The Remedies
prescribed by the Holy Church against Incubus and
Succubus Devils.
IN
the foregoing chapters on the First Question we have
treated of the methods of bewitching men, animals and
the fruits of the earth, and especially of the behaviour
of witches in their own persons; how they seduce young
girls in order to increase their numbers; what is their
method of profession and of offering homage; how they
offer to devils their own children and the children of
others; and how they are transported from place to
place. Now I say that there is no remedy for such
practises, unless witches be entirely eradicated by the
judges, or at least punished as an example to all who
may wish to imitate them; but we are not immediately
treating of this point, which will be dealt with in the
last Part of this work, where we set forth the twenty
ways of proceeding against and sentencing witches.
For the
present we are concerned only with the remedies against
the injuries which they inflict; and first how men who
are bewitched can be cured; secondly, beasts, and
thirdly, how the fruits of the earth may be secured from
blight or phylloxera.
With regard
to the bewitchment of human beings by means of Incubus
and Succubus devils, it is to be noted that this can
happen in three ways. First, when women voluntarily
prostitute themselves to Incubus devils. Secondly, when
men have connexion with Succubus devils; yet it does not
appear that men thus devilishly fornicate with the same
full degree of culpability; for men, being by nature
intellectually stronger than women, are more apt to
abhor such practises.
There is in
the town of Coblenz a poor man who is bewitched in this
way. In the presence of his wife he is in the habit of
acting after the manner of men with women, that is to
say, of practising coition, as it were, and he continues
to do this repeatedly, nor have the cries and urgent
appeals of his wife any effect in making him desist. And
after he has fornicated thus two or three times, he
bawls out, “We are going to start all over again”;
when actually there is no person visible to mortal sight
lying with him. And after an incredible number of such
bouts, the poor man at last sinks to the floor utterly
exhausted. When he has recovered his strength a little
and is asked how this happened to him, and whether he
has had any women with him, he answers that he saw
nothing, but his mind is in some way possessed so that
he can by no means refrain from such priapism. And
indeed he harbours a great suspicion that a certain
woman bewitched him in this way, because he had offended
her, and she had cursed him with threatening words,
telling him what she would like to happen to him.
But there are
no laws or ministers of justice which can proceed to the
avenging of so great a crime with no other warrant than
a vague charge or a grave suspicion; for it is held that
no one ought to be condemned unless he has been
convicted by his own confession, or by the evidence of
three trustworthy witnesses, since the mere fact of the
crime coupled with even the gravest suspicions against
some person is not sufficient to warrant the punishment
of that person. But this matter will be dealt with
later.
As for
instances where young maidens are molested by Incubus
devils in this way, it would take too long to mention
even those that have been known to happen in our own
time, for there are very many well-attested stories of
such bewitchments. But the great difficulty of finding a
remedy for such afflictions can be illustrated from a
story told by Thomas of Brabant in his Book on Bees.
I saw, he
writes, and heard the confession of a virgin in a
religious habit, who said at first that she had never
been a consenting party to fornication, but at the same
time have been known in this way. This I could not
believe, but narrowly charged and exhorted her, with the
most solemn adjurations, to speak the truth on peril of
her very soul. At last, weeping bitterly, she
acknowledged that she had been corrupted rather in mind
than in body; and that though she had afterwards grieved
almost to death, and had daily confessed with tears, yet
by no device or study or art could she be delivered from
an Incubus devil, nor yet by the sign of the Cross, nor
by Holy Water, which are specially ordained for the
expulsion of devils, nor even by the Sacrament of the
Body of Our Lord, which even the Angels fear. But at
last after many years of prayer and fasting she was
delivered.
It may be
believed (saving a better judgement) that, after she
repented and confessed her sin, the Incubus devil should
be regarded rather in the light of a punishment for sin
than as a sin in itself.
A devout nun,
named Christina, in the Low Country of the Duchy of
Brabant, told me the following concerning this same
woman. On the vigil of one Pentacost the woman came to
her complaining that she dared not take the Sacrament
because of the importunate molestation of a devil.
