History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom

by Andrew Dickson White

(365) Baptismal exorcism continued in use among the Lutherans till the
eighteenth century, though the struggle over its abandonment had been
long and sharp. See Krafft, Histories vom Exorcismo, Hamburg, 1750.

Already, before the close of the fifteenth century, Pope Innocent VIII had issued the startling bull by which he called on the archbishops, bishops, and other clergy of Germany to join hands with his inquisitors in rooting out these willing bond-servants of Satan, who were said to swarm throughout all that country and to revel in the blackest crimes. Other popes had since reiterated the appeal; and, though none of these documents touched on the blame of witchcraft for diabolic possession, the inquisitors charged with their execution pointed it out most clearly in their fearful handbook, the Witch-Hammer, and prescribed the special means by which possession thus caused should be met. These teachings took firm root in religious minds everywhere; and during the great age of witch-burning that followed the Reformation it may well be doubted whether any single cause so often gave rise to an outbreak of the persecution as the alleged bewitchment of some poor mad or foolish or hysterical creature. The persecution, thus once under way, fed itself; for, under the terrible doctrine of "excepted cases," by which in the religious crimes of heresy and witchcraft there was no limit to the use of torture, the witch was forced to confess to accomplices, who in turn accused others, and so on to the end of the chapter.(366)

(366) The Jesuit Stengel, professor at Ingolstadt, who (in his great
work, De judiciis divinis) urges, as reasons why a merciful God permits
illness, his wish to glorify himself through the miracles wrought by his
Church, and his desire to test the faith of men by letting them choose
between the holy aid of the Church and the illicit resort to medicine,
declares that there is a difference between simple possession and
that brought by bewitchment, and insists that the latter is the more
difficult to treat.

The horrors of such a persecution, with the consciousness of an ever-present devil it breathed and the panic terror of him it inspired, could not but aggravate the insanity it claimed to cure. Well-authenticated, though rarer than is often believed, were the cases where crazed women voluntarily accused themselves of this impossible crime. One of the most eminent authorities on diseases of the mind declares that among the unfortunate beings who were put to death for witchcraft he recognises well-marked victims of cerebral disorders; while an equally eminent authority in Germany tells us that, in a most careful study of the original records of their trials by torture, he has often found their answers and recorded conversations exactly like those familiar to him in our modern lunatic asylums, and names some forms of insanity which constantly and un mistakably appear among those who suffered for criminal dealings with the devil.(367) The result of this widespread terror was naturally, therefore, a steady increase in mental disorders. A great modern authority tells us that, although modern civilization tends to increase insanity, the number of lunatics at present is far less than in the ages of faith and in the Reformation period. The treatment of the "possessed," as we find it laid down in standard treatises, sanctioned by orthodox churchmen and jurists, accounts for this abundantly. One sort of treatment used for those accused of witchcraft will also serve to show this—the "tortura insomniae." Of all things in brain-disease, calm and regular sleep is most certainly beneficial; yet, under this practice, these half-crazed creatures were prevented, night after night and day after day, from sleeping or even resting. In this way temporary delusion became chronic insanity, mild cases became violent, torture and death ensued, and the "ways of God to man" were justified.(368) But the most contemptible creatures in all those centuries were the physicians who took sides with religious orthodoxy. While we have, on the side of truth, Flade sacrificing his life, Cornelius Agrippa his liberty, Wier and Loos their hopes of preferment, Bekker his position, and Thomasius his ease, reputation, and friends, we find, as allies of the other side, a troop of eminently respectable doctors mixing Scripture, metaphysics, and pretended observations to support the "safe side" and to deprecate interference with the existing superstition, which seemed to them "a very safe belief to be held by the common people."(369)

(367) See D. H. Tuke, Chapters in the History of the Insane in the
British Isles, London, 1822, p. 36; also Kirchhoff, p. 340. The forms
of insanity especially mentioned are "dementia senilis" and epilepsy. A
striking case of voluntary confession of witchcraft by a woman who lived
to recover from the delusion is narrated in great detail by Reginald
Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, London, 1584. It is, alas, only
too likely that the "strangeness" caused by slight and unrecognised
mania led often to the accusation of witchcraft instead of to the
suspicion of possession.

(368) See Kirchhoff, as above.

(369) For the arguments used by creatures of this sort, see Diefenbach,
Der Hexenwahn vor und nach der Glaubensspaltung in Deutschland, pp.
342-346. A long list of their infamous names is given on p. 345.

Against one form of insanity both Catholics and Protestants were especially cruel. Nothing is more common in all times of religious excitement than strange personal hallucinations, involving the belief, by the insane patient, that he is a divine person. In the most striking representation of insanity that has ever been made, Kaulbach shows, at the centre of his wonderful group, a patient drawing attention to himself as the Saviour of the world.

Sometimes, when this form of disease took a milder hysterical character, the subject of it was treated with reverence, and even elevated to sainthood: such examples as St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena in Italy, St. Bridget in Sweden, St. Theresa in Spain, St. Mary Alacoque in France, and Louise Lateau in Belgium, are typical. But more frequently such cases shocked public feeling, and were treated with especial rigour: typical of this is the case of Simon Marin, who in his insanity believed himself to be the Son of God, and was on that account burned alive at Paris and his ashes scattered to the winds.(370)

(370) As to the frequency among the insane of this form of belief, see
Calmeil, vol. ii, p. 257; also Maudsley, Pathology of Mind, pp. 201,
202, and 418-424; also Rambaud, Histoire de la Civilisation en France,
vol. ii, p. 110. For the peculiar abberations of the saints above named
and other ecstatics, see Maudsley, as above, pp. 71, 72, and 149, 150.
Maudsley's chapters on this and cognate subjects are certainly among the
most valuable contributions to modern thought. For a discussion of the
most recent case, see Warlomont, Louise Lateau, Paris, 1875.