Endnotes

1. The influence of this Saint over the dark powers was very remarkable, and he is especially venerated as “effugator daemonum.” The Medal of S. Benedict has been found to be extremely potent against all evil spells. During a trial for witchcraft in 1647 at Nattenberg near the Abbey of Metten in Bavaria, the sorcerers acknowledged that their attempts against the monks were foiled by the holy Medal. The possessed boys of Illfurt (Alsace), 1864⁠–⁠69, exhibited the utmost dread of S. Benedict’s Medal. ↩

2. Homer, Iliad, I, 590, sqq. Cf. Ovid, Fasti, III, 82: “Uolcanum tellus Hypsipylea colit.” Upon which Paulus glosses: “Hoc est, Lemnos insula, at Hypsipyle Thoantis filia quae in ea regnauit.” ↩

3. Aeneid, VIII, 416⁠–⁠422:

   Insula Sicanium iuxta latus Aeoliamque
   erigitur Liparen, fumantibus ardua saxis,
   quam subter specus et Cyclopum exesa caminis
   antra Aetnaea tonant, ualidique incudubus ictus
   auditi referunt gemitus, striduntque cauernis
   stricturae Chalybum et fornacibus ignis anhelat,
   Uolcani domus, et Uolcania nomine tellus.

   ↩

4. S. Luke 10:17, 18. ↩

5. Isaias 14:12. ↩

6. Paradise Lost, I, 738⁠–⁠51. ↩

7. The Pedigree of the Devil, London, 1883, pp. 178⁠–⁠9. ↩

8. Aeschylus, Choephoroe, 631⁠–⁠38. ↩

9. IV, 50; XXV, 1; XXXIX, 16. ↩

10. Eunapius, Uitae sophistarum: Aedesius (ed. Didot, p. 463). ↩

11. The Darker Superstitions of Scotland: T. G. Dalyell (p. 248). ↩

12. Codex Theodosianus, Lib. IX, tit. XVI, 1, 1. ↩

13. Olaus Magnus, Gentium septentrionalium historiae, III, 15. A Stornoway woman sold a mariner such a cord with three knots. Our Highland Folklore Heritage, Alexander Polson, Inverness, 1926, p. 73. ↩

14. Practica Inquisitionis haereticae prauitatis. Document publié pour la première fois par le chanoine C. Douais. Paris, 4to, 1886. ↩

15. Guillotined in 1794. ↩

16. Proudhon, La Révolution au XIXième siècle, p. 290. ↩

17. The last trial and judicial execution in Europe itself was probably that of two aged beldames, Satanists, who were burned at the stake in Poland, 1793, the year of the Second Partition, during the reign of Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski. ↩

18. This is certainly one of the oldest and most universal of spells. To effect the death of a man, or to injure him by making an image in his likeness, and mutilating or destroying this image, is a practice found throughout the whole wide world from its earliest years. It is common both in Babylon and in the Egypt of the Pharoahs, when magicians kneaded puppets of clay or pitch moistened with honey. If it were possible to mingle therewith a drop of a man’s blood, the parings of his nails, a few hairs from his body, a thread or two from his garments, it gave the warlock the greater power over him. In ancient Greece and Rome precisely the same ideas prevailed, and allusions may be found in Theocritus (“Idyll” II), Virgil (“Eclogue” VIII, 75⁠–⁠82), Ovid (Heroides, VI, 91, sqq.; Amores, III, VII, 29, sqq.), and many more. (See R. Wunsch, “Eine antike Rachepuppe,” Philologus, LXI, 1902, pp. 26⁠–⁠31.) We find this charm among the Ojebway Indians, the Cora Indians of Mexico, the Malays, the Chinese and Japanese, the aborigines throughout Australia, the Hindus, both in ancient India and at the present day, the Burmese, many Arab tribes of Northern Africa, in Turkey, in Italy and the remoter villages of France, in Ireland and Scotland, nor is it (in one shape and form or another) yet unknown in the country districts of England. ↩

19. Some of the chronicles say Chester. ↩

20. This is referred to in Heywood’s King Edward IV, 4to, 1600, in the opening scene, where the Duchess of York, the King’s mother says:

    O Edward, Edward! fly and leave this place,
    Wherein, poor silly King, thou are enchanted.
    This is her dam of Bedford’s work, her mother,
    That hath bewitch’d thee, Edward, my poor child.

    ↩

21. This is probably the exact date. The discourse in question was certainly delivered between November, 1559, and 17 March, 1560. ↩

22. Relation of a Journey, London, 1632. ↩

23. Biographia Dramatica, Vol. I, p. 729. ↩

24. Reigned 590⁠–⁠604. ↩

25. Reigned 1227⁠–⁠41. He was almost one hundred years old at the time of his death. ↩

26. A. L. Maycock, The Inquisition, 1926, p. 235. ↩

27. Reigned 1254⁠–⁠61. ↩

28. 24 December, 1294⁠–⁠11 October, 1303. ↩

29. A close investigation was made, but the Bishop completely cleared himself of the charges. ↩

30. 7 August, 1316⁠–⁠4 December, 1334. ↩

31. 20 December, 1334⁠–⁠25 April, 1342. ↩

32. 30 December, 1370⁠–⁠27 March, 1378. ↩

33. 11 November, 1417⁠–⁠20 February, 1431. ↩

34. 3 March, 1431⁠–⁠23 February, 1447. ↩

35. 6 March, 1447⁠–⁠24 March, 1455. ↩

36. 8 April, 1455⁠–⁠6 August, 1458. ↩

37. 19 August, 1458⁠–⁠15 August, 1464. ↩

38. Stefano Infessura was born at Rome circa 1435 and died there circa 1500. This turbulent spirit was entangled in the conspiracy of Stefano Porcaro against Nicholas V (1453), which aimed at overturning the Papal government and making Rome a republic. His violent bias makes his Diarium urbis Romae, a chronicle from 1294 to 1494 (written partly in Latin and partly in Italian), of little value, as he did not hesitate to reproduce any idle scandal, and even to invent notorious calumnies, concerning such Pontiffs as Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII. ↩

39. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoseon, X, 734⁠–⁠35:

    ut pluuio per lucida caelo
    Surgere bulla solet.

    ↩

40. Cf. Cicero, In Uerrum, II, IV, 56: “Bullas aureas omnes ex his ualuis, quae erant et multae, et graues, non dubitauit auferre.” ↩

41. There are also decrees of the Holy Office of 1856; 30 March, 1898; 24 April, 1917, etc. ↩

42. For a full account of the Papal Bulls, see my Geography of Witchcraft, 1927, c. VII, “Italy,” pp. 524⁠–⁠46. ↩

43. Similarly, Leo XIII undoubtedly meant the Bull “Apostolicae Curae, 18 September, 1896, to fix the belief and practice of the Catholic Church forever. In a letter to Cardinal Richard, 5 November, 1896, the Pope declared that his intention has been absolute iudicare et penitus dirimere, and that all Catholics must receive his judgement as perpetuo firmam, ratam, irreuocabilem. ↩

44. Zauberwahn⁠ ⁠… im Mittelalter, Munich, 1900. ↩

45. New York, The Encyclopaedic Press, Inc., Copyright, 1913, Vol. XV, pp. 674⁠–⁠77. ↩

46. Concerning whom he wrote no less than four highly controversial articles, The Month, September to December, 1921, and in a fresh fit of exacerbation returned to the attack, The Month, January, 1924. ↩

47. One may contrast the beautiful and most devotional study of this shrine by my friend Professor Allison Peers with the cold sneers of Fr. Thurston’s articles upon the miraculous Crucifix. ↩

48. The Month, April, 1925. ↩

49. 1909. ↩

50. 1917. There are, it should be remarked, many other writers of authority who conclusively traverse Canon Chevalier’s thesis, but these are dismissed by Fr. Thurston as “comparatively few and unimportant.” One would be loath to charge him with deliberate suggestio falsi. ↩

51. Loreto and the Holy House, by the Rev. G. E. Phillips, p. 6. ↩

52. Feast, 15 November. In Austria Duplex primae classis cum octaua. ↩

53. On the second Friday in Lent was formerly kept the Feast of the Spear and Nails first granted by Innocent VI, 13 February, 1353, for Germany and Bohemia at the request of Charles IV. In some places the Feast was kept on the Friday after Low Sunday. It is now observed by certain religious families. ↩

54. Feast, 15 March. He is especially venerated at Mantua. ↩

55. It was restored less than fifty years ago. S. Maria di Monserrato, of which church S. Giacomo is Contitolare is now served by Spanish priests. ↩

56. The bride, her mother Clarice Orsini, and a magnificent retinue entered Rome on 3 November, 1487; the marriage was celebrated at the Vatican, Sunday, 20 January, 1488. ↩

57. Burchard was only aware of two children of Innocent VIII. But Egidio of Viterbo wrote: “Primus pontificum filios filiasque palam ostentauit, primus eorum apertas fecit nuptias.” And there are the Epigrams of Marullo:

    Quid quaeris testes, sit mas an foemina Cibo?
    Respice natorum, pignora certa, gregem.

    Octo Nocens pueros genuit, totidemque puellas,
    Hunc merito poterit decere Roma patrem.

    It is hardly to be believed that these libels have been accepted as actual fact. ↩

58. Lorenzo de’ Medici, c. VI. ↩

59. Leo the Tenth, c. III. ↩

60. Jansen, History of the German People, English translation, XVI, 249⁠–⁠51. ↩

61. In November, 1485, the Bishop required Fr. Kramer to leave the diocese of Brixen. At the beginning of Lent, 1486, the Bishop insists that Fr. Kramer shall no longer delay his departure. ↩

62. Born at Trittenheim on the Moselle, 1 February, 1462; died at Würzburg, 13 December, 1518. He took the monastic habit in 1482 at Sponheim, and here, owing to his love of books, he built up the renowned library. Having ruled as abbot for twenty-three years he sought a more retired and peaceful life, which he enjoyed as head of the Scottish house of S. James at Würzburg. Here he died aged fifty-five years. Only a part of his works, numbering more than eighty, have appeared in print. Many treat of the ascetical life, but some deal with classical literature and natural science. ↩

63. The Hammer of Witches Which Destroyeth Witches and Their Heresy as with a Two-Edged Sword, by Fr. Henry Kramer and Fr. James Sprenger, of the Order of Preachers, Inquisitors. ↩

64. An edition which cannot be traced. See the Note upon the Bibliography. ↩

65. 1433⁠–⁠77. In 1467 he succeeded to the Dukedom of Burgundy on the death of his father, Philip the Good. ↩

66. Alanus de Rupe, born about 1428; died at Zwolle in Holland, 8 September, 1475. Early in life he entered the Dominican Order, and after a distinguished academic career, preached throughout Northern France, Flanders, and the Netherlands with intensest enthusiasm, his special mission being the reestablishment everywhere of the Holy Rosary. His vision of the Rosary is generally assigned to the year 1460. The Petite Année Dominicaine (Rome, 1911, p. 309) says: “Il fut le grand prédicateur des vertus de la T.-Ste-Vierge au XVe siècle et le restaurateur du St. Rosaire. Car⁠ ⁠… une dévotion si rationelle, si facile, si attrayante, si utile, inaugerée par un aussi grand saint que Dominique était tombée presque partout dans l’oubli. Alains se mit à l’œuvre⁠ ⁠… faisant renaître avec la culture du Rosaire, les fruits de grâce.⁠ ⁠… Sa mort était celle d’un saint, et son tombeau devint glorieux par de nombreux miracles. Un autel lui était dédié dans le couvent de Dinan, et le B. Grignon de Montefort aimait à y dire la messe.” ↩

67. The legati a latere are cardinals set by the Pope on extraordinary missions or as temporary representatives. ↩

68. The Archbishop Rupprecht von der Pfalz (1463⁠–⁠80) was forcibly pressing his rights as temporal lord, an action which gave rise to considerable violence and much fighting throughout the territory. ↩

69. The Devotion itself was revealed by Our Lady to S. Dominic. Although perhaps no actual Confraternities had been granted indulgences before 1475⁠–⁠6, yet there were Dominican Guilds and Fraternities which fostered this Crown of Prayers. ↩

70. In 1486 a priest in London writes to his patron in Yorkshire: “I send a paper of the Rosary of Our Lady of Coleyn, and I have registered your name with both my Ladis names, as the paper expresses, and ye be acopled as brethren and sisters.” Plumpton Correspondence (Camden Society, p. 50). ↩

