Compendium Maleficarum/Book 2/Chapter 15
Chapter XV
A Summary in a Few Words of All the Crimes of Witches.
Sebastien Michaëlis in his Pneumalogie[1] gives an example of a sentence passed at Avignon in 1582, as comprising in a little space the most execrable and abominable of the crimes of Witches and Sorcerers. The extract is as follows:—
We N. N. having considered the charge wherewith you stand charged and accused before us, and having examined both the statements of yourselves and your associates, and your own confessions made to us according to lawful requirements and often repeated upon oath, as well as the depositions and charges of the witnesses and the other legitimate proofs, basing our judgement on that which has been said and done during this process, we are fully and lawfully agreed that you and your associates have denied God the Creator of us all and the Most Holy Trinity our Maker, and that you have worshipped the devil, that ancient and implacable Enemy of the human race. You have vowed yourselves to him for ever, and have renounced your most Holy Baptism and your sponsors therein, together with your part in Paradise and the eternal heritage which our Lord Jesus Christ bought for you and the whole race of men by His death. All these you did deny before the said cacodemon in the form of a man, and that blatant devil did baptise you anew with water, and you did change the names given to you at the Holy Font, and so took and received another false name in the guise of baptism. And as a pledge of your fealty sworn to the devil you gave to him a fragment and particle of your clothing; and that the Father of Lies should have a care to delete and obliterate you from the book of life you did at his direction and command with your own hands write your names in the black book there prepared, the roll of the wicked condemned to eternal death; and that he might bind you with stouter bonds to so great a perfidy and impiety, he branded each of you with his mark as belonging to him, and you did swear homage and obedience to his behests upon a circle (the symbol of Divinity) traced upon the earth (which is God’s footstool); and each of you bound herself to tread under foot the Image of the Lord and the Cross; and in obedience to Satan, with the help of a staff smeared with some abominable unguent given to you by the devil himself and placed between your legs you were enabled to fly through the air at dead of night to the place ordained, at an hour fit for vilest criminals, and on stated days you were so carried and transported by the Tempter himself; and there in the common synagogue of witches, sorcerers, heretics, conjurers and devil-worshippers, you did kindle a foul fire and after many rejoicings, dancings, eating and drinking, and lewd games in honour of your president Beelzebub the Prince of Devils in the shape and appearance of a deformed and hideous black goat, you did worship him in deed and word as very God and did approach him on bended knees as suppliants and offered him lighted candles of pitch; and (fie, for very shame!) with the greatest reverence you did kiss with sacrilegious mouth his most foul and beastly posterior; and did call upon him under the name of the true God and invoke his help; and did beg him to avenge you upon all who had offended you or denied your requests; and, taught by him, you did wreak your spite in spells and charms against both men and beasts, and did murder many new-born children, and with the help of that old serpent Satan you did afflict mankind with curses, loss of milk, the wasting sickness, and other most grave diseases. And your own children, many of them with your own knowledge and consent, you did with those magic spells suffocate, pierce, and kill, and finally you dug them up secretly by night from the cemetery, where they were buried, and so carried them to the aforesaid synagogue and college of witches: there you did offer them to the Prince of Devils sitting upon his throne, and did draw off their fat to be kept for your use, and cut off their heads, hands, and feet, and did cook and stew their trunks, and sometimes roast them, and at the bidding of your aforesaid evil Father did eat and damnably devour them. Then, adding sin to sin, you the men did copulate with Succubi, and you the women did fornicate with Incubi: moreover, in most bitter and icy connexion and foul coitus with demons you did commit the unspeakable crime of buggery. And, most hateful of all, at the bidding of the aforesaid Serpent thrust from Paradise, you did keep in your mouths the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist received by you in the sacred Church of God, and did execrably spit It out upon the ground that you might with the greatest of all contumely, contempt and blasphemy dishonour God, our true and sacred Hope, and promote the glory, honour, triumph and kingdom of the devil himself, and worship, honour and glorify him with all honour, praise, majesty, authority and adoration. All which most grave, abhorred and unspeakable crimes are directly contumacious and contemptuous of Almighty God the Creator of all. Wherefore We, Brother Florus, etc.
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- ↑ “Pneumalogie.” “Discours des Esprits en tant qu’il est de besoin pour entendre et résoudre la manière difficile des sorciers. Fait et composé par le R. P. Sebastien Michaëlis, Docteur en théologie de l’ordre des Frères Prescheurs, et Prieur au convent Royal de S. Maximin en Provence.” Paris, 8vo, 1587.