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DEMONOLATRY
BOOK I
CHAPTER II
That Witches can with safety anoint their hands and their entire bodies with their Magic Ointments: yet if they but touch
the Edge of a Person’s Garment it will
at once prove fatal to such a one, provided that it is the Witch's intent to
Hurt. For otherwise such Contact is
harmless and does not injure.
ITCHES have another most
treacherous manner of applying their poison; for, having their
hands smeared with it, they take hold
of the very ends of a man’s garment
as it were to entreat and propitiate
him. Thus it is hardly possible for
you to be on your guard and avoid
them, since the action has an appearance of kindness rather than of injury.
Nevertheless, it is a most instant
poison to the body, as has been made
manifest by frequent experience: and
it is the more marvelous because the
witch’s bare hand endures with complete safety the poison which thus penetrates even several folds of clothing. You may say that there have
been men who have transmitted the
infection of the plague to others
although they themselves were free
from it; but this is not a parallel case.
For, as will be explained elsewhere
(Bk. I, Chap, XXXVI), this touch
of a witch is noxious and fatal only
to those whom the witch wishes to
injure: whereas the infection of the
plague strikes those whom you least wish to harm. And this forces me to
believe that, in the case we are considering, something is due to the
hidden ministry of the Demon, which
does not appear but works in secret;
and that the unguent is merely the
outward symbol of the wretched
witch’s complicity in the crime under
the guidance and advice of the
Demon. Indeed we know from experience that the Poison can with impunity be handled and touched by
anybody after the witches have been
thrown into prison and have renounced their partnership with the
Demon; and the officers who are sent
to search for their boxes of poison are
able to bring them back in their hands
with safety.
This was proved not long since
(and Sept., 1589) at Furscheim, a
village in German Lorraine. Marie
Alberte and Catharina Praevotte,
just before they were sentenced for
witchcraft, were asked to say whether
they had left any of their evil poisons
at home, so that after they were dead
these venom might not be a danger
to any. They at once told where the
poison could be found; and the
searchers brought two earthenware
vessels containing bitumen spotted
with yellow and white and glistening
here and there with specks of metal.
Otillia Kelvers and Anguel Yzarts
(6th and 7th Aug., 1589) of the same
town, and several other witches in
other towns, were found to have done
the same. Some may think that the
witches give such information in order
to curry favor with their Judges,
and that they cunningly indicate
some unguent which they have prepared for some other and ordinary
domestic use instead of the true
poison; but this is not the case, and
there are many clear proofs that there
is no pretense or simulation in this
matter.
For, in the first place, if these
unguents are put upon the fire they
flare and splutter and glitter as nothing else can. Jeanne Michaélis of
Etival (2nd June, 1590) has testified
to this fact. Again, there have been
seen_cases of witches who as soon as
the Judge has given them permission
to rub or anoint themselves with the
unguent, have at once been carried
aloft and have disappeared. Lucius
Apuleius (Bk. III, de Tino Aureo) tells
of Pamphile* that she in the same
wat applied such an unguent to her-
self and, after a few tentative leaps
from the ground, flew up and away
in full flight. And however much
witches may differ concerning other
matters, they are all, when questioned, agreed about the magic use,
properties and powers of this ointment. They are even particular in
describing its color; and this provides further proof that the matter is
no dream, but visible and perceptible
to the eyes. At St. Dominique, end
Dec., 1586, Jeanne Gallée tells that
the Demon gave it to her wrapped in
oak leaves, and that its colour was
white: and that she nearly always
had her hands smeared with it that
she might never be without the means
of doing an injury on any occasion.
At Haraucourt, 2nd Nov., 1586, Alexée
Drigie agrees with this, except that
she declared hers was reddish in
color: and she adds that when, at
the instigation of the Demon, she
anointed with it her husband who was
Iyiny asleep by her side he very soon
ied in great agony, writhing and
contorting all his limbs.
NOTES
* “Metamorphoseon,” III, 22. Pamphile
the witch transformed herself into an owl, and
then “paulatim terra resultat, mox in altum
Sublimata forinsecus totis alis euolat.”
Joannes Zonaras, Byzantine historian and
theologian, lived in the twelfth century under
Alexius I Comnenus and Calo-Joannes, His
“Annales,” a chronicle of the world from the
Creation to the accession of John Comnenus in
1118 was much used in the Middle Ages.
Georgius Cedrenus, Byzantine historian, is
the author of an historical work which begins
with the Creation and goes down to 1057.
Edited by Bekker, Bonn, 1838-39.
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