{"collection":"Paganism & Neopaganism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/pag/mm/mm02a07a.htm","path":"pag/mm/mm02a07a.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm02a07a.htm","text":"How, as it were, they Deprive Man of his Virile Member.\nWe have already shown that they can take away the male organ, not indeed by\nactually despoiling the human body of it, in the manner which we have already\ndeclared. And of this we shall instance a few examples.\nIn the town of Ratisbon a certain young man who had an intrigue with a girl,\nwishing to leave her, lost his member; that is to say, some glamour was cast\nover it so that he could see or touch nothing but his smooth body. In his\nworry over this he went to a tavern to drink wine; and after he had sat\nthere for a while he got into conversation with another woman who was there,\nand told her the cause of his sadness, explaining everything, and\ndemonstrating in his body that it was so. The woman was astute, and asked\nwhether he suspected anyone; and when he named such a one, unfolding the\nwhole matter, she said: \u201cIf persuasion is not enough, you must use\nsome violence, to induce her to restore to you your health.\u201d So in the\nevening the young man watched the way by which the witch was in the habit of\ngoing, and finding her, prayed her to restore to him the health of his body.\nAnd when she maintained that she was innocent and knew nothing about it, he\nfell upon her, and winding a towel tightly about her neck, choked her,\nsaying: \u201cUnless you give me back my health, you shall die at my\nhands.\u201d Then she, being unable to cry out, and growing black, said:\n\u201cLet me go, and I will heal you.\u201d The young man then relaxed\nthe pressure of the towel, and the witch touched him with her hand between\nthe thighs, saying: \u201cNow you have what you desire.\u201d And the\nyoung man, as he afterwards said, plainly felt, before he had verified it by\nlooking or touching, that his member had been restored to him by the mere\ntouch of the witch.\nA similar experience is narrated by a certain venerable Father from the\nDominican House of Spires, well known in the Order for the honest of his\nlife and for his learning. \u201cOne day,\u201d he says, \u201cwhile I\nwas hearing confessions, a young man came to me and, in the course of his\nconfession, woefully said that he had lost his member. Being astonished at\nthis, and not being willing to give it easy credence, since the opinion of\nthe wise it is a mark of light-heartedness to believe too easily, I obtained\nproof of it when I saw nothing on the young man's removing his clothes and\nshowing the place. Then, using the wisest counsel I could, I asked whether\nhe suspected anyone of having so bewitched him. And the young man said that\nhe did suspect someone, but that she was absent and living in Worms. Then I\nsaid: \u2018I advise you to go to her as soon as possible and try your\nutmost to soften her with gentle words and promises\u2019; and he did so.\nFor he came back after a few days and thanked me, saying that he was whole\nand had recovered everything. And I believed his words, but again proved\nthem by the evidence of my eyes.\u201d\nBut there are some points to be noted for the clearer understanding of what\nhas already been written concerning this matter. First, it must in no way\nbe believed that such members are really torn right away from the body, but\nthat they are hidden by the devil through some prestidigitory art so that\nthey can be neither seen nor felt. And this is proved by the authorities and\nby argument; although is has been treated of before, where Alexander of\nHales says that a Prestige, properly understood, is an illusion of the devil,\nwhich is not caused by any material change, but exists only in the perceptions\nof him who is deluded, either in his interior or exterior senses.\nWith reference to these words it is to be noted that, in the case we are\nconsidering, two of the exterior senses, namely, those of sight and touch,\nare deluded, and not the interior senses, namely, common-sense, fancy,\nimagination, thought, and memory. (But S. Thomas says they are only four, as\nhas been told before, reckoning fancy and imagination as one; and with some\nreason, for there is little difference between imagining and fancying. See\nS. Thomas, I, 79.) And these senses, and not only the exterior senses, are\naffected when it is not a case of hiding something, but the causing\nsomething to appear to a man either when he is aware or asleep.\nAs when a man who is awake sees things otherwise than as they are; such as\nseeing someone devour a horse with its rider, or thinking he sees a man\ntransformed into a beast, or thinking that he is himself a beast and must\nassociate with beasts. For then the exterior senses are deluded and are\nemployed by the interior senses. For by the power of devils, with God's\npermission, mental images long retained in the treasury of such images,\nwhich is the memory, are drawn out, not from the intellectual understanding\nin which such images are stored, but from the memory, which is the repository\nof mental images, and is situated at the back of the head, and are presented\nto the imaginative faculty. And so strongly are they impressed on that\nfaculty that a man has an inevitable impulse to imagine a horse or a beast,\nwhen the devil draws from the memory an image of a horse or a beast; and so\nhe is compelled to think that he sees with his external eyes such a beast\nwhen there is actually no such beast to see; but it seems to be so by reason\nof the impulsive force of the devil working by means of those images.