John Lothrop Motley - "History of the United Netherlands, 1598 99"

Leonard Huxley - "The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 2"

Edward Francis Wilson - "Missionary Work Among The Ojebway Indians"

James Boswell - "The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D."

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Books: Lives of the Necromancers

W >> William Godwin >> Lives of the Necromancers




I have not succeeded in tracing to my satisfaction from the original
authorities the dates of the following examples, and therefore shall
refer them to the periods assigned them in Hutchinson on Witchcraft.
The facts themselves rest for the most part on the most unquestionable
authority.

Innocent VIII published about the year 1484 a bull, in which he
affirms: "It has come to our ears, that numbers of both sexes do not
avoid to have intercourse with the infernal fiends, and that by their
sorceries they afflict both man and beast; they blight the
marriage-bed, destroy the births of women, and the increase of cattle;
they blast the corn on the ground, the grapes of the vineyard, the
fruits of the trees, and the grass and herbs of the field." For these
reasons he arms the inquisitors with apostolic power to "imprison,
convict and punish" all such as may be charged with these
offences.--The consequences of this edict were dreadful all over the
continent, particularly in Italy, Germany and France.

Alciatus, an eminent lawyer of this period, relates, that a certain
inquisitor came about this time into the vallies of the Alps, being
commissioned to enquire out and proceed against heretical women with
whom those parts were infested. He accordingly consigned more than one
hundred to the flames, every day, like a new holocaust, sacrificing
such persons to Vulcan, as, in the judgment of the historian, were
subjects demanding rather hellebore than fire; till at length the
peasantry of the vicinity rose in arms, and drove the merciless judge
out of the country. The culprits were accused of having dishonoured
the crucifix, and denying Christ for their God. They were asserted to
have solemnised after a detestable way the devil's sabbath, in which
the fiend appeared personally among them, and instructed them in the
ceremonies of his worship. Meanwhile a question was raised whether
they personally assisted on the occasion, or only saw the solemnities
in a vision, credible witnesses having sworn that they were at home in
their beds, at the very time that they were accused of having taken
part in these blasphemies. [194]

In 1515, more than five hundred persons are said to have suffered
capitally for the crime of witchcraft in the city of Geneva in the
course of three months. [195]

In 1524, one thousand persons were burned on this accusation in the
territory of Como, and one hundred per annum for several year after.
[196]

Danaeus commences his Dialogue of Witches with this observation. "Within
three months of the present time (1575) an almost infinite number of
witches have been taken, on whom the parliament of Paris has passed
judgment: and the same tribunal fails not to sit daily, as malefactors
accused of this crime are continually brought before them out of all
the provinces."

In the year 1595 Nicholas Remi, otherwise Remigius, printed a very
curious work, entitled Demonolatreia, in which he elaborately expounds
the principles of the compact into which the devil enters with his
mortal allies, and the modes of conduct specially observed by both
parties. He boasts that his exposition is founded on an exact
observation of the judicial proceedings which had taken place under
his eye in the duchy of Lorraine, where for the preceding fifteen
years nine hundred persons, more or less, had suffered the extreme
penalty of the law for the crime of sorcery. Most of the persons tried
seem to have been sufficiently communicative as to the different kinds
of menace and compulsion by which the devil had brought them into his
terms, and the various appearances he had exhibited, and feats he had
performed: but others, says the author, had, "by preserving an
obstinate silence, shewn themselves invincible to every species of
torture that could be inflicted on them."

But the most memorable record that remains to us on the subject of
witchcraft, is contained in an ample quarto volume, entitled A
Representation (_Tableau_) of the Ill Faith of Evil Spirits and
Demons, by Pierre De Lancre, Royal Counsellor in the Parliament of
Bordeaux. This man was appointed with one coadjutor, to enquire into
certain acts of sorcery, reported to have been committed in the
district of Labourt, near the foot of the Pyrenees; and his commission
bears date in May, 1609, and by consequence twelve months before the
death of Henry the Fourth.

The book is dedicated to M. de Silleri, chancellor of France; and in
the dedication the author observes, that formerly those who practised
sorcery were well known for persons of obscure station and narrow
intellect; but that now the sorcerers who confess their misdemeanours,
depose, that there are seen in the customary meetings held by such
persons a great number of individuals of quality, whom Satan keeps
veiled from ordinary gaze, and who are allowed to approach near to him,
while those of a poorer and more vulgar class are thrust back to the
furthest part of the assembly. The whole narrative assumes the form of
a regular warfare between Satan on the one side, and the royal
commissioners on the other.