71. Later authorities say Zwolle in Holland. ↩

72. Michel François de l’Isle, O.P., Bishop of Selymria, born circa 1435; died 2 June, 1502. In 1488 this famous theologian was Regent of Studies at Cologne. An ample biography may be found in Quétif-Echard, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum, Paris, 1719,sub anno1502, Vol. II, pp. 7⁠–⁠9. Selymbria, or Selybria, is a titular see in Thracia Prima, suffragan of Heraclea. ↩

73. He was the socius of Francis Silvester, O.P., of Ferrara, a celebrated theologian, who was born circa 1474, and died at Rennes, 19 September, 1526. ↩

74. Lusitanus, born near Braga in Portugal; died at Naples, 2 January, 1585. The praise of Sprenger may be found in his Bibliotheca Ordinis Praedicatorum. He is called “of Siena” because of his great devotion to S. Catherine of Siena. ↩

75. Theologian and papal envoy. Born at Mantua in 1533 or 1534; died at Ferrara, 26 February, 1611. His many writings include Moscovia, Vilna, 1586, an important work on Russian history; Del Sacrificio della Messa, Lyons, 1563; Apparatus sacer ad Scripturam Ueteris et Noui Testamenti, Venice, 1603⁠–⁠6; Il soldato cristiano, Rome, 1569; and a Bibliotheca Selecta, Rome, 1593. ↩

76. Aubert Le Mire, ecclesiastical historian, born at Brussels, 30 November, 1573; died at Antwerp, 19 October, 1640. He was a canon of Antwerp Cathedral, and in 1624 he became Dean of the chapter and Vicar-general of the diocese. He has left thirty-nine vast works on profane, ecclesiastical, and monastic history. See De Riddler’s Aubert Le Mire, sa vie, sas écrits, mémoire historique et critique, Paris, 1865. ↩

77. Louis-Ellies Dupin, born 17 June, 1657; died 6 June, 1719. He wrote at great length upon the Fathers, many of whose works he edited with commentaries. Some of his statements involved him in disputes with Dom. Petit-Didier and later with Bossuet. Dupin is an extremely prolific author, but several of his propsitions were regarded as suspect in orthodoxy. ↩

78. In 1457 Pope Nicholas V, upon the death of Domenico Michel, Patriarch of Grado, suppressed the Patriarchate and the Bishopric of Castello, incorporating them both by the terms of the Bull “Regis aeterni” in the new Patriarchate of Venice, and thus Venice succeeded to the whole metropolitan jurisdiction of Grado, including the sees of Dalmatia. ↩

79. Jacopo Zeno, nephew and biographer of the famous Venetian admiral, Carlo Zeno. ↩

80. It is remarkable that at the very moment similar controversies are raised about the Blessed Sacrament. The words “Real Presence” are freely bandied. This is a popular phrase, since it may mean anything or nothing. It is far better to save all ambiguity, and to say, “The Blessed Sacrament is God.” One writer, professing himself a Christian, declares that it is at least doubtful whether Our Lord instituted The Holy Sacrifice of the Altar. This, of course, is tantamount to a denial of Christ. ↩

81. It must suffice to mention only a few of the many Saints who have seen Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. S. Veronica of Binasco, the Augustinian, saw Him there with her bodily eyes, whilst the Host was environed by adoring Angels. Vaulem the Cistercian saw in the Host the Infant Jesus, Who held a crown of gold adorned with precious stones. When Peter of Toulouse was holding the Host over the chalice at Mass the Bambino of marvellous beauty appeared between his fingers. The same thing happened every morning for two or three months. Similarly Our Lord was seen by S. Angela of Foligno; S. Hugh of Cluny; S. Lydwine; S. Ignatius; S. Joseph of Cupertino; Domenica of Paradise; Teresa de la Cerda, O.S.D., who saw the Infant Jesus lying on the corporal; and very many more. S. Catharine of Siena saw Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament under different forms, and at the fraction of the Host she saw how He remained entired in each part. Mary of Oignies at the elevation in Passion-Tide saw Our Lord upon the Cross; at Christmas Our Lady appeared in the Host carrying the Infant Jesus in her arms. In the Cathedral at Orvieto I have venerated the Corporale which is stained with blood that fell from the Host when a young priest who doubted was saying Mass. This happened in the days of Pope Urban IV, who reigned 1261⁠–⁠64. ↩

82. This can hardly be correct. ↩

83. The contents of this valuable collection are as follows:

    Vol. I:

    • Nider, O.P., John. Formicarius de maleficiis.

    • Sprenger and Kramer. Malleus Maleficarum.

    Vol. II:

    • Anania, Giovanni Lorenzo. De Natura Daemonum.

    • Basin, Bernard. De Artibus magicis.

    • Bernard of Como, O.P. De Strigibus. (With the annotations of Francesco Peña.)

    • Castro, O.M., Alfonso A. De impia Sortilegarum haeresi.

    • De Vignate, Ambrose. Quaestio de Lamiis. (With a commentary by Peña.)

    • Gerson, John. De Probatione Spirituum. De erroribus circa artem magicam reprobatis.

    • Grilland, Paul. De Sortilegiis.

    • Leone, Giovanni Francesco. De Sortilegiis.

    • Moliter, Ulrich. De Pythonicis mulieribus.

    • Murner, O.M., Thomas. De Pythonico Contractu.

    • Simancus, Iago. De Lamiis.

    • Spina, O.P., Bartolomeo. De Strigibus. In Ponzinibium de Lamiis Apologia.

    Vol. III:

    • Gorichen, Heinrich De. De superstitionis quibusdam casibus.

    • Mamor, Pietro. Flagellum maleficorum.

    • Menghi, Girolamo, Capuchin. Flagellum Daemonum. Fustis Daemonum.

    • Stampa, Pietro Antonio. Fuga Satanae.

    Vol. IV:

    • Ars exorcistica tribus partibus.

    ↩

84. This great Saint is much honoured in France. He was Archbishop of Arles, and founder of the monastery of Lérins. Born about 350, he died in January, 429. ↩

85. John II, Margrave of Baden. ↩

86. The extremer Picards seem to have been an offshoot of the Behgards and to have professed the Adamite heresy. They called their churches Paradise and whilst engaged in common worship stripped themselves quite nude. Shameful disorders followed. A number of these fanatics took possession of an island in the river Nezarka and lived in open communism. In 1421 Ziska, the Hussite leader, practically exterminated the sect. There have, however, been sporadic outbreaks of these Neo-Adamites. Picards was also a name given to the “Bohemian Brethren,” who may be said to have been organized in 1457 by Gregory, the nephew of Rokyzana. They held very extreme views, denying that the Blessed Sacrament is the Body of Christ, advocating the abolition of all distinctions of rank and fortune and the living in community. In the course of time these views were practically modified, and today they may be said to be represented by the Moravian Body. ↩

87. Reigned from 11 August, 1492, to 18 August, 1503. ↩

88. Born at Rouen 19 January, 1639; he entered the Dominican Order in that city, 9 May, 1655. His literary labours were very vast, and in 1677 he published at Paris the first volume of his huge History. Some passages were very sharply criticized, and even censured, but in the preface to the third edition (Paris, 1699, 8 volumes, folio) the author, whilst fully submitting to the Holy See, tactfully defends himself. He died of old age in the convent of S. Jacques at Paris, 21 August, 1724. ↩

89. Oratorian, born at Treviso, 1595; died at Rome, 22 January, 1671. This eminent historian occupied himself with the continuation of the Annales of the Ven. Cesare Baronio, and his work, which covers the years from 1198 to 1565, was published at Rome, 1646⁠–⁠77. ↩

90. In his Bibliotheca Ordinis Praedicatorum. ↩

91. S. Zeno, Martyr, is the Patron of Verona, in which city a basilica, San Zenone, is dedicated in his honour. His feast is kept 12 April, and the Roman Martyrology tells us that he was a Bishop of Verona, put to death under the Emperor Gallienus. ↩

92. Edinburgh, 1597. ↩

93. 4to, 1682. Produced at the Duke’s Theatre, Dorset Garden, in the autumn (probably September) of 1681. ↩

94. The word is from fe‑, feu‑, =Grk. φύ‑ω, to produce; whence fetus, fecundus, etc. Cf. Sanskrit bhuas, bhavas, to become. Also fi‑o; fu‑turus. ↩

95. The word is from διαβάλλο=traducere. So διαβολή, slander, enmity. ὁ διάβολος, the slanderer, the enemy; hence, Satan, the devil. ↩

96. For an excellent study of this most difficult and most painful subject see a valuable work by George Ives, The History of Penal Methods, 1914. ↩

97. Jules Baissac, Les grands Jours de la Sorcellerie, 1890, p. 19, says⁠—I do not know on what authority⁠—“La 1re édition du ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ est de 1489, in —4, Cologne, cinq ans après la publication de la Bulle Summis desiderantes.” ↩

98. Axis-ungo. See Palladius, I, XVII, 3. Also Vegetius, De Arte Ueterinaria, IV, X, 3; also IV, XII, 3. ↩

99. Albrecht von Bayern, 1478⁠–⁠1506 ↩

100. This decree, which was often attributed to a General Council of Ancyra, but which is now held to be of a later date, was in any case authoritative, since it passed into the “De ecclesiasticis disciplinis” ascribed to Regino of Prum (906), and thence to the canonists S. Ivo of Chartres and Johannes Gratian. Section 364 of the Benedictine Abbot’s work relates that “certain abandoned women turning aside to follow Satan, being seduced by the illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and openly profess that in the dead of night they ride upon certain beasts with the pagan goddess Diana and a countless horde of women, and that in these silent hours they fly over vast tracks of country and obey her as their mistress, while on other nights they are sullen to pay her homage.” John of Salisbury, who died in 1180, in his Policraticus, I, XVII, speaks of the popular belief in a witch-queen named Herodias, who called together the sorcerers to meeting at night. In a MS., “De Sortilegis,” the following passage occurs: “We next inquire concerning certain wicked crones who believe and profess that in the nighttime they ride abroad with Diana, the heathen goddess, or else with Herodias, and an innumerable host of women, upon certain beasts, and that in a silent covey at the dead of night they pass over immense distances, obeying her commands as their mistress, and that they are summoned by her on appointed nights, and they declare that they have the power to change human beings for better or for worse, ay, even to turn them into some other semblance or shape. Concerning such women I answer according to the decrees of the Council of Alexandria, that the minds of the faithful are disordered by such fantasies owing to the inspiration of no good spirit but of the devil.” ↩

101. S. Augustine’s great work De Ciuitate Dei was written 413⁠–⁠26. ↩

102. The De Doctrina Christiana was originally written in 397, but S. Augustine revised his work with addition in 427, leaving a monument of hermeneutics. ↩

103. Blessed Henry of Segusio, usually called Hostiensis, the famous Italian canonist of the thirteenth century, was born at Susa, and died at Lyons, 25 October, 1271. After a most distinguished career, on 4 December, 1261, he became Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia and Velletri, whence his name Hostiensis. His Summa super titulis Decretalium (Strasburg, 1512; Cologne, 1612; Venice, 1605), which was also known as Summa aurea, or Summa archiepiscopi, since it was written whilst he was Archbishop of Embrun, won for its author the title “Monarcha iuris, lumen lucidissimum Decretorum.” One portion of this work, the “Summa, siue Tractatus de poenitentia et remissionibus,” was very popular, and is continually referred to as of high authority. The book was written between 1250 and 1261. ↩

104. Godfrey of Fontaines, Doctor Uenerandus, scholastic philosopher and theologian, was born near Liège within the first half of the thirteenth century; he became a canon of his native diocese, and also of Paris and Cologne. In 1300 he was elected to the See of Tournai, which he declined. During the last quarter of the century he taught theology with great distinction at the University of Paris. His vast work, XIV Quodlibeta, which in manuscript was extensively studied in the medieval schools, has recently been pubished for the first time with an ample commentary. ↩

105. One of the most distinguished names of the Dominican Order. Born in 1175, he professed Canon law at Barcelona and Bologna. At the request of his superiors he published his Summa Casuum, of which several editions appeared in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His reputation as a jurist was so great that in 1230 he was called to Rome by Gregory IX, who directed him to rearrange and codify the ecclesiastical canons. Having completed the work, he refused all honours, and returned to Spain. He died at Barcelona, 6 January, 1275. His feast is celebrated on 23 January. ↩

