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Malleus Maleficarum Part 1
Question XVI
The Foregoing Truths are Set out in Particular, this by a Comparison of the Works of Witches with Other Baleful Superstitions.
Now the foregoing truth concerning the enormity of witches' crimes is proved
by comparing them with the other practices of Magicians and Diviners. For
there are fourteen species of magic, springing from the three kinds of
Divination. The first of these three is open invocation of devils. The
second is no more than a silent consideration of the disposition and
movement of some thing, as of the stars, or the days, or the hours, and such
things. The third is the consideration of some human act for the purpose of
finding out something that is hidden, and is called by the name of
Sortilege.
And the species of the first form of Divination, that is, an open invocation
of devils, are the following: Sorcery, Oneiromancy, Necromancy, Oracles,
Geomancy, Hydromancy, Aeromancy, Pyromancy, and Soothsaying (see S. Thomas,
Second of the Second, quest. 95, 26, and 5). The species of the
second kind are Horoscopy, Haruspicy, Augury, Observation of Omens,
Cheiromancy and Spatulamancy.
The species of the third kind vary according to all those things which are
classed as Sortilege for the finding out of something hidden, such as the
consideration of pricks and straws, and figures in molten lead. And S. Thomas
speaks also of these in the above-quoted reference.
Now the sins of witches exceed all these crimes, as will be proved in respect
of the foregoing species. There can then be no question concerning smaller
crimes.
For let us consider the first species, in which those who are skilled in
sorcery and glamour deceive the human senses with certain apparitions, so
that corporeal matter seems to become different to the sight and the touch,
as was treated of above in the matter of the methods of creating illusions.
Witches are not content with such practices in respect of the genital
member, causing some prestidigitatory illusion of its disappearance
(although this disappearance is not an actual fact); but they even frequently
take away the generative power itself, so that a woman cannot conceive, and
a man cannot perform the act even when he still retains his member. And
without any illusion, they also cause abortion after conception, often
accompanied with many other ills. And they even appear in various forms of
beasts, as has been shown above.
Necromancy is the summoning of and speech with the dead, as is shown by its
etymology; for it is derived from the Greek word Nekros, meaning a
corpse, and Manteia, meaning divination. And they accomplish this by
working some spell over the blood of a man or some animal, knowing that the
devil delights in such sin, and loves blood and the pouring out of blood.
Wherefore, when they think that they call the dead from hell to answer their
questions, it is the devils in the likeness of the dead who appear and give
such answers. And of this sort was the art of that great Pythoness spoken
of in I. Kings xxviii, who raised up Samuel at the instance of Saul.
But let no one think that such practices are lawful because the Scripture
records that the soul of the just Prophet, summoned from Hades to predict the
event of Saul's coming war, appeared through the means of a woman who was a
witch. For, as S. Augustine says to Simplicianus: It is not absurd to believe
that it was permitted by some dispensation, nto by the potency of any magic
art, but by some hidden dispensation unknown to the Pythoness or to Saul, that
the spirit of that just man should appear before the sight of the king, to
deliver the Divine sentence against him. Or else it was not really the spirit
of Samuel aroused from its rest, but some phantasm and imaginary illusion of
devils caused by the machinations of the devil; and the Scripture calls that
phantasm by the name of Samuel, just as the images of things are called by the
names of the things they represent. This he
says in his answer to the question whether divination by the invocation of
devils is lawful. In the same Summa the reader will find the answer to
the question whether there are degrees of prophecy among the Blessed; and he
may refer to S. Augustine, XXVI, 5. But this has little to do with the deeds
of witches, which retain in themselves no vestige of piety, as is apparent
from a consideration of their works; for they do not cease to shed innocent
blood, to bring hidden things to light under the guidance of devils, and by
destroying the soul with the body spare neither the living nor the dead.
Oneiromancy may be practised in two ways. The first is when a person uses
dreams so that he may dip into the occult with the help of the revelation of
devils invoked by him, with whom he has entered into an open pact. The second
is when a man uses dreams for knowing the future, in so far as there is such
virtue in dreams proceeding from Divine revelation, from a natural and
instinsic or extrinsic cause; and such divination would not be unlawful. So
says S. Thomas.
