The second main part of this work
deals with the method of procedure adopted by witches for the
performance of their witchcraft; and these are distinguished under
eighteen heads, proceeding from two chief difficulties. The first of
these two, dealt with in the beginning, concerns protective remedies,
by which a man is rendered immune from witchcraft: the second, dealt
with at the end, concerns curative remedies, by which those who are
bewitched can be cured. For, as Aristotle says (Physics, IV),
prevention and cure are related to one another, and are,
accidentally, matters of causation. In this way the whole foundation
of this horrible heresy may be made clear.
In the above two divisions, the following points will be principally
emphasized. First, the initiation of witches, and their profession of
sacrilege. Second, the progress of their method of working, and of
their horrible observances. Third, the preventive protections against
their witchcrafts. And because we are now dealing with matters
relating to morals and behaviour, and there is no need for a variety
of arguments and disquisitions, since those matters which now follow
under their headings are sufficiently discussed in the foregoing
Questions; therefore we pray God that the reader will not look for
proofs in every case, since it is enough to adduce examples that have
been personally seen or heard, or are accepted at the word of
credible witnesses.
In the first of
the points mentioned, two matters will be chiefly examined: first,
the various methods of enticement adopted by the devil himself;
second, the various ways in which witches profess their heresy. And
in the second of the main points, six matters will be examined in
order, relating to the procedure of witchcraft, and its cure. First,
the practices of witches with regard to themselves and their own
bodies. Second, their practices with regard to other men. Third,
those relating to beasts. Fourth, the mischief they do to the fruits
of the earth. Fifth, those kinds of witchcraft which are practised by
men only and not by women. Sixth, the question of removing
witchcraft, and how those who are bewitched may be cured. The First
Question, therefore, is divided into eighteen heads, since in so many
ways are their observances varied and multiplied.
It is asked whether a man can be so blessed by the good Angels
that he cannot be bewitched by witches in any of the ways that
follow. And it seems that he cannot, for it has already been proved
that even the blameless and innocent and the just are often afflicted
by devils, as was Job; and many innocent children, as well as
countless other just men, are seen to be bewitched, although not to
the same extent as sinners; for they are not afflicted in the
perdition of their souls, but only in their worldly goods and their
bodies. But the contrary is indicated by the confessions of witches,
namely, that they cannot injure everybody, but only those whom they
learn, through the information of devils, to be destitute of Divine
help.
Answer. There are three
classes of men blessed by God, whom that detestable race cannot
injure with their witchcraft. And the first are those who administer
public justice against them, or prosecute them in any public official
capacity. The second are those who, according to the traditional and
holy rites of the Church, make lawful use of the power and virtue
which the Church by her exorcisms furnishes in the aspersion of Holy
Water, the taking of consecrated salt, the carrying of blessed
candles on the Day of the Purification of Our Lady, of palm leaves
upon Palm Sunday, and men who thus fortify themselves are acting so
that the powers of devils are diminished; and of these we shall speak
later. The third class are those who, in various and infinite ways,
are blessed by the Holy Angels.
The
reason for this in the first class will be given and proved by
various examples. For since, as S. Paul says, all power if from God,
and a sword for the avenging of the wicked and the retribution of the
good, it is no wonder that devils are kept at bay when justice is
being done to avenge that horrible crime.
To the same effect the Doctors note that there are five ways in which
the devil's power is hindered, either wholly or in part. First, by a
limit fixed by God to his power, as is seen in Job i and ii.
Another example is the case of the man we read of in the Formicarius
of Nider, who had confessed to a judge that he had invoked the devil
in order that he might kill an enemy of his, or do him bodily harm,
or strike him dead with lightning. And he said: “When I had
invoked the devil that I might commit such a deed with his help, he
answered me that he was unable to do any of those things, because the
man had good faith and diligently defended himself with the sign of
the cross; and that therefore he could not harm him in his body, but
the most he could do was to destroy an eleventh part of the fruit of
his lands.”