106. Peter of Palude, who died 1342, of the Order of S. Dominic, was one of the most distinguished Thomistic theologians during the first half of the fourteenth century. ↩

107. Early in the thirteenth century Portius Azo stood at the head of the Bolognese school of law which was accomplishing the resuscitation of the classical Roman law. He was the pupil of the celebrated Johannes Bassianus, and his fame so eclipsed all his contemporaries that in 1205 Thomas of Marlborough, afterwards Abbot of Evesham, spent six months at Bologna hearing his lectures every day. Azo was saluted as “Master of all the Masters of the laws,” and the highest praise that could be given another canonist was to declare him to be “second only to Azo.” Savigrey says that Azo was alive as late as 1230. His chief work is a “Summa” of the first nine books of the Code, to which he added a “Summa” of the Institutes. No less than thirty-one editions appeared between 1482 and 1610; of which five are earler than 1500. Throughout the Middle Ages these treatises were in highest repute. ↩

108. De Sicariis et Ueneficis. Passed circa 81 BC. This law dealt with incendiarism as well as open assassination and poisoning, and laid down penalties for accessories to the fact. ↩

109. The Etymologiae, or Origines as it is sometimes called, must be regarded as the most important and best known of the works of S. Isidore of Seville, born circa 560; died 4 April, 636. It has been described as “a vast storehouse in which is gathered, systematized, and condensed, all the learning possessed by that time.” Throughout the greater part of the Middle Ages it was the textbook most in use in educational institutions. Arevalo, who is regarded as the most authoritive editor of S. Isidore (7 vols., Rome, 1797⁠–⁠1803), tells us that it was printed no less than ten times between 1470 and 1529. ↩

110. Albert the Great, the Dominican doctor, scientist, philosopher, and theologian. Born circa 1206; died at Cologne, 15 November, 1280. He is called “the Great” and “Doctor Universalis” on account of his extraordinary genius and encyclopaedic knowledge, for he surpassed all his contemporaries in every branch of learning cultivated in his day. He is certainly one of the glories of the Order of Preachers. Ulrich Endelbert speaks of him as: “Uir in omni scientia adeo divinus, ut nostri temporis stupor et miraculum congrue uocari possit” (De summo bono, III, IV). Perhaps at the present day his extraordinary genius is not sufficiently recognized, for he was certainly one of the most learned men of all time. The latest edition of his complete works, Paris (Louis Vives), 1890⁠–⁠99, in thirty-eight quarto volumes, was published under the direction of the Abbé Auguste Borgnet, of the diocese of Reims. De animalibus will be found in Vols. XI⁠–⁠XII. The feast of Albertus Magnus is celebrated on 15 November. He was beatified by Gregory XV in 1622, so in this translation I call him “Blessed” by anticipation. ↩

111. Junior, or Modernus, a canonist who lived in the middle of the thirteenth century, called “Compostellanus” from the fact that he possessed an ecclesiastical benefice in Compostella. He was also known as Brignadius from his birthplace in Galicia, Spain. Bernard was chaplain to Innocent IV, who reigned 1243⁠–⁠54, and was himself a noted canonist. Bernard’s Commentaries on Canon law are very copius and very celebrated. He is termed Modernus to distinguish him from Bernard Antiquus, a canonist of the early thirteenth century, a native of Compostella, who became Professor of Canon law in the University of Bologna. ↩

112. This distinguished canonist was born at Mugello, near Florence, about 1275; died 1348. He was educated at the University of Bologna, where he afterwards became Professor of Canon law. He had previously taught at Padua and Pisa, and his career as a lecturer extended for nearly half a century. His works are Glossarium in VI decretalium librum, Venice and Lyons, 1472; Glossarium in Clementinas; Nouella, siue Commentarius in decretales epistolas Gregorii IX, Venice, 1581; Mercuriales, siue commentarius in regulas sexti; Liber de laudibus S. Hieronymi; Additamenta ad speculum Durand (1347). ↩

113. Nicholas V, 1397⁠–⁠1455, the great patron of learning. ↩

114. Born at Barcelona, Spain, towards the end of the fourteenth century; died 1432. From 1430 to his death he taught theology, philosophy, and medicine at the University of Toulouse. Of his many works only one remains, Theologia Naturalis. It was first written in Spanish, and translated into Latin at various times: December, 1487; Strasburg, 1496; Paris, 1509; Venice, 1581, etc. Montaigne, who translated the book into French, Paris, 1569, bears witness to the extraordinary popularity it enjoyed in his own day. ↩

115. “On désigne depuis le XVIe siècle sous le nom d’Ambrosiaster (= pseudo-Ambroise) l’auteur anonyme d’un commentair sur les Epîtres de saint Paul (à l’exclusion de Epître aux Hébreux), qui au moyenâge, peut-être même dès l’époque de Cassiodore, fut imputé inexactement à saint Ambroise. Cette paraphrase est tout à fait remarquable; c’est l’une des plus intéressantes que l’antiquité chrétienne nous ait léguées.” Labriolle, Histoire de la Litterérature Latine Chrétienne, c. III. ↩

116. Petrus a Tarentasia, born in Tarentaise, towards 1225, elected at Arezzo, 21 January, 1276; died at Rome, 22 June, 1276. At the age of sixteen he joined the Dominican Order, and he won great distinction as a Professor at the University of Paris, whence he is known as Doctor Famosissimus. He is the author of several works dealing with philosophy, theology, and Canon law, some of which are still unpublished. The principal of these is the Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. I have used the edition, Toulouse, 1652. ↩

117. This treatise on physical science may be found in Vol. IX of Abbé Bornet’s edition of the Opera omnia. ↩

118. The original Greek is Ὦ ἀνόητοι Γαλάται, τίς ὑμᾶς ἐβάσκανεν τῆ ἀληθείᾳ μὴ πείθεσθαι; Curtius doubts the etymological connection between βασκαίνω and Latin fascino as from a root ΦΑΣ. In classical times the charm was dissolved by spitting thrice. Cf. Theocritus, VI, 39: ὡς μὴ βασκανθῶ δέ, τρὶς εἰς ἐμὸν ἔπτυσα κόλπον. ↩

119. Abn Ali Al Hosian Ibn Addalah Ibn Sina, Arabian physician and philosopher, born at Kharmaithen, in the province of Bokhara, 980; died at Hamadan, in Northern Persia, 1037. It should be noted that the Schoolmen were aware of the pantheistic tendencies of Avicenna’s philosophical works, and accordingly were reluctant to trust to his exposition of Aristotle. ↩

120. Abu Hamid Mohammed Ibn Mohammed, the celebrated Arabian philosopher, born at Tous in Khorasan in 1038; died at Nissapour in 1111. He passed through complete scepticism to the mysticism of the Sufis. It is often said that Blessed Albertus Magnus wrote thus: “Non approbo dictum Avicennae et Algazel de fascinatione, quia credo quod non nocet fascinatio, nec nocere potest ars magica, nec facit aliquid ex his quae timentur de talibus.” But this passage is more than suspicious. ↩

121. The Dialogorum Libri IV is one of the most famous of S. Gregory’s works, and very many separate editions have appeared. ↩

122. Acts of the Apostles, 9:36⁠–⁠42; and 5:1⁠–⁠11. ↩

123. Little is known of the personal history of this celebrated encyclopaedist. The years of his birth and death are uncertain, but the dates most frequently assigned are 1190 and 1264 respectively. It is thought that he joined the Dominicans in Paris shortly after 1218, and that he passed practically his whole life in his monastery in Beauvais, where he occupied himself incessantly upon his enormous work, the general title of which is Speculum Maius, containing 80 books, divided into 9,885 chapters. The third part, “Speculum Historiale,” in 31 books and 3,793 chapters, bring the History of the World down to AD 1250. ↩

124. Pliny, Historia Naturalis, XXX, II, says of magic: “Sine dubio illic orta in Perside a Zoroastre, ut inter auctores conuenit. Sed unus hic fuerit, an postea et alius, non satis constat.” Apuleius, De Magia, XXVI, mentions Zoroaster and Oromazus as the inventors of sorcery. “Audustine magiam⁠ ⁠… artem esse dis immortalibus acceptam⁠ ⁠… a Zoroastro et Oromazo auctoribus suis nobilem, caelitum antistitam?” ↩

125. “A.V.” Ham. Lenglet du Fresnoy in his History of the Hermetic Philosophy repeats an old tradition: “Most alchemists pretended that Cham, or Chem, the son of Noe, was an adept in the art, and thought it highly probable that the words ‘Chemistry’ and ‘Alchemy’ are both derived from his name.” Lactantius, De Origine Erroris, II, says of the descendants of Cham: “Omnium primi qui Aegyptum occupauerunt; caelestia suspicere, atque adorare coeperunt.”

     Réalité de la Magie et des Apparitions, Paris, 1819 (pp. XII⁠–⁠XIII), has: “Le monde, purgé par le déluge, fut repeuplé par les trois fils de Noé. Sem et Japhet imitèrent la vertu de leur père, et furent justes comme lui. Cham, au contraire, donna entrée au démon dans son coeur, remit au jour l’art exécrable de la magie, en composa les règles, et en instruisit son fils Misraim.

     “Cent trente ans après le déluge, Sem habitait la Perse. Ses enfans pratiguaient la religion naturelle, que Dieu mit dans le coeur du premier homme; et leurs vieillards se nommaient mages, qui veut dire ‘sages’ en notre langue. Dans la suite, les descendans de Cham se partagèrent, et quelques-uns passèrent en Perse; Cham, qui vivait encore, était à leur tête. Il opéra tant de prodiges par ses charmes et ses enchantements, que les Bactriens lui donnèrent le nom de Zoroastre, c’est-à-dire, ‘astre vivant’; et transportèrent à ceux de sa secte le nom honorable de ‘mages,’ que les adorateurs du vrai Dieu abandonnèrent, dès qui’ils le virent ainsi profané: et c’est de là que nous est venu le nom de ‘magie,’ pour signifier le culte du démon.

     “Cham, ou Zoroastre, fut encore l’inventeur de l’astrologie judiciaire; il regarda les astres comme autant de divinités, et persuada aux hommes que tout leur destin dépendait de leurs bonnes ou mauvaises influences. Ainsi l’on commença à leur rendre un culte religieux, qui fut l’origine de l’idolâtrie. La Chaldée fut le premier théâtre de ces égaremens; et alors, ‘Chaldéen, astrologue et magicien’ étaient trois mots synonymes.” ↩

126. S. Augustine, De Ciuitate Dei, XVI, 3, quotes: “Chus autem genuit Nebroth; hic coepit esse gigans super terram. Hic erat gigans uenator contra Dominum Deum.” Nebroth is the English Nimrod, who was considered a past master of magic, and even by later ages a demon. So we have: “Nembroth. Un des esprits que les magiciens consultent. Le mardi lui est consacré, et on l’évoque ce jour-là: il faut, pour le renvoyer, lui jeter une pierre; ce qui est facile.” Collin de Plancy (Dictionnaire Infernal,” sixième édition, 1863). ↩

127. In Ireland it was supposed that certain witches could cast a spell at a glance, and they were commonly called “eye-biting witches.” ↩

128. This is one of the smaller treatises connected with Aristotle’s great work On the Soul, περὶ ψυχῆς. ↩

129. Psalm 51:8: Uidebunt iusti et timebunt. ↩

130. For a very full discussion of the whole subject see Sinistrari’s Demoniality with my Commentary and glosses, Fortune Press, 1927. ↩

131. A series of famous writings attributed to S. Dionysius the Areopagite (Acts 17:34), who was also popularly identified with the Martyr of Gaul, the first Bishop of Paris. The writings themselves form a collection of four treatises and ten letters. These will all be found in Migne, Patres Graeci, III. The treatises are generally referred to under their Latin names, “De Diuinis nominibus”; “Caelestis hierarchia”; “Ecclesiastica hierarchia”; “Theologia mystica.” The main source from which the Middle Ages obtained a knowledge of Dionysius and his doctrine was undoubtedly the Latin translation by Scotus Eriugena, made about 858. There are ample commentaries by many great writers such as Hugh of Saint-Victor, Blessed Albertus Magnus, S. Thomas, and Denys the Carthusian. The works of Dionysius the Aeropagite and the identification of this writer with S. Denys were accepted by Saints and Schoolmen, and perhaps we should do well to follow them without curious questions and impertinent discussion. ↩

