Chapter XII — On witches, sorcerers, and "striges"

I. It is customary for wicked women who practice magic, or superstitious sorcery, to be called by these names. They are called "lamiae" on account of a certain analogy with the lamia, a monstrous animal, bearing a woman's face, and showing breasts and milk, and beautiful in its whole body, by which it lures men to devour them, and slaughters children, in whose blood it delights. And since wicked, sorcerous women are cruel, and suck the blood of children, they are compared to lamiae by Jeremiah himself (Lamentations 4): "Even the sea monsters have drawn out the breast, they have given suck to their young: the daughter of my people is cruel, like the ostrich in the desert." They are called "sagae" [witches] from their cunning and craftiness — or, as Marcus Tullius says, from "sagire" [to perceive keenly], insofar as, panting after the foreknowledge of future and hidden things, they demand the demon's art to attain it. They are called "striges" from the "strix," a small bird which flies about at night with a shrieking cry, and attacks children's bodies, sucking out their blood. And this is exactly what those women called "striges" do, who set out chiefly by night, and lie in wait for infants' bodies. They are also called "poisoners" [veneficae], since they employ sorceries, and are harmful to the whole human race. For these most filthy concubines and mistresses of demons, whom they devote body and soul to the devil, abjure the sacraments and mysteries of religion; they defile, tear apart, and trample sacred images, the crucifix, crosses; they tear to shreds, with every insult, the most holy names of God and of the Blessed Virgin; they sacrifice the sacred host to the devil, steeped in urine within the vilest vessels. They carry off to their homes the corpses of murdered infants, pierced through with long needles; they boil them in pots, cooking them down until the joints dissolve, and let them simmer until they have congealed into a certain thick liquid — from which liquid they extract a twofold juice: one, thinner, which they drink, and by which they bind themselves to the devil in a solemn rite; the other, thicker, kept in a certain vessel, with which they anoint their own bodies at night, when they must go, at set times, to attend gatherings with the demon, so as to practice a general debauchery of every vice and lust.

II. Question I. Why are women more given to sorcery than men? Response: Theologians give several reasons. First, women are more prone to belief; hence they are more easily deceived by a demon than men. Second, they labor under the vice of curiosity, and burn more ardently with the desire to know future and hidden things; hence they most readily believe those who reveal their secrets, and predict future things, and implore the demon's aid, that they may know them. They are also of a more pliable nature and disposition, and readily receive impressions and revelations. Women, again, are seized by an ungovernable anger, as Scripture testifies, that there is no wrath above the wrath of a woman; and since they lack the strength for revenge, they seek the demon's help. They also burn with a more intense heat of lust than men, once corrupted, on account of their greater moisture [of humoral temperament]. To satisfy this unbridled passion of lust to the full, they give themselves over to nocturnal embraces with demons. Finally, they are weaker both in intellect and in will, and more prone to deception; hence a demon appears more frequently to women, and more easily enters into pacts with them. From this you may gather how true is that oracle of Ecclesiasticus (ch. 25): "All wickedness is short to the wickedness of a woman" — and consider, at the same time, how great is the folly of men, who submit their bundles and their very minds to these wretched little women, obey their command, serve them day and night, and become their most miserable slaves — so that, in the end, from commerce with them, their bodies become tainted, and their minds bewitched by illusions.

III. Question II. Why do old women, rather than younger ones, more often devote themselves to sorcery? Response: Authors assign a twofold reason. One is that, bitterly resenting the loss of the flower of their youth, they are carried away to the height of hatred against adolescence and youth; hence, in order to harm the young, they have recourse to the demon. The other is that, prompted by the demon, they believe the blood of children suited to prolonging their own lives further.

IV. Question III. Why does God permit witches, or "striges," to harm infants and the young rather than adults? Response: All authors admit that a solid reason for this cannot be assigned. For what reason can be brought forward for things that depend on God's will? This much only we know for certain: that God arranges all this for the greater confirmation of the faith, and for the testing of the good, so that men may be deterred from sin. Some say God permits it as a punishment, or trial, of the parents; others assert it happens on account of children's weakness, which cannot resist. Others, finally, add that "striges" lie in wait for infants because, from the severed limbs of such little bodies — the feet and hands — they prepare an ointment, smeared with which they go to the demons' gatherings and feasts — or imagine that they go.

