Woman and witchcraft in the Middle Ages. Middle Ages. Magic in the pre-Arab era Witchcraft in the Middle Ages
WITCH
As in many other traditional societies, the belief in the existence of witches in medieval Europe was an integral component of folk culture. People believed that there were women and men who had the magical ability to perform actions that could cause harm to others; cause death or illness, damage crops, livestock and property. Similar beliefs were common in Europe in both pagan and Christian times. The ancient Germans and Scandinavians saw some women as soothsayers and seers with supernatural powers. They were wary of them and at the same time often resorted to their help. However, assisting a witch was considered reprehensible. The hero of one saga receives advice to turn to a witch in order to succeed in his business; rejecting this advice, he states, "I don't want the future saga of me to be spoiled."
Nevertheless, if you believe the monuments of Old Scandinavian literature, both noble people, skalds, and commoners resorted to magic. Christian clergy taught that the only source of supernatural phenomena is God, and only on his mercy and intervention can believers count. A miracle was justified only to the extent that the saints performed it, for they acted in obedience to the will of God. The church of the early Middle Ages interpreted the belief in witches and the effectiveness of their witchcraft as a diabolical suggestion (Canon episcopi, 10th century, included in the “Decree of Gratian” in the 12th century). Nevertheless, beliefs associated with witches (striga, Holda, Diana) stubbornly persisted among the people. People believed that witches were able to take the form of animals and other creatures, fly at night and gather in certain places for their witchcraft gatherings.
K. Ginzburg believes that the stories about witches, their night flights and covens were based on ancient mythology, in which the cult of the dead was combined with the cult of fertility; the scientist finds indications of the remnants of these beliefs throughout Europe and connects them with Paleo-Asian origins, in particular with shamanism. These myths dominated the consciousness of part of the rural population. On the contrary, M. Murray (following J. Fraser), trusting the confessions extracted by judges from women accused of witchcraft, defended the thesis about the reality of secret unions in which witches who worshiped the “horned god” allegedly united; this point of view has been rejected by modern science. J. Michelet’s idea that the witch was the living embodiment of the protest of medieval women against the tyranny of men is also not supported today.
Witchcraft, associated with the magical use of forces and natural phenomena, was an essential and integral aspect of the life of an agrarian society. There was no clear dividing line between the good healer, capable of healing with herbs and other drugs, spells and conspiracies, and the evil witch, who could bring misfortune and “spoil”, and the first could easily be turned into the second in the minds of others. Along with the belief in the existence of witches capable of causing harm, there was a widespread belief in good witches and sorcerers, who from time to time enter into the fight against evil witches, protecting the harvest, health and property of people. Such, for example, are the Friulian benandanti (lit., “well-behaved”), who fell into con. XVI - beginning XVII centuries in the sights of the Inquisition.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the church sought to counteract pagan “superstitions”, which were expressed in magical actions and formulas and, from its point of view, contrasted the will of the individual with divine providence. Nevertheless, in the early Middle Ages, the clergy, condemning such practices, denied the existence of witches and opposed those peasants who from time to time massacred them. The picture outlined above in its main features hardly contains anything unique to the medieval West. Similar phenomena have been studied by ethnologists using non-European material. However, at a certain historical period, the situation changed radically, and Europe became the arena in which a witch hunt that had no parallels unfolded.
In the 13th century The attitude of theologians towards belief in witches is experiencing a decisive turning point. The clergy now recognizes the reality of witches, attributing to them the ability to do evil deeds and witchcraft (maleficia). These acts are carried out by witches, according to the teachings of the church, not by their own efforts, but as a result of their union with the devil. They enter into an agreement with him, pledging to carry out all his orders and having sexual intercourse with him. The devil is present at sabbaths - secret gatherings of witches, where all sorts of outrages happen. Led by the devil, witches form, in the eyes of the clergy, a kind of “anti-church”, the rituals of which are church rituals turned inside out. Participants in this “anti-church” allegedly indulge in debauchery and commit human sacrifices, making magical potions necessary for witchcraft from the flesh of the babies they kill.
The popular belief in the existence of witches, which now received the support of the church, was combined with the demonological teachings of theologians, and as a result of this symbiosis, that dark ideology arose, which at the end of the Middle Ages served as the justification for the widespread and prolonged persecution of the so-called. witches It is very symptomatic that demon mania and witch hunts spread not in the “dark” early Middle Ages, but at the end of the medieval era. They reach their greatest extent in the 16th-17th centuries, i.e. during the Renaissance and Reformation. It was during this period that the role of the devil increased in theological teaching, preaching and in public consciousness; This time was marked by a sharp increase in all kinds of collective phobias, in particular the fear of the end of the world, the coming of the Antichrist and the Last Judgment. Heretics, Jews and witches acted as “scapegoats” on which Christians shifted the burden of their own sinfulness and guilt before God.
Accusations of women (and sometimes men) of witchcraft and relations with the devil largely repeated those accusations that in the previous period were brought against adherents of heretical sects. But if the number of sectarians and Jews was limited, then charges of witchcraft could be brought against anyone. By sending witches to the stake, Christian groups seemed to be temporarily freed from psychological tension. The burning of witches took place in the city square, with a large crowd of people, after which a solemn feast was held for the judges and other participants in the massacre (at the expense of property confiscated from the victim or, if it was missing, at the expense of the community): Christians won a new victory over the devil!
The persecution of witches, starting in the Alpine regions, then spread to a large part of Europe. The source of persecution of witches was often accusations from neighbors who allegedly suffered from the malicious actions of women suspected of witchcraft. However, the judges were not so much interested in these acts as in whether the accused was in league with the devil, and these questions were the focus of the tribunal's attention. The most cruel tortures were used to obtain appropriate confessions. Often, alleged witches were subjected to a water test: a woman tied hand and foot was thrown into it, and if the water, a pure element, pushed the victim out, then this served as proof of her guilt. Another test involved weighing the accused: since they believed in the flight of witches, they were assumed to weigh less than usual.
