After having been thus carefully prepared,
“Grande es la virtud que ha en este olio ... Esta virtud es en tres maneras: La primera en la natura del olio, la segunda en las palabras que se dicen sobre él, la tercera en las obras que se facen con él.”[107]
Not only the crisma, but certain words (among them the following) possessed special virtue: “Avemaría”, because from the contents of that prayer one comes to understand the mystery of Jesus, moreover it contains the words of salutation used by the angel to María and these words still greatly please her; “Paternoster”, because it reveals the Father and contains the seven petitions which Jesus taught His disciples; and “Credo in Deum”, because it reveals the Holy Spirit and contains all the faith and science of Christianity.[108]
From these and similar regulations pertaining to the various sacraments, especially baptism, perhaps we might not err seriously in supposing that the practitioners of black magic received not a little of their inspiration from the Church itself, altho much against the will of the latter. With such a number of laws, regulations, etc., it might at first seem a little surprising to find so few legends in which conjuring plays an important part, but probably this can be accounted for by the fact that it was so common a practice that it was scarcely esteemed worthy of mention. The most interesting story for our present purpose—and one which is illustrative of the group in general—is that of the great debate conducted in Rome in the year 320 between the Christians and the Jews. The latter, to prove the superiority of their God, whispered His name in the ear of an angry bull, which promptly fell dead. The Christians went even further; they whispered the name of their God in the ear of the dead animal, which immediately returned to life and, quite gentle and meek, was led from the assembly.[109]
In Las Cantigas conjuring is mentioned only in passing references, and almost always it is the Devil who is conjured to leave a person (No. 67). But in one instance we have the well known story of a man, this time a monk, who has at his command the services of the Devil and when Satan cannot procure for him what he desires, because the person concerned is under the special protection of Santa María, the monk threatens him and his host of imps in these words:
“Ide fazer
Com’ eu a donzela aia
log’ esta noit’ en meu poder;
se non, eu hüa redoma
todos uos ensserraría.” (No. 125.)
II.—GHOSTS
There is not a genuine clean-cut ghost in the entire period. In fact, such apparitions as we know them seem never to have flourished very vigorously in Spain. There are fantasmas, and sombras, etc., in abundance in a later period, but the ghost that appeals to present day observers was entirely lacking. In the time of Alfonso X, the function of the ghost, which is usually that of issuing warnings from the other world, was generally exercised by the saints or angels. In one case, it is true, a friar returns after his decease to explain to his two brethren why his corpse turned black at death and was restored to its natural color when a candle from the altar of the Virgin was placed in its hand (No. 123). But this is a very poor example; there is no element of fear recorded. The shade does not pass thru closed doors, weapons do not pierce its body without effect, etc. Emperor Julian has a rather ghostly experience when he is killed by the phantom knight,[110] but this is in reality a returned saint and not a ghost, and besides he kills with a weapon—a most unorthodox piece of behavior for a ghost.
There is only one good ghost story in the entire lot, and this claims to be no more than a narrative from Roman history, apparently told solely because it is in the old records. Emperor Caius Caligula was assassinated and his enemies half burned his body, then in haste partially buried it. Because of this his spirit could not rest in peace but tormented the keepers of the garden where the body lay, and the guardians of the place where he had been killed, until the cremation was properly performed and the ashes suitably buried. This has indeed the necessary elements of a ghost story, but as indicated above, it seems to have found its way into the literature purely by chance and makes no literary impression on the period.[111]