CHAPTER VI

Of the Witches? Pact with the Devil. Argument.
HE pact formed between a witch and the devil may be either ex- pressed or tacit. The expressed pact consists of a solemn vow of fidelity and homage made, in the presence of wit- nesses, to the devil visibly present in some bodily form. The tacit pact in- volves the offering of a written petition to the devil, and may be done by proxy through a witch or some third person when the contracting party is afraid to see or have speech with the devil. Grilland* calls this a tacit pact, yet although it is made with another person than the devil, it is expressly made in the devil’s name, as is clear from the examples he gives. Perhaps we should class as an expressed pact that rather rare instance of a German woman who, jumping backwards out of her bath, said: ‘‘As far as I thus leap away from Christ, so much nearer may I come to the devil.”” But there are certain matters common to all their pacts with the devil, and these may be arranged under eleven heads. First, they deny the Christian Faith and withdraw their allegiance from God. They repudiate the protection
* “ Grilland.”? Paul Grilland of Castig- lione wrote his famous ‘‘Tractatus de hereticis et sortilegits, omnifariam coitu eorumque poenis” about 1525. Grilland was “‘diocesis Aretinae (Arezzo) criminalium causarum auditor, Andreae de Iacobatis, sanctissimt domini nostri papae almaeque urbis uicarit generalis.”’ The referenceis Q, 111, N. I sqq. of the ‘De hereticis.”
14 COMPENDIUM
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, heaping the vilest insults upon her and calling her Harlot, etc. And the devil arro- gates honour to himself, as S. Augus- tine notes (contra Faustinum, cap. 22).
Therefore S. Hi writes that the devil compels them to say: “I deny the Creator of Heaven and earth. I deny my Baptism. I deny the worship I formerly, paid to God. I cleave tothee,and in mom thee I believe.”” The devil § then places his claw upon their brow, as a sign that he rubs off the Holy Chrism and destroys the mark of their Baptism.
Second, he bathes them in a new mock baptism.
Third, they forswear their old name and are given a } new one; as, for example, della Rovere of Cuneo was renamed Barbicapra.
Fourth, he makes them [=
deny their godfathers and { godmothers, both of bap- & tism and confirmation, and assigns them fresh ones. Fifth, they give the devil some piece
* “S. Hippolytus.”? Died c. 236. This Saint was a prolific author, but many of his works have not come down to us, and there is much in his history which ts obscure.
ppolytus * the Martyr
BK. I. CH. VI.
of their clothing. For the devil is eager to make them his own in every particular: of their spiritual goods he takes their Faith and Baptism ; of their
bodily goods he claims their blood, as
in the sacrifices to Baal; of | their natural goods he claims } their children, as will be acquired goods he claims a piece of their clothing. Sixth, they swear allegiance to the devil within a circle traced upon the ground. Per- haps this is because a circle is the symbol of divinity, and the earth is God’s footstool; and so he wishes to persuade them that he is the God of | heaven and earth. = Seventh, they pray the | devil to strike them out of === the book of life, and to in- scribe them in the book of death. So we can read written in a black book the names of the witches of Avignon. Eighth, they promise to sacrifice to him: and certain fiendish hags, as Bar-
ae 5
AG
emmy FORE GAP Een = § Oks WES — at g ¥ oe
AW
facag
raul
tolomeo Spina ¢ tells, vow to strangle
+ “Bartolomeo Spina.” c. 1475-c. 1546. A Dominican theologian, Master of the Sacred Palace under Paul III. His ‘‘Tractatus de Strigibus et Lamiis,’ Venice, 1523, has been often reprinted.
BK. I. CH. VI,
or suffocate for him one child every i or two weeks (De Strigibus,
Ninth, they must every year make some gift to the demons their masters
Rmvn — Sak ‘ NN “( = N\ N ‘
to avoid being beaten by them, or to purchase exemption from such of their pledged undertakings as are obnoxi- ous to them; but, as Nicolas Remy says, these gifts are only legitimate when they are completely a in colour (Demonol. I, If).
Tenth, he places his mark upon some part or other of their bodies, as fugitive slaves are branded; and this brand- ing is sometimes painless and sometimes painful, as we learn from examples of it. He does not, however, mark them all, but only those whom he thinks will prove inconstant. And the mark is not always of the same de- scription; for at times it is like the footprint of a hare, sometimes like that of a toad or a spider or a dog or a dormouse. Neither does he always mark them upon the same place: for on men it is generally found on the eye-lids, or the arm-pit or lips or shoulder or pos- terior; whereas on women it is found on the breasts or private parts, as has
MALEFICARUM T5
been observed by Lambert Daneau * and Bodin and Gédelmann.t And just as God in the Old Testament marked His own with the sign of circumcision, and in the New Testament with the sign of the Holy Cross which took the -place of circum- cision, according to S. Gregory Nazianzen and S. Jerome; so also the devil, who loves to imitate God, has from the very infancy of the Church marked those heretics who were implicated
* “Lambert Daneau.” A Cal- vinist theologian, born at Beau- gency. He was minister to Protes- tant communities at Gion, Orthez and Castres, in which latter town he died in 1595. Hts dialogue “‘Les Sorciers’ (Geneva ?), 1574, was
"translated into Latin, English, and other languages. See Paul de Félice ‘Lambert Daneau,” Paris, 1881, and Paulus ‘‘Lambert Daneau et la Sorcellerie,”’ in ‘‘Etudes hist. et relig. du diocese de Bayonne,’ 1895, pp. 573;
+ ““Gédelmann.” Fohn George Gédelmann, Doctor of Law and Professor at the University of Rostock. He gave public lectures at Rostock on the Carolina, and then published a part of these in Latin, ‘‘ Tractatus de magis, ueneficis et lamiis.”” The first edition is probably 1590. They were often reprinted.
