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The
Magician
the Witch
and the Law
The
Magician
rheWitch
and the Law
EDWARD PETERS
Henry C. Lea, AssociateProfessor
of Medieoal History
Unioersity of Pennsgloania

ffi
TheHarvesterPress
wfi'
ii
i

This edition first published in 1978 by

Tg*U mother
THE HARVESTER PRESS LIMITED
Publisher: Iohn Spiers Mariorie Corcoran Peters
2 Stanford Terrace, Flassocks,Sussex
in mernory of mg father
Copyright @ 1978 by Edward Peters Eil,usard M urr ay Peters
All rights reserved

Printed in the United Statesof America

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Peters,Edward, b. 1936
The magician, the witch and the law,
l. Magic-History. 2. Witchcraft-History.
I. Title
301.2'1 BF1593

ISBN 0-85527-456-5

Composition by Deputy Crown, Inc.

 Contents

Preface lx
'Introduction: Magic in xi
Medieval Culture
The Transformations of the Magus I
Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleventh and
Twelfth Centuries 2l
Learning and Magic in the Twelfth and
Thirteenth Centuries 63
The SystematicCondemnationof Magic in the
Thirteenth Century 85
The Sorceret'sApprentice 110
The Magician, the Witch, and the Law 138
Appdndix 1. Resfragilis: Torture in Early EuropeanLaw 183
Appendix 2. NicholasEymeric: On Heresy,Magic, and
, the Inquisitor 196
Appendix 3. The Magician, the Witch and the Historians 203
Index 2t3
 Preface

i-T,hisbook is a study of medieval conceptions of, and attitudes toward

especially in those instances when malsficium served as a
to designate both magic and witchcraft. Its focus is pri-
y upon the ways by which t$$gig*, rlrglll$,and iu-4stsdeffned
frciarn and condemnedit. It began as a development of my earlier
on witchcraft, but it soon broadened to include magic as well, a
whose relation to witchcraft has not generally received much
tion. The completion of this study has been greatly aided by several
ties to present aspectsof my work to colleaguesand various
and interested, audiences. A grant from the Penrose Travel Fund
the American Philosophical Society enabled me to begin to survey
manuscript and early printed literature; the generosityof the Uni-
of Pennsylvania Press helped me to complete the work and pre-
it for publication.
.r._arlyversions of portions of the present work have been given as talks
the following conferences and institutions: the Fourth lntemational
of Medieval Canon Law at Toronto in lQZg; the Medieval
of the University of Rochester;the Faculty ResearchClub of the
rsity of Pennsylvania;the 1902 Lecture Seriesat Bryn Mawr Col-
Swarthmore College; the,l976 Western Michigan Medieval Con-
at Kalamazoo. These generolrs occasions allowed me to present
research---often in an,unffnished and unpolished state-to critical
audiences. Professor AIan C. Kors of the University of Penn-
 Preface
sylvania, ever since we collaborated on our documentary collection
Witchcraft in Europe, has been an intelligent and critical adviser. Several
colleagues at the Department of History of the University of Pennsylvania
have helped me frame my argument and improve it. I am also personally
grateful to Professor William Jones of the University of New Hampshire,
Dr. Thomas Waldman of Philadelphia, and to Professor ]ames M. Mul-
doon of Rutgers University, Camden, for having helped me with parts of Introduction
this book when they were still only in conversational form. These indi-
viduals, institutions, and occasions have contributed greatly to whatever
value my work has, and not at all to its shortcomings. Magic in Medieval Culture
My family has, as usual, gone without me for Iong and unconscionable
periods of time, both during the preliminary studies and research and
during the final preparation of the manuscript. My gratitude to them is
greatest of all. I also acknowledge the contribution of the many students
at the University of Pennsylvania who have taken History 532, Topics in
Medieval History, when, as they often did, those topics turned out to be
heresy, dissent, magic, and witchcraft.
Modern historical literature on the subjects of magic and witchcraft
is both extensive and diverse. The bibliographical essay in Appendix 3,
below, attempts to describe the most important modern studies and to
Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, a sixteenth-century humanist, critic
indicate the best and most recent bibliographical guides through it. Since -
of- witch-trials, and eager student of natriral magic, once remarked that
these subjects are not of interest to medievalists alone, I have tried to
magic, a sublimis, sacraque disciplinn, honored by the greatest thinkers
provide translations of the major texts discussed, to give their locations in
pof antiquity, had been unjustly condemned by the early Fatlers of the
the original languages in footnotes, and to suggest in the footnotes the v Church. Until his own age, this condemnation had resulted in a very
best scholarly guides to particular topics. Neither pretends to be exhaus.
Mcient sort of magic, not only in the corrupt and uncomprehending
tive; both pretend to efficiency of reference
practices of necromancers and witches, but in the deliramenta and super-
Historians perforce write about chronological change in a past whose
stitiones of no less formidable medieval thinkers than Roger Bacon and
future they already know. This book attempts to put the great witchcraft
Amald of Villanova. Agrippa's conception of a learned and high magic,. -1
persecutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the contempo- "not witchcraft, not superstition, not demonolatry, but wise, priestly and
rary concern over Iearned magic well into the remote fufure of the writers , ,;t1*
whose attitudes toward magic it analyses.In doing so, I hope that I have "i pr-.ophetic,"is the matter of another book than this, although it is neces-,
sary to point out that it was not as far removed from the thought, and the
been able to particularize in sharper relief than usual the actual concerns I
period, of Roger Bacon and Arnald of Villanova as Agrippa professed to I
of thinkers between the ninth and the sixteenth centuries and thereby to tNnk. The claims made by Agrippa and others in the fffteenth and six-
have contributed a chapter on some neglected aspects of the condemna- teenth centuries for a pristine natural magic did not go unchallenged,
tion of maleficium to the history of the religious culture of early Europe. however, and more than one practitioner of nigf, .nugi" found himself
charged with necromurr"y un{ superstitio, the very traits ,tgrippa and
Philndelphia, 7978 others had restricted to the lesser castes
of the magic professi-o.r.
Agrippa's magic had to free itself of such charges be-ca.rreuntil it was
-
;nnounced by Pico and Ficino in the fifteenth century, no court or con-
tessor recognized
any form of magic but that which had been condemned r
the Church Fathlrs and repeatedly denounced in all sources until the
:):
lrteenth century. As a historian of magic Agrippa was generally right.

I
xl

f
It
h"**.-
 xii Introduction: Magic in Medieoal Culture
Introduction: Magic in Meclieoal Culture xln
The place of magic in the organization of knowledge of the Greek,
Hellenistic and Roman worlds, never entirely free of opprobrium, came or the witch, were the object of most theological, moral, and )egal con-
.,ldemnation from the flfth to the fifteenth centuries. The natilre of that
. under new attacks in the first and second centuries e.o. from Christian
;t writers and later from Roman empelors. After its last fowering in the condemnation and the conception of the crimen magiae in literary and
fourth and fifth centuries, most of the learned magic of the world of late legal sources colored both the suspicion of the later learned magus and
i" f"u, and prosecution of the witch. J9- ad$ition, the actual oqeur"erlce
rrantiquity disappeared into manuscripts or into thin air, where much of
'i it remained, completely inaccessible to those who might have wished to of magicians at different times and places between the fifth and the
sixteenth centuries also infuenced both traditional and novel forms of
seek it out, until the recovery of much classical literature in the fifteenth
condemnation. Finally, the nature of the sources that discuss the crime
and sixteenth centuries. Renaissance humanism, with its passionate and
of magic, the crimen magiae, must also be taken into account if one
indiscriminate zest for classical information retrieval, also revived much.
of ancient magic and made for some of it the claims enunciated by - , wishes to obtain a historical sense of precisely what medieval writers
4 tho,tght magicians were.
Agrippa in his eloquent and fruitless defense of prisca mogie.
This book began, in part, as the study of some questions that had
The high Neoplatonic magic of the Renaissancemight indeed be con-
arisen when I collaborated with Professor Alan C. Kors of the University
demned as the old demonological magic in new dress, but it had about
of Pennsylvania on the anthology of texts in translation, Witchcraft in
it the pretense and dress of learning-and it had influential patrons. Its
Europe. Those questions originally clustered around the figure of the
practitioners never ran quite the risk of systematic condemnation and
witch and her medieval antecedents. Among thgse -ante-cedeqts,I fo!'1fl
persecution as did those necromancers and witches of whom Agiippa
; the magician, Agrippa's necromancer rather than his learned magus. The
so scornfully spoke. By the beginning of the seventeenth cenfury,
magician has intruded himself into the history of witchcraft condemna-
Shakespeare'sProspero could renounce his magic, drown his books, and
tions and persecutions on the basis of his occurence in the source mate-
step back into the normal Christian world of Milan. Others, however,
frials of medieval and Renaissanceideas of deviance and dissent. Malpfi
paid heavier prices for engaging in what Agrippa had called the cor-
eipTgt,theterm that all sources down to the eighteenth centlrry employed
rupted and uncomprehending magic of the Middle Ages and the early to designate witchcraft, originally meant generally injurious crime and,
Renaissance. They were tried, convicted, and burned as malefici, and specifically within that category, magic. Witches were prosecuted in the
their circumstances have concerned historians from the early nineteenth sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in part, at least, because they, Iike
century until the present. the magicians, employed a kind of maleficium. Like the magician and
Of the two, the witch has received by far the most attention. For the heretic, they ran afoul of specific laws that had their roots in Roman
epistemological reasons, some of which are discussed below in the and canonical legal traditions and Christian theology. Thus, the pu{pose
bibliographical essay in Appendix 3, the phenomenon of witchcraft and of this book is to explore some of the links among the magician, the
witch persecutions in early modern Europe has attracted the attention of witch, and the law within the context of medieval culture and the speciffc .
some of the best-and some of the worst-modern historians. The high character of medieval historical sources.
- Iearned magic so eloquently praised by Agrippa has also attracted the The ffrst chapter deals with the transformations of the m&gus, that is,
r attention of historians. The third group, however, Agrippa's "necroman- with the process by which the Iealned magic of the ancient world was
cers," has received far less attention. Its members have either been dis- transformed in late antique and early medieval sources into the demonic
cussedunder the broad heading of learned magic or as an undifierentiated magic known to most medieval thinkers and linked by them to certain
part of the category of witches. The formal character of learned magic, . of heresy, blasphemy, and superstition, particularly to idolatry.
ll*t
on the one hand, and the failure among historians to discriminate clearly rnereafter, the progression is roughly chronological. The final chapter
among types variously categorized as witches, are two reasons for the ueats the problem of magician and witch, suggesting tliat the final..traps-
infrequency of scholarly discussion of the ffgure of the magician in
T)rmation of _the magus was causgd in part..by the .thought qf fiftee-qt}-
medieval history. A third reason may be the extraordinarily Iiterary con- cenfurY theologians and lawyers, a new
literalness in reading the lejal
,
text in which the best-known medieval magicians-Merlin, Faust, and { narts of the OId Testament, a sharper idea of pact with th; demon, a
Simon Magus-are to be found. The air of faerie that surrounds Merlin, targe literature
on magic, and a new sense of sacramental responsibility
- at least, is not readily amenable to serious historical analysis. prin_cipally on the pariof
secular magistrates rather than inquiitors.
Yet Agrippa's ignorant necromancers, and not the Renaissance magus More than heresy or magic specifically, however, such terms as super-

t,
I
t*-
 Introduction: Irlagic in Medieaal Culture lntroduction: Magic in Medieoal Culture

stitio and idolatria acquired new sharpness. These are the theological largely by lifting the portrait of the magician and the traits attributed
offenses of magician, heretic, and witch alike. There are other terms that to him out of their original contexts and placing them in new contexts
was
are not treated as extensively as these but are as important; some I intend rithat the sixteenth-century onslaught against magic and witchcraft
-lu""omplithed.
From their diverse origins, thotraits of the magician were
r to pursue at a later date. The chief among these is curiositas, "the passion
for knowing unnecessary things." It was the shape of legitimate knowl- shaped into a commonly understood image bt the dnd of the. thifteenth '.|
pdge in medieval society that defined, by excluding them, the magician, ."n-tury. !o w!1-tqver extent they may have disagreedabout pther aqPcts
rfthe heretic, and the witch. Others are latria and dulia, the technical rdf magic, siiteenth-century-apologists like Agrippa and earlier me-dleyal i
T"-", for the veneration magicians and witches paid to demons. Finally, {theologians and moralists shared the same view of demonological magic. I\
?a""i to male any defense of higtr magic at all in the sixteenth and
magic, like heresy, was a political offense. Spiritual and temporal powers
were both vulnerable to heresy, but magic looms large as a social and seventeenth centuries, any apologist had to condemn demonological magic
political weapon in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Attempts of in virtually the same breath. Th'e critics of high and low magic alike were
.j
learned magicians and some philosophers to separate "good" and "bad" less discriminating. Not only such well-known critics as Jean Bodin,
but otherwise cautious and sceptical thinkers like Johann Weyer agreed
magic, "learned" and "unlealned" magic, "philosophical" from "bestiali
on the nature and necessity of the condemnation of magicians. Early i
magic, never wholly succeeded. Whether it pleased him or not, a magi-
hodein Europe knew several different kinds of magic, but.most of its
cian like Agrippa von Nettesheim was closer to the victims of witch-trials
thinkers, regardless of their individual reasons, uniformly condemned the 1
than he knew, or cared to acknowledge.
jmagic of the Middle Ages and thus, in their distinctive ways, helped to i
Some of the most familiar elements in the history of witchcraft are
virtually omitted from the following study. Rather than account for the *{maintain the prosecution of magicians and witches both throug!_ ,tt" i i
partieulars of night-flight, sabbats, cannibalism, infanticide, and weather- fueventeenth century.
magic, I have tried to look at a broader area, that of superstitfo and Ttr-e.first chapten of Kreith Thomas'-massive study- o-f.&eligion and, t\e I
Decline of Magic is entitled "The Magic of the Medieval Church." In it,f
iWLa Within that broader area, the nature of maleficiTini CIed'rTyex-
I'homas examines one pole of medieval awareness of "Magic," that at
ffi---*-J+*+%jtd

pands to include the magician as well as the witch. Both ftgures, in addi-
which the powers of sacrament, saint, and priest tended toward debase-
tion, took on some of their coloration from antique and medieval tradi-
ment in the realm of popular, including clerical, attitudes toward the
tions of invective against heresy and heretics. The studies of Jeffrey
iiivocation of divine powers to ameliorate the circumstances of earthly
. Russell and Norman Cohn deal extensively with the forms of invective; '
life. At the other pole, of course, there was another kind of what modern
those dealing with accusations of cannibalism, orgy> and ritual secrecy thinkers might be inclined to call magic, the blinding power of miracle,
offer important dimensions to many of the materials dealt with in this -authentic
sacrament, or direct divine intervention. At the latter extreme,
book. If I ha'ie treated these problems with less thoroughness than they there-is.n"gmagic at all, since the chief feature of magic is its power of
deserve, it is because the treatments of Russell and Cohn already offer
,qmpelling, rather than beseeching, supernatural forces. The closer that
substantial commentary and analysis, and I have proffted from them medieval beliefs veered toward the automatic power of compulsion over
greatly. Some movements, notably Catharism, the most violently attacked spirits, whether beneficient or evil, the closer it came to magic. Church-
heresy of the Middle Ages, shared the brunt of much of thi: sort of invec- men were not unaware of this dilemma, and late.medieval attacks on
tive, although Catharism is relatively lightly treated in the following r,rtPerstitio included both those beliefs that were condemned outright and
pages. ' those
; beliefs that, while strictly still within the realm of orthodoxy, never-
Ilris. b-opk is.a.sfudy.qf the ways by which the writers of different kinds thelesssuggested too great a iependence upon the compulsive powers of
,f
of texts conceptualizgd the=phenomenon of magic and created the forms sacraments and sacramentals. Moreover, this condemnation of
1 beliefs in
;'ohnvective that clossed genre limits and helped to shape the common compulsive power of the Church's sacraments and other elements of,s,
'image of the heretic, magician, and witch alike. It traces something of a " I ttte T"
Christian cult was not the only basis for the attack on magical be-
f li
high road in this process, relying on new information that may be db- g tiefs. Magicians and, later, witches could also invoke and beslech the$
; tained from'some well-known texts by emphasizing the__c,"c"rg*!gg$in which o"*ot t, and this element of invocation,
J>veneration, of offering them those forms offi
Lthoseworks were produced.
latria and dulia, that were strictly ,esei.,redfor God and thefi
3g-sgnt%h;at-ci.reunrstances of !.qye-cJiveagains! ryagic a1e essential-.. soints, seemed certainly
more blasphemous, if not more dangerous, thanl
t9 99n1ide1, because, as later chapters of this book will argue, it was

iI '
It
L*-".
 xv.l,,.f Introduction: Magic in Medieval Culture Introduction: Magic in Medieval Culture
liie belief in the compulsive powers of ritual magic itself. Thus, as both and witch, maleficus(a). The word sorcier(e) describes both in French.
a perversion of proper forms of devotion and as an art that claimed or Zauberei means'magic'in German, and Hexe means'witch,'btft Hexe is
was accused of claiming to enable its practitioners to compel super- a late development. Thus, this study focuses upon maleficium in what-
natural forces, magic in all of its variations was savagely condemned ,ever form it is found, and it rarely uses the rvord witch to apply to any
by churchmen. Jp"rron before 1450 or so. For thg_^iryge gf"th9"*Witph.lnlhq fifteenth and E! ..j
o medi eval thi nkers, m agi c w as the _e"gf]ie-s
t_.agd_fn 9j.!"jUi9.1!f.o.ry..,-qj %ixteenth centuries is derived fr,;* tMf ;a the magicia", tlre laa"ter, t[re t !
demons,.Heresy was another, and the images of
u*11]-?n_pom.!]erce"witlr jlsuperstitiosus. The word magici is much more accurate when applied to
'I
lto-"",tlt pructices of any kifit-E#ore the middle of the fifteenth century.
q Third, this study attempts to deal with the rhetorical traditions that
llshaped the picture of the magician, the heretic, dlia iii" #itctt. O"ii of tn"
'il skills of the rhetorician generally was his mastery over forms of chaos,
violence, and fhe qlrpernatural. The rhetorical learning of the Middle
Ages contributed to the depiction of those social types whom most people
detested.In addition to the rhetoric of the sources,I have paid most atten-
tion to the genrg-g{ !h_".p_qgf"Ss..".Thus, for example, when a monastic
Thus, the full force of ecclesiasticalcondemnation was available to secu-. writer in the-t'w'eif1[i century describes heretics' activities, a magician, or
lar magistrates from an early date, and late medieval writers oh magic : extreme violence, he does so in part because of the demands of his genre,
rarely failed to mention the civil, as well as the spiritual liability of the, and in part because of his view of the lay world generally. Both these
cri,m-e14magfoe. ; elements have to be taken into account in analyzing the place of his re-
To search for witches alone in medieval sourcesis to narrow the limits marks, not only in his own world, but as they appeared to later people
of a legitimate historical question. Just as the concept of maleficium in who did not view them in the same context. Finally, I have paid close
ilaw covered many offenses,so did the concept of supersti.tio. Any historian attention to the milieu of the source. A lesal tract addresses different
concerned vvith the histoly of magic and witchcraft as cultural phenomena questions fro- a*i'6-fion,'""a tn" iaeas in i'oth, while they may be re-
has to consider the speciffc c,ultgra.l..p*gate5!sof those o$enses" Having ll gd, are not identical. In some cases,notably that of john of
$,g!9f;q1y_'q
started out in search of the witch, I found that the solrrcesI encountered, " Policraticus discussed in Chapter 2, I have argued tlial tlie biook's genre,
p
when broken down into genres and analyzed as texts of particular kinds, /f in this case a moral treatise fol courtiers, must be considered when in-
' terpreting
revealed less and less about medieval "witchcraft" and more and more the texts.
about other aleas which few writers had discussed. The rule of looking r,1 . -Fourth, I have attempted to delineate some of the sgp*tal.,g,q&teIts" in
at what the sources sag is one of two rules that I have followed through- which the magicia' is most likely to be found. one of the dilemmas of
out. The other is to consider ideas and documents in context. If one puts the historian of witchcraft is that, outside of accusations, trial records,
the image of the sixteenth-century witch out of oriJr'-i"a fo, a *-hile, ',,and theoretical treatises, it is hard to find witches that correspond to the
one finds something vely different in the medieval solrrces. Except for a { best-known ideal type of the sixteenth century. It is easy to find heretics.
; t lt is
very few pages at the end, this book does not address the sixteenth and _alsoeasy to find nlngicians, and the sources where magicians are
tound, with real magic books and real attempts to alter the lives
, seventeenth centuries. It begins with the history of the one ffgure that I of human
b fi(and Cohn) have discoveled in the sources,thg-=gr3g1cian In dealing with ,. ll"ingt, help to cxpiain why the ideas about them took shapc and how
this figure, I have fleshed out in antiquity and the early Middle Ages his # Ehey circulated. I have focuscd up_o_nthe icouit ;as the p_plitrcal_-s_enter,
rather than the law-c.rrrt:6Ai,r-it;";:Til
emergence in the Christian world-view and his importance in theology, th" a;;;;rs that the
c-ourt life and the nature of
particularly in patristic literature. This treatment may also help to sr,rpple- courtiers' attitudes toward security, incerti-
tude, ambition, and fear-as
ment and clarify some of Cohn's findings. well as the personner in the court and their
,t rte style-lqlp grptain
Second, this book deals very carefully with words. As a colleague once I |._ -the,-lourteenth-eentury-phenomenon of trials
suggested to me, the English language permits one to speak of sorcerers &t$.-p-oliucal so'cerv, so baclly rrnderstood by most^politicar historians. I
nave also-invcstigated
iand witches chicfly becausethe English language derives from.Romance the texts that would have been best known to
u cutterent ki'ds of people
and Gerrnanic roots. In Latin, the same word was used for both magician in different social circumstances. Thus, to dis-

i:
lr'
!r
 xvlll Introduction: Magic in Medieval Culture

cuss theologians'ideas of magician and witch, it is important to know the

ftinds of books theologians got their information from, as it is for lawyers,
/foreachers, and inquisitors. The generic relationships of texts to ideas is
ii-il"r to the relationship of institutions like the court to the character of
belief in, and fear of, magic.
This book, then, deals with a number of topics that have been treated
by other historians of witchcraft, but its focus on the history of the
magician, the social reality of magic, and the interrelations among the.
'\ ideas of magic, maleflcia, idolatria, and superstifio makes it an addition
'.
to and clarification of certain ideas in modern scholarship, and not a
{repetition of them. It is philosophcally closest to Cohn's Europe's Inner
The Transformations
Demons, but it has benefitted from the work of most of the historians
mentioned above, particularly Russell. Although I disagree with Russell
of the Magus
about a number of points on the medieval history of the magician, in
developing my own approach, I often found that an encounter with
Witchcraft in the Middle Ages was stimulating and helped to focus my
own work; without it this book would have been much longer.
The nature of the sources for such a discussion of magic in medieval
culture as this book contains is not the same as that for later studies of
witchcraft or learned magic. The vast evidence for popular beliefs upon
which Thomas built the monumental Religion and the Decline of Magic The Hellenic world, as it set about its task of organizing and systematiz-
is lacking, as is the vast mass of archival data that characterizes the in' ing knowledge, recognized and defined rygS and the ffgure of the
,, ternal history of individual witchcraft persecutions in the work of magos.The term magosfirst appearedinlGeel\as a designationof the
" MacFarlane and Midelfort. Medieval sources permit one, rather, to ob-
Persianastrologer-prffitq
. ilelsian
'iof astroloser-ffits who,
who. irlrodot,rs
Herodotrrs6ii;;r.us, accompanied the
the armv
army
serve the learned tradition that depicted the ffgure of the magician and Xerxesinto Greece.tFrom its """o-ou.-ni"d
first Greek
its first Gr use. the term shared much
the process by which the learned tradition was applied by spiritual and of the opprobrium of other things Persian and generally oriental that so
temporal magistrates to particular figures. The existence by the thirteenth characterizessubsequent Greek intellectual life. The association of the
century of the type of demonological magician enabled theologians and magoi with hated Persia and the unfamiliar sight and sound of their
magistrates to deal with diverse cases of magic that came before them. practicesperhaps helped to add the meaning "trickstef'or "quack" to the
+ T*-g-gJgati9p.oJ"the.txng.is the history that this book attempts to describe, original sense of nragos, an extension noted ailfrilil--as the fifth century
for it lay behind the Iearned magus of the Renaissance as well as the s.c. After the fifth century the Persian origin of the magos ceased to be
l?necromancers and witches that even the defenders of learned magic emphasized,and the term displaced older Greek designations of practi-
ri condemned. tioaers of magic. A rnagos became a practitio,n_er (oi pretended prac-

;tition^er) qf arts_1laggl|p_ite_d.tt1e uiA.ffp'pd-q.i-dptryoia-r for his own

roenefit or for
that of his clients, usually for criminal purposes. plaato, in
The Laws, is explicit in his conde-rr"tion
of magoi it"i, practices:
"r,d
As for those who add the character of a beast of-g{gy to
their atheism or belief
divlne indifierence or venality, thoF wliol-.r iheir contempt of mankind
ln
::wiTh so many of the living by the pretense of evg\iug_1he."d_"adand the
promiseof winning
over the gods by the supposedggiffigf_JAley*_e-1'.s-ec-rtf-g9*
l11l9.rncan1*1rons- and thus do their best for lucre to ruin individuals, whole
[,(tamili"t, and communities, the law shall direct the court to sentencea culprit
convicted of belonging
to this class to incarceration in the central prison,
 2 The Transformationsof theMagus The Transformationsof the Magus
where no free citizen shall bave access to him. . . . At death he shall be cast considered to be a form of aimless emdition, ry(.ositq, which was at-
out beyond the borders u'ithout burial, and if any free citizen has a hand in tacked in other forms as well. The ethical bent of the later Hellenistic
his burial, he shall be liable to a prosecution for impiety at the suit of any world harbored little good-will toward magicians who professed to be
who cares to take proceedings.: able to command or compel the dairnone,g especially if such powers
hinted at impiety, caused human injury, or defected the magician from
In Plato's view the magos committed a crime so deadly in the eyes of the proper path of philosophical inquiry. Well before the advent of
the community and the gods that it rivalled that of Polynices in the eyes of the magti3'-diiil"Th-eriiiulii'6Fh:iS-iirt "
Christianity, !h.9le-fq1e...![_e_--!gure
of Creon, and violation of the prohibition of burial was, of course, the
' been a powerful concern foi pliilosdpliers"and"tawgivers-as'"'nrdlr.One
'i had
'Christians
great offense of Sophocles' Antigone. bf the ffrst tasks of was .rot'io dbnili:mn'"tLie'ritagds on any
Arthur Darby Nock suggests a succinct definition of the Greek and ,tparticularly original ground, but to prove that they themselves were not
later Roman concept of mageia: tvpagoi.
Greeks and Romans were not the only people who defined, feared, and
The profession by private individuals of the possession of technical ability condemned magical practices. The Septuagint version of Old Testament
enabling them to supply recipes or perform rites to help their clients or dam- used the Greek word magos freely to condemn those magicians of Pharaoh
age their clients' enemies; the use by such clients or by others of such proceed-
depicted in Exodus 7:8, as well as the practices condemned at length in
ings to damage enemies; and-corresponding to the vague moderrr use already
the legal portions of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The later Latin transla-
mentioned-the religions belonging to aliens or on any general ground dis-
tions of the Bible translated magos by magus, because it had come to
approved.3
, have a similar meaning in the Roman world to its meaning in the Greek
The oldel Greek term for magic, g:S!_*, gave way before mageia, the [world. Again and again in the Old Testament, Jews were wa_1nedagainst
practicing magic or consulting magicians, l_,1*_ptohrli_tionp, however,
individual goes before magos, and*goeiela became a kind of species of i
did not itop lheqe ptaglice!,.qnd Grg,ei<q,4"pg[;, J"*s, ind-eailj;-Chits. 1
magic. According to some philosophers it was the kind of magic that used
tians alike appear to have persisted in consu,lting mqgigi{n;1'!ltinto'the l
.41 d*Upley whereas mageia employed only good,dgimqrgt. Thg*4sso-
Efth and sixth centuries e.n., and pro-babllr tong a119i ; I
ciado-+-sf,"the-.n1&gas.wittudaimaneggood -or-!a{,- wa.s in part a develop-
Among the first and most important episodesin the encounter of Chris-
,ment of the Platonic theory that daimones wel'e intermediar'ies-be-tween
j ithe-dtvine..anclthe htrman jrealms. The magoi, therefore, #et" thoJ *ho ianity with pagan magic is the story, r'ecounted in Acts t3:G-12, of the
-' meeting of St. Paul with the Jewish magician.-Elymas,in the entourage of
conld by thirir art irl pt"t""s" consult and sometimes command the *'
a sympathetic Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus: "-'
dai.mones.Such professional, or technical contact with the daimones,how-
ever, was rarely looked upon with equanimity in Greek law. In spite of . an intelligent man, who had sent for Barnabasand Saul and wanted to
the claims of some magoi that they employed a legitimate and divinely hear the word of God. This Elymas the so_r_cerer [magu;l (for that is how his
approved techne, or ars, and in spite of the claim of some later leligious namemay be understood) seekingto turn the proconsulaway from the faith,
philosophers that there were permitted, as well as forbidden forms of resistedthem. Saul, however, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit,
rnageia, hg:-tility-.more often than not characterized the Greek and later lo-okedupon him and said: "O you who are full of fraud and all falsehood,son
the Roman attitude toward magical practices and practitionels. That -1of the devil, enemy to all jusiice, will you never stop trying to subvert the
hostility was compounded of various -eas.,r'& of scorn and fear, for :lust ways of the Lord. And now behold, the hand of God is upon thee, and
you will be blind, and for a time will .ot see
although the magoi may have been hated and distrusted, there was also the sun." And immediately mist
and shadows came over him, and he groped about
widespread belief that their arts did indeed pose a considerable threat for someoneto take his
nandand lead him.6
j to the well-being of the Greek and Roman community.4
Although Plato was harsh in his condemnation of magicians, the laws At its very outset, in a simple version of what would
of Greece and Rome were harsher'.They contained stiff penalties for the Iater become a com-
, rnon rhetorical tradition,
christianity set itself sharply against the practice
-l practice of magic, especially when that magic could be proved to have
'"
caused injury or loss. Besides its alleged impiety, magic also attracted ', ll Tugi" in the pe'son of one of its earliest and most influential figures,
the hostility of philosophers because it appeared to conflict with the lt. Pu.,l himself. To pagans, of course, such a contest might have seemed
tobe a contention
of rnagicians to see who was stronger (also a literary
i1ethical character of Iegitimate intellectual inquiry since it was sometimes
 The Transformationsof theMagus
ylls Trar$fornations of the ltlagus
theme), and indeed Christians were accused by their critics of practicing
rnakes his .ordered, coherent denunciation ofi$agic,_lin!1
,magic themselves.But in this story, Elymas's d.aimonesnever appear, and an
.Vund 6rtp"!g"u'tion, i. noot Z
lthe hand of God was something that even mildly curious pagans Iike ' -iloctrinv fttrttfdlcse-irisbilssiifr
i Sergius Paulus could recognize. ot thiffi t? iIG ffiiil;sdfiilifi!'iif signs and
the ignorance which prevents a proper unddrstanding of them. In con-
Early Christia4gy;rlp9!9*{"..qther aspe.cts gf the plgan world besides
sidering the value of studying pagan literature, Augustine insists that:
its fia${ffi;rp"lliiirl;;;"d ;"ltt*e, und often-the denunciation of:.--
pagan literiture and philosophy took the form of including and eve,n
Every good and true Christian should understand that, wherever he may find
gidentifyin-g them with magic, thus further insulting the pagans who them- . truth, it is his Lord's. And confessing and acknowledging this truth also in the
t$.,pelves
- never identified the two. Tertullian's famous taunt, "What has sacred writings, he will repudiate superstitious imaginings and will deplore
Athens to do with Jerusalem," was taken by many Christians to include and guard against men who, "When they knew God have not gloriffed Him as
all aspects of pagan thought.? The writings of Tertullian condemn both God, or given thanks; but becarne vain in their thoughts, and their foolish
magic and that vain erudition that "is able to study nature without car- heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
ing for him who created it and governs it: they only trouble themselves And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the
in a great emptiness."8 Indeed, it is as a subspecies of curiositas that image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of
creeping things."to
Tertullian denounces maqic. and he denounces less the nractice itself
-
than the mental attitude t"hot to hfilervades ;n$ffi;m;sophy, the quotation from St. Paul ( Romans L:22-23) echoes the imagery
Augustine's
fd3'S'i6ri-fof knijli;ledgd"'tlidt"doe',i not ieCognize the final end of all true of the story of Elymas in Acts, and the whole passage is a continuation
{ knorvledge, the knowledge of God. As the gods of the pagans became of Tertullian, as well as an important chapter in the search for a Christian
dgmons in Christian eyes,aiiagan etfifcE-ipIi!'io' aiid-philosophy joined- wisdom that so marked the patristic age.
pagan magic as condemned. For Tertullian. the magicians' nbfarious Augustine then goes on in book 2, chapters Lg-24, to
4ir_g"rq the con-
practices, pagan consultations of oracles, and other forms of divination
were all perforrned with the aid of demons. Early Christian demonology ,!en_tof pagansup*Jstiffi *]!gb Le ,casls-51bg.!ly
t" ler^s ot tiperitttU
- dhilvariousformsffifrrzgZ-C-hipter20 is a catalbgueof what Augustine
iat its outset identified the magical arts with the power of the devil. 'calls "the
magicai a*J," dnd in this catalogue, he includes virtually all
In the search for a form of Christian culture that might retain the the forms of idol-worship, particularly in the casual habits of everyday
acceptable aspects of pagan letters while discarding the dangerous and. life: pacts with demons, haruspicy, augury, medical magic, and the ob-
damnable, a search that extended from Tertullian through St. Augustine's servance of omens and signs. Chapter 21 adds astrology, as does chapter
De doctrina christiana, many Church Fathers found it impossible to con- 22,
-also adding a discussion of the genethliaci, those who predict a per-
ceive of a Christianity that was not based upon Latin culture. Tertullian son's future from the study of birthdays. Chapter 23 sums up
himself reproached his fellow Christians with their ignorance of the faith, lhe reason
f orhisconde-"1!_o:.glpqgar-qsuperstition:
which made thern prone to diversion from it. Between his richly exploited
vein of contempt for the pagan philosophers ( which he derived from For it is brought about as if by a certain secret judgement of God that men
pagan antiphilosophical literary traditions) and his genuine concern over' wno desireevil things are subjectedto illusion and deception as a reward for
Christian ignorance, Tertullian was the ffrst of many Christian thinkers to their desires,being mocked and deceived by those fallen angels
to whom,
accordingto the mcst beautiful ordering of things,
come to terms with pagan antique culture without falling prey to the the lowest part of this
world is subjectby the law of Divine providence.
errors in it that they equally denounced.
I:_9"+J-rcspge$.:he--seaurb&f - sti an acc om od ati on t o. pa garr
g _C*hri Even if the image of the dead Samuel told
ed yr'-th St. Au g u stin .' t D ; a;;i ;i na-,-c\/i stfpi ;' b elwe en 396 the truth to King Saul, says
9-qE[ .e-nd the means by which the spirit was called .,p *"rL 'everthe-
and 427.sThis treatise. enoim6ustv-i,rfiteiiiiilfr, il; ;*;'ii;e. continued- fu8ustine,
ressto be condemned:
t6-inipire thinkers for many centuries to come. down into the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. In the De cloctrina chr'lsJilyaq,-A1lgusti:re-layq all arts pertaining to a trifling or noxious superstition constituted
out those elerneretr--o.f+ag.a-q h6;t-cuii."= that are helnfu!-{o1 th-9 3::"a:"'
fndFiila-nding of.scriptule. a1d tho]b that are nol. Iu book 2, Augtrstinc :':^:n""basis,of a pestiferousassociationof men a'd demons as if through a
pact of faithlessand decitful friendship should be compretelyrepudiated and
tikbi up the deffnition of superstitious practices, and it is here that he avoidedby the Christian
...
 6 The Transformations of theMagus The Transformationsof the Magus
partly by magical
Such practices "all imply a pestiferous curiosity, an excruciating solici- They afterwards subdued the human race to themselves
writings, and partly by fears and the punisl.rments
they occasioned, and partly
tude, and a mortal slavery." SJgg!9gt"!if,g-gf lbe flt! -"Sl,-tq5y,lry[en libations, of which things
bv teaching them to offer sacriffcesand incense and
Augustine wrote, magia was already ,cast away no lolger regaldg{ 1s a
"bf"Cfi?istiafr'-ffiowl;ad;.'
And'et gustiiie iried i]ie ieiiri they stoodin need after they rvere enslavedby lu5tful passions.r3
Jiegitr'maro-Fait
" m"agia to iriclude tlie wlioie p""opiy-o'f magic as practised in the pagan
'and Here the magical arts, already under attack on other grounds by early
early Christian worlds. Nowhere is this attitude more strongly ex-
, pressed than in the D*q- Christian writers, are explicitly identified as one of the means by which
9,nnlgkP-a.{, especially in books 10, 18, and 19. demons extended their power over humans.
In chapter I of book 10, Augustine distinguishes between the true
The human race, therefore, was particularly prone to demonic inter- 1-
sacrifices offered to God and the worship of idols and demons. Miracles,
ference,deceit, and temptation, and in early Christian baptisms dissocia-f
Augustine says, were intended to support the worship of the tme God,
tion of the catechumen fromthe world of demons was dramaticailyl
and they were per{orrned by simple faith and confidence:
underlined and emphasized. In addition to this theoretical and prac-'
. not by spells and charms composedaccording to the rules of criminal tical demonology, other aspects of early Christian life also contributed
. . . a .de]establename, . -.
superstition, the craft which is called lgegic o'{.-.serggry both to the concept of Satan and to the condemnation of magic. The
or by the more honorabletitle of theurgy. For people attempt to make some. idea of the Antichrist, a human born either of Satan's union with a
sort of distinction between practitionersof evil arts, who are to be condemned, human woman or from a human union presided over by Satan, appears
classingtheseas "sorce.e..'i (the popular name for which is necromancy) and.' in the Didache apostolorunr. and in the writings of a number of Fathers, .
otherswhom they are prepared to regard as praiseworthy,attributing to them. including St. Ambrose.la The association of the Antichrist with Satan is
the practice uf tlgglgv. In fact, both types are engaged in the fltrudulent d parallelled by his association with magia. However the Antichrist is to
rites of demons,wrongly called angels.rl be born, all . writers agree that he will be raised by magicians and use
their deceits to attract other humans to him. The legend of Antichrist
Chapters 17 and 18 of book 18 deny the reality of humans who change was rooted in apocalyptic writings, including the Book of Reoelations,
, their shapes. Book 19, chapter 9, again takes up the..thgmg.of the .deceit--
but, as Norman Cohn and others have shown, it received its fullest
I of the demons. In these and other passages throughout his writings, development in the Sybilline writings, particularly the Tiburtina and the
I Augustine gathers up what had indeed been discrete magical practices, 'lPseudo-NIethodius.'5
These traditions were conveyed to later medieval
r classes them all under the. headlng of quperstitio, and condemns them- Europe in Adso's Libellus de Anti,chrisfo, written around the middle of
rr emphatically, blaming the deceit of .the demons and the undisciplined the tenth century:
1 curiositasof ignorant humans.
i Augustine thus links two of the most important strands of early Chris- oAntichristwill have magicians,criminals, soothsayers,and wizards, who, with
, tian culture: the separation of a Christian learning from the many dis-i \he devil's inspiration,will bring him up and instruct him in every iniquity,
,.,l,ciplines of pagan a.ttiq,rlty, and the growth of Christian demonology. In, trickery,and wicked art. And evil spirits will be his leadersand eternal friends
'the and inseparablecomrades.r 6
new organization of legitimate knowledge, everything pertaining toi
,1 magic, astrology, and divination is rejected as superstitio and therefore ,
Antichrist's illusions and deceits specifically will make people believe
- ' made a {ggeg[o. I of -t!s -dqyil.
that he is their leader. The association of the figure of ,A,triichiist of with
The history of late Jewish and early Christian demonology has pro- ,
{ those of the magicians contributed to reinforcing the uniform hostility of
duced an extensive literature that can only be summed up here,12Jervish early Christianity to what was universally denounced as magic.
demonology has been attributed to the popularity of apocalyptic litera-
ture which, with conversion, also became the intellectual property of the ^The figure of Simon Magus also played a prominent role in the shaping
early Christian community. The apocryphal Book of Enoch treated good 9f Christian attitrrdestoward magic. In somc ways, he is the classictest
and wicked angels, unclean spirits, divine punishment through the 1fi8urefor the Christian sense of the difierence tetween the powers of
Qhe pagan gods and the power of the true God. Simon, u *ngi, himself,
medium of Satan, and idolatry. To this demonology the early Fathers,
. ' converted to Christianity and asked to purchase the magical powers of
from Justin N{artyr to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, made their own 'In"
Aportl"s for his own benefit. Although he later became the arch-
distinctive contributions. Justin particularly gave shape and identity to neretic in the reform movements of the eleventh and twelfth
cenfuries
the demons and explained their powers over httmans:
 The Transforrnati.orxof theMagus
The Trarwforrnatiortsof the Magtx
and as the "St. Simon" of later medieval anticlerical satire, his career
The best and most recent study of the position of magic in the fourth
and its end offer a sharp picture of the Christian sense of the difference "Sorcery, Demons,
between real miracles and the deceits and demonic connections of the and fifth century Roman Empire is Peter Brown's essay,
magi. Justin Martyr makes it clear that Simon performed his magical d and the Rise of Christianity: From Late Antiguity to the Middle Age5."'u
featsth:gygll th"-"_ The great virtue of Brown's study is that it dbals with the accusations of
the apocryphal
pgy_gj"9{-liry*4--q*g.t_qp*"..{+.!ipg..in'h!p-,Jn
Acts of Peter, Simon Magus confronts St. Peter and proves the power of magic and the condemnation of magical practices in this period in a
persuasiveand well-documented social context, and thereby avoids focus-
his gods by flying (which the commentators all agree was done by the
,i po*"t of the demons ). By invoking the name of God against the demons ing ,tpotr the literary sources and bringing to bear upon them the men-
tality of nineteenth- or twentieth-century rationalist scholars. "A precise
who support Simon Magus, St. Peter makes him fall to the ground de-
malaise in the structure of the governing classes of the Roman Empire
feated. There is perhaps no better example in early Christian literature
(especially in its eastern, Gregk-speaking half ) forced the ubiquitous
,,,of the Christian distinction between true miracles and the rnagical arts sorcery beliefs of ancient man to a flash-point of accusations in the mid-
fuiracticed by those deceived by Satan. Like the encounter between St. fourth century e.o." They were produced by uncertainty, political in-
Paul and Elymas, that between St. Peter and Simon N4aguswas, in part
stability, and conflict among the governing classes of the Empire, and
at least, a Christian attempt to distinguish between the demonic magic
they subsided when political and social stability was restored, by the end
that enveloped the pagan world ( and of which Christians themselves
of the sixth century a.o. Brown describes the dilemma of the fourth and
)had been accused) and the true powel of the Christian god, revealed
fifth centuries in anthropological terms:
ithrough his humble, simple, pious servants,not thlough WlgtgC g.Fg-igieqs.
-
sqiengqq-.a4d..?s-l-qciat"ed.
W!tbggglg-ql9!-"dp-d-f-l-qgr^,.thp-l-e,gi-til.n.a-tq with This is when ltoo sustemsof pouer are sensedto clash within the one society.
devil worship and superstitio, Christians by the fourth century were able_ On the one hand, there is articulate power, pcwer deffned and agreed upon
ito
emplo! all.the pagan literatrrre that condemned magic on behalf of byeveryone (and especiallyby its holders): authority vested in precise per-
ltheir
*firiest own cause. Augustiue so uses Porphyry's letter. to the Egyptian sons;admiration and successgained by recognizedchannels.Running counter
anebo in book 10 of the De cir:itate Dei, and, the antimagical to this may be other forms of influence less easy to pin down . inarticulate
writings of the Roman satirists ( Horace, for example ) could enter the power: the disturbing intangiblesof social life; the imponderableadvantages
vocabulary of Christian invective.r? Christians low of certain groups; personalskills that succeedin a way that is unacceptable
l9_r{d.."*ndjn-*t-h""*
,i or difficult to understand.Where these two systemsoverlap, we may expect
'lf,to
.ChristianEmpiredi4,.9a9|5pag.9l1-.bo-uffic.books'and ffnd the sorcerer.
coul<i il;dlieilre.-fitt hoitiiity of Roman law,.againit magic.'s As
Ithdy
\Apuleius hlcl on'cesaid (in his own defense against a charge of magic): In such a world, as Brown goes on to describe it, the servants of the
Calumniarn magiae quae facilius infamatur quarn probafur. Apuleius's emperor, the representatives of articulate power par excellence ( as, by
ATtologia offers, in fact, an excellent surwey of the magical ideas of the analogy, the Christian missionaries and bishops would be, several cen-
second century e.o., and it is precisely this tissue of beliefs that came turies later in a totally Christianized society became the rnost freQuent
)
under intense and unremitting Christian condemnation.le accusers.Those who have recourse to any source of power outside the
But it C-Cluisti ans alone --bg__plgyidg-d.the-m.ost-efiectiy.e-
llmperial scheme are the accused. Brown's great virtue in this argument
coilGffimial amaiic.-tFffiffiiltaf; its Iaws from the Twelve ts to attack the common victims' ( and historian's) view that these
fatilEi-to lliJ e o;:b;; Iuris Ciailis of Justinian in the sixth century, con- charges were cynical or were "r*"^rr." At least once again, many cen-
.demned magic and its practitioners as vigorously as they were denounced furies later, a similar spate of charges of political sorcery was launched
foy Tertullian, Augustine, or Ambrose. The pagan distinction between against courtiers of kings and popes in fourteenth-century France and
theurgia and goeteialmagia, ridiculed by Tertullian and Augustine, was Avignon. As will be sugjested U"to*, Brown's model also offers a dimen-
taken no more seriously by the Roman ernperors. The distinction, in fact, sion for investigating ihese later medieval
'r:arred charges of political sorcery.
seems to have had more reality for philosophers than for their .oppo- from organized political opposition to an increasingly autocratic
nents-or even for the magicians themselvss-si1gs several historians emperor, the emperor's enemies, or even those
who maintained their
have pointed out that there was no visible difference between the
tpower and position without specific imperial favor, were charged with
iltheurgia practiced by the "learned" magicians and tire goeteia practiced tgesorting to sorcery. Political and constitutional history, its
rules and
r $y the "lod'magicians. methods set down by rationalist institutional historians in the nineteenth
 10 The T ransf ormations of the Magus The Transformationsof the Magus 11

and twentieth centuries, has made no place for the problem of magic , The confrontation directly between the demon and the saint or God be- I
and politics, nor for the intimate, ambiguous, hot-house atmosphere of came more important than that between the sorcerer and his victim' victim. *t
Sorcererseither continue to serve the pagan gods ( who are really demons) i
. the court. Just as heresy is the sin against the Church par excellence, so
.
,,is magic the sin against the temporal ruler, or indeed against the spiritual or work in Christiptq society through the power of the demon. theg-no 'I
ruler seen as a private individual. And the court is its laboratory. "When is dependent upon knowledse and orofqssi-onal
longer-haye 31-1,--g1.s.ihat
th"y;;
,"1-iri io;Fft coIIlIIlalLr
Il0 rolrgel
Skill; tney Lrrg g"ai.
.mriianf,'the guq), il
?!+t ffiffi ; ih; ffiibriwitr' -i
we see them in this light, we can appreciate how the sorcery accusations "t lv.ulK..!+!u.Sl.,.t-!-r9.**fg!!|l,!?ll,Jvr-!.r1.';
of the fourth century mark a stage of conflict on the way to a greater fflii"h the devil lras deceived them; the efficacy of sorcery itsqlf-is d-e!ig5!1i1
definition of the secular governing class of the Eastern Empire as an p".oni" power confronts the saini alil'ffiE-cfiffiffiJmd. ln tffi gr;i
aristocracy of service, formed under the emperor by divine right." The duel between them-an exemplary duel in which the devil is often
emperor"s servants, chiefly Christians, of coulse had the added support turned to ridicule and occasionally to human service-the power of God
of the Christian view that pagan gods were demons and that the pagan lis made manifest. This is the sdbject of early medieval hagiography, ser'-
f 1no.rr, and miracle stories such as the Dialogues of Gregory the Great.
- itraditional aristocracy must of necessity have engaged in commerce
lwith demons. As the early foulteenth centr-rry saw, the charges would Brown.4:e!ggf'_qglt-igltfi{:g tb*9_q{ -q--"!c.-!-q*".1a-dreafe*horren-
work the opposite way as well: traditional "feudal" aristocrats, the king's dous evils directlf, q. -t-ersion of - what -.some-historians have- calle"d the
"natural" advisers, brought charges of sorcely against upstart parvenu theory:oiimmaneni: lustice;tended to diminish the ffgure of the solcerer
''. - 'dfter-
royal servants and favorites, in an age precisely when the royal power the- sixth-century. This nodon contains great implications for the
veered between the traditional limited personal authority of a king sur- ;pnooiod between
Delwcelr the
L I l e ssixth
lxtlr and
arlu the
t r r e twelfth
twullLll centuries
uullturrcJ because,
uuuallt)ur as
d s later
rdlcr

rounded by aristocrats and the ambitious centlalizing tendencies of late lchanters will argue, it is plecisely in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
L *'*.+

medieval kings and their low-born, but loyal and mthless servants. Brown that the
!!.ratthe theory
theory of r.mm-ancnt-iustice;both
i.rum"anF-qt-iuitice;both{ivin.q immanence in lA-W,ce,"-fts*
divine imm.a.p-qp-c9-.in law courts
also argues that the sorcerer had affiliations with the demimonde, impor- and in the phenomenalworld.ip--!he-sh.ap,g of $ire9!"-i1!ply-11!9,1---"h-9*41s
tant but socially ill-defined figures who wielded great power and favor: , to weaken, and human ug"nir once again iioi'" t., i;G",-rp'1-li;"6iiiaeiiiirf
the rhetor, the charioteer (thinking of Theodora, one might add the .r-i correctinfrhe etforsof htrmql'I9eyfy-i Fy.the end of"the,'fourth century,
"HiGi,
actress and indeed histriones in general ), and the holy man. For "un- a"i difierent-"i-i""i""ti.ir John Cassian agreed that the
magical arts,magi, and malefici were ""a all created by the
controlled religious power," too, threatened the regimentation of the gsg} In the
single authority of the stater,and only the slow process of totally Chris- fifth century Pope Leo I wrote that magic was simply one of the many
tianizing the Empire rclieved the tension in the relations betrveen the astutin of the devil, through which he subdues the greater part of
court and the holy man. The developing notion of Christian sanctity d humanitywith his su2'terstitiones.
The universal condemnation of the magicitrns by early Christian writers I
must have saved others besides those great imperial opponents St.
was colored by elements of the Christian experience both before andJ
Athanasius and St. Ambrose.
after the conversion of the emperors to Christianity. Roman invectivef
Brown traces the role of Christianity in thcse acclrsations and their
against religions that they found distasteful or even criminal rvas highly{
demise ffrst to the univelsal Christian explanation for all misfortune, the
developed by the first century a.o. Roman hostility to certain mysteryj
fallen character of the human race and God's anger against it. In the.'
cults, to the
works of Augustine, Brorvn sees a sense of identity that is flexible and , Jews, and to the Druids and their human sacriffces helpedj
y'to shane this invective, and regional hostilities throughout the Empird
capacious enough to accomodate misfortune, ambiguity-, and unpre- ' carried
it even further. In his study Europe's Inner Demons, Normard
dictability as predictable parts of the natural human condition:
Cohn traces this invective as what he calls the "prelude in antiquity" to}
:Thissituationchangedas Late Roman societybecamemore fixed. The stabiliza. the accusations made much later against heretics and maeicians and
ltion of the local Christian communities and the elaboration of a finely- witches in the medieval Christiar, *o.ld..' Acts of idolatry, Jnnibalism,
iarticulatedpenitential system placed boundarieson Augustine'ssenseof the sexual promiscuity. infanticide, and unspeakable rites
were levelled at
iunidentifiable guilt of a bottomless identity. The idea of ill-deffned guilt. uhristians ( and are found in the work of the Christian apologists from
)
rhardened into a sense of exposure to misfortune through the .neglect of . the fund of social invective that the
Romans reserved for a number of
.prescribedactions.. . . The Chulch rvas the community for whom Satan had, categories of infamous peoplc, including political
conspirators. Cohn
been bound: his limitless powers had been bridled to permit the triumph of , argues that, "In each case the murder. and the
cannibalistic feast form
the Gospel; more immediately,the practising Christian gained immunity from Part of a ritual by which a group of conspirators affirms its soliclarity."
sorcery.

L
 12 The Transformations of theMagus 13
The Transformationsof the Magus
By assimilating the Christian agape, or love feast, to the pagan Baccha-
shipping Satan and charged them with ldo.lgfty (the crime of the magi-
nalia, the stereotypical association of political conspirators, pagan writers
cians), giving their children to the demons. The magician encountered
succeededin depicting Christians as enemies of the state in terms familiar
6ilSi. Paul in the retinue of Sergius Paulus was the le'w,Elymas. Jewish
to Romans through their earlier political associations.The Christian denial
magicians, probably an extremely small group ln the late antique world,
of the values of the pagan world ( Tacitus had said that Christians .loomed large in Christian rhetoric. Jews were associatedwith the triumph
possessedan odium humani generis, a hatred for human nature) did not ljof Antichrist. Jews had been accused of widespread practice of magic
prevent Christians from borrowing forms of pagan invective. tand
pos"tsion of magic lore in the Roman world before Christians made
These anti-Christian injunctions, Cohn argues, were adopted by Chris- those charges their own, and the fondness of non-]ewish magicians for
tians themselves in their attacks on heterodoxy from the third century Hebrew lore and their use of the Hebrew language helped perpetuate
on. Indeed, although there is no space to summarize it here, Christian , the Tews' reputation as sorcerers down through the Middle Ages. From
orthodox invective against heterodoxy in the fourth and fifth centuries
iOtig"" on, the Jew as sorcerer iemained a learned and popular motif,
constituted a bitter and violent indictment of religious deviance.'lu As The charge of sorcery, by the fourth century fixed in association with that
Cohn has suggested, some of the elements of this attack came from tradi- of diabolism, increased Christian hated and fear of the Jew, and the
tional Roman invective. but the attacks on the heretics had other sources association of Jews with sorcery enhanced the diabolic attributes of all
as well. Apocalyptic prophecies wele pressed into service, with their magic. Jewish magicians, necromancers, poisoners, and servants of the
invective against the enemies of God, and the literature thus created devil through magical arts populate medieval European literary sources
entered the patristic tradition, to be returned to again and again when and aided in the general condemnation of magic by associating it with
religious dissent became a problem. As noted above, the prevalence of an especially hated people.
heresy-was not a.major problem before the eleventh Centiii'nTT-ii i"-
'which As ]oshua Trachtenberg has noted, late medieval lawbooks often listed
tle context of eleventh-centuryaantiheletical literature, most of the crime of sorcery among laws pertaining to the restriction of Jews.
, was produced by monastic writers familiar with patristic invective, that, t The legend of Theophilus, one of the most influential sources for later
'' these traits were assumed to be those of eleventh- and twelfth-cenfury Christian ideas of pact with the devil and its requirement for magical
heretics. Thus patristic antiheretical invective came to color the descrip- practices, was written in Byzantium early in the seventh century. In it
tions of later heretics, magicians, and witches. This literary tradition is
trthepriest Theophilus is guided by a Jewish magician and is given magical
'\powers
important to emphasize. The great prestige of the Fathers in later cen- in return for his apostasy. This early Iiteral association of a
turies and the twelfth-century idea that contemporary heresies were old Jewish magician with pact with the devil-anticipated in the storl' of the
heresies renewed justified the use of this traditional invective. magician, the devil, and the Senator Proterius in the fffth century-re-
r--'The Christian condemnation of magic, the association of magicians mained familiar in Byzantium and was later adopted by medieval story-
with the figure of Antichrist, the fear of heresy, and the borrowing of tellers, the most notable of whom was Rutebeuf in the thirteenth
/ traditional forms of Roman invective to condemn both magicians and century.23The popularity of the story lent several of the most important
' 'heretics motifs to the later story of Faust. Historians have generally left the case
constituted the foundation of the Christian attitude toward both
I i magic and heresy. As the foregoing discussion has suggested, both l of Faust out of the discussion of magic, heresy, *it"h"raft, but the
*lnagicians "rrd
story clearly draws upon elements that were commonplace
and heretics were condemned, and the terrns of their denuncia- beliefs as
tion were similar, having ro.ots in classical .pagan fsans of .invective. early as the end of the sixth centurv. The tale of Faust is not as removed
Another source of Christian invective contributed to the rhetorical colora- from the burning of witches th" condemnation of even learned
tion of both. To the Christian, the one person who possessedan odium magic in the sixteenth centurv as "ni
manv historians indicate.
humani, generis was the Jew. Along with the kfglic and the !!Bgl_cfqn,. Many of the ideas from ,rarious sources described above made their
the few was also considered to be a child of Satan, from the ffrst anti- .' wayinto the Etgry.olqgiesof Isidore of Seville, written early in the seventh
'cenfury.24
Jewiifr*polemics in the New Testament to the raging antisemitism of the Isidore;s Etymologies becam" ah immensely poprrlar reference
sixteenth century. Such texts as John 8:44 call the Devil the father of the work for later medieval
wriiers, and his views on magic remained infu-
ential down
Jews, and the first mention of a "synagogue of Satan," an epithet fre- "'rual to the twelfth century, when, as we shall see, tlrpy t were
quently launched against later heretical groups and witches' assemblies,
occurs in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9." Church fathers accused fews of wor- h*a;rulu*mxH*H?*******^:*:y"n*
gllfffid pblp*qnlfv*Jsidore's pompous pretentions to learning and
, i J-
T4 The Transformotiorx of the Magus The Transforrnatiorw of the Magus 15
his heavy reliance on earlier encyclopedists did not prevent him from rne that, in law at least, these ideas virtually disappear from view after.
iivehemently condemning magic in all its forms. Like St. Augustine, Isidore the compendium of Burchard. As will be discussed in Chapter 3, theg
, yas .williag -to resq-g{Ze distinctions among..difieren!.!ip,{p- ol analytical lawbooks of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries rely far mor$
I but he too condemned all of thes.eas damnable. ^on patristic materials than upon the host of early medieval pagan anff
The strictures against magical practices in Roman law in the Theo- khrirtiun popular beliefs that these sources display. Although these bep
dosian Code were passed on to later European society in the form of liefs and the cultures that produced them play an important role in the
Germanic law codes. Sometimes, as in the case of the Brersiarium Alnrici, cultural history of Europe, they did not play a particularly important
' they were embellished with additional comments. Such, for example, was part in the lawyers' and theologians' consideration of magic-and later,
, the case of the text in Theodosian Code 9.16.3: iitchcraft-in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, except
insofar as one or two of them, notably those described in the Canon
The scienceof those who are equipped with magic arts and who are revealed , Episcopi, were transmitted by "'flre learned larvyers and theologians of
to have worked against the safety of men or to have tumed virtuous minds to fihis period. During the fifteenth century, to be sure, popular beliefs once
lust shall be punished and deservedlyavengedby the most severelaws. again fell under the purview of learned theologians, but they responded
to these with the learned materials of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The Brersiarium added ( perhaps not for the first time ) the injunction: They did not return to the old penitentials and excavate primitive tribal
beliefs in order to check them against the practices they observed in their
{\,Iagicians, enchanters,conjurorsof storms,or those who, through the invoca- .own time; -ttrg;' rn"ed igs!eq{,-to"!!9 traditiopal learned legal 4nd.theo-i
tion of demonsthrow into confusionthe minds of men shall be punished with loglcal !ite11tur9r. and ther_ewas in this virtually no reference to earlier
every kind of penalty. b_eliefsand custo"ms,p-qg_an or Chlistian. What worried Iater theologians
and lawyers was what worried th6if liatristic and later sources: evidence
Although some historians of witchcraft have made much of the injunc- of practices that had been condemned from the days of Tertullian and
tions against the magical arts in the Germanic laws,.seeing a new infu- Justin Martyr as sinful magic. The inquisitors and their colleagues on
sion of magic in the folk customs of the Germanic peoples, the Latin secular benches responded to fifteenth and sixteenth century phenomena
terminology and consistency of these laws with earlier Roman law and with the intellecfual resources of fifteenth and sixteenth century lawyers
patristic literature makes any uniquely Gerrnanic folk practices hard to and theologians. The problem of witchcraft persecutions looms large
' distinguish. If there were traditional folk practices condemned in the enough in this period without tracing either its inspiration or the response
Visigothic and Frankish laws, they were condemned in the same tone to it from the materials included in indiculi, superstitionum, tracts De
and for the same reasons that magic had been condemned earlier. The superstitionerusticorum, penitentials that no one read, or the encyclopedic
lbulk of pagan beliefs and new superstitions occasioned by them were and often astonishing collections of popular beliefs assembled and dis-
played by the tireless energy of Burchard of Worms.
.{ treated in the indiculi superstitionr.rm published by many Church coun-
," cils between the sixth and the tenth centuries and in the treatises Da The Carolingian renaissance, which performed the ffrst stage of that
superstitionibus rusticorum written by ecclesiastics during the same renewal of early Christian learning that was vigorously continued by
period. This literature has been widely surveyed by folklorists and re-, eleventh and twelfth century scholars, also helped to revive some of the
, ligious and literary historians. Some of it contains elements dealing with patristic strictures against magic. In the work
of its most important repre-
sentatives,Alcuin and the authors
the older beliefs of the new European peoples, and these are integrated of the capitularies, it is possible to see
a renewed concern
i,into Christianity through the sources mentioned above and the peniten. for many forms of deviance, often a singularly Iearned
Itials written in the eighth and ninth centuries. In many respects the most, concernbased
upon a reading of the texts of Augusfine and others. In

d I
rcomplete of these penitentials (which includes many of the materials lh" y9.t "r
--_..tl"l^ur ui"i-",
nlrlcrrraf .r-R;t;-,
of .nelms ;;ft;;;
anct llraDanus i;;:;;;
Nlaurus. i;
rn ;;,,"i,,tr,
tne nlntn cen-
"",,-
considered by councils and individual writers ) is book 5 of Burchard of rTry' Y; seJ a revival of the patristic interest in and concern about
worms' Decretum, an early eleventh-century compendium of old beliefs. t is learned maglc that occ-upie{.1hq g1e"?tggt_il-,U,nd.s*of
tne ninth
systematically set out within the context of the developing canon law.2' centur!;, a iipersti,tio that derived not from ignorantia or sim-
Such writers as Russell and Lea have summarized the elements of these Pl.tcitas,but from rs,)-one that fascinated,
fascinated. even as itit renelled,
repelled, those
"nG\-on"
beliefs that appear to contribute to later ideas of witches, but it seems to
 I6 The Transformationsof theMagus The Transformationsof the NIagus L7
It has been said of the court of Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, flfTh"t. mlgical arts, the product of superstitious human institutions and
The texture
{-that every great man at it had his own personal astrologer. /lW6ot-"g pact with the demon, should be avoided. Hrabanus's treatise
of Carolingian court life suggests the plausibility of this remark, because | \ De magici,s artibus, opens with a long selies of biblical citations against
in the heady atrnosphere of transforming an Iron Age assembly of all forms of magic and then lists all the varieties of magic known to the
warbands and settlers into an ideal Christian kingdom, the Carolingian Church Fathers.28Although the actions of the magicians sometimes work,
Empire often presents (as it did to itself) the image of a composite of Hrabanus says, they do so only because the magicians have made a pact
,late Roman imperial and barbarian Germanic styles of life and tliought. with Satan and because God in his wisdom*12'effiitS'the demonS to ad,
The classical works that Carolingian scholars discovered, edited, and ,*c6iirplish wh'at the magicians think they accomplish. Curiositas and,
circulated among themselves were the vely ones that managed to pre- cupiditas urge the magicians to admire the demons, especially the prophe-
serve much antiquarianism along with Christian piety. The religious cies that the demons make aniltlte mira (not rniracul.a) they perform.
basis of Charlemagne's and Louis's renooatio has long been recognized. Hrabanus appears to know in surprising detail of what he speaks, and
the old
, What has often not been recugnizcd as fully is how much of this store of ,knowledge orrthe part of an abbot of Fulda and archbishop
{-learned world of late antiquity came with the Christian materials. In the of Mainz who died inq857)is a clear reflection of the familiarity of
sophisticated, learned, violent, and self-serving Carolingian court world Carolingian clerics with ih1 tradition of magical arts. Perhaps most of
, those who had access to, and even a rudimentary understanding of, Hrabanus's knowledge was acquired through scripture and the works of
|learrred magic could easil,rrfind employers. No residual pagan supbrsti- St. Augustine, but much of his commentary has a personal and knowl-
tions or folk beliefs were necessary. The Carolingian aristocrats knew edgeable ring to it. In fact, Hrabanus concludes his tract with the plea
how to value learned magicians as it valued Iearned chroniclers, holy that the kingdom of God, that is now spreading over the whole world,
men, astrologers,rvandering hish scholar monks, and any other successful not be destroyed by human vanity, demonic illusions, and the magic arts.
,meansof making their way through the rapidly changing post-tribal world The hngs and prelates of his o\ryn age are addressed and urged to
iof Charlemagne's renewed Roman Empire and Louis's rapidly deteriorat- obliterate these practices, lest the wrath of God fall upon them as it fell
"ing Christian kingdom.'o upon Ahab and Ochozias. Far more than popular superstitions and folk-
In his treatise De diaortio Lotharii, Hincmar of Reims took up the Iore, Hrabanus treats the same kind of learned practices that Augustine
,question of whether or not a man could be enchanted and thereby lose had dealt with, and he does not do so as an antiquarian.
'his
r potency. In his consideration of the divorce case of the emperor The dislike of magic found in Hincmar and Hrabanus suggests that
Lothar, Hincmar argued tbat maleficium colld indeed prevent a man the Carolingian period (.or..continuation)_o-f leape{
. Wl,F_e_s-'e.il_a-revival
from consummating his marriage, although in the case at hand he accused I]Qgic. By the beginning of the tenth century, a number of writers (in- ll,,
the emperor's mistress of having perforrned the act of maleficiurn. Hinc- cluding the canonist Regino of Priim descrited in iegal colleclions and
)
mar's text became quite influential, since it was cited on many other penitentials, practices that were pertly folk-beliefi and partly the
- .
occasions and was inclucled in Gratian's Decretu'm, the first modern book residuum of learned magic. By preserwing the texts of an earlier
age and
of canon law, in 1140. ddding to them, the carolingian-writers t"ransmitted later
to centuries not
Far more important, however, was the work of Hrabanus Maurus of the traditional folk beliefs of the penitentials,
but the definition of,
Fulda. In his early work on Christian learning, the De institutione cleti- Iu$lity toward, and condemnation of Iearned magic, bfth from the
corurn, Hrabanus defcnded the study of pagan literature, but advisedly: rathers and from their own
works. Hrabanus knew well the associations
with heresy found. in earlier
writers: in commenting on Exodus 22:Ig,
There are two kinds of doctrines which were exercisedamong the gentiles: rvt(tleficos non poti,erisoitsere,he remarks:
one dealt with those things which were instituted by men . . . the other insti-
tuted by divinity. That which was instituted by men was partly superstition
Typologically'
and partly not. Superstitiosumest quidquid institutum est ab hominibus ad we may understand maleficosas meaning heretics, instigated
faciendaet colendapertinens,vel colendumsicut Deum creaturam,vel partem the spirit of God but by the wicked spirit; they introduce perversesects
i::-bl,
illam creaturae,vel ad consultationeset pacta quaedam signiffcationemcum l'urder to deceivemen, which the law of God orders to be abolished,that is,
daemonibusplacita atque foederata,qualia sult molimina magicarum artium ill:Tj"u and anathematisedfrom the community of the faithful who live a
quae quidem commemorarepotius quam docereassolentpoetae.z7 "qc rte in God, so that maleficium,which is error, shallbe extinguished.zs

