CHAPTER I

Whether it 1s Lawful to Remove a Spell in Order to Heal One that is Bewitched.
Argument.
ITCHCRAFT is a form
of magic whereby with
the help of a demon one
man does an injury to
another. Now the instruments of witchcraft are pots, bands, bars, feathers, little balls, and such things, which the witch uses in order to be- witch a person: and the witch is usually promised that, so long as those bands are knotted in that man- ner, or so long as a certain matter is buried under the threshold, or certain bolts are barred, for so long will the erson affected remain bewitched; or it may cause death to whomsoever is in that place, or enters or leaves it; and so on. Therefore it is asked whether it is lawful, by unbarring the bolt, by burning the ball of hairs, by untying the knotted band, or by dig- ging up the pot and burning or de- stroying its contents, to break the spell and deliver the person who is bewitched. To answer this question in a few words, I will quote the words of Henry of Ghent.* He says: “It is a
* “Henry of Ghent.’? Doctor Solemnis; died at Paris or Tournai, 1293. He lived in the golden age of Scholasticism, and as philoso- pher and theologian ranks only just below his great contemporaries S. Thomas, S. Bonaven- tura, and the Venerable Fohn Duns Scotus. It has been well said that the writings of Henry of Ghent reflect much deep and searching thought upon the eternal problems of religion and prove that much that has been advanced
Catholic duty to destroy the super- stitious work of the devil and thereby to thwart him.” (Quodlibeta. E.q. 33). And therefore I say that it is clearly lawful to break a spell of witchcraft, just as it is lawful to throw down an idol into the gutter. Duns Scotus* also says (In 4. Sent. d. 34): “If the power of the demon be hindered by the prayers of the Saints, it is well: but if God does not hear their prayers, but the charm is discovered and destroyed so that the demon troubles him no more, since by his pact he can only work for as long as the charm endures, then it is not only lawful to remove the spell, but it 1s even meritorious to destroy the works of the devil. Neither does this savour of infidelity ; for he who destroys such evil works does not signify his belief in them, but by destroying them puts an end to the affliction.”
Ww
Examples.
In the year 1589 a devout young man of Genoa cast wanton eyes upon a woman and conceived such a burn- ing love for her that he forgot his love for God. These two, then, exchanged furtive messages and gifts for the space of three months, after which he was perforce obliged to take to his bed by a grave malady; and it was marvel- lous what variety of filthy objects he vomited before the eyes of the spec- tators: women’s hairs, sheep’s wool, linen, silk, hair-pins, needles, nail-
with great applause by modern inquirers con- cerning these matters is but a pale reflex of
_ mediaeval knowledge and mediaeval reverent
speculation. Of the “‘Disputationes Quodlibet- ales”? or ‘‘Quodlibeta,’’ the work to which re- ference 1s here made, there are editions Paris, 1518; Venice, 1608 and 1613.
* “Duns Scotus.” The reference is to D. 34 of the so-called ‘‘Opus Oxoniense,”’ the vast Commentary of Scotus on the ‘‘Sentences’’ of Peter Lombard, which was composed at Ox-
ford.
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parings, fragments of bone, and no small quantity of iron nails, together with blood. A friend admonished him not to let himself be bound any longer by his pestilent love, and asked whether he had any letters or gifts from the woman. He said that he had received letters, but had torn them up. The other did not believe him and told his servants to search his chest and remove any love tokens that they might find. When the sick man had been made aware of this by some secret voice, he cried out horribly and demanded the key of his chest; and when he had it, at the instigation of the same voice, he threw it into his mouth and would have swallowed it if he had not been prevented. Then he hid it beneath his pillow, and anon lost the sight of his eyes. His mother urged him to restore the key; but when he looked for it he could not find it and thought that it had been stolen. He then cried the louder, yet it could not be found though the whole bed was carefully shaken. At last the chest was forced open and two love letters were found and burned; after which his sight was restored to him and, to his great surprise, the key lay exposed to his eyes. Meanwhile he
began to grow better in body and soul, and soon after was entirely healed. Here it was evident to all that the letters were the spell of witchcraft and that the demon had tried to prevent them from being removed; and that when they were taken away and burned the demon had ceased to afflict him.
A certain high-born Count in the ward of Westerich,* in the diocese of Strasburg, married a noble girl of equal birth; but after he had cele- brated the wedding, he was for three years unable to know her carnally, on account, as the event proved, of a
* “Westerich.” This is from the “‘Malleus Maleficarum,”’ Part IT, Qu. 1, ch. 1. See the “Malleus Maleficarum’ translated by Mon- tague Summers (John Rodker, 1928), p. 98.
