Bull of Pope Innocent VIII
Innocent, bishop, servant of the servants of God, Ad futuram rei memoriam
Desiring with supreme ardor, as pastoral solicitude requires, that the catholic faith in our days everywhere grow and flourish as much as possible, and that all heretical depravity be put far from the territories of the faithful, we freely declare and anew decree this by which our pious desire may be fulfilled, and, all errors being rooted out by our toil as with the hoe of a wise laborer, zeal and devotion to this faith may take deeper hold on the hearts of the faithful themselves.
It has recently come to our ears, not without great pain to us, that in some parts of upper Germany, as well as in the provinces, cities, territories, regions, and dioceses of Mainz, Ko1n, Trier, Salzburg, and Bremen, many persons of both sexes, heedless of their own salvation and forsaking the catholic faith, give themselves over to devils male and female, and by their incantations, charms, and conjurings, and by other abominable superstitions and sortileges, offences, crimes, and misdeeds, ruin and cause to perish the offspring of women, the foal of animals, the products of the earth, the grapes of vines, and the fruits of trees, as well as men and women, cattle and flocks and herds and animals of every kind, vineyards also and orchards, meadows, pastures, harvests, grains and other fruits of the earth; that they afflict and torture with dire pains and anguish, both internal and external, these men, women, cattle, flocks, herds, and animals, and hinder men from begetting and women from conceiving, and prevent all consummation of marriage; that, moreover, they deny with sacrilegious lips the faith they . received in holy baptism; and that, at the instigation of the enemy of mankind, they do not fear to commit and perpetrate many other abominable offences and crimes, at the risk of their own souls, to the insult of the divine majesty and to the pernicious example and scandal of multitudes. And, although our beloved sons Henricus Institoris and Jacobus Sprenger, of the order of Friars Preachers, professors of theology, have been and still are deputed by our apostolic letters as inquisitors of heretical pravity, the former in the aforesaid parts of upper Germany, including the provinces, cities, territories, dioceses, and other places as above, and the latter throughout certain parts of the course of the Rhine; nevertheless certain of the clergy and of the laity of those parts, seeking to be wise above what is fitting, because in the said letter of deputation the aforesaid provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and other places, and the persons and offences in question were not individually and specifically named, do not blush obstinately to assert that these are not at all included in the said parts and that therefore it is illicit for the aforesaid inquisitors to exercise their office of inquisition in the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and other places aforesaid, and that they ought not to be permitted to proceed to the punishment, imprisonment, and correction of the aforesaid persons for the offences and crimes above named. Wherefore in the provinces, cities, dioceses territories, and places aforesaid such offences and crimes, not without evident damage to their souls and risk of eternal salvation, go unpunished.
We therefore, desiring, as is our duty, to remove all impediments by which in any way the said inquisitors are hindered in the exercise of their office, and to prevent the taint of heretical pravity and of other like evils from spreading their infection to the ruin of others who are innocent, the zeal of religion especially impelling us, in order that the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and places aforesaid in the said parts of upper Germany may not be deprived of the office of inquisition which is their due, do hereby decree, by virtue of our apostolic authority, that it shall be permitted to the said inquisitors in these regions to exercise their office of inquisition and to proceed to the correction, imprisonment, and punishment of the aforesaid persons for their said offences and crimes, in all respects and altogether precisely as if the provinces, cities, territories, places, persons, and offences aforesaid were expressly named in the said letter. And, for the greater sureness, extending the said letter and deputation to the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, places, persons, and crimes aforesaid, we grant to the said inquisitors that they or either of them joining with them our beloved son Johannes Gremper, cleric of the diocese of Coonstance, master of arts, their present notary, or any other notary public who by them or by either of them shall have been temporarily delegated in the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and places aforesaid, may exercise against all persons, of whatsoever condition and rank, the said office of inquisition, correcting, imprisoning, punishing and chastising, according to their deserts, those persons whom they shall find guilty as aforesaid.
And they shall also have full and entire liberty to propound and preach to the faithful word of God, as often as it shall seem to them fitting and proper, in each and all of the parosh churches in the said provinces, and to do all things necessary and suitable under the aforesaid circumstances, and likewise freely and fully to carry them out.
* Question I.
