How Witch Midwives
commit most Horrid Crimes when they either Kill Children
or Offer them to Devils in most Accursed Wise.
We
must not omit to mention the injuries done to children
by witch midwives, first by killing them, and secondly
by blasphemously offering them to devils. In the diocese
of Strasburg and in the town of Zabern there is an
honest woman very devoted to the Blessed Virgin MARY,
who tells the following experience of hers to all the
guests that come to the tavern which she keeps, known by
the sign of the Black Eagle.
I was, she
says, pregnant by my lawful husband, now dead, and as my
time approached, a certain midwife importuned me to
engage her to assist at the birth of my child. But I
knew her bad reputation, and although I had decided to
engage another woman, pretended with conciliatory words
to agree to her request. But when the pains came upon
me, and I had brought in another midwife, the first one
was very angry, and hardly a week later came into my
room one night with two other women, and approached the
bed where I was lying. And when I tried to call my
husband, who was sleeping in another room, all the use
was taken away from my limbs and tongue, so that except
for seeing and hearing I could not move a muscle. And
the witch, standing between the other two, said: “See!
this vile woman, who would not take me for her midwife,
shall not win through unpunished.” The other two
standing be her pleaded for me, saying: “She has never
harmed any of us.” But the witch added: “Because she
has offended me I am going to put something into her
entrails; but, to please you, she shall not feel any
pain for half a year, but after that time she shall be
tortured enough.” So she came up and touched my belly
with her hands; and it seemed to me that she took out my
entrails, and put in something which, however, I could
not see. And when they had gone away, and I had
recovered my power of speech, I called my husband as
soon as possible, and told him what had happened. But he
put it down to pregnancy, and said: “You pregnant
women are always suffering from fancies and
delusions.” And when he would by no means believe me,
I replied: “I have been given six months' grace, and
if, after that time, no torment comes to me, I shall
believe you.”
She related
this to her son, a cleric who was then Archdeacon of the
district, and who came to visit her on the same day. And
what happened? When exactly six months had passed, such
a terrible pain came into her belly that she could not
help disturbing everybody with her cries day and night.
And because, as has been said, she was most devout to
the Virgin, the Queen of Mercy, she fasted with bread
and water every Saturday, so that she believed that she
was delivered by Her intercession. For one day, when she
wanted to perform an action of nature, all those unclean
things fell from her body; and she called her husband
and son, and said: “Are those fancies? Did I not say
that after a half a year the truth would be known? Or
who ever saw me ear thorns, bones, and even bits of
wood?” For there were brambles as long as a palm, as
well as a quantity of other things.
Moreover (as
was said in the First Part of the work), it was shown by
the confession of the servant, who was brought to
judgement at Breisach, that the greatest injuries to the
Faith as regards the heresy of witches are done by
midwives; and this is made clearer than daylight itself
by the confessions of some who were afterwards burned.
For in the
diocese of Basel at the town of Dann, a witch who was
burned confessed that she had killed more than forty
children, by sticking a needle through the crowns of
their heads into their brains, as they came out from the
womb.
Finally,
another woman in the diocese of Strasburg confessed that
she had killed more children than she could count. And
she was caught in this way. She had been called from one
town to another to act as midwife to a certain woman,
and, having performed her office, was going back home.
But as she went out of the town gate, the arm of a newly
born child fell out of the cloak she had wrapped around
her, in whose folds the arm had been concealed. This was
seen by those who were sitting in the gateway, and when
she had gone on, they picked up from the ground what
they took to be a piece of meat; but when they looked
more closely and saw that it was not a piece of meat,
but recognized it by its fingers as a child's arm, they
reported it to the magistrates, and it was found that a
child had died before baptism, lacking an arm. So the
witch was taken and questioned, and confessed the crime,
and that she had, as has been said, killed more children
than she could count.
Now the
reason for such practices is as follows: It is to be
presumed that witches are compelled to do such things at
the command of evil spirits, and sometimes against their
own wills. For the devil knows that, because of the pain
of loss, or original sin, such children are debarred
from entering the Kingdom of Heaven. And by this means
the Last Judgement is delayed, when the devils will be
condemned to eternal torture; since the number of the
elect os more slowly completed, on the fulfilment of
which the world will be consumed. And also, as has
already been shown, witches are taught by the devil to
confect from the limbs of such children an unguent which
is very useful for their spells.
But in order
to bring so great a sin into utter detestation, we must
not pass over in silence the following horrible crime.
For when they do not kill the child, they blasphemously
offer it to the devil in this manner. As soon as the
child is born, the midwife, if the mother herself is not
a witch, carries it out of the room on the pretext of
warming it, raises it up, and offers it to the Prince of
Devils, that is Lucifer, and to all the devils. And this
is done by the kitchen fire.
A certain man
relates that he noticed that his wife, when her time
came to give birth, against the usual custom of women in
childbirth, did not allow any woman to approach the bed
except her own daughter, who acted as midwife. Wishing
to know the reason for this, he hid himself in the house
and saw the whole order of the sacrilege and dedication
to the devil, as it has been described. He saw also, as
it seemed to him, that without any human support, but by
the power of the devil, the child was climbing up the
chain by which the cooking-pots were suspended. In great
consternation both at the terrible words of the
invocation of the devils, and at the other iniquitous
ceremonies, he strongly insisted that the child should
be baptized immediately. While it was being carried to
the next village, where there was a church, and when
they had to cross a bridge over a certain river, he drew
his sword and ran at his daughter, who was carrying the
child, saying in the hearing of two others who were with
them: “You shall not carry the child over the bridge;
for either it must cross the bridge by itself, or you
shall be drowned in the river.” The daughter was
terrified and, together with the other women in company,
asked him if he were in his right mind (for he had
hidden what had happened from all the others except the
two men who were with him). Then he answered: “You
vile drab, by your magic arts you made the child climb
the chain in the kitchen; now make it cross the bridge
with no on carrying it, or I shall drown you in the
river.” And so, being compelled, she put the child
down on the bridge, and invoked the devil by her art;
and suddenly the child was seen on the other side of the
bridge. And when the child had been baptized, and he had
returned home, since he now had witnesses to convict his
daughter of witchcraft (for he could not prove the
former crime of the oblation to the devil, inasmuch as
he had been the only witness of the sacrilegious
ritual), he accused bother daughter and mother before
the judge after their period of purgation; and they were
both burned, and the crime of midwives of making that
sacrilegious offering was discovered.
