{"collection":"Paganism & Neopaganism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/pag/mm/mm02a03a.htm","path":"pag/mm/mm02a03a.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm02a03a.htm","text":"And now we must consider their ceremonies and in what manner they proceed in\ntheir operations, first in respect of their actions towards themselves and\nin their own persons. And among their chief operations are being bodily\ntransported from place to place, and to practise carnal connexion with\nIncubus devils, which we shall treat of separately, beginning with their\nbodily vectification. But here it must be noted that this transvection\noffers a difficulty, which has often been mentioned, arising from one single\nauthority, where it is said: It cannot be admitted as true that certain\nwicked women, perverted by Satan and seduced by the illusions and\nphantasms of devils, do actually, as they believe and profess, ride in the\nnight-time on certain beasts with Diana, a goddess of the Pagans, or with\nHerodias and an innumerable multitude of women, and in the untimely silence\nof night pass over immense tracts of land, and have to obey her in all\nthings as their Mistress, etc. Wherefore the priest of God ought to preach\nto the people that this is altogether false, and that such phantasms are\nsent not by God, but by an evil Spirit to confuse the minds of the faithful.\nFor Satan himself transforms himself into various shapes and forms; and by\ndeluding in dreams the mind which he holds captive, leads it through devious\nways, etc.\nAnd there are those who, taking their example from S. Germain and a certain\nother man who kept watch over his daughter to determine this matter,\nsometimes preach that this is an altogether impossible thing; and that it is\nindiscreet to ascribe to witches and their operations such levitations, as\nwell as the injuries which happen to men, animals, and the fruits of the\nearth; since just as they are the victims of phantasy in their transvections,\nso also are they deluded in the matter of the harm they wreak on living\ncreatures.\nBut this opinion was refuted as heretical in the First Question; for it\nleaves out of account the Divine permission with regard to the devil's\npower, which extends to even greater things than this: and it is contrary\nto the meaning of Sacred Scripture, and has caused intolerable damage to\nHoly Church, since now for many years, thanks to this pestiferous doctrine,\nwitches have remained unpunished, because the secular courts have lost their\npower to punish them. Therefore the diligent reader will consider what was\nthere set down for the stamping out of that opinion, and will for the\npresent note how they are transported, and in what ways this is possible, of\nwhich some examples will be adduced.\nIt is shown in various ways that they can be bodily transported; and first,\nfrom the operations of other Magicians. For if they could not be transported,\nit would either be because God does not permit it, or because the devil\ncannot do this since it is contrary to nature. It cannot be for the first\nreason, for both greater and less things can be done by the permission of\nGod; and greater things are often done both to children and men, even to\njust men confirmed in grace.\nFor when it is asked whether substitutions of children can be affected by\nthe work of devils, and whether the devil can carry a man from place to\nplace even against his will; to the first question the answer is, Yes. For\nWilliam of Paris says in the last part of his De Uniuerso:\nSubstitutions of children are, with God's permission, possible, so that the\ndevil can affect a change of the child or even a transformation. For such\nchildren are always miserable and crying; and although four or five mothers\ncould hardly support enough milk for them, they never grow fat, yet are\nheavy beyond the ordinary. But this should neither be affirmed nor denied to\nwomen, on account of the great fear which it may cause them, but they should\nbe instructed to ask the opinion of learned men. For God permits this on\naccount of the sins of the parents, in that sometimes men curse their\npregnant wives, saying, May you be carrying a devil! or some such thing. In\nthe same way impatient women often say something of the sort. And many\nexamples have been given by other men, some of them pious men.\nFor Vincent of Beauvais (Spec. Hist., XXVI, 43) related a story told\nby S. Peter Damian of a five-year-old son of\na nobleman, who was for the time living in a monastery; and one night he\nwas carried out of the monastery into a locked mill, where he was found in\nthe morning. And when he was questioned, he said that he had been carried by\nsome men to a great feast and bidden to eat; and afterwards he was put into\nthe mill through the roof.\nAnd what of those Magicians whom we generally call Necromancers, who are\noften carried through the air by devils for long distances? And sometimes\nthey even persuade others to go with them on a horse, which is not really a\nhorse but a devil in that form, and, as they say, thus warn their companions\nnot to make the sign of the Cross.