1879 [rydberg] magic of the middle ages

7/28/2019 1879 [Rydberg] Magic of the Middle Ages

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Copyright 1879,BY

Henry Holt & Co

BIUGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSTITPROVO, fJTABr


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CONTENTSPAGE.

I. The Cosmic Philosophy of the Middle Ages,AND ITS HiSTOBICAL DEVELOPMENT .... 1

II. The Magic of the Church ,5&"S IIII. The Magic of the Learned 95IV. The Magic of the People and the Struggle

of the Church against it 158


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THE COSMIC PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES,AND ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT.INTRODUCTORY.

It was the belief of Europe during theMiddle Ages, that our globe was the centreof the universe.The earth, itself fixed and immovable, was

encompassed by ten heavens successively en-circling one another, and all of these exceptthe highest in constant rotation about theircentre.

This highest and immovable heaven, envel-oping all the others and constituting theboundary between created things and thevoid, infinite space beyond, is the Empyrean,the heaven of fire, named also by the Platon-izing philosophers the world of archetypes.Here ^4n a light which no one can enter,''God in triune majesty is sitting on his throne,while the tones of harmony from the nine


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2 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES,revolving heavens beneath ascend to him,hke a hymn of glory from the miiverseto its Creator.Next in order below the Empyrean is the

heaven of crystal, or the sphere of the firstmovable {primiiin mobile). Beneath this re-volves the heaven of fixed stars, which, formedfrom the most subtile elements in the mii-verse, are devoid of weight. If now an angelwere imagined to descend from this heavenstraight to earth, the centre, wdiere thecoarsest particles of creation are collected,he would still sink through seven vaultedspaces, which form the planetary w^orld. Inthe first of these remaining heavens is foundthe planet Saturn, in the second Jupiter,in the third Mars; to the fourth and middleheaven belongs the Sun, queen of the planets,while in the remaining three are the pathsof Venus, Mercury, and finally the moon,measuring time with its waning and increas-ing disk. Beneath this heaven of the moonis the enveloping atmosphere of the earth,and earth itself with its lands aud seas.


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MEDIEVAL COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. 3There are four prime elements in the struct-

m^e of the universe: fire, air, water and earth.Every thing existing in the material world isa peculiar compound of these elements, andpossesses as such an energy of its own; butmatter in itself is devoid of quality and force.All power is spiritual, and flows from a spir-itual source,from God, and is communicatedto the earth and the heavens above the earthand all things in them, by spiritual agents,personal but bodiless. These beings fill theuniverse. Even the prime elements derivetheir energy from them. They are called in-telligences or angels; and the primum mobileas well as the heaven of fixed stars is heldin motion by them. The planets are guidedin their orbits by angels. *^ All the energiesof plants, metals, stones and all other objects,are derived from those intelligences whomGod has ordained to be the guardians andleaders of his works. '^* ^'God, as the sourceand end of all power, lends the seal of ideas

* HenriCTis Cornelius Agrippa ab Nettesheim : "De occultaPhilosophia."I., xin.


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4 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.to his ministering spirits, who, faithfully exe-cuting his divine will, stamp with a vital en-ergy all things committed to their care/'"^No inevitable causation is admitted. Every

thing is produced by the will of God, andupheld by it. The laws of nature are noth-ing but the precepts in accordance with whichthe angels execute their charge. They obeyfrom love and fear; but should they in a re-fractory spirit transgress the given command-ments, or cease their activity, which theyhave the power to do, then the order of na-ture would be changed, and the great mech-anism of the universe fall asunder, unless Godsaw fit to interpose. ''Sometimes God sus-pends their agency, and is himself the imme-diate actor everywhere; or he gives unusualcommandments to his angels, and then theiroperations are called miracles. ^^fA knowledge of the nature of things isconsequently in the main a knowledge of the

* Henricus Cornelius Agrippa ab Nettesheim : *De occultaPhilosophia."I., xni.

t Ibidem,


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MEDIAEVAL COSMIC PHILOSOPHY, 5angels. Their innumerable hosts form ninechoirs or orders, divided into three hierar-chies, corresponding to the three worlds : theempyreal, that of the revolving heavens, andthe terrestrial. The orders of Seraphim, Cher-ubim and Thrones which constitute the firsthierarchy, are nearest God. They surroundhis throne like a train of attendants, re-joice in the light of his countenance, feel theabundant inspiration of his wisdom, love andpower, and chant eternal praises to his glory.The order of the Thrones, which is the lowestin this empyreal hierarchy, proclaims God swill to the middle hierarchy, to which is giventhe rule of the movable heavens. It is theorder of Dominion which thus receives thecommands of God ; that of Power, whichguides the stars and planets in their orbits,and brings to pass all other celestial phenom-ena, carries them into execution, while athird of Empire wards off every thing whichcould interfere with their accomplishment.The third and lowest hierarchy, embracing theorders of Principalities, Archangels and An-


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6 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.gels, holds supremacy over terrestrial things.Principalities, as the name implies, are theguardian spirits of nations and kingdomsArchangels protect religion, and bear theprayers of saints on high to the throne ofGod; Angels, finally, have the care of everymortal, and impart to beasts, plants, stonesand metals their peculiar nature. Togetherthese hierarchies and orders form a continu-ous chain of intermingling activities, and thusthe structure of the universe resembles a Ja-cob's ladder, upon which

** Celestial powers, monnting and descending,Their golden buckets ceaseless interchange."

All terrestrial things are images of the celestial; and all celestial have their archetypesin the Empyrean. Things on earth are com-posed of the coarsest of all matter; thingsin the surrounding heavens of a finer sub-stance, accessible to the influence of intel-ligences. Archetypes are immaterial; and assuch ma^' be filled without resistance withspiritual forces, and give of their plenitude to


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8 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.adorned with all the beauty of a paradise,and angels gazed from heaven with delightupon its vales and mountains, its lakes andgroves, which in changing lights and shadowsshone now with the purple of morning, nowwith the gold of the sun, and again with thesilver of the moon. And this place of hab-itation explains symbolically by its very posi-tion the destiny of man and his place in thekingdom of God; for wherever he wanders,the zenith still lingers over his head, and allthe revolving heavens have his habitation fortheir centre. The dance of the stars is but afete in honor of him, the sun and moon existbut to shine upon his pathway and fill hisheart with gladness.The first human beings lived in this their

paradise in a state of highest happiness. Theirwill was undepraved; their understanding filledwith the immediate hght of intuition. Oftenwhen the angel of the sun sank with hisgleaming orb towards the horizon and ''daywas growing cool,'' God himself descendedfrom his Empyrean to wander under the love-


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MEDIEVAL COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. 9ly trees of paradise, in the company of hisfavored ones.The world was an unbroken harmony.

There was, to be sure, a contrast betweenspirit and matter, but as yet none betweengood and evil. It was not long to remainthus.

Lucifer, that is the Light-bringer, or Morn-ing Star, was the highest of all angels, theprince of seraphim, the favorite of the Cre-ator, and in purity, majesty and power in-ferior only to the Holy Trinity. Pride andenvy took possession, it is not known how,of this mighty spirit. He conceived the planof overthrowing the power of God, and seat-ing himself upon the throne of Omnipotence.Angels of all orders were won over to histreason. At the first beck of the recklessspirit numberless intelhgences from the lowerheavens and from earth assailed the Empy-rean and joined themselves to the rebelliousseraphim, cherubim and thrones who hadflocked to the standard of revolt. In heavenraged a mighty contest, the vicissitudes of


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10 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.which are covered by the veil of mystery.St. John, however, in his Book of Revela-tion, lifts a single fold of it, and shows usMichael at the head of the legions of Godbattling against Lucifer. The contest endedwith the overthrow of the rebel and his fol-lowers. The beautiful Morning Star fell fromheaven.* Christ beheld the once faithful ser-aph hurled from its ramparts like a thunder-bolt from the clouds.

The conquered was not annihilated. Calmin the consciousness of omnipotence, God in-scrutably determined that Lucifer, changedby his rebellion into a spirit wholly evil,should enjoy liberty of action within certainlimits. The activity of the fallen spirit con-sists in desperate and incessant warfare againstGod; and he gains in the beginning a victo-ry of immeasurable consequence. He temptsman, and brings him under his dominion.

* This passage, directed against the ruler of Assyria, was al-ready interpreted by the early fathers as having reference toSatan. Thus Lucifer, the Latin translation for Morning Star,came to be a name for the prince of darkness.

t Luke X. 18.


