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Home , Cloak of invisibility, Demon, Initiation, Necromancy

– explicitly demonic

 Women – access to herbs, use of natural remedies in healing which also involved – hidden information and past, present and future  Natural magic – often used for healing, divination, etc  Healing magic  Astrological magic – protective and  None of these types are explicitly demonic

 Necromancy – people know what they are doing is illicit, involves engaging with – that’s why they remained secret among men, relating to learned culture Relationship between magic and ?

 Complex opinion on whether things are religion on magic  Changing concerns over time – concerns move from to Arabic magic  Church struggled to define the boundaries of magic  Later, there was an idea that people should know better Relationship between magic and science?

 Difficulty deciding difference between magic and early science  Problems with the term magic in our contemporary use of it when studying this period  At the time, things were not distinguished in this way  Difference between consciousness of what is being done and not considering it to be magic, or demonic – contrast with outside perceptions of it What is a ?

 Fallen  Working with the  Demons taking on physical forms – likeness and appearance of a person  Pre C12 – most demonic stories were psychological battles – after this there was a new trend of demons physically interacting with people  Demons are genderless – male-appearing is , female-appearing is  Tricksters, servants of

Kieckhefer – Necromancy and the Clerical Underworld

 Cleric – anyone who was ordained – more similar to the English word clerk – could be a member of a minor order – some form of church education o All university students were ordained too – so may never serve the church, but were technically clerics  Anyone who was learned and had been ordained – most books were produced by university men  Preachers – members of the mendicant orders – Dominicans, Franciscans (Dominicans were key in the inquisition) – would go to university and manage courses in theology o Public preaching was required to complete degree  People using this magic and justifying it

 Magic appears in medical texts – these would have been written by religious men  and instructions in necromantic texts suggest an education – also similar to o Detailed, specific knowledge – required a higher level of learning and knowledge, related to other religious rituals o Timed to a monk’s schedule – rituals would be said at the same time as prayers would be in monasteries  Use of readily available equipment – private space, not references to herbs and spices, use of /oil, parchment, (often placed inside the circle to prevent demons from entering the personal space), mirrors  Use of Hebrew (or Arabic) rather than – clear sign that this was demonic  Looked like conjuring angels going wrong – but the texts being written not in Latin was a problem o 5 pointed star associated with and with Venus Nigromancy vs. Necromancy

 Nigromancy – , magic done for purposes, only for causing ill  Necromancy – a specific type of magic – can be magic done for evil, but more specific than nigromancy

Dialogue on Miracles and necromancy

 Phillip the clerk as the necromancer – not the recipient of necromancy, but the person people go to if they wish for necromancy to be carried out – a practitioner who does magic on behalf of others o Necromancy used by those not skilled in the art, but who wished for it to be performed  Scholars – students of necromancy who are not yet skilled in it o Wanted a visible demonstration of it  Sense that people were taught necromancy on the side of their other studies, in more secrecy  Idea that Phillip was unkeen to engage in necromancy – idea that something bad was going to happen o Ignoring the master results in – because he disobeyed the rules of the circle (idea that this is what happens when people disobey their masters)  Person who misbehaves has to atone for the rest of his life – must repent for sins  Description of – to warn people not to sin and to prove the existence of hell and the fact that sin would be punished an you had to care for your  Subjects in the story are looking for proof that demons exist and that necromancy works – people had heard about it, but wanted to see the existence of it  Linked to idea of the and heaven and hell  Condemning necromancy, but proving orthodox belief by proving the existence of hell  Necromancy pays student loans  Necromancy takes place at crossroads  Circle protects people from the demons and harm  Demon’s appearance – is a large man, cloaked, dark, hideous, masculine – supporting theological beliefs held by the orthodox church  Demon implied to be serving the master, who summoned him  Necromancer must be male – as a woman could not control a human man, let alone the devil  Clients of necromancers could harm necromancers  Necromancers could be killed by the devil  Designed to dissuade people from engaging in necromancy, whilst affirming theological views of the time

 Used within sermons – lacks value in what it can tell us about how necromancy was actually carried out  Vagueness – didn’t want to reveal specific details? But probably some underlying accuracy – needed to be believable  Wishing to distance self from the necromancers  Often necromancers are said to be Jewish  Necromancy used to increase wealth and status