V. Question IV. Are witches really transported from place to place, or does this movement occur only through a fantastic illusion? Response: All Catholics teach that such a transit can indeed occur, since this transportation does not exceed the powers of a demon, as is established by many examples. For a demon really did transport Christ the Lord to the pinnacle of the Temple, as the Fathers commonly teach, following St. Thomas (III Part, q. 41, art. 4). We also read that Simon Magus was carried up into the air, and, by the prayer of the divine Peter, cast down to earth. This is even clearer in the case of the good Angels: for the Prophet Daniel says (ch. 14): "The Angel of the Lord took hold of Habakkuk by the hair of his head, and carried him by the vigor of his spirit, and set him down in Babylon, over the lake." And St. Luke (Acts 8): "The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more... but Philip was found at Azotus." Now evil Angels have lost none of their natural powers through their sin. Wherefore, in this order of possible transportation, they can accomplish entirely what the good Angels can. There is, then, no dispute about the fact itself; the whole question concerns witches.

There are certain over-zealous individuals who, without first distinguishing between the fact and the mere possibility, cry out against the fact as altogether impossible, disparaging all such transportations which authors relate as true — treating them as mere fables, without giving any reason, and without regard for the authority of other writers who testify to the contrary. But why do they screech against Inquisitors and judges, arguing that they have often punished witches severely — as if these women could be punished only for such transportations, and not for apostasy from the faith, or for the worship offered to a demon?

Let this be said only in passing — not that I consider all such transportations, as related, to be true; indeed, I hold that they are frequently mere illusions — but so that I may check the ignorance and audacity of certain persons, who, with incredible rashness, extend their censorious pen against far greater theologians than themselves — though such theologians ought not to be trusted even in the slightest particulars. But setting all this aside, it is worth recording what Cajetan long ago taught (II-II, q. 95, art. 3), so that these new men may learn that the older theologians were not so credulous as to consider all such transits genuine. Of the incidents Cajetan himself relates, I will transcribe one. "I too," he says, "know of a certain woman in love, whom the devil anointed while naked, persuading her that thus he would lead her to the house of her beloved; and afterward, having been beside herself for a long time, and believing that she had been with her beloved, etc., she found herself in her own place so bruised that she needed to be revived, etc. And had I not explained to her that this was mere imagination, and that she had been so injured by lying naked in that condition, she would perhaps not know to this day that it was not real. By this, however, we do not deny that the devil, God permitting, sometimes really does transport some willing person bodily from place to place. But this seems to happen VERY RARELY." For when this transvection occurs by mere fantastic illusion, the demon (whom sorcerers thus call by their own name, "Martinet") enters and penetrates the bodies of witches, and so overwhelms their senses that they feel nothing at all, even when injured and scourged; and the demon impresses upon their imagination such species, images, and phantoms, that upon waking from their stupor they truly believe they have flown about, entered other people's houses, and lain with their lovers, and so on.

VI. From this you should gather how very careful you ought to be in placing faith in women, whether wicked or even good. For although accounts of women's [dealings with demons] are found everywhere... concerning women — whether wicked or good — confessors and spiritual directors, far from becoming more cautious on that account, frequently slip into the opposite extreme of excessive credulity. I have learned from experience that little women who are eager to display a reputation for special devotion and holiness seek out credulous and easy-going confessors, so as to draw them more securely into error; they submit to them as handmaids and slaves, promise obedience, and pretend to hang upon their every word — so that, by this means, they may in the end win over even confessors less alert than themselves, and bring them entirely under their own influence. Such women are wont to excuse their own dullness and foolish credulity by the examples of Catherine, Teresa, and other female Saints — although they have imbibed not even half the spirit of a Catherine or a Teresa. Let them see to it that these devout women of theirs perform deeds of outstanding virtue, and confirm their visions by miracles worthy of Catherine and Teresa — and only then let them place firm faith in them. But of this only in passing here; I shall treat it more fully in its proper place.

VII. The opposite opinion is defended by Luther, Melanchthon, and many of that heretical rabble, whom certain Catholics also follow. But all these fight, as it were, blindfolded, inventing an enemy to strike at. For indeed, if they deny that such transportations are even possible, they err shamefully and manifestly. If they merely assert that such transportations, and the other things that follow from them, occur most frequently through mere fantastic illusion, they will find scarcely anyone to contradict them, or at most a few. For that such transits consist most frequently in mere fantastic illusion, we ourselves freely admit. They object with the authority of the Council of Ancyra, cited in the chapter Episcopi, cause 26, question 5, where it is forbidden that anyone give credence to such illusions of women. Several reply, with Severinus Binius in his notes on this Council, that the aforesaid chapter is spurious, and of no authority. Others reply that the Council forbids only the belief that witches ride about upon beasts, transformed by the goddess Diana.