L
 6j The Transformationsof theMagus
As we will see below, this figurative interpretation of a text tha! was later
of the Magrs
The Transfor-mations
ilons ol the American PhilologicalAssociation63 (1932): 269-95, and espe-
l9

taken with appalling literalness by the instigators of the witch persecu-=-- cially the study of Peter Brown, cited below' n. 18.
9// tions in the fi"fteenttr and sixteenth centuries, clg{lue-d*tn".he-understood b. A good brief introduction is H. A. Kelly, The Der:il, Demonologg and
figurqtivgly thrqqgh the twelfth century. But the description and de- rt W&chcraft (New York, 1974). See also Nock, "Phul and the Magus"; L. Gar-
nunciation of magic, the association of maleficium with heresy, and the dette, "Magie," Dictionnaire de th6ologie catl'rolique,vol. 9, cols. 1510-50;
details of pact and charges of idolatria and superstitio, refl,ected con' f. Annequin, Recherchessul taction rnagique et ses rcpresentations (Ier et
Ildme sidclesaprds l.C.) (Paris, 1973). For magic in Jewisl-rlife, see Judah
siderable concern for the presence and danger of magic. The great
Eoldirr, "The Magic of Magic and Superstition," in Aspects of Religious
Carolingian heresies remained, for the most part, the property of monks propagandain Judni'vn and Eailg Christianitg, ed. Elisabeth SchiisslerFiorenze
in monasteries; but magic pervaded the court and, as far as Hrabanus (NotreDame, Ind., 1976), pp. 115-48,and below,n. 22.
was concerned, most of the world. Heretical magicians were a real andl 6. Nock, "Paul and the Magus,'l-passim.See also Morton Smith, Cl.ementof
pressing danger; the magos of Xerxes, turned qglq!,*pbllg*qgpli*ejr.!-h_gg: Alexandriaand a Seuet Gospelof Mark (Cambridge,Mass.,1973), pp. 229-37.
gist, malefiurs, and servant of the deyil, pl3-g11g{^I'}.9.*tggt:.qfGreeks and 7. Jean-ClaudeFredouille, Tertullien et la conoersion de Ia culture antique
io*;"r, i"*i utrd Chrisuans,' fhe'""#i/-ehii;tiilired inhabitants Qans,7972), PP. 412-42.
"nd' 8. Ad nati,ones 2.4.19;Fredouille,Tertullien, p. 415.
I of Germanic Europe. Idolater and heretic, he was finally transformed in
9. Augustine,De doctrina christiana,ed. W. M. Green (Vienna, 1963), and
''} p a t r i s t i c l i t e r a t u r e i n t @ a n d a n e n e m y o f m a n k i n d Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, trans. with introduction by D. W. Robert-
itself. Teacher of Antichlist, with his boo$,:lggs, and p911'3r,
-demonic son,Jr. (Indianapolis,f958).
he entered the consciousness of later*"fr6.fieva1 Europe. iiivective against
10. Augustine On Christian Doctrine 2.L8.28 (Robertsontrans. p. 54). On
magicians tainted Jews and heretics. It is found first in the rhetorical divination, see Robert La Roche, La Diaination (Washington, 1957), pp.
language of eleventh- and twelfth-century writers. 1-213.
ll. Augustine, Concerning the Citg of God Against the Pagans,trans. Henry
Bettenson(Baltimore, 1972), p. 383.
X 12. See Kelly, Deoil, Demonologg,and Witchcraff; Thorndike, Historg 1:
NOTES 340-522;Joshua Trachtenberg,Iewish Magic and Superstition (reprint ed.;
NewYork,1970).
l. Aside from the standard reference encyclopedias,see walter Burkert, 13. Kelly, Deoil, Demonologg, and Witchcraft, pp. 28-31; for the following
"rOH): zum griechischenSchamanismus,"RhenischesMuseum f05 (1962): pages, see especially Otto Bijcher, Diim.onenfurcht und Diimonenabuehr
36-55. See also Arthur Darby Nock, Essagson Religion and Magic in the (Stuttgart-Berlin,1970).
Ancient World, ed. Zeph Stervart,2 vols. (Cambridge,Mass., 1972), l: 15' 14. SeeMichael McHugh, "Satanin St. Ambrose,"ClassicalFolia26 (1g72):
"Paul and the Magus," pp. 308-30; 2: 30, "Greeks and Magi," pp' 516-26; 94-103.
Lynn Thorndike, Historg of Magic and Experimental Science' 8 vols. (New 15. Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Mitlennium (New York, lg70); Paul
Y o r k ,1 9 2 3 - 1 9 5 8 )1, : 4 l - 1 8 1 . I. Alexander,"Medieval Apocalypsesas Historical Sources,"American Hi,stori.-
cal Reoiew73 ( 1968), OS7-fOfA;
2. Plato The Laws 10.909b; 11'933a-e;cf. Republic 364b. See also Jacque- JoshuaTrachtenberg, The Deoil and the Jetp
line de Romilly, Magic and Rhetoric in Ancient Greece (cambridge, Mass., lNew Haven.1943).pp. 32-43.
1975), pp.25-43. ..1} Iot" Wright, tiins., The Ptalt of Antichrist (Toronto, 1967), pp. 103-10.
Ivre-dieval
3. Nock, "Paul and the Magus,"p. 315. listeners would recognize the inverted parallel between Antichrist
4. The reputation of Apuleius as a magician and the interest in and fear of fnd, Jesus. The former was raised and taught by magicians,but at Christ's
Duth the Magi gave
magic in his romance Metamorpl.tosesis described by Adam Abt, Die Apologie up their arts.
t^
dei Aputeius aon Maclaura und die antike zauberei, Religionsgeschichtliche Y. _l* the dis"usst., in Julio Caro Baroja, The World, of the Witches, trans.
Versuche und Vorarbeiten, Bd. 4 (Giessen, 1908); Antonie Wlosok, "Zur "')' Y. Glendinning(Chicago,1965), pp. t7-57.
Peter Brown, "sorcery, Demons and tl"reRise of christianity: from Late
Einheit der Metamorphosendes Apuleius," Philologus113 (1969): 66-84, and [-l -rd'
Horst Riidiger, "curiositas und Magie," wort und Text. Festschrift filr Fritz ' | ;::lltJy to the Middle Ages," in Religion ancl Societg in the Age of Saint
Schalk (Frankfurt, 1963): 57-82. See the more generalsurvey by A' A' Barb' r lluastine,-ed.P. Brown (New York, lSlZ), pp. tt9-46, n.6 on p. 126. See
uampbell Bonner, "Witchcraft in The Lecture Room of Libanius,',
#.The Survival of the Magic Arts," in The conflict Between Paganism and l*DU
L''{'l':?lYl The American philolngical Association43 (IgS2) : 34-44.
Trans_
"'Christianitg in the Fourth CenturE, ed, A. Momigliano (Oxford, f9ffi)' pp'
19. The bot ai.",rrrion of Aputetus's
100-125; Clyde Pharr, "The Interdiction of Magic in Roman Law," Transac- Apotogii""j;;r; le.,eraily in

l*-*'
 20 The Transformatio'nsof theMagus
second-century Rome is still Adam Abt, Die Apologie des Apuleius oon
Madnura und die antike Zauberei, ReligionsgeschichtlicheVersuche und Vorar-
beiten,Bd. 4 (Giessen,1908). Seeabove,n. 4.
20. See Brown, "Sorcery."This immenselyimportant study contrastssharply
with the earlier study of Barb, "Survival of the Magic Arts."
21. Norman Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons: An Enquirg lnspired bg the
Great Witch-llunf (New York, 1975), pp. 1-15. Of all recent books on the
subject,Cohn's seemsto me among the freshestand most accurate,although
2
it is marred by many typographical and editorial errors.
'the
22. standard work is Trachtenberg's The Deoil and the Jerp. See also
Bemard Blumenkranz, luifs et Chr6ti.ensdans le monde occidental, 430-1096
(Paris,1960), and Brown, "Sorcery," pp. 140-42.More recent, although not as
Rhetoric and Magic in the
comprehensive,is Venetia Newall, "The Jew as Witch-Figure," in The Witch'
Figure, ed. V. Newall (London, 1973), pp.95-124. See also Leon Poliakov,
Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
"Le diable et les Juifs," in Entretiens sur I'homTneet Ie diable, ed. Max Milner
(Paris,1965), pp. 189-212.
23. L. Radermacher,"GriechischeQuellen zur Faustsage,"Sitzungsberichte
der Wiener Akademie cler Wissenschaften206 (1927); Carl Kiesewetter, Faust
in der Geschichteund Tradition (reprinted.; Hildesheim, 1963), pp. 114-18;
Vlefrrey Russell,Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, 1972), p. 61. See also
Henry Chadwick, Priscillianof Aaila (Oxford, f976), esp. pp. 5l-56.
24. W. M. Lindsay, ed., lsidori HispalensisEpiscopi Etgmologiarum, 2 vols.
DIATRIBE AND CHRONICLE
(Oxford,19lL), VIII, ix, I fr. De Magis; IX,2,43; XIV, 3, 12; XIV, 8, 17. Cf.
Hans Philipp, Die historisch-geographischen Quellen in den Etgmologiae des
Isi.dorusoonSeoilla (Berlin, 19f2); J. Fontaine,lsidore de SeoiIIeetla culture From the eighth to the late twelfth century, the literature which re- 11
clnssiquedansliEspagne oisi.gothique,2 vols. (Paris, 1959). For Hugh of St. corded both heretical and magical practices came from a limited intellec-
if
Victor, seebelow, Chapter 3. tual and institutional sphere. This literature was primarily rrlppastic" il
25. Patrologia Latina 140, cols. 537-1090. See also John T. McNeill and dfcu heavily.upon the authority.of. patristic literary. tladitions, and had
Helena M. Gamer, Medieaal Hanclbooksof Penance(New York, 1930); John purpose of impr.o-ving tbe-"moral .pharacter- of its readers, n_o-.t,.n9-ggs-
;the
T. McNeill, "Folk-Paganismin the Per"ritentials," !ournal of Religion 13'n939_): 't-sarily describing il,s srrbjects accurately for them.
'"Piatiques At the basis of this
450-66; Cyrille Vogel, superstitieusesau d6but du IXe sidcled'aprds intellectual tradition lay the study of grammdf'dnd rhetoric, until the
r'le Corrector siue Llediczs de Burchard,6v6que de Worms (965-f025)," in. eleventh century the two chief subjects of the trioium, far outdistancing
i Etudes de cirsilization mddi|oale (lXe - XlIe sidcles). Mdlanges offerts d qralecticand the quadrioium,
which only came into curricular prominence
,Edmond-RendLabande (Poitiers,1974), pp.75t-61. See also Henry Charles atter 1100. Thus. in examining tenth- and eleventh-century literature on
Lea, Materials Tou;ard a Historg of Witchcraff, ed. and comp. Arthur Howland magic, witchcraft. and hereiy, its rhetor.ical, exegetical,
(Philadelphia,1938), passim;Russell,Witchcraft, pp. 63-100. mor.al, and
26. Pierre Rich6, "La magie carolingienne,"Acaddmie des Insuiptions et -".1.onasticbasis must be kept in mind. As the next section of this chapter
will suggest, much of the well-known
Belles-Lettres,Comptes Renclusclc.sSdancesde I'ann,le 1973, Janaier-Mars, pp. association of heresy and m-agic
127-38,is a comprehensivesurvey with good bibliographical references,and ,and_r'eports of the excessesof deviant behavior that mark the Iiterature
^ot the
eleventh and twelfth centuries derive from this tradition. In this
sRaoulManselli,"simbolismoe magia nell'alto medioevo,"in Sirnboli e simbolo-
t ( I propose to examine the role of rhetoric in the preservation and
lgia nell'alto M edioeoo Spoleto,1976), pp. 293-348. ,ll_"Uo"
27. PL 107, col. 392. ltransmission (and perhaps creation) of beliefs about magicians, witches,
and heretics in
28. PL 110,cols.1095-1108. the late tenth and eleventh centuries.
29. PL 108, col. 121. See the brief discussionin Lea, Materials, 1:205. On o-f the true monstrosities of medieval literature is the Rhet.orimp;*.,
,. ^"P_nu
the use of this important interpretation in tbe twelfth-century glossa ordinaria "-"*1q,*titt"n by Anselm of .Besate around 1050.1As its most-iE6ent com-
to the Bible, seebelow, Chapter 3. rnentator
remarks, "modern readers have thought well neither of the

2L

i*
 22 Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleoenth and' Tuelfth Centuries flhetoric and Magic in the Elersenthand.Twelfth Cerrturies 23
author nor of his work. Carl Erdmann called Anselm a'bizatre Rhetoriker rhetoricians and their twelfth-century successors did precisely what en-
und, extreme literat.' For R. L. Poole, the Rhetorimachia was'a master- gravers and painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did; they
piece of laborious futility.' While R. W. Southern finds it painful to ihose bizarre and often occult subjects for their art precisely because
'absurd
read,' and refers to Anselm's tirades.' It is impossible not to these subjects offered them an opportunity td demonstrate their talents
ages."z Yet the Rhetori,machi4 although distasteful, is an important text ,upon subjects that were uncommon, fearsome, and unusual. What others
'm1ght and did make of the images they thus ordered and gave verisimili-
in the history of beliefs in magic and witchcraft, not merely because it
describes magical practices at tedious length and thus illuminates a tude to, was not their affair.
hitherto obscure period in the history of magical beliefs, but particularly In the rhetorical tradition in which Anselm wrote, the obiect of the
lbecause it emphasizes the importance of the art of rhetoric as a vehicle
- rhetor was to create and win a fictitious dispute, usually of a legal charac-
f.ifor presewing and transmitting those beliefs. ter. In order to maintain the interest of the reader, these disputes were
Anselm was born at Besate around 1020, studied rhetoric and logic at intricately constructed, filled with picturesque detail, exaggerated, and,
Parma and Reggio, served in Henry III's Italian scriptorium between above all, cogently argued. They centered upon wholly fictitious situa-
1045 and 1047 and worked in Henry's German chancery in I04B and tiors (controoersiae), and, as E. R. Curtius has pointed out, unusual
1049. He appears to have died in the service of the bishop of Hildesheim elements and characters were often introduced "to make these imaginary
sometime in the 1060's.Although he studied dialectic, he appears never situations more exciting."6 Thus, Anselm the rhetorician created the
to have been a successful dialectician, and he based his fame on his Rhetorimachia according to the rules of late antique rhetoric and chose
expertise in rhetoric. The Rhetorimachia, produced between 1047 and ,for the subject of his work the fictitious indicbnent of his cousin Rotiland
1050, was his chef d'oeuore, although a modest one. Anselm is, among las amagician and serwant of the devil. Anselm's choice of a controoersia
*i3
other things, an interesting example of an ambitious, aristocratic hardly an example of domestic loyalty (although we do not know for
eleventh-century cleric with intellectual pretensions who attempted to certain that he even had a cousin named Rotiland), and his ingenious
parlay his limited abilities into a successful ecclesiastical career under accusations and descriptions of Rotiland's infernal practices have dis-
gusted other historians besides Erdmann, Poole, and Southern. Yet in the
Henry III-and failed.
Among his many interests and alleged proficiencies, Anselm appears Rhetorimachia, Anselm lays out a barrage of accusations that appear
to have loved the classical Latin rhetoricians the most. His veneration lfamiliar to historians of later accusations of magic, heresy, and witch-
for them, as H. E. J. Cowdrey points out, veers close to that of an earlier lcraft. What may have been well within the limi* of rhetorical exercise,
and was under:stood in that way in the eleventh century, infuenced Iater
Italian, Vilgard of Ravenna, who was led by the appearance of Vergil,
chroniclers and moralists in a setting in which the fictitious character
Horace, and Juvenal in a dream to believe in his own share in their
of the work was ignored or forgotteriand only the rhetorical concentra-
immortality and to proclaim that their writings should be venerated as
tion on the enormities of the magician, witch, and heretic remained.
much as scripture.3 Vilgard was burned for his heresy in 1000, and
These,described no longer in controaersiae,butin chronicle, moral story,
Anselm never went quite as far in his own veneration of his classical
and invective against heretics, contributed much to the image of the
sources. One of the aims of the study of rhetoric was the art of persua- ,
r-magician, the witch, and the heretic in the twelfth century and after.
sion, and another was the power of the rhetor to control the most
':disparate Historians of magic, heresy, and witchcraft have not customarily empha-
subjects through his command of language.aThe Rhetorimachia -
sized the impo4alg.g. gt.d.i.ct-grie in shaping, preserving, and transmitting
fails in both these respects, but in his choice of a subject for the demon- many of the most conspicuous {eatures of invective against ecclesiastical
stration of his powers of persuasion and control, Anselm reveals one of
-deviants to later writers who took them perfectly seriously and literally;
the important roles of rhetoric-that of exercising the intellectual powers
3ut' this section will suggest, that is very likely what happened be-
lof the writer by describing particularly strange and unusual scenes as tween"t 1050 and
;if they were true. As Cowdrey points out, quoting Cicero's Rhetorica, 1250.'
Manitius, the most recent editor and commentator upon the
"non potius veritatem probat facultas rhetorica, sed verisimilitudinem."s -59
nhet.orimachin,
has argued cogently that the treatise is a fictitiou s contro-
As we will see, in the work of Anselm and other eleventh- and twelfth-
deriving much of the basis of its charges against the hapless
-
cenfury writers whose primary expertise was rhetorical, verisimilitude " l"::y,
b . .,
vr rLr Lu4r
Ser
464ruJL LUE rt4I,lcDJ

'was from Anselm'sreading in classicalarlu

and late-antique Latin courses.
indeed given to unlikely subjects, among them the practices of ir"jll:$
L
Manitius
ru vrcrrrvar f4Lc-4tltrgus L4ttII uuutDEJ.
also notes, howevei, that some of the accusations against
...magicians and the behavior of heretics. In this sense, eleventh-century

t..-
 24 Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleoenth and.Tuelfth Centurips
Bhetoric and Magic in the Eleaenth and Tuelfth Centuries 25
Rotiland seem to have few, if any, classical precedents and may well be It is this finished literary presentation of magical and heretical beliefs
Anselm's versions of contemporary theories of magical practices.t Cer- and practices that most strongly influenced the theologians and lawyers
tainly the accusation that Rotiland is a servant of the devil, that his' of a later period. Although Anselm of Besate's work does not appear to
magical charms are in "Hebrew, or rather demonic language," and the have been widely read (it survives only in tqlo manuscrtpts ), his choice
indication that some of Rotiland's alleged practices derive from "folk-" of subject matter, depiction of a magician, and introduction of a number
magic," indicate that Arrselm was not merely a rhetorical servant of of elements that later become common-place in describing witches and
classical topoi. ln all probability, Anselm's Rhetorimachia, Ior all its heretics, suggest that the rhetoricians' training and interests lie behind a
classical dress, admitted elements unknown to classical writets, and ad- number of depictions of the enormities of magicians, witches, and heretics,
mitted them under the license all rhetoricians had to add color and drama especially those that contain incongruous elements or depict practices
to the controoersia. What he added, however, probably did not come that are whollY imPlausible.
from the stock-in-trade figures of pirates, wizards, poisoners, and other Marie-Therdse d'Alverny has observed of Anselm that, "The picturesque
exotic characters out of late-antique rhetoric, but figures already known. history-$at Anselm tells suggests that certain amateurs of occultism did
to him and his audience gut of the -learned invective of his own time.and- not hesitate to organize such formidable ceremonies [as those of Rotiland]
place. when love moved them."1' D'Alverny goes on to suggest a certain con-
''
Anselm's inventions, then, lead us to the question often begged ( or tinuity in the use of libri. nigromantie, possibly from late antiquity, but
casually referred to and dropped ) by many writers on the history of certainly between the eleventh and the thirteenth centuries. William of
magic and witchcraft: to what extent did these writers, whether learned Auvergne, bishop of Paris in the thirteenth century, once remarked that
lrhetoricians or monastic moralists, depict popular or folk customs of their
'lo-.t he had held these books in his own hands while a student at Paris in the
times? The question of Jolklore in a largely illiterate and highly later twelfth century. The final section of this chapter will deal with the
localized society is naturally tempting to raise, and folklorists have con- attribution of magical practices to figures from tenth- and eleventh-
tributed much to the history of popular beliefs of the Middle Ages and century history.l3 It remains to analyze the Rhetorimachia and its shabby
later.e There is, however, a danger in ascribing occult practices that stock of demonological and magical indictments of the author's cousin
appear to have no classical literary or patristic antecedents to folklore, Rotiland.
since once these materials have passed through the literary mills of Anselm begins his work rvith two dedicatory letters, one an exaggerated
, writers like Anselm, Peter Damian, or Guibert de Nogent, they are tech- panegyric of Henry III in which he compares Henry to Augustus and
inically no Ionger folklore, but Iiterary materials. C. S. Lewis and othel himself to Vergil, and a longer one (which clearly states the fictitious
literary historians have warned again and again against assuming a non- character of his work) to his former teacher Drogo of Parma. In the
literary source for the marvelous when it is found described by literary letter to Drogo, however, Ansclm indicates that pe;haps his interest in
figures of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.l. As we have seen before magic is not purely rhetorical. Some of his critics, he says, accuse him of
and will see again, the surest indications of popular beliefs that seemed being a demoniac.la His literary interest and perhaps, as R. L. Poole
to run counter to those of Christianity ale to be found in the penitentials- lu88ests, his unusual intellectual pursuits, may very well have drawn
"and the indiaili. superstitionum from ecclesiastical sources.l' If the ele- down upon him criticisms similar to those made against Vilgard of
ments that Anselm denounces in Rotiland's magical repertoire did have Ravenna.ttIt is impossible to say whether Anselm, because of his interest
some basis in popular or learned practices of the later eleventh century tn classicalliterature and his apparent
excessivefondness for topics such
in northern Italy, it would be hard to identify them, since Anselm has as that of the Rhetorimachia,
did in fact have a local reputation for
worked over all of the materials he uses. One of the major problems of traftcing with demons.
The remark may simply be an attempi to i-p.rgn
identifying popular ideas and practices in the writings of trained clerics rtts enemies'criticisms
by exaggerating their content and thereby ridicul-
(whether these are products of secular and cathedral schools Iike Anselm inS.,them.
,' t"1+- As we will see below, however, Anselm was not the only
or monastic schools like Guibert de Nogent later in the century) is that or eleventh-century figure accused of commerce with demons.
the hand of the writer transmutes his materials as it touches them' At the .The first book of the Rhetorimachia consists of Anselm's demonstration
ot his prowess
core of an episode there may vvell once have been a popul'ar practice, , as a rhetorician and logician by criticizing the competence
'popular" 7 and character
but in written form the elements have been transforrned into of his cousin Rotiland. Twice in the ffrst book, in chapters
r'r and 15,
a literary work, with emphasis, exaggeration, moralizing, and additions. Anselm acclrses Rotilancl of following the precepts of 'your

i
b---
 ?s Rhetoric and.Magic in the Eletsenthand.Tuelfth Centuries Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleaenth and. Tuelfth Cenhtries 2:7
lord, Mammon, whose rules and precepts you cherish as you would Anselm and his peculiar world. H. E. J. Cowdrey summarizes this point
sacred canons."tu One of these precepts is an occult ritual for performing efiectivelY:
amatory magic by keeping vigil for three nights with a cock and a cat,
which are then burned, producing a powder "that has great power over In the eyes of adherents of reform such a work fas the Rhetorimachiaf stood.
girls and married women." So great is Rotiland s evil that he would not condemned on many grounds: the delight in. the devices of dialectic and
rhetoric for their own sake; the air of free, worldly humanism; t}-repreference
resist the opportunity to use such magic and worse on his own mother
for the classicsover scripture and Christian authors; the savagediatribe, so far
and father: "Aut enim tuis malificiis incantacionibus diu egrotantes iam removed from either morality or justice; the pride of the old, unreformed
defecissent aut ipsis malifciis sani occidissent. Ut pro tanta incommodi- Ambrosian church and the consequent approval of a married secular clergy.
tate iam cibares matrem ipso pulmone rubete. . . The winds of change which blew through later eleventh-century Italy swept
It is in the second book, however, that Anselm's""t accusations against Anselm'sworld away.23 '
Rotiland are fully orchestrated. It begins with an account of Anselm's
dream in which Robert, Rotiland's dead father, appears to Anselm and, It is also true that Anselm's work appears to have had little direct impact
after speaking briefly about the rest of their family, launches into a in its own time and left little influence behind it. I do not claim that the
denunciation of his son Rotiland, "sceleratissimus . ' Qni cum omnes Rhetori.machia played any role in the later depictions of heretics and
scelere et maleficio precellat, mirror, cur illum terra sustineat, et cum pro magicians.
omnibus valeat in nequitia, cur iam illi non aperiatur terra"'18 Robertus There are, however, several elements of the work and the intellectual
then goes on to describe a particular example of Rotiland's malzficium. world it depicts that are important. First, Anselm used it (perhaps in-
judiciously ) to obtain a lucrative and prestigious career for himself. It
Once Rotiland left the city of Parma by night accompanied by a young
boy. He buried the boy up to the waist in the earth, lit a fire around him, would be peculiar indeed if he did not think that his topic, as well as his
and forced him to suffer the acrid fumes all night while Rotiland chanted rhetorical genius, would be of interest to his chosen readers. In spite of
a love-charm, then uttered words in a language "either Hebraic or dia- the echoes of Horace, Cicero, and other pagan classical writers, Anselm
is not describing a nameless, first-century magician out of a Senecan
fi toti"." The boy then stole Rotiland's magic book (quaternio . . . nigro-
l"l mantie), and Rotiland was forced to invoke the aid of a demon in order ,.controrsersia,
*d"*uil. but a Christian who has wiJ]lng]y mad_e.a pac! wittr the
This Christian [ses']iii"oC-Crit poweri to p"*"ctly compre-
1; to recover it.tn hensible eleventh-century aims; he engages in ""tri"rr"
Itr the second part of book 2, Anselm, having demonstrated his prowess actions that are not only
i
revolting in the abstract, but were conggqlq.of glqraenth-ce4lury molalists
! an accuser, shows his skill as a defender when Rotiland accuses him
"r as well; he uses lookq of magiq; and he is associated not only with occult
i of similar ofienses. Among the charges is that Anselm performed a
i magical abortion by the use of a rnule's hoof.'o Others include keeping lmagic and theft, 6"t aho wiih lust and lasciviousness. Curtius, Manitius,
ard Cowdrey may argue legitimately that Anselm was working in a
i the company of panderers and seducers, "perambulating Italy," and
rhetorical vein that was purely literary, not influential, and known by all
i keeping improper vigils. Anselm refutes these changes easily, and the
to be fictitious (Anselm admitted the ffctitiousness of the charges against
book ends with another denunciation of Rotiland as a maleficus."'
Rotiland himself ). But the elements of the charges are not fictitious and
The third book of the Rhetorimachia consists of a sustained piece of
they are in many instances strikingly similar to other, Iater charges made
invective directed against Rotiland as a seducer, a thief, a willing servant
rhetorical flytings, but in serious descriptions of magicians, witches,
of the devil (including the detail of a formal pact), and finally as arr lnot-il
(and heretics. Anselm of Besate's work tells us little about the historical
accomplished magician who learned from a Saracen ("Now, thanks be to
Rotiland, but it tells us a great deal about plausible accusations of magic
God, a Christian") the secret of cutting the hands ofi corpses by magic
and witchcraft in the eleventh century. For the point of the Rhetorima-
and then using these members to fulffll his own evil desires. Anselm ends
the third book and the Rhetorimachi,a itself by denouncing Rotiland as *io, ^.ording to its author, editor, and all subsJquent commentators, is
Uicero's observation: "non potius oeritatem probat
living according to the same law as his master the devil." facultas rhetorica, sed.
rteri,similitudinem." Rotiland, historically, was not
It is not surprising that historians of a period that saw the passionate a magician. But the
.|character Rotiland was in{e_,gda-m-lg1qre1r=-etg-_Ag_3-c_-c-U5_lg-t9.pq+rp.fg
stirrings of ecclesiastical and spiritual reform, the attacks of Peter Damian 'Anselm if
lived up to ciceio s=Hjunctio"-of *haili"".nirr-"""t"ry"""a"-
and Cardinal Humbert on clerical indiscipline, and the devotional genius
cated readers might be convinced from their own experience and. knowl-
of the new monastic movement throughout Europe, give short shrift to
 28 Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleaenth and' Tuelfth Centuries Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleaenth and Tuelfth Centuries 29
edgeu;as a magician. Like the chargesof J11g-t-",tgWl,9l-1,Ihgft and other later collections of erempl.a. The story shares to some extent several fea-
it lesi o""rrlt crinies, the crime of magic haf,lii-G "ieaibte in the eyes of tures of the literature discussed so far:
,l eleventh-century readers. Invective, to be effective, must bear some
semblanceto w-.-!ial-p9ep-lg.B.9JgSi.v-,9
!-q.bg,pg-t:tble'It is hard to escape the At the same time something similar occurred in lingland, not by divine mira-
impression that, ffiougn tn" nibiiiiitriiiihiZ'itself was (happily) with- cle, but by -iafgjqa! graft; which when I shall have related, the credit of the
,gl progeny,it afiotds a view of somethingmore than rhetorical invention. narrative will not be shaken, though the minds of the hearers should be in-
f Anselmwas not the only eleventh-centurywriter to commenton people credulous; for I have heard it from a man of such character, who swore he had
seen it, that I should blush to disbelieve. There resided at Berkeley a woman
{ who-6btame servantsof tlie devil and possessedmagic books. Pope
Sy,lvestertt, ttrb Aquitanian sc'h<ildrGerbert;'becamb the subject of a addicted to witchcraLt!, as it afterwards appeared, and skilled in ancient
,:.-,1
augiury: she was excessively gluttonous, perfectly lascivious, setting no bounds
0.'if' lseriesof legendsabout the searchfor knowledgeof magic and encounters debaucheries, as she was fiiot old, though fast declining in life. On a
t'. Iiil;A
\.*,-
t' lwith supernaturalphenomena.'nAlthough it is difficult to date the be- Lcertain day, as she was regaling, a jack-daw, which was a very great favourite,
ill,-u ginnings of the Sylvesterlegends, the English chronicler W.itUar-n'"9f
chattered a little more loudly than usual. On hearing which the woman's knife
Malmesburyhas given the fullest version of the story.i5 Gerbert, who fell from her hand, her countenance grew pale, and degply groaning, "This
;*i'i. it"ay magic in Toledo, stole a book of magic from his master, day," said she, "my plough has completed its last furrow; to-day I shall hear
fled from Toledo. went to Reims where he became grammaticus,tutor I of, and suffer, some dreadful calamity." While yet speaking, the messenger of
pope, Sylvester
' ' . - r. to the future emperor Otto IU, and later-pope. While
t'r ,-.!
her misfortunes arrived; and being asked, why he approached with so dis-
)t{,,was alleged to have made a pact with demons in return fo1 magiggl '1 tressed an air? "I bring news," said he, "from the village," naming the place,
and 9194! krlgryledge. The legend of Sylvester was one of several, "of the death of your son, and of the whole family, by a sudden accident."
.;;.0 fuW;;
that circulated around certain popes in the eleventh century. Gregory VII At this intelligence, the woman, sorely affiicted, immediately took to her bed,
and perceiving the disorder rapidly approaching the vitals, she summoned
was accused by the Synod of Brixen in 1080 of having himself studied
her surviving children, a monk, and a nun, by hasty letters; and, when they
magic in Toledo and was dcnounced as a neclomancer. The accusation
arrived, with faltering voice, addressed them thus:. "Formerly, my children, I
goes on to mention a school of magic in nffie,"io"riiled by Sylvester II,
S constantly administered to my wretched circumstances by demoniacal arts:
at which no fewer than three other popes-Benedict IX, Gregory VI, '{.I have been the sink
of every vice, the teacher of every allurement: yet, while
and Cregory Vll-had studied.:6 practising these crimes, I was accustomed to soothe my hapless soul with the
It is possible that these accusations against popes were a kind of hope of your piety. Despairing of myself, I rested my expectations on you; I
residuum of the sort of invective so freely exploited by Anselm of Besate |advanced you as my defenders against evil spirits, my safeguards against my
in his treatise on rhetoric against Rotiland. They well may have been a Lstrongestfoes. Now, since I have approached the end of my life, and shall have
part of Anselm's world that, as Cowdrey says, was "swept away" by the those eager to punish, who lured me to sin, I entreat you by your mother's
breasts, if you have any regard, any affection, at least to endeavour to alleviate
winds of change in the late eleventh centr,rry. They survived, if this is
my torments; and, although you cannot revoke the sentence already passed
indeed the case, precisely as invective. It is not, in several senses,sur-
upon my soul, yet you may, perl.raps, rescue my body, by these means: sew
prising that these stories should have survived in Italy. Many of them, up my corpse in the skin of a stag; lay it on its back in a stone coffin; fasten
particularly those told by Anselm of Besate, have a strong flavor of classi- oown the lid with lead and iron; on this lay a stone, bound round
with three
cal literafure, particrrlarly of satires and prose romances, and a dcgree of iron chains of enormous weight; Iet there be psalms
sung for fffty nights, and
familiarity with this kind of literature survived in Italy longer than any- massessaid for an equal number of days, to allay the ferocious attacks of
my
where else in western Europe. Rumors of papal magic and legends con- adversaries. If I lie thus secure for three nights,
on the fourth dav burv vour
r'.cerningpopes flourished as early as the seventh century, and the acclrsa- in the ground; although I fear, Iest the earth. which has tr""n .o oft"n
Iot".
.ltions against the eleventh-century popes cited above may have been, ourdened with my crimes,
should refuse to receive and cherish me in her
:indeed, part of a Ionger tradition. oosom." They did
their utmost to comply with her injunctions: but alas! vain
yere pious tears, vows, or entreaties; so great was the woman's guilt, so great
In the light of such eleventh-century invective, it is worthwhile to
the devil's violence.
consider a passagefound in the Chronicle of the Kings of England, writ-' singing psalms
For on the frst two nights, while the choir of priests was
around the body, the devils, one by one, with the uimost ease
ten around II42 by William of N4almesburybut showing evidence of use
open tlre door of the church, though closed with an immense bolt,
of some Italian materials flom the preceding century. William's story of ;ltr,stinS
Droke asunder
the two outer chains; the middle one being more laboriouslv
the witch of Berkeley was poptrlar for a long time and rvas excerpted in

Ibe"*
 30 Rhetoric and Magic in the Elersenthand'Tuelfth C.enturies Rhetoricand Magic in the Eleoenth and.Tuelfth Centuries 31

wrought, remained entire. on the third night, about cock-crow, the whole The theme of supernatural intervention in the burial of a holy man sug-
rnorruit"ry'seemed to be overthrown from its very foundation, by the clamour sests to William a story illustrating the opposite-the story of the witch
of the approaching enemy. one devil, more terrible in appearance than the If Berkeley and her inability to find a secure tomb. At the end of the
rest, and of lofti"r stature, broke the gates to shivers by the violence of his ,iory of the witch, William goes on to cite ieveral shorter references-
attack. The priests grew motionless with fear; their hair stood on end, and all ieferences to impossible burials-from Gregory the Great and the
they became speechless.He proceeded, as it appeared, with haughty step legends surlounding the fate of Charles Martel.l
towards the coffin, and calling on the woman by name, commanded her to Williu*, having concluded his digressions, refurned to Rome, this time
rise. She r-eplying that she could not on account of the chains: "You shall be
for another story. This one concerned a young bridegroom who casually
loosed," said he, "and to your cost:" and directly he broke the chain, which
placed his wedding ring upon the finger of a statue of Venus, which
had mocked the ferocity of the others, with as little exertion as though it had
been made of flax. He also beat down the cover of the coffin with his foot, iefused to relinquish the ring gnd prevented the youth's consummation
and taking her by the hand, before them all, he dragged her out of the church' of his recent marriage. The youth in despair visited a priest named
At the doors appeared a black horse, proudly neighing, with iron hooks pro- Palumbus, who was "very skilled in necromancy, could raise up magical
jecting over his whole back; on which the wretched creature was placed, and, terrify devils, and impell them to do anything he chose." Palum-
'.4figures,
i*-"Ji"t"ly, with the whole party, vanished from the eyes of the beholders; bus instructed the youth to go to a crossroads where he would see a
her pitiable cries, however, for assistance,were heard for nearly the space of strange procession. He had to address the last figure in the procession
fow miles. No person will deem this incredible, who has read St' Gregory's and show him the letter Palumbus had given him. The youth did as in-
Dialogues; who tells, in his fourth book, of a wicked man that had been buried structed, and the demon to whom he showed the letter forced the statue
in a church, and was cast out of doors again by devils. Among the French also, of Venus to relinquish the ring and restore the youth to his bride. The
what I am about to relate is frequently mentioned. Charles Martel, a man of unfortunate Palumbus. however, vexed the demon considerably, and the
renowned valour, who obliged the saracens, when they had invaded France, demon predicted his death, before which the priest-necromancer "con-
to retire to Spain, was, at his death, buried in the church of St. Denys; but as , fessedto the pope unheard of crimes."28
he had seized much of the property of almost all the monasteries in France
This story in turn is followed by an account of the discovery in Rome
, for the purpose of paying his soldiers,he was visibly taken away from his tomb
of the body of Pallas, Aeneas'scompanion. This is followed by an account
, i by evil spirits, and has nowhere been seen to his day. At length this was re-
I vedled to the bishop of Orleans, and by him publicly made lcnown.z? of Siamesetwins born in Normandy, which gives way to a refection on
the royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England, the story of the seven sleepers
william's chronicle contains many asides ( author's digressions within of Ephesus, and a consideration of the nature of portents. Only after this
a narrative ) of this kind. The form that they take is that of a series of extremely long disgression, much of which is clearly based on non-
English sources, does William return to the death of Edwald and
, exemplary tales illustrating a point or a diversion made in the course of
;lthe hlstory. The story of the witch of Berkeley, for example, occurs in the William's conquest in 1066. Thus, in its placing in the chronicle and in
'"o*r" the texts that accompany it, William's story of the witch of Berkeley
of ^ long interruption of the English section of the chronicle
immediately raises suspicions as to its provenance and its relation to any
dealing with events in 1065. William has just finished telling the story of
sort of magical activity connected with eleventh- or twelfth-century
the family of Godwin when he breaks his narrative in order "to record
England. Much the same observations may be made of William's famous
what, as I have learned from ancient men, happened at this time at
account of the magical activities of Pope Sylvester II. This account fol-
Rome." William then goes on to narrate the pontificate of Gregory VI
lows a letter of Pope
(1045-46) in considerable (and Iargely fictitious) detail. He ends the John XV, cited in order to establish peace between
Richard of Normandy and Ethelraed of England. The quotation of the
account with a description of Gregory's burial. His enemies had threat-
letter is followed by the famous account of th" Sylvester/Gerbert legend,
ened to prevent the pope from being buried within the precincts of St'
which is followed by the story of a magical Italian cave, filled with
Peter's and had indeed blocked the entrance to the church. Gregory
treasure and visited by Aqrritanian touiist, a "professor who was
proposed to his companions that his body be carried to the church in any "n
said to know the unutterable name of God," and a "Jew-necromancer."2e
ro that God, ,rni Gt"gory's enemies, might decide whether or not the'
"*J This story is followed by one concerning two Italian witches who pretend
pope should receive the traditional burial. The doors of the church,
to_transform a youth into an ass, a tale doubted by Pope Leo IX, but
chained and bolted by Gregory's enemies, flew open at the approach of
whose possibility was assured.by no less a consultant than Peter Damian,
Gregory's funeral p.o"esrion, and Gregory received proper papal burial'

Il**.. -
 32 Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleoenthand.Tuelfth Centuries Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleuenth and, Tuelfth Centuries 33
who cited Simon Magus as his authority.3o William pauses after the story were the descriptions of heretical beliefs and activities that began to
of the two women to observe that "it is better to dilate on much matters appear in the eleventh century and flourished in the twelfth. fn these,
than to dwell on Ethelraed's indolence and calamities." He then goes on which derived not from a literary tradition of the secular clergy, but
to tell the tale of a group of young people condemned to dance for a from monastic sources and patristic antecedehts, many of the accusations
year in a cemetery in Cologne as punishment for having violated the we have seen so far were applied directly to contemporary heretics and
sanctity of the place. William then recounts the tale of the hideous bishop magicians, with very different results.
of Cologne and another story of a nun ravished by a kidnapper. He then,
after this long digression, takes up the story of Ethelraed once more.
William's sources for these stories are varied. Several of them are THE DESCRIPTION OF HERETICAL PRACTICES.
surely of Italian origin, perhaps connected with the traditions we have 10511250
seen at work in the writing of Anselm of Besate, papal polemics of the
eleventh century, and the late antique rhetorical interest in stories of The various magical activities discussed,if not practiced, by Anselm of
magic and fabulous adventures. Others seem to be moral tales based on Besate, his cousin, and other magicians of the eleventh century suggest
roughly contemporary events. These may be highly reworked versions of ' g ^several common aspects of the beginnings of a new learned magic that
popular tales. The story of the witch of Berkeley is the most obvious one fljgrew stronger during the late eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries.
'
of this type, but this story, too, reveals the hand of the writer more than First, those involved in or accused of magical practices were all either a I
the voice of popular narrative. The witch looks, at a closer glance, much' laymen or secular clergy. When they were seriously denounced, the 1'/
more like a classical Mediterranean witch. "Gluttonous, lascivious, and denunciations came from monastic sources, most conspicuously St. Peter
skilled at ancient augury," she is emphatically not a rustic woman, of the Damian, but from others as well. Second, the practices described derive
type later prosecuted for witchcraft. Her children, the monk and t}le iwholly from literary sources, not from the philosophical and scientiffc
nun, and the elaborately dramatic scene of the devil bursting the church treatises which, along with cabali_smand astrology, became influential
doors and the locks on her coffin, ending in the wild ride, did enter folk- Iater in the twelfth century. IT'ii important to"note that these two tradi-
lore much later, appearing-among other places-in Olavus Magnus's tions of learned magic-that deriving from literary sources and that
history of Scandinavia in the sixteenth century.3r But the story as told by llderiving from scientific or philosophical sources-had difierent futures.
-The
William of Malmesbury is no longer ( if it ever was ) a popular tale out literary depictions influenced Iater descriptions of heretics, magi- {l
of folklore. It is an exemplum illustrating the powers of God and the' cians, and witches; the formal, Ieqrned m-agq that appeared with the \r
demons to gain access to dead bodies. It is also, I suggest, part of that revival of interest ln anuquity aud Istamic leaining th" ea.ly tweifth
'literary tradition of stories of magicians and witches that seems to have made a "tt"i
,century
,centurv p44$3UJk
pe$UxdgtrSglap-!" allfl protected.plape-foritse"lfin the
'.'survived !learned universiiv wor-l{-9{.th"=
university wor.ld
into the eleventh century in central and northern Italy, pos- tlearned
'protected -and thirteenth centuries.The
.tW.glfth"
rrsessingstrong classical antecedents and influences, and occupying a place characterand learnedqualities of the latter tradition made it
ii in satire and invective as well as moral tale and exemplum. the true antecedent of the humanists' interests in natural magic in the
What is most stliking about all the sources discussed in this section, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, although the humanists thernselves, as,
is their literarg character. Anselm of Besate announces at the beginning we have seen, professed considerable scorn for it. Third, the focus ofl
of his work that his charges against Rotiland are ficitious; yet he por- these practices was less upon a pact with the devil than with th{
a figure recognizeable to eleventh-century clerical readers as a rhetorician's skill in describing and accusing his enemy of grotesque andff
. trays
iu.nnatural, but only secondarily blasphemous, actions. In literary terms,!
:,magician. The invective against tenth- and eleventh-cenfury popes is also 'the
literary, as are the episodes described by William of Malmesbury. Yet text of Anselm representsa flyting rather than a denunciation. The
focus of these works seems to be the author's skill in controlling gro-
taken together, they contain virhrally all of the elements for which later
tesquerie and narratio
heretics, magicians, and witches were punished. It is not sufficient to ' fabulosa, a traditional province of the trained
say, as some historians have, that these accusations are simply conven- :rhetorician, rather than the inherent substance of the actions and prac-
'f tices described. on the
tional rhetoric. In spite of the extraordinary literary virtuosity of the- other hand, monastic critics focus uoon the ac-
tions and practices themselves. That these criticisms did not lead
accusations levelled in these sources, the accusations themselves rarely; directly
to harsh punishments, or at least an attempt to seek out and reform
if ever, led to ecclesiastical or temporal punishment. Much more serious
 l{ t:L{ ,:.}r,( {,,.' " c}e
l*-4qJ,e"; ji
34 Rhetoric and Magic in the Ekoenth attd'Tuelfth Centuries Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleoenth and. Twelfth Centuries 35
magicians, may be explained by the fact that they were perceived in As an exemplary text, we may consider a passage from the chronicle
1 such a way as to confirm the monastic belief that the world was full of of Ralph, Abbot of the Cisterican monastery of Coggeshall in England,
horrors and temptations. Monastic writers denounced the evils of the composed sometime in the last quarter of the, twelfth century:
world, but they usually made little efiort to change them. Not until the
Investiture contest and the principles of Gregorian Reform did the In the time of Louis, King of France, who fathered King Philip, while the
I : practices of the world become the business of ecclesiastical judges and error of certain heretics, who are called Publicans in the vemacular, was spread-
. , J coercive powers. ing through several of the provinces of France, a marvelous thing happened
One of the most infuential currents of eleventlt- and twelfth-century in the city of Rheims in connection with an old woman infected with that
plague. For one day when Lord William, archbishop of that city and King
life for secular and monastic clergy alike, however, was the growth of
fnifps uncle, was taking a canter with his clergy outside the city, one of his
d_yariouskinds of lfercryr doctrinal in the monastic and later the secular clerks, Master Gervais of Tilburf by name, noticed a girl walking alone in a
and lay worlds,'reformist in the secular clergy and among other lay- vineyard, Urged by the curiosity of hot-blooded youth, he tumed aside to her,
p"opl"." It is the chronicles that ftrst inform historians of the growth of as we later heard from his own lips when he was a canon. He greeted her and
h"r"ry, and it is in the chronicles that the descriptions of heretical beliefs attentively inquired whose daughter she was and what she was doing there
'i
and practices are most graphically described. Too often, historians have
*taken alone, and then, after admiring her beauty for a while, he at length in courtly
chroniclers'and other ecclesiastical descriptions of heretical prac- fashion made her a proposal of wanton love. She was much abashed, and with
tices at face value, and even the truism that descriptions of magicians' eyes cast down, she answered him with simple gesture and a certain gravity of
and witches' practices grew out of descriptions of heretical practices speech: "Good youth, the Lord does not desire me ever to be your friend or
usually is cited without the compelling question: out of what did the the friend of any man, for if ever I forsook my virginity and my body had
' once been deffled, I should most assuredly fall under eternal damnation with-
$escriptions of heretics'practices come? Two answers that have gained
out hope of recall."
the greatest currency are, first, that the practices described were real,
As he heard this. Master Gervais at once realized that she was one of that
that heretics did these things (for a variety of reasons), and that church- most impious sect of Publicans, who at that time were everywhere being sought
men very naturally feared for their flocks because of them; second, that out and destroyed, especially by Philip, count of Flanders, who was harassing
the practices described were the product of the fevered imaginations of them pitilessly with righteous cruelty. Some of them, indeed, had come to
'1
church prosecutors and theologians, that they corresponded with nothing England and were seized at Oxford, where by command of King Henry II they
,J in reality. that they were simply a momentary form taken in the eternal were shamefully branded on their foreheads with a red-hot key. While the
'{duel
of theology with "reason." The rhetorical character of Anselm of' aforesaid clerk was arguing with the girl to demonstrate the errors of such an
Besate's Rhetorimachi,a and the principles of rhetoric in general, how-i answer, the archbishop approached with his retinue and, learning the cause of
ever, suggest another interpretation: that the duty of clerical chroniclers, the argument, ordered the girl seized and brought with him to the city. When
he addressed her in the presence of his clergy and advanced many scriptural
was not simply to record, but to advocate reform and revulsion frorn'
, the dangers of heresy. To do this, the particular details of heretical or passages and reasonable arguments to confute her error, she replied that she
had not yet been well enough taught to demonstrate the falsity of such state-
magical practices were far less important than the horror they induced
ments but she admitted that she had a mistress in the city who, by her argu-
in the reading about them. Moreover, chroniclers were writers. Trained, ments, would very easily refute everyone's objections. So, when the girl had
in grammar and rhetoric, they were proud of their command of rhetorical disclosed the woman's name and abode, she was immediately sought out,
devices, not the least important of which was the rhetorician's ability to found, and haled before the archbishop by his officials. When she rvas assailed
impose a narrative and stylistic order upon chaotic human behavior. from all sides by the archbishop himself and the clergy with many questions
ln-Inferno, canto 25, when Dante observes,"Let Lucan now be silent ' ' .'' and with texts of the Holy Scriptures which might destroy such error, by
-for Dante's own description of the metamorphosis of the thieves out- perverse interpretation she so altered all the texts advanced that it became
does both Lucan and Ovid-the poet indicates the delight and pride of obvious to everyone that the spirit of all error spoke through her mouth.
Indeed, to the texts and narratives of both the Old and New Testaments which
the rhetorician in controlling chaos and describing the indescribable.
Twelfth- and thirteenth-century chroniclers, although there were few ]hey put to her, she answered as easily, as much by memory, as though she
had mastered a knowledge of all the Scriptures and had been well trained in
Dantes among them, nevertheless worked along similar lines. An exam-
this kind of response, mixing the false with the true and mocking the true
ination of several familiar texts in the light of the rhetorical tradition and interpretation of our faith with a ktnd of perverted insight. Therefore, because
the moral aims of monastic chroniclers may suggest a reading somewhat it was impossible to recall the obstinate minds of both these persons from the
difierent from the traditional ones'
36 Rhetoric and Magic in the Eletsenth and Tuelfth Centuries Rhetoric and Magic inthe Eleaenth and Twelfth Centuries JI

error of their ways by threat or persuasion, or by any arguments or scriptural their subterraneanhaunts they perform execrable sacriftcesto their Lucifer at
texts, they were placed in prison until the following day. stated times and that there they enact certain sacriligious infamies.33
On the morrow they were recalled to the archepiscopal court, before the
archbishop and all the clergy, and in the presence of the nobility were again
Ralph's story deserves close attention, betause what seems to the
confronted with many reasons for renouncing their error publicly. But since
author a perfectly ordinary series of events can be broken down into
they yielded not at all to salutary admonitions but persisted stubbomly in
very different categories and seen to derive from very di{Ierent sources.
error once adopted, it was unanimously decreed that they be delivered to the
flames. When the fire had been lighted in the city and the officials were about At the end of our analysis, we will consider just how much of Ralph's
to drag them to the punishment decreed, that mistress of vile error exclaimed, 1 account can be accepted as an accurate reflection of heretical beliefs and
"O foolish and unjust judges, do you think now to bum me in your flames?{' practices in late twelfth-century Reims. The first point to make is that of
I fear not your judgment, nor do I tremble at the waiting ffre!" With thesejir Ralph's source. He himself tells-us that the story came from the experi-
words, she suddenly pulled a ball of thread from her heaving bosom and. ence of Gervais of Tilbury, at the time a clerk in the serwice of Arch-
threw it out of a large window, but keeping the end of the thread in her handsj - , bishop William of Reims, later marshal of the Kingdom of Arles under
then in a loud voice, audible to all, she said "Catch!" At the word, she wadiI Emperor Otto IV, and finally a canon regular in England, and the author
lifted from the earth before everyone's eyes and followed the ball out thei i of a famous book of stories and moralia, the Otia Imperialia. The next
window in rapid flight, sustained, we believe, by the ministry of the evil spirits I i section of this chapter will discuss Gervais's work in greater detail; sufice
who once caught Simon Magus up into the air. What became of that wicked i it to say here that any story told by Gervais of Tilbury ought to be
woman, or whither she was transported, the onlookers could in no wise dis- , looked at with considerable scepticism, for he was a moralist and story-
cover. But the girl had not yet become so deeply involved in the madness of
teJler par excellence, a learned opportunist and skillfril bourtibr whb
that sect; and, since she still was present, yet could be recalled from the stub-
born course upon which she had embarked neither by the inducement of , ..9.91!ainly-wo11ld1ot have been above constructing a pious exemplum to
iiit the inteieiG ind talents of a credulous Cistercian chroniclei. For, if
reason nor by the promise of riches, she was burned. She caused a great deal
of astonishment to many, for she emitted no sigh, not a tear, no groan, but - 1 indeed Gervais told the story to Ralph, pious construction is precisely
endured all the agony of the conflagration steadfastly and eagerly, like a martyr . what he engaged in.
of Christ. But for how different a cause from the Christian religion, for which The scene which opens the story-that of the clerk accosting a pretty
they of the past were slaughtered by pagans! People of this wicked sect choose young girl in the countryside and asking her to make love-is one
to die rather than be converted from error; but they have nothing in common , familiar to literary critics, if not to historians proper: it is the opening of
with the constancy and steadfastness of martyrs for Christ, since it is piety ti} a pa"stourelle. The form is fixed: first the encounter., then the debate, then
which brings contempt for death to the latter, to the former it is l.rardness of the man (oi the woman) winning the argument and having his (or her)
heart. way. If there was a girl whose answer to Gervais's proposition triggered
These heretics allege that children should not be baptized until they reach his recognition of the publican heresy, it is highly unlikely that she
the age of understanding; they add that prayers should not be offered for the did so in the course of a routine response to the opening conversational
dead, nor intercession asked of the saints. They condemn marriages; they preach gambit of a pastourelle. If one cannot accuse Gervais of sour grapes, one
virginity as a cover for their lasciviousness. They abhor milk and anything can clearly accuse him-and find him guilty-of dressing up his account
made thereof and all food which is the product of coition. They do not believe
in literary formula.
that purgatorial ffre awaits one after death but that once the soul is released
The fate of the young girl's teacher is also quite implausible. People
it goes immediately to rest or to damnation. They accept no scriptures as holy
may have escaped from the careful scrutiny of the archbishop of Reims,
except the Gospels and the canonical letters. They are countryfolk and so can-
but they did not do so by flying out of his palace window attached to
not be overcome by rational argument, corrected by scliptural texts, or swayed ,
by persuasions. They choose rather to die than to be converted from this most
the end of a thrown bail of Jring. Such a story, beginning with a
impious sect. Those who have delved into their secrets declare also that these Postourelle and ending with an unacceptable disappearance, may have
persons do not believe that God administers human affairs or exercises any several grains of truth in it, but its construction is
. enough to warn the
direction or control over earthly creatures. Instead, an apostate angel, whom ,f historian about the character of t*"iitL-""trtury chronitr"tr-'""a'ih" hitr"i:
they call Lrzabel, presides over all the material creation, and all things on ent
rts1, purposes of historians and chroniclers. That the diocese of Reims con-
eartt are done by his will. The body is shaped by the devil, the soul is created i;tained heretics of a dualist character is evident. Evident too, is the
by God and infused into the body; whence it comes about that a persistent emphasis upon celibacy, the understanding of scriptures, and
the rela-
struggle is always being waged between body and soul. Some also say that in
 38 Rhetoric and.Magic in the Eletserthand.Tuelfth Centuries Rhetoricand Magic inthe Eleoenth and Twelfth Centuries 39
tionship of the older woman as teacher to the younger. In his asides, in were the chronicle's audience. That the st-9ry-?"t.i!.:!_11d9is a rhetorical
fact, Ralph seems to describe accurately the persecution of Publicans in falrication, hgy1qvql, cqlqg!.19 dc,iibiditJis gr-eateit impbrtance is pre-
Flanders and England and, at the end of the passage cited here, to ;ir"tv an iflustlaii;" of the minner, not the accuracy' in which the
"t of heretics was aCcepted in the late'twelfth century.
summarize at least some of their beliefs accurately. The entire passage, J"pi"tio"
however, must be considered neither accurate nor descriptive of the bther stories of heretics also circulated around the court of Archbishop
events of 1179. Whether the literary embellishment should be attributed ;
;t William of Reims. Walter Map, in the De twgiis curialium, remarks that
,a
to Gervais of Tilbury or to Ralph himself, it is clear that the chronicler's William of Reims once told him personally the story of the knight who
description of this episode must be regarded with extreme caution as { sprinkled blessed salt on food set before him by his nephew, the follower
evidence of anything but the chronicler's technique. o? ur ,tt.tu*ed heretical sect that seems to have practiced deceptive
At the heart of the story, however, there are certain events that require magic. Once the salt was sprinkJed on the food, "suddenly the ffsh dis-
consideration. !n. hls..muddled descriptigr-r.-ofPqbligar.r-,,beligfs-atth9,,91t$ appeared and there on the dish was left some substance like pellets of

'
of the episoffffifi"liiesents-i

;'byelementsbFhis-cGlcription are
recognizable picture corroborated by
- other sources of some alpgcJs of twelf1htgentury dualism; ltowever, some
and are inspired not
t
i;
hare dung." After failing to convince his nephew of the error of his ways,
the knight enclosed the nephew and his teachers in a house and attempted
unsuccessfully to burn it to the ground. Only when the bishop of Vienne
"t""tty "o"ttadictory
accuracy, but by the traditional explanation of heretical behavior: performed a certain ritual upon the heretics/magicians, were they able
Fieretics' emphasis upon virginity is regarded as a cover for lascivious- to be consumed by the fames.3a
ness; hereticr^u." ,rrrii"s and cannot beieasoned with (although the girl Walter Map's accounts of heretics are no less inaccurate than Ralph of
and her mistress reside in Reims); they perform sacrifices to Lucifer;
r. Coggeshall's, although they contain more plausible details. Nevertheless,
their heroism in the face of persecution comdS from hardness of heart, the curious recurrence of William of Reims in these two stories from
rather than piety. These last elements are already famiiiar from the very difierent sources suggests that the prelate may have figured in a
literafure of the earlier twelfth century, and by the time Ralph wrote number of traditions describing heretics. In any case, Map's story is at
they had become almost a topos in describing heretics. Yet even these least as literary as Ralph's, if not quite as artfully constructed. One indi-
topical commonplaces do not exactly account for, or fit, the material in cation, then, of the source of the activities and beliefs attributed by
the story at Reims. The relationship between the older woman and the ecclesiasticalwriters to heretical and magical sects, is rhetorical. Walter
young girl, as between a teacher and a pupil, is not accounted for in Map, Gervais of Tilbury, and Ralph of Coggeshall all share the same
Ralph's conventional summary of heretical beliefs. The older woman's aims: to arrest the attention of their readers, to heighten the reader's
knowledge of scripture (sufficient to hold her own with the learned and renrlsion by setting their stories in skillful literary constructions, and to
skillful familia of the archbishop of Reims ) is not that of an ignolant or demonstrate the rhetorician's ability to control and display his repulsive
stubborn rustic who holds tenaciously to a few memorized precepts, but materials in a manner strikingly similar to other aspects of Romanesque
that of someonefamiliar with the Bible, skillful enough in debate to hold aesthetic ideas. It is to the depiction of magic and heresy in terrns of
ofi the archbishop's clerks (in what language, one wonders)' and pos- that literary aesthetic that we must now turn.
sessing (even Ralph/Gervais is forced to admit it) intellechral powers What is common to the stories told by Ralph of Coggeshall and Walter
formidable enough to be labelled by the horrified chronicler as "per-1 Map is the element of embellishing what may be considered an accurate
verted insight." In sum, this episode, widely cited in many sources' is a core account of heretical beliefs and practices (identifiable because they
tissue of literary and rhetorical embellishment filled out with generalized are in part corroborated by other, less literary sources) with literarily
devised and clearly ffctitious elements. A .numbrr 9f, historians of hgreqy
tr conventional descriptions of Publican beliefs and one or two verifiable
lfacts, surrounding what may be an accurate story, but a story whose ,endwitchcrafthavecommented tfiF fhliii'"iiaii;i; ;i.medieval
"po"
{i ecclesiastical invective and its unreliability
accuracy is very hard to distinguish from the presentation made by in most areas an an illu$1a:
tion of actual behavior and belief. As others, too, have pointqd o11t,.the
Ralph. It is impossible to determine whether the skillful storyteller
purpose of such accounts as Ralpn-s and Walter Map's was not to inform
Gervais-showing the inventiveness that marked the Otia Imperialia-
accurately, but to arouse within the pious reader the appropriate revuf-
recounted this episode to a credulous Cistercian chronicler, or whether
sion against the object being condemned. Ilence, by analogy and by
Ralph used Gervais's story because it seemed appropriate and was
invoking difierent spheres of meaning, chroniclers consisteltly
meiorable enough to strike revulsion into the young Cistercians who
"pp$;
I

t4; il Lt'" ,.. ,

' -'
rn:,
 40 Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleaenth and Tuelfth Centuries Rhetoric and Magic in the Elersenth and Tuelfth Centuries 4L
'
.sized the personal deplavity of heretics and witch_es,their physical de- rnen and laymen alike described heretical beliefs and behaviqr in much
formities and illnessei, their sexual behavior, and iheir unalterable sub- more accurate terms. Theologians and inquisitors produced accurate and
jection to Satan. In addition, since the heresies and deviant practices usable descriptions of heretical beliefs, culminating in the handbooks for
condemned were regarded as manifestations of the devil's eternal enmity inquisitors, the best known of which is that of Bernard Gui.36 Although
to Christians, descriptions of older heresies and condemnations of other some traditional invective lingered, particularly in the case of the
forms of deviant practice from the first centuries of Christian history were . Brethren of the Free Spirit, heresy became rationalized and its persecu-
;'loften applied to the enemies of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. believed and
fl tors be"ame astute in recognizing what heretics actually
These practices were not, of course, conscious deception, nor were they ' hand, was the one century in
did. Th" twelfth century, on the other
even manifestations of fraus pia, pious fraud. To excite the horror and . which heretical beliefs and activities were described, not in accurate, but .r
arouse the zealousnessof contemporaly Christians, writers like Ralph of 'iiin
sYmbolicterms'
Coggeshall and Walter Map described their heretics in a manner per- The course for magicians and witches was somewhat different. As the
fectly consistent with the mentality of the twelfth century. They and next chapter will show, the survival of ancient magical practices was
other writers like them were, in fact, faced by a serious problem. Before . greatly transformed by the lecovery of Greek and Arabic works, the
the late eleventh century, reformist and learned heresies had largely -t'/f sociology of the magicians, the developments
.1 in Latin theology, and the
occurred within the precincts of the monastic cloister. Other deviant *ork of canon lawyers. As heretics became better, or at least more
beliefs were dealt with by councils, penitentials, serrnons, occasional i: accuihtely understood, magicians and witches alone were left with the
treatises, and royal decrees, but they did not generate a conspicuous - elements they once had shared with heretics in twelfth-century sources.
literature, and the monastic literature of heresy was hardly appropriate to These sources were preserved in collections of miracle stories, handbooks
describe the social, intellectual and spiritual ferment of the Iate eleventh- for instructing novices in religious orders, serrnons, exempla, memoirs,
and twelfth-century laity and clergy. Consequently, the task of describ- and occasional treatises."t In short, the portrait of the heretic, magician,'
ing heresy, warning orthodox Christians of its dangers, and alerting the and witch which the twelfth century writers indiscriminately developed,
Christian public to the depravity of the heretics was a relatively new 6 remained applicable only to the last two of these after the early tlrirteenth
one, even at the end of the twelfth century when Ralph and Walter i' century. Having once shared with heretics the picfuresque invective of
wrote. Like much other literature of the period, their works shared some- Ralph of Coggeshall, Walter Map, and Gervais of Tilbury, magicians and
thing of the Romanesqrrementality. In some respects, although analogies witches were virtually the only figures to whom it was applied between
with the visual arts are always dangerous, the grotesqueries and literary the late thirteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Therefore, the nature of
embellishments of the two stories cited above are analogous to the twelfth-century invective becomes especially important, since it is the
visualization of the struggle between good and evil that occupies so much magicians and witches, and not the heretics, who bore most of its brunt
rduring the next five centuries.
of Romanesque art. Most of the activities that later would be attributed
to witches and magicians were already present in the invective against The sources of twelfth-century ecclesiastical invective are not at all
spiritual deviancy developed by twelfth-century theologians and chroni- certain. R. I. Moore and Norman Cohn have pointed out the similarity
clers, except for certain traits that did not appear until much later and between many descriptions of twelfth-centuly heretical practices and
seem to me to be far less important. The development of this invective ' those attributed to early Christians by their pagan opponents.3sIn one
and its use in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries have not yet i case at least, that of Guibert of Nogent, this kind of source may very
been investigated. well have been used. In his trIemoirs, Guibert describes a heretical sect
In their ffne collection of documents on the history of heresy, Walter which supposedly held seclet meetings, encouraged indiscriminate sexual
Wakefield and A. P. Evans included the two passagesdiscussed at the coupling, communally burned the children born from such intercourse,
beginning of this chapter under the general subtitle, "From Heresy to and from the ashes of the children made a kind of bread which, when
Witchcraft."35 fn so designating these texts, Wakeffeld and Evans recog- eaten, strengthened the heretical beliefs of the sect.3eGuibert's source
nized the common elements in twelfth-century ideas of heretical conduct at least part
fart ot
of this description appears to be Augustine's treatise on
1i Io.
i"t
and occultpractices. It is worth pointing out that most of the embellished ' neresiesand perhaps his reading in other early Church Fathers. A num-
invective describing heretics of the sort discussed above dates from the I ber of scholars have pointed out the similarities between Guibert's
twelfth century. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, church- account of these "Manichean" rites and those condemned at the Svnod

1,.,
*, .
42 Rhetoric and.Magic in the Eleoenth and'T'uelfth Centuries fthetoric and Magic inthe Eleaenth and Tuelfth Centuries 43
of Orleans in lO22-particularly the magical food and the material from Augustine and others wrote of Montanists and Manicheans was, in the
which it is made and the sexual license of the secret, nocturnal gather- twelfth-century monastic writer's view, equally true of those heretics he
ings.nnWhether Guibert modelled his own account on that of the Synod described.
of Orleans, or whether both sources drew upon earlier ones, two conclu- Such a process does not depend exclusively'upon what Jeffrey Russell
sions may be reached concerning these and much other twelfth-cenfury has called "literary clich6s." Guibert and other chroniclers believed that
literature on heretics. First, especially in the case of Guibert, those who they witnessed the same heresies as Augustine, Justin, and other Church -
described heretical beliefs were more widely read than most of their Fathers, and they described them similarly. It should be noted that
predecessors, and they applied the fruits of their wide reading to the virtually all of the twelfth-century descriptions of abominable heretical
cases they judged or described. Second, perhaps out of late antique ,.f practices strucfurally serve as asides, author's digressions within a narra-
tf
sources, these writers had by the early twelfth century created a dis- tiu". The heretics do not confessJo them; indeed, the heretics' obstinacy,
tinctive form of invective against certain kinds of heretics. This invec- noted above in the ill-fitting observations of Ralph of Coggeshall, is
tive-having part of its roots in Roman invective against magicians, assumed to be the reason for their failure to convert to orthodox Chris-
objects of satire, Jews, and deviant Christians-was applied to both tianity or even to understand the questions asked of them. Thus, it is
heretics and magicians in the twelfth century. Although heretics soon clearly the writer himself, or a particular informant, who adds the details
came under the scrutiny and authority of different sorts of thinkers and derived from patristic and other sources. In Guibert's case, and certainly
writers, the invective used against them in the early twelfth century in that of others, the writer's own learning made him familiar with this
occasionally remained, and certainly applied to groups such as magicians literature. Since his purpose in writing was to inculcate moral virtues
and witches long after it ceased to be applied generally to heretics. and warn the faithful against the dangers threatening them ( the same
Variant forms of the paradigm of the secret meetings of deviants danger that had threatened their ancestors in the early Church), his
existed in Christian literature at least as early as the first apologists, and description of the heretics'practices and beliefs had to follow rhetorical
many of them were preserved in the works of the Church Fathers, par- and moral rules. Those rules were not the ones that usually guide the
ticularly St. Augustine. Augustine's description of Manichean and ' modern historian, but neither were they simply literary clich6s or arbi-
Montanist practices appears to have been the source, certainly of Guibert trary embellishments. They were essential parts of the writer's business,
of Nogent's description, probably of the Synod of Orleans, and surely of and by omitting them he would have failed in his full purpose. These
other eleventh- and twelfth-century accounts such as those of Adh6mar' heretical beliefs, whether or not they applied to the particular twelfth-
of Chabannes and Paul of St. Peire de Chartres. The new interest in such century heretics in question, nevertheless applied symbolically to all
writings as Augustineis on the part of eleventh- and twelfth-century heretics, and the reader had to be informed of this. The appearance of
writers on heresy was probably a result of their generally increased' the heretics, their apparent sanctity, their exalted moral conduct, their
familiarity with earlier patristic literature that characterizes so many other skill at argument, their persausiveness,and their attractiveness could not
aspects of late eleventh- and early twelfth-century Christian thought. be ignored; but these very rules required that appearances be countered
In the Byzantine Empire, no such renewed acquaintance with patristic by the harsh, if symbolic, truth of their condition, and that truth had
literature was needed because no break with earlier literature had ever been stated by the Fathers. They were in tliis, as in all other fields,
taken place. In Michael Psellos'streatise Onthe Operation of the Demons, auctoritates, and theil auctoritas extended in time as well as morality.
for example, descriptions of a heretical sect referred to as "Messalians" As stated above, it should also be emphasized that most of these
sound very similar to the passages in Augustine, the Synod of 1022 at writings came out of monastic circles, and they refect the monastic
Orleans, Guibert of Nogent, and Walter Map. There is little likelihood literary dependence upon patristic sources as well as the dim monastic
that Psellos knew Augustine or that the twelfth-century Latin writers view of the life of laypeople. Moreover, many of them were written for
knew Psellos; both kinds of writer, however, were able to draw upon monks, and the monastic audience looked for moral guidance-for, as it
an old tradition of patristic anti-heretical invective which, in their own were, a higher kind of truth-rather than for a mere narrative of detail.
minds, at least, remained valid for the eleventh and twelfth centuries Monastic histoliography and other literature, particularly before the ad-
vent of scholastic thought and the growth of other kinds of intellectual
because the ancient heresies themselves had survived "secretly" and the
heresies represented by eleventh- and twelfth-century heretics were in lommunities, was distinctive and purposeful. Heavily dependent upon
fact these old heresies surfacing once again. What had been tme when Iiterary traditions and shaped by ptincipl"s of literary'exegesis, it was in
 M Rhetoric and Magic in the Elersenth and' Tuelfth Centuries Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleoenth and Tuelfth Centuries 45

part responsible for many characteristic features of Romanesque art and century concern with secret meetings and secret teachings was directed.
literature. Especially important in the light of the texts considered here In Peter Abelards Confessio fidei, one of the accusations (based upon
is the enormous power to convey ideas graphically, both through descrip- proverbs 9:17) made against him was that he had taught secretly and
tive writing and through the visual arts. The Romanesque monastic aim difierently from his open teaching in the schools; he had ofiered &cquos
was to teach, and to employ dramatic, arresting images to drive its les- furtioas et ponenx absconditern.a2 It is this accusation that Abelard
sons home. The literary genres in which descriptions of heresies occur- passionately denies; he has never taught such things. Other masters of
''".i
ihistories. chronicles, and collections of moral stories-lent themselves lhe schools were also accused of surreptitious teachings, sometimes verg-
perfectly to these requirements. For,.after,.all,"Grlib,ert, Ralph of .Qogges- ing on the heretical. Secret teaching and hidden books certainly played
hall, and others were not writing collections of law; they were not, in their part in the earlier world of Anselm of Besate, but in the twelfth
the twelfth-century academic sense,theologians; they were certainly not century the fear of secrecy came into full force. In his sermon against
formulating doctrine; they were teaching a community of Christians that, heresy in LlM, St. Bernard (who may have levelled the original accusa-
whether monastic or lay, was in great danger. And they invoked the tion at Abelard) holds forth on the verse of Canticles 2:15, "Catch us
most graphic sources they knew of to hammer home awareness of revul- the little foxes that destroy the vines, for our vineyard hath fourished.""
iion against that danger. That their works were later used by others who In this serrnon Bernard launches a formidable attack, not on openly pro-
shared little of their world view and none of their mentality could hardly fessed heretics, but upon those "who would rather injure than conquer
have been foreseen by them. These features, plus the wide circulation of and who do not even wish to disclose themselves, but prefer to slink
this literature during the twelfth century and its later influence, have about in the shadows." As it had in earlier commentaries on the OId
often prevented historians from seeing their literary productions in a Testament, the metaphor of the little foxes became commonplace in
measured light. Attacked by what they thought-in fact, v7s1s455u1sd- discussions of heretics and entered the vocabulary of papal letters as well
were ancient heresies revived, they turned to their strongest auctotitates, as se[nons and later biblical commentary.
the Fathers, to repel those heresies. In doing so they created a literature As Jeffrey Russell has pointed out,_.these denunciations of heretics
._r
''r
that had a long history and great influence. They infuenced other, later mingle accusations of magic and witchcraft with attacks upon heretical .
errors. Monastic chroniclers and moralists in the first half of the twelfth
writers who, like Walter Map, wrote for different audiences. It is, in fact,
. r in the difierences between their outlook and method and those of later cbntury made the first concerted attack upon ecclesiastical deviance by
invective against heretics and magicians einphasizing the elements of secrecy, abasement before the demon,
, . writers that the transrnission of lasciviousness,cannibalism, magic food, and hypnotic attraction by feign-
jf took place.
ing Christian virfues. The monastic view of the lay world, its dependence
Besides the details of heretical practices discussed above, another con-
upon patristic literaly authority, its belief in the eternity of ancient
spicuous feature of the literature which discussestwelfth-century heresy,
- is the emphasis on its secrecy. It may be too much to say that twelfth- heresies,and its growing fear of secrecy, in the schools as well as the
heretics'conventicles and "synagogues," thus gave shape to a paradigm
cenfury ecclesiasticshadi pathological fear of secret teachings and meet-
of deviance that did not soon lose its power. The paradigm was itself also
ings, but this element is certainly stressed again and again, even in
shaped by such rhetorical adventurei as that of Anselm of Besate, dis-
descriptions of hereticai practices that do not emphasize or even mention
cussed at the beginning of this chapter, and continued in a number of
the grotesque details we havc seen above. One of the motives behind
literary genres through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It is to these
Peter the Venerable's treatise Against the Petrobrusians, fot example, is *
genres that we now furn.
his astonishment at the growth of the heresy, local bishops' ignorance of
that growth, and contemporary intellectuals'tendency to scorn it instead
of attack it.n1Petrobmsianism, Peter warns, is not preached and defended
COURTIERS' TRIFLES AND MAGIC, I15FI22O
openly, but "whispered" from mouth to ear. The heretics at Orleans in
1022 also ofiered iecret teachings to Heribert and Arefast, and Ralph of
Coggeshall's old womal was, presumably, a secret teacher as well. This , , .Anselm gf-.pgsate represents a kind of formal rhetorical source for the
Lnrstory of ideas of magic. The monastic descriptions of the enormities of
motif of secret, insidious teaching and outward normality became more neretics'and magicians' conduct come from a second rhetorical tradition.
and more important in attacks on heresy as the twelfth century wore on. A third category of rhetorical sources that helps to cast light on twelfth-
It was not merely against heretics and magicians that this twelfth-
 Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleoenth and'Tuelfth Centuries Rhetoricand Magic in the Eleoenth and Tuelfth Centuries 47
46
is a book of
and thirteenth-century beliefs and magical practices is the literature in- larly prone. It is not too much to say that the Policraticus
and virtues for rulers and their courtiers and assistants.*'BoqL-t
fluenced by and &rected at the court. As early as the twelfth century, ' Fyic;s
F
i, moralists began to associate fear of magical practices with the court, the of th" Policraticus treats the courtiers' vices of fear of fortune, impfopriety,
jugglers, and illusionists. John's
lj newest and most potent source of power and wealth in twelfth-century hunting, gambling, music, actors, mimes,
, discussionof p:_g9$!jg*ygl.leads him naturally into the next vice, that of
ii societY.
Altlough the phenomenon of the court certainly antedates the middle l."onruldng
Lconsulting *"ffiu"J-of
m4F;4 ail
^g.l.ell sorts. From book l, chapter 10 throughl
through
',iook of magic to the twelfth-centuryl
of the twelfth century, the first literature directed at couriers and their .l tbooK t;
z, lofff"dbS6iiil;s-'ilG'"ildiifter
1
\ ,n
\S'
,/ ^
masters appeared shortly after that date. This section will deal with three
'{ worlcs of this genre:
John of .Saligbury's Poliuaticus (1159), walte.
?i&"yf:':'i
i-, \-
John of Salisbury's treatment of
magic among twelfth-century courtiers,
&:f U"pt De nugiis curiaffiii' (fl8t-93), and Qe.rvais of Tilbury'; Qtia like his treatment of many other topics, including politics, is complex.
\iltrnpertatta ltit+n). Although the authors of-tirbre wdrlts'iie English, Many of his references are to Wdrks of classical literature and patristic
" the works themselves should not be considered uniquely English, for thought. His description of different types of magic follows the descrip-
. their authors derive their materials from many different kinds of sources; dons of Isidore of Seville, SL AqgupJi.ne, and Hlab.4ng9..M3.Irry!, There-
{ including classical antiquity. Their citation here is for one reason; as fore, it -;t"6 1oft" is attacking the literary tradition of
"6p"t",I'iftui
john of Salisbury put it, "I deal in part with the frivolities of court life,, magic, not magic as twelfth-century courtiers knew it. Indeed, one his-
I*torian
tearing more heavily on those I find harder to tolerate."'+ Among the. has observed that it is never clear whether John is talking about
frivolities noted by John of Salisbury, walter Map, and Gervais of Tilbury the court of Henry II of England or that of Augustus.no The answer'l
I is the courtier's interest in and fear of magic. As will be argued from seemsto be that John does both. In raising the question of magic amongl
legal miiieiiaii itt ctrapter 4, the prevalence-of magic at twelfth- and' , couriers, John is obliged to describe the conventional types of magic andl
, thirteenth-century courts played an important role in the later persecu- imagicians as these types existed in the tradition of Christian literature.f
'n
accepted that the the other hand, it is also clear that John has personally observedi
{. tion of magicians and witches. Indeed, it is commonly
prosecution of witches grew out of the prosecution of heretics.ns It will be .courtiers consulting magicians and has known their interest in magic a{
ihe contention of this book that in fact magicians and heretics had always I i$st hand. So that within the literary encyclopedism that characterize$,
been associated, and tliat while the forms of legal prosecution of heretics I, John's treatment of magic at twelfth-century courts there lie a genuineli
for similar actions taken against witches after the fffteenth alarm at its prevalence, first-hand experience of its interest, and a pro-l
paved the way
found awareness of the dangers it posed to unwitting, ambitious, un-
cenfury, it was the fear of and actual prosecution of magicians in several
learned courtiers who need to be instructed in its varieties and dangers
key trials of the later thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries that is the .
jireal stage following the persecution of heretics, and the preliminary- i as well as castigated for the attention they pay to its particular twelfth-
,l cenfury forms.
J stage in persecuting witches.
In chapter 28 of book 2, John interrupts his discussion of crystal- gazing
The magician-and, to a certain extent, the heretic-appears usually
and other forms of divination and tells a story of his own experience. It
in a few iiecidi places in medieval society. The most frequent of these
is not a passagethat has been widely noted before, but it does cast some
is the cou1t. A number of twelfth-century writers point out the presence
light on little noticed practices in early twelfth-century England:
, a"d f6'ai:Ji magicians among courtiers, aithough their work has not often
ibspn cited in this connection.
During my boyhood I was placedunder the direction of a priest,to teach me
f" Iotr" of Salisbury's Policraticus, the second book of which is devoted psalms.As he practiced the art of crystal gazing,it chanced that he after pre- -
I to-th" varieties of maqic known and feared in the twelfth century, con- Jiminarymagical rites made use of me and a boy somewhatolder, as we sat at
]tirtt of two parts.46ffre 5p1 is a description and indictment of the vices
i -6f his feet, for his sacrilegiousart, in order that what he was seekingby means
courtiers, and the second is a description of the principles of ethi-cg. of ffnger nails moistenedwith somesort of sacredoil of crism, or of the smooth
and religion required to assure good rule and just governance. Historians polished surface of a basin, might be made manifest to him by information
imparted by us.
usually concenlrate upon book 4 through book 8, since these contain
And so after pronouncing names which by the horror they inspired seemed
most of ]ohn's political and ethical theory. Books I and 2, however,
to^me, child though I was, to belong to demons,and after administeringoaths
based on Johns observations during a long careel around many courts' ot which, at God's instance, I know nothing, my companion asserted that he
shed considerable light upon those vices to which courtiers are particlt-
{llti Rhetoric and'Magic in the El'eoenthand'Ttaelfth Certuties Bhetoricand Magic in the Eleaenth and Tuelfth Centuries 49
''\-/
Xaw certainmistyfigures,but dimly,while I wasso blind to all this that nothing practiced other forms of magic were se_cula1prjes.tsr-.rarely monks. The
^"ir"l"s
appeared to me except the nails or basin and the other objects I had seen there of Anselm of Besate, papal Roiiie, wandering scholars, and cleri-
before. cal teachers were precisely the circles in which these clerical magicians
As a consequence I was adjudged useless for such purposes' and, as though I
moved. John of Salisbury himself emerged from such a circle, and with
impeded the sacrilegious practices, I was condemned to have nothing to do
the growth of schools and universities in the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
with such things, and as often as tl-rey decided to practice their art I was
turies, these too became centers where learning of all sorts, even occult ,
banished as if an obstacle to the whole procedure. So propitious was God to
learning, became prevalent. When traditional theologians attacked the I
me even at that early age.
But as I grew older more and more did I abominate this wickedness, and new mastels of the twelfth-century schools, charges of teaching secret andf
my horror of it was strengthened because, though at the time I made the forbidden knowledge, including knowledge of magic, were among theirf
acquaintance of many practitioners of the art, all of them before they died weapons. Peter Abelard was among the first, but he was certainly not th{
were deprived of their sight, either as a result of physical defect or by the last, to be accused of ofiering seiiet, dangerous teachings to his students.'3l
hand of God, not to mention other miseries with which in my plain view they . Secular clergy, learned magic, invoking of demons, and the perils andf
were aflicted. There were two exceptions-the priest whom I have mentioned temptations of the e.3r*.iit-attcombine in the work of John of SalisburyJ
*f
and a certain deacon; for they, seeing the afliction of the crystal gazers, fled and others to shed neiri-light upon what is often called the renaissanceo{
(the one to the bosom of the collegiate church-the other to the refuge to the the twelfth century.sl Even before the schools were suspected of fosteringl
monastery of Cluny) and adopted holy garb' None of the less I am sorry to " magic teachings, the courts became the first setting for
magic. The rolel
say that even they, in comparison to others in their congregations, suffered of the court in the'culturdl lifb of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth
many aflictions af terward. 5n
cenfuries has not received a great deal of attention from historians, who
tr have usually focused upon its administrative, dynastic, artistic, and politi-
fne figurc of the clerical magician-whether crystal-gazer or necro- {;cal roles. Of the three great twelfth-century
institutions that transformed
'*un""-uppears litdiature.
frequently in twelfth- and thirteenth-century the whole of European life, the court has been discussed the least. Cities
Such people are common in the writing of Walter Map, Caesarius of and universities, perhaps because they have survived into the modem
Heisterbach, and william of Malmesbury, as well as in many other col- world, have undeservedly received far more attention. Indeed, it is not
lections of tales and chronicles. In John of Salisbury's expelience, such too much to say that some of the circumstances which peter Brown
, ffignt"r were not fictitious creations, but included an actual teacher of ascribed to the spread of magic in fourth- and fifth-century Rome begin.
ll nit u"a several clerics he knew later in life. The figure of the priest who ato recur only in the twelfth ce'tury, and first in the court.55It is in the
i'k.ro*, how to call up the devil is, in fact, almost a commonplace of
9_!g{ that great polver and wealth are to be won, not necessarily by.
twelfth-cenfury mor.al stories, and even if most of these are fictitious, the diligent service or high birth, but by favor. Favor may be ostensible and
evidence from John of Salisbury and others indicates that the type itself, di'ect, a reward for skill or talent, but it may also be indirect, the product
1 at least, was based not on a literary tradition, but on the first-hand of cultivated patrons, courtiers, serwants, and other informal but real
I,knowledge of twelfth-century writers.sr so]lrces qf power. The indictment of court life by
John of Salisbury and
When considered more closely, the figure of the magician is not sur- others is based, to be sure, in part upon the conventional moral ideals of
prising. The skills required, presumably, for invoking demons were the twelfth-century Church. I.r aspect, John criticizes specific
- "noth",
iearned skills, and aside from the type of the Jew and the saracen, the vices and faults to which the courtier is especialiy prone. It is no acci-
lbarned people of Europe before the end of the twelfth century were dent that
John begins the Policraticus with an indictment against those
,*clergy. The figure of the Saracens who taught Rotiland his magic and who believe that .andom fortune bestows favors
and disglaces arbi-
'Jew-necromancer" in trarily. The insecurity of the courtier-his
pirs"6a the fleeing Gerbert, as well as that of the need to play .,po'L,".ry stages
William of Malmesbury's stoly of the Aquitanian and the Italian moun- at.once, hi3TiefftAtic convlition
thai'favor -"y L" *on by public and
tain of gold, are types of this kind. As the twelfth century wore on, the private methods. and
his search for any methods that will aisure or at
real impact of Arabic learning, including magical, Iearning, became clear, teast promise success-make
him especially prone to the vices of fattery,
and the Moslem magician was transformed from a ffgule of legend into consulting magicians, and perhapi
even instigating magical powers
,. a genuine teacher *ior" doctrines troubled the literature of the eleventh against his own enemies, real
or imagined.s. In the hrr-"nirt courts of
and twelfth centuries.n: Moreover, the priests who ilvo-ke{.dqpo.ns and the late fffteenth centrrry
described 6y castiglione in rr corteggiqno,
 50 Rhetoric and.Magic in the Eleoerrthand.Twelfth Centuties Bhetoric and
Magic inthe Elersenth and Tu;elfth Centuties 5l