R. Kieckhefer, Magic in the , Ch. 7.

In this chapter, Kieckhefer discusses the idea of a ‘clerical underworld’ in the later medieval period. Within his discussion of this concept, he suggests that it is often hard to define what a cleric was in the medieval world, as the boundaries of this were unclear. However, there was certainly a sense of the kind of person who performed necromancy at this time. Kieckhefer then discusses necromancy again, talking about how this was an important aspect of magic. He breaks this down into its several features, such as the use of magic circles and conjuration. Following this, he looks at the other kinds of magic to which necromancy was related, such as astral magic and exorcisms, and explains how it combined features of the two. Another interesting angle from which to study necromancy that Kieckhefer is well aware of is in exempla – here, he discusses the methods preachers used to discourage their congregations from engaging in it, though draws attention to possible historiographical concerns here: shouldn’t preachers really have been saying this to clerics?

 151: ’s Politicraticus talks about the use of learned magic which was characterised by divination and the use of reciting the of demons o John suggested he was exploited by his teacher’s doing so of this, saying that using such magic resulted in issues in later life – unless you repented  There are other books, such as the Munich handbook, which similarly discuss how to conjure demons to gain information  152: Kieckhefer uses this to support his argument that there was a clear ‘clerical underworld’ of magic during the later Middle Ages, with magic being enacted by churchmen o A further example of this which he cites is the charges assembled by Anselm of Besate against his cousin (which may have been rhetorical), but highlight the practice of magic by clerics, using ‘diabolical words’ to perform necromancy  Necromancy: originally meant divination by conjuring the spirits of the dead, but later involved the idea of demons taking on the appearance of dead people – so necromancy came to be the conjuring of demons (explicitly demonic)

 153: He suggests that most of the people accused of necromancy were clerics (which could mean anyone in the lower orders, or bound to become a monk) – all steps on the ladder to priesthood o So, a ‘clerk’ was someone who had not been ordained but who helped the priest in many different ways  However, he stresses that the term is highly difficult to define – some of these people went to university, others did not – but they were usually expected to know something of Latin, ritual and doctrine  154: Sometimes these people could do other jobs, whilst still claiming to be clerics and enjoying the benefits of the clergy  Kieckhefer outlines the different rolls people could do in the church – such as ‘chantry priests’ who would say masses for people’s after death, but would only have to do so for a certain amount of time each day and would then have free time o Perhaps necromancy was a foolish use of their free time  Monks could also be in the clerical underworld, he argues  155: Sometimes monks from monasteries which needed reform could enter such practices, such as John of Vallombrosa, who learned the art of necromancy and carried it out in secrecy; in a similar way, friars could also do so – we have evidence of many different figures doing this o Of course, some people who were not clerics may engage in this magic, but for the most part, they were clerics  In terms of their similarities, these groups all had a little learning (of things like ) and were an organised group  156: Some saw necromancy as something performed by the young, who later outgrew it, but this was not always the case

 157: Nicholas Eymericus read books about necromancy and then had them burned in public, saying that they were sinful – but he also therefore had a wide understanding of necromancy compared to some o The books he read also discussed other forms of forbidden magic – some of them involved implicit use of demons, whilst others were explicit  The Munich handbook is a good example of these kinds of books, containing many magical operations referred to as ‘experiments’  Of course, higher members of the church did not agree with this – in 1277, the archbishop of condemned ‘books, rolls or booklets containing necromancy’  158: There were numerous aims to necromancy, but the main ones were: o To affect people’s minds and wills (including animals and spirits) o To create illusions - usually linked to the dead o To discern secret things – the past, the present or the future – you could find stolen things, or see whether someone was ill  159: Necromancy could be very complex, but we can be sure it included: magic circles, conjurations and  Magic circles were to be drawn with a sword or and would often be complex  160: The shape of the circle itself was not that important – what was of greater significance was the inscriptions within the circle, which were the focus of the power (and often involved Christian-seeming words)  161: The circle was the main visual element of necromancy, but the main oral component was conjuration o This usually involved the idea of commanding demons with the use of imperative words and often Christian-seeming embellishments o Sometimes the language is non-threatening  162: The may also have to do certain deeds, such as sacrifices – some of these instructions are even quite cryptic and many involved the use of blood, as this was believed to draw in demons o Usually, sacrifices were of animals, but sometimes things like flour, milk or honey were offered to them o This was usually sympathetic magic – so the objects related to the person involved  163: For or instance, people might have to make images of themselves and the person they are trying to get to fall in love with them  These things had to be done in secret, too – this was heavily stressed  Because of the use of sympathetic magic, it was also fairly easy to undo any of the magic which had been done if the effect was to be reversed  164: Kieckhefer then questions what actually happened during this – did people just give up? Did things actually happen? Sometimes, the results might be convincing enough to encourage people to keep believing in this – as many of the goals of this magic were simply psychological  The writings by inquisitors against necromancers show that all of society held a certain faith in ritual – but it had to be done in the correct way