At first the devil endeavoured to supply the accused with strength to
support the tortures by which it was sought to extort confession from
them, insomuch that, in an intermission of the torture, the wretches
declared that, presently falling asleep, they seemed to be in paradise,
and to enjoy the most beautiful visions. The commissioners however,
observing this, took care to grant them scarcely any remission, till
they had drawn from them, if possible, an ample confession. The devil
next proceeded to stop the mouths of the accused that they might not
confess. He leaped on their throats, and evidently caused an
obstruction of the organs of speech, so that in vain they endeavoured
to relieve themselves by disclosing all that was demanded of them.

The historian proceeds to say that, at these sacrilegious assemblings,
they now began to murmur against the devil, as wanting power to
relieve them in their extremity. The children, the daughters, and
other relatives of the victims reproached him, not scrupling to say,
"Out upon you! you promised that our mothers who were prisoners should
not die; and look how you have kept your word with us! They have been
burned, and are a heap of ashes." In answer to this charge the devil
stoutly affirmed, that their parents, who seemed to have suffered,
were not dead, but were safe in a foreign country, assuring the
malcontents that, if they called on them, they would receive an answer.
The children called accordingly, and by an infernal illusion an answer
came, exactly in the several voices of the deceased, declaring that
they were in a state of happiness and security.

Further to satisfy the complainers, the devil produced illusory fires,
and encouraged the dissatisfied to walk through them, assuring them
that the fires lighted by a judicial decree were as harmless and
inoffensive as these. The demon further threatened that he would cause
the prosecutors to be burned in their own fire, and even proceeded to
make them in semblance hover and alight on the branches of the
neighbouring trees. He further caused a swarm of toads to appear like
a garland to crown the heads of the sufferers, at which when in one
instance the bystanders threw stones to drive them away, one monstrous
black toad remained to the last uninjured, and finally mounted aloft,
and vanished from sight. De Lancre goes on to describe the ceremonies
of the sabbath of the devil; and a plate is inserted, presenting the
assembly in the midst of their solemnities. He describes in several
chapters the sort of contract entered into between the devil and the
sorcerers, the marks by which they may be known, the feast with which
the demon regaled them, their distorted and monstrous dance, the
copulation between the fiend and the witch, and its issue.--It is easy
to imagine with what sort of fairness the trials were conducted, when
such is the description the judge affords us of what passed at these
assemblies. Six hundred were burned under this prosecution.

The last chapter is devoted to an accurate account of what took place
at an _auto da fe_ in the month of November 1610 at Logrogno on
the Ebro in Spain, the victims being for the greater part the unhappy
wretches, who had escaped through the Pyrenees from the merciless
prosecution that had been exercised against them by the historian of
the whole.


SAVONAROLA.

Jerome Savonarola was one of the most remarkable men of his time, and
his fortunes are well adapted to illustrate the peculiarities of that
period. He was born in the year 1452 at Ferrara in Italy. He became a
Dominican Friar at Bologna without the knowledge of his parents in the
twenty-second year of his age. He was first employed by his superiors
in elucidating the principles of physics and metaphysics. But, after
having occupied some years in this way, he professed to take a lasting
leave of these subtleties, and to devote himself exclusively to the
study of the Scriptures. In no long time he became an eminent preacher,
by the elegance and purity of his style acquiring the applause of
hearers of taste, and by the unequalled fervour of his eloquence
securing the hearts of the many. It was soon obvious, that, by his
power gained in this mode, he could do any thing he pleased with the
people of Florence among whom he resided. Possessed of such an
ascendancy, he was not contented to be the spiritual guide of the
souls of men, but further devoted himself to the temporal prosperity
and grandeur of his country. The house of Medici was at this time
masters of the state, and the celebrated Lorenzo de Medici possessed
the administration of affairs. But the political maxims of Lorenzo
were in discord with those of our preacher. Lorenzo sought to
concentre all authority in the opulent few; but Savonarola, proceeding
on the model of the best times of ancient Rome, endeavoured to vest
the sovereign power in the hands of the people.

He had settled at Florence in the thirty-fourth year of his age, being
invited to become prior of the convent of St. Mark in that city: and
such was his popularity, that, four years after, Lorenzo on his
death-bed sent for Savonarola to administer to him spiritual
consolation. Meanwhile, so stern did this republican shew himself,
that he insisted on Lorenzo's renunciation of his absolute power,
before he would administer to him the sacrament and absolution: and
Lorenzo complied with these terms.

