{"collection":"Paganism & Neopaganism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/pag/mm/mm02a12a.htm","path":"pag/mm/mm02a12a.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/pag/mm/mm02a12a.htm","text":"Of the Way how in Particular they Afflict Men with Other Like Infirmities.\nBut who can reckon the number of infirmities which they have inflicted upon\nmen, such as blindness, the sharpest pains, and contortions of the body?\nYet we shall set down a few examples which we have seen with our eyes, or\nhave been related to one of us Inquisitors.\nWhen an inquisition was being held on some witches in the town of Innsbruck,\nthe following case, among others, was brought to light. A certain honest\nwoman who had been legally married to one of the household of the Archduke\nformally deposed the following. In the time of her maidenhood she had been\nin the service of one of the citizens, whose wife became afflicted with\ngrievous pains in the head; and a woman came who said she could cure her,\nand so began certain incantations and rites which she said would assuage the\npains. And I carefully watched (said this woman) what she did, and saw that,\nagainst the nature of water poured into a vase, she caused water to rise in\nits vessel, together with other ceremonies which there is no need to mention.\nAnd considering that the pains in my mistress' head were not assuaged by\nthese means, I addressed the witch in some indignation with these words:\n\u201cI do not know what you are doing, but whatever it is, it is witchcraft,\nand you are doing it for your own profit.\u201d Then the witch at once\nreplied: \u201cYou will know in three days whether I am a witch or not.\u201d\nAnd so it proved; for on the third day when I sat down and took up a spindle,\nI suddenly felt a terrible pain in my body. First it was inside me, so that\nit seemed that there was no part of my body in which I did not feel horrible\nshooting pains; then it seemed to me just as if burning coals were being\ncontinually heaped upon my head; thirdly, from the crown of my head to the\nsoles of my feet there was no place large enough for a pinprick that was not\ncovered with a rash of white pustules; and so I remained in these pains,\ncrying out and wishing only for death, until the fourth day. At last my\nmistress' husband told me to go to a certain tavern; and with great\ndifficulty I went, whilst he walked before, until we were in front of the\ntavern. \u201cSee!\u201d he said to me; \u201cthere is a loaf of white\nbread over the tavern door.\u201d \u201cI see,\u201d said I. Then he said:\n\u201cTake it down, if you possibly can, for it may do you good.\u201d And\nI, holding on to the door with one hand as much as I could, got hold of the\nloaf with the other. \u201cOpen it\u201d (said my master) \u201cand look\ncarefully at what is inside.\u201d Then, when I had broken open the loaf,\nI found many things inside it, especially some white grains very like the\npustules on my body; and I saw also some seeds and herbs such as I could not\neat or even look at, with the bones of serpents and other animals. In my\nastonishment I asked my master what was to be done; and he told me to throw\nit all into the fire. I did so; and behold! suddenly, not in an hour or even\na few minutes, but at the moment when that matter was thrown into the fire,\nI regained all my former health.\nAnd much more was deposed against the wife of the citizen in whose service\nthis woman had been, by reason of which she was not lightly but very\nstrongly suspected, and especially because she had used great familiarity\nwith known witches. It is presumed that, having knowledge of the spell of\nwitchcraft hidden in the loaf, she had told it to her husband; and then, in\nthe way described, the maid-servant recovered her health.\nTo bring so great a crime into detestation, it is well that we should tell\nhow another person, also a woman, was bewitched in the same town. An honest\nmarried woman deposed the following an oath.\nBehind my house (she said) I have a greenhouse, and my neighbour's garden\nborders on it. One day I noticed that a passage had been made from my\nneighbour's garden to my greenhouse, not without some damage being cause;\nand as I was standing in the door of my greenhouse reckoning to myself and\nbemoaning both the passage and the damage, my neighbour suddenly came up and\nasked if I suspected her. But I was frightened because of her bad reputation,\nand only answered, \u201cThe footprints on the grass are proof of the\ndamage.\u201d Then she was indignant because I had not, as she hoped,\naccused her with the actionable words, and went away murmuring; and though\nI could hear her words, I could not understand them. After a few days I\nbecame very ill with pains in the stomach, and the sharpest twinges shooting\nfrom my left side to my right, and conversely, as if two swords or knives\nwere thrust through my breast; whence day and night I disturbed all the\nneighbours with my cries. And when they came from all sides to console me,\nit happened that a certain clay-worker, who was engaged in an adulterous\nintrigue with the witch, my neighbour, coming to visit me, took pity on my\nillness, and after a few words of comfort went away. But the next day he\nreturned in a hurry, and, after consoling me, added: \u201cI am going to\ntest whether your illness is due to witchcraft, and if I find that it is, I\nshall restore your health.\u201d So he took some molten lead and, while I\nwas lying in bed, poured it into a bowl of water which he placed on my body.