Magician, Witch, and Law 0855274565

Table of contents :
Introduction: Magic in Medieval culture --
The transformations of the magus --
Rhetoric and magic in the eleventh and twelfth centuries --
Learning and magic in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries --
The systematic condemnation of magic in the thirteenth century --
The sorcerer's apprentice --
The magician, the witch, and the law --
Res fragilis: torture in early European law --
Nicholas Eymeric: On Heresy, magic, and the inquisitor --
The magician, the witch and the historians.

Citation preview

The Magician the Witch and the Law Henry C. Lea, Associate Professor of Medieval History University of Pennsylvania

EDWARD PETERS

The Harvester Press 1978

This edition first published in 1978 by THE HARVESTER PRESS LIMITED Publisher: John Spiers

2 Stanford Terrace, Hassocks, Sussex Copyright © 1978 by Edward Peters All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Peters, Edward, b. 1936 The magician, the witch and the law. 2. Witchcraft-History. 1. Magic-History. I. Title 301.2'1 BF1593 ISBN 0-85527-456-5 Composition by Deputy Crown, Inc.

T g_o L L s, cripture, andj�nat are not. In book 2, Augustine ;.;.:;; � : .. :::;.::� � takes up the definition of superstitiouspraclices; and it is here that he

The Tramformations of the Magus

makes h� ordered, coherent denunciation o�;;rinkin it to i ol tr and �upe��, an �ams mg 1t rom Go s world alt�gethe�.. Book 2 ofth�trctrtnn1'ndutlesao1scuss10n of the understanamg of signs and / the ignorance which prevents a proper understanding of them. In con­ sidering the value of studying pagan literature, Augustine insists that:

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Every good and true Christian should understand that, wherever he may find truth, it is his Lord's. And confessing and acknowledging this truth also in the sacred writings, he will repudiate superstitious imaginings and will deplore and guard against men who, "When they knew God have not glorified Him as God, or given thanks; but becanre vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things."10

Augustine's quotation from St. Paul ( Romans 1:22-23) echoes the imagery of the story of Elymas in Acts, and the whole passage is a continuation of Tertullian, as well as an important chapter in the search for a Christian wisdom that so marked the patristic age. Augustine then goes on in book 2, chapters 19-24, to discuss the con­ tent of pagan superstition, which he casts whollx.J..n terms of superstitio varfous forms of magia. Chapter 20 is a catalogue of what Augustine cafls" the magical arts7' and in this catalogue, he includes virtually all the forms of idol-worship, particularly in the casual habits of everyday life: pacts with demons, haruspicy, augury, medical magic, and the ob­ servance of omens and signs. Chapter 21 adds astrology, as does chapter 22, also adding a discussion of the genethliaci, those who predict a per­ son's future f rom the study of birthdays. Chapter 23 sums up the reason f��s �demnation of ��-s�Esti99n:

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For it is brought about as if by a certain secret judgement of God that men who desire evil things are subjected to illusion and deception as a reward for their desires, being mocked and deceived by those fallen angels to whom, according to the most beautiful ordering of things, the lowest part of this world is subject by the Jaw of Divine Providence.

Even if the image of the dead Samuel told the truth to King Saul, says Augustine, the means by which the spirit was called up were neverthe­ less to be condemned:

Therefore, all arts pertaining to a trifling or noxious superstition constituted on the basis of a pestiferous association of men and demons as if through a Pac� of faithless and decitful friendship should be completely repudiated and avoided by the Christian . . .

T.he Transformations of the Magus

Such practices "all imply a pestiferous ,curiosity, an excruciating solici­ tude, and a mortal slavery." By the beginning of the fifth century, when Augustine wrote, magia was already cast away no longer regarded as a .,i legit�mate part of Cfiristian knowledge. And Augl;stine used the magia to indiiae the wnole panoply of 1magic as practised in the pagan 1 and early Christian worlds. Nowhere is this attitude more strongly ex­ . pressed than in the De civitate D(}j, especially in books 10, 18, and 19. In chapter 9 of book 10, Augustine distinguishes between the true sacrifices offered to God and the worship of idols and demons. Miracles, Augustine says, were intended to support the worship of the true God, and they were perfo1med by simple fait: h and confidence: 6

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. . . not by spells and charms composed aLccording to the mies of criminal superstition, the craft which is called �g_i£..Q!.._§£.lr.£�ry . . . a_d�Jesta}_)le name, .,_,· or by the more honorable title of theurgy. For people attempt to make some . sort of distinction between practitioners of evil arts, who are to be condemned, · classing these as "sorcerers" ( the popular name for which is necromancy) and. others whom they are prepared to regard as praiseworthy, attributing to them. the practice of theurgy. In fact, both typ1es are engaged in the fraudulent. rites of demons, wrongly called angels. n

