CHAPTER XII

Threatening or Beating Witches is the Best Method of Removing the Spells cast by Them.
Argument.
EARLY all witches who have
been questioned on the matter have confessed that the greater their fear the greater their boldness in doing evil; and that threats and the fear of prison very often cause them to remove their spells. In this connexion there are many points worthy of note.
First, however holy or sacred the reason may be, it does not deprive witches of either the will or the power to do mischief; unless God in His great goodness forbids and turns aside such evil. This is proven by the case of a man who used the aspergillum during the Divine Office tosprinkle and fatally injure a woman whom he could find no other way to harm: and we often find lying about the shrines of the Saints broken fragments of thunderbolts which are believed to have been wielded and hurled by some demon. For in no place are the demons more fain to work their abominations than where they can disguise them under the aspect of some omen of blessing. Aulus Gellius * (IX, 4) and Pliny f
* * Aulus Gellius.’’ “Id etiam in tisdem libris scriptum offendimus, quod postea quoque in libro Plinit Secundi Naturalis Htstoriae
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(VII, 2) say that it is no rare thing to find those who, by blessing and ex- travagantly praising them, have be- witched and destroyed trees, crops and even men.
Secondly, the benefit (ifit may right- ly be called so) conferred by demons is never lasting, full or complete; but he who has received it must soon suffer a like, or even a heavier injury and incapacity. For hardly ever do they drive a sickness from one man without transferring it to some other man, so that often they give a man health at the expense of another’s death. S. Gregory of Tours in his Historia Fran- corum t (VI, 35) writes that this was done by some witches of Paris who, after they had by their black art stricken the prefect Mummol with a mortal sickness, could not restore him to health otherwise than by previously killing, with his consent, the son of King Chilperic, a child scarcely two years old, whom his father was rear-
septimo legimus: esse quasdam in terra Africa familias hominum, uoce atque lingua effasct- nantium: qui st impensius forte laudauerint pulchras arbores, segetes laetiores, infantes amoentiores, egregios equos, pecudes pastu atque cultu opimas; emoriantur repente haec omnia, nullt aliae causae obnoxia.”
t “Pliny.” “Historia Naturalis,’ VII, 2: “In eadem Africa familias quasdam effasci- nantium, Isigonus et Nymphodorus: quorum laudatione intereant probata, arescant arbores, emoriantur infantes.”’
t “Historia Francorum.” The first four books, according to Arndt (“‘Scriptores Rerum Merouingiuarum’’), were written in 575; Books V and VI in 585; and the remaining Jour books dealing with the years 584 to 591 at intervals which cannot be precisely deter- mined. S. Gregory died in November 593 or 594. On the assassination of Sigebert, King of Austragia in 576, Chilperic, King of Neustria, had seized Tours and held the city until his death in 584. When in 578 a son of King Chilperic died of dysentery Queen Fredegonde instantly accused the general Mummol, whom she hated, of having slain the young prince by evil charms. See ‘The Geography of Witch- craft,” by Montague Summers, pp. 354-55.
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ing to succeed to the kingdom. The annals of that time are filled with ac- counts of such inequitable bargains cunningly driven by men of old time who were infected with the sin of demons. For when a huge chasm ap- peared through the subsidence of the earth in the middle of the Roman Forum,* it was said that it would never again be filled unless some youth of the greatest promise cast himself into it. In this can easily be seen the great difference between the fatherly kind- ness of God and the tyrannical cruelty and savagery of the devil : for God calls man through adversity to Heaven, whereas the devil turns and draws man to eternal death through prosperity (if such a man may be said ever to prosper).
Thirdly, with the utmost mockery and derision witches, when they heal, imitate and copy the method used by Elisha and S. Paul and Elijah, and many Holy Fathers, when they brought the dead to life; stretching themselves limb for limb upon the bodies of the dead.
Fourthly, there is no curative virtue in any of the external remedies used by witches for the sicknesses they have caused, such as herbs, unguents, baths and such things; but these are merely a cover for their witchcraft which, through fear of the severity of the law, they dare not show openly.
