# Compendium Maleficarum/Book 1/Chapter 4

Chapter IV
That Witches Effect their Marvels with the Help of the Devil
Argument
The demon can effect the most rapid local movement of bodies, so that he can withdraw an object from sight and substitute another so quickly that he deludes the understanding and the eyes of the onlookers into a belief that the first object has been changed into the second. We must believe that the metamorphoses of the heathen were of this sort; such as the transformation of Diomedes’ companions into birds, and of Iphigeneia into a hind, as S. Augustine observes. These deceptions were exposed by Astirius also, whose deeds were saved from oblivion by Eusebius.
We must, then, consider marvels as of two kinds. The first is when the effect is not due to any local motion and is beyond the sphere of applied natural causes, as, for example, the raising of the dead or the healing of true blindness; for in such there is always some glamour or deception. The other is when a visible object suddenly vanishes; and this is due to some prestidigital contrivance. An example of the first is when a sorcerer places in a room a bow made of a certain wood, and an arrow of another wood, and a string of a certain material, and shoots the arrow and causes a river to appear in the place as wide as the length of the bow shot; of the second, when a horse appears to be torn in pieces, and then is found to be whole. Of the same sort is that trick mentioned by Nicetas, to which we shall refer later, in which a conjurer produces what appears to be a serpent. But for a better understanding of this it must be known that the devil deceives our senses in many different ways. First when he wholly or in part hides from our eyes an object which is present. Secondly, when he so affects the medium of our vision that an object seen through it seems different from what it is: as when salt is mixed with acid and a linen cloth soaked in it, if that cloth be lighted at a candle the faces of those present will assume a ghastly appearance; or if a candle made from an ass’s semen and wax be lighted, all those present appear to have asses’ heads. Thirdly, when the vapours of the intermediate air are thickened and so it appears that a cock is drawing along a beam, when it is really only a straw. Fourthly, when objects seem to move through the air, as trees appear to sailors to move along together with their ship. Fifthly, when there is shown to the onlookers an aerial or a fantastic body similar to that which they suppose it to be. Sixthly, by a swift agitation or a sudden concealment of visible objects, and by various secret arrangements and divisions of them, as conjurers do with strings and little balls, etc. Seventhly, if the bodily humours be agitated or disturbed things appear to be different from what they are, as happens to drunkards and madmen. Finally, I say that the devil can so compound and arrange fantasms that even when a man may be said to be awake he is as one who sleeps, and thinks he sees what he does not see, according to Gaetani, 2. 2, q. 95, artic. 3.
Examples.
At Caesarea Philippi, which the Phoenicians call Paneas, it is said that at a certain Festival of the Heathen a woman was solemnly sacrificed and thrown into the spring which there arises from the base of Mount Paneus, from which the Jordan is said to flow: and this woman, through the potent might of the demon, vanished in a wonderful manner from their eyes so that they thought that a memorable miracle had been performed. On one occasion Astirius chanced to be present while this was being done and, seeing so many people dumbfounded with wonder at this thing, he had pity on their ignorance and, raising his eyes to heaven, prayed God the Ruler of all through the mediation of Christ to restrain from his deception that demon who had so blinded the people with error, and to prevent him from those illusions with which he used to mock them. When he had thus prayed to God, the victim suddenly appeared floating on the water; and this matter which had caused so great wonder came to nothing, so that thereafter the like was no more practised in that place.
Michael Sicidites looked from a high place in the Palace of Constantinople and saw a ship laden with pots and dishes; and by a magic spell he caused the captain to rise and start beating those dishes until they were reduced to powder. Soon, when his blindness had passed, the wretched man tore his beard and began to utter loud lamentations: and when he was asked why he had treated his merchandise in that manner, he sorrowfully answered that, while he was intent upon his oars, he saw a horrible serpent stretched upon the dishes and glaring at him as if it were about to devour him, and that it had not ceased from its twistings and contortions until all the dishes were broken.
Hear another example which is so well told and instructive that I cannot refrain from relating it.