\nAnd it need not seem wonderful that devils can do this, when even a natural\ndefect is able to effect the same result, as is shown in the case of frantic\nand melancholy men, and in maniacs and some drunkards, who are unable to\ndiscern truly. For frantic men think they see marvellous things, such as\nbeasts and other horrors, when in actual fact they see nothing. See above,\nin the question, Whether witches can turn the minds of men to love and\nhatred; where many thing are noted.\nAnd, finally, the reason is self-evident. For since the devil has power over\ninferior things, except only the soul, therefore he is able to effect\ncertain changes in those things, when God allows, so that things appear to\nbe otherwise than they are. And this he does, as I have said, either by\nconfusing and deluding the organ of sight so that a clear thing appears\ncloudy; just as after weeping, owing to the collected humours, the light\nappears to different from what it was before. Or by operating on the\nimaginative faculty by a transmutation of mental images, as has been said.\nOr by some agitation of various humours, so that matters which are earthy\nand dry seem to be fire or water: as some people make everyone in the house\nstrip themselves naked under the impression that they are swimming in water.\nIt may be asked further with reference to the above method of devils, whether\nthis sort of illusions can happen indifferently to the good and to the\nwicked: just as other bodily infirmities can, as will be shown later, be\nbrought by witches even upon those who are in a state of grace. To this\nquestion, following the words of Cassian in his Second Collation of\nthe Abbot Sirenus, we must answer that they cannot. And from this it follows\nthat all who are deluded in this way are presumed to be in deadly sin. For\nhe says, as is clear from the words of S. Antony: The devil can in no way\nenter the mind or body of any man, nor has the power to penetrate into the\nthoughts of anybody, unless such a person has first become destitute of all\nholy thoughts, and is quite bereft and denuded of spiritual contemplation.\nThis agrees with Boethius where he says in the\nConsolation of Philosophy:\nWe had given you such arms that, if you had not thrown them away, you would\nhave been preserved from infirmity.\nAlso Cassian tells in the same place of two Pagan witches, each in his own\nway malicious, who by their witchcraft sent a succession of devils into the\ncell of S. Antony for the purpose of driving him from there by their\ntemptations; being infected with hatred for the holy man because a great\nnumber of people visited him every day. And though these devils assailed him\nwith the keenest of spurs to his thoughts, yet he drove them away by crossing\nhimself on the forehead and breast, and by prostrating himself in earnest\nprayer.\nTherefore we may say that all who are so deluded by devils, not reckoning\nany other bodily infirmities, are lacking in the gift of divine grace. And\nso it is said in Tobias vi: The devil has power against those who are\nsubject to their lusts.\nThis is also substantiated by what we told in the First Part in the question,\nWhether witches can change men into the shapes of beasts. For we told of a\ngirl who was turned into a filly, as she herself and, except S. Macharius,\nall who looked at her were persuaded. But the devil could not deceive the\nsenses of the holy man; and when she was brought to him to be healed, he saw\ntrue woman and not a horse, while on the other hand everyone else exclaimed\nthat she seemed to be a horse. And the Saint, by his prayers, freed her and\nthe others from that illusion, saying that this had happened to her because\nshe had not attended sufficiently to holy things, nor used as she should\nHoly Confession and the Eucharist. And for this reason, because in her\nhonesty she would not consent to the shameful proposal of a young man, who\nhad caused a Jew who was a witch to bewitch the girl so that, by the power\nof the devil, he turned her into a filly.\nWe may summarize our conclusions as follows: - Devils can, for their profit\nand probation, injure the good in their fortunes, that is, in such exterior\nthings as riches, fame, and bodily health. This is clear from the case of\nthe Blessed Job, who was afflicted by the devil in such matters. But such\ninjuries are not of their own causing, so that they cannot be led or driven\ninto any sin, although they can be tempted both inwardly and outwardly in\nthe flesh. But the devils cannot afflict the good with this sort of\nillusions, either actively or passively.\nNot actively, but deluding their senses as they do those of others who are\nnot in a state of grace. And not passively, by taking away their male organs\nby some glamour. For in these two respects they could never injure Job,\nespecially in regard to the venereal act; for he was of such continence that\nhe was able to say: I have vowed a vow with my eyes that I shall never think\nabout a virgin, and still less about another man's wife. Nevertheless the\ndevil knows that he has great power over sinners (see S. Luke xi:\nWhen a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace).\nBut it may be asked, as to illusions in respect of the male organ, whether,\ngranted that the devil cannot impose this illusion on those in a state of\ngrace in a passive way, he cannot still do so in an active sense: the\nargument being that the man in a state of grace is deluded because he ought\nto see the member in its right place, when he who thinks it has been taken\naway from him, as well as other bystanders, does not see in in its place;\nbut if this is conceded, it seems to be contrary to what has been said. It\ncan be said that there is not so much force in the active as in the passive\nloss; meaning by active loss, not his who bears the loss, but his who sees\nthe loss from without, as is self-evident. Therefore, although a man in a\nstate of grace can se the loss of another, and to that extent the devil can\ndelude his senses; yet he cannot passively suffer such loss in his own body,\nas, for example, to be deprived of his member, since he is not subject to\nlist. In the same way the converse is true, as the Angel said to Tobias:\nThose who are given to lust, the devil has power over them.\nAnd what, then, is to be thought of those witches who in this way sometimes\ncollect male organs in great numbers, as many as twenty or thirty members\ntogether, and put them in a bird's nest, or shut them up in a box, where\nthey move themselves like living members, and eat oats and corn, as has been\nseen by many and is a matter of common report? It is to be said that it is\nall done by devil's work and illusion, for the senses of those who see them\nare deluded in the way we have said. For a certain man tells that, when he\nhad lost his member, he approached a known witch to ask her to restore it\nto him. She told the afflicted man to climb a certain tree, and that he\nmight take which he liked out of the nest in which there were several\nmembers. And when he tried to take a big one, the witch said: You must not\ntake that one; adding, because it belongs to a parish priest.\nAll these things are caused by devils through an illusion or glamour, in the\nmanner we have said, by confusing the organ of vision by transmuting the\nmental images in the imaginative faculty. And it must not be said that these\nmembers which are shown are devils in assumed members, just as they\nsometimes appear to witches and men in assumed aerial bodies, and converse\nwith them. And the reason is that they effect this thing by an easier\nmethod, namely, by drawing out an inner mental image from the repository of\nthe memory, and impressing it on the imagination.\nAnd if anyone wishes to say that they could go to work in a similar way,\nwhen they are said to converse with witches and other men in assumed bodies;\nthat is, that they could cause such apparitions by changing the mental\nimages in the imaginative faculty, so that when men thought the devils were\npresent in assumed bodies, they were really nothing but an illusions caused\nby such a change of the mental images in the inner perceptions.\nIt is to be said that, if the devil had no other purpose than merely to\nshow himself in human form, then there would be no need for him to appear in\nan assumed body, since he could effect his purpose well enough by the\naforesaid illusion. But this is not so; for he has another purpose, namely,\nto speak and eat with them, and to commit other abominations. Therefore it\nis necessary that he should himself be present, placing himself actually in\nsight in an assumed body. For, as S. Thomas says, Where the Angel's power\nis, there he operates.\nAnd it may be asked, if the devil by himself and without any witch takes\naway anyone's virile member, whether there is any difference between one\nsort of deprivation and the other. In addition to what has been said in the\nFirst Part of this work on the question, Whether witches can take away a\nmember, he does actually take it away, and it is actually restored when it\nhas to be restored. Secondly, as it is not taken away without injury, so it\nis not without pain. Thirdly, that he never does this unless compelled by a\ngood Angel, for by so doing he cuts off a great source of profit to him; for\nhe knows that he can work more witchcraft on that act than on other human\nacts. For God permits him to do more injury to that than to other human acts,\nas has been said. But none of the above points apply when he works through\nthe agency of a witch, with God's permission.\nAnd if it is asked whether the devil is more apt to injure men and creatures\nby himself than through a witch, it can be said that there is no comparison\nbetween the two cases. For he is infinitely more apt to do harm through the\nagency of witches. First, because he thus gives greater offence to God, by\nusurping to himself a creature dedicated to Him. Secondly, because when God\nis the more offended, He allows him the more power of injuring men. And\nthirdly, for his own gains, which he places in the perdition of souls.\nNext: Chapter VIII Of the Manner whereby they Change Men into the Shapes of Beasts.","title":"Malleus Maleficarum Part 2 Chapter VII","type":"page"}