132. See my gloss upon this passage, Demoniality, Introduction, XXVI⁠–⁠XXVIII. ↩

133. Nider, Formicarius, IX, writes: “Incubi dicuntur ab incumbendo, hoc est struprando.” ↩

134. De Ciuitate Dei, XV, 23, where S. Augustine has: “Et quosdam daemones, quos Dusios Galli nuncupant, adsidue hanc immunditiam et tentare et efficere, plures talesque adseuerant, ut hoc negare impudentiae uideatur.” ↩

135. Jeremias 50:39, the desolation of Babylon, has: Propterea habitabunt dracones cum faunis ficariis: et habitabunt in ea struthiones: et non inhabitabitur ultra usque in sempiternum, nec exstruetur usque ad generationem, et generationem. Which Douay translates: “Therefore shall dragons dwell there with the fig fauns: and ostriches shall dwell therein, and it shall be no more inherited forever, neither shall it be built up from generation to generation.” The English gloss says: “ ‘Fig fauns.’ Monsters of the desert, or demons in monstrous shapes: such as the ancients called ‘fauns’ and ‘satyrs’: and as they imagined them to live upon wild figs, they called them ‘fauni ficarii’ or ‘fig fauns.’ ” Mirabeau, Erotika Biblion (pseudo-Rome), 1783, under “Béhémah” writes: “Les satyres, les faunes, les égypans, toutes ces fables en sont une tradition très remarquable. Satan en arabe signifie bouc; et le bouc expiatoire ne fut ordonné par Moyse que pour détourner les Israélites du goût qu’ils avoient pour cet animal lascif. (Maimonide dans le More Nevochin, p. 111, c. XLVI, s’étend sur les cultes des boucs). Comme il est dit dans l’Exode qu’on ne pouvoit voir la face des dieux, les Israélites étoient persuadés que les démons si faisoient voir sous cette forme.⁠ ⁠… On a ensuite confondu les incubes et les succubes avec les véritables produits. Jérémie parle de faunes suffoquans. (Jérém. 50:39. Faunis sicariis et non pas ficariis. Car des faunes qui avoient des figues ne voudroit n’en dire. Cependant Saci la traduit ainsi; car les Jansénistes affectent la plus grande pureté des moeurs, mais Berruyer soutient le ‘Sicarii’ et rend ses faunes très actifs.) Héraclite a décrit des satyres qui vivoient dans les bois, et jouissoient en commun des femmes dont ils s’emparoient.” But the Vulgate has “Fauni ficarii,” which settles the point. That the reading was very disputed is clear from Nider, Formicarius, who has: “Quem autem uulgo Incubonem uocant, hunc Romani uicarium dicunt. Ad quem Horatius dicit: Faune Nympharum fugientium amator meos per fines et aprica rura lenis incedas. Insuper illud Apostoli 1 Cor. 11. Mulier debet uelamen habere super caput suum propter Angelos: Multi Catholici exponunt quod sequitur, propter angelos, id est Incubos.” The quotation from Horace is Carminum, III, 18. ↩

136. Born 672 or 673, died 735. This great work, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, giving an account of Christianity in England from the beginning until his own day, has been recognized as a masterpiece by the scholars of all ages and countries. An authoritative edition was published by Plummer, two vols., Oxford, 1896. ↩

137. William of Auvergne, the celebrated philosopher and theologian, was born at Aurillac in Auvergne towards the end of the twelfth century, and died at Paris, of which city he had in 1228 been consecrated Bishop, in 1249. Although not a “Summa Theologica,” his De Uniuerso is a practical endeavour to found a science of reality on principles opposed to those of the Arabian commentators upon and perverters of Aristotle. His theological works are particularly interesting as devoting much attention to a refutation of the Manichees, whose heresies had been recently revived. There is a good study by Valois, Guillaume d’Auvergne, Paris, 1880. ↩

138. Claudius Prolemaus was a celebrated mathematician, astronomer, and geographer. Of the details of his life nothing appears to be known beyond the facts that he was certainly at Alexandria in AD 139, and since he survived Antoninus Pius he was alive later than March, 161. His “Geography,” Γεωγραφικὴ ὑφήγησις, is very famous, but perhaps even more celebrated was the Μεγάλη σύνταξις τῆς ἀστρονομίας, usually known by its Arabic name of Almagest. Since the Tetrabiblus, the work on astrology, was also entitled σύνταξις, the Arabs, to distinguish between the two, called the greater work μεγάλη, and afterwards μεγίστη; the title “Almagest” is a compound of this last adjective and the Arabic articles. The work is divided into thirteen books, of which VII and VIII are the most interesting to the modern astronomer, as they give a catalogue of the stars. The best edition of the Almagest is considered to be that by Halma, Paris, 1813⁠–⁠16, two vols., 4to. ↩

139. “Sapiens homo dominabitur astris.” This famous tag is continually quoted. Cf. Tomkis’ Albumazar (acted at Cambridge, March, 1615), I, 7, where Albumazar says:

     Indeed th’ Aegyptian Ptolemy, the wise,
     Pronounc’d it as an oracle of truth,
     Sapiens dominabitur astris.

     In Book III, Epigram 186, of John Owen’s first published volume, we get:

     “Fata regunt reges; sapiens dominabitur astris.”

     Sir Sampson Legend in Congreve’s Love for Love, produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 30 April, 1695, II, I, bantering old Foresight, who loudly acclaims the influence of the stars, throws at him: “I tell you I am wise; and sapiens dominabitur astris; there’s Latin for you to prove it.” According to W. Aldis Wright’s note on Bacon’s Advancement of Learning, II, XXIII, 12: “Mr. Ellis says this sentence is ascribed to Ptolemy by Cognatus.” The reference is to Cognati’s collection of Adages, which together with the Adagia of Erasmus and other famous repertories of saws and proverbs may be found in the volume Adagia compiled by Joynaeus. Joannes Nevizanus, Sylva Nuptialis, II, 96, notes: “Dicit tamen Bal. in c.j. at lite pand. quod sapiens dominabitur astris.” Bal. is Baldus, Baldo degli Ubaldi (b. 1327), the most famous canonist of his day and Professor utriusque iuris at the Universities of Padua, Perugia, and Piacenza, who wrote ample glosses on the Corpus Iuris Ciuilis. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, quotes “sapiens,” etc., and A. R. Shilleto in his notes says that it is also cited by Jeremy Taylor, and that C. G. Eden, his best editor, could not trace the origin of the phrase. ↩

140. S. John Damascene, Doctor of the Church, was born at Damascus about 676, and died some time between 754 and 787. The quotation is from “Ἔκδοσις ἀκριβὴς τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως,” which is the third part of the most important of all his works, Πηγὴ γνώσεως, Fountain of Wisdom. This third part, “The Orthodox Faith,” to which reference is made here, must be considered the most notable of all writings of S. John Damascene, and it is in this treatise that he discloses so comprehensive a knowledge of the astronomy of his day. It may be pointed out that Sprenger regards the authority of S. John far too lightly, for the Doctor’s words carry great weight. The only complete edition of the works of S. John Damascene is that by Michael Lequien, O.P., published at Paris, 1717, and Venice, 1748. Migne has reprinted this, Patres Graeci, XCIV⁠–⁠XCVI, with the addition of certain works by some attributed to the same author. ↩

141. Although in Cicero and in Seneca “mathematicus” means a mathematician, in later Latin it always signifies an astrologer, a diviner, a wizard. The “Mathematici” were condemned by the Roman law as exponents of black magic. Their art is indeed forbidden in severest terms by Diocletian (AD 284⁠–⁠305): “Artem geometriae discere atque exercere publice interest, ars autem mathematica damnabilis interdicta est omnino.” The word “mathematician” was used in English sometimes to denote an astrologer, a fortune-teller. So in Shirley’s comedy The Sisters, III, licensed April, 1642, when the bandits disguised as diviners visit the castle, Giovanni enters crying out: “Master Steward, yonder are the rarest fellows! In such fantastical habits, too; they call themselves mathematicians.” “What do they come for?” the steward asks. “To offer their service to my Lady, and tell fortunes,” is the reply. When Antonio sees them he grumbles:

     	Her house is open for these mountebanks, Cheaters, and tumblers, that can foist and flatter My Lady Gewgaw⁠ ⁠… What are you, sir?
     Strozzo	One of the mathematicians, noble signior.
     Antonio	Mathematicians! mongrel, How durst thou take that learned name upon thee? Your are one of those knaves that stroll the country, And live by picking worms out of fools’ fingers.

     ↩

142. Before the birth of S. Dominic, his mother, Blessed Joanna d’Aza, dreamed that she had brought forth a black-and-white dog carrying in his mouth a lighted torch. The dog with the torch is accordingly the pictorial attribute of the Saint. Nor must the play upon the name of his sons be forgotten⁠—Dominicani, Domini canes, Hounds of the Lord. ↩

143. Born at Antioch 347; died at Comana in Pontus, 14 September, 407. His fifty-nine homilies On the Psalms (4⁠–⁠12, 41, 43⁠–⁠49, 108⁠–⁠117, 119⁠–⁠150) are very famous. For a full study of these see Baur’s Der ursprüngliche Umfang des Kommentars des hl. Joh. Chrysostomus zu den Psalmen in Χρυσοστομικά, fasc. I, Rome, 1908. ↩

144. The ninety Homilies on S. Matthew were written about the year 390. ↩

145. Rather Gisela, the devout sister of Duke Henry of Bavaria (the future Emperor S. Henry II); in 995 married S. Stephen of Hungary, who succeeded to the throne in 997. She was untiring in her efforts to spread the Faith throughout the kingdom. The coronation mantle of Hungary, a purple damask cope, embroidered in silk and gold by Queen Gisela, dated 1031, is preserved at Budapest. ↩

146. Born probably at Lyons about 474; died at Tours, 3 June, 545. The feast of S. Clotilda is celebrated 3 June. From the sixth century onwards, the marrige of Clovis I, King of the Salic Franks, and Clotilda, which took place in 492 or 493, was made the theme of epic narratives and many legends. Clotilda soon acquired a great ascendancy over her husband, and she availed herself of this influence to win him to the Catholic Faith. For a time her efforts seemed unavailing, but Clovis, who in a great battle against the Alemannis saw his men on the point of defeat, invoked the God of his wife, promising to become a Christian if only victory should be granted to the Franks. The tide instantly turned, and, true to his word, he was baptized at Reims by S. Remigius at Christmas, 496. His sister and three thousand of his noblest warriors at the same time embraced the Faith. Thus, S. Clotilda was the instrument in the conversion of a mighty people. ↩

147. Hecrya, III, I, 30⁠–⁠32:

     Peuri inter sese quam pro leuibus noxiis iras gerunt!
     Qua propter? quia enim, qui eos gubernat animus, infirmum gerunt.
     Itidem illae mulieres sunt ferme, ut pueri, leui sententia.

     ↩

148. “Denique nullas unquam mulieres philosophari docuerunt praeter unam ex omni memoria Themisten.” III, XXV. But on this Xistus Betulaeus (ed. 1556) glosses: “Putat fortasse Leontii coniugem, as quam Epicurus scripsisse legitur. Quid dicemus de Thermistoclea, Pythagorae sorore? quid de aliis pluribus quarum bene longum catalogum Textor recenset?” ↩

149. Medea, 579⁠–⁠82. ↩

150. This treatise was written 392⁠–⁠93. ↩

151. Medea. V, 895⁠–⁠6:

     Quid, anime, cessas sequere felicem impetum?
     Pars ultionis ista, qua gaudes, quota est?

