CHAPTER II

How to Distinguish Demoniacs,* and Those who are Simply Bewitched.
iy bape peculiar symptoms of posses- sion by demons through witch- craft are difficult to recognise when the demon which has been sent into a person by witchcraft mingles himself with some unclean substance intro- duced into the body from another source, or arising from the humours of the sick person himself. For as long as such substance remains hidden in
any part of the body, it often happens
that there are no signs of its presence beyond some interference with the natural functions of that particular part. Many such persons however, have debased imaginations, especially in their sleep, and so betray the pres- ence of a demon: but this indication by itself is not enough, since it is com- mon also tosufferers from melancholia. But when the evil spirit moves from one place to another in the body, the matter becomes easier to recognise; as follows :
1. If something moves about the body like a live thing, so that the possessed feel as it were ants crawling under their skin.
2. If the part of the body for which the demon is making is stirred by a sort of palpitation.
3. Ifthe patient is tortured with cer- tain prickings.
4. If it is as though wind descended from his head to hisfeet, and then again went from his feet to his head.
5. If blisters are raised upon the tongue and immediately disappear ; or if they are like many little grains, it is a sign that he is inhabited by many demons.
6. If the demon rises as far as the throat and causes it to swell, and brings on a dry cough.
* “Demoniacs.”? The rubrics of the “‘De Exorcizandis Obsessis a Daemonio’’ in the ‘*Rituale Romanum’? should be consulted.
168
7. If the demon takes hold of his tongue and twists it and makes it swell; or if he causes it to give utterance not to the man’s thoughts but to. those of the demon; or if the mouth is stretched wide open and the tongue thrust out.
8. If he feels as if cold water were continually being poured down his back.
g. An even more certain sign is when the sick man speaks in foreign tongues unknown to him, or under- stands othersspeaking in those tongues; or when, being but ignorant, the pati- ents argue about high and difficult questions; or when they discover hid- den and long-forgotten matters, or future events, or the secrets of the inner conscience, such as the sins and im- aginings of the bystanders; or if they provoke them to quarrel without cause or become so furious that they cannot be bound or restrained by many strong men.
10. Some say that they hear a voice speaking inside them, but that they know nothing of the meaning of the words.
11. Others, when they are asked what they have done or said, confess that they remember nothing after- wards.
12. Some think that it is an in- fallible and inseparable sign when those who are possessed are unable to attend Divine worship, so that they can by no means be sprinkled with Holy Water, nor hear nor utter sacred words: but if they are compelled by force to observe the ceremonies of the Church or the Divine Offices, and chiefly if they are forced to be present at the most Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, then they are tormented far more violently. And in support of this opinion is the fact that they themselves testify that they wish to assist and be present at all these Masses and Offices, and to have the help of holy things, but that there is something within them which strongly prevents them.
13. Some demoniacs have terrible
COMPENDIUM
BK. III. CH. II.
eyes; and the demons miserably de- stroy their limbs and kill their bodies unless help is quickly brought to them.
14. Some pretend to be stupid, and always grow even more so; but they can be detected if they refuse to recite the Psalm Miserere met Deus, or Qué habitat in adiutorio Altissimt, or the be- ginning of the Gospel of S. John, Jn principio erat Uerbum, or similar passages of Scripture.
15. It is a sign of obsession if a man speak in a tongue foreign to his own country, provided that he is not living out of his own country.
16. It is a manifest sign when an ignorant man speaks literary and grammatical Latin, or if without knowledge of the art he sings musically or says something of which he could never have had any knowledge.
17. Abstinence from food and drink for seven or more days is a powerful sign.
18. When some inner power seems to urge the possessed to hurl himself from a precipice, or hang or strangle himself, or the like.
Ig. Sometimes they become as if they were stupid, blind, lame, deaf, dumb, lunatic, and almost incapable of movement, whereas before they were active, could speak, hear and see, and in other respects acted sensibly.
20. It is also a sign when they are subject to sudden frights, which are as suddenly allayed.
21. A man may very surely be known for a demoniac if he is dis- turbed when the exorcisms are read.
22. When the priest’s hand is placed upon his head, it feels very heavy and ponderous.
23. When the patient feels under the priest’s hand something as cold as ice.
24. When a very cold wind descends through his shoulders and reins.
25. When his head swells to an enor- mous size.
26. When his brain feels as if it were tightly bound, or pierced and stricken as if by a sword.
27. When the head and face, and
BK. WI. CH. II.
sometimes the whole body, swells as if it were filled with hot vapour.
28. Some are afflicted with violent fever and headache, and their whole body is weakened and in pain; but all these symptoms last a very little while, since a conjuration takes away the power of the demon.
29. In some the throat is so con- stricted that they seem as if they are being strangled.
30. From the abdominal orifice of some there issue certain matters like balls, as if they were worms or ants or frogs.
31. Some have a great vomiting from their stomachs.
32. Many feel acute pain in their
33. The stomach of some becomes forcibly inflated.
34. Some feel a contraction of the heart, as if it had been unmercifully beaten.
35. Sometimes the demon shows himself in some part of the body palpi- tating like a fish, or like moving ants.
36. Sometimes the bewitched per- son has a face the colour of cedar wood.
37. Some have very narrow eyes, and appear bound in all their limbs, and their shoulder blades grate dryly.
38. Two very sure signs are the con- traction of the heart and of the arms, and when it seems to them that they have a lump upon their stomach.
39. Some have their hearts punc- tured as if by needles.
40. Some feel as if their heart was being eaten away.
41. Some have great pain in their heart and kidneys, and it seems as if those organs were being torn by dogs.
42. Some feel a lump rising and falling in their throat.
43. In some the genital vein is ob- structed.
44. Some are so indisposed in their stomachs that they vomit whatever they eat and drink; but this is a very slight signunless accompanied by other symptoms.