\nAnd though we are two who write this book, one of us has very often seen and\nknown such men. For there is a man who was once a scholar, and is now\nbelieved to be a priest in the diocese of Freising, who used to say that at\none time he had been bodily carried through the air by a devil, and taken to\nthe most remote parts.\nThere lives another priest in Oberdorf, a town near Landshut, who was at\nthat time a friend of that one of us, who saw with his own eyes such a\ntransportation, and tells how the man was borne on high with arms stretched\nout, shouting but not whimpering. And the cause, as he tells it, was as\nfollows. A number of scholars had met together to drink beer, and they all\nagreed that the one who fetched the beer should not have to pay anything.\nAnd so one of them was going to fetch the beer, and on opening the door saw\na thick cloud before the grunsel, and returning in terror told his\ncompanions why he would not go for the drink. Then that one of them who was\ncarried away said angrily: \u201cEven if the devil were there, I shall\nfetch the drink.\u201d And, going out, he was carried through the air in\nthe sight of all the others.\nAnd indeed it must be confessed that such things can happen not only to\nthose who are awake, but also to men who are asleep; namely, they can be\nbodily transported through the air while they are fast asleep.\nThis is clear in the case of certain men who walk in their sleep on the\nroofs of houses and over the highest buildings, and no one can oppose their\nprogress either on high or below. And if they are called by their own names\nby the other bystanders, they immediately fall crashing to the ground.\nMany think, and not without reason, that this is devils' work. For devils\nare of many different kinds, and some, who fell from the lower choir of\nAngels, are tortured as if for smaller sins with lighter punishments as well\nas the punishment of damnation which they must suffer eternally. And these\ncannot hurt anybody, at least not seriously, but for the most part carry out\nonly practical jokes. And others are Incubi or Succubi, who punish men in\nthe night, defiling them in the sin of lechery. It is not wonderful if they\nare given also to horse-play such as this.\nThe truth can be deduced from the words of Cassian, Collationes I,\nwhere he says that there is no doubt that there are as many different\nunclean spirits as there are different desires in men. For it is manifest\nthat some of them, which the common people call Fauns, and we call Trolls,\nwhich abound in Norway, are such buffoons and jokers that they haunt certain\nplaces and roads and, without being able to do any hurt to those who pass\nby, are content with mocking and deluding them, and try to weary them rather\nthan hurt them. And some of them only visit men with harmless nightmares. But\nothers are so furious and truculent that they are not content to afflict\nwith an atrocious dilation the bodies of those whom they inflate, but even\ncome rushing from on high and hasten to strike them with the most savage\nblows. Our author means that they do not only possess men, but torture them\nhorribly, as did those which are described in S. Matthew viii.\nFrom this we can conclude, first that it must not be said that witches\ncannot be locally transported because God does not permit it. For if He\npermits it in the case of the just and innocent, and of other Magicians,\nhow should He not in the case of those who are totally dedicated to the\ndevil? And we say with all reverence: Did not the devil take up Our Saviour,\nand carry Him up to a high place, as the Gospel testifies?\nNeither can the second argument of our opponents be conceded, that the devil\ncannot do this thing. For it has already been shown that he has so great\nnatural power, exceeding all corporeal power, that there is no earthly\npower that can be compared with him; as it is said: \u201cThere is no\npower on earth that can be compared with him,\u201d etc. Indeed the natural\npower or virtue which is in Lucifer is so great that there is none greater\namong the good Angels in Heaven. For just as he excelled all the Angels in\nhis nature, and not his nature, but only his grace, was diminished by his\nFall, so that nature still remains in him, although it is darkened and bound.\nWherefore the gloss on that \u201cThere is no power on earth\u201d says:\nAlthough he excels all things, yet he is subject to the merits of the\nSaints.\nTwo objections which someone may bring forward are not valid. First, that\nman's soul could resist him, and that the text seems to speak of one devil\nin particular, since it speaks in the singular, namely Lucifer. And because\nit was he who tempted Christ in the wilderness, and seduced the first man,\nhe is now bound in chains. And the other Angels are not so powerful, since\nhe excels them all. Therefore the other spirits cannot transport wicked men\nthrough the air from place to place.