The “test of tears” was also used: a passage from the Bible was read to the suspect, and if she did not shed tears, then her connection with the devil was considered proven. The judges saw the justification for the need for the most severe torture in the fact that the witch was allegedly possessed by an evil spirit that prevents the accused from confessing her maleficia; By applying torture to her body, the judges, they were sure, were fighting for the salvation of her soul. New criminal legislation introduced in a number of European countries in the 16th century classified witchcraft into the category of “exceptional crimes” (crimen exceptum), which finally freed the hands of judges. In most cases, torture eventually led to a woman’s “confession” of having a relationship with the devil, after which a sentence was passed that doomed the unfortunate woman to be burned at the stake.
The confession of the accused that she was a witch was a prerequisite for sentencing. Self-proclaimed “experts” appeared in villages and cities, claiming that they could accurately recognize a witch by appearance. It was believed that the devil left his “seal” on the witch’s body in the form of a birthmark or point that was immune to pain. All hair was shaved off the body of the suspected witch and pricked with needles in order to detect such points. With particular persistence, the judges asked the accused who, besides her, attended the Sabbaths, after which the persons named by her were in turn subjected to arrest and torture, and thus a “chain reaction” arose, the persecution expanded, covering an ever-increasing number of victims.
The writings of some inquisitors and theologians of the 15th century contributed to the tightening of the persecution of witches. (in particular the treatise of the Dominican theologian Johannes Nieder, 1437), but especially the papal bull Summis desiderantes (1484) and the treatise “The Hammer of the Witches” (Malleus maleficanim) of the Dominicans Institoris (Kremer) and Sprenger (1486/87) . “The Hammer of Witches” was based on textbooks on the investigation and eradication of heresies and became the main “encyclopedia” of witchcraft, which inquisitors, clerics and judges relied on in their demonological ideas. "The Hammer of the Witches", imbued with extreme anti-feminism, talks about how demons and witches seduce people and encourage them to enter into a pact with the devil, how witches celebrate their Sabbaths and harm people.
From that time on, for two centuries, a huge stream of demonological literature did not dry up, in which theologians and lawyers in every possible way substantiated the need for a witch hunt. Among the authors of scholarly treatises directed against witches were such famous thinkers and writers as, for example, Jean Bodin (1580), one of the creators of the theory of state law, who developed the ideas of tyranny and religious tolerance. Works that appeared from time to time, in which doubts were expressed and objections were put forward against the rampant persecution of witches (this is the treatise of the German Jesuit Friedrich Spee, 1631), could not stop or reduce the scope of the persecution.
The relationship between evil spirits and its servants was modeled on the model of connections. From ser. XVII century two documents have been preserved that formalized the agreement between a certain Frenchman and the devil; these documents were considered in a Paris court. In the first of them, compiled, as it is written in it, in the underworld, this man swore allegiance to the prince of darkness, renouncing the Lord and pledging to be a faithful vassal of the devil. Another document signed there confirmed the devil’s acceptance of the new subject and promised him all sorts of earthly blessings for a period of 20 years, after which the sinner would be at his complete disposal.
Who were the victims of the witch hunt? Mostly women, but in many cases men too. The prejudice against women, which had long been characteristic of clergy and monasticism, who sometimes saw them as tools in the hands of the devil, opened the gates to direct hostility. The image of a lonely old woman who is outside the group, and, because of this, inspires superstitious suspicions in it (remember the Baba Yaga of the folk tale) is more of a stylization than a reflection of the actual state of affairs, since accusations of witchcraft were also brought against socially valuable neighbors. Among the so-called There were witches, both old and young, both prosperous and poor. The burgomaster of a German city, accused of witchcraft (early 17th century), managed to secretly send a letter to his daughter from prison in which he writes that, unable to withstand torture, he was forced to admit the charges against him of maleficia and serving the devil, but begs his neighbors not to believe these “revelations.”
Accusations of witchcraft were often used to deal with political opponents and personal enemies. From the point of view of studying the psychological climate in which the witch hunt unfolded, of particular interest are cases when individual women and girls voluntarily, even before any charges were brought against them, declared that they were in connection with evil spirits and served them. Apparently, under the influence of widespread ideas about witchcraft, some mentally unstable and prone to fantasies, or simply abnormal persons, sincerely imagined themselves as witches: this was, obviously, one of the perverted ways of self-affirmation for persons who were otherwise unremarkable.
An examination by a Spanish inquisitor of the judicial investigation into the case of girls who admitted themselves to be witches (trial in Zagarramurdi, Basque Country, early 17th century) discovered their innocence, and they were acquitted. In a number of cases, the victims of witch trials were women whose young children or grandchildren, having heard enough legends about the Sabbath, said that they had participated in it and received gifts from evil spirits. Children were also often victims of persecution. The persecution of witches did not occur continuously; they either flared up, growing to alarming proportions, or died out. It is extremely difficult to establish a correlation between the occurrence of these processes with other phenomena of spiritual and social life. The intensity of persecution of witches varied both in different periods and in individual countries. In England, torture was not used, and, accordingly, there were fewer convicted witches.
There were relatively few witch trials in Italy, where the papacy was cautious in this regard. On the contrary, there was rampant persecution of witches in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Witches were persecuted with equal zeal in both Catholic and Protestant countries. It was suggested that the persecution of witches and heretics seemed to replace each other: the attention of the persecutors and society from time to time switched from one to the other; the search for the internal enemies of Christianity remained unchanged. The reasons for the development of the persecution of witches into a pan-European process of enormous importance both in political and religious, as well as in socio-psychological relations remain controversial for historical science.