Secondly, it is
hindered by the application of some exterior force, as in the case of
Balaam's ass, Numbers xxii. Thirdly, by some externally
performed miracle of power. And there are some who are blessed with
an unique privilege, as will be shown later in the case of the third
class of men who cannot be bewitched. Fourthly, by the good
providence of God, Who disposes each thing severally, and causes a
good Angel to stand in the devil's way, as when Asmodeus killed the
seven husbands of the virgin Sara, but did not kill Tobias.
Fifthly, it is sometimes due to the caution of
the devil himself, for at times he does not wish to do hurt, in order
that worse may follow from it. As, for example, when he could molest
the excommunicated but does not do so, as in the case of the
excommunicated Corinthian (I. Corinthians v), in order that he
may weaken the faith of the Church in the power of such banishment.
Therefore we may similarly say that, even if the administrators of
public justice were not protected by Divine power, yet the devils
often of their own accord withdraw their support and guardianship
from witches, either because they fear their conversion, or because
they desire and hasten their damnation.
This fact is proved also by actual experience. For the aforesaid
Doctor affirms that witches have borne witness that it is a fact of
their own experience that, merely because they have been taken by
officials of public justice, they have immediately lost all their
power of witchcraft. For example, a judge named Peter, whom we have
mentioned before, wished his officials to arrest a certain witch
called Stadlin; but their hands were seized with so great a
trembling, and such a nauseous stench came into their nostrils, that
they gave up hope of daring to touch the witch. And the judge
commanded them, saying: “You may safely arrest the wretch, for
when he is touched by the hand of public justice, he will lose all
the power of his iniquity.” And so the event proved; for he was
taken and burned for many witchcrafts perpetrated by him, which are
mentioned here and there in this work in their appropriate places.
And many more such experiences have happened to
us Inquisitors in the exercise of our inquisitorial office, which
would turn the mind of the reader to wonder if it were expedient to
relate them. But since self-praise is sordid and mean, it is better
to pass them over in silence than to incur the stigma of boastfulness
and conceit. But we must except those which have become so well known
that they cannot be concealed.
Not
long ago in the town of Ratisbon the magistrates had condemned a
witch to be burned, and were asked why it was that we Inquisitors
were not afflicted like other men with witchcraft. They answered that
witches had often tried to injure them, but could not. And, being
asked the reason for this, they answered that they did not know,
unless it was because the devils had warned them against doing so.
For, they said, it would be impossible to tell how many times they
have pestered us by day and by night, now in the form of apes, not of
dogs or goats, disturbing us with their cries and insults; fetching
us from our beds at their blasphemous prayers, so that we have stood
outside the window of their prison, which was so high that no one
could reach it without the longest of ladders; and then they have
seemed to stick the pins with which their head-cloth was fastened
violently into their heads. But praise be to Almighty God, Who in His
pity, and for no merit of our own, has preserved us as unworthy
public servants of the justice of the Faith.
The reason in the case of the second class of men is
self-evident. For the exorcisms of the Church are for this very
purpose, and are entirely efficacious remedies for preserving oneself
from the injuries of witches.
But if
it is asked in what manner a man ought to use such protections, we
must speak first of those that are used without the uttering of
sacred words, and then of the actual sacred invocations. For in the
first place it is lawful in any decent habitation of men or beasts to
sprinkle Holy Water for the safety and securing of men and beasts,
with the invocation of the Most Holy Trinity and a Paternoster. For
it is said in the Office of Exorcism, that wherever it is sprinkled,
all uncleanness is purified, all harm is repelled, and no pestilent
spirit can abide there, etc. For the Lord saves both man and beast,
according to the Prophet, each in his degree.
Secondly, just as the first must necessarily be sprinkled, so
in the case of a Blessed Candle, although it is more appropriate to
light it, the wax of it may with advantage be sprinkled about
dwelling-houses. And thirdly, it is expedient to place or to burn
consecrated herbs in those rooms where they can best be consumed in
some convenient place.