     ↩

152. “Pelagia meretrix” or “Pelagia mima,” a beautiful actress who led the life of a prostitute at Antioch. She was converted by the holy bishop Nonnus, and disguised as a man went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where for many years she led the life of extremest mortification and penance in a grotto on the Mount of Olives. This “bienheureuse pécheresse” attained to such heights of sanctity that she was canonized, and in the East, where her cult was long very popular, her festival is kept on 8 October, which is also the day of her commemoration in the Roman Martyrology. ↩

153. Alexander of Hales, the Franciscan theologian and philosopher, Doctor Irrefragabilis, was one of the greatest of the scholastics. He was born at Hales, or Hailles, in Gloucestershire towards the end of the twelfth century, and died at Paris at the convent of his Order in 1245. His principal work is the Summa Uniuersae Theologiae, begun about the year 1231, and left unfinished. It has several times been published: Venice, 1475, 1576; Nuremburg, 1481, 1502; Pavia, 1481; Cologne, 1622. A critical edition, which is much needed, has been promised by the Quaracchi editors of the works of S. Bonaventura. ↩

154. The famous Dominican Archbishop of Florence, born at Florence, 1 March, 1389; died 2 May, 1459. His feast day is 10 May. His chief literary work is the Summa Theologica Moralis, partibus IV distincta, written shortly before his death, and marking a very considerable development in moral theology. Crohns in his Die Summa theologica des Antonin von Florenz und die Schützung des Weibes im Hexenhammer, Helsingfors, 1903, has set out to show that the very pronounced misogyny which is apparent in the Malleus Maleficarum can be traced to the Summa of S. Antoninus. But Paulus, “Die Verachtung der Frau beim hl. Antonin,” in Historisch-Politische Blätter, 1904, pp. 812⁠–⁠30, has severely criticized this thesis, which he declares to be untenable.

     Within fifty years after the first appearance of the Summa of S. Antoninus, fifteen editions were printed at various important centres of learning. Many other editions followed, and in 1740 it was issued at Verona in four volumes, folio, edited by P. Ballerini; in 1741 at Florence by two Dominicans, Mamachi and Remedelli. ↩

155. There are two kinds of werewolves, voluntary and involuntary. The voluntary were, of course, wizards, such as Gilles Garnier, who on 18 January, 1573, was condemned by the court of Dôle, Lyons, to be burned alive for “the abominable crimes of lycanthropy and witchcraft.” More than fifty witnesses deposed that he had attacked and killed children in the fields and vineyards, devouring their raw flesh. He was sometimes seen in human shape, sometimes as a “loup-garou.” During the sixteenth century in France lycanthropy was very prevalent, and numerous trials clearly show that murder and cannibalism were rife in many county districts. ↩

156. John Nider, O.P., was born 1380 in Swabia; and died at Colmar, 13 August, 1438. He gained a wide reputation as a preacher and was active at the Council of Constance. An advocate of the strictest reforms, he became eminent in the annals of his Order by his energy and example. The most important among his many works is the Formicarius, a treatise upon the theological, philosophical, and socal questions of the day. A complete edition was published at Douai, 5 vols., 1602. The tractate “De Maleficis” has often been printed separately. ↩

157. The theology here is very intricate and must be followed with the utmost caution. All have free will, and therefore might sin. But Our Lord and Our Lady did not sin; and the thought that they might have sinned is blasphemy. And S. John says (1 3:9): “Whosoever is born of God, committeth not sin: for his seed abideth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” ↩

158. For a full discussion of the appearance of Samuel at Endor, see my History of Witchcraft, c. V: “The Witch in Holy Writ,” pp. 176⁠–⁠81. ↩

159. Doctor of the Church; Archbishop of Canterbury, born at Aosta, a Burgundian town in the borders of Lombardy, 1033⁠–⁠34; died 21 April, 1109. High praise is given him in the Breviary Office for his Feast, 21 April, Second Nocturn of Matins, Lection VI: “Obdormiuit in Domino, famam non solum miraculorum et sanctitatis (praecipue ob insignem deuotionem erga Domini nostri passionem, et beatam Uirginem eius Matrem) assecutus, sed etiam doctrinae, quam ad defensionem Christianae religionis, animarum profectum, et omnium theologorum, qui sacras litteras scholastica methodo tradiderunt, normam coelitus hausisse ex eius omnibus apparet.” There are several collections of the works of S. Anselm, but of these few, if any, can claim to be critical, and none are adapted for modern requirements. At the same time there are very numerous separate editions, and even translations of the more important treatises, in particular the “Cur Deus Homo.” ↩

160. Daniel 10:13: “But the prince of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me for one-and-twenty days: And behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there by the King of the Persians.” The Prince of the Persians is the angel guardian of Persia: who, according to his office, seeking the spiritual good of the Persians, was desirous that many of the Jews should remain among them. ↩

161. Stadelein, who is described as “grandis maleficus,” “a most notorious warlock,” lived at Boltingen, a town in the duchy and diocese of Lausanne. John Nider sat as assessor as his trial. See the Formicarius, c. III. ↩

162. John Cassian, monk and ascetic writer of Southern Gaul, and the first to introduce the rules of Eastern monasticism into the West, was born probably in Provence about 360; and died near Marseilles about 435. The two principal works of Cassian are the Institutes; De institutis coenobiorum et de octo principalium uitiorum remediis libri XII; and the “Collations” or “Conferences,” Collationes XXIV. The author has himself remarked upon the relation between the two works: “These books (‘the Institutes’)⁠ ⁠… are mainly taken up with what belongs to the outer man and the customs of the coenobis; the others (the ‘Conferences’) deal rather with the training of the inner man and the perfection of the heart.” The best edition of the works of Cassian is that by Petschenig, Vienna, 1885⁠–⁠88.
     Although never formally canonized, from very early days Cassian was regarded as a saint. At Marseilles his feast (with an octave) is celebrated 23 July, and his name is found in the Greek Calendar. ↩

163. Episcopus Tamasi in Cypro, cuius Festum agitur die XVII Septembris. See Analecta Bollandiana, XXVI, 238⁠–⁠9; and Fr. Nau, Revue de l’Orient chrétien, XII (197), 125⁠–⁠38. ↩

164. At the instance of his mother Theodora, Countess of Teano, S. Thomas, who had received the Dominican habit some time between 1240 and August 1243, was whilst on his way to Rome from Naples captured near Aquapendente by his two brothers, Landolfo and Rinaldo, officers in the army of the Emperor Frederick. They confined him for nearly two years in the fortress of San Giovanni at Rocca Secca. He revealed this vision of Holy Angels who endowed him with the white girdle of chastity to his faithful friend, Reginald of Piperno. One of the particular devotions of the Dominican Order consists in wearing, as a devout memorial of this event, a white girdle for which a special form of blessing is prescribed: “Benedictio Cinguli S. Thomae Aquinatis Ad Seruandam Castitatem.” ↩

165. De Diuinatione Daemonum, written 406⁠–⁠11. Migne, Patres Latini, XL, pp. 581⁠–⁠92. ↩

166. Saturday, however, was always particularly avoided as being the day sacred to the Immaculate Mother of God. See my History of Witchcraft, c. IV, pp. 115⁠–⁠16. ↩

167. Doctor of the Church, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, born at Ravenna 1007; died at Faenza, 21 February, 1072. His works, which have been more than once collected, may be conveniently found in Migne, Patres Latini, CXLIV⁠–⁠CXLV. ↩

168. Daniel 14:32⁠–⁠38:

     32. Now there was in Judea a prophet called Habacuc, and he had boiled pottage, and had broken bread in a bowl: and was going into the field, to carry it to the reapers.

     33. And the angel of the Lord said to Habacuc: Carry the dinner which thou hast into Babylon to Daniel, who is in the lions’ den.

     34. And Habacuc said: Lord, I never saw Babylon, nor do I know the den.

     35. And the angel of the Lord took him by the top of his head, and carried him by the hair on his head, and set him in Babylon over the den in the force of his spirit.

     36. And Habacuc cried, saying: O Daniel, thou servant of God, take the dinner that God hath sent thee.

     37. And Daniel said: Thou hast remembered me, O God, and thou hast not forsaken them that love thee.

     38. And Daniel arose and ate. And the angel of the Lord presently set Habacuc again in his own place. ↩

169. Henry Boguet, Discours des Sorciers, Lyons, 1590, XVI, 4, points out that this flying ointment is of itself useless. The actual formulae for its confection have been preserved and the employment thereof is to be considered, say most demonologists, as a piece of vain and empty ceremony of Satan, yet more to delude his votaries. ↩

170. Bishop of Auxerre, born circa 380; died at Ravenna, 31 July, 448. His body was brought back to Auxerre, and later there arose the celebrated Benedictine Abbey known as St. Germain’s. ↩

171. Exodus 20:5; 34:7. ↩

172. These Pagan practices are sternly reprobated in the Liber Poenitentialis of S. Theodore, seventh Archbishop of Canterbury. In Book XXXVII is written: “If anyone at the Kalends of January goeth about as a stag or a bull-calf, that is, making himself into a wild animal, and dressing in the skins of a herd animal, and putting on the heads of beast; those who in such wise transform themselves into the appearance of a wild animal, let them do penance for three years, because this is devilish.” See my Geography of Witchcraft, Chap. II, pp. 65⁠–⁠73. The Council of Auxerre in 578 (or 585) forbade anyone “to masquerade as a bull-calf or a stag on the first of January or to distribute devilish charms.” ↩

173. It is not unusual for Satanists to go to Holy Communion in various churches of a town, and instead of consuming the Host they spit God’s Body from their mouths into a handkerchief or cloth and take it away to abuse in their horrid worship. In the notorious case of the Lancashire witches, at the first trial, 1612, James Device confessed “that upon Sheare Thursday was two yeares, his Grandmother Elizabeth Southernes alias Demdike, did bid him this Examinate goe to the Church to receive the Communion (they next day after being Good Friday), and then not to eate the Bread the Minister gave him, but to bring it and deliver it to such a thing as should meet him in his way homewards; Notwithstanding her perswasions this Examinate did eate the Bread: and so in his comming homeward some fortie roodes off the said Church, there met him a thing in the shape of a Hare, who spoke unto this Examinate, and asked him whether he had brought the Bread.”
     The toad constantly appears as a familiar. In 1579 at Windsor “one Mother Dutton dwellyng in Cleworthe Parishe keepeth a Spirite or Feende in the likenesses of a Toade, and fedeth the same Feende liying in a border of greene Hearbes, within her garden, with blood whiche she causeth to issue from her owne flancke.” Ursley Kemp, a S. Osyth witch (1582), had a familiar, Pygine, “black like a Toad.” Ales Hunt of the same coven nourished two familiars, “the which she kept in a little lowe earthen pot.” Margerie Sammon, another S. Osyth’s witch, “hath also two spirites like Toades, the one called ‘Tom,’ and the other ‘Robbyn.’ ” When Ursley Kemp peeped through Mother Hunt’s window she “espied a spirite to looke out of a porcharde from under a clothe, the nose thereof being brown like unto a Ferret.” ↩

174. These practices still survive. ↩

175. Formicarius, c. III. ↩

176. De Consolatione Philosophiae, Liber I, Prosa II. “Atqui talia contuleramus arma, quae nisi prius abiecisses, inuicta te firmitate tuerentur.” ↩

177. Daniel 4:30: “The same hour the word was fulfilled upon Nabuchodonosor, and he was driven away from among men, and did eat grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven: till his hairs grew like the feathers of eagles and his nails like birds’ claws.” ↩

178. The treatise De Natura et Origine Animae was written towards the end of the year 419. ↩

179. S. Paul, 2 Thessalonians 2:8, 9. ↩

180. Pseudo-Clementines. ↩

181. 2 Thessalonians 2:8⁠–⁠9: “That wicked one⁠ ⁠… whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders.” ↩

182. Sulpicius Severus, who has been styled the Christian Sallust, was born in Aquitaine about 360; and died circa 420⁠–⁠25. He became a personal friend and enthusiastic disciple of S. Martin, and lived near Eauze, at Toulouse and Luz in Southern France. His Life of S. Martin was very popular during the Middle Ages, as also were his Two Dialogues, formerly divided into three. His works are to be found in Migne, Patres Latini, XX, 95⁠–⁠248. ↩

183. In 487 Equitius was Bishop of Matelica, a diocese now joined to Fabriano. Only one other Bishop (Florentius) of the ancient see is known. ↩

184. Enea Silvio de’ Piccolomini was born at Corsignano, near Siena, 18 October, 1405; and elected to the Chair of S. Peter, 19 August, 1459. He died at Ancona, 14 August, 1464. ↩

