Malleus Maleficarum, by Heinrich Krämer
Who could make an account of their having inflicted other illness in the bodies of humans, like blindness or very sharp pains and agonies? Nonetheless, let us bring forward a few of the things which we have clearly seen with our eyes, and which came to the notice of one of the inquisitors.
Once when an inquisition was being conducted into sorceresses in the town of Innsbruck, the following occurrence was related among others. A respectable person who was joined in marriage to a member of the Archduke's retinue testified in the presence of a notary (and so on, according to legal requirement), that when she was acting as a servant to one of the citizens when she was a maiden, it happened that his wife grew weak with a severe headache. A certain woman arrived to heal it and was able to lessen the pain with her charms and certain other practices. "I carefully watched her procedure and saw that when she poured water into a dish, the water rose up into another jar contrary to the nature of water." (The woman also used other ceremonies, which it is unnecessary to relate.) "I observed that the headache in the lady was not being lessened in any way as a result of these procedures, and in outrage I uttered the following words to the sorceress. 'I don't know what you are doing. You are merely doing superstitious things, for your own benefit.' Then the sorceress immediately rejoined, 'Three days from now, you will tell whether or not they are superstitions,' which the outcome of the situation proved. For on the morning of the third day, while I was sitting and holding a spindle, a great pain suddenly attacked my body, first in the internal areas, so that there was no part of the body on which I did not feel terrible jabbings. Second, it seemed to me just as if burning coals were constantly being poured over my head. Third, on the skin of the body from the top of my head to the soles of my feet there would not have been the space of a needle point where there wasn't a blister filled with white pus. I remained like this until the fourth day, wailing amidst these pains and hoping only for death. Finally, the husband of my lady told me to enter a certain barn. I walked slowly while he led the way until we were in front of the barn door. 'Look,' he said to me. 'Above the door of the inn there is a piece of white cloth.' I said, 'I see it well.' Then he said, 'To the best of your abilities, take it away, because you will perhaps feel better.' Then, to the best of my abilities, while I held the door with one arm, I grabbed the piece with the other. 'Open it,' said the lord, 'and examine carefully what is placed in it.' When I undid the piece, I found many things wrapped up in it, in particular certain white kernels resembling the blisters on my body. I also saw seeds and peas, the likes of which I couldn't even have eaten or looked at, along with the bones of snakes and of other animals. I was stunned by this, and when I asked the lord what to do, he said to throw everything into the fire. I did this, and all of a sudden, not after the passage of an hour or a quarter hour but the very instant that those things were thrown into the fire, I fully regained my prior health."
Many statements were made in depositions against his wife, whom she was serving, and through them the wife was suspected not so much lightly as strongly, particularly because of the great familiarity she had with sorceresses. Hence, it is presumed that she was privy to the placement of the device for sorcery and told this to her husband. Then, after this was revealed in the manner described, the serving girl regained her health.
In addition, as a public indication of the loathing felt for so great a crime, it would be useful to relate another act concerning sorcery inflicted on a certain person (again a female) in the same town. A respectable married woman came and gave a deposition according to the legal requirements (as above). "Behind the house," she said, "I have an orchard. Adjacent to it my female neighbor has a garden. As I was standing at the gate of my orchard one day, I saw that someone was crossing from my neighbor's garden to my orchard and that this was causing damage. While I was complaining and grumbling to myself about both the crossing and the damage, my neighbor suddenly turned up and asked whether I suspected her. Being terrified because of her bad reputation, I uttered nothing but the following words, 'The steps in the grass show the losses.' Outraged because I was unwilling to get into a legal dispute with her through offensive words, as she perhaps intended, she left grumbling. Though I heard the words that she uttered, I still could not understand them. After a few days, however, a great illness befell me. I had pains in the belly and very sharp agonies from the left side to the right and the other way around, as if too swords or knives were stuck in my chest. Day and night I disturbed all the neighbors with my shouting, and as people gathered from hither and yon to give consolation, it happened that a potter, whose girlfriend in the crime of adultery had been my neighbor the sorceress, also came for a visit. He sympathized with my illness and left after some words of consolation. The next day, however, he returned hurriedly, and among other words of consolation he stated, 'I will make a test as to whether this illness has befallen you as a result of sorcery, and if this is found to be the case, I will restore your health.' As I lay in bed, he took some molten lead and poured it into a dish full of water, supporting it over my body. When a certain image and the shapes of various things appeared from the hardened lead, he said, 'Look! This illness befell you as a result of sorcery. Some of the devices for sorcery are kept under the threshold of the door of the house. Let's go there, and after they are removed, you will feel better.' So, my husband and he went together to remove the sorcery. When the potter lifted the threshold, he told my husband to put his hand into the hole that appeared and take out whatever he found, which he did." First, he removed a wax image a palm's length long. It was pierced through everywhere, having two needles going from side to side in the same way that she felt jabbings from the left side to the right. He then found various pieces of cloth containing very many things consisting of kernels as well as seeds and bones. "When those things were thrown into the fire, I did get better, but not entirely. Although the agony and jabbings have stopped and the desire to eat has returned, down to the present day I have not by any means been restored to my previous health. When I demanded that the potter tell me why my previous health did not return, he answered, 'There are other devices hidden elsewhere, but I am unable to find them.' When I asked how in that case he had learned the location of the first items, he answered, 'I learned these things from the love by which one friend reveals secrets to another.' Therefore, since he was wooing an adulteress and I knew that this was my neighbor, I had grounds to suspect her."
What if I wanted to relate the individual events that were discovered in just that one town? A book would certainly have to be written. How many people who were blind, lame, barren and stricken with various illnesses gave testimony according to the legal requirements on the basis of a strong suspicion about sorceresses who foretold illnesses of this kind to them in general or particular!