Lauro Martines has found the same characteristics: immense insecurity, ' The first section of the De rutgiis lays out a serious of complaints about
pressure to please the lord in many different areas, and the fear of falling' the life of the court, disguising the dificulties in contemporary courts by
a long
vich.m to Fortune. The process that shaped castiglione's courtier was recounting the labors of classical figures out of mythology. After
already at work in the twelfth century, and the Policraticus is one of the description of his own court, Map tells one 6f his most famous stories,
earliest attempts to criticize the moral world of the court as a new that of the wandering, enchanted King Herla.o0The story derives equally
phenomenon.tt from folktale and literary tradition, but Map uses it as a dramatic coun-
The courtier's successmight have depended as easily upon love, per- terpoint to his own muddled, vice-ridden household. He then goes on to
suasion, the removal of an enemy, or attracting the personal affection illustrate how even astute rulers may be deceived by wicked courtiers,
of his lord, as upon talent, skill, and proven experience; he might have and how even withdrawal from the world of the coult into that of the
been driven to desperation to learn what the future held in store; or he monastery does not always gualantee spiritual security..l Map's descrip-
might have felt himself to be the victim of magic. under these circum- tions of true and false orders of monks leads him to a discussion of new
stances, he could very readily provide employment for at least some of orders, and then of new heresies. In this context, he tells the story, al-
the types of magicians and soothsayerswhom John of salisbury took such ready cited above, of the Paterines, "who have lurked among Christians
gr"ai pai.rr and so many leaves of the Policraticus to denounce. As will everywhere from the days of our Lord's Passion, and continue to wander
, be shown in Chapter 4, the association of the courtier and the magician' from the truth."G'?At nightly meetings in their "synagogues" they await
it
j was not exclusively a twelfth-century phenomenon. As the world of the ,the arrival of a mysterious black cat, turn out the lights, bestow upon
to court grew greater, more wealthy, and more crowded, the place of the (ithe osculum i.nfame, and engage in indiscriminate sexual promiscuity.
indiviJual courtiel became even less secure. By the end of the thirteenth Map then recounts an even less likely story, also cited above, in which
- century in Paris and Rome and shortly afterward elsewhere, the daily food prepared by heretics appears wholesome and appetizing until it is
' fear of magic was a real-and punishable-ofiense. sprinkled with salt; then it turns into a noisome substance.o' Map's first
Walter Map's De rwgiis curialiurn, "Courtiers' Trifes," was written in few stories in book 2 deal with genuine sanctity. He then produces a
the I180's and probably completed by 1193.'" The word nuga, which seriesof stories concerning the alleged customs of the Welsh, and it is in
appears in the titles of both the Poli.croticus and the De rutgi,is, is com- these tales that some of Map's most picturesque stories of magic are
monlv translated as "trifles," that is, distractions, trivial faults, amuse- ;found, including the famous tale of Edric Wild.o' Map's tales of the
i m"ntr, or frivolities . Nuga, however, has another meaning in medieval . Welsh have long been well known since Iatel storytellers and poets have
Latin. Merely by virtue of its first meaning, it also carried a moral con- used them. But it is clear that they are stories only, and in no way touch
notation, implying vices. Thomas Aquinas, for example, a century later, the material of this study.
distinguished between two kinds of evil human practices. Some are More immediate is the story of the knight Eudo and his pact with the
r.Devil.oi The pact with Satan is made, not by a magician, but by a foolish
noxia, some ^re nugatoria. Basing his distinction on St. Augustine's Da
doctrina Christiana, Aquinas distinguishes them thus: iknight who through it gained great powers and wealth, worked wonders
but suffered great remorse, and was only saved by leaping into a fire in
penance. Although the story is decorously amplified in Map's charac-
Noxia autem superstitio dicitur quae aliquid manisfesteillicitum continent;
teristic style, it is possible to see in it the twelfth-century resentment
sicut invocationes et sacrificia daemonum, vel quodcumque huiusmodi. Nuga-
torium autem dicitur quando aliquis utitur re aliqua ad quod virtus eius extendi ;against the violent knight and lord, and the ease of association of violence
non potest;hoc enim in vanum fieri videtur.5e {with literal bondage to satan. This theme introduces a series of stories,
perhaps not unrelited to Map s extraordinary literary diatribe against
Nugae, therefore, are also forms of vice, less harmful than noxia but marriage in book 4, chapter 3, all of which deal with a mortal male
married to a dead woman, a demon, or a fairy. Having turned to the
certainly more than "trifles." Srich a meaning is clearer in the Policraticus
subject to demons'deceitfulness, Map, following
which is, in fact, a sort of moral guidebook for courtiers and their masters' William of Malmesbury,
retells the story of Sylvester II and hls
In the work of Walter Map, however, there is no such systematic schema, magical arts, adding to them the
story of Gerbert's seduction by a phantom
and his stories, although^they are clearly moral stories, cover a much woman.66
wider range than the seijous learning of John of Salisbury. Thus, the work Map then tells a series of stories of prodigies and wonders fi.om various
* is harde,r to use as a reflection of Map's own observations' sources.Book 4 concludes with the sto.v of Ihe shoemaker
of Constantino-
 52 Rhetoric and Magic in the Elersenthand Tuelfth Centuries Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleoenth and Tu;elfth Centuries D'J

ple, a tale of necrophilia and magic that appears to have been one of the srrmbolically described, but openly denounced. The direct moral voices
I sources for later accusations against the Templars, the story of Nicholas . oi ,5"r" ecclesiastical courtly critics-i6i?jJi-ilat the concern about magic
i pip", a Sicilian diver, and other tales. Book 5 deals with historical rulers I at the courts was widespread, well known, and worrisome. Like actors,
of recent history, and the work concludes with a recapitulation of the ,rri111"r,flatterers, usurers, and traducers, the'sorcerer's apprentices who
opening, another warning to kings to watch hard for courtiers' vices. It is divined, created love potions, and told the future at twelfth-century
clear that Map's book too deals with both meanings of nugae-trifing lEn.op"utt courts were well known to moral critics. In the works dis-
amusements and minor vices. Less direct and less serious than John of bussed so far in this section, it is clear that the old injunctions of Isidore
Salisbury, Map is far more picturesque, willing to draw on a diversity of of Seville and Augustine, reiterated by Hrabanus Maurus and H"qgh_of
sources to illustrate his often diluted moral points. Thus, although Map's St. Victor, underlay the basis of the hostiliiy John of Salisbury urrd'olhltt
De nugiis contains a far wider variety of tales of magic and the super- io--t[ie idea and practice of magic in all forms. But the critics' hostility
natural, and although these tales are used for ostensibly the same pur- was not merely general and aiddemic. They saw the magicians at court
poses as those of John of Salisbury, they are more the products of a and denounced specifically the noble's and the courtier's vulnerability to
literary humanism, and less accurate reflections of N4ap'sown observance. o them. A century later, more learned magicians attended other courts
As we have seen, even Map's accounts of his personal encounters with f and they, too, aroused hostility and eventually repressive legislation.
heretics are modest enough descriptions. In a few stories, however, there This literature was written for the court, too, partly to warn courtiers
and rulers about the temptations unique to their station and life-style,
, evidence of the same concern for magic and demons in the life of the
is
and partly to amuse them. John of Salisbury conveyed moral instruction
f: court as one finds in John of Salisbury. Map argues that knights an5!
courtiers are ,uniquely vulnerable to the temptations of demons and Jand criticism along with pious, classical humanism; Walter Map wrote
"\.with an ornate Latin style, a powerful imagination, and a natural genius
mhgicians. Less explicit than John of Salisbury's work, N4ap'sDe nugiis
iS neverthelesspart of the literature of courtly criticism that began in the for story telling. These latter qualities have tended to make both the
twelfth century and lasted until the eighteenth. early books of the Policraticus and the whole of the De nugiis curialiurn
somewhat remote from most scholarly discussionsof the twelfth century.
Written for and about the courtly ruling classes of twelfth-century
Seen in the light of their function as both instruction and amusement
Europe, the Policraticus and the De rrugiis curialium are not conventional
books aimed at the noble courtly class, however, both works ( and
tracts on vices and virfues of the kind best known from monastic and
,others) reveal a considerable concern over the casual and hitherto gen-
clerical academic cilclcs, and they arc certainly far from the penitential
unnoticed use of various kinds of magic in the courts of twelfth-
literature of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They are, nevertheless, {erally
|century Europe.
rgp-g*rlalJ y.g1!l -tll3t reflect the twelfth-century writer's awarcness of the
A third work of a similar kind is the Otia lmperialia of Gervais of
;"id;i;':;f";o;;tly-iiie tii" tempiationsthat it patrj-clJgdx- rTilbury,os Gervais was born in the
""id; ""a early 1150s,perhaps at Tilbury in the
offeied. Especially in Walter Map's c'a5e-benexth the classical allusions,
w_esternpart of Essex. He probably received a clerical education, pos-
the disgressions,tltc biting satire against Cistercians and charlatans, and
sibly continuing it on the continent, for he was known to be at Rome in
the curiosities that amused his readers-there is a level of concern for
116 and at Bologna, where he studied and taught canon law, by 1170.
knightly behavior in what is clearly to him, as to John of Salisbuly, a
After 1180 he was in the service of Henry II of England; then, in that of
new center of lay and clerical activity. As John Baldwin has shown, the
j]e.nrf's son (Henry the young king ). After attending the courts of Arch-
phenomenon of thc court and its particular temptations also troubled
blshop William of Reims and King William II of Sicily, he moved on to
-' ihe moral theologians at Paris during the second half of the twelfth and
Arles, where he married well and was finally made marshal of the king-
the beginning of the thirteenth centuries.6?As Erich Kijhler and other his- dom by Otto IV. After Otto's defeat at Bouvines in L2L4 and his death
torians have shown, even the Arthurian literary romances, long consid- in 1218, Gervais appears to have returned to England and
ered the characteristic literary forms of courtly society, deal in lar-gepart entered a
nouse of canons regular. He died sometime in the 1220s.
with moral and psychological dilemmas unique to courtly life. The magic His major work,
the Otia Imyterialia, was probably begun in the household
.,of the ,o*"n""r, however, seems to me to be quite removed from the of Henry the
king and completed for Otto IV sometime between 1214 and 121g.
Paris theo-
'l-'ogians treated by John of Salisbury, Walter Map, and the
,.gubjects l?"ng
r ne work has been called a commonplace book, a
and moral ,"fott r".r. In the latter works, the moral dangers of' compilation from
earlier authors, Christian and classical, dealing with his;ry, political
magic and other vices to which courtiers are especially prone are not
 il Rhetoric and Magic in the Eletsenthand Tuelfth Cen'turies Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleoenth and Tu;elfth Centuries DD

found the body of Vergil, not yet dis-

geography, and "marvels," aimed at soothing and instructing the ruler hbour a tomb was exposed wherein was
and at his head a book. In this book the notary art was inscribed
during his few moments of leisure. solved,
The work opens with a description of the regtrufn and sacerd.otium in together with other diagrams relating to his science. After the dust and bones
hJ been removed, the book was taken by thg master. Then, however, the
which, not surprisingly, the authority of the sacerdotium is exalted
Deople of Naples remembered the particular affection that Vergil had for their
and that of the rcgmmt, subordinated to it. But good rulers work feared lest it should be exposed to harm if the bones were taken away.
tirelessly, says Gervais, and they need the restorative powers of their few "6ta"d
They decided, therefore, to disregard the king's mandate rather than by obedi-
moments of leisure: ence to be the cause of the destruction of the town. Vergil, it was thought, had
himself placed the tomb in the bowels of the mountain, opining that the
Enim vero in dilucidis intervallis imperialis maiestasnonunquam sono citharae
removal of his bones would bring his artiffces to naught. The master of the
David, vexationem, in saule a spiritu perturbante factam, amotam sentit, aut knights, therefore, with a crowd .of citizens, gathered the bones together again
emollitam. Quia ergo optimum naturae fatigatae remedium est amare novitates andl phcing them in a leather 6"ag, took them to a castle surrounded by the
et gaudere variis, nec decet tarn sacras spiritu mimorum fallaci ventilari, sea on the borders of the city, where they are shown through an iron grille to
dignum duxi aliquid auribus vestris ingerere, quo humana geretur recuperare.6e those wishing to see them.
When the master was asked what he had intended to do with the bones, he
The ffrst two of the three dioisiones of the work treat the history and replied that, by his incantations, he would have so contrived that in answer
geography of the world down to the thirteenth century. The third dioisio to his questions the bones rvould have revealed to him the whole of Vergil's
, deals with mirabilia. This is an extremely broad heading under which art and that he would have been satisfied if they had been given to him in
'Gervais
includes both brief and extensive passagesdescribing pagan and their entirety for the space of forty days. Taking therefore, only the book with
Christian mythology and legend, natural wonders, legendary anthropol- him, the master departed. We have ourselves seen extracts from this very book,
ogy, animal allegory, natural phenomena, and stories of phantoms, lnmiae made by the venerable cardinal ]ohn of Naples in the time of Pope Alexander,
and laroae noctrllnae.To In all, the third dioisio is an interesting example and by conducting experiments we have proved their truth.?1
of the kind of general information thought suitable to inform and divert a In his short study of Gervais, H. G. Richardson has contributed much
thirteenth-century prince during his leisure, and in this sense it can be toward unravelling the mixture of the fabulous and the actual elements
regarded as a book of instruction, moral teaching, and entertainment. that comprise the story. As Thorndike and- others .have shown, the ap-
Although historians of magic and witchcraft have given considerable
books -of..the, n"e-F-fy-e*::.i+.,th-c,.twe.lfthand thirteenth cen-.
Pqq.Iep-c-e.*sf.
attention to Gervais's stories of lamiae,laroae nocturnae, and supernatural tulie,s..was also histor:ic.glr,a.ld.the transcription of some of the passages
flight, fewer have considered his portrait of an English magician at the from there by John of Naples is not inconsistent with other clerical inter-
court of Roger II of Sicily: est displayed in such works throughout the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
turies. In short, Gervais, Iike
In the time of King Roger of Sicily there came a certain master of English John of Salisbury and Walter Map, addressed
' a courtly audience and assumed that his material on what may very
origin asking the king of his bounty to make him a gift. Now the king, who
generally be termed the occult was an appropriate part of the court's
*u, dirti.rgrrished alike by birth and breeding, thought that some substantial
'Ask interest. Less a moralist than his two predecessors,Gervais was also a
favour *onld b" demandedof him and he replied: whatever gift you wish,
and I will give it to you.' But the petitioner, a man of great leaming, skilled better storyteller', and his strong secularloutlook refects upon a life spent
and subtle in both the trivium and the quadrivium, experienced in physics and rn courts in England, Normandy, Sicily and Arles. His observations
eminent in astronomy,told the king that he did not seek temporal rewards represent a distinctive stage in identifying and appealing to the interests
but rather what men might deem worthless, namely Vergil's bones, wherever of temporal and ecclesiasticalcourts in their common function as courts.
they might be found within the confinesof his kingdom. The king granted his The-story he is alleged to have told to Ralph of Coggeshall and the story
request and, armed with a royal warrant, the master came to Naples, where ot the English magician quoted above contain
both literary and sub-
Vergil had displayed l.ris genius in many ways. After he had produced his stantive embellishments that suggest
a notable courtly interest in such
wariant, the p"opi", though ignorant of the place of sepulture, accorded their matters.
obedienceand readily promised what, to the best of their belief, was an impos- To call these remarks, as Lea does, "popular beliefs accepted by
,;} sibility. In the end, however, the master, guided in the right direction by his .
churchmen," is to raise, in the
case of Gervais at least, serious doubts.r,
* *of located the bones within a tomb in the mountainside,although no sign
lart. rlrst, as we have seen,Gervais
u.r opening could be discemed. The spot was excavatedand after prolonged was not yet a "churchman" in Lea's sense.
 56 Rhetoric and.Magic in the Eleoenth and Tuelfth Centuries Rhetoric and' Magic inthe Eleoenth and Ttoelfth Centuries D'

Second, he was writing a courtier's commonplace book, including a sec- their work. In doing so, they placed the figures of the magician and the
tion on mirabilia, from which these extracts have been taken. Thus, they heretic prominently in the consciousness of twelfth- and thirteenth-
are, for Gervais, "wonders." Third, Gervais cites as his authorities St. century literary audiences. The magicians and heretics themselves (the
Augustine, Apuleius, Plato, and Humbert, Archbishop of Arles-hardly former probably guilty of at least some of the accusations charged by
guilty of those practices that
representatives of "popular beliefs." If there is a core of "popular tale" fohn of Salisbury, the latter probably not
lan b" proven to derive from earlier literary traditions ) became the
among these stories, that core is quickly overlaid with learning and
, objects of fear and revulsion, particularly to the worlds of the court and
classical and patristic references. Moreover', Gervais is not writing law or
- monastery, to which most of the literature considered in this chapter
history. He is writing to instruct and interest a ruler in his leisure hours. lthe
was directed. Except for the English master described by Gervais of
Otto IV, or indeed any other member of the vast, cosmopolitan family of
Tilbury and some of the popes described by William of Malmesbury,
twelfth- and thirteenth-century rulers of the Latin west, was expected to
know of and to show some interest in these stories. The wonders of the however, the content of the 6ooks of magic remained vague, and the
charges of lascivious and magical practices among heretics remained un-
world, like its geography and history, were fitting subjects for the leisure
reading of a mighty prince./ proven. Some of these characteristics were changed in the cenfury be-
fne story of the English master contains other elements besides stories tween 1150 and 1250, not in literary works of the kind considered here,
{
of flying women and night visitors. Here, too, we see the magician at but in more formal works of learning and in the thought of theologians
i
-1 i1court, this time seeking permission to remove the bones of an even and lawyers.
'greater
. magician, Vergil. The magic book, the power of the poet-
; magician's bones, and the incantations known to the English master all'
, hark back to the stories told by Anselm of Besate, William of Malmes-
bury, and Walter N4ap. The learned magician ( about whom Gervais is
NOTES
singularly neutral, even somewhat approving) is not condemned outright
as he was in the Policraticus, but Gervais's approach to moral matters in
1. For Anselm,seethe standardedition of his work: K. Manitius, ed., Cunzo
the Otia imperialia seems to have been confined to the relations between Epistola ad Augienses und Anselrn oon Besate Rhetorimacltia, Monumenta
regnum and sacerdotium in any case. Germaniae Historica, Quellen zur Geistesgeschichtedes Mittelalters, vol, 2
To sum up: different kinds of literary sourcesbetween the mid-eleventh. (Weimar, 1958). See also K. Manitius, "Magie und Rhetorik bei Anselm von
and the early thirteenth century discussed magic in many forms. All of Besate,"DeutschesArchio 12 (1956): 52-72; H. E. J. Cowdrey, "Anselm of
them derived their material from a literary tradition, all of them aimed at Besateand Some North-Italian Scholars of the Eleventh Century," lournal of
. specific audiences, and none of them shared the theological or legal views' EcclesiasticalHistorg 23 (1972): 115-24; Marie-Therdsed'Alvemy, "La sur-
'of vivance de la magie antique," in Miscellanea Medieoal,ia,I: Antike und Oilent
the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Uniformly, they alli
denounced magic, proclaimed its reality, and associated it particularly hnMittelnlter, ed. P. Wilpert (Berlin, 1962), pp. 154-78.I am grateful to my
former student Michael Panitz for some of his own work on Anselm and
with certain intellectual circles, heretics, courts, or Jews; and all reveal a
eleventh-centurymagic.
strong literary infuencc from classical and patristic authors. In this sense,
2. Cowdrey, "Anselm of Besate,"p. 116. See also R. L. Poole, lllustrations
they all agree with the uniform condemnation of all forms of magic of the Historg of Medieaal Thought and Learning (London, f920), pp. 69-79.
launched by the Fathers of the early church, codified by Isidore of Seville, 3. Radulfus Glaber, Les cinq liores de ses hi,stoires,ed. M. Prou (Paris,
and forcibly reiterated by Hugh of St. Victor in the Didascalicon Both 1 1 8 8 6 ) ,p . 8 0 .
the heretic and the magician in these sources are colored in much the
- 4. See E. R. Curtius, EuroT'teanLiterature in the Latin Middle Ages, trans.
same terms. Both possessedsecret books, and both used them. As we W. R' Trask (Princeton,1953), pp.62-79, 154-59,with further refeiences.
have also seen, there was a general fear of secret knowledge and secret - 5. See Manitius, "Magie und Rhetorik," p. 53, nn. 1, 3; p. 71, n. 121 cites
teaching in other twelfth-century circles. Finally, all of the writers con- the essentialtexts from Cicero: De oratore 2, 59, 241; De officiis2, 14,5I; De
inoentione L, 21, 29. See also Rhetorimachia, p. 103; Cowd.ey, "Anselm of
sidered here, whatever their ultimate purpose, derived their method of
Besate,"p. ll5.
depicting heretics and magicians and their accusations from a literary'
6. Curtius, Latin Middle Ages, pp. 154-59.
tradition. Two of them, at least, Anselm and Walter Map, eagerly demon-
7. There is no body of scholarly literature devoted to the relationship be-
strated their rhetorical command of unusual and bizarre materials in
 Rhetoric and.Magic in the Eleoenth and.Tuelfth Centuries qnd Tuelfth Centuries 59
58 Rhetoric and Magic in the Eleaenth
tween rhetorical devices and later medieval thought. In the case of magic and the attention of modem scholars,except for the famous and fabulous case of
heresy especially, however, it seems clear that the rhetorical character of Gerbert.
eleventh- and twelfth-century sourceswas later forgotten, but the details con- 27. PL 179, cols. 1188-90.
tained in the rhetorical accountswere retained and illustrated in later thought. 28. Ibid., cols. 1190-91
8. Rhetorimachia,pp.61-94; Manitius, "Magie und Rhetorik," passirn. 29. Ibid', cols.II42-44.
9. The subject is exhaustively treated by Jeffrey Russell, Witchuaft in the 90. Ibid., cols. LL44-45.I have not been able to discover any referenceto
Midclle Ages (Ithaca, f972), and by Julio Caro Baroja, The World of the this episodein the works of Peter Damian.
Witches, trans. O. N. V. Glendinning (Chicago, 1965) and Vidas magias g 31. Olarus Magnus, Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (Basel, 1567),
inquisici.6n(Madrid, f967). See also Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline book 3, chap. 21, pp. ll9-20. Olavus cites Vincent of Beauvaisas his source.
of Magic (New York, f97f ). Most of these works contain referencesto other The story is also cited in the thirteenth-century Speculum Laicorum, ed. J. Th.
studies. In general, the literary character of eleventh- and twelfth-century Welter (Paris, 1914), p. l0a. Jhe story also became a popular source of
sourcesis so marked that it seemsto me very misleading to attribute speciffc sixteenth-centuryillustrations. Besidesthe woodcut in Olavus Magnus, p. 119,
beliefs and practicesto "folklore" when they are found in such sources.In gen- see also Conrad Lycosthenus, Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon (Basel,
eral, the indiculi superstitiorntm and.the penitentials up to the twelfth century fi77). The story, as did many others like it, appears to have appealed to
seemto be more reliable sourcesfor folk practices. writers on popular devotion and penance in the fourteenth and fffteenth cen-
10. C. S. Lewis, The Discarcledlmage(Cambridge,England, f964). turies. See G. R. Owst, The Destructorium Viciorum ol Alexander Carpenter
11. See,most recently, Cyrille Vogel, "Pratiquessuperstitieuses au debut du (London, S.P.C.K., 1952), pp. 32-37, and Owst, "Sortilegium in English
XIe sidcle d'aprds le Corrector sioe m.edicus de Burchard, dv6que de Worms Homiletic Literature of the Fourteenth Century," in Studies Presentbd to Sir
(965-1025)," in Etudes de Ciailization lt[edi|oale (IXe-Xiie sidcles) Mdlanges Hil.arglenkinson, ed. J. Conway Davies (London, f957), pp.272-303.
offerts d. Edmond-Rend Labande (Poitiers, f976), pp. 751-61, with further 32. I adopt the general categories of Jeffrey B. Russell, especially as de-
references. scribed in his Witchcraft in the Middle Ages and his Di.ssentand Refonn in
12. d'Alverny,"La survivancede la magie antique,"p. 178. the Earlg Middle Ages (Berkeleyand Los Angeles,1965) as well as his article
13. Ibid., pp. 163-64, 169-70. See below, Chapter 3, for William of "Interpretations of the Origins of Medieval Heresy," Medieaal Studies 25
Auvergne. (1963): 26-53. More recently,the following works have offeredsomeimportant
14. Rhetorimachia,p. 103. modificationsto Russell's thesis: R. L Moore, "The Origins of Medieval
15. Poole, Historg of M edieoal Thw ght and Learning, pp. 7 l-7 2. Heresy,"Ilistorg, n. s. 55 (1970):21-36; Walter Wakefield and A. P. Evans,
16. Rhetorimachia,pp. I24, 129-30. Heresiesof the High Middle Ages (New York, 1968); R. L Moore, The Birth
17, Ibid., p. 130. of PopularHeresg (New York, 1965); Janet L. Nelson,"Society,Theodicy and
18. Ibid., pp.142-43. the Origins of Heresy: Towards a Reassessment of the Medieval Evidence," in
19. Ibid. p. 145. On the quaternionesnigromantie of the eleventh and Schism,Heresg and Religious Protest, Studies in Church Historg, vol. 9, ed.
twelfth centuries,seed'Alvemy, "La survivancede Ia magie antique," pp. 154- Derek Baker (Cambridge, England, 1972), pp. 65-77. On the relation to
78; Lynn Thomdike, Historg of Magic and Experi.mentalScience (New York, popularreligion,seeR. Manselli,La religion populnireau moAenage (Montreal
1923-58) 2:214-29; Manitius, "Magie und Rhetorik," p. 60. and Paris, 1975) and the monumentalwork of Herbert Grundmann, Religidse
20. Rhetorimachia, pp. 154-56.Like love potions, abortifacients were among Beuegungenirn Mittelalter (Hildesheim, 196f Among other ongoing publi-
).
the best-known products of the magical arts between the eleventh and the cations of current research, the numbers of the Cahiers de Faniear,lr usually
seventeenthcenturies. containimportant studies.
21. Rhetorhnachia,pp. 169-80. 33. J. Stevenson,ed.,Radutphi de CoggeshallChroniconAnglicanurn,(Lon-
.
22. Ibid., pp. 160-62. oon, 1875), l2l-25; translationin W. Wakeffeld and A. P. Evans, Heresies,
23. Cowdrey,"Anselm of Besate,"p. 122. pp. 25t-54.
24. On the origins of the Gerbert legend, see J. J. Dtillinger, Die Papafabeln .34. Walter Map, De nugiis curialium, ed..M. R. James (Oxford, 1gl4). See
desMittelalters (Munich, 1863), pp. 155-59;F. Picavet,Cerbert (Paris, 1897); alsobelow, p. 51.
F. Eichengrin, Cerbeft als Perstinlichkeit(Leipzi6 1928). 35' Wakefieldand Evans,Heresies,pp. 24g-56.
25. PatrologiaLatina 179, cols. ll37-44. 36. Seebelow. Chaoter 6.
26. See referencesin Joseph Hansen, Zaubenaahn, Inqui"riti.on und Heren' E.p""ially the works of Caesariusof Heisterbach,Thomas of Cantimpr6,
-.37.
t!,tienne
prozess(Munich, f900), p. 96, and Ddllinger, Papstfabeln,pp. 151-59. The de Bourbon,and Vincent of Beauvais.
chargesof magic against eleventh-centurypopes have not, in general, attracted 38' Moore, The Birth of Popular Heresg; Norman Cohn. Europe's Inner
60 Rhetoric and. Magic in the Eleoenth and. Tu;elfth Centuries Rhetoric and Magic inthe Eleoenth and Tuelfth Centuries 61
Demons: An Enquirg Inspired by the Great Witch-Ilant (New York, 1975), 52. SeeThomdyke, 2:14-304.
pp. 1-16. 53. Above, p. 44; see also M.-D. Chenu, Nature, Man, and Soci'etg in the
39. GeorgesBourguin, Guibert de Nogent: Histoire de sa aie (Paris, tg07); Toetfth Century trans. J. Taylor and L. K. Little (Chicago, 1968) pp. 270-309.
John F. Benton, Self and Societgin Medieoal France (New York, f970), pp. 54. Notably by C. H. Haskins, The Renaisqance of the Tuelfth Centurg
2t2-t4. {Cambridge, N{ass., 1927) and by many scholars since, the most recent of whom
40. Gesta sqnodi aurelianensis,in M. Bouquet, Receuils des historiens des is Christopher Brooke, The Ttoelfth-Centurg Renaissance (New York, f969).
Gauleset de la France, vol. l0 (Paris, 1738-86) pp. 536-39; Russell,Dissent Few twelfth-century scholars, however, appear to have taken such criticisms
and Reform, pp. 276-77. As Russelland Cohn have emphasized, early Christian as those of John of Salisbury senously or to have paid much attention to the
invective against Gnostics, Manichaeans, and other heretics influenced later darker side of the twelfth century, the prevalence of magic, the rise of heresy,
Christian depictions of Cathars and other heretics. and the new emotionally charged anti-Jewish literature of the period. The
41. SeeJamesFeams, "Peter von Bruis und die religiriseBewegungdes 12. dark side of the twelfth century renaissance has yet to find its historian.
Jahrhunderts,"Archio filr Kulturgeschichte48 (f966): 311-35; idem, Petri 55. See Peter Brown, "Sorcerli] Demons, and the Rise of Christianity: from
VenerabilisContra Petrobrusianoshereticos (Tumhout, f968); Jean ChAtillon, Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages," in Religion and Societg in the Age of
"Pierre le V6n6rable et les P6trobrusiens,"in Pierre Abdlard, Pierre Ie Vdndrable, Saint Augurtine, ed. P. Brown (New York, 1972).
Colloqueslnternationaux duC. N. R. S. (Paris,1975), pp. 165-79. 56. It is in the life of those in late Roman imperial society whose careers
42. Peter Abelard, Ethica c. 5, PL 178, col. 648. See also Peter Abelards were insecure and depended upon fortune and favor that Brown has found the
Ethics, ed. D. E. Luscombe (Oxford, l97l), and Leif Grane, Peter Abelard. greatest practice of magic in the fourth and fffth centuries. See Chapter 1,
(New York, 1970), pp. 148,I83. above, and Chapter 4, below, for thirteenth- and fourteenth-century courts.
43. Jean Leclerq, et al., Sancti Bernarcli Sermonessuper Cantica Canticorum, 57. Among other scholars, Erich Kijhler has also noted the bearing of real
(Rome,f957-58) , vol. 2, sermon65, pp. 172-77. social pressures upon courtiers. See also W. J, Schroder, Der Ritter zwischen
44. loannis Saresberiensisepiscopi CarnotensisPolicratici, ed. C. C. I. Webb, Welt und Goft (Weimar, 1952).
2 vols. (Oxford, f909), 1:14. All further referencesto the work will be to 58. Walter Map, De nugiis curialium, ed. M. R. James (Oxford, 1914). See
Policraticus,book, chapter, and page number in vol. I of Webb's edition. also the English translation by F. Tupper and N{. B. Ogle, Master Walter Map's
45. In works from traditions as diverse as those which influenced Henry Book De Nugis Curi.alium (Courtiers' Trifles) (New York, 1924), and James
CharlesLea and Jeffrey Russell,the importance of prosecutionof heresy for Hinton, "De Nugis Curialium: Its Plan and Composition," PMLA 32 (f9f7):
the later prosecutionof witches is virtually taken for granted. 8t-132.
59. Thomas Aquinas, De Softibus ad Dominum Jacobum de Tolongo, in
46. The best guide to the work, aside from Webb's introduction, is Hans
Aquinas, Opuscula (Paris, 1927) , pp. 144-62; see also Charles E. Hopkin, The
Liebeschiitz,Medieoal Humanisminthe Life andWritings of John of Salisburg
Share of Thomas Aquinas in the Growth of the Witchcraft Delusion (Philadel-
(London,1950), pp. 23-34.
phia, 1940), pp. 87-88, n. I0.
47. Aside from some eleventh-centuryinvective against couriers, such as
60. Map, De nugis curialiurn 1, xi. See also Hinton, "De Nugis Curialium,"
that of Adalberoof Laon, the work of John of Salisburyis the first major moral
p. 75, and Helaine Newstead, "Some Observations on King Herla and the
treatiseto recognizethe unique structure of the twelfth-century court and to
Herlething," in Medieoal Literature and Folklore Studies: Essags in Honor of
treat it as other twelfth-century writers treated the vices and virtues of other
Francis Lee Utleg, eds.
parts of traditional society. J. Mandel and B. A. Rosenberg (New Brunswick,
1970), pp. 105-10.
48. Policraticus,book l, chap. lO-book 2, passim,pp. 49-169.
61. Map, De nugis curialium 1, xii-xiv.
49. Helen Waddell, TheWanderingScholars (reprint ed., Lor.rdon,1968), p.
62. Ibid. 1, xxix-xxxi.
xiii. It should be noted, however,that John is writing of the vices of powerful
63' The theme of illusory food and its association with heretics and, later,
figuresand addresseshis book to Thomas Becket,then chancellorof Henry II, witches, suggests one aspect of the use of rhetorical commonplaces in the
who himself was severaltimes accusedof resorting to the very practicesthat genre of invective against theological
deviants.
John condemns.It is not, therefore,surprising that John should cast his con- 64. Ibid. 2, viii-xxxii.
demnationof twelfth-centurycourtiers'magic in classicaland patristic terms. 65. Ibid. 3, vi. This story has not often been associated with the peace move-
5O. Policraticus,book 2, chap. 28, pp. 164-65.On this episode and others ment of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but it appears
similar to it, see Liebeschiitz,Iohn of Salisburg,pp. 26-27,76-77, and Barbara to me to derive from
the invective against violent nobles
that became during this period.
Helbling-Gloor, Natur und Aberglaube im Policraticus des Johannesoon Salis- 66. Ibid., 4, xi. "nrn-on
burs (Zuich. 1956). 67. John W. Baldwin, Masters, Princes and Merchants: The Social Vieu;s of
51. Seethe figure discussedby Gervaisof Tilbury, below, pp. 5-1-55,and in -
Peter the Chanter ancl His Circle,2
vols. (princeton, 1970) l:lgg-2O4. peter
Chapter 4.
62 Rhetoricand.Magic in the Eleoenth a.nd.Tuelfth Centuries
the Chanter identiffed magicis and,histriones in the Verbum Abbreoiatum, PL
205, cols. 153-56.
68. G. W. Leibnitz, ed., Scriptores rerunt brunsrsicensium,vol. I (Hanover,
7707), pp. 881-1005, and R. Pauli, ed., MCH, Scriptores xxvii, pp. 358-94.
69. Script. rer. brurw., l:883.
70. Ibid., t:960-1005. Some of Gervais'sstorieshave been widely cited in
histories of witchcraft. See Henry Charles Lea, Materials Touard a Historq of
Witchcroft, ed. and Comp. Arthur Howland (Philadelphia, 1938), l:170-98;'
Hansen, Zauberwohn, p. 138; Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, pp.
I 17-18.
71. H. G. Richardson,"Gervaseof Tilbury," Historg 46 (196I), reprinted in Learning and-Magic in the
Sylvia Thrupp, ed., Change in Medieoal Societg (New York, f964), pp. 89-
102, with full bibliography.
72. Lea, Materiak, 1:170-98.
Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

THE PLACE OF MAGICIN THE ORGANIZATION

OF KNOWLEDGE

During the course of the twelfth century, European learning was greatly
altered both by the increased absorption of and Arabic scientific
"_G-*r;g,ek
and philosophical works and by the articulation'ind"irifuencb of the
sg|glqslic method. In the process of acquainting itself with Arabic learn- i
ing, however, western European culfure also encountered animpressively
body of formal, learned magic, the most conspicuous and appealing
- nlaye
of which was probably but a-lch,emy and other forms of magic
-*s-tf_oj-ojly,
were also included. This infux of new knowledge, appealing to the
scholasticmethod, greatly transforrned the character of European learn-
mg and added considerable substance to the hitherto inchoate concept
of learned magic. The casual references on the part of Anselm of Besate
and others to books of necromancy and to
the pi"t,.r"rq,r" and terrifying,
specific, denunciations of magic practices by riroralists could be
, !",.1o!
/ 3n1i"-a to a specific and availabl" [ody of knowlldge after the mid-
twelfth century.
The best place to begin to assessthe significance of the
,new.materials and methods for the history of the magician is to consider
history of the place of magic in the formal orginization of knowl-
Jthe
u topic that greatly interested intellectuals from the earl), twelfth
119.",
cerrfury on.l
Shortly after his conversion to Christianity in
1106, the Spanish Jew

63
 64 Learning and Magic in the Tuel'fth and Thirteenth Certturies
Laarning and Magic in the Tu,elfth and Thirteenth Centuries 65
Pedro Alfonso produced a collection of stories called the Disciplina (including the "magical" and "mechanical" arts) were
itical Sciences
,!clericalis, "The Scholar's Guide," as its latest translators have christened ' lparalleled with Wisdom (divided into "eloquence" and "philosophy") as
it.'? This work, which derives from the oriental traditions of learned the natural means of human salvation.a
'iart of
storytelling, contains a brief discussion of the seven liberal arts. The Aro.,rrd ll40 the archdeacon of Toledo, G'undissalinus, produced a
I! lnarrator lnotes lhere that some rscholars allow "necromancy" to be consid-
work called De dioisione philosophiae, in which he-probably closer to
l4ll4f,ul lvlgJ lgr9 Llr4L Jvurv w:rvt4rr 4 uvvv
t'
e."d one of the arts, while others dispute about the competing claims of . the Arabic sources'of Pedro Alfonso than the twelfth-century thinkers
natural scienceand grammar. The whole passageis as follows: mentioned above-gave a legitimate place to magic, not as a true science
or as a virtue, but as worldly vanities that are neither to be praised nor
One of his pupils spoke to a teacher and said to him, "I would like for you condemned.u
to enumerate the seven arts, seven principles and seven gentlemanly pursuits By the middle of the twelfth,century, then, the place of magic had
in order."
iobtained a foothold in the divisions of knowledge that derived either from
The teacher answered, "I will enumerate them for you' These are the arts:
sources ( Pedro Alfonso and Gundissalinus ) or from the philosophi-
dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, physics, music, and astronomy. Conceming 'fl"A,rabic
cal and logical studies of the schools of northem France. Although Pedro
the seventh, many diverse opinions exist. The philosophers who do not believe
in prognostication say that necromancy is the seventh; others among them,
AJfonsoincluded magic as "necromancy," it is very Iikely that he had in
namely those who believe in prognostication and in philosophy, think that it mind the various forms of divination, including astrology and augury,
should be a science which encompasses all natural matters and mundane ele- rather than divining by means of corpses, the literal meaning of necro-
ments. Those who do not devote themselves to philosophy say that it is gram- nxantia (laterli@olia nr)a) .^ Certainly, Gundissalinus gives i'is greatest
mar, These are the gentlemanly pursuits: riding, swimming, archery, boxing, afiifrtion to the divinatory sciencesrather than to the full panoply of prac-
fowling, chess, and poetry. The principles are tlle avoidance of gluttony, tices that could be labelled as magic in the twelfth century. The sciences
drunkenness, lust, violence, lying, avariciousness, and evil conversation"' designated as rnagic in the organization of knowledge by the school of
The pupil said, "I believe that in these times no one with these qualities William of Conches are probably similar. They consist of philosophical
exists."3 disciplines of the kind attributed to Gerbert and other popes in legend,
the less diabolical practices of Rotiland in the Rhetorimachfa, and the
Pedro Alfonso's speculative division of the liberal arts undoubtedly manipulation of natural forces by means of a variety of kinds of superior
derives from Arabic sources which treated the triaium. and quadrioium knowledge, perhaps not excluding the activities of the priest who tried to
with considerably greatcr freedom than Latins, possessing as they did a turn the young John of Salisbury into a medium. In the Arabic world, of
much wider acquaintance with sources for magic, the nafural sciences, course,these studies, palticularly astrology, were considerably better de-
and letters. There is no evidence that any western writer unfamiliar with veloped than in western Europe, and they retained a respectable place in
the sources and traditions that infonned the Di,sciplina clericalis ever Islamic culture. In tvestern Europe, however, the new twelfth-century
considered the seven liberal arts to consist of any but the traditionally interest in logic and philosophical learning bonowed slowly from these
accepted subjects of the triaium and quadrioium: grammar, rhetoric, Arabic traditions, while coloring magic with some of the rhetorical de-
dialectic, arithmetic, music, astronomy, and geometry. scriptions we have seen in thc literary sourcesof the eleventh and twelfth
There were, however, other divisions of knowledge in the twelfth cen- centuries.Not parallel at the beginning of the twelfth century, the Arabic
tury that did afford il place, not for "necromancy," as Latin literary usage and Latin divisions of the sciences diew closer together from the mid-
understood the term, but for formal magic generally. A scheme of organ-
lwe]fth century on. In spite of tJle growing familiarity in the west with
izine the sciences.once falsely attributed to William of Conches, placed Arabic philosophy and science,howJrer, magic did noi survive among the
.
"Magi"" (^rt.ology. sorcery, divination' augury, and illu- d legltimate sciences,chiefy through the oppo.sitionand influence of Hugh
\\tn"I"i",-t"es of
lf sion) parallel to the "Mechanical" arts; the two categories together con- of St. Victor.
1l rUt"i"i the Iarger classification of Practical Sciences.The three evils that ,
In his Didgf-calicon, written around 1141, Hugh included a powerful
s
plagued the human condition were Ignorance, Concupiscence, and In- 9jll_1ciati9i"l al!jq.*' 9f .q-"e-ig
i I
hr-ityr and the Practical Sciences were considered the remedy for
Infirmity. The school of Abelard adapted the scheme of the practical : Magic is not accepted as a part of philosophy,
but stands with a false claim
outside it: the
sciencesdevised by thc ffrst group into a new schema in which the Prac- mistress of every form of iniquity and malice, lying about the
 66 Learning and lt[agic in the Ttoelfth and' Thirteenth Centuries Learning and Magic in the Tuelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 67

I ttrth and truly infecting men's minds, it seduces them from divine religion, ture), both writer.s.condemned most forms of magic as diabolical. Even
i pro-pts them irom the cult of demons,fosters corruption of morals, and impels into the sixteenih and seventeenth centuries, those writers who defended
i tft" *inar of its devotees to every wicked and criminal indulgence. the legitimacy of astrology, hermetic magic, or other forms of magic felt
isor""r"r, are those who, with demonic incantations or amulets
or any other compelled to denounce the remaining forms as'diabolic and damnable."
le*ec.able types of remedies, by the cooperation of the devils and by evil in- Thus, in spite of a number of forces favorable to the legitimate study of
istinct, perform wicked things. Performersof illusionsare those who with their some forms of magic that proved formidable in the twelfth century, and
h"-orri" art make sport of human sensesthrough imaginative illusions about even reappeared in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the old patristic
ine thing'sbeing tumed into another.T condemnation of magic outright, restated by Hugh of St. Victor early in
Drawing heavily from late patristic and Carolingian strictures against Ithe twelfth century and ffrmly a part of scholastic theology by the mid-
All ty_p-esof
magic, notably from the works of Isidore of Seville and Hrabanus Maurus, d thirteenth century, remained a virtually impassable obstacle.
Hugh's blanket condemnation of all magic as demonic and sinful exerted magrc were equally condemned'by it and, more important, many prac-
considerable influence throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It fiite's formerly regarded merely as harmful superstitions could be con-
,r drove magic from the tables of the organization of legitimate knowledge, ld"*ned as magic. In a sense, the rhetorical tradition, represented by
in spite of the interest of twelfth centuly philosophers and the growing Ansijlm of Besate, the monastic depicters of heretical practices, and the
familiarity with and respect for Arabic astrology. In Robert Kilwardby's courtier literature of Walter Map and Gervais of Tilbury, won the day
De ortu sitse dioisione scientiarurn, written in the second half of the at an important moment of the twelfth century, through the work of
thirteenth century, Hugh's stricture against the place of magic among Hugh of St. Victor. In spite of the growing ath'activeness and claims to
the legitimate sciences is repeated.8 Somewhat earlier than Kilwardby, legitimacy of several forms of magic, the Arabic divisions of the sciences
of Auvergne, bishop of Paris, issued similar strictures, although representedby Pedro Alfonso and Gundissalinus, as well as the divisions
Wiili;
of the sciences represented by the schools of William of Conches and
William goes into much greater detail concerning the circulation of books
Abelard, failed to give a place in the schemes of legitimate human knowl-
of Arabic astrology and books of magic, libri rnagorum atque maleficorurn,
edge to any form of magic except astrology. Moreover, as magical prac-
in Paris during his own student days.oThe strictures of Hugh of St. Victor
tices began to take on a new substance through the revival of Arabic and
generally held, in spite of the survival of older books of magic,,-the
Greek philosophy, the content of magic changed. The actual practice was
preservation of charms and incantations in individual manuscripts during
taken more seriously, the dangers it posed feared more intensely, and the
ihe twelfth century, the growing familiarity with, and interest in Arabic
strictures against it reiterated more frequently. The remaining sections of
science (especially astrology), and the strong claims made by astrologers
this chapter rvill trace the influence of Hugh of St. Victor and the grow-
and, later, philosophers and natural scientists,that there was a legitimate
ing explicitness and fear of magic through the work of theologians, canon
place for it l""rf certain kinds of magic during the late twelfth and
Iawyers, and philosophers during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
thirteenth centuries. Repeated by William of Auvergne and Robelt
Kilwardby, Hugh's strictirres were also echoed by other theologjans and
lawyers.'; Even on those occasions when theologians had to admit that
MAGIC AND THEOLOGY IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY
astrology seemed to be a legitimate science and could in theory advise
humarileings of the future, there seems'to have been no ca-seof any The work of Hugh of St. Victor on the place of magic among the legiti-
individual being able completely to escapethe charges of belng
"irolog". to mate sciences drew upon a patristic and twelfth-century theological tra-
a magician or sorcerer. To a very slight extent, astrology alone seems
have acquired a certain degree of legitimacy in spite ol the strictures of idition, and biblical study and the development of the science of theology
occult lcontinued to condemn magic in all its forms. Still, for the most part,
Hugh of St. Victor and hii followers. But astrol'ogy is the -only
scieice that did, and in most individual cases partic.lar astrologers were ,twelfth-century biblical scholarship did not, any more than Hugh, do
forbidden magic'11 [nore than condemn witchcraft, heresy, and magic. No theologian appears
always liable to charges of dealing in to have advocated the more rigorous prosecution of these ofienses that
all
Other testimonies to the enduriig infuence of ffugh's cxclusion of became characteristic of many cht rchmen, scholars and prelates during
knoi'ledge are those of Bacon and
forms of magic from legitimate Sqg"t the thirteenth century, and few theologians elaborated upon the nature
their
Arnald of Villanova lJte ln the thirteenth century.r': In spite of and content of magic.
own personal reputations as magicians (derived from the Victorine stric'.r
 68 Learning and Magic in the Toelfth and. Thirteenth Centuries Learni,ng and Magic in the Tuoelfth and Thirteenth Centuries *
Of the passagesin scripture that dealt with magic, perhaps the most similarif to St. Augustine's own treatment of the same text in the second
frequently cited text in the later medieval and early modern period was book of his Quaestiorwrn in Heptateuchum."
Exodus 22:L8, "Maleficos non patieris oiaere: "Thou shalt not suffer a fhe injunctions of Leviticus 19:31-20:6 also drew some comment from
[witch] to live." This text, frequently cited by latel theologians and the glossators. The gloss to Leviticus I9:3I, heque ab atiolis, states:
witch-hunters alike in its literal sense, was not in the twelfth cenfury "Veneficis, qui daemonum scilicet nomina invocant, et aliquando corpus
regarded as condemning the magician to death. The very tetm maleficus /curant, vel animam interficiant."l8 The
gloss to Leviticus 20:6, anirna qui
in the twelfth century indicated sorcerers generically-not, of course, the declinaoetit ad magos, states:
later type of witch or magician designated by the terms malefica or
maleficus in the better-known witchcraft literature of a later period. The Grande peccatum est ad magos et ariolos declinare: hoc est etiam a Deo
glossaordi,naria of the Bible, completed in the course of the early twelfth ,$recedere.Sunt autem magi intelligibiles,qui in nomine Domini falsa prophe-
cenfury, is explicit on this meaning: frl t-t; sunt arioli deceptores et adulatores, qui veneficis verbis multonrm cor-
I
rumpunt et a veritate avertunt.le
Maleficosnon patieris aiaere. Qui praestigiis magicae artis et diabolicis figmentis
agunt, haereticos intellige, qui a consortio fidelium qui vere vilrrnt, excom- These texts, and indeed most other Old Testament texts dealing with
municandi sunt, donec maleficium erroris in eis moriatur'l4 magi and other practitioners are generally treated alike by the glossators
of the early twelfth century. Since several of these texts were not com-
That is, maleficii. are those who use the illusions of the magic art and of t mented upon by Augustine, these glosses cited above would appear to
rf.'i the devil. They are heretics. They should be separated from the com- j derive from the ninth-century tradition or from the early scholastic
i
munity of the faithful, which is true life. They are to be excommunicated glossatorsthemselves. The glossesuniformly condemn magical practices,
so that their error will die with them. and sometimes they list them, as in the gloss to Deuteronomy 18:9-1I.
This citation is important because of its threefold character: First,' Denouncing all forms of magic, the glossators,however, do not go beyond
malefici,i are associated with the d-gvil; second, they are clearly identified- $denunciation. Only the gloss to Exodus 22:18 is explicit, and it states
as heretics; third, they are,not to be killed, but excommunicated from the' ithat while
magic is to be equated to heresy, the maleficus is not to be
cotiifr[ifriy of believers. Inlhe lasi instance, oioere is clearly interpreted. killed, but excomrnunicated.
figuratively, not literally. The glossa ordinaria, earlier than most texts The most famous passage in the Old Testament, Saul's invocation of
cited by historians, clearly identifies magic with heresy, long before those the spirit of Samuel by the witch of Endor, is treated by the glossatorsin
theologians of the thirteenth century who are alleged to have been the a similar way. The gloss's treatment of the whole episode is quite brief,
first to do so. and only the gloss to the magu.sin I Samuel 18:9 is noteworthy:
Other biblical texts also deal with magicians, and although few of them
are as explicit as the gloss to Exodus 22:18, they systematically note that Magi utunfur sanguinehumano, et contactu mortuorum in maleficiis et divina-
all forms of magic are forbidden. The episode described in Exodus 7-11, tionibus arioli solis verbis, id est incantationibus divinant. Pythius dicitur Apollo
the defeat of Phaloah's magicians by Moses and Aaron and the ten harumartium cultor, a quo Pythonissae,id est divini: hos Saul quasi zelo Iegis
qelevit, quia, ut aiunt,
plagues upon Egypt, was treatcd in highly figurative terms by the glossa a daemonibus coacti David regem esse fufurum
Praeconabantur.2o
ordi.naria, partly as an anticipation o[ the coming of Christ, and partly as
a figurative denunciation of the wisdom of the pagans.ls The gloss to
The injunctions of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy and the story of
Exodus B:IB, for example, explains the plague of biood as the doctrines of
Saul and the spirit of Samuel ( or, as medieval theologians pointed out,
the philosophers, the ?rog, the images (figrnenta) of the poets, and
", rollowing St. Augustine, the demon having
the maggoti as the sophismata of the dialecticians, "which deceive the the appearance of Samuel)
were thus explained by the twelfth-century biblical commentators, who
whole world." That section of the gloss to Exodus 8:19 attributed to
tmked magic to heresy
Strabo notes, "Note that by the third sign the magi are overcome, since and whose works constifute an important chapter
rn the semantic history
all worldly wisdom, evils, and philosophy are conquered by tlie Trinity'"16 of such terms as magia, maleficia, dioinatio, oene-
frcw, ariolu.s, and.incantatio. The commentators, explaining to their stu-
That the gloss represents a traditional theological view is suggestedby its
 70 Learning and l[agic in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries Learning and Magic in the Traelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 71

dents the laws and history of Israel, preserved and transmitted the terms THE MAGICIAN AND CANON LAW IN THE TWELFTH
; of the vulgate and something of the force of patristic, especially
Augusti- AND EARLY THIRTEENTH CENTURIES
rare occasions added views of
i nian, disapproval of magic. They also on
their own, particularly the commentator on Exodus 22:L8. Their suces- Th e penit entfglj, igpitgb:g*_p9**l 9!!.919.c:onciliar canons, and early
sors, however, such as Robert Pullen, Peter Lombard, and Peter Comestor, i,-about ' t" \n4fiffi*rtr..ifitHiiffieffin-,ffiifie.as
tended not to discuss these texts, and it is plausible that twelfth- and '- lf
"5ir"Aifi;;I;;'"
magicare found gaveway.in.the.mid"twelfth'eentury-."to.a*s^y$J-e^:
early thirteenth-century theologians derived their knowledge of magic I muti" revisionof la,lyand to the.beginning$ jgis.pn+Ag"lgg:_
pJ a.s9.i-e.s"tif-q
"'i"
and its identiffcation with heresy from the glossa ordinn'ria alone." The f faO Gratian, a monk of Bologna and one of the greatest legal scholars
infrequency with which later twelfth-century theologians discuss magic of all time, published his Concordia di.scordantium canonuzl, commonly
indicates that the observations of the Fathers and the glossators were called the Decretum, in which he-attempted to systematize the legal doc-
probably satisfactory as far as the needs of theologians went. Such texts trines of the Church according to the critical and analytical methods of
as those cited above would suffice to explain the tone of John of Salis- ' some of his predecessors and the new method of scholastic logic.'a
bury, as well as that of Peter the Chanter of Paris and other theologians , Gratians Decretum constitutes a juridical watershed in European history'
of the turn of the century, who said little more about magic than to The earlier attempts of Burchard of Worms and Ivo of Chartres and
condemn it, along with, and in the same places as, prostihrtion, gambling, others to produce a rational, systematized body of ecclesiastical law were
and acting. The very slight concern displayed by Peter the Chanter with overshadowed by Gratian's work and its immediate popularity. It became
anything remotely to do with magic is indicated by his restriction of any the standard teaching text in the schools, and it and the comments of
mention of it to the section of the Verbum abbreoiatum dealing with masters upon it became the introduction to ecclesiastical law for the next
judicial ordeals and the use of sortes and sortilegia to tempt God'" The eight centuries.
discussions of the glossators and the slight use made of magic by theo- The second, and larger part of the Decreturn consists of causae, imagi-
logians until the early thirteenth century gmphasizesa point made earlier: nary legal cases, which are broken down into analytical questions, quaes-
a great deal of what is commonly called "medieval" witchcraft belief tiorws, and solved by selected texts from Church authorities called
.must be identified by the nature of the sources that discuss such topics, canones. Linking the canones and quaestiones together and leading the
'lthe reader through the complex law are comments of Gratian himself, the
purpose of the genres in which such discussions occur, and the kinds
of writers who do ( or, as here, do not ) show much interest in the topic dicta, either before (ante) or after (post) a particular text. A series of
of magic. The much cited text of Erodus 22:18, for example, appears to texts not originally in the Decretum, called paleae, were added by later
have been interpreted by no one in the twelfth century according to its twelfth-century scholars, but the whole work and its organization are
literal meaning, and the most prestigious theological soul'ce, tlte glossa Gratian's. For an authoritative text to be found in the Decretum, and
ordinnria to the Bible, although it plays the important role of equating hence in the law, it must exist either as a canon or as part of the dicta
,imagic with heresy, explicitly states that the magician, like the heretic' Gratiani ante (d.g.a.) or dicta Gratiani post (d.g.p.) or as a palea. For
iJ should be excommunicated, not killed. legal purposes, the rich and extraordinarily varied earlier literature on
magic was effectively reduced to what Gratian chose to include. It is
, Like Hugh of St. Victor, twelfth-century biblical commentators left no
,i ,oo- fo, a.ry kind of legitimate magic at all. Heavily dependent upon St' impossible to consider Gratian's own opinions on the magic of his own
'Augustine time, and so one cannot speak of his opinions as one can, for instance, of
and other patristic writers, their strictures governed the views
that of
-and down to the thirteenth century, when the condemnation
of theologians John of Salisbury. It is, however, possible to examine Gratian's
heresy alike occupied theologians' attention far more than otscussionsof magic carefully in order to ascertain exactly what in magic
of magic
concerned ecclesiastical lawyers. A great deal has been written about
it had in the twelfth century. Ifremained for later theologians and bibli-
canon Iawyers' development of the ideas of magic and witchcraft, but
cal commentators to impose a literal interpretation on Exodus 22:18.""
these observations are often made bv scholars unfamiliar with the law
The figurative interpretation of twelfth-century theologians, however'
itself. As we will see, the topic of magic in canon law from Gratian on
co,rpl"l with Hugh of St. Vi"tot's denunciation of magic, was more than
was extremely limited, generated few later new texts, and in general did
sufficient to stigmatize all forms of magic and to Iay the groundwork for
not exercisethe lawyers' interests or imagination.
its universal condemnation in succeeding centuries.
72 Learning and Magic in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries Learning and Magic in the Tuelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 73
The twenty-sixth carua of Gratian's Decretum presents the case of a gested that Regino himself either created it by combining several lost
priest, excommunicated by his bishop as an unrepentant magician and Iapitularies or perhaps invented it himself. It was used by Burchard of
diviner, who is reconciled to the Church at the point of death by another Worms and Ivo of Chartres.
priest, without the bishop's knowledge. It is within the framework of this The Canon Episcopi states:
case that most of Gratian's texts concerning magic are found' The re-
mainder are found in causa 33, quaestio l, canones l-4, which we will Bishops and their officials must labor with all the.ir strength to uproot
consider below. Causa Z6-f-ainided lnto sdvAn qridstions, all of which thoroughly from their parishes the pemicious art of sorcery and maleffce in-
touch upon ftg. pioceis .iji al"i"aiion. The first' question aiki riihai sor- vented by the Devil, and if they find a man or woman follower of this wicked- ,
y'
tilngfu; is.It coitains on" a text from Isidore of Seville's Etymol- ness to eject them foully disgraced from their parishes. For the Apostle says,
"ur,orr.
ogies, whtch defines sortilegi as those who "under the name of a false "A man that is a heretic after the ffrst and second admonition avoid." Those are
religion by those things which are called the sortes sanctorum, practice held captive by the Devil who, leafing their creator, seek the aid of the Devil.
the technique of divinatiot,-9L._!y the careful inspection of--scriptures, And so Holy Church must be cleansed of this pest. It is also not to be omitted
tluestion asks wliilther sortiTeQ- that some wicked women, perverted by the Devil, seduced by illusions and
seek to discqver the future.l";Thelecond
phantasms of demons, believe and profess themselves, in the hours of night, to
iimis aiin. Gratian cites several historical instances of approved sorti'lng-
ride upon certain beasts with Diana, the goddess of pagans, and an innumer-
ium inhis dictum ante c.1, and the ffrst few canons appear to approve able multitude of women, and in the silence of the dead of night to traverse
it. Gratian's proof texts, however, are canons 6-11, in which he draws great spaces of earth, and to obey her commands as of their mistress, and to
heavily from St. Augustine, especially De doctrina christi'ana, I9-2I, De be summoned to her service on certain nights.rBut I wish it were they alone
cioitate Dei, and the Confessions. Gratian's conclusion is that sortilegium who perished in their faithlessness and did not draw many with them into the
is indeej.-asin because it necessarily involves the invocation of demons. destruction of inffdelity. For an innumerable multitude, deceived by this false
Qne-stions 3 and 4 list the kinds of divination. The fifth question asks opinion, believe this to be true, and so believing, wander from the right faith
whether magicians and diviners, if they do not cease their activities, and are involved in the error of the pagans when they think that there is any-
ought to be excommunicated. Gratian answers in the affirmative: thing of divinity or power except the one God. Wherefore the priests through-
out their churches should preach with all insistence to the people that tl-rey
may know this to be in every way false and that such phantasms are imposed
Those who participate in the cult of idols are to be separated from the com-
on the minds of inffdels and not by the divine but by the malignant spirit. Thus
munion of the faithful. Hence, as the Apostle Paul says in his epistle to the
Satan himself, who transfigures himself into an angel of light, when he has
Corinthians [l Corinthiarts5:9-11] "If a certain brother is named a fornicator
captured dre mind of a miserable woman and has subjugated her to himself by
or a miser or a worshipper of idols, do not so much as eat with him."to
inffdelity and incredulity, immediately transforms himself into the species and
similitudes of difierent personages and deluding the mind which he holds cap-
The first eleven canons in question 5 consist of a series of texts from early tive and exhibiting things, joyful or moumful, and persons, known or un-
popes, churchmen, and councils forbidding varions forms of magical known, leads it through devious ways, and while the spirit alone endures this;
practices and unifolmly condemning their practitioners to excommunica- the faithless mind thinks these things happen not in the spirit but in the body.
tion. Canon 12 is --thg fam.ous "witch textl' Epiqgg.pi-.called the Canon Who is there that is not led out of himself in dreams and noctumal visions, and
Epmoffiiailse- individual canons in the works of Gratian and others sees much when sleeping which he had never seen waking? Who is so stupid
-fhe and foolish as to think that all these things which are only done in spirit hap-
were usually referred to by their first word or words.2' Canon Epis-
pen in the body, when the Prophet Ezekiel saw visions of the Lord in spirit
co1tiisan unusual text, partly because it says a number of different things,
and not in tlle body, and the Apostle
and partly because it is attlibuted to a church council of whose work it is John saw and heard the mysteries of the
Apocalypse in the spirit and not in the body, as he himself says "I was in the
certalnly not a part. Gratian, however, who relied heavily upon the
spirit"? And Paul does not dare to say that he was rapt in the body. It is there-
patristic writers and early church councils, understood it to be a part of
fore-to be proclaimed publicly to all that whoever
believes such things or
the work of the Council of Ancyra of 314, probably because in his source' similar to these loses the faith, and he who has
not the right faith in God is
Ivo of Chartres'
Ivo Panormia. it is listed
Chartres' Panormia, under the
listed under work ot
the worK that council.
of tnat col In not of God but of him in whom he believes, that is, of the Devil. For of
our
fact, the Canon Episcopiappear.s for the ffrst time in the caDonical collec-l Lord it is written "AIl things were made by Him." Whoever therefore believes
tion of Regino of Prtim early in the tenth century, and its tor.m is
rts form rs clearly
crealry !
I
that anything can be -.de, o. that any
can be changed to better or to
"".1y
that of a capitulary of the nintl'r century, although some scholars have sug- | worse or be transformed into another ".".t,r"
species or similitude, except by the
 ",74r'' Learning and l\Iagic in the Tuelfth and Thirteenth Centuries Learning and Magic inthe Tuelfth and Thirteenth Centuries lo