185. Praxedes and Pudentiana were the daughters of the Senator Pudens, a pupil of S. Peter. There was an old title-church of Rome, “titulus Pudentis,” called also the “ecclesia Pudentiana.” The two female figures in the mosaic of the apse of S. Pudenziana, via Urbana, are Pudentiana and Praxedes. In the fourth century a new church, “titulus Praxedis,” was built near Santa Maria Maggiore, and when Paschal I in 822 rebuilt the church in its present form (the basilica and title-church S. Prassede all’ Esquilino) he translated to it the bodies of S. Praxedes, S. Prudentiana, and of many other martyrs. Under the High Altar are the chief Relics of the Saints. In the Chapel of S. Zeno, which dates from the ninth century, is the Holy Pillar of the Scourging brought in 1223 from Jerusalem by Cardinal Giovanni Colonna. Another portion of the Holy Pillar is preserved in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, where it is publically venerated each year on Easter Eve. S. Prassede is one of the richest churches in Rome in Relics. It contains the Bodies of S. Zoe, S. Feldian, S. Candid, S. Basil, S. Celestine I, S. Nicomedius; important Relics of S. Matthew, S. Luke, S. Bartholomew, S. Philip, S. Andrew, S. Peter, S. Paul, and S. John Baptist; some of the garments of Our Lady; a piece of the seamless robe of Our Lord; three Thorns from the Crown of Thorns; and four fragments of wood from the True Cross. ↩

186. “Doctor planus et utilis,” the famous exegete, was born at Lyra in Normandy, 1270; and died at Paris, 1340. He is the author of numerous theological works, by far the most famous of which is his monumental Postillae perpetuae in uniuersam S. Scripturam, which was so popular that it gained the distinction of being the first biblical commentary to be printed. ↩

187. Praeceptorum diuinae legis Liber, of which there were seventeen editions before 1500. I have used that of Douai, 1612. ↩

188. Sigebert of Gembloux, the celebrated Benedictine historian, was born at Gembloux (pr. Namur) about 1035, and died at the same place, 5 November, 1112. He was a prolific author, and his most famous work, Chronicon siue Chronographia, is the basis of many other histories. It has frequently been reprinted. The works of Sigebert may be conveniently found in Migne, Patres Latini, CLX. There is a study by Hirsh, De uita et scriptis Sigeberti Monachi Gemblacensis, Berlin, 1841. ↩

189. Son of Lothaire I, was born about 822. He became associated with his father in the Empire in 849, and succeeded to the Imperial Crown in 855. He died in 875. ↩

190. S. Luke 11:21. ↩

191. Poena damni. ↩

192. Psalm 82:2. ↩

193. Inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem, et semen tuum et semen illius: ipsa conteret caput tuum, et tu insidiaberis calcaneo eius. ↩

194. The little that is known concerning the author of the Concordantia discordantium canonum, more generally called the Decretum Gratiani, must be gathered from the work itself. Gratian was born in Italy, perhaps at Chiusi. He became a Camaldolese monk and taught at Bologna. It is uncertain at what time he compiled the Decretum, but it was commonly held to have been completed in 1151. More recent authorities, however, are inclined to suggest 1140. Gratian died before 1179, some think as early as 1160. He is regarded as the true founder of the science of canon law. ↩

195. Psalm 50:19. ↩

196. S. Alexis, Confessor. Feast, 17 July. The Basilica and title-church of SS. Bonifacio ed Alessio all’ Aventino, Rome, contains the bodies of S. Boniface and S. Alexis under the High Altar. S. Aglae is buried in the confessional.

     S. Nicolas of Tolentino, O.S.A., circa 1246⁠–⁠1306. was born of gentlefolk, Compagnonus de Guarutti and Amata de Guidiani, pious and devout, living in great seclusion on very moderate means. He was the child of prayer, his mother being advanced in years and vowing her son, should she bear one, to God from the womb. His parents joyfully consented to his joining the Order of Augustinian Hermits, of which he is one of the greatest glories. S. Nicolas was distinguished by angelic meekness and celestial purity. He died 10 September, and his feast is celebrated on that day. ↩

197. Francesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum, Milan, 1608, tells us that the witches promise the devil “to strive with all their power and to use every inducement and endeavour to draw other men and women to their detestable practices and the worship of Satan.” So in the case of Janet Breadheid of Auldearne it was her husband who “enticed her into that craft.” (Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, Edinburgh, 1833.) At Salem, George Burroughs, a minister, was accused by a large number of women as “the person who had Seduc’d and Compell’d them into the snares of Witchcraft.” See my History of Witchcraft, Chap. III, pp. 83⁠–⁠84. ↩

198. 1 Corinthians 9:9. ↩

199. Psalmist 35:7, 8. ↩

200. Chap. III. ↩

201. In the trial of Dame Alice Kyteler of Kilkenny, 1324, it was shown that she had sacrificed at the crossroads live animals (Holinshed says nine red cocks) to her familiar, Robert Artisson, “qui se facit appellari Artis Filium.” In Greek tradition the κερκώπις, a poltergeist, haunted the crossways. Lemoine, VI, p. 109, tells us: “Celui qui veut devenir sorcier doit aller à un ‘quatre chemins’ avec une ‘poule noire,’ ou bien encore au ‘cimetière,’ sur une ‘tombe’ et toujours à ‘minuit.’ Il vient alors quelqu’un qui demande: ‘Que venez-vous faire ici?’ ‘J’ai une poule à vendre,’ répond-on. Ce quelqu’un (est) le Méchant.” ↩

202. Staufus. Formicarius, Chap. III. The edition Frankfort, 1588, Vol. I, p. 722, reads “Scavius” and in the margin “Schasius.” (Marginal note: “De Schasio in murem se conuertente.”) ↩

203. This old tradition was made the subject of the celebrated opera Der Freischütz, the libretto of which is by Kind, the music by Weber. It was originally produced at Berlin in 1821, and on 22 July, 1824, first performed in England at the Lyceum Theatre, London, as Der Freischütz; or, The Seventh Bullet. ↩

204. On 29 May, 1187, a number of mercenaries and bandits were playing with dice before the door of the church at Déols. One of these fellows, who had lost a throw, cursing and swearing, took up a stone, which he flung at the figure of Our Lady with the Child over the sacred portal. The arm of the Infant Jesus was snapped in twain. “A stream of blood poured from the arm of the broken image and made a pool on the earth below. The wretch who flung the stone was seized with madness, and dropped down dead upon the spot.” The blood was carefully collected in a phial which was deposited in an Oratory dedicated to Our Lady. Numberless cures were effected, and a Confraternity which was founded in honour of the miracle flourished until the Revolution. It was reorganized in 1830, and on 31 May there is a solemn Commemoration of the Blood-shedding of Notre Dame de Déols.
     After S. Paul of the Cross (1694⁠–⁠1775) had preached for the last time in the church of Piagaro, a Crucifix over one of the side-altars was seen to be oozing with blood. Hundreds witnessed the miracle, and later a chapel was built to enshrine the Miraculous Cross. In 1630 at Spoleto, drops of blood flowed from the head of a figure of Our Lord Crowned with Thorns. Even in this unbelieving age the Most Holy Crucifix of Limpias, El Santo Cristo de la Agonia, sweats blood, whilst tears have been observed in the eyes, which turn from side to side, and the head sometimes moves as in all the weariness of bitter pain. Very many other instances of similar miracles might be cited. ↩

205. The sense is completely mistaken here. It should rather be, “Lady, what is it to Me and to Thee” if these people lack wine? Our Lord marvels at the supreme charity of Our Lady. The first miracle was wrought at the request of Mary. Quod Deus imperio tu prece, Virgo, potes. It may be argued that all miracles are performed at the request of Our Lady, since, as S. Bernard says, God wishes us to obtain everything through Her. Totum nos uoluit habere per Mariam. ↩

206. If the exorcism is not effective it is owing to lack of faith. ↩

207. De Moribus ecclesiae catholicae et de moribus Manichaeorum was written 388⁠–⁠89. ↩

208. John Duns Scotus, Doctor Subtilis, the famous Franciscan scholastic, died 8 November, 1308. He lived and taught at Oxford, and for a time at Paris. His complete work with commentaries appeared at Paris, 1891⁠–⁠95, in twenty-six volumes, quarto, being a reprint of the twelve folio volumes which were issued by Luke Wadding in 1639 at Lyons. ↩

209. Ubertino of Casale, leader of the Spiritual Franciscans, who expressed extreme views regarding evangelical poverty. He was born in 1259, and died about 1330. Owing to his warm advocacy of the strictest ideas he was severely condemned by the authorities, and his history is a matter of considerable difficulty. His chief work is generally considered to be Arbor uitae crucifixae Jesu Christi. ↩

210. S. Matthew 12:26: “Et si Satanas Satanam eiicit, aduersus se diuisus est: quomodo ergo stabit regnum eius?” ↩

211. “Ochozias,” who when sick “sent messengers, saying to them: Go, consult Beelzebub, the god of Hecaron, whether I shall recover of this my illness. And an angel of the Lord spoke to Elias the Thesbite, saying: Arise, and go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them: Is there not a God in Israel, that ye go to consult Beelzebub, the god of Hecaron? Wherefore thus saith the Lord: From the bed on which thou art gone up thou shalt not come down, but thou shalt surely die.” ↩

212. The following quotation is from an article “Witchcraft, Past and Present,” by Lady Peirse, that appeared in Word-Lore, Vol. I, No. 3 (pp. 122⁠–⁠28), May-June, 1926. The district to which reference is made is “a south-country village in England.” “A local farmer, whose cows and sheep ailed mysteriously, and showed all the usual signs of being ‘overlooked’ or bewitched, whilst things in general went wrong with him, consulted the witch doctor, and was told to repeat a certain charm last thing at night, to nail a sheep’s heart to his front door, and on no account to open the door till morning, no matter what happened.

     “This the farmer did, and when his family had repaired to bed, he commenced his lonely vigil by the kitchen fire. After a while there came a thunderous knocking on the door, and a voice crying ‘Open and let me in.’ The voice was very urgent, but the farmer, though he trembled exceedingly, kept firm grip of himself and never moved from his chair. Then came the knocking a second time and a deplorable voice begging to be allowed in, but the farmer remained obdurate. Lastly came a feeble knocking and moaning. The farmer, who was greatly alarmed, remained at his post till the sun was up next morning. When he opened his door a neighbour lay stretched across his threshold dead.

     “The doctor, so my friend was told, believed it to be a case of heart failure. We can only imagine that the farmer and his family remained silent about the voice and the knocking at the door; perhaps no one but the farmer had heard. To the doctor, a simple though regrettable episode; to the farmer, an awesome case of retribution. To the world at large, a story that may be interpreted in many different ways; but with a lesson for all who run to read, namely, that it does not pay to practise withcraft or the indulgence of personal spite if there happens to be a witch doctor in the neighbourhood, since it is apparently quite an easy thing, with a little occult knowledge, to do the witch to death! Throughout many centuries witches in the long run always seem to come off second best. Faith and fear in their victims seem to lend them strength, just as faith and love help righteousness.”

