Demonology Notes

REVISION NOTES:

WITCHCRAFT:

DEMONOLOGY:

1. Why were demonologists writing?

• All motivated by similar worries.

• Political:

• “Witchcraft was inextricably mixed with politics” (Montague Summers).

• E.g. 1419 – HV prosecuted stepmother Joan of Navarre for trying to kill him by WC.

• E.g. James I.

• E.g. Bodin claimed that there was a network of powerful, wealthy and organised witches in France, at war with the state.

• Was a key feature of worldview at time:

• “An ever-present, fearfully ominous menace” (Summers).

• Period saw “explosion in the idea of evil, and especially of the devil” (Jonathan Pearl).

• Mirrored by a “folkloric peasant outlook” (Pearl).

• James VI talks of “the feareful abounding at this time in the countrie”.

• Worries about health abounded.

• E.g. Venice stat.

• Heightened by Black Death, 1347-49 (>1/3 Eu dead).

• Reformation:

• “The splintering of Christendom into many rival camps could only increase the feelings of chaos” (Pearl).

• “The enormous extension of interest in the demonic… marked the theology… of the 2 Refs” (Stuart Clark).

2. Background to the ‘Malleus’:

• MM (‘The Witch Hammer’) = highly significant.

• “A kind of classic in the genre” (Hans Peter Broedel).

• “The most prominent, the most important, the most authoritative volume” (Montague Summers).

• “Founded modern demonology and outsold every other book except the Bible” (Armando Maggi).

• Written by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, 1486, following Pope Innocent VIII’s papal Bull, ‘Summis desiderantes affectibus’, 9 Dec 1484.

• 14 eds 1487-1520, 16 1547-1669.

• “Created a certain uniformity of discourse” (Broedel).

• Pre-C15th: no one term ‘witch’.

3. How did the views of later writers differ from those in the ‘Malleus’?

E.g.s of later writers:

• Bodin’s ‘Demonomanie’ (pub’d 1580, 23 eds, trans German, Italian, Latin).

• De Lancre’s ‘Tableau’ (by Pierre de Rostéguy, Sieur de Lancre, after being appointed head of investigation c’ttee in Labourd region, 1609).

• James VI/I’s ‘Daemonologie” (pub’d after target of witchcraft ploy 1590-1).

• “Later writers… have done little more than draw from the seemingly inexhaustible well of wisdom” (Summers).

On punishment:

• MM was used in trials:

• “Constantly quoted and appealed to in the witch-trials of Germany, France, Italy and England” (Summers).

• How serious a crime is WC?

• MM:

• Even to deny existence of witchcraft = “plainly heretical”.

• Bodin:

• Key idea = “witchcraft is treason against God”.

• However, it is not against the law to communicate with spirits – likely believed himself to have a guardian angel (dedicated 6 pages to ‘friend’, v vivid, whose angel first appeared 1567 and warned him of things e.g. tainted food).

• De Lancre:

• “Sinners take themselves from God through disobedience alone”.

• Cites Exodus 22:18 – ‘you shall not permit a female sorcerer to live’.

• James:

• This is “the highest poynt of idolatrie”.

• How should witches be punished?

• MM:

• Talks of many diff courses of action to take according to level of guilt – e.g. “when the Accused is no more than defamed” [i.e. accused] – must produce “some seven, ten, twenty or thirty men” to act as “sponsors”. If can’t, excommunicated. If same year later, heretic.

• Bodin:

• Death compl necessary.

• Cites Leviticus 24:16 – ‘he who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death’.

• Agrees outright w/ MM.

• Cites their e.g. of plague in region of Constance not stopping until witch’s body exhumed and burnt.

• Emphasises importance of evidence – c’tted to rule of law.

• E.g. confession under torture had to be freely repeated 1 day after uttered. If not, regarded as a presumption.

• Important diff w/ many others.

• De Lancre:

• Shared MM’s view.

• James:

• “They ought to be put to death according to the Law of God, the civill and imperial law, and municipall law of all Christian nations”.

• Stresses need for judges to guard against condemning the innocent.

• Note similarity of works’ structures – discussion of punishments left to end in all 4, plus Molitor, Grillando, Weyer, Godelmann, Rémy, Milichius, Albrecht.

• Highlighted by Stuart Clark.

Link to sexuality:

• This is the primary area of work for the Devil:

• MM: “Through the wantonness of the flesh they have much power over men”.

• Bodin: Huge focus on this area.

• Created a “far darker and more dramatic world” (Briggs).

• “For De Lancre witchcraft offered an exploration of female sexuality” (Machielsen).

• Can children be gained through incubi and succubi?

• MM:

• Can definitely have sex – cites Book 5, Chapter 23 of S Augustine’s ‘De Ciutate Dei’ – Satyrs and Fauns (incubi) have slept with certain women.

• Bodin:

• Succubi cannot transport semen of men.

• However, the devil can have sex with humans and produce children.

• Examples alone = enough proof.

• E.g. uses MM Sprenger’s account of women consorting naked w/ the Devil in broad daylight.

• E.g. 1545 Magdalena de la Cruz, Cordoba – abbess – from age 12, evil spirit in form of black Moor slept with her for 30 years.

• De Lancre:

• Yes, Devil does this by making himself a body out of air.

• Agrees w/ Bodin about Devil taking girls’ virginity at age of 12.

• Uses e.g. of Jeanne Harvillier, promised to Satan at birth, first had sex at 12.

• Believes that devils can transform into women (succubi) and sleep with men to collect semen, then transfer that to women s incubi.

• Uses e.g. of Merlin – born of incubus and nun.

• James:

• Spirit form of devil can take man’s dead body and sleep with women.

• However, devil cannot produce children – using dead bodies.

• Why are women more involved than men?

• MM:

• Primarily,...

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