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certain charm which prevented him. In great anxiety, and not knowing what to do, he called loudly on the Saints of God. It happened that he went to the State of Metz to negotiate some business; and while he was walk- ing about the streets and squares of the city, attended by his servants and domestics, he met a certain woman who had formerly been his mistress. Seeing her, and not at all thinking of the spell that was on him, he spon- taneously addressed her kindly for the sake of their old friendship, asking her how she did, and whether she was well. And she, seeing the Count’s gentleness, in her turn asked very par- ticularly after his health and affairs; and when he answered that he was well, and that everything prospered with him, she was astonished and was silent for a time. The Count, seeing her thus astonished, again spoke kindly to her, inviting her to converse with him. So she inquired after his wife, and received a similar reply, that she was in all respects well. Then she asked if he had any children; and the Count said he had three sons, one born in each year. At that she was more astonished, and was again silent for a while. And the Count asked her, Why, my dear, do you make such careful inquiries? I am sure that you congratulate me on my happiness. Then she answered, Certainly I con- gratulate you; but curse that old woman who said she would bewitch your body so that you could not have connexion with your wife! And in proof of this, there is a pot in the well in the middle of your yard containing certain objects evilly bewitched, and this was placed there in order that, as long as its contents were preserved intact, for so long you would be unable to cohabit. But see! it is all in vain, and I am truly glad. On his return home the Count did not delay to have the well drained ; and, finding the pot, burned its contents and all, where- upon he immediately recovered the virility which he had lost.
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Martin Delrio* of the Society of Jesus relates the following, taken from the public lectures which have now for many years been delivered at Louvain by Father Robert Bellarmine in refutation of the teaching of Jean Hessels: I remember as a boy seeing at Montepulciano during Lent a cer- tain preacher try to address his con- gregation: but he was unable to speak, and this happened a second and a third time. Understanding that it was not natural that he should lose his voice only when he tried to preach, he prayed to S. Agnes, the patron Saint of the place, and found in the pulpit certain charms of witchcraft, such as hairs tangled together and the like. These he burned, and recovered his voice, and afterwards was able to preach to the people as before. Now if this had been a sin, God would not have healed the preacher when he called upon Him, nor have revealed the charms to him.
The same author tells of a certain priest who was most evilly bewitched and kept his bed for many months, for none of all the remedies which the ean gave did him any good.
ut one month several witches’ charms were found in the bed and were burned: after another month, yet more of different sorts were found and likewise burned. After this with the help of God and of the Church’s remedies he regained his former health. This happened only a few years ago.
Codronchi (De morbis uenefic. I, 8) tells the following of his own daugh- ter: When my daughter Francesca was ten months old and still at nurse, she became very greatly emaciated, and kept heaving great sighs; and she always cried when she was undressed and hated to be undressed, contrary to the nature of children, who how- ever ill they may be or in pain always are soothed when they are rid of their
* “Delrio.”? ‘‘Disquisitiones Magicae,” Lib. vi, cap. 2, sec. 1, quaest. 3.
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clothes, and then begin to play. When no preternatural cause of this could be found, her nurse was changed. But she grew worse, and her mother began to suspect that, because she was a very beautiful child, some old witch had been envious and had bewitched her. So she searched the cradle and found not a few witches’ charms, such as chickpeas, coriander seeds, bits of coal and dead bone, as well as a certain strange matter which is compounded by evil women from horrid ingredients mingled with menstrual blood. A learned exorcist was called. There were also discovered some feathers such as are usually sewn on to a hat. All these were burned in a blessed fire, and the exorcisms were conducted for three days, other holy remedies being also employed; after which the child began to be better and to take food, so that we thought she was healed. But some days later, since she was very peevish and cried much, the cradle was again searched and other charms were found; and when these were burned she appeared to be restored to health. But at full moon, after she had been awake crying all through the night, she was found in the morning to be the colour of ashes and so altered in appearance from what she had been on the evening before, that it was a matter for tears rather than wonder. The cradle was again searched and there were found two pieces of dry nut and white bone, nine or ten fish-bones formed into a hair comb, and cer- tain little wreaths wonderfully and variously fashioned. All these were burned, we changed our house, and applied, through the learned exorcist, several other more potent remedies; and by the mercy of God the child recovered without any natural remedy.
