Europe's inner demons

Maleficia could be performed to produce other effects in individuals besides sickness or death. Women performed them, or got others to perform them on their behalf, for the purpose of influencing erotic feelings in men. In the ninth century, under the Carolingian dynasty, maleficia of this kind figured in political struggles. In 817 Charlemagne’s son, the emperor Louis the Pious (Louis I of France), divided his vast dominions amongst his sons by his wife Irmengarde; but in 829, having remarried, he tried to provide a kingdom for his son by his second marriage also. His sons by his first marriage took up arms in revolt; and the story which they put about was that their father’s second wife, Judith, was using maleficium to keep him helplessly infatuated. As a first step they demanded that all dealers in magic should be driven from the royal palace.

⁽¹²⁾ More drastic measures followed when, in 834, the eldest son, Lothair I, captured the town of Châlon-sur-Sâone. There he found Gerberga, who was the sister of Count Bernard of Barcelona— the favourite of his step-mother Judith and his father’s most powerful ally. Lothair had Gerberga drowned in the river “as is the custom with sorcerers”. This seems to have been an act of private vengeance, comparable with Fredegond’s killings; but in any case, there is little doubt that it was linked with the emperor’s supposed infatuation.⁽¹³⁾

In due course Lothair’s son, also called Lothair, became king of the district which was to be called after him, Lotharingia, or Lorraine. His reign was chiefly occupied by his efforts to divorce his wife Thietberga in order to marry his mistress Waldrada. This issue dictated his relations with his uncles, who ruled the vast kingdoms to the east and west of his own; with the Frankish bishops; and even with the pope. About 860, in the course of the interminable discussions about the projected divorce, Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims and one of the greatest scholars of the age, was asked to write an expert opinion. Amongst other things he was asked whether sorcery could make a man impotent with his wife and full of detestation for her; and whether it could provoke irresistible love between man and woman. He replied that it was generally believed that certain women could work such sorcery; he himself was convinced of it, and was even able to describe the techniques. He suspected Waldrada of practising maleficium: and this strengthened him in his view that the divorce should not take place.⁽¹⁴⁾

Such preoccupations were by no means confined to royal courts— country priests came across them amongst their peasant parishioners. Around the year 1000 canon law was becoming a recognized branch of scholarly study; and one of the first major compilations was the enormous Decretum or Collectarium composed by Burchard, bishop of Worms, and a few collaborators around 1008-12. The nineteenth book of the Decretum is called the

Corrector or Medicus, because it teaches priests how to provide “corrections for bodies and medicines for souls”. And one of the chapters of the Corrector — the fifth — is in effect a penitential: it consists of a long series of questions to be addressed by the confessor to his penitent, each question dealing with a different sin and being followed by a note of the appropriate penance.⁽¹⁵⁾

This fifth chapter is known to be based on earlier penitentials, and the nature of the questions shows that it is designed for a congregation of peasants. To the historian it offers some fine insights into the popular mentality of the early Middle Ages.

Now this source shows quite clearly that many men — ordinary peasants of the tenth century or earlier — were afraid of being bewitched into impotence.⁽¹⁶⁾ In particular, when a man left his mistress to marry another, he was apt to find himself impotent with his new wife. The modern psychologist knows that such things do happen, and so did the author of the Corrector; only he attributed them to a different cause. From his experience as a confessor he knew that deserted women sometimes practised maleficium against their ex-lovers; and whereas he was sceptical about the efficacy of some forms of maleficium, he had no doubts at all about this one. From other sources we know the technique employed: during the wedding, the outraged woman would make three knots in a lace or a string. This was intended to block the way to orgasm — and no doubt when the bridegroom knew or suspected what was afoot, it often worked.