Whether the Belief that there are such Beings as
Witches is so Essential a Part of the Catholic Faith that Obstinacy
to maintain the Opposite Opinion manifestly savours of Heresy. page 1
* Question II.
If it be in Accordance with the Catholic Faith to
maintain that in Order to bring about some Effect of Magic, the
Devil must intimately co-operate with the Witch, or whether one
without the other, that is to say, the Devil without the Witch, or
conversely, could produce such an Effect. 12 ...
* Question VI
Concerning witches who copulate with devils. Why is it
that women are chiefly addicted to evil superstitions?
* Question VII
Whether witches can sway the minds of men to love or
hatred.
* Question VIII
Whether witches can hebetate the powers of
generation or obstruct the venereal act.
* Question IX
Whether Witches may work some Prestidigitatory
Illusion so that the Male Organ appears to be entirely removed and
separate from the Body.
* Question X
Whether Witches can by some Glamour Change Men into
Beasts.
* Question XI
That witches who are midwives in various ways kill the
child conceived in the womb, and procure an abortion; or if they
do not this, offer new-born children to devils.
* (page 6)...and often it ordered that all their possessions should be burnt, nor was anyone allowed to patronize or to consult them; very often they were deported to some distant and deserted island and all their goods sold by public auction. Moreover, those who consulted or resorted to witches were punished with exile and the confiscation of all their property.
* (page 6) ...And so they are to put to the torture in order to make them confess. ..let him be racked. Nowadays they are burnt at the stake, and probably this is because the majority of them are women.
* (page 6) ...The category in which women of this sort are to be ranked is called the category of Pythons, persons in or by whom the devil either speaks or performs some astonishing operation, and this is often the first category in order. But the category under which sorcerers come is called the category of Sorcerers.
* (page 7/8/?) ...these devils are able to collect various germs or seeds. and from these germs or seeds they are able to cause various species to grow.
* (page 11) ... we know that in days of old this veneration of the stars led to the vilest idoltary.
* (page 12) ... a man who commits a rape does this for the sake of pleasure, not merely doing evil for evil's sake.
* (page 12) ... rotten sage, if used as he explains, and thrown into running water. will arouse most fearful tempests and storms.
* (page 13) ..strange periapts, which they are wont to place under the lintels of the doors of houses, or in those meadows where flocks are herding, or even where men congregate.
* (page 14) ... they distract the minds of men, driving them to madness, insane hatred, and inordinate lusts. These are they who by the permission of God disturb the elements. who drive to distraction the minds of men, such as have lost their trust in God and by the terrible power of their evil spells, without any actual draught or poison, kill human beings.
* (page 14) ...the human body is nobler than any other body
* (page 16) ...Idolatry, which is the first of all superstitions, as Divination is the second, and the Observing of Times and Seasons the third.
* (page 16) ...(of divination) there are three kinds of this superstition: Necromancy, Astrology, or rather, Astromancy, the superstitious observation of the stars, and Oneiromancy.
* (page 16) ...it was the devil alone who inspired him to study and observed the stars.
* (page 17) ...harm may be wrought through fashioning images, through the use of spells, and by the writing of mysterious characters.
* (page 17) ...at the sight of some impurity, such as, for example, a woman during her monthly periods, the eyes will as it were contract a certain impurity.
* (page 17) ...old women, then their disturbed spirit looks through their eyes, for their countenances are most evil and harmful
* (page 17) ... With regard to operations of witchcraft, we find that some of these may be due to mental influence over others, and in some cases such mental influence might be a good one, but it is the motive which makes it evil.
* (page 17) ...charms are of three kinds: the senses are deluded, fascination may bring a certain glamour and a leading astray, there may be a certain fascination cast by the eyes over another person.(?)
* (page 19) ... Or even let us conceive that if they superstitiously employ natural things, as, for example, by writing down certain characters or unkown 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 express invocation of demons; nevertheless it cannot be that these spells are employed without a tacit invocation, wherefore all such charms must be judged to be wholly unlawful.
* (page 20) ...The figures of demons and their names sometimes appear in Astrological charts.
* (page 21) ... for it would seem that at certain times their semen can more easily generate and beget children. Accordingly, we must inquire why the demons should act at the conjunction of certain stars, and beget children. ....they busy themselves by interfering with the process of normal copulation and conception, by obtaining human semen, and themselves transferring it.