16 COMPENDIUM
in witchcraft with a certain sign, as we learn from Irenaeus, I, 24, and Tertullian, de praescript. aduers. haeret., post medium.
marked they make many vows : as never to adore the Eucharist; that they will both in word and deed heap continual insults and revilings upon the Blessed Virgin Mary and the other Saints; that they will gumussseme trample upon and defile and break all the Relics and images of the Saints; that they will abstain from using the sign of the Cross, Holy Water, blessed salt and bread and other things con- secrated by the Church; that they will never make full confession of their sins to a priest; that they will maintain an obstinate si- lence concerning their bar- gain with the devil, and that on certain stated days they will, if they can, fly to the witches’ Sabbat and zealously take part in its activities ; and finally that they will recruit all they can into the service of the devil. And the devil in his turn promises that he will always stand by them, that he will fulfil their prayers in this world and bring them to happiness after death.
Eleventh, when they have been so
BK. I. CH. VI.
It must be known too that, as Remy notes {I, 13), it is an inviolable rule among witches that, when several of them are met together for the purpose of doing ill to some person, and
= through the will of God their plans come to nothing since, perhaps, he whom they wish to harm daily commends himself to God in his prayers, defending himself from their devilish works with Holy Water and the Sacrament; then they have to settle among them- selves which of their number shall herself incur the evil, so that they may observe their contract, which pro- vides that, if they try to send misfortune upon an-
Wis—=— other and fail, it must re- - turn upon themselves. For the devil will not endure that the
injunctions he has laid upon them should all come to nothing. And she to whom the fateful lot falls has to suffer the evil for them all. The devil
exacted this condition in the case of Catherine Praevotte in the town of Freising. This woman had a wish to poison the only daughter of her neighbour Michael Cocus, and tried. often to do so, but in vain (for the mother guarded her every day with
BK. I. CH. VI.
prayers and lustrations against the evil of witchcraft); and finally the devil repeatedly accused her of cheat- ing him of his prey, and in the end the wretched woman was forced to poison
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her own son Odilo, a babe in his cradle.
But to return to our argument: the way to the pact between the devil and witches and the vow of service and allegiance seem to be pre- pared by some sympathy in wickedness between the witches and the devil, which gives rise to a familiarity approaching friendship, and so to a gradual feeling of confidence; and this begets in the weaker party a certain presumptuousness and bold- ff § ness in making requests from # § the stronger, and in the stronger some pleasure in | fulfilling his federate’s re- §
uests. And so it comes that the witch confides in the devil, thinking that he can | command him, and the devi] “=== pretends to acknowledge his power. This has been well and fully proved by Abbot Trithemius: (Questionum. VIII, 5). “Such pacts with the devil are usually vain and empty; for the devil never keeps faith, nor thinks himself bound by any promise, who
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Panayeaaiaasai
Pe U
MALEFICARUM 17
dared to lie to Christ when he said, ‘All these will I give to thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me’ ” (S. Matthew iv).
He promised the sorcerer Cyprian * that he should enjoy Justina, and yet he did not keep his word: for IT Is THE HEIGHT OF MADNESS. TO EXPECT THE TRUTH FROM THE FATHER oF Lies (see Origen, contra Celsum, Bk. 8). But these pacts with the devil are not only vain and useless; they are also dangerous and im- measurably pernicious, as I shall show by the two fol- lowing examples, and by many others in their proper places.
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* “Cyprian.”” “‘Martyrologium Romanum,” 26 September: ‘‘At Nicomedia the birthday of the holy martyrs Cyprian and Justina the Vir- gin, the latter whereof suffered much for Christ
under the Emperor Diocletian and the governor Eutholomius, and converted to Christ the said Cyprian, who was a mage, and who had at- tempted with his wizard arts to make her mad, and presently she underwent martyrdom with him.’ The birthday is the heavenly birthday, that day upon which a Saint passes to bliss.
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Examples.