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MEDIALVAL COSMIC PHILOSOPHY, \\Humanity, as well as the beautiful earthwhich is its abode, is under the curse ofGod.The world is no longer an unbroken har-

mony, a moral unity. It is divided foreverinto two antagonistic kingdoms, those of Goodand Evil. That God so wills, and permitsthe inevitable consequences, is confirmed byan immediate change in the structure of theuniverse. Death is sent forth commissionedto destroy all life. Hell opens its jaws inthe once peaceful realms of earth's bosom,and is filled with a fire which burns everything, but consumes nothing.

The battle-field is the whole creation ex-cept the spaces of the Empyrean; for into itspure domain nothing corrupt can enter. Lu-cifer still adheres to his claims upon its throne,and in every thing seeks to imitate God. Thefallen seraphim, cherubim and thrones consti-tute his princely retinue and his council ofwar. The rebel intelhgences of the middlehierarchy, now transformed into demons, stilllove to rove among the same stars and plan-


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MEDIEVAL COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. 13an angel of light, his demons can entice witha voice which counterfeits that of God andconscience. Man^s will has no power to re-sist these temptations; it is depraved by thefall. Reason gives no guidance; darkened onaccount of man^s apostasy, it degenerates, ifleft to itself, into a Satanic instrument ofheresy and error. Feeling is in subjection tomatter, which, already from the beginningopposed to spirit, shares the curse. Is itthen to be wondered at that the career ofman, beginning with conception in a sinfulwomb, has for its end, behind the portals ofdeath, the eternal torments of a hell? Allthese myriads of souls created by God andclothed in garments of clay,all these mi-crocosms, each of which is a master-piece, theglory of creation, a being of infinite value,form, link by link, a chain extending fromthat nothingness out of which God has cre-ated them, to that abyss in which, after abrief life on earth, they must be tormentedthrough countless ages, despairing and curs-ing their Creator.


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14 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES,Lucifer triumphs. His kingdom increases;but the poor mortal has no right to complain.

The vessel must not blame the potter. Whenman looks into his own heart he discovers asinfulness and depravity as infinite as are hispunishments. However severe the law of theuniverse appears, it still bears the impress ofdivine justice.

It is, therefore, but an act of pure grace,when God determines the salvation of man-kind. The Church, prepared for by the elec-tion of the Jewish people, and founded byJesus Christ the Son of God, who offeredhimself for crucifixion to atone for the sinsof men, has grown up and disseminated itsinfluences throughout regions where once de-mons, the gods of the heathen, possessedtemples, idols and altars. The Church is themagic circle within which alone is salvationpossible {Extra ecdesiam nullus salus). With-in her walls the Son of God offers himselfdaily as a sacrifice for the transgressions ofhumanity; the Communion wine is by a mir-acle changed into his blood, and the bread


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MEDIEVAL COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. 15into his flesh, which, eaten by the membersof the Church, promote their growth in hoh-ness and their power of resistance to tlieTempter. The Churcli is one body, anima-ted by tlie Holy Spirit of God; and thus onemember compensated by surplus of virtuefor the deficiencies of another. Holy men,resigning all sensual delights, and devotingtheir lives to the practice of penance and se-verities, the contemplation of spiritual things,and doing good, accumulate thereby a wealthof supererogatory works, which, deposited inthe treasury of the Church, enables her tocompound for the sins of less self-denyingmembers. With liberal hand she grants re-mission of sins not to the living merely, butalso to the dead. Thus the race of men maybreathe more freely, and the multitude attachthemselves again to the transient joys andpleasures of a wretched life on earth; andwhen a mortal plucks the flowers of pleasurewhich bloom in this vale of sorrows, he neednot fear so much its hidden poison, for theremedy is near at hand. The knight in the


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16 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.castle yonder on the summit of the crag, orthe burgher beneath him in the valley, mayAvithout scruple take a wife, rear children andlive in conviviality according to his means;the happy student may sing and realize his'' Gaudeamus igitur''^] the undaunted soldiermay seek a recompense for the hardships ofhis campaign by a merry life in taverns andin women^s company; even the followers ofMary Magdalene, sinning in expectation ofgrace, may obtain at the feet of the Churchthe same absolution which was given to theirmodel at the feet of Jesus, provided onlythat, grateful for the mercy of Christ, whohas made them members of his Church, theyvenerate it as their mother, partake of itssacraments, and seek its aid. The continu-ally increasing number of cloisters, the homesof rigorous self-denial, uninterrupted penance,and mysterious contemplation, is a guaranteeof the inexhaustibleness of those works ofsupererogation which the Church possesses.In these cloisters young maidens, who haveconsecrated themselves to Christ after a spirit-


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MEDIALVAL COSMIC PHIIOSOPHY, 17ual embrace for which the most intense im-pulses of their nature have been suppressed,5^earn away their hves. Here in prayer andtoil the pious recluse spends his days andnights. Those men also who, going forthbarefooted, covered with coarse mantles, andwearing ropes about their waists, devotethemselves like the apostles to poverty andthe preaching of the gospel, who receive char-ity at the door of the layman, giving him inexchange the food of the word of God,these all issue from the same cloisters.

Thus is the Church a mole against the tideof Sin. The Christian has some reason to ex-claim: ^^ hell, where is thy victory? '' for al-though the place of torment is continuallyfilled with lost spirits, there are thousandsupon thousands of ransomed souls that wingtheir flight to the Empyrean,whether im-mediately or by the way of Purgatory. Firstamong the beatified who mingling with an-gels surround the throne of God, are thosecalled saints. Their intercession is more effi-cacious even than that of seraphim, and their


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18 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

power in the contest against the demons sur-passes that of cherubim. Therefore king-doms, communities, orders, corporations andguilds, yea, even lawless and disreputableprofessions (so needing grace and interces-sion more than others) have their patronsaints. The individual finally is protected bythe saint in whose name he has been baptized.

The Church is the kingdom of God onearth; her ecclesiastical hierarchy is an im-age of the heavenly; her highest ruler, thePope, is God's vicar. Her destiny, which isextension over the whole earth so as to includeall lands and nations within her magic circle,could not be realized unless she possessedthe power to command the kings and armiesof Christendom. It is evident, moreover, thatspiritual power is above secular: the formerprotects the soul, the latter the body only.They stand related to one another as spirit isrelated to matter. Therefore it must be thePope who shall invest with the highest secu-lar dignity,that of the Roman Csesars. Heis the feudal lord of the emperors, as the em-


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22 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES,

The world grows worse. The Church canpardon sm, but can not hmder its increase.Every generation inherits from the precedinga burden of evil dispositions, habits and ex-amples, which it lays in its turn still heavieron the shoulders of posterity. Every sonhas better reason for sighing than his father.^'Happ3^ those who died ere beholding thelight of day ! who tasted death ere the ex-perience of life ! ^^ "^ The hosts of Satan assailthe Church on every side. From his towerthe watchman of Zion looks out over theworld, and beholds the billows of history,now lashed fiercely by the demons, rollagainst the rock upon which Christ hasbuilt his temple. With great difficulty thecross-adorned hosts of Europe repel the in-vasion of the Saracens, whose coming hasbeen prefigured by pestilences and portents.The emblem of the Church is an ark tossedabout on a stormy sea amid a tempest of

* '*De Contemptu Mundi sive de Miseria Humanae Condi-tionis," a little book written about 1200, by the afterwardsPope Innocent III.


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MEDIAEVAL COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. 25unforeseen accidents, occurring daily, are butthe deviFs thumps and strokes which he inflictsupon us from sheerest malice/^ "^ Still more:the demon is able to take possession so thor-oughly of the human body that he becomes,as it were, its second soul, moves its limbs,utters blasphemies with its tongue at whicheven their fiendish author can not but tremble.But though the God-fearing man, like piousJob, is benefited by such afflictions, and al-though prayer is a powerful refuge, still thereis a continually growing number of those who,driven by cowardly dread of the might of thePrince of Evil, seek their safety in a leaguewith him; so much the more as he lends thema partial control of the elements, and thus ameans of employment and of doing harm toothers. Thus the dire pestilence of sorcerymultiplies its victims; and in the black hoursof midnight hundreds of thousands who bearthe name of Christian, on mountains and in

* The words of Luther, who, in addition to his dualistichelief, was a genuine son of this same Middle Age, thoughthe destroyer of its autocratic faith.


