Preface

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"COMPENDIUM MALEFICARUM
aN in 3 Books from many Sources by BROTHER FRANCESCO MARIA GUAZZO
OF THE ORDER OF S. AMBROSE AD NEMUS
SHOWING THE INIQUITOUS AND EXECRABLE OPERATIONS OF WITCHES AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE, AND THE DIVINE Pwr DIES BY WHICH THEY MAY BE FRUSTRATED
EDITED WITH NOTES BY THE REV. MONTAGUE SUMMERS + + + TRANSLATED BY E. A. ASHWIN
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JOHN RODKER 7 1929 7 LONDON
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‘ j ¥ b y, . 4 ; aah : E aed Printed in Great Britain by ; v4 RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITE ae Pat BUNGAY res ey i oy fy BRRFOLE 55) a | Ly ae
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TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND RIGHT REVEREND
LORD ORAZIO MAFFEI
CARDINAL OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH AND EVER VIGILANT PROTECTOR OF THE ORDER OF S. AMBROSE FRA FRANCESCO MARIA GUAZZO
A HUMBLE BROTHER OF THE SAME ORDER
GIVETH GREETING
the Court of His Serene Highness the Duke of Cleves and
Julich (who was vexed and bound by many spells of witchcraft), I put together and composed this book which I have called “Compendium Maleficarum” and I have, moreover, filled it with various and most ample examples, with the sole purpose that men, considering the cunning of witches, might study to live piously and devoutly in the Lord. And _ although 1t may provoke the idle jests of the censorious (for what is more difficult than to satisfy every palate ?), yet I conceive that wt will be of some avail to those who would escape the mortal venom of sorcerers. When I had, then, determined to print it, I began to look for a Patron under whose auspices it might be more securely brought to the light. Then, O most illustrious and Most Reverend Protector, whom no one has excelled in genius, gifts of mind and body and countless graces, did you stand out in my mind as one who has gwen public proof that your most eminent courage 1s joined to a like degree of learning, a Patron who, far from despising a humble writer, would rather extend to him your greatest favour and more than ordinary kindness. Having these considerations in my mind, therefore, I was assured that you were pre-eminently suited to act the part of a Maecenas towards such as devoted themselves to the
Vv
(i: T vigilant Prelate, three years ago when I was attending
v1 DEDICATION
furtherance of sound doctrine, among whom I count myself the humblest : and I determined to ght this new-born work upon its way with the torch of your most Famous Name; and although you are worthy of a far nobler work, I venture to dedicate to you this little book which has not been compiled without some labour. And if (as is my hope) you will accept it wholly and generously with that fair candour which is yours, it may assuredly be expected that those carping critics, who will tolerate nothing that does not savour of perfect genius and unremitting industry, will turn a blind eye to its faults. Farewell : and may Guazzo be written among those who are whole-heartedly attached to you.
Milan, May, 1608.
PREFACE TO THE READER eS G the countless blessings which the Divine mercy
daily confers upon the whole human race, and es-
pecially upon His faithful, I esteem this to be the most particular: the power to discover the malice and wicked- ness of our enemies, both visible and invisible. So that, recog- nising their cunning, we may counteract their stumbling-blocks and temptations. And since (Ps. Ixxiii) the pride of them that hate God is daily increased and ever grows, and the venomous Enemy of the human race, whose fierceness waxes ever greater, does not fear to sow in our path the sharpest thorns of sorrow and tribulation and all sorts of maladies, although he himself is fearful of being tormented ; therefore he essays his utmost to increase his own eternal punishment by leading as many men as he can to hell, and to deride, despise, and insult the most excellent and divine likeness of God which has been washed in the Precious Blood of Christ, and to turn man’s freedom to slavery. Therefore each one of us ought to search his heart to keep it free from the malice of the devil; for he goeth about.as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; and even though his heart may be pierced and torn by his enemy’s weapons, yet the devil leaves nothing unattempted and dares everything. When he sees men of weak and timid mind, he takes them by storm: when he finds them dauntless and firm, he becomes as it were a cunning fox to deceive them: for he has a thousand means of hurting us, and he uses countless methods, superstitions and curious arts, to seduce men’s minds from God and lead them to his own follies; and all these he wondrously performs by means of illusions and witchcraft. Therefore it is agreed that this sort of evils has been disseminated to the destruction of men’s bodies
vii
Vill PREFACE
and souls by the devil and his fiends through the agency of warlocks, witches, sorcerers and diviners; and in proof of this the present book will give a sure indication of the truth. And that each man may be able to guard himself, let him seriously read and carefully digest this book, which I have called Compendium Maleficarum ; for just as there are shown to be various means and methods of inflicting injury, so there are various remedies by which these harms may be met and dispersed when they are recognised. If therefore, reader, there be anything in this book which holds your attention and points you the way to a remedy, I lift up my hands in thanks to God, who to His own greater glory, and the confusion of devils, has per- mitted the temptation of our souls that the just may be made perfect and the wicked cast into hell. Therefore the demons — - do but work in accordance with the design and permission of Almighty God.
