature are elearer than is the
noontide light to mortal men? By re-
lays of horses and by other means of
shortening the joumey the report of
events in outlying countries often
reaehes the ears of Prinees with a speed
which would seem hardly eredible to
meaner men if they did not know from
experience that it was a faet. Can we
then hesitate to admit that the De-
mons are able to announce almost at
the very moment of its occurrence
that which has happened in remote
and distant regions, so that men in the
slowness of their pereeption marvel at
it and regard it in the light of a prog-
nostieation?
That the Demons ean in the briefest
moment of time traverse the greatest
distanees of spaee has already been
shown by such pertinent examples that
there is no need to reopen that ques-
tion. But if anyone needs further proof
he ought to be abundantly satisfied by
what nas been reeorded by both Greek
and Latin authors. Castor and Pollux
brought to Rome the news of the defeat
of the Latins at Lake Regillus on the
very day on which the battle was
fought. The vietory of the Loerians
over the men of Croton at the Saered
River was announccd as soon as it
had been won at Sparta, Corinth and
Athens simultaneously. When Apol-
lonius was in Egypt, he nevertheless
knew how the rising against the Em-
peror Vitellius was proeeeding in
Rome; and again, as he was disputing
at the hour of noon at Ephesus, and at
that very hour Domitian was assas-
sinated in Rome, he told the whole
event in every detail as if he werc
present as a wimess. Within the
memory of our great-grandsires, Louis
XI of Franee was informed for a
eertainty that Charles, Duke of
BK. III. CH. X.
DEMONOLATRY
Burgundy,* had been defeated and
slain with his whoIe army before this
eity of Naney; and aIthough the king
was no less than ten days’journey away,
it was afterwards found that at that very
hour the Burgundians had been routed
and exterminated. I need not continue
toenumerate the manycxamples of this
sort which the reader will find seat-
tered throughout the histories of past
times.
All this premonstration of future
events, therefore, is the outcome ofeon-
jecture, observation, the antieipation
of rumours, rapidity of travelling and
other stranger methods. It is not eer-
tain, eonstant, infallible, firm, stable
or enduring;; for such preseienee may
only be aseribed to God, with whom all
time is the present. But the Demons
thus untiringly exercise their powers in
this respeet in order to inspire their
diseiples with a wondering belief in
their benevolenee, or to warn and
strengthen them against defeetion when
they are eompelled to answer for their
erimes in a court of justice. For nearly
all witchcs who have eome to that eon-
dition have affirmed that it had been
foretold to them. The Demon ap-
peared to Jana Gerardine, at Pangy-
sur-Moselle, Nov. 1584, as if in a state
of indignationthatshe shouId be spend-
ing her life in prison tearing her hair,
and told her that on the next day she
would be dragged away to the qucs-
tion of the torture. He made a similar
announcement to Fran<jois Fellet
(ibidem, Dee. 1584) when he appeared
to him in prison in the likeness of a
raven. Ana in the same way to Anna
Morèle, at Hadonville, Nov. 1581,
whom he also eommanded with the
direst threats not to betray herself or
her assoeiates to the Judge. On the
day before she was to be tortured he
told Alcxia Belheure, Blainville, Dee.
1587, that there had eome from the
- “Burgundj.” In a batlle fought near
jVaney, in Janmry /477, the army of the Duke
of Bttrgtindy was iotally defeated and he him-
self lost his life.
173
neighbouring town a torturcr who
would put her to truly agonizing and
exquisitc pain; but that she must take
eare lest, by shirking a short time of
torture, she shou!d incur the punish-
ment of most cruel and eertain death;
and she would not even eseape with
impunity the consequences 01 giving
rein to her tongue, For he also would
heavily avenge ìt upon her. When the
day dawned upon which Jean
Rotier, Huecourt, Sept. 1586, was
to suffer the extreme penalty he was
visited as usual by his gaoler and was
asked if he needed anything. “I have
enough for now,” he answered; “but
if you wish to do anything for me, do it
at onee; for to-day you see me for the
last time.” And when the gaoler, to
relieve him of that fear, said that so far
as he knew there was no reason why he
should not eome offfree and unharmed
he replied: “Nay, it is no use trying to
eheat me; for I have been told all by
my Little Master this night.” Ana
he recounted all the Judge’s delibera-
tions as if he had been a witness of
them; and repeated this a few hours
later when he stood before his Judgcs
to be senteneed to death, adding that
on the preeeding night his Little
Master had been with him all the time,
no bigger than eight fingers in height.
Such must have been that Tages.f who
was eertainly some Demon, of whom
Cicero writes that, when the ground
was being ploughed in Tuscany and
the ploughshare had dug rather deep
into the ground, he suddenly sprang
from the earth; and yet he was girt
with a long sword as if he had been a
man of great athletie and physieal
prowess.
t “ Tages .” Tages was a supematural
being, who, as Cicero ivrites, “De Diuina-
tione,” II, xxiii, 50, onee appeared suddenly
in a field to a Tuscan plotighman, and taught
him and all the people of Etmria the art of the
hamspiees. See the “Geography of Wiuh-
eraft , Ghapter 1, p. /7.
☆
DEMONOLATRY
BK. m. CH. XI
CHAPTER XI
That it nted not stem marvelloiis to anyone
that the Demons remain with their
Diseiples even during the Sessions of ihe
Court : sinee they are also found to fre -
quent the interior of Churches and Plaees
hallowed by the Majesty of GoiPs
Presenee. ineidentally a Memorable
Example of this is related: and the
Question is disputed whether Demons ean
render themselves visible to those alone
zvhom they will, although many other
Men are present at the Time.
HERE is no plaee so saered and
hallovved but that the Demon tries
to deseerate it, so boldly and hardily
does he break all bounds when he
pursucs his prey and lays his snares for
men. In the holiest sanctuaries of our
churches, in the mostsaered assemblies,
in the remote eells of Anehorites and
among those who have forswom the
world, he is a frcquent and busy
visitor, as is elearly shown by the
erimes that have been eommitted in
such hallowed plaees at his suggestion
and undcr his guidance. He was even
bold, as we read in the history ofJob, to
present himself before the Lord to-
gether with the sons ofGod. Therefore
tt shou!d not be wondcred at, if at the
very shrine of the law and while the
Judges are actually sitting in judge-
ment he dares to stand by nis diseiples
as a sort of surety for them.
Before I beeame a Public Offieer of
Justicc I had often heard stories ofthis
impudcnt behaviour of the Demon;
but I took no more notiee of them than
if they had been tales of hobgoblins
and bugaboos told by nurses to
frighten naughty ehildren. Now that
I have given careful personal atten-
tion to the matter and nave been eon-
vineed by unassailable prooís, I do not
hesitate to hand on my knowledge to
others, who, however, must not, if they
refuse to believe me, deem me any
more biassed than I onee thought they
were who told me these things when 1
was inexperienced. Therefore of many
examples I shall give you one, reader,
as to the truth of which I stake my
honour; for I witnessed it with my own
eyes in the exercise ofmyjudicial offiee.
There was a witch, eommonly ealled
Lasnier because her husband was a
donkey-man, whom I pressed so hard
in respeet of the evidenee given against
her that she was left with no loophole
for evasion or eseape. She had there-
fore determined to make a elean breast
of all her erimes, and was on the point
of doing so whcn her faee suddcnly
ehanged colour; she fixcd her eyes in
amazement upon a eomer of her eell,
and began to lose all power of speeeh
or reason. I asked ifshe had been sud-
denly seized with any siekness. She an-
swered that she could see her Little
Master at the top of that eorner fiereely
threatening her with hands forked and
clawed like a erab, and that he seemed
to be on the point of fiying at her.
