An Examen of Witches/Chapter 5
Chapter V.
Whether it be Possible for One to send
Demons into the Body of Another.
Françoise Secretain confessed in the first place that she had wished five devils on Loyse Maillat; and in the first chapter we have told of the means she used to this end. But it is no easy matter to determine whether a person has the power to send demons into the body of another: Wier, de praestig. III. 16.
Bodin.there are those who have considered it not to be possible, and it is even said that formerly some maintained this opinion before Pope Paul IV.
The whole truth is that this thing is possible with the permission of God; I Cor. 5
1 Tim. 1.for we read that St. Paul sent Satan into the body of the Corinthian fornicator, and into Hymenæus and Alexander the heretics. And David says in Psalm 78 that God “cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath and indignation and trouble, by sending evil angels among them;” a passage which Jean Benedicti, the Franciscan Theologian, quotes in his account of Perrenette Pinay in proof of my contention. I. 16. 7
IV. 50. 12.
IV. 58. 8 & 9Thyræus is also of this opinion in his treatise on Demoniacs.
There is no lack of examples. Simon Magus frequently caused those to be possessed who called him Sorcerer: Theodoret tells of a young girl who was possessed by means of the spells and enchantments of a sorcerer, Sect. 13. in Macedonia.though he adds that the Devil betrayed the sorcerer and revealed the whole secret of the matter; Jacques Bocquet wished upon Rollande du Vernois two devils, of whom one was named Cat and the other Devil; and in this case Jacques confirmed the statement which had previously been made by Rollande. This woman was put in prison in the year 1598 under a charge of witchcraft, and after a long imprisonment was in the end burned. Later we shall speak of her fully, as her case deserves. Cf. Benedict.Perrenette Pinay was found to be possessed by six devils, after having eaten at the instigation of a witch an apple and a piece of beef: another witch sent three devils into the body of Catherine Pontet in the year 1554. Cf. Girard Grudius.The Jews of Rome caused eighty girls and women to be possessed by the Devil; Bodin, Demonom. III. 6.
Marg. 1.and in the year 1552 the nuns of the Convent of Kendiorp were also tormented in this manner by means of their cook: Caron in his “Antichrist Unmasked” narrates that Catherine Boyraionne sent a number of demons into one Magdelaine, a woman of about twenty-two; and that another old woman cast a devil into one Marie; in each case the devils entered into the possessed by means of some nuts which they ate. De abdit. rer. caus. lib. 2.Fernel also tells of a man who was thirsty and, for want of water, ate an apple, whereon he was at once possessed by a devil. But of what use is it to linger over such examples? Every day in our own town we continually meet with large numbers of persons who, for the most part, impute their possession to certain Vaudois or sorcerers. The truth is confessed by the devils themselves, being wrung from them by the might and virtue of exorcisms, and of the glorious body of St. Claude, who, being descended from the Counts Palatine of Salins, after having governed the Archbishopric of Besançon, came to this place to live the life of a hermit until his death in the year 650. By this he gained such favour with Heaven that from that time his body may be seen laid out whole upon the altar of the church in the eternal triumph of countless miracles which are performed upon those who resort to him; and demoniacs especially are every moment being healed by his prayers and intercessions.
O Blessed Soul! Here I could willingly fill several volumes with your praises, but I wait for another time when I shall have leisure to recount, with your help, your life and works. Do but lend me your hand now, that I may bring to a conclusion this little work in which I again take up the fight against the greatest enemies of God in this world; for I must now return to my subject. It is remarkable that as we have in this place those who are possessed just as they exist elsewhere, the devils who inhabit foreigners (of whom we have just spoken) have sometimes informed us how our own people have been possessed, very particularly explaining the methods used by witches to attain such a result, both as regards the seasons, and the food which they have caused them to eat; and of this fact we have already had several proofs and indications. For it is likely that God in His justice permits this, that such persons may be got rid of from the world, and punished according to their evil deserts.
