In the town of Ratisbon a certain young man who had an intrigue with
a girl, wishing to leave her, lost his member; that is to say some glamour
was cast over it so that he could see or touch nothing but his smooth body.
In his worry over this he went to a tavern to drink wine; and after he
had sat there for a while he got into conversation with another woman who
was there, and told her the cause of his sadness, explaining everything,
and demonstrating in his body that it was so. The woman was astute, and
asked whether he suspected anyone; and when he named such a one, unfolding
the whole matter, she said: "If persuasion is not enough, you must use
some violence, to induce to restore you to health." so in the evening the
young man watched the way by which the witch was in the habit of going,
and finding her, prayed her to restore to him the health of his body. and
when she maintained that she was innocent and knew nothing about it, he
fell upon her, and winding a towel tightly round her neck, choked her saying:
"Unless you give me back my health, you shall die at my hands."Then she
being unable to cry out, and with her face already swelling and growing
black, said: "Let me go, and I will heal you." The young man then relaxed
the pressure of the towel, and the witch touched him with her hand between
the thighs, saying: "Now you have what you desire." And the young man,
as he afterwards said, plainly felt, before he had verified it by looking
or touching, that his member had been restored to him by the mere touch
of the witch [Kramer
& Sprenger, 1485/1971, 119].
What did the famous sixteenth century 'psychiatrist' Johann Weyer say about cases like this?
This case resembles cases of Koro, a 'culture bound syndrome,' seen in Asia.
Commentary in 1583 on a cases like the young
man of Ratisbon by Johann Weyer.
I think that a demon dulls the senses and blinds the eyes of those persons
who think that their testicles or all of their sexual organs are removed
by a charm; they seem to be bereft of the organs for a while and then to
be made whole again. In these cases, the nerves of the testes and pudenda
can be drawn back to the point of origin by the power and skill of Satan.We
often see this in incurable diseases...But whin a demon is at work, loss
of life need not be feared and the underlying natural cause is not permanent.
The demon deludes the victim temporarily by "bewitching" him, or deceives
him by a false retraction of the nerves. Afterwards, when he has driven
those who are afflicted to seek forbidden counsels, and when he has made
them guilty with impiety, he freely and willingly ceases from his activity,
although he pretends to be compelled, so that he can strengthen people's
attachment to superstition and ensnare others more tightly in the same
superstitions beliefs. If these members were truly removed, when was this
done and by what means? Surely it could not have taken place unfelt, without
bloodshed and without impairment or injury to the affected pars, and then
have been healed in an instant. and even if we should grant this, though
it be impossible, whence comes the restoration, I ask, if the organs have
been torn totally away form the body and if, deprived of nourishment and
vital warmth, they have been dead for so long a time and subject to decay?
Surely it is not possible for Satan and his angels to create new organs,
or to restore life at will to parts that have been totally removed and
deprived of living strength, ant to fasten them on again as though with
glue, or by their own demonic power attach them in their natural place...[Weyer,
1583, 323-3].
Heinrich Kramer was born in Alsace. He
joined the Order of St. Dominic at an early age and while still a young
man was appointed Prior of the Dominican house of his native town, Schlettstadt.
At some date before 1474 he was appointed Inquisitor for the Tyrol, Salzburg,
Bohemia and Moravia. His eloquence in the pulpit and tireless activity
received due recognition at Rome and he was the right-hand of the Archbishop
of Salzburg. By the time of the Bull of Innocent VIII in 1484 he was already
associated with James Sprenger to make inquisition for and try witches
and sorcerers. In 1495 he was summoned to Venice to give public lectures,
which were very popular. In 1500 he was empowered to proceed against the
Waldenses and Picards. He died in Bohemia in 1505 [Montague Summers in
Kramer & Sprenger1971,viii].
James Sprenger was
born in Basel in 1436-8. He was admitted as a novice in the Dominican house
of this town in 1452. He became a zealous reformer within the Order. Later
he became a Master of Theology and then Dean of the Faculty of Theology
at the University of Cologne. In 1481 he was appointed Inquisitor Extraordinary
for the Provinces of Mainz, Trèves, and Cologne. His activities
in this post demanded constant travelling through the very extensive
district. It was said that his piety and learning impressed all who came
in contact with him. He died suddenly in 1494[Montague Summers in Kramer
& Sprenger1971,ix].
It is hardly disputed that in the whole vast literature
of witchcraft, the most prominent, the most important and the most authorative
volume is the Malleus Maleficarum [The Witch Hammer] by Heinrich
Kramer and James Sprenger. The Maleus acquired special weight and dignity
from the famous Bull of Pope Innocent VIII,
Summis desiderantes affectibus
of December 9, 1484, in which the Pontiff, lamenting the power and prevalence
of the witch organization, delagates Kramer and Sprenger as inquisitors
of these pravities throughout Northern Germany, granting both of them an
exceptional authorization not only to take all steps to publish the Bull
and in calling in the secular arm for assistance [Montague Summers in Kramer
& Sprenger1971, vii-viii].