The Witches' Ointment

by Thomas Hatsis

  *60 Most likely the author is Ponce Fougeyron, a Franciscan inquisitor general (see Ginzburg, Ecstasies, 68–71).

  *61 An antipope is one who, in opposition to the one who is generally seen as the legitimately elected pope, makes a significantly accepted competing claim to be pope. The Catholic Church officially lists thirty antipopes (though there are others who have been considered antipopes). At various times between the third and mid-fifteenth centuries, antipopes were supported by a fairly significant faction of religious cardinals and secular kings and kingdoms.

  *62 Sprenger’s contribution to the Malleus is disputed by modern scholars (see Broedel, The Malleus Maleficarum, 18). It seems likely that his name was added as coauthor only to bring legitimacy to the work.

  *63 “Paracelsus,” meaning “next [in his status as physician] to Celsus” or “beyond Celsus,” refers to the first-century Roman encyclopedist Aulus Cornelius Celsus, known for De medicina, his famous tract on medicine.

  †64 Coincidentally, Paracelsus set the book aflame on St. John the Baptist’s Day (see Ball, The Devil’s Doctor, 77).

  *65 Although the library fixes the work to 1554, the date on the title page reads “MDXLVII” (1547).

  *66 From Laguna’s description it seems that these two people were nothing more than eccentrics who might have dabbled in common sorcery and had been singled out as scapegoats and exiled for some misfortune.

  †67 In the account, Laguna likens the odorous unguent to a white poplar ointment. One is reminded of this ointment, mentioned in chapter 4 of this work, which contains deadly nightshade, mandrake, and henbane.

  *68 All Sabbat imagrey inspired by (and quoted from) Henry Boguet, An Examen of Witches, 35–38. The name Elizabeth is generic and is used for ease of flow in the narrative.

  *69 Although this position was not accepted by all theologians (some believed that the transformations were literal), the theory of deluded senses prevailed when explaining metamorphoses (see Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, 29).

  *70 In a sense, Peukert’s experience shows that it is the lore of the Church, not the actual practices of sorceresses like Matteuccia di Francesco, that has survived into modern times.

  *71 We must bear in mind that Matteuccia’s ointment could have been used for self-transformation (into a mouse), for invoking a local deity (bastardized by church authorities as a demon), to “fly,” or perhaps for some other reason which remains opaque to historians.

  *72 Examples would include a case in 1406 wherein two women in Lucerne were tried for administering a love philter (Joseph Hansen, Quellen, 527); that same year two women were tried in Nürnberg for using love powders (Hansen Quellen, 526); and in 1407 love potions used to cause sickness, death, and arousal ended in multiple women being banished from Basel, Switzerland (Lea, Materials, vol. 1, 247). Even Johannes Nider’s hugely influential Formicarius was completed only in 1437; the work itself was most likely started a decade earlier, in 1424 or 1425, meaning his reference to the vetula’s ointment was untainted by the witch stereotype (see Galbreth, “Nider and the Exemplum,” 55).

  †73 Though cases still existed at this time that record instances of flying without any ointment at all—no doubt historical residues of the tales of night flight not wholly scrapped.

  *74 See chapter 6, note 66.

  *75 Murray argued that early-modern “witches” were really just members of an ancient pagan religion that survived, untouched by civilization, in the backwoods areas of Europe, and worshipped a “horned-god,” later bastardized as Satan by theologians. While some pagan beliefs certainly survived into the early modern period, Murray’s theory of a pan-European cult has been crucified by modern scholars who have shown conclusively that she not only cited selectively from her sources but even butchered the citations used.

  ENDNOTES

  INTRODUCTION

  1. Joseph Hansen, Quellen und untersuchungen, 228.

  2. Friedenwald, “Andres Laguna,” 1037–48.

  3. Bever, Realities of Witchcraft, see chapter 4; Rudgley, Pagan Resurrection, 47; Baroja, World of the Witches, 35; Sidky, Witchcraft, Lycanthropy, Drugs, see chapter 7; Harner, Hallucinogens and Shamanism, see chapter 8.

  4. Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, 205; Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials, 101.

  5. Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials, 73, 97.

  6. Ibid., 49.

  7. Harner, Hallucinogens and Shamanism, 131; Rudgley, Pagan Resurrection, 47.

  8. Levack, Witch-Hunt, 49. Richard Kieckhefer, e-mail to author, Dec. 11, 2009. For the best arguments from skepticism, see Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 175–76; Briggs, Witches and Neighbors, 56.

  9. Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 176.

  10. Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials, 64.