I looked at the plaee, and she kept
pointing at it with outstretched finger;
Dut I saw nothing. However, I told
her to be of good courage, and with
great eonfidenee and eertainty spoke
much in eontempt and seom of that
Little Master; and so she reeovered
from her fear and onee more began her
intermpted eonfession. But again she
saw him monstrously threatening in
another eoraer and, like a play-aetor,
in another shape; for he nad homs
growing straight out from his forehead
and seemed as if he would gore her
with them. But after he had again been
ridiculed and utterly revilea he de-
parted and was no more seen by her, as
she deelared when she was just about
to be led to the fire. I had heard that
the same thing had happened not
many years before at Metz.
Here there arises a question worthy
of individual investígation. Can De-
mons make themselves visible to one
man, and at the same tíme remain in-
visible to everyone else who is present?
For eertainly, when Lasnier was so
persistently pointíng out her Little
Master to me as plainly visible, nothing
could be diseemed by me though I
BK. III. GH. XI.
DEMONOLATRY
Iooked most intently; nor have I yet
heard of anyone whosc eyes have seen
more than mine of such a thing, how-
ever keen-sighted they may be. And
this proves either that the witches are
lying, in the hope of moving their
Judges to fear (as they often evilly at-
tempt to do); or that there is in De-
mons some faculty by which, as wc
have said, thev ean appear to those to
whom they wish to mamfest themselves,
while all else who are present see noth-
ing. I eannot believe that the former
altemative is true; for I have learned,
nay, I have myself seen, that witches
are so moved and strieken by this hap-
pening that they appear as if verily
they wouId swoon to death, so stupe-
fied beeomes their speeeh, so filled with
horror their faee and their wholc body
with trembling. Gertainly they could
not be such elever aetors as to assume
all these symptoms without the fraud
being easily deteeted; to say nothing of
the persistenee with which they main-
tain their assertions in the midst of the
very flames and in the hands of the
torturer.
I rather believe that this isagIamour
east by the Demons, by which they
delude the sight of those alone whom
they will, leaving that of all the others
free and unfettcred. Optieians tell us
that our eapaeity for seeing anything
depends upon the light or dark of the
intermediate air, and that this raises
our power of vision from potentiality
to actuality: now the Demons ean at
will eontrol both light and darkness.
For God gave them powcr over the air
(Ephesians, ii, 2), therefore no one
ought to doubt that they have the
powcr to make themselves visible or
mvisible to eaeh man as they wish : for,
as Lactantius says (De origine erromm
II, 15), they aeeomplish the even more
astounding feat of causing that which
is not to appear to men as if it were.
Therefore it was not unaptly that
some have ealled the Demons optieal
illusions. And I tliink that this ìs the
explanation of the stories, so often to
be found in even good authors, of
Gyges’ Ring,* the Helmet of Dark-
nessj and the Divining Rod, as well as
of all the methods used by the masters
of so-ealled White Magie with which
they elaim to be naturally endowed.
Of this deseription also is that which
Pliny (XXVIII, 8) quotes from Demo-
critus eoneerning tne left foot of the
ehameleon, which, if it be baked in an
oven together wilh the earline-thistle
and formed into pellets, renders the
wearer of them invisible. For when
Gcllius (X, 12) eondemns this story as
ridiculous and inept.j he ean hardly
eseape laying himself open to ridicule,
as not knowing that it has always been
the praetiee of Demons and their dis-
eiples in their illusions and spells to
make use of some visible extcrnal ob-
jeet with which to delude the eyes of
men. Moreover a man ought not to be
seeptieal of anything just because it is
strange, but ought to respeet the word
of a learned author such as Gieero
says Democritus to have been in many
- “ Gygts' Ring Gyges, King of Lyiia,
was famotis for the possession of a magie ring
by means of which he eonld render himself in-
oisible at will. The story is related by Cicero,
"De Offieiis," III, ix.
f "nelmet of Darkness." The helmet of
the god Hades, which rendered its wearer in-
visible, aeeording lo late traditions ( Apollo-
doms, I, 2, /) was presented to him by the
Cyclopes after their delivery from Tarlams.
Both gods and men were oeeasionally honottred
by Hades with the temporary nse of the helmet.
"Iliadr V, 844-5:
rbv ftàv Apijs èváptfa /iiai<^xíi ‘os’ aìrràp ’Affývi]
Sìv’ “AtSos Kvvtrjv, /ijj piv íSot ófipipos ‘Aprjt.
Aristophanes, "Aehamians," 389-90, has:
Xa/?« 8’ tpov y' rvtna, rrap' 'ltptvvvpov
(TKOToSaovmjKVÓrpi^ó ra' 'AtSos Kvvrjv.
Hesiod in the “Setihtm” (232) speaks of the
dreadftl helmet of Hades, having a fearfiil
gloom of night. One may eompare the Nebel or
Tam-kappa of the “ Niebelnngenlied."
J “ Vanity." Gellitis when he mentions this
eharm says itis so absurd that he wonders if it
be worth reeord: “ alitid, quod herele an ponerem
diibitavi; ita est deridiettlae iianitatis”
DEMONOLATRY
BR. III. CH. XI.
176
of his works [De Nat. Deor. Lib. I); and
I think that iti such matters wc should
give more wcight to the opinion of one
who had given much thought and
study to the subject of these occult arts.
For.says Oieero, De Diiiinatione, Lib. II,
he used to aseribe such virtue to the
inspeetion of the internal organs that,
from their eondition and colour, he
held it possible to prefigurc the plenty
or dearth of the earth’s harvest, and
the saiubrity or the reverse of the air
which surrounds us; for it must be
admitted that he wavered in his jndge*
ment of the nature of the Gods, a state
of mind which it is the first and ehief
eare of Demons to inducc and incul-
eate into witchcs. Besides, Pliny in no
sense quotcs this as being a sure and
indubitablc faet, but rather as a fable
or fietion, sinee he qualifics it with the
words “If wc are to believe.”
Howevcr this may be, our daily
expericnce, eonfirmed by the ample
authority of many writers, leads us to
this conclusion; that when the Demons
assume some bodily form, they have
nevertheless the power to make them-
selves visible oníy to those to whom
they wish to show themselves, however
great a concourse of men may be
present at the time. In the ease
of Katoptromaney and Gastromaney
(that is, divinations performed by a
boy, trained for the purpose in the pre-
eepts of those arts; who inspeets some
objeet—either a round-bellied glass
filledwithwater,or a mirrorsubmerged
in waterj, eharms which, we are told
by Spartianus, Didius Julianus* some-
• ‘ 'JulianusM. Didms Salviits Julia-
nus, uìho bought the Roman Empire after the
death 0/ the Perlinax, A.D.igg, only reignedtivo
monlhs, from the s8th of Mareh to the rst of
Juru, being assassinated by the soldiers.
"Juliamis was also given to a óartiailar kind
of madntss—the eonsvltation of magieians be-
fore he andertook any basiness and the conduct
of affairs tmder their direetion, sinee hereby he
imagined that he could àther assuage the dis-
like the peoble bore him or else curb the violenee
of the soldiery. For his satellites wert wont to
offer in saerifiee vietims elean eontraiy to any
times essayed, is it not the faet that
the boy alone elearly pereeives and
announces what he sees, while even his
master who orders and eontrols the
whole divination sees nothing at all?