* (page 22) ... However, to collect human semen from one person and to transfer it to another implies certain local actions.
* (page 22) ...For all bodily and material things are on a lower scale than pure and spiritual intelligences. But the angels, whether they be good or whether they be evil, are pure and spiritual intelligences. Therefore they can control what is below them.
* (page 24) ... that Satyrs and Fauns(which are commonly called Incubi) have appeared to wanton women and have sought and obtained coition with them. And that certain devils(which the Gauls called Dusii) assiduously attempt and achieve this filthiness is vouched for by so many credible witnesses that it would seem impudent to deny it. ....Blessed Gregory explains these to be woodland gods under another name, not those which the Greeks called Pans, and the Latins Incubi. Similarly, Blessed Isidore, in the last chapter of his 8th book, says: Satyrs are they who are called Pans in Greek and Incubi in Latin. And they are called Incubi from their practice of overlaying, that is debauching. For they often lust lecherously after women, and copulate with them; and the Gauls name them Dusii, because they are diligent in this beastliness. But the devil which the common people call an Incubus, the Romans called a fig Faun; to which Horace said, "O Faunus, lover of fleeing nymphs, go gently over my lands and smiling fields."
* (page 25) ... If anyone wishes to study further the histories concerning Incubi and Succubi, let him read (as has been said) Bede in his History of English, and William and finally Thomas of Brabant in his book About Bees.
* (page 25) ..and rejoice in all sin, especially in fornication and idoltary, because by these are defiled the body and the soul, and the whole man, which is called "the land".
* (page 26) ...But if it is asked why the devil is allowed to cast spells upon the veneral act, rather than upon any other human act, it is answered that many reasons are assigned by the Doctors, which will be discussed later in the part concerning the divine permission. For the present the reason that has been mentioned before must suffice, namely, that the power of the devil lies in the privy parts of men. For all struggles those are the hardest where the fight is continuous and victory rare.
* (page 28) ... It is argued that just as in the computation of the Good there are degrees and orders (see S. Augustine in his book on the nature of the Good), so also the computation of the Evil is based upon confusion. But as among the good Angels nothing can be without order, so among the bad all is disorder, and therefore they all indifferently follow these practices.
* (page 28) ... Secondly, it may be argued that semen has no power of generation except as long as the heat of life is retained in it, and that this must be lost when it is carried great distances. The answer is that devils are able to store the semen safely, so that its vital heat is not lost; or even that it cannot evaporate so easily on account of the great speed at which they move by reason of the superiority of the mover over the thing moved.
* (page 31) ...But it is submitted that the true source of witchraft is the influence of the celestial bodies, and not devils.
* (page32) Unless indeed it be argued that this is a matter of chance, from which it would follow that all human actions are fortuitous, which is absurd.
* (page 35) ... Of these S. Isidore says that those who cast Horoscopes are so called from their examination of the stars at nativity, and are commonly called Mathematicians; and in the same Book, chapter 2, he says that Fortune has her name from fortuitousness, and is a sort of goddess who mocks human affairs in a haphazard and fortuitous manner.
* (page 38) ... So all the works of witches are said to be miraculous only inasmuch as they are done by some cause unknown to us, and outside the order of created nature as known to us. From which it follows that the corporeal virtue of a man cannot extend itself to the causation of such works; for it has always this quality, that the cause with the natural effect is, in the case of man, recognized naturally and without wonder.
* (page 44) ... Women are intellectually like children.
* (page 46) ... The kingdom of the Romans endured much evil through Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, that worst of women.
* (page 47) ... Now there are, as it is said in the Papal Bull, seven methods by which they infect with witchcraft the venereal act and the conception of the womb: First, by inclining the minds of men to inordinate passion; second, by obstructing their generative force; third, by removing the members accommodated to that act; fourth, by changing men into beasts by their magic art; fifth, by destroying the generative force in women; sixth, by procuring abortion; seventh, by offering children to devils, besides other animals and fruits of the earth with which they work much harm.
* (page 56) ... And not, further, that the Canon speaks of loose lovers who, to save their mistresses from shame, use contraceptives, such as potions, or herbs that contravene nature, without any help from devils. And such penitents are to be punished as homicides.
