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Materials Toward A
HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT
Collected by
Volume II
Arthur G. Howland
Htnry Charles Lea Professor of Europwn History
University of Pcnnylvania
With an Introduction by
NKWYOKK -
THOMAS' YOSELOFF LONDON
Published ipfl by
COPYRIGHT MGMXXXIX
BY UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA I'RKSS
reasoning upon the shadows cast by sunlight and moonlight he works out
the sun's diameter to be 65,000 miles, and the moon's 2941. We may
smile at his analysis of the milky way into light reflected back and forth
between the stars, as heat accumulates in valleys by reflection from the
mountain sides, but it is none the less ingenious and shows his determination
to find a natural cause for every phenomenon; while his description of
comets as consisting of matter in a state of extreme tenuity is eminently
creditable to his penetration. Even the thunder, which was so portentous
to the men of his day, he explains by the sudden rupture of clouds by the
passage of lightning, and classes it simply as an unmusical sound. Lightning
he sees to be not ordinary fire, and he discusses its rapidity and subtilty
with a coolness which shows that it had no supernatural terrors for him.
It is therefore interesting to see what such a man thought of the vulgar
superstitions which threw whole nations into terror, and cost the lives of
so many thousands of unfortunates. The existence of the devil and of good
and evil spirits he could not deny, but he reduces their sphere of activity
to an exceedingly narrow compass.
It is evident from all this that Cardan had accurately studied the relations
of mind and body, and that in his system the imagination accounted for
nearly all the facts of superstition.
have a genius and others also, though they do not show them-
selves to us,though really helping us. They may have re-
vealed themselves to him because he was better and purer,
for he was most religious and excellent, or because he was
wont to use, as he did, a conjuration which he had obtained
from a dying Spaniard.
There also seem to be subterranean demons, named
Telchinnes, who destroy miners though Cardan suggests a
natural explanation of them.
Ancient oracles may have been priestly frauds, or exhala-
tions causing ecstasies, natural to those places.
It would seem that, when the earth is peopled with men
and animals and plants and metals and minerals, and the
waters with fish, the wide expanse of air ought also to have its
inhabitants, as much nobler than ours as the air is nobler than
the earth. But I will not argue about what I have not seen,
like Porphyry, Psellus, Plotinus, Proclus, lamblichus. I
belong to the Peripatetic philosophers, who do not admit of
demons, nor is the opinion probable that they exist in such
vast masses, for if so they would be here like birds, and much
more common, while they are scarce seen more than once in
many years in a whole province. Besides, princes, whose
career shows them to be the wisest of men, do not believe in
them, etc., etc. Philosophizes on death.
Lib. xx, De
Angelis, sen Intelligences.
Here he wanders off into the received hierarchy of Denis the
Areopagite, recited in the canon of the Mass, of Angels,
Archangels, Thrones, Dominations, Virtues, Principalities,
Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim, and he proceeds to assign
to each class its functions in respect to the several bodies of
the planetary system and their respective influences over man
a wild mixture of theology and astrology, but he winds up
by saying wisely "Porro de his potius credendum cat his solin
quibus Deus revelaverit quam falsis rationibus."
Lib. xxi, De Deo et universe.
In his speculations on God and the Universe he alludes to
sortes and pronounces Geomancy the noblest [clans of divina-
tion], whereof there are celebrated books passing under tho
name of Petrus Apponensis. "This may have help from
demons, but in L iv [of] De Sapientia, we have shown its
7 '
inconstancy.
It is very evident that Cardan believed as little as he could in what he
did not see, and feel, and understand. When a fact could not be
explained
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 441
Lib. xvi, De
rebus praeter naturam admirandis.
Cap. 93, Daemones
et Mortui: His visit to Scotland fur-
nished him with sundry stories. (He does not believe in these
stories see below in his discussion of witches. H. C. L.)
A noble and beautiful young woman was found pregnant.
Her parents investigated and she told them that a handsome
youth was with her day and night, but whence he came or
whither he went she did not know. On the third night the
maid summoned them, and on breaking in the door they found
a horrible monster in their daughter's arms. A priest read the
Goapel of St. John to him and at the words "Verbum earo
factum est" the demon flew away, with a terrible noise,
carrying with him the ceiling, and leaving the furniture in
flames. Three days later the girl brought forth a hideous
monster, who was promptly burnt.
442 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
senses, so that they who use them are unwise. Socrates was
the only philosopher who had a demon, and Socrates was
condemned and there is no doubt that the demon was the
cause of it.
It is to be observed that they are generated in the highest
air, which is purer and dryer and less cold, nor are they more
accustomed to descend to us than men are to seek the bottom
of the sea, not only because they cannot bear our denser air,
444 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
where they cannot breathe or act, but also because they have
to pass through the exceeding cold region which immediately
surrounds us and is as a barrier between us and them. (Evi-
dently they have material bodies. H. C. L.) Very rarely
but
they come to us and when they come they cannot stay,
make a short time seem long by the variety of images and
they
the succession of forms and actions. They kill children, not
instruments. If they really
by themselves but by art in using
enter human bodies and do not send the imagination of it
from above, this may happen on account of warmth and
comfort. It is best to have no dealings with them, neither
with the more powerful nor the savage ones, whose enmity is
as pernicious as their familiarity is dangerous- "Ego certe
"
nullum daernonem aut genium mihi adesse cognosce. If
that, when once involved in it, they rarely abandon it, even
after imprisonment and the fear of death. If there was
For the evils which our sins cause to be brought in the world,
God is accustomed to afflict by his tortures the demons.
Ib., n. 16 (fol. 115).
Maleficae can really, like demons, with the permission of
God, injure men in property, fame, body, use of reason and
life. Gives examples of the various kinds, drawn from legends
and the customary sources. Ib., n. 17 (fol. 115).
Thus men are rendered impotent by them, as respects all
women, or one, as long as the signum, say a curved needle,
remains. But, when this is destroyed, the bewitched is cured,
as Duns Scotus says. Ib., n. 18 (fol. 115).
These maleficia and incantations may be worked by natural
objects, poisonous whose secret
herbs, roots, stones, etc.,
properties the demons know. And though these are done by
operations of the demons, they are to be attributed to the
witches, who are to be most severely punished. Ib., n. 19
(foL 116).
For he who gives occasion to an injury is held to be an
injurer. Ib., n. 20
116). (fol.
Therefore these maleficia are rightly imputed to the said
witches, although the demon is the chief author. So therefore
in these maleficia three things must concur the demon, the
witch and the divine permission.- Ib., n. 21 (fol. 1 16).
If these women are said to have commerce with demons,
it is not to be rejected for which he quotes St. Augustin
(Civ. Dei, xx, 23) and Aquinas as to the mode of procreation.
--Ib., n. 22 (fol. 116).
If why demons make themselves incubi and succubi,
asked
you say that it is not for pleasure, since spirits have no
will
flesh or bones, but to injure men in body and noul. The
Ordinary Gloss on Levit., xviii, 24, forbidding all kindn of
incest "quibus contaminatae sunt gcntes", explains "Dae-
mones sunt qui propter multitudinem dicuntur gentew uni-
versae, qui, cum de omni peccato gaudiant, praecipxie taxncn
fornicatione et idolatria," (which looks an though the G loca-
tor held that this incest with demons was a pervading Bin-
H. C. L.). Ib., n. 23 (fol. 116).
From all this it follows that the confessions must be accepted
of those who say they are transported by demons arid that
they fascinate and kill infants, for what is possible can be
done. Nor do the contrary allegations prevail Firstly, there
is the Cap. Episcopi. And because in the understanding of
this lies the difficulty of this question I will investigate the
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 453
errs from the true faith, this does not apply to carrying men
by demons, for they sometimes really are carried, but it
applies to believing what is said above and especially as to
Diana being a goddess. Moreover, the law must contain what
is reasonable; but belief in the real transport of witches
(fol. 118).
Proves at much length and with copious citation of authori-
ties that confession is an all-sufficient proof. Ib., nn. 27-31
(foL 119).
Truth isthe all-important matter, beyond all other con-
siderations, and the truth is fully proved that witches are
transported, therefore this truth overcomes custom. Ib.,
n. 32 (fol. 119).
The argument of improbability is overcome by the confes-
sions and the testimony of witnesses who must be presumed not
to be perjuring themselves. The passage of the Cap. Episcopi
saying that those believing these things lose the faith does not
apply to this real transportation with which we have to do;
it only refers to women believing in deity outside of God.
The whole of this long and elaborate argument, supported with a vast
matters resolves
array of citations and bringing in all kinds of adventitious
itself into the attempt by a cloud of words to obscure the fact that
it is all
based on the assumption, that existent witchcraft is true, therefore the Cap.
Episeopi can not apply to it. To persuade
himself of this he devotes all
his learning and ingenuity through 22 double-columned quarto pagos.
456 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
(fol. 122).
Extrajudicial confession has the same effect as judicial,
if
(foL 137).
If you say that, if the inquisitor cannot punish the homicide,
nor give information, nor hand over the confession, the crime
will remain unpunished, the answer is that we must not do
evil that good may come. Ib., n. 72 (fol. 137).
From these I conclude that bishop or inquisitor cannot
without incurring irregularity surrender a witch to the secular
judge to be punished for homicide. But I would advise that a
declaration be obtained from the pope, so that crime may not
remain unpunished nor the souls of ecclesiastical judges be
ensnared. Ib., n. 75 (fol. 138).
is annulled by Gregory XV in the bull Omnipotentis Dei, March 20,
All this
1623,which orders relaxation when death is caused. See below, under
"Punishment."
Quin- . . .
ex se mortale est."
[Maleficium] "est ars nocendi aliis daemonic potentate,
. .
Magus enim utitur arte daemonic ad ostentationem
.
;
immense power. They can move all bodies at will- not the
earth, for that would disturb the course of nature, hut they
can move a tower or other building and transport things in a
moment from place to place, bring tempests and hailstorms
and make things seem to our eyes other than what they are
human bodies or those of animals. Thus the devil showed
himself to our first parents in the form of a serpent (fol. 22*23) .
Anania was a man of much learning and his book is filled with examples
of the work of demons and sorcerers drawn from all sources, Hebrew,
Greek, Roman and Christian, and from all lands Asia, Africa, Europe and
the New World. He quotes Marco Polo for matters in Central Asia and
Boece for the witches of Macbeth. Not a country in Europe but yields
him examples, except perhaps France, from which there are none that I have
remarked.
The attribution to Satan of all evils that befall mankind has scriptural
authority, for when Christ cured on the Sabbath the woman bent double
and was reproved for violating the Sabbath, he justified himself saying
"And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound lo these
eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath-day?" (Luke,
xiii, 16). Thus it was matter of course that her crippling was the work of
Satan.
in his cell, he took the shape of a pretty girl, making his bed
or sweeping out the room; he never left save when he went
to say mass, for the demon could not endure the presence of
his judge and lord, Jesus Christ. Ib. (De Praxi Exor-
cistarum), n. 38, p. 191.
"
Aerial spirits inhabit the air near the earth. Us sont tres-
superbes, sans craincte, pleins d'orgueil, de fausses tromperies
et de vaine gloire." They disturb this subtile and tender
element, raising tempests and furious winds, they elevate
the vapors of the earth and make hail, snow or frost and ice
with which they destroy all the things created by (Sod for
human nourishment. Ib., c. 6 (p. 68).
Long list of wonders and devastation worked by them.-
Ib., pp. 69-76.
Aquatic spirits are also called nymphs, fairies, Bybiles
blanches and bonnes dames, of whom the leader is Habondie.
They spread splendid fictitious banquets, as related in the
life of St. Germain. They regulate the fate of battles (Val-
kyries). Cardan relates that three of them revealed to
Macabee Amitine (Macbeth) that he would be king. They
bestow on children gifts of beauty, .strength, prudence awl
other gifts. They cause furious tempests at sou, destructive to
sailors. They caused the inundation** under Pope Alexander V I
all Holland and Zealand; and that of a few yearn later which
These are the familiar spirits who attach themselves to people and servo
them faithfully. From the number of instances of this and of individual
cases of intervention in human affairs it would seem to be the most ordinary
of occurrences. The intimacy between the spiritual and the material worlds
seems to be as great in the seventeenth century as in the time of CaesariuH.
It is curious to see the perpetuation of these beliefs so far into modern times,
in spite of the enormous exaggeration of the fear of demonic agencies and
the more acute perception of the malignant power of demons incident to
the development of witchcraft.
pp. 166-74.
The Lucifuge Spirits are so named from shunning the light
and hiding in obscure places They are sometimes
in forests.
friendly, especially in Russia, and sometimes hostile. It is
hold that, after the sorcerer is thus enrolled, the devil gives
him a familiar spirit, whom they call petit maitre or Martinet
and who constantly accompanies them, either in the shape of a
dog, a Moor or a servant, or invisibly, imprisoned in a ring,
or vial, casket or whatever the sorcerer prefers. They do this
of their own will or because a higher spirit has ordered it.
and taking hold of arms, they rise from the ground and
descend, turning around and shaking the head from side to
side like fools. Then the lights are put out and demons as
succubi and incubi gratify their lusts. At dawn they depart
on their demons and return home, passing sometimes over a
space of 500 miles, warned by their demons not to make a
sign of the cross or invoke the name of God or the Virgin,
lest they fall, to the risk of life, besides being outrageously
There was no limit to the credulity which accepted these marvels and
swallowed the explanations, however halting, which are given for them.
Crude and absurd as all this is, yet Valderama was a man of extensive
Besides the classical writers and the hagiographers, Olaus Magnus, Hector
Boethius and Jerome Cardan afford copious stores of marvels, while the
Malleus, Nider, Grillandus and other demonographers are rich quarries to
work.)
The poisons from which the Veneficae derive their name have
their potency, not from the natural qualities of the ingredients,
but from the charms and incantations used in their prepara-
tion, the demon thus contributing their effectiveness. Love
potions similarly derive their power from a pact with the
demon, who thus tempts to lust. There are other potions,
however, composed of drugs, which excite the passions and
sometimes cause insanity. Ib., c. 4 (p. 186).
Implicit pact is so thoroughly admitted in the daily practice
of the Inquisition and of all ecclesiastical tribunals and of the
whole church that to call it in question is a position more than
rash.-Ib., c. 5, n. 25 (p. 202).
The holiness of the words used by sorcerers only increases
their guilt and [such] are employed merely to deceive and allure
the ignorant, who argue that, if the words are holy and a cure
He is at much
pains to reconcile this with the current
assumptions that the Eucharist drives away demons and dis-
solves their magic and enchantments. Ib., n. 15 (p. 219).
He rejects as irrelevant the explanation of Grillandus (which
I cannot verify H. C. L.) that it is attributable to the
irreverence and immorality of the priests. Ib., n. 16 (p. 220).
There was a similar question why the demon should have
power, through witches, to kill baptized infants, though as
a rule it was the unbaptized which he says is explained by
the argument used as to the Eucharist. Ib., n. 18 (p. 220).
It seems that in Spain the saludadores who could pass an
examination and give assurance that they did not use
superstitious or sacrilegious methods were allowed to practise
and that they performed cures, although "sean mines
"
hombres," which was explained by gratia gratis data in
utilitatem aliorum." Ib., sect, i, c. 3 (p. 33).
God's permission is invoked in both ways to explain diffi-
culties. The invocation of the name of Jesus and the sign of
the cross do not always, as though ex opere operato, drive away
demons or undo their magic, "sed tantum, quando Deus ita
instituit pro finibus suae sapientiae." Ib., sect, ii, c. 6, n. 36
(p. 227).
"
Bear in mind Christ's promise for those that should believe: In my name
they shall cast out devils," etc. (Mark, xvi, 17). And Concil. Trident.,
Sess. XIV, De Sacramento extremae unctionis, can. 2, infers that the old
gifts of power were still in force.
vulgar, but also of the learned who trained the popular intellect and con-
science.
(p. 265).
So Aquinas (Summa, Prim. Sec., q. cxi, art. 4 ad 3):
"
Gratia sanitatum distinguitur a generali operatione virtutum
quia habct specialem rationem inducendi ad fidem, ad quam
aliquis magis prornptus rcdditur per beneficium corporalis
sanitatis quam per fidei virtutem assequitur."
Thus the gift of healing granted to the early disciples for the purpose of
spreading the faith is assumed to be continued to the drunken vagabonds
who earned a precarious existence by speculating on the credulity of the
people. From what Ciruelo tells us, it was not confined to human beings,
but was largely used to preserve their flocks and herds.
(Luke x, 19) this means power to drive away demons but not
to use them even for good objects. Ib., n. 4 (p. 301).
But the Church has not power to cure disease arising from
natural causes. Ib., n. 14 (p. 304).
"
Holy Water is primarily instituted contra daemones in
spiritualia mala tendentes." Ib., n. 27 (p. 312).
He says that he suspects the bull of Sixtus has not been V
received into use, at least in Portugal, for during his eighteen
years of inquisitorship he has never seen any "vanitas"
(sorcery) not manifestly suspect of heresy brought before the
tribunal or, if brought, that the inquisitors did anything with
the case. -Ib., sect, iii, c. 1, n. 9 (pp. 440-1).
He says that in Portugal, after Sebastian had obtained for
the Inquisition jurisdiction over sodomy, no one convicted,
whether a negative or confessing and begging mercy, escaped
the stake. The assimilation of this with commerce with
incubi rendered the fate of the witch irremissible, as Del Rio
(1. v, sect. 16, p. 776), quoting the Levitical law against
adultery, bestiality and sodomy, pronounces this "detesta-
bilius est et pessimum omnium carnaliurn peccatorum."
And the sentence of the Avignonese inquisitors in 1582 (which
I have elsewhere H. C. L.) says "vos viri cum succubis and
vos rmilieres cum iricubis fornicati estis, Sodomiam veram et
nefandissimum crimen misere cum illis tactu frigidissimo
exercuistis" (Del Rio, loc. cit., p. 779). Whence Moura
argues that there can be no hope of pardon. Moura, sect, iii,
c. 1, n. 21 (p. 445).
He addsthat under the secular law "peccatum nefandum
facillimae remissionis est/' And he goes on to ask why then
should the spiritual court be so unforgiving, when it admits
to pardon the penitent heretic and even grants favorable
hearing to the relapsed. Matt., xviii, 15-17, orders fraternal
correction before denouncing to the Church and therefore
the ecclesiastical Superior is held to act fraternally before
acting judicially. "Ergo benigno et remissibiliter se debet
cum istis miscris fragilibus habere." Ib., n. 22, p. 446.
In 1612 the royal council at Lisbon discussed the question
whether certain sodomites should be sent to execution unless
the proceedings of the trials by the Inquisition should be sub-
mitted to them, and all but three or four voted in the negative.
But the Viceroy, Cristobal de Moura, seeing that Philip III
486 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
enced who are called priests and they adore the devil with all
reverence as though he were their God "et hoc est in quo
Diabolus summopere delectatur ut adoretur." After the
sacrifice they inquire as to what they want to know and
receive responses from the idols voce didbolica. The responses
as to the future are usually ambiguous with double meanings,
for the demon is ignorant as to the future.
Doubtless all this was obtained from confessions under torture, but it
shows why divination was so vigorously prosecuted.
While one or two dealings with the demon may not savor
of manifest heresy subjecting to the Inquisition, repetition
and custom render it so. Ib., n. 24 (p. 523).
This is rendered more urgent by the condition of the person
if, e. g., he comes from heathen or Jewish stock. Ib., n. 25
(p. 524).
The abuse of sacraments or sacramentalia "sapit haeresim
manifeste."-- Ib,, n. 27 (p. 525).
"Ensalmi confecti ex verbis sacris, quales sunt vulgares
et qui regulariter usitantur sapiunt haeresim manifeste sub-
ditque Inquisitoribus." Ib., n. 37 (p. 530).
Yet "non videmus Inquisitores irruere in vulgares En-
salmatores, imo et Ordinarios passim conniventes." Ib.,
n. 38 (p. 531).
The third was Luis de la Penha, who had some Moorish blood.
He was impotent and for this cause his wife had divorced him,
and infamous, for which the Ordinary had imprisoned him.
He confessed that he had recognized Asmodeus as his god,
had drawn blood from his finger as an offering (Moura nays
he saw the scar), and had offered fumigations and other
sacrifices. He had obtained from Asmodeus the power of
bewitching women, who became insane in his presence. The
demon at his command injured people, either to gratify
revenge or that he might earn money by curing them. Also
he had given him the gift of prophecy, his forecasts sometimes
proving true. Although these confessed to adoring the demon,
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 489
Lib. Describes the devil, his origin, his career since the
i.
Weyer was evidently a Protestant, and Cleves must have been at that
time a Protestant country see pp. 92-3, 112.
j^ Q
GtThe devil is the author of human sacrifices, of
m
i,
c. Several chapters devoted to stories of diabolic
15.
i,
c. 20. Various names and classes of demons among the
Greeks and Romans. Household spirits, brownies, etc.
Weyer's own experience of them in his father's house.
Gnomes, etc. modern instances and accounts of them.
Warnings of death- -white ladies. These things were formerly
very common throughout Germany, but since the Reforma-
tion had purified men's minds and restored the Gospel, the
devil had loss
opportunity.
i, c. 22. theologians divide demons into nine orders
Some
corresponding with those of angels. Classification given.
Weyer however contents himself with the limits of religious
doctrine and declinesthem, with Psellus and
to classify
others, into aqueous, terrene, subterranean,
fiery, aerial,
light-shining, jovial, Saturnine, oriental, occidental, southern,
northern, daily, nightly, noon-day, sylvan, mountain, field,
household, etc., or to divide them and their functions accord-
494 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
aid of the devil, letme ask who is the incentor of war and
slaughter, rape and rapine, God or the devil?
In the war between Denmark and Sweden in 1563 it was
reported in the Danish camp that the Swedes had with them
four witches whose spells rendered the Danes incapable
either of attack or defence. One of them was captured by a
knight of Gunther, Count von Schwartzenburg, the Danish
commander, and confessed the fact, after which they found in
the wells and marshes along the roads long strings to which
were appended wooden crosses and other signs.
Quotation from Julius Scaliger to Cardan (libri. xv De
Subtil., exer. 349): "It is not true that men can injure men
with mere words. For who taught them such words? Not
another man, for then who taught him? Not celestial intelli-
gence, for who would dare to assume it to be the author of
sorcery? Ergo, the evil demon, not that he would render
man more powerful, but that human credulity should be de-
ceived, and man thus become his associate in impiety and
eternal perdition. Thus it is the demon that acts, and the
fool believes himself to act with words."
iii, c. 16 [bis]. The experiences of witches are delirious
dreams induced by the drugs wherewith they confect their
ointments.
Long quotation from Jo. Bapt. Porta (Magia Naturalis,
lib.ii, c. 26), who had investigated the matter carefully. He
gives the ingredients which are mixed with infants' fat-
aconite, eleoselnium, frondes populneae, soot, [suim], penta-
phyllon, bat's blood, belladonna, etc. They first rub the
surface till red, to open the pores, and then rub the ointment
strongly in. He experimented with a well known witch who
promised for money to bring him answers. She turned every-
one out of the room, but he watched her through the crack of
the door, saw her strip herself naked and anoint herself
thoroughly all over with an unguent. The somniferous drugs
threw her into a deep sleep, out of which she could not be
aroused by a smart whipping. When she awoke, she recited a
long delirium, how she had crossed mountains and seas, etc.,
bringing false responses, and persisted pertinaciously on being
contradicted. Their minds dwelling perpetually on these
subjects, they are more susceptible, and as they live exclusively
on insufficient vegetable foodbeets, chestnuts, greens,
etc. they are more easily affected.
Cardan (De Subtil., 1. xviii de Mirabilibus) gives very nearly
506 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
This is a fair example of his reasoning, and it and the two following cases
have interest because in 1689 one of the sturdiest defenders of all the
absurdities of witchcraft, Joh. Heinr. Pott, quotes Wcyer's belief as an
evidence that demons can assume animal forms and in that shape have
intercourse with women (Pott, De nefando Lamiarum cum Diabolo coitu,
p. 925).
very evident.
horses of worms :
J '
opus est ilium tentare? Weyer had this from another priest,
an eyewitness, whom he names.
Last year, in 1563, at Lower Wesel, a stepmother beat and
starved Gerarda her stepdaughter, aged twelve, until the
child became epileptic. A Dominican named Winandus
endeavored to exorcise the devil supposed to be in her, apply-
ing to her throat a pyx with mass bread in it. The same man
endeavored to exorcise a cow by burying in the pasture where
she fed a piece of stole worn at Mass. It is astonishing that
the magistrates tolerate these slaves of the devil.
v, c. 23. In 1534 the wife of the Praetor (supreme judge?)
of Orleans died, leaving instructions that her funeral should be
as simple as possible. It was customary when a person of
consideration died to send criers around with bells to pro-
claim the name and quality of the deceased, asking the prayers
of all, and announcing the time of the funeral. Then num-
bers of mendicant friars were hired to attend the funeral with
lighted candles, attracting a great crowd. In obedience to her
wishes, the Praetor did none of this; and, when she was buried
in the Franciscan church among her ancestors, he gave the
friarsonly six pieces of gold, which was less than they expected.