     Not very many years ago a farmer and his wife who lived in the country just outside Milan came to the conclusion that their daughter, who had long been suffering from a mysterious ailment, which the best doctors in Milan seemed unable to diagnose and cure, was bewitched by an old woman dwelling in their village, a wretch of notoriously bad reputation, whom the girl had unwittingly offended in some small way. Accordingly they resorted to a “wise man,” who lived in a small town a good many miles distant. He gave them a bundle of herbs, telling them to boil these in water and at the same time to recite a certain rune or rhyme which he taught them. He told them that if their daughter was indeed plagued by the malice of some individual, as the water boiled the witch who had cast the spell would be so tormented that she would hasten to their house and betray herself by begging them to take the cauldron from the fire. They could then refuse to do so unless she at once relived the girl from her sickness. They precisely obeyed the directions which had been given, and hardly had the water begun to bubble with the heat than there came running the hag whom they had suspected, imploring them with every symptom of intense agony to throw away the contents of the pot. This they would not do unless the charm was broken. In her despair the old woman promised to restore their daughter to health, and from that time the child rapidly began to mend until she was as stout and sturdy as any lass in the whole countryside. ↩

213. The text of this passage seems corrupt and varies considerably in the later editions. The earliest edition of the Malleus in the British museum reads: “Nam die dnico sotularia iuuenu fungia seu pinguedie porci ut moris e p restauratoe fieri pungut et sic ubi ecclesia intrat tadiu malefice exire eccias non poterut quo adusq: exploratores aut exeunt aut illis licentia sub expssione ut sup exeundi peedat.” “Die dnico” was almost immediately altered to “die dominica.” The usual reading is “die Dominica Sotularia, iuuenum fungia⁠ ⁠…” Venice, 1576, introduces a fresh error: “die dominica Solutaria iuuenum fungia⁠ ⁠…” The Lyons text of 1669 has an excellent emendation, which is, no doubt, correct: “die Dominica Sotularia iuuenum axungia⁠ ⁠…” ↩

214. Sinistrari tells of a case which came under his own notice when a deacon, a monk of the Certosa at Pavia, was sorely vexed by an Incubus. Exorcisms seemed unavailing; the Incubus himself in the shape of Father Prior blessed the place with Holy Water. However, the demon was at last banished. See my translation, Demoniality, pp. 57⁠–⁠59, and passim. ↩

215. A learned monk of the Cistercian monastery of Heisterbach near Bonn, born about 1170 at Cologne, died about 1240 as Prior of Heisterbach. Abbot Henry requested Caesarius to draw up an abstract of his teaching, and this resulted in the famous Dialogus magnus uisionum atque miraculorum, Libri XII, which it is no exaggeration to say was probably the most popular book in Germany of its period. More than fifty MSS. are extant, and seven printed editions are known. The latest, two volumes, was edited by Strange, Cologne, 1851; an index to this followed, Cologne, 1857. ↩

216. Tobias 6, 16 and 17: Then the angel Raphael said to him: Hear me, and I will show thee who they are, over whom the devil can prevail. For they who in such manner receive matrimony as to shut out God from themselves, and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule, which have not understanding, over them the devil hath power. ↩

217. Genesis 20. ↩

218. Born at Böckelheim on the Nahe, 1098; died on the Rupertsberg near Bingen, 1179. This great Benedictine seeress and prophetess has been called the Sibyl of the Rhine. From her earliest years she was favoured with visions, and when she was aged about forty she received a Divine command to publish to the world what she had seen and heard. After much hesitation owing to her humility she obeyed, and in 1141 she commenced her profound treatise Scivias (“scire uias Domini”), which occupied her for ten years. It is ecstatic and prophetic throughout, and demands profoundest study. Herwegen, Kirchliches Handlexikon (1908), remarks that in order fully to appreciate this marvellous writer a new and critical edition of her writings must be prepared, a task entailing immense labour and research. No formal canonization of S. Hildegard has taken place, but many miracles were wrought at her intercession, and her name is in the Roman Martyrology. The feast is celebrated on 17 September in the dioceses of Speyer, Mainz, Trier and Limburg, and by the Solesmes monks on 18 September with a proper Office. The Relics of the Saint are at Eibingen, of which town she is patron. The convent of S. Hildegard there was formally constituted on 17 September, 1904. ↩

219. The famous shrine of Our Lady of the Hermits, at the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln, in the Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. S. Meinrad, who was assassinated by bandits in 861, had embraced the solitary life and established his hermitage on the slopes of Mount Etzel, when he built a small oratory for the wonder-working statue of Our Lady which had been given him by Abbess Hildegard of Zurich. Several anchorites succeeded him, and one of these, by name Eberhard, erected a monastery and church there. This fane was miraculously consecrated in 948 by Christ Himself, assisted by the Four Evangelists, S. Peter and S. Gregory the Great. Even the rationalistic Father Thurston, S.J., will be unable to impugn this holy marvel, as it was investigated and confirmed by Pope Leo VIII, and subsequently ratified by many a Pontiff, the last being Pius VI, who in 1793 confirmed the acts of all his predecessors. The miraculous statue is enthroned in a little chapel which stands within the great abbey church in much the same way as the Holy House at Loreto, encased in marbles and elaborate woodwork, the goal of ten thousand pilgrimages. The two chief days are the fourteenth of September and the thirteenth of October, the first being the anniversary of the Divine consecration of Eberhard’s basilica, the second that of the translation of the Relics of S. Meinrad from Reichenau to Einsiedeln in 1039. ↩

220. One of the most famous of the miracles of S. Antony of Padua, wrought for the conversion of heretics, was that of a mule, belonging to one Bovidilla, a blasphemer of the Sacrament. The animal, although it had been, as agreed, kept fasting for three days, refused to turn to a sieve of oats held out by its master, but fell down upon its knees and adored the Host which the Saint was carrying in the ostensory. Some narratives of the fourteenth century say this happened at Toulouse, and some name Bruges, but the actual place was Rimini. In the basilica Il Santo, at Padua, this miracle is depicted more than once. There is a bronze bas-relief by Donatello in the Chapel of the Sacrament, and a fresco by Campagnola. The same subject was painted by Van Dyck for the Recollects at Malines.

     Animals have been known to distinguish Our Lord’s Body in the Host, a fact which, when one considers their sense and intelligence, is not at all surprising.

     At the trial of the Satanist Louis Gaufridi it was proved that upon one occasion during their accursed rites a dog was led in to devour the consecrated Species, but he stretched out his paws in adoration before the Body of Christ and bowed down his head, nor could kicks nor blows compel him to stir. Several of the devotees broke down into tears and began loudly to bewail their sins, after which it was decreed in future that the Host should be defiled, but that no animals must be admitted. See my Geography of Witchcraft, pp. 410⁠–⁠411.

     S. Optatus tells us that certain Donatists once threw the Host to some hungry dogs, who suddenly turned on the heretics and tore them to pieces. ↩

221. Since the Sacrament is “medicina animae.” In En Route, Chap. V, the Abbé Gévresin says: “Je comprends très bien le système du père Milleriot qui forçait à communier des gens qu’il appréhendait de voir retomber dans leur péchés, aprè. Pour toute pénitence, il les obligeait à recommunier encore et il finissait par les épurer avec les Saintes Espèces prises à de hautes doses. C’est une doctrine tout à la fois réaliste et surélevée.” Père Milleriot, S.J., was largely concerned in the conversion (1879⁠–⁠80) of Paul-Maximilien-Emile Littré, who died at Paris, 2 June, 1881. ↩

222. The earliest Council of Carthage of which we know was held about AD 198, when seventy bishops, presided over by the Bishop of Carthage, Agrippinus, were present. After this date more than twenty Councils were held at Carthage, of which the most important were those under S. Cyprian, relative to the “lapsi,” Novatianism, and the re-baptism of heretics, and the synods of 412, 416 and 418 which condemned the doctrines of Pelagius. ↩

223. A rubric of the “De exorcizandis Obsessis a Daemonio” prescribes: “Necessarie uero interrogationes sunt, ut de tempore quo ingressi sunt, de causa, et aliis huiusmodi. Ceteras autem daemoniis nugas, risus, et ineptias Exorcista cohibeat, aut contemnat, et circumstantes, qui pauci esse debent, admoneat, ne haec curent, neque ipsi interrogent obsessum: sed potius humiliter et enixe Deum pro eo precentur.” ↩

224. Bishop of Naples, who was appointed to that see by S. Gregory the Great in 593 upon the deposition of Demetrius. ↩

225. S. Matthew 17:20: Hoc autem genus non eiicitur nisi per orationem et ieiunium. ↩

226. See Sinistrari, De Daemonialitate, LXVIII, in my translation “Demoniality,” pp. 52⁠–⁠53. ↩

227. Paul de Santa Maria, a Spanish Archbishop, Lord Chancellor, and exegete, born at Burgos about 1351; died 29 August, 1435. The most wealthy and influential Jew of Burgos (Jewish name Solomon-Ha-Levi), and a scholar of the first rank in Talmudic and Rabbinical literature, a Rabbi of the Hebraic community, he was converted to Christianity by the irrefutable logic of the Summa of S. Thomas. He received baptism 21 July, 1390. His reputation as a Biblical writer chiefly rests upon his “Additiones” to the Postilla of Nicolas of Lyra, Nuremberg, 1481; Venice, 1481; and many other editions. ↩

228. William Duranti, canonist and one of the most important medieval liturgical writers, born about 1237 at Puimisson, Provence; died at Rome 1 November, 1296. His career was most noble and distinguished. A long epitaph upon his monument in Santa Maria sopra Minerva tells the story of his life and gives a list of his works. The most important of these is the Rationale diuinorum officiorum, the first edition of which by Fust and Schoeffer as issued at Mainz in 1459. It has been frequently reprinted, the last complete edition being Naples, 1839. The Speculum Iudiciale and the Commentarius in canones Concilii Lugdunensis II are valuable treatises upon the canons and canonical processes. ↩

229. The miracle of the removal of a mountain was actually performed by S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Neocaesarea (d. circa 270⁠–⁠275), as the Venerable Bede tells us in his Commentary upon S. Mark 11: “Hoc quoque fieri potuisset, ut mons ablatus de terra mitteretur in mare, si necessitas id fieri poscisset. Quomodo legimus factum precibus beati patris Gregorii Neocaesareae Ponti Antistitis, uiri mentis et uirtutibus eximii, ut mons in terra tantum loco cederet, quantum incolae ciuitatis opus habebant. Cum enim uolens aedificare ecclesiam in loco apto, uident eum angustiorem esse quam res exigebat, eo quod ex una parte rupe maris, ex alia monte proximo coarctaretur; uenit nocte ad locum, et genibus flexis admonuit Dominum promissionis suae, ut montem longius iuxta fidem petentis ageret. Et mane facto reuersus inuenit montem tantum spatii reliquisse structoribus ecclesiae, quantum opus habuerant.” ↩

230. Actually baptismal exorcism is earlier than S. Gregory. From the very first catechumens were exorcised as a preparation for the Sacrament of Baptism. In this connection exorcism is a symbolical anticipation of one of the chief effects of the Sacrament of Regeneration, and since it was used in the case of children who had no personal sins, S. Augustine, writing against the Pelagians, appeals to it as clearly implying the doctrine of original sin. S. Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catecheses, AD 347, gives a detailed description of baptismal exorcism, by which it appears that anointing with exorcised oil formed a part of this function in the East. The earliest Western witness which explicitly treats unction as part of the baptismal exorcism is that of the Arabic Canons of Hippolytus. ↩

231. The De Auguriis, which is often ascribed to another writer, may be found in the Migne S. Augustine, Ap. V, 2268. ↩

232. Cf. Shirley’s comedy The Sisters, licensed April 1642, where Antonio says to one of the supposed astrologers, III, I:

     “You are one of the knaves that stroll the country,
     And live by picking worms out of fools’ fingers.”

     ↩

233. 1 Corinthians 10:31. ↩

234. So in Ireland the fairies are called “good people,” and traditionally seem to be of a benevolent and capricious and even mischievous disposition. In some parts of Highland Scotland fairies are called “daoine sithe” or “men of peace,” and it is believed that every year the devil carries off a tenth part of them.
     It will be readily remembered that to the Greeks the Fairies were αἱ Εὐμενίδες, the gracious goddesses. ↩

235. Esarhaddon is employing a mode of sortilege by arrows, belomancy, which was extensively practised among the Chaldeans, as also among the Arabs. Upon this text S. Jerome comments: “He shall stand in the highway, and consult the oracle after the manner of his nation, that he may cast arrows into a quiver, and mix them together, being written upon or marked with the names of each people, that he may see whose arrow will come forth, and which city he ought first to attack.” The arrows employed by the Arabs were often three in number, upon the first of which was inscribed, “My Lord hath commanded me”; upon the second, “My Lord hath forbidden me”; and the third was blank. If the inquirer drew the first it was an augury of success; the second gave an omen of failure; if the third were drawn, all three were mixed again and another trial was made. In some countries divining rods were employed instead of arrows. These were drawn from a vessel, or, it might be, cast into the air, the position in which they fell being carefully noted. This practice is rhabdomancy. The LXX, Ezechiel 21:21, reads ῥαβδομαντεία, not βελομαντεία, and rhabdomancy is mentioned by S. Cyril of Alexandria. The Koran, V, forbids prognostication by divining arrows, which are there denounced as “an abomination of the work of Satan.” See my History of Witchcraft, Chap. V, pp. 182⁠–⁠83. ↩