The prince being dead, Savonarola stepped immediately into the highest
authority. He reconstituted the state upon pure republican principles,
and enjoined four things especially in all his public preachings, the
fear of God, the love of the republic, oblivion of all past injuries,
and equal rights to all for the future.

But Savonarola was not contented with the delivery of Florence, where
he is said to have produced a total revolution of manners, from
libertinism to the most exemplary purity and integrity; he likewise
aspired to produce an equal effect on the entire of Italy.
Alexander VI, the most profligate of popes, then filled the chair at
Rome; and Savonarola thundered against him in the cathedral at
Florence the most fearful denunciations. The pope did not hesitate a
moment to proceed to extremities against the friar. He cited him to
Rome, under pain, if disobeyed, of excommunication to the priest, and
an interdict to the republic that harboured him. The Florentines
several times succeeded in causing the citation to be revoked, and,
making terms with the sovereign pontiff, Jerome again and again
suspending his preachings, which were however continued by other
friars, his colleagues and confederates. Savonarola meanwhile could
not long be silent; he resumed his philippics as fiercely as ever.

At this time faction raged strongly at Florence. Jerome had many
partisans; all the Dominicans, and the greater part of the populace.
But he had various enemies leagued against him; the adherents of the
house of Medici, those of the pope, the libertines, and all orders of
monks and friars except the Dominicans, The violence proceeded so far,
that the preacher was not unfrequently insulted in his pulpit, and the
cathedral echoed with the dissentions of the parties. At length a
conspiracy was organized against Savonarola; and, his adherents having
got the better, the friar did not dare to trust the punishment of his
enemies to the general assembly, where the question would have led to
a scene of warfare, but referred it to a more limited tribunal, and
finally proceeded to the infliction of death on its sole authority.

This extremity rendered his enemies more furious against him. The pope
directed absolution, the communion, and the rites of sepulture, to be
refused to his followers. He was now expelled from the cathedral at
Florence, and removed his preachings to the chapel of his convent,
which was enlarged in its accommodations to adapt itself to his
numerous auditors. In this interim a most extraordinary scene took
place. One Francis de Pouille offered himself to the trial of fire, in
favour of the validity of the excommunication of the pope against the
pretended inspiration and miracles of the prophet. He said he did not
doubt to perish in the experiment, but that he should have the
satisfaction of seeing Savonarola perish along with him. Dominic de
Pescia however and another Dominican presented themselves to the
flames instead of Jerome, alledging that he was reserved for higher
things. De Pouille at first declined the substitution, but was
afterwards prevailed on to submit. A vast fire was lighted in the
marketplace for the trial; and a low and narrow gallery of iron passed
over the middle, on which the challenger and the challenged were to
attempt to effect their passage. But a furious deluge of rain was said
to have occurred at the instant every thing was ready; the fire was
extinguished; and the trial for the present was thus rendered
impossible.

Savonarola in the earnestness of his preachings pretended to turn
prophet, and confidently to predict future events. He spoke of
Charles VIII of France as the Cyrus who should deliver Italy, and
subdue the nations before him; and even named the spring of the year
1498 as the period that should see all these things performed.

But it was not in prophecy alone that Savonarola laid claim to
supernatural aid. He described various contests that he had maintained
against a multitude of devils at once in his convent. They tormented
in different ways the friars of St. Mark, but ever shrank with awe
from his personal interposition. They attempted to call upon him by
name; but the spirit of God overruled them, so that they could never
pronounce his name aright, but still misplaced syllables and letters
in a ludicrous fashion. They uttered terrific threatenings against him,
but immediately after shrank away with fear, awed by the holy words
and warnings which he denounced against them. Savonarola besides
undertook to expel them by night, by sprinkling holy water, and the
singing of hymns in a solemn chorus. While however he was engaged in
these sacred offices, and pacing the cloister of his convent, the
devils would arrest his steps, and suddenly render the air before him
so thick, that it was impossible for him to advance further. On
another occasion one of his colleagues assured Francis Picus of
Mirandola, the writer of his Life, that he had himself seen the Holy
Ghost in the form of a dove more than once, sitting on Savonarola's
shoulder, fluttering his feathers, which were sprinkled with silver
and gold, and, putting his beak to his ear, whispering to him his
divine suggestions. The prior besides relates in a book of his own
composition at great length a dialogue that he held with the devil,
appearing like, and having been mistaken by the writer for, a hermit.

