{"collection":"Paganism & Neopaganism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/pag/mm/mm02a01a.htm","path":"pag/mm/mm02a01a.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm02a01a.htm","text":"Of the several Methods by which Devils through Witches Entice and Allure the Innocent to the Increase of that Horrid Craft and Company.\nThere are three methods above all by which devils, through the agency of\nwitches, subvert the innocent, and by which that perfidy is continually\nbeing increased. And the first is through weariness, through inflicting\ngrievous losses in their temporal possessions. For, as S. Gregory says: The\ndevil often tempts us to give way from very weariness. And it is to be\nunderstood that it is within the power of a man to resist such temptation;\nbut that God permits it as a warning to us not to give way to sloth. And in\nthis sense is Judges ii to be understood, where it says that God did\nnot destroy those nations, that through them He might prove the people of\nIsrael; and it speaks of the neighbouring nations of the Canaanites,\nJebusites, and others. And in our time the Hussites and other Heretics are\npermitted, so that they cannot be destroyed. Devils, therefore, by means of\nwitches, so afflict their innocent neighbours with temporal losses, that\nthey are to beg the suffrages of witches, and at length to submit themselves\nto their counsels; as many experiences have taught us.\nWe know a stranger in the diocese of Augsburg, who before he was forty-four\nyears old lost all his horses in succession through witchcraft. His wife,\nbeing afflicted with weariness by reason of this, consulted with witches,\nand after following their counsels, unwholesome as they were, all the horses\nwhich he bought after that (for he was a carrier) were preserved from\nwitchcraft.\nAnd how many women have complained to us in our capacity of Inquisitors,\nthat when their cows have been injured by being deprived of their milk, or\nin any other way, they have consulted with suspected witches, and even been\ngiven remedies by them, on condition that they would promise something to\nsome spirit; and when they asked what they would have to promise, the\nwitches answered that it was only a small thing, that they should agree to\nexecute the instructions of that master with regard to certain observances\nduring the Holy Offices of the Church, or to observe some silent reservations\nin their confessions to priests.\nHere it is to be noted that, as has already been hinted, this iniquity has\nsmall and scant beginnings, as that of the time of the elevation of the Body\nof Christ they spit on the ground, or shut their eyes, or mutter some vain\nwords. We know a woman who yet lives, protected by the secular law, who,\nwhen the priest at the celebration of the Mass blesses the people, saying,\nDominus uobiscum, always adds to herself these words in the vulgar\ntongue \u201cKehr mir die Zung im Arss umb.\u201d Or they even say some\nsuch thing at confession after they have received absolution, or do not\nconfess everything, especially mortal sins, and so by slow degrees are led\nto a total abnegation of the Faith, and to the abominable profession of\nsacrilege.\nThis, or something like it, is the method which witches use towards honest\nmatrons who are little given to carnal vices but concerned for worldly\nprofit. But towards young girls, more given to bodily lusts and pleasures,\nthey observe a different method, working through their carnal desires and\nthe pleasures of the flesh.\nHere it is to be noted that the devil is more eager and keen to tempt the\ngood than the wicked, although in actual practice he tempts the wicked more\nthan the good, because more aptitude for being tempted is found in the\nwicked than in the good. Therefore the devil tries all the harder to seduce\nall the more saintly virgins and girls; and there is reason in this, besides\nmany examples of it.\nFor since he already possesses the wicked, but not the good, he tries the\nharder to seduce into his power the good whom he does not, than the wicked\nwhom he does, possess. Similarly any earthly prince takes up arms against\nthose who do not acknowledge his rule rather than those who do not oppose\nhim.\nAnd here is an example. Two witches were burned in Ratisbon, as we shall\ntell later where we treat of their methods of raising tempests. And one of\nthem, who was a bath-woman, had confessed among other things the following:\nthat she had suffered much injury from the devil for this reason. There was\na certain devout virgin, the daughter of a very rich man whom there is no\nneed to name, since the girl is now dead in the disposition of Divine mercy,\nand we would not that his thought should be perverted by evil; and the witch\nwas ordered to seduce her by inviting her to her house on some Feast Day, in\norder that the devil himself, in the form of a young man, might speak with\nher. And although she had tried very often to accomplish this, yet whenever\nshe had spoken to the young girl, she had protected herself with the sign of\nthe Holy Cross. And no one can doubt that she did this at the instigation of\na holy Angel, to repel the works of the devil.\nAnother virgin living in the diocese of Strasburg confessed to one of us\nthat she was alone on a certain Sunday in her father's house, when an old\nwoman of that town came to visit here and, among other scurrilous words,\nmade the following proposition; that, if she liked, she would take her to a\nplace where there were some young men unknown to all the townsmen. And when,\nsaid the virgin, I consented, and followed her to her house, the old woman\nsaid, \u201cSee, we go upstairs to an upper room where the young men are;\nbut take care not to make the sign of the Cross.\u201d I gave her my\npromise not to do so, and as she was going up before me and I was going up\nthe stairs, I secretly crossed myself. At the top of the stairs, when we\nwere both standing outside the room, the hag turned angrily upon me with a\nhorrible countenance, and looking at me said, \u201cCurse you! Why did you\ncross yourself? Go away from here. Depart in the name of the devil.