Creator himself who made everything and through whom all things were made, Amongtheseimpedimentswasthe questionof gr-*q-!e
r rnarriage. i*P-_o,F"lp"
is beyond doubt an infidel.zs 1irrd,r""dby pZeie.lltoleficia),and causa33 dealswith ifiiJ'ioiii6.'Onty l,h ft:{
caiioii 3'of quaestio 1 directly deals with the problem of impotence caused
'originated
The Canon Episcopi says a number of different things: First, it insists by magic. This text is taken from Ivo, but it in Hincmar of
- ninth-century treatise De d.ioortio Lothqrii, which, as we have
., that bishops and other clergy must drive sottilegiurn and the magical art Reims'
lf fto* their territories. Second, the canon denounces the beliefs of certain- seen in Chapter l, was an important opinion involved in the case of a
wicked women that they aIe transported about at night by Diana ( other ninth-century imperial divorce. The canon, Si per sortiarias, states that if a
commentators add the names of other pagan divinities: Herodias and man is rendered impotent by magic and his impotence is not ended by -
Holda ). The canon then goes on to say that these beliefs are part of the penitence, exorcisms, prayers, almsgiving, and the like, the marriage may
illusory tricks of Satan. Third, the canon denounces as infidelity the belief - be ended. This text, far more th4Ir any other, including the Canon Epis-
that any creature can be transforrned into another species or likeness.The copi,,was of interest to canon lawyers because it touched the vital area of
extended description of demonic illusions in the second part of the canon developing marriage law and thus represented a problem they encount-
- helps to explain the general intense dislike exhibited by
moralists and ered far more often than they did magicians.'o The canon states clearly
fJrtheologians toward illusors and the art of p.raestigfigy* that maleficiurn may indeed cause impotence, and a number of other
;{ twelfth century sources, the most famous of which is the autobiography of
Canons 13 and 15 of question 5 deriv6-Fom the thilteenth Council of
Toledo and from St. Augustine and denounce clergy who practice the Guibert of Nogent, indicate that such cases were notable and of great
, opera maleficiae and declare the works of magicians to be illusory. Ques- general concern.30As will be seen in the next chapter, canonists continued
,{ tio.rr 6 and 7 deal with the more general problem of giving the last rites to concern themselves with impotence inspired by maleficiurn through the
to condemned sinners. They say nothing of magic. thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as did Thomas Aquinas in a text to be
Gratian's texts in this causa represent little in the way of innovation consideredbelow.tt
except in their selectivity. All of them are derived through Ivo of Chartres, Gratian's texts became the basis for the training of all ecclesiastical
and most of them go back to Burchard's Decretum. Many of them consist lawyers, and in the ecclesiastical courts of the twelfth century these were
of patristic texts, particularly Augustinian texts, and it should be noted the texts used to solve the problems of working lawyers and judges. When
that the revival of the patristic literature permits Gratian to bring twelfth- questions of magic came into the court's purview, it was these texts to
century church law more closely into line with the writings of the most which lawyers would turn, even through other twelfth-century writers,
influential early churchmen. In the process, of course, a great deal of the primarily theologians and moralists, also wrote on the subject. As the
earlier literature on magic found, for example, in Burchard, earlier peni- description of causa 26 suggests,Gratian considerably narrowed the jur-
istic purview of magical practices. Causa 26 was also the central place in
tentials, and Car-olingian capitularies is omitted. Thus, Gratian's selec-
the Decreturn for Gratian's discussion of superstitio. As we have seen,
tivity, his strong reliance on patristic texts, and his omission of many of
the varieties of magical beliefs so exhaustively itemized by Burchard Gratian's proof text is from chapters 19-21 of Augustine's De doctrina
christiana, and from the De cioitate Dei. The bleak injunctions of the
especially characterizes the treatment of magic in this part of the De-
bishop of Hippo became the lawyers' guide through the problems of
cretum. Gratian intensified and lent the great authority of his work to
superstition and magical practices. Augustine's unreleting hostility toward
these texts, but the texts clearly deal with the magical arts and their con-
all forms of magic rfrup"i strongly l"*y"rs' attitudes and opinions in the
demnation. Only one text, part of a canon, describes and denounc,es-aJ
twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
superstition later importani in witchcraft beliefs, that of night-flightj bs,qoryl
Shortly after it appeared, the Decretu- Ei*"r"1he
wilh Diana. Gratian's concerns here are virtually identical with those of - primary lawbook
in e_cclesiastical
Ivo and John of Salisbury: learned magic, sacrificing to demons, and the ,F circles, and its analytical and systematic approach to Iaw
itself helped to separate law as a disciplint distinct irom theology.
belief in night-fight and shapeshifting. One distinctive feature of both
Gratian's own view was probably that theology was a broad enough field
Ivo and Gralian ii their turning away from the exhaustive lists of super-
to. encompass the law. But the teaching of Gratian's
stitions in the penitentials and restoring the condemnations of the text, the analogy
with the study of the Corpus iuris cioilis of the revived study of Roman
Church Fathers, early popes and councils to positions of emphasis'
law, and the intense work of the teachers and students at
Causas3, the only other place in tlte Decrettnn where Gratian discusses Bologna. paris.
to and elsewhere, soon showed signs of creating a distinct discipline and
magic, is part of a series of causae devoted to the topic of impediments
76 Learning and Magi,c it"rthe Tuelft'lt, and Thirteenth Centuries Learning and' Magic in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 77
profession on the basis of Gratian's work and the commentaries upon it It is first asked what are sortilegia. This question is much more to be deffned
that began to appear soon after 1140. These commentaries, the glosses,are than definitive. It is resolved, however, by a single chapter, from Isidore,
especially important for European intellectual history because they reflect although not thoroughlY.35
both the general response over time to the texts that became the founda-
tions of ecclesiastical law and because they reveal what lawyers learned In discussing sortes, the author remarks that although they were per-
about the application of the texts to the actual practice of law. Although mitted in antiquity, they are forbidden today. In dealing with guestions
many of the early commentators restricted themselves to the meaning of 54, the author simply observes that the divisions in Gratian's text are
particular terms and a clarification of the casesunder discussion,much of those of the Roman encyclopedist Varro, thus perhaps clarifying Stephen
their work dealt with the links between the legal texts and theology. of Tournai's remark that he leaves such enumeration to those who read
The Summa of Paucapalea, one of the earliest commentaries on the the poets and philosophers. In the case of question 5, the author is ada-
Decretum, says little about causa 26, usually explaining the terms and mant: Dioini and sortilegi are to bd excommunicated if they do not cease.
clarifying the refercnces to scripture and to the writings of the Fathers, Of this there is no doubt: super hoc nulla dubitati,o. "Here it is said that
'Ihe sortes are nothing other than dioinationes et m.tileficia." In regard to
especially Augustine.3z Summa of Magister Rolandus gives short
shrift to the varieties of divination: "These questiones, if I am not mis- cutso 53, quaesti,o I, the Surnma Parisiensi,s raises the same question as
taken, were shown by St. Augustine to be uselessin his book De natura the Summa Stephen of Tournai. It seems that the question of the role of
demoru.tm." maleftcia in the general issue of the dissolvability of a marriage attracted
Rolandus goes on to say that all sorti,Iegi and dioini who do not desist far more canonist attention, and generated much livelier disagreements,
than the material on divination, sortilegium, and other forms of magic.
from their superstitions are to be excommunicated, as is shown by innum-
The Summa of Rufinus, also dating from the late twelfth century, notes
erable canons. Neither of these commentators has anything to say concern-
that "sortilegi,um and auguratio and similar superstitions . . .36are kinds
ing impotence induced by maleficia.'" Stephen of Tournai, whose Summa
of heresy, at least in those who have received the faith of Christ." In dis-
was composed around 1160, takes his commentary virtually entirely from
cussingquestion 5, Rufinus echoes Gratian and the other commentators:
Paucapalea and Rolandus, except for onc or two personal observations.In
"It is true without distincuon that sortilegi et similes, who refuse to desist,
considering the types of divination, Stephen remarks offhandedly: "We
are to be excommunicated. clerics who make such consultations deserve
are neglecting the third and fourth questiones, and we will leave their
to be deposed and perpetually placed in a monastery." Laymen are to be
materials to the reader of poets and philosophers." Of quaestio 5, Stephen
assigned a penitential period of five or seven years. In considering causa
simply echoes Rolandus: "This question requires no distinctions, becauSe
33, question 1, Rufinus, like the author of the Sumrna Parisiensis and.
all sacrilegi et similes, if they do not desist, are to be separated from the
Stephen of Tournai, reflects the conflicting views and difficult legal prob-
Church." When Stephen furns to causa 33, quaestio 1, however, he offers lems that casesof f igidity and.maleficilcarrsed impotence preJented to
a much longer comment than the other two magistri. He argues that the Uhurch lawyers, with the broad room for fraud and collusion they ofiered,
inability to consummate a marriage derives either from natural frigidity or and with the acute social pressures they reflected. Like the other canonists
from maleficium. If a marriage is affiicted by frigidity, and if the woman' considered here, however, Rufinus has no doubt that impotence
does not wish to be married, the marriage may be dissolved. If maleficiurn may be
inflicted by maleficia. The problem facing
is involved and penitence does not allay it, the marriage may be dissolved, the canon lawyers is not the
of maleficium. upon which they tacitly agree, but upon the com-
but if husband and wife disagree as to who is at fault, the numbers of "|tut:
plexities of marital law and the problems posed by srr"h c"rls.
compurgators and the processesof divorce are described. Stephen adds The reticence of canon l"*yJs
the touching point that if the wife does not want a divorce, she may the question of magic was
not restricted to the twelfth "o.r"".ii.rg
century. As we *ill r"" b"low, the thirteenth
remain, "and if not as a wife, then at least as a sister." Stephen then dis- century witnessed some
further development of these stricfures, but not a
cusses conflicting canonist opinions concerning the nature of the matrr- great.deal.Thus,
in spite of the variety of discussionsof magic and related
monial bond, a topic that coniistently engaged canonists'attention through practices in chronicles,
moral stories, and discussions of Iegitimate knowl-
the next several cenfuries.3a edge, canon law
remained relatively poor in original discussions of these
A commentary roughly contemporary with that of Stephen is the
Schulte cites a text from a thirteenth-century canonist of
Summa Parisiensi,s.Itsgloss to caus& 26 is very brief' In considering qttes- $loalon:.
orandenburg,
a Magister Baldwinus, who responds to the qirestion (in his
tion 1, the author points out some difficulties:
 78 Learning and Magic in the Tuelfth and.Thirteenth Centuries Learning and Magic in the Tuselfth and Thirteenth Centuri,es 79
discussion de sortilegiis ), "But what of certain wicked women who believe 1 as well as a pe_nitenli+,|--e1pg--ti""_+gg
f9r those who used them. The con-
and say that on nights they have ridden with Diana or Herodias upon cer- | of .the peniteni, and the penitent in turn
fdssoi'exaniin-ed,lhg--c^g;r;g-igrye,.
tain beasts, crossed on them over many lands, obeyed their commands, I learned as much about his or lter religion as had been learned in church
and permitted themselves to be called to their service to perform better i -orl until the thirteenth century, through serm6ns. These books, which
or worse things, or are enabled to be transformed into another speciesP' I reached as least 1s. wide an audience as the works of theologians and
Baldwin states that they are to be rejected by the Church, since t-hey are .canonlawyers, reflegt a strong irltetest in and fear of magic in all its forms.
inspired by the wicked spirit, who creates these phantasmata for them, VAlthough the penitentials reflect the same condemnation of magic that we
which are purely illusory. He would be a fool who thinks that things have seen in the work of Hugh of St. Victor, the theologians, and the
which have only a spiritual existence could effect material transforma- tle$"Jsef"9lj|ig*cs"-ti_4glphly-
canonists, gr-eater.
tions. Whoever believes these things to be true does not have right faith, The penitentials of the late twelfth and early thirteenth century were
"and beyond doubt is an infidel and worse than a pagan." Baldwinust influenced by both tbeclogy and &nq-q"lay. A[_9{ them show familiarity
comments are perfectly conventional and are obviously directed at the " with Gratiag's Decretunt The greatest of the penitentials, that of Ray-
illusory character of the women's beliefs.'7 Thus, well into the thirteenth mond oT tsefiafort] #as; of course, written by the compiler of the'Liiber
century, canon lawyers echoed the thought of John of Salisbury and Extra of Pop6 Giegory IX. The penitential of Bartholomew of Exeter con-
Gratian. It appeals that not until the revival of learned magic and changes cerns itself with magic under the heading De dioinattione,. This heading
in theology during the late thirteenth century did such canonist opinion covers a number of condemned beliefs and practices, some of which
appear insufficient for dealing with magic and, later, witchcraft. The cate- clearly include folk-cusloms and common superstitions. It is, however,
gory sortilcgium, in canon law, at least, was restricted to those cases dis- particularly sidifid;tlor the asstriiilaliori of ihis i<ind"of popular (and
cussed by Gratian. However imaginative the language of chroniclers and perhaps by the late twelfth century, somewhat old-fashioned ) belief to
moralists became, it found little echo in the law of the Christian commu- the kinds of magic traditionally condemned by the Fathers and by theo-
lr rnity.
[L/ It is reflected somewhat more clearly i n the new penitential hand- logians and canonists during the twelfth century.ao
{ books of the later twelfth century. Robert of Flamborotgh's Liber Penitentialis contains two separ-atesec-
tions dealing with magic:*' Book 3, c. 3, de sortilegio, condemns those who
offer sacrificesto demons, baptize images, and practice image magic with
MAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT IN THE TWELFTH. AND the eucharist. Book 5, c. 6, de diainatoribus, conde-rs oth", kinds of
THIRTEENTH.CENTURY PENITENTIALS divinatory magic, at considerably greater length than Alain or Barthol-
omew. The Summa Confessorum of 'Thomas of Chobham, written around
gI!-d
One of the most fruitful sourcesfor the history qf -beliq{9.:Jl_I4Aglg 1215, deals extensively with magical-practices, and. it treats them in the
t' jirelat"d practices has been the penitentials oi ifr" L"iiy l,tlaatrQ"*ol order of the seven deadly sins.r'Thomas'ssumma is divicled into articles,
" sFrom the middle of the twelfth century through the thirteenth century distinctiones, and quaestiones. Article 7 deals with the deadly sins gener-
: and after, anotherseriesof penitentialsappeared,althoughthesehav!not ally, distinctiones I through 4 dealing rcspectively, with penitlnts, lixuria,
. generallybeen used by historians,partly becausemodern editions have gula-et ebrietate, and.i,ra. Article S, d.e sirtilegiis et oeieficiis, then
takes
been lacking until recently, and partly becausetheologiansand.legal up the problem of magical beliefs and practices. Divided into eleven
I sourceshave dominated research.3e Beginning with the penitential of Quaestiones.it constitutes a thorough catalogue of most of the kinds of
,y
tr magic known to early
4lgg_g[tl", and including the works of Eg$-o-lg;pp*-qf E*LgJer, Robcrt thirteenth-cent'ry confessors. Thomas links sors
oT-Ff!ffi19!g1., fhemasor cnobhan;"*i ii.-n;6;;d- "i Pe--ffitt, with prohibited superstitio's, invoking the demon,
the magical properties
these peniienii"lt huu" much to say of magic and related practices and t lt,"I"*- lts
and plants, and dreams. He places great emp"hasisupon the
,,beliefs. ThAi; primary purpose was to assimilate the enormous amounts vulnerability of humans to diabolic tempiation, and in ttis aspect of his
5
-lof dogmatic and juridical material prodqce{ !y- pgpes, Church courl-- too, he displays what has come to be a thirteenth-century charac-
)I".\
i cils, and individual theologians during the twelfth and early thirteenth ' attitude: the vulnerability of hr,rmansto diabolic temptation and
lteristic
the role of the demon in all forms
.-,centuries into a form suitable for confessors and penitents alike. These { of magic, from popurar s'p^erstitionsto
works were designed as part of the Church's nqw pqqtolal movement 11tt'nost formal and lcarned kinds. works such as these and their succes-
sors-which never fail to
and they were i-ntended by their authors to pioviil" condemn magic .niforrnlv and which combine
"r, "ar'r"uUotal
 80 Learning and.Magic in the Tuelfth and Thirteenth Centuries Learning and Magic in the Tuelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 81
all kinds of magic, from popular superstitions to learned magic, under a I r much of lay life,
particularly in the areas of maleficia, idolatria, and super-
single rubric-turned the scattered condemnations of the eleventh cen- I stitio.It is this quality of responsibility for the good lay life that gives the
tury, coming from diverse sources and possessing little binding force, into penitentials' treatment of magic its distinctive and novel character.
t!19*b-egig""l"4g! cglcept of dpbqlic !9mPt"e-q9ll**ilbuyrae
s{ e.qy-s!9mati.9
confessols, approaching the subject of magic through
""U)";q9;t-i.ty*Theworks, could obtain a mole consistent idea of the beliefs
these systematic
and fears of their penitents than earlier penitentials had solicited. In addi- NOTES
tion, by taking the confessor through the mind-conscience and imagina-
tion-of tlie penitent, the psychology of temptation and the variety of 1. On the organization of knowledge generally, see James A. Weisheipl,
i beliefs concerning magic could be homogenized, and the emergence of O. p., "Classificationof the Sciencesin Medieval Thought," Mediaeaal Studies
,fsinful magic could be recognized by all who used these penitentials. Aided 27 (1965): 54-90. Weisheipl disciissesseveralof the classiffcations mentioned
by the texts brought together by Gratian and Raymond of Peflafolt, the below,but he doesnot considermagic. See also R. W. Hunt, "Introductions to
confessorsof the thirteenth century and the theologians who taught them theArtes in the Twelfth Century," in Studia Mediaeaali,ain Honorem admodum
ReaerendiPatris Ragmundi loseph Martin (Brussels,f949), pp. 85-112, and
at last had a manageable body of literature on which to build a theory of
R. W. Southern,Medieoal Humaniyn and Other Studies (Oxford, 1970), pp.
the prevalence and dangel of magic' Simultaneously with the fear and 42fr and charts I & II; M.-D. Chenu, Nature, Man, and Societg in the Tuelfth
lrepression of heresy, the growing awareness of and fear of magic on the Centurg,trans.,J. Taylor and L. K. Little (Chicago, 1g63) pp. 1-48. There is
,ipart of theologians and lawyers drew the two closer together in the a good introduction to the field in The Didascalicon of Hugh of St. Victor,
rpenitentials.a3 trans.JeromeTaylor (New York, 1961), pp.3-39. Further discussionmay be
Unlike the earlier penitentials, (j+ehdiug.-.**.qh9Ids, tbe indiculi found in Mary Martin Mclaughlin, Intellectual Freedom and its Limitations in
"em*n
subfritirffifrG| t;d ty""d-, and the et#6lfiEffiEp= the uniaersitg of Paris in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth centuries (New york,
""Uaii- 1 9 7 7 ) ,p p . 3 3 6 - 3 7 .
I itularids ), however, the ri6w penitentials of t]re twelfth and thirteenth cen-
2. Alfons Hilka and wemer sriderhjelm, Petri Alfonsi Disciplina clericalis! L
f* t.rri", dealt *ith popular b"^li"f, and superstitions againsl ihi ai'trtrrlate
tho*ti LateinischeT'ext,Acta societatis scientiarum Fennicae, 28, no. 4 (Helsinki,
l$ U""t gro,r.ra of twettth-centsry theology.and canon law.ii6"*iif6" l91I). Translated, with an introduction by Joseph Ramon Jones and
{ in later chapters, this systematizing process, perhaps as much or more so John
EstenKeller in The scholar'scuide ('roronto, lg6g). see also Lynn Thomdike,
reloed to nroduce an extensive list of q-gqdemne{
condemned
] than scholastic ontology,lf*ry919:.:99gS,e.a"n."xtenqivq_1i--q! -gf History of Magic and ExperimentalScience(New york, fg23-58) 2:8g-78.
i popular superstitions that l;;m;#;und inquititoir could underg"l-?ngAPg
confessors and inquisitors agd 3. Hilka and S,iiderhjelm,Disciplina Clericalis.
framewor:k of
"o"ra ""a"i*u"d
theology and law. Among the
\**t"t" against a complex 4. These charts are printed and discussedin R. w. Southern Medieaar
,
most distinctive features of the new penitential literature'was its general Humanism, pp. 42fr and charts I & IL Southern does not discussthe place of
acute awarenessof the active demonic role in temptation, the variety of , the magicalarts in these schemesfor the organizationof knowledge.
human weaknessesthat made hlmans temptation-prone, the insistence $5. Thorndike2:78-82.
that much sin ( and nearly all sins touching upon maleficia) w-asthe rbzult $ 6. SeeThorndike'sremarks,ibid., p. g0.
of willing human collaboration with the devil, and the general apprehen- 7' charles Henry Buttimer, ed., Hugonis de sanctovictore Didascariconde
studio legendi, studies in Medieval and Renaissa'ce
sivenessI not surprising in an age that witnessed an intensive pastoral Latin, vol. l0 (washing-
ton, 1939), VI. xv. The translationis from the
movernent in ecclesiastical Iife ) concerning idolatry and superstition' valuablework by JeromeTaylor,
of Hugh of St. Victor, A MediersalGuide to ihu Art, 1N"*
These penitentials were aimed at a world that, although predominantly IO",2r!!!*licon
rork, 196I), pp. 154-55;Thorndvke
2:g_16.
Iav. wai also exclusively Christian, and therefore subject to carefuJ eccle-1 8. Weisheipl,"Classiffcati.rn ,,f th" Sciences,"pp.72-gl.
iasilc"l scrutiriy'in all parts of its life. The monastic wrjters who had con- 9. Seebelor.r.Chapter4.
demned magic in the iarolingian period and heresy in the twplfth century e.g_.,Marie-Therdsed'Alvemy, "Astrologueset th6ologiensau XIIIe
-,^t9',1:",
did so out of a generally dismal view of the possibility of lay salvation offerts d M.-D. Chenu, Biblioihdque thomis-te,37 (paris,
:::9,'^:"-ydlanges
and a willingness to attribute the worst conceivable motives and acts to for a vigorous defense of the legitimacy of astrology as a branch
^troo,r, ll-50,
ui^legitimate
erring laypeJple. The late twelfth- and thirteenth-century writers of peni- study, waged by astrorogersagainst the complaints of some
trreologians.see also T.
tentialls,iro*"rr"r, began with greater hope for the salvation of laypeople, o. wedel , The Mediaeaal Attitude titoard Astrologg
(New[lsysn. 1920).
but for that very reason they were more acutely aware of the dangers ot
82 Learning and t\tragic in the Tuelfth and Thirteenth Centuries Learning and Magic in the Tuelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 83
11. Although some forms of astrology were accepted theoretically, no indi- natural impotence seems to have been a far greater concern than impotence
vidual astrologer was safe from the charge of dealing with forbidden knowl- caused by maleficium. A full thirteenth-century development may be seen in
edge. Hostiensis, Summa Aurea (Yenice, 158I), book 4, De frigidis et maleficiatis et
12. See below, Chapter 4, p. 106. '
de impotentia coeundi, pp. 240-44.
13. See below, Chapter 7, p. 163. 30. See John Benton, Self and Societg in Mediexal France: The Memoirs of
14. Glossa ordinaria, PL \13 1, col. 261, ad Exodus 22:18. No historian of Abbot Guibert of Nogent (1064?-1125) (New York, 1970), I, c. 72, pp. 63-68,
witchcraft, as far as I know, has ever pointed out that this interpretation was and Benton's introduction.
standard in twelfth-century theology. The shift to a literal interpretation came 31. See below, Chapter 4, p. 97.
later. On the early meanings of such terms as exterminari, not meaning killing 32. Die Summa des Paucapalea, ed. J. F. von Schulte (Giessen, 1890), pp.
or physical punishment, see Henri Maisonneuve, Etudes sur les origines de 707-10.
I'Inquisition (Paris, 1960), p. 306, and pp. 76,154. 33. Die Summa Magistri Rolawli, ed. F. Thaner (Innsbruck, 1874), pp.
L5. Patrologia Latina 113:1, cols. 202-9, ad Exodus 7-8. The magicians of 709-12.
Pharaoh occupied the concern of theologiar-rsfar more than the canonists. See, 34. Die Sumrnades StephanusTornacensis,ed. J. F. von Schulte (Giessen,
e.g., Rupert of Deutz, De Trinitate (PL 167, cols. 594-608). 1 8 9 1 ) ,p . 2 3 1 .
16. PL 113:1, cols. 207. 35. The SummaParisiensison the Deuetun-t Gratiani, ed. T. p. Mclaughlin
17. PL 34, cols.60l-2. (Toronto, 1952), pp. 232-34.
78. PL l13:1, cols. 352-53. 36. Die Summa Deuetorunt des Magister Rufinus, ed. H. Singer (pader-
19. Ibid., col. 354. bom, 1902), pp.423-28. Although they are not in themselveslegal sources,the
20. Ibid., cols. 552-53. The case of Saul and the witch of Endor was dis- illustrationsto Gratian manuscriptssuggestsome of the parallel attitudes to
cussed by many theologians. Their consensuswas that Saul had spoken with a thesetopics on the part of thesewho commissionedthe decorationof the mss.
demon, not the spirit of Samuel himself. See Bede, Quaestiones in libros Regum, SeeA. Melnikas,The Corpus of the L,Iiniatutesin the Manuscriptsof Decretum
I, c.8 (PL 93, cols. 454-55); Rupert of Deutz, De Trinitate, In Libros reg;ttm Gratiani, Studia Cratiana 16-78 (Rome, 1975), vol. 2, pp. 833-62 (c.26) and
liber secundus,c. 17 (PL 767, cols. 1115-16). vol. 3, pp. 1029-58(c.33).
21. Peter Comestor, Historia scholastica, Historia Libri Deuteronornii c.8 37. J. von Schulte, Die Ceschichteder euellen und Literatur des Canon-
(PL r98, col. 1253). ischenRechts(reprinted,Graz, lg56), vol.2, p. 503, n.35. Baldwinusseems
22. Verbum abbreoiatum, c. 17 (PL 205, cols. 226-233 at p. 232). See also to havestudied at Bolognabefore 1250 and is familiar with the major canonist
c.49 (cols. f53-56). See also Baldrvin, Lfasters,Princes ancl.Merchanrlg 2 vols. writers before Innocent IV, Bemard of Parma, a'd Hostiensis.The work of
(Princeton, 1970) vol. J, pp. 198-204. these and other later thirteenth-centurycanonists,both edited and unedited,
23. See below, Chapter 6. however,doesnot appear to differ signiffcantlyfrom that of Baldwinus.
24. Modem edition, Ae. Friedberg, Corpus Iuris Canonici . Pars Prior, 38. SeeGabriel Le Bras,DTC 12, cols. 1160-79.See F. W. H. Wasserschle-
Decretunt. Magistri Gratiani (Leipzig, 1879). I cite here the edition of Venice, ben, Die Bussordnungencler abendliind,ischen Kirche (Halle, 1g5l), and H.
1595, with the ordinary gloss. All references to the Decretum will be intemal' Schmitz,Die Bussbi)cheruncl die Bussd.isciplin d.er Kirche (ousseldorf, tgss)
25. W. M. Lindsay, ed., Isidori Hispalensis ETtiscoyti Etgmologiarum -siae (both reprinted at Craz, in 1958);
John T. McNeill and Helena M. Gamer.,
originum,2 vols. (Oxford, 1911), Lib. 8, p. 28. See also above, Chapter I.' MedieualHandbooksof Penance(New york, 1938); ..Folk-
John T. McNeill,
26. Decretum C.26, c1.5,(d.g.a.) c.1. raganismin the Penitentials,"lournal of Religion 13 (1933) : 4s0-66.A
recent
27. The Canon Episcopi has been extensively studied and commented upon' selectionof someof these is cy'ille vogel, "Fratiques superstitieuses
au d6but
The best discussion of the text and its transmission is to be found in Jefrrey d'aprdsle Correctorsiue medicusde Burchard,6v6quede Worms
*lille:idcle
(965-1025),"in Etudes tle cirsilization
Russell, Witchcraft inthe Middle Ages (Ithaca, 7972), pp. 291-93. See also m6di6aale(IXe-xIIe sldites)L[1langes
Herrry Charles Lea, Materials Tou;ard a Historg of Witchcraff, ed. and comp' offertsd Edmoncl-RendLabande (poitiers,
lS74), pp. 751-61.
Arthur Howland (Philadelphia, 1938), I:178-202. 39' see P. Michaud-Quanti., somrnes de casuistique et manuels
de confes-
28. Lea, Materials, 1: 178-180. sion^aumoAenage, clu iIIu ou XVI: sidck: (Louvain,
1962).
29. For the canonists on marriage generally, see E. Esmein, Le mariage en ^_10. Adri*n Morey, Bartholomewof Exeter (Cambr.idge,England, 1937), pp.
droit canoni,que,2nd ed., rev. R. Genestal, 2 vols. (Paris, 1929-36); for this 27I_74.
problem, see vol. L, pp. 241-250; J. Dauvilller, Le mariage dans le droit 4I. LiberPenitentialis,ed. F. Firth, (Toronto, l97l), pp.
J. I5g, 25g-64.
cktssique de l|glise (Paris, 1933). For a sampling of cases in a specific kin$- 4.2'-I. Bromfield. Tlnmae de chobham suntnta confessorum (Louvair.r-
.raris,
dom, bngland, see Richard Helmholz, Maffiage Litigation in ll[edieaal England 1968),pp. 466_87.
(Cambridge, 1974), pp. 53-54, 87-90. Helmholz'work suggests that in England, 43. The Liber Poenitentialis of Alain de Lille is in pL 2lo. For
developments i
84 Learning and AIagic in the T welfth and. Thirteenth Centuries
after 12L5, see Michaud-Quantin, pp. 34-53. See also S. Kuttner, "Ecclesia de
occultis non judicat," Acta Congressus Iuridici Internationalis, vol. 3 (Rome,
1936): 227-46. Russell's Witchcraft in the Middle Ages discusses only the libri
poenitentiales before the twelfth century, pp. 43-100.
44. There is a summary discussion of conciliar decrees on magic in Lea,
Materials, vol. I, and in Robert-L6on Wagner, "Sorci'er" et "Magicien" (Paris,
1939), pp. 52-67, IO0-27, as well as in tl're general treatments of Jeffrey Russell
and ]oseph Hansen. 4
The SystematicCondemnationof
Magic in the Thirteenth Century

MAGIC, SCHOOLS, AND SCHOOLMEN IN THE

EARLY THIRTEENTH CENTURY
"..
l
, The magicians referred to in eleventh-century northern Italian rhetoric
tf'andin the twelfth-century courts of -'
John of Salisbury, are to be found in
greater and greater numbers in the schools of the late twelfth and thir- J
teenth centuries. The influx of Arabic and Greek science, spectfoA.l"lyrjld J
-',--#-'
the widespread-interestin nalu:al .sqleJSS,"ge.nef4.!ie1pto explalrl the
fl
strong claims for the legitir44cy-of_e.s-tlS_!9gy
qt]"dtirg$$S[.rr 0! "qggl-
99i,.and similar subiectsfor'gome gf .1heb9q!-"s,tp.Q9g_s,eg{!_gryhgI.s_."="_f_fu"_
perrod.
and master, appears to have teyghi .
\o-bert.Gro-ss_-elg*g,-_?-s.-s_!Hd_e-q.!
- "t$Iggy 3t gTl|:i;Id,_
119_5i;O; prognoiri1ationiseude impressi,oii6us
aerh,wiitten-"t
at Oifort-ilobablv
O--;f;tA-iftf"ffy in the
i" tfr" first
firstdecade
de.cade
of the"thirteerftii'cen-
oi the thirteenthcen-
tury,
"
suggests the powerful attraction of astrology for even the ablest
students and masters.l'Lik;-'Willidm of A,rrrergne, who'will be discussed -.
i'r
.r r! lTdid fully below, Grossetesteappears to have been especially attracted .; "
-.--r
oy
by i -
the sut;ect
the subjectof astrology, -i;
qlthgygh as he grew older and probably be-
astrology, althou

W
"_a11"pgrg familiar with-thEvaii"l
were
e f ee put
tiFaStO=lvhictr-h-d[i6*Cndastio-iogy p
-E
nrr+ ^,,+..;,1: rL^'-f,':+,-;:t; u'^ -,*.1^r------ L-.^ ^r,--:----r,
lg!:ogtsidb the sihools, he withirew his admiration- and^ r t ]i
attacke'd
astrologt vigorously. Inhis Hexoemeron, Grosseteste
applied to astrology
the theological arguments that we have seen
citecl irl- A.rgrrrtine to
r-rugh of st. Victor.' Grosseteste'scriticism is of two
difierent kinds. First,

85
 86 The Sgstematic Condemnation of Nlagic in the Thirteenth Centurg The Systematic Condemnation of Magic inthe Thirteenth Century
he argues, g*Lrylggy*]:-fuIgqgls3Jily uncertain science that professes to lScot considered a legitimate exercise of human reason, was permitted.'
t'Mathesis was legitimate knowledge; nTatesis,following the earlier argu-
depend upon certainty of timing, observation of the heavens,and heavenly
ir
!*' irr-fl.r"r""i bcc,rriing secondsoi*inutes apart. He states that "there is n5t ment of John of Salisbury, was forbidden as a form of sinful divination;
^ikq^rr yet iuffidieni ceititude concerning the motions of the heavens . ." for mathematica was a legitimate disciplin e, but niatematica was a science of
i .\l'
astrology to be accurate.3Grosseteste'ssecond attack on astrology is not the devil and used only for evil purposes. Michael Scot's account of the
scientific; it is theological. Astrology reduces the dignity o[ humanity to a descent of divination from the demons to Ham, derived in part from Isi-
purely corporeal naturb. By subordinating the rational mind to tlre neces- dore of Seville, includes the legend of Gerbert, the optirnus nigromanticus
-\ sity of corporeality, the astrologers are "enemies of human nature. . . . and (in the sense of "natural necromancy"). Concerning the magi who wit-
'.
i:''
t -r' blaspheme against God." "Astrologers of this sort are seduced and seduc- {, , nessedChrist's nativity, a locus classicusof discussionsconcerning magic,
cers, and their teaching is impious and profane, written at the dictation of jtf Scot argues, with considerable ety;nological accuracy, that the term maeus!
{i
the devil, and therefore tEiiiTooks 6-"gfii"Ti, be burned. And not only Y .i,q4the combinel -"31+gl gfFri-qLstslfitt.lrgo:),rgrl-",.l3@,
they, but those who consult them are lost."' The bishop of Lincoln has
u""d;-"c"LiaFijifi.-Ftiitt-""o'ni"g*oFct'.i'tiu;it.-s*;;il;-bdl""t";
come a long way from his heady student and early teaching days, and the # the Cfristian eiir, the maleficus and illusor have been forbidden and '-.' 1:1'li

development of Grosseteste'sthought concerning astrology suggests the ^f condemned, and only the magus sapieAqis part o[ the Iegitimate order of .\' . i . , . . , 1
tr ..'
high initial attraction that it and other studies offered in the excitement of jfiCnrirtiun knowledge.The*ffiiAftwfil*now "he who int*eilrrgts
gha$gt_ers ;q
/ cteri
phyl.a es,lt:-qeg?tig]9-fu9gm
s, *ffi ' -fh"'
the late twelfth-century schools. ["nd and 1
A contemporary of Grosseteste,Miclt_eS|5p"pl.-foundthe same interest rifiIlisor is now the condemnedb-ylheolggiansa4d carr-qnists
,ng$$g'rg
in the schools of tlie late twelfth century, but Scot never condemned f, *alike."
astrology and magic as thoroughly as Grosseteste.' Scot spent his life as Liiie Grosseteste and William of Auvergne, Michael Scot, too, was
a courtier in the service of Frederick II. He was one of the few who man- familiar with magic books and with the dark side of the scientia Toletana.
aged to retain the favor of both Frederick and Pope Gregory IX, a quality Seot was unique, however, in listing Peter Abelard as tlie author of at
that argues eloquently for the courtier's skills. BesidesJ4&ll,re]_qggts Ieast one of these works, along with Simon Magus and other condemned
association
lassociation with
with the court of F
the court Frederic,k.hi-simportance for
rederick,his importance for our subjecf lies
our subjeca lies necromancers,conjurors of evil spirits, and performcrs of incantations.e
-imljliiable
]m-nmtteaSis-tit'ftiil6:iralnil;ffi66"i';at"rre t,o'friity $$ Scot himself, both in bis ou,n lifetime.'apd- particul4lly later in the
toward astroiogy and magic
l+^"'^-'l oc+-nlnr.,,:nrl
moain on
n , r the
flrp part
narf n f such thinkeis
of thi-Lorc as
rc Hugh
Ffrroh oll$t.
nf Sf-
$ii!i:t!it ce"t1ry,wasie!rit'4;a6y-ior,l" a Iegitimatescientist, tut by
others'as-tfielworst sort of magician"rof l\9 type Scot himself
"r'^h

i ,i and Robr con-

:l
\
Y.-',
...;r
' j. {Victor :lt-i:i""'i-1'-':::"T:"i:1:":'":::t:.:"""""1.:':"t-::Jil*:*"ilt
.l;1a"y
'ldEinris-in
lfo.ms of magic among scholars and courtiers early in the thirteqa;! tk Livtei liiioductoriui. p-e.haps th;"be;t know' reference to
.lJ'.'U;;. his later reputation is frund in Dante's Dliine c,meda. trnferno, canto 20,
-_t,. By Michael Scot's day not only did astrology and magic attract students in which scot is condemned to walk forever rvith liis head twisted around
mast.e* iil:ttic*xchools; Unt na!.tl*a.t""rJ an<l invoffi*of ' facinghis back with other di'iners of antiquity and the \{iddle Ages:
""d'yo.i"g
demons plied their trade in favorite places in Verona and Naples,'and
probably in many other cities as well.u Aware of the popularity of-affiol- Michele Scottofu, che veramenre
ogy and the occult arts, Scot developed the theory that there wele t$#l, de le rnagichefrode seppe'l giocc6.ro
kinds of astrology and other forms of magic, one acceptabie and onen-ot' [}- In spite of Nlichael Scot's disavou,al 'f any illegal
Peifiaps he drew upon thc grcatcr ambivalcnce towald tlrcse subjects in magical practrccs, his
the Islamic world, with which he was familiar through his studies at TqrePutation conti'ibuted to the picttuc of the -='*.-
dangerous and.brasphemous
s Toledo and Salerno and l'ris long stay in the world of what dAlverny has
" diviner. a3t
-Sl*l'.1, reioSfr. rnrl
astr.loger :ld_w
lpqtt dlifi,'Ei;;b;*.uee"'
o,rd-cr:wq* cI.
.^rn-.1o"-r*r^"L^"
per-iiiirrb,
L.,y called "Mediterranean magical traditions."T Whatever his reasons,whether and . irnpenni5-qibl9".-4"qgiq
-qnd
his own proclivities and career or his proximity to the Islamic Mediter- "e",recst:";;;;;il#.5liH'li',ff
d;1i.gii.- ;hil:;.h'c.r'nfury
r::ffi'::'ff#:ffi"il;
{ri' raneanworld in which greaterlatitude toward magic and astrologywas :1.:ltlS
ot
tne thtrteentlr
ur legitimate.
i,-*,, "Ia J#;,
arrclare citcd ;in variou forms by proponents
regrtimate, lcarned magic ttr*iign iri.-
i',' . permittedffiilii"ls.?ii\s"ed for a double systemof permissible and scventcenth cqJltu-ry*
Fgvpnteenth. cgJltBIJr.Jn
In ord.er
order to
-A*ufi-TFe Plove the legitimacy
ler of at least one foryn of n-ragic,whetherl'nafural or
ilr
,f 1\ i-p-"^r*i.riliFfr
i;;:;;;":J$+ffi ft i*#iqlder."nra**rpqr-"stitiousastrol;tlfi
;1ffi i6h-?fr-e
*.i;ae.ii.,oa''s.ndrxtitiousastrotosrinrrfi
tfi .,
same rone as lrugn and Robert Grossefeste;gmaginaria astronomia, which ,-t"*ir"ir"J'i.'""""?a",n*
\.
"'
 88 The Sgstematic Cond.emnation of Magic in the Thirteenth Centurg Tltp SrJstemati,cCondemnation of Magic in the Thirteerrth Century 89
there was a forbidden side to their profession. By the early thirteenth of legitimate learning, but also the simplified and popularized versions of
century, theology and canon law were too formidable tq-b.g {$le4.ela these, the grirnoires that circulated throughout the thirteenth century,'
, their condemnation,gt* and after contributed to the substantive dangers of magic. The
p-r:.saderl.
.andligatuiel- ggr+ld--hufdiy*bg.denied
4' ioErrs-ofmca;"iatioiit-, I classical echoes of John of Salisbury's magiciais are gone. In their place
TIie iiU-bl6gem atrd legitimate" magicians therefore echoed the condem- 1ir a rr".y real body of knowledge, S.om9*o-fjt""pmcJrp-ed*i!*eowts-Ik9-"t1tst
nations of theologians and lawyers, arguing only that their practices were of Frederick II, some of it handled and sampled by no less respectable
not among the condemned practices discussed in theologians' and canon- .ifr;ru;;;feiffilesiastics than Robert Grosseteste, Michael Scot, and Wil-
"
iists' texts. Tjs-bifu-rsatip{r-.gJ,gqglg, with the condemnation-gfjr.qgic fiam of Auvergne. The theologians and canonists who returned to the
SwYersand,ecloedbYinffifiins aftack against magic and astrology in the thirteenth century had a much
- i--i"t and othersto cleai ;11 a.ryof clearer and more specific idea o{-what they were attacking than did their
ns.j!e_Re"r9I1!:ye
d gieaiely...to ;trepgthenin
t t giii -!te {8919, c-sntribuie g.3bg [Qj ! twelfth-cenfury predecessors. What they rvere attacking looked very much
-sffi;i-tffi-t,
ffi ;glllp-te;gt;_p,qgt;rJpalefr aas-.dieiuat.or,incantatet,!,o!til9-g,tts,and ly'like Anselm of Besate's confected magician of the Rhetorimachia. But
were disavowedeven by t6e aJtioiogtlrs Lnow!ewasamag!9len-wltb*re-al-.bo_q\s.-a!d-Le,alknqwl-e-dgc,.,and.he.posed
";ffiffi1ffi;{ff;f,t"tr.,t
"'6.rJ themselves.A much more tempered condemnation of magic g_great-chn^gGi far greater than the inept Rotiland. And his knowledge
m"gi"ians
appeared in the work of Richard Fishacre, a Dominican follower of was attractive; Robert Grosseteste and William of Auvergne had them-
,#.fi ffi;;*a" i"i"t in the thirteenth century.lr Three sorts of people try to selves been attracted by it, and they bitterly remembered that attraction
W{ I r',r".li"t fhe
the futrrre-says
future, savsFishacre, prophets.P;plh-
magi. astrologers,and prophets'
Fishacre. magi, Proph- in their later years.
" , -Sqpredict "from the natural -
ets, of Astrologers do so Willi.a1n of Auvergne was born around 1180, a contemporary of Gros-
I :,"i(
l::. , !- .cour.se. dq.S.g.by..-G-od.s.gr:ace- '7
ffiilff.rf ;t;ii.'; U"gi, however, "predict what has been revealed to them - seteste and ta-ibE"d6FS6ot.He spent his youth at the studium in Paris,
$ !t- \,by,*dggffi:ih"y to be univlrsally condemned,and they are not to became a master of theology, and was bishop of Paris from 1228 until his
.*.ib6-tffint "-r"
any more than the demons who inform them. The death in L249.'n As bishop of Paris, William had much to do with the
i ; divine
'ttif.,.""tJd
*l' idea of magic, which had begun in the twelfth century and university, and his own experience as a student and master, like that of
had been strengthened by the claims of the astrologers and their attrac- Grosseteste,made him particularly concerned about the availability and
tions in the late twelfth-century schools, remained in force throughout attractivenessof astrology and magic to students and teachers alike. He
like
the thirteenth century and beyond. Roger Bacon (him-self, of course,-:y-+\- was also concerned with the dangers of astrology and magic in the com-
C : ' u r l ' i -r ' ,
MichaelScot,alsoaccusedof beingAfiruiaia; )"d;;i;;naad nA-gl; munity of Christians generally, and he is one of the best-informed writers
of the fortuneof itieii'p-eisonal
Regar'dless
greata{yg^{9-nile"a"cs:t}.g-u-S,cbJln on the subject that the thirteenth century produced. Far more than
reputations, however, the thirteenth century astrologers and magicians T*gmar" ,tqrrina5".!!,z1lli34,.-9_f^A,+ypr-gne*cp[.ecte.{,andE iiandcit--d-{irli.er
i fr*uify strengthenedthe caseagainstillicit magic 6y condemning-"it'fist i!3.tgTPF oJ o*pposition to magic and denounced its evils at great length.
i ail-stnlngly' 6;a.nupr more sti:ongly, since they were very often'Tiitler In cc.24-26 of hii'D9Je-ffiW;Wifiiarfl-dT'Anft;gne"Gils of books of
i ih"rr,r"i r"s ) as had the iheologians lawyers of the twplith magic he himself had iLen and handled as a young student in Paris. C. 24
Ii "i ""[r"";'lt "nd consistsof a discussionon various forms of idolatry, particularly those that
and
and early thirtegntlrBnturies.
early thirtegnt!-qenturies.
.it By l225,theffire\ the evil magician hadbegun to take on a clea;rerf ,William calls "the insane, vain and impious idolatr-y of stars and heav-
'r--. j ;am;-a";;;#*dip';-il.s fii"J" hadbeenoi'ttin""4.i"-th"!@; ,:enly lights." He goes on, in c. 25 to discussplanetary intelligences.and
' centuriesand denouncedi remarks:
4ld_ciirrtli iiierit"re of ihe eleventhand twelfth
in the tft"orogi""i irra: ia* *ttf.t of the sa-" petiod--ti'nO-e'alrid i
""nt" Litteras etiam, et numeros similiter eisdem partiti sunt, et ad ultimum ipsum
with the heretic,who himself emergesas a distinctivetype in the eccles-
corpushumanum per partes, et membra distribuerunt eisdem; et haec omnia
ffiffinffire of the twelfth century, the magician ffnally.acquires a in libris judiciorum astronomiae, et in libris magorum atque
substantive. specific art in the world of the schools and the courts of t]le temporeadolescentiae
maleffcorum
nostraenos meminimusinspexisse,lb
3-{earlythirteenih century. That art il comls!$sd*b"Lt-hg4*:of;$!i"
"
and Greek phi l osophy an{ -astrolo-gy---the H-gr-m91it * [o.okL Jlre"Sg-t$o-
" Sglomon..andJhg;lrs Another reference to the availability of these books in paris in the late
Tft 6tl6--nGffiIuiel'ffi ti?'i?i'ki-^conce-i',g twelfth century is in c.26:
ri,dl
iiJie,ffi*N6t"diiii'ih;;A**<iit;'#fth ;i;i;' io'iEF'tatus
";ii"tiiii."'
 90 The Sgstematic Condemnation of Magic in the Thirteenth Centurg The Sgstematic Condemnati.on of Magic in the Thirteenth Century 9t
Haec enim omnia adeo impia, adeoque sacrilega sunt, ut sine horrore pia corda who ds ted Tem
ea nec legere valeant, nec audire; unde, et nos istorum memoriam horrificam
non tam perstringimus, quam etiam fugimus, et fugamus, ne majoris insaniae
occasionem demus insipientibus'16
tondemnation, and with good reason; at Etienne Gilson has pointed out, it
constituted a Iandmark in the history of medieval thought. In addition to
llike Grosseteste, William of Auvergne had flirted with astrological and
the condemned philosophical propositions, however, Tempier's condemna-
f -agical books, ana,Qffi 1il"-Gtos-i"tette, he repudiated everything-h tion also included such items as the literary work De amore of Andreas
Jhad'read in them. To seek out such knowledge, William argues, is the Capellanus, and, little marked by historians of philosopliy but directly to
f. ,ri""-of curiositas. the tibiilo sciendi non neces$aria. Curiositas, which the point of our discussion, a book of geomancy and
played an important semantic role in medieval intellectual history, had
come to apply to the knowledge of astrology and magic that theologians libros,rotulos seu quaternior,", ,rig.J*"r-rticos aut continentesexperimenta sorti-
and prelates like Grossetesteand William of Auvergne had begun to dis- legiorum, invocationesdemonum, sive conjurationesin periculum animarum,
cover in the schools around them by the end of the twelfth century.17 seu in quibus de talibus et similibus fidei orthodoxe et bonis moribus evidenter
The extent of William's knowledge and concern of other considerations adversantibustractatur, per eandem sententiamnostram condempnamus .18
of astrology and magic is surprising, especially in contrast to such recent
theologians as Peter Lombard, Peter the Chanter, and the other moral Aside from the great and absorbing clash of radical Aristotelianism and
theologians at Paris. Whereas twelfth-ccntury theologians had done little orthodox resistance, this condemnation of books of magic suggests that
more than r-epeat patristic denunciations of sorcery and divination, Wil- the earlier concerns of William of Auvergne were not unique to the early
liam of Auvergne, in the De legibus and the De uni'aerso, goes into the thirteenth century. As we will see in a later chapter, flrgsg...e-og{emggtions
new magic and astrology in considerable detail. Like John of Salisbury, ol T2TTwere echoed r*"J!rggl".gj_q%d-g._r_rqqtion_oJmagiS--tbis-Fne,b-y*Slrc-
tr,
William
vv rllrdlrr begins
ucSrrrJ u ) / Jspeaking
by Ir( a^trr5 r illusions, and he-distilg.l1:I9s-JgAgi"q-bgg9"d
vof "::jrd'---q; f?"lty qtg'eglggg_d$R"gg"iy.gity.of Paris,in 1398.,
Tle condennalron
f .,po., the-"4-aturai
{ql pioperti.s
plqp-grJre,q <-rf
9f . q.
objects
bjegll -fieL.9-Ll-td{
from- fiir:nr..of
otlier^farrue.-of -.819 His
magic. o["]!( is echoedin the literatureof demonol_ogy,
Ia-ry,a4d poetry of the
,lj:i<rio;iledfe
\uuwlguEg is extensive
lJ E^LEtr and his attack formidable. William insists that
3S_"p".toa
J without demonichelp and idolatry, there is little that magic can ac-gglf
i plisli, dildib accompiishanything by ilemonic issistanceor through idol-
jI l*.'--;" sinful.sinfrrl The mn.lefi.nts is
The maleficr-rs is guilty of idolatry
flriltv of idolatrv and the pe1to-U!^4lrgc*g[
and the oerformance,-o-{ MAGIC AND DEMONOLOGY
"try-'ir
obicer'" rites,'as well as iqjury. The-1ql9l! q93{-e-pne{3ll
9!gh!s!l..a1g
magic except natural magic to the siitus-of milificia. In short, William of ;!l!!ough many earlier W+terq had linked. the.practice of. A-agig_gp_d.-
Auvergne's treatises reflect sharply the appearance of magical practices, even some elements of astrology with servicc to or cooperation with the
their atttractiol, their necessary dependence upon the demons, idolatry, {d,it, Witti"m of Auvergn"', for,"".n with idolatry ",id d",tonology in,
tligjl-qp-acity to deceive rlr cause injury' and their intrinsically fqlbsi the magic bosks he attacks is particularly pronounced, as was tha-f-bf
*"i"ii"t".. Ey ar"*i"g together the traditional condemnation of magic and fgmpier later in the centur'y. The principles of medieval demonology had
Irtr;f;St"a applying il to the new magic of the late twelfth and early long ago been laid down in the works of the patristic period. The inclu-
thirtcenth centuries, Williu- of Auvergne contributed much to the sion of excerpts from this material in Gratian's Decreturn and the Book of
the
lincreasingly sharp picture of the criminal magician' the nature of Sentencesof Peter Lombard in the mid-twelfth centurv. and its subiection
,,.,icrimenia.giae, anJth" dangers it posed to all Christians. Nor was Wil- to systematic examination and develop-ment
'" -ip th_e.schools.,lgggthe1 with
the condemnation of Hugh of St:"Vi6'idi;"o"'h"ip"d
lia- the last bishop of the great university city to recognize the attractions to shap! a learned
of magic to its ambitious, curious, and learned scholars. $onology ieadily to William of AuvJrgne and iater writers,
"""".-ribl"
On ? Marc-[1*?72-"E--Sg,+ne."Temp1e*1,,!-1s]^op.d.Par"rs'.;ss-usda-fsmd
.,s*'3a5-,-^r. 1.''-*- :_' r,.:;i:>++.v
A.v...r. -.- ) -_.-:;
Tplty Thomas Aquinas. Besides the survival of forrnal demonology and
nineteenp-r-qpqsi-!io-1rs-".d-ta.rv.t'-ff-ggg-gbe
and nineteen itSlb\Avdl in the second half of the twelfth century,
aliiffiaff;ffif or i*o'i""ated
condemnauon two hundred and orher literary*Sgllm
''writinss
tili.oei;'Al i;i'6t6] and.
;;;*;- Aristotle,
A;i;i""r,n", d; di.s-"u
s,everal of th
al of J-ati+'g- -
eir -J-atin".ggm-
their-J-atin".
their : H{iffiE;;.b){."rsi*sffi.
' wiifi ngscifof An
Aver.roes, Arist'otle, and.several
".
nientaioib. On ts Mai6h of the u""t, Robert Kilwardby. Archbishop
y""r. Archb *s-lq{tc-dealt with the temptatiors-6[ the saint bv db-o"s and the saint's
""-" condemnation with his own endorse- ultimate victory over them. th; haliographical tr;difion
bf-cintrjibury, echoed Tempier's made the deffons
 92 The SgstematicCondemnationof Magic in the Thirteenth Century The Systematic Condemnnti,on of L[agic in the Thirteenth CerrturA 93

I familiar, first to a monastic,and later to a wider society,but it alsotended obedience to the monastic rule and to superiors invariably proved su-
to reduce the demon to manageableproportions when conquered or preme. Such literature had other functions as well. Professor Elizabeth
k"nn"n is currently exploring this novice literature for its psychological
impact and its role in acculturating the minds and spirits of novices to
the psychological world of monastic life.'o Lester Little and Barbara
Rosenwein have studied monastic spirituality and its relation to changing
cultural modes of the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries." For
,. I motivation. In short, difierent literary genres depicted the devil differently present purposes, it is important to note two features of monastic treat-
S and used referencesto him for different purposes. men of demons:,FJm1-*dS.e-eg**k*3m."Je*S-s*htta.*a$d".lgp.*as*ic
The recent studies of Kelly and J. B. Russell, along with the older Iiturgical liie., e,,spgc.lg]ly-,9['919+]#*,.lvtl&d$i8*ed,,3o'represen'a""eontiuual
works of Lea and others, have effectively traced the development of io+but tilh Satalr":lSeeond..Wilbirr- ,the..4qo'1?tltyr",tblt
!.be--world""9f
Christian demonology.'n Several aspects of twelfth- and thirteenth-century lyed A.lpepifip
literaturJplaygs, a and-ileatly "dpfi+ed-+sle*,Whenits elements
demonology, however, deserve particular emphasis here. First, the con- I weil-iian!$6i";A-ti;"the secular world-in art, sermons,and theological
vulsions that the eleventh- and Welfth-century reform movements created f writings-members of the secular world had no such defenses as had the
in the Christian world introduced a new and subtler image of Satan and I novice monks with which to overcome such ominous and implacable
his power over humans. The opponents on both sides of the Investiture forces. One function of the reform movement was precisely to sanctify the
Conflict resorted to occusing their enemies of collaboration with Satan,* world outside the monastery, and part of this process was to reveal that
and the Gregorian ambition to reform the world led proponents of the world as plagued by demonic forces as was the secluded, highly struc-
reform movement to analyze the world at considerable length. In earlier tured, and ultimately resourceful world of the monk. Motifs and ideas that
hagiographical and monastic literature, the world was indeed a place of had a controlled existenceinside the monastic psyche, had a very different
violence, temptation, and chaos, prevented from feeling the full force of existencein the untrained and unsupported minds of secular clergy and
Gods wrath only by virtue of the purity of monastic devotions. In that laypeople. Besides the general monastic condemnation of the world as a
world, base human natur.e exercised its powers for evil without any limits place of violence and temptation, there was added in the eleventh and
other than those imposed by harsh Christian rulers. The world's capacity twelfth centuries a psychology of temptation that had originated in the
for sin was limitless. Inside the monastery, there was temptation also, and monasteriesand against which the secular world had few defenses. The
invective of the reform movement, increasing manifestations of dissent,
some of the most vivid literature on demonology derives from monastic
and the new emotional content of monastic and lay devotion alike all
sources.Although monastic writers dealt with demonic temptation, how-
sharpened the vulnerability of the world to the temptations and violence
ever, they dealt with it as something which could be overcome by proper
of the devil.
discipline, counsel, and adherence to the rules of the order. If in monastic
In the worl<i of novice-instructional literature. Satan's victims are
literature the devil was a formidable and subtle opponent, he could never- eiY
usually secular clergy and laymen. Caesarius of Heisterbach, in several " . , i ;F,. ". i....-
theless be contained by strict application of disciplinary measures, and' "
well-knolvn exem)pla, tells of Iaymen who qalled up the devil or had t
triumphs over his temptations were recorded in lives of monastic saints "tJo*- i
learned se'bnlar do it for them. of d"*oiri *iro took on familiar #.9ff'*o"
and in the literature of instruction for monastic novices. The devil was
s}.frpesto de6eive"i"ri-c,
monks and otherg, arra of and lilasphemous activ-
depicted ferociously, but he was depicted within a monastic world view' "rotic
ities performed by those outside t!9.monas.lery
in which he invariably met defeat or, if on occasion he was allowed to walls oi biJailen monks.r'
traesarius several times uses the figure of the cleric skilled in invoking the
triumph over an erring or weak monk, his triumph was exemplary' -In devil and other forms of ,recromaicy, and such ffgures, as we have seen,
*orruiti" literature throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, this were generally thought to exist in the late twelfth and early thirteenth
interest in Satan continued and was orchestrated into training programs i cenfuries. Caesarius does not directly condemn the practice, perhaps
for novices by writers such as Caesarius of Heisterbach and Richalmus of because his concern is getting the d.emon into the story and less with the
Schonthal. In this pedagogical literature which was produced in order to mechanics of how the demon arrives. There are enough known cases of
discipline the novices psychologically for their conventual life, the psy-
chology of demonic terirptationi"as graphically portrayed, the horrors of to suggestthat caesarius
,"F|"::l9l-ling.3n{'.,:,I9,.\*g-4gr9T-,.h-olever,
was uSing a familiar toprc.
the world outside the rionastery glaringly depicted, and the power of
 the Thirteenth CenturA 95
94 The SgstematicCondemnationof Magic in the Thirteenth Century The Systematic Condemnation of Magic in
A number of modern scholars have traced the role of dissent and the Thus, long before the development of a detailed scholastic demonology
'heretic?if i;iiovements in influen'Cing twelfth-cntury dernoh- for later ideas of witch-
growth'Of which has often been charged with responsibility
emerged a the tvlelfth century
ology. The importance of these movements constihrtes a second majoi craft, there .m-ultif-aqgtqd-demoqology-jn
monastic iit"eili"te, ecclesiasticalinvbctive, the challenge of
aspect of twelfth-century demonology. The growing concerrr over thb Jerived from
the naw- efr6ti0-fl"dtb4q.of Christian belief' In the"early thir-
.,uto.r of evil in the twelfth century is illuminated by the moSt'iriiiiortant A*rr"",, and
theologians developed a more highly systematized demon-
of all the new heresies, Cathaiism, and its positing'the existence'of an ieenth century
'evil which the work of William of Auvergne constitutes a good
god to expldin tfib evils'in the'woild. Orthodox Christianity too, faced oiogy, of
the'quesuon oI evil,"and it is often in ri:sponse to catharist beliefs that'."tfb The two greatest scholastic thinkers, however, were Albertus
"*#pt". and Thomas Aquinas. It is in their work that much of the matertol
see the role of. the devil taking on a more important place in orthodox Mug^rr /i_",t
theology. The increasing p.o*ir".rce of the devil is, in a sense, an ortli6l disJussed so far is drawn toge-ther. Far more than Aquinas, A]bg$1s / ".
dox response to the Cathar explanation of evil. In addition to developlng aDpears to have approached magic from the direction of naturalTcience,, }g..
:-+<---4-4r--r- e

the role of the devil internally in orthodox theology, of course, the-chal- and he draws a cletrfldisfinbfidn betwetsif"iiatirral magic and demonolog- ,
lenge of Catharism itself became an example of demonic power- The - i$i-rmgia'*'Thdinaik'e'i"gg"ii.-iii'it'the scientificwritingsof Albeitusi
invlctive against heretics played an important role in sharpening the hore liberallythan his theologicalwork; sucha distinctionis .
trEdt'ifregic :
definition of the role of tlie devil in human life, and, as Russell and others not difficirlt to understand. In his commentaries on scripture and on Peter
have shown, greatly accelerated the science of demonology in the west.:a Lombard's Sentences,Albertus was already working in a powerful theo-,
A third area in which ideas of demonology expanded was that of reli- I logical tradition in which magic was uniformly condemned. Even in these ,
gious sentiment. A number of studies have demonstrated that $evotion in works, however, he seemsto be attempting to define areas in which magic
the twelfth century took on a highly charged emotional content. As R' W. is purely demonological and are3s_i!"-ryFgttit is natural and harmless. In
Southern in particular has shown, the fear and trembling before a remote scholasiic thoughtari-;gi; and demoriol6iit tTieidfiife;it'is!
"oirsid"ringto realize, in Albe:.tus's case, that a,systematic condemnationr
and implacably just god that characterized devotion befole the twelfth important
century was replaced, first in monastic and later in secular circles, with a \ of magic was not incompatible with an interesfTn le$itimate indgic. In
'
new theology of redemption and a rlew sense of the divine love for ,1spite of that interest iri natural magic, however, Albertus's condemnation
humanity, a love that called for an equally emotional response from God's i of demonological magic is strictly in keeping with the views of william .
creatures.25The new emotional content of twelfth-century Christianity has of AuVefgne.
"T-.".bb.", ag4.inst s.ch-o]astictheolargy,as creating an ontologiQal founda-
been studied from many points of view, but one in particular is important
for this study, that of the emotional revr-rlsionagainst God's enemi"UJ$* ,tion for-later witch-beliefs was. made by a number of nineteenth-century
'icholari
and has survived in a number of twentieth-century studies. In
. intensiffcation of hatredpf-lhe Jews, herqtig!,"-alld any-qne gfsq w-lro.--q!A9d
'fr'ffi;;;to?'the
life of one vision or another of Christian reform 1940,however, Charles E. Hopkin produced a doctoral dissertation at the
"pottolic University of Pennsylvania entitled The Share of Thomas Aquinas in the
*.;taf.f *1,"rg9 of thg coin of twelfth-century emotional Christian.d#:
Crowth of the Witchcraft Delusion." In his thorough shrdy, Hopkin as-
tional feelings. In the eleventh cenfury dissentersand heretics encountered
f sessesAquinas's relation to, traditional demonology, his theories on the
the full forJe of hatred from the mobs who lynched them; in the tr;i6lTt-h
magical arts, and the use of his work by later writers on demonology,
century the literature of Jewish atrocities, so iertile in later centur:iei,ffit
'made magic, and witchcraft. Hopkin came to the conclusion that Aquinas tended
it, app"a.ance in substantial volume; in the twelfth centur.y-.tl6e
to limit, rather than expand the power of demons; that Aquinas con-
rhetorical depictions of heretics and other deviants introduced ogge .
demned malefi.cia,but lhat for him maleficia clearly meant iorcery and "
more the patristic descriptions of orgies, blasphemies, and antihun?.$ 't-\
*igig and that, in general, he added little that was not to be found in
activities that become the commonplaces of theological literature in ep-q94
' scripture, in Augustine, and in the tr'velfth- and early thirteenth-century
ing centuries. In this process,the devil, too, became more humanized, and
', theologians. Hopkin's general conclusion states:
hii ubiquity and powers increased in proportion to the sentimentalization
century that ,
n of religious attitudes toward God. This is a side of the twelfth
{
;;; l"* itscussed-a dark side of the twelfth-centuryrenais- , The chief difierence between the scholasticdemonology and that of the ancient
"r?;i""
sance of which demonology is only one aspect' {. sourcesis that the treatment has become systematic and theoretically rounded
 96 The Sgstemati.cCondemnationof Magic in the Thirteenth Century inthe Thirteenth century 97
The sastematic condemnation of Magic
out, as a part of the scholasticordering of all theology. while this systematiz-
Aouinas's achievement is to relegate many of even the occult operations
ing did not produce within itself a unified witchcraft concept, it may indirectly this in these works and in the
have encouragedsuch a processin the courts of the Inquisition by setting up of=rr"tur" to legitimate causes.Having done
is left with a clear idea of the essential role of demons
an atmosphereof logical integration.28 iu**ou, Aquinas
of natural operation, and ind6ed, his logic compels him
in -u"y claises
the presence of human association with demons and thereby
Hophn showed clearly that only Aquinas's insistence upon the apostasy of to
"-pir"rir" concisely says,
the pact with demons was cited by fourteenth-century writers and that th" pr^"r".r". qt-h.errnJulor nugatory superstitio. As Aquinas
JOiy that is called. nugalq{y which cannot have a cer-
although he was widely cited by fifteenth-century writers, he was cited -qn4.superstitious
iwrtatt natural or human or divinel, a.d this P.!rt$ns to the
as the most "modern" of traditional church authorities, not as a particular ;;;";r; "t
i".rro.rr."" The varieties of superstition that concein this study
innovator of witchcraft theory. In a later chapter we will deal with the ;;"*ar;
obsen'ances'
thesis of Hopkin and others that the Inquisition, and not scholastic the- are those that Aquinas designategas id6fatiy, divination, and
of the latter being the magic"af art"s.Here again, Aquinas pro-
ology, was responsible for the growth of witchcraft beliefs. It remains one species
-frdes among a number of difierent sins D-ecause of their common
a link
y here, since Aquinas was clearly concerned with sorcery and magic, to
-lconsider
his view of the relation between sorcery and demonology. relation as parts of superstition. Thus idolatry, divination, and the magic
Aquinas, as Hopkin clearly proved, knew nothing of the witch as that arts are epiitemologically linked together, as they had been in Aquinas's
figure emerged in the law and theology of the later fifteenth, sixteenth, chief souice, St. Augustine. Of the three divisions of superstitio, obser'
and seventeenth centuries. Wfrat Aquin-5..yg, gg1.r'qgrng,C*ltt!,*11Ar-._tlgt oantiaa most clearly involve commerce with demons. Thus, in his initial
kind of magic that had bcome. tince- the mi.d-tw"iffn discussions of magic, Aquinas treats it as a variety of legitimate knowl- l
of er""-t", chiefly as a function of ignorance, eitfgr I
"""l"rv, edge, and he treats superstitio
and greater concein to theologians and other scholarr-ror""ry, di,Vifr.atpn,
and other practices that Aquinas listed under the genel4l category of ign-orance of natural causes or ignorance that its pursuit will inevitably
, lead to sacrilegious contact with demons.
The fourth chapter of Hopkin's study is an exhaustive survey
lrsupers,[!!!9,.
' In the summa theologiae and the opuscula, Aquinas sets fo;th his
of Aquinas's view of the magical arts, dealing with the opuscu.la,as well ai
demonology on theological and epistemological grounds. In the summa
with the two great summae and the commentaries on scripfure and peter
contra Centiles, a work which attempts to prove the truth of Christian
Lomband's Sentences. In the opu.sculum, Concerning the Occult Opera-
belief without extensive recourse to Christian sources, he attacks magic
tions of Nature, for example, Aquinas deals with the classification of hid-
on rational and ethical grounds, focusing primarily on the uniformly evil
den operations, condemning only those operations "that proceed from an
ends of such practices. Although his views on magic are scattered through-
extrinsic principle, the bodies themselves being used by the higher agents
out the vast body of his work, Aquinas's views are remarkably consistent
only instmmentally and selectedly," and these operations are condemned
and logically rigorous. Prgbally 4q writer before him systematized the
only when they are used by necromancers, not when divine virtue or
condemnation oI magic oi-io -urii'difierenf'levels, and in this sense,as
good angels perform them.2e Aquinas's explanation of the powers of
well as Hopkin's sense cited above, AQuinas provided formidable influ-
demons upon the natural world is also illustrated by the following passage
from the Expositio in lob: d ence both toward the traditional condemnation of magic and toward the
L linking of magic with service to or subjection to the devil. Of the later
One must then believe that with God's permissiondemons may disturb the meaning of maleficia, the witchcraft beliefs of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and
atmosphere,raiseup strongwinds, and make fire fall from Heaven. . . . All that seventeenth centuries, Aquinas, of course, knew nothing. Consistent with
which may be accomplishedby the simple movement of a thing from one place the theology of the Iate twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, he also
to another may be done by good or evil spirits. Winds, rain, and other drew heavily from other traditions, particularly scriptural and patristic.
atmospheric disturbances may thus occur solely because of the movements of He also drew from canon law, particularly in Quodlibet XI, where he
condensedvapors. Thus the natural power of the demon sufficesto accomplish directly addressedthe problem of magic:
these things.3o
Concerning sorcerers,it is known t-hat some say that sorcery has no existence
The oytuscula De sortibus and De occultis operationibus both illustrate and that it comessimply from lack of belief or superstition, since they wish to
prove that demonsdo not exist except insofar as they are the creaturesof man's
imagination; insofar as men imagine them to exist, these fantasies affiict the
 98 The sgstematiccondemnation of Magic in the Thirteenth century 99
The sgstematic condemnation of Magic inthe Thirteenth century
fearful. The catholic faith, on the other hand, insists that demons do indeed
Among the Quinque compilntiones antiquae, two collections (the
exist and that they may impede r":Xt*Trt;XA:: titles relating
or their works.3s Compi,lntio prima and the Compilatio quinta) contained
The Compilatio Prima included three texts on the subject:
io ,ortl,tngtum.
Like demons, so'cery existed frr5Xffi;;, as it had for all twelfth- and penitential of Theodore, a selectfon from book 19 of Bur-
oart of the
thirteenth-century writers considered so far. Aquinas's role in its history, performing
ihurdr Decretum (which assigned ten days' penance for
although it had nothing to do with later notions of witchcruft, *", the psalter or the gospels), and a letter from Pope Alexander
io sorteswith
systematically describe and condemn magical p,"_r1..n"_rtataly_ndjo Grado, to be considered below,36 The Compilati'o
III to the bishop of
gll-3f:-*gfl"*':I.T4h l-em that had not be.en said b-5, text, a condemnation by Pope Honorius III of the
euinta added one
Irg"q5tin.qrBy the end of Aq.,i'as's-ffii[, Jractice of using sortes to elect a bishop.37In the Liber Extra,
three of
nowever', the demonological content of sorcery was firmly outlined. such
ihese texts comprised title 2I of book 5, the only-iliscusSioir of.soritilegium
defenses as had been made for astrology in the rate twelith century, and
i.r.tt" *ork." ThS te.if fiom th6 penitential gf Thegdole.and the letter
were to be made for magic in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, -of
Honorius rII boih dijal with soites strictly considered. Alexander III's
now had to overcome the persuasive and voluminous arguments
of letter to the patriarch of Grado deais with the case of !r..g -clericr-yho I

In some respects, his demonology fitted.the works of the magi_

,lqrir,"r: went with ser]eral infamous people to a private place, noffiifi"Ih6'i"i""- _-,'!4..."
cians bettter than it did even that of the heretics, for the mira of the soic-
4 tion of calling up the devil, but to perform divination with an astrolabe rpTilr;r
erers can only derive from collaboration with demons and stand in con-
in order to find goods of itt" Cft,r-."tt that had been stolen.. Zeal and J.$L
trast to the genuine miracula performed only by God.3aDependent upon
simplicity had driven him to do this. He has, however, committed ? rnost '3
scripture and Augustine among Christian sources, and Forphyry and
griwous sin, and Alexandbr prescribes a penance for him. Neither the y'r: l:".::)'i