Moreover, soon after cutting and selling timber, he refused
their request for some. Out of revenge they planned to pro-
claim the damnation of the wife, and two doctors of theology,
one of them a skilful exorcist, arranged the details. Above
the "testudo" of the church they placed a young novice with
instructions to make a racket during the hour of prayer at
night. After exorcisms they asked whether the noise pro-
ceeded from a condemned spirit, when it was renewed. Then
they invited the principal citizens to be present the next
night. A series of questions was addressed to the spirit, which
were answered by knocking, resulting in the statement that
the disturbance was caused by the spirit of the Praetor's wife,
hopelessly damned for Lutheranism, and that her body must
be removed from the church. This was reduced to writing
and the witnesses were asked to sign it, but in fear of the
Praetor they refused. The friars then removed all the utensils
of the Mass from the church and refused to celebrate until
it should be relieved of the profanation of the heretical body.
and well.
daughter of Mark the fisherman and was in the house of Georg von Kulisch.
Whatever she touched, she drew forth coins. It occurred in 1558 and
Luther was applied to for advice, and could only recommend the prayers
of the faithful and assiduous attendance at sermon. This cured her, and
the Senate of Frankfort caused a public declaration of the case to be issued.
522 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
gives way and they die when brought out, lo the joyful cry
goes up that they have made way with themselves (as well
they might, with the severity of their sufferings and the
squalor of their prison), or that the devil has killed them.
But when the great Searcher of Hearts, from whom naught
524 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
(9).~Ib.,pp.674r.
Cap. 2. So the evocation of Samuel by the witch of Endor
534 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
His medical knowledge and scepticism did not lead to disbelief in Untori.
He says the Mosaic law (Exod., xxii, 18), "Thou shalt not
suffer awitch to live, 77 has Mekasshepha which is translated
in the Septuagint vapnaxofa (which is doubtless more correct
than the German Zauberinn) and he applies this to his veneficae
(How is it in the Vulgate? H. C. L.). He also says that
Josephus (Antiq., iv, 8) paraphrases the passage as relating
to poisons. (I give, Inquisition of the Middle Ages, II J, p. 388,
"enchanter or sorcerer 77 as the meaning of Mekassheph, and
he admits that it also has this meaning. H. C. L.) lie
also says that the "witchcraft" enumerated by St. Paul
(Galat., v, 20) as among the works of the flesh is <f>apnaK&v
77
in the original. The "magicians of Pharaoh (P]xod., vii, 11)
are Mekasshephim and it occurs in 12 other places iu the O. T.
(Exod., xx, 17 Deut., xviii, 1011
Kings, ix, 22-11 Ohron.,
xxxiii, 6 Isaiah, xlvii, 9, 12 Jeremiah, xxvii, 8 Daniel,
ii, 2 Michaioh, v, 12 Nahum, iii, 4 (twice), and Maluchi,
iii, 5), all of which in the Vulgate are rendered Malefwi or
of the Hebrew laws on the subject and how dangerous has been the adoption
of them and their adaptation to our conceptions.
ITS PBOMOTEES AJSTD CRITICS 535
Exodus, xxii, 19, denouncing death for bestiality, was cited as.an argument
for death punishment for witches on account of their commerce with
demonfi, 8ee c. 24, 19.
538 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
them, if
they can get any of their excrementsurine, dung,
hair, blood or nail-parings^ by treating them in some way,
usually wrapping them up with those of a dog of a similar
kind, or a dead man's bones, and burying them in his name in
the doorway or a cross-roads or in a stream. No one can doubt
that this is absurd and ridiculous, suggested by Satan. A j udgc
at Harnm (Westphalia) tells that he asked a famous witch,
before burning her, how one could avert the maleficia
lamiarum, to which she replied seriously that every one should
carefully preserve his old shoes as if such thinga could cause
or prevent maleficia. Whose mind can be so dull as not to
see that these are trifles? If any injury follows, it certainly
must be by Satan, with God's permission, to punish the
injured man's incredulity or to test him like Job. And the
demon persuades the old woman that it is her work and she
believes it and asserts it (1-3). Proceeds to dincuss the
various kinds of malefitia, showing some to be scientifically
impossible and others to be possible only by the intervention
and legerdemain of the devil, who can transpose things in a
moment and produce illusions. If imprecations could kill,
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 539
the human race would perish for everyone uses them at all
times and on all occasions, on themselves or on others (4-9).
Cap. 16. Quotquot vulgo Lamiarum maleficio affecti
creduntur, et quorum ita ktesorum sacra meminere Biblia,
omnes a diabolo vel exerceri vel obsessos esse (pp. 716-19).
Now let us look at those who are thought to be tortured by
Larniae. It is they, most certainly, who, with the assent of
God, whether men or beasts, are plagued in their bodies by
the demon in various and unusual ways, mostly unnatural.
Sometimes he enters and sometimes he does not but disturbs
the humors, introduces hurtful things, obstructs the ducts and
veins, disjoints the structures, disturbs the brain. Sometimes
he excites them so that their powers are greater than in the
healthy, or with poisons or breath he befouls them inside and
out, nor do the substance and faculties of men remain perma-
nently immune from this subtile maleficium of the enemy (1).
Illustrates this with the cases of Job, Nebuchadnezzar and
the demoniacs and the deaf and blind cured by Christ (2~8).
No one can be so wrong-headed as to deny that if these things
had occurred in our time they would be ascribed to some old
woman. In the whole of the Old and New Testament there
is not a single example in which the devil called in the aid of a
pains, which these things could not fail to excite (7). Close
inspection has shown me that, whether these vomitings take
place soon or long after a meal, there is in them no trace of
food or chyle. Also there are no lesions in the mouth or
throat, which such sharp and rugged substances would cause.
All this I repeatedly saw when I was public physician at
Arnheim in when patients of the kind would be brought
1548,
to me and would examine them in the most thorough
I
manner, internally and externally, pressing and squeezing
them in every part to see whether there were any internal
lesions, and could find none (8).
and had only to ask why he drew the line between what the devil
refute it
did and what the sorcerers and witches thought that they did. Still his
sturdy maintenance of his theory required no little independence and
hardihood and unquestionably was not without service. Moreover his
indignation at the cruel and lawless proceedings of superstitious courts,
fearlessly expressed, and his pleading for mitigation of punishment were
good work in the right direction, opening the way for Tanner and Laymann
and Spee. Moreover he repeatedly speaks of the cases in which he per-
sonally intervened and saved the lives of unfortunates.
that they declare that if they can get as leader a man of high
reputation they will wage war against any king, whom they
hope to overthrow by their magic arts (p. 6).
Yet there are many who deny all this. When I was at
Orleans a sorcerer condemned by the magistrates appealed to
the Parlement, which refused to admit the accusation and
treated the whole as folly. But when he persisted in his
crimes and caused many deaths the magistrates hanged him
(p. 7).
Daneau says that at the time it was a matter of general
discussion about which scarce two men agreed, every one
having his own opinion. Has known men who changed their
opinions from morning to evening, while others were so
obstinate in denial that no facts would convince them (p. 8).
He explains the development of witchcraft by the increasing
wickedness of mankind provoking the wrath of God to give
Satan power thus to mislead many and sift the good from, the
evil (p. 34). Now when he has made the light of the holy
Gospels shine again he justly wishes that many contemners
of the light should fall into the snares of Satan (p. 37) .
This shows the resources of the jugglers of the period, and seems to fore-
cast hypnotism. It was a dangerous sport when the witch-craze was at its
height.
in his book De Anima says that he had seen spectres and knew
many reliable men who had not only seen them but had long
conversations with them. In his Examen Theologicum he
tells of an aunt whose husband after death appeared to her,
the demon will say "I am the soul of such a monk." Ib. 7
c. 18 (pp. 189-93).
From this it would seem that he regards all apparitions as demons. Not
altogether, for subsequently in explaining why God permits it he says:
was twelve years old her mother had devoted her to the devil,
who appeared as a tall man in dark clothes, booted and
spurred and wearing a sword. He promised to take care of
her and make her happy. She had intercourse with him and
1
Appeared originally in French, Paris, 1580.
ITS PEOMOTERS AND CRITICS 555
sitatis portant forma exsecrabili quam nihil opus est describere et crucibus
the monastery were affected and many witches burnt (p. 307).
Among the sorcerers revealed by the blind sorcerer hanged
at Paris in 1571 was a lawyer who confessed that he had
entered into a contract with the devil written with his own
blood (pp. 152-3). He explained this by stating that he was
exceedingly sick and did it to be cured which was received
as an excuse (p. 245).
The marks those of whom he feels doubt, not those
devil
of whose fidelity he is secure. Frequently in the shape of a
hare's foot. Insensible to pain. Cases in which it was seen
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 559
deserted by her Master, who had promised that she should not
be put to death (pp. 170-1).
In 1271 Johannes Teutonicus, a priest of Halberstadt and
celebrated sorcerer of the period, sang in the middle of one
night three masses, one each at Halberstadt, Cologne and
Mainz (p. 172).
Jerome Cardan used to boast that he could at will throw
himself into an ecstasy in which his soul left his body and the
latter was insensible (p. 175).
President Turettanus related to Bodin a case he had seen in
Dauphiny where a servant girl was found by her master and
mistress lying before the fire. They tried to awaken her by
severe beating and then by applying coals to the most sensi-
tive parts of the body. Finally, thinking her dead, they left
her and next morning were surprised to find her in bed, when
she said, "Master, how you beat me." Talking of this with
some neighbors, some one said, "She is a witch." He took
up the idea and forced her to confess that in her mind she
was at the Sabbat. Then she admitted the wicked things she
had done and was given to the flames (p. 176).
In 1571, when there was a witch persecution throughout
France, an old witch at Bordeaux confessed that she and others
were transported every week to where they adored a great
goat, etc. Then Dr. Belot, maltre des r6qutes, desiring to
ascertain the truth, had her taken out of prison, where she
said she could do nothing; she stripped herself and anointed
herself with a certain unguent and fell insensible; after five
hours she revived and narrated many things occurring in
various places, which were verified. So at Nantes, in 1549,
seven magi promised to tell what happened within a circuit of
10 miles, and at once fell senseless, lying so for three hours,
and then related what had happened in Nantes and the
vicinity, all of which was verified. They were found guilty
of many malefices and were duly burnt (p. 177).
Seven witches condemned and burnt at Nantes in 1549.
They agreed to relate all that happened within 10 miles of
Nantes. Fell into a trance lasting three hours and then
related everything found to be true (p. 177).
Baron "Raziorum" (Marshal de Rais), who was executed
formagic at Nantes, confessed that he had killed 8 boys and
intended to sacrifice a ninth to Satan his own child, yet
unborn (p. 179). He was ordered by Satan to sacrifice his
unborn child and proposed to do so by killing the pregnant
ITS PROMOTEKS AND CRITICS 561
instances of the kind were not met with every day. While
I am writing this, a woman at Laon is said to
have given
birth to a toad, differing in appearance from other toads,
which the wondering midwife carried to the Prefect (pp.
218-9).
Froissart relates the case of a courtier at Soissons who
in revenge. She told him to baptize
applied to a witch for aid
a toad in the name of his enemy and give it a consecrated
host to eat, with other ceremonies omitted here (p. 219).
Barbara Dore at Senlis condemned in 1577 to be burnt
alive. She confessed that she had killed three
men by throw-
ing a little powder wrapped
in papers in the places where
had to a formula "In the name of God
they repeating
pass,
and of all the devils/' etc. (p. 221).
Billing with waxen images by
no means certain. It suc- ^
near London was suspected of it; but the matter had not
been determined when the news was sent (pp. 223-4).
Why are not our witches able to perform the marvels we
read of as wrought by Medea, Circe, Apollonius of Tyana,
etc.? Because God does not now allow to Satan the powers
granted him in pagan times (p. 226).
a hundred
Frequent as magic is now-a-days, of old it was
times more so (p. 227).
Charity is the best safeguard against witchcraft. Witches
admit that they cannot injure charitable men, even if other-
wise vicious. Wierus relates that the nuns of Werter, in the
1
est de me" "My end has come where is the boy? and
rushing out he had scarce set foot outside when the devil
killedhim and his corpse was as black as if painted black.
One of the judges in a case at Nantes told me of a woman who
was accused of casting a spell on a neighbor, when the judges
ordered her to touch the victim, a thing often done in the
German courts, and even in the Imperial Chamber. She
refused and, when forced, she exclaimed, "My end has come/'
566 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
cerned, and she confessed that as soon as she fell into the
hands of justice the devil could do nothing for her, either to
liberate her or preserve her life" (p. 269).
Bodin repeats the old superstitions about the inability
all
of witches to harm judges
or officials of justice or to escape
from prison. If they attempt to fly away, as they sometimes
do, they fall and break their necks. They have, however,
from the devil the gift of silence. They cannot shed tears
(p. 270).
The question whether it is lawful to avert or cure magical
diseasesby magic is the most perplexing of the whole subject.
The jurists and canonists decide in the affirmative and some
of the theologians, such as Scotus; but most of the latter,
and those the most experienced, as Aquinas, Bonaventure,
Durandus, and Petrus Albertus (with whom Bodin agrees)
decide that it is idolatry, and that it is better to die an honor-
able death than by witchcraft to transfer the disease to
another (pp. 275-6).
He will not even admit that it is lawful to dig at the thresh-
old for bones and charms buried by witches to injure cattle
and men. Recourse should be had to God alone by prayer
(p. 282).
"Jean Martin told me that when, while acting as Pr6fet of
Laon, he tried and condemned the witch of St. Proba, a mason
who had been bewitched by her so that his head was almost
bent between his knees applied for a cure. Martin told her
that to cure him would be her best recommendation to
mercy. She then had a small package brought to her by her
daughter from her house, when she invoked the devil and
muttered some words with her head bent down. She then
ordered the man to be placed in a bath and the package to
be thrown into it with the words 'Abi per diabolum. The 7
man did so and was cured. Against her orders the package
was examined and found contain three small lizards.
to
The man said that while in the bath it seemed as though
three large carp were swimming round in it; but, when he
got out, neither fish nor lizards were to be found. The witch
was burnt alive'
7
(pp. 283-4).
This and the next case show that cures could be wrought without trans-
ferring the disease to someone else.
delicate persons, but not those who were old and hardened
(p. 367). Confession under torture requires to be confirmed
after twenty-four hours (p. 368).
There is no punishment cruel enough for the wickedness
of witchcraft (p. 375).
When there is neither satisfactory evidence nor confession
nor proof of any act having been committed, but only light
presumption, the accused is neither to be absolved nor con-
demned, but to be discharged and the matter reserved for
further consideration. If the
presumptions are violent, in
this crime the accused may be
put to death; but it is better
to substitute some other punishment, such as scourging,
mutilation, fines, confiscation or perpetual imprisonment.
The latter is the best. It is the most dreaded by witches,
but companions skilled in witchcraft should always be placed
with them (pp. 386-8).
If there has been an act committed, and there is violent
that they do not perceive it, for then they pretend to feel it,
and not a drop of blood follows (fol. 88).
The Sabbats take place on Thursday nights, when the
witches are transported to them (fol. 90). It never takes
place except on Thursdays (fol. 116).
Each witch has to make her own ointment out of the fat
of infants whom
she kills (fol. 92).
He explains the form of goat or other beast adopted by
the demon as because God will not permit him to be adored
in the same human shape as Christ wore (ff, 102-3).
But after the adoration he can take human form and have
intercourse as incubus or succubus (fol. 105).
Winds up with a long discussion as to illusion or reality
and concludes for the latter, as there is reality in the murder
of infants, the devil-mark, the injuries wrought on men and
beasts, etc. (fol. 113).
He attaches much importance to the fact that the French
sorcerers of the present time confess the same things as those
of Germany, who are and have been there for 60 or 80 years
(fol. 116).
This looks decidedly as though witchcraft was of recent introduction in
France.
bim to be familiar with all the authorities in Theology and Canon and Civil
Law, besides a tolerably wide range of reading on collateral subjects. His
work was one which undoubtedly was of considerable influence, as shown
not only by its repeated editions but by the frequent references to it by
subsequent demonologists.
culty; and many, who are moved with too great compassion
for this, the worst of the human race, ask when there is to be
an end to the burning of sorcerers and witches, to which the
answer is that punishment must continue as long as crime.
As long as there are malefici the sentence must be uttered :
n
"Fire for malefici, fire for sagae, fire for raa#^ Epist. Dedi-
catoria.
He writes the book to resolve the doubts of many who,
wise in their own conceit, pronounce the stories of witches
to be dreams and imaginations, proving that their confessions
are true and that their accusations of accomplices are to be
received and acted upon. Tractatus de Confessionibus etc.,
p. 1.
He who
pertinaciously asserts that witchcraft is composed
of dreams and inventions is a heretic and no Christian. And
this proceeds from another heresy which denies the existence
of the devil (p. 3).
He attacks Weyer for asserting that stories of witches are
delusions and phantasms (p. 18).
Johannes Trithemius' "De reprobis et maleficis ad quaes-
tiones propositas a Maximiliano Caesare" is quoted on p. 21
in support of the reality of witchcraft.
In 1591, when Binsfeld's second edition had appeared, a
Doctor Theology (whose name is kindly concealed ) wrote
1
of
a work to prove that witchcraft is a fable and its persecution
a wrong. It was partly in type by a printer in Cologne when
the authorities interfered and suppressed the work, while the
author was forced to recant by the Papal Nuncio, Ottavio,
Bishop of Tricarico (pp. 28-9).
Story of Meisenbein's Anna of Rover [Ruwer], near Trier,
burnt alive at Trier, October 20, 1590, on the denunciation of
her own son, Johannes Cuno, a youth of eighteen, of good
parts, a student of the humanities and a poet. She had
seduced him to witchcraft when only nine years old. He con-
fessed without torture, was penetrated with contrition, and
when the officials offered to let him be beheaded he refused,
preferring, in penance for his crimes, to be burnt with another
witch condemned to the stake, He was mercifully strangled
before burning. After his judicial confession, he wrote it
out in German, mixed with Latin words, and from this Bins-
feld quotes. He had fallen in love with a girl and seduced
1
This means Cornells Loos, see below p. 601 and also Burr, Fate of Dietrich
Flade, p. 47.
ITS PBOMOTEES AND CRITICS 579
her. On one
occasion a succubus assumed her form and pre-
sented him with
fourteen crowns, which soon after turned to
rottenness. He consulted his mother, who told him it was all
right, and that evening placed him on a broom and led him
to the road, where they found a goat, mounting which they
were carried to Hetzenroderheidt, a [German?] mile from
Rover [Ruwer], and a celebrated place for assemblages of
witches. Here his mother presented him to the devil and he
renounced Christ and joined the sect. All this was confirmed
by the mother's confession. His denunciation of his mother
was purely out of filial piety, to save her soul. She had
seduced all her four children. The two eldest were hanged
and burnt; the two youngest, being mere children, were
imprisoned to be instructed. Her own story was that, being
ill-treated by her husband and one of her children dying, she
thought herself abandoned by God, and called on the devil,
who immediately appeared. Both she and another witch
named Maria, burnt November 10, 1588, near Trier, had
found by experience that when they accidentally named God
or Jesus at the Sabbat the whole assemblage immediately
disappeared and they had to return home on foot. One thing
is notable in the case of Anna. The official of the Abbot of
S. Maximin at Trier had jurisdiction over her. She fled from
his perquisition to Cologne, where she concealed herself, but
his messengers found her out and the Cologne magistrates
delivered her to him. He collected evidence against her and
laid it before the praetor and eschevins of Trier, who ordered
her to be tortured if she would not confess. Thus, although
she was a justiciable of the church, she was tried and con-
demned by the secular authorities (pp. 30-33, 54-58).
The between pactum expressum and pactum taci-
difference
with words, writings, or
turn is that the former is entered into
signs, and the latter by using the means which infer belief in
and willingness to employ demonic aid (p. 33).
It is curious to observe the acuteness with which the reality of sorcery is
proved by arguments drawn not only from theology and the Scriptures, but
from etymology, physics, laws and almost every other source, the subject
being treated as a dry legal and philosophical question, the nature, powers,
and attributes of the devil being developed with the minutest detail, and the
relations between him and the witch being discussed with reference to legal
principles as though it were a contract between two merchants or land
owners. The coolness with which the necessary premises are assumed, and
the ingenuity with which texts in favor are construed to the strictest letter
580 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
and those adverse are explained away, are only equalled by the logical
strictness of the deductions.
A belief in the efficacy of the signs and characters used in sorcery seems to
be a natural sequence to the belief in crossings, holy water, relics, the sacra-
ments and other human ministrations, and the theologians did not hesitate
to make use of this argument. The belief in the supernatural potency of
these signs, etc., was of very old date (see Tractatus, pp. 43-4).
which was the form taken by the Holy Ghost, nor in that of
a sheep, because Christ styled himself a shepherd and the
faithful his flock but he often appears as a goat, which is a
terrible-looking and ill-smelling animal (pp. 65-6).
It was a question zealously argued by the schoolmen
whether, if the devil should assume the likeness of Christ,
he could be ignorantly worshipped without sin. Caution
displayed by holy men whom he thus sought to deceive. See
Gerson, Tract, de Spirit. Decernend. (pp. 66-9).
Notwithstanding the apparition of Samuel to Saul, the
Doctors agree that departed souls are not to be evoked by
magic neither those which are in Heaven nor in Purgatory,
nor in Hell each for good and sufficient reasons. Such appa-
ritions are merely demons in the form of the departed (pp.
80-2).
Haunted Houses. No one doubts that houses are disturbed
by the noises and freaks of spirits, but they are not the ghosts
of the dead, but demons. The antiquity of this belief is shown
by Gregory, lib. iii Dialog., c. 4. Also Pliny, lib. vii, Epist.,
Epistola ad Suram, gives one framed on the best modern
model. See also story of Pausanias and Cleonice in Plutarch,
Vit. Cymon.; also Aelian, Var., lib. viii; Strabo, lib. vi; and
Augustin, Civ. Dei, xxii, 8. Binsfeld himself knew of two
houses thus haunted. Jurists dispute whether a tenant can
abandon a house thus disturbed, but the question has been
repeatedly decided in favor of the tenant (pp. 80-89). See
also a case related by Guill. Paris.,
quoted p. 90; Simeon,
Metaphrast. in Vit. S. Theod. Archimandritae (p. 100);
ITS PEOMOTERS AND CRITICS 581
Yet his quotations from Cassiamis, coll. viii, c. 21, Chrysostom, Horn. 22
in Genes., and Philastrius, Adv. Haeres., c. 108, would seem to show that
these fathers denied the possibility of such intercourse. (Refer to them.)
ITS PEOMOTEBS AND CRITICS 583
1
Mr. Lea here errs in ascribing to Binsfeld's p. 228 what he has gathered instead
from the pages just following But too important for omission is the passage he has
marked in pencil on p. 228, where Binsfeld declares that "those judges violate justice
and the divine command who by tortures and threats compel a culprit who already
has confessed the crime charged to confess other things, as to which there were no
indicia, and to make what amounts to a general confession of a whole life."
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 585
He cites ample authority for all this and is only setting forth the received
jurisprudence of the age.
ITS PEOMOTEKS AND CEITICS 587
in the water. "I say first that the judge who uses it sins mor-
tally. If it is not prohibited in the laws, the red-hot iron
and boiling water are, which are of the same class." Quotes
the prohibitions of all probationes vulgares. Not only do
judges sin mortally, but all who believe in the water-ordeal,
unless excused by probable ignorance, which is removed by
monition and instruction (pp. 287-94).
He is preoccupied by the subject of accomplices, which lay
at the bottom of witch-epidemics, and he returns to it to
argue away the provision of Carolina 21, that no one shall
be arrested and tortured on the denunciation of enchanters
and diviners. It applies, he says, to cases where one loses
something or has a horse sick. He goes to an enchanter or
diviner, who makes conjurations over his vial or his sieve,
invokes the devil and says so-and-so was the thief or sickened
the horse. Or a diviner comes to a town, as I understand
happened this year (1596) at Kerlich near Coblenz (the resi-
dence city of the Elector of Trier), saying "there are so many
witches here/ and names them "and you will soon see it."
7
Judges are to enforce the laws, as they are only the ministers
of justice. Yet the custom has obtained to strangle first,
lest in the agonies of a slow death they be plunged into
where were
dropped into one of his own fields his people
But by both human and divine law all who attend the
Sabbat are to be put to death, whether they have wrought
evil or not (p. 495).
John xv quoted by sundry doctors, Hostiensis, Panormi-
tanus, etc., as justifying the stake (p. 507).
Those who endeavor to protect witches are their cruelest
enemies, subjecting them to eternal flames in place of the
transitory suffering of the stake (p. 512).
This is the perennial argument employed to justify persecution.
Binsfeld gives the ordinary rules for torture and may be handily referred
to for them. Also his reprehensions of cruel excesses of torture are signifi-
cant.