Fifthly, so tenacious is the demon’s hold that he does not easily let go when once he has gripped. Therefore when, at the prayer of his follower, he has sent a sickness, it is on the understand-
* “Roman Forum.” When a chasm ap- peared in the forum at Rome in 362 B.c. the soothsayers announced that it could only be filled by throwing into it the city’s greatest treasure, whereupon a gallant youth, Mettus or Mettius Curtius, in full armour mounted his steed and leaped into the abyss which inconti- nently closed over him. Varro tells us that the spot was blasted by lightning in 445 B.c. and was enclosed by Curtius, one of the consuls for that year, whence the legend had its origin.
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ing either that the sickness shall never for any prayers be cured or assuaged, or that it shall be commuted for a graver sickness in another man. Thus the demon provides that in any event he is always the gainer.
w
Examples.
Claude Morell said that the greatest compulsion he felt to remove the evil spells which he had cast was due to his fear of prison, the lash, or any violence.
On this point Remy (III, 3) writes as follows. I was speaking of this mat- ter with one of the Ministers of His Most Serene Highness the Duke of Lorraine, who told me in good faith that at one time he had been informed that his infant son had suddenly fallen ill, and that it was thought that he had been bewitched by a certain old wo- man. He first made enquiries from the nurse who had been holding the child when he was taken ill, and then formed an accurate estimate of the nature of the sickness, whether or not it was of the sort which naturally overtakes children of that age. He decided that without doubt it could only be due to magic and witchcraft; and after pon- dering over this conviction, could not come to any other conclusion save that his son had been bewitched by that old beldame. Accordingly he ordered her to be summoned, and when she was alone with him in the house he at first appealed to her kindly, if she knew of any cure for the sickness, that she would freely use it, and he would not be un- grateful. But when he saw her begin to be very voluble in averting any sus- picion of witchcraft from herself, and obstinately refusing to listen to his en- treaties that she would find a cure, he took a rope which he had ready for the purpose and so beat her on the shoul- ders and flanks that she said she was ready to do what he asked: only she
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required a little time to prepare what was necessary for the work. ‘This was granted her and she was given all the opportunity she desired for ministering to the sick child, and soon afterwards she restored him to health by the ap- plication of certain matters which were not themselves of any medicinal value, but were used as a cloak for her witch- craft.
Remy in the same place tells the following, which is similar: My friend Antoine Blyestem, the public treasurer of Dammartin and that district, once told me that the same thing had hap- pened to ason of his. For he said that, as children will, the boy had wandered from his mother to play while they were in church, and an old woman came and stroked his head as if to pet him, and after blessing him went out as if she were hastening off somewhere. The boy then hung down his head and, hardly able to stand up, clearly showed by his pitiable crying that he was sick. So he was carried home and, when the sickness grew worse every hour, all who heard what had passed were con- vinced that it had been caused by that old woman, who was already strongly suspected of being a witch. She was therefore seized by some neighbours and brought to remove the spell; and as soon as she was in the child’s pres- ence she began to suffer the same kind of affliction as the little lad was suffer- ing; for her face grew livid and she foamed at the mouth, causing great terror to those who saw her and thought that she had become raging mad. When the night came, she spent it in the same bed as the child, at times lying upon him with arms out- stretched, and her mouth upon his mouth as if she were trying to restore his failing life with her warmth and her breath. From the talk of the women who were watching it was learned that a buzzing, such as is made by the gad- fly in summer, was heard at times about the boy; and that they ceased to see the fragment of the Gospel which
was stitched to his pillow as a godly
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charm, though they could not tell whether it had been taken away by the witch or her demon. But the truth was that the boy who, the day before, was thought to be sick to death was found at the dawn to be well and strong. Yet this was no advantage to my friend: for it was not long before he had to repay it with interest when he lost through witchcraft the greatest part of his cattle which was stabled there.