236. For the close connection between the Manichees and witches see my History of Witchcraft, Chap. I. ↩

237. Pope Clement V, born at Villandraut, 1264; elected to the Chair of S. Peter, 5 June, 1305; died at Roquemare, 20 April, 1314; completed the medieval Corpus Iuris Canonici by the publication of a collection of papal decretals known as “Clementinae” or “Liber Clementinarum,” sometimes as “Liber Septimus” in reference to “Liber Sextus” of Bonafice VIII. It contains decretals of this latter Pontiff, of Benedict XI, and of Clement himself. Together with the decrees of the Council of Vienne it was promulgated, 12 March, 1314, at the Papal residence of Monteaux near Carpentras. It is divided into five books with subdivisions of titles and chapters. As Clement V died before the collection had been generally published, John XXII promulgated it anew, 25 October, 1317, and sent it to the University of Bologna as the authorative Corpus of decretals to be used in the courts and schools. ↩

238. The parents of S. Bonaventura were Giovanni di Fidanze and Maria Ritella. He was born at Bagnorea, near Viterbo, in 1221, and baptized Giovanni. This was changed to Bonaventura owing to the exclamation of S. Francis, “O buona ventura,” when the child was brought to him to be cured of a dangerous illness. (This account has been doubted, and it is true that others bore the name before S. Bonaventura.) S. Bonaventura was canonized by Sixtus IV, 14 April, 1482. This formal enrolment in the catalogue of the Saints was thus long delayed mainly owing to the unfortunate dissensions concerning Franciscan affairs after the Saint’s death, 15 July, 1274. He was inscribed among the principal Doctors of the Church by Sixtus V, 14 March, 1587. His feast is celebrated 14 July. ↩

239. Guy de Perpignan, “Doctor Parisiensis,” d. 1342; General of the Carmelite Order from 1318⁠–⁠20. His chief work was the Summa de Haeresibus. ↩

240. This word designates some Papal decretals not contained in certain canonical collections which possess a special authority, that is, they are not found in (but “wander outside,” “extra uagari”) the Decree of Gratian, or the three great official collections of the Corpus Iuri (the Decretals of Gregory IX; the Sixth Book of the Decretals; and the Clementines). The term is now applied to the collections known as the Extrauagantes Ioannis XXII and the Extrauagantes Communes. When John XXII (1316⁠–⁠34) published the Decretals already known as “Clementines,” there also existed various pontifical documents, obligatory upon the whole Church indeed, but not included in the Corpus Iuris, and these were called “Extrauagantes.” In 1325 Zenselinus de Cassanis added glosses to twenty constitutions of John XXII, and named this collection Uiginti Extrauagantes papae Ioannis XXII. Chappuis also classified these under fourteen titles containing all twenty chapters. ↩

241. Thus in the famouse witch trial of Dame Alice Kyteler and her coven before the Bishop of Ossory in 1324, John le Poer, the husband of Dame Alice, deposed that in her closet were discovered mysterious vials and elixirs, strange necromantic instruments and ghastly relics of mortality which she used in her horrid craft. Holinshed in his Chronicle of Ireland (London, 1587, p. 93), sub anno 1323, has: “In rifling the closet of the ladie, they found a wafer of sacramental bread, having the divels name stamped thereon in steed of Jesus Christ, and a pipe of ointment, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon whish she ambled and gallopped through thicke and thin when and in what manner she listed.” See my Geography of Witchcraft, Chap. II, pp. 85⁠–⁠91. ↩

242. Colossians 3:17. ↩

243. Benedetto Gaetani, born at Anagni about 1235; elected Pope, 24 December, 1294; died at Rome, 11 October, 1303. He was one of the most eminent canonists of his age, and as Supreme Pontiff enriched legislation by the promulgation (Bull “Sacrosanctae,” 1298) of a large number of his own constitutions and those of his predecessors since 1234, when Gregory IX issued his five books of Decretals. In reference to this, the collection of Bonifice VIII is known as Liber Sixtus, i.e. of Pontifical Constitutions. ↩

244. There are recorded many instances of this. In 1597 the Scotch warlock Playfair, having killed Lord Lothian by witchcraft, was laid for, and “being soon apprehended, was made prisoner in Dalkeith steeple, and having confest that and much more wickedness to Mr. Archibald Simson, minister there, and that confession coming to the ears of Robert, Earl of Lothian, my lord’s son, he had moyen to get some persons admitted to speak with the prisoner in the night, by which means he was found worried in the morning, and the point of his breeches knit about his neck, but never more inquiry was made who had done the deed.”

     Alice Gooderidge, a Derbyshire witch, who was tried in 1597 and condemned, “should have bin executed, but that her spirit killed her in the prison.” John Stewart, a warlock of Irvine, in 1618, “for his better preferring to the day of the assys, was put in one lockfast buith,⁠ ⁠… and for avoyding of putting violent handis on himself, was verie strictly gairdit and flitherit be the airms, as us is.” He was visited by two ministers, who exhorted him to repentance, and seemed very contrite, confessing his witchcrafts. However, almost immediately after “he was fund be the burrow officers, quha went about him stranglit and hangit be the cruik of the dur, with ane tait of hemp (or a string maid of hemp, supposed to haif been his garters, or string of his bonnet) not above the length of two span long, his kneyis not being from the grund half ane span, and was brocht out of the hous, his lyf not being so layt expellit: but notwithstanding of quhat-somever meines usit to the contrair for remeid of his lyf, he revievit not, but so endit his lyf miserable by the help of the devill his maister.” In 1649 the lady of Pittahro, Mistress Henderson, “being delated by many to be a witch, was apprehended and carried to Edenbroughe, wher she was keiped fast; and after her remaining in prison for a tyme, being in health all night, upon the morne was found dead. It was thought, and spoken by many, that she wronged her selfe, either by strangling or by poyson.”

     It is recorded of the Renfrewshire trials (1697) that John Reid, a notorious warlock of Bargarran, “after his Confession had called out of his prison Window, desiring Baily Scott to keep that old body Angus Forrester, who had been his fellow prisoner, close and secure; whereupon the company asked John when they were leaving him on Friday night the 21st of May, whether he desired company or would be afraid alone, he said he had no fear of anything: So being left till Saturday in the Forenoon, he was found in this posture, viz. sitting upon a stool which was on the Hearth of the Chimney, with his feet on the floor and his Body straight upward, his shoulders touching the lintel of the Chimney, but his Neck tied with his own neckcloth (whereof the know was behind) to a small stick thrust into a hole above the lintel of the Chimney, upon which the Company, especially John Campbel a Chyrurgeon who was called, thought at first in respect of his being in an ordinary posture of sitting, and the neckcloth not having any drawn knot (or ‘run loup’) but an ordinary one which was not very strait, and the sticke not having the strength to bear the weight of his Body or the struggle, that he had not been quite dead; but finding it otherways, and that he was in such a Situation that he could not have been the Actor thereof himself, concluded that some extraordinary Agent had done it, especially considering that the Door of the Room was secured, and that there was a board set over the Window which was not there the night before when they left him.” ↩

245. The beautiful devotion to the Sacred Tears of Our Lord is well known. The Premonstratensians have a Mass, “De Lacryma Christi,” proper to the Order.

     Our Lady of Tears, Santa Maria delle Lagrime, is the Patroness of Spoleto. A picture of Our Lady, painted upon the wall of the house belonging to Diotallevio d’Antonio, which stood on the road from Spoleto to Trevi, was seen to shed tears in great abundance. Many graces and favours were obtained before the miraculous picture. A small chapel was erected on the spot in August 1485, and Mass was daily offered therein. On 27 March 1487, the large basilica was begun, which on its completion, 8 March 1489, was entrusted to the Olivetans. ↩

246. The “Agnus Dei,” which is a disc of wax, stamped with the figure of a Lamb, and on certain stated days blessed by the Holy Father. These Agnus Deis may either be worn suspended round the neck, or preserved as objects of devotion. They are to be regarded as Sacramentals. ↩

247. S. John 15:22. ↩

248. De Lancre, Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais agnes et démons, Paris, 1912, has: “Pour ne confesser iamais le secret de l’escole, on faict au sabbat une paste de millet noir, auec de la poudre du foyer de quelque enfant non baptisé qu’on faict secher, puis meslant cette poudre avec ladicte paste, elle a cette vertu de tacitrunité; si bien que qui en mange ne confesse iamais.” Five Forfar witches, of which one was Helen Guthrie, in 1661 dug up the body of an unbaptized infant, which was buried in the churchyard near the southeast door of the church “and took severall peices thereof, as the feet, hands, pairt of the head, and a pairt of the buttocks, and they made a py thereof, that they might eat of it, that by this means they might never make a confession (as they thought) of their witchcraft.” ↩

249. Proverbs 26:11: “As a dog that returneth to his vomit, so is the fool that repeateth his folly.” 2 Peter 2:22: “For, that of the true proverb has happened to them: the dog is returned to his vomit: and, The sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” ↩

250. S. Henry II, German King and Roman Emperor, was born 972, and died in his palace of Grona, at Göttingen, 13 July, 1024. He was canonized in 1146 by Eugenius III; and his wife Cunegond on 3 March 1200, by Innocent III. Later writers are inclined to believe that the ascetic theme of his maiden marriage has no foundation in fact. Saint Henry on assuming the Imperial dignity took to wife Cunegond, daughter of Siegfried, Count of Luxembourg. It has been beautifully said that she shares her husband’s celestial, as she shared his earthly crown. When scandalous reports were circulated concerning her honour, although her husband could not for a moment suspect her purity, she insisted upon an appeal to the trial by ordeal, and having walked unhurt over the red-hot ploughshares, publicly testified her innocence. The story is immensely popular in German poetry and German art. A print by Hans Burgkmair shows her stepping over the shares, one of which she holds in her hand. Upon her shrine in the Cathedral at Bamburg a bas-relief by Hans Thielmann of Warzburg depicts the same incident. Having already retired to a Benedictine cloister, upon the death of her husband S. Cunegond took the veil. ↩

251. S. Augustine’s De Gratia et libero Arbitrio was written 426⁠–⁠27. It will be found in Migne, Patres Latini, XLIV, pp. 881⁠–⁠912. ↩

252. Stephen (IX) X, elected 3 August, 1057; died at Florence, 29 March 1058. He was buried in the church of S. Reparata. He was distinguished for his learning and even during the few short months of his Pontificate he showed himself a zealous reformer. ↩

253. Bernardus Papiensis, a famous and prolific Italian canonist of the thirteenth century, who died 18 September, 1213. He was born at Pavia, studied law and theology at Bologna, was provost of the Cathedral of Pavia until 1191, Bishop of Faenza until 1198, and then Bishop of Pavia until his death. The most celebrated of his many works is the Breuiarium extrauagantium (later called Compilatio prima antiqua), a collection of canonical texts comprising ancient canons not inserted in the “Decretum” of Gratian, as also various later documents. The work was compiled between 1187 and 1191, and was edited by Friedberg, Quinque compilationes antiquae, Leipzig, 1882. ↩

254. Hugh of Pisa, a distinguished Italian canonist, who died in 1210. He was born at Pisa, but the date is unknown. He studied at Bologna, where later he professed Canon Law. In 1190 he became Bishop of Ferrara. Among his works are a Liber deriuationum which treats of etymology. He also wrote a “Summa” on the “Decretum” of Gratian, which has been considered the most extensive and one of the most valuable commentaries of the time. There are, however, certain omissions, but these gaps were filled by the industry of Joannes de Deo. ↩

255. This was exactly specified when someone was delivered. Thus Urbain Grandier on 18 August, 1634, at Loudun, was sentenced “to make honourable amends, with bare head, a rope around his neck, and with a burning torch of two pounds’ weight in his hand, before the principal door of the church of Saint-Pierre du Marché, and before that of Sainte Ursule of this town, and there, upon his knees, to ask pardon of God and the King.” His execution followed. ↩

256. Presumably the Annunciation, the Visitation, Assumption, and Nativity of Our Lady are intended. Candlemas, which in the Middle Ages had an octave in many dioceses, may be intended instead of the Visitation. The last Pope, Sixtus IV, had in 1470 published a work on the Immaculate Conception. By a decree of 28 February, 1476, this Pontiff adopted the Feast of Our Lady’s Conception for the entire Latin Church and granted an indulgence to all who should assist at the Divine Office of this Solemnity. ↩

257. 3 Kings (A.V., 1 Kings) 22:27: Put this man in prison and feed him with bread of affliction, and water of distress. ↩

258. Judges 15:1⁠–⁠6. ↩