Aristotle among non-christian sources,Aquinas launched the most devas-

bompiltttiones Antiquae nor the Liber Extra added any more texts on
ating attack yet on the magical arts. It was no less devastating because it
the topic and, as can easily be seen, the more recent texts deal clearly
was not a particularly important point of attack. Except in the opuscula
with dir:irwtion. ln Bernard of Pavia's Summa Decretalium on the Liber
and the quodlibeta, the attack was made wholly within the general con-
Extra, the author cites both the texts in Gratian and the Roman law in
text of his philosophical and theological system. In this light, hls views of
Justinian's Code.3eEvidently, these texts were to be read in conjunction
the+ lineffiqacy of magic -ytthgy,t-"dpgls-*i,c-
witho
!h"-t$sgq{_oj"T1g_tS
%--_.-.-.,.:.. ?j*dare_similarto those of Roger
,19},t--gjgls-*i,c-,q-1d.41-e_similartotho-,s*e*of with the law stated in the Li,ber Extra. The glossa ordinaria to the Liber
Dacon. and rt is-!mpo1t1n!
ls rm that
that both
both thi;i6ia
thinkeis nse
use tt'e<jlofr
q-l ----..---*
!*gleg0-rt !:o=tgte
!:o=lgte thtol;gic;f;rtt Ertra,by Bartholomew of Brescia, says nothing pertaining to other kinds
rational
ional argument$
arguments to condemn it.
I of magic and focuses instead upon a literal explication of terms and the
circumstances of each case. The Boniface Ylll's Liber Sextus and the
Extraoagantesof lohn XXII and Clement V contain no title De sortilegis.
THE MAGICIAN AND THE LAWYERS IN THE The only text dealing with magic in the LiUei'sextus is a letter from
THIRTEENTH CENTURY Pope Alexander IV in 1258 instmcting the Inquisition that it may prose-
cute magicians only when their activities manifestly savor of heresy. As
The attraction of legal study in the later twelfth centur.y gt-e-atly_rg{U: will be shown in the next chapter, Alexander's injunction posed no great
eribed the canon Iaw courts and the work of those ecclesiuru"'t *ho rnuJ" difficulties in the earll' fourteenth century.
new law for the chrisrianworld.In the tat" t*"irtt ;;i ;"rt; ir,i;+"";i,-
centuries, collections of twelfth-century papal legal decisions and con- Rubric: The Inquisitors,deputed to investigateheresy,must not intrude into
investigationsof divination or sorcerywithout knowledge of manifest heresy
l ciliar canons were made, usually by individuals for teaching purposes.
In 1234 Pope Gregory IX published the Liber Extra, by Raymond of involved.
It is reasonablethat those charged with the affairs of the faith, which is the
Peflaforte, the first official lawbook of the church.a' In the texts dealing
greatestof privileges, ought not thereby to intervene in other matters. The
with maleficium in these collections, in the work of glossatorswho com- inquisitorsof pestilentialheresy,commissionedby the apostolicsee,ought not
mented upon them and considered their relation to Gratian's text. and intervene in casesof divination or sorcery unless these clearlg saoour of mani-
in the lawbook of Pope Boniface vIII (the Liber sextu.s, published in fest heresy. Nor should they punish those who in these things.
.i 1298), we can trace the canonist attitude toward sorcery and maleficium but leavethem to other judgesfor punishment. "." "ng"g"d
.. il as it developed in the context of other disciplines. Ordinarg Gloss:"clearly saoour . ." as in praying at the altars of idols, to
 Thirteenth centuru l0I
100 The sgstematiccondemnation of Magic in the Thi,rteenthcentury The sgstematic cond.emnntion of Magic inthe
offer sacriffces,to consult demons, to elicit responsesfrom them of Gratian's texts into his commentary'
. or if thev Raymond incorporates a number
associatethemselves publicly with heretics in order to predict the future bv Augustinian texts also dominate
i"uoti"g most of part I to Augustine.
meansof the Body and Blood of Christ, etc.ao
l^i Zoi titl" Il, dealing with what kinds of dioinatio are permitted and
"*fr"if.t"ar are forbidden. Part 3 deals with the punishments for those
In sum, four new texts were added by the lawmakers of the thirteenth
who commit sortilegium and dirsinatio:
? century to Gratian's body of texts, and most of these dealt with divina_
Ition. As we have seen, the letter of Alexander III explicitly stated that The punishment
-t"""*" for such is multiplex; they are declared infamous, nor may
the cleric V, did not intend to invoke demons, as if that were to be *"t the eucharist, if their sin is notorious' ' ' They may not be ad-
and after excommunication
expected in the perfornance of divination, and the letter of Alexander IV iliti"d ti" court] as accusers.. . . If, after wamings
not correct themselves, if they are slaves they may be scourged, and
tacitly distinguished between magic that was heretical and magic that il;il
was not. As we have seen, several commentators on Gratian's Decretum' il|t are freemen they ought to-be imprisoned, and both kinds are to be
of im-
had identified magic with heresy ( as had the ordinary gloss to the Bible ..i""t"a from the parish, their status shown to be reduced because
), should be tonsured or scalped' The bish-opmay-have this
and no inquisitor would have had trouble in citing before him anyone ;;;;it,y, that is, they
own authority, but he should beware of dismembering them, kill-
i""" Ujr'frrr
accused of the practices condemned in Gratian, the Liber. Extra, or the of the secular
r"?ifr"*, or shedding their blood. And he may invoke the aid
Liber sextus. As Alexander IV's letter indicates, and as several commen- arm.a3
tators on Gratian had indicated, magic was not easy to define, and there
judicial authority,
appears to have been some uncertainty among canonists as to whether To justify the invocation of the secular arm, that is lay
17,
,,(.*" all magic was heretical or not. It should be remembere(L of_aAq{lg-gat Raymond cites from the first part of Gratian's Decretum, Distinctio
(r '. church's relations
the I term heresyitself had anrbiguoisTFffii6to the end or tn" t*elrtl c. 4 Nec licuit, an important text in the history of the
N\ c-: c atnitffiiirT-Effit"l'"""i.ffi
-cenfury canonists, at rr'. with temporal powers in the judicial sphere. Part 4 of title 1l raises
a
t t ",' the
/','
samej-friiiiffffiies ji-tne theotogianswho were commenting upon the number o1 ge.teral questions concerning sortilegos et di'ainos. First, Ray-
k2. /
various kinds of magic, were probably stricken by the same ambiguous ,norrd asLs,ihat if someone should ask a confessor if it is neveii pb'rniiSsi- :
T
"To this you *'' i.,rt-{ ;:ji

feelings as their colleagues and heard the same kind of defense of some. ble to divine bv means of the astrolabe or similar means'
at least, of the magical arts against the charge of heresy. ;;J;;;;t, to all authorities, that if it involves the invocation
"""o.&r,g no way permitted"'
As the comments on the Liber Extra suggest, the ,texts in Gratian's of de.mons or other s]milar superstitions, it is in
Decretum probably were assumed to be satisfactor.y for the disposition Raymond's second question touches upon the magical and improper use
of most of the casesof magic that ecclesiasticallawyers came across.The of sacramentals and the mass itself in order to achieve ends that these
summa decretalium of Johannes Andreae, who also wrote the ordinary things were never intended to accomplish' especially'those clerics who
gloss to the Liber sextus, focuses exclusively on the technical details of ,"y L"rr", for the dead in the name of one still living.'Raymond's third
divination and sorcery, as did the commentaries of his great predecessors, question deals with the women who believe they ride at night with
Innocent IV, Hostiensis, and Goffredo da Trani.al unlike the canonists' Diana, from Decretum, C.26, q.5, c.I2. Raymond repeats the injunction
treatment of other questions, of which political theory has been the most oI .-t-\e,.9ansn Episcopi that suph.sltperstitionp and othels, such as the ic
widely explored, there appears to have been general agreement among 6."-G i" qhppeshiftin*, ue phantasms- of the devil. Anyone rvlo believes
than a pa,gan. Raymond's
them on the question of magic, and Iittle speculation or innovation in th-eg is beyond do"f,i uit infidel and worse
their comments. Siliina, then, offers a comprehensive view of canonists' theories of magic
Aside from comments directly linked to the affangement of the Iegal in the early thirteenth century. His citations of Gratian's texts suggest the
texts, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries also witnessed the appearance link between the topics discussedby Gratian, their categorical acceptance
of encyclopedic summae organized analytically by their authors. The by the teachers in the law schools, and the relatively few speciffc texts
Sl"tmmaof Raymond of ffia.{ql!. the compiler _o!$g_f,iber Extra, is of included in the Liber of Gregory IX. Taken in all, as they are in Ray-
p;fr'cffi;ffi " monds Summa, they constitute, with the discussions of maleficia and
;il. B;k-i rltr" r l';f R oia;u !u.^,na-i:teats
with De sortilegis et dioinis and may "y-
serve as a kind of proof text for the
marital impotence, the sum total of canonist concern with magic in the
opinions of one of the greatest thirteenth-century lawyers. thirteenth century. Taken in conjunction with the works of William of
The ffrst part of title 11 deals with sortes and the varieties of dir:intttio. Auvergne, Thomas Aquinas, and other writers, they form a consistent,
 \
$l
H
702 The Sgstematic Condemnation of Magi,c in the Thirteenth Centurg the Thhteenth century 103
), -C
r- ^\-\ lha sgstemati,ccondernnationof Magic in
,! q/Y- coherent view of magic and its sinful and criminal aspects. The sin of in patristic literature, typifying the
who was also a commonplace ffgure
f) i nlagr.c-wps"as"ncta $'rgrbffiy.-af e4rly aq.thgglossalqr.d.uffifr? simoniacs, mag.i-gi?nlielygrted true devotion and became,
by the late twelfth century beyond question,jj__W3s--Ig_g+Id*e.d Lm"gicia". Like
n"r-6"*"
i-*' *Biblg-"nd saYs, idolatett, -o* '
Oo=?/V
- r e.c-M The magicianshad becomeinfamols ns, Dant'e then takes uP the theme
Following Aquinas
3 -/ / by the sacrilegiousand superstitiouscharacterof their practices alone. oi aiuinulion which, with idolatry and obsercantiae,
were linked by
( And lawyers,no lessthan theologians,reiteratedthat view from the late first three classical figures,
nJ 1 Aqrrinu, as three forms of superstiti,o. The
_: / twelfth centuryon. Tiresias, and Aruns, are figures well known from the poems
Y i-phiuror,
precisely the
of SauU.,r, Ovid, and Lucan, respectively; they illustrate
divination-and in the case of Tiresias, shape shifting-
kind of pagan
THE MAGICIAN IN HELL so veheprently condemned. The fourth classical
thut the Ch.,rch Fathers
la oergine crude, who chose an uninhabited plot of land
fig,rr" is Manto,
The twentieth canto of Dante's lnferno suggests the theological sum- her arti; Benvenuto da Imola suggests
irithe midst of a marsh to practice
mation of the topics treated so far in this chapter.a" After having seen
that she resembles "one of those female enchantels who sometimes
the panderers and seducers, flatterers, and simoniacs, Vergil leads Dante
wander nude at night with their hair loose"'
to the next bolgia, where the poet is immediately stricken with pity at the
The Iong speech by which Vergil describes Manto serves several pur-
prospect before him. He sees a silent procession approaching, "at about
poses.First, Dante the poet permits Vergil to correct something he him-
the speed of those in our own day who say litanies," whose members all i
ielf had written in the Aeneid-his denial that Manto had founded the
have their heads twisted around so that they see and weep backwards.
city. The role of Vergil in this canto is particularly approprigte, since in
vergil remarks about the first of them, Amphiaros, what was true of all:
th" l,liaat" Ages the Roman poet himself had the reputatioi of being a
"because he wished to see too far ahead in time, he looks behind and,,
ymagician; he figures in the story cited above, told by Geryais of Tilbury,
makes his way backwards." According to Dante's principle of contrapasso,'
l"ho- a magician. But although Dante establishrbsManto's role
those who provoke the wrath of God by trying to see into the future, are "orrc"r.ring
in discovering the site of the city of Mantua, he clears the city of the
forced to look only at the past. To some extent, the punishment of the
charge of having been founded by a sorceress.Those who actually built
diviners in lnferno, canto 20, is related to that of the heretics in canto 10.
the city were attracted by its defensible position, not by the habits of its
wlio, because they denied the immortality of the soul, are deprived of the
ffrst inhabitant. For this reason, they decided to build the city and name
knowledge of wliat is happening at present and in the near futlre and it after Manto, sanz altra sorte, "vithout any other sign." Most transla-
recent past. They, unlike the diviners, are afficted with a clear vision tions of Inferno translate sorte as auguru> and this too is legitimate, as
only of the distant future. long as the Latin meaning of sors, divination by lot, is kept in mind. By
The ffrst five diviners whom Vergil mentions are figures out of classical his terminology through the speech of Vergil, Dante is establishing a
literature: Amphialos, Tiresias, Aruns, Manto, nnd Eur.ypylus. Like historical fact, but he exonerates the city of Mantua of any association
', John
of Salisbury, Dante was willing to use classical references to condemn with the practices of its first inhabitant. The final classical figure'
'
sins that wele being committed by his contemporaries, probably because Eurypylus, was associatedin Dante's mind with Calchas, the Greek seer
the references were to well-known figures whose magical practices were of the Trojan War. All of the classical ffgures in Inferno, canto 20, com-
qlassic illustrations of thc sin they committed. The remaining figures in '1 Prise the magic arts as these were condemned by Church Fathers and by
ffinto 20 are contemporaries,or near-contemporaricsof Dante: Miclrael I later writers. Amphiaros saw illegitimately into the fuhrre; Tiresias shifted
"n-6ffied.
ffi"grrgo.aao Bonati.i. Asdente. and a namelessgroup of women. shape and sex; Aruns lived alone (like Manto) and also predicted the
who gave up the needle, the shuttle, and the distafi e fecersi'ndioine;l future; Manto practiced magical arts besides divination; Eurypylus con-
fecer malie con erbe e con i.m.ago";that is, they made thenrselvesdiviners sulted oracles and associated with diviners. Although Dante had begun
and, by parallel constructioir, mahe; they cast spells with herbs and fs weep when he ffrst saw the diviners, "because I saw our lhuman]
images. This short canto describes a variety of types of magician as they image thus contorted," one of the diviners, Tiresias, transformed the
were known by the end of the thirteenth century, and Dante's tleatment human image, and another, Manto, fled human company, as did Aruns.
x of them effectively sums up the theme of this chapter, the s1'sternatic By contrapasso, the diviners are punished by a distortion of the human
lcondemnation of magic in the thirteenth century. il image which symbolizes their own distortion of human nature through
Simony, the subject of Inferno, canto 1g, was named after Simon Magus, (Ltheir masical
arts.
 L04 The System.aticCond,emnationof Magic in the Thirteenth Century the Thirteenth Centurg IOS
The Systematic Condemnation of Magic in
The next figure, however,is not a figure from classicalantiquity at all; practices, for if he had not been an
lent alchemy and other magical
it is Michael Scot,the court astrologerof Frederick II, whosereputation ai"hemitt, he would have been punished in lnferno 20 with the diviners
q_On,,gthe thirtepnth
iillidiZiit'grew d_g4gg ttlrrteerlth century, in spite
spile of
ot his drs,=,
diqa Dante's commentators make it clear that Griffolino had the
l,t:3-P-3gl*9t11.-,8Jew ind illnrorr.
J_avowal rif"illegitimatemagic in the Liber Introductorius. Dante places ,ro.1tation, at least, of being a magician. Benv'enuto da Imola says that
Scott here because "he knew the game of magic frauds," de le maghiche thi victim of Griffolino's deception, Albero of Siena, "fecit formari in-
ille
frode seppe'l gi,occo. Dante probably condemns Scot as an illusor, or a nuisitionem contra eum, qualiter exercebat magicam, quam tamen
praestigiosus.Guido Bonatti, although Dante's contemporaries called him The author of the Ottimo Comrnento states that Griffolino
finorabat.",o
a repairer of rooTs,dedmi-to have taught at Bologna, and his Li,ber qstro- ingiuiiioii de
#as bga.e-d qs*--a"]l ilvgl(gr of dgmg4s and a heretic in faith,
nomicus was one of the most popular medieval works of astrology, b"'ffig eielico ln Altiougir the commentators are not absolute
a";;;"i1, ed fede.
rira;f-Umes t"piint"d to ttre end of the seventeenth century.n' In his bookl authorities on Dante's intention,jhey provide an excellent view of the
lBonatti bitterly attacks those who deny the efficacy of astrology-and understanding of the sinfullness of magic and the invocation of demons
frevidently there had been many-and goes on to assert the value and that fourteenth- and fifteenth-century scholars might have. Their off-hand
ilroven character of the discipline. Guido, a Ghibelline, is probably placed terminology, familiar from the invective of the thirteenth century, suggests
iin ltell because astrology and magic, with heresy, were crimes particu- that by the fourteenth century, condemnation of magicians to the stake
Iarly imputed to the Ghibellines in Italy, just as treason was imputed to was not thought of as unusual, although it may have been infrequent.
the Guelfs. Among the strongest theological weapons that the papal party Others in Dante's world also incurrld at least the reputations-and inl "
wielded against their Ghibelline enemies were the charges of heresy ( see one casethe accusation-of being magicians, notably Lql9l "-{ A.p-?1o,11d
Inferno, 10), astrology, divination, and magic. The tradition of Michael Cecco d'Ascoli. Although Peter of Abapo copdemned the varieties of the
Scot appears to have influenced Dante's image of Guido Bonatti as well. magical arts as soundly as any critic considered thus far, his discussion of
The namelesswomen who are the last figures in the canto are perhaps them, his own extensive interest in legitimizing astrology, and his knowl-
a less well-known kind of diviner. The progression so far has been: classi- edge of poisons contributed to his formidable reputation in the sixteenth
cal figures, famous thirteenth-centvy illusores and astrologi, and un- on" of the most polverful of Italy's magicians.4TCecco d'Ascoli, f f rf.'
"".rtrrry ", *
known and perhaps humble women who discard their approved role of who was burned by the Inquisition at Florence in L327 for the crime of
sewing, spinning, and weaving and pretend to be fortunetellers. This Iast astrology, is in many ways a more important figure than Peter of Abano."
group is important becausc it gives us an insight into the kind of magic Cecco was, as John Mundy has pointed out, the frrst magister to be put
rpracticed at lower social levels than the court, the town, and thc univer- to death for his opinions. Although Cecco's astrological works seem rela-
They foretold the fuhrre and cast spells, engaging in herbal- and tively innocuous, Villani's Chronicle suggests a more familiar reason: the
image-magic, probably finding lost objects, making love-charms, or work-
",'sity. ,le,alousyof a fellow courtier of Cecco's at the court of Charles of Calabria,
ing harmful spells upon their clients' enemies. These women are also then Duke of Florence. Although Cecco appears to have been somewhat
important, because they are the social, as the other ffgures in the canto'/ more determinist an astrologer than was altogether safe in the fourteenth
are the learned, preclrrsors of the Iater victims of witchcraft persecution. century, it was probably a combination of an earlier condemnation and
, Before the Inquisition was formally empowered to act against sorcerers, his resuming his forbidden art, along with the rivalry of a fellow courtier'
j that brought about his downfall.
Pg*S the poet knew perfectly well the orthodox penalties to which
I diviners, astrologers, magicians, and fortunetellers of all kinds and ranla In the career of Cecco d'Ascoli, it is important to note that one hitherto
; were condemned. powerful protection of even the most criticized academic thinkers of the
i ln Inferno, cantos 29 and 30, Dante once again deals with topics re- twelfth and thirteenth centuries, their immunity from the stake, was
Iated to magic, this time in the context of shape-changers and illusors. insuftcient to save him, although it might have if he had been at Paris or
Griffolino of Arezzo, who had been burned at the stake for being a elsewhere.His first condemnation came while he was teaching at Bologna,
and that wal ciiill a sentencir forbidding him to {each or practice astrology
,-pagician, reveals himself as condemned for being a fraudulent alchemist' *', ,,
again. Cecco's case also emp-liadizes,as do the figures in Dante's lnferno.'
4 I I" general, alchemy presented problems somewhat different from those
iffid the lf,Giiept,tation of Peter of Abano, the uniform condemnation of
i posed by astrology, divination, and magic; Dante treats the topic here ':':"1
ma-$_!c..1n{-astrologyin thirteentfr-century sources. This condemnation
$ and in canto 30 under the general heading of perverse deception, :t
whether of alchemy, counterfeit coins, or individual identity. But was suppoited by formiddble theological and legal structures and re- .-*,i I
I -Uriffolino's d
repr,rtation as a magician suggests the links between fradu- iterated, as we will see in the next chapter, by a series of trials that once
{r'*.fg"e: "
 inthe Thirteenth Century IO7
106 The Sgstematic Conclemnation of Magic in the Thirteenth Century lhe Systematic Condemnation of Magic
and for all announced the crimen magiae and completed the juridical Grosseteste ab anno 1473ad annum 1969,"CollectaneaFranciscana39 ( f 969) :
,l framework of the condemnation of the magical arts. iAZ_+p, and A. C. Crombie,Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimen-
'Ihe De prognosticationeis in L. Baur,
Perhaps the classic figure of the scholar who was tainted with the tal Science, 1100-1700 (Oxfold, 1952).
reputation of being a.glggjgian himipii--beiause he wrote extensively pnu philosophischenWerke des Robert G|ossetuste,Bischoffs oon Lincoln
,, about magic, was Arnald of Villanova.r', A learned and complex man,
"d.,
iMinster, fgf2). Relevantparts of it are translatedand discussedin Richard
1973)
Arnald was a physician respected by kings and popes, a "lay theologian, E. put"r, The ScientificAchieoementof the Middle Ages (Philadelphia,
pp. 15I-56.
whose prophecies and proposals for r.eform br-ought him afoul of the
2. Dales,ScientificAchieuemcnt'pp. 152-55.
Inquisition in France, Aragon, and Rome. A prolific writer, Arlald wrote
3. Ibid., P. 153.
{k| f*ir' .several works directed against the claims of sorcerers. In these works
4. Ibid., P. 155.
pe criticizes magig,.g_s_-s-!?.1p.ly
?.q.Aquin.aqor William of Auverghe befotfi 5. Thomdike, Historg, 2:307-37;,J'ynn Thorndike, Michael Scot (London,
.., -^...-.
^' ',
"' hir1,*flis at!"19kol.lgrcery,
tike -lhose.of Aqpinps, are two-pronged, Firsq 1g65), esp. pp. 80-121; Ernst Kantorowicz,Frederick the second, 1194-1250,
, -"
,", Arnaid agrees witfi the tlieoiogians thit the demons be iompeiled trans.E. O. Lorimer (reprint ed., New York, 1957), pp' 339-68'
"by magicians, but receive them in n.d6iltiili*i:iiieir "url.rof 6. Thomdike, Michael Scof,pp. 80-88.
;nd ottieis"d;fiHe'-
*r tioii; Second, he attacks lhe physical""basis for the magiciand clAlihs, 7. Marie-Therdsed'Alverny, "L^ survivancede la magie antique," in Mis-
denying that lo-wel substances can l7e. compelled by the mind or by cellaneaMedieoalia,l: Antike und orient im Mittelalter, ed. P. wilpert (Ber-
de-onic po*"t: fii"r, Uy ih"'de*ons'to hum,ins. The triatise De imptoba- lin, 1962).
tione maleficorum, written by Alnald at the request of Bisliciii Jb56e?fffi 8. One reasonfor the uniform medievalcondemnationof praestigiosi,makers
of illusions,was the analogy between their acti<msand those of demons,who
Valence to refute the claims of two Provenqal monks that they could con-
parodied true cr-eationand were described throughout the twelfth and thir-
trol the demons and use them for beneficial pu{poses, denounces the
teentlr centuries and later as creatilg their praestigium in order to deceive
curiositatem eorum, qui . garriunt asserendo se habere potentiam mortals,capturing or at least endalgering their souls.Hence, the punishment
demonescompellendi.'"'Arnald begins by attacking tlrc physical basis of of counterfeitersand shapeshiftersin Dante's lnferno, canti 29-3O, and the
beliefs that demons can be compelled by human intelligence; then he focus upon illusion in such later works as Johann Weyer, De Praestigiis
denies that any force cxcept God can compcl demons, and that God may Daemonum (Basel, 1563), discussedbelow, in Chapter 6. The theme was
give thiS for:ceto holy men, but certainly not to magicians, pecedtoies'-.":: taken up in a different sense in Tl'romas N{ann's novella Nlario and the
exercentes nequissimi. Arnald denies the powers of words, signs, images,
; rblood, corpses,suffumigations, performed costumed or naked, in deserted 9. Thomdike, Llichael Scof,pp. 119-20.
i ibuildings or other artificial places, quoniam omnium talium fabricator est 10. DanteInferno 20, 11. 116-17.
' 11. Dales,ScientificAchieoement,pp. 155-56.
:ipse demon, and only deceived or simple people believe in them.
12. Thorndike,Historg,2 :616-9I.
The frauds and invocations of magicians, the tricks of Grifiolino, the
13. Ibid., pp. 214-304.
increasing danger to court astlologers, and the denunciation of the 14. Ibid., pp. 338-71. The text of Williarn used here is Gulielmi Alaerni
Provengal monks by Arnald of \zillanova, mark a new development in the episcopiParisiensis . . . OperaOmnia,2 vols. (Paris,1674): De legibus,vol' 1,
history of the crimen magiae: the willingness and ability of authorities fol. 18-102; De unixerso, vol. l, fi. 593-806, vol. 2, fol. 807-1072. See also
to prosecute such offenders, and tlie general agreement among theolo- d'Alvemy, "La Survivance de la magie antique." The best recent study of
gians, Iar'vyels, scientists, and legitimate astrologers that they should be William, however, is the article by Beryl Smalley,"William of Auvergne,John
,.f"prosecuted. The fourteenth century opened with the increasingly frequent of La Rochelle, and St. Thomas Aquinas on tl.re Old Law," in St. Thomas
/ fiprosecution of magicians. Aquinas,1274-1974,Conrntemoratiae Sturlies,2vols. (Toronto, 1974),2:lI'
72, esp.pp. 27-46with recentbibliography.
15. Delegibus,fol.78.
16. rbid.
17. I intend to produce an extensive study of the medieval history of
NOTES curiositas.There is a good preliminary bibliography in Jean-ClaudeFredouille,
Tertullien et Ia conaersionde la culture antique, (Paris, 1972), p. 413, n.1, to
l. Lynn Thorndike, Historg of Magic and Experitnental Science (New York, which shouldbe added Hans Blumertberg,Die Leeitimitiit der Neuzeit (Frank-
1923-58) 2:436-57. See also Servus Gieben, "Bibliographia universa Roberti furt, 1966). See,e.g.,T. F. Crane.Thc Exempla-.. . of lacquesde Vitrg (re-
 of Magic in the Thirteefth Centurg 109
f 08 The Systematic Condemnation of Magic in the Thirteenth Century The SAstematic Condemnation
print ed., Liechtenstein,f967), pp. 12-13. On the tradition of curiositasas a Zg. Ibid., passim;seealsoThomdike, Historg,2:593-615'
vice, see Gregory the Great, Homiliarum in Eaangelia, book 2, Hom. xxxvi (p! S0. AquinasExpositioin ]ob, c.L, lec't,3, ad fn-
76, col 1268c).commentingon Luke 14:16-24, For a twelfth-century Cistercian 31. Hopkin, WitdtcroftDelusion, pp. 81-127.
use of the term, see Meyer Schapiro, "On the Aesthetic Attitude in Romanesque 92. Ibid', PP. 87-88' .
Art," in Art and Thought: lssued in Honor of Dr. Amanda K. Coomaraswamg 33. Quodlibet XI, Quaestio 9, art' I0, lJtrum maleficia impediant matri-
I (Parma, 1859)' p' 618' See
(London, 1947), pp. 130-50; reprinted in Meyer Schapiro, RomanesqueArt: fitotuium,Thomas Aquinas, Opeta Omnia' vol'
SelectedPapers,vol. 1 (New York, 1977), pp. l-27. The sectionof Blumen- connection of the whole quodlibet with the discussions of Hostiensis above.
the
berg's Die Legitimitdt der Neuzeit dealing wit}r curiositas has been recently 34. Aquinas Summa theologiae, pt' 2, q. 100, membr. 2, art. l.
reprinted and expanded separatelyunder the title Der Prozessder theoretischen 35. Cited in the edition of Venice, 1595.
Neugierde (Frankfurt, f973). See also Horst Ri-idiger,"Curiositasund Magie. 36. Quinque cornpilntiones Antiquae, ed. Ae. Friedberg (Leipzig' 1882)' lib'
Apuleius und Lucius als literarische Archetypen der Faust-Gestalt," in WorJ 5, title 17, P' 60.
und Text. Festschffi fiir Fritz Schalk (Frankfurt, f963), pp. 57-82. 37. Ibid., lib. 5, title 9, P. 184.
18. The text is in H. Denifle and A. Chatelain, ed., Chaftularium (lnioer- 38. Ibid., lib. 4, title 15, De frigid'is et maleficiatis' deals with marital im-
sitatis ParisiensiqVol. 1 (Paris, f889), No. 473, p. 543. SeeE. Gilson, History Dotence. Seeabove,Chapter 3, n.29 for references'
of ChristianPhilosoplrgin the Middle Ages (New York, 1955), pp. 402-9 and 39. Bernardi Papiensis Summa Decretalium, ed. E' Th. Laspeyres
notes; F. Van Steenberghen,La philosophie au Xllle sidcb (Lotnain-Paris, (Regensburg, f860 ) , ad 5.17, pp. 24L-43.Seealsoad 4.16, pp. 175-80.
1966), pp. 377-78,483-93. See below, Chapter 6 for the condemnationof 40. Liber Sextus5.2.8.
1398. On Robert Kilwardby's own condemnationof magic, based on his read- 4L. Iohannes Andreae in quartum Decretalium Librunt Noaella Commen-
ing of Hugh of St. Victor, seeabove,Chapter 3, part 1. taria (Yenice,158f ) ad 5.21 De sortilegiis.
19. Henry Ansgar Kelly, The Deoil, Demonologg and Witchcraft (New 42. Sancti Ragmundi de Pennafort . . . Summa (Verona, 1744),lib. 1, title
York, 1974); Jeffrey Russell, Witchcratt in the Middle Ages, pp. 101-32; \L De sortilegis,pp. 102-9.
Norman Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons: An Enquirg lnspired bg the Great 43. Ibid., p. 107.
Witch-Hunt (New York, 1975), pp. 60-75; Henry Charles Lea, Materials 44. All referencesare to the edition of CharlesSingleton,6 vols. (Princeton,
Touard a Historg of Witohcraft, ed. and comp.Arthur Howland (Phila., l93S), re70).
1:34-105.Jeffrey B. Russell,The Deail: Perceptionsof EoiI from Antiquity to 45. SeeThomdike, Hisiorg, 2:825-40.
PrimitioeChristianitg ( Ithaca, 1975) . 46. Singleton,Inferno,2: Commentary,pp. 535-37.
20. I am grateful to ProfessorKennan for discussingsome of the implica- 47. Thomdike, Hbtorg, 2:87-4-p47.
tions statedhere with me. 48. rbid.. 948-68.
21. Lester Little and BarbaraRosenwein,"Social Meaning in Monastic and 49. Thorndike, Historg, 2, 841-61; P. Diepgen, "Amaldus de Villanova de
MendicantSpiritualities,"Pastand Present63 (1974): 4-32. improbationemaleficorum,"Archio filr Kultur geschichteI ( 19I 1 ) : 385-403.
22. Barbara Rosenwein,"Feudal War and Monastic Peace:Cluniac Liturgy 50. Diepgen,Amaldus de Villanova,"p. 388.
as Ritual Aggression,"Viator 2 ( I97f ) : ).29-57.
23. H. von E. Scott and C. C. Swinton Bland, trans., Dialogus Miraculorurn,
2 v o l s ,( L o n d o n ,1 9 2 9 ) ,l : 3 1 3 - 1 7 .
24. Russell,Witchcraft, pp. f01-32. The problems of late twelfth-century
demonologywere many. Orthodox theologianshad to veer away from any
indication that the devil was the "prince of this world," Iest they hew too
closelyto Manicheism.ScholasticAristoteliansinclined to explain the powers
of the devil in the natural world by emphasizingdemonic physiology;there was
certainly increaseddiscussionof human commercewith the devil, linked to a
senseof personaltemptation.
25. R. W. Southem,The Making of the Middle Ages (New Haven, 1953).
26. Thomdike, Historg, 2:517,,92.
27. Charles E. Hopkin, T.ffiffifre of Thomas Aquinas in the Grotnth of the
Witchcralt Delusion (Philadelphia,f 940).
2 8 . I b i d . ,p . 1 7 7 .
 llr
Tha Sorcerer'sAPPrentice

i
I
i

"were injuring evelyone, transgressing

that magicians and necromancers
5 the statutes
demons, and
of holy mother
dragging
church,
innocent
making invocations and sacrifices to
people down to damnation by their
marvelous illusions." The magicians deny these charges, countering them
The Sorcerer'sApprentice with an idea already seen in Picatrir, that only the_lg-arned, disqiplined,
and pure of heart can be magiiians. Th"dfragicians have therefore de-
, condense their volumes of magic bocks into a single volume, and
;A"a to
Honorius of Thebes has performed the vast labor. The product of his
work is ttle !,ibefluatlu. The work itself makes strong claims, and it is
-ulfrmate
perhaps the in what thirteenth-century moralists delighted to
-call
curiositas. lt pretends to reveal all secret knowledge, the prediction
"t'
of future events, the control over demons, and all other occult sciences.
Its claims are so comprehensive and so recondite that Thorndike cites it
as an example of that magic condemned by St. Augustine:

THE GROWING APPEAL OF MAGIC [True miracles] . . . were achieved by simple faith and devout confidence, not
by spells and charms composedaccording to the rules of criminal curiosity, the
in 1256 a book of magic, since known as !lPicatrix,i was said to have been craft which is called magic or goeteia, a detestable name, or by the more
i --,. ';'.. .
ttgl]1tea into Spgpish frgm Arabic at th8-"<iidei"o{ Alfonso X o{ Ca-stiJe-.l honorabletitle of theurglTor fieri"it to distinguish between practitioners of
illicit arts who are to be condemned, classing some as sorcerers fmaleficil,
Although the exact date of the translation into LCtin is uncertain, the text
vulgarly so-calledand concemed with goeteia, and other designated as praise-
, is important because it presents a formidable defense of magic, impugning worthy, performing the practice of theurgy. In fact both types are engaged in
' only the evil intentions of those who employ it. Picatrix has been termed
the decepiive rites of demons, wrongly called angels.3
, by Thorndike a "work of astrological necromancy," since its plincipal aim
is to explain the use of astrological images and the procedules for invok- The fourth-century defenders of magical practices evoked the same con-
, ing dernons. In its defense of magic, .Picatrix also defends the magician. demnation from Augustine as their thirteenth-century counterparts
The purity of charactt'r. )ears of study. chastity, and devotion to the art evoked from William of Auvergne, Albertus, Aquinas, and Arnald of
requi'ibd of thc magician suggeststhat magicians, like proferssors,knights, Villanova.
I and guild members, were considered members of a particular calling The accusations of moralists, theologians, canon lawyers, and such
and made palticular demands upon their initiates. Learning and purity: figures as Arnald of Villanova appear to have been based on fact as well
'',lare perhaps as upon general fear. The observations of Grosseteste and William of
the most emphasized qualities, for the ignorant, unstudied,
llor amateur rnagician mns thc risk of being destroyed by the very forces Auvergne that they had handled magical and astrological books at Paris
he pretends to command. This is one of the first appearances of the type and Odord late in the twelfth century is echoed by many more writers
of the sorcerer's applentice, which becomes more familiar in.the follow- in the late thirteenth century. Picatrix and the Liber luratus are merely
ing centuries, in law and literature alike. The aims of the magic described two of the most eloquent defenses of magic that the thirteenth century
in Picatrix are by now conventional: gain, afiection and favor, erotic produced. There were others, and there were those who read them and
compulsion, thaumaturgy, wcathermaking, and the creation of rvondrous Fracticed what they taught-not only miscalculating court astrologers
illusions. and physicians like Arnald of Villanova, Peter of Abano, and Cecco
Another thirteenth-century work that strongly defends magic was itselfr dAscoli, but lesser-known ffgures with less learned books whose presence

110
 Ltz The Sorceret's Apprentiee The Sorceret's APPrentice tt3
is attested to in a large number of court records dating from the end of vices of which it was accused. And it was in the world of the court that iI
the thirteenth century. Often, they worked in the service of powerful the earliest prosecutions on charges of magic took place.
ecclesiastical or temporal figures, but the power of their masters failed By the late twelfth century, most of the royal and princely courts of
to save most of them once they were caught, and they often took the Europe were growing out of the rudimentary itinerant households of the
brunt of punishment from which their employers were sometimes spared. tenth and eleventh centuries. The legitimacy and history of the ruling
As Picatrix and the Liber Juratus indicate, the appeal of magic grew in.y dvnasty was a matter of pride and interest to the court, and the wealth
, the thirteenth century, and the crime of magic entered both spiritual and j and splendor of the court testified to the power of its ruler. At the center
temporal courts.
| +---^.^I anrrrrc
of the court stood the lord-whether noble, bishop, pope or king, his
servants and family; these were surrounded by others who attended
court either by right or by influerrce. Seen as a household, the court was
MAGIC AND POLITICAL POWER: THE DEMIMONDE OF stafied with domestic servants and their supervisors, each with'clearly
THE THIRTEENTH.CENTURY defined functions. Seen as a center of political authority, however, even
domestic servants might wield power far beyond their status because of
In the mid-twelfth century, as noted in Chapter 2, John of Salisbury, their friendship, connections, or simple proximity to the lord. Although
Walter Map, and other moralists began to denounce a new set of vices, the thirteenth century witnessed the rise to power of great officers of
the vices peculiar to the court society that was just taking shape around state, the lords of courts just as frequently listened to individual favorites
them. In the Policrati,cus, lohn of Salisbury had warned that magicians, who often had no explicit authority. The court and its ruler were the
diviners, and soothsayers were particularly tempting to courtiers, and, - center of power, favor, wealth, and security, but the people who attended
much to John's dismay, courtiers were actively consulting them. By the court or worked there found that these gifts did not always circulate
, end of the thilteenth century, the magician's skills, or at least his litera- through clearly marked channels, but. were instead subject to obscure'
I ture, had increased immensely. Besides Caesarius of Heisterbach's clerical
influences, inexplicable favorites, momentary passions, the "hissings and
invokers of demons, William of Auvergne's academic magicianl-ail murmurings" not only of magicians, but of blood relatives, favorites,
-_\ Amila-irf Viilano"a's ^!.:gl_"-lgul mo_n-\s,there--ippedi?if iri ihiiGenth- mistresses, friends, clerics, and attendants. Throughout the world of the
i century courts another group of magicians. Those figures, whose history ,court there existed both a system of clear and unambiguous authority
has often been obsculed by the political interest in the events they helped r liand command and a system of subtle and pervasive influences that
to cause, found in the courts of the thirteenth century a particularly hos- iborrespondedto no known rank, status, title, or legitimate claim to power.
pitable welcome. In order to understand the appeal of courts for magi-) These systems were delineated more and more clearly in the course of
cians, apart from those observations made by John of Salisbury and others the thirteenth century. In their midst a shrer,vd and intelligent ruler might
a cenfury earlier, we must first consider the nature of courts themselves.t exploit these two systems to strengthen his own position and widen his
John of Salisbury was not, of course, the only writer who denounced accessto circles outside the court, as the ablest Byzantine emperors.had
the atmosphere of the court. Aside from many thirteenth-century done since the sixth century. Trapped within two conficting systems of
moralists, one need only indicate the references to courts that run through power, however, a weak or insecure ruler might be victimized by both.
Dante's Diaine Comedg, particularly the moving and bitter soliloquy of This parallel existence of formal and informal systems of power is the
Pierre de la Vigne inlnferno, canto 13. The climate of envy, deceit, the first distinctive feature of the medieval court.
struggle for precarious favor, the fate that hung on a ruler's whim or In addition to the ambiguities of power and infuence at the court,
impulse, and the difficulties that lay in wait for honest counsellors form thirteenth-cenfury rulers were also in the process of transforming the
a major, although generally unstudied theme of the Comedy.a In one or nature of the principality and kingdom itself, usually in favor of a cen-
another similar form they constitute a literary genre that extends down at tralized royal administration with a public, rather than a private, domestic
least to More's Utopia and into the seventeenth century.t Moralists and cnaracter. Thus, within the principality, the claims of the prince were
critics of the court tended to turn much of their literature of complaint oecoming increasingly novel and challenging the traditional reservoirs of
power and authority that traditionally lay outside the control
and satire into conventional invective. On the other hand, the institution of the king
of the court and its life corresponded genuinely to many of the ills and nrmself, whether vested in independent ecclesiastical properties, the
LT4 The Sorcerer'sApprentice ll5
The Sorcereis Apprentice
landed wealth of great families, the privileges of corporations and towns, tensions and succession problems were but two of the larger political
and even the libertas eccLesiae. Churchmen and great lay lords alike issuesthat plagued royal courts, but they are sufficient to indicate how
,found themselves either servants of the new central authority or outside I the daily atmosphere of the court-part domestic household, part public
lit completely. In spiritual and temporal affairs, the court and central r center of government-provided a particular: kind of arena in which
authority created its own servants, far more pliable and loyal than mighty l^rg", public issues worked themselves out in palticular ways.
subjects with power bases of their own. The household clergy of the tI
O.r" of these ways was public criticism. The literature of complaint
king-such as the Dominicans that surrounded the royal household in and satire has been well researched, as has the homiletic literature of the
Paris-and the growing number of bureaucrats, often of humble birth thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and the more formal and perrnissible
and dependent upon the mler alone for their advantage, could serve kinds of complaints, the graaamino submitted by convocations of bishops
royal interests more efficiently than quasi-independent prelates and lords and the requests submitted by councils and assemblies. These forms of
who could withdraw in times of danger or disfavor to their own virtually drssent and criticism remained well within the formal channels of public
independent domains. life. They say little to the question at hand. Other forms of criticism,
The afiairs of thirteenth-century courts were not, however, entirely however, were more effective. Gossip, slander, defamation, and other
governmental. Royal pastimes included hunting, entertaining, and con- varieties of influencing those in power flourished in the courts as nowhere
spicuously maintaining the visible style of a great prince. These occupa- else. Favor at court could wax and wane unpredictably even in the best
tions drew more people into the world of the court: huntsmen, grooms, and most open of circumstances. Such circumstances of court life might
actors, jugglers, mimes, the histriones against whom moralists had com- be explained by obvious reasons,but the court's potential for deviousness
plained since the eleventh century, singers, poets, musicians, and artists. and obscurity also suggested other explanations. The types of the wicked
Landless and penniless knights came as well, to compete in tournaments. advisor, the over-influential favorite, the treacherous queen, the envious
Courts included scholars, clelics of all sorts, often astrologers,physicians, prince, and the ambitious parvenu all fill the literature of the courts, and
and usually young people in service as pages and esquires. At its fullest, these types, far from being exclusively literary commonplaces, actually
the thirteenth-century royal court was packed with people from all social reflect some of the political and personal circumstances that the in-
ranks and occupations, and since government was the court's primary habitants of royal courts faced. It is among these surroundings that the
business, it was difficult to keep the different realms of the court sorcerers and their apprentices found a place Iate in the thirteenth
separated. century, although, if we are to believe John of Salisbury, they had been
The social reality of the court is important because it served as a setting drawn to the court at least a century earlier,
in which particular political tcnsions and problems came to the fore. The courts of the tlirteenth century, Iike the universities and the cities,
Although thirteenth-century kings were slowly turning their power into generated not only a population that was designated according to the
public power, they did so only at the expense of other traditional forms function of its particular members, but also a demimonde-in the broad-
1of power. Since criticism of the king was ill-advised, if not impossible, est senseof that term. the sense used bv Peter Brown when he discusses
criticism instead was aimed at those around the ruler, particularly those the rhetors, charioteers, holy men. and sorcerers of the fourth and fifth
who appeared to liave done nothing to warrant the royal favor and the centuries.TPoets and artists, physicians and astrologers,Iadies and gentle-
"The king's wicked advisors" becamel men in waiting, metcorically rising favorites, and itinerant holy men,
-*consequent power it brought them.
motif of royal criticism, one thal exonerated the king froml c_lerics,and various forms of entertainers may be said to constitute this
"orn]not demimonde. At home in the court. they often served figures inside and
direct blame and shifted many peoples' hostility over political changel
onto the shoulders of the king's servants.. In addition to the problem of outside the world of the court as advisers, gossips,go-bJt*eenr, panders,
criticism and political tension, the court also served as a mirror of suc- and confidants. Their ambiguous social status r"ir,"J as a bridge between
cession crises within the dynasty. In spite of the centrali zing of both ; courtiers and the world outside the court. Their positions gave
them
political theory and institutionr, ih" successionto the crown still partook , great mobility and access
to both information and influence. For those
of domestic law. Legitimatc and illegitimate claimants to the throne, as ; whose interesi was the advancement of self
and often corresponding harm
to others, the clemimond.e was
well as those in junior and cadet branches of the royal house who might indispensable. In an atmos^phere of fac-
tionalism, struggles
have a claim to succeed, should anything unexpected happen to the for favor, ambition, intense personal likes and dis-
normal course of heirs, all frequented the cll,.t as *ell. Geneial political ttres, the demimonde
constituted the personnel at the disposal of those
 116 The Sorcerefs Apprertice The Sorcerer'sAPPrentice tL7
who wished to take trdvantage of the informal and devious means of l cians existed, that their books existed, and that there was a widespread
acquiring power and favor. And the demimonde, wholly outside of any of them. In many respects, !g"!g-*B;-ovr.4's study of solcery in the
'I fear
role its members may have played in the prevalence of sorcery at the fourth and fifth centuries constitutes a model for the investigation of
court, was also an object of moral criticism and satire. The train of n \ sorcery at the courts of thirteenth-, fourteellth-, and fifteenth-cenfury
strange queen brought even more distasteful figures into court; the friends EuroPe.
of a prince, the current spiritual or astrological advisers of the lord, and From the twelfth century, the figure of the historical magician appears
the changing population of artists and entertainers replenished not only f,n ,orrt""t that have no reason to deny his existence. ln causa 26 of the
the demimonde of the court in reality, but provided ever new occasions Decretum, as we have seen, Gratian posits the not unlikely case of a
for denunciations of court life. priest who has been excommunicated as an unrepentant magician and
The role of this demimonde has never been of great interest to his- diviner by his bishop; Alexander III's letters tell of clerics accused of
torians, in one senseat least because it probably had little to do with the divining. Caesarius of Heisterbach takes it for an incidental common-
traditional and forrnal afiairs of state. We do not notice it in war, nor in place that a knight who wanted to call up the devil would find a cleric
fiscal affails, nor at the great court ceremonies and the operation of the who knew how to do such things, and Arnald of Villanova's De improba-
law courts. Rather, it served the individuals of the court in their private tiorw maleficarum discussesthe case of two monks who actually claimed
; ambitions and needs, usually behind the scenes, often secretly. Its very to do what Caesarius's priest did. Indeed, not only had magicians been
" value was its mobility, usefullness, position, ambiguous stafus, and denounced by the powers that one would expect-theologians and
ubiquity. And in return, it was protected, patronized, and enriched by lawyers-but they were denounced by other kinds of scholars as well.
those it aided, at least as long as it did nothing especially dangerous and Picatrix and the Liber luratu,r made formidable claims on behalf of magic,
did not get found out. It linked the aristocracy and others to the igfi'6m';ig-ih;iiiioUgi"ul criticisms of the thirteenth century, and even
*l.i purpoiiilifto el?:vate the magician to a kind of priestly status and to claim
magicians. - "
In a study published in 1972, Professor William R. Jones undertook an f or-indgic' ifii' stadiii of sci,entia, Faced with such a thir:teenth-century
investigation into "The Political Uses of Sorcery in Medieval Europe."' hiCldit;if i3-scaicbly possible to doubt that the accusers of sorcerers in
the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century political trials believed that the
Jones's richly documented. survey is very suggestive of the role played 'charges they levelled were real charges and that the accused had in fact
by sorcery at the royal courts of England and France and the papal court
committed the actions with which they were charged. It is entirely likely
between 1300 and 1450. Although Jones focuses upon the manipulation
of charges of sorcery by political agents dealing with political crimes, ;ithat many of the accused had done exactly what they were accused of
'doing.
his study is also important as an illustration of something more than the
There is, therefore, no reason to assume that the charges of magic in
realpolitik of ambitious royal servants and conniving kings and popes.
the trials discussed below were either cynical or fabricated, at least "
Jones' attitude toward the reality of the charges of magic that filled the insofar as their plausibility is concerned. Thirteenth-century people were
courts intennittently for a century and a half is sceptical, and he regards
well aware of the existence of magic books and magicians who used
the charges of sorcery more as a supplementary accusation than a real
them. The circumstances of the tria=lsinvolving politic;l sorcery will be
threat. As the foregoing chapters indicate, however, it is possible to take
shown to indicate that the particular circumstances in which the charges
a different view. The developmcnt of the magical arts between the late
were made strongly suggested the presence of sorcery, and in fact the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries was considerable; already in the mid-
trials of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries appear to have dealt with
twelfth century, John of Salisbury and others were complaining that real magicians.
courtiers were especially prone to employ them; the condemnations of
.; Peter Brown, following E. E. Evans-Pritchard, suggests that sorcery
these arts came not only from theologians and canon lawyers, but from .
,,rs best understood as a function of explaining misforfune on the part of
many other sources in the course of the century, including no less formid- those who consider themselves victims. Thus, it is important, for the
able thinkers than Roger Bacon and Arnald of Villanova; the courts as historian as for the anthropologist, to understand the ielationship be-
institutions were particularly vulnerable at the end of the thirteenth tween the accusers and the accused in witchcraft trials and to .rnd".-
century to the kinds of services magicians had to ofier. As we consider stand as well the reason why sorcery accusations are made in Iieu of other
some of these cases in the following pages, it is important to remember kinds of charges. Granted, Evans-Pritchard considers only the Azande
that belief in magic was not mere "superstition" around 1300, that ma$t:
 119
118 The Sorceret's Apprentice The Sorcerer'sAPPrentice
But some of the features
people, and Brown only fourth- and fifth-cenfury Rome. In a number of of course, was not that of late imperial Rome.
ways, however, Brown's model seems particularly applicable to the so- late Roman imperial life singled out in Brown's discussion suggest
of
ciety of the courts of late thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century oarallels with the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century courts of western
'E,r.op".
Europe. In the first place, Brown emphasizes that the magic practiced First, the late thirteenth century withessed considerable institu- l
in late imperial Rome was a learned magic, with its own discipline, litera- - government. In France
donal and administrative centralization of royal
ture, and professional practitioners. As we have seen in Chapter 1, Brown ttus was achieved by a graded system of lesser public officials throughout
argues that the great watershed between antique magic and medieval, the kingdom and a group of able and dedicated royal servants in Paris.
witchcraft occurred with the advent of a totally Christianized societyx In England, although the king had no group around him remotely com-
justiciar and
around the end of the sixth century. Then, oarable to the lawyers of Philip IV of France, he had a
i.""r,rr"r, and the careers of Hubert de Burgh, Peter des Roches, and
In Christian popular opinion, the sorcerer could no longer be tolerated in the r peter des Rivaux in the reign oFHenry III illuminate the balance among
community on the condition that he recanted his art; for he was now consideredi magnates,royal oficers, the bishops, and the king that accompanied and
to have abandoned his identitg; he had denied his Christian baptism. . . . The i chaiacterized centralization of English government. The great officers
power of sorceryis gained,not by skill, but by a compact,a sealeddocumenti of state in England were the objects of the envy of their rivals and the
deliveredover to the Devil, renouncingChrist, His Mother, and one'sbaptism.r-! fear of the magnates. Without being exclusively archtypical low-born
i favorites, they excited resentment against themselves and they attracted
As we have seen, Brown's model may help indeed to explain the relative -.lresentment that might otherwise have been directed against the king.
fearlessnessof Christians between the seventh and the eleventh centuries As Jones and others have pointed out, all of the following were charged
when faced with sorcery. In an age which geared its own legal institu- with one act of sorcery or another between 1232 and 1307: Hubert de
tions to the notion of immanent justice, it was understandable that a Qqrgh, Henry III's justiciar; Walter Langton, the treasurer of Edward I;
powerful and outraged God would strike down a sorcerer, either directly urd Adu^ Stratton, chamberlain of the exchequer under Edward I'10
or through the actions of formidable living saints, bishops, and abbots. These early charges suggest one target of charges of the use of magc:
As we have also seen, however, that certainty and seburity of a com- the officer of state whose actions, success,and power threaten to over-
pletely Christianized world began to slip during the Iate tenth and ride the balance among competing centers of power. In the case of
eleventh centuries. The revival of learning brought with it a revival of Hubert de Burgh, his enemies seemed to favor the great magnates; in
learned magic. Although theologians and canonists alike denounced most other cases,the resentment appears to have been directed against indi-
of its forms, astrologers and magicians made strong defenses, especially viduals whose favor with the king permitted them great power and
attempting to bifurcate the magical arts, condemning part of them as wealth. Adam Stratton is the low-born royal favorite par excellence, and
evil, but eagerly defending another part as praiseworthy. By the late Edward I is said once to have called out to him, in a remark that reveals
thirteenth century, the learned magician had returned with his discipline, .much about medieval humor, "Adam, Adam, where is the man I have
books, and professional-almost clerical-status. Even careful writers created?"
who distinguished between different kinds of magic, such as Roger Bacon These English cases are isolated episodes and suggest the lack of
or Arnald of Villanova, acquired reputations for practicing evil magic; English interest in sorcery much before the fifteenth century. This gen-
carelessmagicians, like Cecco d'Ascoli, were burned. The paradox of late eral lack of concern (except in the fifteenth-century cases to be consid-
thirteenth-century magic was that it necessarily ran afoul of the notion ered below) parallels England's general lack of concern for the later
of a completely Christianized society, but it also made strong claims to type of the witch as that type was supposed to fourish on the continent.
legitimacy and learning. The pagan image of the learned magician once The extensive descriptions of English cases of sorcery in the thirteenth
more confronted a Christian society, and that society could not. but regard and fourteenth centuries found in the work of Ewen and Kitteridge all
him ambiguously. As D. P. Walker has shown, the ambiguity between. point to a form of learned magic, which, if it is not as elevated as those
spirifual and demonic magic persisted down to the seventeenth century' defended by Picatrix and the Liber luratus, is nevertheless a skilled art,
The learned magician having returned, some of the circumstances that one practiced by clerics or learned individuals. The well-known case of
drove people to use magicians and to make accusations of magic against Dame Alice Kyteler in Ireland in L324 suggestsprincipally the opposition
others returned as well. The world of the late thirteenth-century courts', oetween a powerful and wealthy well-connected woman and an English
 120 TheSorcerefs Apprentice The Sorcerer'sAPPrentice l2r
Franciscan bishop, Richard Ledrede.l' The long confl.ict between the philip IV's minister, and it is possible that in Boniface's case, they were
bishop of Ossoryand Dame Alice clearly grew out of Alice's wealth and, , brought cynically. But in both cases, the charges were plausible. In the
power in the district and the wealth of her son. The bishop, allying him- ,l"ur"of Guichard, more graphically than in that of Boniface, they helped
self with Alice's enemies, Iaunched the charges of homicide and sorcerv l explain his behavior, his success, his power irv the court, and the deaths
which kept Kilkenny in a turmoil for several years. The importance of ; of members of the royal family. The charges against Boniface also ex-
the Kyteler case is that in it one may observe the sharpening of accusa-1 : plained his bitter and prolonged opposition to the roi tres chrdtien,
+ i^-.
tions ^of
f sorcery and
^-,] ^ . . ^ ^ : ^ + : ^ - . , ; + L ,with
association I^*^-- ^L^*^^+^;-+:^
demons characteristic ^{ ^+L^-
of ^-!
other epi I :
| PhiliP IV'
sodes of the fourteenth century. Wliat is also noteworthy about the 1 ,j Boniface VIII was not the last pope to be charged with sorcery, but
the most effective accusations of sorcery took place within the French
. Kyteler case is that it is the only signiffcant case of accusations of magic \ ,
,j in fourteenth-century England-and it failed. The bishop of Ossory's l , court itself.13 Enguerrand de Marigny, a rival of Guichard and one of the
"Charged with sorcery in 1314. Although
charges were comprehensive and sophisticated, but they were insufficient bishop's accusers, was himself
to overcome the local support Alice Kyteler evidently maintained. In originally accused of treason and misappropriating royal revenues, he
short, the Kyteler case, too, has a political air about it, although it falls was soon accused of using sorcery to escape from prison and destroy the
outside the great cases of political sorcery that erupted in France at the king. His wife, his sister and a sorceress were implicated with him' At
end of the thirteenth century. the same time, Pierre de Latilly, bishop of Chalons, and Raoul de
The French political sorcery trials fall into two groups. fn one group, Presles,two former seivants of Philip IV, also fell from grace and were
_..n,:l
the king and his servants Ievelled charges of sorcery against several high charged with employing sorcery. All of these cases, as Jones points out,
ecclesiastics, notably Guichard.bishop of Troyes,and Po_pe-*Ppg:fgg" 1consisted of attacks on parvenu royal servants by members of the royal
:J'- ,' I. llfamily or the high aristocracy. These powerful figures, whose actual
li:
VI I I. 1' In 1308Guichar?ila!"accusedof h"rring *11fOelg{6"^.4ffi
"r,. means of image-magic and of having used magic on other occasions as authority seems not to have coincided with tleir natural rank, launched
.,::'-' . ,'!,E
well.LikeAirefi"-trratton,Guichardwasaroyalfavorite,andhischarac- accusations against their opposites: men whose authority was great, but
ter and activities appear to have made him bitterly hated by many at whose social rank was low. In terms of Brown's model, the low-born
court. Accused of using a sorcerer to help him, Guichard, whether he servants of the crown, whose own status was uncertain and could change
at any moment, both made charges of sorcery and were the victims of
actually used sorcery or not, was the victim of the court, of the milieu in
these charges. Unlike the fourth-century Roman emperors, the kings of
which the use of magic was widely recognized. Philip IV's accusations :
England and France could not protect their servants and favorites by
against Boniface VIII are also part of a long and complex emnity that -
placing them in a strictly graded bureaucracy beneath themselves. The
had its roots in Boniface's Italian affairs as well as in his conflict with
Philip IV. Although the charges against Boniface are probably baseless, 1 Power of the royal servants was less speciffc and therefore more vulner-
+ able to those who hated and resented them. The great aristocrats who
they mark an interesting step in the conflict between spiritual and
engineered the falls of Enguerrand de Marigny and Pierre de Latilly
, temporal authority. During their political quarrel, Philip was able to
accused them of other crimes besides sorcery, but the accusation of sor-
defend some of his actions against Boniface by appealing to doctrines
cery covered the very real threat that these men posed of somehow
both agreed on. But Boniface ultimately parted from Philip, and the
, managing to return to power, by the same elusive means they had suc-
king of France was obliged to maintain his own security and his control rceeded .
in before. It should also be noted that the accused were not .
over the French church against a formidable and articulate pope. After charged with performing acts of sorcery themselves but of having the
Boniface's death, the charge of sorcery was employed because charges of assistance of professional sorcerers and sorceresses,people whose pres-
doctrinal heresy would have been canonically difficult to prove and un"9 was well known and who were from the very demimonde of the
because the other crimes with which Boniface was charged stemmed U'
world around the court.
from traditional antipapal invective of the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
turies. The charge of sorcery against Boniface was, in its way, an in-l - The next round of sorcery accusations in ftgnce came in 1316, when .
Mahaut of Artois, the mother-in-law of philipV, *as aicuse"d-dflhaving
genious device for attacking a pope who was protected from other 1r,," ..
sorcery practiced upon the king in order to restore his afiection for herl
charges, such as that of heresy, and whose authority, in theory at least,,
Udaughter.t+ Erotic magic too was part of the repertoire of the fourteenth-
was iuperior to that of the king. The accusations against Boniface and 'century
sorcerer. ]ones draws some general conclusions from the nature
Guichard both may have been engineered by Guillaume de NogargL
 r22 The Sorcereis Apprertice 123
The Sorceret's APPrentice
of the victims of sorcery accusations that are very suggestive. First, hq ,
notes that royal advisers, especially those with no personal rank and i fightly. The sorceler's apprentices were destroyed in the conflicts of the
oJwerful, having become involved in the affairs of the great and the
status of their own, were accused of using sorcery to attain their fortune
powerful through their place in the demimonde of the court. Their de-
and power. Second, "members of collateral branches of ruling dynasties,
i *",ion contributed an important element t6 the thirteenth- and four-
especially the ladies of cadet families, who were the symbols of dynastic
teenth-century hostility to magic and to its concept of the magician. It
controversy, likewise provided the focus for accusations of this kind." In
brought the magician into the court-not the court of the Inquisition nor
, Ibotli of these instances, opposition came from those whose own interests
lwere blocked by the accused. The charge of sorcery itself, rather than that of the village, but the royal court, where the traditional protected
I status of those accused of magic no longer helped. Powerful royal or
(or along with) other crimes, was necessary to explain the power the '
princely patrons could not withstand the command of the royal court. In
accused exercised over the king without criticizing the king's judgement,
ih" of Mahaut of Artois, ip particular, the king himself was willing
and this device seems to have been a discovery of the reign of Philip IV. "ur" the charges public and stand by the final outcome, so seriously
to make
During his father's reign Pierre de la Broce played a role similar to those
did he take them. When ffgures like Enguerrand de Marigny, Guichard
played by Guichard de Troyes and Enguerrand de Marigny; but, as far
of Troyes, and Mahaut of Artois could be brought to court, the magicians
as is known, the accusation of enchanting the king was not made. A gen-
they had employed had no defense against prosecution themselves. In
eration later, it was. It remains to inquire into the atmosphere that t11di-
c"e'qSry-.a.nu.$-b-cl.-o1..g1o..11p9,.
the first _qll?+-e"I_gf*-Ibg.tqg,r!g"uth.
encouraged accusations of sorcery against such specific groups at the *"rn*e
4LUur41:14.:.Y.roi ,wrrY11Y1^4.1:2
royal court of France.
hnry;ru"t.;a-
flulraly
PruLsursu ;;;i";i
454urrr u"
"1" "u 9* *ii"t'"'urt -b .,;.ut!'.";stl1,",
yv-Y:-..+r"v...y.sai+"";3Ya.jY:-.jd

CaaaotffAj;6libecaire the
':-"_" " "-- ffrst mogiger to be burned for his ideas and {
We have already seen that these accusations usually fell into two - p.'r,"" -"r"
i#;"'*
for sorCery; th" ;;;;f figures
the great n th-cJ'i.,iv
iit ru,,Tt""n ry France were nl,o'
also
areas: first, high-born members of the royal family ol upper aristocracy ""i;;;*;;r
aalled to trial on charges of sorcery. When such power and position failed
made sorcery charges against low-born, but very highly placed and
to protect its members from accusation and even conviction, the sorcerer's
powerful royal servants, usually after the king's death. Sorcery was an
apprentices had little chance of escaping, and few of them did. The case
explanation for the rise of the favorite, his domination of the king, and
of Alice Kyteler is important in this context precisely because Alice did
the grounds for an accusation of treason. Charges of sorcery also ex-
escape,if only barely, by exploiting her personal connections and be-
plained the failure of the aristocracy itself to achieve the position held by
causethe charges of Richard Ledrede were not taken seriously. But the
the parvenu counsellor. Second, ladies of cadet branches of the royal charges were ominous, and even Alice's wealth and power only barely
family, as Jones points out, stood to profft from interruptions of tlie saved her from one form of condemnation or another.
nafural pattern of succession,and amatory and erotic magic was a con- By the second quarter of thc fourteenth century, the legal machinery $
-#ell,
sistent part of the magical arts, one which especially troubled canonists. of papal andToyaf courts, and episcopal cotrrts as wal beginning t; I
There is, however, an important third aspect of these trials and accusa- a_cc-!-p! t
gliarges'of.ioi:cery an{ to achlevc convictions. The sorcerer brought
, tions: the magicians themselves. The great figures were rarely accused to court wai not, of course, the magus of the philosophers. Sorcery had
of performing magic themselves, but of using professionals to do it for become democratized, and the small magicians who fitted the competence
them. These professionals were members of their own entourage or part of the courts became the predecessors of the later humble witches. A
of the demimonde of the court, and they were very familiar with the theory of magic and its dangers and errors that was designed for a
unseen workings of favor and danger in tbe world of the court. It is im- learned, dangerous, and powerful sage was applied to lesser magicians in
portant to note that they were never the full-fledged sorcerers found in the fearful and insecure atmosphere of the court.
John of Salisbury's
theologians' and scientists' denunciations, although the chalges brought warning to courtiers a century before was repeated, not by humanist
against them derived from denunciations of precisely the high and power- l moral critics, but by the most powerful ffgures of the early fourteenth
ful magician. Instead, they were lesser figures-in a sense,.sorcerers' cenfury, and it was being repeated in the context of accusation, trial, and
'
apprentices-who were employed professionally because of their skills conviction. The crimen magiae was, in a very real sense,"on the books"
i
and reputations. The whole apparatus of denouncing magicians was after the early fourteenth century. Its practitioners were already those
levelled at these minor servants, hangers-on, domestic magicians, sor'- trom the indistinct demimonde of courtiers and servants who sustained,
cerer's apprentices, thereby putting upon them the brunt of the charge, the machinery and intrigue of court life. They were charged in the hard-
and often convicting them rirhen theii patrons were let ofi or punished est terms extant with political interference. By the early fourteenth cen-
 t.-'

The Sorcerer'sApprentice The Sorcerefs APPrentice t25

12,1
tury, political structures had become extraordinarily sensitive to inter- courtiers. In England as in France and Avignon, the charges aired in the
-
ference of all kinds, and the sorcerers appeared among the most dan- , Lughest of courts struck down a few of the rnighty and many of their
gerous enemies of the state. The question of whether sorcery was heretical ,l lesier servants. The convicted magicians were clearly from a far lesser
or not did not need to be asked: it was clearlv treasonous. and it. social rank than of the powerful figures they' were employed by; they
societv at its most imnortant
r dfu*fi4as@r$4*r/$?@a-.w8
a legrnmate concern ot tempora
ant level,
lev
.

that
.a
.:: : - *-,,e-".6.-i'-.+n

victims brought its

if**'ffiL
. -i

came from an unprotected status-they were not magistri, royal relatives,

or members of the great religious orders. And they did not necessarily
practitioners out of the world of the court into the courtroom. And aI- function only at royal or papal courts, although it was in those settings
though in the trials the magicians looked diminished and hardly like the that they first became vulnerable to prosecution. Long before the first
figures depicted in Picatrir and the Liber luratus, or even like those village sorceressesbecame witches, the victims of the trials at Paris, West-
described by Aquinas and William of Auvergne, they were convicted minister, and Avignon already llad created a public image of the magi-
-] because they were believed to practice the same condemned arts. ft was cian-one who need not be remote and mysterious but who came from a
order that was supervised and scrutinized by many different law
difii-cult-to bring a full-nedgad magician iiito'bourt except iii the case of ' lsocial
Cecco d'Ascoli, but the great magician in the abstract had been the focus I courts and magistrates. The courts concentrated upon the efficacy of the
of a unanimous condemnation that was applied to considerably lesser magician s acts, their intention, and the status of their victim, not par-
figures with great success. If the shadowy assistants of Guichard de ticularly upoir the magician's learning and skill. The magician need no
longer be a magifier, not even a magister necromantiae; his skills could
f Troyes, Enguerrand de Marigny, and Mahaut of Artois could be con- '
be more easily acquired, and behind him, or her, lurked the shadow of
| ,.ict"a of the crime of magic, any magician could. Anyone accused of magic books had come
I maleficium could be brought to trial before the secular courts, and, as the the demon. The warning of thirteenth-century
fourteenth century wore on, ecclesiastical courts entertained the charge true: the sorcerer's apprentice could indeed run into diffculty by care-
as well. There was no need for an abstract magician; lesser professional lessly or ignorantly employing the art. But the difficulties were far more
magicians did as well, and they were easier to apprehehd and convict, consequential than being carried ofi by a demon. They consisted of being
for they used their arts on the most vulnerable, and therefore the most brought to trial in a real court by fearful judges.
apprehensive victims of all, the popes and the kings of France and
England."
THE CASE OF THE TEMPLARS
The first quarter of the fourteenth century did not see the last of the
casesof political sorcery in France, but similar cases appeared in greater
The case initiated in France in 1307 to destroy the order of Knightl
numbers in Eng1eritr-begniiiliiig-at the end of the Reign of Edward II-I.-"
Templars may be considered as another step in the process whereby j
_ The kipg, again dominated by a favorite-in this case his mistressfuligirl
.fs11s15-was said to be enchanted by her at a time when the judgement , accusationsof sorcery and related activities were brought into fourteenth- f
;f-tfie king was. in question becaqrse of his great age and physical de- ! century law courts.l' This case developed in the light of the general f
awareness of magic in the late thirteenth century, the particular atmos- ]
: terioration."In 1419 Joal qf-Ng-""er.rd,stepmother of Henry V, was accused phere of court life that encouraged both its use and the accusation of its I
iof practicinf ;iigi" io the death of her late husband, Henry
use against certain vulnerable figures, and the trials and accusations fgg[
'IV. The charges made """o*putt against Humphrey of Gloucester's wife, Eleanor
sorcery themselves that began around 1301. The story of the fall of the
Cobham-of using magic against the young Henry Vl-were siniiffi[o
Templars has been told many times, often badly, infrequently with sense
iffiii?hde against Mahaut of Artois a century earlier.'6 Dy" t!e-.-r"$- and insight. The best modern versions are those of Mollat, Finke, and
a successio4cflsis_s:qilfl!g-th+
ffteenth century, England experienced Lizerand, and recent years a good secondary literature on aspects of the
pf France around 1316, and the key figures involved were so porvertul
subject has accumulated. Norman Cohn, in his recent sttdy Europe's
/that charges of sorcery werc virtually the only ories that coul-{ Safely he Inner Demons,.discussesthe Templar case in the context of accusationsof
I made. Again the victims of tlre trials were thc magicians, in this case sorcery, heresy, and idolatry as a necessary prelude to later witchcraft
,'the cleri-cs BolingbT6t[*6-nd-soritliwell'bnd the profe'ssional sorceress persecutions.l8 In this section Cohn's argument will be reviewed and sup-
' li" Once again the accusation of sorcery was hurled
V".g"ry Jourdemayne.
i\'back plemented with other material gathered from the context of this study.
and forth among the most powerful figures in the kingdom, but the The Templars, like othel religious orders, notably the mendicants, were
convictions were of Iesser folk, the demimonde of the court and the
 L26 The Sorcerer's Apprertice The Sorcerer'sAPPrentice L27
a privileged ecclesiastical corporation subordinate only to the pope. Un- 1306 and the confiscation of their goods. It is dificult to see, as some
like the mendicants and the universities, which ingratiated themselves historians have, Philip s destruction of the Templars as exclusively the
with both spiritual and temporal power, by the early fourteenth century cynical manouver of a financially pressed monarch. The studies of E. A. R.
,the Templars had become an immensely wealthy, cosmopolitan, and Brown and others show that Philip's attitude'toward financial problems
independent entity with its headquarters in Paris and its functions par- and the steps he took to alleviate them were shaped by an acute royal
taking far more of the worldly affairs of its banking houses and property conscience and a genuine concern for the morality of his actions and,
than its spiritual or cmsading purpose. In a sense, the Templars had lost hence, his own salvation. On the other hand, there were other forces at
their one rationale for existence and, as Cohn points out, they neither work besides the debatable grand design that shaped Philip's attitude
continued their work in the eastern Mediterranean, as did the Hospi- toward those he thought were a spiritual danger to the kingdom. The
tallers, nor did they ffnd a new area of military activity against non- credibility, at least, of Philip's bcliefs about the Templars is suggested by
Christians, as did the Teutonic Knights. It may be worthwhile to add that the trial of Bernard Saisset, bishop of Pamiers, Philip's accusations
they also failed to cultivate the protection of the king, as did a number against Boniface VIII, and the elements of sorcery that we have seen on
of the Spanish military orders. The economic and ecclesiastical advan- many minds in the thirteenth century. They were consistent with what is
tages of the Templars, like the privileges and wealth of court favorites, known of Philip's devout and acute conscience,made more acute by the
generated widespread and sustained hostility among clerical and Iay seriousness of the charges launched against Philip himself in his duel
circles alike. Philip IV of France, their great antagonist and ultimate with Boniface VIII. The Templars were the servants of the very papacy
destroyer, is a ffgure about whom historians still fail to agree. The stand- that had accused Philip of extraordinary crimes and offensesagainst God
ard view of Philip's motivation in his destruction of the Templars is that and the Church. Philip countered the charges of tyranny and oppression
of the king's desire to confiscate the Templar wealth, especially after the with charges of idolatry, heresy, fornication, and sorcery. The Church
ruinous defeat suffered by France at Courtrai in 1302 and the tensions that had condemned Philip had to be proven to be not the true Church,
with Boniface VIII. Cohn suggests an alternative view, one that sees , but a blasphemous parody of the Christian Church, and the parody
Philip as a mystic, possessedof a grand design (inspired by Ramon Lull i;Church was that which Philip and his advisers accused the Templars of
and others) of combining a vast crusade and conversion mission supported Jserving.Unable, and probably unwilling to accuse Rome, Philip contented
by an army composed of the combined orders of the Templars and himself with denouncing Boniface individually, and the Templars as a
Hospitallers and led by a ruler known as "Bellator Rex," who would surrogate Church. The charges against the Templars read like an inver-
eventually become king of Jerusalem. Philip, according to this view, sion of Christian belief : Christ was denied, idols were worshipped, sacra-
would himself become "Bellator Rex/King of Jerusalem," turning the ments were not respected. The leadels of the order were a kind of surro-
government of France over to his son. gate clergy. The initiation ceremonies involved lascivious acts that in-
To be sure. Cohn's own work on millenarian movements and the work , ' cluded homosexuality; the purpose of the order was to enrich itself.
of J. N. Hillgarth on Lullism in fourteenth-century France strongly indi- li Finally, the order met in secret, at night. These charges, spread out over
cate that such ideas were in the fourteenth century air, and not only in I27 articles. can be compared to traditional anticlerical invective and
Paris.ls The problem in this case is the personality and view of Philip IV, reformist criticism: antisacramentalism and idolatry directly contradicted
for other schools of thought portray Philip as a shrewd, realistic, hard- the Church's great thirteenth-century emphasis upon sacraments,particu-
headed pragmatist, who would have nothing, for example, to do with larly that of the consecratedhost. Idolatry, as we have seen, was a charge
such proposals as that of Pierre du Bois, whose De recuperatione terrae Iaunched against the Church by heretics in the twelfth century aid
sanctae displays just the sort of prophetic, reformist millenarian tone that ' against heretics themselves in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Idola-,
'i try
Cohn seesin the grand design. was also one of the most important allegations cited in the growing
As the preceding section may suggest, it is necessaly to disagree condemnation of magic and sorcery. This was evidenced especially by
the use of book l0 of St. Ausustine's De Cioitate Dei bv Aquinas and
with both of these views of Philip in order to reach some understand-
other theologians. Sexual laxit'y was a common item in aniiclerical invec-
ing of the reason for his attack on the Templars and the accusations
tive. Secret meetings were condemned in the thirteenth century as they
made by him and his officials against them. First, Philip was in extra-
had been in scholls and heretical satherinqs in the twelfth. These
o ordinary financial straits after 1305, and his ffnancial demands on his
charges, and the extraordinarily grotes{ue illuslrations of them contained
own subjects were followed by the expulsion of the Jews of France in
 128 ' i
The Sorcerefs Appreffiics
The Sorcerer's Apprentice 12g
in the full accusations, were circulated throughout the kingdom by royal
servants who had had much experience in conveying the king's opinions to the abuses of laymen and wicked clergy. In order to correct that
vulnerability the Church had to possess the independence and authority
to a larger public. The fall of Acre in 12gl sharpened Christian con-
to protect itself. It built those characteristics in its internal strengthening
sciousness of the divine wrath, which was the common explanation for
in the twelfth century and in its external dealings with temporal authori-
crusade failures: the sins of the christians prevented God from favoring
ties, emperors and kings. By the late thirteenth century, temporal au-
them with victory. The sins of the Templars could also be blamed for the
thorities, too, could exploit this sense of vulnerability. England and
loss of Acre. Thus fq1, the argument suggests that Philip could have
France complained of their powerlessness to prevent papal exploitation
, co+1,ci_en!t*ly believed the charges aga!49t the T-emplars without hav--
).
rj ing been either a millenarian visionary of their ecclesiastical resources; royal authority to tax was regarded as
or a financial opportunist.
contingent upon a state of emergency, usually an invasion or threat of
Were the charges true? It is impossible to avoid agreement with Finke
invasion from without the kingdom, or a revolt within it. Sorcery too
and Cohn and to say that they were not. Were they credible, not only to
threatened the king through the court, and it threatened the kingis
the general public, but to Philip himself? The answer should be affirma-
"natural" advisers by enabling upstart favorites to override their own
tive. Philip's conscience, the attack on Boniface and Bernard Saisse! the
rights. It threatened ambitious regents or heirs apparent by interfering
expropriation of the Jews, the atmosphere of suspicion and frustration at
with the natural order of succession. It threatened whole kingdoms when
court which lashed out against Guichard de Troyes in 1308, again at the
it was practiced by wealthy, powerful, and independent institutions
memory of Boniface in 13ll and left a legacy of hostility that turned
within the kingdom. Just as heresy was the Church's focus of vulnerability,l
against Enguerrand de Marigny and Pierre de Latilly in 1314, all sug-
sorcery was the state's. The presence of magicians and idolaters threat-l
gest that Philip was prepared to believe in the truth of the accusations.
ened not only the king personally, Iiterally putting his salvation in doubt,
Similar, if not as ambitious and elaborate, accusations were made against
but it also threatened to bring the wrath of God down upon the kingdom.
Beguines and Beghards, and there was an old vocabulary of invective
To be evil in early fourteenth-cenfury France in this sense was to do
against closed corporations whose activities were carried on in secret.
what the Templars were accused of doing, to employ sorcery for per-
To fill out the charges, there was the testimony of witnesses and con-,
sonal ends as advisers and relatives of the king were accused of doing.
fessions made by some members of the order itself. In these, rather than
* For these were the dangers by which the kingdom measured its own
in the charges themselves, there occur the elements that connect the I vulnerability. And institutions growing stronger do so by declaring them-
charges against the Templars with the common beliefs of heresy and ;'i selves vulnerable, in danger. They learn how to take the appropriate
magic among clerical and lay writers of the thirteenth century: infanti- " stept to offset that vulnerability, and in doing so they acquire new
bide, magical potions to bind those who drink them to the secrets of the strengths.
1 brder forever, Iasciviousness, and the renunciation of Christ and the wor-
'ship
of idols. These lesser accusations and confessions link the maior
charges against the Templars firmly to contemporary beliefs concerning MAGICIANS AND POPES IN THE EARLY
heretics and magicians. FOURTEENTH CENTURY
I The case against the Templars, like the political sorcery trials that
shortly followed it in France, Avignon, and England, brought two major The accusations against Boniface VIII and the Templars made by the
-
i criminal elements into accusationsof sorcery: a speciffc and central accu- king of France and the scurrilous invective that circulated against Boni-
I sation of idolatry, which, as we will see in the next chapter, became a face in Italy throughout his pontificate, helped to introduce the idea that
i major concern in the criminal character of sorcery, and the consciousness ctlarges of blasphemy, sorcery, and idolatry could be launched against
: of a fearsome attack on a vulnerable Christianity. The vulnerability of pgp" himself.'zoIndeed,.Clgggq*Y_waq,h-im_self.the_$ubjeat..qla num-
Christendom was first declared in the twelfth century at the onset of ln"
Per-.-o{zumors, and Augustin:G friumphus of Ancona dedicated 6 hil";
heterodox movements. It appeared just as the outward expansion of book warning of the grave dangers of consulting diviners and other hnds
Christian conversion of pagans came to a halt, and it was encouraged by
9t magtr"ians.Augustinus' treatise appears to repeat conventional theo-
the dream of world reform that inspired Gregorians and heterodox Chris- togical and canonist denunciations of these practices. As if these
circum-
tians alike. Such a declaration of vulnerability was, in fact, a way toward stances were not enough to trouble the papacy, the
early years of
increased power: as the Gregorians claimed, the Church was r.rrlnerable ,, Qlegentlq,sgcggilo,
j,:*lSb3-{Lll.-Ufe*gbtXqir'-eg_+m"ylties.'Themove

