PART II., QUESTION I.
CHAPTER IIIHow they are Transported from Place to Place.
And now we must consider their
ceremonies and in what manner they proceed in their operations, first in
respect of their actions towards themselves and in their own persons. And
among their chief operations are being bodily transported from place to place,
and to practise carnal connexion with Incubus devils, which we shall treat of
separately, beginning with their bodily vectification. But here it must be
noted that this transvection offers a difficulty, which has often been
mentioned, arising from one single authority, where it is said: It cannot be
admitted as true that certain wicked women, perverted by Satan and seduced by
the illusions and phantasms of devils, do actually, as they believe and
profess, ride in the night-time on certain beasts with Diana, a goddess of the
Pagans, or with Herodias and an innumerable multitude of women, and in the
untimely silence of night pass over immense tracts of land, and have to obey
her in all things as their Mistress, etc. Wherefore the priest of God ought to
preach to the people that this is altogether false, and that such phantasms
are sent not by God, but by an evil Spirit to confuse the minds of the
faithful. For Satan himself transforms himself into various shapes and forms;
and by deluding in dreams the mind which he holds captive, leads it through
devious ways, etc.
And there are those who, taking
their example from S. Germain and a certain other man who kept watch over his
daughter to determine this matter, sometimes preach that this is an altogether
impossible thing; and that it is indiscreet to ascribe to witches and their
operations such levitations, as well as the injuries which happen to men,
animals, and the fruits of the earth; since just as they are the victims of
phantasy in their transvections, so also are they deluded in the matter of the
harm they wreak on living creatures.
But this opinion was refuted as
heretical in the First Question; for it leaves out of account the Divine
permission with regard to the devil's power, which extends to even greater
things than this: and it is contrary to the meaning of Sacred Scripture, and
has caused intolerable damage to Holy Church, since now for many years, thanks
to this pestiferous doctrine, witches have remained unpunished, because the
secular courts have lost their power to punish them. Therefore the diligent
reader will consider what was there set down for the stamping out of that
opinion, and will for the present note how they are transported, and in what
ways this is possible, of which some examples will be adduced.
It is shown in various ways that
they can be bodily transported; and first, from the operations of other
Magicians. For if they could not be transported, it would either be because
God does not permit it, or because the devil cannot do this since it is
contrary to nature. It cannot be for the first reason, for both greater and
less things can be done by the permission of God; and greater things are often
done both to children and men, even to just men confirmed in grace.
For when it is asked whether
substitutions of children can be affected by the work of devils, and whether
the devil can carry a man from place to place even against his will; to the
first question the answer is, Yes. For William of Paris says in the last part
of his De Uniuerso: Substitutions of children are, with God's
permission, possible, so that the devil can affect a change of the child or
even a transformation. For such children are always miserable and crying; and
although four or five mothers could hardly support enough milk for them, they
never grow fat, yet are heavy beyond the ordinary. But this should neither be
affirmed nor denied to women, on account of the great fear which it may cause
them, but they should be instructed to ask the opinion of learned men. For God
permits this on account of the sins of the parents, in that sometimes men
curse their pregnant wives, saying, May you be carrying a devil! or some such
thing. In the same way impatient women often say something of the sort. And
many examples have been given by other men, some of them pious men.
For Vincent of Beauvais (Spec.
Hist., XXVI, 43) related a story told by S. Peter Damian of a
five-year-old son of a nobleman, who was for the time living in a monastery;
and one night he was carried out of the monastery into a locked mill, where he
was found in the morning. And when he was questioned, he said that he had been
carried by some men to a great feast and bidden to eat; and afterwards he was
put into the mill through the roof.
And what of those Magicians whom we
generally call Necromancers, who are often carried through the air by devils
for long distances? And sometimes they even persuade others to go with them on
a horse, which is not really a horse but a devil in that form, and, as they
say, thus warn their companions not to make the sign of the Cross.
And though we are two who write
this book, one of us has very often seen and known such men. For there is a
man who was once a scholar, and is now believed to be a priest in the diocese
of Freising, who used to say that at one time he had been bodily carried
through the air by a devil, and taken to the most remote parts.
There lives another priest in
Oberdorf, a town near Landshut, who was at that time a friend of that one of
us, who saw with his own eyes such a transportation, and tells how the man was
borne on high with arms stretched out, shouting but not whimpering. And the
cause, as he tells it, was as follows. A number of scholars had met together
to drink beer, and they all agreed that the one who fetched the beer should
not have to pay anything. And so one of them was going to fetch the beer, and
on opening the door saw a thick cloud before the grunsel, and returning in
terror told his companions why he would not go for the drink. Then that one of
them who was carried away said angrily: “Even if the devil were there, I
shall fetch the drink.” And, going out, he was carried through the air in
the sight of all the others.
And indeed it must be confessed
that such things can happen not only to those who are awake, but also to men
who are asleep; namely, they can be bodily transported through the air while
they are fast asleep.
This is clear in the case of
certain men who walk in their sleep on the roofs of houses and over the
highest buildings, and no one can oppose their progress either on high or
below. And if they are called by their own names by the other bystanders, they
immediately fall crashing to the ground.
