Name: Compendium Maleficarum
Author: Francesco Maria Guazzo

Compendium Maleficarum, collected in three books from many sources, by Brother Francesco Maria Guazzo, translated by E. A. Ashwin, edited with notes by Montague Summers. London: John Rodker, 1929.

Dedication

the Most Illustrious and Right Reverend

Lord Orazio Maffei

Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and
ever vigilant Protector of the
Order of S. Ambrose

Fra Francesco Maria Guazzo

A humble brother of the
same order

giveth greeting

O most vigilant Prelate, three years ago when I was attending the Court of His Serene Highness the Duke of Cleves and Jülich (who was vexed and bound by many spells of witchcraft), I put together and composed this book which I have called “Compendium Maleficarum” and I have, moreover, filled it with various and most ample examples, with the sole purpose that men, considering the cunning of witches, might study to live piously and devoutly in the Lord. And although it may provoke the idle jests of the censorious (for what is more difficult than to satisfy every palate?), yet I conceive that it will be of some avail to those who would escape the mortal venom of sorcerers. When I had, then, determined to print it, I began to look for a Patron under whose auspices it might be more securely brought to the light. Then, O most illustrious and Most Reverend Protector, whom no one has excelled in genius, gifts of mind and body and countless graces, did you stand out in my mind as one who has given public proof that your most eminent courage is joined to a like degree of learning, a Patron who, far from despising a humble writer, would rather extend to him your greatest favour and more than ordinary kindness. Having these considerations in my mind, therefore, I was assured that you were pre-eminently suited to act the part of a Maecenas towards such as devoted themselves to the furtherance of sound doctrine, among whom I count myself the humblest: and I determined to light this new-born work upon its way with the torch of your most Famous Name; and although you are worthy of a far nobler work, I venture to dedicate to you this little book which has not been compiled without some labour. And if (as is my hope) you will accept it wholly and generously with that fair candour which is yours, it may assuredly be expected that those carping critics, who will tolerate nothing that does not savour of perfect genius and unremitting industry, will turn a blind eye to its faults. Farewell: and may Guazzo be written among those who are whole-heartedly attached to you.

Milan, May, 1608.

Preface to the Reader

Preface

to the Reader

Among the countless blessings which the Divine mercy daily confers upon the whole human race, and especially upon His faithful, I esteem this to be the most particular: the power to discover the malice and wickedness of our enemies, both visible and invisible. So that, recognising their cunning, we may counteract their stumbling-blocks and temptations. And since (Ps. lxxiii) the pride of them that hate God is daily increased and ever grows, and the venomous Enemy of the human race, whose fierceness waxes ever greater, does not fear to sow in our path the sharpest thorns of sorrow and tribulation and all sorts of maladies, although he himself is fearful of being tormented; therefore he essays his utmost to increase his own eternal punishment by leading as many men as he can to hell, and to deride, despise, and insult the most excellent and divine likeness of God which has been washed in the Precious Blood of Christ, and to turn man’s freedom to slavery. Therefore each one of us ought to search his heart to keep it free from the malice of the devil; for he goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; and even though his heart may be pierced and torn by his enemy’s weapons, yet the devil leaves nothing unattempted and dares everything. When he sees men of weak and timid mind, he takes them by storm: when he finds them dauntless and firm, he becomes as it were a cunning fox to deceive them: for he has a thousand means of hurting us, and he uses countless methods, superstitions and curious arts, to seduce men’s minds from God and lead them to his own follies; and all these he wondrously performs by means of illusions and witchcraft. Therefore it is agreed that this sort of evils has been disseminated to the destruction of men’s bodies and souls by the devil and his fiends through the agency of warlocks, witches, sorcerers and diviners; and in proof of this the present book will give a sure indication of the truth. And that each man may be able to guard himself, let him seriously read and carefully digest this book, which I have called Compendium Maleficarum; for just as there are shown to be various means and methods of inflicting injury, so there are various remedies by which these harms may be met and dispersed when they are recognised. If therefore, reader, there be anything in this book which holds your attention and points you the way to a remedy, I lift up my hands in thanks to God, who to His own greater glory, and the confusion of devils, has permitted the temptation of our souls that the just may be made perfect and the wicked cast into hell. Therefore the demons do but work in accordance with the design and permission of Almighty God.

Editor's Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

The ancient origins of the local Milanese Order Ambrosiani or Ambrosini, of which Francesco-Maria Guazzo was so eminent and honoured a member, are buried in obscurity, although the Brethren themselves, perhaps with more devotion than exactness, were ever wont to refer their foundation to no less a figure than the great S. Ambrose himself. It is very possible, and even probable, that some old traditions had actually been handed down from the illustrious Father who had taken so deep an interest in monasticism and so closely watched the beginnings of the cloister throughout his diocese. However that may be, in the earlier decades of the fourteenth century certain solitaries and hermit priests dwelling near Milan gradually adopted the cenobitic life, making it their pious custom to assemble at stated intervals during the day for solemn office and united prayer. About this very time three young nobles, Alessandro Crivelli, Alberto Besozzo, and Antonio della Pietra-Santa, disgusted with the licentiousness of the aristocratic society and court of Giovanni II, had sought refuge in retreat from the world, and taking as their anchorhold a wood not many leagues from the city, here they built a humble chapel which soon became the common oratory of a regular community, and this forest sanctuary may not untruly be said to have been the cradle of the Ambrosian Order. In 1375 Pope Gregory XI, who some twelve months before had approved the Congregation of the Spanish Hermits of S. Jerome, gave the Milanese frati the Rule of S. Augustine, adding thereto a number of particular constitutions, and assigning as their name “Fratres Sancti Ambrosii ad Nemus.” They were, moreover, empowered to elect their own superiors, subject to the confirmation of the Archbishop of Milan. A habit was prescribed with broad scapular, a stuff girdle pendent as is the Augustinian cincture, a voluminous cowl and capuce, a mighty mantle in which to walk abroad, in colour all of chestnut brown.^[1] The Ambrosian Liturgy, both for Mass and choir, must be followed. The Order henceforth was canonically established.

Of the history of the Ambrosiani comparatively few details are known, and it is hardly necessary here to rehearse them at any length. It will suffice to say that various houses were founded, and that for more than half a century each monastery remained entirely independent, their only connexion being the fact that each adopted the same rule. In 1441 Eugenius IV united all the existing foundations in one Congregation under a Master-general who was to reside at the original convent where in future a full Chapter met every three years. It was found that the old discipline had become somewhat relaxed in the time of S. Carlo Borromeo, but at the request of the brethren this great Saint presided in person over their Chapter of 1579, and with his encouragement the earlier strictness was soon restored. Subjects, none the less, were few, and on 15 August 1589 Sixtus V issued a bull joining the Ambrosiani with the Apostolini or Barnabites,^[2] who claimed the Apostle S. Barnabas as their founder, but whose constitution, as then followed at any rate, had been approved by Rome early in the fifteenth century. The Congregation thus formed was now generally known as the Brethren of S. Ambrose ad Nemus and S. Barnabas, and upon the engraved title-page of the second edition (1626) of Guazzo’s “Compendium Maleficarum,” the two Saints are duly depicted as patrons in full pontificalia.

Outside the archdiocese of Milan the Ambrosiani held for a while only two houses, both of which were at Rome: San Clemente,^[3] and San Pancrazio. In Milan itself their most important monastery was that attached to the Church of San Primo, a parish which in more recent years was divided among three other churches, S. Bartolomeo, S. Babila, and San Andrea. The Church of San Primo and the adjoining cloister stood hard by the Porta Orientale where was the Collegia Elvetico at the opening of the Strada Marina. The religious also served the church of S. Ambrogio della Vittoria, which was built (1348) at Parabiago^[4] in thanksgiving for the famous battle won there by the Milanese in 1339.

However popular at Milan, where they were held in high honour, even in the day of their greatest prosperity the Ambrosiani had never been more than a purely local Congregation, and when their numbers sensibly diminished and several of their houses fell vacant it is not surprising to find that the question of suppressing the Order was more than once debated. Eventually, on 1 April, 1645, by the bull “Quoniam,” Innocent X dissolved the surviving monasteries, including that of Parabiago, which remained, directing that they should be assigned to secular priests. The details of these arrangements were entrusted to two Cardinals, Odescalchi and Monti, who acted on behalf of the Holy See. It must not be supposed that the dissolution was in any way intended as a censure or refection upon the Ambrosiani. At that time certain reforms were being essayed in various directions, and of these one was the diminution of the very many provincial Congregations and obscurer local Orders, whose continuance involved a vast complexity of business and affairs, whose members were few and dwindling, whose purpose had been served, in most cases admirably and devotedly served throughout the years, but whose day was gone. Even as one of our own poets has said:

God fulfils Himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

The Ambrosiani were not without their holy names. There were Beati in the calendar of the Order; Blessed Alberto Besozzo; Blessed Antonio Gonzaga of Mantua, Blessed Filippo of Fermo, Blessed Gerardo of Monza, Blessed Guardate, Blessed Giovanni, Blessed Placido, and many more, a noble roll of sanctity. They boasted too eminent scholars and writers of renown; the pious and strictly orthodox Paolo Fabulotti whose authoritative “De potestate Papae super Concilium,” first published at Venice in 1613, ran into several editions; Ascanio Tasca, who left the Society of Jesus to follow the more cloistered Ambrosian life, and who rose to be Master-general; Michele Mulazzani, a Piedmontese, who in his day had also governed the Order; Zaccaria Visconti; and Francesco-Maria Guazzo.

Even the recent and particular researches of Monsignor Professore Giovanni Galbiati, the distinguished Prefect of the Ambrosian Library, have failed to discover any details of the life of Guazzo. Perhaps this is because there is really little to know of the contemplative and monastic life, little to know of Guazzo save what we may gather from his own printed works. The archives and cartularies of the Ambrosiani whence we might at least have learned the dates of Guazzo’s birth, of his profession in the Order, and his death, have been lost for many a century. There remain then his writings, three in number, the first and most important being the “Compendium Maleficarum,” which was originally published at Milan, “Apud Haeredes Augustini Tradati,” in 1608. This golden treatise is dedicated to the Protector of the Ambrosiani, Cardinal Orazio Maffei, and the preface is signed in the month of May. Guazzo was indeed no mere prodigy of the lecture-room and the schools, for he brought his genius to bear upon the pressing problems of a much-distracted time, and perhaps there was no business which more immediately required examination and remedy than the evil of witchcraft. The north of Italy and the remoter Alpine villages had for some reason long been infected to an almost unexampled degree. It was at Asti in Piedmont that well-nigh six hundred years before a society of devil-worshippers had been almost accidentally discovered, largely owing to their zeal for proselytism, and in spite of all efforts, both ecclesiastical and civil, it would seem that these had never wholly been stamped out, but that the dark tradition lingered and was perpetuated in obscure and evil ambuscades. It may be that throughout the thirty years’ incumbency of the Cardinal Archbishop Ippolito d’Este (1520–1550), always absent from his see, this cult waxed strong in common with many another dereliction and abuse. Certain it is that during the tenure of S. Carlo Borromeo, that great prelate was well-nigh overwhelmed by the corruptions of Milan, and indeed of his whole diocese. On one occasion he received the submission and confessions of no less than one hundred and thirty sorcerers. Another time as he was passing through a certain village it was noticed he refused to give his blessing to any house or to any individual save the parish priest alone, whom he informed that the folk were, one and all, secret Satanists.

In Milan itself the votaries of this hidden worship were to be met on every side. They vended charms and love-brews, poisons and philtres; almost openly they boasted of their skill in necromantic lore, their traffic with demons, their sabbats and sorceries, enormously corrupting the whole city.

It was at the instant request of a prelate of rare learning and keenest intelligence, Cardinal Federico Borromeo, the cousin and successor of San Carlo, and Archbishop of Milan from 1595 to 1631 that Fra Francesco-Maria Guazzo composed his encyclopaedic “Compendium Maleficarum,” “in the which is fully set forth the vile craft and enmity of witches against the whole race of mankind. Whereunto is further added a most salutary and potent Exorcism to dissolve and dispel all iniquities and delusions of the devil.” Guazzo tells us that he has been engaged upon these chapters for some three years, and in addition to his earnest desire to satisfy the Cardinal-Archbishop he was yet further induced to employ his pen on the theme of witchcraft owing to what he had personally witnessed and heard at the court of the Serene Duke John William of Jülich-Cleves. Owing to the great reputation Guazzo had acquired throughout the Milanese Archdiocese as being one of the most learned, most patient and most acute Judges and Assessors in the prosecutions for witchcraft, he was summoned in the year 1605 to Cleves to advise and direct in the case of the Duke himself, who as it was feared and proved had been overlooked and ensorcelled by an aged Satanist, a warlock ninety years old, named John, who dwelt at Lauch, in the archdiocese of Cologne. This wretch confessed that by his charms and certain evil runes he had indeed afflicted the Duke with a wasting sickness and a frenzy, whereupon, being guilty in the highest degree, he was, as the law directed, condemned to the stake. However, in the madness of desperation, as he lay in prison on Sunday morning, 25 September, with a sharp knife he inflicted a fearful wound in his throat, and it was said the very fiend stood by him in his death throes.

It is not to be wondered at that the whole cohort of witches aimed their utmost malice at the Duke, for he was very active in the suppression of that sect throughout his dominions.^[5] Thus on 24 July, 1581, he sent to the upper bailiff at Vlotho, Bertram von Landsberg, a woman accused of sorcery and deeply implicated, bidding the officers examine her straitly “both by gentle means and under torture,” and adding an express injunction that “in case of her still refusing to confess, she was to be subjected to trial by water.” It was to Duke John William, his territorial prince, that in 1596 Franz Agricola, pastor of Sittard, a strong opponent of Weyer, Hermann Neuwaldt, Wilckin, Anton Praetorius, and the rationalising school, dedicated his “Von Zauberern, Zauberinnen und Hexen,” in the preface to which pamphlet he very plainly says: “I know not whether any Catholic writers have hitherto treated this subject in German, but at any rate the rulers are not yet sufficiently informed as to the horror and monstrosity of this sin; … so that most scandalous, dangerous and abominable sin of sorcery and witchcraft has spread in all directions; no country, town, village, or district, no class of society is free from it.”

Lambert Daneau writing in 1574 tells us that in some districts “the witches are so defiant and audacious that they say openly, if only they had an eminent and renowned man for their captain they should become so strong and numerous that they could march against a powerful king in open battle and easily vanquish him with the help of their arts.” Well might James I whilst yet he only held his Scottish throne fear the dark Earl of Bothwell. In later years too the boast of the witches has been fearfully fulfilled.

Timely indeed was the writing of the “Compendium Maleficarum,” and necessary. A second edition “Ex Collegii Ambrosini Typographia,” appeared in 1626. The text here is very considerably amplified by further examples and the extended discussion of nice theological points. An exorcism is added together with various Benedictions, especially for the sick, such as the “Modus Curandi Febricitantes.”

The second work of Guazzo was a Life of Blessed Alberto Besozzo, one of the earliest of the Ambrosiani, and especially venerated as the Propagator of the Order, “Vita del Beato Alberto Besozzo,” Milan, Nava, 4to, 1625. This notable piece was widely esteemed for the elegance of its style, and brought Guazzo no small increase of reputation as a skilled hagiographer. The monograph was reprinted by the Milanese house of Corrada, 4to, 1684. In 1643 was issued at Venice Guazzo’s last book, “Il principe perfetto,” 12mo.

It has been conjectured that “Il principe perfetto” may be a posthumous volume, in which case we should date Guazzo’s death “circa” 1640, and it has further been suggested that the dissolution of the monasteries of the Ambrosiani—a suppression determined some years before—was purposely delayed until after the demise of so honoured and famous a member of that community.

Francesco Maria-Guazzo comes before us as a writer and scholar of no mean order. In the course of the “Compendium Maleficarum” I have counted quotations from and references to more than two hundred and fifty authors, and these illustrations are never those of some mere commonplace book or random excerpts, but pertinent, illuminative, well chosen and aptly employed. His reading and erudition were prodigious. Steeped in the lore of Councils and in the Fathers, both Greek and Latin, the writings of S. Basil, S. Gregory Nazianzen, S. Athanasius, S. John Chrysostom, S. Cyril, Tertullian, Lactantius, S. Augustine, S. Ambrose, S. Jerome, S. Bernard, S. Peter Damian, Dionysius the Carthusian, and many other a mighty name are easily familiar to him. With equal facility will he cite Cedrenus and Pontano; Pliny and the Dominican Silvester; Lucian and Luitprand; Hippocrates and Francesco Mattioli; the Catholic champion, Bishop Dubravsky of Olmütz and the Protestant Philip Camerarius, the son of Melancthon’s partner in the Augsburg Confession.

Although the “Compendium Malficarum” was at once accepted as supremely authoritative by all contemporaries, and later demonologists have not been slow to commend, apprize, and make final appeal to this most salutary and excellent treatise—the learned and judicious Sinistrari manifestly and formally not merely follows but actually paraphrases entire more than one chapter when discussing dark problems of witchcraft—it is surprising indeed that Francesco-Maria Guazzo has never generally achieved the wide renown and high reputation of a Bodin, a Remy, a Boguet, or a De Lancre. The reason for this no doubt lies in the fact that these writers were also men of action, each of whom perforce from his very office and estate stood largely in the public eye, and wrought zealously for the public weal. Jean Bodin won fame as a politician, a deputy of the Third Estate to the States-General of Blois, Attorney-General at Laon; Nicolas Remy for fifteen years held the helm as Privy-Councillor and chief Judge in the Duchy of Lorraine; Boguet was “Grand Juge de St. Claude au Comte de Bourgogne”; Pierre De Lancre, the wealthy magistrate of Bordeaux, served as Commissioner Extraordinary in the witch trials of Labourd. Francesco-Maria Guazzo remained but a humble friar, the subject of an obscure and solitary Congregation.

And yet the “Compendium Maleficarum”^[6] is a treatise of no less value and importance than the famous “Démonomanie des sorciers” and the “Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges et demons.” Guazzo analyses and describes as perhaps no other demonologist has set out with equal conciseness and clarity the whole practice and profession of witchcraft. Although never sparing of illustration and detail he does not indeed draw examples from the trials of those whom he had examined and judged as do Boguet and De Lancre, a feature which lends their work an especial and personal value, but the “Compendium Maleficarum” may be taken to be in some sort a complementary volume, an essential text-book of the subject, as it were, a tractate which probes and proves every circumstance of Satanism and sorcery.

To the historian, to the occult student, Guazzo’s work is of incalculable worth, and it is not too much to say that he can pretend to little knowledge of that evil Society and their horrid devices who is not intimately conversant with these pages. It will be found moreover that not the least valuable of these chapters are those which treat “De Remediis Diuinis,” and in particular the sections “De Eucharistia,” “De Signo Sanctae Crucis,” and “Auxilium singulare Beatae Mariae Virginis,” per Quam, ut ait Bernardus, Deus nos uoluit totum habere.

Montague Summers.

In Festo B.M.V. Diuini Pastoris Matris, 1929.

↑ It does not seem certain whether the Ambrosians (ad Nemus) were by rule discalced or shod. Hélyot, “Histoire des Ordres Monastiques,” 1715, vol. IV, p. 52, gives an engraving, “Religieux de l’Ordre de S. Ambroise ad Nemus,” who is wearing sandals. But there appear to have been modifications, and this detail differed from time to time. Originally no doubt the brethren were discalced, but a mitigation tolerated some form of foot-gear.
↑ The Brothers of S. Barnabas, not to be confused with the Barnabites, Clerks Regular, “Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli,” founded by S. Antonio Maria Zaccaria in 1530.
↑ Now served by the Irish Dominicans. S. Pancrazio fuori le Mura was seriously damaged in 1849, but has been restored.
↑ For an account of the connexion of the Ambrosini with this church and the jealousy of the civic authorities who wished to appoint their own chaplains, see the article “Ambrosiani” by Monsignor Giovanni Galbiati in the “Grande Enciclopedia Italiana.”
↑ For the witch prosecutions in the Lower Rhine district see Kuhl’s “Geschichte der Stadt Jülich,” 3 Teile, Jülich, 1891–94.
↑ Curiously enough there is no mention of the book either in Graese or Brunet.

Foreword

Although the “Compendium Maleficarum,” both from the encyclopaedic learning of the author and the scientific precision of his details, must rank as one of the most important of all Witchcraft Manuals, not only—largely owing to his severe concentration of thought and expression and the many technicalities—is the original Latin more than ordinarily difficult, but Guazzo was ill-served both in 1608 and in 1626 by his printers, for these two (which are the only) editions of the book are marred by a superabundance of most riddling typographical errors. Indeed before the work could be well rendered into English I found that it was necessary to prepare something like a definitive recension of the text, a preliminary which, if mechanical enough, has cost me no little time and labour.

To write a full excursus upon the “Compendium Maleficarum,” giving further and later examples of the many ill observances and devices of witchcraft, the transvection of the sorcerers to their rendezvous, the abominations of the Sabbat, the worship of the demon, the pledges of diabolical servitude, the “osculum infame,” the revelry, the dances, the lewdness of the Incubus and the Succubus, the malice and evil charms of Satanists, all of which and many more black secrets of goety Guazzo has so amply and so authoritatively displayed, would be to pen a second “History of Witchcraft,” another volume as copious and as detailed as the “Compendium” itself. However interesting and useful it would have proved to afford modern instances of the continued practices of this horrid Society I have judged it best to reserve so extensive a relation for a separate occasion, and therefore I have furnished this work of Guazzo with a minimum of annotation. Even so I am very well aware that in the glosses will be found information some may perhaps deem superfluous. On the other hand I am constantly being requested to illustrate these manuals of the demonologists by far more extensive commentaries than my wont, so that in fine it is, I fear, not possible entirely to satisfy every student and reader. In the present case I frankly acknowledge that on account of practical limitations of space, if for no other reason, I have felt obliged entirely to pass over no small number of points concerning which I was minded to write something fully, as also was it necessary for me to treat with economy other details not unworthy of closer investigation.

To the most learned Prefect of the Ambrosian Library, Monsignor Professore Giovanni Galbiati, I am greatly indebted for the trouble and pains he has so generously bestowed on my behalf in making very particular researches concerning Francesco-Maria Guazzo and in communicating to me important bibliographical and historical details of the Ambrosiani.

My best thanks are due to Dr. H. T. Norman, not only for the loan of many rare pieces on witchcraft from among the treasures of his library, but also for the very real and inspiring interest he has so cordially taken in the present series.

Montague Summers.

Chapter 1

Compendium
Maleficarum

Book I ☆ Chapter I

The Nature and Extent of the Force of Imagination.

Argument.

Many authors have written at length concerning the force of imagination: for example Pico della Mirandola,^[1] De Imaginationibus; Marsilio Ficino,^[2] De Theologia Platonica, Book 13; Alonso Tostado,^[3] On Genesis, Chapter 30; Miguel de Medina,^[4] De Recta in Deum Fide, II, 7; Leonard Vair,^[5] De Fascino, II, 3; and countless others. All are agreed that the imagination is a most potent force; and both by argument and by experience they prove that a man’s own body may be most extensively affected by his imagination. For they argue that as the imagination examines the images of objects perceived by the senses, it excites in the appetitive faculty either fear or shame or anger or sorrow; and these emotions so affect a man with heat or cold that his body either grows pale or reddens, and he consequently becomes joyful and exultant, or torpid and dejected. Therefore S. Thomas (Contra Gent. III, 103) has well said that a man’s body can be affected by his imagination in every way which is naturally correspondent with the imaginative faculty, such as local motion in those who are asleep; but that his other bodily dispositions which bear no natural relation with the imagination cannot be so affected; so that imagination cannot, for example, cause any man to add one cubit to his stature.

The argument is proved also by the daily experience of sleep-walkers who do wonderful things in their sleep: for it is agreed that such things are done through the power of imagination while the senses are asleep. Many such matters are discussed by Martin Delrio,^[6] Disquisitiones Magicae, Quaest. I, 3.

☆

Examples.

Martin Delrio^[7] tells of what happened at a monastery at Liège a few years ago. There was a certain lay brother whose duty it was during the day to teach the rudiments of the Catechism to a class of boys: and when he slept his thoughts were occupied with the same subject, so that he used to teach in his sleep, encouraging and scolding the boys as loudly and fervently as he did when he was awake; and in this way he disturbed the sleep of those near him. Another lay brother who slept next to him often complained to him about it; and one day he jokingly threatened that, if he made that noise again, he would get up in the night and go to his bed and beat him with a rope whip. And what did Gundislaus, as his name was, do? In the middle of the night he arose in his sleep and went from his bed to his fellow’s cubicle with a pair of scissors in his hand which he pointed straight at the bed of the other who had threatened him. But see the providence of God! The moon was shining, and the night was clear and cloudless; so that the brother, who was awake, saw him coming and at once threw himself from the bed on that side where the partition was farthest removed. The sleeper came up to the bed and stabbed the mattress three or four times with the scissors, and quickly went back where he came from. In the morning he was questioned, and said that he remembered nothing of it, adding that he had never had the least thought of doing such a thing; but that he had only contemplated frightening that brother and driving him off with the scissors if he had approached him with a whip.

Two friends^[8] were travelling together back to their own country and came one day to a town where one of them had an acquaintance with whom he lodged, while the other went to an inn for the night, intending to resume their journey the next day. But while his guest was sleeping the innkeeper, conceiving a greedy desire to take his money, killed him; and having done so began to think how he could smuggle the body out of the town to bury it. The same night the murdered man appeared in a dream to his companion who was sleeping in his friend’s house, and said: “My friend, my friend, help me; for the innkeeper means to kill me.” An hour or two later he appeared again, saying: “Ah, my friend, you did not help me; and behold, the cruel innkeeper has destroyed me.” A little later on the same night he came the third time in his dream, and said: “My friend, you did not help me to escape from my murderer’s hands, and now I am lying dead. And the murderer is considering how to dispose of and bury my body in the fields outside the town walls; and already he has hidden it in a cart-load of dung. I beg you, as you love me, not to allow this, but at least to see to it that I go to my burial in an honourable and befitting manner.” In the morning the man awoke and, terrified by his dream, went to look for his friend. He asked the innkeeper: “Where is my friend?” He answered, in the words of Cain: “Am I his keeper? He arose and went away, taking his belongings with him. I do not know where he went.” The friend stood for a while in doubt what he should do: but meanwhile he saw in the yard a cart laden with dung. The unhappy man was then struck with the vision he had seen in his imagination and, since he could not find his friend, quietly thought the matter over with himself. He waited some time to see whether his friend would come back; and when he did not return, he said that perhaps he had started on his journey, and added: “Good-bye then: if my friend comes, say that I have gone on, and tell him to follow me.” He then went straight to the mayor and told what had happened to his friend, mentioning the load of dung and adding all other necessary information. The mayor sent his officers, who stood at a distance and watched what the innkeeper would do. The murderer, thinking that all was safe since the dead man’s friend had gone away, started off with his cart to go out of the town. Seeing this the officers ran up and said: “Where are you off to, my good fellow, and what is this dung for? We have been ordered to take possession of it.” And overturning the cart they found the murdered man lying amidst the dung. The murderer was taken, and met with the terrible punishment which his crime deserved.

☆

↑ “Mirandola.” Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, 1463–1494. There are many editions of his Complete Works: Bologna, 1496; Venice, 1498; Strasburg, 1504; Basle, 1557; 1573; 1601.
↑ “Marsilio Ficino.” 1433–1499. “Theologia Platonica de animarum Immortalitate,” perhaps his most important work, was published at Florence 1482.
↑ “Alonso Tostado.” Circa 1400–1455. A famous exegete often quoted as Abulensis or Alonso Abulensis owing to his having been consecrated Bishop of Avila in 1449. The latest edition of his works is 27 volumes, folio, Venice, 1728.
↑ “Miguel de Medina.’’ 1489–1578. A Spanish Franciscan, esteemed as one of the most distinguished theologians of his day. “Annales Ordinis Minorum,” xix, xxi.
↑ “Leonard Vair.” Born at Benevento, of Spanish descent, c. 1540; Bishop of Pozzuoli, where he died in 1603. His “De Fascino,” Libri III, Paris, 1583; Venetiis apud Aldum, 1589, is a work of singular erudition.
↑ “Martin Delrio.” This famous Jesuit scholar was born at Antwerp, 17 May, 1551, and died at Louvain, 19 October, 1608. His encyclopaedic “Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex,” 3 vols., 5to, 1599, was frequently reprinted. Of these the folio, 1603, Mainz, is among the most highly esteemed. It is sometimes said that the first edition of Delrio’s work was Mainz, 1593, but this folio is a mere myth.
↑ “Delrio.” “Disquisitiones Magicae,” III, q. 3.
↑ “Two friends.” This history is very famous in English literature as having been introduced by Chaucer into the Nonne Preestes Tale of the Cok and Hen, Chauntecleer and Pertelote. Guazzo had it from Cicero, “De Diuinatione,” I, 27. It is also related by Valerius Maximus, I, 7 (“De Somniis”), where Warton wrongly supposed that Chaucer had found it. But it is plain that Cicero was the author to whom Chaucer refers, since in the “De Diuinatione” are two histories and both these the poet gives, but in a changed order and notes before the second narrative:
And certes, in the same book I rede,
Right in the nexte chapitre after this …

Chapter 2

Chapter II.

Of Artificial Magic.

Argument

Magic is of two kinds, natural and artificial. Natural or legitimate magic was, together with all other knowledge, a gift from God to Adam, who by peopling the world handed it down to posterity. This, as Psellus^[1] (De Daemonibus) and Proclus^[2] (De Magia) have noted, is no more than a more exact knowledge of the secrets of Nature, which by observing the courses and influence of the stars in the heavens, and the sympathies and antipathies subsisting between separate things, compares one thing with another and so effects marvels which to the ignorant seem to be miracles or illusions. As when Tobias dispersed his father’s blindness with the gall bladder of a fish, a virtue which Galen and many others attribute to the dragonet.^[3] Also the sound of a drum made from a wolf’s skin will burst a drum made from the skin of a lamb. Many other notable examples are mentioned by S. Augustine:^[4] such as the peacock’s flesh which cannot decompose; chaff which by its coldness preserves snow, and by its heat ripens fruit; a chalk which is set on fire by water, but will not burn if oil be poured upon it; the salt of Girgenti which melts in fire, but becomes hard and groans in water; and many other such things.

The other kind is artificial magic, which effects marvels by means of human skill. This again is two-fold, Mathematic and Prestidigital. Mathematical magic involves the principles of Geometry, Arithmetic or Astronomy: and examples of this are the setting fire to the ships at the siege of Syracuse^[5] by means of mirrors; the flying wooden doves of Archytas^[6] of Tarentum; the golden singing birds^[7] of the Emperor Leo; and such matters. Yet we affirm that by this means nothing can be effected which is opposed to the nature of things, but rather that it necessarily requires the help of natural causes and the correct application of certain movements and dimensions. The other sort, which may be called Prestidigital, is ludicrous and illusionary, and its effects are not such as they seem to be. To this sort belongs much that is believed to be done by conjurers and rope-walkers by means of feigned incantations as well as by the agility of their hands and feet. Such feats are at times performed by carefully trained brute animals; sometimes they are effected by the stealthy movements of hidden persons, as in the case of the priests of Bel^[8] who claimed that the food was eaten by the Dragon. Now thaumaturgy and natural magic are in themselves good and lawful, as any art is of itself good. But it may happen to become unlawful: first, when it is done for an evil purpose; second, when it gives rise to scandal, being thought to be done with the help of demons; third, when it involves any spiritual or bodily danger to the conjurer or the spectators. And it must be noted that, for every ten tricks of prestidigital illusion, these men perform one of pure sleight of hand, so as to foster the belief that there is no illusion or sorcery in anything that they do, but that all is done by pure skill and dexterity. Ulricus Molitor^[9] states that the devil is able to make one thing seem as if it were another; and Nider^[10] tells us that many other tricks are practised by conjurers. For this prestidigital art was taught by the giant demons before the Flood, and from them Ham^[11] learned it, and from him the Egyptians, then the Chaldaeans and Persians, and so in succession. S. Clement in his Recognitions (IV) says: Zoroaster was the first of the Chaldaeans, and he was struck by lightning as a fit reward for his deeds.

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Examples.

A certain virgin of Cologne was said to have performed in the presence of the nobles wonders which seemed to be due to magic art: for she was said to have torn up a napkin, and suddenly to have pieced it together again before the eyes of all; she threw a glass vessel against the wall and broke it, and in a moment mended it again; and other like things she did. She escaped from the hands of the Inquisition with a sentence of excommunication.

From the same source we hear of a conjurer in France named Trois Eschelles,^[12] who in the sight of all and in the presence of Charles IX, called the Praiseworthy King, charmed from a certain nobleman standing at a distance from him the rings of his necklace, so that they flew one by one into his hand, as it seemed; and yet the necklace was soon found to be whole and uninjured. This man was convicted of many actions which could not have been due to human art or skill or any natural cause, and confessed that they were all devil’s work, although he had obstinately denied this before.

John Trithemius^[13] tells that much earlier, in the year 876 during the time of the Emperor Louis,^[14] a certain Zedechias, a Jew by religion and a physician by profession, worked wonders in the presence of Princes. For he appeared to devour a cart loaded with straw, together with the horses and the driver; he used to cut off men’s heads and hands and feet, and exhibit them in a bowl dripping with blood, and then suddenly he would restore the men unharmed each to his own place; and in mid-winter he created in Caesar’s palace a most beautiful garden, with trees, grass, flowers, and the singing of suddenly produced birds.

Thomas Fazelli, O.P.,^[15] relates in his De rebus Siculis, Decade II. v. 2 (also Dec. I. iii. 1) wonders of a certain Diodorus, commonly known as Liodorus, who was endowed with magic art and flourished at Catania by means of his marvellous skill in illusions. This man, by the force of his incantations, appeared to change men into brute beasts, to effect a metamorphosis of nearly all things into new shapes, and instantly to bring to himself objects very far distant from him. Moreover by slandering and insulting and reviling the people of Catania he bound them with such vain credulity that he incited them to worship him. When he was delivered up to be punished with death, by means of his pre-eminent skill in incantations he had himself carried out of his gaolers’ hands through the air from Catania to Byzantium, to which Sicily was then subject, and back again from Byzantium to Catania in a very short space of time. And the people so wondered at this magic that they thought there was some divine power in him, and in sacrilegious error began to worship him. At length Leo, the Bishop of Catania, received a sudden power from God and in the midst of the city caused him to be cast in the sight of all into a furnace of fire, in which he was burned. In this way divine justice prevailed; for he who had escaped death at the too lenient hands of the judges, could not escape from the hands of the Holy Man.

In our own times they say that one Cesare, a Maltese, was captured by the Parisians, but cunningly escaped from prison; and this, among other charges, was brought up against him in judgement by Bazius the Inquisitor. But as he was being exhorted to fear damnation, and the Governor of that time had required the Ecclesiastical Judges to preside over the enquiry, he broke away into the midst of the Court and there began to do many fresh marvels. He caused another person to hold magic cards in his hands, and standing at a distance he altered their appearance two or three times: he charmed to himself vessels placed on another part of the table by merely moving a small piece of glass: at times he divined the thoughts of others, as when he scattered on the table a great number of small grains of sugar, and told each man which grain he was thinking of; and even if any one was doubtful of his choice, he would then come to a decision after a little hesitation, boasting that he had long before known which they would choose: and many other such marvels he claimed to perform. Wherefore he was a third time called to trial by the illustrious Archbishop of Malines, the learned Hovius,^[16] in the year 1600; and though he undertook to appear, he escaped to a refuge with a Prince who was the chief champion of Antichrist. This Prince who unlawfully kept the conjurer from the Judge’s authority hardly lived two years longer, but died in the prime of his life; and after he had undertaken the defence of an evil cause nothing prospered in his government. From this it is clear that God never leaves unpunished those Princes who defend His enemies; for He has expressly commanded: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus xxii, 18).

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↑ “Psellus.” Michael Constantine Psellus, 1020–1110 (Caillet); or c. 1018–c. 1078 (Adrian Fortescue), the celebrated Byzantine philosopher, attained a vast reputation at Constantinople, and even now Krumbacher, “Byzantinische Litteraturgesch.” (2nd ed., Munich, 1897), regards him as “the first man of his time.” At Paris, 1615, was published the “ ‘De Operatione Dæmonum’ Dialogus Gilbertus Gaulminus Molinensis primus Græce edidit et notis illustrauit.”
↑ “Proclus.” Born at Constantinople, 410; died at Athens, 485. “The scholastic of Neo-Platonism.” His writings were collected by Cousin, “Prodi Opera,” Paris, 1820–25.
↑ “Dragonet." Cf. Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” XXXII, 7: “Callionymi fel cicatrices sanat, et carnes oculorum superuacuas consumit.”
↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” XXI, 4, 5, and 6. “A chalk which is set on fire by water,” “Eam uiuam calcem loquimur,” i.e. “quicklime.” “The salt of Girgenti.” Cf. Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” XXXI, 7; “Agrigentinus (sal) ignium patiens ex aqua exsilit.” This is repeated by Solinus, “Polyhistoria,” XI; and S. Isidore “Etymologiae,” XVI, 2, 4.
↑ “Siege of Syracuse.” Syracuse was captured by Claudius Marcellus in 212 B.C. The story of the burning of the Roman fleet by the reflected rays of the sun, a device said to be due to the genius of Archimedes, is not found in Plutarch, Polybius, or Livy. It is first mentioned by Galen, “De Temp.” III, 2; and Lucian, “Hipp.” II, 2. In fuller detail it is recorded by Joannes Tzetzes, “Chiliades,” II, 103, sqq.
↑ “Archytas.” He probably lived about 400 B.C. Our chief authority for the little known of his life is Diogenes Laertius, VIII, 79–83.
↑ “Golden singing birds.” “When the Crusaders came from their grey castles to Constantinople, they were dazzled by the magnificence they saw at the Emperor’s Court. They told, when they came back, almost fabulous tales of the wonders they had seen, the costly toys, golden lions that roared, trees of jewels where enamelled birds flapped their wings and sang, thrones of ivory and sheets of porphyry.” Fortescue, “The Orthodox Eastern Church,” Part I, chapter 3.
↑ “Bel.” “Daniel” xiv.
↑ “Ulricus Molitor.” A learned lawyer of Constance, who being consulted by Sigismund of Austria on various problems of witchcraft published in January, 1489, his famous treatise “De laniis [sic] et phitonicis mulieribus.” Molitor died in 1492.
↑ “Nider.” Jean Nider, O.P., prior of the important Dominican house at Basle, papal inquisitor and Rector of the University of Vienna. He died in 1438. His work is very famous and there are constant appeals to his authority. The edition of the “Formicarius” (or “Formicarium”) which I have used is that of Douai, 1602.
↑ “Ham.” Cf. “Malleus Maleficarum,” Part I, Question 2: “Vincent of Beauvais in his ‘Speculum historiale,’ quoting many learned authorities, says that he who first practised the arts of magic and astrology was Zoroaster, who is said to have been Cham (Ham), the son of Noe.” This tradition is very frequently found. See my note on above passage in my translation of the “Malleus Maleficarum” (p. 15), John Rodker, 1928.
↑ “Trois-eschelles.” For whom see “The Geography of Witchcraft,” by Montague Summers, c. v, pp. 398–9 and 426. Also Bodin, “Demonomanie” (ed. Lyons, 1593), III, 5, pp. 329–30; IV, 4, pp. 421–2; and IV, 5, p. 509.
↑ “John Trithemius.” The famous Benedictine abbot was born at Trittenheim, 1 February, 1462; and died at Würzburg, 13 December, 1516.
↑ “Louis.” Louis le Germanique, third son of Louis le Debonnaire, born 806; died 876.
↑ “Thomas Fazelli, O.P.” This famous historian, one of the glories of the Dominican Order, was born in 1498 at Sacca, a town of Sicily, not far from Palermo, where whilst yet young he joined the famous Priory of San Domenico. “In omni scientiarum genere excelluit. Orator enim euasit, poeta, philosophus, theologus Patauii laureatus.” Thus the old biographer. Amongst the works of Thomas Fazelli the most important are: the posthumous “Thesaurum Antiquitatum et Historiarum Siciliarium,” Tomi x, 1579, and the history which is quoted here, “De rebus Siculis decades duo,” “nunc primum in lucem edita,” Panormi, folio, 1558. This was soon translated into Italian. Fra Fazelli died at the Palermo convent, 8 April, 1570. For fuller details see Quétif-Echard, “Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum,” vol. II, pp. 212–13.
↑ “Hovius.” Matthias Hovius was consecrated Bishop of Malines, 18 February, 1596; died 30 May, 1620. This great prelate, “qui coaeuos omnes et discendi celeritate et ingenii facilitate antecelluit,” is highly praised by his contemporaries for his “ingentes dotes,” which were the admiration of all. Cornelius à Lapide in the preface to his Commentary on the Epistles of S. Paul pays a remarkable tribute to the learning of Bishop Hovius.