 165: Necromancy combined various things – such as the use of animals and reflective surfaces  Really, though, Kieckhefer simplifies necromancy to merging astral magic and exorcism  Many people believed astral magic to be real and powerful – things would have to be done at the right time, but then astrological images could conjure the powers of demons and spirits  166: Fumigation, which was important to astral magic, was absorbed into necromancy too  However, necromancy was not just an extension of astral magic – there was also a link to exorcism – but rather than trying to get rid of demons, they are trying to summon them  167: In a way, the formula of an exorcism would be altered to bring about the exact opposite effect  168: There was also an idea that the conjurer would summon the demons, but the power to do so was given by – but many rejected the idea that God would aid necromancers in any way o There was certainly a sense of required ritual purity for necromancers – they had to abstain from sex before the experiment, and be bathed and dressed in white – even if it was seen as immoral by many, it had to be ritually pure  169: There was some ambiguity about the kinds of spirits these people summoned – probably due to the fact it mixed astral magic and exorcism  170: Necromancers even wrote catalogues of spirits with their forms and powers  The Sworn Book of Honorius has a fictional premise and contains a compilation of the essentials of necromancy  171: Necromancers also linked King to necromancy and all sorts of magic tricks to get a woman to fall in love with you o However, these texts mix simple tricks with real necromancy – do we really understand the full cultural weight of it?

 172: We also come across descriptions of necromancy in Exempla, such as in The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, an allegorical poem  Clearly, preachers were trying to make a statement about necromancy to their listeners – such as Caesarius of Heisterbach, who also describes the practice of necromancy  174: Here, the use of fear is involved to try to turn people away from the practice of necromancy  There are common motifs in these texts: o Circles are seen as protective enclosures – if you step outside, you are in danger o Does this dramatize how easily things can be dangerous and go wrong? Or perhaps it tries to help those who are doing necromancy at least to do it safely?  There is also a sense that those who trust demons are deserving of what comes to them  Also, preachers stressed that if you repented, you could be okay  175: Kieckhefer supposes these things were effective and made many people fear necromancy greatly – but surely some did not see the relevance of it to them, as few laypeople compared to clerics engaged in the act

Isidore of Seville on necromancers

 People who used to bring the dead back to life, seem to prophesy and to answer what is asked  Involved mixing blood with water John of Salisbury, Policraticus

 Suggests necromancers are attempting to borrow knowledge from death  Stresses how necromancers are not doing their magic out in the open, which suggests that they know what they’re doing is wrong Sworn Book of Honorius

 Only certain men were allowed to receive the book – of age, educated o Would rather lose the knowledge altogether than give it to a woman  Does not differ from what witches were doing, but seen as largely separate  Heretical people always believed what they were doing was right  Created by a council of masters – similar to church councils, masters from many different schools  One necromancer is dangerous, but a council of them is particularly bad o This fed into the idea of councils of witches who came together to worship demons and Satan and engage in necromancy  Probably from the thirteenth century  Council apparently gathered in the ninth century – creates a sense of authority by situating it in the distant past to give it a level of credibility  Sense of /brotherhood and – there’s a master who possesses the book, must pass on the book when close to death o Hierarchy within the council  Secretive, everyone who enters the council must take the oath What influenced the work?