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MEDIEVAL COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. 27from the dross. The kingdom of the devilcontinues to exist, and its prey is its own forevermore. But it exists thus only because aneternal existence means an eternal punish-ment for its ruler as well as for his subjects.From the new heavens and the new earthwhich the fiat of God has created to be thedwelling-place of those who have escaped de-struction, these ransomed spirits perceive thegnashing of teeth and lamentation of theirdoomed brethren, and look down upon theirtortures and misery, not with compassion butwith joy, because they recognize in their pun-ishment the vindication of divine justice; notwith pain but delight, because the sight oftheir wretchedness doubles their own felicity.From the depths of that gulf of misery ascendwithout ceasing, to the Empyrean, cries of de-spair, blasphemies of defiance, and curses ofrage, yet do they not disturb the hymns whichsaints and angels sing ever around the thronespirit, althougli lie confesses that "Next to the Bible and St.Augustine I have found no book from which I have learned


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ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT, 29been laboring to unfold. Ever since the in-tellect of Christendom began to free itself inthe sixteenth century from faith by author-ity, the influence of the old views upon thevarious forms which life takes on, has beengradually declining.Many of those characteristics which sostrangely contrast the state of society in theMiddle Ages with the preceding Hellenic andthe subsequent modern European civiliza-tions, have their origin in different theoriesof the universe. It is not mere chance thatwe encounter, on the one hand, in the his-tory of Greece, so many harmonious formswith repose and tranquil joy depicted inevery lineament of their countenance, andon the other, in that of the Middle Ages, somany beings buried in deepest gloom or ex-alted in frenzied rapture, dripping with bloodfrom self-inflicted wounds, or glowing withthe fever of mystic emotionnot a merechance that the former age loves those se-rene forms and immortalizes them in its he-roic galleries, while the latter worships its


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30 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES,eccentric figures and describes them in itslegends as saintly models. It is not a mereaccident that the art of Greece mirrors abeautiful humanity, while that of the MiddleAges loves to dwell upon monstrosities andthrows itself between the extremes of awfulearnestness and wild burlesque; not an acci-dent only that the science of the Greek isrationalthat he discovers the categories inLogic, and rears a most perfect structure ofrigid demonstration in his Geometry, whilethe science of the Middle Ages on the con-trary is magic^is a doctrine of correspond-encies. Astrology, Alchemy, and Sorcery.To the Greek the universe was a harmo-

nious unity. The law of reason, veiled underthe name of fate, ruled the gods themselves.The variegated events of the myth lay faraway in the distance; they did not even warpthe imagination of the poet, when he occu-pied himself with them; still less the faith ofthe multitude, and least of all the investi-gations of the thinker. The uninterruptedsequence of events invited to contemplation.


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n^S HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. 35torious combat of the Orient against Europeis the sum of history between Cyrus andConstantine. The external events which fillthose centuries obtain their true significancewhen within and behind them one perceivesthe struggle between the two conflicting sys-tems of ideas. Like concealed chess-play-ers they move their unconscious championsagainst each other on the board of history.When Cyrus sends home the Jewish pris-

oners from the rivers of Babylon to themountains of Jerusalem, he gams for dual-ism that important flank-position on the Med-iterranean the significance of which is showncenturies after in the progress of the battle.The ^' Adversary '^ (Satan) who sometimesappears in the most recent portions of theOld Testament, written under Persian influ-ence, and plays a continually widening rolein the Rabbinical literature, is the JudaizedAhriman; the demoniacs who in the time ofChrist abounded in Palestine testify that thedemon-belief of Persian dualism had pene-trated into the imagination and feeling of the


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36 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.Jews, and there borne fruit. By the side ofthis peaceful conquest the great war-dramabetween Greece and Persia is enacted. Al-though this is not recognizedly a religiouswar, it is nevertheless Orniuzd and Ahrimanwho ^^e repelled at Marathon, Salamis andPlataea, it is the Grecian unitarianism whichis saved in these battles to develop itself, fora season undisturbed, into a radiant and beau-tiful culture. As has been shown already,magic, and belief upon authority, are the nec-essary consequences of a dualistic religion;the restriction and annihilation of free per-sonality are equally necessary consequencesof belief by authority. Can any one regard-ing the conflict which raged on the field ofMarathon, fail to recognize the clash of twospiritual opposites, two different systems ofideas, when he sees the bands of Greeks,drawn from their agorai (places for politicaldiscussion) and gymnasiums, advance cheer-fully and garlanded, but without depreciatingthe danger, to meet the innumerable hosts ofthe Orient driven on b}^ the scourge of their


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ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. 37leaders ? On the one side, a fully developedfree personality, which has its origin in a har-monious conception of nature, on the other,blind submission to external force. On theone side, liberty, on the other, despotism.One may add by the help of a logicalconclusion, though this may seem more re-moved,on the one side rationality, on theother magic.

Strengthened thus by victory Europe goesto seek the enemy in his own country. Alex-ander conquers Asia. But the new Achillesis fettered in the chains of his own slave.For while Greek culture is spreading overthe surface of the conquered countries, theOriental spirit advances beneath it in a con-trary direction. The waves of the two idealcurrents are partly mingled. In the librariesof Alexandria and Pergamus the literaturesof the Orient and of the Occident flow to-gether; in their halls meet the sages of theEast and West; in their doctrinal systemsZoroaster and Plato, fancy and speculation,magic and rationalism are blended in the


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38 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES,

most extraordinary way. The victory ofAlexander was that of the warrior, and notthat of sober Aristotle^s pupil. The Judaico-Alexandrian philosophy blooms, and gnosti-cism,that monstrous bastard of specificallydifferent cosmical systems, is already begot-ten, when Christianity springs up in Palestine,and unites itself with the Jewish dualism de-rived from Zoroaster, and thus proceeds toconquer the world by the weapons of belief.

In the mean time Rome has extended andestablished its empire. The nationalities in-cluded in it have been mingled togethertheir various gods have been carried into thesame Pantheon ; and their ideas have beenbrought face to face. The universal empire,to maintain its existence, has been forced tocentralize itself into a despotism of the Orien-tal type, the free forms of state have per-ished, philosophical skepticism, and eudemon-ism have abolished among the cultured classesthe inherited notions of religion. All this,with its accompaniments of moral depravityand material necessity, have prepared the soil


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minds, otherwise despising the myths as su-perstition, now grasp them as symbols ofhigher truths. Philosophy goes forth, in theform of Neoplatonism.But Neoplatonism has itself apostatized

from the rational and unitarian. Plotinusand Ammonius Saccas try in vain to restoreit. It only unwittingly helps its adversary,especially when, to gain the masses, it con-sents to compete with him in miracles. Jam-blichus and others practice . secret arts inorder to outrival the Christian magi, andthey glorify Pythagoras and Appollonius ofTyana as fit to rank with Jesus of Nazarethin miraculous gifts. By this they only con-tribute to the spread of magic and the prin-ciples of dualism. The current of Orientalnotions proceeds all the more rapidly on itscourse of triumph.

Christian dualism already feels itself strongenough to battle not only against its declaredenemies, but also those Occidental elements ofculture which in its beginnings it had receivedinto its bosom and which had procured its


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ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT, 41entrance among the more intelligent classes.It feels instinctively that even the schoolof thought which has sprung up within theChurch is far too unitarian and rationalisticto be tolerated in the long run. Such menas Clemens of Alexandria and Origen, whoare struck by what is external and imperish-able in Christianity, and know how to sepa-rate this from its dualistic form, fight a tragi-cal battle for the union of belief and thought.Admitting that Christ is all in all, the imme-diate power and wisdom of God, they never-theless wish to save the Hellenic philosophyfrom the destruction which a fanaticism, rev-elling in the certainty and all-sufficiency ofrevelation, directs against every expressionof an occidental culture, whether in nationallife, or art, or science. They point out thatphilosophy, if it can do nothing else that isgood, can furnish rational weapons againstthose who assail faith, and that it can andought to be the '^real wall of defence aboutthe vineyard.'' Their argument is withouteffect. Philosophy is of the devil: yea, every-


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42 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES,thing true and good in life and doctrine whichheathendom has possessed, is declared by oneof the fathers to be the imposture of Satan(ingenia diaholi quoedam de divinis affectandis)]and faith is so far independent of thoughtthat it is better to say ' ' I believe hecauseit is improbable, absurd, impossible.'^ ^ Invain the dying Clemens exclaims: '^Even ifphilosophy were of the devil, Satan coulddeceive men only in the garb of an angelof light: he must allure men by the appear-ance of truth, by the intermixture of truthand falsehood; we ought therefore to seekand recognize the truth from whatever sourceit come. . . And even this gift to the pa-gans can have been theirs only by the willof God, and must consequently be includedin the divine plan of educating humanity.

. If sin and disorder are attributable tothe devil, how absurd to make him the au-thor and giver of so good a thing as phi-losophy ! . . . , God gave the Law tothe Jews, and philosophy to the Gentiles,

* TertulUan.