  11. Ibid., 65.

  12. Ibid., 58–59.

  13. Del Rio, Investigations into Magic, 24–25.

  14. The latest offenses can be found in Rush, The Mushroom in Christian Art, 269–70.

  15. Most recent would be Robin Briggs’ review of Edward Bever’s Realities of Witchcraft in European History Quarterly.

  CHAPTER 1. HELEN’S TEARS

  Epigraph 1. Del Rio, Investigations into Magic, 117.

  Epigraph 2. Ankerloo and Clark, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, 257.

  1. MacDonald, Travel and Trade, 12–13.

  2. Augustine, City of God, 782.

  3. Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, 101; Lea, History of the Inquisition, vol. 3, 380.

  4. Mormando, Preacher’s Demons, 74.

  5. Thompson, “A Trial for Witchcraft at Todi (1428),” 210; Mammoli, “Record of the Trial,” 36: “Io te piglo nel nome del peccato et del demanio maiore che non posse may appicciare più.”

  6. Brunfels, Herbarum vivae eicones, vol. 3, 13; Mormando, Preacher’s Demons, 74.

  7. Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, 410.

  8. Agrippa, Of the Vanitie and Uncertaintie, 127.

  9. Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials, 58; O’ Conner, Kepler’s Witch, 17.

  10. Ankerloo and Clark, Witchcraft and Magic, 251.

  11. Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts, 107; Ankerloo and Clark, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, 251.

  12. Ankerloo and Clark, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, 251–52.

  13. Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts, 107.

  14. Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, 60.

  15. Baroja, World of the Witches, 35; Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials, 96.

  16. Pliny, Natural History, 230. Available at Tufts University: Perseus Digital Library, www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+toc&redirect=true.

  17. Ibid., 241.

  18. Quoted in Jenkins, “Saint Augustine,” 135.

  19. Quoted in Müller, “Love Potions,” 620.

  20. Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, 59.

  21. Arber, “From Medieval Herbalism,” 317–18.

  22. Thompson, “A Trial for Witchcraft at Todi,” 204.

  23. Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, 59.

  24. King, “Comparative Perspective,” 276–94.

  25. Bailey, Battling Demons, 127; Ball, Devil’s Doctor, 80.

  26. Easlea, Witch-hunting, Magic, and the New Philosophy, 39.

  27. Quoted in Major, History of Medicine, 302.

  28. Minkowski, “Women Healers,” 284, 288.

  29. Mormando, Preacher’s Demons, 4.

  30. Ibid., 5.

  31. Jansen, Andrews, and Drell, Medieval Italy, 207.

  32. Quoted in Weyer, Witches, Devils, and Doctors, 273.

  33. Ibid., 276.

  34. Lang, Helen of Troy, 111.

  35. Quoted in Ankerloo and Clark, Witchcraft and Magic, 249.

  36. Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts, 280. Salamander poison is also mentioned.

  37. Quoted in Ankerloo and Clark, Witchcraft and Magic, 256.

  38. Rives, “Magic, Religion, and Law,” 50–51.

  39. Ibid., 60.

  40. Ibid.
, 52.

  41. Paulus, Opinions, book 5, title 23, 14.

  42. Ibid., book 5, title 23, 15.

  43. Drew, Laws of the Salian Franks, 83–84.

  44. Michelet, History of France, vol. 1, 91.

  45. Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, book 6, chapter 35: “Tunc regina, tormentis gravioribus mulieribus affectis, alias enegat, alias incendio tradit, alias rotis, ossibus confractis, innectit.”

  46. Ibid., chapter 29: “Cui praefectus respondit: ‘Habetur mihi herba in prumptu, de qua se desentiricus auriat, quamlibet desperatus sit, mox sanatur.’” “Nihil minus vasculum ab haec potione repletum ipsos levare iubet, dicens ‘In die illa, cum haec quae praecipio facetis, mane, priusquam opus incipiatur, hunc potum sumite’”; “. . . saepius se inunctionis et potionis, quae ei regis reginaequae gratiam praeberent, ab his mulieribus suscipisse”; “. . . erit vobis magna constantia ad haec peragenda.”

  47. Ibid., chapter 39: “Nuntia domino meo regi, quia nihil mali sentio de his quae inlata sunt”; “His auditis, rex: ‘Verumne est,’ inquid, ‘hunc esse maleficum, se de his nihil est laesus poenis?’”