 Classical/Christian/other religious traditions o Uses the symbol of the and the different names of God o Lists the names of many angels o Talks about the days of different planets o Focus on Mary and her brilliance o Uses the cycle of the moon for the recital of certain words o Astrological magic – from the C12, associated more with Arabic tradition – over time, people getting more information about classical traditions o Mixing ingredients under certain astrological conditions – similar to what’s seen in other kinds of magic o Use of Hebrew imagery – prominent Jewish element – ideas of Solomonic magic and Solomonic knowledge o Ideas of different spirits, different winds o Refers to – messenger God – idea of gaining access to the divine  What different aspects of can be seen? o References to the trinity and the crucifixion o Talks about the wounds of Christ o Exorcism said over the blood of a creature to consecrate it o Talk of fasting and abstaining from sin before the rituals are conducted  What might have troubled authorities? o Blood exorcism o Rituals o Invoking and planets – talks about the moon, which was associated with Diana o Purifying the air and the body  Medieval worldviews? o Talks about different kinds of angels – names the different sorts

 Talks about wanting visions of the earth – for the pursuit of knowledge  The diagrams are complex – need to be a specialist in the rituals to understand what you are meant to do  Prayers are used – especially exorcism prayers – needed to be ordained to perform an exorcisms, even if you were fairly low in the hierarchy o Not a huge leap from exorcism to necromancy – both of them involve commanding demons  Quotes scripture  People believed they were at the centre of the universe – can justify it as they think they’re trying to understand God’s creation in every possible way o Trying to understand demons and angels  References to the Key of Solomon – the key of how the earth works – gaining access to this would allow for things like understanding how the whole world works, which could allow you to cure all diseases, etc.

Kieckhefer, Forbidden Rites

 Is suggesting that many descriptions of experiments are merely ‘literary boasts’ because they were too fanciful to be real – they were just illusions  Believed to be illusions – but that doesn’t mean there was not belief in the power of the illusions  These illusions are entertainment linked to courtly culture and medieval romance  If this was the case, it means magic is not truly represented so much as representing what people wanted and imagined magic to be in – what people would like from magic, escapism, etc  If we follow this idea, we lose the value of these texts to our understanding of actual magic at this time  Like in the sworn book – needed to do things under certain conditions – purity, being cleansed  Element of secrecy  Creation of the circle  Facing east  Unlike in the Sworn Book, we see that the demons could only stay around for a certain, short amount of time  More material efforts – less about knowledge and more about using magic to impress other people o Knowledge itself, though, was also used to impress people  More explicitly demonic in this one – reference to these beings as being demons than in the Sworn book  Circling the globe – relates to knowledge of the unknown, breaking the limits of nature  Attempt to break the limits put on men  Less basic information than that given by Caesarius  Less concern about the interaction with demons – people in this have more control over demons

 Kieckhefer: Suggests they are literary boasts  Klassen: Suggests these were truly what men wanted  How serious is the attempt of the Munich Handbook to necromancy?

