Daemonolatreiae libri tres  

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"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

  • DEATH FOR THE CRIME OF ^

>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.



























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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














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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





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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







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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

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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.










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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




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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


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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



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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


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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-
  • 9
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,
  • 5
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.
  • 54
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.
  • 57
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. ☆
  • 74
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
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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.
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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
  • “ Isaìah ,” xxviii, /j.
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.


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