Of the several
Methods by which Devils through Witches Entice and
Allure the Innocent to the Increase of that Horrid Craft
and Company.
There are three methods above all by which devils,
through the agency of witches, subvert the innocent, and
by which that perfidy is continually being increased.
And the first is through weariness, through inflicting
grievous losses in their temporal possessions. For, as
S. Gregory says: The devil often tempts us to give way
from very weariness. And it is to be understood that it
is within the power of a man to resist such temptation;
but that God permits it as a warning to us not to give
way to sloth. And in this sense is Judges ii to
be understood, where it says that God did not destroy
those nations, that through them He might prove the
people of Israel; and it speaks of the neighbouring
nations of the Canaanites, Jebusites, and others. And in
our time the Hussites and other Heretics are permitted,
so that they cannot be destroyed. Devils, therefore, by
means of witches, so afflict their innocent neighbours
with temporal losses, that they are to beg the suffrages
of witches, and at length to submit themselves to their
counsels; as many experiences have taught us.
We know a
stranger in the diocese of Augsburg, who before he was
forty-four years old lost all his horses in succession
through witchcraft. His wife, being afflicted with
weariness by reason of this, consulted with witches, and
after following their counsels, unwholesome as they
were, all the horses which he bought after that (for he
was a carrier) were preserved from witchcraft.
And how many
women have complained to us in our capacity of
Inquisitors, that when their cows have been injured by
being deprived of their milk, or in any other way, they
have consulted with suspected witches, and even been
given remedies by them, on condition that they would
promise something to some spirit; and when they asked
what they would have to promise, the witches answered
that it was only a small thing, that they should agree
to execute the instructions of that master with regard
to certain observances during the Holy Offices of the
Church, or to observe some silent reservations in their
confessions to priests.
Here it is to
be noted that, as has already been hinted, this iniquity
has small and scant beginnings, as that of the time of
the elevation of the Body of Christ they spit on the
ground, or shut their eyes, or mutter some vain words.
We know a woman who yet lives, protected by the secular
law, who, when the priest at the celebration of the Mass
blesses the people, saying, Dominus uobiscum,
always adds to herself these words in the vulgar tongue
“Kehr mir die Zung im Arss umb.” Or they even say
some such thing at confession after they have received
absolution, or do not confess everything, especially
mortal sins, and so by slow degrees are led to a total
abnegation of the Faith, and to the abominable
profession of sacrilege.
This, or
something like it, is the method which witches use
towards honest matrons who are little given to carnal
vices but concerned for worldly profit. But towards
young girls, more given to bodily lusts and pleasures,
they observe a different method, working through their
carnal desires and the pleasures of the flesh.
Here it is to
be noted that the devil is more eager and keen to tempt
the good than the wicked, although in actual practice he
tempts the wicked more than the good, because more
aptitude for being tempted is found in the wicked than
in the good. Therefore the devil tries all the harder to
seduce all the more saintly virgins and girls; and there
is reason in this, besides many examples of it.
For since he
already possesses the wicked, but not the good, he tries
the harder to seduce into his power the good whom he
does not, than the wicked whom he does, possess.
Similarly any earthly prince takes up arms against those
who do not acknowledge his rule rather than those who do
not oppose him.
And here is
an example. Two witches were burned in Ratisbon, as we
shall tell later where we treat of their methods of
raising tempests. And one of them, who was a bath-woman,
had confessed among other things the following: that she
had suffered much injury from the devil for this reason.
There was a certain devout virgin, the daughter of a
very rich man whom there is no need to name, since the
girl is now dead in the disposition of Divine mercy, and
we would not that his thought should be perverted by
evil; and the witch was ordered to seduce her by
inviting her to her house on some Feast Day, in order
that the devil himself, in the form of a young man,
might speak with her. And although she had tried very
often to accomplish this, yet whenever she had spoken to
the young girl, she had protected herself with the sign
of the Holy Cross. And no one can doubt that she did
this at the instigation of a holy Angel, to repel the
works of the devil.
Another
virgin living in the diocese of Strasburg confessed to
one of us that she was alone on a certain Sunday in her
father's house, when an old woman of that town came to
visit here and, among other scurrilous words, made the
following proposition; that, if she liked, she would
take her to a place where there were some young men
unknown to all the townsmen. And when, said the virgin,
I consented, and followed her to her house, the old
woman said, “See, we go upstairs to an upper room
where the young men are; but take care not to make the
sign of the Cross.” I gave her my promise not to do
so, and as she was going up before me and I was going up
the stairs, I secretly crossed myself. At the top of the
stairs, when we were both standing outside the room, the
hag turned angrily upon me with a horrible countenance,
and looking at me said, “Curse you! Why did you cross
yourself? Go away from here. Depart in the name of the
devil.” And so I returned unharmed to my home.