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
sh: ancient origins of the local Milanese Order Ambrosiani or
Ambrosini, of which Francesco-Maria Guazzo was so eminent
and honoured a member, are buried in obscurity, although the Brethren themselves, perhaps with more devotion than exactness, were ever wont to refer their foundation to no less a figure than the great S. Ambrose himself. It 1s very possible, and even probable, that some old traditions had actually been handed down from the illustrious Father who had taken so deep an interest in monasticism and so closely watched the beginnings of the cloister throughout his diocese. However that may be, in the earlier decades of the fourteenth century certain solitaries and hermit priests dwelling near Milan gradually adopted the cenobitic life, making it their pious custom to assemble at stated intervals during the day for solemn office and united prayer. About this very time three young nobles, Alessandro Crivelli, Alberto Besozzo, and Antonio della Pietra- Santa, disgusted with the licentiousness of the aristocratic society and court of Giovanni II, had sought refuge in retreat from the world, and taking as their anchorhold a wood not many leagues from the city, here they built a humble chapel which soon became the common oratory of a regular community, and this forest sanctuary may not untruly be said to have been the cradle of the Ambrosian Order. In 1375 Pope Gregory AI, who some twelve months before had approved the Congregation of the Spanish Hermits of S. Jerome, gave the Milanese fratr the Rule of S. Augustine, adding thereto a number of particular constitutions, and assigning as their name “Fratres Sancti Ambrosi ad Nemus.”’ They were, moreover, empowered to elect their own superiors, subject to the confirmation of the Archbishop of Milan. A habit was prescribed with broad scapular, a stuff girdle pendent as 1s the Augustinian cincture, a voluminous cowl and capuce, a mighty mantle in which to walk abroad, in colour all of chestnut brown.* The Ambrostan Liturgy, both for
* It does not seem certain whether the Ambrosians (ad Nemus) were by rule discalced or shod. Hélyot, ‘‘Histoire des Ordres Monastiques,” 1715, vol. IV, p. 52, gives an engraving, “‘Religieux del’ Ordre de S. Ambroise ad Nemus,’’ who is wearing sandals. But there appear to have been modifications, and this detail differed from time to time. Originally no doubt the brethren were discalced, but a mitigation tolerated some form of Soot-gear.
ix
x EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION R
Mass and choir, must be followed. The Order henceforth was canonically established.
Of the history of the Ambrosiani comparatively few details are known, and it is hardly necessary here to rehearse them at any length. It will suffice to say that various houses were founded, and that for more than half a century each monastery remained entirely independent, their only connexion being the fact that each adopted the same rule. In 1441 Eugenius IV united all the existing foundations in one Congregation under a Master-general who was to reside at the original convent where in future a full Chapter met every three years. It was found that the old discipline had become somewhat relaxed in the time of S. Carlo Borromeo, but at the request of the brethren this great Saint presided in person over their Chapter of 1579, and with his encouragement the earlier strictness was soon restored. Subjects, none the less, were few, and on 15 August 1589 Sixtus V issued a bull joining the Ambrosiant with the Apostolint or Barnabites,* who claimed the Apostle S. Barnabas as their founder, but whose constitution, as then followed at any rate, had been approved by Rome early in the fifteenth century. The Congregation thus formed was now generally known as the Brethren of S. Ambrose ad Nemus and S. Barnabas, and upon the engraved title-page of the second edition (1626) of Guazzo’s “Compendium Maleficarum,’ the two Saints are duly defucted as patrons in full pontificala.