Chapters 17 and 18 of book 18 deny the reality of humans who change their shapes. Book 19, chapter 9, again takes up th�st oL the -dec�i-t­ of the demons. In these and other passages throughout his writings, A�gustine gath�rs up what had indeed been discrete magical practices, I classes them all under the_ Eeasl!ng of .§f!J2ers.titio, and . condemn�_ .th�memph�tically, blaming the dece�t_oL !he:-. dernens and the· undtscip-linecl 1 qurfositas of ig�oranf1iumans. Augustine thus links two of the most important strands of early Chris­ tian culture: the separation of a Christian learning from the many dis- ( " ll� ciplines of pagan antiquity, and the growth of Christian demonology. In 1 · the new organization of legitimate knowledge, everything pertaining to t magic, astrology, and divination is rejected as superstitio and therefore made a deception of the devil. The history of late Jewish and early Christian demonology has pro­ duced an extensive literature that can only be summed up here,12 Jewish demonology has been attributed to the Jpopula1ity of apocalyptic litera­ ture which, with conversion, also became the intellectual property of the early Christian community. The apocryplhal Book of Erwch treated good and wicked angels, unclean spi1its, divine punishment through the medium of Satan, and idolatry. To this demonology the early Fathers, from Justin Martyr to St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, made ' their own distinctive contributions. Justin particularly gave shape and identity to the demons and explained their powers ,over humans:

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The Transformations of the Magus

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They afterwards subdued the human race to themselves partly by magical writings, and partly by fears and the punishments they occasioned, and partly by teaching them to offer sacrifices and incense and libations, of which things they stood in need after they were enslaved by lustful passions. 13

Here the magical arts, already under attack on other grounds by early Christian writers, are explicitly identified as one of the means by which demons extended their power over humans. The human race, therefore, was particularly prone to demonic inter- . ference, deceit, and temptation, and in early Christian baptisms dissocia­ / tion of the catechumen from .-the world of demons was dramatically underlined and emphasized. In addition to this theoretical and prac­ tical demonology, other aspects of early Christian life also contributed both to the concept of Satan and to the condemnation of magic. The idea of the Antichrist, a human born either of Satan's union with a human woman or from a human union presided over by Satan, appears in the Didache apostolorum and in the writings of a number of Fathers, , including St. Ambrose. The association of the Antichrist with Satan is t\ parallelled by his association with magia. However the Antichrist is to be born, all . writers agree that he will be raised by magicians and use their deceits to attract other humans to him. The legend of Antichrist was rooted in apocalyptic w1itings, including the Book of Revelations, but, as Norman Cohn and others have shown, it received its fullest development in the Sybilline writings, particularly the Tihurtina and the · / Pseudo-Methodius . ' These traditions were conveyed to later medieval Europe in Adso's Lihellus de Antichristo, w1itten around the middle of the tenth century: 14

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Antichrist will have magicians, criminals, soothsayers, and wizards, who, with 'L'the devil's inspiration, will bring him up and instruct him in every iniquity, trickery, and wicked art. And evil spirits will be his leaders and eternal friends and inseparable comrades. ,r.

Antichrist's illusions and deceits specifically will make people believe that he is their leader. The association of the figure of Antichrist of with L those of the magicians contributed to reinforcing the uniform hostility of early Christianity to what was universaJly denounced as magic. The figure of Simon Magus_also played a prominent role in the shaping of Christian attitu -estoward magic. In some ways, he is the classic test l�gure for the Christian sense of the difference between the powers of (!he pagan gods and the power of the true God. Simon, a magus himself, , converted to Christianity and asked to purchase the magical powers of the Apostles for his own benefit. Although he later became the arch­ heretic in the reform movements of the eleventh and twelfth centuries

T'he Transformations of the Magus

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and as the "St. Simon" of later medieval anticlerical satire, his career and its end offer a sharp picture of the Christian sense of the difference between real miracles and the deceits and demonic connections of the magi. Justin Martyr makes it clear that Simon performed his magical feats through the power of the demon oru�raJing in hirri..,,Jn the apocryphal Acts of Peter, Simon Magus confronts St. Peter and proves the power of his gods by flying ( which the commentators all agree was done by the .j power of the demons ). By invoking the name of God against the demons who support Simon Magus, St. Peter makes him fall to the ground de­ feated. There is perhaps no better example in early Christian literature of the Christian distinction between true miracles and the magical arts 111 \tlpracticed by those deceived by Satan. Like the encounter between St. Paul and Elymas, that between St. Pete1r and Simon Magus was, in part at least, a Christian attempt to distinguish between the demonic magic that enveloped the pagan world ( and of which Christians themselves ad been accused) and the true power of the Ch1istian god, revealed · � L;_hrough his humble, simple, pious servants, not through wicked magJ.