At Dammartin, December 1587, Nicole Stephanie of Saint-Pol was in- duced by a reward to purge the castle from the plague which was afflicting it, since she had a reputation for skill in such matters. She performed this task with great care: but after a sufficient period to prevent any fear of further contagion, and when she had been paid her reward and was allowed to depart, she was angry at being dis- missed earlier than she expected and at the thought of losing the good rich living she had been enjoying, and thought that she could provide an excuse for delaying her departure by casting some spell of sickness on the Chatelain’s wife, who had been very prompt and eager to dismiss her. So without any hesitation she decided to afflict that lady with a disease, so that she might again be asked for her ser- vices in removing it. Accordingly she at once went and stood at her bedroom door and said: “* My Lady, the folds of your stomacher are disarranged: let me put them a little in order.” And when she was admitted to do this ser- vice, she cunningly contrived to shake down the lady’s back some grains of a poisoned powder which she had con- cealed in her hand: and at once the lady was attacked with a trembling in all her limbs, such as is suffered at the height of a sharp fever. Before long she began to feel such pain in her feet that they were horribly curled up so that the toes were twisted round to the heels. All this was seen and noted by the servants; and the woman was seized and kept under observation, and
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finally put in fear of the lash, and threatened that they would not let her go until she removed the spell from their mistress and restored her to her former health. For their suspicion of witchcraft had been increased by the fact that she had been heard to say that any skill she hadin preventing or avert- ing the plague was derived from a cer- ' tain Matthieu Amant, who not long since had been condemned to death for witchcraft, and that to pay for her initiation she had let him swive her and had been made pregnant by him.
At first she cried aloud that they were wronging her cruelly in repaying her thus vilely for her services to them, and threw out threats of hanging her- self. But when they none the less seemed to persist in their opinion, and she saw she could do no good in that way, she changed her tactics and be- gan to ask, if she must needs find some cure for the lady, that they would wait while she tried to call to mind whether she had ever heard tell of a remedy for such a sickness.
Soon afterwards she came back and said that she had found a remedy in which they could put their hope and faith, for she knew a herb which when rubbed into the bath would infallibly curethatsickness: and she begged them not to take it ill if the cure were not instantaneous, since it was not so easy a sickness to cure.
Meanwhile when her son, who was with her, saw his mother thus seized, he feared the same fate for himself since he knew that he was implicated with her. So at dead of night he let himself down by a rope from the battle- ments. But he was caught the next day and brought back bound, and bidden to confess why he had escaped so secretly: whereupon he explained everything as we have told it; adding that he was entirely responsible for causing his mother to look for an ex- cuse to postpone her departure, and that all those fomentations which she was so meticulously applying to the
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sick lady had no remedial value, being no more than a pretext to give the im- pression that the cure was wrought by the appropriate natural remedies. For, he said, she had already begun a secret antidote as soon as they first threatened to beat her; but there could be no shortening of the time which was set at the beginning for the duration of the sickness. Let them, then,wait until the day of the week and the hour had twice recurred ; for that was the time set for the spell, and after that their mistress would surely recover her health, being at least freed from all pain although her limbs would still remain weak. In the hope he thus gave he was in no re- spect found to be wrong: for at the very moment of the day he had fore- told the sickness was assuaged.
But on the following night it re- turned in an acuter form. For, as was discovered afterwards, the witch had repented of undertaking the cure, on the ground that she had been induced to do so in order to provide convincing and indubitable evidence of witchcraft against herself. For, as I have shown above, it is one of their laws that a spell can hardly be removed or as- suaged except by that witch who has cast it. This was the reason then why the spell was renewed and re-inflicted by the woman.
The next day when complaint was made to the son of the failure of his prediction he cursed much under his breath and would only say that they shotild lash his mother as cruelly as possible, for that was the only remedy against her treacheries. So she was again seized, and two lusty peasants went on lashing her with vine birches, kicking her, beating her and shaking her, and finally dragged her to the fire, until she gave her promise to heal their mistress that very day and hour. This she fulfilled, giving her to eat an apple which she had first drugged in the sight of many with a whitish powder. So she was at last allowed to go, as she had been promised, and fell into the hands of the officers of justice waiting
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at the castle gate. For the Judge, hav- ing inquired carefully into her life and manners, had ordered them to seize her and put her in chains; and forth- with she confessed everything as it had happened, and was finally burned to- gether with her son.