Some researchers are inclined to sociological explanations: they associate the witch hunt with the stratification of the village in the 16th-17th centuries, whose residents, who had previously provided material assistance to the poor, now refuse them it, thereby helping to push them out of the collective and provoking them to hostile actions ; Among these marginal elements, according to the point of view of K. Thomas, A. McFarlane and R. Mushamble, the so-called witches appear first of all. But such an interpretation seems one-sided, for, as we have seen, charges of maleficia were brought against persons of very different social status and property status.
Justifying his folklore theory, K. Ginzburg emphasizes that religious and psychological phenomena cannot be understood by reducing them to socio-economic phenomena. Nevertheless, one can hardly ignore the extremely complex socio-economic and political situation that developed in Europe in the 16th-17th centuries. and gave rise to psychological instability, which contributed to the spread of all kinds of fears. The interaction of the primordial folk belief in the existence of witches with scientific demonology represented a meeting of two religious and cultural traditions - folklore and scientific. But this meeting was in many ways fatal for medieval folk culture.
Using the superstitions of common people, the church reinterpreted them in such a way that it was able to deal a powerful blow to popular culture, of which magic and myth were part. During the witch hunt, folk cultural traditions, holidays and customs, towards which the church had shown a certain tolerance in the previous period, were demonized, pushed aside and partially suppressed. It is impossible to establish even an approximate number of victims of the witch hunt. Local archives have not yet been sufficiently studied, in addition, many interrogation reports and sentences were set on fire along with their victims. In a number of areas, the persecution of witches reached such a scale that there were almost no women left free from accusations. At times, the persecution of witches acquired the character of mass psychosis.
The persecution of witches began to weaken at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. The reasons for the cessation of persecution are also not entirely clear. The previous explanation, according to which the “light of the Enlightenment” dispelled the “darkness of the Middle Ages,” is hardly satisfactory. Apparently, public opinion gradually changed. The boundaries between the natural and the supernatural, the possible and the impossible began to shift. A psychological exhaustion has set in for society, which had been terrorized for so long by the struggle against the devil and his servants—the witches. One of the distant relapses of demonomania was the trial of a group of women in Salem (Massachusetts, New England), which took place in 1693. Numerous sects and unions of witches and sorcerers, now loudly declaring themselves, have nothing to do with the witches of the Middle Ages.
Ginzburg K. The image of the witches’ Sabbath and its origins // Odyssey. A man of history. 1990. M., 1990. S. 132-146; Gurevich A.Ya. The medieval world: the culture of the silent majority. M. 1990. pp. 308-375: “A witch in the village and before the court”; Shverhoff G. From everyday suspicion to mass persecution. The latest German research on the history of witchcraft at the beginning of the New Age // Odyssey. Man in history. 1996. M., 1996. P. 306-330.
The origin of the word "witch" has many roots (fortune teller, wizard, sage, necromancer and even saint). In our language, the meaning of this word is very simple - to know. It does not carry any negativity and applies only to women. Witchcraft includes fortune telling, love spells, conspiracies and various rituals. Often religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) considered serving a dark force as heresy. Be that as it may, it was medieval witches who gave birth to the evil image used in fairy tales and fantasy stories.
In ancient times, it was quite difficult to distinguish between a fortune teller, a herbalist and a witch. The Bible condemned any magic, even white magic that brought good, because it was believed that any magic was associated with the Devil. The covenants, both old and new, stated punishment for witches, such as stoning to death or burning. Despite the fact that religion considered a woman a vessel for evil forces, a man could also be accused of witchcraft. It is believed that women were convicted more often in the German states, in the Scandinavian countries and Russia - men. Any person could be accused, regardless of age or profession. Even piety and piety could not prove innocence.
Magical Sins
Superstitions endowed witches with an evil nature, due to which they only harmed people. They destroyed crops, poisoned water, stole milk, killed children or caused diseases. They could be recognized by black birthmarks on their bodies or strange scars. The inquisitors searched for them by stripping the women. It was believed that such a mark was not sensitive to pain. Each sorceress had a personal assistant - a familiar or imp, a spirit who helped her in dark affairs. He had his own name, was intelligent and took the form of an animal. The special ability of witches is flight and transformation into animals. A magic ointment made from poisonous plants (henbane, nightshade, hemlock) helped them have these abilities. Although our contemporaries are sure that the woman flew only in her mind due to the hallucinogenic effect. The Sabbath, a witches' festival where participants indulged in liberties all night, was invented as an analogue of a bacchanalia. The participants flew to it on brooms or goats. They were met by the devil himself, whose tail they had to kiss. Then the fun happened - all sorts of orgies, dancing, drinking, which lasted until the rooster crowed.
Treatise "The Hammer of the Witches"
The Inquisition only became popular in the 15th century, after the idea of witch trials gained popular support. Any peasant knew the basic instructions for a witch hunt, but the court allowed a person to be considered innocent until his guilt was proven. The Church believed that a person is guilty from the very beginning and is obliged to earn the favor of the law and faith. The main document that has survived to this day, which made it possible to judge witches, is the “Hammer of the Witches,” published in 1487. It detailed the issues of witchcraft and mentioned two inquisitors who were ordered to begin a witch hunt. The book in three parts consisted of proof of the existence of witches, a description of witchcraft and rituals, as well as the hunt itself and methods of executing witches. There were some tricks too. One of the inquisitors mentioned in the book persuaded a street woman to hide in an oven and impersonate the voice of the devil, which allowed him to condemn and torture many innocent people.