\nThese arguments have no force. For, to consider the Angels first, even the\nleast Angel is incomparably superior to all human power, as can be proved in\nmany ways. First, a spiritual is stronger than a corporeal power, and so is\nthe power of an Angel, or even of the soul, greater than that of the body.\nSecondly, as to the soul; every bodily shape owes its individuality to\nmatter, and, in the case of human beings, to the fact that a soul informs\nit; but immaterial forms are absolute intelligences, and therefore have an\nabsolute and more universal power. For this reason, the soul when joined to\nthe body cannot in this way suddenly transfer its body locally or raise it\nup in the air; although it could easily do so, with God's permission, if it\nwere separate from its body. Much more, then, is this possible to an\nentirely immaterial spirit, such as a good or bad Angel. For a good Angel\ntransported Habacuc in a moment from Judaea\nto Chaldaea. And for this reason it is concluded that those who by night\nare carried in their sleep over high buildings are not carried by their own\nsouls, nor by the influence of the stars, but by some mightier power, as was\nshown above.\nThirdly, it is the nature of the body to be moved, as to place, directly by\na spiritual nature; and, as Aristotle says, Physics, VIII, local\nmotion is the first of bodily motions; and he proves this by saying that\nlocal motion is not intrinsically in the power of any body as such, but is\ndue to some exterior force.\nWherefore it is concluded, not so much from the holy Doctors as from the\nPhilosophers, that the highest bodies, that is, the stars, are moved by\nspiritual essences, and by separate Intelligences which are good both by\nnature and in intention. For we see that the soul is the prime and chief\ncause of local motion in the body.\nIt must be said, therefore, that neither in its physical capacity nor in\nthat of its soul can the human body resist being suddenly transported from\nplace to place, with God's permission, by a spiritual essence good both in\nintention and by nature, when the good, who are confirmed in grace, are\ntransported; or by an essence good by nature, but not good in intention,\nwhen the wicked are transported. Any who wish may refer to S. Thomas in\nthree articles in Part I, question 90, and again in his question concerning\nSin, and also in the Second Book of Sentences, dist. 7, on the power\nof devils over bodily effects.\nNow the following is their method of being transported. They take the\nunguent which, as we have said, they make at\nthe devil's instruction from the limbs of children, particularly of those\nwhom they have killed before baptism, and anoint with it a chair or a\nbroomstick; whereupon they are immediately carried up into the air, either\nby day or by night, and either visibly or, if they wish, invisibly; for the\ndevil can conceal a body by the interposition of some other substance, as\nwas shown in the First Part of the treatise where we spoke of the glamours\nand illusions caused by the devil. And although the devil for the most part\nperforms this by means of this unguent, to the end that children should be\ndeprived of the grace of baptism and of salvation, yet he often seems to\naffect the same transvection without its use. For at times he transports\nthe witches on animals, which are not true animals but devils in that form;\nand sometimes even without any exterior help they are visibly carried solely\nby the operation of the devil's power.\nHere is an instance of a visible transportation in the day-time. In the town\nof Waldshut on the Rhine, in the diocese of Constance, there was a certain\nwitch who was so detested by the townsfolk that she was not invited to the\ncelebration of a wedding which, however, nearly all the other townsfolk were\npresent. Being indignant because of this, and wishing to be revenged, she\nsummoned a devil and, telling him the cause of her vexation, asked him to\nraise a hailstorm and drive all the wedding guests from their dancing; and\nthe devil agreed, and raising her up, carried her through the air to a hill\nnear the town, in the sight of some shepherds. And since, as she afterwards\nconfessed, she had no water to pour into the trench (for this, as we shall\nshow, is the method they use to raise hailstorms), she made a small trench\nand filled it with her urine instead of water, and stirred it with her\nfinger, after their custom, with the devil standing by. Then the devil\nsuddenly raised that liquid up and sent a violent storm of hailstones which\nfell only on the dancers and townsfolk. And when they had dispersed and were\ndiscussing among themselves the cause of that storm, the witch shortly\nafterwards entered the town; and this greatly aroused their suspicions. But\nwhen the shepherds had told what they had seen, their suspicions became\nalmost a certainty. So she was arrested, and confessed that she had done\nthis thing because she had not been invited to the wedding: and for this,\nand for many other witchcrafts which she had perpetrated, she was burned.\nNext: Chapter IV Here follows the Way whereby Witches copulate with those Devils known as Incubi.","title":"Malleus Maleficarum Part 2 Chapter III","type":"page"}