I
I
 lB0 TheSorceret's Apprentice The Sorcerer'sApprentice 131

of the papacy to Avignon, not yet clearly a long sojurn, had increased the centuries did not require especial fear of sorcerers or excessive "super-
factionalism among the cardinals and their courtiers and servants; papal otittpp" in oftlbrfo_r*rulers'to make bhaige3-6T-in6!idTif tliis- in6iaii'ce,
lnor"At"'r s"epiicirm oT-Jolirii allegdd-'ciedulity ii probably correct,
finances were exhausted, and the administrative machinery that later
and further prosecutions of 1319 and 1320 unc6vered more magicians and
marked one of the few successesof the Avignon papacy was not yet in
place. In addition, in I3l4 and the following years, further trials for instituted further trials. The year 1320'Milan
witnessed the uncovering of a
-kil!-
plot engineered by G aleaizo Vit66ffi ;f td tf e .p_op{tiy- means
, sorcery were troubling the royal court of France. In 1317, John.XXl -3f 'aeonite'and-rm'dge"i1iegic.
AC Thrirndiie'points out, thii episode also
i faced the case of Hugues G6raud, bishop of Cahoit, who rlras aa'iUiHA
j arid-convict'ird of d-ttempting to take the'-pope's life by means of sorcery i;id%;Gs-tilat'Ddiitij Alighieij was acquiring the reputation of a magi-
j cian, because Gal,eazzois alleged to have said that he had tried and
pbison." Other cases of sorcery at the papal court were discovered
""a failed to bring Dante to Milan tq perform the necessarymagic.
t ind-ir 1319 Bernard Delicieux was tried and convi.cted of the possessio,n
In 1320 a letter from William, cardinal of Santa Sabina, to the inquisi-
I of magic books. although hc escaped a condemnation for the actual prac-
f o"g- of ,or""ryi" Virtually from the very beginning of his pontiffcite, tors of Carcassone and Toulouse urged them with papal permission to
undertake the investigation of sorcerers within their jurisdictions:
fiohn XXII was involved in the problem of criminal sorcery, this time
["ittri" the papal court itself. Our most holy father and lord, by divine providence Pope John XXII, fervently
The case of Hugues G6raud suggests parallels with several of those desiresthat sorcerers,the infectors of God's flock, flee from the midst of tl-re
who were tried around the same time in France. Il d! cases,professional house of God. He ordains and commits to you that, by his authority against
magicians were accused and confessed and appeii in fact to have com- them who make sacriffceto demons or adore them, or do homage unto them by
giving them as a sign a written pact or other token; or who make certain bind-
mitted the crimes they were accused of. The magic they practiced was
ing pacts with them, or who make or have made for them certain images or
either harmful or amatory, but in both instances it was of a kind clearly
other things which bind them to demons,or by invoking the demonsplan to
forbidden, and explicitly forbidden during the course of the thirteenth
perpetrate whatever sorceries they wish; or who, abusing the sacrament of
century, when its practices and substance became better known. Its con- baptism, themselvesbaptize or cause to be baptized an image of wax or of
demnation did not impede its development, and although it is difficult to some other material; and who themselvesmake these things or have them
gauge the statements of Roger Bacon and Arnald of Villanova and the made in order to invoke the demons; or if unknowingly they have baptism,
"pope and cardinals" of the preface to the Liber luratus, these diverse orders, or conffrmation repeated; then, conceming sorcerers, who abuse the
sources reflect a genuine concern that the prqcllce q,f fqggic:eas*Pra- sacramentof the eucharistor the consecratedhost and other sacramentsof the
- ,.,, liferating at an alarming rate. This certainly seemed to be the case in the Church by using them or things like them in their sorcery,you can investigate
,; years immediately following 1316 at Avignon. lqf3*lqjgbgtt-Mel,"zuig and otherwiseproceed against them by whatever means available,which are
.,1
archbishop of Aix, was chargt'd with magical practices, although he--Y3l canonicallyassignedto you concemingthe proceedingagainstheretics.Indeed,
1.'oi'
i - our same lord amplifies and extends the power given to Inquisitors by the law
not convicted. Robert appears to have become attracted to astrologic,al
:,'" as much as the oftce of the Inquisition against heretics, and, by his certain
magic during his student days at Bologna and to have continued th-a-!
knowledge,likewise the privilegesin all and singular casesmentionedabove.2s
interest, along with deplorable incompetence as a prelate, at Aix.23In the
same year, John XXII condemned several clerics at Avignon for possessing In 1258, as noted above, Pope Alexander IV rvas asked by inquisitors
and using ihe books and instmments of magic. ,The case of Bernard whether or not sorcery came under their purview. Alexander's answer,
r; j Delicieux in 1319 was follorved in the same year by a letter to the diocese which was part of a series of statements dealing with the scope of the
en-
Si" Lt, of Poitiers, in which the pope told of a case of sorcery that he had inquisitors' inquiries, was included in the Liber Sextus,Boniface VIII's
-O Sl$t colrltered earlier when he was a judge. A woman, accused of sorcery gr-eatlawbook, in 1298.'6The ordinary gloss to the Liber Sextus was com-
" i-.qs
'$1 (maleficiurn) refused to confess until she was tortured, when she con- piled by
Johannes Andreae around t500, and Johannes's comment on
i"rr"d all.'n Hugues Geraud was not the ffrst sorcerer that John XXII Alexandeis text noted that:
encountered.
[Sorcery and divination that clearlg .saoorof heresy include] praying at the
It is not necessary to posit flom these cases between 1317 and 1319 a-ltarsof idols, to ofier sacrifices,to consult demo.rs, to elicii i"rponr", fro..,
that John XXII was parttularly afraid of witches. As was the case with -
rnem, . or to associatepublicly with heretics in order to predict the future
r r[uP
/liffrifii Y , h-g
IIV, lrc *as
_w4J
sJPsvr4rr/ in.aa p-o1ltion!o be-f
erie-cially, rrr ictim-iz-ed,bf,rattacts-g;
uv-rJr--Y!t!]4:.*-.Y/
by m"u.r, of the body a.rd blood oi Chrirt,
NTgg"*"s, ,1ttd ttte An"|.1 ttt" lo-f" thirteenih and eafy four!9-e1$ "t".
 TheSorceret's Apprentice 133
132 The Sorcerer'sAPPrentice
William of Santa Sabina's letter specifically charges the inquisitors of collections of canon law, the Extraoagantes, it would seem simply that
Carcassone and Toulouse with carrying out, in effect, precisely the in- they were not necessary. Alexander IV's decretal and Johannes Andreae's
structions that Alexander IV's letter and Johannes Andreae's gloss issue: ordinary gloss were in no way exceeded by,these letters. The letters
the sorcery they are to prosecute is precisely that kind of sorcery that simply mobilized a permission that was implicit in the earlier papal let-
manifestly savors of heresg. ter, and by the mid-fourteenth century, inquisitors, bishops, popes, and
In 1323 or L324 Bernard Gui wrote one of the most widely circulated secular magistrates alike knew very well in what ways sorcery and magic
manuals of inquisitorial procedure.2T As a number of historians have could automaticallyE6Criinii heretical. The importance of ihe;;ieili does
noted, Bernard's manual says nothing whatever about'"vlitct--qg$" but iicit-lie-in tiieir relation to canon law-except insofar as they were in
it does mention sorcerers of the kind encountered by John XXII and nerfect conformity with it-but rather in the conviction that magic*1vg,C.4d,"
anticipated by Alexander IV and Johannes Andreae, and it contains a Iourirhi"g u"a that actionhad+o be taken to:i6f-fi:Tff6fdTrlo *"r.
formula for abjuration by a sorcerer.'s Bernard describes precisely the i" the seirciii&'ffi6dfiiii|"'it"3fi6fiIifBridrsdy:ffere, ri,ith a
kind of sorcery condemned in william of santa sabina's letter of 1320. "irrigttt "p
exceptions, the same sort of people convicted in France. They were
few
As we will see in the next chapter, this view of the inquisitor's duty to not the high, learned magicians, but their assistants, the sgB}^pr3g,'ti;_". -.'
prosecute charges of sorcery was continued in the even more influential tioners of the art-clerig-s,.. mg.nkt,.Jaynen and' laywomen, uU.ffiffiiii<jirii
inquisitor's manual of Nicholas Eymerich, written in 1376 and widely nmgic"ilil:'Tlief*wei; ;i;o fror.r the dernirnond.e of the court and the
circulated through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is in t6fitfi;'idial and papal. As the fourteenth century wore on and the charges {
Eymerich's manual that the first text is found of a decretal issued by
* of political sorcery became diverted into other channels, the charges of I
specula' maleficent or heretical sorcery continued to be launched without inter- rl
J:Ti).I"t:-: ]-t3.?:"j"'"'ittius ruption at the same kind of people, usually from the middling and poorer j|1
,, Grievingly we observe . . . that many who are Christians in name only . . .1 classesof court, town, and clergy. The learned sorcerer had generated the fl
'
f sacriffce to demons, adore them, make or have made images, rings, mirrors;i hostility which was vented on the sorcerer's apprentice.
'."*tt phials, or other things for magic purposes, and bind themselves to demons.i
^Th"y'urk The actions taken by John XXII have been shown to be perfectly con-
\
and receive responses from them and to fulffll their most depraved sistent with the views of Alexander IV on the Inquisition's competence
lusti ask them for aid. Binding themselves to the most shameful slavery for the to try cases of magic. In 1270, a Summa de offi.cio inquisitionis gave a
most shameful of things, they allay themselves with death and make a pact with formulary for the interrogation of idolaters and maleficii.'o The interroga-
hell. By their means a most pestilential disease, besides growing stronger and tory begins with the associationof mateficii and demoni" irrvo""Uon t
increasingly serious, grievously infests the flock of Christ throughout the world. "?a ,rrl-:.,
'
By this *" warn in perpetuity, guided by the sound counsel of our
it goeson to enquire about love- or hate-magic,necromancy,the obser- ,ri i -
"di"t v."qtion
of auspieious-
or inausp-iciot*Ef;ffi;m"Alslapti-# g iniages,'l 1
biothers, all and singr-rlar who have been rebom at the baptismal font. In virtue
q1d gthgr magical gfign9es4heady cle",arlycg4{emn-qdirr.caqp-r-r*le*and'^'
of holy obedience ..rd ,rnd". threat of anathema we wanr them in advance that
recognizedin JohannesAndreae'sglossas manifestlysavoringof heresy.
none of them ought dare to teach or learn anything at all conceming these
perverse dogmas, or, what is even more execrable, to use any of them by what-
When Berrrard Gui wrote the Practica inquisitionis in L32314,at the I '
ever means for whatever purpose. . . . We hereby promulgate the sentence
of height of
John XXII's prosecutions of magicians, he too focused on
excommunication upon all and singUlar who against our most charitable warn- sortilzgiunt and dioinatores. ln his manual. Gui included formularies of
they the abjuration of magical practices and for the degradation of clerics (re-
ings and orders presume to engage in these things, and we desire that
incur this sentence iPso facto.2s Ilglous or secular clergy) convicted of practicing magic. In Avignon, at
,ab-ou1the same time, ihe jurist Oldradus da _P_o;g!g;;gt
super lllius specula illustrates the vehemence with which sorcerers' b:lta]f of a marr acc,rsed@radus began by stating
to be'condemned, not only in the works of theologi""-t-,:19"i that "in all crimes in whiih cdndemnation may result, there must be
I fr"i"
";*" and publicists, but in the working law of-a iurist-pop.g lucid and clear.proofs." "And if this is tme of any c.i-e, it is much more
ll;*v"tt, 1l:
the so in the case of heresy, in which at the same time criminal
I t"t of William of Santa Sabina and John XXII draw to a close condemnation
[ "r, IV, although they do not exceed the injunc- and civil punishments result and the posterity of the convicted
.roor" Ieft open by Alexander bears
the perpetual infamy." In arguing for the mitigation of accusations
tions of the earlier pope. Althorrgh ,o..r"" historians have questigned- against
later
reason as to why eitirei o. both oi these letters were not included in Johannes de Partimachio, Oldradus argues that "simple sortilngium, love
 The Sorcerer'sApprentbe The Sorcerer'sAPPrentice 135
134
potions, and the consumption of an unconsecrated host do not manifestly. savor of manifest heresy and that these are well within the province of
^ralro,
of heresy." He argues that mahng imlges.in.or{e"q !o achieVe.ttre.- the inquisitors. The ecclesiasticalpunishments for these acts include being
I love of a woman pertains mg19 fo qqpe;$flfon than to heresy, citing denied the eucharist, being declared infamous, being separated from
I iiusustinel De Cioitate Dei, book lO, and .Aquina-s!o s.upport his claim. family, and excommunication. Zanchinus, however, also points out that
\ff;='afEl"S'"tl1zit--r9tlh-and'iniention distinguish malefcium, and that-al-* lh"r"-ut" secular punishments for magic, citing the Code of Justinian,
though worshippin!'tG d"iiiaiis-i5 iiideda giviiig To eitdflieF"creature that and indicating that the ultimate secular punishment is the death penalty.
which should be given to God alone, invoking a demon so that the demon Itis to these texts in the Code and to other secular laws that Alexander
may tempt a woman (temptation being, as the Saviour himself said, the IV made reference when he said that magicians whose actions do nol
demon,s lunction) may be deplorable, wretched, and a mortal sin; it manifestly savor of heresy should be left to their own judges.'3 **!

nevertheless is not heresy. Finally, Oldradus, argues, Johannes deTffii- Thus, the first quarter of the fQurteenth century witnessed a number of I
machio was infafiIaTfff*\frth the woman and driven out of his senses.' casesof magic in temporal and spiritual courts and a considerable litera- t
Furthermore, he points out that Johannes was interrogated by two mem- ture ranging from papal letters and conciliar canons, to canonists and f
bers of the Order of Preachers, that the testimony against him was often moral theologians like John of Freiburg, to lay jurists and lay theologians i
conficting, that there is supposition of hostility towards him on the part like Arnald of Villanova. There is nothing in canto 20 of Dante's lnferno I
of his judges, and that Johannes should be piously and mercifully ab- that would be out of place in this literature, and by the middle of the i
fourteenth century, the question of inquisitorial competence to deal with i
solved of the charge of heresy by his judges. Oldradus's consiliurn is an
magic was well understood and universally approved. The moral criticism i
excellent and courageous lawyer's brief. It makes, as briefs often do, a
great many arguments on behalf of his client, not all of which are ds of John of Salisbury and William of Auvergne had acquifAd l-iuriclical i
dimension and a strong theplSglcal affirm4tlon. The magicialt's*iiffst j
Jtrorrg as others. Oldradus is perhaps on strongest ground in claiming a
formidable enemy turned out to be the pope, backed by theologians and f
defen-seresembling insanity for his client. When he treats theological
canonists, clerics and laymen, lay theologians and poets. What is un- f
arguments in attempting to distinguish between true and false invocation 'f avoidable in this period is the unanimity with which all sectors of society F
of*demo.rr, or between simple and, presumably, compl ex sortilegium, he
condemned magic and the truly formidable strictures against magic that I
is on far weaker ground. His charge that the trial has used irregular pro-
existedin many different kinds of literature. The developing demonology I
cedures, however, is an important one. As we will see in a later chapter,
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and the definition and prosecutionf
it became one of the most conspicuous aspects of later trials for sorcery
of heresy had certainly contributed their part to this process, as Russeilft
and witchcraft in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries'
Lea, and others have shown. But the crimen magiae, itself denounced and i
Around 1330, when Zanchinus ugolini wrote his treatise suTter materia
defined for several centuries, was sufficient in itself to form the basis of r
hereticorum, he too raised the question as to whether inquisitors ought
later images and charges of witchcraft. The witch of the Iate fifteenth,
to investigate dirsinatores, incantatores, sortilegi, idolatriae, magici seu ;,
<.!-sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries derived from the magician more than )
\
mathemalicl, as well as heretics. Zanchinus cites Gratian's cap. Episcopi, from the heretic. --J
in
but it must be noted that he cites it only to argue against the belief
shapeshifting, and he does not mention tlie night-ride:
be divine'
If is indeed heretical to believe that anything outside of God could
another thirr8 NOTES
or that anything might be made to become, or to change from
as is shown by the said sym-
except by God, who is the creator of everything,
go'f,"1 and is shown in C'26 q'5 l. Lynn Thomdike, History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York,
bol, and in the first chapter of St' John's 1923-58), 2:813-24. H. Ritter and M. Plessner, eds., "Picatrix": Das Ziel des
capitulum Episcopi, and in the capitulum Nec rnirum'3 \Veisen oon Pseudo-Mogriti, Studies of the Warburg Institute, vol. 27 (London,
and de' 1962).
Zanchinus goes on to distinguish between licit and illicit sorfes
to reiterate . 2. Thomdike, History,2:283-89;
fines other lyp"s of magic. i{e then goes on almost literally Norman Cohn, Europe's lnner Dernons:
An Enquirg lnspired by the Creat Witch-.Hunt (New York, 1975), pp. 176-79;
to try
Alexander IVs statement on the competence of the Inquisition
Gui' and William P. W"tk"., Spiritual and Demonic Magic f rom Ficino to Campanella (Lon-
magicians. Like fohannes Andreae, lohn XXtf, Bernard ?.
qon, lg58), Index, s.v. "Picahix."
cleatly
of Santa Sabina, he agrees that theie are many magical arts that
136 T he Sorceref s Appr entice The Sorceret's APPrentice 137
3. Augustine De cioitate Dei 10.9; Thorndike, Historg,2:283' Book 10 of 15. These figures, who are very elusive and not always obviously associated
The Citg of God is particularly important here, not only for the reference to with the great courtiers, may be important for other reasonsas well; below thel
theurgia, but because it deals with the question raised by the Platonists as to level of the high leamed magician, and well above the level of the village andi ,,
whether men should sacriffceto God or to the d'aimones.Chapters 2 through 8 urban people accusedof magic, they may form an'important link between high;
deal with perfect sacrifice to God as ordained by God and discussthe doctrine and low beliefs conceming sorcery. They are not mentioned in Richard,
of the angels. Chapters 9 through 1l condemn the Plationists' doctrine of Kieckhefer'sotherwise very illuminating study of the relations between popular
demonsand place particular emphasisupon the errors of demon-worship. Chap- and learned culture in the matter of witchcraft, European Witch Trials (Lon-
ters 12 through 25 retum to the theme of the worship of the true God. Chapters dori,1976).
26 through 32 consist of a final refutation of demon-worshipping. The whole 16. Jones,"Political Usesof Sorcery," pp. 682-86, with sourcescited.
book is a major statement on Augustine's part, one that became the basis of 17. G. Lizerard, Le dossier d.e l'affaire des Ternpliers (Paris, 1923); H.
later dogma, including that of Aquinas (see above, Chapter 4). On the general Finke, Papsttum und Untergang des Tempelordens, 2 vols. (Munster, 1907);
importance of book 10, see J. O'Meara, Porphgrg's Philosophg from Oracles in Malcolm Barber, "Propaganda in the Middle Ages: The Charges against the
Augustine (Paris, 1959) and Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo (Berkeley and Templars,"Nottingham MediersalStudies f7 (f973): 42-57, but Barbey'scon-
Los Angeles,1969), p. 307. I clusions about general magic and witchcraft are not to be trusted. See also
4, The various elements of Dante's treatment of court life, which includes, C. R. Cheney, "The Downfall of the Templars and a Letter in their Defence,"
of course, the life of exiles as guests at court, are scattered throughout the in Cheney'sMedieual Texts and Studies (Oxford, 1973), pp. 314-27; Cohn,
Comm.edia.See, e.g., lnferno, 4, 5, 13, 18, 26-28, 34 Purgatorio 7, II, 20;' Europe's lnner Demons, pp. 75-98.
Paradiso6, 13, f6, 17, 19. 18. Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons, pp. 75-98,
5. J. H. Hexter, More's Utopia: The Biographgof an ldea (Pinceton, 1952), 19. J. N. Hillgarth, Ramon LuII and LuIIism in Fourteenth-Century France
pp. 99-157. (Oxford,1971).
6. See Joel T. Rosenthal, "The King's Wicked Advisors and Medieval 20. Such charges,as we have seen above, had been Iaunched as early as the
BaronialRebellions,"Political ScienceQuarterly 82 (1967), pp. 595-618' tenth century, were reiterated in the eleventh and twelfth as part of the Investi-
f,7. P"t"r Brown, "Sorcery, Demons and the Rise of Christianity: from Late ture Conflict and its literary legacy, and reappeared in the fourteenth and
Antiquity to the Middle Ages," in Brown, Religion and Societg in the Age of extendedinto the fffteenth. There is no study of this papal tradition of accusa-
St. Augustine (New York and Evanston,1972), pp. 1L9-46.See above, Chap- tions of magic.
ter I- 21. E. Albe, Autour de lean XXII, Hugues Gdraud (Cahors-Toulouse,
8. William R. Jones, "Political Uses of Sorcery in Medieval Europe," The) f904); K. Eubel, "Vom Zaubereiwesenanfangs des 14. Jahrhunderts,"Histo-
Historian 34 (1972): 670-87.I am much indebted to ProfessorJonesfor hav- rischeslahrbuch 18 ( 1897): 608-31.
ing discussedhis paper with me, and for having commented on several of the 22. B. Haureaq Bernard Ddlicieux et linguitition albigeoise (Paris, 1877).
points in this section when an earlier version was given at the Western Michi- 23. For background, see general, Thorndike, Hirtorg, 3:18-28; Cohn,
gan Medieval Conference, at Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1976' I have proffted Europe'slnner Demons,lg2-97:
immenselyfrom his work, _ 24. I,M. Vidal, Bullaire de linquisition frangaiseau XlVe sibcle et iusqu'd
9. Brown, "Sorcery,Demons,and the Riseof Christianity,"p. 141. hfin du grand.schisrne(Paris,f913), pp. 5l-52.
10. Jones, "Political Uses of Sorcery," and Alice Beardwood, "The Trial of 25. JosephHansen, Quellen und tJnterzuchungenzur Ceschichte des Hexen-
Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, 1307-1312," Transactionsof the Atnerican uahns und der Hexenaerfolgungim Mittelalter (Bonn, fgOf pp. 4-5.
),
PhilosophicalSociety,n.s.,vol. 54, pt. 3 (Philadelphia,1964)' 26. Liber SextusS. 2. 8.
ll. Most historians of magic and witchcraft have retold the story and in- 27. Seethe bibliographicalcitationsbelow, Appendix II.
cluded extensivebibliographies; e.g., Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons, pp' 198- 28. Selectionsi., Hanren.Quellen. pp. 47-65.
232;JeffreyRussell,Witchcraftinthe Middle Ages (Ithaca, 1972)' pp. 188-93' , ,29' Hunr"n, QueIIen, pp. 5-6. See also Anneliese Maier, "Eine Verfiigung
fZ. e. iigault, Le procds d'e Guichard,|o\que de Troges (Paris, 1896); JohannsXXII iiber die Zustdndigkeit der Inquisition fiir Zaubereiprozesse,"
T. S. R. Boise,BonifaceVIII (London, 1933); A. Corvi, Il processode Boni- in ArrnelieseMaier, AusgehenclesMittuloltu, (Rome, 1964), pp. 59-80.
30. Ibid., pp.42-44.
facio VIII (Rome, f948).
13. G. Lizerand, Clement V et Philippe le BeI (Pais' 1910); P' Dupuy' 31. Ibid., Quellen, pp. 55-59; S. Leutenbauer,Hexerei und Zauberei.delikt
.
m der Literatur t)on 1450bis,1550(Berlin,I97Z), pp.
Histoire d.u d.ifferend.dientre I'e Pape Boniface VII et Philippe le Bet Roy de 53-58.
France (Paris, f655); Jones"Political Usesof Sorcery"' pp.674-78. 32. Hansen,Quellen,pp. 59-63.
14. Charles T. Wood, The French Appanages and the Capetian Monarch|' 33. Seebelow, Chapter 6.
1224=1328(Cambridge,Mass.,1966), with referencescited.
 The Magi,cian, the Witch, and the Lau; 139

and its relation to the witchcraft persecutions. The fifth and final section
will sum up the arguments of this book as they bear upon the concepts
of magic and witchcraft found in the Malleus Maleficarum and similar
treatises in the sixteenth century and expres3ed in the climate of the
actual prosecutions of magicians and witches in the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries.
One of the most frequently cited biblical texts of the fifteenth and
6 sixteenth centuries that dealt with magicians ( and later was applied to
witches) was Exodus 22:18,"Maleficos non patieris rtitsere,""Thou shalt
not sufier a witch to live." Like many old Testament judicial injunctions,
The Magician, the Witch, however, this text, as we have seen above, was not interpreted as literally
binding upon Christians in the twelfth century. Although I have not
and the Law found a specific commentary upon Exodus or other OId Testament texts
that can be called the beginning of a new literal interpretation of
iudicialin, there is considerable evidence that the early to mid-thirteenth
century witnessed the beginnings of such a process. This made possible
,,the later medieval and early modern literalness that served as a theo-
flogical foundation for the emergence of later witchcraft persecutions.
William of Auvergne, bishop of Paris from 1229 to 1249, concerned
himself in the De legibus precisely with the question of how Old Testa-
THE THEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF LATE MEDIEVAL ment injunctions were to be interpreted in the Christian era, a topic that
BELIEF IN MAGIC had interested earlier biblical commentators, both Jewish and Christian,
during the twelfth century.l The traditional Christian interpretation of
the Old Testament divided such injunctions into three categories: caeri-
When the "typical" figure of the witch was drawn up during the fifteenth I
monnlin, iudicialia, and moraliL and the literal sense of these was treated
and sixteenth centuries and began to be the object of numerous and
differently by different traditions of medieval exegesis.Beryl Smalley, in
extensive persecutions between the early sixteenth and the late seven-,
her work on Ralph of Flaix and Andrew of St. Victor in the twelfth
teenth centuries, the means of defining witchcraft and maleficent magic
century, has suggested that already "the literal sense of the Law was
rested upon both theological and juridical bases. This section will treat
evoking a new curiosity." She goes on to suggest that perhaps the Cathar
theological concepts of magic and magicians as they are expressed in
denunciation of the Old Testament as being inspired by the devil may
several distinct, but related theological genres: biblical exegesis, the
have urged a new insistence on the part of the orthodox that the legalia
surnrna genre of encyclopedic handbooks for the instruction of preachers
of the Old Testament were of divine origin and therefore, particularly
and confessors,the records of decisions of theological faculties, and indi-
when these coincided with contemporary Christian law or seemed to
vidual works of theology from the fifteenth century. Law in its turn
resemble its precepts, they were to be interpreted literally. The work of
recognized and followed theological opinion, but it was administered in
'difierent -and- Moses Maimonides on the precepts of the Old Testament became gen-
difierenr courts by kiids of- personnel, from secular lat
erally known in western Europe in the second and third decades of the
ecclesiastical officia'ls to inquisitors. The second section of this chapter thirteenth century. Maimonides, too, presented an attempt to rationalize
will focus upon the'Clranging legal attitudd toward maleficent magic andl and justify the literal meaning of the legal precepts of the Old Testament.
witchcraft, from thirteenth-cenfury Roman and canon law to the courtsi His work was known to William of Auvergne, whose De legibus makes
of the sixteenth century. The third section will deal with an important a powerful case for the validity of the Old Testament legalia, claiming,
area in which law and theology meet, the problem of heresy and the rela- among other reasons,that such precepts were instituted to combat idola-
tion of methods developed to deal with it to the persecutions of magi- try, including magic, which still threatens God's people.
cians and witches later. The fourth section will consider the parallel Although later thirteenth-century commentators re-emphasized the
emergence of a new learned magic in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

138
140 The Magician, the Witch, and the Law Tltp Magician,theWitch, and th'e Lau 141
value of the spiritual levels of scriptural interpretation, other mid- Leonard Boyle, its most recent and articulate student, "the most infuen-
thirteenth-century circumstances perhaps contributed to a tendency to tial work of pastoral theology in the two hundred years before the
interpret certain Old Testament precepts literally. The Cathar threat, as Reformation." The Summa Confessorurnwas primarily a work of theology,
we have seen, was surely one of these. Another was the growing coercive and it was an expansion and modernization 6f the earlier Surnrna de
authority of the Inquisition, supported first by the Emperor Frederick Casibw of Raymond of Peflafort, taking into account the theological and
II's constitutions and by other temporal rulers, but soon permitted to exer- canonist work of the intervening sixty years, particularly the apparatus
cise the ultimate "release to the secular arm" of convicted and relapsed of William of Rennes of l2t4,L,the theologians Thomas Aquinas and Peter
heretics. The papal decretals of the period have been extensively studied, of Tarentaise and others, and the legal theory of the decretalists. Title 11
and by the middle of the thirteenth century Pope Innocent IV recognized of book I of the Summ& deals with the question De sorteligiis et dioina-
that the ultimate punishment of convicted unrepentant or relapsed tionibus. John lists the various kinds of divination, including the interpre-
heretics was death.' As these coercive powers came to characterize the tation of dreams and necromat atrd states that all of these forms and
"y]
inquisitorial office and function, those Old Testament images and pre- others like them can only be accomplished by the aid of the demons. As
cepts that appeared to support such action were cited in decretals, and' for their Punishment,
they may have constituted a point at which theology and contemporary
canon law touched and influenced each other. By the fifteenth century, Omnis divinatio quocunque predictorum modorum vel alio simili ffat prohibita
Exodus 22:18 was one of many Old Testament passages quoted in est et maledicta a Deo et a ecclesiatanquam ydolatria et inffdelitas.
treatises on sermons and other works of theology as applying to the ffgure
of the mnleficus or malefica. Although its command may not have been Anyone who attempts to know the future, which is only possible for God,
considered universally binding, conditions in early and mid-thirteenth- misapplies the law of divinity to a creature. John then cites Isaiah 41 and
century Europe permitted the extreme coercive powers of the Inquisition Leviticus 19-20, Galatians 4, and several works of St. Augustine to justify
and encouraged such defenses as that of William of Auvergne of the his conclusion. John goes on to ask whether divination accomplished by
literal authority of the Old Testament legalia. William of Auvergne is invoking the demons is always illicit. His answer is from Aquinas, and in
not widely remembered from a century that produced Thomas Aquinas, the affirmative: pact with the demon is always illicit, and such activity "
Bonaventure, Duns Scotus, and Albert the Great among many other places the human soul in great peril. By dioinatio, of course, ]ohn of
thinkers, but he was very widely read in the fourteenth and fifteenth - Freiburg refers to the generic theologians' term for all forms of con-
centuries, cited by Gerson in his own treatise against the magical arts demned magic. It is worth noting that by the end of the thirteenth cen-
discussed below, and generally familiar to other theologians and legists tury the condemned forms of dioinatio include the ordeals of water and
as well. Although William did not cite Exodus 22:18 specifically, his hot iron, as well as the judicial combat.
citations of other biblical texts, his insistence upon the contemporary John notes that the ars notoria is also condemned, citing Aquinas as his
bearing of old Testament legalia upon such continuing problems as authority, and he condemns too the use of astronomical images and
phylactelies. He denounces the beliefs condemned in the Canon Episcopi
idolatry, and his principle of literal interpretation generally contributed
as superstitions that make the believer worse than an infidel or a pagan
to a new life for some of the Old Testament materials discussed above
and opened the door for the harshest strictures of Old Testament opinion ut instituted by the demons. Although
"l{ John of Freiburg, like Bernard
on magicians to be employed by theologians, preachers, and confessors 9f lavia, notes that the penalty for these in Roman law is death,
".i*",
he follows Raymond in l^isting various spirifual
between the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries. punishments, from forty-
qays-penance
Much of the work of the thirteenth-century theologians and canon to denial of the eucharist, deposition and degradation of
crerics, excommunication, and imprisonment.
lawyers began to be adapted for the use of confessorsand preachers by In book 4, title 16, John
discussesmaLeficia in the context
the end of the thirteenth century. These sulnrnae confessorum or pr&a' lf impediments to marriage. Maleficia
may indeed make a man impotent, and
d.icantium were often the chief means by which later scholars, preachers, John draws ,rpon ih" work of
Aquinas and Hostiensis.
and confessors were familiar with the writings of the great thirteenih-
century figures such as Aquinas or Raymond of Peflafort' Perhaps the -, Th" Y** Confessorum ofiers little toward the classical ffgure of the
stxteenth:E"enury-Wn6h$ifit
most infuential of the wmmae for confessors was the Summa Confes'- presents an extraordinarily impiessive and
concise account
sorurn of John of Freiburg, written in 1297/98.'It was, in the words of of theologians; views on the varieties of rnagical prac-
 r42 The Magician, the Witch, and the Law Thp Magician, the Witch, aruI the Lato 143
tices and their universal condemnation. Drawing nearly equally frorn Bromyard points out, again echoing John of Freiburg and others, pre-
theologians such as Augustine and Aquinas, Scripfure, and canonists such scribessPiritual Punishments.
as Hostiensis, John of Freiburg produced a compendium of late-thirteenth- By the late fourteenth century, papal decretals, church councik alt-
century theological views of diainatio and its various forms, cited the ]
synods, scriptural commentary, and handbooks f'or confessors and preach- .f
punishments in Roman law and contemporary ecclesiastical law, and ers, all have generally agreed upon both the seriousness of sortilegium or
J
passed these opinions down through seven generations of theologians, dhsinatio, and its punishments. All of the definitions, descriptions of vari-
confessors,and inquisitors. Conciliar and synodal legislation of the four- ous sub-branches of the magical art, and punishments can be shown to
teenth and fffteenth centuries repeated the theological consenslrs con- have grown out of the thirteenth-century concerns for magic-and the
cerning dioinatio and sortilegium, the two generic terms commonly used prevalence of practitioners of magic-that began with William of
to designate the various magical arts. Auvergne. There is perhaps no better summation of theologians' views on
Besides handbooks for confessors, such as the Summa Confessorum, magic at the end of the fourteenth century than the conclusio on that
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries also produced handbooks for subject reached by the faculty of theology at the University of Paris in
preachers, of which one of the most extensive was the Summa Praedicah- September 1398 and its circulation in Jean Gerson's short treatise on the
tium of John Bromyard, probably completed by 1348.*In his long article magic arts.6 &.
on sortilegiunr, Bromyard points out that those who profess to practice A-fter a brief introduction, the conclusio listed twenty-eight proposi-
the magical arts err in three ways: they lie, since they are unable to per-l. tions, presumably those which had come before it in various ways, which
form that for which they are paid; they violate divine, canon>and civih' it declared to be errores. In 1402 Jean Gerson, chancellor of the univer-
.law, which forbid their practices; and they err in doctrine, thereby be-l'i sity, issued his treatise De erroribus circa artem magicarn, apparently an
i'coming guilty of idolatry and superstition. Bromyard accr,rsesmost prac- l expanded version of a speech he had delivered to medical students at the
i titiotretr of these arts of having made at least a tacita pacta with the'i university. In the speech he repeated the university's conclusions in
demons, and he cites Aquinas as his authority. sliglitly altered form and listed verbatim the twenty-eight charges cited
Unlike the Summa confessorum, the Surnma Praedicantium provides' as enores four years before. Although the specific occasion of the 1398
its readers with exempla, and it is in his article on sortilegium that Brom- conclusio is not known, the theology faculty may have been instrumental
yard repeats William of Malmesbury's story of the witch of Berkeley, as in condemning the magician Johannes Barrensis in 1390 (it issued other
' condemnations of magic in L425 and 1426), and the conclusio was prob-
well as many other similar stories. As G. R. Owst has shown, other hand-
books on vices and virfues and preaching materials also repeat this and' ably the result of the faculty's cognizance, if not specifically of this, then
similar stories, and it may be suggested here that one vehicle for the of other similar cases.The university had been strongly involved in the
transmission of such exempla into the demonological literature of the subtraction of obedience from Pope Benedict XIII just four months before
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was precisely the genre of handbooks fori it issued its conclusio, and in 1409 charges of employing necromancers
' and dioinatores were launched against that pope by the Council of Pisa.?
preachers. In addition to the story of the witch of Berkeley, Bromyard
In any case, it seems clear that the theological faculty was sufficiently
tells thirteen other exempln, {rom Gregory the Great's Dialogues, con'
concerned with the frequency and danger of magical practices to issue
temporary story collections, Augustine, Peter Comestor, and other sources'':
Its conclusio in 1398 and that Gersor asreed with it. since his own
Like John of Freiburg, Bromyard criticizes the beliefs condemned in thell
treatises against magic, although not maiy or long, are unremittingly
Canon Episcopi,noting that women in this respect are found more guiltyJ
nostile.eThelefore, the opinion of the faculty of theology
them than men.s
of holding"Bro*yard of the Univer-
sity of Paris, and that of Chancellor
When lists the penalties for dirsirwtio and sortilegium, lik2 Gerson, may be taken as representing
to civil tlu *ott advanced and
John of Freiburg, he begins by pointing out that according of the fffteenth century.
widely respected theological thought at the turn
ls decapiiation or burning alive. Echoing Pope Given the nature of thirteenth- and fourteenth-
ino-an; law, the penalty cenfury concerns with
on the burning of heretics, B-.omyard justifies the magic in scriptural exegesis, sunlmae for preachers
Innocent IV's views
'if and confessors, and.
death penalty in civil law, saying thore are worthy of death- who in the de-cretal, oi Pop" John XXII, it is worth examin-
tnljh" opinion
various lands and towns sufier death for the killing of the body, the of the Paris doctors on ihr subject.
law The conclusio of 1398 begins with references to
those who kill tlie soul" are all the more worthy of death. Canon manuscripts covered
 t44 The Magician, the Witch, and the Law The Magici,an, the Witch, and. the Lau L45
with diverse geometrical figures and the names of demons and containing charges that we have seen listed against both learned and non-learned
instructions for consulting demons by various means. These, the conclusio rnagicians. The main elements of later witchcraft are conspicuously ab-
states, are employed not only to find hidden treasure, but to know secret sent from the 1398 conclusio. Except for pact and the details of the prac-
and hidden things and to learn how to employ images and maleficiis. To tices cited above, the theological faculty of foe University of Paris in
Christians, to use these texts and to know the practices they describe is 1398 knew nothing of what later became witchcraft.
to be guilty of superstitio and idolatria and to become aehementer $us- r Jean Gerson, who as chancellor helped to draft the conclusio, later re-
pecti. The conclusio goes on to note that legitimate knowledge is a right- peated it in a speech to medical students, probably at Paris, and included
ful possession,but that the pursuit of magic places the Christian on a- it in his 1402 treatise De errori,bus circa artem rnagicam. In the De errori-
level with Solomon, Dido, the son of Pompey, Saul, and other Old Testa- bus Gerson sets the conclusio in a somewhat broader context. He writes
ment figures who consulted oracles and diviners. "It is not at all our in- that it is time to point out supelptitious observances and that physicians,
tention to derogate fiom licit and true traditions, sciences, and arts," but are especially responsible to see that superstitions do not creep into their
to extirpate the insane errors and sacrilegious practices of fools and beast- practice or into their patients' imaginations. It is necessary to conquer
$Tiiitrumans. Tlne conclusio then goes on to list twenty-eight propositions I the pestiferous superstitions of the magicians "et stultitiis oetul.arum
{vhich it condemns as errores or as error et blasphemia. The first of these sorti.legarurn"who profess to effect cures by certain cursed rites. Gerson"
btates "that by magical arts and maleficia and nefarious incantations to I states that demons exist, that association with them in any form consti-
seek familiarity and friendship and aid from demons is not idolatry.' tutes pact. Pact is forbidden by the Old Testament, and here Gerson
iEmor." The second and third articles deal with the idolatrous nature of cites Leviticus 19 and 22, and Exodus 22:LB maleficos non patieris oi,oere.
lagreements with demons. The fourth states that it is idolatry to shut up r ,r This is the earliest citation of the Exodus text in the context of a discus-
;demons in crystals, images, stones,rings, and mirrors. The fifth states thdt' , sion of magical practices that I have found.
lit is idolatry to use the magical arts, even if for a good purpose. Thd It is clear that the Paris theology faculty and Gerson personally con-
:sixth states that it is illicit to repel maleficia with other maleficia. The ceived magic as a form of superstition and idolatry, and they condemned
eighth states that the Church does not prohibit these things irrationally. it on these grounds. Gerson elsewhere notes that Romans, Arabs, Indians,
The ninth states that God did not compel the demons by magical arts. and others erred on these questions, but the error of superstitious Chris-
prayers or forms of the Cliristian liturgy
- The twelfth states that the use of tians who are sortilegi et magici are worse because they have been
for these pu{poses is idolatry. The thirteenth denies that the prophets illumined by.true faith and forbidden explicitly to use such practices. He
were magicians. The twenty-third article denies that there are some good notes that ecclesiasticaljudges condemn those guilty of magical practices
and some bad demons and that there are demons who are neither saved to perpetual imprisonment, but that secular judges sentence them to the
nor damned. The last article denies that the magical alts may lead to a fire. God, Gerson says, sentencesthem to Gehenna. Both the Old and the
-..visionof God or the holy spirits.
'*'tt New Testaments agree on the matter of pact with demons, and here it
is clear that the learned divines of the Paris theology faculty were may be seen that tine legalia of the Old Testament, particularly when
dealing with the learned and halflearned world of magical writings andf they coincide with contemporary Christian theology, cair be brought di-
' rectly to bear in their literal senseupon practicing Christians. In the case
magical practices that we have seen take shape since the late twelfth\
it i, also noteworthy that some of the fractices they list seem tol{ of the statements of Gerson and the Paris faculty, it is possible to see a
"".r-trrry. i theologian's reaction to scepticism about the reality of demons ( a con-
belong both to the world of learned magic and the world commonlyi
g called that ot
called that of "popular superstition." By
popurar superstrtlon.
ever, the systematic theological
I1y the
treatment
early fifteenth
tne eany
of the occult liad tended
horf-;-i:
century, uvw-
nrteenfn cenrury'
to[
cern that Aquinas noted), a growing apprehension of the superstitious
nature of many contemporary Christian practices, and a willingness to
i homogenize the two traditions. Thus, learned incantations, enticin$r invoke the authority of both the Old and the New Testaments to con-
demn-magical praciices. "Distinguishing the foolishnessesof certain old
1 demo.r, into a crystal or a ring, knowing the names of the demons who
dominate the quarters of the earth, and arguing that nonidolatrous Pacls, , women who practice sortilegium" from the magici in Gerson's treatise
, could be made with spirits, all derive from the world of learned magici was an important step in the shaping of the witch-figure, because it
and theologians' opposition to it. On the other hand, the misuse of prayers tdentified those women who practiced amatory magic, divination, forfune-
and masses,the belief in the power of phylacteries, and the use of images telling, superstitious other semiprofessional occult services ( as
afiections or well-being are the did Dante's nameless "rrr"r, "rrd
I and incantations to change ,o*"on"'i women in Inferno, canto 20) with the formidable
 146 The M agician, the Witch, and the Lara The Magician, the Witch, and' the Lato t47
F\ .f
.t Il$arned magicians who had been the object of meticulous theological
tl whrch represent the various sins equipped with horrible genitals, and emitting
t. rj,t ifnd legal invective since the late twelfth century. Not superstitious prac-
I torrents of ffre which obscure the earth with their smoke' He seesthe prostitute
ftices alone, then, but the identification of these practices with the articu- of apostasygiving birth to apcstates,now devouring them and vomiting them
i*
/lat"ly defined and decribed and condemned magical arts, brought Dante's forth, now kissing them and petting them like a m6ther. This is the reverseside
'a J 1""'hapless women and their successorsto the attention of theologians and of the suavefancies of spiritual love'1o
f
[' j"dg"s, spiritual and temporal, in the course of the fourteenth century.
.n-i {l'
:,.-i..41' We may note that the prostitute of apostasy strongly resembles the "witch
A few years after Gerson, in 1437, a decretal of Pope Eugenius IV goddess of the night" that John of Salisbury mentioned in the Policraticus'
f{."
suggeststhe degree to which a number of different superstitious practices For John, she had been a delusion of simpleminded folk; for Alain, she is
7 hadbecomeidentifiedwith the gg49g:-*:": gll-:*::_*}}g-i"' fiterally real, and she stands at the beginning of that process of articulat-
The news has reached us, not without great bitterness of spirit, that the ing the witch6s' world that produced the Malleus l\[aleficarum in 1486
prince of darkness makes many who have been bought by the blood of Christ and the demonological literature and witchcraft trials of the sixteenth
partakers in his own fall and damnation, bewitching them by his cunning arts and seventeenth centuries.
in such a way that these detestable persuasions and illusions make them mem- - The spiritual imagery of Alain de la Roche is far from the rational
bers of his sect. They sacrifice to demons, adore them, seek out and accept analysis and condemnation of magic in the work of Gerson, but both
responses from them, do homage to them, and make with tl.rem a written agree- writers share a sense of the immediacy of the danger which magic poses*
ment or another kind of pact through which, by a single word, touch, or sign, to Christian society. This senseof immediacy was fueled by such demono-
they may perform whatever evil deeds or sorcery they wish and be transported logical speculations as Johann of Frankfurt's I4L2 quaestio, Whether the
to or away from wherever they wish. They cure diseases,provoke bad weather,l power of coercing demons mag be acquired by ch,aracters,figure,s,and bg
and make pacts conceming other evil deeds. Or, so that they may achieve the utterance of rDord"s.11This long and very detailed treatise is exhaustive
these purposes, the reckless creatures make images or have images made int
on its subiect, full of citations of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century
order to constrain the demons, or by invoking them perpetrate more sorcery.'
theologians and canonists, and its focus is, as that of Gerson, upon the
In their sorcery they are not afraid to use the materials of Baptism, the r
sin of idolatry and magic as a manifestation of idolatry. Demonological
Eucharist, and other sacraments. They make images of wax or other materials
literature also reviewed older topics of theological discussion,particularly
which by their invocations they baptize or cause to be baptized. Sometimes
they make a reversal of the Holy Cross, upon which our Savior hanged for us.
that concerning the power of demons to move things and human beings
Not honoring the mysteries, they sometimes inflict lpon the representations from one place to another. It is among fifteenth-century theologians'
and other signs of the cross various shameful things by execrable means.e works, such as the scriptural commentary of Alphonso Tostado of about
1440, that the reality of the night-ride of females is first proposed and
The impact of this movement in theology may be seen in many places, proved in detailed discourse.l2Tostado wrote that the pagan goddesses
none described more strikingly than Johann Huizinga's treatment of Herodias and Diana are reallv demons. as are the animals which some of
fifteenth-century religious sensibility and imagination. Huizinga contrasts these women claim to ride trpon. Demons cannot perform such actions
-
the devotional flowering of piety represented by Gerson and the Brethren with humans normally, but they can if the humans wish it and make a
of the Common Life, on the one hand, with the violence of these same - pact with the demons.
of superstition, illusions and temptations by Jordanes de Bergamo rvrote a Quaestio de stri.gis
theologians' perception around 1470, in which he, as a theologian, undertook to describe the
demons, and ignorant devotion. Indeed, if there is a single hallmark com- theology of witchcraft.', Although
Jordanes adheres to the Canon Epis-
mon to most fifteenth-century theological writings it is the marked sense copi,he attributes to the demons a threefold power of deluding magicians
of human vulnerability to demonic temptation and the description of this and witches: through illusion, dreams, and the demonic power of moving '
sense in lively, colorful, and horrendous detail. Huizinga's treatment of people from place to place. Thus, by the late fifteenth century, a new
Alain de la Roche (1428-1475) constitutes an eloquent portrait of a concern with demonology had begun to increase theologians' apprehen-
theologian who touciied both sides of the fifteenth-century devotional sion of several areas in which the demons' power and presence was
movement. Alain, a teacher of Sprenger, the author of the Malleus thought to be most marked. Among these were magic in general, and ,
' Jacob
Molnp"-u?n, accurately reflects the fear of fifteenth-century theologians: certain kinds of magic speciffcally. The theologians' concern was far more
his directed at the general categories of idolatry and superstition and with
Now, whereas the celestial symbolism of Alain de la Roche seems artiffcial,
are characterized by a hideous actuality. He sees the animals magic as a sub-category of these than at magic alone. In this new con-
infemal visions
148 The Magician, the Witch, and the Lato The Magician, the Witch, and the Lauo 149
cern, literal biblical interpretation, particularly of those Old Testament of Pefiafort played an important role in familiarizing theologians with
texts that appeared to address the problem of magic, gave a strong the sense of canon law on the subject, and in this respect, John of Frei-
scriptural foundation to modern apprehension. As texts were cited-not burg's Surnrna confessorurn continued that role for theologians during the
only in original works of theology, but in handbooks for confessors and fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As we have'also seen, Church councils
preachers, in quaestiones and conclusiones, and in various specialized and synods and papal decretals also mentioned magic, but, except for the
tractati-such texts as Exodus 7-9 and 22:L8, Leviticus 18-20, and others text of Pope Aleiander IV in 1258 distinguishing between heretical and
became literary commonplaces that were always cited in the context of non-heretical magic, none of the papal materials entered canonical collec-
theologians' discussionsof various forms of magic. tions. Even the many decretals of john XXII and such later letters as that
Not all theologians were equally influenced by these currents. Such of Eugenius IV, cited in the preceding section, remained outside the
writers as Johann of Frankfurt and Jordanes de Bergamo, as well as tradition of canonist commentryy-and teaching. From the early fourteenth
Jean Vincent in his 1475 treatise Liber adoersus magicas artes, accept century on, however, a number of canonists produced commentaries on
fullytherealityofmagic,butthemagicofwhichtheyspeakisaformof Gratian's Decretum in the light of subsequent canonist and theological
learned magic, involving the use of baptized images, philters, rings, and . work. Among these were Guido de Baysio, Panormitanus, and Johannes a
other devices condemned from the twelfth century on." Others, such as Turrecremata. Turrecrem ata's C ommentarius in D ecretum Gratiani, com-
Petrus Mamoris, whose FIageIIum Maleficorum was written around L462," pleted around 1445, suggests something of the fifteenth-century canon
appear to contribute more to such notions as the assemblies of magi-l lawyer's approach to the texts from the classicalperiod discussedin Chap-
cians.tsIn general, the theologians' concern was primarily with the nafure ters 3 and 4.tG
of magic as a theological ofiense, and less with the particularities of t The most striking feature of Turrecremata's commentary on C.26, q.5,
magical practices. Thus, the reality of magical practices is affrmed, the Canon Episcopi is its extraordinaly length, much greater than earlier
pact with the demon proved, and the resulting idolatry and superstition canonists' commentaries. Second, he deals with such topics as the
condemned. To say, as a nrtmber of historians have, that "scholastic theol- demons'power to create illusions, the transformation of shapes, and the
ogy" created the foundations of later beliefs in witchcraft is, as Hopkin l question of whether "the folly of magicians abounds to a greater extent
and others have shown, highly misleading. It is in the theology of the late 1 in the female or the male sex." That is, Turrecremata deals seriously
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that the preliminary steps are taken i with several topics that Stephen of Tournai, for example, had offhandedly
toward the later definition of the witch; in both its interpreting and teach- remarked should be left to the poets and philosophers. His discussions
ing methods, in its literary morphology, and in its theodicy, this theology are not by any means brief, and he proceeds to each topic by means of
is quite distinct from, although related to, the theology of the thirteenth the methods of scholastic logic; that is, he states the arguments for one
century. To witness the further transformation of idolatrous magic into side of the question, then those for his own side and refutes the first set.
witchcraft we must turn first to the law, and then to the problem of His discussion of ilh.rsionsis a professional thcologian's discussion, quite
foreign to traditional canonists' tersenesson such subjects. Turrecremata's
heresy and the Inquisition.
conclusions, however, are quite traditional. The devil can create illu-
sions; the illusory charactel of the superstitions described in the Canon
LAW Episcopi is reiterated. The superstitious character of belief in night-
TIJF' CRIMEN MAGIAE IN LATE MEDIEVAL
flights is redefined. Demonic power cannot change the shapes of humans.
Finally he argues that such superstitions are to be found more frequently
The treatment of magic and related practices during the classical period
ln women than in men, claiming to base his conclusion upon the order of
of canon law, 1140-13i0, *as extremely limited. Not only did Gratian's
relationship to Christ and the order of temptation invented by the devil,
Decretum contain few texts dealing with the topic, but the compilationes
according to the schema of Alexander of Hales. Turrecremata goes on to
antiquae and the Liber Extra of Gregory IX clntributed few additional
saY, however, that he has never heard a wise man or woman testify to
texts. The teachers and commentators on these texts tended to repeat'
such beliefs, but rather "old, foolish women, sick men such as are ,
each other and their authorities. Their chief concern with magic was itsl
toil melancholics,phrenetics, maniacs, those who are excessivelyfearful, boys ,
role among the impediments to marriage, and marital cases appear and that kind, who are easily deluded by demons and by men." It is very
a-ong llt" most common in which lawyers and judges con;i
have
Ilave been
uclr dlrrulrB lllE llluJl L v l r l u r v u . \ ,i
diftcult to see, in the canonical legal scholarship of the fourteenth and
fronted the prohl-em of magic at all. The Summa de casibus of Raymond
 r50 The Magician,theWitch, and the Lato Tlw Magician,theWitch, andthe Lau 15t

fffteenth centuries, any palticularly marked notice, in the professional fourth- and fifth-century imperial edicts to the character of persecutions
literature (that is, commentaries on texts or materials to aid iudges), of of heresy. These strictures inflicted the severest civil penalties on heretical
the growing concern in theology over the general question of idolatry and belief. The papal consideration of heresy as a crime of. ldse-maiestd de-
superstition. The canonists, possessing only a few particularized texts, rived from the revived study of Roman law afid had its fullest develop-
restricted themselves to commentary on those texts, and their commen- ment in Innocent III's decretal of tl99 Vergentis in senium." Innocent
tary appears to have been quite conventional between the late twelfth III and Huguccio of Pisa both drew heavily upon Roman law in defining
and the late fifteenth centuries. Those writers who attempted to impugn the crime of heresy and establishing its punishments. This new juridical
the authoritativeness of the Canon EpiscoTti in the late fifteenth and approach to heresy in turn influenced the laws of te;nporal societies, be-
sixteenth centuries were usually inquisitors and theologians, and they did ginning with the ordinance of Louis VIII of France in L226, which trans-
not do so in the genre of canonist literature. Far from contributing to iated into royal law the strictures of canonist and papal decisions, and
the growing belief in witches and the increased fear of magic in all its continuing with the ordinance Cupientes, issued by louis IX in 1229.
forms, canonists as a profession appear to have kept to the letter of the' Between 1220 and 1231, imperial constitutions issued by Frederick II
law. The edi.tio rornana of the Corpus luris Canonicf, although it did not and promulgated by Pope Honorius III and Pope Gregory IX increased
authenticate any text, did not repudiate Episcopi', either. And seven- the severity of the punishments of heretics and altered the traditional
teenth-century canonists, for example Balthasar van Espen, adopted the accusatorial procedure in favor of the introduction of the inquisitorial
conventional interpretations available since the late twelfth century. It procedure, another important juridical element taken over from Roman
appears not to have been from any change in the opinion of canon lawyers law. By the middle of the thirteenth century, Roman law had substan-
that the fffteenth-century attacks upon magic and witchcraft were tially altered the Church's approach to heresy and had shaped the policy
launched. Therefore, to understand the legal forces that did contribute of temporal authorities as well. As will be seen in the next section, the
to the definition of these crimes, we must turn first to Roman law and formation of the Inquisition created a new avenue for the development
then to the legal world of late fifteenth-century temporal and inquisitorial of new punitive forms and procedural changes that shaped not only the
courts. thirteenth-cenfury Christian ecclesiastical policy toward heretics, but, as
As we have seen in Chapter 1, the codification of Roman law in the Jeffrey Russell has shown, contributed considerably toward the Church's
attitudes toward magic and latel witchcraft.
I fffth and sixth centuries preserwed formidable penalties for the practice
The circumstances surrounding the revival of Roman law are as im-
,:i of magic. From the second century on, imperial edicts proclaimed
portant as the character of the law itself. Although many features of
stronger and stronger penalties, not only for injuries caused by magic,
earlier legal systems survived into the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-
but for the practice of it and for thc employment of magicians. N'Iagic, at
turies-the localism of much law, the power of privilege and exemption,
ffrst forbidden when directed against the emperor (and punishable by
and the strength of custom-the character of thirteenth-century urban
death), was by the end of the third century punishable in all of its mani-
life. in itself produced new approaches to clime and punishment. When
festations. By the fourth century the charge of magic made the defendant
Roman lawyers wrote tracts De criminis, many cities and principalities
subject to judicial torhrre. By the time of the codifications of the fifth and
applied their principles to social phenomena of crime and to the organ-
sixth centuries, Roman law preserved a substantial body of legal literature
ization of criminal law and procedure. The thirteenth century witnessed
concerning magic. The levival of Roman law in the twelfth century
what Calisse has called "the recovery of the power of punishment" as
brought medieval law slorvly into Iine with earlier Roman imperial law,
well as a systematic approach to criminal law that was greatly strength-
although the Romanists' interest in magic does not seem to have made
ened by the structure of Roman law.t^ Thus, certain innovations of the
any siglificant impact upon European Iegal thought until the end of the period, such as the spread of torture, the introduction of the inquisitorial
twelfth and the beginnlng of thc thirteenth centuries. From that period process,and new rules of evidence, were common to a number of socie-
on, the Roman law on *ogi" influenced the teaching of civil law and the ties. They were not, as is sometimes asserted, solely the invention of
administration of Roman law where it was still considered binding. It also ecclesiasticalinquisitors. Although heretics were more severely handled
influenced the temporal Iaws of the Italian city-states, and it strengthened by the law after 1225, tbe same is true of all classesof criminal ofienders,
the approaches to such offensesas magic and heresy taken by inquisitors anril one could be tortured for other ofienses besides heresy and executed
a.rd Lmporal authorities {rom the end of the twelfth century on' The by p..bli" authorities acting as other than the "secular arm" of an
revived study of Roman law contributed the forrnidable strictures of

I
t
 L52 The Magician, the Witch, and. the Laut The Magician, the Witch, and the Lau: 153
ecclesiastical tribunal. When the legal aspects of heresy, magic, and defendant and opened the way for the most ruthless and thorough kind
witchcraft are considered, it should be remembered that the law in gen- of prosecution, undertaken to protect the state from its most darlgerous
eral had grown more severe, more remorseless,and more systematic, for enemies.'o Not only treason, but magic, witchcraft, and other oEenses
the hardened criminal as well as for the heretic. With the abolition of the became "exceptional crimes" by the sixteenth c6ntury. These offenses con-
system of ordeals-and with it of the idea of immanent justice, as well as stituted the procedural equivalent to other ways by which the state, or
the fundamental role of community consensusin deterrnining guilt and the civil community, was asserting its supremacy over traditionally diversi-
f-punishment-a new burden was placed upon the human agencies of the fied ways of life and legal procedures and areas of power and authority
t
law. If God was not to indicate guilt, man must. As we have seen above, outside that of the prince or the communal authorities. Seen in this light,
the system of ordeals itself was linked with traditional ideas oI dioinatio the prosecution for magic, treason, and witchcraft by the temporal courts
by the fffteenth century. In its place tlibre emerged a compromise sys- was of a piece with other late medieval and early modern political and
tem: human agents indeed investigated, instituted prosecutions on the constitutional developments.
basis of the inquisitorial process, and instituted torfure. In part, at least, Second, what had been the province of God had become the province
the dramatic appearance of the new criminal procedure after 1225 was of man, and judicial activity acquired a moral dignity and theological
the result of a residual attitude toward determining guilt absolutely that justification that it had not possessedmuch before the thirteenth century.
required a confession when other evidence was not immediately and Not only were teachers of the law called "priests" of the law, but the
conclusively convincing. Thus, the residual requirement for confession magistrate, on whatever level, increasingly came to be considered respon-
increased the need to resort to torture. and the decretals of Innocent IV sible for the spiritual, as well as the judicial proprieties of his office. Thus,
in L252, Ad extirpanda, and of Alexander IV in 1258 and 1260 extended especially in dealing with "crimes of mixed jurisdiction," the temporal
the domain of torture into the Inquisition itself. Torture, however, had magistrate assumed spiritual responsibilities as well as increased dignity.
been part of the judicial system in some Italian city-republics since as When, at the end of the fifteenth century, the authors of the Mallpus
early as L228, and its roots were neither exclusively the revival of Roman Maleficarum urged the temporal courts to aid ecclesiastical officials in
law nor the fear of heretics, but lay rather in the social structure and rooting out the crimes of magic and witchcraft, they were instituting no
juridical competence of the new towns and the circumstances of crime novelty, but invoking the moral responsibility of temporal courts that had
in them. R. C. van Caenegem and others have suggested and emphasized been heightened steadily since the thirteenth century. In this light, the
the social circumstances that made torture attractive to the magistrates blessingsof the instruments of torture in civil courts, the judges' solicitude
of the thirteenth-century cities. The increased power of judges and prose- for the moral condition of defendants, their exhortations to repent, the
cutors, the idea that crime was an offense against the conrmunity rather whole apparatus of civil liturgy that had been adopted from an earlier
than exclusively against a private person, and the momentary forces that period and a more exclusively clerical milieu, all suppcrted the discretion
swayed judges toward extraordinary mercy or extraordinary severity in and responsibility of the judge and the magistrate. It also helps to explain
assigning punishments drastically transformed criminal procedure in gen- the often noted sixteenth-century theory that God's ministers, temporal
eral and constitute the essential background against which the particular and spiritual, were invulnerable to the powers of witches and magicians
conception and treatment of heretics, magicians, and witches must be once the defendants had been introduced into the judicial system.
understood.tn The temporal judicial authorities of the period between the fourteenth
It is important to note that the ambiguities and abuses of the new sys- and the seventeenth centuries, charged with protecting a vulnerable civil
tem remained a characteristic of European law foi centuries. First, the community and elevrited to a quasi-priestly rank in order better to do so, ,
r.rrlnerability of the civil community to injury by criminals of all kinds,' worked with at least the rudiments of a sophisticated legal system directly
suggested above in the "political" magic trials of the early fourteenth cen- or indirectly shaped on the model of Roman law. These authorities dealt
tury, increased the ferocity of criminal procedure and punishment, con- tl3th a considerably expanded sphere of public cr.imesand a system of the
doned the extraordinary power of the civil authority to institute summary classification of crimes that, while it moved toward a degree of profes-
procedures and extraordinary punishments, permitted secrecy, instituted sional rationality, for a long period also included ofienses that were pri-
new and less restricted categories of evidence, and created the idea of the marily spiritual and which were punished, often more strongly and arbi-
ctimen exceptunx, the crime so dangerous to the ci'u'rl community that the trarily, as if they were identical to such temporal ofienses as treason. The
very accusation acted to suspend traditional procedural protection to the Iong history of ih" te-poral authority as thJ secular arm of ecclesiastical

1,"*-.
154 The Magician, the Witch, and, the Lan; The Magician, the Witch, and the Lato 155
courts did not end when temporal courts assumed greater independence. The broader Roman law concept of maleficium was preserved in several
It was transformed into a rationale for extending judicial authority into fieatises on criminal law down through the seventeenth century. It is one
fields hitherto exclusively the judicial province of ecclesiastical courts. example of the new rationale of defining crime and punishment system-
In those fields it retained its powers, procedures, and apparatus of punish- atlcafly, in a specialized vocabulary, that gr'eatly infuenced temporal
ments that, as all commentators noted after the fourteenth century, were courts, whether they specifically employed Roman law or not. Such pro-
far more severe than those of the ecclesiasticalcourts. The purpose of the fessionalinfuences, the judge's role as a quasi-sacerdotalofficial, and the
activities of the temporal courts was admonitory; the often spectacular and phenomenon of urban crime itself, all increased the harshnessof criminal
gruesome punishments they meted out were expected to act as a deterrent irocedrr." and punishment and brought some crimes of mixed jurisdiction,
and disciplinary education to the public. Not only the defendant, of such as magic, before the temporal magistrate. In place of the restricted
course, but those who aided him or her, had to be corrected. Over and system of pre-thirteenth-centu4y law, the fourteenth- and fifteenth-
against the good civil society, protected, ministered to, and educated by century magistrate would work with wider judicial discretion, broader
its princes and magistrates, the wicked society emerged in its midst, con- rules of admissable evidence, torture, and the support of ecclesiastical
cealed by secrecy and requiring extraordinary measures to be discovered authorities. These elements made all criminal procedure more severe on
and tried. These measures,not bound by the normal rules of procedure, the defendant and the convicted felon, and also upon the witnesses and
might contain such archaic elements as the ordeal and the traditional accomplices. It is in the general context of criminal law after the thir-
invective against enemies of God. But their formidable character was teenth century that the prosecution of magicians and witches ought to be
established through their use of the most novel and versatile legal tech- understood. Little wonder that theologians and canonists remarked that
niques at their disposal. Indeed, the idea of the crimen exceptum, the the temporal law penalized such crimes more severely than Church law.
extraordinary crime against the state, was one of the enduling Iegacies of With the exception of the Inquisition, this was true.
the prosecutions of witches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Its place in constitutional law did not end when the prosecutions ended,
but turned instead to other kinds of criminals and was supported by a HERESY, THE INQUISITION, AND THE CRIME OF MAGIC
constantly increasing apparatus of state power that, in certain parts of the
eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, often reached terrifying "Indeed, it is proable," Maitland..gnc.g..Tgmarked,"that but for the
proportions. persecution of heretics theid #ilild hiii;b Ui,e"'"o persecution oi sorcerers."
The development of such judicial attitudes as those mentioned above Many historians of witchcraft, most iece.rtly JSSt"f_B$g9Ll, have con-
may be traced in the histories of criminal law of Italy, Germany, and firmed Maitland's dictum in detailed studies, and there is no modern
France. Many historians of witchcraft prosecutions tend to distort the scholar who would be prepared to deny the powerful infuence that not
nature of punishments for witches by focusing upon them exclusively, . only the prosecution of heretics, but the concept of heresy in general,
instead of approaching them in the context of general legal history, espe- - | exerted upon the judicial life of late medieval and early modern Europe.
cially that of criminal law. The very term that designated magic and As has been shown above, the rhetorical description of heretics derived in "
witchcraft in all later sources,maleficium, had long had several meanings' part from and influenced later descriptions of magicians. Russell's exhaus-
In Roman Iaw it meant almost any crime or delict, and Roman legal tive catalogue of heretical traits described in the twelfth and thirteenth
scholarship through the fourteenth century retained this general senseof centuries and their reappearance, attributed to the witch, in the fourteenth
the term. Although Roman law and its medieval commentators did use and fffteenth centuries, suggestsone of the most important sources, both
maleficium and maleficts to denote magicians, they also used it in the fol the changing picture of the magician and the witch and for the legal
general sense of injurious wrongdoing of a criminal character. Thus, to grounds upon which magic and witchcraft were pursued.
the judges who tried magicians and witches, the crimen ne.aleficiiwas Magic had been identified with heresy as early as the fourth century,
,
simiiar iemantically to other kinds of climinal injury. Other Roman lega! however, and the great weight of pairistic, particularly Augustinian,
thought concerning magic, however, and the powerful theological con- authority infuenced its identification with heresy in the work of Hugh of
demnations of magic from the thirteenth century on, slowly added more St. Victor and Gratian, among many other twelfih-century writers. Ai has
been shown above, magicians were especially accused of invoking demons
ominous overtones to the general idea of delict, so that the crimen
magiae was a particular kind of maleficium., one made distinct becau$e and using demonic aid in their arts, thereby becoming guilty of idolatry.
of its association with idolatry, demon-worship, and heresy.2' The theme of the idolatrous magician is perhaps tilJ-ort distinctive
 I