Midwives who allegedly sacrificed children were more often arrested, although high infant mortality rates flourished at that time. Healers were also accused of witchcraft if the women did not have the appropriate education. Scotland allowed the accused to have a lawyer, when in England the accuser was obliged to prove the woman’s guilt with real facts. In most other cases, the witch did not have the right to have a defender. One of the witch hunters in England was Matthew Hopkins. He claimed that he had a complete list of witches living in the country, which most likely was compiled by himself. Despite the ban on torture, he continued to drown suspects and poke needles into their bodies in search of devilish marks. There is a legend that one day, the peasants caught him and tested him with water, as he himself did, but Hopkins did not drown. Accusing him of witchcraft, the inquisitor was hanged. During his work, together with his colleague John Sterne, more people were executed than in the entire 160 years of persecution of witches in England.
Witches and God's Judgment
Ordeals are a type of divine judgment based on the belief that God helps the innocent. Classical torture had two varieties - testing with water and hot metal. The suspect was required to walk several meters with a piece of hot iron in his hands. If the burns were absent or healed within three days, the accused became innocent. The water test involved tying a weight to a person, who was then thrown into a body of water. Drowned - guilty. Although among the Jews it was the other way around: if the victim drowned, then she was innocent and the kingdom of heaven would be hers, because they often did not have time to save. God's judgment took place until the end of the 17th century.
The Inquisition and its relationship to witchcraft
The Inquisition closely controlled the process of torture; there were instructions that even described the physical condition of the victim after any torture, so that the person could survive for the final trial. All it took was a demonstration of the instrument of torture and its use to the accused for him to confess even to something he had not committed.
Types of torture:
- Strappado - the victim was hung on a rope, tied with his arms behind his back to the ceiling, a weight was hung on his legs and thus under the weight, his arms were twisted, causing pain to the victim. The Palestinian hanging was abolished after the death of a prisoner in 2003.
- A rack was a bench with the help of which limbs were stretched, in the process bones were broken, tendons and muscles were torn.
- Water torture had two varieties. Either a large amount of water was poured inside the victim, or water was poured onto the face covered with a rag.
- Spanish boots - shoes made of metal were put on the feet and slowly heated up.
- The Iron Maiden, made in a single copy, was a human-shaped figure. There were spikes on two of the doors from the inside, the purpose of which was to pierce his body without killing the accused. The iron maiden was already used for execution, but since death did not come for hours, the victim suffered from pain and fear of cramped conditions. The Iron Maiden was banned in 1944.
There were cases when all the torture was withstood and the victim did not admit to witchcraft and the charge was dropped, but the Inquisition had the right to transfer it to a secular court for tougher treatment. In England, those convicted could appeal. Burning was the main method of execution. But if a woman confessed, she was pardoned and strangled before being burned. Only in rare cases was execution commuted to life imprisonment. The victim was deprived of all rights and property, then she was thrown into a cell. The witch was not allowed to wash herself; in the dirt and disease she died quite quickly.
Witches often became the culprits of epidemics, crop failures, food spoilage, death of livestock, etc. Having heard enough stories about evil sorcerers, people tried to protect their homes from the evil eye. In one way or another, the person who crossed himself could have been killed due to suspicion of damaging the house. Massive witch trials continued into the 18th century. During this time, several tens of thousands of people were convicted and killed. Today in the more civilized world, with the exception of a few places, witches exist only in films and books. Distorted by medieval religion, they will not disappear. They will continue to capture legends, stories and fantasy, scaring and enchanting people.
Photo: Vladimir Nikulin/Rusmediabank.ru
Of course, you've heard about how easy it was in the Middle Ages to end up at the stake for witchcraft. Very often, this did not require performing any magical acts at all. There were a lot of “signs” by which you could be recognized as a witch or sorcerer. Here are some of them.Being female
Women were considered more sinful than men, and therefore they were expected to worship the devil more often. Therefore, the risk of being accused was much higher for them.Old age
It was believed that all older women were potential. Older people sometimes tend to behave inappropriately. If an old woman looked at a child and he soon fell ill, the child’s mother knew very well who was to blame... Therefore, many old women were put on trial for witchcraft and executed only because of their advanced age.
Too young
Children, under pressure from adults, could easily admit to actions they did not commit. So, four-year-old Dorothy Goode was sent to prison along with her “witch” mother. The girl admitted everything that was attributed to her. Dorothy's mother was hanged in 1692, but the child was still released after nine months of imprisonment. However, the baby lost her mind forever.
Poverty and vagrancy
Often attributed to homeless people and beggars. Those who did not have their own home, wandered, begged, were not trusted, because they could come into contact with people in order to harm them. Therefore, they were often arrested for witchcraft.
Prosperity
Rich and wealthy people were always envied, so neighbors could say anything about such a person. But again, women, especially single ones, suffered the most. It was believed that it was difficult for a woman to live without the support of a man, and if a person did not have a husband, father, brothers or sons, and at the same time was not in poverty, she aroused suspicion. People began to believe that she obtained her wealth with the help of black magic. And all that was needed for accusations was a reason... Having girlfriends
If women got together without men, it always looked suspicious, because there was a possibility that the friends were performing rituals of devil worship. It was even more dangerous to quarrel with your friends, since they could come up with things about you that would inevitably lead to accusations of witchcraft. However, it was enough for a man to cross someone’s path for all the dogs to be pinned on him. But this happened less often.Midwife's profession
Midwives usually knew about medicinal herbs and many other things that went against Christian beliefs, so although everyone resorted to their services, they were feared and shunned. And at the first opportunity - for example, if the birth was unsuccessful and the child died or remained crippled, they were accused of conspiring with the devil.
Presence of extramarital affairs
During the Puritan era, women were completely banned. Moreover, even rape could not serve as an excuse for “fornication.” And if a woman gave birth to a child from someone unknown, they believed that the baby was from the devil. So, in 1651, the unmarried Alice Lake from Dorchester was declared a witch because “she was a harlot and gave birth to a child.” Under torture, the unfortunate woman finally admitted that her lover was Satan himself, and the child was his... She was sentenced to hang. Presence or absence of children
If there were too many children in a family, it caused controversy, especially if there was an infertile couple living next door. It was believed that through witchcraft, witches could steal happiness from other people. But if someone was infertile or unable to produce more than one child, this also aroused suspicion, since in those days it was believed that such families were under a devilish curse.