This is common.
other causes that this indicium is very light and weak (p. 606)
.
power over the weather to demons and all relations between them and men.
He scarce goes as far as Bekker, but he is a worthy colleague of Reginald
Scot. 1
At
their initiation the devil gives his disciples three pow-
dersone black, one gray or reddish, and one white. The
former kills if only sprinkled on the clothes of the victim, the
second makes sick, the third cures. By preparing a staff
with them the witch can kill man or beast by merely touching
them with it, as if by accident or in jest. They have no
power, however, over magistrates or judges, who may thus
administer justice without fear. The devil indeed can have
nothing to do with ministers of the law, as Didier Finance
of St. Dizier found while he was magistrate of that town, for
he could not even evoke the demon who had previously been
his familiar. Ib., c. 2.
They are also furnished with an ointment to anoint their
hands, when they can kill by touching even the skirt of the
dress. It only works, however, subject to their volition, and
is powerless after capture. Cases in which they indicated
after confession where earthen pots full of it were concealed
it was a bitumen full of white and yellow drops and metallic
was to strip her naked, to shave the whole person, to look for
this scar, and to thrust needles into it. Scientific explanations
of its lack of sensation drawn from the torpor of cold and the
stunning of lightning. Ib., c. 5.
Argues that intercourse as incubi with women must always
be sterile. Ridicules the theory of Martin of Aries and Petrus
Paludanus that demons as incubi prepare themselves by
squeezing semen out of the bodies of dead men. Doubts the
possibility of the theory of receiving as succubi and imparting
as incubi, though he admits the weight of authority in its
favor. Doctors differ whether children born of such inter-
course are weaker or stronger than ordinary men. The testi-
mony is universal that intercourse is the first pledge of the
pact between a demon and a new witch. Disgusting details
of intercourse quoted from the confessions of wretched women.
Ib., c. 6.
Demons can instantly assume any form. Statements
quoted from confessions as to the shapes assumed by their
familiars visiting them in prison mice, crabs, birds, hares,
etc. Their favorite form, however, is the human, and it
shows the goodness of God that there is always some dis-
tinguishing mark usually cloven feet or bird's talons as
stated in numerous cases referred to. Ib., c. 7.
Nature of speech of demons. Names assumed by familiars
those attached to German speaking women take German
names, as Ungluc (ill luck), Machleid (injurious), Tzum wait
vliegen (off to the woods), etc. Those belonging to French
women (both races are found in Lorraine) took French names,
as Maistre Persil, Jolybois, Verdelet, Saute-buisson, etc. Their
voices were always peculiar, like one speaking in the bung-
hole of a barrel. Ib., c. 8.
Witches generally preserve a remarkably religious exterior,
and perform their religious duties regularly. Case in Metz
where one was burnt who was ever the first in church and the
last to leave it, was constantly praying and crossing herself,
and yet was proved guilty of innumerable sorceries. Ib,, c. 9.
Devil delights in uncleanliness. Washing the hands in
the morning by a witch weakens her power; if done regularly
by others it preserves them from her machinations. Not
easily explained. Ib., c. 10.
Severity of demons in exacting the tribute and homage
agreed upon. At the Sabbat every one must make an offer-
ing chickens, birds, straws, leather coin, hair from the head,
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 607
They all said that the attendance at the Sabbat was very
numerous in some cases as many as 500, and in view of the
multitude of witches they were themselves surprised that
much more harm was not done. Ib., c. 15.
To render his victims contented and ready to do his bidding
the demon at the Sabbat indulges them in feasts and dancing
and sexual intercourse. Yet the general testimony quoted
proves that the banquet is disgusting, the food and drink
scarcely fit to swallow and not satisfying either to hunger or
thirst. Bread and salt always lacking. Long argument to
show that the devil hates both bread because it is the sub-
stance of the sacrament and salt because God prescribed it
in the sacrifice (Levit., ii, 13) and it is used in baptismal and
holy water. One witch stated that human flesh was some-
times served up also flesh of dead cattle and refuse garbage.
-Ib., c. 16.
The dances at the Sabbat are laborious and exhausting.
One witch stated that after them she had to spend three
days in bed. All the pleasures are vain there, the banquet
disgusting and unsatisfying, the copulation painful and devoid
of pleasure, the dancing a task. No one excused from dancing
either by age or sickness, and anyone declining is beaten
savagely. Ib., c. 17.
They are bound by fearful oaths not to confess under
torture, and believe that these oaths condemn them to eternal
torture if Case of Martha Marguelotte who tortured
broken.
herself after confession,and explained it to the judge by
saying that she feared the devil would avenge her perjury
by eternal flames. At the Sabbat they all wear masks to
avoid detection. (!) Ib., c. 18.
Hideous music at the Sabbat from all sorts of queer instru-
mentshorsed skulls, oak-logs, etc. After all of which
each of them is obliged, under pain of cruel beating, to take
leave of the demon with profuse thanks for the entertainment.
Ib., c. 19.
They take leave of the demon with humble obeisance.
He changes himself into a horribly stinking goat and they
kiss his podex. Ib., c. 20.
They are furnished with a powder by scattering which they
raise clouds of locusts, caterpillars, slugs, etc., to devour the
crops of enemies. One testified that she could bring swarms
of flies to kill the cattle of any one by pulling up a plant and
throwing it on the ground with certain words; another, that
ITS PROMOTEES AND CRITICS 609
-Ib., c. 26.
Buildings struck by lightning show signs of scratches with
claws, as though the devil had scratched them.
Not asserted
positively, but labored argument to show its probability.
Ib., c. 27.
there
Against the absurd opinion of the Epicureans that
VOL. n 39
610 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
are no such things as spirits and that the stories about them
are the imaginings of foolish boys and timid women. Cases
cited to prove this. Several cases of stone-throwing in houses
one of which occurred to the author in 1563 at Auch when
7
with some powder, carried in the sole of her paw, and killed it.
roused by the cry of the infant, put her hands in the cradle
to see if it had got out of its swaddling clothes as it had
several times done before, and, not finding it, got up in the
dark. Thus disturbed, Barbeline hid the child in the bed
and flew away with the demon. Alexe Belhore, with whom
Claude had a quarrel, was tried soon after as a witch, when
Claude and his wife swore the above facts against her. Sub-
sequently, when Barbeline was tried, she confessed it was she
who did it.
The child apparentlywas not harmed. The mere fact that it had crept
bed was sufficient to convince them that witches were at
into its parents'
work. This illustrates, moreover, how limited were the powers ascribed
to witches, when the case required it, while in others they were almost
illimitable.
Jacobette Weber
seeks for revenge on a peasant living with
her, but watchful and she finds it difficult. At length
lie is
she gets her demon to thrust a thorn in his knee while he
is kneeling in a thicket, and he is lamed for three months,
until she relents and makes her demon extract it with his
nail while the man is cutting wood all of which he confirms.
Ib.,c. 15.
Case of Nicholas Wanneson of Reichau (1587), sick unto
death for a long while through the machinations of a neigh-
boring witch. At length she went to see himeither moved
by they are not all devoid of it, or frightened at
pity, for
the threats which commenced to be uttered against her and
advised that supplication be made to some saint through
whose intercession such diseases are frequently cured. Accord-
ingly Hans Jacob is sent to the shrine of Beau Bernard in
Metz, which was then celebrated throughout that region;
and those who were around the bed of Nicholas testified
that he commenced to recover at the precise moment when
Jacob was making his offerings and causing prayers to be
said for him. He vomited bits of glass and balls of matted
hair.
These things vomited and extracted from the body are fre-
quently so large that people are incredulous. Remy proceeds
to quote numerous cases from Ambroise Par6 and other
medical authorities to show that it is possible. Ib., 1. iii, c. 1.
It was customary among the ignorant and peasants, if
any one was sick of some unusual or mysterious disease, to
steal food or drink from the house of the person suspected of
causing it, and to take it in the hopes of cure. Remy con-
demns this as a device of the devil, but says that many per-
sons have told him they were relieved by it. It is a manifes-
tation of faith in the devil and substantially a pact with
him. Ib., c. 2.
The most efficacious way to make witches undo their sor-
cery is to beat and threaten them. They admit this them-
selves. Various illustrative cases cited, where men of station
thus forced witches to cure members of their families. In
such cases, however, the devil, who rarely does unmixed good,
usually transfers the disease to some other person or animal.
Cf. story of Admetus.
Nicole iStienne (1587), called in to remove a pestilence from
the castle of Dommartin, does so, but when the time came
for her to depart, her son dislikes to leave such good quarters;
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 619
tion. Ib., c. 3,
Within the last ten years at Nancy a witch named Thenotte
was frequently called in to cure diseases. She always said
the disease was caused by St. Fiacre, to whom a pilgrimage
and offering was necessary. She would thus be hired to
undertake it. She would first measure the sick person across
with a waxed linen cloth; then would watch all night at the
outer door and with the first dawn would start on the pil-
grimage, preserving unbroken silence. On entering
the church
of St. Fiacre she would set fire to the linen, and with the
melted wax dropping from it would make a cross on the steps
of the principal altar; then with the cloth still burning she
would walk three times around the church and return home.
-Ib., c. 4.
620 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
All these cases show how thoroughly the judges in these dreadful scenes
believed themselves to be engaged in a direct conflict with the powers of
evil.
night and given him all the details. He repeats this when
brought before his judges a few hours later and describes his
demon minutely.- Ib., c. 10.
No place is so sacred as to be free from the intrusion of
the devil. He delights to pursue his prey into the most
sacred recesses of churches, at holy sermons, in monasteries,
in the retreat of the hermit, etc. What wonder then that
he establishes himself in the judgment room to watch over
his followers?
Remy says that while an infant nothing affected him more
than the stories of ghosts and spirits which nurses are wont
to tell to crying children to frighten them.
"Once I was pressing a witch named L'Asni&re (from the
occupation of her husband, an ass-driver) with the evidence
of the witnesses, so that there was no further escape for her,
and she was preparing herself to confess, when suddenly her
color changed, her eyes were fixed on a corner of the room,
her voice failed, and her mind seemed about to leave her.
I ask the cause of this sudden sickness. She replies that she
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 623
ing it, when the flames are rising around them." Ib., c. 11.
He proceeds to demolish those who argue that witches
ought not to be punished. It seems they alleged that many
things arising from natural causes were attributed to witches-
such as thunder, lightning, tempests, and the like. Long argu-
ment with innumerable authorities to show that this power
has always been attributed to them, and that the demon may
at least be the instrument of God to punish man with the
elements.
As for disbelieving the carrying of witches through the air,
it is not for human reason to judge all that is done beyond
the ordinary order of nature.
Long and rambling argument based on countless authorities
to prove that no mercy is to be shown to witches "Nimirum
hoc est rabidis canibus, quas alioqui insanabiles nemo nescit,
idcirco vitam dare: quia nulla sua culpa ac vitio in earn rabiem
incurrerunt." Neither age nor sex to be spared.
No terms of reprobation strong enough for those who oppose
"
their punishment Hoc autem quid est aliud nisi si est
luporum in medio ovili arcem praesidiumque statuere?" He
has seen whole districts prepare to emigrate for no other
reason than the license accorded to these wretches by the
too great lenity of the magistrates.
He ends with the declaration that after long experience in
the examination of witches he has no hesitation in stating his
opinion that their lives are so stained with crime, lust, impiety
and evil deeds "ut e jure esse non dubitum omnibus tornientis
excruciates igni interficere, turn ut debitis poenis sua expient
624 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
Hesays that those who are seen in the Sabbat are not
always there in person, but only their apparitions. And there-
fore the question is whether those thus seen are justly suspect
of witchcraft and belong to the sect of witches. Ib., 1. ii,
c. 13, n. 183 (p. 107).
He concludes from the Cap. Episcopi that the witch is
sometimes not present, but is deluded by demons so that she
seems to be there and can scarce persuade herself that she is
not there. Ib., n. 184.
There are some who regard the whole matter as an illusion
of the demon. Ib., n. 185.
And why? It is beyond controversy that the whole can
be done. Such is the power of demons that they can trans-
port men wherever they choose. Ib., n. 187.
VOL. ii 40
626 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
This would make the fall of the angels subsequent to the creation of man.
while the hare rose through the air and vanished, being
undoubtedly a satanic spectre. Ib., p. 60.
At Rothenburg the house of an honest citizen was fre-
quented by a stranger richly dressed and professing to be a
noble of high birth and great wealth, accompanied by two
others of equally impressive appearance. All that was want-
ing to him was a fitting wife, and this he had discovered in
the daughter of the burgher, to whom he paid assiduous
court, with musicians. The burgher, suspecting something,
one day invited a pious minister of God to be present, with
a request that he would turn the conversation to Scriptural
subjects. This displeased the guests, who expressed their
preference for lighter subjects as better befitting a joyous
banquet- when the master of the house, seeing his suspicions
confirmed, denounced them as lying demons and bade them
begone. Whereupon they vanished with a terrible noise,
leaving behind them an intolerable stink and three bodies of
malefactors borrowed for the occasion from a neighboring
gibbet. (Manlius in Collectaneis.) Ib., pp. 60-1.
Satan flung on the floor his pen and ink and vanished, leaving
a foul stench, and the man soon afterwards peacefully slept
in Christ.
So, oh Christmas eve, 1534, in a certain town of Saxony,
a demon took a notion to present himself before the parish
priest, Lorenz Douer, among the crowd seeking the confes-
sional as a preparation for the holy exercises of the next day.
His confession consisted of hideous blasphemies against
Christ, when, on being overcome with the word of God by
the priest, he vanished with an intolerable stench. (Jobus
Fincelius, De Mirac., lib. i.) Ib., p. 63.
At Rotweil in 1545 Satan wandered through the town, in
the shape sometimes of a hare and sometimes of a goose,
announcing loudly that he was going to burn the town, which
threw the inhabitants into great fear. Ib., p. 63.
In 1559, in the Mark (Westphalia), at harvest time, there
appeared fifteen, and afterwards twelve, headless men of
great size and horrible shape, bearing sickles with which they
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 631
Qy. whether there is any trace of this wild story in contemporary Spanish
authorities.
Magic was often used in war by the Northern nations. See Olaus Magnus.
When Ferdinand of Naples was besieging Marci (Marcos),
a town belonging to the Angevines, in 1462, and had reduced it
to great straits for water, the inhabitants sent some of their
number by night through his camp to the sea, in which they
threw a crucifix with dire incantations to raise a tempest.
Meanwhile in the town the impious priests took an ass and
recited a funeral service over him, then forced the Eucharist
down his throat and buried him alive with full solemnities in
front of the church. Atremendous storm at once arose which
filled all the cisterns and flooded the country, so that Ferdi-
nand had to withdraw (Pontanus, 1. v Belli Neapolitan!).
Ib., p. 139.
On p. 226 precisely the same story quoted from Pontanus,
lib. v, as occurring in 1557 when the
French in Suessa were
besieged by the Spaniards.
Feats of rope-dancing and circus-riding by Egyptians in
Constantinople under Andronicus, related as though super-
natural, pp. 143-5, from Gregoras, lib. viii. (No
more won-
derful than are daily exhibited. H. C. L.)
634 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
How much Grosse is to be relied upon for his authorities is shown by his
giving a story from Boccaccio with the utmost seriousness.
This was only a fair return by the Protestants for the Catholic assertion
that Luther was the son of an incubus. We have seen that even Adrian VI
did not escape the charge. According to Benno Cardinalis, both Benedict
VIII and IK. obtained the Papacy by magic.
See Georgius Agricola, Liber de Subterraneis Animantibus, for full
account of Gnomes, Trolls, Kobolds, etc.
A few years ago a sorcerer was hanged who had twice been
hanged before, but had vanished, leaving a bundle of straw
hanging in his place. (Straw bail? H. C. L.) He sold a
fine horse to a man, cautioning him not to ride him into
water. The purchaser, being curious, hastened to ride him
into a river and soon found himself floundering in the water
with a bundle of straw. In his anger he rushed back to the
inn where the sorcerer was and found him lying on a bench
pretending to sleep. He seized a leg to waken him, when it
came off in his hands, and he fled in terror. The sorcerer
often imposed on men by selling them hogs which changed
to bundles of straw. At length he came to Neuburg with
two women accomplices, where he was thrown in prison. No
confession could be extracted by torture until his head was
shaved, when he confessed and in a few days he and the
women were hanged. Ib., p. 171.
Pp. 172-186 are occupied with a series of wonders from the
Malleus.
A priest of Oberweiler, near Basle, who disbelieved the exist-
ence of witches, paralyzed for three years by one whom he
is
had offended. He
receives her deathbed confession, and she
cures him. (Qy. from Mall. Malef.? H. C. L.) Ib., p. 176.
The belief that officers of justice were by the mercy of
God not liable to the effects of witchcraft does not appear to
be carried out by two stories related by Groslus. In one case,
at the town of Fach, a judge ordered his officials to arrest a
wizard. When they attempted to do so he emitted so fearful
a stench that they were frightened, and their limbs were
seized with such a trembling that they were unable to fulfil
their duty. Whereupon the judge ordered them imperatively
to capture him, assuring them that the hour had arrived for
636 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
[The first section of Qrosse's Kb. ii (pp. 232-319) deals with oracles and
predictions.] It was universally conceded by the fathers and the theologians
that the devil could not foretell the future. It was also believed that the
ancient Oracles were the mouthpieces of Satan and, through him, had the
power of predicting events which is not logical.
The number of successful predictions by oraclesand augurs recorded in
ancient history would seem to give as much evidence in their favor as
there is of medieval witchcraft.
The fourth
section of this book, devoted to the miracles of
has the following heading (p. 399): "De mira-
saints, etc.,
bilibus Satanae praestigiis, ludibriis et imposturis ad stabili,
endam et confirmandam Idolatriam, de adoratione et invoca-
tione Sanctorum mortuorum, cultu statuarum sive imaginum-
et ad confirmandum commentum de purgatorio, &c., juxta
vaticinium S. Pauli Apostoli, II Thess., 2." (Showing that in
the time of Grosse the Catholic miracles were accepted as
true, but were attributed to the devil. H. C. L.)
The miraculous cures of the sick by saints, relics, etc., are merely the
continuation of similar wonders wrought hi the pagan temples. The
fashion there was generally to sleep in the temple, when the method of
cure was revealed in a dream. The temples of Aesculapius were especially
resorted to for this purpose. Strabo, 1. viii, specifies those at Epidaurus
in the Island of Cos, at Trica in the Gulf of Salonica and at Tetrapolis on
the confines of Ionia and Caria, as constantly filled with a crowd of sick
and the walls all hung around with votive tablets.
16 (p. 805).
ITS FROMOTBRS AND CBITICS 643
This arguing in a circle shows how completely the belief destroyed the
powers of reasoning. The witch was guilty and therefore to be put to
death, and the fact of her guilt was proved by her punishment. Del Rio
was not the first to use this argument. The Malleus (P. I, q. 1, p. 5) says,
"Nam Lex Divina in plerisque locis praecipit Maleficas non solum esse
vitandas, sed etiam occidendas, cujusmodi poenas non imponeret si non
veraciter et ad reales effectus et laesiones cum daemonibus concurrerent.
Mors enim corporaliter non infligitur sine corporali et gravi peccato."
Prierias adopts this argument (De Strig., ii, c. 2, punct. 2, p. 139). Bernardo
da Como is even more emphatic, as he omits reference to the divine law
"Plurimae personae hujus perfidae sectae, transactis jam plurimis tempori-
bus, per inquisitores haereticae pravitatis fuerant traditae brachio saeculari,
exigentibus id demeritis suis, et combustae, quod minime factum fuisset,
neque summi Pontifices hoc tolerassent, si talia tantummodo phantastice et
in somniis contingerent, . . . nam Ecclesia non punit crimina nisi
sint manifesta et vere deprehensa" (De Strigiis, c. 3).
Nor has the Church ever withdrawn from this position theologically,
esse so let, ut quamdiu ligula sic nodata fuerit, vel tale quid
sub limine defossum, vel sera clausa manserit, tamdiu tails
persona sit maleficiata, aut moriantur qui in tali loco erunt
aut intrabunt vel exibunt et hujusmodi." In this the "claus-
tra" would seem to be illustrated by a case in which a lock
was locked and thrown into a well and the key into another.
"Quaeritur ergo utrum liceat aperiendo claustrum, eombu-
rendo capillorum glomum, solvendo ligulae nodum, vel effodi-
endo ollam et exurendo quae in ilia habentur, aut similia
removendo perdendoque, maleficium destruere et liberare
?
vel nullas vel vix ullas lamias hoc credere. Solent enim in
confessionibus suis dicere se aliis videri tales, ipsae autem
sciunt se transformatas non Quod rudiores aliquae id,
esse. si
ut Lycanthropi quidam faciunt putent, fateor tales a daemone
quo ad hoc punctum, delusas esse: tamen si hoc pertinaciter
teneant, dico ex hoc Cap. Episcopi, illas ut haereticas debere
damnari" (p. 809). Ib., 1. v, sect. 16 (III, pp. 786-810).
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 647
Del Eio says (Disq. Magic., L v, sect. 9, p. 738) "Caeterum si reus sit
:
convictus, consultius est judici non subjicere emu quaestioni, quia tortura
solet indicia praecedentia purgare, immo et plenas probationes; et ideo reus
etiam convictus in tortura et post earn constanter persistens, foret liberandus,
ut ex cornmuni Dd. sententia docet Farinacius." So torture after insuffi-
cient previous indicia is illegal and confession extorted by it is null (Del
Rio, tec. tit., sect. 11, p. 748).
rumor spreads and by the time they are arrested they are
already defamed. Ib., nn. 38-40.
It is the same with injuries inflicted. I have been told by
two learned and eminent men, experienced in these matters,
that persons whom they believed to be innocent would impute
to themselves such things as they knew had happened in order
the more quickly to be relieved of torture. Ib., n. 41.
Often the confirmation of such things is neglected. A report
to the faculty of Ingolstadt not long since showed that in a
certain Rhine city, when the confessions of some condemned
witches were read, they contained the killing of certain per-
sons there named who chanced to be present, alive and safe,
at the execution. Ib., n. 42.
It is certain that witches frequently are deluded into imagin-
ing themselves transported to the Sabbat, so that they can-
not distinguish between the real ones and the imaginary ones,
so that their evidence is not to be relied upon. Ib., n. 43.
Those who hold that several denunciations suffice for tor-
ture require that they shall be made by penitents (confessed
and repentant), but this is not observed in many tribunals
in which the witches are compelled by torture to denounce
before confession and repentance. So how can their denuncia-
tions be accepted against reputable persons? Ib., n. 44.
The point of this is that after confession and repentance, the witch, being
condemned to death, would have nothing to gain by denouncing the innocent.
Ib.,
n. 112.
As regards the first, it is to be considered that the devil
cannot wreak his malice either himself or by witches except
through God's permission. Therefore the best way of escap-
ing is by hope and
confidence in God, daily prayer and purity
of life. notwithstanding these, God permits this affliction,
If,
it is to be borne in the conviction that it is for the sufferer's
the trans-
Q. iv considers the power of angels and specially
formation of witches into animals and their causing tempests.
As for transformations, they are only apparent and not real,
which is the common opinion of the doctors, from Augustin
and Aquinas down. They may be mere dreams of sleeping
witches, or delusions of the waking by demons who make
them believe that they are what they are not, as in lycan-
for a witch
thropy, or that the demon forms out of air a form
or surrounds the witch with it and inflicts on her body the
wounds inflicted on the image, or encases a man in the skin
of a brute, or substitutes a real animal for the witch asleep.
Ib., pp. 69-74.
Demons can by the permission of God, either them-
also,
selves or by means of witches, excite tempests, thunder and
lightning, hail-storms, etc., but not without the application
of their causes. This is so certain, both by the confessions of
witches and other arguments, that it cannot be denied without
temerity, and demons sometimes do this when evoked by
witches. Ib., pp. 74-5.
Q. v is on the assumption of bodies by demons and their
performing acts of life. He admits the difficulty of explaining
this, as they are solid to the senses, so that
not only they seem
the genuine bodies of men and beasts, assumed for a moment,
but can be touched and possess all the members of lust, as
is manifest from the confessions of witches. Yet the testi-
mony of Scripture is too decisive as to the angels who
appeared to Abraham and Lot and as to Raphael who guided
Tobit, for this to be called into question, and Aquinas is able
to prove it dialectically (Summa, P. I, q. li, art. 2 and 3)
sect. 5, n. 4). (He says so, adding that the opposite is com-
monly held and is used in practice. H. C. L.) The multi-
plication of accusers increases their weight and it may be
that a dozen or fifteen confessed witches persistently asserting
her as accomplice may equal full proof in hidden crimes; but
in this crime a no small difficulty arises, for that the evidence
of a number shall suffice for condemnation without confession
it is requisite that they shall be contestes, and I think it can
scarce ever happen that ten or twelve witches can testify
to the same fact. When asked about accomplices they only
say that Titia is also a witch and such denunciation without
specifying facts amounts only to infamy which alone is insuffi-
cient. Also, when asked as to accomplices they name some,
not that they know them to be such, but because they have
been suspected. One will say she saw Titia in the Sabbat
two years ago; another says three years; another that with
her she raised a tempest; another that they were associated
in some other sorcery. Such evidence, however multiplied,
without other proof, I hold to be insufficient for condemna-
tion. Ib., pp. 106-7.
