Notes on the Nature of Beliefs in Witchcraft: Folklore and Classical Culture in Fifteenth Century Mendicant Traditions
Abstract
:The sinner has to be interrogated about the superstitious cult, which acts against religion. […] The idolaters, necromancers, evil doers (malefici), sorceresses (mulieres incantatrices), and whoever else exhibit cult to the devil, they all sin against that [religion] in a very serious way […]. And similarly [sin] the enchanters, diviners, and those who say to be able to find stolen objects through various superstitions as well as those who wear amulet scrolls hanged on their neck […].4
It is also not to be omitted that some wicked women, who have given themselves back to Satan and been seduced by the illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and profess that, in the hours of night, they ride upon certain beasts with Diana, the goddess of the pagans, and an innumerable multitude of women, and in the silence of the night traverse great spaces of earth, and obey her commands as of their lady, and are summoned to her service on certain nights. […] Such phantasms are imposed on the minds of infidels not by the divine but by the malignant spirit.7
The nineteenth [in this list] are those who believe that Diana goes about at night with her army through great distances. Similarly, some at night prepare the table and uncover the vessels so that the souls of the dead should fill them and bring them every fortune.9
A certain girl was often urged by a diabolical little old lady to go with her to the Game of Diana, after she had once said to her that she had never seen nor experienced such delights, and at last agreed to go. When the old lady told her that in order to participate in those sights and pleasures she would have to renounce the Christian faith, baptism and all the sacraments of the Church, she did all that.13
On whether the blow truly leaves traces on the body of the little old lady, or in other words, whether such a wound is really imprinted on her, I say that this can happen in three ways. First, in a natural way, due to fact that the old woman may have injured herself by falling; second, this can happen due to strong imagination, as a punishment for her sins, as she believes of being part of the followers of Herodias or Diana, and to go about fascinating babies [so that] such wounds can be found on her as all this imagination makes her to fall; third, as the devil himself can injure the woman, with the permission of God, to punish her for her sins, and from all this she is convinced of being beaten or of killing the babies. To this you can add, if you want, a forth possibility: since the devil can deceive the eyesight of several people by making the little old lady seem that she was beaten, while she was not.16
In a certain town there was a dog-faced old woman, who used to go to the course [with the goddess Diana], and some women who had their husbands afar went to her, whose name was lady Simia, asking her one by one of their husbands. The old woman replied to them: “I will go to the course tonight, and I shall tell you tomorrow morning what I know, but bring to me a nice, fat Paduan crow”, and that foolish woman brought that to her. The dog-faced old woman ate that all, and at times those women also brought her some good wine, so that, eating and drinking so well, she also slept well at night, waking up when the sun was already high. Thus, while the women were waiting to receive an answer, the depraved and malicious dog-faced woman, told them the first thing she had in mind, and sometimes she guessed it right, while other times she did not, in this way still eating the crow.20
These are insatiable birds, not the harpies that deprivedPhineas of his feasts, although it is from them that they descend:Their heads are large, their eyes unblinking, their beaks made for hunting;Their wings are white, their talons hooked,At night they fly and seek out children separated from their nursesTo snatch them from their cradles and rend their bodies;They are said to tear out children’s milky entrails with their beaksAnd fill their gullets with the blood they have drunk.There is a name for those birds–striges–so calledBecause of their strident shrieking in the night.Whether therefore they are born birds, or are made such by enchantmentAnd are nothing but women transformed into fowls by a Marsian spell.23