Outside the archdiocese of Milan the Ambrosian held for a while only two houses, both of which were at Rome: San Clemente,+ and San Pancrazio. In Milan itself their most important monastery was that attached to the Church of San Primo, a parish which 1n more recent years was divided among three other churches, S. Bartolomeo, S. Babila, and San Andrea. The Church of San Primo and the adjoining clotster stood hard by the Porta Ortentale where was the Collegio Elvetico at the opening of the Strada Marina. The religious also served the church of S. Ambrogio della Vittoria, which was built (1348) at Parabiago in thanksgiving for the famous battle won there by the Milanese in
Be a
* The Brothers of S. Barnabas, not to be confused with the Barnabites, Clerks Regular, ‘‘Clerict Regulares Sancti Pauli,” founded by S. Antonio Maria Zaccaria in 1530.
+ Now served by the Irish Dominicans. S. Pancrazio fuori le Mura was seriously damaged in 1849, but has been restored.
t For an account of the connexion of the Ambrosini with this church and the jealousy of the civic authorities who wished to appoint their own chaplains, see the article *‘Ambrostant” by Monsignor Giovanni Galbiati in the “Grande Enciclopedia Italiana.”
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION x1
However popular at Milan, where they were held in high honour, even in the day of their greatest prosperity the Ambrosiani had never been more than a purely local Congregation, and when their numbers sensibly diminished and several of their houses fell vacant it 1s not surprising to find that the question of suppressing the Order was more than once debated. Eventually, on 1 April, 1645, by the bull “Quoniam,”’ Innocent X dissolved the surviving monasteries, including that of Para- biago, which remained, directing that they should be assigned to secular priests. The details of these arrangements were entrusted to two Car- dinals, Odescalcht and Monti, who acted on behalf of the Holy See. It must not be supposed that the dissolution was in any way intended as a censure or reflection upon the Ambrosian. At that time certain reforms were being essayed in various directions, and of these one was the diminution of the very many provincial Congregations and obscurer local Orders, whose continuance involved a vast complexity of business and affairs, whose members were few and dwindling, whose purpose had been served, in most cases admirably and devotedly served throughout the years, but whose day was gone. Even as one of our own poets has said:
God fulfils Himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
The Ambrosiani were not without their holy names. There were Beati in the calendar of the Order; Blessed Alberto Besozzo; Blessed Antonio Gonzaga of Mantua, Blessed Filippo of Fermo, Blessed Gerardo of Monza, Blessed Guardate, Blessed Giovanm, Blessed Placido, and many more, a noble roll of sanctity. They boasted too eminent scholars and writers of renown; the pious and strictly orthodox Paolo Fabulotti whose authoritative “De potestate Papae super Concilium,” first published at Venice in 1613, ran into several editions; Ascamio Tasca, who left the Society of Fesus to follow the more cloistered Ambrosian life, and who rosé to be Master-general; Michele Mulazzam, a Piedmontese, who in his day had also governed the Order; Kaccaria Visconti; and Francesco- Maria Guazzo.