It can be
seen from this how craftily that old enemy labours in
the seduction of souls. For it was in this way that the
bath-woman whom we have mentioned, and who was burned,
confessed that she had been seduced by some old women. A
different method, however, was used in the case of her
companion witch, who had met the devil in human form on
the road while she herself was going to visit her lover
for the purpose of fornication. And when the Incubus
devil had seen her, and has asked her whether she
recognized him, and she had said that she did not, he
had answered" “I am the devil; and if you wish, I
will always be ready at your pleasure, and will not fail
you in any necessity.” And when she had consented, she
continued for eighteen years, up to the end of her life,
to practise diabolical filthiness with him, together
with a total abnegation of the Faith as a necessary
condition.
There is also
a third method of temptation through the way of sadness
and poverty. For when girls have been corrupted, and
have been scorned by their lovers after they have
immodestly copulated with them in the hope and promise
of marriage with them, and have found themselves
disappointed in all their hopes and everywhere despised,
they turn to the help and protection of devils; either
for the sake of vengeance by bewitching those lovers or
the wives they have married, or for the sake of giving
themselves up to every sort of lechery. Alas! experience
tells us that there is no number to such girls, and
consequently the witches that spring from this class are
innumerable. Let us give a few out of many examples.
There is a
place in the diocese of Brixen where a young man deposed
the following facts concerning the bewitchment of his
wife.
“In the
time of my youth I loved a girl who importuned me to
marry her; but I refused her and married another girl
from another country. But wishing for friendship's sake
to please her, I invited her to the wedding. She came,
and while the other honest women were wishing us luck
and offering gifts, she raised her hand and, in the
hearing of the other women who were standing round,
said, You will have few days of health after to-day. My
bride was frightened, since she did not know her (for,
as I have said, I had married her from another country),
and asked the bystanders who she was who had threatened
her in that way; and they said that she was a loose and
vagrom woman. None the less, it happened just as she had
said. For after a few days my wife was so bewitched that
she lost the use of all her limbs, and even now, after
ten years, the effects of witchcraft can be seen on her
body.”
If we were to
collect all the similar instances which have occurred in
one town of that diocese, it would take a whole book;
but they are written and preserved at the house of the
Bishop of Brixen, who still lives to testify to their
truth, astounding and unheard-of though they are.
But we must
not pass over in silence one unheard-of and astonishing
instance. A certain high-born Count in the ward of
Westerich, in the diocese of Strasburg, married a noble
girl of equal birth; but after he had celebrated the
wedding, he was for three years unable to know her
carnally, on account, as the event proved, of a certain
charm which prevented him. In great anxiety, and not
knowing what to do, he called loudly on the Saints of
God. It happened that he went to the State of Metz to
negotiate some business; and while he was talking about
the streets and squares of the city, attended by his
servants and domiciles, he met a certain women who had
formerly been his mistress. Seeing her, and not at all
thinking of the spell that was on him, he spontaneously
addressed her kindly for the sake of their old
friendship, asking her how she did, and whether she was
well. And she, seeing the Count's gentleness, in her
turn asked very particularly after his health and
affairs; and when he answered that he was well, and that
everything prospered with him, she was astonished and
was silent for a time. The Count, seeing her thus
astonished, again spoke kindly to her, inviting her to
converse with him. So she inquired after his wife, and
received a similar reply, that she was in all respects
well. Then she asked if he had any children; and the
Count said he had three sons, one born in each year. At
that she was more astonished, and was again silent for a
while. And the Count asked her, Why, my dear, do you
make such careful inquiries? I am sure that you
congratulate my on my happiness. Then she answered,
Certainly I congratulate you; but curse that old woman
who said she would bewitch your body so that you could
not have connexion with your wife! And in proof of this,
there is a pot in the well in the middle of your yard
containing certain objects evilly bewitched, and this
was placed there in order that, as long as its contents
were preserved intact, for so long you would be unable
to cohabit. But see! it is all in vain, and I am glad,
etc. On his return home the Count did not delay to have
the well drained; and, finding the pot, burned its
contents and all, whereupon he immediately recovered the
virility which he had lost. Wherefore the Countess again
invited all the nobility to a fresh wedding celebration,
saying that she was now the Lady of that castle and
estate, after having for so long remained a virgin. For
the sake of the Count's reputation it is not expedient
to name that castle and estate; but we have related this
story in order that the truth of the matter may be
known, to bring so great a crime into open detestation.
From this it
is clear that witches use various methods to increase
their numbers. For the above-mentioned woman, because
she had been supplanted by the Count's wife, case that
spell upon the Count with the help of another witches;
and this is how one witchcraft brings innumerable others
in its train.
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