Behavior that does not fit into the general framework
If a woman was “odd”, behaved too impudently or stubbornly, this could also become a reason for accusations of witchcraft. It was believed that it was the devil who pushed such behavior. And haven’t evil and rude women been called witches at all times? Various bodily defects
Noticeable birthmarks or the presence of a third nipple were all interpreted as a "devil's mark." According to legend, through such a mark various animals attached themselves to the witch - for example, dogs, cats or snakes, which drank her blood and helped her in witchcraft. For example, lame men were treated the same way, since lameness was considered a property of the devil.Spoiled dairy products
If spoiled butter or milk was found in the housewife’s cellar, she could also easily be considered a witch. The fact is that rituals of black magic could supposedly lead to the souring of these products.Fortune telling or clairvoyance
As you know, the Bible prohibits “sorcery.” Therefore, any attempts deserved punishment and death. Thus, the black maid Tituba from the notorious city of Salem suffered only for inviting young girls to name the names of their future husbands. Of course, she was reported on, and she became one of the participants in the memorable Salem witch trials.Violation of any biblical rules or laws
If a person did not act as the Bible prescribed, he could be accused of witchcraft. The reason for this could be, for example, non-observance of the Sabbath (on this day one could neither light a fire, nor trade, nor travel); sowing more than one type of seeds on a field; touching a pork carcass; wearing clothes made of more than one type of fabric; cutting hair in a circle or braiding it... At least that's what Puritanism said.Curious, how many of these rules have you broken in your life? And what would have happened to you if you had lived in the Puritan era?
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In the Middle Ages, legends about “black books” appeared. In Western Europe they were called grimoires. Such books were manuals on black magic and occult knowledge. If an unprepared person happened to simply leaf through such a book, it could kill him or drive him crazy... But if someone managed to read and understand it, he became a great magician and subjugated the forces of nature.
Mysterious "Necronomicon"
Quite often, various sources mention the “Necronomicon”, which is supposedly an ancient Arabic manuscript (another name is “Al Azif”, “Book of the Dead”), written by a certain Abdul Al-Hazred from Damascus around 720 and containing sets of spells with which ancient dark deities could be summoned.
The first Western author to mention the Necronomicon was Howard Lovecraft in one of his stories written in 1923. He argued that acquaintance with this work, due to its occult content, could pose a danger to the reader or even just keeping it in his possession. “The Arabs in Yemen claim that it can be obtained and that it exists, ? he writes. ? People sometimes don't quite understand what they are looking for... And what they mean by a book is not exactly what it is. This was told to me by a man who was there and was looking for her.”
As Lovecraft reports, the name Necronomicon (literally "the embodiment of the law of the dead") was given by the Orthodox scholar Theodore Philetus of Constantinople, who translated the book into Greek in 950. In the 13th century, the Danish philologist Ole Worm translated the manuscript into Latin. By that time, the Arabic original had been lost. In 1232, Pope Gregory IX banned the distribution of the Latin translation, but it was published twice more: in the 15th century in Germany and two centuries later in Spain. The Greek translation, published in the first half of the 16th century in Italy, was probably lost in the fire that destroyed the Pickman Library in Salem, where it was kept.
Image by Abdul Alhazred
According to Lovecraft, another copy ended up in the possession of the famous occultist John Dee, who translated the book into English. But this translation has reached us only in fragments. In addition, copies of the Necronomicon are secretly stored in the British Museum, the National Library of France, the Harvard University Library, the University of Buenos Aires and other places.
According to one version, the writer simply made up the Necronomicon. But many believe that the book really exists. One candidate for this role is a manuscript called De vermis mysteriis, or “The Secrets of the Worm,” which was allegedly written down in the 4th century by the Roman legionnaire Tertius Sibelius from the words of a black Ethiopian magician named Talim. Even the exact date of writing is given - 331 AD. Around 1680, a monk discovered this manuscript in the library of a British castle and brought it to Rome.
During the time when Christian emperors began to rule the Roman Empire, the “Secrets of the Worm” were banned because they became very popular among adherents of black magic. Under Theodosius I the Great, almost all copies of the manuscript were destroyed. But some copies fell into the hands of dark sects. One of them, who professed the cult of “Aljak the Dimensionless”, “Shapeless Chaos” and “Outstanding Madness”, apparently, thanks to the power donated by the book, was able to survive not only the Middle Ages, but also the English bourgeois revolution. This secret occult society carried out its affairs in complete isolation from the outside world. In 1680, Pope Innocent XI instructed Abbot Bartholomew to go to the estate of Count Kevin Merchant, who then led the sect, and investigate his activities. But instead, Merchant converted the abbot to his faith and convinced him to participate in occult experiments.
In 1932, editions of “The Secrets of the Worm” appeared on book shelves. But no one can guarantee that they correspond to the original.
Devil's "Code"
Perhaps, with some stretch, the “Code Gigas” (“Giant Code”) can also be classified as “black” books? manuscript code from the early 13th century, which is now kept in the Royal Swedish Library in Stockholm. This tome is much better known as the “Devil's Bible”, since, according to legend, its author was a Benedictine monk-scribe, and the book was created by him in just one night, and not without the help of Satan.
Actually, that's the legend. A certain novice from a Benedictine monastery in the Czech city of Podlazice (now part of the city of Hrast) committed a sin and, in order to atone for his guilt, asked to be walled up alive in his cell. In addition, he made a vow to the abbot to write in one night the wisest book in the world, containing all the knowledge of mankind. However, as the work progressed, the novice realized that he would not have time to complete it before dawn. The only way out that came to his mind was to make a deal with Lucifer... The novice offered him his soul in exchange for help. And he received it. Of course, Satan decided to intervene in the writing process and imprint his own portrait on the pages of the manuscript.