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44 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.means of pomp and deceit; their divinities,as formerly the denizens of Olympus, weredegraded to evil demons. Every thing an-tecedent to their union with the Church ordisconnected with it, the old experiencesand traditions of these converted nations,all was condemned and referred to the worldof evil. The dominion of Oriental dualismin Europe was absolutely established, andthe long night of the Dark Ages had set in.Six centuries separate Proclus, the last Neo-platonican of any note, and Augustine thelast of the Fathers educated in philosophy,from Anselm the founder of scholasticismBetween them lies an expanse in whichGregory the Great and Scotus Erigena arealmost the only stars, and these by no meansof the first magnitude. ^^ There are desertsin time, as well as space/' says Bacon.When again a feeble attempt at scientific

activity was possible, the monkish scholarwas happy enough to possess a few macu-lated leaves of Aristotle, obtained, but notdirectly, from the Arabs. Upon these leaves


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ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 45he read with amazement and admiration themethod for a logical investigation. It was,for the rest, Hermes Trismegistus, DionysiusAreopagita (the translation of Scotus Eri-gena), and other such mystical works fromunknown hands, with here and there touchesof IsTeoplatonism which had been inserted bythe dreamy scholiast when in need of ma-terial for rounding out the cosmology, theprinciples of which he had found in the dog-mas of the Church.As a matter of course the Dark Ages could

not perceive, still less admit, the intimate re-lation existing between its cosmic views andthose of Zoroaster; but still a dim suspicionof it can be detected. The learned men ofthe Middle Ages ascribed to Zoroaster thefounding of the magical sciences. Sprenger(author of Malleus Malificarum, of which fa-tal work hereafter), Remigius, Jean Bodin,Delrio, and several other jurists and theolo-gians, who have acquired a sad notoriety asjudges of witch-trials, in their writings as-cribe the origin of witchcraft to Zoroaster.


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46 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.The dualistic notion was not modified after

entering Christianity, but intensified. Therehgion of Zoroaster, which presupposes agood first principle,"^ allows the evil whichhas in time arisen, in the course of time todisappear; and it ends with the doctrinewhich shines out faintly even in the NewTestament, of the final ' ' restoration of allthings'' {^d7toKaTd6Ta6t^ TtdvrGov^^ and in conse-quence reduces evil to something merely phe-nomenal. In the doctrines of the Church,however, as they were established throughthe influence of Augustine, the Manicheian,evil, though arisen in time, is made eternal.This difference is of great practical signifi-cance and explains why dualism did not bearthe same terrible fruits in its home in theOrient as in the Occident. The awful sepa-ration and contrast with which the divinacomedia of the Middle Ages ends,the wailsand curses that arise from hell to intensify the

* This has been denied in so far as the original teachingsof Zoroaster arc concerned, but is confirmed by a passage inAristotle (Metaphys., I., xiv., c. 4).

J


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ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. 47bliss of the redeemed,form a conception sorevolting that it could not be incorporatedwith thought and feeling without renderingthem savage. Compassion, benevolence, love,those qualities through which man feels akinship with the divine, lose their significanceand are despoiled of their eternal seal, whenthey are found no longer in his Maker ex-cept as limited or rather suspended by theaction of another quality which the pious manwill force himself to call justice, but whichan irrepressible voice from the innermost re-cesses of his soul calls cruelty. To this mustbe added a further important consideration.The servant of Ormuzd is no more the prop-erty of the devil than the earth he treadsupon. To be sure he is surrounded on everyside by the treachery of Ahriman and all thedemons, but this only because he is calledand already endowed with power to be thechampion of the Good upon the earth. It isas such that he is placed in the tumult of thebattle. The power for good once imparted tohim, and constantly renewed through prayer,


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48 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.is withal also his own; he may use it with-out losing himself in the perplexing ques-tion where liberty ceases and grace begins.Every one adhering to the doctrine of lightstands on his own feet. This is true of everyservant of Ormuzd; Zoroaster has made inthis respect no distinction between priest andlayman. Even belief upon authority, in it-self an encroachment upon free personality,preserves for it in this form of religion a freeand inviolable arena.

In the Church of the Middle Ages the caseis different, and it cannot be presented betterthan in the following words of the Neo-Lu-theran Vilmar, when he would preserve ab-solutely to the clergy ^Hhe power to keepthe congregation together by the word, thesacraments and ecclesiastical authority, thepower to cleave the head of sin with a singleword, the power to descend into a soul inwhich the enemy has spread the gloom ofinsanity and force the defiant knees of themaniac to bend and his frenzied fists to foldin prayer, yea, the power [here we have the


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ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. 49climax, which is rather tame after the fore-going] to descend into a soul in which theancient enemy has established his abode, andthere fight the insolent giant from the realmsof darkness face to face and eye to eye. Allthis ''continues Vilmar, himself not unlikea frantic conjurer wishing to summon theghost of the Dark Ages from its grave "' allthis is not in the power of the congregationnor of the ministry, who are not endowedwith the requisite authority, commission,mandate and power. The congregation [i. e.,the laymen) is not able to look into the furi-ous eyes of the devil; for what is prophesiedof the last days, that even the elect, wereit possible, should be seduced, applies withgreater force to the especial apparition of Sa-tan in this world : before it the congregationis scattered like flakes of snow, not seducedbut terrified to death. Only we (the clergy)are unterrified and fearless; for he who hasrejected the prince of this world has placedus before the awful serpent-eye of the arch-fiend, before his blasphemous and scornful


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50 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES,mouth, before his infernally distorted face/^"^These words from the pen of a fanatical du-alist of our own time well represent, as in-dicated above, the commonly received viewsof the Middle Ages; and it is not therefore tobe wondered at that the mediaeval genera-tions, surrendering personality, threw them-selves precipitately, in order to be saved, intothe arms of the magical institution of deliver-ance. The phenomena which are delineatedin the following pages will not seem so ar-bitrary and strange after this introductoryglance at the middle-age philosophy, as theymight otherwise at first sight. Even they area product of an inner necessity. Were it pos-sibleand deplorable attempts are not want-ingto revive in the thoughts, feelings andimagination of humanity the dogmas of medi-aeval times, we should then witness a partialre-enactment of their terrible scenes. To de-pict them has not only a purely historic inter-est, but a cautionary and practical as well.

* A. F. Ch. Vilmar: "Theologie der Tliatsaclieii wider dieTheologie der Rhetorik" (Marburg, 1857).


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52 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.things,* and in a vague assurance of thepower of the will and of words, establishesthis connection freely by means of arbitra-ry associations between incongruous objects.Man engaged in a struggle for physical exist-ence, aims in it less at theoretical . y?:7?.(9z(;m^than at practical l)eing able. The knowledgeof mysteries will furnish means of becomingacceptable to his God, inaccessible to injuriousinfluences, and master of his present and fu-ture existence and destiny.The magical usages which exist among

every people, present an almost infinite va-riety of forms. In the end, however, theycan all be reduced to a single type.

Daily experience has taught that there ex-ists between every cause and its effect a cer-tain proportionate amount of force. Nowsince the effect aimed at in resorting to mag-ic is of an extraordinary nature, the meanswhich the magical art prescribes must possess

* Thus, for instance, the red lustre of copper was supposed toindicate that it was connected with Mars, which shines with areddish light.


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. 53extraordinary efficacy, such as reason can pre-dict for it neither a priori nor by inductivereasoning. Furthermore, experience teachesus that will, as a mere inert desire, not yetexpressed in action, does not attain its goal.Magical power therefore can not be soughtfor in the mere will as such, but action, thatworking of the senses which the will employsas a means, in which it reveals itself, must beadded, whether the force of this sense-means,as the original magic supposes, depends onits mystical but necessary connection with itscorresponding object in a higher sphere (forexample, the connection between the metalsand the planets), or as in the Church-magic,on an arbitrary decision of God, ordainingthat a given means, employed as prescribedby him, shall produce an effect inconceivableby reason. In all employment of magic en-ter consequently, first, the subjective spir-itual factor,the will (in the language ofthe Church, faith); secondly, the sensuousmeans,the fetich, the amulet, the holy wa-ter, the host, the formula of exorcism, the


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54 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.ceremony, etc.; and thirdly, the incompre-hensible (''supernatural'') power which thismeans, appropriated by the will (or faith),possesses in the magical act.A belief in magic is found among all na-tions. With those of unitarian views it wasdestined to be forced more and more into thebackground by the growth of speculation andnatural science. With them there was alsobut one form of magic, although those inpossession of its secret were considered ableto exercise it for a useful or an injurious pur-pose alike. Only among nations holding du-alistic views do we meet with magic in twoforms: with the priests a white and a hlack^the former as the good gift of Orniuzd, thelatter as the evil gift of Ahriman; with theChristians of the Middle Ages a celestial magicand a diabolical^the former a privilege ofthe Church and conferred by God as a weap-on to aid in the conquest of Satan; the latteran infernal art to further unbelief and wick-edness. Under a unitarian theory magic isonly a preparation for natural philosophy and


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH 55gradually gives place to it, until it is confinedto the lowest classes as a relic of a past stageof development. The dualistic religious sys-tems, on the contrary, blend in an intimateunion with magic, give to it the same uni-versally and eternally valid power which theyascribe to themselves, and place it on theirown throne in the form of a divine and sacra-mental secret. Only thus can faith in magicstamp whole ages and periods of culture withits peculiar seal; only thusafter its separa-tion into celestial and diabolical, and in thatcausal relation to the temporal or eternalweal or woe of man in which it is placeddoes it become possessed of an absolute sov-ereignty over the imagination and emotions ofa people.Our consideration of the middle-age magic

may commence with a description of the ce-lestial or privileged magic, that is to say, tliatof the Chirch; in order that we may proceedin natural order to the ill-reputed magic ofthe learned (astrology, alchemy, sorcery), andthe persecuted popular magic (in which the


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Church saw the really diabolical form); andend with an account of the terrible catastro-phe which was caused by the contest whichraged between them.