In the later edition this question is expanded into q. vi-xiii for which
see below.
There follows a long passage intercalated in the later editions of the Theo-
logia Moralis after Q. v. The references are to the Theologia Moralis, 1. iii,
tract, vi, c. 5 unic., ed. Patavii, 1733 (T. I, pp. 475 ff.).
Titia (who was otherwise suspect) and she says she has seen
678 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
judge asks how she knows and she says she saw him two years
ago in the Sabbat, the judge must pay no attention to it until
other indicia occur against the party. Ib., n. 42.
(3) A third reason is that by the law of nature and of
nations an accuser is not believed unless he points out the
crime and in some way shows its likelihood , and a denuncia-
tion is akin to an accusation. So no faith is to be placed in a
simple denunciation unless accompanied by indicia enabling
the judge to frame an information to determine whether there
is just cause for arrest and prosecution. Otherwise any one
could damage the fame of another and involve him in risk.
Ibidem.
I answer the second. If the denunciation is supported with
probable indicia it may sometimes justify inquest or even
arrest and torture at the discretion of a prudent judge.
Such indicium may be public fame, which would justify the
judge in a special inquest as to the cause of the fame and, if
well founded, lead to arrest and sometimes even to torture.
Or the associate may state intimacy with Titius and accom-
panying him to houses where injuries were done to men or to
church where irreverence was shown to the sacrament. Or a
subsequent associate may denounce the same person, so that
they are contestesss that on a certain day they stole a host
or were together in the Sabbat (which consensus is exceed-
ingly rare in these denunciations) it may sometimes suffice
for arrest and even for torture. It is a common doctrine that
denunciations are thus greatly strengthened by contestes. In
all this special attention must be given to the quality of the
Yet Binsfeld argues that two or three similar denunciations suffice and
even one (De Confess. Malef ., membr. ii, concl. 6, v. Tertio, p. 258, iPrimum,
p. 268) . All parties cite the
can. In fidei fawrem of Alexander IV, which is
the crucial text on the subject. In favor of the faith, it allows in heresy
trials the testimony of excommunicates and associates in the absence of
other proof, "si ex verisimilibus conjecturis et ex numero testium aut per-
sonarum (tarn deponentium quam eorum contra quos deponitur) qualitate
ac circumstantiis sic testificantes falsa non dicere praesumantur"
aliis
in Sexto, lib. V) . One side alleges this to prove that the evidence
(c. 5, tit. ii
of accomplices and infamous persons is to be received, while Laymann
assumes that it requires a number and tliat their evidence requires support.
Cologne one of the same year because he dedicates it to his city's council
as a New Year's gift) uses such phrasing as to its additions to Laymann's
work as might cover almost any corruption. He finds, too, in the city
library of Mainz another copy of this book, with imprint of the same year,
whose title-page calls it a "Posterior et Correctior Editio" and which
omits the name of La.yrnfl.im from both title-page and dedication, though
it too calls itself a New Year's gift and dates its dedication on 1 Jan.
1629. Buhr has noticed, too, as perhaps did Mr. Lea, that the entire
text of this Processus Juridicus is reprinted word for word in a book
published early in the next year at Rinteln on the Weser by a jurist
of that town's university, Hermann Goehausen, whose title, Processus
Juridicus contra Sagas et Veneficos, das ist EecMLicher Process etc., is the
,
same as that of the Aschaffenburg tractate (or, rather, its Cologne reprint's,
which leaves off the words "Tractatus novus"). To this German text
Goehausen adds, however, at the end of each "Titulus," "Notae" and
"Conclusions" in Latin and appends to the whole, with a separate title-
7
bookseller Heberle at Cologne as No. 629 of his Cat. 74) and their editor, ;
Written after 1626, see below. Grasse, p. 32, gives this as issued without
date or place. Reprinted in Reiche's Unterschiedliche Schrifften von
Unfug des Hexen-Processes (Halle, 1703), to which the following page
references refer.
you ask why her ointment and fork are always found and are
burnt with her, the answer is that she prepares the ointment
as he instructs her, mostly out of somniferous herbs, and
smears herself and her broom or fork, falls into deep sleep
and dreams that she flies hither and thither with others, some
of whom she knows, eats, drinks, talks, jests, dances, has
sexual intercourse and admits it when tortured. This we
know by experience and may know it every day. Yet the
writer is amply credulous he tells the story from the Mall.
Malef. of the woodcutter near Strassburg attacked by three
cats whom he wounded and drove off; that same hour in the
city three ladies of quality were wounded in their houses by
the woodman, the explanation being that the devil in the
shape of the woodman had wounded the ladies. Also two
nobles in the court of Maximilian of whom one had sworn
the other's death. The latter was found stabbed to death
in his bed, at the head of which was hanging the bloody
sword of the other in its sheath. Accused of the murder, he
proved that he had not been out of his house that night, but
he said he had dreamed that he killed his enemy. The
explanation is that none other but the devil did it. It is
against all reason and nature that a grown person can slip
through a smoke-hole so narrow that it will scarce admit a
fist. But you say that witches are seen and recognized in
the dance; the answer is that no living being is seen, but
spectres through which many innocent people are put to death.
At L., in Westphalia, many witches were burnt to no benefit,
for they only increased. A daring fellow went to the place
of the Sabbat and noted the women seen there, among whom
was the wife of the judge. The judge desired to see for him-
self and arranged to go with him on a certain night. He
invited some guests, left them at the table with his wife,
hurried to the Sabbat, saw her there, came back, found her
with his friends, who assured him that she had not been
absent. After putting to death so many witches he learned
that it was all a deceit of the devil. Two other stories in
which the demon personates persons to get them condemned
so it happens that an innocent woman who is at home is
seen in her neighbor's stable milking the cows. Ib., pp. 12-16.
As to incubi and succubi, he holds it to be illusion. But he
goes on to tell stories how the devil animates dead bodies,
taken from the gallows, and he may do so to satisfy the lust
of those who want it. That pregnancy can occur in that
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 693
stand, sit, nor lie down. In some there are deep pits with
cells in which the prisoners are put and abandoned. Ib.,
p. 29.
In such places they are often kept so long that those who
enter strong and intelligent become weakened in mind and
body and half insane. Then the devil brings them such
frightful visions and fancies that in despair or insanity they
take their own lives. Or he seduces them by promises tp
release them, so that those who had never done so now give
themselves to him. Who can tell all the miseries of such
imprisonment? ye unjust judges! God sees and hears all
this and records it and to him will ye answer for thus driving
his creatures into hell. (This is a long and earnest adjura-
tion, which I condense. H. C. L.) Ib., pp. 30-1.
Then follows an equally eloquent address on the abuse of
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 695
pleasure) who will not any torture confess what you want
for
as to themselves and others, you turn to the devil and his
arts to rob them of their senses; the executioner gives them
a draught or puts on them prepared clothes, so that they
become senseless and assent to all that you wish. Again, they
shave and singe with a torch the hair, not only of the head
and armpits but of the secrets, as if the devil lay in the hair
and they would expel him. This is not human but devilish
a gross and shameful sorcery. Thus you judges are sorcerers
greater and surer sorcerers and more justly to be tortured
than those whom you torture. Ib., pp. 32-3.
Again, it is not a small piece of cruel tyranny and haste to
shed blood that before the prisoners are brought from the
prison to the court you definitely and irrevocably condemn
them and only allow them to hear the simple sentence, with-
out seeing whether they will revoke, wholly or partly, the
confession wrung by torture or have anything to allege in
their favor. Whether found guilty by confession or other-
wise, each article should be read to them and they be allowed
to answer in person or through another. Through open
accusation and answer guilt or innocence is best discovered.
It was thus the Jews and the heathen and the ancient Chris-
tians rendered judgment, and thus the civil and military
authorities proceed, so that no one can accuse them of injus-
tice. Ib., pp. 33-4
He then proceeds to prove that witches are not to be put
to death. He argues away the text Exod. xxii, because it
speaks of Zauberin and not of Hexe. The witch rides on
brooms, etc., to drink, eat and for Buhlschaft there was
nothing of this in the time of Moses; besides, the law fell into
desuetude among the Hebrews. Unless she commits murder
696 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
she should only be banished, if she will not repent and reform.
Paul did not wish the death of Elymas the sorcerer (Acts
xiii, 8-11) nor Peter of Simon Magus. Why do not the judges
put to death adulterers, false witnesses, diviners, crystal-
gazers, observers of days, sabbath-breakers, etc., who are
condemned by God? It follows that witches should not be
put to death, against whom there is no special command of
God. On the other hand, he gives long argument against the
hanging of thieves (not prescribed in Scripture) especially
as the judges keep the theft and do not restore it to the
owner and the corpse is often left hanging to be devoured
by birds until it drops. The law of man thus replaces the
law of God, and it is irrational to quote it against witches.
If you ask whether witches are to be left undisturbed in their
sinful ways, I answer no but they should be converted and
;
if they are too credulous, if they deny defence and the like,
say it is crimen exceptum. In excepted crimes that is not licit
which is contrary to right reason. -Ib., dub. v.
Do the German Princes do right in proceeding severely
against witches? The reasons alleged are; (1) They say they
purge the Republic of a great pest which creeps like a cancer
and spreads infection. (2) They prevent the losses and
slaughter which these slaves of the devil work without cessa-
tion. (3) They satisfy their duty. (4) They show their
zeal, according to Scripture "Nemaleficos viverepatiantur."
Ib., dub. vi.
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 699
they do not, they celebrate with closed doors lest the people
defame them. (4) Prosecutions are mostly against women,
who are often crazy, light, garrulous, inconstant, tricky,
mendacious and perjured, or, if really guilty, are taught by
their Master all wickedness. Peculiar care is requisite in
their examination if a thousand errors are to be avoided.
(5) I am
told that in some places the judges or inquisitors
appointed for these cases are paid by so much a head four
or five dollars. A
most perilous thing, for we are not all saints.
(6) If an error is committed, its correction is most difficult.
undertake the work which Del Rio and Tanner and many
learned and religious men to-day think necessary. (6) In
preparing such a law not only jurists but theologians and
physicians should be called in goes on with details as to
perfecting it. (7) Many believe that the impunity accorded
to judges is a great cause of their lax consciences. Princes
should keep close watch on them and make them responsible
to those whom they abuse, as for instance in torturing on
insufficient evidence. It lately happened that two nobles
they are urged to this by the executioners, who fear the escape
of their prey through revocation. The confessor is to main-
tain absolute silence as to what the penitent says, both in
and out of the sacrament. He may cause him another tor-
ture or precipitate his death. Irregularity is to be dreaded.
Many judges seek hints from confessors. I recently heard a
judge boast that he had never condemned to death any one
1
For explanation of this phrase see Inquisition of Spain, III, p. 93.
712 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
she would not have been tortured; she did not confess, there-
fore she was punished without being convicted. If it is said
that the judge tortured, not to ascertain the truth but to
confirm it, I answer that the law knows nothing of this; all
716 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
they say she has the charm of taciturnity; if she twists her
face, they call it laughing; if she faints, she is sleeping; all is
an evidence of greater guilt, to be punished by burning alive
which has recently been done to some who would not speak.
(27) Then the confessors say that she died obstinate and
impenitent that she would not desert her incubus, but kept
;
faith with him. (28) If she dies from the effect of torture,
they say the demon broke her neck, which they prove by an
irrefragable argument. (29) Wherefore the executioner bur-
ies the corpse under the gallows. (30) If she does not die
and a scrupulous judge will not torture her without further
proofs nor burn her unconfessed, she is kept in prison heavily
chained to macerate until she yields, if it takes a year. (31)
She cannot ever purge herself with torture and clear the accu-
sation as the laws prescribe. It is a disgrace to the inquisitors
to acquit after arrest; she must be guilty per /as et nefas,
when once she has been imprisoned. (32.) Meanwhile unskil-
ful and violent priests, more importunate than the torturers
themselves, are employed, whose duty it is to distract her in
every way until she confesses, whether guilty or innocent;
they tell her that she cannot otherwise be saved or have the
sacraments. (33) The utmost care is taken not to admit
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 725
learned and sedate priests nor any one who can be advocate
for tier or instruct the princes. Nothing is more dreaded than
that something be brought to light to prove her innocence.
Such persons are openly stigmatized as disturbers of justice.
(34) While she is thus kept in prison and molested, there are
not lacking most beautiful inventions by which not only new
indicia are discovered, but such as convict her to her face,
so that by the judgment of the doctors of the Universities
she is at least to be burnt alive. (35) Some, of abundant
caution, have her exorcised, transferred elsewhere and tor-
tured again, to overcome the maleficium taciturnitdtis; if this
fails, they bum her alive. How then can the innocent escape?
Then why not at first confess? Foolish and crazy woman,
why do you wish to die so often, when you can die once? Take
my advice and before these pains call yourself guilty and
die. You cannot escape, for this is the final result of German
zeal. (36) When once she has confessed, the misery is inde-
scribable; for there is no way in which she can avoid making
others guilty whom she does not even know when frequently
the examiners suggest names to her for accusation, and thus
the matter must spread to infinity. (37) Wherefore the
judges must abandon these proceedings or burn their own
people and finally themselves, for false accusations include
everybody and, if followed by torture, all are guilty. (38)
Thus at last those are involved who at first clamored most
loudly to light the fires, and this by the just judgment of
God, for by their pestilent tongues they created witches and
condemned to the flames so many innocent. (39) But now
many more prudent and learned men begin to perceive this,
as opening their eyes after heavy sleep, and proceed more
slowly and cautiously. (40) Judges need not deny that they
torture on mere denunciations; for common fame, usually
conjoined with denunciations, is null and invalid since it is
never legitimately proved, and as for the stigmata I wonder
the wise have not yet remarked that they are mostly deceits
of the torturers. (41) Denunciations become known, when
those denounced have this dilemma to fly or to stay. If
they fly, it is a strong proof of guilt; if they stay, it is the
same, for the demon detains them, as I have often heard
said. (42) Or if one goes to the judge and asks whether
what he hears be true, so that he may prepare defence, this
also is a proof that his conscience is disturbed by his crime.
(43) Whatever he does he incurs common fame, which in a
726 ime DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
[Father Duhr, who in his revision of DieFs Life of Spee (Duhr thinks it
better written "Spe"), in his Die Stellung der Jesuiten in den deutschen
Hexenprozessen, in his articles in the Jahrbuch der Gorres-Gesellschaft (1900,
1905), and in his Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Landern deutscher Zunge,
has greatly enlarged and corrected our knowledge of Spee's career, makes
it likely that his experience with the witch-trials was
gained more largely
in Wesphalia than in Franconia and shows how
deep and fierce was the
controversy over them in the Jesuit order itself, so that even fellow Jesuits
sought to put his book upon the Index. In two different libraries at Munich
he has found copies of the Cautio Criminalis in which at end are two extra
printed pages "de Auctore hujus Commentarii" in which a friend confesses
to the pious theft of the manuscript and the
sending of it "ad Visurgim"
(to the Weser, i. e. to Rinteln) for printing.
That Father Spee suffered more for his defense of the witches than the
premature graying of his hair is suggested by a book unknown to Mr. Lea
and unused by Spec's biographers a book so rare that its
only surviving
ITS PROMOTEES AND CRITICS 727
copy may be that in the White library at Cornell, yet so important to this
history that it should here find brief description. TMs book, printed at
Cologne in 1634 at the author's expense, calls itself Eine amsfuhrliche Instruc-
tion wie in Inquisition Sachen des grewlichen Lasters der Zauberei . . .
zu procediren, and its author was Heinrich von Schultheis, J. U. D., an old
Rhineland judge and investigator in witch cases. His volume, a small
quarto of more than 500 pp., is as pious as it is gruesome. The title-page
is backed by his portrait, beneath which is the
prayer "Clementissime Jesu,
ilium ina intellectum meum"; and this prayer captions every page of Ms
text. Dedicating it to the Prince-Archbishops of Mainz and Cologne, whose
lifelong servant, he says, he has been (first in the Eiehsfeld for many years,
then at Cologne for several, and now in Westphalia for nearly twenty),
and to the Bishop of Bamberg and Wurzburg and the Bishop of Osnabruck,
Minden, and Verden, who have honored him with tokens of esteem, he
pleads with these prelates for the extirpation of the witches despite the
witch-defenders who now, he says, play the serpent in Eden. Wherefore
he has printed this "Instruction how, without danger to the innocent, to
proceed against witchcraft," giving his work the form of a "friendly dia-
logue" between a Freiherr now alive to his duty of dealing with the witches
in his dominions and a learned Doctor (of course Schultheis himself) who
explains to him the needed procedure. There are brought also into the
dialogue the accused themselves, whose examinationstheir denials and
evasions, their very shrieks under the torture are reproduced in full.
The book is equipped with an approbation from the local representative of
the Holy Inquisition and with another from Peter Ostermann, "Dictator
of the College of Law at Cologne" and now "Aulic Councilor of the Arch-
bishop and Prince-Elector of Mainz/' whose own treatise on the witch-
mark is by Mr. Lea below (p. 889). Yet Schultheis writes largely
discussed
in self-defense. Bitterly he complains of the charges against his own con-
duct of witch-cases and he goes into much detail in their refutation. And
when the Freiherr tells him (p. 365) how on a recent visit to Paderborn,
where the procedure against the witches came up for discussion, his hosts
had made a great to do about a book being written by men of distinction
and dignity, of great wisdom and exceptional piety, concerning the trials
against the witches a book at this time necessary to the Magistrates of Germany
(these words, "de processibus contra sagas liber ad Magistratus Germaniae
hoc tempore necessarius" are borrowed bodily from the title of Spee's book,
which must therefore be in Schultheis' hands) and how it was likewise
boasted to him that Father Tanner, the theologian, taught publicly that the
accusations of accomplices were not a sufficient ground for using torture
the Doctor's reply is full of significance. "Gracious Sir, of the strange
and far-reaching things said openly at Paderborn, and even before the
students in the schools, about the inquisitors busied in Germany with the
outrooting of the witches I have heard much, and about the runaway priest
who on account of witchcraft was held in prison (not under me, to be sure,
but under another Commissioner), and who escaped out of the prison and
was staying at Paderborn of the horrible abuse he poured out regarding
the inquisitors and regarding the authorities high and low who were pro-
ceeding against the witches, as likewise of the booklet which is said to be
in preparation. But with these we will not interrupt our discourse." Nor
728 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
that he spells the name Schultz and misdates the book 1643 shows that all
his knowledge comes from Hauber (Bibl. Magica, iii, pp. 505-7), who like-
wise knows it only at second hand through the almost as rare Drachen-Konig
of Heinrich Rimphof (Rinteln, 1647) and, though he tries to quote
the
passage dealing with Spee, misunderstands it. Rimphof, who was Pastor
Primarius of the Cathedral at Verden under the Danish administration
and Superintendent of the duchy's churches for the Swedes, was a bitter
already been quoted must be given in the writer's own
a But what has words
(Schultheis, pp. 365 ff.) :
'
N 9 Y., 1931, pp. 335-359.) Beside the one printed copy surviving at Loher's
birthplace, Munster-Eifel, there is in the White library at Cornell a MS.
copy of this.Of the pictures which Loher has added to his book to show
the cruelty of the tortures reproductions may be found in Duhr's Geschichte
der Jesuiten in den Ldndern dewtscher Zunge (1922-8). BJ
Does this mean that the pastors took part in the trials?
led to prison^ you met me and said you would never have
believed it of me. I beg forgiveness, but if I were tortured
again I would accuse you again." She was replaced on the
trestle, repeated the accusation, and the Biirgerin was prose-
cuted. Ib., p. 470.
It often happens that at the last moment the convict desires
to withdraw accusations against the innocent and unburden
her soul of the false-witness to the confessor, but with the
condition of silence; for, if he reports the revocation to the
]udge 9 she will infallibly be tortured again. The confessor
replies that she must relieve the accused of the accusation
or bear the guilt before God, to which she rejoins that the
torture will be insufferable. Ib., pp. 474-5.
The absence of revocations at the scaffold is explained by Spee: those
who revoke their confessions are burnt alive as Impenltents those who
persist as repentant are strangled (Cautio Grim., dub. xl). Meyfart also
says the same (p. 481).
soul a torture severer than that of the body. Ib., pp. 517-8.
In some places it is the shameful custom to begin with
torture as soon as a prisoner is brought in. No one with senses
thus violently perturbed can collect his thoughts, recall his
acts and answer the questions properly. He should be allowed
time to compose himself, the evidence should be given to
him in writing, so that he can consider the quality of the wit-
nesses and the circumstances of the acts detailed. Ib., p. 521.
He asks why the authorities can believe the absurd, contra-
dictory, incredible and impossible things related in the con-
fessions on which the accused are put to death. No Turk
ITS PBOHOTBBS AOT> CBTTICS 739
dogs and cats without injury, for physicians tell us that such
things are poisonous. Ib., p. 531.
It is impossible that dead and buried children should be
eaten and yet be found uninjured in their graves. Ib., p. 532.
He classes with the ridiculous absurdities the flying on
forks, brooms, etc.-~Ib., p. 532.
Some have confessed that they have in their houses set
before guests rats for field-hares, frogs for thrushes and the
like and they have been duly eaten as such. Ib., p. 532.
Some explain why their absence is not noticed by saying
that their flying to the Sabbat, eating and drinking there
and returning all takes place in a moment. Ib., p. 533.
While he does not venture absolutely to deny the Sabbat,
he presents a series of reasons to show its improbability.
Ib.,pp. 534r-7.
How suggestive were the questions put by the executioner
is shown in the fact that (I suppose in Coburg H. C. L.)
nobody had heard of a second baptism by Satan and no one
knew anything about the mass; but, after an executioner from
elsewhere had been called in, the confessions became full of
second baptisms and of sacrilegious masses celebrated in the
Sabbat. Ib., p. 539.
This serves to explain the uniformity of the stories told and also the
fact that the confessions were made public and became the subject of
common talk.
He tells of a judge who spread a report that Belial had
organized a regular camp and court of his subjects, and he
questioned his prisoners under torture about it. He also
speaks of certain theologians, jurists, physicians and philos-
ophers who accept falsities from the extorted confessions as
the so-called insensible witch-mark in which the executioner
sticks pins without their being felt. Ib., p. 540.
He alludes to the belief that witches enter through a crack
through which a gnat could scarce creep. Ib., pp. 540-1.
Yet he adds that the Christian reader will wisely under-
stand that we do not deny all Sabbats, but we show that the
Hexenmeister (judges) cannot tell anything about them. An
intelligent, honest man can say nothing plausible or clear; so
740 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
Ib., p. 559.
Eloquent adjuration to the evilly-zealous preachers not to
meddle with what they do not understand and not to get
excited over what they hear from girls washing at the foun-
tains, from drunkards in the beer-houses, from lying youths
in the play-grounds, from bloodthirsty judges in the witch-
trials, from light-headed people in the slander-gatherings.
Ib., p. 565.
He calls upon the rulers to forbid the preachers to overstep
the limits of their knowledge and conscience, to order them
to teach according to the rules of their office. It is dangerous
when the rulers are blind and the preachers see wrongly.
He tells the judges that, as they boast, they take no bribes
from the accused, but they rob the goods of the tortured and
condemned. Ib., p. 566.
The Hexenmeister are now so crafty and so inspired by
Satan that they will not accept an appointment unless they
are granted full power to act as they please, without the
knowledge of the chancellor, the councils and the colleges of
jurists. Ib., p. 567.
He also accuses them of drunkenness and, after cautioning
them as to the quality of witnesses, he adds, where are they
to get proper witnesses but then their office would yield
littleincome. Ib., p. 568.
It is evident from his appeals to confessors that in Protes-
tant lands, as in Catholic, it was customary for a pastor to
attend the condemned at the last. He warns them not to
742 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
killed by
Story of Frotho, the mythical king of Denmark,
a witch in the form of a cow who pierced with her Mm
horn.
Ib., 14.
Midwives are especial favorites of the devil and great
numbers of them go to hell on account of their murdering
infants either before or at birth, sticking needles in the brains.
We could bring as examples many midwives burnt here within
a few years, but it suffices to quote the Malleus as to two of
Basel, one of whom destroyed four
hundred infants and the
other a countless number. And in the last century a Count
who had killed one hundred
of Upper Germany burnt eight
and forty. Ib., 16.
He says Ms hair stands on end as he relates from the cele-
brated Dannhauerus how in 1650 an old serving-woman
named Maria Sprawelin gave to a noble and pious child
ten years old a poisoned nut received from her hellish Buhler.
The girl ate only a small piece and threw the rest away, but
suffered tortures. Then there was Anna Hafnerin, who bore
three sons to Satan. Ib., 17.
The devil receives no one into his society without an oath
of allegiance and compact. Pact is either express or tacit.
