Serious Business: An Inquisitorial Commission

Most people in the workforce take their jobs seriously. This goes true throughout history, including the late medieval period. However while farmers tilled the earth and merchants hawked their wares, there were people who were laboring for a different reason. Their charge was to root out heretical individuals who had fallen out of sorts with the church by “forsaking the catholic faith, [giving] themselves over to devils… [and practicing] incantations, charms, and conjuring” (Kors and Peters, 178). This task was extremely important due to the nature of the problem, with heresy symbolizing a loss in power and weakness in the church.

Behind the walls of the papal palace, support for the church’s inquisitors became official in the form of papal decrees. During the thirteenth through fourteenth centuries, papal bulls - or charters - were issued that effectively dealt with inquisition. Although Pope Alexander IV made it the clear in 1258 that inquisitors should not delve into matters beside “pestilential” heretical offences, he referred to them as being “charged with the affairs of the faith, which is the greatest of privileges (Kors and Peters, 117). Over two hundred years later, Pope Innocent VIII issued a decree that expressed the authority of the inquisitors. Believing that it was vital that the inquisitors not be “hindered in the exercise of their office, to prevent the taint of heretical pravity [sic] and of other like evils from spreading,” Innocent stated that all persons who attempted to impede the work of the inquisitors would “incur the wrath of almighty God” (Kors and Peter 178-180). These direct and somewhat harsh words served as a warning to all that the role of the inquisitor was essential because the urgency and importance of their work paramount.

Under the auspices of the papacy, inquisitors during the late medieval period were determined to carry out their charge thoroughly and effectively. Thanks to papal bulls, their authority was given much more weight, illustrating the importance that was associated with their work.

Is it rightfully assumed that these papal bulls showcase the real concern that was emanating from the church during this time? Did the support from the papacy mean that witchcraft and its relation to heresy was a major issue for the church that could not be overlooked?

1486 treatise on the prosecution of witches, written by the inquisitor Heinrich Kramer,
who was specifically mentioned in Innocent's bull
(Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum)

Necromancy Can, Apparently, Do Almost Anything

Necromancy, the summoning of spirits of the dead or of demons, was and is a widely condemned form of magic by Christian authorities. While necromancy is relatively easy to define, the ways in which it was used (or said to be used) are more difficult to pin down. The most famous example of necromancy is in the Bible, in which the Witch of Endor summons the spirit of Samuel in hopes that he can divine the outcome of an important battle (Bailey, 102). Thus divination is one end to the use of necromancy, as is commanding demons to bend the will of one person to another (Bailey, 101).

Bailey notes that while necromancy was the general term in use for all types of demonic invocation, it did not inherently include all types of magic suspected of involving demons or demonic power in one form or another (Bailey, 102). However, necromancy could be combined with other forms of magic to do nearly anything, including conjuring items and animals (called "illusions" due to the stipulation that none of the things actually appeared, one would just seem to be riding a horse, for example, which was actually a demon in disguise), divination, harming others, inducing mental states in oneself or others, even healing (Bailey, 104-106).

All cases of necromancy, whether the ends were harmful or beneficial, were condemned by the Church. Why do you think this is?

Falling in a Damnable Way

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). Before the beginning God created Heaven and His angels. Before the beginning Lucifer was an angel, the most beautiful of all and he fell. Thus creating Hell and its demons in his fellow brethren who fell. The first mention of Lucifer in the Christian Bible is only three chapters into the first book. The Devil has always been a part of the Christian faith but in the middle ages Augustine “heightened the Christian awareness of the devil’s powers so that they seemed second only to those of God” (Kors and Peters 7). He gave the masses a reason to be scared at night and he gave them a reason to turn towards the Church and seek refuge both spiritually and with their pocket books. He was literally scaring the fear of God into them claiming that “Satan commanded a host or army of subordinate demons” (Kors and Peters 7). Which is not technically a lie according to the Holy Bible. Another medieval folktale about Lucifer is that he had trained his minions to “have sexual intercourse with human beings” (Kors and Peters 8) and therefore creating a race of giants called Nephilim. The Nephilim were creatures not only of great stature but also of great strength and life longevity. Yet, to tempt a human being you would think that the demons would look like the knurled and disgusting figures like they were painted. For instance in Page’s book on page 37 there are three different images of demons and all three show them as haunting beast-like creatures, not something or someone who could seduce a human. So what I’m curious about is the true essence of demons. We were taught as well as the people from the middle age to fear a terrifying face, but if the Lord of Hell was condemned because he “became proud on account of [his] beauty” (Ezekiel 28:17) what would the physical manifestation of evil look like? 

Can You Trust a Demon?

Our latest reading for the week talks about the collaboration with demons magic and witchcraft is often associated with. Particularly with necromancy, demons do seem to play a rather powerful role in magic. The question, I suppose, would be as to whether or not they can be trusted.

