THE
MALLEUS MALEFICARUM
PART II., QUESTION I.
CHAPTER X
Of the Method by which Devils through the Operations of Witches
sometimes actually possess men.
It has been shown in the previous chapter how devils can enter the heads
and other parts of the body of men, and can move the inner mental images
from place to place. But someone may doubt whether they are able at the
instance of witches to obsess men entirely; or fell some uncertainty about
their various methods of causing such obsession without the instance of
witches. And to clear up these doubts we must undertake three explanations.
First, as to the various methods of possession. Secondly, how at the
instance of witches and with God's permission devils at time possess men
in all those ways. Thirdly, we must substantiate our arguments with facts
and examples.
With references to the first, we must make an exception of that general
method by which the devil inhabits a man in any mortal sin. S. Thomas, in
Book 3, quest. 3, speaks of this method where he considers the doubt
whether the devil always substantially possesses a man when he commits
mortal sin; and the reason for the doubt is that the indwelling Holy Ghost
always forms a man with grace, according to I. Corinthians, iii: Ye
are the temple of God, and the spirit of God dwelleth in you. And, since
guilt is opposed to grace, it would seem that there were opposing forces
in the same place.
And there he proves that to possess a man can be understood in two ways:
either with regard to the soul, or with regard to the body. And in the first
way it is not possible for the devil to possess the soul, since God alone
can enter that; therefore the devil is not in this way the cause of sin,
which the Holy Spirit permits the soul itself to commit; so there is no
similitude between the two.
But as to the body, we may say that the devil can possess a man in two ways,
just as there are two classes of men: those who are in sin, and those who
are in grace. In the first way, we may say that, since a man is by any
mortal sin brought into the devil's service, in so far as the devil provides
the outer suggestion of sin either to the senses or to the imagination, to
that extent he is said to inhabit the character of a man when he is moved
by every stirring temptation, like a ship in the sea without a rudder.
The devil can also essentially possess a man as is clear in the case of
frantic men. But this rather belongs to the question of punishment than that
of sin, as will be shown; and bodily punishments are not always the
consequence of sin, but are inflicted now upon sinners and now upon the
innocent. Therefore both those who are and those who are not in a state of
grace can, in the depth of the incomprehensible judgement of God, be
essentially possessed by devils. And though this method of possession is not
quite pertinent to our inquire, we have set it down lest it should seem
impossible to anyone that, with God's permission, men should at times be
substantially inhabited by devils at the instance of witches.
We may say, therefore, that just as there are five ways in which devils by
themselves, without witches, can injure and possess men, so they can also do
so in those ways at the instance of witches; since then God is the more
offended, and greater power of molesting men is allowed to the devil through
witches. And the methods are briefly the following, excepting the fact that
they sometimes plague a man through his external possessions: sometimes they
injure men only in their own bodies; sometimes in their and in their
faculties; sometimes they only tempt them inwardly and outwardly; others
they at times deprive of the use of their reason; others they change into
the appearance of irrational beasts. We shall speak of these methods singly.
But first we shall rehearse five reasons why God allows men to be possessed,
for the sake of preserving a due order in our matter. For sometimes a man is
possessed for his own advantage; sometimes for a slight sin of another; and
sometimes for his own venial sin; sometimes for another's heavy sin. For all
these reasons let no one doubt that God allows such things to be done by
devils at the instance of witches; and it is better to prove each of them by
the Scriptures, rather than by recent examples, since new things are always
strengthened by old examples.
For an example of the first is clearly shown in the Dialogue of
Severus, a very dear disciple of S. Martin, where
he tells that a certain Father of very holy life was so gifted by grace with
the power of expelling devils, that they were put to flight not only by his
words, but even by his letters or his hair-shirt. And since the Father
became very famous in the world, and felt himself tempted with vainglory,
although he manfully resisted that vice, yet, that he might be the more
humiliated, he prayed with his whole heart to God that he might be for five
months possessed by a devil; and this was done. For he was at once possessed
and had to be put in chains, and everything had to applied to him which is
customary in the case of demoniacs. But at the end of the fifth month he was
immediately delivered both from all vainglory and from the devil. But we
do not read, nor is it for the present maintained, that for this reason a
man can be possessed by a devil through the witchcraft of another man;
although, as we have said, the judgements of God are incomprehensible.
For the second reason, when someone is possessed because of the light sin of
another, S. Gregory gives an example. The Blessed Abbot Eleutherius, a most
devout man, was spending the night near a convent of virgins, who unknown to
him ordered to be put by his cell a young boy who used to be tormented all
night by the devil. But on that same night the boy was delivered from the
devil by the presence of the Father. When the Abbot learned of this, and the
boy now being placed in the holy man's monastery, after many days he began
to exult rather immoderately over the boy's liberation, and said to his
brother monks: The devil was playing his pranks with those Sisters, but he
had not presumed to approach this boy since he came to the servants of God.
And behold! the devil at once began to torment the boy. And by the tears and
fasting of the holy man and his brethren he was with difficulty delivered,
but on the same day. And indeed that an innocent person should be possessed
for the slight fault of another is not surprising when men are possessed by
devils for their own light fault, or for another's heavy sin, or for their
own heavy sin, and some also at the instance of witches.
Cassia, in his First Collation of the Abbot Serenus, gives an
example of how one Moses was possessed for his own venial sin. This Moses,
he says, was a hermit of upright and pious life; but because on one occasion
he engaged in a dispute with the Abbot Macharius, and went a little too far
in the expression of a certain opinion, he was immediately delivered up to
a terrible devil, who caused him to void his natural excrements through his
mouth. And that this scourge was inflicted by God for the sake of purgation,
lest any stain of his momentary fault should remain in him, is clear from
his miraculous cure. For by continual prayers and submission to the Abbot
Macharius, the vile spirit was quickly driven away and departed from him.
