How they Raise and
Stir up Hailstorms and Tempests, and Cause Lightning to
Blast both Men and Beasts.
That
devils and their disciples can by witchcraft cause
lightnings and hailstorms and tempests, and that the
devils have power from God to do this, and their
disciples do so with God's permission, is proved by Holy
Scripture in Job i and ii. For the devil received
power from God, and immediately caused it to happen that
the Sabeans took away from Job fifty yoke of oxen and
five hundred asses, and then fire came from heaven and
consumed seven thousand camels, and a great wind came
and smote down this house, killing his seven sons and
his three daughters, and all the young men, that is to
say, the servants, except him who brought the news, were
killed; and finally the devil smote the body of the holy
man with the most terrible sores, and caused his wife
and his three friends to vex him grievously.
S. Thomas in
his commentary on Job says as follows: It must be
confessed that, with God's permission, the devils can
disturb the air, raise up winds, and make the fire fall
from heaven. For although, in the matter of taking
various shapes, corporeal nature is not at the command
of any Angel, either good or bad, but only at that of
God the Creator, yet in the matter of local motion
corporeal nature has to obey the spiritual nature. And
this truth is clearly exemplified in man himself; for at
the mere command of the will, which exists subjectively
in the soul, the limbs are moved to perform that which
they have been willed to do. Therefore whatever can be
accomplished by mere local motion, this not only good
but bad spirits can by their natural power accomplish,
unless God should forbid it. But winds and rain and
other similar disturbances of the air can be caused by
the mere movement of vapours released from the earth or
the water; therefore the natural power of devils is
sufficient to cause such things. So says S. Thomas.
For God in
His justice using the devils as his agents of punishment
inflicts the evils which come to us who live in this
world. Therefore, with reference to that in the Psalms:
“He called a famine on the land, and wasted all their
substance of bread.”; the gloss says: God allowed this
evil to be caused by the bad Angels who are in charge of
such matters; and by famine is meant the Angel in charge
of famine.
We refer the
reader also to what has been written above on the
question as to whether witches must always have the
devil's help to aid them in their works, and concerning
the three kinds of harm which the devils at times
inflict without the agency of a witch. But the devils
are more eager to injure men with the help of a witch,
since in this way God is the more offended, and greater
power is given to them to torment and punish.
And relevant
to this subject is what the Doctors have written in the Second
book of Sentences, dist. 6, on the question whether
there is a special place assigned to the bad Angels in
the clouds of the air. For in devils there are three
things to be considered - their nature, their duty and
their sin; and by nature they belong to the empyrean of
heaven, through sin to the lower hell, but by reason of
the duty assigned to them, as we have said, as ministers
of punishment to the wicked and trial to the good, their
place is in the clouds of the air. For they do not dwell
here with us on the earth lest they should plague us too
much; but in the air and around the fiery sphere they
can so bring together the active and passive agents
that, when God permits, they can bring down fire and
lightning from heaven.
A story is
told in the Formicarius of a certain man who had
been taken, and was asked by the judge how they went
about to raise up hailstorms and tempests, and whether
it was easy for them to do so. He answered: We can
easily cause hailstorms, but we cannot do all the harm
that we wish, because of the guardianship of good
Angels. And he added: We can only injure those who are
deprived of God's help; but we cannot hurt those who
make the sign of the Cross. And this is how we got to
work: first we use certain words in the fields to
implore the chief of the devils to send one of his
servants to strike the man whom we name. Then, when the
devil has come, we sacrifice to him a black cock at two
cross-roads, throwing it up into the air; and when the
devil has received this, he performs our wish and stirs
up the air, but not always in the places which we have
named, and, according to the permission of the living
God, sends down hailstorms and lightnings.
In the same
work we hear of a certain leader or heresiarch of
witches named Staufer, who lived in Berne and the
adjacent country, and used publicly to boast that,
whenever he liked, he could change himself into a mouse
in the sight of his rivals and slip through the hands of
his deadly enemies; and that he had often escaped from
the hands of his mortal foes in this manner. But when
the Divine justice wished to put an end to his
wickedness, some of his enemies lay in wait for him
cautiously and saw him sitting in a basket near a
window, and suddenly pierced him through with swords and
spears, so that he miserably died for his crimes. Yet he
left behind him a disciple, named Hoppo, who had also
for his master that Stadlin whom we have mentioned
before in the sixth chapter.
These two
could, whenever they pleased, cause the third part of
the manure or straw or corn to pass invisibly from a
neighbour's field to their own; they could raise the
most violent hailstorms and destructive winds and
lightning; could cast into the water in the sight of
their parents children walking by the water-side, when
there was no one else in sight; could cause barrenness
in men and animals; could reveal hidden things to
others; could in many ways injure men in their affairs
or their bodies; could at times kill whom they would by
lightning; and could cause many other plagues, when and
where the justice of God permitted such things to be
done.