But here the
doubt arises: to what end or purpose is the sacrilegious
offering of children, and how does it benefit the
devils? To this it can be said that the devils do this
for three reasons, which serve three most wicked
purposes. The first reason arises from their pride,
which always increases; as it is said: “They that hate
Thee have lifted up the head.” For they try as far as
possible to conform with divine rites and ceremonies.
Secondly, they can more easily deceive men under the
mask of an outwardly seeming pious action. For in the
same way they entice young virgins and boys into their
power; for though they might solicit such by means of
evil and corrupt men, yet they rather deceive them by
magic mirrors and reflections seen in witches'
finger-nails, and lure them on in the belief that they
love chastity, whereas they hate it. For the devil hates
above all the Blessed Virgin, because she bruised his
head. Just so in this oblation of children they deceive
the minds of witches into the vice of infidelity under
the appearance of a virtuous acts. And the third reason
is, that the perfidy of witches may grow, to the devils'
own gain, when they have witches dedicated to them from
their very cradles.
And this
sacrilege affects the child in three ways. In the first
place, visible offerings to God are made of visible
things, such as wine of bread or the fruits of the
earth, as a sign of honour and subjection to Him, as it
is said in Ecclesiasticus xxv: Thou shalt not
appear empty before the Lord. And such offerings cannot
and must not afterwards be put to profane uses.
Therefore the holy Father, S. John Damascene, says: The
oblations which are offered in church belong only to the
priests, but not that they should divert them to their
own uses, but that they should faithfully distribute
them, partly in the observance of divine worship, and
partly for the use of the poor. From this it follows
that a child who has been offered to the devil in sign
of subjection and homage to him cannot possibly be
dedicated by Catholics to a holy life, in worthy and
fruitful service to God for the benefit of himself and
others.
For who can
say that the sins of the mothers and of other do not
redound in punishment upon the children? Perhaps someone
will quote that saying of the prophet: “The sons shall
not bear the iniquity of the father.” But there is
that other passage in Exodus xx: I am a jealous
God, visiting the sins of the father upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation. Now the meaning of
these two sayings is as follows. The first speaks of
spiritual punishment in the judgement of Heaven or God,
and not in the judgement of men. And this is the
punishment of the soul, such as loss or the forfeiture
of glory, or the punishment of pain, that is, of the
torment of eternal fire. And with such punishments no
one is punished except for his own sin, either inherited
as original sin or committed as actual sin.
The second
text speaks of those who imitate the sins of their
father, as Gratian has explained (I, q. 4, etc.); and
there he gives other explanations as to how the
judgement of God inflicts other punishments on a man,
not only for his own sins which he has committed, or
which he might commit (but is prevented by punishment
from committing), but also for the sins of others.
And it cannot
be argued that when a man is punished without cause, and
without sin, which should be the cause of punishment.
For according to the rule of law, no one must be
punished without sin, unless there is some cause of
punishment. And we can say that there is always a most
just cause, though it may not be known to us: see S.
Augustine, XXIV, 4. And if we cannot in the result
penetrate the depth of God's judgement, yet we know that
what He has said is true, and what He has done is just.
But there is
this distinction to be observed in innocent children who
are offered to devils not by their mothers when they are
witches, but by midwives who, as we have said, secretly
take from the embrace and the womb of an honest mother.
Such children are not so cut off from grace that they
must necessarily become prone to such crimes; but it is
piously to be believed that they may rather cultivate
their mothers' virtues.
The second
result to the children of this sacrilege is as follows.
When a man offers himself as a sacrifice to God, he
recognizes God as his Beginning and his End; and this
sacrifice is more worthy than all the external
sacrifices which he makes, having its beginning in his
creation and its end in his glorification, as it is
said: A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit, etc. In
the same way, when a witch offers a child to the devils,
she commends it body and soul to him as its beginning
and its end in eternal damnation; wherefore not without
some miracle can the child be set free from the payment
of so great a debt.
And we read
often in history of children whom their mothers, in some
passion or mental disturbance, have unthinkingly offered
to the devil from the very womb, and how it is only with
the very greatest difficulty that they can, when they
have grown to adult age, be delivered from that bondage
which the devil has, with God's permission, usurped to
himself. And of this the Book of Examples, Most
Blessed Virgin MARY, affords many illustrations; a
notable instance being that of the man whom the Supreme
Pontiff was unable to deliver from the torments of the
devil, but at last he was sent to a holy man living in
the East, and finally with great difficulty was
delivered from his bondage through the intercession of
the Most Glorious Virgin Herself.
And if God so
severely punishes even such a thoughtless, I will not
say sacrifice, but commendation used angrily by a mother
when her husband, after copulating with her, says, I
hope a child will come of it; and she answers, May the
child go to the devil! How much greater must be the
punishment when the Divine Majesty is offended in the
way we have described!
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