In express pact the witch renounces, by word or writing, God,
Christ and the Holy Ghost. This may be done publicly or
publicly with great solemnity in the Sabbat,
like
privately
a king on his throne privately, with the oath of allegiance, but
without solemnity. Tacit pact is a simple promise to serve
the devil, but without renouncing Christ. The devil brands
his subjects with a mark, so that they shall observe their
oath. Ib., 18.
Some say that the devil marks only those who he fears
but it
will leave his service, seems to me more
probable that
there are no exceptions. These marks are insensible and
bloodless when a needle is thrust in deeply. Petrus Gregorius
in Ms Syntagma Juris, lib. xxxiv, c. 21, relates that in Toulouse
in 1577 more than four hundred witches were burnt or other-
wise executed and that every one bore a mark. Ib., 19.
Gohausen, he says, instances a girl of nine entering into
pact; and Carpzov a woman named Cogelmarsche who
did it
at eighty-six. Ib., 20.
Thewritten compact is signed by both parties. Ib., 21.
Details as to these writings. Conditions on both sides are
set forth what the devil is to do for the witch, while the
ITS PROMOTERS AND CRITICS 751
The great authority of Damhouder was thrown upon the side of extending
the belief in the reality and atrocity of sorcery and witchcraft, not only as
a magistrate of Bruges, but hi his Praxis Rerum Criminalium, which for
more than half a century was a leading manual of criminal jurisprudence.
First in his list of capital crimes stands that of laesa Majestas divina,
which he declares to be the greatest of all crimes (c. 61, n. 1). Conspicuous
among these (heresy, blasphemy, etc.) comes sorcery.
"
Sortilegium est quaedam superstitio illusoria et summe
noxia, qua utitur homo Daemonis ministerio. Et . . .
the demon was more powerful than God and the whole Chris-
tian faith would be ruined. Ib., n. 127.
Dilates at much length on the omnipotence of God and
that whatever sorcerers do with the help of demons is solely
bj God's permission, as asserted by all the doctors. Ib.,
nn. 128-32 (pp. 140-1).
Sorceresses who have pact with demons receive from them,
certain notes and symbolical signs by which the demons are
summoned and appear. But in these operations there is
nothing more efficacious than the foolish credulity of the
women, for the firmer the faith they have in them, the speedier
the results they obtain, and when they are excited to fury the
demons fly to serve them. Thus Plato says the Bacchantes
when maddened extract honey and milk from rivers, which
they cannot do when in their senses; and similarly we have
found that sorceresses, in the time of their furies, can extract
butter by agitating the water of wells and rivers, which at
other times they cannot do. So, when burning with hate for
any one, they can destroy him or damage Ms cattle, fields,
vineyards and harvests, while another, who is not bound by
pact to the demons, can very rarely effect this, even if he has
the materials and knows the methods, for the demons do not
count Mm among their familiars and initiates. Ib., n. 136
(p. 141).
How much wrought everywhere by tMs most perni-
evil is
cious sect is known of all men. These most pernicious men,
full of lies and superstitions, do more harm than the good
can offset with their piety and prayers. Unless God prevents
they injure the Christian Republic more than the others
benefit it. Therefore they are nowhere to be tolerated, but
are rather to be completely removed, as God has commanded,
Exod. xxii, and Deut. xii, "Maleficos non patieris vivere."
Ib., nn. 136-7 (p. 142).
They circulate booksfilled with foulness, impiety and men-
But you must bear in mind that all the limited power of
sorceresses conceded by God, so that when he permits they
is
can harm, but without his permission they can do nothing.
Those who desire further knowledge I refer to Paulus Gril-
landus, Troilus Malvetius, Martinus de Aries ("in suo insigni
et exquisitissimo tractatu de superstitionibus"), Johannes
Franciscus, the Malleus Maleficarum and Johannes Tritten-
hemius in his Lib. 8 Quaestionum, whose authority is by all
accepted as law, although it is no way confirmed by law. -
Ib., n. 143 (p. 143).
[
'Utrum Venefici, id quod volunt et cupiunt, etiam efEcere
et praestare possint?' ] As to this there are different opinions.
7
limbs in the pot; they were arrested and under torture con-
fessed that, if they had been allowed to proceed, they would
have caused so intense a frost that all the fruits of the earth
would have perished. Ib., n. 30.
Godelmann's lib. i, c. devoted to the cure of magic
8, is
diseases. He quotes Paracelsus, who asserts as an aphorism
that it makes no difference whether God or the devil, whether
that
angels or demons, bring help to the sick, provided only
the disease is cured. Supernatural diseases have no natural
cure; only magic remedies suffice and,
whatever the theo-
may say, these are not contrary to God, because we
logians
use them for the benefit and not the destruction of man. All
physicians should be familiar with
them. They are not
Galen or Avicenna, nor is this art to be learned in
taught by
the schools, so the physician must seek the witches, the
gypsies, the peasants, who
know more about these things
than all the professors of the schools. Ib., nn. 11-15 (p. 81).
His method of cure is for the physician to make a waxen
image of the part affected or of the whole body of the patient
and with strong imagination believe that it will cure him and
WITCHCRAFT AS VIEWED BY THE SECULAJi LAW 769
foris vei existere vel fieri putentur, quae tamen revera nee
sunt nee fiunt nee saepe in renim natura existunt. Ea est
? ?
Thus the Lamia is simply one who frequents the Sabbat, the existence
of which he denies, and does no one harm, her compact with the ^devfl
the injuries
being an illusory device of the demon. The Sabbat
is illusory-
to men and beasts are positive facte and lie really is arguing only in
accordance with the CaroMna. But how many were there who did not
in their confessions combine with the Sabbat tee raising of tempests and
injury to their neighbors? So long as he admitted the power of the Vemfica
Ms argument for the Lamia was practically of no moment.
of Ms
position of denying that Lamiae and Maleficae are
responsible for tempests and endeavors to argue it away.
"
Verum est, scripsi Veneficas posse tempest at es et grandines
segetibus ac vineis perniciosas excitare, sed addidi: Diabolo
revera expediente ea quae moliuntur," for, when God gives
the devil power to send hail, then he instructs the Maleficae
sometimes to throw pebbles behind them to the west, some-
times to cast the sand of a torrent into the air, frequently to
dip brooms into water and scatter it towards the sky, or dig
a small hole and fill it with urine or water and stir it with a
finger also to boil hogs' bristles or to place sticks across the
;
77
the stake as soon as any woman, however respectable, is
accused of incantations and veneficia. After the disputation
u de Veueficis et held in 1584 in the University
Magis, Lamiis,"
of Rostock, many of Ms hearers and distant German cities
asked him to write out the ordinary process which can be
safely followed in this intricate matter.Therefore, after Ms
return from Livonia and Poland, he has collected some things
from the laws and the Carolina and offers the result for
consideration.
shows the influence that Bodin exercised that Godelmann
It
directsMs first attack against Bodin's dictum (De Magor.
"
Daemonomania, lib. iv, c. 3, pp. 347-8) In causis vero crim-
inalibus ac in primis in veneficii et sortilegii crimine, ordinari-
am accusationis viam teneri non oportere, sed potius veri-
tatem quibuscunque modis indagandam esse." Ib., lib. iii,
c. 1, n. 19.
Chap.1 of this lib. iii is devoted to proving that these
offences are to be tried in the regular way. The Carolina,
wMch is the law of Germany, makes no exception of them,
and he ends by quoting c. 83, wMch he renders: "Volumus ut
in omnibus causis criminalibus, Judices et Scabini (Schoppen)
constitutions has semper prae oculis habeant, litigantesque
ex iis, ubi petierint instruant, ne ignorantia harum in peri-
culum aliquod incidant."
The Carolina provides for prosecutions both by the accusa-
torial process and by the judge officially (inquisitorial).
Description of the accusatorial process. Ib., c. 2.
Describes the inquisitorial process in the ordinary way.
When he treats of the indicia justifying arrest it is surprising
to find that he considers being daughter of a veneUca to be
almost certain, "Si enim Saga est mater, est etiam filia, juxta
proverbium Germanicum, Das Bier schmecket nach dem Pass.
Nam quod in causa impudicitiae dicitur filiam esse matri
persimilem, non semper vemm est, de Magis vero omnibus
fere certissima est regula," for there is no sacrifice so desired
by the devil as that parents should devote their new-born
children to him. Ib., c. 3, n. 16.
At the same time he rejects taciturnity and the witch-mark
as frivolous and absurd, and he blames the ignorant and
sanguinary judges who investigate them with the turning of
WITCHCRAFT AS VIEWED BY THE SECULAR LAW 777
judge has nothing to do with one who confesses except to condemn him,
this does not hold in these cases. For the opinion is (I suppose the ruling
opinion) that a witch vexed by the devil who repents and is in the way of
salvation should be held in prison, taught and corrected with moderate
salutary punishment. But if there is no sign of repentance, she is to be
sent to the stake. One who confesses and repents before she is accused
isnot to be prosecuted unless the homicides she confesses are real and also
that there is no fraud in that she foresees that she cannot escape prosecu-
tion for her acts. This is an unexpected concession of Bodin's.
evening the said N. stood before N.'s door among his cattle
and threw sand crosswise over them.
5. Whether it is not true that the said N. poisoned with
782 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
bosom.
7. Whether it is not reputed that X. the accused, through
the sorcery which she placed under the doorsill of her neigh-
bor N., bewitched the daughter of N., so that she died.
8. Whether it is not true that Junker N., the
son of N., for
a time was imprisoned on account of disobedience.
9. Whether it is not true that she was heard to
threaten
that such evil would befall the Junker as would give his old
torture he who can endure lies and he who cannot endure lies
the one to hide his guilt and the other to satisfy his tor-
mentors. "And what are we to think of those whom we call
Lamiae who confess to what never existed in nature?" Ib.,
c. 10, nn. 3-4.
He gives the customary warnings that the proofs justifying
torture must be clear and sufficient, and where there is doubt
the judge should consult experts. Quotes for all this Caro-
lina 6, 7, 20. Confession extorted by torture without legiti-
mate indicia is invalid. Judges who hasten to torture without
them are punishable. As to what these are he quotes Carolina
25, 44 and 31, and proceeds to discuss (1) flight; (2) threats;
(3) consorting with magi; (4) extrajudicial confession, though
Bodin improperly says (iv, c. 4, p. 366), "Confessionem extra-
judicialem in aliis criminibus sufficere ad quaestionem, in hoc
ad condemnationem" (true to his disbelief in witches, Godel-
;
Observe that in this he omits the various trifling things which the more
rigid authors deem sufficient for torture, They may be found in Bodin,
lib. iv, c. 4.
All very well and very humane, but to what does it amount? How many
were there of those who confessed to his impossibilities that is to the
Sabbat who were not also compelled under torture to confess to some
injury inflicted on person or property? Even had he succeeded in obtaining
the adoption of his views, the saving of life would have been imperceptible.
Still it was something in those days, however illogical the attempt, to deny
the higher absurdities of the current delusions, and it required some inde-
pendence to proclaim his disbelief, but of course his influence was trivial.
He admitted too much and his opponents could reasonably ask what
reason he could allege for drawing the line where he did between the possible
and the impossible.
ZANGEE, JOHANN. -
Tractates duo: De Exceptionibus et
Quaestionibus sen Torturis Reorum. Francofurt ad M., 1730.
Zanger was a Protestant and wrote his work in 1592 at Wittenberg,
where he was professor of law. The inquisitorial process employed in
excepted crimes, as summarized by him, differed from that of the Inquisi-
tion only in the fact that the witnesses were not concealed from the accused,
that the charges were made known to him and that an advocate was denied
when the evidence was conclusive. I copy it, omitting the innumerable
references to authorities.
ingly from Bodin and Binsfeld what are indicia for sorcery
and witchcraft which are rather proofs, for he says, "cum in
hisce causis probationes esse debeant luce meridiana clariores"
(n. 199). Thus, if she is found in possession of "venena mala
aut sortilegia seu magicae superstitiones," as a jar filled with
magic ointments, or a book of magic or other instruments,
if she has buried poisons under the threshold of a stable and
or a signed compact
pierced with needles, or a dead infant,
with the devil, or if she is seen to touch an enemy and he
fails dead or is attacked with elephantiasis, twisting of limbs,
invokes a demon
apoplexy or sudden disease. Also if a witch
and speaks with him and he replies though invisible, -or if
she disappears from her bed while the doors are closed and
afterwards returns to it, or if she performs wonders with her
eyes, bewitching harvests and cattle,
or flies in the air all
these are evident proofs of magic (all these are borrowed from
Bodin. H. C. L.). So if a woman standing in water throws
water backwards in the air or gives drink to an animal which
is subsequently found dead, it is regarded as an evident
indicium of sorcery (Binsfeld). See also Carolina, c. 44
itidem fama
(which I have H. C. L.), which says, "quern
vulgi pro mago et qui magia delectetur eique adhaerescat,
ferat" 200), from which it is manifest
coEaudet, excusat, (n.
that, although these indicia may seem evident and permanent,
they are in no way indicia for torture unless there
is fama
as is specified fully in the case (if it were not true) and, though
the assertions of an accomplice do not make indicium for
torture, yet in this crime there is not required the presump-
a
tion necessary in others, sed sufficit qualisqualis (any kind
17
of) suspicio. It may be said in this case that the assertion
of a single accomplice would suffice for torture. It is certain
that in the heresy of witches and the like the accused can
and ought to be examined as to accomplices, and inculpation
by one suffices for torture. So in this case the number and
character of the depositions make full proof. Ib., nn. 29-33.
For all this, at every point, he cites abundant authorities.
Thus, when a witch was once sentenced to torture, her fate was sealed. If
she confessed, she was burnt; if she did not, it was conclusive proof of guilt.
Thus the folly underlying the torture theory is carried to the nth power.
tion, yet they commonly admit that, if torture has been insuf-
ficient, it may be repeated and, if we consider the custom of
some judges, they repeat it indifferently without new indicia.
Some authorities hold that, when the indicia are very urgent,
torture can be repeated, and, however this may be, the judge
in the present case cannot err in repeating the torture, for
the witches seem not to have been sufficiently tortured and
the indicia were very vehement. In fact in the torture there
came a new indicium, that they could not weep under it, a
matter he could not know in advance. There is to be con-
sidered, however, that there may be in the second torture the
same taciturnity, wherefore he should in advance use the
methods prescribed in the Malleus, which says he should
send discreet persons to them to teach them and dispose
them to tell the truth and to escape the torment, promising
them, if they repent, they shall not be put to death but have
a lighter penalty and urging upon them the squalor of the
prison. If this fails, they should be kindly treated and, before
torturing them, women should make them change all their
798 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
But this does not apply when obedience would injure Mm, for
this would be to impede the defence (pp. 245-6).
The sixth indicium, drawn from accomplices, is of no impor-
tance. It is clearly the law that the confession or assertion
of accomplices is not an indicium ad torturam. The accom-
plice does not say that the accused is a sorcerer or has com-
mitted sorcery j but that he saw him at night on the Blocks-
berg "quod testimonium propter impossibilitatem falsum est"
(p. 246).
The seventh indicium, from, the testimony of the seventh
witness, that the accused asked him to consult a sorcerer,
has no force, for many reasons. The witness is singular and
is a woman and thus of little weight (pp. 246-7).
Theeighth indicium, that the accused purchased poison,
prepared it and kept it with him, makes indeed a presumption
for torture but is insufficient firstly because it is an indicium
, ?
crimes; but the inquisitor here himself admits that this evi-
dence was given outside of torture. Moreover, the accused
is freefrom all presumption when the accomplice names him
without being interrogated, and this even in excepted crimes.
But here the inquisitor admits that the accomplice named
him spontaneously, without any preceding question. Besides,
the evidence is worthless unless given under oath, and here
the Acta show that the accomplice was not sworn. Besides
here there can be no accomplice, since no crime has been
committed. From this and from all the foregoing it clearly
accused
appears that nothing has been proved against the
for which he can be tortured (pp. 248-51).
This long and labored and somewhat contradictory argument shows how
evidence of accomplices.
important and intricate was the question as to the
The reference to Laymann shows that this must have been written later
than 1625.
1
Yisurgim, 1630.
TMs work shows the influence commencing to check the
widespread slaughter. In his preliminary remarks, he quotes
Father Tanner with approbation and earnestly cautions
judges not to commence prosecutions except under urgent
necessity, for we see how, when once begun, they multiply
until there is no end to them. If among ten or twenty guilty
there is a single innocent, they should abstain; or, if once begun,
they should finish as quickly as possible, for when the matter
is dragged out through years it hangs over the whole com-
and the title-page of the present work makes Wm only its "editor and reviser"
(edidit et recensuit). But his Latin notae and condusiones attached, chapter by
chapter, to this German text, and his Detisiones appended, with distinct title-page,
make much the larger part of the volume; and it is on these alone that what Mr. Lea
says of Goehausen is based. But, as was also pointed out above, this German Proces-
8U8 juridicits was not Laymann 's; and, though it is now ascribed to the Bonn pastor
Jordanaeus, writing at the behest of the Prince-Archbishop, it is by no means impos-
sible that Goehausen may have had a hand in it. His book is dedicated to bis maternal
uncle, Georg Heystermann, then "Gaugraf and Provincial Judge in the Diocese
of Paderborrt"; the Prince-Archbishop of Cologne was then also Bishop of Pader-
born, where witch-persecution was raging. Goehausen's preliminary matter and
hiawhole handling of his German text seems to imply a closer relation thaa that of
an editor. B.
812 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
What was wanted was speedy conviction, without taking too much
trouble to avoid injustice.
He
proceeds to cite a number of decrees, from the Carolina
of 1532 to one of the Elector of Saxony in 1612, to prove
that this is the law of the Electorate. Ib., nn. 44-51 (pp.
24-5).
"IJnde porro et hoc sequitur, judicem non modo deficiente
accusatore inquirere posse, sed et hoc facere rations niuneris
sui obstrictum esse adeo ut negHgens inquirere ipsemet
?
(p. 97).
'
'Praeterea aliter procedendum est in delictis occultis quam
minora indicia sufficient ad deeemendam
in publicis, et sic
capturam quando agitur de crimine occulto quam de pub-
lico." Ib., n. 26 (p. 98).
VOL. n 52
SIS THE BBLrSION AT ITS HEIGHT
such case the judge can render such a sentence. Ib., nn. 56-
61 (p. 101).
Imprisonment as a punishment is constantly inflicted (I pre-
sume for specified terms H. C. L.). Ib., n, 64 (p. 101).
He quotes as in force the Carolina, c. 11, that accomplices
are to be imprisoned separately, so as to prevent collusion in
confessions. Ib,, n. 65 (p. 101).
Xo one is to be condemned unheard, nor can any penalty
be imposed until guilt is established either by confession or
certain proof. Ib., q. cxiii, nn. 7-9 (p. 121).
The articles of accusation are to be clearly and concisely
drawn up and presented to the accused in the presence of
the Judge, Scabini and Notary, and he is required to answer to
each one- The articles should contain all the pertinent
details and circumstances, including time and place, so that
the accused shall not be deprived of defence. Each article
should contain a single interrogation, so as not to confuse
the accused. The same interrogation can be repeated under
different words, so as to test the truth if he varies. The judge
can use deceit and pretend that he will do what he does not
intend to do, in order to discover the truth, but he must not
terrify by threats, as in many courts of the nobles. Ib., nn.
11-41 (pp. 121-5).
are too lax they say that equity and not law is to be observed,
;
6 (p. 153).
Yet "Tiihilominus tamen, suadente necessitate, quo veritas
exquiratiir ? tormenta adhibenda sunt. EtsI enim quilibet
praesumatur innocens et sine vitio." Ib., n. 8 (p. 153).
of the wounded man near death (nn. 50-59) ; 7th, flight (nn.
60-70). These are the indicia enumerated in the Carolina,
c. which may be added lying or variation (nn. 71-6)
25, to ;
again (nn. 4-15, p. 216). But if new indicia appear after the
third torture he can be sentenced to some extraordinary
penalty relegation, prison, fines. Ib., nn. 73-5 (p. 222).
828 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
After the accused has rested from his sufferings and has
regained Ms strength he is to be brought into court to ratify
Ms confession, when "tanta itaque vis est ratificationis ut ex
confessione tormentis extort a faciat spontaneam confes-
sionem." Ib., q. cxxvi, nn. 17-20 (p. 225).
As to the length of the interval, some say a day and a
night, others three days. But the true view is to leave it to
the discretion of the judge, dependent on the severity of the
infliction, yet it should not be less than a day, nor more than
WITCHCHAFT AS VIEWED BY THE SECCLAB LAW 829
Leges Capit. Car. V, c. 194, this is, that on the way to the
place of execution the culprit is torn three or four times with
red hot pincers. TMs is used for poisoning and robbery and
not infrequently for Infanticide, when the crime has been
repeated.Ib. 3 nn. 63-5 (p. 244).
Fourth Is the wheel, when the mortal blow is reserved to
the iastj 'istudque hand pararo. aggravat et dolores atque
J
cniciatus accumulate Ib., n. 66-7 (p. 244).
[All penalties might be intensified by afflictive, but not
"
capital punishments, the most usual being scourging.] Quod
genus supplicn hodie frequentissknuni et comrnunissimum
est ac siniul grande et atrox, non solum propter graveni
quam infert infamiam . . . sed et quod maxlrnos et
ingentes dolores ac cruciatus corpori inferat." The culprit
was scourged through the streets and perpetual exile was
always a part of it, even if not specifically included in the
sentence. It can be moderated or intensified at the discretion
of the judge and care must be taken not to endanger life. It
can also be administered in the prison, especially in the case
of minors and impuberes of whom there is no hope of amend-
ment. Exile can also be prescribed without scourging.
Ib., q. cxxix, nn. 14-29 (pp. 246-7).
Oddly enough, he says, the Italian tratto di corda (strap-
pado) was used in Saxony, but not elsewhere, as a special
punishment for fish poaching under a constitution of the
Elector August, who added the alternatives of the mines or
galleys, likewise not used elsewhere. Ib., nn. 39-42 (pp.
248-9).
Carpzov argues in favor of denial of burial, urging that the
principal use of punishment is as a deterrent and that a
body left hanging or on the wheel is effective with others.
27-40 (pp. 259-60).
Ib., q. cxxxi, nn.
Arbitrary or extraordinary penalties are understood to be
scourging, amputation of hands, exile, prison, fines. Carpzov
argues, against many doctors^ that the term does not extend
to capital punishment, "quod in causis poenalibus semper
benignior et humanior facienda sit interpretation* Ib., q.
cxxxiii,nn. 10-39 (pp. 272-6).
He says the old law of confiscation is obsolete except in
majestas and that this is the case throughout the German
Empire, for which he quotes the Carolina, c. 218, 6 (which
I have elsewhere H. C. L.). The condemned criminal can
832 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
I have omitted a good many minor details which indicate how formal
and precise the whole solemnity was.
Yet all this shows that the taking of a human life was regarded as a
matter of no little import, and that it should be as impressive as possible.
WITCHCRAFT AS VIEWED BT THE SECULAR LAW 833
Thus no matter how long before the alleged offences were committed
they could always be brought up to institute a prosecution or to aggravate
one started on insufficient grounds.
as inside the lips, under the axilla, under the eyelids, etc.,
which spot, known as the devil's stigma, is said to be so
bloodless and insensible that a needle driven in deeply causes
no pain and not a drop of blood. Sometimes witches cause
themselves to be rebaptized in the name of the devil, whence
they have two names, as appears from the appended sen-
tences. Ib., n. 51 (p. 314).
If witches were to be excused because misled by the wiles
and deceits of the devil, all crimes should be pardoned, for
none are committed save by the persuasion and sometimes
even by the impulse of the devil. Ib., n. 53 (p. 314).
Witches can create mutual hatred between spouses, dry up
milk of nurses, cause abortion in women and cattle, even in a
whole herd; they can bring food and drink, etc., from the
greatest distances in the shortest time; they can open locks
and bolts they can cause rain and hail, tempests and light-
;
of witches are inserted word for word. Ib., nn. 55-7 (pp.
314-5).
He says he will not deny that witches often are at the
Sabbat only in imagination and he quotes the Malleus (P. II,
q. i, c. both ways, for when they do
3) that they attend in
not want to attend personally but wish to know what goes on
among their comrades they lie on the left side, after invoking
all the demons; then a whitish vapor issues from the mouth,
in which they see all details; if they wish to go personally,
they anoint a stool or a staff with an unguent
made from the
limbs of infants dead before baptism. Then he quotes from
that
Remy (Daemonolatreia, 1. i, c. 12, p. 82) that in order
their husbands may not detect their absence, they, by an
incantation, scratching the ear with the right hand smeared
with the ointment, throw them into a profound sleep, or else
make images in their likeness to personate them, if they
awake. Or, according to Grillandus (Tract, de Sortilegiis,
n. 39) provide succubi who will take their place, if neces-
q. 7, ,
There are some who commiserate the female sex and say
that old women are prone to melancholia and are deserving
of compassion rather than severity. But they are not all
old; there are girls of twelve or fifteen whose malice exceeds
their years, and the older they grow the worse they are and
deserving of severer punishment for their prolonged sins.