The pages of the manuscript, written in Latin, with the inclusion of fragments in Hebrew, Greek and Church Slavonic, are teeming with images of devils and other representatives of evil spirits. However, this is by no means the “Satanic Bible”, as it was hastily dubbed. It contains the complete text of the Old and New Testaments in the Old Latin version dating back to the 4th century, all 20 books of “Etymologies” by Isidore of Seville, “Jewish Antiquities” and “The Jewish War” by Josephus, “The Czech Chronicle” by Cosmas of Prague, a collection of edifying stories “ Mirror of a Sinner,” a list of the inhabitants of the monastery, a number of magical formulas, a calendar with an obituary and a number of other treatises and records. Next to the “portrait” of the devil you can see an image of the heavenly city. By this, the author emphasizes that man himself is free to choose his path: to God? Godly, and the devil - devilish.
"Devil's Bible" in the Historical Library
Rus' supposedly has its own “black book,” popularly nicknamed the “Devil’s Bible.” As legends say, the history of the manuscript dates back to Byzantine times, and it contained information received from Roman and Egyptian Satanist sorcerers.
Russian researchers believe that there were several such manuscripts. The first to claim the role of the “Devil’s Bible” is the book by Peter Mogila “Black Magic”.
If you believe one of the legends, the first and last edition of “Black Magic” was printed in Kyiv in the 16th century. Having learned about this, Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered that all copies be destroyed, and everyone who had anything to do with the publication be executed or sent to monasteries so that they would repent there for the rest of their lives. But there is another version: they say that the books were not destroyed, but walled up in a stone pillar. No one can take them from there, as the spell cast on the pillar interferes. Nevertheless, according to rumors, several copies of the terrible book still went around.
The next time the “Devil's Bible” surfaced was in the 17th century. In 1676, the boyar and head of the Streltsy army Artamon Matveev, who was the uncle of the second wife of the late Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and the mother of the future Tsar Peter I, Natalya Naryshkina, received a denunciation accusing him of witchcraft. At that time, the accusation was more than serious... During interrogations, witnesses testified that Matveev, having locked himself in his chambers, was reading the “black book” and summoning the devil. The boyar was not executed, but, having been deprived of his title and all his estates, he was exiled far to the north? to Mezen, near Arkhangelsk. Perhaps he survived only because the searches in his chambers did not yield results - the detectives did not find any “black books”. There is a version that Matveev managed to transport the “Devil’s Bible” to his place of exile.
They say that after ascending the throne, Peter I tried hard to find the book hidden by his great-uncle. Tradition says that the tsar sent his messenger Mikhail Akulov to Mezen for the book. However, later in the forest they found Akulov’s mutilated corpse with a pectoral cross stuffed into his mouth. There was no book with him.
Another myth claims that a copy of the “Devil’s Bible” is kept in the vault of the State Public Historical Library in Moscow, in a locked safe. It is removed from there only on the instructions of the authorities and in the presence of a priest, who keeps a sprinkler with holy water ready.
In 1996, intruders entered the “historical room” and took out three hundred valuable ancient volumes. But in fact, it was the “black book” that they were interested in, but they were never able to get the latter out of the safe. However, if you ask one of the library employees about this publication, they will only shrug their shoulders and answer that they have never heard of it...
Today, the Middle Ages period is a popular product of mass culture. Many films have been made about this time and many books have been written. They often tell about witches, magicians and sorcerers, and the information is not always reliable.
The facts collected in this review will help you understand how things were with magic and witchcraft in the Middle Ages.
1. Belief in magic was considered pagan superstition
In the early Middle Ages, it was considered undignified to admit to believing in magic. St. Augustine, an influential theologian of late antiquity, denied that demons could grant magical powers to humans, believing that they could only deceive people into thinking that they had been granted magical powers. The Carolingian capitulary in the newly conquered (and newly Christianized) region of Saxony banned the killing of women on suspicion of witchcraft on pain of death, describing it as a "pagan crime" since witchcraft does not exist.
2. Cloud sailors stole crops
Of course, the condemnation of the church did not mean that people stopped believing in magic. Around the same time as the capitulary of Saxony was written, Bishop Agobard of Lyons composed a treatise condemning belief in magic. From it, modern scientists have learned a lot about what people really believed back then. Agobard mentions the belief that weather magicians could raise storms and, most amazingly, “sailors from the lands located on the clouds” sailed through the sky and, with the assistance of these weather magicians, stole the crops planted by people on the earth.
3. Witch trials
While early medieval authorities were skeptical about the reality of magic, changing philosophical and theological opinions meant that by the 14th century magic began to be considered a crime. However, these medieval witch trials were different from the mass hysteria surrounding witches being burned en masse in the 16th and 17th centuries. There have been very few cases where a large number of unrelated people were tried at the same time. In the vast majority of trials of witches and wizards, there was only one defendant. The only exception is the mass executions of Philip the Fair during the suppression of the Templar order.
4. Magic and religion
The popular image of medieval witch hunts would not be complete without a priest or monk who represented the Church in prosecuting those suspected of witchcraft. But sometimes clergy themselves practiced magic, particularly forms that required training and access to written materials. The monks of St. Augustine in Canterbury kept 30 magical books in their library. These texts contained information about the rituals needed to summon spirits.
Priests, particularly rural parish priests, could also perform rituals in which magic was mixed with Orthodox rites. In the 12th century, there was an English ritual in which, in order to make fields fertile, the land was watered with milk, honey, butter, herbs and holy water while reading passages from the Bible.