* (page 60) ... For there are three degrees of witches. For some both heal and harm; some harm, but cannot heal; and some seem able only to heal, that is, to take away injuries, as will be shown later.
* (page 62) ... It must not be omitted that certain wicked women, perverted by Satan and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of devils, believe and profess that they ride in the night hours on certain beasts with Diana, the heathen goddess, or with Herodias, and with a countless number of women, and that in the untimely silence of night they travel over great distances of land.
* (page 64) ... The devils run throughout the world and collect various germs, and by using them can evolve various species. And the gloss thereon says: When witches attempt to effect anything by the invocation of devils, they run about the world and bring the semen of those things which are in questions, and by its means, with the permission of God, they produce new species.
* (page 65) ...For William of Paris tells of a certain man who thought that he was turned into a wolf, and at certain times went into hiding among the caves. The devil delights in such things, and caused the illusion of the pagans who believed that men and old women were changed into beasts.
* (page 66) ... No one does more harm to the Catholic faith than midwives.
* (page 66) ... The Canonists treat more fully than the Theologians of the obstructions due to witchcraft; and they say that is is witchcraft, not only when anyone is unable to perform the carnal act, of which we have spoken above; but also when a woman is prevented from conceiving, or is made to miscarry after she has conceived. A third and fourth method of witchcraft is when they have failed to procure an abortion, and then either devour the child or offer it to a devil.
* (page 66) ... Also, in one single year, which is the year now last passed, he says that forty-one witches were burned, certain others taking flight to the Lord Archduke of Austria, Sigismund. For confirmation of this there are certain writings of John Nider in his Formicarius,
* (page 68) ... And by reason of this ignorance, since witches are not put down with the vengenance that is due to them, they seem now to be depopulating the whole of Christianity.
* (page 69) ... For the providence of God is to be understood as nothing else than the reason, that is, the cause of the ordering of things to a purpose.
* (page 69) ... For is is necessary for the conservation of the species that the death of one should be the preservation of another.
* (page 69) ... now that the world is cooling and declining to its end;
* (page 77) ... The crimes of witches, then exceed the sins of all others; and we now declare what punishment they deserve, whether as heretics or as Apostates. Now Heretics, according to S. Raymund, are punished in various ways, as by excommunication, deposition, confiscation of their goods, and death. ...For, besides the punishment of excommunication inflicted on them, Heretics, together with their patrons, protectors and defenders, and with their children to the second generation on the father's side, and to the first degree on the mother's side, are admitted to no benefit or office of the Church. And if a Heretic have Catholic children, for the heinousness of his crime they are deprived of thier paternal inheritance. And if a man be convicted, and refuse to be converted and abjure his heresy, he must at once be burned, if he is a layman.
* (page77)...Then how much more emphatically do they speak concerning witches, where they say that the penalty for them is the confiscation of their goods and decapitation. The laws also say much concerning those who by witchcraft provoke a woman to lust, or, conversely, cohabit with beasts.
* (page 80) ... 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(). The species of the second kind are Horoscopy, Haruspicy, Augury, Observation of Omens, Cheiromancy and Spatulamancy.
* (page p80) ... 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.
* (page 81) ... 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.
* (page 82) ...The workings of witches are never lawful.
Resolved in but two Questions, yet these are divided into many Chapters.
* Question I. Of those against whom the Power of Witches availeth not at all
* Chapter III. How they are Transported from Place to Place.
* Chapter IV. Here follows the Way whereby Witches copulate with those Devils known as Incubi.
* Chapter V. Witches commonly perform their Spells through the Sacraments of Church. And how they Impair the Powers of Generation, and how they may Cause other Ills to happen to God's Creatures of all Kinds. But herein we except the Question of the Influence of the Stars
* Chapter VI.How Witches Impede and Prevent the Power of Procreation
* Chapter VII. How, as it were, they Deprive Man of his Virile Member
* Chapter XV. How they Raise and Stir up Hailstorms and Tempests, and Cause Lightning to Blast both Men and Beasts
* Chapter XVI. Of Three Ways in which Men and not Women may be Discoverred to be Addicted to Witchcraft; Divided into Three Heads: and First of the Witchcraft of Archers.