Furthermore, in that, around that, and above that, not satisfied with the aforementioned, in the month of May 1422 on a Thursday, she went to the village of Rotelle, in the district of Orvieto, for bewitching, and there she entered the house of a certain Mecarello, finding one of his daughters asleep in a cradle next to the bed of her father, and she beat and sucked [the blood of] that girl as she usually does.29
As to the observance of illusions, there is the observance of certain women who are misled and deceived and say that they go riding at night with Diana or Herodias, and that they transform themselves into other creatures that are popularly called strege. This is strongly opposed by the Council of Aquileia (through) 56, q. 5 of the canon Episcopi.32
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References
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1 | |
2 | See (Conti 2015). |
3 | On the weight of tradition and the role of superstition for the development of witchcraft cf.: (Bailey 2013); for the Milanese case see: (Conti 2011, pp. 62–91; Conti 2016, pp. 201–13). |
4 | Interrogandus est etiam peccator de superstitioso cultu qui est contra religionem. […] Peccant etiam contra hoc gravissime idolatre, necromantici, et malefici, et mulieres incantatrices et quicumque alii qui exhibentes cultum diabolo […]. Et ideo incantatores, et divinatores, et qui dicunt se invenire furta per varias superstitiones, et portantes brevia ad collum […]: (Savonarola 1510) f. [E Vr]. |
5 | (Isolani 1506). Cf.: (Conti 2015, pp. 225–26). |
6 | (Herolt 1497) Sermon 41, fols hivb–hiiiira. |
7 | Illud etiam non est omittendum, quod quaedam sceleratae mulieres retro post satanam conuersae, daemonum illusionibus et phantasmatibus seductae, credunt se et profitentur nocturnis horis cum Diana paganorum dea et innumera multitudine mulierum equitare super quasdam bestias, et multa terrarum spacia intempestae noctis silentio pertransire, eiusque iussionibus uelut dominae obedire, et certis noctibus ad eius servicium euocari. […] non a diuino sed a maligno spiritu talia phantasmata mentibus infidelium irrogari: (Regino of Prüm 1880); for the English translation of the Canon see: (Kors and Peters 2001, pp. 61–63). |
8 | See: (Ginzburg 1991, pp. 101–3). |
9 | Deciminoni sunt qui credunt quod Diana cum exercitu suo de nocte ambulet per multa spatia. Item aliqui de nocte preparant mensam et vasa discoperiunt ut manes debeant illa replere et ipsis hominibus fortunium prebere: Herolt, Sermones discipuli, Sermon 41, fol. hiiiira. See: (Conti 2015, p. 265). |
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13 | Quedam iuvenis sepius incitata a quadam vetula diabolica ut ad ludum Diane secum pergeret, cum ei semel inter alia diceret quod numquam talia solatia viderat nec habuerat, tandem consensit. Cumque illi vetula diceret quod talibus spectaculis et consolationibus interesse non poterat nisi fidei christiane et baptismo atque omnibus sacramentis ecclesie renunciaret, illa omnia fecit: (Busti 1498, Sermon 16, fol. 129rbva). Text in (Conti 2015, pp. 273–74). |
14 | See: (Chène 1999, pp. 134–36). Cf.: (Klaniczay 2008, pp. 63–64). |
15 | Illud quod videtur in forma gatte simpliciter est ipse demon in specie vetularum vel musipularum pueros de cunabulis et lecto rapiens et occidens: (Antonio da Vercelli 1492, Sermon 45, fol. 329vab). Text in (Conti 2015, p. 279). |
16 | Quod autem realiter in persona vetule percussio facta remaneat, seu tale vulnus vetule imprimatur, dico quod hoc triplici respectu euenire potest. Primo naturaliter, ex casu ut puta dum cadendo tale vulnus recepisset. Secundo, hoc potest accidere ex vehementi ymaginatione in penam peccati, quia dum talis vetula ex comitibus se fore credit Herodiadis vel Diane, et credit se in ymaginatione esse ad rapiendum pueros, tale vulnus in ea factum remanet pro eo quod vehemens ymaginatio plerumque facit casum suum. Tertio, dicas quod permittente Deo in penam peccati diabolus sibi tale vulnus infligit ex quo ipsa credit se esse ad actum illius percussionis seu occisionis pueri. Adde si vis et quartum responsum quia plerunque diabolus potest deludere oculos videntium, ut talis vetula videatur percussa, cum tamen percussa non sit: (Antonio da Vercelli 1492, Sermon 45, fol. 329vab). |