Christina, pitying her, said: “Go, and rest assured
that you will receive the Body of Our Lord to-morrow;
for I will take your punishment upon myself.” So she
went away joyfully, and after praying the night slept in
peace, and rose up in the morning and communicated in
all tranquility of the soul. But Christina, not thinking
of the punishment she had taken upon herself, went to
her rest in the evening, and as she lay in bed hear, as
it were, a violent attack being made upon her; and,
seizing whatever it was by the throat, tried to throw it
off. She lay down again, but was again molested, and
rose up in terror; and this happened many times, whilst
all the straw of her bed was turned over and thrown
about everywhere, so at length she perceived that she
was being persecuted by the malice of a devil. Thereupon
she left her pallet, and passed a sleepless night; and
when she wished to pray, she was so tormented by the
devil that she said she had never suffered so much
before. In the morning, therefore, saying to the other
woman, “I renounce your punishment, and I am hardly
alive to renounce it,” she escaped from the violence
of that wicked tempter. From this it can be seen how
difficult it is to cure this sort of evil, whether or
not it is due to witchcraft.
However,
there are still some means by which these devils may be
driven away, of which Nider writes in his Formicarius.
He says that there are five ways by which girls or men
can be delivered: first, by Sacramental Confession;
second, by the Sacred Sign of the Cross, or by the
recital of the Angelic Salutation; third, by the use of
exorcisms; fourth, by moving to another place; and
fifth, by means of excommunication prudently employed by
holy men. It is evident from what has been said that the
first two methods did not avail the nun; but they are
not on that account to be neglected, for that which
cures one person does not necessarily cure another, and
conversely. And it is a recorded fact that Incubus
devils have often been driven away by the Lord's Prayer,
or by the sprinkling of Holy Water, and also especially
by the Angelic Salutation.
For S.
Caesarius tells in his Dialogue that, after a
certain priest had hanged himself, his concubine entered
a convent, where she was carnally solicited by an
Incubus. She drove him away by crossing herself and
using Holy Water, yet he immediately returned. But when
she recited the Angelic Salutation, he vanished like an
arrow shot from a bow; still he came back, although he
did not dare to come near her, because of the Ave MARIA.
S. Caesarius
also refers to the remedy of Sacramental Confession. For
he says that the aforesaid concubine was entirely
abandoned by the Incubus after she was clean confessed.
He tells also of a man in Leyden who was plagued by a
Succubus, and was entirely delivered after Sacramental
Confession.
He adds yet
another example, of an enclosed nun, a contemplative,
whom an Incubus would not leave in spite of prayers and
confession and other religious exercises. For he
persisted in forcing his way to her bed. But when,
acting on the advice of a certain religious man, she
uttered the word Benedicite, the devil at once left her.
Of the fourth
method, that of moving to another place, he says that a
certain priest's daughter had been defiled by an Incubus
and driven frantic with grief; but when she went away
across the Rhine, she was left in peace by the Incubus.
Her father, however, because he had sent her away, was
so afflicted by the devil that he died within three
days.
He also
maintains a woman who was often molested by an Incubus
in her own bed, and asked a devout friend of hers to
come and sleep with her. She did so, and was troubled
all night with the utmost uneasiness and disquiet, and
then the first woman was left in peace. William of Paris
notes also that Incubus seem chiefly to molest women and
girls with beautiful hair; either because they devote
themselves too much to the care and adornment of their
hair, or because they are boastfully vain about it, or
because God in His goodness permits this so that women
may be afraid to entice men by the very means by which
the devils wish them to entice men.
The fifth
method, that of excommunication, which is perhaps the
same as exorcism, is exemplified in a history of S.