5. Such frivolous magic
In the Middle Ages, people also used what is now so popular in Las Vegas and at children's birthday parties: sleight of hand and magic tricks. A 14th century book called Secretum Philosphorum was mostly about experiments and tricks. One section describes how to use invisible ink to prank your friends.
6. Norwegian wizards and witches
The Norwegians considered certain things respectable for men that could clearly be considered magic, for example, the same use of runes. But seior (ancient Norse magic) was considered the domain of women. It was believed that men who practiced seior humiliated themselves. In the sagas, male characters who practiced seior were usually portrayed in a negative light, and the texts emphasized their lack of masculinity.
7. Magic as science
During the late Middle Ages, sciences such as astrology were part of venerable intellectual discourse. For example, Albertus Magnus, who was one of the leading theologians in medieval Europe and often wrote about natural philosophy, believed that stones had special healing properties, and astrology was the true science of divination. Many medieval kings patronized astrologers and alchemists and even consulted astrologers regarding important political decisions.
8. Inquisitors are not judges of sorcerers
It has often been suggested that the Inquisition, a branch of the clergy charged with combating heretics, played a leading role in testing suspected witchcraft. Although some inquisitors did prosecute those suspected of witchcraft, most such trials were carried out by secular authorities. In 1258, Pope Alexander VI declared that inquisitors should not investigate cases of witchcraft unless they contained clear elements of heretical thought.
9.Magic and panic
The 15th century is crucial in the history of witchcraft because it laid much of the intellectual basis for the mass hysteria surrounding early modern witches. The opinion regarding witches was also changed. If earlier it was believed that they were simply practicing magic, then from now on they began to believe that they were entering into an agreement with the devil. It was at the beginning of the 15th century that the concept of a “witches’ Sabbath” arose, where witches gathered to communicate with the devil.
10. Unsuccessful Pursuit
Cover of the practical guide “The Witches Hammer”.
Perhaps the most famous medieval text on wizardry, The Witches' Hammer, was written in the 1480s as a practical guide to conducting witch hunts. It was also intended to justify its main author, Heinrich Kramer, and his ideas about magic. Kramer was a member of the Dominican Order and an inquisitor who was active in Germany at the end of the 15th century.
Before writing The Witches' Hammer, Kramer tried to bring witchcraft suspects to justice in Innsbruck, but his activities there caused great outrage among the local civilian population. As a result, in order to quell the wave of riots, the local bishop, with the support of the Archduke, annulled the sentences of the Inquisition, freed the women and asked Kramer to leave the city. It was only after this failure that Kramer wrote The Witches' Hammer, justifying his methods and exaggerating his successes in witch hunting.
11. Weighing (Witch Trials)
This type of test, for some reason also equated to torture, was considered easy, and the court accepted confessions obtained in this way as voluntary and given by the defendant without the use of torture.
The use of scales in the courts of the Inquisition was due to the belief that Satan's disciples weighed less than they should, judging by their physical appearance. Weighing suspects has become widespread throughout Europe, especially in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The alleged witch was weighed in the following way: she was stripped naked and checked to see if she had attached something to her body to make her heavier. Then, using a special table, they looked at whether the person’s weight corresponded to his physique. If, upon comparison, it turned out that a person weighs too little, then they began to torture him until the victim confesses to all the crimes that he committed in collusion with the devil. Of course, the weighing results could be interpreted in different ways. The investigator himself decided whether the suspect’s weight corresponded to his physique, or whether a trial should be started.
Sometimes, if the inquisitors wanted to help the “suspect,” the table was not used, but the Bible was placed on the other side of the scale. Of course, it is difficult to find a person who weighs less than the Bible.
In the 18th century in Oudewater (Holland) there was a special court to check the weight of people suspected of witchcraft. Many slim people willingly underwent the weighing procedure here. If the results of the weighing were negative, then the former suspect was given a corresponding certificate, and no one else had the right to accuse him of witchcraft. The court charged 4 florins and 10 groschen from each person weighed. Many people wanted to check their weight, and the court could hardly cope with the work, so the price soon rose to 6 florins. Rumors of Udwater's trial spread to other Catholic areas, and people came from there to check their weight, hoping thereby to obtain a document that would protect them from groundless accusations.
In Amsterdam, among its various attractions, there is the oldest surviving building on the Nieuwmarkt (New Market): De Waag (The Weighing House). The building was built in 1488 as a city gate, and since the 17th century it has been used as city scales to collect duties on imported goods. Now this building houses a restaurant. According to tour guide Svetlana, in the 17th century these scales were used by inquisitors to weigh women accused of witchcraft. If she weighs less than a certain weight, then this means that she is a witch.
Why does weight indicate that a woman is a witch? It turns out that the Inquisition and the judges proceeded from the fact that a light woman is able to fly on a broom, but a heavy woman is not. The “water test” method, in my opinion, was based on a similar conclusion.
The suspected woman was tied with her right hand to her left foot and her left hand to her right foot so that she could not move and was thrown into a river or a nearby body of water. If the suspect surfaced, then she was definitely a witch; if she drowned, then she was pulled to shore by a rope and was considered acquitted.
As children, we sometimes jumped into the river “float”: pressing our bent legs to our chest (today I would say “curled up.” At the same time, everyone knew that you would definitely float to the surface of the water and would swing on the surface of the water like a float. According to other sources it was believed that holy water does not accept the bodies of people associated with the devil or that the devil makes the body of a witch light so that she cannot drown. But let's go back to the “witch scales.” What weight indicated that a person was a witch or sorcerer? Various sources call 48-50 kg, but it is often said that other weights could have been set in different regions of Europe.
But even against the background of this mass hysteria, striking exceptions were sometimes noted. An instructive story took place in 1555 in the Netherlands.