Chapter 3

Chapter III

Whether this Magic can produce True Effects

Argument

Any man who maintained that all the effects of magic were true, or who believed that they were all illusions, would be rather a radish than a man. Most often the devil, being the father of lies, deceives us and blinds our eyes or mocks our other senses with vain illusory images: and not seldom God prevents him from achieving on behalf of witches what he would and could truly essay; and when he sees that this is so he has recourse to glamours, so that his impotence may not be perceived. But when God permits it, and the devil wishes to produce a true effect, provided that it does not exceed his power, then there is nothing to prevent him from effecting a genuine result; for he then applies active to passive principles, and natural causes engender a true effect. Dionysius of Athens (De Diuinis Hominibus, IV.) proves this when he affirms that the Devil did not, in sinning, lose his natural gifts, so that he has the greatest natural strength together with age-long and unlimited experience to enable him to produce a true effect when he desired. But witches’ works are illusions, not real but apparent. This is shown by Glycas^[1] where he speaks of the Egyptian Magicians who seemed to do as Moses did, and says: “They indeed changed their rods into serpents, but the rod of Moses swallowed their rods. And they also changed the water into blood, but once it had been changed, they could not restore it to its former state. They brought forth frogs also, but they were unable to protect the houses of the Egyptians from them. They had power to plague the Egyptians, but they had no power to ease their afflictions. Rather did God afflict the magicians with the same boils and blains as the rest of the people suffered; that it might be shown that not only were they unable to avert the divine punishment, but they must themselves partake of it.”

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Examples.

We read that the sorcerer Pasetes by means of certain enchantments caused a sumptuous feast to appear, and again he made all vanish at his pleasure. He used also to buy things and count out the price, and shortly the money would be found to have passed back secretly from the seller to the buyer. In S. Clement of Rome we also read much concerning Simon Magus: that he made a new man out of air, whom he could render invisible at will; that he could pierce stones as if they were clay; that he brought statues to life; that when cast into the fire he was not burned; that he had two faces like another Janus; that he could change himself into a ram or a goat; that he flew in the air; that he suddenly produced a great quantity of gold; that he could set up kings and cast them down; that he commanded a scythe to go and reap of itself, and that it went and reaped ten times as much as the others; and that when a certain harlot named Selene was in a tower, and a great crowd had run to see her and had entirely surrounded that tower, he caused her to appear simultaneously at all the windows and exhibit herself to all the people.

Anastasius^[2] of Nicaea says: “Simon Magus made statues walk, and when thrown into the fire he did not burn, and he flew in the air, and made bread from stones. He changed himself into the form of a serpent and other beasts; he had two faces: he was changed into gold; he would cause all sorts of spectres to appear at feasts; he caused many shades to go before him, which he said were the souls of the departed; he made the vessels in a house move as though of their own accord with apparently none to carry them.”

Bishop Dubravsky^[3] of Olmütz tells that a Bohemian sorcerer Zyto^[4] exhibited his skill now in his own appearance and form, and now under that of another; also that he appeared before the King in purple and silk, which suddenly changed to sordid woollen rags; and that he walked upon the ground as if he were sailing over water. Sometimes he would drive in a four-wheeled coach drawn by cocks. He used also to make sport in many ways with the King’s guests; sometimes causing them to be unable to reach their hands to the dishes, by changing their hands into the hooves of oxen or horses; and sometimes he fixed spreading stag’s antlers to their foreheads when they looked out at window at some passing spectacle, so that they could not draw their heads in again. He made thirty fat pigs out of bundles of straw and drove them to a certain rich baker named Michael, saying that he might buy them at his own price; only he warned the buyer not to drive his new herd to the river to water. The baker took no notice of the warning, and saw his pigs sink into the water while bundles of straw floated on the top: he then sought out the seller and at last found him in a tavern lying stretched out on a bench; and when he angrily tried to stir him by pulling one of his legs, Zyto caused his foot and leg to come away in the other’s hand. Zyto then loudly complained and, seizing him by the throat, had him taken before the Judge. The baker seemed to have been caught in a manifest crime, and suffered punishment in addition to his loss. For this power of sorcerers to throw off their limbs, see Pliny, Books 25, 26 and 28, and Aulus Gellius, Book 10, chapter 12.

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↑ “Glycas.” Michael Glycas, Byzantine historian. His “Annals” commence with the Creation and conclude with the death of Alexis I, Commenus, 1118. Editions; Bekker, Bonn, 1836; Migne, Paris, 1866.
↑ “Anastasius.” A theologian and exegete of the sixth century. The reference is to his “In Sacra scriptura,” q. xxiii.
↑ “Bishop Dubravsky.” John Dubravsky, Bishop of Olmütz, was the great Catholic champion of the sixteenth century, who refuted Speratus, Hubmaier, Huter, Socinus and other sectaries. His various writings include five books on piscatology; the work entitled “Ueber das heilige Messopfer”; and the thirty-three volumes of his monumental History of Bohemia. The present reference is to Book XXIII of this work.
↑ Zyto was the favourite magician of the Emperor Wenceslas, and upon the occasion of the marriage of this latter in 1389 with Sophia of Bavaria, is said to have far outexcelled in his art all the warlocks and conjurers of the land. His feats are recorded in not a few chronicles: e.g. Concil. Pragens. anno 1355, c. 61 (Hartzheim, IV, 400); Höfler, “Prager Concilien,” p. 2 (Statuta breuia Amesti anno 1353); Raynaldus, anno 1400, No. 14. Most of these tricks—the sprouting of antlers on the heads of persons looking through a window; fardels of straw sold as pigs and sinking in running water (fatal to sorcery); the leg coming away when pulled; passed into common folk lore and chap-books, being attributed to every conjurer of popular renown. These three illusions are introduced in Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus,” 4to, 1604.

Chapter 4

Chapter IV

That Witches Effect their Marvels with the Help of the Devil

Argument

The demon can effect the most rapid local movement of bodies, so that he can withdraw an object from sight and substitute another so quickly that he deludes the understanding and the eyes of the onlookers into a belief that the first object has been changed into the second. We must believe that the metamorphoses of the heathen were of this sort; such as the transformation of Diomedes’ companions into birds, and of Iphigeneia into a hind, as S. Augustine^[1] observes. These deceptions were exposed by Astirius also, whose deeds were saved from oblivion by Eusebius.

We must, then, consider marvels as of two kinds. The first is when the effect is not due to any local motion and is beyond the sphere of applied natural causes, as, for example, the raising of the dead or the healing of true blindness; for in such there is always some glamour or deception. The other is when a visible object suddenly vanishes; and this is due to some prestidigital contrivance. An example of the first is when a sorcerer places in a room a bow made of a certain wood, and an arrow of another wood, and a string of a certain material, and shoots the arrow and causes a river to appear in the place as wide as the length of the bow shot; of the second, when a horse appears to be torn in pieces, and then is found to be whole. Of the same sort is that trick mentioned by Nicetas,^[2] to which we shall refer later, in which a conjurer produces what appears to be a serpent. But for a better understanding of this it must be known that the devil deceives our senses in many different ways. First when he wholly or in part hides from our eyes an object which is present. Secondly, when he so affects the medium of our vision that an object seen through it seems different from what it is: as when salt is mixed with acid and a linen cloth soaked in it, if that cloth be lighted at a candle the faces of those present will assume a ghastly appearance; or if a candle made from an ass’s semen and wax be lighted, all those present appear to have asses’ heads. Thirdly, when the vapours of the intermediate air are thickened and so it appears that a cock is drawing along a beam, when it is really only a straw. Fourthly, when objects seem to move through the air, as trees appear to sailors to move along together with their ship. Fifthly, when there is shown to the onlookers an aerial or a fantastic body similar to that which they suppose it to be. Sixthly, by a swift agitation or a sudden concealment of visible objects, and by various secret arrangements and divisions of them, as conjurers do with strings and little balls, etc. Seventhly, if the bodily humours be agitated or disturbed things appear to be different from what they are, as happens to drunkards and madmen. Finally, I say that the devil can so compound and arrange fantasms that even when a man may be said to be awake he is as one who sleeps, and thinks he sees what he does not see, according to Gaetani,^[3] 2. 2, q. 95, artic. 3.

Examples.

At Caesarea Philippi, which the Phoenicians call Paneas, it is said that at a certain Festival of the Heathen a woman was solemnly sacrificed and thrown into the spring which there arises from the base of Mount Paneus, from which the Jordan is said to flow: and this woman, through the potent might of the demon, vanished in a wonderful manner from their eyes so that they thought that a memorable miracle had been performed. On one occasion Astirius chanced to be present while this was being done and, seeing so many people dumbfounded with wonder at this thing, he had pity on their ignorance and, raising his eyes to heaven, prayed God the Ruler of all through the mediation of Christ to restrain from his deception that demon who had so blinded the people with error, and to prevent him from those illusions with which he used to mock them. When he had thus prayed to God, the victim suddenly appeared floating on the water; and this matter which had caused so great wonder came to nothing, so that thereafter the like was no more practised in that place.

Michael Sicidites looked from a high place in the Palace of Constantinople and saw a ship laden with pots and dishes; and by a magic spell he caused the captain to rise and start beating those dishes until they were reduced to powder. Soon, when his blindness had passed, the wretched man tore his beard and began to utter loud lamentations: and when he was asked why he had treated his merchandise in that manner, he sorrowfully answered that, while he was intent upon his oars, he saw a horrible serpent stretched upon the dishes and glaring at him as if it were about to devour him, and that it had not ceased from its twistings and contortions until all the dishes were broken.

Hear another example which is so well told and instructive that I cannot refrain from relating it.

In the time of Sigismund I,^[4] King of Poland, Jacob Melstinch, the Mayor of the town of Brezinium, was induced by some lightness of the mind to take upon himself the authority and name of Christ. He chose Peter Zacorski of Cracow and eleven other robbers like him, and gave them the names of the Apostles; but himself he called Jesus Christ. They visited the towns doing miracles after the manner of conjurers; they suborned other rogues and robbers to feign death and raised them to life; they planted fish in muddy marshes where they could not naturally be, and then in the name of Christ caught them in their hands; they hid loaves in ovens, and then in the name of their Christ brought them out as if they had not been there before, to the great wonder of the simple vulgar people. At one time he came with his disciples to Czenstochowa,^[5] a monastery famous for its picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and staying there some days incited one of their number to behave as if he were possessed of the devil, and by means of this man they obtained food: for he went among the guest rooms, and snatched meat from the kitchen and threw it to his comrades, who blessed the meat with the cross and ate it. And when there was a great gathering of people before the Holy Image, these rogues led their possessed companion to the altar wearing a two-fold robe within which he could secrete what was required. They put stones within his garment. As he was being led to the altar, he broke away from their hands raging, and rushed upon the altar, which was covered with alms money which he seized and thrust between his two-fold garment. The monk who was at the altar broke off the divine office and fled; and the other monks ran up and undid the man’s belt. The stones then fell to the ground, but the money remained between the folds of his garment. The monks thought that the money had been changed into stones by the devil, and tried by exorcisms to restore it to its proper shape: but when the stones still remained, the exorcist angrily threw down the holy book, saying: “We have never had such a devil. Depart with him to all the devils!” The rogues escaped with the real money into Silesia where in a certain village they approached a noble matron who, in the absence of her husband, would not receive them. They asked her to give them at least a napkin or a piece of flax as alms; and she offered them a bundle of flax, upon which they said: “This we will take and Christ will bless you, that your linen may increase more abundantly. Show us, if you have it, another bundle.” And when they would likewise have taken this, the woman, fearing her husband, refused: whereupon they secretly put a piece of lighted tinder in the flax as they returned it to her. And so by means of the flax the house was set on fire and burned. When the husband returned, the woman said that this was a just punishment for her bad behaviour to Christ and His disciples. But the husband was smitten with anger and said: “There has been no Christ here, but a very vile rogue.” So with his neighbours he went in pursuit and found them in a certain town. Then the false Christ said to him he called Peter: “Now my Passion draws near, Peter, and the cup which I am to drink.” Peter answered: “And, Lord, I think it threatens me also.” He replied: “Peter, I can in no other wise escape from this than by the window.” Peter answered: “And as long as I live I will not leave you, but will follow you wherever you go.” So they escaped through the window, and the other Apostles by whatever means they could: but the peasants followed them smiting them with staves and ropes, saying: “Prophesy unto us, thou Christ and thy Apostles, in what forest did these sticks grow.” So, being chastened with blows, they thereafter chastened their lives, saying: “It is hard for us to bear the Passion of Christ and the persecutions of the Apostles as well.” This story is told in the Chronicles of Poland.

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↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” XVIII, 18.
↑ “Nicetas.” Acominatus, also called Choniates (from his birthplace Chonae in Phrygia). He ranks among the most important Byzantine historians. Of his “Annales” there are editions by Bekker, Bonn, 1835; by Migne, Paris, 1865. “Annales,” IV, 23.
↑ “Gaetani.” Tomaso de Vio Gaetani, Dominican Cardinal, philosopher, theologian, and exegete, 1469–1534. His Commentaries on the “Summa” of S. Thomas are recognised as a classic of scholastic literature, and were by order of Leo XIII incorporated in the official Leonine edition of the works of S. Thomas, of which the first volume appeared at Rome in 1882.
↑ “Sigismund I.” 1506–1548.
↑ “Czenstochowa.” Our Lady of Czenstochowa, Królowa Korony Polskiej. Czenstochowa is a small town in the palatinate of Kalisz, near the Silesian frontier. The most Holy and Miraculous Picture of Our Lady, the work of S. Luke, is painted on cypress, and, says an old author, “has a majesty which passes the conception of art.”

Chapter 5

Chapter V.

The Men of Old Accredited Witches with Marvellous Deeds.

Argument.

John of Salisbury^[1] says that, when God permits, witches can with the help of demons shake the elements together and alter the true appearance of things. They can foretell much of the future. They confuse the minds of men with dreams; and merely by the potency of their charms can cause death, etc. Saxo Grammaticus^[2] writes that giants and sorcerers in the North practised unheard-of wonders with various illusions, and could so skilfully deceive men’s eyes that they hid their own features and those of others under various fantasms, and obscured the true shape of things under seductive forms, and did other marvels like those which we have already told of Simon Magus. Pythagoras made his thigh appear to be golden, and by his spells tamed an eagle with which he often conversed. Baianus^[3] the King of Bulgaria was seen to change himself whenever he would into a wolf or any other animal, and sometimes did so in such a manner that no one perceived it. Glycas^[4] tells of Simon Magus, besides what we have already mentioned, that once when Caesar would have apprehended him he was stricken with terror and escaped by leaving another man in his own likeness. He says also that he had a dog chained to the door of his house, which devoured those who tried to come in without his permission: but the dog told S. Peter to enter, and announced in human speech that S. Peter was present. You see how the power of the devil yielded to the divine virtue in S. Peter; for that Cerberus fawned upon S. Peter and was unable to harm him. Numa Pompilius produced a sumptuous feast when he had no food in his house. Ollerus sailed over the open sea on an enchanted bone as if it were a ship, as we are told by John Trithemius in his Chronica Hersaugiensis. Eric, King of the Goths, could draw a favourable wind from any quarter by turning his hat towards it. Apuleius^[5] himself, according to many, was skilled in magic, and he relates a wonderful story of two women, the first of whom was a Queen among witches, as follows.

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Examples.

This woman, because her lover had seduced another woman, changed him with one word into a beaver; since that animal, when it is in fear of being caught, escapes its pursuers by cutting off its stones: and so also it happened to this man, because he had loved another woman. She changed a neighbouring innkeeper into a frog because he was jealous of her: and now (says Apuleius) in his old age he swims about in a large vessel of his own wine, and squatting in the dregs of it greets his former customers with hoarse servile croakings. Another man who spoke against her in public she changed into a ram. Also when her lover’s wife, who was heavy with child, loaded her with insults, she closed up the woman’s womb and by checking the growth of the foetus condemned her to a perpetual pregnancy; so that it is agreed that the wretched woman went for eight years swollen like an elephant^[6] about to give birth. The same author writes of one Pamphile who was said to be a witch of the first order and a mistress of every necromantic spell. This woman, by breathing upon pebbles and twigs and such small articles could plunge the heavenly light of the world into hellish and primeval darkness. Again, when she saw any beautiful youth she was at once smitten by his charms and turned her whole eyes and soul upon him; but if they would not comply with her, or proved in any way defective, she would detest them and at once change them into rocks or cattle or some other animal; while some she killed outright.

It is certain that all the wonders we have just instanced were due to some magic illusion. But the Saints, as S. Paul^[7] says (Hebr. xi, 34), performed miracles and wonders in the name of God and in perfect faith: “The Saints through faith quenched the violence of fire,” as did the Hebrew children, and S. Francis of Paula, and many others. Hear the following example of faith and praiseworthy religious obedience.

Bernardino Scardeone writes as follows. A certain Dominican Prior of the Preaching Friars was invited to dine with the Jesuates, the sons of Blessed John Colombini, and sat down to the meal. When the food had been removed and leave was given to talk, this Prior began to speak of the Passion of Our Lord and His sufferings in good set phrase indeed, but somewhat arrogantly, tacitly criticising his hosts because, although they were monks they did not, as other monks did, make public and private profession of the three vows. To this the Jesuate Prior, a simple man, but prudent and beloved of God, answered: “Since we have fallen into this talk. Father, do you agree that we see whether one of our Brothers, who has humbly devoted himself to God, or that companion of yours who has publicly professed the three vows, will show the more sincere obedience to his Superior?” Without thinking, the other willingly agreed. Then the Jesuate turned to our Brother Mark here as he ministered to those at the table, and said: “Brother Mark our guests are cold: in the name of your holy obedience bring them quickly from the kitchen in your bare hands some burning coals that they may be warmed at once.” The Brother promptly and unhesitatingly obeyed, not dreaming that anything could be impossible which he was commanded to do in the name of his obedience, and brought straight from the kitchen to the table as many burning coals as he could hold in his two hands, without taking the slightest hurt, and offered them to the two guests to warm themselves with: and at the Prior’s command, to the wonder of all, he then carried them back again to the place where he had fetched them from. The Dominican Prior was beyond measure astonished, and looked at his companion as if he were about to command him to do likewise; but this man, recognising this, thought there was not a moment to lose and broke out into the following words: “I beg you, Father, not to command me to tempt God. If you wish I will bring you fire as I always do in a potsherd, but not in my hands.” The other monks were looking at each other in silent amazement at this great miracle; but when they heard him blurt out those words, they quietly smiled at each other.

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↑ “John of Salisbury.” “Polycraticus,” I, 10.
↑ “Saxo Grammaticus.” “Hist. Dan.” I.
↑ “Baianus.” This is from Marcantonio Cocceius Sabellius, III, “Ennead.” 2.
↑ “Glycas.” “Annales,” II and III.
↑ “Apuleius.” “Metamorphoseon,” I.
↑ “Elephant.” Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” VIII, 10, says of the elephant: Decem annis gestare in utero uulgus existimat. Cf. Plautus, “Stichus,” I, 3, and Achilles Tatius, Lib. IV.
↑ “S. Paul.” “Hebrews” XI, 34.

Chapter 6

Chapter VI

Of the Witches’ Pact with the Devil.

Argument.

The pact formed between a witch and the devil may be either expressed or tacit. The expressed pact consists of a solemn vow of fidelity and homage made, in the presence of witnesses, to the devil visibly present in some bodily form. The tacit pact involves the offering of a written petition to the devil, and may be done by proxy through a witch or some third person when the contracting party is afraid to see or have speech with the devil. Grilland^[1] calls this a tacit pact, yet although it is made with another person than the devil, it is expressly made in the devil’s name, as is clear from the examples he gives. Perhaps we should class as an expressed pact that rather rare instance of a German woman who, jumping backwards out of her bath, said: “As far as I thus leap away from Christ, so much nearer may I come to the devil.” But there are certain matters common to all their pacts with the devil, and these may be arranged under eleven heads.

First, they deny the Christian Faith and withdraw their allegiance from God. They repudiate the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, heaping the vilest insults upon her and calling her Harlot, etc. And the devil arrogates honour to himself, as S. Augustine notes (contra Faustinum, cap. 22). Therefore S. Hippolytus^[2] the Martyr writes that the devil compels them to say: “I deny the Creator of Heaven and earth. I deny my Baptism. I deny the worship I formerly paid to God. I cleave to thee, and in thee I believe.” The devil then places his claw upon their brow, as a sign that he rubs off the Holy Chrism and destroys the mark of their Baptism.

Second, he bathes them in a new mock baptism.

Third, they forswear their old name and are given a new one; as, for example, della Rovere of Cuneo was renamed Barbicapra.

Fourth, he makes them deny their godfathers and godmothers, both of baptism and confirmation, and assigns them fresh ones.

Fifth, they give the devil some piece of their clothing. For the devil is eager to make them his own in every particular: of their spiritual goods he takes their Faith and Baptism; of their bodily goods he claims their blood, as in the sacrifices to Baal; of their natural goods he claims their children, as will be shown later; and of their acquired goods he claims a piece of their clothing.

Sixth, they swear allegiance to the devil within a circle traced upon the ground. Perhaps this is because a circle is the symbol of divinity, and the earth is God’s footstool; and so he wishes to persuade them that he is the God of heaven and earth.

Seventh, they pray the devil to strike them out of the book of life, and to inscribe them in the book of death. So we can read written in a black book the names of the witches of Avignon.

Eighth, they promise to sacrifice to him: and certain fiendish hags, as Bartolomeo Spina^[3] tells, vow to strangle or suffocate for him one child every month or two weeks (De Strigibus, II).

Ninth, they must every year make some gift to the demons their masters to avoid being beaten by them, or to purchase exemption from such of their pledged undertakings as are obnoxious to them; but, as Nicolas Remy says, these gifts are only legitimate when they are completely black in colour (Demonol. I, 11). Tenth, he places his mark upon some part or other of their bodies, as fugitive slaves are branded; and this branding is sometimes painless and sometimes painful, as we learn from examples of it. He does not, however, mark them all, but only those whom he thinks will prove inconstant. And the mark is not always of the same description; for at times it is like the footprint of a hare, sometimes like that of a toad or a spider or a dog or a dormouse. Neither does he always mark them upon the same place: for on men it is generally found on the eye-lids, or the arm-pit or lips or shoulder or posterior; whereas on women it is found on the breasts or private parts, as has been observed by Lambert Daneau^[4] and Bodin and Gödelmann.^[5] And just as God in the Old Testament marked His own with the sign of circumcision, and in the New Testament with the sign of the Holy Cross which took the place of circumcision, according to S. Gregory Nazianzen and S. Jerome; so also the devil, who loves to imitate God, has from the very infancy of the Church marked those heretics who were implicated in witchcraft with a certain sign, as we learn from Irenaeus, I, 24, and Tertullian, de praescript. aduers. haeret., post medium.

Eleventh, when they have been so marked they make many vows: as never to adore the Eucharist; that they will both in word and deed heap continual insults and revilings upon the Blessed Virgin Mary and the other Saints; that they will trample upon and defile and break all the Relics and images of the Saints; that they will abstain from using the sign of the Cross, Holy Water, blessed salt and bread and other things consecrated by the Church; that they will never make full confession of their sins to a priest; that they will maintain an obstinate silence concerning their bargain with the devil, and that on certain stated days they will, if they can, fly to the witches’ Sabbat and zealously take part in its activities; and finally that they will recruit all they can into the service of the devil. And the devil in his turn promises that he will always stand by them, that he will fulfil their prayers in this world and bring them to happiness after death.

It must be known too that, as Remy notes (I, 13), it is an inviolable rule among witches that, when several of them are met together for the purpose of doing ill to some person, and through the will of God their plans come to nothing since, perhaps, he whom they wish to harm daily commends himself to God in his prayers, defending himself from their devilish works with Holy Water and the Sacrament; then they have to settle among themselves which of their number shall herself incur the evil, so that they may observe their contract, which provides that, if they try to send misfortune upon another and fail, it must return upon themselves. For the devil will not endure that the injunctions he has laid upon them should all come to nothing. And she to whom the fateful lot falls has to suffer the evil for them all. The devil exacted this condition in the case of Catherine Praevotte in the town of Freising. This woman had a wish to poison the only daughter of her neighbour Michael Cocus, and tried often to do so, but in vain (for the mother guarded her every day with prayers and lustrations against the evil of witchcraft); and finally the devil repeatedly accused her of cheating him of his prey, and in the end the wretched woman was forced to poison her own son Odilo, a babe in his cradle.

But to return to our argument: the way to the pact between the devil and witches and the vow of service and allegiance seem to be prepared by some sympathy in wickedness between the witches and the devil, which gives rise to a familiarity approaching friendship, and so to a gradual feeling of confidence; and this begets in the weaker party a certain presumptuousness and boldness in making requests from the stronger, and in the stronger some pleasure in fulfilling his federate’s requests. And so it comes that the witch confides in the devil, thinking that he can command him, and the devil pretends to acknowledge his power. This has been well and fully proved by Abbot Trithemius: (Questionum. VIII, 5). “Such pacts with the devil are usually vain and empty; for the devil never keeps faith, nor thinks himself bound by any promise, who dared to lie to Christ when he said, ‘All these will I give to thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me’ ” (S. Matthew iv). He promised the sorcerer Cyprian^[6] that he should enjoy Justina, and yet he did not keep his word: for it is the height of madness to expect the truth from the Father of Lies (see Origen, contra Celsum, Bk. 8). But these pacts with the devil are not only vain and useless; they are also dangerous and immeasurably pernicious, as I shall show by the two following examples, and by many others in their proper places.

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Examples.

Remy (I, 9) relates that a youth named Theodore Maillot desired in marriage a maiden of very wealthy family, but was quite without hope of winning her since he was poor and of humble birth, and his family was engaged in commerce, which was then despised as ignoble; therefore he could see no honourable means of declaring his love. Now when matters are desperate and entirely without hope, men readily turn to any conceivable remedy and engage themselves to follow any plan, whether it be lawful or not. Consequently young Maillot approached a fellow servant from Germany who, as he had heard, had a demon always at his service, and told him of his trouble, asking him not to begrudge him any help that he could give him, for he would not prove ungrateful. The German gladly accepted this chance: for such were the terms of his pact with the demon that he was compelled within a few days either to deliver up another man to take his own debt upon him, or to have his neck twisted and be killed by the demon. He therefore appointed the following day at dawn for their business at a close and secret place; and they had hardly met there before the doors suddenly opened and there entered a maiden of the most beautiful and pleasing aspect (for so the demon chose to appear at first, lest Maillot should be revolted by his terrible appearance), who said that she would easily bring to pass the marriage which he so ardently desired, on condition that he would follow her instructions: and as he waited in anxious suspense, she gave him her advice. First she said that he must abstain from theft, obscenity, lust, blasphemy and other vices which soil the soul, and must practise piety and relieve the poor according to his ability, and fast twice a week, and not cease from solemn prayer every day, and be diligent in doing all that befits and becomes a Christian man; and that if he would bind himself by an oath to do all this, he would without difficulty obtain the marriage he desired. Saying this, and having appointed a day for his answer, she went out at the door. Maillot, seeing that so great a benefit was offered him on such holy and honourable conditions, thought that he need have no hesitation in gratefully and willingly accepting them. But on thinking more and more deeply of the matter, and being tossed between hope and fear, there was that in his face which caused a certain priest of his house to guess that there was some cause for his distraction. This priest approached him kindly and searched out what was troubling his mind and succeeded in persuading him not to sink to any further communing with the devil. The German, thus cheated of his hope, soon after paid the debt of his pact; for not many days later he fell on to his head from his horse on a level and open road, and was instantly killed.

Johann Nider (Formicarius, V) relates that, a little before the present General Council, there dwelt in Lesser Basle a man of evil life and strongly suspected of witchcraft, whose daughter was married and living in her father’s house. At length the old father began to sicken and, showing his daughter and son-in-law a certain casket, said: “Do not move this chest, but let it rest in its place even after my death, or you will be sorry for it.” And soon afterwards he died. After some time had passed neither the daughter nor her husband paid much attention to her father’s words: but as they were moving the rest of their furniture to a new house, the man began to carry the chest, which was only a small one, to their new dwelling. On the way it began to grow so heavy that it was too much for his strength, and he called on his wife to help him. I do not know whether the woman opened the casket afterwards in the house, or whether she rashly interfered with it in some other way; but it is certain that when they entered their new house with the child that had been born to them the woman suddenly became stark lunatic and rushed upon the cradle to kill the child. Seeing this, the husband forcibly restrained her, recognising that she was possessed by a demon. She was exorcised, whereupon the demon threatened that he would not come out without killing her; and so it happened, under the very hands of the exorcist. The next day, as the husband was walking in public, a stone suddenly fell from the top of a conduit and, by the agency of the devil, as it seemed, struck him in the face and so deformed him that he no longer looked human.

See how the demon exacted payment in accordance with the pact which he had no doubt formed with the old father, namely, that he should kill whoever opened or moved the casket. Pierre Crespet^[7] has much to say concerning such imprisoned demons, namely, that in serving their masters some are saturnine, some jovial, some venereal, some mercurial, etc.; that they must be approached with a certain ritual, and that at certain times in the night they arouse their owners and require to be worshipped by them, if they do not demand a worse thing.

It remains to quote another instance of how, when a witch attempts to do evil and fails, the evil rebounds upon herself, as I said in my argument. At Freising on the 4th September, 1589, Catharine Praevotte, whom I have mentioned before, told the following with her own lips. “Several of us witches met together to plot how to bewitch the cattle of a certain shoe maker of Freising; but in some way we were thwarted so that we could not do this. Nevertheless our bargain had to be fulfilled, so that he who was awaiting a sure prize should not be disappointed. So we decided to cast lots to see who should suffer for it, and it fell upon Agnes Eyswitz, the vilest and wickedest of all us women. She did not hesitate, but with the utmost readiness gave a drugged drink to her twenty-year-old son Peter in the presence of his companions, which soon caused his whole body to become monstrously distorted and deformed.” This was doubtless done so that he might suffer pains even worse than death at the hands of the demon, who never forgoes one tittle of his bargain.

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↑ “Grilland.” Paul Grilland of Castiglione wrote his famous “Tractatus de hereticis et sortilegiis, omnifariam coitu eorumque poenis” about 1525. Grilland was “diocesis Aretinae (Arezzo) criminalium causarum auditor, Andreae de Iacobatiis, sanctissimi domini nostri papae almaeque urbis uicarii generalis.” The reference is Q. 111, N. 1 sqq. of the “De hereticis.”
↑ “S. Hippolytus.” Died c. 236. This Saint was a prolific author, but many of his works have not come down to us, and there is much in his history which is obscure.
↑ “Bartolomeo Spina.” c. 1473–c. 1546. A Dominican theologian, Master of the Sacred Palace under Paul III. His “Tractatus de Strigibus et Lamiis,” Venice, 1523, has been often reprinted.
↑ “Lambert Daneau.” A Calvinist theologian, born at Beaugency. He was minister to Protestant communities at Gion, Orthez and Castres, in which latter town he died in 1595. His dialogue “Les Sorciers” (Geneva?), 1574, was translated into Latin, English, and other languages. See Paul de Félice “Lambert Daneau,” Paris, 1881, and Paulus “Lambert Daneau et la Sorcellerie,” in “Études hist. et relig. du diocèse de Bayonne,” 1895, pp. 573, sqq.
↑ “Gödelmann.” John George Gödelmann, Doctor of Law and Professor at the University of Rostock. He gave public lectures at Rostock on the Carolina, and then published a part of these in Latin, “Tractatus de magis, ueneficis et lamiis.” The first edition is probably 1590. They were often reprinted.
↑ “Cyprian.” “Martyrologium Romanum,” 26 September: “At Nicomedia the birthday of the holy martyrs Cyprian and Justina the Virgin, the latter whereof suffered much for Christ under the Emperor Diocletian and the governor Eutholomius, and converted to Christ the said Cyprian, who was a mage, and who had attempted with his wizard arts to make her mad, and presently she underwent martyrdom with him.” The birthday is the heavenly birthday, that day upon which a Saint passes to bliss.
↑ “Pierre Crespet.” A monk of the Celestine Order. A mystical and ascetical writer, author of “Deux livres de la haine de Satan et des malins esprits contre l’homme,” Paris, 1590.

Chapter 7

Chapter VII

By their Terrible Deeds and Imprecations Witches Produce Rain and Hail, etc.

Argument.

It is most clearly proved by experience that witches can control not only the rain and the hail and the wind, but even the lightning when God permits. Therefore Andrea Césalpino, in his Daemonum inuestigatio peripatetica, says that men have been known who could raise, not only hail storms, but lightning also; but they confessed that they could not injure whomsoever they pleased, but only those whom God had forsaken, that is (for so I understand it) those who had fallen from God’s grace by mortal sin. They can also evoke darkness; wherefore we read in Marco Polo that the Tartars are so potent in devilish illusions that they can cause darkness when and where they will, and that he once narrowly escaped from robbers through the protection of this art. Bishop Haito^[1] of Basle also tells that when the Tartar army was being beaten in battle, the witch Vexillarius encompassed their enemies with a thick darkness by means of his spells, So that they rallied and won the victory. They can moreover cause rivers to stop flowing, and dry up springs, and irrigate the land with fresh springs produced from rocks and stones: they can make the water of a river turn back and flow to its source, a thing which Pliny^[2] says happened in his time (II, 103). Many examples are to be found in Remy, of which I shall quote a few here.

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Examples.

In the district of Treves a peasant was planting cabbages in his garden with his eight-year-old daughter, and praised the girl highly for her skill in the work. The young maid, whose sex and age combined to make her talkative, boasted that she could do more wonderful things than that; and when her father asked what they were, she said: “Go away a little, and I will quickly make it rain on whatever part of the garden you wish.” He was astonished, and said: “Come then, I will go a little away.” And when he had withdrawn the girl dug a trench and pissed in it, and beat the water with a stick, muttering I know not what, and behold there fell from the clouds a sudden rain upon the said place. The astounded father asked: “Who taught you to do this?” She answered: “My mother did; and she is very clever at this and other things like it.” The peasant nobly faced his right and plain duty, so a few days later, on the pretence that he had been invited to a wedding, he took his wife and daughter dressed in festal wedding robes to the neighbouring town, where he handed them over to the Judge to be punished for the crime of witchcraft.

It is recorded in the Malleus Maleficarum that certain Inquisitors determined to prove by means of a witch whom they had in custody the truth of the power claimed by witches of stirring up tempests. They therefore released her; since it is certain that, as long as they remain in prison, all magic powers desert them. She then went to a thickly wooded place and there dug a trench with her hands and filled it with water, which she continued to stir with her finger until there arose from it a vapour which grew into a dense cloud. This cloud at once became alive with thunder and lightning, to the great awe and terror of the onlookers. But she said: “Be of good heart; I will cause all this cloud to be removed to whatever place you wish.” And when they named a desert place near by, the cloud was at once borne thither by the force of the wind and tempest, and let loose its hail upon the rocks, so confining all its damage within the prescribed and indicated limits.

The following example is very like the first. A Suabian peasant was bitterly complaining of the drought from which they were suffering, and as he was doing so his daughter, who was eight or ten years old, came to him and said that if he wished she would at once bring a heavy shower upon the field in which they were together. When the father said that he very greatly wished it, she asked him to give her a little water. So they came to a neighbouring stream where she beat the water in the name of that Master, as she said, to whom her mother was dedicated; and thereupon there fell rain from the skies abundantly enough to water that field, while it left all the other fields as dry as they were before.

Remy relates how a witch named Alexia Granjean told that she was once being carried through the clouds and came to a place where, from her point of vantage, she could see a man named Johann Vehon pasturing his horses. Suddenly there appeared to her a huge black man who, as if eager to serve her, asked her whether she had any grudge against that peasant, for he would quickly avenge her upon him. She answered that she hated the man bitterly because he had once beaten her only son nearly to death while he was pasturing his horse. “Very well,” replied he; “I agree to avenge you at once.” So saying, he quickly rose up in the air so high that no eye could see him, and thereupon the lightning, with a mighty flash and thunder, fell upon the horses and smote down two of them, while the peasant looked on in terror about thirty paces away, according to his own evidence.