Many think, and not without reason,
that this is devils' work. For devils are of many different kinds, and some,
who fell from the lower choir of Angels, are tortured as if for smaller sins
with lighter punishments as well as the punishment of damnation which they
must suffer eternally. And these cannot hurt anybody, at least not seriously,
but for the most part carry out only practical jokes. And others are Incubi or
Succubi, who punish men in the night, defiling them in the sin of lechery. It
is not wonderful if they are given also to horse-play such as this.
The truth can be deduced from the
words of Cassian, Collationes I, where he says that there is no doubt
that there are as many different unclean spirits as there are different
desires in men. For it is manifest that some of them, which the common people
call Fauns, and we call Trolls, which abound in Norway, are such buffoons and
jokers that they haunt certain places and roads and, without being able to do
any hurt to those who pass by, are content with mocking and deluding them, and
try to weary them rather than hurt them. And some of them only visit men with
harmless nightmares. But others are so furious and truculent that they are not
content to afflict with an atrocious dilation the bodies of those whom they
inflate, but even come rushing from on high and hasten to strike them with the
most savage blows. Our author means that they do not only possess men, but
torture them horribly, as did those which are described in S. Matthew
viii.
From this we can conclude, first
that it must not be said that witches cannot be locally transported because
God does not permit it. For if He permits it in the case of the just and
innocent, and of other Magicians, how should He not in the case of those who
are totally dedicated to the devil? And we say with all reverence: Did not the
devil take up Our Saviour, and carry Him up to a high place, as the Gospel
testifies?
Neither can the second argument of
our opponents be conceded, that the devil cannot do this thing. For it has
already been shown that he has so great natural power, exceeding all corporeal
power, that there is no earthly power that can be compared with him; as it is
said: “There is no power on earth that can be compared with him,” etc.
Indeed the natural power or virtue which is in Lucifer is so great that there
is none greater among the good Angels in Heaven. For just as he excelled all
the Angels in his nature, and not his nature, but only his grace, was
diminished by his Fall, so that nature still remains in him, although it is
darkened and bound. Wherefore the gloss on that “There is no power on earth”
says: Although he excels all things, yet he is subject to the merits of the
Saints.
Two objections which someone may
bring forward are not valid. First, that man's soul could resist him, and that
the text seems to speak of one devil in particular, since it speaks in the
singular, namely Lucifer. And because it was he who tempted Christ in the
wilderness, and seduced the first man, he is now bound in chains. And the
other Angels are not so powerful, since he excels them all. Therefore the
other spirits cannot transport wicked men through the air from place to place.
These arguments have no force. For,
to consider the Angels first, even the least Angel is incomparably superior to
all human power, as can be proved in many ways. First, a spiritual is stronger
than a corporeal power, and so is the power of an Angel, or even of the soul,
greater than that of the body. Secondly, as to the soul; every bodily shape
owes its individuality to matter, and, in the case of human beings, to the
fact that a soul informs it; but immaterial forms are absolute intelligences,
and therefore have an absolute and more universal power. For this reason, the
soul when joined to the body cannot in this way suddenly transfer its body
locally or raise it up in the air; although it could easily do so, with God's
permission, if it were separate from its body. Much more, then, is this
possible to an entirely immaterial spirit, such as a good or bad Angel. For a
good Angel transported Habacuc in a moment from Judaea to Chaldaea. And for
this reason it is concluded that those who by night are carried in their sleep
over high buildings are not carried by their own souls, nor by the influence
of the stars, but by some mightier power, as was shown above.
Thirdly, it is the nature of the
body to be moved, as to place, directly by a spiritual nature; and, as
Aristotle says, Physics, VIII, local motion is the first of bodily
motions; and he proves this by saying that local motion is not intrinsically
in the power of any body as such, but is due to some exterior force.
Wherefore it is concluded, not so
much from the holy Doctors as from the Philosophers, that the highest bodies,
that is, the stars, are moved by spiritual essences, and by separate
Intelligences which are good both by nature and in intention. For we see that
the soul is the prime and chief cause of local motion in the body.
It must be said, therefore, that
neither in its physical capacity nor in that of its soul can the human body
resist being suddenly transported from place to place, with God's permission,
by a spiritual essence good both in intention and by nature, when the good,
who are confirmed in grace, are transported; or by an essence good by nature,
but not good in intention, when the wicked are transported. Any who wish may
refer to S. Thomas in three articles in Part I, question 90, and again in his
question concerning Sin, and also in the Second Book of Sentences, dist.
7, on the power of devils over bodily effects.
Now the following is their method
of being transported. They take the unguent which, as we have said, they make
at the devil's instruction from the limbs of children, particularly of those
whom they have killed before baptism, and anoint with it a chair or a
broomstick; whereupon they are immediately carried up into the air, either by
day or by night, and either visibly or, if they wish, invisibly; for the devil
can conceal a body by the interposition of some other substance, as was shown
in the First Part of the treatise where we spoke of the glamours and illusions
caused by the devil. And although the devil for the most part performs this by
means of this unguent, to the end that children should be deprived of the
grace of baptism and of salvation, yet he often seems to affect the same
transvection without its use. For at times he transports the witches on
animals, which are not true animals but devils in that form; and sometimes
even without any exterior help they are visibly carried solely by the
operation of the devil's power.