The Magician, the Witch, and the Lara The Magician, the Witch, and the Lau 157
156
aspect of inquisitorial manuals' treatment of niagic as heresy in the thir- Then all sit down to a bbnquet and when they rise after it is finished, a
place
teenth and fourteenth centuries'" Alongside the theme of idolatry, how- black cat emerges from a kind of statue which normally stands in the
where these meetings are held. It is as large as _a fair-sized dog, and enters
ever, there grew up the similar theme of detailing the practices of the
backwards with its tail erect. First the novice kiSses its hind parts, then the
devil's children. Thus, the literature depicting the behavioral excessesof
Master of ceremonies proceeds to do the same and ffnally all the others in
heretics that had appeared by the middle of the thirteenth century con-
tum; or rather all those who deserve the honour. The rest, that is those who
siderably helped to fill out the detailed picture of just what demon- are not thought worthy of this favour, kiss the Master of Ceremonies. When
invocation and devil-worship included." Many sources from the late they have returned to their places they stand in silence for a few minutes with
twelfth and thirteenth centuries contributed to these descriptions. Chron- heads turned towards the cat. Then the Master says: "Forgive us." The person
iclers and moralists, theologians and preachers, monks and mendicants standing behind him repeats this and a third adds, "Lord we know it.'' A
contributed to the construction of the image of the bestial heretic, de- fourth person ends the formula bf*saying, "We shall obey."
graded by demon-worship to performing the most obscene and repulsive When this ceremony is over the lights are put out and those present indulge
rites, and unalterably dedicated to a hatred of the human race. Cathars, in the most loathsome sensuality, having no regard to sex. If there are more
Waldensians, Luciferians, and other heretical sects became merged in men than women, men satisfy one another's depraved appetites. Women do
the same for one another. When these horrors have taken place the lamps are
the image of the absolute heretic, which in turn became the image of
' lit again and everyone regains their places. Then, from a dark comer, the
every enemy of Christian society. Although the inquisitors' manuals of the
ffgure of a man emerges. The upper part of his body from the hips upward
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries generally refect an accurate knowledge
shines as briglrtly as the sun but below that his skin is coarse and covered with
of various heretical beliefs, the inquisitorial literature of the thirteenth fur like a cat. The Master of Ceremonies cuts a piece from the novice's vest-
century left a popular legacy in its portrait of the heretics and their activi- ments and says to the shining ffgure: "Master, I have been given this, and I'
tiesl"This legacy influenced moralists and preachers in the fourteenth and in my turn, give it to you." To which the other replies: "You have served me
fifteenth centuries and tainted the magician as well as other kinds of well and will serve me yet more in the future. I give into your safekeeping
heretics. The charges against the Templars, such lay groups as the what you have given me." And he disappears as soon as he has spoken these
Beguines and Beghards, the Brethren of the Free Spirit, the Fraticelli, and words. Each year at Easter when they receive the body of Christ from the
even against the friars themselves in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries priest, they keep it in their mouths and throw it in the dirt as an outrage
against their Saviour. Furthermore, these most miserable of men blaspheme
d ail finJtheir roots in the invective of the thirteenth century.zaThe fevered,
I against the Lord of Heaven and in tl-reir madness say that the Lord has done
picturesque, and grotesque descriptions of heretical activities depicted in
evil in casting out Lucifer into the bottomless pit. These most unfortunate peo-
late twelfth-century and early thirteenth-century sources must be set ple believe in Lucifer and claim that he was the creator of the celestial bodies
against the relatively sober descriptions of heretical beliefs and activities and will ultimately retum to glory when the Lord has fallen from power.
in twelfth-century sources, and against the relatively reliable accounts of Through him and with him they hope to achieve eternal happiness. They con-
'
heretical beliefs in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century inquisitors' manuals. fess that they do not believe that one should do God's will but rather what
A particular example of such literary invective is contained in the displeasesHim....2s
decretal Vox in Rama, issued by Pope Gregory IX in 1233 in response to
This passage was probably inspired by Konrad von Marburg's own letter
a request for aid against heretics in the Rhineland made by the friar
of appeal to the pope, and it suggests the infuence of some of the anti-
Konrad von Marburg:
heretical invective noted above in Chapters 2 and 3. The osculum infame,
when a novice is to be initiated and is brought before the assembly of the the pallid master, the magical loss of the faith, the ritual, lasciviousness,
wicked for the first time, a sort of frog appears to him; a toad according to
'1 the appearance
of the demon, desecration of the host, and blasphemy all
some.Somebestow a foul kiss on his hind parts, others on his mouth, sucking constitute the prototype of charges against later heretics and witches. The
at
the animal'stongue and slaver.Sometimesthe toad is of a normal size, but only part missing is the description of what the heretics have done to earn
others it is as large as a goose or a duck. Usually it is the size of an oven's the praise of the demon for having served him well. Fifteenth-century
mouth. The novice comes forward and stands before a man of fearful palior' theologians and moralists compiled a grim catalogue of precisely what
His eyes are black and his body so thin and emaciated that he seemsto have
as - 4 those actions were. When their work was ffnished, the portrait of the
.ro ferh and be only skin and bone. The novice kisseshim and he is as cold Y1 heretic in Gregory IX's letter became the portrait of the witch. Heretical
ice. After kissing him every remnant of faith in the Catholic Church that lingers "
fassemblies became witches'sabbats; the ritual deference to the master and
in the novice'sheart leaveshim'
 The Magi,cian,the Witch, and the Law The Magician, the Witch, and.the Law 159
158
the demon became the pact, the basis of idolatry. It is possible that the i nower over the iudicial machinery of the Upper Rhineland. He translated
heretics i" th: Rhine
cooenu'.Qa, or oath taken among heretics in southern France, became the \x ti, o*tr interior demonology into the society of
imagined.'6 Both
etymological root of the -^ l^r^- ^^,,^-
later coven ^f
of ,.,:l^l.^-
witches. ) ,
v,alley, and he invoked the law to purify the society he
literary invective against heretics, itself originally and Robert le Bougre, who worked at'the same time in France,
It was not merely the il;;d
with a total disregard
borrowed in part from earlier invective against magicians, that helped to irap"a to set the tone-one of spiritual zeal ,coupled
process-that characterized
shape the later picture of the witch, but the structure and procedure of- iot^,fr" most elementary features of legal
removed even by the sys-
the Inquisition itself and the personnel, especially the early personnel, who much of the Inquisition's history and was not
process in the fourteenth
stafied it. The inquisitorial process gave great authority to the inquiring tematizlng and ieg,rlarizing of the inquisitorial
For the piocednre that later learned inquisitors used was devel-
magistlate, ofiered new rules of evidence, and permitted a number of
"Lrtoty. days of the early thirteenth
other procedures-not all of which were irregular-in its course. It offered op"a i" the more flexible and mo;e dangerous
The great
in some respects a rational and efficient process, one which appealed to cSrrtury by men like Konrad and Robert and their assistants.
its direct papal authority and
certain levels of thirteenth-century society (for different reasons, to ecqle- a,-,thotity of the Inquisition stemmed from
its exemption from ih" canon law of the Church. This authority
siastical courts, city magistrates, royal officials, and mendicant inquisitors )
"o*-on
for other reasons than the hunting of heretics. What made the ecclesias- was leni to a system of investigation, accusation, trial, and punishment
tical inquisitorial process distinct was its utilization of untraditional juri- that shared many of its most formidable parts with the criminal proce-
dical forms, often under the direction of mendicants with no legal experi- dures of other thirteenth-century societies, from the kingdom of France to
ence, in a forum which had hitherto been purely penitential. The forum of the Italian city-republics. But the most ominous and destructive features
consciencenow opened out, in the matter of heresy, into a judicial forum of the Inquisition derived from the application of those parts in a novel
in which the concealed crime of heresy was to be discovered by the new way by zealous men who were trained in no law and could thereby use
legal procedures and their practitioners. Years before Gregory IX com- the- law to attack spiritual dissent, no matter how deeply concealed'
mitted the Inquisition against heretics specifically to the mendicant orders, Ecclesin de occultis non iudicat-"the Church does not judge hidden
ecclesiastical officials and temporal magistrates had co-operated in catch- ofienses." so said a canonist maxim in the late twelfth and early thirteenth
ing, trying, and punishing heretics. Episcopal courts and monastic inquisi- centuries; the concealed sin was left to the forum of penitence, the confes-
tors, notably Cistercians, had also worked together, particularly in south- sional.,t In inquisitorial procedure, however, it was precisely the transfer-
ence of ofienses to the judicial forum of the Inquisition that
ern France. In Italy lay individuals and lay spiritual associations vigor-
"orr"""l"d between the Inquisition and conventional canon law
ously inquired into the faith of their fellow citizens. Such enthusiastic marked the difference
hunters of heretics in the Rhineland as Conrad Dorso and John the One- courts. The spiritual troubles of Gregory IX, Konrad von Marburg, Robert
Eyed, who probably acted as synodal witnesses ( accusers) on behalf of le Bougre and others took up the rhetorical descriptions of heretical activ-
the episcopal court at \Morms, were joined by Konrad von Marburg, who ities developed late in the twelfth century and pronounced them crimes of
had received three papal commissionsbetween 1227 and 1231 to hunt out the gravest kind; they instituted a juridical procedure that cut away tra-
heretics in Germany. These three men, none of them specifically desig- ditional protections, initially operated rvith lnprofessional personnel, and
nated an inquisitor, accused heretics before the episcopal court, and it was possessedvirtually unlimited power. As Henri Maisonneuve points ottt:
in this function that Konrad von Marburg wrote to Gregory IX the de-
[In the case of Konrad of Marburg and his role as a testis sgnodalisl it is not
scription which Gregory echoed in Vox in Rama- The introduction of necessaryto speak of an episcopal inquisition here, nor of a monastic inquisi-
three such inexpert ffgures into the episcopal inquisitorial process mar'ks tion, in spite of the speciffc affiliation of many "inquisitors," and even less of a
one of the most important early stages of the history of the Inquisition. "secular inquisition, but ratl'rer of an itinerant and formidable papal commis-
For Konrad von Marburg was far from being a lawyer, far from under- sion of inquiry sai generis.If it did not suppressordinary jurisdictions, ecclesias-
standing the dangers of ruthlessly and pitilessly manipulating the court tical and secular,it stimulated them, it goaded them, and it tended naturally to
into colndemning heretics wholesale. A mendicant ascetic, KonraC supplant them, and by that means, without doubt, to depart from the essence
' of legality.:a
preached crusades from 1214 to 1220, and served as the spiritual director
of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia between 1221 and the saint's death in 1231.
Maisonneuve demonstrates the process by which the papal Inquisition
As spiritual director of that much put-upon saint, Konrad inflicted his
spread throughout Germany, northern and southern France, Aragon, and
spiriiual visions upon his prot6g6 and exercised his fascination for demon-
Italy. He traces the changing deffnition of severe corporal punishment and
oiogy. Out of this nonlegal background, Konrad acquired considerable
160 The Magician, the Witch, and the Law The Magician, the Witch, and' the Laro lol
death, the animadoersio debita, incapacitation, exheredation, and the turies, although in technical studies of Roman law the olfler meaning of
death penalty, seeing in Innocent IV's decretal Ad, extirpanda of 15 May, the term appears to have survived, as we have seen, into the sixteenth
I2.52-the most important instrument after the constitutions of Frederick century. Besides drawing some of the key terms in the history of magic
II and the decretals of Gregory IX-the institutional creation of a papal together (sortilegium, dioinatio, malnficium, ars mngica) inquisitorial
Inquisition. In this decretal, not only is torture permitted and the penalty literature went much further into the nature oi the magician's acts and
of death by fire recognized, but inquisitors are permitted to assemble the character of his sin, especially idolatry, than canon Iawyers appear to
staffs, archives, and other institutional structures. In Alexander IV's letter have done. In the work of two fifteenth-century inquisitors, Heinrich
Quod super norutllis, discussed above, heretical magic is specified as Krdmer and Jacob Sprenger, and in the Malleus Maleficarum, the most
within the Inquisition's competence, although nonheretical magic is left exhaustive ( and, for a cenfury, the most conclusive ) arguments are made:
to the ordinary system of spiritual and temporal criminal justice. The iliainatores and malefici are regarded as being the same kind of offender,
articulation of heresy in the manuals of the inquisitors of the fourteenth since they are punished in the forum of conscience by the same punish-
cenfury, however, logically and implacably drew sorcery too into the ment. Both anticipate injury to God's creatures inflicted by demons, and
power of the Inquisition. both ask from the demons what should only be asked of God. In the
Bernard Gui's handbook for inquisitors, the Practica officii inquisitoris inquisitorial literature of the late fourteenth and flfteenth centuries, the
heretice praoitatis, written around 1323124, contains a formula for inter- separate semantic development of such terms as maleficus, dioinator,
rogating those suspected of being sortilegi, diaini, or inaocatores dae- sotrtilegus gives way to a process of identifying all these terms with each
rnorTium,evidently considered well within the limits of heretical magic by other and with the magical arts. These arts, in turn, although some of
the early fourteenth century. The accused are to be asked what they know them may in theory be acceptable, are continuously condemned, and that
of these subiects and from whom they learned it. The inquisitor is then to condemnation becomes stronger in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In
descend into particulars, and these detailed questions range over most of the fifteenth century the invective against heresy is applied to magicians
the topics of learned and unlearned magic familiar to most theologians of and later to witches, by bringing them before the inquisitorial tribunals,
the period. Gui emphasizes the importance of inquiring about any dese- not only of the Inquisition itself, but before secular judges as well; the
cration of the sacramcnt or profanation of ecclesiastical rites. Gui also ancient condemnation of magic is strengthened by its identification with
gives the formula for abjuring magical practices as well as several formulas idolatry, superstition, and apostasy.As Norman Cohn has pointed out, and
for the degradation of clerics convicted of such acts as well as for those as Richard Kieckhefer's calendar of "witchcraft" trials indicates, most con-
convicted of using the consecrated host for sortilegium and malefici,um. victions before the late fifteenth century were for the practice of magic
In 1376 Nicholas Eymeric's Directorium inquisitorum discussed the prob- seenin these terms.to
lems of magic and sorcery at considerable length, but his handbook,
which was the best-known inquisitor's handbook through the early seven-
teenth century, focuses upon the idolatry of magicians, and reveals little THE ORDEAL OF LEARNED MAGIC
of the detail that later described the type of the witch (see the tlanslation
below, Appendix II ). At exactly the time when hitherto separate terms designating magic
In inquisitorial literature the terminology of traditional magic was were drawing closer together in meaning and the inquisitorial process had
broadened to include heresy. The constitutions of Frederick II had iden- begun to include magicians as heretics and apostates, there occurred a
tified heresy and maleficium in 1231, and the terms used to designate revival of learned magic that went far beyond the thirteenth- and four-
sortilegium and diainatio were attached to maleficiunr in the German teenth-century revivals and dealt with much broader ideas than the
Richterlichen KlagsTtiel around I45O: die das oolk maleficos (zaubrer) manipulation of the created world. In general, the new magic of the fif-
nennt . . . die schaofizen kunst oder sunst andere aerbotene kunst, irn teenth and sixteenth centuries was, or claimed to be, natural or hermetic, '
latein artem dioinandi . . . At about the same time, Alfonso de Spina specifically opposed to superstitious magic and deriving from Neopla-.
spoke of the artes ,nagiccle oel dioinationes.2s tonic philosophy. Its earliest defenders, Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico
From the Roman vagueness of maleficiurn, inquisitors and theologians della Mirandola, although they claimed for their magic the highest bene-
appear to have directed the term to the speciffc meaning of magician, and fits to mankind and insisted upon their freedom from illicit communication
to have done this between the late thirteenth and the late fffteenth cen- with demons, often found themselves facing the same kinds of condemna-
 163t
162 The Magician, the Witch, and the Law The Magician,theWitch, andthe Lau
tions as thirteenth-century magicians had, made more serious by the inter- inouisitors were the more dangerous; not only did they apply to the new
est of the Inquisition and the attacks on magic in the fourteenth and i\-"ni" the old strictures and the new punishments, but they associatedthe:
fifteenth centuries. Ficino himself is careful to indicate that his own talis- magicians with the unlearned witches, who had come much more'
"ili""r"r"a
mans are not those made through illicit arts, and that his songs are not to iirirltpry
-- intJfocus by the late fifteenthcentury't'
was the
be identified with forbidden incantations to demons, of whose dangers Tie chief theological problem faced by the hermetic magicians
only two kinds of spirits, angels
he appears to have been very much aware. The dilemma of Ficino and Church's firm statemenithat there were
with what appeared to be benevolent
other learned magicians who play so important and mysterious a role in *d d"*onr. Independent commerce
no Christian in the
early modern intellectual history was sharpened by the attitudes toward spirits could only be commerce with demons, and
or not, could easily disagree.
all forms of magic in the world in which they lived.3' n?t""t th century, Neoplatonic philosopher
Ficino and Pico and their successors
The appeal of learned magic in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has It is not surprising, therefore, thAt
even Roger Bacon and Arnald of
been recognizedby many scholars, notably Eugenio Garin: emphasizediu, -ot" emphatically than '
kinds of magic, which D. P. Walker terms
Vilianova that there existed two
Walker
For people sensedthat here was a new way which might allow man to gain a spiritual and demonic, and that their magic was purely spiritual.
the hermetic magicians of the sixteenth
full mastery over nature. The attempt to seize precisely those methods which 1 s'howsthat, for all their protests,
medieval theology had rejected shows once again how fundamental the break century were themselves well aware of the dangers of demonic magic,
with the middle ageshad been.s2 even if some of them, such as Agrippa and Paracelsus, veered even closer
to demonic magic than Ficino'3s
The vision enunciated by Ficino, and echoed in the following century by It was no accident that the new learned magic began in Italy and that
"-
Trithemius, Agrippa von Netteshcim, Bruno, and Campanella, was that of 1 several of the most impassioned attacks on magic and witchcraft, and the
increased human power over nafure achieved by control of the spirits and j earliest, also originated in Italy. As recently shown, there
!9!elp,g*g--hut
forces that fill the universe. Ficino based his magical ideas on the her- J were a number of trials for forbidden- magic in fifteenth- and early six-
metical treatises, but his reading was wide, and he published in transla-' teenth-century Italy, and the judges did not always distinguish between
tion Michael Psellos'eleventh-century treatise on magic and demonology what historians too easily call "magic" and "witchcraft." Gianfrancesco
besides much else. The anthropocentrism of literary and philosophical Pico's dialogue on magic and witchcraft strir (published in 1523) sums
humanism dictated that man alone could free himself from the static, up, in its arguments for and against the belief in witchcraft, a wide range
ordered world of forms and become either a divine being or a beast. As of learning and a denunciation of both learned and humble magic. In
Garin states, Strir and. in liis other writings against magic, Gianfrancesco Pico attacks
the revival of the cult of antiquity, striking out at the targets that had
[T]he ambiguousreality of man consistedof the fact that he was a possibility, exercised.the Church Fathers centuries before: Orpheus, Apollonius of
'
an opening through which one could rejoice in the inexhaustible richness of Tyana, and Circe. Indeed, one striking feature, especially of the Strix, is
Being. He was not a being deffned once and for all, immobile and secure,but l
the author's citation of classical models, such as Medea and Circe, in his
was always precariously balanced upon the margin of an absolute risk ' . ' tin]
condemnation of all forms of magic.36
an inffnite universewhich is open to all possibilities.33
with the stirrings of the Reformation, certain implicit contradictions in
late medieval theological approaches to the subject of magic became
As Garin, Thorndike, and others have pointetl out, such a view was dia- i
explicit, and reformers could and did attack Catholic ceremonial practices
-i metricallV opposedto thc earlier views of human natttre and magic. What'
. and beliefs as manifestations of demonic magic. Indeed, one of the themes
]'seuer"l histotiarrt have called "the muse of terror" lay behind medieval that sustained much of the literature concerning magic and witchcraft
i attitudes toward magic, and.throughout the last and most learned revival i
throughout the sixteenth century was the diabolical magic of which the '
of magic there raged against it and its vision of human natui'e the stric-
Catholic church was accused. On the other hand, H. C. Erik Midelfort has
tures first enunciated by Plato and later by the theologians and inquisitors suggested that the very harderring of confessional camps in the sixteenth
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. At the beginning of the seven- century led to denominational postures that necessarily excluded all of '
teenth century, attacks came from a new quarter, from the new visiOn of one's enemies'ideas, including those, such as scepticism toward magic and
science possessedby Francis Bacon and the logical method of Descartes.
witchcraft, that might otherwise have circulated across confessional divi-
Of the two enemies of natural and hermetic magic, the theologians and
 L64 The Magician, the Witch, and the Law
sions.37The work of Johann Weyer, for example, has becn regarded in
Tln M agician,the W itch, and the Lsu)
.torians persist in separating the crimes of magic and witchcraft, medieval "
tr)
of sixteenth-
different ways by different historians, precisely because it is usually read ,f theologians and lawyers did not, and many of the elements
in parts, selectively. Weyer, physician to Duke William of Cleves, wrote 1-J century witchcraft were first brought to light in charges against magicians' "
in 1563 a long work entitled De Praestigiis Daemorrurn, which is generally ro*L*hat oversimplified schema of this pro6ess would state the rela-
'
remembered for its scepticism concerning the reality of the cdmes of tionship thus: from the patristic period through the twelfth century, Chris-
which witches were accused. What is not as often noted, however, is r tian concepts of magic and denunciations of its practitioners were con-
Weyer's unremitting hostility toward the Roman church and his accusa-, tinuous and unremittingly hostile. In the twelfth century some of the
tions that many Catholic practices are manifestations of the worst kind I invective traditionally direcfEffiiinst magicians and heretics was revived
of demonic magic.38 rtand extended, applying to both the new heretics and the increasingly
In addition, Weyer fully believes in the reality and diabolical character - ||evident class of magicians. Thirteenth-century theologians and philoso-
of learned magic, and he attacks Ficino and other learned proponents of iph"rt attacked magic rnore seu"r"ly, as did certain temporal and spiritual
natural magic vigorously. It was just this sort of attack that the traditional l^"orrrtr. As the i_4ggrsltgrial process took shape, magic began to come
denunciations of magic had prepared, but Weyer does not cite the con- within the purview of thg Inquisifign, and many of the distinct terms
ventional patristic sources, relying heavily upon the Bible and his own r rr, once used to designate learned magic)-sorf ilegiUm, 4!.uifq!.i9,maleficium,
vision of a nonmagical Christian religion. Although they appear differenq h ort mogica-wet" uppii"a- not only to i"ai""d t""Ei;;il; but to other
the learned philosopher-magicians and the Roman churchmen are both pfrtffiners of "superstitious" and "idolatrous" acts, including fortune-
'
victims of demonic illusion, both sunken in diabolic magic. In spite of ; leiling, judicial astrology, medical practice, love-magic, and weather-
Pico's humanist learning and Weyer's scepticism as to the reality of . magic. The original condemnation of the learned magicians became the
prosecuted as well. What Baxter
witches' actions, D. P. Walker legitimately groups these two thinkers with. I- g"tt"".ul charge ,rnd"r which others were
Thomas Erastus under the heading of evangelical hardheads: has noted in Bodin's Ddmonomanie, that the term sorcerer included all
kinds of magicians indiscriminately, is the logical conclusion of this proc-
Those who believe all magic to be demonic or diabolical and illusory; who tend
. ess.Thus, the figure of the learned magician and the type of the sixteenth-
to be scepticalabout the reality of supematural phenomena;who distrust all
pagan philosophy, particularly Neo-platonism;who take the Bible as their |century witch are not as far apart as some excessively schematized
irhistories of witchcraft usually suggest.Although learned magic at its most
supreme authority whenever possible; who in general have a sensible, no- *intellectually
respectable-whether in the Poimander, Asclepius, Pi,catrix, l
nonsenseoutlook on things, usually based upon a moderate Christianized
Aristotelianism.3s or the work of Ficino or Campanella-may seem at first glance far re-
moved from the humble and lethal activities of the witches, it seems that
It is worth suggesting that such a view applied to the case of magicians way only to sixteenth-century apologists and twentieth-century historians.
as well as to that of witches, and many tracts against witchcraft are also l It did not seem that way to fourteenth-century theologians and inquisitors,
directed against magicians. Indeed, Weyer directs his hostility toward f nor to alleged sceptics like Weyer nor resolute monotheists like Bodin.
magicians and Roman Catholic clergy exclusively. Jean Bodin, whose The other side of the development of the figure of the witch-and it is a
De la ddmonomanie des sorci'ires, published in 1580, was in large part a side just as important as the side of the magician-has been traced by
refutation of Weyer's "tolerance" toward the witches, is even more hostile: Russell and others and requires a shorter presentation.
to magicians than Weyer, and as Christopher Baxter has recently stated, The rhetorical invective against heretics that twelfth-century monastic "
"The word sorcerer here covers the lofty Neoplatonic magus of the Renais-, writers inherited from the patristic period and which, with their thir-
sance hermetic tradition; the lowly medieval necromancer; and the old ' teenth- and fourteenth-cenfury sr,rccessorsthey turned into a minor form
crone of the European witchcraze."4o In Maftin Del Rio's Disquisitiones' of literary art, was broadened to include several practices attributed to
magicae, of 1559, sorcerers (magicians) are condemned r.vith witches as smagiciansand deffned in ways that could be dealt with by spccial inquisi-
the most pestiferous blight upon the human race.41 l torial
'" courts. Heresy, idolatry, and sgpeTs {i$ion indiscriminately merged
in the person-6f the heretic, and the heretic merged into the witch-a
Without going further into the topic of sixteenth-century learned magic
than this study requires, it seemsto me appropriate to point out some con- ffgure made more foGiliHBle because of its ancestry in the iilvbctive
,
against magic, on the one hand, and in the mentality of the Inquisition
clusions suggestedby the history of the ffgure of the magician in medieval \ \6nd
and early modern Europe. First, although both anthropologists and his- the society it served, on the other. The final section of this book will

I
i
!

li
llk------
 L67
166 The Magicittn, the Witch, and, the Law The Magician,theWitch, andthe Law
deal with this question at greater length; here it is only necessary to em- of Faust. Pomponazzi and campanella
for the appearance and legend
phasize again the role of learned magic in shaping, not only the witch b""^^" suspect magicians too, and all of this occurred long before
figure, but the circumstances that led to the resolute opposition to all assauliled by Bacon, Bayle, and Descartes. Even that ffnal
ifr","ti"""firt 'spiritual
theories of causation exhib-
forms of magic in the sixteenth century. This opposition, although directed assault was tempered by the residual
others down to the end of the
from different presuppositions, hampered the development of learned n"J ry the Cambridge Platonists and
"the magic of the medieval
magic throughout the sixteenth century until the new assault from scep- ,lu"rrtl""ttr century. Whut t<"ith Thomas calls
tics and rationalists killed it off in the early part of the seventeenth cen- may have been the cause of &ssension between sixteenth-
Cfr"r"fr"
tury. It is not common to link such figures as Bacon and Descartes with thinkers who defended a nonmagical christianity and those who
"""*.y sixteenth centuries the magic
_ Gianfrancesco Pico, Bodin, and the sixteenth-century magistrates and i""gtti against it, but from the second to the
i inquisitors, but a link there is, one of many obscure connections between an ecclesiastical form of
; ai" m-edieval Church remained exclusively
what often seem to be wholly separate worlds, the theology of the fff- itwas a magic hallowed by-miracula and
-f magic. As Aquinas once said,
teenth century and the rational philosophy of the seventeenth. t jiri"" provid-ence; all else were Inira, simply wonders and illusions, c.r-z
how learned the
ated by sporting and deceptive demons. No matter
deceived the simple '
magician, ih" ru*" process of demonic lllusion that
THE WITCH AND THE LAW ;#h, deceived hirn-as well. Affiffiifrffian was the greater fool and [f'

I the greater sinner.

Historians of witchcraft have faced other dilemmas besides that of L Oirce the full variety of medieval magic has been described, it seems
whether to adopt the rationalist or romantic approach to their subiect. to me impossible not to appreciate the important place that medieval
On the one hand, the infuence of anthropology on the study of history attitudes to*ard magic and magicians-and the nature and practice of
since the 1930s has suggested that techniques of anthropological investi- magic on ma.ry le.,rels itself-exerted in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and
gation help to explain certain aspects of the phenomenon of the witch fifteenth centuries. Once even learned magic began to be actively exam-
i persecutions. A number of critics, most eloquent among them $ggll ined and denounced, especially in the rvork of william of Auvergne and
*,9p
' Hope
-_-r:_qff""'t
Robbiqs, have argued against too great a dependence upon anthro- others in the early thirteenth century, a framework of magical activity
was shaped that came to include many kinds of behavior; some of it was
I
pology, chiefly because anthropology tends to homogenize the societies it
studies. In the case of early modern European witchcraft, Robbins argues, ."ga.dei as popular superstition and residual paganism, and more of it
anthropology tends to leave out specifically European features of witch-t as one form or another of learned magic. The process did not occur at a
craft, most obviously the concept of the devil and the relation of the witcht steady rate, nor did all kinds of thinkers contribute equaily to it. Canon
to the devil. Having rescued the witch from the anthropologists, Robbins lawyers and scholastic theologians seem to have contributed less than
and those who agree with him have been willing to leave the magician as *", o.,"" thought. Even inquisitors, once the nature and extent of the
a kind of hostage to comparative religion and anthropology in the witch's inquisitor's po*"r, are urrderstood, appear to have been less original and
place." One of the central themes in this book is that the magician, be- more closely tied to contemporary theological opinion than they are
,tween the second and the eighteenth centuries, is just as much a particu-i' customarily thought to have been. since Kieckhefer and cohn have
{larized historical figure as the witch; in fact, the magician is older. The demolished ,o-" of the fourteenth-century casesthat had long anchored
magician too, from St. Augustine on, made pacts with the devil, and in- the image of the sixteenth-century witch in the fourteenth century, such
. i deed was the first to do so. The magician, whether learned or lnlearned, docnments as Kieckhefer's own exhaustive list of witch trials may be
'was read as trials for sortilegium, dioinntio, and the illicit practice of the ars
the type against whom those laws were first promulgated that were
later applied to the witch. Many of the tracts De strigibus deal as much, if magica. And behind these trials and opinions, there lies an accessible
not more, with the evil magician than they do ra,ith the witch. Critics and body of ecclesiastical opinion on magic. The magic described by thir-
promoters of the witchcraft persecutions alike-Weyer, Bodin, Del Rio' teenth-, fourteenth-, and fifteenth-century writers is not the eternal sort
de l'Ancre-join in attacking evil magic. So strong was the opposition of magic, studied by historians of comparative civilizations and dis-
created in the period between the twelfth and the sixteenth centtuies that by anthropologists and some historians from witchcraft, either
' ,,tinguished
it haunted Ficino and Pico, blackened the memory of Roger Bacon, Arnald [Su.t"t"t
'demonic or speciffc. it ir . particular kind of magic, practiced through
of Villanova, Pietro d'Abano, Trithemius, and Agrippa, and set the stage power by a variety of social types from the Iearned magus to

ir
I
 168 The Magician, the Witch, and the Lau Tha M agician, the W itch, and' the Lau
r69
two respects: ffrst,-the preacher is
I the sorcerer's apprentice, from the local maker of crude images and love a translation would be erroneous in
I potions to the poisoner, the midwife, and the wisewoman. and, second, the valkyries are
lp"ukirrg of magicians, not male witches'
As magic came to be considered specifically the result of illicit com- ,,ot th" S"utrdinavian goddesses, but living women who practice magic.'
merce with demons, so too did heresy, and although heresy inspired the r
;'witch"
comes from wiccti, but in an etymological '
?"t ttr" modern word
had no conception of the
spread of inquisitorial procedure, both in special courts and generally J"rr" orrly. Lupus (or Wulfstan) certainly
throughout ecclesiastical and secular society, it is not surprising that those i"i"t" meaning of the feminine form of uicca. About four centuries later,
.. courts took cognizance of magic as well as heresy. It would be surprising Chaucer's Friar describesthe duties of an archdeacon:
. if they had not. Magicians and heretics are both antecedents of the witch.
, Once magic is dissociated somewhat from the idea of eternal magic on a man of heigh degree,
{ the one hand, and learning on the other, it is easy to regard it as a time- That boldely dide execucioun
.i bound phenomenon, the result of historical circumstances acting upon a r,
In punysshY'ngeof fomicacioun,
traditional literary and theological hostility which dates from the patristic Of wiccecraft, and eke of bawderYe,
period. And this has been the argument of this book so far. Of diffamacioun, and avowtrye,
Once we have admitted that the theory and practice of magic was a Of chirche reves, and of testamentz,
historical event from late antiquity through the sixteenth century and that Of contractes,and of lakke of sacramentz,
magic elicited a specific Christian response not fundamentally different Of usure,and of symonYealso.aa
from orthodox responses to heresy and later to witchcraft, we are forced
to
to reassessthe terminology customarily used to label magic and witch- , Sorcery was one of many kinds of sin whose absolution was reserved
. lJthe bishop, and the archdeacon was the bishop's legal official. Thus, the
craft. Medieval Latin and all the European vernacular languages pos-
sessed terms that were applied to magicians from late antiquity on; Friafs punishes Ior sorteli,gium and dioinatio and the poet,'
"r"hd"""or,
Although I have not been able to provide a full semantic history of such writing in English, naturally uses the term u;iccecraft. chaucer knew
key terms as maleficium, I have suggested that in Latin, terms that had .ro -oi" of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century meanings of witchcraft than
remained relatively discrete before the fourteenth century began to be had Lupus-Wulfstan four centuries earlier. The point of this short seman-
used interchangeably after that period. When one reads "dioinatio ael ars tic excursus is that the history of usage and meaning can illuminate
magica," for example, in a fifteenth-century text, it is clear that the relationships between Latin and vernacular words and can suggest that
hitherto limited definition of dipinatio has been expanded and become certain terms whose meaning dramatically changes, such as uitch and
perhaps differentiated as
interchangeable with the term ars magica. The history of malef.ciurn also ,uitchcraft, ought to be recognized as such and
i,i to early and late meanings. As I observed at the beginning of this study,
shows narrow and broad meanings. When maleficium and sortilegi.urn
became consistently forms of idolatria and su'yterstitio, theologians and the word.ssorcerer and uitch exist in English because after 1066 English
inquisitors acquired greater freedom in dealing with them in relation to was strongly infuencecl by the Romance languages. If modern English
other crimes that had long been considered manifestations of idolatria had to deai only with a term such as ui,ccacraft, many of the fine dis-
and superstitio. tinctions drawn between magic and witchcraft r,vould no longer exist.
The interchangeability of telminology in the fourteenth and fffteenth This argument mns close to a caveat of Jefirey Russell-that to deftne
centuries created a new context in which not only Latin terms, but witchcrafi only as that institution described in sixteenth-century and some
i vernacular terms as well could be considered as manifestations of the ftfteenth-centtiry sources, with the full panoply of pact with the demon,
same sin. Thus, such terms as Hexe, ,strega, taicca, and many others, night-flight, the sabbat, the use of demonic power to perform supernatural
, which we first find in early penitentials and sermons, came to mean a acts injtirious to the human race, and so forth, is virtually to deny that
. particular type of sinner and criminal which we commonly designate such a thing as witchcraft existed before 1400 or so' For the sake of
semantic precision, as the preceding chapters have indicated, I am
as uitch. Yet they did not always mean what rcitch means, and has meant
strongly inclined to take precisely that position. But any reader of
from the late fifteenth century on. In the early eleventh-cenhty Sermo
Russell'srich and massively documented shldy would recognize that such
Lupi ad Anglos, England is chastized by the preacher because, among
a stand would exclude a strong tradition and an accumulation of legend; I
many other vices, "7 her sgndan oiccan 7 rcaelcgrian "nt A literal transla-'
polemic, and legal and psychological attitudes would also be excluded. '
tion would read, "here there ale lmale] witches and valkyries." But such
I
I

u0 The Magician, the Witch, and the Law The M agician, the W itch, and. the Lau; L77
women from conceiving, and'
Without a knowledge of these elements, it would be impossible to under- and animals,'and hinder men from begetting and
all consummation of marriage; that, moreover, they deny with sacrilegi-
stand the full meaning of what was essentially a sixteenth-century phe- -"u".r,
the instigation of
nomenon. I have argued that the ffgure of the magician in medieval iu, lipr the faith they received in holy baptism; and that, at
of mankind, they do not fear to commit and perpetrate many otfier
thought and law must be reconsidered; I recognize that the type of the ih"
"n"tny offences and crimes, at the risk of their own souls, to the insult of
sixteenth-century witch was a distinct type, so distinct that it is running abominable
scandal of multitudes.
te divine majesty and to the pernicious example and
the risk of blurring her distinctiveness to use the word witchcraft without Institoris and Jacobus Sprenger, of
And, although our beloved sons Henricus
qualifying it for different historical periods. Yet the works of Hansen, Lea, ,, Friars Preachers, professors of theology, have been and still are
ih" ord"t of
Robbins, and Russell ofier extremely illuminating materials and irdg- , deputed by our apostolic letters as inquisitors of heretical pravity, the former
-the
ments about a dark and often neglected side of medieval life, and in aforesaid parts of upper Germany, including the provinces, cities, terri-
certain
scholarship would be considerably poorer without it. Keith Thomas's tories, dioceses, and other places aq-above, and the latter throughout
phrase, "the magic of the medieval Church" has yet to be fully explored, parts of the course of the Rhine; nevertheless certain of the clergy and of the
and all of the work cited above contributes much to that exploration. Lity of those parts, seeking to be wise above what is fftting, because in the said
As an example of the process by which some traditional notions about letter of deputation the aforesaid provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and
magic and some formidable new notions about the practitioners of magic other places, and the persons and ofiences in question were not individually
joined in the late fifteenth cenhrry, let us consider two of the most famous and speciffcally 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
documents in the history of witchcraft, or raiccacraft: the bull Suntmis
inquisitors to exercise their office of inquisition in the provinces, cities, dio-
desideruntes affectibus of Pope Innocent VIII in 1484, and the Malleus
ceJes, territories, and other places aforesaid, and that they ought not to be
Maleficarum of 1486, the gg1|fy.g_{g9*g-l.XiL*cgq$ to which the bull permitted to proceed to the punishment, imprisonment, and correction of the
was always attached. aforesaid persons for the ofiences and crimes above named. Wherefore in the
Innocent issued Summis desiderantes at the request of two Dominican provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and places aforesaid such offences and
inquisitors, Heinrich Kriimer ( or Institoris ) and Jacob Sprenger, who had crimes, not without evident damage to their souls and risk of etemal salvation,
worked in southern Germany and encountered some resistance in their go unpunished.
search for heretics. The bull formally removes all impediments to the We therefore, desiring, as is our duty, to remove all impediments by which
completion of Krdmer and Sprenger's mission. Its text follows: in any way the said inquisitors are hindered in the exercise of their oftce, and
to prevent the taint of heretical pravity and of other like evils from spreading
Desiring with supreme ardor, as pastoral solicitude requires, that the catholic their infection to the ruin of ot-hers who are innocent, the zeal of religion
faith in our days everywhere grow and flourish as much as possible, and that 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
all heretical pravity be put far from the territories of the faithful, we freely
of the office of inquisition which is their due, do hereby decree, by virtue of
declare and anew decree this by which our pious desire may be fulfilled, and,
our apostolic authority, that it shall be permitted to the said inquisitors in these
all errors being rooted out by our toil as with the hoe of a wise laborer, zeal
regions to exercise their office of inquisition and to proceed to the correction,
and devotion to this faith may take deeper hold in the hearts of the faithful
imprisonment, a1d punishment of the aforesaid persons for their said offences
themselves.
and crimes, in all respects and altogether precisely as if the provinces, cities,
It has recently come to our ears, not without great pain to us, that in some
territories, places, persons, and offences aforesaid were expressly named in the
parts of upper Germany, as well as in the provinces, cities, territories, regions,
said letter. And, for the greater sureness, extending the said letter and deputa-
and dioceses of Mainz, Kciln, Trier, Salzburg, and Bremen, many persons off
tion to the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, places, persons, and crimes
both sexes, heedless of their own salvation and forsaking the catholic faith,f
aforesaid, we grant to the said inquisitors that they or either of them, joining
give themselves over to devils male and female, and by their incantations,'
with them our beloved son Johannes Gremper, cleric of the diocese of Con-
charms, and conjurings, and by other abominable superstitions and sortileges,
stance, master of arts, their present notary, or any other notary public who by
offences, ctimes, a.,d misdeeds, ruin and cause to perish the ofispring of I
them or by either of them shall have been temporarily delegated in the
women, the foal of animals, the products of the earth, the grapes of vines' and I
provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, and places aforesaid, may exercise against
the fruits of trees, as well as men and women, cattle and flocks and herds and I
all persons, of whatsoever condition and rank, the said office of inquisition,
animals of every kind, vineyards also and orchards, meadows, pastlrres, harvests,
correcting, imprisoning, punishing, and chastising, according to their deserts,
grains and other fruits of the earth; that they affiict and torture with dire pains
those persons whom they shall ffnd guilty as aforesaid.
and anguish, both intemal and external, these men, women, cattle, flocks, herds;
172 The Magician, the Witch, and the Law The Magician, the W itch, and' the Lau 173
And they shall also have full and entire liberty to propound and preach to would have constituted an interesting but routine papal letter in thel
(
the faithful the word of God, as often as it shall seem to them fftting and , series printed by Hansen. what has allowed historians and demonolo-
proper, in each and all the parish churches in the said provinces, and to do all l
eists) to read the letter as something more are the circumstanees of its
things necessary and suitable under the aforesaid circumstances, and likewise
irculation. Not only was the letter routinely cirdrlated to its addressees,
freely and fully to carry them out.
but it was printed two years later as a preface to Institoris's and Sprenger's
And moreover we enjoin by apostolic writ on our venerable brother, the
treatise, the Mall'eus Maleficarum, "The Hammer of Witches," the first
Bishop of Strasburg, that, either in his own person or through some other or
printed encyclopedia of magic and witchcraft. Institoris and Sprenger
others solemnly publishing the foregoing r.vherever, whenever, and how often
the decretal in the first place. What they received was a conven-
soever he may deem expedient or by these inquisitors or either of tlem may be "li"it"d papal letter concerning evil magic, most of which was directed
legitimately required, he permit them not to be molested or hindered in any tional
manner whatsoever by any authority whatsoever in the matter of the aforesaid against ecclesiastical officials whohad impeded the two inquisitors' at-'
and of t}ris present letter, threatening all opposers, hinderers, contradictors, tempts to perform their papal commission. There is not a shred of evi-
and rebels, of whatever rank, state, decree, eminence, nobility, excellence, or dence that Innocent vIII ever saw the Malleus Maleficarum or had the
condition they may be, and whatever privilege of exemption they may enjoy, faintest notion of the ideas it contained. The printing of papal bulls with
with excommunication, suspension, interdict, and other still more terrible sen- ecclesiological works was a particular phenomenon of the age of print
tences, censures, and penalties, as may be expedient, and this without appeal itself; but the association of the bull, which was traditional and wholly
and with power after due process of law of aggravating and reaggravating unexceptional ( compare it with Gregory Ixs Vor in Rama) with the
these penalties, by our authority, as often as may be necessary, to this end
Malleus Maleficarum. which was neither traditional nor unexceptional,
calling in the aid, if need be, of the secular arm
was the work of sixteenth-century writers and, of course, Institoris and
And this, all other apostolic decrees and earlier decisions to the contrary
notwithstanding; or if to any, jointly or severally, there has been granted by
sprenger themselves. The juxtaposition of the two texts in printed edi-
this apostolic see exemption from interdict, suspension, or excommunication, by tions could legitimately be understood to have misled sixteenth-century
apostolic letters not making entire, express, and literal mention of the said grant demonologists, but it is surprising t}lat it should have misled so many
of exemption; or if there exist any other indulgence whatsoever, general or historians since the sixteenth century.
special, of whatsoever tenor, by failure to name which or to insert it bodily in Tl'te M all eu s M alefi car um, h owevet, i;;s$eltbitlgJlJg.* *WW*-ABA'
the present letter the carrying out of this privilege could be hindered or in any original. From Hansen and Lea to Robbins and Russell, scholars have
way put off,-or any of rvhose whole tenor special mention must be made in afrtTffid and probed it for antecedents and influences. Sydney Anglo is
our letters. Let no man, therefore, dare to infringe this page of our declaration, the most recent writer to have studied the work in English. All scholars
extension, grant, and mandate, or witl.r rash hardihood to contradict it. If any agree that the form of the work, that of a series of scholastic quaestiones,
presume to attempt this, let him knorv that he incurs tl.re wrath of almighty derives from handbooks for inquisitors, of which Eymeric's is the best
God and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. example. Within the framework of quaestiones arranged into three major
Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, in the year of Our Lord's incarnation 1484, parts, however, the work is intellectually inferior to Eymeriis and hardly
on the nones of December, in the first year of our pontificate.a5
to be considered "scholastic" in the original senseof that term at all. What
When Summis desiderantes is read in the light of earlier papal letters, is striking about the L[alleus is its economic use of the quaestio form to
such as those of Eugenius IV and John XXII cited above, and still others bring together elements from all of the diverse sources that had provided
printed by Hansen, it is clear that Innocent VIII has propounded nothing I elements of the new fifteenth-century beliefs in magic in the first place.
The juxtaposition of iu a single, c9l9*eryT?-ted,tightly
new in his letter. More than half the text is devoted to the vexing prob- I .the.se-ele.41e-n-tq.
Iem of Iocal opposition to papal inquisitors; the first part speaks only of algued treatiie of co-nplde-rlbly,greaterJengthth4n 4ny 9g{j9J w.ork leally
persons forsaking the Catholic faith, making pacts with devils, and c93qlitutedlhe bpis g{.$q9..p*9Bqlgr!ly ty"g
oJ\he.X4"q.Aep'r-du"{isg*gh..e..J1ex-t
thereby gaining the power to injure human beings. Despite Trevor- Hansen has worked out the complicated method whereby the
99-r.rl3lre-s.,
Roper's energetic but misguided attempt to demonstrate that in this Mall"eus acquired the approbation of part of the faculty of theology at
Cologne, and Russell has pointed out how many of the elements of the
document "a general mandate was given, or implied [for persecuting and
classical witch type of the sixteenth century are missing from the
burning witches]," there is no such mandate given or implied in the text,
Mall.eus.a6Moreover, there is no evidence that the appearance of the
and Innocent VIII's idea of the sinners he was describing was virtually
Mallpus, nor its reprinting down through the middle of the sixteenth cen-
identical with those of his predecessors. Bv itself, Surnmis desiderantes
 L74 The Magician,theWitch, andthe Laus y75
Tha Magician, the Witch, and the Lau;
tury several times, generated any greater persecutions for witchcraft and formidable body of hostility to supernatural powers. However characteris-
magicthan!1{_3!I_"-?qfm,,-..--, end::,i1"ffi_"ftfp6iifli-ad:.fnry-.Th tic of sixteenth-century thought the work of Bodin, Del Rio, Remy,
fabt;tli6*flriiiiicuiioli-of--agi"iu"i *it"ti"i i" itaty,'*ti"ft n"d blgun Boguet, and De I'Ancre is, the roots of sixteenth-century demonological
"iid to have declined shortly after the. has
earlier there than elsewhere, appears tho:ught lie in the Middle Ages, and one of the furposes of this book
publicationof the lrlallerc.The.M_4lre!49.-Lo;y9-v_p**difug9_",99d_in-;ggld-rbeenlo explore those roots and to examine their infuence long before the
ing _tgggqb,.e_r who
-p lunh_et 9f*hirh_"._+g traditisns--c.p+cp_{sllg_p03gict
dis,tin_ct. sixteenth century. There were many writers in the sixteenth cenfury
and, even more irBportant, surrounded.its second part, which deals_withi tried to separate the categori es of magia and goeteia, but from St. Augus-
the activities of the maleficaelmal.efici,with a first part dealing with ffii tine onward, such attempts were doomed to failure. Even though some
theology of magic and a third part describing in immense detail the of those who prosecuted witches were willing to make such distinctions
judicial proceduresto be used against it. In no other work are in theory, no individual magicianpr witch could ever be less than appre-.
*rsgbgy
q+j.LsW-qg_Esbtlv.._ljntej"Evenif ,aslhavet-fi ['g6iiedai;6t;,'il;;-Mm;s hensive about his or her safety from a formal charge of maleficiunr.. And
made no discernible impact on the prosecution of magicians and witches few judges in the fifteenth century were likely to be faced with a clear-
for nearly half a cenfury, no comparable work approached its compre. cut, genuine, Neoplatonic magus; rather, they encountered more often
hensiveness until those of Bodin and Remy, Del Rio and Boguet, at the magicians of the rank described above in Chapter S-the sorcerer's ap-
end of the sixteenth century. o."-rrti""r, who had access to grimoires and some high learning, but used
Tbe Malleus drew heavily on, and consolidated, the work of fifteenth- iheir arts to effect forbidden results, thereby veering close to the popular
century theologians and inquisitors such as Nider, Jaquier, and Spina. If magic of the local witch.
indeed it became the standard reference text for later demonoloqists and i T1e range of a broad definition of evil magic made it easy for judges to
magistrates, its popularity raises the question of the fundamental, as include local superstitious practices in difierent corners of Europe. But
opposed to the relative, importance of such topics as Institoris and the framework was in place ffrst, and the old notion that later witchcraft
Sprenger do not consider. Russell remarks: I persecutions originated in the encounter between learned inquisitors and
legions of
-Entop", practices from the most isolated, usually mountainous
popular

,
It is curious that they made no mention of familiar spirits, the obscene kiss, orl
must be discounted. The learned judges had plenty of time and
even of the feasting and orgies of the sabbat. Nor is there any reference tol
opportunity to develop a theory of magic in the cities of the plain-in
the witches' or the Devil's mark, both of which became so common in the trialsf
of the next two centuries.4? Italy, Flanders, Burgundy, and France-and there they found the middle-
Ievel practitioners who were their ffrst victims.
In the light of these and other marked characteristics of their theory of Nor were these judges always inquisitors. The association of the In-
witchcraft, one is forced to reiterate the suggestion made above, that the, quisition with trials for magic and witchcraft dates from the end of the
pact, the arcane skills, and the iniury to humans are the fundamentall thirteenth century to the end of the sixteenth. Both Lea and Burr have
'commented upon Italy and Spain, the strongholds of the institutional
elements of learned ideas of witchcraft. Other aspects of the witches'
activities, including night-flight, and the elements cited by Russell, werel Inquisition, as being the first places to discontinue witchcraft prosecu-
drawn in to the figure of the witch later and do not constitute an essen-f tions. Such prosecutions had begun in temporal courts in the thirteenth
tial part of her activities, at least as far as the theology and Iaw of the' century, moved into the Inquisition's sphere between the thirteenth and
fifteenth century is concerned. And the fundamental crimes of the witch, the seventeenth cenfuries, and lasted in ordinary ecclesiastical and secu-
seen in this light, are virtually identical with those of the earlier magician. lar jurisdictions long after the Inquisition ceased to concern itself with
The social mechanisms that led accusers, inquisitors, and secular witchcraft, although it continued to prosecute magicians after it had
magistrates to institute the great persecutions after the middle of the ceased prosecuting the witches. A public may shape its image of the
sixteenth century are phenomena of the sixteenth century and have no magician-or of the deviant or the gangster-in a form very different
bearing upon those mechanisms that led accusers to charge magicians in from the actual magicians-or deviants or gangsters-who appear before
the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. The later social struc:, its courts; but it prosecutes the image, not the particular criminal before
ture of the persecutions has begun to be studied in the important works it, and public opinion often fails to be swayed in the direction of the
of MacFarlane, Midelfort, and Monter, and it is beyond the scope of this latter, regardless of how much evidence is accumulated to indicate that
book. Those new social pressures, however, were enconntered by { it is wrong. Many legal institutions, therefore, have been regarded by

d
I
t
 L76 The Magician, the Witch, and the Lau The Magician, the Witch, and the Laus t77
criminologists as generally an improvement over traditional methods: the 2. There is a large literature on this subject, from H. C' Lea, A History of
inquisitorial process; efficient, professional personnel; the denial of imma- the lnquisition in the Middle Ages, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1887) to Henri
(Paris, 1960),
nent justice; the regularizing of categories of crime and the standardizing Marsonneuve, Etudes sur les origines de liinquisition, Znd ed.
'
of punishments. All of these worked in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- esp.pP'243-366'
-3.
S"" P. Michaud-Quantin, "A propos des premiers Summae confessorum,"
|o:l'iesagairwf those accused of magic and witchcraft.
Recherches de th^ologie ancienne et m6di6aaLe 26 (1959): 264-3O6, and most
In general, the changing historical meaning of the crimen magiae must "The Summa Confessorum
recently and magisterially, Leonard E. Boyle, O. P.,
.p.!e studied in the whole context of late medieval and early modern of John of Freiburg and the Popularization of the Moral Teaching of St.
ptri-i"ut law, spirituality, and. moral cliticism. Magic and witchcraft, like
Thomas and of Some of His Contemporaries," in St. Thomas Aquinas, 7274-
other forms of social deviance, change their content-and their practi- 1974, Commemoratioe Studies,2 vols. (Toronto, lS74), 2:245-68; see also
tioners-over time. In the courts, schools, and confessionalsof the period p. Michaud-Quantin, Sommes de casgistique et manuels de confession au moven
between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries, the sin and the crime of age, d.u Xlli au XVIe sidcle (Louvain, 1962). I have used the edition of
magic acquired particulal definitions and particular forms of condemna- Augsburg, 1476, for the text of John of Freiburg's Summa Confessontm dis-
tion, many of them based upon earlier forms of depicting heretics and cusied here. See also the discussion by Thomas Tentler, Leonard Boyle, and
earlier patristic depictions of the crimen magiae.'lThe crime of magic is I others in c. Trinkhaus and H. oberman, eds., The Pursuit of Holiness in Late
as the crime of rebellion," said the Book of Samuel, and priests, magis- Medieaal and Renaissance Religion (Leiden, 1974), pp. 103-40.
4. For this discussion I have used the Venice, 1586 edition of Bromyard's
trates, and kings alike tleated both in their civil liturgies and spiritual
Summa Praedicantium. For the date, see Leonard E. Boyle, O. P., "The Date
disciplines. The late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries witnessed
of dte Summa Praedicantium of John Bromyard," Speculum 48 (1973): 533-
a new exertion of spiritual and temporal power precisely against these
37. Besides Th.-M. Charland, Artes Praedicandi (Paris-Ottorva, L936), see the
forrns of deviance, armed with effective and virtually irresistible legal works of G. R. Owst, Preaching in Medieaal England (Cambridge, 1926) and
forms and an evangelical conviction of righteousness. In these circum- Literature and Pulpit in Medieoal England (Cambridge, f933). The most re-
stancesthe great witch prosecutions of the period began. cent contribution to the discussion of the influence of sermons on literature is
The literature that guided the later prosecutions, however, condemned Siegfried Wenzel, "Chaucer and the Language of Contemporary Pleaching,"
the magician as well as the witch. This study has attempted to show how Studiesin Philologg 73 (1976): 138-61.
5. It is important to point out that Bromyard here is not simply echoing the
1 the condemnation of magic in valious circumstances between the time of
trthe Church F-athersand the sixteenth century took form and when and earlier humanist antifeminism of John of Salisbury and other twelfth-cenfury
Lwhere
the appearance of demonstrably real practitionels of magic gave moralists, but rather reflects the new and much more virulent antifeminism of -
the later Middle Ages, an element of immense importance in the later develop-
9a ne* immediacv to older forms of condemnation. Far more than the
ment of the witch-figure. Bromyard was, of course, not alone' In Nicholas of
o well-known ffgrl,:e of Merlin, medieval magicians generated the con- Lyra's vast Postillae, tl're most popular biblical commentary of the later Middle
i: demnations of spiritual and temporal authorities. Those condemnations Ages, written in the ffrst half of the fourteenth century, the author in his com-
were later applied to witches, as were others. The law, whether archaic ment on Exodus 22:18 emphatically corrects the rulgate Latin term maleficos,
or early modern, was remorselessin its condemnation and treatment of noting that the Hebrew term is feminine and that the term should be under-
both. By the early seventeenth century, the Neoplatonic magus might, stood sortilegam. I have used the Basel, 1501 editior"r ol the Postillae, pinted
Iike Prospero, drown his books and finally repent. The sorcerer's appren- with the glossa ordinaria and the interlinear gloss, vol. I, fol. l7ov. See The
tice and the witch had no snclt recourse; u'here they could not hide. they Cambridge Historg of the Bible, ed. G. W. H. Lampe, vol. 2 (Cambridge,
must be burnt. 1969), pp. 155-308, esp. 197-220.
6. The text of the conclusio may be found in the Chartularium uniaersitatis
Parisiensis,ed. H. Denifle and A. Chatelain, Vol. 4 (Paris, 1897), no. 1749, pp.
32-36. For Gerson, see Jean Gerson, Oeuures compldtes, vol. 10 (Paris, 1973),
pp. 77-90; L1.nn Thorndike, Historg of Magic and Experimental Science (New
NOTES
York, 1923-58), 4: 114-31.
7. See Margaret Halvey, "Papal Witchcraft: The Charges against Benedict
l. See above, Chapter 4. The best recent study, one that has greatly in-
XIII," in Sanctitg and Secularitg: The Clrurch and the Woild, Studies in
formed the following pages, is Beryl Smalle)', "William of Auvergrre, John of
Church History, ed. Derek Baker, vol. l0 (Oxford, 1973), pp. 109-16.
La Rochelle and St. Thomas Aquinas on the Old Law," in St. Thomas Aquinas,
8. See Thomdike, Historg,4:lI4-31, for a discussion of all of Gerson's works
1274-1974, Commemoratioe Studies,2 vols. (Toronto, 1974), 2:ll-72.
r78 The Magician, thewitch, and the Laus The Magician, the Witch, and' the Lau>
179
on magic and astrology. Vol. 10 of the Oeur:rescompldtes prints the relevant Cohn, Europe's lnner Demons; Robert-Leon Wagner,
"Sorcier" et "magicien"
texts on pp. 73-143. In addition, see D. G. Wayman, "The Chancellor and iontilbutlon d llhistoire du oocabul.a.ire de In magi.e (Paris, 1939). Although
Jeanned'Arc. February - July, A. D. 1429," FranciscanStudies 17 (1957): both works are important, neither is conclusive on this point'
273-303. 22. Seebelow, APPendix II.
9. Joseph Hansen, QueIIen und Untersuchungenzur Geschichte d.esHexen- 23. Many texts ere cited, not always systematically or completely,
in Lea'
uahns und der Hexenuerfolgungim Mittelalter (Bonn, f90f ), pp. 17-18. In Materials, and Hansen, Quellen. See also Lea's Historg
of the lnquisttion.
general,Hansen'scollection of excerptsfrom papal bulls, pp. l-37, should be 24. For two unrelated e*amples, see Robert E. Lerner, The Heresg
of the
consulted. Frie Spirit in the Later Middle Ages (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972), and
10. Johann Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages (reprint ed., New p"nn n. szittya, "The Antifraternal Tradition in Middle English Literature,"
York, n.d.), p. 199. See the similar remarks conceming Jacopo Passavantiin Speat'Ium 52 (L977 ) : 287-313.
Millard Meiss, Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Deatk (New 25. Monumenta Germaniae Histmlca, Epistolae saeculi XIll e regestis
Ponti-
York, 1964), pp. 7 4-104. 1, 435.
frcum Romanorum,vol. P.
ll. Hansen,Quellen,pp. 7l-82. 26. cohn, Europe's lnner Demons, pp. 266-67, cites the standard bibliogra-
12. Ibid., pp. 105-9. phy on Konrad von Marburg. It has not been emphasized enough, however,
13. Ibid., pp. 195-200. th"t trorr."d', own spiritual career generated a view of demonology that
greatly
14. Ibid., pp.227-31. influenced Gregory IX and other thirteenth-century writers'
15. Ibid., pp.208-12. 27. S. Kuttner, "Ecclesia de occultis non judicat," Acta Congressus luridici
16. Hansen, QueIIen, ll2-18. Turrecremata was a theologian writing on lnternationalis Vll Saeculo a Decretalibus Cregorii IX, vol.3 (Rome, 1936)'
canon law, but he appears to have been generally well-informed on recent 225-46. Kuttner does not go beyond the early thirteenth century, but his study
canonist thought. shows the considerable change that traditional canonist thought would have to
17. See Henri Maisonneur., Etudes sur les origines de l'inquisition (Paris, undergo.
1960) and the Introduction, by Walter Ullmann, to Henry Charles Lea, The 28. Maisonneuve, Etudes, P. 259.
Inquisition of the Middle Ages: Its Organization and Operation (New York, 29. Hansen, Quellen, pp' L22-23;145-49.
1969). 30. Richard Kieckhefer, European witch Trials: Their Foundation in Popu'
'II Tractatus
18. Criminum" in Hermann Kantorowicz, Rechtshistorische lar and Learned. Culture, 1300-1500 (London, f976), pp' 106-47' This very
Schriften (Karlsruhe, f970), pp.273-86; Carlo Calisse,A His'torg of ltalian valuable compilation of known trials touching on magic and witchcraft be-
Loar (Boston, f928), pp.400-32; A. Pertile, Storia delDiritto ltaliano, vol.5, tween 1300 and 1500 permits the historian to easily locate a vast number of
Storiadel Diritto Penale,2nd ed. (Bologna, f966), esp. pp. 434-62;G. Dahm, cases and to check the data supporting each. In my investigation of Kieck-
Das Strafrechtltaliens im ausgehendenMittelalter (Berlin, 1931); R. His, Das hefer's table. it seems to me that all of the trials deal with what can justly be
Strafrechtder deutschenMittelalter (Weimar, 1935) vol. 2, 5, 27 on secular called sorcery and was probably understood in traditional contexts by the
magistrates'authorityto punish blasphemyand sorcery. judges. on the growth of lu*y..r, magistrates and judges as an infuential
19. Seethe referencesbelow, Appendix II, and W. Engelmann,Die Wieder' group in early mode* culture, see William J. Bouwsma, "Lawyers and Early
geburt der Rechtskultur in ltalien (Leipzig, 1939); Hans von llentig, Di'e Modern Culture," American Hirtorical Retsiew 78 (1973):303-27'
Strafe,vol. l (Berlin, f954). 31. The field of leamed magic has been considerably illuminated in recent
20. Ullmann, Introduction to Lea, lnquisition, p. 42, citing the Liber Sextus years with the appearance of a number of works of high quality and great
5, 2. 8.; H. C. Lea, IVaterials Tooard a Historg of Witchcraft, ed. and comp. intelligence: Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and tl"te Hermetic Tradition (Lon-
Arthur Howland (Philadelphia,1938), I:244-45;2:648. The crimen exceptum don, 1964); E. Garin, "Considerazioni sulla magia," and "Magia ed astrologia
is an important category of legal thought in itself and important, also, in its nella cultura del Rinascimento," both in Garin, Medioeoo e Rinascimenfo (Bari'
role as part of the early European legal legacy to modem states.The notion of f96f ), the second having beerytranslated into English as "Magic and Astrology ---
a crime, or category of crimes, that is at once so horrendous and so threatenin$ in the Civilization of the Renaissance," i1 E. Garin, Science and Ciaic Life in
to the state that the mere accusation suspends normal legal procedure and the ltalian Renaissance, trans. Peter Munz (New York, 1969)' pp. 145-65;
institutes special procedures,has never been studied. Its relation to the crimen D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic From Fi'cino to Campanella
nlagioe is only one part of its long and complex history. See Norman Cohn, (London, 1958; reprint ed., Notre Dame, Ind., 1975). A very learned and
Europe's Inner Demons (New York, 1975), pp. 229, 253. neglected text is C. S. Lewis, English Literature in the Si.xteenth Centurg, Ex-
21. Only two of the many scholarswho have studied the problem of witch- cluding Drama, Oxford History of English Literature (Oxford, 1954), Intro-
craft have attempted to consider the semantic history of the term maleficiurn'l duction, "New Learning and New Ignorance," pp. l-65. Thomdike, Historg,
t'- r80 The Magician, the Witch, and the Law The M agician, the Witch, and, the Lau 181
vols.4 and 5, are still indispensable.wayne Schumacher,The occult sciences' 42. Most recently, in his Introduction to witchctaft: catalogue of the witch-
inthe Renaissance(Berkeley and Los Angeles, lg72) is less reliable than the craft Collection in Cornell Unirsersitg Library (Millwood, N.Y', 1977)' pp'
foregoing works. On Ficino, see Paola Zambelli, "Platone, Ficino e la Magia,', xvii-xviii. see also Jefirey Russell, witchcraft in the Miildle Ages (Ithaca,
in Studia Humanitatis. Ernesto Grassi zum 70. Geburtsta& eds. E. Hora and '
t972).
E. Kessler(Munich, 1973), pp.Iil,-42. 43. Dorothy Bethurum, The Hornilies of Wulfstan (Oxford, 1957)' p' 273;
32. "Magic and Astrology,"trans. Munz, p. 149. As I suggestbelow, others' see also Dorothy Whitelock, Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (London, 1952)' I am
perceptions of Ficino's new magic did not represent a break with medieval grateful to Malcolm Parkesfor this reference.
views.SeealsoWill-Erich Peuckert,Pansophie(Berlin, 1956). 44. F. N. Robinson, ed..,The Works of Ceoffreg Chaucer (Boston, 1957)'
33. Ibid., p. 153. p.89'
34. See P. M. Rattansi, "Alchemy and Natural Magic in Raleigh's Historg 45. Trans. G. L. Burr, reprinted in Kors and Peters' Witchuaft in Europe,
of the World," Ambix 13 (f965): IZ2-38. Rattansi'shighly suggestivetheoryl pp. LM-12.
that magic was condemned by Aristotelians and promoted by platonists hasi' 46. Russell,W itchcraft, p. 232; Hansen, Quellen, pp' 360-407'
been taken rather uncritically by recent historians; Platonic condemnationsofl 47. Russell,Witchcraft, P.232'
magic, through Augustine and Hugh of st. victor, formed the basis of later.i
medieval and renaissanceattitudes, as has been shown above
35. Walker, Ficino Campanella,pp. 85-126.
36. Ibid., pp. 146-52; Peter Burke, "Witchcraft and Magic in Renaissancell
Italy: Gianfrancesco Pico and His Strir," in The Damned Art: Essags in the 1.
Literature of Witchcraft, ed. S. Anglo (London, lg77), pp. 32-52; Gene ,
Brucker, "Sorcery in Early Renaissance Florence," Studies in the Renaissance
10 (fgffi)t 7-24. The history of prosecutions for magic and, later, witchcraft;
in Italy in the fffteenth and early sixteenth centuries has, on the whole, been
neglected by historians of witchcraft. The works cited here constitute an ex:
eeption. The urbanized life of Italy, the considerable development of criminal
law in the secular courts, and the general leaming of Italian theologians and
inquisitors such as Bemard of Como and the layman Paulus Grillandus,
strongly suggest that the conceptual framework of magic included later witch-
craft. The contribution of humanism has yet to be assessed.
37. "Witchcraft and Religion in Sixteenth-Century Germany: the Formation
and Consequencesof an Orthodoxy," Archio fiir Reformationsgeschichte62
(197f ): 266-78; see also Midelfort's splendid stvdy Witch-hunting in South-
uestem cermang, 1562-1684: The social and Intellec-tual Foundations (stan-
ford,1972).
38. Most recently, see Christopher Baxter, "Johann Weyer's De Praertigiis
Daemonum: UnsystematicPsychopathology,"in Anglo, ed., The Damned Art,
pp. 53-75.
39. Walker, Ficino to Campanella,p. 144 (cf., f44-88). The search for a
"nonmagical" Christianity has not been extensively considered by historians of
the sixteenth cenfury.
40. Ibid., pp. 771-78;Ursula Lange, (Jntersuchungen zur BodinsDdmonoma-
nie (Frankfurt, 1970); ChristopherBaxter, "Jean Bodin's De Ia Ddmonomanief
des Sorciers:The Logic of Persecution,"in Anglo, ed,.,The Damned Art, pp.L
76-105.
41. Walker, Ficino to Campanella,pp. 178-89; Henri Busson,Littdrature et
th6ologie (Paris, 1962), pp. 9-32. Del Rio is an interestingthinker whose lif,e
and work have been insufficiently studied.
 Appendixt
Res
Jragilis:
Torture in Early EuropeanLaw

I.

Rationalist historians of the nineteenth century wrote with a sense of

freedom from the institutions of the past and a sense of hope for the
future that have since generally disappeared from modern historiography-
Having identified the enemies of reason and humanity, having described
and denounced them, they-and the society for which they wrote-were
at last free of them. Barbarism, superstition, despotism, theology; these
terms, in the work of Lecky, White, Lea, and others, stand like grave-
stones over institutions and beliefs that meticulous scholarship and philo-
sophical hostility had condemned, once and for all, to the buried wreck-
age of a hopelessly irrational past. When Henry Charles Lea-began the
final section of his first major historical work, Superstition and Force, he
looked back at his earlier chapters on compurgation, the judicial duel, and
the ordeal and summarily described all of these as "the resoulces devised
by human ingenuity and credulity when called upon to decide questions
too intr-icate for the impatient intellect of a rude and semi-barbarous age."
He then linked these with the subject 6f his last chapters, judicial torture:
There was another mode, however, of attaining the same object which has
received the sanction of the wisest lawgivers during the greater part of the
world's history, and our survey of man's devious wanderings in the search of
truth would be incomplete witirout glancing at the subject of the judicial use of
torture.

