Malleus maleficarum / translated with an introduction, bibliography and notes by Montague Summers.

  • Institoris, Heinrich, 1430-1505.
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Malleus maleficarum / translated with an introduction, bibliography and notes by Montague Summers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    45/310 (page 19)
    wound is, as it were, influenced by the mind of the murderer, and that wound receives a certain atmosphere which has been impressed by and is permeated with his violence and hatred, and when the murderer draws near, the blood wells up and gushes forth from the corpse. For it would seem that this atmosphere, which was caused and as it were entered the wound owing to the murderer, at his presence is disturbed and greatly moved, and it is owing to this movement that the blood streams out of the dead body. There are some who declare that it is due to some other causes, and they say that this gushing forth of the blood is the voice of the blood crying from the earth against the murderer who is present, and that this is on account of the curse pronounced against the first murderer Cain. And with regard to that horror which a person feels when he is passing near the corpse of a man who has been mur¬ dered, although he may not be in any way cognizant of the vicinity of a dead body, this horror is psychic, it infects the atmosphere and conveys a thrill of fear to the mind. But all these explana¬ tions, be it noted, do not in any way affect the truth of the evil wrought by witches, since they are all perfectly natural and arise from natural causes. In the third place, as we have already said above, the operations and rites of witches are placed in that second cate¬ gory of superstition which is called Divination; and of this divination there are three kinds, but the argument does not hold good with reference to the third kind, which belongs to a different species, for witchcraft is not merely any divination, but it is that divination, the operations of which are performed by express and explicit invocations of the devil; and this may be done in very many ways, as by Necromancy, Geo- mancy, Hydromancy, etc. Wherefore this divination, which is used when they are working their spells, must be judged to be the height of criminal wickedness, although some have attempted to regard it from another point of view. And they argue thus, that as we do not know the hidden powers of nature, it may be that the witches are merely employing or seeking to employ these hidden powers: assur¬ edly if they are employing the natural j powers of natural things to bring about a natural effect, this must be perfectly lawful, as indeed is obvious enough, f Or even let us conceive that if they superstitiously employ natural things, as, for example, by writing down cer¬ tain characters or unknown names of some kind, and that then they use these runes for restoring a person to health, or for inducing friendship, or with some useful end, and not at all for doing any damage or harm, in such cases, it may be granted, I say, that there is no ex¬ press invocation of demons; neverthe¬ less it cannot be that these spells are employed without a tacit invocation, wherefore all such charms must be judged to be wholly unlawful. And because these and many other charms like to them may be placed in the third category of superstition, that is to say, idle and vain observing of times and seasons, this is by no means a relevant argument as to the heresy of witches. But of this category, the ob¬ serving of times and seasons, there are four distinct species: A man may use such observations to acquire certain knowledge: or he may in this way seek to inform himself concerning lucky or unlucky days and things: or he may use sacred words and prayers as a charm with no reference to their meaning: or he may intend and desire to bring about some beneficial change in some body. All this S. Thomas has amply treated in that question where he asks, Whether such observing be lawful, especially if it be to bring about a beneficial change in a body, that is to say, the restoration of persons to health. But when witches observe times and seasons, their prac¬ tices must be held to belong to the second kind of superstition, and there¬ fore, in so far as they are concerned, questions concerning this third class are wholly impertinent. We now proceed to a fourth proposi¬ tion, inasmuch as from observations of the kind we have discussed certain charts and images are wont to be made, but these are of two separate sorts, which differ entirely one from the other; and these are Astronomical and Necro¬ mantic. Now in Necromancy there is always an express and particular invo¬ cation of demons, for this craft implies that there has been an express compact and contract with them. Let us there¬ fore only consider Astrology. In Astro¬ logy there is no compact, and therefore there is no invocation, unless by chance there be some kind of tacit invocation.