against any possible error, issued a bull exhorting the inquisitors of heresy and witchcraft to use greater diligence against the human agents of the Prince of Darkness, and especially against those who have the power to produce bad weather. In 1445 Pope Eugene returned again to the charge, and again issued instructions and commands infallibly committing the Church to the doctrine.[1] But a greater than Eugene followed and stamped the idea yet more deeply into the mind of the Church. On the 7th of December, 1484, Pope Innocent VIII sent forth his bull "Summis Desiderantes." Of all documents ever issued from Rome, imperial or papal, this has doubtless, first and last, cost the greatest shedding of innocent blood. Yet no document was ever more clearly dictated by conscience. Inspired by the scriptural command, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," Pope Innocent exhorted the clergy of Germany to leave no means untried to detect sorcerers, and especially those who by evil weather destroy vineyards, gardens, meadows, and growing crops.[2] These precepts were based upon various texts of Scripture, especially upon the famous statement in the book of Job; and, to carry them out, witch-finding inquisitors were authorized by the Pope to scour Europe, especially Germany, and a manual was prepared for their use, the "Witch-Hammer," Malleus Maleficarum. In this manual, which was revered for centuries, both in Catholic and Protestant countries, as almost divinely inspired, the doctrine of Satanic agency in atmospheric phenomena was further developed, and various means of detecting and punishing it were dwelt upon.[3]
With the application of torture to thousands of women, in accordance with the precepts laid down in this work, it was not difficult to extract masses of proof for this "sacred theory" of meteorology. The poor creatures, writhing on the rack, held in horror by those who had been nearest and dearest to them, anxious only for death to relieve their sufferings, confessed to anything and everything that would satisfy the inquisitors and judges. All that was needed was that the inquisitors should ask leading questions[4] and suggest satisfactory answers: the prisoners, to shorten the torture, were sure sooner or later to give the answer required, even though they knew that this would
- ↑ See Raynaldus," Annales Eccl.," 1437, 1445.
- ↑ The Latin text of the bull may be found in the Malleus about to be described, in Binsfeld's "De Confessionibus," cited below, or in Roskoff's "Geschichte des Teufels" (Leipsic, 1869), i, 222-225.
- ↑ There is, so far as I know, no good analysis, in any English book, of the contents of the "Witch-Hammer"; but such may be found in Roskoff's "Geschichte des Teufels," or in Soldan's "Geschichte der Hexenprozesse." Its first dated edition is that of 1489. It was, happily, never translated into any modern tongue.
- ↑ For still extant lists of such questions, see the "Zeitschrift für deutschen Culturgeschichte" for 1858, pp. 522-528, or Diefenbach, "Der Hexenwahn in Deutschland," pp. 15-17. Father Vincent of Berg (in his "Enchiridium") gives a similar list for use by priests in the confession of the accused.