* Question II The methods of destroying and curing witchcraft
* Chapter II. Remedies prescribed for those who are Bewitched by the Limitation of the Generative Power
* Chapter IV. Remedies perscribed for those who by Prestidigitory Art have lost their Virile Members or have seemingly been Transformed into the Shapes of Beasts.
* (page 90) ... For example, a judge named Peter, whom we have mentioned before, wished his officials to arrest a certain witch called Stadlin; but their hands were seized with so great a trembling, and such a nauseous stench came into their nostrils, that they gave up hope of daring to touch the witch. (lived at Boltingen, a town in the ducy and diocese of Lausanne. John Nider sat as assessor at his trial.)
* (page 90) ... Not long ago in the town of Ratisbon the magistrates had condemned a witch to be burned, and were asked why it was that we Inquisitors were not afflicted like other men with witchcraft.
* (page 91) ... ..the window of their prison, which was so high that no one could reach it without the longest of ladders;
* (page 91) ... There lived in a town of Wiesenthal a certain Mayor who was bewitched with the most terrible pains and bodily contortions.
* (page 96) ... We know of a stranger in the diocese of Augsburg, who before he was forty-four years old lost all his horses in succession through witchcraft. His wife, being afflicted with weariness by reason of this, consulted with witches, and after following their counsels, unwholesome as they were, all the horses which he bought after that (for he was a carrier) were preserved from witchcraft.
* (page 96) ... And how many women have complained to us in our capacity of Inquisitors, that when their cows have been injured by being deprived of their milk, or in any other way, they have consulted with suspected witches, and even been given remedies by the, on condition that they would promise something to some spirit; and when they asked what they would havbe to promise, the witches ansered that it was only a small thing, that they should agree to exectue the instructions of that master with regard to certain observances during the Holy Offices of the Church, or to observed some silent reservations in their confessions to priests.
* (page 97) ... Two witches were burned in Ratisbon, as we shall tell later where we treat of their methods of raising tempests. And one of them, who was a bath-woman, and confessed among other things the following:
* (page 97) ... Another virgin living in the diocese of Strasburg confessed to one of us..
* (page 98) ... There is a place in the diocese of Brixen...
* (page 98) ... A certain high-born Count in the ward of Westerich, in the diocese of Strasburg..... He went to the State of Metz....
* (page 99) ... There were such witches lately, thirty years ago, in the district of Savoy, towards the State of Berne, as Nider tells in his Formicarius. And there are now some in the country of Lombardy, in the domains of the Duke of Austria, where the Inquisitor of Como, as we told in the former Part, caused forty- one witches to be burned in one year; and he was fifty-five years old, and still continues to labour in the Inquisition.
* (page100) ... We Inqusitors had credible experience of this method in the town of Breisach in the diocese of Basel... an Inquisitor of the diocese of Edua...Botlingen....State of Berne
* (page 102) ...Similarly, after they have confessed their crimes under torture they always try to hang themselves; and this we know for a fact; for after the confession of their crimes, guards are deputed to watch them all the time, and even then, when the guards have been negligent, they have been found hanged with their shoe-laces or garments. This is exemplified by certain events which took place hardly three years ago in the dioceses of Strasburg and Constance, and in the towns of Hagenau and Ratisbon. For in the first town one hanged herself with a trifling and flimsy garment. Another named Walpurgis, was notorious for her power of preserving silence, and used to teach other women how to achieve a like quality of silence by cooking their first-born sons in an oven.
* (page 104) ... Similarly, in the diocese of Basel, in the village called Buchel, near the town of Gewyll..
* (page 114) ... But with regard to any bystanders, the witches themselves have often been seen lying on thier backs in the fields or the woods, naked up to the very navel, and it has been apparent from the disposition of those limbs and members which pertain to the venereal and and orgasm, as also from the agitation of their legs and thighs, that, all invisibly to the bystanders, they have been copulating with Incubus devils; yet sometimes, albeit this is rare, at the end of the act a very black vapour, of about the stature of a man, rises up into the air from the witch. And the reason is that that Schemer knows that he can in this way seduce or pervert the minds of girls or other men who are standing by. ...in the town of Ratisbon and on the estate of the nobles of Rappolstein, and in certain other countries.