It is not the fault of the writer if thereader finds in the magic of the Church acaricature of what is holy, in which the comi-cal element is overbalanced by the repulsive.The more objective the representation is tobe made, the more unpleasant its features be-come. We will, then, be brief.

Like a thoughtful mother the Church cher-ishes and cares for man, and surrounds himfrom the cradle to the grave with its safe-guards of magic. Shortly after the birth ofa child the priest must be ready to sprinkleit with holy water, which by prayer and con-juration has been purified from the pollutionof the demons inhabiting even this element.For the feeble being begotten in sin and bynature Lucifer^s property, without the grace


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. 57of baptism, would be eternally lost to heaven,and eternally doomed to the torments ofhell.i

Therefore more than one conscientious ser-vant of the Church essayed to devise somemeans by which the saving water might bebrought in contact with the child before itsaw the light. Still this precautionary meas-ure never became officially adopted. The ef-ficacy of the baptismal water exceeds thatof the pool Bethesda, which removed onlybodily infirmities. Baptism saves millions ofsouls from hell. Foreseeing this the devil,filled with evil devices, had determined, al-ready before the rise of Christianity, to de-base and scorn this sacrament by making, inanticipation, a copy of it in the Mithras mys-

^ "Non baptisatis parvulis nemo promittat inter damnation-em regnumque coelorum quietis vel felicitatis cujuslibet atquenbilibet quasi medium locum; hoc enim eis etiam haeresis Pe-lagiana promisit" (Augustinus: De Anima et Ejus Origine, 1. I.,c. ix). In one of bis letters Augustine declares that even if theparents hurry to the priest, and he likewise hasten to baptize thechild, but find it dead before it has obtained the sacrament, it isnevertheless then doomed to be eternally tormented with thedamned, and to blaspheme the name of God.


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH 59As baptism is the first saving and sanc-

tifying sacrament offered to man, so theunction with holy oil which is administeredto the dying, is the last. Between themthe eucharist is a perennial source of powerand sanctification, the eucharist in which^' Bread and wine, placed upon the altar,after performed consecration, are God^s trueflesh and blood, which flesh perceptibly tothe senses {sensualiter) is touched by thehands of the priest and masticated by theteeth of the believer/' ^ When the priesthas pronounced the formula of transforma-tion, he elevates the host,^ now no longerbread but the body of Christ, the congrega-tion kneels and the ringing of bells proclaimsto the neighborhood that the greatest of allthe works of magic is accomplished. Eatenby the faithful, the flesh of Christ enters intotheir own flesh and blood and wonderfully

3 Extract from the formula given at the council of Eome,A. D. 1059, to Berengar of Tours, to which he was forced toswear under penalty of death.

4 The wafer substituted in the twelfth century for bread wascalled the host.


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. Glsecrated bread had taken, before a doubtingwoman, the shape of Christ's bleeding finger.A pious hermit who began to be afflicted bythe same doubt, regained his faith when atthe Communion he saw an angel apply theknife to an infant Jesus, at the very momentthe priest broke the bread. There is muchin the legends and chronicles about Jewswho having secretly procured the host, and,to be revenged upon Christ, proceeding topierce it with a knife, saw the blood streamforth in abundance ; sometimes, indeed, abeautiful bleeding boy suddenly revealinghimself. Such stories being freely circulated,led to severe persecutions (as in Namur,1320).^

6 During the period of political reaction in 1815, when Schle-gel and de Maistre praised the Middle Ages as man's era ofbliss, and Gdrres sought to restore to credence during the"state period of enlightenment" all the forgotten ghost andvampire stories, the clergy of Brussels were celebrating withprocessions and other solemnities the anniversary of this per-secution of the Jews in Namur.At the synod in a. d. 1099 a proclamation was issued forbid-

ding priests to enter into any servile relations with laymen, be-cause it were shameful if the most holy hands which prepared


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62 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.If the eucharist is a partaking of foodwhich strengthens the faithful in their strug-

gle against sin, the sign of the cross is to beconsidered as his sword, and the sacred amuletas his armor. The cross is the sign in whichthe Christian shall conquer. \^' In hoc signovincesy'\ With it he must commence everyact; with it he repels every attack of thedemons. ^^He who wishes to be convincedconcerning this,'^ says St. Athanasius, ^' needsonly to make the sign of the cross, whichhas become so ridiculous to the pagans, be-fore the mocking delusions of the demons,the deceits of the oracles and the magi; andimmediately he shall see the devil flee, theoracles confounded and all magic and sorceryrevenged.'' The amulets employed by theChurch are various: medals bearing the im-age of Mary, consecrated images, especiallythe flesh and blood of Almighty God should serve the uncon-secrated laity. The famous orator Bourdalone requested thatgreater homage should be paid to the priest than to the holyVirgin, because God had been incarnated in her bosom onlyonce, but was in the hands of the priest daily, as often as themass was read.


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH 63the so-called lambs of God*^ (agnus Dei), themanufacture and sale of which a papal bullof 1471 reserves for the head of the RomanChurch. If these bring the clergy immensesums of money, they also possess great

7 The oldest Cliristian art in wMcli the dying spirit of antiq-uity yet reveals itself, represented Jesus as a shepherd youthcarrying a lamb upon his bosom. Many a one could only turnaway sadly from the beaming world of Olympus to the newChristian ideal, and when they must needs so do, they wouldfain transfer to the new ''puer redemptor" the mild beautyof the former youthful mediator, Dionysus Zagreus. In thehymns, still preserved to us, of Synesius, who combined inone person the bishop and the Greek who still longs for wis-dom and beauty (doubtless known to many of our readers byKingsley's novel of Hypatia), this sadness is in wonderful har-mony with Christian devotion. With the ruin of the antiqueworld, this longing as well as the capability of satisfying itceased. The material symbol obtained thereafter a more prom-inent place. If the Phoenicians and Canaanites representedtheir god corporeally as the powerful steer, the Christians chosethe patient and inoifensive lamb as the type of theirs. TheCouncil of Constantinople in a. d. 692 confirmed this lamb-sym-bol. As Aaron had made a golden calf, Pope Sergius III. pro-cured a lamb to be made of gold and ivory. All who rebelledagainst its worship were treated as disorderly and heretical. Inthe time of Charlemagne one of them, Bishop Claudius of Turin,from whom the Waldenses derive their origin, complained: ''Istiperversorum dogmatum audores agnos vivos volunt vorare et inpariete pidos adorare,''


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66 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.mA \Ximy} mxtU tst thy feindn^^^, m& M^\ tm^ the(!50^l)d 0f thu ^m U U mxiitxi bi) i\\t txmi^tWîând \x\m\\t^, Wn (iîp trf the n*0^;ei !) mxA UM\\i\\^{^x%\i 0f th^ txH^\) iW xm^x ttot thM x^^xtx\, mayft^ mitd^ fen0wn mxU xx\xxx\mtux ^m\ ^toU teav xxxWxhim thi;^ isiKt'^d thiwfl mA i\xm holu lett^r^; und i\x\xihU |r^t*^^tuti0n^ Hflainj^t him fr0m Wxt Atxxl rnxH hyi\it i$it0m^ 0f âtetuc ivitthtvaft may h^ fru^tat^dthr0U0b fflhvi.^Jt mx "^t^xL ^vxn.