Bernard. In Aquitaine a woman had for six years been
molested by an Incubus with incredible carnal abuse and
lechery; and she heard the Incubus threaten her that she
must not go near the holy man, who was coming that way,
saying: “It will avail you nothing: for when he was
gone away, I, who have till now been your lover, will
become the cruellest of tyrants to you.” None the less
she went to S. Bernard, and he said to her: “Take my
staff and set it in your bed, and may the devil do what
he can.” When she had done this, the devil did not
dare to enter the woman's room, but threatened her
terribly from outside, saying that he would persecute
her when S. Bernard had gone away. When S. Bernard heard
this from the woman, he called the people together,
bidding them carry lighted candles in their hands, and,
with the whole assembly which was gathered,
excommunicated the devil, forbidding him evermore to
approach that woman or any other. And so she was
delivered from that punishment.
Here it is to
be noted that the power of the Keys granted to S. Peter
and his successors, which resounds on the earth, is
really a power of healing granted to the Church on
behalf of travellers who are subject to the jurisdiction
of the Papal power; therefore is seems wonderful that
even the Powers of the air can be warded off by this
virtue. But it must be remembered that persons who are
molested by devils are under the jurisdiction of the
Pope and his Keys; and therefore it is not surprising if
such Powers are indirectly kept at bay by the virtue of
the Keys, just as by the same virtue the souls in
purgatory can indirectly by delivered from the pains of
fire; insasmuch as this Power availeth upon the earth,
ay, and to the relief of souls that are under the earth.
But it is not
seemly to discuss the Power of the Keys granted to the
Head of the Church as Christ's Vicar; since it is know
that, for the use of the Church, Christ granted to the
Church and His Vicar as much power as it is possible for
God to grant to mere man.
And it is
piously to be believed that, when infirmities inflicted
by witches through the power of devils, together with
the witches and devils themselves, are excommunicated,
those who were afflicted will no longer be tormented;
and that they will be delivered all the sooner by the
use of other lawful exorcisms in addition.
There is a
common report current in the districts of the river
Etsch, as also in other places, that by the permission
of God a swarm of locusts came and devoured all the
vines, green leaves and crops; and that they were
suddenly put to flight and dispersed by means of this
kind of excommunication and cursing. Now it any wish
that this should ascribed to some holy man, and not to
the virtue of the Keys, let ie be so, in the name of the
Lord; but of one thing we are certain, that both the
power to perform miracles and the power of the Keys
necessarily presuppose a condition of grace in him who
performs that act of grace, since both these powers
proceed from grace granted to men who are in a state of
grace.
Again, it is
to be noted that, if none of the aforesaid remedies are
of any avail, then recourse must be had to the usual
exorcisms, of which we shall treat later. And if even
these are not sufficient to banish the iniquity of the
devil, then that affliction must be considered to be an
expiatory punishment for sin, which should be borne in
all meekness, as are other ills of this sort which
oppress us that they may, as it were, drive us to seek
God.
But it must
also be remarked that sometimes persons only think they
are molested by an Incubus when they are not so
actually; and this is more apt to be the case with women
than with men, for they are more timid and liable to
imagine extraordinary things.
In this
connexion William of Paris is often quoted. He says:
Many phantastical apparitions occur to person suffering
fro a melancholy disease, especially to women, as is
shown by their dreams and visions. And the reason for
this, as physicians know, is that women's souls are by
nature far more easily and lightly impressionable than
men's souls. And he adds: I know that I have seen a
woman who thought that a devil copulated with her from
inside, and said she was physically conscious of such
incredible things.
At time also
women think they have been made pregnant by an Incubus,
and their bellies grow to an enormous size; but when the
time of parturition comes, their swelling is relieved by
no more than the expulsion of a great quantity of wind.
For by taking ants' eggs in drink, or the seeds of
spurge or of the black pine, an incredible amount of
wind and flatulence is generated in the human stomach.
And it is very easy for the devil to cause these and
even greater disorders in the stomach. This has been set
down in order that too easy credence should not be given
to women, but only to those whom experience has shown to
be trustworthy, and to those who, by sleeping in their
beds or near them, know for a fact that such things as
we have spoken of are true.
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