Human and divine laws make no distinction as to sex. Ib.,
nn. 51-55 (p. 323).
That the judge should not be moved to remit the pain of
fire is strengthened by the positive rule that before the corpus
delicti is established he cannot prosecute and punish the
accused. But it is certain that when there is no injury by
witches it cannot be established that there is pact or sodomy
Ib., n. 56 (p. 323).
Therefore it may be said that witchcraft is a special crime
in that the confessed culprit is condemned and punished,
although pact and sodomy are not established. He approves
the reasoning of Bodin (De Mag. Demon., lib. iv, c. 3) that
WITCHCRAFT AS VIEWED BY THE SECULtAB LAW 845
(p. 324). _ _
appearance is
minutely described and who gave him elaborate
instructions as to finding it with a candle made of blessed
wax. Ib., nn. 37-41 (pp. 329-30).
There is no doubt that the devil, through diviners, can
predict the future not that which depends on the will of
Providence, but that which depends on natural causes. Those
who thus seek his aid have tacit pact with him and are sub-
ject to capital punishment, whether their predictions prove
true or false. Ib., nn. 42-7 (pp. 330-1).
It is the same with invoking the devil to cure disease
"Neque auxilium Daemonis invocare licet etiam pro mille
corporum sanitatibus; quia minus detrimentum est quod
pereant mille corpora quam quod pereat una anima." Ib.,
n. 48 (p. 331).
Then there are the wise women, kluge Frauen, curanderas,
who have no pact nor use magic arts to injure, but supersti-
tious remedies, amulets, charms, etc., to cure disease, to dispel
fascinations, to recover lost or stolen things. To these the
Constitutio Electoralis makes no reference ; but I hold that
they are punishable with arbitrary penalties prison, exile,
or at most with scourging (nn. 49-50). The Saxon custom is
848 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
This Is the only case In which anything but EUbm are procreated.
p. 341).
1618. M. L. under torture confesses to have had for eigh-
teen or nineteen years relations with her demon. He had
visited her five times in prison. Burnt (n. 35, p. 342).
1621. A prisoner describes the mark which she says all
sorcerers have a black streak or spot on the forehead, the
eyes or other parts (n. 26, p. 339).
1622. Weissbarbara under torture confessed to have had
for twenty years relations with a demon, Juncker Hans Bas-
tian, who visited her thrice a week and often
took her to the
Blocksberg. Burnt (n. 34, p. 342).
1622. A. M. of W.
confesses that she and her sister E.
had given six groschen to "erne offentliche Zauberin" (public?
VOL. ii 54
850 THE DELTTSION AT ITS HEIGHT
In these cases, there are but two or three of men; the rest are all
all
women. Invariably there is sexual intercourse and from details it would
seem that judges were in the habit of inquiring industriously into them.
As a rule all the confessions are alike; there is little variation, showing
how thoroughly the general formula was understood among the people.
"When the demon is described, he is always a man tall or short, dark or
light as may be, usually with feathers in his hat, but he generally has one
deformed foot (either right or left) which is like an ass's hoof, or a cow's.
In one case his hands are claws; in another his left hand has long nails.
Thus there were two kinds of witch-marks the stigma and the insensible
one. The above argument shows how superfluous was the indecent search
described by Spee.
Ib., n. 8.
There are a few so hardy that they despise torture and
cannot be compelled to tell the truth. There are those who
assert that incantations can harden against torture, among
whom is Hippolito de Marsigli, who advises in such cases
7
that the prisoner's cell be changed and all his garments; the
judge must examine all food brought to him and reject what
is suspicious; bread and cakes especially must never be per-
Yet we hare seen in the witch-trials how endless repetitions were common*
nn. 8-10.
The corpse should be examined by physicians, as in any
u
other case of homicide disparitateni enini rationis hac
crudeli et horrenda judicum tempest ate et imnianitate cemere
nequeo" and at least the way should be open for the heirs
to defend the innocence of the dead. Ib., n. 11.
In excepted crimes there should be greater care and delib-
eration to avoid injustice, in place of the intemperate zeal to
convict by disregarding the forms of justice. Ib., n. 12.
Under the civil law there is appeal in criminal cases, with
suspension of execution. Formerly this was to the Imperial
Kammer-Gericht, but a Recess of 1530 withdrew it on the
plea of stress of business. This did not forbid appeal else-
where, and it is proper where justice is observed in the inferior
courts, but "ubi secus est, veluti in pluribus judiciis criminali-
bus errores errantur plurimi et maximi et apertis faucibus
inhiatur humano sanguine, tmo in locis quibusdam plane hor-
rendus et lachrymis irrigandus est justitiae status/' it would
be far more salutary if there were appeal to the Imperial
Camera. Some authorities assume that the Recess of 1530
took away all appeal in capital cases, but this is an error, for
in the dominions of the electors and dukes of Saxony and in
some other provinces there is appeal. Ib., tit. v, obs. 1,
nn. 1-7.
Goes on with a long argument to prove that the Recess
could not deprive princes of the right to establish appeals,
and the inhumanity of denying them, showing that there was
a strong tendency on the part of jurists and judges to do away
with them altogether. Ib., nn. 8-24.
There was a custom in Italy and in some parts of Germany
that when the accused, after prison and torture, was acquitted,
he had to pay a certain amount of money to the judge, as
though it were the price of absolution. This was especially
the case "quando judices inferiores vel certi conunissarii ad
quaerendas sagas sunt constituti." Also during the trial
they feast on the property of the accused women, often inno-
cent, "et quilibet de quovis capite certain suam accipit mer-
cedem." Ib., obs. 13, n. 3.
864 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
From this, and from other allusions above, it appears that special com-
missioners were appointed to prosecute witches. Under torture^ there are
administer it. Perhaps it is these
frequent references to commissioners to
commissioners that are alluded to as inquisHore^ by Brannemann.
Appendix, Proloq.
This hideous statement applies to all criminals and is probably too
moderate when we reflect on the 20,000 capital sentences ascribed to
Carpzov.
VOL. n 55
866 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
Observe how little all these apparent limitations help the accused.
each article with her own mouth and without a defender and,
if necessary to extort the truth, that she be subjected to
all fantasy and trickery by which the devil deceives poor folk,
for it is at bottom clear dreaming, so that the judge should
give no faith to the confessions of such impossibilities.
These
opinions are customarily based upon Can. Episcopi, which
870 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
to sorcery and some one was to be held responsible for it. There wa& a
pervading atmosphere of suspicion which perverted the most innocent
acts and no one could feel certain that the most careless talk might not
turn up in judgment, when every one was on the lookout for sorcery and
the dearest friends felt it their duty to betray each other.
Ib., n. 42.
The judge must not elicit confession by promise of impunity,
because he would have to keep his word and many guilty
would escape. Therefore Paul Laymann (in Rechtlicher
Process gegen die Unholden und zauberischen Personen ) prop- 1
2
erly condemns the act which Janus Buissard (De divin. et
mag. praestig., c. 9) relates of GriUandus. TMs latter was
examining a witch who had confessed much, and after rebuk-
ing her severely he promised her pardon if she would sincerely
repent and thereafter abstain from serving the devil, and
moreover would give to the judges and magistrates a specimen
of her powers. She readily consented. They went with her
some distance from the town, when she suddenly conjured up
a storm so terrible that they did not know what to do with
themselves. She told them not to be alarmed and asked them
to designate a spot where the tempest should expend its
force. GriUandus designated a barren and rocky spot, on
which the tempest thereupon burst with lightning, hail and
rain,doing no damage anywhere else. Ib., n. 43.
The judge must not use threats, for a confession thus
extorted is invalid. Ib., n. 44.
Whether the answers of the accused are to be under oath
or not is a disputed question. In Italy the oath is necessary;
other authorities deny it; the author's opinion is that it is
discretional with the judge. Ib., n. 45.
If the witch commences to confess, she must be allowed to
continue to the end without interruption, for, if allowed time
for consideration, she may refuse to complete it. In her
answers to the interrogatories she is not to be interrupted or
accused of falsehood. Ib., n. 46.
She is not to be sentenced on her simple confession, but
is to be examined on the points contained in it and ratify it,
so that an innocent person may not be condemned on a con-
fused statement. There should be no haste in punishing and
1
Wrongly attributed to Laymann see p. 688.
2 J. J. Boissard.
872 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
Initiation of Trials.
Institoris does not refer to this special feature, but lays the
foundation for it by arguing the impossibility that God would
permit the demon to destroy the reputation of innocent
parties in so black a crime as witchcraft. He may be able
to do so as to other offences, but not as to those which require
pact with Mm. Up to the present time it has never occurred
that innocent persons have been thus represented by demons
and we can be assured that it will never happen in the future.
Besides, there is the protection of guardian angels to prevent
it. He argues away the story of St. Germain, which would
seem to refute him. Mall. Malef., P. II, q. 1, c. 11 (pp.
307-9).
Binsfeld takes the same ground and argues away the St.
Germain case. The do nothing but what God
devil can
permits; God grants him, according to the true and common
opinion of theologians, much greater power over the evil than
over the innocent. If it is those who
he represents any one,
are already guilty. De
Confess. Malefic., conclus. 7, solutio
argumentorum (pp. 318-22).
Bart. Spina says that daily experience shows that those
accused by their associates (as seen in the Sabbat), though
they deny at first, confess at last, with the rarest exceptions
which arise from the unwillingness of judges to push the prose-
cution, and he characteristically adds, "Et qui hoc proterve
negaret habet quoque processus omnium Inquisitorum falsos
asserere, quod plane apud non insanos execrabile reputatur."
Quaestio de Strigibus, c. 14 (pp. 40-1).
Again, in his answer to Ponzinibio, God will not permit
those to be represented who have not been frequenters of the
Sabbat (and more which I have elsewhere H. C. L.).
Apologia Tertia, c. 3, pp. 173-4.
See also Del Rio, 1. ii, q. 12, n. 4, p. 142 (which I have else-
where H. C. L.).
Bodin says, "Quapropter in tarn horrendo crimine nihil
necesse est religiose haerere quemquam regulis procedendi
WITCHCRAFT AS VIEWED BY THE SECTLAR LAW SS7
The Witch-mark.
Irenaeus tells us that the Carpocratians burnt a mark
inside the lobe of the right ear of their disciples. Contra
Haereses, I. i, c. 25, n. 6.
The shaving of the accused was not so much, at least at first, to find the
course of
witch-mark, as to discover charms which might obstruct the
The necessity for this was proved by a classical story, copied by
justice.
one writer after another, but apparently originated by Caesarius of Heister-
bach (Dial. Mirae., dist. v, c. 19), -whose authority was his fellow monk
Conrad, a resident of Besancpn at the time of the occurrence.
As Conrad
is described as an old man the date may be assumed to
be about 1200.
[For this tale see p. 104.]
who say the devil impresses it on those who he fears will not
prove faithful. Binsfeld says he remembers to have
heard that
"some of our witches" had such a mark, and Bodin quotes
Triscalain that it is like a hare's foot and insensible. Be this
as it may, he regards it as of little importance. It would be
easy for the examiner to feign it or to see what is not. What
is not approved by the Fathers is not to be admitted, as [it
If the demon knew that
might be] a superstitious invention.
his followers could thus be recognized he would not impress
it, and Bodin quotes cases in which it disappeared the day
after it had been discovered. Binsf eld, Comment, in Tit.
Cod. De Male!., de indie., n. 14 (ed. 1623, p. 607).
Del Rio quotes Binsfeld approvingly. He sets little store
by the witch-mark as evidence. The devil does not impress
it on all those whose fidelity he doubts. Sometimes he removes
it from them when arrested and sometimes he leaves it so as
to maintain this superstition among the judges, and thus
sometimes the innocent are punished, for it is not easily dis-
tinguishable from natural marks or spots or moles or erup-
tions, since it is not always the same, being sometimes
like
the footprint of a hare or a toad's foot, or a spider's, a cat's
or a weasel's and also is not always in the same place. In men
it is seen often under the eyelids or lips or armpits or in sede
p. 726).
WITCHCRAFT AS VIEWED BY THE SECULAR LAW SS9
fable, for experience shows that the mark they have on their
bodies is so leprous that it is insensible and, as we have seen
with our own eyes, if a pin is thrust in it is not felt; but they
must not be allowed to know it, or they will pretend to suffer.
Sebastien Michaelis, Discours des Esprits, schol. v (Paris,
1612).
[Where, as in the case of Ostermann, an author has devoted
a monograph to a single topic, its analysis has been placed
under this topic in the "Notes'' instead of among those ranged
in chronological order in the general bibliographical sections
of these materials.]
p. 53.
He then proceeds to refute the opinions of Binsfeld and Del
Rio, who set little store by the witch-mark as a proof. He
says they are only two and cannot prevail against the opinions
of the ancient doctors. Ib. ? pp. 53-56.
Ostermann then goes on to prove the existence and sig-
nificance of the mark. What is uniformly asserted by innu-
merable persons of both sexes in every place and at various
times is to be accepted without doubt and not to be denied,
in law. Ib., sect, x,
especially when the assertion is received
aitiologia 2, p. 59.
To deny it is injurious to the Republic, as favoring a
most
892 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
Ordeals.
Is this Weyer's Duke of Juiiers and Cleves? Here the ordeal is the final
proof and not as usual an indicium for torture.
1
Meinders, who
gives this letter textuaHy, says the water
ordeal was formerly in use and that in Ms time women
accused of witchcraft customarily ask for it. Ib., p. 122.
He says there are not lacking ignorant judges who to
gratify a vain curiosity promptly throw into the water women
accused of witchcraft who appeal to this judgment. Ib.,
p. 126.
Eveling, in his Tractatus de Provoeatione ad Indicium Dei,
LemgOj 1709, says that this was largely used during the
previous century as an indicium for torture on the evidence
of a single accomplice, especially in Westphalia, but is now
wholly disused. Meanders, p. 125.
The medical and philosophical faculty of Leyden, in 1594,
rendered a decision that the water ordeal was no proof, giving
as a reason for the frequent swimming that the way in which
the patients' hands and feet were tied together rendered the
back a sort of boat which upheld him on the surface. Oskar
v. Wachter, Vehmgerichte u. Hexenprozesse in Deutschland
(Stuttgart, 1882), p. 137.
Use of Deceit.
Farinacci says the same and adds that the Roman Inquisi-
tion did not admit as sufficient for torture the assertion of
two witches as to the persons seen in the Sabbat, for the
reason that often they are not corporally there, but only by
illusion of the demon. Farinacius, Tract, de Haeresi, q. 185,
8, n. 152 (Romae, 1616), p. 296. Also q. 188, 4, n. 76.
That Brunnemann was as credulous as his contemporaries
is seen in his saying that witches customarily endured torture
it condemned the
accused, but In practice this was illusory, for to admit
judge, and there was no one to pronounce It illegal.
There was one redeem-
a copy of the evidence and to
ing featurethe accused was entitled to
aside by the will of the
competent time to answer it; but this could be set
He could also have an advocate, unless he had an evil reputa-
legislator.
tion or was caught in but the advocate was not to Induce him to
flagranti,
suppress the truth. As to confrontation, when the accused under torture
denounced others, she was In their presence to be lightly tortured^ again
and the denunciation the reason given for which was that It was
repeat
better sometimes that the guilty should escape than that the innocent
should be afflicted with dire torments. Such was In brief the ^system of
See Peregrinus' Con-
jurisprudence which developed the witch madness.
sQium, loc. cU.
In 1627 Catlierina Henot, daughter of the imperial post-
master of Kdln, and sister of the Provost and Canon of the
Cathedral, Hartger Henot, was accused by some
demoniac
sisters of the St. ClarenHoster of having bewitched them.
She was arrested in her brother's house. Three times she
was exposed to the highest grade of torture, but persisted
throughout in asserting her innocence, in spite of which
she
was condemned and burnt. Nippold, Wiederbelebung des
Hexenglaubens, p. 80.
We are told that in the records of Briihl (Koln) there are
dozens of cases in which arrest, confession under torture,
sentence and execution were all hurried through on the same
day. Ein Hexenproeess zu Briihl vom
Jahr 1604. (This is
an extract from some periodical, not named and without the
authors name. H. C. L.)
Perhaps the most atrocious case is that of Veith Pratzer,
in Saxony, in 1660. He was a joker with a turn for leger-
demain and on one occasion he exhibited his skill by producing
24 mice from a bag in which he had concealed them. It was
regarded as sorcery; he fled, but strenuous efforts were made
successfully for his capture. It was in vain that
he offered
to repeat the feat and that the physician declared that there
was no witch-mark. He was tortured until he confessed all
that was wanted and was condemned to be burnt by a slow
fire. Even this was not sufficient; one of the judges argued
that his two young children must infallibly be sorcerers and
should be put out of the way; it was voted unanimously that
their veins should be opened in a bath. On his way to execu-
tion he begged to be allowed to see them and was told that
they were already dead. Cannaert, J. B., Olim: Proces des
Sorcieres en Belgique sous Philippe II et le Gouvernement des
Archiducs (Gand, 1847), pp. 148-55.
WITCHCRAFT AS VIEWED BY THE SECULAR LAW 9U3
everywhere with points, in which the accused was bound hand and foot
and left for an indefinite time. What was known as the "Bambergische
Tortur," invented by a bishop of Bamberg, was an exquisitely varied and
"
prolonged series of scourgings. Then there were the Mecklenburgisches
Instrument" and the "Pommersche Mutae," or Pomeranian bonnet-
names which show where various methods took their origin and gradually
spread over the land.
Prisons.
they do not dare to treat with Satan while in prison for fear
of being observed by the gaolers and attendants. For this
Tartarotti quotes Danaeus, De Veneficis, and Godelmann,
L iii, c. 6, n. 17 (q. v.). Tartarotti, Del Congresso Nottumo
(Rovereto, 1749), p. 103.
We
have the testimony of the Carolina as to the prisons:
"Est enim haec consuetudo pessima, cujus et supra men-
tionem fecimus, ut carceres non tam custodiendorum quam
puniendorum atque excruciandorum reoram causa fiant, in
quibus vel ob sordes squaloremque vel frigorein perire cogan-
tur." Carolina, c. 217, 3 (Goldast, III, p. 559).
*
Punishments.
There is a formula (c. 1320) for sentence of a priest convicted
of sorcery, immolation to demons, making figurines, etc. The
penalty is degradation (as a priest), perpetual immuration in
chains "in pane doloris et aqua angustiae," and to wear the
tunic with yellow crosses. Bernard Guidonis, Practica, P.
Ill, n. 40 (ed. Douais, Paris 1886, p. 152).
A
learned opinion of the great jurist Bartolo da Sassofer-
rato (c. 1331-42) says that the "mulier striga de qua agitur,
sive latine loquendo lamia", must be burnt. She confesses
that she has renounced Christ and her baptism, wherefore
she should die, according to Christ's saying, "If a man abide
not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered; and
men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are
burned," and the gospel law controls all other laws and must
be observed even "in foro contentioso," for it is the Law of
God. "Item, dicta striga seu lamia" confesses that she made
a cross of sticks and trampled on it, for which alone she
should be punished with death. Moreover, she confesses that
she adored the devil on her knees, for which she deserves
1 For condition of prisons in the seventeenth century see Grevius, Tribunal Refor-
matum (Hamburg, 1624).
(CJ6 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
principle that the secular judge had no claim to see the Aeta
of the process. On the other side it was argued that the
Inquisition had nothing to do with murders and other non-
heretical crimes and was bound to receive back the penitent,
and this was strongly upheld by Pena and by Am. Albert ino
(De Agnosc. Assert., q. 25).
Pena holds that only when a witch has been arrested by
the civil power and handed over to the Inquisitor to deter-
mine the heretical quality of her offences, can she be reclaimed
for burning. Hansen, Zauberwahn, pp. 529-30.
See about this a constitution of Pius V printed by Pena in
his appendix to Eymeric. He says that, in view of the fre-
quent infanticides and other crimes, the popes issued special
mandates to deliver them to the secular judges after a trial
for the first time (not relapse). Ib., p. 531.
Against all this, however, is the assertion of Paramo that
the Inquisition in the last one hundred and fifty years had
burnt 30,000 witches. Ibidem.
Hansen gives (pp. 427-34) a long enumeration of individual
cases tried by the secular courts during the fifteenth century
throughout Europe and says that they punished with death
only the evil acts of the accused, and with various penalties
sorcery or witchcraft as a crime in itself.
See Hansen, Zauberwahn, pp. 366-74, for a detailed account
of the development of punishment for sorcery and witchcraft
in Germany and the prevalence of burning. Still, in many
places the old penalty of banishment was preserved till late in
the fourteenth century (p. 383) and even in the fifteenth
century (pp. 389, 394). He points out the influence in multi-
plying trials of the gradual introduction of public prosecution
in place of accusation owing to some extent to the infiltra-
tion of the principles of Roman law.
The Bambergische Halsgerichtsordming, published by
Bishop Georg of Bamberg in 1507 and drawn up by Johann
von Schwarzenberg, exercised great influence on Tengler's
Layenspiegel and on the Carolina. It is largely based on the
Roman law. Torture is allowed in accusations of sorcery
where there are indicia. When injury has been caused, the
punishment, as for heresy, is death by fire. When no injury-
has been wrought, the penalty is according to circumstances
and the judge must consult (I suppose, learned jurists
H. C. L.). Hansen, Quellen, p. 279.
Ulrieh Tengler's Layenspiegel (Strassburg, 1510) says that
908 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
feet are allowed totouch the earth, she will be able to escape
and those around with lightning, as many have confessed
kill
disgust rather than of delight. We have seen this as regards carnal pleasures
and so it was as to the feasts.
barber said she was wont to cast her husband into profound
sleep by touching his ear with the ointment used for flying.
Eller, wife of the Dean of Ottingen, substituted for herself
the pillow of her infant, and Sichen May a broom, after
invoking the names of their respective demons; Maria, wife
of Johann Schneider, a bundle of straw touched with the
ointment, and it would disappear as soon as she returned.
Katrina Ruffa sometimes made her demon take her place.
Remy, Daemonolatreia, 1. i, c. 12 (p. 82).
Porta says that while he was doubtfully weighing the matter
(the truth of the Sabbat) there fell into Ms hands an old
woman of those they call striges, who willingly promised to
bring him tidings (from a distance). She shut every one out,
but they peeped through the cracks of the door and saw her
strip herself and anoint herself all over, when she fell into a
deep sleep. They opened the door and beat her soundly with-
out awaking her. They left her, and, when the trance passed,
she told many crazy things, of passing seas and mountains,
but brought false answers. They denied, and showed her
the bruises, but she persisted and would not be convinced.
This succeeds better with melancholic natures. Such is the
force of imagination that they seem to be carried through the
night to banquets, where they dance and have commerce
with handsome youths, which they principally desire; by
nature easy of belief, they dwell on these things day and night
to the exclusion of everything else, and this is assisted by
their scanty diet of vegetables and chestnuts. He gives two
formulas for the preparation of the ointment, of which the
base is the fat of infants. Giambattista Porta, De Miraculis
Rerum Naturalium, L ii, c. 26 (Antverpiae, 1560), fol. 85.
He also gives formulas by which men can seem to wear the
heads of horses, asses, and other beasts. Ib., c. 17, fol. 64.
Benedict XIV (pope 1740-58) says: "Per illusionem sen-
suum tarn interiorum quam exteriorum facta sunt ea de quibus
in Can. Nee mirum, 26, Q. 5, . . * et ad hanc eamdem
classem referri posse videntur ea quae de Strigibus narrantur
a Daemone deportatis juxta alium textum in Can. Episcopi,
26, Q. 5, ubi haec habentur." He quotes part of it and pro-
ceeds: "quamvis non desint Catholici Scriptores qui hasce
deportationes aliquando vere factas fuisse et fieri Daemonurn
pot estate admittunt Paulus Grillandus, Del Rio, Laurentius
Anianus, Alfonso de Castro, et novissime Frassen in suo Scoto
Academico, torn. 4 Romanae Editionis anni 1721, tract. 1,
ii 58
914: THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
Cannibalism.
The curiosity of the judges was insatiable to learn all possible details as
to sexual intercourse and their industry in pushing the examinations was
rewarded by an abundance of foul imaginations. It is remarkable that
while the demonologists tell us that the gratification of lust was one of
the leading incentives to witchcraft (see Malleus Maleficarum, P. II, q. 1,
WITCHCRAFT AS VIEWED BY THE SECULAR IAW 917
c. 1), yet the women with singular unanimity everywhere describe the
relation as painful and distasteful. It is impossible for me to into
these repulsive detafls } but perhaps in a footnote the following extracts from
Nicholas Jtemy may be given in the original. It condenses into small
compass what is dilated on with endless repetition and variation in the re-
ports of the trials and the elaborate discussions of the systematic writers.
pleasure?
Now BeUarmine gives as authority for this St. Augustin, "Testatur hoc
Augustinus, lib. xv de Civ. Bel, c. 23" which is a good example of the
tendency to father everything on him, for, while he in this chapter admits
the possibility of procreation, he says nothing about the method.