Giovanni Pontano^[3] tells that Ferdinand II, King of Naples, laid close siege to Sessa Aurunca, which is situated near Monte Massico. Now this town was for the House of Anjou, and he hoped to force it to surrender through lack of water. But a number of wicked priests dared to summon rain by means of magic. For some of the besieged townsmen went out in the dark of night evading the camp sentries, and stealthily made their way to the sea shore dragging with them over rugged rocks the image of the Crucifix, which these execrable sinners reviled with foul curses and incantations and then cast into the sea. At the same time certain priests, the vilest sinners of all men, being anxious to assist the soldiers’ profane practices, performed a wicked rite in order to produce rain of this sort. They stood an ass before the Church door and sang a funeral dirge as for a living soul: then they placed the Divine Eucharist in its mouth, and continued their funeral chants about the living ass, and finally buried it before the Church doors. Hardly had this rite been performed before the air grew dark and the sea began to be lashed with the wind, and at midday the darkness of night descended, and now the heavens were rent with lightning, and now all was black darkness, and the heavens and the earth shook with thunder, and trees were hurled through the air by the wind, and rocks were split by lightning and filled the air with crashing explosions: and so heavy a downpour of rain fell from the clouds that the cisterns were not adequate to collect the water, but the torrents swept away stones and rocks which had before been parched and dried by the sun. The King therefore, whose whole hope of taking the town had rested upon the townsmen’s thirst, was baffled in his intention and returned to his former camp by the river Savone.

I purposely set down this example, reader, that you may be advised of what abuses have crept into certain regions; such as dragging the Crucifix and the images of the Saints over the ground. In Germany and Aquitaine also they boldly resort to such evil means for ensuring seasonable weather; and Martin de Arles^[4] has written against similar foul practices prevailing in Spain in his book on Superstitions.

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↑ “Bishop Haito.” Born in 763 of a noble house of Swabia; died 17 March, 836, in the Abbey of Reichenau on an island in the Lake of Constance. Vautrey, “Histoire des évêques de Bâle,” I, (Einsiedeln, 1884).
↑ “Pliny.” “Historia Naturalis,” II, 103: “Amnes retro fluere et nostra uidit aetas, Neronis principis annis supremis, sicut in rebus eius retulimus.”
↑ “Pontano.” “De Bello Neapolitano,” V. “Pontani Opera Omnia,” Basileae, 1538, II, pp. 574–75.
↑ “Martin de Arles.” Martin de Arles y Andosilla, author of the rare “Tractatus insignis de Superstitionibus, contra Maleficia, seu Sortilegia quae hodie uigent in Orbe terrarum,” Paris, 1517. Another edition, Rome, 1559.

Chapter 8

Chapter VIII

The Power of Witches over External Things.

Argument.

It is one of the obligations that witches owe to the devil that, when they assemble at the Sabbat, they must show that they have wrought some fresh evil since the last meeting; and if they cannot do so they do not escape with impunity. And that they may not be able to plead ignorance as an excuse, their evil Master instructs them in all those activities which he demands from them: as in infesting the trees and fruits with locusts, caterpillars, slugs, butterflies, canker-worms, and such pestilent vermin which devour everything, seeds, leaves and fruit; or in bewitching cattle; or in casting a spell on the crops so that they are destroyed by leeches or wasted in some other way; or in the use of poisons, and in working as far as in them lies for the destruction of the whole human race. For all this we know from their own confessions; as, for example, those of Helena of Armentières at Douzy on the 30th September, 1586; of Anna Ruffa at the same place and time; of Jean the Fisher at Gerbeviller on the 13th May, 1585; of his wife Colette; and of several others whom we pass over for the sake of brevity. For these, see Remy, Book I, chap. 22, and elsewhere.

They can also destroy the flocks and herds, either by scattering poison or by sending into their bodies a demon which throws them down and strangles them or tears them in pieces. They can remove a man’s crops and fruits to another place, as is told by Servius (In. Eclog. Verg.) and Apuleius (In Apologia), and by S. Augustine (Ciu. Dei, VIII). They can cause houses to be consumed by fire, as was done in a certain town of Suabia in the year 1533 by a certain witch, as we shall tell in the proper place.

They can conjure up feasts: and these are either sheerly fantastic like those of Scoto^[1] of Parma, from whose ^[1]banquets the guests departed apparently satisfied, but soon they were tortured by hunger; or else they may be composed of true food, but bad tasting and of an evil odour, since God does not permit them to conjure savoury food. Generally salt is lacking, and often bread; perhaps because salt is used in Baptism, and in the Eucharist we are fed with the life-giving flesh of our Lord Christ veiled under the form or accident of bread. But with God’s permission they can also produce bread and salt and savoury foods, as the witches themselves have confessed to their Judges; but this is rarely the case. Again when God wills they can by mere local motion free captives from their prisons and fetters: but this does but require the breaking of something; and since this can be done by men, why not by a devil? Trithemius narrates a story worth recording, which we shall tell later.

Examples.

There was put to death at Treves some years ago a very famous witch who had inserted a pipe into the wall of her house, through which she charmed all the milk of her neighbours’ cows: that is to say, the demon milked the cows and instantly carried the milk to her house.

Remy tells (I, 23) of a certain peasant named Desiré Finance, who dwelt among the Vosges mountains, and who, whenever he sat down to eat in company, had a dog lying at his feet from which he used secretly to take poison which he then administered to whomever he wished: and by him a considerable number of men were killed before any suspicion rested upon him as being the cause of it.

The same author tells that Antoine Welsch was asked to lend the garden of his house for the approaching celebration of the witches’ Sabbat. At first he said that he could not do so because he had to go out that night: but when they still continued to press him and insist upon it as their right, he knew that he was overpersuaded; yet, as he had said, he himself went out. When he came home in the morning and happened to go into his garden, he found it all devoured by caterpillars and slugs, and the whole garden filled with such animals: but he bore all in silence, recognising the usual traces of that ungodly Assembly.

In the year 1323 Frederick Duke of Austria marched against the Emperor Louis of Bavaria, and was defeated in a great battle between Öttingen and Moldova, and was captured by Louis, who placed him under guard in his fortified citadel. Meanwhile a witch promised his brother Leopold in Austria that he would by his art bring back Frederick within an hour if he should have a sufficient reward; and the Prince made liberal promises. The demon then flew to Frederick in Bavaria, and entered his prison in the form of a pilgrim, saying: “If you wish to be freed from captivity, mount this horse, and I will take you safe into Austria to your brother Leopold.” The Duke asked: “Who are you?” But he answered: “Do not ask who I am, for that does not concern you; but mount this horse which I bring you.” But when even this most valiant Duke was seized with horror and protected himself with the sign of the cross, the evil spirit disappeared together with his black horse, and went back empty to him who had sent him; in reply to whose complaints that he had not brought the captive home, he told all that had happened.

Among the Swedes Ollerus attained to such fame in arms by means of his magic art that, as Saxo Grammaticus (Hist. Dan. 3) says, he was thought to be divine. The same author writes as follows (Book 5) of the Danish pirate Oddo: “He sailed the seas without any ship, and by raising up storms often wrecked his enemies’ fleets. He was a foe to merchants and a friend to barbarians. He embarked upon a war with the Normans; and by his spells so deluded his enemies’ eyes that they thought they could see the flashing of the Danish swords at a distance, so that when it came to hand to hand fighting they were so dazzled that they could not see to fight, and were thus defeated by magic.”

Bishop Martin Kromer^[2] writes as follows of the memorable victory of the Tartars over the Poles: “In the year 1240 the Poles joined battle with the Tartars near Legnitz and pressed them strongly and were putting them to rout. In the extreme rear of the Tartar army there was, among other banners, a notable one bearing a picture of the letter X, while at the top was a hideous bearded black head. As the standard bearer strongly waved this banner, it exhaled a dense and horribly stinking cloud of smoke, which not only hid the barbarians from the Poles, but even killed the Poles with its overpowering stench. The Tartars had done this by their spells; for they were much addicted to consultation with soothsayers and diviners, especially in war but also in peace, in order to foreknow the future. When they saw that the Poles were in a panic, the barbarians roused themselves and charged them, and put them to rout with great slaughter. So great a number of Christians was killed in that battle that nine huge sacks were filled with the ears that were cut off, one from each dead man.

The Chinese, according to Juan Gonzales de Mendoza,^[3] worship the ^[3]Virgin Noema as sacred; and he says that she owed her cult to magic art. For when a certain captain named Gompo had, by order of the King, taken the fleet to a certain island, he could by no force weigh anchor to sail away again; but at last he suddenly saw Noema sitting in the stern of his ship. He approached reverently and begged her for help and advice; and she replied that the Chinese would never win the victory except under her leadership. She set out with the fleet therefore; and though the enemy relied upon their magic spells she defeated them with more potent charms. For the enemy threw their god into the sea and made the Chinese fleet appear to be burning and everything to be consumed in the false flames: but Noema put the flames out and, by her more powerful art, sent a similar spell upon the enemy who, finding that all their efforts were unavailing, surrendered themselves to Compo as beaten.

The people of Pergamus also once tried to raise a siege of the town by means of magic, but without success, as Paul the Deacon^[4] tells (Rerum Romanarum, XX).

In the time of Leo Isaurus, Masalmas the Saracen chief occupied Pergamus with no difficulty, although the citizens, trusting to a witch, had offered up a terrible sacrifice to the devil by cutting open a pregnant woman and taking out the living foetus, which they boiled in a pot, and all the soldiers defiled their right sleeves with this abominable sacrifice. Theophanes is our authority for this.

Duke Wratislaw, the founder of Breslau (says Aeneas Silvius), went to war with his grandson Gremozislav, Duke of Bohemia. There was a woman who foretold that her own son-in-law, together with Wratislaw and the greater part of the people, would fall in that war; but that the young man could escape if he would obey her. When the youth answered that he would obey her commands, she told him to kill the first man he met, then to make the sign of the cross with his sword on the ground between his horse’s forefeet, then to cut off both the dead man’s ears and put them in a bag and make haste to flee. The battle was fought in a plain near Tuscus; and when Wratislaw had been killed, the young man, having done as the old woman bade him, returned safe to his home; but he found his dearly loved wife killed and with her ears cut off and her breast pierced, and was amazed and grieved to find that the ears he had cut off from his enemy were those of his wife. This was indeed a fit reward for consulting with a witch: and it may be that the wife also was a witch and had joined in the battle after the manner of Bohemian women; or else the demon set some deadly image in the battle and transferred the wounds which it received to the wretched woman in the house.

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↑ “Scoto.” There is an allusion to Scoto of Parma, a notorious Italian necromancer and adept in the black art, in the “Defensative against Supposed Prophecies” of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, 1583: “I was present my selfe when diuers Gentlemen & noble men, which vndertooke to descry the finest sleights, that Scotto the Italian was able to play by Leger du main before the Queene, were notwithstanding no lesse beguiled then the rest: that presumed lesse vppon theyr owne dexteritie and skyll in those matters.” In J. Harvey’s “Discoursive Problem concerning Prophecies,” 1588, Scoto is named together with the well-known juggler Feates as a member of the “foisting crue.” Also in Nash’s “The Unfortunate Traveller,” 1594, mention is made of Cornelius Agrippa, who is said to bear “the fame to be the greatest coniurer in Christendome, ‘Scoto,’ that dyd the iugling tricks before the Queene, neuer came neere him one quarter in magicke reputation.”
↑ “Kromer.” The famous Polish bishop of Ermland and historian. Born, 1512; died 1589. His “De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum,” a vast work in thirty books treating of the history of Poland from the earliest times until 1506, was published at Basle in 1555. It has been twice translated into Polish, and also into German, 1562. Walewski, “Martin Kromer,” Warsaw, 1874. The reference here is to Book VIII of the “De origine … Polonorum.”
↑ “Mendoza.” This eminent early geographer was of the Order of Augustinian Hermits. It was he who made the first really intelligible map of China, 1585.
↑ “Paul the Deacon.” c. 720–799. The Benedictine historian also known as Casinensis, Levita, Warnefridi. His “Historia Romana,” an amplified and extended version of Eutropius, was formerly much esteemed.

Chapter 9

Chapter IX

Whether the Devil can Truly Enrich His Subjects.

Argument.

We read that Stuphius paid his army with magic money. Psellus writes that the devil cannot veritably fulfil any of his promises, but only offers empty mockeries to his worshippers: but this view, while it may be true of some of the things that the devil is said to do, is false if it be made applicable to everything that he is able to do. For I say that the devil, if God permits and he himself wishes, can enrich his subjects: and if God commanded him to do so, he would be compelled to obey, however unwilling he were: but only rarely does the devil wish this, and never does God command it, and very seldom does God permit it. The devil’s reluctance in this matter is clear, since we see that he most often cheats his subjects; and although he enriches a few with a little money at times, as he did Doctor Vlaet at Treves, he usually deceives them with empty hope and vain appearances. Remy proves this by many examples taken from eye-witnesses as follows.

At Douzy on the 30th September, 1586 it transpired that Seneel of Armentières, having received from the devil what appeared to be a gift of money, hurried home rejoicing to count it; but when she shook out her purse she found nothing but charred bits of clay and coal. Catherine of Metz, on the 31st October, 1586, found nothing but pigs’ excrement. Claude Morelle, at Barr in December 1586; Benedict Driget, at Héricourt in January; Dominique Petronine, at Pargny in October 1586; all were proved to have been similarly deceived. Jeanne de Bans, at Chalons-sur-Marne in July 1585, stated that she found on the road a sum of money wrapped in paper as the demon had foretold, and gleefully showed it to her husband; but to her shame she found that instead of gold she had a rusty-looking pebble which crumbled at the first touch. Others have been given the leaves of a tree for money. But Catherine Ruffa, at Val-de-Villé near the Moselle, in 1587, admitted that she had once been given three genuine coins.

I have freely quoted these examples because they are publicly vouched for in the Courts of Justice. I could add many more, but think it unnecessary since the above are sufficient.

Lorenzo Anania^[1] (de Natura Daemonum, II) adduces another reason why the devil is loath to enrich his votaries. He says that evil spirits are given to avarice, and that they amass treasures and money to meet the needs of Antichrist, the son of perdition, and that a certain soothsayer was told this by a demon. And although the demon is a liar and little faith can be placed in him, yet this is not far from the truth. But we are nearer to the true reason when we say that God never bids the devil to enrich his votaries (since He has no part in evil), and only very rarely permits it: for indeed these to whom the devil promises riches, dignity, honours and the favour of Princes are the most vile, abject, needy and despicable: and if they were rich before, they become poor: and if they were poor, they never become rich. And those who seek to acquire riches at the instance of the devil by their magic and against human laws, as may be seen from the first Canon Law de thesauris, the devil frightens to death or cruelly strangles. André Thevet^[2] (Cosmog. VIII, 1) tells that he heard from an eye-witness that a certain Greek named Macrianus was looking for treasure in the island of Paros, and was swallowed up by the earth. Anastasius quotes Cedrenus as telling the like, and many others have such stories, one of which I shall set down as being a wonder not unworthy of record.

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Examples.

About the year 1520 at Basle a certain simple-minded tailor afflicted with a stammer somehow or other entered the cave which has its entrance at Augst and going further into it than any had ever gone before, said that he saw marvellous sights. He said that, after burning consecrated corn, he went into the cave and first went through an iron gate, and then from one room to another, and so into a most beautiful flower garden. In the midst was a magnificently decorated hall where he saw a very beautiful Virgin with a golden diadem upon her head and her hair flowing loose; but the lower part of her body ended in a horrible serpent. This Virgin led him by the hand to an iron chest which was guarded by two black Molossian hounds, which by their baying prevented any from approaching: but the Virgin in some wonderful manner calmed them, and taking a bunch of keys from her neck, opened the chest and displayed every sort of gold, silver and copper money. And he said that the Virgin gave him no small sum of this money, which he brought back out of the cave. He added that the Virgin said that she was a King’s daughter who had always led a devout life, but that she had been changed by an evil spell into that monstrous shape and that there was no other hope of her recovery than for her to be kissed three times by a youth of unimpaired chastity; for then she would be restored to her former shape, and would give as dowry to her liberator the whole treasure hidden in that place. He asserted also that he twice kissed the Virgin, and twice saw upon her face such a horrible gloating at the thought of her liberation that he was afraid that he would not escape from her with his life. Afterwards he was taken by some loose boys into a brothel, and could never thereafter find the approach to the cave, to say nothing of entering it again.

Who does not understand the illusion? The young man was not quite in his right senses: or a devil of the class of the Lamiae tempted him to kiss her, so that she might devour him after the third kiss; but God did not permit it. The two dogs were other demons, or may have been the true or pretended guardians of the treasure. The money was perhaps real, and given with the permission of God.

Some years later another citizen of Basle entered that cave purposing to relieve his family’s poverty. He found nothing but the bones of human corpses, and seized with a sudden panic rushed out, and behaved so extravagantly that he perished miserably in three days. See Stamphius as above, and Beatus Rhenanus,^[3] Book III, Historia Germanorum.

A few years before a certain Prior of Margulina, being in search of treasure, went with two companions into a pit in the cave of King Salaus near Pozzuoli, and met with a wretched death, never being seen again. This I have from Jacques de Villamont (Les Voyages,^[4] livre I, 23).

Andreas of Ratisbon^[5] writes: “We know that many treasures have been collected by magic art, but it is not known who obtained possession of them.”

In our own time certain men began to dig for treasure at Pisa, but at last were beaten by the difficulty of the work and ceased from it.

Finally last year men started to dig where Nero’s^[6] palace is said to have ^[6]stood, in a place which is to-day a cloister for Holy Virgins, where there is a huge pine tree: but they were so tormented by devils that fear compelled them to desist from the work which they had begun; and meanwhile many of the nuns dwelling in that place were possessed by devils. And what wonder, when they permitted this unlawful treasure search in their own grounds? Therefore God punished them in this life that He might pardon them in the future. Paul Grilland (De sortileg. q. 3, n. 12) writes more exactly on this subject than do any others.

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↑ “Anania.” Giovanni Lorenzo Anania, born at Taverna in Calabria, died c. 1582. His chief patron was the Archbishop of Naples, Caraffa. In 1581 was published at Venice his “De Natura dæmonum, libri quatuor.” A second edition followed in 1589. The reference here is to Book II.
↑ “Thevet.” This great French explorer is best known for his voyage to America when with others in 1556 he landed on the banks of the Penobscot. He has left a very complete account of his visit.
↑ “Beatus Rhenanus.” 1485–1547. Humanist and classical scholar, the friend of Erasmus and Gelenius.
↑ “Les Voyages.” “Les Voyages du Seigneur Jacques de Villamont.” I have used the Arras edition, 1598, of this very popular book. There were reprints Paris, 1600; Lyons, 1606 and 1607; Paris, 1609; Rouen, 1618; and Paris, 1698, which purports to be the Third Edition. This is, of course, incorrect.
↑ “Andreas of Ratisbon.” All that is known of this historian is gathered from his works. Ordained priest at Eichstätt in 1405, he joined the Canons Regular of S. Augustine at Ratisbon in 1410. His writings have won him the title of the “Bavarian Livy.”
↑ “Nero.” Nero’s “Golden House” extended from the Palatine across the valley of the Colosseum and far up the Esquiline. It would be difficult—and it is perhaps not necessary—to identify the Convent of which Guazzo speaks.

Chapter 10

Chapter X

Whether Witches Can by their Art Create any Living Thing.

Argument.

It is the opinion of S. Augustine (De Trinitate, III, 7), supported by all other Theologians, particularly S. Thomas and S. Bonaventura, that witches can in a moment produce imperfect animals, such as flies, worms, frogs and such insects and other animals which are generated by putrefaction; not by creating them, but by applying active to passive principles. It is usually the demon who, in accordance with his pact with the witch, produces such animals by the application of active to passive forces: for the witches themselves for the most part do not know how they are produced, and are ignorant of the causes: as when the devil gives a witch a little dust which she throws into the air, and there are born various kinds of locusts and grasshoppers and mice and caterpillars and suchlike animals. The devil could also, having produced such things, tend them and nourish them and give them breath in remote places where they appear to be generated; as among rocks, where imperfect animals are often born, such as flies and mice and similar things. And I believe that this is what happened in the case of those dogs mentioned by William of Newburgh (Hist. Anglorum, I, 28) as follows. A huge stone was being split open in a certain quarry, when there appeared two dogs equal in size to that stone; and from no perceptible hole there sprang these same dogs, which were of the kind called harriers, but fierce-looking, strongly smelling and very shaggy; and one of them, it is said, quickly disappeared. But the other, which is said to have been extraordinarily voracious, was kept in luxury for several days by Henry, Bishop of Winchester. These dogs could not, I think, have been generated except from prolific semen; but the devil was able to take them from their mother’s womb and hide them in that place. Demons can also bring forth strange monsters, like that in Brazil which is seventeen palms high, has a lizard’s skin, very swollen paps, the forelegs of a lion, deadly eyes and a flaming tongue: or like those monsters in the forests of Saxony, of half human appearance, which were captured in 1240 (Anania, De Natura Daemonum, IV). Unless perhaps such were the issue of an abominable coition of men and beasts, which is undoubtedly the cause of most monsters. For in this way in the Marsic war Alcippe gave birth to an elephant. And Alexander ab Alexandro,^[1] II, tells us that in the year 1278 in Switzerland a woman gave birth to a lion. So in 1471 at Pavia one produced a cat, and another at Brixen a dog. So in 1531 a woman of Augsburg brought forth at one birth first a human head covered in a caul, then a two-legged serpent, and thirdly a complete pig. We read of many such births in more recent times; but the most astounding of all is that recorded in the Chronicles of Portugal.

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Examples.

A woman was deported for some crime to a desert island and there left, and was at once surrounded by a chattering crowd of apes, of which there were many in that place. Then one larger than the rest, for whom they all made way, came and took her gently by the hand and led her into a big cave, where he and some other apes brought her a plentiful variety of fruit and nuts and roots, and signed to her to eat. Finally she was forced into foul sin with the ape, and so continued for many days until she gave birth to two children by the animal. The wretched woman lived in this way for some years, until God took pity upon her and sent a ship there from Portugal, from which some sailors came ashore to fetch water from a spring which was near her cave. It happened that the ape was not at hand; so the woman ran up to the men, whose like she had not seen for so long, and throwing herself at their feet implored them to set her free from her criminal and disastrous servitude. They consented, having pity on her misfortune, and she embarked upon the ship with them. But behold, the ape then appeared calling with extravagant gestures and groans to his wife, who was not his wife; and when he saw the sails set for departure, he quickly ran and held out one of her children to the mother, threatening to drown it in the sea if she did not come back. And he was not slow to carry out his threat. Then he ran back to the cave and as quickly came again to the shore with the other child, which he likewise threatened and drowned. After this, in his fury, he swam after the ship until he was overcome by the waves. This story became the talk of all Portugal; and the woman was condemned by the King of Lisbon to be burned: but certain men petitioned for her, and her sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life. Does this surprise you, reader? Hear what Saxo Grammaticus and two great Bishops of Upsala say. They say that the Gothic Kings sprang from a bear and a nobly born virgin; and João de Barros^[2] says that the Pegusian and Sianite Indians originated from the physical union of a dog and a woman.

Yet I am sceptical in this matter, for man must be generated by man. And if there is any truth in what we have just told, I shall say that an Incubus devil injected the warm semen of those animals into the women: and as for the report concerning the Gothic Kings, I think this is to be said; that the devil in the form of those beasts tumbled the women. And that he can do this is shown by the next example, and the following chapter.

There was a lewd fellow in Belgium who had to do with a cow, and the cow soon became pregnant and after some months gave birth to a male foetus, which was not a calf but human. There were many present who saw it come from its mother’s womb, and they picked it up from the ground and gave it to a nurse. The boy grew up and was baptised and instructed in the Christian life, and applied himself seriously to piety and works of penance for his father; and so came to manhood. But he felt in himself certain bovine propensities, as that of eating grass and chewing the cud. What must be thought of this? Was he not a man? Certainly I believe he was; but I deny that his mother was a cow. What then? The devil was aware of his father’s sin, and at his pleasure made the cow appear to be pregnant: he then secretly brought an infant from elsewhere, and so placed it by the labouring cow (which was big only with wind) that it seemed to be born from the cow.

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↑ “Alexander ab Alexandro.” Alessandro Alessandri, a famous Neapolitan jurisconsult and archaeologist, born 1461; died c. 1523. The reference is to his “Genialium Dierum,” an encyclopaedic work, often reprinted.
↑ “João de Barros.” 1496–1570. His classical work “Asia,” giving an account of explorations and conquest, is highly esteemed as a masterpiece of Portuguese literature. See De Feria, “Vida de João de Barros,” Lisbon, 1778.

Chapter 11

Chapter XI

Whether there Truly are Incubus and Succubus Devils; and whether Children can be Generated by Copulation with them.

Argument.

Almost all the Theologians and learned Philosophers are agreed, and it has been the experience of all times and all nations, that witches practise coition with demons, the men with Succubus devils and the women with Incubus devils. Plato in the Cratylus, Philo, Josephus, and the Old Synagogue; S. Cyprian, S. Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and others have clearly proved that devils can at will fornicate with women. But a more substantial proof is to be found in S. Jerome on Ephesians vi, and S. Augustine (Civ. Dei. XV, 23), who is followed by the consensus of all Theologians, and especially by S. Isidore, chapter 8. The same belief is championed in the Bull of Pope Innocent VIII^[1] against witches.

This truth can be proved by argument. For demons can assume the bodies of dead men, or make for themselves out of air a palpable body like that of flesh, and to these they can impart motion and heat at their will. They can therefore create the appearance of sex which is not naturally present, and show themselves to men in a feminine form, and to women in a masculine form, and lie with each accordingly: and they can also produce semen which they have brought from elsewhere, and imitate the natural ejaculation of it.

I add that a child can be born of such copulation with an Incubus devil. To make this clear, it must be known that the devil can collect semen from another place, as from a man’s vain dreams, and by his speed and experience of physical laws can preserve that semen in its fertilising warmth, however subtle and airy and volatile it be, and inject it into a woman’s womb at the moment when she is most disposed to conceive, making it appear to be done in the natural way, and so mingling it with the woman’s ova. Yet it is true that the devils cannot, as animals do, procreate children by virtue of their own strength and substance: for neither between themselves have they any propagation of their own kind, nor are they endowed with any semen which can in the least degree prove fertile. And how should they have semen of their own, since semen is a vital part of the corporeal substance, and (according to Symposianus in his Problems) a secretion from well-digested food; whereas devils are substances without corporeal bodies? We say, then, that a child can be born from the copulation of an Incubus with a woman, but that the father of such a child is not the demon but that man whose semen the demon has misused. There are countless examples told by many authors (Jornandus, de rebus Gothicis, and Luitprand) that the Huns were descended from the union of Fauns with Gothic witches. Chieza (Hist. Peru, II, 27) writes that in Spanish America a demon named Corocoton lies with women and that there are born children with two horns. The Japanese claim that their Shaka is of the same sort. Nor are there wanting those who place Luther^[2] in this class. And not ten years ago a woman was punished in the chief city of Brabant because she had been brought to bed by a demon. It remains for us to reply to the arguments which are brought forward to contradict this belief.

The first argument is that of Remy as follows. Devils and human beings are of a different species, and therefore no issue can come of a copulation between them. I answer that this argument bears no weight; for from a horse and an ass, and from other differing animals, are born mules, wolves, leopards, panthers, etc. Also, the procreation is not ascribed to the demon, but to the man whose semen is used, as S. Thomas says (Quodlib. VI, art. 6 and 8).

The second argument is that the devil has no part in life, but is the source of death; therefore he cannot be the author and origin of the vital act. I answer that this vital force is not in the devil, but in the semen itself; just as the warming virtue of wine is not in the vat or the goblet, but in the wine itself. See S. Thomas as above, and the Malleus Maleficarum, I, 4.

The third argument is that witches confess that the semen injected by the devil is cold, and that the act brings them no pleasure but rather horror; and therefore no issue can come of such a union. This is the argument of Mark of Ephesus, who is followed by Remy, and it is based on the confessions of witches who say that such copulations are entirely devoid of pleasure, and that they rather feel the most acute pain in them. I answer that when the devil wishes to disguise himself in the form of a certain man, and would not have it known that he is a devil, then he must as far as possible imitate every detail of true copulation between a man and a woman: and then, if he wishes any issue to result (which is very rare; for he never desires propagation for his own sake, since nothing of like nature to himself can be generated: although sometimes at least he humours the woman’s wish and seeks to make her pregnant by means of another’s semen), he must necessarily take care to provide everything needful for procreation. Therefore he seeks for fertile semen and, having found it, conserves it and so quickly transports it that its vital essence is not wasted; and when need is, he injects it. But when he does not mean to beget issue he injects some substance in the likeness of semen, which is warm so that the deception may not be detected. As for the cold semen, that is only found in the case of witches who are fully aware that he is a devil. Moreover, as Sprenger says (Malleus M. I, I, c. 4), he usually asks the woman if she wishes to become pregnant; and if she does, he provides true semen from another source, as I have described.

The fourth argument was that it is incredible that God should allow such a thing to be done, or would endow with a living soul anything born of such a union, for this would be adding the final touch to the devil’s work. The answer to this is that, as far as natural operation is concerned, the devil is only the instrument which applies the principal agent, namely, true human semen; and therefore God concurs in the final disposition of an organic body born from human semen, although it is abnormal; and the sin lies entirely at the door of the witch and the devil’s malice. God, the author of nature, delights in all things natural: but if this argument held good, since He is not the author or abettor of sin, no issue could be born of fornication or adultery or uncleanness or incest. It is further objected that the root of all procreation is the heart, and that when the necessary cordial heat and virtue are wanting there can be no procreation. The answer is that, whether its source is the heart or the brain, the vital fertilising germ is contained in the semen in the actual ejaculation of that semen from the human body; and that the devil can preserve that germ in its necessary warmth.

We shall set down certain instances of the activities of Succubus devils, as well as some more of Incubus devils.

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Examples.

Fifteen years ago, at Bamberg, a certain Peter Stumpf was sentenced to death because he had sinned with a Succubus devil for more than twenty-eight years. This devil had given him a girdle which he had only to put on, and it appeared both to himself and others that he was changed into a wolf. He tried to devour two of his daughters-in-law. He lived with his own daughter and her godmother as his wives. This is all vouched for in the Court records, and is memorised in pictures carved in brass which are for sale.

Remy tells an example which he heard from a trustworthy man named Melchiore Errico, taken from the most closely guarded secrets of the Most Serene Duke of Lorraine. “There was at Hemingen,” says this man, “while I was watching my Lord’s interests in that place, a certain warlock who, when he was asked by the Judge how he had first been led into such wickedness and, especially, by what wiles the devil had seduced him, freely and openly declared as follows: ‘I was a common herdsman, and at dawn of day was gathering my herds from their several houses, when of all the girls who let the cattle out of the stables one especially fired my soul with love, and I began to think more and more of her by night and by day. At last as I was burning with desire for her at my solitary pasturage, there appeared to me one like her coyly hiding behind a bush. I ran to my longed-for prize, wooed her and at last embraced her although against her will; but after some repulses, she consented to make me free of her on condition that I acknowledged her as my Mistress and behaved to her as if she were God Himself. I accepted the condition, and possessed her; but she also so possessed me that from that time I have been unhappily subject to no will but hers.’ ”

Hector Boece (De rebus Scoticis, liber 8) tells that in the coasts around Moray Firth a highly born girl of great beauty refused several noblemen in marriage and fell into an abominable familiarity with an Incubus devil. When her parents commanded her to tell whether this were true, and to discover her paramour, she said that a marvellously beautiful youth had frequent intercourse with her by night, and sometimes by day, but that she did not know whence he came or whither he went. Her parents did not entirely believe the girl, and formed a plan by which they should learn more exactly who it was who had stormed the fortress of their daughter’s virginity; and when, three days later, they were informed by a serving maid that the paramour was present, they bolted the house doors and, lighting many torches, went into the bedroom, where they saw in their daughter’s arms a horrible monster whose appearance was terrible beyond human imagination. Others quickly ran up to see the foul sight, among them a priest of most holy life not unlearned in rituals and exorcism, who, while the rest were running away in terror or stood rooted to the ground with horror, began to recite the Gospel of S. John; and when he had come to “The Word was made flesh,” the evil demon gave a terrible cry, set fire to all the furniture, and departed, carrying with him the roof of the bed chamber. The girl, having escaped from this danger, gave birth to a monster of utterly loathsome appearance, such as had never before been seen, as it was said; and lest it should be seen and bring disgrace upon her family, the midwives lit a huge fire and quickly burned it.

A little earlier the same author tells of a Succubus devil as follows. In the district of Gareotha in a village not fourteen miles from Aberdeen, a young man of great beauty openly complained before the Bishop of Aberdeen that for many months he had been tormented by a Succubus devil, as they say, more beautiful than an woman that he had ever seen. He said that she came to him by night through locked doors, coaxed and forced him into her embraces, and went away as the dawn began to break, with scarcely any sound; and that he could by no means, though he had tried many, be delivered from so great and foul a madness. The excellent Bishop at once ordered the young man to remove himself to another place, and to apply his mind more than usual to the Christian Religion, with more devout fasting and prayer; and so, following the advice of the venerable Bishop, the young man was after a few days delivered from the Succubus devil. Elsewhere I shall describe other examples.

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↑ “Innocent VIII.” The Bull “Summis desiderantes affectibus,” 9 December, 1484, a translation of which will be found in my “Geography of Witchcraft,” pp. 533–6, as also prefixed to the “Malleus Maleficarum,” John Rodker, 1928.
↑ “Luther.” Malvenda, “De Antichristo” (1604), II, vi, certainly says of Luther: “Ex incubo dæmonio genitum haud leuibus futilibrisque coniecturis deprehensum est a plerisque, ut Coclaeus refert.” Coclaeus is Johann Dobeneck, 1479–1552.

Chapter 12

Chapter XII

Whether Witches are Really Transported from Place to Place to their Nightly Assemblies.

Argument.

Many of the followers of Luther and Melancthon maintained that witches went to their Sabbats in imagination only, and that there was some diabolical illusion in the matter, alleging that their bodies had often been found lying at home in their beds and had never moved from them; and they support their contention with that passage in the Life of S. Germanus concerning the women who met together, as it seemed, in a feast, and yet were all the time sleeping at home. It is certain that such women are very often the victims of illusion, but it is not proved that this is always so. But as Michal the wife of David deceived the soldiers of her father Saul by putting an image in David’s room, so we say that the devil can and does place a false body in the bed to deceive the husband while a witch has gone to the Sabbat; and in order that the husband may not suspect she is absent, he either causes him to fall into a heavy sleep, or substitutes a likeness of his wife so that the husband on awaking may think that it is indeed his wife. Nicolas Remy proves this from judicial records. A barber’s wife confessed at Forbach on 1st September, 1587, that she had often done this to her husband Bertrand, and had put him to so deep a sleep by anointing him with a certain ointment that she could tweak him by the ear without rousing him; and she used the same ointment upon herself when she wished to go to the Sabbat. On the same day at the same place Eller, the wife of a beadle of Öttingen, was said to have substituted for her own body a child’s cradle, or as some said a bundle of twigs marked with the name of her Familiar, and so often duped her husband. At Homberg on the 5th June, 1590, Maria, the wife of a tailor in Metzer Esch, anointed a bundle of straw and so created an illusion which vanished as soon as she herself returned to the house. Catharine Ruffa declared that the devil himself had at times taken her place in bed and acted in her stead. These instances are taken from Remy, Demonolatreia, I, 12.

Further I hold it to be very true that sometimes witches are really transported from place to place by the devil who, in the shape of a goat or some other fantastic animal, both carries them bodily to the Sabbat and himself is present at its obscenities. This is the general opinion of the Theologians and Jurisconsults of Italy, Spain, and Catholic Germany; while a great many others are of a like opinion. Turrecremata (Torquemada) on Grilland, De sortileg. libre 2, q. 7, num. 8: Remy, Demonolatreia, I, 14, 24, 29: S. Peter Damian, Epist. IV, 17: Francesco Silvester,^[1] In uerbo haeresis, num. 3: Gaietani on S. Mark iv, quest. 47: Alfonso à Castro^[2]: Sisto of Siena^[3]: Crespet: Spina, Contra Ponzinibium^[4]: Anania: and very many others whom for the sake of brevity I omit.

But it must be known that before they go to the Sabbat they anoint themselves upon some part of their bodies with an unguent made from various foul and filthy ingredients, but chiefly from murdered children; and so anointed they are carried away on a cowl-staff, or a broom, or a reed, a cleft stick or a distaff, or even a shovel, which things they ride. At times they are mounted upon an ox or a goat or a dog, and so are carried to their feast. And yet again they go on foot when the place is not far distant. Examples of all these were to be found in Remy, I, 14.

When these members of the devil have met together, they generally light a foul and horrid fire. The devil is president of the Assembly and sits on a throne in some terrible shape, as of a goat or a dog; and they approach him to adore him, but not always in the same manner. For sometimes they bend their knees as suppliants, and sometimes stand with their backs turned, and sometimes kick their legs high up so that their heads are bent back and their chins point to the sky.

Then they offer him pitch black candles, or infants’ navel cords; and kiss him upon the buttocks in sign of homage. Having committed these and similar crimes and execrable abominations, they proceed to other infamies as we shall tell later: but first let us discuss the hour of their Sabbat.