* (page116) ...And now bad Christians imitate these corruptions, turning them to lasciviousness when they run about at the time of Carnival* with masks and jests and other superstitions. Similarly witches use these revelries of the devil for their own advantage, and work their spells about the time of the New Year in respect of the Divine Offices and Worship; as on S. Andrew's Day and at Christmas. "Carnival." These Pagan practices are sternely reprobated in the "Liber Poenitentialis" of S. Theodore, seventh Archbishop of Canterbury. In Book XXXVII is written: "If anyone at the Kalends of January goeth about as a stag of a bull-calf, that is, making himself into a wild animal, and dressing in the skins of a herd animal, and putting on the heads of beasts; those who in such wise transform themselves into the appearance of a wild animal, let them do penance for three years, because this is devilish."...The Council of Auxerre in 578 (or 585) forbade anyone "to masquerade as a bull-calf or a stag on the first of January or to distribute devilish charms.
* (page116) ... In a town which it is better not to name, for the sake of charity and expediency, when a certain witch received the Body of Our Lord, she suddenly lowered her head, as is the detestable habit of women, placed her garment near her mouth, and taking the Body of the Lord out of her mouth, wrapped it in a handkerchief; and afterwards, at the suggestion of the devil, placed it in a pot in which there was a toad, and hid it in the ground near her house by the storehouse, together with several other things, by means of which she had to work her witchcraft. ... And when she was taken and questioned, she discovered her crime, saying that the Lords's Body had been hidden in the pot with a toad, so that by means of their dust she might be able to cause injuries at her will to men and other creatures.
...The toad constantly appears as a familiar. In 1579 at Windsor "one Mother Dutton dwellyng in Cleworthe Partishe keepeth a Spirite or Feende in the likeness of a Toade, and fedeth the same Feende liying in a border of greene Hearbes, within her garden, with blood whiche she causeth to issue from her owne flancke." Ursley Kemp, a S. Osyth witch (1582), had a familiar, Pygine, "black like a Toad." Ales Hunt of the same coven nourished two familiars, "the which she kept in a little lowe earthen pot." Margerie Sammon, another S. Osyth's witch, "hath also two spirites like Toads, the one called 'Tom' and the other 'Robbyn.'" When Ursley Kemp peeped through Mother Hunt's window she "espied a spirite to looke out of a porcharde from unver a clothe, the nose therof being browne like unto a Ferret."
* (page 143) ...when her husband, after copulating with her, says, I hope a child will come of it; and she answers, May the child go to the devil! How much greater must be the punishment when the Divine Majesty is offended in the way we have described!
* (page149) although it was in the torture chamber, she fully laid bare all the crimes which she had committed. ... But (and this is remarkable) when on the next day the other witch had at first been exposed to the very gentlest questions, being suspended hardly clear of the ground by her thumbs, after she had been set quite free, she disclosed the whole matter without the slightest descrepancy from what the other had told; ... Accordingly, on the third day they were burned. And the bath-woman was contrite and confessed, and commended herself to God, saying that she would die with a willing heart if she could escape the tortures of the devil, and held in her had a cross which she kissed. But the other witch scorned her for doing so.
* (page167) .. For by taking ants' eggs in drink, or the seeds of spurge or of the black pine, an incredible amount of wind and flatulence is generated in the human stomach.
* (page189) .. On the first of May before sunrise the women of the village go out and gather from the woods leaves and branches from the willow trees, and weave them into a wreath which they hang over the stable door.
* (page193) Again in Duteronomy xxii: God says that men shall not put on the garments of women, or conversely; because they did this in honour of the goddess Venus, and others in honour of Mars or Priapus.
* Question XIII. Of the points to be observed by the Judge before the formal examination in the place of detention and torture. This is the Eighth Action.
* Question XIV. Of the Method of Sentencing the Accused to be Questioned: and how she must be Questioned of the First Day; and Whether she may be Promised her Life. The Ninth Action.
* Question XV. Of the continuing of the torture, and of the devices and signs by which the Judge can recognize a witch; and how he ought to protect himself from their spells. Also how they are to be shaved in those parts where they use to conceal the devil's masks and tokens; together with the due setting forth of various means of overcoming their obstinacy in keeping silence and refusal to confess. And it is the Tenth Action.
