Medieval people in Europe were a superstitious lot. As unexplained phenomena appeared in the skies, and plague, famine and other calamities befell them, they looked for explanations from the Church. A belief in witchcraft and sorcery flourished as a result. You might wonder what would cause such panic-stricken beliefs among masses of people. It would be wrong to say medieval people acted without reason; within their realm of understanding, they remained unaware of certain scientific concepts we take for granted today. Altered perspectives allowed the birth of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment later in society, but for most of the medieval period, whenever tragedy took hold, many blamed witches. Views about the potency of witchcraft and sorcery extended into later periods evidenced by the hysteria of the Salem witch trials in the late 17th century.
During the late Middle Ages in
1486, two Dominican monks Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger created the Malleus Maleficarum or Hammer of the Witches, summarizing over 200
years of thought about medieval witchcraft. The text served as a guidebook for inquisitors
in the identification and elimination of elements of witchcraft from European
society. The Malleus Maleficarum
became a response to changing societal attitudes about whether witches were
real. The book affirmed that witches were a valid threat to Christians and laid
out means for discovery and eradication of the practice. According to the book, Christians had a duty
to root out witches and certain groups could so this without impunity.
Naturally among them were agents of the Church and the inquisition.
Why were witches such a plague on humanity? The
book indicates the extent of their powers:
For they raise hailstorms and hurtful tempests and
lightnings; cause sterility in men and animals; offer to devils, or otherwise
kill, the children whom they do not devour. But these are only the children who
have not been re-born by baptism at the font, for they cannot devour those who
have been baptized, nor any without God's permission. They can also, before the
eyes of their parents, and when no one is in sight, throw into the water
children walking by the water side; they make horses go mad under their riders;
they can transport themselves from place to place through the air, either in
body or in imagination; they can affect Judges and Magistrates so that they
cannot hurt them; they can cause themselves and other to keep silence under
torture; they can bring about a great trembling in the hands and horror in the
minds of those who would arrest them; they can show to others occult things and
certain future events, by the information of devils….
Any natural occurrence or accident could be the result
of witchcraft. Who did the Malleus
Maleficarum single out as being susceptible to its effects? In medieval times, you could have been a witch
or afflicted by one if…
You were wearied by life’s trials, which isn’t such
a stretch to imagine given the drudgery of the medieval period. Also, if you
neglected or corrupted your spirituality.
There are three methods above all by which devils, through
the agency of witches, subvert the innocent, and by which that perfidy is
continually being increased. And the first is through weariness, through
inflicting grievous losses in their temporal possessions. For, as S. Gregory says:
The devil often tempts us to give way from very weariness. And it is to be
understood that it is within the power of a man to resist such temptation; but
that God permits it as a warning to us not to give way to sloth.
You had any carnal thoughts.
…Towards young girls, more given to bodily lusts and
pleasures, they observe a different method, working through their carnal
desires and the pleasures of the flesh. Here it is to be noted that the devil
is more eager and keen to tempt the good than the wicked, although in actual
practice he tempts the wicked more than the good, because more aptitude for being
tempted is found in the wicked than in the good. Therefore the devil tries all
the harder to seduce all the more saintly virgins and girls; and there is
reason in this, besides many examples of it.
You were poor. In an age where the effects
of feudalism had reduced large numbers of the population to an almost servile existence,
those Inquisitors must have been hard-pressed to deal with increased evidence
of witchcraft among people who had no choice in their socioeconomic status.
There is also a third method of temptation through the way
of sadness and poverty. For when girls have been corrupted, and have been scorned
by their lovers after they have immodestly copulated with them in the hope and
promise of marriage with them, and have found themselves disappointed in all
their hopes and everywhere despised, they turn to the help and protection of devils;
either for the sake of vengeance by bewitching those lovers or the wives they
have married, or for the sake of giving themselves up to every sort of lechery.
Alas! experience tells us that there is no number to such girls, and
consequently the witches that spring from this class are innumerable.
…There must be nothing in the words which hints at any
expressed or tacit invocation of devils.
Secondly, the benedictions or charms must contain no unknown
names; for according to S. John Chrysostom such are to be regarded with fear,
lest they should conceal some matter of superstition.
Thirdly, there must be nothing in the words that is untrue;
for if there is, the effect of them cannot be from God, Who is not a witness to
a lie.
Fourthly, there must be no vanities, or written characters
beyond the sign of the Cross. Therefore the charms which soldiers are wont to
carry are condemned.
Fifthly, no faith must be placed in the method of writing or
reading or binding the charm about a person, or in any such vanity, which has
nothing to do with the reverence of God, without which a charm is altogether
superstitious.
Sixthly, in the citing and uttering of Divine words and of
Holy Scripture attention must only be paid to the sacred words themselves and
their meaning, and to the reverence of God.
Seventhly, the looked-for effect must be left to the Divine
Will; for He knows whether it is best for a man to be healed or to be plagued,
or to die.
And if that didn’t work? Torture might induce
the desired reaction.
The Judge should act as follows in the continuation of the
torture. First he should bear in mind that, just as the same medicine is not
applicable to all the members, but there are various and distinct salves for
each several member, so not all heretics or those accused of heresy are to be
subjected to the same method of questioning, examination and torture as to the
charges laid against them; but various and different means are to be employed
according to their various natures and persons.
So, if one method didn’t produce the desired
result, inquisitors were to try other methods of gaining a confession, including:
If he wishes to find out whether she is endowed with a
witch's power of preserving silence, let him take note whether she is able to shed tears
when standing in his presence, or when being tortured. For we are taught both
by the words of worthy men of old and by our own experience that this is a most
certain sign, and it has been found that even if she be urged and exhorted by
solemn conjurations to shed tears, if she be a witch she will not be able to
weep: although she will assume a tearful aspect and smear her cheeks and eyes
with spittle to make it appear that she is weeping; wherefore she must be
closely watched by the attendants.
Hard to believe that anyone subjected
to the torture methods of the medieval period, which included branding and racking
could bear up without shedding tears.
And if it can conveniently be done, the witch should be led
backward into the presence of the Judge and his assessors.
A second precaution is to be observed, not only at this
point but during the whole process, by the Judge and all his assessors; namely, that
they must not allow themselves to be touched physically by the witch.
The third precaution to be observed in this tenth action is
that the hair should be shaved from every part of her body.
All images from Wikimedia - Creative Commons attribution license. Quotes of the Malleus Maleficarum take from http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/.