Convcrsely, the jugglèrs and conjurers
of the market-plaees make many things
appear to a wholc crowd of men al-
though they themselves ean see noth-
ing. Apuleius says that he saw a
inounted conjurer swallow a svvord
with a deadly blade, thrusting it right
down his throat to the belief of those
even who werc watching him most
elosely; yet he did not himself believe
what he thus made others believe,
knowing that the blade never left his
hands. Many think that this is done by
quickness and sleight of hand, by
which they ean easiíy deeeive the less
observant,or those who are standing at
some little distanee; but we have eíse-
where shown that in manyeases such
feats eannot be performed without the
aid of a Demon, espeeially when they
aresuch asto pass theeomprehensionof
our natural senses. Such was the ease
which we have already told of the
German who was seen to swallow a
who!c vvaggon of hay together with its
driver and horses; for this could not
have been possible without some signal
corruption or depravation of the
speetators’ senses. This is ealled by
rlato yogrevav, that is (as Budaeus
interprets it in his eommentary on the
GreeJt language), to benumb with
some spell so as to deeeive the person
so bewitched; and in our own language
“engigner ,” signifý'ing an ingenious
and skilful imposture. For even as the
light of a lantem is dimmed either by
the stronger and more splendid light of
the sun, or by the interposition of some
Roman eastom, they also made trial of foreign
sfiells and ineantations, and dabbled in that
kind of soreery ealled Katoptromaney, ivhieh is
to say that boys, when they haoe been blindfold
for a while and eertain runes reeited ooer them,
see the future in a mirror; thus a boy is saìd to
haoe seen the m urder of Jtdiamis and the aeets-
sion of Sevems .**
BK. III. CH. XI.
D EMONOLATRY
dense and opaquc body; so the trans-
areney of tne air ean be so obscured
y the Demon’s art, which ean easily
shadow the appearanee of anything,
that the powcr of vision is entirely
taken from even the most keen-sighted.
Darkness, says Plutarch, binds and eon-
striets the sight, and so enfeebles and
deadens it; whercas too much light dis-
sipates and disintegrates it; but when
the air is such as to provide the proper
mcdium for sight, that is, whcn it is
temperate and moderate, then the eyes
ean freely and without hindranee
cxcrcise their fnnr.tion.
Therefore sinee, as we have just said,
darkness and light are to a great extent
in the eontrol of the Demons, it ought
not to seem wonderful that they ean
cause themselves to appear or to vanish
as if this were an actual rcsult which
they ean aehieve at their diseretion;
and that they ean cause this sort of
blindness in those alone to whom it ap-
pears to be the truth, very much in tne
same manner as men ean defleet the
rays of the sun with a mirror and direet
them upon whom they will, and so
dazzle them that they ean see no more
than the blind.
But when all this is said, there re-
mains one difficulty. When these
phenomena occur there is no sign of
any effiilgenee or obfuscation, but the
air is evcrywhere perfeetly elear and
unobscured; so that the above argu-
ments seem hardly pertinent to our
present inquiry. But it is eertain that
the Demons have other means of af-
feeting us, and ean eontrol other forees
than such as are derived from purely
natural sources. Proclus* says that to
eaeh one of our faculties belongs its
own proper eondition by which it ean
be influcnced and affeeted by the De-
mons; that is, as I interpret it, not by
the same means and methods as are
normally followed by nature. And
• “Proeltts.” One of the most eelebraled
teaehers of the A 'eO'Platonie Sehool. Born at
Byzantiiim , a.d. 410, and died at Athens,
a.d, 485.
Psellusf says that by putting on the
Helmet of Pluto, Demons disturb men’s
minds by some magie art, and by some
false deeeption implant shapes or
colours or what they will in their
imaginations, and cause them to faney
that they see visions. Therefore it is
useless to attempt to reeoneile this
question with a regular orderof natural
causes; and it must be eonfessed that
whcn Demons, as Porphyrius says, per-
form their prodigies, they work in a
manner C[uite foreign to nature; and
this, I think, is why Iamblichus ealled
them the iaekeys of the gods; because
in their adumbrations they seem to
follow elosely in the footprints of the
gods.
There is anotherequallystrong argu-
ment ín proof of the truth of this mat-
ter. For if, as Psellus says, the Demons
ean enter and insinuate themselves in-
to men’s bodies and, being themselves
spirits, ean mingle and unite them-
selves with the spiritual faney of men,
who ean say that it is beyond his belief
that they ean at their wiíl impose their
own image upon the faney 01 the man
whom they are possessing? Plutarch
relates that Soerates had two familiar
spirits with whom he used to eonverse
on terms of the greatest friendship; but
it was no voiee from without, says Pro-
clus, that he heard, but a breath from
within which reaehed the organs of his
senses. Yet Soerates believed that he
could hear the voiee sounding loud in
his ears, whereas no one else, however
observant and keen of hearing, could
distinguish the least sound even when
he plaeed his ear right against him. If
this holds good of the deeeption of the
hearing, it eannot be less valid in re-
speet of the illusion of the eyes, which
of all the senses are the most easily
eheated. For that matter, all our
f “Pselltis.” “Atque hunc quidem in
modum daemones hi, assumpta Oreigalea,
homirmm animas miro artifeio, miraque
uersutia eonhirbant—“De Operalione Dae-
mommsecundum Latinam Petri Morelli
interpretationem, Paris, 1615, p. 51.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. XII.
178
senses are equally feeble and open to
delusions and glamours.
Finallv, the Demons have also the
power of being visible and invisible al-
most at the same moment; so that one
man may see them and point them out
to another, who, however quickly he
may look, will see nothing. A similar
property ean be observed in air or
water, as Iamblichus says; for if you
pour a colour into them, or mould
them to any shape, it is almost at onee
dispelled and dissolved.
Therefore I think that it is suffi-
eiently elear that witches are telling no
lie when they affirm for a faet that they
ean see their Little Masters, even
though everyone else ean see nothing:
and that it is no idle assertion that the
Demons stand by them in the Court of
Justice as if they wcrc advoeates to
plead their cause, although they are
neither seen nor heard, nor is their pre-
senee in any way pereeived by anyone
else.
■ir
C/ÍAPTER XII
Thal ihey art irt Error who deny that
Witches ought to be bmished at all; and
the Arguments witn wkich they eom-
monly Defend their Opinion are one
by one Confuted.
HERE have been those who,
rather as a trial of their skill in
debate than with any intention of
seeking out the tnith, have spoken
in terms of the highest praise of the
most detestabie evils. Thus in Plato,
Glauco defends injustice; a young
man in Philostratus extols the benefìts
of gout, blindness and deafness; Poly-
erates * praises the dropsy, Favorinus f
- ‘'Polyerates." An Athenian orator and
sophist of some repute, a eontemporary of
Soerates and isoerates. He taught first at
Athens and aftenvards at Cyprus. The sub-
jeets ofhis works are knoum from their mention
in later writers.
the quartan ague, Lucian the palsy;
and finally Erasmus spoke in such
eommendation of folly that the truth
itself could not have been more elearly
and e!oquently vindieated. But there
has been no one who has in this
manner spoken out of such eonvietion
and with such a desire to propagate
his opinion as one who has lately
with fanatieal zeal (as is always the
ease when a man adopts an unten-
able attitude) undcrtaken the defenee
of witches.í And sinee this is an evil
example to the righteous, and an en-
couragement to the wickcd to sin with
the hope ofimpunity; and furthcr, be-
cause it is utterly at varianee with
everything that we have written in this
book eoneeming this monstrous and
deadly erime; with his good leave and
that of any who may hold with him, I
have thought good to deal somcwhat
with this matter.