Remy says that he learned from the witches’ own answers at their trials that the fixed time for the nocturnal assembly of witches is one or two hours before midnight, this being most suitable and opportune not only for such assemblies but also for certain other devils’ terrors, sports, runnings about and hubbub which follow, and are not at such an hour so obnoxious. Witches do not explain the cause of this, neither do I inquire into it. But it has been sworn to by Johannes à Villa and Agatina the wife of Francis the tailor. This one thing will I add: that no hours of the night are more suspect nor more favourable to the apparition of fearful and terrifying shades. Indeed it is known from experience that such hours are chiefly notorious for spectres and hideous ghosts, as the classical authors have testified in their writings. For example, Aristomenes,^[5] in Apuleius, Golden Ass, Bk. I: Pliny,^[6] VII, 6: Pliny the Younger,^[7] Epist. 7: and among more modern writers Alexander ab Alexandro (Genial. Dierum, V, 24) tells that he heard in the silence of midnight a terrible noise of ghosts from certain houses in Rome. And authors of weight say that this silent time is the dead of night which comes (according to Censorinus,^[8] De Die Natali, cap. XXIV) just before the stroke of midnight. Eusebius of Caesarea argues that the untimely hour of the night is just before cock crow, and that this is the most suited to the demon’s wicked purposes. Servius (in the Fifth Book of the Aeneid) says that it is the middle of the night: Macrobius^[9] that it is just after midnight; since such time is aptest to the Prince of Darkness for his dealings with men, being an uncouth and vacant time. And, to return to the subject of the cock crow, Remy in the same place says that he had it in judicial examination from a witch named Latoma that nothing more baleful and hostile to them could happen than that the cock should crow while they were still about their business. Johann Pulmer and his wife Desideria, both of them witches, likewise deposed in Court that their Masters often used to cry out, when it was nearly time to break up the Sabbat: “Now go quickly away all, for the cocks begin to crow.” And this can only mean that they are unable to prolong their business any further. But I know not the reason of their fear of the cock crow. From Pliny and Aelian I know that the cock crow is feared by lions and Scolopendrae. Also that it portends much when they crow out of time during the night, as Zacchia da Volterra^[10] (Philologiae, libre 25) records it to have happened on the birth night of the eldest son of Matteo Visconti the Great, Lord of Milan: for on that night the cocks did not cease from crowing to the point of tediousness, and therefore the child was named Galeazzo, and grew up to great eloquence and military glory, as Paolo Giovio tells.

Remy (I, 16) tells that the witches themselves assert that a great number of both sexes meet at their nocturnal Sabbats, but that there are far more women than men. This was affirmed by Barbellina Raiel of Blainville-la-Grande on the 13th January, 1587. In 1585 Jeanne de Bans and Nicole Ganette from the town of Mainz in Lorraine said that they were sometimes present among so great a number of witches that they felt no small pity for the human race when they saw it assailed by so many enemies and betrayers, and that it was indeed wonderful that mortals did not suffer more harm from them. Catharine Ruffa of Val-de-Villé near the Moselle said in July 1587 that she saw no less than five hundred on that night when she was first lured into their number.

There are tables placed and drawn up, and they sit and start to eat of the food which the demon has provided, or which they have themselves brought. But all who have sat down to such tables confess that the feasts are all foul either in appearance or in smell, so that they would easily nauseate the most ravenously hungry stomach. The above-mentioned Barbellina and Sybil Morelle said at Bar-le-Duc in September 1586 that all sorts of food were there, but so vile and mean and badly cooked that they were scarcely worth eating. At Bar-le-Duc in February 1587 Nicolas Morelle said that their taste was so evil and dry and bitter that he had to spue them out as soon as he had eaten them; and that the demon was so angry when he saw this that he hardly kept his hands from him. Their wine also is black like stale blood, and is given to the feasters in some filthy sort of drinking horn. They say that there is plenty of everything except bread and salt. In 1583 at Ribeauville, near the Château de Girsberg, Dominique Isabelle added that human flesh was also set out, and that this was a frequent practice among the Scythian witches we learn from Belleforest (Cosmographiae, II, 6). Most of the partakers of such feasts say that the food and drink satisfy neither their hunger nor their thirst, but they are just as hungry and thirsty afterwards as they were before. Joanna Michaelis, of Château-Salins, in 1590 added that the eyes of those who attend such assemblies are not sure and clear of sight, but that all is confused and disturbed and appears vague to them, like those who are blinded by drunkenness or some sin or some magic. Thus witches sometimes are actually present at the Sabbat; and often again they are fast asleep at home, and yet think that they are at the Sabbat; for the devil deceives their senses, and through his illusions many imaginings may enter the minds of sleepers, leaving them with a conviction of their reality when they awake, as if it were not a dream but an actual experience and an undoubted physical action. For so for the most part does the crafty devil manage his affairs.

Then follow dances, which are performed in a circle but always round to the left; and just as our dances are for pleasure, so their dances and measures bring them labour and fatigue and the greatest toil. And they return home from them so weary, according to the confession of Barbellina and nearly all witches who have attended them, that they have often had to lie abed for a full two days. And the most sorry and most iniquitous thing about it is that no one is allowed to excuse herself from the dance; and if any of them, by reason of ill health or old age, shirks that labour, she is soon beaten and bruised by fists and feet, just as salted fish is beaten with hammers.

When they approach the demons to venerate them, they turn their backs and, going backwards like crabs, put out their hands behind them to touch him in supplication. When they speak they turn their faces to the ground; and they do all things in a manner altogether foreign to the use of other men. Indeed it is sufficiently clear from our own experience that the desire of men for wanton dancing and treading light measures nearly always lead by evil example to more lust and sin; in his day this was complained of by Scipio Aemilianus, in his oration contra legem iudiciariam Tiberii Gracchi, and by Macrobius, Saturnalia, III, 4.

Sometimes they dance before eating, and sometimes after the repast. Some three or four tables are set apart for the richest and most honoured among them. Sometimes each sits next to his own Familiar Spirit; sometimes the witches on one side, and the demons opposite them. There is not lacking a grace said at this table, worthy of such an assembly, composed of blasphemous words in which Beelzebub himself is acclaimed the Creator and Giver and Preserver of all. The same spirit inspires their actions after the tables have been removed. For when the banquet is done each demon takes by the hand the disciple under his guardianship, and all the rites are performed with the utmost absurdity in a frenzied ring with hands joined and back to back; and so they dance, throwing their heads like frantic folk, sometimes holding in their hands the candles which they have before used in worshipping the devil.

They sing in honour of the devil the most obscene songs to the sound of a bawdy pipe and tabor played by one seated in the fork of a tree; and then in the foulest manner they copulate with their demon lovers. They come to these Sabbats, as we have said, in the silence of midnight when the powers of darkness are strong; but sometimes they even meet at noontide; and this is referred to in the passage of the Psalms (xci, 6) where it speaks of the noon-day demon. They have also fixed days which differ in various localities. In Italy they meet about midnight on Thursday, according to Sébastien Michaelis.^[11] The witches of Lorraine meet on Wednesday night, and on Saturday night with the Sunday following, according to Remy: and I have read that others meet on Tuesday night.

From what we have already described, therefore, and from the confessions of witches themselves before their Judges, it is clearer than light, and will be confirmed by particular instances, that witches are carried bodily through the air to the Sabbat by demons; and not only are they themselves so carried, but with the help of the devil they can carry others on their own shoulders, as the examples will show. Sometimes indeed, when the Sabbat has been suddenly dispersed, tables and silver furnishings have been found and recognised by their owners, which the women have confessed that they have carried with them to the Sabbat.

Only I will add this: that they who assert that all this is not true, but only a dream or an illusion, certainly sin in lack of true reverence to our Mother the Church. For the Catholic Church punishes no crime that is not evident and manifest, and counts no one a heretic unless he has been caught in patent heresy. Now for many years the Church has counted witches as heretics and has ordered that they be punished by the Inquisitors and handed over to the Secular Courts, as is clear from the works of Sprenger, Nider, Nicolas Jacquier,^[12] and Michaelis, as well as from our own knowledge. Therefore either the Church is in error, or they who maintain this belief. But he who says that the Church is in error over a matter concerning the faith is Anathema Maranatha. I conclude therefore that witches are most often actually transported by the devil, and that sometimes they go afoot: and when they wish to be transported bodily they anoint themselves, as I have said already, with an ointment made from the fat of infants’ bodies; but when they wish to attend the Sabbat only in dream, they lie down on their left side: but when they prefer to keep awake, and yet see what is done at the Sabbat as if they were present at it, then by some devils’ work they send a thick vapour from their mouths, in which they can see all that is done as if in a mirror.

It is Stated by some authors^[13] as a fact that there have been women who have manifestly spent the night in bed with their husbands, and yet on the next morning have confidently remembered and spoken about many things pertaining to the Sabbat, at which they have maintained that they were present on the preceding night. Others have been observed by their family and relations, who have formed some suspicion of them, to start violently in their sleep as if they were in great pain; or even to bestride a chair or some other object as if it were a horse, and spur it on with their heels: yet they have not gone out of the house, but on awaking have been as tired as if they had returned from a long journey, and have told of marvellous things which they thought they had done. And what is more, they are angry and incensed against those who do not believe them. This has led many to believe that this is no more than a matter of dreams sent by the devil into the minds of those whom he has caught in his net.

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Examples.

In the County of York in England a wonderful thing happened which is recorded by Martin Delrio of the Society of Jesus, who quotes from William of Newburgh,^[14] to whom it was known from boyhood (for it was not far from the birthplace of this historian). There is a village some miles from the North Sea, near which are those famous waters which the common people call “the Gipsies”^[15] or the “Gipsey-race.” A certain peasant went on a visit from this village to a neighbouring village to see a friend and as he was returning late at night not very sober, behold from a mound some two or three furlongs from the village came the sound of voices singing and of people feasting. He wondered who could be breaking the silence of the night in that place with these formal celebrations, and was curious enough to wish to enquire into it; and seeing an open door in the side of the mound he went and looked in, and saw a wide and well-lit hall filled with men and women sitting down to a grand feast. But one of the servers saw him standing at the door and brought him a cup,^[16] which he took but purposely refused to drink from it; for he spilled its contents and at once went away with the cup. An outcry arose among the feasters at the theft of the cup, and the guests went in pursuit of him; but he escaped thanks to the speed of his horse, and came back to the village with his rare prize. Afterwards this cup, which was of unknown material and unusual colour and uncommon shape, was offered as a gift to Henry I, King of England, and then to the brother of the Queen of David, King of Scotland, and was for many years kept in the Treasury of Scotland, as may be read in the First Book Rerum Anglicarum, cap. 28.

Sébastien Michaelis tells that among the witches of Avignon a boy was taken who told the Judge that he had been led by his father to the Synagogue (for so they called their Assembly), and had there seen many wicked and horrible things done; so that in his terror he had signed himself with the cross and said “Jesus, what is this!” And as soon as he had said this the whole rout disappeared, leaving him there alone; and the next day he returned home, which was three German miles distant from the place of the Synagogue, and brought his father before the Judges. And therefore in that district the boy was given the name Masquillon, that is, Little Magician: and this boy was still in captivity at Avignon when Michaelis wrote this in 1582.

Bartolomeo de Spina (De Strig. Tom. II, p. II, cap. 17) relates the following: Master Socino Benci, a famous physician of Ferrara who was Public Intendant of the sick in that city, lately told me as the faithful truth that when he was in the country about three years ago to see after his properties, he fell into conversation with his bailiff about witches. The physician said that all the talk about witches was madness, especially that they could be bodily transported wherever they wished. But the bailiff (who is still living, one Tommasino Polastros from the district of Mirandola, but now living in the place called Clavica Malaguzi) replied that there was another peasant living close by, who said that he had seen great numbers of men and women dancing in the night and abandoning themselves to pleasures. The physician was astounded and asked the bailiff to bring that peasant to him; and when he was brought and asked about those things, he answered as follows: “One night I rose about three hours before dawn and came with my own oxen and wagon to this bailiff of yours to help him in a job of work; and I had got as far as that plain I am pointing to” (for it was near by) “when I saw afar off a big fire in different places, like great lights, among which I saw a great crowd of men and women wrestling or dancing together. Going nearer, I saw more than six thousand people in the clear light of the fires, and tables spread, and some of them eating and drinking; but more were dancing and playing different sorts of games, while most of them were acting bawdy in a way that it is not right to speak of. I saw some men and women among them whom I knew, and spoke to some of them: but after an hour a signal was given and they all seemed to run away very quickly indeed, and they were nowhere to be seen, as if they had been carried away in a cloud.” On hearing this evidence the physician changed his opinion, and not only believed that what he had formerly thought to be madness was possible, but that it did actually happen.

The following, which is a witch’s own statement, is taken from Grilland. After she had paid her homage, the chief of the devils at once appointed as her guardian a demon who must never leave her but serve her in all that she wished; and whenever their rendezvous and games were to be held he was to inform her of it and take her there fully instructed: and this demon used her carnally as a husband serves his wife. She said that witches often go to these Assemblies, where a great number of women meet; and that it is no matter of a mere mental or intellectual or apparent vision, for in their true and natural shape they go to such places in the following manner. A day or two before the Sabbat the witch is told by her guardian demon to prepare to go to the games on such a night at such an hour; and if she has any just cause to hinder her she adduces it and is heard, provided that it is a true and legitimate excuse: but if she invents a false reason to excuse her attendance, she is not carried there against her will, but remains in her house; yet as a punishment for her lies the demon so mightily torments her both in mind and body with continuous torture of the sharpest degree, and aches and pains both within and without, that she can have no rest by day or by night, but is always plagued; and everything that she does comes to nothing and is abortive. So that, to put an end to such great pain, she must confess her fault and promise on oath that she will no more refuse to go to the Sabbat. When she has so promised, as soon as the night and the hour have arrived she is summoned in a sort of human voice by the demon himself, whom she does not call demon but Little Master, or Martinet Master, or Martinellus. And on this summons she goes out of her house and always finds her Little Master waiting by the door in the form of a goat, upon which this woman said that she rode holding tightly to its hair, and the goat rose into the air and in the shortest time carried her to the wizard walnut tree of Benevento^[17] and gently put her down there.

Paul Grilland (De sortileg. II, 7) tells that in 1524 there was brought to him as Inquisitor a certain Lucretia who, while she was being carried home from the Sabbat, came at dawn within sound of the bells calling the people to morning prayer, and was suddenly left by the devil who was carrying her near a river in a field covered with thorns. It happened that a young man well known to her was walking across it, and the unhappy woman called to him by his name. The young man, seeing her quite naked except for a covering over her private parts, and with her hair all loose, was afraid to go near her: but she coaxed him with flattering words, and at last he went up to her and asked her how she came to be there in that state. At first she invented many lies, but the young man did not believe her and said he would not help her unless she told the truth. Then, binding him to secrecy, she told the truth of what had happened to her, and the reason for it. The young man took her secretly to her home, and she gave him many gifts; but in the end he forgot his promise and spoke of the matter first to one and then to another, and so by degrees the disgraceful story was spread abroad, and the woman was taken, and the young man was compelled to give evidence of the truth and he told all this to Grilland.

A woman in the Diocese of Sabina practised this diabolic art, and her husband becoming suspicious repeatedly questioned her, but she always denied the charge. But the husband retained his suspicions and anxiously sought to know the truth, and contrived so cunningly that one night he saw her anointing herself with some ointment, after which she flew away as quickly as a bird. He followed to see where she was going, but lost sight of her; and going to the door of the house he found it shut, which caused him great surprise. On the following day he again asked his wife what he so eagerly wished to know, and she firmly denied all knowledge; until, so that she could no longer plead ignorance, he openly told her all that he had seen her do the night before, and then soundly thrashed her, since it is wisely said that an obstinate heart is broken by the rod; and he threatened to beat her even more severely unless she told the truth, promising her a full pardon if she would freely confess. The woman, seeing that she could no longer hide it, told the truth and asked pardon of her husband, which he granted on condition that she would take him to the Sabbat. To obtain forgiveness she readily promised this, and, with the permission of Satan, fulfilled her word. The husband was taken to the place of the Sabbat and saw the games and dances and everything else, and finally sat down with the rest at the tables to eat; but finding the food insipid, he asked for salt and, although there was none on the table, kept asking again and again for it, but was not given any until after much importunacy and long waiting. Then he said; “Praise be to God, for at last the salt has come!” As soon as he had uttered these words the demons immediately departed, and all the rest vanished, and the lights were put out and he remained there alone and naked. In the morning he saw some shepherds whom he asked in what country he was; and they answered that it was Benevento in the Kingdom of Naples, which was a hundred miles from the man’s own country. So, although he was a rich man, he had to beg his way home; and on his arrival he at once accused his wife of the crime of witchcraft, and told the Judges the whole story and how she had departed. And when they had well and duly examined the matter, they found all that we have related to be true, and it was all confirmed by the woman’s own confession.

Bartolomeo Spina,^[18] Master of the Sacred Palace, records some equally certain examples, one of which is as follows. A girl who lived with her mother at Bergamo was found one night at Venice in her brother-in-law’s bed. In the morning she was found naked and was recognised as a kinswoman, and was asked why she had come there. When they had clothed her she told with tears the following story: “Last night I was lying in bed awake and saw my mother, who thought I was asleep, rise from her bed and take off her vest and anoint her body with an unguent from a pot which she took from a secret place; and then she mounted a staff which was at hand as if it were a horse, and rose up and was carried through the window, so that I could no longer see her. Then I also rose from bed and anointed my body as my mother had done, and was at once borne through the window and brought to this place, where I saw my mother threatening with horrid gestures the boy lying in this bed. I was frightened at this, and saw that my mother also was disturbed by my appearance and began to menace me: so I called upon the Name of the Lord Jesus and of His Mother, and then I no longer saw my mother, and was left here alone and naked.” When they heard these words of the girl, her brother-in-law wrote all down and brought it before the Inquisitor-General of Bergamo, who took the woman into custody. She was exposed to torture and confirmed everything in confession, adding that the demon had carried her more than fifty times to kill the son of that brother-in-law, but that she had never succeeded in doing so because she had always found him too well protected by his parents with the sign of the cross and holy prayers.

Spina also relates that a certain Antonio Leone, a charcoal burner of Ferrara, who was then living in the Valtellina, that very same year, attested that he knew intimately the man to whom the following occurred in his native district. This man, on account of many hints which had been given him, suspected his wife of going to the witches’ Sabbat while he himself was asleep. One night, therefore, he pretended to be in a deep sleep, and saw his wife rise from her bed and anoint herself from a hidden vase, and immediately vanish. In astonishment not unmixed with curiosity the man also rose from his bed and did as his wife had done; and at once, as it seemed to him, he was carried up the chimney just as his wife appeared to have been, into the wine cellar of a certain noble Count, where he found his wife together with many others. When she saw him, his wife and all the rest of the company made a certain occult sign and disappeared, the husband being left all alone in that place. There he was found in the morning by the servants of the house, who raised an outcry, and seizing him as a thief haled him before the Count. When he had been granted leave to speak, he shamefacedly told what had happened; and so his wife was accused before the Inquisitor, and at last confessed, and suffered the punishment well merited by her crimes.

Nicolas Remy (I, 14) tells the following examples. At Luthz at the foot of the Vosges Mountains in May 1589 the villagers were celebrating a pagan festival. Claude Cothèze was returning in the evening from that village to the next, which is called Wisembach, and had already climbed a good part of the hill which separates the two villages, when he was suddenly caught in a whirlwind and stood looking about him in amazement to see if he could find any cause for such an unusual occurrence, for the air was most calm and still everywhere else. Then he saw in a sheltered place six witch women dancing round a table sumptuously decked with gold and silver, tossing their heads about like people afflicted with madness; and near them was a man like a black bull watching them as if he were a casual passer by. He therefore stood still for a while collecting himself and making sure that he saw quite clearly; and when he had done so, they all suddenly vanished from his sight. Recovering from his fright he then started on his road again and had already passed the top of the hill when behold, those women were following him from behind, throwing their heads about as before and keeping a deep silence, while before them went a man with a black face and hands curved like talons, with which he would have clawed his forehead if he had not turned and opposed him with his drawn sword; but then the man ceased to threaten him and vanished as if in fear of his life. The women showed themselves yet again, and with them the man like a bull, who, as I have said, was looking on at their dances. Cothèze now felt more confident towards this man, and went up to him, saying: “Are not you my friend Desirée Gazète?” (for so he was named). “I beg you to protect me if you can; for I promise you that I will tell no one anything of what I have seen.” Hardly had he said this when he was encompassed by a fresh whirlwind or cloud, and when he had come out of it as soon as he could, he went home. Three days after he had given evidence as above, he was recalled for examination by the Judge, and added the following: that he remembered that when he had gone near the table to see what food there was upon it, the demon had instantly flown at his face with his talons, and that while he was defending himself with his sword he had been lifted up by a violent wind and carried to the cataracts of Comber Hill, which was no less than two hundred paces away. And lest anyone should think that this was the imagining of a drunken man frightened by the darkness and solitude, the story was confirmed at St.-Dié in June 1589 by Barbelline Gazète, one of the women in question, who told it in almost the same words to the Inquisitor, adding that her husband Desirée Gazète had given to Cothèze as a gift three measures of wheat and as many cow’s cheeses which he kept hidden, and that she had seen them. All this was admitted and agreed to, except that Barbelline said that the demon had not raised his hands against Cothèze because he came near the table, as he had falsely stated in his evidence, but because he was about to steal a golden cup from it.

When Johann of Hembach was scarcely more than a child, his witch mother took him to the nocturnal assembly of demons and, because he was so clever a crowder, ordered him to play his kit and to climb up a tree from which he could be heard better. He did so and, having leisure to watch their lewd reels and rigadoons, found it very unusual (for everything at their Sabbat was uncouth and ridiculous), and cried out: “Good God, whence came that extraordinary mob of madmen?” No sooner had he said this than he fell to the ground and hurt his shoulder; and when he called for help, he found himself alone. He told this story openly and various opinions were formed about it; some saying that it was only a vision, whilst others contended that it had really happened. But not long afterwards the opportunity arose to remove all doubt. For Catharine Prevotte, one of those who had taken part in those dances, was soon afterwards taken on suspicion of witchcraft, and confessed the whole matter as we have told it, although she was unaware of the story told by Johann and was not pressed by any questions.

As Nicole Langbernard was returning home from Marainviller to Igney-Avricourt in July 1590, and was walking at full noonday along a wooded path, she saw in a neighbouring field a company of men and women dancing in a ring, not in the usual manner of men but in the opposite direction and with their backs turned. She looked more closely and saw further some who were deformed with hooves like goats or oxen among the dancers; and being struck with terror she began to call upon the Most Holy Name of Jesus, and earnestly to pray that she might come back safe and unharmed to her own people. Thereupon all the dancers vanished except one named Peter, and he quickly rose into the air and was seen to let fall to the earth a little brush of the sort used by bakers to clean their ovens before they bake bread. Meanwhile she was caught in a violent wind so that she could hardly draw her breath; and then returned home, where she lay sick for three whole days. This thing became known through the talk of herself and her neighbours, and had soon spread all over the village. This Peter, lest by ignoring the story he should seem to admit and confess to so heavy a charge, went first to the Judge and angrily laid a complaint before him; but in the end he was afraid he would lose his suit and lay himself open to a greater danger, and so desisted from it. This brought him into far greater suspicion of the crime, since many were of opinion that his guilty conscience had caused him to withdraw the complaint which he had started so bitterly against her. Accordingly the Judge made diligent enquiry into his life and character, and found some indications that this was no empty suspicion, and arrested him (at Dieuze, Feb. 1591). And he was with little trouble induced to confess his guilt, and finally to name and indicate those others who had been partners in that crime, among whom were Barbelia the wife of Johann Latomer, and Mayette the wife of Laurentius, the Chief Magistrate, all of whom told the same story of their dancing back to back with the cloven-hoofed creatures, maintaining that it was all true. Their confession was yet further substantiated by Johann Michel, a herdsman, who stated that during those proceedings he had been playing upon his pipes, beating time with his foot and moving his fingers quickly over the pipes. But when Nicole in panic called upon Jesus, and moreover signed herself with the Cross, he fell from the high branch of an oak on which he was sitting, and was then caught in a whirlwind and carried to a field called Veiler in which he had shortly before left his flock grazing. But the gravest and weightiest proof was that the place where the dance had been performed had been found, on the day following that mentioned by Nicole, marked with a ring such as is seen in circuses where horses run round in a circle, and there were recent tracks of goats or oxen, all of which could be seen until that field was again ploughed up in the following winter.

In Holland there was in the village of Oostbruck not far from Maestricht a widow woman whose circumstances required her to keep a manservant to manage the affairs of the house. This man was, like most servants, inquisitive, and often used to look through a window and see his mistress go at the dead of every night, as soon as the servants had gone to sleep, to a certain fixed spot in the stables, where she stretched up and laid fast hold of the nearest rack of hay. At last, wondering what she could be about, he made up his mind to do the same just once, unbeknown to his mistress, and to try the same venture. So when his mistress went as usual to that place and seemed to be out of sight, he followed and looked about the place and, as his mistress had done, grasped the hay. Then he was at once carried to the town of Wijk into a secret underground cave, where he found himself in the midst of a company of witches brewing their evil plots. The mistress was surprised at her servant’s unexpected appearance, and asked how he had managed to come there in a moment of time. He told her how it was; and she waxed very angry and highly incensed, being afraid lest by this means their nocturnal and clandestine meetings should become known. She therefore asked her associates what they advised in this doubtful pass, and they at length agreed that he should be received in friendly fashion and be sworn to keep silence, and that he would never communicate or tell to any one those mysteries which chance had allowed him to witness, beyond his desert or expectation. He gave his promise and spoke fairly to them; and, that they might treat him more leniently, pretended that his one chief wish was that they should thereafter admit him into the fellowship and company of witches. Meanwhile the hours passed until it was time for their return; and then a new question was posed by the mistress, whether he should be sent back home to be a danger to the whole assembly, or whether he should be killed for the general good. They arrived at the more merciful decision of binding him by an oath and sending him home. This duty was undertaken by his mistress, who promised that when he had given his oath she would carry him home on her shoulders; and to this business they set themselves, and were carried by an east wind through the air. But when they had covered the greater part of their journey a lake overgrown with reeds came in sight; and the old witch, fearing lest the young man should be led by penitence to disclose what he had seen at those frantic orgies, saw her chance of getting rid of him, and to cast him from her as she flew, hoping, as it is thought, that he would die either from the violence of his fall or in the deep waters of the lake. But God, who is merciful and desireth not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live, frustrated the evil design of that witch, and did not allow the innocent young man to be drowned, but most justly granted that he should live to this very day. As he fell among the reeds he received no mortal hurt indeed, for the violence of his fall was a little broken by the reeds: but the unhappy man was unable to do anything but use his tongue, and lay there till daylight in the most dreadful agony, sighing and groaning, until some passers by were surprised to hear this unusual lamentation, and searched and found a young man with both his hips dislocated. They asked how he had fallen into such misfortune; and when he had told all they took him in a cart to Maestricht. There a nobleman, Jehan Chulenburgh, the Mayor of the city, being struck by the strangeness of the affair, wonderingly enquired into it all; and having examined the matter he ordered the youth’s mistress to be seized and put in chains. As soon as she fell into the hands of the Mayor, she denied nothing, but confessed to every particular.

Bernard of Como^[19] in his De Strigiis, 3, tells that about sixty years ago in the Diocese of Como proceedings were being taken against such witches by an Inquisitor named Master Bartolomeo de Homate, with Master Lorenzo da Concorezzo the Podesta and Giovanni da Fossato as Notary. One day the Podesta, out of curiosity, wished to prove by experience whether witches go to the Sabbat really and in their bodies. Accordingly he agreed to go one Thursday evening with his Notary and another companion to a place outside the town^[20] which had been indicated by the witches. While they were standing there they saw many people assembled before one who was the devil in the form of a goat enthroned like some great Lord: and behold, at the command of the devil all those persons there assembled fell upon that magistrate and his companions and, with God’s permission, so beat them with sticks that they all three died from their blows within fifteen days.

Florimond de Raymond,^[21] Senator of the King at the Parlement of Bordeaux, a pious catholic and learned man, in his L’Antéchrist, VII, tells of some unspeakable and sacrilegious rites in the following words.

At this Court in the year 1594 was tried a young girl of Aquitane, a wench of intelligent appearance who, without being tortured, freely confessed that she had been corrupted at a tender age by a certain Italian. In the middle of the night before the day of S. John Baptist the Italian had led her to a certain field, where he had traced a circle on the ground with a beech twig, muttering some words out of a black book. Suddenly there appeared a large and perfectly black goat, well horned, and accompanied by two women, and soon there came up a man clothed and vested like a priest. The goat asked the Italian what girl that was; and he answered that she had been brought by him to be enrolled among the goat’s subjects. Hearing this, the goat ordered her to make the sign of the cross with her left hand, and all who were present to approach and perform their act of veneration. Thereupon they all kissed him with their lips under his tail. Between the goat’s horns a black candle gave a horrid light, and from this they all lit the candles they were holding; and as they worshipped the goat, they dropped money in a bowl. This is what happened the first time. Afterwards the Italian again took the girl to the same place; and then the goat asked her for a tress or lock of her hair, which the Italian cut off and gave to him. By this sign the goat led her apart as his bride into a neighbouring wood and, pressing her against the ground, penetrated her: but the girl said that she found this operation quite lacking in any sensation of pleasure, for she rather experienced a very keen pain and sense of horror of the goat’s semen, which was as cold as ice. On a Wednesday and a Friday in each month these rites were performed by the well of Dôme, and she attended them countless times with more than sixty others, all of whom brought candles with them which the goat lit by blowing upon them from his behind, after which they danced round with joined hands and their backs turned. They also performed a travesty of the Mass, celebrated by one clothed in a black cope with no cross woven upon it. At the time of the Holy Sacrifice and the Elevation of the Host, he lifted up a segment or round of turnip stained black, upon which they all with one voice cried out: “Master, help us!” The Chalice contained water instead of wine; and they made their Holy Water as follows:—The goat pissed into a hole dug in the ground, and with this undiluted water the celebrant sprinkled them all with a black aspergillum. In this assembly each witch has his or her particular duty assigned, and each gives a report of what he has done. So writes Raymond; and he discusses the question of poisons, spells, charms and magic remedies, as also the destruction of the fruits of the earth, and many such crimes.

Let us now consider how witches are borne through the clouds by demons at other times than that of the nocturnal assembly. In Belgium a nobleman of proved faith named Vanderburch, Dean of the Cathedral Chapter and an honoured citizen of Mechlin, was walking outside the town with an arquebus, when suddenly he heard the screaming of crows and crowds of obscene crows and pies in a tree near his path. He levelled his arquebus and discharged it at them, and thought he had fairly hit one and brought it down from the tree; but all he found was an iron key from a woman’s girdle. He took this home and told a friend what had happened, asking whether he recognised the key. His friend said that he knew it for the key of a neighbouring house. They then went to the house, found the door locked, opened it with their key and, shutting the door behind them, went in, since they were acquainted with the good man of the house; and there they found a woman, the owner’s wife, wounded in the side with an arquebus shot.

Martin Delrio (Disqu. Magic. V, 3) makes the following observation:—I was at the Nieulay Bridge at Calais when it was stormed under the auspicious leadership of the Serene Archduke Albert and held by the soldiers of His Catholic Majesty. A company from Valogne was stationed as outpost to keep a watch upon the men of Boulogne, who were then on the enemy’s side; and towards the evening two of these men saw a black cloud floating out of the clear sky, and from the midst of it there seemed to come a confused sound of many voices, although no one could be seen. At last the bolder of these two men said: “What is this? Are we safe? If you consent, I will discharge my arquebus into that cloud.” His comrade agreed, and after the report of the arquebus, there fell to their feet from the cloud a drunken naked woman, very fat and of middle age, wounded right through the thigh. On being seized she pretended to be feeble minded, and would answer nothing to their questions but, “Are you friends or foes?” Now what do they say to this, who deny that these witches are transported? They will say that they do not believe it. Then let them remain sceptical; for they will not believe any number of eye-witnesses whom I could produce. Why? Because they themselves have never seen or heard such a thing, and they have examined certain witnesses who have maintained that they knew nothing of such happenings. So says Delrio.

Now, reader, I will take further instances from Nicolas Remy, the truth of which has been sworn on oath and given in evidence at trials. There is, he says, at Gironcourt in the Vosges Province a strong-built castle which was struck by lightning so that some of its roofing was torn away. Not long afterwards, namely, in October 1580, one Sebastienne Piccarde was accused of witchcraft in that village, and confessed to the Judge that this had been the work of herself and her demon. For, she said, we together rushed from a cloud upon the castle meaning to bring it entirely to ruin; but it was not in our power to do so, and we could only inflict a little damage so that our attempt should not be altogether abortive.

The following instance is similar. A man named Cunin, who was a magistrate in the bailiwick of S. Clement in Ronchamp, was attending to his hay with his servants on the 1st December, 1586, when he noticed the sky grow very stormy. He was getting ready to go home, when suddenly he saw six oak trees near him struck by lightning and torn up by the roots, and a seventh appeared as if it had been all rent and lacerated with claws. He then made the more haste towards home, in his hurry leaving behind his hat and all his tools, and again heard the crash of lightning striking and saw perched in the top of an oak near him a woman who seemed to have come from the clouds. He looked at her more closely and recognised her as an old neighbour of his, and at once began to revile her as follows: “Are not you that vile hag Marguerite Warens, who, as I now find, thoroughly deserve the general suspicion of witchcraft which every one has long harboured against you? Whence come you now in that costume?” To this she answered: “Spare me, I entreat you, and keep silent about what you now see. If you will promise me this, I will manage so that no harm at all shall ever come from me to you and yours.” And lest any should doubt the truth of this, let him know that it was proved not only by the evidence of Cunin, but by the confession of that very Warens which was often repeated even without the stimulus of torture, and confirmed by her in the hearing of many at the very last moment of her life.

To the same effect are instances arising out of other capital trials, vouched for as true by those who conducted them. A great thunder storm arose while some shepherds were watching their flocks in the Vosges, and since they were exposed in the open they took shelter in the neighbouring woods. There all at once they saw two peasants perched, or rather entangled, in the tops of the trees, so terrified that it was easy to see that they were not there of their own will, but quite by accident and through some unexpected impetus. But then the filth and muddiness of their clothing, and the fact that they were all scratched with brambles, gave rise to an increasing suspicion that they had been cast out and hurled into that place by their Master after he had dragged them hither and thither according to his custom. This suspicion was the more confirmed because, after they had sat there long enough for the shepherds’ eyes to make sure that they saw clearly, in an instant, without anyone marking how, they seemed to fall to the ground. Finally all doubt was removed when their own words, and the report of the shepherds, were fully borne out by spontaneous confession when they were questioned in prison.

There is also a village lying to the left as you go from Bellemont to Vittel, where the same two peasants fell headlong from a storm cloud on to the top of a roof. One of them, whose name was Rouet, was terribly troubled as to how they could get safely to ground from so difficult a place. But the other, Amant, had been led into the devil’s service by his parents as soon as he reached puberty and very soon adapted himself to the conditions, saying: “Cheer up, you fool; for he in whose power we are is Master of far more difficult matters than this, and will very soon manage this affair for us.” And no sooner said than done; for they were suddenly caught up together in a whirlwind and set down safe on the ground, while the house itself shook so that it seemed to be torn from its foundations. This was told by each of them separately in the same words: moreover their story agreed in every respect with that of the villagers, as to the day, the storm, and all the panic. Finally, they who in life had been associated together in crime, perished in one fire by the Judge’s sentence. So says Remy.

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↑ “Silvester of Avila.” Francesco Silvester, c. 1474–1526. Dominican theologian, and sometime Master-General of the Order. A prolific and esteemed writer.
↑ “Alfonso à Castro. 1495–1558. A Franciscan theologian of great eminence. Confessor to Charles V and Philip II. Among his chief works are “Aduersus omnes hæreses,” first edition, Cologne, 1539; and “De Iusta Hæreticorum punitione,” Salamanca, 1547.
↑ “Sisto of Siena.” Dominican theologian and demonologist. His chief work is “Bibliotheca Sancta,” Libri V., Francofurti, folio, 1575 (secunda editio).
↑ “Contra Ponzinibium.” The jurist Gianfrancesco Ponzinibio wrote a rationalistic monograph on witchcraft in which he strove to regard the Sabbat, the flight of witches and much beside as a sick illusion. He was completely answered and routed by Bartolomeo Spina, who devoted no less than three tractates to these points and very properly arraigned Ponzinibio as himself vehemently suspect of heresy and an advocate of heretics.
↑ “Aristomenes.” The traveller who relates the story of witchcraft, “Metamorphoseon, I. The hags appear “circa tertiam ferme uigiliam,” and long after their departure “nox ibat in diem.”
↑ “Pliny, H.N.” VII, 6: Plenilunium, “quod tempos editos quoque infantes praecipue infestat.”
↑ “Pliny the Younger.” The allusion is to the well-known history of the haunted house at Athens, “Epist.” VII, 27. The spectre appeared with a noise of chains “per silentium noctis,” and when the philosopher Athenodorus was watching “Initio, quale ubique, silentium noctis, deinde concuti ferrum, uincula moueri.”
↑ “Censorinus.” “Concubium,” cum itum est cubitum. Exinde “intempesta,” id est, multa nox, qua nihil agi tempestiuum est: tunc “ad medium noctem,” dicitur: et sic “media nox.”
↑ “Macrobius.” “Saturnalia,” I, 3: “magistratus … post mediam noctem auspicantur.”
↑ “Volterra.” A famous professor of the University of Pisa.
↑ “Sébastien Michaelis.” A Dominican of great sanctity, born at Saint Zacharie in Provence, 1543; died at Paris, 1618. He was widely known for his deep study of the demonologists, and as a most powerful exorcist he was summoned to deal with the possession of Madeleine de la Palud, who had been bewitched by Gaufridi. For an account of this see my “Geography of Witchcraft,” pp. 408–12. The cause of Sébastien Michaelis has been introduced at Rome, and he has been declared Venerable.
↑ “Nicolas Jacquier.” Dominican and Inquisitor. Author of “Flagellum Haereticorum fascinariorum,” a piece of great value, which with some other tractates was first printed at Frankfort by Basse in 1581.
↑ “Some authors.” e.g. Bodin, “Démonomanie,” II, 5.
↑ “William of Newburgh.” “Historia Anglicana,” I, 28.
↑ “Gipsies.” “Gipse” is the reading of Lambeth MS.; Cotton MS.; and Hearne’s edition of William of Newburgh. MS. Reg. 13 B ix gives “Vipse.” The village of Wold Newton, eight miles from Bridlington, has a large mere principally supplied by the “Gipseys,” streams of water which appear after intervals of two or three years and disappear after two or three months. Allen, “History of County of York,” vol. II, p. 330.
↑ “A cup.” Hamilton in his edition of William of Newburgh has the following note on this passage: “This Scandinavian legend is common, with variations, to the ballad and romantic literature of most countries of Europe. It may be sufficient to direct attention to a version very similar to the above, named the ‘Altar-cup in Aegerup,’ a story of the Trolls, quoted in Keightley’s ‘Fairy Mythology from Thiele’s ‘Danske Folkesagen.’ ”
↑ “Benevento.” The magic walnut tree of Benevento was reputed to be the general rendezvous of all the witches in Italy. Peter of Piperno has a pamphlet, “De Nuce Maga Beneuentana,” which gives many of the legends connected with this ill-omened spot. See Montague Summers, “Geography of Witchcraft,” pp. 546–48; and A. de Blasio, “Inciarmatori, Maghi, e Streghe di Benevento,” Naples, 1900.
↑ “Spina.” This is from “De Strigibus,” c. xviii. It was told Spina by Andrea Magnani of Bergamo, who personally knew of these events.
↑ “Bernard of Como.” Dominican Inquisitor. The “De Strigiis” is a short but very important tractate which is usually found appended to his famous “Lucerna Inquisitorum Haereticae Prauitatis.” My own copy is Venice, 1596, and this edition also contains the valuable Commentaries of Francesco Pegna.
↑ “Place outside the town.” Mendrisio. For other accounts of this celebrated episode see—“Mémoires de Jacques du Clercq,” IV, 4; “Chron. Cornel. Zanfliet,” ann. 1460 (Martene, “Ampl. Coll.” V, 502); and Prierias, “De Strigimagarum mirandis,” I, 2, 14; II, 1, 4.
↑ “Raymond.” Or Raemond; sometimes Rémond. Born at Agen c. 1540; died at Bordeaux, c. 1602. His famous work, “L’Antéchrist,” first appeared at Lyons in 1597, and was frequently reprinted. There are editions of Paris, 1599 and 1607; Arras, 1613; Cambrai, 1613.