Even the recent and particular researches of Monsignor Professore Giovanni Galbiati, the distinguished Prefect of the Ambrosian Library, have failed to discover any details of the life of Guazzo. Perhaps this is because there is really little to know of the contemplative and monastic life, little to know of Guazzo save what we may gather from his own printed works. The archives and cartularies of the Ambrosiant whence
xii EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
we might at least have learned the dates of Guazzo’s birth, of his profession in the Order, and his death, have been lost for many a century. There remain then his writings, three in number, the fst and most important being the “Compendium Maleficarum,” which was originally published at Milan, “‘Apud Haeredes Augustin Tradati,” im 1608. This golden treatise 1s dedicated to the Protector of the Ambrosiant, Cardinal Orazio Maffei, and the preface is signed in the month of May. Guazzo was indeed no mere prodigy of the lecture-room and the schools, . for he brought his genius to bear upon the pressing problems of a much- distracted time, and perhaps there was no business which more immediately required examination and remedy than the evil of witchcraft. The north of Italy and the remoter Alpine villages had for some reason long been infected to an almost unexampled degree. It was at Asti in Piedmont that well-nigh six hundred years before a soctety of devil- worshippers had been almost accidentally discovered, largely owing to their zeal for proselytism, and in spite of all efforts, both ecclesiastical and civil, it would seem that these had never wholly been stamped out, but that the dark tradition lingered and was perpetuated in obscure and — evil ambuscades. It may be that throughout the thirty years’ incumbency of the Cardinal Archbishop Ippolito d’Este (1520-1550), always absent from his see, this cult waxed strong in common with many another dereliction and abuse. Certain it is that during the tenure of S. Carlo Borromeo, that great prelate was well-nigh overwhelmed by the corruptions of Milan, and indeed of his whole diocese. On one occasion he received the submission and confessions of no less than one hundred and thirty sorcerers. Another time as he was passing through a certain village it was noticed he refused to give his blessing to any house or to any indwidual save the parish priest alone, whom he informed that the folk were, one and all, secret Satantsts.
In Milan itself the votaries of this hidden worship were to be met on every side. They vended charms and love-brews, poisons and philtres; almost openly they boasted of their skill in necromantic lore, their traffic with demons, their sabbats and sorceries, enormously corrupting the whole city.
It was at the instant request of a prelate of rare learning and keenest intellgence, Cardinal Federico Borromeo, the cousin and successor of San Carlo, and Archbishop of Milan from 1595 to 1631 that Fra Francesco-Maria Guazzo composed his encyclopaedic “Compendium Male- fucarum,” “in the which is fully set forth the vile craft and enmity of
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION Xi
witches against the whole race of mankind. Whereunto is further added a most salutary and potent Exorcism to dissolve and dispel all iniquaties and delusions of the devil.” Guazzo tells us that he has been engaged upon these chapters for some three years, and in addition to his earnest desire to satisfy the Cardinal-Archbishop he was yet further induced to employ his pen on the theme of witchcraft owing to what he had person- ally witnessed and heard at the court of the Serene Duke Fohn William of fiilich-Cleves. Owing to the great reputation Guazzo had acquired throughout the Milanese Archdiocese as being one of the most learned, most patient and most acute Fudges and Assessors in the prosecutions for witchcraft, he was summoned in the year 1605 to Cleves to advise and direct in the case of the Duke himself, who as it was feared and proved had been overlooked and ensorcelled by an aged Satanist, a warlock ninety years old, named John, who dwelt at Lauch, in the archdiocese of Cologne. This wretch confessed that by his charms and certain evil runes he had indeed afflicted the Duke with a wasting sickness and a frenzy, whereupon, being guilty in the highest degree, he was, as the law directed, condemned to the stake. However, in the madness of desperation, as he lay in prison on Sunday morning, 25 September, with a sharp knife he infucted a fearful wound in hus throat, and it was said the very fiend stood by him in his death throes.
It 1s not to be wondered at that the whole cohort of witches aimed their utmost malice at the Duke, for he was very active in the suppression of that sect throughout his dominions.* Thus on 24 July, 1581, he sent ° to the upper bailiff at Vlotho, Bertram von Landsberg, a woman accused of sorcery and deeply implicated, bidding the officers examine her straztly “both by gentle means and under torture,” and adding an express injunction that ‘in case of her still refusing to confess, she was to be subjected to trial by water.” It was to Duke John William, his terri- torial prince, that in 1596 Franz Agricola, pastor of Sittard, a strong | opponent of Weyer, Hermann Neuwaldt, Wilckin, Anton Praetorius, and the rationalising school, dedicated his “Von XKauberern, Kauberinnen und Hexen,” in the preface to which pamphlet he very plainly says: “I know not whether any Catholic writers have hitherto treated this subject in German, but at any rate the rulers are not yet sufficiently informed as to the horror and monstrosity of this sin; .... so that most scandalous, dangerous and abominable sin of sorcery and witchcraft has spread in all
* For the wiich prosecutions in the Lower Rhine district see Kuhl’s ‘‘Geschichte der ~ Stadt Fiillich,” 3 Teile, Fiilich, 1891-94.