A similar case is that related by S. Gregory in his First Dialogue of
the nun who ate a lettuce without having first made the sign of the Cross,
and was set free by the Blessed Father Equitius.
In the same Dialogue St. Gregory tells an example of the fourth case,
where someone in possessed because of the heavy sin of another. The Blessed
Bishop Fortunatus had driven the devil from a possessed man, and the devil
began to walk about the streets of the city in the guise of a pilgrim,
crying out: Oh, the holy man Bishop Fortunatus! See, he has cast me, a
pilgrim, out of my lodging, and I can find no rest anywhere. Then a certain
man sitting with his wife and son invited the pilgrim to lodge with him, and
asking why he had been turned out, was delighted with the derogatory story
of the holy man which the pilgrim had invented. And thereupon the devil
entered his son, and cast him upon the fire, and killed him. And then for
the first time did the unhappy father understand whom he had received as a
guest.
And fifthly, we read many examples of men being possessed for their own
heavy sin, both in the Holy Scripture and in the passions of the Saints.
For in I. Kings xv, Saul was possessed for disobedience to God. And,
as we have said, we have mentioned all these so that it need not seem to
anyone impossible that men should also be possessed because of the crimes of,
and at the instance of, witches. And we shall be able to understand the
various methods of such possession by quoting actual examples.
In the time of Pope Pius II the following
was the experience of one of us two Inquisitors before he entered upon his
office in the Inquisition. A certain Bohemian from the town of Dachov
brought his only son, a secular priest, to Rome to be delivered, because he
was possessed. It happened that I, one of us Inquisitors, went into a
refectory, and that priest and his father came and sat down at the same
table with me. We saluted each other, and talked together, as is customary;
and the father kept sighing and praying Almighty God that his journey might
prove to have been successful. I felt great pity for him, and began to ask
what was the reason of his journey and of his sorrow. Then he, in the
hearing of his son who was sitting next to me at the table, answered:
“Alas! I have a son possessed by a devil, and with great trouble and
expense I have brought him here to be delivered.” And when I asked
where the son was, he showed me him sitting by my side. I was a little
frightened, and looked at him closely; and because he took his food with
such modesty, and answered piously to all questions, I began to doubt that
he was not possessed, but that some infirmity had happened to him. Then the
son himself told what had happened, showing how and for how long he had been
possessed, and saying: “A certain witch brought this evil upon me. For
I was rebuking her on some matter concerned with the discipline of the
Church, upbraiding her rather strongly since she was of an obstinate
disposition, when she said that after a few days that would happen to me
which has happened. And the devil which possesses me has told me that a
charm was placed by the witch under a certain tree, and that until it was
removed I could not be delivered; but he would not tell me which was the
tree.” But I would not in the least have believed his words if he had
not at once informed me of the facts of the case. For when I asked him about
the length of the intervals during which he had the use of his reason more
than is usual in the case of persons possessed, he answered: “I am
only deprived of the use of my reason when I wish to contemplate
holy things
or to visit sacred places. For the devil specifically told me in his own
words uttered through my mouth that, because he had up to that time been
much offended by my sermons to the people, we would in no way allow me to
preach.” For according to his father, he was a preacher full of grace,
and loved by all. But I, the Inquisitor, wishing for proofs, had him taken
for a fortnight and more to various holy places, and especially to the
Church of S. Praxedes the Virgin, where there
is part of the marble pillar to which Our Saviour was bound when He was
scourged, and to the place where S. Peter the Apostle was crucified; and in
all these places he uttered horrible cries while he was being exorcised,
now saying that he wished to come forth, and after a little maintaining the
contrary. And as we have said before, in all his behaviour he remained a
sober priest without any eccentricity, except during the process of any
exorcisms; and when these were finished, and the stole was taken from his
neck, he showed no sign of madness or any immoderate action. But when he
passed any church, and genuflected in honour of the Glorious Virgin, the
devil made him thrust his tongue far out of his mouth; and when he was
asked whether he could not restrain himself from doing this, he answered:
“I cannot help myself at all, for so he uses all my limbs and organs,
my neck, my tongue, and my lungs, whenever he pleases, causing me to speak
or to cry out; and I hear the words as if they were spoken by myself, but I
am altogether unable to restrain them; and when I try to engage in prayer
he attacks me more violently, thrusting out my tongue.” And there was
in the Church of S. Peter a column brought from Solomon's Temple, by virtue
of which many who are obsessed with devils are liberated, because Christ
had stood near it when He preached in the Temple; but even here he could not
be delivered, owing to the hidden purpose of God which reserved another
method for his liberation. For though he remained shut in by the column for
a whole day and night, yet on the following day, after various exorcisms
had been performed upon him, with a great concourse of people standing round,
he was asked by which part of the column Christ had stood; and he bit the
column with his teeth, and, crying out, showed the place, saying: “Here
He stood! Here He stood!” And at last he said, “I will not go
forth.” And when he was asked why, he answered in the Italian tongue
(although the poor priest did not understand that language), They all
practise such and such things, naming the worst vice of lustfulness. And
afterwards the priest asked me, saying, “Father, what did those Italian
words mean which came from my mouth?” And when I told him, he
answered, “I heard the words, but I could not understand them.”
Eventually it proved that this demoniac was of that sort of which the
Saviour spoke in the Gospel, saying: This sort goeth not out save by prayer
and fasting. For a venerable Bishop, who had been driven from his see by the
Turks, piously took compassion on him, and by fasting on bread and water for
forty days, and by prayers and exorcisms, at last through the grace of God
delivered him and sent him back to his home rejoicing.
Page 1 of 2
Question I, Chapter X Continued . . . .
This chapter was transcribed by Wicasta Lovelace.
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