It is better
to add an instance which came within our own experience.
For in the diocese of Constance, twenty-eight German
miles from the town of Ratisbon in the direction of
Salzburg, a violent hailstorm destroyed all the fruit,
crops and vineyards in a belt one mile wide, so that the
vines hardly bore fruit for three years. This was
brought to the notice of the Inquisition, since the
people clamoured for an inquiry to be held; many beside
all the townsmen being of the opinion that it was caused
by witchcraft. Accordingly it was agreed after fifteen
days' formal deliberation that it was a case of
witchcraft for us to consider; and among a large number
of suspects, we particularly examined two women, one
named Agnes, a bath-woman, and the other Anna von
Mindelheim. These two were taken and shut up separately
in different prisons, neither of them knowing in the
least what had happened to the other. On the following
day the bath-woman was very gently questioned in the
presence of a notary by the chief magistrate, a justice
named Gelre very zealous for the Faith, and by the other
magistrates with him; and although she was undoubtedly
well provided with that evil gift of silence which is
the constant bane of judges, and at the first trial
affirmed that she was innocent of any crime against man
or woman; yet, in the Divine mercy that so great a crime
should not pass unpunished, suddenly, when she had been
freed from her chains, although it was in the torture
chamber, she fully laid bare all the crimes which she
had committed. For when she was questioned by the Notary
of the Inquisition upon the accusations which had been
brought against her of harm done to men and cattle, by
reason of which she had been gravely suspected of being
a witch, although there had been no witness to prove
that she had abjured the Faith or performed coitus with
an Incubus devil (for she had been most secret);
nevertheless, after she had confessed to the harm which
she had caused to animals and men, she acknowledged also
all that she was asked concerning the abjuration of the
Faith, and copulation committed with an Incubus devil;
saying that for more than eighteen years she had given
her body to an Incubus devil, with a complete abnegation
of the Faith.
After this
she was asked whether she knew anything about the
hailstorm which we have mentioned, and answered that she
did. And, being asked how and in what way, she answered:
“I was in my house, and at midday a familiar came to
me and told me to go with a little water on to the field
or plain of Kuppel (for so is it named). And when I
asked what he wanted to do with the water, he said that
he wanted to make it rain. So I went out at the town
gate, and found the devil standing under a tree.” The
judge asked her, under which tree; and she said,
“Under that one opposite that tower,” pointing it
out. Asked what she did under the tree, she said, “The
devil told me to dig a hole and pour the water into
it.” Asked whether they say down together, she said,
“I sat down, but the devil stood up.” Then she was,
with what words and in what manner she had stirred the
water; and she answered, “I stirred it with my finger,
and called on the name of the devil himself and all the
other devils.” Again the judge asked what was done
with the water, and she answered: “It disappeared, and
the devil took it up into the air.” Then she was asked
if she had any associate, and answered: “Under another
tree opposite I had a companion (naming the other
capture witch, Anna von Mindelheim), but I do not know
what she did.” Finally, the bath-woman was asked how
long it was between the taking up of the water the
hailstorm; and she answered: “There was just
sufficient interval of time to allow me to get back to
my house.”
But (and this
is remarkable) when on the next day the other witch had
at first been exposed to the very gentlest questions,
being suspended hardly clear of the ground by her
thumbs, after she had been set quite free, she disclosed
the whole matter without the slightest discrepancy from
what the other had told; agreeing as to the place, that
it was under such a tree and the other had been under
another; as to the method, namely, of stirring water
poured into a hole in the name of the devil and all the
devils; and as to the interval of time, that the
hailstorm had come after her devil had taken the water
up into the air and she had returned home. Accordingly,
on the third day they were burned. And the bath-woman
was contrite and confessed, and commended herself to
God, saying that she would die with a willing heart if
she could escape the tortures of the devil, and held in
her hand a cross which she kissed. But the other witch
scorned her for doing so. And this one had consorted
with an Incubus devil for more than twenty years with a
complete abjuration of the Faith, and had done far more
harm than the former witch to men, cattle and the fruits
of the earth, as is shown in the preserved record of
their trial.
These
instances must serve, since indeed countless examples of
this sort of mischief could be recounted. But very often
men and beasts and storehouses are struck by lightning
by the power of devils; and the cause of this seems to
be more hidden and ambiguous, since it often appears to
happen by Divine permission without the co-operation of
any witch. However, it has been found that witches have
freely confessed that they have done such things, and
there are various instances of it, which could be
mentioned, in addition to what has already been said.
Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that, just as
easily as they raise hailstorms, so can they cause
lightning and storms at sea; and so no doubt at all
remains on these points.
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