''{Wxt \m)^tx its "tit îmttfeM with h0liu xxixUx.Y^

With the amulets and these conception-bil-lets belong also in the armory of the Church,the wonder-working relics, and images of thesaints. God has ordained graciously that theChurch shall not give up its battle againstthe powers of sin for want of weapons. Its of-fensive and defensive appliances are manifold.Its warriors, the priests, are like knights en-cased in mail from head to foot, and armedwith lance, sword, dagger and morning star.Almost every district has its treasure of rehcs,which, preserved in shrines and exhibited onsolemn occasions to the pious people, consti-tutes its palladium, impedes or prevents theattack of hostile forces, and assuages or averts


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. 67the ravages of plagues. Not only corporealrelics of saints and martyrs, but also everything they may have touched during theirlifetime, yea, even the very dew-drops upontheir graves, are a terror to the fiends and ameans of spiritual and bodily strength untothe faithful. The miraculous properties ofthe images are recounted in a hundred le-gends. By the direct agency of divine power,there exists uninterruptedly betw^een themand the persons they represent a mysticalrelation. Upon this St. Hieronymus throwssome light when he exclaims against Vigilan-tius, who had blindly opposed the worship ofimages: ^^You dare prescribe laws to God!You presume to put the apostles in chains sothat they are kept even to the Day of Judg-ment in their prison, and are denied the priv-ilege of being with their Lord, although it iswritten that they shall be with Him whereverthey go ! If the Lamb is omnipresent, wemust believe that those who are with theLamb are omnipresent also. If the devilsand the demons rove through the world and


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68 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.by their inconceivable rapidity of motion arepresent everywhere, should then the martyrs,after shedding their blood, remain confined intheir cofl&ns and never be able to leave them ! ^^As old age and death are consequences of

Adam's fall, so are almost all ailments pro-duced by that power over man's corporealnature conceded to Satan, when God pro-nounced his curse upon the race. So alsQ arethe remaining diseases and infirmities of man,called either rightly or wrongly natural, curedwith greatest certainty by invoking the helpof Grod. Therefore the mediator between Godand men, the Church, through its servants isthe only sure and only legitimate physician.['^ Operatio sanandi est in ecclesia per verbaritus. exorcismos, aquam^ saler)i^ Jierhas^ idqiienedum contra diaholos et effectiis magicos^ sedet morhos omnesy~\ The priest effects curesin behalf of the Church and in the name ofGod by means of prayer, the laying on ofhands, exorcism, relics and consecrated natu-ral means, especially water, salt and oil. Indoing this he acts as the visible delegate of an


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. 69unseen higher physician, the saint ordained ofGod to be the healer of the sickness. Forevery affliction has its physician among theranks of the saints. St. Valentine cures epi-lepsy, St. Gervasius rheumatic pains, St. Mi-chael de Sanatis cancer and tumors, St. Judascoughs, St. Ovidius deafness, St. Sebastiancontagious fevers and poisonous bites, St.Apollonia toothache, St. Clara and St. Luciarheum in the eyes, and so on. The legendsrelate* wonderful effects of the healing powerspossessed by St. Damianus, St. Patrick andSt. Hubert. The terrible disease of hydro-phobia was cured by the last named. In thecloisters in Luxembourg named after thissaint, hydrophobia was cured many yearsafter his death by bringing the afflicted intothe church during the progress of the service,and pressing a hair from the saint's mantleinto a slight incision made for the occasion inhis forehead. For the benefit of those wholived far from the cloister, the so-called " Hu-bertus-bands '' and " Hubertus-keys ^^ wereconsecrated; these were applied, heated white-


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70 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.hot, to the woimd.^ Similar curative agen-cies might be mentioned by hmidreds.Among all afflictions, the state of being pos-

8essed by devils occupies the most remarkableplace in the annals of the Church, and is seento have required the most powerful exorcismsfor its cure. The ecclesiastical pathology de-clares that in this disease the devil is unhid-den, while in all others he is concealed. Theexorciser who is to expel the fiend appears infull priestly vesture; incense and consecratedwax tapers are lighted, all the objects sur-rounding the demoniac are sprinkled withholy water, the air around is purified by thepronunciation of certain formulas; then followfervent prayers and finally the desperate andawful struggle between the demon, now con-vulsively distorting the limbs of his victim anduttering by his lips the most harrowing blas-phemies, and the priest, who employs more

As late as 1784 a statute was issued by Carl Theodor, Electorof Pfalz, referring to tlie magic power of St. Hubert-relics, andforbidding the employment of "worldly" remedies against thebite of mad dogs.


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH 71and more powerful adjurations imtil the vic-tory finally is his.The secular medical artthat relying up-

on natural meansas either superfluous, oras strongly tainted with heresy, must be de-spised. Dissection, in order to investigatethe structure of the human body, is pre-sumption; it can even be asked with reasonif it does not argue contempt for the doc-trine of the final resurrection. The secularart of healing was consequently for a longtime confined to the infidel Jews. But whenprinces and the opulent, weakly apprehend-ing the insufficiency of the word, the relicsand the consecrated remedies, had begun tokeep physicians, the profane art of medicinebecame a lucrative profession, and schools forits cultivation were established under royalprotection. Such is that of Salerno, whichthe warders of Zion can not regard withoutsuspicion. It is a school which prescribespedantic rules for diet, as if one's diet couldprotect against the attacks of the devil ! TheGreek pagan Hippocrates, who for a long


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72 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.time wandered about with Jews and Arabs,thus finds at last a settled abode within itswalls,Hippocrates who had to assert ofdemonianism (morbus sacer) itself that it is"nowise more divine, nowise more infernal,than any other disease ! ^' When the teacheris such, what must the disciples be ? TheChurch will not forbid absolutely the prac-tice of medicine, since it may do some goodin the case of external injury, or in time ofpestilence ; but she must keep strict watchover the orthodoxy of those who cultivatethis art. At several councils (as at Rheimsin 1131, the second Lateran in 1139, and atTours, 1163) she has strenuously prohibitedher servants from having any thing to dowith this suspected profession. Experiencehas taught, however, not to exaggerate thedangers attending it. The secular physiciansmust frequently concede that such and sucha sickness is caused by witchcraft, and con-sequently is of supernatural origin. Slan-derers might allege that such a declarationis more convenient than an investigation into


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH, 73the causes of the disease in the natural way,and less unpleasant than acknowledging one^signorance. But be this as it may: the conces-sion implies a recognition of the supernatu-ralism of the Church, and may therefore berather recommended than reprehended.

''It is/' says Thomas Aquinas, "a dogmaof faith that the demons can produce wind,storms, and rain of fire from heaven. Theatmosphere is a battle-field between angelsand devils. The latter work the constant in-^jury of man, the former his melioration; andthe consequence is that changeableness ofweather which threatens to frustrate thehopes of husbandry. And when Lucifer isable to bestow even upon manon sorcerersand wizardsthe power to destroy the fields,the vineyards and dwellings of man by rain,hail and lightning, is it to be wondered at ifthe Church, which is man's protection againstthe devil, and whose especial caUing it is tofight him, should in this sphere also be hiscounterpoise, and should seek from the treas-ury of its divine power, means adequate to


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH, 77infamous lawyer named Perrodet, who haddied a few years previously, and of directinghim to plead the cause of the may-bugs withthe same diligence he had so often displayedin his lifetime in defence of vile clients. Butin spite of many summons, neither Perrodetnor his clients deigned to appear. After theexpiration of the time fixed for beginning thedefence, and when certain doubts concerningthe proper form of procedure had been re-moved, the episcopal tribunal finally gave itsverdict, which was excommunication in thename of the Holy Trinity, ''to you, accursedvermin, that are called may-bugs, and whichcan not even be counted among the animals. ''The government ordered the authorities ofthe afflicted district to report concerning thegood effects of the excommunication; ''But,^^a chronicle of the time complains, ''no eff^ectwas observed, because of our sins.''