The life of Savonarola however came to a speedy and tragical close.
The multitude, who are always fickle in their impulses, conceiving an
unfavourable impression in consequence of his personally declining the
trial by fire, turned against him. The same evening they besieged the
convent where he resided, and in which he had taken refuge. The
signory, seeing the urgency of the case, sent to the brotherhood,
commanding them to surrender the prior, and the two Dominicans who had
presented themselves in his stead to the trial by fire. The pope sent
two judges to try them on the spot. They were presently put to the
torture. Savonarola, who we are told was of a delicate habit of body,
speedily confessed and expressed contrition for what he had done. But
no sooner was he delivered from the strappado, than he retracted all
that he had before confessed. The experiment was repeated several
times, and always with the same success.

At length he and the other two were adjudged to perish in the flames.
This sentence was no sooner pronounced than Savonarola resumed all the
constancy of a martyr. He advanced to the place of execution with a
steady pace and a serene countenance, and in the midst of the flames
resignedly commended his soul into the hands of his maker. His
adherents regarded him as a witness to the truth, and piously
collected his relics; but his judges, to counteract this defiance of
authority, commanded his remains and his ashes to be cast into the
river. [197]


TRITHEMIUS.

A name that has in some way become famous in the annals of magic, is
that of John Trithemius, abbot of Spanheim, or Sponheim, in the circle
of the Upper Rhine. He was born in the year 1462. He early
distinguished himself by his devotion to literature; insomuch that,
according to the common chronology, he was chosen in the year 1482,
being about twenty years of age, abbot of the Benedictine monastery of
St. Martin at Spanheim. He has written a great number of works, and
has left some memorials of his life. Learning was at a low ebb when he
was chosen to this dignity. The library of the convent consisted of
little more than forty volumes. But, shortly after, under his
superintendence it amounted to many hundreds. He insisted upon his
monks diligently employing themselves in the multiplication of
manuscripts. The monks, who had hitherto spent their days in luxurious
idleness, were greatly dissatisfied with this revolution, and led
their abbot a very uneasy life. He was in consequence removed to
preside over the abbey of St. Jacques in Wurtzburg in 1506, where he
died in tranquillity and peace in 1516.

Trithemius has been accused of necromancy and a commerce with demons.
The principal ground of this accusation lies in a story that has been
told of his intercourse with the emperor Maximilian. Maximilian's
first wife was Mary of Burgundy, whom he lost in the prime of her life.
The emperor was inconsolable upon the occasion; and Trithemius, who
was called in as singularly qualified to comfort him, having tried all
other expedients in vain, at length told Maximilian that he would
undertake to place his late consort before him precisely in the state
in which she had lived. After suitable preparations, Mary of Burgundy
accordingly appeared. The emperor was struck with astonishment. He
found the figure before him in all respects like the consort he had
lost. At length he exclaimed, "There is one mark by which I shall
infallibly know whether this is the same person. Mary, my wife, had a
wart in the nape of her neck, to the existence of which no one was
privy but myself." He examined, and found the wart there, in all
respects as it had been during her life. The story goes on to say,
that Maximilian was so disgusted and shocked with what he saw, that he
banished Trithemius his presence for ever.

This tale has been discredited, partly on the score of the period of
the death of Mary of Burgundy, which happened in 1481, when Trithemius
was only nineteen years of age. He himself expressly disclaims all
imputation of sorcery. One ground of the charge has been placed upon
the existence of a work of his, entitled Steganographia, or the art,
by means of a secret writing, of communicating our thoughts to a
person absent. He says however, that in this work he had merely used
the language of magic, without in any degree having had recourse to
their modes of proceeding. Trithemius appears to have been the first
writer who has made mention of the extraordinary feats of John Faust
of Wittenburg, and that in a way that shews he considered these
enchantments as the work of a supernatural power. [198]


LUTHER.

It is particularly proper to introduce some mention of Luther in this
place; not that he is in any way implicated in the question of
necromancy, but that there are passages in his writings in which he
talks of the devil in what we should now think a very extraordinary
way. And it is curious, and not a little instructive, to see how a
person of so masculine an intellect, and who in many respects so far
outran the illumination of his age, was accustomed to judge respecting
the intercourse of mortals with the inhabitants of the infernal world.
Luther was born in the year 1483.