  48. Quoted in Saunders, Magic and the Supernatural, 79.

  49. Baron, Report, 21: “Si mulier artem magicam, et incantationem, et veneficium . . .”

  50. Saunders, Magic and the Supernatural, 79: “drycraeft ond galdor ond unlibban.”

  51. Cockayne, Leechdoms, wortcunning, and starcraft, 397.

  52. Quoted in Baroja, World of the Witches, 56.

  53. Alfonso, Siete Partidas, 667–68.

  54. Quoted in Lea, History of the Inquisition, vol. 3, 431.

  55. Thompson, “A Trial for Witchcraft at Todi,” 205.

  56. Ashton, “Mandrakes”; Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages, 24.

  57. Thompson, “A Trial for Witchcraft at Todi,” 208; Khuzhaev et al., “Alkaloids from Arundo donax,” 261–65; Nordegren, A–Z Encyclopedia, 81. Bufotenine derives from toads and is discussed in chapter 4. N, N-dimethyl-tryptamine (DMT) is a powerful psychoactive used as an entheogen in some cultures. For a thorough discussion of the psychological effects of DMT, see Strassman, DMT; for a discussion of DMT as an entheogen, see Metzner, Sacred Vine of Spirits.

  58. Baroja, World of the Witches, 34.

  59. Thompson, “A Trial for Witchcraft at Todi,” 207–8.

  60. On this sort of effect, see Bever, Realities of Witchcraft, 161.

  61. Thompson, “A Trial for Witchcraft at Todi,” 208.

  62. Quoted in Mammoli, “Record of the Trial,” 210: “Unguento, unguento mandame a la note de Benivento, supra acqua et supra ad uento et supra ad omne maltempo.” Mammoli translates Matteuccia’s transformation not into a mouse, but into a fly.

  63. Jansen, Andrews, and Drell, Medieval Italy, 210–11.

  64. Ibid., 213.

  65. Ibid., 212.

  66. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, 78.

  67. Bailey, Battling Demons, 30; Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, 228– 29; Levack, Witch-Hunt, 50–53.

  CHAPTER 2. IN THE SILENCE OF DEEPEST NIGHT

  Epigraph 1. De Lorris and De Meun, Romance of the Rose, 127.

  Epigraph 2. Quoted in Ginzburg, Ecstasies, 94.

  1. Limbroch, History of the Inquisition, 87; see also Ginzburg, Ecstasies, part 2, chapter 1.

  2. Russell, History of Witchcraft, 22.

  3. Van de Wiel, History, 70.

  4. Joseph Hansen, Quellen und untersuchungen, 38: “Illud etiam non omittendum, quod quaedam sceleratae mulieres retro post Satanam conversae daemonum illusionibus et phantasmatibus seductae, credunt se et profitentur nocturnis horis cum Diana paganonim dea et innumera multitudine mulierum equitare super quasdam bestias, et multa terrarum spatia intempestae noctis silentio pertransire, eiusque iussionibus velut dominae obedire, et certis noctibus ad eins servitium evocari.”

  5. Russell, History of Witchcraft, 47.

  6. Ehrman, Forged, 108–10.

  7. North, Heathen Gods, 147.

  8. Reaves, “Odin’s Wife,” 5.

  9. Behringer, Shaman of Oberstdorf, 51.

  10. Russell, History of Witchcraft, 78.

  11. Ibid., 80.

  12. Bailey, Historical Dictionary, 26.

  13. Quoted in Kloss, “Herodias the Wild Huntress,” 100.

  14. Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 168–69.

  15. Hansen, Quellen und untersuchungen, 40; Ginzburg, Ecstasies, 90.

  16. Russell, History of Witchcraft, 49.

  17. List, “Holda and Venusberg,” 308.

  18. Hammer, “Holle’s Cry,” 62.

  19. Bever, Realities of Witchcraft, 98.

  20. Behringer, Shaman of Oberstdorf, 96.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Ibid., 188.

  23. De Lorris and De Meun, Romance of the Rose, 129.

  24. Quoted in McNeill and Gamer, Medieval Handbooks, 339.

  25. Russell, History of Witchcraft, 81–82.

  26. Lea, History of the Inquisition, vol. 3, 384. Here, Augustine is using the masculine; however it is clear that Burchard is referring solely to women.

  27. Gervase, Otia imperialia, 40: “Ut autem moribus ac auribus hominum satisfaciamus constituamus”; “quod et nocte celerrimo volatu regiones transcurrunt, domus intrat, dormientes opprimunt, ingerunt somnia gravia, quibus planctus excitant”; “sanguinem humanum bibere et infants.”

  28. Quoted in Ginzburg, Ecstasies, 94; on the two Plinys, see Hexter and Townsend, Oxford Handbook, 567.

  29. De Como, Lucerna inquisitorium haereticae, 141: “quam ludum bone societatis appellant”; “Hae personae congregantur in certis locis pre oppida & villas certis tempor bus, praecipue in nocte diem Veneris praecedente apparente eis daemone in forma humana visibili.”