First, then, he ehiefly bases his Apo-
logy on the argument that witches pre-
tend to do many things which, bv tneir
very nature, it is impossible for them
to ao; such as the raisingup of thunder,
clouds, storms, whirlwinds and other
tempests, which manifestly have their
origm in natural causes. Ýet the eon-
trary is not so unheard-of or rare but
that it ean easily be defended on the
authority of not a few writers of no
mean repute, but rather highly praised
f “ Faoorimis .” A philosopher and sophist
in the reign of Hadrian. He was a native of
Arles in Gaul. He rose to high distinetions, and
was very friendly with many literary men of the
day,partkularly Plutarch~ Faoonrms wrote a
rnmber of works upon varioia themes, but of
these none are extant.
f “Deftnee of Witches .” The referenee is
to Johann Weyer {1515S8), house physieian
to Duke ÍViíliam III of Òlevts. His “De
praesligiis daemormm et incantationibus ae uene-
fieiis” was first published at tìasle in 1563.
Weyer argues that witches or womm who are
dehided into the belief that they haoe made a
eompaet with the devil eannot disturb the air
and ejeeite storms by a glanee or maledietions,
sinee sveh are wholly inadequate to the attain-
ment of the end in view.
BK. III. CH. XII.
DEMONOLATRY
T 79
by many men. ApolIonius reeords
that he saw in India Brahmans who
could at will produce rain or fair
weather. The Assyrians, says Suidas,
had among their Chalda:ans* a eer-
tain Julian (a sage reputed to have
written the Theiirgiea) who, when the
ltoman army which was being led by
Marcus Antoniniiis against the Mareo-
mannif was suffering from thirst,
raised up a cloud from which there
immediately fell rain. Amuphus, the
Egyptian wizard, in the war wagcd by
the Romans against the Quadi,{ is said
to have obtained by his magie spells
from Mercury and the other Demons
of the air such a torrent of rain that it
uttcrly confused the Quadi and eom-
pelled them to yield the vietory to the
Romans. 01 aus Magnus, IV, i, bor-
rows from Saxo Grammaticus a similar
account of the Biarmenses: “YVhen they
could no longer resist the pressurc of
Regner, the Danish King, against
them, and were driven baek to their
last line of defenee, they at last assailed
the heavens with ineantations and
drew from them such a downpour of
rain in the faee of their enemies that
they broke up and routed their whole
army.” Lucius Piso (Apttd Plin. II,
- “ Ghaldeans .” Cham (Ham), the son of
Noah, who is identijied hy Vìneent of Beaavais
in his >l Speculum hisloriále" with ^oroasler, is
said to have been the first magieian. He taught
men that their destinies depended upon the stars ,
who were gods. The hosts of heaven aeeord-
ingly were worshipped with divine hononrs.
“La Chaldée fut le premier thédtre de ees igare-
rnens; et alors, ‘Cnaldéen, aslrologae et magi-
eien' itaient trois mols synonymes." “Réaliti de
la Magie et des Apparitions," Paris, r8tg.
| "Mareomanni.” A powerful German
people of the Sueoic raee, who originally dwelt
betwcen the Rhine and the Damibe, on the banks
of the Main. They afterwards extended their
dominions and formed a powerful kingdom
which earried on a long war during the reign
of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
t “ Quadi .” A German people who dwelt
in the south-east of that eomtry. They were
the elose allits of the Mareomanni in the long
wars of these tribes against Rome.
54) tells that Numa often ealled forth
lightning by his spells; and that when
TullusHostiliustned todothesame, but
did not observe the duc rítes and eere-
monies, he was struck by the lightning
and perished. Paulus veneoiss wrote
that the Tartars, a raee which now
occupies aneient Parthia and Seythia,
eonld by their eharms bring darkness
upon the earth when they wished; and
tnat whcn he was among them he
barely eseaped being surroundcd and
robbed by thieves, tnanks to this art.
This is similar to what Haito[| relates
in his History of the Sarmatians, that
a Tartar standard-bearer, seeing his
line wavering and nearly broken, en-
veloped the enemy in such a thiek
darkness that they wcrc slaughtered
almost to a man. The Emperor Con-
stantine, a man whom Zonaras testifies
to have been of themost devoted ortho-
doxy, believed in the effieaey of magie
arts to ward off from the young vines
rain and winds and hail; but later this
praetiee is speeifieally eondemned ín
the books of the Imperial Arehives;
for, as is noted by Theodorus Bal-
samonfí in the Nomoeanon , they who use
such magie arts are punishable by the
law, even if they aet in order to obtain
§ "Paulus Venetns." An Augustinian ere-
mite , bom at Udine about 1368; died at Veniee,
June /5, 1428. His works show a wide appre-
eiation of the seientifie problems of his day.
The "De quadratura eirevlì" and “De eirenlis
eomponentibas mundum" were very famotis,
whilst his “Logiea duplex ” was largely used as
a text-book and often reprinted.
I) “ Haito.” tìishop of Dasle; bom in 76$;
died Mareh 17, 836. In 811 he was sent with
others by Charlemagne to Constantinople on a
diplomatie mission.
“Theodoms Balsamon.” A eanonist of
the Greek Church; bom in the seeond half of
the twelfth century al Constantinople; where he
died at some date after 1133. As nomophylax
from 1178 to 1183 under the Patriareh I heo-
dosias, he had eharge of all eeelesiastieal trials
or eases. His most famous work is his
“ Seholia” or excursus upon the “ Nomoeanon ”
of Photius, first publislted in Latin at Paris,
1361; in Greek and Latin, Paris, /613.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. XII.
180
some good and to cnsurc the fertility
of the erops. If, then, such misfor-
tunes ean be averted by ineantations,
it wÌU not seem absurd that they ean
eonversely be caused. Constantius, the
son of that Constantine, bore no un-
eertain witness as to this, when he
deereed that they who by their magie
arts so disturbed the elements were to
be destroyed as a deadly piague. S.
Augustine does not disagree with this
opinion when he admits that, with
God’s permission, the elements ean be
disturbed by soreerers (In Psal. Ixxviii,
ver. 40): and S. Thomas (In postil. sua
in Joo) subscribed to this when he
aflìrms that the Demons ean gather
clouds in the air, drive them before
the wind and even send out fire from
them. This has been eloquently inter-
preted—as indeed is elarifìed every-
thing that he touches, by that most
eminent and honoured jurisconsult
Pierre Gregoire* in his treatise on
- "Pierre Gregoire." Pierre Gregoire, who
was born at Toulouse, and had tmgkt Civil
Law at Gahors, was invited to Lorraine by
Duke Charles III in order that he mighl preside
over and direet the new Faailty of Jurispru~
denee in the University of Pont-à-Mousson,
which had been founded in /572. Gregoire had
already won great fame throughout Enrope by
his profound seholarship and his eomplete mas-
tery of both Civil and Canon Law. He arrived
in Lorraine in 1582, and was reeeived by the
Duke wilh marked honour and respeet. The
Faatlly, however, was not established without
eonsiderable opposition , sinee there was a good
deal of jealomy, for powerful influences were
at work and thus ensnred vexatious delays.
Pierre Gregoire died in i6iy, and was baried
in the Church of the Poor Clares, at the baek
of the High Altar, towards the Gospel side.
He was as devoul as he was leamed, and his
orthodoxy is apparenl in all his wrilings. These
arefor the most parl of a teehnieal nature, and
not the least valaable is a treatise eomposed
under the name of Raymundus Rufus, demon-
straling that the deerees of the Council of Trent
must be promulgated and aeeepted throughout
Franee; Paris, 8 vo, 1553- The work to which
Remy refers is a profomd study of Canon Law
in three volumes: "Syntaxis artis mirabilis, in
tres partes digesta, per quas de omni re pro-
Canon Law, Syntaxis artis mirabilis in
tres partes digesta, Lib. IV, eap. xlvi,
n. 3: “And now,” he says, speaking of
Demons, “that we have
Our fruitful shoots set early in our
furrows
they raise up rains and winds and
tempests in the air, eondensed from the
fumes of the earth and the vapours of
the sea (for they have no other origin),
and from the midst of these they form
and east forth hurricanes, eomets,
thunderboIts, and many such signs
and portents, in the fashioning of
which they show themselves to be
marvellous workmen, having regard
to the material from which they are
formed.”