A certain Nobleman was riding his horse in the outskirts of a city and, passing an ale-house, saw there some of his debtors. He determined to remind them of their debt, and threatened to prosecute them if they did not pay. Some of them found
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excuses for their delay; others, who thought he was of a generous disposi- tion, asked to be allowed time to find the money. Among all these there stood out an old woman with a baleful look, who bent her eyes upon the ground as if in admiration of his paw- ing steed, and asked him whither he was going, at the same time warning him not to trust too much to his horse. He smiled, and said: ‘‘What! Do you think I do not know the strength of this brave horse which it seems im- possible to tire, seeing that I have been used to ride him for ten miles and more without tiring him?’ Yet she answered that she was afraid it would not carry him. The man looked upon this as an old woman’s tale, and dug his spurs into his horse; but for the first time in its life it moved very sluggishly, tottering and staggering upon its legs. Wondering at his horse’s sudden weakness, he went home lead- ing the horse by hand step by step, and at once summoned a veterinarian who, seeing the horse reeking with sweat, asked whether it had been over- worked, or had been suddenly made to gallop after a day’s rest, or had drunk too soon after galloping; and made other enquiries about such things as are often the cause of illness in horses. But when he could find no obvious cause of that sort of sickness he asked that the horse be left in his care, and promised that he would not fail in his duty and would leave no stone unturned to discover the reason of the sickness and find a cure for it. The horse was entrusted to the veteri- narian, who led him into the stable, where the horse began to suffer acute pain and, after scraping with its hooves, fell flat to the ground panting violently. The veterinarian puzzled his brain to think of the various causes of sickness in horses, and it came into his mind that there was always great danger in such illnesses when there was any inflammation of the bowels or when the animal could not pass water as often as it should. Therefore
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he determined to examine whether there were any obstructions in its bowels or bladder, and he thrust his hand into its anus to see whether ae thing was there to cause such an ill- ness. For when horses are badly con- stipated it causes them to roll about in agony and to be bathed in sweat. But when he could find no such mat- ter, he began to draw out its genital member with his hand, and found it to be tightly and intricately knotted. First he tried to undo the knots with his finger-nails; but he could not, be- cause the ends of those knots were hidden in the confusion of their coils, and they could only be prised loose with an iron tool. For, as all think, this knot was woven by witchcraft from the roots of hemp, and was thus more formidable than the Gordian knot which was made of reeds which were pliable in every direction, whereas this was made from the root itself and was inflexible. But when the knot was untied, the horse at once jumped up, made water together with a deal of coagulated blood, and did . indeed recover; but it was never re- stored to its full former vigour. Grilland (De sortil. q. 8, num. 16) relates that a lawyer in the diocese of Sabina married a wife but was made impotent by witchcraft, and could not be helped at all by the physician’s skill. So he consulted a witch who told him to sleep with his wife that night, but to take a certain potion before he went to bed; only he was to take great care that neither he nor his wife made the sign of the Cross that night, and they were not to be afraid if they heard or saw anything strange. The lawyer obeyed and observed all his instruc- tions to the letter: and about the fifth hour of the night, behold there was a great rain and tempest, with a mighty thunder and lightning, followed by such a quaking of the earth that the house was shaken from top to bottom like a tree which is almost uprooted by the wind. After this there came much shouting and yelling of men;
BK. III. CH. I.
and when the husband turned his eyes in that direction it seemed to him that he saw in the room more than a thousand combatants struggling and fighting fiercely with their nails and fists and feet, tearing each other’s faces and clothes; and among them he saw a woman from a neighbouring town who was said to be a witch: and the husband had formed a strong sus- picion that he had been bewitched by this very woman. This woman was howling and shrieking louder than all the rest, tearing her hair and her face with her nails; so that the ensorcelled lawyer said that at first he was afraid that it boded some harm to himself. But then he remembered the sorcerer’s warning and took courage again, all the time keeping his wife under the blankets so that she should see nothing. After they had struggled for an hour or more, the sorcerer came into the room at about midnight and at his entrance all those fighting folk, to- gether with the woman, disappeared and vanished at once. But the sor- cerer came up to the lawyer and touched his shoulders and rubbed them a little with his hand, telling him to doubt no longer, for he was now cured. After his departure, the husband was healed and able to beget children. In this case the sorcerer compelled the woman who had cast the spell to remove it, by sending demons in the guise of rioters to tor- ment her. But it is not lawful to re- move a spell by this means, because of the mortal sin which is committed ; and beside the sin, there is great dan- ger when demons are invoked, as will be seen from the following example.
A certain man ordered a witch to summon demons to bring his mistress to him in an underground cavern. A demon came in the likeness of his beautiful mistress and, standing in his sight, strangled the lover by pressing him strongly against the side of the cave, and then threw his body so violently at the witch that he nearly killed him.
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