45. Some have a very cold wind, or
MALEFICARUM
169
one as hot as fire running through their stomach.
46. In some the sign is indigestion of their food ; especially when they are given drugs without being relieved.
47. Some have a continuous pulsa- tion about their necks, which seems to inspire them with terror.
Ww
The Signs which Show a Man to be Simply Bewitched.
All the above have been far more exactly classified and proved by Cod- ronchi (De morbis ueneficis, III, 13) who states that some of those signs are common to all cases of bewitchment, and others peculiar to particular cases. He says that the signs common to all cases are to be found either in the cause of the malady or in its concomitant circumstances. Such signs may _ be recognised in the cause, when the sick- ness originates from some inordinate and irrational love or some insensate hatred for another, or from the curses or threats of some witch, or if magic charms are found such as we have often spoken of and are mentioned by Andrea Cesalpini (De inuestigat. dae- monum. c. 22). Among the signs which accompany the sickness are paroxysms, and the efficacy or harmfulness of medicines. The commonest signs are the following :
1. In the first place, when the pati- ent’s sickness is very difficult to diag- nose, so that the physicians hesitate and are in doubt and keep changing their minds, and are afraid to make any definite pronouncement about it.
2. If, although remedies have been applied from the very first, the sickness does not abate but rather increases and grows worse.
3. If it does not, like natural sick- nesses, come on by degrees; but the sick man oftensuffers theseverest symp- toms and pains from the very begin- ning, although there is no apparent pathological cause for it.
4. That the sickness is very erratic:
170
and although it may be periodic, it does not keep its regular periods; and although it may resemble a natural sickness, yet it differs in many respects.
5. Although the sick man is often in the greatest pain, he cannot say in which part he feels the pain.
6. At times the sick give the most mournful sighs without any manifest cause.
7. Some lose their appetite, and some vomit up their food and are so sick in the stomach that often they are doubled up with pain, and a sort of lump may be seen rising and falling from the stomach to the throat; and if they try to eject this when it is risen all their efforts are in vain, although it may very soon shoot out of its own accord.
8. They feel painful pricks in the region of the heart, so that often they say that it is being torn in two.
g. In some the pulse may be seen beating and, as it were, trembling in their necks.
10. Others have excruciating pains in their neck or kidneys or the bottom of their bellies, and often an ice-cold wind goes about their stomach and quickly comes again, or they feel a vapour like a hot flame of fire torment- ing them in the same manner.
11. Some become sexually impo- tent.
12. Some fall into a light sweat especially at night, although the weather and the season are very cold.
13. Others seem to have certain parts of their bodies twisted as it were in a knot.
14. The sicknesses with which those who are bewitched suffer are generally a wasting or emaciation of the whole body and a loss of strength, together with a deep languor, dullness of mind, various melancholy ravings, different kinds of fever, all of which keep the physicians very busy; certain con- vulsive movements of an epileptic appearance; a sort of rigidity of the limbs giving the appearance of a fit: sometimes the head swells in all direc- tions, or such a weakness pervades the
COMPENDIUM
BK. III. CH. II.
whole body that they can hardly move on any account at all.
15. Sometimes the whole skin, but generally only the face, becomes yellow or ashen coloured.
16. Some have their eyelids so tight shut that they can scarcely open them, and there are certain tests by which such may be recognised.
17. Those who are bewitched can hardly bear to look at the face of a priest, at least not directly; for they keep shifting the whites of the eyes in different ways.
18. When the charms are burned, the sick are wont to change for the worse, or to take some greater or less harm according as their bewitchment was slight or severe; so that not in- frequently they are forced to utter terrible cries and roars. But if no change or fresh lesion can be found, there will be great hope that the sick man will with a little attention be pre- sently restored to good health.
19. If by chance the witch should come to see the sick man, the patient is at once affected with great uneasi- ness and seized with terror and tremb- ling. If it is a child, it cries. The eyes become grey in colour, and other re- markable changes are to be noted in the sick man.
20. Finally when the priest, to heal the sickness, applies certain holy lini- ments to the eyes, ears, brow, and other parts, if a sweat or some other change is seen in those parts it is a sign that he is bewitched.
The following is the usual practice to determine whether the sick man is possessed by a demon. They secretly apply to the sick man a writing with the sacred words of God, or Relics of the Saints, or a blessed Agnus Dei, or some other holy thing. The priest places his hand and his stole upon the head of the possessed and pronounces sacred words. Thereupon the sick man begins to shake and tremble, and in his pain makes many uncouth move- ments, and says and does many strange things. If the demon is in his head, he feels the keenest pains in his head, or
BK. III. CH. Ill.
else his head and all his face are suf- fused with a hot red glow like fire. If he is in his eyes, he twists them about. If in the back, he bruises his limbs be- fore and behind, and sometimes makes the whole body so rigid and inflexible that no exertion of force can bend it.
Sometimes they fall down as if dead, as though they were suffering from tertiary epilepsy, and a sort of vapour rushes up into their heads: but at the priest’s bidding they arise, and the vapour returns whence it came. If the demon is in their throats, they are so throttled as to be nearly strangled. If he is in the nobler parts of the body, as about the heart or lungs, he causes panting, palpitation and syncope. Ifhe is more towards the stomach, he pro- vokes hiccoughs and vomiting so that sometimes they cannot take food, or if they do they cannot retain it. And he causes them to void a sort of ball by the back passage, with roarings and other harsh cries; and afflicts them with the wind and pain about the mid- riff. They are known also sometimes by certain fumes of sulphur or some other strong smelling matter.
Ww