But, says my opponent, it matters
not whether tlie belief in all this is
based on the credulity of the ignorant
aneients, or on the eonfirmation of
reeent authors: in any ease it is the
height of rashness and madness to
maintain in this way that Nature is so
utterly under the eontrol of the De-
mons thatshe must perform their bid-
ding, and so submit to their yoke that
she must take from them the time and
degree of her rain and thunder. I
answer that no one (I think) who is in
the least eonversant with the works of
Theologians will deny that, subject to
the will of God, the Demons are eon-
eerned in such tempests in the ehar-
aeter of an Adrastia, and are (as Chry-
sippus| (Plut. de sera num. nindieta.
Idem probl. 51) and after him S. Basil
(ln eap. 13. Esaiae, and Psal. 78) says)
the executioncrs and ministers of
divine vengeanee, who visit and
destroy mankind and their works with
disasters and ealamities. The words of
posita multis et prope infinitis rationibus dispu-
tari aut traetari, omniumque snmmaria eognitio
haberipotest." 8vo, Lyons, 1583; and Cologne,
1610.
t "Chrysippus." A Stoie philosopher born
280 b.c .; died 207. He is said lo have had
remarkable talent, and to have lefl many writ-
ings, all of which have perished.
BK. m. CH. XII.
DEMONOLATRY
181
S. Paul are well known, where he sa>-s admit at the start that these things
that power over the air is given to have no part with the Iaws of Nature;
Demons ( Ephesiins , ii, 2): and in the but that such prodigies and portents
Apoealypse we read of the Powers of manifest themselves in spite of and to
the air sending forth such thunder- the amazement of Nature, so that any-
bolts and lightnings. Plutarch (In one who writes to aseribe them to
traet. de nitanda usura) also quotes Empe- natural causes might just as well try
doeles as ealling the Demons “Wan- to touch the heavens with his finger.
derers of the air,** tliat is, as he For it is not fitting to think aeeording
himself interprets it clsewherc, the to the standards of human reasoning
occupiers of the nether air undcr the andjudgementofmattcrswhichmani-
heavens, endowcd, as Xenocrates* festly siirpass all the bounds and limits
says (Apud eundem Plutarch. Jn Iside et set by Nature. Simon Magus íaeeord-
Osiride) with the greatest malignity ing to the testimony of S. Ambrose in
and eagerness and boldness in doing the Hexameron and Pone Clcment in
evil. If then this offiee is thus dele- the Itinerariam ), when he was striving
gated to them, and they are as it were with S. Peter the Apostle, performed
eommissioned to fulfil God’s wrath among other miraeles the following:
against man by means of the very he made himself appear to fly away as
forees of Nature, it must be less diffì- if upon wings. Hegesippus (III, 2)
cult to believe that they have witches writes that he did tnis in the sight of
as their assoeiates in this work: not for Nero, but that at the prayers of the
the sake of the help that they ean give Apostle he fell and broke his leg near
in performing what everybody knows Arieia. I pass over what Pausanias, in
that the Demons ean do without the his deseription of Attiea, relates of the
need of any help, but so that the De- poet Musícus, how he had been given
mon may make them more prone to do by Boreas the gift of flight; what S.
evil and iniury, and bytheir eomplieity Basil (In orat.funeb. Greg. Nanzian.) says
more ana more abandoned to all eoneerning the Argive Pegasus; what
erime. Hc eheats them into the belief Herodotus and, after him, S. Gregory
that they have some marvellous powcr the Theologianf (Epist. 22, ad Basil-
to perform these difficult and mirae- ium Magnum) telì of the Seythian
ulous tasks, and so drives them on and Abaris, that he used to ride with the
on, fatigning them with the heavy greatest swiftness through the air upon
burdcn of the exacting and tedíous an arrow given him by Apollo. For
duties which he imposes on them. For these seem to be fables rather than
so it is that this benevolent Master historieal truths; although it is possible
refreshes his diseiples with perpetual that they may have happened with
hardship, labour and molestation. the erafty heíp of the Gaeodemon,
Nor should our belief in this matter whom all know that the Pagans in the
be at all strained by any eonsideration delusion of their impious errors wor-
of the absurdity and ineompatibility shipped under the name of Apollo,
with natural laws of the supposition Aeolus, and the other Gods. For this
that, notwithstanding their solid is no more diffienlt of belief than that
weight, men are lifted up and borne on which more reeent authors have
high through the air. For we freely written eoneerning Antidius,J Bishop
- “ Xenocraies .” Of Chakedon, bom $g6 f “S. Gregory the Theobgian." S. Gregory
fl.e.; died 314. He beeame president of the of Naz.ianzus.
Aeademy even before the death of Speusippus, f “ Antiditis .” Rather S. Antidius, Bishoò
who was then a eomplele inoalid. Xenocrates of Besanfon, Marlyr, who was slain by the
reekoned Aether among the material elements of Vandals. Feast, June 25. It does not appear
the world. how this silly legend originated.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. IÍI. CH. XII.
l82
of Tours; that he rode upon the Devil forees even the stars to obey His laws;
so that he might reaeh Rome with the and will not believe that He ean do
greater speed and there as soon as anything except what is eredible ae-
possible reeall the Pope from some evil eording to nature. For this is to think
undcrtaking. And even if these stories too grossly and materiallyofHis works,
are not true, we have not far to seek; and, as they say, to render Jove utterly
for we know that, as the Gospels relate, dcstitute. “Therefore,” says Lucius
the man possessed with an unclean in Apuleius (Golden Ass , Book I), “I
spirit broke the ehains and fetters with think nothing impossible; but as the
which he was bound, and was earried fates have deereed, so do all things
by Satan into the wilderness: nay, happen for mortals.” For to all men
that Jesus Himself was taken up by there happen many marvcllous and
him in the Holy Land, and set upon the almost impossible expcrienccs which,
pinnaele of the Temple. For although whcn told to the ignorant, eannot be
ìt is no part of a dcvout Christian to believed.
inquirc why this was done, it would Again, it is argued that it is only in
behlasphemous to question that it was their thoughts (which shou!d in no
done, sinee we are told of it so plainly way be amenable to punishment) that
in the Holy Gospel. If therefore it witchcs are eoneemed in these disturb-
onee happened to Him who was the anees of the elements; and this is made
vanquishcr and conqueror of Satan to another plea for their pardon and
be earried through the air bv him, impunity; as if only the actual rcsults,
why should we be so slow to believe but not the evil devisings which lead to
that men, who are so often vulnerable them (as Cicero says in the ProMilone),
to his attaeks, espeeially those who ought to be regarded as punishable.
vo!untarily surrendcr themselves into But what is this but an open defenee
his powcr, ean at his plcasurc be lifted of the blind and impure passions of the
up and bome away through the air? heart, in defianee of the cxpress pro-
Finally, if it is desired to pursue this nouncementof the Gospel (S Mattheiv
inquiry beyond the evidenee of the xii), which tells us that the evil
aneient Annals and of more reeent thoughts of the heart are the gravest
history, what is more eommon in our sin in the sight of God? In the last
own aays than the frcauent and per- clausc of the Decalogue we are wamed
sistent assertions ofwitcncs with regard that they who envuously and eovet-
to this matter, eonfirmed by the testi- ousIy imagine some evil deviee, even
mony of men who eonstantly main- if they do not earry their thought into
tain that, not in sleep or with their deeds, must nevertheless not be held
senses bewitchcd, but with their own guiltless, seeing that they have sinned
eyes they have seen witches fall from ìn their hearts. Can the law regard an
the clouas, or elinging in perplexity to aeeessory to a faet as innoeent of that
the tops of trees or houses, or lying be- faet? But it may be objeeted that this
mused upon the ground? Nor is this argumcnt is not eoneemed with those
mere street-eorner gossip; but it is evi- punishments which the Theologians
denee given upon the most solemn leave to the seeret vengeanee of God
oath in a Court of Justice, as we have (Aets of God), but only with those that
more than onee shovvn in this vvork. are instituted as an example by human
Away then with those who would laws (the Blood Penalty), of which
make Nature the standard and rule of they who have theinselves admitted
all things, so that they think that noth- notning whichcan be taken asevidenee
ing ean happeri vvhieh does not eon- of their guilt ean in no way be deemed
form to her methods and limits! For worthy: sinee thought alone ean do no
thus they eonstringe the hands and hurt unless it is followed by some
circumscribe the might of God, who aetion; nor even the attempt itself.
bk. m. ch. xri.
