Concerning Witches
who copulate with Devils. Why is it that Women are
chiefly addicted to Evil superstitions?
There is also, concerning witches who copulate with
devils, much difficulty in considering the methods by
which such abominations are consummated. On the part of
the devil: first, of what element the body is made that
he assumes; secondly, whether the act is always
accompanied by the injection of semen received from
another; thirdly, as to time and place, whether he
commits this act more frequently at one time than at
another; fourthly, whether the act is invisible to any
who may be standing by. And on the part of the women, it
has to be inquired whether only they who were themselves
conceived in this filthy manner are often visited by
devils; or secondly, whether it is those who were
offered to devils by midwives at the time of their
birth; and thirdly, whether the actual venereal
delectation of such is of a weaker sort. But we cannot
here reply to all these questions, both because we are
only engaged in a general study, and because in the
second part of this work they are all singly explained
by their operations, as will appear in the fourth
chapter, where mention is made of each separate method.
Therefore, let us now chiefly consider women; and first,
why this kind of perfidy is found more in so fragile a
sex than in men. And our inquiry will first be general,
as to the general conditions of women; secondly,
particular, as to which sort of women are found to be
given to superstition and witchcraft; and thirdly,
specifically with regard to midwives, who surpass all
others in wickedness. Why Superstition is
chiefly found in Women.
As for the first question, why a greater number of
witches is found in the fragile feminine sex than among
men; it is indeed a fact that it were idle to
contradict, since it is accredited by actual experience,
apart from the verbal testimony of credibly witnesses.
And without in any way detracting from a sex in which
God has always taken great glory that His might should
be spread abroad, let us say that various men have
assigned various reasons for this fact, which
nevertheless agree in principle. Wherefore it is good,
for the admonition of women, to speak of this matter;
and it has often been proved by experience that they are
eager to hear of it, so long as it is set forth with
discretion.
For some
learned men propound this reason; that there are three
things in nature, the Tongue, an Ecclesiastic, and a
Woman, which know no moderation in goodness or vice; and
when they exceed the bounds of their condition they
reach the greatest heights and the lowest depths of
goodness and vice. When they are governed by a good
spirit, they are most excellent in virtue; but when they
are governed by an evil spirit, they indulge the worst
possible vices.
This is clear
in the case of the tongue, since by its ministry most of
the kingdoms have been brought into the faith of Christ;
and the Holy Ghost appeared over the Apostles of Christ
in tongues of fire. Other learned preachers also have
had as it were the tongues of dogs, licking wounds and
sores of the dying Lazarus. As it is said: With the
tongues of dogs ye save your souls from the enemy.
For this
reason S. Dominic, the leader and father of the Order of
Preachers, is represented in the figure of a barking to
dog with a lighted torch in his mouth, that even to this
day he may by his barking keep off the heretic wolves
from the flock of Christ's sheep.
It is also a
matter of common experience that the tongue of one
prudent man can subdue the wrangling of a multitude;
wherefore not unjustly Solomon sings much in their
praise, in Proverbs x.: In the lips of him that
hath understanding wisdom is found. And again, The
tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the
wicked is little worth. And again, The lips of the
righteous feed many; but fools die for want of wisdom.
For this cause he adds in chapter xvi, The preparations
of the heart belong to man; but the answer of the tongue
is from the Lord.
But
concerning an evil tongue you will find in Ecclesiasticus
xxviii: A backbiting tongue hath disquieted many, and
driven them from nation to nation: strong cities hath it
pulled down, and overthrown the houses of great men. And
by a backbiting tongue it means a third party who rashly
or spitefully interferes between two contending parties.
Secondly,
concerning Ecclesiastics, that is to say, clerics and
religious of either sex, S. John Chrysostom speaks on
the text, He cast out them that bought and sold from the
temple. From the priesthood arises everything good, and
everything evil. S. Jerome in his epistle to Nepotian
says: Avoid as you would the plague a trading priest,
who has risen from poverty to riches, from a low to a
high estate. And Blessed Bernard in his 23rd Homily On
the Psalms says of clerics: If one should arise as
an open heretic, let him be cast out and put to silence;
if he is a violent enemy, let all good men flee from
him. But how are we to know which ones to cast out or to
flee from? For they are confusedly friendly and hostile,
peaceable and quarrelsome, neighbourly and utterly
selfish.