Remy (I, 9) relates that a youth named Theodore Maillot desired in marriage a maiden of very wealthy family, but was quite without hope of winning her since he was poor and of humble birth, and his family was en- gaged in commerce, which was then despised as ignoble ; therefore he could see no honourable means of declaring his love. Now when matters are des- perate and entirely without hope, men readily turn to any conceivable remedy and engage themselves to fol- low any plan, whether it be lawful or not. Consequently young Maillot approached a fellow servant from Ger- many who, as he had heard, had a demon always at his service, and told him of his trouble, asking him not to begrudge him any help that he could give him, for he would not prove un- grateful. The German gladly ac- cepted this chance: for such were the terms of his pact with the demon that he was compelled within a few days either to deliver up another man to take his own debt upon him, or to have his neck twisted and be killed by the demon. He therefore appointed the following day at dawn for their busi- ness at a close and secret place; and they had hardly met there before the doors suddenly opened and there en- tered a maiden of the most beautiful and pleasing aspect (for so the demon chose to appear at first, lest Maillot should be revolted by his terrible appearance), who said that she would easily bring to pass the marriage which he so ardently desired, on condition that he would follow her instructions: and as he waited in anxious suspense, she gave him her advice. First she said that he must abstain from theft, obscenity, lust, blasphemy and other vices which soil the soul, and must practise piety and relieve the poor according to his ability, and fast twice a week, and not cease from solemn prayer every day, and be diligent in doing all that befits and becomes a
BK. I. CH. VI.
Christian man; and that if he would bind himself by an oath to do all this, he would without difficulty obtain the marriage he desired. Saying this, and having appointed a day for his answer, she went out at the door. Maillot, seeing that so great a benefit was offered him on such holy and honour- able conditions, thought that he need have no hesitation in gratefully and willingly accepting them. But on thinking more and more deeply of the matter, and being tossed between hope and fear, there was that in his face which caused a certain priest of his house to guess that there was some cause for his distraction. This priest approached him kindly and searched out what was troubling his mind and succeeded in persuading him not to sink to any further communing with the devil. The German, thus cheated of his hope, soon after paid the debt of his pact; for not many days later he fell on to his head from his horse on a level and open road, and was instantly killed.
Johann Nider (Formicarius, V) relates that, a little before the present General Council, there dwelt in Lesser Basle a man of evil life and strongly suspected of witchcraft, whose daughter was married and living in her father’s house. At length the old father began to sicken and, showing his daughter and son-in-law a certain casket, said: “Do not move this chest, but let it rest in its place even after my death, or you will be sorry for it.’’ And soon after- wards he died. After some time had passed neither the daughter nor her husband paid much attention to her father’s words: but as they were mov- ing the rest of their furniture to a new house, the man began to carry the chest, which was only a small one, to their new dwelling. On the way it began to grow so heavy that it was too much for his strength, and he called on his wife to help him. I do not know whether the woman opened the casket afterwards in the house, or whether she rashly interfered with it in some
BK. I. CH. VII.
other way; but it is certain that when they entered their new house with the child that had been born to them the woman suddenly became stark lunatic and rushed upon the cradle to kill the child. Seeing this, the husband for- cibly restrained her, recognising that she was possessed by a demon. She was exorcised, whereupon the demon threatened that he would not come out without killing her; and so it hap- pened, under the very hands of the exorcist. The next day, as the husband was walking in public, a stone sud- denly fell from the top of a conduit and, by the agency of the devil, as it seemed, struck him in the face and so deformed him that he no longer looked human.
See how the demon exacted pay- ment in accordance with the pact which he had no doubt formed with the old father, namely, that he should kill whoever opened or moved the casket. Pierre Crespet* has much to say concerning such imprisoned demons, namely, that in serving their masters some are saturnine, some jovial, some venereal, some mercurial, etc.; that they must be approached with a cer- tain ritual, and that at certain times in the night they arouse their owners and require to be worshipped by them, if they do not demand a worse thing.
It remains to quote another instance of how, when a witch attempts to do evil and fails, the evil rebounds upon herself, as I said in my argument. At Freising on the 4th September, 1589, Catharine Praevotte, whom I have mentioned before, told the following with her own lips. ‘Several of us witches met together to plot how to bewitch the cattle of a certain shoe- maker of Freising ; but in some way we were thwarted so that we could not do this. Nevertheless our bargain had to be fulfilled, so that he who was await-
* “Prerre Crespet.”? A monk of the Celes- tine Order. A mystical and ascetical writer, author of ‘‘Deux livres de la haine de Satan et des malins esprits contre ’ homme,” Paris, 1590.
MALEFICARUM
1g ing a sure prize should not be dis- appointed. So we decided to cast lots to see who should suffer for it, and it fell upon Agnes Eyswitz, the vilest and wickedest of all us women. She did not hesitate, but with the utmost readi- ness gave a drugged drink to her twenty-year-old son Peter in the presence of his companions, which soon caused his whole body to become monstrously distorted and deformed.” This was doubtless done so that he might suffer pains even worse than death at the hands of the demon, who never forgoes one tittle of his bargain.
*