Chapter 13

Chapter XIII

Whether Witches can Transmute Bodies from One Form to Another.

Argument.

No one can doubt but that all the arts and metamorphoses by which witches change men into beasts are deceptive illusions and opposed to all nature. I add that any one who holds the contrary opinion is in danger of Anathema; and in this I am supported by the opinion of S. Augustine,^[1] as also by logical reasoning. For a human soul cannot inform the body of a beast, any more than the soul of a lion can inhabit the body of a horse, or the soul of a horse the body of a man: because every substantial form, to be true to its own nature, requires the peculiarly adapted dispositions and physical organism which are natural to its own body, and the soul regulates the motions of the organic body. Therefore, as I have said, no animal’s soul can inform the human body, and no human soul an animal’s body. The belief in such monstrous transformations is nothing new, but was firmly held by the Ancients many ages ago. Euanthes,^[2] an author of great note, says that it is recorded in the Annals of Arcadia that there was a certain family of the tribe of Anthus which used every so many years to go to a certain pool across which, having taken off their clothes, they swam, and they were at once changed from men into beasts: and after nine years, if they had not in that time tasted human blood, they returned to their former shape. Herodotus in Melpomene, and Solinus in the Polyhistor, chapter 8, record that the Neuri, who live by the river Dnieper, are changed into wolves on certain days in every year, and after the appointed time has elapsed they return to their true shape. But this did not happen to them only in times before the light of Christian truth shone upon the world; for in Bulgaria a certain official had in his charge the son of that Symeon who had formerly ruled over the country, and this boy could when he wished change himself into a wolf or any other animal by black magic. And a certain Russian chieftain, hearing that there was in his territory a man who could change himself into whatever form he pleased, summoned him and put him in chains and commanded him to give instant proof of his power. The man said he would willingly do so if he might withdraw into the next room for a while; and when this had been granted, he suddenly came back in the form of a wolf, but still bound with his chains, to the great astonishment of all who were present. But the chieftain had two very fierce dogs at hand, which fell upon the unhappy creature and tore him to pieces.

But, as I have already said, no one must let himself think that a man can really be changed into a beast, or a beast into a real man; for these are magic portents and illusions, having the form but not the reality of those things which they present to our sight. For the devil, as I have said elsewhere, deceives our senses in various ways. Sometimes he substitutes another body, while the witches themselves are absent or hidden apart in some secret place, and himself assumes the body of a wolf formed from the air and wrapped about him, and does those actions which men think are done by the wretched absent witch who is asleep. William of Paris tells how a certain Holy Man made this stratagem clear to all. Sometimes, in accordance with his pact, he surrounds a witch with an aerial effigy of a beast, each part of which fits on to the correspondent part of the witch’s body, head to head, mouth to mouth, belly to belly, foot to foot, and arm to arm; but this only happens when they use certain ointments and words, as in the case of the above example of the man who was torn in pieces by dogs: and then they leave the footprints of a wolf upon the ground. But in this last case it is no matter for wonder if they are afterwards found with an actual wound in those parts of their human body where they were wounded when in the appearance of a beast; for the enveloping air easily yields, and the true body receives the wound. But when the witch is not bodily present at all, then the devil wounds her in that part of her absent body corresponding to the wound which he knows to have been received by the beast’s body. Bartolomeo Spina^[3] tells the following example of this sort.

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Examples.

A certain day-labourer named Philip bore witness in this very city of Ferrara to this apparent conversion of witches into cats. For he swore to me on oath that, three months before, a certain witch had told him not to drive them away if he saw any cats come coying playfully up to his son, whom she had strongly bewitched and had undertaken to cure. The same day, about an hour after she had gone away, he and his wife saw a big cat which they had never seen before go deliberately up to the boy. They were frightened and kept driving it off, and were at last goaded to exasperation by its insistence, and the man shut the door and chased it about for a long time, striking it with a stick, until finally he made it jump out of a high window, so that the cat’s body seemed to be all bruised and broken. After that, the old witch kept her bed for many days with a bruised and broken body. Consequently, where there had already been a slight suspicion that she was a witch and had bewitched the boy who lay very sick under the spell of his infirmity, this now grew into a strong and grave suspicion; for the blows and wounds which were given to the cat were found upon the corresponding parts of the witch’s body.

Remy (II, 5) writes that nearly all those who came into his hands charged with witchcraft told him that they changed themselves into cats whenever they wished to enter other people’s houses in secret, so that they could scatter their poison there by night. Barbelline Rayel, at Blainville-la-Grande on the 1st January, 1587, confessed that she was turned into a cat so that in that shape she might more easily enter the house of Jean Louis and wander about it in greater safety; and when she had done so and found his two-year-old infant unguarded she dusted it with a drugged powder which she held in the pad of her paw, and killed it.

The Shepherd Petronio, who was tried at Dalheim in 1581, whenever he felt moved with hatred or envy against the shepherds of neighbouring flocks (as is the way of such men), used to change himself into a wolf by the use of certain incantations, and so for a long time escaped all suspicion of being the cause of the mutilation and death of his neighbours’ sheep.

The following example is told by the famous Count of Salm, chief Gentleman of the Bedchamber at the Palace of Lorraine. In Hesse-Langhau, over which town he was Lord, the inhabitants, in accordance with the ancient custom, came to pay him their yearly tribute of labour. As they came with their cart-loads of timber, and waited in turn for their reward of food, the dogs which were with them began to fight in the castle hall. One of these dogs hid itself in one of the bathroom furnaces, and the rest barked violently at it. One of the townsmen looked at it and, finding it uglier than the rest, began to suspect the truth (for that part is said to be infested with witches); so he thrust his weapon into its face and grievously wounded it, whereupon it rushed out of the door and was no more seen. Then a rumour crept all over the town that there was an old woman in bed with a wound of which no one knew where she had received it. They all began to suspect the truth, namely, that she was the mad dog who had been wounded in the castle hall. This suspicion, on the top of a long standing rumour that she was a witch, led to her being seized and imprisoned; and at last, after she had been carefully questioned, she freely confessed all that has just been told, together with very many other sorceries.

Hear also what Remy reports to have been told him by the Noble Baroness Lady Diana of Dommart, the wife of the illustrious Prince Charles Philip of Croy, Marquis of Haurech, as follows. Not long since there was in Thiaucourt, a village of that country, a woman addicted to these evil practices and credited with the power of assuming different shapes with the help of the Devil. This woman had conceived a bitter hatred against the village shepherd on account of his having bested her in some money transaction, and fell in the form of a wolf upon his flock as it was feeding. The shepherd ran up and wounded her in the thigh with an axe so grievously that, in her weakness, she was forced to flee into a neighbouring thicket. He followed her there, and found her trying to stop the freely flowing blood by binding her wound with strips torn from her clothes. With this evidence against her she was taken into custody and acknowledged all that we have said, and finally expiated her crimes at the stake.

In Flanders at a town not far from Dixmude a peasant was drinking at an ale-house with his son, a lively youth, and watched the hostess scoring up the beer which she brought him. He noticed that she marked up double the quantity that he drank, but kept quiet until he had finished drinking. Then he called the hostess and asked what he owed; and she demanded the amount that she had scored. He refused to pay it and, thrusting many persons aside, threw on to the table what he knew to be a sufficient sum of money, and was going out. The enraged hostess said: “You will not go home to-day, or my name is not So-and-so!” But he went away despising the woman’s threats. He came to a stream where he had left his boat, but he could not, however much he tried, even with the help of his son, who was a lusty lad, move it from the bank; so that you would have said that it was nailed to the very ground. Two or three soldiers happened to come that way, and he called to them, saying: “Good friends, come and help me launch this boat from the bank, and I will give you a good drink.” They came and exerted themselves to the utmost for a long time in vain, till one of them, panting and sweating, said: “Let us unload the boat. Perhaps when it is empty we shall manage better.” And behold, when the goods were exposed to view, a lurid great toad stood in the road looking at them with gleaming eyes. One of the soldiers at once spitted it through the throat with his sword and threw it into the water, where it floated belly upwards as if dead. The rest gave it more wounds as it floated, and suddenly the boat was launched. The overjoyed peasant took his helpers back to the same inn and ordered beer. This was brought by a serving maid; and he asked where the hostess was. He was told that she was very ill in bed. “What!” said he. “Do you think I am drunk, you fool? It is hardly half an hour since I left her as well as you are. I am going to see what the matter is.” He went into the bedroom and found that the woman had died from wounds in the neck and stomach. “How did she get these wounds?” he exclaimed. The serving maid said she did not know and that, to her knowledge, she had not set foot outside the house. They went to the Magistrate, and the cuts and stabs were found to be in the same places as those in which the soldiers had wounded to death the toad, which was never found.

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↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” XVIII, 18.
↑ “Euanthes.” A Greek author as quoted by Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” VIII, 22.
↑ “Spina.” “De Strigibus,” XIX. “Experientiae apparentis conuersionis strigum in catos.”

Chapter 14

Chapter XIV

Whether Witches have Power to Make Beasts Talk.

Argument.

At times it happens that God grants the power of speech to that which naturally has no such power, as in the case of Balaam’s ass in Holy Scripture. How this may be, none knows but He who is the author of all speech: but I think that for the most part it is the voice of an Angel speaking in such inanimate objects or brutes. As for brute animals speech is created in their own bodies and is a physical action of the beast itself; yet such action is intellectual only on the part of the Angel. This is true of such animals as have organs adapted to speech, as magpies, parrots, ravens and their like: but when the animal’s organs are not so adapted, as in asses, oxen, etc., I think that the Angel creates a voice from the air about the animal. The same would be true in the case of inanimate objects, such as fire, water, earth, air, or corpses, which likewise could easily be made to appear to speak.

Porphyry, considering the question whether magicians can truly understand the speech of animals, writes that in his own time it used to be said of Apollonius of Tyana that, having heard a sparrow twittering to a flock of its fellows, he explained to his friends who were with him that the sparrow was telling the others that an ass laden with corn had fallen by the city gate, and the corn had been spilled on the ground. In this way Apollonius wished to pretend that he could understand the chattering of birds; but such a thing is incredible. Yet we have daily evidence of the fact that beasts, at any rate those of the same kind, understand each other; and Porphyry tried to prove this. For when a fish has broken from the net it warns the others of the danger, so that no more fish of that sort will be caught that day. Petrus Gregorius^[1] in his De Republica, XV, 5, mentions this matter, prudently adding that animals are incapable of true intelligence and conversation.

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Examples.

Antonius Bonfinius^[2] in his Histories, III, writes that about three years after the defeat of the Emperor Sigismund by the Turks at Ternowar, a number of people went to the battlefield and heard a voice from among the bones calling upon the Names of Jesus Christ the Saviour and the Virgin Mary: and a talking head among the corpses, seeing that there were men standing by, said: “Why do you stand so amazed, O men? I am a Christian who died in this battle unconfessed; but Mary our Mother would not have me condemned to eternal punishment, and has granted me to keep my power of speech till now so that I may confess my sins and purge my soul with holy absolution. I beg you, then, to bring me a priest to hear my confession and give me absolution.” When he was asked how he had earned so great a benefit from the Virgin, he answered that he had been peculiarly devout to Her during his life, and had with great reverence observed Her seven yearly Feasts, fasting religiously on bread and water. Therefore a priest was brought from the next village, who duly heard the confession; and when the head had obtained remission and absolution for all its sins, it at once and for ever fell silent.

The devil, who is the Ape of God, at times performs many false miracles of a similar nature, which God permits in His own avenging justice. Phlegon of Tralles says that Polycritus married a Locrian woman and, after having slept with her for three nights, died on the third day, leaving her pregnant. The woman gave birth to an hermaphrodite monster, which was brought before a council of the people to decide what it portended and what should be done about it: and then the ghost of Polycritus appeared in the midst of the people and foretold a massacre of the Locrians and Aetolians; and with the people powerless to interfere he took off the head of his monstrous son and devoured him and vanished; and afterwards the head also spoke of the same massacre.

The same author quotes the following from Antisthenes the Peripatetic Philosopher. When the Consul Acilius Glabro conquered Antiochus, King of Asia, the Romans were frightened by oracles from invading Asia any further. And the Roman General, Publius, moved as it is thought with a divine madness, foretold that he would be devoured by a wolf, which would leave his head: and this head made a long speech foreshowing the coming defeat of the Romans.

With the help of a demon a witch can easily vitiate a man’s organs so that, while trying to speak, he barks or howls or clucks or neighs; for we have known many such cases. We read that in 1546 Margarita of Essling had pains in her belly, and that it swelled to such a size as completely to hide her face, being more than ten palms in circumference. Those who stood about her bed heard the crowing of cocks, the clucking of hens, the braying of asses, the barking of dogs, the bleating of sheep, the grunting of pigs, the lowing of oxen and the neighing of horses. Then she voided from her side about a hundred and fifty worms and serpents. This was believed to be a miracle; but it was in truth only a devil’s illusion created by the girl’s mother for the sake of gain.

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↑ “Petrus Gregorius.” A famous jurist who in 1570 was appointed to the Chair of Civil Law at the University of Cahors.
↑ “Antonius Bonfinius.” “Rerum Ungaricarum Decades Quattuor cum Dimidia.” Folio, Basle, 1568.

Chapter 15

Chapter XV

Whether the Devil can Make Men Insensible to Torture.^[1]

Argument.

Dealing with the question whether the devil can render insentient that which is naturally sensitive, so that, for example, a man should feel no pain when put to torture, Iamblichus (De myster. Aegypt.) writes that many heathen seers nave been thrown into the fire and have either not been burned or have not felt their burning or any other tortures; and he says that this is due to some god who drives back the flames, or nullifies the other tortures. And what is this god of the sorcerer Iamblichus but the Cacodemon Eurycles? What are those seers but witches? In our own day there are impious soldiers who think that they are invulnerable if their armour is charmed with a certain spell, or if they have the hardihood to commit the sacrilege of piercing, threatening or breaking the image of the Crucifix. So Baptista Codronchi^[2] (De morbis ueneficis, III, 12) tells that they wear a shirt inscribed with a terrible and most horrid character, which they call the Shirt of Hell; or else they wear trinkets engraved with various magic signs; or they make use of prayers, which the sorcerers blasphemously and falsely ascribe to S. Leo or Charlemagne, invoking the mighty Names of God. So does the devil delude his own, as may be seen from the examples.

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Examples.

Martin Delrio (D.M. I, 21) tells that he knew a certain law student named Quirino, a Bachelor of Law, who, relying upon such a charm, boldly mingled in brawls and fights and, though often struck, was never wounded. At last, in 1572 or 1573, he was killed at a drinking-bout in Rome through some trifling wound. The following example is similar.

Nider writes in his Formicarius that in the district of Berne there was a notorious witch named Scavius,^[3] who dared to boast publicly that whenever he wished he could change himself into a mouse in the sight of all his rivals; and so he is said to have often escaped from the hands of his mortal enemies. But, when it was the will of Divine Justice to make an end of his wickedness, his enemies stole upon him as he was sitting in a warm bath by the window suspecting no attack, and suddenly struck him through the window with swords and spears, so that he perished miserably for his crimes.

It is a common matter for witches to escape the torture of the rack; for they overcome all the pain by laughter or sleep or silence. Loys Charondas le Caron^[4] in his Antichrist Unmasked, I, tells a wonderful story of this sort as follows. He knew a woman of fifty who endured boiling fat poured over her whole body and severe racking of all her limbs without feeling anything. For she was taken from the rack free from any sense of pain, whole and uninjured, except that her great toe, which had been torn off during her questioning, was not restored, but this did not hinder or hurt her at all. After she had undergone every torture and had obstinately denied all her crimes, she cut her throat in prison. So the devil, having accused her of witchcraft through the mouth of a possessed woman, killed her.

Near Amiens in 1599 a girl witch was imprisoned, who felt nothing when her feet were cruelly burned or when she was heavily scourged, until at the suggestion of a priest they hung about her neck a waxen image of the Blessed Lamb. Then, by virtue of the sacred amulet, the wiles and guile of the devil were defeated, and she began to feel the force of pain. Therefore it is clear that this indifference to torture, which even Tostado (In Genesim. XIII) recognises, springs from no physical cause, but is due to the devil’s work.

Remy (I, 5) tells the following. When Isabella Pardea was seized for witchcraft at Epinal on the 6th May, 1588, and had shown the magistrate a part of her body branded by the devil, it occurred to the magistrate to test the truth of this alleged insensitiveness to pain. So he ordered a pin to be thrust and pressed deeply into her, and this was done in the presence of sufficient witnesses, and no blood flowed from the wound, and the witch gave not the least sign of pain.

At Brindisi in November 1590, when Claudia Bogarta was about to be tortured, she was closely shaved, as the custom is, and so a scar was exposed on the top of her bare brow. The Inquisitor then suspecting the truth, namely, that it was a mark made by the devil’s claw, which had before been hidden by her hair, ordered a pin to be thrust deep into it; and when this was done she neither felt any pain, nor did so much as a drop of blood come from the wound. Yet she persisted in denying the truth, saying that her insensitiveness was caused by an old blow from a stone. But when she was brought to the torture, she not only acknowledged that the scar had been given her by the devil, but confessed to many other abominable crimes which she had committed.

In June 1591 at Iesi, a village a mile distant from Brindisi, the Judge ordered a gaoler to search Mugeta, who was charged with witchcraft. The gaoler therefore stripped her to see if he could find any devil’s mark, and at last found on her left thigh a mark like a shell. Into this he thrust his weapon with all his force, but Mugeta uttered no cry, nor could he get one drop of blood from the wound; but when he lightly pricked the place next to the mark, she roared aloud in pain, and much blood flowed from it.

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↑ “Insensible to torture.” It was well known that witches had charms which enabled them to bear the severest tortures without flinching. Damhouder, whilst member of the council at Bruges, relates a case which came under his own eyes. A witch during three examinations not only endured the fiercest engines, but actually laughed at and mocked the officers. At length a piece of parchment covered with cabalistic characters was found on her person, and after its removal she soon confessed her pact with Satan. (“Rerum Crimin. Praxis,” Cap. XXXVII, Nos. 21, 22. Cf. Brunnemann, “Le Inquisit. Process,” Cap. VIII, Memb. v. No. 70.) Grilland tells us that he had met instances of insensibility to torture only to be explained by magic. “De Quaestione et Tortura,” Art. III, 12–16. He gives several conjurations which were used completely to deaden all pain: “Quemadmodum lac Beatae Gloriosae Mariae Uirginis fuit dulce et suaue Domino Nostro Iesu Christo, ita haec tortura sit dulcis et suauis brachiis et membris meis.” Another ran:
Imparibus meritis tria pendent corpora ramis.
Dismas et Gestas, in medio est Diuina Potestas.
Dismas damnatur, Gestas ad astra leuatur.
At Innsbruck a witch boasted that if she had but a thread of a prisoner’s tunic she could enable him to endure torture to the death without confessing. W. B. Seabrook in his study of sorcery in Haiti, “The Magic Island,” relates that during a military engagement there was slain a notorious warlock, a member of the “culte des morts.” Upon the body was found a small book of secret formulas written in creole by himself. Of these one is: “When confronted with Torture.” When one finds himself tied up, it is very necessary to make this prayer: ‘For the sake of the great pain which Jesus Christ suffered from Judas, the traitor, in walking along Golgotha’s hilly road, may I be relieved from the rope which is piercing through my [mention the part] to the heart, just as the left side of Christ’s Body did abundantly spill Blood by Herod, the infamous executioner. Amen.’ Order a mass in the name of all the Saints.”
↑ “Codronchi.” This famous Italian physician was born at Imola c. 1560. The work to which reference is made is: “Batistae Codronchii de Morbis Ueneficis ac Ueneficiis, libri quattuor, in quibus non solum certis rationibus ueneficia claro demonstratur sed eorum species … aperiuntur.” Venice, 1595.
↑ “Scavius.” This wretch was not only a warlock of most ancient impiety, but also an instructor of younger witches. Peter of Berne judged that he spread sorcery like a plague, and Nider tells us that this holy Inquisitor when bewailing the iniquities and necromancy practised in Berne added “quorum primus auctor fuit quidam Scauius dictus … Hic tamen suae fraudis commenta discipulo, qui Hoppo uocabatur, reliquit. Et idem supra dictum Staedelin in maleficiis magistrum fecit.” Staedelin or Stadlin dwelt at Boltigen in Simmenthal. He was brought to trial before Peter of Berne and confessed many secrets of the horrid craft. See “Malleus Maleficarum,” Part II, Qn. I, Ch. 6.
↑ “Loys.” “Charondas de Caron.” Born at Paris, 1530; died 1617.

Chapter 16

Chapter XVI

Whether by Witchcraft and Devils Work the Sexes can be Interchanged.

Argument.

Cornelius Gemma inquires into the mutation of the feminine into the masculine sex, and the masculine into the feminine, which is admitted by modern physicians to be natural. We read of many women who have become men. Hippocrates writes that at Abdera Phaetula, the wife of Pitheus, had borne him children; but when her husband was sent into exile, after a few months her menstrual courses ceased, and she was smitten with terrible pains all over her body, and acquired the physical features of a man. He says that the same thing happened to Anamisia, the wife of Gorgippus, at Thasos. Livy tells the same story in Book 24 (de Spoletana muliere). Pliny says that it is no fable that women are changed into men. Martin Delrio uses the following words (quoting from Pliny, Historia Naturalis, VII, 4): “I myself saw in Africa L. Cossicius, a Tisdritanian citizen, changed into a man on his wedding day.” S. Augustine^[1] mentions heathen records of women becoming men, and of hens being changed into the masculine sex, not, however, by witchcraft but naturally: for witches cannot actually do this thing, but only in appearance to deceive us by casting a glamour over our senses with the help of the devil, as we have shown elsewhere.

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Examples.

Giovanni Pontano^[2] (Hist. Neapolit.) tells that at Gaeta a woman changed into a man after having been married for fourteen years to a fisherman: and another, named Emilia, after having been for twelve years the wife of Antonio Spensa, a citizen of Eboli, dissolved her marriage, married a wife and begot children. He speaks also of another woman who had borne one son to her husband, and suddenly assumed virility, left her husband, and married a woman who bore children to her.

Cocceius Sabellicus^[3] has some similar stories which I shall omit, and will set down two instances which occurred in Spain in our own time, and were faithfully described by Antonio de Turrecremata^[4] in his Jardin de las Flores curiosas.

In the town of Ezgueira in Portugal, about nine leagues from Coimbra, there lived a nobleman who had a daughter named Maria Pacheco. When this girl was at the age when a woman’s monthly courses usually begin, instead of a fluid excretion there broke or otherwise grew from those parts a virile member; and so, from being a girl, she suddenly became a pubic young man endowed with virility, and assumed the name of Manoel Pacheco. He then took ship for India and endured much hardship and performed great deeds as a soldier. Returning to his country he married a noble wife: yet Amatus the Portuguese, writing in his Centuries, makes no mention of any children, but says that he remained unbearded and with a feminine cast of countenance, these being indications of imperfect virility. Finally Torquemada adds that he heard this from a most trustworthy friend of great authority.

Not far from Benaventana in Spain the wife of a farmer of moderate fortune was ill-treated by her husband because she was barren. Weary of such bad treatment she ran away one night dressed as a man-servant, and in this guise went from place to place earning her living by menial work. After some time, either because of the efficacy of her natural heat or through imagination induced and strengthened by her continuous masculine clothing and work, she found that she had actually turned into a man. Therefore she, who had long been a wife, determined to act the husband, and consummated her marriage with a woman. The secret was kept for a long time, since she did not dare to tell it to any one, until a certain man who had been very well known to her noticed that she was in face very like that farmer’s wife who had run away. He asked if he were her brother; whereupon she told him the whole story as it happened, and so it came to light.

Baptista Fregoso^[5] (Exemplorum, I, 6) writes as follows. At Naples, in the reign of Ferdinand I, Ludovico Guarna, a citizen of Salerno, had five daughters, the two youngest of whom were named Francesca and Carola. When these two girls reached the age of fifteen the genital parts of both of them sprouted into masculinity, so that they changed their clothes and were taken for men, being called Francesco and Carolo.

At Eboli in the same region, a girl had been betrothed for four years. On the first night of her marriage she went to bed with her husband: but either owing to the friction or to some other unknown cause, when the hymen which gave her the appearance of a woman was broken, a male organ stood out. She then went home and sued in the Courts for a return of her dowry, and was thereafter reckoned as a man.

Phlegon writes: “A virgin born at Smyrna named Philotis was, on reaching maturity, given by her parents in marriage to a man: but a masculine organ appeared and she changed into a man. Also in Laodicea in Syria a woman named Aeteta was changed into a man while in the very act with her husband, Aetetus. This was when Macrinus was Governor of Athens, and Lucius Lamia and Aelianus were Consuls at Rome.”

Michel de Montaigne says that in his time there was at Viering a girl named Maria who, as she was dancing rather vigorously, was suddenly made a man by the sprouting of male organs, and was given in the Sacrament of Confirmation by the Bishop of Soissons the name of Germain, by which she began to be known. A beard grew upon her chin, and she lived long, even to a decrepit old age, but never married a wife.

If this can come about naturally, as so many authors maintain, I should think that with God’s permission it is possible to the devil, relying upon natural causes.

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↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” III, 31.
↑ “Pontano.” “De Bello Neapolitano,” V, “Pontani Opera Omnia,” Basileae, 1538, II, pp. 574–75.
↑ “Cocceius Sabellicus.” Marcus Antonius Cocceius Sabellicus, a Venetian writer of eminence. He is the author of “Epistolarum libri XII”; “Orationum libri XII”; “De situ Uenetae libri tres”; and many poems, of which some are devotional, such as “De laudibus Deiparae Uirginis Eligiae XII.” I have used the collected edition of his “Opera,” Venice (23 December), 1502.
↑ “Antonio de Turrecremata.” In Latin Torquemada. The first edition of the “Jardin de las Flores curiosas, en que se tradan algunas materias … etc.”, is Salamanca, 1570. “Olivante de Laura,” a romance by Turrecremata was discovered in Don Quixote’s library and condemned to the fames by the curate. Turrecremata was a very popular author in his day, and the “Jardin de las Flores” was translated into French by Gabriel Chappuys as the “Hexameron” as early as 1579. It was reprinted Lyons, 1582; Paris, 1583; Rouen, 1610.
↑ “Baptista Fregoso.” An Italian writer of the fifteenth century.

Chapter 17

Chapter XVII

Whether the Spirits of the Dead can Appear to Men.

Argument.

All the faithful of Christ are agreed that, through the power and might of God, the souls of the departed can and do at times appear to the living. For we read that Christ appeared to S. Peter when the Apostle was fleeing from persecution, and said that He was going to Rome to be crucified again.

Our Holy Father Ambrose bears witness to the appearance of spirits in his Contra Auxentium de basilicis tradendis. Dionysius the Areopagite writes that Jesus appeared with a great company of Angels and blamed him for his harshness in seeking to punish the sins of his brother and seducer.

S. Justin Martyr testifies that the souls of the dead return and at times appear, maintaining that the spirit of Samuel was actually called up. Tertullian supports this view in the following words: “But if the Divine Power has recalled the souls of some to their bodies to witness to His truth, we must not on that account give credence to the claims of witches, to illusive dreams, or to poetic fables.” Origen speaks as follows in refutation of Celsus: “The wicked spirit, which is bound to the, earth by horrid crimes so that it may not aspire to Heaven, goes wandering about the earth haunting graveyards; and in such places shadowy ghosts are most often seen dwelling upon this earth. And it is to be thought that of such sort are the spirits of those in every age who have been snared and bound in witchcraft.” And in the time of Origen, the Blessed Potamiaena appeared to the murderer Basilides and converted him to the faith, as we are told by Eusebius, and by Origen himself, contra Celsum, Bk. I.

S. Gregory of Nyssa, in his most authoritative Life of S. Gregory the Thaumaturge, writes that the Blessed Virgin Mary and S. John the Evangelist appeared to him. See also S. Cyprian, De Uisionibus Nocturnis, Epist. 12 and 69, where he argues against those who despise such visions. S. Ambrose, in Sermon 90, says that while her family were watching by the tomb of S. Agnes one night, she appeared to them and said: “Do not mourn for me as dead, my kinsmen,” etc.

In the year of Our Lord 300 Christ appeared to S. Peter of Alexandria in the form of a boy asking for his robe which had been torn by Arius (Surius, tom. 6, 15th Nov.). See also Pope Adrian I, Epist. tom. 2: Decret. et Synod. 7: Concil. Nicene 2, act. 2: S. Gregory of Tours, apud Laurentium, tom. 6, 12th December: S. Gregory of Neocaesarea, In oratione de Nicena Synodo: Nicephorus, VIII, 23: S. Basil, de uera Uirginitate, paulo post medium, and S. Gregory of Nazianzus, In oratione in Laudem Caesarii.

In the year 400 the death of S. Martin was made known to S. Severinus and S. Ambrose when they were absent from him. This is told also by S. Gregory of Tours in his Book on the Miracles of S. Martin, and in his Book on the Glory of the Confessors. We have the authority of S. Augustine^[1] that SS. Gervasius and Protasius appeared to S. Ambrose and told him where their bodies were lying.

About the year 429 the Blessed Virgin Mary with S. John the Baptist and S. John the Evangelist appeared to Abbot Ciriacus and said that she would not enter his cell because, unknown to him, there were in it two books by the heretic Nestorius written against the Blessed Virgin Mary.

There is the signal authority of S. Jerome which at one blow silences all the heretics who say that the spirits are all held imprisoned until the Day of Judgement. These are S. Jerome’s own words: “Thou sayest that the souls of the Apostles and Martyrs abide in Abraham’s bosom, or in the outer cold, or under the Altar of God, and that they cannot appear at their tombs or wherever they wish: for they are for sooth of senatorial dignity, and are shut, not in a foul prison together with murderers, but in free and honourable keeping in the Islands of the Blessed and the Elysian Fields. Wilt thou make laws for God? Wilt thou put chains upon the Apostles? So that they should be held in bondage up to the Day of Judgement, and not be with their Lord, of whom it is written that they follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They therefore who are with the Lamb must be believed to go everywhere, if the Lamb goes everywhere: and can the Devil and his demons wander all over the earth and with great speed appear in every place, while the Martyrs, after their blood has been shed, are shut down in a box and cannot come out from it?” So says S. Jerome (Aduersus Uigilantium.)

But we must understand that such apparitions are not the ordinary rule, but occur in accordance with the special and singular permission of God. S. Augustine (De cura pro mortuis agenda, c. 13), wrote about his mother in words which our opponents have scandalously twisted against us, as follows: “If the souls of the dead were concerned with the affairs of the living, I am sure that my mother (to say nothing of any others) would not fail to visit me every night.” Elsewhere he speaks openly about that exceptional permission, saying in Chapter 15 that it is no common or ordinary thing for the souls of the dead to appear to the living; but that the appearance of Samuel and Moses in the Scriptures proves that they can do so.

To conclude shortly, there is unlimited authority on this matter. Therefore, that I may not be tedious, I will only quote the authority of certain Theologians; such as Richard de Middleton^[2]; Peter of Palude,^[3] 4, distinct. 45, q. 3; Scotus, quest. 1, art. 4; Denys the Carthusian, Compendium Theologicum, 4, distinct. 45, q. I., and in his work on the Four Last Things, and in his book inscribed to the Novices of his Order; Dominic Soto^[4] and Peltanus^[5] in their several treatises, de Purgatorio, cap. 5; S. Peter Canisius, S.J.^[6] and Gregory of Valencia, S.J.^[7] in the Third Part, of his Commentarii theologici, distinctions 6, 9, and 11, point 1. disposit. 11, quest 1, part 1; and very many others. Let us now turn to some examples.

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Examples.

Socrates and Rufinus record that S. Spiridion had a daughter named Irene who, having well ministered to him, died a virgin. After her death there came a man who said that he had given her something to keep for him. The father knew nothing about it, but searched the whole house without finding what the man wanted. But he insisted and said with tears that he would lose his life unless he recovered the thing. The old man was touched by his tears, and went to his daughter’s tomb and called her by name. Then she said from the tomb: “What do you wish, father?” He answered: “Where did you put that thing which this man gave you to keep?” She indicated the place, saying: “If you dig there, you will find it.” He went home and found it just as his daughter had said, and gave the thing to the man. If she could speak, could she not also appear? Certainly she could. Hear also how the dead subscribed to the Council of Nicaea.

Gregory of Neocaesarea records the following marvel, writing of the Council of Nicaea. Two Holy Bishops, Chrisantus and Musonius, happened by God’s will to die before they had appended their signatures to the Council’s decisions. So the Holy Fathers met together at the last resting-place of the two who had gone before, and when they were where they could be heard, they said: “Brethren and Fathers, you have fought a noble fight with us, and have run your course and kept your faith. If therefore, in the light of your clearer knowledge, you judge that our decisions are pleasing to God, let there be nothing to prevent you also from adding your signatures.” Saying this, and leaving there the signed decisions of the Holy Fathers, they passed all that night in prayer: and on the next day when they came there, they found added to their own signatures those of the two Holy Fathers in the following words: “We, Chrisantus and Musonius, who sat with all the Fathers in the First Holy Oecumenical Council, although we are translated in body, with our hands we agree to and sign this document.” From this it is clear that with God’s permission the souls of the dead can return to us.

Blessed Paul the Deacon (not S. Paul of Nola) says in his Life of S. Ambrose: “On the day of his death a letter was received from the East by his venerable successor Simplicianus, written by S. Ambrose as if he were still living, and this letter is still preserved in a monastery at Milan. He appeared to certain saintly men, praying with them and laying his hands upon them; and we found that the letter bore the same date as that of his death. And in Tuscany at Florence, where the good Zenobius is now Bishop, because he had promised that he would often visit them, he was seen praying at the altar in the Ambrosian Basilica which had been built there by him, as we learn from Zenobius himself. When Radagais the Ostrogott was besieging Florence and the citizens were in despair, he appeared to some one in the house where Eugenius lay sick, and promised that they would be relieved in two days; and at this the citizens took heart, and on the second day Count Stilicho came with an army and defeated the enemy. The following we learned from Pansofia, a religious woman who was mother of the boy Pansofius. When Mazcezel was in despair for his own safety and that of his army which he was leading against Gildo, S. Ambrose appeared to him in a vision at night holding a stick; and when Mazcezel cast himself at the Saint’s feet, the old man struck the ground with his stick and said; ‘Here, here, here,’ pointing out the place, and giving the man who had been deemed worthy of the visitation to understand that in the same place where he had seen the Saint he would in three days gain the victory. And so he brought his war to a prosperous conclusion.

“But we who are dwellers in Milan know these things on the authority of Mazcezel himself; for in this our Province he related this matter to many priests, and therefore we have set it down in our book with the greater confidence.

“Further, we received at Milan with the greatest reverence the Relics of the Martyrs Sisinnius and Alexandrinus^[8] who in our time, after the death of S. Ambrose, gained the Martyrs’ crown in the parts of Anaunia through the persecution of the heathen. And we know that on that day there came a blind man who touched the coffin in which the Relics of the Saints were being carried, and received his sight. For in a dream he had seen a ship coming to the shore with a number of men clothed in white; and as they came to the shore he prayed one of them to tell him who they were, and was told that they were S. Ambrose and his companions. Hearing this name he prayed that he might receive his sight, and was told by the man: ‘Go to Milan to my brethren who will come there on such a day, and you shall receive your sight.’ For the blind man was, as he said himself, from the coast of Dalmatia and had never been to the city before he came straight to the Holy Relics, although he was yet blind; and when he had touched them, began to see.”

Constantius Presbyter^[9] in his Life of S. Germain of Auxerre, chapter 17, writes as follows: The Saint was fearlessly abiding in a ghost-haunted house, when suddenly there appeared before the master of the house a terrible Shade which slowly raised itself before his eyes, and the stone walls were hidden by a cloud. In terror the man begged for the priest’s protection; and the Saint ran forward and saw a fearful apparition. He first invoked the Name of Christ, and then asked who he was and what he did there. The spectre at once put off its empty frightfulness and answered humbly as a suppliant that he and his companion had been guilty of many crimes, and lay unburied; and therefore they haunted men because they themselves could not rest quiet: and he asked him to pray God for them that they might be granted rest. The Saint was grieved at this, and asked to be shown the place where they lay: and the ghost went before them and by the light of a wax taper, at dead of night among ruins most difficult of access, showed them the place where they had been thrown. When it was light he called upon the neighbours and urged them both by word and his own example; and they threw aside all the rubbish and searched the place with rakes, and at last found the bodies lying quite disordered, with the bones still bound in chains. He directed a grave to be dug, freed the bodies from their chains and clothed them in shrouds, and buried them decently in the ground, uttering a prayer of intercession over them; and so the dead found rest. After that day the house was happily inhabited without any sign of haunting.