DEMONOLATRY
unless it results in some injury. Let us
eoneede this. Let it be granted that
human law allows some things which
are eondemned by Divine law. Yet'
there is no laek in saered law of the
most elearly cxprcsscd sanetions for the
pimishment of the will to sin with the
sarne severity as the actual deed. The
Ediets of Gratian, Valentinian and
Thcodosius Iaid down the severest
penalties for the man who planned to
eontraet a marriage by foree against
the will of those who were eoneerned,
even if hedid notsuccecd in his design.
He who buys poison with the intention
of giving it to his father, although he
fails to do so, is held liable to the
penalty under the Lex Cornclia De
Sieariis. He who solieits another man’s
wife or would scducc her into adultcry,
although he may not have effeeted his
purpose, is neverlheless extraordin-
arily punished on account of the
abominable lusts of his heart. The
man who has even thought of ravishing
a holy virgin has to pay the penalty for
the actuaí deed. In short, where any
atrociousandgrave erime is eoneemed,
it is enough for a man to have eon-
eeived the intention for him to be
Í mnished for the faet. It was perhaps
òr this reason that in our own time the
Senate of Paris judged an eminently
noble man to beguilty of High Treason
bccause he had only eoneeived the idea
of assassinating the king; in spite ofthe
faet that he had immediately repented
of the notion, and had himselflaid in-
formation against himself. Now what
more abominable thought or eoneept
of an evil mind, what greater wicked-
ness and depravity of the human heart
ean there be than not only to revolve
in the mind and plot arid desire that
which all other men regard with
horror and apprehension—such as
tlmnders and Iigntnings, the ruin and
dcstruction of the erops, the violent
agitation and even uprooting of trees,
and the devastation and spoliation of
widc and fertile traets of land; but
with might and main, by elay and by
night, to strive to bring these things
183
about, and to wait upon, support, and
as far as they ean assist the Demons
whom they believe to be the instigators
of these upheavals; and in a word to
use their every effort and endeavour
to please them alone as much as they
possibly ean, as if in the knowlcdge
that both God and all men were de-
testable to them ? Such are the sins of
thought which, aeeording to S. Basil,
De uera mrginitate, should be judged not
merely as faneies, but as faets aeeom-
plished in the soul; and should, as soon
as they manifest themselves as the
resenee ol' lìre is indieated by smoke,
e immediately quelled and cxtin-
guished; and are deserving of the
heavier penalty, in that there is often
more harm in a seeretly eoneeived sin
than in an openly eommitted one.
Finally, if a bare guilty thought must
by no means be eonsidered penal, and
if innoeenee is suffìciently preserved if
you
But nurse a seeret rancour in the
breast;
then, I suppose, all the provisions of
the Iaw are invalid, whicn deeree the
most terrible punishment of the flames
for blasphemous opinions eoneerning
God and religion, ìf they are but laid
bare and diseovered by word of
mouth! Those deerees of the Em-
perors and Jurists are, forsooth, savage
and bloodtnirsty, which assigned the
same penalty and punishment to not
only the aeeomphees but even the
aeeessories of a erime, as to its actual
perpetrators!
Another plea is put forward on the
ground of the feebleness of the witches’
age and sex, a eonsideration which, it
is elaimed, should always be wcighed
most carefully in judging any person’s
degree of culpability; and tnus the
heinousncss of this erime in particular
should be overlooked, sinee it proeeeds
from a eondition of mind for which
Naturc alone is responsible. But to
argue in this way is to bring a very
heavy eharge against Naturc, who is
on the eontrary wisc in all she does.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. in. CH. XII.
For all those vvho are infeeted vvith this
pestilenee of vviteheraft are vvomen or
of an advaneed and deerepit age; for
(thoiigh this is eertainly rarer) the
Demon holds men equally bound by
this kind of allegianee. And although
it is true that many vvomen of extreme
old age are taken up for this erime,
even in such eases the sin is one of long
standing of vvhieh they have usually
been guilty ever sinee the time of their
youth. But even if my opponents’ eon-
tention vvere true, vvho ìs there vvho
does not knovv that neither sex nor age
is regarded by the lavv as any cxcuse
forits infringement.and that no offenee
ean be eondoned on the seore of
human vveakness? God has spoken
vvith no mieertain voiee: “A man also
or vvoman that hath a familiar spirit,
or that is a vvizard, shall surely be put
to death” ( Levitiais xx, 27). And
through fear of the Iavv by vvhieh Saul
punished vviteheraft vvith death, the
vViteh of Endor tried to deny that she
had any skill in the matter. ít is, then,
apparent that without any regard or
respeet for their age or scx the Lavv of
God demands the punishmcnt of those
who exercise such ìllieit and forbidden
arts. Even the New Testament, the
teaehing of which is more moderate
and merciful, lays it down with the
utmost severity that every braneh
which abides not in Christ shall be
east out and thrown into the fire:
every braneh, that is, without excep-
tion ( S. John xv). And if we are for-
bidden to make distinetions wherc the
laws allow of none, how much more
are we forbidden to do so in the ease of
the Gospel, whose majesty is above the
law, ana to add anything to which or
to take anything away from it is a sin
that must be cxpiatcd in etemal fire
[Deut. iv, 2, Rev. xxii, ig).
The most aneient laws of the
Romans punishcd with death not only
men who were found guilty of soreery
(for Tacitus, Annales 11 , reeords that
rublius Martius and Pituanius were
thus eapitally punished, the former of
whom the Consuls ordered to be put to
death outside the Esquiline Gate, and
the latter to be hurled from the Tarpe-
ian Roek, because they wcre found
guilty of soreery; and Ammianus
Marcellinus, XXVI, tells that the
eharioteer Hilarius was eondemned to
death by Apronianus the Praetor
Urbanus because he had given his son
to a soreerer to be trained in his art;
and that when he eseaped from the
lietors who had insufficiently secured
him and took refuge in a neighbouring
temple, he was nevertheless dragged
out and made to undergo his penalty),
but meted out the same punishment
even to women; as Valcrius Maxiinus
(VI, 3Ì tells us was done in the ease
of Puí)licia and Lieinia, who vvere
hanged by the neek for this erime,
together with seventy Romans. Nor
vvere the Romans alone in inffieting
this severe punishmcnt upon women.