xiv EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
directions; no country, town, village, or district, no class of soctety 1s free rom tt.”
: Lambert Daneau writing in 1574 tells us that in some districts “‘the witches are so defiant and audacious that they say openly, tf only they had an eminent and renowned man for their captain they should become so strong and numerous that they could march against a powerful king in open battle and easily vanquish him with the help of their arts.” Well » might James I whilst yet he only held his Scottish throne fear the dark Earl of Bothwell. In later years too the boast of the witches has been fearfully fulfilled.
Timely indeed was the writing of the “Compendium Maleficarum,” and necessary. A second edition “Ex Collegit Ambrosini Typographia,” appeared in 1626. The text here is very considerably amplified by further examples and the extended discussion of mice theological points. An exorcism is added together with various Benedictions, especially for the sick, such as the ““Modus Curand: Febricitantes.”’
The second work of Guazzo was a Life of Blessed Alberto Besozzo, one of the earliest of the Ambrosiani, and especially venerated as the Propagator of the Order, ““Vita del Beato Alberto Besozzo,’ Mulan, Nava, 4to, 1625. This notable piece was widely esteemed for the elegance of its style, and brought Guazzo no small increase of reputation as a skilled hagiographer. The monograph was reprinted by the Milanese house of Corrada, gto, 1684. In 1643 was issued at Venice Guazzo’s last book, “‘Il principe perfetto,”’ 12mo.
It has been conjectured that “Il principe perfetto’ may be a posthumous volume, in which case we should date Guazzo’s death “circa” 1640, and it has further been suggested that the dissolution of the monasteries of the Ambrosiani—a suppression determined some years before —was purposely delayed until after the demise of so honoured and famous a member of that community.
Francesco Marta-Guazzo comes before us as a writer and scholar of _ no mean order. In the course of the “Compendium Maleficarum’” I have
counted quotations from and references to more than two hundred and fifty authors, and these illustrations are never those of some mere commonplace book or random excerpts, but pertinent, illuminative, well chosen and aptly employed. His reading and erudition were prodigious. Steeped in the lore of Councils and in the Fathers, both Greek and Latin, the writings of S. Basil, S. Gregory Nazianzen, S. Athanasius, S. John Chrysostom, S. Cyril, Tertullian, Lactantius, S. Augustine, S. Ambrose,
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION XV
S. Jerome, S. Bernard, S. Peter Damian, Dionysius the Carthusian, and many other a mighty name are easily familiar to him. With equal facility will he cite Cedrenus and Pontano; Pliny and the Dominican Selvester; Lucian and Luitprand; Hippocrates and Francesco Mattioli; the Catholic champion, Bishop Dubravsky of Olmiitz and the Protestant Philip Camerarius, the son of Melancthon’s partner in the Augsburg Confession.
Although the ‘Compendium Maleficarum” was at once accepted as supremely authoritative by all contemporaries, and later demonologists have not been slow to commend, apprize, and make final appeal to this most salutary and excellent treatise—the learned and judicious Sinistrari manifestly and formally not merely follows but actually paraphrases entire more than one chapter when discussing dark problems of witchcraft —it is surprising indeed that Francesco-Maria Guazzo has never generally achieved the wide renown and high reputation of a Bodin, a Remy, a Boguet, or a De Lancre. The reason for this no doubt lies in the fact that these writers were also men of action, each of whom perforce from his very office and estate stood largely in the public eye, and wrought zealously for the public weal. Jean Bodin won fame as a politician, a deputy of the Third Estate to the States-General of Blois, Attorney- General at Laon; Nicolas Remy for fifteen years held the helm as Privy- Councillor and chief Judge in the Duchy of Lorraine; Boguet was “Grand Fuge de St. Claude au Comte de Bourgogne’; Pierre De Lancre, the wealthy magistrate of Bordeaux, served as Commissioner Extraordinary in the witch trials of Labourd. Francesco-Maria Guazzo remained but a humble friar, the subject of an obscure and solitary Congregation.