Every faith may be placed in the following history of Sinesius, Bishop of Cyrene, and the Philosopher Evagrius, which is preserved by Sophronius^[10] from Leontius. Sinesius tried diligently to convert Evagrius to Christianity; but he objected that he could only regard as fables the Christian doctrine of the Resurrection of the body, and the teaching that almsgiving would be rewarded a hundred fold after this life. At last, however, by sparing no effort, the Bishop persuaded him to become a Christian and to be baptised together with his children. Not long after his baptism he gave the Bishop three hundred pieces of gold for the use of the poor, saying: “Take this gold and distribute it to the poor; and give me a written undertaking that Christ will restore it to me in the next life.” He took the gold and at once gave him the undertaking required. The Philosopher lived for some years after his baptism, and at last fell sick to death. When he was near his end, he said to his sons: “When you arrange for my funeral, put that paper in my hand and bury it with me.” When he was dead they did as he had asked, and buried the paper with him. On the third day after his burial he appeared to the Bishop as he was sleeping at night, and said: “Come to the tomb where I lie, and take your paper: for I have received my debt and am satisfied. And to convince you of this, I have signed it with my own hand.” Now the Bishop did not know that they had buried that paper. In the morning he went to the sons and asked: “Did you place anything in the grave with your father?” They, thinking that he was asking about money, said: “Nothing, Lord, except the customary garments.” “What, did you not bury a certain paper with him?” Then the sons remembered and said: “Certainly, Lord; for when he was dying he gave us a paper and said, ‘When you bury me, place this paper in my hand’; but we did not know what it contained.” Then the Bishop told them his dream which he had seen in the night; and taking them with the Clergy and Elders of the city to the Philosopher’s grave, they opened it and found the Philosopher lying, holding in his hand a paper written in the Bishop’s writing. They took it from his hand and opened it, and found newly written in the Philosopher’s handwriting the following words: “I, Evagrius the Philosopher, to thee, Sinesius the Most Reverend Lord Bishop, greeting. I have received the debt stated by you in this letter and am satisfied; and I have no legal claim against you for the gold which I gave to you and, through you, to Christ Our Lord and Saviour.” Hugh Etherianus relates the same story.

In his De regressu animarum ab inferis, XVI, Hugh Etherianus relates how the Abbot Menas told that he heard S. Eulogius^[11] of Alexandria say as follows: “When I had set out for Constantinople, I was lodging with Master Gregory, Archdeacon of Rome and a famous man, who told me the following concerning the most Holy and Blessed Pope Leo. He said that Pope Leo had written in the Church at Rome a letter to S. Flavian, Bishop of Constantinople, against the heretics Eutyches and Nestorius; and that he placed the letter upon the tomb of S. Peter, the First of the Apostles, and devoted himself to prayers and vigils and fasts, beseeching the mighty Apostle as follows: ‘If I, being but a man, have put anything in this letter ill-advisedly, do thou, to whom this Church and See were committed by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, amend it.’ After four days the Apostle appeared to him and said: ‘I have read and amended it.’ Then he took the Letter from S. Peter’s sepulchre and, on opening it, found it amended by the Apostle’s hand.”

Theodore, the Holy Bishop of Dorna in Lybia, told us as follows: When I was lodging with the Holy Father Eulogius I saw in a dream a man in the habit of a monk and of huge stature, who said to me: “Announce my arrival to Eulogius.” I said: “Who are you who tell me to announce you?” He answered: “I am Leo, the Pope of Rome.” So I went in and told him, saying: “The Most Holy and Blessed Pope Leo, Bishop of Rome, desires you to come to him.” Hearing this, Father Eulogius quickly arose and ran to him; and they saluted each other and, having prayed, sat down together. Then the Exalted Lord Leo said to S. Eulogius: “Do you know why I have come to you?” And when he said “No,” he told him: “To thank you for your just and eloquent defence of my Letter which I wrote to my Brother Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, expounding its sense and meaning, and closing the mouths of heretics. For know, my Brother, that your holy zeal and labour were not for me only, but also for S. Peter, the Chief of the Apostles, and for Him whose truth we all preach, namely, Christ Our Lord.” I saw this vision not once only, but twice and three times; and so, being assured of its truth, I told it to S. Eulogius.

About the year 587 a vision of this sort appeared to King Guntram about Ghilperic, that terrible tyrant of the Franks; and the King related it as follows to S. Gregory of Tours: “And I saw another vision which foretold the death of this man. For he was led before me in chains by three Bishops, the first of whom was Tetricus, the second Agricola, and the third Nicetus of Lyons. Two of these Bishops were saying: ‘Loose him, I beg, and scourge him and let him go.’ But the third Bishop answered them bitterly: ‘Not so; but he shall be burned in the fire for his crimes!’ While they were disputing together at great length, I saw at a distance a bronze vessel set on a fire and glowing fiercely. Then, as I wept, they seized Ghilperic and broke his limbs and threw him into the pot, where he was soon dissolved by the flames so that no trace remained of him.”

In the year 600 the Most Blessed Gregory I, Pope of Rome and Doctor of the Church, tells (Dialogorum, IV, 17) the following of S. Musa. One night there appeared to her in a vision the Blessed Mother of God the Virgin Mary, together with some maidens of her own age clothed in white. She wished to mingle with these, but dared not; but she heard the voice of the Blessed Virgin Mary ask if she wished to be of their company and live in Her service. The girl said that she did, and was at once ordered to behave in no foolish or girlish manner, and to abstain from laughter and joking; for she must know that on the thirtieth day from then she would enter Her service with those other virgins. The girl followed these precepts and became changed in all her habits and with great gravity put away all her girlish levity; and when her parents expressed surprise at the change in her, she told them what the Blessed Mother of God had commanded her and on what day she was going to enter Her service. On the twenty-fifth day she was taken with a fever; and on the thirtieth day, as the hour of her death drew near, she saw the Blessed Mother of God come to her with the same virgins whom she had seen in her vision, and spoke to Her aloud with eyes reverently lowered, saying: “Behold, Lady, I come.” And with these words she gave up the ghost.

Hugh Etherianus^[12] again writes of the spirit of the owner of a bath who for his sins was, after his death, deputed to the heat of the hot rooms where he was compelled to attend carefully upon the bathers. He had performed this duty to a priest of Civita Vecchia more than once when, in charity, the priest gave him two pieces of Blessed Bread. But he, weeping and lamenting, said: “Why do you give me this, Father? This bread is holy, and I cannot eat it. For I whom you see was once the Master of this place; but for my sins I was deputed after my death to serve here. If, however, you wish to help me, offer this bread for me to Almighty God and intercede for my sins: and you will know that you have been heard when you come here and do not find me.” Saying this, he disappeared and so showed that, although he seemed to be a man, he was a spirit.

In the year 1139 Alfonso, King of Portugal, when about to join battle with five Saracen Kings, was told by Christ in a dream to be of good heart, and to use in the battle a Standard on which the Five Wounds were depicted. He won a notable victory which was the foundation of the glory of the Kingdom of Portugal. Fourteen years later Alfonso, King of Castille, was besieging Baeza, when S. Isidore appeared to him and advised him to make an assault, which resulted in one of the most remarkable victories ever won.

A very wonderful thing is told as an eye-witness by Bishop Constantine concerning the translation of the Relics of S. Euphemia^[13] the Martyr. In order to put a stop to her marvellous miracles, Leo III^[14] the Isaurian secretly removed the Martyr’s Relics, putting dry bones in their place and throwing into the sea the true Relics in their coffin. Some sailors chanced upon this coffin, knowing nothing about it; and thinking some treasure was hidden in it, they took it and opened it. But by the miraculous scent which came from it they knew that they were Holy Relics. While they were still ignorant of whose they were, on the same night they saw lights and candles and men wondrously chanting and praising God. And when they had reached Levinum and had gone to sleep, in the quiet of the night they saw Glycerias the Martyr come to Euphemia the Virgin and embrace and kiss her, congratulating her on her arrival; and so they knew whose Relics they were. Three times they sailed from that place, and three times the winds drove them back again. At last S. Euphemia came to them in a dream and told them what would happen, saying that she wished to remain in that place, from which she had been cast into the sea by the impious Leo.

In the year 800 Ramiso I, King of Spain, fought fiercely all day with a mighty host of Saracens. Towards night he retired to a hill with a small band of his followers. As he was watching and praying to God, S. James appeared to him and commanded that they should all purge themselves by confession and take the Eucharist, and then give battle. In the morning, when they had all obeyed the divine warning, they advanced their standards and slew sixty thousand of the enemy. In that battle the Apostle was seen riding on a white horse bearing a snow-white banner with a red transverse cross upon it. This is told by Bishop Roderick in his Chronicum generale Alphonsi Regis,^[15] and by Mariana,^[16] Bk. VII, 13.

In the year 1117, among other prodigies which were appalling Italy, an infant was lying in its cradle at Cremona wrapped in clouts and, contrary to all nature, opened its mouth and began to speak, calling from her bodily cares its mother as she was preparing food for its elder brother who was crying for something to eat. The babe said that it had seen Mary the Mother of God standing before the Judgement Seat of Christ, interceding with Him with the most earnest prayers for the doom which was coming upon the world because of its sins. After this it ceased to speak until the natural time for a child to begin talking. This is told by Dodechinus in his History.

Fregoso (Exemplorum, IX, 12) tells the following: Since Udo, Bishop of Magdeburg, would not for any sign and warnings from God keep himself from impudicity, certain religious men prayed God either to correct or to remove the Bishop. One night, as one of these, Canon Frederick, was so praying in the Cathedral of S. Maurice, all the lights of the Church were suddenly put out by a violent gust of wind, and soon afterwards two young men came bearing lighted wax candles, and following them came Christ with His Mother and the Apostles, calling upon the Holy Men whose bones were resting in the Church. Among these came S. Maurice, who spoke gravely and at length in denunciation of Bishop Udo. Soon afterwards Christ passed sentence that Udo should be brought there naked by two of them. The Bishop struggled and one of those who were fetching him struck him in the belly; and he vomited into the Chalice upon the Altar the Host which he had taken the day before in Communion. Udo was struck down with an axe, and then all that vision vanished. Frederick was greatly frightened and went up to the Altar, where he saw the Chalice with the Host in it, and the dead body of the Bishop lying on the ground. He then roused the other religious men, who took the Bishop’s body away and buried it in a field.

Two rich merchants of no mean birth were entering France by the Mont Cenis Pass, when they met a man of more than human stature who ordered them as follows: “Speak to my brother Lodovico Sforza and give him this letter in my name.” As they stood wondering who he was, he told them that he was Galeazzo Sforza, and soon vanished from them. They at once returned to Milan and thence to Vigevano where the Moor lived. They delivered the Duke’s letter, which was written in these terms:

“Oh, Oh, Oh, Lodovico, beware! For the Venetians and French are about to come against you and destroy your Dukedom. But if you will give me three thousand pieces of gold I will help you to conciliate the Spirits and avert your evil fate; and this I hope to do if you do not oppose me. Fare well!” The signature was: “The Spirit of your brother Galeazzo.”

And though some may laugh at this thing, yet it is true that not long afterwards the Duke was thrust from his Dukedom by Louis XII,^[17] King of France, and was led away captive. Bernard of Arles testifies that he was an eye-witness of this.

The father of Lodovico Alidosi, the Lord of Imola, not long after he died appeared like one on horseback with a hawk, to a man secretly sent by his son Lodovico to Ferrara as he went on his way, and told him to tell his son to meet him in that place on the next day, for he had a matter of great importance to say to him. When Lodovico heard this, both because he did not believe it and because he feared a trap, he sent another in his place, to whom the same Shade appeared and bitterly grieved that his son had not come; for he said that he had been going to tell him much more, but that now he would only say that after twenty-two years and one month, on a specified day, he would lose the Lordship of the city that he then enjoyed. When the time predicted by the Shade had come, although the greatest precautions were taken on the night indicated by his father’s spirit, the Confederate Army of Duke Philip of Milan set up ladders, since the moats were frozen over, and captured the town and its Prince. This is from Marcantonio Cocceius Sabellicus.

Francesco Guiccardini says that there was a popular rumour that the spirit of Ferdinand, King of Naples, appeared on three different nights to Jacopo, the surgeon of his son King Alfonso; and first with mild and gentle words, but afterwards with threats and commands, had ordered him to acquaint Alfonso that he must not buoy himself with a vain hope of withstanding the French power: for it was written in the Book of Destiny that the House of Aragon must be subject to untold misfortunes, and finally be cast out from the Kingdom.

The Ven. Cesare Baronio relates that Michele Mercatis the Elder was bound by a strong friendship to Marsiglio Ficino by reason of their common interest in Platonic philosophy. They happened one day to be discussing, as they frequently did, Plato’s theory of the survival of the human soul after death; and not without reverential awe they decided that his opinons could not stand without the support of the Christian faith. (A record is extant of that argument, in a learned letter concerning God and the immortality of the soul written by Marsiglio to Michele Mercatis.) When they had argued this matter for a long time they concluded it in the following manner: they joined hands and agreed that whichever of them died first should, if he were permitted, reassure the other concerning the next life. Having sworn this together, they parted. Not long afterwards it happened that, as Michele was engaged in philosophical speculations at high morning, he suddenly heard the sound of a horse galloping and stopping in front of his door, and the voice of Marsiglio crying: “O Michele, Michele, it is true, it is true!” Marvelling at the spirit’s voice Michele rose and opened the window, and saw him whom he had heard riding away upon a white horse. He cried after him: “Marsiglio, Marsiglio!” and watched him until he disappeared from view. Wondering at this strange occurrence, and feeling anxious about Marsiglio, he went to seek for him at Florence where he was living when he died, and found that he had died at the same hour that he had heard and seen him.

Not many years ago, when Alessandro Farnese^[18] was conducting his admirable siege of Antwerp, the Hollanders and the English made a fierce onslaught upon him in order to relieve the besieged, who at the same time made a sally; and having captured from the Royal Army their offensive works, they seemed to have won safety. Then a few of the King’s soldiers saw standing by the works Pedro de Paz, a Spanish Tribune famous as a soldier and for his piety, who had died a few months before. He was seen fully armed, just as he used to lead his regiment; and beckoning to his former soldiers, he ordered them to follow him. The front rank encouraged the second, and the second the third, and so on; and they all saw the same thing and marvelled and, taking courage, followed their well-known leader. He went in front and led them straight against the enemy. A battle was fought; and the Hollanders were forced to retreat to their ships, leaving the works to the Royal Army. In that moment that impregnable town lost all hope of victory or of defending itself. This is confirmed by the evidence of many soldiers who were eye-witnesses of the event.

In the Diocese, and not far from the city, of Pavia we read that a horrible thing happened in April of the year 1601 at a town called Correto. The funeral rites of a certain notary were being performed in the Church, when suddenly the corpse rose up in its coffin and, turning to one of his relatives who was attending the funeral, said: “Go quickly to my house and take a certain written instrument and restore it to such a place where it justly belongs: for because I suppressed this instrument, when I died I was sentenced by God’s judgement to the fires of Hell.” Having said this, he laid his head down as before. This was permitted by God that mortals should know what heavy punishment awaits such dishonest lawyers who embezzle the legacies of the pious.

In the year 1590 occurred the following event, which is most worthy to be recorded. It is taken from a collection of Peruvian Letters and the writer is said by some to be Francesco Bencio, and by others Gaspar Spitilli. In a certain lady’s house there was a native maid of about sixteen who had been captured in war, and had been baptised in the name of Catharine. As she grew older, she developed a sad freedom and dissoluteness of behaviour, and frequently had to be scolded and punished by her mistress. At last she became so wicked that she associated secretly with certain lost souls: yet she did not neglect confession, although she kept silent as to this sin, lest she should be thought a harlot lost to all shame. On the first of August, 1590, she fell ill and summoned a priest, to whom she opened the sins upon her soul, but not wholly: for though the priest came and went away from her nine times during that same sickness, she laughed contemptuously and said to the other servants that she had committed another thing which she would not confess among her sins; and she added such filthy and obscene words that the others were offended and went and told all this to their mistress. The lady scolded Catharine as she deserved, and then with gentle looks and kind words asked her what were those sins which she would not confess to the Father. She made no difficulty about answering and said that, as often as she summoned the Father in her sickness in order to purge herself with confession, there stood at her left hand one like an Ethiopian who told her not to confess, because they were very little sins of no importance, and if she confessed them the Father would only think her the more dissolute; while on her right hand appeared S. Mary Magdalene urging her to rid herself of whatever sin it was. So the Father was summoned again and the lady told him how matters were; and he tried by every means to induce her to make a full confession, but in vain: for the more he urged her the more obstinate she became, so that she would not even utter the Name of Jesus. Another time when they offered her a Crucifix that she might look upon it and consider in her soul that Christ was crucified for us, she answered with the greatest indignation and perturbation of spirit: “I know that; but what would you have me do?” Her mistress said: “That you should turn to Christ, who will remit you your sins if you acknowledge them in confession.” To this Catharine replied: “I beseech you to cease from troubling me.” And when her mistress had gone away, she began to sing about her loves and her shame, and continued to do so for several days, until one night her mistress and some of the maid-servants came to her, and she broke out into these words: “I am in the greatest torture and anguish of spirit because of my violated confession.” And from that hour up to midnight her whole body became rigid so that they thought that she was dead and began to think about her burial. But she came to herself, and the priest was called; but she in no way changed her former behaviour with regard to confession. Three hours later, a little before she died, the servants urged her to take in her hand the Cross and a holy candle and to call upon the Name of Jesus; but she said: “Who is this Jesus? I do not know Him.” And she sat upon the end of the bed and was heard talking to someone else who was invisible. And another servant who was lying sick in the same room urgently begged her mistress to move her to another room because, she said, she could see certain black demons which terrified her. On the night that Catharine died the house was filled with such a fetid and putrid stench that the corpse had to be placed in the open air: the lady’s brother was out of bed by his arm: a serving-maid was struck on the shoulder by a stone, and bore the mark of the blow for several days: a most gentle horse went kicking its heels against the wall and rushing madly about all through the night: and the dogs went running about and barking. After the body was buried one of the maids entered the room where Catharine had lain, and though no one was there, she felt a vessel, which stood on the table, hurled at her. And over the greater part of the town tiles and slates were seen to be hurled about with a great uproar to a distance of two miles (not that there are many tiles or slates in the suburbs of Callao, as the houses of that city are nearly all roofed with palm leaves). Another maid-servant was, in the sight of many people, dragged for a long way by her foot, although no one could be seen dragging her.

On the seventh of October, when a serving-maid went into the wardrobe to fetch a certain garment, she saw Catharine standing stiff upon her feet; and as she ran away the apparition took up a vessel and hurled it against the wall with such violence that it was smashed into a thousand pieces. The next day a Cross was fixed upon the wardrobe door, but it was torn down and rent in three pieces before their eyes. The same day, as the lady was dining in the garden, a brick was hurled and overturned the whole dinner; and at the same time her four-year-old son began to cry out: “Mamma! Mamma! Catharine is suffocating me!” They then hung Holy Relics about his neck, and so delivered him from that pain. These occurrences compelled the lady to change her house, and she went and lodged with a kinswoman, leaving her own house in charge of some servants. On the tenth of the same month one of the servants went into the house keeper’s office and heard herself called three times by Catharine, and was so overcome with fear that the other servants urged her to call upon Our Lord for help and to take a lighted holy candle and go back with two of the boldest of them. This she did safely, and the dead woman then told her to send the others away and throw away her candle, since it hurt her, and to remain alone. Catharine sent out flames from all her joints, with an incredible stench, and was afire from head to foot, and was girt with a blazing girdle eight or ten fingers wide, the ends of which fell to the ground, which seemed to be some punishment for her lust and acknowledged lewdness. Seeing this spectre, the servant began to tremble and grow pale, and the wretched corpse said to her: “Come here. How many times have I called you?” The servant, nearly dead, replied; “Good Jesus! Who would not be terrified to see you?” When she had said this, there came down to that place a most beautiful youth in white garments who told the servant to lay aside her fear and be of good courage, and to take careful note of what she heard from Catharine and spread it among the others, and to expiate all her sins by confession as soon as she left that place. Then Catharine spoke as follows: “Know that I am sent from Hell, and that I am subjected to the most terrible punishment because, when I went to confess my sins to the priest, I confessed only the least of them, as that I was garrulous and talkative and prone to anger, and such things; but was silent about my lusts and my habitual meetings with young men. Do you then learn to confess well and to keep no sin back. I give you this warning because I am so commanded and am compelled to speak of this matter as an example for others.” Then the bell was heard ringing for the Angelus, and the dead woman quickly withdrew into a corner and vanished. And the Angel (for such was that beautiful young man) told the servant to go to her companions, which she did. We have set down this well-attested story, because all the kinds of apparition are found in it: Angels, S. Mary Magdalene, the devil in the form of an Ethiopian, and a damned spirit in an assumed body not, I think, its own, but one formed of air in the likeness of its own body.

At Naples about the year 1370 it happened in a Dominican Friary (as Brother Antonio of Siena says in the Chronicon Fratrum Praedicatorum) that, after he had completed his last duty of the day the Friar whose task it was to look after the Refectory entered it, and found it filled with Friars wearing hoods who were sitting down as if it was the hour for supper and they were expecting a meal. He at once ran and told the Prior of it: but the Prior thought he was mad or dreaming; yet, as he insisted, went with him, and saw, and believed. At this he also was perturbed, and at once consulted with the gravest and most prudent Fathers of the House. On their advice he put on sacred vestments and, bearing the Holy Body of Christ, proceeded with all the Brethren to the Refectory and, addressing him who sat in the seat of honour, adjured him to say who they were and for what they had come, and urged him to answer in the Name of that Lord whom he bore in his hands. When the Prior appeared thus before them with the Holy Sacrament, they all rose and bowed their heads, but they kept their faces so hooded that they could not be seen. Then they sat down and, being commanded by the Prior to answer his questions, nodded in agreement. At last the chief among them said: “We formerly belonged to this same religious Order, and were for the most part Masters, Priors, Superiors, Lectors, or holders of other offices.” And he went on to say that they had all been judged to damnation because they had been guilty of ambition, pride, envy, and many such mortal crimes; but that by the mercy of God they had been commanded to come there to warn them and all of their Order to be content in their vocation. For because they had thought too little of it, they were all damned and were being burned in eternal flames. And in sign of the truth of this, let them all look upon them. Saying this, they opened their hoods, and each of them was seen to be surrounded by flames of fire. Then their leader struck the table as a signal, and they all vanished; and the whole Convent was mightily disturbed with fear.

In proof of this I will add another no less credible authority. In the year 1599 at Naples, Fra Tiberio, a most holy man who was Superior of the Dominican house, says that the following happened to him. One night when he was going the rounds to see if the Brethren were in bed as usual, he went through the Refectory, and there saw many lights and heard the voice of a man reading from a lectern, and saw men serving. Finally he who sat in the chief place gave a signal upon the table and spoke as follows: “Ambition and gluttony led us to Hell.” And even now there is a scar upon the table as if it had been burned.

Blessed Peter of Cluny^[19] tells the following, which he had from a Spanish noble: “When King Alfonso of Aragon^[20] succeeded to the Kingdom of the greater King Alfonso of Spain at his death, it happened that he was gathering an army against certain rebels in Castile, and issued an edict that each house of his Kingdom should send so many horse or foot. Obeying this command, I sent to the army one of my servants, named Sancho. Some days passed, and when all who had been in that expedition were returned to their homes, he also came back; but not long afterwards, as is the way of men, he fell ill and died. Four months after his death, while I was lying in bed near the fire in my winter house near Estella, the same Sancho suddenly appeared to me at midnight, I being still awake, and sat down by the fire and stirred the coals so as to give more light or heat, and so made it far easier for me to recognise him. He was naked except for a slight covering upon his shameful parts. When I saw him, I said: ‘Who are you?’ He humbly answered: ‘I am your servant Sancho.’ ‘What are you doing here?’ ‘I am going to Castile, and a great army accompanies me on the road, that we may do penance for our sins in the place where we sinned.’ ‘And why,’ I asked, ‘have you turned aside here?’ ‘I have hope,’ he said ‘of pardon, and if you will have pity on me you can obtain an earlier rest for me.’ ‘How?’ ‘When I was lately in the expedition you know of, I was seduced by Satan’s wiles to enter a Church with some companions, and despoiled it of its contents and stole away with the priestly vestments; and on this account especially I am punished. And with all my might I pray you, as my master, to help me; for you can give me many spiritual benefits if you will. Further I beg that you will ask my Lady your wife not to delay in paying the eight soldi which she owed me for my service, and to devote that money, which she would have paid me for the needs of the flesh if I were still alive, to the far greater needs of my soul by distributing it amongst the poor.’ Taking more courage after this conversation, I said: ‘What has happened to our fellow citizen Peter Deioca who lately died? Tell me what you know of him.’ He answered: ‘Because of his frequent works of mercy, and especially because of his gifts to the poor during the late famine, he has earned the rest of the blessed and is a sharer in eternal life.’ When I heard him answer so promptly and easily, I added: ‘And do you know anything of our other fellow citizen Bernecio, who died a little while since?’ ‘He is in Hell: for when he was appointed to determine the boundaries of this town, he gave many unjust decisions owing to having received bribes or favours; and because he did not shrink from taking from a poor widow her only pig, which was the sustenance of her life.’ Then, being incited to ask greater things, I said: ‘Can you know anything of our King Alfonso who died a few years ago?’ At this, another voice spoke to me from a window near my head: ‘Do not ask him this, for he does not know it; for he is but recently come among us and has not yet been permitted to know this thing. But I have been dead for five years and know more than he. What you ask of the King he cannot know.’ I was astonished to hear this fresh voice and, wishing to see him, turned to the window and, by the light of the moon which then lit up the whole court very clearly, saw a man sitting on the sill of the window, clothed just as the other was. ‘Who are you?’ I asked. And he said: ‘I am his friend, and am going to Castile with him and many others.’ ‘And do you know, as you said, any thing of King Alfonso?’ ‘I know where he was, but I do not know where he is. For he was for a time terribly tortured in Purgatory, but was delivered from there by the Monks of Cluny,^[21] and what has happened to him since, I do not know.’ Saying this, he addressed his friend who was sitting by the fire: ‘Rise, and let us now resume our journey; for the army of our companions fills all the roads to Castile, and we must join them.’ At this Sancho arose and tearfully repeated his former request, groaning: “Master, I implore you not to forget me, and that you will persuade my Lady your wife to restore in mercy for my soul what she owed to my body.’ When he had said this, they both at once vanished. But I called my wife and aroused her as she lay by me in bed, and before I told her what I had seen and heard, I asked her whether she owed anything to Sancho our servant for his services. She answered what I had never heard from any except the dead man, that she owed Sancho eight soldi. I could no longer doubt the truth, since my wife had confirmed the dead man’s story. In the morning I took the eight soldi from my wife and, myself adding what I thought suitable, distributed the money among the poor for the soul of him who had appeared to me, and had the priests say Mass for him, and spared no expense to obtain for him pardon of his sins.”

In this clear, certain and most edifying vision we are taught that men’s deeds follow them in death.

☆

↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” XXII, 8; and “Confessiones,” IX, 7.
↑ “Richard de Middleton.” “Doctor solidus et fundatissimus”; the date of his birth is unknown; most authorities name 1300 as the year of his death; but some say 1304, and others 1307 or 1308. This great schoolman paid due attention to the important problems of demoniality, “Quaestiones disputatae” (1284), q. xxxi; and he also treats of the Incubus and Succubus, “In secundo Sententiarum,” d. viii, a. I, q. 6. For a full study see Edgar Hocedez, S.J., “Richard de Middleton, Sa Vie, Ses Œuvres, Sa Doctrine,” Louvain, 1925.
↑ “Peter of Palude.” A Dominican theologian of the fourteenth century; died 1342.
↑ “Dominic Soto.” A renowned Spanish theologian of the Order of S. Dominic. Born at Segovia, 1494: died at Salamanca, 1560. See Echard-Quétif, “Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum," II, p. 171, sqq.
↑ “Peltanus.” Theodore Peltanus, a Biblical scholar of note, who translated several commentaries from Greek into Latin. His own glosses are very highly esteemed. One of his most important works is his version of the “Commentary on the Apocalypse,” by Bishop Andrew of Caesarea (sixth century), which was published, 4to, 1584.
↑ “S. Peter Canisius, S.J.” 1521–1597. Doctor of the Church.
↑ “Gregory of Valencia, S.J.” Professor of the University of Ingolstadt. Born at Medina, March 1550 (some say 1551; others 1540); died at Naples, 23 April, 1603. He wrote many theological works of great value. The lectures given at Ingolstadt (1575–92) appeared as “Commentariorum theologicorum tomi quatuor,” 1591–1597. There have been many subsequent editions. Gregory of Valencia has been much criticised for holding (“Commentarii,” Liv. III, col. 2008, sqq.) that where the guilt of witchcraft is legally established the judge must inflict the penalty, even though he himself were personally convinced of the nullity of the charge.
↑ “Sisinnius and Alexandrinus.” “Roman Martyrology,” 29 May. “In the district of Trent, the birthday of the holy Martyrs Sisinnius, Martyrius, and Alexandrinus, who in the time of the Emperor Honorius, as Paulinus writeth in his “Life of S. Ambrose,” obtained the crown of martyrdom, being persecuted by the heathen in the parts of Anaunia.”
↑ “Constantius Presbyter.” See Constantius, “Vie de St. Germain d’Auxerre, tr. franç. avec une étude,” 1874.
↑ “Sophronius.” c. 560–638; Patriarch of Jerusalem and Greek ecclesiastical writer, much of whose work is preserved in “Symeon Metaphrastes.”
↑ “S. Eulogius.” Patriarch of Alexandria from 580 to 607. He was a warm friend of S. Gregory the Great, who bestowed upon him many signal marks of esteem. S. Eulogius stoutly refuted the many heresies which were vexing the Church, but unfortunately with the exception of one sermon and a few fragments his writings have perished. Those that remain are in Migne, “Patrologia Graeca,” LXXXVI (2), 2913–64.
↑ “Hugh Etherianus.” A Tuscan employed at the Court of Constantinople under the Emperor Manuel I (Comnenus 1143–1180). He was a very learned theologian and on account of his treatise commonly known as “Aduersus Graecos” he is esteemed as one of the most eminent Catholic controversialists against the Eastern Church. His “De regressu animarum ab inferis” was composed at the request of the clergy of Pisa. His works are in Migne, “Patrologia Latina,” CCII.
↑ “S. Euphemia.” Virgin and Martyr. She suffered under Diocletian. Feast Day, 16 September. Her Relics were venerated at Chalcedon.
↑ “Leo III.” The Iconoclast; Emperor of Byzantium, 717–741.
↑ “Alphonsi Regis.” Alfonso X “el Sabio,” 1220–84. It was under his patronage that the “Crónica de España,” more commonly known as “Crónica general,” was compiled from many historical sources.
↑ “Mariana.” Juan Mariana, S.J., 1536–1623. His most important work is the great history of Spain which during the lifetime of the author himself went through several editions, to which he added, continuing his chronicle of events. The work first appeared as “Historiae de rebus Hispaniae, libri XX,” 1592, but the Spanish version made by Mariana, which was published at Toledo in 1601, has Thirty Books.
↑ “Louis XII.” This king imprisoned Sforza for the remainder of his life in the Castle of Loches.
↑ “Alessandro Farnese.” This renowned and noble commander was the son of Margaret of Parma. The history of his campaigns in the Low Countries is a tale of heroic genius and victory. He commenced the siege of Antwerp in 1584, and on 17 August, 1585, the city surrendered. Alessandro Farnese was created Duke of Parma in February 1586. He very properly attributed his success to Our Lady, Patroness of Antwerp. The occasion to which Guazzo refers was the great attack, 26 May, 1585, when the Antwerpers endeavoured to make a gap in the Kauwenstein dike. One contingent was headed by Hohenlo and Justinus of Nassau; another containing English auxiliaries under Colonel Morgan, and Scotch under Colonel Balfour, was commanded by Marnix.
↑ “Blessed Peter of Cluny.” Blessed Peter of Montboissier, also known as Peter the Venerable, c. 1092–1156. He was ever honoured as a Saint both by the people and his Order, and thus Pius IX confirmed the cult of this great and glorious monk. His works are in Migne, “Patrologia Latina,” CLXXXIX.
↑ “Alfonso of Aragon.” Alfonso H. Alfonso I, the Fighter (“El Bataleador”), reigned 1104–1134.
↑ “Monks of Cluny.” The Benedictine Monks of Cluny inaugurated the Solemn Commemoration of All Souls, which was ordered by S. Odilo (died 1048) to be held annually in all the monasteries of his Congregation.

Chapter 18

Chapter XVIII

Of Apparitions of Demons, or Spectres.

Argument.

It must be known that there are many kinds of demons differing among themselves by fixed degrees. The first kind is the Fiery, for they dwell in the upper air and will never sink to the lower regions until the Day of Judgement, and these have no dealings on earth with men.

The second is the Aerial, for they dwell in the air about us. These can descend to Hell and, by assuming bodies formed from the denser air, can at times appear to men. More often, with the permission of God, they disturb the air and raise thunders and tempests; and they all conspire together for the ruin of the human race.

The third sort is Terrestrial; and we may not doubt that these were cast from Heaven upon earth for their sins. Some of these devils dwell in woods and forests, and lay snares for hunters; some dwell in the fields and lead nightfarers astray; others dwell in hidden places and caverns; while others delight to live in secret with men.

A fourth sort is of the Water; for they dwell under water in rivers and lakes; and are full of wrath, turbulent, unquiet and fraudulent. They raise up storms at sea, sink ships in the deep, and destroy life in the waters. When such demons appear, they are more often women than men; for they live in humid places and lead a softer manner of life. But those which live in drier and harder places usually appear as men.

The fifth sort is Subterranean, for they live in caves and caverns in the mountains. These demons are of the worst disposition, and chiefly molest those who dig pits or mines and look for treasure in the earth; and they are ever ready to harm the human race. They cause earthquakes and winds and fires, and shake the foundations of houses.

The sixth sort is called Lucifugous, because they chiefly abhor and detest the light, and never appear by day, nor can they assume a bodily form except at night. This kind of demons is altogether inscrutable and of a nature beyond human understanding, being all dark within, and shaken with icy passions; malicious, restless, and perturbed; and when they meet men at night they violently oppress them and, with the permission of God, often kill them by some breath or touch. Of this sort, perhaps, was that Asmodeus^[1] of whom we read in the story of Tobias. This kind of demons has no dealings with witches; neither can they be kept away by incantations, for they shun the light and the voices of men and every sort of noise.

It is further to be noted that the demon manifests himself in many various forms of spectres, such as dogs, cats, goats, oxen, men, women, or a horned owl. But, that his deceptions may be made known to us. Almighty God will not allow him to appear in certain other forms, such as doves, lambs, or sheep; for the true Lamb is Christ, the Good Shepherd, and the Holy Spirit is won to make His appearance in the form of a dove: also, because these animals are without guile and do no harm, God does not permit him to appear in their form. But because the human form is in all respects the most perfect and beautiful, therefore he generally appears in that form to us. For, as Marulli^[2] writes, the human form is adapted to nearly every purpose.

☆

Examples.

A certain wagoner from Nancy was in a fenny copse on the outskirts of the town of Nancy, cutting wood, when a fierce storm suddenly arose. He made haste towards a cottage to find shelter, and on the way rested under a thick wide-spreading tree, and waited for the storm to abate. There he was surprised to see standing near him another woodman; and when he looked at him more closely (as we do when we meet a stranger) he saw that his nose kept shooting out to the length of a stick and then quickly contracting to its former shape and size; that his feet were cloven hooves; and that his whole body was of immoderate size. He was struck nearly dead with sheer terror at this, and then (as is the Christian custom in difficulties) made the sign of the Cross, after which he found himself alone as before. But he remained so stupefied by his experience that, though he was used to say that he could find his way about Nancy blindfold, now he could not do so even with the most diligent attention; but came to that city with his tongue sticking and his eyes staring and so trembling all over that it was easy to believe what he said had happened. This belief was largely borne out by the report of what some other woodmen had seen at a distance; for they said that it had appeared to them that in that place the air had become thick and wrapped in a dense cloud.

In the same chapter Remy tells of a similar occurrence in 1588. One Nicolas Stephen had been commissioned by Master Desiderius, the Mayor’s cellarman, to buy some wine vessels for him; and, having done so, he sent his wife Jacobeta (who was a witch) time and again to ask for the purchase money to be paid to him, but in vain. Jacobeta grew tired of asking and angry at so much waste of time and trouble, and turned her whole attention to finding the means and occasion to punish Desiderius for his tricks and subterfuges. Meanwhile it fell aptly enough that Desiderius was forced by an outbreak of the plague in his house to take refuge in the open fields, and lived there away from his household in a hut. As he was there with his only son there appeared to him late at night (through the agency of Jacobeta) a demon with so terrible a shrieking and groaning that it seemed as if the whole heaven had burst from its foundations and was falling upon his hut. And that this was no feigned terror maliciously assumed by Desiderius, as it was emptily rumoured, was afterwards proved by the fact that he and his son became so ill because of it that everybody who saw them despaired of them.

The following happened within our own memory at Colombières, a village six miles from Toul. At the extreme end of the village where the road goes to Salsure, a peasant lived in a humble cottage which was, however, as clean and neat as his means would allow and had never been rumoured to be haunted by spectres. Yet it became occupied by a demon who was at first content with throwing stones at night at the servants without hurting them; but as they grew used to this they ignored it and treated it as a joke. The demon could not tolerate this contempt, so one dark night he set fire to the cottage, which was quickly burned almost to the ground. Some days later I was travelling that way and heard of this from the inhabitants; so I went myself to see the ruins of the cottage so that I could tell the story to others more clearly and with the greater authority.

The Spanish author Antonio de Turrecremata (Torquemada) writes as follows in his native tongue, and this is from his Jardin de las Flores curiosas. “At Salamanca there was a matron whose house was popularly said to be haunted by stone-throwing. The Mayor of the city, was incited by this rumour to test for himself whether the persistent report concerning that house was true, or whether it was not rather invented by the servants in order to cover some naughty pranks of theirs; for there were among them two young girls of no mean beauty, and it was suspected that the whole of this story had been fabricated in order to facilitate their meetings with their lovers. So the Mayor went, to the house at the time when the stoning was said to be most frequent; and there went with him no less than twenty of the townsmen, some of whom he sent with a light to search the upper part of the house to see who it was who threw stones at the servants. They searched diligently everywhere, and came back and said they had found nothing at all alarming. He then decided to examine the cellars, to which some steps led down from the dining-room, and to spend some time in a further search in that direction. And lo! hardly had they reached the place before there was a great noise and stones began to be hurled at them and swept them off their legs, but without harming them. So they were sent again to see where this shower of stones came from; and although they found no one in the place, the shower of stones kept falling. This went far to confirm the opinion which many had formed, that the phenomena were all due to devil’s work and magic; and this belief they more stoutly maintained as the stones kept falling about their heads. Some of them there rushed from the house in terror; but one of them, feeling bolder at a safe distance, took up and carefully noted the appearance of one particular stone and threw it into the house, saying: ‘If this came from you, O demon, throw the same stone back at me.’ And when this was at once done, there was no more room for doubt that the house was haunted by demons as the Matron had said.”