Now it happened
in the city of Spires, in the same year that this book was begun,
that a certain devout woman held conversation with a suspected witch,
and, after the manner of women, they used abusive words to each
other. But in the night she wished to put her little suckling child
in its cradle, and remembered her encounter that day with the
suspected witch. So, fearing some danger to the child, she placed
consecrated herbs under it, sprinkled it with Holy Water, put a
little Blessed Salt to its lips, signed it with the Sign of the
Cross, and diligently secured the cradle. About the middle of the
night she heard the child crying, and, as women do, wished to embrace
the child, and life the cradle on to her bed. She lifted the candle,
indeed, but could not embrace the child, because he was not there.
The poor woman, in terror, and bitterly weeping for the loss of her
child, lit a light, and found the child in a corner under a chair,
crying but unhurt.
In this it may be
seen what virtue there is in the exorcisms of the Church against the
snares of the devil. It is manifest that Almighty God, in His mercy
and wisdom which extend from end to end, watches over the deeds of
those wicked men; and that he gently directs the witchcraft of
devils, so that when they try to diminish and weaken the Faith, they
on the contrary strengthen it and make it more firmly rooted in the
hearts of many. For the faithful may derive much profit from these
evils; when, by reason of devils' works, the faith is made strong,
God's mercy is seen, and His power manifested, and men are led into
His keeping and to the reverence of Christ's Passion, and are
enlightened by the ceremonies of the Church.
There lived in a town of Wiesenthal a certain Mayor who was
bewitched with the most terrible pains and bodily contortions; and he
discovered, not by means of other witches, but from his own
experience, how that witchcraft had been practised on him. For he
said he was in the habit of fortifying himself every Sunday with
Blessed Salt and Holy Water, but that he had neglected to do so on
one occasion owing to the celebration of somebody's marriage; and on
that same day he was bewitched.
In
Ratisbon a man was being tempted by the devil in the form of a woman
to copulate, and became greatly disturbed when the devil would not
desist. But it came into the poor man's mind that he ought to defend
himself by taking Blessed Salt, as he had heard in a sermon. So, he
took some Blessed Salt on entering the bath-room; and the woman
looked fiercely at him, and, cursing whatever devil had taught him to
do this, suddenly disappeared. For the devil can, with God's
permission, present himself either in the form of a witch, or by
possessing the body of an actual witch.
There were also three companions walking along a road, and two of
them were struck by lightning. The third was terrified, when he heard
voices speaking in the air, “Let us strike him too.” But
another voice answered, “We cannot, for to-day he has heard the
words ‘The Word was made Flesh.’” And he understood
that he had been saved because he had that day heard Mass, and, at
the end of the Mass, the Gospel of S. John: In the beginning was the
Word, etc.
Also sacred words bound to
the body are marvellously protective, if seven conditions for their
use are observed. But these will be mentioned in the last Question of
this Second Part, where we speak of curative, as here we speak of
preventive measures. And those sacred words help not only to protect,
but also to cure those who are bewitched.
But the surest protection for places, men, or animals are the words
of the triumphal title of our Saviour, if they be written in four
places in the form of a cross: IESUS † NAZARENUS † REX
† IUDAEORUM †. There may also be added the name of MARY
and of the Evangelists, or the words of S. John: The Word was made
Flesh.
But the third class of men
which cannot be hurt by witches is the most remarkable; for they are
protected by a special Angelic guardianship, both within and without.
Within, by the inpouring of grace; without, by the virtue of the
stars, that is, by the protection of the Powers which move the stars.
And this class is divided into two sections of the Elect: for some
are protected against all sorts of witchcrafts, so that they can be
hurt in no way; and others are particularly rendered chaste by the
good Angels with regard to the generative functions, just as evil
spirits by their witchcrafts inflame the lusts of certain wicked men
towards one woman, while they make them cold towards another.
And their interior and exterior protection, by
grace and by the influence of the stars, is explained as follows. For
though it is God Himself Who pours grace into our souls, and no other
creature has so great power as to do this (as it is said: The Lord
will give grace and glory); yet, when God wished to bestow some
especial grace, He does so in a dispositive way through the agency of
a good Angel, as S. Thomas teaches us in a certain place in the Third
Book of Sentences.