On the Demon-Mania of Witches (1580)

Jean Bodin (1529/30–1596) was one of the foremost political theorists of his time. A professor of law and adviser to kings, he is best known for his Six livres de la République (1576), in which he developed a case for royal absolutism that rested on a belief in the divine right of kings. It might be surprising that a man of such erudition and international status was also a leading proponent of aggressive efforts to detect and punish witchcraft. For Bodin, however, concern about witchcraft was a natural extension of his interest in politics and government. As he saw it, the “status and greatness of the state” depended on the “punishment of the bad,” and there was no greater evil than witchcraft.

Now if ever there was a way to appease the anger of God, to obtain His blessing, to dismay some by the punishment of others, to preserve some from the infection of others, to reduce the number of the wicked, to secure the safety of the good, and to punish the most despicable wickednesses that the human mind can imagine, it is to chastise witches with the utmost rigour. However, the word “rigour” is a misnomer, since there is no penalty cruel enough to punish the evils of witches, since all their wickednesses, blasphemies, and all their designs rise up against the majesty of God to vex and offend Him in a thousand ways. . . . Some people raise objections to burning witches, even witches who have a formal pact with Satan. For it is principally against those witches that one must seek vengeance with the greatest diligence and utmost rigour, in order to bring an end to the wrath of God, and His vengeance upon us. And especially since those who have written on it interpret a magic spell as heresy, and nothing more — although true heresy is the crime of treason against God, and punishable by the fire. It is necessary, however, to note the difference between this crime and simple heresy. For we showed initially that the first occupation of witches is to deny God and all religion. The law of God condemns that person who has left the true God for another to be stoned, which all the Hebrew commentators say is the most terrible form of execution. This point is very significant. For the witch whom I have described does not just deny God in order to change and take up another religion, but he renounces all religion, either true or superstitious, which can keep men in the fear of committing offence.

The second crime of witches is, after having renounced God, to curse, blaspheme and scorn Him, and any other god or idol which he feared. Now the law of God declares as follows, “Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. He who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death.” . . .

For it seems that God wants to show that those who blaspheme what they think is God, do blaspheme God, with respect to their intention, which is the foundation of the hearts and minds of men: like the witches described above who broke the arms and legs on crucifixes, which they thought were gods. They also offered toads the host1 to feed on. One sees then a double outrage of impiety with witches who blaspheme the true God, and anything they think has some divinity, so as to uproot all pious conviction and fear of offence.

The third crime is even more abominable. Namely, they do homage to the Devil, worship him, offer sacrifice, and the most despicable make a trench and put their face in the ground praying and worshiping him with all their heart. . . . This abomination surpasses any penalty that man can conceive, considering the formal text of the law of God, which requires that one who only bows down to pay honour to images, which the Greeks call “idols,” be put to death. . . . Now witches are not content to worship, or only to bow down before Satan, but they offer themselves to Satan, pray to him and invoke him.

The fourth crime is even greater: many witches have been convicted, and have confessed to promising their children to Satan. The fifth is even worse; that is, that witches are frequently convicted by their confession of having sacrificed to the Devil their infant children before they are baptised. They raise them in the air, and then insert a large pin into their head, which causes them to die and is a crime more bizarre than the one before. In fact Sprenger2 relates that he had one burned who had killed forty-one of them in this way.

The sixth crime is even more horrible. For witches are not satisfied to offer their own children to the Devil and burn them as a sacrifice . . . but they even dedicate them right from the mother’s womb . . . which is a double parricide with the most abominable idolatry imaginable.

The seventh and the most common is that witches make an oath and promise the Devil to lure as many as they can into his service, which they customarily do, as we showed earlier. Now the law of God states that that person who is called this way, must stone the one who tried to entice him.

The eighth crime is to call upon and swear by the name of the Devil as a mark of honour, as witches do having it always on their lips, and swearing only by him, except when they renounce God. This is directly against the law of God, which forbids swearing by anything other than the name of God. This, Scripture says, gives glory to God. Thus judges said in taking the oath of parties or witnesses, “Glory be to God.”

The ninth is that witches are incestuous, which is the crime they have been charged with and convicted of from earliest times. For Satan gives them to understand that there was never a perfect sorcerer or enchanter who was not born from father and daughter, or mother and son. . . . All these impieties are directly against God and His honour, which judges must avenge with the utmost rigour, and bring an end to God’s wrath against us. As for the other crimes of witches, they concern injuries done to men, which they will avenge whenever they can. Now there is nothing so displeasing to God as to see judges avenge the smallest offences committed against themselves or others, but dissemble the horrible blasphemies against the majesty of God, such as those I have cited about witches.

Let us continue then with the other crimes. The tenth is that witches make a profession of killing people, and worse of murdering little children, then boiling them to render their humours and flesh drinkable, which Sprenger says he learned from their confessions; and the Neopolitan Battista della Porta3 writes about it in his book on magic. And still another fact to underline, is that they put children to death before they are baptised. These are four circumstances which make the murder very much worse.

The eleventh crime is that witches eat human flesh, especially of little children, and of course drink their blood. . . . But one sees that it is a vile belief the Devil puts into the hearts of men in order to make them kill and devour each other, and destroy the human race. Again it must be noted that all witches customarily make poisons, which is enough to justify the death sentence. . . .

Now murder, according to the law of God and the laws of men, merits death. And those who eat human flesh, or have others eat it, also deserve death: as for example, a baker in Paris who made a business of making pies from the flesh of people hanged. He was burned, and his house razed to the ground. . . .

The twelfth is particular, killing with poisons or spells, which is distinct from simple homicide. . . . For it is a much more serious offence to kill with poison than with overt violence, as we shall presently point out; and even more serious to cause death by sorcery than by poison. . . .

The thirteenth crime of witches is to kill livestock, something which is customary. . . . The fourteenth is common, and recognised by law, namely, killing crops and causing famine and sterility in an entire region. The fifteenth is that witches have carnal copulation with the Devil, (and very often near their husbands, as I remarked earlier), a wickedness they all confess to.

There then are fifteen detestable crimes, the least of which merits a painful death. This does not mean that all witches are guilty of such evils, but it has been well established that witches who have a formal compact with the Devil are normally guilty of all or of most of these evil deeds.

From Alan Kors and Edward Peters, eds., Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History, 2d ed. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2001), pp. 291–293.