I remember, when the plague was raging at Toulouse about the year 1563 I was in Auch spending the night gaming and playing in a manner fitting my age and leisure, with my good friend Master Abel, a member of the Cathedral Chapter. And to all of us who were in that house a petulant demon of this sort manifested, as we were playing, no slight disturbance, hurling stones roughly here and there, although they fell to the ground without hurting anyone. The room was locked from the inside and there was no furniture, except the gaming table and the seats, so that there was no place where any mechanical device could have been hidden.

In such ways do good and evil demons approach men, with hatred, terror, hurt and injury. So says Remy as above quoted.

Nider in his Formicarius relates that when the Kingdom of Bohemia was shaken with tumults and massacres because of its heresies, near a valley on the boundary of that country there were heard shouts at night, and the clashing together of horsemen, who were often seen to be clothed in various colours. There were two bold standard-bearers in the camp not far from the valley of spectres, who determined to learn the whole truth and what these visions portended; so they went one night to the haunted valley and saw the usual spectres, but before they dared to come near to it one of them grew afraid and said to the other: “It is quite enough that we have seen these things at a distance; I shall not go near to them. For it is an old saying that no one should joke with such matters.” The other called him a coward and spurred his horse forward and drew near to the whole ghostly army, whereupon one of them came and cut off his head and returned to his companions. When the one who had loitered behind owing to his apprehensions saw this he took to flight and spread the news of this horror. And the next day they found the headless body and the head in the valley where the armies had been seen, but there was no trace of man or horse; and only the marks of some birds were seen in muddy places.

Nider adds another story worthy of belief, which was told him by the Bishop of Mayence. He said that he knew a soldier from the Rhine, whose son was still living where he heard this story, who was remarkable for his intrepidity in warfare; and because of his boldness and pugnacity others were often involved in quarrels on account of which he used frequently to ride by night to suitable meeting places. One night he was thus riding with his attendants and came into a wood near the Rhine; but before coming out of the wood, since a wide plain lay beyond it, he sent one of his attendants, as is the habit of those who suspect an ambush, to discover if there were any lurking enemies lying in wait for him in the plain at the end of the wood. It was a clear moonlight and star-lit night, and he had no difficulty in seeing: so the attendant spied through the branches of the trees and saw a wonderful army extending right across the plain and advancing on horseback, and came back and told his master, who said: “Let us stand still a little; for it is likely that a rearguard will follow this army, and we will ride up to those and inquire whether the main army are friends or enemies; nor will we be afraid of a few men.” After a short pause the soldier and his attendants came into the plain, and found no one except one man riding a horse and leading another by the bridle. The soldier went up to him and asked: “Are you not my cook?” For so it seemed to him at a distance. That cook had died a little before this, and now answered: “I am he, Master.” The soldier then asked: “What are you doing here? And who are those who went before?” The dead man answered: “Master, they who went before are nobles and knights” (and he named many of them by name), “and they and I must this night be at Jerusalem, for that is our punishment.” The soldier then asked: “What is the meaning of this horse which you lead without a rider?” “That,” he said, “is for your use if you will come with me to the Holy Land. Be assured by the Christian Faith that I shall bring you back alive and safe if you obey my words.” Then said the soldier: “In my day I have done marvels, and I will not shrink from adventure too.” And though his attendants tried to dissuade him, he dismounted from his own horse and mounted that of the dead man, and they both vanished from their sight. On the next day, as his attendants were waiting by the same place, the soldier and the dead man returned to the place where they had first met, and the dead man said: “Lest you should think that this is nothing but a false phantasm, I give you two rare things which you must keep in memory of me—a small piece of cloth no fire can burn or scorch, and a knife in a sheath. The first, when it is dirty, you must clean in the flames: the second you must handle with care, for whoever is wounded by it, is poisoned.”

Cromerus, a diligent author, tells the following. Wratislaw I, King of Poland, was besieging Dramburg, a very strong city of Pomerania. One moonlight night the sentries saw a great host of armed enemies riding over the open fields and attacking the Polish lines: and when this happened many times the Poles became angry because they could never engage these enemies in hand-to-hand fighting. So one night, when this enemy army was announced to be at hand, they charged furiously out of the camp, troop after troop, and pursued the fleeing enemy for a long way in vain. Hearing this uproar in the Polish camp and seeing their charge from the camp, the besieged army made a sudden sortie and set fire to the military works and soldiers’ quarters, with burning straw and reeds, and so, since only a few had been left to guard the camp, easily burned all the works and the greater part of the camp. It is said that these were shadows of the night who, with divine permission, disturbed the Poles in this way because, in contempt of the usage and institutions of the Catholic Church, they had dared on a former expedition to desecrate the solemn Forty Days’ Fast of all Christians by the ungodly eating of flesh and milk foods. God sometimes permits such apparitions because of sin, either as a trial for the righteous, or to announce plagues, wars, changes in kingdoms, and such things, as the following examples show.

On the night before the sedition of Antioch, a huge woman of formidable appearance was seen, beating a bronze shield so violently that the sound was heard all over the city.

Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople, went one night to the altar to pray to God for the public safety, when there appeared to him a horrible spectre which, on being conjured according to the sacred ritual of exorcism, said that as long as Gennadius lived he was not allowed to inflict the injuries which were threatening that Church; but that when he was dead he would rage terribly against it.

Cabades, King of Persia, heard that on the boundary between Persia and India, in a strongly fortified place named, there was a huge treasure of precious stones and gold and silver guarded by demons, who kept all mortals from coming near. He therefore set out with an army and tried to take the place by storm, but the demons fought fiercely and drove him off. He then tried the arts of the Jews and Magicians, but these were equally useless. At last he was persuaded that he could win his desire by the prayer of Christians to God, and asked help from a Christian Bishop living in Persia. This Bishop ordered the Christians to fast, and with prayers performed the Divine mysteries before the congregation, and going to the place conjured the demons living there and drove them out, and with no trouble gave the fortress to Cabades. Of this sort was that demon of Basle which we have already mentioned.

Philinnion,^[3] the daughter of Demostratus and Charito, fell in love with their guest Machates; but since her parents refused to countenance this, she died of grief and was publicly buried. Six months after her death, Machates returned to that house, and Philinnion entered to him and took supper with him and was entwined with him more than once that evening; and Machates gave her an iron ring and a gold cup, while she gave him a gold ring and a girdle. Now as her old nurse came to make sure that the guest lacked nothing, she saw her charge lying in bed with him, and joyfully told it to the girl’s parents. They ran up in astonishment, and the next morning found them both, and with cries of joy embraced their daughter as she lay sleeping with their guest. But Philinnion looked at them with stern eyes and said: “O you cruel parents to your daughter! Did you then begrudge me three short days in my father’s house with my Machates? Whether it be curiosity or cruelty on your part, it will bring you great misfortune, for you will renew your former grief, and once more bury your daughter.” When she had said this, she grew pale and fell down like the dead corpse which she actually was; and her parents were overcome with sorrow. When this matter became known to the people and the Magistrate, they ordered the tomb to be opened, and found it empty of any corpse; for there were in it only an iron ring and a gold cup, the gifts of Machates. But the corpse of Philinnion was found in the bed in his bedroom, and on the advice of a certain seer named Hyllus it was cast out of the city as a prodigy, to be devoured by the birds and beasts. As for Machates, when he saw that he had been mocked by a spectre, he would not bear the ignominy of it, and before long he laid violent hands upon himself.

Such are the many false resurrections of the heathen: and just as it is agreed that the devil has to do with witches in an assumed body, either as Incubus or Succubus, so also in this kind of spectre a nauseating charnel smell is perceived.

Among the writings of the Germans (says Remy, I, 2) there is a popular story of a certain Aulicus, who received news of his wife’s death and of the manner of her burial. He at once returned home to see to his domestic concerns; and as he kept thinking of his wife during the night (as is usual when anyone has a deep-seated desire for anything), he saw her undressing herself as usual ready to come to bed with him. He made some effort to prevent her from doing this, since he had been assured that she was dead; but he was overborne by the sound of her voice and the sight of her body, and allowed her to lie down with him. And so he continued for some days, until the potent words of an Exorcist drove away the demon who had inhabited the corpse in order to delude and, if he could, destroy the husband. And certainly this could not have been done if the body had been informed with its own proper soul. But just as the law has power to eject an usurper, so let no one, who knows the power of adjurations and exorcisms, wonder that the demon can be cast out from his insidious occupation of a dead body.

Philostratus, in the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, IV, xxv, records that a similar thing once happened to Menippus, the disciple of Demetrius the Cynic. He was going from Corinth to Cenchreæ, when he met a graceful and apparently rich foreign girl who said that she was seized with love for him, and familiarly invited him to turn aside into her house. Since he in his turn was taken with love for her, he lay with her many times and began to think of marrying her; for she had a house decked like a king’s palace. But as soon as Apollonius looked at the house he cried out that she was a Lamia who would soon either entirely devour him, or bring some terrible injury upon him.

Thomas of Brabant,^[4] in his De bono uniuersali, II, 57, relates the following history. In Genappe, a sober and noted town of Brabant, a certain young man loved a girl who was a virgin, and spoke to her parents with a view to marrying her; but they refused. In the middle of the night the girl fell into an acute fever and grew so ill that they all thought she was dead; and they mourned and tolled the bell as if for the dead. The young man her lover was going that evening from that town to another, and as he was going by a thicket he heard the sound of a woman weeping. He anxiously ran up and, seeking for the woman he had heard, found the girl whom he thought to be dead, and said to her: “Your parents are mourning you as dead! Whence have you come here?” “See,” she cried, “the man going before me, who led me away.” The young man was astonished at this, since he saw no one except the girl; and he boldly caught her up and hid her in a house outside the town. Returning to the town, he spoke to his friends, and then went to the girl’s father as he sat with his friends at the funeral feast, and asked him if he would give him his daughter whom he was mourning as dead. The father answered in surprise: “Are you God, to raise up and wed the dead?” But the young man said: “Only promise me that I shall have your daughter as my wife if I bring her back alive and safe.” To this the father agreed, and confirmed his promise in presence of them all. The young man then raised the shroud which hid the body, and they found an image so wonderful that it could have been the work of no man. For they who have seen such images made by the devil say that they are like rotten wood inside, but are covered outside with a delicate skin. After this the girl was brought back safe and sound to her father, and a few days later married the young man, and lived safely right up to our own times.

An old author tells in the Life of S. Robert^[5] the Abbot that one night the Holy man saw a foul demon standing at the entrance of the Choir and repeatedly trying to enter, but in vain. He had the form of a peasant in a rough smock with long bare legs, carrying a basket on his back and a piece of wood slung in front of him; and he kept going about the Choir with his neck stretched out, looking attentively at the Brothers to see whether he could find in any of them a quality favourable to himself. The Man of God prayed earnestly and roused the Brothers from their torpor; and when the wicked spy had waited a long time in vain and saw that he was meeting with no success, he mocked the sleepy Brothers with bitter laughter and, leaping about with extraordinary agility, applauded them whenever their thoughts were turning to evil. At last he found among them a young Brother whose thoughts kept wandering upon forbidden things, his body only being present in that place, for he was even meditating a secret flight. Seeing that this man was ripe for his purpose, the devil seized him with his pitch-fork and thrust him into his basket and quickly ran away with him. Perceiving this, the Holy man was in great anxiety for that Brother’s safety, and diligently sought for him in the morning. But he had escaped before the dawn and had become an outcast, throwing off the easy yoke of Christ and following the Enemy; for he joined himself with the worst criminals and gave himself up to brigandage, and was not long afterwards captured and miserably punished with death.

Ranulf Higden,^[6] the author of the Polychronicon, writes that Count Richard went one night alone into the church to pray, and found there a coffin with a corpse in it. While the Count was praying, the corpse burst from its shroud with a great cry and rushed with arms outstretched as if to embrace him. The Count made the sign of the Cross on his brow, and having adjured it in vain to depart, drew his sword and cut it in two; and he then ordered that the Office for the dead with Requiem Masses should be solemnly sung throughout the whole land.

More wonderful than any is the following, taken from the description of Muscovy by Guagninus.^[7] He writes that certain inhabitants of the Livonian district of Russia die every year on the 27th of November on account of the intense cold, just like swallows and frogs; and on the 24th of April in the next spring they come to life again. He adds that when they feel their annual death approaching, they put their possessions in a certain place; and their neighbours, the Ruthenians and Courlanders, take these away, leaving equivalent goods in their place. When they come to life again, they take their goods if they seem to be just; but if they do not appear just they demand their own back. And therefore much strife and warfare are said to arise between them. Sigismund, Baron Herbestein,^[8] it is true, relates the same story in his Rerum Moscouitarum Commentarii, but he makes it quite clear that he regards it as a mere fable.

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↑ “Asmodeus.” Possibly this demon corresponds with the demon called Abaddon, the Destroyer, mentioned in the Apocalypse, IX, ii.
↑ “Marulli.” Cesare Marulli, Archbishop of Palermo (1578).
↑ “Philinnion.” This is from Phlegon of Tralles, “Mirabilia,” No. 30. It may be read apud “Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum.” Ed. Carolus Müllerus, Parisiis, Didot, 1849, vol. III, pp. 611–13. “The Vampire in Europe,” by Montague Summers, Chapter I, “The Vampire in Greece and Rome,” pp. 34–37.
↑ “Thomas of Brabant.” A Dominican and suffragan bishop, 1201–70. He is generally referred to as Thomas Cantimpratanus, or Thomas of Cantimpé. His famous work “Bonum uniuersale de Apibus” was immensely popular, but now is of the last rarity. I have used the Douai edition of 1597.
↑ “S. Robert.” Abbot of Molesme; c. 1029–1111.
↑ “Ranulf Higden.” Benedictine chronicler; a monk of S. Werburg, Chester; died 1364. The “Polychronicon,” a universal history to his own times, was translated into English by John of Trevisa in 1387, and this version was printed by Caxton in 1482, and by Wynkyn de Worde in 1495.
↑ “Guagninus.” Alessandro Guagnini (or Alexander Gwagnin, as he turned his name) was born at Verona in 1538 and died at Cracow in 1614. His whole life was spent in Poland, and he became a naturalised Pole. For a full study of this curious and most interesting man see Carlo Cipolla’s “Un Italiano nella Polonia e nella Svezia tra il XVI e il XVII secolo,” Torino, 1887. The work of Guagnini from which Guazzo quotes is the monumental “Sarmatiae Europeae Descriptio, quae Regnum Poloniae, Lituaniam, Samogitiam, Russiam, Masouiam, Prussiam, Pomeraniam, Liuoniam, et Moschouiae Tartariaeque partem complectitur, Alexandri Gwagnini Ueronensis, Equitis Aurati peditumque praefecti, diligentia conscriptae,” Cracow, 1578.
↑ “Baron Herbestein.” Sigismund, Baron Herbestein was born in 1486. He was promoted and became eminent in the Austrian service, and acted as Ambassador to Russia and to Constantinople. He died in 1566. The Dedication to Ferdinand I, King of the Romans, of his “Rerum Moscouitarum Commentarii” (1549) is dated 1 March, 1549, and signed Sigismundus, liber Baro in Herbestein, Neyperg, et Guettenhag.

Chapter 19

Chapter XIX

That Cacodemons Exercise their Magic Powers of their Own Will.

Argument.

On this subject Tostado (on Job xl) argues strongly as follows. It must not be maintained that men can constrain or confine a demon to any particular place except by Divine power, that is, by exorcisms and adjurations: but witches do not claim to subject a demon to themselves except by the power of their spells and signs, or by deeds very foreign to the Christian Religion; therefore it is impossible for the lesser power, which is man’s, to subject to itself the greater, which is the demon’s, since there is no power on earth which can be compared with the power of demons. Therefore there can be no natural or ritual means by which a man can compel the demons to appear or to answer him or to do anything, except, as I have said, by means of the Exorcisms of the Church: for then it may be said that they are put under compulsion either to depart from the bodies of those whom they possess, or to refrain from injuring them; and this was instituted by God to be performed by the Church, and the power of God is in such Exorcisms. But God is not present in the operation of witches by which they claim to master demons, for such are contrary to the honour of God. The demons themselves play false and pretend that they are compelled; for in this lies their chief power of persuasion. But demons cannot really be mastered by men through witchcraft; or, if they could, they would not themselves teach men the way to master them, for the demons would be in a sorry case indeed if they could be mastered by men. So they pretend that they are subject when they are not, that they may deceive men: they pretend to be caught, that they may catch you; to be bound, that they may bind you; that they are subject to your commands, that they may make you subject to them; that they are imprisoned, that they may imprison you for ever: they pretend that they are in bondage to your art or image or charm, that they may bring you to Hell bound by the cords of your sins. Therefore, in short, they pretend that they are under compulsion, when they are really serving of their own will and voluntarily until such time as seems good to them.

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Examples.

Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola (the younger) in his De Praenotione^[1] says that two magicians met in the hall of the Queen of England to give an entertainment, having mutually agreed to obey each other implicitly. The first ordered the second to look out of the window; and when he had done so, stag’s horns grew from his head, and he was for a long time exposed to the ridicule and jokes of all. So, since he had been powerless under this outrage and wished to avenge himself with a worse one, he drew a human figure with charcoal on the wall, and ordered the first sorcerer to stand under that figure and walk through the wall. The first magician saw instant death in this, and was afraid and began to beg to be excused; but when the other reminded him of their agreement he was compelled to obey, and he was seen to walk through the wall. But he was never found afterwards; for the demon with his higher power had killed him and hidden his body in some deserted place or cave.

I will give another example, taken from a certain German jurisconsult.^[2] A conjurer, a man of high estate, for the public amusement and at the request of his fellow guests, cut off the head of his host’s servant; but when he wanted to restore his head to him, he found that there was another sorcerer who was preventing this. He asked the man not to do so; but when, after many warnings, he still persisted, the first conjurer caused a lily to grow upon the table and, no sooner had he cut off its head and leaves than that second sorcerer who had been thwarting him fell headless from the table, and the conqueror replaced the head upon the servant with no difficulty. Having done this he immediately fled from the house and city, lest he should be taken by the Magistrate for murder.

This pretended cutting off the head, and its restoration, as well as the production and cutting off of the lily, must all be ascribed to magical illusion. There was a contest between the demons of the two sorcerers, and the weaker of them was strong enough to hinder the success of the glamour, but was compelled by the stronger (though not unwillingly, as I think) to agree to his client’s death, which was a matter of fact, and no illusion.

Johan Dubravsky, Bishop of Olmütz, in his Historia rerum Bohemicarum, XXIII, tells the following. Wenceslaus, the Emperor and King of the Bohemians, formed an alliance with Prince John of Bavaria by marrying his daughter Sophia. And since the Prince knew that his son-in-law took a delight in ludicrous shows and magical illusions, he took a wagon full of buffoons and conjurers to Prague. There the most skilful of the conjurers was giving an exhibition of his power to deceive the eyes, when there came amongst the spectators Zyto, the Magician of Wenceslaus, with his mouth stretched open to the ears. He came nearer and ate up that Bavarian conjurer with all his apparatus, except his shoes, which he spat out because they were muddy. He then retired to rid his belly of its unwonted burden, and voided it into a tub full of water; and thus he restored the dripping conjurer to be laughed at on all sides by the spectators. After this his companions also stopped their tricks.

Now that eating of the conjurer was mere illusion; but the wretched man was really snatched up and thrown into the tub of water by a demon, and was not voided through the other’s bowels.

Olaus Magnus (III, 20) writes that a certain magician named Gilbert was quarrelling with his master Catilla as to which of them was superior in their art. The master then threw him a little stick carved with Gothic or Ruthenian characters, which he seized and at once became stiff, and was carried bound to an island in the lake called Wetter in the country of the Ostrogoths, and there imprisoned in an underground cavern.

↑ “De Praenotione.” Libri Nouem. I have used the folio edition, Argentoraci [Strasburg], 1506–7.
↑ “German jurisconsult.” John George Gödelmann in his “De lamiis.”

Chapter 1

Compendium
Maleficarum

Book I ☆ Chapter I

The Nature and Extent of the Force of Imagination.

Argument.

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Examples.

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↑ “Mirandola.” Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, 1463–1494. There are many editions of his Complete Works: Bologna, 1496; Venice, 1498; Strasburg, 1504; Basle, 1557; 1573; 1601.
↑ “Marsilio Ficino.” 1433–1499. “Theologia Platonica de animarum Immortalitate,” perhaps his most important work, was published at Florence 1482.
↑ “Alonso Tostado.” Circa 1400–1455. A famous exegete often quoted as Abulensis or Alonso Abulensis owing to his having been consecrated Bishop of Avila in 1449. The latest edition of his works is 27 volumes, folio, Venice, 1728.
↑ “Miguel de Medina.’’ 1489–1578. A Spanish Franciscan, esteemed as one of the most distinguished theologians of his day. “Annales Ordinis Minorum,” xix, xxi.
↑ “Leonard Vair.” Born at Benevento, of Spanish descent, c. 1540; Bishop of Pozzuoli, where he died in 1603. His “De Fascino,” Libri III, Paris, 1583; Venetiis apud Aldum, 1589, is a work of singular erudition.
↑ “Martin Delrio.” This famous Jesuit scholar was born at Antwerp, 17 May, 1551, and died at Louvain, 19 October, 1608. His encyclopaedic “Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex,” 3 vols., 5to, 1599, was frequently reprinted. Of these the folio, 1603, Mainz, is among the most highly esteemed. It is sometimes said that the first edition of Delrio’s work was Mainz, 1593, but this folio is a mere myth.
↑ “Delrio.” “Disquisitiones Magicae,” III, q. 3.
↑ “Two friends.” This history is very famous in English literature as having been introduced by Chaucer into the Nonne Preestes Tale of the Cok and Hen, Chauntecleer and Pertelote. Guazzo had it from Cicero, “De Diuinatione,” I, 27. It is also related by Valerius Maximus, I, 7 (“De Somniis”), where Warton wrongly supposed that Chaucer had found it. But it is plain that Cicero was the author to whom Chaucer refers, since in the “De Diuinatione” are two histories and both these the poet gives, but in a changed order and notes before the second narrative:
And certes, in the same book I rede,
Right in the nexte chapitre after this …

Chapter 2

Chapter II.

Of Artificial Magic.

Argument

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Examples.

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↑ “Psellus.” Michael Constantine Psellus, 1020–1110 (Caillet); or c. 1018–c. 1078 (Adrian Fortescue), the celebrated Byzantine philosopher, attained a vast reputation at Constantinople, and even now Krumbacher, “Byzantinische Litteraturgesch.” (2nd ed., Munich, 1897), regards him as “the first man of his time.” At Paris, 1615, was published the “ ‘De Operatione Dæmonum’ Dialogus Gilbertus Gaulminus Molinensis primus Græce edidit et notis illustrauit.”
↑ “Proclus.” Born at Constantinople, 410; died at Athens, 485. “The scholastic of Neo-Platonism.” His writings were collected by Cousin, “Prodi Opera,” Paris, 1820–25.
↑ “Dragonet." Cf. Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” XXXII, 7: “Callionymi fel cicatrices sanat, et carnes oculorum superuacuas consumit.”
↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” XXI, 4, 5, and 6. “A chalk which is set on fire by water,” “Eam uiuam calcem loquimur,” i.e. “quicklime.” “The salt of Girgenti.” Cf. Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” XXXI, 7; “Agrigentinus (sal) ignium patiens ex aqua exsilit.” This is repeated by Solinus, “Polyhistoria,” XI; and S. Isidore “Etymologiae,” XVI, 2, 4.
↑ “Siege of Syracuse.” Syracuse was captured by Claudius Marcellus in 212 B.C. The story of the burning of the Roman fleet by the reflected rays of the sun, a device said to be due to the genius of Archimedes, is not found in Plutarch, Polybius, or Livy. It is first mentioned by Galen, “De Temp.” III, 2; and Lucian, “Hipp.” II, 2. In fuller detail it is recorded by Joannes Tzetzes, “Chiliades,” II, 103, sqq.
↑ “Archytas.” He probably lived about 400 B.C. Our chief authority for the little known of his life is Diogenes Laertius, VIII, 79–83.
↑ “Golden singing birds.” “When the Crusaders came from their grey castles to Constantinople, they were dazzled by the magnificence they saw at the Emperor’s Court. They told, when they came back, almost fabulous tales of the wonders they had seen, the costly toys, golden lions that roared, trees of jewels where enamelled birds flapped their wings and sang, thrones of ivory and sheets of porphyry.” Fortescue, “The Orthodox Eastern Church,” Part I, chapter 3.
↑ “Bel.” “Daniel” xiv.
↑ “Ulricus Molitor.” A learned lawyer of Constance, who being consulted by Sigismund of Austria on various problems of witchcraft published in January, 1489, his famous treatise “De laniis [sic] et phitonicis mulieribus.” Molitor died in 1492.
↑ “Nider.” Jean Nider, O.P., prior of the important Dominican house at Basle, papal inquisitor and Rector of the University of Vienna. He died in 1438. His work is very famous and there are constant appeals to his authority. The edition of the “Formicarius” (or “Formicarium”) which I have used is that of Douai, 1602.
↑ “Ham.” Cf. “Malleus Maleficarum,” Part I, Question 2: “Vincent of Beauvais in his ‘Speculum historiale,’ quoting many learned authorities, says that he who first practised the arts of magic and astrology was Zoroaster, who is said to have been Cham (Ham), the son of Noe.” This tradition is very frequently found. See my note on above passage in my translation of the “Malleus Maleficarum” (p. 15), John Rodker, 1928.
↑ “Trois-eschelles.” For whom see “The Geography of Witchcraft,” by Montague Summers, c. v, pp. 398–9 and 426. Also Bodin, “Demonomanie” (ed. Lyons, 1593), III, 5, pp. 329–30; IV, 4, pp. 421–2; and IV, 5, p. 509.
↑ “John Trithemius.” The famous Benedictine abbot was born at Trittenheim, 1 February, 1462; and died at Würzburg, 13 December, 1516.
↑ “Louis.” Louis le Germanique, third son of Louis le Debonnaire, born 806; died 876.
↑ “Thomas Fazelli, O.P.” This famous historian, one of the glories of the Dominican Order, was born in 1498 at Sacca, a town of Sicily, not far from Palermo, where whilst yet young he joined the famous Priory of San Domenico. “In omni scientiarum genere excelluit. Orator enim euasit, poeta, philosophus, theologus Patauii laureatus.” Thus the old biographer. Amongst the works of Thomas Fazelli the most important are: the posthumous “Thesaurum Antiquitatum et Historiarum Siciliarium,” Tomi x, 1579, and the history which is quoted here, “De rebus Siculis decades duo,” “nunc primum in lucem edita,” Panormi, folio, 1558. This was soon translated into Italian. Fra Fazelli died at the Palermo convent, 8 April, 1570. For fuller details see Quétif-Echard, “Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum,” vol. II, pp. 212–13.
↑ “Hovius.” Matthias Hovius was consecrated Bishop of Malines, 18 February, 1596; died 30 May, 1620. This great prelate, “qui coaeuos omnes et discendi celeritate et ingenii facilitate antecelluit,” is highly praised by his contemporaries for his “ingentes dotes,” which were the admiration of all. Cornelius à Lapide in the preface to his Commentary on the Epistles of S. Paul pays a remarkable tribute to the learning of Bishop Hovius.

Chapter 3

Chapter III

Whether this Magic can produce True Effects

Argument

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Examples.

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↑ “Glycas.” Michael Glycas, Byzantine historian. His “Annals” commence with the Creation and conclude with the death of Alexis I, Commenus, 1118. Editions; Bekker, Bonn, 1836; Migne, Paris, 1866.
↑ “Anastasius.” A theologian and exegete of the sixth century. The reference is to his “In Sacra scriptura,” q. xxiii.
↑ “Bishop Dubravsky.” John Dubravsky, Bishop of Olmütz, was the great Catholic champion of the sixteenth century, who refuted Speratus, Hubmaier, Huter, Socinus and other sectaries. His various writings include five books on piscatology; the work entitled “Ueber das heilige Messopfer”; and the thirty-three volumes of his monumental History of Bohemia. The present reference is to Book XXIII of this work.
↑ Zyto was the favourite magician of the Emperor Wenceslas, and upon the occasion of the marriage of this latter in 1389 with Sophia of Bavaria, is said to have far outexcelled in his art all the warlocks and conjurers of the land. His feats are recorded in not a few chronicles: e.g. Concil. Pragens. anno 1355, c. 61 (Hartzheim, IV, 400); Höfler, “Prager Concilien,” p. 2 (Statuta breuia Amesti anno 1353); Raynaldus, anno 1400, No. 14. Most of these tricks—the sprouting of antlers on the heads of persons looking through a window; fardels of straw sold as pigs and sinking in running water (fatal to sorcery); the leg coming away when pulled; passed into common folk lore and chap-books, being attributed to every conjurer of popular renown. These three illusions are introduced in Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus,” 4to, 1604.

Chapter 4

Chapter IV

That Witches Effect their Marvels with the Help of the Devil

Argument

Examples.

Hear another example which is so well told and instructive that I cannot refrain from relating it.

☆

↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” XVIII, 18.
↑ “Nicetas.” Acominatus, also called Choniates (from his birthplace Chonae in Phrygia). He ranks among the most important Byzantine historians. Of his “Annales” there are editions by Bekker, Bonn, 1835; by Migne, Paris, 1865. “Annales,” IV, 23.
↑ “Gaetani.” Tomaso de Vio Gaetani, Dominican Cardinal, philosopher, theologian, and exegete, 1469–1534. His Commentaries on the “Summa” of S. Thomas are recognised as a classic of scholastic literature, and were by order of Leo XIII incorporated in the official Leonine edition of the works of S. Thomas, of which the first volume appeared at Rome in 1882.
↑ “Sigismund I.” 1506–1548.
↑ “Czenstochowa.” Our Lady of Czenstochowa, Królowa Korony Polskiej. Czenstochowa is a small town in the palatinate of Kalisz, near the Silesian frontier. The most Holy and Miraculous Picture of Our Lady, the work of S. Luke, is painted on cypress, and, says an old author, “has a majesty which passes the conception of art.”

Chapter 5

Chapter V.

The Men of Old Accredited Witches with Marvellous Deeds.

Argument.

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “John of Salisbury.” “Polycraticus,” I, 10.
↑ “Saxo Grammaticus.” “Hist. Dan.” I.
↑ “Baianus.” This is from Marcantonio Cocceius Sabellius, III, “Ennead.” 2.
↑ “Glycas.” “Annales,” II and III.
↑ “Apuleius.” “Metamorphoseon,” I.
↑ “Elephant.” Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” VIII, 10, says of the elephant: Decem annis gestare in utero uulgus existimat. Cf. Plautus, “Stichus,” I, 3, and Achilles Tatius, Lib. IV.
↑ “S. Paul.” “Hebrews” XI, 34.

Chapter 6

Chapter VI

Of the Witches’ Pact with the Devil.

Argument.

Second, he bathes them in a new mock baptism.

Third, they forswear their old name and are given a new one; as, for example, della Rovere of Cuneo was renamed Barbicapra.

Fourth, he makes them deny their godfathers and godmothers, both of baptism and confirmation, and assigns them fresh ones.

Seventh, they pray the devil to strike them out of the book of life, and to inscribe them in the book of death. So we can read written in a black book the names of the witches of Avignon.

Eighth, they promise to sacrifice to him: and certain fiendish hags, as Bartolomeo Spina^[3] tells, vow to strangle or suffocate for him one child every month or two weeks (De Strigibus, II).

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “Grilland.” Paul Grilland of Castiglione wrote his famous “Tractatus de hereticis et sortilegiis, omnifariam coitu eorumque poenis” about 1525. Grilland was “diocesis Aretinae (Arezzo) criminalium causarum auditor, Andreae de Iacobatiis, sanctissimi domini nostri papae almaeque urbis uicarii generalis.” The reference is Q. 111, N. 1 sqq. of the “De hereticis.”
↑ “S. Hippolytus.” Died c. 236. This Saint was a prolific author, but many of his works have not come down to us, and there is much in his history which is obscure.
↑ “Bartolomeo Spina.” c. 1473–c. 1546. A Dominican theologian, Master of the Sacred Palace under Paul III. His “Tractatus de Strigibus et Lamiis,” Venice, 1523, has been often reprinted.
↑ “Lambert Daneau.” A Calvinist theologian, born at Beaugency. He was minister to Protestant communities at Gion, Orthez and Castres, in which latter town he died in 1595. His dialogue “Les Sorciers” (Geneva?), 1574, was translated into Latin, English, and other languages. See Paul de Félice “Lambert Daneau,” Paris, 1881, and Paulus “Lambert Daneau et la Sorcellerie,” in “Études hist. et relig. du diocèse de Bayonne,” 1895, pp. 573, sqq.
↑ “Gödelmann.” John George Gödelmann, Doctor of Law and Professor at the University of Rostock. He gave public lectures at Rostock on the Carolina, and then published a part of these in Latin, “Tractatus de magis, ueneficis et lamiis.” The first edition is probably 1590. They were often reprinted.
↑ “Cyprian.” “Martyrologium Romanum,” 26 September: “At Nicomedia the birthday of the holy martyrs Cyprian and Justina the Virgin, the latter whereof suffered much for Christ under the Emperor Diocletian and the governor Eutholomius, and converted to Christ the said Cyprian, who was a mage, and who had attempted with his wizard arts to make her mad, and presently she underwent martyrdom with him.” The birthday is the heavenly birthday, that day upon which a Saint passes to bliss.
↑ “Pierre Crespet.” A monk of the Celestine Order. A mystical and ascetical writer, author of “Deux livres de la haine de Satan et des malins esprits contre l’homme,” Paris, 1590.

Chapter 7

Chapter VII

By their Terrible Deeds and Imprecations Witches Produce Rain and Hail, etc.

Argument.

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “Bishop Haito.” Born in 763 of a noble house of Swabia; died 17 March, 836, in the Abbey of Reichenau on an island in the Lake of Constance. Vautrey, “Histoire des évêques de Bâle,” I, (Einsiedeln, 1884).
↑ “Pliny.” “Historia Naturalis,” II, 103: “Amnes retro fluere et nostra uidit aetas, Neronis principis annis supremis, sicut in rebus eius retulimus.”
↑ “Pontano.” “De Bello Neapolitano,” V. “Pontani Opera Omnia,” Basileae, 1538, II, pp. 574–75.
↑ “Martin de Arles.” Martin de Arles y Andosilla, author of the rare “Tractatus insignis de Superstitionibus, contra Maleficia, seu Sortilegia quae hodie uigent in Orbe terrarum,” Paris, 1517. Another edition, Rome, 1559.

Chapter 8

Chapter VIII

The Power of Witches over External Things.

Argument.

Examples.

The people of Pergamus also once tried to raise a siege of the town by means of magic, but without success, as Paul the Deacon^[4] tells (Rerum Romanarum, XX).

☆

↑ “Scoto.” There is an allusion to Scoto of Parma, a notorious Italian necromancer and adept in the black art, in the “Defensative against Supposed Prophecies” of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, 1583: “I was present my selfe when diuers Gentlemen & noble men, which vndertooke to descry the finest sleights, that Scotto the Italian was able to play by Leger du main before the Queene, were notwithstanding no lesse beguiled then the rest: that presumed lesse vppon theyr owne dexteritie and skyll in those matters.” In J. Harvey’s “Discoursive Problem concerning Prophecies,” 1588, Scoto is named together with the well-known juggler Feates as a member of the “foisting crue.” Also in Nash’s “The Unfortunate Traveller,” 1594, mention is made of Cornelius Agrippa, who is said to bear “the fame to be the greatest coniurer in Christendome, ‘Scoto,’ that dyd the iugling tricks before the Queene, neuer came neere him one quarter in magicke reputation.”
↑ “Kromer.” The famous Polish bishop of Ermland and historian. Born, 1512; died 1589. His “De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum,” a vast work in thirty books treating of the history of Poland from the earliest times until 1506, was published at Basle in 1555. It has been twice translated into Polish, and also into German, 1562. Walewski, “Martin Kromer,” Warsaw, 1874. The reference here is to Book VIII of the “De origine … Polonorum.”
↑ “Mendoza.” This eminent early geographer was of the Order of Augustinian Hermits. It was he who made the first really intelligible map of China, 1585.
↑ “Paul the Deacon.” c. 720–799. The Benedictine historian also known as Casinensis, Levita, Warnefridi. His “Historia Romana,” an amplified and extended version of Eutropius, was formerly much esteemed.

Chapter 9

Chapter IX

Whether the Devil can Truly Enrich His Subjects.

Argument.

I have freely quoted these examples because they are publicly vouched for in the Courts of Justice. I could add many more, but think it unnecessary since the above are sufficient.

☆

Examples.

Andreas of Ratisbon^[5] writes: “We know that many treasures have been collected by magic art, but it is not known who obtained possession of them.”

In our own time certain men began to dig for treasure at Pisa, but at last were beaten by the difficulty of the work and ceased from it.

☆

↑ “Anania.” Giovanni Lorenzo Anania, born at Taverna in Calabria, died c. 1582. His chief patron was the Archbishop of Naples, Caraffa. In 1581 was published at Venice his “De Natura dæmonum, libri quatuor.” A second edition followed in 1589. The reference here is to Book II.
↑ “Thevet.” This great French explorer is best known for his voyage to America when with others in 1556 he landed on the banks of the Penobscot. He has left a very complete account of his visit.
↑ “Beatus Rhenanus.” 1485–1547. Humanist and classical scholar, the friend of Erasmus and Gelenius.
↑ “Les Voyages.” “Les Voyages du Seigneur Jacques de Villamont.” I have used the Arras edition, 1598, of this very popular book. There were reprints Paris, 1600; Lyons, 1606 and 1607; Paris, 1609; Rouen, 1618; and Paris, 1698, which purports to be the Third Edition. This is, of course, incorrect.
↑ “Andreas of Ratisbon.” All that is known of this historian is gathered from his works. Ordained priest at Eichstätt in 1405, he joined the Canons Regular of S. Augustine at Ratisbon in 1410. His writings have won him the title of the “Bavarian Livy.”
↑ “Nero.” Nero’s “Golden House” extended from the Palatine across the valley of the Colosseum and far up the Esquiline. It would be difficult—and it is perhaps not necessary—to identify the Convent of which Guazzo speaks.