There is the well-known judgcment
E assed by the Athenians upon the
emnian enehantress which, though
it was indeed preeipitate, is a very
elear indieation of the loathing in
which this erime was then held (Dc-
mosthenes, In prima eontra Aristogit.
orat.). For on the mere information of
her handmaid and without trying the
matter any ffirther, they delivered her
up to the cruellcst of deaths. There
were besides Eriphyle, Myeale, Cani-
dia, Eriehtho, Sagana, Dipsas, and
many other vvitehes in aneient times* ;
- “Aneient times.” Eriphyle betrayed her
lmsbandy the seer Amphiams, to Polyniees for
a golden neeklaee and was slain by her son
Akmaeon. There is a referenee in the “De
Arte Amandi,” III, 13, upon wh ; ch Borehardns
Crippingius glosses: “Amphiarvm Oecleifilium
dieit, augurandi arte peritissimum, qui adoles-
eens Argonautas secutus est.”
For the iviteh Myeale, see Ovid, “ Metamor -
phoseon ,” XII, 262-4:
'Orio
Maler erat Myeale: quam deduxisse eanendo
Saepe reliietanti eonstabat comua Lsinae”
And Seneea, “Hereales Oetmis,” 525-7:
“Hoe doeta Myeale Thessalas docuit nurus,
Unam inler omnes Luna quam sequitur magam,
Astris relietis.”
BK. III. CH. XII.
DEMONOLATRY
but not onc of the many writcrs who
have handed down their memory to
our times has ever been so indulgent
as to offer their sex or anility as an
excuse for their pestilent and eriminal
lives.
But let us grant them this plea. Let it
besupposed thatthrough human weak-
ness their foothold is so slippery that
they eannot but fa.ll. Even so, what
madness it wou!d be to eondone in
them a erime with vvhieh they must
be eontaminated for as long as they
live, to the greatest despite of God and
men! Indeed it would be like allowing
mad dogs to live, although everyone
knows that they are incurablc, simply
because it was through no fault or
blame of their own that they beeame
mad. The wise man, says Seneea (Lib.
II, De eiementia, eap. ultimo), does not
attempt to cure the irremediable, but
only that which ean be cured. A good
farmer does not trouble to prop up
those trees which he knows eannot be
cured of their deterioration or erooked-
ness by any eare that he ean give them.
As for the taint of witchcraft, we have
more than onee shown that onee it
has taken hold it ean hardly be shaken
off cxcept by death. So far as I know,
indeed, there has not hitherto been a
Famaby glosses: “ ‘ Doeta' Ueruficiovim et
magiat perita. ' Thessalas' Mulieres Thessalas
ineantamentis famosas '*
Canidia. The soreeress o/ten menlioned by
Horaee. “ Epodes," III, viii; also V and
XVII, et alibi. Sagana is the eompamm of
Canidia at thefamous sabbat on the Esquiline,
"Sermonumf I, viii.
Eriehtho ivas a Thessalian witch eonsnlted
by Pompey. Ijiean, “ Pharsalia ,” VI. Cf.
Ovid, “HeroidesSappho Phatmi, 139-40:
"IUuc mentis inops, ut quam farialis Eriehtho
Impalit, in coUo erine iacente,feror."
Dipsas is deseribed by Ovid, “ Amores," I,
viii:
"Illa magas arles, AUaque earmina nouit,
Inque caput liquidas arle recuruat aquas...
Hane ego noetamas versam nolitare per
ttmbras
Snstneor, et pluma corpus anile regi."
185
single one of the many thousands
whom Satan has caught in the eoils
of soreery who has freed herself from
them by any other means than either a
foreed or a spontaneous eonfession
before the Judge, followed by the
expiation of her death: so fast a hold
does that Master keep upon his sub-
jeets. The Imperial Laws forbade any
remission of punishment in the ease of
those whom such merey would prob-
ably cncourage in their erimes, rather
than induce them to amend their lives.
And Plato in his Protagoras says that
the pnrposr of punishing the guilty was
not to avenge their enmes (for who
ean undo that which is done?), but to
serve as a deterrent to prevent one
who has sinned from eommitting that
erime again. Then what sufficient
argument ean be adduced to show
that such scum who vow etemal
allegianee to the Devil should not be
put to death with every torment as
soon as their guilt is known? For if a
thing beeomes a danger to the public,
and this danger eannot be removed
without loss to him who owns this
thing, yet it is just that he should bear
that loss in the interesis of the public;
for the peaee and safety of the public
must be the fìrst eonsideration. Publi-
eola justified himself in this way for his
aetion in levelling private houses to
the ground. And many men have
retired prcmaturely from a most
honourabIc offìee because they knew
tliat they had beeome a causc of
offenee to their fcllow-citizens, as
Ciccro (De Diuinalione, II) tells us
that Seipio and Figulus did. Not a
few have been rcwardcd for their
courage and masterfulncss by ostra-
eism, because it did not seem possible
by any other means to ensure the
peaee and prosperity of their people.
This Plutarch tells us was the fate of
Perieles and Aristides the Just.
And yet we find those who would
defend old women, who are a menaee
by reason of the threats and curses they
daily give voiee to, are a danger by
reason of the evil bcwitchmcnts which
186 DEMONOLATRY BK. III. CH. XII.
inevitablv follovv upon their threats, and instigation? “But by the envy
and finally would be revered on ae- ofthedevildeathcamcintotheworld:
count of the miraculous powcr of heal- And they follow him that are of his
ing with which they alone are said to side ” (Wisdom ii, 24, 25). Yethas any-
be endowed! There are those who one ever been known to be excused the
maintain that such witches ought not penalty of the law simply becausc he
to be punished for their many and pleaded that he was tempted by the
great erimes and abominations! Wliat Devil to do that with which he was
is this but to set up the wolves’ lair in eharged? This would amount, in one
the midst of the sheep pen? I liave word, to the overturning from its
known whole villages eonternplate foundations of the whole Ghristian
migrating to another plaee for no teaehing, by which we are warned
other reason than that their magis- to hope always in God, for Hc is faith-
trates used too much lenieney in leav- ful, wno will not suffcr tis to be ternpted
ing witches unpunished, and thus above that wc are able (I. Cor. x.).
cncouraging them to even greater And lest we should beeome s!othful
lieenee in ill-doing. But it may be and negligent in the belief that Hc will
argucd that there is no sufficicnt proof proteet us without our taking any
to warrant bringing these women to tliought, Hc has told us He wilí only
trial on so grave a eharge: that it Ls be our Gaptain and Defender if wc
against all law and justice to give such in our turn obey Him and wait upon
weight to a popular fear or a seare bred His will, if we take up the arms of an
of an uncertain rumour, as to think it unshaken faith, if we resist our formid-
neeessary to put a fellow-creature to able foe, and if we boldly and stren-
an ignominious death in order to allay uously wage battle as far as in us lies
that fear. I answer that there ean be ( Ephes. vi.; I. Pet. v.). And because
no question of calumny in these eases; many sins may be eommitted through
for no one ean quote a single instanee ignoranee of who is our adversary, and
of anyone being put to death for this the beginning of vietory is to know and
erime who has notfirst been manifestly understand his strength and his de-
proved guilty either by the elear evi- viees; therefore He diSgently warns us
aenee of witnesscs or by her own with what sort of an enemy we will
persistent eonfession up to the time of have to do: namely, with one who
her death. never fails in his malevolenee and
But now they fall baek upon by far desire to harm us, in his strength and
their strongest lineofdefenee; which is vigilanee, or in any of the weapons
that the law does not punish a man of warfare; who, like a roaring lion,
oeeept for a erime which he had wit- walketh about seeking whom he may
tingly and intentionally eommitted; devour; who, if foree will not avaíl
and that nothing couId so eompletely him, ehanges his lion’s skin for that of
{ >reclude any such intention than the a fox; who masks himself as a good
òreible restràint which the Demon Angel the more easily to impose up>on
plaees upon the liberty of those whom us, deluding his enemies by appearing
ne thus makes his slaves; for there ean as one of themselves. VVith such a
be no doubt about the cunning eon- Oaptain, then, and with such faithful
trivanees and deeeptions and illusions warnings and counsels, we ean keep
by wbich he so seauces them; so that vietory far from our mighty and cun-
it is seareely in the power of anyone, ning foe, so long as wc do not fail our-
espeeially whcn their age or sex or selves. For although the Devil does not
country simplieity handieaps their sleep, neither does He that watchcs
intelligenee, to resist his wily attempts. over Israel slumbcr or sleep (Psalm
But tell me, pray! is any erime ever cxxi). Therefore it is the more amaz*
eommitted except at his suggestion ing to find men so diffident, nay so
BK. III. CH. XII.