Since any neglect of legal forms was thoughtto deprive a judgment of its magical as wellas legal power, the most scrupulous care wasexercised in the conduct of these frequently


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78 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.recurring processes against may-bugs, grass-hoppers, cabbage-worms, field-rats and othernoxious vermin. There is yet extant a de-tailed and luminous document by the learnedBartholomeus Chassanaeus (born 1480), inwhich the question if, and how, such pestsshould be proceeded against in the courts iscarefully considered: whether they should ap-pear personally or by deputy; whether theyare subject to a spiritual or a secular tribu-nal, and if the penalty of excommunicationcan be applied to them. He proves on manygrounds that the jurisdiction to which theyare accountable is the spiritual, and that theymay properly be excommunicated. Still thequestion of jurisdiction remained unsettled,and a civil prosecution of the field-rats inTyrol, 1519-20, proves among other thingsthat a secular tribunal sometimes considereditself justified in deciding such suits. Thepeasant Simon Fliss appeared before Wil-liam of Hasslingen, judge in Glurns and Mais(Ober- In -valley), as plaintiff against thefield-rats which were committing great dep-


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. 79redations in his parish. The court then ap-pointed Hans Grrinebner, a citizen of Glurns,to be the advocate of the accused, and fur-nished him, before witnesses, with the re-quisite commission. Thereupon the plain-tiff chose as his advocate Schwarz Minig, andobtained from the tribunal upon demand awarrant of authority for him likewise. Onthe day of trial, the Wednesday after St.Philip's and St. James's day, many witnesseswere examined, establishing that the ratshad caused great destruction. Schwarz Minigthen made his final plea that the noxious an-imals should be charged to withdraw frommischief, as otherwise the people of Stilfcould not pay the annual tithes to their highpatron. Grinebner, counsel for the defence,could not and would not make exception tothe testimony, but tried to convince the courtthat his clients '^enjoyed a certain right ofusufruct which could hardly be denied them.'^If the court were of another opinion and con-sidered it best to eject them, he yet hopedthey would first be granted another place


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80 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.where they could support themselves. Be-sides there should be given them at their de-parture a sufficient escort to protect themagainst their enemies, whether cat, dog, orother adversaries; and he also hoped that, ifany of the rats were pregnant, time might beallowed them to be delivered and afterwardsdepart in safety with their progeny. The de-cision was rendered in the following terms:^' After accusation and defence, after state-ment and contradiction, and after due con-sideration of all that pertains to justice, it isby this sentence determined that those nox-ious animals which are called field-rats must,within two weeks after the promulgation ofthis judgment, depart and forever remain faraloof from the fields and the meadows of Stilf.But if one or several of the animals are preg-nant, or unable on account of their youth tofollow, then shall they enjoy during furthertwo weeks safety and protection from everybody, and after these two weeks depart.^'We can form some impression of the im-mense power of prayer and exorcism when


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. 81

we consider that the influence of the will andthe idea expressed in the word co-operate inthem with the power of the word itself as amere form. For the material word, the soundcaught by the ear, the formula, as such, exer-cises a magical effect without one^s knowingits meaning. The mass of the people withtheir ignorance of the official language of theChurch and of learning, would be badly offif those ^'Paternosters'^ and ''Ave Marias, '^committed to memory without understandingthem, should be spiritually ineffectual,if theLatin mass to which the congregation listensshould be wanting in edifying and sanctifyingpower because it is not comprehended. Theformularies of the Church established at dif-ferent times and for various purposes are forthis reason of high importance and must befollowed conscientiously.^^ A single proof of

" Especially was the Church of the Middle Ages rich in awfulformularies of malediction, testifying to an enormous brutaliza-tion of thought and feeling. A single specimen of these formu-laries will be more than sufficient to illustrate:"By the might, power and authority of God, the Almighty

Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and in the name of


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82 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.their extraordinary power may be instancedhere. In the year 1532 the devil broughtinto the heavens a huge comet, which threat-the Holy Virgin the motlier of our Lord Jesus Christ, by theholy angels, archangels, St. Michael and St. John the Baptist, inthe name of the holy apostle Peter and all the apostles, in thename of the holy Stephen and all the holy martyrs, and St.Adelgunda and all the holy virgins, and of all the saints inheaven and on earth to whom power is given to bind andloose,we curse, execrate and exclude from the mother Churchthrough the bond of malediction (here follows the name of thepersons). May their children be orphaned; may they be cursedupon the field, cursed in the city, in the forest, in their housesand barns, in their chamber and their bed, in the town-hall, inthe village, on land and sea; may they be cursed in the church,in the churchyard, in the court-room, on the public square andin war; whether they be talking, sleeping, waking, eating ordrinking, whether they be going or resting, or doing any otherthing, let them be accursed in soul and body, reason and alltheir senses: cursed be their progeny, cursed be the fruit oftheir land, cursed be all their limbs, head, nose, mouth, teeth,throat, eyes, and eyelashes, brain, larynx, tongue, breast, lungs,liver, legs, and arms, skin and hair;" cursed be every thing liv-ing and moving in them from head to foot, etc. I conjure thee,Lucifer, and all your crew, by the Father, the Son and the HolyGhost, by the incarnation and birth of Christ; I conjure thee bythe power and the virtue of all saints, that thou never leave themin quiet, night or day, until thou have brought them to ruin,destroyed them by water, or led them to the gallows, or causedthem to be torn by wild beasts, or their throat to be cut by ene-mies, or their bodies to be destroyed by fire," etc., etc.


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. 83ened earth and man with drought and pesti-lence; but the pope solemnly banished theforbidding omen,and behold! in a short timeit disappeared, having day by day diminishedthrough the power of the papal anathema.What a holy word may avail by virtue of itssound [fiatiis vocis) alone, is indicated in thelegend of the tame starling, which was savedfrom the claws of the hawk just at the mo-ment its death-agony had forced from it thewords it had learned to repeat '' Ave Maria/^Upon the power of the word as its founda-

tion, rests the papal custom of consecratingbread, wine, oil, salt, tapers, water, bells,fields, meadows, houses, standards and weap-ons. ''With such abuses, such superstition,and diabolical arts was the priesthood filledduring papal ascendency ^^thus complainsan old Protestant theologian who had an eyeto that surplus of magic which the CatholicChurch possessed over and above that of theLutheran, but who was blind to the com-mon welfare''and therefore such thingsare in vogue even among common men.


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84 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES,What was the chief thing in the mass if notthe wonder-working words of blessing, whenthe priest prononnced the four words or thesix syllables ^ Hoc est corpus meum'' (this ismy body) over the bread, breathed uponit, and made the sign of the cross threetimes over it, pretending that the bread wasthereby converted into the flesh of Christ?In the same way he transformed the wine inthe chalice into the blood of Christ, thoughno such power is given to syllables andwords. He bound the Holy Ghost in thewater, the salt, the oil, the tapers, the spices,the stone, wood or earth, when he conse-crated churches, altars, churchyards, whenhe blessed the meat, the eggs, and the like,and when on Easter Eve he consecrated thefire that it should do no damage (though I,God save me, have found out that our vil-lage was utterly consumed four days aftersuch consecration), when he baptized andsanctified bells that their ringing might dis-pel evil influences, quiet tempests, and thelike/'

N


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. 85

The organization of monasteries is to beregarded as the defensive system of theChurch, guarding and protecting the terri-tory it has conquered from the devil. Asthe Mongohan on his irruption into Eu-rope found innumerable steeps crowned withstrongly fortified castles, the very number ofwhich deterred from any attempt at siege,so Satan and his hosts find the Christianworld strewn with spiritual strongholds, eachof which encloses an arsenal filled withmighty weapons for offensive as well as de-fensive warfare. Every monastery has itsmaster magician, who sells agni Del, con-ception-billets, magic incense, salt and taperswhich have been consecrated on CandlemasDay, palms consecrated on Palm Sunday,flowers besprinkled with holy water on As-cension Day, and many other appliances be-longing to the great magical apparatus ofthe Church.

This consecrated enginery being so vari-ous and complete, it might have been ex-pected that the people would be content,


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86 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES,and seek no further expedients than theseconstantly at hand. But, alas ! a people^smagic of infernal origin is abroad, and ram-pant by the side of the holy magic of theChurch; and by it Satan tempts the careless,the curious and the irresolute. Even manypriests are tainted with it. The holy Boni-face, and many popes and monkish chron-iclers after him, bitterly lament that thelower clergy compound love - potions andpractice divinatory arts, using even the holyappurtenances of the Church, as the host, tofortify the efficacy of their diabolical charms.

Since the Church tries to reduce all con-ditions of life to harmony with itself, it nat-urally follows that it sets its seal also tohuman jurisprudence. The ordeals which ithas found employed by some of the nationsit has converted, exactly suit its system. Itreceives them, consequently, as resting on aright idea,^^ makes them what they were notbefore, a common practice, and gives de-

12 A biblical ground for ordeals was found in Numbers v.12-28.


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. 87tailed rules concerning the chants, prayers,conjurations and masses with which theyshould be accompanied. When a person un-der accusation or suspicion is to undergo theordeal by water, for example, the priest is tolead him to the church, and cause him kneel-ing to pronounce three formulas in whichGod is implored for protection. Then followmass and the holy communion. When theaccused receives the wafer the priest says^' Be this flesh of our Lord thy test to-day.'^Then in solemn procession the throng of wit-nesses repair to the spot where the test is totake place. The priest conjures the water,expelling the demons common to this ele-ment, and commands it to be an obedientinstrument of God for revealing innocenceor crime. The accused is dressed in cleangarments, kisses the cross and the gospel,recites a Paternoster and makes the sign ofthe cross. Then (in the ordeal by hot water)his hand is held in a boiling cauldron : or heis thrown with his hands pinioned and arope about his waist, into a river. If he