Chapter 10

Chapter X

Whether Witches Can by their Art Create any Living Thing.

Argument.

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “Alexander ab Alexandro.” Alessandro Alessandri, a famous Neapolitan jurisconsult and archaeologist, born 1461; died c. 1523. The reference is to his “Genialium Dierum,” an encyclopaedic work, often reprinted.
↑ “João de Barros.” 1496–1570. His classical work “Asia,” giving an account of explorations and conquest, is highly esteemed as a masterpiece of Portuguese literature. See De Feria, “Vida de João de Barros,” Lisbon, 1778.

Chapter 11

Chapter XI

Whether there Truly are Incubus and Succubus Devils; and whether Children can be Generated by Copulation with them.

Argument.

We shall set down certain instances of the activities of Succubus devils, as well as some more of Incubus devils.

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “Innocent VIII.” The Bull “Summis desiderantes affectibus,” 9 December, 1484, a translation of which will be found in my “Geography of Witchcraft,” pp. 533–6, as also prefixed to the “Malleus Maleficarum,” John Rodker, 1928.
↑ “Luther.” Malvenda, “De Antichristo” (1604), II, vi, certainly says of Luther: “Ex incubo dæmonio genitum haud leuibus futilibrisque coniecturis deprehensum est a plerisque, ut Coclaeus refert.” Coclaeus is Johann Dobeneck, 1479–1552.

Chapter 12

Chapter XII

Whether Witches are Really Transported from Place to Place to their Nightly Assemblies.

Argument.

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “Silvester of Avila.” Francesco Silvester, c. 1474–1526. Dominican theologian, and sometime Master-General of the Order. A prolific and esteemed writer.
↑ “Alfonso à Castro. 1495–1558. A Franciscan theologian of great eminence. Confessor to Charles V and Philip II. Among his chief works are “Aduersus omnes hæreses,” first edition, Cologne, 1539; and “De Iusta Hæreticorum punitione,” Salamanca, 1547.
↑ “Sisto of Siena.” Dominican theologian and demonologist. His chief work is “Bibliotheca Sancta,” Libri V., Francofurti, folio, 1575 (secunda editio).
↑ “Contra Ponzinibium.” The jurist Gianfrancesco Ponzinibio wrote a rationalistic monograph on witchcraft in which he strove to regard the Sabbat, the flight of witches and much beside as a sick illusion. He was completely answered and routed by Bartolomeo Spina, who devoted no less than three tractates to these points and very properly arraigned Ponzinibio as himself vehemently suspect of heresy and an advocate of heretics.
↑ “Aristomenes.” The traveller who relates the story of witchcraft, “Metamorphoseon, I. The hags appear “circa tertiam ferme uigiliam,” and long after their departure “nox ibat in diem.”
↑ “Pliny, H.N.” VII, 6: Plenilunium, “quod tempos editos quoque infantes praecipue infestat.”
↑ “Pliny the Younger.” The allusion is to the well-known history of the haunted house at Athens, “Epist.” VII, 27. The spectre appeared with a noise of chains “per silentium noctis,” and when the philosopher Athenodorus was watching “Initio, quale ubique, silentium noctis, deinde concuti ferrum, uincula moueri.”
↑ “Censorinus.” “Concubium,” cum itum est cubitum. Exinde “intempesta,” id est, multa nox, qua nihil agi tempestiuum est: tunc “ad medium noctem,” dicitur: et sic “media nox.”
↑ “Macrobius.” “Saturnalia,” I, 3: “magistratus … post mediam noctem auspicantur.”
↑ “Volterra.” A famous professor of the University of Pisa.
↑ “Sébastien Michaelis.” A Dominican of great sanctity, born at Saint Zacharie in Provence, 1543; died at Paris, 1618. He was widely known for his deep study of the demonologists, and as a most powerful exorcist he was summoned to deal with the possession of Madeleine de la Palud, who had been bewitched by Gaufridi. For an account of this see my “Geography of Witchcraft,” pp. 408–12. The cause of Sébastien Michaelis has been introduced at Rome, and he has been declared Venerable.
↑ “Nicolas Jacquier.” Dominican and Inquisitor. Author of “Flagellum Haereticorum fascinariorum,” a piece of great value, which with some other tractates was first printed at Frankfort by Basse in 1581.
↑ “Some authors.” e.g. Bodin, “Démonomanie,” II, 5.
↑ “William of Newburgh.” “Historia Anglicana,” I, 28.
↑ “Gipsies.” “Gipse” is the reading of Lambeth MS.; Cotton MS.; and Hearne’s edition of William of Newburgh. MS. Reg. 13 B ix gives “Vipse.” The village of Wold Newton, eight miles from Bridlington, has a large mere principally supplied by the “Gipseys,” streams of water which appear after intervals of two or three years and disappear after two or three months. Allen, “History of County of York,” vol. II, p. 330.
↑ “A cup.” Hamilton in his edition of William of Newburgh has the following note on this passage: “This Scandinavian legend is common, with variations, to the ballad and romantic literature of most countries of Europe. It may be sufficient to direct attention to a version very similar to the above, named the ‘Altar-cup in Aegerup,’ a story of the Trolls, quoted in Keightley’s ‘Fairy Mythology from Thiele’s ‘Danske Folkesagen.’ ”
↑ “Benevento.” The magic walnut tree of Benevento was reputed to be the general rendezvous of all the witches in Italy. Peter of Piperno has a pamphlet, “De Nuce Maga Beneuentana,” which gives many of the legends connected with this ill-omened spot. See Montague Summers, “Geography of Witchcraft,” pp. 546–48; and A. de Blasio, “Inciarmatori, Maghi, e Streghe di Benevento,” Naples, 1900.
↑ “Spina.” This is from “De Strigibus,” c. xviii. It was told Spina by Andrea Magnani of Bergamo, who personally knew of these events.
↑ “Bernard of Como.” Dominican Inquisitor. The “De Strigiis” is a short but very important tractate which is usually found appended to his famous “Lucerna Inquisitorum Haereticae Prauitatis.” My own copy is Venice, 1596, and this edition also contains the valuable Commentaries of Francesco Pegna.
↑ “Place outside the town.” Mendrisio. For other accounts of this celebrated episode see—“Mémoires de Jacques du Clercq,” IV, 4; “Chron. Cornel. Zanfliet,” ann. 1460 (Martene, “Ampl. Coll.” V, 502); and Prierias, “De Strigimagarum mirandis,” I, 2, 14; II, 1, 4.
↑ “Raymond.” Or Raemond; sometimes Rémond. Born at Agen c. 1540; died at Bordeaux, c. 1602. His famous work, “L’Antéchrist,” first appeared at Lyons in 1597, and was frequently reprinted. There are editions of Paris, 1599 and 1607; Arras, 1613; Cambrai, 1613.

Chapter 13

Chapter XIII

Whether Witches can Transmute Bodies from One Form to Another.

Argument.

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” XVIII, 18.
↑ “Euanthes.” A Greek author as quoted by Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” VIII, 22.
↑ “Spina.” “De Strigibus,” XIX. “Experientiae apparentis conuersionis strigum in catos.”

Chapter 14

Chapter XIV

Whether Witches have Power to Make Beasts Talk.

Argument.

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “Petrus Gregorius.” A famous jurist who in 1570 was appointed to the Chair of Civil Law at the University of Cahors.
↑ “Antonius Bonfinius.” “Rerum Ungaricarum Decades Quattuor cum Dimidia.” Folio, Basle, 1568.

Chapter 15

Chapter XV

Whether the Devil can Make Men Insensible to Torture.^[1]

Argument.

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “Insensible to torture.” It was well known that witches had charms which enabled them to bear the severest tortures without flinching. Damhouder, whilst member of the council at Bruges, relates a case which came under his own eyes. A witch during three examinations not only endured the fiercest engines, but actually laughed at and mocked the officers. At length a piece of parchment covered with cabalistic characters was found on her person, and after its removal she soon confessed her pact with Satan. (“Rerum Crimin. Praxis,” Cap. XXXVII, Nos. 21, 22. Cf. Brunnemann, “Le Inquisit. Process,” Cap. VIII, Memb. v. No. 70.) Grilland tells us that he had met instances of insensibility to torture only to be explained by magic. “De Quaestione et Tortura,” Art. III, 12–16. He gives several conjurations which were used completely to deaden all pain: “Quemadmodum lac Beatae Gloriosae Mariae Uirginis fuit dulce et suaue Domino Nostro Iesu Christo, ita haec tortura sit dulcis et suauis brachiis et membris meis.” Another ran:
Imparibus meritis tria pendent corpora ramis.
Dismas et Gestas, in medio est Diuina Potestas.
Dismas damnatur, Gestas ad astra leuatur.
At Innsbruck a witch boasted that if she had but a thread of a prisoner’s tunic she could enable him to endure torture to the death without confessing. W. B. Seabrook in his study of sorcery in Haiti, “The Magic Island,” relates that during a military engagement there was slain a notorious warlock, a member of the “culte des morts.” Upon the body was found a small book of secret formulas written in creole by himself. Of these one is: “When confronted with Torture.” When one finds himself tied up, it is very necessary to make this prayer: ‘For the sake of the great pain which Jesus Christ suffered from Judas, the traitor, in walking along Golgotha’s hilly road, may I be relieved from the rope which is piercing through my [mention the part] to the heart, just as the left side of Christ’s Body did abundantly spill Blood by Herod, the infamous executioner. Amen.’ Order a mass in the name of all the Saints.”
↑ “Codronchi.” This famous Italian physician was born at Imola c. 1560. The work to which reference is made is: “Batistae Codronchii de Morbis Ueneficis ac Ueneficiis, libri quattuor, in quibus non solum certis rationibus ueneficia claro demonstratur sed eorum species … aperiuntur.” Venice, 1595.
↑ “Scavius.” This wretch was not only a warlock of most ancient impiety, but also an instructor of younger witches. Peter of Berne judged that he spread sorcery like a plague, and Nider tells us that this holy Inquisitor when bewailing the iniquities and necromancy practised in Berne added “quorum primus auctor fuit quidam Scauius dictus … Hic tamen suae fraudis commenta discipulo, qui Hoppo uocabatur, reliquit. Et idem supra dictum Staedelin in maleficiis magistrum fecit.” Staedelin or Stadlin dwelt at Boltigen in Simmenthal. He was brought to trial before Peter of Berne and confessed many secrets of the horrid craft. See “Malleus Maleficarum,” Part II, Qn. I, Ch. 6.
↑ “Loys.” “Charondas de Caron.” Born at Paris, 1530; died 1617.

Chapter 16

Chapter XVI

Whether by Witchcraft and Devils Work the Sexes can be Interchanged.

Argument.

☆

Examples.

If this can come about naturally, as so many authors maintain, I should think that with God’s permission it is possible to the devil, relying upon natural causes.

☆

↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” III, 31.
↑ “Pontano.” “De Bello Neapolitano,” V, “Pontani Opera Omnia,” Basileae, 1538, II, pp. 574–75.
↑ “Cocceius Sabellicus.” Marcus Antonius Cocceius Sabellicus, a Venetian writer of eminence. He is the author of “Epistolarum libri XII”; “Orationum libri XII”; “De situ Uenetae libri tres”; and many poems, of which some are devotional, such as “De laudibus Deiparae Uirginis Eligiae XII.” I have used the collected edition of his “Opera,” Venice (23 December), 1502.
↑ “Antonio de Turrecremata.” In Latin Torquemada. The first edition of the “Jardin de las Flores curiosas, en que se tradan algunas materias … etc.”, is Salamanca, 1570. “Olivante de Laura,” a romance by Turrecremata was discovered in Don Quixote’s library and condemned to the fames by the curate. Turrecremata was a very popular author in his day, and the “Jardin de las Flores” was translated into French by Gabriel Chappuys as the “Hexameron” as early as 1579. It was reprinted Lyons, 1582; Paris, 1583; Rouen, 1610.
↑ “Baptista Fregoso.” An Italian writer of the fifteenth century.

Chapter 17

Chapter XVII

Whether the Spirits of the Dead can Appear to Men.

Argument.

☆

Examples.

In this clear, certain and most edifying vision we are taught that men’s deeds follow them in death.

☆

↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” XXII, 8; and “Confessiones,” IX, 7.
↑ “Richard de Middleton.” “Doctor solidus et fundatissimus”; the date of his birth is unknown; most authorities name 1300 as the year of his death; but some say 1304, and others 1307 or 1308. This great schoolman paid due attention to the important problems of demoniality, “Quaestiones disputatae” (1284), q. xxxi; and he also treats of the Incubus and Succubus, “In secundo Sententiarum,” d. viii, a. I, q. 6. For a full study see Edgar Hocedez, S.J., “Richard de Middleton, Sa Vie, Ses Œuvres, Sa Doctrine,” Louvain, 1925.
↑ “Peter of Palude.” A Dominican theologian of the fourteenth century; died 1342.
↑ “Dominic Soto.” A renowned Spanish theologian of the Order of S. Dominic. Born at Segovia, 1494: died at Salamanca, 1560. See Echard-Quétif, “Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum," II, p. 171, sqq.
↑ “Peltanus.” Theodore Peltanus, a Biblical scholar of note, who translated several commentaries from Greek into Latin. His own glosses are very highly esteemed. One of his most important works is his version of the “Commentary on the Apocalypse,” by Bishop Andrew of Caesarea (sixth century), which was published, 4to, 1584.
↑ “S. Peter Canisius, S.J.” 1521–1597. Doctor of the Church.
↑ “Gregory of Valencia, S.J.” Professor of the University of Ingolstadt. Born at Medina, March 1550 (some say 1551; others 1540); died at Naples, 23 April, 1603. He wrote many theological works of great value. The lectures given at Ingolstadt (1575–92) appeared as “Commentariorum theologicorum tomi quatuor,” 1591–1597. There have been many subsequent editions. Gregory of Valencia has been much criticised for holding (“Commentarii,” Liv. III, col. 2008, sqq.) that where the guilt of witchcraft is legally established the judge must inflict the penalty, even though he himself were personally convinced of the nullity of the charge.
↑ “Sisinnius and Alexandrinus.” “Roman Martyrology,” 29 May. “In the district of Trent, the birthday of the holy Martyrs Sisinnius, Martyrius, and Alexandrinus, who in the time of the Emperor Honorius, as Paulinus writeth in his “Life of S. Ambrose,” obtained the crown of martyrdom, being persecuted by the heathen in the parts of Anaunia.”
↑ “Constantius Presbyter.” See Constantius, “Vie de St. Germain d’Auxerre, tr. franç. avec une étude,” 1874.
↑ “Sophronius.” c. 560–638; Patriarch of Jerusalem and Greek ecclesiastical writer, much of whose work is preserved in “Symeon Metaphrastes.”
↑ “S. Eulogius.” Patriarch of Alexandria from 580 to 607. He was a warm friend of S. Gregory the Great, who bestowed upon him many signal marks of esteem. S. Eulogius stoutly refuted the many heresies which were vexing the Church, but unfortunately with the exception of one sermon and a few fragments his writings have perished. Those that remain are in Migne, “Patrologia Graeca,” LXXXVI (2), 2913–64.
↑ “Hugh Etherianus.” A Tuscan employed at the Court of Constantinople under the Emperor Manuel I (Comnenus 1143–1180). He was a very learned theologian and on account of his treatise commonly known as “Aduersus Graecos” he is esteemed as one of the most eminent Catholic controversialists against the Eastern Church. His “De regressu animarum ab inferis” was composed at the request of the clergy of Pisa. His works are in Migne, “Patrologia Latina,” CCII.
↑ “S. Euphemia.” Virgin and Martyr. She suffered under Diocletian. Feast Day, 16 September. Her Relics were venerated at Chalcedon.
↑ “Leo III.” The Iconoclast; Emperor of Byzantium, 717–741.
↑ “Alphonsi Regis.” Alfonso X “el Sabio,” 1220–84. It was under his patronage that the “Crónica de España,” more commonly known as “Crónica general,” was compiled from many historical sources.
↑ “Mariana.” Juan Mariana, S.J., 1536–1623. His most important work is the great history of Spain which during the lifetime of the author himself went through several editions, to which he added, continuing his chronicle of events. The work first appeared as “Historiae de rebus Hispaniae, libri XX,” 1592, but the Spanish version made by Mariana, which was published at Toledo in 1601, has Thirty Books.
↑ “Louis XII.” This king imprisoned Sforza for the remainder of his life in the Castle of Loches.
↑ “Alessandro Farnese.” This renowned and noble commander was the son of Margaret of Parma. The history of his campaigns in the Low Countries is a tale of heroic genius and victory. He commenced the siege of Antwerp in 1584, and on 17 August, 1585, the city surrendered. Alessandro Farnese was created Duke of Parma in February 1586. He very properly attributed his success to Our Lady, Patroness of Antwerp. The occasion to which Guazzo refers was the great attack, 26 May, 1585, when the Antwerpers endeavoured to make a gap in the Kauwenstein dike. One contingent was headed by Hohenlo and Justinus of Nassau; another containing English auxiliaries under Colonel Morgan, and Scotch under Colonel Balfour, was commanded by Marnix.
↑ “Blessed Peter of Cluny.” Blessed Peter of Montboissier, also known as Peter the Venerable, c. 1092–1156. He was ever honoured as a Saint both by the people and his Order, and thus Pius IX confirmed the cult of this great and glorious monk. His works are in Migne, “Patrologia Latina,” CLXXXIX.
↑ “Alfonso of Aragon.” Alfonso H. Alfonso I, the Fighter (“El Bataleador”), reigned 1104–1134.
↑ “Monks of Cluny.” The Benedictine Monks of Cluny inaugurated the Solemn Commemoration of All Souls, which was ordered by S. Odilo (died 1048) to be held annually in all the monasteries of his Congregation.

Chapter 18

Chapter XVIII

Of Apparitions of Demons, or Spectres.

Argument.

☆

Examples.

In such ways do good and evil demons approach men, with hatred, terror, hurt and injury. So says Remy as above quoted.

On the night before the sedition of Antioch, a huge woman of formidable appearance was seen, beating a bronze shield so violently that the sound was heard all over the city.

☆

↑ “Asmodeus.” Possibly this demon corresponds with the demon called Abaddon, the Destroyer, mentioned in the Apocalypse, IX, ii.
↑ “Marulli.” Cesare Marulli, Archbishop of Palermo (1578).
↑ “Philinnion.” This is from Phlegon of Tralles, “Mirabilia,” No. 30. It may be read apud “Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum.” Ed. Carolus Müllerus, Parisiis, Didot, 1849, vol. III, pp. 611–13. “The Vampire in Europe,” by Montague Summers, Chapter I, “The Vampire in Greece and Rome,” pp. 34–37.
↑ “Thomas of Brabant.” A Dominican and suffragan bishop, 1201–70. He is generally referred to as Thomas Cantimpratanus, or Thomas of Cantimpé. His famous work “Bonum uniuersale de Apibus” was immensely popular, but now is of the last rarity. I have used the Douai edition of 1597.
↑ “S. Robert.” Abbot of Molesme; c. 1029–1111.
↑ “Ranulf Higden.” Benedictine chronicler; a monk of S. Werburg, Chester; died 1364. The “Polychronicon,” a universal history to his own times, was translated into English by John of Trevisa in 1387, and this version was printed by Caxton in 1482, and by Wynkyn de Worde in 1495.
↑ “Guagninus.” Alessandro Guagnini (or Alexander Gwagnin, as he turned his name) was born at Verona in 1538 and died at Cracow in 1614. His whole life was spent in Poland, and he became a naturalised Pole. For a full study of this curious and most interesting man see Carlo Cipolla’s “Un Italiano nella Polonia e nella Svezia tra il XVI e il XVII secolo,” Torino, 1887. The work of Guagnini from which Guazzo quotes is the monumental “Sarmatiae Europeae Descriptio, quae Regnum Poloniae, Lituaniam, Samogitiam, Russiam, Masouiam, Prussiam, Pomeraniam, Liuoniam, et Moschouiae Tartariaeque partem complectitur, Alexandri Gwagnini Ueronensis, Equitis Aurati peditumque praefecti, diligentia conscriptae,” Cracow, 1578.
↑ “Baron Herbestein.” Sigismund, Baron Herbestein was born in 1486. He was promoted and became eminent in the Austrian service, and acted as Ambassador to Russia and to Constantinople. He died in 1566. The Dedication to Ferdinand I, King of the Romans, of his “Rerum Moscouitarum Commentarii” (1549) is dated 1 March, 1549, and signed Sigismundus, liber Baro in Herbestein, Neyperg, et Guettenhag.

Chapter 19

Chapter XIX

That Cacodemons Exercise their Magic Powers of their Own Will.

Argument.

☆

Examples.

Now that eating of the conjurer was mere illusion; but the wretched man was really snatched up and thrown into the tub of water by a demon, and was not voided through the other’s bowels.

↑ “De Praenotione.” Libri Nouem. I have used the folio edition, Argentoraci [Strasburg], 1506–7.
↑ “German jurisconsult.” John George Gödelmann in his “De lamiis.”

Chapter 20

Chapter XX

Of Superstitious Folk^[1]

Argument.

Be it known to them who lightly use and practise superstitious rites, that the inventor of all superstitious and vain observances is the devil, who at the beginning of the world led nearly the whole human race astray into idolatry. They, therefore, who study and follow superstitious observances show themselves to be disciples not of Christ but of the devil, and they manifest themselves to be lovers of his service and learned in his wiles, and they are alienated from the teaching of the Catholic Church. But it is a marvel that anyone should put faith in such illusions, if he knows of the wretched death of all magicians and conjurers. Zoroaster, the inventor of magic, was at last burned to ashes by the very demon to which he addressed his too importunate supplications, as S. Clement has testified. The fate of Simon Magus is notorious, how he was carried up in the air by demons, and fell and broke his legs, and died in anguish and ignominy. When Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa^[2] was at the point of death he drove from him his dog, a familiar, saying: “Depart, evil beast! You have destroyed me.” The citizens knew how Joannes Portantius met his death in prison at Antwerp. William,^[3] Archbishop of Tyre, in his Historia Hierosolymitana (VIII, 15) tells how two sorcerers tried to bewitch the war machines of the Christians, and were themselves the first to be killed by them.

That conjurer of high estate Zyto lived a consort and companion of devils to the end, when he was taken body and soul from the midst of men. Johann Faust, the famous German sorcerer of our time, was at last dragged from his bed by the cacodemon at night, and was strangled with his face twisted round to his back, and the whole house was shaken and nearly fell, as we are told by Camerarius and others. Francesco Pico tells how he heard from his friends who were actually present that a certain sorcerer had been carried away alive by a demon and was never to be found anywhere again. And Scoto of Parma in our own day had his neck twisted in an ale-house by a demon in Germany, and perished miserably.

☆

Examples.

Johann Pistorius^[4] the younger in his Artis cabbalisticae tomus unus writes ^[4]that there was a swineherd who had in his pastoral staff a writing inscribed with the name of S. Blaise; and he thought that the virtue of this staff kept his swine safe from attack by wolves, and placed such confidence in it that he would leave his swine to feed alone in the fields. At last it chanced that, while the swineherd was absent, someone passed that way and saw a demon keeping the herd, and asked what he, the sworn persecutor of human safety, was guarding there. He answered: “I am guarding the swine.” The other asked: “At whose bidding?” And the demon said: “Because of the foolish confidence of the swineherd. For he has put in his staff a writing to which he imputes divine virtue because it has upon it the name of S. Blaise; and the fool fast bound in false superstition believes that it supernaturally guards his swine from wolves. And when I had called and called him again, and he did not come, I undertook to keep the swine instead of S. Blaise; for I am always ready to take the place of God and His Saints. And so I most gladly keep his swine for him in the place of S. Blaise, that I may encourage and strengthen the silly man in his vain confidence, and lead him to think more of that writing than of God.”

Lucian, in the Philopseudes, relates that when a certain Eucrates saw an Egyptian magician named Pancrates do many marvels, he gradually insinuated himself into his friendship until he learned nearly all his secrets. At last the magician persuaded him to leave all his servants in Memphis and accompany him alone, for they would have no lack of servants; and from that time (he said) thus we lived. “When we came into an Inn, he taking the bolt of the door, or a broom or bar, and clothing it, spoke a charm to it, and to enable it to go, and in all things to resemble a man. The thing going forth, would draw water, provide, and dress our supper, and diligently wait and attend upon us. After his business was done, he pronounced another charm, and turned the broom into a broom again, and the pestle into a pestle. This was an art which, though I laboured much, I could not learn of him. For this was a mystery which he denied me, though in all things else he were open. One day, hiding myself in a dark corner, I overheard his charm, which was but three syllables. He having appointed the bolt its business, went into the market. The next day, he having some other employment in the market, I taking the pestle and apparelling it, in like manner pronounced the syllable, and bid it fetch me some water. When it had brought me a basin full, ‘It is enough,’ I said, ‘fetch no more, but be a pestle again.’ But it was so far from obeying me, that it ceased not to fetch water till it had overflown the room. I, much troubled at the accident, and fearing lest if Pancrates should return (as he did) he would be much displeased, took an axe and cut the pestle in two. Then both parts taking several buckets fetched water. And instead of one, I had two servants. In the meantime Pancrates came in, and perceiving what had happened, transformed them into wood again, as they were before I uttered the spell. Shortly after he secretly left me, and vanishing went I know not whither.” Here it may be seen how his curiosity was nearly the cause of his being drowned. (From Sir T. More’s translation.)

Hear another example of how some men were in instant danger of cutting off their own noses. Philippus Camerarius writes as follows: Johann Faust was once with some noted persons who had heard much concerning his magic, and they asked him to show them a specimen of his art. For a long time he refused, but at last yielded to the not too sober company and promised that he would show them whatever they wished. With one accord they desired him to show them a vine laden with ripe grapes: for they thought that, on account of the unseasonable time of year (for it was winter), this would be impossible for him to do. Faust agreed, and said that what they had asked for would presently be seen upon the table: but he made this condition, that they should all keep perfectly still and silent until he told them to pluck the grapes; for if they did otherwise they would be in instant danger of their lives. When they had given this promise, he soon so deceived the eyes of that drunken company and obscured their senses that they thought they saw upon a fair vine as many large and juicy grapes as there were persons present. Greedy for such a novelty, and thirsty after their drinking, they took their knives and awaited his bidding to cut the grapes. At last, after he had kept the fools for some time in suspense in their vain error, the vine and its grapes suddenly vanished in smoke; and each one of them was seen holding, instead of a grape, his own nose with his knife poised over it. So if any of them had forgotten the condition and tried to cut his grapes, he would have sliced off his own nose.

↑ “Of Superstitious Folk.” The present Pope, Pius XI, now happily reigning, has recommended (says the “Osservatore Romano,” 11 January, 1929) the bishops to condemn superstitions, particularly the prejudice against the number thirteen and the idea that Friday is an unlucky day.
↑ “Agrippa.” But see Weyer, “De Praestigiis Daemonum,” II, c. v, 11 and 12. Weyer lived for some years in daily attendance upon Agrippa, and the black dog; “Monsieur,” respecting which such strange stories were spread, was a perfectly innocent animal which he had himself often led about on its leash. Agrippa was much attached to his dog, which used to eat off the table with him and of nights lie in his bed.
↑ “William.” Born in Palestine of a European family about 1127–30; died in 1190 or a little later. Baldwin IV, who became king of Jerusalem in 1174, appointed William chancellor and then Archbishop of Tyre. His chief work is the “Historia Hierosolymitana” in 23 books.
↑ “Johann Pistorius.” 1546–1608. The son of a well-known Protestant minister, he was converted in 1588. He filled many offices of high responsibility both before and after his ordination in 1591. He wrote several controversial treatises of great value, such as the “Anatomia Luthheri,” Cologne, 1595–8. His “Artis cabalisticae tomus unus” was published at Basle in 1587.

Chapter 1

Compendium
Maleficarum

Book I ☆ Chapter I

The Nature and Extent of the Force of Imagination.

Argument.

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “Mirandola.” Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, 1463–1494. There are many editions of his Complete Works: Bologna, 1496; Venice, 1498; Strasburg, 1504; Basle, 1557; 1573; 1601.
↑ “Marsilio Ficino.” 1433–1499. “Theologia Platonica de animarum Immortalitate,” perhaps his most important work, was published at Florence 1482.
↑ “Alonso Tostado.” Circa 1400–1455. A famous exegete often quoted as Abulensis or Alonso Abulensis owing to his having been consecrated Bishop of Avila in 1449. The latest edition of his works is 27 volumes, folio, Venice, 1728.
↑ “Miguel de Medina.’’ 1489–1578. A Spanish Franciscan, esteemed as one of the most distinguished theologians of his day. “Annales Ordinis Minorum,” xix, xxi.
↑ “Leonard Vair.” Born at Benevento, of Spanish descent, c. 1540; Bishop of Pozzuoli, where he died in 1603. His “De Fascino,” Libri III, Paris, 1583; Venetiis apud Aldum, 1589, is a work of singular erudition.
↑ “Martin Delrio.” This famous Jesuit scholar was born at Antwerp, 17 May, 1551, and died at Louvain, 19 October, 1608. His encyclopaedic “Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex,” 3 vols., 5to, 1599, was frequently reprinted. Of these the folio, 1603, Mainz, is among the most highly esteemed. It is sometimes said that the first edition of Delrio’s work was Mainz, 1593, but this folio is a mere myth.
↑ “Delrio.” “Disquisitiones Magicae,” III, q. 3.
↑ “Two friends.” This history is very famous in English literature as having been introduced by Chaucer into the Nonne Preestes Tale of the Cok and Hen, Chauntecleer and Pertelote. Guazzo had it from Cicero, “De Diuinatione,” I, 27. It is also related by Valerius Maximus, I, 7 (“De Somniis”), where Warton wrongly supposed that Chaucer had found it. But it is plain that Cicero was the author to whom Chaucer refers, since in the “De Diuinatione” are two histories and both these the poet gives, but in a changed order and notes before the second narrative:
And certes, in the same book I rede,
Right in the nexte chapitre after this …

Chapter 2

Chapter II.

Of Artificial Magic.

Argument

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “Psellus.” Michael Constantine Psellus, 1020–1110 (Caillet); or c. 1018–c. 1078 (Adrian Fortescue), the celebrated Byzantine philosopher, attained a vast reputation at Constantinople, and even now Krumbacher, “Byzantinische Litteraturgesch.” (2nd ed., Munich, 1897), regards him as “the first man of his time.” At Paris, 1615, was published the “ ‘De Operatione Dæmonum’ Dialogus Gilbertus Gaulminus Molinensis primus Græce edidit et notis illustrauit.”
↑ “Proclus.” Born at Constantinople, 410; died at Athens, 485. “The scholastic of Neo-Platonism.” His writings were collected by Cousin, “Prodi Opera,” Paris, 1820–25.
↑ “Dragonet." Cf. Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” XXXII, 7: “Callionymi fel cicatrices sanat, et carnes oculorum superuacuas consumit.”
↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” XXI, 4, 5, and 6. “A chalk which is set on fire by water,” “Eam uiuam calcem loquimur,” i.e. “quicklime.” “The salt of Girgenti.” Cf. Pliny, “Historia Naturalis,” XXXI, 7; “Agrigentinus (sal) ignium patiens ex aqua exsilit.” This is repeated by Solinus, “Polyhistoria,” XI; and S. Isidore “Etymologiae,” XVI, 2, 4.
↑ “Siege of Syracuse.” Syracuse was captured by Claudius Marcellus in 212 B.C. The story of the burning of the Roman fleet by the reflected rays of the sun, a device said to be due to the genius of Archimedes, is not found in Plutarch, Polybius, or Livy. It is first mentioned by Galen, “De Temp.” III, 2; and Lucian, “Hipp.” II, 2. In fuller detail it is recorded by Joannes Tzetzes, “Chiliades,” II, 103, sqq.
↑ “Archytas.” He probably lived about 400 B.C. Our chief authority for the little known of his life is Diogenes Laertius, VIII, 79–83.
↑ “Golden singing birds.” “When the Crusaders came from their grey castles to Constantinople, they were dazzled by the magnificence they saw at the Emperor’s Court. They told, when they came back, almost fabulous tales of the wonders they had seen, the costly toys, golden lions that roared, trees of jewels where enamelled birds flapped their wings and sang, thrones of ivory and sheets of porphyry.” Fortescue, “The Orthodox Eastern Church,” Part I, chapter 3.
↑ “Bel.” “Daniel” xiv.
↑ “Ulricus Molitor.” A learned lawyer of Constance, who being consulted by Sigismund of Austria on various problems of witchcraft published in January, 1489, his famous treatise “De laniis [sic] et phitonicis mulieribus.” Molitor died in 1492.
↑ “Nider.” Jean Nider, O.P., prior of the important Dominican house at Basle, papal inquisitor and Rector of the University of Vienna. He died in 1438. His work is very famous and there are constant appeals to his authority. The edition of the “Formicarius” (or “Formicarium”) which I have used is that of Douai, 1602.
↑ “Ham.” Cf. “Malleus Maleficarum,” Part I, Question 2: “Vincent of Beauvais in his ‘Speculum historiale,’ quoting many learned authorities, says that he who first practised the arts of magic and astrology was Zoroaster, who is said to have been Cham (Ham), the son of Noe.” This tradition is very frequently found. See my note on above passage in my translation of the “Malleus Maleficarum” (p. 15), John Rodker, 1928.
↑ “Trois-eschelles.” For whom see “The Geography of Witchcraft,” by Montague Summers, c. v, pp. 398–9 and 426. Also Bodin, “Demonomanie” (ed. Lyons, 1593), III, 5, pp. 329–30; IV, 4, pp. 421–2; and IV, 5, p. 509.
↑ “John Trithemius.” The famous Benedictine abbot was born at Trittenheim, 1 February, 1462; and died at Würzburg, 13 December, 1516.
↑ “Louis.” Louis le Germanique, third son of Louis le Debonnaire, born 806; died 876.
↑ “Thomas Fazelli, O.P.” This famous historian, one of the glories of the Dominican Order, was born in 1498 at Sacca, a town of Sicily, not far from Palermo, where whilst yet young he joined the famous Priory of San Domenico. “In omni scientiarum genere excelluit. Orator enim euasit, poeta, philosophus, theologus Patauii laureatus.” Thus the old biographer. Amongst the works of Thomas Fazelli the most important are: the posthumous “Thesaurum Antiquitatum et Historiarum Siciliarium,” Tomi x, 1579, and the history which is quoted here, “De rebus Siculis decades duo,” “nunc primum in lucem edita,” Panormi, folio, 1558. This was soon translated into Italian. Fra Fazelli died at the Palermo convent, 8 April, 1570. For fuller details see Quétif-Echard, “Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum,” vol. II, pp. 212–13.
↑ “Hovius.” Matthias Hovius was consecrated Bishop of Malines, 18 February, 1596; died 30 May, 1620. This great prelate, “qui coaeuos omnes et discendi celeritate et ingenii facilitate antecelluit,” is highly praised by his contemporaries for his “ingentes dotes,” which were the admiration of all. Cornelius à Lapide in the preface to his Commentary on the Epistles of S. Paul pays a remarkable tribute to the learning of Bishop Hovius.

Chapter 3

Chapter III

Whether this Magic can produce True Effects

Argument

☆

Examples.

☆

↑ “Glycas.” Michael Glycas, Byzantine historian. His “Annals” commence with the Creation and conclude with the death of Alexis I, Commenus, 1118. Editions; Bekker, Bonn, 1836; Migne, Paris, 1866.
↑ “Anastasius.” A theologian and exegete of the sixth century. The reference is to his “In Sacra scriptura,” q. xxiii.
↑ “Bishop Dubravsky.” John Dubravsky, Bishop of Olmütz, was the great Catholic champion of the sixteenth century, who refuted Speratus, Hubmaier, Huter, Socinus and other sectaries. His various writings include five books on piscatology; the work entitled “Ueber das heilige Messopfer”; and the thirty-three volumes of his monumental History of Bohemia. The present reference is to Book XXIII of this work.
↑ Zyto was the favourite magician of the Emperor Wenceslas, and upon the occasion of the marriage of this latter in 1389 with Sophia of Bavaria, is said to have far outexcelled in his art all the warlocks and conjurers of the land. His feats are recorded in not a few chronicles: e.g. Concil. Pragens. anno 1355, c. 61 (Hartzheim, IV, 400); Höfler, “Prager Concilien,” p. 2 (Statuta breuia Amesti anno 1353); Raynaldus, anno 1400, No. 14. Most of these tricks—the sprouting of antlers on the heads of persons looking through a window; fardels of straw sold as pigs and sinking in running water (fatal to sorcery); the leg coming away when pulled; passed into common folk lore and chap-books, being attributed to every conjurer of popular renown. These three illusions are introduced in Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus,” 4to, 1604.

Chapter 4

Chapter IV

That Witches Effect their Marvels with the Help of the Devil

Argument

Examples.

Hear another example which is so well told and instructive that I cannot refrain from relating it.

☆

↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” XVIII, 18.
↑ “Nicetas.” Acominatus, also called Choniates (from his birthplace Chonae in Phrygia). He ranks among the most important Byzantine historians. Of his “Annales” there are editions by Bekker, Bonn, 1835; by Migne, Paris, 1865. “Annales,” IV, 23.
↑ “Gaetani.” Tomaso de Vio Gaetani, Dominican Cardinal, philosopher, theologian, and exegete, 1469–1534. His Commentaries on the “Summa” of S. Thomas are recognised as a classic of scholastic literature, and were by order of Leo XIII incorporated in the official Leonine edition of the works of S. Thomas, of which the first volume appeared at Rome in 1882.
↑ “Sigismund I.” 1506–1548.
↑ “Czenstochowa.” Our Lady of Czenstochowa, Królowa Korony Polskiej. Czenstochowa is a small town in the palatinate of Kalisz, near the Silesian frontier. The most Holy and Miraculous Picture of Our Lady, the work of S. Luke, is painted on cypress, and, says an old author, “has a majesty which passes the conception of art.”

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