Stephane Noach of the district of Chatenois was for three years con- tinually sick and in such pain that he was little short of madness; and de- spairing of all the usual remedies tried by the physicians, he finally turned to sorcery for his cure. There was at that time at Crainvillers a man pre-eminently famous for witchcraft, and to him he went and told all his story, and was informed that his sick- ness had been brought upon him by that woman whom on his return home he would find talking with his wife. The warlock made a chain from some pliant twigs, and told him to throw it round her neck as soon as he came to her, and to threaten her fiercely that he would quickly kill her unless she at once restored his failing health. He went home and saw sitting with hiswife by the hearth an old woman named Parisette of Neuvillers, and as he had been advised he frightened her as much as he could both by word and deed. She at once fell and embraced his knees and asked forgiveness, and promised that he should be healed of all his sickness if he would do as she told him. First, he must not hesitate to eat a pear which she would give him; for though at first it would appear as hard as astone, it was not really so, for when he rubbed it it would become as soft as if it had been well cooked. Then, he must at once lie down in bed; for his sickness would then grow worse, even to the point of death. On that account he must summon two chosen women from the neighbourhood to keep watch over him that night. By the presence of these women this vilest of witches cunningly prepared a defence for her- self if it should ever be objected that black art had been employed, since such a long and severe illness had been
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cured so easily and quickly: for she would not expose any of her methods to open view. Noach said he would agree to any condition so long as he was freed from his great pain. But when he took the pear, he at first said that it was impossible to bite it, since it was plainly made of iron: but while he was saying this, and squeezing it a little, he was surprised to feel it become as soft as wool. When he had eaten it (and it was most unpleasant in taste) he at once felt such burning pains in his stomach that live coals could hardly have been hotter. He went to bed at once, and was like a man at the point of death. His trembling wife watched over him that night together with the two other women. She was indeed by her own affection for her husband in- duced to sit up with them, and her countenance was already full of grief and woe, so that he might see his wife’s real tears instead of the forced ones of strangers. They had kept careful watch up to midnight, when the witch secretly sprinkled them with her Lethean powder, like another Mercury, and put them to a deep sleep. She then took the sick man on her shoulders and carried him into the next court- yard, where she placed him upon an immense bear, which carried him backwards and forwards many times, groaning all the time as if the weight were too much for it. But this was the voice of the demon grieving that, against his will, he was compelled to give her help in curing the man. The witch cried out more and more against the demon’s tardiness, and kept urging him to proceed with his work, saying: ““Come, then, you vile and odious beast, now you are getting your de- serts, you who first drove me against my will to afflict this man!’ The terrified rider of the beast afterwards testified on oath that he had heard these words. Meanwhile the women who were watching by the bed awoke and, finding it empty, made a hasty search throughout the house for the man in their care: and when at last
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they found him alone with the witch in the courtyard, they asked him why he had gone from them without their knowledge, thus naked and unat- tended. The witch made it her busi- ness to answer them first, saying: ‘‘ Do you not see that I brought him here that he might go to stool?” But they did not wait to bandy words with her, turning their whole attention to lifting the man and carrying him as quickly as possible back to bed: but while they all with the greatest effort could scarcely accomplish this, the witch easily did it by herself. In fulfilment of the witch’s promise No- ach, after what we have #= just describ- {| ed, was eased § ofhissickness, fe but still there § remained no § small degree % of pain: and § the reason for § this was that § the inoppor- § tune arrival § of the other } women had prevented her from a _ suc- cessful conclusion of the work she had begun well. She said, however, that there must then be a delay of eight days, after which he would re- gain his health without any hindrance: and so it happened. Being manifestly guilty of this and other crimes, she was at length put in prison; but she broke her bonds in the very Court of Justice, and escaped.
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