Malleus Maleficarum

while on other nights they are sullen to pay her homage.” John of Salisbury, who died in 1180, in his Policraticus, I, XVII, speaks of the popular belief in a witch-queen named Herodias, who called together the sorcerers to meeting at night. In a MS., “De Sortilegis,” the following passage occurs: “We next inquire concerning certain wicked crones who believe and profess that in the nighttime they ride abroad with Diana, the heathen goddess, or else with Herodias, and an innumerable host of women, upon certain beasts, and that in a silent covey at the dead of night they pass over immense distances, obeying her commands as their mistress, and that they are summoned by her on appointed nights, and they declare that they have the power to change human beings for better or for worse, ay, even to turn them into some other semblance or shape. Concerning such women I answer according to the decrees of the Council of Alexandria, that the minds of the faithful are disordered by such fantasies owing to the inspiration of no good spirit but of the devil.” ↩

S. Augustine’s great work De Ciuitate Dei was written 413⁠–⁠26. ↩

The De Doctrina Christiana was originally written in 397, but S. Augustine revised his work with addition in 427, leaving a monument of hermeneutics. ↩

Blessed Henry of Segusio, usually called Hostiensis, the famous Italian canonist of the thirteenth century, was born at Susa, and died at Lyons, 25 October, 1271. After a most distinguished career, on 4 December, 1261, he became Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia and Velletri, whence his name Hostiensis. His Summa super titulis Decretalium (Strasburg, 1512; Cologne, 1612; Venice, 1605), which was also known as Summa aurea, or Summa archiepiscopi, since it was written whilst he was Archbishop of Embrun, won for its author the title “Monarcha iuris, lumen lucidissimum Decretorum.” One portion of this work, the “Summa, siue Tractatus de poenitentia et remissionibus,” was very popular, and is continually referred to as of high authority. The book was written between 1250 and 1261. ↩

Godfrey of Fontaines, Doctor Uenerandus, scholastic philosopher and theologian, was born near Liège within the first half of the thirteenth century; he became a canon of his native diocese, and also of Paris and Cologne. In 1300 he was elected to the See of Tournai, which he declined. During the last quarter of the century he taught theology with great distinction at the University of Paris. His vast work, XIV Quodlibeta, which in manuscript was extensively studied in the medieval schools, has recently been pubished for the first time with an ample commentary. ↩

One of the most distinguished names of the Dominican Order. Born in 1175, he professed Canon law at Barcelona and Bologna. At the request of his superiors he published his Summa Casuum, of which several editions appeared in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His reputation as a jurist was so great that in 1230 he was called to Rome by Gregory IX, who directed him to rearrange and codify the ecclesiastical canons. Having completed the work, he refused all honours, and returned to Spain. He died at Barcelona, 6 January, 1275. His feast is celebrated on 23 January. ↩

Peter of Palude, who died 1342, of the Order of S. Dominic, was one of the most distinguished Thomistic theologians during the first half of the fourteenth century. ↩

Early in the thirteenth century Portius Azo stood at the head of the Bolognese school of law which was accomplishing the resuscitation of the classical Roman law. He was the pupil of the celebrated Johannes Bassianus, and his fame so eclipsed all his contemporaries that in 1205 Thomas of Marlborough, afterwards Abbot of Evesham, spent six months at Bologna hearing his lectures every day. Azo was saluted as “Master of all the Masters of the laws,” and the highest praise that could be given another canonist was to declare him to be “second only to Azo.” Savigrey says that Azo was alive as late as 1230. His chief work is a “Summa” of the first nine books of the Code, to which he added a “Summa” of the Institutes. No less than thirty-one editions appeared between 1482 and 1610; of which five are earler than 1500. Throughout the Middle Ages these treatises were in highest repute. ↩

De Sicariis et Ueneficis. Passed circa 81 BC. This law dealt with incendiarism as well as open assassination and poisoning, and laid down penalties for accessories to the fact. ↩

The Etymologiae, or Origines as it is sometimes called, must be regarded as the most important and best known of the works of S. Isidore of Seville, born circa 560; died 4 April, 636. It has been described as “a vast storehouse in which is gathered, systematized, and condensed, all the learning possessed by that time.” Throughout the greater part of the Middle Ages it was the textbook most in use in educational institutions. Arevalo, who is regarded as the most authoritive editor of S. Isidore (7 vols., Rome, 1797⁠–⁠1803), tells us that it was printed no less than ten times between 1470 and 1529. ↩

Albert the Great, the Dominican doctor, scientist, philosopher, and theologian. Born circa 1206; died at Cologne, 15 November, 1280. He is called “the Great” and “Doctor Universalis” on account of his extraordinary genius and encyclopaedic knowledge, for he surpassed all his contemporaries in every branch of learning cultivated in his day. He is certainly one of the glories of the Order of Preachers. Ulrich Endelbert speaks of him as: “Uir