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. 89irksome, hardly ever brings full assurance.Sliadrach, Meshach and Abednego felt noj)ain in the fiery furnace. God gives to in-nocence upon the rack, if not insensibilityto pain, at least strength to endure it. Buteven the arch-fiend, to a certain extent, canprotect his subjects. In the case of hereticsand witches it is therefore needful to resortto the intensest torture; to exhaust, so tospeak, to the last drop, the springs of painin human nerves, under the hand of skilledtormentors. If then the instruments of tor-ture are previously conjured and sanctifiedby the priest, and if he stands at the side ofthe accused ready to interrupt with constantquestion the diabolic formulas of alleviationwhich undoubtedly the sufferer murmurs in-w^ardly, then a candid and reliable confessionmay reasonably be expected, in spite of allefforts to the contrary by the devil. In the*^ Witch-hammer '^ (Malleus Malificarum) theecclesiastical and magical plan of justice cele-brates its triumph. This work, bearing thesanction of the pope, contains full directions


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90 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES,for the judge presiding in witch-trials. It is,in fact, a hammer which crushes whateverit falls upon. The judge who carefully fol-lows these directions may be confident thatSatan himself can not save any one who isunder accusation; only God and his holy an-gels can rescue him, by direct miracle, fromdeath in the flames. ^^He who finds a judicial system which ap-

peals constantly to the intercession of Godof questionable value, may consider that thehistory of the Church, the experiences of itssaints and servants are a succession of divinemiracles. God is not chary of his miracleswhen recognized, and the servants of theChurch are in possession of the apostolicpower and mandate to perform them.

Another question is, how are the divinemiracles to be distinguished from the infer-nal ? All attempts of the acutest scholastics

13 The " Witcli-hammer " will be more fully described here-after. The student of history should not neglect this volume,which is the ripest fruit of Catholic dualism, and clearly showsthe results to which it tends.


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92 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.continued description of ecclesiastical customsand opinion, but by simply formulating thegeneral truth : Uvery symbol, every external to-ken, to which is aitrihided an independent powerfor sanctification and an immediate moral influ-ence, is Magic, May the Protestant reader,for whom we are here writing, examine withthis maxim in how far the Reformation, whichaims to restore to internal authoritythe rea-son and free-will of the individualits rights^has succeeded in its task. Luther and Calvinassailed many magical usages, and prunedmany branches from the tree of dualism, butstill allowed its vigorous trunk to remainunscathed. But a dualistic religious systemmust, on account of the unreasonable cosmi-cal theory on which it rests, sooner or laterattack again the inner authority and makeitself the sole and absolute external one. Itmust of necessity degenerate to a statuaryfetichism or fall before a complete unitarianreformation. Our day witnesses the conflictbetween these opposite ideas. On the oneside, the belief in a personal spiritual adver-


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THE MAGIC OF THE CHURCH. 93sary of mankind, preached to the masses froma thousand pulpits, hangs suspended hke asword of Damocles over the head of civiliza-tion ; on the other side, philosophy and thescience of nature diffuse a rational and unita-rian theory of the universe and human exist-ence through a constantly enlarging circle.To him who wishes to take part in this all-important struggle, we would commend thesewords of the noble Bunsen:^^ ''Wherever inreligion, or state, or civilization, in art orscience, the inner is developed more strenu-ously, and the spiritual earnestly sought after,be it with more or less transformation of whatis existing, there progress is at hand; for fromthe inner, life comes to the external, from thecentre to the circumference. There is alsothe way which leads to life. Tiiere new pathsare opened to the soul, and genius lifts itswings with divine assurance. If this is true,the contrary must take place wherever theexternal life is more and more exalted, wherethe token supersedes more and more the es-

14 ** Gott in der Geschiclite," in.


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94 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.sence, the symbol and the external work theinner act and conscience, where the superficiesis taken for the content, the outer monotonyfor lifers uniformity, and appearances for truth.There a luckless future is in waiting, what-ever be the aspect of the present.'^


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III.THE MAGIC OF THE LEARNED.

We find ourselves in a dismal labyrinth ofnarrow, winding streets, now and then issu-ing into some open space before a guild-hallor a church. The objects which meet ourgaze in this strange city do not solicit pauseor reflection; for we have seen essentially thesame type of homes and humanity in many an-other city which we have wandered throughin our search for the stone of wisdom. Wetherefore continue on our way. The build-ings of the university are said to be in theneighborhood, and we turn the corner to theright, and again to the left, until we come uponit. The lecture-hour approaches. Professorsdraped in stiff mantles and wearing the scholas-tic cap on their supremely wise foreheads,wend their way to the temples of knowledge


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96 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.at the portals of which flocks of studentswait. We recognize their \^arious and familiartypes : the new-matriculated look as usual,their cheeks still retaining the glow of earlyyouth, their hearts still humble, perhaps stillheld captive by the sweet delusion that thewalls by wdiich they wait are the propylaea toall the secrets of earth and heaven. Just asreadily recognized are the parchment-worms,destined one day to shine as lights in theChurch and in the domain of science, whetherthey now toil themselves pale and melancholicover their catence^ their summce and sententice^or bear with unfeigned self-satisfaction theprecious weight of terms which lifts them soconspicuously above the ignorant mass ofmortals. And among the throng of the firstnamed still fresh with youth, and these alreadydried pedants, we find also the far-famed thirdclass of students, adventurers assembled fromall quarters under the protection of univer-sity-privileges,those gentlemen with beard-ed cheek, and faces swelled by drinking andscarred by combat, with terribly long and


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THE MAGIC OF THE LEARNED. 97broad swords dangling at their side,theheroes of that never ending Ihad which theapprentices of learning and the guilds enactnightly in the darkness of the lanes, who mayyet turn out some day the most pious of con-ventical priors, the gravest doctors and thevery severest burgomasters in Christendom,unless before that time they meet their fateupon the gallows, or on the field of battle, oras scholares vagantes in the ditch or by theroadside.

Shall we enter and listen to some of theselectures which are about to be delivered ?Our letter of academic membership will openthe doors to us, if we desire. To the left inthe vaulted hall the professor of medicinehas commenced his lecture. With astonish-ing subtlety and penetration he discusses thehighly important question, before propound-ed by Petrus de Abano, but not as yet fullysolved, ''cm caput sitfactum propter cerehrimivel oculos^^ (whether the head was formed forthe sake of the brain or the eyes). To theright the professor of theology leads us into


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THE MAGIC OF THE LEARNED. 99we shall bring back to our minds the ob-ject of our burning desires, the hope whichcheers us that finally the veil will be tornfrom the face of the Isis-image, and that weshall behold the unspeakable face to face,even though her looks burn us to ashes.Let us turn our back upon this tragi-comicseat of learning, where, as everywhere else,hoary-headed fools are teaching young chick-en-heads to admire nonsense, and young ea-gle-souls to despair of knowledge. It is notfar hence directas direct as the windinglanes permitto that great magician whohas taken up his abode in this city. At thefeet of that master let us seat ourselves."We shall there slake our burning thirst withat least a few drops of that knowledge whichthrough by-gone ages has been flowing in asubterranean channel, though from the samesources as the streams of Paradise. And ifwe are disappointed there,well, then you^if you so choose, can quench your longingfor truth in the whirlpool of pleasure andadventure. / shall go into a monastery,


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100 THE MAGIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.seek the narrowest of its cells, watch, pray,scourge forth my blood m streams; or I shallgo to India, sit down upon the ground andstare at the tip of my nose,stare at it andnever cease, year out and year in, until allconsciousness is extinguished. Agreed, then,is it not? ......We are arrived in the very loneliest quar-ter of the town, and the most dreary limitsof the quarter, where old crumbling housesgroup themselves in inextricable confusionalong the city wall, and from their gablewindows fix their vacant, hypochondriacallooks upon the open fields beyond. A tow-er, crowning the wall of the fort upon thisside, now serves the great scientist as anobservatory and dwelling, given him by theburgomaster and the council of the city.He was for a long time private physician tothe Q.ueen of France, but has now retiredto this lonely place from the pleasures, thedistinctions, and the dangers of life at court,in order to devote himself quietly to researchand study. He has a protector in the prince-


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THE MAGIC OF THE LEARNED. 101archbishop resident in the city; and as thejorofessor of theology has certified at the re-quest of this same prince-bishop to his strictorthodoxy, the city authorities thought topersuade him to receive the honorable andlucrative position of town -astrologer, notheeding the assertion of the monks that hewas a wizard, and that his black spanielwas in reality none other than the devilhimself.A magician never suffers himself to be in-terrupted in his labors, whether engaged incontemplating the nature of spirits, in watch-ing the heavens, or in the elaboration of thequinta essentia^ the final essence, with his cru-cibles. Oh ! what w

1879 [rydberg] magic of the middle ages

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