(p. 108) .He assumes that these beings are the demons alluded
to by Plato and Plutarch (p. 112).
These succubi are distinguished from demons by the fact
that what they seek is purely the gratification of the senses;
if their advances are welcomed they reward the object of
offers
"
Mmsome dates and in reply to Ms question says,
Mortalis ego sum, et unus ex accoHs Eremi, quos vario errore
delusa Gentilitas Faunos Satyrosque et Incubos vocans colit.
nobis commu-
Legations fungor gregis mei. Precamur ut pro
nem Deum depreceris, quern pro salute mundi venisse cogno-
vimus, et in universam terrain exiit sonus ejus." Then the
"animal" disappeared in rapid flight. Ib., pp. 138-48.
To forestall incredulity Jerome adds that under Constans (337-350)
a
"man" of this kind was brought to Alexandria, where he was regarded with
great surprise, and after his death Ms body
was pickled and carried to the
at Antioch. Hieron., Vita Pauli Eremitae, n. 8 (Migne XXIII, 23).
emperor
Sinistrari argues that Ms incubi, when they generate, have
no need of the device attributed to demons. They have then-
own powers of generation, about which he enters into much
detail (p. 188).
Heconcludes by considering the character of the offence
committed in having relations with his incubi. It Js less
heinous in itself than those with demons, but, as the individual
believes them to be demons, in conscience it is the same (p.
202).
evidently requisite to preserve his book from condemnation,
This is
as
otherwise it would be calculated to mislead confessors. But anyhow, as
his book was not printed at the time, it probably was refused license as
subversive of received opinion.
The editor, Liseux, appends an extract from SinistrarFs
work "De Delictis et Poenis," which we have seen above was
twice printed. In this he draws a distinction between incubi
"
and demons Quantum ad probationem hujus criminis
attinet, distinguendum est de Daemonialitate, puta,
vel ejus,
quae a Sagis seu Maleficis fit cum Diabolis; sive de ea quae
ab aliis fit cum Incubis" (p. 206); but this may be from the
earlier edition, prohibited donee corrigatur, or from the later
corrected one. The
editor does not say which.
Sinistrari says he can find no law, civil or canon, which
prescribes a penalty for demoniality. But, as it presupposes
pact and apostasy and the infinite evils wrought by witches,
regularly, outside of Italy, it is visited with halter and stake.
"In Italia autem rarissime traduntur hujusmodi Malefici ab
Inquisitoribus Curiae saeculari" (p. 218).
POTT, JOHANNES HENBICTJS. Specimen Juridicum de Ne-
fando Lamiarum cum Didbolo Coitu, in quo abstrusissima haec
materia diludde explicatur, quaestiones inde emergentes curate
resolvuntur, variisque non injucundis exemplis illustrantur.
Jenae, 1689.
WITCHCRAFT AS VIEWED BY SECULAB LAW 923
In which case she is. Disquis. Magic., 1. ii, q. 15, axiom. 3 (pp. 159-61)
which is virtually the same as Mall. Maief., 1, c. 4 (p. 253).
P. II, q.
It is worth noting here that Dei Rio us that the heretics for the
tells
incubi and succubi, and even some
greater part deay the intercourse of
Catholics, but these latter are of little weight among the Belgians Philippus
Broideus and among the Italians Cardan, Ponzirdbio and Porta. Disquis.
Magic., 1. ii, q. 15, axiom. 1 (p. 159).
there never were more than nine, and she would gather them
up. He suggests that they were brought by
a demon and
the confes-
says that such things are rare but are proved by
sions of many witches. Ib., 10 (pp. 33-4).
TMs sliows the insatiable credulity with which lie approaches the subject.
Then lie proceeds to quote from the papers of a trial sent
to the legal faculty of the University of Rostock by the magis-
trates for judgment. TMs woman confessed that the first
thing she gave birth to was a black Wind-Worm (tape-worm?)
which by order of David, her incubus, she burnt to a powder
which he carried away. The next time it was a girl-baby
the size of a jug (Pott-Krug) which sucked her breast, but
after two days David took it away. Then by her favorite
demon lover, Hansen, she had another girl, whom he carried
off, and some time afterwards a boy, whom he took. Then
while she was in prison both incubi visited her, from which,
on September 21, 1698, she bore a girl, whom they took away;
although there was copious flooding which stained the clothes
and the floor, all traces of it disappeared. Ib., nn. 6-12.
All this, the author says, gave him food for thought and
led him to write this thesis, and he concludes, "Tu autem
Alme Deus dirige calamum ut non nisi quae ad Tui Nominis
gloriam et detegendam miram mille fraudum Artificis vafri-
tiam factura sunt inde fluant." Ib., n. 15.
After this prefatory matter he commences his examination
of the question, "TJtrum ex nefando cum Satana coitu verus
nasci possit partus humanus?" As this would be impossible
without sexual intercourse it is necessary first to determine
whether this actually occurs. He does not deny that often
Satan deludes women in dreams so that after waking they
imagine that they have enjoyed his embraces, but frequently
it is real "cum semine frigidissirno." Ib., c. 1, nn. 2-5.
That the demon can assume a body capable of the act, he
says, is "communi Theologorum, Jurisconsult orum ac saniori
philosophiae addictorum probatur calculo," and among his
authorities for this he cites St. Augustin, De Civ. Dei, xv, 23.
And the same holds good of succubi for which he quotes
Aquinas, Toletus, Alph. a Castro, Carpzov and others.- Ib.,
nn. 6-12.
Quotes from the acts of a process sent to the faculty in
October, 1698, part of the confession of a witch who at twelve
years old was furnished by an old sorceress with a demon
WTICHCBAFT AS VIEWED BY THE SECUIAE LAW 931
Ib., n. 14.
Gives the arguments of disbelievers and answers them in
which he quotes the Malleus and Del Rio Uses the argument
.
Infliction of Impotence.
exercises
question whether medicaments as well as spiritual
can be employed leads him into a detailed examination of the
various ways in which the impotence is caused and manifested,
more curious than decent. Also the ways in which the male-
ficia are confected and applied.
As it is the work of demons,
natural remedies are useless. If it is asked whether ^magic
can be employed, the answer is not only that it is illicit, but
a mortal crime. But if the sorcerer can be seized and com-
this is licit. He points
pelled to undo or destroy the sorcery,
out that the devil does not often interfere with fornication,
for this as sinful is grateful to him. As the devil is subject
to God he can do nothing without God's permission and it is
to God's clemency that we owe that he is not permitted so
to vex us as to prevent all our operations, for then we could not
exist. He explains why exorcisms have not as much power
over demons as in primitive times, because now faith is
settled and assured, and then that power was necessary for
its propagation and confirmation. Dominic de Soto, In IV.
Sententt., dist. 34, q. 1, art. 3 (ed. Venet., 1598, II, pp. 266-
71).
Nowhere else have I met so long and exhaustive a discussion of the sub-
ject. Is this attributable to an increased sense of its importance or to a
feeling that scepticism was growing and had to be confuted?
only the malice of the devil aiding the evil will of men, is
shown by the Latin words of Virgil which we omit for cause;
the Latin charm to prevent copulation is clear to the sense,
but the words used today are plainly barbarous; then Virgil
orders nine knots; our people use but one. It is also observ-
able that neither the devil nor the sorcerer interferes with any
other sense of the victim or prevents eating and drinking.
Nor do they do anything with the member except to deprive
it of virility; they do not hide it in the belly, as Sprenger says
Infliction of Disease.
Transformation .
I think I have elsewhere the following, which shows that the story
furnished comfort in subsequent generations to those who endeavored to
explain the powers of sorcerers to change their victims into animals.
but they can be made to appear so, and if they carry loads it
is the demon who carries them (Ps.
Augustin, Lib. de Spir.
et An., c. 26). The Cap. Episcopi also teaches these illusions.
It can be proved by many examples that those who think
themselves converted into beasts, really fall into deep sleep
when they anoint themselves, and when they awake believe
that they have been changed to wolves and have devoured
flocks. If their hands or feet are cut off, they are found to
be human hands or feet; if they are killed, the corpse is
human. (There is a fearful lapse in his logic here. But as an
evidence of his disbelief he quotes, though not in full, the
following passage in Pliny's Hist. Nat., 1. viii, c. 34 [22].
H. C. L.):
" Homines in
lupos verti rursumque restitui sibi falsum esse
confidenter existimare debemus, aut credere omnia quae
fabulosa tot saeculis comperimus. Unde tamen ista vulgo
infixa sit fama in tantum ut in maledictis versipelles habeat,
indicabitur, Evanthes, inter auctores Graeciae non spretus,
tradit Aracadas scribere ex gente Anthi cujusdam, sorte
familiae lectum, ad stagnum quoddam regionis ejus duci,
vestituque in quercu suspense, transnatare atque abire in
deserta transfigurarique in lupum et cum caeteris ejusdem
generis congregari per annos novem. Quo in tempore si
homine se abstinuerit, reverti ad idem stagnum et cum trans-
nataverit effigiem recipere, ad pristinum habitum addito
novem annorum senio. Id quoque Fabius eamdem recipere
vestem. Mirum est quo procedat Graeca credulitas Nullum !
St. Augustin might learn a lesson from the pagan. The Fabius quoted
was probably Fabius Rusticus, an eloquent Roman historian. Pliny (op.
tit.) also quotes from Agriopas a story of Demaenetus Parrhasius, who, in
when a friend clapped his hand over his mouth, and after-
wards informed him that if he had answered the greeting he
would that night have been changed to a wer-wolf, as had
happened to many Germans ignorant of the language and
customs. In the morning he was shown many such wolves
returning home. They could be distinguished by carrying
their tails stiff and upright, like sticks of wood, while natural
73
wolves carried theirs between their legs. Hauber, III,
pp. 285-9.
The most extraordinary thing in the transformation of
men into beasts, which is proved by daily experience, is that
Satan has the power of conferring the qualities of the animal
on the man the strength, the speed, the fierceness, the cour-
age, the voice, the power of penetration, so that if a wolf
he has the swiftness of a wolf, he tears flocks to pieces and
eats the raw flesh; if a cat, she can enter closed houses at
night, and so forth. Remy, Daemonolatreia, 1. ii, c. 5 (ed.
Colon. Aug. 1596, p. 236).
Henrich Hossli, in his "Hexenprocess -und Glauben, Pfaf-
fen und TeufeP' (Leipzig, 1892) an otherwise negligible
pamphlet says that he has in his hands a sentence rendered
at Utrecht, August 1, 1595, against Volkart Dirxen and his
seventeen-year-old daughter Henriette, and Anton Bulk and
his wifeMargaretha Barten, after severe torture, condemning
them to the stake as loups-garoux, in which shape they had
attacked cattle. Dirxen had failed in the water ordeal. He
had three sons, Anton, Hessel and Gisbert, whose ages
ranged from fourteen to eight. They were sentenced to wit-
ness the execution, after which they were to be stripped and
tied to stakes and to be scourged till the blood came and then
to be thrown into prison to await further action. Hossli,
p. 14.
This makes three regular tortures besides what additional ones may
be requisite to overcome taciturnity.
Under Bordonus I have given what Carena has to say (nn. 226-35) as
to the evidence of accomplices.
pointing out where they may be deceived. It omits a few things and
introduces a few, but the arrangement and details are evidently in fairly
strict accordance with the Latin text (also in instructions as to torture and
other things Masini uses the Instructio) so that, at the least, prior to
1639 there was evidently circulating among the tribunals a manuscript
instruction on which witch-trials were based. I have an edition of the Sacro
Arsenale, likewise "ampliata," dated Genovae, 1625, which has this whole
passage word for word as in the subsequent editions, so that the Instruc-
tions are at least as old as 1625. It is probable that after the death of
Gregory XV
(July 8, 1623) and the accession of Urban VIII (Aug. 6, 1623}
the Inquisition issued them to serve as a mitigation of the cruelty of his
bull.
Carena gives no date to the Instructio, but as printed in the Appendix
to Spec's Cautio Criminalis (August. VindeL, 1731) it has the colophon
"Romae ex Typographia Reverendae Camerae Apostolicae, Anno
MDCLVII," which fixes the date of the printed edition as 1657. Pignatelli
also prints it in his "Novissimae Consultationes Canonicae," Cosmopoli,
1740. Prof. J. Friedrich of Munich in 1891 kindly collated this edition for
me with Carena's and noted two or three variants, the existence of which
removed my doubts as to the official character of the Instruction. I have
also examined the copy in Spee and find that it accords sometimes with
one and sometimes with the other. The numeration of the sections differs
from that of Carena. Carena's text of this Instruction is very incorrect-
possibly the MS. he used had errors of copyists, and these were aggravated
by the posthumous printing of the book in Lyons. In fact the whole volume
is carelessly printed.
The which all this leads is that, at least as early as 1625,
conclusion to
there was circulating a manuscript Instruction, the same, as far as can be
judged, as that printed in 1657. Carena already had it in manuscript
when he added it to his edition of Pefia's Praxis. 1
The section of the Sacro Arsenale borrowed from the Instruction con-
tinues unchanged in the edition of Natale Doriguzzi (Bologna, 1679) and
in that of Giovanni Pasqualone (Roma, 1693). But they all have a very
significant passage, replacing the termination of Carena's 8 and nowhere
to be found in the Instruction. Where the Instruction in 8 warns the
judge that many think that no sorceries can be committed without formal
apostasy from God, and thus great injustice is done to women prosecuted
for the minor sorceries the Sacro Arsenale, after pointing out that she
may not be Strega formale, goes on "E strega formale deve riputarsi, ed &
A copy of this Inetructio, as printed by itself at Rome in 1657, is in the White
1
library at Cornell and is the very copy described in 1822 by Horst (Zauber-Bibliothek,
in, pp. 115 ff.) as sent him by the Trier historian Wyttenbach and
as bearing the
autograph of the Inquisitor Leonhard Messen. It is perhaps the only copy now
surviving. The Instructio had, however, been printed in 1651 in the second volume
of Gaetaldi's work De Potenlia Angdorum (at p. 242) and what Mr. Lea here writes
;
as to its identity with the directions given by the Sacro Arsenale of Eliseo Masini
is interestingly confirmed by Gastaldi, who tells us that the Instructio was drawn up
by a friend of his and implies that this friend was Masini by saying that Masini
borrows from it "optimo jure." That m manuscript form it was in use by the Inqui-
sition as early as 1635 has, since Mr. Lea wrote, been shown by Nicolaus Paulus in
his study on "Rom und die Bliitezeit der Hexenprozesse" (in his Hexenwahn und
Hexenprozeas, 1 910, pp. 273-6). A share in its authorship Mr. Lea ascribes (see p. 963
below) to Cardinal Desiderio Scaglia; and the MS. instruction for procedure against
witches ascribed to him by Quetif and Echard (in their Scriptores Ordinis Praedica-
B.
torum) can hardly be another. But his relations with Masini were close.
952 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
colei, e'haura fatto patto col Demonic, ed apostatando dalla fede, con i
suoi malefic! 6 sortilegi danneggiato una, 6 piu persone, in guisa, che ne sia
loro seguita per cotali malefici, 6 sortilegi la morte; e se non la morte,
almeno irifermita, divortii, impotenza al generare, d detrimento notabile
a gli animali, biade, 6 altri fnttti della terra; che perci6, se eoster& in giudicio,
che alcuna donna sia di tanto, e si grave delitto rea, dovr& per vigore della
nuova Bolla Gregoriana nel primo caso anco per la prima volta rilasciarsi
alia Corte secolare, e nel secondo perpetuamente esser' immurata" (Sacro
Arsenale, Settima Parte, ed. Bologna, 1679, p. 198).
This evidently formed part of the early Sacro Arsenale, soon after the
issue of Gregory XV's bull. Its retention throughout the successive edi-
tions (it was reprinted until 1716 at least) and the omission of such sangui-
nary severity in the Instruction would seem equally instructive of the-
oretical severity and practical moderation. I am inclined to think that
this passage formed part of the original Instruction. As the whole section
is in the edition of 1625, issued so soon after Pope Gregory's bull, but after
his death (f July 8, 1623), it was probably felt necessary to temper the
moderation of the Instruction with this acceptance of the Gregorian sever-
ity. As Gregory's instructions, however, were not obeyed and fell into
desuetude, this passage was probably dropped and the text altered
as
above, though it continued to the end to appear in the Sacro Arsenale,
which was not official and yet might serve in terrorem. It is curious that
Carena, in his edition of 1636, seems to have known nothing of the Instruc-
tion and relies on Binsfeld, Del Rio and other similar authorities (De
Officio, pp. 199-201).
The preface to the Instruction says that experience shows
that the gravest errors are daily committed by ordinaries,
vicars and inquisitors in the trial of witches, to the notable
prejudice of justice and of the women, so that it has long
been observed by the Congregation that scarce any trial has
been rightly conducted, and it has constantly been necessary
to reprimand and often even to punish judges on account of
undue vexations, inquisitions, imprisonments, as well as bad
and impertinent methods of forming the process, examining
the accused, inflicting excessive tortures, so that unjust sen-
tences have sometimes been rendered, even of relaxation to
the secular arm. It has also been found that many judges
have been inclined to believe women to be witches on the
slenderest evidence and have therefore left nothing undone,
even by illicit means, to extort confession, when there have
been such variations and contradictions and improbabilities
that no value was to be placed on it. Therefore all ordinaries
and their vicars and inquisitors must keep before them and
accurately observe the following. -Instructio pro formandis
Processibus in Causis Strigum, Sortilegorum ac Maleficorum
(Carena, p. 487; Spee, Cautio Criminahs, Aug. VindeL, 1731,
p. 409).
WITCHCBAFT LITERATUKE OF ROMAN INQUISITION 953
That Alberghini, whose book was written in Sicily about 1640 and
420-3) ;
for formulas to preserve from attacks of witches and demons on
men, cattle, houses, etc. (p. 424) conjuration against tempests and hail-
;
of lust was
Jerome relates that, when a girl possessed by a demon brought
until a charm
to St. Hilarion and the demon said he was bound to remain
in love with her was removed,
placed under the threshold by a youth madly
to believe the
the saint refused to have it sought for, lest he should seem
demon seem to be by undoing the sorcery.
demon or lest the might expelled
n. 21 Migne,
So he expelled him without it (S. Hieron., Vit. S. Hilarion,
XXIII, 39). . . ,
But Del Rio brings a host of authorities to prove that it is the common
authorities that it is licit to find and destroy the charm by
opinion of
which one is bewitched (Disq. Mag., 1. vi, c. 2, sect. 1, q. 3, 2, p. 945, sqq.).
to search dili-
Zacharia Visconti holds it to be the duty of the exorcizer
in all of the house, in the feathers of the beds and pillows and,
gently parts
it is to be burnt solemnly with
if he finds anything that looks like a charm,
to the
some blessed things as olive branches, incense, etc., in a cemetery,
sound of church bells (Zach. Vicecomes, Complementum Artis Exorcisticae,
of this book is
P. doct. 12, Venetiis, 1643, pp. 37-8. The first edition
I,
of Milan, 1537. It was placed on the Index by decree of March 4, 1709.
fixed for the defence and a copy of the process is given. When
the defence is made, or the term elapsed, the judge convokes
the assembly of consultors, in which the whole process is
read in extenso, suppressing names and circumstances; if the
consultors are not unanimous as to sentence or the cause is
important by reason of the crime or of the person, before
torture is resorted to the Congregation of the Inquisition is
to be consulted, sending to it a complete copy of the process,
both prosecution and defence. And when it seems by the
vote of the assembly that there is no objection to the use of
torture, because the proofs are strong, care must be taken in
the torture not to inquire about the specific offence. But,
before torture is decreed, they are to be reminded of the
evidence against them and in the torture they are only to be
told to tell the truth as to the matters on which they were
interrogated. If they begin to confess, no suggestions are
to be made to them, but only the precise words that they
WITCHCRAFT LITERATURE OF ROMAN INQUISITION 961
injure men, if God permits it, since they did not by their sin
lose their natural power over things here below, admitted by
all as Aquinas says, P. I, q. 64, art. 4. They can truly, and
not in appearance only, produce certain effects which can
arise from rapid local motion and the application of active
and passive elements, such as frogs, mice, flies and the like.
They have power over these elements and transfer from one
place to another snow, winds, rain, hail and lightning. They
can drive tempests hither and thither and make them stay
or diminish. They can cause inundations, earthquakes, ruin
of buildings, conflagrations, destroy crops or move them from
place to place in the twinkling of an eye and transport forests
and orchards. They can extract gold hidden in the earth and
sea, but God rarely permits this, lest they should attract men
to their service, whence nearly all magi are poor, abject, vile.
They have power over the human body to afflict it with dis-
eases which are incurable by men, as by instilling unknown
poisons and regulating them to operate slowly and impede
the virtue of remedies. Also by inserting in the stomach tufts
of bristles, nails, fragments of glass and other things which
are often found in the bewitched. They can prevent injuries
by fire, the sword and other implements, either interposing
themselves, or impeding the blow, or applying contrary media,
or stopping the flow of blood from the veins. Ib., 5, nn. 1, 2.
But demons cannot so change the quantity of bodies that
penetration of parts results, nor can they place one body in
two different places, or two bodies interpenetrated in one
place. Therefore they cannot enable a man, like a cat or
weasel, to creep into a room through a narrow opening, much
less to enter through closed doors; they only can precede
and open the door for witches to come in. (For all this he
quotes Del Rio, 1. ii, q. 17, who says the same. ~H. C. L.)
Ib., n. 3.
demon cannot so compress the quantity
It follows that the
of a man him invisible to those whose eyes are
as to render
normal and not fascinated; but he can render him invisible
per accidenSj interposing some other body or transporting
him to a distance. (So Del Rio, loc. tit, who thus explains
the ablation of virilia told in the Malleus. H. C. L.) Ib.,
n. 4.
Nor can demons and magi transform bodies from one form
to another, truly and intrinsically, but they can do so extrin-
sically, though this is delusory. Still its effects may be real,
WITCHCRAFT LITERATURE OF ROMAN INQUISITION 969
This is also from Del Rio, 1. ii, q. 23, who tells some incredible stories
of rejuvenation.
irregularity, but merely states the general proposition that by both civil
and canon law sorcerers, heretical or savoring of heresy, are to be prose-
cuted as heretics; if there is no heretical error it is usual for the secular
magistrate to scourge them, send to galleys or exile or other penalty less
than death, besides fine proportioned to the culprit. But, if death has
resulted from sorcery, the common opinion is that the Lex Cornelia must
act and the culprit is to be burnt. Even the patrons of witches admit this,
excepting witches. But the common opinion of theologians and jurists is
that our witches are not to be excepted. (Disquis. Magic., 1. v, sect. 16,
p. 758.)
Also see Bart. Fumus, Aurea Armilla (Methymnae Campi, 1552), s.v.
"Inquisitor," nn. 2, 3 which says: "Inquisitor non potest se intromittere
de incantationibus, sortilegiis, quaestionibus usurarum nisi in quantum
sapiunt manifesto haeresim" and it goes on with a list of sacrificing to
idols, consulting demons, abusive use of sacraments, and the like. Besides,
"Ad inquisitores non pertinet cognoscere an aliquid sapiat manifeste haer-
esim, quia jurisdictio est sibi attributa conditione existente. ... Si
tamen certum est quod sapit haeresim, sed dubitatur an sit manifesta,
potest recipere probationes an sit manifesta."
The new law apparently has its origin in the enlarged jurisdiction (though
not exclusive) in such matters conferred by Sixtus V. in the bull Coeli et
Terrae Creator, 1585, which I have elsewhere (Pena, Append, ad Eymeric.,
p. 142).
isa nice one but is decided by affirming that all cases must
be denounced. Ib., dist. 7 (pp. 353-7).
Although in the Edict there is a noteworthy abstention
from alluding to witchcraft and maleficent sorcery, Lupo
considers that the general concluding clause "6 altre simili
superstitiose attioni" justifies him in going on with these
forms.
"
Malefici quidam nocent sed non curant. Quidam e contra
curant sed non nocent; quidam vero utrumque praestant."
Ib., 1. xx, dist. 1, art. 1, diff. 1 (p. 360).
Enlarging on Mall, Malef. P. II, q. 1, c. 2, he tells us that
when a witch renounces the faith, some do so only by mouth,
others by mouth and heart. The devil cannot read the
human heart and cannot tell which, so he assigns to her a
certain number of years and meanwhile deputes a certain
demon, commonly known as Martinello, like a master of
novices, to watch over her and converse with her, and, if he
sees that she wavers, he reports to his superior, who thereupon
exposes her to temporal afflictions, till in desperation she sur-'
renders her soul to him. Ib., diff. 3 (p. 360).
By
....
the same way he opens and shuts the doors. Ib., art. 2
(p. 371).
divine permission the innocent can be represented in
the Sabbat and consequently be denounced and even for a
time be defamed; but as this Is too great a load, God is not
accustomed to permit it to the demons, although he custom-
arily permits even heavier things to demons, for by the singu-
lar providence of God it is so ordered that the Inquisition,
even if it does not at once see the truth, yet in course of time
all things are opened to it and it agitates and handles the
case of the accused, so that the truth necessarily appears at
last. It is also an established fact that God preserves the
inquisitors and their ministers from the wickedness and hate
of demons and witches, to which if they were exposed, they
would at once be destroyed. Ib., dist. 5, art. 1, diff. 1 (p. 371).