  30. Russell, History of Witchcraft, 211.

  31. Ibid., 213.

  32. Behringer, Shaman of Oberstdorf, 54.

  33. Ginzburg, Ecstasies, 92–93.

  34. Ibid.

  35. One of the more recent retellings of this oft-cited story can be found in Bailey, Battling Demons, 114.

  36. Quoted in Behringer, Shaman of Oberstdorf, 39.

  37. Ibid., 55.

  38. Smoller, Saint and the Chopped-up Baby, 152.

  39. For an unparalleled history of these ancient European beliefs, see Ginzburg, Ecstasies.

  40. Apuleius, Golden Ass, 82.

  41. Levack, Witchcraft Sourcebook, 10.

  42. Ovid, Fasti.

  43. Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 162–63.

  44. Halliday, Folk-Lore of Chios, 40–41.

  45. Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 163.

  46. Russell, History of Witchcraft, 61.

  47. Behringer, Shaman of Oberstdorf, 96.

  48. Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 166.

  49. Russell, History of Witchcraft, 61.

  50. Clayton, “De Duodecim Abusiuis,” 151.

  51. Quoted in Strayer, Ways of the World, 459.

  52. Augustine, City of God, vol. 2, book 18, 237.

  53. Gervase, Otia imperialia, book 1, part 3, 39. “Lamias quas vulgo mascas aut in Gallica lingua strias nominant, physici dicunt, nocturnas esse imaginationes, quae ex grossitie humorum animas dormientium turbant et pondus faciunt.”

  54. Behringer, Shaman of Oberstdorf, 43.

  55. Lecouteux, Witches, Werewolves, and Fairies, 77–78.

  56. Ginzburg, Ecstasies, 301.

  57. Behringer, Shaman of Oberstdorf, 96.

  CHAPTER 3. THE HERETICS’ POTION

  Epigraph 1. Psellus, On the Operations of Demons, 22.

  Epigraph 2. Sacconi, “Concerning the Poor of Lombardy” in Peters, Heresy and Authority, 142.

  1. Cobben, Jan Wier, Devils, Witches, 19.

  2. Waller, Dancing Plague, 27.

  3. Quoted in Logan, History of the Church, 196.

  4. Ibid., 202.

  5. Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 1–4.

  6. Benko, Pagan Rome, 55–56.

  7. Quoted in Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 6–7.r />
  8. Ibid., 10–11.

  9. Quoted in Bainton, Early Christianity, 87.

  10. Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 4.

  11. Pagels, Gnostic Gosepls, 104.

  12. Isidore of Seville, “On the heresies of the Christians,” in Peters, Heresy and Authority, 49.

  13. Ibid., 50.

  14. Ibid., 49–50.

  15. Ehrman, Lost Christianities; for differences between heretical groups, 109 ff.; for gnostics, 115 ff.

  16. Pagels, Gnostic Gosepls, 115. Even gnostic sects as early as the Valentinian Church split due to doctrinal differences.

  17. Audisio, Preachers by Night, 175.

  18. Quoted in ibid., 120.

  19. Ibid., 135–36.

  20. Robinson, “Waldensian and Albigensian Heretics,” 381–82.

  21. Audisio, Preachers by Night, 170; Behringer, “How Waldensians Became Witches,” 172.

  22. Audisio, Preachers by Night, 149.

  23. Ibid., 176–77.

  24. On this later possibility, see Behringer, Shaman of Oberstdorf, 129.

  25. Audisio, Preachers by Night, 182–83.

  26. Ibid., 185.

  27. Ibid., 171–72.

  28. Quoted in Audisio, Preachers by Night, 183.

  29. Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 52.

  30. Irenaeus, Against the Heresies, book 1, chapter 13.5.

  31. Pagels, Gnostic Gospels, 34.

  32. Irenaeus, Against the Heresies, book 1, chapter 18.1.19.

  33. Ibid., book 1, 23.2; Mead, Simon Magus, book 2, Epiphanius, “Contra Haereses.”

  34. Mead, Simon Magus, book 1, Theodoretus, “Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium.”

  35. Ibid., Epiphanius, book 2.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Origen, Contra Celsum, book 1, 6.

  38. For a good breakdown of the drugs used for these magical purposes, see Luck, Arcana Mundi, 479–88.

  39. Ginzburg, Ecstasies, 162.

  40. Ramsey, “On Removing Idols,” 237, 358.

  41. Luck, Arcana Mundi, 459.

  42. Milner and Brown, Religious Denominations, 401.

  43. Conybeare, Key of Truth, 152.

  44. Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, 37.

  45. Quoted in Peters, Heresy and Authority, 72–73.

  46. Bouquet et al., “Acts of the Council in Orléans,” in Recueil des historiens, 536: “. . . eloquio nitidus, consilio providus, bonis moribus comptus . . .”