In the small town of Paulsbrook, a trial was held of a young beautiful girl accused of witchcraft. Despite the incriminating testimony of witnesses, the young “witch” remained steadfast, and then the judge, hoping to receive decisive evidence, ordered her to be weighed.
The nosy weighmaster announced that the girl weighed only six pounds. But the “witch” continued to persist even under torture, declaring that the scales were obviously wrong.
The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was present at this trial. Touched by the beauty, and mainly by the fortitude of the accused, the monarch ordered a re-weighing, but on different scales, in the neighboring town of Oudwater.
The weighmaster there turned out to be not only honest, but also up to standard.
After this, Karl, satisfied with the outcome of the test, granted Oudwater a special privilege, the meaning of which was that the main scales of this town were recognized as the standard for the entire area!
Perhaps this is just a legend, but circumstances were such that soon the fame of the correct Oudwater scales spread widely not only throughout the Netherlands, but also in the German principalities, where witch hunts were carried out with particular ferocity.
In 1556, Charles V was forced to abdicate the crown, and his son Philip II, the Spanish king, a fanatical champion of the Inquisition, a supporter of mass repressions against heretics and, of course, witches, ascended the throne.
Believing that the Netherlands, dependent on him, contributed too few taxes to the royal treasury, Philip sent troops there led by the Duke of Alba, whose cruelty became proverbial.
Under Alba, the fires of the Inquisition flared up with renewed vigor, and even judges who, in the Duke’s opinion, handed down lenient sentences were often condemned.
“The executioner’s ax and the bonfire of the Inquisition are the only reliable means of controlling the “unburnt heretics,” this Spanish grandee liked to repeat.
The number of those executed by his will was in the thousands. It was then that many wealthy people, hoping to acquire some kind of insurance in advance, rushed to Oudwater to weigh themselves on the famous scales and receive a certificate of their “correct” weight.
In turn, the city authorities of Oudwater, seeing such a massive influx of pilgrims, put this process on stream, turning it into a profitable business. The weighing procedure was planned down to the smallest detail.
First, the subjects were thoroughly searched to make sure that they were not hiding heavy objects under their clothes. The weighing itself took place in the House of Scales in the presence of the secretary of the city government, the jury, the weighmaster, as well as numerous spectators.
Then a special certificate was drawn up, in which the signature of the responsible persons was sealed with the city seal. The burgomaster solemnly presented this document to the applicant at the town hall. For each certificate a fee was charged - six guilders, a very significant amount at that time. It is important to note that the certificate did not even hint at witchcraft. The point was only that the weighing was carried out at the request of the said person, who, they say, can dispose of the certificate at his own discretion.
At the same time, all participants treated the act of weighing with exceptional seriousness. Many of the subjects were so worried that they fainted before they could get on the scale. It also happened that another applicant, who had already paid the fee, suddenly disappeared from the city, as if fearing the upcoming test.
But those who received the treasured document gained confidence with it: after all, such a certificate freed, albeit formally, its owner from suspicions of communicating with the devil. The names of all persons weighed on the city scales were entered into special protocols, which have been preserved in the archives of Oudwater to this day.
The pilgrimage to the House of Scales of the small town continued until the second half of the 18th century, when the “witch hunt” began to decline. But weighings of this kind continued later, for example, in cases when this or that person needed to refute rumors about his involvement in witchcraft and gossip spread by evil tongues.
The historian Machteld Loewenstein considers the Audit Certificates to be an interesting evidence of the origins of civil law in the Netherlands.
At the end of the 16th century, legal scholars from the newly created New University in Leiden first challenged the legality of witch persecution from the point of view of civil, rather than religious, law.
“The professors from Leiden did not deny the existence of witches, but argued that it was impossible to find convincing evidence of a deal with the devil. And if there is no evidence, then there can be no trial! – Levenshtein explains. – Holland was the only European country where witch hunts began to be considered in the context of civil jurisprudence.
Leiden lawyers argued that the victim had the right to a fair trial. In this context, the certificate from Oudewater can be seen as evidence of the sanity and progressiveness of the local residents.”
HELPFUL INFORMATION
The Middle Ages (Middle Ages) is a historical period in world history, following Antiquity and preceding Modern Times.
Time frame
Russian and Western medieval studies consider the beginning of the Middle Ages to be the collapse of the Western Roman Empire at the end of the 5th century (it is believed that the empire ceased to exist on September 4, 476, when Romulus Augustus abdicated the throne), but in the UNESCO encyclopedic publication “History of Humankind” the line was drawn by the moment emergence of Islam (beginning of the 7th century).
Historians do not have a consensus regarding the end of the Middle Ages [unauthorized source 524 days]. It was proposed to consider as such: the fall of Constantinople (1453), the discovery of America (1492), the beginning of the Reformation (1517), the Battle of Pavia (1525), the beginning of the English Revolution (1640), the end of the Thirty Years' War, the Peace of Westphalia and the equal rights of Catholics and Protestants according to the principle of cujus regio, ejus religio in 1648, the 1660s, the turn of the 1670s-1680s, the turn of the 1680s-1690s and some other periods.
Supporters of the so-called long Middle Ages, based on data on the development of the non-ruling elite and the common people, consider the end of the Middle Ages, which entailed changes in all layers of European society, the Great French Revolution of the end of the 18th century; Soviet science adhered to the same opinion.
In recent years, Russian medieval studies have dated the end of the Middle Ages to the middle or end of the 15th - early 16th centuries.
The most correct is to consider the Middle Ages both as a worldwide process and as a phenomenon that had its own characteristics and its own period in each country. For example, if Italian historians consider the beginning of modern times to be the 14th century, then in Russia the beginning of modern history is usually attributed to the end of the 17th century and the first decades of the 18th century.
It is very difficult to systematize, for example, the history of the states of Asia, Africa, and pre-Columbian America within the framework of the European Middle Ages.