17 | El dimonio fa parere a quella mala femmina ch’ella diventi gatta e vada stregando, ma ella si sta nel letto suo. Lusioni di dimonio per ingannare altrui! See: (Bernardino da Siena 1934, p. 169). |
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20 | Erat in quadam civitate una vetula rechagnata, que pergebat in cursu, et domine, que maritos procul habebant, ad eam proficiscebantur, vocabaturque domina Simia, ac ei dicebant, videlicet nunc una, modo altera velle scire quid viri sit. At illa: ‘Me ac nocte in cursum oportet accedere, sciam in mane tibi dicere, sed feras mihi unam bonam gracillam magnam pinguem paduanam’. Illa pazarella eam ferebat. Vetulla [sic] vero rechagnata totam edebat, et aliquando ei optimum vinum ferebant, et ipsa, que bene ederat et biberat, etiam in nocte bene dormiebat, adeo quod, quando se excitabat, sol altus erat. Demum ille eam expectabant ut ab ea aliquod responsum haberent, sed rechagnata, viciosa, seu maliciosa eis responsum dabat secundum quod per prius cogitaverat, et aliquando verum divinabat et aliquando non, et hoc pacto gracillas edebat: (Roberto da Lecce 1983, p. 210). |
21 | On this: (Montesano 2018, pp. 11–66). |
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23 | Sunt avidae volucres, non quae Phineia mensis | guttura fraudabant, sed genus inde trahunt: | grande caput, stantes oculi, rostra apta rapinis; | canities pennis, unguibus hamus inest; | nocte volant puerosque petunt nutricis egentes, | et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis; | carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris, | et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent. | est illis strigibus nomen; sed nominis huius | causa quod horrenda stridere nocte solent. | Sive igitur nascuntur aves, seu carmine fiunt | neniaque in volucres Marsa figurat anus: (Ovid 1989, pp. 131–42). English translations are available in (Paule 2018, p. 67; Montesano 2018, p. 55). |
24 | Cf. (Paule 2018, p. 67; Montesano 2018, pp. 55 ff). For an analysis of Ovid’s text, see: (Littlewood 2006, pp. 45–47). |
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29 | Item in eo, de eo et super eo, quod predictis non contenta, in M°cccc°xxij° de mense maij in die jouis, accessit stregatum | ad villam Rotelle, comitatus Urbeueteris et ibi ingressa fuit domum cuiusdam Mecharelli de dicto loco in qua in- | uenit quandam filiam dicti Mecharelli dormientem in quadam culla existente prope lectum dicti Mecharelli | et ipsam suam filiam percussit ac sucauit prout ipsa solita est facere: (Mammoli 1983, p. 34). |
30 | On bloodsucking, see: (Kieckhefer 1998, pp. 91–109). |
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32 | De observatione illusionum qua observatione quedam mulieres decipiuntur et illuduntur que asserunt se cum Diana vel Herodiade nocturno tempore equitare, et se in alias creaturas transformare, que ideo vulgariter dicuntur strege. Nam huiusmodi valde detestantur per Concilium Aquilianum 56 q. 5 c. Episcopi: (Carcano 1492, Sermon 23, fol. 60va). See: (Conti 2015, pp. 256–57). |
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Conti, F. Notes on the Nature of Beliefs in Witchcraft: Folklore and Classical Culture in Fifteenth Century Mendicant Traditions. Religions 2019, 10, 576. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10100576
Conti F. Notes on the Nature of Beliefs in Witchcraft: Folklore and Classical Culture in Fifteenth Century Mendicant Traditions. Religions. 2019; 10(10):576. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10100576
Chicago/Turabian StyleConti, Fabrizio. 2019. "Notes on the Nature of Beliefs in Witchcraft: Folklore and Classical Culture in Fifteenth Century Mendicant Traditions" Religions 10, no. 10: 576. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10100576
APA StyleConti, F. (2019). Notes on the Nature of Beliefs in Witchcraft: Folklore and Classical Culture in Fifteenth Century Mendicant Traditions. Religions, 10(10), 576. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10100576