And in
another place: Our bishops are become spearmen, and our
pastors shearers. And by bishops here is meant those
proud Abbots who impose heavy labours on their
inferiors, which they would not themselves touch with
their little finger. And S. Gregory says concerning
pastors: No one does more harm in the Church than he
who, having the name or order of sanctity, lives in sin;
for no one dares to accuse him of sin, and therefore the
sin is widely spread, since the sinner is honoured for
the sanctity of his order. Blessed Augustine also speaks
of monks to Vincent the Donatist: I freely confess to
your charity before the Lord our God, which is the
witness of my soul from the time I began to serve God,
what great difficulty I have experienced in the fact
that it is impossible to find either worse of better men
than those who grace or disgrace the monasteries.
Now the
wickedness of women is spoken of in Ecclesiasticus
xxv: There is no head above the head of a serpent: and
there is no wrath above the wrath of a woman. I had
rather dwell with a lion and a dragon than to keep house
with a wicked woman. And among much which in that place
precedes and follows about a wicked woman, he concludes:
All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a
woman. Wherefore S. John Chrysostom says on the text, It
is not good to marry (S. Matthew xix): What else
is woman but a foe to friendship, an unescapable
punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a
desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable
detriment, an evil of nature, painted with fair colours!
Therefore if it be a sin to divorce her when she ought
to be kept, it is indeed a necessary torture; for either
we commit adultery by divorcing her, or we must endure
daily strife. Cicero in his second book of The
Rhetorics says: The many lusts of men lead them into
one sin, but the lust of women leads them into all sins;
for the root of all woman's vices is avarice. And Seneca
says in his Tragedies: A woman either loves or
hates; there is no third grade. And the tears of woman
are a deception, for they may spring from true grief, or
they may be a snare. When a woman thinks alone, she
thinks evil.
But for good
women there is so much praise, that we read that they
have brought beatitude to men, and have saved nations,
lands, and cities; as is clear in the case of Judith,
Debbora, and Esther. See also I Corinthians vii:
If a woman hath a husband that believeth not, let her
not leave him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified
by the believing wife. And Ecclesiasticus xxvi:
Blessed is the man who has a virtuous wife, for the
number of his days shell be doubled. And throughout that
chapter much high praise is spoken of the excellence of
good women; as also in the last chapter of Proverbs
concerning a virtuous woman.
And all this
is made clear also in the New Testament concerning women
and virgins and other holy women who have by faith led
nations and kingdoms away from the worship of idols to
the Christian religion. Anyone who looks at Vincent of
Beauvais (in Spe. Histo., XXVI. 9) will find
marvellous things of the conversion of Hungary by the
most Christian Gilia, and of the Franks by Clotilda, the
wife of Clovis. Wherefore in many vituperations that we
read against women, the word woman is used to mean the
lust of the flesh. As it is said: I have found a woman
more bitter than death, and good woman subject to carnal
lust.
Other again
have propounded other reasons why there are more
superstitious women found than men. And the first is,
that they are more credulous; and since the chief aim of
the devil is to corrupt faith, therefore he rather
attacks them. See Ecclesiasticus xix: He that is
quick to believe is light-minded, and shall be
diminished. The second reason is, that women are
naturally more impressionable, and more ready to receive
the influence of a disembodied spirit; and that when
they use this quality well they are very good, but when
they use it ill they are very evil.
The third
reason is that they have slippery tongues, and are
unable to conceal from the fellow-women those things
which by evil arts they know; and, since they are weak,
they find an easy and secret manner of vindicating
themselves by witchcraft. See Ecclesiasticus as
quoted above: I had rather dwell with a lion and a
dragon than to keep house with a wicked woman. All
wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a woman.