R. Kieckhefer, Forbidden Rites: a Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century (1997) ch. 3.  42: Talks about a necromantic text from the fifteenth century which then has a cautionary tale in it, saying sins should not be committed when doing this experiment, or the demons won’t appear o The story features a man who sleeps with some women when he should not have done, and then his conjured horse abandons him o Things only got better when he confessed and did penance  43: The ritual here is used for summoning a horse and this is borrowed from a text by and the man who does the magic is incapable of it unless he repents and confesses  In this tale, the magic is for the entertainment of the magician, who is able to fly over the world and see wonderful things  Kieckhefer argues that magic in medieval literature often blurs the boundaries between illusion and reality  44: In the Middle Ages, some people claimed magic was just an illusion as a criticism; but not only the critics said this, but other magicians believed magic could create illusions  In the Munich Handbook, there are numerous ‘illusionist’ experiments  These kinds of experiments are: o Highly complex, or very simple o Needed to be done in secrecy, even though they are meant to display powers o Often accompanied by stories to prove their efficacy o Are closer than most other things to conceptions of from this time  45: Many of these texts talk about how they should be done in hidden places o Some other authors talk about how rare these certain kinds of magic are and how people barely know them  But in the end of both, magic is a spectacle to be shared with others  46: Sometimes this magic can be done in different ways, but there is often a preferred one  Were these illusionist experiments only for entertainment? There is a blur between simple fun and reality here  The tales in this text are like boasts, but they are also similar to details from trials  47: In the Munich handbook, the first two experiments have a courtly setting – to produce a banquet, or the illusion of a castle  48: It then gives a translation of this text and how it is to be done – people must leave the house at a certain times and invoke a number of different spirits by saying their names twelve times, in different directions – and to command them in the of God  This involves something called a hoopoe – apparently a kind of bird?  49: The hoopoe is said to have great virtue for the necromancer  However, in this banquet that can be summoned, eating will only make people more hungry as the food to appear does not really exist  50: There is also an image of the circle to be used for the experiment  , a pagan, compared Christ to a magician who could conjure a banquet  There is also an experiment to make an illusion of a castle, with people to defend it  51: This is also copied into the chapter – people had to go out under a certain day of the moon with milk and honey and recite the names of specific spirits  Involves consecrating the circle which is seen, and asking them to speak on a book  52: Seems to be easy to make appear a complex castle which would be impressive to others  Talks about the author testing this with an emperor and what happened during this  53: In this account, people seem to find the illusion fun, or as some kind of adventure, and enjoy it  This was a trick played on the emperor, but he was apparently amused by it  There are parallels of this in other tales, such as the lives of saints and works of Arthurian literature  54: There were also many experiments which hoped to gain a magical horse – on which one could take an apparently real journey on a demon which took on the appearance of a horse  There are 4 experiments of this kind given in the Munich handbook  55: Before doing the ritual, you had to fast – and you had to do it in secret and make a circle and recite the names of certain spirits o Also involves saying a quote from the  Complex ritual involved  56: You have to sweat to the spirits and use a specific bridle to ride the horse illusion – when it is taken off, the horse will disappear  So in this experiment: o Knights are summoned – again, they are courtly figures o The horse is controlled by a bridle o The circle is used to gain control over a horse demon, or to threaten an actual horse o Language clues suggest this text may come from an Italian source  57: The other experiments for obtaining a horse are simpler – sometimes just doing something like a prayer, or not even doing a conjuration  The handbook also tells how to conjure a magical ship and a flying throne – again, the phase of the moon is important here, and the ritual must be done in secret  58: Here, sailors will appear and spirits must again take an oath – and the ship can be used to sail somewhere  The way to gain a throne is more elaborate and fancy – you have to sit in a circle and shout certain words

 59: Magical was also of interest at this time – the idea of invisibility being made possible by a ring, or cape comes from ancient times  The Munich handbook had 3 ways to make a magician invisible – the most complex of which used a  You had to remain chaste beforehand, and cut your hair and beard and act in secret  60: You had to use a plane circle here with a sword in the middle

 61: In the Middle Ages, necromancy could be used interchangeably with nigromancy – which meant black magic – because there was a belief that the spirits of the dead were involved in both  The Munich Handbook has one experiment which can be used to make a living person appear dead or a dead person alive – using a ring made of gold placed in certain water  62: This used Biblical imagery for the ritual you had to do with the ring  63: Again talks about the use of the hoopoe and also magic which gets somebody to fall in love with you  64: The Munich handbook clearly uses magic for entertainment – mainly for the magician, but sometimes for others too  Were these intended for entertainment or for actual use? They were really actually quite ambiguous

Sworn Book of Honorius: prologue at http://www.esotericarchives.com/juratus/juratus.html

 Talks about the gathering of wicked spirits who want to send into men  Is against necromancy, suggesting the health God gave to people is being destroyed by necromancy and magic – calling the magicians ‘blinded by the devil’  The author suggests they are doing sacrifices to devils and are abusing the name of God  Suggests they are following the words of Satan and have made people ignorant  Doing this has damned their soul and their body  Talks of ‘plucking up’ the ‘deadly root’  Suggests that spirits are needed for help with this  They talk of calling a council of masters, including Honorius, and he worked with an to write about magic and to write a book containing the 100 sacred names of God  There was an oath that it would only exist in three copies and only be given to lawful men – and if there is no such man, it is to be buried with the last lawful man 