\u201d\nAnd so I returned unharmed to my home.\nIt can be seen from this how craftily that old enemy labours in the\nseduction of souls. For it was in this way that the bath-woman whom we have\nmentioned, and who was burned, confessed that she had been seduced by some\nold women. A different method, however, was used in the case of her\ncompanion witch, who had met the devil in human form on the road while she\nherself was going to visit her lover for the purpose of fornication. And\nwhen the Incubus devil had seen her, and has asked her whether she\nrecognized him, and she had said that she did not, he had answered\" \u201cI\nam the devil; and if you wish, I will always be ready at your pleasure, and\nwill not fail you in any necessity.\u201d And when she had consented, she\ncontinued for eighteen years, up to the end of her life, to practise\ndiabolical filthiness with him, together with a total abnegation of the\nFaith as a necessary condition.\nThere is also a third method of temptation through the way of sadness and\npoverty. For when girls have been corrupted, and have been scorned by their\nlovers after they have immodestly copulated with them in the hope and\npromise of marriage with them, and have found themselves disappointed in all\ntheir hopes and everywhere despised, they turn to the help and protection of\ndevils; either for the sake of vengeance by bewitching those lovers or the\nwives they have married, or for the sake of giving themselves up to every\nsort of lechery. Alas! experience tells us that there is no number to such\ngirls, and consequently the witches that spring from this class are\ninnumerable. Let us give a few out of many examples.\nThere is a place in the diocese of Brixen where a young man deposed the\nfollowing facts concerning the bewitchment of his wife.\n\u201cIn the time of my youth I loved a girl who importuned me to marry her;\nbut I refused her and married another girl from another country. But wishing\nfor friendship's sake to please her, I invited her to the wedding. She came,\nand while the other honest women were wishing us luck and offering gifts,\nshe raised her hand and, in the hearing of the other women who were standing\nround, said, You will have few days of health after to-day. My bride was\nfrightened, since she did not know her (for, as I have said, I had married\nher from another country), and asked the bystanders who she was who had\nthreatened her in that way; and they said that she was a loose and vagrom\nwoman. None the less, it happened just as she had said. For after a few days\nmy wife was so bewitched that she lost the use of all her limbs, and even\nnow, after ten years, the effects of witchcraft can be seen on her body.\u201d\nIf we were to collect all the similar instances which have occurred in one\ntown of that diocese, it would take a whole book; but they are written and\npreserved at the house of the Bishop of Brixen, who still lives to testify\nto their truth, astounding and unheard-of though they are.\nBut we must not pass over in silence one unheard-of and astonishing instance.\nA certain high-born Count in the ward of Westerich, in the diocese of\nStrasburg, married a noble girl of equal birth; but after he had celebrated\nthe wedding, he was for three years unable to know her carnally, on account,\nas the event proved, of a certain charm which prevented him. In great\nanxiety, and not knowing what to do, he called loudly on the Saints of God.\nIt happened that he went to the State of Metz to negotiate some business;\nand while he was talking about the streets and squares of the city, attended\nby his servants and domiciles, he met a certain women who had formerly been\nhis mistress. Seeing her, and not at all thinking of the spell that was on\nhim, he spontaneously addressed her kindly for the sake of their old\nfriendship, asking her how she did, and whether she was well. And she,\nseeing the Count's gentleness, in her turn asked very particularly after his\nhealth and affairs; and when he answered that he was well, and that\neverything prospered with him, she was astonished and was silent for a time.\nThe Count, seeing her thus astonished, again spoke kindly to her, inviting\nher to converse with him. So she inquired after his wife, and received a\nsimilar reply, that she was in all respects well. Then she asked if he had\nany children; and the Count said he had three sons, one born in each year.\nAt that she was more astonished, and was again silent for a while. And the\nCount asked her, Why, my dear, do you make such careful inquiries? I am sure\nthat you congratulate my on my happiness. Then she answered, Certainly I\ncongratulate you; but curse that old woman who said she would bewitch your\nbody so that you could not have connexion with your wife! And in proof of\nthis, there is a pot in the well in the middle of your yard containing\ncertain objects evilly bewitched, and this was placed there in order that,\nas long as its contents were preserved intact, for so long you would be\nunable to cohabit. But see! it is all in vain, and I am glad, etc. On his\nreturn home the Count did not delay to have the well drained; and, finding\nthe pot, burned its contents and all, whereupon he immediately recovered the\nvirility which he had lost. Wherefore the Countess again invited all the\nnobility to a fresh wedding celebration, saying that she was now the Lady of\nthat castle and estate, after having for so long remained a virgin. For the\nsake of the Count's reputation it is not expedient to name that castle and\nestate; but we have related this story in order that the truth of the matter\nmay be known, to bring so great a crime into open detestation.\nFrom this it is clear that witches use various methods to increase their\nnumbers. For the above-mentioned woman, because she had been supplanted by\nthe Count's wife, case that spell upon the Count with the help of another\nwitches; and this is how one witchcraft brings innumerable others in its\ntrain.\nNext: Chapter II Of the Way whereby a Formal Pact with Evil is made.","title":"Malleus Maleficarum Part 2 Chapter I","type":"page"}