And yet the “Compendium Maleficarum’* is a treatise of no less value and importance than the famous “‘Démonomanie des sorciers’’ and the “Tableau de Vinconstance des mauvais anges et démons.” Guazzo ° analyses and describes as perhaps no other demonologist has set out with equal conciseness and clarity the whole practice and profession of witchcraft. Although never sparing of illustration and detail he does not indeed draw examples from the trials of those whom he had examined and judged as do Boguet and De Lancre, a feature which lends thecr work an especial and personal value, but the “Compendium Malefiarum” may be taken to be in some sort a complementary volume, an essential text-book of the subject, as it were, a tractate which probes and proves every circumstance of Satanism and sorcery.
* Curiously enough there is no mention of the book either in Graese or Brunet.
b
XV1 EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
To the historian, to the occult student, Guazzo’s work is of incalculable worth, and it 1s not too much to say that he can pretend to little knowledge of that evil Socrety and ther horrid devices who 1s not intimately conversant with these pages. It will be found moreover that not the least valuable of these chapters are those which treat “De Remediits Diuinis,” and in particular the sections “De Eucharistia,’ “De Signo Sanctae Crucis,” and “Auxilium singulare Beatae Mariae Virginis,” per Quam, ut ait Bernardus, Deus nos uoluit totum habere.
MONT AGUE SUMMERS. In Festo B.M.V. Diuini Pastoris Matris, 1929.
FOREWORD
LTHOUGH the “Compendium Maleficarum,” both from the encyclopaedic learning of the author and the scientific preciston
of his details, must rank as one of the most important of all Witchcraft Manuals, not only—largely owing to his severe concentration of thought and expression and the many technicalities—is the original Latin more than ordimarily difficult, but Guazzo was ill-served both in 1608 and in 1626 by his printers, for these two (which are the only) editions of the book are marred by a superabundance of most riddling typographical errors. Indeed before the work could be well rendered into English I found that tt was necessary to prepare something like a definitive recension of the text, a preliminary which, tf mechanical enough, has cost me no little time and labour.
To write a full excursus upon the “Compendium Maleficarum,” gwing further and later examples of the many il observances and devices of witchcraft, the transvection of the sorcerers to their rendezvous, the abominations of the Sabbat, the worship o of the demon, the pledges of diabolical servitude, the “osculum infame,” the revelry, the dances, the lewdness of the Incubus and the Succubus, the malice and evil charms of Satanists, all of which and many more black secrets of goety Guazzo has so amply and so authorttatiely displayed, would be to pen a second “History of Witchcraft,” another volume as copious and as detailed as the “Compendium”? itself. However interesting and useful rt would have proved to afford modern instances of the continued practices of this horrid Society I have judged i best to reserve so extenswe a relation for a separate occasion, and therefore I have furmshed this work of Guazzo with a minimum of annotation. Even so I am very well aware that in the glosses will be found information some may perhaps deem superfluous. On the other hand I am constantly being requested to illustrate these manuals of the demonologists by far more extensive commentaries than my wont, so that in fine tt is, I fear, not possible entirely to satisfy every student and reader. In the present case I frankly acknowledge that on
XVil
XVIil FOREWORD
account of practical limitations of space, rf for no other reason, I have felt obliged entirely to pass over no small number of points concerning which I was minded to write something fully, as also was tt necessary for me to treat with economy other details not unworthy of closer investigation.
To the most learned Prefect of the Ambrostan Library, Monsignor Professore Giovanni Galbiati, I am greatly indebted for the trouble and pains he has so generously bestowed on my behalf in making very particular researches concernng Francesco-Maria Guazzo and tn communicating to me important bibliographical and hustorical detatls of the Ambrosian.