* Question XVII. Of Common Purgation, and especially of the Trial by Red-hot Iron, to which Witches appeal
* Question XXXIII. Of the Method of passing Sentence upon one who has been Accused by another Witch, who has been or is to be Burned at the Stake
* Question XXXIV. Of the Method of passing Sentence upon a Witch who Annuls Spells wrought by Witchcraft; and of Witch Midwives and Archer-Wizards
* (page 197)..by inspecting the astrolabe, he might find out some hidden thing. And this, they say, is pure divination or sortilege. ...or they meet together to practise heretical sortes, or make predictions by means of blood...
* (page 212) ... he shall first cause his house to be searched unexpectedly, and all chests to be opened and all boxes in the corners, and all implements of witchcraft which are found to be taken away.
* (page 213) ... Again, let her be asked why she persists in a state of adultery or concubinage; for although this is beside the point, yet such questions engender more suspicion than would be the case with a chaste and honest woman who stood accused.
* (page 214) ... It is therefore concluded that it is most just if the Judge proceeds in that manner with his questions and the depositions of witnesses, since, as has been said, he can in a case concerning the Faith conduct matters quite plainly and in a short and summary manner; and it is meet that he should consign the accused to prison for a time, or for several years, in the case perhaps, being depressed after a year of the squalor of prison, she may confess her crimes.
* (page 225) ... the Judge shall use his own persuasions and those of other honest men zealous for the faith to induce her to confess the truth voluntarily; and if she will not, let him order the officers to bind her with cords, and apply her to some engine of torture; and then let them obey at once but not joyfully, rather appearing to be disturbed by their duty.
* (page 226) ... And while this is being done, let the Notary write all down, how she is tortured and what questions are asked and how she answers.
* (page 228) ... And if it can be conveniently done, the witch should be led backward into the presence of the Judge and his assessors. The third precaution to be observed in this tenth action is that the hair should be shaved from every part of her body. The reason for this is the same as that for stripping her of her clothes, which we have already mentioned, for in order to preserve their power of silence they are in the habit of hiding some superstitious object in their clothes or in their hair, or even in the most secret parts of their bodies which must not be named.
* (page 229) ... But what is to be said of a case that happened in the Diocese of Ratisbon? Certain heretics were convicted by their own confession not only as impenitent but as open advocates of that perfidy; and when they are condemend to death it happened that they remained unharmed in the fire. At length their sentence was altered to death by drowning, but this was no more effective.
* (page 230) ... But in other countries the Inquisitors order the witch to be shaved all over her body. And the Inquisitor Como has informed us that last year, that is, in 1485, he ordered forty-one witches to be burned, after they had been shaved all over. And this was in the district and county of Burbia, commonly called Wormserbad, in the territory of the Archduke of Austria, towards Milan.
* (page 231) ... And while she is raised from the ground, if she is being tortured in this way, let the Judge read or cause to be read to her the depositions of the witnesses with their names, saying: "See! You are convicted by the witnesses." Also, if the witnesses are willing to confront her face to face, the Judge shall ask her if she will confess if the witnesses are brought before her. And if she consents, let the witnesses be brought in and stand before her, so that she may be constrained or shamed into confessing some of her crimes.
* (page 234) ...for we learn from naturalists that if the hands be anointed with the juice of a certain herb they are protected from burning.
* (page 235) ...When she was being tortured and questioned, wishing to escape from their hands, she appealed to the trial by red-hot iron; and the Count, being young and inexperienced, allowed it. And she then carried the red-hot iron not only for the stipulated three paces, but for six, and offered to carry it even farther. Then, although they ought to have taken this as a manifest proof that she was a witch (since none of the Saints dared to tempt the help of God in this manner), she was released from her chains and lives to the present time, not without grave scandal to the Faith in those parts.
* (page 236) ... First, when the prisoner is a pregnant woman; and then the sentence shall be delayed until she had given birth.
* (page 268-9) ... Secondly, they sometimes undertake to cure the injury or spell of one person, but will have nothing to do with that of another. For in the Diocese of Spires there is a witch in a certain place called Zunhofen who, although she seems to heal many persons, confesses that she can in no way heal certain others. Fourthly, they sometimes themselves observe, or cause to be observed, certain superstitious ceremonies. For instance, they fix some such time as before sunrise for people to visit them; or say that they cannot heal injuries which were caused beyond the limits of the estate on which they live; or that they can only heal two or three persons in a year.