The Malleus Maleficarum

by The Malleus Maleficarum (lit)

  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.

  S. Dominic. Before the birth of S. Dominic, his mother, Blessed Joanna dAza, 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.

  “S. John Chrysostom.” Born at Antioch, 347; died at Comana in Pontus, 14 September, 407. His fifty-nine homilies “On the Psalms” (iv-xii, xli, xliii-xlix, cviii-cxvii, cxix-cl) 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 , fasc. I, Rome, 1908.

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

  Gilia. 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 in Budapest.

  Clotilda. Born probably at Lyons about 474; dies 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.

  Terence. Hecrya, III, i, 30-32:

  Peuri inter sese quam pro leuibus noxiis iras gerunt!

  Qua propter? quia enim, qui eos gubernaut animus, infirmum gerunt.

  Itidem illæ mulieres sunt ferme, ut pueri, leui sententia.

  Temeste. 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?

  Seneca. Medea, 579-82.

  Contra Iouinianum. This treatise was written 392-93.

  Medea. V, 895-6:

  Quid, anime, cessas sequere felicem impetum?

  Pars ultonis ista, qua gaudes, quota est?

  Pelagia. Pelagia meretix 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 extremist mortification and penance in a grotto on the Mount of Olives. This ienheureuse pcheresse 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.

  Alexander. Alexander of Hales, the Franciscan theologian and philosopher, Doctor Irregragabilis, 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.

  S. Antoninus. 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 Blütter, 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.

  A wolf. 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 himan shape, sometimes as a loup-garou. During the sixteenth century in France lycanthropy was very prevalent, and cannibalism were rife in many county districts.

  Nider. 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 Maleficus has often been printed separately.

  Naturally without sin. 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 (I. iii. 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.

  Represent. 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.

  Daniel x, 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.

  Jules Baissac, Les grands Jours de la Sorcellerie, 1890, p. 19, says - I do not know on what authority - La 1re dition du Malleus Maleficarum est de 1489, in - 4, Cologne, cinq ans aprs la publication de la Bulle Summis desiderantes.

  Axis-ungo. See Palladius, 1, xvii, 3. Also Vegetius, De Arte Ueterinaria, IV, x, 3; also IV, xii, 3.

  The influence of this Saint over the dark powers was very remarkable, and he is especially venerated as effugator daemonu. 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.

  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.

  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.

  S. Luke, x, 17, 18.

  Isaias, xiv, 12.

  Paradise Lost, I, 738-51.

  The Pedigree of the Devil, London, 1883, pp. 178-9.

  Aeschylus, Choephoroe, 631-38.

  IV, 50; XXV, 1; XXXIX, 16.

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

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

  Codex Theodosianus, Lib, IX, tit. xvi, 1, 1.

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

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

  Guillotined in 1794.

  Proudhon, La Rvolution au XIXime sicle, p. 290.

  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.

  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 ni Theocritus (Idyll II), Vergil (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 Hindoos, 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.

  Some of the chronicles say Chester.

  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.

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

  Relation of a Journey, London, 1632.

  Biographia Dramatica, Vol. I, p. 729.

  Reigned 590-604.

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

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

  Reigned 1254-61.

  24 December, 1294-11 October, 1303.

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

  7 August, 1316-4 December, 1334.

  20 December, 1334-25 April, 1342.

  30 December, 1370-27 March, 1378.

  11 November, 1417-20 February, 1431.

  3 March, 1431-23 February, 1447.

  6 March, 1447-24 March, 1455.

  8 April, 1455-6 August, 1458.

  19 August, 1458-15 August, 1464.

  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 Rome, 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.

  1909.

  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.

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

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

  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.

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

  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.

  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.

  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.

  Lorenzo de Medici, c. vi.

  Leo the Tenth, c. iii.

  Jansen, History of the German People, English translation, XVI, 249-51.

  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.

  Born at Trittenheim on the Moselle, 1 February, 1462; died at Wülrzburg, 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 Wülrzburg. 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.

  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.

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

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

  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 re-establishment everywhere
of the Holy Rosary. His vision of the Rosary is generally assigned to the year 1460. The Petite Anne Dominicaine (Rome, 1911, p. 309) says: Il fut le grand prdicateur des vertus de la T.-Ste-Vierge au XVe sicle et le restaurateur du St. Rosaire. Car . . . une dvotion si rationelle, si facile, si attrayante, si utile, inaugere par un aussi grand saint que Dominique tait tombe presque partout dans loubli. Alains se mit læuvre . . . faisant renaître avec la culture du Rosaire, les fruits de grâce. . . . Sa mort tait celle dun saint, et son tombeau devint glorieux par de nombreux miracles. Un autel lui tait ddi dans le couvent de Dinan, et le B. Grignon de Montefort aimait y dire la messe.