DEMONOLATRY
impious, as to yield the issue of the
fignt to him by whose will it was begun,
and to surrender themselves as if it
were neeessary for all who are thus
attaeked to be conquered; and not
rather to believe, as S. Gregory has it,
that all Christians ought of right to be
invulnerable to Satan’s darts, unless
of their own aeeord they leave their
eitadel and throw away their shield
and rush naked upon his weapons, or
rather unless they voluntari!y desert
to his eamp. For why did our Saviour,
when Hc lived on earth as our pattern,
bid Satan to depart when he tempted
Him, if it was not to teaeh us that we
might do likcwise in eomplete faith,
with the assurance that we shall win
the same vietory if we fight under His
leadenhip and under His banner.
Therefore we may bid the murderer
depart, and say with the Prophet
Jeremy: “The Lord is with me as a
mighty terrible one!” (xx. n). For
as often asthe Devil is repulsed,so often
does he retum to the attaek and renew
the eombat; and more than onee we
read in history how he repeatedly but
vainly launched his erafty attaeks upon
those devout Fathers who retired ìnto
the wildemcss for the sake of their
religion. Then it is not wonderfu! that,
onee he had a man in bondage by any
means, he exacts from him a heavy
rate of interest, by the accumulation
of which he beeomes fettered and
shaekled so strietly that he must p>er-
foree yield himself vanquislied. For
after a man has been thoroughly
smirehed and befoulcd with debau-
ehery, lust, theft, murdcr and other
erimes, the Devil at last awards him
the crown of witchcraft, thus ías the
saying is) putting butter upon Daeon,
aeeording to the will of God, who
unishes sin with sin, blindness with
lindness, and ignoranee with ignor-
anee. And just as Christ ehooses His
soldier, as S. Ambrose says (De beata
uita), so does the Devil buy a willing
slave and subjcct him to his dark sway;
for he ean brmg no one under the yoke
of his bondage who has not first sold
í8 7
himself to him by his sins. They must
therefore blame ìt on themselves, who
thus voluntarily beeome involved in
the toils of the Devil; sinee they have
themselves turned away from God
before He tumed His baek on them
(Hosea ix): and they must acknow-
ledge that it is ajust judgement of God
by which they are delivered and given
over to so hard a serviee of Satan, as
S. Paul writes ( Romans i). And let
them not have recourse to the plea
which is eommonly urged when all
other legitimate defenee has failed;
that the unfortunate ought rather to
hr lifted up and set on their feet, than
{ )crsecutea and thrust deeper into mis-
brtune. For there ean be no merey
forthose who have of their own will run
into misfortune, and have, as it is said,
cut off their own legs.
Again, it is elaimed that there ean be
no true eompaet between a man and a
Demon, sinee they ean have no eom-
munity of understanding or speeeh
with eaeh other; and that even if they
ean enter into some eontraet together,
yet the stipulated eonditions of it are
so difficult, absurd and unjust that
they eannot be eonsidered as binding.
These arguments would do very well if
this were merely a matter of settling a
legal dispute, in which it could be
shown that eertain clauses of a eon-
traet involved the public danger, or
that they were of a shameftil nature,
or that they wcre deliberately and
maliciously designed to eheat one of
the parties, or tnat they were such as
no one could fu fil however much he
might desire to do so, or were invalid
for some other such reason. For such
clauses could, I think, be deemed frivo-
Ious and ruled out of court, if ever such
proeeedings wcre instituted by the
Demon, as we read in Bartolus* that
- “Bartoltis." This famaus jisrist was
bom in 1313 at Sassoferrato, llmbria; and
ditd at Pervgia in 1336. His works were eol-
leeted, len oolumes, Lyons, 154A. Dumoulin
terms him “le bremier et le eotyphée des inter-
prites au droit.
DEMONOLATRY
BK. III. CH. XII.
188
he brought an aetion against the
VirginMother (In quaest. uentilata eoram
D.N. Jesu-Christo). But when the
who!e eompaet is formed by the way
of temptation and suggestion, in
which it would be ridicu!ous to eon-
sider whethcr the parties to the agree-
ment have the neeessary ability to
fulfil its eonditions, then it seems to me
that they but waste their labour who
try to base any argument upon non-
eonsent, or repugnance, or difiìculty.
And that such eontraets ean be drawn
up in eorreet Iegal terms and phrase-
ology has been elearly proved where
we showed that the Demons have the
faculty of speeeh, by which they ean
make known their wishes, and by
qucstioning and answering ean deter-
mine the stipu!ations of their eon-
traets (Genesis iii).
Moreover, if any of the eonditions
are beyond the power of the man to
fulfil, as being quitc outside his
natural abilities, then the Demon with
his great powers stands by him and
wilhngly helps him. Lastly, a base or
dishonourablc clausc in the paet no
more invalidates it than a robber is
held baek from his plunder, or a harlot
from her trade, by the atroeity of the
deed, or by any bashful eonsideration
for her good name. Woe therefore (to
use the words of Isaiah*) to them who
have made a eovenant with death,
and with hell are at agreement! A
eovenant (says S. Augustine, De
doetrina Chnstiana , II) formed by the
pestilent assoeiation of men with
Demons; a paet of unfaithful and
disloyal friendship.
Woe also to those who would
paÌIIate the odium of so horrible and
execrable a erime, and would diminish
its punishment on the plea offear, age,
sex, imprudence, and the like, which
no sane man would dare to eonsider as
grounds for merey in even less abomin-
able erimes! For what is this, if it is
not (as S. Paul says, I. Cor. x; Rom.
xiii) openly to tempt God? It is, in-
deed, blasphemy (says Cassiodorus,
Lib. 9 in ediet Alariei regis) for Judges
to deal leniently with those who are
liable to the just punishment of
Heaven. This is to delay the eoming of
His Kingdom; for nothing ean so
firmly establish it as the routing, over-
throw and destruction of all His
enemies, together with Satan, who is
their Gaptain. Whcn the wickcd is
slain, says S. Ambrose, De Paradiso, II,
Christ is reeeived: when an abomina-
tion is destroyed, sanetity is hallowcd.
Such men aet in the worst possible
way for the security and peaee of the
human raee; for, as Pythagoras (apud
Stobaeum) said, they who do not
restrain the wickcd wish to wrong the
righteous. Finally, they eall evil good,
and good evil, and put darkness for
light, as Isaiah says, and altogether
take away all distinetion and jurige-
ment between virtue and viee, reward
and punishment.
For my part, who have been so long
and continuously exerciscd and eon-
firmed in the examination of witches, I
shall not fear to proelaim freely and
openly my opinion of them, and to do
all in my power to bring the very truth
to light: namely, that their lives are
so notorious!y befouled and polluted
by so many blasphemies, soreeries,
prodigious lusts and flagrant erimes,
that I have no hesitation in saying
that they are justly to be subjectcd to
every torture and put to death in the
flames; both that they may cxpiate
their erimes with a fitting punishment,
and that its very awfulncss may serve
as an cxample and a warmng to
others.