In the time of Sigismund I, King of Poland, Jacob Melstinch, the Mayor of the town of Brezinium, was induced by some lightness of the mind to take upon himself the authority and name of Christ. He chose Peter Zacorski of Cracow and eleven other robbers like him, and gave them the names of the Apostles; but himself he called Jesus Christ. They visited the towns doing miracles after the manner of conjurers; they suborned other rogues and robbers to feign death and raised them to life; they planted fish in muddy marshes where they could not naturally be, and then in the name of Christ caught them in their hands; they hid loaves in ovens, and then in the name of their Christ brought them out as if they had not been there before, to the great wonder of the simple vulgar people. At one time he came with his disciples to Czenstochowa, a monastery famous for its picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and staying there some days incited one of their number to behave as if he were possessed of the devil, and by means of this man they obtained food: for he went among the guest rooms, and snatched meat from the kitchen and threw it to his comrades, who blessed the meat with the cross and ate it. And when there was a great gathering of people before the Holy Image, these rogues led their possessed companion to the altar wearing a two-fold robe within which he could secrete what was required. They put stones within his garment. As he was being led to the altar, he ​broke away from their hands raging, and rushed upon the altar, which was covered with alms money which he seized and thrust between his two-fold garment. The monk who was at the altar broke off the divine office and fled; and the other monks ran up and undid the man’s belt. The stones then fell to the ground, but the money remained between the folds of his garment. The monks thought that the money had been changed into stones by the devil, and tried by exorcisms to restore it to its proper shape: but when the stones still remained, the exorcist angrily threw down the holy book, saying: “We have never had such a devil. Depart with him to all the devils!” The rogues escaped with the real money into Silesia where in a certain village they approached a noble matron who, in the absence of her husband, would not receive them. They asked her to give them at least a napkin or a piece of flax as alms; and she offered them a bundle of flax, upon which they said: “This we will take and Christ will bless you, that your linen may increase more abundantly. Show us, if you have it, another bundle.” And when they would likewise have taken this, the woman, fearing her husband, refused: whereupon they secretly put a piece of lighted tinder in the flax as they returned it to her. And so by means of the flax the house was set on fire and burned. When the husband returned, the woman said that this was a just punishment for her bad behaviour to Christ and His disciples. But the husband was smitten with anger and said: “There has been no Christ here, but a very vile rogue.” So with his neighbours he went in pursuit and found them in a certain town. Then the false Christ said to him he called Peter: “Now my Passion draws near, Peter, and the cup which I am to drink.” Peter answered: “And, Lord, I think it threatens me also.” He replied: “Peter, I can in no other wise escape from this than by the window.” Peter answered: “And as long as I live I will not leave you, but will follow you wherever you go.” So they escaped through the window, and the other Apostles by whatever means they could: but the peasants followed them smiting them with staves and ropes, saying: “Prophesy unto us, thou Christ and thy Apostles, in what forest did these sticks grow.” So, being chastened with blows, they thereafter chastened their lives, saying: “It is hard for us to bear the Passion of Christ and the persecutions of the Apostles as well.” This story is told in the Chronicles of Poland.
* ↑ “S. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,” XVIII, 18.
* ↑ “Nicetas.” Acominatus, also called Choniates (from his birthplace Chonae in Phrygia). He ranks among the most important Byzantine historians. Of his “Annales” there are editions by Bekker, Bonn, 1835; by Migne, Paris, 1865. “Annales,” IV, 23.
* ↑ “Gaetani.” Tomaso de Vio Gaetani, Dominican Cardinal, philosopher, theologian, and exegete, 1469–1534. His Commentaries on the “Summa” of S. Thomas are recognised as a classic of scholastic literature, and were by order of Leo XIII incorporated in the official Leonine edition of the works of S. Thomas, of which the first volume appeared at Rome in 1882.
* ↑ “Sigismund I.” 1506–1548.
* ↑ “Czenstochowa.” Our Lady of Czenstochowa, Królowa Korony Polskiej. Czenstochowa is a small town in the palatinate of Kalisz, near the Silesian frontier. The most Holy and Miraculous Picture of Our Lady, the work of S. Luke, is painted on cypress, and, says an old author, “has a majesty which passes the conception of art.”