My best thanks are due to Dr. H. T. Norman, not only for the loan of many rare pieces on witchcraft from among the treasures of his library, but also for the very real and inspiring interest he has so cordially taken in the present sertes.
MONTAGUE SUMMERS.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
eB Re
PAGE DEDICATION id PREFACE TO THE READER Vil EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION ix FOREWORD XVii SHE FIRST BOOK PAGE PAGE H. 1 The Nature and Extent of cH. 1x Whether the Devil can the Force of Imagination 1 Truly Enrich His Sub- i 1 : jects 25 cH. wu Of Artificial Magic 3 cH. wl Whether this Magic can Sey) ree ean Can by produce True Effects , ther Art Create any Living Thing 28 cH. Iv That Witches Effect their Marvels with the Help cH. xi Whether there Truly are of the Devil 9 Incubus and Succubus Devils; and Whether CH. v The Men of Old Accredi- Children can be Gener- ted Witches with Mar- ated by Copulation with vellous Deeds II Them 30 cH. vi Of the Witches’ Pact with Gi... See hes” are the Devil 13 Really Transported cH. vu By their Terrible Deeds Si he Place to P lace to sid Imprecations Wit- their Nightly Assem- ches Produce Rain and blies 33 Hes, ae ts "9 ou. xm Whether Witches can cH. vu The Power of Witches over Transmute Bodies from External Things 22 One Form to Another 50
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xiv Whether Witches have Power to Make Beasts Talk
xv Whether the Devil can Make Men Insensible to Torture
xvi Whether by Witchcraftand Devil’s Work the Sexes can be Interchanged
CONTENTS
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cH. xvit Whether the Spirits of the
Dead can Appear to Men
cH. xvit Of Apparitions of De-
mons, or Spectres
cH. xix That Cacodemons Exercise
their Magic Powers of their Own Will
THE SECOND BOOK
DEALING WITH THE VARIOUS KINDS OF WITCHCRAFT, AND CERTAIN OTHER MATTERS WHICH SHOULD BE KNOWN
1 Of Soporific Spells
i Witches use Human Corp- ses for the Murder of Men
Of Witches’ Poisons Of Tying the Points Of Incendiary Witchcraft
The Devil Wishes to Per- petuate the Race of Witches
1 Of the Various Ways by which Witches Vent their Spite upon the Human Race
Of the Different Diseases Brought by Demons
Why God Permits the Devil so to Busy Him- self with Witchcraft
x The Laws Observed by Witches in Causing and in Curing Sickness
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VIII
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x1 Witches Use something of Religion in Healing Sickness
xut Threatening or Beating Witches 1s the Best Method of Removing the Spells cast by Them
xu After the Many Blasphe- mies Committed by Witches, the Demon at last Tries to Induce them to Kill Themselves with Their Own Hands
xiv Upon Those who have once Fallen into his Power the Devil keeps a Tenacious Grip, even when They stand Tor- tured before Their Judges, or in Holy Places, or wherever
They may Be
xv A Summary in a Few Words of All the Crimes of Witches
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159
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PAGE xvi The Devil Deceives and
Seduces by means of False Revelations or Apparitions
xvir Of the Appeal to God
CONTENTS Xxi
é PAGE cH. xvi Of the Trial by Single Combat 149
cH. xIx Of Vulgar Purgation by 136 Fire 151 147 CH. xx Of Superstitious Folk 160
Leer ERD BO.OK
TREATING OF THE DIVINE REMEDIES FOR THOSE WHO ARE BEWITCHED, AND OF CERTAIN OTHER MATTERS
1 Whether it is Lawful to Re- move a Spell in Order to Heal One that is Bewitched
1 How to Distinguish De- moniacs and Those who are Simply Bewitched
cH. 11 Recent Examples of the Mercy of God and the 163 Tyranny of the Devil 171
cH. Iv Of Divine and Supernatural 167 Remedies 177
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COMPENDIUM MALEFICARUM