It appears from his Treatise on the Abuses attendant on Private Masses,
that he had a conference with the devil on the subject. He says, that
this supernatural personage caused him by his visits "many bitter
nights and much restless and wearisome repose." Once in particular he
came to Luther, "in the dead of the night, when he was just awaked out
of sleep. The devil," he goes on to say, "knows well how to construct
his arguments, and to urge them with the skill of a master. He
delivers himself with a grave, and yet a shrill voice. Nor does he use
circumlocutions, and beat about the bush, but excels in forcible
statements and quick rejoinders. I no longer wonder," he adds, "that
the persons whom he assails in this way, are occasionally found dead
in their beds. He is able to compress and throttle, and more than once
he has so assaulted me and driven my soul into a corner, that I felt
as if the next moment it must leave my body. I am of opinion that
Gesner and Oecolampadius and others in that manner came by their
deaths. The devil's manner of opening a debate is pleasant enough; but
he urges things so peremptorily, that the respondent in a short time
knows not how to acquit himself." [199] He elsewhere says, "The
reasons why the sacramentarians understood so little of the Scriptures,
is that they do not encounter the true opponent, that is, the devil,
who presently drives one up in a corner, and thus makes one perceive
the just interpretation. For my part I am thoroughly acquainted with
him, and have eaten a bushel of salt with him. He sleeps with me more
frequently, and lies nearer to me in bed, than my own wife does." [200]


CORNELIUS AGRIPPA.

Henry Cornelius Agrippa was born in the year 1486. He was one of the
most celebrated men of his time. His talents were remarkably great;
and he had a surprising facility in the acquisition of languages. He
is spoken of with the highest commendations by Trithemius, Erasmus,
Melancthon, and others, the greatest men of his times. But he was a
man of the most violent passions, and of great instability of temper.
He was of consequence exposed to memorable vicissitudes. He had great
reputation as an astrologer, and was assiduous in the cultivation of
chemistry. He had the reputation of possessing the philosopher's stone,
and was incessantly experiencing the privations of poverty. He was
subject to great persecutions, and was repeatedly imprisoned. He
received invitations at the same time from Henry VIII, from the
chancellor of the emperor, from a distinguished Italian marquis, and
from Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries. He made his
election in favour of the last, and could find no way so obvious of
showing his gratitude for her patronage, as composing an elaborate
treatise on the Superiority of the Female Sex, which he dedicated to
her. Shortly after, he produced a work not less remarkable, to
demonstrate the Vanity and Emptiness of Scientifical Acquirements.
Margaret of Austria being dead, he was subsequently appointed physician
to Louisa of Savoy, mother to Francis I. This lady however having
assigned him a task disagreeable to his inclination, a calculation
according to the rules of astrology, he made no scruple of turning
against her, and affirming that he should henceforth hold her for a
cruel and perfidious Jezebel. After a life of storms and perpetual
vicissitude, he died in 1534, aged 48 years.

He enters however into the work I am writing, principally on account
of the extraordinary stories that have been told of him on the subject
of magic. He says of himself, in his Treatise on the Vanity of
Sciences, "Being then a very young man, I wrote in three books of a
considerable size Disquisitions concerning Magic."

The first of the stories I am about to relate is chiefly interesting,
inasmuch as it is connected with the history of one of the most
illustrious ornaments of our early English poetry, Henry Howard earl
of Surrey, who suffered death at the close of the reign of King
Henry VIII. The earl of Surrey, we are told, became acquainted with
Cornelius Agrippa at the court of John George elector of Saxony. On
this occasion were present, beside the English nobleman, Erasmus, and
many other persons eminent in the republic of letters. These persons
shewed themselves enamoured of the reports that had been spread of
Agrippa, and desired him before the elector to exhibit something
memorable. One intreated him to call up Plautus, and shew him as he
appeared in garb and countenance, when he ground corn in the mill.
Another before all things desired to see Ovid. But Erasmus earnestly
requested to behold Tully in the act of delivering his oration for
Roscius. This proposal carried the most votes. And, after marshalling
the concourse of spectators, Tully appeared, at the command of Agrippa,
and from the rostrum pronounced the oration, precisely in the words in
which it has been handed down to us, "with such astonishing animation,
so fervent an exaltation of spirit, and such soul-stirring gestures,
that all the persons present were ready, like the Romans of old, to
pronounce his client innocent of every charge that had been brought
against him." The story adds, that, when sir Thomas More was at the
same place, Agrippa shewed him the whole destruction of Troy in a
dream. To Thomas Lord Cromwel he exhibited in a perspective glass King
Henry VIII and all his lords hunting in his forest at Windsor. To
Charles V he shewed David, Solomon, Gideon, and the rest, with the
Nine Worthies, in their habits and similitude as they had lived.