\nAnd when the lead solidified into a certain image and various shapes, he\nsaid: \u201cSee! your illness has been caused by witchcraft; and one of the\ninstruments of that witchcraft is hidden under the threshold of your house\ndoor. Let us go, then, and remove it, and you will feel better.\u201d So my\nhusband and he went to remove the charm; and the clay-worker, taking up the\nthreshold, told my husband to put his hand into the hold which then appeared,\nand take out whatever he found; and he did so. And first he brought out a\nwaxen image about a palm long, perforated all over, and pierced through the\nsides with two needles, just in the same way that I felt the stabbing pains\nfrom side to side; and then little bags containing all sorts of things, such\nas grains and seeds and bones. And when all these things were burned, I\nbecame better, but not entirely well. For although the shootings and twinges\nstopped, and I quite regained my appetite for food, yet even now I am by no\nmeans fully restored to health. \u2014 And when we asked her why it was\nthat she had not been completely restored, she answered: There are some\nother instruments of witchcraft hidden away which I cannot find. And when I\nasked the man how he knew where the first instruments were hidden, he\nanswered: \u201cI knew this through the love which prompts a friend to tell\nthings to a friend; for your neighbour revealed this to me when she was\ncoaxing me to commit adultery with her.\u201d This is the story of the\nsick woman.\nBut if I were to tell all the instances that were found in that one town I\nshould need to make a book of them. For countless men and women who were\nblind, or lame, or withered, or plagued with various infirmities, severally\ntook their oath that they had strong suspicions that their illnesses, both\nin general and in particular, were caused by witches, and that they were\nbound to endure those ills either for a period or right up to their deaths.\nAnd all that they said and testified was true, either as regards a specified\nillness or as regards a specified illness or as regards the death of others.\nFor that country abounds in henchmen and knights who have leisure for vice,\nand seduce women, and then wish to cast them off when they desire to marry\nan honest woman. But they can rarely do this without incurring the\nvengeance of some witchcraft upon themselves or their wives. For when those\nwomen see themselves despised, they persist in tormenting not so much the\nhusband as the wife, in the fond hope that, if the wife should die, the\nhusband would return to his former mistress.\nFor when a cook of the Archduke had married an honest girl from a foreign\ncountry, a witch, who had been his mistress, met them in the public road and,\nin the hearing of other honest people, foretold the bewitching and death of\nthe girl, stretching out her hand and saying: \u201cNot for long will you\nrejoice in your husband.\u201d And at once, on the following day, she took\nto her bed, and after a few days paid the debt of all flesh, exclaiming just\nas she expired: Lo! thus I die, because that woman, with God's permission,\nhas killed me by her witchcraft; yet verily I go to another and better\nmarriage with God.\nIn the same way, according to the evidence of public report, a certain\nsoldier was slain by witchcraft, and many others whom I omit to mention.\nBut among them there was a well-known gentleman, whom his mistress wished\nto come to her on one occasion to pass the night; but he sent his servant\nto tell her that he could not visit her that night because he was busy. She\npromptly flew into a rage, and said to the servant: Go and tell your master\nthat he will not trouble me for long. On the very next day he was taken ill,\nand he was buried within a week.\nAnd there are witches who can bewitch their judges by a mere look or glance\nfrom their eyes, and publicly boast that they cannot be punished; and when\nmalefactors have been imprisoned for their crimes, and exposed to the\nseverest torture to make them tell the truth, these witches can endow them\nwith such an obstinacy of preserving silence that they are unable to lay\nbare their crimes.\nAnd there are some who, in order to accomplish their evil charms and spells,\nbeat and stab the Crucifix, and utter the filthiest words against the Purity\nof the Most Glorious Virgin MARY, casting the foulest aspersions on the\nNativity of Our Saviour from Her inviolate womb. It is not expedient to\nrepeat those vile words, nor yet to describe their detestable crimes, as the\nnarrative would give too great offence to the ears of the pious; but they\nare all kept and preserved in writing, detailing the manner in which a\ncertain baptized Jewess had instructed other young girls. And one of them,\nnamed Walpurgis, being in the same year at the point of death, and being\nurged by those who stood round her to confess her sins, exclaimed: I have\ngiven myself body and soul to the devil; there is no hope of forgiveness for\nme; and so died.\nThese particulars have not been written to the shame, but rather to the\npraise and glory of the most illustrious Archduke. For he was truly a\nCatholic Prince, and laboured very zealously with the Church at Brixen to\nexterminate witches. But they are written rather in hate and loathing of so\ngreat a crime, and that men may not cease to avenge their wrongs, and the\ninsults and offences these wretches offer to the Creator and our Holy Faith,\nto say nothing of the temporal losses which they cause. For this is their\ngreatest and gravest crime, namely, that they abjure the Faith.\nNext: Chapter XIII How Witch Midwives commit most Horrid Crimes when they either Kill Children or Offer them to Devils in most Accursed Wise.","title":"Malleus Maleficarum Part 2 Chapter XII","type":"page"}