Here is an instance of a visible
transportation in the day-time. In the town of Waldshut on the Rhine, in the
diocese of Constance, there was a certain witch who was so detested by the
townsfolk that she was not invited to the celebration of a wedding which,
however, nearly all the other townsfolk were present. Being indignant because
of this, and wishing to be revenged, she summoned a devil and, telling him the
cause of her vexation, asked him to raise a hailstorm and drive all the
wedding guests from their dancing; and the devil agreed, and raising her up,
carried her through the air to a hill near the town, in the sight of some
shepherds. And since, as she afterwards confessed, she had no water to pour
into the trench (for this, as we shall show, is the method they use to raise
hailstorms), she made a small trench and filled it with her urine instead of
water, and stirred it with her finger, after their custom, with the devil
standing by. Then the devil suddenly raised that liquid up and sent a violent
storm of hailstones which fell only on the dancers and townsfolk. And when
they had dispersed and were discussing among themselves the cause of that
storm, the witch shortly afterwards entered the town; and this greatly aroused
their suspicions. But when the shepherds had told what they had seen, their
suspicions became almost a certainty. So she was arrested, and confessed that
she had done this thing because she had not been invited to the wedding: and
for this, and for many other witchcrafts which she had perpetrated, she was
burned.
And since the public report of this sort of transvection is continually being
spread even among the common people, it is unnecessary to add further proof of
it here. But we hope that this will suffice to refute those who either deny
altogether that there are such transvections, or try to maintain that they are
only imaginary or phantastical. And, indeed, it would be a matter of small
importance if such men were left in their error, were it not that this error
tends to the damage of the Faith. For notice that, not content with that error,
they do not fear to maintain and publish others also, to the increase of
witches and the detriment of the Faith. For they assert that all the
witchcraft which is truly and actually ascribed to witches as instruments of
the devil is only so ascribed in imagination and illusion, as if they were
really harmless, just as their transvection is only phantastic. And for this
reason many witches remain unpunished, to the great dispraise of the Creator,
and to their own most heavy increase.
The arguments on which they base
their fallacy cannot be conceded. For first they advance the chapter of the
Canon (Episcopi, 26, q. 5), where it is said that witches are only
transported in imagination; but who is so foolish as to conclude from this
that they cannot also be bodily transported? Similarly at the end of that
chapter it is set down that whoever believes that a man can be changed for the
better or the worse, or can be transformed into another shape, is to be
thought worse than an infidel or a pagan; but who could conclude from this
that men cannot be transformed into beasts by a glamour, or that they cannot
be changed from health to sickness and from better to worse? They who so
scratch at the surface of the words of the Canon hold an opinion which is
contrary to that of all the holy Doctors, and, indeed, against the teaching of
the Holy Scripture.
For the contrary opinion is
abundantly proved by what has been written in various places in the First Part
of this treatise; and it is necessary to study the inner meaning of the words
of the Canon. And this was examined in the First Question of the First Part of
the treatise, in refuting the second of three errors which are there condemned,
and where it is said that four things are to be preached to the people. For
they are transported both bodily and phantastically, as is proved by their own
confessions, not only of those who have been burned, but also of others who
have returned to penitence and the Faith.
Among such there was the woman in
the town of Breisach whom we asked whether they could be transported only in
imagination, or actually in the body; and she answered that it was possible in
both ways. For if they do not wish to be bodily transferred, but want to know
all that is being done in a meeting of their companions, then they observe the
following procedure. In the name of all the devils they lie down to sleep on
their left side, and then a sort of bluish vapour comes from their mouth,
through which they can clearly see what is happening. But if they wish to be
bodily transported, they must observe the method which has been told.
Besides, even if that Canon be
understood in its bare meaning without any explanation, who is so dense as to
maintain on that account that all their witchcraft and injuries are phantastic
and imaginary, when the contrary is evident to the senses of everybody?
Especially since there are many species of superstition, namely, fourteen;
among which the species of witches holds the highest degree in spells and
injuries, and the species of Pythoness, to which they can be reduced, which is
only able to be transported in imagination, holds the lowest degree.
And we do not concede that their
error can be substantiated by the Legends of S. Germain and certain others.
For it was possible for the devils to lie down themselves by the side of the
sleeping husbands, during the time when a watch was being kept on the wives,
just as if they were sleeping with their husbands. And we do not say that this
was done for any reverence felt for the Saint; but the case is put that the
opposite of what is set down in the Legend may not be believed to be
impossible.
In the same way all other
objections can be answered: that it is found that some witches are transported
only in imagination, but that it is also found in the writings of the Doctors
that many have been bodily transported. Whoever wishes may refer to Thomas of
Brabant in his book about Bees, and he will find many wonderful things
concerning both the imaginary and the bodily transvection of men.