As there is no power on earth like that of demons, it would
seem that they could liberate imprisoned witches, but they
are not permitted by God. If they could, it would lead to
the gross absurdity that the power of demons was greater
than the divine. Confessors, therefore, when witches are
hesitating as to conversion can assure them that, if they are
arrested, they will not be saved from the judges by the
demon. Ib., diff. 2 (p. 372).
Argument to prove that witches can repent and be con-
verted Any pact which they may make with the demon is
:
(pp. 373-4).
Explains the different names applied to witches Magae,
Sagae, Lamiae, Veneficae, Striges, Incantatrices, Sortilegae.
" naturalis habet speciem et
As for Lamia item
Lamiae
faciem mulieris, sed pedes equinos; ita hae lamiae similitudine
habent formam humanam, sed earum affectus sunt bestiales
et inhumani" they devour their own children. Ib., dist. 6,
art. 1, diff. 1 (p. 374).
The the same as the Maga, with a difference
Malefica is
This suggests that much which puzzled the earlier demonologists was
readily explained by the extended application later of the universally
WITCHCRAFT LITERATURE OF ROMAN INQUISITION 981
recognized principle that the demon could do nothing without the express
permission of God. This smoothed away all difficulties and reconciled all
absurd contradictions. The contrast between the earlier and the later
writers is seen in this passage of the Malleus.
In elaborate instructions to preachers how to impress the people and to
answer all questions, the Malleus concludes with these Why witches are
not enriched? Why princes favoring them are not aided in destroying then-
enemies? Why they are unable to injure preachers and others persecuting
them? Now to all these in the later times the ready answer would be the
limitations imposed by God; but to the first the Malleus replies that the
demon has pleasure in contumely of the Creator, in buying them at the
lowest price, and also that their wealth may not attract attention. To the
second, that they do not harm princes (that is, the adversaries) so as to
preserve their friendliness and also that the good angel protects them. To
the third, that they cannot hurt inquisitors and other officials because they
are executing public justice; says nothing about preachers (Mall. Malef.,
P. I, q. xviii).
Nowhere there is here not a word about God's withholding permission.
Yet Conrad Molitor's Dialogus in 1487, where the limitation is fully set
see
forth (Inquisition of the Middle Ages, III, p. 542).
to ask whether she knows, and, if she knows, she can remove
it. Ib., diff. 2 (p. 379).
It is absolutely forbidden to employ a sorcerer to remove a
charm by another that is, to cause another sin. Ib., diff. 3
(p. 380).
c. 2, sect. 1, q. 2, F.
It is the common opinion that it is licit to force the witch,
So also says Malleus Malef and explains that the illusion may be not
.
The
article on diseases which are often attributed to sorcery
isinteresting as showing how universally all human ills were
ascribed to it, and his explanations of the real causes throw
a curious light on the physic of the time. It would appear
that women were wont to attribute to it ordinary headaches,
also the nausea of pregnancy and its fancies for unusual food.
Bitter taste in the mouth, he explains, comes from bile. Chil-
dren may be born imperfect, leprous or imbecile from natural
causes. Fetid breath may come from the stomach; pallor in
women may be healthful. Deficient smell may be caused by
frigidity and humidity of the brain and so may whitening
hair, or from fear, while baldness may be caused by defect in
humidity, and stuttering in children from too great humidity
of the tongue. Defective vision is rather to be attributed
to injury of the visual nerves than to sorcery. It is ignorant
and foolish to attribute to witches the change in the color of
the nails in old age. In short he concludes that all these
things may have a natural rather than a diabolical cause
and in doubt the natural cause should be assumed. Ib.,
dist. 9, art. 1 (p. 388).
Then he proceeds with female defects ascribed to witches.
Sterility may possibly be caused by the demon, with the
permission of God, but it has many natural causes which he
expounds. Abortions are not to be attributed to sorcery,
but to natural causes which he enumerates, and so is debility
of the foetus. Hermaphrodites are due to certain anatomical
peculiarities of women, which he describes, and
not to sorcery.
Ib., art. 2 (p. 390).
Describes why some children are born male rather than
female (naturally and not through magic arts, I presume
H. C. L.). Ib., art. 3 (p. 391).
Advice as to choice of wet-nurses. Ib., art. 4 (p. 391).
tect our fields and vineyards and olive groves so that they
cannot harm them. When these fail, it is because God wishes
to punish us for our sins. Ib., art. 2 (p. 393).
When a sorcery is removed by persevering prayers to God,
is it said to be miraculously removed? No, for this is the
ordinary mode. Ib., art. 3, diff. 1 (p. 394).
When God removes a perpetual sorcery, is this a miracle?
Tacit and express pact are the same species, the difference
being that express infers vehement suspicion of heresy, while
VOL. n 63
994 THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT
(p. 348).
Pius V 1567) ordered that in the papal dominions all
(c.
courts and dignitaries should obey the orders of the Inquisi-
tion and he entreated all other potentates to do the same
and that when they held prisoners guilty of crimes subject
to the Inquisition they should deliver them when called for
by the Inquisition, which would judge them for heresy and
then return them for punishment of other offences (Pena,
Append, ad Eymeric., p. 135). Bordonus cites this to show
that those held for sorcery, etc., are to be surrendered to the
ecclesiastical court to be subsequently delivered to the secular
court. Ib., n. 53.
Has this a bearing on the burning of witches by the secular authorities
after confession and repentance in the Inquisition? Yes, for Bordonus adds
that, under this bull, the inquisitor does not incur irregularity by remitting
a sorcerer to the secular tribunal in which he will be condemned to death,
for this is considered as a dispensation. Bordonus says (loc. tit.) that, if
the ecclesiastical court condemns to galleys and the secular to death, then
death absorbs or replaces the galleys.
Carena says that formerly simple sorcery, not "calificado," was mixti fori,
but in modern times, since the bull of Sixtus V, it belongs exclusively to
the Inquisition (Carena, De Officio SS. Inquis., P. II, tit. 12, n. 147).
This bull of Sixtus V
is evidently Coeli et Terrae Creator, 5 January 1585,
casibus antea non procedebant aut procedere non valebant" (Pena, App.
ad Eym., p. 144). This does not confer exclusive jurisdiction.
Carena says (De Officio SS. Inq., P. II, tit. 12, nn. 143-6) the question
was decided at Cremona, in 1636, in a case in which he was concerned,
where four assassins were tried for the murder of Dom Carlo Gonzaga and
two of them were found protected with parchments inscribed with holy
names and prayers and unknown characters.
but it is necessary to prove that the death or sickness was caused by sorcery,
and it is enough to state that the corpus delicti is proved. And although
the doctors all say that the corpus delicti fully and
must be established
conclusively, either by witnesses or the evidence of fact, yet this is not
the case in crimes difficult to prove like sorcery, which is performed secretly,
for in such crimes it suffices to prove the corpus delicti by indicia, which
are held as clear proof in hidden crimes, which indicia are most fully set
forth by Binsfeld, 1. fin., Cod. de Malef. et Mathem., and Del Rio, lib. v,
sect. 3 and 4. Thirdly, in sorcery which leaves no traces, then the accused
can be condemned on simple confession. So Del Rio, ubisup., sect. 16, and
Binsfeld, Comment. 1. Nemo Cod. de Mai. et Math., q. 1, concl 2. In
other similar crimes,when proving the corpus delicti is discussed, refer to
Farinacius and Giurba, who hold that the corpus delicti must absolutely
be proved but in such fashion as it can be proved, per aliquas saltern
leves conjecturas" (Carena, De Officio SS. Inq., P. II, tit. 12, nn. 171-6.)
Both Bordonus and Carena refer to Albertini, so it is worth while to see
what he says. His work was posthumous, issued after his death (1545) in
1
Palermo, 1553.
To return to Bordonus. The indicia which in defect of
proof establish the corpus delicti are enumerated except the
common ones, such as evil acts, ill fame, flight, mandatum,
accomplice, etc., which will be treated hereafter.
1. Books or writings containing sorceries. These suffice
for torture but simple love-charms do not.
1
For Albertini's discussion of these questions see pp. 456-7.
WITCHCRAFT LITERATURE OF ROMAN INQUISITION 997
3. A pot
full of human limbs, sacred things,
images, hosts,
etc., isa grave indicium.
4. Conversation overheard between the witch and a demon,
whether he is visible or invisible.
5. Offering to teach sorcery.
6. If a witch touches an enemy and he dies suddenly or is
stricken with some evil; also if she gives him to eat with the
same result.
7. Invocation of the devil or express pact.
8. Stripping bodies hanging on the gallows to use the
clothes for sorcery.
9. Frequent invocation of the devil to harm a neighbor,
for this infers friendship and association with him.
10. Evil and frightful countenance or deformity of face
indicates that she has the friendship of the demon.
11. Being the child of a witch or sorcerer. (Simancas, tit.
37, n. 20, denounces this as the foolish opinion of the vulgar.
H. C. L.)
12. Threats followed by evil happenings.
13. Evidence that she has been seen gathering poisons or
giving them to animals who have died of it. This suffices for
torture.
Note that each not
of the above, especially 8 to 11, does
but must be conjoined with others, and
suffice for torture,
must be certain, not doubtful or equivocal. Ib., c. 19, n. 16
(pp. 357-8).
Repute among the people of being a witch, proved by two
legitimate witnesses, does not suffice for torture without other
seems curious that the Holy See should look wholly to the secular
It
and not to the spiritual one. This is to be expected
offence in witchcraft
in the Carolina, but not in ecclesiastical law. Del Rio is much more
logical.
involved in the activity of
[As early as Lactantius the spiritual offense
sorcerers was recognized.] "Magorum quoque ars omnis ac potentia horum
[daemonum] aspirationibus constat, a quibus invocati visus
hominum
praestigiis obcaecantibus fallunt,
ut non videant ea quae sunt, et videre
se putent ilia quae non sunt. Hi ut dico spiritus contaminati ac perditi
suae perdendis homin-
per omnem terrain vagantur, et solatium perditionis
ibus operantur. Itaque omnia insidiis, fraudibus, dolis, erroribus complent;
adhaerent enim singulis hominibus et omnes ostiatim domos occupant, ad
sibi geniorum nomen assumuntj sic enim latino sermone daemonas inter-
pretantur. .
Qui quoniam sunt spiritus tenues et incomprehensibiles
. .
A nice distinction 1
they pretend to be forced and to be afraid, they laugh at those who do it,
as fools (Simancas, De Cath. Instt., tit. 30, n. 17). Alberghini quotes this
approvingly, ubi sup. They quote Augustin (De Civ. Dei, x, 11) for this,
but I cannot find that he does more than recite some vague expressions of
Porphyry. Simancas also cites Gerson to the same effect. The conclusion
which Bordonus seems to draw is that there is no difference between the
deprecative and imperative invocation; but the theologians, I think, argue
that the deprecative assumes that the demon has power independent of
God and is in some sort adoration, which is heretical, while the imperative
infers no intellectual error.
I cannot identify these councils, nor can I find in Gams any bishoprics
with these titles. 1
is not pun-
Again, an unsuccessful attempt to kill by sorcery
ishable with de^th. Again, those who procure the commis-
sion of sorcery are not liable to death, but to other penalties;
it is only the actor. Again, although ecclesiastics are not
specially named in the bull, still they are to be degraded.
Ib., nn. 38-51 (pp. 330-1).
The notabile for which the culprit is to be per-
damnum
petually imprisoned must be left to the discretion of the
judge, though I think it must be [something] more than
theft. Ib., n. 52.
Sorcerers of other kinds can be punished with prison and
even with galleys for five or seven years. Men can be
scourged, as slso foeminae viks.Ib., n. 53.
Simple sorcery is punishable with prison for some
months
or with salutary penance. Ib., n. 54.
Sorcerers and astrologers are not required to make resti-
tution of their earnings unless they pretend to do what they
know they cannot. Ib., n. 56 (p. 332).
The maleficus is required to make good injuries done by
him. Ib., n. 57.
character must be
The corpus delicti and its superstitious
proved before proceeding to arrest, unless flight is feared, in
which case the party can be arrested or held to bail. Ib.,
sect, xliii, nn. 1-2 (p. 333).
It is the universal opinion that the corpus delicti must first
be proved, otherwise the citation, examination, torture and
condemnation are invalid, for without it there is no case.
Ib., nn. 3-4 (pp. 333-4).
The proof of this ought to be full and conclusive, not pre-
sumptive, and in its absence the confession of the accused
is of no weight against him. Nevertheless, when the crime
is difficult of proof, presumptions and conjectures suffice.
In this matter proof is very difficult, as it depends on sorcery
and the art of demons, which operates most secretly at the
instance of the sorcerer. Ib., nn. 5-8 (p. 334).
To bring the matter under the jurisdiction of the Inquisitor,
its superstitious character must be proved, as otherwise it
has no cognizance. The sickness, death, or destruction of
property must be proved to come from sorcery. In things
difficult of proof there is no need of ocular inspection, but
is that they are read and used, also instruments such as astro-
face, for those having friendship with the devil contract it,
though Del Rio says (lib. v, sect. 4, n. 21, p. 725) that it is
not to be regarded, as it may come from other causes. (13)
Children of witches are apt to be witches, but this is a light
indication. (14) The assertion of one who has seen the
accused anoint or give drink to a man or animal and they
have soon sickened or died. If the witness is unexception-
able, this suffices for torture. (15) Threats followed by sick-
ness which resists remedies suffice for torture. (16) Public
fame, but as this commonly arises against old women through
malevolence, this is light and insufficient, unless supported
by other proofs (n. 49). Ib., nn. 34-49 (pp. 336-7).
Does the assertion by two witches of having seen such a
one in the Sabbat suffice for inquiry, arrest and torture? No,
for no faith is to be reposed in it unless they tell of what they
have antecedently seen as to preparation for going there.
Therefore it does not suffice for investigation, much less for
arrest or torture. Firstly, no faith is due, for they suffer two
exceptions that of sex and that of accomplices. And Carena
adds that a decision of the Roman Inquisition is that their
depositions do not suffice for inquiry. (Apparently he had
never seen the Instructions. H. C. L.) But they are valid,
if they say they saw her anoint herself and mount a goat.
Binsfeld, Del Rio, Pena, etc., say that these depositions suffice,
because in the Sabbat one is not always deluded, so there
may be truth in it. But this is of no moment, for it cannot
be told when the demon deceives and when he shows the truth;
consequently, as the assertion is doubtful, it proves nothing.
Ib., nn. 50-3 (pp. 337-8).
Are witches to be tortured to confirm their testimony?
No, for they may retract what is in favor of the faith and
this is the practice of the Holy Office.- Ib., n. 54 (p. 338).
Do the utterances of demons and the possessed make
indicia against sorcerers? No, for the demon speaking him-
self or through the possessed is assumed to be lying, as he is
the father of lies and there is no truth in him. Ib., nn. 55-6.
He support of this Carena, De Off. S. Inq., P. II,
cites in
tit. who says that the assertion of demons extorted
12, n. 227,
by exorcism does not make an indicium for torture, for the
devil is the father of lies. Inquisitors should proceed with
the utmost caution on the assertions of exorcists, for they are
often deceived.
Bordorms also cites the Rituale Romanum Pauli V, tit. de Exorcis., as
saying,"In nuUo ergo ei credendum est, quia habet mille nocendi artes;"
WITCHCKAFT LITEBATURE OF BOMAJtf INQUISITION 1009
but the modern Eitual, tit. x, c. 1 (p. 288, August. Taurin., 1891)
says:
"Aliqui [daemones] ostendunt factum maleficium et a quibus sit factum et
modum ad ilium dissipandum, sed caveat ne ob hoc ad magos vel ad sagas
vel ad alios quam ad Ecclesiae ministros confugiat, aut ulla
superstitione
aut alio modo illicito utatur." I have already copied this elsewhere.
Apparently the modern ritual is more credulous than that of Paul V.
The bearing of all this on the cases of Gaufridy and the Diables de Loudun
is manifest.
This may be worth alluding to as instance of modern recrudescence of
superstition.
thee and thou shalt have dominion over it" (Gen., iv, 7), or
as the Vulgate has "sed sub te erit appetitus ejus et tu
it,
dominaberis illius." He
says, "usus conficiendi hujusmodi
maleficia frequentissimus est, ut nobis Consultoribus sanctae
Inquisitionis manifeste constat ex innumeris pene causis quae
quotidie tractantur in hoc sacro tribunali." Ib., nn. 280-1
(p. 235).
He goes on to describe the various methods (nn. 282-4)
not necessary to follow.
All this has interest as showing how probabilism and casuistry succeeded
in largely eluding the old prescriptions.
The ingenuity with which all possible aspects of all possible cases are
imagined and threshed out is worthy of the casuists. See whole chapter.
Salelles, in his reg. 123, of lib. i, c. 14, (I, pp. 237-9), follows
Sanchez.
"Aliqua denique opera magica sapiunt haeresim, saltern
occultam, quae procedunt ex pacto tacito cum daemone.
Quamquam ex hoc pacto, ut in plurimum censentur sortilegia
simplicia, absque sapore haeresis, subsunt nihilominus etiam
ipsa jurisdictioni Inquisitorum." Salelles, reg. 124, nn.
332-3 239).
(p.
Heretical sorcery is that which seeks from the what dmon
is beyond his powers and can be performed only by God.
tution of Sixtus V
they had jurisdiction in doubtful cases to determine
whether it was Simancas clearly proves against those who
heretical, as
think otherwise (tit. 30, nn. 20-1), thus contradicting Sylvester above.
(See Summa Diana, s.v. Inquisitor. Jurisd., n. 69.)
It seems remarkable that Delbene does not cite the Roman Instructions,
but the Spanish, in support of the cautious and humane procedure which
he inculcates.
From this it may be inferred that these provisions of the Madrid Instruc-
tions were accepted by the Roman Inquisition.
WITCHCRAFT LITEEATTJBE OF KOMAN INQUISITION 1019
Ifshe admits her guilt and is truly repentant, she is admitted to com-
munion see above.
It will be seen how strong were the motives for those carried to execution
not to retract their confessions and incur the fire here and hereafter. The
more pious they were, the stronger were the inducements.
If you object that witches are not really transported, but are
deceived in so thinking, so that their flight and all that occurs in
the Sabbat are only imaginary and that the demon represents
these fantasms to them in sleep, I concede this sometimes;
if that the demon cunningly does this to persuade judges that
act (for which he cites the Malleus, Alph. de Castro and Del
Rio), and moreover it is repugnant to reason. It cannot be
denied that this is in the power of the demon, to which no
earthly power can be compared; nor can it be denied that God
permits it when witches consent and the demon invites them,
and Christ permitted himself to be carried to the pinnacle of
the temple and thence to a high mountain, as shown in Matt.,
iv, and the Holy Fathers everywhere teach it. Besides, to deny
it is a doctrine most pernicious to the republic, for it protects
a crime most heinous and most pernicious to the republic
and impedes the due punishment of witches, for judges who
believe this doctrine do not punish witches, or punish them
lightly, sparing their lives, whence it results that very many
practice this pestiferous art and the demon can rage in safety.
It condemns all tribunals, secular and ecclesiastic, not only
for ignorance and imprudence in not being able to distinguish
between the real and the imaginary, but even for injustice
and cruelty in punishing with death women for maleficia
which they have not done but have only dreamed of doing
through illusion of the demon. If you insist that they are
sometimes deluded and therefore it is unsafe to punish those
who may be innocent, the answer is that they are presumed
not to be deluded, as they are in their right minds and give
details of time and place and those present and other cir-
cumstances and this often long after the occurrence. More-
over, even if deluded, they have express pact with the demon
usually conjoined with apostasy, and have desire to do what
they seem to do in sleep; they anoint themselves and use
charms for it and subsequently approve of it and intend to
repeat it, including idolatry, commerce with the demon,
renunciation of Christ and desire to injure others in body
and goods. If you persist and cite the Cap. Episcopi that
witches are not really transported, but only in imagination,
the reply is that this does not apply, as it does not speak of
witches, but of some other kind of women, for it only taxes
them with credulity and does not condemn their monstrous
wickedness as it would if they were witches, and this credulity
consists only in believing themselves with Diana and Herodias
and obeying them as goddesses, and not in being transported
by a demon in the shape of a goat, feasting and dancing and
having wicked commerce with the demon. Witches know
that they are with the demon and do not believe what is
condemned in the Cap. Episcopi. If it applied to our matter,
WITCHCEAFT LITERATTJBE OF ROMAN INQUISITION 1027
said that this is not instantaneous, but the eyes of the spec-
tator are dulled while the demons carry off the witchesto
say nothing of the fact that they are sometimes left and
are
found."-- Ib., P. II, dub. 227, sect. 3, nn. 6-18 (II, pp. 255-7).
Some say the Council Ancyra was provincial and not
of
canonical and no
therefore ofauthority but this is not so,
for it was confirmed by the Council of Nicaea and by the
Sixth General Synod, can. 2, wherefore it is better to answer
as above. Ib., n. 17 (p. 257).
Witches cannot penetrate bodies or be in two places at
to kill infants, they
once, so when they enter closed houses
do not penetrate the walls, but the demons open the doors
and even the walls, replacing them afterward, or convey
them through upper openings, i. e., chimneys. (So Toletus,
Instruct. Sac., lib. iv, c. 16, n. 7, and Del Rio, lib. ii, q. 17,
p. 185.) Ib., n. 19 (p. 257).
Del Rio (loc. cit.) prefers this to the suggestion that the demon trans-
forms them into mice, cats, locusts and other small animals.
Note as to this last that he says nothing about the caution enjoined by
the Instructions.
All this is virtually the definition of the Paris University and is carried
back to Aquinas.
The use of amulets and charms hung around the neck are examples o*
vain observance; also the unintelligible charms employed to cure disease.
The prevalence and endless variety of these is seen in the numerous sections
devoted to them.
For negative and positive doubt see Auricular Confession and Indulgences,
II, pp. 320-1.
reports to the superior demon, who casts off the sorcerer and
exposes him to temporal afflictions so as to gain his soul
through despair. Cap. 2, sect. 6, n. 3 (p. 229).
This is also in Lupo da Bergamo in Edict. S. Inq., P. Ill, lib. xx, dist. 1,
diff. 3, which I already have. Both are derived from Mall. Malef., P. II,
q. 1, c. 2 (p. 227) though not so detailed.
they also use the bodies of infants to make the famous oint-
ment without which they cannot fly to the Sabbat, and they
eat them cooked in their banquets; they start great confla-
grations of houses and cities by merely murmuring spells;
mothers'
they cause abortions and barrenness and dry up
milk. Ib., subsect. 2, nn. 1, 4, 5,
7 (pp. 231-3).
They can disturb the mind with dreams or by altering the
blood and humors, so that the ignorant who can not dis-
of the mind think
tinguish between the higher and lower parts
they can control the will, for which, but for their ignorance,
would be formal heretics. Ib., nn. 9, 10 (p. 233).
they
It is through the violence thus exercised on the sensitive
hatred. Ib., nn. 11, 14, 16
part that they excite to love or
(pp. 233, 234).
It is difficult to find reasons for admitting the power to sway the affections
while denying it for the will. The usual excuse is that it is the business of
the Tempter to temptbut this is applied to lust and not that I remember
to other sins. But hi fact the whole business of asserting the uncontrollable
freedom of will is easily eluded in some way or other, as when Ahab was
to be lured to his destruction (I Kings, xxii, 19-22).
(p. 235).
Sometimes these are thorns, bones, stones, needles, knives,
introduced in the body by the demon. Or ointments are
used, rubbed on the body during sleep. For which cause
the witches attack during the night, using not only ointments
but all other means of harming adults and infants, sometimes
It is no
oppressing them tiU they seem to be suffocated.
wonder that they enter chambers in the forms of animals, or
the demon carries them there and opens and closes the
doors although sometimes the witches dream that they do
these things, while really the demon does them and persuades
them that they do them. Ib., nn. 6-9 (pp. 325-6).
But it must be admitted that these flights are sometimes
real Ib., n. 10.
WITCHCRAFT LITERATURE OF ROMAN INQUISITION 1037
without being felt or bringing blood; the other that the figure
varies sometimes it is the shape of a hare, or again of the
foot of a toad or lizard or black cat. He agrees with Godel-
mann that this is proof insufficient for torture, and Berlich
says that it creates no suspicion, as it may be an accident.
He assents to all this, if there are no other indicia, but if
there are it is a weighty proof. Ib., nn. 11-13 (pp. 241-2).
It does not prove one to be a maleficus to be named by the
demon when the exorcist asks the obsessed how he entered
and who is the maleficus, for the devil is the father of lies,
and to impress the exorcist will sometimes name some one
whose reputation is bad or who is disliked by the possessed.
Ib., n. 15 (p. 242).