183
r-
r84 Append.ix7 Append.ix7 185
Compurgation, the judicial duel, and the ordeal all belonged, as Lea of jurisprudence, and our own time has witnessed its vigorous resurgence.
well knew, to a universe of legal and social ideas that had come under If judicial torture is a bridge between different legal universes, it is a
heavy attack and was largely destroyed, at least in the judicial sphere, bridge that has been crossed several times in both directions'
during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.l Judicial torture, Torture is one of those signs of increased social rationalism that praisers
however, belonged to a new order of jurisprudence, one whose disap- of rationalism often neglect. The capacity to infict pain willfully and
pearance from the lawbooks of European and American societies was not consciously and, on a civil scale, to institute systems of terror, is a charac-
complete itself until the nineteenth century, and many of whose traces teristic feature of most human societies during most periods of their his-
still constitute the bases of substantive and procedural law in modern tory, but judicial torture is always a product of an increased reliance
societies. Lea wrote with the confident assurance that torture, like the upon reason. Historians of those highly reasonable centuries, the twelfth
duel and the ordeal, had finally vanished from the world, although he and the nineteenth, often fail tp see many of the consequences of dis-
also noted, as have other scholars, the ambiguous place of judicial tor- carding several of the old irrational bonds to which society had become
ture in the rational legal universe of early modern Europe. In the history accustomed in favor of a greater reliance upon human energies and the
of western law, torture plays a role that seems to echo at once both a capacity of human analysis. The rejection of compurgation, the duel, and
remote and archaic legal universe and, in the decades since Lea's death the ordeal around 1200 meant, to be sure, a new reluctance to depend
in 1909, an appallingly contemporary one. The earliest protests against upon the intervention of the supernatural in affairs that men felt able to
judicial torture in the modern world came from the Italian jurists of the deal with by their own agency. In the twentieth century torture has re-
thirteenth century. Two of the most eloquent, immediate, and recent pro- appeared under a similar guise, that of state necessity,when it is used to
tests come from the French jurist Alec Mellol and the philosopher Jean- deal with crimes or the threat of crimes whose enormity and deviousness
Paul Sartre.' appear to render due process ineffective. The temptation to exceed the
A succinct explanation of the appearance of torture in the courts of traditional limits of the law, or to institute judicial novelties hitherto
thirteenth-century Europe was provided in 1892 in an address given by repugnant to the law, in order better to protect those institutions and
James C. Welling to the Anthropological Society of Washington: principles that the law itself was designed to protect usually implies both
an acute senseof social danger and a failure of conffdence in the efficacy
From this formal speciesof proof [duel, ordeal, and compurgationl men pass ,lof traditional legal institutions. Those who approved the use of torture in
to a matter-of-factspeciesof proof, according as their reasoningpowers grow the thirteenth century were thus, in their own way, humanists; that is,
strongerand their appliancesfor the rational disccvery of trrth become more they chose a means of judicial enquiry that relied solely upon human
and more availablein the domain of justice. In this passageof the human race agency to determine complex instances of disputed truth. They were
from a ceremonialand formal speciesof negative proof to a rationalistic and inspired by a new concept of legal personality and responsibility, they
substantivespeciesof positive proof, the method of proof by the intervention developed new judicial procedures to accommodate it, and they grew
of torture occupiesa place which may be described as a sort of "half-way particularly cautious in designing safeguards for their new procedures.
house" situate between these two typical and distinctive forms of ludicial
Henry Charles Lea's study of judicial torture between the sixth and
procedure.3
the eighteenth centuries is more than a chapter in remote and archaic
legal history. Lea realized that the history of legal procedure is far more
Welling belonged to Lea's generation and shared Lea's belief that his than the excessively specialized and recondite subdivision of Rechts-
world had seen the end of judicial torture-one of the best intentioned geschichte that scholars often make it appear to be. Like Maitland, he
and least securely founded beliefs of that optimistic generation. Accord- knew that procedure, like all public ritual in traditional societies, is an
ing to Lea and Welling, judicial torture constitutes a kind of bridge be- integral part of social experience that cannot be understood outside of
tween irrational and rational legal universes, a significant, if repugnant, the cultural matrices of the period under consideration. "The history of
step in that process by means of which rules of evidence, the authority of iurisprudence is the history of civilization," Lea remarked in the later edi-
judicial enquiry, and the extention of legal reasoning came to constitute tions of Superstition and, Force, and Lea's own meticulous scholarship and
a great humanizing force in the conflict bctween the underlying principles astute sensitivity to the multiple interactions of life and law between the
of social organization and the momentary, but terrible, exigencies of eighth and the eighteenth centuries made his works not only landmarks in
social fear. Lea and Welling both knew also that judicial torture had American historical scholarship, but pathffnding contlibutions to social
been used long before the Middle Ages in far more sophisticated systems and cultural history as well.
r
186 Append.ix7 Append.ir7 187

u. to the judicial duel, compurgation, or the ordeal, considerably restricted

the freedom of the judge to ascertain fact, the compulsory power of the
In Greek and Roman law, torture was contingent upon two conditions: public order, and the diminution of personal public status. From the
unfree personal status and particularly heinous crimes. Slaves could seventh through the twelfth centuries, men mlght challenge the truth of
legally be tortured because they did not possesslegal personality and the each other's accusations in a duly constituted court by offering the oath
responsibility of free men. In cases of particularly significant crimes, espe- of innocence, sometimessupported by the oaths of others ( compurgation ),
cially treason, even free men appear to have been generally immune from or they might reject an accusation by submitting, or having someone else
torture until the end of the first century of the Roman Empire. In spite submit on their behalf, to one form or another of the ordeal, or they
of the revolting detail in which Suetonius describes the penchant for tor- might ofier to fight a judicial duel. But no court could countenance the
ture on the part of several first-century emperors, particularly Tiberius, possibility of torturing a free m_an.Slaves, serfs, and strangers might still
Caligula, and Domitian, judicial torture did not make inroads into crim- be tortured, but this was precisely because they lacked what free men
inal procedure, except for cases of treason, until the second and third had; a specific legal status, a kindred, and an immunity from all but the
centuries e.p.a The increased and more precisely focussed authority of the first accusatorial step in the judicial pr'ocess.
state, the wider role of imperial officials in the conduct of civil and The history of European law from the seventh through the twelfth
criminal cases, and the absorption of Roman jurisprudence and legal edu- centuries is in large part the history of the transformation of this par-
cation into the administrative bureaucracy of the Empire, all contributed ticularized and limited role of judicial procedure. In the lapidary phrase
to the new role of iudicial torture. A new usage of procedural terms, in of Sir Henry Maine, it witnesses the transformation in law from "status
which, for example, the old term for the interrogation of wihresses, to contract," and it includes not only a legal revolution, but a new theol-
quaestio, became synonymous with torture (hence, the Medieval Latin ogy and new concepts of the social bond as well. As Lea points out, the
quaestio and Old French question, both of which mean torture ) as torture legal universe of the period 600-1200 was largely irrational; that is,
became a normal part of the interrogation of both the accused and wit- disabled from inquiring except by the most limited and rigid procedures
nesses,refects these profound changes in procedural law. By the fourth into the full dimensions of a legal offense, courts at the last resort relied
century, torture had become a standard element in criminal procedure, upon divine intervention to determine issues that the personal status of
and the circle of heinous crimes for which even the upper level of free the accuser and the accused made impossible to settle by any other form.
men, tlre horwstiores, might be tortured widened perceptibly to include Judicial procedure is, of course, a form of social control, and the legal
sorcery and other crimes. With the publication of the Theodosian Code procedures of this period were consonant with the social conceptions of
in 438 and the Corpus luris Ciailis of Justinian in 534, tormenturn, early medieval society. The status of individuals and the limitations upon
judicial procedure, as much as the concept of immanent justice, shored
originally an aggravated sentence of death, was used interchangibly with
tortura and quaestio. The torturers, the tortor and quaesitor, were legal up the courts of early medieval Europe.
officials, and the standard definition of quaestio became that of the jurist In the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the forces that had
sustainedthis legal universe were themselvestransformed. The intellectual
Ulpian as embodied in the Digest of Justinian: "Quaestio should be
and political attacks upon the ordeal and the judicial duel grew stronger
understood to mean the torment and suffering of the body in order to
as new ideas of Iegal bonds drove out older ideas.uThe revival of Roman
elicit the truth."5
law studies in the eleventh and twelfth centuries led to new conceptions
The new legal universe of the Roman Latin West after the sixth cen-
of the role of law in society at the same time as a new interest in Roman
tury generally reduced the place torture had attained in Roman law.
antiquity gave rise to new influences in historiography, Iiterature, and
Although many of the law codes of the Germanic kingdoms of Europe
the visual arts. The social dimension of the "Renaissance of the Twelfth
retained some traces of the Roman law of torture, particularly in the
Century"-in terms of both social theory and social institutions-has
cases of slaves, but occasionally, as in Visigothic Spain, in the cases of
often been slighted in favor of the traditional approach of the history of
free men as well, the concept of legal personality in these Germanic laws
ideas. Yet it is hardly too much to say that the period between 1050 and
generally prevented free warriors from being subjected to torture, or;
1250 witnessed not as the Ieast infuential of its many transformations a
indeed, to any judicial process remotely resembling a modern trial. The
legal revolution, the detailed history of which constituted an indispensible
ubiquity of the accusatorial procedure, according to which the outcome
commentary upon other profound changes in European society. The ap-
of a case depended more upon an outright denial of charges or a resort
188 Append,ix7 Append'ix7 189
pearance of new judicial procedures, the growth and activity of new volving infamia. As a later lawyer remarked, "In the inquisitorial process,
ecclesiastical and secular courts, the changed character and the distribu- the fudge himself does not take the part of the accuser, but infamia
tion of legal education and the concurrent growth of a new legal litera- stands in the place of the accuser or denouncer." Such phenomena as the
ture, and the broadened spectrum of careers open to those trained in the episcopal visitation to the ecclesiasticalinstitutidns of a diocese,in canon
law all constituted part of this revolution, and both the social and in- law and the visitation of royal iudicial representatives to a district in
tellectual changes of this period constitute the backdrop of the reap- secular law both established the requirement that the inhabitants of such
pearance of torture in the courts of the thirteenth century. places were obliged to inform the proper authorities of crimes committed
since the last visitation. In ecclesiastical and secular terms, this practice
was known as the denunciatio, and some writers linked it to several
III. scriptural and patristic references -to social correction in early Christian
communities.s Because of the enduring idea that only a charge brought by
The first documentary evidence of the reappearance of torture in West- an accuser was a complete charge, convictions under these forerunners
ern Europe is found in the Liber luris Cioilis of the city of Verona of of the inquisitorial process tended to result in lighter penalties, and in
L228, and torture appears in the criminal sections of the laws of a number some cases authorities required a full confession from the accused in
of other Italian city-republics during the ensuing few decades, in the addition to convictionby inquisifio in order that a full penalty might be
Constitutiones RegniSiciliani of Frederick II in 1231, and, in Castile, with imposed. Out of these specialized and tentative beginnings, there emerged
its tradition of continuing torture, in the Fuero luzgo of Ferdinand III by the twelfth century a consensusthat in certain kinds of cases another
in I24l and the Siete Partidas of Alfonso X in 1265. The victim of torture procedule than the accusatorial might be used, one which eventually
in most of these instances was the notorious criminal; as the laws of placed considerably greater latitude and power in the hands of the judge
Vercelli of L%{ observe, "No man ought to be tortured or executed unless than the older procedure, one which dispensed with the traditional accu-
[he is known to be] a common rogue, a thief, or a man of ill repute." The ser and substituted either a denouncer (who might have to furnish
appearance of torfure under these circumstances was not, it should be proof ), or, eventually, a court official, the promotor, who formally made
said at the outset, solely the result of the renewed study of Roman law. charges. Even during these changes, however, some traditional rights of
Rather, as R. C. van Caenegem has suggested, the accused remained relatively undisturbed: he might be informed of
the names and the evidence of witnesses and examine them and refute
in the last analysisit was the needsof criminal practice and new principles for
their testimony himslf; he was not yet subject to torture; he might have
the pursuit of criminals that were responsiblefor the reappearanceof torture
the aid of counsel, and although all his testimony had to be given under
in Europe, and not the revival of Roman legal studies. It seemsthat the re-
newal of Roman law and the receptionof tortule in ecclesiastical practicewere oath, another novelty, courts generally conducted such hearings warily.
the result of the diffusion of the inquisitorial procedurein Europe.T The most significant aspect of the inquisitorial procedure was the
elimination of the necessity of the Iiable accuser and the increased lati-
Indeed, so much casual historiography has indiscriminately linked torture tude and power of the courts and of the authorities they represented.
both to the revival of Roman legal studies and the ecclesiastical Inquisi- Human agency, rather than supernatural, was lesponsible for investigat-
tion, that it is necessaryto clarify the origins of torture in early thirteenth- ing the truth or falsehood of an accusation, and the increased judicial
century climinal procedure. liability that had been traditional in ecclesiastical communities now be-
Besides the accusatorial process, there were other specialized judicial came a presupposition of secular communities as well. The overriding
procedures in pre-twelfth-century Europe, although these were often not need to protect the public order and to punish crime constituted the
widely used or were suitable only for particular sets of circumstances.In background for the adaption of the earlier inquisitorial procedures to new
certain circumstanccs, as early as the ninth century, a category of mala social uses. From the experiences of the notorious heretic, the offending
fama, ill-repute, existed in the Carolingian courts, and anyone in this member of a religious community, and the ill-famed villager, a new
categoly might be condemned by a judge if he refused to exculpate him- iudicial procedure had been shaped that gave great power to the judicial
self by oath ol by ordeal. Also in the ninth centuly, a notorious offense authorities and imposed a new kind of liability upon the accused.
could be prosecuted by tlie judge without an accuser, and by the twelfth That liability and that power did not develop everywhere in the
cenfury the necessity of an accuser could be dispensed with in cases in- twelfth century in quite the same way. As Maitland has pointed out,
 190 Appendix 7 Appendix 7 191
what is peculiar to England is not the dissatisfactionwith waged "laws" and cult to prove. As Pope Innocent IV observed in L252 when for the ffrst
supematural probations, nor the adoption of an "inquisition" or 'inquest" as the time he sanctioned the use of torture by the Inquisition, if torture is
core of the new procedure, but in the form that the inquest takes, or rather appropriate for those who break the laws of men, then it is more than
retains. By instituting the Grand Assize and the four Petty Assizes Henry II
fitting for those who break the laws of God.
had placed at the disposal of litigants in certain actions that "inquest of the
The twelfth century saw new outbreaks of heresy, and the newly reor-
country" which ever since the Norman Conquest had formed part of the gov-
ganized Church attacked it in areas of society with which ecclesiastical
emmental machinery of England. His reforms were efiected just in time. But
for them, we should indeed have known the inquest, but it would in all liket- Jourts were generally unfamiliar." The apparent magnitude of heretical
hood have been the inquest of the canon law, the enqubte of the new French society, the new authority of the Church, and the problems of discover-
jurisprudence.e ing intellectual crime generated considerable ecclesiastical and lay con-
cern, and the new legal procedure.grf the inquisitorial process (particu-
Nor, it must be said, were all of the later repugnant features of the larly in cases in which accusers were often hard to find, or unwilling to
inquisitorial process immediately clear, either to churchmen or to French testify) ofiered a judicial approach to the problem. The Inquisition, or,
jurists, in the course of the twelfth century. The inquisitorial procedure technically, the Holy Office, took shape in the third quarter of the twelfth
offered what to a modern litigant would seem very familiar and ac- century and the first half of the thirteenth. Its agents were members of
ceptable: avoidance of rigid and excessively formalized charges; an air- the new Orders, at first aiding, then growing independent of, the normal
ing of testimony and a weighing of evidence, with opportunity for re- fiocesan jurisdiction. In their hands, which were not, at first, necessarily
buttal, that was unavailable under the accusatorial process in its eleventh- the hands of trained lawyers, the inquisitorial procedure developed its
and twelfth-century forms; the possibility of a trained judge who might earliest oppressive features, the concealment of the identity of witnesses
act equitably in establishing procedure and weighing intangibles. At its and the content of evidence, the refusal of counsel, the demands to
outset in the twelfth century, at least, inquisitorial procedure seemed to identify accomplices, the admission of evidence from hitherto unsuitable
reflect precisely that increased reliance upon reason, conscience, and a witnesses, and, in l252in the decretal Ad extirpanda, the introduction of
broadened concept of the social order that historians have otherwise torture. Henceforth, the inquisitorial process became burdened with per-
praised in other aspects of the life of the period. versions of rational procedure that exceeded the accusatorial system and
What caused the inquisitorial process which, in spite of Maitland's the ordeals at their worst. By the end of the thirteenth century articulate
disclaimer for England, might have remained simply a new procedure Inquisitors such as Bernard Gui wrote learned and rational handbooks
giving the court greater investigatory powers, first, to admit torture, and describing and justifying Inquisitorial procedure, and Gui was followed
second, to produce the well-documented procedural abuses of the thir- by Nicholas Eymeric and others, whose arguments were echoed in the
teenth and fourteenth centuries? The sharpened concept of treason in the ecclesiastical literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and in the
twelfth century and the thirteenth-century concept of heresy as a kind of literature of those secular courts which adopted both the inquisitorial
treason to God certainly constituted opportunities for the laws of treason procedure and its excessesand produced its own learned analyses in the
in Roman jurisprudence to be invoked once again, although in England sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
those suspected of treason were probably not tortured-and even then Yet, in spite of perversion and excessand judicial incompetence, not all
rather by orders of the monarch or of Council-until the sixteenth cen- manifestations of the inquisitorial procedure, even those which retained
tury.lo Van Caenegem's suggestion that the reappearance of torture is torture, developed along lines identical to the ecclesiastical institution.
attributable to new concepts of criminal law has much to ofier. For it As Walter Ullman has shown, there quickly grew up a cautionary litera-
was not the heretic who was the first to be tortured in the Italian laws of ture concerning the excessiveand improper use of torture almost as soon
the early thirteenth century, but the notorious criminal. Torture was ffrst as the institution of torture itself reappealed." Indeed, the Iawyers them-
used in the treatment of criminals, particularly, it may be supposed, those selvesappear to have been among the first and the severest critics of the
l accused of concealed crimes in which the identity of the guilty party was institution, and, by the sixteenth centlrry, even the trained lawyers of the
inot immediately discernible, although strong suspicion of the accused, Inquisition in Rome and Spain became suspicious of the efficacy of tor-
based upon ill-repute, may well exist. It is but a short step from institut- ture, long before such suspicions acquired enolrgh weight in the world of
ing torture for those strongly suspected of committing a crime to trying secular jurisprudence to begin the process of eliminating torture in the
those suspected of heresy, an offense much more heinous and more diffi. eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By then, judicial torture and the
192 Append.ix7 Appendbt I tgg
inquisitorial process had long been used to perform the same grisly see also the works cited in the introduction to Henry c. Lea, The ordeal
service for the monarchies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that i (Philadelphia,1973).
they had performed for the Church in the thirteenth and fourteenth-the 2. Alec Mellor, LaTorture (Paris, 1g4g), the most leamed and humane of
enforcement of orthodox belief and conduct by a drastic curtailment of modern scholarly studies; Jean-Paul Sartre, Introdriction to Henri lJleg, The
traditional judicial liberties and the development of an infallible instru- Question,trans.John Calder (New York, 1g5S). Cf. Sartre,p. 17: "If patriotism
ment for detecting concealed and forbidden intellectual forms of dissen! has to precipitate us into dishonour; if there is no precipice of inhumanity over
from treason to witchcraft.ts which nations and men will not throw themselves,then why, in fact, do we go
to so much trouble to become,or to remain, menP'
The history of judicial torture and of the legal procedures that afforded
3. The Law of Torture: A Studg in the Eoolution of Lao (Washington,
opportunities for its appearance in thirteenth-cenfury Europe is thus part
r8e2),p. 2.
of a larger chapter in social and intellectual history, as rvell as a topic of 4. See Theodor Mommsen,RrjmischeStralrecht (rep. Graz, fg5s), pp. 401-
concern to social scientists and jurists who may be more interested in its 11. A recent summary is included in Peter Garnsey, Socinl Status and Legal
twentieth-century manifestations than in its Roman and medieval origins. Prhsilegein the Roman Empire (Oxford, 1970), pp. I4l-47;231-16.
For the thirteenth-century lawyers who first cautioned against its random 5. Digest 47.10.15.4It cited by Garnsey,p. 141.
use, torture was a res fragilis, a delicate matter, which, although ad- 6. The most recent general study is that of Christopher Brooke, The Tuelfth
missible in certain instances, could easily abort the judicial processes it Centurg Renaissance(New York, 1969), with a good bibliography. There are
was originally intended to serve. Those lawyers' warnings should not be particularly important discussionsin R. w. southern, The Making of the Middle
taken lightly, nor should their limited approval of its use so obscure the Ages (New Haven, 1953) and G. Le Bras, ed,.,L'Histoire du droit et des institu-
humanitarian vision of twentieth-century investigators that they reject tions de tdglise, Vol. VII, L'Age classique,1140-1528, by J.Rambaud-Buhaut
and charles Lefebvre (Paris, 1965). See also the sourcescited in Lea. The
both approval and criticism together. For torfure was not, as the decades
Ordeal.
since the publication of Lea's book have clearly shown, an historical
7. "La Preuve dans le droit du moyen Age occidental. Rapport de synthdse,,,
aberration whose death knell was sounded, once and for all, by the in La Preuae,Recueilsde Ia Soci6t6Jean Bodin, vol. XVII (Brussels,1965),
irresistible onset of the Age of Reason and the legislative enlightenment pp. 691-755at740. See also the older but valuable work of A. Esmein.A His-
of the states of Europe in the Iate eighteenth and early nineteenth cen- torg of continental criminal Procedure,trans. J. Simpson (Boston, 1gl3) and
turies. The means of precise analysis offered by legal history and social Walter Ullmann, "Reflections on Medieval Torture," Juridical Reoiew 56
science ought not to be expended in describing the history of such insti- (1944), pp. 123-37.
philippe L6vy, La Hi2rarchie
tutions as torture solely for the purpose of patronizing what Lea called _ 8. For the development of 'otoriety, see Jean
"the impatient intellect of a rude and semibarbarous age," but for study- des preuoes dans Ie droit sarsantdu mogen-dge,univeriit6 de Lyons, Annales,
ing those configurations of social forces that permit, and then encourage, Troisidme s6rie, Droit (Paris, 1939), pp. 32-66; see also the studies in the
such instruments of public power. Lynn White once remarked that "to volume La Preuaecited in the precedingnote.
9. F. Pollock and F. W. Maitland, The Historg of English Lau, 2nd,. ed,.,
know the subliminal mind of a society, one must study the sources of its
Vol. II (Cambridge,f968), p. 604.
liturgies of inflicting death."'n There are many other social Iiturgies whose
10. For the history of torture in England, see David Jardine, A Reading on
sourcesrequire the same study, sources that produced both the medieval .
the use of rorture in the criminal Lau of England preoiously to the cammon-
lawyers' reservations of the res fragilis and the enormities of the totali- (London, f837); L. O. Pike, A Historg of Crime iningland (London,
tarian state.15 ?::It.h
1873); Leonard A. Parry, The Historg ol Torture in England (iondon, IgB4);
R. B. Pugh, Imprisonment in Medieoal England, (Camb.idge, f96g); pollock
and Maitland, Vol. II, passim.
11. The standard work is Henry c. Lea, A Historg of the lnquisition in the
NOTES Middle Ages (Philadelphia, 1887i, 3 vols. There exist a number of abridged
versions,_and of these particularly useful for the aspectsof regal procedure is
1. The best recent study of these circumstancesis John W. Baldwin, "The Henry charles Lea, The Inquisition of the Middle Ages: Its orgaiization and
Intellectual Preparation of the Canon of l2l5 against Ordeals," Speculum 36 operation, with an Historical Introduction by walter ullmann (New york,
(196f ), pp. 613-30; the fullest study is that of Hlrmann Nottarp, Cottesurteil- 1969). on the church's searchfor heretics and its attitude toward legal pro-
studi.en,Bambetget Abhandlungen und Forschungen, Bd. II (Munich, 1956)' cedure, see Austin P. Evans, "Hunting Subversion in the Middre AgLs,"
194 Append.ir 7 Appendix I 195
Speculunr 33 (1958), pp I-22; Henri Maisonneuve, Etudes sur torigine de proof in general, with much information upon the ordeal and torture are in-
I inquisition, (Paris, 1960). cluded in La Preuae,Recueilsde la Soci6t6Jean Bodin, Vol. XVII (Brussels,
12. "Reflections on Medieval Torture," above, n. 7. See also Walter Ullmann, i965). Particularly important are the studies of F. L. Ganshof (pp. 7f-98),
The Medieoalldea of Lau; as Represented bg Lucas de Penna (London, 1946), JeanGaudemet(pp.99-f36), J. Ph. L6vy (pp. 137-68),and R. C. van Caene-
pp. 159-61. gem (pp. 691-754).
13. Much of this literature is briefly surveyed in Henry Charles Lea, Mate- The most recent study of the principles of political violence is that of E. V.
rials Toward a Historg of Witchcraft, ed. Arthur Howland (Philadelphia, 1939), Walter, Terror and Resistance:A Studg of Political Violence (New York, 1969).
Vol.II. There is extensivetreatment of the history of torture in particular regions in
14. "The Legacy of the Middle Ages in the American Wild West," Speculwn the works of Pertile, Dahm, His, and Cauzons(cited abovein Chapter 6). The
40 (1965), pp. t9t-202 at 199. That such social liturgies exert a continuing recent studies of Jeffrey Russell and Norman Cohn properly place great em-
and dangerous fascination is obvious to any citizen of a twentieth-century phasis upon the role of ludicial tofture in shaping the persecution of heresy,
state. See the informative study by Hans von Hentig, "The Pillory: A Medieval magic, and witchcraft. For heresy and the Inquisition, see especially Henri
Punishment," in his Studien zur Kri,minalgeschichte (Bern, 1962), pp. ll2-28: Maisonneuve,Etudes sur les origines de tinquisition (Paris, 1960) and Siegfried
"There is a metempsychosis of human concepts. Certain punishments which Leutenbauer, Hexerei- und Zaubereidelikt in fur Literatur oon 7450 bis 1550
have been abolished as utterly ineffectual, and even damaging, emerge again (Berlin, 1972). L. Tanon, Histoire des tribunaux de I'lnquisition en France
and get hold of the mind. Being fit dischargers of emotional tensions, they are (Paris, 1893), offers additional substantialdata for France. Three studies by
restored by the retum of men of similar emotional instability." Hans Fehr have contributedsubstantiallyto the history of torture: "Gottesurteil
15. The comparative character of Iegal procedure, particularly as it may und Folter: eineStudie zur Ddmonologiedes Mittelalters und der neuren Zeit,"
apply to the policies of the twentieth-century state in its treatment of criminal Festgabefilr Rudolf Stammler (Berlin and Leipzig, 1926); "Zur Erkldrung von
and political offenses has not received the attention of many scholars. A par- Folter und Hexenprozess,"Zeitschrift fiir schweizerischeCeschichte 24 (1944):
ticularly original comparative study on these lines, whose footnotes are often as 581-85; "Zur Lehre vom Folterprozess,"Zeitschrift der Saoigng-Stiftungfilr
stimulating as the main argument itself, is Mirjan Damaska, "Evidentiary Rechtsgeschichte. CermanistischeAbteilung 53 (1933), p. 317 ff. Eberhard
Barriers to Conviction and Two Models of Criminal Procedure: A Comparative Schmidt, Inquisitionsprozesseund Reze9tten.Stuclien zur Ceschichte des Straf-
Study," Unirsersity of Pennsgloania Lau Reaiew 121 (1973), pp. 506-89. Pro- oerfahrensin Deutschlandoom 13. bis 16. lahrhundert (Leipzig, 1940), focuses
.fessor Damaska offers considerably less simplified observations on the relation upon the question of torture in greater detail than His. See now John H.
of the inquisitorial procedure to torture than my remarks above. Langbein, Torture and the Lau of Proof (Chicago, 1978).
The greatest work on the history of judicial torture is that of Piero Fiorelli,
Latoftura giudiziaria nel diritto comune,2 vols. (Milan, 1953-54), an exhaus-
tive and massively documented study that is not likely to be replaced. Among
shorter works, that of Alec Mellor, I'a Torture (Paris. 1949) is certainly the
most leamed and humane and makes an eloquent plea against the revival of
judicial torture in the twentieth century. In German, the rvork of Franz Helbing
and Max Bawer, Die Tortur. Geschichte der Folter im Kriminaloerfahren aller
ZeitenundViilker (Berlin, 1926) has extensive documentation. There is a large
bibliography of works on recent instances of judicial torture, although many
alleged surveys either fail to take historical questions into account or attempt
to indict the institution of torture by the use of misplaced psychological inves-
tigation or generally uncritical indiggration. The work of George Ryley Scott,
The Historg of Torture Throughout the Ages (London, 1949) is of this last
type and should be used rvith caution.
lhe most scholarly general l.ristory of criminal procedure is the old work of
A. Esmein, A History of Continental Crhninal Procedure, trans. J. Simpson
(Boston, tgl3). Two early articles by Walter UIImann offer additions to
Esmein's study: "Reflections on Medieval Torture," Juridical Reaieus 56 (1944),-
pp. 123-37, and "Some Medieval Principles of Criminal Procedure," Jutidical
Rer:iew 59 (1947), pp. 1-28. The most useful recent studies on the law of
 Append.ix2 197
second, posed thusly, is whether they are to be considered as heretics or
as those suspected of heresy.

1. The first thing to be considered, just as in the last Quaestio difierent

kinds of blasphemers were distinguished, is that diviners and magicians
must be distinguished; that is, there are two kinds of diviners and
Appendixz magicians.
2. Some are to be considered magicians and diviners just as are those
who act purely according to the technique of chiromancy, who divine
Nicholas Eymeric: things from the lineaments of the'hand and judge natural effects and the
condition of men from this. . . .
On Heresy,Magic, and 3. Some others, however, are magicians and diviners who are not pure
chiromantics, but are contracted to heretics, as are those who show the
the Inquisitor honor of latria2 or dulia3 to the demons, who rebaptize children and do
other similar things. And they do these things in order to foreseethe future
or penetrate to the innermost secrets of the heart. These people are guilty
of manifest heresy. And such magicians and diviners do not evade the
judgment of the Inquisitor, but ale punished according to the laws per-
taining to heretics.

Throughout the fourteenth century, manuals for inquisitors grew more The Forty-third question askswhether those who invoke demons, either
detailed and systematic. Between the Practica officii inquisitorii heretice magicians or heretics or those suspected of heresy, are subject to the
prarsitatis of Bernard Gui, written in L323124, and the Directorium inquisi- judgment of the Inquisitor of heretics.
torum of Nicholas Eymeric, written in 1376, the question of the magician 2. It appears to the Inquisitors from the above-mentioned books and
as heretic was extensively explored. Eymeric's work, especially, became from other books that certain invokers of demons manifestly show the
, the most widely circulated and widely read manual for inquisitors be- honor of latria to the demons they invoke, inasmuch as they sacriffce to
" tween the late fourteenth and the seventeenth centuries. It was printed in them, adore them, offer up horrible prayers to them, vow themselves to
1578 in a careful edition with many additions, by Francisco Pefla, a the service of the demons, promise them their obedience, and otherwise
learned jurist at the papal court; other editions and printings soon fol- commit themselvesto the demons, swearing by the name of some superior
lowed in 1585, 1587, 1591, 1597, and 1607. Thus, Eymeric's remarks upon demon whom they invoke. They willingly celebrate the praises of the
the topic of the magician as heretic are especially important because they demon or sing songs in his honor and genuflect or prostrate themselves
formed the basis of most latcr inquisitorial approaches to the topic. His before liim. They obselve chastity out of reverence for the demon or
treatment of heretical magic occurs in part 2 of the Directorium, in abstain upon his instructions or they lacerate their own flesh. Out of rever-
' ence for the demon or by his instructions they wear white or black vest-
Quaestiones 42 (De Sortilegiis et dioinatoribus), and 43 (De lnoocanti'
bus Daernones). The translations of the two questions follow:' ments. They worship him by signs and characters and unknown names.
They burn candles or incense to him or aromatic spices. They sacrifice
The forty-second question asks whether magicians and diviners are to animals and birds, catching their blood as a curative agent, or they burn
be considered heretics or as those suspected of heresy and whether they them, throwing salt in the fire and making a holocaust in this manner.
are to be subjected to the judgment of the Inquisitor of heretics. To this AII of these things and many more evil things are found in consulting and
we answer that there are two things to be seen here, just as there are desiring things from demons, in all of which and ip whichever the honor
really two things asked in this question. The first is, whether magicians of latria, if the above things are considered inte{ligently, is clearly shown
and diviners are subject to the judgment of the Inquisitor of heretics. The to the demons. If, note well, the sacriffcesto God according to the old and

196
I98 Append.i* 2 Append.ix2 199
the new law are considered, it is found there that these acts are true sacri- This conclusion may be deduced in three ways: first from the sayings of
fices only when exhibited to God, and not to the demons. This, then, is the the saints and doctors of theology, second from the sayings of the doctors
case with the first category of those who invoke or speak on behalf of of canon law, and third from the decisions of the Church.
demons. . . . And by this manner the priests used to invoke Baal, offering First, from the sayings of the theologians, BlJssed St. Augustine in Book
tlreir own blood and that of animals, as one reads in 4 Kings, lB. l0 of The Citg of God, speaking of sacrifices shown only to God and not
3. Certain other invokers of demons show to the demons they invoke to Demons, says this: "We see that it is observed in each republic that
not the honor of latria,but that of dulia, in that they insert in their wicked men honor the highest leader by a singular sign which, if it is ofiered to
prayers the names of demons along with those of the Blessed or the Saints, someone else, would be the hateful crime of ldse-rnaiestl. And thus it is
making them mediators in their prayers heard by God. They bow down written in the divine law under pain of death to those who ofier divine
before images of wax, worshipping God by their names or qualities. These honors to others. Exterior deeds ere signs of interior deeds, just as spoken
things and many other wretched things are found described in the afore- words are the signs of things; we direct our voices signifying prayers or
mentioned bools in which the honor of dulia is shown to demons. If, praises to him, to whom we offer the same things in our hearts which we
indeed, the means of praying to the Saints which the Church has dili- say, so we know that in sacrificing a visible sacrifice is to be ofiered to
gently instituted are considered, it will clearly be seen"that these prayers l{m to whom in our hearts we ought to ofier ourselves as an invisible
are to be said, not to demons, but only to the Saints and the Blessed. sacrifice. . . ."
This, then, is the case of the second category of those who invoke demons. By these words Augustine shows clearly that such sacrifice ought to be
And in this manner the Saracensinvoke Mohammed as well as God and offered to God alone, and when it is ofiered to another than God, then by
the Saints and certain Beghards invoke Petrus Johannis and others con- that deed one shows oneself to believe that that person is higher than
demned by the Church. God, which is heresy. Whoever, therefore, ofiers sacrifice to demons con-
4. Yet certain other invokers of demons make a certain kind of invoca- siders the demon as God and shows himself to believe the demon to be
tion in which it does not appear clearly that the honor either of lntria or the true God by offering external signs. By which deeds they are to be
dulia is shown to the demons invoked, as, in tracing a circle on the ground, considered heretics. . . "
placing a child in the circle, setting a mirror, a sword, an amphora, or Superstition is a vice opposed to the Christian religion or Christian wor-
something else in the way before the boy, holding their book of necro- ship. Therefore, it is heresy in a Christian, and as a consequence those
mancy, reading it, and invoking the demon and other suchlike, as is taught who sacrifice to demons are to be considered heretics.
by that art and proved by the confessionsof many. This, then, is the third 6. St. Thomas, in a commentary on Isaiah (Llsaiah,3) . . . posesthe
way of invoking demons. And by this means Saul invoked the spirit of the question whether it is illicit to seek the future through augury, and at the
python through the Pythoness. In Saul's invocation, it is seen, no honor end of his commentary says,concerning demonology and what the demons
was done, neither dulia nor latria, as one reads rn I Kings, 26. are able to know, that it is always a sin to inquire of them as well as an
It seems, therefore, that the means of invoking demons vary in three apostasyfrom faith. As says Augustine, so says blessed Thomas.
ways. These conclusions pose in furn three casesor conclusions according The sarne St. Thomas fin his commentary to Peter Lombard's] Sentences,
to which the invokers of demons ought to be distinguished from one in Book 2, distinctio 7, asks whether it is a sin to use the aid of a demon
another in three ways. and answers . . . that that whicit is be;'epd the faculties of human nature
5. First. the case or conclusion is that if the invokers of demons show is to be asked only of God, and, just as they gravely sin who, through the
to the demons they invoke the honor of latria by whatever means and if cult of Latria to an idol, impute that which is only God's to a creature of
they are clearly and judicially convicted of this, or if they confess, then God, so indeed do they gravely sin u'ho implore the aid of a demon in
they are to be held by the judgment of the Church not as magicians, but those things which are only to be asked of God. And in this way is seeing
as heretics, and if they recant and abjure heresy they are to be perpetually into the future [to be considered]. . . .
immured as penitent heretics. If, however, they do not wish to desist or if 7. Indeed, the same is to be said of other magicel works in which the
they say they wish to desist and repent but do not wish to abiure, or if they accomplishment of the task is anticipated by the +c of the devil. In all
do abjure and afterwards relapse, they are to be relinquished to the secu- these there is apostasy from the faith because oi'the compact made with
Iar arrn, punished by the ultimate torture according to all the canonical the demon or because of a promise if the compact is already in existence
sanctions which judge other heretics. or by any other deed, even if sacriffce is not performed. Man may not
200 Append,ix 2 Append.ix2 201
serve two masters, as says St. Matthew in Chapter 8, and St. Thomas. invoking any demon, building him an altar, sacrificing to him, etc. These
From these things it is shown clearly that to invoke and consult demons, are the acts of l.atria, which ought to be given only to God. . . .
even without making sacrifice to them, is apostasy from the faith and, as 11. In the second case the conclusion is thgt if those who invoke the
a consequence, heresy. It is much worse if a sacrifice is involved. . . . demons do not show to the demons they invoke the honor of latria, but do
Peter of Tarentaise, who later was Pope Innocent V, holds . ' ' that show them the honor of hyperdulia or that of dulia in the manner de-
although a man may be asked about a book which is lost, a demon may scribed before and have clearly confessed to this judicially or have been
not, because the demon, when asked about such things, will not respond, convicted of it, such are to be considered by the judgment of the Church
unless a pact is made with him, or illicit veneration, adjuration, or not magicians, but heretics, and as a consequenceif they recant and abiure
invocation. . . . heresy they are to be perpetually immured as penitent heretics. If, how-
B. Our conclusion is also proved by the sayings of the Canon ever, they do not recant, they are to be treated as impenitent heretics;
lawyers. . . . likewise if they abjure and then relapse, they are to suffer punishment like
Thirdly, our conclusion is also proved by the decisions of the Church. other heretics.
Indeed, Causa XXVI q.5 c.[L2l Episcopi says this: "Bishops and their L2. . . . Dulia may be expressed in two ways, or rather in two kinds of
officials should labor with all their strength. . ' .a case. The first is as a sign of sanctity. This is the case of Abraham, Lot
And from this it appears that those who share and exercise the magical [and others]. . . . This case is that of Angels and saints who are in the
art are to be considered heretics and avoided. . . . heavenly fatherland and are adored by us and celebrated by the honor
And from this it appears that the said evil women, persevering in their of dulia.
wickedness, have departed from the right way and the faith and the devils 13. The second case is a sign of governance, jurisdiction, and power.
delude them. If, therefore, these same women, concerning whom it is not This is the case with the prophet Nathan, and Bersabee the mother of
contested that they ofier sacrifices to the demons they invoke' are per- Solomon who adored David the King, as it says in 3 Kfngs, t. This is also
fidious and faithless and deviate from the right way as the said canon the casewith Popes, Kings, and others who lawfully wield power, as vice-
from the Council of Ancyra makes clear, then, as a consequence, if they gerents of God in authority and rule. If, therefore, anyone should show to
have been baptized they are to be considered heretics; since for a Chris- them the honor of dulia then he shows himself to believe that person to
tian to deviate from the right way and faith and to embrace infidelity is whom he displays the honor of dulia to be a saint and a friend of God, or
properly to hereticize. How much more, then, are Christians' who show a governor or a rector duly constituted by God, and thus that God ought
the honor of.latria to demons and sacrifice to the demons they invoke, to to be honored in him, his vicar. Now when the honor of dulia is shown to
be said and considered to be perfidious, deviants from the right way, and a saint, God is principally adored by the honor of latria through the saint.
faithless in the love of Christians, which is heresy-and by consequence And when a Pope, King, or any other person who wields power is revered
to be considered heretics? . . . by the honor of dulia, God is venerated by the honor of lofria through his
Indeed, the further a creature is separated from divine perfection, the Vicar. And thus by these kinds of honors which are shown to the saints
greater the fault it is to show him the honor of. Iatria. And since the and to the rectors of the Church and to the princes of this world, it is not
demons (not on account of their nature, but on account of their guilt) are themselves, but God in them who is principally venerated. Therefore,
the most separated from God of all creatures, so much the worse is it to showing the honor of dulia to a demon who has been invoked by these
adore them. And to number them among the Angels is wicked heresy' means and by exterior actions, is to reveal oneself in heart and mind as
Those who count Angels among the heretics show manifest heresy by so believing inwardly that the demon is above the saints and the friend of
counting them, adoring them, or by any way sacrificing to them' And as God and is to be venerated as if saintly, or that he is above the rectors of
those who perpetuate this kind of wickedness are to be this world and the governors duly constituted by God and therefore is to
" "orrr"qrr"rrce,
judged as heretics by the Church. be revered as having jurisdiction and power. In both sensesthis is heretical
9. The Constitution of Pope John XXII against magicians and magical and perverse, since it is contrary to the holy scriptures and against the
superstitions. . . .5 decisions of the Church. The Demon is neither a saint nor the friend of
fO. . . . Whoever invokes the aid of Mohammed, even if he does noth- God, chiefy since he is obstinate in his sin and riiirkedness. Nor is he one
ing else, falls into manifest heresy. So does anyone who in his honor con- of God s governors in this world duly constituted, but he is the captured
structs an altar to him. In similar cases the same thing may be said of slave, the falsiffer and deceiver. as the sacred canons and all that we have
202 Append.ix2
said above clearly shows. Therefore, those who are convicted of showing
the demon the honor of dulia are to be treated not as magicians, but as.
heretics....

NOTES
Appendix3
1. The edition of the Directorium inquisitorum translated here is: Rome,
1587, pp. 235-36; 338-43. On Eymeric's work and the genre of inquisitors'
The Magician
manuals generally, see my article "Editing Inquisitors' Manuals in the Sixteenth
Century: Francisco Pefia and the Directorium lnquisitorum of Nicholas the Witch
Eymeric," The Librarg Cl"Lronicle40 (f975): Bibliographical Essags in Honor
of Rudolf Hirsch:95-107. The standard study is A. Dondaine, "Le Mamrel de and the Historians
I'inquisiteur (f2,30-1330)," Archioum Fratrum Praedicatorum 17 (f947):
85-f94. On the question of I'atria and dulia, see Nicholas M. Haring," "Liber de
dulia et latria of Master Michael, Papal Notary," Medieoal Studies 33 ( f 971) :
188-200. I h<lpe to write a longer study of kt'tria and dulia in medieval thought.
2. Latria is that form of adoration which must be shown only to God; hence,
idolatria is worship shown to idols which ought to be shown only to God.
3, Dulia is a form of veneration to lte shown only to saints, holy men, and to The first century of the modern study of early European witchcraft
God's vicars on earth. opened in 1843 with the publication of !V. G. Soldan's Geschichte der
4. Eymeric here gives lhe Canon Episcopi (above, p. 73). Hexenprozess and J. G. T. Grisse's Bibliotheca L4agia et Pneumatica.
5. Fymeric here gives the constitution of Pope John XXII (above' p' f32). Its principal landmarks are the works of Heinrich Heppe ( Soldan's editor
and son-in-law), Jules Michelet, Henry Charles Lea, and Joseph Hansen.
Besides the great histories and source collections assembled by these
scholars, there appeared a host of specialized studies, so that by 1900
Robert Yve-Plessis's Essai, d)un bibliographi,e frangaise mdthodique et
raisonde de la sorcellerie et possessionddmoniaque faced a vast amount of
material. That material has increased throughout the twentieth, at a par-
ticularly rapid rate during the past ten years. Two recent scholars, H. C.
Erik Midelfort and E. lVilliam Monter, have both written studies of the
literature produced in recent years in the hope of coordinating its major
themes and suggesting further research and new directions.l
Besides the great scholarly histories of the nineteenth century, to which
may be added the mork of Julies Garinet and others, the subject of witch-
craft interested other, less scholarly and more excitable writers. The
confessional debates of the Reformation and the rationalist debates of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries gave the topic wide currency among
both Iearned and unlearned publics. The Romanticqnssion for occultism
and folk-wisdom only incleased general interest, eveii as it attacked En-
lightenment attitudes. Within this mass of learned and unlearned interest,
William Monter has discerned two distinct attitudes toward witchcraft,

203
 204 Append.ix 3 Append.ix 3 ZOS
the rationalist and the romantic. The rationalist attitude argued that precisely from an excessive reliance on individual texts divorced from
witchcraft never existed, that a misunderstanding of scripture, the flower- their literary or social context and from a lack of contact with social and
ing (or debasement) of scholastic exegesisand ontology, and the murder- anthropological theory. When new disciplineg such as those discussed
ous cynicism of the Inquisition had concocted witchcraft, and that ecclesi- above did become available from the early twentieth century on, they
astical ignorance, rapacity, and fanaticism had sustained it until the usually avoided the controversial area of confessionalargumentative schol-
devastating and purifying arrival of the Age of Reason. The romantic arship and turned toward the analysis of non-European societies, on the
attitude, represented by Michelet and several more recent writers, identi- one hand, or to problems of social and economic history and demography,
fied witchcraft either with the survival of non-Christian beliefs or, some- on the other. In spite of the promise and great intellectual power of the
what later, with institutionalized dissent and resistanceto authority in late work of Gabriel Le Bras, Marc Bloch, and Lucien Febvre, the investiga-
medieval society. To this group there may be added those (mostly cler- tion of the cultural context of rnedieval and early modern religion had
ical) scholars who believed that the witches did what they were accused acquired an unfashionable, almost unpleasantly exotic character which
of doing, or worse, that they posed a real danger, and that the medieval still lingers in most general histories of the early European Church and
Church acted with prudence and legitimate authority against them. The society. The rationalist model, perhaps best represented by the work of
rationalist attitude has tended to remain strong in scholarly circles. Per- George Lincoln Burr and by Henry Charles Lea's fragmentary and unfin-
haps the enduring attraction of one variety or another of the romantic ished Materiak toward a Historg of Witchcraff, painstakingly compiled
,,attitude may be explained by twentieth-century interest in social history, and edited by Arthur Howland and published in 1938, became virtually
ilanthropology, and religious dissent. sealed off from the new social history by its fundamental premises. How-
In some ways, each of these tr,vo attitudes reinforced the other. The ever Lea might have finished it if he had lived, it would have never be-
nineteenth-century liberal rationalist approach was strengthened by an come the authoritative masterpiece that his Historg of the lnquisition in
age of political and ecclesiasticalreaction, the romantic fascination with the Middle Ages became and remains. It is impossible to write an institu-
the occult, and an increasingly articulate and professional scholarly up- tional history of witchcraft, and Lea's great failing in the Materials was
proach by Catholic historians who wrote with an eye toward the criticism his inability to connect the materials from vastly difiuse sources into a
they knew they would receive for their learned defensesof Church policy. coherent historical explanation.
Thus, during the nineteenth century, as much scholarly energy, talent, It was precisely in other disciplines ihat the most infuential work began
and labor on this subject was expended in the service of confessional or to be done. The work of Bloch, Febvre, and many other historians opened
epistemological conflicts as by disintcrested curiosity, and these differences up the life of small early-European communities and their mental outlook
usually dominated the reception of individual works and the reputations as dramatically as history has ever opened up anything. In 1g37, the year
in one set of circles of writers belonging to others. Catholic historians before Howland published Lea's Materials, the anthropologist E. E.
regarded such writers as White trnd Lea warily; rationalist historians often Evans-Pritchard published his own seminal study, Witchcraft, Magic, and
regarded their critics with as much contempt as they did the subjects of Oracles &mong the Azande, and from that date the results of anthr.opo-
their studies, the engineers of the witchcraft persecutions and the literary logical study have been incorporated into many studies of early European
demonologists who taught them. witchcraft, notably those of AIan MacFarlane, Keith Thomas, and Jefirey
Confessional and epistemological polarization was one aspect that gov- Russell.' The dialogue between historians and anthropologists has been
elned nineteenth-century scholarship. Another was the state of disciplines only one of several useful cross-disciplinary links that have ofiered the
that might have (and since have) clarified problems that plagued both historian of witchcraft new avenues to explore. Peter Brown's use of
sides.The following developments might have lifted studies in the history Evans-Pritchard's approach has even cast new light on the problem of
and character of the witchcraft persecutions out of the confessional and sorcery in Iate imperial Rome.3 The study of social deviance and non-
epistemological tracks on which they had generally run since the eigh- conformity, the confessionalfrontiers of Reformation and Counter-Refor-
teenth century: a reliable and field-tested social anthropology; extensive mation Europe, the psychology and the life mechanisms of small tradi-
studies in the history and nature of mental outlooks, mental illness and tional societies, all have been brought forth and offered as explanatory
medicine in general; the expansion of new models of social theory and strategies to account for what has become a complex and often madden-
sociology; and a disciplined approach to folklore. However, few of these ingly vague subject.
were available, particularly to rationalist historians, whose work suffers Indeed, from the impoverished rigidity and narrowness of the early
 rr
''ffi
.Itr

206 Append.ia3 tr:' Append'ix3 207

rationalist approach and the devout vagueness of the romantic approach, pean Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," was that
the field may now be said to suffer from a surfeit of explanatory strategies, it forced the historians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to look
each of which runs the risk of excessivegeneralization based upon a rela- at the whole of the periods they worked with, rather than neglecting the
tively slender or specialized data base and a limited methodology.n In witchcraft beliefs and prosecutions of -e. *Lottt they admiled for their
contrast to studies purporting to deal with what their authors designate contributions to rationality. Although Trevor-Roper's essayis not particu-
as a craze, delusion, mania, obsession,or aberration ( with their implicit larly reliable when it deals with the period before 1550, it efiectively and
echoes of a monkish, scholastic, popish, or heretical theodicy), the recent eloquently forced witchcraft prosecutions upon the attentions of many
studies of witchcraft have, at their best, focused upon the social and psy- historians who otherwise might have continued to ignore ihem. In addi-
chological reality of the practice of magic and witchcraft' Their authors tion to Trevor-Roper's work, the great Spanish scholar Julio Caro Baloja's
have properly assumed that such beliefs reflect, preserve, and reinforce a studies The World of the Witahes andVidas magias g inquisici6n, and
society's larger beliefs about the world, and they must be examined in the the massive, immensely learned, but idiosyncratic Encgclopedia of Magic
context of a society's view of the world. Perhaps the greatest achievement and Witchcraft by Rossell Hope Robbins all contributed to raising the I
of the scholarship of the last forty years is its refusal to isolate the study consciousnessof historians to the point of being willing to treat witchcraft ''
of sorcery and related practices and beliefs from other beliefs and social beliefs and prosecutions as legitimate objects of historical study. The work
practices. of Robert Mandrou in France, a pupil of Febvre, and Raoul Manselli in
Although some of the particular generalizations offered by anthropolo- Italy also contributed to this new interest.
gists concerning the universality of societal concerns with sorcery and The first results of this new and serious concern with witchcraft were
witchcraft have come under recent criticism, the anthropologists' injunc- the publications of Keith Thomas and Alan MacFarlane. The former deals
tion that these topics must be studied in the context of a society's whole with the cultural world of sixteenth-century England; and the lattel, with
existence has been perhaps the single most influential theme in recent a series of specific trial records of that time. H. C. Erik Midelfort's Witch-
witchcraft research. A second theme, dealt with in an increasing number Hunting in Southuestern Cerm.anu,published in 1975, is also a masterful
of studies, is the small community and the place of witchcraft in its whole study of a particular region, guided by a sound knowledge of anthropo-
life. The works of H. C. Erik Midelfort, Alan MacFarlane, and Emmanuel logical principles and an extensive historical familiarity with the whole
LeRoy LaDurie are models of this kind of study. society studied. Indeed, Mac Farlane's and Midelfort's studies of case
In the light of these influences, not only have the older rationalist and records and individual centers of persecution utilize what is perhaps the
romantic approaches lost much of their intellectual attractiveness, but most promising method for future scholarship in the social history of
other, less scholarly theories of witchcraft have been utterly confounded. witchcraft: the consideration of speciffc regional crises on the basis of a
The fabrications and confections of Montague Summers and Margaret close study of arcliival resolrtces and a social analysis of victims and
Murray, however often even anthropologists have tried to touch up the accusers.
work of the latter, simply do not stand up to serious criticism. The denun- Besides the kind of acute and revealing social history prodtrced by ihe
ciation of Murray's work, by C. L'Estrange Ewen and others, began when disciplined study of local records and societies, a sccond important influ-
she first began to publish it and has been echoed by Eliot Rose and vir- ence has been the study of religious sentiment and its relation to dissent
tually every other modern scholar in the field. The work of Murray and and heterodoxy in the medieval and early-modern worlds. The work of
Summers now seems as remote as the rationalist and romantic works of a Herbert Gmndmann, Die religidse Bercegungen im lvlittelalter, published
century ago. So too is the hasty theory, invented by Joseph Flansen and in 1935 and revised in 1961, has been perhaps the single most influential
pursued recently by no less sensible a historian than H. R. Trevor-Roper, book in this area. It lies behind some of the most exciting historical work
ihut *it"h".aft as it was conceived and prosecuted in the sixteenth and of the past thirty years. Its influence can be seen in Christopher Brooke's
';Ileresy
seventeenth centuries originated in the mountainous regions of Europe brilliant study and Religious Sentiment"
";;a"ifr-l'fri"y^Eiliielis
and was based upon i.rq,risitors' and theologians' misunderstandings of lencyclopedic history WitCh)iEt'tnthe Middlb Ages, which makes the
peasant lore and custom. There is no evidence to suggest a particularly strongest case yet for the role of heresy in the shaping of the witchcraft
Lountainous origin for the idea of witchcraft; in fact, there is considerable persecutions.
evidence that witchcraft was as much an urban as a rural phenomenon. One of the ploblems recognized by all historians of witchcraft from
One of the great advantages of H. R. Trevor-Roper's essay, the "Euro- 1843 on is that of the relationship between the literary, Iearned clerical
 208 Append.ix3 Append,ix3 209
class that described and recorded witchcraft beliefs and practices, and enormous chronology demanded by the nature and history of ideas of
the content of those beliefs in the minds of those who allegedly held them. witchcraft, in many respects has not been solved. Few historians, includ-
It is the problem of the relation between high and low culture that has ing Trevor-Roper, are able to work comfortably in a period that stretches
vexed historians working on many other topics besides witchcraft. one of from Roman antiquity to the mid-eighteenth century. The diversity of
the most successfulattempts to resolve some aspects of this divergency of legions in which trials were held also militates against synthesis. Usually,
sources is Richard Kieckhefer's fine short study European witch Trials: the generalist is forced by the sheer bulk of his materials to adopt a
Their Foundation in Popular qnd Learned Culture, 1300-1500,published single explanation and focus all his energy upon it alone' Thus, Jeffrey
in 1976. Russell'sable and intelligent study argues a single thesis: that witchcraft
The study of local persecutions, including several very r.ecent studies derived from heresy, not only in the forms of trial and accusation, but
of the witches of Old Salem (now Danvers), Massachusettsin the 16g0s, , from actual heretical sects and their devices for rebelling against
'recclesiastical
do not lend themselves to an understanding of the mental world of the authoritarianism. Such explanations, however valuable they
learned judges and demonologists. studies of the learned tradition, on the are for an author, as well as for providing a focus for very diverse data
other hand, often fail to illuminate the unsophisticated, rough world of studied over a long period, tend to distort the historical picture by the
the town and village. The bar separating accusets and their victims, on very nature of their tendency toward an exclusive focus. Thus, in what
the one hand, from the judges and the learned demonologists, on the is probably the most important general history so far, Norman Cohn's
other, is literally as real in scholarship as it was in the sixteenth-century Europe's lnner Demons, published in 1975, such theses as Russell's are
courtrooms. One of the virtues of Kieckhefer's work is that it attempts attacked and criticized on precisely these grounds. Although Russell's
successfully to find a means of connecting the world of the participants book is more exhaustive, Cohn s criticism is sharp and usually effective.
in t}le persecutions with the learned world of the theoreticians of witch- Cohn's own thesis is extremely impressive. First, Cohn disproves the
craft. authenticity of several documents that had always been regarded as key
In modern studies of witchcraft difierent disciplines ofier difierent pieces in the history of the development of witchcraft. By critically deny-
perspectives. Anthropology, for example, helps to explain ]ocal societies ing the authenticity of some fourteenth century trial records (which
and regional persecutions, but it is unable to deal with the passage of Kieckhefer had also done, quite independently), Cohn forces the his-
time, with the specific historicity of European witch-beliefs, and with torian to look, not at the "anticipation" of the later sixteenth-century
the role of learned culture in these beliefs. The history of religion can, portrait of the witch, but at what the solrrces actually discuss-magic.
as Thomas and others point out, explain the palallelisms and relation- For Cohn, the motifs of most of the later rvitchcraft literature are already
ships between sacramental magic and forbidden magic in traditional found in antiquity, in the Roman traditional invective against enemies of
European culture. The selective analysis of texts, especially in their rela- the state, Jews, and Christians. He next traces the process whereby heresy
tion to traditional genres and their provenance, can overcome some of was associated with worship of and association with demons. Finally, he
the generalizing tendencies that some historians of witchcraft still reveal traces the process whereby the magician, rather than the heretic, turned
when discussing generally vague categories, such as "ecclesiastical docu- into the witch of the late fifteenth, sixtcenth, and scventeenth centuries.
ments"; medieval documents, like modern ones, came from different The greatest virtue of Cohn's study is its point of view. Critically and
sources, many of them indeed "ecclesiastical," but very difierent from efiectively working on specific incidents and texts, Cohn nevertheless
one another. A canon lawyer and a theologian addressed problems with manages to keep a sense of continuity over long periods of time and a
very different aims and resources,albeit within a generally agreed-upon diversity of sources. His views on the dcstnrction of the Templars, the
chlistian tradition. An instructor of monastic novices wrote with a difier- importance of magic, and the legal and social attitudes tor,vard heresy are
ent purpose, using different materials, for a specific a.dience different exemplary. His book is a required piece of reading with the works of
from those of a pope, an author of inquisitors' manuals, or a moral Russell, Kieckhefer, and Thomas. These general studies, along with the
theologian. In all, the works of N{idelfort and N{acFarlane, Thomas and local studies of MacFarlane, Midelfort, Carlo Guinzburg, and LeRoy
Russell, Kieckhefer and Caro Baroja have helped the field of witchcraft Ladurie, constitute an important and extremely informative body of
scholarship (and social, intellectual, and religious history, generally) to scholarly literature, devoid of cant, confessionalism, ideology, or id6es
begin a new synthesis to replace the older rationalist or romantic ones fixes. They exactly and dramatically describe the state of the ffeld, by
that for so long have dominated leamed and popular histories. constituting the best of it.
Another problem that has faced historians of witchcraft, that of the Aside from the study of Robert-Leon Wagner,"Sorcier" et "magiciei':
2L0 Append.ix3 Appendix3 zLT
Contri,bution d. fhistoire du oocabulaire de la magie (Paris, 1939), an nel medio eao (Turin, 1975), pp. 85-99, constructs a typology of ecclesias-
important work primarily concerned with literature, there has been no tical deviance that includes "rruagia e stregoneria." In some respects
systematic analysis of the actual terminology in Latin and the European Manselli shares Russell'sinterest in social deviance as a means of under-
vernacular languages used to describe and label magicians and witches. standing such phenomena as the heretic aitd the magician' Finally,
In my own work with the sources, maleficium and the maleficus (or Gerhart Ladner', "Llomo Diatori Medieval Views on Alienation and
malefica) are the most commonly used terms, and such terms as sortile- Order," Speculum 42 (1967), pp. 233-59, deals with the larger question
gium and dioinatio and others are specific subcategories of the broader of medieval theodicy, regarding magic and witchcraft as one aspect of a
designation for occult offenses of any kind. Having found "witchcraft" new kind of alienation that appeared in late twelfth- and early thirteenth-
and "sorcery" linked semantically in the sources, I have worked with century European society. These three approaches suggest some of the
condemnations of magic not usually associatedwith the medieval history range of the most recent modSr'n scholarship and the long road from
of witchcraft. I have drawn heavily upon Lynn Thorndike's monumental rationalist historiographical presuppositions tlrat most of it has travelled.
and magisterial Hi,story of L[agic and Experimental Science, more than Historians, fortunately, keep working. It is a pleasure to end this
most recent writers on the history of witchcraft, because the figures of the bibliographical appendix by citing three recent and very helpful works
sorcerel and the witch-although set apalt semantically and, by anthro- that have appeared in fields touched by this book. Raoul Manselli's La
pologists, functionally-were once very closc. Thorndike wrote his great reli.gion popilolru au moAen aga (Montreal-Paris, 1975) is a useful and
history of magic because he would have had no adequate framework for illuminating methodological approach to the problem of popular religion
a discussion of medieval scientific ideas and their place in the organiza- in medieval Europe. The Damned Art: Essaysin the Literature of Witch-
tion of knowledge rvithout considering magic. I have attempted to take craft (London, Ig77), edited by Sydney Anglo, contains ten studies of
some of Torndike's materials and juxtapose them, not to experimental some of the most important treatises on demonology and witchcraft pro-
science, but to the ars magica as that subject was viewed by medieval duced between the late fifteenth and thc early eighteenth centuries. This
moralists, theologians, Iawyers, and inquisitors. Thorndlke's History and fresh approach to often ignored literary texts is particularly welcome.
Joseph Hansen's great anthology of original documents, Quellen und. Finally, the great collection of witchcraft materials at Cornell University
Untersuchungen zur Ceschichte des Hexentoahns und der Hexenoerfol- has now been catalogued: Martha J. Crowe, ed., Witchcraft: Catalogue
gung im Llittelalter (Bonn, 1901), are cited throughout the notes to this of the Witchcraft Collection in Cornell (Jniqersitg Librarg (Millwood,
book. The other standard historics and leferences to texts-Lea's Mate- N.Y., 1977). Not only is the catalogue itself a superb guide to one of the
rials, Hansen's own Zauberwahn, Inquisition und Hexenprozess ( Munich, world's greatest collections, but the introduction, by Rossell Hope Rob-
1m0), Robbins' Encgclopedia, Russell's Witchuaft, and Cohn's study- bins, is a ffne contribution to the history of r.vitchcraft, to the history of
all bear upon most of this book and offer bibliographical guidance. I have the rationalist school of witchcraft historians, and to the role of penology
only cited their discussions of points on rvhich there is disagreement. and the courts in the witchcraft prosecutions. With the bibliographical
The pioneering work of Lea and Hansen, both rationalist historians, studies of Midelfort, Russell, and Monter, these works suggest important
has strongly influenced all subsequent twentieth-century study of the new directions, not only for historians of spirituality and ecclesiology,
history of witchcraft. The modern rvorks discussed above, although most but for scholars of social history and intellectual history. It is to these
of them transcend the limits of rationalist historical thought, all take a diverse fields that the present book is offered.
similar approach. Among the most novel recent approaehes, however,
three deserve to be particulally singled out because they suggest impor-
tant new directions for research. Keith Thornas, Religion and the Decline
of A[agic (New York, 1971), is a rnonumental study of sixteenth-century
English populal beliefs bascd upon the anthropologist's techniques and NOTES
the historian's command of different kinds of data. This work has greatly
illuminated large areas of sixteenth-centlrry thought and custom hitherto t. H. C. Erik Midelfort, "Recent Witch-Hunting Research, or Where Do
either lightly treated (as in C. Grant Loomis, White Magic [Cambridge, We go from Hele?" Papers of the Bibliographical Societg of America 62
Mass., 19481 or C. MacCulloch, Ltledieaal Faith and Fable fOxford, (1968) : 373-420; E. William Monter, "The Historiography of European Witch-
1936] ) or explored only in part. Raoul Manselli, I Fenomeni di deoianze craft: Progress and Prospects," The ]ournal of Interdisciplinary HistorE Il
2L2 Appendir!
(1972): 435-52. See also Jeffrey Burton Russell,Witchcraft in the Middlc Ages
(Ithaca, 1972), pp. 345-77.
2. Alan MacFarlane, Witchcraft in Tud.or and Sttnrt Enghnd (New York,
1970); Keith Thomas,Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York, 1971);
Jeffrey Russell, Witchcra,ft in the Mid.dle Ages (Ithaca, N.Y., 1972).
3. Peter Brown, "Sorcery, Demons and the Rise of Christianity: from Late
Antiquity to the Middle Ages," in Peter Brown, Religion and Societg in the Age
of St. Augustdne(New York, 1972), pp. tl9-46.
4, See the remarks of the anonymous reviewer in The Times Literary Sup:
pbment, No. 3583 (October 1970), "Witches and the Community: An Anthro-
pological Approach to the History of Witchcraft," and Lawrence Stone, "The Index
Disenchantmentof the World," NeusYork Reoieu of Books,2 December 1971.
A good anthology of anthropokrgical approachesis Max Marwick, ed., Witch-
craft and Sorcerg(Baltimore, f 970).

Individuals born before 1600are listed under the ffrst name. Those born
after 1600are listed by the last name'
Acts of Peter, S 5 3 , 5 6 ,6 9 , 7 3 , 7 6 , 8 5 , 9 7 ; D e
Adam Stratton,119 ciaitate Dei, 6, 8, 72, 75, I27, I34,
Adso,Libellus de Antichrirto, T L98; De iloctrina christiana, F5,
Agrippa von Nettesheim. SeeHenrY 50,72,75; Qwest. in HePt.,68
Comelius
Alain de la Roche, l4U7 Baldwinus, TT-78
Alain de Lille, 78-79 Bartholomew of Exeter, 78
Albertus Magnus,95 Benedict IX, Pope, 28
AlexanderIII, Pope,99-100, ll7 BenedictXIII, PoPe,143
AlexanderIV, Pope,99-f00, 131-33, Bemard Delicieux, 130n
r52 BernardGui, 41, 13f42, 133-34'
Alfonso Testado, 147 160, 189, 194
Alice Perrers, l24n Bernard,St.,45
d'Alverney, Marie-Therdse, 25, 86 Bible: Exodus7-11, 68; Exodus7:8,
Anselm of Besate,2l-28, 32-34, 45, 3, 148;Exodus22tL8, 17-18,68-
5 0 , 5 6 , 6 7 ,8 9 69,70, 139-40, 148; Leviticus 19-
Antichrist,7n, 18 20,69, 148; Deut. 18,69; I Samuel
Apuleius,7n,56 18,69; John8:44, 12; Acts 13: F
Aristotle, 91n 12, 3; Revelations2:9; 3:9, 12
Amald of Villanova, xi, 66, 106, 112, Bodin, Jean.SeeJean Bodin
117,118 BonifaceVIII, Pope, 98, lz0n,I2+'
.Augustine, St., 4, 10, L5, 4143, 47, 27, t28
 2L4 Inder Index 2t5
Brown,Peter,9,ll4, 117-18 GregoryIX, Pope,79,86,98, 150-57 Plato, 1-2, 56,162
Kelly, H. A.,9l
Burchardof Worms,14,7I,73, 80,99 Griffolino d Arezzo, 103-5 porphyry, 8
Kennan,Elizabeth,93
Guibert de Nogent,4l-42,44,75 Kieckhefer, Richard, 167 praestigiurn, 74n
Caesariusof Heisterbach,92-93, 112 Guichard of Troyes, 120 Konrad von Marburg, WA-57 prisca rtagia, xii
Canonepiscopi,L5,72n, l0l, 134, Guido Bonatti,7024 Kors,Alan C., xiii Prospero,xii
141, 150 Gundissalinus,6S,67 Psellos,42, 162
Cathar. xiv Law, Germanic,14; Roman,8,75,135,
Cecco d'Ascoli, 10ffi, 1f8 Ralph of Coggeshall,35-44
heresy,xvi, 10,33-45 150-55, 185-87; TheodosianCode,
Charlemagne,16 Raymondof Peflafort,78-79,80,98-
Herla, 5l 14; Canon,7 l-78, 98-102, 148-6f
Cicero, Rhetorica, 22, 28 101, 140
Hincmar of Reims,f5-f6, 75 Latria, xiv, xv, 196-200
Cohn, Norman, xiv, xvi, xviii, 7, 11- Reginoof Prim,L7,72
Honorius III, Pope, 99 Lea, H. C., 14,55,92, 182-85
12,4t, 124-27 Ilichard Fishacre,88
Hopkin, CharlesE.,95n Leo I, Pope, 11
controtsersine,23-24, 26 Richard Ledrede,I19n
HrabanusN{aurus,f5-16, 47,53,66 Liber iuratus, 111-12, lI7, ).19, 124
court,49, llln Robbins,R. H., 166n
Hubert de Burgh, 119 Louis the Pious,16
Cowdrey,H. E. J,, 22, 27, 28 Robert of Flamborough,78-80
Hugh of St. Victor, 13, 53, 56,65-67,
crimen elcceptunx,152 Robert Grosseteste, 85-86
70, 79, 95, 91 Macfarlane,Alan, xviii
crin'Lenmagiae,xiii, xvi, I24, 176 Robert Kilwardby, 66, 89
Huizinga, Johann, 145-46 N4ahautd'Artois, 121n
curiosi.tas,xiv, 2, 16, 90 Robert Pullen, 70
humanism. xi-xii Malleus maleficarum, 147, 153, 160,
Curtius,E. R.,23 RogerBacon,66, 88, 98, lt8
Hugues Geraud,130n t70-:75
Rolandus,76
Manitius,Karl, 23
Dante, 34,86, 102-6, 112 Rufinus,77-78
Marsilio Ficino, 162
demtunonde, l0, 123, 133 impotence,76n Russell,J. 8., xiv, xviii, 14, 43, 45,94,
Merlin, xii
dulia, xiv, xv, 19&-200 I ndiculi superstiti.onum,14, 24 154,169-70
Michael Scot,86-89, 102-5
Innocent IV, Pope, 140-41, f52, 190
Midelfort, H. C. Erik, xviii, 163-64 Saul 5, 68-69
Edrie Wild,51 InnocentVIII, Pope, l7O-73
Moore,R. I., 4l Simon Magus,xii, 7n, 86
EleanorCobham. 125 Inquisition, 150-61
Isidoreof Seville,l3n, 47,53, 56, 66, Southem,R. W., 94
Elymas,3-5, 8, 12-13 narratio fabulosa, 33
72,87 Stephenof T otrnai, 76-77
Enguerrand de Marigny, l2l, I28 NicholasEymeric, 132-33, 160, 189,
Ivo of Chartres,T2-73 SurnmaParisiensis,76-7 8
Etienne Tempier, 89 194-201 SylvesterII, Pope (Gerbert),28, 31,
Eudo. 5l N o c k ,A . D . , 2 48,5r,65,87
EugeniusIV, Pope, 146,149
JeanBodin, xv, 164
exemplum,32,4l jews and magic,3, 11-13; as sorcerers, Oldradusda Ponte, 133-34 Templars, 54, L25-29
13,31, 48, 94 Tertullian, 4
Faust,xii, 13 Joanof Navarre,125 Palumbus,31 ThomasAquinas,50,75,9f ,95-98,
folklore,14,24 Johannvon Frankfurt, I4H7 pastourelle,37 103
JohannesAndreae, 100 Paucapalea,76 Thomasof Chobham,78-80
C a\eazzoVisconti, 13ln Johannesde Turrecremata, 149-50 Paul, St., 3-5, 8, 12-13, 72 Thomas,Keith, xv, 166
Gerbert of Aurillac. SeeSylvesterII, John XXII, Pope,99, 129-35, 149 PedroAlfonso, 64-65, 67 Trachtenberg,Joshua,13
Pope Jolrn Bromyard, 14243 Peter the Chanter,70, 89
Ugolino Zanchini, 134-35
Gervaisof lilbury, 35,37, 41, 45,53- John of Freiburg, 14V42 Peter Comestor,70
University of Paris,91, 14344
57,67, t02 John of Salisbury,xvii,45-50, 52,55, Peter Lombard, 70, 89, 91, 95-96
Gianfrancesco Pico, 163-64, 166 64, 70, 73, 78, 85, 89, ttz, tt4, Peter the Venerable, 43 Venus,3l
goes,goetia,2 1t5,123 Philip IV, 119-29 Vergil,53-54,55, 102n
Gratian,16,7I-:18,91,100-1, 117 Jones,William R., 122-23 Picatrix,110-12, I17, 119, I24, 165 Vilgard of Ravenna,22
GregoryVI, Pope,28, 30 Jordanes de Bergamo, 147 Pico della Mirandola,xi, 161
Gregory VII, Pope, 28 Justin Martyr, &-8,43 Pierre de Latilly, I2ln, 128 Walter Langton, 119
2L6
Walter Map, 39, 40,45,50-53, 55, William of Reims, 3L36, 53
56,67 William of Malmesbury, 28-33, 49,
William of Auvergne, 66, 85,86, 89- 51,56,57,L42
9 1 , 9 5 , 1 0 1 ,1 1 2 ,1 3 9 n William of Santa Sabina. 131
William of Conches,64 Witch of Berkeley, 28n
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