And to this may be added that, as they are very
impressionable, they act accordingly.
There are
also others who bring forward yet other reasons, of
which preachers should be very careful how they make
use. For it is true that in the Old Testament the
Scriptures have much that is evil to say about women,
and this because of the first temptress, Eve, and her
imitators; yet afterwards in the New Testament we find a
change of name, as from Eva to Ave (as S. Jerome says),
and the whole sin of Eve taken away by the benediction
of Mary. Therefore preachers should always say as much
praise of them as possible.
But because
in these times this perfidy is more often found in women
than in men, as we learn by actual experience, if anyone
is curious as to the reason, we may add to what has
already been said the following: that since they are
feebler both in mind and body, it is not surprising that
they should come more under the spell of witchcraft.
For as
regards intellect, or the understanding of spiritual
things, they seem to be of a different nature from men;
a fact which is vouched for by the logic of the
authorities, backed by various examples from the
Scriptures. Terence says: Women are intellectually like
children. And Lactantius (Institutiones, III): No
woman understood philosophy except Temeste. And Proverbs
xi, as it were describing a woman, says: As a jewel of
gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is
without discretion.
But the
natural reason is that she is more carnal than a man, as
is clear from her many carnal abominations. And it
should be noted that there was a defect in the formation
of the first woman, since she was formed from a bent
rib, that is, a rib of the breast, which is bent as it
were in a contrary direction to a man. And since through
this defect she is an imperfect animal, she always
deceives. For Cato says: When a woman weeps she weaves
snares. And again: When a woman weeps, she labours to
deceive a man. And this is shown by Samson's wife, who
coaxed him to tell her the riddle he had propounded to
the Philistines, and told them the answer, and so
deceived him. And it is clear in the case of the first
woman that she had little faith; for when the serpent
asked why they did not eat of every tree in Paradise,
she answered: Of every tree, etc. - lest perchance we
die. Thereby she showed that she doubted, and had little
in the word of God. And all this is indicated by the
etymology of the word; for Femina comes from Fe
and Minus, since she is ever weaker to hold and
preserve the faith. And this as regards faith is of her
very nature; although both by grace and nature faith
never failed in the Blessed Virgin, even at the time of
Christ's Passion, when it failed in all men.
Therefore a
wicked woman is by her nature quicker to waver in her
faith, and consequently quicker to abjure the faith,
which is the root of witchcraft.
And as to her
other mental quality, that is, her natural will; when
she hates someone whom she formerly loved, then she
seethes with anger and impatience in her whole soul,
just as the tides of the sea are always heaving and
boiling. Many authorities allude to this cause. Ecclesiasticus
xxv: There is no wrath above the wrath of a woman. And
Seneca (Tragedies, VIII): No might of the flames
or the swollen winds, no deadly weapon, is so much to be
feared as the lust and hatred of a woman who has been
divorced from the marriage bed.
This is shown
too in the woman who falsely accused Joseph, and caused
him to be imprisoned because he would not consent to the
crime of adultery with her (Genesis xxx). And
truly the most powerful cause which contributes to the
increase of witches is the woeful rivalry between
married folk and unmarried women and men. This is so
even among holy women, so what must it be among the
others? For you see in Genesis xxi. how impatient
and envious Sarah was of Hagar when she conceived: How
jealous Rachel was of Leah because she had no children (Genesis
xxx): and Hannah, who was barren, of the fruitful
Peninnah (I. Kings i): and how Miriam (Numbers
xii) murmured and spoke ill of Moses, and was therefore
stricken with leprosy: and how Martha was jealous of
Mary Magdalen, because she was busy and Mary was sitting
down (S. Luke x). To this point is Ecclesiasticus
xxxvii: Neither consult with a woman touching her of
whom she is jealous. Meaning that it is useless to
consult with her, since there is always jealousy, that
is, envy, in a wicked woman. And if women behave thus to
each other, how much more will they do so to men.
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