And that preachers may have at least the nucleus of an understanding of this
matter, we must first speak about the Angels. An Angel is of limited power,
and can more effectively reveal the future when the mind is adapted to such
revelations than when it is not. Now the mind is chiefly so adapted after the
relaxation of exterior and interior movement, as when nights are silent and
the fumes of motion are quieted; and these conditions are fulfilled round
about the dawn, when digestion is completed. And I say this of us who are
sinners, to whom the Angels in their Divine piety, and in the execution of
their offices, reveal certain things, so that when we study at the time of the
dawn we are given an understanding of certain occult matters in the
Scriptures. For a good Angel presides over our understanding, just as God does
over our will, and the stars over our bodies. But to certain more perfect men
the Angel can at any hour reveal things, whether they are awake or asleep.
However, according to Aristotle, de Somno et Uigilia, such men are more
apt to receive revelations at one time than at another; and this is the casein
all matters of magic.
Secondly, it is to be noted that is happens through Nature's care for and
regulation of the body, that certain future events have their natural cause in
a man's dreams. And then those dreams or visions are not cause, as was said in
the case of Angels, but only signs of that which is coming to a man in the
future, such as health or sickness or danger. And this is the opinion of
Aristotle. For in the dreams of the spirit Nature images the disposition of
the heart, by which sickness or some other thing naturally comes to a man in
the future. For is a man dreams of fires, it is a sign of a choleric
disposition; if of flying or some such thing, it is a sign of a sanguine
disposition; if he dreams of water or some other liquid, it is a sign of a
phlegmatic, and if he dreams of terrene matters, it is a sign of a melancholy
disposition. And therefore doctors are very often helped by dreams in their
diagnosis (as Aristotle says in the same book).
But these are slight matters in comparison with the unholy dreams of witches.
For when they do not wish, as has been mentioned above, to be bodily
transferred to a place, but desire to see what their fellow-witches are doing,
it is their practice to lie down on their left side in the name of their own
and of all devils; and these things are revealed to their vision in images.
And if they seek to know some secret, either for themselves of for others,
they learn it in dreams from the devil, by reason of an open, not a tacit,
pact entered into with him. And this pact, again, is not a symbolical one,
accomplished by the sacrifice of some animal, or some act of sacrilege, or by
embracing the worship of some strange cult; but it is an actual offering of
themselves, body and soul, to the devil, by a sacrilegiously uttered and
inwardly purposed abnegation of the Faith. And not content with this, they
even kill, or offer to devils, their own and others' children.
Another species of divination is practised by Pythons, so called from Pythian
Apollo, who is said to have been the originator of this kind of divination,
according to S. Isidore. This is not effected by dreams or by converse with
the dead, but by means of living men, as in the case of those who are lashed
into a frenzy by the devil, either willingly or unwillingly, only for the
purpose of foretelling the future, and not for the perpetration of any other
monstrosities. Of this sort was the girl mentioned in Acts xvi, who
cried after the Apostles that they were the servants of the true God; and S.
Paul, being angered by this, commanded the spirit to come out of her. But it
is clear that there is no comparison between such things and the deeds of
witches, who, according to S. Isidore, are so called for the magnitude of
their sins and the enormity of their crimes.
Wherefore, for the sake of brevity, there is no need to continue this argument
in respect of the minor forms of divination, since it has been proved in
respect of the major forms. For the preacher may, if he wishes, apply these
arguments to the other forms of divination: to Geomancy, which is concerned
with terrene matters, such as iron or polished stone; Hydromancy, which deals
with water and crystals; Aeromancy, which is concerned with the air;
Pyromancy, which is concerned with fire; Soothsaying, which has to do with the
entrails of animals sacrificed on the devil's altars. For although all these
are done by means of open invocation of devils, they cannot be compared with
the crimes of witches, since they are not directly purposed for the harming of
men or animals or the fruits of the earth, but only for the foreknowledge of
the future. The other species of divination, which are performed with a tacit,
but not an open, invocation of devils, are Horoscopy, or Astrology, so called
from the consideration of the stars at birth; Haruspicy, which observes the
days and hours; Augury, which observes the behaviour and cries of birds;
Omens, which observe the words of men; and Cheiromancy, which observes the
lines of the hand, or of the paws of animals. Andone who wishes may refer to
the teaching of Nider, and he will find mush as to when such things are lawful
and when they are not. But the works of witches are never lawful.
Next: Question XVII
A Comparison of their Crimes under Fourteen Heads, with the Sins of the Devils of all and every Kind.