Volume 2

The history of magic / [J. Ennemoser] ; translated from the German by William Howitt. To which is added an appendix of the most remarkable and best authenticated stories of apparitions, dreams, second sight, somnambulism, predictions, divination, witchcraft, vampires, fairies, table-turning, and spirit-rapping selected by Mary Howitt.

  • Ennemoser, Joseph, 1787-1854.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of magic / [J. Ennemoser] ; translated from the German by William Howitt. To which is added an appendix of the most remarkable and best authenticated stories of apparitions, dreams, second sight, somnambulism, predictions, divination, witchcraft, vampires, fairies, table-turning, and spirit-rapping selected by Mary Howitt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Finally, the belief in witchcraft reached its acme in the fifteenth century; so that afterwards it only the more strengthened itself by diffusion, and had its dignity aug- mented by the sacred sanction. The distinction of this cen- tury is, that from this time forward they were chiefly women who were accused of witchcraft, after some few, and those men of high rank, had been executed in 1440 on such charges; namely, the minister of Philip the Handsome, Enguerrand de Maigny, and Aegid de Eez, Marshal of Prance, who had himself destroyed a hundred and sixty children and as many pregnant women. Amongst the women burnt at that period for sorcery was the Maid of Orleans. The prosecution of witches was now formally sanctioned by the sorcery-bull of Innocent VIII.; and, finally, through the Hexenhammer, the tyranny of the Court of Heresy received authority to whirl the whip of destruction, and left the leadership of the world entirely to the devil. As we have seen, the belief in witchcraft, the witch- trials, and the execution of conjurers, had already preceded this period, so that Innocent was not precisely the originator, but the estabUsher and promulgatorof the witch-prosecutions, and of the now established faith in the arts and devilish doings. The sorcery-bull introduced the courts extra- ordinary, in which those accused of witchcraft were no longer examined as to their innocence or guilt, but in which consternation and horror followed the accusation, and the punishment was nearly on their heels. Terrible institution ! Horrible time! Spectacle of despair for Europe, and especially for Grermany ! Certainly no other enactment in history can be placed in comparison with this, by which such a multitude of absurdities have been showered down on the human mind—no such ridiculous and yet ferocious historical document. The contents of the bull of the 4th December, 1484, the work and creation of Innocent YIII., are as follows :— The Pope expresses his grief that, in many parts of Grer- many, particularly in Upper Grermany, Salzburg and Mainz, Cologne, Trier, and Bremen, many persons of both sexes, forgetful of their salvation, and falling away from the