In our readings it explains that many magicians claim that they can control the demons long enough to perform, and then banish them back to hell. However, Bailey is sure to clarify that demons are very tricky little creatures. "Demons could either alter their own forms or they could affect human perception so that people thought they saw a horse, a boat, a banquet, or anything else the magician might desire" (Bailey 105). If a demon can trick the common audience, then who is to say a demon cannot trick the magician into thinking that he does have control over it?

It is no wonder that authorities at the time tried so very hard to condemn dealing with demons, seeing as it always ends badly for the person conversing with demons. In her book, Page mentions the story of Theophilus, who made a deal with the devil and, though he redeemed himself spiritually by praying to the Virgin Mary, met his death very soon afterwords (Page 56).

It's a hard question to ask when one cannot really prove the existence of demons, but I suppose it is always interesting to wonder if demons could be controlled to even trusted in any way?

Bailey, Michael. "The Rise of Demonic Magic." (2007) Print.  

Burchard of Worms

Burchard, a Bishop of Worms, composed twenty books about the Canon Law to form what we know it to be as the Decretum. The Decretum was composed for the clergy men of Burchard’s own region, but in the end his work was used throughout Germany. The section Burchard of Worms: The Corrector, sive Medicus in Witchcraft in Europe 400-1700 by Alan Charles Kors and Edward Peters taught me a lot about penance and the different acts of witchcraft. The book, The Corrector, sive Medicus is the ninth book out of the twenty and was widely used as a practical confessors guide. I found interesting the different types of penance a person has to do for the different acts that were being displayed. I also found interesting that the penance were not as harsh as I was expecting. Some penances are a bit excessive when it came down to how long a person must do it for but that is it. There are plenty of acts of witchcraft that need penance if such activity was being acted out. For example, number 90 talks about participating in infidelity and following Diana, goddess of pagans. The penance for this act is to do penance for two years on appointed fast days. This particular law was more detailed compared to some of the other ones mostly because it was more serious and the devil was involved, doing penance for two years seemed a bit easy considering the severeness of the act.
Burchard of Worms had a different out look on who is participating in witchcraft compared to other writers like Augustine. Burchard introduced women to doing these acts of witchcraft while Augustine made it clear that it was men who participated in magic. Number 60 was also another law I found interesting, mostly because we talked about fortune telling in class. "Have you consulted magicians and led them into your house in order to seek out any magical trick" (Kors and Peters 63). Consulting a magician to do magic for you was even against the laws. If a person did consult a magician then they had to do penance for two years on appointed days. Now a days people see fortune tellers all the time, even if it is just for curiosity.

Do you think the penances were as harsh as you thought they were going to be?

From Heaven to Images

In Magic in Medieval Manuscripts, Sophie Page describes how images (ymago) are objects that have powers; people would bury or place the items into a location that had great meaning.  Images were very important and sacred during this time period. Drawings of grotesque figures are common to this society to represent the supernatural. It is interesting to see the compiled handwritten manuscripts. The images were first hand of what the people imagined the supernatural to look like. Magic texts proposed ways that spirits would seduce and possess souls of men and women. Controlling people to do harmful things to other people or animals.      

            Many images from the medieval time period are of angels coming down from heaven, as well as devils possessing the people. The battle between good and evil is very strong in this time period.  The devil comes in many different shapes and forms to try to deceive people. Torture and violence played a main role in many images. The supernatural can be broken down into “above nature”, God and the devil went hand in hand in almost every image. On page 37 in Magic in Medieval Manuscripts, top-left image is of angels with halos curing the people who were possessed with demons. I find this interesting because I feel like God still helps cure people who are sinners and worship the devil. Not much as changed from this time period with some of the ways we think.

Do you think that images and texts are good ways to understand what the people of this time period actually perceived the supernatural and witches to be like?

Page, Sophie. Magic in Medieval Manuscripts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. Print.

Our Own Magic

It is really interesting to me how magic is somehow incorporated into everyday life. We do not often think about how our own little "rituals" that we do everyday can be considered to be a form of magic. It is also interesting how, during the Middle Ages, magic was considered a very high form of education that was actually taught at private schools and universities. It became such a common thing to many people that many of these educated men did not even consider themselves magicians in any way.

Bailey even mentions in his writing for this week that many astrologers did not think that they were performing magic. "Rather, they would have presented themselves as wise men and philosophers exploring the forces of nature" (Bailey 94). Alchemists also found themselves in the same boat. While their studies were considered be belong in the magical category, they really thought of themselves as "natural philosophers exploring the hidden properties of nature" (Bailey 95). In fact, Bailey even mentions how these forms of "magic" were very much accepted among society at the time. It is a wonder how these views could turn against these practices and label them to be acts from the devil.

Questions:

1. What are some of your own personal "rituals" that you take part in?

2. Do you consider these acts (your own or the examples given in our textbooks) to be considered "real magic"?

Bailey, Michael. "The Rise of Learned Magic" 2007. Print.