VIII. Question V. Can a demon transform witch-women, or men, into a cat, a weasel, a hare, or some other beast? Response: Before answering, I will first transcribe the teaching of St. Thomas (I Part, q. 114, art. 4, ad 2), which paves the way for the decision of the question proposed. He says: "Bodily matter does not obey the good or evil Angels at will, so that demons could, by their own power, transmute matter from one form into another; but they can apply certain seeds which are found in the elements of the world, to bring about such effects, as Augustine says (Bk. III, On the Trinity). And therefore it must be said that all transmutations of bodily things which can be brought about by certain natural powers, to which the aforesaid seeds pertain, can be brought about by the operation of demons, these seeds being applied — as when certain things are transformed into serpents or frogs, which can be generated by putrefaction. But those transmutations of bodily things which cannot occur by any natural power can in no way be truly accomplished by the operation of demons — as, for instance, that a human body be changed into the body of a beast, or that a dead man's body be revived. And if something of this sort sometimes seems to occur by the operation of demons, this is not according to the truth of the thing, but only in appearance — which can occur in two ways. In one way, from within: insofar as a demon can alter a man's imagination, and even the bodily senses, so that something appears otherwise than it is, as has been said above — and this too is sometimes said to occur by the power of certain bodily things. In another way, from without. For since a demon can form a body from air, of any form and figure whatsoever, so that, assuming it, he appears visibly in it — he can, by the same reasoning, place around any bodily thing whatsoever any bodily form he pleases, so that it appears in that likeness. And this is what Augustine means (Bk. XVIII, City of God), when he says that the imaginative faculty of man, which even in thinking or dreaming is varied through innumerable kinds of things, appears, as if embodied, in the likeness of some animal, to the senses of others. This is not to be understood as if the very imaginative power of the man himself, or its image, were, numerically the same, embodied and shown to another's senses; but because the demon, who forms some image in the imagination of the man himself, can also present a similar image to the senses of another."

IX. From this teaching alone it is established that demons cannot at all transform a man or a woman into a beast. St. Thomas's teaching is expressly conveyed by Augustine (Bk. XVIII, City of God, ch. 18), where he concludes that many such illusions are merely fantastic: "For we ourselves," he says, "when we were in Italy, heard such things told of a certain region of those parts, where women innkeepers, versed in these arts, were said to be accustomed to give something in a piece of cheese to travelers, by which they would be transformed on the spot into beasts of burden, and carry whatever loads were needed; and afterward, once the task was accomplished, would return again to themselves — nor, however, did their minds become bestial in these cases, but remained rational and human, just as Apuleius, in the books he entitled 'The Golden Ass,' relates having happened to himself: that, having taken a drug, while his human mind remained, he became an ass, or indicated that this was so, or feigned it. These things are either false, or so unusual that they are rightly not believed... I would not, therefore, believe that either the mind, still less the body, can, by any art or power of demons, truly be converted into the limbs and features of beasts; but rather that the imaginative faculty of man, which even in thinking, or in dreaming, is varied through innumerable kinds of things, and, though it is not itself a body, nonetheless takes on with wondrous swiftness forms resembling bodies..."

X. To the question proposed, then, the answer is that a demon can in no way transform witches into a cat, a weasel, a goose, a dog, or other animals; but either he alters the senses both of the onlookers and of the witches themselves, who believe they have been turned into beasts, or he fashions bodies out of air closely resembling animals. This is the common opinion of theologians.

XI. Question VI. Can demons bring witches through closed doors into the bedchambers of their lovers? Response: Demons cannot bring it about that two bodies interpenetrate one another; but they can indeed bring women in through closed doors in this sense: that they can open and shut them again with such speed, just as they can remove and replace stones from walls, with such swiftness that it can scarcely be perceived by human eyes; small openings, too, can be widened, through which bodies can pass. When they carry off witches, they do so sometimes visibly, sometimes invisibly. While the husband lies in his bed, they transport the wife away, oppressing the husband's senses in a deep sleep, and sometimes lay a body fashioned of air down beside the husband in her place. The wounds that not infrequently appear on the bodies of witches, who seem to have been transformed into beasts in the manner described, arise from the fact that the witches' true bodies are joined to the airy body representing the beast; and any blow inflicted on the airy body passes through into the true body of the witch. But when this occurs by mere fantastic illusion alone, the demon himself either injures and wounds the witches' bodies directly, or... As for actually leading witches out of prison, demons cannot do this, God preventing it — as is clear from experience.