As a further confirmation of my contention, I add that when witches are angry, they threaten those who have moved their anger that they will send devils into their bodies. Françoise Secretain acted in this manner towards several children whom she wished to take by force to the Sabbat, and namely towards a twelve-year-old girl named Christofle of the village of Aranthon. Loyse Maillat also stated that when this Françoise forced her to eat the piece of bread by means of which she was afterwards possessed, she threatened to wish evil spirits upon her.
And what is even stranger is that, if the witch has several devils under his control, he must find a lodging and employment for them all; for otherwise, according to Caron, he is in danger of his life.
Now the means usually employed by a witch to possess his victims with a devil is to offer them some sort of food; and I have remarked that he most often uses apples. In this Satan continually rehearses the means by which he tempted Adam and Eve in the earthly Paradise. And in this connection I cannot pass over what happened at Annecy in Savoy in the year 1585. On the edge of the Hasli Bridge there was seen for two hours an apple from which came so great and confused a noise that people were afraid to pass by there, although it was a much-used way. Everybody ran to see this thing, though no one dared to go near to it; until, as is always the case, at last one man more bold than the rest took a long stick and knocked the apple into the Thiou, a canal from the lake of Annecy which passes under the bridge; and after that nothing more was heard. It cannot be doubted that this apple was full of devils, and that a witch had been foiled in an attempt to give it to someone.
I have noticed also that demoniacs for the most part confess that the evil attacks them when they beat something; and from this it may be supposed that there is gluttony on their part; a sin abominable to God, who does not wish us to abuse the good things which it pleases Him to give us, or that instead of blessing and praising Him for His mercies, we should take the food He sends us immoderately or without remembering Him or thanking Him for it.
Let us learn, then, when we are about to eat and drink, to think of Him who is the author of all, and to bless our food with the sacred sign of the Cross as we have been taught by the Holy Fathers, S. Jerome, epist. ad Eusto. Tertullian, de coro. milit.; et alii.who held the Cross in such reverence that they said it delivered us from devils and made them flee from before us; for the necessity of using this sign before we eat is such that St. Gregory writes of a Nun who, in eating a lettuce, swallowed the devil with the lettuce because she had not made the sign of the Cross. But we shall speak more fully of the Cross in another place.
A point very worthy of examination here is how the Devil enters into the body of an innocent child who has committed no sin, as happened in the case of Loyse Maillat. Thyr. in Demonom. II. 32.This comes of the permission of God; for we see also that the witch has power over the health and life of children even to the extent of killing them in their mothers’ wombs, as we shall show later. Exod. 11.There must have been many innocent children among the first-born of Egypt; yet God put them all to the edge of the sword, even as He also caused the death of the child adulterously born to David and Bathsheba.II Sam. 12.
There is no doubt that the sins of the fathers are in some part the reason for this affliction; Exod. 20.for the Holy Scriptures say that God punishes the children for the sins of their parents, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him; II Sam. 2.
I Kings 14.
Eccles. 1.and elsewhere God threatened to punish the Kings in their children, and this also has happened since those times. For some have had their sceptres taken from them, and others have been led into a miserable captivity.
Sometimes again God allows Innocents to be possessed and afflicted, not for any sin, but that His justice and His works may thereby shine the more gloriously. We have an excellent example of this in St. John’s account of the man who was born blind, speaking of whom Jesus Christ said:John 9. “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in Him.” And Loyse Maillat, at eight years old, was possessed of five devils; but what ensued from this? It led to the discovery of countless witches who have been punished as the gravity of their crimes deserved; and in this has God’s justice been made manifest.
Canon 1. de Calumnia. Canones cum illorum, de sentent., excommunic. atrox, de injuria. in Institutio. S. Thom. 1. 2. q. 73. art. 9It may further be said that, when the injured person is innocent the crime is all the greater; for the severity of the punishment is regulated by the quality of the party injured, and the greater the enormity of the crime, the greater punishment it deserves; and therefore, that Hell may be increased for witches, God permits them to harm and to possess children. I know that the Theologians distinguish five causes for the affliction of men by devils, but I leave such argument to them; for I would not enquire too closely into the judgements of God, and shall always content myself to believe that the great Master of the Universe does nothing without good reason, since St. Paul speaks of Rom. 11.“The depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.”