XII. Question VII. Are the gatherings of witches truly celebrated with demons, and what do they do at such gatherings? Response: Del Rio, along with others, records certain fixed places where demons celebrate their gatherings with their witches — as, in Italy, it is said there is the Mountain of Venus near Lake Orsino. On this matter one may consult Spina, On Witches, ch. 20. They have not only fixed places, but fixed times as well, at which they hold such gatherings — during Lent, especially Holy Week, the Ember Days, and other feasts. What they do at these gatherings is related at length by Del Rio and other authors. First of all, the witches approach the Prince of demons, seated upon a lofty throne, presenting a terrifying form, most often in the guise of a goat or a dog, to worship him — now on bended knee, now with their backs turned toward him, sometimes with their legs thrown up and their heads bent back, chin turned toward the sky. As a token of servitude and homage, they kiss him on his hindquarters; they offer up their own children, and sometimes kill them. Once this is done, they sit down at tables, and feast — the food sometimes most delicate, sometimes tasteless, often prepared from the eyes of infants, boiled without salt. Their bellies sated, they give themselves over to lust, mingling most foully and frequently with demons; the women submit to incubi, and the men perform an unspeakable act of intercourse with succubi, no filthy and abominable species of lust being left untried. I have touched on these few things only briefly in passing. I judge that most of this is fabulous and fantastical, as I said above; yet that it can indeed sometimes really occur is not to be denied.

XIII. There are those who deny that demons can perform carnal acts, since they lack bodies and are pure spirits. But the common opinion of Catholics teaches that this commingling of demons and women really does occur. St. Augustine attests this openly, in these words (Bk. XV, City of God, ch. 23): "And since it is a very widespread report, and many either affirm that they have themselves experienced it, or have heard it from those who have experienced it, and whose reliability there is no reason to doubt, that Silvans and Fauns, commonly called incubi, have often behaved wickedly toward women, seeking and accomplishing intercourse with them; and that certain demons, whom the Gauls call Dusii, are said to attempt and effect this uncleanness assiduously — a matter attested by so many, and by such persons, that it would seem impudent to deny it..." As for the children born from such intercourse, however, St. Thomas explains and confirms the following doctrine (I Part, q. 51, art. 3, ad 6), adding that the offspring born from such intercourse of demons and women are not the children of the demon, but of that man whose seed was taken; for a demon who acts as a succubus toward a man, and afterward as an incubus toward a woman, does this by means of the semen so received, since it is the same seed. The offspring, then, born from this transported semen, is not the demon's son, but the son of the man from whom the semen was received.

XIV. From what has been said, it is settled that this whole transportation is momentary, and effected by demonic art in such a way that these emanations, being extremely fine and subtle, and dispersed with utmost speed from their vessels, do not, in so brief a moment, vanish or dissipate — a claim of no weight, which adversaries commonly raise in objection. As for their further claim — that the generative power resides in the spirits, or in the seeds of things — this is disproved by St. Thomas: for he says that demons sometimes assume certain spirits and seeds of other things for the generation of certain effects, as Augustine says (Bk. III, On the Trinity, ch. 8), so that the demon may sometimes perform the act of intercourse without true semen — as, for instance, some demons who become succubi to a man, and afterward transfer the semen thus received to a woman, so that the demon himself is not the parent, but rather the man whose semen was taken. Should some question arise as to whether the witch experiences pleasure in this commingling, it is of no relevance.

There are those who deny that demons can transport true seed thus received without it dissipating in so short a time, especially since the demon, being skilled in the power of these vital spirits, can prevent such dissipation. Many examples are adduced by philosophers and physicians, in which it is related that women have been found with child in the womb without having lost the flower of their virginity. Here is the example recounted by St. Thomas, Quodlibet 6, q. 3, art. 18: "A woman might, perhaps, conceive without a miracle, her virginity remaining wholly intact — as is said to have happened to a certain pubescent girl, whom, to guard her modesty, [her parents] kept in a bed of her own; and while she slept, semen descended to her womb, and the girl conceived... A man, however, could naturally become a father through such a nocturnal emission, by whatever chance it reached the womb, provided virginity was preserved entire." It is likewise related, on the testimony of certain most reliable authors, that other women were found to have become pregnant in a bath, from semen shed there by men. Much else could be said on this subject; but since this concerns curiosity rather than useful and honest knowledge, I pass over it entirely in silence, since no clear reason appears against it, that it should be discussed further here.